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“Nickolas, I’m offering you a chance of a lifetime. I’m offering you redemption. I can’t imagine how it feels to lose the one you love, and I can’t imagine how great it’d feel to finally bring the guilty to justice.” he handed his gun to Nick. “A life for a life…”

Nick just stared at the man, anger and resentment dancing in his eyes. When Nick didn’t move to take the gun, he turned and aimed it at the remaining four. “The rest of you, get on your fucking knees now.”

The four did as they were told, going down on their knees before Aaron’s grave. The man turned his attention once more to Nick. “C’mon Nick, take it. A life for a life. You‘re finally bringing someone to justice for the death of your younger brother, why are you hesitating?”

Nick finally grabbed the gun, his hand shaking the whole time.

“C’mon, take your pick Nick.” he walked over to Kevin and roughly grabbed him by his hair. “Will it be Kevin, the one who always tried to pass off Aaron’s death as if it was nothing?” he walked over to Howie. “Or will it be Howie, the one who was unsure if he should tell you about Aaron’s death or not.” next, he sauntered over to AJ. “How about AJ? The one who can’t remember shit and could be holding a vital piece of information that could change everything.” finally, he walked over to Brian and just looked down at him and smiled.

“Get up.” he said as he grabbed Brian by the back of his shirt and hauled him up off the ground. “What about Brian? The very one who didn’t say anything to you Nick. He knew the whole time that Aaron was dead, and yet he left you hanging, he let you believe that Aaron was still alive. I see the hatred in your eyes, ever since you found out about Aaron’s death and the way your best friend didn’t tell you anything, I could tell that you wanted to rid the world of Brian, there’s no denying it because I would feel the same way.”

At this point, Nick was in tears, the mind games that the man was playing was wearing him down mentally.

“Who will it be Nick? Brian lied to you, your best friend lied to you, he let you believe that Aaron was alive, he let you hold on to that little hope you had left, that little amount of false hope that shrouded your heart. What are you going to do about it Nick? Bring him to justice!”

Nick’s arm rose a bit, the gun not taking a particular aim.

Brian glanced back at Nick, seeing tears streaming down his face and his arm shaking, his finger slowly inching it’s way towards the trigger.

“Now Nick,” he grabbed Nick’s hand and brought it over to Brian, placing it on his temple. “A life for a fucking life… put an end to all this right now, bring him to justice.”

Brian winced when he felt the tip of the gun touch his temple, the coldness making him shiver all over. Emotion wracked his body, he couldn’t hold it in anymore. All the while he could hear AJ screaming at Nick, telling him no to do it, and the man retaliated, knocking AJ off his knees.

Everything froze when the sound of a cocked gun filled the air.

“You’re offering me redemption, and I’m taking it.”

Brian slightly turned to see Nick still holding the gun to his head, but now it was positioned on his forehead.

“A life for a life…” NIck whispered as he pulled the trigger.

My eyes flew open and I snapped up from my bed. My heart was racing, pounding painfully within my chest. I continued to heave, trying to take in as much air as I could to ease my erratic heart. My body was drenched in sweat, clinging my hair to my forehead. It was just a dream… no, not a dream, a nightmare.

I gasped as I felt this unbearable pain exploding through my shoulder. Every time I had a nightmare about our incident, I always felt the pain in my shoulder as if I was shot at again. My nightmares increased in intensity and I was now becoming insomniac. I actually had a fear of going to sleep because I feared the new pain that would hit my body every night. For some reason, I had a lot of nightmares of Nick killing me off whenever he had the chance.

“What’s wrong honey?” my wife asked me, raising up from the bed and making herself comfortable behind me.

I pushed my hand through my sweat-soaked hair, my breathing and heartbeat returning to normal. “Nothing.”

“Another nightmare?”

I tensed when I felt her hands upon my skin, “Yeah…”

“What was it about?”

Her hand was now slowly creeping up my back to my shoulders. I winced when I felt her hand linger over the scar on my shoulder. “I… I don’t really want to talk about it.”

I was put at ease as I felt her soft fingers dance delicately against my flushed skin. I rubbed my hand over my face, shaking my head. “It’s never gonna end… is it?”

She was silent for a while, her fingers still tickling my back. “It’s gonna take some time Brian.”

“I don’t want it to take all of my time.”

“And it won’t.” she grabbed my face and gently turned my head so that I was looking at her. “It’s only been a year… give yourself time to heal. Don’t rush it all at once. This is a process your body and mind is going through to fix the damage that’s been done.”

“The damage is irreversible.” I snapped. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh towards her, but she just didn’t understand, no one ever would.

She fell silent for a while, just staring at me in the dark. I could tell, just by looking at her, that she wanted to say something more to me, but she just remained silent. Without saying another word, she collapsed back down on the bed, turning so that her back was facing me. She didn’t have to hide from me, I could see the tears streaming down her face without even looking at her.

I wanted to apologize to her for the way I just acted, but I couldn’t bring myself in doing so. Slowly, I lowered myself down onto the bed and turned so that my back was facing her as well. My hand slowly crept up towards my shoulder, the damage was irreversible.

What we went through was like an open wound, leaving us with nothing but pain. It takes time for a wound to heal, and eventually it does, too bad the damage that’s been done to us couldn’t heal as rapidly and completely as a wound does. Another thing they have in common is the fact that a healed wound leaves a scar, similar to the one on my shoulder. Things may heal, but there’s always that painful reminder of what once was there and how it occurred. There is no way anyone could fix the damage that’s been done to us.