Hope After Eden (MALE DEPUTY X FAITH SEED)

Chapter 5: I Didn't Want to Leave

*WARNING: This chapter contains minor violence and blood, please do not read if this may trigger you, thank you*

"There's something happening here

But what it is ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there

Telling me I got to beware"

For What It's Worth 

Buffalo Springfield

Two weeks prior

It had been two days since Rook had saved Marshall from Faith's Bliss. It finally felt like a first true win in the Henbane. Rook was one step closer to a final confrontation. What were usually simple meetings with Faith in her attempt to make you join Eden's Gate, this one was finally a breakthrough. You knew however that the battle would only ramp up from here.

"Why would take him away from me Deputy" Faith would whimper in Rook's ear before shaking it off. The Bliss had truly started to creep into his mind. It was no longer a need to walk into the Bliss fields. The Deputy was now intertwined in one way or another with the Bliss. Constant visions of Faith, constant messages about his supposedly wrong-doings were becoming the norm now as he traveled through the region.

It was noon at the Hope County Jail. The day had been mostly quiet. Rook was still recovering from his Bliss trip and was walking to the mess hall to make a quick cup of coffee. The room was empty, not a single sound could be heard other than the coffee machine brewing. A small humming echo rang through the room.

The doors suddenly opened, Marshall walked through them and towards the coffee machine himself. Rook expected him to be a little groggy from the two days he had spent in bed but it was all off. He was walking at a methodical pace. His steps were measured. His expression was mostly blank.

"Hey, Marshall how you do-" Marshall walked right past Rook without saying a word. Rook was just totally puzzled. Marshall began to run some cold water and wash his face off. What would have normally been a fifteen-second wash turned into a two-minute wash. Rook walked towards Marshall slowly, putting his hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, listen, buddy, you feeling alright," Rook said softly to him, a little bit of panic in his voice.

"Deputy, take your hand off of my shoulder"

Rook took his hand off, looking at Marshall in sadness before turning his back and going to the coffee machine which was now beeping loudly. Rook began to prepare his coffee when Marshall finally spoke up again.

"Did you ever hear the saying 'Sometimes the best thing to do is to walk away?'. I quite like that saying, what about you Deputy"

Rook turned his head towards Marshall who was still cleaning himself off, not looking at the Deputy's direction. Rook just turned his head back and continued finishing his coffee, Grabbing a couple of sugar packets and stirring the sugar into the coffee.

"You should have let me stay Rook, I didn't want to leave"

Rook ignored him, finishing his coffee, turning around to take a sip. When he looked up, Marshall was charging Rook with a kitchen knife with murder in his eyes. Without thinking too long Rook splashed the coffee he was holding in Marshall's face, causing him to yell and reel back and he held his face in agony. Rook stepped backward, taking his gun out of his holster and pointing it at Marshall.

"Marshall! Stand down! I don't want to have to do this". Rook yelled at Marshall who was just recovering from the burning feeling on his face. He looked up at Rook with anger.

"Why did you have to pull me out, Deputy! I said I was fine! It was peace being with Faith. She is so kind to you and yet you continue to spit in her face!"

Rook ignored Marshall, cocking back his revolver with his finger on the trigger, ready for anything that might happen next.

"Deputy, we can still change this, come with me! We can make up some excuse for going and I can take you to the fields! We can apologize to Faith together and be happy with her! There is no reason to be afraid! Don't you trust me, Deputy?"

Rook stopped listening about two sentences in, keeping his gun trained on Marshall throughout his entire monolog.

"Marshall, I will only say this one time more, stand down and put your hands up! I do not want to shoot you!" Rook snapped back at Marshall, unfazed by his comments.

"You know Deputy, I really liked you, I thought you would make a great member of Eden's Gate, but I guess we aren't all meant to be saved"

Marshall gripped the knife.

"MARSHALL, PUT THE KNIFE DOWN NOW!"

Marshall snarled at Rook and ran towards him

"MARSHALL DON'T-"

*BANG*

Marshall fell backward with a bullet hole right through his skull. Laying there, blood filling out the white tile floor. It was not Rook who had shot Marshall. It was Sheriff Whitehorse who walked over next to Rook, who proceeded to holster back his pistol.

"How long were you behind me?" Rook asked the Sheriff, not looking towards him, just staring down at Marshall.

"Long enough to hear what was going on" Whitehorse responded without a tear in his eye.

"This was inevitable, Rook. Marshall had been in the Bliss for two weeks, he wasn't coming out the gun-blazing federal marshall that he was in the helicopter. I am sorry Rook, but you did your best." Whitehorse turned his head to rook. "Just promise me this, don't end up like him, or else I will have to do the same to you".

Sheriff Whitehorse walked out of the room, Rook could hear him calming the nerves outside of the mess hall as people started to hear the commotion. Rook just kept staring down at Marshall. There were no hallucinations, no messages from Faith. Just Marshall, dead on a now red floor.

Rook couldn't stop thinking about the last sentence that Sheriff Whitehorse said to him. "Will I become...that?" Rook thought to himself. He couldn't bear the thought, he just picked up Marshall's body and walked out of the mess hall, heading to the courtyard to bury his once-great ally.

It had taken some time but Rook finally patted down the grave with his shovel. He looked down at it. He was shell-shocked and yet void of any emotion from what had just happened. Took off his Deputy badge and placed it on the grave sight, before walking back into the prison without much thought afterward.