Deadly Games

[35] What I Deserve *Epilogue*

Michael

"You look fine, stop fidgeting." Solana swats at my hands, but I still tug on my tie; not wanting it to be too tight or too loose to look like I don't give a damn.

I mean, I shouldn't because I'm going to be attending the funeral of a guy who a couple days ago, tried to rape my girlfriend in front of me and then kill her afterwards and pin it all on me, but I figured since I went through a lot of legal shit over the past few days. I might as well kill all of the bullshit with kindness and attend Danny's funeral. Solana doesn't want to go, but she's going to go because I want to and I'm glad she's doing this. She needs to be able to see Danny again and accept the fact that he's dead and he's never coming back to hurt us.

I hope she'll have some emotions on it at last.

I turn around and watch her carefully put on dark red lipstick on her plump lips to match her accessories and my tie. I smile as she looks up at me.

"How do I look?" She asks and I lean down, planting a kiss on her forehead.

"You look perfect."

~•~

The scenery here is very unsettling. There's actually a lot of people here that me and Solana graduated with and it causes there to be tension in the sanctuary of the small church. Solana's hand holds mine a bit tighter as I guide us down the aisle looking for a seat. So far, the back seats are all filled and of course, with just our luck, we have no choice but to sit up front. Everyone's eyes are on us and most look shocked to see us here.

Hell, I'm shocked I actually had the audacity to attend the funeral of the guy I killed.

Me and Solana take our seats on the bench, then I look over as a burning tingly feeling is lingering over me. I lock eyes with identical familiar light blue eyes and quickly realize that we're sitting on the bench across the aisle from Daniel's parents. I swallow and nod politely, but I just warn burning glares. Solana squeezes my hand and I look down at her as she mouths 'ignore them'. I nod stiffly and then the funeral kicks up. It's open casket since of course, I didn't do damage to his face. It was just a fatal gunshot wound to the back. I keep my eyes up front the entire time while only stealing a glance to her staring blankly up front as well.

We stay emotionless throughout the whole service, even when Danny's parents go to speak and forcefully slam us in codes, while glaring harshly at me. Solana got upset at that and wanted to leave, but I told her no, as it's probably exactly what they wanted. At the end, we finish off by picking up one of the complimentary roses and walking to the casket, tossing it on top of the bottom closed half. As we walk out of the church, I have to admit that I feel lighter. I'm glad I went and I look down to see a calm smile on Solana's face too.

Hopefully she's at peace after this like I am.

We walk down the steps of the church to find majority of our graduated class waiting. When we get down to them, they all turn and hug us individually with encouraging messages. It's good to have it too because all of the people who weren't very knowledgeable about me, Solana or Danny, didn't know about him attempting to kill me, shooting me twice, beating me on a regular basis and threatening to hurt Solana in ridiculous ways. Our classmates understand though and it's nice someone does.

After we're hugged and praised for being prideful enough to come to Danny's funeral, we walk down the sidewalk to the car parked about a block away down the street. Solana sighs.

"I'm glad you decided to go and I'm glad I decided to come too. I feel so at ease and peace now. I always talked about wanting him gone and not caring about his death, but it still felt really good to be able to do that, though he caused us all of that pain. It's like we laid everything to rest, though I won't forget any of it. Does that make sense?" She asks and I smile.