Those In The Forest

Part 95: Rose

Reagan took a minute and a half to kill Alan, and that minute and a half altered her entire world.

          Stepping away from Alan's chilling body, she moved past us, her eyes dull and focused on the bathhouse.

          Not knowing what to do or what to say, we looked at Avah and our Elders. They couldn't tear their eyes from Alan.

          Reagan walked into the bathhouse, silent as a mouse. Looking at my mates, we nodded our heads in understanding and tried to follow her, but Celia jumped in front of us, shaking her head at us.

          "Not the time," she said sternly.

           I pointed at the bathhouse, where Reagan was getting the bathpool ready.

            "She needs us," I argued. "Wouldn't you need your mate after doing something like that?"

           I know for a fact that she did, so why was she denying us seeing her or trying to comfort her?

          Keeping her hand in front of us to keep us still, she turned to Karina, tilting her head and, I assume, asking for some backup.

          "She's crashing." Karina started.

          Ivy scoffed. "Sounds like the best time for us to go to her."

           Karina shook her head. "No, it's nothing like crashing out after sex. Right now, her brain is moving a mile a minute, trying to justify what she did. Having all of you bombard her, telling her she's not in the wrong, she won't believe you."

          What is it that they want us to do then, sit here and twiddle our fucking thumbs?! Reagan was hurting. She just... did something that, in the back of her head, she would have never considered doing if the circumstances were different.

          "If she needed you, she would have said," Lennox said, coming back out of the shed and over to us. "Let her decompress for five fucking minutes! I get that this is bothering you, but it's a hundred percent worse for her. Let it dawn on her what has just happened, and in the meantime..." she said, looking down at Alan with a smirk. "We better get rid of that body. Don't need her seeing it and getting angry again."

↞ ↞ ↞ ↞ ↞ ↠ ↠ ↠ ↠ ↠

Celia, Karina, Hazel, and Iris stayed behind while Avah and Lennox came with us to dispose of Alan's body.

          With Hazel and Iris still being near Reagan, we could afford to move a little further away from the cabin without them getting ill for a while.

           Alan's body was wrapped around in an old sheet we were going to throw away. His heart... in a brown wool sake.

          We dug a hole about five feet deep. We weren't just going to bury him. We didn't want to know his body still remained with us. Instead, we brought matches.

          We would throw his body in the hole and set it on fire, and after the fire went out, his body gone with the ashes, we would bury him. Bury him and all the pain he inflicts on us.

          "Why did Reagan look at you before she dug her claw in his chest?" Ivy asked while helping dig the hole. Aavh was not helping; she was standing guard by a tree. I was kind of confused as to why she came if she wasn't going to help.

          Lennox's jaw clenched. She looked at Avah and then back at us. "I don't know. Maybe she realized I'm the only one out of everyone in the pack that doesn't give a shit. Yes, I wanted Alan dead, and Yes, I wanted him to suffer, but I do recall you fussed at her about moving on. She did that. She killed him and got it over with."