As Butch let go of Scuzz and stepped out of the destroyed school house, he wiped a tear from his eye. He never realized how damn horrible it was to lose someone you loved for so long. And to even lose a child you never got to meet. She was just a baby, for Christ's sake!
Butch gave out a heavy sigh of distress and pushed his hair back. He glanced over and saw Blake leaning over a hitching post in front of what had looked like a mayor or governor's office. He slowly walked over to her and heard Blake mutter, "Life's not fair, is it?" He admitted she was right about that. "Sometimes ya jes gotta work wit' wha' life's gonna throw atcha... At least that's kinda what I thought..." Butch replied softly. Blake lifted her head and commented, "So what're ya gettin' at?" Butch shook his head. "I mean, I guess that, things gonna happen. An' ya cain't do nothin' 'bout it, if ya can."
Blake turned to Butch but had her head hung low and was silent for some time. Neither of them said a word until Blake said, "I jes' don' get why somebo'y could even be so damn heartless to cause this much destruction..." Butch looked at her and put a hand on her shoulder and replied, "Ya know, I thought we coul' be so cold. But this..." Blake lifted her eyes up to him. "This is jes' too damn cold..."
He saw that Blake had a guilty look in her eyes, like she may have regretted something. "But it ain't yer fault, kid. Don' blame yerself..." Blake glanced at the ground for a while and then back up at him, and gave him a small smile. "I'll be fine," she murmured barely audible.
The sudden sound of a screeching eagle made the two jump out of their skin and see where it came from. Japhet was perched on a door knob as he had opened the door and flew right in the building. "That es one weird bird..." Butch muttered.
Butch and Blake entered the half ruined building and seeing various paintings either trampled on or burned. Blake stepped on one of them and bent down to take a closer look at it. She realized she could recognize the family. "You knew 'em?" he asked. Blake nodded in response. "I was close friends with the daughter. Name was Monica," she recalled. "I remem'er her brothers woul' tease me 'bout me bein' blind an' all tha'." "Why woul' ya look bli-" She showed him her blue right eye before he could finish his sentence. "Ooh."
She nodded. "But it really ne'er bothered me. I git it alot." They heard Japhet screach again from the second floor of the building. Blake didn't hesitate to run up th stairs and wait for Butch to climb the 20 sets of stairs. Once he caught up to her, he was already out of breath when Blake tried not to giggle from this and patted him on the back. "Gittin' kinda ol' fer tha'?" He looked at her with a look and muttered "...Shut up..."
As Butch regained his breath, Blake looked around to see where Japhet went off to. "Now where's tha' stupid bird run off to?!" Butch glanced around and saw him by a door perching on a doorknob. "O'er there," he said. Blake turned her head to where Butch had pointed to. The two saw that the door was ajar. It looked like someone had busted it open and nobody did anything to repair it, then again, every single person in this town was dead already; so why bother?
Blake took a step forward and tried to remember the hallway. The memory, however, was fairly foggy. Lamia came up to her from behind and said, "This is the Masterson's residence." Blake nodded. 'Yeah. Go figure,' she thought. "I know you told me that you always came up here to Monica's room and-"
"MONICA!" Blake suddenly said as she dashed to the doorframe. When Blake reached the door, and as Japhet perched on her shoulder, she opened the door and saw the damage done to the room. But what caught her attention even more was seeing Monica's body on her bed, her arms and legs tied to the bed posts, and blindfolded, mocking her blindness. Of all the disturbing things that she had to see, this was over-the-top sickening. She heard Butch come up behind her and see what she was seeing. Blake hesitantly walked over to her bed and kneels down on one knee and brushes a hair out of Monica's face. Some reason, she knows Monica is somehow still alive.
"Moni...? It's me. Blake..." she muttered softly, her eyes watering. Butch just leaned against the wall by the door, watching his... daughter talk to her friend. Blake watched as her dear friend slowly turned her head to face her despte being blind folded. "...Blakely? Tha' you...?" said Monica in a raspy voice like her throut was dry. Blake nodded slowly. "Yeah... It's me," she replied with a gentle grin. "How'dcha manage ta su'vive this crazy shit?" she asked in a joking tone; a tone in which Butch had never heard of before. "I... I dunno... I couldn' tell wha' was goin' on. All I heard was screamin' an' wood burnin'..." Monica recalled weakly. Blake pursed her lips and licked them due to them being dry as hell. "An' then wha'?" Blake asked. "I... Felt someone taking me from the action, an'..."
"An' what?"
"... I don' wanna tell ya...!"
"He took yer eyes out, didn' he?"
Monica weakly turned her head to the ceiling and her lip quivered. "As if I wasn't blind enough already."
After hearing her story, Butch had the gut feeling of disgust, sympathy, and sadness. Why take someone's eyes out if they were blind already?
Blake took her hand and placed it on top of Monica's pale hand closest to her. She had her eyes on the floor all watery. "But ya know what, Blake?" Blake averted her eyes to her as Monica turned her head towards Blake. "At least ya came back, like I've been prayin' for...!" Blake was speechless by her words. "Really...?" she said, her eyes now full of tears. Monica smiled and nodded in a weak motion. "An' I knew ya woul', too... For my last wish." Blake felt her heart stop. Butch knew what Monica meant by that. "Wh-what?"
Monica explained, "I know I ain't gonna live much longer... I can't take th' pain 'nymore... I don' like bein' blinded like this... I don' wanna continue on life like this... I hated bein' called a bat after all this time. Blake... I wan' you to end me..." Blake had on a look of shock with tears trying to escape her eyes. She darted her eyes to Butch, then down to the floor and back to her dear friend. "...No... No. No! NO! I ain't doin' it! I don' wanna! Yer my only friend!" Blake said in protest, tears finally out of her eyes. Monica had her head still on Blake as she insisted. "Blake. Ya know well that I never liked bein' blind like this. Why let me live my life beaten like this after what that man had done ta me?" Blake gritted her teeth and had hot tears of anger rolling down her face, but soon after, her face turned calm and sad. Her eyes kept to the floor, she wanted to refuse again, but after hearing her merciful plead, why should she?
"Are... Are ya sure...?" she asked in a quiet sad tone. Monica gently smiled and said, "I'm sure." More tears came out of Blake's blue and rusty eyes.
Butch just stood there watching all of this happen. He felt his eyes tear up by all of this. He somehow knew he wouldn't want Blake to go through something like this, but he couldn't do anything about it: it was her decision to make, not his.
He watched as Blake slowly stood up and shakily take her gun out of its holster. More tears fell down her face. Blake shakily raised the gun, pointing it to Monica's head. Butch took a step forward as Blake loaded her gun.
Before Blake could do anything, she looked at Butch and saw something she had never seen before from him: pain, regret, worry, and sadness.
"Blake? Are you okay...?" Monica asked out of the blue. Blake looked back at Monica's dying self. She nodded. "Yeah... I'll be fine...," she lied. Blake put the gun against her lips and whispered, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry." She aimed her gun back to Monica and pulled the safety back. Blake bit her lip to make it stop quivering. She shut her eyes tight, not wanting the tears to come out again. Monica gave her one last smile and muttered, "Thank you, Blake... For everythin'..."
Blake pulled the trigger.
((Author's Note: Okay. Play the piano version of Leaving Earth from Mass Effect 3. It's soo sad and fitting! ;n;))
Butch felt his heart shatter; a tear falling down his face.
Blake stood there and opened her eyes. What lay in front of her was now the lifeless body of who was once her only friend in the world. And she had to get rid of her.
Blake slowly put the gun back into its holster and kept standing there. Butch took some steps further but Blake turned and stormed out of the room and out of the building. Butch followed her fairly close out of the building. He saw her turn west of the building and noticed a house uptop a hill, seeing her storm toward it. He was about to go after her but he heard the hefty voice of a certain African man. "Butch! De hell happened?" Butch turned around and saw Freighter coming up behind him. "I hear' a gun go off! Ev'r'thin' alrigh'?" Butch just looked at him and said motioning his head in Blake's direction, "She's headin' tha' way."
The two men caught up to her and went in the house. Actually no, it was more like a mansion. Now that they thought about it, was this actually Blake's house? Joe did mention to Butch she was born into a wealthy family, so that probably explains it. Freighter looked around and found Blake staring at a wall. Butch saw what Freighter was looking at and also watched as she took her hand and placed it on the wall.
The two men kept watching as she made her hand into a fist and bang lightly at the wall at first. After a while, she kept hitting it not too roughly. Then she hesitated.
Her hand curled tighter and began pounding the wall harder and harder, until Blake became enraged by everything that had happened and began to truly punch the wall. Even though Blake forgot how thick the walls were, it didn't stop her from trying to make a hole in the wall. Blake began to curse aloud, tears of hot anger flowed down her face.
Butch was about to stop her from this behavior, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked back and Freighter muttered, Let 'er do it…" And so, he had no choice but to watch. He watched as she punch the wall until her knuckles bled and she eventually stopped. Blake put her back against the wall while looking up to the ceiling and slid down to the floor. Blake cradled herself and began crying, never hearing the sound of footsteps coming towards her. She eventually looked up and saw Butch right in front of her with Freighter behind him, both down on one knee.
Butch had on a sullen look on his face as Blake examined her knuckles, realizing how much pain she had forced upon herself. Butch put a hand on her shoulder while she was distracted and then pulled her close to him, not too worried about the fact that she was getting a bit of his jacket wet. He felt her arms go around his neck and hold onto him tightly.
Freighter took the opportunity to wrap her knuckles in bandages; he was lucky he even had the bag with medical supplies. Looking at the kid, he never realized she truly had this side of sadness. Inside him, Freighter felt really bad for her after what Butch explained to him.
Butch put his hand on the side of her face and wiped the tears from her eyes with his thumb. "...I'm sorry, kid…" was all he could say to her.