All I Ask of You

Chapter Fifteen

Jackson looked down at his hands that rested in his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed. The bed he had bought for Lisa and himself. A shock of electricity ran through his hand as he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. For a moment, Lisa had been a tangible thing, something he could hold and touch. She had no longer been just a moment of the day when he would wake up and see her smiling face; Lisa had actually laid next to him.

It had all happened so fast, and Jackson was not ready…

After a few moments of sobbing, Ian stood to his feet, holding Lisa's lifeless body in his arms as he turned to the door. Jackson immediately stepped in front of him, not wanting to be separated from Lisa's body.

"Jackson, she needs a proper funeral, one where her mother and friends can say goodbye, if the police get involved or you keep the body, that won't happen." Ian said quietly, but Jackson hardly could hear him; his gaze and thoughts were locked on Lisa. Her chest was no longer rising and falling, and her eyes were closed to the world; her skin was many shades lighter and no longer held the warmth that he had wanted to feel for so many nights.

Slowly, Jackson lifted his gaze and locked eyes with Ian. "It's the least you could do after everything you've put her through, Rippner," to say that his words stung would be an understatement. Nevertheless, Jackson moved aside and watched Ian's retreating form; a hollow feeling filled his heart and he crumpled to the floor.

He could not believe it; the one thing that he lived for was no longer on this earth. So many days he had sat in this very house and imagined how he and Lisa would live the rest of their lives. Now, she was gone.

He had killed her.

He closed his eyes and age twenty-eight, Jackson Rippner cried for the first time since he was ten.

xXx

Ian stood over the closed wooden casket, a large black hat hid his features from the last of the mourners and they paid him no attention as they wondered off. He lifted a single red rose and placed it on the coffin, "I'm sorry, Leese." He whispered, a small tear making it way down his cheek.

"You shouldn't be," he looked just as Jackson Rippner joined him at the casket. "You didn't let her down, you tried to protect her. Even after her death."

"You have… no right to be here, Rippner."

Jackson's piercing gaze met his and he smirked, "I'm a mourner."

"You're the killer!" Ian snarled, "If it weren't for you no one would have to mourn over the loss of life!"

He nodded slowly, "Yes, I killed her, but that was never my intention."

"Don't give me that load of bull!" Ian clenched and unclenched his fists as he spoke. "You would have killed her before the night was out at the rate you were going."

"She loved me."

"She hated your guts," Rickler spat through barred teeth as he moved closer towards the killer in front of him.

"Then she would have learned to love me."

"Lisa would never…,"

Jackson thought for a moment, "If that was so I would have taken the proper actions."

"And what would those be?"

"I would lock her in a room until she could pretend to give a damn about my existence."

Ian let out a fake laugh and shook his head, "You're a piece of work you know that, Rippner? I thought… maybe you might just have enough class to come to her funeral and leave her memory in peace." He turned to leave as he spat one last comment, "She didn't deserve you."

He closed his eyes for a long moment he had failed, in so many ways. Jackson had let the one thing he loved slip from the world; he had let his anger cloud him so bad that he would have stopped at nothing until Rickler was dead. For so long before he met Lisa, his heart had been void of all emotion. She had awoken feelings in him that he had never known existed; he liked it and he knew that he had to have Lisa for himself.

Then she had fought back. Had her father not shot him when he did, he would have killed Lisa in her house and for months, he was grateful that he done so. But Lisa had still died by his hand, by his gun.

By his anger.

Jackson watched his back for a long moment before he turned back to the coffin. He had not meant for that conversation to go the way it did, he had so longed to get to know the person that seemed to have stolen the heart of his Lisa. A gust of wind kicked up and a tickling sensation ran up and down his side, he could have sworn Lisa herself had just whispered in his ear.

"You failed, Jack."

Jackson reached out and placed a hand on her coffin as if possibly it might bring her back to life

"I know, Leese, I know."

Not as sad as I had planned at first, but I like how it ended, so I'm happy with it for now. PLZ Review, the epilogue should be up soon.

With All Due Respect
-Nina Rippner-