Note: Sorry the last chapter was so short. I finished this chapter up and felt I should just update right away. Anyway I'm sorry if the past few chapters have been kind of slow, I'm not sure what you guys thought but they seemed kinda slow to me anyways. BUT chapter 33 is up! I can't wait until this story reaches a 100,000 Wow I have no life... ANYWAY: thanks for reading and let me know what you think! 11 MORE DAYS GUYS! :D
I DO NOT OWN BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Chapter 33
He stared at the letter before reading it. He couldn't believe it, the paper he was holding might have the answers he needed.
Dear Family,
First off, I love you and please never forget that no matter what happens. I joined the military to protect you and unfortunately to keep doing so I can never see you again. I'm not going to tell you why because I need to keep you all safe. I know this is hard but please don't be mad at me. If I could tell you I would but I could never live with myself if anything happened to any of you because of it. Please don't worry about me. On the back of this paper there is a small folded piece of paper but you must promise me that you will never open it unless I send another letter saying it's okay. I've already said to much but please, just remember, I love you all so very much.
With Love,
Lafferty
Vincent unfolded the rest of the paper and jumped a bit when something fell to the ground that seemed like a necklace. He slowly bent down and picked it up. He took his thumb and rubbed the dirt off the small pieces of metal. His heart dropped once he saw what the necklace was. They were her ID tags from the Army. He closed his fist around the tags and closed his eyes. He couldn't believe she was actually dead. He bit at his bottom lip to keep his emotions inside of him when suddenly he remembered something. She mentioned in the letter that there was a small folded piece of paper on the back of the letter but he also remembered that she said it shouldn't be opened unless she sent another letter. He look his eyes off the letter and off the tags and looked back at Lafferty who was lying motionless in the ground. He knew what he had to do, he had to burry her before the sun came up and he also knew she wanted the letter and the tags to go to her family. He knew he had to honor her wishes so he placed the letter and the tags inside his pocket and began to burry his friend. No matter how hard it was watching that dirt fall against her lifeless body, he knew he had no choice.
After she was buried Vincent took a step back and looked at were she was buried. He took a deep breath and looked down at his feet creating a moment of silence for a friend he had lost.
After about five minutes of just staring down at his feet he knew he had to return back to the warehouse. He began to walk away but stopped. He turned his head to look back at his buried friend and mouthed the word: Good-bye.
"Dude where the hell have you been?!" JT said once Vincent stepped foot in the room.
"I'm sorry JT..." Vincent said in a sad tone as he placed the shovel back against the wall.
"Sorry?! You're sorry? What if Murifield got you?"
"Well they didn't okay?" Vincent snapped causing JT to instantly shut his mouth. "I'm fine."
Vincent began walked towards the stairs with JT quickly following behind. Right as Vincent placed a hand to open the metal gate JT said, "I'm sorry Vincent...I just was worried."
Without looking at his friend Vincent mumbled, "it's fine." Without another word he walked up the stairs and sat down on the end of his bed. He took the letter and tags out of his pocket and placed them beside him. He let out a deep breath and picked up the tags and ran his thumb over the indented letter's on the metal. Without letting go of the tags he glanced back to where the letter was. He slowly picked it up and read it again. He knew she didn't want anyone reading what she had wrote down on the sperate piece of paper but he couldn't help but wonder what was in it.
"I'm going to make some soup if you want any." JT said opening the door just enough for him to fit his head through.
"Okay." Vincent said without looking up from either item.
"What's that?" JT asked making his way towards Vincent.
Before answering his question Vincent took a deep breath and the replied, "Her tags."
JT stood a couple feet in front of Vincent and asked, "Can I see 'em?"
Vincent took the tags from his hand and handed them to JT. "Only thing that's proof that she was part of Murifield."
JT gave Vincent a confused look. "But this is a Military tag."
Vincent slowly shook his head. "See the small cursive "M" in the bottom right hand corner?"
JT slowly nodded.
"That stands for Murifield. It was so they could keep track of who was part of it if they either died in combat, which not many did, or died somewhere either in training or in the fields." Vincent paused. "There where so many people involved and so many whose bodies just couldn't handle it they would just collapse. It never really made sense to me until now."
JT lifted his head to face Vincent. "What do you mean?"
"Well back when I was in Afghanistan nobody really talked about it that much. Sure we talked about how great we felt and stuff like that but nobody really talked about what they were actually giving us and what is was actually doing to our bodies so nobody ever thought about it. I only really started thinking about it until now."
"So do you think that's what caused her to just die like that?" JT asked looking back down at the tags.
Vincent shook his head. "No, 'cause if her body couldn't handle it then she would've died along with the others back in Afghanistan. But maybe her body just couldn't take the mutation."
JT didn't say anything he just kept examining the tags.
"There was something else though." Vincent said causing JT to pop his head back up. "There was a letter."
"A letter?"
"Yeah, before I buried her I saw something stick out of her pocket so I opened it up and that's where I found her dog tags."
JT gave Vincent a weird look. "You went through her personal belongings?"
Vincent picked up the letter and handed it to JT. "Just read it."
JT did as he was told and read the letter aloud. "Dear Family, First off, I love you and please never forget that no matter what happens. I joined the military to protect you and unfortunately to keep doing so I can never see you again. I'm not going to tell you why because I need to keep you all safe. I know this is hard but please don't be mad at me. If I could tell you I would but I could never live with myself if anything happened to any of you because of it. Please don't worry about me. On the back of this paper there is a small folded piece of paper but you must promise me that you will never open it unless I send another letter saying it's okay. I've already said to much but please, just remember, I love you all so very much. With Love, Lafferty." JT paused the flipped the paper over. Vincent realized what JT was going to to.
"JT it said not to open it." Vincent quickly said.
"But what if it has the answers?"
Vincent shook his head and then grabbed the letter from JT. "JT if she doesn't want anyone to open it then I don't think we should."
"It's not like she is going to send a second letter again." JT said.
Vincent just looked at JT.
"Sorry." JT mumbled under his breath.
"I know, trust me, I thought about that too but I just don't think we should look at it."
"But-"
"No 'buts' JT. I'm sorry but maybe it will just be for the better okay?"
JT sighed. "Fine."
"Thank you." Vincent said folding the letter back up. "Now I'm going to get some sleep and I suggest you should do the same."
"Fine." JT said in a rather anyoyed voice.
"JT, trust me man, I wanna know what that paper says too but I think we should just respect the fact she didn't want anyone to open it."
"But what if she already wrote the letter and you just didn't see it?"
"JT please...just...go to bed." Vincent said placing the letter in the drawer next to the side of his bed.
JT watched Vincent place the letter inside the drawer. "Fine." he said.
"Thank you now please just go to bed." Vincent said.
JT nodded and made his way down the stairs.
Vincent sighed as he made his way over to his dresser. He opened the dresser and grabbed his sweat pants and when he closed the drawer something fell from the top of the dresser onto the floor. He reached down to pick it up. He had a hard time swallowing when he realized what it was. He couldn't believe he actually still had it. He played with the small ring between his fingers when he saw his eyes shift colors in the mirror beside him but quickly blinked and when he opened his eyes his heart nearly stopped all together. In his reflection he saw Alex standing right next him with her arms wrapped around his neck.
Uh-oh!
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and remember I tie in the promo pics with the story! hmmmm (hint for the next chapter?)
I won't lie...I like this chapter's ending! :)