A Black Decision - A Missing Moment Serial

A Black Decision

~Part X~

What I found at the border made me close my eyes for a moment. Beau was kneeling with head bowed and his eyes closed in supplicant compliance. I wanted to scream at him to get the hell up. I didn't. 

Instead I took a calming breath and continued my walk until I was standing directly in front of him.

"No," I said firmly. Angrily. 

He opened his eyes, staring up at me with blood red irises. I could see the plea in his eyes for something I was unwilling to give him. I wouldn't do it. I couldn't.

I reached down, taking his hands and pulling on them hard. It took him a moment, but he finally stood up.

It didn't make the plea go away from his eyes. 

So I said it again. Just to make sure he understood. "No." My voice even more adamant this time.

Then I pulled him forward, stepping backwards so he could join me on my side of the old border.

"It won't happen, Beau. So forget it."

"Julie..." He shook his head, the movement frustrated. "Do you not see my eyes?"

They'd be impossible for me to not see. "Yes, I do."

"Then you know what that means, and you already told me once that I wasn't a monster because I'd never killed someone. Obviously, that has changed."

"I also told you we'd reevaluate if you ever made a mistake. I didn't tell you that I'd condemn you to death for it," I snapped, starting to get seriously pissed off at my friend.

"It wasn't some accidental slip-up, Jules," he said it softly, a dangerously cold note to his voice that I'd never heard before.

I looked at him in suspicion. I let go of his hands and crossed my arms over my chest as I moved over to lean against a nearby tree. "Okay, why did you do it then?"

I silently begged to whatever god was out there that he wasn't going to say something that would make me have to kill him.

To be continued...