Arranged

Truth

Vixen's POV:
It's been a couple minutes since Kyla hung up the phone. I go downstairs and I see the boys sitting on the couch laughing about something, like always. I walk into the living room, peeking in, and I don't see Kyla.

"Did Kyla come in at all?" I ask, puzzled.

"No, not that I know of." Zeno says.

"I haven't seen her." Kayno says.

"Me either." Mark follows.

"What the hell?" I whisper.

"Why, what's going on?" Zeno asks. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm getting that feeling, and I hate that it's about Kyla. I hope she's alright." I say, worrying.

"I'm sure she's okay." Mark says.

"Don't say that. I mean, I'm hoping his gut's telling him the wrong thing, but Vixen's intuition is right every time he feels a way." Zeno says, looking at Mark and Kayno.

"Something's not sitting right with me." I say, thinking this whole thing over.

I get a call from an unsaved number and I cautiously pick it up. "Hello?" I say.

"Is this Vixen Reed?" a woman says on the other side.

"This is he."

"I'm terribly sorry to inform you, but your wife, Kyla Reed has tragically passed away at 4:45 this evening."

My heart drops, and I can feel all the color drain from my face. My heart skips multiple beats and my breathing starts to quicken as tears burn in my eyes.

"Sir?" she says.

"How?" I say, numbly into the phone, tears falling from my eyes.

"A car accident. Someone ran her off the road. Her car fell and flipped down a steep hill off the road and then plummeted down onto a cliff."

Emotion overwhelms me as I process this information. Then without a second thought, I hang up. A sudden rage fills my body and I take the nearest thing to me, and I throw it across the room.

"Vixen, what's going on?" my mom asks.

"I won't believe this." I say, pacing.

"Believe what? Tell me what's wrong, Vixen." she says.

"They said... they told that she's gone, mom." I say, breathing heavily.

"What?" Kayno says, standing up.

"What the fuck?" Zeno says.

"No fucking way." Mark says, shaking his head.

I drop to my knees and I bury my face into my arms on the floor, crying as my mother hugs me, rubbing my head and consoling me. I don't know what to do. I don't know whether to be sad or angry. I don't know whether to believe it or not. I feel like my heart's been ripped from my chest. All I know is, I'll never be the same person I was when I was with her. Nothing will ever be the same. The wife I never got to marry and the son or daughter I never got to meet, both gone for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And that's not fair.

Hours later, I go upstairs, feeling numb as I walk into a room that feels a lot colder. Emptier. A shirt of hers lies on the bed. I walk over to it, picking it up and rubbing the material between my fingers. I raise it to my nose, inhaling the scent of her. I start to sob into her shirt, memories of everything we had flooding my mind, overwhelming me. I pull away from the shirt and I look down at it, clutching it in my fists and I look up and I stare at my nightstand on my side of the bed. I walk over to it, her shirt in my hand, and I open the drawer and my pistol sits there. I contemplate my decision and I pick it up, along with a silencer, and I find my stash of alcohol and I pick up a bottle and I walk to my office, shutting and locking the door.

I slide all my papers off my desk and I put the bottle, my gun, and her shirt down on it. Images of her flick through my mind as my last tears fall.

Her beautiful brown hair tangled through my fingers, her gorgeous greenish-blue eyes locking with mine, those soft, warm lips against mine, and her silk, golden skin running past my fingers as I rub her body, falling asleep next to her, her gorgeous smile and the way she looks when she's happy, the way it felt when she looked at me.. I miss it all a little more now that she's gone.

I pick up the bottle and I analyze it before opening it and starting to drink it.

"I want to get drunk. Off this bottle of whiskey and the thought of her. I want the last thing on my mind to be her. This is the last thing I want to do before enjoying paradise with the woman I love again. I can't imagine life without her anymore and I don't ever want to think about it. I already know mom's gonna come knocking first, so I love you mom, Kayno, Z, Mark, take care of yourselves. As for you Dad, I'm sorry I'm not the son you raised me to be. She changed me, and I can't say I'm ungrateful for it. It's selfish, leaving like this, but it's the only way I can get rid of the pain of it all."

I slide the note underneath the door and it sits outside as I drunkenly finish off the bottle. Someone knocks at the door and mom calls out to me.

"Vixen? What's this at the door?" she asks.

I don't respond. I just sit there. She stops talking and after a couple seconds, she starts rattling at the doorknob and banging at the door.

"Vixen stop with this!" she yells, banging on the door. "Vixen! Finn, boys! Please Vixen, stop!" she continues, still banging at the door.

I put the gun to my head as everyone bangs on the door, trying to knock it down.

This is it.

This is my end.