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"It's somewhere near the forest by the old house, there's a little clearing somewhere I think..." Willow's muffled voice came through the phone speaker, and she sounded far too casual to be talking about Leon.
Maybe she was still in denial.
Noah couldn't blame her. He had pretty much killed him and ran, and the others wouldn't have had much time to process what had happened.
Or maybe she had somehow moved on.
Noah hardly spoke to her (it was a miracle he had been able to get a hold of her phone number), so he assumed he would never truly know.
"Yeah, thanks. I'll...uhh...find my own way there. Thanks again." He hung up the phone before Willow could respond.
The same tone of voice, the same cadence, nearly identical.
"I can tell you're...feeling things for him. And...I'm not gonna hold you back. I don't want you to feel trapped in this relationship, and I'd want nothing less than happiness for you. If you ever change your mind, I'll be here."
That's the problem. Leon never had the chance to change his mind.
If he had lived, would he have cut Noah out of his life? Ran off, just like Edie did a few months ago, and started a new life with Willow?
His hand tightened around Finley's.
Did he even remember his last words? That night had been a massive blur of shouting and accusations and raw emotions.
As Noah raised the gun to his head, Leon had said something, but he either couldn't remember or couldn't bring himself to remember it. Whatever it was, it would probably make the pain worse.
"Is that it?" Finley pointed somewhere to the left, and there it was. A small clearing, if you could even call it that, with a makeshift headstone in the centre.
Noah paused for a moment. He couldn't go there, he shouldn't. He was the reason Leon was dead. He was the one who shot him. He had no right to grieve him. This was all his doing.
"Noah?" He looked down at the kid still clasping his hand, and felt him tug him slightly towards the clearing.
"Yeah...yeah I'm coming."
It looked even prettier from the inside. Most things do. Not a body. Blood should stay inside, not rushing out onto the hands of a murderer who just longed for a normal life with the one he loved.
A few rays of sunlight shone through the leaves, illuminating the patch of overgrown grass and flowers. The trees seemed to surround them in an almost perfect circle. It felt so...surreal.
"Come on, I have to show you this place!"
"Are you sure you know the way? We're in the same place we were five minutes ago."
"Yes I'm sure! Now just follow me."
"It's..."
"Amazing, right? And if we're lucky we might see some fireflies."
The ground was cold, and each strand of grass was gently illuminated by the full moon, which just so happened to rest in the gap in the forest cover.
"Here. I found this cool flower."
"It's a purple wood anemone."
"Wait you...why do you know flower names?"
"I had a book about flowers when I was younger. Not sure why, I don't remember ever showing an interest in it."
"Well, you read it."
"Doesn't mean I enjoyed it."
"You're enjoying this though, right?"
Leon gestured at...well, everything around them.
"Obviously. I mean, I'm here with you..."
"Good."
...
"Can I tell you something?"
Noah couldn't speak. There was too much to say, and not enough time. And being here, it all felt too real.
Over the last few weeks, he had written a letter. Adding up over the days, writing down every little thing that came to his mind.
It had amounted to about three pieces of A4 paper, all folded up neatly into an envelope. He pulled it out of his bag, placing it down on the grass in front of the headstone.
"That's a lot of paper."
"Yeah, Finn. I have...a lot I want to say to him."
Finley walking away for a second, before returning with a purple flower in his hand.
"You look like you loved him a lot."
Noah's breath caught in his throat.
"Y-yeah. Yeah, I did. More than he could ever know."