[ CW ] `` Am I a bad person ? '' `` Depends on who you ask . ''

As the rain began to fall, Reed stood at the foot of the hole and looked down at Martin. 
 
 `` There are some people in your life that tell you that they love you.'' he said to Martin. `` And they do n't ever do anything to show it. Then, there are people whose actions suggest that they love you, but they never actually say it.'' 
 
 Reed took a final draw from the cigarette before flicking it out in the dank and humid darkness of the woods. 
 
 `` When you're a kid, though,'' Reed pondered aloud, `` you need those people in the middle, you know, to kind of level you out. You need the people that sometimes show it and sometimes say it. Otherwise you grow up all lopsided and twisted about in the head. Maybe that's the problem with me, you think?'' 
 
 Martin struggled against the knotted ropes that held his hands behind his back. His chest heaved and his head swam as he took in copious amounts of panicked oxygen through his bloody nose; it was the only way to stay alive since the tape wrapped around his head and mouth prevented any such relief. His eyes darted around the pit for an escape route as his lashes flicked away the droplets falling from the sky. 
 
 Reed stared down into the ground once again, `` Do you think this makes me a bad person, Martin?'' 
 
 Only the sound of rain and muffled groans responded. 
 
 `` You know what Rachel would have said, right?'' asked Reed. `` God love her. She would have said, *Depends on who you ask. *'' 
 
 `` So what do you say, Martin,'' Reed looked at Martin as he straightened his legs and rose to his feet, `` Did my Rachel tell you that she loved you... or did she show it?'' 
 
 Martin turned his head to the left and there she was, cold blue eyes staring blankly ahead at some unseen and unknowable void. Her blonde hair matted and smeared red, half covering the gap between her eyes left by the bullet. 
 
 From above the falling water intermingled with the freshly excavated earth that now poured down from Reed's old rusty shovel.
