Jose made eye contact with Eric, and when this event happened Jose was triggered into a walk of rage. They seemed miles apart, yet they were closer than they had ever been since the day they left each other in the canyon. These men had both seen triumph and trial, and something grabbed hold of their souls and struck it with the force of an ax to a piece of lumber. Jose sat down violently and began speaking to Eric.
"Eric, Jesus what happened to you?" Jose was of course referring to the massive scar and a now blind eye that Eric possessed.
Eric just sat there in trauma. There were no words that he could say that could ever describe the tremendous pain that he had been through other than- "Pain."
"You know why I am here, yes?" Jose continued to speak to Eric in avoidance of the awkward nature of silentness.
"I believe I do."
"You know what must be done. I must take revenge." Jose spoke in a calm yet cruel nature.
"You don't need to do this. I don't even want to be alive anymore."
"Then this will be simple."
"No. I owe my presence to the people that gave me theirs in order so I might stay alive."
"What do you mean?"
"I was captured by the syndicate for five years, and they made me do terribly nasty things."
"I didn't come just to kill you. I also came to find my wife. You seen her?"
"I did. I think you should know the truth."
"What do you mean by truth? She's alive, she's fine, yes?"
"I am afraid not."
"What happened you, you son of a bitch!" Jose began to raise his voice along with his temper.
"Oh, Jose."
"What HAPPened I want to-"
"Please sir, keep it down." A waitress then inserted herself into the conversation.
"There is nothing that I could have done. The syndicate killed her." Eric tried to ease the situation.
"I want the truth."
"How could you ever even understand. Even if I told you exactly what happened you wouldn't care. You still would want me dead, maybe even more so."
"We meet on the west side at three. There I can finally have my revenge." Jose commanded while his eyes turned blood red and filled with tears.
"Jose, I can't let you have that."
Jose then stormed out of the restaurant into the street appearing like he was drunk after all of the terrible things that he saw and heard from Eric. Jose was full of some sort of mix of terror and delight. On one hand, his mortal enemy had suffered through so much, while on the other hand he knew that if he even tried to kill him that he was risking his own life in the pursuit of stupid emotion. Jose felt his emotion. He embraced it, but he never even truly felt free. Jose felt complexity, an emotion that was segregated because it was easy to misunderstand, and it became as misunderstood as the trees, and now it was rediscovered by Jose. He felt this forgotten feeling, and held it with warmth and care.
But the meeting was set, and Jose was a man of his word. If he said something was going to be done, he did everything in his power to complete it. Eric walked to the place of their meeting, up those hills with the blood stains of the earth covering the snow and the boots that hiked up those terrifying valley walls. Jose on the other hand, drove up the mountains with no name, and once he arrived, all of his emotions were sealed shut, and his motives became the only thing that kept him going. Every decision he made, every step he took, every breath he took were all made with the mindset of commitment. Eric met him there and they stood not twenty feet apart from each other. They both knew the magnitude of the situation that they put themselves in. Winter and summer were in the fight for their lives.
"Whatever must be done, may it be finished now. I am a weary wanderer." Eric shouted towards Jose.
Jose then quickly pulled his gun out from his holster on his waist. He held the pistol in the aim position towards Eric. He began to shake though, and nervousness invited himself into Jose's world and shook the walls of Jose's world uncontrollably, and in a moment of pure hesitation a shot rang in the air.