Jace stared at Basil for the longest, not knowing how to respond or how to believe him for that matter. The longer he stared him in the eye, though, he could tell that everything he he was saying was the truth. He didn't understand any of this and the last thing Jace wanted to do was believe that his best friend was dead, but with that look...there was no denying it.  Basil was dead and had been for a long time. There were no such things as miracles like he stupidly allowed himself to believe once upon a time. All the prayers he sent to the Heavens in those last weeks of Basil's life had fallen on deaf ears, yet he'd stupidly believed there was some unforeseen force who'd managed to spare his life.
	"You really are dead..." he said softly, mostly to himself. More tears brimmed his eyes and spilled over, but this time he didn't wipe them away. For the longest he stared at the ground before taking a few steps back in his stupor.
	How was he supposed to feel about this? Angry? Sad? Crushed? Despite the fact that Basil was standing right in front of him, he was dead somehow and he hadn't even known. Before Basil had died, he made Jace promise not to forget about him and have him live in inside his heart, but in the high of his falsified hope, he had forgotten about him altogether.  This...this [i]imposter[/i] was leading the life of the one who he'd believed to be his best friend that he'd fallen in love with long ago.
	Without thinking of what he was doing, he raised his gun, leveling it with Basil's chest as he put his finger on the trigger. "If you aren't really Basil, then how did you only recently figure out that you weren't him? How could you go six years without knowing you aren't someone. Why were you here to replace him?! Tell me [i]now[/i]!" His hands were trembling in his rising anguish and anger.