The Sled, The Sorrow, And The Victory
Every victory has a price.
— Eleanor Roosevelt
Made this for an English project and decided to upload it. I own nothing but the general idea.
Please review! Please? (I'm begging here.)
(Alternative ending.)
~*~*~*~
It took Jonas many minutes to pull his eyes away from the house. He looked down at Gabe, grinning.
"We did it Gabe!" Jonas said putting as much excitement in his voice as his rapidly fading energy would allow. "We made it Gabe!"
Jonas looked back up at the house through the drifting snowflakes. Jonas stopped breathing for a moment. The house was no longer there. The house was gone! He couldn't believe it. It was impossible!
"No," Jonas whispered. "No, no, no, no! We made it! We did it!"
He looked from Gabe to the house and back again. It was there just a second ago. How could it be gone?
Jonas racked his mind for all possible answers. He only got one. He had been hallucinating. There was no house. It had simply been a figment of his imagination.
No, he thought sharply, No it's not true we made it! Jonas looked from Gabe to where the house had been a few minutes ago. And of course there was no house. Jonas jumped and remembered the sled. He looked down with one last hope only to see that the sled— like the house— was non-existent.
Jonas shoulders began to shake in silent sobs. There was no house. There was no sled. There was no other community with choices and emotions. He had taken Gabriel away from the community only for him not to die warm and comfortable but cold and alone. Jonas felt that emotion that had sometimes been coupled with embarrassment in the memories: it was shame.
Gabriel began to stir. Jonas knew what he needed to do. More importantly what Jonas wanted to do: to make Gabe happy. To make Gabe's death at least have the illusion meaningfulness. He decided to put on a happy face— for Gabe.
"We did it Gabe! We did it!" Jonas said with as much fake enthusiasm as he could muster. "We made it Gabe! We got to Elsewhere! We saved the community, too!"
Gabe let out a tiny laugh and listened to Jonas for a few minutes; then went back into a dreamless sleep. Never to awake again.
Jonas let out another loud, shaking sob at that thought but continued to chant.
"We did it Gabe! We did it! We made it Gabe! We got to Elsewhere! We saved the community, too!" he said it over and over again. It made Jonas feel a little better… but not much better.
A long while after Gabe's little heart had stopped beating was when Jonas stop chanting.
Jonas closed his eyes as well not long after he had stopped chanting. And Jonas too, soon drifted off into a dreamless sleep that we all now know— even the community as —death.
The End…
Unless a Pure Blood shows up that is…
(Vampire Knight reference. Sorry!)
Life is pleasant.
Death is peaceful.
It's the transition that's troublesome.
—Jimi Hendrix