Midnight post, I rarely do that. Sorry I didn't post yesterday. The ONE time I'm not consistent with posting days is when we're literally on the last chapter, that's like the world's worst cliffhanger. I planned to finish yesterday but I was tired and had no creative energy for that, and I didn't want the chapter to be meh as a result. But, it's longer than intended, so that's a nice way to end it!
DoggPocky: Emotions will be emotions, am I right? Can't say it gets much happier here either, but there are still some nice things since it's the ending obviously. I think Caelia thinking she should've been born an Ancient Fairy Warrior is a reminder of how some of these fairies lost touch with how fairies fought for equal power and not these men controlling their wives. I'm sorry you're sad. I get it, fanfic absolutely wrecks me.
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Minutes away from their rom-com marathon, Wanda waited patiently. Not as comfortably as she'd like to though with the storage box placed on the coffee table before her living room couch. No point in hiding it now, but Cosmo hadn't noticed it yet whilst in the kitchen by the clanks and rummaging Wanda could hear from the couch in the room over through the archway.
One thing she'd refrained from pulling out of the box was the same pink rose keychain gifted by her mother. It used to attach to every used backpack Wanda brought to school up until a certain date. Why something belonging to Wanda would be in Caelia's box...well, it was one of the first gifts Wanda actually remembered her mother giving to her. And after certain things...she just didn't use it as much.
Her husband began to whistle a tune from the room over, touching Wanda with a bit of calmness but not enough to distract her as she stared at the plastic rose in her palm linked to a silver chain with a split key ring. A small purchase, but a helluva memory worth more than a thousand bucks. As Wanda's same-colored eyes watched the pink plastic, it clicked to her why she stopped attaching it to her school bag.
With suppressed emotion knocking at her door, she looked in the kitchen's direction and back in fighting it off. Rubbing a hand to the back of her neck as one lip curled in on the other and she blinked to remind her of the adult body she was in and not the little girl complaining within. She'd made it this far, what was one more stupid trinket.
At the end of the box.
All that was left...
Of one person's life.
With each wavering thought and no more strength for an afternoon's worth of dodging her husband's questioning, and crap even her own, Wanda felt pulled in deeper by every living trace of Caelia's...
. . .
Everything seemed so much bleaker of color. Could time tell how long this took? No. Because time had stopped for Caelia by this point. Exisiting was all there was whether in a hospital bed or her own bed. Just having got back from an emergency that morning in another silent attack. It was a miracle she'd been able to say goodnight to the girls the night before at all.
They left for school the same time she left for the emergency room. Sent home after the same procedures, she laid in bed with Didi who watched from her bedside like a hawk. Afraid if she took one eye away Caelia's breath would stop again. They had enough with one run to the emergency room that morning as Big Daddy loomed downstairs.
Could other fairies see a standstill of time like Caelia, or had she lost her mind? Ridden to bed for what felt like forever had wiped her away from reality and taken her as far as possible. It was hard to tell when a full day passed unless she was asleep or struggling for breath in the emergency room. The girls visiting were her only time stamp, as well Didi and even her husband. Her brothers came what felt like a few days ago, but for all she knew it was only a few hours ago. With more faces visiting her, Caelia realized that she wasn't the only one who had a changed reality.
"How do you feel, miss?" Didi asked, noticeable of the ill fairy's vacant stare to the ceiling. Pink eyes turned towards her delirously though unable to sleep from today's events alone. Waking up with no proper breathing was her new alarm. Sometimes Caelia would wake up in the hospital unaware she stopped breathing at all. She did not wish any ill-will on Didi, but it should be obvious to her of all people just how Caelia was feeling.
There was no blame left in her. There was barely any hope..
One pale hand left the warmth of her comforter to reach for Didi. The housekeeper studied her gesture and lifted from the stool she remained on to come to her knees before the reaching hand. Taking it into both of her's and feeling her soul deflate at how cold it was. Not to mention the lack of grip Caelia would usually give.
"...remember what I told you..."
The crack in her voice was the most Didi heard from the fairy all morning. Caelia was immune to protest or asking of any doctors and ambulance by this point, that talking would no longer matter. Not as long as she was a vessel of illness just being brought back and forth. Alone now, her skin was pastier than its usual pale peach. Dark circles hugged her under her eyes from her lack of sleep or losing breath or simply not caring any longer. The pink of her eyes was dull like her skin from no sunlight and her lips a near sandstorm.
She was hardly a living fairy.
"Oh, god.." Didi broke as moistness made her eyes shine in contrast to Caelia's dry color looking back. Her hands gripped Caelia's in a plead for her to tighten her grip back though it only made Didi's trembles the more obvious. The peach fairy's chin rested to the mattress in inching closer to beg her friend to just hang on for dear life and never let go. "...miss, I'm begging-begging you...with everything I am..."
The air stolen from Caelia by an impending darkness made it harder to breathe.
"Talk to me.." Didi pressed.
Though alive, Caelia's eyes may have very well been lifeless by the exhausted eyelids that answered Didi back. Barely holding her hands in return and letting her palm's weight rest in the housekeeper's hitching hold that shook with every passing sob and plead.
"Miss.."
Caelia wanted to cry with her, but there was not enough in her system to let her do so.
"Miss Caelia, PLEASE say something!" Didi screeched close to the mattress. "Let me help YOU!"
Heavy blinking lids returned replied to the desperate yell. Within a matter of seconds did Didi notice Caelia was starting to look more telling in her gaze by the difficult breathing passing by her lips. The peach fairy tried to mask her panic. As Caelia watched Didi reach for her phone for help, she knew there was nothing left to tell.
The air was woefully thin for the two sisters. Floating back home along the emptied sidewalk when the pink clouds seemed duller in their eyes and the world seemed much scarier than safe. Picking up from their usual routine of Blonda coming by after school to Wanda's so that they could float home together. Neither had wanted to go through the day and their minds were barely in class with their mother being rushed to the hospital again. They received a teacher's note to tell them she'd came home again, as if that brought much change at this point.
Blonda stared forward, adamantly distraught yet stubborn. Her sister in a similar state but Wanda still looked to Blonda however she may. Her older sister knew she had a thought she wanted to share, but Blonda didn't think she could take any more discussion about their mother. Hadn't she shown enough resentment on how much she wanted to avoid what was already on her mind constantly?
Wanda was appalled to think Blonda thought her younger sister wanted it any different. Wanda didn't want to be worried over this anymore, but at least she was looking to talk about it and not give it the cold shoulder.
"You think mom will go to the hospital again?" Wanda ventured, starting with the hard question.
Blonda's eyes rolled and Wanda pouted. What more did she expect? Things to go away from avoiding it? Their mother was the exact person who told them about confronting problems and not running away from them. Suddenly Caelia being sick meant all disappearance of her ethics too?
They turned onto their street as Wanda gave Blonda a full stare, but was returned with nothing but an irritated ignore. Blonda's hands clasped her backpack straps tighter as if keeping the brewing anger from bursting out. As much as Wanda could read signals, she didn't care enough about what was bothering Blonda to overshadow what was happening to their mother.
"Why don't you wanna talk to me?"
Maybe because Blonda had nothing to say, and maybe, her annoying little sister wasn't helping the matter.
The girl with the pink curls decided not to poke the bear anymore. Never had Blonda acted this distant in their life, let alone for this long. Wanda thought it would blow over soon enough but Blonda had said no more to Wanda than she did to the mother of theirs who was sick. There were moments where Blonda would concede to seeing Caelia again, because how could she not. Moments that honestly warmed Wanda's heart and reminded her of the Blonda she knew.
What was happening couldn't be said, but Caelia changed.
Wanda saw it in every peep-in she made. Every hug to her mother's chest, every hand held to her cold cheek, every breath spared, it was different. And so incredibly hard for a twelve-year-old to see her mother weak in life and mind. Unable to manifest enough energy sometimes to not realize Wanda had entered the room until she touched her. When she did notice her daughter, love was in her eyes. But it was not as strong and nurturing as it once was. It was more dependant for the little girl being by her side at any chance she had. Every look into her mother's eyes made life easier for Wanda. By the day of Caelia growing weaker though, it triggered an unnerving feeling deep down in her youngest.
Wanda came from a closed-book family. And despite her mother's honest nature and compassionate sensitivity, she wasn't that much different in secret as Big Daddy was. She didn't talk much about her early days before marrying their father, especially as both Wanda and Blonda got older surprisingly. And while Wanda knew at this age there was a reason she never personally knew her maternal grandmother, her parents' fighting made everything questionable. Though unadmitted to her mother, Wanda wondered if her own presence ever had anything to do with it.
One day she would know about her mother's life.
Wanda's eyes remained on her shoe flats as they neared the house, unrealizing of Blonda stopping and looking to their front gate down the way. When Wanda saw he sister's shadow remained unfollowed she looked to her and then where her ghostly gaze was directed.
Seeing their mother on a stretcher was a new one.
They hasted forward with their wings begging for faster air. Hoping to come to the stretcher's side where a distraught Didi remained talking to a mostly weak Caelia yet they were stopped too soon. Their father's brawny arms were enough to stop them both though they begged in frantic pleas with scrambling arms to pass. Eyes remained on their mother as they began to hitch hysterically from a day of silent mental draining over this already.
"Girls."
"Daddy-!" Blonda sobbed. "Please! NO!"
Wanda held her father's jacket sleeve, immune to the alcohol smell and watching as the stretcher was lifted into the fairy ambulance.
"Please.." Blonda begged as Wanda fought the moistness of her eyes.
"Sh," Big Daddy calmed his daughters. "Come on.."
The cures were reaching a limit.
The excess magic around her lung was rare already, but what it brought about this time around was even rarer. The membrane of magic surrounding her lung was wired by the lack of chemicals, that the re-used antibiotics again almost worked too well. Spreading down to both her colon and other inner organs, and soon becoming a net for more bacteria instead of less after being off for so long. Fairy doctors very rarely see a case like this. It was just uncommon enough to be put off the map even, but it still existed. Some may call it a type of fairy cancer, but in the oldest book, its name was long forgotten and simply categorized as an immortal disease like no other.
The hustle of the hospital was numb to both girls' ears, sitting outside their mother's room with Wanda in between Blonda and her Uncle Carmine as she watched her father pace before their chairs. Men who had no idea how to assess such a situation with either of their daughters and nieces. Blonda edged farther back in her chair with her arms crossed and Wanda looked at her, then peering down the hall where Didi and Uncle Piero had appeared.
Carmine noticed Wanda watching their housekeeper talk heavily to their uncle, confused by the tears masking Didi's cheeks. It looked like she was begging him of something.
"Cannoli?" Carmine ventured to the niece whose attention was drawn. "Go to the machine and get me a pop?"
The pink fairy watched Didi cry harder as Piero handed her an envelope.
"Piero." His brother called, getting the older Fairywinkle's attention of Wanda's observance and Blonda's brooding. He took Didi by the shoulder to bring their business elsewhere as Wanda fell back into her chair. She glanced at her sister with no help of her looking back anytime soon. She looked at her father as he bit the nail of his thumb with his eyes frantic to the floor under a furrowed brow. Gestures rarely like him at all.
All heads turned at Dr. Studwell's entrance from the room with two nurses at his side. Closing the door in a soft click as if no more disturbance than the one growing in his almost crooked brow could be given. Big Daddy drew forward while shooting a look of warning to his girls' to keep still as he and Carmine approached. Big Daddy crossed his arms as Studwell took him politely by the shoulder to the hallway's space. Mumbling for the adults' few escaped words that would never be lived down for any loved one.
"Her lungs are shutting down...take this chance while you have it."
Carmine watched the floor but spared a small look to his brother. The eldest Fairywinkle gripped the arms he kept crossed. Clear agitation masking the pain Big Daddy didn't want to admit was there for the woman who was still his wife. Who was once upon a time a true part of his heart in the utmost devotion. If a ventilator was all that was helping Caelia at this point, Big Daddy didn't understand why these bastards hadn't pulled the plug already.
"If they're shutting down...you ain't doing enough."
Wanda swallowed by her father's heated tone and scratched a nail to her skirt.
"Sir, I promise you we are..." Studwell said. "Letting this drag out would mean a ventilator keeping her going, and that's not going to reduce the pain she's in..."
"Pain.." the patient's husband scoffed. "What pain is she not already immune to..."
Studwell wondered if this guy was truly serious.
"She already gained weaker in immunity from pregnancy. As soon as she started ignoring her medicine it also helped the process. Maybe we could've slowed it a few years ago and stop it, but.."
Big Daddy rolled his eyes to the ceiling, rubbing a hand over the mouth the drenched of scotch. "You know how much that will rouse...with people and our name."
Studwell was smart about watching his mouth, but it couldn't be helped. "Over your own wife, you mean."
The spectacles flew off Studwell's face by the smacking of his cheek. His head snapping one way but soon grabbed by the collar and lunged forward by the same harmful hands of Big Daddy in a growl. His breath drenched terribly of a full bottle.
Carmine seized his brothers shoulders as the nurses took Studwell's, right as Piero came back around a flew over to the scene stopping occupants in the hallway. Both daughters of the harmful man grew more fragile at the sight of Big Daddy shaking the doctor by the collar and yelling profanity. At one point getting another slap in as Piero tried to remind his brother of his sanity.
"Big! Big, ya daughters!"
Taken from the angry man, Studwell's absolute appal arched to anger in limits he didn't know he had. He threw his clipboard down and barely gave another word through his pressed lip as he stomred the other way and the nurses remained dumbfounded in the hallway. Looking between the heated man and his daughters in plastered tears.
Big Daddy ripped free from his brothers as his phone buzzed against his suit jacket.
"What now!?"
"It's alright, lil' buttercups." Piero comforted his sobbing nieces. He threw a look to Carmine hovering by the door. "Check on her..."
The blue fairy disappeared into the room as Big Daddy answered the incoming call from a familiar Helio. Rubbing his migraine in wondering why the hell of all times and why the hell of all the world was this happening to their family.
"What."
A large laugh caused him to grumble in pain. "Want me to pull the plug, then?"
Bad choice of words, considering... "What d'you mean, moron.."
"Got a call from some junkies on the prowl for some trouble," Helio spoke with an obvious tone of delight. "One of them sent a threat to the guy bangin' your wife already, but uh, they willing to go through and I told 'em to get ready."
"Did ya, now.."
"So what, you in?"
Was this it? And offer for something he'd been holding back on the whole time?
The reminder of his wife living on supplied oxygen made him wonder. Wonder what the worth of going after Finch was while Caelia didn't have any place to go with how she was now. It didn't seem like she ever could even if she pushed through a little further. Caelia only ever meant good and while Big Daddy came to really hate her and her actions quite occasionally, she pushed Finch away when it was to be warned what would happen if it continued. Big Daddy couldn't give a rat's ass about Finch nor as to why Caelia would save him over herself, but...
...for god's sake...
...what had life become for the Fairywinkles.
"Sir?" A nurse cautioned carefully to Big Daddy. "We don't have a lot of time.."
Maybe he'd protest, but what more could he cost Caelia.
"Cancel it," Big Daddy mumbled. "You don't rid anyone unless I say so. I catch you so much doin' it without my permission, you'll be the one sleeping with the fishes then."
"You can't do that."
Big's eyelids tightened. "I can do anything."
He hung up, tucking his phone away and looking back at the daughters that stared at him. The very little hope they wished to gain from their father was deprived as he chose to look away from them to the floor. Wanda looked to her sister in hopes of taking her hand, but Blonda remained reluctant with her arms cross and her stare towards the floor as well.
His brothers held the door open for him. Giving the okay to his daughters, they were finally free to lift from their chairs and the three entered the room.
What barely looked like a person laid flat in bed. Draped in a hospital gown with a nasal cannula providing supplemental oxygen through her nose and into the system resisting any more air than it could take. A heart monitor attached to the patient's chest showed the steady running of her organ's pump on the beeping screen. Her once vibrant hair was drawn back against the pillow though her pink curls remained and her lids closed as her chest rose and fell at a slow pace.
Caelia counted her breaths.
Feeling a lift by one and declination by the other. Unaware of the presence coming to her side as every breath was cherished and spared no more than the other. Feeling a slice of heaven out of the hellscape she was living with pain pounding her ribcage and burn tickling her system. A deathly hand reaching out to choke her throat every so often as she watched, felt, heard, believed every breath that told her to spare life's good moments and forget what made it a trap she couldn't escape. All before she realized the prison walls were only disguised as a sanctuary.
A life she sometimes wondered if she truly lived.
Nightmares couldn't be avoided for her when it was too late. Love could be found in all hopelessness, but it was their hope that kept her going. What hope did she have herself if not gifted to her by those she loved? It was already ripped out by her mother and stomped on by her husband. Two of which she was suddenly sure were the same.
It nearly dawned upon her that his voice was right near her.
"Caelia.." he whispered, cupping her hand. In the living moment, Firo Fairywinkle could only find peace within him. "It's okay..."
She breathed faintly in return. He leaned down to brush the curls from her forehead and kiss the spot softly. Gazing at her in a way he hadn't gazed at her in a long time where love still existed and not just the casual tendencies of marriage. His thumb brushed her nearly dull skin and he asked himself if any of this was his fault, and maybe if he played his cards differently...
A small part he thought was no longer there for his wife revived just the slightest. Tears dwelled in Big Daddy's eyes and he turned to shove past his brothers before his heart could no longer take it.
Piero and Carmine stood with no formalities to be made and followed Big Daddy to leave to two silent daughters watching their mother. Blonda and Wanda inched forward at the fairy struggling for every slow passing breath. The sisters were barely aware of each other nor themselves, only Caelia in her peaceful struggle. Wanda ignored the trembling sobs she could hear formed by Blonda as the teen began to endure another breakdown and held herself. No help by their mother who finally chose to open her eyes and rock her head to the girls beside her.
Angels had come to visit her. Not a single breath could be wasted, at least not on the wrong thing.
"Babies.." she muttered.
Poor Blonda couldn't bear it any longer, and she didn't think she'd be able to see it. Putting her hands over her eyes, she ran off crying. Her little sister watching her off in worry and then looked back at her ill mother. Dear Caelia was too heavily de-energized to object to Blonda's flee. Instead, she looked deliriously at the daughter that remained near her. Wanda reached her hands to her mother's hand, breathing a small shudder at how soft it was. And how Caelia's fingers didn't grapple her's as tightly as they usually did.
A moment of back and forth stares fell between the two, lost in their eyes' depths of matching pink. The beautiful soul Caelia saw was like a being of nature's purest roots that only had good to offer, making the pain bearable for Caelia as she looked at her precious Wanda.
Caelia's deed would never be done so long as she could help it. With that deed slipping through her fingers, there was one last golden chance she had to protect them from what their father had to offer like Jessamine once had. Caelia's last remorse against her husband faded and her devotion to her child remained, only able to speak one other thing.
"..Wanda.." she faintly whispered. "Fight.."
Her lids were heavily laid over her eyes at this point and her lips remained parted as Wanda watched them beg quietly for more air. The life of her fairy color drained into a duller shade and for a split second, the oxygen was the only thing keeping her functioning.
The monitor's beeping fell into a flat line as the Oakbelle daughter lost her breath for the final time.
The little pink fairy from aside her still clutched her hand. "..mommy?"
Caelia Fairywinkle was diagnosed with a rare chronic fairy disease only hours before she passed. In dealing with a severe case of asthma since the beginning of her life as well anxiety, the doctors had failed to realize what this had transpired into. An inflammatory disease within her lungs that had once started as asthma, but as unrealized, was much more of a seed for a deadlier immortal disease due to what had been added through her life and what was lacked to treat it. The magic membrane around her lung-sparing no last killer cell that entered her body within years and profusely tried to shut down her system however it could more than a few times in her life. Not only, but the doctors hadn't noticed that the magic of that attacked lung had spread to the other although internally rather than surrounding it. And it looked like her heartbreak, defective use of medication, and nature's strong power, had finally taken its toll on what was supposed to be immortal life.
Faces gathered for the funeral, but what was it...
Watching an urn be lowered with her mother's remnants was more a stab to Wanda's heart than watching her lose her breath before her. Blonda didn't even hold her hand at the funeral. She crossed her arms in crying her own tears while ignoring the sister beside her. That's when Wanda knew things were different. Blonda had never been that cold...
No less than her father.
He never failed to show up smelling like something intoxicating. He'd downed just enough to numb his emotions at the funeral and make it easier to watch his wife be lowered without showing anyone sorrow over his own wife's death. Because how dare he if he did...
No more were Caelia's brothers any colder towards Big Daddy. Their looks alone almost saying as if they blamed him for their beloved sister's death. But it wasn't like they didn't seem ashamed of themselves in thinking of all that could be. They could've stood up louder for Caelia when they had the chance. And her own mother? Nowhere to be seen at all as Caelia had once demanded of Jessamine. What would the mother who once treated her daughter like a disgrace to the fairy race care now when their family had grown to be a lost cause far before Elm's death.
Wanda hadn't been supposed to hear, but she even heard one of the morgue workers mumbled how a case of Caelia's was 'a weak branch dying off the race it belonged to.' Wanda wasn't that young, she could understand what they meant. And they hardly knew Caelia to testify her as weak. But what could Wanda protest when she was mourning her mother? What more was there to be done aside from seeing Didi cry her eyes out in her girlfriend's arms, and not even get into the same car as Wanda nor the rest of the family afterward?
She hadn't seen the peach fairy since the funeral.
With part of her heart forever torn away from her, Wanda reentered her home's foyer in a simple black dress and flats. Tugging her hands to a strand of curls as she was afraid looking anywhere but the floor would cause a recollection of watching her mother's eyes lose life. She waited in the foyer for a hand of comfort, whether that would be Blonda or Didi.
Her uncles had arrived home to keep the house peaceful before the girls and their father returned. Piero and Carmine entered the foyer upon Wanda's arrial first from outside and came to their niece's aid.
"How you holdin' up, sugarplum?" Carmine asked gently.
Her eyes glossed and he wanted to eat his words.
"Feel like a snack? Juice?"
The twelve-year-old shook her head adamantly against the misty eyes she was so sick and tired of dealing with all day and night. No comfort with the two here could hold a candle to someone like Didi's. Her mother if she were here...
"Where's Didi?" The girl asked hopefully.
"Didi don't work here no more." Piero's cold reply came.
Wanda's tears continued to build.
"Don't cry, cannoli. Go to your room, there's presents waitin' for you."
The twelve-year-old wiped a fist to her eyes. "I don't want presents..."
"Who doesn't want presents?"
"I-I want m-mom.."
The last breaking point and Wanda's wavering voice of cries came as she held her arms. Her head lowered in the defeat of fighting and she let it all loose under the stares of her uncles. Sobs wracking her frame and breaths begging for a calm release but nothing could tear this terrible black cloud over her heart. Delivered by death's greedy pleasure in exchange for her beautiful mother.
Begging for something other than stares, Wanda looked up. Her uncles had vacated.
She was nearly alone before she turned to the doorway as a blonde fairy came and stopped. She held the handle upon looking at her little sister. Blonda's tears were no less than Wanda's. Despite it, it meant nothing to the blonde fairy. She stormed past the waiting sister of hers. Desiring only to go to her room and remain hidden forever from any reminder of this horrible nightmare. Wanda's shock brimmed more droplets.
What was her deal.
"Blonda!" Wanda screeched through her hysterics. "STOP IT!"
"What.."
She tried to grab her sister's wrist but Blonda angrily screamed and plucked it away. Facing Wanda with a knitted brow as she turned back to the stairwell. "I don't care..."
"But mom said to love each other!" Wanda begged as she followed her sister up the staircase.
"She also said she was wrong sometimes.."
Wanda's tears started to run fast, right as they reached the top and she continued to follow Blonda to her room.
"She was also right sometimes.." Wanda tried reasoning as they flew down the hall.
"I don't care.." Blonda responded coldly as they reached her room and she opened her door.
"But, mom-"
"MOM IS DEAD!" Blonda screeched through her tears as she faced Wanda. The slamming of her door nearly rocking the whole house.
Wide shiny eyes stared at the shut door. Her hollow ears captured the commotion of another soul entering into the foyer below and Wanda whisked back to watch her father enter in his black suit and fedora. Determingly floating fast to nowhere.
"Daddy," Wanda called desperately as she flew down the stairs once again. "D-Daddy.."
The man ignored his daughter in going about his way with a bottle in hand.
"Daddy?" Wanda had reached his tail, attempting to grasp the cuff of his jacket. The sudden strength of it being yanked away from her grasp nearly made Wanda choke as her father continued on his way, ignoring the whimpers of the daughter that looked too much like her mother.
Remaining in the center of their large home, Wanda felt alone.
What more was Didi being gone after losing the reason Wanda had hope. Hope under a scary feeling she felt from her father's overdemeanance. A reality too harsh for a twelve-year-old was slowly coming to her realization in small bits and pieces. The walls of this home may soothe, but they imprison as well. Without her mother as a bodyguard for the first time, Wanda recognized a false sense of security. Maybe she'd only ever recognize the dangers so long as someone else hadn't already take the bullets for her.
She pressed her hands to her mouth in a choke over wide eyes. Palms trembling as she looked all-around at the Fairywinkle property surrounding her. Rid of one of its occupants as Wanda found sanctuary in sitting on the floor and scooting herself against the center table. The young girl curled her knees to her chest and sunk her face into them. No comfort to come from her father nor sister, nor the other occupants that were in and out constantly. But it wouldn't matter. She only wanted her mother.
...doomed to be alone and loveless forever.
. . .
A teary gasp for air left the adult Wanda as she pressed a hand to cover it. Squeezing her drenched eyes shut in a stiff hold as she trembled from the muted sobs and sniffs that left her. Letting the trinket drop from her hand and back into the box as she brought forth her palms to hold her face as she bent over her knees in an uncontrollable waver of cries. Her back hitching in an effort to breathe in between the trembles.
Further growing up, there may have been happier days, but forever was Wanda's family changed. Left as what was hardly a family. Who had Big Daddy been at all while Caelia was alive? Wanda and Blonda's mother had been the one that kept the three of them a family while their father had been the side order who reminded them what Fairywinkles strive for. And only did this plague the household after Caelia's death. But never wavered Wanda's memory of her mother's strength to save her. Indulged into her teenage years, Wanda became one of the in-crowd faces, which reputable wise, meant she was looked at a certain way. Never questioned for happiness otherwise by anyone. But did social royalty ever work wonders on her heart? No. Not until a green fairy walked into her life and changed it forever...
But how did Wanda feel now? Being reminded that she was born from a woman who had not been able to choose. No time to think about where her heart truly belonged. Was Wanda a product of the situation? Born from a false marriage?
She indulged in the painful memories of Caelia, a woman gone in the dust. Barely a millennium's length only to die out like a broken soul. Wanda's crying did not subdue on her couch. Her life was wonderful now, but what about her mother's? It wasn't fair! It was never gonna be fair! Wanda agonized over the lost chances of life for her mother. The woman who saved her, but whom Wanda could not save in return.
Just in time for her husband to reenter the room too. Coming into the living room with the ice cream tubs and chip bags in hand, with a huge Cosmo-like smile on his face. In seeing the bent-over figure of his crying wife on the couch, soon did that smile fade. And soon did the crack in his heart ensue.
To see Wanda in pain alone, caused Cosmo an immense amount as well. His brow creased in obvious concern of her crying and he looked from her to the cardboard that occupied the table. Seeing the box belonging to the mother-in-law he'd never met.
Catching the drift, Cosmo immediately put down the belongings and fled to Wanda's front, kneeling below her. He gently clutched her wrists and removed her hands from her face. Her husband hated the heartbreak in her eyes that she narrowed down to her knees. Tears fell easily as she sniffed. How could a fairy who'd lived for thousands of years suddenly feel like a helpless little girl in a finger snap?
The weight of Cosmo's hands rested on hers and part of it disappeared.
"Wanda," he called softly. She felt the need to breathe again by his sweet voice. She couldn't cause him pain with any of her's. But he couldn't bear to see her's either. "Baby.."
The pink fairy felt as if she didn't deserve his understanding. What was she? But the product of a marriage that was somehow consented yet forced along. A baby made from that circumstance. Horribly forbid, had Wanda ever been manipulated into a marriage or life she didn't realize the dangers of, Cosmo could have been her love who got away.
Her husband tugged lightly at her arm as to pull her close from where he kneeled in front of her seat. She accepted Cosmo's hug in reaching forward to wrap her arms around his neck and bury her tears against his shoulder. Cosmo's arms held her tightly in return, one hand trailing her back and wings in soft circles as he let her tears run.
"..her-her life.." Wanda shook in his loving hold. She pressed back the sob threatening her chest as she squeaked out; "..was a-a prison.."
Cosmo sighed in holding her, wishing he could reach deep down and throw away her sorrow.
"...me and Blonda.." Wanda continued to hitch. "...maybe if we were never there, she could've escaped...she wouldn't have stayed..."
"Wanda.."
"I'm a burden.."
"Honey," Cosmo pulled from their hold and held one of her hands tightly. His other palm brought her face close to his as he rested the tip of their foreheads together. "..never."
"Cosmo.." she stopped to hitch a few more tears. Cosmo's brow scrunched in seeing her so broken. "...she was trapped...I'm not the daughter of someone who deserved her...I'm the anchor.."
"Wanda...Wanda," Cosmo coaxed gently, trying to get her to listen. He recalled this subject being such a trigger for her in the past before. "She loved you.."
Her glistened eyes shot downwards.
"..I..love you." He reminded. "You're...you're no burden...I can't live without you..."
She was far from that, she was the light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Wanda hadn't been the only one with a suffered childhood. With an abusive, manipulative mother and an absent father, Cosmo's life had been saved by Wanda as much as he saved her's. The way in which Wanda's mother had constantly reminded her to follow her own heart, never had this wavered once in meeting Cosmo nor becoming a godparent.
Blonda did take her mother's word to heart despite everything too. She went on to become the star she was now. The only horrible price was that her relationship with Wanda had been distantly affected mainly by the father they were left with. Blonda's angered sorrow when she was younger after Caelia's death was taken out on her little sister in heartache. And Big Daddy, ignoring his daughters during his grief, did not care to keep them together nor remind them that they were sisters despite everything. No. If anything, Big Daddy kept them apart as it kept his daughters under his control. A little distance between them might keep him in charge. He used to always remind the world...it's his word and no one else's. No one. Tells. Big Daddy. What to do.
That went for the Fairywinkle sisters growing up. Blonda too was a victim like Wanda, it just went more to say than show. The events of Wanda seeming more troubled was that becoming a godparent was a bigger stretch that Big Daddy disapproved of, comparing to Blonda's reach for acting. Not to mention that so much of Wanda reminded Big Daddy of Caelia and he tried to control her as a result. And falling in love with Cosmo...ouch.
Ever since Caelia had married him, Big Daddy kept the same word. A relationship was to bring the best powers together. His daughter couldn't waste that no less than she was by pursuing godparenting. Even with all his wrongdoings in Big Daddy's life that became more evident to Wanda as she grew. She had to face troubling life choices as a teenager, so she broke free as soon as she was given the chance. Never looking back with Cosmo at her side.
Cosmo crawled onto the couch, encouraging his wife to come with him. He brought Wanda closer to him as they sat. She curled into a ball against his chest between his bent legs in a way where she could be vulnerable only with him and by his comfort. Cosmo, himself, would stay strong to his love in need.
"I-I love you more than anything.." Wanda whispered. "Don't ever leave me.."
Cosmo tilted his face downwards, finding his wife's lips and gently capturing them with his own. By the pressure and heat of his touch, Wanda felt her damaged spirit lift all thanks to his wonderful soul reaching out for her. Kissing her urgently yet softly to let her know that there was nothing that would ever convince him to leave, as long as she stayed true to that as well.
Cosmo detached his lips from her's, though he kept his face huddled near her's.
"Do you think I ever could, lambchop...?" her husband whispered, allowing Wanda to open her eyes gently. She smiled softly from his sweet line, though the pain still occupied her tear-stained pink orbs. Cosmo held her closer in continuing to try and ease her beautiful soul, keeping his head tilted down. Wanda buried her face into his chest and sighed shakily.
"I-I miss her...so much.."
"I know, baby. I know..." he whispered to her ear.
Wanda nuzzled into him. "If mom didn't do what she did...maybe I'd never have you..."
Cosmo stroked her hair. "And I wouldn't have you..." he said. "I never would've seen you walk into a diner I scrubbed tables for. Not knowing she was gonna be mine forever..." let alone that she would ever give him a chance.
Would it be wrong to say Caelia's marriage was for the best? Because it gave the world Wanda? Because it gave Cosmo his beautiful Wanda? It couldn't be answered. The only thing that could be assured was that Wanda's life was deserving even if her mother's had been pressured. If Cosmo was to be labeled selfish for thinking that Caelia's life of difficulty was better for Wanda...he would take that judgment in a heartbeat. Cosmo had claimed Wanda's heart long ago, and if people thought otherwise of her being here at all, sucks to suck for them. She was a treasure to this universe. From what Cosmo understood, Caelia could've trapped Wanda the same way Jessamine had to her. But Caelia wasn't like her mother nor who Big Daddy had become, and maybe that's all the more reason Wanda needed to be free. Caelia had done her job, it was Cosmo's turn now.
As for Wanda, the last thing her mother told her was to fight. She'd done it until she found a breakthrough, and dammit, she would continue so much as her mother's essence remained wandering forever. Wherever that may be.
"I don't even know where her mark is..." Wanda answered her own muddled thoughts against Cosmo. "Like it was all for nothing.."
Cosmo may have not always been able to see what was right in front of him. But anyone knew a person was willing to go a long way for love. And he had definitely gone a long way with Wanda to know.
"I think I do.."
Shaking once more with another small cry, Wanda's face left Cosmo's chest as she looked up at him and he attempted to make her smile with an encouraging smile of his own. Though she understood what he meant, depending on the day, she would believe him and sometimes wouldn't. But sometimes two people were just compatible in their very nature to make it hard to ignore, such as Wanda and her mother. Making Wanda understand Cosmo's notion to not guessing, but simply knowing, one of Caelia's marks on the world laid in Cosmo's very arms at that moment.
And what a shining mark it was.
Lost in the beauty of Cosmo's green eyes as much as he was in her beautiful pink, Wanda brought her lips to his tearfully and Cosmo kissed back wholeheartedly.
Her husband reminded her how worthy Wanda was of being here as much as her mother used to remind her. And Cosmo would fight wands and wings to keep her heart together and filled with an everlasting love.
A few towns over...
A fairy with umber skin and short forest green cornrows sorted through a mail pile as he stalked the halls of an art museum. Occupying a closed floor currently as he hovered down the modern architect of marble while flooring and walls of vertical polished wood paneling and complimentary white accent walls. Displaying arched and curved corners of paintings abroad with a black paved ceiling, letting the museum LED lights complement the artwork in all its glory.
A pair of magenta eyes under the green cornrows looked up upon entering an office space arrangement in the museum's private quarters. Coming to a glass-paneled office that looked into the white-accent room with a faux-fur carpet before a white and metal-legged desk with the same white spinny chair. A broad window laid behind the desk's position with a large original painting on each side of the desk's set up as the center point of the room. One side of the room had a a table sith coffee and cream arrangements while the other a few cabinets, an art easel, and other such implements occupying it. Two white armchairs remained on the faux-fur carpet facing the desk where another fairy sat in looking through some hand-drawn sketches.
Edging the glass door open slightly, the forest green fairy knocked as he entered. "One for you," he waved the pile.
A fairy with a cornflower blue coif hairstyle and same eyes and short goatee sat at his desk. Dressed in an indigo blue blazer over his grey tee and grey skinny suit pants with brown derbies. A silver chunky watch occupied his right wrist.
"We get mail directly here, now?" He laughed as the sketches were put aside to ignore. "I don't remember asking that."
"You don't remember asking for that cappuccino machine in the lounge either, but we still got that."
"Hardy-har."
His friend and co-worker smiled through his chuckle, reading one letter's address label before reaching it across the desk to the man. His co-worker took it in return and became peculiar seeing something mailed from an unknown address from his childhood town.
"See you at lunch?" The blue fairy inquired.
"Whatever, Finch! You're buying!"
His friend left and the cornflower blue fairy hooked a finger into the wedge of the developed. Tearing it open by a cutting motion that tore the flaps open and he reached inside for what felt like a gloss material. Pulling out an image without looking at it, he checked the rest of the envelope though nothing remained but the return address and the photo within. He tossed the ripped paper to his desk and turned the photo to its glossy front.
Years worth of floodgate memories came rushing back from a photo plucked from a scrapbook.
One of a woman with pastel pink curls.
Finch stared at the photo as if seeing her for the first time all over again. Barely, as if this was different than any time he revisited anything that reminded him of her face. But still enough to shock him completely as no sources other than him had ever brought up the light of Caelia Fairyiwnkle since his life here had began and the old one died off back then. It certainly hadn't affected his memory enough though.
The heaviness weighing down on him let him sink back into his chair. The picture held firmly in both hands as he stared into the still eyes that looked back at him. With no other clues, he turned the photo to read what was written in pink ink on the back.
Thank you for letting her live.
~Wanda
Slight revelation curled his lips. It pressed into a stronger emotion he fought as glossy eyes looked back at the front again. So much of Caelia was left in this world, and it wasn't just through trinkets. And it certainly wasn't through an Oakbelle nor Fairywinkle name. It was left through a daughter of the same heart and compassion.
His tears fell softly to the film of the picture. His heart able to move on, but his memories of her never, ever fading.
Never would a daughter as true as Wanda, nor a friend and lover as Finch, allow the story to tamper. Never letting down the tale of Caelia Fairywinkle, once Oakbelle. The fairy of bravery and heroic action of sacrificing love and loss for those she loved...
...and so she'd be remembered.
The end.
. . .
. .
Mourning an original character is underrated.
While I'd always made my AU for Wanda's mom that she died in my previous fics, I think finally creating Caelia made it sadder to end this way after becoming attached to her. I really enjoyed making her character and I hope ya'll like her too. (which in that case, hope the ending didn't mess with your emotions too much)
I also know that Caelia's last words were kinda unrealistic for a person losing her breathing, but what would it be without it. Honestly I knew this chapter would be hard ot close on because I imagine a lot of you knew Caelia's ending wouldn't be eniterly happy. But for Wanda, her chance is given for happiness and I think that's what's important to remember.
Sooooo, what's next? Lol.
I have quite a few ideas. Mostly one-shots and one-shot series. One of them is actually a one-shot series I've been working on back and forth that is kindaaaa dark but also heartwarming. We love that mix. So, that'll be my next fic probably. It's actually surrounding an episode I already did a fic on but I wanted to do another because I got an idea I think I missed out on.
Should be soon, I guess! Or whatever! See ya then!
~McSgwizzle