Happily Ever After
Author: Whispering Hope
Summary: A short sequel to the Giver. Lily after Jonas and Gabriel leave. One-shot.
Warnings: Written in a rush for a project, canon mistakes are to be expected.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Giver and any of the characters involved.
She was confused, and tried to move forward, but her feet hurt as she trudged through the blood-soaked grass. Some strange sounds rang in the distance, and she knew she should know them. Can – can… Cannons? Yes, that seemed right, black and circular and deadly, and they were named cannons. For a moment she wanted to laugh because the name sounded funny, but she choked on the gas surrounding the grassland. Smoke, her mind told her. Dust in the air, from the cannons.
She wanted to move her arm to wrap it around her, to try and protect herself in whatever small way she could, but one arm was too painful to move, and the other didn't really help much. She wanted to shout out as the needles seemed to sting her unmovable hand, but her throat was parched and hoarse. She needed something to drink, and food to eat. She felt strangely light, and her stomach hurt as well. Hunger, her mind replied, this is hunger.
I'm starving, she realised.
Someone was standing in front of her, and when she looked at him, she saw a water container around his waist. "Water," she croaked out weakly, trying to gain his attention. He was badly injured, but one of the lucky few alive. Looking at her, he seemed shocked, but as she begged again, he relented and passed the container to her. Greedily, she gulped down the water, enjoying the coolness of the water against her sore throat, and then something hit her.
The world grew dark.
Lily woke up, sweating, clutching her blanket close to her in childish fear. Every night, as she slept, those memories haunted her, just as the Giver once said it hunted Jonas. Jonas, she thought, and her heart ached for her brother, who had been lost in the river about a week. They had said his name traditionally, until it had softened to only the wind calling.
The Giver had said to them in the Ceremony – memories are forever, and that was why they were receiving all these images of colour, of pain, of emotions, of the Truth that people from before had tried to hide. Lily had always thought about this before, had always wondered if this could end up as a story she could tell to people she wanted to tell. It would have been her first story as a Storyteller.
Wrapping her arms round herself, something she could not do within her dream, she gave a small sigh, relieved that she could still work her arms. It had been a horrible week. First, Jonas had died in the river, and when she had shouted that Jonas could swim well, no one had believed her, not even Jonas' friends, Asher and Fiona. Secondly, Gabriel had disappeared. Third and lastly, her father's bicycle had disappeared as well.
With the nightmares, came the feeling of love. She now understood why Jonas had asked that question to Mother and Father after a meal one day. She had been listening, even though they never knew.
She, now, too, wanted to ask whether her parents loved her or not.
Getting out of bed, she walked towards the window and looked out into the night sky. The clouds stared back at her, and then she was outside on the grass field, looking at the sky. The stars glittered and seemed to blink. The moon was full, and everyone near her was happy. "Isn't is pretty? That constellation over there?" Where a hand pointed, she looked. The stars seemed to smile as her mind connected them and she saw a picture of an arrow.
Lily was standing at the window again, the memory gone as quickly as it came. The sun had not risen, and she knew it was still to early for anyone to be up. Maybe… Maybe, today would be different. She changed out of her nightclothes, and walked to where she knew the Giver lived. It was a long walk, but Lily didn't mind.
She knocked on the door, and when she answered that she was Jonas' sister, she was immediately invited in. The Giver was an old man, and his eyes seemed so kind. He said he was sorry for her brother's loss.
"He didn't really drown, did he?" she asked curiously, hoping.
The Giver only looked at her strangely, but he shook his head, then answered that Jonas really did drown.
"He's a good swimmer," she tried to argue her point across, but the Giver was adamant and shook his head, saying yet again he was sorry for their loss. "He really is – was! He couldn't have drowned!" It was a while before she calmed down and apologised to the Giver. He only smiled.
When morning rose, she decided it was time to go home.
"Wait, Lily," he called out, and when she turned, he was scrutinizing her. "What are you thinking of becoming when you grow up?"
"Storyteller," she answered confidently.
He smiled. "Why don't you make a story of Jonas going to Elsewhere with Gabriel and living happily ever after?"
She paused, and then stared at him. After a moment, she returned his smile. "A story?"
"Just a story," he murmured. "Nothing but a story."
If Jonas and Gabriel had reached Elsewhere… they would live in all those memories that Jonas had left behind. There would be wars, but there would be warmth. There would still be love. Jonas would take care of Gabriel, she reckoned, and noted that down. They would be starving, but there would be kindness.
The people they meet would help them as much as they could.
There would be trouble, there would be rain, but at the end of the rain, there would be a rainbow with seven different colours to welcome them back into day again. There would be a tunnel, but then they reach tunnel's end, the sunshine would shine through again.
Sometimes, they would find that they had no house to sleep in, no roof above them. Then, they would find night passes so much quicker, and the next day brings so much again.
Meanwhile, the people still here would recover from the shock, and everything would go back to Normal, revert back to what the Truth was. They would see colours, feel emotions and not stick to such regulations again. It might take a while, but it would work.
Placing the pen down, she looked back at everything she had written, giving herself a small smile. All the notes she had, she felt, were good, and it would turn out to be a very good story that no one would forget, not even many years later.
There was still one thing on her mind though. She needed an ending, yet at the same time, she never wanted Jonas' story to end.
It was time to visit the Giver again.
"I just need the ending," she finished, "but I don't want it to end."
The Giver smiled. "Give it a happy ending."
"But –" she opposed.
"End it with 'happily ever after'," he said, "because no one can say for how long they lived happily ever after and the story would never end."
Yes, she decided. They would live happily ever after, because everyone would, because all fairytales ended that way.
Jonas' story would remain like a fairytale to them forever.
-Owari-