𝙾𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙸 ~ 𝟷𝟶 𝚈𝙴𝙰𝚁𝚂

the future (good ending)

I stood over Mari's grave yet again. A bunch of flowers in my hands as I placed them gently in front of her.

Hey, sis. Guess what?

"Sunny!!" Basil yelled, running up to me with a newspaper in his hands. Passing it to me, I looked at the headline. 'SUNNY WHITE OF STAR NAVY QUITS IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS: BY BASIL CAMPBELL'. It had a good ring to it. "Thank you so much for the interview, my boss was so happy that I found out more details from the man himself!"

"Anything for you," I replied, a small smile on my face as I took his free hand in mine.

"I made you this flower crown too, to match the ones I made for everybody else." Placing it on my head, he smiled widely, a rosy blush on his face. I'm so lucky.

You'd never believe it if I said.

"OH MY GOD!!" Kel shouted from behind us. We both whipped our heads around to see him sitting on the picnic rug with Aubrey, his hands on her belly and both of them having very happy looks on their faces.

"What? What is it?"

"The baby moved! HELL YEAH!!"

"Kel, watch your volume!" Hero chuckled quietly. "This is a cemetery!!"

"I'm sorry, I'm just so happy!"

Basil looked at me, leaning in to whisper in my ear. "I don't know how good a role model he's going to be to a child."

"You never know," I replied with a small laugh, leading him over to sit on the blanket. Leaning his head on my shoulder, he held up his camera to take a photo of the teary-eyed Kel.

It's been a few months now...

"Do you have a name for her yet?" I questioned Aubrey, who smiled at me gently.

"Well... Kel and I were both thinking Marianne." Looking back at her ecstatic husband, who was being scolded by her brother-in-law, she had a loving look in her eyes. "Mari for short."

...and everything's going better than I ever thought it could.

"How are your drawings going?" Hero questioned, leaning over to look at my open sketchbook.

"Wonderfully. But, illustrating games gets to be tough work sometimes," I sighed. "My hand's killing me."

Hero's recovering fast.

"I'm glad it's going well for you," he chuckled. He sat in his wheelchair, looking over my drawings.

Aubrey's in her third trimester, and Kel... He's being Kel.

"Oh, Sunny! Ma wants you and Basil to join our family for dinner next week! I'm gonna be helping Hero and Ma prepare this time!" Kel recalled cheerily.

"And you're going to fail miserably," Aubrey replied. "Remember that one time you tried to make me spaghetti and ended up giving me a half eaten box of cereal?"

"Yeah, but it was good cereal! And we watched the live action Captain Spaceboy movie!"

"We do not talk about the live action Captain Spaceboy movie. They ruined it," I replied, completely serious. "They besmirched the Captain and his legacy."

"You're right. It was slow as hell yet they somehow removed multiple details, they whitewashed it, and they pronounced everybody's names so badly," Kel agreed. It's good to have another hardcore fan that agrees with my beliefs.

And Basil... He's amazing.

"And done! I got a photo with all of you in it!" Basil cheered, holding the polaroid out for us all to see.

"Not all of us. We're missing you. C'mere, I'll take one of all of us." Giving him a quick hug, I took the camera and held it up, and we all squeezed into the frame. "Alright, everybody smile!"

As the camera flashed and the photo printed, we all burst into joyous giggles.

I still miss you.

Basil looked at the photo and smiled widely. "It's perfect!"

But, I've found my reason to keep living.

"Perfect timing," Hero replied. "Because we should eat before our food gets cold."

You're right: everybody deserves kindness.

Raising our bottles of Orange Joe and gently clinking them together, there was a chorus of 'cheers' that filled the graveyard.

And, I can change for the better.

Laying down and looking to the sunny sky above me, I held onto Basil's hand, drawing shapes on the back of his hand with my thumb.

I think I already have.

And, I closed my eyes.

One more day the sun reaches my bed,

One more day to spend alone again,

Morning starts without me,

I seem to find it hard to wake up...

THE END

aaaaand it's over! hoo boy, this actually hurt a bit to finish
10 years has gotta be the most raw, emotional thing i've ever written, with dialogue coming from the deepest corners of my mind. i spent a lot of time figuring it all out, what i wanted to say through the characters' voices. and, i think i kind of confronted my fear of change in this too! i've got a lot of change coming next year that i projected onto them, and that helped a whole lot. and, i kinda hope it could help you too!
if you or a person you know is going through something tough right now, just know that you can always reach out to somebody. family, willing friends, therapists, teachers, workers, etc. can really help in a time of need.
and, don't forget that i'm so, so, so proud of you! i love you so much. /p
you're doing so well! don't forget to take your required medicines, drink water, eat something delicious, and take a break for yourself. don't push yourself too hard, or else you'll find it a bit hard to get by (i know from experience haha)!
that's all for now! catch ya on the flip side (or maybe not, because it's the end of the book), trash gremlins!
- trashbag <3