Fablehaven Oneshots

Alyssa Walks Alone

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Set some 4/5 years after

Secrets of The Dragon Sanctuary

⟢ Alyssa/Kendra ⟣
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Alyssa visits Kendra's grave on her high school graduation day, trying to get answers to her many questions.

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Alyssa was at the cemetery again. Though,  "again" implies the last time was recently, and that wasn't true. It  worried her parents too much to go too often, but this was a special  occasion.

Dirt smudged her expensive graduation robes, but she  didn't want to save them by standing. She wanted to sit, to be closer to  Kendra, and so she did, 75 dollar one-time clothes be damned.

It was supposed to be their day.

So  many things were supposed to be their day. Birthdays, first days of  schools, sleepovers, homecomings, proms—so many things were supposed to  be with Kendra.

Whenever Alyssa arrived at such milestones without  her, she felt so terribly alone. Despite new friends and old family  members, there was always something missing. Someone missing.

Kendra.

It  never got easier. People lied. It only got easier to forget. Alyssa  could go days without thinking of Kendra, but when she remembered, it  felt the exact same. The exact same hot tears, cold hands, tight  lungs—it was always the same.

Well, except for today. Because today was worse.

Graduation. High school graduation!

Alyssa had put in 13 years to get her diploma this morning and to get to say "I did it."

She  had done fine throughout high school, alone, but if Kendra had been  there, Kendra would have been able to blow them all out of the water.  Alyssa knew it. She would have been able to say—that's my friend, that  smartie with the honors regalia.

She would have smiled at Alyssa  as she walked across the stage and Alyssa would have done the same. They  would have probably had a joint graduation party, and a big lunch with  big flowers and big checks from relatives.

It would have been great.

Alyssa brushed away some of the dirt on the grave stone to read "Kendra Marie Sorenson."

A  memory came up and Alyssa snorted. Kendra had been so embarrassed of  her middle name; she had thought it was way too common. Alyssa always  countered that at least it was her middle name, because Alyssa shared  her first name with, like, a million other girls at their school. Kendra  buried her face in her pillow but turned her face slightly to say that  she thought Alyssa was the best name anyone could have. The name was  so...her. Alyssa would have told her that Marie literally sounded like the  name a fairy would have, so even if Kendra maintained that Alyssa won  the human name lottery then Kendra would have still bested the  supernatural lottery.

The laughter turned to tears fairly quickly and Alyssa buried her face in her hands.

If  they had had more years, maybe Alyssa could have found out if Kendra  had also harbored the cute little caterpillars that bloomed into  butterflies whenever Alyssa caught Kendra looking at her. Maybe then she  could've known.

How will she ever get over it without knowing?

How will she ever meet anyone else and not wish it was just Kendra? That didn't seem like a possiblility.

How was Alyssa ever going to move away for college when Kendra would always be right here, in Rochester?

How  would she ever go somewhere where she couldn't run to come visit Kendra  when her day got rough or some customer yelled at her or Emma was  causing drama again or when the loneliness and guilt and grief got so  heavy Alyssa felt like she was the one with six feet of compressed dirt  sitting on her chest?

How? There was no answer except that this fucking sucked. There were never any answers.

Why did Kendra have to go? Why did she have to die? Why didn't they ever get to say goodbye?

Why wasn't Kendra right here, right now?

Why wasn't Kendra wiping away her tears and hugging her till her bones were crushed?

Why couldn't it have been Alyssa?

Why, God?

Why?

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the end