the well- trixya

thirteen- end

Trixie fell in and out of living over the course of the night. Her heart stopped three times within three hours, so the doctors decided it would be best to put her on life support. Mrs. Mattel came to the hospital later, and decided there was no point to holding onto something that was already gone. Trixie was in inconceivable amounts of pain. Keeping her alive was selfish.

Early the next morning, she was pulled off of life support. Katya was told to leave the ward, as Trixie's mother requested she do so. Trixie gasped for breath, looking around frantically for a few moments as she passed. She finally relaxed into her mother's arms, feeling a tear fall down her cheek as she did so. She lived for ten minutes. The doctors still weren't sure of why she died and why Katya lived. Among themselves, they called it a miracle.

"Katya and Mrs. Zamolodchikova," Brooke Lynn said, walking into the public lobby/waiting room. "She's gone. I am so sorry for your loss."

Katya sat in the waiting room with her mother, who cradled her as she sobbed for hours. She cried until the tears stopped falling from her eyes, and even then she kept crying. She drove herself to vomiting twice, and Brooke Lynn offered for her to be admitted to be given anti-anxiety medication, which her mother agreed to. She was in the hospital overnight in an entirely different ward of the hospital. The psych ward.

She wasn't allowed to see Trixie before or after she passed. Mrs. Mattel made sure of that. In her eyes, it was partially Katya's fault that her daughter died. Had she not been driving, she wouldn't have been in an accident. That's why at the funeral, Katya and her mother were forced to stand beside everyone else.

Katya's mind was overrun with toxic thoughts. She couldn't help but imagine ending her life, as that is what she said she would do if Trixie wasn't around anymore. She stood, silently weeping throughout the funeral. She did not talk to her mother or anyone else. She was a hollow statue, filled with nothing but the air surrounding her.

"I miss her," Katya whispered once the service concluded.

Katya's mother wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulder and squeezed it. "I know you do."

The service was being held in a large garden behind a church. It was filled with flowers and a few gazebos. Past the crowds of people, there was a white one surrounded by flowers of all different colors. Without saying anything more to her mother, she broke free from the embrace and walked towards it, her black skirt caressing the grass beneath her.

She sat in the gazebo for a while, listening to the people from a distance. She could hear a few people crying and could see red, blotchy faces attached to men, women, and children dressed in all black. Trixie would've preferred pink.

Katya sat and listened to the sounds of nature, holding out her hand. She hoped some type of bird or insect would come caress her, guide her and give her purpose. She wished for an angel.

She thought of a time when her great uncle died. She was in a garden similar to this one and sat beside her cousin. They were playing by a well, and Katya kept wishing for him to come back and for her mother and father to be happy.

"You don't throw wishes to the well, Kat," her cousin said. "You've gotta hold onto them and make them happen."

Like a whisper from Trixie herself, a butterfly perched itself on Katya's finger. Though it took her by surprise, she remained still. She didn't want to scare it away. It stayed there on her finger for a few minutes, reminding her to find peace in a crowded room. To find the light when surrounded by darkness. To find hope in despair. To find happiness in everything. And, in that moment, Katya knew she needed to continue living. She knew that ending her life is not what Trixie would have wanted. She knew that, like a butterfly, she would blossom into something beautiful. She needed to. Katya needed to be strong where she was once weak, quick where she was once slow, and happy where she was once sad. Trixie only wanted her to be happy. She wanted Katya to live the life she had been hiding from for so long.

As the butterfly flew away, she knew exactly what she was made for. She knew just how she was meant to exist in the world, and that was as a beacon. A beacon for everyone else who found themselves surrounded by misery. A beacon for resilience.

She had always been a beacon. She had always been a star. But now, she would shine with purpose. She would shine for Trixie.

——-
the end.
well; basically everyone hated this story. that's alright. i had a fun time writing it, and i perfect this ending. it provides more closure and was what i originally set out to do, but after everyone said that didn't want Trixie to die, i provided an earlier out.
thank you so much for enjoying this story if you did. i had a lot of fun writing it, and im so grateful for all the support. thank you endlessly💕