Alternate Endings

The Giver

A/N: This was an assignment I had to write and I'm going to use it, just to start the story off. So, hope you enjoy it. :) Now... read!

All the snow swirling around Jonas blurred his vision, and the strong cold wind was making it hard to breathe. Still, he had to do this for Gabe. Getting Gabe to Elsewhere safely and unharmed was all that mattered to him. With a few more staggering steps, Jonas had reached the top. His chest filled with victory and pride. He could see lights, hear music and smell a very, very faint smell of food from the distance. But his feelings of pride and victory were quickly replaced by feelings of fear and desperation. There was nothing to let him go down the hill safely. If he walked, he would slip and break a bone as the steep hillside was covered in ice and very little snow. But he would have to try, for Gabriel's sake as the infant would soon start to cry from the cold.

The first few steps down the icy hillside were not too difficult. But the walking down the rest of the hillside was easier said than done. Halfway down, after losing his footing he slipped on the ice and landed hard on the ice his skull making a barely audible cracking noise. He screamed out in pain, his blood dripping onto the white ground. To make it worse, Gabriel started to cry. Jonas tried his best to grasp onto any warm and happy memory, but the pain from his head wound stopped any happy memories from coming to his mind. He rolled onto his back, hugging Gabriel to his chest trying to get the both of them as warm as possible. The snow storm had weakened, but it was still going strong.

This is it, He thought. This is how I'm going to die. And because of me, Gabriel is going to die a worse death than the releasing. At least with the release there would have been less pain. I took him with me when I wasn't even sure I was going to make it to Elsewhere alive and I brought Gabe into this mess. Why couldn't I have left him in my house? Why coul- and before he could finish his thought, everything just went black; the only motion was Gabe's crying body squirming in Jonas' now lifeless grip.