Riverdale: The Lost Soul

The cemetery

Around 6:30 in the morning, Ivy and Sebastian were wide awake, as it was their routine now to wake up extra early.
They sat at the breakfast table.
"You sleep well?" he asked her.
Ivy needed time to think about her answer. She hadn't slept at all, but she didn't want him to worry.
"I slept fine, what about you?" she eventually responded.
"Florian kept rolling around, so, I guess, not fine, but at least not bad."
Sebastian took a sip from his coffee and went through his blonde hair with his hand.
The front door opened and Florian entered the house, in t-shirt and shorts, still half asleep.
"Here you are, I was looking for you!" Florian muttered.
he kissed Sebastian on the cheek and greeted him with a good morning.
"Morning, Ivy, is there coffee? I could use some." Florian continued mumbling.
"The pot's over there." Ivy pointed at the kitchen counter.
"Great."

"Hey, Ives, I've been meaning to ask you something." Sebastian continued the conversation they had.
"Fire away." Ivy said.
"Are you... okay? Like, okay okay? After everything that's happened last Summer?"
Ivy had been waiting for this, the question. She had prepared an answer in her head for weeks on end,  but now it was gone. She didn't know what to say.
"Why are you asking me? I should be asking you." Ivy fired back. Sebastian had been through much worse.
"You lost your sister, Florian was almost shot and to top it of, you were traumatised by all of that."
Sebastian sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hands.
"Alice is dead. There's nothing I can do about that."
Ivy felt immediately guilty about bringing it up.
"But your sister, is still alive, locked up, but still fucking alive. That must hurt even more, I would think."
Florian stopped them before they could go any further.
"Guys, I don't know about you,  but I came here to enjoy Easter break with you all, not to dig up memories from last Summer."
They both apologised and continued eating breakfast.

Later that day, the gang took a stroll down Sweetwater River.
"I had forgotten how beautiful this place actually is." Rebel said, taking in all the fresh air that surrounded the river.
"Dad used to take us here, remember that?" Florian said to his sister and she remembered it like it was yesterday.
"Yeah, I pushed you in when we were 7." Aurelia laughed and Ivy joined her.
"I remember that, you came home all wet and shaking, Aurelia told me she had defeated Florian the Brave, who claimed he wasn't afraid of anything."
The entire gang laughed, even Florian.

Ending their walk at Pops, they ordered milkshakes and fries and sat at their signature booth.
Pop made very clear that this one was on the house, he had missed them, very much.
"I was thinking..." Rebel started. "Maybe we can go to the cemetery? If you guys don't want to that's completely fine."
Ivy nodded at her request. "I'm coming with you, there's another person who I need to talk to."

The cemetery was exactly the way Ivy remembered it, cold, empty, and it gave you a feeling of extreme loneliness.
Rebel and Ivy walked down the cemetery, scanning all the graves, looking for the ones they wanted to see.
Rebel stopped in front of a grey gravestone, decorated with small roses graved into the stone.
Ben's grave was very new in comparison with the others surrounding it.
Rebel sat down in front of it and stared at the stone, as if she hoped that somehow, Ben would come back to life. She didn't speak, she just stared.
Ivy couldn't stay there, the memories were to painful, so she walked away.
She could hear Ben's words to her as she walked on.

"I..I..I'm gonna die, aren't I?"

He saved her from getting killed herself, a debt she knew she could never repay.
Ivy reached the grave of Alice Sub, stared at it for a while, but couldn't stay much longer either.
It was only in this moment that Ivy realised she had a long way to go before being completely over what had happened.
She walked on once again, leaving the two fallen victims behind, and she was finally at the grave she had to talk to. Her grandfather.

FP senior had died 5 months prior in a motorcycle accident. Ivy couldn't be at the funeral.
She sat down in front of the gravestone and placed her hand on the dirt in front of it.
"I'm sorry, grandpa, I really am... I should have been here for you, but..." she felt like crying, "I wasn't... I hope you can forgive me."
Ivy got up and wiped her tears away.
She walked back to Rebel and they hugged each other.

Death is a cruel thing, especially if you consider, in the end, it takes everyone you hold dear, it takes us all.
Ask yourself one question,
If it takes us all in the end, why be saddened by it?
One can only wonder.