the sylver rose

01 | old friends bid farewell

Forever: For all future time; for always

Bonny POV

It had been three years since Joy got me. What three wonderful years that has been! Most unlike Mr Jones, Joy feeds me daily. No terrapins to mock me. Just it was sort of lonely, I suppose, but Joy made up for it. I could not wish for better!

That was until Joy's father lost his job. Now, I hardly get meals, but Joy is really kind and feeds me all she has (and is suitable for me). Sometimes, I really hate her father for losing his job by driving home late in the night, drunk and got into a car accident, which in turn caused him to lose his job. But still, Joy loves him and anyways, without him I won't be here. This is miles better than the pet shop with Mr Jake. Just thinking about it made me shudder.

"Bye Bonny." I looked up to see Joy smiling down at me, though slightly tiredly, ready to head off to school. She had always been exhausted all this time since her father had lost his job, I had noticed. She has also taken up work outside, which decreased the amount of time I got to spend with her but I valued the time I actually got with her a lot more now. I really wished that I could have a way to talking to her. As it was, I smiled up at her, at least the best I could and watched her head out the door. She hesitated at the door, looked at me reassuringly as she closed the door behind her and I heard the lock snap shut. Silently, I retreated back into my shell and huddled to the corner of my cage, which had gotten much smaller as of late.

Just then, I caught wind of a strange smell. I angled my head toward that direction of the smell and caught a glimpse of a large man lumbering drunkenly around the apartment. Wait, was that Joy's father? Strangely, the smell felt... acidic? I started having difficulty breathing, and wheezed noisily. I hacked and coughed as tears sprung to my eyes and dark blanket of fog covered my cage.

That was the last thing I saw.

Then it all went black, pitch darkness.

I appeared on a street made of cobblestones. It had a fairly antique feel to it, and I was reminded of the time one of Joy's friend went to London and Joy told me all about it. For ages, she had been obsessed with it. In fact, her wish was to go to London when she grew up. I started feeling sad. I had died, I knew, so why was I here? Was I still alive, but dreaming? The reality struck me. I may never see Joy again. My heart grew dreadfully still. How was it that I could just... leave... For some reason, though, I did not cry. I just felt... empty. Hollow. So was this what dying feels like. The feeling that you have left everything you knew, and there was no going back. No way to get back what you had lost. No way to ever see Joy again. I gasped. Never seeing the girl who loved me, who saved me. And she needed me too. Her father. Bits and fragments of the full implications hit me, and my tears started to mist. I shook my head. No, I would not cry! Not now.

To rid myself of those, thoughts, I decided to look around at my surroundings. Shops lined the street, and the most surprising thing that I felt was that the shops were small enough for me to go in comfortably. Or did I get bigger? Animals of all types were milling around, a few cats and rats and horses. I shrunk inside my shell, feeling slightly shy. Why were there so many animals milling around? The last time I had seen so many animals in one place, and that included the pet shop.

Is this pet haven? I thought to myself, looking around. Or was I dreaming? As I stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do or where to go, a large rat, looking and sniffing around, saw me in the shadows and approached me boldly. This rat was about the same size as me! I was surprised. Even though I was a rather small and skinny terrapin, I was larger than the rats at Mr Jake's pet shop. So why was he of my same stature? Maybe when we are in pet heaven, we are the same size. That was a thought, and I knew now for sure that I was in a heaven for animals of some sort.

"Hi, are you a Fresher? C'mon, I'll show you around. My name is Rufus, and I am a Rodent." He introduced himself, seeming very friendly. I followed him after hesitated a while. A Fresher? What was that? A we walked, he explained that I was in Sylver, a place where all pets who had been loved by a child would go after they had died. There were four groups of pets, Hoofs, Felines, Canines and Rodents. Where do I belong? This means I must be dead. I came to the terms that I was well, and truly, well dead. How can I stand not ever seeing Joy again? A wave of homesickness overcame me.

Rufus noticed and patted me gently. In an attempt to cheer me up, he said brightly,"How 'bout I bring you to the waffle place! The waffles there are simply marvelous! Don't worry, what you're feeling is normal. Plus, you can still see your child in the mirrors." He added kindly and continued to explain about how the mirrors worked. Apparently, there was a hall area where you could get a card and insert it into a machine, and we will be able to see our child. So maybe I could see Joy again! Even though she is gone from me, I will still remember her forever.

I sighed. I might as well start enjoying it more now. With that decidedly more cheerful thought, I followed Rufus down the lane. Time for yummy pancakes!

Joy POV

When I got home from another day of school and learning, I was beat. Night by night I had difficulty sleeping, being forced to cope with isomia. That was since dad was drunk and basically abandoned us. I passed a weary arm across my eye to shade it from the sun. As I pushed open the door to home, a horrifying sight appeared before my eyes. The furniture was overturned and Dad was lying on the couch, probably drunk again. I fanned away some smoke and quickly rushed to Bonny's cage. He was the pillar I had come to rely on, and though he did not speak, I knew he understood me and I knew he cared. Whenever I was struggling to sleep at night, haunted by the images of dad, I would talk to him and it always worked.

When I reached the cage, my heart went cold. Bonny was lying still and unmoving at the bottom of the cage. His face was eased into something that could almost be a smile. I cried onto his lifeless body. After a long time weeping, I slowly carried him up. "Oh Bonny, you were my friend. Why did you have to go so soon?" I quickly ran downstairs and dug up a patch of soil, laying him down gently on the patch of earth covered with frost. I could not look. I would not look at Bonny, my companion through all the hard times. I knew that nothing lasted forever, but it broke my heart that Bonny was suddenly and utterly wrenched from me, and I was powerless to it. First my father, then Bonny. Had life decided to hate me?

Just as I was about to go up again to sort out the house, a word carved onto the soil caught my attention.

Twistrose.

The word caught in my heart. For no reason, but it was a perfectly elegant name, the type I liked to pretend with Bonny that it was just me, him and dad, safe and happy again. The rosebush was ahead. As if in a trance, I got up and walked towards it. In the bushes was a hole, that fitted the key perfectly. I wonder? Quickly, I fitted the key into the hole.

There was a shudder.