Our Alternate Ending | | A Pokemon Adventure

Chapter 39- When Things Fall Down

I was going to wake them, I really was. I was going to tell them, in person, for that matter. But something stopped me. My eyes flitted to Elaina and I recalled our conversation the night before, afore we continued to bed.

"I need to tell Serena. I can't hold onto it much longer. I'm just so guilty." I had said, having no one els to talk to about my dilemma.

"Tell her what?"

"That I voted for Aria in the finals and not her." It had been weighing on my shoulders like bricks, stacking up each time she smiled at me.

"You can't do that! It'll break her heart!" She was right, it would do just that. But I hated how Serena was so happy, grinning so carelessly at me, knowing she was unaware.

"I know but I... I..."

"You can't! I can't see her go through that! You two have so much already, don't break it. If you do I... I could do something I regret." She looked ashamed and I confused. I was going to ask what she had meant by that, but Serena arrived.

Maybe...Serena never had to know.

If I left, she could be happily heedless and I, rid of much guilt.

Then my gaze fell upon the honey blonde herself. Sleeping in complete obliviousness. I always thought that would be me, the one still unaware. The one that didn't know how others felt. I guess, sometimes the universe does funny things and switches people around.

She was so amazing, and without my help, at that. Serena didn't need me to accomplish her dream, that she had proven already. Heck, she didn't even need my vote. Possibly, she'd be better off without me. No distractions. She'd be truly incredible.

Call me cowardly, call me craven. But I couldn't wake them; I couldn't disturb them. What if they pleaded to come with me? I'd be too weak to say no. How could you expect a bush to reject its own flowers? A table its own legs?

And I simply couldn't tear them away from the place they belonged. They had so much they needed in Kalos. So much more than me. And it would be no less than selfish to drag them down alongside myself.

Look where selfishness got me last time.

So I left, without much more than a note explaining my disappearance. And a peck on Serena's ever-blushing cheek.

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Serena's POV:

I had slept well that night. Very well in fact, to where I only awoke as the sun was creeping up towards noon. We had indeed been catching up on lack of sleep over the past two nights, but that was besides the point.

My eyes fluttered open to a tent dripping with sunlight, beams passing through every small crevasse between stitches. I blinked a few times to rid myself of the slight sting that comes along with sudden light changes. Sitting up, mildly slumped, I found myself staring at a folded piece of paper at the end of my sleeping bag. With a bubbling curiosity, I took it in my grasp only to find it creased with celerity written words.

Dear Elaina, Gary and Serena...

I re-read the letter five times. Each repeat drawing another silent tear to my waterline. Each digging the knife a little further into my chest.

My mother was in an accident last night...

I didn't sob or wail or whimper. Because in all fairness, I should have known this day would come.