John and Bella FINAL (Part 2 of 2) By SubSmoke606
You are Bella. A couple of weeks ago, your uncle Kori surprised you while you were in your safe room. At first, you were so excited to see him. He helped you get better, and introduced you to your bestest special friend Blueberry. You couldn’t wait for him to see your new family, but then… He took your shimmering baby. Your littlest one, the one that needed you the most! You tried to talk to him and be reasonable, but you could still hear his cold, hateful voice echoing in your head.
“This is my baby now. I’m taking it.”
It cuts deeper and deeper in your heart each time you think about it. Your daddy came in crying after Kori left, saying he was a monster and he did everything he could to stop him. It was nice to have your daddy there, holding you and what was left of your family close, but it didn’t help. You felt a little tick in your thinkie place and nothing was the same after that.
That was a couple of weeks ago, and since then you haven’t done much. Your babies, Trip and Sweetheart, are big babies now and don’t even need your milkies anymore. It makes you happy that they’re so big and strong, but you’re sad because it feels like they don’t even need you anymore. They’re big enough to play by themselves, they make good poopies, daddy even taught them how to work the FluffTV! It was special watching them grow up, and you loved every minute of it. But it gave you the worstest heart hurties ever. Soon enough, they wouldn’t even be big babies. You cried a lot about it, at first just little sniffles when no one was watching. But as time went on, and the heart hurties got even bigger, you couldn’t hide the sad wawa anymore.
Daddy, Blueberry and even your babies began to notice you weren’t acting like yourself anymore. They would all make sure you got the best hugs, you all had skettie more often, daddy even got you your own little wagon so we could all go on walks together. It was so nice of all of them, and you did appreciate it all. But… it didn’t help. It didn’t make you feel any less useless or pitiful, and most of all: none of it brought your littlest baby back.
Every night, you had dreams of her. Scary, sad, confusing dreams that often times woke you (and the rest of the house) up because you’d start screaming and sometimes even make bad poopies or peepee’s. You could tell it mad daddy so mad, but he never once gave you the sorry stick or sorry box for it. Daddy seemed mad a lot of the time since your baby left. You never asked him why, you just really hoped he didn’t blame you.
Eventually, it became a bit more serious than making lots of sad wawa and having scary sleepy pictures. About a week after Kori took the shimmering baby, your eating slowed. Even though daddy started giving the family more and more skettie, it just wasn’t the same. It always reminded you of your last day with your littlest baby, and how the last milkies you gave her were skettie milkies. You don’t know where she is, but around dinner time you always caught yourself wondering that more intensely than usual. You wondered if she had a new mom and dad, if meanie Kori was her daddy, if she got good nummies. Maybe it was bad, though. Maybe Kori nummed her, or gave her to a munstah daddy like you used to have. It all just gave you such big heart hurties, you couldn’t eat. Not even if you wanted too.
Another week went by, you’ve ate maybe a bite of food each day. You don’t know it, but today’s Saturday. It’s very early in the morning, and the big, bright sun is waking up from its sleep and welcoming the outside with its warming hug. Some light kissed its way in through the blinds and dripped onto your face. You stare outside at the brand new day.
You think of your first memory. How painful, how horrible and tragic your life was. You remember meeting John, your daddy, and how he saved you from all of it. He saved you from yourself, and exorcised the ghost that was your past hanging over you like a dirty dish cloth. Love fills your tiny heart as you reflect on how thankful you are for him.
You look over from the window to see your still sleeping special friend. The fluffy who showed you that love not only is real, but that you were so deserving of it. How he looked past your horn and your wings, your scars from abuse and trauma, even your lack of legs and halfway decent colors. He loved you for everything you were and didn’t care about the things you weren’t.
And your babies. Your two, beautiful, strong babies. Trip was so full of life and energy, and so silly like his father. You knew he himself would be a great daddy some day. And little Sweetheart. So soft and gentle, so timid and shy. You saw so much of yourself in her. Her fluff may not bring in lots of attention, but it always reminded you of the pretty tree places you’d see in your picture books.
You loved them both endlessly. You knew that love would never go away, no matter where you were. You had all this love in your heart, so much contentment. It was beautiful. But the heart hurties made you weak. You took one last look at your herd, and shifted your gaze back to the window as you carefully let life shut your tired, sleepy eyes.
“Goodbai babbehs. Mummah wub ou. Mummah nebah weawwy gone.” You said, patiently as you let out your final breath.
Peace blanketed your limp body as you finally laid to rest.
You cannot he hurt anymore, sweet Bella.
John found Bella later that morning. Luckily, before Blueberry and the foals woke up. It was still early and relatively cool outside. He carefully lifted her up and held her close to his chest, cradling her like a newborn. She looked so calm and at peace, actually have a small grin on her face. He took her outside and dug her a shallow grave, marked with a flat, thin piece of wood, with engraving that said:
“Here lies our sweet Bella. Loving mother, special friend, and bestest fluffy.”
He stood in silence over the grave, reflecting on the time he spent with her. Eventually, he broke down on his knees and let out a heavy sob.
John was so broken before he had Bella. So unable to do even basic, day to day adult tasks. Everyone who loved him had to leave him for their own well being. There was no sense in being close to someone who was so stagnant.
But Bella gave him a purpose. Much more than that, she loved him so unconditionally at a time when his own mother could barely stand to give him the time of day. As cheesy as it sounds, John realized then and there that he never saved Bella, it was quite the opposite. Bella had indeed saved John.
After breakfast, John had sat blueberry and the foals down to break the news. The foals took it so hard, they were far too young to lose their mother. Blueberry, while sad and teary eyed, knew this was coming.
“Su, Mummah am nebah comin’ back?” Asked sweetheart with a lake of tears in her eyes.
“I’m afraid so, darling. I’m afraid so.” Said John, lifting her up for a hug. This turned into one huge fluff pile, until the foals cried themselves to sleep. Once fully asleep, John nudged Blueberry.
“Hey, come with me out back. I need to show you something.”
John led Blueberry outside to Bella’s grave.
“Whu am dis daddeh?” He inquired, sitting on his haunches and looking up at John.
“This is where Bella is forever sleepies. This is where we can say goodbye, or tell her we miss her. Because it’s okay to be sad, buddy. We can miss her every day, and that’s okay.” Said John, getting on one knee and scratching Blueberry’s mane.
“She was very special to us, wasn’t she bud?”
“Yus daddeh.” Said blueberry, now sniffling and crying some.
“Bewwa am bestest mummah an speciaw fwend. Wub Bewwa fowebah.” Said blueberry, now in a full on sob.
“I’ll give you some time to say goodbye, buddy.” Said John, getting up and taking a few steps back.
Blueberry sniffled and wiped his eyes with his hooves and took a step or two closer to the grave. He tried to read the carving on the wood, but couldn’t really make out what any of it said. He took a deep breath, thinking long and hard about his goodbye.
“Bewwa, hewwo? Am speciaw fwend, Bwuebewwy. Bwuebewwy jus wan teww Bewwa dat Bwuebewwy am gon miss ‘ou, buh pweese nu be scawdies! Bwuebewwy am gon be otay, and take bestest cawe of Twip an Sweetheawt. Wub ‘ou, bestest speciaw fwend.” Said blueberry, tears now unashamedly flowing down and staining his bright green cheeks.
“That was very beautiful, buddy.” Said John, lowering down to scratch the little guys mane.
“Let’s go back inside, we can watch cartoons.” Said John, getting up and preparing to leave.
“You coming?” He asked.
“Yus buh daddeh? Bwuebewwy hab qwestion.”
“What’s up bud?”
“Dis am… Not da ‘end’ wite?” Asked blueberry, some worry in his face.
John looked around. The sun was fully up now, and the weather was still surprisingly nice. He could hear grasshoppers jumping and the neighborhood sprinklers singing with all the local birds and squirrels.
“No, buddy. It’s not. Let’s go inside.”
THE END