A/N: So this is it. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who read any part of this story, to everyone that reviewed, especially to Ember91 whose comments always served to encourage me to continue on and write more, this chapter is dedicated to you. Sorry to say, there won't be any dialogue in this chapter, but at the end I promise a song list for all of the chapters, and the full lyrics to the song that the story name is from, at the very least read the bolded bit which explains the title choice.
I had a few comments about Bethany 'almost dying' and I'd like to explain why I killed her:
No one had ever killed their OC before [that I have read in Sky High, I wanted to be original.
To make sure she wouldn't be a Mary Sue.
I need it for characterization. I wanted to show she had restraint, and backbone. Their relationship is the one where it's kind of strange magnetism where in a different time and place it would have worked out but not in this reality. They tried to fight for it in their own ways and lost. It's tragic and that's life.
Chapter 10. The Epitaph, the End.
It would have been a perfect day in Bethany's opinion. She didn't like it when it was too sunny, the brightness was always welcome, but the heat felt smothering to her and made her nauseous. Today the sky was lit up, bright blue with a few wisps of cloud painted across the horizon. A light breeze provided a welcome cool sensation to the people gathered. It shook the leaves and waved the grass. Made the proceedings easier to sit through, for most people at least.
The young pyrokonetic felt very uncomfortable. He was facing a torrent of emotions and couldn't decide which one should be left to take control. First he was angry. He was angry that she'd been stupid enough to stand there, he couldn't understand why she didn't move. He was fairly sure that if he had been the one had been hit, he wouldn't not be in some penguin suit standing in a cemetery right now.
He was angry that Patrick had not gotten a triple life sentence, like his father had. Even though, his father was a far better person – and that was a hard thing for him to admit – because he had never attacked an unsuspecting individual.
He was angry at the school that knew nothing about the girl they were mourning for. He was furious that they were talking about her with general over statements that did nothing to communicate her persona; rather they had turned her funeral into some sort of media PR event to convey the hard line a hero must walk and the sacrifices they must make. They had turned her into the hero she didn't want to be, the martyr for a cause he wasn't sure if she believed in. After all, she had mentioned something about teaching once.
This whole thing was a farce, at the wake he had walked up to her coffin for the sole purpose of making sure she really was dead. Her body looked so alive.
He was angry at himself. He was angry that during the service he had sat next to his girlfriend, who sobbed incoherently. He was angry that he had held her while she cried because not 20 feet forward they were burying one of her life long friends. He was angry because the ceremony was supposed to honour her, and he wasn't honouring her by holding the girl that was the reason they were kept apart. But she had given her life so he could still have his. She wouldn't resent him for living it.
If he had chosen differently would things still be like this? It changes when you change. That's what she had told him.
He was a bit bitter, because he wanted to wish he had chosen differently, but consoling the blonde haired girl he knew he couldn't.
The blonde cryokinetic was sobbing loudly and crying, unknowingly into the tuxedo jacket of Barron Battle that had been handed down to his son. She was drowning herself in her grief and the big gulps of air she was taking were not helping to clear her head. Actually they were, but what she needed was to clear her heart. She would not realise this till later that day when she began to comprehend what her now late best friend had felt for her present boyfriend.
Two seats from the element couple sat another dark haired girl. She was crying as well but had her head bowed and maintained a constant motion of dabbing at her eyes to prevent the tears from overcoming her face. She had more composure than Katie, she thought. Emily was not one to give herself to her emotions, not publicly at least - which is why she persuaded Will to keep up his relationship with Layla for months after they had begun their secret affair. She was currently experiencing regret and remorse. Emily had not meant to push Bethany away. She didn't even want to in the beginning. It had nothing to do with Bethany having he vision about Katie getting hurt during the plane attack at the airport, absolutely nothing. But that night, when she was creeping around at night, and Emily saw her see her and Will. Well, it was a big problem at the time. She could approach her because she didn't wish to bring the topic out for discussion, or confirm what she may or may not have saw, and with Katie in the hospital it was the perfect opportunity for her to feign anger and push her and her prying eyes away. She didn't mean to throw away a childhood friendship, not for a guy, even if he happened to be Will Stronghold. She didn't mean for it all to end like this. She thought they would have more time, to reconcile and explain. She thought everything would be okay when her and Will had finally come out, and Katie had woken up, but she had been so pre-occupied with everything in her life – her life that she was still living – that time had run out.
To the side of Emily sat young Will Stronghold. He too felt constricted as he saw the cherrywood box containing the young girl lay on the grass ahead. He felt that maybe he had set a bad example. He wouldn't voice this opinion, not even to Emily to whom he now felt a stronger pull too because time was so fleeting. He believed that his relationship with Emily had set a bad example. Perhaps this had served as justification for Warren, who had admitted a few weeks prior that something was developing between him and the late psychic. Perhaps if Will hadn't set the standard of cheating boyfriend Warren wouldn't have felt it acceptable to encourage that kind of relationship with Bethany, and she would still be alive today. Will was always eager to blame himself for the shortcomings of the world around him. This would make him a compassionate individual, a passionate hero, and a weary man later in life. If he had gotten anything else from this it was that he should make amends with Layla. Before it was too late for them like it was too late for Emily and Bethany.
Speaking of Layla, she was sitting in the row ahead of the two couples. Unlike the females prior mentioned she was not with her boyfriend, she didn't have one. But the feminist advocate felt that she didn't need a man to clutch onto to be able to express her grief. And grief she had, with a heavy dose of guilt. It was her firm belief that she had been misguided when she had approached Bethany in the hospital. While her intentions may have been noble and clear, something in her tone or word choice may have set the Bethany off on the path that caused to no longer be with them today. Maybe she felt like Layla, like everyone, had been blaming her. That bullet had been her redemption. Whatever the reason, Layla felt she should have just minded her own business. She was just lashing out at Bethany because she had recently found out that Bethany had known about Will and Emily the whole time. Today she wasn't angry. Not even a little bit, not even at all.
In the same row as Layla, at the very edge, her seat bordering the aisle seat sat Principal Powers. She felt regret that she had not taken the time to know this student. She looked through her permanent record first thing that morning, of course she knew nothing about her, the girl's record was squeaky clean. Even though, for the last few years she had been the one escorting her to the detention room to write all her exams she was pressed to remember her face. Unbeknownst to all, in the top drawer of her desk in her office at Sky High she had a compartment that would come loose. In it were the photos of every student who had every fallen during duty, and Bethany's photo would soon be at the top of that pile. She would be the first student to have died during the petty villain assignment. This would mean some serious policy changes.
In the very first row sat Bethany's mother and father. Bethany's father was wishing that for all the cherished time he had spent with her, she had not moved in with him because then she would still be alive. Bethany's mother wished Bethany would have come back to California with her. More than that, she wished that she had never left, and that she hadn't wasted years alienating herself from her daughter.
The music began to play louder and everyone waited while the coffin was lowered into the ground. Family members came up and shovelled the first mounds of dirt on top of the coffin, and then people were allowed to come and pay their last respects with tokens of love.
Layla Williams fist closed walked up and gently tossed six seeds into the hole. As they descended they elongated into six long stemmed red roses. One for forgiveness, regret, remembrance, friendship, pain, and redemption.
Warren Peace walked up and threw in a small vial containing disposable sutures that she had once packaged for him.
When it was all over the continued to pack the dirt and it seemed poignant to the pyrokinetic how this was drawn out to prolong her life, to cling on to her memory.
He gave his girlfriend's hand a gentle squeeze and sidestepped to the aisle where he briskly walked out of the cemetery. He began to loosen his tie as he thought of the kind of trouble he would have to get into to get locked in a cell with a petty criminal named Patrick.
His finals thoughts as he left were that she had to have seen it end like this. She had too. Maybe she was the hero they were making her out to be, he thought. It couldn't just be about tight spandex and catchy sayings, it was about knowing the consequences and still making the sacrifices. She would have known the consequences best of all.
Rest In Peace
1989 – 2007
Bethany Kerwin
Beloved Daughter; Trusted Protector
Γιαναδεικαιναολοκληρώσει
The End.
A/N: The inscription is Greek it means "In order to it sees and it completes" – I thought it was fitting. And that my friends, was it! I hope you enjoyed it, I did. I'm pretty proud right now because this is the first multi-chapter story I've completed. It's been pretty monumental, and has for me, marked off a great beginning to a literary 2008.
Disclaimer I do no own Sky High, Imogen Heap, of any of the bands listed below.
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek
where are we?
what the hell is going on?
the dust has only just begun to fall
crop circles in the carpet
sinking feeling
spin me round again
and rub my eyes,this can't be happening
when busy streets a mess with people
would stop to hold their heads - heavy
hide and seek
trains and sewing machines
all those years
they were here first
oily marks appear on walls
where pleasure moments hung before the takeover,
the sweeping insensitivity of this still life
hide and seek
trains and sewing machines (oh, you won't catch me around here)blood and tears (hearts)they were here first
Mmmm whacha say,
Mmmm that you only meant well?
well of course you did
Mmmm whacha say,Mmmm that its all for the best?
Because it is
Mmmm whacha say?
Mmmm that it's just what we need
you decided this
whacha say?
Mmmm what did she say?
ransom notes keep falling out your mouthmid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut outs
speak no feeling no i don't believe you
you don't care a bit, you don't care a bit(hide and seek)ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut outs(hide and seek)speak no feeling no i don't believe you
you don't care a bit,you don't care a (you don't care a) bit(hide and seek)oh no, you don't care a bit
oh no, you don't care a bit x2
Chapter Playlist.
Chapter 1. Count Yourself In – 10 Second Epic
Chapter 2. Strange and Beautiful – Aqualung
Chapter 3. The Music – David Usher
Chapter 4. Let It Die - Feist
Chapter 5. Hey There Delilah – Plain White T's
Chapter 6. I'll Keep Your Memory Vague – Finger Eleven
Chapter 9. Say The Word – The Classic Crime