Chapter 13: Epilogue

One long year had passed since the competition at the mansion had been finished. Today in the City of Townsville was normal. Buttercup woke up, looking at the time on the alarm clock. At the estimate of nine o'clock in the morning, she just climbed out of bed, yawning. There were two newspaper article clippings taped onto the mirror on her dresser, one clipping that was dated to a year ago; "Fifteen miles of forest burnt down. Arsonist not found." The other newspaper clip was dated to only a week after the first clipping was dated; "Old person found dead in Citiesville motel due to suicide." Buttercup viewed both articles every morning with a sigh at the memories, knowing that the suicide news related directly to Francis.

Buttercup had a bag packed nearby that had various items prepared within it for a camping trip. She picked up the bag and threw it on her back. She then made her way downstairs, where her sisters were doing the usual enjoying breakfast. "Oh morning, Buttercup. Where are you going? We don't have school today," Blossom asked, noticing the bag on her back. Normally Buttercup slept in on days when they were free. "I'm going camping. I'll see you tomorrow," Buttercup answered. Bubbles gave her a small wave, watching Buttercup fly out the door, leaving a green trail of light, the same that she always had forming behind her.

In Citiesville, Butch was watching television on the couch. So far, everything had been as normal as he expected after he had returned from the contest. Throughout the year, his brothers had went to three different mansions to try and get treasure. All were just wastes of time, but he did enjoy when they first started looking like idiots. A knocking sound came from the door. "Hey Butch, it's the puff," Boomer called out. Butch got up from the couch, going to the door and grabbing a bag of equipment along the way. "I'm gonna go hang out with her. See ya," Butch bid him farewell before heading outside. Brick and Boomer knew about his relationship with Buttercup so far, but her sisters didn't. Buttercup had no intention on sharing it yet.

"Hey. You ready to go?" Buttercup questioned. "Yeah, a fun little camping trip…" Butch responded unenthusiastically. The two had taken up camping as a fun hobby to help get over the trauma they had went through back at the now lost mansion. The two of them flew off to the sky, leaving green streaks of light in their wake, though Butch didn't want to admit it to her that he still had nightmares and memories of when he was a monster, being able to see what he was doing without being in control of his actions. That was the worst part about that whole competition for him. He was just glad to know that it was over. Mr Francis was dead, and the two were the only ones who knew about what happened in those forests, and they had no intentions of reliving them. Not now, not ever.

End of Epilogue

Authors notes: Thank you all for reading!

Proofreaded by: The-irish-clover of deviantart!

Story cover by: Pk-majyyks of deviantart!