Chapter Text
It felt unreal that tomorrow was Sunny's last day. Everything over these past three days had been so wonderful, it felt like Sunny was a kid again. Just, he and his friends altogether. Even if it was for a bit, Sunny for one moment felt carefree. Happy - almost. He didn't deserve to be happy, not for what he did. He looked around at his friends one last time. He never deserved them, after the pain that he made them feel. At least, he and Kel was able to bring them back together somehow.
Hero, he was always dependable.
Kel, a ray of sunshine who brightened everyone's day.
Aubrey, a bit difficult now, but Sunny was sure she was still a good person on the inside.
He'd really miss them all.
Sunny felt himself getting down again. He had woken up in the middle of the night, all his friends sleeping so peaceful. Sunny was happy they could sleep so well, they deserved peace. Sunny couldn't get himself to sleep just yet. Maybe, it was the adrenaline of moving, for better or worse. Like the night before a field trip, how you can't bring yourself to fall asleep. You just keep thinking about the next day. Sunny hadn't been to school in while, but he could still tell that this feeling was the same. He seemed to be feeling quite nostalgic tonight, yet because of him, things would never be the same again. He could never bask in his younger years to truly reminisce happily. After, Mari was gone, and it was all his fault.
Sunny didn't want to think. He felt himself getting overwhelmed by his feelings. Even if he wasn't quite yet tired, he slammed himself back onto his bed. He was still a coward in the end. Everyone had moved on - even Aubrey managed to come to terms with everything today - yet he was still lingering in his past guilt. He supposed it was reasonable, everyone else was a good person, but he was nothing more than a mistake. If he had never been born, Mari would still be alive, happy with everyone else.
Why did he have to be born? Why couldn't he play better? Why couldn't he just sucked it up and listened to Mari? There were so many things Sunny had done wrong, maybe he should have drowned on that day, it would hurt Mari, but at least she'd still be alive. Sunny felt his thoughts spiraling. He tried to calm himself down, taking deep breaths but in the end it was Omori's comfort that let him relax. The physical tension within Sunny leased as he surrendered himself to Omori, and slowly, he drifted to sleep in Faraway Town for one last time.
Or, at least that's what he thought would happen. He truly hoped so. Sunny found himself once again, awake in the middle of the night. He supposed moving truly had made him anxious. He blinked his eyes open and his vision began to settle. He cracked his back as it felt a bit uncomfortable and rolled to face the other side, as one does once they awaken from a midnight slumber. Sunny turned, but his friend's weren't there. He found it odd, it was awfully silent as well. Sunny looked down at himself, it was dark, but he could tell he was still Sunny. This wasn't his dream world.
Sunny sat up from his bed and looked around. Truly the living room seemed empty. Maybe his friends had gone home? But it was still night, they couldn't have gone home. Or, maybe they did and he had slept through the entire day? No, his mom would definitely come pick him up. It wouldn't be hard for his mom to visit Kel next door and find out he was at Basil house. Just in case, to confirm he hadn't slept the whole day, he peeked outside Basil's window. His mom's car wasn't outside. They might have just moved to a different room, to avoid him. Understandably. They didn't know what he had done, but Sunny was sure he was an unlikeable person either way.
No. They promised they'd always be there for you, stop jumping to conclusions. Sunny shook his thoughts off.
Sunny moved to the back of Basil's house, the only place left to check. In the silence of the night, the creek the door made as Sunny pushed it open seemed so loud.
Sunny internally sighed of relief when he saw all his friends in the hallway, they hadn't abandoned him. Yet, the room seemed so tense and Hero and Kel drifted their eyes towards Sunny having heard the sound of the door. Aubrey was on the floor, so distraught. Something had gone horribly wrong.
"Please... Sunny. You shouldn't be seeing this," Hero barely choked out. Sunny had never seen Hero look so upset. Kel had told him about what Hero had become like after Mari died, but Sunny felt so disconnected from it. Now, he could clearly see the hurt in Hero's eyes. The same hurt he had caused. Hero continued speaking, "You're supposed to be moving out today... On your way to a fresh new start. We'll take care of everything here. Go on ahead... We'll be okay. I think..."
Sunny still had no clue what was happening. Hero hadn't told him anything, the air was so tense he didn't want to disturb anyone else, yet he still had no grasp on what had occurred.
"I'm so sorry, Basil. Please forgive me..." Aubrey sobbed.
"Why, Basil...? Why did you do it?" Kel said hoarsely.
Sunny had never seen Kel or Aubrey like this. Both of them were always so high spirited, that's why they always bumped head. Aubrey had changed, Sunny had seen that, but Aubrey wasn't an openly sad person. She would keep it all inside until it exploded, and right now it seemed like the fuse had been lit. And Kel, Kel truly had never been down. Even when he was sad he would joke, he would find ways to cheer himself up, but Kel had now completely surrendered to despair. Even when Mari died, he was able to find happiness in his life, he was able to be okay. What had happened? What happened to Basil?
Sunny looked over to Polly, he approached her and looked up feeling a mixture of expectancy and panic, yet not quite anxious yet not anticipation either.
"Why am I so useless?" She muttered. She noticed Sunny and looked down at him. She bit her lip, not realizing that Sunny was there and perhaps that wasn't the best thing for a child to hear. Polly looked to Basil's room, yet she wasn't quite sure if that was the right thing to do. Sunny looked at Basil's door. Hero didn't want him to look, he shook his head no, yet he was so drained and weak he couldn't bring himself to physically stop Sunny from opening it. Sunny's hand trembled on the door, knob as he slowly opened the door.
He wished he hadn't.
It felt just like that day. Why hadn't he learned to stop looking at things he wasn't meant to see?
Basil was there, slumped down and bleeding. Sunny's ears rang at the sight. He didn't want to look. Basil wasn't dead, Basil wasn't dead, Basil wasn't dead. The ringing in his ears continued as his vision began to blur. Kel approached Sunny and wrapped his arms around him as they both sobbed into each others shoulders. It felt good to cry, knowing there was support, but why? Why couldn't Sunny have supported Basil? Nothing would erase this. Sunny knew why Basil was dead now. Sunny knew it was all his fault. First, Mari; now Basil. Sunny had kept taking away important people from his friends.
Sunny could feel SOMETHING. He felt as if Basil's had left to join his, and now his SOMETHING was more tangible and large than ever. Sunny could ignore it before, not anymore. Not even Omori could fix this. Everything had crumbled apart, it was all his fault. It was all his fault. Sunny had thought that so many times tonight, he couldn't shake it. He truly was a blight on the world. He should have been the one dead instead of Basil. Basil never did anything, it was his fault Basil felt guilty in the first place. He had taken two lives from the world, all because he couldn't suck it up and play his violin.
Sunny was horrible, something so small as not being good enough at the violin. He was horrible.
"Sunny..." Kel sniffled. "Why does this keep happening to us?"
Sunny felt himself shattering into pieces, his SOMETHING was tearing him apart. He could feel it forcing his mouth open and moving his tongue around to talk. It was uncomfortable.
"Because of me."
Sunny's friends looked at him. Even as a child, Sunny was quiet, any word he said was a rarity.
"Sunny, you can't blame yourself for what Basil did. He never told us what was wrong. It hurts, but..." Hero tried to reassure.
"I killed Mari, that's why Basil is dead."
"Sunny, I know you were closest to Mari, but you can't blame yourself," Kel's voice sounded slightly how it usually did. It hurt Sunny. It hurt Sunny how Kel could shove it all down to make him happy, he truly never deserved friends like these. "Just like... just like Basil. They were the ones who chose to do that. It... it's not your fault!"
:It's my fault. Mari didn't kill herself, I killed Mari."
"What?" Aubrey said. He couldn't tell what Aubrey was feeling with that "what", probably a mix of things. It was scary, Sunny hated this, yet the SOMETHING still played with his mouth like he was just some kind of puppet. Sunny could feel all his senses muting. It felt just like when he pushed Mari. He wasn't himself, maybe that's why he could say everything. He could even think of Mari with less remorse. Sunny knew he couldn't blame this all on him feeling different. He was still Sunny. Horrible, cowardly, Sunny.
"I killed Mari. Basil helped me frame it as a suicide. He never did anything wrong, he just wanted to help me. That's why..." Sunny stammered as his voice cracked from crying. "That's why they're both dead!" Sunny panted as he forced the final words out of him. The whole room was silent, except for one sound. A heavy breathing. It was choked, fast, repeated, it began to sound more like a gasping, then wheezing. Sunny looked up, it was Hero. Hero was hyperventilating.
"Hero!" Kel ran over to his brother to comfort him. Polly and Aubrey also stumbled weakly to gathered around to try and support Hero.
"Don't worry about me guys," Hero said, his breathing now back to normal. "I think I'm fine... just a bit dizzy." Hero stumbled before grabbing onto the wall. He slumped to the ground, passed out, Kel tried to shake him awake, his eyes peered open a little, but glanced over to Sunny. When he looked at Sunny, his eyes widened, just before he started to hyperventilate, just as he had a few minutes ago. Once again, he was passed out, yet Kel's shaking couldn't wake him.
What had Sunny done? Sunny didn't know how to face it, so he did what he did best, he ran.
He ran out of Basil's house and onto the sidewalk, back towards his home. The sound of sirens passed his ears, yet no matter how far he ran, he could still hear them at the same volume. He had always ran, that's why he was a coward. Either to the dreamworld, or now back to his house. Sunny couldn't face a thing. He was so weak, and all he did was ruin people's lives. Why did he live?
Sunny ran into the comfort of his home and locked the doors. Sirens still rang in his ear. Sunny ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. He went back to his bedroom and took it with him. He laid on his bed and held the knife vertically up from his chest. His hands trembled as he looked at the blade. The knife reflected back himself, the thing he hated the most. Even as he wanted to die, even as his hand shook he couldn't bring him himself to do it. He dropped the knife to his side. Maybe he would roll over it in his sleep.
I guess in the end, I'll always be a coward.
Sunny closed his eyes, and went to sleep. Running, running again from everything.
Welcome to the White Space.
Omori was alone, there were no doors. Just he, his tissue box, his laptop, and his sketchbook. He sat and flipped through the sketchbook one last time. Same as always. He stared at his laptop wallpaper for a bit. He didn't have any tears to wipe, just an emptiness pitting inside of him. He looked up at the lightbulb. It was brighter, or darker he supposed. This was the brightest it had ever shone.
Well, there was only one thing left to do.
As Omori pulled out his knife, the light of the bulb shone into his eye. He covered it and looked at it once again. As he did, the bulb burst. Shards pierced his skin, one much quicker shard burst straight through his stomach. He lay on the floor for a bit more, before Sunny was awake again.
The knife still lay on his bed, but he didn't particularly want to die anymore. The emptiness pit through him, it kind of felt like if he did stab himself nothing would happen. He didn't have the energy to bother trying though. He only got out of bed because he knew his mom would call soon. It was morning, a brand new day, and yet the sound of sirens still rang in his ear.
He went downstairs and saw all the movers shifting boxes around. None of his concern though, all he had to do was go outside as the sirens rang on. They were beginning to give him a headache. He stepped outside and once again, Kel was on his door. Sunny had almost forgotten about last night, but seeing Kel brought all that fear back again. Kel was speaking, Sunny couldn't hear what as the sirens were just much too loud. Kel looked as he was trying to reassure Sunny, so Sunny relaxed a bit. He couldn't hear what Kel said, but he seemed to have this understanding, his body naturally moved and spoke on its own, even if he didn't know what he was saying. Kel smiled at Sunny, one last time and waved goodbye.
Sunny got into the car, and his mom began to drive away. In the backseat right next to him, Mari and Basil, the new SOMETHING was in the passenger seat. The car moved, and the sirens screamed on.