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It was a quiet autumn evening in Faraway.
Sunny lounged quietly at the end of a wooden dock, resting his back against Mari’s now-empty picnic basket. The rays of the setting sun painted the lake a vivid yellow-orange, the shadows of the trees stretching like long fingers across the water.
Hero and Mari had gone away for a bit, to return some of Hero’s cooking supplies to his house; apparently, he’d found some new grilling recipes yesterday and was dying to try them out, so today they’d gone out by the lake, with utensils, utilities, and ingredients in tow.
(Mari hadn’t wanted to go to the lake, at first-- she’d never really wanted to, after that one time Sunny had nearly drowned-- but then, everyone convinced her it’d be fine. It’s not like they’d go swimming again, like last time. And besides, even she needed to loosen up and stop worrying sometimes, right?)
Hero’s cooking, of course, turned out absolutely perfectly: Mari had laughed when she noticed Sunny staring at the steak on the grill, mouth watering in anticipation. Then, they’d played for hours by the lakeside, with toys and puzzles galore; now, as the day wound down, Sunny found himself at the dock’s edge, the bare soles of his (for once) unsocked feet brushing against the glassy surface of the lake.
At some point, Basil had fallen asleep next to him, resting his head on Sunny’s left shoulder. Taking care not to disturb him, Sunny slowly leaned in and shifted his head to gaze into the waters below.
His imagination filled the reflection in the water with the faint outlines of fantastic constellations in the darkening sky above. Looking past the surface, though, his mind saw nothing but a fathomless black space, deep and intimidating.
His worries bubbled up within him, as if summoned by the abyss at his feet. Foremost among them was, of course, the upcoming recital. No matter how hard he tried, there was always some small part he flubbed, some minor issue with his intonation or a part of the song where his fingers just couldn’t keep up.
Mari always noticed, of course. She always corrected him; always had to get everything perfect, even if it meant working his fingers to the bone and exhausting him after long hours of practice sessions together. Nevertheless, he knew how important this recital was to her-- to both of them-- and so, he kept going.
The sound of an argument floated over from somewhere behind him; it seemed like Kel and Aubrey were going at it yet again.
Sunny quickly tuned them out, slipping back into his thoughts.
He wondered how long he could keep things up. Every time he and Mari practiced, it felt like there was just a bit more taken out of him than he could recover; a slow drain that was grinding his enthusiasm away into nothingness. And of course, no matter how perfectly the rest of the song went, to Mari, there was always that one part that could be better, always a part that needed ‘just a bit more practice, Sunny,’ and then they’d go do the whole thing all over again. It frustrated him.
To Sunny, it was obvious that he’d never be able to hold a candle to his older sister, always perfect, always flawless. But he was at least trying, he was almost perfect, and wasn’t that enough? Why couldn’t Mari see that? He was already giving his all, what more could she want?
He softly sighed to himself. There were still two weeks to the recital. Could he really do this?
Playing the violin had been fun, at first, but now it was--
“Give it back!”
“No, I had it first! Let go-- whoa--!”
Before Sunny could turn around and see what was going on, a pair of bodies stumbled and slammed into him, nearly sending him off the dock.
Catching himself, he whirled around and glared daggers at Kel and Aubrey behind him.
“Ahaha, sorry, Sunny...” mumbled Kel, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.
“Hey, Sunny! Get Kel to give me the ball!”
“No way, I want to try something with it!”
Grumbling, Sunny turned back to Basil. He hoped they didn’t wake him up…
He froze.
Basil wasn’t on the dock anymore.
His eyes caught on a pair of tiny ripples radiating across the surface of the water.
Sunny dived into the lake without a second’s hesitation.
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Basil’s eyes shot open, and saw darkness.
The cold stabbed into his skin; when he tried to scream, it almost flooded his entire being with a deathly, shocking chill, locking his throat up tightly with an iron grip.
He looked up, and saw a faint light.
Formless shadows danced around him, seeming to twist and curl around his legs.
Blind instinct drove him to kick and struggle against them; this only seemed to send him further into the depths.
The surface above, and the shadows around him, grew fainter with each moment.
Basil’s lungs began to burn, sending fresh panic through his veins.
His arms strained for the surface, for something, for anything--
He saw a blurry, black shape above him, silhouetted by the glimmer of light overhead.
An outstretched hand.
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Sunny could barely make out Basil’s form, sinking swiftly below him.
Belatedly, he remembered he didn’t know how to swim, himself-- so instead, he tried to sink faster, arms flailing in the closest approximation to ‘swimming’ he could manage.
As he got close, he reached his hand out towards Basil, hoping that his friend would notice it in the dim underwater light.
He was caught by surprise as Basil caught his arm, the gardener clutching it with a strength Sunny never knew he had. Basil’s nails dug into Sunny as he scrambled towards the surface, threatening to drag them both down--
But Sunny persisted anyways, bringing together every fiber in his body to pull Basil upwards, to him.
As he pulled Basil up, Sunny found himself sinking downwards, the two of them exchanging positions in less than a second.
As he fell away slowly, Sunny gathered his strength one last time and gave Basil a strong upwards kick, sending himself spiraling downwards, into the abyss at his back.
And with that, all of his energy was expended.
His arms burned.
His lungs burned.
He felt like a ragdoll, arms and legs splayed out in the water, as he slowly drifted to the bottom.
A wave of exhaustion overtook him.
He just wanted to close his eyes...
Sorry, Mari… I really wished we could’ve played at the recital together…
Sunny closed his eyes, and succumbed to the darkness enveloping his vision.
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After that final push, it had taken a heart-stopping second before Basil could feel himself break the surface; as soon as he did, though, two pairs of arms took hold of him, pulling him out, onto a wooden surface.
The blurry, fear-stricken faces of Kel and Aubrey registered in his vision; he could feel them shaking him, begging him to just hang on, please, Basil--
A dark blur shot past them, diving into the lake with a splash, followed a heartbeat later by another figure stopping to look over him.
Basil could just barely make out the helpless panic on Hero’s face and the sound of distant sirens, before the world completely faded to nothingness.