Chapter Text
SUNNY awoke to the smell of rubbing alcohol – hospital smell. He remembers everything, and for the very first time, he cried.
He remembers all the nights he spent alone. The nights he spent lying to himself, the years he spent isolating himself when the door outside to his loving friends were just there; right at his grasps and he rejected it. Fear was washing over him everytime he even had the smallest thought about it.
How he lied to everyone and caused them all the pain they're going through.
AUBREY and HERO took the news the worst, blaming themselves when he should've been the one to pay the price and get the blame.
AUBREY found KIM and got some new friends of her own, but even so, with her grief, her newfound life did no good for her. She just couldn’t let go, she can’t and won’t let herself to.
HERO isolated himself before moving to college, constantly wondering and wondering if he had anything to do with her suicide. He blamed himself and misses her so much that you can see it hurts him.
BASIL continued to have the narrative in his head that it was the SOMETHING behind SUNNY that did all of this, leaving the blame out of SUNNY’s hands and letting his own SOMETHING consume him, and thinking about it more and more everyday.
KEL didn't even get out of his room when he found out at first. But with how he is, he decided to cope by getting into extracurricular activities and getting new friends. But still, KEL misses MARI just the same amount when she left, he tries not to think about it.
He's done. He's done lying to himself and everyone he loves. The truth's out and it's only fair if everyone with the right to know deserves to be told what truly happened that one afternoon.
He limped out of bed, he was greeted with flowers. Flowers from almost everyone he knew of in FARAWAY TOWN. Wishing him to get better. SUNNY took the time to read it. He never felt this much warmth in one event ever since the accident happened, he finally realizes that all this time he spent hating himself, there were still people who wouldn't have the heart to.
After reading everything, he limped to the hallway, he passed an intersection. He saw HEADSCAPE's version of his friends on one side of it and STRANGER in the other. His heart dropped to his stomach as he saw both apparitions move away from one another. Making him pick one or the other.
He doubted himself for a moment and walked to where his friends went. But at the end of the intersection, he only found himself in a dead end. This is the end, he's finally going to tell everyone the truth 4 years later. This was it.
He went in the direction STRANGER went and as he approached, it was standing right next to a door as it disappeared and leaving no trace of it ever existing. SUNNY knows in his heart that this is BASIL's room.
The guilt of everything rushed through his veins, he felt it deep in his soul. The mess he roped his best friend into doing when he should've just told BASIL the truth, the truth that he did it instead of whatever he thought was behind SUNNY.
He opened the door and he saw his friends all gathered in BASIL's bed as the boy was out cold, he looked so frail and tired. He looked like he hasn't slept properly for a long time.
Suddenly all eyes in the room were at SUNNY. They looked glad that he was alright and could actually move on his two feet. Their smiles with their tired eyes looked genuine.
But the sinking feeling of guilt only grew and the realization hit him once more as he fell to the ground, on his knees, and he started cupping his mouth as he wept. AUBREY, HERO and KEL all rushed to his side.
Concern in their voices as they asked why was he crying. As he wiped his tears and trying to calm down, he spoke up for the first time in 4 years.
“I have to tell you something.”
He did just that. He told the story from start to finish and how he spent so much time hating himself for it. How BASIL went to visit them that day and helped him stage MARI's death as a suicide.
Everyone's faces in the room started contorting in a mix of anger, hurt and sadness. And as SUNNY finished his tale, all of them went out of the room. Not a word was spoken to him. Their hearts were fragile; AUBREY, HERO, KEL, BASIL and SUNNY. They've been through so much hurt, SUNNY should've understood why they acted this way. He should've. But he couldn't.
"You've caused so much suffering... yet you do nothing. And so you've earned nothing in return."
"Your friends will never forgive you. They'll abandon you like you did them... and that's what you deserve."
"You tell yourself that you don't want to burden others... But the truth is that you're selfish. You just don't want people to depend on you."
"When do you think about others? How long are you going to let people take care of you? You say you care but you're a liar. You've never done anything for anyone else. You're useless... less than useless. You're sick."
"People like you don't deserve to live."
"Your friends are wrong about you. The person they love isn't you at all. You let them believe in a lie to protect yourself."
"Your friends are wrong about you. The person they love isn't you at all. You let them believe in a lie to protect yourself."
"You're nothing but a liar... and when they see the truth... They'll hate you as much as you hate yourself."
"It would be better to just die."
"You killed MARI. She loved you and you killed her."
"HERO loved her and you killed her."
"AUBREY loved her and you killed her"
"KEL loved her and you killed her."
"BASIL loved her and you killed her."
"You loved her and you killed her.."
“SUNNY..? Are you okay?" He heard a frail and tired voice echo in the room he forgot he was in. For a moment he saw a glimpse and a woman with black hair in front, her soft smile reminded him why he told his friends in the first place. SUNNY and his friends needed closure.
His delusion was cut short when instead of her late older sister, it was BASIL. He was reaching his hand out to SUNNY. SUNNY shook his head.
“What happened?” BASIL asked, confused as to why SUNNY was on the ground hugging himself.
SUNNY looked at BASIL with a look he hasn't shot someone in years, not since– “They know about what happened.. don't they?" His voice was shaky and worried. Scared and fearful.
“SUNNY.. you told them?” BASIL retracted his hand and got down to the hospital floor where SUNNY was. BASIL didn’t need to have an answer, he already knew what happened in this very room and how it went down. Soon enough even he started crying, hugging SUNNY as he did as they wallowed in their own pain and guilt. Years of mental torture and denial. But soon enough, it’s all gone.
The truth was out, they can’t deny it anymore even if they wanted to.
They both loved MARI, and MARI did too. She wouldn’t want them feeling like this, not at all.
They were siting on the floor with their backs against the wall for a few minutes, a comforting silence but there was a hint of eeriness and unsettlement in the air. SUNNY tried to find words to tell BASIL it was all gonna be okay, but even he doesn't know that and neither does BASIL.
BASIL tried to open his mouth and quickly shut it again, seeming to find words to tell SUNNY as well. Though, BASIL was the only one to actually find them and have the chance to speak up.
“Hey, SUNNY? We’re always gonna be friends, okay. Even if the others don’t forgive us?” He looked at him with an anxious timid smile while putting his hand on SUNNY's shoulder. SUNNY smiled at BASIL, he didn’t need words to know that with everything they’ve been through they would have no one in the world but each other.
After all..
“ Friends... Friends are supposed to be there for each other.”