Chapter Text
“Hellooo? Sunny, you there?”
Sunny flinched as the knocking started again and pressed himself closer to the wall next to the door that Kel seemed to be so intent on breaking down. At least, he thought it was Kel. He had introduced himself as Kel, and the enthusiasm was just too Kel-like, but…
“Sunny?”
His voice was… different. Deeper. He sounded like his friend, but Sunny couldn’t help the sudden apprehension and tension in his shoulders as he crept closer to the peephole. It hadn’t been that long since his last visit… right?
There was a brief lull between knocks, and Sunny held his breath. He could still hear shuffling on the other side of the door, and the very thought of someone, be it Kel or something else, waiting on the other end sent his heart rate spiking. It thundered in his ears as the darkness within the empty house closed around him, and he squeezed his eyes shut when the muffled sounds stopped.
Tiny, cold hands wrapped themselves around his shoulders, and he felt a gentle exhale of frigid air against his neck. A voice whispered into his ear, but Sunny didn’t hear what it said as he startled into action, leaping away from the gentle voice and towards the door.
Light filtered through the peephole, and it just barely lit anything in the room. Dust particles danced in the tiny natural spotlight, and ever so slowly, Sunny pressed his face against it. The wood was warm, he found. It must be a hot day today.
Blood rushing and roaring in his ears, Sunny breathed in, and blinked into the light.
And blinked again.
All he could see was his driveway. The air shimmered from the heat outside, and distantly, he could hear the barking of a nearby dog. A car sped down the normally quiet road across from him. Nobody was here.
He exhaled a breath of relief, and felt his shoulders sag. It was just another hallucination. Nothing to concern himself with.
Sunny was just leaning away from the door when he caught a glimpse of sudden movement, and out of pure curiosity, he leaned back towards the peephole.
A large, brown eye stared back at him, and Sunny scrambled back with a yelp. The back of his legs hit a nearby moving box, and he toppled to the ground with a bang and a puff of dust.
“Hey! Sunny, was that you?” Maybe-Kel’s voice drifted from outside, and the knocking started up again. “Listen, I just noticed your sign! Can you come out? I wanna talk to you!”
Sunny pushed himself off the ground with a groan, and rubbed the smarting bruise that was no doubt beginning to form at the back of his head from where he hit the ground. He peered over the top of the moving box and glared at the door until the knocking stopped.
“Are… are you okay?”
Sunny paused at the sudden change in Maybe-Kel’s tone. Slowly, Sunny slunk around the moving box and crept back over to the door. He sat with his back against the warmth of the wood, and cradled his knees to his chest as he listened to the awkward shuffling from the other side.
“You know I… sometimes I wonder if…” Maybe-Kel trailed off, and Sunny tilted his head back curiously, straining to listen. This was normal for them, oddly enough. The voice that sounded like Kel had used to visit him daily, knocking on the door before talking to it for a bit as Sunny listened from the other side. Eventually the frequency between visits began to dwindle from hourly to daily to weekly, to… well, now.
Sunny hadn’t been keeping track of the days since Kel’s last visit, but he knew his friend tried to keep it up at least once a week. Life happens however, Sunny figured, and it had been at least almost an entire month since he had last heard from him. And Sunny knew as the days continued marching on, those visits would only continue to dwindle.
Well- Sunny thought as his eyes drifted to the nearest cardboard box- that would have been the case if he was staying here for much longer in the first place.
“No, that’s dumb. Nevermind.” Kel laughed awkwardly from the other side of the door, and Sunny could almost picture him rubbing the back of his head nervously, like Hero always used to do.
“I… I gotta go now,” Kel muttered to the door, but Sunny still caught it. He squeezed his arms around his legs until he couldn’t feel them anymore. Bracing himself. Today would be the last time he’d hear from him again.
“I was kinda hoping you’d come out today. Since, you know…” Kel trailed off once more, and Sunny could picture the invisible nod towards the sign at the end of his driveway.
“Anyways, I just wanted to check on you. We’re worried about you, Sunny. You know that, right?”
A chill ran up Sunny’s spine, and he shivered involuntarily. He could almost feel the ends of his hairs stand on end as he felt a pair of eyes stare at him from beyond the darkness of the house, and Sunny pointedly looked to the floor despite the sudden urge to look back through the covered patio doors.
“Sunny…” A voice whispered, and the cold air returned once more, sapping whatever warmth he had collected from pressing his back against the door. “Please…”
Sunny pressed his hands against his ears and squeezed his eyes shut. It was just a hallucination. It was just a hallucination. He was alone. There was nobody there. Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet .
Something continued to stare at him from beyond the patio door, and Sunny trembled. They were watching him. Waiting.
A sigh from the other side of the door made it through his covered ears, and the light filtering through the peephole shifted as Kel began moving away. His voice sounded a little further away when Sunny heard him mutter, “I guess this is goodbye. I… I’ll try to be back tomorrow, okay?”
There was a long pause, long enough that Sunny had already begun to think that Kel had left, and then the footsteps slowly began walking away, leaving Sunny alone in the dark and cold house.
The darkness yawned, and Sunny shuddered as he felt its tendrils begin to tug him towards the inside of his house. He squeezed his eyes shut, knowing something was watching him from within the shrouded entryway. Black, soulless eyes still pierced through his mind, and distantly, Sunny thought he heard himself whimper.
The tendrils weaved its way up his legs, tugging back in the direction of his bed, and each tug felt as though a thousand tiny ants were crawling from the inside of his skin, and it continued to spread further and further along his body as the shadows reached for more.
Keeping his eyes firmly on the floor, Sunny stood on shaky legs and followed the silent siren further into the darkness of the house. As he made his way past the fireplace- which had sat empty for so long he couldn’t remember the last time it was lit- he stepped through a cold patch of air, and he couldn’t help the violent shiver that ran up and down his spine. He squeezed his eyes shut before he could catch a glimpse of It, and he quickened his pace towards the stairs.
He didn’t pause for a second, practically leaping off the main floor and taking the stairs two at a time as he gripped the rail like his life depended on it. If he stayed down there any longer, the polished floorboards would suddenly feel splintered and frayed, and Sunny would feel it dig harshly into his feet and tangle around his toes like heavy strands of-
He was in his room. Sunny dove for the bed with shaky, weak limbs and frantically pulled the blankets over his head. His eyes were squeezed shut, and the heavy layered comforters were ones he had once only used during the winter when it was so cold he could see his breath puff out in front of him. But even still he could feel the darkness begin to encroach on him as a cold- so cold, too cold- set of hands wrapped around his middle. It rubbed small circles along his back, and he could hear It murmuring something to him, but he refused to turn around, he refused to see. The words washed over him as he begged and pleaded for sleep to come.
And eventually, it did, and the darkness finally gave way to a blinding white.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
Omori blinked lethargically at the figure sitting cross legged in his spot. She tilted her head back up at him, and smiled sweetly; too sweetly.
“Well,” the black and white girl replied, “neither are you.”
Mewo let out a soft trill as she rolled onto her back, sticking her paws into the air without a care in the world. Her eyes never left the girl sitting across from them however, and Omori blinked again.
“What are you talking about?”
The girl giggled, and stood. She was only a head taller than Omori, but that hardly unnerved him. He continued to give her a blank stare as she danced her way over to him. “This isn’t your space, is it?” she asked, though her underlying tone implied it was hardly more than a statement. “Where is my brother?”
Omori’s eyes drifted to the black bulb that hung above them. The girl followed his gaze, and finally, the saccharine smile was wiped from her face.
“That’s not funny,” she said, and this time Omori could sense a sort of anger begin to creep its way into her voice. It reminded him of the wispy darkness that gathered within the bulb above them.
“It wasn’t a joke,” Omori stated, and the girl glared at him.
“You’re out of control.”
“I am doing my job.”
The girl stepped closer. “And I am doing mine. You have to stop this, now.” Then, her eyes softened, and her voice turned pleading, “please, Sunny.”
Omori tilted his head a fraction, studying her carefully. He couldn’t place her exact emotion. Her hands were balled into tight fists, and yet the look she pierced him with was open, vulnerable, heartbroken. It was a look Sunny had fallen for in the past, one that had softened his heart and made his own eyes water. But here Omori merely blinked once more. He flexed his own hand, and a red arm materialized behind him with hardly a sound. It cast a faint shadow over the two of them, and the girl’s eyes widened.
“You should leave now,” Omori said as the girl took a hesitant step away from the red hand.
She shot him a weak glare as her form shimmered. “This isn’t over, Omori.”
He merely said nothing.
She was gone in the next blink, and Omori sighed. He released the red hand, and it vanished without a trace.
Mewo gave another small trill as he passed her, and he walked back to the center of his rightful space. The laptop hummed softly in the corner, and his sketchbook and tissue box remained untouched. Once Omori deemed everything to be back to normal, he sat, and dreamed.
When Sunny pried his sore eyes open, he could make out the mid-morning sun drifting through the blinds over his window. The house was far brighter than it had been yesterday afternoon, and Sunny spent the rest of his morning staring at the floating dust particles in the air until his stomach began to cramp.
Rubbing the crust from his eyes, Sunny swung his legs over the side of the bed, ignoring the giant pool of sweat his pillow and sheets had absorbed overnight.
After carefully observing every shadow that was cast by the boxes in his room, Sunny deemed that he was finally alone, and shuffled out of his room with a tired yawn. Despite having slept through the entire night, Sunny felt as though he hadn’t earned a wink of sleep. It wasn’t uncommon nowadays, especially within the last four years, but it felt as though now it was only getting worse.
Stumbling into the bathroom, Sunny fumbled for the lightswitch for a moment before realizing the electricity had been cut. Had been cut for a while. He made his way over to the sink anyway, and peered at himself through the mirror.
Black, unkempt hair was stuck up on one end from where he had lie prone against the pillow for the entire night, and Sunny halfheartedly patted it down without much success. He quickly gave up on trying to make himself look somewhat decent, and finished his business in the bathroom without any further distractions.
As he made his way back out into the hall, Sunny paused. All was quiet, and there were no shadows lurking around the corners of the house. Everything felt… peaceful. There was nobody here but himself, and Sunny relaxed a fraction. Maybe today would finally be a good day.
And then his eyes fell on the stairs.
His stomach growled.
The steps yawned, falling deeper, longer, darker…
Sunny stumbled back with a gasp and squeezed his eyes shut.
There was nothing there. Nothing at the bottom. He was alone, nobody was watching him or breathing down his neck. There were no ghosts, there were no ghosts.
Sunny reached out without opening his eyes and grabbed at the open air. His hand smacked painfully against the wooden rail, and he clung to it for dear life. Sunny’s whole body shook uncontrollably. He didn’t want to do this. He wanted to go back to bed.
His stomach growled loudly, and the rail creaked against his grip as he felt his abdomen cramp painfully. He had to do this.
Sunny shuffled alongside the rail until he felt it turn, and when his foot hovered over empty space, he felt his heart plummet through the soles of his feet. He felt it plummet down, down, down, until he felt like he wasn’t in his own body anymore. Suddenly overwhelmingly dizzy, Sunny stumbled away from the stairs and backed away until he was pressed against the far wall near the bathroom.
He remembered faintly where to place his head when he couldn’t quite catch his breath, and he automatically folded into himself, bending so far he could feel his knees press tightly against the side of his head.
In and out. Inhale and exhale.
He couldn’t do this.
A lone tear slipped through the cracks, and Sunny wiped it away with a frustrated grunt. Why couldn’t he do anything?!
His stomach growled, but Sunny ignored it this time. He focused on his breathing until the world around him steadied itself and he didn’t feel like he was going to fall over at the slightest puff of air. The staircase swam into view as he wiped his eyes, and Sunny didn’t even realize the shadows creeping towards him until they began shrinking away as his breathing steadied.
It felt like an eternity had passed by as Sunny sat at the top of the stairs, curled into a tight ball and staring into nothing in particular. He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there for, but he was startled into awareness when something clattered against the floor on the bottom level of the house.
Sunny froze, feeling a sudden chill that hadn’t been there before. He was alone in the house. His mom was off in another city, and his dad-
More shuffling noises. It sounded as though it were coming from the kitchen. Sunny slowly unfurled from himself and scooted towards the railing. He couldn’t see the kitchen from where he sat, but he let out a muffled gasp when he saw a shadow move across the floor, cast by whoever was making those strange sounds in the kitchen.
Curiosity and hunger overriding any leftover feelings of apprehension, Sunny slowly, agonizingly slowly, made his way down the stairs. He kept his eyes on where he had seen the shadow, not daring to even look where he was stepping.
Before he knew it, Sunny was at the bottom of the stairs, and he quickly rushed to a nearby wall to press himself against as he waited for the fuzz and roaring in his ears to fade. He felt sick, and his stomach felt as though it were trying to claw its way out of his throat. Sunny pressed a trembling hand to his mouth to stop himself from gagging.
There was a loud bang, and Sunny jumped. It took every ounce of courage he had left to peer around the corner and try to angle himself so he could see the inside of the kitchen. The shadow was still moving around inside, but now he could hear humming. Familiar humming.
Sunny shuffled closer, and now he could make out the faint glow of early morning sunlight that made its way through the kitchen window. But something else drew his attention, and Sunny pressed his hand over his nose as an awful smell drifted out of the kitchen. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was, but any more thoughts on that were quickly chased away as he spotted an achingly familiar figure chopping at something on the counter in front of him.
Sunny worked his mouth a few times, and he managed to croak something out on the third try.
“...Basil?”
Basil spun around with a gasp, nearly slipping on the shiny kitchen floor. A shy grin found its way onto his face as he steadied himself, and then continued chopping at whatever food he was working on. Sunny tried leaning to the side to catch a glimpse of it, but Basil started talking before he saw anything.
“Oh, Sunny! I didn’t realize you were awake yet!” Basil said, still grinning. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
Sunny shuffled closer as Basil turned back to his work with a happy hum. Something… Sunny glanced around the kitchen wearily until his eyes landed on the open cutlery drawer. The knife was missing. The light drifting in through the window above Basil suddenly didn't feel so welcoming, and the soft yellow glow took on a darker shade of orange. Something was off.
The rhythmic chopping continued, as well as Basil’s hums, and the stench that had greeted him when Sunny had first entered the kitchen returned in full force. It smelled like blood.
“Sunny,” A voice whispered from behind him, chilling and achingly familiar. “Come back…”
“I saw you didn’t have much food leftover,” Basil laughed nervously. Sunny’s attention snapped back to him as his friend turned his head around. His grin was still plastered on his face, and it kept stretching wider.
Sunny took a step back. He had removed the knife the night before so he could make that steak for dinner, but he must have forgotten to put it back. That was all. That was it.
“Sunny… are you leaving?” Basil asked, and his voice sounded hurt even though his smile kept growing wider. Sunny’s legs suddenly felt locked into place, and his breaths came out in short bursts. He couldn’t move.
A tear dripped down the side of Basil’s distorted face. It was as though his face itself was contorting to make room for the ever growing smile. His lips parted into a sort of grimace, like he was in pain, and something dripped to the floor.
Blood. It’s near-black colour stood out against the blood-orange light coming in through the window
“I wanted to make you something before you left for good.”
Sunny’s eyes shot up, and fell on the bloody hand that Basil held out to him on a white plate. Blood pooled around it, and dripped off the sides, staining the plate and Basil’s own remaining hand that held it out to him. The smile never stopped stretching even past his ears, and more tears collected and fell from his cheeks.
“You deserve that at least, right, my best friend?”
The air suddenly returned to Sunny’s lungs like a punch to the gut, and he turned on his heel with a scream that felt trapped in his throat.
His feet slipped against the tiled floor, and he fell to his knees. Everything was bloody. Sunny couldn’t breathe. There was a ringing in his ears that wouldn’t go away. He scrambled on his hands and knees, slipping and sliding on the wet and sticky floor until he reached the wooden floorboards outside the kitchen, then stumbled to his feet and ran.
The ringing turned into a roar as he ran in a random direction and burst through the door. Everything was bright, too bright, and Sunny squeezed his eyes shut. The ground changed from hardwood to something soft that tangled in his feet and his chest seized in terror, so he kept running and running and running.
The roaring grew louder, louder, louder, and Sunny finally found the air to scream. He held his hands over his ears as the noises grew into a cacophony and didn’t stop and he ran faster, desperate to get away. He had to run he had to leave-
Something grabbed the back of his shirt and Sunny fell back with a grunt. There was a screech and a squeal, and the roaring vanished a second later. Sunny blinked, but the black spots in his vision didn’t go away.
“-ude, Dude! What the hell, are you okay?! Sunny, talk to me!”
Something shook his shoulder. Sunny threw it off and scrambled back with a gasp. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe-
“Hey, asshole!” The voice that was speaking to him suddenly sounded louder, but further away, and Sunny blinked again. He sounded familiar. “You almost hit my friend!”
The hands were back again, hovering over him as if they didn’t know where exactly to land. Sunny didn’t swat them away this time, and instead he focused on the face that slowly came into focus above him. Wide, terrified brown eyes with tears prickling at the corners watched him back, and he saw his mouth moving frantically as he kept asking if he was okay. Everything was familiar. The eyes, the hair, the voice…
“Kel?” Sunny croaked out, and Kel paused. He took a breath.
“Yeah?”
“Is… is that you?”
Kel blinked at him, and his mouth twitched before stretching into a nervous, yet bright smile. “Course it’s me! Who else would I be?”
Sunny shivered as he finally took in his surroundings. The sun was beating down on the two of them, and Sunny could feel his clothes sticking to his skin. A light breeze rustled the nearby trees, and there was a whoosh as a car passed them on the road. His hand was tangled in grass, soft grass that brushed gently against his pale skin in the wind. He was… outside?
“Hey, you’re looking kinda pale… You sure you’re okay?” Kel said as he maneuvered his head back into Sunny’s vision. “We should probably get inside.”
Kel’s voice snapped Sunny back to the present, and he shook his head vehemently. He was not going back to the house. Not now.
Kel frowned and pursed his lips. Sunny shrunk as he felt his eyes scan him from head to foot. He knew Kel had no idea what he was doing, but he appreciated the gesture and the concern anyway. Honestly, he hadn’t expected Kel to show up at all today.
“Well… you can’t stay here all day…” Kel glanced between Sunny and the house, like he wasn’t entirely sure where to go from here. “Wait here a sec, okay?”
Suddenly, Kel was gone, and he was running back towards the house. Sunny hardly had time to blink before Kel was already halfway across the lawn. He watched as Kel suddenly stumbled to a halt, and before Sunny knew it he was doubling back towards him and grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the road.
Kel dragged him across the property until they reached the entrance and released him. Sunny’s legs shook as he stabilized himself before staring at the open door and the writhing darkness within.
“Wait here, ’kay?”
And then Kel was gone. Sunny’s heart leapt into his throat as his friend’s form vanished into the house, and suddenly everything was not okay. Not that it was in the first place. He felt his mouth dry up as he sucked in fast, stuttering breaths. It was dangerous in there, he was going to get himself hurt!
“What the heck!” Sunny heard Kel call from somewhere in the house, and out of instinct, Sunny leaned closer to the doorway to hear him better. “Dude it’s freezing in here! How does that even work? It’s like over a hundred degrees today.”
Sunny winced at the volume of his voice. Kel was being too loud. He would… He was going to attract attention like this.
His hand shook as he pressed it against the doorway, and ever so slightly poked his head inside. He couldn’t see anything but the shadows, but he could hear Kel’s muttering and clattering coming from somewhere in the kitchen. What was he even doing in there?
Faintly, Sunny could just make out the outline of the stairs beyond the entryway, and the shadows enshrouded the room beyond like a heavy smog. But Sunny could still just barely make out the figure at the top. The single, bulbous eye stared down at him, untouched by the darkness. The shadows grew darker, and the world seemed to freeze as Sunny held his breath. Then the tendrils rushed for him.
Sunny opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came out. He squeezed his eyes shut as the creature rushed for him as well, its single white eye growing bigger, closer, bloodshot, bloating-
“Oh my god dude, don’t tell me you ate this.”
Kel was there, standing in front of him. The eye was gone. Sunny watched from over Kel’s shoulder as the shadows retreated, and everything returned to normal.
Kel waved something in his face, and Sunny took a moment to even recognize it as the tupperware that had held his leftover steak from the night before. A rancid stench wafted from it, even though it was closed, and Sunny felt his face scrunch up in disgust. But… it didn’t smell like blood anymore.
“Seriously dude, even I wouldn’t eat anything from this.” Kel’s voice was oddly pitched, and when Sunny finally looked at him, he saw that he was pinching his nose in clear disgust. “I don’t think even a good scrub would save this thing.”
And then Kel was pushing past him, and dropping the thing into the outside garbage bin.
Wiping his hands on his pants, Kel turned to Sunny with an awkward grin. “Man, you’ve really got nothing else in there, huh.”
Sunny frowned, and tilted his head in a silent question of ‘Why?’
Kel took a moment, but he caught on quickly. It… was almost nostalgic to see the way his eyes lit up in sudden realization and understanding. “Oh, well,” Kel made his way over and poked Sunny in the shoulder. Sunny stumbled back with a gasp, caught off guard. But before he could fall, Kel was suddenly grabbing his shirt and pulling him back onto his feet.
“Because you haven’t stopped shaking since I saw you, which, holy crap, hi,” Kel released his hand to wave as Sunny stared. He hadn’t realized he was still shaking. Kel laughed nervously. “Um, I thought maybe you should drink something? At least, that’s what I thought you’re supposed to do when someone is panicking…”
Kel trailed off, and he frowned to himself as he stared holes into the ground under them. “What did Hero say it was again?”
Sunny couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Kel was… trying to help him? After he’d shut himself away for years without explanation? Kel’s mumbling washed over his ears like white noise as Sunny tried to make sense of it all. Shouldn’t he hate him? There… there should be a reason for Kel to hate him…
The white noise rang in his ears. There was something. Why… Why was he supposed to be hated?
His head hurt, and the static rang louder. Something was touching his arms and waving at his face, but that didn’t matter. Because he couldn’t remember.
The stairs, the stairs. What was wrong with the stairs?
A voice called his name, and Sunny turned his head. He wished he hadn’t.
“Sunny?” Mari asked him, and her head tilted. But it tilted an inch too far, and her one eye that was visible between dark, yet translucent strands of hair was bloodshot. Her voice sounded as though she were speaking in an empty auditorium, echoing and bouncing off nothing.
Something was shaking Sunny, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from Mari, whose eye widened impossibly in alarm. “Sunny-!”
Sunny’s legs buckled, and searing pain erupted throughout his head as everything went white.
Omori blinked in surprise. That was fast. He leaned over to the laptop and powered it on. Eleven forty-five. Hm. Only an hour or two had passed since he slept last.
Mewo meowed, and Omori adjusted himself so she could have better access to his lap. She settled there with a happy purr, and Omori found himself mindlessly running his fingers through her fur. Well, he was here now, Omori thought to himself as he continued stroking the cat. Might as well do something to pass the time.
He glanced behind him. The white door was there today, and the faint shadow it cast was too tempting to leave be. Omori met Mewo’s wide eyes, which stared up at him in curiosity.
“Want to come?” Omori asked, to which Mewo trilled. Very well. Omori stood, scooping Mewo into his arms as he walked closer to the white door. If he strained, Omori could just make out the faint traces of laughter from the other side.
Omori paused, just in case the door decided to vanish. It didn’t, and he glanced down at Mewo, who just continued to stare back up at him in open affection. Omori shrugged. Very well.
He reached for the handle, and the door creaked open.