Chapter Text
Mari was not okay.
Mari was NOT okay.
She felt horrible
She felt HORRIBLE.
She stood at the top of the stairs, shocked by Sunny having decided to run from her.
It was the night of their recital. They were meant to play together, but he threw his violin down the stairs, and then just… He got so angry, he started saying so many things. He hated the violin. He hated being pushed so hard. The only thing he ever wanted was to be closer to his sister. She doubted she had ever heard him speak this much in her whole life.
And he threw the DAMN violin.
And Mari was so, SO angry. Her entire body felt hot with rage as she started shouting at him, looking for an explanation but ignoring whatever he said, whether consciously or not didn't matter.
And suddenly, he ran. He turned away from her and dashed down the stairs, loudly opening the front door as he ran, and ran, and ran.
Mari caught up with everything that happened, recovering from the shock, and decided to run after him. She was slow at going down the steps, but she managed to pick up the pace. She didn't know how long it was since Sunny ran out, and she didn't want to know. The rain lashed against her as she ran onwards, ignoring the massive pain in her leg as her bad knee threatened to buckle under her and send her to eat dirt.
She kept going; she didn't know how, but she KNEW Sunny would be at the hangout spot. Even after the incident where she saved him from drowning, he always came there whenever he was upset, or scared, or wanted to be alone. Her baby brother. She did that to him this time. She made him upset. She made him scared.
Finally, she got there. She shoved through the bushes, and finally got to Sunny, who was standing on the small pier leading into the pond. "Sunny!" Sunny flinched when she called for him, and as she got closer she saw that he tensed up. "I'm… I'm sorry! I never meant to make you so upset! Please, I'm your sister, trust me!" She was crying, genuinely sorry for her brother, who did not move a single inch.
As she got closer and closer, she stepped onto the wood. One step, two steps. But there was no third step. She took it with her bad leg, and the effort of all that running caught up to her at last. Her leg buckled, sending her down to the ground. She wasn't the heaviest person in the world, but even her weight as she impacted was enough to shake the rickety old pier.
She had just enough time to get up onto her elbows to notice. The pier shook and creaked, and she saw something horrible. Sunny couldn't keep his balance. He tripped backwards; he was already half on the edge of the pond, but this was the final push. He fell into the water, and the pond swallowed him up.
Mari couldn't see this, but he didn't really struggle. He knew he couldn't swim. He was afraid, so afraid of drowning, but he knew he wouldn't be able to make it up to the surface. How come he was so okay with this? He felt horrible for what he did. How he snapped at Mari, how he threw the violin she and his friends had all worked so hard to get down the stairs, how he just could not be perfect enough. He closed his eyes, and waited.
Mari could not do anything. She was in shock. She couldn't move a muscle for what felt like ages, but when she did she just could not stand up. Her leg buckled beneath her time and time again, as she wailed and screamed. "SUNNY! PLEASE! COME BACK! YOUR SISTER NEEDS YOU!" She dragged herself almost to the water, when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned as best as she could, and she saw 3 figures; She saw Basil, and Hero, and Kel.
"M-Mari! I-I heard shouting from your house, and then saw you running here! W-What's going on!?" Basil asked her, panic and worry in his voice.
"Kel and I got here as fast as we could. Basil told us what he heard and saw." Hero explained, equally as panicked but still trying so hard to act as the calm, collected older brother.
"S-Sunny! H-He… He fell into the water!" Mari didn't mention it was her fault, not yet. She was afraid.
Hero, upon hearing what happened, and seeing Mari trying to drag herself into the water, took a running start and threw himself into the pond. Shit. He thought, the cold water sending chills down his spine. It was dark out, and he couldn't see much at all in the water, but he recognised the shape of a body; The shape of Sunny. He dived deeper, and grabbed onto the boy.
Back on the pier, Kel and Basil were too surprised to do anything. Kel rarely acted anything other than happy or annoyed, but he genuinely seemed… afraid. Basil was equally frozen in place, freaking out at what was happening.
In the water, Hero managed to grab Sunny. He noticed a spot of darker water below his head, even in the low light. Damn it. He hit his head? Nevertheless, he pulled and tugged on Sunny, pushing up through the water with all his might until he finally breached the surface, and managed to swim to the pond's pier, using all the strength left in his body to pull himself and Sunny up. He was by no means a medical professional, but he had read some books and watched some movies and saw some things in his textbooks; he put his fingers towards Sunny's neck, hoping to check his pulse. It was there, but it felt like it was getting slower. "He hit his head, somebody get an ambulance! Kel, run back home!"
Kel heard Hero shout this, and sprinted off the moment he heard it. Hero was his reliable older brother, so he obviously knew what to do. It took Kel a fair bit of effort, but he was fairly athletic and fast for his age and managed to get home. Bursting through the door, he found his parents in the kitchen, worried about what happened and why the boys ran out.
"Mom! Dad! Sunny fell into the lake, Hero pulled him out but he said he needed an ambulance! He hit his head!" He was drenched head to toe in sweat and rain, but his parents acted immediately, calling 911 and repeating what they had heard to the operator. Kel was usually the upbeat one, but this is not something he could just smile through.
Sunny was not looking good. His body felt cold to the touch, and the pool of blood building up on the pier was growing bigger, despite some pouring between the boards that made up the rickety old wood. Hero didn't know what to do. He couldn't keep calm. He was panicking and he couldn't do anything.
Mari managed to get herself up, and get to Sunny, taking him into her arms and cradling him, ignoring the blood getting on her already soaking wet recital gown. He felt cold. He felt so cold. Mari felt cold, but Sunny was too cold. "Everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay. Sunny, it's me. It's your big sister. I'm here for you." She was crying and holding him close to herself.
The flashing of lights and the howl of sirens alerted them to the presence of the ambulance, as paramedics rushed out onto the scene. It took a bit of effort, but they managed to take Sunny away from Mari's grip and onto a stretcher, wherein they quickly moved him into the ambulance and rushed him to the hospital. Another emergency worker told them that they should all try to get to the hospital soon. Visitor hours were usually over by now, but it's best for family and friends to be there.
Hero and Mari soon returned to their respective houses, while Basil walked off to who knows where. Mari needed to take a moment to calm down, and Hero needed to tell Kel and their parents they needed to go to the hospital. Sunny and Mari's parents weren't there, funnily enough. Work called and they were both going to miss the recital. She picked up her house phone, and left them the message explaining the situation, omitting that it was her fault he fell in. Mari was not okay.
She met back up with Hero and Kel in front of their house, and on the way to the hospital, which was only a 20 minute walk from their houses, they met Basil and Aubrey. Both of them were crying and afraid and worried for Sunny. "I-I, I went back home and told grandma I was going to the hospital. I-I went and g-got Aubrey too…" Basil managed to squeak out between sobs and sniffles."Is Sunny going to be okay?" Aubrey asked, tears falling down her face. Hero looked away, and Mari didn't have an answer she could manage to put into words through her own tears.
Eventually, they all got to the hospital, and were quickly brought to some chairs in front of the room Sunny was in. Soon enough, a nurse walked out of the room, and asked them a question. "Are the patient's parents here?" Mari sniffled a bit, and answered. "N-No, they're at work. I'm his big sister, if that… helps." She was panicked, and worried, and felt so horrible for what was so clearly her fault.
The nurse looked at her, understanding the worry and panic, but felt bad to hear that the injured boy's parents weren't even there to keep him company.
They sat there, in front of Sunny's hospital room, waiting for something to happen for what felt like hours, until eventually a doctor came out. He was a well built man, tall and broad-shouldered. He had a beard and short, almost fuzzy looking hair. The words that came out of his mouth felt like a stab into the chest of everybody there. "I'm sorry. We lost him."
Kel was not okay. He did what he could, he called the ambulance, and made sure to try and cheer up everybody on the way there.
Aubrey was not okay. She didn't even know this was happening until Basil got her, and she felt horrible for not being there sooner.
Hero was not okay. He dived in, he got Sunny out of there, he tried to stay calm, but he just couldn't.
Basil was not okay. His best friend was dead. The boy he… the boy he loved was dead.
Mari was not okay. She killed her baby brother.