Chapter Text
Aubrey was abruptly woken up by the very uncharacteristic screaming of her mom. She heard nothing but pure terror in her tone. Aubrey rarely heard her ever speak, much less scream, so to say she wasn’t interested in what was happening was an understatement. Tiredly, she moved toward her room’s trapdoor, motivated not by worry but by curiosity; for all she could care, she could burn in a fire.
As soon as she opened the trapdoor, smoke flew through and went into her face, temporarily blinding her and making her cough. Looking through the reactionary tears in her eyes, she saw a foreign orange glow coming from the living room.
Without a doubt, it was a fire.
Apparently, her mom actually was burning in a fire. She joked about it to herself, until the ramifications set in. Her house was on fire, and her mom was in it.
Oh. Oh.
Quickly, she slid down the ladder, to get a better look at what was happening. The entire living room was in an inferno. She couldn’t see her mom anywhere, but considering the door was still closed, and Aubrey saw no movement…
Aubrey hated her mom’s guts, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t care about her. If Aubrey hadn’t, her mom would have starved to death years ago; after dad left, it took Aubrey a few days to realize that she wasn’t eating anything, so she had to get food for her. Mom neglected her, but Aubrey couldn’t bring herself to do the same thing back. But, despite her hatred, she felt… no singular emotion. A flurry of emotions — perplexingly good and despairingly bad — threatened to overwhelm her; had she not been fueled by adrenaline she would have broken down on the spot.
One thing was at the forefront of her mind: she had to get out of the house. The living room — and by extension the front (and only) door — was blocked off. Quickly, she thought of the attic window, and realized that was her only escape.
Climbing back up the ladder, she’s able to get a breath of slightly-less smokey air. She didn’t have much time to think, so she only grabbed what was important to her.
First was Bun-Bun. That was an obvious choice. The rabbit already seemed to have a vague idea on what was happening, and was starting to get panicked.
Next, she went under her bed and grabbed her spiked bat. The amount of times threatening people with it let her get her way was astounding, and considering she was probably not going to have a home after this, she needed every advantage she could get.
Finally, was the bedside photograph of her and Kim, from when they first became friends. After she died 4 years ago, and while she felt that everyone had abandoned her, Kim was the person to help her get back on her feet. In a way, Kim was her only true friend, the only person she’d put her life on. Of course, she had other acquaintances, but her feelings towards them were… complicated.
Everything else in the room she decided she could just buy (or steal) later. For a moment, she considered her Captain Spaceboy poster, but it would be too much of a hassle to unstaple, plus it’s a very common poster that she’d be able to find at Hobbeez later.
“Bun-Bun, let’s go.”
Before leaving, she opened up the trapdoor one last time, and found the fire having already spread to the ladder’s base. Realizing time was almost up, she walked over to her window, and opened it. It was small, so she was going to have a hard time getting through it. She threw her spiked bat out of it, knowing that trying to crawl through with it was… a very bad idea, to say the least. However, she couldn’t do the same with the photo or Bun-Bun, with both being fragile cargo. After a bit of a struggle, she crawled through, and fell from the second story right onto her back.
Ow.
Taking a few seconds to get up — wincing through the pain of her somehow-not-broken back — she looked around and gauged her situation. Bun-Bun looked safe, but the photograph frame was cracked (albeit only slightly). Looking back at the house, she saw smoke and a menacing orange glow. She knew it wasn’t long before the whole building burned down.
Now that she was safe, her adrenaline started to wane, and she was left with nothing but her thoughts. Her mom was almost certainly dead. She was probably homeless now.
Her emotions finally caught up with her, and she let natural tears roll down her face. It wasn’t sobbing, but she wasn’t just ‘sad’ either. The only thing keeping her grounded in reality was Bun-Bun resting on her lap, shivering ever so slightly.
“A-A-Aubrey!” a panicked voice came from her right, across the street.
Aubrey jumped. “Ah! B-Basil, don’t s-scare me like that!”
(When did he get out of the hospital?)
“W-What is happening!?” he yelled as he ran over. Now that he was closer, she could make out bandages on his face and arms. He only got into that fight with him just a few days ago, after all. But, once he got over to her side of the road, he saw the smoke and the glow coming from her home. He had to have known something was happening, otherwise he wouldn’t have come over, but it seemed he didn’t expect it to be a fire. “I-I’ll go get help!”
He ran back into his home, presumably to call the police and fire department. Trusting him to take care of that, she grabbed Bun-Bun and ran. At first, she didn’t know where she was going, but after a few moments she quickly decided on Kel’s and Hero’s house as she passed by their road.
On the way to their house, she passed by Sunny’s — or, rather, the house that used to be Sunny’s; he and her mom had already finished moving out of it, and into their apartment in the city, but Sunny was still in the Faraway hospital, recovering from his eye wound or something (Hero told her the exact reason he was still there, but she forgot).
Frantically, she knocked on their door. There weren’t any lights on in the house, which made her realize she had absolutely no idea what time it was. Hopefully, it wasn’t too late in the night.
After a minute of waiting, she heard footsteps on the other side. She was met with… Hero, dressed in pajamas. She was expecting (and honestly hoping) that one of their parents answered.
“Aubrey…? Why are you knocking at 3 a.m? And why are you holding your bunny?”
“Uh…" She wasn’t exactly sure how to start, so she decided to be blunt. “My house is burning down.”
“W-W-What!?” his tone radiated shock.
“Don’t believe me?” Aubrey weakly smiled as she gestured to her right, pointing to a lightly-illuminated smoke from beyond the treeline. It felt wrong making light of her situation, but she couldn’t help herself.
“A-Aubrey, I… I’m so sorry, I—”
Aubrey started to walk away. “Just… go get your brother. I need some time by myself. I’ll meet you there in a minute.”
“...Alright,” Hero said, sounding dejected.
She walked off, not letting him get a chance to stop her. Using the moonlight, she made her way to the park, where she quietly sat down on one of the swings, resting her rabbit on her lap.
The first thing she thought about was why. Why was this happening now? She had already gone through so much turmoil over the past week, and now she had to deal with her house burning down! Was it… karma? Was it because of how she acted on that day?
“I have to tell you something.”
Aubrey felt dread. Whatever happened the night, whatever could have gotten Sunny and Basil, two of the most docile people she knew, into a fight that got Sunny’s eye jabbed out couldn’t have been good.
“I killed Mari.”
What?
Hero quickly countered. “Sunny, it wasn’t your fault that she—”
“She didn’t hang herself.” Sunny’s response drained the color out of Hero’s face.
What? What?
“The day of the recital… I pushed her down the stairs. It’s my fault she died.”
What? What? What? What? What?
“Sunny!?” Kel yelled, the smile on his face completely gone. “This isn’t funny, you know!”
“No, he’s right,” Basil chimed in, still delirious from anesthetics. “I saw it happen.”
Aubrey’s ears began to ring, as the Earth stopped moving around. Her whole world was fully blacked out by a sludge of superheated, unrestrained fury. Mari, her best friend, was murdered by the one boy she could always turn to when she was sad, the one boy that was always there when she was happy, the one boy she could vent her angers to, the one boy she used to have a crush on. For four years, he lied about Mari; not just him, but Basil too. They were both scum.
She forgot about everything. She didn’t care that he was her childhood friend, all she saw in the boy standing in front of her was the cold-blooded murderer that ruined her life.
Basil was speaking at that moment. “...and that’s when we hung—”
Aubrey’s body moved on its own, as she lunged at Sunny. Tackling him to the ground, she grabbed his neck and choked him with all of her strength. She didn’t care that his sole eye was tear-stained even before she attacked. She didn’t care that his eyes pleaded for mercy. All she wanted was revenge.
Someone yelled behind her. Someone grabbed her. She tried to kick them away, but they wouldn’t budge. She released a hand from Sunny, turned around, and punched the perpetrator, Kel in the face with the back of her hand, knocking him to the floor in a single hit.
She turned back towards Sunny, still being choked by her other hand, to find him with an uncaring look on his face, as though he had already accepted his fate. Good for him; she was about to kill him after all.
She kept staring into his eyes, stirring her mind to think. If she killed him, then… wouldn’t she become just as bad as him? Compared to what she was doing, pushing someone down the stairs was peaceful and merciful. Did she… really want to be a murderer?
Subconsciously, her grip loosened around his throat, as she began to realize the ramifications. She was choking Sunny, she was choking who used to be one of her best friends. She was a monster, a pink-haired, broken, delinquent monster that deserved to be ridiculed, deserved to be hated, deserved to be discarded.
She backed away from Sunny, noticing her face was soaked with tears. When did she start crying? Was it when she started choking him, or was it when he told the truth, or was it even before then?
She bolted from the room. Her feet carried her on their own, and before she realized it, she had run all the way back to her house, smothering herself with her bed’s pillow.
That was just four days ago. She hasn’t seen Sunny since.
The day after the scene she made, Hero and Kel came by her house to make up, which went surprisingly smoothly. She was still depressed and apathetic, but eventually, she agreed to have a sleepover with the brothers. The next morning, they filled her in on what she missed.
After she had spaced out, Hero walked out of the room, and Basil explained his idea to frame Mari’s death as a suicide, so no one would blame Sunny. That was around when Aubrey snapped, choking Sunny and giving Kel a broken nose. After she ran away, Hero came back in, hearing the ruckus, and had to get Kel a doctor of his own.
After everything that Sunny did, killing his sister and inadvertently ruining the lives of a group of teenagers, Kel and Hero… they forgave him, as though sororicide was an everyday occurrence that people won’t bat an eye to. Out of everyone in the original friend group, Aubrey was the only one not to have forgiven him yet. She wanted to apologize to him, wanted to forgive him… but she couldn’t bring herself to. Twice, she had walked up to the hospital, but she couldn’t make herself walk through the door. She was pathetic, really.
And now, her house was burning down. She was 99% sure her mother was dead, she lost most of her personal belongings (not that she had that many), she was homeless now…
When Mari died, she was devastated, but compared to how Sunny and Hero handled her death, Aubrey seemed to be absolutely fine. She only became a delinquent because Kim edged her on, taught her that violence could solve answers. Compared to back then, with everything that has happened, Aubrey felt like her current situation was worse than back then. Something was somehow topping Mari’s death.
And yet… she wasn’t crying. She shed a few tears once she first got out of her burning house, when she first started to realize how uncertain her future was. She also shed tears after she learned of Sunny’s lie, but that was nothing compared to the dozens of tear-stained restless nights after Mari. Compared to her twelve-year old self, she was just as emotional, if not more. So, why was her reaction so tame? Was she buried too deep under self-pity to care or feel bad for herself? Did she actually want her house to burn down, so she had an excuse to live anywhere other than the hellhole that was her former home?
Did she deserve this?
Aubrey’s internal monologue was rudely interrupted when she was nearly deafened by the shrill siren of a fire truck. She physically jumped out of her seat, and got a faceful of sand. For the umpteenth time that night, foreign substances got into her eyes and made them water. She rubbed them for a minute, eventually getting the sting to be tolerable. She saw Bun-Bun running around, panicked, obviously as startled as she was; Aubrey had to chase her around for a second to catch her.
(I promised Hero I’d meet with him later. He’s probably at my house; I should be heading there)
She peered down the street, and saw several bystanders, undoubtedly watching her house burn down. As she walked closer, the number only grew, until it looked like half of the town was standing there (although that isn’t that impressive considering how tiny the town is). There were two fire trucks, one being the one that hurt her ears.
(Do these people not have anything better to do right now?)
She had a little trouble navigating through the crowd, with only a few noticing her.
“Hey, Aubrey! Over here!” a distinctly annoying voice pierced through the crowd, a voice she immediately identified as Kel’s. Turning towards the source of his voice, she saw him, Hero, and Basil by the treeline around the house’s side. If one didn’t know about their friend group, they would have likely mistaken them as a father and his two bandaged-up kids. Kel had a band-aid on his nose (thank you Aubrey), which almost managed to stick out more than Basil’s countless injuries and bandages… somehow. Seeing them together, acting so friendly towards her, was still a strange sight to her, since she only met back up with them last week after four years of isolation. Basil in particular was still an enigma to her, after she started bullying him years ago.
Regardless, she didn’t have any reason not to join them.
“H-Hey, Aubrey… are you feeling better now?” Basil asked.
“I don’t know.”
Everyone went quiet, concern plastered onto their faces.
Aubrey continued. “I’m just… conflicted. About everything.”
“I know it’s a lot to take in. You’ll… survive, I’m sure. I know you’ve been through worse,” Hero reassured, with an unknowable look on his face.
“Don’t… beat yourself up too much, okay?” Basil comforted his former bully.
“...Thanks,” Aubrey smiled slightly. Even she didn’t know exactly what she was feeling.
“So, uh… where are you going to stay?” Kel blurted. “You’re not going to have a good night’s rest in there,” he said as he pointed towards the house, which was now surrounded by firemen.
“Duh,” Aubrey commented, feeling a slight burst of petty inspiration. “Though… that is a good question, especially coming from you.”
Basil was quick to speak. “My house has an empty room. It’s not like my g-grandma is going to use it a-anymore, haha!” he nervously laughed.
“We could probably make space in our room for you, Aubrey,” Hero replied.
She felt guilty about moving into someone else’s house. “Are you really sure? Is it really okay for me to—”
“Of course, of course!” Kel interjected. “You don’t have to fully move in yet, just… stay over for the night? See what works for you?”
“Fine…" Regardless of how she felt, she would rather sleep in someone’s house than outside somewhere.
Now… should she go with the brothers’ house, or to Basil’s? While she was more comfortable around Hero and Kel, Basil’s house would let her sleep in a separate room with anyone else. Considering she was… not the happiest person in the world, having some proper alone time while trying to go to sleep was almost a necessity. Also, the idea of sleeping in the same room as Kel was a good argument against his plan, even if she’s done it multiple times in the past few nights.
“I’ll go with Basil,” she answered after hesitating.
“S-Sounds great! I’ll go get the room set up for you—”
Aubrey was about to object to him, offering to help him, had someone’s yelling not interrupted them instead. “Does anybody know who the homeowner is!?”
“One sec,” Aubrey whispered to the group, as she sat Bun-Bun down with them and walked over to the source of the voice, being one of the firemen. “That’d be me.” As she spoke, she felt dozens of eyes home in on her.
When the fireman saw her, he muttered something under his breath, but his face remained happy. “Alright… were you in the house when it caught fire?”
“Yeah,” she responded.
“Was there anyone else in there?”
“Yeah, my mom. Heard her screaming, and when I checked, I didn’t see her, and the door was still closed, so…"
“Alright, alright. We only just made it to the scene, so we have only just begun extinguishing the fire. She probably could have escaped… but if we find her in the house, you’ll be the first to know, alright?”
“Sure…?” Aubrey didn’t have a phone, so she wasn’t sure how they would be able to contact her, much less be the first to know. “Do you want me to stay here, or go to sleep at someone else’s place, or what?”
That seemed to have gotten the fireman’s cogs turning. “Well, you should do whatever you feel most comfortable doing, alright? You could give us a mailing address so we’ll be able to contact—”
“Just the house across the street,” Aubrey said as she pointed towards the neighboring intersection.
“Alright! I understand if all of this makes you feel sad. Don’t undervalue your friends, alright? They will always be able to talk to you. My friends are the reason I made it through my own childhood, so don’t forget about them, alright!?”
She knew he probably knew nothing about her or the friend group, but regardless his advice hit awfully close to heart. Did she really consider the group her friends again? It wasn’t a thought that had crossed her mind before then — only showing up for a week after four years had passed was hardly enough time to become friends again — but it felt right. She only opened up to Hero and Kel because they essentially forced her to, lest she face their eternal annoyingness. Maybe, she should be more open about herself.
“Alright,” she said at last, mimicking the fireman’s speech pattern. “I’ll… go get some rest now. It’s like 3 a.m, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is. Well, may we… actually, wait, are these yours?” he asked as he held a familiar nail bat and cracked photograph. Did she really forget about those?
“Those are mine, yeah. Thanks,” she said as she grabbed the items and walked off, the crowd’s eyes still on her, only just beginning to disperse. She gestured to her friends, who were dropped by one in number, undoubtedly Basil going ahead of her despite her wanting to help him so he doesn’t feel bad that he has to do everything for her—
“Aubrey, wait up!” Kel yelled.
Following behind him was Hero, who Aubrey was starting to realize was staying awfully quiet. Once they got past the trees around her house, she spoke up. “Hero… are you okay?”
“H-Huh, me?” he stuttered.
“I’ve noticed you’ve been… quiet, ever since I told you about—”
“Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just… what was the word you used earlier? Conflicted? I almost feel too guilty, if that means anything.”
“Yeah… I kinda get that,” Aubrey forced a smile. “It’s the opposite for me; I don’t feel as bad as I think I should be right now. I mean, I’m literally homeless now, you’d expect me to be more down about it.”
“...I’ll talk about it in the morning. All of us need to rest up,” Hero ultimatumed.
“Yeah, I’m super tired now,” Kel complained. “Why did all of this have to happen at 3 a.m?”
“Life,” Aubrey answered. “But you’re right, I’m tired too. See’ya.”
“Bye…!” Hero and Kel waved her goodbye, with varying levels of intensity.
Now that she was faced with the prospect of falling asleep, her body decided to stop functioning — begging her to lay down somewhere and collapse — as though the sand she fell into earlier was the Sandman’s secret stockpile. Apparently, Aubrey just doesn’t work at 3 a.m. without either coffee or adrenaline.
Tiredly, she walked over to Basil’s house, with Basil opening the door for her.
“Come in, I have everything prepared for you!” Basil cheered.
“Thanks…" Aubrey’s voice sounded dead. “I really need sleep, I appreciate it.”
“Yeah, no problem! Anything for a f-friend! It’s the room on the left, by the way.”
She walked past a wheelchair and IV stand in the hallway as she entered into her new room, which was unsurprisingly undecorated. Her eyes darted away from the bookshelf, table, and flowers, instead going towards the freshly-made bed and chair that Bun-Bun was seemingly sleeping on. She only barely acknowledged the fact that she forgot about the bunny, as she belly-flopped onto the bed. She took of her shoes, as she crawled under the covers.
She slept far better than anybody whose house had just burned down should have.