Chapter Text
It is a proven fact that love is a horrible disaster that we all greet with open arms. No matter how beautiful the disaster starts, no matter how sweet it plays out, the fact of the matter is that it always ends tragically. Sometimes it’s just a messy breakup or simple drifting apart. Everyone involved washes their hands of the situation and goes their separate ways. This is the best case scenario. More often than not, it ends with tears, grief, and someone being united in the dreaded entropy we call ‘death’. This ultimately always left someone behind, broken and alone.
The disaster known as love comes in many forms. The love of friends, the love of star crossed lovers, and the love of family.
Sunny had been forced to experience this disaster faster and harsher than most. His love for his sister ended in a tragic death which he still blames himself for even to this day. His love for his best friend ended when his best friend decided to cover up the tragic end of his sister with an even worse outcome. Finally, his love for his friends, his lifeline ended when he told them all the cold harsh truth that he so desperately tried to repress.
It was only a couple of days after he had confessed to all of his friends. It was a truth they all needed to hear despite it hurting like hell. He was optimistic they would forgive him, but judging by their violent reactions… that would take some time. He tried to curb the loneliness (he hated being by himself) by talking with Basil, the (former?) best friend who strung his sister’s corpse to a tree and then stabbed him in the eye years later in a fight which resulted in them both being admitted to the hospital. Basil was under suicide watch. It was one less worry on Sunny’s mind.
His attempts to rekindle their friendship after everything was still too difficult for young Sunny. He tried to make small talk (as best a selective mute could). He tried just being there, but it was obvious that things would never be the same as they once were. Besides his own mother, Sunny never got any visitors, and she was only there for the initial day he woke up. Of course, when he confessed to his mother, to his horror she confirmed that she knew all along. The doctors wanted to keep him in Faraway General Hospital’s emergency care for a few more days just to keep an eye on him. He could only imagine what the medical bill was going to be for his treatment.
After everything, after his friends walked out on his life, the thoughts of being a parasite stewed and festered inside of him. Once he was discharged, his mom would drive down, pick him up, and take him to the city away from Faraway. However, he just couldn’t do that.
Despite his doctors wishes, he snuck out of the hospital before they locked the doors to prevent this very thing from happening. It wasn’t too terribly difficult to do. He knew roughly where the hospital was from the plaza. It would be about a two hour walk. He didn’t much like being dressed in only a hospital gown and slippers, but it was all he really had access to. He didn’t know where they kept his clothes, and in all honesty it was probably for the best. A one eyed teen in bloodied clothes would probably set off more alarm bells, at least in his own mind.
At this time of day, Faraway County practically shut down. The one good thing about small, sleepy counties like this was that they often operated on a schedule. It was just before six when he snuck out, and by the time he made it to the plaza, the sun was already threatening to set overhead. There was somewhere he needed to just… sit and think. Walking past the plaza, he walked into the park, through the trees, and found himself at their old hangout spot. The enigmatic statue of a bygone era stood as a monolith on its little island in the center of the mirror pool that was the lake. Their old, discarded, faded and forgotten toys laid strewn about, embedded in the ground. Even the faded picnic blanket was still right where they left it.
No matter how everything changed, it all really stayed the same. A bit faded by the sun, but they remained. He walked to the edge of the dock, shakily sat down as soon as he could. His legs shook, weak from the walk in their already weakened state. The pain medication was starting to thin out of his system as was evident in the dull throbbing of his right eye. There he sat, legs dangling over the edge, the only sounds were the song of the leaves, crickets, and toads. There was a serenity to the silence. This place always felt frozen in time for Sunny. Yes, the time of day changed, but the days and weeks didn’t matter here.
Deep breaths. Sunny remembered what his sister taught him. Deep breaths.
In his serenity, he couldn’t help but hum the song that haunted his memories. He did this as the light faded from the sky, and he continued to do so for hours. His sense of time drifted away as he looked up at the stars. He could only hope Mari was looking down at him, humming along. He lost track of time before too long. He only knew the moon was high in the sky. It was so beautiful. He imagined little campgrounds and forests on it. Bitter sweet memories of his mind trying to distract him.
Then something odd happened…
His thoughts were broken when he saw a strange glow emanating from the water, as though the pale moonlight was shining bright from beneath the surface. He got up, shifting to his knees to get a better look at his reflection only… it wasn’t his reflection.
He saw Mari, except… she looked older. Tired. More importantly, she looked… shocked? Confused? This wasn’t a normal hallucination. It looked so real. He gave a small unsure wave to Mari who… waved back a second after? Wait. No. This couldn’t be possible.
He was so preoccupied with what he was seeing that he failed to hear familiar voices call his name in the distance. Surely the hospital called to inform he was missing. His friends(?) probably volunteered to find him. There was probably already a search party with proper authorities. Sunny had a feeling deep in his gut that this was a chance he couldn’t pass up. If this wasn’t a hallucination he’d get to talk to Mari again. If it was… well, it wouldn’t matter anyway. He took a deep breath and he could have sworn he saw Mari’s eyes widen in horror.
The last thing he heard before he dove headfirst into the water was Aubrey’s horrified voice calling out his name.
The cold wetness engulfed him. He used all of his limited strength to Focus and Persist through the water. He was never a strong swimmer, even less so now that he snuck out of the hospital. Thankfully he didn’t have far to swim which was odd. His head breached the surface(?) as he soon began gasping and coughing for air.
“O-oh my god!” Mari’s voice rang sharply in his ears as he felt two familiar hands pull him out of the water and onto the dock. His vision was blurry, but when his eyes focused, he saw his sister looking down at him with a teary-eyed expression. Exactly the same age as Hero.
“S-Sunny?!” Mari sounded like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. He smiled weakly at her, his good eye tearing up as he wrapped his arms around his sister and just cried. The past four years flooded out as he was left a babbling mess of apologies that spewed from him nonstop.
However it was what Mari said next that struck him like lightning.
“Y-you’re alive!”
…What?!
It had been years since Mari had failed her wonderful baby brother. She looked away for just a second, hesitated for just a second too long, and was too late to pull her Sunny out of the water. He didn’t breathe no matter how hard both she and Hero tried to resuscitate him. Hero called an ambulance immediately in a panic. It shattered her. She loved her little brother more than anything in the world and he was gone in an instant.
The funeral broke her. It took her a year to even forgive Hero and Kel for the incident, seeing as it was their encouragement that had Sunny climb up that statue in the first place and tumble down into the depths below. Most of all, she blamed herself. She blamed herself for being slow, inattentive. She became overprotective of those Sunny cherished in life since they were her last connections to her departed brother.
Everyone knew Mari was never okay, but she persisted.
Kel was the easiest to forgive. He was just a child. Hero on the other hand— Let’s say their relationship never got back to what it once was. He was still a good friend, but… there was no way he could date the man ever again without thinking of that day. She threw herself into her music, she started studying music to pursue a career as a concert pianist. They still hung out in college. He was probably still hopeful that maybe one day she would reach out and they would repair their romantic relationship. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that was not really a possibility anymore. The day was still fresh in her mind even years later.
That was until one break from their college, she came to their old hangout spot where it all happened. She sat on the edge and just… talked. Talked like Sunny was right beside her. She shared her day, what happened since they last saw each other, and for just a moment pretended her cliff faced little brother was there. She lost track of the hours, but her attention was grabbed by a strange glow from the lake. When she looked down she saw…
Sunny?
There was no doubt. That was Sunny, but there were some differences. He was older, like he should have been if he were still alive. He was in a hospital gown (a reminder of how the medical professionals failed her), but… he had bandages over his head and his eye was patched up. Why? Was her brain just wanting to torture her with visions of grief so late in her mourning?
However, the look on his face was that of shock and… hope? He took a deep breath and her heart sank. She saw him dive. She could see him swimming up to the surface like the lake was just some thin membrane between worlds. She saw him struggle. Just as she was about to dive in, he breached the surface, coughing and sputtering.
WHAT?!
“O-Oh my god!” She called out in shock before her body started to react.
She reached down and immediately pulled him onto the dock. He coughed up some water, then, his eye opened to look at her for the first time in years. She only realized she was crying when she saw a drop on his cheek.
“S-Sunny?” She asked in disbelief only to be greeted with a small, warm smile she never thought she’d see again. She smiled back and it was like a dam breaking. He clung to her, babbling apologies and saying it was an accident over and over again. It was too much. Did he blame himself for drowning? How was this even possible? Why was he missing an eye? How could he ever think that was his fault? It was clearly hers for not watching him closely enough! The only thing that registered was—
“Y-you’re alive!” That got an immediate reaction. He pulled away for a moment, looking up at her confused. She grabbed Sunny by the face and kissed his forehead, pulling him in the tightest hug she could muster. Sunny winced which caused her to pull back suddenly. “Ah, sorry. Come on, let’s get you home.” She said, helping Sunny shakily to his feet. “I’m never letting you leave my sight ever again.”
She didn’t know how this could have even been possible, but that would be questions for later. Despite being older, she could tell Sunny was malnourished, pale, and was only barely a few inches taller than he was when he—
No, no time to dwell on that. She crouched down, pulling her brother onto her back in an impromptu piggy back. She had gotten taller herself so… it was like the dynamic never changed. Sunny gripped onto her tighter than he did in the past. Yes, her entire midsection and back was wet, but that was a small price to pay. Her parents and the others were going to FLIP when they saw this. God, she hoped this wasn’t just a dream.
Aubrey stood in disbelief as she saw Sunny dive into the oddly glowing lake. She rushed to the edge of the dock to see… Sunny swimming towards Mari who was in the reflection and reaching out to him. She rubbed her eyes. It was still there. The fuck?! She could hear Hero and Kel rushing through the trees. She chalked it up to just her mind playing tricks on her as she dove in straight after him. She could hear Hero and Kel call out to her mid-arch before the splash.
She was NOT going to let Sunny drown himself! He was NOT going to take the easy way out of this! However, what she saw chilled her to the bone.
She saw Sunny breach the surface. She saw Mari pull him up onto the dock. Then, just before she reached the surface, the sight faded. She felt a hand on her ankles pull her back. She felt an arm around her midsection. She was pulled up to the surface. The cool wind hit her hard. She coughed and sputtered as Kel dragged her to the edge where Hero pulled her up.
“F-fuck! I almost reached him!” She coughed up some water as Hero attended to her. She was so close. If she had just swam a little bit harder maybe she could have reached him. Maybe he could have seen her again!
“Hero, please tell me you saw that,” Kel said with a spooked edge to his voice as he pulled himself out of the water. He was always the most optimistic of their group, but he sounded so tired despite what was happening.
“You mean Mari in the water? You saw that too?” Hero asked, looking over at Kel as though he told him the sky was green and was correct.
“Holy shit, that was REAL?!” Aubrey called out in between coughing fits. A blanket of silence washed over the trio.
“This is too spooky,” Kel shivered.
“I saw her pull Sunny out of the water before I could reach him.” Aubrey said, shivering from a chilled breeze that hit her.
Hero looked to the lake, checked the time on his phone, and saw that it was 12:01. One minute past midnight. He took a mental note of that.
“Okay, there has to be a logical explanation, but we have three eyewitnesses to… this. So, before we jump the gun, you two get home a dry off before you both catch a cold. I’ll have a look around and see if I can find anything.” Hero suggested. He was normally a skeptic, but this time? It was hard to rationalize.
“But—“ Aubrey began to protest.
“It will be a lot easier finding out what’s going on when I don’t have to nurse you two back to health.” Hero said sternly.
Aubrey let out an annoyed “tch” before standing up and letting Kel drag her away. She looked like a pink, waterlogged rat, and she kind of felt like one. A lot of questions were on her mind, just like Hero’s.
Something weird was happening and there was a chance that Mari…
Even if Aubrey wanted Sunny to swallow his teeth after everything he has done to them, the possibility of getting Mari back was enough to push her forward. Hero was on the same page more or less. Despite his anger with Sunny, the chances of being able to see Mari again was too tempting. Plus… she looked older. His mind raced with questions trying to figure out how that was possible. He found himself staring at the water. The only sign Sunny was there at all were the two hospital slippers that floated on the surface
The trio had a lot to investigate when it came to their old hideout spot and the mysterious statue that sat in the middle of it.
Something was up.
For now though, Hero scooped up the slippers from the water and went back to the main search party. The first thing he did was explain that they saw signs that Sunny may have been in the water and that two of his friends dove in, but they couldn’t find him. He kept everyone optimistic by suggesting that maybe he was sitting on the dock and panicked when he heard his name being called and ran deeper into the woods.
At that, the search party split into two. The more pessimistic side of the town’s search party stayed and attempted to search every inch of the lake. The other half spread out deeper into the woods.
Neither could find him.
Only his friends knew where Sunny went.