Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

How long had it been since Kel had seen a trace of Sunny? Years by now. The thought of Sunny was a bit hard by now. When Sunny closed himself off, Kel had at first tried everyday to get Sunny to come out. However, it never worked. Everyday slowly became every few days, then every few weeks, now it slowly came down to barely once a month. Kel couldn’t lie, anytime Sunny’s parents answered the door he could feel a sense of hostility, only confirming his suspicions was the day he found out that Sunny’s dad had left his family last year. That week Kel had gone back to checking daily but as usual he was met with silence. Today, however, was different. For the last two weeks Kel had noticed that Sunny’s mom’s car was sitting in the driveway when it should not have been. At first, Kel assumed she had been given some time off, maybe to spend with Sunny for the divorce. However, by now it was safer to assume she had been laid off. Even after years of silence from his neighbor, Kel could not stop himself from feeling bad. He had to do something, even something small. It took hours to convince his mom to let him use the oven while she was away, but eventually, she finally agreed to let him bake a batch of brownies to take to Sunny’s house. Kel was not confident with his cooking skills, but he felt proud of how the batch came out. With the container of brownies in one hand, Kel gave a firm knock on the door.

It took a couple minutes of waiting before assuming he may not get an answer. Kel took a breath, determined to not give up this time, to not let this family shut him out. He knocked again, this time much harder. He waited for another minute or two before huffing. Maybe he just needed to let them know he was not going to take silence for an answer. This time he pounded his fist on the door, as hard as he could. He could feel his fist slightly ache from how hard he hit it against the wood, but he knew it would disappear soon. Still nothing.

Kel was not an easy person to anger, but it was safe to say he was fairly agitated by now. He knew it was not polite, that his mother would throw an absolute fit if this worked, but by now, Kel threw caution to the wind and reached for the doorknob, gently giving it a turn. To his surprise, the door opened. He was not sure if he was more surprised by the thought that would work, or that it actually did work.

Even so, the sight of the living room alone was pitiful. Dirty, dusty, and pitch dark. As Kel walked in, hoping to find a light switch, he barely made it three steps inside before gagging. What was that rancid smell? It made Kel’s eyes water immediately, he could feel his lunch coming up, his throat burning as he forced himself to swallow it back down. The place was in a horrid condition. He didn’t want to think about any of it. Kel ignored all of his surroundings, going straight for the stairs. It had been years since he had visited this house, but he still knew the layout all too well.

Kel was surprised the sound of the door opening did not alert Sunny or Miss Suzuki. The only noise accompanying him as he made his way up the stairs were the sound of his sneakers carefully tapping against each wooden step. He got to the top and was greeted by a shock. Sunny’s door was covered in wooden boards nailed down to seal his door shut.

He could only feel a lump in his throat as he saw the door, hesitantly calling out, “Sunny?”

Once again, there was no response anywhere in the house. Kel could feel his heart drop as he forced his feet to push him along the hall to the door. He shuddered a bit as his breathing began to slowly become unsteady. He couldn’t stop himself from taking in every detail of the door, the way the door looked completely manhandled. The doorknob had been completely removed, but there was clear damage around it. Then, of course, the boards nailed into the door were certainly a frightening image, looking like they firmly held the door in place, but the nail worked and messy placement of the boards made it appear as though it was done in a hurry. As he got closer he noticed an odd gap in the bottom of the door, sawed out in the same messy fashion as the boards.

“Did Sunny move his bedroom or something?” Kel called out again, to no reply. His voice was shaky now, a voice in his head was screaming at him to run out of the house. Not to mention, the awful smell was seriously giving him a migraine by now. His stomach was threatening to send his lunch spewing all over the wooden floor. The thought of the food in his hands made it harder to keep control of his stomach. Kel could only approach, each step slower and more hesitant than the last.

Knocking on the door would be stupid by this point, so Kel instead opted to take a look inside. Collapsing onto his knees, Kel looked at the open hole where the doorknob used to be. He wanted to turn away but he could no longer stop himself from leaning forward against the door, laying the brownies down on the floor as he placed his hands against the door, pressing an eye into the doorknob hole. It took a moment for his vision to adjust, doing his best not to get a splinter on his face. When the room finally adjusted into his vision, Kel had noticed how awful the room looked.

The room looked covered in dust, mold, and grime. It was covered in odd stains and paint cracks, and despite all of this the whole room was oddly bare. Any resemblance of Sunny or Mari having lived there at one point was gone. Even the wooden desk that was in view was completely bare. The only thing standing out in the image was an odd black bundle of sheets on the floor. It was difficult to make out what that thing could be. Kel looked it up and down several times before making out a small hole in the sheets.

“What is that-” Kel tried to say out loud but quickly stopped as he watched the bundle shift.

It was small, and weak, but the bundle of sheets moved, until a nasty clump of black hair poked out. In that moment, one last small movement was made, lowering the sheets to reveal a horrific sight. A pale, thin, and almost lifeless face staring at the door. It was Sunny. Almost soulless eyes gazed around the room, looking irregular compared to the rest of his lifeless body, until finally making eye contact with Kel. The boy clearly did not have the strength to do anything but stare.

It took Kel a moment for the jolt of panic to kick in, throwing his body against the wall as he yelped in surprise and panic. His whole body scrambled up off of the floor, abandoning the snacks as he ran as fast as he could towards the stairs again, screaming his lungs out as he moved. As he ran, he lost his footing, falling face first down the stairs and landing hard against his chest. All of the air in his lungs was forced out in a single second, causing him to gasp hard for air. His whole body stung as he felt the adrenaline course throughout it. He let out a hard cough as he took deep gasps, forcing himself up as he felt his ears ringing, moving into the kitchen to find anything at all to help the situation. Instead, he was met with a horrific sight.

Laying on the kitchen floor was the source of the smell that filled the house, as Miss Suzuki’s body laid there in front of him, partially decayed. Skin rotting and leaking fluids, her eyes were mostly gone, it was a miracle there were no maggots filling the bone thin lump of what used to be human. Kel probably would have thrown up if he had the strength to, instead he screamed as loud as his tired throat would let him, stumbling backwards and barely catching himself as he ran straight for the door.

Outside the house, there was a sight that was fairly normal. It took a moment to notice it, the mix of fresh air and shock from the house as he bolted and collapsed on the pavement, just barely avoiding scraping his hands and knees as he hyperventilated. There, a few feet away on the sidewalk stood seven figures, all staring at him in bewilderment.

While Kel was inside, the scooter gang decided it would be funny to vandalize the driveway of his house. However, their shenanigans were cut short by Basil strolling by and intervening by asking them to stop. Things were probably going to get ugly for Basil had Kel not instead become the center of attention. To his spectators, Kel looked like a maniac, though Aubrey and Basil in particular were confused on what Kel was doing inside Sunny’s house.

“Ah, if it isn’t Kelsey! My rival has appeared in his true form! A scared little pawn!” Mikhael said in his cringey dramatic fashion, causing Kim to elbow him in the ribs.

“The hell were you doing in there?” Aubrey said, though her expression said that she did not really care.

“Sunny! Sick! Room! Mom! Dead! Dying! Boards! Sunny! Help!” Kel tried to say something through gasps as tears pricked in his eyes.

Aubrey sneered at Kel and was about to tell everyone to walk away when Vance spoke up, “Dead? Like dead dead?”

“That sounds pretty serious. Should we like, do something to help or something?” Angel replied.

“Why? Kel and Sunny don’t need us. They can fix this on their own,” Aubrey spoke up, attempting to walk away and intentionally bumping Basil, making the blonde stumble back.

“What?!” Kel called out, “we need help! This is serious!”

“I don’t know Aubrey, this sounds pretty major, maybe we should see what’s going on,” Kim said. Her voice warbled a bit, standing up to Aubrey, and partly in humiliation for siding with Kel. Aubrey paused for a moment, turning to face Kel again with a glare.

“You know, I stopped caring about Sunny a long time ago. I stopped caring about you a long time ago. And we both know you stopped caring about me too. So why, all of a sudden, are you asking me to care?”

“Aubrey! Sunny is most likely dying! Your friend is dying! Doesn’t that bother you!” Kel screamed back at her.

“S-sunny is dying?” Basil whimpered from the sides, visibly trembling like Kel, though clearly not gathering any attention from it as he murmured a panicked tangent to himself. The only attention on him was Charlene staring at him and the occasional glance from the other members of the scooter gang.

“Come on Aubrey, lets just hear him out, see what’s up,” Vance offered, “it’s not like we can’t do something about it if he is lying. This sounds like a very big deal.”

Aubrey’s grip on her nail bat tightened as she wanted to argue, but heard various comments of agreement amongst her gang. “Fine! But if this is something stupid Kel I’ll steal all your jerseys and dye them pink.”

Kel took a moment to hold back an expression of disgust at how she still treated this situation like a joke. Kel got up, scanning the group of hooligans, noticing Basil. The two made eye contact just for a second, but it was enough for Basil to know Kel wanted him to come. As the eight entered the house, most of them entered a gagging fit from the smell.

“What is that!?” Angel said, pulling his tank top up to cover his nose.

Kel could only weakly point at the kitchen door, not wanting to even think about the image that laid before him. Aubrey rolled her eyes, marching over into the kitchen. It only took three seconds for her to unleash a blood curdling scream as she ran out as fast as she could, tears already spilling as she stumbled into Kim.

“Kim! Kim! Call the police! Call an ambulance! Call someone!” Aubrey cried out, squeezing Kim’s shoulders as tightly as possible.

“What’s in there? What is it?” Kim tried to ask, panicked from Aubrey’s reaction but was quickly shut up.

“Just fucking call someone!” Aubrey screeched at the top of her lungs, spit visibly spraying onto Kim’s face who flinched in response. Kim quickly fished her cell phone out of her hoodie pocket and dialed 911 as Aubrey looked at Kel. “Where is Sunny?!” Kel pointed at the stairs, and Aubrey took no time running up them as fast as she could, with Kel and Basil following close behind. By the time Basil made it to the top Aubrey was already peering into the doorknob hole. “What the hell happened to him?” she asked, unfortunately, Kel did not have an answer.

By now Basil was hyperventilating seeing everything going on, he didn’t know if he wanted to take a look in or if either would let him if he did. Aubrey was pounding her fists on the door as Kel watched in worry. Aubrey was screaming Sunny’s name, feeling a mountain of panic as she saw his near lifeless body laying on the floor. It took a moment before she eyed her nail bat and screamed “fuck!” at the top of her lungs before grabbing it. Before either Kel or Basil could ask what she was doing, Aubrey swung her bat at the door, making a loud thunk noise. At first, it didn’t seem like it did much, but the messy boarding saw the door crack a bit at the impact. They couldn’t be sure if Aubrey actually noticed this or not as she continued to swing her bat at the door over and over. Eventually Kel helped too, kicking the door as hard as he could wherever he knew Aubrey was not screaming, making scratches and cracks in the old door until they eventually got a dent in it. They only paused for a second before noticing their efforts were paying off, and they began to continue attacking the door as much as they could as they heard the sirens of an ambulance approaching the house.

They barely made a hole big enough to crawl through when Aubrey’s arms and Kel’s legs felt too weak to keep attacking. Aubrey was the first to climb into the room, quickly face planting into the floor and crawling over to the bundle of sheets Sunny was curled up in. His pale, skeleton frame and dull expression didn’t change as they got closer. She gently shook him, yelling his name at him but to no response. As the sirens got closer, she could only cry harder as she held onto him. Kel and Basil eventually joined her, but they couldn’t do much but watch her sob. None of them wanted to lose Sunny, but it seemed fate may have had other plans.

Chapter Text

As the paramedics took Sunny away, Aubrey couldn’t stop herself from having a complete breakdown. She was clinging to Sunny’s unconscious body, completely bawling and screaming. Kel and Kim both had to pin her down onto the floor just to stop her from punching one of the paramedics who were trying to check on Sunny. She was completely red in the face, face wet as she kicked and squirmed beneath them. By the time they let her up, Sunny had already been dragged away in an ambulance. She felt an intense pain in her chest as she saw him no longer there within the room. As soon as they got up, she stopped struggling, and rather than get up, she just continued to lay on the floor weeping.

Kel could only watch in pity as Kim attempted to comfort her best friend. Kel instead decided to turn to Basil, who had also successfully crawled his way through the hole. He was hunched over, roughly pulling on the bits of hair that got caught between his fingers as he held his head. Basil was muttering to himself, whimpering as he did his best to process everything going on. Kel put a hand on Basil’s shoulder, visibly worried. It had been years since their last interaction but Kel felt a moral obligation to help Basil. “Hey man, it’s going to be okay. You shouldn’t pull your hair like that, it’ll hurt.”

Basil seemed to not realize that Kel was even there, instead, reacting to the physical contact by stumbling back and closing in on himself even more. Kel tried to reach out for Basil again, but felt an overwhelming feeling of defeat. He didn’t think he could do anything to help. However, that’s when someone else went to comfort Basil. The giant girl Charlie had somehow made her way into the room without anyone noticing and gave Kel a small pat on the back. Kel couldn’t read her expression all too well but he could tell she wanted to help. He let her approach Basil and began whispering to him about flowers and such.

Kel left Sunny’s room, feeling a sense of dread as he let his burning nostrils take another assault as he walked back to the living room. From the now open blinds of a window, he could see a paramedic standing beside Angel as the boy threw up everything he had ever eaten. He knew they had also taken Sunny’s mom away, though it was probably just to deliver her to a morgue. There was no saving her. Vance and Mikhael took an uncomfortable place on the couch, unsure of what to do now. Kel looked at them, all three trading glances that asked what they should be doing now. Eventually, Mikhael spoke up, “maybe, we should help? Like look around and find stuff? What even happened here? Aubrey seems like she knew that boy.”

“Yeah, Sunny, an old friend of both of us. It’s been years since he left his house though, guess now we know why. If I knew this was going on I would have done something about it. I have no idea what happened here, and I’m not sure if I want to know. Yeah, I guess we can look around, just don’t go in the kitchen for now. This whole place is going to need to be aired out,” Kel said with a big sigh. Vance stood up first, seemingly handling this better than anyone else. Most likely because he was the oldest person there, he was doing his best to stay calm, it’s not easy to do that when staring down a corpse as it’s carried out of the room right next to you.

“I’ll take a look around the other rooms I guess. Mikhael, think you can handle the bathroom?” Vance asked, only receiving a nod from Mikhael who still took another minute before standing up. Vance probably knew Mikhael was also on the verge of throwing up. Kel sighed, knowing he didn’t want to, but continued to stand and decided the best room to check would be Miss Suzuki’s. Kel didn’t even want to drag himself back up the stairs after just having gone down them. Mikhael just gave him a look that told Kel that he didn’t want to do any investigating either. His wig having come partially undone in his panic from seeing a corpse, it was unsure if he also threw up when they brought her out.

The two needed a few good minutes to get up the stairs, hesitating more with every step until they reached the top and went their separate ways into different rooms. Kel saw Kim helping Aubrey out of the hole in the door but didn’t wait up for them, unsure if Aubrey would lash out again or not. As Kel grabbed the doorknob he found himself reaching another door that wouldn’t open for him, though this time it appeared to be just from not being used for so long. He turned the knob and quickly slammed his whole body into the door, forcing it open. Inside, was yet another horrifying sight.

The walls and furniture had been vandalized, covered in black marker scribbles. Words written on everything overlapping so much that most of it was barely legible. The shelf and bedside table had been knocked over on the floor, along with smashed glass from family pictures. The markers used for writing on the walls lay scattered on the floor, over fifty of them missing their caps, clearly dried of all possible. Even the lightbulbs that should have been screwed into the ceiling fan had been thoroughly smashed with such violence that one of the fan blades sat on the bed in splinters. The larger shards of glass from the pictures had small stains of blood on them, and the floor, the only part that was left without ink stains instead had drops or splatters of crimson strewn about randomly.

Aubrey and Kim stumbled into the room with Aubrey leaning against Kim’s shoulder, her eyes red and face wet from her very hard crying. Kel was sure Kim probably fixed up her hair before they crawled out of the door with how messy the two looked. Aubrey was missing the energy to be shocked but Kim was clearly horrified at the sight. “What the hell is all of this,” Kim practically screamed as Aubrey just looked down, a look of defeat washing over her face.

Kel just took in his surroundings slowly, eyes darting from one thing to another. It had finally set in for him that this had to have been happening for much much longer than he initially thought when finding Sunny. His body trembled again as he walked around the room, examining the writings that surrounded him. He wanted to be able to decipher any words around him, but he knew very well he didn’t want to. That’s probably why he didn’t understand anything he saw in the room. Aubrey took a moment to slowly slide off of Kim, slumping against the doorway and carefully laying on the floor, letting out the deepest breath she could. She gently reached over to grab one of the capless markers on the floor and rubbed her thumb against the now rock hard material that was supposed to hold the ink. Drier than the handfuls of flour she used to lay out when she baked cookies with her friends. It cemented in her mind that all these scribbles on the wall had to have been at least a year old. Which meant that it was possibly longer, possibly the whole time Sunny was hidden away in this house, that he was being treated like that. Nailed shut inside his room.

Kel gently walked over to one of the smashed portraits, noticing a picture covered in shattered glass. He gently picked it up by a corner, allowing the shards to slide off of it and onto the floor. It had a few small drops of blood on one side but it was still clear what the photo was. An old photograph of Sunny and Mari from years ago. Seeing the two, perfectly happy and healthy, side by side, it made Kel feel like someone had just stabbed him in the heart. He carefully examined the photo, making sure there was absolutely no glass on it before gently putting it in his pocket.

“Hey guys, I found some stuff. Not sure if you want to see it but it looks important!” Vance called out from the bottom of the stares, making everyone in the room jolt out of surprise. As Kim helped Aubrey back up, Kel carefully stepped around them, noticing that Basil was now standing alone with Charlie having already made her way down the stairs. Kel tried to reach Basil but was only met with hesitance as he watched the blonde take a step back in response to Kel’s approach. Basil’s face held a very regretful expression, regretting the hesitance, but Kel understood and turned around, making his way down the stairs with Kim, Aubrey, and Mikhael slowly trailing behind. The paramedics had left, though they had no idea if the police would be arriving. Angel was still outside though, leaning against the mailbox with his face buried into his arms. MIkhael quickly split with the group to go check on the boy as the rest made their way to the basement where Vance had returned to. The place was dark, dank, and filled with enough dust to kill a person if they spent too long in there. If the smell of rotting flesh and who knows what else had not already given everyone a migraine, this room certainly would.

Vance sat on the stairs halfway down, possibly to help avoid anyone inhaling the ungodly amount of dust and lint that had collected in this room, the light now off again. In his lap, rested an old picnic basket, the blanket having been removed and placed to his side to reveal its contents. Inside laid a whole stack of messily written paper, most of which looked like they had been ripped out of a spiral notebook. However, there was something else there, a wall phone line that looked to have been ripped off the wall and smashed. Kel took a single glance back, Aubrey having done the same, turning back to him and looking down, her defeated expression remaining unchanged. Vance handed some of the papers to Charlie as he began to read one of the lines from a paper he had set to the side. “That damn bastard is so paranoid I’ll call for help that he destroyed our phone. He’s truly lost his mind but I know he’ll probably kill me if I squeak. My bruises from last week still have not healed. I know one day I’m going to get me and my son out of here, I just have to wait it out until he leaves an opening. I need to get working on dinner soon, the last thing I need is to miss my opportunity to feed Sunny again.”

Everyone either looked horrified or disgusted. Kel’s heart raced, his ears rang as he watched Vance lower the paper back into the basket. What everyone else said around him was blocked out as he thought about how all of this was happening right next door. Maybe he could have done something to stop all of this. There was a building feeling in him, completely awful, boiling emotion rising up until he yelled out and punched the wall next to him as hard as he could. His hand ached, but it snapped him out of his shock. He could hear the others around him discussing their beliefs of what Sunny's father was doing, but more importantly, he could hear sobs. Aubrey had collapsed on the floor, curling in on herself as she loudly sobbed and wailed, trying to speak on her grief but barely able to get out anything. She was overrun with guilt and hatred and fear. The only distinguishable thing escaping her lips was when she would whimper Sunny’s name, curled up as tightly as she could as she pulled on her own hair in her panic. Kim, who at first was supporting her, was now too terrified to even reach out.

Kel didn’t blame Aubrey, he was literally and figuratively biting his tongue to the point that he was concerned he would begin to make it bleed. He wanted to fall in on himself too, he wanted to scream profanities and start hitting everything in sight, but he knew very well that wouldn’t stop anything. Memories of Hero laying in bed for days at a time came flooding back, Kel had more important things to think about than his feelings. He was a big brother now, and even if she was just a baby, his heart sank as for the first time in maybe all his life, he actually considered the potential consequences of his actions. The last thing he would ever want is to close up and scream and lash out at his parents, or potentially even his baby sister. On top of all his rage, there was a twinge of fear at the thought that he would end up like Hero after Mari passed away.

As if magically summoned from his thoughts, Kel’s mother had burst through the door, yelling out for Kel. “Over here Mrs. Montoya!” Vance called out, knowing he was the only person who had the strength to raise his voice in the room.

Everyone slowly began to climb out of the basement and into the living room where Kel’s mom had barged into. She looked pale, worried sick over everything that had happened. “What happened? Who are all these other kids? Why are you at the scene of a body?” She went on and on with the question as she watched him approach, her motherly panic being silenced the moment she finally got a good look at her son’s face. Kel hadn’t even realized the tears falling down his face, he looked devastated and drained. “Oh, Kel,” was all she could say as she gently took her son into her arms, giving him a comforting hug as he held onto her tightly, unable to sob, his throat feeling weak from how much he struggled to hold back all of his screams and cries. His mom slowly rubbed his back, telling him that it would be okay as she observed the other kids in the room, who all shared an equally upset look.

“I was told Sunny was being taken to the hospital, he needs an adult there. Would you like to come with me?” She asked, to which Kel just quietly nodded.

“Can they come too?” He asked in such a hushed voice that she never even heard when Sally was taking a nap.

“My car doesn’t have enough seats,” she said, trying to speak to him softly so as to not make him completely lose it.

“No, not everyone here, just Basil and Aubrey, if they want,” Kel spoke up so that Basil and Aubrey would hear.

“Oh, if they want I don’t mind taking them. You’re all Sunny’s friend after all. Where are they?” she asked before Basil took a step forward, avoiding eye contact with the older woman as he gently raised his hand. Aubrey also eventually raised her hand, giving a nod to the older woman, staring at her with now more visible glossy eyes as Kim did her best to brush Aubrey’s hair from her face in an act of comfort. “That's Aubrey? Goodness the poor thing,” Kel’s mom whispered to him before clearing her throat, “right, well then, we can go to the hospital. Everyone else, please, go home. This is no place for someone your age. I’m sure your families are just as distraught.” Everyone nodded at Mrs. Montoya’s orders, though before they all scattered, Aubrey gently leaned into Kim’s ear and whispered something to her, getting a nod as the two split up, Aubrey going to join Kel and Basil while Kim quickly went back to Vance helping him straighten up the papers.

Kel’s mom did her best to gently usher the three children into her vehicle, feeling the heaviness of the Suzuki household follow them into the car. Kel took a seat in the back of the car, opening the door for Basil before climbing in next to him. Aubrey had the passenger seat, which she couldn’t tell was better or worse for this situation. It felt off to all three of them, an overwhelming feeling of guilt and dread mixing awfully with the silence that accompanied them the whole ride to the hospital. The only thing all three of them had in common were hopes that Sunny would be okay.

Chapter Text

The waiting room held a full sense of dread as the three sat there, waiting on the news of if Sunny would make it. For the first time in who knew how long, they all were in agreement on one idea: “Please let Sunny make it.” Though, that shared hope didn’t do anything to bring them any closer together. All three of them sat two seats apart from each other. Kel’s mom had stepped out to talk to people about guardianship and insurance for Sunny. It was factors that they had not even considered until they saw the poor woman get asked so many questions in person and on the phone that she had to leave. Kel examined the other two in the room, watching as they both curled in on themselves in their chairs. His first choice would have been to comfort Basil, but considering Basil’s hesitation and decision to not sit next to Kel, he figured he should provide Basil a few more minutes of alone time. That meant the only person he could talk to was Aubrey.

As much as he didn’t want to, Kel pushed his previous problems with her aside and got out of his seat. He quietly walked over to Aubrey, watching as she stared daggers at him across the room until he had a seat next to hers. At first she didn’t acknowledge him, looking away once he took the seat next to her. Kel didn’t know how to open up the conversation with her, it had been a long time since the two had done anything but yell at each other. He waited a moment to see if she would do anything else, but patience was not always Kel’s best virtue. It only took a few seconds before Kel decided to start the conversation.

“So, how is everything?” Kel asked awkwardly. No response. Just a side-eyed glare from Aubrey. “I mean, besides all of this. How’s everything at home?” he asked, once again trying to make conversation. This time she froze up, he could see the hairs on her arms stand up straight. Her head swung around to face him quickly as she gave him an angry scowl.

“What the fuck do you care?” She spat poison at him.

“Woah, Aubrey, calm down. I just asked a question,” Kel said, somewhat confused by the sudden hostility. Sure, they didn’t like each other but that was not what was important at the moment.

“And I don’t feel like answering, so leave me alone.” Aubrey said, looking as if she was on the verge of giving Kel the usual headbutt in the dead center of his face. As soon as the tears began to prick at her eyes, though, she quickly looked away from him. She felt a pain in her throat as she forced back a sob.

“Come on Aubrey, can’t we put aside whatever your upset at me for?”

Kel’s words angered her even more, causing her to shove Kel away from her. As she pushed him out of his seat, he fell on the ground with a weak thud, only confused by her odd attempt to get rid of him.

“Kids, come on, no roughhousing in the hospital,” Kel’s mom exclaimed, rushing over to help Kel up. She clearly looked mortified from dealing with the doctors and insurance stuff. As Kel got up, he didn’t even look in Aubrey’s direction. Instead, he just thanked his mother and moved over to Basil, not saying anything to the blonde as he sat down next to him.

Aubrey grumbled to herself as she hugged her knees to herself. “Stupid fucking Kel. Always such a nuisance. Him and Basil both, such annoying dirtbags. Assholes, all of them.” Her ranting was whispered, but everyone could see her murmuring to herself. That was until she felt another presence. She almost went off on them, cussing them out, but luckily she noticed who had sat down before opening her mouth. It was Kel’s mother, giving her a concerned but caring look.

“Hello Aubrey,” she said softly.

“Oh,” she said with a relaxed huff, “hello ma’am.”

“You need to talk? Get anything off your mind? I know Kel can be a bit much.” ‘Tell me about it,’ Aubrey thought to herself. She tried to find any kind of words to dismiss the woman, but a part of her did want to open up, even a little, to an adult figure who seemingly cared. Though, she decided to stay quiet. “It’s okay if you can’t right now dear. Just know that if you ever need to say something, or get some ‘older woman’ advice not from your mother, I’m here,” Kel’s mother said, putting finger quotes around “older woman” to make herself not feel elderly.

Aubrey paused at her for a moment, unsure if she should trust her. She nodded, giving her a thankful stare. “Thank you ma’am,” she said in a shaky voice.

Chapter Text

WELCOME TO WHITE SPACE…

YOUR DREAMS ARE AS MALNOURISHED AS YOU…

YOU CAN NOT LEAVE…

Sunny could do nothing but weakly stare into the nothing. As he lay on the nonexistent floor, he couldn’t even process a thought of how pathetic he was or what actions led to this fate. Mewo was there for him at least, but even now he no longer could pet her, leaving her to sleep on his chest, gently purring as her nonexistent weight sat softly on him. He no longer had feeling in his arms or legs. Occasionally, one of the hands that kept him from leaving White Space would check up on him, once or twice they’ve even given him a pat on the head or rub his back as if attempting to comfort him, but he had not seen any in the last few days. He had grown suspicious of them after catching two seemingly having a conversation with each other. How they even communicated was beyond Sunny, but it’s not like he was able to approach them, he lost the ability to do that a long time ago.

Was it the thirst? The hunger? The lack of sanitation? The lack of movement? Maybe just boredom or hopelessness. He didn’t know what left him like this even in his own safe haven. The place he made to keep himself safe after being shut in had slowly become his hell. At least in his room there was a window he could peek through the cracks of the barricades to occasionally see a bird or cat come by. No, in this landscape there was nothing. A void that may as well have been a personal limbo that he was trapped within. The lightbulb shining above him, Mewo’s purrs, they were all that was left. His laptop within this world didn’t matter to him anymore, all it did was remind him of how good he had it. He tried to pretend his tissue box was a toy, but that didn’t do much.

And then there was the door. It taunted him. At first he could visit his friends beyond the door whenever he wanted, but now, it was like a bully teasing him. Whenever he got close to it, it moved further away. He couldn’t recall how many times he chased after the door, but each time it would be repelled away as soon as his hand reached the doorknob. It was almost like the entirety of White Space was toying with him. Even his own safe space thought lowly of him.

Sunny spent so much time wallowing in his own self pity that he didn’t even notice the whispers gathering around. The familiar sounds of voices he grew up with echoing in circles around his weak figure as he just waited to die. The whispers continued to approach him, slowly getting closer until they sounded like they only stood a couple inches away. Sunny would shiver if his body had the strength to, feeling whispers like a breath against the back of his neck, feeling a presence looming over him. A socked foot pressed against his arm, forcing him to roll over, making Mewo gently leap off of him.

It was Omori. Staring down at him, with an army’s worth of white hands all neatly arranged like a platoon. Though, that wasn’t what Sunny was focused on. Instead, it was Omori’s expression. Omori’s usually blank expression, now completely gone, and replaced with a pained look of absolute disgust. Like he was tired of Sunny being unable to do anything but lie there, like he was fed up with everything. As if reading Omori’s mind, the white hands quickly crawled over to Sunny, surrounding his body like children doing a dogpile.

Sunny couldn’t do anything at all, as he internally panicked. As badly as he wanted to scream out in horror or beg for help, he instead could only stay motionless as his body was covered entirely in hands that only now in hindsight felt like spider-snake hybrids rather than human limbs. As the last of his senses were drowned out, the soft sound of various machines and unintelligible voices that he couldn’t recognize at all. Drowning in darkness, he hoped that this would finally kill him, even if it was a horrifying way to go. How wrong he was.