Chapter Text
The secret place always seemed smaller when you were alone in it.
Sunny sat on one of the tree’s thick roots, the violin resting in his lap and the bow still caught between his fingers. Beside him, the open case waited like a dark mouth, ready for him to put the instrument away and admit defeat.
The last few hours of practice had brought him nothing but mistakes and disapproving sighs. Mari had finally let him take a break, and Sunny had gone somewhere he thought he could relax. He had considered looking for his friends, but...
Basil was tending to his flowers. Kel had said he needed to help his mother with something. Hero was preparing something for after the recital, and Mari was at school, probably checking the room, the sheet music, the schedule—every detail that could possibly go wrong.
As for Aubrey, she was probably at the park.
Sunny thought about her longer than he meant to.
Maybe she was on the swings, like always, kicking at the dirt with the tip of her shoe and pretending she was not waiting for anyone. If Sunny went there, she would complain that he had taken too long, then sit on the swing beside him and talk until the weight in his chest grew a little lighter.
He lifted his eyes toward the path, then lowered them again.
Aubrey would worry—or worse, she would ask what had happened.
Sunny tightened his grip on the bow. He would not know how to answer. He wanted to impress her. He did not want her to see him like this.
He did not want to bother anyone.
Everyone was excited for the recital. They looked at him and Mari as if the two of them were going to do something special. Something perfect. Something worth all the waiting.
Perfect.
The word struck inside his head like a wrong note.
Sunny closed his eyes, remembering the last practice. His sister’s face. The tone of her voice.
Had she yelled at him?
Mari had never yelled at him before. Maybe she was just tired. Maybe she only wanted everything to go right. She always wanted things to be perfect, and she always smiled as if everything could be okay if everyone just tried a little harder.
But in Sunny’s memory, her voice sounded bigger.
It’s not perfect, Sunny.
He placed the violin against his shoulder, tried to set his fingers in the right position, and touched the bow to the strings.
The first note came out crooked.
Sunny stopped immediately.
The silence afterward felt worse.
He tried again.
Another wrong note.
His hand trembled slightly.
Even that felt like enough to ruin everything—to make Mari frown tomorrow, to make everyone realize he was not good enough to stand beside her.
Sunny slowly lowered the violin.
If he had more time, maybe he could do it.
One more day. One more week. Anything.
Just not tomorrow.
“Sunny?”
He turned around.
Basil stood near the entrance, holding the strap of his camera against his chest. Leaves clung to his shoes, and his expression was careful.
Sunny did not answer.
Basil took a few steps inside.
“I looked for you at the park... Aubrey said you might be here.”
Sunny looked down at the violin in his lap.
Basil followed his gaze.
“Are you practicing?”
Sunny nodded.
Basil gave him a small smile.
“I finished tending to my flowers earlier than I thought,” he said. “Some of them looked a little droopy this morning, but I think they’ll be fine now.”
Sunny gave another small nod.
Basil shifted the camera strap against his chest.
“Then I went to the park. Aubrey was there.”
Sunny’s fingers tightened slightly around the bow.
Basil noticed, but pretended not to.
“She looked a little lonely,” he continued, his voice softer now, almost teasing. “She said you were probably hiding somewhere instead of coming to see her.”
Sunny lowered his eyes.
For a moment, the weight in his chest loosened.
He could picture her clearly: sitting on the swing, kicking at the dirt, frowning like she was angry at the ground instead of worried about him.
Maybe she really had been waiting.
The thought made something warm flicker inside him.
But it did not last.
The violin was still in his lap. The recital was still tomorrow. The wrong notes were still waiting for him the moment he tried again.
Sunny’s grip on the bow tightened once more.
Basil’s smile faded.
“You look...” He hesitated, searching for the right word. “Is something wrong?”
Sunny stayed quiet.
The wind passed through the leaves. The violin case creaked softly as one of its hinges shifted.
Basil sat down beside him, not too close.
“Is it because of tomorrow?”
Sunny took a while to answer. When he finally spoke, his voice came out low.
“I need more time.”
Basil tilted his head.
“More time?”
Sunny ran his thumb along the wood of the violin. Its smooth surface reflected a broken piece of sky between the leaves.
“It’s still not perfect.”
Basil looked at him carefully.
Sunny swallowed.
“Mari said so.”
Basil’s face changed.
“Did she yell at you?”
Sunny did not answer right away.
Mari had not yelled.
Or had she?
He did not know anymore.
“She wants it to go well,” Sunny said.
“But you want that too, don’t you?”
Sunny pressed his lips together.
Wanting was not the problem.
He wanted to play with Mari. He wanted her to smile at him after the final note. He wanted Hero to clap, Kel to shout too loudly, Aubrey to pretend she had not been moved, and Basil to take a blurry picture of all of them together.
He wanted it so much that it hurt.
But wanting did not make his fingers obey. It did not make the music perfect.
“I’m going to ruin everything,” Sunny said.
Basil went still.
“You won’t.”
Sunny shook his head.
He looked toward the school in the distance. Only part of the building was visible above the houses and trees.
Tomorrow, that place would be full of people. Mari would be waiting for him. Everyone would be disappointed.
“If it wasn’t tomorrow,” Sunny murmured. “If something happened.”
Basil said nothing.
Sunny kept looking at the school.
The idea came quietly, almost like any other bad thought.
The longer Sunny stared at the building, the more the idea took shape.
No one needed to get hurt. It did not have to be forever. It only had to stop the recital.
A small problem. A delay. Broken equipment. Missing cables. Something that would make the adults cancel everything until it was fixed.
More time.
Sunny felt his heart speed up.
It was wrong. Of course it was wrong.
Mari would be sad... but maybe it would be better for her to be sad for a few days than disappointed in him forever.
Basil was watching his face.
“Sunny?” he called, more softly. “What are you thinking about?”
Sunny opened his mouth, but he stoped himself.
If he said it out loud, the idea would become real.
Basil waited.
Sunny looked at him. At the camera in his hands. At the worried face of his best friend.
Basil always wanted to help.
Even when he did not know how.
“I know a way,” Sunny said.
Basil blinked.
“A way to do what?”
Sunny looked back at the school.
“To get more time.”
Basil followed his gaze.
For a few seconds, he did not understand.
Then his expression faltered.
“Sunny... what do you mean?”
Sunny told him about the music room, the equipment, the cables, and how, if something went wrong before the recital, the adults would have to postpone it.
Only postpone it.
No one would get hurt. Nothing serious would happen.
As he spoke, his voice grew smaller, as if some part of him were trying to hide the words from himself.
Basil listened without interrupting.
When Sunny finished, the silence returned.
This time, it felt different.
Basil looked at the school.
Then at Sunny.
“You want to do this?”
Sunny felt his stomach sink.
He wanted Basil to say no. To call it crazy.
He wanted Basil to run and tell Mari, or Aubrey, or Hero, or anyone who could stop him before he had to decide for himself.
But Basil did not say no.
He held the camera tightly against his chest.
“Are you sure?”
Sunny was not.
He had never been less sure of anything.
Even so, he thought of Mari frowning. He thought of the stage. He thought of the wrong notes coming out too loudly, of the whole audience hearing them, of everyone realizing he had failed.
He thought of Aubrey on the swing, and how much easier it would have been to talk to her.
“I just need more time,” Sunny said.
Basil bit his lip.
He looked scared.
But he also looked determined.
“Then I’ll go with you.”
Sunny looked at him.
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
“Basil...”
“You shouldn’t go alone.”
Sunny wanted to argue. He wanted to say that it was his problem, that Basil had nothing to do with it, that if anyone got caught, it should only be him.
But Basil was already standing.
There was fear in his eyes. A lot of it. Even so, he held out his hand to Sunny.
“You’re my best friend,” Basil said. “If this is going to help you... then I’ll help.”
Sunny stared at his hand.
The idea still seemed small.
Wrong, but small.
Only more time.
A delay.
Enough for him to learn how to play properly.
Sunny took Basil’s hand.
By the time night settled over Faraway, neither of them had found the courage to call it off.
Sunflower High School
Sunny stood in front of the main gate.
Empty schools had something strange about them.
During the day, they were full of voices, hurried footsteps, slamming doors, and teachers telling someone to stop running in the halls. At night, though, the silence made the building feel too big, as if every dark window were watching them from across the street.
Hero and Mari were the only ones in their group who went there, since they were both in high school. Sunny did not know much about the place beyond the front gate, and maybe that was for the best. The less he knew about the school, the easier it was to pretend this still was not real.
Basil was kneeling on the ground, opening his backpack with a seriousness Sunny had only ever seen in movies Kel did not understand, but pretended he did.
“Okay,” Basil whispered.
From inside the backpack, he pulled out two flashlights. He handed one to Sunny, kept the other for himself, and finally took out a folded, crumpled map.
“Where did you get that?” Sunny asked.
“Kel took it when he came to visit the school with Hero,” Basil answered.
He unfolded the map carefully. The floor plan showed the names of the rooms, the hallway numbers, the stairs, the gym, and, for some reason, a dragon drawn in the middle of the court.
Sunny pointed at the doodle.
“What is that?”
Basil looked a little embarrassed.
“Kel said he got bored during the tour and started drawing. I told him I liked it and asked if I could keep the map. That way, I didn’t have to explain why I wanted it.”
Sunny stared at the dragon for a few more seconds. He wanted to compliment Kel honestly, but the best he could do was decide the linework was exotic. Maybe peculiar. Yes, peculiar was a polite word.
Seven out of ten.
Maybe six.
No. Seven.
Kel still had sports.
“He believed you?”
Basil looked away.
“Well... it’s Kel.”
Somehow, that answer was enough. Kel helped everyone. He was a good person who believed in the goodness of others.
The thought made Sunny’s stomach twist.
Trying to get away from it, he turned his attention back to the building. It was easier to call this a mission than a crime. Missions sounded important. Crimes sounded like things bad people did. And Sunny did not want to be a bad person.
He just needed more time.
Basil put the map away, but did not stand up right away. His fingers still held the edge of the paper.
“Sunny...”
His voice was too quiet.
“We can still go home.”
The silence between them felt larger than the school.
Sunny tightened his grip on the flashlight. He wanted to say yes, to throw everything on the ground, grab Basil by the arm, and go home. But then he remembered Mari, the music room, the recital, and the wrong notes coming out too loudly in front of everyone.
The look on her face when she realized he had ruined everything.
“I know,” he said.
Sunny gripped the flashlight harder.
“But I have to do this.”
Basil closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he still looked scared, but he stood up anyway.
“Then I’m going with you.”
The guilt in Sunny’s chest became small, hard, and heavy.
The two of them faced the wall, tall and intimidating for twelve-year-old boys. It was high enough to keep them from seeing the other side, but not high enough to keep them from climbing it. Once they crossed it, there would be no pretending they were only thinking about the idea anymore.
“Ready?” Basil asked.
Sunny looked at the wall, then at his friend. The feeling that this was a mistake still pressed against his stomach, but he tried to hold on to the only excuse he had: they were not going to do anything serious. They would only delay the duet. Just long enough for him to learn. Just long enough for Mari not to be disappointed in him.
“No,” he answered.
Basil smiled as if he had expected that.
“Me neither.”
Basil leaned against the wall and cupped his hands together, giving Sunny a boost. Neither of them was exactly strong. Even Aubrey was stronger than both of them. But at least they were not very heavy either.
Sunny placed his foot in Basil’s hands and pushed himself up to the top of the wall. For a moment, he stayed there, staring down at the dark schoolyard on the other side.
He could still go back.
Instead, he reached out his hand.
Basil took it.
With some effort, they crossed the first obstacle.
They landed on the other side in an area overgrown with plants. Maybe it was the school garden. As soon as Basil stood up, he let out a small whimper and stared at the ground.
A few flowers had been crushed under their feet.
His face twisted as if he had just witnessed a tragedy.
Sunny gave him a few awkward pats on the back, trying to comfort him. Unfortunately, they could no longer say this was a victimless crime.
“I’m sorry,” Sunny whispered.
“They had nothing to do with this,” Basil murmured, clearly shaken.
Sunny decided not to argue.
Now they had to get inside the school.
The dark windows did not reveal any obvious way in. There was a side door, probably used by staff, but it looked locked. Basil opened the map again and pointed to one side of the building.
“Kel said some of the staff use this area to smoke.”
“Why does Kel know that?”
Basil took a moment to answer.
“He made friends with the staff.”
“In one day?”
Basil only nodded.
Another reasonable answer.
They moved slowly, staying close to the wall. Sunny searched for an entrance, a gap, anything that would justify not turning back right there. That was when he found a window left slightly open.
“There” he whispered.
The two of them approached it.
Before Sunny could stand up to get a better look, Basil grabbed his arm and pulled him down beneath the window.
“Get down!”
Sunny crouched immediately.
A sharp smell drifted out from inside the room. Smoke.
A moment later, a hand appeared on the windowsill, holding a cigarette only a few inches from where they were hiding. A man in a dark blue uniform leaned out and took a drag. Judging by the badge and the flashlight clipped to his belt, he had to be the school security guard.
The smoke drifted down slowly, stinging Sunny’s eyes. They began to water while Basil pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. All they could do was hope the man would leave soon.
The guard put out his cigarette against the edge of a makeshift ashtray and let out a tired sigh.
“One last round and I’m out of here,” he muttered to himself.
Sunny almost felt hopeful.
Then Basil coughed.
It was quiet, but in the silence of the empty school, it sounded far too loud.
Sunny moved without thinking and clamped a hand over his friend’s mouth. Basil’s eyes went wide.
The guard stopped.
“Hey,” the man said.
The flashlight came off his belt.
“Is someone out there?”
The beam of light cut through the window and sliced across the darkness outside. Sunny kept his hand over Basil’s mouth as Basil trembled, trying to hold back another cough. Sunny’s heart was beating so fast it felt loud enough to give them away.
With his free hand, he felt around the ground until he found a small rock. Without standing up, he threw it toward a bush farther away.
The rock struck the leaves.
A few birds burst out of the bush.
The guard flinched and pointed his flashlight toward them.
“Damn birds... nearly gave me a heart attack.”
He stayed there for a few more seconds. Then he huffed, picked up the extinguished cigarette, closed the classroom door from the inside, and walked away down the hall.
Sunny let out a silent breath.
Then he noticed Basil’s face was turning purple.
He pulled his hand away immediately.
“Sorry!”
Basil dragged in a breath and started coughing, trying desperately not to make too much noise.
“Koff... koff... that was... close...”
Sunny peeked through the window.
“He left it open.”
Basil was still struggling to breathe.
Sunny stood slowly and examined the room. Desks in rows, a clean blackboard, a closed cabinet. No guard.
“It’s clear,” he said. “Come on.”
Sunny climbed through the window first and dropped into the classroom. Then he helped Basil inside.
They were officially inside the school now.
Sunny’s stomach tightened.
He went to the classroom door and pressed his ear against it.
Nothing.
He opened it slowly.
The hallway outside was dark, long, and empty. During the day, it was probably just an ordinary hallway. At night, it seemed like it never ended.
“Should we tell someone the security here isn’t very good?” Sunny whispered.
Basil looked at him.
“Probably not. It would be hard to explain, ‘Your security is weak. My friend and I broke through it.’”
Sunny considered the argument.
“True.”
“Where now?”
Basil opened the map again and turned on his flashlight, covering part of the beam with his hand so it would not draw attention. Sunny checked the number of the room they had entered, compared it to the floor plan, and found where they were.
“Here,” Basil said, pointing. “We’re close. We need to go up the stairs and follow the hallway above us.”
He put the map away and switched off the flashlight.
The darkness returned all at once.
Neither of them moved.
Sunny felt his hands tremble. Darkness never felt like only darkness to him; it always felt as if something were hiding inside it. At home, when that happened, he could look for Mari.
But Mari was not there.
Or maybe she was, somehow, in all of this.
The reason he had come.
Sunny closed his eyes and breathed deeply, the way she had taught him.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The air still felt heavy, but his body obeyed him a little. He took one step forward.
Something grabbed his hand.
Sunny almost jumped. He turned quickly and found Basil standing behind him, just as scared as he was.
“C-can I hold your hand?” Basil asked, his voice low and shaking. “You know... so we don’t get separated.”
Sunny did not answer. He only squeezed his friend’s hand a little.
Basil squeezed back.
Then the two of them started walking.
Even in silence, Sunny was grateful Basil was there. Grateful in a way that hurt. Basil had agreed to help him because they were friends, while Sunny was dragging that same friend into trouble that should have belonged only to him.
Maybe Sunny was a terrible friend.
He shook his head, trying to push the thought away.
Not now.
First, he would fix the recital problem. After that, he could think about how to be a better friend.
The walk to the stairs was quiet. They did not run into the guard again. Every creak of the building made them stop; every shadow looked like a person; every closed door suggested someone waiting to catch them.
But no one appeared.
They climbed the stairs slowly, one step at a time. On the second floor, the hallway looked even darker.
Basil opened the map just enough to confirm the path. The flashlight lit the paper for a second, revealing the dragon doodled in the gym again.
Sunny decided the dragon looked like it was judging them.
Kel probably would have been proud of that.
They followed the hallway to the end and stopped in front of the door they had been looking for.
MUSIC ROOM
Sunny stared at the letters on the sign.
Suddenly, the flashlight in his hand felt too heavy.
Basil slowly let go of his hand.
Sunny took a deep breath.
He placed his hand on the doorknob and opened the door.