Chapter Text
Sunny pressed his head against the cool glass of the car window, his eyes fighting to stay open. As he stared at the moving view next to him, his mind recapped the past two hours.
He had woken up in a hospital bed after his fight with Basil, surrounded by white walls and a sickly clean smell. Sunny sat up, his whole body aching from his weak state. Nonetheless, he stood up and walked out of the room, looking for Basil.
As he exited into a hallway with tiled floors and pale blue walls, he noticed his friends sitting on a bench or against the wall. They hadn’t seemed to notice Sunny yet, and all their expressions were solemn. Aubrey had her eyebrows furrowed and her head facing the ground, and Kel pouted as he sat next to Hero, who was blankly staring at seemingly nothing.
Sunny noticed Kel suddenly turn his head, making direct eye contact with him. Kel’s face quickly shifted from shock to joy, and he bolted towards Sunny.
“You’re finally awake! I thought you were gonna nap forever for a second there,” Kel exclaimed as he grinned from ear to ear.
“Sunny…?” Aubrey joined Kel next to him, her eyes wide with worry. She opened her mouth, only to instantly close it again and wrap him in a hug. Sunny’s face flushed red as he flinched from the sudden affectionate touch. He wrapped his arms around her until she let go, faint tears forming in her eyes.
“How are you feeling, Sunny?” Hero smiled at him, but his eyes seemed tired, almost flat. Sunny merely nodded instead of speaking and gave him a meek thumbs up.
“Is…Basil okay?” Sunny’s voice was raspy, almost a whisper. You could blame it on his isolation, but even as a kid, he never spoke much. His throat stung slightly as the words escaped his mouth, but he just brushed it off.
“He’s…He’s alright, but he hasn’t woken up yet,” Hero looked unsure, which only made Sunny more concerned. How bad had he seriously hurt Basil? Was he responsible…For another death? Sunny shuddered at the thought, sweat running down his face.
He had been thinking about it for a while now, but he knew he needed to tell his friends. Maybe Sunny could do it before Basil woke up so he wouldn’t get angry at him for telling them the truth. Sunny inhaled deeply.
“Should you be standing right now?” Aubrey fretted, leading Sunny by the hand towards the bench she was seated at before. Sunny smiled slightly at her, but his thoughts were running wild in his head. He could see the faint shape of Something further down the hall, which was only worsening his anxiety.
His breathing became shallow and sharp, but he knew what he had to do. He had to tell them. Sunny motioned with his hand for the others to take a seat.
“I…have to tell you something,” the words struggled to come out of his mouth, but he pushed forward.
“Sunny? Are you okay?” Kel looked at him with concern in his eyes. Sunny didn’t respond, focused on what he had to do.
Air barely came into his lungs and sweat drenched his clothes, but he grasped at his hospital gown and continued explaining.
“I killed her. I…killed Mari.”
Hero pulled him into a hug before anyone else could react.
“Sunny…She chose to do that herself, I felt guilty too but- “
“No. You don’t understand. She-she didn’t kill…herself.” Sunny fought to get the words out as his friends’ faces grew in confusion. "I did it…I push…I pushed her.”
Aubrey’s eyes widen, and she grabs Sunny by his hospital gown without thinking.
“Explain.” She half-growled, looming over Sunny like he was her prey.
“I was…She wanted the recital to be perfect but I kept messing up and…She yelled at me, so I ran and I-I dropped my violin and it broke so she kept screaming at me until…Until I accidentally… pushed her. Right next to the stairs. I-I wasn’t thinking I just…” Sunny was on his knees at this point, getting the words out between heavy sobs and gasps for air.
The first response he received was a sharp slap across the face, and he pulled his head up to look at Aubrey through his tear-filled eyes. To his shock, she was crying too.
“You…You’re a murderer!” She cried out at him before storming away.
“Sunny…I…No way. H-how did we find her hanging…?” Hero slowly made sense of it in his head, his eyes darting around. “Did you...?” His tone is a mix of accusatory and betrayed. Sunny nods again.
“Basil…helped…”
Hero processes this for a few seconds before storming off the same way Aubrey did. Sunny and Kel were the last ones left in the bleak, cold hospital hall.
“Sunny…Did you mean to?” Kel asks him, hurt lacing his voice. Sunny shakes his head and slowly pulls himself off the ground, keeping his head down. “It’s going to be okay, alright? I-I’ll talk to Hero and…Aubrey.”
Kel leaves, sprinting and shouting a quick “sorry!” to the nurse who yelled at him for running indoors. Sunny wipes his tears on his bandage-wrapped arm and lifts his head. Okay, that went terribly but…now Basil can be free. He won’t have to worry anymore. Basil can finally be happy without Sunny ruining everything.
Sunny stepped into the room next to his in the hospital, taking in the various equipment surrounding Basil’s bed. As he stood in the doorway, Basil’s head suddenly stirred and turned to face him.
“Sunny…” he breathed, his face flushing slightly red at the sight of him.
“I told them. Everything...will be okay now,” Sunny looked at him through tears and smiled as wide as he could. Basil’s own eyes filled with tears, but he too smiled at Sunny.
After a few seconds of silent cries, Sunny moved towards Basil’s bed and knelt. Basil sat up and faced him.
“Are…Are you still going to move?” Basil half-whispered as he reached his arm towards Sunny.
Sunny took his hand with both of his and nodded. Basil’s face crumbled, his smile disappearing in an instant.
“Sunny please…You-you can’t leave me! Not now that they know the truth! They’ll hate me!” Basil sat up further and let go of Sunny’s hands. His expressions showed his fear and feeling of betrayal.
“Basil…I-“Sunny attempted to speak but was cut off by Basil.
“No! I don’t care Sunny! You…you can’t leave…please…” Basil spoke between heavy sobs and sharp intakes of breath.
Sunny held his hand again, smiling as good as he knew how and walked out. Basil shouted nonsensical expressions as Sunny carefully shut his door.
His body felt heavy, his head aching. His eye and arms stung as he heaved himself back towards his bed. Was that…what he was supposed to do? Would his sister have wanted him to tell them what he did? Would his sister want him to leave Basil alone to deal with the consequences?
Sunny felt his eyes (or, well, eye) slowly fluttering shut, but his descent to sleep was interrupted by Something standing at the end of his bed. Shouldn’t it be gone by now? He said what he had to say…why wasn’t he free? Why didn’t this feel as good as it should have?