Chapter Text
The luminous rays of sunlight beamed right above Sunny’s head as he slowly brought himself out of the realm of dreams. Immediately the smell of bacon filled his nostrils, and he slowly sat up on the couch. He made a huge stretch, and rubbed his eyes. When they became focused again, Sunny looked around Ms. Angelo’s living room. It was mostly covered in blankets and pillows, but no one seemed to be around. Judging by the commotion in the other room, Sunny surmised that they were making breakfast in the kitchen. He slowly brought himself up to his feet, when suddenly-
“OH GEEZ!”
Sunny just stopped himself from running into someone by flopping back on the couch with the grace of an inexperienced ice skater. When he looked back up, he saw the face of his eldest friend. Hero stood wearing a pink apron, and holding a full plate and a bowl. He made a big, innocent smile, and offered one to him.
“Oh! Uh…thank you, Hero. I really appreciate that.” The smell made Sunny’s stomach rumble. He quickly began to chow down on the bacon eggs and toast. Hero on the other hand only stared at his food, which was just chicken soup. He clasped onto the spoon, but he was having difficulty holding onto it. As Sunny finished eating, he turned to look over at him, and to his horror, he noticed tears streaming down his face.
“Oh, uh, I’m sorry! Uh…here, let me help you!” Sunny took the spoon from his hand, and scooped up some of the soup from the bowl. “Uh…here, here you go, um…friend.” He put the spoon into Hero’s mouth, allowing him to eat it. Sunny kept doing that a couple more times, before he heard another person walk in.
“Alright buddy, let’s get you good and-” Kel began, but when he saw Sunny with him, he cut himself off.
“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to…” but Kel didn’t say anything at all. He just stared at him, not in anger or malice, but silent shock. Then, he shook his head out of his trance and snickered.
“It’s good, I just didn’t expect that, is all. Enjoy the rest of your food, man. I’ll take it from here.”
Sunny scarfed down the rest of his toast, glancing over as Kel helped Hero eat his breakfast, and then he turned his attention over to the kitchen. He took his plate and walked over there. He noticed that the sink was filled to the brim with dishes, and instinctively began washing them, rolling his sleeves up. Sunny scrubbed the dishes with an immense pace, and within minutes, the sink was almost completely empty. As he was wiping off the butter knives, he looked into the drain…he could almost feel it calling…he reached out into the drain, and then jumped as a shadowy hand grabbed onto his wrist. He pulled back, pulling his sleeves back down, and then turned to the dining room table. Aubrey was standing there, looking at him with a slightly raised eyebrow.
“Hey…you alright?”
“Y-yeah, I’m fine! H-how are you?!” Sunny stuttered, pulling his sleeves over his hands. Aubrey was clearly still concerned, but she shrugged it off.
“Oh, you know, about as good as I can be after getting my face punched in,” she chuckled, though Sunny sensed some anger in her tone.
“Y-yeah, you’re looking great! Um, n-not that you weren’t before, I’m just, uh…” Sunny paused, feeling his face turn red while Aubrey chuckled. “Y-you want me to just wash your dishes?”
“Heh, I can do it, thank you. I, uh…gosh, you actually did all those dishes? I think that’s a good enough warm up! Go sit down! I’ll take care of mine.”
Sunny acquiesced to Aubrey’s request, but as he walked over to the table, he felt his heart raise steadily. Meanwhile, Mincy, Cris and Mr. Williams were playing cards. Mr. Williams raised an eyebrow at one girl, and then another.
“Mincy…do you have any…sevens?”
“...Go fish.”
“Welp, looks like this isn’t my game…” he said, holding a multitude of cards. Mincy held three, and Cris, with a huge smug grin on her face, only had one.
“Hey Mincy…” she asked mischievously. “Do you have any fives?”
“...Aw, not again!!!” Mincy forked over her five, allowing Cris to put her last card together with it and setting it on the table.
Mr. Williams laughed. “Well now! This is your third time in a row you beat us! Maybe if I took up swimming instead of weightlifting, I’d be a better Go Fish player!” Williams turned to Sunny, and beamed enthusiastically.
“Ah!!! Glad to see you’re awake, Sunny boy! I was wondering who was doing all of those dishes! Care to play a nice game of Go Fish?”
“Oh, uh, well…I’m more of a Blackjack person myself,” Sunny muttered in a coy tone.
“I…don’t know how to play that one…” Mincy chimed in. “Perhaps you could maybe show us?”
“Oh, uh…yeah! I-I guess I could…”
As the four of them began playing Blackjack, Aubrey joined Kel and Hero on the couch. He had just finished giving Hero the rest of his food, and began staring into space. He hadn’t even noticed Aubrey plopping down on the couch.
“Hey…” Aubrey said, though he didn’t respond. She tapped on his shoulder, snapping him out of his trance.
“Hm? Sorry, were you saying something?”
“Yeah…” Aubrey gave a quick wave to him, and he nodded in response.
“Ah, gotcha. S-sorry, there’s just been a lot on my…on my mind.”
“I get it. If Dad is serious about doing…that, well…we’re gonna have to be strong, and just get it done. I’m sure…that’s what she would have wanted.”
Kel flinched, turning his head away from her. “That’s…not the only thing I’ve been thinking about.” He redirected his gaze over to the table, and Aubrey did the same. She quickly understood the memo.
“Hey…I know that things aren’t doing so well regarding her…but you can still make things right. If you need help with anything, I mean, I’ve known Mince for years now, I’m sure Cris and I can help you out. The best thing we can do right now is be there for each other.
Kel looked into his hands, and then took a deep breath. He looked over to Aubrey, and made a weak, but sincere smile.
“You sound just like her right now.”
Aubrey’s eyes widened, but before she could say anything, the rest of the group went into the living room.
“Ahh, those were some fun games! We should try that again later!!!” Mr. Williams boomed, patting Sunny and Cris on the shoulder. “Alright kiddos, let’s get you back to Faraway, but before we do, let’s clean this place up a bit, leave it better than when we found it, eh?”
“Mr. Williams, you don’t need to-” Mincy started to speak, but he cut her off.
“Oh, nonsense! Yer mother was ABSOLUTELY INVALUABLE to us!!! I think it’s the least we could do to help her out!”
With that, everyone began cleaning Mincy and her mom’s house. All the pillow cases and blankets were folded and put back, the remaining dishes were done, and Sunny even decided to start dusting the windowsill, but he was stopped by Mincy.
“Th-thank you Sunny…but I think that’s good for now. My mom will be super happy, thank you guys!”
“N-no problem…” Sunny replied anxiously. Once everything was cleaned to his satisfaction, Mr. Williams led the kids out of the house. There were a couple cars in the driveway, and they all went into them. Sunny Kel and Hero went into Mr. Williams’ car, while Aubrey and Cris went to Mincy’s. As they were driving back, Sunny leaned against the car window, staring at the trees and utility poles, connected by a long stretch of wire. He imagined someone running, jumping over the rooftops, doing backflips over street signs, doing impossible things. It helped ease the boredom of being in a car.
“So, Sunny m’boy!!!” Mr. Williams chimed in unexpectedly. “It’s gonna be a big day for us! One that I think you’re really gonna like!”
“O-oh? What do you mean?”
“We’re gonna help you clean your house!!!”
Sunny’s heart immediately began racing. His eyes widened, and he began to fidget. “Wh-what?”
“Yeah!!! I heard that thanks to that…kid, you really got into a panic, did things you didn’t mean to do. I called your father last night, and he said that he’d gladly let us help you!”
Sunny’s mind began racing. How was he supposed to hide everything that could cause suspicion? What if he said something his father wouldn’t want? His breathing started to quicken, and it was something Mr. Williams took notice of.
“Are…are you alright, buddy?” he asked sincerely.
“I…we…i-it’s alright sir. I-I-I can clean my house up all by myself. Uh…y-you can just-”
“Dude…it’s okay,” Kel remarked, patting him on the shoulder. Sunny looked down nervously.
“I think all of us kind of messed up over the last few days, huh? This…this’ll be a small way we can try to make things up, you know? Besides, it’ll be nice to be back in your big ol’ house! Remember the time Hero and I made that giant fort in your room? And that TV you guys had! Watching Captain Spaceboy never felt so awesome!”
“H-Heh, yeah…those were good…times…” Sunny briefly smiled, but looked back down. He was trying to fight back tears.
“I-I promise, there’s n-nothing bad there! We’ve had hard times, but we’re still a family! There’s no need to, uh…no need to worry about anything bad.”
Mr. Williams raised an eyebrow for a split second, but reverted back to his usual jolly expression. “We won’t get into anything you don’t want us getting into, m’boy!”
After about ten minutes or so of driving, both cars made it back to Faraway. Sunny’s stomach lurched as he saw his house. Parked right in front of his house was Mincy’s car, but Sunny noticed that there was another car parked in front of them. As they got out of the car, it was apparent that Aubrey was visibly agitated, and she practically stomped over to her dad, making Sunny jump.
“DAD, WHAT THE HELL?!?!”
Sunny and Kel looked over to see who was in the other car, and they immediately understood the reason for her dismay. Standing in front of the car, with a number of bruises and band aids on his face, the remaining black hair dye washed away, was Sunny’s old friend. Basil looked over at them, and said nothing. Sunny saw his face, the bruises and healing cuts, looking much like Aubrey’s, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bad, in spite of everything. However, given Mincy’s nervous expression, that sympathy diminished slightly. Standing next to him was a very tired, very sullen looking Polly. He could tell that neither of them slept the entire night.
Mr. Williams walked over to Aubrey and the rest of the group, scratching the back of his head. “Now, look, I know this isn’t something you’ll be happy with, but-”
“Not happy with?! NOT HAPPY WITH??? Dad, this…this asshole has spent nearly all his time tormenting us for three days! I haven’t had a single good day since coming back because of him! Why would you think that…” Aubrey quickly noticed that her other friends, especially Sunny, were getting alarmed by her outburst, so she took a deep breath. “Why do you think this is a good idea?”
“Okay, look, it’s very clear to us adults that, well, there’s a lot of tension between you all…” Sunny couldn’t help but notice his eyes looking over to him for a split second when he said this. “We’ve all decided that, because of his role in, uh, instigating certain things, he would help Sunny here in cleaning up his house. As long as we put our grievances aside for a couple hours at most, we can quickly get this done and move on.”
Not a single person in the group looked satisfied with that decision.
“What makes you think he will even help us?” Cris spoke up.
“Ah, well…I’m sure that he knows what will happen if he doesn’t help out…” He looked over at him, and Basil twitched slightly and looked away, saying nothing.
“What if he starts being a jerk to us again?”
“Oh! Well, I’ll be close the entire time, so if he does end up causing trouble, I’ll be right there.”
“I…I don’t know, Dad. It’s bad enough that it’s…y-you know…” Sunny’s eyes widened slightly, understanding what she meant by that. “Why does he have to be here?”
Mr. Williams sighed. He went over to Aubrey and gave her a hug. “I know this isn’t going to be easy for you. Believe me, I don’t like doing this either. If you don’t feel up to it, I understand.”
Aubrey turned towards Sunny slightly. He looked away shamefully in response.
“No…no, I’ll do it.”
Aubrey’s dad patted her on the shoulder. “Good…good! Yes, if any of you need some time to take a break or anything, don’t hesitate to ask! Now, if we-”
Mr. Williams was cut off by Kel, who lunged towards Basil, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him close.
“Hey now, let’s not-”
“Now you listen to me, you son of a bitch…” Kel bared his teeth at Basil, who looked completely unfazed by his aggression. “If I see you getting near Mincy, or my brother, you’re dead! Do you hear me?!”
“Please, that’s not-” Polly started to say, but Kel didn’t budge.
“DO YOU HEAR ME?!”
Basil simply stared at him for a few seconds, and then nodded in agreement.
“Alright Kel, just get away from him. C’mon, just get back…” Slowly, Kel let go of Basil’s shirt and walked away. Sunny, who felt incredibly anxious through that entire thing, noticed that Kel was crying.
“Let’s just get this over with…” he finally choked out. “I want to take Hero back to my house real quick though. I’m not too sure if being in a cluttered area is a good idea for him.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
“Also, I think Cris should go with him,” Aubrey chimed in.
“Wha? Why me???”
“Nobody wants to risk having you falling over or anything. You saw how out of shape it was yesterday.”
Cris grumbled. “Alright, fine, I guess. You’re gonna miss out though. Hero and I are going to throw a party while you’re working.” The two brothers and Cris walked next door, while the rest of them waited. Sunny looked over at Basil, and apprehension swarmed over him, but he became more relaxed seeing Mr. Williams closeby. After a few minutes, Kel returned to the house, glaring at Basil as he did so. Basil said nothing.
Sunny took a deep breath, and began walking towards the door. He got the key, and unlocked the door, his hands shaking intensely. He grabbed onto the knob, closing his eyes. Then, he opened the door. For just a split second, he saw her, holding that cursed shovel, smirking, before immediately fading back to reality, and it was a harsh one at that. The curtains were torn, furniture was scratched up and overturned. Multiple things were thrown on the floor. The worst of it though was…the blood. So much blood, browned and dried from Sunny’s self abuse, scattered around the floor. It was so disastrous, one would think that a tornado came and ravaged the house, and in a manner of speaking, a storm did go through here. Sunny’s jaw dropped to the floor, disgusted by the state of the house. He…he did this. He did all of this! Everything he worked so hard to accomplish…completely undone in one breakdown.
“Meh, I’ve seen worse,” Mr. Williams quipped as they all walked inside.
“Wh-wh-what…? It…how did…” Sunny ran his hands through his hair, his anxiety skyrocketing. Dad was going to kill him for this. He was going to beat him so badly for this. He didn’t mean it, honest! But none of that mattered, did it? No…it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter! IT DOESN’T-
“Hey…” Aubrey gently put a hand on his shoulder. Sunny jumped in surprise.
“Y-y-yeah?”
Aubrey smiled at him. Oh, it was just a beautiful smile. Sunny immediately calmed down, focusing his breathing. Then, he began to address the rest of the group.
“O-okay, so, um…this isn’t how it normally looks.” Sunny made a light chuckle, trying to ignore his fears, and the concerned looks on their faces. “Um, let’s just start, uh, p-picking trash up, making some space to walk around, and then we’ll go from there.”
“Sounds like a plan, Sunny m’boy!” Mr. Williams bellowed. The group began to pick up the various pieces of trash and debris off the ground. Sunny got some trash bags from inside the sink drawer, and they filled several bags before they could see the ground very well. However, after noticing the ground, Sunny wished he had it covered back up; the blood was much more noticeable now. Something about it looked…different. Sunny knelt down to inspect a certain patch of blood, when he was startled by his old friend.
“Y-yes?” Sunny asked, standing back up. He looked into Basil’s eyes; they were cold, piercing into his soul with a rage so intense it could melt steel. Sunny looked down, and his eyes widened with horror. Within Basil’s hand was a framed picture of himself, his parents…and his sister. A huge crack formed in the frame, making him and his parents indiscernible, but only Mari was visible.
“What would you like me to do with this?” Basil snarled, like a dog chained up and muzzled, desperate to tear apart the small, pathetic squirrel. Sunny took a step back, but eventually gathered his senses after seeing Mr. Williams close by, and held out his hand.
“I-I’ll take care of this…”
“I bet you will…” Basil remarked as he handed Sunny the picture. Then he went back to cleaning. Sunny felt deathly afraid, and it was like ice piercing his lungs. He looked down at the picture, and then wrapped it around his chest with his hand, and then walked up the stairs to his room. Basil stared at him the entire time until he was gone.
Sunny opened his bedroom door, and placed the frame right inside, quickly closing it and walking back downstairs. He looked around, and noticed that things were already looking a lot better. For a brief moment, he could feel his nerves steadily declining, his heart rate becoming calmer…he felt that things were going to be okay…and then he saw the bottom of the stairs. The pupils in his eyes constricted, and his hands began to shake. Though it was faint, very noticeable black splotches riddled the bottom of the stairs, and it was crystal clear that it wasn’t simply his blood from the previous night: it was the blood of his sister. After all this time, after all the mind numbing, meticulous scrubbing and sweeping and cleaning, Sunny never got rid of that cursed patch of blood. In fact, he was told not to. Sunny took a step back and went into the bathroom, closing the door and staring into the mirror. A hand appeared behind him, but it wasn’t Hikiko’s for once. No…no, it was the hand of that Shadow Man, and it held up those damn five fingers…five…five…why five? Why five??? Sunny heard a voice, but it was screaming, and it was getting louder, and louder. He pressed his hands against his ears, but it did nothing to stop the head-splitting rarefactions. Oh God, how the screams beat and bashed against his head! He curled up onto the floor, pressing his hands against his ears with all his might, until tears streamed out of his eyes and onto the floor.
Then, there was a knock on the door, and in an instant, the screams vanished. Sunny sat back up, and wiped his face. He walked over and opened the door, and Aubrey and Mincy were there. They all looked concerned at first, but then their expression changed into something…jovial?
“Oh, hey Sunny! Are you feeling okay? You were in there for a little while,” Aubrey told him.
“I-I’m fine. Thank you.” They looked at each other, clearly not fully convinced, but then they shook off their worry.
“We have something to show you! I think you’ll really like it!” Aubrey exclaimed, with Mincy nodding in agreement. The four of them went down the stairs and into the living room, where everyone was gathered. Mr. Williams held something in his hand, and it made Sunny’s eyes widen. Four pegs…four silver strings that glowed from the light…a reddish brown curved base with two sound holes carved in the shape of an “f”...
“It’s your violin! From all those years ago!” Kel announced. For the first time, Sunny observed happiness, even glee, in his voice, just like before.
“It’s a very fine instrument, I must say! It reminds me of my high school days! I was no fiddler, but I could play the cello decently well. Here, I’m sure this would suit you a bit better, lad!” he winked as he handed over the violin to Sunny. For a moment, he just…stared.
“I-Is it new?”
“No no, that’s the old one, from back in the good ol’ days!”
“Try to play it!”
“Yeah, you’ve got it!”
But Sunny couldn’t help but stare at it. This was…this was wrong. Was it repaired? He inspected it, seeing if there were any cuts or dents or…anything that indicated some sort of wear…of a previously broken instrument…but no, it was perfect…just like it had always been.
Sunny pinched the wooden instrument between his chin and shoulder, and put the bow on the string. When he began to play, it was like a lost spirit found its way back to him. Every note rang out marvelously, played in the exact rhythm, same cadence, as he had rehearsed all those years ago. When he was finished, he looked around, and his heart skipped a beat when he realized that everyone was simply awe-struck at his performance. Even Basil, who was tucked away in a corner, trying not to be any part of the group, lowered his rough facade.
“Th-that…”
Basil immediately dashed out of the room, and the rest of them looked back at him for a moment, but then turned back to Sunny.
“Wow…that was incredible!!! I’ve never seen such a thing before in my life!!!” Mr. Williams bellowed. He patted Sunny on the shoulder, and for a moment, no one seemed to realize that Basil was missing. Then, a horrible scream thundered from Sunny’s backyard, causing everyone to jump. The screech particularly made Sunny’s heart sink. They walked outside in the back, and everything looked just like it did before, but with two very noticeable differences: both trees were gone. The first one didn’t bother any of them, and Mr. Williams and Mincy didn’t know what the problem was at all. However, as Basil knelt over the second tree farthest from them, his hand over his face, Sunny, Aubrey and Kel knew what he was upset about.
“Basil…what seems to be the matter?” Mr. Williams calmly asked. He tried to place his hand on his shoulder, but Basil batted it away. Sunny could clearly see his face for a brief moment: red, puffy bloodshot eyes, with thick tears spilling out of them. He felt a tinge of satisfaction at seeing him like this, but it almost immediately gave way to sorrow.
At first, Basil was so choked up that he couldn’t get even a single word out, so Kel spoke up. “The treehouse…the treehouse got taken down. W-we built a treehouse for…them, a while ago, but they’ve…”
Mr. Williams’ eyes suddenly got very wide. He started pacing back and forth, clearly trying to think on what to do. Before he could say anything else, however, Basil darted towards Sunny. He grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him erratically.
“LET ME INTO YOUR ROOM!!! PLEASE!!!!! I NEED SOMETHING!!! ANYTHING!!! Please…please…” Basil started by yelling at him, but it pitted out into a pathetic whimper. Sunny was so taken aback that he couldn’t even respond.
“BASIL!!! Stop, now!” Aubrey yelled, trying to push Basil off of him, but before anyone could even react, he swung a powerful punch straight at her, and it connected. Mincy shrieked as Aubrey slumped onto her, nearly making her fall as well. Then, like a flash of lightning, in a move unlike anything Sunny had seen, Basil was plucked off of him like a feather, and was slammed onto the ground, where he was then tackled and restrained. Basil tried to fight back, but even with his enormous strength for his age, he was absolutely no match against Mr. Williams.
“What the fuck were you thinking, boy? Putting yer hands on my daughter like that…” Mr. Williams didn’t yell with his usual jolly, boisterous, booming voice, but it was instead a deep, menacing growl. Sunny almost felt like he was the one being scolded. He knelt down and tried to help Aubrey, who quickly regained consciousness, but was in a daze
“I-I’m sorry, please!!! Let go of me!!!”
“Oh, I’ll let you go, don’t worry. But first you need to calm yourself, and then you need to apologize.”
Basil screeched and squealed and flailed around with all his might, until there was nothing he could do but sit there and let the tears fall from his eyes.
“Wh-why? Wh-why i-is it g-g-gone?” he whimpered at Sunny, but Sunny ignored him.
“Can you stand, Aubrey?”
“Hm? Y-yeah, I think I can…” she dazedly replied, before sucking air through her teeth and putting her hand on her cheek. “God, that hurt!”
“We have medical supplies in the house. I can help you a little bit. Nothing feels broken, right?”
“No…? Won’t…won’t be looking too pretty later though, heh…”
Sunny took her hand and (even though he was way too skinny) did what he could to get her back on her feet. Mr. Williams talked to Basil for a little bit as they went back inside, and Aubrey got a bandage put on her, with alcohol applied before.
“You seem to know a lot more about First Aid than before, huh?”
“Heh, yeah, I suppose so…”
“What made you get so interested in that, anyway?”
“Hm? Oh, well, I guess I just…” Sunny rubbed his sleeve, which covered many dozen scars. “...learned to pick it up after a while.” They smiled at each other, for a brief moment, but then Aubrey looked at the arm Sunny was rubbing.
“...Why do you cover up your arms all the time?”
“Wh-what?”
Before she could press further, the rest of them went back inside. Mr. Williams looked a lot less scary, while Basil looked like a complete mess. Kel and Mincy were close, but couldn’t make eye contact with each other.
“Alright Aubrey! How are you feeling?”
“Pff, it was only a love tap! No need to-OW!” she winced, putting her hand over her bandage.
“Basil, my good friend…got anything to say?”
Basil looked down at his shoes, taking a few deep breaths…and then spoke.
“I’m very sorry for hitting you. It was wrong, and immature of me, and I will work on having better control of myself.” Then, he looked away, and didn’t say another word.
Kel, however, was not so easily silenced. “We spent so many months…working on that treehouse. It’s…just a shame that it got demolished. Why…did that happen?”
“Maybe Sunny’s parents just wanted more space in their backyard. You know how-”
“-But we worked so hard on it! How could they just tear it all down?”
“It reminded them of Mari.”
Kel turned sharply towards Sunny. “Wh-what?”
Sunny’s lip quivered, but he couldn’t help but explain. “Every day since the…incident…no, it wasn’t just an ‘incident’...it was the day she died…b-because of me…”
“Now hold on-”
“...they would get so sad whenever they looked outside the window. I could hear so much crying and screaming every night, and when I looked…I saw my mother, looking out into the backyard. She’s…no longer with us anymore…but one day, my dad took a massive axe, and chopped both trees down. All our work, every moment we treasured…every trace of it…gone.”
Everyone was simply stunned. No one could even conceive of what to reply with. Sunny realized he had gone too far…just like always. He turned, and picked up his violin, and began walking towards the stairs.
“Thank you all for helping me out. I don’t need to burden you anymore. Please go back home and forget everything about me.” He went inside his room, and shut the door. Back into his prison of loathing and anguish…
Suddenly, there was a huge, booming knock on his door. Sunny jumped, crawling into the corner, shaking profusely. The powerful rapping upon the door was so intense that he couldn’t even speak from fright.
“SUNNY!!! OPEN THE DOOR, NOW!!!!!!”
That voice…it wasn’t Basil’s angry snarls, but Aubrey’s voice! Sunny started to cry, and he covered his ears.
“Stop…please…”
Sunny felt the memories of that awful day coming back. The failure to play the correct note…the throwing of the violin…the arguing…the violin…the same violin that was right next to him, completely intact. When did it get repaired? Was it ever broken to begin with? Another knock made his room ring.
“Please…leave me alone…” Sunny whimpered, tears streaming down his face. It was so quiet that nobody could’ve heard him.
“Sunny!!! Open the goddamn door right now!!! If you don’t open, I’m going to break the door down!”
“AUBERGINE!!!”
“NO!!!”
Sunny wanted to fulfill the command, but he was so, so scared…he couldn’t lift himself from the floor if he tried.
3…
Scared…fear…guilt…
2…
Anger…loathing…sadness…
1…
What did these emotions do to him for all these years? Why did he imprison himself in this cocoon of horrible, immense self-loathing? It all…it all amounted to-
“Nothing??”
The door had burst wide open, swinging open and hitting the wall with a rattling impact. Aubrey looked first upon Sunny’s room…the empty, decrepit, dark room. Sunny was in the corner, the shadow cloaking him as he curled into a frightened fetal pose. Aubrey was stunned at first…hell, everyone was stunned. Then, Basil broke the silence.
“Get outta my way! Let me see…” Basil’s eyes widened with shock. “Wait…where is everything? Where are the beds, the computer, the…everything??? Wh…wh…where’s Mari’s stuff?”
“Sunny…”
Sunny was petrified to the point where he couldn’t speak, but only mouth the words “I’m sorry…please don’t hurt me…” Meanwhile, Kel stared into the room, not even noticing that his hand firmly but gently clasped onto Mincy’s hand.
“It’s…smaller than I remembered…” Kel chuckled weakly.
Aubrey knelt down towards the shaking and sobbing boy, trying to contain her own flurry of emotions.
“I…I’m sorry, Sunny. I was just…so worried about you, I…didn’t know what to do…”
“What…what happened?” Basil snapped, glaring at Sunny with furious, shaking fists. Mr. Williams shot him a glare of his own, and Basil backed off slightly.
Sunny tried to speak through his sobs, but nothing could come out. Aubrey ran her hand through his hair, and whispered into his ear.
“Breathe…relax…”
Even in the midst of the chaos, Mr. Williams couldn’t help but smile at that, even for a second. Finally, after regaining composure, Sunny began to speak again.
“They got rid…of everything…took all of M-Mari’s things, and took all of my things…I only have…her…as a memory…”
For a moment, everyone was silent, trying to comprehend everything that happened.
“So…that’s it, huh?” Basil finally said. “She’s just…gone?” There was a pause, then he said “Your parents must be even worse than you are. Sure, you may have done the deed, and there was that little…incident at the graveyard…but I don’t think you would’ve wanted to erase her things like…this…” His breathing started to quicken, and he put his hands on his head.
“No…no no no…”
“He doesn’t even have a bed…”
“Everything is gone…”
“They…erased…”
Basil put his back to the floor, and slumped onto the floor, putting his hands against his face. There was no more aggression, no more bravado. All Basil could do now is just weep.
Suddenly, Kel’s eyes sparkled, and he raced out of the door. Before anyone could stop him, he ran out of the house. Mincy rushed out after him, but he put his hand out to stop her. Moments later, he returned into the horrible room, holding the one thing that could bring the group together one last time…