Still Here Brother : Omori AU

Chatper 1: The Akwakening

     Mari woke up at the bottom of the stairs, slowly sat up, and gripped the back of her head which throbbed painfully. “Ow..” Mari looked around. It was pitch black and the only light came from the small window at the top of the stairs which barely showed parts of the room. 

     Mari stood up and brushed herself off. She quickly looked up at the stairs to see her brother standing there, or that's what she thought she saw. Her brother was no longer there. Mari’s hands gripped into fists, remembering the events that happened in the past few minutes. 

     ‘He pushed me.’ Mari couldn’t believe she wasn’t dead. The staircase wasn’t exactly the tallest but it wasn’t that shortest either. Mari shuddered and gripped her shoulders, where was he now?

     Mari must have fallen unconscious because it was now dark and the only light was coming from the small window at the top of the stairs, which let the moonlight pass through. 'The recital.' Mari thought bitterly, what time was it exactly? 

     Mari stumbled to the stairs and started climbing them, Sunny had to be in their bedroom, he always hid in there. Mari traced her fingers along the rail and flinched. She lifted her fingers to see dust gathered upon it, 'I thought I cleaned this…' Mari shook her head, 'I probably missed a spot…' 

     That wasn’t the only thing amiss on the way to the bedroom. There were a few boxes Mari didn't recall being there and most of the furniture was missing. Mari tried to open the bedroom door, but found it locked.

      “Sunny, open the door!” Mari knocked on the door. There was no answer, so Mari tried again. But still, there was no answer, Mari angrily sighed and walked downstairs to the kitchen. The house was so different, it was dark and cold. It was so dusty Mari swore she could taste it.

     Maybe it was just her imagination? She did fall down the stairs, she could have damaged her head, how come no one has taken her to the hospital? 

     Mari opened the draws of the kitchen, finding them all empty besides a few crumbs. She bent down and opened a few more cabinets. She then opened the cabinet underneath the sink and found her dad’s toolbox, dirty and worn out. She opened it up and took out a screwdriver which she then took to her brother’s room. 

     Mari started unscrewing the knob, her parents would most likely be mad with her for doing this, but Mari didn’t care. Something was very wrong and she needed to confront Sunny about what he did.  Mari opened the door to see Sunny sleeping on his bed, covered in his blankets. ‘How could he sleep after pushing me down the stairs?’ Mari thought, upset. 

     Mari looked around in Sunny’s room, again there were boxes everywhere and it was dusty and dark. ‘Where’s my bed?’ Mari thought, and where was all her stuff? Did Sunny do something with it? ‘No, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions…but he pushed me...off the stairs…’ 

     Mari shook her brother gently, who didn’t respond at all. She sighed and slid to the ground beside her brother’s bed. 

     It was an accident, Mari remembered the look on Sunny’s face when she fell, he didn’t mean to push her. Mari rubbed her temple, maybe she shouldn’t have yelled at him like that, but his violin… 

     Sunny’s violin, where was it now? From what happened, Mari should have landed near it, at least. Mari looked under Sunny’s bed, it was very dusty, but empty. There was a spider web in the corner of the bed but no spider thankfully, as Sunny had a terrible fear of spiders, but no violin. ‘Huh…’ 

     Mari decided to check the rest of the house, it didn’t help that all of it looked so different. She stood up from the floor and walked out of the room. She decided to start with the bathroom, since it was right there next to the bedroom. The bathroom looked the same, honestly. It had that same cold empty, dusty vibe to it though and there were a bunch of sticky notes from mom on the bathroom mirror reminding Sunny to take care of himself. 

     ‘Mom,’ Why didn’t she think of that before, just go to the parents and let the adults handle this situation, maybe mom and dad could buy a new violin real quick before the recital- Mari shook her head, ‘Stop thinking about it,’ No matter how desperate Mari was, she knew that it was too late for that…stupid recital. ‘It's over now, but there will be more chances,’ Mari thought hopefully. She decided to head to her parents room after staring at a dusty old toothbrush that seemed to haven't been used for years.

      She opened the door gently and looked over at the bed to see it empty. ‘Strange.’ Was her parents out? They wouldn’t be out at this time, would they? Whatever this time was actually-

     Her parent’s room had that same dusty musty vibe to it as the rest of the house. Mari looked at a picnic basket sitting up on the ground in the middle of the room. It was the picnic basket that her mother decided to get a bunch of because it was on a cheap sale of 56 cents. She giggled to herself, remembering how her mom easily lost them all when a powerful wind blew at her the second she stepped out of the house, at least she was able to save one of them. 

      Mari felt..tired all of a sudden, why was she tired? She felt like she hadn't slept at all for years but hadn't been awake either, it was strange. Instead of simply sleeping in her parents room, Mari took her parent’s extra blankets and walked into her and Sunny’s bedroom. She didn’t want to be yelled at by her parents for sleeping in their bed if they came back and she felt a need to be near her little brother, as if he needed protection, for some reason… Mari made a makeshift bed next to her brother’s bed with the stuff she grabbed. 

     She looked over at her brother before laying down on the flat hard surface, maybe she should have gathered some more blankets, but Mari was too tired to care. ‘I’m not mad…’ She looked around the dark quiet room before closing her eyes, maybe she’ll go visit Hero in the morning and see if he had any answers. ‘Hero,’ Mari couldn’t help but smile to herself, yes, she’ll definitely visit him tomorrow. As Mari drifted off to sleep, letting her eyes stay shut, sOmEthiNg opened theirs.