ｏｍｏｒｉ： １０ ｙｅａｒｓ (2022 ver)

turn right

warnings: violence, manslaughter, fighting parents, arrest, escapism and child neglect

I shoved the stranger's hand off of my shoulder, bolting right. I checked to see if she was tailing me, but I just saw her collapse into a pile of white petals. I huffed in discomfort. She scared me more than I'd like to admit.

I finally caught up with the group after a while, and they let out a relieved sigh when they saw me. They stood in front of a long flight of bright pink stairs.

"Phew, there you are!" Basil said, an undeniable sigh of relief joining his words. "We thought we had lost you!"

"Takes a lot more than a crazy bitch like that to knock me down. Besides, you've never seen the mobs of fangirls at our shows."

"Your what now? Also, watch your language," Hero scolded. I kept on forgetting that the people inside of my dream didn't know about my life outside of it.

"Anyway, we've gotta keep moving. If we get through the sprout mole village, the other pirates will pick us up," Spaceboy said, getting ready to usher everyone away, but we were interrupted by a scream of anger.

Sweetheart had finally caught up to us, her throat raw from shrieking and tears of rage pricking in the corners of her eyes. I gave Hero a look, and he dragged the younger ones away as they yelled in protest. She took a swing at me and I grabbed her weapon, throwing it to the floor. Gripping her hands in mine, we pushed and shoved against one another.

"This all is your fault," she hissed. "I blame you for this!! YOU RUINED MY LIFE, YOU DID!!"

"I ruined nothing. That was your fault."

"YOU DESTROYED ALL OF IT!!"

"I didn't do anything. It's not my fault."

"YES, YOU DID!"

A memory crept into my mind.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO??"

"..."

"ANSWER ME!"

"...I didn't-"

"WHAT DIDN'T YOU DO??"

"..."

"SUNNY, DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD I'VE BEEN WORKING?"

"..."

"HEY! WHA- HEY!"

NO!

NO, NO!

STOP IT!

NO, NO, NO-

I zoned back into the world a couple of seconds later upon hearing the crash. Looking up, I trembled as I saw Sweetheart's lifelessly still body at the bottom of the pink stairs, a patch or two of red on some of the steps. Spaceboy and Rococo watched in shock and terror. "You..." I sighed, stepping over her and following the younger few through the sprout mole tunnels. The two followed along in silent discomfort.

When we got on the spaceship, they both got over it surprisingly fast, but it still stayed in the corner of my mind. Everyone was conversing happily, and we refrained from talking about her fragile body, dead and gone. But, I stayed quiet, losing myself in my thoughts yet again.

I watched my parents as they talked in the kitchen. My mother was sobbing. "He couldn't have done it..."

"We saw the footage. It was him."

"Fuck, what're we going to do? He's just a boy. He can't be arrested."

As I sat on the couch numbly, I covered my ears, my breathing heavy and ragged as the muffled talking turned into muffled yelling. They didn't know I was listening. But, I tried my hardest to ignore them, looking over all of my old drawings that were spread out on the floor in front of me, scribbled in pencil and crayon. And, as they screamed, I began to imagine.