||OLD|| R E V I V A L (a Finger Paintings Sequel)

25 - Day 5

Test Tube wouldn't stop following Fan everywhere he went, she watched him like a hawk. Nobody else knew why she was doing it, except for her and Fan.

Fan found it nice that she cared, but terrifying. Every move he made was carefully inspected by her, she made sure that he didn't do anything that she thought was dangerous. And she locked him out of the lab unless she was with him. She couldn't risk it. Not again. She didn't want to lose the one person she loved.

There were two days left until Paintbrush came back, Fan couldn't work on helping the Cherries, so he did the next best thing. He put them into a.. Temporary death. They weren't dead completely, but he had to work a little harder to wake them back up.

Fan was busy helping with the preparations, fixing up Paintbrush's new room, as their old one wasn't in use at all anymore. Fan had moved to Test Tube's room, so that room was empty all the time. OJ would most likely use it for future guests.

"Hey you two! Thanks for the help today. In all honesty I thought Lightbulb would want to help aswell, but she hasn't left the livingroom at all." OJ laughed, putting up small decorations on the walls. "No problem OJ! We weren't very busy today either, so you caught us at a good time." Test Tube said. Fan nodded in agreement. He was busy fixing the bed, Paintbrush would have definitely love to get back to sleeping on actual beds instead of on a squishy floor.

Test Tube carefully shuffled over to OJ, "Hey.. I've got something to tell you about. You and Fan seem really close, so I'll tell you whenever he goes to sleep." She whispered. OJ slightly nodded, what could this be about?

~~~~~

Sy carefully opened the door, making sure not to spill or drop any of the food that they had in their hands. "Alright guys! Lunch is served." Sy said, handing everyone their food.

Paintbrush was always the first one done, but this time, they couldn't eat at all. They weren't hungry. They tried to eat some of it, but they couldn't. It felt too.. Wrong.

Everyone else finished in around 20 minutes, Paintbrush was the only one left. "Hey, PB, you alright?" Cake Pop asked, she had apologized earlier, so she wasn't exactly freaked out by the thought of talking to Paintbrush anymore. Paintbrush paused, not taking any eyes off of their food. "Yeah... I think so." They nodded. Cake Pop frowned, then hummed. "You normally finish your food before the rest of us, something has to be going on." She said.

"I'm just not hungry." Paintbrush stated, a tint of anger rising in their voice that quickly died down after they stopped talking. Cake Pop shuddered at the sound of their anger, but shook her head. "You've gotta eat sometime today! I'll go tell Sy that you aren't hungry. You'll definitely eat during dinner though! I heard we're getting something super good tonight!" Cake Pop said, then hopped off to Sy.

Paintbrush stared at the food in their hand, then put it to the side. They wouldn't eat. They couldn't eat. They felt sick.

~~~~~

"Paintbrush.." Cake Pop whispered, nudging Paintbrush slightly. Paintbrush stirred from their sleep, the room was dark again. But they could still see. "Okay, good, you're awake." Cake Pop said. "What is it..?" Paintbrush asked, yawning and rubbing their eyes. "Its about Icey." She said. Paintbrush froze in place. "What.. What about him..?" They asked carefully.

"He remembers."

Paintbrush's eyes widened slightly, "He.. He remembers why he's here? What do you mean?!" They asked, picking themself up. "Come on, he said hes ready to talk about it now." Cake Pop said, leading the way to where Ice Cream and Lampshade sat.

"Oh! You got them! Hi Paintbrush!" Lampshade greeted. "Hi.." They waved. Cake Pop sat down, and tugged at Paintbrush's leg so they did the same.

"You're all here..? Okay. Thats good." Ice Cream started. Everyone carefully listened as he began to retell his trauma.

"I'll start off with this. I.. I'm not supposed to be alive." He said. "So your a zombie? OW—" Cake Pop immediately stopped talking after she was wacked in the back of the head by Lampshade. "No. I'm not a zombie. I'm alive right now but.. I was supposed to die. I can't remember all of it but the biggest part that still scares me the most was the fire. My family isn't the.. Best, of people. They have a lot of enemies. But nobody tried to harm us because of how strong we were. Until.. One day, I was just living my life, peacefully. I didn't have a care in the world, I was just a kid." He paused, taking a deep breath. His voice quivered and shaked, threatening him with tears at any moment. "Someone came to my house, and set it on fire. It burned and burned, I didn't even know that I was melting until I heard my mother scream in pain. I watched her burst into flames, and the only thing I could do was run. I left my family behind, they're dead because of me." Ice Cream said. A silence fell over the room.

"When I figured out that Paintbrush's hair could set on fire, it brought back all of the memories in one quick flash. I was terrified. I didn't think that you could feel so terrified but yet.. So relieved at the same time." He sighed. Cake Pop glanced over at Lampshade, who was clearly trying not to freak out.

"I was brought here to try and remember. I.. I can't remember the last time I actually felt fresh air. I've been here longer than all of you." He finished. Small sobs came from him, when suddenly. They didn't.

Paintbrush wrapped their arms around him, they knew how much it hurt to lose someone you loved. It was terrifying. It felt like hell. And Paintbrush understood that.

Ice Cream hugged them back, small tears falling from his eyes.

The room went silent after a few minutes, everyone had fallen asleep, all in the same area.

They were all safe with eachother.

~~~~~

Fan finally went to sleep, and Test Tube exited the room. OJ was waiting for her in the livingroom, if she didn't specifically tell him to wait there, she would have found it creepy that he was waiting in the dark.

"Okay. He's asleep." She muttered, sitting down on the couch next to him. "So..? What did you need to tell me about?" OJ asked carefully.

"OJ.. Fan tried to kill himself." Test Tube whispered, her voice cracking in pain.

OJ could feel himself get sick, he cared about Fan, he never would have thought that Fan would try something like that. "That's why I've been watching him all day. He tried to poison himself, I understand why, but if I hadn't caught him when I did..." She paused, her breathing becoming unsteady. "He.. He would've... Died.." She muttered, tears fell from her eyes as she held her stomach.

OJ couldn't respond, he was trying hard not to cry. He needed to be strong, not just for himself, but for everyone in the hotel. Test Tube had let out a few sobs at this point, OJ put a hand on her back and carefully rubbed it, trying to comfort her. He knew that seeing what Fan tried to do affected her greatly. It pained her to see Fan almost accept the quick fate he wanted to give himself. OJ would have to protect Fan, and the others.

He couldn't let another person die.

~~~~~

WORD COUNT - 1287

haha trauma i love it/s