Mari's return

Union

Mari found herself back in the depths of the lake. She could tell right away that this was another dream since in like the previous ones she could hardly move her body. But even if it wasn’t real, water began to fill her lungs as she drifted deeper below the surface. She felt like she was dying all over again. It was just like that night, that fear she felt as air couldn’t pass through her body. She watched as the sunlight became dimmer the more she fell. And she became heavier in the depths unable to see nothing but that fading light.

There was no sound, no clapping, no voices. Just the endless shadows that entered her view. It was lonely. At this point, she’d even be willing to see that strange monochrome version of Sunny. She just wanted the silence to end. She didn’t want to keep waiting for something to happen. But something did.

She landed on the course floor of the lake. Her long hair and seaweed floated amongst her body in the darkness of it all. And in that darkness sat the pale version of Sunny, his dark clothes and dull knife were apparent even here. Next to the boy was his older counterpart, who was floating in depths like Mari. The pale boy sat with his back against a nearby wall, a cave drawing of a shadow with a large eye displayed upon it.

‘That almost looks like-’ But before Mari could finish that thought the boy spoke.

“He loved you and he killed you.”

Waking up from the dream, Mari sat up from the large bed and examined the empty room. She looked next to her at the vacant side of the bed as if she were expecting someone to be there. But it was just her in that room. All alone. But she wasn’t completely alone. Sunny, Kel, and Hero should still be in the house, right? As if answering for her, the scent of smoke reached Mari’s nostrils.

Rushing downstairs, Mari found Hero in her mom’s pink apron holding a somewhat greasy spatula. From the looks of it, the man was in the middle of frying some eggs and bacon. And Mari had the perfect question for that, “What’s cooking good-looking?”

“Oh, hey Mari! Sorry, I just couldn’t lay still in bed so started doing Sunny’s chores and wanted to make some breakfast for everyone.” Setting the spatula down, he inched closer to Mari. “But, wow I still can’t believe that last night was real. My head’s still spinning just thinking about what happened.” Pulling Mari into a hug, the two embraced each other once more. “I love you, Mari.”

Feeling his chest rise and fall, Mari began to feel at ease. No matter what weird nightmares or Hooligans got in her way, she felt relaxed knowing Hero was here with her. That regardless of how much she and the rest of her friends had grown apart, the way she felt for him would never change. “I love you too, Hero.”

“Ew, get a room, you two!” said Kel as he stood in the doorway to the kitchen. The two quickly pulled apart, surprised that the boy snuck up on their moment. “Oh hey, breakfast!”

“Um, anyway, you should probably start eating, Mari. Knowing Kel, all of this food is going to be gone by the time you sit down, I’ll get Sunny in the meantime though.” Hero exited the kitchen with his head down hiding his blushing expression.

A few minutes later, Hero returned with her little brother, but this time he seemed… uneasy as if something was bothering him. “Did you have a hard time sleeping last night, Sunny? Let me guess Kel was probably snoring too loud, right?” Mari asked.