Phytoremediation

And if I change can I still stay me

Basil closed his eyes as he brought the knife down onto the other Basil's wrist, cutting off his hand.

He screamed in pain, as Basil winced at the blood coming out of the new wound. The other Basil started crying, as Basil walked around him, closing his eyes to swing down the cleaver onto that Basil's other hand.

More cries and sobs filled the air, Basil felt tears come from his eyes at the sound. "Y-You can get out of the binds now..." Basil tried to say loud enough to be heard over the crying.

The other Basil was still sobbing and writhing in agony, so Basil took matters into his own hands, and that Basil's lack thereof, and moved his wrists out from under the binding, then pulled as hard as he could, pulling the Basil from under the straps.

"Th-Thank you..." He said between his tears.

Basil used the carving knife to cut off part of his shirt underneath his sweater, and wrapped it around one of the handless tops of his wrists, trying not to hurt him, then repeated this for his other wrist.

The Basil's crying died down to some slight noises of pain every few seconds. "Um... Basil..?" the Basil looked up at his clone, and smiled, before asking a question, "Can we get out of here? I think that butler is a bit angry..."

Basil faced the butler, whose head was still an expressionless flower, but he felt rage emanating from him, making Basil nod, and hurry away with the other Basil, leaving the room slightly panicked.

"So um... since you're the dreamer now, and you're Basil... I guess that means Omori is gone now?" the Basil asked tentatively.

"No..." Basil said with reservation, "He's still around."

The other Basil seemed shocked. He paused looking deep in thought, then shook his head, and looked at Basil. "Well, since you're already Basil... you can call me something else!"

Basil shrugged.

The other Basil patiently smiled. "Well, just call me Stranger then."

Basil opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a light bulb flickering on. The dim light shone onto a wooden table, with a revolver on it.

An inky black figure walked up to it, the only thing about him which wasn't pitch darkness was hit shining teeth, and his sickly deep red gums around them.

"Hello, boys. Fancy a game?" It spoke with a jovial tone, with a weird accented voice. Like you'd hear at a haunted house attraction's speaker.

"Stay behind me, Basil." Stranger stood in front of Basil.

"Why are you trying to protect the Dreamer? Isn't he the one who put you down here?" It asked with some confusion in his tone, his oversized grin becoming a frown.

"No, he didn't! It was a different dreamer!" Stranger screamed out.

"Different Dreamer? But you were... ohhhh I see your game, sorry 'bout that, kid. You play yours, but I still gotta play mine." Its grin returned, wider than ever.

Stranger frowned at it, and Basil shivered with fear behind him.

"Alright, rules are simple, y'hear? It's like reversed Russian Roulette. Ya spin the bullets, and try to shoot someone else. Since you can't play from the lack of hands, it'll be a 1 versus 1, ha ha!"

Basil stepped forward, trying to seem confident.

"I'll let you take the first shot, kid, go ahead." It smiled deviously at him.

The gun was heavier than Basil expected, but still able to be held in one hand. Basil spun the cylinder, and pulled the trigger aiming at the creature. Basil shut his eyes in anticipation of the loud bang, but silence came out instead, he opened his eyes, seeing that the chamber wasn't lining up with the barrel, causing the failure.

"Aww, too bad kid. Hand it here." Basil passed it over the table with a stretch.

It immediately picked up the gun spun it for a few moments, before trying to shoot Basil in the face. No blood, though, as instead the gun clicked.

"Stronger than I thought..." it muttered to itself. It slid the revolver across the table back to Basil.

Basil picked it up and spun it. "You know there was nothing behind Sunny that day." It smiled devilishly at Basil, who seemed unsettled by that statement.

"I- I know." He stopped it from spinning, and aimed at the beast. It clicked, must've been an empty chamber.

The creature's smile grew as Basil slid it across the table. He spun and attempted another shot, and frowned from another click, sliding it back over.

"That's because it wasn't Sunny who killed Mari." His smile returned, as Basil carefully started spinning the cylinder again.

"W-What?" Basil was surprised and confused. The cylinder stopped spinning on its own.

"It was you." The monster said, the gun failing to shoot him again.

Basil slid it back, "It couldn't be me... he was the one on the top of the stairs..."

"The argument that made him push her was about the violin you bought him." Its grin was as wide as its face.

"W-We all bought it!" Basil justified.

"Yes, you contributing 140 dollars, second biggest contributer being Mari with 45. Now I have a feeling the 2 nickels Kel pitched in wasn't exactly the same level of responsibility." It laughed.

Basil felt like crying, but also some anger at the creature. The spinning cylinder stopped.

"It was your fault." It whispered, the fired the gun at Basil. No bullet came out though.

The monster looked angry, and slid the gun back to Basil.

Basil spun it, and the monster began speaking again. "Though, that's all just what you tell yourself. In reality, you were the one who pushed Mari instead." Basil stayed silent.

"You just forced Sunny to help you. All you did was scare him and take advantage of how he admired you. You're a freak." The cylinder stopped spinning.

"All you can do is delude yourself into believing that you're innocent." Basil fired at him. A click again. He threw the gun onto the table in front of the creature.

It grabbed the gun, and aimed it at Basil, without spinning the cylinder, "Now go to hell, where you belong!" No bang, again, just a disappointing click.

It climbed over the table, pressing the gun to Basil's temple, furiously clicking, "Why won't you die you fucking killer? Why won't you surrender?" The table grew teeth around its edge, before clapping shut onto the monster, making chewing sounds, then opening back up as a table, teeth gone without a trace.

Basil stared at the table in terror, then at the revolver dropped on the ground by his feet.

Stranger ran up to Basil while he picked up the revolver, wary of the table.

"What happened, everything went black... did you win?"

The cylinder opened on its own when the revolver was picked up, displaying all 8 chambers completely empty.

Basil shook his head, "Stay away from the table..."

Stranger looked perplexed, but a white door appeared behind where the creature was previously seated.

Basil and stranger approached the new door, interrupted one last time before opening the door, by a spitting sound coming from behind them.

Two white teeth, and a purple hooked shoe, that looked kind of like a clown shoe. One likely belonging to the monster before it had been consumed, previously hidden by the table.

The shoe looked slimy.