Phytoremediation

The one you could not have killed.

TW// uncomfortable subjects. I don't want to spoil it though lol

Sunny walked up stairs, a plank lain on them to make the trip easier. Most of the house was no longer in shambles, everything inside was still ruined, though.

He walked into his room. As expected, his computer was beyond repair. His bed, thankfully, seemed intact.

I wouldn't forgive myself, or Omori if he broke her old bed.

He fell onto the bed, and sighed in relief. Everything wrong was over. It was going to go back to normal. One eye or two, it would be okay.

Everything would be okay.

Sunny began to drift from consciousness, before a familiar voice came from downstairs.

"Oh my god!" It was his mom.

"What is this? Sunny, I leave for one day and... I don't even know what happens! A party?" She yelled as she came upstairs.

Sunny sighed, and sat up in bed. "Yeah, mom, someone tried to kill me."

His mother looked angrily at him, then less angry but skeptical, before looking shocked.

"R-Really? Why didn't you answer my calls?!" She asked nervously.

"He cut the phone lines. I think those guys downstairs are gonna fix it."

"Gosh, I'm..." His mother trailed off as her phone rang in her pocket, "Oh, it's your father. I have to take this, I'll be right back, hon."

Sunny watched his mom leave his room. She always ran off if his dad was on the phone. Sunny didn't know exactly why, but he had some guesses.

Sunny remembered the last time he saw his dad. The day after Mari died. He left for work in the morning, didn't say goodbye or anything. Just left, and never came back.

He wasn't even at Mari's funeral.

God he pisses me off.

Sunny sighed, since his computer was broken, he wouldn't be able to play the flash games he usually spent his time on.

Waiting for something to happen never was Sunny's thing. Sleeping was far more his speed.

I lost my appetite for dinner, anyway.

--

"Hello, dreamer." A familiar voice spoke.

A black figure stood before Sunny. He remembered seeing it before, but had never spoken to it before. Omori had practically shed all of Sunny's influence at the point of the confrontation with Stranger.

Of course, now that he was standing face to face with him, it was a lot more nerve-wracking for Sunny.

"Less of a coward than I thought, aren't you?" Stranger said, "I suppose there's some hope left for you."

Sunny took in his surroundings... or lack thereof. A completely black void. "Where are we?"

"Omori forgot his belongings when he left. I destroyed his worthless light bulb that lets him stay, and I patched up the hole he made." Stranger explained.

"Oh... okay..." Sunny said warily. Stranger wasn't exactly friendly looking.

"I've been sitting in here. You're sickening, sometimes. They may just be intrusive thoughts, but your worthless brain seems to enjoy the idea of violence towards Basil."

Sunny looked confused, "I haven't thought of hurting Basil since-"

Stranger cut him off. "Just because you think he would enjoy being ra-"

Sunny returned the favour. "Alright, alright, I understand what you mean now, sorry."

"You're really self-centered, you know. You need to learn to control yourself. Just because Something is gone doesn't mean you're redeemed." Stranger said judgementally, "You need to learn to help yourself so you can help others. You need to remember."

"What..?" Sunny mumbled. His view of Stranger vanished, and suddenly some memories began to play.

Mari's birthday party. Her best friend was moving in July at that point so it was bittersweet. She hugged Fin happily after opening her present, being a purple sweater-vest, her favourite colour.

Grade 3, sitting with Basil at recess, listening to him talking about the meanings of flowers. He remembered asking what the meaning of Basil was, which made him giggle, telling Sunny it wasn't a flower.

Happier memories. Unlike the next two.

Aubrey crying next to him as he sat next to her on the swings, his favourite thing to do outside of school at the time, was just swing and let his imagination do the work. Aubrey's face was bleeding, and she was crying about her mom's boyfriend hitting her.

Sunny felt angry at Aubrey's mom since then. And whoever this unidentified boyfriend was. Looking back at how many boyfriends tended to come and go, they were probably "clients" rather than boyfriends.

Sunny was waiting at the water fountain with Basil. Then a teacher Sunny forgot existed came up to him. He told Sunny he had to come with him. Mr. Lang was the teacher's name. He walked with him to a vacant room, later it became the computer lab.

"Let's play the fingers game, Sunny. If you don't make a face during the whole thing, you'll get your whole class a pizza!" Mr. Lang had said insidiously. Sunny remembered the man groping him. Grabbing at his butt, and between his thighs. He tried rubbing Sunny's nipples too.

Sunny had completely no idea what the point was back then, and also had no sensitivity to those places at such a young age. Sunny felt disgusted watching this grown, bearded man touching his child self in such a way.

The man seemed to try to go farther, but heard a sound from the nearby teacher's lounge. "Alright, you won, Sunny, now promise not to tell anyone about our game, or next time someone else might ask to try instead!"

"Will I still get pizza if someone else does it?" He heard his clueless former self ask.

"Not if someone in a different class finds out, so don't tell anyone." Mr. Lang quietly spoke.

Sunny remembered his past self vowing to keep it a secret from Mari.

He did not, however, keep it a secret from his friends. Aubrey claimed to know the game from her mother, Basil said it sounded weird, and Kel immediately began celebrating about the incoming pizza, and asked the teacher if he could play next time.

There was no pizza that day after the teacher reported the incident. Disappointing to the clueless children, but much more than an answered prayer from the now grown up Sunny.

"Do you understand why I showed you those memories?" Stranger asked.

"Not really, but what the fuck was all that?" Sunny asked frantically.

Stranger hit himself in the face. "Figure it out. Just wake up, fucking dumbass." Stranger said, exasperated.