Omori Post-Ending- Aubrey's Truth

Beautiful Mari, Perfect Mari

One event separated the two parts of my life. The before, and the after. A sickening moment that changed me forever.

Well that was some cryptic bullcrap. But it was true.

It was supposed to be a normal day. A happy day, even. All that effort between Mari and Sunny, all those hours they spent in the piano room, rehearsing over and over... it was finally paying off. That day I was supposed to show up at some theater stage with Hero and Basil, and sit together, and listen to the most beautiful, most perfect music anyone had ever heard. Because Mari and Sunny were the most beautiful, most perfect people I knew, the most beautiful, most perfect people I will ever meet.

That didn't happen.

At least, Mari said it would be beautiful, and perfect. And I believed her, because she was Mari. I had heard the song a million times; when I was in the room, in the house, or in my head after I got home.

But some things aren't as beautiful or perfect or they seem.

Oh, the recital? I guess we'll never know.

____________________________________________________________________________

I remember hearing the news with a bad taste in my mouth. I was waiting with Hero and Kel in their house before the recital. I had on the best dress I had, which wasn't saying much, a little bit of my mom's lipstick, and the teal bow Mari had given to me only a few months prior. Hero and Kel were in some handsome suits, admittedly a lot better than my stained skirt.

I sat awkwardly in the front room, flowers clutched in hand. I was planning to give them to Sunny after the recital, a thought that brought a flush to my face. At the time.

The doorbell rang, and Kel somehow managed to run in his suit to go and get it. Of course, we were expecting Basil, who no doubt would have flowers in hand too. Another flush.

Kel swung the door open "Hey- . . . what's wrong."

Hero came after his brother, trying to fix his hair with one hand as he held a spatula in the other. He stopped behind his brother.

They lingered there for a beat.

The beat before everything changed.

What came next was in fragments; a spatula on the floor; a door left open; a silent Hero and Kel; a stomach twist; a white egret orchid forgotten; the bathroom floor; the toilet; more stains on a stained dress, fluids everywhere, ponytail torn; hot tears on my face; vomit everywhere; Kel.

Kel came with me. He didn't vomit, only watched me as my organs, heart, and soul came out through my mouth. He sat on the floor with me, even in his suit, as a girl got sick all over his bathroom. When I was finally hollow, nothing left in me, no more tears, no more snot, no more vomit, I fell away. I was dying. I must have been.

He took a wet tissue and cleaned my face, as I cracked an eye open to look at him. And I'll never forget what I saw.

Nothing

Something filled my empty lifeless body, and it possessed my body, giving me a jolt of energy.

I slapped him across the face.

His face didn't change like I wanted it to. It didn't change at all.

Maybe that slap would turn him back to Kel. Because Kel was't nothing. He was everything. And he should never be nothing. And nothing should happen that should make him nothing.

I suppose I thought that a slap would help something. Instead I found myself alone in the bathroom.

That feeling, that something, never left me since that day. Only lays dormant, then explodes, and leaves me- alone.

I lay in that bathroom until I convinced myself to get up. I looked for Kel and Hero.

When I found them, they were on the patio. Sitting in chairs. Facing the tree-line. Hero sipped a cup of coffee.

So normal. Coffee? Really? How could he stomach anything?

Kel leapt up when he saw me. He shook me, hugged me, and shook me again. "Are you okay, Aubrey?" I pushed him away. I took my teal ribbon, and threw it at the ground. Stomped on it. That something was back. It wasn't me, it was just- behind me- controlled what I did. And right now it wanted to stomp that ribbon into the dirt.

It pointed to the door.

Hero turned, coffee in hand. He got up. He went inside where I pointed. The little something got a little bigger.

Kel followed. And I came after.

We came out through the front door, which has been left ajar. But before I closed it after me, I noticed something on the floor. Something I had dropped.

I picked it up, and promptly left. Nothing more than that.

The three of us walked silently, two tall boys in unruffled suits and some sick drunk looking girl, makeup smeared, vomit stains on her dress. The only sound we heard was the sidewalk clicking underneath my oversized heels.

Soon we were on the front steps of Sunny's (Mari's) house. I knocked. Once. Twice. I kicked the door.

Sunny's mom opened the door. She put on a damp expression, her mouth turned up at the corners, her cheeks stained. It sure wasn't a smile. The bright tone of her voice didn't hide the crack. I didn't hear what she said.

She led us to the patio sliding door. It was glass, but someone had taped up magazine pages, construction paper, sheet music, duct tape, scribbled marker, blocking the view of the treehouse. Anything to stop us from seeing her.

I opened the sliding door and pushed it to the side.

The sight brought me to my knees, right on the concrete. The nausea came back, and I got sick right on the stairs. Right in front of Mari. Beautiful, perfect Mari.

Beautiful, perfect bruises, a beautiful perfect hair strung over her face, one beautiful perfect eye, staring at me, judging me. Poor Mari.

Hero went through the door next. He didn't fall like I did. He exploded and died.

The coffee mug began to shake in his hand and, finally, a sign of motion other than stiff walking, sitting, and sipping coffee. Somehow I had the feeling that I shouldn't be relieved.

"We have to get her down."

"WE HAVE TO GET HER DOWN."

"SOMEONE HELP HER."

"Please."

Hero was yelling. Hero was... afraid, unsure. Poor Hero.