Phytoremediation

I can tell it's there by the way it's not quite there

Basil hummed a tune as he finally left the front of the school. "Hey, Sunny. You said you wanted to go to the library with me?" He said cheerfully.

"Yep, c'mon." Sunny confirmed. They began walking hand in hand. Basil making their arms swing slightly. It reminded Basil of old times.

"So what are we gonna do at the library, other than return our book, heh." Basil looked to Sunny, his face untinted by emotion, as usual. Though looking to his eyebrows, they looked slightly furrowed.

"I found out about a book on tulpas and other stuff from Tibet. I think it might tell me how to kill Omori once and for all." Sunny said, a hint of anger in his voice, "I will never let him hurt you or our friends ever again. I need to make certain of that."

Basil felt a bit awkward, having just sort of co-operated with Omori earlier. Basil then became paranoid. What if Omori was still listening in? Even just to his thoughts? Basil decided to use his words cleverly, dancing around saying anything directly about Omori.

"S-So, where did you hear about this book?" Basil asked, hoping to direct the conversation away from Omori himself first.

"Saw it online in a comment on one of my forum posts. It's a long story. I hope that however you kill tulpas is long and painful for him. Annoying little shit." Sunny tightened his grip on Basil's hand.

"Tr-Try to calm down Sunny, it's- he's- we can stop him, and then everything will be okay." Basil said, having trouble with the safest way to phrase what he meant.

"I know, I- I know, sorry. Did I hurt you?" Sunny asked with concern at seeing Basil tend to his slightly bruised hand.

"I'm okay, don't worry about me, Sunny." Basil said with a smile.

"I'm your boyfriend, Basil. It's now officially my job to worry about you." Sunny said with a lighter tone.

"I love you, Sunny." Basil smiled.

"I love you too, Basil." Sunny gave a small smile back. The pair were just across the street from the library now. Gay people walk fast.

The pair walked in, recognizing a specific face that made Basil groan. "Babe, stay low. It's that Carrie girl from back in the park." Basil whispered to Sunny.

"It's okay, I'll just ask if they have this book, then we can go get it and leave." Sunny whispered back before going to the front desk nearby.

"Um, hello, I was wondering, do you carry 'The History of Tibetan Buddhism and the fall of Dalai Lama'?" Sunny asked in a slightly hushed tone. Libraries and their rules about quietness are truly universal.

"I think that's checked out right now..." the librarian replied in an equally muted tone. She checked on her computer before turning back to Sunny. "Taken by a Miss Annabel Baker. Should we tell you when Miss Baker brings this book back?"

Sunny's eyes lit up. "No, thank you, I know her, so I think I could just borrow it."

"If you could bring it back, too, that would be swell. It's about to be overdue." The librarian smiled.

"Thanks a lot. We'll be going now." Sunny left the desk as the receptionist lady waved. Old ladies and doxxing people by accident go together like peanut butter and a fruit flavoured substance made to be spread on bread.

Sunny and Basil promptly left, hoping that they were unseen by Carrie. They were already lucky enough not to share a class with her.

She was taking classes for car repair, though, so usually it wasn't exactly hard to avoid her.

Basil suddenly heard his phone ringing. Thankfully, outside the library. "Hello?" Basil said while following Sunny.

"Why the fuck is the guy in my head telling me he had you put him inside me?" A far less tired than before voice asked with anger.

"Ah- um... I..." Basil stuttered.

"He keeps trying to be weird and romantic, and I'm starting to get freaked out. Is that why you called talking about an Omori this morning?" Kim shouted into the receiver.

"Um- n-no, I wouldn't like to buy... um... window cleaning... services." Basil replied awkwardly, glancing at Sunny ahead of him.

"You little shit, I'm gonna beat your ass if you-" Kim growled from the other end of the line.

"No, th-thank you for asking, goodbye!" Basil said quickly before hanging up. He put his phone on silent, just in time to see another call coming from Kim.

"Telemarketing?" Sunny asked Basil as he ran behind him to catch up.

"Y-Yeah." Basil lied anxiously. "So where are we going..?"

"Do you remember The Maverick's last name?" Sunny asked.

"Baker... oh... I think I see what you're thinking." Basil nodded.

"I'm not sure you know her first name, though. I think I saw in her house somewhere an old fashioned photo that said "Bella and Zhao" or something. And, y'know. Annabel, Bella." Sunny explained, "Didn't really think about it until now."

Foreshadowing isn't real, and neither is gaslighting.

The pair arrived at The Maverick's grandmother's home. "So what, we just go in and go,'Hey, we're The M- Mikhael's friends. We heard you had a book we needed from the library. Do you mind if we read it real quick?'" Basil joked.

"Yeah." Sunny answered, then knocked on the door.

-- urrgh I'm gonna end the chapter here bc after this I'll just wanna write another 900 pages. Thanks for reading, little gay people on my phone. --