My Savior - Suntan

Chapter Eight

Sunny slammed the door after him, locking the door and heaving with the effort of breathing. He was shaking so badly he had to sit in front of the door for fifteen minutes as he steadied his breathing. He unsteadily scrabbled to his feet, doing a taxing shuffle to the stairs. Sunny's head was spinning, big dark splotches covered his eyes as he looked up the stairs. A creature stood at the top of the stairs, morphing into looking like a devastated Mari and a horrifying monster. The window behind the creature then shone brighter with sunlight. Another form of Mari seemed to glide down the stairs towards Sunny, smiling sadly. She embraced Sunny gently, making Sunny want to cry. Mari then faded away, the creature and sunlight fading into the darkness.

Sunny shook himself mentally, almost crawling up the stairs, his energy spent when he ran. He hobbled into his room and shut the door, staring around at the blank room, feeling queasy. The room swam, the dark spots growing bigger as Sunny made his way to the drawer, opening it and holding the knife in his hand. He then collapsed, hitting his head on his bed.

When Sunny stirred, he was laying on his back and stating into a white abyss. Omori sat quietly beside him with his knees tucked under his chin and his arms wrapped around his legs.

"Welcome back, Sunny," Omori muttered, not looking at him.

Sunny didn't respond, but instead struggled into a sitting position, propping himself up and looking around Whitespace once more. Everything appeared the same as when he left it last. The notebook was still in the corner, Mewo was still laying there, the laptop sat there pointlessly and there were the tissues. He stared into the black bulb, the little white light that shone in it fizzed.

"Why don't we go and look around the Vast Forest?" Omori offered, getting up and finally looking at Sunny.

Sunny stood up in turn, feeling slowly stronger, being able to see with both of his eyes in his dream world made him feel more comfortable.

The two left through the door, passing the snake who watched them quietly. Omori led the way, weaving between the trees skillfully, slicing the foes quickly as Sunny followed obediently, not being able to do much, but helped where he could. The two didn't run into anyone, which suited them both well.

"When you wake up, you should put the knife away," Omori advised Sunny as he led the way to the ladder to the pinwheel forest, "Kel won't be happy."

Sunny nodded his head, realising that Omori spoke the truth. Kel wouldn't be happy, in fact he'd feel upset with him, angry in fact - betrayed. Kel promised Sunny that he would stay with him, and he had tried so hard to help Sunny, but all Sunny ever did was shut him out and ignore him. I don't deserve Kel, Sunny thought, but I can't keep going on this way. I need to repay him somehow, but I don't know if I ever can.

Omori left Sunny to his thoughts, not speaking again until they reached the ladder.

"After you," Omori said, pointing at the ladder. Sunny nodded and started climbing, calming himself.

"Remember when Kel realised he had lost Hector here?" Omori asked, trying to lighten the mood, watching Sunny cautiously and was prepared to help him if he fell or slipped.

Sunny nodded, acknowledging the fact that, yes he remembered and that yes, he was infact listening to him as they climbed.

"I felt bad," Omori commented, clambering up after Sunny, peering after him since he wondered how much ladder they had left and was slightly relieved when he saw that there wasn't much left, "but we found him in the end. Kel got a new buddy."

Sunny nodded, thinking about the real life Hector as he pulled himself up at the last rung, standing up on the grass. He wondered how the dog was doing since he hadn't seen him for quite a while. Sunny always liked playing with dogs, but he was a cat lover at heart.

"Let's count the pinwheels," Omori said as he took the lead once more.

"You say it like it's like counting sheep, trying to make me fall asleep but instead you're trying to make me wake up," Sunny muttered, trailing after Omori once more as he did, in fact, start counting the pinwheels they passed as they followed the mostly overgrown path.

"I suppose I want it to wake you up," Omori shrugged, looking back at Sunny as they continued to walk onwards, "you want to talk to Kel. Apologise. You should also put the knife back in the drawer."

Sunny nodded in agreement getting distracted as he looked up into the sky, stopping and staring at the clouds and all of their weird shapes. He then remembered the words on Mari's grave. He shook himself and  followed Omori, who had walked off so Sunny sped up a bit to catch up.

"Let's go back," Omori said suddenly, turning sharply and started walking back the way they came. Sunny was confused, but followed him back anyway, thinking about what Omori had said. Sunny realised, when Omori spoke about the knife, he said 'in the drawer'. Not back in the kitchen. In his drawer. Just when Sunny was going to bring this to attention, they were back at the ladder.

Omori the  sat on the edge instead of going down the ladder, so Sunny followed suit, again going to ask Omori about why he said up keep it in the drawer, but instead, Omori turned to him.

"Wake up."

Sunny was confused, before feeling a hand on his back and it push him forward. He fell off the little floating island, spinning in the air to see Omori watching him as he gradually got smaller. The air was cool, reminding Sunny how it felt to jump from the hospital roof. The freedom. Sunny prepared himself to hit the ground.

The ground never came...