Comari

Breathing Space

Sunny lay in bed quietly. The only sounds he could hear in his room were his gentle breathing and Mewo's soft purring as he stroked her dark fur absent-mindedly. He had forgotten how many days or weeks it had been since the incident, but every so often, if he blanked out long enough he could hear the sound of the argument, Mari's light gasp as she fell down the stairs, and the worst, the crunch as she hit the floor at the bottom. He shivered as he thought of it and tried focusing on Mewo's purring instead, which only slightly helped ease his nerves.

Sometimes he wondered what Mari would say to or think of him if she was still awake.

"Geez Sunny you should go outside. Why don't we go to the treehouse?"

"Come ooonn, you need to eat sooomething."

"Tch, get up. Pathetic ."

He sat up quickly. That last one was different from usual. Mewo got up and crawled into his lap, expecting more pets as he sat there. He stayed there for a while, and Mewo left the room when she realized he wouldn't keep petting her.

Sunny thought for a moment. Would Mari go as far as calling him pathetic? He got a lump in his throat. It would make sense if she were upset, but previously she hadn't expressed disdain towards him. "It...makes sense. I deserve that." He stayed with his thoughts until Mewo came back in the room meowing and began batting at her bowl. He quietly stood up and fed her before collapsing back onto his bed.

Usually, he was in bed unless Mewo needed feeding or on the rare occasion his friends managed to drag him out of the house. They had recently...maybe not recently? Sunny had lost track, but either way, they were in school again, so they came over less often. Perhaps it was better that way, in Sunny's mind. "I deserve the isolation. What kind of monster..." He put a hand over his face and sat silently for a while.

Eventually, he found himself humming the song he and Mari had been practicing for their duet. It was a slow melody that Mari had written, it was pleasant and almost nostalgic, but Sunny had grown to hate it and the constant practice. It always had to be perfect, but it was never enough. He was never enough. He moved the hand off his face to wipe the tears that had swelled in his eyes, trying to hold his breath to prevent himself from crying.

Many hours passed as he just lay there in continuous silence. Sometimes he would have a thought or two, but most were...concerning. He closed his eyes and ended up falling asleep. When he woke up the room was dark. He had a clock in his room but didn't feel like getting up to check the time, so he closed his eyes to go back to sleep.

"Sunny."

His eyes shot open as he quickly sat up. "Mari..?" his voice was quiet and hoarse. It had been a few days since he had last spoken. "Mar...i." He shakily stood up and walked to where her voice was coming from.

"Sunny, I'm out here."

He reached the stairs and stopped. Her voice was out here, but she wasn't. Mari's voice changed suddenly, it was coming from behind him and was colder.

"Sunny. I just wanted it to be perfect." He felt a chill go down his spine as she spoke harshly. He slowly turned his head and saw a large shadow that roughly resembled Mari standing behind him. Tears began to swell as he trembled in place. "M-mari...I'm sorry.." Her "eyes" seemed to narrow at his apology, and he felt an icy hand placed on his shoulder.

"Oh, but are you? I mean, even they know what you did." Sunny blinked. Did she mean Basil? Or...everyone else? He didn't have a lot of time to think. The hand on his shoulder tightened, and he felt it push him forward. Right before he fell, he blinked and was back at the top of the stairs. He was still shaking as he wobbled back to his room. Maybe he needed to sleep it off.

Unfortunately, when he laid back down and wrapped himself in his blankets and plushies, he still couldn't sleep. The darkness of the room wasn't necessarily helping either. He could've sworn he saw someone or something in the corners of his room a few times. He lay there for hours, eventually being able to fall back to sleep.

The sun slowly crept into his room, and Sunny woke up, still tired as he sat up. He turned his head over to Mari's bed, which despite no longer being used, he occasionally tidied. He let out a quiet yawn and got out of bed to see if there was anything in the fridge he could grab. Sunny stretched and walked out of his door, but paused when he reached the stairs. The more he stared at them the longer it felt they became, darkness starting to cloud the edges of his vision.

A quiet meow came from his feet. When he looked down he found Mewo rubbing herself against his legs. He gathered himself and cautiously walked down the stairs to the kitchen. The whole house was eerily quiet since his mom started taking the early shifts at work and his dad had been out of the house for a while. A house of four, recently two, people wasn't necessarily hectic, but if they had people over it could get a little overwhelming and Sunny would usually retreat to his room. Mari often comforted him if he got overwhelmed or anxious, but now she wasn't here to do that.

Sunny sunk a little thinking about it, but he shifted his focus to the possibility of food instead. He opened the door to the fridge and felt a little disappointed by the results. There was decent food, but none of it interested him enough to eat. He closed the fridge and turned his attention to the cabinets, maybe something more enticing would be in those. He checked all the cabinets he knew would have food and let out a small groan. A lot of it needed to be cooked, and while Mari had taught him how to make a few simple dishes for lunch, he didn't feel like operating the stove.

He begrudgingly settled on a slightly stale slice of bread and put it in the toaster so it'd be crunchy in a warm way rather than an unpleasant way. It popped up, which made Sunny jump, and he grabbed it after it cooled a bit. He ate his slightly stale toast as he carefully walked back upstairs where Mewo was waiting for him to feed her. They both headed to Sunny's room where he fed Mewo before collapsing onto his bed. He still felt hungry but wasn't in the mood to make any more food, so he tried going back to sleep. Unfortunately, when that failed he just decided to let his mind wander.

He glanced over to the window in his room. A bit of sunlight still poked through the curtain. He tried to look at the clock on his desk, but he couldn't see it from the angle he was at so he just laid back down. It was boring to just stay in bed all day and do nothing, but Sunny didn't care. He occasionally had a chore or two to keep him occupied if the boredom got to him, and he could always call his friends, even though they might not pick up. Instead of trying to solve his boredom, however, he chose to feed it by staying in bed.

As he sat there in the unusual silence his hand moved to his mouth, and he started nibbling on a few of his fingers, then his palm, and eventually started biting his knuckle. At first, he didn't realize what he was doing, but even when he realized he kept doing it until his hand started to hurt. He laid it by his side and Mewo hopped onto his bed for pets.

Sunny let her sniff his finger first then started absent-mindedly scratching her head again. His hand still hurt as he pet her, but he didn't care. He just stared blankly at the ceiling listening to Mewo's soft purrs.