My Savior - Suntan

Chapter Seventeen

When Sunny stirred, he was hit with pure white. He knew that it wasn't his room, because even with the curtains open, the walls and flooring were dull colors. He rolled onto his side, feeling the coolness of the ground beneath him, listening to his steady breathing and the movement around him. He heard footsteps approach, then stop near his head. They paused for a while before Sunny heard the shuffling of fabric, then he heard the sound of someone's faint breathing syncing with his own. He tentatively opened his eyes, squinting them, making eye contact with a familiar pale face.

Omori nodded at Sunny in recognition, standing up properly from his crouched position. Sunny stayed laying there for a while before rolling onto his back. He gazed up at the black bulb, watching as it fizzed and sparked with a mysterious light.

Omori was standing nearby, flicking through the notebook full of sparattic drawings, like the cat butler and the red hands. Sunny grumbled to himself, scrambling to his feet, drinking in his surroundings once more. All familiar things Sunny welcomed back, though was less happy to welcome back the reasons on why this place was created in the first place. Omori was now beside Sunny, the notebook laid forgotten in the corner of the room once more.

"Do you want to see our friends again?" Omori asked.

Sunny nodded, remembering the fond times he'd had with them. Mari's picnics, hide and seek, Spaceboy and Sweetheart, Mr Jawsum... the list went on. Omori reached out his hand, his palm facing upwards. Sunny did the same, only his palm was on top of Omori's, facing downwards. The two of them closed their eyes, and then there was a rippling noise. Sunny and Omori merged together, the two in the same body. Omori sat patiently at the back of their mind as Sunny took control, pushing his way out of the door.

As he did so, he was met with a familiar sight. Hero, Kel and Aubrey playing cards again. Mr Plantegg laid across Aubrey's crossed legs as she scowled at her cards, then Kel, who was beside her. Kel was grinning, clearly winning.

"Oh! Omori!" Called Hero, surprised, "I wondered where you had gotten to! You've disappeared for so long."

"Hey, Omori!" Kel yelled, dropping his cards as he ran over to Omori, "high five!"

Omori high-fived Kel.

"Everything's been weird around here ever since you disappeared," Hero explained, abandoning the game to join Kel with Omori, Aubrey sneaking looks at their cards before joining the three.

"Hey, Omori! Do you want to go exploring now? Last time we had to look for Basil, but we've found him now!" Aubrey said, spinning proudly in a circle as if she'd single-handedly found Basil.

"Why don't we all just go exploring together?" Hero asked, "I'm not too keen letting everyone run off on their own, you've seen how weird everything's got."

"Yeah, but Omori's here now," Kel smiled, running around him, "Everything's bound to go back to normal soon, you'll see."

Hero sighed, watching as Omori followed Kel and Aubrey up the stairs and out of the tree stump, running to catch up.

Kel led the way, Aubrey arguing with him that since it was her idea to explore, she should lead them.

"Whatever, I didn't need to lead anyway," Kel grumbled, walking beside Omori as Aubrey ran ahead, "when we get to the weird bits, I'll tell you about them, Aubrey can't stop me."

Omori nodded, feeling like he shouldn't get in the way of yet another argument.

"Let's go get Basil," Hero said, calling to Aubrey as he ran past Kel and Omori to tell her the plan.

Kel stopped walking, turning to Omori, smiling.

"I did miss you, y'know," he said, reaching out his arms as an offering for a hug, "it seemed weird without you here, enpty-"

He stopped talking when Omori walked into his outstretched arms, not hugging him, just accepting one. Kel laughed to himself, Omori stepping away and smiling sightly.

"Alright, guys!" Hero called back to them, Kel and Omori running after Hero and Aubrey, "this way!"

By the time they got to the picnic blanket, they were all considerably out of breath while Basil and Mari were flicking through the photo album.

"Oh, hey guys," Basil said, smiling awkwardly at his friends, "we were just wondering when you'd turn up again."

"Hey, little brother!" Mari called in greeting to Omori, patting the patch of blanket beside her as an invitation, "we were just flicking through old memories, how about seeing them with us again?"

The group then all sat on the picnic blanket, laughing over old memories.

"Remember when you and Kel ran off together because you got bored of them flower crowns?" Mari asked Omori, smiling kindly at her little brother.

Omori nodded, stretching. They'd been sitting there a while now and he was itching to go wandering off. Kel noticed, and feeling the same, got to his feet.

"Can we go exploring now pleaseeee?" Kel begged, Omori following suit in getting up.

"I don't see why not, do you want to join us Basil? Mari?" Hero offered, getting to his feet, Aubrey doing the same.

"That's okay," Mari said, "I'll stay here, you can go if you want, Basil."

"No thank you," Basil declined, "I'll stay here with Mari, I want to make more flower crowns anyway."

After a few minutes of goodbyes, they were off again. Aubrey ran ahead, leading the way to the Otherworld. They climbed the ladder quickly enough, Kel whispering encouragement to Omori whenever he needed it.

"See what we mean by things getting weird?" Kel asked, surveying the Otherworld with a nervous look on his face, "but it's got loads better! Look, it's repairing itself right here..."

Where the parked cars usually were, it was just oozing black ink, but the longer they stood there and watched, the ink seemed to seep back into the cracks, the gaps in the Otherworld melting back together.

"It must be you," Hero said jokingly to Omori, "your mere presence fixes the world, Omori!"

Hero slapped Omori on his shoulder, laughing with Kel and Aubrey. Omori suddenly had a seething pain inside him. It felt as if his body was being pulled apart, like someone was grabbing his arms and was being split down the middle. Omori collapsed onto the ground, hearing the distant shouts of his friends. The pain grew worse, practically feeling his skin splitting. Sunny looked at Omori in their shared mind, watching it shatter and crack around them, shards of if drifting apart as they both suffered excruciating pain as they were torn from each other. Sunny dragged himself forward, shuffling towards Omori, who seemed to have completely given up, hunched over and grabbing his head. Sunny slipped, falling over one side of a mind shard, falling onto a spiked up shard, impaling him through his stomach.

Then Sunny woke up.