My Savior - Suntan

Chapter Twenty-One

Welcome to White Space.
You have been living here for as long as you can remember.

There was blinding whiteness. A single light bulb dangled from what seemed like thin air, emitting a dark glow, fizzing and glowing ominously. Omori laid silently on his back for what felt like forever, still feeling the excruciating pain of what it felt like to be torn apart. He sat up, scanning the area as his body seemed to cool off, the throbbing pain wearing away. The red and white hands continued to float about as per usual, seeming completely fine. White Space seemed to be completely fine. Omori felt relieved at first, that was, before he saw the door.

The white door that casted a faint shadow, the door he had walked through so many times to protect Sunny no matter the cost, was splintered. It seemed to had been smashed apart to bits and had been haphazardly thrown back together, chuncks of it stood out at weird angles and there were gaps in it where he could peek out. His usual treestump hangout spot had gaping holes in it. It looked like floating glass shards, the stairs now shattered in bits so he'd have to jump from shard to shard to even think about venturing outside. Their playing cards had been torn up and strewn about what was left of the room, the pink-haired stuffed toy now lay mangled and forgotten at the base of the tree. The tree now stood twisted, branches snapped at odd angles and its leaves still hanging on despite being dead and wilted. Omori pushed open the remnants of the door, planting his feet firmly on one of the shards, before leaping to the next, wobbling slightly, but persisting, making his way up the splintered steps and outside of the stump.

Omori emerged into the world around him. Everything was shattered like it was in the treestump, the world twisted and floating around him. He saw the pitch blackness of what lay beyond Headspace. The void. Nothingness. Realisation dawned in him after he spotted a smaller shard than the rest. He leapt over to it, noticing that it wasn't himself in the reflection in it. He gently picked it up from the ground, noticing that it was part of Sunny's real memories and also its Headspace version. As he stared into it, he saw Sunny and Headspace Kel staring back at him, holding Mari's flower crown proudly. He pocketed the shard, determined to find the rest and find his friends. He was surprised to find he missed them. He wrote it off as one of Sunny's feelings that often crossed over with his own.

He scrambled onwards, getting to the Playground. He saw what he saw before in the previous places. Everything was still shattered, but they seemed... closer together? Omori shrugged, taking in the changes. The mailbox that had once spoken to him had dents in it, like someone had tried bashing it in and somewhat succeeded. The swings were snapped in two, the seats nowhere to be found, the rope that tied the seats to the frame was severed. The slide was missing the ladder, but only seemed slightly scuffed. Omori jumped over to where Mari's picnic blanket formerly laid, now it had disappeared completely, her picnic basket still sitting in the same spot, but completely empty and slightly torn. Another shard lay in it. This one was the picture of Basil looking bashful as Mari and Aubrey complimented him on his flower crown. This one was also partly true memory and partly Headspace. Omori pocketed it again and watched the world around him as it seemed to shift back to normal. The shards that floated around him floated slightly closer together, Mari's picnic basket by his feet looking less torn, like it was sewing back to itself back together.

Omori pushed his way to the forest, to Basil's garden. He found
he odd few memories here, the world slowly coming back together. As he walked through the area to Basil's house, he found himself thinking, Basil will be happy his flowers are not ruined. Omori's little exploration had not gone badly, now he could just step from shard to shard, admittedly a  larger step than he'd normally take, but a step nonetheless.

As he pushed open the door into Basil's shoe house, he noticed that he was no longer alone. Basil had tucked himself in the corner by his bed, burying his face in his knees. He looked terrified as he glanced up at whatever had just opened his door. Omori had never seen a face change so drastically so quickly before. Basil practically cried out in relief at noticing Omori was the one who had opened his door, and awkwardly manoeuvred his way over to him.

"Omori! Thank goodness," Basil breathed, peeking out at the world past Omori's shoulder, "please don't leave me again! Everything suddenly started changing... Aubrey and Kel didn't seem to mind much when it first started, finding it funny.. but me and Mari didn't like it. Hero's with Mari now. They're at her picnic blanket at Otherworld. Aubrey and Kel were arguing again and they ran off somewhere near the Pyrefly forest. Are we going to find them all?"

Omori nodded once, now knowing where all of his friends were. As he turned to leave, he spotted one of the shards out the corner of his eyes, and as he went to pick it up, he noticed it was the one where it was Headspace Kel drinking milk and real-world Kel drinking Orange-Joe. Omori felt a renewed sense of determination as he headed to the door once again, nodding at Basil who seemed slightly confused, but just followed him outside. After all, Omori seems to know what to do, Basil thought as he chased after him, grabbing his sides minutes later, already feeling exhausted, he knows how to keep us safe. He always has. He found me when our friends didn't, he won't let us down now. As they headed for Pyrefly Forest, Basil shook off his sense of foreboding, criticising himself, since Omori was there, he'd protect them.

But there was still Something there.
In the corner.
Watching them.