My Savior - Suntan

Chapter Twenty-Two

Omori slipped between the shards of Headspace quietly, Basil only just managing not to injure himself on the glistening edges, like glass. Omori sliced down branches and cobwebs as he ran through the forest, making sure Basil kept a good pace with him so he wouldn't have to go back for him. He heard their voices before he saw them, a girl yelling someone.

"You're stupid, Kel," the girl insisted, "I knew where we were going, but you distracted me!"

"It's not my fault you're stupid, Aubrey!" Kel retorted, "I wouldn't have gotten distracted if I were you!"

Omori pushed through the foliage, seeing as Kel ran circles around Aubrey, as she tries and fails to hit him with Mr Plantegg.

"Omori!" Kel said, stopping abruptly as he saw him, letting Aubrey land a direct blow to the back of his head.

Omori nodded at them, Basil pushing branches out of his face as he emerged behind him, getting a face full of leaves.

"Hey, Basil!" Aubrey called, skipping over to them, "did you come to help me? I knew you would, Omori!"

"He came for both of us, Aubrey!" Kel called to her as he made his way over to them, "right?"

Omori nodded at Kel, glancing down for a second, to see something shining in Kel's hand.

He pointed to it, looking back up questioningly at Kel, the expression on his face asking 'what is it?'

"Oh, this? Isn't it neat?" Kel laughed, bringing it up between their faces, flattening out his palm, "it's some little shard of one of our memories! I found it on the floor over there."

Omori gently took it from Kel's hand, seeing it with the real photo and the Headspace replicate again. He guessed that he could see it both ways because he could cross over between both 'worlds', whereas his Headspace friends couldn't.

"You want it? Sure! I was thinking of giving it to you anyway," Kel said happily, looking lovingly at the little shard, his smile softer than his usual grins, "I thought it'd make you feel better since you don't like being alone, it's like mini versions of us that'll be with you all the time!"

"That's nice of you, Kel," approved Basil, standing next to Omori to get a better look at the shard.

Then, Omori felt a searing pain in his right eye, like someone had stabbed it viciously with a sharp object. The pain made his head throb, feeling hot, sticky blood ooze out of his eye socket. He slapped his hand to his eye, as to cover it. Only, there was no blood. His eye was completely fine. He shuffled to his left a bit, putting a gap between him and Basil, and the feeling seemed to evaporate.

Omori gently pocketed the shard, continuing pushing through the forest to the confusion of his friends.

"I thought we were going to get Mari and Hero next?" Basil asked, following Omori,  "Why are we heading this way?"

"Yeah, last time we were here, Sweetheart threw us in the dungeons," Kel commented, sniffing, "I refuse to fight them weird sprout moles that were always related to each other. Y'know? Them Sir Something-Or-Others that had to defend their fathers honor or whatever-"

"Oh yeah!" Aubrey said, "Omori why are we going this way?"

Omori kept scanning the under growth, trying to find another shard of his - their - memories. Memory shards, I guess, he thought as he crouched in the grass. As soon as he saw the glint, he reached for it, picking it up with care. He felt Headspace slowly slide back in place as he admired the memory on it. Just Kel 'accidentally' taking a picture of himself.

"You looking for more of them shards?" Kel asked, leaning on Omori's shoulders to get a better look at what he was holding, "I saw one hanging from a tree over there."

Basil, Aubrey and Omori then looked over to where Kel was pointing. It was quite crowded there, a lot of trees all growing too close to each other, not letting through any light at all. But sure enough, Kel was right. If you tilted your head to the left and then leaned forward, you'd be able to see a little glistening shard hanging by something from one of the trees.

Omori set off almost immediately, Kel keeping pace while Aubrey got bored of talking about the memory shards, so she started talking to Basil. Omori stood below the shard, watching it spin tauntingly, knowing that even if he tried to jump and grab it, he'd be too short to get it.

"Omori, get on my shoulders," Kel said, squatting down in the grass as Omori clambered awkwardly onto his shoulders. When Kel stood up, the two swayed slightly before righting themselves, Kel carefully side stepping below the swaying shard, "can you get it?"

Omori nodded, reaching up as high as he could, feeling his fingertips brush it, feeling himself flare up in annoyance. Omori then stood up on Kel's shoulders, his socked feet planted firmly on his back as he quickly stood to grab it, but he didn't tell Kel he was doing this, so the two of them toppled over. Kel falling into the grass and Omori getting thrown into the tree trunk before hitting the hard ground.

"Ah! Omori, are you okay!?" Basil yelped, clearly startled by what had just happened, running over to the boys, "Can you guys get up?"

As Basil knelt in between the two boys, Omori felt the dripping blood pouring from his eye socket again. He rolled away from Basil and into the tree trunk again, relieved when the feeling stopped.

"Did you at least get it?" Came Kel's muffled voice, his face smushed into the ground, being comically silly but at the same time, too lazy to get up.

Omori held up the shard victoriously above his head, wincing.

"Woo-hoo!" Someone cheered.

Omori couldn't tell who.

He could feel himself drifting away, like he was floating.

Something watched Omori.

Omori watched Something.