Chapter Text
It's a long way down. Do you want to jump?
Don't be afraid. It's not as scary as you think.
It was almost a joke, how clearly he could hear Mari's voice. His body shuddered, quaking with fear. He'd imagined his death so much it felt more familiar than the warmth of his mother. There were many ways he pictured it. Slit his wrists and bleed out in the bathtub, stab himself in the chest, the eye, slit his own throat, hang himse- no. He wouldn't desecrate Mari's memory again. One thing was for sure, he would go out on his own terms.
Omori closed his eye, and let his body fall.
The wind rushed past him at deafening speeds. At least it drowned out his thoughts. It was a small victory, but he finally got what he deserved for the past four years. Basil, Aubrey, Hero, Kel, Mari… he hurt them all so much. At last he could atone for what was done to all of them.
He only wished he could have apologized in person, this would have to do.
I still love you, Sunny.
Death was different than Sunny had imagined. He wasn't an atheist, so he at least believed in an afterlife, maybe not heaven, but at least something. At least being a ghost would have been kind of cool. Instead the afterlife was wet. Very wet. It was also very cold.
Sunny opened his eyes. In front of him was a curved pane of glass, tinted blood red. He turned and looked around, eyes widening. There were a few things he noticed. One, he had depth perception again, two, he was in a small shell, shaped not unlike an egg. He was also underwater.
He slammed himself against the glass, "HELLLLP!!" he cried, only for his mouth to fill with water. It tasted like a used bath, and only served to make things worse. He pounded his small fist on the red pane, willing someone to hear him. He cried out some more, but to no avail. He was running out of air, quickly. His lungs burned, and his eyes slowly drooped closed.
A loud hissing noise resounded in his chamber, and the glass opened up slightly. The water in his pod quickly poured out, dropping Sunny onto a metal platform. If he had any air left, the impact knocked the rest of it out. Along with some water he had breathed. The good news, he was breathing again.
Wait, why would he need to breathe if he was dead?
Sunny looked around. The first thing that he noticed was the platform he landed on. It looked like a walkway you'd see in a large boiler room, rusty guard rails ran along the sides. The second thing he noticed is that he didn't have any clothes. He began to shiver. The third thing he noticed was a tall man with a full beard approaching him rapidly.
"A-ah! Stay back!" Sunny started to kick away, not fully being able to use his legs. Why did he feel so weak?
"Ah no! It's okay! I'm not here to hurt you!" The man had a thick Australian accent. His face was doing everything it could to portray peace and a lack of aggression. His hair was unkempt, but short. It was a reddish brown, but not an ugly color. He was holding a towel of some sort. "I'm here to help, I bet you're a little confused right now."
Sunny nodded.
"I'm not going to hurt you, okay? I just want to make sure you're safe." The Australian gave him a charming smile. In a flash, Sunny saw Hero. He nodded, and accepted the towel. He wrapped it around his body, and made his way into the fetal position. The man smiled at him. "There we go, mate. How do you feel?"
"Scared."
"I don't blame you. Don't worry, it's not as scary as you think," he smiled even wider. "I've got a home nearby. Not a whole lot of space but there's food. Do you need me to carry you?"
Sunny tried standing, but couldn't. He nodded, sadly.
"Oh don't worry about it, this happens to everyone who comes here," he lifted Sunny up, and started to walk away from the strange pod.
"Where am I?"
"We can talk more about that later. For now, let's get you some clothes," Sunny accepted this and let himself be carried through this strange place. He looked over the man's shoulder back to where he was picked up from.
He wasn't terribly happy with what he saw.
Lines upon lines upon lines of identical egg shaped pods, with that familiar red glass on the front of each one. Each pod held a person. Sunny couldn't tell if they were alive or dead, or in some state of half death. He couldn't look anymore, he shut his eyes and attempted to purge the memory from his mind.
"What's your name kid?" The tall man asked him.
"Omo-" he cringed. "Sunny, Sunny Suzuki."
"Nice to meet you Sunny, the name's Killian!" He excitedly greeted. "There's a lot to go over, but that can wait for a while. I know you're confused, and probably a little scared, so is everyone who comes here. First and foremost I want to make sure you get some food in you, and then make sure your muscles haven't atrophied or anything like that."
"I'm sorry for inconveniencing you," Sunny whispered.
"Think nothing of it kiddo," Killian said, giving the small boy a reassuring pat on the back. "My wife'll be delighted to meet you, you're much more polite than yours truly that's for sure!" He punctuated his sentence with a hearty laugh. "I hope you like burgers."
"Thank you," Sunny was still scared, but Killian seemed to know what to say to calm him down. "Is it okay if I sleep?"
"Go ahead, I'll try to move a little smoother."
Sunny wasted no time in shutting his eyes and trying to escape from what he just saw. Old habits die hard, he supposed.
Welcome to White Space
You thought you were done here, didn’t you?
Omori opened his eyes. On the ground he saw Sunny, staring off into the distance, a blank expression on his face.
"Welcome back, Dreamer."
"Hello again, bastard."
"You haven’t changed much."
"I thought that would be it. I don’t really know what’s happening," Sunny turned towards the monochromatic facsimile of his inner psyche.
"I can’t say I know either. What I can say is that you’re not dreaming," Omori crouched down in front of Sunny, getting to eye level with him.
"Did we die?"
"I don’t know, Sunny."
"Hmph."
An awkward silence passed between the two. Sunny turned around and stared off into space again. The door to the greater part of headspace wasn’t there. The only things remained were the shattered bulb, and a seemingly infinite tissue box. No laptop, no Mewo, just empty.
"I’m not apologizing for what I said to you."
"I know, Omori."
"You cannot honestly be mad at me."
"I am, and I will be for a while."
"Fine then," Omori crossed his arms and turned away from Sunny. "You’ll be back."
"I look forward to it." Omori looked down, to see a pool of blood flowing around his feet.
"He always comes back."
Sunny awoke, but he wasn’t being held anymore. Instead he was in a fairly comfortable bed, with a light blanket on top of him. He looked around the room, and noticed he had an IV drip in his arm. This definitely wasn’t a hospital, Sunny was pretty sure at least. The room had an almost log cabin feel to it, with wooden walls, a glass window, and a painting of a beautiful woman on the wall.
On a small bedside table to his right was a glass of water. It had been there for a while, condensation had built up on the side of the cup, and dripped to the table leaving a small circular stain. Sunny reached for it and tried his best to pick it up. He thankfully was able to muster up the strength to take a sip. His throat thanked him for it. The liquid had a tinge of iron but Sunny really couldn’t care, he was basically a raisin at this point.
He finished his drinking and placed the cup back on the table. He took another look around the room. A brown door being the only detail he didn’t commit to memory previously. The grain on the door made some interesting shapes that he wished to draw. Sadly, there seemed to be no pen or paper in sight. Looking would have to do.
As he internally lamented his lack of drawing utensils the door opened, revealing Killian. He was carrying a small tray with what looked like a burger on it. "Oh! G’morning Sunny!" A smile creeped its way onto Sunny’s face. It seemed Killian’s enthusiasm was contagious.
"Good morning," He quietly said, his throat not fully functioning quite yet.
"Pardon the IV, usually people who come out are pretty dehydrated and weak," he said, sitting down on a bland chair. Killian placed the tray he was holding on the table where his cup sat. "I see you drank some water, that’s great! We can try solid food in a moment, but you’ll wanna take it slowly though. Don’t want you throwing it back up and having to start over, yeah?"
"How long was I out for?" Sunny asked, managing to sit up in the bed.
"Well you were out for the whole walk back, so about an hour," Killian cut off a small piece of the burger. "Try this."
Sunny accepted the food. The meat was slightly dry, but the bun and lettuce compensated for that. He was happy to eat something actually pretty tasty after so long. He managed to swallow it down, which was a plus.
"How old are you, Sunny?"
"I turned 16 this year."
"Could have fooled me, you need to get more protein in you kiddo!" Killian laughed. His expression went down slightly, a forlorn smile remained. "Where do you think you are right now?"
Sunny pondered this for a moment. The closest thing he could really think, was the afterlife. But he still needed to breathe, and eat food. He still felt pain, weakness, and tiredness. If this was the afterlife, it sucked.
"Hell?"
"Hah! Well some might call it that," Killian paused, and made eye contact with Sunny. "This is either good news or bad news, but you’re still alive."
Sunny wasn’t sure what expression his face made, but Killian could tell he was confused.
"As far as anyone knows, this is what happens to you when you die unexpectedly on Earth," He put air quotes around the word Earth. "But you aren’t really dead, you’re still alive, so congratulations!"
Sunny felt faint. Everything was spinning, blurry, what the hell happened to purgatory? The pearly gates? At least with reincarnation he wouldn’t remember anything.
"Sunny? Sunny?! Hey come back to me bud! I know this is a lot to take in, but I need you to calm down. Can you breathe with me?" Killian put a gentle hand on Sunny’s face. "Breathe with me okay? In," Sunny gasped for air, "and out," he let it out, "in, and out," Killian repeated this a few more times. Slowly the world came back into focus.
"Where am I?" he asked, desperate.
"People have taken to calling it the place beyond, which is kinda boring in my opinion, but this is Earth. The real one," He explained, a hand on Sunny’s shoulder. "As far as we can tell, when you die, you wake up here instead."
"Why? How?"
"I dunno!" His smile was way too wide for that. "The best anyone can figure is…. Are you familiar with the term ‘Simulation Theory’?" Sunny shook his head. "It’s an idea that the world is a computer system that we’re all collectively plugged into, just to see what humans would do with complete free will. That’s what we believe happened to us. But, can’t confirm or deny it, cause everyone who was in charge is missing."
Sunny put his head in his hands and closed his eyes. He wanted this to be a bad dream, but he wouldn’t wake up. He started to cry. As far as he knew nothing really mattered anymore.
"I know it’s a lot to unpack, take as much time as you need. It’s better I tell you that now, rather than later," He held out another small piece of burger to the child. "I know you may have a lot of friends from your old life you may want to see, and I’m sorry to say, you might not get that chance."
Sunny accepted the piece of food, still crying his life out. Killian hugged the small boy, and let him cry for a bit. He didn't offer more words, he merely let the boy cry, and cry.
Sunny woke again in the same room, IV still attached to him. His dish had since been taken to be cleaned, and he was alone in the room once more. He gave a sigh, and tried to calm his nerves. Crying wouldn’t get him anywhere.
At the same time, it sure felt better than holding it in.
One thing Mari had drilled into his small mind was that it was okay to cry. Sometimes that was the emotional release needed to get through your problems. Frequently, he found himself crying, but when he finished he would either have motivation or a solution to his problem. It's one of the reasons he loved Mari so much. And then he-
Wait a minute. Killian's words resounded in his mind. "This is what happens to you when you die unexpectedly on Earth," die unexpectedly.
Mari's alive. Mari's here!
"Mari!" He flopped out of his bed, and tried to stand. He failed, but he made a lot of noise. The IV was luckily still in his arm.
Killian burst through the door panicked at the sudden noise, "Sunny! What happened?!"
"My sister! She's alive, she's here she has to be!"
"What?!"
"My sister died when she was 15! If she was part of it she has to be here! Please! I need to find her!"