Chapter Text
Welcome to white space. You have been living here for as long as you can remember, until now.
Sunny looks down and sees the steak knife that his alter-ego wielded against him. He looks back up, facing forward, where a white door casts a faint shadow. This time it's different though, the door isn't monochrome; it's detailed, and emits a great amount of warmth from it. He walks to it. Sunny turns back at the room he had locked himself in for the last 4 years and does a bow, like he would've done if he and Mari got to play the recital, and then walks out.
A bright white light immediately shines at him, blinding him temporarily. He covers his face and begins to cry, finally coming to terms with everything. He looks around, the hospital room is filled with flowers from all kinds of people. Faraway is a pretty small town, so word must've gotten around pretty quickly. All the flowers were in great shape, so he probably hadn't been out for long. He lifted himself up from his bed and tried to wipe his eyes and remembered: Basil had stabbed his eye out. It didn't matter to him though, the grief and dread from what was to come next overpowered any sort of anger or pain he could've been feeling at that point. He almost fell over when he tried to stand up; "no big deal", he thought to himself and pulled himself back up.
He stumbled his way out of his room and saw a STRANGER glance at him, before walking away, signaling Sunny to follow. He went ahead and did just that, but instead of arriving at Basil's hospital room, the STRANGER led him to the hospital's reception. Basil was there, chatting up with the receptionist -Sunny couldn't tell what they were talking about-, but what caught his attention was that Basil seemed fine. Not just physically, but his expression wasn't as anxious as he remembered from those last 3 days, he had a genuine smile on and didn't seem like a nervous wreck. Sunny stood there, looking at his best friend, he wanted to say something but he just couldn't.
Basil saw someone standing in the corner of his eye, staring at him. He turned himself towards this person and his expression changed from a warm smile to complete shock. Basil froze, he looked at Sunny's dark eyes and Sunny's eyes looked back at him -his heart sank, he felt overwhelmed. While part of him held onto the hope and was sure Sunny would wake up eventually, part of him knew that was unlikely; yet there he was, staring back at him. Before he could say anything, the moving doors made an otherwise silent noise, that felt deafening in the silence that had filled the room. Sunny looked towards the entrance: in walked a tall young adult, holding a bag full of snacks and drinks, looking back at someone whilst chatting with them. When he looked forward he dropped his bags and let out an audible gasp. It was Hero
A thud could be heard as Hero was slightly pushed forward, still frozen. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.
"Hero, what the hell?", a feminine voice said in an annoyed and surprised tone. He didn't budge. "Hero?", she sounded more concerned this time around. She peaked her head out to see what it was that had Hero quite literally shell-shocked. A dark-haired girl with pink highlights was poking out of hero's back, with her look of concern quickly transforming into an indescribable face that seemed like a mix of overwhelming joy and absolute terror. She covered her mouth with her hands as her eyes opened wide.
Hero was the first to race towards Sunny, wasting no time in embracing him. Sunny was immediately taken aback, as he felt Hero's now-shaky breath and warm embrace cloud his emotions. As Hero sobbed, he looked back at Basil. The blonde boy quickly rushed to the hospital doors -he heard him shout "He's awake!" in an inscrutable tone of voice. Before he had time to think about what his best friend and partner in crime had said, he heard loud footsteps quickly come his way. Hero quickly let go and Kel jumped at him, embracing him in a bear-hug. It was at that point that everyone else let lose, and the whole group surrounded Sunny in a warm display of affection. Sunny then opened his mouth, trying to get a few words in.
"I.. h-have... s-s-somethi...ng to-o t-tell youuu...", he felt his vocal chords burn as he tried to mutter the sentence he should've said 4 years ago.
"You don't have to tell us anything", said the black-and-pink haired girl (who Sunny had now identified as Aubrey) in a kind, reassuring tone.
"Let's take you back home, Kel told your parents and they're waiting on you", said Hero, once again being the leader of the group in Mari's absence, "and Mari probably wants to see you as well, even though she's been out of it since the accident"
Wait, what the fuck? Sunny thought to himself. What are they talking about? Mari? But-
"Yeah, she's been really hard on herself. I'd probably be hard on myself too if I accidentally pushed Hero down the stairs", said Kel in his typical oblivious tone.
Sunny began to realize just what exactly was going on here.
"Alright Kel, that's enough", Basil raised his voice slightly.
The next few minutes felt like a blur to Sunny. Hero explained in the car ride back home that on the day of the recital, after throwing the violin down the stairs, Sunny tried to walk away. Mari grabbed his hand, trying to stop him, which caused Sunny to slip on the stair's first step, slipping his hand away from Mari's and tumbling down. The broken violin fragments stabbed his eye, rendering it useless. Mari quickly phoned an ambulance and Sunny was rushed to Faraway Hospital, where he remained in a coma for 4 years. Since the accident, Mari had stopped taking care of herself. She barely left her room and basically never talked to any of her friends.
Much like what Sunny had gone through in his subconscious recreation of the events he had created during his 4 year slumber.
Hero pulled the car into the Suzuki's driveway. He turned back to Sunny as everyone left the car to help carry the plants Sunny had received (Basil made sure to water them during his visits), as well as the snacks they'd brought to the hospital (they all snacked in Sunny's room once a week). "You ready, bud?", said hero. Sunny simply nodded. The nurses had advised Sunny to try not to speak much for at least a week, giving him some vocal training exercises to help him heal; his vocal chords hadn't been used in 4 years after all.
As they walked out of the car, Sunny's parents latched onto him. Sunny started to cry, he never thought he'd see his dad again. After all, in his mind, his dad had disowned him when Mari supposedly died. They were the ones to let go. Aubrey and Kel helped Sunny walk into his house, letting him go only to go help the rest.
Sunny took a good look around his house. There were no boxes, the furniture was still there. Everything felt like nothing had changed in the past 4 years: It was a time capsule of sorts. He walked through a door, into the hallway that led to the bedrooms. The staircase was still there, Sunny gulped and looked up.
There she was, just standing there with the most horrifying expression Sunny had ever seen. He looked closer. He swore he could see something behind his sister.
To be continued...