Chapter Text
((Please read the author's notes before proceeding))
...
....welcome back to whitespace....
...
....you are not supposed to be here....
Sunny's eyes fluttered open. He was laying down on his back, his knees bent. A never-ending nothingness greeted his view as he looked up. A familiar tune played in the background, but he didn't pay notice. Everything was blindingly bright, not containing a single hint of a shadow anywhere he could see, yet, for some reason, it still didn't hurt his eyes...
Wait. His eyes?
Sunny's hand flew up to his face. Instead of feeling the fabric of the eyepatch touch his skin, not only did he see his hand get closer, but his finger poked his once-damaged eye. Ouch. He blinked, his nose scrunching slightly, and massaged his entire face. Okay, this was a bit weird. Since when did he get his eye back?
...meow.... purrrr...
The noises of a happy little kitty echoed through the endless room. Sunny tensed. He didn't have any cats. Wait, where was he?
Using both hands to push himself, he sat up immediately. A black laptop stared at him from a few feet away, its screen turned off. On the laptop's left, a few feet behind, a white door stood ominously. It was the only thing that cast a faint shadow. Soft cotton brushed against his finger tips, welcoming him. He glanced down to see a white picnic blanket that laid underneath him.
No walls, no ceiling. Black laptop, picnic blanket, a cat somewhere, scary door...
Oh.
Oh no.
No, no, no- he was not back in Whitespace. He couldn't be. He let go of the dreamworld, he stopped visiting it, he stopped needing it.
But he was still back here. He had to be. The door. The laptop. The blanket. The music his own mind orchestrated was still playing hauntingly in the background, even if it sounded more distorted next to its original version. A bit slower. Each note echoing through the non-existent walls.
How didn't he realize this quicker?!
It didn't matter. Whether he liked it or not, he was back.
Sunny sprang to his feet, and almost stumbled back down the floor in a desperate attempt to distance himself from the objects before him. Actually, forget 'almost'- Sunny did trip on a small bump that the blanket had, and fell on his back.
He hit the ground and a sharp stab of pain shot straight to his head, a high pitched ring in his ear following suit. Sunny groaned as he brought his hands to his face, waiting for the agony to dull. Slowly the headache started to dwindle away, and once he felt fairly confident his skull wasn't going to continue throbbing, he let his hands fall to his sides.
Damn. Since when could he feel actual pain in Whitespace?
A small wet tongue suddenly licked his cheek. Sunny almost died of a heart attack, scrambling back with a yelp. The black little kitty tilted its head as it stared at him, confused at his reaction. Mewo flicked its tail, before returning to the lap of the one other child that calmly sat by the picnic blanket.
Omori.
Sunny's anxiety levels shot up immediately. No. No, no, no- no way. He wasn't back here. He couldn't be back here. He had to get out. Now. He jumped to his feet, turned around, and ran. He ran through the bright void, avoiding the red hand snakes expertly as he did so. He ran, and ran, and ran- only to get back to the picnic a few seconds after. Omori's back faced him. Sunny couldn't see all of Mewo anymore, only its fluffy tail sticking out, the rest of its body accidentally hidden by Omori.
Oh. Right. It was a loop.
For somebody with a great memory, you seem to forget an awful lot about the place you created, Sunny thought bitterly. Or rather, Omori thought. Or maybe it really was Sunny? It was complicated, being able to talk to another side of your own consciousness. Whose thoughts are whose, nobody would be able to tell anymore. Or at least, Sunny wouldn't be able to tell.
Sunny took a deep breath, not feeling like getting an anxiety attack inside his own dream. Or rather, his own nightmare.
Yeah. Definitely a nightmare.
"W-what..?" He swallowed. He slowly approached the picnic blanket, before rushing over to his sketch book. He opened it up, but instead of seeing his drawings, all of its pages were blank. "How- how am I... why am I..."
It was a good thing he could talk as much as he wanted inside his own mind. If this were real life, considering the amount of stress that was currently punching him in the face, he would have definitely lost the use of his voice by now. His hands started to shake, his grip on the sketchbook so tight it started to fold. He threw it onto the ground, spinning around to glare at Omori.
"Why did you-"
Omori's empty stare into his soul made the words die in his mouth. They shook his head sadly, before turning back to Mewo, wanting to continue to pet it. Sunny blinked, confused. A wave of pity washed over him, but in a way that he knew it wasn't his own feelings. It was Omori's. They felt pity? Weird. It wasn't the guilt he excepted from the kid.
He hesitatingly got closer, before sitting down next to the tissue box, still a good distance away from them. "You... you didn't put me back here?"
Omori shook his head again. They looked up from Mewo, and pointed at Sunny.
Sunny stared, uncomprehending. Then it clicked. "I placed myself here?"
They nodded.
Well, that was great.
Sunny let out a sigh/groan/he's fucking done with his own bullshit. He laid back down, his hands covering his face. Oh, just wonderful! After years of being absolutely obsessed with his dreamworld, he finally managed to move past it with so much pain and effort. Only to be back here. Again.
Silence stretched out.
"...why am I here?"
Omori simply shrugged, rubbing Mewo's head.
Sunny shook his head. "No, no. Don't lie to me, Omori. Why am I here?"
Omori sighed, and shrugged again. Sunny frowned, frustration starting to build up. This wasn't fair.
"I told everybody the truth- I- I told them about... Mari." It was still hard to say her name. "I-I let it out, this.. this place shouldn't exist anymore."
Omori looked up, finally doing something other than just petting the kitty. His black eyes were like staring into an abyss, void of any emotion or light. But even then, a small, small, tiny flash of anger flickered inside of them. Well, anger wouldn't be the right word. Disappointment.
"You... you really don't know?"
Omori shook their head.
Sunny deflated, upset. He shifted into a more comfortable laying position, a bit closer to Mewo and the kid now. The little cat slipped out of Omori's lap, before curling into a ball in an even distance between the two of them. Sunny extended his hand, the fluffy texture of Mewo's fur tickling his fingers as he pet the cat. Omori watched the two interact, not doing much himself.
It was weird being back here. Really weird. But even then, he had to admit: he missed this place. The peace that its meaningless existence brought.
The three of them stayed like that, simply listening to the new version of Whitespace's old theme. Mewo's tail flicked every once in a while, sometimes passing Sunny's nose, making him almost sneeze. It was strangely nice.
"What are we going to do now?" Sunny spoke quietly after some time, looking up at the younger more-dead-inside version of himself.
Omori thought for a moment, tapping their chin. He motioned over to the white door.
Sunny's hand froze mid-motion as he scratched Mewo's favorite spot. He looked over to the other as if they were insane. Which they were, if they were actually considering going back out there. "No- no way, no. Omori, what are you thinking?"
Omori stood up, patting Mewo one last time. They walked over to the black light bulb. Or at least, the string that once held it. It was gone now, after all. He was proving a point, or at least, trying to: There is nothing to fear now, you're not hiding anything anymore.
"Well, yes... we- I, destroyed it. It won't come back."
Omori motioned over to the door right after Sunny finished his sentence. Sunny stopped petting Mewo, sitting up. They were being so cryptic for no fucking reason. But then again, that's sorta how his entire mind worked, it was built like that to keep the truth hidden from him for years. How great, another reason to hate his brain! Honestly, at times the idea of just wiping everything was really appealing.
...Wiping everything.
"Oh." Sunny's eyes widened at the realization. "You want to do the same thing to the rest of Headspace. Just like the bulb."
Omori nodded in confirmation, and headed over to the door. Sunny reluctantly got up, leaving Mewo behind as he followed suit. A part of him was kind of curious on how Headspace would look like now. Whitespace looked pretty similar, except the laptop didn't turn on, and his sketchbook was blank. Perhaps that's how the rest of the dreamworld would be too? Similar to what it once was, but more.. empty? It would make sense if that were the case.
Hopefully he wouldn't see his Headspace friends though. Aubrey, Kel, and Hero he could probably handle. The problem was Basil and Mari- he wouldn't be able to face them after Blackspace. Not after everything.
How similar to last time would this be though? Would he have juice? Heart? Skills? Items- oh shit his items.
Omori was about to open the door, before Sunny grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait," he said, making the kid stop. "I don't, uh, I don't have any weapons on me."
Omori glanced back, looking around. Last time his knife literally fell from the sky and landed somewhere in Whitespace Would it be the same for whatever weapon Sunny would use? They both glanced around. There was nothing. Omori shrugged, before looking back at the door, and swiftly opening it. Sunny was a bit disappointed, but he followed them out shortly after.
Neighbor's room was the same as always. Colorful, bright, with that happy little tune playing quietly in the back of Sunny's mind. His crew wasn't around, though. Good. The two of them didn't waste any time, quickly making their way out of the stump. Omori got out first, their pace so fast Sunny was almost struggling to keep up. Jeez, why was his kid self quicker than him?
Outside by the trees still nobody could be found. It wasn't necessarily odd for that to happen, but Sunny couldn't even hear the kids playing by the playground. Only silence and eerie music. The music was starting to get annoying. Lonely without the voices of his friends cutting in every once in a while with some funny dialogue.
Whatever, not like he was planning on staying here anyways.
"Okay.. we don't need to play with the story then, right?" He asked eventually, looking at Omori who was dusting themself off. "We can just head straight to deep well and enter, uh, B-Blackspace..?" The memories that word brought sent shivers down his spine.
If it were up to him, they'd erase everything right here and now. Sadly, it wasn't so simple. To destroy the light bulb they had to dig deep into what it meant. What it was. What it held. The same would probably apply to the rest of his world. Blackspace was a culmination of the twisted things his mind did to the truth. He didn't even want to think about what Blackspace would be with the twisted version of his happy place.
Omori didn't emote- as always- at the mention of it, and simply shrugged.
Well, they may as well not waste time. Sunny turned his back to the playground, heading to the beach. The faster they got this over with, the better. Omori followed shortly after, switching his knife from hand to hand as he walked. Once they reached the sand, Sunny rushed over to the dock, and quickly jumped into the water.
Whoa, it's cold. Sunny gritted his teeth, keeping back shivers and moving his arms to keep on swimming. At least the 'exercise' kept him warm. Good thing one didn't get tired in dreams. Hopefully. Though one shouldn't feel pain in dreams either, or so much texture for that matter, yet here he was.
He looked back, and his eyebrows shot up slightly at seeing a hesitant Omori stare at the water. They watched their reflection contort with the ripples Sunny made for a few seconds, not moving a muscle.
You are afraid of drowning.
Sunny frowned. Didn't they already get over that? He sighed, moving his legs too to keep him afloat. His arms were starting to get heavy.
"It's okay, Omori. Take a deep breath, it's not as scary as you think.." the worlds fell from his mouth with ease, having repeated them inside his own mind countless times. Omori glanced at him with a flicker of surprise, and after a beat they nodded to himself. They took a deep breath, and slowly started to dip lower into the water.
Sunny was about to smile, when suddenly the heaviness from his arm became unbearable.
...no way. He shouldn't even be able to get tired in his dreams. He shouldn't.
He kicked his legs a bit harder. Big mistake, his energy started to lower faster. Sunny's breath quickened, panic slowly settling in. Omori stared at him as the world around them started to become darker. His eyes widened, something else finally replacing the emptiness they usually held: fear.
"Omori-" Sunny managed to stutter out, before something spiky(?) wrapped around both his legs.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment.
Well, shit.
They were both pulled underwater.
...
It was a dream.
It was a dream, it was a dream, it was a dream-
It had to be a dream.
It didn't matter that his clothes got heavier and yet weightless at the same time when he was pulled deeper down. It didn't matter that his vision blurred as they got clogged with water. It didn't matter that the tentacles gripped him so tightly scratches were starting to burn by his ankles. It didn't matter that he couldn't even breathe. It didn't matter how realistic this was.
It couldn't be real. It couldn't.
By his side, Omori was furiously slashing whatever the fuck got them with their knife, one of their feet already free from its grasp. Sunny grabbed one of his own legs with both hands, trying to pull himself out of its grasp to no avail.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
He swung his arms around, trying to swim back up. Sunny looked to where the surface resided, stretching his hand out. Somebody. Anybody. Please. Please save him. Save both of them.
As if hearing his silent plea, a figure burst into the water.
Her black inky hair flowed behind her, contrasting the pale white waves that was her dress. She swam towards the two figures with inhuman speed, her own hand reaching for them-
Or rather. Him.
Mari grabbed Omori's arm, the tentacles flinching away from his legs as soon as she did. She hugged their waist with both her hands, using her legs to propel herself back up. Sunny's eyes widened as he was dragged closer and closer to the darkness. His flailing became more desperate, trying to grab ahold of his sister who was simply out of reach.
He was going to die.
He was going to die. He was going to die. He was going to die-
Mari managed to get Omori to the surface, accidentally pushing herself back down into the water as she practically threw him next to the dock. He could hear her voice, even from here.
"It's okay OMORI.. it's okay.. everything is going to be okay.."
He was going to lose her again.
In a last desperate attempt, Sunny screamed, bubbles tumbling down of his mouth. "Mari- MARI-"
By some miracle, his sister seemed to hear him. Still submerged, she turned her body to face whatever the source of that voice was. Her eyes widened upon catching sight of the drowning boy, as if she had never noticed him before in the first place. Her already white skin somehow turned even paler.
She dove downwards in sharp desperation, but it was clear she wasn't going to make it in time. The last thing Sunny could see before his world started to fade to black was the contorted view of Omori. They took out their knife, facing its tip themself. They were going to stab to wake up, weren't they?
Mari reached out for Sunny, her voice somehow echoed even as they were deep under the water. He closed his eyes tight, waiting to wake up.
"SUNNY!"
—
Hero was pretty much half asleep.
The brothers were inside a pillow fort they made on top of two mattresses (it would have been three mattresses, but Sunny for some reason rejected the idea), and Sunny was laying down on Hero's bed. A small laptop sat on top of a chair before them, playing the oh so wonderful live action movie of Captain Spaceboy.
The movie had bad actors and bad dialogue, but the two kids seemed to enjoy it so he persevered through it. Hero had zoned out a long time ago, though.
Kel suddenly gasped. "Sunny, look this is your favorite part!" A pause. No answer. "Sunny? Sunnyyyy-" he tapped Sunny's blanket a few times, trying to get his attention. Upon still hearing no response though, both siblings turned their heads to look at him.
Sunny was in deep sleep, hugging his extra pillow. Hero chuckled softly.
"Guess he fell asleep first. Big mistake in sleepovers."
Snow softly tapped the window as it fell outside in a soothing pattern, the sound dull against the glass and steady through the night.
Kel groaned. "Aw, man! He missed the best part in the entire movie."
"You can tell him all about it tomorrow..." Hero trailed off upon checking the time. 1AM. "...or rather, today. Wow. Didn't realize it was getting so late."
His brother's eyes widened when he checked the clock himself. "Whoa, me neither! No wonder Sunny passed out. He's used to sleeping at like, ten, isn't he?"
Hero nodded. "He is. Now come on, we don't want to give even more damage to our own sleep schedule."
"We should put paint on his face."
"Absolutely not."
"Come on, everybody knows it's a mistake to fall asleep first in a sleepover-"
"No way."
Kel groaned, finally accepting the sad fate of not being able to paint on Sunny's face. "Okay..."
Hero bent over from his mattress, hitting the space bar to pause the movie. The other two could finish it if they wanted to tomorrow. He closed the laptop, and pushed the chair slightly farther away.
He grabbed his blanket and tucked himself in, getting comfortable. Kel did the same, though his sleeping position was slightly weirder than Hero's: a big, wide, spread out, starfish position. It even used up space from Hero's mattress, but he didn't say anything. The two of them stayed silent for a while, listening to the soft background noise. The snow became less noisy, but the crickets didn't stop their melody.
One minute passed. Then another three. Then five... ten...
Ugh, this is why he hated watching movies right before bed. It kept the mind awake. Especially for Kel, who changed his position every five seconds.
"..can't sleep?" Hero asked quietly, looking over to his brother using only his eyes. His head was in a very comfortable position on his pillow at that moment, and he wasn't going to sacrifice that.
"Nope."
"Thoughts?" The familiar word rolled out of his tongue.
After Mari's... incident (can't exactly think of it as a suicide anymore, huh?), and Hero's breakdown, the two of them had gained that tradition. Every now and then, whenever they stayed awake for a little longer than usual, they'd both just check in on one another. Make sure that they're not staying awake because of negative thoughts, or anything. And if that were the case, they'd give a small rant. Be it important/serious or not.
"Not really. Just the movie, kinda wanted to finish it not gonna lie. You?"
"Dunno. My mind is just blank but still not wanting to sleep."
"Ooof. Hope you find some interesting thoughts soon then!"
The two of them chuckled.
Their chat continued on, random subjects popping up every once in a while. Food, school, sports- they just muttered and joked about whatever they felt like, as neither of them felt tired at all. It was nice. Really nice. Every now and then, when Hero stayed over at his college, dark thoughts of Mari (and more recently: Basil and Sunny) kept him up at night. But back there, he wouldn't be able to talk to anyone about it.
He and Kel weren't talking about anything serious at the moment, but it was still liberating to be able to do it again.
"...why...here...?"
The soft voice caught them both off guard, their heavy conversation about the importance of toilet paper dying right then and there.
The two of them turned their heads towards Sunny, who they haven't heard speak in quite some time. He had selective mutism, and although he could speak whenever he wasn't anxious, the boy usually preferred his silence either way (or at least, that's what Hero hopes. It'd be very disheartening if Sunny was constantly under some form of stress). It was a rare thing to hear his voice.
Kel grinned, his smile full of mirth.
"Dude, I didn't know Sunny was a sleep talker." He was whispering, which was rather amusing considering he had no problem speaking normally a few moments ago.
Hero smiled himself, shaking his head. "It's best we don't bother him."
Kel ignored Hero, shifting his position to sit by Sunny's bed. "Psh, come on, this is a once-in-life-time opportunity to see what his dreams are all about! He had the best imagination out of all of us. Come on, aren't you a little curious? At least let me have this if we can't put paint on his face."
The two of them stared at each other, fighting a silent battle. Hero rolled his eyes with a sigh, caving in. "Fine, fine."
Ah who was he kidding, Kel's right. He's a little bit curious too. The two of them laughed quietly as Hero slipped closer to Sunny himself, now sitting on Kel's mattress.
Sunny murmured, holding his pillow a bit tighter. "Don't.. lie.."
Wonder what that dream is about. So far they got four words: "why" "here" and "don't lie". Not much information. Hero and Kel exchange curious glances. Sunny started to grimace. Hero looked back at him, starting to get slightly worried. Maybe this wasn't a dream after all.
A nightmare, perhaps?
Sunny's grip on the pillow became much tighter, his knees getting closer to his own body. "..the..... truth.." there was a pause "..Mari..."
The truth.
"I KILLED HER!.. I- I k-killed her.. I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry. It was an accident. I swear it was an accident. It was an accident, it was an accident-"
He shoved that memory out of his brain.
Hero frowned, his body immediately tensing. Okay, so, Sunny was dreaming about Mari? What... what aspect of Mari.
Kel was starting to fidget uncomfortably next to him. "Y-you know what, you're right. Let's just, leave him be, and-"
"...destroyed it..." Sunny whispered.
Yup, now its the time to stop listening. Hero nodded at Kel's suggestion, going back to his own mattress. The clock continued to tick, counting the long moments in which awkward silence drowned out everything else. It took a while before Sunny said anything else.
"...Deep... well..?"
At that point Hero and Kel were just sitting next to each other, not bothering to lie down as neither of them were planning on sleeping.
Mari. Sunny was dreaming about Mari, the 'truth', and... deep well, whatever that was. Hero didn't know how to feel about that. Sunny had told them the truth around six months ago, but time was warped inside Hero's mind. The memory was fresh in his brain, as if it had happened yesterday- yet at the same time, it felt as if it had happened decades ago.
It was fucked up.
Hero wouldn't consider himself fully moved on about the fact that four years of his grievance and just overall life was a lie- hell, he probably would never be able to fully move on from that. But on the flip side of that statement- four years of his life was a lie. Four years of blaming himself for her death was a lie. He didn't miss any signs. It wasn't his fault, and that was an immeasurable relief.
And it was also the only thing that kept him from strangling Sunny in his sleep.
Not just because he knew it wasn't his fault, no. That played a big part, sure, but it wasn't the entire reason. Hero thought that it was his fault and then found out it wasn't. Sunny and Basil knew that it was their fault, and it ripped them apart, caused them to break into pieces, and it even led to Sunny losing an entire eye. They were also only little kids, for fucks sake. They didn't know what they were doing.
But even then.. four years. They kept that lie for four years.
Hero didn't know how to feel about the entire situation, but he did know one thing: he wasn't going to let everybody fall apart again. Last time that happened, it all went to utter shit. They'll figure this out. Somehow. Together.... hopefully.
He was about to lay down, his brain finally drifting to sleep-
"Mari," Sunny whimpered. "Mari." He repeated, his position shifting. He started to shake. Hero froze, turning to look at him again. He frowned. Sunny's breath started to quicken. "Mari. Mari, Mari, Mari- Mari-" he was tumbling in his bed, his arms heaving swinging around without a care in the world as his feet kicked the air.
Hero and Kel teleported to his side in a millisecond.
"Sunny-" Hero started, about to try and calm him down.
The boy suddenly let out a yell, flying awake. Hero grabbed onto his shoulders, his eyebrows furrowed with concern. Sunny grabbed onto his wrist with an iron grip. He was sweating bullets, breathing in and out frantically.
"Shhh.. shhh, it's okay. It's okay, it was just a dream." Hero shushed him softly, taking one hand to gently guide him back down into a laying position. Sunny's eye was open, but it was simply flickering back and forth in a daze. Poor boy was still half asleep, wasn't he? Hero put the back of his hand to his forehead. He didn't know why, it's just something his mom used to do whenever he had a nightmare. He used to do the same thing to Kel whenever he had a bad dream. "It's okay.. nothing can hurt you here. Take a deep breath, everything will be okay."
At that last sentence Sunny stared at him with an unreadable expression, his brain probably too tired to process what Hero's saying. He closed his eyes, and he slowly went limp as he fell asleep again.
Hero stayed rooted to his spot for a little while longer, making sure Sunny was fully relaxed before going back to his own mattress.
Kel stared at him, worry etched upon every feature in his face. He was thinking about it too, huh?
"We'll.. we'll talk about this tomorrow morning." Hero quietly assured him, slipping into his bed. "Just.. try to get some sleep now, ok?"
They both nod to each other, even if they both know those last words were partly empty. They got comfortable in their beds, closed their eyes, and forced themselves to head to sleep. Sunny's nightmare was not something Hero expected to deal with, if he were honest. He wasn't ready at all.
..oh well.
He'd ask Sunny about it tomorrow.