Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hero blearily blinked open his eyes to his alarm clock vibrating in his face.

Groaning, his arm flopped over his eyes as he squeezed them shut again. He’d fallen asleep crying again. What was this, the third time in as many days?

He sighed, slowly sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He wished he could stay in bed forever, but he had plans for today. Long-overdue apologies waited for no one, after all— and he wasn’t sure how long Sunny would remain in the hospital.

His gaze fell on Kel’s bed, all the way across the room. It was empty— and in exactly the same extremely messy shape as it had been yesterday.

Normally, Kel’s bed being messy wasn’t something of note, but this was different. It was the same bundle of blankets and sheets as it was when Hero had gone to sleep last night, completely untouched. Had Kel even gone to bed?

Even though Hero had woken up quite early, and the drive to the hospital wasn’t too long, he was starting to think he’d be a little late anyway. Making sure Kel was okay took priority— Hero had already spent the last four days wallowing in bed ignoring the world after Sunny spilled the truth. He wouldn’t make the same mistake as he did after Mari’s death again and not be there for his brother.

“¡Mamá, Papá!” he called into his parents’ room as he headed into the bathroom to brush his teeth. Maybe he was just overthinking things, and Kel was at a friend’s house. His parents would know for sure. “Do you know where Kel is?”

There was a babbling noise from Sally’s crib as his parents whispered quietly to each other. After a moment, his father’s half-asleep voice replied. “Is he not in his room?”

“No,” Hero said, mouth full of toothpaste. “Did he stay at a friend’s house?”

“If he did, he didn’t tell us,” Mamá said slowly, sounding more alert. “He was still out on his walk when we went to bed.”

He spat in the sink, then rinsed his mouth. “He left at eight, around the time I fell asleep. What time did you go to bed?”

“Nine,” Papá said.

He felt his stomach sink. “So… Kel has been missing all night. And neither of you noticed?”

Mamá stomped out of her room. “Don’t talk to your parents like that,” she said sternly. “We were asleep.”

“Lo siento, Mamá,” he apologized.

Sally wailed in the sudden silence, Papá desperately trying to comfort her. Mamá dashed back into the room, cursing softly. “Go and find him, mijo,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll have breakfast ready when you two are back.”

Hero stared at himself in the mirror— at his messy hair, the bags under his eyes, his creased pajamas. Thinking ahead, he’d set aside enough time to get ready to go to the hospital— but Kel was more important than looking sharp enough to leave the house.

Heh. He could use his rumpled appearance to make it clear to Kel that he should tell his family when he stays overnight at a friend’s house. It might actually get through his brother’s thick skull this time, he mused as he made his way downstairs to get his car keys. Kel knew how much Hero cared about looking presentable.

***

Twenty minutes into his search, Hero’s appearance was the last thing on his mind.

There was no sign of Kel anywhere. Not at Hobbeez (the store didn’t open until nine), nor at Gino’s (Hero stumbled through a very passive-aggressive conversation with the owner as he tried to ask about Kel), and not at Cris’s house. Basil was still in the hospital, so he was ruled out, too. Hero dialed Aubrey’s number on his phone, but she didn’t pick up— not that it mattered much. He knew that even if Kel wanted to stay overnight there, Aubrey would rather die than let him. But her concerning home situation was shoved aside as he found dead end after dead end in his search.

He’d checked the park. He’d pulled up alongside random pedestrians he’d maybe exchanged five words with in the last two years and asked if they’d seen his brother. He’d spotted the bus stop and, thinking Kel might have gone to see Sunny or Basil, called the hospital and asked. After a tense two minutes of waiting as a nurse checked both rooms, the receptionist that picked up returned with a calm no, there’s no visitors for those patients at the moment, and his reply had been immediately hanging up and dialing his mother.

The moment she picked up, Hero blurted, “I can’t find him.”

“¿Qué?”

“Kel. He— I can’t find him. I tried asking anyone I came across, but no one knew anything.” There was a panicked tone in his voice. Kel could be absent-minded sometimes, but he had never gone more than a few hours without letting someone know where he was— let alone a whole night.

But nobody had seen him since yesterday.

“Ay, mijo. I’m sure he’s somewhere out there. He… probably just got distracted over comics or his ball game like he usually does. Try not to worry too much, okay?”

“For the whole night?” Hero asked doubtfully.

Mamá laughed, her voice going a little high-pitched. “You know Kel as much as I do, mijo. He tends to get a little… wrapped up in things.”

He sighed. “I… guess.” He turned the wheel, the car moving with it. As he circled back to the park, he noticed another person walking on the sidewalk— someone he hadn’t already asked about Kel. Driving closer to the sidewalk, reducing his speed, he rolled down his window and called out to them. “Hang on a second, Ma. Hey!”

“Okay?”

“Huh? Oh, hey, Henry, right? I think you helped me out with my lesson plans once about two years ago. How’ve you been?” the man responded.

Hero’s eyes narrowed as he tried to remember. It was pointless— whatever this man was talking about was nothing but a blank hole in his memory now. Thankfully, he was pretty good at bluffing. “Uh… right! I remember you. I’ve been better. Have you— have you seen my brother Kel around? He’s been gone since yesterday and we can’t find him anywhere.”

The man tilted his head curiously. “I don’t know, what does he look like?”

“Um… he’s tall, brown hair to his shoulders, wears a lot of orange? Usually a basketball jersey— he has like five of them in his closet. It’s his favorite outfit.” He wasn’t sure why he was telling that part to a stranger, but it was too late to take it back. “You might have seen him on the basketball court at the park, he plays there a lot.”

The man shook his head apologetically. “Uh, no, I can’t say I have. I do hope you find him, though!”

Hero nodded. “Thanks, I’m sure we will!” But the more time passed, the more afraid he was that those words wouldn’t be true.

He shoved the thought out of his mind as he began to drive again, heading in a direction he didn’t usually see a lot of cars come from. He’d already gone through pretty much all of the populated parts of Faraway— but the only thing he could do was keep looking.

Keep looking and hope to any higher deities out there that he would find his brother safe and sound.

The road passed underneath his car, the grainy asphalt blurring as he picked up speed. Trees flashed past, the forest tall and growing denser the further from the park he drove.

“Did that guy know anything?” his mother asked.

He’d forgotten he was still on the phone with her. “No, he didn’t,” he replied, his fingers tapping on the steering wheel in his nervousness. Tap. Tap tap. Tap-tap tap tap. He took a deep breath and forced them to stay still— the last thing he needed was to get distracted and get into an accident.

“Ay, dios mío,” Mamá mumbled. “When Kel gets home I’m going to give him a piece of my mind. Where is he?”

The road curved, so Hero took his time to respond as he focused on driving for a moment. “I don’t know…”

He paused, then pressed the brakes, slowing to a stop. There was something blocking the road.

Something orange and human-shaped laid halfway across the right lane, pushed up against the curb.

Hero’s breath hitched. Maybe he was just sleeping? He didn’t know why he would be sleeping on the road, but hey, anything can happen, right?

His hands were shaking as he frantically undid his seatbelt and scrambled out of the car. “One second, Mamá… I might have found him.”

“What? Where…? ¿Mijo?” He didn’t respond— he’d left the phone on the passenger seat, his head spinning.

Kel didn’t move. His hand was pinned under his body, his back facing Hero. He must have been in a really deep sleep to not have noticed.

Every step felt like he was wading through molasses.

As he moved nearer and nearer, he began to notice dark splotches of dirt across Kel’s hair. Then trailing across the back of his neck, down to his shirt.

Hero’s eyes stung. Kel was just sleeping, right? Right?

It took forever and yet it was too soon before he was stepping around his brother’s limp body.

Kel’s eyes were open, unseeing. There was a small frown across his face. Unusual, even while he slept.

And there was so much brown.

So. Much. Brown.

Kel’s face and hair were coated in it.

Hero laughed nervously. Had Kel gone swimming in a mud puddle? Why were his eyes open if he were asleep?

“H-Hey Kel! Bed time’s over, y’know? Rise and shine, as they say!”

His brother didn’t respond.

“K-Kel?” he whispered. Numbly, he reached a hand out and placed it on his brother’s cold shoulder, shaking him gently. “C-C’mon bro! This isn’t any time for games! Do you know how early it is?! Please…?”

Kel’s sleeping form shifted, flopping over until he was laying on his back. Hero’s voice wobbled as he shook Kel harder and harder. “Kel! P-Please! Just wake up!”

Bile rose in his throat when he finally looked at his brother’s face. Because the side of Kel’s head was caved in.

He screamed.

Screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and—

The contents of his near-empty stomach rose into his throat, cutting him off mid-scream. He crawled and vomited into the grass on the side of the road, sitting back and clutching his stomach.

He scrambled backward. He wanted to run, to do anything to get his mind off the image of Kel— of— His head was spinning; he wanted to pass out.

His frantic gaze glanced over the road. There were a set of tire marks on the ground a little ways behind his brother. They didn’t seem too old either. It couldn’t be… Kel’s not that careless, he’s rather observant… right…?

There were no other cars around. He didn’t know how long his brother had been here on the side of the road— but Kel had been missing overnight. He’d been left here for hours at least and the driver responsible had escaped without a trace, the only bit of evidence that there had been a driver being a set of skid marks next to the body.

Hero felt like vomiting again. To reduce his brother, to reduce Kel, to just… a body.

Trembling, sobbing, he got to his feet. He made a mad dash back towards his car, desperately reaching for his phone. He could hear his mom and even his dad’s panicked questions at being left alone to hear his screams.

Nothing they were saying really registered in his foggy mind. “Mamá… Papá…” he said, reaching across the driver’s seat to get his phone, “I… Mamá… Papá…”

“Hero?! ¡¿Qué pasó?! What’s going on?!” Mamá’s voice was frantic. “Mi bebé… please talk to me… you’re scaring us… Did you find Kel…?”

“He’s— Kel—” His voice broke. “Call the p-police…”

Utter silence on the other end of the phone. Finally, Papá spoke up. “Police? Hero, what happened? ¿Qué pasó con Kel?”

Hero was sobbing so hard he could barely see— he could barely breathe. “K-Kel… he… accident…”

“Hero, what—”

“HE’S DEAD! HE’S— HE’S FUCKING DEAD! JUST— PLEASE CALL THE POLICE! P-PleASe…”  Dimly, Hero knew he was starting to hyperventilate— he remembered reading about it in med school. But he couldn’t snap himself out of it.

His parents’ words were static in his brain. The world was narrowed to just him leaning over the driver’s seat and Kel on the road. Shaking, he left the car behind, walking over to his brother. The brother he would never get to see graduate high school, cheering and clapping in the crowd as he accepted his diploma. The brother he would never get to see become a world-famous basketball player like he’d dreamed of. The brother that he would never get to see laughing, would never get to see smiling again.

The brother that had died alone. That Hero hadn’t been there for— that he would now never get the chance to be there for.

He cradled his little brother’s body in his arms and cried.

Chapter Text

Aubrey lay on her bed, her eyes bloodshot and unsleeping. She was still wearing her tank top and skirt, her skin rubbed raw and as clean as she could manage. She raised her arm up to her head, rubbing feebly at her eyes.

Her gaze traced the angry red marks on her pale skin. Scratches that came from thorns and tree bark as she stumbled through the shrubbery, his heavy weight hanging from her tired arms—

She squeezed her eyes shut and turned on her side. The cuts stung as they brushed her worn linen sheets.

Something trailed down her forehead, sending her skin crawling— like the spray of blood trickling down her cheek that wouldn’t go away no matter how hard she rubbed it—

Letting out a muffled sob, she curled up tighter into herself.

The room was quiet. Her alarm clock ticked away on her bedside table, her bunny sniffed quietly in the corner where he was curled up, and there was the faint drip of water somewhere. But it was all background noise— easy to tune out. So it was quiet.

Aubrey hated that it was so quiet.

Quiet like he was when she was sobbing over his body—

She sat up and climbed out from under the covers, thinking that maybe moving a bit could help her take her mind off him.

A part of Aubrey guiltily resented her need to forget— but a larger, more selfish part of her desperately wished for some form of escape. She paced around her room, the soft thuds of her footsteps breaking up the silence. She tried thinking of something, anything, to distract her from what had happened. As she circled around her room for what felt like the hundredth time, she glanced at the mirror on her wall. It was a very simple mirror, pictures from hangouts with the Hooligans slipped beneath the frame. What really mattered though, was the teenager in the mirror.

She looked horrible.

Her hair was matted, a tangled mess with leaves stuck in it— leaves from the trees she waded through as the two of them searched for somewhere to place the unresponsive boy in their arms—

Her skin was pale, peppered with thin scratches— twigs and bark catching on her clothes and stinging her skin and making it harder to move than it already was—

Her clothes were ruined, her skirt stained with blood and dirt, near impossible to remove from the denim. She reached down to pick up her once-white jacket, similarly caked with a myriad of stains— the blood from a long gone friend, dirt from her trip through the forest, asphalt from the road they had settled on for their plan—

Aubrey let out a dry sob and dropped her jacket back onto the floor, staring in horror at her shaking, trembling hands.

At her shaking hands soaked in blood. The blood that kept coming back no matter how much she washed her hands.

She frantically wiped her hands on her skirt, rubbing and rubbing and rubbing until— he wouldn’t stop bleeding he wouldn't stop bleeding hewouldntstopbleeding ohgodjustpleasestop—

Aubrey blinked, and suddenly she was back in front of the mirror, her hands coated in fine flecks of dried blood and dirt but otherwise clean.

Her eyes fluttered shut. Change clothes— she should change clothes. She… needed to change clothes.

After dazedly digging for clothes in her wardrobe, she quickly found a pair of leggings and a plain t-shirt. Shrugging her soiled clothes off was habitual, and it was just as mindless to put the fresh ones on.

She tossed the tank top and skirt onto the jacket, forming a small pile that barely reached her calf. Figuring out what to do with them would be a task for later.

As she kicked the dirty clothes into the corner of her room, Aubrey fiddled nervously with the tips of her long, tangled hair. Then she froze— there was something crusty at the ends of her hair. Like she’d dipped it in glue that had dried, leaving it a sticky, flaky mess.

Aubrey tugged at her hair, bringing it up towards the mirror. A shudder ran down her spine as she noticed a similar, brownish stain that she had seen her clothes covered in— blood. Blood dried by the setting sun as they waited for the perfect time to begin their search. Dried by the wind of the dark night.

The sky was blue-navy-orange, the sun sending streams of light over the tops of the trees— it would have been more fitting for it to be drenched in red. Red, red, red. She hated the color red.

Her eyelids were heavy, her head pounding, her eyes empty of tears, and there was still red.

Red was painted on the grass, red was splattered on the trees, red was dripping onto the ground as they pushed their way through the woods, red red red red—

A phone rang somewhere. Aubrey blinked, and she was staring at her hair in the mirror again. The phone continued to ring. As much as Aubrey would have liked to try and brush her hair until it wasn’t tangled anymore, she had no choice but to go down and investigate the blaring noise downstairs. She would have to hope her mom wouldn’t see her in this condition.

Not that she would care, probably. It was more the principle of it.

As Aubrey descended down the ladder leading to her room in the attic, she could hear the ringtone getting louder and louder. She waded through the bags of trash and filth strewn across the floor of her house, picking her way past drained cans of beer and pinching her nose at the rotted stench coming from the empty takeout boxes. 

Thankfully, there was no one in the living room. Her mom must have decided to sleep in her own room for once, instead of passing out on the sofa in front of the TV. One less thing for her to worry about.

She crossed in front of the TV, finally ending up in front of the still-ringing phone.

She froze.

The name on the caller ID… Hero. Her friend. Kel’s brother. 

Oh god why was he calling what did he know why was the room spinning should she pick up—

Kel stared at her. “Hey, Aubr̸̭͂e̵͚͠y. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

The lake sparkled behind him. Wind rustled the leaves of the trees. Kel’s tall form half covered the sun sinking toward the horizon— it hurt her eyes a little bit to look in his direction.

He grinned, tilting his head. “What happened, Aú̷̯b̴̛̮rẽ̵͇y? Cat got your tongue? You look a little bit scared. What could you possibly be afraid of?”

Her nail bat felt heavy in her hands, dragging on the ground.

The side of Kel’s face warped, turning red as rubies. Red as blood. It spread slowly, drip drip dripping down his cheek. “Ŵ̴̰h̵͎̑a̸̭̚t̵͔͒'̵̺͋s̸̙̊ ̷̓the matter,̼ ̴̻̈A̶̓ͅu̴̗͑b̶͎̉ṟ̵̿e̶̤̕ý̷̝?̸͇͛  H̴̫̎a̷̐ving̈̒ ̸̄͝s̴̔̄econ̴͗̆d thoug̵̎͠h̸̾̚t̷̆̏ś̴̮?̶̉̋ Ȃ̸ bit of ̈r̵̿̈́ë̷́͝g̶̔̉ř̷̕e̶͘t? Guil̂͂t̴̀̿, may̸͊̓be?”

She stumbled back, tripping and landing on the couch. The lake melted away, leaving her back in her dirty mess of a living room. The phone had finally gone silent.

She lay there for a moment, her body heavy, unable to get off the couch. Her legs felt like jelly.

Aubrey fought to get her panicked breathing under control, her eyes shutting as she focused. When she was finally breathing normally, she opened them again and glanced at the phone.

Her breath caught. He was still there— the exact same as the day she’d last seen him but for his blood and his misshapen skull.

So the exact same as the day she’d last seen him.

Aubrey covered her eyes and counted to ten. When she opened them, he was still there.

Unmoving, unfazed. All he did was stare. He stared at Aubrey, peeking into her soul.

It was unbearable .

Aubrey shot to her feet and shoved him out of instinct. He disappeared in a swirl of light. 

Tears pricked at her eyes, her hands shaking as she dropped to her knees. It felt like losing him all over again— she curled into a ball, tears streaking down her face. She didn’t know what to do— she could barely even think. At least, not until she came.

***

“He’s…”

“Kim?”

Kim didn't finish her sentence; instead, she turned around and grabbed Aubrey by her shoulders.

“It's okay... Aubrey…”

She took off her glasses, making sure to make Aubrey look her in the eyes. Upon doing so, Aubrey felt a strange feeling of relief. She wasn't alone in this.

“I may know what to do.”—

***

Someone moved to stand beside her. Her gaze caught on orange shoes… on brown, tanned skin… on a familiar orange jersey and shorts… on red blood and a blank expression.

Kel.

Not-Kel.

Kel was dead. Kel was… he was… dead. This wasn’t Kel.

This Kel was silent. Unsmiling. Bleeding. Nothing like the real one. He just stood there, almost like he was waiting for something to happen.

She sobbed, waving her hand through Not-Kel’s figure. He dissipated in a puff of smoke.

Another one appeared across the room. The same blank expression remained on what was left of his face.

Aubrey stumbled back and forth across the living room, trying her hardest to get rid of Not-Kel. No matter how many times she thought he was gone, he was always back on the other side, still waiting.

She crawled into the corner of the living room, surrounded by trash and unidentifiable rotted substances, trembling. He stared at her, unblinking.

She felt like she was going mad.

She didn’t want to be here anymore. Why wouldn’t he just— why wouldn’t he just go away?

Something crashed on the other side of the house. Not-Kel didn’t react. Aubrey did, turning to see her mother shuffling out of the hallway, making a beeline for the kitchen.

Her mom didn’t even pay a glance to her wreck of a daughter as she reached into the fridge, the in-built lights barely flickering on— it was one of the only working appliances in the house, and still in poor condition. As her mom shut the door, Aubrey noticed a six-pack of beers were clutched in her hand. She quickly dropped it on the counter, wrestled two out of their packaging, and disappeared back into her room, slamming the door behind her.

Oblivious to everything happening around her.

Aubrey wished she could do that, too.

Her gaze went back to the chilled beer on the kitchen counter. She’d always thought it was disgusting, both smell- and taste-wise.

But…

But maybe if she drank it, maybe she could be like her mom.

Maybe she could forget everything, ignore the dead, empty eyes staring at her from the other side of the living room. Maybe she wouldn’t have a care in the world anymore.

But her mom… Aubrey had never wanted to be like her mom.

Was it worth it, though? To stay sober… and have to remember? To keep seeing him ? 

She knew what alcohol did to a person. She had to see her mom slowly succumb to its effects over years, watching as she became a shell of her former self. Watching as she stopped being the mother Aubrey knew and became some stranger that only looked like a tired, sickly approximation of her.

Did she want even a chance of that happening to her? Of all but disappearing for good?

Aubrey thought about it. She looked at Not-Kel again. She glanced at her hands, once again red with blood. It dripped, puddling in her lap.

She wasn’t worth keeping around, anyway. Not after what she’d done.

Like a woman walking to her execution, she crept into the kitchen and pulled one of her mom’s beer cans out of the plastic ring. It was still slightly chilly from its time in the fridge, condensation rubbing off on her fingertips.

The brown liquid inside released a horrible, acrid smell as she pulled on the tab. Her nose wrinkled, a hand flying to her mouth to suppress a gag.

She turned to stare at Not-Kel. He watched her, his gaze empty. His single eye glinted strangely.

Aubrey pinched her nose and downed the whole thing.

Chapter Text

Kim turned onto her street, only a couple of steps from her house. The slap of her sneakers against the sidewalk was the only sound, other than the slight whistle of the wind and the sound of a car whizzing by.

Her hands were jammed into the pockets of her blue hoodie, the soft fabric inside absorbing her body heat and keeping her fingers just slightly upwards of comfortably warm— but it was better than having her arms swinging at her sides.

Made it easier for her to seem inconspicuous, she hoped. Unsuspicious. It was completely normal for teenagers to act moody and closed-off.

She finally made it to her doorstep, the bright red front door standing between her and the inside. 

Kim raised her finger and jabbed the doorbell.

Vance opened the door almost immediately, as though he’d been waiting. He raised an eyebrow at her. “Where were you?”

“Out,” she said vaguely, waving her hand. “Went on a walk.”

The absolute last thing she needed Vance to know was that she was at the secret lake hideout in the park for the third time in as many days. It would raise the question of why… and Aubrey’s secret needed to be kept at all costs. 

Her brother sighed. “Okay… that’s not normal for you, though. Are you—”

Stiffening, Kim snapped, “I’m fine.”

He looked taken aback at that. “Woah, okay. You’re fine. I get it.” Kim frowned; Vance didn’t seem convinced.

She pushed past him and into their living room without another word. 

“Where are you going?” Vance asked at Kim’s retreating back as she climbed the stairs. “Our friends will be here any minute.”

Kim froze. “…What? Since when?” She didn’t remember Vance ever asking about inviting the other Hooligans, nor her ever saying yes.

“What, that our friends are coming? We planned this almost a week ago, remember?” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “They should be here in about—”

Before he could continue, there was a sudden knock on the door. A dozen curses flew through Kim’s mind— she’d lost her chance to escape this.

Vance, who was standing closer to the door, reached over to open it. Angel was practically vibrating with excitement on the doorstep, as though he’d had a pint of soda before coming. “Guys! Hello! Is Master here yet?”

“No, you’re the first one,” Vance replied good-naturedly. “Come in.”

Angel stepped inside, Vance promptly closing the door behind him. Kim stood awkwardly in the doorway. She’d never felt so out-of-place among her own friends before.

“So… have you guys played the new Spaceboy game? I could probably kick both of your butts!” Angel challenged.

Kim shrugged, but Vance shook his head. “No way. I totally bet I could beat you.”

“Oh yeah? You’re on! Next time I come over, I'm gonna bring it and show you who’s boss!”

“Hmph, yeah right.” As he finished his sentence, a second ring from the doorbell came.

Kim was the one to open the door this time, after a look from Vance. It was Charlene this time, her massive stature barely fitting under the door.

“Oh, hey, Charlie. Come in.” She gestured inside.

“H-Hello… t-thank you,” Charlie spoke timidly, ducking a little bit on her way inside, just to make sure she wouldn’t hit her head.

Everyone walked over to the couch and took a seat, Charlene preferring to sit on the ground, just a bit too big to sit next to everyone else. Kim sat down on the end of the sofa, her arms wrapped around her legs and her eyes fixed on the television as Vance switched it on.

Angel whispered something to Charlie, who gasped exaggeratedly. Kim twitched. 

After what felt like an eternity of conversations and flipping through TV channels, another knock came.

“Finally. That took foreverrrrr ,” Angel said, getting to his feet and bouncing over to the door. He flung it open with gusto. “Mas… Master? Are you okay?”

Kim twisted in her seat to see Mav standing on the doorstep. His wig was slightly askew, as though he’d run his hands through it a few times, and his fingers were twitching nervously. He had a… look on his face. Almost like he knew something he shouldn’t.

Chills ran down Kim’s spine.

He still flashed a smile, strained at the edges though it was. “I’m fine, don’t worry about it. How is everyone doing?” The Maverick’s always had this persona on, but anyone could tell his smug face was more fake than usual.

“We’ve been alright. Aubrey hasn’t been around much, though. She still hasn’t shown up yet.”

“I-I see. Well, why don’t we talk about me instead while we wait?” It almost sounded like he was trying to cover for Aubrey. No one paid mind to it though, preferring to talk down The Maverick from continuing on about himself any longer.

All Kim could think about, though, was why The Maverick felt a need to cover for Aubrey. He wasn’t supposed to know anything— that should have been impossible— so why did it seem like he did? Had she failed?

Her gaze remained fixed on the back of his head as he took a seat on the floor in front of Vance, facing the TV screen.

It took forever before Vance and Angel finally found a good channel to settle on. It was running old Captain Spaceboy specials. It wasn’t something Kim would have wanted to see, but she didn’t feel like objecting to it at the moment. It wasn’t like she was paying much attention, anyway.

She paid another glance over to Mav, the only one for whom not making any real noise was unusual. She noticed something in his eyes. He kept looking back at everyone else, but it almost felt like he was seeing through them. LIke he was deep in thought, trying to comprehend whatever was keeping him on edge.

As she moved her eyes back to the TV screen, she could have sworn she saw Vance giving her a glance of his own before suddenly turning away. The thought almost made her stomach churn. Since when did he care so much? She shook those thoughts out of her head and continued to mindlessly watch Captain Spaceboy, who was apparently in a dangerous situation involving some giant wormholes and a mole in his crew.

After the thrilling ending that was the special, Charlene finally spoke up.

“U-Um… It’s been a w-while, is A-Aubrey going to come?” Charlene meekly said.

“I dunno,” Vance said, picking at his ear. “She said she would try a bit ago, but she’s been a lot more distant lately for some reason.”

Kim swallowed a lump in her throat. She knew exactly why Aubrey hadn't swung by in a while.

“Maybe she’s mad at us for bullying that Basil kid,” Angel offered. “But she started it!”

The Maverick sighed a bit louder than he would have liked, attracting the attention of everyone around him. Kim’s eyes narrowed at him slightly.

“Hmm? What’s up, master? Something wrong?” Angel asked, an innocent, confused look on his face.

Mav’s gaze dropped to the floor. He bit his lip, as though realizing there was no way out of this anymore.

Cold realization filled Kim as she realized what he was about to confess. She opened her mouth to protest—

“I… I heard something… my parents were talking about it in the morning… I don’t think they knew I heard.” Mav’s voice was low, pained. “I-I dunno if I should be the one to tell you guys.”

“Come on, Mav, whatever it is, I'm sure it’s not that bad. Just spit it out, man!” Vance replied to him, a bit annoyed by his hesitancy, but still obviously concerned.

Kim tried to say something, anything, but her throat was tightening up. She couldn’t force any words to go through. Her heart was pounding in her chest— was that it? Would all of her attempts to protect Aubrey just… fail? Because of Mav and his parents?

“You know Kel? That boy, Aubrey’s friend? My… arch nemesis? He would always try to stop us from bullying Basil,” Mikhael began, pulling his wig off and resting it beside him, his dark hair showing itself.

Everyone nodded silently. The situation suddenly seemed a thousand times more serious— it had to have been, for Mikhael to shed his persona like that.

Kim could barely hear him over the blood rushing in her ears. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath— she needed to know what Mikhael was saying.

“W-Well, uhh… I um, h-heard that he r-recently passed away,” Mikhael finished, his body shivering a bit. “That… that might be why Aubrey hasn’t been around too much.”

Silence.

Vance was the one to break it. “He… no way. Kel is…”

“I heard it was a hit-and-run… They still haven’t found the driver,” he continued, his eyes gazing straight down at the floor.

Angel blinked. “But… he was only a year older than me.”

Mikhael was shaking like a leaf. “His— his funeral is in f-four days— I just… he and I always f-fought b-but I never w-wanted him dead…”

Charlie stood up and enfolded Mikhael in a hug. That was enough to make the dam burst— all of a sudden, Mikhael was sobbing into her sweater.

Everyone rushed to hug him. Everyone except Kim. Kim sat in horror-struck silence.

Her… plan had worked. Her plan had worked. Nobody thought Kel’s death was caused by Aubrey— only by a horrible accident.

Mikhael knew Kel was dead. But he didn’t know the truth.

Yet some paranoid part of Kim couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something he was hiding. Something he’d seen or heard that could pin it back to Aubrey. He’d mentioned that the driver hadn’t been found… what else had he heard? What else had his parents talked about?

And Vance… he was already suspicious. Now he knew the things Mikhael knew about Kel— what if he pieced things together? What if Kim hadn’t hidden it well enough? What would that mean for Aubrey?

She needed to get out of here. She needed to think. She needed to breathe.

“B-Bathroom,” she choked out around her tight throat, launching herself to her feet and racing up the staircase, slamming the door behind her.

Breathing heavily, she heaved herself to the mirror and stared at herself. She could barely make eye contact, her eyes drifting back towards the door visible over her shoulder. She could still hear the murmured words of comfort from the other side of the door. Words that sent shivers down her spine.

What do they know?

The cat was out of the bag now. Kel’s death was known. Her plan had worked, but how long would that ruse keep up? How long until they found the broken bat she’d thrown in the water, the leftover snapped branches and bloody trail in the forest that she hadn’t managed to clean up? The stained and torn clothes in a pile left somewhere?

She couldn’t have that happen. She needed to get rid of it, all of it.

No matter what.

“Kim?” Someone banged on the bathroom door, jarring her back from her mind. “Are you okay? You’ve been in there for like, ten minutes now.” It was Vance— not altogether surprising. He was her brother, and he’d clearly been suspicious about her all afternoon. She couldn’t trust him anymore.

Does he already know? Kim thought in the back of her mind. She tried to shake it out of her head. He only found out just now, there’s no way, right?

Vance cleared his throat on the other side of the door. “Kim, I’m getting really worried. Please respond.”

“O-Okay. Sorry, I was just… thinking,” she responded, quickly picking herself up and flushing the toilet, then pretending to wash her hands. Better that Vance think she was actually doing her business in the bathroom than him realizing that she’d just stood still and stared at a mirror for ten whole minutes.

He didn’t need more reason to be suspicious of her.

As she finally dried her hands, she went to the door and opened it. Vance was standing right in front of her, a look of extreme concern spread across his face.

“Kim. Be honest with me. Are you really okay? If you need to talk, you know I—” 

“I’m fine, okay?” she cut him off. “I’m just… shook up, that’s all. I didn’t expect something like th-that to happen, much less to Kel. He… always seemed so full of life.”

The worst part? All of that was true. As much as she hated Kel— mostly for Aubrey’s sake, if she was honest— he was always a nice kid. Maybe not the smartest, but really friendly. He had this air about him that made people want to listen, rather like his brother had the one time Kim had met him.

She… didn’t want to think about Kel’s brother.

“I-I understand, Kim. But seriously, if you ever need to talk, I’m here, okay? Promise me that you’ll talk to me if you need to,” Vance replied, his voice stern.

“...Yeah. I promise.” Good thing she didn’t need to.

“Thank you. Let’s go back to the others now, okay?” He turned back towards the stairs and began to descend them, Kim following suit.

“Hey, we’re back,” Vance called out to the rest, who had stopped talking about Kel, but were all clearly sitting closer to one another— as though offering silent comfort.

As Vance walked over to the couch and turned on the TV again, Kim sat next to them. She didn’t have time for talk, for television, or for hanging out. A plan was beginning to form in her mind— a plan that could help her further cover Aubrey’s tracks.

Kim needed to figure out what to do. And fast. Before someone found the truth— and before it was too late.

Chapter Text

The door slammed shut.

It was just Sunny and Basil now.

Basil’s head was spinning, a little bit. His eyes were heavy— he couldn’t fully open the left one. It ached. Everything ached.

Sunny stared at the door, collapsed on the floor while trying to catch his breath. Basil hadn’t expected Hero to go as far as to punch him. When he finally caught his breath, standing up straight and turning to face Basil’s hospital bed, his expression was as neutral as it had been since the day Basil had seen him after he’d left his house for the first time in nearly four years. And just as unreadable.

There were bandages over his right eye, wrapping around his head. SOMETHING hovered behind him, one eye staring judgmentally. Basil felt sick. What he had done was inexcusable. He… he stabbed out his friend’s eye, for god's sake! Why had Sunny tried to save him?

And now their friends knew. About Mari. About what Basil had done. About what SOMETHING— no, what Sunny had done.

Sunny had made that… very clear during his confession of their sins.

He was still staring. Why wouldn’t he stop staring? He wanted to cry out, to run, to go anywhere except Sunny’s gaze.

Sunny tilted his head. And then he smiled.

It was like he was transformed. Different. At peace. SOMETHING faded away like a whisper in the wind. Sunny’s smile felt like a hand reached out towards Basil. A proposition to start anew.

Basil couldn’t help but smile back. It felt like a weight lifted off his back; a weight that he’d been carrying for nearly four years of his life.

Even as the nurses ushered Sunny out of Basil’s hospital room, even as he was left in silence once again, he still felt far lighter than before.

It had been a full day, and Basil still hadn't gotten to see Sunny again. 

He'd asked his nurse if he could go see Sunny basically the moment he'd woken up that day. The nurse had hemmed and hawed and then said she would ask someone, and then she checked him over and left. He still hadn't heard back from her.

Getting impatient, he pressed the buzzer to his side, hoping a different nurse would help him.

It took maybe a minute for someone to come bursting through the door. And, of course, it was the same nurse as before. “Is something wrong?”

"I want to see Sunny," he stubbornly repeated. "Can I please go see him?"

Something flashed in the nurse's eyes. "I… Let me go ask a doctor…" She turned to leave the room—

"Wait!" Basil blurted. "I— Please. I… I need to see him. I have to… apologize."

The nurse's expression softened. “O… Okay, I’ll go ask him.”

“Thank you,” he said, smiling at her. She smiled back at him, then disappeared from the room.

Leaving him alone again. Stuck in a hospital bed. With nothing better to do than stare at the ceiling as he waited.

Basil’s black eye throbbed. Despite the rest of his wounds healing up nicely, his eye was the one thing deciding to take its sweet time.

Ironic. Considering what he did to Sunny’s eye—

The door opened. “Basil,” the nurse said gently, “There’s someone here to see you.”

He perked up. Was it—

Polly. He knew who he’d expected to come through the door; she certainly wasn’t the one. But he was still happy to see her nonetheless.

Polly rushed over to Basil, who had sat up, and wrapped him in a hug. “I’m so happy you’re okay,” she murmured quietly.

Unexpectedly, Basil’s eyes pricked with tears. He hadn’t expected Polly to be this concerned about him. He’d made every effort to remain distant from her, so that when he eventually… died, she wouldn’t be as upset. Yet here they were.

“Y-Yeah, I'm glad too,” he replied half-jokingly.

After a moment, she pulled back and looked him in the eye. He awkwardly glanced away— her expression was uncomfortably probing, as though she was looking for something specific. “Hey, hey, look at me,” she coaxed. “Basil, I have some questions for you.”

The urge to cry suddenly got worse. “Mmm-hmm,” he hummed instead, not trusting himself to actually say anything.

“What… happened? Between you and Sunny… in that room? Last night?”

He’d known she was going to ask that. Polly didn’t know about what he’d done with Mari, didn’t know about SOMETHING, and he wanted to keep it that way. So he deflected instead. “I c-can’t… I don’t know.”

Her eyes hardened a little. “Basil. You’re telling me you and Sunny were in your room at midnight, both of you passed out, a pair of garden shears mysteriously appeared in Sunny’s eye and you got a black eye and you both got I can’t even count how many cuts and bruises, and you don’t know how it happened?” Disappointment dripped from her tone. 

When she put it like that… it did kind of sound unbelievable. Like there was something he was hiding. Basil stared at the sheets of his hospital bed, his lip trembling.

Polly continued to speak, voice noticeably softer when she saw he wasn’t responding. “I know you’re lying, Basil,” she said quietly. “Please. I’ve been worried sick. Please tell me what happened.”

Basil glanced up at the nurse still loitering in the doorway. Polly followed his gaze, her eyes widening briefly. “Excuse me,” she said shortly. “Can you please give us some privacy?”

“Y-Yes, ma’am,” the nurse stammered out, then rushed out of the room, the door clicking softly behind her.

His caretaker turned and raised an eyebrow in question, but Basil only went back to staring down at his lap.

They waited in silence for a moment. “Um,” Polly said hesitantly, “Did… Did Sunny try to hurt you? Were you just defending yourself? I… I knew I shouldn’t have let him in—”

“What?!” Basil blurted, his startled gaze meeting hers. “No! Sunny would n-never!”

“Then what?” Polly asked desperately. “What else am I supposed to think when you won’t tell me anything?”

“He was j-just trying to help… I was just trying to help…”

“Help with what?”

Basil clammed up again. A tear trickled down his cheek.

Cold horror dawned on Polly’s expression. “Basil… what were you doing with your garden shears?”

He shook his head, his eyes squeezing shut as more tears formed.

“Please…” Polly begged. 

“I… If Sunny hadn’t come in…” Basil whispered, voice quiet and hoarse, “…I wouldn’t be alive right now.” He kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see Polly’s reaction.

A beat. And then he felt her warm arms wrapped around him again. “I’m s-sorry,” she choked out. “I wasn’t th-there for you like I should h-have been.”

Basil patted her arm. “I-It’s okay, it doesn’t matter anyway—”

“Of course it matters!” Polly pulled back. “You matter, Basil! We— your friends and I— care about you! Please, promise me, don’t ever try to do that again.”

“I…” Basil couldn’t promise that. He wanted to… he really wanted to… but he didn’t know if it would be a lie.

Besides, he didn’t even know if his friends cared about him anymore. The only people that he knew for sure did were Polly and Sunny, one of whom was going to move in a matter of days, and the other who was basically paid to care about him. The moment Polly’s contract ran out, she’d be out of his life as fast as she’d come in. And then he’d be alone for real.

He felt like crying again.

“Basil… what are you thinking?” Polly’s tone was worried.

He shook his head.

“Tell me,” she pleaded. 

“This won’t last,” he admitted. “I c-can’t promise. Because n-none of this is going to last.”

She blinked. “What?” Her eyes were wide open in shock.

Crap. Basil thought to himself. Why would he say that out loud?

Polly nudged him. “What do you mean this won’t last?”

“I… nothing?” he tried.

“Basil.” Her eyes narrowed on the boy. “I’ll always be here for you. I don’t want you saying those things, okay?”

Basil stared back. “You c-can’t promise that, either.”

She sounded insulted. “Yes, I can. If I didn’t want to be here, I could have just told your parents that and left. But I’m here because I care about you.”

“You— but— Mom and Dad hired you to take care of Grandma, not me! And G-Grandma’s… not… here anymore. You have n-no reason to stay.”

“Your grandma’s passing hurt me just as much as it hurt you. I loved your grandma. She was always so kind, and she loved you so much.” Her eyes started to look moist. “But she’s not the only reason I stayed, Basil. I care about you too. Not even your parents terminating my contract could keep me from taking care of you.”

Tears began to stream down both of their faces. All Basil could do was pull Polly closer.

“I-I’m sorry…” Basil managed to sputter out between sobs.

“It’s okay. Just, please, promise me you won’t do that again.”

“I w-won’t.” He still didn’t know if he could keep that promise… but he wanted to try. If not for himself, then for Polly.

Polly insisted on telling the nurses what Basil had told her.

Not everything, of course. Just enough so that they knew about what had caused the fight in Basil’s room, and about Basil’s suicide attempt. 

After hearing that, Basil’s nurse was a lot more understanding about Basil’s attempts to see Sunny.

Still, though, he was confined to his room as Polly did paperwork and met with doctors and whatever else she was doing to get him out sooner— she tried to explain it to him, but there was something about a suicide watch, and about Polly being a certified caretaker, and a bunch of medical jargon he couldn’t even begin to comprehend, and by the end of her explanation he felt dizzy. At least he got the gist of it. Polly was going to take him home and watch over him and make sure he couldn’t try to commit suicide again.

He had to admit, staring at the bleak whiteness of his room, he really wanted to go home. He’d neglected his flowers for far too long— he missed their bright colors and heady, sweet perfumes. That longing only grew more and more acute the longer he stayed in the sterile, hand-sanitizer-smelling hospital room. 

Two days later, Polly finally secured a date for Basil’s release from the hospital. He’d be going home the day after that.

But Basil still hadn’t gotten to see his best friend.

“Polly,” he said that night, “When can I see Sunny? He’s not going to be here for much longer… he’s still moving… I— I need to—” To his horror, he was tearing up. Why was he crying while just trying to ask a question?

He forced himself to stop and breathe. The stinging in his eyes subsided.

When he looked up again, Polly’s expression was thoughtful. “I’m gonna be honest, I kinda forgot. I was going to take you home tomorrow… but, now that I think about it, I haven’t suicide-proofed the house yet, either, ‘cause I’ve been too busy staying here with you. So how about this— you spend a few hours with Sunny tomorrow morning while I go home and get ready, and then I’ll take you home.”

“You don’t n-need to suicide-proof the house,” Basil muttered. 

Polly gave him a look of pure incredulity. “Yes, I do, Basil.” She looked like she didn’t expect him to say that at all. Basil felt dumb for even thinking of that.

Perhaps seeing his conflicted expression, though, her gaze softened. “It’ll help you avoid the temptation… but it’s not just for you, it’s for me, too,” she said. “It’ll help me not worry so much.”

“Are you going to g-get rid of my flowers?” he asked. “Some of them are toxic if ingested…”

Her eyes widened. “I didn’t know that. Thank you for telling me, Basil. I… don’t want to get rid of them, but your life matters more than flowers, okay?”

He sighed, resigned. “At least leave the non-toxic ones, p-please.”

Polly smirked towards him. “Of course I'll leave the non-toxic ones. Don’t wanna get rid of all the fruits of your labor, do we?”

“Thank you,” he whispered. “And y-yes, I want to see Sunny tomorrow morning.”

“Great! I’ll go tell the nurses,” she said, standing up. “Be right back.” 

Basil went to sleep soon after that, simultaneously dreading and anticipating getting to talk to Sunny again in the morning.

Before he knew it, it was already daylight outside, and a nurse was leading him down a winding set of hallways to a door marked “143.” 

“In here,” the nurse said, smiling gently as she twisted the doorknob and pushed it open. She let him past, then closed the door, leaving him and Sunny alone in Sunny’s hospital room.

Sunny was lying in bed, staring listlessly at the ceiling, when Basil and the nurse stepped in. He sat up when he heard him.

Basil’s gaze was drawn to the white bandages plastered over Sunny’s eye. Guilt bubbled in his stomach, tears already pooling in his eyes.

His best friend’s expression dropped. “What happened?” Sunny’s voice was rough, as though he still wasn’t used to talking. Basil didn’t know if he’d ever get used to talking.

He couldn’t respond. Basil sank to the floor, sobbing quietly into his hands.

Light footsteps echoed in the small room, before Basil felt rather than saw Sunny crouch down beside him. “Basil,” he said quietly. “What happened?”

He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t do this he couldn’t do this hecouldn’tdothis—

He felt someone standing up in front of him. Though his eyes were blurry, he couldn’t miss Sunny holding his hand out to him. “The floor is uncomfortable,” he stated simply.

Basil took Sunny’s hand. It was soft and freezing cold, bringing back memories of the many times in their childhood that Sunny had grabbed Basil’s hands to warm himself up. As he was lost in his memories, Sunny hauled him to his feet, then led him over to the hospital bed and made him sit down.

Sunny remained standing. “What happened?” he said for the third time.

“I’m s-sorry,” Basil stammered out. “F-For— your eye— for the— I—” He needed to calm down. He was starting to hyperventilate.

He wrung the hem of his hospital gown and tried desperately to get his breathing under control. When he looked up, somewhat calmer, Sunny had an unreadable expression on his face.

Basil really missed when he could read Sunny as easily as breathing.

He squirmed under Sunny’s unrelenting gaze. What was going through his head? Why was he just… staring? Why hadn’t he said anything?

Basil couldn’t do this.

He abruptly stood up from the hospital bed. “I— I c-can’t— I need to go,” he managed to say, rushing for the door.

His hand was inches from the doorknob when Sunny spoke. “Wait. Please.”

Just those two words were enough to have Basil abandoning all thoughts of fleeing.

Sunny slowly turned to face him. His single eye glittered with sorrow. “I’m… sorry, too,” he said.

Basil blinked. “W-What? Why?” Sunny had nothing to apologize for, as far as he knew. Basil was the one that had staged Mari’s death as a suicide. Basil was the one who had stabbed Sunny’s eye out. Basil was the one whose every attempt at helping always made things worse for everyone, especially Sunny.

“For everything. For… the recital, for the photo album, for leaving you alone all this time.”

He was stunned. “I— You don’t need to apologize—”

“Yes I do. If it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t be here.”

“What happened was an accident…” Basil said plainly. “You didn’t mean to…”

“Neither did you,” Sunny retorted, gesturing to his eye.

“I…”

“No. You were seeing things,” he insisted. “I know what that’s like. Not being able to tell reality from fiction.”

“You were just a kid, you didn’t know that would happen!”

“Same for you. And it was worth it.”

Basil gaped. “Losing y-your eye… was w-worth it?”

“My eye for your life,” Sunny said simply. He turned around and sat on the hospital bed, then patted the space next to him. “Sit?”

He sat down. Maybe a little too close— Sunny’s cold arm was pressed against Basil’s. But Sunny didn’t move away, so neither did Basil.

Basil honestly didn’t know what to say. He’d never felt such a tense atmosphere when he was alone with Sunny before.

After a moment, Sunny spoke up. “What… were these years like for you?” His voice was melancholic, almost.

“Well… for the first while it was… lonely, but okay. I still went to school like normal. Kel always tried hanging out with me, but I couldn’t make myself go along with him… and eventually he made new friends playing sports.”

Sunny nodded, waiting for him to go on.

“Then one day, Aubrey wanted to go study at my house. She w-wouldn’t take no for an answer… and she f-found the photo album in my room. I hadn’t cleaned it after… you know… so she saw the scribbles, and she assumed I did it.”

“I’m sorry,” Sunny said again. “I don’t know… why… I did it…”

“No worries, haha!” Basil’s laugh was a little harsh and high-pitched. He flinched. “Everything’s f-fine now…”

“Then what happened?”

“She… she wasn’t too happy with me. She yelled at me and ran away with the album. From then on, she started c-calling me names… soon, the other kids at school started doing that too…”

Sunny was wearing an expression almost like a frown. No— it was a frown. It took Basil a moment to realize it, but he was starting to remember how to read Sunny’s mannerisms, and the furrow between Sunny’s eyebrows definitely indicated that he was frowning.

He only realized he’d zoned out staring at Sunny’s face when Sunny raised an eyebrow at him. “What next?”

“S-Sorry. Um… I…” What was next? The only other things that happened in Basil’s life were Polly’s arrival and Grandma’s… passing. And Sunny had been around for one of them.

Well, he supposed the Hooligans bullying him counted too, but Sunny already knew about that anyway.

“Well, there was Polly. She was the person you and Kel met after you f-found my photo album.”

“She seemed nice.” Sunny added.

Basil nodded. “Polly’s… amazing, really. I’m very grateful to her. She’s… she was m-my grandma’s caretaker, but now she’s taking care of me, even though she d-didn’t have to…”

Sunny lips twitched in a tiny smile. He seemed glad to see Basil so happy about someone.

“Um… that’s really everything,” Basil finished. “I… h-have a question for you too.”

“Shoot,” Sunny said. He was still smiling a little.

“What were you doing in your house f-for almost four years?”

The smile melted off of Sunny’s face. “Sleeping,” he said bluntly.

“S-Sleeping? Just sleeping?”

He nodded. Sunny looked like he didn’t want to say anything more on the subject, though, so Basil dropped it.

Sunny gazed at the floor, his expression distant. After a moment, he said, “I think we need to talk.”

Basil smiled. It felt a little strained. “We are talking.”

“No. I mean we have to talk about Mari.”

The name felt like a dagger in Basil’s heart. Like garden shears in his stomach.

He didn’t want to talk about her. Matter of fact, he wanted to talk about anything but her. 

It didn’t look like he had a choice, though, because Sunny started talking without waiting for a response. “During that fight we had… you kept talking about SOMETHING behind me… what did you mean?” His voice was careful, controlled— as though he knew exactly what it meant, but sought confirmation anyway.

Basil’s gaze dropped to the floor. “For a long time… I d-didn’t think it was you who p-pushed her…”

Concern lit in his best friend’s eyes.

“There was… it was like a shadow. B-Behind you… it pushed Mari, not you… you couldn’t have d-done something like that…” Parroting the words that Basil had tried to live by for the better part of four years only left a bad taste in his mouth, though. He was just starting to realize how desperate, how absurd, they really sounded.

He was quick to reassure Sunny that he didn’t think that way anymore. “After you c-confessed in my hospital room, though… I don’t know, s-something clicked. I r-realized that it had been you…”

“…” Sunny didn’t seem to know what to say to that. He just sat there in thought. 

The clock on the wall ticked loudly, filling the silence between them.

“…When Mari died, I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t bring myself to do anything. I just lay in bed all day. I didn’t play, I didn’t go outside, nothing. I just woke up, sat there for a couple hours, ate if I absolutely had to, and went back to sleep.”

He laughed a little sarcastically, a little dryly. “Genuinely, at some point, I think I forgot? That Mari died? I… she was in my dreams… and I spent more time asleep than awake…”

Basil had never felt more concerned for Sunny than he was right now.

“Y’know… if it wasn’t for Kel, I don’t think I would have ever gone outside. I would have just stayed in until we moved out, and then stayed inside my new apartment for the rest of my life. Guess that's another thing to thank him for, other than believing in me after I told them what happened.”

Basil thought about calling the nurse to ask for something to eat. After hearing that story, he couldn’t help but want to give Sunny something to fill his stomach.

Now that he thought about it, though… “That day you had dinner at my house… d-did you even eat anything?”

Sunny shook his head. “I’d vomited up a steak the previous day. I wasn’t hungry.”

“You… threw it up…” Basil felt a little faint. Sunny wasn’t hungry even when there was nothing in his stomach? “That… h-how are you not starving?”

“Sleeping helps keep the feeling down.” Somehow Sunny seemed perfectly at ease. How did he not realize just how dangerous that was?

“Y-You should tell your doctor,” he mumbled. 

Sunny shrugged. “The doctor figured it out after one look at me. They’re gonna put me on some diet or something. Said they’re gonna have to slowly give me more food, or my stomach’s gonna explode or something.” 

“Oh. That’s good.” 

“I… had another question…” Sunny glanced away for a moment before turning to look Basil in the eye. Then he glanced away again. “Why did you… what made you… where did you get the idea to hang her?”

Basil flinched, curling into himself. He supposed he should have seen this coming.

Sighing, he began, “You know I like to r-read, right?” Sunny quickly nodded. “I… w-we always read mystery novels together, remember?”

“Oh,” Sunny said, his eyes lighting up in sudden comprehension. He wasn’t surprised Sunny had caught on so quick— some of the novels that the two of them had read were definitely… disturbing in hindsight.

“Then… that day… you weren’t responding,” Basil confessed. “We t-took her upstairs and put her in b-bed and then you shut down. I… was terrified. I didn’t know wh-what to do. I thought something behind you w-was the one to push her and y-you were gonna pay the p-price. So I… remembered what some of the people in the m-mystery novels would do in th-this situation… and I did it. To p-protect you.” He didn’t know when he’d started smiling— but it wasn’t a smile. Not really. It felt like proof of his insanity.

He knew something inside him broke that day. He didn’t think it was possible to fix.

“How did you even know how to…”

“Tie a noose?” he finished. “It’s kind of a funny story… Grandma and I used to go c-camping a lot when I was younger and she still felt w-well enough. This was b-before I met you guys… anyway, one time, she showed me how t-to make one of those f-funny traps where your leg gets caught and you’re hoisted in the air. She w-wanted to catch some animals or something, I don’t remember. But guess what, turns out it’s the same exact knot as a n-noose!”

Sunny exhaled. He looked oddly relieved. “So you weren’t suicidal back then?”

“Of course not! I was like twelve, and I had you guys!” Basil felt almost offended at that question. “Worst I h-had was self-esteem issues and bullies, and those bullies didn’t even show up until after Mari d-died.”

“Then why did you…” Basil could finish his sentence. Why did he try to kill himself?

Basil flopped back on the hospital bed, laying down and staring at the white ceiling above. “D-Do you know what it’s l-like to be left behind by every single person who says they c-care about you?” The question, as petulantly as it was phrased, was genuine.

Sunny joined him a moment later. “I mean, does literally getting shoved away from someone count?” Basil recalled that moment from a couple of days earlier, with Hero punching Sunny in the stomach and causing him to collapse onto the cold floor. Not very heroic, he thought.

Basil shook his head after a moment. “I’m n-not telling you this in a ‘pity me’ k-kind of way… but first it was my parents at five. Then you and everyone at t-twelve. Grandma dying, on top of m-my guilt over Mari, and f-finally losing all hope that you would come back for me w-was the last straw.”

Sunny hung his head. “I…I’m sorry… I’m sorry I wasn’t there then and I’m sorry I only came just now.”

“You were… b-busy with your own stuff…” Basil mumbled, glancing away to bury the sting of resentment he still felt at Sunny’s words.

“Still.” 

The air was starting to feel lighter, somehow; but at the same time, the tension between them felt like it was crushing Basil. He could still feel the urge to escape, to go far away from this room and the weight of his sins.

One glance at Sunny’s miserable expression and it was clear he was feeling at least a little bit similarly.

To distract himself, Basil looked around the room for the first time since he’d gotten here. His eyes widened at the sheer amount of flower pots placed all over the floor. “Oh, wow, that’s a l-lot of plants,” he commented, a little stunned. How had Sunny been out of his house for three days and somehow managed to gather a veritable garden of plants from well-wishers? Surely they weren’t all from his mother…

“You just noticed?” Sunny giggled a little bit, and Basil twisted in his seat to look at him. That was the first time he’d heard Sunny laughing genuinely in nearly four years, and it was just as pleasant a sound as he remembered.

Basil felt his lips twitch into a grin. “Well, I was a little d-distracted,” he admitted a bit teasingly. “And they’re all shoved to the s-sides of the room anyway. Not easy to just see unless you look.”

He stood up and walked over to one of the pots filled with miniature roses, crouching beside it as he stroked the soft petals. “Hey, d-do you remember what roses meant?” He didn’t honestly expect Sunny to remember— Basil had only mentioned it once or twice anyway, and as good of a memory as Sunny had, surely he wouldn’t have remembered after nearly four years not hearing it.

Sunny appeared to try and grasp the thought in his head before putting it into words. “Roses… come in many different colors and have their own unique meanings. Hero didn’t remind you of any rose in particular… He’s like all roses, because he’s versatile and universally loved. That’s what you said, right?”

Basil felt his jaw drop. His voice came out an octave higher. “You… remembered all of that?”

“It never left me.” A small grin appeared on his face.

“What about— what about…” Basil glanced around the room, and luckily, there was a pot with a single, tall blue gladiolus stalk on the other end of the room. He pointed towards it. “What about the gladiolus?”

Sunny barely had to glance at it before he was talking. “Gladiolus… also known as the ‘sword flower’. They represent strength of character. Someone who is honest, with strong moral values… someone who stands by their convictions… it reminded you of Aubrey, because she was always true to herself.”

“And…” Basil spotted a pot with a cactus in it hidden from Sunny’s line of sight by the visitor's armchair. He leaned down and hoisted it up. “What about this?”

“That was for Kel, wasn’t it?” Basil nodded as Sunny thought about it for a second. “The cactus was always very sturdy and resilient, so it didn’t need much care and could survive in impossible conditions. Heh, even someone like Kel would be able to take care of one.”

“How do you even… remember that?”

Sunny’s smile faded a little. “My dreams were very vivid.” He didn’t elaborate.

Basil had to ask. “Do you remember the others as well?”

“White tulip, sunflower, lily of the valley. Me, you, Mari. Right?”

Basil blinked. “You really remembered everything, didn’t you?”

Sunny shrugged. “You all… meant a lot to me.”

He sat cross-legged on the ground, holding the potted cactus in his lap. Basil didn’t know how to feel about that. Happy, because Sunny remembered? Embarrassed, because Sunny remembered? Pained, because these flowers were a reminder of what they’d lost?

The door on the other end of the room clicked open, and they both glanced over to see a nurse peeking in. “Sorry, I was asked to check for visitors,” he said. “You’re both patients, right?”

They both nodded.

“Okay, thank you.” He disappeared, closing the door behind him.

Once the nurse was gone, Basil heard soft footsteps padding over to him, before Sunny sat down beside him. “That was random.”

Basil giggled. “Yeah…” His amusement quickly faded, though, and he went back to staring at the cactus.

Sunny tilted his head, then pointed at a random bush on the other side of the room. “Tell me about that.”

“Oh… okay.” Basil was glad to be able to talk about something lighter for once. “Those are orchids… I think moth orchids? Phalaenopsis orchids. Orchids in general usually mean love and thoughtfulness…”

“Cool,” Sunny said. He pointed at a different plant— Basil had to laugh when he realized there was a loaf of bread sitting in front of it. “Tell me about that.”

As Basil kept reciting the meanings of the flowers, Sunny kept pointing at more for Basil to talk about. Basil didn’t know if Sunny was actually interested or if he was just humoring him, but he didn’t care. He was glad to be able to talk to him again after so long.

When they ran out of flowers to talk about, Basil began to tell Sunny about his garden. Sunny listened attentively, nodding and gasping at all the right moments, and it felt like they were kids again, two best friends just hanging out and enjoying each others’ company. He’d missed this.

Conversation topics flowed like water, now that all the built-up tension between them was dissipating. Before he knew it, the two of them were lying on Sunny’s hospital bed, talking about The Adventures of Spaceboy, when a nurse came in. “Basil, it’s time to go,” she said.

Basil sat up. “What? Already?”

“It’s almost noon,” she replied. “Your caretaker is here to pick you up.”

“Oh, Polly’s here?” Basil reluctantly got to his feet. “Sorry, I… have to go,” he mumbled, expression downcast.

Sunny looked upset about it, too, but he waved him off. “Mom’s taking me to my new home in four days. Please visit before then so we can find a way to keep in touch?”

That raised Basil’s mood. “Of course! Promise.” Waving, he followed the nurse out of the room.

When he arrived, Polly was on the phone.

Basil hadn’t even noticed that there was a phone in the corner of his hospital room; but apparently, someone had called it, and Polly had been the one to pick up. She was deep in conversation with whoever was on the other end, her face shadowed.

She turned towards the noise that was Basil opening the door. “He’s here now. I suppose I should… just tell him?” There must have been some affirmation on the other side, as she quickly clicked the phone back onto its dock.

“Who was that, Polly?” Basil had never seen Polly so tense before, even when they had that talk a couple of days ago. It definitely wasn’t too reassuring when she motioned for him to sit down.

As Basil sat back down on his hospital bed, Polly began to speak. “Hey… Basil. How was your time with Sunny?”

“It was really nice! We talked a lot about everything and it felt really good to be able to talk to him again.” Basil felt happy about his time with Sunny, and wanted to talk with Polly about seeing him again sometime in the next few days.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it. I… just got off of a call right now with some news about one of your friends.”

Basil’s smile slowly faded as he registered the somber tone of her voice as she spoke. “W-What happened?”

“Your friend Kel, he… got in an accident.” Her voice was trembling a bit.

“What?” Her words wouldn’t take hold in his mind.

“I-I’m sorry, Basil… there was a car…” She began looking away, trying to not catch a glimpse of Basil’s face.

“Polly, please, spit it out,” he said. “I don’t get it. What happened to Kel?”

She took a deep breath.

“Basil, I'm sorry. But Kel passed away.”

He felt dizzy. There was a loud ringing in his ears. “Wh-What?”

Polly’s next words weaved in and out of his hearing. “…car accident… missing… overnight… yesterday… parents called…” He couldn’t begin to imagine what she was talking about, because Kel was dead.

Kel was dead. The last time Basil had seen Kel was when he was walking out of his hospital room and now Kel was dead.

Oh god, did Sunny know? There was no way Sunny could know. Sunny didn’t have Polly to tell him.

“D-Does he know?”

Polly looked back at Basil, her eyes narrowing at Basil’s words. “Uh… Sunny? N-No, I don’t think so…”

Basil could already feel tears pouring down his cheeks as he rocketed to his feet and ran for the door. He had to get to Sunny.

He stumbled down the hallway, running past nurses and the occasional doctor or patient, making his way to room 143. He burst into the room, gasping for breath. Sunny glanced up at him from where he was tending to one of his plants.

Basil’s knees buckled and he collapsed to the floor. He squeezed his eyes shut, palms pressed over his ears to block out the ringing. It didn’t help.

“Basil, what happened?! Are you okay?!” Sunny’s words of concern only added to the cacophony in his head.

He heard the door opening again. Sunny mumbled something, and the other person said something else, and then Basil felt two pairs of arms wrap around him in a hug. He shuddered. 

How was he supposed to be okay when Kel was dead?

Chapter Text

As Basil stood in front of the church, thought after thought was flooding his mind. Why was he even here? He didn’t deserve to be here, not after everything he’d done. So much had happened these past few weeks and only now was it really starting to hit him.

Kel was too young. Kel hadn’t deserved to die in some accident no one saw coming. It shouldn’t have been Kel who died at all. It should have been Basil—

His hand squeezed into a fist, nails digging into his palm to ground himself to reality.

“Basil? Are you okay?” A voice rang out behind him. Polly. She’d insisted on coming with him, even when he’d said she didn’t have to, and he was so, so grateful.

He turned to look at her, a wobbly smile on his face. “I’m… f-fine, don’t worry.” The smile melted away as quickly as it formed.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, a small, genuine smile on her face. "Basil, I'm so glad you decided to go. I just know Kel would be overjoyed."

“You… think so?” he asked, voice trembling a little. “He w-wouldn’t be… upset?”

“Not at all. He was your friend for years. I'm sure he'd still have liked you to come, even if there were a few hiccups along the way.” She smiled a bit more. “Plus, we didn't get dressed up for nothing, did we?”

He laughed a little bit. He had on the only black dress shirt he owned, one that his grandma had made sure he had back before she passed. He hadn’t gotten to wear it to her funeral— he’d been in the hospital— so this was the first time he was wearing it.

Polly, too, was wearing mourning clothes. Her dress was simple and knee-length, rather like the white one she usually favored, but with a plainer bodice. She also wore a black sweater on top, a thin one made of some light knitted fabric that did not look warm at all. Probably for the best, considering they were still in the thick of summer.

“Well, I think we've stood out here long enough. Shall we go inside?” Basil suddenly realized he was almost blocking the doorway inside. Multiple groups of people had pushed past while he was standing there, though he recognized almost none of them. Probably Kel’s relatives— he remembered the sheer amount of extended family photos plastered to the walls of Kel’s house. That number must only have increased in the four years he hadn’t stepped foot inside.

He blinked when he realized he still hadn’t given Polly’s question an answer. “Y-Yeah, let's go,” he said hesitantly, beginning to make his way towards the large doors acting as a barrier between him and his long gone friend.

The inside of the church was packed. Kel’s coffin was up by the pulpit, with the priest and Kel’s parents standing alongside it. There was a small child held in Mrs. Desoto’s arms— did Kel have a baby sister? Since when? Basil felt even worse now. How had he not known such a basic thing about Kel and Hero?

Speaking of Hero, Basil couldn't see him anywhere. He wouldn't have blamed him for not coming, considering Polly had told him that Hero was the one who… found Kel… but Hero wasn't like that. He would have shown up.

It took a little bit of glancing around before he spotted him sitting in the back row, closest to the doors. He was facing the front, so Basil couldn’t see his expression.

Aubrey was sitting closer to the front. It wasn't hard to spot her, due to her bright pink hair sticking out in the crowd. Basil’s eyebrows raised to see her wearing something other than her signature jacket and tank top combo, but there she was, twisting in her seat and watching the other people in attendance with piercing eyes and a plain black short-sleeved dress that stretched to below her knees.

Sunny was sitting across from her, in the second row as well, his mother by his side. His gaze was downcast, and Basil could only see the back of his head.

He noticed many relatives of Hero and Kel scattered across the building before his gaze settled on their parents. After a moment’s thought, he decided it would probably be a good first move to go and talk with them first.

As he made his way over, he waved towards Sunny, who managed to catch it and return with a nod. He had tried to catch Hero and Aubrey's attention as well, though neither seemed focused enough on anything to even notice it.

Mrs. Desoto noticed him as he neared. “Ah, Basil. I'm so glad you were able to make it,” she spoke, sniffling and rubbing at her eyes with the hand not occupied holding a baby. “It's so good to see you again.”

He smiled a little tentatively at her, but it faded quickly. “I’m sorry it had to b-be like this, Mrs. Desoto,” he said quietly.

“I… me too… but it is nice to see you nonetheless. How have you been?”

“I’ve been… better,” Basil replied honestly. “Did you get the photos that I asked Polly to give to you?”

Mr. Desoto replied this time. “Yes, we did. Thank you so much for them. We’ll make sure to return them afterward, okay?”

“They're right over there if you'd like to look at them,” Mrs. Desoto followed. She gestured at Kel’s closed casket, the smooth top adorned with many photos. Some of Basil’s polaroids, taken from the shoebox of photos twelve-year-old him had deemed not good enough to put in his album, had been framed and added to the mix.

Basil gave Mr. and Mrs. Desoto a wobbly, teary-eyed smile. “I’ll go pay my respects,” he said as he and Polly walked over to the casket.

As Basil stepped towards the coffin, he couldn't help but notice the many frames scattered across it.

In every single one, Kel was the focus, his signature happy-go-lucky, sparkling grin on his face.

It really hurt Basil that the last time he’d seen Kel, that fateful day in the hospital… there had been no sign of a smile. And yet, Kel had still tried to comfort Sunny and Basil, at least before he’d left to go chase after Hero.

He recognized many of the photos originating from his camera, both in and out of his album. Sunny still had it— he must have given some photos for Kel’s parents to use, too. Basil was glad to see that.

His gaze caught on a very familiar photo, definitely one from his album— Kel at Basil’s birthday party, wearing five party hats at once. Then he recognized a photo of Kel in a raincoat, standing in the rain with a silly grin on his face. There was the photo of Kel upside-down, and the photo Kel took of himself spinning around after ‘borrowing’ Basil’s camera. A couple of the photos Basil had lent the Desotos caught his eye, too— Kel and Sunny hunched over Sprout Mole Eater in Gino’s Diner, which never made it into the album because Cesar himself had been caught in the photo as well. One of Aubrey, Kel, Sunny, and himself playing cards, Kel grinning gleefully as he slapped the deck of cards in the middle. They’d been playing Slapjack, but the photo hadn’t made it in because Kel’s hand was just a blur in the snapshot.

Looking back on it, Basil felt that they were just petty reasons to be kept out of the album. It still had so much space left; who would have complained about some shots being blurry or having someone else in the background?

Sometimes— often, really— he mourned the loss of his childhood. He’d thought he had so much time…

Trying to distract himself from the photos that should have gone in his album, Basil looked at the other photos Mr. and Mrs. Desoto had placed on the coffin. There was a group photo of Hero, Kel, and their baby sister, cradled in Kel’s arms as the two brothers smiled. Another one of Kel and his parents grinning at the camera around a dinner table, probably taken by Hero during a family vacation. A solo shot of Kel standing in front of a picturesque view of mountains, making a peace sign with his fingers.

There was even one of Kel at a basketball game, a light sheen of sweat visible on his forehead as he raced down the court. It looked a bit less clear than the other photos, lines blurry and edges slightly pixelated. Maybe it was taken on one of those cell phones with the picture capability. He remembered seeing Hero with one at the hospital— maybe he was the one who’d taken it. He turned around and looked at Hero again, whose face was still shadowed as his head hung down.

Oh, Hero… Basil couldn’t even begin to imagine how he was feeling. Basil had been close to Kel in the past… but Hero had been Kel’s brother. And that on top of finding out Mari’s true cause of death… He shifted his focus back to the coffin. He didn’t want to think about how much pain Hero was in at the moment.

Though as nice as the pictures were, Basil couldn't help but wonder why they were there in the first place. Kel was right underneath it all, and yet the casket stayed closed. As much as Basil would have liked to know the reason, he felt it would be more than a little disrespectful to just ask the grieving family.

Besides, remembering just how painful it had been to see Mari’s dolled-up, still face… maybe it was better that Kel’s appearance in death remained a mystery.

He cleared his throat— he felt like he had to say something. Basil glanced at Polly, pleading with his gaze for her to give him a bit of space. She obliged, stepping back.

“H-Hey, Kel,” he whispered. A part of him felt a little silly for basically talking to air, but a much larger part of himself desperately hoped that maybe Kel’s spirit was listening, wherever he was now. “I… I’m so sorry f-for everything.”

What is there to be sorry for? he imagined Kel saying. It’s not your fault I died.

“It… feels like m-my fault,” he stammered in response to the imaginary Kel in his head. “It wasn’t… but it still feels like it, a little. Is that weird?”

There was no response, just the murmurs of the people around him.

Of course there wasn’t a response. What was he expecting, Kel to rise up from the coffin to talk to him? If only life were that forgiving.

“A-Anyway,” he continued. “I… I really h-hope you’re okay, that you’re having a g-good time in the afterlife. You d-deserve it. I’ll miss you… Say h-hi to Mari for me, okay? F-For all of us. And t-tell her I’m sorry, too.”

Surprisingly… Basil felt a little lighter afterward. Maybe Kel’s ghost really had heard him.

Turning back towards Polly, Basil realized that he'd like to at least try and make amends with Hero and Aubrey. Even if they weren't too… happy with him. Kel’s… passing… only showed that it was impossible to tell when he could lose that chance to fix things for good.

“H-Hey Polly? Is it alright if I go off to talk to the others?” he asked.

“Of course it is, Basil. I'll be waiting over there if you need me.” She pointed towards a rather empty pew. All the relatives that had been sitting there had gotten up and scattered through the wake, likely making conversation with other family members sitting elsewhere.

Basil waved, then turned and glanced around the room. His gaze briefly caught on a few people he actually recognized— the Bakers, with The Maverick sitting amongst them. At least he was pretty sure it was The Maverick. His wig was gone, revealing a short, closely-cropped head of dark hair the same color as the rest of his family’s, and he was gazing into his lap with an expression that looked on the verge of tears.

He didn’t know him, though… and if Basil was being honest, the other boy still kind of intimidated him. Hazard of being bullied for years, he supposed; even if he’d felt like he deserved it for what he’d done to Mari, the feelings of helplessness that The Maverick and the rest of the Hooligans had caused him didn’t just go away. So he let his gaze sweep past.

On the other end of the hall, he recognized a few kids that he saw sometimes in school or at the park. He was pretty sure the blue-haired girl sitting with her parents was on the swim team, and the blond jock and his exceptionally pretty boyfriend were definitely people that Basil had seen Kel hang around in school. Even most, if not all, of Faraway High’s basketball team was crowded on a single bench behind them. The only one he didn’t really recognize was the dark-haired girl sitting on the pretty boy’s other side, rubbing her eyes underneath her bright red glasses.

They weren’t who Basil was trying to find, though. Maybe a part of him was stalling, because he knew exactly where Hero was, as much as he dreaded talking to him again. But he couldn’t delay any longer.

Swallowing, Basil began to walk down the aisle between the pews, heading for the one in the very back— where Hero was sitting. He was dressed in a standard black suit with a white collared shirt, a generic one Basil would always see in movies.

Hero was finally looking ahead instead of at his lap, allowing Basil to catch a glimpse at his face. There were marks running down his face, probably tears that had dried in the past few minutes. His mouth made no specific shape, only looking like a line across the rest of his face.

What really caught Basil's attention though, were his eyes. He could only describe them as looking like Sunny's on the day of Mari's funeral. Whatever light had shone through them in the past was gone, leaving not a trace of emotion— only dark, dull, almost dead eyes. It was as if a part of Hero had gone with Kel to the afterlife.

Basil cleared his throat. Hero didn’t react.

“Um… hi, Hero,” he said. Hero didn’t react.

“… Hero?” he asked.

Honestly, at this point, Basil didn’t know what he was expecting. Of course Hero didn’t react.

"Uhhh… I just wanted to come over. Give my condolences, you know?" Hero still sat there, staring towards nothing. Why was Basil giving his reasoning to someone who didn't care?

He itched to escape. “I’ll just… leave you be,” he said quietly. Hero said nothing, his gaze still fixed on some invisible point far ahead, so Basil just turned and left.

Next was Aubrey. Basil had been… somewhat optimistic before he’d talked to Hero, but with the weight of that failed interaction hanging over him, he was dreading talking to Aubrey, too.

It didn't take Basil too long to catch sight of Aubrey, her bright pink hair piercing the array of heads. She was seated all the way to the left of a pew by herself. He was still surprised at how… good she looked in her dress. It had been a while since Basil had seen her in anything other than her usual outfit, and though the dress looked a little bit small on her— as though she’d had it for a while— it still looked good.

As he neared Aubrey, Basil thought that she glanced towards him for a second, though now she was just staring off into nowhere, like Hero had been— like Hero still was, based off of a glance back at him.

“H-Hey Aubrey… How have you been?” Basil asked hesitantly.

She blinked, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment before opening. “Mmmgh…” she mumbled, as though waking up from a deep sleep. After a moment, she turned to face Basil. Her eyes widened a bit. “Basil! Hey! How’ve you beeeeeen?”

Basil didn’t know how to respond. He’d probably thought of a dozen ways talking to Aubrey again could have gone… but her greeting him so enthusiastically had not been on that list. “I’m… fine? I guess?”

“Tha’s great, man! I've been prettyyyy good, m’self.” Basil noticed the syllables of her words were blending together, almost like she was slurring her speech. Maybe she was super tired? She did sound like she had just been woken up, after all.

Her eyes had been open, though…

He shoved his confusion over whatever was happening with Aubrey away, though, in favor of talking to her. “That’s good,” he nodded in response to what she’d said. “I… uh…” Oh, maybe he hadn’t thought this through. He couldn't really blame himself, though. Best case scenario he’d thought Aubrey would just curse at him.

“Yo, do you still plant flowers? I looooved your flowers, Basil,” she said, staring up at him. “They’re all, like, colorful… I… like flowers…” Her gaze darted away from him and toward someone walking by. “Wow, that dress is pretty…”

“I… have to go…” Basil was starting to feel incredibly uncomfortable— Aubrey wasn’t acting at all like herself, and he genuinely didn’t know how to handle that.

She frowned at him, then scooted over and patted the seat where she’d just been sitting. “No. Sit here.”

“Wha—”

“Baaaasillllll, sit here…” she repeated. “It's been like… forever since I saw you!”

Basil swallowed.

Aubrey pouted. 

Sighing, Basil sat where she’d told him to.

“Yay!” Aubrey patted his shoulder. “Look, Basil… it’s Sunny,” she stage-whispered, pointing across the aisle. Hearing his name, Sunny looked up, his eyes briefly widening at how panicked Basil looked sitting beside their friend. “I thought he moved alreadyyyy…”

“Y-Yeah, he’s leaving today… He just came back here for Kel,” Basil told her. 

“Oh.” Aubrey frowned. “Why’d he have to move anyway… what’s wrong with Faraway…”

“I…”

Aubrey turned away, seemingly no longer interested in Basil’s answer— not that he’d known how to answer that anyway. Sunny’s mom’s reasons were her own, really. He hadn’t asked.

“Um… Are you… feeling okay, Aubrey?” Basil had reached his limit with this ‘new’ Aubrey. It just didn't feel right.

“I feel great!” Aubrey said loudly, probably too loudly, for someone sitting in the row in front of them cast her a dirty look. “Why?”

“Um, n-no reason. Just wondering.” He quickly diverted his eyes away from Aubrey, not wanting to point out the elephant in the room. That being her weird change in personality… and the fact that it was happening at Kel’s funeral.

“Is this about…” Aubrey’s voice dropped to a very loud whisper that was exactly the same volume as her normal voice. “The photo album?”

Basil blinked. “No?”

Aubrey giggled. “Sunny has it,” she told Basil matter-of-factly, as if he didn’t already know that. “I dunno whyyyyy… he just does…”

“Thanks for t-telling me,” he said, though his voice went so high-pitched on the tail end of his sentence that it sounded more like a question.

“Ya welcome,” she said brightly. “Wha’s up with Mav?”

“Who?”

She elbowed him, then pointed at The Maverick sitting in the row ahead of them, on the other side of the room. “Him. Mav. The Maverick.”

“Oh… I-I don't know. I thought you'd know.” The more Basil talked to her, the more it seemed like she was just talking about whatever was on her mind. And she didn’t really seem all there, either… he didn’t know what it was, but something about her chipper mood and upbeat personality really didn’t lend itself to the idea that Aubrey even knew where she was right now.

“I’unno,” she told him. “He’s bein’ weird. Hey, MAV! M—mpphf—” She tugged Basil’s hand off of her mouth. “Wat wazzat for?”

“You c-can’t just yell across the room!” he whispered, a little harshly maybe— but the way Aubrey was acting, he was starting to doubt she’d listen if he just told her to ‘stop.’

“Why not? You're not my dad!” 

“C'mon Aubrey! Stop being so ch-childish!” Basil was getting really sick of whatever charade Aubrey was pulling now.

“I’m not a child!”

He took a deep breath. “Aubrey… you know where we are, don’t you?” When she inevitably said something like ‘Kel’s funeral,’ he planned to use that to make it clear to her why she should keep quiet. And then he could finally make his escape.

He couldn’t have been prepared for what she said instead.

“Um, yeah! It's some random guy’s funeral, ain’it? Dunno why I was invited though… or why I came…”

All the blood left Basil’s face. 

“Dude, you look like you saw a ghost… you good?”

“Aubrey,” he whispered, his voice coming out strangled, “this isn’t some r-random guy’s funeral… this is Kel’s funeral…”

“What? What are you even talking about? I saw him like a week ago!” Aubrey sounded a bit offended at Basil's words.

Basil cast a pleading glance across the aisle at Sunny, but he’d gone back to staring at his shoes and completely missed it. Sighing, he looked at Aubrey again. “K-Kel… d-died in a hit-and-run a few d-days ago,” he stammered. “Th-This is his f-funeral…”

“Oh…” She began looking off towards the front of the church, where Kel's coffin lay. She seemed pretty deep in thought, like she was processing his words. At least it meant Basil could think more about what was going on with her. Then—

“D'you think that coffin’s comfortable?” Her question sounded genuine, which wasn't too pleasant for Basil. She’d just completely ignored him.

Basil sat there, feeling like he was going insane.

“I was just thinkin’… how do dead people rest if their coffins are super uncomfortable… They better make the insides soft, amirite?” Aubrey laughed uproariously— was that supposed to be a joke?

As she laughed, Basil could have sworn he smelled something akin to bread, but more sour. A little gross, if he was being honest.

Basil stood up once more to take his leave, done with talking to Aubrey and her insensitivity. Then he noticed something rolled under the pew by her foot. It was a can of silvery metal, just laying there. As Basil reached for it, it almost felt like Aubrey was going to stop him, yet she just sat there, still giggling a bit from her supposed ‘joke’.

He picked it up and turned it over, reading the discolored label.

It was an empty can of beer.

Horrified, Basil slowly looked up at a still-grinning Aubrey. “Are you… drunk?”

“I dunno,” Aubrey said simply, and Basil just gaped in utter shock.

“I… I th-think I'm gonna leave now.” Basil couldn't even think of a proper goodbye to Aubrey, not after learning what he’d just learned. It wasn’t like she’d remember anything he said, anyway, if her current state was any indication.

“Awwwww mannnn… It felt like we barely talked!” She seemed a bit sad at Basil's departure, but still kept her grin. “Oh well! Bye bye, Basil!”

As Basil stepped away from her, his mind flooded with thoughts. Why was she drinking? How did she not know where she was? What happened to her? How had she not realized that Kel was dead?

Basil needed to talk to someone about this. Maybe he could talk to Polly. Maybe she'd know what to do.

Before that, though… there was one more person he wanted to talk to. Maybe he'd know what was up with Aubrey… but even if he didn’t— which was likely— talking to him would at least help Basil figure out what to tell Polly.

Taking a deep breath, Basil tapped on Sunny’s shoulder, then gestured outside when his best friend looked up. “C-Can we talk?”

Sunny followed Basil to the front steps of the church.

The large doors leading into the church were cracked open, still, letting the quiet murmurs of conversation inside leak into the still, muggy afternoon air. Basil wiped sweat from his forehead. It was so hot outside…. But at least out here, he could hear himself think— and he didn’t have to sit near Aubrey. He wasn’t sure if he could deal with that right now.

He didn’t waste any time. “Aubrey’s d-drunk.”

Sunny’s single eye widened. “You sure?”

Basil nodded miserably. “I could smell it… and there was an empty c-can of beer under her seat…”

“…” Sunny seemed to wilt into himself.

“She d-didn’t know this was Kel’s f-funeral,” Basil continued. “She was talking to me n-normally, too… I dunno why, c-considering how she was at the hospital…”

It took a moment for Sunny to respond. “Did you try to talk to Hero?”

“Y-Yeah… he ignored me,” Basil admitted. “I kinda expected that, though… his eyes l-looked so empty…” A thought struck Basil, and he turned to look Sunny in the eye, his own eyes widening a little. Sunny’s gaze had started to get back the light that had left Hero’s eyes entirely.

As he watched, though, Sunny’s expression turned sad. “Oh,” he whispered, gaze dropping back to the ground.

“What’s w-wrong?”

Sunny glanced away. “Nothing… I’m fine, don’t worry…”

Basil squinted at him. Sunny very obviously wasn’t fine. “D-Do you want to… talk about it?”

Biting his lip, Sunny didn’t say anything.

He reached out and put a hand on Sunny’s icy-cold one. “Please, Sunny,” he said quietly. “I kn-know we only really talked in the hospital like t-twice, and once on the ph-phone… but you always used to l-listen to me without judgement, and… I want to do that for you too.”

“I… Okay,” Sunny whispered. His hand turned over and gripped Basil’s.

Settling back, Basil squeezed Sunny’s hand back and waited.

“You know…” Sunny started slowly. “That day… if I hadn’t confessed what we’d done to M-Mari… I think I would have…” He swallowed. “Jumped off the hospital r-roof… or stabbed myself with a scalpel or something…”

Basil’s eyes widened, but he said nothing— he’d promised to listen, after all.

“It w-wouldn’t have been by choice, not entirely,” he continued, staring at the floor beneath his feet. “It’s… c-complicated. But I’m not a stranger to stabbing myself… I’d sort of done it basically every night in my dreams for nearly four years…”

“Oh,” Basil whispered sadly. His hand held Sunny’s a little tighter. Sunny hadn’t talked about his dreams before— but no wonder, if they’d all been like that.

Sunny took a deep breath before he kept going. “I thought that once I confessed the truth… those feelings would go away…”

“But it’s not that easy, is it?” he finished. He knew exactly how Sunny was feeling, for he felt the same way.

“It’s not,” Sunny agreed. “B-But I was fine for a couple of days… and then Kel died… and now there’s a voice in the back of my head telling me it’s all my fault… that if I h-hadn’t confessed, he wouldn’t be d-dead right now…” His expression twisted— it almost looked like he was moments from crying.

“Sunny…” Basil looked towards him, tears of his own beginning to form. “You know that's not true. I-It was just an accident. We— we didn’t h-have anything to do with it…” A part of him knew he was trying to convince himself, too. After all… Sunny wasn’t the only one hearing that tiny voice in his head.

“Maybe, but… Kel was always careful around the streets, even if he wasn't with other places. There’s this one time… right after I came out of my house… I almost walked on the road and he caught me immediately. D-Don't you think he might have been too busy thinking about what we said? About M-Mari?”

Basil bit his lip, staring down at his shaking hand in his lap. His other hand tightened around Sunny’s. “I… d-didn’t think of that…”

They both sat in silence. Their shoulders, once free of the pain that they’d both carried for four years, were now weighed down once more by a different kind of guilt. Different, yet all-too-familiar.

Across the street, someone watched from a distance, unnoticed by the two of them. She stared, her gaze unreadable, then left the front step of her father’s house, stopping in front of a very familiar, messy-looking yard.

There she stood, staring at her best friend’s front door, hands in her pockets… thinking.

Chapter Text

I have to see Aubrey.

Kim stepped out into the hot summer air, hands stuffed in her hoodie pockets as usual. As she turned and surveyed the street, a part of her wished she hadn’t cut her hair so short— it would have been much easier to hide herself behind it if half of it wasn’t shaved so close to her head and the other half barely reached her chin.

Her gaze caught on the church up the road, at two figures sitting in front, deep in conversation. One of them had black hair that was neatly combed, and the other had messy blonde hair that shone in the sunlight. They both looked strangely familiar.

She squinted, then her stomach dropped. Basil, without his flower clip… and the knife kid, whatever his name was. Aubrey’s childhood friends.

Kel’s childhood friends.

If they were at the church…

Kim swallowed and left her father’s front step, turning her back on the church and stopping in front of the familiar front yard of Aubrey’s house. 

As she looked at the dilapidated building, she noticed the light usually at the window above was gone. Getting more worried, Kim knocked at the door.

“Hello? Aubrey, are you there?” she spoke. When there was no response, she knocked again, a little harder this time. “Aubrey, please. We need to talk.”

Still no response. Kim felt a chill go down her spine. Where was she? She looked back towards the church. The two boys were now gone, the door to the inside of the church still slowly swinging shut behind them.

Her heart thudded in her chest. Oh, god… Kel’s funeral was today, wasn’t it?

What if someone took one look at Aubrey and figured out that his death wasn’t the fault of a car after all? What if people pieced together clues? What if someone found the lake in the park after seeing Kel and Kim didn’t cover it up well enough andthey’dfigureitout—

She needed to make sure. Just one more time.

Kim spun on her heel and, glancing back at the church, raced off through the mostly-empty streets of Faraway.

She ran past adults taking a stroll. She ran past kids playing on the playground. She rushed straight for the entrance to the secret hideout and pushed past the shrubbery. A stick scratched her cheek, another caught on her hoodie. She didn’t notice; or maybe she did, and just didn’t care.

Heaving for breath, she stopped in the middle of the clearing and glanced around frantically. Then she paled and spun around, hoping that no one had followed her. She stood there for a moment, taking in great gasping lungfuls of air, waiting for something to happen. For someone to come through.

Nobody came. She’d gone unnoticed. Pretty lucky, considering she was sprinting like a maniac on her way here.

Letting herself take a moment to relax, she turned to survey the clearing with a critical eye. No traces of blood in the grass— she’d overturned what she could with a shovel, leaving freshly bare earth. The cracked branches leading into the forest had been kicked deeper into the underbrush. The trail of blood leading to the highway had been scrubbed off the trees as best as she could with an old rag that had used to be Vance’s shirt.

She couldn’t think of anything she’d missed.

So why did she still feel this all-encompassing dread?

Kim's eyes darted around her surroundings, searching for anything that could be a problem for her and Aubrey. All loose ends had been tied up… right?

Her eyes caught on the lake. The water shone in the afternoon sunlight, shimmering and shifting in mesmerizing ripples. She blinked—

aubrey’s clothes were covered in blood, there was a body in her arms—

then looked at the dock. She remembered the way it creaked—

she stood on the end, holding the weapon in her hands, rapidly drying blood flaking onto her fingers. it only took a moment for her to let go—

when she stepped on it. When she tossed the bat inside, never to be seen again.

She couldn’t shake the curiosity. Kim took quick steps back onto the rickety old dock, making her way to the end and peering at the water far below.

Something gleamed far below the surface, in the watery depths of the lake. She could see it— brown and silver rusted with red— oh, no. She needed to take care of it. It didn't matter how deep she had to go. As long as that bat stayed in the water, Kim would never feel safe.

Kim took a deep breath. She tugged off her hoodie, leaving it in a heap on the dock. Her glasses went next, folded neatly and rested on the thick cloth. She slipped her shoes off, then her socks.

She turned to face the shifting, swirling waves. Took a deep breath. And dove.

Aubrey stumbled out of the church, barely managing not to eat concrete with every step. The sun looked lower than it did when she got there. How long had it been? If only Basil was there to help her. He seemed so upset today. Was it something she said?

She glanced around for his familiar blonde head of hair. No sign of him. Maybe he’d already left…

Sunny was getting into a car with his mom. She raised her hand to wave, but the doors slammed shut.

“Aww,” she pouted, but shrugged and continued. Giggling, she tried her hardest to walk in a straight line on the sidewalk. Everything was spinning.

The tip of her worn shoe caught on the edge of one of the cracks in the sidewalk, pitching her forwards. She caught herself on her hands and knees, then turned and flopped over. She laughed— the clouds looked so fluffy! Like cotton balls and Bun-Bun!

She slowly picked herself up, still gazing at the sky. She wondered what it was like up there. Flying among the clouds… higher, higher, until she was swimming among the stars…

“Aubrey? Is that you?” She blinked, and suddenly she was back in reality. Someone was standing above her. Tanned skin, dark hair… 

“Who are you?” she asked.

He gaped. “Uh… It’s me, Mik— The Maverick? Do I really look that different without the wig?” His last words were whispered, as though he was asking that to himself.

She sat up, ignoring the way the world did a flip. “Ohhhhhh, hi Mav! It feels like it’s been forever since I saw you!” She beamed. Then her smile dropped into a frown. “Where’d your wig go?”

“I… didn’t wear it,” he said quietly. “It’s not that weird…”

She giggled a bit. “You look so strange without it!”

“Aubrey, you’re acting…” Mav pursed his lips, his gaze flashing with a touch of disapproval, “…oddly cheerful.”

“I am?”

He nodded. “Yeah, you… we were just at K-Kel’s funeral, and you…”

“Oh, y-yeah, we were,” she said. His words were like a cold bucket of ice water dumped on her head. She scrambled to her feet, the world suddenly much steadier. “I… have to go home.” She quickly shuffled past him, leaving him staring after her, dumbfounded.

Aubrey rushed home as fast as she could, stumbling down the street and fumbling to open her front door. It wasn’t locked— it never was. She wasn’t even sure if the lock still worked. Honestly, she wouldn’t have been surprised if it had broken long ago.

The inside of her house was still a mess. Aubrey delicately stepped between the abandoned glass bottles and the crumpled beer cans and the empty boxes of takeout and the rest of the filth. Some of it was so moldy and gross she couldn’t tell what it was anymore.

She was struck with the sudden urge to be anywhere but here. And yet…

She cast a glance at the front door, now closed behind her. Why couldn’t she just… walk back through it? The more she thought about it, nothing was stopping her, other than the trash littering the floor.

“Going somewhere? I wonder… for what?” a voice said from behind her. The hair on the back of Aubrey’s neck stood up, a chill running down her spine.

It felt like someone was leaning over her shoulder, whispering in her ear.

She whipped around, trying to catch a glimpse at whoever was speaking.

“Why are you so eager to leave?” the voice murmured again, still out of sight. “What is it that you want to see?”

She turned around, glancing this way and that, trying to pinpoint the source. Her skirt swished around her knees.

A light chuckle. “It’s certainly not him… He’s gone. And it’s all your fault, Ḁ̵̕ú̷̠b̸͔̓r̴͌ͅě̶̗y̶͎̆.”

Her breath hitched. She desperately searched the room, the shadows, anything. Then— there. Something moved in the space beside the front door.

He stepped out into the watery light filtering through the grime-coated windows. “You’ve already caused him to die. Do you really want to relive that?”

“I— I don’t—”

“Face it, A̸̫̥͊u̵̥̚b̷͖̉r̸̻̜̊è̶̞y̷̮̚.” He laughed lightly. “You’re a bully. A violent, sick excuse of a person. You, out there? Who knows what you’ll do next.”

His words felt like knives stabbing against the tattered remains of her soul, cutting deep and tearing it further to shreds. She let out a quiet sob.

The outside didn’t look quite so alluring anymore. All she wanted was him gone again.

Why was he even here in the first place? She could have sworn that he was gone. That he’d finally left her alone.

But now he was back.

“K-Kel, please,” she stammered. “Leave me—”

“ Why don’t you make me, A̴̗͂ǔ̷̫b̶̹̓s̷̖̆?” The blood trickling down his jaw gleamed in the dim light. “After all… you’re the reason I’m here. It’s all your fault.”

Your fault.

Y̸o̴u̷r̵ ̴f̷a̴u̸l̵t̶.̵

Ý̶̫o̷͇͙̊̽ŭ̴̟̮ř̴͔ ̴̤̎f̵̖̤̈̃ā̶̩͝u̵͛̾ͅl̴̠͛̏t̷͓̹͌.̷̛̯

“My fault,” she breathed. Then, dazed, she turned and stumbled away. Away from the door. Away from Kel.

Toward her escape. 

She struggled to open the fridge, its door resisting her wild attempts to yank it open. It finally swung out with a disgusting-sounding pop, but she couldn’t care less.

Aubrey’s hand wrapped around one of Mom’s cans of chilled beer and wasted no time popping its tab. 

She hastily gulped it down, then quickly opened the next. That one lasted about as long as the first.

One by one, she took down all six cans, scattering them across the floor so as to not bring any suspicion from her mom.

Not that she’d notice anyways.

The room was really starting to spin… She stumbled to the couch. Something squished under her foot.

She collapsed face first, then slowly turned over. Her eyes fluttered shut.

They opened what felt like a short moment later. Aubrey slowly sat up, turning to stare at the door. 

Kel was nowhere to be found. A feeling of relief brushed over Aubrey. The only noise in her house was her breathing.

She lay back down for a moment, her eyes slowly closing again. Then—

—a rhythmic knock at her door.

She froze.

The knocking paused for a moment. Someone cleared their throat on the other side. “Um, A-Aubrey? Are you… home?”

She stared.

“It’s… I-I know you m-might not wanna see m-me… but y-you seemed f-fine earlier…”

The voice behind the door sounded so… familiar. But her head was starting to hurt too much to place it.

Maybe… she should go see who it was. Now that he was gone, Aubrey didn’t feel so afraid of going outside.

She slowly picked herself up from the couch, her body aching from the poor position she’d fallen asleep in. She stepped around the junk, making steady progress toward the door.

Her hand rested on the doorknob. She slowly cracked open the door and peeked out.

Chapter Text

Hugging his knees to his chest, Basil sank into the living room sofa and stared at the potted plants clustered on the floor by the wall.

His plants were still on their shelves, freshly-watered leaves glistening in the morning light filtering through the windows. There were noticeable gaps in the lineup of flora that Polly had found out were harmful when ingested— Basil still didn’t know what she’d done with those, whether she’d thrown them out or given them away to neighbors.

The plants on the floor weren’t his plants.

Though, he supposed, they were his now.

After Kel’s funeral, Basil had gone home and melted into the sofa in a daze, looking as lost as he felt. Polly had given him a warm hug, then busied herself with making dinner for the two of them.

He’d zoned out, snapping back to attention when someone knocked on the door. Polly had gone to open it.

It had been Sunny’s mom.

“Um, hello,” Polly had said in mild confusion. “Who are—” Her gaze slid to Sunny, standing halfway hidden behind Mrs. Sasaki, and she gasped. “Oh. Come in.”

“Thank you,” Sunny’s mom said graciously, “but there’s no need for that. I just came because Sunny wanted to drop something off.”

Basil’s hands were shaking as he stood up to go stand a little behind Polly. He kept his gaze trained on Mrs. Sasaki.

Polly tilted her head. “Drop something off?”

“The potted plants from Sunny’s hospital room,” she explained. “We don’t have enough space for them at our new apartment, and we wouldn’t be able to take care of them anyway. Sunny told me that Basil would want them.”

At that, Sunny stepped out from behind his mom. In his arms was a square box with a cluster of large daisies, each bloom the size of his fist.

New beginnings, Basil’s brain helpfully supplied. Cheerfulness and purity.

“Oh, thank you,” Polly said with surprise. She turned to face him. “Basil? Do you want them?”

He swallowed, then in a meek voice, replied, “Y-Yes…?”

Sunny’s eye crinkled at the corner, clearly pleased with his answer. Basil felt a little of his awkwardness, a little bit of his fear, fading away.

“Can you help me get them from the car?” Mrs. Sasaki asked Polly, still not casting so much as a glance Basil’s way. “There’s… a lot of them.”

“Oh, of course.” Polly looked back at Basil, then followed Sunny’s mom out of the house.

Basil watched Mrs. Sasaki reach into her trunk and pull out a bonsai tree, handing it to Polly before going back in for more. He jumped, startled, when Sunny nudged him. “Huh?” 

Sunny held up the potted plant. “Where…?” His arms were shaking. For a moment, Basil had forgotten that he’d gotten virtually no exercise in four years.

He turned and looked around the living room. His gaze landed on the floor behind the TV, in front of his shelves of flowerpots. “Um… there?”

Nodding, Sunny went to put it where Basil had indicated.

They quickly formed an unofficial assembly line, Polly and Mrs. Sasaki passing the plants to Sunny and Basil, who set them carefully on the floor. By the end, there were a little over a dozen new flowerpots of various kinds clustered by the shelves of plants.

Polly frowned at the toxic lilies of the valley set innocuously at the center of the mass of plants, but didn’t say anything while Mrs. Sasaki and Sunny were there. “Thank you so much for the plants, um, ma’am,” she stuttered out.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Sunny’s mom brushed off. Finally, she turned to gaze at Basil. Her dark eyes were… unreadable.

His hands, which had stopped shaking during the work, went right back to practically vibrating. He felt like shivering. His arms wrapped around himself.

Oh, Sunny’s mom definitely hated him. He wasn’t surprised. He’d defiled Mari’s body, he’d stabbed Sunny’s eye out… 

He wanted to hide in his room. He wanted to escape those cold, dark, unforgiving eyes. He wanted to throw up.

A cold hand was placed on his shoulder, and Basil glanced over to see Sunny staring at him with concern. He flinched.

Mrs. Sasaki looked at Polly. “Can I have your house phone number?”

“Ah! Uh, okay…” She hurried over to the kitchen, pulling a piece of paper from the notepad taped to it and scribbling down the number.

Sunny tapped on Basil’s shoulder, who looked over at him again. His hand was outstretched. 

Basil’s brow furrowed. What…?

Frowning, Sunny reached out and put his hand on Basil’s. It was soothing— a reminder that even if Sunny’s mom hated him, he still had Sunny on his side.

After a moment, Basil turned his hand over and gripped Sunny’s hand back.

Mrs. Sasaki took the note with the home phone number from Polly. “Thank you…?” 

“Polly, Basil’s caretaker,” Polly said quietly. 

“Oh, what happened to—” Her eyes widened abruptly and she cut off the rest of her sentence. She didn’t have to finish. Basil knew what she was going to ask.

He cleared his throat. His voice still sounded hoarse as he said. “She… p-passed away a little less than two weeks ago…” Two weeks. It had been thirteen days without his grandmother. He squeezed Sunny’s hand tighter.

Her eyes softened, and this time, Mrs. Sasaki turned and spoke to Basil. “I’m… sorry to hear that. Your grandmother was an amazing woman.” 

Her gaze drifted down to Sunny and Basil’s entwined hands, a furrow appearing between her brows. Basil abruptly let go. Sunny cast him a confused glance, but didn’t say anything.

Mrs. Sasaki took in a deep breath, then released it in a slow, steady exhale. “Basil. I… it’s difficult to know how to feel about you,” she admitted.

Polly cast a nervous glance between the two of them, her hands raising as though ready to throw Sunny’s mom out at the first sign of trouble. Sunny himself scooted closer to Basil’s side.

He opened his mouth, an apology ready on the tip of his tongue. “Mrs. Sa—”

“Ms. Sasaki,” she corrected. “I’m not… married anymore.”

“O-Oh.” Basil’s gaze flitted to Sunny, who only shrugged.

She continued after a moment. “You did… something… that day four years ago. And you hurt my son. Badly.”

Basil flinched. Sunny’s hand wrapped around his arm, but he shrugged it off. 

“But…” Ms. Sasaki sighed. “Whatever you did that day protected Sunny, didn’t it? And Sunny told me why what happened between you two happened. He told me about your…” Her mouth clamped shut, her skin taking on a slightly greenish tone.

“My… s-suicide attempt,” Basil finished in a strangled whisper.

“Yes. That. He was saving you.” Basil sometimes still wished Sunny hadn’t. Then he’d still have his eye, and Basil would be with Mari and Grandma, and he could finally repent for his sins. 

But Sunny’s hand rested on Basil’s hand, chasing those thoughts away with his chilly touch.

“So…” Ms. Sasaki looked at Sunny’s hand on Basil’s. “It was an accident… I know. I’m not going to make Sunny stop talking to you. On one condition.”

Anything. Basil just barely managed to bite the word back.

“Get the help you need, Basil.” She sounded close to tears. “Sunny lost an eye to keep you alive. Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain.”

He nodded frantically. Sunny’s grip tightened on his hand.

“Let’s go, sweetheart,” she said, sniffing and turning to leave. “Say your goodbyes and get in the car.”

Sunny looked between his mom’s retreating back and Basil, who was staring after her, a little stunned. After a moment, his eye narrowed in thought, and then he threw his arms around Basil, hugging him tight.

Basil gasped, tearing up. He slowly wrapped his arms around Sunny, too.

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Sunny whispered. “I… hope I see you soon, Basil. Bye for now.” And then in a flurry of loose leaves and flower petals, he was gone. 

The car started up and pulled out of the curb, disappearing past the treeline.

Polly had gently pushed the door shut and turned to envelop him in a hug. That was all it took for him to break down crying in her arms.

Now, the next day, as he stared at the plants Sunny and his mom had dropped off, Ms. Sasaki’s words kept rotating through Basil’s mind.

Almost unconsciously, his gaze darted to the corded house phone hanging from the wall. He swallowed and looked away.

A part of him wanted to go for a walk to clear his head, wanted to do literally anything but sit here and wait like he’d done for four years, but how could he when Sunny had never specified a time? The odds that he’d miss his call were too high.

Polly was busy doing something elsewhere in the house. It was only him here, uselessly waiting for the phone to ring.

He went back to staring at the plants. The lilies of the valley were noticeably gone. Polly had picked them up while he was asleep and taken them to wherever she’d taken the rest of his more toxic plants. Basil still hadn’t figured out if she’d thrown them out or not.

The other flowers were bright, cheerful. Appropriate for giving to people stuck in the hospital. He tried not to look at any of the roses, at the cactus, at the single gladiolus stalk.

Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain.

Basil didn’t want to. He would do his best to make it worth it or die trying. Though he supposed that was the same thing…

The phone rang. Basil jumped, startled out of his thoughts, before he turned to stare at the source of the noise, thoughts sluggish.

It clicked a moment later, and he scrambled to his feet, rushing across the room. Polly walked out of the hallway the same moment he picked up. “H-Hello?”

“Hi! Would you be interested in—”  

He slammed the phone back on the receiver, tears pooling in his eyes. It took a moment for him to scrub them away.

“Who was that?” Polly asked, shooting him a concerned glance.

“Telemarketer,” he said, returning to his position on the couch. His arms wrapped around his legs.

She sighed. “I see. I’ll… be here, doing the dishes,” she said after a moment.

He shrugged noncommittally.

What had he been expecting? Sunny to call him this early in the morning? It was… well, okay, not that early. But Sunny wasn’t… Sunny was never a morning person. If he remembered correctly. He was… probably asleep.

Sunny lost an eye to keep you alive.

What if Sunny changed his mind? What if Basil had already failed the singular condition that Sunny’s mother had set and she banned Sunny from calling him? What if he realized just how true those things that Aubrey and the Hooligans and the other kids at school called him were?

Cold dread crept up his spine. Of course… Sunny had every right to hate him. Basil had stabbed his eye out. He’d made everything worse. He—

The phone rang again. Basil didn’t bother to stand and pick it up this time. Polly looked at him, then went to get it herself.

He’d ruined everyone’s lives. If it hadn’t been for him, there wouldn’t have been a secret to keep from his friends—

“Basil,” Polly called from the other end of the room. “It’s for you.”

He bolted to his feet and ran to Polly’s side. She passed the phone off without a word.

“H-Hello?”

“Hi,” Sunny said on the other end.

Just like that, his anxieties retreated to the back of his mind. Sunny had called, just like he said he would.

They sat in silence for a moment. It took Basil a minute to remember that Sunny wasn’t used to starting conversations. “Um, how’s your new apartment?” he asked.

“It’s fine,” Sunny said after a moment. “Empty. Mom had the movers put most of our stuff in storage until we could sort through it, so there’s just some clothes and toiletries.”

“Oh. That sounds annoying.”

“It’s not that bad. The new apartment is smaller. We needed more space.” He laughed quietly. “Not that I used most of the stuff anyway…”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Mom’s not even home. Isn’t that funny?”

His eyes widened. “What?”

“She’s at the bank for something,” Sunny elaborated. “Or maybe she’s at work. I don’t know. She just said good morning to me and left.” He sighed. “I— I think she forgot that I don’t just… ignore her anymore.”

“Oh…”

“It’s okay, she’ll be back soon.” Sunny changed the subject. “The plants. Did you…”

“Plant them?” Basil asked. 

Sunny hummed in acknowledgement.

He glanced back at the pots still sitting in the living room. “N-No, they’re just… there. I was tired.”

“Hmm. Show me when you plant them.”

“O-Okay.”

There was nothing over the phone except the staticky sound of breathing that let Basil know Sunny hadn’t just walked away. In the silence… his worries came creeping back. No SOMETHING— there was only a gaping hole where that had been— but all the negative thoughts that had crawled out of the deepest recesses of his mind took center stage again.

When he spoke, his voice was shaking. “I d-don’t get it.”

A sharp inhale.

When he wasn’t stopped, Basil slowly continued. “Why… Why are you trying so hard?”

“Trying so hard…?”

“To f-fix things. Between us. You sh-should just hate me. We were f-friends… but I hurt you.” More than just physically— and Basil was sure Sunny knew that.

“I hurt you t-too,” Sunny said plaintively. “And do you remember what Kel said? When you said ‘we used to be friends’ when you told us about Aubrey taking your photo album?”

He did. “He said we n-never stopped being friends.”

Sunny sniffed. “Yeah. He… never gave up on us. If he hadn’t kept knocking on my door… And Basil. I made you a promise all those years ago.”

“That w-we would always be there f-for each other…”

“I broke it. I’m trying to make up for that, I guess.”

“Y-You don’t have to—”

“I know I don’t have to, I want to. You’re still— you’re still my best friend.”

He could feel himself starting to tear up.

“I think it’s what he would have w-wanted, too…”

Basil just stood there, the phone still placed against his ear, at a loss for words. There was so much he wanted to talk about, yet no words came out.

“Basil? Can I ask you a favor?” Sunny finally spoke up after what seemed like a century.

“Uh— y-yeah?” Basil quickly followed, eager to talk after the awkward silence.

“D-Do you think you can try and talk to Aubrey and Hero again? They both seemed rather… out of it last time we saw them. I just want to make sure they’re okay.”

“I…”

“It’s— it’s fine if you don’t want to!” Sunny quickly added. “I don’t want to force you. I don’t think I could do it either…”

That was an easy out that Basil was so tempted to take. He could just say no, and nothing would change.

But… Sunny wasn’t wrong. Aubrey and Hero really weren’t okay. And nobody knew what they were going through like Sunny and Basil did.

“I’ll do it,” he whispered.

Sunny’s voice sounded confused. “Can you say that again? I didn’t catch that.”

“I’ll do it,” Basil said, louder this time. More determined.

“You— really?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Oh, uhhh… That’s great!” There was still a trace of surprise in Sunny’s voice as he spoke.

“Do you think I should j-just… go now? Seems like as good a time as any.”

“Er, I guess? If I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t expect you to be so eager to see them. Didn’t really think about it much beyond asking you.”

Basil had to admit, this probably looked like a complete one-eighty to Sunny. “You’re right, I was really tempted to say no… but… Kel was always so willing to go beyond for everyone. If he’s gone, who else is gonna do it? I just hope Hero’s doing better than he was at the funeral…”

“I really hope so too…”

“And… oh, I was going to ask Polly about Aubrey d-drinking… I forgot to do that.”

“Maybe you should wait on that?” Sunny’s voice sounded a little hesitant. “I don’t know, but maybe you should at least find out if she’ll talk to you first.”

Sunny’s words did make some kind of sense, Basil supposed. “Maybe. I g-guess I’ll check on her before going to Polly.”

“Sounds good. Stay safe, alright? I wouldn’t want you getting hurt again…” Sunny’s voice drifted off.

“Don’t worry, I will. I’ll call you l-later, alright?”

“Okay then, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” Click. The voice on the other side faded away as Basil placed the phone back on the receiver.

He stood there for a moment, then stepped away from the phone. Polly looked up from where she was toweling the last of the dishes dry. “Is your phone call over?”

“Y-Yeah, we talked for a bit. About how the— how the move was and stuff.”

“That’s good,” Polly affirmed. “I heard something about you going somewhere?”

“Oh, right. S-Sunny asked me to go check on Aubrey and Hero. He said he would do it, but him being in the c-city and all means he… can’t. Y-You know.”

“So are you going to go check on them, then?” Polly asked.

“Y-Yeah. They didn’t seem too well at the funeral, and I’m a bit worried.”

“I see. Well, you be careful, ok? Don’t stay out too long!”

“I w-won’t,” Basil promised. 

“And please don’t go anywhere else. I’ll be waiting for you, okay?”

“I’ll j-just visit their houses and come right back.”

“Okay. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for them.” Polly sounded worried. Basil was surprised she hadn’t told him no.

But he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. “I’m gonna… go now,” he said, turning and walking toward the door. 

Polly didn’t say another word as he slipped into the hot summer air.

It didn’t take long for Basil to get to Aubrey’s house. His house was the first on his street, and hers the first on her street. All he had to do was look both ways and cross the intersection, and then he was there.

As he stood in front of the dilapidated house, he couldn’t help but hesitate. Aubrey had hated him for years because of the photo album, and her reaction to the truth didn’t help his case either.

But she hadn’t seemed mad at him during Kel’s funeral. She’d actually acted happy to see him— something Basil was still really confused about. It didn’t make sense at all.

Basil stared at Aubrey’s front door, his gaze tracing the worn patterns in the wood as he built up the courage to knock.

He took a quick breath, then let it out slowly. Then raised his hand and, before he could talk himself out of it, rapped his knuckles against the door.

There was no sign of anything on the other side.

Basil cleared his throat, resigning himself to having to speak up. “Um, A-Aubrey? Are you… home? It’s… I-I know you m-might not wanna see m-me… but y-you seemed f-fine earlier…” He trailed off, scratching the back of his neck.

He stood there for a while, struggling to find any more words to say, until he began hearing footsteps on the other side of the door. It creaked open.

A pair of dark brown, almost black eyes stared at him, a few strands of pink hair draped over them. Aubrey. She wasn’t wearing her contacts.

Actually, for that matter, had she been wearing them at the funeral? Basil couldn’t remember.

They blinked at each other for a minute.

“Au—”

Basil couldn’t help but flinch as the door slammed only inches from his face, the loud thud echoing across the otherwise quiet street. Well, he supposed that answered the question of whether she’d be happy to see him.

“I… I’ll just g-go now,” he stammered to the closed door; then, casting it one sad glance, began heading back in the direction of the crossroads.

He had one more friend (former friend?) to talk to.

Heading towards a street he knew all too well, he looked at Hero’s front yard. Hector was sleeping in his house, undisturbed by Basil’s approach.

This time, the knocking was almost easier than it had been with Aubrey. Maybe because he’d already basically gotten the worst-case scenario with her. How much worse could it get?

Chapter Text

Basil only had to wait a minute before a tired-looking Mrs. Desoto was swinging the door open.

She seemed to perk up a little upon seeing him. “Oh, Basil… I still have to return your photos. Let me go grab them.” Without waiting for a response from him, she turned and headed back into the house, leaving the door open.

“Uh, that’s… not why I came…” He scratched the back of his neck, his words coming too late for her to hear.

Mrs. Desoto was back a moment later, her infant daughter held in her arms and an envelope pinched between two fingers. “Thank you again for lending us these,” she said. “I included the polaroids from Sunny as well, since I heard he and his mother moved before I could return them. You’re the one who captured them, right?”

“Y-Yeah…” Basil took the envelope, staring at it. How had Sunny not realized he’d accidentally left photos from the album behind?

The baby giggled, then grabbed for the envelope. Basil instinctively pulled it out of her reach. She scrunched up her face, starting to sniffle.

“Ay, mi bebé, it’s okay,” Mrs. Desoto soothed, gently bouncing the little girl up and down. Turning her attention back to Basil, she asked, “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Ah, um… I was wondering if I could talk to Hero,” he said. “That’s— that was why I came.”

“Oh.” She seemed nervous. “My husband and I were about to go shopping with Sally, but if you want to talk to him, you’re free to do so. He’s in his and K—” She paused, inhaling sharply. “In his room.”

Hero’s room. Not Kel’s room anymore.

“But, just… I need to tell you that he’s not quite himself right now. He hasn’t gotten out of bed since we got home from the funeral. He won’t speak to anyone. The last time it got this bad was when…” She trailed off.

“Mari?” Basil asked timidly.

He flinched when she sighed and nodded. “I don’t know how much you’ll be able to speak to him, or even if he’ll respond.”

This was… worse than he’d imagined. Thank goodness Sunny had brought visiting their friends up over the phone. Hero sounded like he really needed that right now.

Basil swallowed nervously. Could he even get through to Hero? He really, really hoped so, for all of their sakes.

Finally, he managed to muster a small smile. “That’s okay, Mrs. Desoto. I just want to see how he’s doing.”

“Of course. Have a good day, Basil.” There was the distant sound of a garage door rolling open, and Mrs. Desoto stepped past him, heading for where her husband was waiting with the car. She waved goodbye to Basil with her free hand, then got in.

He stood there, a little numb with shock and nervousness, as Hero’s parents and sister left the driveway.

Taking a deep breath, Basil turned and walked into the Desotos’ house. At least he could actually do what he’d come for— to talk to Hero.

He looked around the living room as he closed the door behind him. It had to have been years since he’d last stepped in here…

His eyes darted towards the large portrait on the wall, Kel and Hero standing tall with the rest of their family seated in front. It wasn’t the same portrait that had been there all those years ago. The little Desoto girl was cradled in her mother’s arms, and both Kel and Hero looked older and more mature. 

He couldn’t help but feel a stab of guilt and grief seeing Kel. 

Reminding himself of why he was here, he made his way to the staircase, stepping past shelves of books and pictures lining the walls. Making his way up, he noticed what looked like a shrine, right in front of him. Framed photos of unfamiliar faces were strewn across it. Looking closer, he recognized someone among them. The photo looked more recent than the rest, its frame visibly shinier than the older ones standing next to it.

His breath caught at the sight of Kel reduced to a smiling kid in a photograph. 

He tore his gaze away, glancing at but not really registering the other people— until he caught sight of long raven hair as dark as Sunny’s and a smile that could brighten anyone’s day. A lump formed in his throat.

Fresh marigolds filled the spaces between the photo frames. Fitting— if Basil remembered correctly, which he always did when it came to flowers, marigolds were the flowers of the dead. A blistering reminder.

With more than a little effort, and a lot of relief, he turned and walked toward the door to Hero’s room.

The other side was silent, not a sound to be heard. Basil tentatively knocked, the sharp sound making him flinch.

No response.

The temptation to turn around and go home and tell Sunny that oh well, he tried grew stronger with each tick of the grandfather clock. He raised his hand and tried again anyway.

Still nothing.

Was there even anyone inside? He stared at the door, wondering if it was really worth it to go through with this.

Finally steeling himself, he attempted to turn the doorknob, giving up on trying to get a response from Hero.

To Basil’s surprise, the door opened very easily. It seemed Hero hadn’t bothered locking it.

The room was dark and Hero’s bed was empty, and for a moment, he got the sinking feeling that Mrs. Desoto had been wrong and Hero was, in fact, not home. But then the covers on Kel’s bed rustled, drawing his attention to a lump under the covers that was barely illuminated by the strip of light from the open door.

Curtains were drawn over the windows, casting the rest of the room in deep shadows.

“…Hero?” he asked.

Hero shifted under the covers again, but didn’t look up or react to Basil’s voice in any way.

“U-Um… Your mom let me in. I j-just wanted to check on you, y’know? Everyone’s been so… messed up, that I just wanted to see how you’ve been.”

There was still no verbal response, but Hero poked his head out from under the blanket, staring at Basil blankly. There was no emotion in his eyes.

He didn’t resemble himself anymore. Just the look in his eyes… Basil began having second thoughts again.

Still, he persisted. “It’s… I know you might not want to see me, b-but… if you need to talk, I’m… here…?”

A bitter laugh.

Basil blinked. It took a moment for him to realize the sound had come from Hero.

Hero slowly sat up. He was wearing pajamas, his hair an utter mess, and his face had a strange, indecipherable expression on it— somewhere between mania and fury.

As Hero got to his feet, practically towering over Basil, a cold feeling of dread trickled down his spine.

“Talk to you?” He snickered. “I could have sworn only a few weeks ago you were stumbling over your words like a moron.”

Hero’s tone was cold, his words clipped, as though he really meant what he said.

Basil shrank back. 

“You know, it feels like every time I’ve seen you there’s a new problem to solve. ‘Oh, Basil’s drowning in the lake!’ and ‘Oh, Basil got in a fight with Sunny and stabbed his eye out!’ Oh, and let’s not forget the most important one; ‘Sunny and Basil killed Mari and strung her body up like a fucking set of string lights!’ Just a never ending well of problems with you!”

Hero’s words cut deep into Basil. It didn’t help that he was right.

“You practically caused all of my misery, and then you try and stroll into here with your ‘I’m here for you’? Fuck that!” Hero was enraged, any semblance of a filter long gone.

“You’re wondering how I'm doing? I’m doing great! I’m feeling amazing knowing two of my friends, one of them her brother, are the reason my girlfriend is dead! And not only that, but a car just takes out my brother not even a week later! Fine! Fine and fuckin’ dandy!”

Expression contorted with fury, Hero loomed over Basil, who gaped in shock. His demeanor was completely transformed— he looked practically unrecognizable in his rage.

“I just… I can’t do this! College was supposed to be my escape from this stupid town! But it doesn’t matter— I’ve been dragged back to you guys anyway! You, Sunny, Aubrey, fuckin’ everyone has some stupid problem that I am forced to deal with! It’s just constant bullshit with you guys, never any rest or breaks or anything!” Hero continued to rant, his anger only building up the more he spoke.

“Why’s it gotta be my problem that Aubrey’s some— some— whatever delinquent now! I don’t even know! I didn’t speak to her for years and then I show up and she’s shoved you in the lake and I have to save you! And Sunny, too, because he idiotically jumped in after you! You know how unfair that is? Not even an hour home and I’m already forced to save you from yourselves!”

He took a deep breath. “Oh, yeah, speaking of Sunny ! Locks himself up in his house for four entire years, and then finally comes out and gets straight into some shit! He and my brother fought Aubrey’s friends! Who does that? Then he almost DROWNS himself in the lake! Come on! It can’t be that hard to just swim! I know he knows how!”

At that, Basil finally got the courage to speak up. “He’s a-afraid of deep water—”

“Then why did he jump in after you?!” his voice boomed back.

Basil couldn’t find a response to that.

“Then, to make matters worse, I try to fix the friend group. And I nearly succeeded! Only for you to lock yourself in your house and try to off yourself, and then he shows up and you fight and both nearly die!”

What. “W-Wait, how did you know—”

“It’s obvious! Polly only confirmed it—”

“What?” Basil’s eyes widened. “When did you talk to Polly—”

“While I was out looking for Kel, I saw her. I asked her if she saw Kel, we talked for a bit. Apparently she was going around the house making sure there wasn’t anything you could use to try again.” He scoffed. “Poor Polly. Imagine making your caretaker have to do something like that. Just to make sure you don’t kill yourself.”

Basil’s eyes were starting to sting, but he clenched his fists and forced himself to take a deep breath. He wouldn’t cry here.

“Let’s talk about you now.” Hero said, his eyes locking onto Basil’s. “Why don’t you ever stand up for yourself? Kel—” He steadied himself as he said his name. “Kel told me about you and Aubrey. You were just bitching and moaning for your album back instead of ever asking anyone else for help? You just HAD to wait for him and Sunny to be your knights in shining armor.” The vitriol in his words stung like acid.

Basil didn’t know what to say to that.

“Oh, but it doesn’t matter, anyway. The moment you got your album back you turned right around and gave it to Sunny. Guess it didn’t matter that much to you after all.”

“I—”

“And then the hospital!” Hero cut in, glaring down at him. “K-Kel, Aubrey, and I barely slept, we were so worried about you two. And then the moment Sunny wakes up he goes and tells us that he killed his sister! And you helped hide it! What the hell were we supposed to say to that!?” Basil wanted to speak, but his throat was already occupied, choking back tears.

“You know, I would have punched you like I did Sunny if you weren’t stuck in that stupid bed,” he continued, his words feeling like jab after jab aimed straight at Basil.

“And at h-his funeral, when you came up to me. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone, so why the hell would I want to talk to you ?

“I’m gonna be honest,” he added, pinching the bridge of his nose and turning away as though he couldn’t bear to look at Basil any longer. “I kind of wished it was you two and not her. She didn’t deserve to die.”

“I— I kn-know she didn’t—”

“Shut the fuck up. You don’t get to talk here.” His words cut into Basil like a knife.

He sniffled, trying desperately to hold back his tears.

“Your stupid confession put me right back to square one! I’d rotted in that bed for a year after you two pulled that little stunt and now I’m right back here! I can’t fucking escape this misery!”

Basil broke. Silent tears streamed down his cheeks. He turned away, trying desperately to keep Hero from seeing them. He didn’t want to give him more ammunition to target him with.

“And then when I finally get off this bed, to visit Sunny nonetheless, my brother fucking gets in an accident! And I f-find his body… he…” Hero’s voice cracked. “I c-can’t get it out of my head…”

Basil’s tears kept flowing. Under his breath, he began to mumble quiet apologies. “I’m sorry… I’m s-sorry…”

“Y-You should be sorry! You should be sorry for everything! The— The incident… a-and the lake and the album and…” The anger drained from his voice as a sudden clarity struck Hero. “Oh— o-oh god…” He stepped back from the sobbing Basil, the reality of his actions setting in. “B-Basil I… I didn’t…”

Basil couldn’t hear Hero’s words anymore. As he sank to the floor, his head buried in his arms, all he could think about was how he messed everything up. He was a screw-up. He should just die— it would be better for everyone. “I-I’m sorry Hero, I’m s-sorry…”

“N-No Basil. I- I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” Tears of his own began forming, choking out as he sputtered out his words. “I didn’t mean any of that, I swear.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m s-sorry…” He felt like a broken record. All he had left on loop were apologies.

“Basil…”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

“Basil! Please!”

“I— I—” Basil finally looked up. Hero’s face was a perfect mask of worry. 

Seeing that he finally had his attention, Hero’s expression crumpled. “I’m so sorry… I should never have said that stuff to you.”

“N-No… I needed to h-hear that…” Basil mumbled, his gaze dropping down to his lap. “You were right. I— I’m worthless— it’s all my fault—”

“No!” At the vehemence in Hero’s voice, Basil looked up again. “I was way out of line, Basil! I don’t mean any of that! You’re not worthless, and while yes, you made some mistakes, that doesn’t excuse the stuff I said!” The tears were more visible on his face now, his eyes full of regret.

“B-But—”

“You’re not the only one that’s made mistakes, Basil,” Hero said quietly. “Sunny has, too. Aubrey… Even me. This wasn’t supposed to happen again.”

Basil blinked at Hero. “W-What do you mean by ‘again?’”

Hero sighed and sat down beside Basil. “Back when Mari… died,” he began heavily, “I wasn’t in a good place. I didn’t do anything for a year— just rotted in bed, mourning. Not even my parents could get me out of there. After a while, they stopped trying, hoping that I would snap out of it on my own someday.

“The only one who never stopped trying to reach me was Kel. He was always stubborn like that,” Hero said, a small, bittersweet smile spreading across his face. “Every day, he would stop by my bed and try to get me to get up, to go downstairs, to go to school, anything. Of course, I never listened.

“Then one day… I’m not sure why, but he just stood next to my bed and started rambling more than usual. I can barely remember what he said… but what I do remember is that he brought up Mari. How she wouldn’t want to see me like that. Wasting my life in bed, stuck endlessly grieving over her…”

Hero sniffed, rubbing at his eyes.

“I snapped.

“I don’t really remember what I said super well. It was all a blur… but what I do remember is that afterwards, when I was calming down, Kel was curled up in the corner.” Tears were beginning to stream down Hero’s cheeks. “He was crying harder than I’d ever seen him cry before. And when I t-tried to g-get closer, to apologize, to comfort him… he looked scared of me.”

Hero was full-on sobbing now, so Basil leaned over to hug him. He practically melted into the embrace. “I think the scariest part,” he finished quietly, “was that he was completely silent. When my parents came in… I don’t even know if they noticed him in the corner.”

“Oh…” Basil whispered.

“I wish… I wish they’d have paid attention to Kel more. It feels like it's always been about me, not him. For a long time, I didn’t notice… and then that happened, and I started to notice other things…” He heaved a sigh. “I n-never did anything about it because I didn’t know how to bring it up… and now it’s too late.”

Basil sat in silence, quietly listening. Hero had all of these pent-up emotions in him, and never showed it to anyone. He was like a stoppered bottle, and Kel’s death had shaken him… and Basil had been the person to unknowingly pop the cork.

“It’s just… I really miss him… and I n-never stopped missing her…”

They just sat there for a while, Hero’s shoulders shaking with silent sobs, Basil offering the best comfort that he could.

Hero sniffed, finally taking a deep breath and rubbing his nose with the sleeve of his pajamas. He slipped out of Basil’s hug and turned to face him. “C-Can you please help me with something?”

“With what?” Basil asked, a bit surprised at how sudden his request was.

He watched with mild confusion as Hero slowly got to his feet and walked over to the bed on his side of the room. Kneeling down, Hero reached underneath, pulling out a large cardboard box. Rummaging through it, he suddenly stopped as he finally pulled out a sheaf of slightly creased paper, its age visible through years’ worth of dirt caked onto it.

Coughing, Hero brushed off as much of the dust as he could. “I didn’t realize it was so dusty under there…” he mumbled.

As Hero straightened out the paper, Basil could barely make out its contents in the dark of his room. Rows of music notes marched down the page, occasionally broken by pencil marks.

“What is that?” Basil asked.

“It’s… her sheet music.”

Basil froze. “W-What? Why… Why do you have that?”

Hero stared down at the papers in his hands as though they were an old, precious treasure lost to time. “I’ll explain later.”

“Okay… Well, what did you need me to help you with?” He looked back towards Hero, who was still gazing down at the music.

Finally, he looked up, and there was a… look in his eyes. Raw determination. As though it didn’t matter what Basil’s response was— he’d figure out a way to do what he needed to anyway.

“So, just hear me out here,” he started. “I need you to help me get into Sunny’s house.”

If Basil had been drinking water, he would have spat it out. “What?!”

“I— I just need to get to the piano! It’s empty anyway, it’s not like he lives there anymore…”

“B-But wasn’t it sold? Doesn’t someone else live there now?”

Hero shook his head. “I know that, but the new owners haven’t moved in yet. I heard my parents talking about it. Apparently they want to remodel the house first.”

“Okay, but why do you want to go there anyways?” Basil questioned, still numb with shock.

“Like I said, the piano…” Hero held out the sheet music to show Basil. “I need to play this. She taught me how, a long time ago… and m-maybe it’ll help me let go of her. And to move past his death.”

Staring at the music, marked with Mari’s neat script, Basil felt like crying. But… if Hero needed it… 

He didn’t need to think about it for long before saying yes.

Chapter Text

The sun shone through the windows. It was a Monday afternoon, quiet and calm, with everyone hanging out at Hero’s house. All the kids were in the kitchen, but he and Mari had gone upstairs to get a moment to themselves— and because Mari wanted to show him something.

Mari sat down on Hero’s bed, unzipping her backpack. She dug around inside for a bit as Hero watched with a fond smile. After a moment, she pulled out a stapled packet and held it out to Hero. “Here. It’s the new song Sunny and I are going to learn! It took me a bit to pick out a good enough song, but I think this one’s advanced enough to really show everyone what we’re capable of, and it’s unique, too! It’s not a song composed two centuries ago that everyone’s heard a million times, heh,” she finished jokingly.

He took the sheet music from her. It was obviously photocopied, some notes and measures circled and marked with Mari’s neat script. “Wow,” he said faintly. “This looks really hard.” Hero couldn’t imagine himself even beginning to play something so complicated. He didn’t think he’d ever seen so many ledger lines in one place before.

“Yeah,” she bluntly replied. “But I think with enough practice, Sunny and I will be able to play it in no time!” She looked so excited, as though she were already dreaming of them performing in a grand concert hall. 

Hero felt a little more worried, but if she was so confident… what else could he do but support her? “You’re right,” he agreed amicably. “You’ve both got this. I’m sure soon enough, you’ll be playing in live orchestras with massive auditoriums’ worth of people watching!” he teased.

Mari smirked. “And I know who’ll always be sitting in the front row seat.”

A blush crawling up his cheeks, Hero laughed and scratched the back of his neck.

Mari opened her mouth to quip back at him, but was suddenly interrupted by a scream from downstairs. Both of them instantly turned to face the door.

Moments later, Basil poked his head inside. “Um…” he said quietly, “Hero? Mari? We need your help.”

“It was YOUR FAULT!” Aubrey’s voice screamed shrilly from downstairs, loud enough to hear.

“NO, YOU!” Kel retorted, equally as loud.

“THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE!”

“YES IT DOES!”

Basil wrung his hands together. “They, um, were trying to cook something and— uh— set it on fire.”

Hero barely managed to stop himself from cursing in front of the twelve-year-old. Mari patted him on the back, his head raising in surprise. “I guess it’s time for our Hero to save the day, hmm?” she teased. Poking his nose, she then hurried out of the room in a flurry of skirts and giggles.

It took a moment for him to follow, his face beet red.

“Hero?” Basil asked quietly.

Hero startled, snapping out of his thoughts. “What?”

“We’re here.” He nodded towards the house that lay in front of them.

A dusty old picnic basket sat next to the doorstep. The door leading into the house was already cracked open— as if the two of them coming here were fate. As though reading his mind, Basil asked in confusion, “Is it supposed to be open?”

Furrowing his brow, Hero looked on at the tall, barren house that used to belong to Sunny— and Mari. “I don’t think so. The new owners haven’t done anything to it yet. Maybe they unlocked it and forgot to close it.”

“Do we just… go in then?”

“I suppose so.” He hesitated for a moment, then walked into the house. After a brief moment, Basil followed.

Walking in felt a bit like the day he and… Kel had stayed over. This time, however, the first thing Hero noticed was that there were no boxes anymore. Last time, they were the first thing he saw— but now, there was nothing in the room aside from the stained rug below their feet.

“It’s so… empty,” Basil murmured, shuddering. 

“I know,” Hero replied. “It makes it feel real, doesn’t it? They’re gone.”

“Too real. I wonder what it looked like before he moved…” Basil responded, his eyes wandering to every empty corner.

“Oh yeah, I guess you haven’t been to Sunny’s house since… since…” Hero froze.

Basil’s eyes widened as he paled. For just a moment, he looked haunted, his face falling into shadow. His hands briefly curled into fists, then quickly released.

“The piano should be this way.” Hero abruptly changed the subject, almost afraid of what would happen if they kept going on that topic. He hurried onward. 

After a short pause, Basil followed him meekly into the stairwell. 

Hero stopped in the doorway of the piano room, then turned to see that Basil had frozen, staring at the base of the staircase. His arms hugged his waist. He looked like he was going to be sick.

His gaze slowly rose towards the top of the stairs.

Then he abruptly turned and pushed past Hero into the piano room, eyes squeezed shut and hands covering his ears.

Hero followed quietly.

Basil had curled up in the corner of the room, his arms wrapped around his knees and breathing faster than usual. Clearing his throat, Hero asked, “Are you—”

“I’m fine,” Basil snapped. Then his eyes widened. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say it like that…”

That was obviously a lie— he definitely wasn’t fine—, but Hero didn’t know how to bring it up. He wasn’t sure what to say anymore.

So he chose not to say anything at all. Turning toward the piano, he gently set Mari’s sheet music on the music desk and lifted the cover from the keys. He pressed a few keys, almost experimentally. Then, peering at the sheet music, he pressed the first note.

A gentle G note reverberated through the room, fading into the silence. It felt… cathartic somehow.

He began to play, Basil sitting quietly behind him. First the tempo— an upbeat waltz. The chords, the melody…

He imagined a young fifteen-year-old girl sitting here four years prior. Music coming to life from her fingertips.

As he mastered the chords, he imagined her mastering her half of the duet.

As he began to play through the melody, he imagined her playing alongside her brother.

As he pieced them together, he imagined her excitement. Her impatience. Her worry. Her frustration.

Then his thoughts turned to her brother— as much a victim as she was.

His impatience. His frustration.

“It was an accident,” he whispered, his hands stilling above the keyboard. The notes fading into silence. “I didn’t see it coming. None of us did.”

Basil sniffed. Hero glanced over to see him rubbing his eyes.

“None of us saw any of it coming,” Hero murmured. “How could we have?”

He couldn’t tell anymore whether he was still talking about Mari, or if he was talking about Kel. He supposed it didn’t matter. It was true of both.

They were just the victims of horrible accidents. Both of them.

Hero still regretted not being able to save them.

He stared at his hands. They were shaking.

“If I had stopped him that day,” he mumbled. “Made him stay home. Told him it was too late to go walking. Maybe he would still be…”

A second passed before he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t put this all on yourself.” Basil’s voice came from behind. “It wasn’t… It wasn’t your fault, Hero.”

Hero turned to look at him. “If I had seen how stressed out Sunny was for the recital, maybe I could have helped him…” he said in a strained whisper. “Then everything would have been fine.”

Shaking his head, Basil insisted, “You— you can’t think like that! Then you’ll just feel guilty forever.”

“But I’m supposed to be a ‘hero!’”

Basil recoiled at the self-hatred suddenly dripping from Hero’s voice.

“I’m supposed to be able to help! To save others! I’m even training to be a doctor, Basil! But how can I when there are two deaths I could have prevented if I had just. Seen the signs or something!” With every word, Hero’s voice grew more pained. He ran a hand through his hair.

“You couldn’t have known!”

“I should have known!” 

“But you couldn’t have, Hero! You have to understand that not everything can be figured out! You can try, but you just can’t! Please, Hero, stop trying to put it all on yourself!” Basil’s voice echoed throughout the empty room. 

Hero’s voice broke. “But how do I make up for the hurt I caused?”

“Hero…”

“I hurt you in that room earlier, Basil. You can’t deny it. I did the same thing to Kel. I ignored Aubrey for years. I ignored you for years, and Sunny, too! I never even visited her grave until Sunny’s last days here! I worry my parents to no end. I don't know how to be a good role model for Sally. How do I make up for any of this?”

“You just have to live with it. You have to accept that it wasn’t all your fault, that you couldn’t save them. If you keep looking back at what could have been, you’ll never get to see yourself become better.”

Hero sat in silence.

“I know we’ve all done a lot wrong, but it’s never too late to get better. We can work through this, like we worked through… M-Mari. I don’t want to see you like this anymore, Hero. Please.” Basil held out his hand to Hero.

For a moment, Hero didn’t see the broken sixteen-year-old in front of him. He caught a glimpse of an earnest twelve-year-old, still untouched by the horrors to come, asking for his help.

But this time, there was no Mari by his side. He would have to go on alone.

No… not alone. He still had people by his side.

Hero took a deep breath and took Basil’s hand. “Let’s get out of here,” he said quietly, a small smile spreading across his face. “We aren’t supposed to be in here.”

Basil grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, haha…”

Hero reached for Mari’s sheet music— then pulled his hand back. Perhaps it was better to let go.

As he and Basil left the room, he felt as though she were behind him, saying goodbye with a warm smile.

The two stood in silence as they looked outside once more.

“It’s getting a bit late… Maybe it’s time to head home.” Basil finally spoke up. 

Hero nodded distractedly.

“But, um… I wanted to tell you something,” Basil continued nervously.

Tilting his head, Hero looked at Basil and waited.

Basil wrung his hands nervously. “I, uh… I talked to Sunny, and he and I both w-wanted to bring the friend group back together… so, uh… we need to—”

“Talk to Aubrey?” Hero asked.

Basil shuddered a bit, remembering what had happened earlier in the day. “Y-Yeah.”

“Got it. You want me to walk you home?” Hero offered.

“Sure, but there’s another thing,” Basil finally said. He thought about it. Sunny had told him not to tell Polly… but he hadn’t said anything about Hero. “At, uh, at Kel’s f-funeral… Aubrey was drunk. I think.”

Hero blinked. “What?” A look of confusion spread across his face. “What do you mean ‘drunk?’”

“I mean… she was acting drunk? And I saw a can of beer? She’s just, uh… not doing well.”

“Oh my god.” Hero looked really worried. “Drinking enough alcohol to get drunk? At a funeral? At… Kel’s funeral?”

Basil nodded.

“I…” Hero shook his head. “Okay. It’s really late right now. I’ll walk you home, and then bright and early tomorrow morning, we go find and help Aubrey. How does that sound?” ‘ She really needs it’ went unsaid.

“Y-Yeah… Thanks, Hero. Really.”

“It’s the least I could do,” he said, smiling. It almost reached his eyes.