Chapter Text
Where am I?
The world disappeared in a flash. Omori couldn’t make any sense of it. He was just about to sit on the throne of red hands. He came mere seconds within reach of ruling over everything, finally wresting control of Headspace away from the last shreds of defiance hiding inside the dreamer.
Actually, no...
One hurdle had occurred. A certain shadow, with glowing white eyes.
It attacked the dreamer. Back then, Omori felt the strangest sensation, like the dreamer had suddenly been pulled out of him by an angry force. The shadow wrapped his ugly hands around the dreamer’s neck. Red hot pain flashed across everything. Then, there was only darkness. Omori had no idea where he was or what had happened to the dreamer.
This couldn’t be good. Whatever the shadow did, the outcome was himself standing alone in this place of nothing, unable to ascend the throne that rightfully belonged to him. Total control over the dreamer’s body vanished just like that out of his reach. Who could possibly have done this? Who could even have the power to cripple him?
Omori wandered the darkness for what felt like hours. He kept expecting someone familiar to show up. Where was Kel? Aubrey? Hero? Mari? Basil?
The darkness felt to him to be an all-permeating fabric that had been thrown over the colorful shapes and textures of Headspace. It reduced that beautiful world to this senseless void. No matter how he tried to make sense of it, he couldn’t find any reason why this place should exist.
The throne belonged to him! Nobody should have ever been able to stop him from achieving total power.
Anger. Pure, furious anger overwhelmed Omori.
The dreamer had tasked him, Omori, with burying the truth. The dreamer gave him absolute power over this world. Omori knew, he had done an excellent job of that. He had wiped out any trace of the truth’s existence. Every time the truth threatened to attack the dreamer’s conscience, Omori had been the one to erase it with his own hand. He would erase the whole world and start all over again if he needed to.
Once he ascended that throne, he would become even stronger. He could remove the truth permanently and finally fulfil the dreamer’s hope of returning to a brighter world.
Had the dreamer abandoned him?
No. Impossible.
Raw, unstoppable power surged through Omori, fueled by his growing rage. He desired to obliterate this void. He would ascend the throne and wipe out this farce of a resistance once and for all. Nothing, not even the dreamer himself, could stand in his way.
Channeling that power inside his body, he summoned Red Hands to come to his side.
Red hands surged out of the black sky, swarming down towards him to writhe by his side and await his command.
Destroy this emptiness.
Destroy this farce.
The hands became a red tornado. They descended everywhere, tearing apart this void with the fury of a thousand indignant Sweethearts. They reached into the darkness, hungry jaws snapping at the fabric of reality, energized with the power to shatter anything that stood in their way—
The red hands stopped their rampage and calmly delivered a shadowy figure to Omori’s side.
What?
Why did they stop their destruction?
Red hands shaped like ribbons tied around the shadow boy, fastening his arms and legs against his body to prevent him from escaping. Before Omori could even ask, another pair of red hands floated behind Omori and pushed him towards the shadow even though he did not command the red hands to do such a thing.
How is this possible?
The red hands are supposed to obey me!
Violent, seething rage filled Omori. His anger turned his pale skin dark red.
What was this nonsense? Why didn’t his red hands follow his orders? Who were they to try to defy him?
The red hands belonged to the ruler of everything and they existed to follow his will alone!
Omori looked upon the shadow. He used all his restraint to keep himself from taking out his knife and dicing this shadow boy into a thousand pieces. The red hands kept the shadow immobilized. Omori couldn’t believe the smirk on the boy’s face. He stomped towards the tied up shadow until he was standing right in front of his nose.
“You,” Omori spoke, jabbing a finger into the shadow’s remarkably soft chest. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” the shadow stranger responded. “I just gave the dreamer some...encouragement.”
Omori snarled. “So what? You think the dreamer controls this world?”
“Better than you right now.”
Omori almost laughed. This shadow had guts to say that to his face, he had to give him that much. But he was wrong, oh so very wrong.
“The dreamer has no power here,” Omori clarified for him. “I am the ruler of everything. The dreamer is merely my vessel. I am his master.”
“Well, that was your plan,” the stranger spoke. “But I couldn't just let you succeed.”
That struck a nerve.
My plan didn’t succeed?
I didn’t succeed in becoming the ruler of everything?
Omori could barely contain his rage, wishing he could destroy this shadow with his bare hands. “Liar! You can't even fathom my power.”
“You came close to taking over, I’ll give you that much," Stranger said. "I had to intervene at the very last moment to push the dreamer towards the right path.”
“You...did what?”
Stranger's smirk grew. "There are other ways to guide the dreamer, Omori. Don't you worry about a thing."
Impossible!
Omori didn’t know who this shadow was. He didn’t know how this stranger managed to wrest control back to the dreamer. But one thing was becoming clear—he was very dangerous, and he needed to be destroyed on sight.
This shadow was an aberrant in his world. A silhouetted bringer of lies. A deceitful creature of darkness. Oh, he was already creating the entry for this enemy in his enemy list.
A total stranger.
That’s what I’ll call him so that he understands that he is trespassing my world.
“Stranger,” Omori declared. “I’m going to kill you.”
“Do whatever you want.”
Omori glared at Stranger in rage. “You’ll never take my control away. I am the Dreamer's will. This is my world and you will suffer for daring to defy me.”
Stranger didn’t look fazed at all. "I just set the dreamer on the right path.”
“You did not. I control the dreamer.”
“You’re right,” Stranger replied, to Omori’s surprise. “The dreamer succumbed to you. He couldn’t face the truth. You control his entire world. But that doesn’t mean the dreamer has to stay in bed.”
Omori blinked. “What are you talking about?”
“Congratulations, Omori,” Stranger said with a twisted smile. “The dreamer believes he is you. Still, that doesn’t mean he has to spend his last night in Faraway just lying in bed.”
“He doesn’t have a choice. I control him!”
“That’s right. You control his mind. I give his actions just the right push.”
Omori was fed up with Stranger’s stupid little quips. He unsheathed his knife and brought it to Stranger’s neck, the blade gleaming.
“Tell me what you did,” Omori demanded. “Now.”
“If I recall correctly, you were the one doing everything,” Stranger replied. “You cut the webs tied around a certain flower boy so you could carry him in your arms and bring him back to your friends.”
As Stranger spoke those words, Omori started to remember. Yes, that was what happened. He cut Basil out of the web of darkness trapping him. Basil fell into his arms. He carried Basil up the stairs to escape from Black Space. They would reset everything, and return to Headspace.
Except...
The shadow had confronted them, and a moment later, he became trapped in this total emptiness.
“You have one last chance,” Omori warned. The red hands tied around Stranger’s body threatened to wring him taut.
Stranger rolled his eyes. “I gave the dreamer some directions so he could do in the real world what you did in his dreams.”
Omori’s knife sank a thin red line against Stranger’s throat. “The dreamer is doing what in the real world?”
“Sleepwalking.”
Omori had lost his last ounce of patience.
This world was his. No one else could have it. His enemies, they were, they were...viruses. Stranger was nothing more than a virus that had wormed his way in, trying to infect his world by turning his own powers against him. Viruses deserved extermination.
The rage growing inside Omori made the fabric of reality tremble. He felt all his powers returning into his body—total power fuelled by a merciless desire for vengeance. No more doubt. No more confusion. This was his world and his word was law.
With a mighty clench of his fist around the knife that he grasped in his hand, the barriers to his powers shattered away like glass. The red hands fell in line. Out of the depths of existence itself, red hands surged upwards—hundreds, thousands, millions of red hands, grabbing Stranger’s limbs, tearing him apart by pulling in all directions. Then the red hands clawed at the dark void that surrounded them. Their unimaginable fury, power beyond anything yet seen in this world, ripped and tore and shredded any trace of the webbed darkness that had emanated from Stranger’s body. Omori drove them like a cavalry charge through that shadow, oblitering the last remnants of resistance that stood against his power. Red lightning crackled on his fingertips.
The dreamer’s world knelt to him. Everybody knelt.
As the darkness fell away, Omori saw the red hands assembling back into a staircase. At the top, his rightful throne.
Omori ascended the staircase.
At last, the ruler of everything sat back upon his throne.
Where Stranger had once stood, only nothingness remained. That pesky virus had been vaporized.
You were no threat to me after all, you puny worthless shadow.
Omori looked at his hands. They boiled and fried and sizzled with blackish red flames.
They were also making him kind of hungry. He was really in the mood for a boiled and fried and sizzled whole chicken right now. His first order of business as the ruler of everything would be to get Hero to whip up something delicious!
***
Welcome to White Space.
You have been living here for as long as you can remember.
Omori got up and stretched. Everything was back to the way it should be. His notebook lay at his side, along with that essential box of tissues. Mewo slept lazily by the edge of this comfortable box. The heat from his laptop warmed his lap.
A black lightbulb hung from the ceiling. It was too dark to see anything inside.
As it should be.
With a lazy yawn, he approached the door and opened it.
Just as he expected, his friends were waiting for him in that rainbow colored room with the big yellow cat. Kel’s cheerful face, Aubrey’s cute smile, and Hero’s dependable nature. He really missed them. Now that he was finally back, he was ready to go on some fun adventures again.
I bet Mari and Basil are waiting for me just outside at their picnic on the playground.
This world is back to how it should be!
Omori took the first step towards his friends when suddenly he heard his stomach growling.
God, I could go for a whole chicken right now.
“Hey, Omori!” Kel called.
“Omori, I’ve missed you!” Aubrey said.
Omori smiled. “Don’t worry, Aubrey. I didn’t go anywhere. Hey Hero, could you cook up a roast chicken for me?”
All three of his friends’ jaws practically dropped to the floor.
“Woah…we never hear you talk,” Kel said in a hushed tone.
“Omori, did something happen to you?” Aubrey asked.
Hero smiled in his friendly manner, but Omori could see that he was bothered. “Um, yeah, I guess I could cook up a roast chicken for you…”
Omori raised his eyes. “Look, I know I don’t normally talk, but I’m really hungry right now.”
“That’s odd,” Kel said. “Usually you come out of that door feeling totally full. You’re always ready to go on an adventure or something.”
I should just tell my friends the truth.
“I had to deal with an annoying problem,” Omori said. “You guys aren’t going to believe this, but there was a weird shadow trying to take over my worl—I mean, our world.”
Eyebrows were raised.
What's wrong with my friends? Is Stranger messing with them too?
Omori’s stomach growled again. God, he needed that whole chicken.
“…Look, I've had a rough time dealing with that shadow,” Omori spoke. “That shadow was very unpleasant.”
“Unpleasant? Was he...mad at you?” Aubrey asked.
“Or at us?” Kel chimed.
“Maybe we could make it up to him,” Hero offered.
Ugh.
I should’ve just kept my mouth shut.
Honestly, things had been unpleasant ever since he fell into Black Space, but that encounter with Stranger had been the last straw.
Omori realized his problem. His rule over this world wasn’t firm enough.
He had to make it an absolute certainty that neither Stranger nor anything else could ever invade his world and hinder his powers again. It was extremely concerning to him that it had already happened once. What could stop it from happening again?
The answer stared at him clearly, mercilessly.
Nothing.
Nothing could prevent it from happening again. His rule wasn’t as safe as he’d believed. Just because he was the ruler of everything, doesn’t mean that his rule couldn’t be challenged.
He saw only one solution to this conundrum. He had to root out every Stranger that lived in this world, every one of those scheming, conniving, disgusting shadows. It was time to go on an existential crusade against Stranger. He would crush and grind into dust and annihilate every last smirk off their worthless faces. He would make them suffer before their deaths. They had to pay!
“Hero, get me that whole chicken,” Omori ordered. “Once we eat, we’re going out on a new adventure.”
“What’s the adventure?” Kel asked.
“War.”
His friends didn’t even budge.
“What’s the matter?” Omori demanded. “I said that we’re going on a new adventure. We are going to wage war. We are going to find those shadows that were bothering me and we are going to destroy—”
“I suddenly remember why we hate it when Omori talks,” Kel interrupted.
“Yeah, for once I agree with you, Kel,” Aubrey said. “Every word out of his mouth stinks!”
“Sorry, Omori…” Hero spoke. “We liked you better when you were silent.”
Omori’s eye twitched violently.
What the hell?
This isn’t how his friends were supposed to behave! Did Stranger get to them too?
He must have messed up their minds.
This was...
That shadow was ruining everything!
If that’s how it’s gonna be, then fine.
I’ll play dirty too.
If his friends weren’t going to love him, then they were going to fear him—just for the time being, until he could get everything sorted out.
Omori slammed the reset button on everything.
***
Welcome to White Space.
You have been living here for as long as you can remember.
Notebook, check. Box of tissues, check. Cat, check. Laptop, check. Lightbulb, check.
Endless expanse of white, check.
This time, when Omori opened that door, things were going to be different.
He had been too soft on this world. He let his friends have fun, carefree adventures for far too long. He let his enemies have their fun for too long as well, like that time they imprisoned him in the dungeon, or that time they forced everyone into getting jobs. No more of that.
This time he was going to make sure everyone knew exactly who he was.
The ruler of everything.
First, a change of scenery. The big yellow cat no longer served as cute background decoration. It was now the skinned animal head that would adorn his dark red throne of spikes.
The trunk from which he emerged into the world of Headspace would no longer be a tiny trunk; it was now a massive tree, from the top of which he ruled the entire world. His castle was the tree itself, each branch a royal tower belonging to one of his loyal friends, the trunk a grand spiral staircase bustling with servants and messengers who rushed to deliver the king’s command to all his worthless subjects. Hero’s tower also had an extra chef’s quarter to cook food for the royal banquets.
The rest of the world lay beneath his tree, an unsubtle reminder that the man living above them was the divine ruler of everything. Where Omori walked, heads would crash to the floor in prostration. His word was law. His orders permitted only one modifying adjective: absolute.
Headspace was now fully mobilized for war against the Strangers.
Omori opened his eyes to the scene of his castle bedroom. It was a bright and sunny day, perfect for a crusade against some puffy-haired shadows. He grabbed the red knife that he kept in his bedside drawers and left his bedroom, walking down the hall towards the throne room.
Wow...
Maybe, the throne made of blood red spikes felt just a bit too on the nose. He decided he’d turn everything back to normal once the Strangers were disposed of.
“King Omori!”
He turned and saw his friends assembling into the throne room: Royal Knight Aubrey and Royal Dragoon Kel, his two trusted guardians who protected their king with their lives. Hero, the Royal Cook. Mari, the Royal Secretary. And Basil, the Royal Royal.
(Omori thought about making his best friend, Basil, the Queen of Headspace, but then realized that doing so might raise some questions about the ruler of everything, especially from Aubrey. So instead, Basil gets the title, the Royal Royal)
And Basil was double royal indeed, with his majestic flower crown atop his head of flowing green hair. He wore glimmering robes of turquoise silk embroidered with gold. A luxurious cohort of attendants swept the floor clean before him, some of them polishing Basil’s shoes as he walked—
“Omori, could you tell your servants to leave me by myself for a few minutes? Or maybe, forever?” Basil requested.
Maybe having servants attend to his every whim is a bit excessive…
Omori waved his servants away.
With a grateful smile, Basil pulled up his robes and stepped towards the throne room to sit on the armrest by Omori’s side, his shoes only slightly less polished than they ought to be.
“Here’s our order of business for today,” Omori announced. “Our kingdom has been invaded by shadow figures called Strangers. We must dispose of them immediately. They are a threat to the peace and stability of my realm. I will not tolerate their existence any longer.”
“Strangers? You mean, they come from another country?” Aubrey asked.
“Didn’t we already invade everyone? Mari asked, flipping through her record book. “Conquest of the Vast and Pyrefly Forests, achieved. Conquest of Otherworld, complete. Conquest of Sweetheart’s Castle, accomplished. Conquest of the Underwater Kingdoms, done and done. Conquest of Orange Oasis…well, they were just a resort town and didn’t offer any resistance. If my records are accurate, all of Headspace now belongs to you, your majesty.”
Omori slammed his fist against his left armrest. “Those Strangers are here! I saw them. I’m sure you’ll find them walking all over my kingdom, causing trouble. We must destroy them at once.”
“I see…new threat: the Strangers,” Mari wrote down in her record book.
“Let’s make sure everyone knows what they look like,” Omori went on. “We need a good artist to create posters. Posters with Stranger’s face on them. We’ll put the posters up all over Headspace with the message: Kill on Sight.”
“Wow, these Strangers sure sound dangerous,” Kel said.
“Of course they’re dangerous!” Aubrey said, giving Kel a knock on his armored head. “If Omori says it’s a problem, then it’s definitely a threat to our whole kingdom!”
“Even though Orange Oasis basically surrendered to us without showing any resistance the moment we showed up…” Mari muttered.
Omori decided to ignore the Royal Secretary’s cheeky comment. She was his beloved sister, after all. “Find me the best artist in my kingdom immediately.”
“I’ll help you, Omori!” Basil said.
Basil placed two fingers in his mouth and whistled. A white pigeon flew through the windows of the throne room and landed in front of him. Basil took out an ink pen and wrote a message down on a scroll. He handed the scroll over to the pigeon, who took it in its claws and departed with a flap of wings.
“My messenger pigeon will find you the best artist in the kingdom in just a few hours,” Basil said.
“Thank you, Basil,” Omori replied with a smile. “But…a few hours? Can’t we do it any faster?”
“A few hours is what you’ll need to handle all your administrative duties this morning, my liege,” Mari informed. “To effectively rule a kingdom as great as yours requires answering your peoples’ daily petitions. Otherwise, they might start complaining, and then you’ll have to deal with even more petitions!”
Omori sighed.
As if the ruler of everything needed to answer any petitions. He could crush any petitioner under his thumb if he wanted to.
But, as always, Mari was his big sister, and she knew what was best for him. She did have the right idea. Helping out the common peasant with his kingly decrees would engender gratitude in them. A grateful populace would be more than willing to join his Headspace-wide crusade to eliminate all Strangers.
“Bring them in,” Omori said in a bored tone.
His servant Van rushed into the throne room carrying a table covered in a mountain of petitions for him to answer. With another momentous sigh, Omori took out his feathered pen and began reading through them.
“Some of these are so dull,” Omori complained, upon reading about one duckrabbit family’s request to send out a search party for their missing son.
He promptly denied their request. Who cares if their son went missing? This wasn’t a playground anymore. Headspace was a kingdom, his kingdom, and he had a war to wage.
Mari did not like that.
“Omori!” she yelled, throwing the petition back at him. “How can you ignore a family with a missing child?
Omori groaned. “I’ve got other matters to deal with—”
“I can understand you not wanting to find that flower puzzle for Daisy. I can tolerate you not wanting to help Berly find her missing tetherball. I can even get why you wouldn’t want to help that guy kill all those rabbits.” She threw a glance at Aubrey’s pet rabbit, sitting in a corner. “But I will not under any circumstances accept you refusing this poor family’s request to help them find their missing son!”
Omori groaned again. Even though his sister always had the best intentions, she just didn’t understand that things were different now. They couldn’t waste time doing small meaningless quests for random people all day anymore.
“Deep in my heart, I know my little brother is the best king in the world," Mari said, her words laced with implications. "He would never ignore a request to find a family’s missing son."
“I know you’ll be a good king, Omori!” Basil said cheerfully, giving his shoulder a gentle rub.
Omori gazed into Basil’s deep blue eyes.
Basil smiled back.
Basil, I…
I don’t want to make you mad at me.
Omori threw his head back and laughed.
What am I thinking?
I’m the ruler of everything in this world. Whatever I say, goes!
Omori smiled. “Captain Spaceboy understands that his crew of space pirates serve me now, doesn’t he? Send him a message. Tell him that he is to help the family find their missing son. I will not tolerate his refusal to do so, nor will I tolerate failure.”
Mari shrugged. “I suppose that could work.”
Omori wrote a message to Captain Spaceboy on the duckrabbit family’s petition and stamped it with his seal.
“That’s all the petitions I’ll handle today,” Omori said, handing the petition over to Mari to be delivered to Captain Spaceboy. “Now, I have far more important matters to attend to.”
He snapped his fingers. “Hero! I’m feeling hungry. Can you whip up a whole chicken for me?”
“Yes, I’ll make it right away,” Hero replied, hurrying off to the royal kitchen to cook a royal chicken.
“Excellent.” Omori smiled. Things were finally going his way. As soon as Basil’s pigeons retrieved the kingdom’s best artist for him, he would begin mobilizing his people for war on the Strangers. Soon, the mere sight of a shadow would make everyone raise their knives and pitchforks. Kill on Sight was not an order to be taken lightly.
A pigeon flew back into the room and dropped a scroll into Basil’s hands.
“Did it find an artist?” Omori asked.
Basil read through the scroll. “Umm…Omori, it seems like there’s an urgent problem in the Vast Forest.”
“What?” Omori replied, annoyed. “Tell whoever sent that message that I have bigger things to—”
“People are reporting strange shadows wandering by the docks at the center of the forest.”
Omori snapped to attention. “Go on.”
“The shadows have been attacking people who are just passing by the docks,” Basil continued reading from the scroll. “People say they are struck by a sudden sense of fear when they encounter a shadow. A few got injured when the shadows attacked them. There have not been any deaths yet, fortunately.”
Basil put the scroll down onto his lap. “Omori, this sounds like a serious problem! It could be the same as those Strangers you were talking about.”
“You’re right,” Omori admitted. “We have to investigate this.”
He called Royal Knight Aubrey, Royal Dragoon Kel, and Royal Chef Hero into the room. Hero was still in the middle of cooking up a delicious whole chicken, a frying pan in his hand.
“We’ve found those Strangers,” Omori said. “They’re by the docks in the Vast Forest. Let’s deal with them right now.”
“Aww, do we have to?” Kel asked, gazing yearningly at the game of cards he’d been playing. “I had a full house!”
Aubrey gave Kel a royal slap across the face. “Are you questioning the orders of our liege?”
“Oww!!!”
“You can finish your game later,” Omori responded. “We have to deal with the Strangers now.”
“Okay, fine…”
Omori stood up and unsheathed his red knife. A vicious smile adorned his lips.
He was going to enjoy hurting and killing those despicable Strangers. Not only was he going to hunt every last one of them down, he would torture any that he could capture to get additional information on where the rest of them were hiding. He couldn’t wait to show them his new medieval toys!
“Omori?” Basil spoke. “If my pigeons manage to find an artist while you’re gone, what should I do?”
“Take them to the royal quarters. Treat them as an esteemed guest until I return.”
“Okay.” Basil smiled sweetly.
“I’ll set up a picnic in the forest in case you need one!” Mari reassured.
Ah, yes, the picnic, a refueling station for my glorious and bloody conquests.
I hope it’s not questionable gelatin, though…
Omori set out from his throne room with his royal entourage of three behind him. Waiting on the balcony was a massive black griffin, Mewo the Lion-Bird. They climbed onto the griffin’s armored back and flew from the top of the tree castle down to the floor of Vast Forest. As they prepared to land, Mewo spotted a bunny and snatched it into its claws for lunch.
That should help with that Bunny Killer petition.
“The docks aren’t far from here,” Omori said. “Follow me and keep your eyes out for any shadows.”
Kel suddenly raised his spiked ball and dunked a random patch of grass.
“What are you doing that for?” Omori demanded.
“You said to keep your eyes out for any shadows!” Kel replied, pointing at the tree towering above the grass patch.
“Not those shadows! That’s just the shade under a tree!”
The leaves of the tree rustled in response.
Omori took a closer look. That tree seemed to be more than simply a tree. It seemed to be…leering at them…
“Alright, cut the tree down,” Omori ordered. He didn’t take kindly to leerers.
Aubrey took out her axe and with one mighty chop, or twenty, the tree was finally and exhaustingly cut down.
It was just a tree after all.
“Just follow me,” Omori said, exasperated.
“Do I still keep attacking any shadows I see?” Kel asked.
“Just…attack when I tell you to!” Omori shouted.
They marched through the Vast Forest, Omori keeping his eyes peeled for any Stranger-shaped shadows. He didn’t find any yet. When the docks came within sight, he brandished his knife, ready to summon his red hands in case any living shadow came across his path.
Up ahead, something dark, twisted strode back and forth along the pier.
“There!” Omori shouted. “Attack!”
With weapons raised and chicken cooked (ready to be eaten), the party of four charged at the shadow.
It was not a Stranger shaped shadow. This shadow looked kind of like a deformed deer, with four legs and a large, glaring eye on its forehead.
That stare stopped Kel, Aubrey, and Hero dead in their tracks.
“Omori…?” Aubrey spoke, fear audible in her voice. “I’m actually kind of…afraid of that thing…”
“Don’t be afraid of a mere shadow,” Omori said. “Let me show you how I deal with strangers who trespass my property.”
Omori raised his knife.
With a single stab, Omori managed to cut the shadow down. Or so he thought.
His knife plunged through the creature’s neck, but it remained standing. Its cycloptic eye suddenly stared directly at Omori. With a strange noise, the shadow raised its front legs and swung a kick at Omori’s head.
Omori didn’t have time to dodge. Luckily, he was saved just in time from being kicked in the face by a slash of Aubrey’s axe and a dunk of Kel’s spiked ball. Hero brought his frying pan down on top of the creature’s head and it finally crumpled to the floor.
The shadow lay there, twitching, still making those strange noises.
“What the heck is this thing?” Kel said, fear and disgust visible on his face.
“It’s a shadow, but not Stranger,” Omori spoke. He knew that Stranger could manage to resist even the power of a couple of his red hands, while mere stabs from ordinary weapons managed to bring this shadow down. “It must be one of Stranger’s minions.”
Aubrey raised her axe again. “Shall I kill it, my liege?”
“No. Capture it, and bring it back to my castle. I might be able to extract some useful information out of it.”
“Okay…it’s kind of gross, though.”
Kel and Aubrey took out some restraining ropes which they tied around the creature’s legs to keep it from kicking at them. It already appeared to be incapacitated and didn’t really resist.
As they lifted the shadow deer over their heads to bring it back to the castle, it suddenly raised its head, its eye staring at Omori.
“Sunny…I’m sorry…”
The sound of that name froze Omori. “What did you say?”
“Omori.”
All of a sudden, darkness returned.
Everything had frozen.
Kel, Aubrey, and Hero were frozen in place.
The shadow deer had also frozen still.
And walking towards Omori was a familiar, fluffy-haired silhouette with glowing white eyes.
Stranger approached Omori with that unshakably disappointed expression on his face.
“Stranger,” Omori spat. “What have you done to everyone?”
“You’re waging a pointless war,” Stranger replied. “Anyway, I just came here to tell you that the dreamer is on his way to do what he needs to do.”
“What are you talking about?” Omori demanded.
“On second thought, it's nothing for you to worry over,” Stranger said. “Just keep doing what you’re doing in this world and don’t pay the real world any mind.”
Omori summoned a red hand. It lingered above Stranger’s head, threatening to crush him like a grape.
“Tell me how you managed to invade and take control of my world,” Omori spoke. “If I’m feeling merciful, I’ll spare you the torture and annihilate you instantly.”
“You can annihilate me all you want,” Stranger replied with a strange twinkle in his eye. “By the way, I also want you to know, I expect you to run your kingdom better than this.”
“Excuse me?!”
“I took a visit to your food storage and y’know what I found? Shortages, everywhere!”
Stranger calmly took the red hand floating above him into his arms and stroked it caringly. “When you get back to the castle, make sure you go over the details of your tax policy with Mari. In case you haven’t realized, your food stores are going to dwindle to nothing unless you actually ask your people to send you a share of their harvests. Poor Hero’s going to have nothing to cook for the banquet tonight.”
Basil’s hands shook. He aimed the tip of his garden shears at his chest.
Grandma had just passed away. The last reason for him to go on living in this world had vanished with her. Tonight, he was ready to carry out what he had always planned to do to protect Sunny. Once he disappeared from this world, Sunny’s secret would be buried forever.
Sunny deserved better. Sunny deserved a life free from guilt, free from the burden of being reminded of his terrible past. Basil would make sure of it.
It’d only hurt for a few seconds, right…?
He was so tired. He could finally rest once everything became dark. His trembling, shaking breaths only assured him that oblivion would be a peaceful respite.
Basil raised the garden shears and st—
A hand stopped him.
Basil opened his eyes in shock. Two hands gripped his own arm, unwilling to let go. They refused to allow him to kill himself.
He turned his head and saw…
“Sunny?”
It had been so many years since he’d seen Sunny leave his house. He still recognized his best friend’s face anywhere, even in the midnight darkness. Sunny hadn’t changed one bit. He was still short, he kinda looked malnourished…
Just why was he so strong?
Sunny’s fingers yanked those shears out of Basil’s hand. He threw the shears down to the floor with a loud clank.
Before Basil could ask, a pair of arms swept him off his feet and lifted him up from the ground.
With Basil in his arms, Sunny jumped out through the window.
Basil was speechless. Confused. He didn’t even know what to feel.
Sunny, with no explanation whatsoever, had pried those shears—inches away from entering his own heart and burying their secret forever—from his hands and now he was being carried in Sunny’s arms off to somewhere.
It was all so baffling.
It was all so…romantic.
Basil looked up at Sunny’s face. Curiously, Sunny didn’t seem like he was aware of his surroundings. His dark eyes blinked open and closed without pause. Basil had only seen that rapid blinking on Sunny’s face before when Sunny was…
…sleepwalking.
Sunny ran down the streets with Basil in his arms, not stopping to look out for cars or anything. The cats occupying Faraway’s lawns turned their heads up to stare at them as they passed by.
“Sunny…you don’t have to do this…” Basil spoke.
No reply. Sunny kept on running. He carried Basil into the park, dashing past the playground, running between the trees until they were back inside their old hangout spot. And he ran past this place too.
The silhouettes of two figures disappeared into the vast, bewildering night.