Chapter Text
WHITE SPACE
143:143
Sunny's eyes open wide to a patch of darkness within a familiar room. A sense of daju vu to a place he had never been in, yet felt as if always belonged in. He looks up and squints his eyes only to be met with a broken lightbulb dowsing the entire room a strange blend of bright darkness. The world around him had lost color, yet he could see the white outlines of the nearby surroundings around him.
Silhouetted dust marks around imply more furniture should've been around. A cat maybe, or a laptop. Yet all around him all, the only tangible thing he could see was a far shoddy rectangular silhouette in the distance.
the ringing in his ears seized into ear piercing beeps as he scrunched down with a hand on his right ear grasping out in pain. Noises of irritatingly high pitched compressed ringing one would hear from a cheap phone.
He grunts and forces himself up, feeling compelled to approach the source of the noise. He limps forward, stumbling and nearly tripping on almost every other step as he tried to regain his footing.
The room felt wrong. A hallway feeling as if it infinitely stretched in accordance to how far he kept trying to walk. He tried to run, a sense of dread looming over his neck, yet his body failed him. Instead a sluggish almost underwater flailing followed about, only to trip back onto his knees.
He tries again, this time more careful in his steps as the silhouette begins taking a clearer shape. Along with another silhouette, a familiar human figure with long hair meters behind.
the figures began to shape, a white outlined nightstand and a ringing telephone, alongside Mari's figure further behind. Her back was turned and her body was misaligned, limbs slightly taller than the other, her hair covering her entire face. The closer he stepped the louder the ringing was.
His head snap turns behind him, seeing another familiar figure just barely visible behind him 30 feet away at the edge of his vision. A slouched shorter figure with the head of a cat staring at him.
A sense of dread washes over him as he tried to pick up the pace, trying to reach the telephone faster. He opened his mouth to yell out for Mari's help, yet all that could escape was bubbly gurgles.
Clutching his throat, the dread shifted into rapidly increasing fear as he reached his hand out, trying to to move faster despite sluggish feeling in his legs.
Further and further he was only mere steps away when he was tackled by what was behind him. An emaciated scarred figure wearing a black shirt that barely covered the dirty bandages surrounding him. The figure was holding a red knife over his head. It's head was replaced with a cat's, a grotesque line around the neck giving the look of a fleshy weld between the cat's head and the figure's neck.
Sunny grasped on the figure's wrists with both hands, desperately trying to pull away as it stared into his eyes and pressed all it's weight on him, threatening to plant the knife straight into his heart.
He tried to scream again to no avail, his eyes frantically darting to Mari's silhouette, his eyes widening as he notices her seemingly vanishing without a trace.
His hand on the figure's wrist slips as the knife suddenly fell into him, a sickening crunch of his ribcage combined with a sudden falling sensation suddenly snapping his eyes open back to reality.
OTHERCITY STREETS
8:45 PM
Sunny winces and groans as he clutches his chest, a dull ache surrounding it and the rest of his body.
He pushes his back against the alleyway wall and forces himself upwards, limping away into the streets.
Everything was starting to hurt again. A telltale sign he needed to restock on medicine.
He pauses over a street sign and touches under his eyepatch. At this point he can't even open that eye anymore, the prospect of a bad infection or the chance of going blind there wasn't lost on him.
He needed to see Mari again.
The nightmare wasn't doing him any favors when combined with the guilt and severe fatigue. Taking a left turn he commits to the visit. Remembering how the street sign he stopped by was often one of his landmarks on the route there beforehand.
He was sure she'd understood, and an apology in person was always better than over the phone in his eyes. And besides, he needed more medication. It wasn't just about that, was it?
METRO HEALTH DRUG SUPPLIES
9:00 PM
Sunny peers over the window, his eyes squinting in confusion as a completely different person stands by the counter with a telephone pressed against her ear
"Yeah just do that and she should be safe. The boss has me by the neck so I can't really come out and hand these over, but you can stop by and get some medicine here if you need"
"...What now? Oh! Of course! yeah y-yeah don't worry. I'll tell you if he comes by too. No it's no problem. I wanna help too. Seriously. Of course, I'll catch you later. Cheers"
Placing the receiver down back into the telephone, her eyes snap over to Sunny as he stands over the opened door to the drug store.
A flat jingle plays through the intercom as the two stand frozen staring at eachother.
"...S-Sunny! How are you? You look ill"
"Care to tell me what happened?"
The woman forces a smile, her hand still griping on the phone. The nametag on her uniform read as 'LISA'
His functioning eye twitches as his face drops into a confused blend of frustration and paranoia.
The last 24 hours of stress bundled on top of stress almost reaching its melting point.
"Where's Mari?"
"I need to see Mari"
A cold sweat falls down her left temple as she pauses trying to think carefully of her next words
"M-Mari? What are you talking about? I'm-"
She blinks as he takes a step back, his right hand visibly shaking now.
Her tone shifts as she suddenly swerves the topic, nervously snapping her fingers.
"O-oh. Oh f...I- I guess she didn't tell you! I-I'm her friend! Yeah don't you remember? Mari came by and- U-uhm... She wanted me to fill up for her for the nightshift"
"If you want I can text her. You can just wait by and have a chat with her"
Sunny's brain almost short circuited at the thought. His mind unable to comprehend the mere thought of Mari slacking on her responsibilities. She was always there for everyone. A saint.
She's lying and he knew it.
"You look pretty banged up. You know... Mari said she cared a lot about you. You uh- If you want I can get you some pain relievers. On the house of course. Friend of Mari is a friend of mine!"
He blankly stared at her in response, keeping up his guard as he took another step back
"Stop talking like that. Why are you trying to lie to me?"
"What happened to Mari?"
He had half a mind to leave already. Was it not for the agonizing aches and pains and this place being the only pharmacy he knew in this local part of the city.
Though the offer was growing more and more tempting as this Lisa figure continued to lie through her teeth to him. A sense of dread started to wash over him.
Why would she lie? Does she know? Is she in on this too? Is this punishment for failing Mari again?
It wouldn't make sense. Unless...
He takes another step back. An epiphany searing it's way into his brain. One wrong set of words away to bolt it out of there.
"Who's making you do this?"
Lisa gulps and takes a deep breath, sighing out:
"...Look, man I'm just really worried for you"
"Can we just start over real quick?"
"Your friends are worried sick-"
With one sentence it all clicked together.
As Sunny immediately turned his back and bolted out the door, the phrase alone throwing him into a surge of panic and dread. The rest of the world muffled out as he ran further and further, the rest of her words and attempts to speak quickly fading away as his adrenaline pumped into giving him enough energy to run through the severe chronic pains burdening his body until a stumbled shaky stop several meters away towards the falls of a cheap fast food store.
Heaving and wheezing he could still feel his heart race. A loud swarm of thoughts screaming into his mind.
His panicked nervous laughs turn into sobs as his mind melts down over the burden of his thoughts.
Why did Mari leave him? Why was he asking that? Of course it was obvious. He failed her. She was probably so disappointed that she left him again.
He was a failure again. A worthless failure who couldn't commit when it counts.
Unless...
He earned her trust again.
That was it. That's what he needed to do.
He promised already so he was halfway there.
The next time they rung his phone... No more mistakes, no more screw ups.
It was the only way to make her happy again. And at that point her approval and theirs by extension was the only thing he still had left to live for.
His eyes snap open wide as his heart stabilizes, pupils constricted to the point of the reddened veins across the corners strangling into a crazed trembling gaze.
It was settled. He wasn't even going to headspace this time. No he had to be prime and ready.
The only thought in his mind left coherent were two things. Go back to the shut-eye motel and wait.
Wait until the next phone call.
His one and final shot to make it up to Mari again. To earn her forgiveness.
Nothing else would ever get in the way again.