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The sun shone softly on the gorgeous, still day. The temperature was just right, and no air blew, even high up on the hospital’s roof. A perfect day for a picnic. Everyone was going about their day with little care in the world. Workers going on their commutes as children played about with each other.
Sunny didn’t even notice any of this.
Slowly, he moved to the roof’s edge. His body moved awkwardly and stiffly, whatever pain medications the doctors put in him while he was unconscious apparently still taking their toll. Or his injuries themselves did this to him. He could barely remember what happened the previous night, how much he and Basil hurt each other.
There was an exception, of course, with Sunny’s missing right eye. Just staring straight ahead was disorienting. Moving about was even worse, and the sensation made him so dizzy he nearly felt like puking. At the very least, he wouldn’t have to worry about it much longer.
He didn’t feel the cold hospital roof on the soles of his bare feet or the sun on his face. Sunny didn’t feel much of anything except for the overbearing guilt and despair that had been weighing him down for four years.
The boy stood at the edge, one hand on the railing as he looked down. The town streets below seemed impossibly far away, as though the hospital were ten times taller than it should be. Was his missing eye to blame, or just his fractured mind playing tricks on him?
A shudder ran through his body as he felt Something behind him. Despite knowing exactly what he’d see, he still turned to look.
The inky black figure gazed at him with its single, unblinking eye. As always, the eye held no emotion, too inhuman to even display something so simple. It merely floated behind him, entirely still as if it were stuck. The entity didn’t say anything, though it rarely ever did. It probably knew it didn’t have to coerce him or give him a nudge. It seemed content just watching what was about to unfold.
Or maybe Sunny was just overthinking things.
Either way, he turned back to look down at the streets below, his legs feeling shaky just at the sight. It was so easy, what he want to do. All he had to do was just take a single step forward. It was simple. Simple as could be. That’s all he had to do.
He kept standing there.
It was so easy, yet his body felt frozen. He swore he felt the gaze of Something behind him, but he didn’t turn to look this time. Sunny felt his skin crawl as the feeling of being watched intensified. It was like peer pressure, urging him forward. It was so easy, to just take a single step forward, so why couldn’t he do it? Killing oneself was easier than people made it out to be. This case was such an example. All he had to do was take one tiny step forward and it would all be over…but he wasn’t able to do it.
After all this, was he still so cowardly that he still couldn’t do this? For four years, the thoughts of ending everything rattled around in his mind. It was what he deserved, after all. The day he and Basil faked Mari’s fate was the day he stopped being deserving of life. He was at fault for his own sister’s death yet got off without any punishment. Him ending his own life was the right thing to do.
…No…
The right thing to do was to tell everyone what really happened, to let The Truth out there. But he couldn’t face the others. Sunny didn’t even try. He didn’t try to find Basil or anything like that once he awoke in the hospital. Instead, he went straight to the roof like a coward. He couldn’t handle it anymore, looking at the others when they had no idea what was going on. Sunny couldn’t even look his own mother in the face anymore.
He knew he was leaving the burden entirely on Basil at this point. Another reason this was the most cowardly thing he could do…but he just couldn’t handle it anymore. He didn’t even hope Basil would forgive him because he knew he didn’t deserve it. Sunny did ponder on if his friend would tell everyone The Truth. He’d never know, so he didn’t worry about it.
Sunny felt empty as he continued to stare downward. He thought, maybe, with the last few days things could get better. But even going with Kel and Hero and making amends with Aubrey, he felt no happiness. The teen either felt entirely empty and numb, or guilt-ridden and miserable. There was nothing else.
Kel had reached out to him, at nearly the last minute, but he still made an attempt. This was even after years after Sunny had all but cut him out of his life. It was like Kel to try again at the last possible moment, so Sunny wasn’t mad at him. He was surprised, even touched, that he had tried again at all. Sunny just felt bad because it was a wasted effort. Kel had managed to get to this point better than anyone, so Sunny was sure he’d be okay.
Hero had helped as well, as he always did. His nickname may have come from a sandwich, but the oldest of the group really did seem like a hero at times. He had just come back from college, but he still tossed everything aside to help out, and it didn’t shock Sunny in the slightest. He even saved Hero even saved both him and Basil from drowning. Back in town for less than a day and he saved two lives like it was nothing. That’s just how he was. He was older, basically an adult, so he would be okay. If Basil ended up telling The Truth to everyone, Sunny thought perhaps Hero would be happy to hear that Mari’s murderer was gone.
Aubrey took things the worst of those outside The Truth, and Sunny couldn’t be upset at her for that. She lashed out in the worst ways, but she only had the Hooligans to rely on after she and Basil’s falling out. Not the best support group out there. He had locked himself away from everyone, so he was to blame for that as well. Though he doubted he would have been able to make a difference. It was almost laughable to think that years ago he really thought he and Aubrey could’ve…
Basil was strong these last four years, despite what he himself may say. He never told a soul what happened, carrying The Truth along with Sunny. Unlike Sunny, though, he kept going out into the world around him and even kept up some of his hobbies. He was so much stronger than Sunny himself had been…and still, Sunny neglected him like everyone else. If there had been one person that needed help the most, it was him.
And yet Sunny had done nothing until days before moving away forever.
Sunny looked up, and his eye widened ever so slightly at what he saw. Kel, Hero, and Aubrey stood in the air before him. Their pale white skin and bright smiles seemed to almost glow. None of them said anything, they didn’t have to. The three of them simply stared at him, waiting for something to happen.
Reaching out desperately, Sunny took a step forward.
The wind rushed against his face as he fell, the streets below coming at him with a blinding speed, yet it somehow felt as though it was happening in slow motion and the boy’s mind was racing at a million miles an hour. Sunny no longer saw his friends staring at him. They were gone. He wasn’t even sure if Something was behind him or not, or if it was content to stay on the hospital roof and watch from there.
It didn’t matter.
For the first time in four years, Sunny felt like he was doing something right. One way or another Basil would have been the only one in Faraway Town to know The Truth. It was best that Sunny left everything behind in this manner. Maybe it’d even make everyone else happier that he was gone, even his own mother. She’d no longer have to watch over her broken son when the better of her two children had long died.
Sunny swore he heard someone scream from below. A poor bystander that would pay witness to his death. He paid it no mind. As the street came closer and closer, Sunny saw something appear. A figure. Not the pitch black thing that had haunted him for four years.
Mari.
She stood below him, looking as perfect as she always did, wearing a white stainless gown. Looking up at Sunny, she opened her arms up as though ready to catch her brother in a hug that he didn’t deserve. Despite all he had done to her, she still smiled at him, something else he in no way deserved.
Fighting against the wind whipping at him and the forces of gravity, Sunny raised his arms, as if ready to meet Mari. His body moved on its own. He knew he wouldn’t be going to wherever Mari ended up. This was something he had long accepted. He was content with this. The boy managed to outstretch his arms just as the ground came up to meet him.
Mari’s smiling face was the last thing Sunny ever saw.