Prologue
It's been two years since that fateful day at the hospital, when a certain broken dark haired boy confessed his crime from four years prior.
While that day in particular ended in a very bittersweet way, after a few months the group of friends managed to repair the almost destroyed bonds connecting them. Nowadays they speak occasionally and visit each other when they can.
There were awkward and painful moments, of course, after a while, the reunions almost felt like nothing really changed… but she wasn't there.
Besides that, everything was looking pretty fine for everyone. The four young friends were getting ready for their last year of high school before college. Summer had just started and they would all reunite for a whole two months!
But the beginning of our story doesn't involve the friend group, not yet.
It starts at the cemetery, at night, in front of a particular tombstone where some…one was standing in front of it.
A woman, from the look of it, she looked to be in her early thirties. Long, somewhat floating purple hair on a dark skinned head, the only skin exposed to the cold air of the night. She had strange red marks under her red, almost hypnotic eyes and on her chin. On her forehead was a small diamond shaped crystal, similar to the earrings dangling from her pointy ears. Thick eyebrows of the same color of her hair were stuck on a frown as she glared at the tombstone in front of her.
She was wearing a short sleeved long blue coat with purple fur at each end of the cloth. Her arms and hands were covered in shiny black gloves.
Under the coat, she was wearing a white and black suit with a yellow tie with light blue pants with red armored knee pads and weirdly some fur of the same color of every hair on her person (purple) behind her calves and black shoes.
The woman had no name to be remembered by but it didn't matter to her.
After all… she was here for an… experimentation.
For you see… she's not normal. Not normal at all.
She raised a hand over the patch of dirt and grass in front of the gravestone, and a dark portal appeared in front of her palm. Purple lightning came out of it and struck the dirt under the portal.
It was a much more discreet way to summon lightning than summoning clouds to roar in the middle of a calm night.
She stared at the place that got struck with a grin, but after a few seconds it turned into an impatient frown as she kicked the dirt.
"Oi! Wake up now! I know you can do it." she grumbled.
Suddenly the dirt started to shake and split open as a skeleton hand emerged from the earth, then another hand, and both arms started to claw their way through the dirt to pull out a human skeleton from the grave.
"Ah there you are. Now we can get started. Hop hop!" the woman clapped her hands as she looked at the skeleton standing up straight.
Then, something incredible happened. Meat and organs started to form on the bones of the skeleton. It was regenerating.
The woman stared intently at the human being reborn in front of her.
"Hmmm… Well it's been a while, and things might get awkward if you still have the same infantile body… Let's make it older." she said before snapping her fingers and the reforming body slowly grew a few inches taller, resembling the average high of someone in their early twenties.
The woman nodded but then remembered something crucial.
"Oh right. Clothes! Your white robe seemed to have been devoured by worms and the like and you can't go around naked. Duh!" She slapped her forehead in a comedic way despite the only public being the still inactive reforming body in front of her.
She then opened up a portal the size of a disco ball on her left and put her hand through it, then pulled out a purple sweater and gray sweatpants. She passed the neatly folded clothes to her free hand then put her left hand a second time through the portal to pull out a plain white bra and panties along with plain white socks. She put those on top of the clothes and put her hand one last time in the portal to take out black sneakers.
"Those are from one of my daughters, pretty sure she won't be mad. Normally they should fit you." she smiled as she put those clothes on the ground, next to the body that was progressing its regeneration without problem, it was now visible that it was female and… hm. Was she forgetting something…?
"Of course! The soul!" she exclaimed and opened another portal.
She plunged her hand inside the portal and after some struggling, she pulled out a shadow cyclop squid thing from it and quickly threw a paper with 'IOU' written on it in the portal before closing it as she heard the angry trumpets of the holy army of angels coming for her for the interruption of what seemed to be some picnic time.
The thing in her hand was squirming around in confusion and terror.
"Hey calm down. You're going to help me with something important! You should thank me actually." the woman grinned as she turned the thing towards the body that was nearly complete.
It let out a short, distorted yelp of surprise and disgust at the sight in front of it.
"It's a new body for you!"
The thing yelped again.
"Don't worry… It will feel just like home." the woman smiled darkly.
Before the shadowy thing could protest or do anything, it was shoved inside the mouth of the still forming body, the woman pushed further down the throat, being careful not to damage the body in the process. Once she felt the thing melt and fuse with the body, she pulled back and shook the fluid off her hand.
"Alright! Your brain should be active enough to react to your surroundings. Nod if you can hear and understand me."
The body, now only missing skin that was slowly covering the whole body, nodded.
The woman smiled smugly.
"Perfect! So! You will definitely not remember much of any of that. The resurrection and all. But it's oka- uh."
The woman squinted her eyes as she analyzed two strange details on the resurrected person's face.
" Your right eye… is damaged. And there's a scar on your forehead. Probably happened on that day… hmmm… I could… meh. Whatever." the woman shrugged.
The woman looked around to be sure she didn't forget anything, and she did. She asked the body to help her cover up the opened grave.
"As hilarious as it would be to see the priest's reaction to an open grave, it would just be more troublesome for you and the whole experiment."
They eventually finished covering the grave, it looked like some animal came and turned the ground around a bit, looking for food before giving up.
The preparations were almost done. The woman started turning some ground around in front of some other graves to be less suspicious as she asked the body to get dressed.
Now, everything was ready. The body was complete, she looked like a normal young adult woman, with long black hair with dark eyes. Well, her left one was dark, the other was white from that day. Plus the scar on her forehead was covered by her hairstyle. So everything was fine!
"Alright. As I said before, you won't remember what happened, at least not completely. In a few minutes, your consciousness will awaken. Hopefully you won't be too confused." the woman smiled at the reborned human in front of her.
She then opened a large dark portal and stepped in, one step in and her appearance changed completely.
The strange creature was full of purple hair and had blue skin. Its arms made of pure black matter were crossed over its chest, a wide grin full of razor sharp teeth adorned its face. It looked over its shoulder with its red swirling eyes at its experiment sitting on the ground, now it looked asleep and would wake up in a few minutes.
"I'll see you in a month, or maybe two. Depends if I remember." the creature laughed, "Enjoy your relife!… wait, that didn't sound right."
The portal closed behind 'The Demon', and they both disappeared without a trace.
The young woman opened her eyes in panic. She looked around as she brought a hand to her chest to stop her hyperventilation, not yet noticing that something was missing there, but right now she was way too confused about what was happening.
She looked at her hands, she had hands. Hands? Not weird black tendrils?! How was that possible?! She focused on her memories, on what was the last thing she could remember.
But nothing much, it was bright, maybe a hospital but she also remembered a strange woman talking to her. She remembered a body awfully similar to hers, a memory of a young boy in a hospital gown, another of the same boy, but younger, trying to run down the stairs to escape a confrontation.
Wait.
Where was she even?
She looked around, a cemetery. And in front of her… a tombstone… and on it… her own name:
MARI SUZUKI
THE SUN SHINED BRIGHTER WHEN SHE WAS HERE
Mari blinked. She was… back?
Chapter 1: An Undead Life
"Okay… okay… let's… calm down…" Mari said to herself before taking deep breaths.
It was no time to panic… Well, actually it really was a good time for that, but it won't do any good. It was still the middle of the night, she couldn't tell what time exactly, but hopefully not too long before the priest opened the door to the cemetery.
So she used that time to recollect what she knew about the situation. What she remembered.
She died. At least four years ago.
She could remember rather vividly that god awful night… how she pushed her little brother to such a level of stress and anger that he…
And then she… remembers seeing Basil who… hung her body… to protect Sunny.
Then she… well, haunted Sunny to be sure he could be fine and forgive himself for four years while he shut himself in their house… she knew what happened to the friend group but didn't keep her eyes on them.
She was just so worried about Sunny… and his dreams… yes, she could enter that 'Headspace' dream… and saw everything there and sometimes the people in it would see her too.
She remembered her dead-beat father leaving, her mother doing her best but without great success… she remembered that they planned to move away from Faraway.
Then there were those three days, but just bits… the fight with Basil, with… Omori… and the hospital… She remembered Sunny confessing to their friends and then talking with Basil.
And then nothing. Then, an image of a strange woman talking to her and the next thing she knew she was there, sitting in front of her grave, alive.
How long has it been since then? Was… Sunny okay? Did the others forgive him? Was he still in Faraway? If not, where did he and Mom live now? How could she contact them? And how is she alive?!
Uh-oh, she was starting to panic.
"Breathe in… Breathe out…" she instructed herself as she put her hand on her chest again.
But this time, she felt it. Or rather, noticed something that she should have felt but didn't.
Her heartbeat was missing. That wasn't normal. Along with the fact that she was dead and she's now alive! Also paler, she noticed while looking at her hand. And… was it her or did her vision become… flatter?
Oh. Her right eye is blind.
Just perfect.
She realized that… she was a zombie, she gets it now.
Or at least an undead or something.
But… Was she a good one? She honestly didn't feel that different from when she was alive.
But she was hungry… What would happen if she sees someone? Would she want to eat their brains?! Would she start the apocalypse?!
She suddenly heard the door leading to the church getting unlocked.
The next hour was very awkward: between relief that the idea of eating a human made her want to vomit instead of drool and dread from the interrogation from the preacher about who she was and how she ended up in the graveyard Mari was feeling a bit stressed.
She presented herself as 'Kiko' to the priest over some bread and water, a pretty light breakfast.
She bullshited her way out of this mess by saying she was a relative of Sunny who came to visit Mari's grave. And she got to the cemetery by the woods, because she's weird like that.
Thankfully, the priest said that this wasn't the weirdest thing he ever experienced (well, that's worrisome) so he left it at that.
Soon after finishing eating, Mari left the church and started running towards where she used to live. She wanted to see how everyone else was doing and ask how long it had been since that day at the hospital.
Dangit!
She could have asked that to the priest!
Ugh! Whatever!
She also wanted to see Sunny. Hopefully something came up and the moving was canceled? The chances were slim… but still there, right? She wanted to see her little brother no matter what and apologize for the four years of silent pain he went through because of her death.
She hoped that he was alright, that everything went well after the confession.
She ran faster, past Aubrey's house. She'll have to check on her after.
She turned the corner and then…
Basil was walking back home to prepare for his morning shift at Fix-It later.
He'd had a sleepover at Kel's with Aubrey the night prior. It went pretty well as they were mostly playing video games and hyping about what they'll do when Hero would come the next day and Sunny a few days after. The trio (and the Hooligans, Aubrey wanted for both groups of friends to hang out together) were so excited that they barely slept, also because Sally also wanted to play with the grown ups despite Kel's oppositions which led to a silly argument.
He was also very excited to see his friends again! The group will be together again! They'll have so much fun at the beach, and he remembered Kel mentioning something about an amusement park! It's been so long since he had been to one.
Basil chuckled to himself, but it quickly stopped as he spotted a woman with long black hair running his way.
She looked… extremely familiar. But her clothes were not the ones he last remembered seeing her wearing… But she did look like how he imagined her to look like in her early twenties…
No Basil. Keep it together.
He sighed, how long was it since his last hallucination of Mari? A year, he guessed. He thought he was done.
Just ignore it an-
"Basil?"
He froze. His whole brain just paused as his mind made a disk scratch sound. He looked back at what he assumed was a hallucination. She approached him and even touched him by placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Is that you?" the woman that was very real said.
They were at eye level now… he grew quite a bit in the past two years, he looked healthier and more fit thanks to his work at Fix-It. His hair has grown long enough for a small ponytail at the neck.
"I can't believe how handsome you've become!" Mari beamed at him, as if what was happening now was normal.
But Mari looked older, and there was a scar on her forehead he could distinguish under her hair, and one eye was out of order.
The right one.
The one who glared at him and his best friends when he… when he…
The eye that traumatized two 12 years old who made a very, very bad mistake.
He started to panic, he was about to scream but his voice died in his throat. So instead he ran past her and headed straight to his house without looking back.
He can scream in his room, against his pillow.
Mari blinked, a bit confused.
It's been so long since she saw Basil, why would he run away?
She facepalmed herself, of course he would run away! She was supposed to be dead, and here she was being all friendly with him without explanation.
But he looked so healthy! He has grown into a fine young man! She was so proud!
Seeing him like this made her excited to see the others.
At least now she knew that some time had passed since the hospital day. She resumed her run towards her old house.
She ran as fast as she could.
Mari didn't notice the pink haired girl who turned around with wide confused eyes staring at her, then the girl shook her head and slapped her cheeks twice before turning around and kept walking to her destination.
She ran past Hero and Kel's house. She could see them later.
She finally reached her old house and what she saw… was not what she expected.
She slowly crossed the streets, eyes fixed at the seemingly abandoned house… She didn't understand… If Sunny and her mom moved out, shouldn't someone else be living there? She remembered the house was sold, so why did it look so… lonely?
She approached the window and looked inside.
Oh, maybe not so abandoned. She could see some furniture inside. But also a lot of spider webs and dust.
She walked around the house and over the broken down fence that they used to have.
She reached the backyard, she gasped when her eyes landed on the stomp where she… she shook her head, there were shoots finally starting to grow back from the stump. She had a vague memory of her father cutting the tree and how he said seemingly awful things to Sunny who approached him… She started to get angry when thinking of him…
She looked away and walked towards the tree house, further down the yard.
She expected their old place of heaven and relaxation to be in a decrepit state like the house, but instead she saw a renovated treehouse. She climbed up the steel ladder that was fixed to the tree now and saw how everything was almost the same but cleaner.
Mari smiled at the thought that everyone came back here from time to time.
She slowly climbed down and walked back to the front of the house. She now knew that her family left Faraway to… she didn't know which city… Another question to add to the mental list. And now… she didn't quite know what to do.
She looked to her left, to Kel's and Hero's house…
No, there was one thing to do. Looks like it was time… She'll have to properly talk to one of her old friends, the encounter with Basil was an accident. She wanted to talk to him, obviously, but she knew that if she went alone, things would be more than awkward.
But one thing at a time. Now she needed to talk to the brothers, or at least one of them…
But seriously though?! What was she supposed to say?
'Hey guys! I know I died four or so years ago, but I'm back! As a zombie even! But never fear! I am not interested in eating your brains! Any questions?'
Argh! That was stupid. How was sh- uh?
Before she even knew it, she was standing in front of the door.
They were neighbors after all.
Hector, the family's dog, was sleeping in his kennel, he looked rather old.
No, stop being distracted. This was supposed to happen sooner or later. Plus, later would mean sleeping outside like a homeless person and she didn't want that. So sooner it is.
She took a deep breath to calm down, the same way she taught her little brother and their friends when they were young.
Breathe in…
Breathe out…
Time to do it.
She raised her hand and knocked on the door three times.
She was expecting to at least wait a dozen of seconds before the door opened, instead it opened almost immediately.
"Did you forget something Aubrey?" Kel asked as he opened the door.
But instead of the pink haired friend he knew, he was looking down at a dark haired older girl he hasn't seen in years.
Mari looked up at her past love's younger brother, he was so tall! Even taller than Hero she guessed, she'll need to compare and tease Hero about it.
"H-Hey Kel… It's been a while, huh?" she smiled nervously with a wave of her hand.
Baka's notes: That all for now folks, see you soon with more updates. But understand they won't be very frequent as I'm working on 5 other fics at the same time! But do not fear, chapter 2 of this story is on its way!