The sun was beginning to set on the tree-shrouded town of Faraway, painting the sky a beautiful orange. Aubrey was leading the group on the short walk to Sunny's house. Her and Kel were drinking Orange Joe which she had brought the both of them at the park earlier.
"Yep, it's about as gross as I remember." Aubrey said, crumpling the can.
"Oh well" Kel responded. "Give it here."
Kel took the severely wounded can from Aubrey's hand, aimed, and perfectly threw it into one of the recycling bins next to his house.
"As expected from the basketball champ." Aubrey laughed before clenching her teeth from the pain that it caused.
The three hid around the opposite side of a tree and peeked into Sunny's garden. All the police and the crowd in front of the house, who were there yesterday, had gone. "Coast looks to be clear." Kel said.
Looking left and right one more time, the three snuck toward Sunny's front door and crouched.
"I don't think we should be doing this, guys." Hero said.
"Only now you object?" Aubrey retorted, a smug look on her face. She looked into the house. It was empty like this when they had visited before, but now the aura it created was much more depressing. The mood instantly changed as they entered the unlit living room.
"What are we going to do in here anyway?" Hero asked, concerned. "You never told us."
"We're going to snoop through Sunny's stuff."
His facial expression turned sad. "Why?"
"There has to be a connection between all that's happened over the years." Aubrey replied. "Mari, Sunny, Basil… Their deaths are all connected somehow."
"But why Sunny's house?" Kel asked, depressed from remembering what had happened to his friend.
"It came to me in a dream." Aubrey said. "Sunny is the link between all of these events. It only makes sense, doesn't it? Both victims were related to Sunny, and then after that, Sunny…"
"I understand." Hero said. "Just… Look respectfully."
"Of course I will." Aubrey affirmed with a non-sarcastic smile as they reached the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. The staircase seemed to go on for longer than normal, as if it were a manifestation of their fear of the truth, and their conscience telling them they shouldn't be doing this.
"I should be the one to enter first. After all, some of this is my responsibility, regardless of whether I caused any of the…" Aubrey said, the word 'suicide' refusing to leave her mouth.
The girl stepped forward. As she began walking up the stairs in front of them, she suddenly lost her balance and her vision began to sway, like a ship sailing the sea on a stormy night, destined to hit an iceberg and sink into the ocean.
"Ugh, is this the aftereffects of the Orange Joe?" she thought to herself, stumbling. "Just what was the date on that can?"
The three of them reached the top of the stairs, their hearts racing, and looked toward the slightly opened door to Sunny's room. They stood there for a second, melancholically, before making their way in.
No corpse. Of course. Because there was no smell. Still, they all would have liked their last moments with Sunny to not be when Basil committed suicide as well – but they thought they should at least be grateful for the events of the few days before that when Sunny left his house for the first time.
"Let's investigate." Aubrey said, putting her fears aside and looking around the room for things which could hold information.
"I don't like that we're looking through Sunny's belongings, but… Fine." Hero said, determined to uncover the mystery for his friend.
"The first place to check would probably be…" Aubrey thought. "The computer."
The girl turned on Sunny's computer. A password entry screen appeared, on a user interface made up of solid colours and outlines. She thought to herself about it. Did she really know Sunny well enough to figure out what his password would be? He never really spoke to them about what what he was interested in. She always knew what he was thinking, but…
"Hey, I know what to try!" Kel yelled, cutting her off. Aubrey watched his fingers on the keyboard as he seemingly typed her name, causing 6 dots to come up on the screen, and violently assaulted the enter key.
Logging in…
Aubrey turned away from Kel and the computer to hide her blushing.
After what seemed like forever, the desktop became a very graphically limited image of a slimy-looking anime girl with tentacles. The colour quality was standard for computers at the time.
"Ew" she remarked in disgust. "How tasteless."
Other things on the desktop to note, were a shortcut to "Jawsum's Awsum Shark Blackjack" and a highly conspicuous folder named "DO NOT OPEN NO MATTER WHAT."
"Better not be porn" she sighed, clicking it and opening Windows Explorer.
A single text file sat in that folder on Sunny's computer, called " ." "Among Us?" Aubrey thought. "Wait, why did I hear that word in my head? What's Among Us? What's going on with me?" She quickly pushed aside that thought and curiously, she opened the file.
It was an accident. I pushed her down the stairs. I was so angry. I couldn't control myself. Why did you help me, Basil? Why did you do it? That made it so much more complicated. We could have just confessed. Why did you do it, Basil?
It took a second for Aubrey to put the story together in her head, but when she did, she was in total shock, completely unable to tell the others what she can barely believe she just read.
Meanwhile, Kel is messing around with the housephone next to the computer and pressing buttons.
"You have several new messages" its voice announced in a compressed, female voice. Then, the voice changed to Aubrey's. "Um… Sunny? You really had nothing to say last night after what happened?"
The rest of the audio blanked out in the mind of the pink-haired girl who was standing there. She sniffled, and the other two looked at her. "He… He never got my message" She began to tear up standing in front of it. "Oh, Sunny… Why didn't you tell us…"
She would have been angry at him for not telling the truth, but she was only sad…
She gagged a little and covered her mouth. Despite this, she immediately vomited – not just the contents of her stomach, but also a sizeable amount of blood, creating a red and green concoction on the floor of Sunny's bedroom. "I… I feel awful, guys…" she said, losing her footing.
Kel noticed this and, as he did, she began falling backward.
He jumped to save her, but it was too late – her head smashed violently against the floor, causing a crash that the neighbours could probably hear.
"Aubrey! Aubrey!" Kel screamed in panic, his anxiety quadrupled by the truth that had just been revealed as well as the uncertainty of what had just happened. "No! No! Why?!"
Hero was still taken aback by that which he had just found out about Mari. Not having been given a mobile of his own, Kel rushed to Sunny's housephone and dialled the emergency services. He didn't know how he would explain any of this. The reason they were trespassing? How Aubrey suddenly collapsed on the floor? The events that caused the curse of Faraway Town? He just knew that they all needed to be there for each other.
"Hello? My friend just vomited blood and collapsed. We need an ambulance as soon as possible."
"So, from your story it seemed like your pink-haired friend suffered head trauma when falling, following some major shock. We honestly can't tell you that she'll wake up after this" the doctor explained on loudspeaker over the phone to Kel and Hero.
"No!" Kel grimaced and looked away. "Why couldn't I save her?"
"More importantly…" the caller continued. "I don't think it's your fault. I'm not sure when, but a stomach wound had opened up and gotten severely infected. That's probably what caused her to vomit blood."
"If that had not happened, I'm sure she would be totally fine right now, and completely understanding. It's been a hard week for all of you, from the sounds of it."
"Now, we're quite busy as usual, so I'm going to have to hang up." the doctor added.
Kel gave affirmation to the caller, they said their formalities and he ended the call.
The two remaining, Kel and Hero, sat silently on the sofa, the seemed-to-be-pity-spot of their house, both of them overwhelmed with thought about all that which had happened.
"We can't despair over this, we need to have hope" Kel said through his own crying, trying to cheer himself and Hero up. "She can get through this."
"I really hope you're right" Hero responded. "The worst despair of all comes from having hope like that."
Minutes passed as Hero gradually picked himself up.
"And what will we do after that?" Hero asked.
Kel clenched his fists, pumped up, but still crying. "We'll stop the cycle of suicides together. The three of us, and the hooligans. We'll fix this town. Tell everyone what truly happened to Mari."
Minutes became hours. Hours became a day.
…
The next morning, Kel was woken up at 10 AM by the sound of his phone ringing.
Aubrey found herself in an empty dirt field, with no grass whatsoever. The wind was gently blowing, making her feel cold.
She shivered, but not due to the temperate. She felt a ghostly presence. This dream was not like the others.
In the distance, a translucent figure appeared. As if running for her life, she sprinted toward it before it could disappear. As she got closer, she could see that it was Basil once more.
But he didn't disappear this time. He looked back, smiled, and outstretched his arms as if to embrace her.
The pink-haired girl took the offer without hesitation. Despite being taller than Basil, she felt like the weaker one, like the boy was a parental figure to her. Basil's grip tightened, as she could sense a voice comforting her. She looked around to see her friends, Sunny and Mari, waving to her – but it didn't seem like a farewell, more like a greeting.
Aubrey whimpered as Basil's embrace seemed to relax her and take away her not just her consciousness, but her very being, as all her worries for the future seemed to fade.
…
"I understand." Kel responded over the phone.
…
…
…
"That's it." Kel and Hero's mom panicked, banging down on the table. "This place is cursed and unsafe." She stomped as she left the room and their father shrugged.
"Boys! We're going on holiday!" she yelled out, pulling an overfilled suitcase into the living room. "A permanent one! Kel, help us pack!"
"Why me?" Kel yelled out. "Oh well, let's hope we don't die in a car crash."
"Don't even joke about that." Hero snapped at him, out of character but understandably feeling threatened by the possible continuation of the curse.
Kel laughed it off sheepishly.
A few days had passed. The hooligans – or, more respectfully, their actual names – stood around the town handing out flyers which explained the real circumstances of the town, which would go down in legend as a local tale and guidance on how not to handle an accidental murder.
Kel and Hero's family's red vehicle chugged along, carrying a dangerous amount of suitcases on top of the vehicle.
Kel sat bored resting his arm on the car door and looking out the window.
As the family passed by the opposite side of the graveyard, his eyes opened wide as he was sure he could see the silhouette of Mari, Aubrey and Sunny in the sky, waving him off with a smile.
They couldn't keep living in the past anymore. It was time to start anew.
THE END
