So, I decided to remake this story. Why? Because the other one was far too crack-like and quite frankly, I just wasn't feeling it. So, here's a more serious version of the last story! Enjoy the first chapter!

-Chpt 1: The Sweet Embrace of Grief-

The wind blew through his hair, as he fell from the rooftop of the hospital, his hand outstretched toward the sky as he screamed, his vocal cords tearing from the sound. He hadn't used his voice in over four years, so it made sense that it would hurt. And yet still, he screamed. Screamed because this was not what he wanted.

One moment, he's lying in his hospital bed, and ready to be discharged the next day. The next moment, he saw Omori, who smiled with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth—something that he had never seen before—and after that, he was plummeting to his death, looking up to see Basil leaning over the edge of the roof, reaching out to him, as if he could reach him to try and save him.

He could see the tears in the blond boy's eyes, and considering the corners of his eyes were burning too, that could only mean he was also crying—emoting, something that Sunny hadn't been able to do for years because of his repression of that day.

He thrust his hand out, but it was no use. They both knew it. Sunny was going to die, join his sister in whatever afterlife he would go to, and break his promise to Basil that it would all be okay.

For the briefest of moments, Sunny saw his life flash before his eyes. His friends hanging out by a tree, having a picnic with Mari. He remembered when Aubrey would goad him into having tea parties, and when Kel would dare him to play basketball. He remembered the time that he and Basil went to his garden, and when he and Hero would play arcade games together.

He had promised them that he would be there for them. But now? He felt as if that he had failed them. Failed them again. He failed to tell The Truth, and he had failed them in not being there for those who needed him.

In the time it took to blink, Sunny felt a surge of pain unlike any he had felt before, felt his warm blood pool around him, and heard the sound of multiple bones breaking. His vision faded in and out, his hearing turning into nothing but static, as the vague sound of screams filled the air. But just before he lost sight of everything, he saw Omori standing next to Basil, that same demonic smile on his face that he had when he was in Sunny's hospital room.

And then, there was nothing….

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A blinding light brighter than anything he had ever had the displeasure of being greeted with burst forth, forcing Sunny to squint. The black-haired Asian-American teen groaned as he sat up, notably not feeling any pain in doing so, despite having fallen off of a twelve-storey building not but a few moments ago.

His eyes adjusted to the light, as he looked down at himself. He was wearing the same hospital gown he had woken up in, and instead of being in the hospital room, he was in a place made entirely of the colour white, with a few keen differences. For one, it wasn't at all like the made-up "White Space" that he had imagined himself to live in during the last four years. It was… different. Different in how the ground was made entirely of grass rather being just a boring, plain white, and how there was a tree smack in the center of the strange place.

The sounds of nature overtook his ears, as he looked all around him. Strange birds made of light flew in the sky, of which was also a starch white made of blinding light. Eventually, after a moment of sitting there, Sunny slowly stood up. His legs were shaky, as was to be expected. After all, if you had locked yourself in a room, laying flat on the ground, only ever getting up to use the bathroom and maybe feed yourself, you too would have very shaky legs.

As Sunny stabilized himself, he was able to make out a figure in the distance, standing at the base of the tree. They didn't wear anything, and they were overtly feminine. Sunny felt his face heat up but said nothing. All he could make out of them was their long black hair and extremely pale skin. They were tall, about a few inches taller than Sunny.

The teenage boy didn't know what to do. Did he tell the young girl about his arrival? Did she know that he was here? Who was she? Why was she naked? Questions like those invaded the boy's mind, but he didn't have the courage to ask them. He swallowed, and seeing no other option, Sunny began to walk toward the girl.

As he got closer, he could hear the sound of humming coming from the girl. Her voice was melodic, and it was natural. She was pulling something off of a branch, outstretching her slender pale arm. It was there that Sunny noticed scars of sorts. The details of the girl's body started coming into focus, more notably the scars all over her body from the neck down.

They weren't just any scars, either. They were scars derived from combat—as if this mystery girl had been fighting for a long, long time. He had also decided that the closer he got, the more he was able to begin to recognize her. With each step he took, his body shook, and the trepidation in his body grew. Finally, after becoming about two to maybe four feet away from the girl, she glanced over her shoulder, revealing a single dark eye, with a white ring around the iris.

It looked… strange. But it didn't take a rocket scientist to know who this girl was.

"M-Mari..?" Sunny choked out, his voice hoarse as the girl seemed to straighten out, before fully turning to face Sunny. The boy was about to advert his eyes when he realized that she had no real features to speak of. Aside from the rough shape of the body, there was nothing there. It was… strange. Good! But also strange.

"No." The girl said, her voice even mimicking Mari's. But those strange eyes… they were different. One could even say inhuman to a degree. "I'm not Mari. Though I guess you can say I am in the same breath."

Sunny blinked. It wasn't a riddle, more as it was a statement of fact. His muscles tensed, and his body became rigid, as the Mari-lookalike walked forward, before placing a hand on his cheek. She was cold to the touch, but her skin was also soft. He felt conflicting emotions, as he stared into the Mari-lookalike's strange eyes.

"Yes… you will do just fine. If you are anything like your sister, then I have my absolute faith in you." As the Mari-lookalike said that, her hand traced down his face, and over to his arm. She grabbed his wrist, and when she did, her fingers became sharp, like knives. Sunny was only given the chance to wince when the Mari-lookalike stabbed his wrist with her claw-like fingers, drawing a fair amount of blood.

He bit back the urge to scream in pain, as the Mari-lookalike stared blankly at him. "You are Sunny Suzuki, younger brother of the late Mari Suzuki. You died a pathetic, snivelling death by way of Suicide. At least, that is what the oblivious town of Faraway will believe. In truth, Sunny, you were killed by something known as a Devil."

As the Mari-lookalike spoke, chains began to unravel from her body, her skin falling apart to reveal a nigh-countable amount of chains, all of which were now seeping into his open wrist, which drew blood. The chains began to travel into his body, like that of a parasitic worm. It made Sunny squirm, but there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"If you wish to save your friends from a terrible fate, then you will accept my contract. I am the Grief Devil, and as we speak, I have merged with your body. I was originally going to turn you into a fiend, but after I noticed the small spark of life, I decided to make a contract with you. All I ask of you is to protect this town, like I had done before. In return, I will make you a Hybrid Devil, a process that only advanced Devils can do on their own, or with the help of humans. I will become your wrists, and all you must do to activate my power is to cut them. If you do not accept, I will simply override your body, and you will go on to live in eternity in hell. Do you understand?"

Sunny could barely comprehend what it was the Mari-lookalike was saying. But, he was able to get the gist of it. Either get a second chance at life or go to hell. Seeing no other option, Sunny nodded in agreement, which made the Mari-lookalike grin with a wide, toothy smile that looked wrong on Mari's face. It was then that the rest of her body unravelled, skin peeling like that of a banana, revealing nothing more than a monster underneath.

It was tall, its face jagged with a pointed chin and exposed teeth and gums, all of which were black with the exception of the butcher knife-like teeth. If one were to stand next to one, the person in question would be shorter than the tooth. The creature had four bright red eyes, and a pitch-black body with several rows of chains of different sizes and shapes wrapping around it. Its hand now dwarfed his arm, and it towered over him like a beast. It was a Demon in its purest form, and it terrified Sunny—and he had made a contract with it. And despite his scream of terror, The Grief Devil did not seemingly care.

In one moment, Sunny was standing in the strange white dimension. In the next, the Grief Devil consumed him.

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Sunny awoke with a jolt, as a scream reverberated wherever it was he was. The sound of shattering glass and knocked-over metal joined the scream, as Sunny looked from left to right. To his left, he saw a woman wearing a medical mask, a white apron, and underneath which being a blue shirt and black yoga pants. She looked to be middle-aged, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. To his right, he saw several embalming fluids, none of which opened. When he looked back at the woman, she held a scalpel in her hand, and she was pointing it at him, her hands shaking.

That was when he realized he was in a morgue.

His reaction to this information was what you'd expect from a boy who had died and come back to life by supernatural means. He simply turned away from the woman, hopped off the table, and dusted himself off. The woman muttered some kind of prayer, not that he was paying attention. He looked down at himself and frowned. He was naked. Wonderful.

Sunny was rather meek-looking. Physically speaking, he was a stick. Not only that, but he was rather pale. It wasn't a side-effect of dying, but rather because he was a shut-in for the last four years. He hadn't been outside, or near any kind of sunlight for a long time, only coming into contact with it when he left his house. Aside from the fact that he also looked malnourished considering he rarely even left his room to eat unless his body forced him to, Sunny was completely unremarkable.

The teenager looked over to the woman, before opening his mouth and speaking for the second time in four years. "Clothes. Do you have spare clothes?" His voice was hoarse, and his throat was also dry. He coughed, rubbing his throat. "And water… please?"

The woman just stared at him, terrified. Sunny sighed, looking around the room. There was a water bottle a few steps away. So, he walked over to the counter where the water was, picked up the water bottle, and then chugged the whole thing down in less time than it would take to finish a full sentence. With his throat sufficiently wet, he looked back at the mortician and frowned. "Do you have spare clothes I can borrow?"

"B-Be gone! D-Demon! T-T-The power of C-Christ compels you!" The mortician sputtered, thrusting her small blade out at him from the distance between them. Sunny did not so much as blink, simply sighing. Walking forward, the woman tensed up, jabbing her blade out several times as she scuttled away from him.

Sunny did nothing but continue walking, before making it to the woman. She closed her eyes, muttering prayer after prayer as Sunny walked past her, and heading into the back office. Opening the door with a simple shove, the dark-haired boy saw a basket labelled "replacement clothes", to which Sunny dug around in.

After about a minute of searching, Sunny found a shirt his size, as well as a pair of slightly stinky underwear and a pair of pants that would fit him. He would change once he got back home. Putting the clothing on, he looked himself over, his expression neutral. A black shirt, and a grey pair of pants. They were a little stained, but it wasn't as if he was going anywhere other than home.

Exiting out of the office, he saw that the woman was standing up now, arms drooped at her side as she stared at him absently. "Y-You didn't attack me…." The woman said as Sunny raised an eyebrow. He shrugged, before glancing over at a calender. When he died, it was five days before the summer break was over, and that was on August 26th.

Seeing as it was October, that meant that he had been dead for a whooping two months. Two months, and only now was he in a morgue. Either that showed that there wasn't going to be a funeral for him, or perhaps his mother finally left him behind for good. He already knew that she wasn't exactly fond of him, even when Mari was alive. Dad had disowned him when Mari died because he believed Sunny had murdered her—he wasn't exactly wrong, but it wasn't on purpose.

Whatever. The point was now that Sunny was alive, it was October, and his friends had most likely moved on. Either that, or they were still grieving for him. He didn't know why they would, but that was up to them, he guessed.

Sunny looked over to the woman, who was now just staring at him with a confused, if not still slightly scared look on her face. His stomach grumbled, and he frowned. He stared at her, and she stared at him. She blinked, then put down the scalpel, before running off in the other direction. He heard a door open, and then she came back with a small bag of chips—No-Name regular potato chips.

The woman shakily approached him, still obviously treating him like a threat. She gave him the chips, which he took from her hands, and opened the bag. When he did, he greedily ate all of them. It didn't take long for the small bag of chips to be emptied, only leaving a few crumbs in the bag. He crumpled up the bag, before throwing it in the trash just next to him.

"Thank you…" Sunny murmured, before turning to leave.

"W-Wait!" The woman exclaimed, though in an inside voice rather than a full-on shout. Sunny stopped, looking over his shoulder at the woman. "W-What are you? Y-You c-can't b-be human! H-Human's j-just don't get up a-after being dead!"

Sunny blinked, before looking at his left hand. That was a good question. Just what was he? He remembered the words of that Mari-lookalike—The Grief Devil—and frowned. He remembered what it was the creature had called him. A Hybrid Devil. What exactly was a Devil? What was so special about him being a Hybrid Devil? And why did it matter?

"Protect this town, just like I had done before."

That was what The Grief Devil had told him. Why? Something with the name "Devil" in it shouldn't want to protect a small town out in the sticks like this. Not unless it had a specific reason for doing so. At least, that was his logic. He also remembered that The Grief Devil had called Faraway "Oblivious". Oblivious to what? To Devils? Were there more of them?

So many questions, so few answers. But, at least for the woman, he had an answer.

"A Hybrid… between human and Devil."

After he said that, he calmly left the morgue, leaving behind a terrified woman. When he exited the mortician's office, he was greeted with a front desk that was mostly empty, and an equally as empty entranceway. There was a newspaper on the desk with a headline that made Sunny wince, both from shock and sadness.

"Son of town Mayor, Basil Faye, found hanging in the young boy's bedroom of the family's one-floor home. Police say it was a suicide, followed by a note with only a single word on it, the word being "sorry". Check page 30 for more details."

For a brief moment, a flash of grief filled his core. But then it was quickly replaced with a flash of anger. He had "committed suicide" too. The Grief Devil made it a point to say that "to the rest of the world he died because of suicide" or something like that but corrected that assessment that he had been murdered by a Devil.

Did that mean that Basil was killed by the same Devil that killed him? Whatever the case was, all he knew was that Basil did not kill himself. The Grief Devil said that if he wanted his friends to avoid a horrible fate, that he would be smart to make a contract with it. That meant that something was happening to his friends.

If this thing, this Devil, had claimed the life of Basil, that meant that it was specifically going after them. After all, he didn't see anything else detailing other people's suicides. That meant that this Devil was targeting his friends. He was already too late to save Basil. But then again, he was dead during that time. He was killed a month ago, seeing as that was when the newspaper was dated—September 15th. It was October 15th right now.

Sunny felt a yawn escape his lips, before looking at the time, and then out the glass doors of the entranceway to the morgue. It was late, around 1:30 a.m., and seeing as it was pitch black outside, that meant that he needed to go sleep somewhere. He could also tell that it was raining outside. Lovely.

There was a coat rack near the entrance with a dark blue zip-up jacket with a hood. It was probably the woman's. She probably wouldn't mind if he took it, would she? On second thought, she most likely would have. But, then again, there was nothing else for him to wear. He had already stolen from the "replacement clothes" bin. Considering she was scared of him, she most likely wouldn't call the police. So, using that logic, he walked up to the coat rack, slipped the coat on, flipped up the hood, and walked out of the morgue.

His eyes adjusted to the darkness fairly quickly. When they did, he began his walk back to his old home. He had no idea if someone had already purchased it or not. If that was the case, he would go to the local church and see if they didn't have a free bed for him to use. That was, of course, if they didn't instantly throw him out for being "a demon". After all, to the world, he was considered dead. If a dead kid were to just show up at the doors of a church, they would probably freak out.

For a brief second, he thought about going to one of his friend's places—either Kel's or Aubrey's—but decided against it. Again, he was "dead" to them, so if he had shown up at either of their places, they would freak the hell out.

So, he played it smart. He walked to his old place of residence. When he found that there was no car in the parking lot, and a "for sale" sign on the front lawn, along with a number to call some real-estate agent, Sunny smirked underneath the hood. It looked like he was going to squat at his old home. At least, that would've been the case had he not walked up to the front door and found it locked.

Sunny cursed himself mentally. Of course, it was locked. Why wouldn't it be? He didn't want to break a window and accidentally get the cops called on him. He wasn't going to hop the fence, either. So that left him with only one real option left. Sleep on the porch.

And that was exactly what he did. He got down on his side, laid his head against the hard wooden entry porch floor, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

-To be continued-