Day 0…
A boy to be lost once again.That's how he felt whenever he left one of these sleepovers and it never let him enjoy it. More than just anxiety; a deep and wallowing sadness sloshed in the pit of his stomach…
And more's the pity, no one was there to truly enjoy it. Basil's distance truly felt as though he couldn't cross the gap; he felt as though he was the perpetrator should he try to cross the gap. Kel and Hero were obviously undergoing their own series of emotions that would surely throw their mood off course, and thereby his own… he hated that he was so influenced by the moods of others.
Aubrey was always there for him… maybe she wasn't so caught up in it all; spending time with her didn't sound bad at all.
"Ready to go Sunny?" Aubrey had his suitcase and bag in hand.
"Yeah," He nodded, though her lips were pursed. He couldn't read her… was she angry? No wait, she might be sad or… something else? Whatever it was, he could probably ask her later.
The group stood outside along with Hero's parents and Sally.
"We'll see you later, Sunny! We're sorry Hero couldn't be here, but he's still recovering." Hero's mom smiled at him sweetly.
"It's ok."
"Sunny, this is for you," Basil handed him a bracelet, dried flowers adorning it. "It may not last long so just… take care of it alright?"
"I will."
Kel stepped up to him and put his hands on his shoulders, "We'll see you soon, man." A hug, genuine though, the heavy breathing of his best friend was a tell Sunny learnt to know well; he was worried. Immensely so.
Sunny nodded and returned the hug, "Take care of Hero for me."
Kel pulled away, a steely look in his eye but not of malice, or anger… no it was more passionate than that. Resolve perhaps? "Will do."
With that, his luggage was loaded into the bright pink car, and he got into the passenger side. Despite her spiky disposition, Aubrey's car was a polar opposite of her poised exterior with merchandise hanging from the rear view mirror and plushies lining the hood and rear window of the car.
"Alright," Aubrey packed herself in and shut the door, "Our eta is three hours, we'll stop at the gas station halfway through… Sure you've got everything?"
"Mhm."
She honked the horn as she pulled out of the driveway. He watched as his friends waved them goodbye, though from the window at the second story he could see Hero, watching the two leave and beside him, a white flower.
Sunny watched as the houses passed by - sunlight glaring down on the rooftops and the feeling of nostalgic longing creeping its way into his mind. He remembered the times he would play with Basil on the sidewalks, looking for creepy crawlies much to his dismay. He remembered being carried back home by Mari when he was too tired to walk or when he, Mari and Aubrey would stroll around town and wanted to get out of the house, he didn't know it at that point but it was because of her home life. A home so inhospitable she had to find a new family. The township was abruptly cut off by forested greenery.
"You know that I know, right?"
"Know what?" More trees, followed by the odd break lending itself to the blue sky above and the sweeping hills in the horizon.
"I know what you're thinking." She pulled over to the side of the road, the town now out of view of the rear mirror.
Sunny looked at her and tilted his head, confused, though he took notice of her quivering lip and the tears and realised confusion may not have been the correct emotion.
"I saw her, Sunny. I saw her when I passed out," Her voice shook and her eyes were darting around, looking just past him, "She was there, it was a memory right out of her own mind… She was at the beach, wearing a yellow swimsuit and she was five, Sunny, she was so young and-"
Sunny grabbed her arm, "Aubrey. Calm down, just breathe." He didn't know what to make of it, any of it. Between Hero's babbling about 'her' and this… He couldn't afford to go back to fantasizing about his sister. She'd said her goodbye to him. "She's gone, Aubrey. She's gone."
He couldn't help but remember the treehouse… seeing her so vividly frightened him and the coincidence was simply too frightening to even entertain, much less dwell on. He didn't want to know more about Aubrey's experience. He couldn't afford to swim down to her emotional depths; in what world could he?
"But it was so real?" She was fully sobbing now, collapsing on his shoulder, "She was right there, I felt her lean into me. I felt her, Sun."
Sunny was, to say the least, alarmed. As if something had pumped into his heart and started it beating once more. That it had crawled into his skin and was now shuffling under it… rising into his face and stretching apart his brain. He made a conscious effort to block it. To wall it off, to brush it under a rug. Whatever it was he wanted no part in it. No part in entertaining it.
"She's gone, Aubrey."
Aubrey looked up at him, "But- She-?"
"Aubrey she is gone." He pulled away from her, "I've accepted it… why is it so hard for all of you to?"
She gave him a look he'd seen once before. Sadness in her eyes, but anger in every movement of her mouth, "Easy for you to say."
He felt a stabbing sensation under his eye, phantom pains derived from heightened or passionate emotion is what his doctor had said though, he could feel the pain trickle down, coating his throat and violently twisting his heart.
"What?"
"You heard me, Sunny," She slammed the wheel and rested her head on it, before she pulled back onto the road and kept on driving… something told him the rest of the trip would be deathly silent.
Perhaps that was for the best.
HERO
A text from Aubrey was unexpected. A text from Aubrey about Mari was a cruel blow of fate.
"hero, we need to talk about Mari." What was there to talk about? Both of them had come to terms hadn't they…?
Well, if yesterday was anything to go off of, he obviously had not. He still felt that sundering feeling in his soul, part of him wishing to see her again but another part of him still wanting to end it without ever hearing from her. To never go back to the grave… to avoid the chilling cold.
"Sunny's dropped off?"
"yup."
Something had happened, she was never that dry on text but he decided to leave it, "What did you want to talk about?"
"a dream i had while i was knocked out." He'd heard that Kel had shoved her a little too hard and she had hit her head against the lakebed, "i saw her."
He nearly vomited the way the world spun as he read that, "What?"
"dude, i saw her on a pier when she was like, five."
She was typing but he was faster, "What was she wearing?"
A long pause, "she was wearing a yellow swimsuit"
He wracked his brain and remembered the year her mother had made her try wearing yellow. Much to her dismay and much to her mother's frustration, neither of them seemed to particularly like it at the time.
"Summer, we were seven. My family was there too. Her Dad was standing on the pier with her. Were you sitting on the pier?"
"no, she was though."
She'd seen her memories. Mari's memories. He had no idea how but it couldn't have been anything else. Perhaps it was his wishful thinking; it most likely was. Perhaps it was more than that. Maybe it was more.
"I think you saw her memories, Aubrey.
Aubrey had started typing again, "that's impossible. i was standing with her so it can't be the same, right? she leant into me too."
He closed his eyes, remembering the way father and daughter sat on the pier together, an ice cream each and staring into the setting sun, leaning into each other. It couldn't have been but… he had to try to find out more.
"We'll talk soon. Drive safe."
A thumbs up and he basically slammed his phone onto the bed. He shovelled the blankets over him and rolled onto his side. That creeping cold was driven back by a strange warmth that he just couldn't quite put his hand on. Untouchable in nature but it warmed him, made him feel that perhaps all was going to be alright and that as exhausted as he was… perhaps there was a chance for him too.
His eyelids were growing heavier and ever heavier. The weight of the cold resting on the lashes and pulling them lower and lower. Even warmth couldn't keep it away… though, it provided a comfortable resting hearth. A fire within his belly that softened the blasting chill. It pulled his consciousness into its thrall and the world went dark.
He woke up in a forest, cold and dark and crawling with spiders. Yuck. The path he stood on was lit by strange luminescent plants that radiated a glowing blue fog. The sky above was a subtle hue of purple, interlaced with the dark blue in the horizon. It was simply fantastical.
He looked at his hands and, though his skin was a glowing stark white, a fuzzy bluish border around the corners of his form mesmerised him.
Not just that but he felt able. Stronger, faster, and impossibly so at that. As though nothing could hold him back nor could anything stop him. Not for long anyway.
He ran through the forest. Fears be damned. One step and he was leaping toward the canopy, another and he touched the leaves. Another still and he found himself far above, soaring through the treetops. He landed, out of breath but amazed at the newfound skill of his abilities; everything he wanted in life and so much more.
Looking around the trees were greener and the sky a little brighter. His fears dissipated and somehow he knew the safety he'd found within this new forest. He began to walk, boggling at onion creatures and fending them off when he had to (he preferred to run, but some were just oh so persistent). If anything it seemed a lot like the world Sunny had described to him…a place absent of worry, of the trauma he'd had to endure in his waking life but that didn't seem possible… It couldn't be could it?
Still, he pinched himself; it was simply too lucid to be a dream.
A clearing had made itself apparent in the trees, not more than 50 meters from him and walking up to it revealed… a playground. Around him were children, suspiciously akin to those within the town of Faraway and… hadn't Sunny said something about this too? The place he'd emerge to begin whatever adventure he'd have needed to begin for the night and yet… it simply couldn't be?
Hero looked around, the children inhabiting the space paying him no mind whatsoever.
The moment he saw it he ran over, perplexed and increasingly feeling a sharp sensation in the back of his head. Didn't Sunny say there was a picnic blanket too? Perhaps this was just a figment of his imagination, another of those dreams he'd had like the day earlier? His friends weren't here either like Sunny had described; this couldn't have been any more than a hallucination… right?
BASIL
"Looking good, Kel!" Basil looked over the full page of health notes that he'd given to him, "But uh, you forgot to move the shopping cart away…"
"Oh shoot, that's my bad, dude!" He jumped from the top of the ladder down to a shopping cart filled with an assortment of fertilizer, "How's that?"
An assortment of flowers stacked high upon shelves littered the store as vines ran rampant across beams and up support poles. Every flower Basil knew well of had been freshly ordered and the boss had finally allowed him to give reworking the whole department a shot.
"Not bad at all, gang!" The Fix-It guy walked in and, though he didn't exactly look all that impressed, the tone of his voice said otherwise, "You know someday you guys can take over this shop for me if you wanted to."
"You'd like that, huh?" Kel muttered beneath his breath, though smiling as he did, obviously welcoming the praise.
"I- I figured the shop needed a bit of spicing up so I thought we'd do some work, at least in this section," Basil smiled softly, "I'm glad you like it."
"I absolutely do!" The Fix-It guy sniffed, "Hey you two wouldn't mind closing up for me, huh? I got something on tonight and wanna head home early, you know?"
"Yeah, yeah, go on, get out of here," Kel practically ushered him out, "Do your thing or whatever."
The two looked at each other.
"Finally, dude he's gone," Kel whipped his phone out and texted Aubrey while Basil waved off their dearly departed boss from the window.
"We've got to talk about Hero, Kel…" Basil didn't look back at his friend, "Something's wrong…"
He heard his friend sigh behind him, "I know… Believe me, man. I know."
He studied his friend's toned features; his jaw was clenched and brown eyes laced with uncertainty… or was it fear? They bordered on each other so perhaps specifics weren't so necessary. His lips were pursed as he looked at his phone. Three sharp tones drove a sharp wedge in the silence.
"Oh shoot, Mom's calling me. Give me two seconds." He stepped out behind the flower section and out of view.
He'd been more flustered since his brother's outing… like he'd lost a sense of control or something of the sort. Basil found it uneasy; the happiest, 'go-luckiest' member of their group was faltering. Who was next? Was this the tip of the iceberg? How far did the wound go? A wound he caused… Was resolution needed? More atonement? More-
"It's Aubrey." Kel raced around the corner and grabbed his bag from behind the counter, "We're closing."
"Wait, what!?" Basil could feel it. Suffocating tendrils like vines wrapping around his legs, sucking him below the earth, sucking him back into the wound, "What did your Mom say?"
"It's an accident on the highway here. We gotta go to the hospital with them now. Get the sign for me." Kel grabbed Basil's bag too, but the boy felt stuck in place, he closed his eyes.
'You are strong, Basil. You're strong.'
He followed Kel out of the store and flipped the open sign to close.
"Kel," He breathed. The darkness could be fought against, he just had to hone himself. These emotions; they didn't matter. They could be dealt with later and they would only sweep him away. He couldn't get lost in the garden of thought. He couldn't be caught in the wound. "She'll be fine."
"I know, I know." He couldn't see his friend, but he knew one thing; Aubrey was strong. She was the most likely out of all of them to make it out alive and nothing could stop what she put her mind to. She had to live, right?
The car ride to the hospital wasn't just stressful. It wasn't just suspenseful or tense. It was a war within Basil's mind for control over his emotions. Half of him felt the world spinning and told him to spin with it. Spin down into the depths of that gouging dark. The same dark he'd been in the night he'd sent Sunny to hospital. It was self destructive and yet so enticing. He wanted nothing more than to descend and yet he knew that his head needed to stay above the water. To close off the wound. He didn't want to drown. He didn't want to die. He'd promised Sunny they'd never leave each other and he intended to keep that promise.
And that was the other side.
He clutched the flowers he'd brought. A lily of the valley. Just in case.
The other side of this war in his mind that had found its resolve; resolve not to be engulfed by that river of thought; the river of thought that plunged him into passion unrefined by himself; a river that gave life to the guilt and hurt that had plagued him for his waking life; that river was one he vowed never to be engulfed in again. That side was a whispering voice, growing stronger as he focused, as he breathed in and out. Slowly but surely getting around the fear.
At the hospital and now Basil felt strong. Strong enough to take on whatever the world could throw at them next. Kel's parents, Hero and Kel himself were all with him and he knew he could rely on them. He knew he'd be safe.
Up the elevator and his breathing had reduced itself to steadiness.
Down the corridor and his heart was no longer beating at his chest violently.
At the doorway now, and… he fell to pieces. He didn't have to even go through the doorway to see her and it was as though that sinking dark had taken the floor from under him and swallowed him alive. The sight of her blood made his skin crawl and the stench of burnt flesh was enough to make him throw up into the bin, Hero rubbed his back but did not dare mutter a word of encouragement. Kel simply sat down.
Thousands of things rushed through his mind at once. To run. To hide. To sob. All at once if he could and yet in all of those things he couldn't find merit… he couldn't find it in himself to let his friend down like that. Not again. He wouldn't let emotion win. He couldn't. He'd hold this group together if it meant throwing up. If it meant crying and shouting and screaming. He'd do it.
He just needed to start.
He opened his mouth but the words wouldn't come out. They died at the back of his throat and wrenched themselves back up with vomit and bile.
Starting would be the hardest part.
AUBREY
"Hey, Basil!" Aubrey sat at the bench with her best friend, setting her bag atop of it.
"Hi, Aubrey!" Basil smiled at her, munching down on his sandwich, "Have you got food today?"
"Nah, Mom didn't pack anything," Aubrey rubbed her nose with her sleeve, "It's ok though, I'm not that hungry."
"Oh," Basil looked down, eyeing his sandwich, "You can have half, I'm not that hungry anyways."
She didn't say no.
She looked around the courtyard of her school as the two sat together, noticing how absolutely empty it was, before remembering what she wanted to tell him. He was wearing his usual green button up shirt and brownish shorts. A singular flower in his hair.
"Oh wait! I need to introduce you to someone. Or well, a lot of someones," she gave him a smile that he returned with an uneasy glance.
"How… How long have you known them?"
"Long enough," she shrugged, "They're super friendly though! There's Henry and Kel, who are siblings, and Mari and Sunny who are also siblings. I think you'd like Sunny a lot cause he's really quiet and a good listener, but Mari is also super sweet and really, really smart-"
"I think I'm good… I have you, Aubrey." He'd developed a sudden interest in his shoes.
"Basil, I think it'd be good if you met them first!" She pouted, "I think you should."
She'd always known that he was never one for new experiences and yet she couldn't help but feel as though this was fated… like it was meant to happen.
"Basil, just give them a chance, you'll be surprised! They're super nice, just… please?"
Basil crossed his arms, finding every excuse not to look at her, "If you insist, Aubrey."
The scene shifted in an instant in a smear of colors that bent the world around her and she now sat on the sidewalk, Sunny, Basil and Kel all with her.
"That's it!?" Kel rolled back and laid on the pavement, sighing to himself, "Man what a cliffhanger."
She looked between her friends… the last memory was months ago and yet it had felt instantaneous.
Why that memory in particular?
"Next week, I guess," Sunny muttered to himself, putting it in Kel's backpack.
"I'm sure next week will be even better!" Aubrey chimed in.
"But Captain Spaceboy is so about to die!" Kel pouted, "I can't believe they'd do this."
"Maybe you should just be patient." Aubrey rolled her eyes.
"Maybe you should just be quiet, Aubrey." He poked his tongue out at her.
The sidewalk melted away and the trees and grass into it, melding itself into an entirely white space, unbarred by walls, or a floor or a ceiling.
Kel, Sunny, Basil and her were heaped in the pillow fort they'd built for themselves between Sunny and Mari's beds, all of them half asleep, just waiting for tiredness to overtake them. Aubrey felt Sunny shift his weight toward her, letting his head fall closer toward her body. Snuggling toward her.
She looked out of a crack between the two blankets to see Hero and Mari leaning against each other pointing out of the window and speaking in tones too hushed to hear. Under the moonlight they were beautiful together. Their soft smiles passed to each other as the other responded in tandem with the light brushing of finger tips, followed by silent giggles and lended weight.
She closed her eyes and felt the soft pull of sleep usher her into a dream, but before it took hold she found herself, awakened by Sunny who had moved and was now crawling out of the fort.
"Sorry."
"No, it's ok." She smiled at him.
"Mm. Outside."
"Want me to come along?"
He nodded.
She followed his lead, as he made a way down the stairs, to the kitchen and finally, out the back door.
"Stars."
And he was right, thousands of them littered the sky, dancing across a horizon lit with infinitely more than she had been given. Possibilities just waiting to be unearthed. A world waiting to be discovered.
He sat cross legged on the concrete, and she followed his lead. He leaned his head on his shoulder.
"Are you feeling ok?"
"Tired."
He always did seem that way… Tired of life, tired of being lonely, tired of being guilty. Tired seemed to chase him and it would chase him right back to her. She wouldn't have it any other way. If it meant she could hold him; hold him after the world came crashing down, she would.
They sat there a moment longer. Staring up at the stars.
The stars melted and stained the world white until the floor was relieved from under her, the walls of trees disappeared and their celestial ceiling fell away.
"Are you feeling ok?"
She didn't have time to answer before she was sitting back in her kitchen. Her mother was unresponsive on the sofa as Aubrey herself tried to make breakfast. Eight years old. This was her life, would be her life forever and, maybe that was ok. Maybe it was just something she had to accept.
The room melted again, overtaking itself in a disparity of glowing colors, brighter and brighter until it was white as snow. No ceiling. No floor. No roof.
"Are you ready?"
She turned around and found a familiar young girl, sitting on the floor staring at her in that same outfit she was wearing the first time Aubrey had seen her.
"I think so," She was herself again, no longer a younger version but her fully fledged self. Pink hair and all, everything she wanted to be and more.
"I know," She blinked and an older Mari stood in front of her, "You always are." The older girl giggled as tears filled her eyes, "I'll see you soon, Aubrey."
And with that, her car flipped.
KEL
The others had gone downstairs to get what little food they could possibly stomach while Kel stayed with Aubrey, looking after her.He checked the clock; eight o'clock pm. He sighed, long and hard. The window of the hospital had a nice view of the city below it, trailing lights and skyscrapers creating a place for the sun to rest as its last rays hit the earth before… it sank below the horizon.
He sighed, "What are we gonna do with you all…" She slept peacefully, the rise and fall of her chest and the light breeze brushing from her nose told him that she was still alive, but aside from that her face was porcelain white, bar the many scratches and bloody gashes that now littered it. The bruises that marred it. She seemed helpless and if she was involved and was helpless… How much more helpless was he?
It wasn't as though he didn't feel like he couldn't do anything but… Aubrey was always so strong. Ever since the group had made peace with the past and found out the truth she seemed unstoppable. She seemed like she'd found something new to hold onto in her life and yet… This is where she ends up.
How much longer could he keep being unstoppable, he wondered?
It wasn't that Mari's death didn't affect him… On the contrary, it did. He had to be there for his friends when none of them wanted to be there for him. When none of them could be. He had to keep going, keep moving, keep talking, keep reaching out… and then one day it just stopped. He made new friends. Started playing sports.
He pushed himself to move on. He pushed himself to look forward, never behind… And it hurt that no one recognized it. That no onerecognizesit.
He looked at his friend. She'd moved on too. Found new friends… and he wanted that for himself at the time too. He knew somewhere deep down that they'd find their own ways. They had to.
But now it was different. The friends he knew, the friends he'd grown up with… all of them were hurting and he couldn't do anything to help any of them. He didn't know what to do in the first place.
He'd have to try harder. He'd have to put on that brave face and be that person for them.
He thought about what Hero said to him when he'd first woken up after the outing to the graveyard.
"Kel… I don't think I can keep going."
What was he meant to say to that? Could he do anything about it?
"It's gonna be alright, Hero… We just have to try."
"What if it's not?"
That plagued him. The thought that it couldn't be alright. That everything would turn out for the worst. No. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't even imagine it let alone tolerate the idea. He knew they would make it out. They had to.
"Hey, I got you something," Hero entered the room and handed him some orange juice, "Figured you might want the energy."
He fumbled to open the lid and downed the drink in one go, "Thank you."
Hero sat on the seat across from Aubrey's bed, and held the flowers Basil had brought in his hands, "I'm staying here for the night… I think Basil might stay the night over. Take care of him will you?"
Kel nodded. Basil… he could help Basil.
"How are you feeling?" He asked his older brother as he sat on the chair next to the bed.
"I-" He stopped himself, emotion bleeding through his eyes and cracking his voice, "I don't know. Everything is happening all at once and… it's been a long few days." He rubbed his hand across his neck, "Sunny was told by his mom after we contacted her so… I think he knows too."
"It's gonna be alright, we'll all be ok." Kel looked at his brother for any kind of reaction, but Hero was stone faced. "There's gonna be-"
"Kel, I don't-" He stopped himself, and started again, his voice no higher than a whisper, "I don't need your optimism right now. Just go downstairs… please."
Kel swallowed, a sinking feeling in his gut and heat rising to his face, "Sure… sure." He exited the room, that feeling beginning to present itself as weight, dragging his shoulders down and making him feel heavy.
Basil was going to sleep on the mattress between Hero and Kel's bed, but for now Kel laid there, staring out of the window. He'd already gotten ready for bed and Basil was just getting done with his shower now.
"All done," Basil walked in, phone in hand, "Hero spoke to the doctors, they've said she's looking as good as she can be on the day of the accident."
Kel nodded, "That's good."
Basil laid down and snuggled under the blankets, "Yeah, I'm so glad she survived…"
"Me too," Kel grumbled, "I was gonna kill her if she died."
That got a laugh from Basil, "Sunny would probably go for it first, right?"
"I suppose so." Kel grinned.
The two laid there in silence. Kel wondered if he should let the conversation die before he noticed the same flowers he'd seen from the hospital… Now that he thought about it he saw Basil carrying them around a lot….
"Hey Basil, what does that flower mean? The white ones?"
"They're called white egret orchids," Basil said, "They symbolise a few things but… in times like these I like their meaning of hope."
"I think you explained this to me one time but…" He smiled cheekily, "I think I forgot."
"More than a few times Kel," He laughed, "But that's alright, I'll tell you as many times as you want."
"It also means…" He wracked his brain and thought back to Mari's funeral, "My thoughts will follow you into your dreams, right?"
"Something like that," Basil nodded. "I just… death is so hard and… it makes it easier thinking of them as asleep. As floating in an endless dream… you know?"
Kel thought to himself for a moment… floating in an endless dream. Like Sunny had been doing for all that time? He could've been dead for all they'd known but, he'd broken out of it, come back to life and everything had worked out in the end… Mari on the other hand… The image of her on her deathbed flashed in his mind. Asleep was a beautiful way to think about it.
"That's… cool, Basil." He looked up at the ceiling, then at his friend. "I think that's an awesome way to think about it."
Basil smiled, "Me too."
MARI
It was that black writhing mass again.Deep darkness that expunged emotion and left her feeling empty. An eternity there and short bouts where she'd wake up in a reality where nothing felt quite right, only to be plunged back into the depths of that cold. The only time she'd felt truly awake was when, recently, a girl that seemed to know who she was would walk in and touch her forehead with her own, before leaving, into the dark. She'd never seen where she went but everytime they met, she remembered something greater about herself.
She liked playing piano, and having picnics. Her name was Mari and she had a younger brother named Omori. Their friends, Basil, Hero, Kel and Aubrey were their cherished found family and she was the older sister. She was missing for a long time according to the memories but… she couldn't remember. If she was here, then where were her friends? Had the dark swallowed them too? Would she see them as well?
She'd also remembered other things, like being on the pier when she was much younger and leaning on her fathers shoulder. She remembered being older and playing with her younger brother on that same beach, and with Hero and Kel too. She remembered being kept on Hero's chest, lying on him and feeling safe and warm and loved all at once.
She remembered quite a few things but… none so strong as to want to come back. To be a part of that beautiful time again. To live in those friendships, even if the moments she'd seen were fleeting memories.
"Oh Aubrey! You're here!"
She looked around, startled by the new soundscape that filled the void. The voice sounded like it belonged to a man.
"Hero?"
Another voice, female this time and presumably Aubrey.
"Mari's here too, looks like she's asleep though."
They… were talking about her? What did they mean she was asleep?
"What… What is this place?"
"What… What do you mean?" The man sounded apprehensive, "This is my dream right?"
"No, I thought I was the one dreaming."
The two began talking all at once, the darkness stirring as it reacted to their bickering. First it was flowing waves, then a surging tempest. She was knocked about in place as the darkness broke against her back, toppling her over.
Words melded together and the darkness began to light up, first in blues, then in pinks, then purples. All three began to soar together, jumping across the clouds of dark that had engulfed her.
Her surroundings began to light up and she found herself standing in the middle of the ocean, thick fog around her as blasting light danced across every molecule. The fighting roared in her ears and she couldn't make out the words. She felt the fog stir as it dissipated. The waters swarmed around her but she stayed atop of it, standing above the waves. She looked out and there, at the edge of the fog was a beach, waves lapping gently at the shoreline.
"Swim." She heard it in her own voice, cutting through the echoing argument. Her legs moved on their own and she powered her way to the shore.
The closer she got, the louder it was, the more overwhelming the screaming, the harsher the storm. Other voices joined the cacophony, voices accusing one another. Hurt voices. Crying voices. The waves leapt in tandem, trying to push her down, to drown her out but she couldn't find it in herself to falter. She had to keep going. The shoreline was in arms reach now and as she took one final step, she sank beneath the waves and jolted herself upward.
In front of her were two people; a pink haired girl, and a boy bathed in blue.
"Mari?"