Stuck In Paradise

Finding lost memories but at what cost?

He put it in the album before looking down the stairs. If Aubrey squints she thinks she can see the bottom but she isn’t quite sure.

They began their walk with Sunny in the lead before they found another photo, they all had to crowd on the same stair to look at it which was kind of annoying.

The photo looked like Sunny running down the stairs in some kind of hurry. Perhaps someone called him down?

Once again Sunny just looked confused as the others looked concerned.

Despite that, they continued walking to find another photo at the bottom.

Aubrey picked it up and her eyes widened at the sight of Mari at the bottom of the stairs. There was something underneath her but she couldn’t tell what. The others also looked horrified at the photo. Aubrey was already thinking about all the possibilities of what could've actually happened and by the looks of it, the rest were as well.

Sunny looked the most terrified as he kept trying to remember what the hell happened. His body was aggressively shaking and his eyes were slightly watering.

Kel quickly wrapped his arms around the boy in hopes to soothe him but it clearly wasn’t working. It did stop his shaking a bit though but it was still noticeable.

They blinked and they were in a new location. Kel quickly jumped as he felt blood land on his arm and quickly looked at Sunny.

Sunny’s left ear was unwrapped and the left side of his face was dripping with blood with torn pieces of flesh. He was breathing heavily as he put his hand on the wound with tears in his eyes. It didn’t take a genius for them to recognize he was in pain.

Hero was quick to begin to try and wipe the blood off his face but more only came out of the wound. Aubrey would tear off more of her jacket but that would cover the whole left side of his face.

Sunny took a deep breath to calm himself down and his eyes moved to the floor where another photograph laid.

He pointed to it in hopes someone would pick it up.

Kel did it for him, picking up with concern clear in his eyes.

The photo consisted of Sunny with a shadow over his face. A hand was on his shoulder and Aubrey immediately knew it was Basil’s.

Sunny pulled out the album and put the photo inside. A few blood drops fell on the album yet they disappeared. Aubrey sighed but at least that could probably be chalked up to dream logic.

Now that they weren’t focusing on Sunny they could note all the other things in the room. It was clearly Sunny and Mari’s room with Mari laying in bed and all of their old furniture around.

Stranger was also in the room, facing them but staring at Sunny.

Sunny walked forward to Stranger and Stranger gave him a small smile, “Sunny, don’t worry. Everything is going to be okay.”

With that, he disappeared.

There wasn’t much in the room, except the calendar that had the date of the recital circled. So these memories took place on the day of the recital. Aubrey isn’t surprised, in fact, she already assumed that but confirmation was nice.

Kel opened the bedroom door and the others followed him out only to walk into what appeared to be a backstage area. Empty crates and boxes were spread across the room but that wasn’t the weirdest part.

The weirdest part was that in some places the room was missing walls and the giant spotlight shining on the stage was a music stand that appeared to be surrounded by darkness.

Sunny walked forward and through the walls into the darkness and picked up a photograph.

The photo showed Mari being picked up off the ground by the arm, her hair obscuring her face.

Once again Aubrey only got a bad feeling from the photo and what it possibly could imply.

Sunny was about to put it in the album when suddenly he was covered in darkness.

“SUNNY!?”

All three of them yelled at the same time, reaching out to him.

The darkness suddenly retracted and Sunny was holding his right hand close to his chest with tears pouring down his face. His right ear was also torn like his left one was and it bled heavily. The blood was staining his clothes and dripping onto the floor.

“Holy shit! Sunny!” Kel wrapped his arms around the crying boy as Hero took his hand.

His eyes widened in shock as Sunny was missing his pinkie finger.

“Oh, fuck.” Aubrey cringed at the sight. Kel looked nauseous while Hero looked terrified.

She knew it was probably going to be pointless but she ripped off another part of her jacket and wrapped it around what was left of the finger.

Sunny winced as she did so but tried to calm himself down. Kel walked over to another photo and looked at it nervously.

“Should we..should we continue to pick these up? Sunny is getting injured by them and-”

Sunny broke away from Hero and walked to the photo and picked it up with no hesitation.

“I want to remember.”

His tone said that he wasn’t taking no for an answer. He was going to find out the truth despite anything that will happen to him.

The photo in his hand has him in the background next to Mari’s bed. Basil’s hands were in front of the photo as if he was thinking about what he was going to do.

The darkness once again covered Sunny and released him.

More tears were running down his face as he was missing another finger. Kel went to comfort him but Sunny moved away.

He was determined to make it through this.

No one was going to get in his way.

~~~~~~

Basil opened his eyes to stand in front of the version of him with the afraid mask on.

“What are you afraid of?”