A big thank you to pentakhlo for drawing this fan art, based on a scene from Chapter 7! It's so pretty :D
https://twitter.com/omobasil/status/1416387736219566088
~
"Sunny! Are you ready yet?"
"Hold on a sec, I have to put on my new eyepatch."
The city hosted a new years' fair on the first week of the new year. It was one of the city's most popular tourist attractions, so there were bound to be lots of people there. Among them, it would seem, was Sunny's mom. The date she'd picked to meet with them coincided with the opening day of the fair.
I don't think there's a connection though, she probably picked this day because she could get a few days off from work following New Year's holiday.
Before having the dreaded meeting with her, Sunny wanted to explore the fair with Basil and go on all sorts of rides. And now that they were now longer hiding themselves, Sunny thought that a return to his old fashion style, wearing an eyepatch over his right eye, could improve his look.
It'd make him really easy for his mom to spot, but he wasn't going to talk to her outside of their planned meeting location anyways.
He thought about adding a flower to his hair, but decided he'd wait until spring arrived so they could pick flowers from the field on the edge of town. The new eyepatch he recently bought already looked pretty good on him.
When he stepped out of the bathroom, he noticed Basil had picked up the controller and loaded up their most recent save file. Basil went to fight a boss that they'd been stuck on for days.
Unfortunately, Basil became toast in less than a minute.
"I really thought the new strategy I came up with last night could beat him," Basil said, sighing in disappointment.
"I told you he was really difficult," Sunny replied with a grin.
"Yeah, you're much better at this game than I am," Basil admitted. He closed the game and turned to face Sunny. "Your eyepatch looks great!"
"Thanks!"
"Ready to go to the fair?"
"Yep, let's go."
It was still winter and so they had to be dressed in their jackets and scarfs and earmuffs. The sky today was bright blue, without a cloud in sight, but the air remained freezing and heaps of shoveled snow still adorned the sidewalks.
The lineup to enter the fair stretched on for several blocks. Their estimated waiting time was over an hour.
Sunny had never seen a fair so big before. That wasn't saying much, because he had never even gone to an amusement park in his whole life; Faraway Town had once organized a fair about eight years back, but it had not been much larger than the plaza and only contained a few rides that every one of his friends found boring.
Okay, I have to be honest, that one mine cart ride was pretty fun.
Only I seemed to think so, though...
Luckily, this fair appeared to have some really fun and exciting rides. They could see the towering rollercoaster looming above almost all the other buildings in the city, and as they moved up the queue, they could hear the riders screaming as they plunged down its massive drops.
"Ever been on a roller coaster before?" Basil asked with a playful nudge against Sunny's shoulder.
"Nope," Sunny replied.
"Think you'd be scared to go on that one?"
"Scared to go on a roller coaster? No way!"
How bad could it possibly be? Everyone on the ride seems to be having loads of fun.
Sunny still had a slight phobia of heights, but he was certain that by now he'd be able to keep his fears under control even at the top of the rollercoaster.
"You sure?" Basil asked in a sly tone. "Last time you went on a fast ride, you were clutching on to me even though we barely went down a small hill."
"What, that mine cart ride? I wouldn't be scared of that anymore."
"I really hope so. If we went on this rollercoaster and you held on to my arm with the kind of grip you used back then, you'd break every bone!"
Errhhhh...
Note to self: don't break Basil's arm before meeting with my mom this afternoon.
"Sounds like you're already set on riding that roller coaster," Sunny mentioned.
"It's the main attraction of the fair, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but do you think you can handle it? That first drop looks really tall..."
"I've probably experienced worse rides," Basil replied, turning his eyes up whimsically. "Like, mmm, that shopping cart ride you gave me a few months back."
Sunny nudged Basil playfully back on the arm in response to that.
It took a full hour and a half for them to reach the front of the queue.
Once they paid the entrance fare and were finally inside, Basil gazed in wonder at all the rides they could go on, the countless interesting games that they could play to win prizes. His eyes sparkled with a pure delight that Sunny hadn't seen in quite some time, and it made something sweet stir inside his chest.
Maybe college's been a bit hard on you lately, Basil...
I'm glad we get to have this day of fun to ourselves before classes begin again.
"How long do we have to spend here before we have to go meet your mom?" Basil asked.
Sunny remembered that the hotel was less than a block away from the fair entrance, so they could leave at any time and arrive at their meeting place in no more than five minutes.
Before today, he'd met with the detective on yet another occasion and discussed their meeting time. After some arguing, they'd finally agreed on five PM in the afternoon. This gave them just under seven hours to experience every ride in the fair, which ought to be plenty of time.
During our argument, I felt like I caught a glimpse of the detective's personal troubles...
He kept telling me that I was stubborn as hell, but I got the feeling that he'd dealt with someone like that before.
There was a line he said to me, "you're exactly like someone I knew...and I don't want you to end up in a bad place like her!"
Maybe his wife? Girlfriend? His daughter?
Whatever. I was just trying to get him to push the meeting to seven PM, but he mentioned that my mom's flight back was at ten PM, so she could leave the hotel no later than seven thirty, and we had to settle on five PM.
"We've got about seven hours," Sunny replied to Basil.
"Oh, that's plenty of time!"
"Which ride do you want to go on first?"
"I don't want to start with the roller coaster in case that's too much for you, so...how about that one over there? Hehehe..."
Wow, what is it with Basil and being sassy at me today?
Not that I mind.
It's kind of adorable when Basil does it, actually.
The ride that Basil pointed at was called a twister. Sunny had never gone on one of those before but it didn't look scary at all.
"Sure," Sunny agreed with a nod.
They got into line and waited half an hour to reach the front of the queue. Along the way, Sunny kept getting distracted by the screams of the people riding on the roller coaster. It seemed like such a fun ride compared to this one. Nobody on the twister was screaming except for a few people going "Whooooo!!!" and they were probably just trying to look like they were having fun rather than because the ride felt exhilarating.
But when they reached the front of the line, Sunny discovered that the size of the ride up close was actually daunting.
The twister was made up of four cockpits attached to a central pillar. During the ride, the arms connecting each cockpit to the pillar would raise and spin around the pillar while rotating the cockpits.
Sunny and Basil got into one of the cockpits and strapped themselves to the seats as the ride supervisor slammed the door shut.
"Scared yet?" Basil asked, the sly look never leaving his face.
"You think I'd be scared of this ride?" Sunny responded. "It doesn't even go that high or fast, it's practically just a faster merry-go-round."
"It certainly goes faster than that mine cart ride that you were so scared of."
"Come on, I'm not a kid anymore, a ride like this isn't going to—eeep!"
As the ride jolted into motion, the cockpit swung upwards and Sunny was shocked by how quickly he was rising off the ground. Within seconds he was at least twelve feet above the ground, a height that he associated with stairs and fatal falls. It wasn't helped by the arm's accelerating speed as it began spinning around, the cockpit wobbling back and forth with distressing metallic creaking noises.
Sunny opened his right eye and discovered that he was already gripping Basil's arm as if holding on to him for dear life.
He didn't need to look up at Basil's face to know that the expression he'd find would spell out the words 'I knew you'd be scared'.
Fine, he got me...
To his comfort, Basil didn't say anything, just letting Sunny hold on to him as the ride became faster and faster.
When is this ride going to be over?
I feel like I'm going to fall out of my seat at any moment, dashing my head against the ground—
Deep breaths, Sunny. Confront your fear.
As he tried to steady his nerves, Sunny summoned his inner courage and willed himself to glance out the window of their cockpit. He couldn't let himself be scared of heights forever, and he knew that strict safety regulations meant that the chances of him plunging out of the cockpit by accident were very low.
The ground loomed far beneath him; he was spinning around faster than he'd imagined, the people waiting to go on the ride at the line below appearing small and distant.
It was a nauseating sight.
There's nothing to be afraid of.
You are safe in here, Sunny.
Safe.
Seconds passed into a minute. He was still spinning on the twister, still dangling many feet above the ground, but by a miracle, he was alive.
The cockpit hadn't swung off the arm connecting it to the pillar and thrown them towards a violent and bloody death.
It almost felt...exciting.
Exhilarating.
Just when he thought he was starting to get used to being on this ride, the twister suddenly slowed down, decelerating and lowering the cockpits back towards the ground. The feeling of losing speed when he'd been fine going so fast before was surprisingly disappointing. By the time his cockpit slowed down to a stop, he wanted to go back on the ride again.
"That was fun!" Sunny exclaimed.
"Oh really? You didn't let go of my arm the entire time," Basil replied, his tone full of sass.
"Well, once I got used to it I was having lots of fun."
"Actually, it was a bit too slow for me."
"Fine..."
The ride supervisor pulled open their cockpit door and instructed them to get out. Sunny glanced at the lineup for the twister and observed that it had doubled in length.
...We can always go back to this one later. Let's try something else for now.
"Where do you want to go next?" Sunny asked.
"If you're up for it, we could try the roller coaster...hehehe..."
"Erhhh, how about a bit more warm up before we go on that one?"
"Sure, I knew you weren't ready yet. How about bumper cars?"
Jokes aside, that was a great suggestion. The lineup for the bumper cars ride wasn't too big like the twister's, and after all the sass he'd endured from Basil he felt very ready to crash into his car several times or a hundred.
As they waited in line for their turn, the sounds of the roller coaster zipping by overhead and the screams of its riders created a brand new knot in Sunny's stomach.
Hahah...I'm going to have to face my fears and go on that ride with Basil, aren't I...
He knew Basil would never force him to go on a ride he wasn't comfortable with, but the shame of going to this fair and not even riding the roller coaster once would be too much for him to bear.
Plus, he was sure that even Basil would be scared by the roller coaster, and he wanted to be by his side so that they could experience it together.
I don't think my stomach would be able to handle any food after it...
They got onto the bumper cars, and this kind of ride was something that Sunny found agreeable. He didn't have to face his fear of heights, it didn't go too fast, and he could pilot his car at his own leisure.
Which he took full advantage of by chasing after Basil's car and bumping into him over and over again.
"Hey, you think you can get away with that?" Basil said, spinning his car around after suffering one too many bumps.
"Yeah, I do," Sunny replied, speeding away.
"Think again, Sunny. I'm coming to get you!!"
Basil and Sunny's cars crashed into each other, then crashed again, and again, and again until it was clear to all the other people on the ride—most of whom were children—that these two young adults had some kind of a vendetta against each other.
It made them all the easier to pick on, as a couple other cars smashed into Sunny's and Basil's in the middle of their duel with each other.
"Hey, watch it!" Sunny shouted at the kid who had just bumped into him.
...This is embarrassing.
They were all probably going to get thrown off the ride for repeatedly crashing each other's cars and potentially destroying expensive equipment.
Sunny and Basil agreed to a truce. But just before their time on the ride was up, Sunny spun his car around and gave Basil's one last bump.
Judging by the looks that the ride supervisor shot at the two of them, they probably weren't going to be allowed back on again.
"That was unfair and uncalled for," Basil complained. "We agreed to a truce!"
"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Sunny said, grinning.
Basil punched him lightly on the shoulder.
There were still many more rides to go on at the fair and it wasn't even noon yet, so they had lots more time to spend before they'd have to leave and meet with Sunny's mom.
Just the very thought of seeing her again made Sunny feel anxious. He wished she'd chosen any other day to meet with them instead of this one.
Actually, I could always just not go.
That'd piss her off to no end, and probably make the detective really angry at me, but there's nothing forcing me.
He couldn't entertain that train of thought any further following Basil's next question.
"Sunny, I'm not sure if I told you this but...we are going to see your mom together, right?"
"You don't have to come with me."
I'd prefer going alone, to be honest. She's not going to have any nice things to say to you...
Basil turned his eyes away. "I want to go with you to support you."
"...You know my mom doesn't like you very much."
"I know. I don't want to go with you to try to convince her to like me or anything. I just think...after everything I did to your family...it might be fair for me to confront her, and be honest about everything. I don't want her to think that I'm still..."
"Basil, you don't have to. She's been pretty awful to you."
"Yeah, but...I just want to let her hear from me that I really didn't mean to do all those things...to your sister, and...to your eye..."
"She might not be willing to listen to you, though."
"I just want to try."
Basil, you're too kind and precious!
I'm going to protect you no matter what my mom says or does.
"Let's worry about that later," Sunny said, putting on a smile. "What ride do you want to go on next?"
Basil glanced towards a towering red and black mansion nearby, an exhibit with the sign "Haunted House" painted in front of its rusted iron gates.
"Are you brave enough?" Basil asked, turning his sass back on.
"It can't be that scary."
I've probably dreamt of scarier things than what's inside that haunted house.
They went inside the haunted house and for the first few rooms they saw run-of-the-mill scares like a bunch of pop-up ghosts, zombies, vampires, werewolves, and gorey props. Aside from the annoying screaming noises being played in the background, nothing bothered Sunny at all, though he had to give credit to one of the mirrors that showed a very distorted version of their reflections.
When they reached a scene where a body was hanging from a rope, Basil stood there and froze.
Oh no!
Basil, are you going to be alright?
Sunny placed his hand gently on Basil's shoulder and tried to shake him out of his reverie.
"Oh, sorry," Basil replied, turning back at Sunny.
To Sunny's surprise, Basil was smiling.
"What happened?" Sunny asked, concern filling his voice.
"I was just thinking...I could tie a better noose than that."
........
Basil, were you trying to scare me by looking like you got traumatized over a scene of a body hanging by a rope?
Sunny could get a laugh out of that.
Basil usually never made dark jokes. But sometimes dark humor was an assurance that the person had gotten over the traumatic events from their past. As long as everyone involved could get a laugh out of that joke, and no one was still emotionally impacted by the trauma, he wouldn't feel bothered.
"Sheesh, you've got terrible taste," Sunny said, knocking Basil on the arm with a soft punch.
"Sorry...I should've realized you'd think of something else when you saw me staring at that noose."
"Wait, so it wasn't a joke?"
Basil became confused. "No, I really was trying to assess the quality of that noose! I have to tie knots like that all the time while gardening..."
Sunny giggled. "Sorry, my bad."
Basil gently clasped Sunny's hand. "It's my fault for not being careful about what I should be staring at..."
"No, really, just forget about it! I'm just a bit on edge since I have to meet my mom this afternoon."
"Sunny, I'll be there to support you."
I'm more worried about how my mom's gonna treat you, Basil.
Well, whatever. Even if she explodes at the two of us, she still can't make me come back to live with her.
In the next room, Sunny felt legitimately frightened because it was covered in cobwebs, with giant spider props hanging from the ceiling. If one of those fell on his head he might scream and grab Basil for emotional support.
At least he seemed to have made peace with spider-Something; it didn't show up as he thought it would.
He was glad to escape the spider room and finally be out of the haunted house at last.
That was actually a bit scary!
But...still not as scary as the ride that Basil wants to go on...
The sassy smile on Basil's face suggested that it might be time.
"I won't make you," Basil said in a tone that almost certainly implied I'm trying to make you. "Me? I'm ready to try out that roller coaster."
Sunny gazed at the rails of steel supported by towering red pillars that loomed above his head. Every time the coaster zipped by he could hear people screaming.
Am I really ready to go on that ride?
His eyes spun towards the lineup to get onto the ride; it was almost as long as the line to get into the fair. They'd probably need to queue for an hour or more before they could get on.
I don't want that line to get even longer and make us miss the ride later today because of my meeting with my mom.
Whatever, it's just a ride; it can't kill me, so what do I have to be afraid of?
"I'm ready," Sunny replied with an inflated sense of self-confidence.
"That's the spirit!" Basil grabbed Sunny's hand and the two of them ran to join the line.
Sunny could feel a lump forming in his throat.
Over the next hour, the closer they got to the front of the line, the more gargantuan the size of the coaster began to look to Sunny's eyes. He could hardly believe that people would voluntarily ride this thing; how did they even make sure that this behemoth of a machine was safe?
The grinding of the steel cables pulling the coaster up the first hill and the roar of the wheels as it sped downwards filled his heart with terror. He thought he might be developing a growing fear of mechanical malfunction.
Darn it, Sunny, this is not the time to acquire a new phobia.
"Errhh...you sure you're not scared of this ride?" Sunny asked.
"To be honest, I'm a little scared," Basil admitted, blushing light pink. "But, I know it'll be fun!"
"...I really hope so."
"Sunny, you don't have to ride the roller coaster if you don't want to."
"No, I do. I want to ride it with you." Sunny smiled in spite of the fear in his mind. "It could be a really fun bonding experience!"
Basil blushed deeply at those words. "Ah—hah...you're starting to sound braver than me, Sunny."
"Actually I think I'm about to throw up just looking at this ride!"
"...Never mind."
The two of them kept making jokes as they reached the front of the line, each trying their very best to reassure the other that they would be okay. Their laughter descended into frightened whimpering as the gates opened and the seats for the next ride became available to them.
Sunny and Basil strapped themselves in, sitting side by side. When the ride supervisor closed the lock on their seats, Sunny felt like he'd just received a death sentence.
"Erhhh...are we really going to be okay on this ride?" Sunny whimpered, panic apparent in his voice.
"Don't worry, Sunny," Basil said, putting on a weak smile. "Everything is going to be okay...right...?"
Sunny's heart jumped in his chest as their ride began, the steel cables pulling the coaster up the first hill.
As they left the ride station, Sunny made the very bad mistake of glancing to his right and realizing just how high up they were above the ground.
"Everything is going to be okay! Everything is going to be okay!"
"Ummm...Sunny?"
"Sorry, Basil...I think this might be it for us..."
"Don't say that, Sunny, please..."
His vision swarmed with frightening shadows as laughing mouths and hands and arms appeared all around him. His hands clutched the grips of his seat so hard he thought he might break his bones.
The only thing keeping his sanity tethered to this realm was Basil being nearby, looking just as scared as he was.
The ride stopped moving just when it reached the top of the hill.
"Basil?" Sunny spoke softly. "We had some fun times together, didn't we?"
"Sunny, I—"
Basil's sentence was cut short by the coaster suddenly plunging forward.
Sunny screamed at the top of his lungs as he experienced a sensation close to complete free fall.
It felt like his stomach had risen all the way up into his throat. The only consolation he could afford himself was the knowledge that perhaps he deserved this, having given someone else a very similar fall down a flight of stairs.
That jab of dark humor kept the shadow Somethings at bay as the roller coaster spun, looped, corkscrewed, and rose and fell again multiple times in succession. Each fall pushed his stomach up into his throat like his insides had turned into a hydraulic pump.
Basil's screams accompanied his own. He'd only ever heard Basil scream like this before when it involved Aubrey's gang shoving him out of his beloved hangout spot.
"Geez, Sunny, that's dark even for me," mini-Something said in his ear. "What is it with you and all these references to past traumatic events today?"
"Maybe it's because I feel like I'm about to die!"
Mini-Something didn't have a rebuttal to that. It vanished along with the rushing wind.
Sunny screamed and screamed and screamed, expecting death to come at any moment, until the ride suddenly slowed down, the drop in momentum accompanied by the high-pitched screech of brakes against wheels.
He opened his right eye and saw that they were already on their way back into the station where they would get off the ride.
"That...was actually kind of fun," Sunny said, adrenaline pumping through his veins, making him feel light-headed.
Basil turned to look at Sunny, his eyes wide with fright. "I never want to go on a ride like this ever again in my life."
I probably shouldn't...I really shouldn't...
"It's okay, Basil," Sunny said reassuringly.
"Nah, just kidding," Basil responded, smiling cheerfully. "Let's go on this ride again."
***
They ran out of time to check out any of the other rides as they rode the roller coaster over and over again. Sunny loved feeling the wind in his hair, seeing Basil's smiles, and screaming together as they rose and fell.
This turned out to be a bad decision when it came time to eat, because Sunny had a hard time keeping anything down in his stomach.
Great. I'm going to show up to the meeting with my mom looking all nauseated.
He could only hope that if he needed to expel the contents of his stomach, his body would do it before he went into the hotel to see his mom.
Their last ride was a comparatively calm pirate ship swing before time was up and they had to leave.
On their way out of the fair, Basil opened up his phone, typed something on his keypad, put the phone back inside his pocket, and then checked it again six times.
"Did something come up?" Sunny asked.
"N—No, nothing," Basil replied.
This feels unusual...
"You really don't have to come along if you don't want to," Sunny said.
"I do. Let's go meet her."
He sounds very insistent.
"Okay," Sunny said. "But, just gonna warn you, I don't think my mom likes you at all..."
"I know."
The resolve on Basil's face was powerful. Sunny couldn't understand why but he felt that Basil had been preparing for this day more than himself.
As they approached the entrance to the hotel, Basil opened his phone, typed something, and then put it away into his pocket again.
"Ready, Basil?" Sunny asked, his stomach still feeling rather queasy.
"Yeah."
Sunny opened the entrance door, expecting his mom to be standing right there in wait for him, but instead found detective Jawsum fumbling around in the lobby.
"Oh, you're finally here," Jawsum said. "I'm just here to guide you to where your mother's waiting."
"I thought this meeting was supposed to be in public!" Sunny protested.
"Yeah, that was the plan, but your mother really wants to talk to you in her room rather than out here."
Sunny was ready to break this whole thing off. "Hold on. I'm not going anywhere if it's not going to be in public."
Detective Jawsum folded his arms, frustrated. "It's not like she's armed or anything. I'm going to be waiting just outside the door in case anything happens."
What?
I don't agree to this at all!
"Sunny, it's okay," Basil said, putting on a warm smile. "Trust me."
"Errhhh...what?"
"Let's go meet her and get this over with."
Just what is going on right now?
"Alright? If you say so..."
Confused as he'd ever been, Sunny arrived in front of the door to her room. With trembling hands and a racing heart, he opened the door.
His mom was sitting at a table, looking like she'd gotten a lot older since the last time he saw her, gray streaks in her hair. As soon as he stepped into the room, she bolted to her feet and rushed towards him.
"Sunny, I've missed you so much."
Well, I haven't missed you.
"How have you been?" she asked.
"Good," Sunny replied. "I've been getting by really well on my own. I have a job now, I'm almost done high school, and I've learned how to take care of myself."
He wanted to add, all thanks to Basil, but decided not to say anything until either Basil or his mom mentioned his existence.
"That's good," she replied. "How's your eye doing?"
What's with all these pointless pleasantries? Just get on with what you want to say to me!
"It's fine."
"Does it still hurt?"
"No, I told you, it stopped hurting two years ago."
"What about your vision? Is it starting to come back?"
Didn't you hear what the doctor said? My eye isn't going to get better!
"No, that's not going to happen," Sunny replied.
She frowned deeply. So far, it seemed like she refused to notice Basil standing beside Sunny, and Basil was remaining silent.
"Sunny, it's been over six months since I last saw you," she spoke. "Why would you leave me for six months?"
I'm done being nice.
"Because I hate living with you," Sunny answered.
To his surprise, she didn't even flinch at that.
"Do you like living here better?" she asked, avoiding mention of the fact that he was living with Basil. "Maybe you're planning on going to college in this city?"
"I have a job here," Sunny said, terse.
"Is your job nice? Does it pay you well enough?"
Sunny rolled his eyes. She was being incredibly rude to Basil and he wouldn't stand another second of her ignoring his existence. "Mom, are you aware of something?"
"Aware?"
He decided to segue from that question into the tirade he'd been meaning to unleash on her. "I hate how you keep talking around Basil. I hate how you never try to understand what I really want. And I hate how you let me rot inside my own room for four years without ever trying to fix my problems. You never once tried to get through to my feelings. You never asked me what was going on in my head, what I'd been going through after Mari died, or tried to teach me to face my fears. You just thought all you had to do was say 'I love you' and pretend like nothing bad had ever happened, and when that didn't work you decided to move to a new city as if that'd magically make everything better. Well, you know what? You failed. You failed so badly I left you as soon as I had money so I could move back to where I wanted to be. Is that so hard to understand? Your parenting sucks, your way of dealing with problems is toxic and unproductive, and I never want to hear another piece of 'advice' from you ever again!"
Wow...
He glanced at Basil, who looked a little shy about that outburst.
His mom's expression was full of conflicted feelings.
She's probably trying to repress most of what I said...
I really don't know how to get through to her.
"You...you didn't like the city we moved to?" she spoke. "But when we moved there, you started going out to socialize more and your grades were getting better!"
Sunny wanted to scream. "For fuck's sake, can you pay attention to my feelings for once?"
At hearing him swear, the mask she'd been wearing finally broke down. "Sunny, we can talk about feelings. We can talk about how all you ever do is let your feelings take control of you. Don't you remember, it was because of your horrible temper that made that incident happen?"
"Because you and dad kept telling me to hold back my feelings. If you'd taught me healthy ways to experience my anger instead, that never would've happened at all!"
"You think you know how to deal with your feelings better than me? You're still young. You haven't seen much of the world at all."
"I've learned to handle my feelings far better than you," Sunny said firmly.
"Learn? From who?"
She glared at Basil in anger, finally acknowledging him. "Sunny, why do you keep hanging around him? He convinced you to abandon me, didn't he?"
"Basil didn't do anything. I made that decision myself," Sunny answered just as angrily.
"He must've influenced you to. You've always hung around him your whole life, of course his opinions got to you."
"W—Wait," Basil spoke timidly.
Sunny was about to explode. "You know what? Fine, he got to me. Basil taught me how to cook. He taught me gardening. He taught me to love reading books. He helped me with chemistry, English, and math. He taught me how to ace an interview and land a full time job. He took care of me when I was so sick with the flu I couldn't even move."
"I raised you and took care of you too!" she replied.
"But you never taught me how to live life, and instead let me rot in my room for four years—"
"I got you out of that phase by making you move to our new home—"
"You didn't help me at all!"
"And he helped you? By taking out your eye? By doing...that to your sister after she died?"
"I'm really sorry for what I did to Mari," Basil said.
"You're crazy!" she shouted at Basil, then lowered her voice when she realized that the detective was still standing outside. "What kind of kid comes up with the plan to hang a body to get out of trouble?"
"You went along with it," Sunny interjected.
"If he hadn't been there I would've seen what you did and forgiven you," she said to Sunny. "It's because of what Basil did that...that your father left...and that I couldn't even approach either of you about what really happened!"
"I'm so sorry for what I did," Basil apologized again. "At the time, I just wanted to protect Sunny, but now I know I made things worse."
"It's too late for apologies," she said. "You are out of your mind and I don't want you going near my son ever again."
"You don't get to decide that!" Sunny shouted, stepping to protect Basil.
"What did he do to get you on his side?" she asked furiously. "How are you two still friends even after he took out your eye and desecrated my daughter—"
"I told you exactly why, but you wouldn't listen. You're too blinded by your own hatred and misconceptions about him to even bother trying to understand my feelings—"
"Because it doesn't make any sense! Basil made you half-blind—"
"You're the one so hung up over the past that you can't find it in your heart to forgive—"
"I will not forgive the monster that destroyed my family!"
There came a knock.
All eyes turned towards the door to their hotel room.
"Hey, who are all of you?" detective Jawsum said on the other side.
"We're here!" a familiar voice called out.
Wait, that sounds like...
"Excuse me?" Sunny's mom spoke, rushing towards the door. "Detective, I told you—"
The door opened.
Sunny couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Kel, Aubrey, Hero, and Polly standing together behind the door.