Day: 1612
Days Left: 3868
Lives Saved: 8
It was finally the day. Betty had finished her medical examination and declared that it was safe for Sumit to leave the Raining Marshes. Though he was no longer an enormous kraken, his body was still trying to transform back into a full human; parts of his skin were red and smooth and squishy like an octopus, a few suckers on his arms, and occasionally he struggled to breathe unless he poured water over himself. Fortunately, in the number of months he was gone, a public bathhouse had been constructed for him to spend his time recovering.
"Ay! I get to go back!" Sumit punched his arms in the air. "Can't wait to see how much has changed! Both of you talking about all these new buildings and stuff!"
"We'll give you the tour," said Rin, holding a large towel so that Sumit could dry himself as he stepped across the border of the Raining Marshes, his clothes soaked.
Sumit, however, rushed to her, wrapping his arms around her, having missed giving people hugs.
Rin yelled out a series of swears and disgusted grumbles, but Sumti could see the smile that tried to escape. He then looked to Oscar, who stood at a distance, still talking to Betty as she explained how regularly Sumit would need water and what to do if his transformation went wrong. How desperately Sumit wanted to go over and kiss him, but Oscar looked rather serious talking to Betty. Perhaps later.
Once Sumit had dried himself and changed into a new set of clothes, they headed back to the village, Sumit gasping after seeing it for the first time. As the houses were made from the nearby forest, the wood was a splendid emerald green, and so many of them, each with unique carvings and signs, seeming to be one for each person instead of sharing, a few had scaffolding with future plans for a second story in the works. There were pathways and small signs of street names, which Rin explained were voted on by whoever lived on them, some named more seriously than others.
The place was more of an actual village than the small settlements he had previously lived in. And seemed a lot safe what with the high walls and defences where he could see people patrolling on top of and trenches surrounding the place.
A river cut through the village, and Sumit saw someone collecting it into buckets, using it to wash clothes and then hang them to dry. At the very centre was the large crater where Annika, the green dragon, had burst through. Sumit peered down and saw the mountainous piles of the Land of the Lost underground. The crater had been carved out, and a staircase built with safety rails down towards it. Several villagers were pushing a wooden cart full of supplies from the Land of the Lost back up.
"Wow, we finally figured out how to make the carts!" Sumit shouted in excitement, then a breath caught in his throat, realising how big the crater was, how big the dragon had been, and the kraken he had turned into. "Where's Annika? What happened?"
"She's in a box in one of the houses," explained Rin. "We keep an eye on her. She's still asleep and tiny."
Seeing how much had changed was both amazing and yet also terrifying as Sumit realised how much time had passed, how long he had been stuck as a kraken. What else had changed? He knew that Calanthe had gone, and he wished he could have said a proper farewell as a human instead of being unable to speak and only able to wave his tentacles at her. But he could not blame Calanthe for leaving and not wanting to wait. No one knew how long it would take for him to transform back or even if he could.
The tour continued, and Sumit was shown around the working hot water showers, the bathhouse, the communal eating area where Oscar proudly showed his handiwork at his new kitchen and his little imp sous chef, and then the garden next door. Ivette rushed towards Sumit in her wheelchair, pulling him down for a hug before giving him a long lecture on his recklessness.
When word got out that Sumit had finally returned, people gathered around him as he continued his tour, all of them enthusing about his stunt as the kraken and how they were glad he had recovered. Sumit felt rather overwhelmed with this many people crowding him, reminding him of how long he had been stuck as that kraken, unable to see all of his friends all the time, waiting alone in that rain for him to finally leave. Fortunately, Rin noticed and yelled at everyone to give him some space, and they all returned to work.
Dex welcomed him back with a big hug, and then told him about his current project, creating small box cars that people could race, which Sumit was especially excited about as it was his suggestion to Dex a year ago.
In the village centre was a small gazebo where Calixte and Alfreda were playing the piano together, a combination Sumit had not expected, but not as surprising when he saw Corinna and Lili in the distance as they kissed before Lili returned to patrolling.
After Sumit caught up with Corinna, congratulating her on being voted Mayor and asking the gossip about her new relationship, Sumit finally arrived at his and Oscar's home, which was on Calanthe Road.
"Home sweet home!" Betty chimed. "I'll leave you to settle in," she said to Sumit. "If you do feel any pain or nausea, you know where the clinic is now. And make sure to have a bath two times a day until your transformation is complete."
"Thanks, doc," said Sumit, staring up at the house, smiling as he saw the little sign that had his and Oscar's name in beautiful cursive, alongside drawn portraits of them by an imp, both in their human and mask forms.
Rin glanced down at her feet and mumbled, "yeah, I'll get going too. I'll be at the rec office if you need me or anything."
After Sumit hugged her goodbye, he grinned as he opened the door to his new home, seeing that Oscar had decorated the walls and added small and subtle decor choices that made the place feel more homely. The house they had before looked like a decrepit shack compared to this, as their new place had both a small lounge area connected to the bedroom, a wooden divider separating them, and a door that led to the bathroom, which was just a wooden seat with a chamber pot underneath and a bowl of water to wash your hands if needed.
"Corinna and Dex are still working out better toilets," said Oscar. "But this is pretty good compared to shitting in the woods. And I'm currently waiting for Dex to finish fixing up a new dresser for us which we can put all of our clothes in."
Oscar continued to ramble on about all the improvements to the house he had in mind, but all Sumit could do was gaze at him. Though Oscar had visited Sumit every day, sometimes twice or thrice, it was different to be standing right next to him instead of separated at the edges of the Raining Marshes. Everything could finally return to normal, though Sumit still had a while until he was fully human.
He drew closer, leaning forwards and-
And Oscar almost recoiled away from him as he attempted to kiss him.
Oscar's eyes widened as he realised what he had done. "Sorry, I didn't... I-"
"No, no, it's okay!" Sumit winced, swallowing, glancing away. It must have been because he hadn't fully transformed back into a human yet, parts of his face deformed. Oscar must have thought he looked hideous. "Not exactly as good-looking as I used to be, huh?" he joked but almost choked as his breath caught in his throat.
"No, Sumit, it's not that. I'm sorry, you just caught me off guard, that's all!" Oscar looked away, his arms wrapping around his waist. He then finally looked at Sumit directly and approached stiffly, but Sumit stopped him.
"It's fine; you don't need to force yourself."
"I'm not forcing myself, I..."
Sumit somehow felt that Oscar was telling the truth that it wasn't related to his deformity but because of something that was clearly bothering Oscar, and it wasn't just because Sumit caught him by surprise that he had rejected the kiss.
"Has something changed?" asked Sumit.
And there it was. A singular moment. Sumit saw it in Oscar's face, his eyes wide, his breath caught, his heart stopped for a beat, before Oscar turned and said, "no, nothing's changed."
But something had changed; Sumit could see it in Oscar's face no matter how much he tried to hide it and in his voice no matter how much he tried to fake it.
"Is there someone else?" Sumit's voice croaked.
"What? No, of course!" Oscar's arms were still wrapped around his waist, his fists clenching his shirt tightly. "I would never cheat on you, Sumit."
"Then is it because you want to leave the Abyss? Just like Calanthe did?"
"No, I-"
"Because I'm fine with that, you know." Sumit choked, swallowing as tears welled up in his eyes. "I understand if you would want to go and leave this place, I'd want to too and I'd want that for you if it'll keep you safe and happy..."
"I'm not leaving the Abyss, Sumit," Oscar hushed, stepping closer, finally bridging the gap as he hesitantly held a tentative hand on Sumit's arm, just above the deformities and suckers.
"Then, what's wrong?" whispered Sumit, his vision blurry as tears brimmed and spilt from his eyes. "Something's wrong. You're not telling me something."
Oscar swallowed, staring into Sumit's crying eyes before letting out a sigh, staggered and broken breath, and then retreated a step away, releasing his gesture of consolation, his hand on Sumit's arm and he pulled away. "I talked more with Princess Alfreda about my past," Oscar began slowly, as if he was still considering whether to tell Sumit anymore. "And she said that I copied all of my ex-boyfriends. I would dress like them, act like them when we were together, to stay together, I guess..." He bit down on his lip before sucking in a quick breath and looked at Sumit directly. "Everyone keeps saying how we're both alike, how we both make jokes and stuff, but I was never like that before the fire, but you were."
Sumit remained quiet, staring at him.
Oscar didn't want to continue. But it was already too late to take anything back; Sumit would keep pressing. "And it made me realise that I don't really know myself."
"Well, yeah, we lost all of our memories," Sumit tried to joke, but it came out harsh sounding, almost condescending. "We will never know our previous selves truly no matter how much we hear, but that doesn't matter. We already talked about this years ago-"
"I don't know if the way I act right now is because that is who I am or because of you!" Oscar blurted out, wanting this moment to be over. "I don't know if I'm just copying you so that you would like me! I don't know the real me!"
Sumit swallowed, then forced a smile, attempting to joke, but his voice still cracked. "If this is all about you being worried that I'd break up with you if you stop making puns-"
"I don't know who I really am, Sumit! That's what I'm trying to say!" Oscar cried, his hands clenching, wanting Sumit to stop making jokes and take the conversation seriously. "It's been three years since the fire, but I still feel so lost about myself! I still feel incomplete! I still feel like a stranger to myself!"
"Everyone feels like that," Sumit tried to speak softly, but again the rising sickness in his throat and sting in his forehead were growing, causing him almost to shout. "Rin still feels like that, but she lost her memories like over ten years ago-"
"Just think for a moment, Sumit! When we were-"
"I am thinking!" snapped Sumit. "I'm thinking that you just need a moment to think about-"
"Please, just listen to me! Ever since the fire, we were always together! We woke up at each other's side, recovered from our injuries and were inseparable and then started dating-"
"Are you saying you regret that?" Sumit croaked.
"I'm saying that we've become codependent. Since we can remember, we have stuck together, we were the first person we saw, and because of that we never got a chance to learn more about ourselves independently. I don't know how much of me is fake and just a copy of you-"
"Everyone is a little fake, and no one can really know who they are-"
"Why aren't you listening to me! Think about what we're like now and then what people said we used to be like before the fire-"
"The Us before the fire no longer matters! We said it didn't matter; that's not who we are anymore-"
"The Us before barely spoke, Sumit! We might not even have considered each other friends, and yet now we are together-"
"We couldn't have been close with everyone."
"We were a village of twenty and yet were not even friends."
"So what? That just means the previous Us never got together-"
"It means we would never have got together under normal circumstances!"
There was a moment of pause.
"What are you saying?" Sumit mumbled, somehow still forcing a quivering and broken smile as tears slid down his cheek. "Are you saying that you don't love me?"
Oscar stared at him, then glanced away. "No, that's not what I-"
"You don't know if your love for me is fake?"
Oscar sucked in a breath. "I think we just need to have a break to figure ourselves out-"
"You want to break up?"
"No, I don't want to break up with you, Sumit!" Oscar approached, about to take his hand, but Sumit recoiled. "I want to stay together," he said in a broken whisper.
"That's not what you've been saying," Sumit's voice cracked. "You think we only got together because we were the first people we saw, because of codependency, because of shared trauma." He shook his head, taking a step back.
"I want us to stay together, Sumit..." Oscar warbled, unable to raise his voice anymore as his throat seized up. "I just think a break would be beneficial, some time to-"
"You had plenty of time to try and find yourself and figure things out. You had a year whilst I was stuck as a fucking octopus and couldn't leave the Raining Marshes. You had all that time, or do you need not to see me at all to find yourself? Not having to make any pity visits every day!"
"Sumit, I-"
"Do you know how fucking horrible it was? How close I came to losing my mind? But I didn't because I kept on thinking about you! I kept on thinking that it wasn't that long until I got to hold you in my arms again, but all this time that I was thinking about that, you were just waiting to break up with me as soon as I transformed back. As soon as you wouldn't feel so guilty-"
"I didn't want to do it like this. I didn't want to do this now-"
"Oh, so you were going to wait a few days? Endure being with me for a while so the break-up won't be so bad?"
"I don't want to break up!"
"Well, we may as well be. If you can't find yourself in that time, how long are we going to be on pause for? You know what? You may as well as just leave the Abyss, then you'll be far away from me so you can figure yourself out!"
"I'm not leaving the Abyss-"
"What! So not only are we broken up but I have to keep seeing your face around? You think that's fair? You can leave this fucking place!" Sumit shook his head, his nails digging into his palms as he attempted to contain himself, not just throw something at a wall. "Welcome back, Sumit!" he said in a mock happy voice, again, somehow the fake smile kept coming through. "'I think our feelings are fake'."
"Sumit-"
"No, just..." Sumit sucked in a breath, holding it as he witheld the horrible and malicious words he could say at the moment. He turned and exited the house, slamming the door behind him.