Missing-- An SBI Fanfic

Mend What's Broken

Wilbur was awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of fabric moving around. His eyes shot open and he looked over at Tommy's bed to see what was going on. Tommy had sat up, his dull, blue-gray eyes staring ahead of him at nothing in particular. Wilbur stood up and went over to his brother, watching carefully but unsure what to do.

Slowly, Tommy stood up from the bed and started to walk. His footsteps were sloppy, his balance nearly failed him with every step, but he walked in a straight line. One... Two... Three... Four... Five... After taking six steps, he stopped in his tracks, turned to the next direction, and continued on. Tommy's room was about twelve by fifteen feet so there was plenty of room to do this, Wilbur had cleaned Tommy's room not long before he disappeared so there wasn't anything really out of place.

Tommy finished his six steps in that direction, but when he turned again he could only go one step before there was something in the way. Tommy's desk and trash can were in the path Tommy was going to walk. For an entire month Tommy's movement was limited to the confines of a six by six room and he walked around the edge of that room every day as something to do rather than sit there with his thoughts.

Tommy didn't really understand that he wasn't trapped down there anymore, hallucinations were something he had dealt with on more than one occasion in the past month. Frequent dreams of him being rescued and carried home only to wake up to the same dark room every time, they made it hard to tell what was and what wasn't real. The dreams were so vivid, he could almost feel the warmth of someone carrying him away from that hellhole. He stopped trusting his senses after being fooled by things like that so many times.

Not believing the items in front of him were real, Tommy tried to walk but stopped again when his foot made contact with the trash can. Contact. It made contact. It made noise. He felt it hit his shoe then heard a slight sound as it moved ever so slightly on the floor. All of his dreams of being rescued had one thing in common, he could never interact with things, things interacted with him.

Tommy crouched to be on the same level as the trash can and shakily reached a hand out to it. The metal can was cold to the touch, nearly empty but there was some paper in there, and it was real. Tommy picked up the trash can, hands violently shaking, and he hugged it. For the first time in about two weeks, he felt something... He felt... happy. He was so happy that something he saw was real. Then he thought of things he saw earlier, Wilbur teleporting into the room via enderpearl, Phil holding his hand, Techno saying something, Wilbur carrying him through the forest. Was that all real too? Tommy looked up from the trash can he was still hugging and saw Wilbur standing to his left with a concerned look on his face.

It took every ounce of self control Tommy had to not leap up and run to Wilbur, he wasn't completely sure Wilbur was even real at that point, so instead he tried something he hadn't done in a while. He took a slow, deep breath, then tried to speak. "w-... wil-by?" Tommy's hoarse voice cracked as he tried to get the word out. It was barely intelligible, but it was enough.

Wilbur's eyes visibly teared up as he slowly approached Tommy, sitting on his knees to be level with the boy. "Yeah, Tommy. I- I'm here." He said, smiling at his brother while trying to keep his voice steady. Tommy dropped the garbage can and reached out a hand to his brother, Wilbur met his hand halfway with his own, carefully holding his brother's hand. Tommy's eyes welled up, he could feel the warmth of Wilbur's hand, it was real, he was real. Tommy threw all caution to the wind, he latched onto his brother and he cried.

To describe Wilbur as surprised would have been an understatement but he didn't hesitate to hug Tommy back, holding back tears of his own. Techno had heard the noise and hurriedly went to investigate, when he looked into the room he saw his brothers kneeling on the floor hugging each other as if they were scared to let go. Techno was confused, but relieved to see Tommy moving again.