Phytoremediation

Here comes the sun, am I falling up?

Sunny looked at the elevator panel. No help button.

This is concerning.

Sunny looked at Basil, who looked a bit frantic.

"Can you call your dad?" Sunny asked, a bit more panicked than he meant to sound.

"Ah... yeah sorry I'll do that!" Basil began dialing into his phone quickly, and held it up to his ear.

"Yeah, hey dad- sorry, Heath." Sunny could hear his dad from the other end, the elevator made everything seem louder.

"What is it, Basil?"

"I'm stuck in the elevator in your hotel... it's between two floors."

His father made an audible sigh, as though his faulty elevator trapping his son was an inconvenience. "Do I really need to call a technician, or can you just get out on your own?"

What a stupid question, god I wish Basil didn't have such shitty parents.

"I don't think we can..."

"So useless..." his father less than subtly muttered, "Fine, they should be there in the next 24 hours, so don't you dare call 911. Now don't call me again today, unless the auditors are calling you."

"But-" Basil started, but only got a beeping in response. Heath hung up on him.

Sunny felt some anger at Heath, but being trapped in an elevator, there's no point hanging onto it, so he just shouted for help. Unsurprisingly, no response. This was the 6th floor, nowhere near the lobby.

Basil covered his ears with a wince, a bit too loud it seemed.

"Sorry... I guess nobody can hear us..." Sunny said a bit solemnly.

"It's okay... it's not like it was you who brought us on this elevator... sorry Sunny." Basil said looking down.

A loud whirring came from the wall next to them, before they felt themselves jerk downwards again, and the lights in the elevator going out. The doors opened to absolutely nothing, but a wall.

Basil and Sunny both cowered in a corner. Basil shocked at the general circumstances, and Sunny afraid of somehow falling down.

A voice came over an intercom in the hallway outside the elevator, "The elevators are temporarily disabled, please exit at the floor your elevator opened to, and use the stairs." The voice then followed with something in English, probably the same instructions for the tourists.

Sunny carefully made his way towards to opened doors, neither of the doors of the floors they were between had opened. He carefully looked at the doors. There were some sort of hook mechanisms that had attached to part of the doors on each floor, which had pulled back.

Sunny was clueless to this whole thing, and moved back to Basil, of course, the hooks were meant to help open the doors, but they only worked if both pairs of hooks were pulling at the same time, on the same door. This was usually to prevent imprecise stops, making sure no lawsuits could happen from someone tripping over a ledge, but this time they trapped Basil and Sunny inside.

After staring for a few seconds at the side of the floor between the two stories, Sunny glanced at Basil. He looked shaken, and seemed like he was on the verge of panicking. Sunny held Basil's hand for comfort, not just for Basil's, but also to calm Sunny's nerves too.

Basil nervously bit at his thumbnail, Sunny looked on with concern, though he knew nothing he could really say would ease their nerves. They were trapped in an elevator, without knowing how soon or how much later they'd get out. At least they knew that the staff knew about it, seeing as apparently all the elevators had their service stopped temporarily.

The doors closed suddenly, making both of the boys jump a little. The shock evolved as they heard a loud click, making them cling together.

Then they free fell a whole half-story, making them scream in horror.

Fuck. I'm going to die a kissless virgin.

The horror subsided as the elevator's freefall slowed to a crawl downwards. After a short time, they stopped, still clinging together in fear. The doors slowly opened, actually revealing light, Basil and Sunny separating quickly, embarrassed.

"You okay, boys?" A man asked, crouching down. He had a white hardhat and full grey clothing. The technician arrived far more soon than Basil's father implied. Maybe not though, as it turned out it was now 3:28 AM.

"Y-Yes, thank you..." Sunny replied thankfully, unable to hide his residual fear.

The receptionists applauded the man, Sunny caught himself also nearly applauding. The man flicked his hardhat upwards while standing up, then made a small bow to the two boys. "Good to hear you're safe. Now I'm going up to the roof to fix this elevator's real problem."

The man turned a key in the panel next to him, the elevator's lights came back on. He then closed the panel, and screwed a screw back into it at lightning speed, leaving nothing visible but a metal plate on the wall. He put his fingers to his head and then away, another method of signaling goodbye, then the elevator doors closed and he made his way to the roof on the middle elevator.

"Are you boys sure you're okay?" The receptionist named Annie asked, concerned.

"W-We're fine, I think." Basil answered, Sunny nodded in agreement.

"Well, okay, the stairs are over there." she pointed over at a doorway a couple meters to the right of the elevators.

The two began their ascent to the 8th floor, a long walk to be sure.

"Th-That was scary, huh?" Basil said, assumedly trying to make small talk.

Sunny nodded, he didn't want to admit it but if he stayed in that elevator much longer with Basil he may have admitted his feelings, in case they wouldn't make it out alive, a fear which he also didn't want to admit he had.

"Sorry for panicking in there. A-And thank you for holding my hand. I needed that." Basil said a bit more quietly.

Sunny looked into Basil's eyes. They still looked scared. "It's okay." Sunny said.

Usually Sunny tried to emote more, because whenever he didn't it made him think of those days he would make himself feel nothing at all. The days he made himself be Omori.

I won't be like that anymore.

Of course, forcing yourself to wear your heart on your sleeve is difficult when you're too tired to even smile. Basil never minded, at least.

They were at the 6th floor, and Basil stopped, and hugged Sunny. "Thank you so much. For everything."

Sunny really didn't feel he deserved thanks. He killed his sister, dragged Basil into it, and then just hid inside, letting Basil get bullied all those years, not just by Aubrey, but by everyone else too. Though, when he ruined Basil's photo album, which Aubrey bullied Basil for, it definitely didn't help.

You're the one who should be getting thanked here, Basil.

Of course, he didn't have the energy or mental strength to try to put into words what he felt, so he just whispered back to Basil, "Thank you too."

Basil and Sunny stopped hugging, and Basil smiled at him, making Sunny's tired heart flutter. His face remained flat as always, just with slightly pinkened cheeks.

"Let's get to bed, heh..." Basil said with a pretty smile.

The two made their way up the stairs, quickly reaching the 8th floor. Basil's train of thought was very jumbled, making Sunny barely able to understand what he was saying, one second speaking about the relationship between ants and peonies, the next suddenly talking about his fears about the next rally, then talking about misconceptions about tulips origins, it made Sunny's head spin, but Basil was speaking with such passion in his voice, so Sunny still liked listening... trying to listen, at least.

They made it to their room while Basil was telling Sunny about the economic bubble in the Netherlands after the introduction of tulips from Turkey. Basil finished by saying "So I mean, if you think about it, the Turkish knew it was cause a bubble, and would benefit from the Dutch's... uh... I'll tell you in the morning. Basil collapsed onto the bed and immediately fell asleep.

Sunny, also exhausted, climbed in next to him, and hugged his arm before falling asleep.