Fictional reality - Little Nightmares

Didn't feed her

After ten minutes and a dozen rinses with bone chilling water, I squeezed the water out of my clothing as I hopped out of the sink. I wasn't absolutely clean but it's the best I can do currently. I slung my bag over my shoulder and picked up the tin, then chucked it at the mirror.

SMASH

The shattered bits of glass rained on the floor around where it used to be a fully intact mirror. Six and Seven both stood up as I carefully walked over the glass, and climbed the pipe up behind the wall. It amazed ne how they weren't afraid of the glass, despite being barefoot with no barrier to prevent a cut.

We made it back to the corridor and hopped off the pipe, although Six kept walking until she reached the table at the corner, which had another statue of the lady. She smashed it against the wall and black smoke appeared briefly.

"What's with the statues?" Seven asked "They look like the lady that stood on the balcony."

I shrugged, I also didn't know the answer.

We rode the elevator up, I tried remembering what would happen next, but I was having trouble, and just hoped I would know what to do in the event that we were chased again.

In one of the rooms there was a nome inserting a sleeping guest's hand in a bucket of water. I dipped my finger in the water, and the warm temperature let me know exactly what this nome was up to.

"Heh, I guess you still retain a bit of yourself as a nome." I muttered in amusement.

Seven also seemed to understand what the nome was doing.

We turned the other way and found an empty hallway. It seems... too quiet, I thought.

My suspicion was confirmed when the doors opened on our left, and dozens of guests emerged, some with face paint.
I remembered this hallway, and I felt my heart beating faster as I began to panic.

"Run!" I said quickly, dashing down the hallway. I glanced back to see Six and Seven not far behind me, and a ton of guests as well. I ran under a table, and down a staircase, hoping the other two were still behind me.

I leapt onto a long table and noticed a lamp dangling at the end. I glanced back to see the other two kids just a meter behind me.

"Grab it at the same time!" I yelled, as we simultaneously jumped off the end, each grabbing the lamp with one hand, and tumbling down on another floor shortly after.

I lifted my head up to see the guests, unable to reach us three. I was breathing rapidly as I lay on the floor exhausted.

"You two can go, I'll catch up in a moment." I wheezed.

A moment passed and I heard a rumble, and a small body collapsing.

"Oh, I'll see if there's anything ahead... Oh! Theres a sausage!" I heard Seven exclaim.

Don't feed her, I remembered Shadow Six saying. I also remembered this is where Six ate a nome alive. I got up and ran through the first doorway, where I heard a yelp, and a thud. I ran through the second doorway and found Seven on the ground, and Six pinning him down by the arms.

She then brought her head down and I heard a shriek of pain. I rushed to shoved her off of Seven, and frantically pulled him back through the paper door. I noticed a bite wound on his neck, blood trickling out of it. The skin wasn't torn off, and there didn't seem to be an arterial puncture.

"Wh-what!?" He shrieked,
"I don't understand how she escalates to this, just stay here, you're already bleeding."

I returned to Six, now curled on the floor, wincing as her stomach rumbled again. On top of the table, Shadow Six manifested and looked down at Six, then turned her head towards me.

"Thank you." She said before she disappeared, and black static swarmed around Six.

I noticed Seven peering into the room from behind the paper door, likely confused. He flinched when Six sat up, and so did I. I really hope I didn't make a mistake.

I could see a wide smile on her face as she glanced down at herself, which disappeared as soon as she saw Seven, then me. I cautiously stepped towards her, and her expression turned to one of guilt.

"Are you ok?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"Yep," she nodded, her lips and fingers were trembling.

I looked at Seven, who began to step away from the narrowly open doorway. I went to check on him.

"What happened? Why are you being all nice?" He questioned.

"Her behavior changes drastically when she gets hungry," I explained, "though I didn't feed her this time... you saw the black static right?"

"Yeah, and what was that black shadow on the table?"

"That is an entity connected to Six in some way, she told me in a dream not to feed her." I told him.

"I guess we'll see if you made the right choice." He replied, seemingly accepting the bizarre information I told him.

I felt a buzz in my pocket, it was my phone. The screen turned into static when I tool it out, and I felt myself being pulled to the screen. I blinked and found myself back in Mono's room in the tower.

"She's restored." He stated.

"What does that mean?"

"The Six you were with for the last several hours, was just a body with brain functions, the shadow was her soul." He explained.

"When did this separation occur?" I asked.

"When my older thin self took her, her soul was left behind. The body has little emotion compared to a normal person, and also seems to act on instinct. Probably why she dropped me after breaking her music box, she didn't think about what I freed her from by doing so." He explained.

"But, she is restored now, and hopefully she is grateful that you didn't feed her, which now that I think of it, was something she requested of you."

I wasn't able to respond before I was pulled back out of the screen, though I didn't have anything else to say.

I climbed to the hole leading to the next room, and looked to see Six sitting on the floor, in deep thought.

"Hey, you coming?" I said, before she quickly looked up and nodded, then came along. The way she stood up and followed looked a bit different from how she did previously.

We made it to an elevator door and threw a can at it's button. We rode the elevator up, and the doors opened to reveal a luxurious interior, better looking than the rest of the ship.

End of chapter.

Imma probably take another month or two for the next one, but I hope you enjoyed this.