Wishful Dreaming

16

Mono treated it the same as the other rooms, and started the little game of search and listen. It took him a bit longer, with the larger amount of doors and plank he had to carefully cross a couple times, but he made it to another staircase. He might be getting tired from traversing all these steps, but he knew he would continue for as long as it took to get to Severn, which he felt would be coming soon.

It almost seemed like the tower really could tell what he felt and thought, because after walking up those last stairs he ended up in a hallway. Although this was normal, after a few steps he could hear the whispering that's been guiding him through all of this. They were a lot louder, and now he could tell that the movements he heard seemed to belong to more than one being. Walking slowly and cautiously, Mono made his way to the barely cracked door, and stopped.

WIth the small voice now becoming clearer, he could tell that it was indeed from Seven. The amount of pure joy and relief he felt caused Mono to no longer worry and open the door, wanting to see Seven as soon as possible. He has been going almost nonstop for what seemed like hours now to get back to his friend, he didn't want to put it on hold any longer. A part of him couldn't believe that he was actually there, only a door away from his closest friend, and a much smaller part told him that Seven wasn't actually there.

When Mono fully opened that door, that tiny voice suddenly became much louder, as he saw several figures all huddled around one smaller one. He froze, and watched as the figures didn't turn to look at him, only listening to the one on the ground below them, who was quietly whispering. They would shuffle every once in a while, or make small noises back, but other than that there were only the whispers.

The room was empty, save for the cages hanging from the ceiling and the mirrors that decorated almost every inch of the wall. It was weird, making Mono uneasy to the point he almost walked back out of the room. Then he thought of the small figure that sounded so much like Seven, and remembered who he came for. Did the Thin Man leave Seven in here with those other figures? Were those other beings humans or something else entirely? They didn't seem very human, with their gray colored skin and weird hat-like things that sat on their heads, looking somewhat like a mushroom.

Mono, who was becoming curious, crept forward towards the others. When he got close enough, somehow without any of them even acknowledging him, he could see the person on the floor more clearly. They were smaller than Seven, but had most of the other boy's features, except for the hat that sat on top that was the same as the other figures. The only way that Mono could for sure convince himself that the person was Seven, was from the shackle and chain on his foot, which is what Seven had on him. Mono had thought about trying to find a way to get it off the younger boy, but always got distracted or busied with something else. Mainly from trying to survive the onslaught of everyday threats.

Resisting the urge to go forward and rush out of here with the boy he's been looking for the entire time, Mono stared, trying to figure out what was going on. His friend seemed so different, yet so familiar that it felt unreal. The figures surrounding him were weird too, and he couldn't tell if they were dangerous to Seven or good. Right when Mono felt that everything was going to be okay, the world decided to make things difficult once more.

Although Mono's thoughts were running in a blurred mess, he finally spoke up and whispered to Seven. This caused Seven to flinch and whip his head towards Mono, while the figures didn't even bother to move. Mono called again, and Seven winced once more before shuffling back. It reminded Mono of the first time he and Seven met, and he was beginning to worry that Seven forgot who he was. Then Seven turned around a bit and held a mirror to his face, which Mono just realized he was holding, whispering once more. Mono frowned, and he strained his ears to hear what Seven was saying. He didn't register any of the words, and he thought it may be gibberish, which didn't make much sense as Seven could talk fine before.