Six stood at her vanity, applying makeup quietly to herself, just thinking to herself like she did every morning.
She looked into the mirror. It wasn't broken, she had replaced a lot of things in this quarters she lived in, to suite her tastes.
She admired her looks, sadly. She had never thought she would grow up to be so beautiful, and that made her sad. Cause it still did nothing to her self esteem.
In the reflection that's when she saw it. Two arms protruding from the TV on her dresser, they stuck out of the TV and helped push the rest of their body out. As she watched in the far corner of her vanity mirror, she heard the sound of buzzing and zapping, and the all too familiar static.
She did not have to turn around to get a better look at their face. She was familiar with this very very tall man. He looked like the thin man, tall, lanky, his head hung to one side. His face was always down, and even then covered by shadows it was distorted. Everytime she saw him, she could not see his face, but she knew all too well who it was supposed to be.
He started to hum. His deep voice hummed the notes clearly and she had heard this song all too many times before. It brought back a lot of...traumatic memories.
"Dont sing that song." She said quickly, placing her hands on the top of her vanity desk.
"I'm not singing." He told her, his voice glitching and crackling a little, as if he was stuck in an old film.
Six turned around slowly to face him. "Mono...what do you want... with me this time?" She said, a little shaky.
He took steps toward her, and there was nowhere for her to go. She was backed into her desk, the edge digging into her back.
He did not attempts to fix his posture, and he reached a long arm towards her, caressing her cheek and her neck.
Warm feelings fluttered in Six's chest, and she relaxed letting out a breath. All the fear went away, and the corners of her mouth flicked up into a small smile.
"I love you." He told her. Six put her hand on top of Mono's, her eyes meeting his, well trying to. She struggled to see them his face was too obscured.
Suddenly his hand tightened around her neck and he started to choke her, laughing menacingly. "Foolish girl." He snickered.
Six whimpered feeling weak, and scared. She wanted to find anymore measures of courage inside her but she found none, there was almost no space between them.
Six tried to shove him away but he grabbed her neck with his other hand, gripping around her neck tighter. He turned lifting her off the ground by the grip on her neck.
She struggled, trying to pry his hands away, while tears streamed down her face as it began to redden. She kicked at him but the more she struggled the tighter his grip got.
"Please...put....put...me down." She choked out, crying. "You said that....you...loved me" she coughed.
"I lied." Finally she could not breathe, she tried gasping for breath. Mono raised her higher before slamming her onto the ground.
Before she hit the floor Six sat up in a cold sweat. It was all a dream. It was just all a dream. She was panting, and she looked around her darkened room to find herself curled up in her satin night gown and her silky blood red bedsheets.
"It was only a dream." She said to herself, though the remnant feelings and memories stayed with her, all too vivid, lingering as they haunted her.
She shivered, shaking it off. Six buried under her blankets, pulling the covers up to her chin.
She did not want to move from the comfort of her bed and she eyed the television, as it stood, black, on her dresser just across, against the wall from the foot of her bed.
It was just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Calm down Six. She thought to herself. She felt like a little kid again, swallowed up in her king sized bed, laying awake wondering if it was safe to leave the safety of her mattress.
She always had nightmares. She thought they had gone away until she had them for years about Mono. She was scared he was still coming for revenge. She was glad he was gone because she was scared he was going to come back and try to kill her.
"Ma'am? Ma'am? It's time to wake up." There was a gentle knock at the door. Six jolted up, sitting up. She began to realize it was just her maid.
"C-come in!" Six called, draping the covers around her as she sat up in bed.
Just about everyone on this cruiseship had a maid, mostly room service for the guests. Since Six owned this ship, she had one for herself.
Her maid stepped into her room with Six's breakfast tray. She always brought it at seven o'clock sharp, in the morning.
She had brown hair, tied up into a bun on the top of her head and wore a cute black dress with layers and ruffles and simple lace, that was mid-thigh, with sheer black tights, making her skin a darker peach on her legs. She wore black heels, a white apron tied onto her dress and a cute little black bow on her neck. It was the unifrom that all maids wore, unless they were male butlers. It's just that some maids looked cuter in it than others....this maid was more petite frame and it just looked quite more flattering on her especially since she was younger. She also wore a mask made of thin porcelain that was breathable and was tied gently onto her head to hide her distorted face. They were allowed to customize their mask, so she had painted pretty flower prints for her mask's makeup. Floral prints lined the full lips and eyes for eyeshadow. Thin eyeliner was painted on and a few gold dots under her eyes and on her chin as an added touch. The mask was made to smile, since the poor maid couldn't herself.
"I decided to bring you today's breakfast special. I hope you don't mind that I changed it up a bit." She had not been distorted or messed up enough to affect her voice, which sounded light and a cheery high pitch.
"Not at all." Six said, she could almost feel the lil maid relax as she let out a quiet breath, glad she had not angered Six. She set the breakfast tray gently onto Six's bed.
"Would you like me to set out your clothes for you ma'am? Today is the day we land at the port of Pale City."
Six froze as she gazed at her five pancakes, piled in a neat stack, topped with whipped cream, butter, and drizzled with BlackBerry sauce. Black berries perched neatly on top of the pancakes and there were a side of hashbrowns, two pieces of buttered and cinnamon toast, and a small tiny bowl of plain blackberries.
"P-Pale City?" Six asked, looking over at her.
She nodded, her hands clasped neatly in front of her dress. "Is something wrong ma'am? Are you not feeling well? Should I draw a bath instead? Cool or hot?"
"N-none of it Clarisse. Sorry. Pick out something simple for me would you please?" Six asked her, beginning to eat her food.
She had been fed well here on the ship, and she tried not to think too much of it cause when she really got thinking it reminded her of the little Six that had been trapped in the depths of the Maw, malnourished and starving. There were more kids down there...she was sure of it. She couldn't go down there cause of the guilt. So she tried to turn a blind eye.
Clarisse went to Six's walk in closet and browsed through all her clothing and kimonos, dresses, and pants and shirts and all those things, to find her something Six-ish to wear.
"Hm..the weather is Pale City is quite-"
"Gloomy and rainy." They said at the same time. They both looked at eachother, confused, and surprised. It was like Six was reading her mind.
"Oh..have you been ma'am?" Clarisse asked.
"Ah...yes.." the words Pale City left a sort of metallic taste in her mouth. Six finished breakfast, wiping her mouth on the fine cloth napkin available.
"I grew up in Pale City." Clarisse told her, trying to keep the conversation going. "My parents were so happy I got a job on this cruise liner. Yknow something like humble beginnings and all. Or something like that.." she said, hurriedly, hoping she wasn't annoying Six.
Six nodded to herself. She got that. She did exactly.
"Here, how about this, since we will be taking a stop at Pale City for quite the few days, maybe you'd enjoy getting comfortable and dressing down for a bit. I thought something like this might work." Clarisse laid out a black, simple long sleeved dress, with buttons all down the front. She laid out a yellow raincoat, and then white tights and then white stockings, for options, and black dress shoes.
Six stared at her, and the raincoat laid out on her bed, mouth open slightly. She was in shock. She had not seem another stupid rain coat in what seemed like forever and she did not wish to ever see one again but still in ways it called to her. As if it were her old one.
"I-is something wrong? I bought a few new clothes for you at another pit stop a while back and yellow was the only color I thought you'd like. Or..er..is it the outfit? I can pick another one!" Clarisse hurriedly turned to the walk in closet, sweating.
"No." Six said stopping her. "I think it's fine. But the stockings would be better black." Six said, the corner of her mouth tugging into a smile.
Clarisse got inside Six's dresser, to pull out black knee high stockings to replace the white ones, she also rolled the tights up and put them away. She quietly let out a breath, happy to be of some use and not irritate Six.
If Six was happy, everybody was happy.
"It'll be quite some time before we land in at the port so it's really your choice if you'd like to change now, or maybe later if you still want to greet guests. But for now let me take this tray back to the kitchen." She said, nervously coming to get the meal tray.
Six just nodded to herself. Since she had some time she decided she would stay in bed before changing. She didn't want to finish attending to guests or anything like that. She wanted to rest, the night before hadn't been a peaceful one. So she was hoping to get some sort of rest.