(Artwork by Inkcloud)
BEFORE PROCEEDING, READ THE DESCRIPTION!
This is the FINAL book in the TRILOGY. The first two books are "Together" & "Forever" (See what I did there?) and I HIGHLY recommend you read those books first before reading this one, otherwise, a lot of this isn't going to make a lot of sense.
However, it isn't required, so if you don't want to, you don't have to. But without further ado, let's begin.
(Continuing where we left off...)
Her eyes remained stationary on the concrete wall in front of her as she listened to the hum of the light above her. She lay on her side, her arms wrapped around herself as she tried to find some peace in isolation. These past couple of months were nothing short of a mixture of both torture and peacefulness for her. Ever since she was extracted from the Maw and brought to where she is now, she was treated like a queen, being fed whenever she became hungry and being treated with great respect.
However, ever since her rescue, she felt as if she had lost a part of her. An essential part that kept her motivated to accomplish things.
Mono was gone.
Part of Six still denied his death, perhaps he ran out of the way before he could be crushed? These types of questions were the only glimmers of hope she had, but they would eventually be diminished as her heart began to throb, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I... LOVE YOU, SIX!"
Scenarios played out in Six's head where Mono made it to the elevator first and she saves him instead, or the two escape just in time with the guests seconds away from catching them. Just like every other time.
"It should've been me..."
Six squeezed her eyes shut, her grip on her yellow raincoat tightening.
"Six..?"
A feminine voice called out her name from behind her, causing her to tense up.
"Oh, there you are."
The girl that had been taking care of her and the one who had rescued her appeared at Six's side.
"Uh... are you sleeping?"
Six replied by sitting up, shaking her head to signify that she was wide awake.
"What do you want?"
"Um... just wanted to let you know that I'm fixing some food for you-"
"That's okay. I'm not hungry."
Six had the same stern expression whenever she spoke to the girl. She never showed any emotion other than sadness when Six poured her heart out to her, and it strongly bothered her. She wanted to see her guest smile, but no matter what she did, Six would glare at her no matter what.
"Well, when are you going to be hungry? You haven't eaten anything all day."
"I can fix food for myself."
Six crossed her arms, sitting against the wall behind her and looking off past the girl crouched down in front of her. The room that she was given was large, with several toys sprawled out across the floor. She also had various crayons and markers that she could use to draw, but she rarely used them, usually throwing away any form of art she produced out of dissatisfaction.
"Hm... maybe I could teach you how to make certain foods?"
"No, I'm fine."
"Or we could play a board game?"
"Nope."
"How about... maybe... we can go outside and play?"
Six shook her head, looking down at the wooden floorboards and sighing.
"I don't want to do anything right now."
The girl furrowed her eyebrows, adjusting the red bowtie that was clipped onto her long, braided hair. She noticed a small frown display on Six's face as she slumped her head back down to the floor.
"You okay?"
"Fine."
She sat down next to Six, turning over to face her directly. It was glaringly obvious that Six wasn't fine, so the girl attempted to get a conversation started.
"Are you sure there isn't anything bothering you?"
Six was silent in response, so she decided to press further.
"If you want to talk to me about anything, let me know."
"I'm... okay." Six took a deep breath in. "I just... really miss him..."
The girl understood and decided not to press any further. She knew about Mono and what happened to him and felt sorry for the poor girl, wanting to comfort her in any way that she could.
"Um... I have another thing to tell you..."
Six slightly raised her head.
"I'm listening."
"I decided to enroll you in a school. You know... so you can get outside and... maybe make some new friends?"
She awaited a response from Six, who continued to stare blankly at her as she processed the information.
"If you don't want that, I can always just take you out."
"No, no, no... don't do that."
She didn't expect Six to want to stay. If anything, she expected her to decline almost immediately.
"I want to go."
"Alright, great!"
She gave a warm smile toward Six before standing up, turning around to leave the room. For the first time in what felt like years, Six felt a little bit of joy, a timid smile forming on her face.
"Mono would be happy..."
Perhaps going to school could be her way of turning over a new leaf, starting over fresh, and leaving her history of running from giant killers in the past. For once, she was looking forward to something.
"Oh, and by the way... it starts tomorrow. I can help you pick out some clothes for you to wear if you want?"
"Sure, why not."
She shrugged, standing up and stabilizing her balance as she nearly tripped over a toy duck that was lying near her foot, giggling to herself as she kicked it into a stack of blocks, knocking the pile over. Six ran over to the stone door that separated her from the rest of the mansion, following the girl in the brown coat around the corner, not wanting to be a burden on them any more than she already was by being late. For the first time in her life, she was being treated like a normal kid, getting dressed for school.
(POV Switch)
CRASH!!
"NO!!"
He heard the sound of Six's scream as he closed his eyes, bracing for impact. A loud metal screech was heard as the guests broke through the door. His body was violently jolted upward, a yelp escaping him as he was pulled up toward the ceiling. His ears rung and his palms ached as dust kicked up into the air. He coughed, shutting his eyes and lowering his head, trying to block any incoming dust.
He winced, feeling his grip on the handle of the metal door begin to slip until he looked down. The dust had settled and now he could see outlines of large, bloated figures crawling on all fours charging after something below him. He watched as they crawled toward the empty elevator shaft, making strange groans and gurgles as they searched for what they were chasing after. The guest in front peered over the edge of the open elevator, before turning around and going in the opposite direction. The line of guests broke through a wooden door off to the side, disappearing around the corner as their grumbles grew distant.
"Wha..."
Mono panted, his body tensing up with confusion and fear. He didn't understand what was going on.
He wasn't supposed to be alive, and yet here he was, dangling from the ceiling.
"I... I'm- WOAH!"
His grip finally gave out, Mono plummeting to the floor. He landed on his back with a loud thud and stifled a cry by biting his lip for he didn't want to draw any more attention to himself. Mono sat up, staring at the wide-open doorway that the guests had plowed through, listening to their stomps get more muffled and quiet. He then looked over at the wide-open elevator, hearing a distant ding.
"Okay... I'm alive... wait, am I a ghost..?"
Mono pinched the back of his hand and felt a wave of relief as his body reacted with pain. He then tried to move his hand through the wooden floorboards he was sitting on, but the tips of his fingers immediately made contact with the floor.
"I'm alive..!"
He still kept his voice low as he quietly celebrated, holding his hands up into the air and smiling.
"Six is gonna be so relieved when she sees..."
Mono got up and turned around, his heart sinking upon the realization of where Six truly was. She had gone down, the elevator taking her directly into the Lady's quarters.
"Oh no... No, no, no, no!"
He quickly sprinted toward the open doors of the elevator as he cupped his hands around his mouth.
"SIX, WAIT!!"
Mono looked down and saw an idle elevator sitting at the very bottom of the shaft. Looking in front of him, he spotted a ladder that was combined with the wall. Taking a few steps back, he gave himself a running start as he sprinted toward the gap. Mono felt the cold wind hit his face as his brown trenchcoat flopped back. He put his arms out in front of him, opening his hands and reaching out toward the metal ladder.
Some debris slid off of his shoulder as his body jolted upon connection with the wall, his fingers wrapping around the rungs of the ladder. He focused on his breathing as he descended downward, telling himself to move faster. Mono cursed at himself for staying behind, he only put Six in more danger. But he knew that if he hadn't taken the hit, they both would've been killed.
"Damn, come on, Mono..!"
Mono tried to increase his pace but panicked as he nearly slipped off of the edge of the ladder. He decided to remain at a pace that was quick, but not too quickly whereas he would be put in danger. As he neared the bottom he jumped off, landing on top of the elevator. Part of him hoped that Six would still be in it, but as he pulled open the hatch and peered inside, his stomach sunk.
"Six? Where are you?!"
He lowered the rope that was connected to the hatch and slid down it, landing inside of the elevator. A dark hallway was presented before him, and not a sound was heard. The purple wallpaper seemed to expand for miles as the darkness challenged him to enter it. He grimaced back at it, accepting its challenge.
"She can't be far... but which way did she take?!"
Mono was in a panic, his breathing becoming unsteady as thoughts of Six getting chased by the Lady began to appear in his mind and the inevitable end that the pursuit would lead to plagued his psyche. Without any form of light, he was practically blind, so Mono resorted to feeling his hand against the wall, patiently waiting for any form of noise. Any form of hope as to where Six could be. His hand traced around a corner, leading him into another hallway. He was relieved greatly to see a flickering light source, immediately releasing his hand from the wall and following it.
"No... NO!!"
Mono tensed, freezing up with fear. At first, he thought it was Six's voice until the distant crying continued.
"DIE!!"
SMASH!!
A loud, horrifying scream was heard, causing Mono to break into a full-on sprint. He didn't care what happened to him anymore, his safety wasn't the main concern. Six's life was at risk, and he had one final chance to save her. Sprinting through the halls, he nearly tripped as he came to a stop, finding the same room where they had found the mirror from before. However, it was gone.
"She was going after the Lady..! Wait, then that means..."
Mono concluded that it wasn't Six who was screaming, rather it was somebody much taller and much more evil. He reached the end of the hallway connected to the dark area with the mirror room, peering around the corner.
"Oh my god..."
He placed his hands over his mouth in both disbelief and horror. There she was, the Lady laid out on the floor lifelessly, her head enveloped inside of a mirror. Glass shards surrounded her corpse as Mono stood there, his eyes widened.
Had Six done this?
It wouldn't be the first time Mono would have come across a corpse that Six had caused, but with this one, it almost seemed like she purposefully caused as much pain to her victim as possible. Looking ahead, he noticed an orange light protruding from a far away staircase. Several guests were crawling away off to the side, seemingly running away from some sort of entity.
"Six..!"
Mono continued running, his heart pumping as he desperately tried to catch up. He ran through the crowd of guests, who were frantically trying to open a door on the other side of the large dining room. He ran toward the tall staircase and looked up, immediately shielding his eyes. The outside world was seen, but it brought him little to no hope as Six was still nowhere to be seen. Mono didn't care how much his feet ached, he needed to get back to her, he needed her to know that he was safe.
He ascended the tall staircase, every step feeling like a small burden lifted off his shoulders as hope began to build up inside of him. This was it, he was going to get back to Six and they would escape together like they originally planned. The sound of waves crashing and seagulls cawing could be heard loud and clear from the top of the staircase, only furthering Mono's motivation to press on.
"Please... please..."
Mono reached the top of the staircase. A ray of sunlight beamed down directly on him as he looked around. Six wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"No..."
He looked out into the vast ocean and spotted a rowboat. Looking even closer, a yellow figure could be seen sitting next to another figure in brown clothing. Mono dropped to his knees, his hands burying into the grains of sand at his feet.
Mono looked out again, the rowboat's tiny frame getting carried further and further away into the ocean. Even if he were to swim or call out her name, it wouldn't matter. They were too far gone.
He let the grains of sand trickle down his hand as he raised it to his face. Mono looked back up, watching the rowboat go further out into the ocean. A tiny part of him felt satisfied that Six had made it out alive. She deserved to survive more than anyone else in the world, but Mono wanted her to be with him. To be at his side as they fled off to a safe city, where they could make new friends, and maybe encounter Seven again.
Looking off to the side, Mono felt his heart stop for a moment, then relax. A familiar trenchcoat-wearing giant was seen tying his rowboat to a wooden post. Their face was a yellow sack that hung down to their chest, with two slits for eyes. They picked up their brown hat and placed it on top of their head, turning around and seeing Mono slumped over in the sand.
"Hey..!"
Mono waved at the giant, hoping that they were still on good terms. It seemed that the giant recognized Mono immediately as it motioned for him to come over, and immediately began untying the rope that was connected to the boat. He walked over, holding the sides of his trenchcoat as the cool wind blew through his hair. Their trenchcoats swung back and forth as the wind blew hard on them.
He looked back out at the sea, hoping that he could go after the rowboat that Six was being transported on, but he couldn't see it anymore. Climbing into the rowboat, he hugged his knees and pressed his back up against the wooden interior, preparing himself for another long journey throughout the ocean.
The giant opened up his suitcase and immediately took out some crackers, dumping them out in front of Mono. He took the crackers gladly, biting into them as the giant untied the boat, stepping in and placing his suitcase inside, he picked up the paddles that were placed off to the sides of the wooden rowboat. He gently rowed out to sea, keeping a close eye on Mono as he munched on a saltine cracker.
"Thank you..."
Mono looked up at the friendly giant, who gave him a slight nod as they drifted away from the Maw.
Word Count: 2783
It feels good to be back writing once again!
Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed it so far!
I'll try and get back on my daily schedule of uploads every five days, but I might break it.
Hopefully not, though.
Anyway, have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you later!
Bye!