S I X - A Little Nightmares Story

Chapter Five - Time Loops

"Six?", Mono said once more as he shook her awake. Six's eyes fluttered open as she took in deep breaths, waking up from her little "faint-fest". Six stared up at Mono, who was looking at her with a concerned and worried look. He had one arm and hand wrapped around Six's back, his other hand waving in front of her face. This was the same boy that Six had betrayed, the one she let fall into a dark out and left him to die, but he was trying to keep her safe. He was still trying to help her. Still trying to wake her up from a simple faint.

"Six, are you alright?", Mono asked. Six looked at Mono with confusion. She didn't understand why Mono was caring so much for her. Why he was trying to comfort her and make sure she was okay. Six adjusted her feet so that she could stand up straight. She pulled Mono's arm away from her back and pushed him away. She wiped off her outfit and looked back up at Mono. Mono still looked worried and concerned, taking a step towards Six. "Are- Can- Can you stand on your own?"

Six looked at Mono, still confused. "Mono... why are you being so nice?", Six asked, not answering either of the man's questions. Six reached her hand to her face to make sure that her mask was still on, and she was happy to find that it was and that Mono had respected her privacy. She put her attention back up to Mono. Mono looked a bit confused now, as if to ask what Six meant. Six that she would answer the unasked question. "Well, I betrayed you. I don't get why you're being to nice because I'm... such a terrible person."

Mono listened, but shook his head at the comment she had made. Six looked at Mono, majorly confused. "I don't care about what you did then. We were kids. You were scared. You knew I would become,", Mono paused and gestured to himself, "this. The Thin Man." Six stared at Mono. She didn't realize that even as an adult, Mono still believed in the goodness of Six. He couldn't look at Six in a bad way. Six still felt bad, if not worse. He still never hated her. He didn't want revenge, but rather wanted her to be safe and sound.

"Are you okay?", Mono asked. Six nodded.

"How did you find me? And why are you here?", Six asked. She felt that it was her turn to ask the questions.

"Well, I've been... watching, I guess you could say.", Mono said. Six looked at Mono, more confused than the first few times he had looked at him. "Let me attempt to explain. When you dropped me into that television void place, I was able to go different places. I was able to travel through the televisions. I traveled through multiple until one day, I came through one of the televisions on this ship. The Janitor's, I think. And I came all the way up here, sneaking past those creatures. I saw you, in the lighthouse. But I wasn't ready to speak to you yet. I recently gathered the courage to come speak to you. I've realized something."

Six was enwrapped into Mono's story. She grabbed a stool from nearby that was close to her counter. She dragged it over to where Mono was and placed it close to him. She sat on it and looked up at Mono. "What did you realize? What do you mean?", Six asked.

"Well, I've realized something important.", Mono started. "You see, we've done this before. All of this. Before you ask, I'll explain this whole 'theory'. The Thin Man is who I am now. Exactly who I am now. Height, hair, face, clothes, everything. And I see that you've become, what they call around here, 'the Lady'. That was just us. We're on a sort of continuous time loop. We always become the Lady and the Thin Man. I've come here because I want us to find a way to stop it."

Six examined the whole conversation between the two of them, realizing how insanely correct that Mono was, no matter how crazy it sounded. That would explain why there was an exact replica of Six's raincoat in the lighthouse. It was her raincoat. It would explain the pictures of a tall shadow in the lighthouse. Mono. Six truly had become the creature she fought before. She was the Lady. Mono was the Thin Man.

Six stood up from her stool and walked over to Mono. She looked around the room, glancing at all of the pictures. She looked back at Mono. "How do you think we can stop the time loop?", Six asked.

"We stop our past selves from making the same mistake.", Mono answered. Six tilted her head a bit. She looked around the room as she walked back over to her counter. She picked up her hairbrush and began to brush her hair over and over calmly. The activity of brushing her dark hair calmed her down.

"How do you suppose we do that?", Six asked as she avoided looking at her reflection in the mirror. She caressed her hair as she brushed it. Mono walked over to her, sitting on top of the countertop. He looked at her. She looked back.

"Well, I think we could leave this place and-", Mono began, but Six cut him off.

"Leave? I can't just leave.", Six said. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kinda the boss around here. The leader that everyone listens to." Mono rolled his eyes a little bit, which slightly surprised Six. She had never seen him do something like that, something that would seem rude.

"I noticed.", Mono said with a chuckle. "Look, we can say that you have to leave for some reason that we make up, and just tell them not to mess with anything. Just do the usual thing." Six sighed a bit. It appeared that she wasn't going to win this argument.

"May I continue?", Mono asked.

"Yeah, yeah.", Six said, a bit annoyed.

"Okay. As I was saying, we leave. We'll have to leave through the Janitor's television, just the way I got here. We get to Pale City, find our past selves, convince them to not do what we did, and get going. Simple, right?", Mono explained with a small rhetorical question at the end.

"Simpl- Mono!", Six said in disbelief. Mono sighed.

"Look, I'm sure it'll be easier than it sounds, okay, Six?", Mono said. Six looked at Mono, one eyebrow raised. Although, the facial expression was pointless since she had her mask on.

"Alright, alright.", Six finally agreed and gave in. She placed her hairbrush back onto the counter and stood in front of Mono, who was still on the countertop. "When are we going to go?"

"I was thinking... tonight? Or in a few hours?", Mono said. Six sighed and looked at Mono with a hint of disbelief once more. "What?"

"Thanks for the notice, stick man.", Six said. Mono huffed and glared at Six for the random nickname. Six chuckled a bit. "I... fine. Fine. I give in. Tonight."

Mono smiled. "Thank you.", he said.

"I gotta get ready. I need to prepare some food or something.", Six said. Mono smiled a bit as he touched her cheek, catching Six's attention. Six looked at him.

"Let's start by getting rid of this mask.", Mono said. He lifted the mask of the Lady off of Six's face. He unwrapped the band that was attached to the mask from her head, taking the mask completely off. Mono held the mask tightly as he glanced over Six's face. Six let him take the mask off. She didn't hesitate. She didn't care if he saw her face or not. Because instead of seeing a monster like Six saw, Mono saw someone that he cared about.