Mono + Six Afterstory || Little Nightmares II

Fourteen

Mono and Six walked quite a ways away from the hideout area, leaving the rest of the kids to fend for themselves in this treacherous place. They found a secluded room several floors up with a suitcase, one that had adult clothing in it; too big for them to fit, but perfect for pillows. Speaking of, they were both exhausted after walking so far and took advantage of the comfortable suitcase by sleeping in it.

Mono was the first to awaken a few hours later, and he watched over Six without disturbing her. She seemed very uneasy, though, which did tempt him a couple times into almost ruining her beauty sleep. He realized that wouldn't be a good idea, so he ended up leaving her alone both times.
However, eventually he didn't have to wake her, because she shot up in a sudden panic, as if she had just come out of a terrifying dream world. He was quick to grab her shoulder to reassure her, and she slowly but surely calmed her breathing down. "Did you have a nightmare? You're trembling..." He asked timidly, slightly worried that Six wasn't looking at his face.

"I'm fine, okay? It's the same thing I've been seeing every time I sleep." Six replied coldly, refusing Mono's consolation and standing up to create some distance between them.

"But, you said—you said you would be honest with me, Six. I thought we talked about this." Mono stared at the girl with dejected eyes, offended that she would act so distant towards him in a time of need.

     To his surprise, Six wasn't sympathetic when he brought up an earlier conversation; instead, she became angry, and emotions were heightened suddenly. "Don't pull that with me right now. I can't talk about it, okay?! Just drop it." Her blood was boiling, but she didn't really know why. The dream she kept having...not even she understood what it was, and she didn't want to admit to feeling so lost.

     Although Mono was extremely taken aback by Six's outburst, and hurt by her distrust, he took the girl's advice and didn't bring it up again. He stood from the suitcase and approached Six with disillusionment plastered on his expression. "Do you want me around? I understand if you'd rather be alone." He murmured these words, though he didn't even think about how Six must feel, and how they would affect her. He just felt guilty when he saw her reaction.

     "Shut up. Stop acting like this. I'm trying my hardest..." Six admitted to being troubled, but still didn't confide in Mono regardless of her being calmed down. "I'll tell you eventually... Just let me figure things out first." She hesitantly reached her hand out to grab Mono's wrist. "Come on, let's keep moving."

"What's your goal, anyway? We only came here on a whim, so what's next?" The boy was staring at Six with a perturbed expression, appearing more serious than he typically did. He trusted her, but he wanted to make sure she had a sound plan before they just wandered around aimlessly.

"There's something I need to do here. I don't know why, but I think I was meant to come to this place." She explained herself briefly, which only confused Mono more, but thankfully they weren't arguing anymore; anything was better than that. "We have to find the woman who runs this place. I need to see her."

Mono picked up the pace with Six as they walked in the darkness, appreciating when she instinctively pulled her lighter out and flicked it on. To be honest, he didn't know how to reply to her. He thought she was acting strange, like oddly entranced by her desires. He got to thinking that maybe...maybe they weren't her desires at all; maybe they were the longing of the third party that still haunted her in the shadows. He wanted to fix her body, but he was clueless on how to even start, so he kept quiet about it. The last thing he wanted to do was undermine Six and get her riled up.

     They walked silently together, Six leading the way with her lighter and reckless courage. The submarine floors were damp and cold, which was enough discomfort to get them to move more quickly through the halls. They passed through and underneath plenty of large pipes, eventually arriving at a lone, large lantern. Six didn't hesitate to light it up and illuminate their surroundings, however, their time spent there was short and they continued on; she lifted up a vent door and crawled inside, looking behind herself occasionally to make sure Mono was following close through the vents.
     When they emerged from a metal opening they approached a menacing staircase leading from one side of the ship to the other. Six grabbed Mono's hand after noticing his squeamish expression and led him up the stairs. Once they were all the way up, the darkness surrounded them once again, and Six pulled out her lighter as she maneuvered around large crates and boxes with Mono. A small geisha statuette caught her eye momentarily, but she kept moving as to not make Mono suspicious.
     At the end of the hall, they crouched under a narrow opening and continued on through another empty, useless room. They jumped up onto a convenient platform and entered another vent, which led them to a room with overwhelmingly dark energy, no doubt because of the lifeless, swaying body hanging from the ceiling above a petite wooden chair.