S I X - A Little Nightmares Story

Chapter Nineteen - The Patients

The Patients were residing in their rooms, silent. Light peered in through the room, so the Patients were still. Six remembered launching Mono into the rooms and staying in her own, silent and worrying that Mono might be killed at any moment. Mono's memories were a bit different, as he remembered having to sneak around them, living by his wits. But neither of them had a positive view on the situation. Mono glanced over his shoulder at Six.

"This should be fine, since there's light in the room.", he whispered. Six nodded a bit but still felt uneasy. She allowed her magic to rest at the tips of her fingers, poised to attack at any moment. Mono noticed her and held out his hand for her to take. Six shook her head softly, as if to thank him but assure him she would be fine.

Six and Mono took slow steps through the room, ready for anything to happen, though the two felt a bit more comfortable with the light flowing in through the window. As they went through the room, none of the Patients moved at all, to Mono and Six's pleasure. The two came to the end of the room and picked up their pace. Six let out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, the mannequin hand of one of the Patients tightened its grip around Six's mouth. Mono let out a gasp as he turned towards her and the Patient who's head was a clothing hanger. He held out his hand to help, but Six wanted to help herself this time. Mono wasn't the only one with powerful abilities, after all.

Six held her hand up to her mouth area, where the Patient's hand was suffocating her, and gripped her own hand, her dark force circling around the Patient's hand. The plastic hand was then shaken more and more until each finger was suddenly cracked in unnatural ways all at once.

If the Patient could have screamed, it would have. It bent over in pain, the other hand gripping the cracked one. Six turned around towards the Patient and raised the both of her hands, the dark smoke of her powers circling around the Patient.

And all at once, it happened.

Every joint in the Patient's body snapped, the thing twisting and turning into every position possible and impossible as it crumpled like a paper ball onto the floor. As it did, the sick crackling of the snaps like bones intensified. There was one last snap and the Patient was bashed into nothing on the tile floor before Mono and Six.

Six stared at it. She felt like she had when, all those years ago, she was at the school, bashing one of the Bullies' heads against the wooden floor again and again until the porcelain doll's head shattered like glass. It had the same likeness to when she was snapping the fingers of the doll in the Hospital so many years ago. Six found herself lost in the memory of that dark feeling as she stared at the broken Patient in front of her. She stood there, spaced out, until she felt Mono's hand on her shoulder.

"Six?"

She snapped out of her trance and looked at Mono, who wore a concerned expression on his face. He looked scared, as he had seen her get carried away by murderous influence before. He didn't want her to drift away as she had all those years ago. He had a grip on her shoulder that seemed to tell her "don't leave me, don't leave me like you did before".

Six laid her hand on his to assure him that she wouldn't be leaving him any time soon. Mono took his hand from her's and the two walked along the floors of the Hospital. Mono's anxiety seemed to grow as they came closer to a hallway Six had not been to, one she was assuming Mono had.

The two finally came to a hallway full of torn-in holes along the metal walls. Mono took in a deep breath, his teeth gritting. Six noticed this and tilted her head to the side. "You alright?", she asked, the concern in her voice more obvious than she wanted it to be.

"This hallway... We need to be careful. A lot of Patients will be reaching towards us from the walls.", Mono said, and Six could tell from his facial expression of fear that this had scarred him, most likely from the sudden chaos that had happened in this hallway.

Mono gripped Six's hand and began to dash out of the hallway, and just as quickly, well over ten hands of Patients burst out through the walls and began to reach their plastic fingertips out towards Mono and Six. Six kept down a loud shriek and instead kept her feet going, until they didn't.

One of the hands held a tight grip on Six's bare right leg, pulling her to the cold, hard ground. This time, Six let out a blood-curdling scream as she was pulled down. Mono turned around and saw that Six had been wrenched from his grasp. He held his hand out to Six.

Six held on to Mono's hand as he pulled up, but unsuccessfully was unable to pull Six out of the Patient's grip. Six turned her hand towards the mannequin hand to do the same thing that she had to the other Patient, but it kept pulling her towards the metal repeatedly, taking away her focus, and adding more and more pain.

A low grumble erupted from Mono as he held one grip on Six while his other hand was raised up towards the hallway behind them. His eyes faded from their usual pitch black to static, the dark aura surrounding his eyes. He let out a shout, and it happened.

Suddenly, all the hands of the Patients busted and shattered, pieces of metal and porcelain flying through the air. The sound was deafening, and everything was silent after, all at once.

Six dropped to the floor, with the cushioning of Mono's arms around her. Mono picked her up and examined her leg. He glanced at it then back at Six. "You're alright, it didn't do too much damage.", he said calmly.

But Six was speechless. She stared at the shatter pieces of plastic and porcelain trailed along the floor. This is what Mono had the power to do, and it was somehow only now that Six was realizing this. Realizing how powerful he was.

Mono began to continue walking along the hall, but Six held his arm, stopping him. Mono stood and turned towards her with a questioning look on his face.

"Thank you.", Six whispered.

Mono nodded and pulled her by her hand along the hall.

They adventured around the Hospital, at least, only the parts they were aware of, having to destroy many different Patients along the way. The two kept adventuring, going along the trail of knocked-over shelves and belongings of the Hospital until they came to the incinerator, where the two had successfully burned the Doctor into ashes.

Another memory flooded into Six's mind, the memory of Mono jumping and pulling down the lever that turned on the incinerator. The soft glow of the flames within the contraption sent a wave that radiates towards the two kids. Six had sat down in front of it and held her hands out, allowing the heat to envelop around her. She hadn't cared that the heat came from the burning of a living creature, one that had killed them. She was just happy with the warmth that surrounded her.

Mono looked out a window that lied within a separate part of the room. He let out a sigh of frustration. "They could be anywhere, you know. Our younger selves.", he said as he gripped his hands together tightly. "It could be too late." He glanced downward at the floor.

Six shook her head a bit. "Don't think like that. They might still be here."

Mono let out another sigh, and it seemed that he was convincing himself that there was no way of winning a route out of this time loop.

But suddenly a wave that caused the ground beneath them to rumble washed over them. Mono stared out the window, and he noticed that the transmission that was erupting from the Signal Tower was much stronger than before. Six watched as the signal pulsed harshly, somewhat in its trance.

"They're there.", Mono said, breaking the fearful silence between them.