Work Text:
Gasp
The Runaway Kid shot up, awake. Why was he awake? Was he dreaming? No. no, this didn’t feel like a dream in fact he was positive it wasn’t. An unnerving feeling washed over him as he scrambled to remember what he’d been doing before- before, well, waking he guessed.
He looked down at his hands, he saw nothing but glitchy black wisps that resembled hands. This part didn’t seem to bother him so much, even if it was a little daunting. He stood and looked around, he was in a hallway and a door loomed tall at the end.
Moving was hard, as if he was being slowed down by a weight that wasn’t his own. As he tried his best to run for the door a feeling of coldness swept over him, the sound of disturbed water flowed around him. He didn’t understand what it was but it felt frightening.
Still, he had to keep going! Small creatures flickered in his mind, scared but kind. Then, a horrible blackness that hurt his lungs. He coughed and gasped for air as he felt a sense of danger, like something had been lurking in the shadows.
It felt like tears were welling in his eyes as he was struck by the sound of gentle music, beautiful furniture and lots of books. It was almost serene but- but there were shadows accompanied with a horrid scream. It was nearly clear in his mind now.
He might have been running now but he had been running then too, more terrified than he had ever been. That’s right. He’d seen her! Then he ran and tried to escape but… was still caught. He almost lost his pace as he felt how his body had been twisted and distorted into something else. Something smaller but familiar.
He kept running even after, more lost and broken than he had been before.
Now, nearly at the door he reached his hand out to it, almost there! Then he remembered that he had wandered into a room, two other creatures had been there but they skittered away leaving him there. Alone. Nothing but a piece of meat in front of him, a sausage he recalled but the dread that came with the memory made him feel ill.
A girl had entered the room and he heard her tummy growl, she was starving. It looked painful. He wanted to help! So he picked up the sausage, she was hungry so she’d like it, right?
Then, it dawned on him. It wasn’t the sausage she’d taken a bite out of, it was him. There was blood. His blood . He- he just.. he just wanted to help … but he’d..
Died.
The realisation came crashing down on him like as if the weight of an entire ocean had been dumped on top of him. His fingers had almost brushed the door when he stumbled. He braced himself for the inevitable impact with the door, only, that wasn’t what happened. Time seemed to correct itself as he plunged straight through the door, like it wasn’t even there, he landed on the other side.
He was now lying on the floor. He felt so- so angry and.. hurt. He didn’t get a chance to mourn his own death when the sound of someone else's sobbing reached his ears. He took a chance and looked up.
There in the middle of the room was a chair, bigger than himself and the child who sat upon it. It was probably one of the most heartbreaking sights he’d laid eyes on yet. If complete and utter despair had a physical form he supposed that this is what it’d look like. With his own situation now entangled in this room, it almost tore him into two. He wanted to cry along with this child but he held it in for the moment.
He got to his elbows but as he did the floor creaked beneath him, alerting the other child. The boy, he was pretty sure, looked terrified at his intrusion. Terrified and confused.
The Runaway Kid cleared his throat. “Sorry.. I scared you.” He stood up which seemed to earn him a distrustful look. He couldn’t blame the kid really.
It felt like he wasn’t supposed to be here but he wasn’t even sure where here was. “You look so sad.. so I feel bad for asking but- but can you tell me where I am..?”
Silence. The boy looked away from him, whatever had happened to him, why he was in this room seemed to weigh on him. His fists shook as he gripped his pants tightly.
Please! He needed an answer. Where was he? He’d died, right? So was he stuck here now too?
“Please.. please answer me! …..I-I’m so scared, I don’t know where I am.” He tried to keep a lid on his emotions just until he got an answer but that was when he broke. He cried. His voice sounded odd, distorted and displaced but he cried.
Something shuffled. He looked up from his weeping to see the boy shifting, like he wanted to do something. His voice carried along quietly through the small room. “The Signal Tower..”
“W-what??” The Signal Tower..?
The boy nodded. “That’s where you are… so.. please don’t cry, okay?”
“Thank you.” He sniffed. “But I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s an awful place…”
That didn’t make him feel any better and the boy seemed to notice even through his own tears.
“I’m Mono.”
His wispy hands wiped his face out of habit. He didn’t know what kind of name that was but it suited the boy. It suited Mono.
He looked away from Mono. “I-I don’t have one of those. A name I mean.”
“Oh…” Mono felt guilty for asking but- “...is it because you’re.. dead?”
The Runaway Kid shook his head. “N-no. I just.. never had one.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault.” He thought for a moment, shaking a little. “Mono? Would you mind if I came over to you?”
Mono slowly nodded. “Okay.”
The Runaway kid walked over to the other, hesitantly at first but he found himself wanting to talk to Mono. He wanted to talk to somebody.
He closed the distance between them and looked up at the other boy. Mono seemed to shift uncomfortably with his gaze upon him so he looked down to where his feet should've been. “I like your coat.”
Mono smiled. He hadn’t done that in SO long. He wiped his face with his sleeve. “..you do?”
“Yeah!” It made him miss his own blue shirt.
Mono hummed for a moment before fiddling with his coat. “Can I show you something?”
The Runaway Kid almost wanted to jump up onto the chair with Mono but he held himself back as much as he was intrigued by what Mono wanted to show him. “Y-yeah, I wanna see!”
Mono pulled out a hat, then another and another, he had quite a neat little collection going! The sight made the Runaway Kid feel good inside despite all the bad. Then he did something he didn’t think he was capable of.
He giggled.
Mono seemed to light up at the sound, like it was the best sound he’d heard in a very long time and he joined in. Some hats he held and hugged to himself.
“Hey, you don’t have a name, right? Well- I mean if you want to, I-I could help you think of one!”
A name? It never occurred to him he could have a name. A name of his very own! “You’d do that.. for me?”
“Well, yeah. If you want one..” Mono looked away meekly.
“Yes! I-I’d love one! Thank you, Mono!” That good feeling rose at the thought of receiving something he’d never had.
Mono smiled again at the glitchy wisp in front of the chair. He felt that this was something that was out of place but it didn’t matter, he could tell the kid wasn’t dangerous. They may have been another dead kid, a boy by the sound of it, but he was still a kid and like himself he seemed as sad, scared and lonely as he was. And he liked his hats! He’d made up his mind, he wanted to talk to him. He wanted to talk to somebody.
Mono placed his hats back into his coat, all except one. He scooted right to the edge of the chair and climbed down. He approached the other child. “Here, I want you to have this.”
Mono placed the cap onto the kid’s head, surprised it stayed there but equally as pleased.
From what he could tell, the kid seemed surprised. “I-I can really have this?”
“Yeah.. I want you to have it!” Mono beamed at the kid who adjusted it to fit better.
“I love it! Thank you!!”
“Okay, let’s think of a name for you now!”
The Runaway Kid nodded, his new hat moving with him. Mono reached out a hand to him and he took it but the moment he did…
Everything shook.
Both looked around as everything writhed and distorted, like a glitch on a TV. The rumble enveloped them as they held onto each other.
The Runaway Kid’s voice came out like a scared distortion. “What’s going on?”
“I-I don’t know but something’s wrong!”
Mono watched. Scared . His new friend started to glitch until he was unrecognisable then a second later back to a regular glitchy wisp. He felt his heart stop each time, was he going to lose this friend too? They’d only just met! Was he going to be alone again! No. no, he couldn’t do that again! He tightened his grip on the kid, they both could do this!
Sound seemed to stop around them even as the rumbling continued. The Runaway kid looked at his arm, the one that held onto Mono’s hand tightly. It was clad in blue. Why was it blue? Was- was that his hand? His actual hand..?
He let go of Mono and felt his face. His mouth, his nose, eyes, hair and.. his new hat… he.. he was..!
Mono gaped at him. He was shocked, he was delighted and confused and he spoke up above the noise. “You- you have a body!”
The Runaway Kid looked at him, the tears welling up but this time, he could feel them as they fell.
The flooring beneath them shuddered and tilted. They tumbled towards the door but as the Runaway Kid hit it, it just seemed to glitch away and Mono tumbled through after.
The Tower seemed angry, it seemed confused and……… corrupted.
Mono grabbed the kid’s hand as they stopped rolling. This was wrong, they needed to get out! “We need to get out! I-I’m gonna try to make a door.”
“Make a door? How??”
Mono couldn’t explain, at least not at the moment. He focused his energy and raised his other hand. With the glitching and distortion around him it took all of his concentration. With a buzz a bright white doorway appeared before them both. Mono breathed heavily, with the Tower’s confusion he’d just managed it.
The two held on tight as they passed through the door.
……………
Mono sat up slowly, the chains upon him finally removed. He was free.
He looked at the other boy. “Hey, are you okay?”
The Runaway Kid sat up too. “Y-yeah. I don’t understand what happened but.. I’m okay.”
The two of them looked back at the glitching TV as it seemed to subside and switch itself off.
“Seven.”
Mono looked back to the other. “Huh..?”
“I mean- Mono is a number too, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I think I’d like a name like yours and.. well, I always liked the number seven so..”
Mono smiled at Seven.
“I like it! I think it suits you, Seven.”