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Seven awoke with a start. His chest heaved as he caught his breath, just a dream he told himself. Though, he could’ve sworn he heard something-
Cough
Ah, right. He looked over at Mono who coughed again and shifted beside him. Mono had been fine yesterday, for about half the day before he began to feel unwell, he’d ended up getting a little sick after all. Today though, he looked worse and that cough sounded awful.
Seven sat up in the little nest of blankets they’d made. What Mono really needed was medicine, he’d hate to see him getting something worse than a little fever and cough. Getting sick could have been a death sentence if Mono had been alone, luckily he wasn’t.
Seven frowned a little, the Maw had been very cold too and because of that a lot of the other children would get sick. They weren’t even provided blankets either which only made it worse. He remembered one time when he did get sick enough that they gave him medicine. Awful stuff. It had helped though and he got better. The children’s welfare naturally hadn’t been in those horrible adults’ best interest except when they got too sick and it intervened with things.
Well anyway.. that wasn’t important at the moment, getting his friend better was. Seven lightly shook Mono’s shoulder waking him.
Mono shifted, then he sat up and rubbed his eyes. He tilted his head as he looked at Seven. “What is it?”
“Mono, I think your cough is getting worse.. maybe I should find some medicine.”
They were both safe for the moment but Mono shook his head. He didn’t like the idea. He could feel himself growing anxious at the thought of being alone, unable to help.
He smiled and tried to say “I’ll be fine.”
He coughed instead.
Seven looked at him, unimpressed while Mono had a sheepish look on his face.
“I-I’ll be okay!” He looked down and away from Seven, after a moment he sighed. “No, I guess you’re right..”
Of course Seven was right about this, though the way Mono’s hands trembled didn’t escape him so he softened his expression.
“I’ll try not to be long, okay? If you want, I can lock the door beh-”
“NO!”
Mono gasped at himself and immediately covered his mouth with his hands. Something he didn’t mean to do, he- he just- “I’m- I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to- I just.. I don’t- please don’t lock the door, okay?”
Seven faced his friend who was still apologising looking very unwell and all the more distraught at his own outburst. It was a mistake on his part, not Mono’s. He should have made the connection sooner, he was the one who had found him in that locked room after all..
“Don’t worry about it, alright?” He smiled at him.
“You’re not mad?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Why would I be?”
Mono shifted. “Well, maybe I should go-”
“No.” Seven huffed. “It’s too cold out there, you’ll just get worse.”
Mono looked down at his hands, for a little kid that was the biggest look of disapproval he’d ever received considering he couldn’t even see half of Seven’s face since it was covered by his hair.
Mono sighed but what lingering thoughts he had were replaced with surprise as he almost jumped when he felt something land on his head. He turned to Seven in bewilderment.
“You can look after my hat for me while I’m gone!”
Mono nodded, then coughed again. Yeah, he could do that. Keep it safe for him.
Seven stumbled through the blankets and over to the window, he pulled himself up enough to peek out. “I think I can see a shopping centre just down the street, I’ll try looking there first.”
He let go of the window and landed back on the floor, he needed something to carry the medicine in. The floorboards creaked a little under him as he headed to a closet and pulled the door open. The closet was full of dust but he rummaged through it anyway, he pulled out blankets and pillows and other things until he found a little bag. It was a bit big for him but it would do even if it was so dus-
Achoo!
-ty.
Mono giggled as the dust went everywhere.
Seven brushed himself off as best as he could then put the bag over his shoulder. “Get some rest and I promise I’ll be back soon.”
Mono coughed and laid back down as he watched Seven go to the door, he really didn’t feel too well and watching Seven walk out the door filled him with worry and dread.
As the door closed behind Seven he mumbled. “Be careful.” It wouldn’t be long before he drifted back off to sleep.
.
.
.
The air out on the street was damp and foggy. A normal thing for the Pale City Seven noticed. Treading through the puddles left on the ground he snuck over to the shopping centre. The windows to the complex had been smashed so he carefully walked through the broken glass and went inside.
It was dark but there were just enough lights around for him to be able to see where he was going. It almost made him miss his flashlight.
Alright. First, medicine. Then he supposed food and water would also be a good idea. Oh! and- and maybe he could find something to cheer Mono up with! He did look pretty miserable and Seven still wanted to thank him for the new hat Mono had given him.
Seven started to walk through the complex, there were so many stores in this place it became a little overwhelming. So many of them still had lights on and even though they flickered a little it made his search somewhat easier. One store he noticed had a shelf of bandaids by the window and where there were bandaids there might be medicine. He went in through the busted doors.
There were things all over the place, boxes with words he didn’t understand and many other things. He silently thanked one of the older kids on the Maw who’d taught him the basics of reading, he then continued to teach himself from there. Books had been a rarity but he cherished the ones he did happen to find. Until they were taken away...
After digging through the multitude of items for a while he finally found some bottles of medicine. One caught his eye, it said ‘for kids’ on it. He wasn’t sure what all the words meant but it did say it was for coughs and other things. He placed it in his bag.
Now for food and water. He wandered back outside of the chemist and spotted a grocery store just across from him. Luckily the lighting still seemed to work in that store too so he looked around before he went inside past the checkout.
The shelves of course were pretty bare so he pushed a trolley down one of the aisles where he could see some cardboard boxes on a higher shelf and started to climb. Big mistake. The trolley immediately rolled away from under his feet as he scrambled to grab a hold of the shelf, gripping onto a box instead. He fell along with it as the box and it’s contents tumbled to the ground with an echoing crash . The box landed on top of him so he laid there in the darkness for a moment as he tried to steady his beating heart.
With no signs of danger, Seven pushed the box off of himself and gathered some of the cans that had been littered across the floor from their previous tumble. Soups and stews it seemed. He put a few of them in his bag. Though, now the bag was too heavy to carry on his shoulder, he’d have to drag it..
He still needed to find some water so he shoved the bag under the shelf for a moment while he looked.
His searching was successful and he returned to the bag with a bottle of water. If the medicine he’d found tasted anything like the stuff on the Maw then he knew Mono would definitely need this. Now, to find something to cheer said friend up!
Seven dragged his bag along as quietly as he could looking at the many stores, most of them he couldn’t see the appeal in so he ended up back in the chemist looking through it’s assortment of items. He lit up as he saw a spin rack with quite a few hats still on it and those were something he knew Mono would like.
Seven pulled the rack down as quietly as he could, which hadn’t been very quiet at all.. he hid behind it for a moment just in case but nothing sounded back so he pulled the hats off the rack one after the other until he had them all in front of himself. He almost felt like some sort of hat judge as he picked each one up, examined it and then placed it back down with a nod.
He couldn’t help it honestly, he wanted to try some of these on for himself. In fact, he currently had three upon his head as he looked into a mirror that was on the side of a shelf. He wondered how many he could put on before they fell off...
Tap tap tap tap.
Seven froze. Those were footsteps. The hats fell off his head as he crouched down and snuck over to the window. He pulled himself up as he peeked over the window ledge. He could see the figure of a man slowly walking through the shadows, the grocery store light hitting him as he passed it by. He ducked as light from the man’s flashlight drifted towards him.
Time to leave. Seven made his way back to the hats only grabbing one, he wasn’t sure what kind of hat it was (a boater hat) but the texture was nice, not that he had time to admire it. He took everything out of his bag and placed a nearby towel on the bottom, he then put everything back in. Hopefully that would help lessen the noise he knew it’d make as he dragged it along.
He couldn’t see the man anymore but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still around. He’d have to be quick and quiet. He crept out of the chemist and hid behind some seats. Luckily there were plenty of places he could hide behind that ran along the middle of the complex. It mostly consisted of things like seating, bins, plants (deceased) and other things.
Seven stopped for a moment next to some cushioned seating. He didn’t know where the man had gone but he could see the exit. Almost there!
He gasped falling back as the ground lit up around him. There above him was the man leaning over the seating with his light aimed directly at him. A large hand was already rushing towards him making a grab for him. He- he was going to get caught! Seven shut his eyes, he couldn’t get away!
He fully expected to be in the man’s grasp before he could think his next thought. Only, nothing happened. Seven slowly opened one eye to look. He jumped and let out a little gasp, the man’s hand was only inches away but it looked odd. The hand seemed to be.. to be glitching? Like.. like how it did after he found Mono in that room.
Slowly the glitching seemed to work it’s way up the man’s arm until his whole body was encompassed by it. The man desperately tried to rid himself of it but it was useless.
Seven yelped much too loudly as the man before him vanished.
His breathing quickened as he looked around so fast he almost made himself dizzy. What happened? Where did he go? Did he-
There was a faint noise.
Where did that come from? Was it....
.
.
.
.
.
Seven slowly looked up. He gaped at the sight.
The man was now far above him leering down at him, his feet firmly planted on the ceiling like Seven wasn’t the one on the ground. The man even jumped with considerable effort but uselessly landed back onto the ceiling.
A muddle of babble and screams escaped the man’s mouth as he aimed his anger at Seven who sat in stunned silence.
Steven wobbled to his feet, almost tripping over his bag in his confusion. He- he couldn’t stay. He had to get back to Mono so he tore his eyes away from the enraged man. He grabbed onto the strap of the bag and shuddered. The man’s screeching almost sounded like words but.. that couldn’t be possible, right?
No. No, he didn’t have time to think about it anymore. Other adults could be drawn to the yelling, he had to leave. He dragged the bag quickly out and onto the street again and made his way back into the building. The room they were in was difficult to get to unless you were small. It was challenging dragging the bag along the beams but Seven was undeterred.
He pushed the door open and as he dragged the bag inside it closed behind him. He made it. He left the bag there and went over to Mono who seemed to be asleep.
Seven almost collapsed next to him, he was definitely going to need a nap after that.
He closed his eyes, he didn’t really understand what happened to the man but he knew it had something to do with himself. It scared him a little. Was it because he’d woken up somewhere he shouldn’t have been? He really wasn’t sure..
..but what he did know was that it was something that Mono would like to hear about. After he gave him some of the medicine of course...
He sighed while getting comfortable, then mirrored Mono and slowly he drifted off to sleep.