Chapter Text
"Six… why? Why did you do it?" Mono neither expected nor got an answer as he trudged through the squishy, pulsating flesh that now made up… was this the basement of the tower? It must be.
He'd scoured the whole city, pissing off zombies, hiding from the monster that took his friend (and some friend he was, running away like that when she needed him, when she was more afraid than he'd ever seen her before)... he'd outright rejected death when it came for him, and forced his way into the tower… never stopped until he found her. All he cared about was her safety, and being safe with her.
Reaching that last room and meeting her huge, twisted, monstrous form so much like the ones bent on killing them. But this was Six. He knew she'd never hurt him. At least, he hoped she wouldn't.
He recalled how, even much bigger and bonier, her hand had still had the same reassuring, familiar warmth as always.
Tears pushed their way out of his eyes, and his heart ached knowing he'd never again feel that warmth.
Should've just stayed with her… we were fine there! We were still friends! ...Right?
An eyeball stared at him from an oozing roll of flesh. It blinked.
"Shut up." Mono was at this point quite simply too gutted to be creeped out by his current, and apparently permanent, environment. "I don't want you. I want Six."
Why, though? Her final action had called into question any care she might've ever had for him. He remembered clearly how she hadn't just lost her grip; she'd made him fall on purpose. After everything he'd just gone through to save her, all the worry over whether she'd make it out alive, his own close brush with death by train crash. You'd have to be a pretty big idiot to still want to be friends with someone who'd throw all that away so easily.
Mono was well aware he was always exactly that kind of idiot.
The eyeball studied him silently.
"I know it doesn't make sense, okay? But it's not like anything else in my literal trainwreck of a life ever does… uh… am I using that word right? Literal?"
The eye twitched slightly upwards as if thinking, and then blinked again.
"Okay. Good." Mono sat down on the fleshy ground, very much disgusted at putting more of himself in contact with what looked and felt like a large pile of Six's leftover lunch, but his legs at this moment were no longer agreeing to the whole "standing" thing.
More eyes were looking at him, curious to see what he'd do next. Interested in his attention?
"Don't act all innocent. This whole thing is your fault. If you guys had just left us alone… I would've gotten out with her. I'd still have my best buddy. You're the ones who ruined everything."
The nearest eye moved to examine his face. He turned away from it, only to be met with another one. He wished he still had his paper bag.
"All I wanted to do was help her, y'know? She was so scared when he took her. An-and that monster form… looked like it really hurt to turn into." He had to pause for a bit and sob into his sleeve at the thought of poor Six suffering so much pain she'd never done anything to deserve, and at his own weakness for still caring about that when she was the one who dropped him down here. On purpose, no less! She probably never really cared about him to begin with. Why should he care so much about her pain?
Maybe that's why she did it. Maybe she thought he'd get them both killed with his stupid… caring about other people. She'd said something to that effect early on, confused as to why he'd want to help her.
She was right. Sure, they were both alive, but look what that care had done to him now. Actually, he wasn't entirely sure how alive he still was. No, he had to be. What she did, after so much time making him so sure they were friends who could trust each other, was bad enough without the case being that she killed him.
"I can't deal with this!" Mono smacked the ground, immediately feeling the shuttering of an eyelid under his hand. "Ugh. Sorry. I just want things back how they were. When she made me feel safe. Y'know?"
The eye he'd smacked was now tearing up and turning its pupil to avoid his face.
"Sorry again. Guess I do just ruin things for everyone." Mono stretched out onto his front, careful not to disturb any more eyes, and buried his face in his crossed arms. The flesh floor was all warm and sticky and gross. No point in caring about that. "You guys were probably just fine without me here. Six would've been fine if I didn't have to poke around everywhere."
He heard a wet blink off to the side.
"Well… yeah, I'd like to get out, I guess, except… without Six, I don't have anywhere to go anyway, and… why am I even talking to you? You're monsters; this isn't any of your business."
A few more blinks, from some other direction.
"Okay, but what if I do find her again? She's still just gonna hate me. Everyone does when they know what I look like." He'd gone in prepared for her to hate his face, too, but she was the one person he'd actually sort of trusted not to.
He flopped over onto his back, staring up at the eyes on the hypnotically-writhing flesh of the ceiling. They stared back, giving the impression of curiosity. Concern? Did they even really have any sort of emotions? He'd never thought of monsters having much in that department.
That's wrong, though. Six… Even in that form, she hadn't wanted to hurt him. All she wanted was safety, and to give her friend a chance to be safe with her.
He remembered the sinking feeling in his stomach, back with her in that cozy tower room., when he realized she wasn't making any move to leave.
Why would she stay? She didn't want to be brought here. And she wouldn't have tagged along in the first place if she was someone who could be happy staying in one place.
The music box continued to play its tune, captivating her.
That thing was hypnotizing her; it had to be.
"Hey, Six… I'm gonna try something to get us out of here. And I have no idea what it'll actually do, but you're definitely not gonna like it, so uh… get ready, I guess."
Mono lifted the mallet, and smacked the music box.
"Uh… whoops?"
He ran and jumped through the quaking, crumbling halls, Six chasing furiously after him.
"Sorry sorry sorry!"
He felt bad for angering her like this, but they could worry about that later; right now the tower was coming down and they needed to get out fast, and if that meant making her chase him the whole way out, well…!
Monster form or not, she'd calm down later and forgive him. Right?
The eyes stared, judging him for being the worst friend ever.
"Yeah… I know." He didn't have the energy to argue, yet something in him still stirred some kind of childish obligatory indignation over being given such a reprimand from these abominations (or at least, what he imagined from them… it? Was it one or many?) He was a child, after all. A child with a weird nagging feeling of being tired of this specific incident of betrayal always happening, though he couldn't actually recall it happening before. How could it, when he and Six were so close?
Even with all the running for their lives, they'd still found times to just have fun together and grow their bond. He remembered Six letting him lean against her and fall asleep. Eventually, she'd even warmed up to him enough to start doing the same.
He couldn't go back to sleeping without a warm friend in his arms. But what else was there anymore?
He missed her shameless weird creepiness, hugging her, ruffling her fluffy hair, the way she'd give playful headbutts when he told bad jokes or even just because she liked him...
The eyes continued to stare.
Mono sighed. "She made her choice. I know. She wanted to hurt me. But I miss her anyway, okay? That's just how it is! You can't make it not be, so stop trying to!"
Wait… did his vision just go kinda wavy static for a second?
Whatever. Not important. Nothing was important anymore.
He couldn't tell whether or not the eyes were agreeing with that, which was annoying because he had to disagree with them on principle either way.
"You guys could at least act like you wanna help me." If they did that, then he could tell them all about why they shouldn't, and he was ready to.
Their gazes wandered the area, briefly meeting each other, always coming back to Mono.
___
How long the boy spent in that place, there was no way to tell. How did time even work here? Was it moving? Had it reverted to the very beginning, and this living flesh was some kind of primordial ooze? Would it be millions of years before he and Six were even born?
As company, the eyes were… better than nothing. Maybe. They were there, at least. And it was pretty cool when he figured out he could watch them like TVs. Just sort of catch his reflection in one and watch it morph into its own show.
Was that real, or just the cracking of an isolation-tortured mind? Maybe he was making it real? Who could tell?
It had to be real, as further experimentation proved that it was possible to reach into these shows and pull material objects out. In this way, Mono managed to acquire several new hats, as well as card games to play with the eyes, which ultimately turned out to be a frustrating endeavor when he started to suspect Jerry of cheating and Andy of keeping such information a secret.
"Just because none of us know the rules doesn't mean you get to just… break them! Some of us still try to play fair. Right, Giuseppe?"
Giuseppe had no comment.
Mono huffed. "You guys suck."
Once again dejected, lonesome, and irritated, longing for human contact, he watched an eye (pretty sure this one was Ted).
These weren't just made-up shows. He recognized some of these; they were memories of his time with Six. When he'd first started to gain her trust. When she found the yellow raincoat and practically lit up. When they played with the x-ray machine in the hospital and pretended to be radioactive skeleton monsters.
Why did it have to punch him in the gut like that? He thought he was done with her! Why did it still have to hurt so much?
The eye blinked as Mono's tears fell into it, and after wiping his own eyes, he could see more scene changes taking place. A bedroom with oddly tall furniture. A very large room filled with shoes. A group of those small friendly creatures with pointy hats.
A child in a bright yellow raincoat.
She won't leave me alone, and they won't let her.
The other eyes stared, waiting for him to do something.
"Do you even get it? She's not my friend anymore! She doesn't like me anymore, so... I don't like her either!"
Yeah, sure. He didn't like her. That was believable. Mono was definitely a person who could stop liking someone he loved.
"I don't want to keep seeing her if we can't…"
He glanced back at the image, and his heart caught in his throat. Six was now doubled over in pain, crawling toward a cage with some unidentifiable meat in it...
This was crazy. He didn't know that place, or if it even was an actual place, or what would happen if he tried this.
"Okay, you know what? Screw you guys! She's my best friend and you can't stop me!"
Heart pounding, Mono charged into the image in the eye.