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Two children were forced to break the bond with each other in order to save their lives. With each blow of the hammer, the damage was deeper inside the poor girl’s heart that had learned to trust the boy who had only trusted her to show her his face once.
She had found his black eyes with thick eyelashes absorbing. Entrancing even, colored as a void that seemed to expand the longer you looked.
As if there were holes in his eyes.
He had put back the bag on his head and turned on his heels to continue their path, but Six could never forget the loneliness trapped in the dark niche on his face, always kept away from unforgiving eyes.
She knew he used the paper bag as a wall between the world and himself. So it would make it easier to go on and continue being brave. That’s what her humming, that eventually became his too, stood for too.
Safety.
After that, she never pressed to see his face again.
What a sour surprise to make both vulnerabilities encounter in a death match. Mono had lost his wall and she would do whatever necessary to keep hers standing.
His frowning face twisted as his fingers wrapped tighter around the hammer. Those black holes were now filled with static, just like the broadcaster that had taken her hostage.
It clicked then.
But she was no longer a child who hummed with her friend in the crook of a tree to fall asleep, she had become one of the monsters roaming her dream and waking world.
But it was Mono… he still was her friend. The one she considered a slow naive dumbass and her hero, now wielded the hammer that wished to destroy the only source of safety she had ever had in that crap world.
She curled her monstrously large arms around the dented music box protectively, heart souring at the way he let out his breath and marched forward.
“I have to do it Six!” He shouted with desperation in his voice “Please, Six! Let me help you!” His shouting sent a pang of guilt directly to her stomach that made her recoil and back away a moment. Moment he used to get closer and let the hammer down.
“No!” Six screamed attempting to swat Mono away. He had enough time to avoid, but the music box only needed one or two more hits to break.
Six lifted her gaze up and saw the boy she had shared her loneliness with, the boy she had found comfort with his presence and awfully simple jokes and quick wits when the occasion required it. That boy who would make space under his coat during the rain and cover her with it on windy nights. She had to swallow the lump on her throat and reel back the tears helplessly running down her face when she found him still holding the hammer with no intention to drop it.
“I’m sorry! This is the only way!” The boy shouted, sprinting with the hammer dragging behind him.
“No!” She kept screaming in that eerie tone that made him clench his teeth, but didn’t make him stop or turn away to leave her be with her safety. This time, Mono couldn’t avoid her swatting.
He flew towards a pile of garbage and fell with an strangled yelp that twisted Six’s heart, but was not enough to break down the barricade forming around it. Not even when Mono emerged from the clatter with a bit of blood running down his cheek and made the girl let out a screech of frustration when he forced himself up to grab the hammer again.
“I trusted you!” She shrieked before a sob cracked her anger. “I thought you were my friend! I thought you weren’t a monster!” At that, Mono’s face pulled into a pained frown.
“Six…”
“Don’t!” She hollered, slamming her fists on the ground and making him flinch. “Stop lying to me, Broadcaster” she snarled through gritted teeth. Mono’s black eyes widened in horror.
“Im not him!”
“Then what are you?!” The boy stepped back jaw dropping “Your eyes, your-your freaky powers- You pulled him out of the TV and let him take me!” She slammed her fists again on the ground repeatedly. Finding unbearable to see his face, she kept her eyes down, just barely aware there were more tears than she could hold back dropping on the wood floor “What the hell are you anyway? Why did you pull me out from that room on,y to put me in another?”
“S-Six…” the boy called brewing the rage inside her even wilder.
“Am I not where you want, monster!? This is it right?! This is exactly what you wanted!” She screamed, lost in her grief and ire.
“What are you saying?!” The boy screamed back “Im not…I’m not a monster. I’m not…”
She laughed and her wheeze spooked something deep inside her. Rooted in fear of the ones that relentlessly caught her and possibly didn’t think of her as anything else than a pest. But she couldn’t find it in herself to care about that now with how hot her anger was expanding through her body at the boy’s words.
“As if outside was any better than this”
“Six! I don’t want either of us to stay here!”
“Why?” The question threw him off. She forced herself to peel her eyes off the ground to look back up at the boy “What’s so good about the outside you wanna go back to so much? More kids to lure? More people to manipulate to stay with you because you’re oh, so lonely in here? You win, Mono! Ok? Outside is awful but compared to that, this hell tower is heaven! What does a Monster like you know about fear?”
Mono watched speechless as Six hugged the battered music box and pushed it closer to her chest. Her overgrown limbs wrapped around it at least three times as she almost nuzzled it.
“I don’t wanna talk to you anymore. Leave”
The boy fell silent as the girl watched him from the edge of her vision and growled when she saw him coming closer.
“Leave! Me! Alone!” She screamed but the boy didn’t budge an inch and only stared back. “Go away!”
“Not without you” the words rolled easily out of his mouth even when Six’s overgrown hand pushed him away.
“Leave!” She screamed at the boy forcing himself to get back up. “I hate you! I don’t wanna see you ever again!” She kept screaming, pushing him away every time he was close enough. But every time, that innate stubbornness to him kept making his limbs hold him back up and walk, every time slower and with a shallower breathing, towards her.
It took a while, but finally, after he was full of bruises he touched the trembling hand of his friend and leaned into it to hold himself up.
“I told you…” he panted “I will take you out of here…”
The monster she had become was enormous, maybe even larger than the doctor, but he didn’t waver to pull the switch to the oven then and he didn’t back off even when he could barely stand.
“But…” he hugged against her palm, smiling at himself when she didn’t swat him away or grabbed him to throw him. “In the end, I really don’t want you to hate me” he said with a wide pained smile before he hugged…no, tried to hold her hand. With his size he was only able to hold her thumb in a hug. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to have this power. I just… had it. I didn’t want to use it, I didn’t want to become him, but I also couldn’t escape him on my own” he said trembling on his feet as Six held the music box under her other arm, out of his reach even when the hammer laid discarded far away from them. “Back then…I watched you get taken by the hunter when I was running away from him. I’m so sorry, I should have done something” he apologized before his knees gave in and fell to the ground. Six jumped startled and worried as a strange weight settled on her chest when she noticed even then, he wouldn’t let go of her thumb. He was panting and his coat was made a mess of red and dirt and was so, so small on her hand. She could simply grab him and slam him against the wall if she so wished to in order to stop him, but she didn’t find it in her to close her fist.
“You won’t destroy it? She tainted, voice soft despite her better wishes. Mono waited a moment to answer.
“Yeah, I want that” Six felt the urge to grab him and slam him against the wall again when he talked again “But I won’t. Not unless you let me” Six uncurled her fingers around Mono as the boy let out a wheeze and hugged himself before soothing his ribs and then turned to see her with a smile on his face. She had never seen it until now, but she knew with just the sound of his voice, that he always wore a smile like that under his mask. Hidden away below a piece of paper and now, he sported without shame. “I wanna go outside with you again and find that place we can call safe or make it ourselves. But you’re right!” He said with that beaming laughter she learned to relax around “There’s no point on it if you’re not with me! So, if you let me…” he said, feeling himself be carefully pulled closer to Six’s face, covered, hidden, under her dark matted hair that he wasn’t scared to tuck away to see the tears rolling down her deformed face.
Mono’s heart eased when he noticed Six kept being the tough little girl that clung to him on her sleep and squeezed before letting go even with how she looked like now.
He took a step forward to hug her “let’s figure out another way together”
Six couldn’t find words or a plan when the boy simply curled closer to her, wheezing from the pain and still…so calm.
He was a reckless idiot that barged in knowing full well he wasn’t the strong one. He knew how small and helpless they were and how big and scary the world really was and yet, and yet he refused to give up on it.
“I don’t want you to break it” Six admitted in a small voice.
He drew out a long breath “I know”
“I haven’t forgiven you for keeping the truth from me either”
“Fair, I should be the one asking to be forgiven. I’m sorry, Six” Six’s frown deepened at how easy he was speaking.
“Why won’t you leave me? I hurt you…And the broadcaster…”
“Because you’re my one and only friend in this crap world. You’re hurt and scared. What kind of friend would I be if I left you behind like that?” He huffed. “I might be a monster but I have principles. And…He’s gone. I made sure of it” Mono said turning to watch her deeply into her eyes. Six lost herself a moment inside the gleaming darkness, but was pulled out of the trance when he looked away. Humming the melody to fill the silence that had dropped between them.
He kept humming without losing the tone once. He had completely learned it before they got deeper into the city, joining her while intertwining their fingers when caught off guard, swinging her arm like a child.
As he hummed curled next to her, he lifted his head in awe at her own low, grumbling humming only making him put extra effort to keep it on tandem.
Six knew she had meant the happiness on her face, that it was genuine, when she made her little flops as they walked holding hands.
Six then pulled Mono closer.
“I don’t wanna go back…but I don’t want to lose my friend either” she sobbed as Mono’s heart clenched. “Hey, Mono…we really can’t stay here?”
The boy shook his head. “This place is gonna collapse soon and…” Mono’s eyes trailed off before he gulped the doubts away “Six…I know it’s been hard out there, but we can find a place for us. Somewhere safe”
“Together”
“Together” he echoed watching her look at the music box.
“I know it’s not the real one. It doesn’t sound the same now…”
“I’m sorry” he jumped to apologize as Six turned on the handle and a sad tune came out. “I promise I will get you one”
Six’s enormous head shook slowly “It’s not the same…”
He waited for her to lower it, but Mono lowered his eyes when she hugged it instead. He almost gave up when Six extended her arm and took the hammer herself.
“Six?” Mono blabbered as she positioned the music box between them. She gave it one last stroke before lifting the hammer.
“Does it have to you?” She asked, voice just barely above a whisper.
Mono’s heart skipped a beat and then he pursed his lips while shaking his head.
“I see” the girl went in a defeated sigh.
Mono tried to find her face under the mess of hair “Are you sure?”
It took her a moment to lift her black eyes, a few sparks of the pink surrounding them making them gleam purple “Promise me, Mono. We will find a safe place for us”
“I promise you” he said after a second as Six lifted the hammer “and we will do it together”
The sound of it breaking buzzed on her ears as they ran away from the fleshy walls eating everything on their way.
Six saw the tv at the end of the alley and felt her legs shake. If Mono wasn’t lying, The broadcaster wouldn’t come out of it anymore, so with renewed strength, she sprinted through the stone bridge.
She turned on her heels only to find Money stumbling on his run when the bridge began to collapse under him.
She saw him take flight and instinctively pulled herself to the edge with an arm extended.
“Six!” The boy screamed as he jumped and without thinking, she caught him just as she always did. “That was close!” He laughed, smile running out of his face when Six didn’t move. Finally, she saw what fear looked like on his face and a pleasing warmth overtook her.
“S-Six! Pull me up!” The boy begged then, legs kicking the air uselessly. “Six! Please!” The boy screamed, panic taking over him.
For a second, for the smallest part of a second, the thought of dropping him flashed through her mind, but it was kicked away when Mono’s eyes got glassy.
“I’m sorry…I’m really sorry” the boy sobbed as the tears began to fall into the void waiting to reclaim him. His voice cracked “I’m sorry I hid it from you, I’m sorry for lying…Please, forgive me” the boy said lowering his head. Six’s grip lightened and his head snapped back up when her other hand grabbed his coat and pulled him up in a groan.
Six panted at the edge while Mono stared in shaken terror barely a few centimeters away before flinching when Six jumped to hug him.
“We said together”
Mono took a few shallow breaths before wrapping his arms around her and burying his face on the crook of her neck.
“Together” he repeated, pulling her closer.
They stood up holding hands and slowly walked to the TV. Six felt again the pull, the static buzzing inside her brain as she passed through it and held tighter to Mono’s hand, so when she lifted her arms to break the thin film of plasma that kept her inside that strange dimension and collapsed forward, she immediately noticed his hand slip.
She fell forward and dropped to her knees, softening the fall by putting her hands before her just in time.
“Mono?!” The girl screamed turning her head at the TV and finding to her horror, Mono’s small figure banging behind the TV’s display.
“Six!!!” The boy screamed as Six jumped to her feet and slammed her hands on the glass. She tried and tried, but her hands wouldn’t budge the wall between them, nor would do his.
After a few times of slamming the glass and running out of breath, both looked at each other from either side of the TV.
Mono dropped to his knees sliding his hand over the glass.
“Why it won’t let you out?” Six said before wheezing.
Mono’s eyes were nailed on the floor “I don’t know”
“T-There’s gotta be a way! You didn’t make me get outside to be alone a-“ Mono lifted his eyes.
“Six?” He asked concerned before watching her step back before falling to the ground clutching her stomach. Mono jumped up “Six!” The boy screamed banging on the glass. “Six!! What’s wrong?”
As soon as the words left his mouth he saw particles, just like the ones that formed around the Broadcaster, gather up in the shape of his friend.
He was frozen on his place when it disappeared, looking at a paper on the floor.
“I’m hungry…” her tiny voice said as she lifted herself up in shaking limbs.
“Six! Six, are you ok?!” The boy screamed punctuating each word with a hit on the glass. The girl simply nodded but he felt a heavy weight lift off his chest for a second. She was outside at least.
He tried to go through the TV again.
“Six!” He called her name through gritted teeth at the resistance of the film before it pushed him back a step and he paddled forward. She was just right there! He should be able to get through just fine! But why? Was the target TV broken?
He took a step back watching Six still curled on the ground on the other side and took a deep breath before charging in again. Only with the intention to move to another TV.
He felt that pull on his stomach and that stretch right behind his eyes and in a second, he was looking at the city from an abandoned hanging TV.
But still inside it.
He suddenly noticed the light behind him was not purple anymore. When he turned he was in a room without nothing else but a chair too tall for him.
He took a step back from the TV, scared that taking his hands off the TV would cut his connection to where Six was he only looked up and found to his horror the door with an eye he always saw when the TV pulled him in.
He couldn’t escape. The tower wanted him and had used Six as the bait to catch him.
“And I fell right into your trap…” the boy said out loud as new tears began to run down his puffed, red cheeks in rivulets.
His stomach coiled with anger and desperation but most of all, guilt. Guilt of having lied to Six again. Of leaving her alone again.
No, this time it was different. He put both hands against the TV again and went through it to get back to her.
Six crawled her way back to the TV when it zapped back to the channel Mono was trapped in. Mono’s face was…sad. He looked defeated and yet, he pulled a grin on his lips as he put his hand up against the glass. Six lifted her hand to fit Mono’s slightly larger palm. Just a nail longer than hers, they used to say, but her lips twisted in agony when she couldn’t feel anything but the static.
“Six, listen to me. I’m trapped here and I don’t know how to get out. Not yet” Six’s eyes widened in horror and her mouth opened to protest “I know! I know I said we would go together. I know…” his voice cracked again but took a deep breath before continuing “I can’t. I’m so, so sorry…”
Six’s face went through a myriad of emotions. Anger, sadness, but most of all: longing.
“You can’t do this to me” Six said in a broken sob, her hand curling into a fist against the TV. “You promised…”
“I don’t want to be trapped here! I want to be with you!” The boy shouted, now tears flowing down “I don’t want to but I don’t know how to get there…” he said honking his head against the glass. “Damnit. Damnit!”
In the silence that ensued hopelessness set between them, before he heard a noise coming from her side.
“Six, someone’s coming” he said, only noticing then that Six had pressed herself against the TV. He pursed his lips tight but insisted until she lifted her red rimmed eyes to see him. “I think I can’t move from here, but maybe…maybe, I can move you. I will move us together through the TV’s to somewhere safe ok? Just…” the steps were coming closer “Put your hands up”
The boy said and to his surprise and relief she did as she was told.
He closed her eyes and focused. He had done it for him, he felt the pull and the boing of moving twice before the static slowly grew to deaf the distant screeching.
So when he opened his eyes, Mono saw Six slip to the asphalt.
“Six!” He jumped and bumped hard into the glass when he tried kneeling to get to her. He sat crossed legged then and watched her stand up on shaky legs.
“Where are we?” Six asked looking around her, finding the pale city’s deserted scenery before her.
“Somewhere on the edge of the city. I used a hiding spot close to here when I ran. It should be halfway to the Northwest street of a neighbor city. Just follow the gnomes ok? You’re safe” he said with a small smile as she looked back to him.
“But what about you?” She asked with genuine worry on her voice.
He snorted “Your mood really swings from end to end” he giggled alone.
“Mono…”
He rasped his throat “I know. I’m…I think I won’t be able to go with you as I promised…I’m sorry” he said shrinking on his shoulders. “But this way…This way I can protect you”
“If we break the TV would it work?”
He shook his head “Please don’t”
“But we said together!” She cried out.
“I know! I know Six. I might not be there to hold your hand, but I’m here ok?” He said extending his fingers over the glass before seeing Six put his hand over his “Its not exactly the same…but I’m here for you. I’m here whenever you call, always” he said with tears running down his face again when Six’s tear stained cheeks flooded with new tears. “I’ll be watching over you from here ok? Together remember?”