Togetherness? - Little Nightmares - Mono x Six

Can you hear my voice?

Who knows, some say I'm a maniac.

1964 words

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"I remember the time we first met. Once upon a time, there was a little place called the Nest. Well, I guess you could say it was a place the likes of us liked to call home. It was no different from the things you see around here. Yeah, when I try to remember something, I see myself back in that room with the cages hanging from the roof. Every day, I would pick a spot in the corner in the room and wait. I would sit there and start guessing which one of these unfortunate souls would get picked next, then a man on a wheelchair would come in and snatch one of those cages and disappears. I even remember the stench most of all. I don't know.

"Either way, I was alone... Nothing else mattered, really. It was just about surviving. Sneak around, find some food, get back and do it all over again." Six then sighed and rubbed her eyes as she blinked rapidly, "One day when I was going to sit in that corner to guess who was about to be snatched next... something happened, one of the cage doors swung open, and I saw someone crawling out of it. I couldn't really make out who it was. All I saw was a yellow coat hanging from the iron bars, which could fall to its death at any moment.

"'That idiot...' I thought. There was no way to make that jump, not in a million years." Six stopped for a moment, listening to the soft patter of rain, then said, "It didn't fall, Mono... it resolved to live... I saw it swinging the cage back and forth, and back and forth until it jumped out and made it on the wooden shelf, safe and sound. You don't see something like that every day, right?" Mono nodded, and Six continued, "So I decided, you know, why not follow it? And see how far it can get. It was better than sitting there and making guesses every day.

"So I did, and boy... did it make it far. Eventually, it noticed that someone was following it, and that's when I first heard her voice. 'It's okay.' she said, 'You can come out.' as if she knew all along. She pulled down the hood of her coat and smiled, it was probably the first smile I had seen in years, and it was so beautiful, Mono. 'My name's Five...' She told me, 'What's yours?'" Six laughed for a moment then said, "I didn't really know what to say... I haven't spoken to anyone in years. She'd thought I was mute then-." Six laughed again, "She decided to give me a name. She called me Oly, short for Oliver. can you believe it? She thought I was a boy." at that Mono laughed, "After a while, well... I never left her side. She'd talk to me from time to time, hold my hand, call me Oly again. And when things got too scary... she'd sing that song for us, and now all I remember from it is just the humming." Six nodded, her lips pursing as her hear breathing quivered, "We, uh... made a promise." she said, lifting a pinky finger in front of her, "She promised me that we would get out of here together...

Six hugged the raincoat in her hands closer, "Together..." she said and paused, "we were running away from that monster before we got separated halfway... she fell down slop with the monster and left me on the higher ground. She ran away until she had nowhere left to go." Six's lips quivered as she thought back at that moment, "I-I couldn't save her, I tried but I couldn't, I-I-... oh, God... I'm so sorry Five." She said, reaching to wipe a tear away before it fell down her cheek.

"It's okay, it's okay... it's not your fault, it never was."

"I could've done more. I could've... Oh-" She buried her face in his clothes, "It not fair, it just isn't fair... why am I the only one who has to live? Why not her...?"

"Maybe it's what she wanted..." he said, running a hand through her hair.

"What about what I wanted, Mono?" 

Mono looked down and narrowed his eyes, "I don't know, I ask that myself too, sometimes the answer is just going to be... no. And there's nothing we can do about it. It's just the way things are. But there is still something we can do for her..."