She lets go, and I fall down, down and down, into my own little hell, but also my heaven.
She wasn't here, because she turned her back on me, catching me so she could look me in the eyes before letting go, a relived smile on her face as if she did ME A FAVOR!
The eyes look and I fall down into the static.
Day after day the eyes watch me, and they continue as days morph into weeks and weeks into months and months into years and decades and centuries and it never ends, time following it's every whim and desire, and eventually I take and take, just hoping I could find that yellow raincoat again. To hurt it and cherish it, to rip it apart and fix every mistake I made.
I never do.
It's so far, so far away, and I scream - it's filled with static -, my heart and mind falling apart.
The cracks widen and for a second time moves to my beat, and I sit in a chair where I both am, has been and will be, at the same time as I cover from me in a broken television.
But the static remains and it throws me out, with a grin - as much as the eyes behind it all could smile - and I feel the paper bag - one I threw away so long ago - on my head.
I could fix it this time, I could do it right. I could stop Six from being taken by the bullies and I could stop The Tower from taking her and me.
So I smile.
The hunters traps are nothing in the face of what we will face, and despite it all I smile, static buzzing in my ears.
The door breaks with ease under my hits, but it sends the girl hiding behind said door hiding beneth the table - perhaps recognizing what I am, and what I will do - but oh so slowly she reaches forward.
And just as I think everything will change, just as I feel the place where I can change this horrid nightmare is here, it ends, the girl - Six - pushing past me as if I didn't even save her.
But trap after trap, we work togheter just as we always have done on our little adventure.
It's as if we were meant for this, this little nightmare.
The second time I think I changed it all was as I sneaked past the hunter, and just as I thought we were quiet enough the door is slammed open, and the hunter gives chase as we hind behind box after box.
As I jump - the cliff breaking under my feet, nonononono - she catches me, and we continue our mad escape.
The gun, far too large, feels natural in my hands as we end the mad hunter, and I smile as we float towards the city, not a single word said between us, but it's as if we know what the other wants without silly things like words.
The school is large - larger than I remember - as it looms above us, the run down facade almost welcome in it's familiarity. Almost.
So as we sneak through the hallways I think: This time I won't let her be taken, no, this time I will save her.
My banging on the locker does nothing to stop her from being dragged away.
But ripping my way through the school, killing the horrid bullies one by one does, until one of them drops their head - as I knew they would - and I continue on, hiding myself beneth yet another mask.
I can't even feel pride for rescuing Six, because all I feel is shame I failed her the first time.
As the teacher tears her way through the vent behind us I can't even think about making any changes, my body acting on it's own as I run, mind filled with static.
The Doctor stalks the roof of the hospital and I can't change a single thing as I run through, shining my little light on his patients.
Nothing changes as Six warms her hands infront of the fire.
Nothing changes as we walk through the city, and I start to feel desperation creeping in, clawing it's way up my neck, even as I am choking on the fear of the impending disaster, large thin - mine - hands that will claw at a screen.
But I know that I won't abandon Six, I know that I won't hide under the bed like a coward, no I won't let her think of me as useless.
The static screams in my ears and as I open my eyes all that remains is a shadow of what I was fighting for.
I try, oh I try, to get it back, but every time I take a step the Thin man takes one, and his are just so much larger.
Every little cheap trick is used as I run and run, until finally, finally, I see The Tower of horror shining in the distance.
Then the world warps as The Thin Man stand to his true height, and starts walking.
It was all for nothing. My hands, weak and shaking, claw at my mask and just once I let it drop to my side, and all of a sudden I can breath, and like a man that has forgotten too I take inhale and exhale... raw static.
The Thin Man is blown away, it's spine contorting as if to show what kind of a monster it truly was.
I bend it - him - again, but he gets up like nothing even happened and I feel my shoulders shake with tiredness and fear - of failing Six - but for her I stand up once again and push the static once more, even with almost all of it gone already.
And it finally breaks, disentegrating into nothing, as it was foretold.
I smile with hope as my body falls apart into static, because I can see that determined glint in the eyes of Mono, and I feel hope for the first time in what feels like an eternity.
The boy makes me think of smiles and static.
The Tower welcomes me like a master does a runaway dog, and I can't help but fear that it is true.
But even so... even so, I follow that hollow, horrid and beatiful tune all the way to it's source, a monster with too many joints and too long hair.
Six.
We run as the walls around us collapse, as the floor falls away, all to reveal the real form of the monster that destroyed this world.
As I jump I know that I won't be dropped, because I could tell that Six cared - perhaps only in her own way, but she cared - and really, what would it cost her to pull me up.
Her smile is sad and filled with relief as she lets go.
Day after day the eyes watch me, and they continue as days morph into weeks and weeks into months and months into years and decades and centuries and it never ends, time following it's every whim and desire, and I eventually I take and take, just hoping I could find that yellow raincoat again.
I never do.
It's so far, so far away, and I scream - it's filled with static -, my heart and mind falling apart.
The cracks widen and for a second time moves to my beat, and I sit in a chair where I both am, has been and will be, at the same time as I cover from me in a broken television.
But the static remains and it throws me out, with a grin - as much as the eyes behind it all could smile - and I feel the paper bag - one I threw away so long ago -on my head.
I could fix it this time, I could do it right. I could stop Six from being taken by the bullies and I could stop The Tower from taking her and me.
I was scared - but oh so safe, because he was here now - as the little thing tried again and again to destroy my music box, my only safe thing.
And I am driven back again and again by it being torn apart, even as I rage and hit.
And I am me again, and I remember the hurt and anger I felt as Mono saved me.
I see his face and it's only now that I make the connection, and I know what I have to do, and I wonder how this was the first time I could see it.
The same face.
Mono has the same face as The Thin Man.
And just like Mono saved me from being a monster... so will I save him.
So I let go of the only good thing in this world, because I would save him even if it hurt him, even if it hurt me, because I owed him atleast that much.
Every little warmth that I feel after that, as I embrace the nomes again and again to fill that void that was once filled with smiles and static feels insufficent.
And as I return to the city, this time powerful beyond the imagination of it's denizens, to end The Tower that stole my one friend, I find nothing but ruins where a tower once defied all physics.
"You just missed him," said a voice from everywhere around me,"but I suppose you could count yourself lucky that you won't meet him again."