I can't sleep again and I shift in my bed again, this is becoming a routine that I can barely cope with. It is windy and I can hear the movement across the manor, it is loud and it is an appetizer to my insomnia. I have a new mission now though, I need to find that person, I'm tempted to go tonight but I am afraid.
I am afraid of what I might find or worse whom I may find.
I continue to stare at the ceiling unable to rest until I hear my door open slightly revealing the shadow of a slender and tall man.
"Are you awake?" my father asks but I do not respond neither do I move until he sits down on my bed facing me with his cold brown eyes.
I dare not to look at him until he speaks again.
"We are doing this for your own good my daughter," he tells me but I still don't respond.
"Your mother although she won't show it that much care for you and so do I," he tells me and I feel tense.
"Who are Mono and Six?" I dare to ask and that makes him freeze in the spot.
"Who told you those names?" he asks me coldly this time and I sit up to look at him dead in the eye this time.
"Should it matter?" I tell him and I can see he is surprised at my response but his frown still remains plastered on his face throughout the dark.
"You may not go anywhere for the time being until your fiance comes to visit you again," he tells me coldly before standing up.
"Your breakfast and dinner will be brought up to your room and you still need to continue your study sessions," and with that, he left and locked my door using his powers, he didn't use a lock and key, he actually morphed my door so I couldn't leave.
Genius.
I looked at my journal which I still had hidden and then at my bedroom window, it would be a stupid idea but it could just work and I needed answers now that my father really wanted me to marry this thing.
I began by grabbing my covers before tying them together to form a rope, my room was located on the second floor which meant I'd be high off. I gulped before changing into my regular attire until I noticed some fingerless gloves on top of one of my clothing boxes. I don't recall seeing them before but I still put them on since they might come in handy when climbing down.
I slowly drop my rope made out of my bedding sheets and covers over my window after opening it. It doesn't make any sound until I tie it with my desk for support.
My breath was hitching at this point but I still managed to get ahold of my rope before slowly climbing it down. I use one hand then another to climb down and surprisingly I see that my method is working even though I feel terrified and try to ignore the height I am currently at. I am almost at the bottom until I hear two familiar voices speaking outside and I freeze in my spot while clutching to the rope.
"She asked me who Mono and Six were," a voice spoke.
"Do you know where she could have gotten that?" another voice asked.
"No, I do not, she is currently locked up in her room," my father suddenly became visible and I held my breath.
"Good, this is for her own good," mother said becoming visible as well.
I'm screwed.
"I'm worried my love," my father told my mother and I opened my eyes to look at the both of them in curiosity.
"I am too but we must force her if she does not comply," my mother told my father and I made my best effort not to faint.
I see my father sigh but my mother removes his stress when she kisses him deeply. I try not to gag, this is gross but I am forced to watch while I wait for the right opportunity to escape. I suddenly see my father carry my mother before going back inside the manor and I sigh in relief before climbing the last bit down.
My heart is still pounding but at least I am on the ground. I make sure my rope is still steady for when I return before dashing away from the manor and to the same location I had seen that person with a little faith in mind.
I arrive at the same street with the fence, I look around to see if there is anyone around but even the people in static are not here at this time. The streets are oddly quiet and I feel afraid, perhaps this had been a truly bad idea.
As I am about to leave, I hear a shuffle and I turn around in the opposite direction. There he is, the person under a cape, scavenging the trash bin on the alleyway. I feel my heart leap, as I approach him carefully this time making sure not to spook him off.
"Hello," I manage to say once closer to him but he ignores me and dashes away.
"Not again," I mutter before running after him, he's a bit slower than he was in our last encounter, perhaps he is tired too.
He runs and jumps over the bin down into the alleyway but I chase after him and pray I catch him this time. He doesn't stop running until I see him take out a small container and drink it quickly. Before I know it he has shrunken to the size of a child and goes in through a sewer drainage hole.
I am left perplexed.
I didn't even know such a thing was even quite possible but I had seen it. I looked around if there was any point I could follow him but there was none. I was too big and if only I were small too I'd be able to chase him.
I still look around and there I spot it, he had dropped one of his liquid containers.
I look at it hesitantly but then I remember what was awaiting me if I did not do something soon so I drink the fluid. It tastes sour and bitter but before I know it, I feel myself shrink quickly. It is a funny feeling but it ends soon when I feel shrunken to the floor. I take a look at the now enormous buildings which were already quite large from a start. I was truly small now and thankfully my clothes had shrunk along with my body which was a relief.
I go into the same drainage hole running in the only direction I could, forward.
It feels as if I have been running for hours and I am exhausted, the dark sewers are both gross and terrifying.
I am lost.
I am tired.
This was so stupid but I continue to walk straight.
As I am about to lose hope though I spot a light, a burning one too. I inch closer and I am able to see a torch, then another like a pathway. I feel relieved as I follow the lights which are aligned to each other. The torches eventually stop in what appears to be a ladder and I climb it up. This suddenly takes me past a vent that leads straight, I sigh, now I'd have to crawl.
Surprisingly I don't crawl for that long and I am taken to what appears to be a small door. I knock on it but no one answers so I knock a little harder
No answer.
This was seriously getting on my nerves so I open it and to my luck it is open.
I can't tell the space of the room, it is too dark and I can't see a single thing. It is quiet as well until I feel a forceful shove and my knees drop to the floor. I groan in pain as I feel a sharp pain in my legs. I try to stand up but I am forcefully kicked again then punched to the floor, I try to hit back this time but I feel as I am fighting a ghost and I can't see who I am aiming at. Whoever is hitting me is quick and agile. As I am about to faint from the pain, a loud voice echoes through the room.
"That is enough Jack!" an elderly voice commands and I feel no pain after. The lights turn on all of a sudden and I facing the same caped person next to a short older woman.
"But nana she is a monster!" he exclaims but the old woman ignores his statement.
"Can you stand dear?" she asks me and I stand holding my arm which is stinging with pain.
"Forgive him, he is quite protective," she says forwarding at the person next to him, he suddenly takes off his hood and I am faced with a boy who appears to be my age. One of his eyes has an eye patch but he has a green eye showing. He also has long black hair which was originally covered by his hood until he removed it now. He gave me a menacing glare.
"I'm sorry I just-" I am cut off.
"Don't apologize, dear, what is your name?" she asks me.
"June," I weakly respond but she gives me a small smile.
"We know you are the daughter of the thin man and geisha," this boy named Jack growls.
"Hush Jack, now go tell the others we have a guest," she tells him which annoyed he complies to.
The older woman forwards me to follow her and I feel my legs tumble a bit as I walk behind her. I still feel astonished and somewhat relieved that there are other people that are alive and not part of Andrew's ruling. I am mainly surprised to see the older woman, her hair is gray but white as snow at the same time. Her clothing is worn but it looks warm, her skin is also wrinkly but not warped as the residents from Pale City.
She looks calm as she takes me past a corridor into what appears to be a refugee camp. There are at least twenty tents and torches light up the room but the atmosphere is not heavy at all instead it is light and peaceful.
This older woman then takes me into what appears to be the largest tent which is already lit up with candles. She sits down on the carpet and I do the same waiting for her to speak.
"I suppose you are here for answers are you not?" she tells me and I nod.
"What answers do you exactly seek for child?" she asks me again.
"I've lived in Pale City all my life and I barely knew that other people still existed," I mentioned and she let out a small smile.
"It must be quite shocking to see beings that do not belong to the tower's signal but I know that is not all you came for, you want to know how to end this corrupt system," she tells me and I am left in shock, how does she know?
"I know many things June, I've been here for a very long time," she tells me as if she is reading my mind and I am left more perplexed.
"I am afraid I cannot completely give you the answer you are hoping for but I can give you some information that may help you find what you are looking for," she tells me and I anxiously pay attention when all of a sudden a blue mist begins to appear inside the tent.
"Not that long ago two children were brought into this world, into this system without knowing the true joys of life," the woman began and the mist began to take the shape of two newborn children while she spoke her tale.
"The system had been corrupted by an evil being who has a never-ending hunger that was created by the emotions of hatred and anger," the mist shaped to form Andrew then and I backed away a little.
"These two children had special abilities, neither were born as normal children but were brought in with a purpose to serve," the mist changed to form the boy Mono and the girl Six I had seen in the drawings in those journals.
"Mono the boy had an ability to see beyond what the tower faked and Six the girl had the ability to tell between the lies of others," she continued and I felt myself become familiar with this story oddly.
"Both met at a point when they were at their weakest point and they both unconsciously fell in love with one another," and the mist shaped again to show both Mono and Six holding hands.
"Both originally still had their morals and sense of sanity...until the quest they had encountered became too much to bare and Six's soul began to become corrupted," the mist showed both characters being chased by a monster like a creature similar to father then to Six being followed by what appeared to be her shadow. Then more figures appeared that including the same creature pulling Six inside the television and Mono having to save her countless times, similar to the journal. There was a creepy teacher and even a doctor with living puppets as well and I felt like there was a missing puzzle piece inside of me.
"Mono had discovered his powers and ended the one who had tormented him from the beginning," she said showing Mono defeating the tall man-like-monster.
"In the last part of their quest to escape this madness though, Six became a corrupted creature to which Mono saved again but Six's soul had already darkened and the love she felt for him had vanished," she said showing the figure of a lanky monster and Mono without his paper bag and then the two of them running through a building of madness.
"In the end, Mono's fate was left in Six's hands when he was about to fall off a cliff to his end but Six's corrupted soul made her let go of him where he fell to his doom. Mono lived but his soul had now also been corrupted by heartbreak and so he became the Thin Man," I felt my color drain, father was Mono so that meant Six was my mother.
"Six became the geisha shortly after devouring the original geisha who ran the Maw and gained a power that corrupted her furthermore," the image of my mother flashed upon my eyes and I felt nauseated.
"The two met after ten years and Six offered Mono a proposition to marry and conceive a child they would sacrifice to 'it' and have completed their offering in order to become the true rulers of this system. Little do they know that with this child they have concieved by offering her to that being then it will truly be the end of it all," I felt my eyes go wide and my body begin to tremble.
Now I knew why mother and father had me and now and why they wanted me to marry Andrew.
This wasn't a wedding, this was a sacrifice.
I felt my knees go weak and my eyes suddenly became filled with tears and I began to cry in front of this woman who I barely knew. She doesn't speak but hugs me deeply while my tears keep coming in.
"I...I don't want to marry that thing! I never asked to exist for this!" I scream but she doesn't mind and strokes my hair gently trying to calm my nerves. My heart feels shattered, they never loved me, I was never loved by either of my parents. They only needed me for their bidding. I don't want to exist at this point.
"It's alright child now look at me," she says pulling away to look into my probably swollen and red eyes.
"Your mother and father took their choice but it isn't yours. You are the little good that they had left reincarnated, I can see you are different," she tells me softly but tears are still falling of my face.
"How am I supposed to end this if I am not close to being powerful, this thing can do as he pleases with me, even my parents can do as the please," I tell her but she gives me a serious glare before taking out a small necklace from her pocket.
"You are stronger than you give yourself credit for June and I must tell you about a prophecy," she tells me and my ears perk up at this.
"There is a way to end this being by finding an old relic known as the blind eye," she explains and I feel my tears slow down as I look at her with curiosity.
"The blind eye?" I ask and she nods.
"Although it is only a myth, the blind eye is said to be the only form to stop this being and according to a prophecy only the chosen one will be able to find it and destroy this creature once and for all," she says handing me the necklace.
"This talisman is the only form to find it and it will tell you when it is ready to be found do not let anyone else have it," she tells me while I wrap the necklace around my neck.
"How are you certain I'm the one who is suppossed to do this?" I ask her but she smiles again.
"I just know my child but before you are on your way I must show you around," she tells me while standing up and leaving the tent. The two of us leave the tent and I find myself in a place unlike any other. Children are running aroud and playing while some older boys and girls talk and some appear to be learning combat. It is the opposite of the calm place it was moments ago but it looks like fun.
"Children?" I ask.
"Their souls and nature have not yet been corrupted so they refugee here," she explains.
"I haven't asked you for your name ma'am?" I ask again which she laughs to.
"Call me nana dear that is what I am here," she explains and I nod while admiring this new place that feels more like a home than the manor. I am suddenly standing in front of a group of boys and girls, they look my age and some a little younger.
"This is June and she is our guest for today please make her feel at home for the time being and introduce yourselfs while you are at it," she tells them before leaving. I look at the odd group of survivors and frown, this was my first time talking to kids my age.
"Hi I'm Amber," a red headed girl says in a cheery tone with a smile, her eyes are brown like mine and she is also wearing a dark blue dress with patches, I only smile a little.
"I'm Manny, nice to meet ya June was it?" the boy with googles and blue hair tells me, he is short but he seems to be nice.
"Yes, nice to meet you," I reply shyly.
"I'm Valentina," the blonde girl with a yellow dress tells me afterwards and I smile.
"Hey babe I'm Hunter," a boy with brown hair tells me and I flinch at his term towards me, he is wearing an old leather jacket and blue pants until Amber nudges the boy with the cape who'd given me a beating earlier and I feel myself inch backwards a bit.
"Say something," she whispers harshly to him until he sighs and looks at me with a cold glare.
"I still don't trust her," he says coldly and I frown a bit, my parents had already formed a reputation for me.
"Jack that is harsh, can't you see she is just a kid like us?" Valentina tells him but he won't budge.
"No she is not just some kid, she is the daughter of the monsters who created this," he says harshly before leaving us and I let my head down.
"Don't listen to him, he's just been through a lot," Valentina tells me but my frown does not leave my face, perhaps I am a monster too.
"Look since you are our friend now, let's show ya around instead and I'll beat some sense into Jack later," Amber tells me.
"Friends?" I ask feeling a bit dumbfounded.
"Duh, what else should we be?" Manny tells me and I smile a bit, I've never had friends before but it is such a nice feeling.
"Yeah, friends," I repeat and I follow them to see what this new world has in store.