⑤

ｍｏｎｏ

...

The first time I see a television flashing static feedback is inside the city before entering the school. It is producing reverberations that split my skull apart, leaving me with no choice but to tune the transmission.

To my surprise, I'm transported to a long, darkened hallway with a blue monochromatic door at the end. Assuming that is the exit, I get up from my knees and dash towards it. For some reason, I'm moving in slow motion as the disoriented walls rotate slowly back to the normal alignment. As I'm about to draw near, I find myself being torn away.

With that, I spring out of the screen and fall to the floor with Six. It looks like she's the one who got me out of there.

"What was that?" she asks as she gives me an odd look.

Rising on my feet, I remain gawping at the black screen. "I don't know. I suddenly feel an intense headache, so I had to turn off the TV. But I suddenly got sucked into it," I explain, omitting parts of the truth.

There's no need for me to tell her about my ability and that the sound waves earlier regained some of my memories. She may not trust me anymore if she finds out who I am and what I can do.

Thankfully, she's convinced of my story.

In the past, before meeting Six in the wilderness, I have been locked up in an empty room of the signal tower with no one else there. I have been using my transmission powers to do the bidding of the entity residing there. Drop by drop I have been swallowed by the loneliness until I have lost myself. I can only leave for a short time or whenever the entity tells me to. If I don't, I'll be rid of my existence.

I have yet to remember the rest of the pieces to fill in the gaps of the puzzle. There are a lot of questions with no answers, which I may get if I see more working TVs.

I do come across a second one in the hospital. After pulling me out again, Six becomes frustrated and begins to doubt me. Of course, I panic at the thought that she will abandon me so I admit about my power - the reason why everyone, upon finding it out, is after me - and assure her that is all I know.

Although she calms down, I can't help but still become vexed at the memories that have returned to me. I discover that I'm stuck in a time loop, which starts with me appearing in the forest from the TV, meeting Six and escaping the hunter, passing through school, and going inside the hospital. All of those have happened to me, with minimal changes in some scenarios, in the previous timelines. And every time, I end up getting trapped inside the empty room. As to 'how' and 'why', I have yet to know.

After getting out of the hospital, we collapse from the dilapidated floor. With dust and residue, fogging my eyesight, I catch Six's unmoving figure amidst the ruins. I become tense as I move aside the plank off me.

Intensely hoping that she's okay, I scramble up towards her, who is stuck under the couch. I lighten up when I noticed a flicker of movement from her.

I help her out, tossing us backward to the floor. When our gazes met, I ask her if she's alright to which she nods faintly in reply. Relief washes over me and I break into a smile even if she can't see it.

Not long after that, I find another television set. The sound vibrations bring me insufferable pain. This time though, I don't recover more of my memories.

When I warped back to the hallway, I keep my eyes on the mysterious door as I steadily shift towards it, hoping that I'll get my answers there. It turns out that I'm right in an unpleasant way.

After swinging the door open, revealed in front of me is a seemingly boundless space that is barren except for a ray of light in the center where a lanky, slender man sits on a chair. He wears a grayish-blue suit and fedora, which overcasts a shadow over his eyes. With a crooked posture, he has pale, wrinkled skin and radiating with resonant waves.

As he stands up, the entire place shakes with strong tremors. I take a step back as I'm overwhelmed with this terrifying presentiment and realization. With Six's help, I'm forced out of there and onto the floor beside her.

My vision a bit hazy, Six calls out for me to get up. I jolt up from the floor and, then, spin towards the TV where the thin man from that place comes closer to the screen with clacking footsteps.

Six rushes out of the room just as he emerges from the screen. The screeching vibrations erupt in my brain, so I grab my head in a futile attempt to block out the noise, losing my balance. When his towering form is completely out, the waves and the aching subsides, allowing me to break into a bolt to the door.

I can't believe it. He, the thin man, is me - my grown-up self. But why is he after us?

Huffing, I follow Six to the adjacent room as the thin man lags behind in a leisurely manner. I know what he's doing - calculating our moves and patiently waiting for the right moment.

Six hides under the table surrounded by toys while I make my way under the bed. Then the thin man enters and finds Six in her hiding spot. She tries to crawl towards me, fear and helplessness painted on her face, as she reaches her hand out.

I want to go to her aid, but his bursting transmissions render me unable to move. I plant my face down as tears sprung out of my eyes, begging for this to stop. Then her scream rings in my ears followed by utter silence within the room.

"Six?"

I lift my chin and see only a glitch shadow, which resembles her, kneeling on her spot when she has been at the mercy of the thin man. It's the same as the ones that I have been absorbing, enhancing my power and providing me memories of their owners.

When I approached it, the figure vanishes into thin air. It's a slap to my face of my failure in protecting her.

I'm weak and pathetic. I can't even lift a finger in face of my grown self. I shouldn't have brought her with me. It might be better for her if we went on our separate ways back in the wilderness after defeating the hunter.

I don't deserve her. I don't deserve anyone. I deserve to be alone as I have been in my past timelines.

...

end of Part 5