Six woke up to find herself in a hospital bed and in a hospital gown. What? Hadn't she just escaped the Maw? Why was she here? She looked around the room, expecting to see the Doctor or one of the Patients or any sort of monster, but she found nothing.

Just then, the door to her room opened. Six panicked- she tried to get up and run away only to find she was strapped to the bed. "Please don't hurt me!" She cried.

"Oh my gosh." Six looked over to see a fairly normal looking nurse holding a clipboard. Wait, normal? That couldn't be right. Everything in this world had to be drastically distorted somehow.

"You're awake! I'll go get someone to call your mom!" The nurse quickly exited the room. Six laid back and thought about the situation she was in. Where was she? Why hadn't that nurse tried to kill her? And why wasn't he big like all of the other adults in this world?

Suddenly her memories came flooding back to her. Her family, her home, everything. Then horrible flashbacks started coming to her- a crash, a scream, and a bright light. She tried to remember what that experience was, but she couldn't. Her brain didn't seem to want to.

If this was her reality, then where had all these other memories come from? The ones of the horrible world filled with demons and other children.

Other children.

Six suddenly remembered. She had been holding Mono's hand when suddenly she dropped him. An overwhelming guilt swept over her. Why? Why had she done that? There was absolutely no reason she could've dropped him! "It had seemed logical at the time, but it really wasn't.

Tears started streaming from her eyes and down her face. She could've saved him. They could've escaped together. And yet she chose to betray him.

Six could hear the door opening and she quickly wiped her eyes. "Vivian?" She heard a familiar voice say. It sounded just like the Lady's- but that couldn't be right. Six looked to the door to see a woman standing there. She was wearing a pale blue shirt and jeans and black hair flowed down her back. She looked like the Lady, but different. Kinder, somehow. It took Six a second to recognize her, but eventually she did.

"……. Mom?"

The woman ran over to her and hugged her. "Vivian! I'm so glad you've finally woken up!"

"Woken up…?"

Her mom let go of her and looked her in the eyes. "You mean… you don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"The bus crash. You were on the way to a field trip and you got into a horrible accident."

"Um…" Six- or Vivian, or whoever- looked around the room again. "I-I'm still kinda lost here……"

"Oh, it doesn't matter. Get over here and give your mom a hug!" She reached out to hug her again and Vivian flinched. Her mom looked to much like the lady reaching towards her.

Her mom ceased reaching towards her and stepped back. "Honey, is everything alright?" Vivian looked down at her hands.

"Nothing, it's just…… never mind."

Vivian had to stay in the hospital a few days after that, just to make sure she was okay. They told her that she and several three kids were put into comas when the bus crashed, but only two others besides her had woken up. She got to eat as much ice cream as she wanted and got to watch whatever show she wanted, yet she still felt off. Why had the Lady looked so much like her mom?

Then she started remembering the other people in her life. All of them seemed to match up with another person she knew. Her mom- the Lady. Her dad- the Doctor. Her twin sister- the girl in the yellow raincoat. But there was just one person she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Mono.

She couldn't remember what person Mono had represented. Could it have been her best friend, Raymond? No, he reminded her too much of the nome she had eaten. Could it have been…… Mathew's dad? No, he was too old.

Mathew.

It had finally hit her- Mono was Mathew! And Mathew was…

Her bully?

Yes, she remembered- Mathew had been rude to her since day one. He had constantly teased her, even on the bus ride when they had crashed. Had that been why she betrayed him?

Just then, her aforementioned twin sister walked in. She had a red braid trailing down her back. "Um… hey, Vivian. How've you been?"

"I've been…… fine."

"Um, I've been meaning to ask you something…. about our comas."

"What about them?"

"Did you…. have weird dreams when you were in your coma?"

"Yeah, about some horrible nightmare world. Why do you ask?"

Her sister's jaw dropped. "Wait, did you have a dream about Mathew's little sister chasing me?"

"Um… how did you…?"

"I had a dream about that too!! And then when I fell into the ocean, I woke up."

Now it was Vivian's turn to be shocked. How could her and her sister have had the exact same dream? Had it been some kind of crazy coincidence? Or maybe……..

"Do you think…. maybe we were sharing a dream?"

"I don't know. But if that's what happened, that means that Raymond would have had the same dream as us! Speaking of which, did he ever wake up?"

"Yeah, he did. That just leaves Mathew as the only one in the coma."

"That would mean that…. he's still in that weird dream."

Suddenly, Vivian started crying again. Her sister looked surprised. "Why are you sad!? Wasn't he super rude to you!?"

"Yes, but……" Vivian sobbed, unable to control herself. "…… I met him in the dream and we were best friends but then we were escaping the signal tower and….."

"What on earth are you talking about!?"

Vivian kept sobbing as her sister stared at her, shocked. "I thought you hated him!"

"I don't know!! That's the thing!" She cried.

Vivian suddenly ceased her crying. "Wait, is he in this hospital!?"

"Yeah, actually, to the room the left of you."

Vivian suddenly got up out of her hospital bed and ran out the door. "Where are you going!?" Her sister called.

Vivian ignored her and cracked open the door to the neighboring room. There she found Mathew laying in his hospital bed, stone faced and out cold. She slowly walked into the room. "Mathew… I'm sorry…….."

No response.

"I know, it was terrible of me to do that…"

Still no response.

"I promise I will try to get you out of this coma."

She rested her hand on top of his. His hand was icy and dry.

"Hey kid, what are you doing in here?" Vivian swiveled around to see a nurse standing in the doorway. "You're Vivian, right? You should be getting back to your room."

"A-alright." Vivian slowly trudged out of the room.

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Vivian spent several days after that visiting Mathew, trying to wake him up and being careful not to be caught by the nurses. She had tried everything. She had shaken him, she yelled in his ear, etc. But nothing seemed to be able to wake him up. Her guilt for the situation kept growing and growing until it was so overwhelming that she cried every night.

One evening, she lied down in her hospital bed thinking about what she could've done differently. How she could've saved him from the signal tower. If only I wouldn't have dropped him……

Vivian felt tears forming in her eyes. To avoid crying, she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

——————————

Vivian woke up surrounded by darkness. What? Wasn't she supposed to be in the hospital? Where was she?

She looked around and saw a light in the distance. She started walking towards it, hoping to find out where she was. As she got closer, she saw a figure sitting on a chair. Great, another person. Maybe they knew where she was.

She kept walking towards them, then stopped in her tracks. She recognized this person. He had long, lanky limbs and was wearing a tattered suit and fedora. "The Thin Man……." She whispered to herself.

That was a huge mistake.

The thin man heard her and looked around. His staticky eyes locked on her. "You…" he whispered in a dry, raspy voice.

"…..me?"

"YOU!!"

The Thin Man suddenly advanced. Vivian tried running away, but was sucked into his hand. He gripped her neck and held her high in the air. Vivian grasped desperately at his hand, trying to free herself but failing miserably.

Right before she was going to black out, the Thin Man dropped her and fell onto his knees. Vivian got up off the ground and looked at him. Tears were falling from his eyes.

"Um….. are you… okay?" She asked him. He didn't respond at first. He just sat there. Vivian turned around and slowly started to walk away.

"Why…" she suddenly heard him whisper. She turned back around. "What?"

"WHY." He said it louder this time.

"Why what?"

"Why would you drop me?"

Vivian had a sudden realization. This must be why he had chased them. This was why he had taken her to the signal tower.

"M-Mono!?"

The Thin Man said nothing. He just sighed slowly. "You betrayed me, Six. And I don't know if I can ever forgive you for that."

Vivian sat down next to him. "Look, I don't know why I betrayed you-"

"YOU MEAN THERE WASN'T A REASON!?" He shouted, slamming his fists down on the ground beneath them, making the whole giant room shake. Vivian steadied herself, then continued:

"BUT I'm doing everything I can to try and get you out of here."

The Thin Man was quiet for a second. Then, he started to laugh. It was not happy laughter, though. This was a depressed, psychotic laughter that rang in her ears even after he stopped laughing.

"Don't you see, Six!?" He said, turning his head towards her. "There's absolutely NO WAY to get out of here! I've tried several times, but it has never, ever worked! I think it MIGHT be driving me insane!!"

He continued the terrifying laughter. Vivian covered her ears and closed her eyes, trying to block out his despair that was piercing her soul. When it finally faded away, she opened her eyes. She was the middle of the night and she was back in the hospital. She quickly sat up, hopped out of her bed, and ran to Mathew's room. When she got there, she could see a small smile on his face.

——————————

Vivian stared at the ground as her and her mom walked out to the car. "I'm so glad you're awake, honey." Her mom said. Vivian didn't answer. She could feel tears forming in her eyes, and her mom seemed to notice.

"Vivian, are you alright? You seem down lately."

"It's nothing, I just… wish I could've woken Mathew up."

"We all want him to wake up, honey. That's just not how comas work."

They grew silent as they got into the car. Then, Vivian suddenly blurted:

"Mom, did you have any weird dreams while I was in a coma?"

"Well yes, actually." Her mom said. "It was more of a nightmare, just a little one though. Had a dream where a girl in a yellow raincoat ate me. Kinda looked like you, actually."

They grew silent again. So I CAN visit Mathew in my dreams. This is perfect! Maybe I can find a way to visit him in my dreams more often, and wake him up from there!

Vivian suddenly felt a dark presence next to her. She turned and saw a terrifying sight. She had seen it before. It was made of pure darkness and looked exactly like her.

"Uh… mom?" Vivian said. "Do you see anything sitting next to me?"

"No, honey. There's no one there. You okay?"

"Yeah… guess I'm just seeing things."

"You're not." She heard Dark Six whisper in her ear.