So we start off in The Nest. It's not too important to figure out how she arrived there, just that it encompassed most of her early memories. She started out with much straighter hair, and a plain t-shirt and shorts, though she still likes to wear her bangs covering one eye, for style. She's still fairly innocent at this point, but far more distrustful of other people. After all, it's not like she's had much human interaction at this point, positive or negative. She lives in the walls and tries to figure out ways to escape, as she watches other children be collected for The Pretender. She watches them glance at her and other kids warily, with fear in their eyes, and she watches as they shove each other around in their attempts to escape.
Six is clever, Six is quick, and Six is wily. She begins her escape around 8 years old, and progress is going smooth in those first few hours. She saw a Girl In a Yellow Raincoat crash into The Nest early on, and she keeps running into her during her escape attempt. There's something curious about the other girl.
The other girl helps people. She watched the other girl break the boy with the scarf out of his cage, and she watched the other girl play with the nomes. Six has always wondered where the nomes come from. But the other girl is just as clever as her, she sees. She sneaks by all the enemies, and manages to harm some of them as well. Six didn't know it was possible to fight back. It was almost inspiring to watch the Girl in the Yellow Raincoat.
Their paths cross sooner than she expected, and she finds herself just outside of The Nest, escaping together, yet separately. Six still tries to avoid her; she doesn't know if she's trustworthy yet, right? And in the end, the other girl locks her out of the shed when they cross the bridge. But then she sees her when she's running down the cliff, and the other girl saves her. She pushed the log over, and saved her from impaling herself on jagged rocks.
Is this what having an ally feels like? This warm feeling in her chest? Six watches with satisfaction, as she follows in the girl's footsteps and crushes The Pretender beneath a giant boulder. How strong she was! She could be just as cool and clever as the other girl-
And then the Girl in the Yellow Raincoat fell to her death. Just as soon as that spark of joy in her chest arrived, it left. Six doesn't know how to feel. Should she be sad? She didn't know this girl for very long at all. But she looked up to her, right? She felt horror, more than anything. Because even someone as strong and cool as her could die in an instant. She had to be even more careful.
Six was going to collect the raincoat that floated to the surface. She wanted to wear it in honor of the girl, to remember the first person who gave her hope.
But the raincoat drifted out to sea before she could reach it. And Six had to leave as well.
...
Six eventually got captured by The Hunter. In the time between that, she spent much of her time exploring the world and trying to survive. She found a new change of clothes as she grew slightly older, her hair got a lot more scraggly, and most importantly, she found a music box. It played a calming tune that she loved more than anything else in the world. It reminded her that she made it, she was still alive, she would continue to make, and that she was still just a child. A child that could take the time to relax and be innocent.
Six was a bit more jaded now, but she was also more energetic. She felt herself expressing her feelings in destructive manners, mostly messing with the dead animals (and sometimes people) she found on her travels. Perhaps this is how she was discovered by The Hunter. She was as clever as ever, but now she knew she could fight back. But still, this man seemed indestructible. He had no magic powers like The Butler, nor distended body parts like The Carpenter. But regardless, he kept her there. Six had her music box though, and that kept her hoping.
A strange boy wearing a paper bag nearly gave her a heart attack, breaking through the door with an axe.
She left the music box behind.
But the boy was nice! His name was Mono, and they worked together to escape The Hunter. Indestructible he may be, they could still outrun him in the end. And the bullet rocketing through his head invigorated her soul. As they floated to the Pale City, that feeling in her chest came back. But it was more than just having an ally to survive with. Six had her first friend.
She watched in horror as the Bullies seemingly crushed Mono under the locker and dragged her away. Those bastards tied her to the ceiling and she could feel the blood rush to her head for what felt like hours. She wanted nothing more than to kill them for what they did. But to her surprise, Mono did that for her! She was free, even if her head was splitting, and she was reinvigorated. She'd been mellowing out lately, mostly just relying on cleverness to get by. But she had to remember that she could be just as vicious. If the world was to try and crush her, she would fight back. She would fight back with her friend.
It felt so good to break that Bully's neck. It was what it deserved.
It was raining, and Six was cold. Mono didn't seem as bothered, which surprised her. She thought he was a bit of a baby, always crying out in fear and jumping at sounds. She never got to do that... So she tried not to be upset with the rain, even if it chilled her to her bones. But then she found it again. Somehow, after all this time, the raincoat washed up in the Pale City. It was unmistakably hers; it had the exact same strange hood shape. It felt so right to don the raincoat.
The hospital felt like a blur, surrounded by nothing but darkness, but she felt such immense satisfaction at the Doctor's cremation. She warmed herself by the fire and gestured for Mono to join her, but he just gave her a weird look. That's okay though, she didn't mind. He'd had that same look when she was playing with the mannequin. It's not her fault he was a baby.
But the signal tower.
The signal tower.
She'd been trying so hard to get Mono to stop looking at the damn TVs. Every time he did, he got this creepy look and she had to pull him away from the blaring screen.
She'd really, really tried. Even when the Thin Man took her, she tried so so hard. She wouldn't cry. She wouldn't be a baby. She wouldn't be scared. She knew Mono would save her; they were friends, right? He'd save her like she saved the other girl.
—She let the other girl die. Like the freak she was. That's why Mono looked at her like that.—
He'd be there for her, for sure. She could endure anything. She was a survivor. She was a big girl! She could make it, even if it hurt! She wouldn't give up.
It hurt so much though. Even when her eye got torn from her skull, she wouldn't cry. Even when that weird other Six formed itself around her disembodied left eye, she wouldn't cry. Even as she felt herself grow and her limbs break and shatter and bend in on themselves, she wouldn't cry.
She wouldn't cry, because her music box was back!
She hummed to its tune, like she always did. This was her reward, for being such a strong brave girl. This was her reward for surviving. This was what she got, for pushing through everything and being strong and clever and living up to what the other girl taught her. This is what she deserved. This was her break, her freedom, from everything.
Why was that monster breaking her music box?
Why was he hurting her?
It hurt so much. It hurt even more than everything else before.
How dare he?!
HOW COULD HE?!
AFTER EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN THROUGH-
"AFTER EVERYTHING I'VE BEEN THROUGH-"
But then she was back. It hurt. But she was back. She could feel blood trickling out of her eye socket as they ran. She could feel the other Six following her as they ran.
The bridge collapsed, and instinctively, she reached out for him. For her first friend.
She would try to justify it to herself later, saying that she saw something in his eyes, something in his face that reminded her of the man that tormented her. Maybe that was part of the reason too, maybe she couldn't bear to think of what he might become.
But in the moment, she remembered her music box, and her broken, shattered reward. Why was her life so difficult? He had no idea what she was going through, he had no idea what she had to deal with, he had no idea what it all meant to her. How dare he call himself her friend. All this time too, he had thought of her as a freak. That's why he looked at her like that. All this time, she knew that she would betray him, right? RIGHT?! She had been stupid to think otherwise, right?
But even after she dropped him, she half considered going back, jumping in after him. Even if she died, maybe that would be better than living with what she just did.
Six killed her best friend. Why had she done that? Had she told herself those lies? Were they even lies in the first place? She had never thought about that sort of thing before, right? No... she hadn't feared what he would do to her until...
Six suddenly noticed that the other Six was whispering in her ear. She noticed that if she tried hard enough, she could see her clear as day. The other Six, the Shadow Six, sounded exactly like the voice that made her doubt. That made her fear.
But there was nothing she could do about it now.
Six wished she had something of Mono's that she could use to remember him, like with the Girl in the Yellow Raincoat. But she had nothing. The only memory she had, was the blood dripping out of her eye socket. It wouldn't stop dripping. Maybe that would be her reminder. It was deserving, she thought. This friendship had ended because of her, so her reminder should be far more painful than the other girl.
She wrapped a bandage around her eye and continued her journey.
Every step she took, however, she felt a strange feeling creeping over her. A hunger. It wasn't like normal hunger, no. It felt like a virus, or a parasite in her stomach. And a strange heat radiated from her eye socket.
Shadow Six pointed to a picture of a boat. "The Maw?"
The words on the poster advertised an all you can eat buffet. Maybe this stupid mean Six was on to something. Maybe they could work together.
Six would have considered that more if the Shadow Six would stop whispering horrible things in her ear.
...
Whether an intentional delivery or being captured by The Ferryman, Six arrived in The Maw. But she instantly realized that this wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Not in the least. As she snuck her way deep into the heart of the ship, she watched in disgust as the grownups gorged themselves on food. Even if she WAS insatiably hungry, and getting thinner and paler by the day, she wasn't sure if she should even touch that crap. No matter how much Shadow Six pestered her to. She noticed that the nomes had come back, and she wondered if their species could only survive in certain environments.
Six was grateful for her instinct against the food once she dove deeper into the core of The Maw. It didn't take much thought to connect the dots and realized that the meat in the food... were her fellow children. Kept up in a slaughterhouse masquerading as a nursery, it took all her power not to vomit at the sight of the sausages, and even worse, the kids being force fed it in the cafeteria. She didn't have the heart to confront any of them about it, and she was too wary of being caught to do so anyway. She just had to push down her hunger and wait for it to pass. She could sustain herself off of leftover bread and scraps. Sawdust tasted fine she supposed...
Once she arrived in a place she could consider a home base, she waited and tried to concoct a plan for what to do. After such a horrible existence, she was tired of simply just running from danger and watching other children die. What made her so special that she got to survive, she wondered? What had she done to deserve that?
—Kill everyone she cared about, whispered Shadow Six.—
One day, another kid found her hideout. He said his name was Runaway Kid, and she said that was a dumb name. He said The Janitor called him that cuz he was always trying to get out, and he pointed out his missing left eye as one of his more recent punishments. Six came to the conclusion that 1. apparently missing eyes are frequent punishments in this world and 2. Runaway Kid was a mouthful, so she was calling him Rake for short. Cuz RK. He awkwardly agreed with her assertion.
Rake pointed out that Six had weird, pointed teeth and her heart stopped. They hadn't been like that before... right?
They had a lovely conversation together. Six tried to warn him that the meat was made of kid, and he dismissed it as her just trying to spook him. "Suit yourself," she had shrugged. "But don't come crying t'me when you find out you're gonna be turned into hot dog." She playfully punched him in the arm.
The conversation escalated after a while, and she declared that someday, she'd break outta here and get rid of all the adults too. They were the ones messing everyone up, and it's their fault all the kids were dying or being tortured or whatever. Rake asked if she thought he could break out someday too, and she laughed, saying he was too much of a baby to break out.
—Too much like Mono to break out. Too trusting. Too nice. You have to be a monster like her to break out...—
But she said that was okay cuz when she broke out, she'd make sure to come back and free all the other kids!
Rake left Six alone a few hours of hanging out later, and returned to the Prison.
...
Six received a nightmare of The Lady.
Maybe this was just Shadow Six trying to get her off her ass and do something already. It was just like her to do it in the most traumatizing way possible. Pff, whatever. Who cares about that freak anyways.
"Aww, you angry that I'm not treating you like a baby?"
"I wouldn't have made it this long if I was!"
"Yeah right. You still hum that stupid music box song to yourself. And you still laugh like a stupid little kid. I saw you taking to that weirdo Rake boy."
"Whatever. Says you!"
"Wow, what a comeback. I thought we weren't going to make friends again after Mono and Rain?"
"..."
"Aw, did I hit a sore spot baby?"
The trek through the Maw seemed more difficult the other way around. The freaks kept chasing her. But what's worse is that her stupid hunger kept getting in the way. She had to ask some random kid in the cafeteria for help, and it hurt how good the bread tasted. It hurt how salty it was from her tears. It hurt how concerned the kid behind the bars looked. It hurt how she couldn't do anything else for them.
She knew the mystery meat in the cage was a trap. It was such a blatantly obvious one too. But her stomach didn't care. And rats don't eat kid meat, it wasn't cannibalism.
She hummed the tune to herself in the cage, to stop herself from crying again. To stop herself from crying when she noticed Rake get dragged to the chopping block.
She chopped off the bastard's arms. She missed this feeling of revenge. No one else would get hurt by him now. And Shadow Six was suspiciously silent.
The rat... was still alive when she ate it. She felt it squirm under her teeth. But Shadow Six looked so happy when it occurred. And her meal pushed her through the kitchen without any hiccups. She felt like vomiting. Part of her noticed how much stealthier she felt ever since she ate the rat. But maybe she was just going crazy. Finally.
The sun... she hadn't ever seen it this clearly. Not since... The Nest.
But then she was back inside. She wasn't done yet.
She had never felt so exhausted in her entire life after fleeing from that tidal wave of guests. Was it any surprise that her hunger stabbed her in the gut yet again? She would have thought she was bleeding to death if she couldn't see it with her own eye.
And the nome offered her a sausage. A sausage made of her fellow child. A sick part of her wondered if that was somehow the same sausage Rake could've been turned into. So she ate the nome instead.
Before she approached the elevator, something hit her. A whispering that wasn't Shadow Six.
Rake whispered in her ear.
She was right about the rat, wasn't she?
Rake was following her now.
As she fell to her knees, sobbing in front of the open elevator door, a part of her had to laugh. Of course. She had physical embodiments of Rain and Mono. Memories of them haunting her. Of course now she literally had her most recent friend haunt her. But he didn't seem too angry. She hoped he wasn't angry.
Rake pointed to the mirror, and then pointed to the room Six knew the Lady was waiting in. The look on his face told her exactly what she needed to know.
She was gonna put an end to this. Once and for all.
...
But she was so hungry.
Six couldn't even hear Rake screaming her name over Shadow Six's orders.
Eat her. End it all now. Escape. Use her power. Take her life. Get your revenge. Do it. Do it now.
A part of Six really and truly wanted to believe that this was all just some horrific dream. A part of her wanted to start all over, to wake up back in the Nest, and do things right from the beginning.
Was this her punishment? For surviving, for staying strong, for not crying. Was this what she deserved?
Then why did it feel so good to slaughter everyone in the restaurant?
This is what THEY deserved at least.
Six would wipe all of them out. She had toppled the hierarchy of the Maw. Whose to say she couldn't do it in the Pale City now too? In the Nest? The rest of the world?
Six could hear the other three whispering behind her, but it was too faint now. It was drowned out by the sounds of her own power.
Could she free everyone else? Could she fix her mistakes?
Or would she just... become one of them?
She prayed it would be the first, but since when did Six ever get what she wanted.