Upon hearing those words Mono dropped the ax and started to walk to Six. Only for Six to recoil and scramble back to the wall.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed as she collided back to the wall like a cornered animal. "Six… what's wrong? It's just me."
The worst-case scenario that Mono figured would happen if Six remembered things from last time would have that Six would actively try to kill Mono the second, she was freed from the door. That image just dissipated in his mind as this new turn of events happened. Six was frightened of him for reasons he may have some inkling about why.
"You can't tell me you don't remember me Mono" Six accused. "Not only did you know my name from the get-go just now, but you also just let me know before you chopped down the door. You didn't do that last time." Six now pointing accusingly at Mono. "You're also not wearing your bag hat. Why?"
Mono sighed now realizing the cat was truly out of the bag, so he started to walk towards Six. Six immediately tensed so Mono paused looked around his surroundings before his eyes laid upon a small cylindrical object. Walking over to it he picked up the music box and brought it over to Six, sat down, and started winding the crank.
As the music box played its tune Mono said, "I'd been trapped in that tower for a long time Six. I had plenty of time to think about that day when you let go." Six opened her mouth to reply.
"Please don't interrupt. Anyway, there had come a day when I was being forced to review our previous adventure and it was playing through the time when I had released the Thin Man from the TV. Having years of rewatching this over and over not by choice I had a pretty horrid epiphany."
Mono raised his hand and stared into his palm, the faint buzz of static emitting from his hand. "I am the Thin Man. I was the one who kidnapped you. Who put you in that wretched tower. Who died at my own hands." A tear leaked out of his eye as he put his hand back down on the floor.
"Upon that realization, I made the connections. Frankly, I do not blame you for what you did that day. And when I made that decision, that change in emotions caused the room around shifted back into flesh to consume me as it had done to so many viewers and Thin Men alike. In the last few moments, I looked to the TV and in an act of desperation I attempted to broadcast my consciousness to my younger self hoping to rectify what I did wrong both to you and me."
As Mono explained this Six began to calm down sitting in a more relaxed position to which Six asked, "And the shades you kept sending after me? To torment me. What's your reasoning behind them?" To which Mono looked confused, "Shades? What are you talking about?" Six pondered that for a moment and then started to explain.
Flashback: Right after Six dropped Mono.
Six tumbled out of the screen rolling on the floor before coming to a stop landing on her stomach. 'Why…?' Tears rolling out of her eyes as she laid there for a few seconds. 'Why did he look like that thing? Oh God, why'd I drop him?'
She curled into a ball and started sobbing reminiscing all the good times she had with Mono. He was the one who rescued her from the Hunter's house albeit violently at first. He also rescued her from the bullies and was next to her ready to help her up off the ground. There was that time when he and Six were half fooling around half working with the x-ray machine in the hospital trying to find the right toy. And then she remembered the last time she saw Mono. His face as he fell one of shock and confusion yet so close to the monster that grabbed her in the first place. Shaking her head of those thoughts she picked herself off the floor and wiped her face with her sleeve when she heard static coming from elsewhere in the room other than the TV.
Looking to the parallel wall of the TV Six saw it. A shadowy static figure emerging from her own shadow looking exactly like her. With a twisted smile, it spoke.
"Oh, WaSn'T ThAt FuN SiX. AfTEr EvErYtHiNg, I dID FoR YoU. EvEry DrOp Of BlOoD SPiLt. EvErY PoRceLaiN HEad CRaCKeD OpEN." It faked to smell the air, "I CaN SmELL ThE GoOD DoCToR's AshEs oN YOUr COaT."
Six unwillingly took a step back in unease' What was this thing?'
"SuReLy yOU ReMeMBer ME SiX. AllOW ME To JoG YouR MEmORy."
The figure then took a spin and in its place was a kid wearing a trench coat. It was Mono but mangled, limbs torn in ways no human could ever accomplish with ease or without serious injury. His neck bent at a horrifying angle and his eyes appeared to be dripping something.
"YoU KilLed Me AnD FoR ThAT I sHaLl NeVEr LeAvE YoUR SidE. YoU ShALl WaSTE AwAy By YoUR HuNGeR. LuCKiLy FoR YoU, I KnOw JuST ThE PLaCE YoU Can GO FoR THAT."
The Shadow now turned into Six again gestured to a piece of paper laying on the floor before dissipating into nothingness. Right when it left Six doubled over in pain as her stomach growled. As if a massive void formed in her stomach. Six now weak walked over to the flyer on the floor. It was depicting an ocean resort called The MAW, a place where " You Can Eat To Your Heart's Content To The Point You'll Never Want to Leave"
3 years later in the Maw
Six had just escaped the Janitor her stomach once again causing her pain as her hunger erupted. Weakened she saw a rat still alive caught in a trap. Acting out of desperation she sunk her teeth into its neck. Tears billowing out of her eyes out of disgust and despair as the animal's struggling lessened. When Six rose to her feet she heard clapping and when she turned around there was the figure once again.
"BrAVo, yOu cHoPPed a BliNd mAN's ARms oFf aNd sUNk yOUR tEETh iNto aNOthEr cOwarDLy crEATure. I neVEr suSPEcted YOu woULD gO FOr CANNIBALISM sO eARly. CatCH yOu LAteR YOu RAT."
The static shade disappearing again and Six just falling to the floor eyes flooded with tears of regret. 'M-Mono I'm so sorry I did what I did back then. If I had the chance, I would go back in an instant and pull you up.'
The Lady's Quarters Post-Confrontation
Six had done it she had weakened the Lady to the point where the Lady couldn't move. When suddenly 'No… not now.' Her hunger exploding once again this time never-ending. As she walked towards the crippled woman she was thinking 'I'm so sorry but I can't help it' Six approached the geisha and like with the rat and poor Nome from before she devoured her. Afterward, Six felt emboldened as dark energy from the Lady fell under her command.
"WELL, dOnE iT SEems mY sUPerVISion iS uNEeded NOw."
Six once again turned around to see the static figure now appearing as mangled Mono giving her slow round applause.
"SeeINg aS THat's thE CAse yOu caN Do wHatEVEr yoU WAnt."
He turned to leave "JUST WAnt To lET yOu KNow I'll KEep A SPOt wARM fOr You IN HELL!" Cackling maniacally as it disappeared one last time. Six glaring at the spot that was once occupied turned her attention and hunger towards the elevator leading to the guests.
2 years
It was a rough transition from what the Lady's powers did to her. They put an incredible amount of stress on her body turning her from a child into a young adult. The MAW was her domain, and she was the Lady now.
The shade no matter how much she hated it was right. The MAW was the perfect place for her.
She was a rat hiding from the rest of the world like a coward. Honestly, she couldn't even look at herself anymore, so she broke all the mirrors. She hated herself for what she had done and was still doing.
Then one day she wandered off toward the nursery for the children if only for a change of pace from her quarters. She was passing by the Janitor's old lounge room when the TV suddenly turned on.
Startled all her attention was on it because unlike all the channels this one caught her eye. It was the adventure of a girl and a boy in a trench coat running from a man with a shotgun. It was their adventure so long ago and that brought back the tears. Six reached up and pulled the mask off to wipe her tears off remembering the friend she had cast away. The friend who haunted her for three years. The friend she would do anything to have back. The emotions she felt went away as she felt something else. A tugging in the back of her mind, she felt herself fading away as if she were dying. Six so sad at this point let go letting this mysterious force drag her away. Away from her powerful form away from her guilt ready to end it all. Darkness consumed her vision, and she knew nothing.
But then the light began to filter through and she realized two things. One the world had for some reason grew larger and her smaller. The second realization was that she was back in the Hunter's basement right next to the music box as it played its calming tune.
End Flashback
"And after that ten minutes later you knocked on the door and broke it down." Six finished explaining.
Mono was shell-shocked, to say the least. "Six I never did anything to you after you dropped me, I swear. Whatever that shade was it wasn't me I can promise you that."
Mono rising to his feet as the music box finished its tune walked over to Six. "I know I can't take away what I did to you as the Thin Man, but I can promise you this. I will get us both out of this horrid cycle and we will both walk our path free." Mono crouched down extending his hand to her. "Will you come with me one last time? To escape." Six slowly reached out her hand but just before their hands touched a noise could be heard on the upper floor. Mono looked up at the ceiling and then back to Six in panic.
Someone had come home.