Not taking his eyes off the ceiling he wondered in that period 'What's going on? First Six remembers both me and her previous life. And now this?!' The Hunter shouldn't have been in the house during this. He should have still been in the shed skinning off his fresh capture.
But before Mono could think about it any further, he heard the footsteps of the Hunter get closer to the top of the stairs leading to the basement. In a frenzied panic, Mono snatched Six's hand and pulled her out of the room behind and underneath the various bags of hopefully animal skins.
"Mono what's going on?" Six whispered.
"I don't know Six, I couldn't have done anything to set him off. I don't understand why he's -"
Mono was caught off as a blast from a shotgun ripped through what used to be the door leading to Six's prison. Mono pulled Six closer to shield her from whatever madness had overtaken the Hunter by using his coat as a form of camouflage. Peering through the small cracks of light the pile of bags provided Mono saw the Hunter put down the lantern and stomp towards the room. He heard nothing for a couple of seconds when the Hunter let out a bellow of pure rage.
"WhErE Is SHe!?"
Mono couldn't see what he was doing only hearing wood breaking and objects crashing into the floor. Then Mono noticed something else. The lantern, despite the fact the Hunter set it down and was still in the other room, its light was moving. Scanning the entire room looking for something.
'No looking for someONE' realized Mono. Glancing down at Six who was trembling at the sounds in the other room. Mono pulled her ever closer to try and calm her down, so she didn't give away their location. Then something small and metal bounced out of the room. The music box clanging out its last couple of chimes before the Hunter once again let loose another round of shotgun shell leaving a hole in the floor.
"I KnOw YoU'Re StILl HeRE GiRl" the Hunter called out. "CoMe OUt I CaN'T GuArAnTEE I'lL LeT YoU Live bUt I cAN PrOMiSE YoU a QUIcK DeATH BeFOre A SiGHt BeFOre My GlOry!"
With the Hunter moving closer to the center of the room. Mono got a better look at the Hunter… only to see that it was NOT the Hunter. At least not the Hunter he remembered. Firstly, Mono saw his face without the mask getting the revelation of exactly why the Hunter wore it in the first place. The Hunter's face was scarred down the left side of his face. As if a massive creature just raked its claws over the Hunter's eye. The wound itself was still fresh as if he were only clawed just a few hours ago. Whilst studying this pursuer Mono made another horrifying note. Surrounding the scarred wound on the Hunter's face was a circle of flesh. Like an outgrowth, a tumor of pulsating greyish flesh.
'Oh no.' Were the only words going through Mono's head as he continued to observe. Looking at the circle of flesh Mono saw trails of flesh lining down parts of the Hunter's body. One of the trails of flesh connecting itself to the lantern to which Mono noticed was warped. The lantern was jagged at all corners and the bulb, 'Oh God,' the bulb was an eye with a gray pupil frantically searching for any kind of movement. Something had caught the eye's attention, a small mouse looking for scraps in the basement. When the eye-lantern focused on the mouse it was an almost instantaneous transformation. The mouse froze up and tried to run away only to be petrified into rock.
'Right don't get caught by the light too much. Not a good way to go out.'
The last detail Mono noticed was shotgun. It was fused to the Hunter's arm as if muscle and sinew gave way as metal and wood replaced his hand. Almost giving the appearance of an arm cannon to this thing. Although looking at it closer the Hunter still needed to reload it like normal. Was it even right to call this thing the Hunter anymore? IT was monstrous, it was crazy, it was doing everything it could to find Six.
'This isn't the Hunter, this… this is a predator.'
The newly dubbed Predator then snapped his head upwards as if remembering something. With a snarling grin, the Predator grabbed the lantern and dashed up the stairs. Mono and Six laid there as sounds of furniture being tossed over and maniacal laughter cackling as the Predator prowled the house. Suddenly the noise stopped, and the Predator spoke up once again.
"WeLL, NoW GIRlIE It SeEMS yOUr'E In QuITE SoMe TRouBlE. If My HuNCh Is RigHT ThE BoY ShOUlD hAVe GoTTEn YoU OuT At THiS PoINT. HoWEvEr, BeIng ThE CoWArdLY RaTS YoU Are yoU'vE HiDDEn YoURSeLveS In A wAY ThAt I Can'T FiND YOU."
The Predator growling before letting out a small bark of laughter, "So I OfFeR YoU ThIS ULtIMaTuM. If MY HunCH iS CoRRecT ThE BoY sHOuLd Be IN ThEre AnD So I TeLL yOU tHIs. If YoU KiLL thE BoY And BRiNG Me HiS BoDY I ShalL LeT YOu LiVE. YoU HaVE OnE HoUR To DEliVeR." With that, the front door to the house shut and silence once again filled the cabin. Distraught both Mono and Six left the pile of bags gasping for air from that incredibly tense situation. Mono after hearing that offer immediately turned to face Six in case, she decided to accept the Predator's offer. Six however put her hands to calm Mono.
"Don't worry Mono I don't plan to listen because I realized something about that thing. His voice is the same tone those shades that cursed me always making me feel horrendous. That thing out there? I get the feeling it's just gonna kill me the second I walk out there anyway."
Six began to walk towards Mono her outstretched palm facing upwards. "I noticed the way you tried to shield me from being spotted. It felt nice to be able to have that kind of trust in someone and I wanna keep it that way."
Mono looked at Six only to find a smile on her face. "So yes, Mono I will travel with you again. To break free of this cycle to truly find freedom." Mono returning a smile of his own grasped Six's hand and pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry for dragging you into my problems." Mono apologizing. To which Six replied by saying, "And I'm sorry Mono I never should have never dropped you when I did." The two hug each other for a few seconds before separating.
"Now we should find a way out of here that doesn't involve our untimely demise."
Mono and Six took turns looking around corners just to ensure the Predator wasn't trying to trick them by hiding around the house. Finding it safe they made their way to the dining room only to find it completely wrecked. While it was rotting with the family slowly falling apart during the first run through this house, the room was destroyed. The table and benches splintered into thousands of fragments all over the floor. The once taxidermized people now lay in shambles. The furniture was also shot to smithereens which was the problem because their way out was now inaccessible. This wasn't just rage this was calculated, it was planned.
"How are we supposed to get out of here now? Even if I tried to boost you up there Mono how would I get up there?" Six said comparing the height of the vent to Mono. Mono looked back towards the hallway and thought of an idea. "Give me a minute Six I'll be right back." Mono wandered back towards the foyer checking drawers and cabinets for anything he could use to get up there. Although all he found in the foyer's various compartments were a couple of fishhooks, a box of matches, and a pocketknife. Stuffing all that in his pockets his hand lingered on the pocketknife, holding it in his hands like a sword. Pulling out the blade and looking at his mirrored image in the blade. His mind going to the transformed horror his gaze went towards the door. 'At least with this if all else fails I could give Six more time to escape.'
Sighing he collapsed the blade back into its slot attached to the ring on his coat and walked back to the dining room. Eyeing the fish hooks he looked at the patchwork bodies that once made the vision of the Hunter's "work."
"Why do you have a knife Mono?" Six had attempted to stack pieces of wood up like a stairwell to the vent with minimal success. "Because Six, it's clear things are going to be different with the tower flesh affecting things. I'm afraid we'll run into a scenario where we must run or fight hence the pocketknife. Hmmm, I just had an interesting idea," Mono said.
He began pulling yarn from the clothing of the dead bodies. When he felt he had enough he pulled the fishhook of his pocket and began tying the yarn to the end of it. When he was done Mono managed to create a makeshift grappling hook. Although it took a few tries to get it to stay on the wall Mono managed to get it to stay latched. "I'm going to go up first Six. I want you to hold on to the other end of the rope so that when I'm up and over I can just pull you up." Six nodded in agreement. Overall, it worked perfectly despite the yarn having a weird chemical smell. Satisfied Mono bundled up the rope and hook and attached it to his coat for later use. This time Six offered to give Mono a boost to reach the rope to pull down the attic door. Giving her a nod of approval he with her help pulled down the door to the attic. After climbing up the ladder Six stopped Mono for a second.
"Mono listen while that fishhook idea was great, I don't appreciate you just leaving me while you went to go scrounge about." In truth, she was worried about the possibility of either of them being snatched away because the other wasn't there to watch their back. "So, I think I'm just going to stick with you unless you think it's better otherwise." "Okay Six I'll try to be more mindful of that."
With that, the two worked their way through the attic seeing the lady in the chair with the crank in her hand. Mono went to go pull the crank from the lady's arm while Six went to go look out the window. The Predator was still out there but it was clear it was getting impatient with that growling sneer of it. It was pacing right outside the front door when it paused and started to raise the lantern towards the attic window. Six ducked down just as the beam of light shone through the window.
"It's getting impatient out there we need to move and fast if we're gonna get any distance away from it." Six said worriedly.
Mono quick to agree to grab the crank and running back towards the machine with the key winding it up so that the key could be lowered enough that Six could grab it. With it, they hurried down the ladder to the back door unlocking it as fast as they could.
"Should we even bother to go through the shed let's just go around," Mono suggested. Six just nodded and they both ran away past the shed. Just as they ran past the boxes they heard a scream in the distance. "Guess it knows our decision now." Mono half-joked. Six just kept running with Mono following suit. Just as they reached the rabbit hole, they felt the light of the lantern hit the back of their legs causing them to collapse into the hole. Picking themselves up from the ground they heard it shout again.
"sO, YoU'VE MadE YoUr ChOICe RaTS? YoU WaNT To MaKE THIs HArD On YoURSelVEs?!" It paused for a second before shoving the lantern into the hole.
"VerY WeLL LeT THe GAmES beGIN!"