Six sighed heavily as she tested the raft, first making sure that it floated properly and second making sure it could support her weight, for she knew that in a few minutes, she would be the only one to leave the Nest.
With a bit of a drop, Six ass-planted onto the raft, it sank a little under the force of the drop but it seemed to be supporting the weight of her just fine. A small splash of water shot up from the ocean and hit Six's bare feet but honestly, the cold water on her soles didn't bother her.
The little girl quietly bit her bottom lip with her sharp fangs as she tried to suppress the tears that were trying their hardest to pop out from her eyes but her emotions were winning. She whimpered pathetically, bringing both hands to her face to cover it as tears slipped down her pale cheeks, her quiet sniffles turning into heartbroken wailing that normally she would have regretted making, but now she didn't care.
But if one had to go through the same bullshit she had to go through several fucking times, they would be feeling broken and shattered into a thousand pieces. Six wasn't so good at expressing how she was feeling but if she had to try, she felt like someone who had everything they ever had ripped out, leaving nothing behind but a broken shell of a person.
Six sniffed and hiccuped, cupping her hands together into fists and bringing them up to rub at her tears, spreading them all over her face instead of getting rid of them. She sighed heavily and tugged on the hem of her white T-shirt and brought it to her face, the surprisingly gentle fabric doing a much better job at cleaning her face then her hands.
A soft wind blew through her hair causing Six to lower her shirt from her now dry face, she looked up and around as fear started to take hold of her heart, she hoped that no monster had heard her crying, it wouldn't help her to get captured or would it? As she sat by herself on the old wooden raft that she and Raine had set up earlier before the latter had to go in order to take care of things she wouldn't say, the thought of the cycle came into her head until it was all she could think about.
Six sighed heavily, turning her sorrowful gaze to the ocean, she winced when she swore she saw the image of a young woman wearing a kimono and white mask covering her face with her hair tied up in a bun with a ponytail flowing down her back. Six gasped and punched the image of the Lady or rather herself with her left hand, causing the water to ripple and shift under the force of her punch till it returned to normal revealing Six's tear stained face staring back at her.
With an angry snort of self-loathing and sadness, Six jumped off the raft and started climbing the cliffs that would take her back to the Nest where Raine and the Pretender were waiting ready for the final chase that would end both of their lives, starting the second phase of the cycle where Six would meet Mono then get kidnapped by the Thin Man who was under the control of the Signal Tower. Then Mono would defeat the Thin Man then get betrayed by her, his friend, the one he saved many times and she…
The tears started once again and Six had to bite her lip even harder, surprising herself when it didn't bleed from the force of her bite. The anger and sadness that was bubbling inside her guts fueled her body and she pushed herself up the rocky wall more than what her body was capable of doing till she reached the top.
When she made it, Six turned around to face the ocean, watching the waves crash into the pointed rocks below the Nest much harder than she remembered. The little girl's thoughts took a dark turn as she wondered about jumping off the cliff to splash into the water below. Yes, she would die, but in all honesty, dying sounded way more appealing than having to lose Raine and Mono for what felt like the sixth time.
In all honesty, Six didn't know how many times she befriended Raine only to lose her by the Pretender's hands, befriended Mono then lose him by her own hand or how many times the cycle had gone on since she had been living in it for Lord knows how long, but the time stopped mattering to her, everything stopped mattering to her. Cuz' it seemed no matter what, she will always survive and the Signal Tower will too.
Not even dying herself will stop the cycle, she will just be brought back to live another day and become her or… Six shuddered at even the thought of her as she turned away from the cliffs, going back to a place she knew very well: the higher cliff where she honed her tiny muscles and dropped a goddamn boulder on the Pretender to try to save Raine only for their enemy in question to magically recover and charge at her friend, causing her to fall.
She shook her head, trying to rid herself of her thoughts but they kept coming back as if preparing herself for what would happen next. Despite her knowing everything that happened in this god forsaken cycle, it wouldn't stop the shattering in her heart, it was already broken from the first time this happened and it would keep breaking with each cycle that will no doubt go on.
With careful movements, Six climbed down a set of rocks made for climbing and approached a raised log, no doubt the one Raine used to help her cross over the ocean. She gave a sigh and sat down on the ground, waiting for Raine to come down and push it to let her cross, she buried her face in her arms, waiting and ready to fully accept what was going to happen, willing herself to not cry because it would be pointless and a waste of her energy.
The only thing she could do was repeat the same thing since there was no hope for a change to happen. Since she was completely hopeless by this point, she didn't take notice of the sky above slightly darkening and becoming a bit cloudy with the wind picking up speed with each passing minute.
Below her near the rocks of the Nest, Scarf Kid and his companions had finished gathering up supplies that they needed for their escape and were loading them onto their boat made out of a door, fabric from the Pretender's dresses and more. As they did so, Scarf Kid nervously looked up at the sky for a few seconds before dismissing the warnings his body was giving him and climbing aboard. Escape was around the corner and today was the day they will escape the Nest and this terrible cycle. Though Scarf Kid was grateful to be free of the Pretender, he gave most of his gratitude in the yellow raincoat who freed him and her companion in white for making this happen.
Unknown to them, the ember butterfly observed the situation from the skies, observing her granddaughter, her granddaughter-in-law, the ruler of the Nest from inside her home and the escaped children she or her granddaughter had guided to safety. She was certain the girl in the raincoat had taken notice of her, after all, her bright orange wings would've been very noticeable to anyone's eyes even the residents of the Nest and her kindness to others was reflected in Raine's behavior, then later her granddaughter-in-law when she had fallen in love with her grandson.
However even if nobody noticed her, she still did her duty of getting tons of innocent lives out of that former death trap, a death trap for her granddaughter and the Pretender. She winced at those awful memories, memories that she had to witness while examining each cycle, trying to find a crack, a way to change, a way to break this never ending loop. It was going to be difficult, that she knew for sure as the Signal Tower was a much older, tricky creature that not many knew about for it had been banished from the world for thousands of years. She had seen what it did, what it was capable of doing to others…
But still, she had to try to end its rampage, if not for the sake of the Pale City but the sake of her family in the Maw and Pale City, even the ones who weren't related to her. They had suffered enough as of late, they didn't need any more. This had to stop, it had to stop right now. As she continued observing the children down below, most notably the broken girl in white climbing up the cliffs of the Nest before curling into a ball on one, a black aura floated around her for a few seconds before taking on a familiar form to the children who were unfortunate enough to cross his path even years in combat.
The North Wind looked down at the situation below him, his single eye narrowing as if he was familiarizing himself with what had happened in the previous cycles. He caught sight of the girl in white, his granddaughter and the others near the water or the mansion before it lit up in realization. He looked back up at her, a cocky but affectionate look that he always held in his eyes whenever he looked at her as if giving permission, she merely nodded unsure but willing. "Shall we begin?"
The wind started to pick up, the thrashing of the waves below the Nest grew rougher, the rain started to come down softly at first, but with each second, it seemed to be getting harder like a rain of bullets were being shot down at the world from a rapidly firing machine gun.
Raine shivered as a chilly breeze of wind blew by her, her legs shook the most as they were exposed, she tugged on the hood of her bright yellow raincoat so it rested more over her head, hiding her brown hair tied up in a lovely braid and protecting her head from the rain. The little girl took a deep breath through her nose and out her mouth, her breath came out more shaky than usual.
She was afraid though the hood of her raincoat didn't allow anyone to see her fear so easily and this fear wasn't because of the storm. Storms hardly fazed Raine, no matter how severe they were. After all, the little girl had to ride her hot air balloon through a rough thunderstorm before she crash landed here.
It was what was waiting for her at the end of the east cliff that frightened her. The image of a white-haired girl wearing a green dress surrounded by hundreds of dolls filled her mind, causing her to shudder more than she would've admitted to. It wasn't the first time Raine had been chased by the Pretender during the final moments of her journey, but that didn't make her any less terrified of her.
Watching the young ruler of the Nest charge at her, climb down cliffs head first then somehow surviving a boulder that her partner in crime, Six, dropped onto her head only to later meet her demise by the water along with her, leaving Six alone to mourn. A fresh set of tears started to fill Raine's eyes and they trembled down her cheeks mixing with the water that had managed to get onto her face, making it hard for anyone to tell if she was really crying.
Raine clenched her fists tightly together, shutting her eyes as she tried to force back her tears, knowing that was nothing she could do except follow this stupid cycle's rulebook it had subconsciously written out for her though she was more concerned for Six's and the other kids' safety more than her own.
Honestly throughout these countless cycles, the one thing that kept her sane was Six, the little raven haired girl that Raine grew to care for after she had rescued her from that shed earlier in Raine's journey. Even though this friendship was or would be short lived, Raine was grateful she met Six as she hadn't had many people in her life besides her mother and if anything, she would be grateful if Six managed to escape.
A flash of lightning and a clap of thunder knocked Raine back to reality, she looked up at the sky before she had to raise an arm up to protect her eyes from the pouring rain. The sky at this point had become darker, the wind had become rougher, bringing rain down upon the little girl harder and almost taking the hood of her raincoat off her head in one blow.
Raine ducked her head down to shield her face from the rain, bringing both hands to her hood to tug it down. She let out a curse that was swallowed up by the storm in an instant. A flash of lightning lit up the sky of dark clouds for a mere second followed by a booming roar of thunder that nearly made Raine jump out of her skin and raincoat.
"Gees, this has to be one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever been in, not even the storm that nearly topped my balloon could match this. Definitely not the best day to go rafting, that's for sure. Six and the others shouldn't go out in this weather, maybe I should try to find her and warn her of the oncoming weather, that is, if the cycle will let me."
Being someone who had lived and breathed on the water, Raine was very familiar with thunderstorms and other dangerous weather patterns having been taught by the best and she also knew that lightning plus water was a bad thing since water was a conductor for electricity and since the human body was mostly made of water, Raine couldn't remember the number of how much water, that was just asking to get killed. Another reason Six and the kids she was currently saving couldn't go out on the water just yet until the storm passed by.
With a new goal in mind, Raine made to turn around and head toward the cliffs where she'd figured Six would be, however an angered groan from someone who she knew for a fact wasn't Six caught her attention. Fear gripped her little heart and Raine turned her head in a full circle to try to find just who made that noise.
The girl let out a harsh curse before pressing both hands to her mouth as she had a feeling she knew who was around and if she made noise, then she was fucked. So she simply stood in the pouring rain, her eyes wide as they darted around the outside of the Nest that she could see through the rough thunderstorm.
Waiting for another streak of lightning to flash across the sky was torture, but Raine waited for as long as she would and when the sky lit up, Raine almost screamed when she saw the Pretender walking straight toward her, her curly white hair was soaked and hung heavily over her face more then usual. She had an arm raised over her head in an effort to protect herself from the rain.
Her teeth were gritted together in pure frustration as she found herself having to push her ass through the rough winds and rain much harder than she would've liked and her green dress along with her white accessories were blowing in the wind so violently that it was a surprise it hadn't ripped off in the process.
A blast of wind suddenly blew by, almost causing both the Pretender and Raine to falter backwards, their cloaks flying in the wind, rain pounded down onto their heads and Raine cursed loudly as her hood was ripped from her head and her tightly braided hair was now flapping in the violent winds. "Shit!" the little girl cursed, bringing an arm up to cover her face while the other went to collect her hood.
A sharp gasp that turned to an angered scowl caused the little girl to freeze in place then turn around as another flash of lightning flashed to face the Pretender who was glaring back at her with a thousand degree angry glare that could kill her in an instant if looks could kill. In that instant, it slowly dawned on Raine that she was in deep trouble and without thinking, she took off toward the cliffs with the Pretender following close behind her to catch her much like the previous cycles before with the storm above getting much worse.
The Pretender was having a bad day as usual. Every fucking day of her life, it seemed she couldn't catch a break, life always had to give her a hard time. Life at the Nest was a quiet one but even the quietest of lives can have missteps in them regardless of status and class.
And the Pretender had, let's say, three missteps in her day. It started out as a normal day, the Pretender would get up and go through her morning routine like head butting her lipstick then have a tea party with her hundreds of guests AKA dolls that her craftsman made for her from other children she never met.
It was a simple little get-to-together that she had done, let's say a million times or more, she couldn't exactly know in these cursed cycles, but that's where the trouble started, first some stranger in a bright yellow raincoat that could almost match the brightness and color of the sun if the Pretender was stupid enough to look at the sun, came in her little tea room and knocked over one of her dolls.
And of course because the Pretender was a stupid idiot or just plain nuts, she knocked the doll to town, thinking it had moved out of it's seat. Well, that wasn't a smart move as that led to the doll breaking apart, leaving shards and clothing behind. This led to the next few minutes being...messy to put it very mildly.
The next thing that the Pretender knew, she was outside her home, crying and mourning the doll she cracked like she had just lost a loved one which she probably did long ago. Apparently that wasn't a good idea either as seconds later, dark storm clouds rolled in and it started to rain...fucking hard.
Really? Out of all the days it had to rain and it chose to rain on her just the second she stepped outside? The Pretender cursed angrily, much louder than she usually did and put a hand to her face as her own mind threatened to force herself to bash her head into the ground that would be wet. Okay seriously, she knew the Nest's weather patterns were sometimes fucked, but this was ridiculous.
With an angered groan, the Pretender threw her fancy ass off the bench and started to storm back to her house or rather attempted to as the wind had gotten very rough, causing her white hair and green dress to blow behind her violently, it was surprising and relieving at the same time that it didn't blow off her body.
The rain started picking up and the Pretender found herself having to raise an arm over her head to protect her face. She almost couldn't walk through the storm, that's how bad it was. She let out small curses under her breath as she walked away from the bench, somehow managing to keep herself from flying into the air probably because the wind wasn't strong enough, if it was...well.
The Pretender's makeup ran down her face that she had to wipe away with the sleeve of her green and white dress. Normally she would've hated it when her clothes got dirty or ruined but her dress was already ruined since it was soaked from the rain, so it didn't matter.
After what felt like a few minutes, the Pretender had probably made it to her home when she heard the familiar voice of another little girl she didn't like very much for obvious reasons. When she whipped her head up, lo and behold there was the girl in the yellow raincoat with her hood down and her braided hair flapping in the wind, something the Pretender hadn't seen her do once before.
The raincoat girl's eyes were wide with shock and terror as she pulled her hood back into place, her body was tense as well and her legs were trembling from both fear and the cold rain as she decided whether or not she should run. But after a minute, the Pretender gasped sharply before scowling in anger as thoughts of her broken doll came into her head as her brain appeared to connect the dots since she had seen the girl in the yellow raincoat in her doll room earlier and figured she had moved the doll like a troll.
The Pretender must've been pretty scary because in seconds, the girl in the raincoat took off running probably toward the cliffs she and the other girl had climbed down several times before to find Six and repeat the same bullshit they went through before, ignoring the storm above their heads as it got worse and the fact that Six was well aware of what was happening but unsure of what to do.
That former thought didn't cross the Pretender's mind as she was more focused on catching the girl in the yellow raincoat, that would be her worst mistake.
The house was quiet today despite being packed with kids of all shapes, sizes and ages, well there was the occasional mutter or something of that sort that would drift through the air of the house till the atmosphere would become tense and silent like it was before. At this point in the Cycle and Signal Tower crafted world, it was normal for everyone in the once safe house left in the outskirts of the Pale City to be completely silent. The Cycle had really worn everyone down to the point of being exhausted and running low on what to say that didn't involve either the Signal Tower or the Cycle in any way and at this point in time, no one wanted to talk about it and who could blame them for that?
No one could, not even Mono, the next Thin Man and the second kid who suffered the most in these never-ending loops besides Six since she was the OG protagonist of Little Nightmares. Speaking of Mono, the trench coat boy in question was on a higher floor of the house, simply staring out one of the few windows that hadn't been boarded up out at the city, mostly at the Signal Tower where he knew the Thin Man and Tower Flesh were, the damn thing that was responsible for him and Six's adventure in the first place as well as the world-ending Cycle that caused him nothing but pain and not just mentally but physically too, Mono's back had enough scars to prove it.
The boy took in a deep breath as he brought a hand up to rub at his covered back, wincing as his mind started to flashback unwanted memories when his hand touched the center of his spine, a place where he knew they were. He couldn't feel them at the moment, but he still knew they were there even if they were silent and still, a horrible reminder of what the Tower did to him that didn't involve turning him into the Thin Man. Mono sighed heavily as he focused his attention back on the city, he stared at the long skyscrapers that hadn't fallen yet which included the Signal Tower, the main vocal point of Mono's stare even though the boy's brown eyes struggled to ignore it.
There were also dark storm clouds gathering in the sky over the city, but the weather in the Pale City was always shitty, so Mono didn't pay too much attention to them. No, the one thing the thirteen year old boy could focus all his undivided attention on was the Signal Tower, the one damn thing that Mono put all the blame on for his and Six's pain. But then again, the Pale City didn't really have that many interesting landmarks besides that fucking tower, so where else could he look at? Well, he could always look to the Wilderness but that place brought back bad and good memories as well, the ones where he met Six and got chased by the Hunter stuck out the most in his mind.
Six, his friend, his love, his betrayer, the one person who was so capable of making him laugh and cry at the same time and the poor soul who dropped him to his death in the Signal Tower at the near end of the first Cycles and the ones that would follow later. Mono shut his eyes tightly at that last memory, gritting his teeth as a ball of anger and choked sobs welled up in his chest. Without thinking, his two hands shot up and clenched at his head, fingers gripping several strains of his black-brown hair, fingernails digging into his scalp, almost drawing blood as he fought to keep back tears.
He didn't want anyone to hear him crying and demand to know what was going on and risk waking them up or triggering some traumatic memory that Mono had spent too long and too much energy repressing. Maybe not that latter option as none of the kids of the house knew about Mono's adventure through the Pale City or his nasty but otherwise harmless transformation into the Thin Man, unless they woke them up and that was something Mono wanted to avoid as much as possible till the next Cycle started and he finds Six in the same place he always finds her, in the Hunter's cabin.
They might have good intentions but trying to explain what they were and why they were embedded in his spine was a repressed rabbit hole Mono didn't want to go into. At least, not with a bunch of strangers. Six, on the other hand, knew about this new quirk of his and for good reason as she came back for him during one of the Cycles, he couldn't remember which one but that hardly mattered, and discovered him with various tv cables stabbing him in the back much like Six had 'backstabbed' him even if she didn't mean it.
The irony of that whole situation was too cruel but somehow ended not too awfully to Mono's surprise as Six had managed to rescue him from the tower's control before things could get even worse than they already were then managed to regain his trust while healing his wound. Mono shuddered in terror at the memory and what could've happened if Six didn't come back for him, placing a hand up to his head so he could force those horrible memories to the back of his mind till the only thing he could focus on was Six. The trench boy, despite his efforts to remain strong, couldn't help the stray tears that had formed in his eyes without his knowledge from dripping down his cheeks till they hit the floor with a plop.
"Oh Six," Mono muttered under his breath, head drooping as he brought up a hand to wipe his face free of tears. It was all for naught as more tears continued to pour down his cheeks as his mind was assaulted by memories of him and Six together on their journey. Freeing her, escaping the Hunter, the first time they held hands, playing with the ball on the school ground, rescuing her from the Bullies, her pulling him up when he thought he fall, the time they found the raincoat, playing with the toys and x-ray, defeating the Doctor, getting through the Pale City, pulling her from the wreckage, pulling her from the darkness.
Then the final act with Six in her monster form and her music box before the final chase from the Signal Tower before being dropped into the deepest depths of the Signal Tower so it could transform him into one of the most feared monsters in the city, the Thin Man. "Okay, that's enough staring for me tonight," Mono muttered under his breath as he pulled his monotone yet tearful gaze away from the window and toward the staircase where he knew the others were settled. He couldn't hear them at the moment, but the boy knew they were there.
However they wouldn't be there anymore in Lord knows how long. Mono shuddered as the memories of the Thin Man attacking the house, grabbing hold of the helpless kids before dragging them kicking and screaming into the darkness and that was right after a stressful fire that almost set everyone's ass alight. Mono had no damn clue on what had caused the fire in the house in the first place, but that hardly mattered. The only thing that did was what was going to happen next and the Cycle, the same one that took away both his family as well as any and all friends the trench coat boy tried to make throughout this whole existence of suffering till Mono was alone with nothing but his thoughts and powers, powers that would do nothing but cause him misery till another new quirk was added on top of all his other quirks so the Tower could continue making his already hellish life a living hell.
Mono sighed heavily as he gazed down at his hands, taking notice of his light blue veins, the spot where the powers from the transmission or rather, his father were kept. Powers that he could never get the hang of till everything was going to hell around him, powers that he never asked for but were gifted to him when he was born regardless. His thoughts turned to self-hatred, his fists curled up and began to punch the sides of his head while gritting his teeth, letting out all his grief, guilt and self-loathing onto himself. But it did nothing except hurt his head and left dark bruises on his skin, much darker then the other ones he had gotten before.
The pounding in his head managed to distract him from his thoughts and self-loathing, but did not take away the pain and love he was feeling deep within his chest. Despite everything he had been through and all the betrayals he's suffered, never once in these Cycles could Mono ever hate Six, for he knew that she never betrayed him by her own sane choice especially the first time around and she always apologized to him and saved him from the Tower's grasp whenever she went back for him and was there for him when he was sick and struggling to learn his new power and skills.
Six, she had done so much for him and he for her during these Cycles. Though Mono wished he could've done more for Six like stopping her from being kidnapped by the other enemies in the Pale City, but such is life. Such is the life of a preteen boy trapped in a never-ending Cycle of pain and agony where he had to stand on the sidelines or sit in the chair and watch as the Signal Tower took away his family and friends while he couldn't do a damn thing about it even though he had powers and this time wasn't going to be an exception as were the other Cycles that would later follow.
A cruel reminder that Mono's time with his friend was limited and soon, she would be taken away from him in what felt like seconds and he should spend as much time with her as possible even if it hurt him a lot. And he would though he wished deep down he could do more for both himself and Six. But that was for later, right now it was time for the kids of the house to exit stage left or rather, simply go fucking off into the void. Mono bowed his head and went toward the room's staircase, each step hollow and nearly emotionless as he neared the bottom. The boy felt a slight shift in his back but besides that, he felt nothing else. When Mono reached the bottom, he stood with the other kids in the house and waited, waiting for the fire and Thin Man that would take them away.
Seven didn't want to even think about the Cycle for even a fucking second longer but somehow, it kept wiggling it's way into every fiber of his mind till he could think of nothing else. The young boy in blue tried to resist the urge to sigh out loud with exasperation, merely settling for rubbing a hand against his forehead gently. This action did little to ease his stress but it did help him focus more on walking, thank goodness for that as he wasn't sure he could take stared at. This normally wouldn't be a problem because most of the time, he would be alone since he usually was back at the Maw when he was making his escape before shit hit the fan and that was when he reached the Lady's domain.
Instead, Seven was walking with a group of kids down the streets of the Pale City, well it looked like the Pale City at a glance but there was no sign of the Signal Tower in the distance and buildings themselves resembled something that Seven would imagine to belong in a New England fishing village, but he couldn't really tell. The reason for this connection was his brain recalling a story he heard from the Ferryman about where he used to live before he worked for the Maw. It wasn't this exact harbor type town far from the outskirts of the Pale City, but it looked similar to it from the description the Ferryman gave.
The kids within this group weren't ones one would recognize, however if one were to look closely at the group of unknown kids, they would find someone familiar among the group besides Seven, most notably a young girl with long raven hair and a white dress or a nightgown or something like that along with a flashlight in one of her small hands, the other one was softly gripping Seven's free hand, the one that wasn't grabbing the old worn strap of the fading blue backpack he was carrying his supplies in in order to keep it on his shoulder.
Actually, the seven of them were all carrying old worn backpacks with supplies in them, some of them were much smaller than the others as there were three kids in the group who were smaller than Seven and the girl in the white dress. Those were the ones who weren't able to carry the most weight but still had to carry their weight, no that was all left to their much taller and stronger leader, Quince. Despite being named after a fruit that was grown far in the western farmer parts of the Pale City or something like that, he was far from being the weakest kid in this world.
He was quite broad, tall as the longest wood board one could find and had a look that screamed: 'don't fuck with me'. He had golden hair with a touch of silver on the bangs, his eyes were a fierce shade of deep purple though one was lighter than the other. A scar was present over his left eye causing it to whiten a little but the boy could still see out of it thankfully, there were several more scars lining his shoulders, a large one made on his neck most likely from an adult with a knife, two running down his spine and one large running across his stomach.
His skin was fair but a little pale then either Seven or Nightlight but it was light enough for anyone of his group to see his injuries, sometimes barely whenever Quince wore a shirt or coat whenever the weather became shit. But on hot days, Quince often walked shirtless which gave everyone a good front row seat to his more muscular teenage body and scars that he sometimes showed off with pride. The other four younger kids were normal as they were still young or at least, as normal as kids could be in this world, one of them was a girl but the other three were boys, the most recent boy looking about Seven or Nightlight's age.
He had glasses with pitch black that seemed to have streaks of red on it, he was pretty thin as most kids were in the Pale City or Maw but was slowly becoming more developed like Quince. He wore clothes like that of a cloak, a normal shirt and ripped jeans, pitch black boots which were actually a good choice considering the weather right now. He had a pretty big pack that was hidden under his cloak, keeping his belongings from getting wet. Seven and Nightlight had their usual attire on and still worked barefoot though the Nome king and the flashlight girl had a split heart necklace on their necks, a sign of their friendship and slow romantic relationship along with backpacks on their backs.
The three younger kids had nearly the same appearance as they were triplets at birth, blond hair, pale skin and cute green eyes that made even Quince's heart melt. They were all close to Seven, Nightlight and Quince but not the recent member as they had been practically raised by the aforementioned kids ever since Quince and Seven found them in a basket outside an apartment building in another part of the Pale City. Though having three six year olds on his team were sometimes annoying but then again, when were kids not annoying? Quince and his other friends loved these kids like they were their own brothers and sister, though they were small and fragile they were still able to carry a good amount of weight even in small packs.
It might seem strange, but this was how they did things even since the Cycle started and their daring escape from a monster adult who was hoping to sell the group off for something or another probably like every other kid in this world. Seven nearly stopped walking as he felt his eyes widen and his jaw clenched with something that could be considered frustration which truthfully he was though he would never say he was out loud. Dammit, he thought about the Cycle when he promised himself he wouldn't and he was doing such a good job too!
Well then again, there really wasn't anything else to think about besides surviving and getting the hell away from here as quickly as possible which was what everyone was doing right now. This place wasn't the Pale City or the Maw but still Seven didn't trust it in the slightest and the boy in blue was certain it was the same case for all of them even though, no one would go out of their way to say it like he wouldn't and to be honest, Seven wanted to keep it that way.
It might've been a stupid or selfish move for both Seven and the rest of his group to not want to talk about what had happened to them during any of the Cycles, but it was difficult for any of them to just open up and explain what they went through, it was different for everyone as Seven would imagine but they were still very horrible he was sure. Though Seven was curious as to what happened to his partners while they were trapped in their own loops, he decided against it because he wasn't certain if he could handle any more trauma and stress then he already had with his part of the Cycle where he met the raven haired girl in the yellow raincoat, Six, she was called.
However, that part only came after he tried to catch up with flashlight girl only to find out she got devoured by a damn leech, killed the Granny down in the depths of the Maw, outran the blind janitor while befriending the Nomes before being turned into one by the Lady. The runaway boy shuddered in terror as his brain's images flashed to the ones of the Lady's false face being presented to him while he was wandering the more quieter parts of the Lady's quarters where the governess and her Shadow Children lived, hell he even still had nightmares about those little bastards from times to time, and his grip on his girlfriend's free hand began to slowly tightened.
It was slight, but the flashlight girl still took notice of Seven's grip tightening and shot the boy a soft and sympathetic look. She might not know what Seven had gone through, but she still understood that whatever was going on in Seven's head wasn't good. Seven didn't see the look on the flashlight girl's face but he couldn't help but gently rub shoulders with his friend, enjoying her presence for as long as possible. That is, until she got eaten by a leech, still a really horrible way to go even if it wasn't getting devoured alive as a Nome by another survivor.
The boy felt a bit of bile travel up his throat, the last of his lunch, as he recalled the haunting memory that would always haunt his nightmares besides the Lady turning him into a Nome and the Shadow Kids chasing him down, Seven's heart chilled at the memories. They vanished as quickly as they came as the sound of conversation entered Seven's ears, the boy turned his gaze toward his comrades who had their heads turned to him with confused looks on their faces.
Seven didn't need to be a genius to know what they were talking about and he felt a pang of annoyance at the thought of the Cycle, the one thing he hated the most besides some other he didn't want to name. Out of all the things they've chosen to talk about especially here and now before the start of another loop, they had to talk about the Cycle, the damn thing that caused him pain by causing him to turn into a Nome then repeatedly eaten alive who was suffering way more then he was since she was losing the people she loved back to back.
The one thing that was also causing the end of their world and wiping out most of the adults and children and slowly taking it over with its broadcast. Seriously why the fuck did they decide to bring this up now? Even though Seven didn't hear what his comrades were saying, he had an idea of what they were saying to him. Without thinking, Seven opened his mouth and screamed: FUCK IT! I'M BECOMING A NOME!" Awkward looks were exchanged at the moment.