From The Maw

Chapter Six

  Me and Seven stand on the suitcase as we look at the millions of shoes in front of us. He turns off his flashlight and puts it in his pocket. "Come on Six, let's get out of here." He grabs my hand and before I can resist he jumps into the shoes dragging me behind him. We're neck deep in shoes as we struggle forward. When we get close to a suitcase the room starts to shake and I look behind us to see shoes flying up as something comes towards us. I feel myself being lifted up out of the shoes and I look over my shoulder to see Seven has hooked his arms under mine and lifted me onto the suitcase. "Sorry, I just wanted to get away from that thing." I nod and we turn to see some more suitcases nearby that we can climb onto. We jump into the shoes again and make our ways towards the suitcases. We barely make it to the suitcases in time. Whatever is under those shoes wants to get us bad. We see the last suitcase is really far away.
  "Six, instead of both of us trying to outrun the monster why don't you climb onto my shoulders that way it's faster?" I nod and climb onto Seven's shoulders. He jumps into the shoes and struggles forward. I feel the room shake and know that monster is after us again. We reach the suitcase and Seven shoves me off of his shoulders and I turn to see a hand shoot out of the shoes and wrap around him. I grab his hands and pull against the thing with all my strength. Seven wiggles in the monsters grasp but it does no good. He kicks at the thing but it doesn't let go, I can feel him being pulled away and I know I'm losing. "I'm. Not. Losing. Another. FRIEND!" I scream. I pull on Seven with all the strength I can and to my amazement I pull him free from the monster.
  We fall onto our backs on the suitcase and I turn to Seven with a small smile on my face.

Good job Six, I'm proud.

  Voice Mono makes my smile widen and Seven smiles back at me. "That was really amazing Six." Says Seven. We stand up and climb up onto a platform that has an open door. Seven turns on his flashlight and reaches back for my hand, just like Mono. I take it grateful for someone who I can count on and trust in this dangerous place. We walk forward into the room I was captured in and we walk up the stairs into the hallway I walked through starving. The only difference is I hear metal screeching and banging. Me and Seven creep forward hoping that it's not the Janitor. We walk into the hallway when suddenly he crawls down from the ceiling behind us. "RUN!" I scream needlessly.
  Me and Seven take off running, we slide under the pipe blocking our path, run past the big fan in the wall, and into the elevator that brought me here. We crawl into an open box and sit squished together. The Janitor enters the elevator and presses the button. I feel the elevator start to go up and I look at Seven nervously. He puts his finger to his lips signaling for me to be quiet. I nod and try to keep quiet as the Janitor searches for us. Suddenly the elevator stops and two nomes run away and the Janitor chases after them. I let go of my breath I was holding and me and Seven creep out of the box. We creep out of the elevator not wanting to take any chances and I see a big box full of blocks in this room. The door closes behind us and me and Seven look at each other.
  I go over to the box of blocks and start pushing on it, it's surprisingly easy to push, I push it away from the wall and I see a board that looks lose. "How did you know that was there?" Asks Seven. I shrug. "Mono always did that, when it seemed there was no way out he would move something or do something and there would be a way out." I walk on the board until it flips down sending me under the floor Seven follows me and turns on his flashlight. We walk forward into the darkness the only light coming from Seven's flashlight. We crawl over a board and a nome scuttles off, we continue forward and I hear footsteps above us, it must be the Janitor. I clutch onto Seven's arm, I'm getting scared of this blind guy.
  We find a ladder made out of boards and we climb up it carefully to be as quiet as possible. Seven goes first and picks his head out from the hole in the floor to make sure the Janitor is gone. When he fully climbs up I assume it's safe and climb up after him. When I get up next to him he covers my mouth with a hand and points to one of those toy monkeys that makes noise. I know what he's going to do. He picks it up and throws it as far away from us as possible. It hits the floor and starts making noise. The Janitor runs out of the room next to us and goes over to the toy while me and Seven go into the next room through a vent in the wall. We walk behind toys and towards a climable dresser. Seven goes first again and I'm right behind him. The Janitor enters the room and as Seven grabs the handle of a shelf a jar falls past us and down to the ground alerting the Janitor.
  We climb faster as he reaches up trying to grab us. Luckily he gives up and leaves through another door. Me and Seven climb up onto a higher shelving unit and push a box of blocks away from a vent so we can crawl in. A little ways into the vent Seven starts climbing a ladder and I follow behind him with nowhere else to go. We reach the top of the vent, crawl forward a little, only to have Seven drop from my sight. "SEVEN!" I crawl forward and fall when I reach the drop off of the vent. I land on Seven and he groans. "Can you not fall on top of me every time there's a drop off in a vent?" I crawl off of him and shrug. "Sorry." He sighs and turns on his flashlight and continues forward. "Opening ahead." He whispers before jumping down.
  I follow him and see the Janitor pull himself up into the roof. Me and Seven continue forward walking on carpet. We walk past a broken clock and walk across creaky boards before getting to the next carpet. We see a wooden door with no handle in front of us. It has another one of those creepy eyes on it and I figure this world loves eyes. We push the door expecting it to open but instead it falls backwards. It also brings down a clock in the next room. The clock makes a loud bang as it hits the floor and the Janitor comes down from the ceiling while knocking down shoes as well. Me and Seven sneak past him as he inspects the clock. I see a button and quickly grab a shoe to throw at it. Suddenly all the clocks in the room go off at once and I take my chance to throw the shoe at the button. The clocks stop chiming right after the door opens.
  Me and Seven run through the door alerting the Janitor. We run past more clocks and turn down another hallway with clocks. The floor creaks beneath us and I grimace knowing the Janitor knows where we are every step of the way. Luckily the Janitor stops to inspect a clock and me and Seven run into a room with piles of books, they're stacked on top of one another and breath a sigh of relief when the Janitor doesn't come through the door after us. "That was close." I say. Seven nods. "Yeah, you know Six, you're a pretty smart girl." I smile. "Thanks."

You're always smart Six. I always believe in you.

  Voice Mono always says something sweet. My smile widens and Seven gives me an odd look but ignores it.