Welcome to Mawthorne

Chapter 16: What Now?

    Mono's ears painfully rang as white and smoke clouded his vision, fading back into color as he coughed and rubbed his eyes under his bag. The scent of fresh blood and cotton and dust filled his lungs as the little boy's mind tried to comprehend the events that occured over the past few hours. First, there was the break out. Then, seeing Six's family and her meltdown. Then, meeting with Raven and his grandma, the chase, and the new kid who decided to tag along.

Now this.

    Weary black eyes open to see the other 3 children in equal states of disarray; Raven was clutching his chest and breathing heavily, shaking with anxiety and surprise. The new kid looked completely dumbfounded, the look on her face clearly stating this was not what she had signed up for today.
    ...And Six. She was staring through the bullet-cracked door at the corpse of her father, a look of pure hatred stinging the air so hard Mono could practically taste it.
    She stepped through the hole in the door.
Mono peeked through, Raven stumbling aside so Mono could see.

Six's father was still breathing.


"S.. hhh.... Sixie-Pixie..?" the man rasped, his gloved hand twitching towards his daughter.

"Don't call me that." Six hissed before she stomped onto his neck, amking the man wheeze as a sickening CRACK filled the thick air.

As she pulled away, Six wiped the blood on her feet onto the grass.




The four kids were tramping back through the forest. Six hadn't said a word the entire walk- in fact, it was almost silent aside from their breathing- Until the new kid broke the silence, and introductions were thrown about.

Mono- He/Him, 10.
Raven- He/Him, 11.
Six- She/Her, 9.
And, Veronica, She/Xe, 13.

(Mono introduced Six as she had gone completely silent.)

"So... What now..?" Mono asked. "Six can't exactly go home, now," he added, slipping his hand into hers.  Venonica and Raven shared an odd look before Mono broke back into speaking.
    "Wait.. neither can I.. If my dad finds me /now,/ he'll be SO MAD!" the kiddo panicked, using his free hand to grab onto his bag for comfort.
    "If any of our parents find us now, we'll be quite literally dead." Raven added, in an oddly morbid tone as he stared glassy-eyed at the ground. Knowing this town by now, it was probably true.

"Follow me." Veronica toned, suddenly taking the lead. Xe obviously knew where she was going, and as everyone else thought they were hopelessly fucking lost, they followed suit through the increasingly dark and dense woodland. Sticks and stones and broken bones chipped away into his bare feet as, somehow, it got darker and darker in this cursed wood.
    Then, it all stopped as moonlight filtered into an open clearing of cool grass. Dew calmed their aching nerves as Veronica approached an odd, domelike mess of dark wood in the middle. Lifting it up, Mono could see a map of the entirety of Mawthorne, made of little painted rocks and woodchips. Veronica snapped off a stick from the tangle of treestuff and pointed at the forest on the makeshift map.
    "We're here right now." Xe explained. "The school is over here, it should be empty." She pointed at a building a while aways away from where she pointed last. "We can stick over there for a little while while we figure out. things."

"Sounds good."