Never Ending Nightmare (Sunsinger!Male reader)

Chapter 5 - A Slip of the Tongue

(Pale City - Camp Lookout, Your POV)

*CRASH!*

'The hell?!' I jumped up, who did what and why the- Oh, oh this is fine.

Six had pulled the cover from the puppet show, "Oh, so that's what you found." I said, rubbing my eyes to clear them.

Six looked at me, then at the puppet stage and the batteries. "So, Twelve, what are you building?"

"Twelve?" I asked, "Who's that?"

She looked me in the eyes, "Your new nickname, Twelve batteries, 3 years older than me. Both of them are 12. Twelve times I've-" She stopped before examining the dolls closer. How does she know I'm 3 years older than her? I don't even know how old she is. She's certainly not 6 years old despite her name.

"How do you know I'm 3 years older than you? I've never told you my age. And just because I grabbed Twelve batteries doesn't necessarily mean I'm also 12 years old." I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow.

She stuttered for a second before talking, "You were sleep-talking. You also said some things about your past. You have a sister and used to live in the Nest. The same place I escaped from a few months ago before I got captured by the Hunter. And I have call you something." She rolled her eyes.

I was surprised, the Hunter and the Nest? "You got captured by the Hunter? How'd you get out? He's a deadeye with that shotgun of his." I asked. "Dodging buckshot is incredibly hard. Dodging buckshot while avoiding bear traps is damn near impossible."

"Do you remember Mono? The boy with the paper bag on his head?" I nodded. "He had saved me from the Hunter's basement, then ran through the woods while he hunted us. Then we shot the bastard with one of his own guns."

"You shot him? Did you kill him or did you just wound him?" I asked, curious to know if he was finally dead for good.

"If he was alive, he isn't anymore. Nobody can take a point blank blast from a shotgun." She answered, smirking while toying with one of the dolls.

"You'd be surprised what some of these monsters can survive. You ever wonder why the Hunter has his arm stitched back onto his body? That was me and another kid, we had managed to trap him under a fallen tree and cut his arm off with an axe. I have no idea how he didn't bleed out from it but hey, anything except a happy ending is possible in this world. Though you did say you escaped from the Nest, you'll have to tell me about that sometime." I picked up one of the batteries, placing it into a makeshift energy transfer machine. I have way too much time on my hands.

"But back to your question. This is a puppet show I've started making to entertain myself. It's a nice distraction from the outside world, and there's no way for the Signal Tower to hijack it and start blasting anyone with its transmission." I stuck another battery into the machine and the puppet moved slightly.

Last battery, in you go.

The puppets stood idle, ready for me to press any of the 4 buttons on the front of the stage. "Hey Six, do you want to pick first? There's one about pirates, medieval sword fighting, trivia and a teaching option."

Six looked at me weirdly, "Teaching? What is it teaching?" She asked.

I smiled, "You're looking at a tutor for about 37% of the children in the Pale City, what wouldn't it teach?"

"Tax evasion-" She answered.

I facepalmed, "We live in a post apocalyptic world, there are no taxes- wait. How do you even know about tax evasion?" I questioned.

"My dad wasn't a very good person." She answered, I paused for a second. I- I don't have the thinking capacity for this.

"But you'd be correct, it doesn't teach you how to evade your taxes. Not that you'd need to in this world anyway." I pressed the pirate one as two ships came up and started shooting cotton cannon balls at each other, "You have no idea how many times I had to stitch and restitch those ships. But it is so worth it."

...

(Pale City - Camp Lookout, Your POV - 3 days later)

"Non corruptive entertainment at its finest? Isn't it?" I asked Six, who had been staring at the puppets once again.

She nodded, I had finished another variation for her the other day. What day? I dunno, I didn't grab a calendar. And could you blame me if I lost track about 4 years ago? "Where'd you find the wigs for the dolls? Every other loop you-" She stopped mid sentence.

"Every other loop I what?" I asked, opening the bag of still weirdly fresh bread.

She looked at me, wide eyed and worried before quickly turning her head away. "Nothing, don't worry about it. It's something I almost forgot happened between me and Mono."

I shrugged, "So those aren't actually wigs, that's just more yarn. It's realistic looking so it's hard to think that it's just more yarn, I know." I examined the bread, still no mold and it's only just starting to get a little stale. I'll need to take another trip back there, this bread is amazing...only a shame I have to steal it in an apocalypse... Wait didn't she just say this is the- No, no she did say I might have interacted with another Six and Mono. Not this loops' Six and Mono. This is gonna get confusing isn't it?

Oh well! "Hey Six, I'm gonna go to the warehouse over on the docks. I'm gonna go dig through the crates and containers and see what kind of stuff I can find. Do you want to tag along or do you want to stay here and watch the puppets?"

She contemplated for a few moments before deciding she'll come with me. My power fist fluttered for a moment, "Just watch out for leeches and spiders, they love dark and cluttered places. Plenty of spaces to jump out at a kid. I hope you know that by now though."

(Portside Warehouse, Your POV)

Six looked at me expectantly, "So how do we get in?" She asked. I lifted a sheet around the side of the building to a small entrance way I had made while getting the barrel through the front doors of the warehouse. "That'll work." She smiled and ducked under, I followed behind her, listening for any slimy noises or silent sloshing that could be a leech.

I stopped for a moment, Six looked back at me in question. "Why are we stopping?" She crouched down and whispered.

My power fist emerged as I heard something drop from behind us, another leech. I looked up and saw nothing else, must be the survivor of the massacre. It wormed its way closer to me, letting out a horrible shriek before lunging at me. I quickly pushed Six back and met the leeches teeth with my fist, only for it to open its mouth wider and pull my arm into its mouth.

I have about eh...0.07 seconds to pull my arm away before I lose both it, and my power fist. Give or take. It had already started to close its mouth. I'd say about 0.02 seconds actually. A bead of sweat shot down my face as I prepared myself to lose an arm to god forsaken hell worm. I heard a second shout from behind me, Six had jumped over me from my kneeling position and plunged her teeth straight into the leeches body. It opened its mouth wide and yelled in agony, I quickly pulled my arm back and took its head off with one punch. Its body still writhing in pain, unregistering the loss of its head of command.

I fell back, my lungs felt empty as all of that happened in under a second. "Holy shit. Thanks for the save, Six." I tried to slow my breathing and get it back under control, she ripped a chunk off the leech and ate it raw. My eyes widened, "Jesus." I whispered. She ate it without a second thought. "I thought you just ate?" A swarm of dark shadows breezed through her like the wind, 'Am I going mad? The hell is going on anymore?' I got back up, shaking the blood off my fist and sleeve.

I looked at Six, who was staring at me directly in the eyes. "I'll just pretend I didn't see that-" Six stepped close to me, I took a step back. "Just um...cook it next time, yeah?" I joked, a smile cracked on Six's face.

"Yeah." She answered. She continued into the warehouse. "Whatever you say, Twelve."