Little Dreams and Hollow Nightmares

Ph3 Ch8: Alluring Sounds

Mono fell down the vent, crashing through the cover on the other side. Then, he felt his friends land on top of him.

"Oh! Sorry Mono, I-I didn't mean to-" Six stuttered, trying to apologize.

"It's alright, I've taken worse blows. This beats the time I fell on a hard rock floor from the roof," he said.

"So you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mono replied, standing up.

"Then WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!" Six yelled. "The Janitor is blind, and can only hear us! Why would you yell, and give us away?"

"Well I didn't know about the Janitor," Mono said, staying calm. "Also, if what you said was true, why did you just scream?"

Six stopped, and stood in silence as her face turned into a pale white color.

"We're dead," she said softly.

"Hey, don't act like that. We can still get out of here," Mono said in his hopeful voice. "We just need to find a way how."

"And how are we going to do that?"

"Well, you can start by getting some light here. You're the only one with a light source," Mono explained.

Six nodded, then flicked her lighter on. It's flame illuminated the face of the knight, standing right in front of them. Six yelped at the knight's sudden appearance, and almost dropped her lighter.

"Y'know, I just don't get why you two act so weird around each other," Mono said.

"Well, that... the knight-" Six leaned to Mono's ear. "It scares me," she whispered.

"It heard that," Mono said.

Six's face grew even more pale.

"Look, I know the knight looks a bit disturbing for the first time, but it's really nice, and just wants to help," Mono told Six.

"And you," he said, looking at the knight. "I know it's hard to trust Six, given that she's a little distant, but she's my friend. So can you please just try and trust each other?"

The knight looked at Six, and she looked right back. The knight shrugged, then nodded. Six however, was very hesitant to give any sort of response. Mono sighed.

"Well, let's just get going," he said.

Six lead the way, and while he followed, Mono could do nothing but think. Maybe as the knight tries to trust her, the she'll trust the knight! He thought in his optimistic mind. Then we can all be friends together, and get out of here! His thoughts gave him the hope to keep trying. Besides, they could make a great team together. Six knows her way around the Maw, the knight knows it's way around the other places, by working together they could be unstoppable! Now I just need them to see that.

Suddenly, he felt Six's hand slam into his chest. Before he could ask why, he saw the reason. The Janitor walked by, shuffling slowly across the floor. Six backed up, and retreated down the hallway. Mono and the knight followed, and caught up to the fear stricken Six.

"What do we do?" She whispered. "The way out is in the other room, but the Janitor is right there!"

"We distract him," Mono answered quietly. "We find things we can throw, and get him to follow those."

"What can we throw?" Six asked.

Mono took a quick look back at the Janitor. The orange infection made him very visible, and easy to see. Mono watched as the Janitor sorted books on shelves. Bingo! He thought.

"We throw books," Mono whispered to the group. "That way, he'll also have to put the books back, giving us even more time to act."

"But the floor in there is too noisy! He'll spot us for sure!" Six whispered to him.

"Then we split up, and distract him as fast as we can. We don't have long until he makes his way here, so we need to act fast. Everyone got the plan?" He asked.

The knight and Six nodded. The three of them tiptoed to the entrance of the room, then bolted in different directions. The Janitor heard the sound of their running, and started to pursue the closest sound. The knight jumped up onto one of the shelves, Six crawled into an open slot, and Mono dived behind a shelf. Knowing the Janitor would go for him first, Mono tried his best to be silent. Before he was caught, a book crashed onto the floor. Just as Mono expected, the Janitor carried out its duty first. The infection did make victims stronger, but less intelligent.

Mono climbed up the shelf, believing it to be the best place to move. He still made noise, but the floor was much louder. On top of the shelf, Mono saw the door they had to open. He grabbed a book, and threw it on the floor, distracting the Janitor more. Once the Janitor had put the book back, another one would fall, and he'd have to put that one back as well. The process repeated, and all three of them met up at the foot of the door. Before they gathered however, a pile of books was knocked down in order to make sure the Janitor wouldn't find them.

Now in front of the door, the knight stood at the bottom, and hoisted Mono on top of its shell. Mono caught on with the plan, and held his hand out to Six. She climbed onto his shoulders, and was able to open the door. However, the door opened towards them, causing them to fall over.

The sound alerted the Janitor, and he started shuffling over to their location. Mono grabbed Six and pulled her into an empty shelf, but the knight just stayed still! What was it thinking?! Mono was about to go out a grab it, but Six stopped him. The Janitor reached the knight, and picked it up.

It felt around the knight, touched it, poked it, shook it around, then put it back on the ground, and walked away. The Janitor must've thought that the knight was a bug corpse, and he left to go get his cleaning supplies. The three of them seized the opportunity, and ran out the open door as soon as the Janitor was out of hearing range.

"The plan worked!" Mono said. "All of you did a good job distracting him. He didn't suspect a thing!"

The knight shook its head, and pointed to Six. It then made an action of throwing something.

"Are you saying she threw all the books?" Mono asked.

The knight nodded.

"Thanks Six. Thanks so much. I'm glad you trust me," he said.

"Y-yeah. Of course," Six said nervously.

"Well? Go on! Light the way before the Janitor comes back!" He said, cheerily.

Six gave a quick nod, and the three of them pressed on.

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I am back from break! I needed a bit of time to catch up on this story since I was away for so long, I just hope you all remember that this story exists!

I don't really know what else to put here, other than thank you for being patient, and for showing your support even though it was a long 3 weeks.

See you next chapter!! ; )