Thirteen (Mono×OC)

The Pale City

Soon enough I heard foghorns. My tears had long since stopped, but as I turned to look as Mono and Six, I saw an abandoned beach and a city. A huge, wrecked city with the towering buildings slumping and tilting. "What happened here?" I asked, the world silent around us. "The signal tower. It distorted the world, the people, everything." Mono said, "I think we where too young to be affected. I was three when the world fell to pieces." He said. The bag was back on his head. "I was two." I said, crawling towards them. I was not going to try standing on a floating door. "One." Six said. The boat ran ashore on the sand, and Mono climbed off first, then Six. Mono extended his hand to me, helping me off. "What a gentleman." I said sarcastically.

"I try, Thirteen." He said, and I could hear his smirk. The sand was cold, and the ocean lapped at my ankles. I shuddered, hearing a faint, ominous sound. "Is something wrong?" Mono asked as we trudged on. "This city is... I don't like it." I've always lived in the forest. Sand drifted up my nose, making me sneeze. The sound echoed, but more prominently was an almost inaudible squealing from Mono. "Somethin' the matter, Mono?" I asked him. "Nothing, nothing." He said, his voice an octave higher.

We got into the damned city after Mono glitches from another shadowy child. I held Six's hand as she slipped it into mine, and I saw her hold Mono's hand as well. She didn't like this place any more than I did. I tugged Six gently to keep her from stepping on broken glass. "Sixer, please don't walk in glass. You'll catch your death if you get infected cuts." I said. It was bad enough we where all barefoot and it was COLD!

The silencemwas eerie. I felt deaf. In the forest, crickets chirped and the leaves rustled; but here our footsteps echoed like thunder.

We got into a decaying building and I saw discarded clothes hanging above us.... inside a television. Whatever, no time to think. We climbed through windows and alleys, plunging deeper into the city. We got into a dinner full of clothes, which made me think the world outside my little island bubble is full of nudists.

"No, they're not. The signal tower kind of... absorbed them." Mono said. "Did I talk out loud?" I asked. I did that sometimes. Too much time alone. "It's fine. I had a similar habit for a while." We trudged on and got to a window, and we boosted Mono again.

After a few moments there was a thunderous crash and the sound of Mono shrieking. Was he going up somehow? Six and I climbed onto a TV at Mono's request, and seeing what he planned to do, we held onto tne rope, and each other, for dear life.

We shot up, above Mono's head, and climbed down a set of broken stairs. Six extended her hands for Mono, and I was Six's safety harness. We jumped between to split girders into another room, and I covered Six's eyes when I saw a hanged corpse.... devoid of a corpse....

We crawled into a room with a working TV, and Mono climbed into it, Ring style. Through the screen I saw a distorted hallway, and a door. I had a bad feeling, so Six and I pulled Mono out, knocking my teeth loose in the process.

Again, we crawled out of a window and landed on fabric in an alley dumpster. "Why don't we use doors, damnit?" I asked, jumping from the mildly smelly receptacle. We moved another dumpster of bodies and got into a courtyard. I stared a decrepit, but obviously still functional, school.

Is now a bad time to mention I am a terrible student?