The Future, the Past and the Ugly (Untrusted Love: Electric Boogaloo)

Ch 4. Indifferently Numb

Mono gave up any hope of trying to keep track of time. It had been some time, though, as he now found his hair and his fingernails were growing longer, scratching at the wood of the chair. Mono spent a lot of time thinking. Mostly about Six but the rest of the time was about 'The Loop', as he called it. He'd convinced himself that he was the Thin Man, meaning that he lived in a time loop of sorts. It was a theory that sent him spiralling but he'd had a long time to come to grips with that.

Mono sat. He sat still, he used to kick his legs back when.. he didn't remember. It seemed the longer he stayed in the insufferable room, the harder it became to remember specifics. Still the boy sat. Any hope he had of anything was gone, leaving him an empty husk. The only emotion he could feel was sadness and on occasion, Mono managed to muster some irritation towards the voices. They'd long since become white noise, their hurtful cries were no longer effective.

Hunger pains were both worse and better each passing day, not that Mono could tell day from day. His body got skinnier, muscles got weaker and Mono could count more and more of his bones every time he checked. 'Hunger' itself was never felt, only the pain in his stomach, which was getting relatively easy to ignore.

Boredom soon became a problem. Not a big one as Mono found it easy to distract himself by revisiting his attempts of understanding The Loop. If that didn't work, daydreaming, as childish as it was, was always an option. Usually these dreams took him to places like warm fields, peaceful beaches or magical gardens unlike anything he'd ever seen. He remembered wanting to escape the rain for so long but now, Mono would give anything just to feel the cold, piercing sting of a single drop of rain land rudely on his skin.

The numbness was his biggest concern. Whether it be from the isolation or just the dull, insanity-inducing conditions, Mono feared the day he lost his humanity. His eyes glazed the same spot on the floor, unblinking. His skin had long since felt a splinter prick him, or his clothes rub a particularly nasty injury. Even his constant sadness started to feel normal and indifferent. Mono was beginning to feel desperate for any sort of change. The concrete to shift colour, the chair to topple over, hell, Mono didn't care if every monster that ever existed came down on him suddenly. Just anything! 

Even pain, Mono just needed something to tell him he was still alive or wake him up to the fact he might actually be dead.

Pain. He missed those days.

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I know, I know

This chapter is really, really short and I'm sorry but the next chapter was too awkward to split so unfortunately the result is stupid, tiny chapter