*sigh* this whole time I've been keeping a mental record of the order I received fan-art so I can showcase them in the order I received then but then I forgot the order. This doesn't matter to really anything, but I had a perfect near 2-year streak up until now.

anyways, this is a wonderful artwork by @KitsuneFOX1912 of The Pretender as an anthro 2-tailed cat, apparently a nekomata. very nice.

this chapter was supposed to be done in November so I could have an actual decent updating time but I missed it. Considering I last updated this October 28, the last update was about 6 weeks ago. I guess it isn't that bad but still.

at least I didn't take an entire year to update this though. Unfortunately, this chapter I feel is kinda more filler-y than usual. Though simple bonding time is needed in stories. The next chapter should be the polar opposite of filler though.

also i was reading my old chapters and god damn why did i change povs every 0.5 seconds it's so freaking annoying.

lastly, yes that title is a Marina! (and the diamonds) reference.

report grammar errors and stuff

---

Eight woke up, immediately being greeted by the coldness of the chains shackled to him. He inhaled a fresh batch of cold air in a yawn, drowsily blinking. It was still dark in the room, however, Eight's eyes were still adjusted to the room as there was no lightning difference from yesterday- Still stuck in the same darkness.

The chained boy had noticed something in front of him, something that wasn't there before. It looked to be a cup by the shape of it. No, it clearly was.

Eight reached out his arm, his fingers feeling the plastic exterior of the cup. The size of the cup was the perfect size for him, as if it was intended for solely him- Or well, more like for someone his age. He gripped the plastic cup in his hand and shook it lightly. Some liquid was inside.

He couldn't tell what kind of liquid was inside of it, so after staring at the cup in thought he very cautiously took a small sip of whatever was inside.

Water.

Eight hurriedly downed the water given to him, quenching his thirst. Drinking water had felt so relieving since his throat had been so terribly dry after not drinking anything for about two days straight at this point.

His stomach curled in hunger, reminding Eight that along with that thirst he still hasn't eaten anything in about 2 days either. Hopeful, he searched his surroundings for food. If they gave him water then they must've given him food, right?

Although no matter how much he searched he just couldn't find any food. They had given him water but not food. Fine then. At least he got water.

Nearby squeaking got his attention, it was that rat again. He had called it Chip, in reference to it's chipped ear.

Eight had heard the rat behind him, shifting around to face the rat. It was hanging by the mop and bucket, rubbing itself against the bucket for some unclear reason. It's big round eyes locked onto Eight, just staring at him.

Eight waved at the rat, in response the rat had frozen. Then scurried away across the room, going to the rat hole it had made. But it didn't leave, it just stood in the doorway (hole-way?) of the square-shaped hole it had broken down.

It twitched twice before going to clean its fur.

For the sake of seeing if he could and because this was his only form of entertainment, could he tame this rat? Eight knew he would go insane from loneliness if he spent his imprisonment feeling entirely alone. He could pretend this rat was another person that actually understands him. As sad as that seems, it was a valid strategy.

"What's your name?" Eight asked the rat, the rat showed no interest in them. Still cleaning its fur.

"Nice to meet you Chip, I'm Eight." He went onwards as if it was actually responding.

~

Six didn't know where she was, everything was so dark. The lights above her flickered, pausing for a good few seconds before illuminating the room back up. The lights were only powerful enough to show just barely the outlines of the walls enclosing her.

She was going down a hallway, unsure how long it was. The walls were narrow, almost too close together. Though the size of the hallway wasn't her worry, it was a familiar yet horribly painful sensation in her stomach. One that pricked tears in her eyes with the intensity.

It was hunger, one that felt agonizing. One that made her mouth water. One she grew to hate more suddenly as she realized what could happen with this problem. It was her hunger.

Six?

She heard a voice from behind, she turned around to see her sister; Shadow Six. But there was no caring love in Six, she only saw her as filling food as she stalked towards her. She drooled like a feral animal, and Shadow Six just stood there.

Six lunged towards Shadow Six, time feeling like it began to slow as she pinned Shadow Six down by the shoulders. Her heart drummed in thrill as Shadow Six was nothing but a stiffened rabbit under her grip.

W̴a̶k̵e̸ ̴u̴p̸.̶

Six didn't know what her sibling was talking about as she bit into her neck, the blood seeping out from under her penetrating teeth. The flavorsome blood rubbing against her tastebud a-

Six woke up, Shadow Six was sitting over her shaking her- unaware she was already awake. Six quickly sat up, nearly bumping into her sister. Six licked her mouth, no blood. She looked over at her sister, staring at her neck. No bite mark.

It was just a nightmare, she's fine. Her sister is fine.

She tiredly slumped, nearly lying back down again. She was getting so anxious about this, she hadn't realized how easily she could hurt somebody with this issue. Well, she kind of did. Back when she was free in the Pale City and it was only just her and Shadow Six, they knew her hunger was a danger. Six going out of control and chasing after animals, very occasionally after kids if she was unlucky enough to find them during that state. She'd never end up killing the kids, fortunately. The animals, not so much sadly.

But it took Six nearly killing somebody she cared about for it to fully hit her that her hunger was dangerous. A threat. A constant, looming threat.

"Six, are you okay?" Shadow Six spoke quietly, not wanting to wake the others who were still asleep. It seemed to be still pretty early, actually. She continued, "You were moving around a lot in your sleep and groaning, you woke me up."

"Sorry," Six said.

"Are you okay, though?" Shadow Six repeated her question, her voice quite serious and her face showing worry.

"I'm fine," Six assured, "Just let me go back to sleep, thanks for waking me up. It was a little bit of a bad dream, but not too ba-"

"Six, I know you're not fine." Shadow Six interrupted, "I knew from the moment I had gone after you and saw you collapsed on the floor in hunger with Mono with you that you weren't going to be okay."

"It's not that big of a deal," Six said.

"You feel bad- guilty more accurately. I know you do, and it's okay to feel guilty. But don't let it just take over you." Shadow Six advised, "When you let the guilt just entirely consume you, that's when problems get worse."

"If it ever gets too bad, just talk to me. I'll try to help however I can." She finished, giving Six a small smile.

Six paused, taking in their words. "Shadowy, can I ask you something? And would you be completely truthful about it?"

"Yes." Shadow Six responded, "I promise."

"Have I ever bitten you before?" Six questioned.

"Of course not, Six." Shadow Six said.

"Okay." Six said, "Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Yeah," Shadow Six said, "And I know I've just said this, but again, I'm telling you if you ever need somebody to talk to, please don't be scared to talk to me about it. I'll always be here for you."

Six smiled at Shadow Six, then she lunged towards her. But not for an attack, a tight hug. Shadow Six smiled, hugging her back in return.

~~~

9:30 AM

Mono woke up, stretched, and drowsily sat up. Everyone else was awake, he seemed to have been the last person to wake up.

"Boo!" Ghost yelled out from his left, energetically charging towards him. Ghost's attempt hadn't scared him one bit. "Uhm, hey." Mono greeted him regularly instead.

"That didn't scare you?" Ghost asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"Nope," Mono said, letting out a yawn and rubbing his eyes. Ghost stared at him in amazement, "Woah. You must be like, really brave. I know I would've screamed."

"Mhm," Mono said, "Anyways, how old are you?"

"I turned 6 two months ago!" Ghost said, his voice sounding incredibly proud of himself for aging up.

"Cool, I'm 12. I'll be 13 in a month or two. Or something- Kinda forgot but it's really close though." Mono responded.

"Woah, you're ancient." Ghost said with pure astonishment in his tone as he stared up at Mono.

"I-" Mono didn't quite know how he should respond to that, "Gee, wait till you learn people can live past 70 years." He said in a somewhat snarky fashion.

"Oh my gosh, they can?" Ghost said, absolutely bewildered. "I thought we all died when we were 25 or something."

Mono stared at Ghost, "Okay, where are you getting this information because that's kind of concerning." He asked.

~

Slinky was lying down on the floor, being driven insane by a constant clinking sound to the left. Roxanne was playing with some can, annoyingly hitting it against the floor over and over again.

He had put up with this for 5 minutes straight, but now he couldn't take it a second longer. "Roxanne, please stop that," Slinky asked, visibly irritated.

There was a slight pause, allowing Slinky to think she had stopped, but then right after that thought had passed she began tapping it against the ground again but now doing it purposely faster. Slinky would've yelled or gotten angry, but instead he didn't do anything.

He was honestly too tired to get that upset about it, his stomach injury was still hurting him so it would probably not be good to get too worked up anyways.

"Roxanne, stop." Slinky heard Twenty-One say, her voice calmer than his but still a trace of annoyance as well. With that Roxanne actually stopped, hearing the young girl toss the can across the cell.

Mentally, he thanked Twenty-One for the assistance.

For Roxanne, that was one of her tipping points. Not in anger, but in sheer boredom. "I'm so bored," Roxanne had said, boredly tapping her fingers against the cold metal floor in a random rhythm. Roxanne was a person who needed some kind of enrichment after a short amount of time, she couldn't just do nothing for hours at a time.

"I'm sure everyone here is bored," Twenty-One said half-jokingly, "They don't give us anything to play with so usually we just need to make our own fun."

"Huh. So... This place is basically hell on earth?" Roxanne concluded from that.

"Glad you connected the dots," Slinky remarked.

"Well, there's a number of things we can do in here. We can tell stories, use the cans and bones and other stuff in the food bag as things to play with.... Yeah, that's it." Twenty-One said.

"I need to get out of here," Roxanne said, her voice crazed. "If I don't get killed in the Arena I'm going to die from boredom."

"Oh please, I would've been gone days ago if I could just leave," Slinky said grumpily.

"Maybe there is a way we could escape," Twenty-One said, "What if we found out how to bust this heating vent open, then boom we just leave our cell through the vents. Possibly just walk straight outta here."

"That vent is screwed on tight, there's no possible way for us to just unscrew it with our bare hands." Slinky pointed out.

"We could try to scavenge the food bags for something to use as a screwdriver, maybe a pointed tip of a can could work." Twenty-One said, "Though if we were to work on an escape, I'd want to tell my brother about it. I spent more than one year searching for him, I'd never want to abandon him in this place."

Footsteps echoed down the corridor, wheels squeaking as they rolled against the metallic floor. Down the hallway came The Hanging Man with a cart filled to nearly the brim with trash bags to give out. A bit of an oddity, since usually it'd be The Janitor. But not that strange.

"Well I got nothing to wait on," Roxanne whispered inaudibly to herself, her tone only being able to be described as one of mischief. Whether intended or not.

Roxanne's eyes locked onto the tall over-shadowing man as he opened the door to their cell; One hand opening the door and the other having the trash bag tightly in its grasp. She was already getting impatient, mentally ushering the man along to just hurry up with the food delivery.

The Hanging Man had dropped the trash bag off in about the center of the cell, being somewhat off-center. He then stepped back, promptly closing and locking the cell door again. The man turned and pushed the cart along, moving onto the next cell he needed to deliver food to.

Roxanne immediately went over to the trash bag, hurriedly ripping the bag open. She got hit with the odor of a bunch of food items' smells merged together; some aged, some newer leftovers. It wasn't a pleasant smell by any means, but it was one she had gotten used to living out in the Pale City.

Gosh, at least the Pale City had at least half-decent enrichment too. Unlike this place.

She rummaged through the bag, searching for something she could use. She heard Twenty-One approaching her from behind, "Roxanne, wait. We're not going yet." She told her.

"You may wanna meet up with your brother, but I got no one here for me so I can just say my goodbyes to you two then be on my way," Roxanne explained, grabbing an aluminum can with the top already popped off out of the bag. She smiled at her find, her eyes moving over to the vent grille. "I'll even let you keep the thing I busted out with."

"Wouldn't they get suspicious if one of us is missing, though?" Slinky voiced his concern.

"Well-, uhm, how about this. You guys come with me right now actually, then we just go to your brother's cell and say what's up then we go on our way." Roxanne said, slipping the circular lining of the can into the screw and attempting to twist it. "Then we get outta here."

"I'd want to take my brother," Twenty-One said.

"Then we take your brother-" Roxanne said, putting all her strength into twisting the screw but the screw wouldn't budge. Her arms ache from the strained force, eventually stopping and dropping the can onto the floor. She lifted up her foot and stomped the can repeatedly as hard as she possibly could, with cracking and snapping sounds the aluminum can had flattened.

Roxanne slipped the now flattened can into the screw's crevice, twisting it with all her might. Yet it still didn't budge, feeling desperate she tried the other ones. Maybe there was a certain order? Yet no, it still wouldn't budge. Not even slightly, no matter how hard she tried or how many times she regripped it the screws just wouldn't move.

"I don't think it's going to work, Roxanne." Twenty-One said.

Getting exasperated, she began angrily hitting the vent grille with her flattened can. Hitting the tin against the vent gave off a loud banging sound, so loud in fact that it began drawing attention.

Twenty-One had sped over, ripping the can out of Roxanne's hands and hurrying over to the trash bag. Shoving the can back into the plastic bag. Unknowing to what was going on, Roxanne had pursued Twenty-One to try and snatch back her stolen can.

"Roxanne, stop it. Someone is coming." Twenty-One finally told, making Roxanne stop her resistance to give up the can.

The Hanging Man came over to their cell to investigate the loud noise, sure he had heard the sound coming from their spot. Though the only thing The Hanging Man saw was just a kid rummaging through the bag for food while another stood closely over them. An additional kid in the back injured and lying down. Unwilling to stand up and join them.

Believing it came somewhere else, the tall man went somewhere else to look.

"That was close," Twenty-One said, then looked over at Roxanne. Looking more than annoyed, "A bit too close."

"Sorry," Roxanne quickly threw out an apology.

"Look. I know you really want to leave, but don't just do that." Twenty-One said, "You nearly got us caught."

Roxanne sadly mumbled something too quiet to actually be heard, plopping down into a sitting position next to the trash bag. "Sorry, what did you say?" Twenty-One asked, staring down at the younger kid. Roxanne, in reply, only gave a lazy, almost pitiable, shrug. "It doesn't matter," she said.

Twenty-One nodded, carefully digging through the leftover food in the plastic bag for her choice of meal. Roxanne peered into the bag, waiting for Twenty-One to have her choice first before she picked out something.

"Can you get me something, I don't wanna move," Slinky called out to his cagemates.

~

The time for the gladiator fight steadily approached, the two singular staffs in charge of moving all the kids- The Janitor and The Hanging Man- began doing their job. For the large number of kids in The Maw, it was surprising how fast they could gather them all together.

Scarf was sitting by the bars of his cell, watching The Hanging Man speedily walk past his cell. A cage with multiple kids crammed together was grasped tight in the man's hands, being carried along the corridor.

He let out a yawn, blinking tiredly. One of the most persistent cons of being the kid The Pretender tends to depend on most is having to stay up late so often.

"How are your sleeping issues going, Scarf?" Ten asked, her voice calm and polite. It took Scarf a moment to remember what she was even talking about.

Scarf had found an excuse for his horrible tiredness, he told Ten he had insomnia. Scarf didn't know much about insomnia but from what he knew about it, you have a hard time falling and staying asleep. That was a perfect lie to cover up the real reason he was so tired, and she believed it so easily too.

"Er, usual." Scarf responded, his eyes darting to Ten for a few seconds only to move back over to the bars of their cell. Staring out the bar's spaces thoughtfully.

Ten moved over to Scarf, sitting beside him. She silently stared with him, seeing if there was something he was looking at or if it was a blank stare into the distance. Deeming it as a blank stare since she saw nothing but the empty cell across from them, she tried to strike up a conversation;

"So..." She began, Ten had started the sentence without knowing what to actually say so there was a long pause as she searched her mind for something to start the conversation with, "How do you feel about our situation?"

Scarf looked over at Ten, showing a confused expression that urged her to elaborate. "Well, I mean ever since the staff had fixed up the vent grilles we lost the ability to leave our cells, not that we did it ever- Kind of feel bad about the fact we didn't ever use what Six and her friends taught us"

Scarf only replied with a solemn shrug, thinking about everything on his end; honestly, his situation wasn't that great. Scarf had a chance at freedom for himself and Ten, possibly the only chance he'll ever get in his life to leave this place with her, but he could tell his physical health was worsening from this. And he felt like his moral standpoint isn't too good either, but it wasn't like he enjoyed doing any of this.

Scarf hadn't noticed when a dark shadow loomed over them at first, taking a few tired blinks to realize. Startled, he looked towards the source of the light blockage. Seeing The Janitor begin to open their cell.

Scarf stood up, backing away from the bars. It was time for the Arena battle and honestly. Scarf didn't feel like he had the energy for it, though he'd do his best.

~*~

Children were loaded into the holding rooms, The Guests were eagerly staring down into the circular arena waiting for the battle to begin. Scarf was tossed out of his carrying cage alongside his friend, Ten. Scarf landed on his feet, although stumbling a bit while Ten had just fallen on the floor face-first.

Scarf cast a worried glance towards Ten. The girl got up, rubbing her face somewhat briefly. "I'm fine," Ten said with a smile, reassuring the scarf-wearing boy.

They had been tossed into a bustling holding room, Ten and him probably being one of the last kids to enter the holding room. Everyone already had conversations going on, noisily talking with each other and giggling. But it wasn't like he planned to talk with them; He stared over at Ten. Waiting for her to say something.

Ten inhaled, "So-"

The taikos drummed, the sticks hitting the base rhythmically and also successfully blocking whatever Ten had planned to say to him. How sudden it was somewhat startled the boy, usually there would be some kind of prepping time allowing them to have a small moment of social activity though there was practically none of that.

Was this how the dead-last people felt? Jeez.

There was a time span of about 3 to 4 minutes before the door to the holding room swung open. The door opening made Scarf flinch, the weak puff of air the door gave off hitting him. He didn't flinch because of the wind, no, he was wearing thick, warm clothing meant for a snowy environment- It would take a lot more than that. It was because of the fact the door nearly slapped him in the face because he was so close to it.

Scarf took some steps back away from the opened door, watching as the tall form of The Hanging Man step inside. His shadow ominously layered over the kids who began to scatter away from his range.

Holding the usual snare pole in his left hand, the man's head moved towards Scarf. The man switched the snare to his right hand and outstretched it to catch Scarf, wrapping the thin yet tough wire around Scarf's torso. Making sure to pin his arms underneath the snare wire to prevent them from struggling too much.

The Hanging Man at first began reeling them in to hold onto them. But then slumped his shoulders and uncaringly just began dragging Scarf across the floor, shutting the door to the holding room behind them.

~*~

The Lady stared down into the arena, her balcony overviewing the whole entire circular pit. Most guests kept their eyes on the Arena below while a few casted some quick thrilled glances towards The Lady.

Scarf was on the left battle enter cage; Standing at the upper corners of the cage in order to try to get a view, although cut-off, of The Lady and Guests without being released just yet.

"Before this battle commences, I must give some unfortunate news." The Lady began her announcement, The Guests' attention shooting towards the woman above. "Our fearsome fighter, Hope Dreamer, has gone missing. Unlike Chimera's case, Hope Dreamer has not been found yet. Any bets will be refunded."

Scarf blinked tiredly, taking in the information. So they're betting on them? That news wasn't surprising whatsoever, though.

"Anyways once we find out more information on where Hope Dreamer is and hopefully where all of these disappearing children are going off to we will give some closure. With that said, I hope you enjoy this battle." The Lady concluded.

Suppressing a tired yawn, Scarf repositioned himself to be front-facing to the gate of his cage. Waiting for it to rise up so he could enter the Arena. After a few long seconds, the gate began to rise over him.

Scarf stepped out early, dipping his head underneath the rising gates and leaving his cage before the gates had fully risen up. The Guests chanted his gladiator name as he entered the Arena, the sand grains shifting under his footsteps as he began to approach the other enter-cage.

The gate opposite to his rose upward. Confidently came Mono out the other end, the Guests chanting his gladiator name repeatedly in reaction to his entrance. Once both kids left their cage and got a considerable distance away, the gates speedily dropped back down.

The Guests fell silent once the battle began to start, Scarf kept his distance from Mono though he wouldn't allow himself to get too far in case he needed to quickly dash in since there was the chance that the dagger would land near him.

Scarf didn't notice until Mono began moving, but the long dagger landed off to the left. He had completely missed its landing somehow. Letting out a small, quiet groan of annoyance he bolted towards the dagger.

At first, Scarf was able to pass by Mono with his unmatchable speed, closing in on the long dagger. However, his lack of energy caught up with him at this exertion, the boy getting tired quickly from moving so fast. He strained his body to keep up his speed, but ultimately he stumbled to a stop; far too exhausted to keep ongoing.

Mono overtook him, rushing past him and smoothly snatching the dagger off the ground. Feeling a bit showoff-y, he tried to do a small trick; Tossing the dagger up in the air and catching it again, all cool-like. Though Mono horribly failed, ending up missing the catch and the dagger scratching his foot.

Mono hurriedly bent over to grab the dagger again, definitely feeling embarrassed about that one. Scarf, although feeling disappointed that he didn't retrieve the dagger first, that disappointment lessened as he found Mono's fail funny.

Mono gained a firm grasp on the dagger, brushing his failure aside. Scarf recovered his energy, however letting out a yawn since his lack of sleep tiredness still persisted.

Scarf backed away from Mono, cautiously circling him. Mono kept his front facing Scarf, trying to keep him away from a good attack opening. Eventually, Mono charged straight at Scarf before he had a chance to attack. He landed a blow on Scarf's left shoulder, the blade digging into his skin.

Scarf broke away from Mono, a trail of blood following behind. He set a hand over his injured shoulder, cringing at the stinging sensation of doing so. He looked at his hand, most of his palm was drenched in his own blood from touching his wound so he wiped his hand off using the lower part of his coat.

He stumbled further away from Mono, keeping his distance. Once he fully recollected himself, Scarf tried to close back in on Mono, keeping his left arm limp the best he possibly could to combat the pain he was suffering from. Scarf focused on the bloody dagger Mono held while Mono kept his eyes on him. Waiting for Scarf to attack.

Scarf swiftly lunged towards Mono suddenly, it seemed to somewhat catch him off-guard with how fast he was moving- Probably because he was hurt. Scarf stretched out his unwounded arm and knocked the dagger out of Mono's hand.

Scarf had lost his balance stretching out his arm, crashing into Mono's side and falling onto the ground with him. Being on top of Mono, it gave him the perk of getting up first. Hurriedly scrambling to his feet and running to the fallen dagger.

Scarf grabbed the dagger and ran away, going across the arena. In Scarf's hurry, he had ended up tripping on his feet. Unable to catch himself, he fell against the sandy ground chest-first; The landing knocking the air out of his lungs and leaving him winded.

Scarf began panting, trying to draw in his breath again. Seeing that Mono was still across the Arena from him he decided to very briefly rest, shutting his eyes as he regained his breath.

Mono began to approach Scarf slowly and cautiously, untrusting of Scarf since he was just lying still on the ground. Valuable. Too Valuable. He had to be planning something.

Mono was able to fully reach Scarf, the boy unmoving from his spot. Quite confused, he crouched down. Holding his index finger out, Mono somewhat hesitantly poked Scarf in the side. He didn't react, leading Mono to reach over and grab Scarf's weapon.

It took him to notice the very subtle snoring coming from Scarf for him to realize he just fell asleep mid-battle. Mono stared down at the boy, baffled. He's never encountered anything like this before, he was really unsure what he was supposed to do in this case. Does this mean he wins?

Mono stared up at The Guests and The Lady, waiting for something to happen. It took a few minutes to pass for something to occur;

"It seems like Qiqirn is no longer able to keep on fighting, Tokyo is the winner of this battle." The Lady announced, the moment she stopped speaking The Guests erupted into cheers, throwing down beautiful flowers; purple hyacinths mixed in with some occasional black dahlias

Mono caught a few flowers, enough to make a small bouquet-worth of flowers to admire. Though only briefly as he felt a small object pierce his leg. He looked down to see a tranquilizer dart; He let go of his gathered flowers as sleepiness began to hit him, the flowers all falling to the ground.

Sleepiness overcame him, he swayed on his feet a small bit before he passed out. Falling on the ground and sleeping there.

The Hanging Man walked over to the two sleeping kids, grabbing them both. Scarf woke up, the motion of him being picked up waking him. He was startled until he realized what was going on; he was being brought back to his cell- Or well, the medical room. Then his cell.

Then another thing he realized, he fell asleep. He didn't plan to fall asleep, only a brief rest to catch his breath. Scarf honestly didn't realize he was tired enough to fall asleep that fast. He guessed that's what staying up insanely late for multiple nights got you.

Though he was still terribly tired. Scarf shut his eyes, he'll take this rest.

-----

The evening rolled around, Six was lying against the bars of the cage towards the left. She didn't make an effort to talk with anyone, just staring at her friends interacting with each other instead of doing it herself.

Ghost was constantly nagging Mono on when they were to begin his swimming training, the boy unable to be patient with how excited he was to learn. Mono seemed like he was slowly beginning the regret his decision to train Ghost the more the impatient child cried and begged. But he'd have to be patient, no way they could come out any other time of day besides Night-time after dinner.

On the other side of the cell; Shadow Six was engaging in a conversation with One, but she wasn't fully focused on it. Every so often her sister kept casting worried glances towards her.

Six frowned at that fact, she didn't want her sister to worry about her too much.

She stopped lying against the bars, sitting up properly. Six decided to let Shadow Six's worry motivate her to start a conversation with Mono. Despite not knowing how to withhold a conversation with him, having no topics in mind, she'd try anyways.

Six got up and approached Mono who was sitting around the right side of the cell. Ghost was in the middle of begging Mono to teach him to swim now when Six came over, Ghost being startled by her incoming presence and backing off.

Six hid her disappointment, Ghost was still frightened by her. Though it was fine, he'll warm up to her eventually. "Hey," Six greeted with a smile, giving a small wave.

"Hey," Mono replied.

"So, where are you planning to train him?" Six questioned, that was the first topic to come to mind.

"Uh, in The Depths. Where else?" Mono said, a joking tone in his voice, "Uhm- I do have an area in mind. It's a pretty safe one I believe, I found it in my time down in The Depths with Shadow Six."

Mono paused for a moment, "During the time we looked for Eight." He added on.

Six gave a nod, "Okay."

Mono repositioned himself, getting into a different sitting position. "Do you think Eight's okay?" Mono asked, his voice beginning to take on a sad tone..

"Well I think he's definitely not fine since he's been kidnapped." Six said, a frown appearing on her face."But I'm assuming you're trying to lightly ask me if I think he's dead. I think Eight is still alive out there somewhere, waiting for a rescue or making his own."

"I hope so," Mono responded.

Six really did hope Eight was okay, maybe she and Shadow Six should go off and search for them together sometime soon. Maybe tomorrow.

Six took another look back over at Shadow Six as she moved back to the spot she was originally at, trying to see if she still looked worried. Though Shadow Six wasn't paying any attention to her, she couldn't tell if it was because she wasn't worrying about her anymore or she just wasn't paying attention to her anymore.

She lied against the bars again, going back to staring. The interaction didn't go as well as she planned because now she couldn't help but worry about Eight now, though maybe it's an improvement from worrying about her hunger now.

Shadow Six, although now going unnoticed by Six, began worriedly staring at Six again. She was happy that Six was attempting to interact with Mono instead of lying against the bars and staring at them blankly. As if she was stuck in her own mind and unable to gather any will to speak.

Though the moment Six backed away and returned back to the same state of likely mental worrying, Shadow Six had frowned without herself even realizing. She was deeply worried for her sister, though the fact Six had even tried at all was a good sign.

Shadow Six looked back at One, realizing he was staring at Six too. Slowly, his head turned back towards Shadow Six. "Six been pretty unsocial lately," One said, "I'm getting kinda worried."

"She's probably fine, don't worry about it." Shadow Six tried to assure. Despite it being a blatant lie, Shadow Six wouldn't want One getting involved with Six's hunger issues.

"Okay..." One said, though Shadow Six could tell he wasn't convinced whatsoever. Probably only saying that to move on.

"Anyways, what were you saying about that time you faced your third ever Arena fight?" Shadow Six asked, trying to steer One's mind back off the topic of Six.

"Ah, well..." One paused, racking his brain to recall the memories.

-----

It was night-time. Something Randy always had been able to tell, even while trapped down here in The Depths- Probably somewhat pretty deep underwater too. It was like a strong feeling it was night-time he got, he could be doing anything when the affirming thought 'It's night now' pops into his head. Perhaps it came with being a Shadow Child.

When he was free, it was a really useful ability. Instinctively knowing when it's night-time so he could go outside. Though something like that was rendered completely useless when you were stuck in The Depths.

Randy trudged through The Depths' familiar halls, this one was rather narrow with leftover clothes and shoes piling up on the floor, causing the shadow child to have to climb over and maneuver around the clothing pieces obscuring his path.

The boy was off to collect some supplies since they were low- Randy already found some nice garbage to use as fire fuel and a half-empty match box but he needed to find either even more matches or some food before he could properly call it a day and return home.

What they'd usually eat down here, although gross, was rats. Of course it was cooked over the fire, but still. Any other food down here was really hard to find, to find actual food- even if overly soggy- was a rarity. A once in a long time treat for them.

A nice wave of relief hit Randy once the hallway spread out into a spacious hardwood-floored room, no longer needing to brush against the damp walls of the narrow hall. It was a wide room filled with furniture, mostly chairs and couches with a few small tables in-between spread out across the room. The furniture was being preserved with how it was wrapped in protective plastic to keep itself from being damaged. But clearly, it has been forgotten with how horribly dusty everything was, not touched for who-knows how many years. It was also obvious because of the fact It's in The Depths in the first place. Everything in The Depths is forgotten and abandoned.

Randy nosed around the place, the room was submerged in pitch-blackness but thanks to him being a Shadow Child he could still see around the room just fine.

There was nothing much of interest in this room, he only found just random pieces of stored furniture; Leaving Randy to believe this room was solely to store furniture and nothing else. It could've been evident from a first-look at the room but you never know.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" A girl's voice spoke, coming towards his left. Scaring Randy, his head shot up. His eyes darted around the room to detect the source of the voice. He spotted a light in the distance, one that kept moving. A flashlight's light.

Too frightened to attempt any interaction, Randy hid in the sheltering cover of a clump of chairs that had fallen on top of each other thanks to an unknown source, effectively making a hiding hole for him.

The furniture wrap of the chairs has torn and broken open thanks to the impact of the fall they once took, but the wrap was still blocking him from a clear view of what's going on around him and hopefully he's just as hard to see from the outside too.

The unidentified people came closer, continuing to talk.

"We're fine," A boy's voice reassured the previous one's, "It's going to be quick."

"We're only supposed to leave the cells at night, imagine if The Staff realizes we're gone?" The girl's voice came back, she sounded terribly worried. Unwilling to do whatever she was doing at this sort of time.

"They won't," The boy's voice responded, his voice sure. "And hey, if they do I bet The Pretender can help us out of trouble. Plus it's probably already night by now with how long it took us to figure out where we were again..."

"That makes it even worse! And you're relying on her like that?" The girl said, "I mean, sure. I guess they really like you- Maybe me too, but would she stretch her hand out that far for us? She doesn't seem like the most, Y'know..."

"Well, she definitely will for me. I don't know about you," The boy responded. At this point of the conversation, Randy tried to squint through the plastic of the protective wrap to try and see through it. The plastic made everything quite fuzzy and hard to make out so that was a no-go.

A bit risky, but Randy decided to slip out of his hiding spot to sneak a peek at the newcomers from the cover of the darkness then leave. Without Three's or really anyone he knew's presence, he wouldn't be confident enough to actually confront strangers.

Mono was a special case, although a stranger to him Three had known them. And Mono was dying, Randy couldn't just ignore a dying person no matter if he knew them or not.

But these two, they were fine. He'll just leave them be.

Randy caught the appearance of the strangers. Two kids. A boy and a girl, as he had figured out before even looking at them. The girl had a unique look, her hair was long with black and white split hair. She was also dark-skinned.

The boy was smaller than the girl, he had short black hair and they wore a yellow-knitted hooded cape over a white t-shirt with long white shorts that nearly touched the knees. Randy thought his skin was a bit pale, but that usually came with being stuck in The Maw.

"Hey, I'm an important person too." The split-haired girl replied, sounding slightly frustrated.

"You can be easily replaced, your job isn't special." The knitted-caped boy responded, "It's to basically babysit whatever-her-name-was. Uh, Six's sister or whatever."

"Shadow Six," The split-haired girl corrected, "And it isn't a babysitting job, I'm getting to know her for The Pretender."

Randy had actually been on the way back towards the hallway he came from, but when he was close to nearing it he froze. Noticing the familiar name. What did she have to do with what they're talking about- Did she know them?

The boy let out a scoff, "As if nobody else could do that," He narrowed his eyes at her with heavy sarcasm.

"Can we just go?" The split-haired girl said, wanting to get whatever they were doing over already.

"Alright, alright." The knitted-caped boy said, "We can go, Misery. I wouldn't want you to spiral into misery down here." There was a sly look in his eyes as he watched the girl for a reaction, The girl was clearly unamused with the pun.

Randy couldn't get the joke, was the girl's name Misery? That was quite the negative name, unusual too. And, although he felt like it was really rude to think this, a bit edgy too. But with the context, it had to be her name.

He decided he should go on his way and stop being nosy, quietly walking across the room towards the narrow hallway he entered the room from. Making sure to keep out of their line of sight, using the shadows to his advantage.

Suddenly, Randy felt the side of his skin burst into a harsh and crippling painful sensation. It felt like he was on fire, burning alive. Tears of agony streamed down his face as he stumbled then hit the ground, black dust emerging from his own skin and beginning to obscure his vision.

The shadow child knew exactly what was going on; They must've spotted some movement then shone their flashlight at him- Randy tried his best to be careful, but he guesses he just wasn't careful enough.

"What the hell is that?!" Randy heard the frightened voice of the boy behind him.

"I don't know!" The girl- Misery- replied, just as scared as them. "Wait, no. Is that a Shadow Kid? I don't know, I can't really see from here and it's so dark even with the light. It might not be."

"Yeah, I'm getting out of here," The boy said, and with that, the light came off of Randy. Hearing hurried footsteps going the opposite way of his direction, "Hey, don't leave me!" Misery's voice rang out, hearing more quick footsteps accompany the other pair.

Though even with them leaving, Randy still didn't move. He couldn't. He was in far too pain to move, he still felt like he was on fire and trying the move only made it worse.

He could just lie here, it's fine. It'll be fine.

A few minutes passed and the painful sensations lessened. It was still painful but he could manage to get up. Randy got to his feet, wincing at the pain. He swayed on his feet, having to get his footing correct.

Once he regained his composure, he turned around and limped back. Although not getting everything he sought after, there was no way he could keep scavenging at this state.

-----

The Depths were still and quiet, though not calm. You could sense dread in the air, far too eerily quiet in these wet, twisting hallways for the feeling of true safety to occur.

A singular white-ish gray rat scurried down the halls, nosing around through the damp and torn pockets of jeans. Abandoned clothes (shoes included) and metallic pieces littered the floor while overhead pipes ran across the ceiling, for a small fella like a rat it was troublesome to traverse this; The shoes and clothes combined made it like the rodent had to climb an entire mountain to cover only a small bit of ground.

The rodent eventually neared a vent, the screws loosely bolting the grille to the wall. Desperately needed to be re-screwed in. Cold air drifted in from the ventilation, the rat creeping close to the airflow; the air softly blowing against its pelt. The curious critter stood on its hind legs and curled up his little pink hands, wriggling it's tiny speckled nose to smell the airflow in order to see if it could catch any stray scents.

Suddenly, the grille popped off. Crushing the frail rat under it's metal plate and effectively squashing it to death.

Mono cautiously peeked out the vent hole, once he deemed the hallway as safe he stepped out. Briefly putting some testing weight on the grille before ultimately deciding to just completely side-step the vent cover. "Watch your step," Mono warned the person behind him.

Ghost heedfully stepped out of the vent, although visually ecstatic to be here Ghost knew well enough to not let his feelings get in the way of being cautious.

"Welcome to The Depths, Ghost." Mono introduced, his arms spread out to gesture around The Depths- Or well, just this hallway that was supposed to represent the entirety of The Depths in this case. "This is where you'll be training. Well not this location specifically, it's somewhere else in here. As soon as I find the place to train you in here we'll begin," he continued. "But this should be the right hallway that'll lead us there. At least I hope so."

"Wow," Ghost said, although this was only a hallway he was seeing Ghost was amazed. Staring around this rather bland hallway as if it was some kind of gorgeous sunset, though the amazement was cut off short as he stared down at the vent grille lying down on the floor, "Uhm. Is that metal thingy bleeding?"

Mono looked to where Ghost was staring; The vent was bleeding out its airflow holes. Mono vigilantly grabbed the corner of the grille and lifted it up. Peering underneath to see what was going on.

Mono mouthed an 'ew', seeing the outright slaughter that had gone on underneath it. Whatever they had crushed on entry was now a bloody pancake. Mono let go of the grille, stepping back.

"Uh, we totally crushed some rat or something." Mono assumed, staring down at the cover. Ghost let out a sad "Aw", getting on his knees and lightly petting the air above the blood. Earning an amused look from Mono;

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm tryna' pet the Rat's ghost." Ghost said happily, "As a sorry for killing you."

Mono would be lying if he said he didn't think that was a bit cute, how such innocence was rare to see in a world like this. Mono was many things, at least he considered himself so, but he wouldn't be the one to ruin the innocence. "Come on, we should get going." Mono said, "I think the location I got is a really good spot teach you how to swim, it's pretty shallow. Found it while going through here with some friends."

As Mono began silently walking down the hall, Ghost kept pace and upheld the conversation; "So did you come down here with Six, Shadow Six, and the other guy?"

"Well, yes, but that wasn't who I was referring to," Mono responded, "You haven't met them yet."

That only raised his curiosity, "Who are they? Can I meet them?" Ghost asked, quickening his stride to meet Mono face-to-face. Even though his face was masked, Mono knew the gleaming curiosity his eyes held staring straight at him, pleading him for answers. Comparable to when a dog begs for food.

But, Mono did not falter, "You can meet them another day," He said, "Right now, it's all about you and your training. We do need to prepare you for the events the Arena will toss at you, you not having the ability to swim is dangerous here."

"Aw, okay." Ghost said, just the tiniest bit disappointed he couldn't meet them today but the fact he was about to be taught something was enough for him anyway.

Ghost kept close to Mono, following him through the shadowy Depths. The boy quickly figured out that a lot of these rooms were quite similar to each other with only clothing, tools, and furniture dumped around and abandoned with the common trail of pipes leading somewhere, though that didn't make Ghost any less interested in this place. He enjoyed briefly digging through the miscellaneous piles to see what he could find before rushing to catch back up with Mono. Squinting his eyes to make out shadows as he passed by them was fun for him too.

"I think this place is good," Mono said, entering a slightly flooded room through an archway that had been halfway boarded up. Only the top part of the entrance was boarded up so they could simply duck under it. It wasn't clear what the room they entered was previously, however this now appears to be some kind of makeshift indoor pool area thanks to whatever pipe leakage happened here. The room even had a little indentation in the center of the floor which allowed for a shallow body of water to take form.

The body of water was as perfect as they could realistically get for them, tall enough for Ghost to have to swim but shallow enough for Mono to be able to somewhat stand in it. Somewhat. He would be on the verge of needing to swim if he got into the water. Mono was undoubtedly taller than Ghost, but still not that tall.

At the lower edges of the pool area, there were mannequin poles and standing mannequins all bunched up in the back corners of the room. It allowed them to guess what this room was, kind of at least, but it really wasn't enough context to actually have a solid guess.

Lastly, a little strange feature about this room was how in both corners where the mannequins were had aged hanging lights hovering over them. Although clearly old, the light bulb was somehow still working but it was visually beginning to dim. The light bulb gave a circular ring of light around the mannequins, like a spotlight shining down on them.

"Are we gonna get in that?" Ghost asked, pointing to the water. Now that he was actually here Ghost was beginning to get nervous.

"Yeah," Mono said, stepping into the water. He slightly flinched at the water as it was a bit cold but not too bad. He fully submerged himself into the water, the water rose to his lower neck and he could feel his feet touch the ground but if he wanted to, Mono could attempt to swim by leaning forward and lifting his feet off the ground.

"Little cold, but it's fine. Let me tell you what I want you to do," Mono began, now comes the hard part. Actually trying to teach him how to swim, he had no clue how to do this.

"Don't you wanna take off your paper bag?" Ghost questioned, staring at Mono's paper bag which was beginning to get wet at the lower edges.

"Uhm," Mono considered, "Well, I guess I should but my face is pretty messed up. It might be disturbing for you to stare at."

"You got like, a battle scar?" Ghost asked, his eyes widening in interest.

"You could call it that," Mono said.

"I wanna see," Ghost asked, his voice sounding both amazed and curious.

Mono gave a small nod, moving out of the water. His clothes dripping wet, he sat down on the edge of the water. Shaking the water he could off of his hands, he pulled off his paper bag. Showing off the burnt half of his face.

Ghost froze seeing his face, Mono could easily tell it wasn't what he expected. "Oh, that's a bad injury." Ghost commented, just staring silently at his face. No other comment, Ghost just stared at it. Having no other words for it.

Now. Mono never wanted to admit it, and he doesn't plan to ever admit it, but he was a little bit insecure about this face- no that was a blatant lie, it was more than a little bit. He didn't fish this paper bag out of the garbage bag without a reason back then.

So Ghost staring at his face silently like that made him a bit anxious, "Yeah, it is a bad wound. I got it when a fire broke out in The Maw- Well, the Arena specifically."

"It's cool." Ghost said with a neutral tone, unfreezing and deciding to take his eyes off his face and move towards the edge of water. Mono, refraining from letting out a sigh, reached over and put his paper bag back on.

"Why are you putting it back on?" Ghost questioned, noticing his action immediately. Mono bit his lips briefly, "I, uhm, figured you'd prefer it on..." He said.

Ghost waved him off, letting out a small giggle. "Take it off! It'll get damaged. Plus, it looks cool." He said more cheerfully than before and it seemed genuine. Which baffled Mono, maybe he couldn't read this kid as well as he thought. Did he like or was he revulsed by his injury?

He tossed his paper bag off and stepped back into the water, "Okay, so instructions, uhm-" Mono paused to stare at Ghost, "Okay so, try to do a long stroke with your arm like this." He informed, doing strokes as if he was swimming to show Ghost, "And kick your legs, too."

"That's it?" Ghost asked, dipping the tip of his toes into the water.

"Well, for now. We're just gonna try the simple version- the way I do it- to see if that works," Mono said, "If you sink I'm here to pull you back up so don't be too scared, you're probably not going to get it the first time."

Ghost was clearly nervous about attempting something like this, but he pushed his nerves aside and just went for it. He dove into the water, repeating the actions Mono told him to do. However, the boy didn't last half a second and immediately sank.

Mono dashed forward, submerging himself underwater to grab Ghost and pull him back up. Ghost clung onto Mono as he brought him back onto land, the young boy only letting go when he was sure he was safe. Mono set Ghost on the floor, letting the drenched boy lie on the ground for a minute.

"Okay, that couldn't have gone worse." Mono said, "Are you okay?"

"I got water up my nose," Ghost whined, trying to huff the water out his nose.

"Yeah, that happens unfortunately." Mono said, "It feels uncomfortable, but you'll get used to it. You didn't breathe it in, did you?"

Ghost shook his head, "Then you'll be fine." Mono told.

Ghost took a deep breath and stood back up, "I'm gonna try it again." He said confidently, diving back into the water before Mono had a chance to do anything. Ghost did the same technique as before, surprisingly he did last a bit longer even if he was doing the exact same thing; But he only lasted a few short seconds before he sunk again.

Mono rushed in again, diving into the water and grabbing Ghost. Hurriedly bringing him back to the surface and tossing them out of the water. "Okay- Don't do that. I wasn't ready for that." Mono scolded, "Don't get into the water until I tell you to."

"Sorry," Ghost apologized, guiltily staring down at the floor. He was probably giving a big frown too underneath that blanket. However, Ghost's sad look didn't affect Mono whatsoever, the boy just turning around and stepping back into the water.

"Try that again, but do it really slowly." Mono suggested, "If that doesn't work still, then we're gonna try an entirely new swimming style."

Ghost straightened himself up, nodding eagerly before he began to step back into the water for another attempt.

"Wait," Mono said, freezing Ghost in his tracks."Maybe you should take your blanket off? It's probably hindering you from swimming."

Ghost lightly rubbed his fingers across the front of his blanket, then clutched the fabric tightly. "No." Ghost said, startling hostility in his voice. A sudden contrast from the bubbly happiness moments before.

"Okay, okay. It was only a suggestion." Mono said, raising his hands a bit. Though it was barely noticeable since his hands were still underwater. "Calm down."

Instantly, like it never happened, Ghost went back to his overly happy attitude. Excitedly swaying on his feet as he stared down at the water. Mono definitely thought that outburst was odd, he immediately assumed Ghost had some sort of trauma. Something that was really common, unfortunately.

"Okay, I can do this." He said, slowly stepping into the water. His heart began racing in both fear and excitement, really believing he could do it this time.

Ghost fully got into the water, kicking his feet as fluently as he could and trying to do strokes with his hand. His form was a bit off, slightly leaning off towards the right more, he felt himself float for only a few moments before he began slowly sinking, after an additional 2 seconds he ended up rolling on his side and flipping underwater- His back facing the bottom of the water source and his face staring up at the surface.

Mono acted quickly, lunging forward and grabbing him. Dragging him out of the water once more. Ghost breathed heavily, an adrenaline-fueled excited smile forming under his blanket as he began to shake. From both the coldness of the water and excitement, an even mix of both.

"I actually swam for a few seconds!" Ghost exclaimed excitedly, "I think I can do this!"

"I think so too, when you put the weight on your arm you seem to last longer. While the plan was to have you actually swim, it seems doing what I say just have you kind of awkwardly float- But you know, let's do an awkward float for starters. Maybe I was trying to go too fast." Mono said.

"Okay!" Ghost said, determined. He rushed to the edge of the water, eagerly waiting for Mono to prepare so he could try. Mono saw Ghost's excitement and wasted no time, getting into position. "Alright, go ahead." He said.

Ghost got into the water and repeated the actions he just did, only this time putting more weight on his right side. Instead of sinking, miraculously, he managed to float. Swimming for the first time ever, not actually moving in the water but swimming in place. It probably wasn't the best technique at all, but they were doing it.

"I'm doing it!-" Ghost yelled out in exhilaration, then spat out some water. "Ah- Water keeps getting into my mouth when I talk-" He spat out more water.

"Then don't speak unless you have to," Mono said, a small smile on his face. "Just keep going as long as you can, then say what you wanna afterward."

Taking Mono's advice, the boy swam in place for as long as he possibly could. He had reached a good 20 seconds, the farthest he's ever gotten. And Ghost would've actually gone for quite a bit longer if it wasn't for something he saw.

Ghost's eyes widened, horrified, like he had seen a ghost (no pun intended). Panicking, he twisted his body, attempting to try and swim away from whatever threat he saw. Though that caused him to immediately sink, the boy flailing aggressively underwater.

Mono dove forward, swiftly rescuing Ghost and bringing him back to the shore- Or well, the floor. Ghost was completely shaken up, pure fear possessing his body. Tears pricked Ghost's eyes, the boy mumbling out unintelligible words that no matter how closely Mono listened he couldn't understand.

"What, what's wrong?" Mono asked, horribly concerned.

"I, there-" Ghost paused, taking a breath. Calming himself down, he sat up. Staring at a specific spot behind Mono, Mono looked over his shoulder at where he was looking. He was looking past the water around where the mannequins were, but there was nothing there. Nothing whatsoever.

"What?" Mono asked, turning back towards Ghost. His shaking lessened but he still seemed disturbed.

"I- I thought I saw something," Ghost said, "It looked like a person, but they're not there anymore..."

Mono didn't know what to think of it, maybe he had gotten water in his eyes and that screwed up his vision so when he stared at the mannequins he saw them differently and it spooked him? That was his only guess, "It could've just been the darkness messing with your eyes, or maybe the water." He suggested, Ghost gave only a slow nod as a response.

"Hey, I think that's been enough for today. We should go back." Mono said, that suggestion made him calm down a bit further. The boy nodded his head once more, "Yeah."

Mono got up, Ghost getting up too. "Hey, Mono." Ghost said, gaining Mono's attention. He looked over his shoulder at the younger boy.

"Can we race back? I planned to ask you this, I think it'd be fun." Ghost suggested, a pleading tone in his voice as he stared up at Mono.

Mono gave a shrug, "Why not." He said. It'd be fine, he doubted them running would attract much and the trail back wasn't unsafe or anything. Plus, Mono was confident he'd be able to keep up with Ghost and not get separated from him.

He'd be a bit concerned about his abilities if he couldn't outrun Ghost anyways.

Mono lined up with Ghost. However, since once again, Mono knew he was faster than Ghost he decided to play nice and let Ghost go off ahead first, giving him a head-start and watching him excitedly bolt down the corridor they entered the room from.

The boy was about to follow when he suddenly paused, having a sudden odd feeling hit him. Mono craned his neck over his shoulder to catch the lights over the mannequin flickering just for a mere second before resuming it's constant state of shining over the plastic mannequins.

Mono was rolling his eyes at himself for thinking this, but when the lights went off Mono had thought he saw some of the mannequins moving. But clearly, the light proved him wrong, showing that they weren't moving after all. If they were, they definitely wouldn't stop for a light. Just his imagination.

Oh, wait. Ghost. Quickly snapping back, Mono rushed after Ghost. He wouldn't like for him to get too far.

Putting what he had thought he saw behind him, Mono sprinted after Ghost.

---

Randy had finally made it back to his hideout, or well. The hallway to their hideout. The seething pain of being burned still not fading away. It made it laborious to even reach his own home, usually he'd be back much sooner than this.

When he gets hit by light it isn't always this painful, the more brief moments he gets struck with light the pain stops a short while afterwards- But for that encounter, the light had been on him for quite a bit, therefore inflicting him with a bad burn. One that stuck with him for multiple hours.

Though it was okay, as the shadows would heal him over time and return his normal look again.

Randy stepped in a puddle, the coldness would sting his feet if he already wasn't used to it.

Though he couldn't say getting a burn as bad as the one he had currently was a common thing, only one other time in his life he's gotten a burn similar to this one he had now and Three wasn't even around to witness it back then.

Randy stared down at his reflection in the puddle, seeing that the parts of his skin that got caught in the light- Which was basically the entirety of his right side- were hazy and powdery, like his skin was wanting to fade off into the air as dust and should be doing just that but instead was staying right where it was appearing loosely attached to his body.

If one were to touch that burned side of his body, their hand would go straight through it. Like it wasn't fully formed anymore, well not like. It wasn't fully formed anymore.

He's fine, he's survived this before. The problem is, how was he going to walk into the hideout and say he's fine when he's looking like this? Three would definitely panic and freak out.

Randy could only hope for the best. He limped to the hideout, having the calmest smile he could put on in such pain as he entered the hole.

Three noticed Randy's entrance immediately, "Ah, Randy!" Three greeted cheerfully, "I was actually getting kinda worried about you. You were taking so long, I-" Then, she caught sight of the injured side of Randy's body. Her eyes widened, fear-stricken and horrified.

"I know what you're thinking," Randy quickly began, stepping around the ring of light the camp-fire gave off and going toward the right corner.

"But you're..." Three had no words, "How much pain are you in? It looks terrible." She questioned, coming over to Randy and following his movements.

Randy let out a pained sigh as he began to lie down on top of some towel pile, using it as a bed. "It feels like I'm burning to death, so pretty moderate." He tried to joke to calm the mood, though that seemed to just worry Three even more.

"Look I'm okay, I just got caught in some light and got a bit of a bad burn since I couldn't get out of the light source too quickly." He tried to reassure, "I just need to stay in darkness, I'll recover fine if I rest."

"Do you want something out of our medical supplies?" Thee asked worriedly, even with the reassurance just looking at Randy's state made her distraught.

"I'm fine, plus I don't think anything in there could help me anyway," Randy said.

"I mean, we got some disinfectant medicine." Three said, going over to the med-kit set in the upper left corner of the room. "I think so, at least."

"No, it wouldn't work." Randy said, "I don't think anything would work, I think I'll just settle with letting the shadows be my natural medicine." He ended the sentence with a somewhat joking tone.

"Alright," Three said, pausing for a small bit. "Did you, uhm, find anything on your supply-run?"

"Oh, oh yeah," Randy said, sitting up and rummaging in his pockets. He pulled out the matchbox and fire-fuel he found, weakly tossing it towards Three. Three grabbed the matches and pushed the garbage fuel aside.

"-I didn't find any food," Randy said guiltily, "So pretty sorry about, as you already know I got injured while I was searching for food so I couldn't keep looking."

"Don't feel bad about it, It's okay. I'll go out and find it instead, alright?" Three said, "Just get some rest, okay buddy?"

Randy gave a nod, "Okay."

---

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merry christmas!!!