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There was a boy with a blank face.
A pale face. An emotionless face.
And he had the blackest eyes - the Devil’s Eyes.
They locked that boy up and buried the key deep
For they knew what was living behind those eyes.
It was purely and simply
Evil.
January 16th, 2015
3:30 pm
A stark white room. A simple table and chair, both bolted to the ground, and handcuffs bolted to the desk, holding one thin, almost frail figure.
Mono.
Six peered through the glass at him. He didn’t change very much in between visits, and mostly she was only checking in to make sure he was still here. Not like she had much to worry about, he never moved and had pretty much been the ideal prisoner here. Completely silent, able to be led to areas with no resistance, and simply lived in isolation.
That apparently hadn’t been the case when he had first arrived here, however. She’d heard reports of other inmates getting attacked the second they tried to place him with another person, leading to him ending up alone. Six was fine with that, the less people he could hurt, the better.
But all this time was starting to nag at her, it had been years and he still hadn’t said a single word since collapsing in her house before Halloween. She just wanted to know why, or if there even was a method to the madness.
Maybe he was just nuts. That would also be a suitable explanation for her, but she at least wanted to be sure. The constant old music didn’t help either, the place always managed to pick the creepiest-sounding music despite their claims it was calming to the patients.
I’ve got you
Under my skin
I’ve got you
Deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart
That you’re really a part of me
I’ve got you
Under my skin
Six was let in a few moments later, sitting across from Mono in the other chair. “Hi, Mono.”
He didn’t respond, of course, but she kept talking anyway. “Do you remember anything? What you did? What you could have done?”
Mono’s eyes reflected nothing except the soft white light, contrasting the utter void that threatened to consume her if she looked too long into them. She remembered what he had looked like before he’d come back with an intent to kill, and she could have sworn his eyes weren’t this dark before. The Devil’s Eyes, she thought briefly, before dismissing the old story. Mono wasn’t some supernatural creature, he had once had parents, and he was flesh and blood like her. Even if he didn’t behave like a normal person should at times.
“Are you ever going to talk to me?” Six asked once again, trying to look at him without staring him directly in the eyes. “You thought we were friends, but I never knew you. Do you still think you know me?”
Mono still said nothing, and her frustration boiled over. “Well, screw you too then, you-” she cut herself off, growling under her breath. “There’s nothing going on in there anymore, is there? You’re just nuts, and you’re locked up because you just kill people and that’s it, huh? Well then good riddance to you, and I hope you stay here forever.” She spun on her heel, snapping a quick goodbye to Rachel before leaving the building.
Six was done with him. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing to get out of him. He wouldn’t talk to her, fine, she didn’t want him to anyway.
As for that small bit of pain she still felt for what he had used to be, best to start getting rid of that as quickly as possible. As long as that was there she would keep coming back, and she wanted to be as far away from him as possible instead.
Of course, in her anger, neither she nor anyone else had noticed at the very end, when she had turned to leave, Mono’s head had moved.
It hadn’t been much, but it was enough to show that he had looked directly at her, instead of staring into space.
Only time would tell if it was a buried fragment of the boy he had been, or just the vestiges of a killer still there, waiting to be let out.
***
October 31st, 2023
11:10 pm
Dolen grunted in pain, attempting to sit up. He was lucky it had only been a scalpel that stabbed him, and nothing else. The car had driven off with the mad doctor, the two girls, and Mono inside, leaving him here to patch up his wound.
Of all the stupid things to happen, of course Mono’s own psychiatrist had to be a nutjob. Just one thing after another, and all on Halloween night. It felt like the universe was playing a cruel joke on him. He was already hearing reports from his radio of gruesome corpses being discovered in houses, and with the entire small town’s force spread thin trying to find him, Dolen was the only one close enough to anything now.
Still, he managed to stand, coughing a quick “Suspect on back roads to Pale Drive, requesting immediate backup” before trudging his way forward, ripping his shirt to provide some bindings for the stab wound.
The neighborhood wasn’t far from here, in fact it was barely a few blocks away. After a brief walk on the side of the road, Dolen spotted something on the road and went for a closer look.
After inspecting, he wished he hadn’t. Bile rose in his throat upon seeing a splatter of blood, tissue, and what looked like bone fragments, along with a few blackened tire marks signifying someone had been hit by the car.
It had stopped here, then gone on. Had something happened inside? Mono could have woken up, but he would have expected a crash if that had happened. Where had the car gone now?
Someone had definitely crawled away from here as well, Dolen noted. There was no body and the blood had been scraped against the concrete. Whoever had been hit or run over was still moving, which was either good or bad, depending on who it had been.
Forcing himself to swallow the bile still coating his throat, Dolen continued forwards, hoping to see Mono or the doctor sprawled against the pavement bleeding out, and praying against hope that he didn’t see a corpse belonging to Six or Raina. If anything happened to them under his watch-
His attention was drawn by the end of the road, which led directly up a hill to the neighborhood they had started driving at. Inwardly cursing at going in a circle, Dolen peered further, just enough to see headlights swerve close to the hill, then click off, leaving the area in darkness once again.
There you are.
That was enough for him. Whether Six and Raina were still in the hands of that doctor, or they had managed to escape somehow, wasn’t important. He at least needed to get to the car and figure out where they had gone, then work from there.
Hang on just a little longer, Six. I’m not running away this time.
***
Six knew where they were going as soon as the road cleared up ahead, and swore internally, trying to make sure Raina could catch up.
Of course they would end up at Mono’s old place. The Killer House, as it had been dubbed, never quite condemned but never bought, right on the edge of the neighborhood. It had sat there, practically taunting her, for years until she had finally moved further away and didn’t have to look at its dark empty windows reminding her of his eyes any longer.
Mono’s parents had moved out of there within a year of the incident sixteen years ago, and from what Six had heard they had gone closer to visit him more often. Neither of them lived much longer after that, and Six had always felt slightly bad for not trying to get to know them more. At the time she had been wary of anything to do with Mono, and had wanted to avoid him.
Once his visitation rates had dried up and Six was a bit older, however, she had finally let her curiosity get the better of her, and tried to talk to him. Just like with his parents and any other curious reporter, he had said nothing, empty black eyes staring at nothing the entire time she had been there.
Rachel had sworn up and down he was being misunderstood, that nothing he did was his fault, and that there was still something of Mono left in there even through his break from reality. Six now knew for a fact she would strangle the woman if Mono hadn’t already killed her. She had let him out, right next to a town where she had known he would most likely kill again, all to study him in the wild like an interesting science experiment.
It would make for a really interesting horror movie if she wasn’t currently being chased by a very real slasher villain at this moment. Raina had stopped crying but was now just staring right ahead, probably in shock from all that had gone on. Six made sure to not let her lag behind, but they were both starting to run out of breath.
Headlights flared on the hill below just as they reached the porch, and Six was pretty confident by the silhouette at the driver’s seat that it was Mono following them. Six threw the door open, slamming and locking it behind her, then turned to Raina, who was standing next to her trembling. “Raina, look at me, okay?”
Nodding shakily, Raina’s eyes welled up with tears once again. “I- I’m scared, Aunt Six…”
“I know, I know,” Six reassured, patting her on the back. “We have to move now, out the front door and into the neighborhood. We’re going to get you back to your parent’s, okay?”
Raina gave another affirmative head nod, and Six took that as her cue to start heading for the-
She almost screamed a curse audibly before cutting herself off to not directly alert Mono to where they had gone. The door was boarded up from the inside, and so were the windows. Raina started to cry again upon seeing it, and Six had to quietly shush her and slip over to the stairs. Mono would figure out where they’d gone soon enough, they had to start preparing. The only gun had been in the car, so that was out. The house was bare, her only option would be to get upstairs and hope that Mono passed them on long enough to get out the back door.
It was too late to change course now, she could hear his footsteps creaking on the porch outside. Six bolted up the stairs with Raina in tow, just getting up the steps before she heard the doorknob rattle.
It rattled once, twice, then stopped. Six ducked into a room, maybe it had been Mono’s, got into the closet and almost shut the door behind her, holding a hand over Raina’s mouth and waiting.
The doorknob rattled again, harder this time, then stopped once more. Six strained to listen, before hearing a crunch that signaled Mono had swung something into the door. Another slam, making Raina duck her face into Six. Hugging her tightly, Six kept listening, before the sound of wood snapping and the lock clicking clued her in as to what had happened.
Mono had gotten through the door.
His footsteps started to grow louder, coming up the steps with surprisingly soft footfalls that still sounded deafening to her. Six reached up, closing a hand around an abandoned metal clothes hanger, and waited, almost holding her breath.
Under the door she could barely see his feet stop in the dead center of the room, and through the tiny sliver in the door she could see his head turn left, then right, facing away from her. He had a hammer in his hand, probably what he had used to break the door.
Don’t think about the blood on that.
Six waited, gripping the hanger tightly and praying he would leave the room long enough for them to run.
Instead of leaving, Mono appeared to have no urgency whatsoever. Six wondered if he was toying with them, or if he even still had enough humanity left to even consider that kind of mental game.
Finally he moved again, but instead of leaving the room, he moved over to a boarded window and began tearing the planks off one by one. Six could see his fingernails tearing and a little blood mixing with the grime all over his hands, but he didn’t seem to care. Once the window was completely open, he rested his arms on the sill and sat there, breathing harshly and staring out.
From her position Six could only just make out where his bagged head was pointing, but it should have been obvious. He was staring directly down the street at her old house, dim police lights flashing just close enough for her to see the colors hit the leaves on the tree outside.
Rachel had said he wouldn’t harm her, but there was no way in hell she was going to test that theory now, especially not with Raina right there. But maybe with his back turned…
Six raised a finger to her lips, making sure Raina saw it, then carefully put her foot forward, testing the door to see if moving it would get his attention.
Nothing. His head stayed in exactly the same position as before, and Six took another cautious step forward, edging the door forward another inch.
Six just managed to see his head start turning before she froze, holding Raina tightly and not daring to even breathe, pressed up against the wall with the hanger gripped tightly in her hand. She didn’t dare to look out again, she just hoped-
Mono’s footsteps started again, they were coming closer. She could hear Raina start to breathe faster in panic, and Six wanted badly to shush her but didn’t want to make any noise herself. Her fingers tightened around the slim metal hanger, waiting, waiting…
The door started to open, and as soon as there was enough clearance, Six dove forward, ramming the hooked end of the hanger directly into one of the holes in his bag. Mono staggered back, and a wet squelch told her that her goal had been accomplished.
Raina fled out of the closet behind her, rushing down the stairs, but as Six turned to follow, Mono snagged her arm with a hand, yanking her backwards. Six twisted around to try and drive the hanger deeper, but he had already pulled it out and was attempting to force it over her head, bending the metal just enough to cut off her air circulation. Six kicked at his leg, but he was unmoving as he coldly and methodically twisted the hanger tighter, choking her out slowly.
Coughing, she managed to force out, “Mono! It’s…Six…!”
His grip loosened, just enough for her to break free and rip the hanger off her head. Mono swayed slightly on the spot, staring at her with harsh breaths coming from under his bag, before a scream from below caught Six’s attention. Not letting her eyes off Mono, she backed off, the bloody hanger in her hands as a warning, before she shut the door quickly and sprinted down the stairs.
“Let me GO!” Raina shouted, Six just arriving to see a bloodied and battered Rachel with a death grip on Raina’s arm, the other arm hanging limply in a bloodied mess with the elbow completely shattered and the bone coming through one side.
The other woman looked delirious, but she managed to still speak. “Where is he? Did you see him, where did he go?”
Six took a single step forward, the bloody hanger still in her hand. “Let Raina go now.”
“I will, I will,” Rachel responded, blood leaking from her mouth. “As soon as you meet him properly again.”
Snarling, Six stopped as Rachel’s grip tightened on Raina’s arm. She was nuts and would probably hurt Raina if she kept going, so she tried to stay calm. “What do you even want with him, why’d you let him out?”
Rachel wavered on the spot. “That hospital was going to be the death of him, he was just going to waste away. You weren’t there every day trying to help him, this is what he needs.” Her face split into a wide grin. “He is more than just a human being, he has strength beyond your imagination.”
Looking closer, Six could actually see what appeared to be the shape of an eye, smeared on Rachel’s forehead in her own blood. She didn’t know what that was about, but she had just about had enough of the crazy woman.
It was almost relieving to her when the door upstairs slammed open, and the shadow of Mono was cast over all three of them, contrasting sharply with the soft moonlight. Rachel looked up at him with a mix of rapturous appreciation and stark terror, both emotions warring on her face and making her look unhinged. Well, more unhinged than she had already been.
“Mono, come down and say hello to your friend,” Rachel coaxed, tightening her grip on Raina and hissing to Six. “Stay still, I want to see this!”
Slowly, Mono proceeded down the stairs, harsh breathing getting closer until he was a few feet away from her. Blood still leaked from under the bag, but he didn’t appear to care, and the little bit of red that had gotten on the bag made it look like he was crying blood from one eye.
Six was frozen in place, acutely aware of Raina’s soft cries behind her, not daring to move for fear of what either Rachel or Mono might do to her. Mono was staring right at her, and slowly his bag tilted to the side, like he was studying her. She still couldn’t see his eyes, they were completely hidden in the shadow of that bag.
Did he have his own eyes or the Devil’s?
Mono’s bag shifted back upwards, and Six stifled a scream as his hand reached for her, then brushed her aside like swatting a fly, his seemingly effortless movement sending her into the wall and sending flaring pain up into her shoulder.
Gripping the hammer, Mono brought it up, not looking like he cared where it fell, directly onto Rachel and Raina.
Six cried out, but her yell was drowned out by the blast of a gunshot, which staggered Mono briefly and froze the hammer in place. Stunned, Rachel let go of Raina, who bolted out the back door and behind Dolen, who was bloodied but alive, aiming a gun at Mono and Rachel in turn. “NEITHER OF YOU MOVE, STAY WHERE YOU ARE!”
Rachel obeyed. Mono did not. After a brief second to recollect himself he started to move forward again, now intent on getting rid of the annoyance shooting at him. Dolen took careful aim and fired again, catching him in the chest twice more. Mono flinched backwards with every hit, but his feet kept moving forwards like he was on autopilot.
Six groaned, picking herself up, before gripping a loose plank and shouting as loud as she could before breaking it over Mono’s bagged head.
He froze in place, then very slowly turned to stare at her. Six did not back down, gripping the broken piece and going for him again, but this time she was grabbed by Rachel, who was screeching incoherently. Fingernails raked over her face, and despite the other woman only having one functional arm she was clearly running on adrenaline and looked ready to kill, all the calm dignity of a professional doctor forgotten.
***
As soon as Raina was free of the crazy doctor, Dolen managed to snag her and pull her out the door. “Listen, Raina. I need you to help me. There are two extra gas cans in that car Mono drove up here, I need you to carry them up here for me. Can you do that?”
He tried to make his voice sound as gentle as he could, it probably didn’t work as well as he hoped, but she was nodding along. “I…I think so…”
“Good,” Dolen said, glancing back at the two women fighting. “You have to run, okay? Run as fast as you can!” Raina took off, and Dolen turned his full attention back to the scene in front of him. Mono was distracted, but now the three were too close together for him to be confident in his shooting.
His first lucky break was Mono intervening in the fight, and thankfully he wasn’t going for Six. Rachel was snagged by the hair and yanked away from Six, forcibly turned towards Mono. Dolen could hear her cry out a few strangled words, one of the phrases he caught was “Devil’s Eyes” before Mono slammed her head into a wall, sending her down to the floor.
Raina shouted behind him, and Dolen turned to see her bringing the cans back up the hill. “Good, Raina, give them here-” He was cut off by something closing around his windpipe, and was just able to twist around to see a paper bag mask before he was thrown inside the house, Mono approaching fast. Raina screamed, but Dolen quickly got his bearings back and sent a barrage of four shots into Mono’s torso.
This wasn’t even slowing him down.
***
Six stumbled over to Raina, seeing the cans at her side. “What are those for?”
“He- he said to bring them-” Raina sputtered, looking utterly panicked.
Not bothering to change her tone, Six grabbed one of the cans. “Raina, go. Get home to your mom now, do you understand?!”
Raina was gone in an instant. Hoping that she understood Dolen’s intentions right, Six began to pour the cans over the wooden floorboards and similar boards on the walls.
Four shots rang out, and her head snapped over to see Dolen aiming a gun upwards. Mono barely seemed to flinch at the shots anymore, grabbing Dolen’s hand and forcing the gun to drop, before wrapping his hands around the man’s throat and choking the life out of him.
Six quickly dumped the rest of the can out, then threw the contents of the second one at Mono. He didn’t seem to react, but he was absolutely drenched in the gasoline by now. Dolen’s struggles started to fade, and in a blind panic, Six screamed, “MONO, STOP!”
Surprisingly enough, Mono let go, staring at her and tilting his head to the side. Six stared directly at him, and she found herself wishing the moon would shine into that bag so she could see his eye, whether it was the Devil’s or not-
Dolen rose up from the ground, delivering a swift punch hard enough to knock Mono to the ground, before pulling a lighter from his pocket and igniting the small flame. “Happy Halloween, Mono.”
He dropped the lighter directly at Mono’s feet, and the world was set ablaze. Six immediately began to run, but stopped when her foot was snagged. Rachel, somehow still alive, was clinging to her, and soon began to scream wordlessly as flames crawled up her as well.
Dolen appeared before her out of the fire, grabbing her arm and dragging her away as Rachel wailed in pain, the smoke beginning to fill the room just as they barrelled through the back door, Dolen slamming it closed behind them.
Letting Six go, Dolen turned back and trained his gun on the door, waiting for someone to come out, while Six just sat down in the grass, somehow knowing that no one would exit through that door.
She sat there until the wails of pain from Rachel died down and were replaced with the wails of the fire trucks, coming to extinguish the house. Only then did she get up and race around to the front of the house, Dolen in close pursuit.
Six waved her arms, trying to get in front of the firefighters before they could start their duty. “LET IT BURN, DON’T PUT IT OUT, LET HIM BURN!”
“Listen to her!” Dolen shouted, grabbing one of the firefighters by the arm and speaking to them urgently, before waving his hand to the trucks and ambulance behind her. “She’s hurt!”
Eventually Six was coaxed into sitting in the back of an ambulance, the EMTs swarming her and Dolen to check them out. She felt light-headed, the world was swimming before her eyes, but she forced herself to focus on the burning house. The firefighters had paused, Dolen’s brief explanation enough to make them hesitate, before a few minutes had passed and they went charging in. Dolen raised his arm like he was going to call out to them again, but sighed and just gripped Six’s hand tightly. “I’m sorry for all this…”
“Don’t be,” she murmured, in a daze. “It’s over, he’s gone.”
Her eyes managed to focus on the front door of the house, where a lone firefighter had reemerged from the fire, the others focusing on the outside which had already begun to burn, like the house itself was eager to get rid of the evil inside.
The firefighter’s shoes weren’t touching the ground.
Six bolted upright, the EMTs shouting in a panic but she was already running, just in time to see the unmistakable silhouette of Mono toss the body of the firefighter aside and calmly stride directly towards the fire truck.
No you don’t.
With the EMTs behind her, Six just managed to snag the side of the truck as Mono climbed into the driver’s seat and took off, slamming into one of the police cars before righting himself and speeding down the road to get out into the back roads once again.
Six swung her arm forward, grabbing the door handle, and pulled as hard as she could, nearly yanking her arm off as the door opened. She quickly hauled herself back up, before carefully edging her foot onto the step to get in and swinging inside, grabbing the wheel and yanking it to the side.
Mono was fast enough to slam her head into the dashboard, but not fast enough to correct his course, and the truck spun sideways before flipping over, knocking Six out of the vehicle entirely and onto the grass as it rammed directly into a tree.
Breathing hard, Six pushed herself up, every muscle screaming in protest, before walking over to the smoking truck and reaching her hand inside the open back, grabbing a fire axe and walking around to the front.
Sure enough, there was Mono, still moving. He had crawled out of the truck and was now propped up against the side of it, sitting there and staring directly at her. Some of his bag was burnt, as was quite a bit of the trench coat he was wearing, but all she could see of his face was one cheek, exposing part of his mouth.
Six gripped the axe tightly in her hands, raising it slightly, only to stop at Mono’s next movement. His arm slowly raised, but there was no weapon in his open hand. He held it out to her, almost pleading, a childlike gesture.
Her own hand left the axe and began reaching out to him as well, she wasn’t really sure what she was doing but…if there was still something in there…
The moon peeked over the trees, catching Mono full in the face and exposing his eyes. Black, soulless, and empty, like two voids staring at her.
The Devil’s Eyes.
Six drew her hand back sharply, and swung her axe, yelling with a raw throat.
November 1st
12:00 am
Mono’s head rolled to the side, his body going limp. Six dropped the axe and fell to the ground, running her fingers through her hair and finally letting herself cry.
It was over.
The radio on the fire truck was able to be heard still, dim as it was. Six barely listened, the music eventually was drowned out by sirens, but she knew the words.
Use your mentality, wake up to reality
But each time that I do
Just the thought of you
Makes me stop before I begin
Because I’ve got you
Under my skin…