Chapter Text
The corridor was seemingly endless.
The walls were covered in colourful speckles, giving the effect that they were spinning around as they ran. The jester at the second front swallowed with nausea and tried to pick up speed. She felt as if her body would soon give out, but she knew that such a thing could not happen in the circus. She had to endure, especially at that moment.
But her legs wouldn't listen to her.
Her bigot puzzle friend passed by, each limb unique and different. They were dragging a male king chess piece with them, grasped in his purple robe, on his shoulders stood a porcelain mask with red ribbons wrapped around it. The short jester tried to hold on to the end of the red ribbon as it passed by her, but failed. They were running fast and there was still nothing ahead.
But they couldn't stop, not when they were chasing like this.
She turned around without stopping her movement by a scream that filled her ears and startled her. The black and white glitching flood following them had managed to catch the hand of her cloth doll friend in the purple dress. Her candy-like blue-red eyes widened in fear and she felt her legs slow down even more.
"Ragatha!"
Her voice was cracked and hoarse from previous screaming periods. Still, it echoed in the corridor with only the sound of heavy breathing. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the red ribbon and purple robe was further away, they might not even be aware of it. It was stupid, she should have caught up with them and made sure the rest were safe. Just like Zooble and Kinger did with Gangle.
When she turned the other way and reached the red-haired doll, she knew that her body wouldn't listen to her. She pulled the outstretched arm for help towards her and yanked the girl near to her before the flood could catch her red hair. The colourless flood was very close to her, close enough for her to reach the peak of fear. But her composure and a yellow hand saved her from an ultimate doom. When she saw that the gap was slowly widening, the tears stuck under her eyes flowed down her cheeks without her noticing.
"What the [BOINK] are you two doing?!"
The doll in the purple dress didn't answer. She was lying unconscious on the shoulder of the purple rabbit that had led them away from the flood, her flood-stricken hand began to glitch. The short jester tried to speak, but only a cough came out. Trying to keep up with the rabbit's pace was terrible, but there was no other way.
"How much longer -huff- do you think -huff- we can go on?"
"You must run if you want to live."
"Jax!"
"I didn't bring that thing in the back, Pomni!"
"We're miserable here!"
When the surroundings became blurry, she shook her head quickly from side to side to remove the tears and swallowed the sob that rose up to her throat.
"There's still nothing in front of us. We went into the corridor counting on that note, but how sure can we be that we're not walking into a trap that's driving us crazy right now?"
Nothing. He kept running without even turning his head. He didn't know the answer either. None of them knew.
They didn't even know it was possible for Caine to abstract until this morning.
Pomni didn't find it strange that the last few adventures had been so agonising. It was common knowledge that Caine was incapable of understanding most human emotions, and sometimes he could craft adventures without thinking about them. But it was surprising that it was so overlapping. His constant pep talks had also diminished, but she thought it was because there was no one new after Pomni, and because it had been so long since Pomni had arrived that even the people had become the same and monotonous.
She'd missed so many signs because she had ignored them. Looking back now, she thought how utterly dumb she'd been.
"Do— ke— ru—!"
Although Pomni listened carefully, she had difficulty hearing Zooble, who was way ahead of them. But strangely, they'd stopped. The second shout rang in her ears.
"DON'T KEEP RUNNING!"
Jax's feet rubbed the ground as if braking and tried to slow down with balance, but Pomni, who could not adjust her speed behind him, hit him and both of them crashed to the ground in front of Kinger with the doll on the rabbit's shoulder.
"Ouch!" said the doll unconsciously.
"Be careful!" Pomni snapped to the rabbit.
"WHAT THE [BOINK] ZOOBLE?!" screamed Jax.
Bigot puzzle pointed with their head as they helped the jester to her feet. That's when Pomni realised how much trouble they were in.
It was a cliff. A tar-black abyss with no end in sight. She'd seen cliffs during her time in the circus, but they all gave off a faint blue light and had tiny little coding at the end. Not like this.
She took the Bubble's note out of her pocket and read it again. Take the risk. She looked behind her and noticed that the flood was closer. They didn't even have a choice about the risk.
"We need to jump."
"TO THE VOID?" screamed Zooble and Gangle. Her red ribbons began to tremble on Kinger's shoulder. Even chess piece, who was always in complicated state of mind, frowned. But surprisingly, there was someone who agreed with her.
"I'd rather jump into the emptiness than wait for that thing to swallow us!" spat Jax with determined gaze. He spoke fast, obviously not wanting to waste time. "We know we can't die here, a fact that doesn't change even if Caine's gone. If that thing swallows us and we become abstract, it's worse than dying here, and you all know it."
A tense silence filled the corridor. He was right. Just before she was pushed into the corridor, she'd seen how that flood had engulfed Bubble and what it had done to them. The drops ran down her cheeks again. She sniffed and approached the gap. Too much lost.
"No time. I'm going."
She closed her eyes, ignoring the quickening of her breathing and before others do anything about it, let out a long scream as her feet were cut off from the floor.
When Pomni opened her eyes, she realised that her eyelids were sore and couldn't open all the way.
She groaned and tried to blink. It was too bright, the light was hurting her eyes, but she tried anyway. She didn't know who she was, she didn't know where she was and she needed them to see around.
"Please don't force yourself to move, Miss Ward."
She stopped completely. Miss Ward?
That's when the worst headache she'd ever experienced in her life came.
She could hear conversations and equipment going on in the background, but nothing could be heard properly over the ringing in her ears. She closed her eyes tightly, a pained whimper escaping her mouth. And— memories.
First, the basic ones. The fact that her name was Paulina Ward but people mostly called her Polly. The fact that she was 25 years old. The fact that she lives in the United States. Then, little personal ones. Her favorite color was pink. Her favorite fruit was strawberry. She was an accountant. The last thing she remembered doing...
A big memory drain. And a fucking painful headache.
She tried to rise from her position, but a gentle hand pushed her back to where she was lying.
"Miss Ward, can you hear me? Please don't move and open your eyes if you can."
What kind of adventure is this?
She could barely open her eyes, but she could make out a figure in front of her.
"My head— please—"
Her voice was so small, at first she couldn't even believe it was coming out of her. She felt a little sting in her arm.
"Yes, that's it. Talk to us. I'll give you a painkiller for your head until the neurologist comes, but please don't move. Yaxley, go and get Mr. Smith! They're finally waking up!"
We're... waking up? I was in the circus! I always–
Her eyes were opening as fast as her brain was connecting the dots.
It was a huge room in white. Walls, ceiling, curtains seen from the side, all white. Her vision was slightly blurred, but not to the point of being uncomfortable. A health worker with her dark hair in a ponytail was standing next to her bed, busy injecting fluids into the IV in her arm. She didn't remember coming to the doctor. Bot more importantly...
She's a... human?
She couldn't contain herself and began to sob. The doctor who had finished her work immediately turned her attention to her and asked if she was in pain. But Polly couldn't speak, she couldn't do anything but cry with hoarse sobs. She felt her muscles lighten with the realisation and her body relax and sink into the bed more.
She dreamt of it every night in the circus when she went to bed covered in blue and red patterns. Every time she closed her eyes, she prayed to every god and spirit she heard, even though she wasn't a religious person, in order to wake up in the world she came from. It was all she wished for every time she saw the shooting stars that interrupted Caine and the Moon's flirtation. She tried not to think too much (because according to Jax and Ragatha, that's how abstraction found you the most), but she tried not to lose hope every chance she got either.
She had made it. She had really survived.
It took a while for her to calm down. She thought that the liquid the woman had given her after the painkiller had also had an effect. Occasionally her eyes would get watery and tears would flow, but her sobs had stopped. The woman in charge of her gently wiped the tears from her cheeks with a napkin and switched on the fan next to her.
"Are you feeling better?"
She took a deep breath and nodded. Her chest and throat ached slightly when she breathed, but that was normal considering how long her body had been lying here. Wait... She didn't remember how she got there. She remembered entering the abandoned building while filming a video. She also remembered the computer and the headset she found in the building. But here?
"Paulina Ward?"
Her gaze met another human who had entered the space through one of the side curtains. He was a tall old man with grey hair, probably in his 50s or 60s, wearing a white lab coat. His dark green eyes looked kind and relieved, but his feet didn't go any further, as if he was waiting for permission. When Polly nodded slightly, he approached the machine beside the bed and checked it.
"Good evening, Mrs. Beau and Miss Ward. How's her cerebral function?"
"Dr. Dawn still hasn't arrived sir, I'm not authorised to make a comment."
"I see. Vital and locomotor functions?"
"Good enough for now. Her albumin, total protein and Vit D levels are low but this is normal in the current situation. We'll need to contact PT for atrophies in some muscles, but thanks to the intervention in the oesophagus, it seems that she can still eat normally. If Dr Dawn gives her the all-clear, I think she can be back to her full health."
Polly beamed as much as she could. It was obvious that these people had done everything they could to save her, and she was incredibly grateful. The man thanked Mrs Beau briefly and she crossed the curtain to leave them alone. He sat at the end of the bed, not touching her, but studied her. She wasn't bothered by his staring. She knew it wasn't for any inappropriate reason, he was examining her for purely medical reasons.
"How are you feeling?"
There was a strange heaviness in his voice, a guilty tone. She smiled slightly to reassure him.
"I had a terrible headache, but I'm better now, thanks to Mrs Beau. Where am I now?"
"In the special health centre set up by Smith company. I'm Abel Smith, CEO and co-founder of this company."
She stared at his outstretched hand with wide eyes and mouth open.
"Ragatha, do you know what this logo means?"
The doll in her usual purple dress sat next to her on the couch and looked at the inscription on the gun. It was their second gun adventure and it was even crazier than the first.
"Hmm, I think I saw it on the headset I was wearing. I'm not sure."
"You don't even know that?"
She was startled by a firm hand on her shoulder, but she didn't pull back, she recognised who it was from the voice. Ragatha was less annoyed than she was but louder.
"What do you want Jax?"
His yellow-gloved index finger pointed to the gun in the jester's hand. The rabbit still had an annoying grin on his face, but it didn't reach his eyes. He even seemed to be gritting his teeth.
"The company that produced the game we're stuck with. There's no significance about it here of course, they must have placed it in the game as some harmless easter eggs because they're the creators."
Pomni's eyes widened.
"How do you know this?"
"How do you not? I thought you knew the game you were playing."
"Miss Ward? You okay?"
She flinched and blinked when she realized she was still staring at his hand.
"Umm, yes, sorry. I can't move my hand but you already know my name. Call me Polly please."
The man nodded in understanding and withdrew his hand.
"Okay Mi– Polly, I want to talk to you about what you remember, is this all right?"
She swallowed when she felt an incoming nausea but kept shaking her head to let him to continue.
"The only thing we know is that the first game produced by this company, which should've been recalled, has reached some hands. We found out too late that my twin brother was the one who provided it, he was the other co-founder of this company."
A wistful expression appeared in his eyes.
"I wish he had helped us before his death. Then we wouldn't have been so late in resetting the game's coding. He was always so obsessive about that game and the experiment, I never thought he'd do something like this."
The pieces were starting to fall into place for Polly. Of course the victims were random, but you wouldn't need specific individuals for such a dangerous experiment. She tried to put her hand on his knee, but when she noticed that her arm was only slightly raised, she nudged him with her outstretched finger.
"All this time you've been trying to save us. You are a huge company, you could have covered the news and continued without caring about a few people like us, but you didn't."
The man laughed humorlessly.
"That's exactly what my manager advised me to do, but when he found out that an important family like Windermeres was involved, he realised he couldn't escape and resigned."
Her face soured. "That's awful."
"Yes. Some people are like that unfortunately."
A comfortable silence fell. Polly could hear Mrs Beau and another familiar voice behind the curtain, but it was difficult to focus on anything but the man in front of her. She still hadn't answered his question and knew it was time. Choose your words carefully.
A deep breath.
"I woke up in a circus. I'm not kidding, a real, colorful circus. I wasn't alone, there were others. We were stuck with an AI named Caine, who created mini-quests and adventures to make our time there easier and to keep us from going insane. Your brother's name was Caine, right?"
He simply nodded.
"Since it was our first game, we named the two AIs in the game with our own names. Caine reprogrammed the game and deleted my AI before he started his experiment."
Polly's eyes lit up.
"But he couldn't delete all the easter eggs because you two placed them randomly and too much in the game."
He smiled softly.
"Yes. You found some of them I suppose?"
She shook her head, thinking about the logo on the gun and many more C&A symbols. They were meaningless there, but not here. Jax was right.
Jax.
Others.
Did they jump?
When her eyes became worried, he tilted his head slightly as if to ask.
"Am I the only one here? I wasn't alone there."
Her breathing labored.
"There were five other people with me. There were people who weren't with us but were kept in the hole under the name of abstraction. Where–"
When one of the machines around the bed started beeping, the curtain opened and Mrs Beau came in in a hurry. She was holding a blood pressure machine. She looked at him accusingly and reached for her arm. Polly felt a hand unbutton a button near her neck and locked eyes with the doctor.
"You're okay. Try to breathe regularly. Don't stress yourself, you're safe here."
Her gaze returned to him as she crossed another curtain again. She knew she couldn't relax properly until she heard the answer. He sighed.
"There were six survivors in the game, including my close friend. If what you're saying is true, there's a good chance there were five people who were with you."
She held her breath. Oh no. Please, no.
"T-the others?"
She kept her gaze on his eyes and could see that they were gradually collapsing. Her vision blurred.
"We've preserved the bodies of everyone trapped in the game here. I'm sorry Polly, all but six of you have been declared unexplained brain dead and their funerals were already held by their relatives or close friends."
She couldn't prevent tears from falling on her cheeks. Kaufmo, Queenie, Ribbit and many more... There was always hope somewhere inside Polly when she was in the circus. They were trapped in a game where they couldn't die, and she thought that maybe the process they call abstraction doesn't go beyond coma in real life. It was awful to have the truth hit her so painfully in the face, but she knew there was nothing that could be done.
She lowered her head and cleared her throat.
"Can I talk to one of them?"
Abel smiled sadly.
"Of course. We've been keeping the curtains closed as a matter of procedure, but now that you all have regained consciousness, we can make some adjustments."
He pointed to the curtain on her left.
"You were placed in order of age and received treatment and supplements accordingly. There's the last bed in the curtain to your left, but Mx. Turner asked permission to rest, so I spoke to you first."
His finger turned from left to right.
"To your right is Mr Page, who is now conscious. In order not to interrupt your conversation, I'll continue with Miss Powell. When you're able to move, you all will be free to communicate with each other at any time."
He stood up and put his hand on her shoulder. Polly winced.
"I'm really sorry we met under these circumstances. But I'm really glad you're alive, Polly. We'll try to discharge you as soon as possible, I promise."
He handed her the remote control for the curtains and left. As the sound of his footsteps filled her ears, Mrs Beau and that familiar voice came again. It was normal that it sounded familiar, it should've belonged to one of the five people she knew. She leaned back and took a deep breath.
Lucky. They were really lucky.
She turned to the remote in her hand and smiled when she realized that she could move her fingers better than her arm. She clicked the button on the right and the curtain began to open silently. Polly wasn't sure who was on the side. The one on her left was most likely Zooble, both younger than her and using Mx. But Mr. Page? Probably Jax or Kinger. But didn't Abel say they were organized by age? Jax was younger than her and Kinger was the eldest.
When a head appeared with its back turned, she stopped the curtain and sat up slightly. She could move her body as far as her arm.
It was blond hair. And that didn't give Polly any clues, because the way they were in the circus had nothing to do with the way they were in real life. Polly hadn't even had a chance to check her appearance as there were no mirrors around, but she planned to ask Mrs Beau for one on her next visit.
"Whoever you are, will you stop peeping? My back is turned but I'm not deaf, I can hear the curtain."
Now there was a clue. And it was enough.
"Jax?"
His shoulders, which were slightly visible over the duvet, were startled and he moved to the supine position with the support of his fingers forcefully. He was struggling with his movements like Polly.
"Pomni."
When he turned his head, his grey eyes met hers. With curiosity.
"I'm not sure I want to hear that name anymore. I'm Jackson but call me Jack."
She nodded.
"I'm Paulina but call me Polly. Isn't it funny how our names sound like our circus names?"
"Even though we don't remember anything there? Ironic and eerie, if you ask me."
Polly felt more comfortable talking to him than before. He looked like a cosplay rabbit at the circus, and it was almost impossible to read anything easily from his facial expressions. Now? His face was still stiff and disguised, but at least his reactions and mimics were more... real. She wondered if it was because they were no longer in the circus or it was because he has human body now.
"How can you be in this bed? Abel said we're sorted by age, and I'm older than you."
His eyebrows raised.
"You talked with one of creators of the game? More optimistic than I thought. Does he take turns talking to each of us like we're test subjects?"
"Jack, he and his team saved us. I think he deserves a bit credit here. Also, you didn't answer my question."
He sighed. A heavy look sat in his eyes.
"Did you ask Mrs Beau what year it is?"
Her brows furrowed as she shook her head as negative. It hadn't even occurred to her. She felt her chest tighten.
"We're not in 2023?!"
"Yeah, it's 2023."
She let out a relieved breath. Then she looked at the young man, showing that she didn't understand what he indicate. He averted his gaze.
"It's been three years since I've been in the game. So I'm not 22, I'm actually 25. We're the same age. I'm older than you with months."
Polly let out a gasp. She couldn't take her eyes off the man who was now looking at the monitor next to the bed, not at her, as if it was very interesting.
3 years? Even a few months seemed too long for Polly, but she never thought that many years could pass there. She hadn't even thought of that possibility. To lose three years of your life like this...
"Jack..."
The blonde man looked at her but it didn't take long for him to frown. He turned his head opposite to her and tried to put his arms into the duvet with tiny movements.
"I don't need your pity."
Polly flinched.
"I didn't mean to—"
"No, you did."
"Jack, how can I—"
"You can close the curtain now."
"Jack, please!"
He kept quiet. The conversation was over.