Chapter Text
“--------, we just want to say congratulations on winning yet another competition in the Supreme. We here at the agency are proud of your achievements and cannot express it enough. At this rate, we will be making enough profits to support your family and secure a bright future for you.”
“Oh thank you. You know how my daughter is. Always the overachiever and special out of the litter. Anyways, what’s the purpose of this meeting today? If it's a mistake my daughter has made or something she said, I promise it will be taken care of.”
“Oh no, quite the opposite. —----- here is an amazing competitor with an amazing 3 year winning streak. If she continues at this rate, many doors of opportunities will open for her. But as you know, your daughter will be turning eighteen years old next year and not only that, graduation is approaching fast. Have you —----- talked with your mother about what you are going to do after graduation? Any future goals or dreams you want to achieve? A certain career you want to aim for? We will help you in any way we can.”
“My daughter would like to continue pursuing her work within the beauty industry. You know, continue with the contract deals, take part in future competitions, anything that can help her keep supporting her family while working towards a career in fashion. If possible, we are hoping to get her into super modeling in the near future as well.”
“Is that what you want —-----?”
“....”
“Sweetie?”
“...yes. I want to stay to continue supporting my family.”
“Excellent! What you are doing is such a great deed. Not many people come into this field of work for the love of their family. You are an inspiration to us all.”
“Like I’ve said about my daughter. She will do anything to support the family she loves.”
“Anthony!”
“Go —-----! Run!”
It’s like an invisible dart had hit me in the back of my head, forcing me to open my eyes. I wake up to find myself standing in the middle of a wooden platform. I look around to find I am standing in the center of a stage of some kind with red curtains draped around me.
Where am I?
From what I can remember, one minute I was lying on my bed falling asleep and the next I woke up standing here.
Putting a hand in my hair with a gentle scratch into my scalp, I try to remember what had happened. I realize in confusion that I am unable to recall what has happened, like there is a memory gap between the time I fell asleep to waking up here.
Why does it feel like that bit is foggy? Wait a minute, why do I feel like I am forgetting a few things? I feel like I can only remember a quarter of my memories but not the rest. Why can’t I remember them? Did I hit my head hard on something?
Taking a deep breath, I calm myself down to think. Okay, I am fine. Everything is fine. Nothing is wrong. Let’s take one thing at a time. Stressing is not going to fix anything. There is a logical explanation to this and I am sure.
I take a step forward and stare at the wooden stage platform before gradually shifting my gaze towards the front of it. The floor ahead is in a black and white pattern similar to that of a chess board. The walls connecting to the floor are orange with red, squiggly door frames. Shapes of different colors and sizes are connected and stacked over each other like a clutter of children’s blocks while others are floating in the air. Outside of what looks to be windows are light blue skies with fluffy white clouds. There is a floating orb of some kind over a giant red block. This whole place is colorful and filled with a variety of shapes and patterns. Not to mention quiet. Maybe a bit too quiet and very 3D.
While stepping forward, I gasp when one of my feet doesn’t make contact with the stage but air. I fall off the platform and land face first onto the floor. Sitting up quickly while wiping my face, I look around and observe my surroundings while walking, constantly turning at every corner. There is nothing but the sounds of my own two feet tapping the floor from my steps. While walking, I turn glance towards one of the large blocks and quickly stop in my tracks when something or someone catches my eye. Up ahead hiding behind what looks to be a giant vase is what looks to be a wooden mannequin peeking out of the corner. It stares for a moment before disappearing back behind the block. What the heck was that?
I remain standing in my spot, tense and feeling uneasy from the growing anxiety within my stomach. Keeping my breathing slow and steady, I quietly tiptoe to a giant red block close to me and quickly hide behind it with my back pressed against it. I move down the wall more and jump when a bumpy surface suddenly touches my middle back. I quickly turn and almost scream at the person standing in front of me with their arms out.
Wait a minute.
This isn’t a person.
When I take a step forth, it mimics the motion. I feel my mouth gape and my eyes widen as its expression follows my facial movements. I lift a hand to my face and press my bottom lips, watching as its movements follow mine. This is definitely not a person.
It’s…me?
My entire body is covered in stitches, wraps, and bandages, from my head down to my feet. I am completely white like a ghost; My hair, my limbs, this dress, everywhere. Everywhere is white but my eyes. They are black with no irises and so empty looking. I looked human but not completely. Looking down at my hands, I find they each have three fingers and a thumb with stitches and a bandage wrap coiled around my palms. Like a Frankenstein or some kind of mummy, maybe both. A monster.
This…This isn’t what I am. This isn’t what I looked like. What happened to my hands? What happened to me? Why am I like this? What am I? I am-
Wait. What was my name? I have a name, I know for sure I do. When I try to remember my name, suddenly I can’t remember it. Why can’t I remember my name?! It’s so simple and easy to remember but why can’t I remember it?!
“Please welcome contestant #57, —-----!”
“--------! We’re late!”
“You are so beautiful —-----.”
“Gonna call you — for short.”
I remember what I look like and the people in my life but when I try to remember what they called me, it’s like my name is the only thing blurred from their mouths. Who am I then? What am I? My name doesn’t exist! Is this even real?!
I can feel my throat tighten from taking steady breaths to short gasps. I am hyperventilating and press my hands against my temples. The room feels like it is spinning, making me nauseous. The rhythm of a heart beat echoes in my ears to my head. It is getting louder along with that ringing. That high pitched, awful ringing. Without thinking, I slam my fists into the mirror, shattering it. Shards of glass shower around me, piercing into my skin. I pull my hands back to observe the damage, pulling a large shard of glass out of one of my palms. I stop breathing as I stare at the cut on my hand. I’m not bleeding nor is it red. Spilling from the open wound is dirt, but not just any dirt. It’s filled with worms. They twist and turn outside of the cut and rain down onto the floor, squirming at my stitched feet. Something builds within my chest and I can’t hold it back anymore.
I scream. And scream at the top of my lungs.
I punch the mirror with both hands to break the remaining pieces of glass through the screams. Each and every piece of shard has my face that isn’t mine staring back at me. I don’t want to keep looking at it anymore. This isn’t me! This isn’t what I am! I fall to my knees and break the remaining shards on the floor. They are everywhere. Why won’t the face go away?! I keep punching the glass until the seams on one of my hands become undone. All I can do is stare at it as the dirt filled with brown worms spill out like stuffing.
I hear voices calling out to me. Are they real or are they in my head? They are getting louder and closer. Throwing myself away from the sounds, I run away in the opposite direction from the voices through the haze. I need to get away from them. Something hits my shoulder but I keep pushing forward. My feet stumble through my pace as I run past the floating shapes. Everything is passing by my vision like a blur. One moment I am running on the checkered floor and the next I am running up the stairs. My vision fades in and out of the haze.
I look everywhere for an exit, a door, anything that would get me out of here. Frantically, I open doors and slam them shut when they lead me to nothing but dead ends. There has to be a way out. I need to get back. I don’t want to be here anymore!
I come across a hallway and run down the corridor passing by the rows of doors. I am too deep in the delirium to pay attention to them. While running down the hallway, I stop at a door that looks familiar to me. The face on the door has a face similar to my reflection. Familiarity is safe, right? I quickly grab the door knob, turn it, and pull it open. I swiftly step inside and slam it shut before locking it. Stepping back, I stare at the door while taking heavy breaths.
I am falling deeper into the spiral of insanity. The room keeps spinning and I hold my head in both of my hands feeling like it will fall off. There is too much to think about. This whole new body, this place, the lack of memory regarding how I got here, not knowing who I am, the dirt and worms inside my limbs.
My skin feels like it is itching all over. Staring at my damaged hand, I scratch at my own strange hide with my dominant hand in one swipe. I can't focus on whether or not I can feel pain from the action. The wraps fall off along with the stitches. More dirt and worms push out of the seams. Are they in my entire arm? I scratch at it again and gasp at the sight of even more worms falling out with the dirt. I scratch the limb over and over until it falls off from my shoulder. They are still spilling out. Desperately looking around, I catch sight of a pair of scissors on a table. I quickly grab them and hold them over me. With a deep breath, stab the blades through my stomach, slicing it open in one movement. Expecting to see my organs spill out, I shriek when I see large clumps of dirt spill onto the floor with even more crawlers. I stare at my body, unsure whether or not I can feel the worms moving under the skin. They are everywhere inside me. I stab across this whole frame through the screams; My stomach, the knees, towards my chest where my heart is, maybe in my head. Each tear and hole created had the same dirt and bugs pouring out. There is no end to it.
Is this real? Or a nightmare? Who am I? Where am I? What happened to me? So many questions swirl in my head as I stab at every part of my body.
I want them out of me! Get them out!
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“You guys heard that right?” Ragatha inquiries from the couch.
“That scream? Yeah, what was that?” Ribbit adds.
“I didn’t hear anything. If there was something or someone, it's probably Caine snapping them out of existence. You know how he is with the NPCs,” Jax jokes while staying in place on the couch.
The group sits in their place at the couches in the center of the digital circus but with Kinger still in his pillow fortress close by. They were all minding their business enjoying the peace and quiet when they heard a scream echo across the circus. It was shrilled and sounded as if the subject who made the sound was screaming in terror. Maybe it was an NPC given they scream before being confetti-ed into disappearance.
“If it was an NPC, why was it screaming for more than a minute? Usually it's a millisecond-” Kaufmo begins before he is suddenly cutoff.
“Hello there everyone!”
A booming voice catches everyone’s attention and they turn to see the ring master floating in the air, Caine. An AI character made up of a human body in a red suit and black tie with a set of human mandibles as his head. Sitting in the center of the teeth are his eyes and tongue to represent his face. Usually when the ring leader appears before the humans it means he has an adventure up his sleeve for them.
“Oh hey Caine! Are you here to share an adventure for us today?” Ragatha asks cheerfully.
“Indeed I am Ragatha! Today I have decided to offer you all a whole new adventure! Instead of teleporting you all into one, we’re going to do an in-house adventure! What do you think?”
“Will there be insects?” Kinger steps out of his pillow fort to ask.
“In-house adventure? Why, that sounds fun!” Ragatha comments.
“What kind of adventure?” Ribbit asks.
“I’m glad you asked! Today’s adventure will be: Hide and Seek High Stakes edition!” Caine summons the game name, exploding in confetti and party streamers, “Since you all have been working really hard with my adventures, I have decided to give you all a fun one. Apparently it was a children’s game I think? Anyways! Here are the rules; In this game, all of you will be hiders while the seeker searches for you. In this game, if a seeker catches a hider, they are out of the game. So be sure to run away from them before they catch you! The last hiders standing at the end of the game are the winners! There may or may not be a surprise waiting for you all if you participate. That is if you find it.”
Caine winks at the last line, hinting at the members to consider joining the adventure as a whole. An in-house adventure involving a children’s game does sound relaxing for everyone. As for the chance of a surprise, everyone is wondering what that could be.
“Who’s going to be our seeker?” Jax questions with a wide yellow grin while looking at Ragatha.
“Um, why are you looking at me like that?” Ragatha eyes Jax before taking a step back in concern.
“Don’t you worry my superstars! I will be picking the hider at a completely randomized selection through guessing,” Caine comforts.
With a snap of his fingers, a giant centipede appears trapped in a glass cage. This one looks scary and violent, slamming itself against the glass walls and growling like a feral cat with its pinchers. Ragatha flinches at the sight of the colossal being and fearfully cowers back..
“Umm are you sure you don’t want one of us to be the seeker?” Ragatha concerningly asks, “I’d be happy to take the role if you need me to.
“Where’s the fun in that? The high stakes?” Caine gives Ragatha the death stare, causing her to drop her head low.
“Oh, I also forgot to mention. The seeker and hiders must play in the dark.”
“Wait, what?”
And just like that with another snap of his fingers, the circus suddenly goes black with Caine’s voice echoing.
“And remember folks, the winner gets a big surprise at the end! Good luck!”
Floating above the circus is a timer that reads the following: 20:00.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don’t remember when the screaming stopped nor when the stabbing stopped, but I gained consciousness after some time, opening my eyes to find myself lying on the floor on my stomach. As my eyes adjust to the room, I find myself trapped in pitch darkness with the only source of light coming from the small barely luminescent stars stuck to the ceiling above me. I try to get up but grow confused when I find myself struggling to sit up from the ground. I can feel and hear one of my hands moving at my mental command but it sounds like it is far away from me. How is that possible?
When I try to move my legs, I feel the same sensation as my hand; Able to move them, unable to sit myself up. I squint my eyes in an attempt to see through the darkness just a little bit. Using my limbs to move again, I gasp when I see a hand moving through the pitch black atmosphere. It suddenly stops moving when I consciously freeze in place. I watch as the hand follows my cognitive command; flexing my fingers, tapping the floor, and squeezing into a fist. This cannot be real. This has to be some messed up dream.
How am I able to move my limbs when they aren’t connected to my body anymore? How am I alive? How am I not dead yet?
I use my dislocated hand to drag itself across the floor towards me. Suddenly, I almost flinch when something soft touches my fingertips. Feeling what the material is, I become revolted when my hand touches what is possibly moist dirt with those slimy worms. I almost shudder at the feeling of the very bugs crawling within the muck and gently grazing my skin. Not only are they around my arm but everywhere having me surrounded. I try to move myself away from the worms but I am unable to get my body to stand up. Using another one of my arms, I am able to roll myself over on my side. I touch my face with my hand to feel the almost papery skin before reaching to my shoulder. There is no arm there yet I can feel the dirt in the arm socket move. I move my arm down my side and find my hips down to my legs missing feeling the same muck oozing out.
I stay lying on the floor on my side, the dread within my chest becoming heavy as the seconds pass by. My chest filled with dirt and worms living within my body. I can’t help but feel disgusted, mortified, and sick at what I am. I feel like a dirty, rotting corpse. Ugly. A freak of nature. Moisture builds behind my eyes and I hold my hand to my lips, trying to cry into my palm and stay quiet. Tears fall free down my face as the feeling of despair intensifies through the sobs. The sharp, piercing ache expands from my chest across this whole body. This whole thing feels wrong, scary, unreal, and hell. All I can do is cry and hopefully stop when I can’t anymore. Maybe if I just cried myself to sleep, I’ll wake up back to reality, like everything was just a messed up dream. I’ll go back to sleep and try to ignore the horrors I have just witnessed.
Yes. That is what I need. Sleep.
I am all alone. Me, myself, and the sounds of worms crawling around me as the stars above me lose their light.
Commission art by Melissa's Doodles! Be sure to support them on Instagram!