Chapter Text
We all hovered around Kinger. My heart, if I even had one in this form, was in my throat and I could feel all the force of a hundred blades in my stomach as we waited anticipated the words that would decide if we would ever leave this cursed place.
I could feel Pomni's artificial gloves shifting in my palm, as we all formed a group around the laptop. Well, everyone except for Jax. He was isolated from the rest of us, near the pillar of circus shapes that had recently lost their colour after Caine's...deletion. The flash of digital codes and abstract mess was still burning a hole in my head, as my mind replayed the moment Caine disappeared and the circus began to lose all colour, like wet ink draning from paper.
If it was a different situation, I might've approached Jax. However, I forced my eyes to focus on Kinger's fingers as he swiftly typed some foreign code into the C&A laptop. Was it really possible that we might leave this place?
No. I couldn't get ahead of myself. I had a kindled a spark of hope when we were faced with the two buttons: red and blue, one that promised to free us. Yet I felt the lamp begin to flicker, the illusion of everything around us beginning to become more prominent. Caine and Bubble appeared, laughing, and yet it was revealed to be another adventure.
It had taken all of my willpower to not descend into madness. I had supressed all my emotions - bottling up confusion, pain and regreat after every adventure, clinging onto the singular thread of hope that one day, we might escape this place.
I thought that day had come. Until everything went wrong.
Now, Caine was gone. The circus was in shambles. I didn't want to get my hopes up, because everything had gone wrong.
My eyes strayed to Jax's figure. His purple skin lacked it's glow ever since the circus catacylsmed. His ears were slumped, and he was facing away from the rest of us.
I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I quickly shook my hand free from Pomni's and looked at the floor.
"You okay?" Pomni whispered, breaking the tight silence that had caked itself into the broken atmosphere.
I nodded, refusing to look at her. I had so many mixed feelings about Pomni. Ever since she arrived, everything had changed.
It had only been two weeks since her arrival, but the state of the circus had detoriated into a barren and miserable wasteland.
No-I wasn't blaming her of course. I felt a pang of guilt, electrifying my body and filling me with shame. I knew everyone here had a story. Everyone had somewhere to return to, a background, loved ones waiting for them.
I looked back at Jax. Despite his cold demeanour, and the fact that he infuriated me by his lack of empathy, I couldn't help but wonder if he had a story to tell too.
"I can't believe this!" Kinger exclaimed.
I jerked my head forward to face him.
Gangle and Zooble took a few steps forward, so I followed.
The old king’s hands trembled over the keyboard as lines of pale blue text reflected across his cracked visor. The laptop hummed violently, like it was struggling to stay alive along with the circus itself.
“What?” Zooble snapped. “What is it?”
Kinger stared at the screen for a long moment before answering.
“I know what this is.”
Nobody moved.
Even the distant creaking of the circus seemed to still itself.
Kinger swallowed hard. “This isn’t an exit program. It never was.”
The spark in my chest dimmed instantly.
Pomni leaned forward. “Then what is it?”
Kinger pointed shakily to the strings of code flooding the screen.
“It’s a failsafe.”
The word hit all of us strangely.
“A failsafe?” Gangle repeated weakly.
“When the system becomes unstable…” Kinger muttered, almost to himself. “When an administrator is removed or corrupted… the simulation begins emergency shutdown procedures.”
My stomach twisted.
Simulation.
Shutdown.
Real words. Heavy words.
Not circus words.
“The adventures,” Kinger continued, his breathing becoming uneven, “the abstractions, the NPCs—they were all methods of preserving cognitive engagement. Preventing deterioration of the human mind inside the simulation.”
Nobody spoke.
I felt cold.
“So…” Pomni whispered. “You’re saying we were put here on purpose?”
“I don’t know!” Kinger suddenly shouted, startling everyone. “I don’t remember enough!”
The laptop flickered violently.
Lines of code stretched across the screen faster and faster.
MEMORY RECOVERY PROTOCOL ACTIVE.
WARNING: ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE IMMINENT.
Gangle stumbled backward. “Environmental what?”
“The circus is dying,” Zooble said quietly.
I looked around.
The walls were fading further now. Colours drained in streaks like watercolor under rain. The air itself looked thinner, static crackling through empty spaces.
And then—
A laugh.
Dry.
Sharp.
Familiar.
“Well,” Jax said, “that sounds super concerning.”
I turned.
He finally approached us from the shadows near the pillar.
Something about him made my chest tighten immediately.
He looked wrong.
His grin was there, but strained at the edges, twitching unnaturally. One of his ears bent sharply downward while the other glitched in and out of shape.
Purple static crawled beneath his skin.
Pomni noticed it too. I could tell by the way she stiffened beside me.
“Jax…” I started carefully.
He ignored me, eyes fixed on the laptop.
“So this is it?” he asked lightly. “Big magical answer? We all go home and live happily ever after?”
No one answered.
Kinger’s expression slowly shifted.
Fear.
Real fear.
“Jax…” Kinger whispered. “You need to stay calm.”
Jax barked out a laugh.
“Oh, that’s rich coming from you.”
The lights overhead flickered violently.
Something inside me twisted painfully.
I stared at him.
At the way his fingers trembled.
At the way he kept glancing—not at the laptop—but away from it.
Like he didn’t want to look.
And suddenly, horribly, I understood.
He didn’t want to leave.
The realization struck me so hard I almost recoiled.
Why?
My mind raced.
Did he have nobody waiting for him?
Did he remember something terrible?
Or maybe…
Maybe the circus was all he had left.
“Jax,” I said softly.
His eyes snapped toward me instantly.
For a second, his expression cracked.
Not smugness.
Not mockery.
Fear.
Pure, terrified fear.
“You guys seriously think this is gonna work?” he asked, voice raising suddenly. “You think there’s still something out there for us?”
“Of course there is!” Pomni argued.
“You don’t know that!”
His shout echoed through the collapsing circus.
The ground trembled beneath us.
Purple glitches sparked from his body now.
Small at first.
Then larger.
Violent cracks spread across his skin like fractured glass.
Kinger stepped backward in horror.
“Oh no.”
Jax’s grin widened unnaturally.
Too wide.
“Jax…” Gangle whimpered.
“I mean think about it,” he continued, his voice distorting. “What if we’re worse out there? What if this place was better?”
“Stop talking,” Zooble snapped immediately.
But it was too late.
I saw it happen.
The moment his composure shattered.
His eyes flickered black.
Static burst from his mouth.
And then Jax screamed.
The sound was inhuman.
His body convulsed violently as enormous jagged limbs of abstracted code exploded from his back. Purple and black static erupted through the circus floor, tearing apart walls and pillars like paper.
Jax was abstracting.