Chapter Text
A Way To Leave
She gasps as she suddenly awakens from her dream.
Her heart is beating fast, her forehead covered in beads of sweat, her hands shaking as one of them moves toward her chest to calm her heart down. Her breathing is irregular. She looks around her, wondering at first where all the usually bright, cartoonish colours in her bedroom have gone.
The realisation hit her a bit too late when she realised that she isn’t in the Digital Circus no more.
She’s back in the real world, inside her messy bedroom.
She takes a deep breath to calm herself, swiping the sweat from her forehead. It’s been exactly five days since Christine and the others returned.
She spent four nights in the hospital after the police found her, undergoing medical examinations for injuries or intoxication. It was strange, she had been missing for two weeks, yet her body was perfectly fine. No dehydration, no infection.
As if the digital food she’d eaten in the circus had somehow nourished her real body.
Speaking of which… she wonders how the others are doing.
Are they still in the hospital? Have the police already questioned them? Are they as annoyed by all of this as she is?
Christine sighs and lies back on her bed. Ever since she escaped, her dreams have all been the same, though they’re not really dreams.
More like flashbacks of how they escaped…
~☾~
“This is dumb and weird…” Jax complained, crossing his arms over his chest.
They had all gathered in Pomni’s room, trying to escape. They stood in a circle, holding hands as if they were concentrating — besides Jax, who was looking at them in annoyance, and Kinger, who was busy counting how many fingers he had.
While Jax complained, Zooble turned their head toward him. “Shut up!” they exclaimed. “Unless you want to stay here, then be my f***ing guest.”
Jax rolled his eyes at Zooble’s words and sighed before stepping between Gangle and Pomni. He shoved Gangle aside with his hip, making her yelp and lose her grip on Pomni, then slipped into the space between them, taking both Gangle’s and Pomni’s hands. As much as he disliked what he was doing, he was just as sick of this place as everyone else, so he would do anything to escape.
Ragatha, who was standing next to Pomni, snapped Jax’s name in warning, but he ignored her.
They all shared eye contact for a second before returning their focus to the act. What they were trying to do was create an exit door. Ever since Ragatha told Pomni about Kinger being able to create things out of thin air during the gun mini-game, Pomni had wondered if they might be able to do it too. After all, this place is just a video game, right?
Nothing has happened so far, until...
“Oh, Pomni! I never knew you had a second door!” Kinger suddenly exclaimed, in which everyone turned their attention toward him.
A red exit door suddenly appeared in the middle of the room. The exact same door Pomni saw when she arrived here. Everyone started to inspect the door closer.
It worked… they had the ability to create. This indeed changed everything.
Gangle nervously fidgeted with her ribbons. “I-Is this it?” she asked quietly, looking at Pomni in which she nodded.
“Well sh*t, man. I guess we’re doing it.” mumbled Zooble, crossing their arms. Kinger, who was standing right next to Gangle, looked toward the door excitedly. “I wonder what’s inside? I hope I can find some more insects for my collection!” he said, practically beaming.
”I hope there’s centipedes in there.” Jax teased, in which Ragatha uneasily gulps. “W-what if Caine finds us in there?” she asked, feeling uneasy about their plan. “What if… he gets mad?” she added.
“He is already pretty mad at us.” Zooble said from behind in which Pomni nodded once again and looked towards Ragatha. “This is the only chance we have.” she explained, trying to give Ragatha a reassuring look.
”Well then, what are you losers waiting for?” said Jax, his smile wide as usual as he was walking towards the door and swinging it open the second he reached the handle, revealing a weird long hallway. It looked grey and empty, which made the cast feel uneasy. At the end of the hallway there was another red exit door. Confused, everyone but Kinger looked at Pomni.
She laughed nervously, moving one hand to touch her Pom, while the other moved behind her head. “I forgot to mention that there’ll be multiple exit doors, so we have to keep moving.” Pomni said, walking through the door right after. She was followed by Kinger immediately.
“Ladies first~” Jax suddenly said and stepped aside, gesturing for Gangle to go ahead. While she moved past him, he suddenly murmured, “No, wait, that’s out of character.” and shoved her away, making her yelp once again and fall to the side.