Chapter 31

You feel yourself land on a hard unforgiving surface. The others begin plopping nearby, each of them landing with a harsh thud. Before you can get a grip on reality after the portal your senses are overwhelmed by booming bright colors. Whimsical bright blue, pink, and yellow swirls consume your vision. The walls around you twist and turn, tumbling your friends along with you.

"Is this— a fucking fun house?!" Jax exclaimed annoyed by the sudden exit as he untangled himself from Pomni who had landed right on top of him.

Caine's enthusiastic voice echoed out of the intercom system placed throughout the building, "You have one hour to exit the wacky wonderful maze I've created for you!! The digital circus's very own trade marked wacky super duper fun house!!! Good luck~ I'll be waiting with a surprise for you y/n."

You shivered as he purred your name through the speakers. Everyone awkwardly glancing an anywhere other than towards you. No one wanted to acknowledge the creepy tone Caine had just used with you. Brushing it off, one by one you all make a desperate attempt to stand.

Pomni reaches out to hold onto Jax's arm and Jax clumsily takes her up. The two began heading towards what seemed to be the only door. Meanwhile Zooble's parts began flying off of her as the swirling tube tossed her around. A frenzy broke out as Kinger, Gangle, Ragatha attempted to catch them.

"What the f%#^ this hurts!" Zooble grunts as her parts popped off one by one. Now bouncing around aimlessly as the tube spun.

"I'm sorry I'm trying!!" Gangle cried out as she lunged for Zooble's head.

You decide to aide them as much as you can, but everytime you try to grab part of Zooble it seemed like Damien accidentally went for the same one. A dance of backing away everytime one of you gets near a part happens several times before you both give up.

"Stop sharing a brain cell with me!! I need it." You stick you tongue out and blow a raspberry at Damien.

Damien chuckles, "Don't you think 50/50 is a more fair split for someone like me?"

You turn your head and huff, "Every other holiday I'll share it. Best I can offer."

Damien smirks, "Deal."

Gangle notices your dilemma, "Don't worry guys! We've got this. You go on ahead."

You look back and see that Ragatha and Kinger have most of Zooble's parts, "Alright!! We'll meet up in the next room then."

And with that you were on your way attempting to catch up to Jax and Pomni. Assuming they were still in the room ahead waiting for everyone. Damien enters first immediately dropping from your sight, you turn the corner after the doorway only to plummet after him. Your body twists and turns down colorful plastic tubes. Landing in a massive ball pit. Rainbow colored balls splash everywhere as the two of you crash into a sea of plastic.

(Like this but with a taller twisty slide that came from the ceiling above)

As you emerge you pop your head up searching for the others, "Jax? Pomni?"

Damien popped his head up nearby, plastic balls rolling off of him, "Nope. Just me."

You shrug and look around. Damien does the same as you begin calling out for the pair. After a few minutes the two of you go quiet for a bit.

"Well. This is. Interesting." You start feeling a bit less enthusiastic about the current adventure.

Damien shivers a bit before nervously replying, "Why does this place feel like the back rooms?"

His eyes scan the room once more, skeptical of the seemingly innocent ball pit. You join in the search and begin looking around. Only to be met with silence from the massive sea of plastic balls.

You decide to ignore the feeling of being watched and sum it up to everything you've dealt with in the circus thus far. Though part of you couldn't help but feel as though Caine was indeed tuning in to your little adventure. If only you knew Caine was too preoccupied to watch your little endeavor.

Meanwhile off in the circus Caine was in fact tuning into an adventure. Just not the one you were currently on with Damien. He had begun to wonder just what exactly Pomni had been talking about before. He couldn't help but worry you were looking for an escape. A way out of his digital realm. It was only natural you would after some time in the circus. And he had every intention of stopping you.

As Caine entered your room his eyes landed on—

Nothing.

Everything was as it was when he left. He searched for any new doors of any sort and found none. Ten minutes go by before he decides to finally give up before retiring back to his office.

He checks the cameras to see you struggling to catch parts of Zooble's body in the tunnel. After awhile his attention shifted to Pomni and Jax. They had already made it past the colorful spinning tube. However, they were no longer in the adventure at all.

Earlier once they'd made it out they had ended up in the same ball pit. The only difference being Pomni's melt down caused the location of the exit to move from your room to their current position. Causing both Jax and Pomni to panick.

"Put that thing away!! What the hell? How do you even keep summoning this thing? Does that mean there's multiple now?" Jax begins trying to push the door over on its side only to fall into the balls below. Pomni joins him in trying to knock it over in an attempt to hide its existence. After they exhaust themselves they slump against the door in defeat.

"Guess they're still in the tube huh?" Pomni sighs, "Should we opening it?"

Jax looked down at the jester next to him and sighed, "F%^# it. Let's go. What's the worst that could happen? I'm sure Caine will come get us worst case scenario we'll say we thought it was part of the adventure."

Pomni's hand shakily wrapped around the knob of the door as she twisted it. A soft click echoed out as the door gave way to the gentle push. On the other side a dimly lit office was revealed.

Jax gasped and mumbled under his breath, "Creepy."

Pomni simply nodded in agreement. Stress lines formed under her eyes as she scanned the room. Only to find it was empty. They both begin wandering around at a leisurely pace. Row after row of doors just led them to more empty offices.

Pomni shakily spoke in the empty office, "I think this is where I went when I first got here. I wonder if we were always able to come here?"

Eventually they reached a long hallway and Pomni ran up to the door at the end. The two of them continued down it reaching one last door leading them into a giant white expansive place. Pomni's pupils dilated along with Jax's as they floated through the nothingness.

Caine's eyes widened as his wacky watch alerted him someone had entered the void. Two someone's. As soon as he saw they'd disappeared from the adventure all together and had somehow managed to enter the void, he conjured up a portal. Immediately going out to retrieve Jax and Pomni.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Caine hums as he appears next to the pair.

Pomni jumped several feet back screaming in fear while Jax just stood there in shock. His eyes widening as Caine continued his lecture. Jax's purple bunny ears slowly drooped downwards and his grin faltered. The corner of his eye twitching.

"You two appear to be a long ways from home don't ya think? There's nothing out in the void my little superstars! You silly little banana boats. Why don't we go back to our scheduled programming huh?"

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