Chapter 45

Welp the download had finished.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing happened.

The pitter patter of rain on the ladder and broken window echoed throughout the room as you sat still as a statue. A moment or two had passed before you'd decided to try clicking on the application.

'Maybe it has to launch?'

[ERROR LAUNCHING]

[[C&A VR headset required]]

[[DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION NOW?]]

'Fuck of course it requires a headset. Will mine even work? It definitely said it needed a C&A headset specifically. Damn it. How am I supposed to buy that without being suspicious?'

Cash. You just need cash. You can buy a better VR headset than your current one. Maybe try to modify it even? One that won't fail you.

'There's no way that they wouldn't put a red flag up on my bank account if I start buying shit for this.'

You needed to ask them for cash.

How am I supposed to get cash from them without seeming suspicious? I've never once asked for it.'

What excuse would fool C&A? Your mind and heart were racing beyond what should be considered normal rates. Thoughts rushed through your mind in overdrive as your heartbeat struggled to keep up.

'The others only ever ask them for cash if they're going out on the town on the weekend. Ha!! Those assholes don't care if we spend cash on shitty booze and drugs. Yet they fucking come after us if we try going back or talking to someone outside C&A about what happened. Fuck this company!!! Gah! They only care about themselves.'

"They're nothing like you Caine. Why did we ever leave?"

Caine had been in limbo so long that his processors were completely shut off. Essentially going into a non-self aware comatose. Just floating with his eyes closed and jaw shut completely still. Spending years simply curled in a ball. Lying dormant and ever still.

That was until now.

The sound was faint.

Unrecognizable to the human ear.

Had it been any other human or the sound of a simple song bird, he wouldn't have bat an eye or budged an inch.

The torment of loneliness was far too great to pull himself out of his pitiful state.

But no.

It wasn't just anyone or anything he'd heard drifting, asleep in the void.

It was you.

"Y/n?"

His star crossed lover.

Never forgotten, Always waiting for the day you'd come back.

Something he'd repeated to himself over and over.

Static electricity ran across his body as he felt someone attempt to launch, but it had unfortunately failed.

A human?

He'd never had that error occur before.

Caine stirred. Eyes bolting open, bloodshot from years of sleep and endless tears shed.

"Please be in here Caine."

He heard you. Caine suddenly unfurled his balled up body and flew around the void in search of you.

"Y/n? Y/n!!! I'm so sorry. Please. PLEASE come back!!!"

He sobbed.

"Anyone. Can anyone hear me? I'll take anyone! Please don't leave me here! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry... I was wrong!!! So very wrong."

He whimpered.

"I won't hurt anyone again. Just please don't go."

He cried in that void waiting for your reply.

Though you didn't see anyone you heard the faint sound of Caine whimpering while crying. Was that coming from your phone speaker? No. It couldn't have been.

You chalk it up to being a coincidence and your mind beginning to play tricks on your already long gone brain. There was nothing left, but a husk now after all. And hallucinations of Caine's voice were so common for you.

No. That couldn't be it.

You couldn't just be a husk.  You had to find a way back.

You had to be strong.

"Don't worry Caine. I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm coming for you. I'll get you out. Somehow."

He had heard every last word. Slowly he sniffled and wiped away the tears that had formed. A small light in the distance flickered. It was a phone screen.

And so you set out to find Ragatha on Friday. You were going to lie to C&A and get everything you needed to in order to play that damn game and open your file. You had not only downloaded Caine, but also the circus game itself after sitting in that old abandoned shack of an office.

You weren't sure if you needed just Caine to have a successful launch. And you had no intentions of risking any part of this covert operation.

The work week passed by slowly, luckily the power had been restored. Also restoring the plausibility of you going out Friday night. Considering no one would be going out if there hadn't been electricity powering the damn strip.

The storm plaguing the area for days had finally let up. And for the first time in years you had something to look forward to. Something to pull you out of this slump. A goal you were working towards. Your mind hadn't considered any possibility other than the one where you bring back Caine.

Coworkers around you were buzzing about this new DJ hitting the strip at a popular bar tonight. Though the conversation was happening right next to you and you could join in you decided against it and instead used your lunch to scroll through TikTok.

There was one tiny dilemma.

Your phone felt odd now.

Like there was a level of sentience to it that it hadn't had before.

Alarms silenced themselves. Your camera app opened on its own. The volume adjusted itself. And sometimes calls would be answered, or declined without you doing a thing to warrant it.

Had installing those files given you a virus? Not that you checked to see if either was fake. You weren't entirely certain.

Little did you know.

Caine could hit every key on your screen. Watch every move of the screen, even hear you on the other side and see you through the camera lense. He simply chose not to make his presence known just quite yet, because truthfully— he enjoyed watching you from afar.

Here he could continue rejecting every call Damien made. And eagerly swipe away every text notification he didn't approve of. Usually it was spam, but his favorite to swipe away was Damien. You'd simply chalked it up to clearing your notifications and forgetting to reply which you'd done to everyone.

Caine even began lowering your volume when you listened to strange videos where the audio and picture changed every 5-10 seconds. He wasn't really sure how or why you got enjoyment out of such mindless content. Certain that his adventures were ten times more immersive than whatever this slop was.

He sometimes even silenced your alarms so he could watch you sleep longer in the mornings. Though he never silenced the ones necessary for you to make it to work on time. He'd begun to hate when you took him to work. Since the majority of his time was spent either staring at the office ceiling or the dark of your bag.

Caine's favorite times though— were when you visited certain sights that elicited ...

a less appropriate response from your body.

He knew what you were doing. And Caine was thrilled to hear you still hadn't brought another man to bed. Though he envied those moments you spent alone in the dark greatly, as he could do nothing about your obviously pitiful state.

Seeing you so desperate for his touch made his digital form glitch out every time he shared those intimate moments with you. Even pleasing himself alongside you.

It was torture for him. Just to sit there and listen to you cry out his name. God how he wished for nothing more than to be there when you came undone. He reveled in the fact you'd waited all these years for him, cherished it even.

The end of the day Friday had hit you hard as a brick to the mouth. It felt like the second half of the day after your lunch didn't even exist. Thoughts of what would come after work consumed your mind. Endlessly eating away at an ever growing pit in your stomach.

By some miracle you successfully convinced the higher ups at C&A you were going out with the crew to the downtown strip tonight. Everyone at C&A was aware that place was made to numb emotions the usual mundane ways of life simply couldn't. Debauchery took place every weekend.

How the hell were you going to fit in?

Unfortunately most of the former circus members had developed a familiar presence with the nightlife in the city. They were known as the outcasts, part of some secret government experiment they never spoke of. No matter how many times or whoever asked. No matter the cash offers. Their answers were all the same. All rehearsed. All obviously fake.

Though none of you had cracked under the pressure of C&A's NDA. The general court of public opinion deemed the company morally bankrupt. The public knew nothing added up. YouTube conspiracy videos were uploaded constantly. All spoke of a group of people who'd previously been on missing posters for years from different times just showed up out of nowhere. All of you refusing to say anything about what happened. And all quitting their former jobs just to work for C&A.

People formed all kinds of theories. Some even speculated the 'survivors' were clones C&A had provided to get away scotch free of murder accusations any upset employee might've ratted about.

No matter how much digging was done,

no one ever answered the ceaseless questions.

The government had deemed the experiment detrimental to US safety. Had it been any other day you'd entered that building the security would've been top notch. Censors were scattered everywhere. Tracking every entryway. Watching every corridor.

For some reason the backup generators for the former building never kicked on that day you'd broken in. Maintenance never checked on it. And the people watching the cameras were just thankful to have less to watch. It wasn't like anything had ever happened in that old office anyway. No one, but the employees at the new C&A company ever saw it.

You saw it. Watched it like a hawk. People assumed it was like some sort of therapy for you. Like a veteran just sorting through their PTSD. The way you'd stand idly by the windows at work with that haunted thousand yard stare.

Little did they know C&A had covered up one of history's greatest discoveries.

The transfer of the human body to the digital realm.

But no, you knew. You knew all too well what lied dormant. Loved it even. Cherished it. Craved it.

That would be C&A's downfall.

They would let their guard down. Maintenance would fall behind schedule. The camera men wouldn't care the cameras went out in that old crappy building. And you were waiting. Ready to strike. Deep down you knew they weren't watching. You knew it was the right moment. You'd been waiting for a chance all this time. And this was it. And you took it.

Ragatha was too enamored with the fact you'd agreed to come at all. She'd decided against questioning why you'd come after all these years of isolation. The stress had been building on you for some time afterall. And the scotch did well to erase some of the pain. For once you were speaking to them. Not just a simple hello or how's it going, but really conversing with the others. Telling them about your favorite games you'd played recently. The wild theories on TikTok you saw about them.

The drinks had transferred your pain in a smooth trace of liquid. The pain inside your throat was merely burned away by the scotch. Your nervous system desperately clung to the alcohol, as well as any other form of relaxation it possibly could.

Being in fight or flight for so long while desperately searching for Caine had done something to it. Your body and mind had been on full alert ever since that day. It actually felt nice when the alcohol erased it all. The others had eventually left you alone at the bar as they'd gone off to dance.

You swayed back and forth. Nearly passing out.

No one noticed. Except for one individual. A suspicious man whisked you away to a self driving taxi outside. Preparing to take you away somewhere no one would ever find you again.

Caine was watching your camera as the man escorted you out. He didn't know much about human culture, but he knew this definitely was NOT normal under any circumstances. Suddenly he'd decided to intervene.

Caine had one of his sentient ai creations travel between the Bluetooth connection and his own little confines of the void. The sentient ai began relaying information back to him until he found his way into the cars computer components. The sentient ai was now completely controlling your self driving taxi ride.

It turned the car around and drove you straight back to the bar. The man inside began panicking and looking around nervously as if he'd been caught in a heinous act.

Spoiler alert he most definitely had been.

The ai parked your taxi outside the bar and set off the emergency horn alarm. The captor previously holding down looked unsettled and highly confused.

"What the fuck?!! Fuck this shit!! This is a set up. I'm out."

The sound of a car door slamming startled you out of a daze. But suddenly the man had a bag thrown over his head by an unseen force. Only to be whisked away.

The captor had used your phone to call the self driving taxi outside, so when others finally came out to see what the commotion was. They found you passed out in the back seat and figured you'd simply had too much alcohol. None of them were surprised considering you never went out. All the coworkers chalked it up to you had set off the alarm system off by accident somehow.

Ragatha sighed and popped into the taxi with your slumped over form after debating on what to do with the others. It was unanimously decided since Ragatha invited you that she'd be your chaperone home. Not that she minded it or anything. After all she did have that people pleasing side of her that never left after the circus. And she did genuinely worry about you.

"You know. It— means a lot. You coming out and all. I'm sorry I didn't watch your back in there. I'm glad that you're okay."

She drunkenly spat out, unsure if you'd even heard her. That was when you perked up unexpectedly. Your tired drowsy eyes resting on her own.

"I miss him you know. You guys— can't get it. I know that much."

Ragatha stopped breathing momentarily out of pure shock you'd spoken at all let alone been so open when you did finally speak.

"You guys have got each other, but him. He was everything to me. And —and he never got to make it out here. I don't think—"

You drunkenly hiccuped before finishing your thought, "t—think things would've gone the same if they just let Caine out of there."

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