Chapter Text
Hi Jax,
I am sorry about the youtube thing.
Call me? I have an interview @ 3:00 today but any time after that works for me.
(248) 434-5508
-Pomni.
Eggs & Bacon @currentcookie
@vivLion help me figure this out?? Chris was found in a coma after 5-6 months, in an area that had been searched by the police already?
Vivivan_R @vivLion
yh this doesn’t make sense. So there were no signs of disturbance anywhere (by that i mena a body being dragged etc) then chris was reported by an anon source
Eggs & Bacon @currentcookie
So your saying that she was deliberately placed in will county forest? Didn’t she go missing in a building near in will county anyway?
Klance when? @risottoed33
Sorry to butt in but Will County doesn’t have any abandoned buildings like in chrisgoesplaces og video. That always confused me.
Vivian_R @vivLion
i think that bc she was found in will county is what makes is suspicious yk?? Since the police already searched there why is was she there after half a year???
Vivian_R @vivLion
Also @risottoed33 wdym there was no building in will county?? Why did the police search there if there was no building
Klance when? @risottoed33
Don’t ask me. There were a couple comments on that video saying they recognized it though so maybe I’m wrong
Eggs & Bacon @currentcookie
So basically chris is not telling us the whole story.
Vivian_R @vivLion
Well yeah. You could try asking her
Eggs & Bacon @currentcookie
@chrisgoesplaces why/? How where you alive in you’re coma for 5-6 months and did you actually go missing in Will County?
Chrisgoesplaces official @chrisgoesplaces
I’m not sure. I think I was in a coma the whole time. I was probably moved around--so not in Will County the whole time.
Vivian_R @vivLion
So that didn’t actually answer questions
Chrisgoesplaces official @chrisgoesplaces
Sorry. Like the report said, I was in a coma/ Though if you figure the answers out, I’d really like to know too.
---
Freindman @freindman
@RAINCHARGE @nythnomni any other internet sleuthers want to help me find a cold missing person case from 2008? woman in her 30s who frequents farming areas
|ohhh this is genius. I always thought chris was going abt this the wrong way
|Wait Christine said Ragatha was in her 30s now, right? So in 2008 she would have been 10 years younger.
Nao @nythnomni
I’ll take Wyoming. @freindman do you want the south
Freindman @freindman
The whole south???
It was late at night, too late for her to be up if she wanted to be on time to work tomorrow.
She’d tried to sleep, but closing her eyes just made her see bright colors behind the lids. Bright colors and theme songs and cartoon--
Christine tucked her feet up on her chair and opened her computer. The internet was good at distraction.
She didn’t look at her inbox, Jax’s email sitting in it like a tumor. She didn’t look at her socials--99+ new notifications--just opened Youtube and watched her recommended videos.
“It’s Mariah again and--”
“This is you you make the fluffiest slime--”
“Try not to laugh challenge with--”
Christine scrolled. Clicked on another video. Ignored the darkness pressing in on her.
“Escape the endless--” Checkered floors. Twisting walls.
The audio of the video faded out and all Christine could hear was her own breathing. Checkered floors. Twisting walls. Her fingers frozen on the keyboard.
“Wwwwelcome to the circus!!!”
Her insides roiling inside her, stretching and twisting in way that couldn’t feel real--
“Christine?”
Her ears had trouble processing the word, expecting to hear a different name, but her eyes were able to focus on the person in front of her.
Her mom smiled. “Hey, Chris. Can I touch you?”
Christine shook her head. “Not right now.” Her words hitched and broke in the middle, like she’d been crying. She couldn’t feel tears on her face.
Her eyes drifted to a mirror.
Big eyes. Unbrushed hair. She was human.
Exhale.
“Thanks, mom. I’m alright. I shouldn’t have been on Youtube so late.” Her mom took it as the dismissal it was and rose from her knees.
“Just ask me if you need anything, alright?”
“I know.”
Christine lay in her childhood bed with her knees tucked to her chest.
She wondered what Kinger would say if he were here. Something warm and easy that would make everything seem better than it was, no doubt.
She missed them all.
Liam woke with a start. He’d been dreaming of them again. He didn’t want to dream of his once-friends. He had no friends except for--
Call me?
Those pixels, set against a bright white screen, were burned into his brain. Call me, call me call me asshole asshole you fucking asshole, you’re so embarassing
He was on his back, his elbows, everyone was laughing at him, her mouth was opening and closing with laughter, her fingers pointing.
Pomni didn’t think like that.
Liam was surprised at the thought.
Call me?
Well. He could find out if she did. Were they still alive? Pomni might be able to find out.
Liam was cold.
Call me.
She answered on the first ring.
“Uhh…hello? Who is this?”
“Heya, Pomni. What’s up?”
“Jax!” he winced at the sudden increase in volume. “You okay?”
“Well, well! If it isn’t our very own Youtuber.” He leaned back.
Pomni sighed on the other end. “I told you, no one really watched them. I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, yeah. If you say so. Anyway, are you going to stop bugging me?” He put emphasis on the word ‘bugging,’ like she was the childish one. It wasn’t true. Though his inbox only had emails from her, he was the one who’d ignored her for nearly a month.
“Don’t you want to know what happened to us?” Pomni said. Her voice was impressively calm. “What happened to the circus?” She quieted. “Don’t you keep…remembering things? Wondering how much of it was inside your head?”
“And how is Youtube going to help answer any of that?”
“Were you found in a coma too? And why are you in California while I’m in Illinois?”
Liam started. “How do you know I’m in California?”
“Your caller ID. And…other than the questions. I really want to see you again. What happened to us made us friends. It wasn’t fake, even if it was inside our heads. I just don’t want to ignore everything like it never happened. You’re my friend, Jax.”
There was a weird feeling in his chest. Friend. “Don’t call me that.”
“What’s your real name, then?”
He paused. He was a hypocrite, wasn’t he? “Liam.”
“Okay then. Liam. Do you want to come to Illinois? I’ll pay for your plane ticket. And--I’m living with my mom right now, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you were okay with sleeping on the couch.”
Plane ticket? Sleeping on her couch? Everything felt too fast, too sudden.
“I don’t need your help.” He said, voice devoid of humor. Pomni would quickly realize that being ‘the funny one’ was just a persona for the circus, if she met him in real life. He wasn’t anybody special.
“Take it as an apology?” Pomni asked. “For calling you an asshole on the internet. You’re basically doing me a favor.”
Jax? It’s going to be okay.
“Fine. Whatever. I don’t care.”
“Great!” Pomni laughed. “I’m really glad. Can you come tomorrow, or maybe the day after? I’ll text you the ticket--do you know they have e-tickets and stuff now?”
“Jeez, eager, are you?” Liam scoffed. “And obviously I know what they are. I wasn’t born in the 60’s.”
“I just didn’t know how long you were in the circus. Anyway, where are you? Like what city?”
“Uh…Newport Beach?”
“John Wayne okay for you then? The airport, I mean.”
“Sure.”
“Thank you.” Pomni said. “I mean it. I’m going to work soon, but I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah? I’ll pick you up.”
“Okay.” Liam said. Tomorrow? Jesus Christ.
Pomni hung up.
Christine rocked back and forth: from her heels to her toes. She knew it made her look younger, but she didn’t really care at the moment.
She checked her phone again--a single text from Liam.
Landed.
How many minutes had it been? Were any of these people Jax? The curly haired teen, maybe? The young man in a business suit?
“You’re Pomni? You’re even shorter than I thought!”
Christine spun. “Your insults got worse,” she retorted. “You’re Jax, then? I mean. Liam, right?” He was pretty average looking, which kind of suited him. A few pimples dotted his face, and he was wearing a simple sweatshirt and jeans.
“And you’re Christine the famous Youtuber.” Chris rolled her eyes.
“Do you ever say anything sincere?” She smiled. “I’m just joking. C’mon. My mom’s car is this way.”
It was silent behind her. Christine looked over her shoulder.
“It’s really nice to see you again.”
Liam huffed. “Whatever makes you happy.” He looked away and lowered his voice so Christine had to strain to hear. “You too.”
---
“Hey everyone,” Christine said. “This is the fruits of our labor, also known as Liam. I knew him as Jax.”
Liam waved. “Christine’s right. I act like an asshole and I’m proud of it. Make sure to like and subscribe and hit that--” Christine stopped recording. “Aw, that’s it?”
“Shut up. If you wanted to say more, you could be normal. You wanna rewatch it?”
“Nah. It’s fine.”