Chapter Text
A warm, uncomfortable feeling overwhelmed his body, it made him feel safe, and not at the same time.
Kaufmo’s mind was.. dark. The walls were a yellow tinted black, with doors around the small hallway outlined in yellow. The doors had the image of a yellow-and-blue clown like he’d seen in the hallway, except these ones were poorly drawn and in one color. Pomni told Will earlier that the door at the end of the hall was the one she found Jax in.
Trusting her word, he left behind the other four doors and stepped up to the one at the very end. The door knob was the same yellow-static-black and the image was a faint blue color. He turned the knob, it felt like the one for his room, and pushed the door halfway open.
Will peeked in, seeing a couple empty chairs and colorful balls on the ground. Turning to the rest of the room, he saw two clowns, one was walking into a door on the right wall, and the other was hunched over a notebook scribbling something down while muttering to himself.
Will stepped in, shutting the door behind him. “Kaufmo?” he asked, trying not to sound too loud, but trying not to have his voice inaudible.
Kaufmo looked up, placing his pen on the ground. He studied Will before standing and approaching him. “Who’re you? I don’t recognize you from any of the memories.”
“I’m Will. I- uh, just entered this place, with my friends.” Will said, taking a step away from Kaufmo to make room for his personal space.
“Then why are you in my head, Will?” he asked, Kaufmo also retreating a step.
“We’re trying to find a way out, and they thought you might know.”
Kaufmo sighed, and returned to the floor next to his notebook. “Isn’t it obvious? I didn’t escape. So why did you come to me?”
“Because Pomni said you were the closest to getting out.” Will furrowed his brow. “You must know something from any attempts?”
“I remember Jax mentioning Pomni. He said she was nice, a real pain in the ass though.” He giggled. “Although I did try something.”
“What was it?”
He paused, opening his mouth before closing it again. “You think what I found could help you?”
Will nodded.
“I found a computer, and went on it. I looked for somewhere else with a headset. When I saw the first name on the computer Caine pulled it away from me without showing up. Then I tried the Void, and floated out into nowhere for hours before Caine picked me up again.” He pounded his fist onto the notebook in anger, before continuing. “I know if I floated out there long enough I’d reach that place. But I abstracted before I could try again.”
“So we just float into a seemingly endless Void and reach a location only you know of. And we need more than one person to do it?” Will attempted to recap.
“Yeah, you only need one person to leave, then they could pull everyone out from the outside, and one person to distract Caine.” Kaufmo waved his hand as he explained.
“Caine’s not trying to keep us here anymore. He’s actually kind of nice, like a child.” Will walked over to where he was sitting. “Can I join you?” Kaufmo nodded and Will sat with his back against the wall next to Kaufmo.
“Then you just have to float for a while and you're out. Just try and get someone with decent computer skills out first. Then you have a good chance.” Kaufmo looked back at his book. “Caine’s changed?”
“I don’t know what he was like before, but he’s alright.”
Kaufmo nodded faintly, before picking up his pen. “I wondered why your name wasn’t something weird. ‘Will’ sounds normal.” He paused, and pursed his lips. “Can I tell you a joke?”
“Sure.”
“Why won't a star hang out with an angler fish?”
“Why?”
“Because then they’d be a strangler fish. And that’s scary.”
Will giggled, sending a smile to Kaufmo’s face, his mouth was open as he silently congratulated himself.
“It was good, right?” Kaufmo asked, talking quickly with excitement.
“It made sense, and if you’re into dark humor, that’s pretty good. You came up with that?” Will looked at him, also smiling.
“Yeah, just now.”
Will laughed again. This place was quiet, not that bad for someone’s mind. He wished he could spend a few more minutes here, before he felt a soft tugging sensation everywhere at once. Must be Eleven trying to pull him out.
“I gotta go.” Will said, before standing. “Thanks for talking. The joke was good.”
“Tell it to your friends?”
He giggled, “Sure.”
He felt the same evaporating feeling he felt when he put the goggles on, and before he knew it, he was sitting on the ground in The Pit. He suddenly felt incredibly cold, before his body adjusted. His arms and upper chest felt like there were needles in his skin. He looked down at his hand, his fingers detached from his hand as it split and changed colors, lines appearing along the surface.
“Are you okay?” Eleven asked.
Will winced, “Kinda.” His arm broke in two at the elbow and glitched back together. Will looked up for a moment, realising the room was brighter than he remembered with Kaufmo missing, and he looked down again.
The rest of the group came in, he saw Ragatha and Pomni’s feet in front of him, and Dustin and Mike over to his right.
Caine cleared his throat, and Will looked up at him. Caine was floating off the ground by a couple inches. He snapped his fingers, and with an audible noise the needle-like feeling disappeared. He turned his hands over, the colorful pieces no longer appeared.
“You okay? I felt kinda funny after.” Pomni asked warmly. He nodded slowly.
“What’d Kaufmo say?” Dustin asked, rubbing his hands together.
Will opened his mouth for a moment, thinking of what to say. “Why won't a star hang out with an angler fish?” He said, reciting the joke Kaufmo told him. Everyone shot him an almost confused look.
“‘Cause it’d be a strangler fish.” Mike and Ragatha chuckled, Eleven looked around.
“Was that one of Kaufmo’s?” Ragatha asked.
“Yeah.”
“What’d he say about the exit?” Dustin asked, sounding kind of polite.
Then he filled everyone in on the information Kaufmo’d given him. When he started explaining the possible exit plan, Dustin placed a hand on his chin, obviously thinking. “..And someone just floats out. He said it should be someone with decent computer skills.”
“Like Suzie’s computer skills?” Mike asked.
“I guess? He didn’t specify.”
“I could do it. I don’t know as much as she does, but I can do some things.” Dustin answered. They all nodded.
Ragatha began playing with her dress. “Does that mean we all get out?”
“Would you all want to get out?” Dustin joked with a bored tone.
They all glanced between each other. “It’s been years since we were out. I don’t know what it would be like.”
“I don’t know if we’d come out the same time we entered, or before, or even after.” Pomni shrugged.
“Would we get out in 1990?” Mike asked. “Or 2016?”
“Hopefully 1990.” Max growled.
Caine made a small whimpering noise, and they all turned to him. His teeth were arched upward like worried eyebrows, and his eyes were large and wet. Caine rubbed his hands together while looking down at his feet that were currently not touching the ground.
“Does that mean you’ll all leave me here? Uh- um, alone?” he asked like a small wet puppy.
“You're leaving with us, aren’t you?” Mike asked the dentures.
Ragatha placed a hand on his shoulder. “Caine’s an AI, he can’t leave like we can.”
“Okay, so? He’ll just have to stay here.” Dustin shrugged.
Ragatha, Pomni, and Zooble all turned to Dustin with extremely worried looks. “What?” Dustin asked, raising his hands. “What’d I do?”
Caine snapped his fingers and teleported away.
“Dude, can you just be nice?” Zooble snapped.