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When the portal to return to the circus finally arrived, Pomni happily stepped through. They had to be pet groomers except the animals were either calm, or worryingly viscous—as if they had a thirst for blood. Exhausted, she collapsed onto the main area's couch and leaned her head back against the cushion. She watched as the others stepped through the portal, her gaze lingering on Jax longer than it should’ve. She looked away, but couldn’t help remembering what he had said yesterday.
“I’d move on..and probably forget about you.”
She tensed remembering those words. Glancing at Jax once more—who was looking at anyone but her—she sighed and looked away. Maybe I pushed him too hard.. I really shouldn’t have reacted the way I did.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when she noticed Ragatha sitting next to her. Pomni flashed her a smile before looking away and staring off into the distance. After a few minutes, Caine appeared out of thin air.
“Welcome back my Crying Unbalanced Chakras!” He boomed with a beaming smile. “How was the adventure?” Caine stared down at them expectantly.
Zooble groaned and ran a hand down their face, “Caine, that was probably one of your worst adventures yet.”
“Yeah..I kinda have to agree with zooble…the cats wouldn’t stop attacking me if I even got close to them..” Gangle joined in, anxiously fidgeting with her ribbon hands.
Caine stared down at them before glancing at Ragatha and Pomni, hoping for better feedback.
“I really did not appreciate the dogs biting me constantly.. I would have preferred the animals weren’t so..violent.” Pomni said nervously, giving a small forced smile.
“The adventure wasn’t..bad..but it definitely had room for improvement!” Ragatha’s voice wavered as she spoke, “I’m on Pomni’s side though, the animals were..something else.” Pomni looked at her and noticed the bite marks on her hands. Clearly she did not get lucky with the animals assigned to her.
“I have no idea what you guys are talking about, the animals were so nice to me,” Jax said, voice dripping with sarcasm, “I personally wish there was more chaos.” He complained.
“I wasn’t too much of a fan of the lack of bugs.” Kinger added, even though he worked at the front desk.
Caine stared down at the cast before beginning to glitch, along with the circus tent. Pomni began to look around nervously, eyes widening.
“Uhh..Caine.?” She called out, but he didn’t hear.
Everything suddenly dissipated and they fell, a bright light flash-banging them. When Pomni opened her eyes again, she wasn’t in the circus. She sat up quickly and looked around, taking in her surroundings. She was back in her apartment, lying on her bed. She noticed her room was slightly dusty as she stood up. Walking over to her computer, she opened up her gmail to see she had been fired from her job a few months ago for not showing up to work. That atleast helped her prove it most likely wasn’t all a dream.
She put her phone on a charger and opened a new tab. She opened YouTube and saw her last post was 8 months ago..only a few days before accidentally trapping herself in the circus. She quickly changed her username to ‘ jester_pomni ’. She made sure it was a simple enough username for other members of the digital circus to recognize it, even if it wasn’t the most original. Pomni fell onto her bed and stared at the ceiling..she seriously needed to sleep. She curled up on her bed and almost immediately fell asleep.
The next morning she woke up, she groggily sat up and looked around. Seeing her apartment still felt weird, she wasn’t sure how she would get used to it. Slowly sliding off of her bed, she made her way off to her closet. She wasn’t sure what to wear, so she grabbed a long sleeve shirt with the three primary colors striped across it and a pair of denim overalls. Looking at herself in the mirror felt weird. She brushed through her hair, untangling it. She barely recognized her face anymore, everything looked weird, as ironic as it was. Pomni turned around and grabbed her phone to go to a local coffee shop before leaving the door with her keys.