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Pomni cried out as sharp teeth sank deep into her arm, over and over as she tried desperately to pull free. The creature thrashed its head from side to side as two more suddenly lurched forward out of the darkness to bite at her. Pain seared through her entire body and she could feel each snap of the monsters’ jaws piercing her flesh, hitting her bones. That’s what they were - monsters. Monsters created solely to torment her. She caught the eye of the one tearing into her right arm and saw only malice where once she saw a friend. It snapped its mouth down with such force that Pomni heard her bones crack and she screamed, tears streaming down her face.
She desperately wished for this to end, for the pain to go away, for the monster at her side to stop wearing the face of someone she cared for. Someone she couldn’t save. But she knew this might never end, and that’s what terrified her the most. She struggled in vain as the frenzied creatures continued to tear at her body, growling and gnashing their teeth. The pain consumed her until it was all she could feel. Panic began to set in. Pomni let out wordless, aching yells, her heart racing so fast it hurt, her chest so tight she could barely breathe.
The monster at her side released her arm from its mouth and she hoped that this torture was finally over. It looked into her eyes with a still, calm look for just a moment before its violent expression returned with a flash and it sank its teeth deep into her neck. Pomni felt her throat get crushed and suddenly everything went black.
Her screams and the sounds of her own struggles to pull away echoed around her. But there were no more growls and the piercing teeth had disappeared. Pomni looked frantically around her and was surrounded by a glowing red. She was still scrambling around in a panic and letting out frantic yells with each breath as she tried to understand what had just happened. Soon she realized that she was back in the circus, in one of the large playground tunnels which wound through the air in the main part of the tent. The adrenaline pounding through her wouldn’t let her calm down and she was still jumping at every noise. Soon her panic wound down and Pomni was overwhelmed with a flood of emotions. She started sobbing, clutching at her wounded arms and legs, so thankful to be free but now fully realizing the horror she had just experienced. She sat with her arms wrapped around herself, crying harder than she ever had before.
Her body calmed down after a while and she laid on the cool plastic floor of the tunnel. Tears ran down her face slowly and she felt heavy and exhausted. She kept expecting to be back in that spotlight at any moment. To be punished again for trying to find some humanity in this place. Was this what life in the circus was going to be like from now on? An eternity of unending pain at the hands of a machine that can never be reasoned with? Perhaps abstraction wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to someone here after all…
Pomni remained there for what felt like hours. Eventually she felt calm enough to stand up and try to make her way back down to the main floor. Maybe the others were there waiting for her. ‘Oh god, the others.’ Pomni felt tears sting her eyes again as she thought about what her friends might have gone through. Her heart began to quicken but she fought the urge to panic again. She just needed to find everyone and then they could deal with everything together.
The tunnels were a maze and Pomni felt like she must be going in circles. This was like that ‘exit door’ situation all over again. She rolled her eyes as she kept walking through the colorful tubes. She turned a corner and froze as she spotted something lying on the ground at the end of the long tunnel ahead of her. Fear began gripping her stomach as she slowly made her way towards it. Was this another one of Caine’s monsters? Whatever it was it wasn’t moving, but she thought that it sort of looked like a person. Or, a humanoid creature anyways. The tunnel was casting a blue light which made it hard to make out any details until she got closer.
“Hello?” Pomni called out softly, her voice echoing against the smooth walls. The shape moved slightly upon hearing her voice and Pomni stopped briefly to see if it was about to do anything. But it didn’t move again, so Pomni kept walking forward. Soon she could make out the colors better. Some pink maybe… purple…
“Wait-” Pomni suddenly realized who she was looking at. “Jax? Is… that you?” The shape then seemed to curl up on the floor in front of her and she could see Jax’s yellow gloves covering his head.
“D-don’t… I.. Jus- G-go away!” Jax squeezed out in a strained voice. Pomni could hear him breathing raggedly as she approached, as if he was crying.
“Hey, I… I know what Caine just did was-”
“GO. AWAY.” Jax yelled, his voice cracking. He tried to catch a sob before it escaped his throat but it echoed loudly through the tunnel, which made him sob even harder. The sound made tears well in Pomni’s eyes once again. She knew if Jax had experienced anything like what she had gone through, he would be hurting immensely right now, too.
“No, Jax, I-”
“AAAUGHH!!” Jax let out a pained yell and slammed a fist into the ground, shaking the tunnel as his yell filled the air again and again in waves. Then he broke down entirely, sobbing and gasping, moaning as he clutched at his shaking body.
Pomni was finally close enough to see that something had happened to him. She couldn’t even make sense of what she was seeing, Jax just looked… wrong. With his hands no longer covering his head she saw that he was yellow. His ears were gone and parts of his back and arms looked loose and wrinkled.
“Jax, what happened?” Pomni whispered shakily. Jax didn’t respond, didn’t react, he just continued to cry. Pomni walked around him to try to see his face, which he had buried under his arm. His whole body was shaking. She reached out to put a hand on his shoulder but he cried out as soon as she touched him, lurching away with a jolt as if he had just poked him with a hot iron. Pomni gasped as soon as she saw his face and covered her mouth. Tears rolled softly down her cheeks as she finally saw what Caine had done to him.
His face, his head, shoulders, torso… had had the skin ripped away. It hung loosely around him like torn rags. Jax was sitting against the wall of the tunnel with his hands out in front of him, as if he was trying to shield himself. He was still sobbing heavily, his shoulders shuddering and heaving with each gasping, ragged breath. He was groaning and whimpering and despite the blank expression on what remained of his face, Pomni knew he was in absolute despair. She could hear his anger, fear, sadness, and pain in every sound he made and each one felt like a sharp stab to her heart.
“I’m sorry! I-I didn’t mean to hurt you, I-”
“Go away go away GO AWAY!” Jax screamed at her as he fell to the floor once more. He curled up on his knees, hands over his head, repeating, “go away,” over and over again. Pomni didn’t know what to do. She wanted desperately to comfort him but was so scared of making things worse. She just stood there, watching him hurt. She felt completely helpless.
She turned away and began to jog back down the tunnel, leaving Jax huddled on the floor, his cries still bounding around the walls. Guilt twisted in her stomach after a minute or so and she stopped to look back at him. She’d seen Jax furious before, and sad, could see him hurting inside at times but seeing him like this absolutely crushed her. He was exposed and vulnerable and Pomni had been worrying about him more and more recently. The memory of Ragatha glitching and in pain on the floor of the hallway sprang to Pomni’s mind. Ragatha asked for her help and Pomni abandoned her. How could she leave another friend in pain? Then she thought of Gummigoo, who didn’t want her help and who Pomni had convinced to take it.
‘Maybe I should go,’ Pomni thought. She had tried to comfort Gummigoo and look what happened. Pomni winced as flashes of teeth sprang to her mind, and she looked down at herself. She was covered in deep, mangled bite marks that she had been trying to avoid looking at. Why weren’t they healing? She sat gingerly on the floor of the tunnel, looking between her wounds and back at Jax, who was still in a heap, crying softly.
“No,” Pomni said as she stood over Jax again. “I’m not just gonna leave you like this.”
Jax had stopped crying and was completely still again, except for the occasional shaky breath. He didn’t react at all when Pomni spoke, he just kept lying there in a huddle facing the wall. Pomni sat down behind him, keeping a small distance.
“Leave me alone,” Jax said in a near whisper. “Please.”
“No, you need someone to be here with you right now. I know what happened to you was-”
“You have no idea what happened to me,” Jax said in a cold voice. Pomni watched him closely, not wanting to provoke him into another outburst.
“Okay, yeah, you’re right. I don’t,” she replied. “But I know that you’re not okay, and… I want to help.” Jax didn’t move. “If you don’t want to talk, maybe, I could… help fix you up?”
At this Jax flinched and pushed himself closer to the wall, still keeping his back to Pomni.
“Don’t touch me!” He said, grabbing the skin that still hung about his torso, trying to pull it up and around himself, hissing in pain as he did so.
“I wasn’t-” Pomni started to say before Jax cut her off again.
“Don’t touch me, don’t l-look at me, just go away, please!” Jax started to breathe more heavily and Pomni worried she was only making things worse. “Leave, god, why won’t you leave?! I can’t take this anymore…”
“Jax, I’m just trying to help, I don’t want to hurt you.” Pomni said pleadingly.
“Caine, please, I can’t… I can’t take this anymore,” Jax said, his voice strained as he fought back more tears.
“Wait, you think- Jax, no it’s me,” Pomni said softly. Jax pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes with a pained groan.
“Stop, stop, please make it stop!”
“Jax!” Pomni reached out to grab Jax’s wrist, where his skin looked unharmed. He immediately tried to pull away but she wouldn’t let him. “Jax it’s me, I’m here!” Jax was still trying to pull free from her but she grabbed his other wrist and pulled him up to face her. Her face fell when he finally looked at her. His pupils were pinpoints, darting around frantically on his otherwise expressionless face. But she could hear his pained noises and could feel how panicked and exhausted he was. “Jax, Caine isn’t doing this, I’m really here.”
“You’re… r-real?” Jax choked out.
“Yeah, I’m real,” Pomni quickly moved her grip to Jax’s hands, holding them both between her own. “This is real.”
Jax looked at Pomni steadily and he stopped trying to pull away. Pomni smiled gently, hoping that he would finally be able to calm down and talk to her. But Jax began to laugh. He chuckled slowly but his laughs began to build. Pomni began to feel uneasy. His face couldn’t move but his laughter was growing louder and more hysteric.
“Jax…? What’s going on?” She was still holding onto his hands. “Did you hear me? This is real.” She gestured to the tunnel around them.
“I know!” Jax said, wheezing. “I know…” his laughter began to subside and his body started to relax. He leaned his back against the tunnel wall with a gasp at the pain. “That’s the trouble,” he said plainly, yanking his hands away from Pomni’s. He turned his head sharply to look at the ground.
Pomni wasn’t sure what Jax meant. She just sat there in front of him, watching to see how he’d react next. Jax glanced up at her, then pulled his knees up to his chest, burying his face in his arms. They just sat there for a while, not moving or saying anything. Pomni could hear his breath, now much more calm and even. After about ten minutes, Jax finally broke the silence.
“You’re still here?” A tinge of his familiar sarcasm had returned to his voice, which Pomni took as a good sign.
“Yeah. I’m still here,” she said. Jax sighed deeply but didn’t move from his position.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because.. I want to help you,” Pomni replied.
“Why?” he said flatly.
“Because I… care about you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my friend,” she said earnestly.
“Why?” he said again. Pomni’s eyes narrowed slightly with annoyance and she took a deep breath. She knew he wanted to get a reaction out of her and she wasn’t going to let him.
“Because if we both have to be stuck in here together, I’d rather us be friends than anything else.” At this Jax lifted his head up to look at Pomni, which startled her slightly. His blank yellow face was completely unreadable. He put his head back down. Pomni had no idea how he was feeling now that he stopped crying. “Hey,” Pomni reached out to put a hand on his knee. Jax flinched a little but didn’t pull away. “Are you okay?” Jax let out a short bitter laugh.
“Other than being skinned alive? Yeah, I’m doing greeaaat.” He let out another laugh but it seemed to catch in his throat. Pomni frowned.
“Can I help at all? Maybe we could-”
“You wanna help?” Jax scoffed.
“Yeah,” Pomni replied. “Just, tell me what I can do.”
“I guess you didn’t hear me the first twenty times. You can go away.”
“No,” Pomni said.
“No?” Jax glanced up over his arms to look at Pomni. She stared back.
“Yeah, no. I’m not leaving you here like this,” Pomni said firmly. Jax shrugged.
“Fine. Guess we’ll just sit here.” He hid his eyes again.
“Jax, come on,” Pomni moved closer to him, her hand still on his knee. “I know you’re in a lot of pain. You can’t stay like this forever.”
“Wanna bet? Besides,” Jax now sat up with a bit of energy, and Pomni could hear his voice resume its familiar, casual tone. “I’m perfectly fine! In fact, I’m beginning to think yellow suits me much better after all.”
Pomni looked at him with concern. His pupils were large and his exposed teeth formed the giant grin she knew he’d normally have plastered on his face right now. Seeing his body stripped raw, his skin still hanging down in flaps, while he pretended to be completely okay terrified her. She didn’t believe him for one second but didn’t know what else to do. Maybe trying to talk to him was useless. She grabbed ahold of his hand gently, which made his posture grow stiff. Then she yanked his arm towards her and poked him on the shoulder. Not a very hard poke, but even the light touch was enough to make him jump violently.
“OW!!” Jax fell over onto his side on the floor. “What the hell did you do that for?!”
“Perfectly fine?” Pomni said. Jax just looked at her, his pupils shrinking. She didn’t want to hurt him more but she needed him to let her help. “Jax, you’re not fine! Look at you! This isn’t fine.” Jax’s pupils were even smaller and he shrank in on himself, trying to hide. Pomni realized what she said. “No, wait! Jax, that’s not what I meant.” She wanted so badly to hold him, comfort him, but was forced to watch him try to cover himself with his hands again.
“It… stings a little… I guess…” Jax said after a few seconds.
“Jax, I’m sorry Caine did this to you,” Pomni said softly. She looked down at her own wounds which still throbbed with pain. She wasn’t even sure Jax had noticed them at all. She sighed. “I hope the others are okay.” Jax started a little at this and lifted his head, glancing up and down the hallway.
“W-wait, where are they?” He sat up, growing nervous. “Are they coming up here? No, wait, I-” Jax started trying clumsily to stand up, wincing and groaning at the searing pain he felt across every inch of his exposed skin. The pain made him shake and his knees buckled, sending him back down to the floor.
“Hey!” Pomni tried to catch him by the arm but she only succeeded in causing him more pain. He gasped sharply. “Sorry! I- just-” She watched him shivering on his hands and knees, breathing heavily. “Jax, we have to fix this.” Jax didn’t say anything. “I’m… gonna try to find the others, maybe they’ll know of some way to-”
“NO!” Jax cut Pomni off abruptly, grabbing her by the wrist. “No, they can’t- I don’t- They can’t see me like this!” He sounded panicked again. Pomni touched Jax’s hand that was gripping her wrist, making him pull it back suddenly.
“Okay,” Pomni said gently. “No one else. Just me, okay?” Jax was looking at the ground but nodded. Pomni tried to think of a way to patch Jax back up without hurting him too much, but there didn’t seem to be too many options. “Have you… tried just, pulling it back on?” It felt like such a strange question to ask - if Jax could just pull his skin back on - but this was a very strange situation.
“I- it, uh… it hurts,” Jax said, still breathing heavily.
“I know,” Pomni said. “But I don’t think our wounds are healing like they normally do. It might not fix itself right away.” Jax looked up at her with pinpoint eyes. He then looked at her arms and legs, taking in her injuries seemingly for the first time. He didn’t say anything, but when Pomni made eye contact with him again she could see tears.
“I… don’t think I can,” Jax said.
“I’ll help. It’s gonna hurt, but,” Pomni knelt in front of him, “everything’s gonna be okay. Okay?” Jax nodded. He sat up on his knees and Pomni stood up to walk behind him.
“Okay, on three, I’m gonna lift it up. If you need me to stop, just say so.” Pomni took a deep breath. Jax was shaking in front of her, but was trying to steady his breathing. “Are you ready?”
“Just do it,” he said, a shaky voice betraying his annoyed tone.
“Okay. One… two… three!” Pomni grabbed the loose skin hanging from Jax’s back and he released a muffled yell, like he was clenching his jaw shut. The feeling of it in Pomni’s hands was incredibly discomforting and she began to feel sick. Jax was shaking hard. Pomni had reached his shoulders when he shouted.
“S-STOP! STOP!” He was gasping for air and taking heaving, shuddering breaths. Pomni began to cry, seeing how much pain he was in and knowing that she was causing it, even if she was trying to help. “F%$#!” Jax yelled.
“W-we’re almost there!” Pomni said, trying to sound confident. “Okay, on three. One…”
“GOD JUST DO IT!” Jax shouted, tears now pouring down his face. Pomni didn’t finish the countdown and pulled the rest of Jax’s skin up and over his head with a quick motion. She let go as it clung back around his face and he buckled over with a cry. His hands flew up to his face and Pomni could see him trying to tug everything back into place. He was feeling his face, shoulders, chest, all over, making sure that he was back to normal. Pomni walked around to Jax’s front, wanting to see his real face again. He shied away from her gaze, but she sat down in front of him, gently placing a hand on his knee again.
“Jax…? Are you alright?”
Finally he looked at her. There was a line, like a fresh cut, from his chin down to his chest where his skin had been torn open. It still showed some yellow underneath. But despite this, Jax looked like himself again. His face showed pure exhaustion.
“Like what you see?” Jax asked with a feeble grin.
“I do,” said Pomni with a small smile. Jax let out a small “ugh” and rolled his eyes before leaning back to sprawl out on the floor. He turned to look back at Pomni.
“So what happened to you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. Pomni looked down at her arms.
“Um, Caine attacked me with the gators from the candy adventure,” Pomni said, realizing in the moment how silly it kind of sounded. “But they were like real gators this time. Or, like, monster gators? I dunno…” She rubbed at her wounds and waited for Jax to make some mocking comment.
“Jeez, and I thought I had it bad!” Jax stretched out and put his arms behind his head. “I guess Caine let me off easy because I’m still his favorite.” He closed his eyes as a large grin spread across his face. Part of Pomni wished he could just open up to her. Just once. But she was also glad to have her friend back. Even if he was an a%#.