Chapter Text
The only source of light in your room came from your computer screen, its glow illuminating the messy desk and the tired look on your face.
Despite the late hour, your eyes remained glued to the screen as dialogue boxes flickered by one after another.
You were playing The Freak Circus, a visual novel that had completely consumed your life ever since you first discovered it online. At this point, you practically replayed it every day, going through different routes and making different choices each time just to see what would happen.
The storyline was incredible, and the character designs were amazing. You liked—no, loved every single member of the circus troupe, especially Harlequin.
He was your absolute favorite.
Sure, Pierrot was more popular among the fandom, and you understood why. His route was incredible, his character was tragic, and his obsession made the story all the more intense.
But there was just something about Harlequin that pulled you in more.
Maybe you really were just hopelessly obsessed with him.
“…Okay, one more playthrough,” you mumbled to yourself for what was probably the hundredth time.
On the screen, the main character had finally reached the long-awaited scene where Jester appeared.
You immediately leaned forward in your chair.
And just as Jester began telling the story of Harlequin, Pierrot, and Columbina—
The screen suddenly went black.
Your entire room plunged into darkness.
For a moment, you simply stared at the monitor blankly before realization hit you.
“…WHAT THE—?! Oh, are you kidding me?!”
You groaned loudly and threw yourself back against your chair in frustration.
Oh, great. Just GREAT.
The power outages had been happening randomly throughout town for the past few weeks, especially late at night. At this point, it was impossible not to get annoyed by it.
Seriously, when were they ever going to fix this?
You let out a tired sigh before standing up from your chair, stretching your stiff limbs as exhaustion slowly began catching up to you.
Well… it is pretty late already.
You shuffled toward your bed before collapsing onto it face-first with another groan.
“I’ll just continue tomorrow…”
Mumbling those final words into your pillow, your eyes slowly drifted shut.
But while you slept, the computer screen suddenly flickered back to life, a faint glow illuminating the dark room once more.
The game, which should have been turned off, slowly lit up on its own.
And then the screen suddenly shone brighter.
You slowly opened your eyes, immediately bringing a hand up to rub them.
But the moment you looked down at your hand, you froze.
“…Huh?”
Your exhaustion disappeared almost instantly as you stared at your fingers, slowly moving them in front of your face.
Claws…?
You jolted upright and quickly looked around, panic immediately flooding your system.
You were no longer in your bedroom.
Instead, you found yourself inside a tent. Green and black fabric surrounded you on all sides while the morning light seeped through a small opening near the entrance.
“What in the world…?”
Your breathing quickened.
Then your eyes caught sight of a mirror sitting near the corner of the tent.
Without thinking, you stumbled to your feet and rushed over before stopping directly in front of it.
And sure enough, the person staring back at you was Harlequin.
THE Harlequin from The Freak Circus.
Who was now apparently… you.
Your face immediately paled.
“HOLY SHI—”