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After deciding not to talk to Pomni, Jax slowly made his way back to his room, unaware that Pomni had decided to follow him.
Emotionally exhausted, he left the door ajar, as he slinked over to his bed and plopped down face first. What was the point of any of this? They weren’t even real, and yet… they were. Jax’s worst fears had somehow been realized. He was just a digital copy, but at the same time, so was everyone else. Ribbit, Kaufmo, Gangle, Ragatha; they were all as real as he was.
He looked over at the empty chest that he had used to cover the hole in the wall.
“Ribbit,” he thought to himself, unsure what he wanted, what he was feeling.
Hesitantly, he climbed out of bed, and slowly slid the chest to the side; revealing the hole in the wall. He peeked inside, and for a moment didn’t see anything. Then, a glowing prismatic eye opened up, and stared at him. Something about this felt different.
“Jax?”
Jax jumped up and looked at the doorway, where Pomni stood staring at her.
“Pomni!” Jax said, “What are- Wh- Where did you come from?”
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Pomni said, “You seemed like you wanted to tell me something earlier.”
“Nothing!” Jax said, “It’s nothing.”
“Are you,” Pomni stared, “Hiding something?”
“I’m not hiding anything,” Jax lied.
A ghostly abstracted hand reached out of the hole, and grabbed at Jax, making him jump back.
“What is that!?” Pomni exclaimed.
“Hey!” Jax protested, but Pomni had already looked.
“Is that,” she asked, “how long has that been there?”
“How long has what been there?”
“NO!” Pomni scolded, “Jax… have you been… were you in here… letting them abstract you?”
“It’s not like that!” Jax said.
“Then what?” Pomni asked, “What is it like?”
“I,” Jax stammered, “I can talk to them.”
“Oh I can’t believe this!” Pomni yelled, “Of all the selfish, idiotic, irresponsible things you’ve done-”
“Irresponsible?” Jax said, “Irresponsible!? You helped Kinger murder Caine!”
“You know that was an accident!” replied Pomni, “This is… I don’t know what this is! What are we supposed to do if you abstract, Jax?”
“Wha- I…”
“What am I supposed to do?” Pomni asked, “Am I supposed to just move on?”
“YES!” Yelled Jax.
“Caine isn’t here to put you away!” Pomni said, “If something happens to one of us, everyone left is screwed!”
“We’re all screwed anyway!” Yelled Jax.
“Is that what you think?” Pomni asked, “Is that what you really think!?”
“Oh here we go!” Jax said, “Here comes Pomni with the, ‘we’re all in this together.’ crap!”
“No!” Pomni yelled, “You don’t get to pretend you don’t care about us!”
“And you don’t get to pretend you care about me!”
“I do care!”
“WHY!” Jax screamed, “Why do you care about me!? I am not the good guy here! Do you wanna know why they all hate me? It’s because I made them abstract!”
They both froze.
“Wh-” Pomni stammered, “What?”
Jax sighed, pressing his hand to his face. This wasn’t right.
“I did this,” he said, “Kaufmo… Ribbit… You wanna know what happens when you get close to me Pomni? Just look right down that hole!”
“But,” Pomni said, “you didn’t mean to…”
“I did,” he lied to himself, “I pushed them. I isolated them. I made their lives MISERABLE! You know what people look like before they abstract? They look like you… right now. I warned you to stay away from me, but you just don’t listen. I kill people, Pomni. Just by existing next to them.”
He straightened his body, and sniffled. As much as he had tried to keep it together, he was crying. In front of him, Pomni stood, head down, not moving or saying anything. Something, everything was wrong.
“Why don’t you just leave me alone?” He cried.
Pomni looked up, and in a last ditch effort to reach him, leapt forward and embraced him in a hug.
“That can’t be what you want,” she said.
It should have been a heartfelt moment, he knew that. He knew that she was trying to reach him, but for some reason, deep inside his fucked up head, he panicked.
“Don’t touch me!” he screamed, pushing Pomni off of him.
Pomni fell backwards, and suddenly stopped. Her body didn’t hit the ground. It didn’t hit the wall behind her. Instead, it hung, half fallen over, with a black spike sticking out of her eye. It took Jax a moment to process what he was seeing. It was one of them. They, probably Ribbit, had seen them fighting and attacked her.
“No,” He said, “I didn’t mean to…”
“J-Jax?” Pomni whimpered, and then crystalline black corruption started to form around the wound.
Every single byte of his mind told him to run away… but this time he couldn’t. Not from her. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It couldn’t happen.
“Get away from her!” he yelled, running and reaching for Pomni as the spike retracted, and the abstracted figure retreated.
Pomni fell, and Jax caught her, holding her still in his arms. She whimpered as she looked back at him with her one remaining eye; a perfect hole now punched through the left side of her head. The hole started to fill up with blackness, and horrible abstracted eyes started to form.
“No no,” Jax said, “Stay with me Pomni. This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening- CAINE!?”
He picked Pomni up and burst out into the hallway, running as fast as he could, looking for someone, anyone.
“CAINE!” He screamed, “Please! Come out of hiding! Tell me this is another adventure! Anything just-- Help her!”
His screaming attracted everyone in the circus, who came running as he reached the common area. All of them stopped in horror when they saw Pomni in his arms.
“Oh no,” said Kinger.
“What happened?” asked Ragatha, “Pomni?”
“Help me!” Jax said, “help her…”
Kinger took hold of Pomni, and placed her onto one of the couches.
“Jax,” Ragatha whispered, horrified, “What did you do?”
“I,” Jax breathed, “I didn’t-”
He felt a huge blow to the face, and suddenly he was sitting on the ground, his left eye refusing to open. Above him was Zooble, fist clinched, staring down at him with a look of anger he had never seen in them before.
“WHAT DID YOU DO!?” Zooble asked furiously.
“It was an accident,” Jax whimpered, “We were arguing… she hugged me and I… I just pushed her…”
“She hugged you,” Zooble repeated, “And you pushed her!?”
“I,” Jax stammered, “I never meant to…”
“What the fuck is wrong with you!?” Zooble yelled, lifting Jax by his suspenders and slamming him against the nearest wall.
Jax lost all of his strength, and couldn’t even lift his arms to fight back.
"Do it," he muttered.
“J-Jax?” came the digitized glitchy voice of Pomni, “Please… Don’t hurt Jax…”
Everyone stopped, and looked over at Pomni.
“Wh-where,” Pomni said, “Where are you? I… c-can’t… s-s-see any- th-thing.”
Zooble begrudgingly let Jax go, and he slowly walked over to Pomni. Nobody stopped him, but they all stared.
“I’m here,” he said, leaning down and holding Pomni’s hand, “I’m… I’m sorry.”
Pomni smiled, a tear trickling down her face.
“Jax,” she said, “It’s okay…”
“No,” Jax sobbed, “No it’s not! It shouldn’t have been you! It should have been me! It was supposed to be me!”
“Hey,” Pomni stopped him. She reached up and wiped the tears from his cheeks. Her gloved hand felt cold against his cheek as it caressed him gently. She gave him the warmest smile that she could muster.
“I,” She said comfortingly, “I forgive you… So be strong for me… Okay?”
The corrupted eye twitched, and both of her pupils compressed. Her hand slid off of his face and fell to the floor, not lifelessly but intently. As her fingers touched the tile floor, it left a tiny crack that slowly spread out in two directions. Then, for a moment, she went limp.
Everything went quiet, except the ringing in his ears.
The lifeless form that was once Pomni exploded into a mass of black corruption, with countless beady eyes. He thought he heard Ragatha yell for someone to grab him, and the next thing he knew he was being pulled away as the monstrous form erupted forth, crushing the couch beneath it, and exacerbating the crack that Pomni had made in the floor.
In an instant, the tile floor beneath her shattered, and the abstracted creature that was once Pomni floundered trying to find solid ground. It wasn’t able to catch itself, and fell through the new formed hole in the floor into the void below.
Pomni was gone.
The ringing in Jax’s ears grew louder, as his breathing became heavy. Unable to catch himself, his panting turned to hyperventilating, and then full blown panic. He wrapped his arms around himself, and a white static started to take over his vision.
“Pomni,” he breathed, the words unable to leave his throat, “Pomni…”
“Jax!”
Her eyes shot open, and Jax scrambled up in her bed, trying to get away from whatever was near her.
“Nuh! No!” She screamed, throwing her hands out in front of her.
“Jax,” Pomni said, grabbing her hands, “Jax! It’s okay. It’s me.”
Jax’s eyes darted around, trying to make sense of what was happening. She was in her room, breathing heavily. Pomni was on her bed, holding her hand. Ragatha was sitting at the foot of the bed, hand over her mouth with a worried expression. Floating between them was Caine.
“Is she okay?” asked Ragatha.
“What’s happening?” asked Caine.
“She’s having a panic attack,” said Pomni.
“Where am I?” Jax asked urgently.
“It’s okay!” said Pomni.
“What happened?” Jax said.
“It’s okay!” repeated Pomni.
“You were-”
“Jax.”
“I saw you-”
“Jax,” Pomni said, gently putting her hands on Jax’s face, “Look at me! It was just a bad dream. Breathe.”
Jax stared at her, bewildered.
“Huh!” she breathed, “Haaaaah!”
“That’s not breathing,” Said Pomni, “I need you to breathe for me, baby girl.”
Jax exhaled sharply, and took a deep gasp of air; nearly choking. The second time she inhaled slower, and let out a soft shudder.
“There you go,” Pomni said, “Deep breaths. Just look at me.”
Jax looked at Pomni; with both of her eyes perfectly normal, and no hole in her face. She reached up and touched Pomni’s hand on her cheek, trying to convince herself that this was real, that she was awake. It was Pomni’s hand. Those were Pomni’s eyes.
A grotesque ball of relief started in her chest and swelled up inside of her throat. She tried to choke it back down, but the feeling forced its way into her eyes, and welled out as thick watery tears. She opened her mouth, trying to speak, but all that came out were little hiccups. A pathetic, embarrassing moan came out of her mouth, her lips quivering as she tried to force them shut.
Pomni pulled her in, and held her there, letting her work the feelings out for herself. Ragatha joined in by gently stroking her leg.
“Her hair,” she heard Ragatha say.
“I’ve never seen it get this big before,” Pomni replied.
“Caine,” Ragatha asked, “What does it mean?”
“I,” Caine thought, “I don’t know…”
“Wha?” Jax asked.
“You sure you wanna look?” Pomni asked.
Jax looked up at her and nodded. Pomni gently turned her head towards the mirror on the other side of the room. Her normally shoulder-length hair was now all the way down to her hips. It was a thick mane of abstraction-black hair, with glowing color-changing eyes strewn across it.
Jax fixated her gaze on Pomni in the mirror, watching her pet her long black hair. She relaxed her breathing, and the eyes began to fade. The hair shrank back down to the small of her back, and Caine and Ragatha visibly relaxed.
“That must have been some dream,” said Pomni.
“I,” Jax shuddered, “Watched you-”
Pomni put a finger over her lips, “No more. It’s over.”
Jax reached up like she wanted to touch Pomni, to make sure that she was real, but she hesitated. She glanced around everyone in the room; all of their eyes fixated on her. Seeing this, Pomi pulled her in for a hug.
“Wh-” Jax breathed, “Why are you all… here?”
“You were screaming,” Pomni answered, “Ragatha and I came running at about the same time, and Caine was outside of the door because you yelled for him in your sleep.”
“I woke you all up?” Jax asked.
“You scared us,” answered Pomni, squeezing her tighter.
“I’m sorry,” Jax said.
“Don’t be,” said Ragatha and Pomni at the same time.
“I didn’t know a human's dreams could affect them like that,” said Caine.
“They’re called night terrors,” answered Pomni.
“Night… terrors,” Caine puzzled.
“It’s like sleepwalking,” Ragatha offered, “Except a panic attack, in your sleep.”
“Panic attacks,” Caine floated there, tapping his chin. Eventually he looked up and saw them all staring at him, “Uhh- Well if everything’s okay I should let you all get back to sleep. Goodnight!”
He snapped his fingers, and poofed away, leaving only Pomni and Ragatha in Jax’s room.
“Umm,” Jax blushed, “You can let go of me now…”
Pomni stopped hugging Jax, and they both sat on the bed together in silence. Jax eventually sighed, trying to relax, but a small shutter slipped out.
“Are you,” Pomni asked, “Going to be okay?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, looking timidly to the corner of her room. Pomni followed her gaze, but didn’t know what she was looking at.
“This is where it happened,” she told Pomni.
“Then,” Pomni offered, “Why don’t you come sleep in my room tonight?”
Jax glanced up at her, and then her eyes darted away; “Afraid I’m gonna abstract again?”
Pomni looked at her for a moment, and then smiled, slyly.
“Okay,” She said, “If you wanna stay here all by yourself, I guess Ragatha can come sleep with me…”
“Pft!” Ragatha chuckled, “Pomni!”
“Sh-shut up!” Jax said, blushing and throwing a pillow at them. The three of them giggled together.
“Come on,” Pomni said, grabbing Jax’s hand, “It’ll be like a sleep over.”
“A sleepover?” Jax asked, looking away, “What are we 12?”
Ragatha looked at her, smugly, “You’ve never had a sleepover before, have you?”
“I don’t think she has,” Pomni joined in.
Jax glanced back, and muttered, “Not with girls…”
The girls in question were grinning at each other.
“Jax’s first sleepover!” They said in sync, Pomni playing into Ragatha’s demeanor.
“Oh no!” Jax rolled her eyes, but she was grinning.
“Come on Ragatha,” Pomni said, “We’re gonna cheer this girl up!”
Pomni gently pulled her off of the bed, and guided her by hand into the hallway.
“What’s so special about a girl’s sleep over?” Jax asked.
“Oh you know,” Ragatha said, “Playing dress up, braiding hair, gossip. Only if you want to though!”
“Hanging out in our underwear,” Pomni added, “Twister, Spin the bottle…”
“Wait what?” asked Jax, nervously.
“Umm,” Ragatha blushed, “Maybe not… those games…”
“We’ll see,” Pomni smirked, giving Ragatha a delectable gaze.
“Wait," Jax said, "What?"
The door to Pomni's room closed behind them...