Chapter Text
The world below them stayed still.
For a while, Pomni almost forgot what a #%!$ed up adventure they were on. Jax’s fur brushed comfortingly against her shoulder, and the gap between them seemed to get smaller by the minute.
I actually… like this.
Is this.. is he…?
Her thoughts were cut off as the Ferris wheel gave a slow, groaning lurch. Pomni’s breath hitched.
Metal squealed against itself, the sound shrill and deafening. The sky flickered — a soft, rolling ripple that passed through the horizon and kept going.
“Tell me you felt that,” Jax muttered.
She nodded, shaking. “It…. The map… it’s changing.”
The ripple came again.
Far across the plains, the fake props — the cranes, the teacup, the tunnel — started sliding inward. Not rolling or collapsing. Just… drifting closer, pushed by a holographic border that shimmered in the fake light.
The horizon followed.
Color drained from the far edges of the world, replaced by an encroaching white that swallowed everything it touched.
“The border’s closing,” Jax said quietly.
Pomni’s stomach twisted. “Why?”
“Why anything?”
The Ferris wheel shuddered harder. Another ripple passed beneath them, closer now, and the air bent with it. The metal under their feet blurred. She squeaked and screwed her eyes shut.
“Down,” he said, gentle but firm.
Pomni’s mind blanked; all she could hear was the shrill metal lurching. She let out a terrified sob, briefly forgetting her shame.
The wheel groaned again, and she was convinced that every bolt was about to give way. Her hands flew to the ladder, fingers slipping on the flickering rungs.
Okay, okay, okay. just move. Don’t look down. Don’t think. Just move.
The world around her warped in pulses of light, too bright and too white. Her foot missed the next step; she gasped, chest clenching tight—
—and his hand caught her wrist.
“Hey. Hey—look at me,” Jax said. His voice was steadier than it should’ve been. “You’re fine. I’ve got you. Just… one step at a time, yeah?”
She wanted to scream.
This wasn’t helping. I’m not fine. Nothing about this is fine.
But his thumb brushed her knuckles, a small grounding weight against the noise in her head
…I’ve got you?
Right. okay. One step.
She nodded shakily and forced her legs to move again, matching his pace until her boots hit the ground.
Her legs gave out from under her when she hit the not-grass. She allowed herself a brief moment to relish in her triumph over the Ferris wheel.
However, the white had advanced halfway across the field. She sobered realizing that the cranes in the distance were gone. As quickly as she sat she got back up, not even needing Jax’s gentle tug.
Every few seconds, a soft ping broke the silence. Pomni looked up. Another portrait above the clouds had dimmed. Then another. Ragatha’s face, then Kinger’s. Each one disappearing into static before she could count how many hearts were left.
Jax slung his weapon over his shoulder. “Well. Looks like someone’s playing along.”
Pomni swallowed hard. “We need to move.”
He nodded, ears twitching toward the remaining landmarks. The clown tunnel loomed ahead, its painted grin frozen mid-laugh.
“My favorite place to hide. A creepy clown tunnel,” he said, exasperated.
“It’s that or nothing.”
He started walking. “’Nothing’ is sounding better by the minute.”
By the time they reached the tunnel’s edge, the ground trembled beneath their feet.
They didn’t have to decide to go in; the white border nipped at their feet threateningly, like an ocean of static threatening to swallow them whole.
Pomni stumbled first, the floor tilting forward like gravity had changed its mind. Jax caught her by the arm before she could fall.
Pomni pressed her back against the nearest wall, chest rising and falling quickly. His hand stayed on her shoulder, thumb tracing a small circle like he was trying to calm her down.
It only made her pulse spike harder.
#%!$.
The tunnel light wasn’t dark, which would’ve been easier. Instead, it glowed an artificial in-between color. The painted grin above the entrance stretched longer the deeper they went, twitching faintly.
Pomni stayed close to Jax, listening to the squish of their footsteps on the padded floor. It was a disgusting squelching, as if they were stepping in rotten trash.
“Ugh, gross. Why does it have to sound like this,” she complained.
“Atmosphere,” Jax said. “You gotta respect the production value.”
She shot him a look.
He grinned. “What? I cope through humor, you cope through panic-attacking. We all have hobbies.”
Pomni tried an exasperated huff, but it came out more like a shaky laugh. He seemed to be learning how to make her smile more and more by the day.
The white border behind them grew louder, hissing as it swallowed the tunnel mouth.
“Think it stops?” she asked.
“Nope.”
“Great.”
He glanced back. “Relax. I’m sure it’s only mostly lethal.”
“Jax!”
“What? I wish I were the one doing the killing. At least then I’d feel productive.”
Pomni groaned, dragging a hand down her face. “You’re unbelievable.”
He smirked. “Don’t act surprised.”
Suddenly walls rippled, jolting the rabbit and making his hackles stand on end. Up ahead, a faint carnival melody drifted through the static.
Pomni’s shoulders tensed. “You hear that?”
He tilted his head, ears perking up. “Yeah. Guess we’ve reached the part with epic boss battle music.”
Pomni’s stomach turned. “You think Caine’s watching?”
Jax’s mouth twitched, grin fading. “When isn’t he?”
The tunnel kept widening, the glow ahead deepening into a bruised purple. The hum underfoot grew stronger until it felt like a heartbeat beneath the floor.
Pomni slowed without meaning to. The air felt thicker here, wrong, suffocating.
Jax peered at her, amber eyes glowing in the purple haze. “Keep moving,” he said, voice low. “You stop, you start thinking. Or in your case, overthinking.”
It wasn’t much of a reassurance.
How is he so calm?
Pomni glanced at him. Even in the flickering light, she caught it—the way his ears stayed flat, his hand tense around the gun. He was shaken too, though he’d never admit it.
She nodded and kept walking, pretending not to notice how he’d matched her pace.
Pretending not to notice the brief, steady weight of his hand on the small of her back.
A single spotlight blinked on in the distance, carving a circle of gold in the gloom. In its center sat a carousel, frozen mid-spin, its horses twisted and half-rendered. Their eyes followed the pair, sunken and hollow and horrifying.
Pomni stopped. “What is this place?”
Jax took a slow step forward. “A good reason to turn around.”
“Can we?”
He glanced back. The tunnel they’d come through was gone—just a flat wall of white static hissing quietly.
“Wait, scratch that. Sorry, Pom.”
The carousel shuddered once. A distorted laugh track fluttered overhead and cut out before it finished.
Pomni gripped her gun tighter. “You think someone’s here?”
Jax tilted his head again. “If they are, I hope they shoot first. Get it over with.”
She scowled. “That’s not funny.”
Pomni followed, fingers clinging to the ruffles of his skirt before she realized. The closer they got to the carousel, the louder the song became, warping until it was barely recognizable.
Halfway there, a figure flickered between two of the horses.
Pomni froze. “Wait—”
The music stopped.