Chapter Text
The ceiling lights flickered in the dusty room filled with a dozen or so cubicles. Beams of a setting sun crept through the broken windows and bent blinds. Light refracted off some shards scattered about, speckling the room with bits of gold and rainbow.
CRACK
The shard of glass crumbled into finer pieces by the careless step of a black beaten up converse shoe landing from outside the window into the decaying building.
A few more shards broke as a young man carefully stepped through, trying not to rip any more holes into his jeans than we’re already there.
His steps echoed as he walked through the once bustling office room. He briefly glided his hand over one of the many dividers, instantly regretting the mindless decision and using his jacket as a napkin, trying to remove the decades of dust he collected on his fingers.
There was a sense of familiarity to his walk as he headed to the other side of the room to a door on rusty hinges. It had been years since he had been here, physically at least. Mentally, he had been stuck for what felt like an eternity. It was as if he was walking through the empty halls of an old school, reliving faint memories that were once thought lost. Or maybe had been purposely left behind.
It took a few pulls to get the door to let up and actually open. He stumbled back as it finally gave way.
A sigh escaped his lips, whistling on the snake bite piercings that he was now so suddenly aware of. His tongue glided over where the two metal rings entered the inside of his mouth from the piercing.
Did they always taste this bad?
The second room he now found himself in was dimmer and just as dusty. All the monitors lay dormant and dark on their desks.
Except for one lonely cubical.
Despite there being several computers with monitors, only one was functional. Not just flicking, however. A steady stream of light came from the other side of the room that the working monitor was on.
He walked over to the lit side, briefly passing by an unlit monitor. The sight in the corner of his eye stopped him dead in his, albeit slow, tracks. He turned to face the black screen. There was nothing abnormal that caught his attention. Rather, the fact of it being normal was what drew him in to approach the old CRT.
In the slightly warped and dark reflection wasn’t a ridiculous purple cartoon rabbit that he had come to expect. Instead it was a human, an actual person. He stared at himself. The finer details were lost with it not being an actual mirror, but there was no mistaking who it was.
The dirty blond frosted tips of his hair hadn’t moved despite it being years since he had done any sort of coloring. In fact, his hair hadn’t grown at all, his dark brown roots still being just as long as they had been.
His non dusty hand reached to meet his chin, a scruffy patch of outgrown stubble (though honestly it had been closer to a goatee at this point) tickled his finger tips. He moved his hand and used the backs of his fingers to caress his cheek, which was hairless but bumpy with acne scars. He grazed his sideburn, which grew ticker and longer than the rest of his facial hair, though not quite far down enough to make a mutton chop.
He brought his hand up to his ear, fighting the instinct to gravitate to the top of his head, instead going to the side where it actually was. His fingers grazed the thick, cold metal rings in his lobe.
“Felix…” the name came quietly out of his mouth. For so long he had lost his name, at one point being so desperate to remember, but then learning to let go and disown.
“I’m not Jax anymore…” he mumbled. There was no particular emotion or feeling behind the phrase. Stated so matter of fact that Felix even surprised himself, blinking a few times.
Another sigh, though shakier than before, fell out as he turned back and walked to the original destination.
The screen on the working monitor was pure white and lit up the side of the room it was on. A rusty headset and decaying pair of headphones sat still by the keyboard and mouse.
Part of Felix wanted to smash the thing on sight, the other part of him wanted to put it back on just to see if he’d get sucked into the game again, as unlikely as that'd be.
The memories of the last few moments in the circus were hazy at best. Something about Kinger and glitching and portals. The harder he thought about it, the worse of a pounding in his eardrums he got. And frankly, he didn’t have any pain killers to use to alleviate the pain of trying to remember the events so he wasn’t going to bother.
Next to the desk that housed the monitor was a pile of some strange smaller machines. They whirled and quietly hummed, whatever the power supply the computer was running on was keeping these things working as well. Though curiously, there was something there that definitely wasn’t when Felix had first put on the headset.
A small digital camera, just big enough to fit comfortably in Felix’s hand, pointed at the desk chair that sat in front of the monitor.
Felix picked it up, turning it and studying it. It couldn’t have been more than 2 or 3 years old but had traces of use. Some faded star stickers decorated the front, small scuffs on the corners and a few scratches on the screen.
Felix pulled the dusty chair over and plopped down as he pressed the power button that’s symbol had clearly long chipped away.
Felix’s eyebrows raised as he watched the screen glow the manufacturer’s logo, the camera whistled and whirled to life, beeping echoed through the room.
After a short moment, the screen changed to a menu. He used the small buttons to navigate to the gallery.
“Let’s see who you belonged to,” although Felix had a suspicion that he knew who it was.
There was only one video on the camera. It was 20 minutes or so, dated August 2023.
It’s been that long?
After hitting play, it opened with a panning shot of a familiar, graffiti covered wall.
“Apparently this used to be some old big tech company’s top secret office or something.” The hushed voice came from the camera’s speaker.
No doubt that’s her. He snickered to himself. The uncertainty in her voice was what made it so recognizable to Felix. There was always a sense of confusion, like everything warranted a question.
He fast forwarded through the video. It’s not like anything that was filmed in the building he hadn’t seen, and even if there was, he could just go and look for himself if he really wanted to. But he was curious to see if there was anything aside from the decrepit office that he could discover.
"Come on, don’t tell me you wanted to be faceless and anonymous."
The footage sped up more and more as he held the fast forward button. Glimpses of the room he had just been in, along with some halls. Uninteresting opening of file cabinets, desk drawers and too long staring at broken paintings on walls. As she walked through the doors of a breakroom, she finally entered the room he currently found himself in. He let go of the button and the footage returned to normal speed.
“Huh, that’s weird? Why is this one on?” Her voice wasn’t as hushed as it was at the start. She approached the computer and showed off all the machines next to it.
“All the extension cords are on… this is so strange,” she panned the camera over to the mess of tangled cords below the desks, then to the monitor set up. Felix looked over to the actual set up in front of him. It lay exactly as it did in the video. Headset and headphones untouched.
“Hm, I wonder if the video output is going to this headset instead of the monitor.” She picked up the dusty machine briefly and set it back down. Felix’s eyes were curiously glued to the screen as he watched her fumble a bit before propping up her camera on something, his guess was on the other desk in the exact spot he found the camera.
For a moment, all he could see was a burgundy sweater tucked into a pair of jeans. Cautiously, she stepped back, her hands hovering in front of the lens for a moment. As she stepped back, he could see the whole scene.
The desk with the monitor sat on his left hand side while a short girl took her backpack off and placed it next to the desk (which, he glanced away from the screen to see, was still there). She brushed her bangs carefully out of her face, curious blue eyes staring at the equipment.
How come she got to look so close to how she did in the circus? Felix tapped his foot. Clearly, she wasn’t a jester with a silly hat on, but her face was round and her eyes were big and expressive just as her avatar.
“Will this fit with my hair tied up?” She picked up the device and studied it. Turning it around and adjusting the straps. She took her hair down with a little shake of her head and began to put on the headset. Just as she put on the device, the camera screen goes completely white and the video ends.
“Huh…” Felix huffed out.
He finally had an actual face to her. She really wasn’t just a cartoon clown.
Felix leaned back in the chair and stared up at the water damaged ceiling, spreading out his legs and moving them to swivel from side to side. Absent-mindedly, he ran his fingers over the buttons of the camera that now he held in his lap.
“Damn…” a confusing rat race of thoughts ran around in his head and he couldn't tell which was winning.
She wasn’t kidding when she said she made YouTube videos. Was she always being genuine? Did anyone else make it out? Would they come back here? How could he have been stuck for so long and come out looking the exact same? What happened to his body for so long?
“UGH- This is stupid,” why did he have to be back out in the real world?
Felix turned his attention to the backpack that she left behind. He picked it up, opening it and rummaged around through its contents.
Spare chargers, a power bank, umbrella, jacket, and…
Jackpot!
A handful of squished granola bars, bag of crushed up chips and a bottle of water laid at the bottom.
Felix tore through the silver wrapping of the granola bar with his teeth and scarfed it down.
“Mmm~” An actual sensation of taste for the first time in years. It didn’t matter that the chocolate was half melted or that bits of oats were getting stuck in his teeth (which ordinarily would have him running for a toothpick), it was food. Food with texture, crunchy peanuts, bits of oats, creamy chocolate. Not just a hunk of pixelated meat that could vaguely resemble the memory of eating a food.
The gulp of water after finishing the granola bar was equally welcomed, as a few droplets escaped the corners of his mouth. Refreshing and clean and actually filling, not just the imitation of a fake stomach being satiated.
Felix grabbed the camera and hoisted the now closed bag over his shoulder. He made his way over to the door, not that he came out of, but the one that lead to the break room in the video. There were some basic break room amenities, table and chairs, microwave, fridge, vending machine (the latter three clearly being off and having a layer of rust).
But Felix set his eyes on one thing and one thing only, a lonely couch, tucked in the corner of the room. It wasn’t anything fancy, in fact there were torn bits where stuffing was spilling, but it would have to do.
He set down the backpack by the couch and sat down, taking the jacket out and curling it into what could resemble a pillow the best he could. He laid down on his new bed, tucking his legs up so his feet didn’t dangle off the edge.
It smelled of mold and mildew and old. The couch was springy yet hard, but it beat sleeping on the floor or outside in the elements.
Felix forced his eyes closed, trying not to think too hard about how tempting it was to put back on that headset and force himself to sleep.