Your Choice

5 - Countless Doors

This chapter is brought to you by: wheelofnames.com !!!

Kinger was most likely nice when you got to know him (if he hadn't already reached the peak of insanity,) but this was your first night here and it was an almost easy decision to make up your mind on not having his help. You wonder if he even knew where he was right now. Is this what the circus does to people who stay here for too long? You can find this room by yourself. 

"Ok ok. First, we figure out what the red Xs mean," you stated out loud. You started at the entrance to the dormitory hall, and walked along the left hand side. Pink cyclops with an X, you don't recall seeing them. Worm on a string with an X, you don't recall seeing them either. Some anxious looking person with heterochromic eyes who didn't completely match the circus theme and also didn't have an X, you definitely did not see them. At first you assume these Xs meant they had... what, escaped? but you realize that that couldn't be the case as you believed you had met everyone yet you had never seen this member of the circus. Odd, so you continue moving. 

Mannequin no X, didn't see them. Pomni. Oh wow you remembered her name. Her door picture looked so... sad. Hopefully yours didn't look like that too. Pink and orange dude with an X. Mannequin no X. You swear you saw a mannequin earlier, are you having deja vu? Blue guy with an X. Mannequin no X.

You stop in your tracks as a puzzled expression came across your face. Walking backwards, you approach the door you had seen previously just a couple seconds ago. Mannequin no X. You walked forwards. Mannequin no X. There were... multiple mannequins? God maybe you should've asked for Kinger's help after all. 

"Just keep walking," you tried to reassure yourself, hoping that eventually you would either come across a door that gave off your vibes (which you assumed you'd most likely recognize pretty easily) or you'd find out what these red Xs meant. 

Yellow looking mime/clown thing with an X. Mannequin no X. Another clown, this one had a little party hat though. Cool. Oh yeah, that door also had an X. The next door was blank and you realized you were basically at the end of the hall, so you transitioned over to the other side.

Mannequin no X. Polka dot dog with an X. Gangle. Dang you still felt bad for leaving her out earlier. But it's not like you can go back to the past. Zooble. They seemed pretty chill. Mannequin no X. At this point you believed it was safe to assume that none of these mannequins would have an X over their picture. Were the mannequins even real characters? 

Kinger. Poor guy must've been here a while. Mannequin. Weird purple creature with an X. You had to hesitate a bit at this next character; it looked like Kinger... but they were a queen chess piece instead. With an X. 

Jax. No comment. Ragatha's room again. If you got stuck, you could always go back to her room.  Mannequin. Orange dog with an X. Very colorful clown with an X. 

Those were all the doors, and you still hadn't found yours. Were you just stupid? None of these doors gave off any vibe except for Jax's which gave off the vibe that you were welcome to come in, but you'd quickly regret it. Not much of a shocker though, you felt like he'd have traps in his room.

"What do the Xs mean?" you ask yourself. You begin to walk in circles. It was getting late, and even though it was physically impossible to feel tired here, you still wanted to rest a bit. Or at least see if sleep was an option. 

You go over all the doors in your head. You had never seen any of the people with an X over their face, but there were also some people who didn't have an X over their face that you couldn't recall either. The countless mannequins as well as the other person who had heterochromia. Did the Xs mean they were in their room? No, that couldn't be for a multitude of reasons. First of all, Ragatha was in her room right now and there was the lack of an X over her picture. Secondly, you remember hearing Rag tell you that you had met everyone here. Or maybe you had just imagined that? At the very least, it was implied. 

Ragatha, Jax, Zooble, Gangle, Pomni, Kinger... and you. Was that everyone? Did you forget someone? 

You jump as you feel a hand lightly touch your shoulder. Looks like you've zoned out for the UMPTEENTH TIME. You glance over and it's... Pomni. She looked really nervous too. 

"Oh uhm... do I look intimidating? I promise I don't bite!" you say with a smile that probably exposed you were just as anxious as she was. She let out a slight laugh at that, but you could tell it was mostly out of either the tension in the air or the need to get on your good side. 

"I just... saw you... walking in circles? And uh, I wanted to check... on you? If I can... help... I could try my best..." she began. Yikes, she was more of a mess than you were, and how long had she been here already? Maybe you really were handling this well. 

"This is gonna sound kind of funny, but I actually have no idea what I look like. Can you assist me in finding my room?" you ask, trying to seem as friendly as possible. Again, she lets out a nervous chuckle, as she looks down at the floor.

"Yeah... I don't mind..." 

"..."

"..."

After an awkward silence and both of you kinda shuffling in place, she finally lifts her gaze off the floor and looks around the dorm hall. After a couple seconds of searching, she heads off in the direction of a door. Oh.

"Do I really come off as that, uhm how do I put this, on edge?" you ask, staring yet again at the anxious heterochromiac. You did feel that way, but you had hoped it wasn't too visible. You looked over, to notice Pomni had shuffled away quickly (and extremely quietly) and was already halfway through the door to her room. If you ever decided to become friends with her in the future, it would take a lot of time and effort. You'd most likely be here for a while though.

Looking at the picture, there was something you found interesting. Your eye on your dominant side was the inverse color of the eye on your other side. (Ex: if you're right handed and have blue eyes, then your left eye would be blue while your right eye would be some shade of orange. Or if you're left handed and had purple eyes, your right eye would be purple and your left eye would be yellow. If that still doesn't make sense, I'm completely open to helping y'all's in the comments.) Other than looking like an anxious wreck who was running on a gallon of monster energy, you did seem pretty cool. Maybe this new body wouldn't be terrible. Plus, how often is it that people have heterochromia? 

Placing a hand on your doorknob, you were quite eager to enter your room, and it sure as hell came as no disappointment. While the handle twists in your hand, the door swings open and you are met with quite a beautiful room of your exact aesthetic. You couldn't remember any personal facts about yourself, such as your favorite color, but if you did have a favorite color it would most definitely be the color of the walls. It almost matched your personality as well. Basically, your room was exactly what you had hoped it would be. It was quite difficult to describe and totally not because the author cannot possibly cater this room to be perfect for the Y/N of everybody reading this. 

You waltz into your room after the door shut behind you, and you flop down onto your bed. Practically melting into this comfy ass mattress, you shut your eyes and ponder over how your next day may possibly go. You could basically do anything really. You had free will in this digital world. You could become the most extroverted person on the planet and talk to everybody you possibly could, you could lock yourself in your room and refuse to come out, you could roam around the circus; you could seriously do anything or hang out and bond with whoever you wanted to. But you also remember, every day comes with tons of decisions. 

After not too long of thinking to yourself, you fall asleep, and you know that when you wake up the next morning the answer on what to do will come, as it has done all day, and as it hopefully always will. 

Another quick A/N: For reasons I cannot currently mention because I am not about to have any spoilers for this book, your dominant side (which is like right handed or left handed) will play a big part in this story. If you are ambidextrous, just pick whatever side you want or whatever side you're the most comfortable with.