"Where could she be?"
"Chill Jester. I'm sure she's around here somewhere...or maybe she's abstracted. How would I know?"
"JAX!"
I scowl at the rabbit, who just gives me a snide smirk. "Whaaaaat? I'm just telling the truth!" He drawls.
"Did you guys find her?" A voice calls. I turn to see Zooble, Gangle, and Kinger walking towards us.
"Oh yeah, we sure did! She's actually with us right now! She's just invisible." Jax says with a wide, sarcastic smile.
"Really?!" Kinger blurts, rushing to Jax's side and spinning around. The hare rolls his eyes and shoves him away.
"J-Jax..." Gangle squeaks, the sentence getting lost in a small shriek as the ringmaster suddenly appears above her.
"WELL SUPERSTARS, IT SEEMS EVEN I CAN'T FIND OUR LITTLE MILKSHAKE!" He booms, hands on his hips. "WHICH IS...strange. I can normally track all your movements, but for some reason I can't pinpoint Ragatha's anywhere..." He lifts a hand and strokes his...chin?
I frown a little at him as everybody suddenly bursts into a bit of panic.
"What do you mean you can't find her?"
"Geez Chatter's, maybe you're finally breaking. About time..."
"I ASSURE YOU MY CODE IS FINE, MY PATHETIC PURPLE PAL!"
"Yeah, well- wait, what did you just call me?"
I take a step away from them all, the overlapping voices becoming a bit overstimulating. I take a deep breath, turning around and walking a few paces away while trying to stay calm.
Ok. So. Nobody has seen Ragatha in four whole days. That didn't mean anything, right? She could just need some alone time. Or just lost track of time. That happened pretty often. Or-
"I imagine self worth and inner peace, tastes like artificial cherry..."
I freeze when I hear the familiar voice coming from behind the stage.
"No, wait, maybe more like...ice cream." The voice continues to sing. I look behind me at the bickering circus members. Nobody else seems to have noticed. I scale the steps, shuddering a little as the disjointed singing continues.
"Come on everybody, come one, come all...the circus clown has dropped...the ball..."
I reach the top of the stage.
"I. Assure you. I'll split you to atoms for free." I freeze again at how dead and cold the voice suddenly got, hand clutching the curtain.
"Worse than that, I'll steal all the chocolate out of your dear chocolate chip cookies..." The voice suddenly bounces back to its normal tone.
"Purposely misplace your keys. Be the reason why you sneeze."
I take a deep breath and pull the curtain back.
Ragatha was standing with her back to me, completely still.
"...Ragatha...?" I call her name softly, hating how my voice came out small and hesitant. I cringe a little at the shudder that runs down my spine. Something-
"Somethings wrong." Zooble speaks up quietly from behind me. I jump and whirl around, startled to find that at some point everyone had followed me. Everyone has their eyes trained on the ragdoll.
"Hey Dollface, you auditioning for a horror movie or something?" Jax snipes, hands curling into fists.
"I'm not your doll anymore..."
