Lost Smile and Strange Circus

fin

"I see... So that was what happened." Noah nodded, fists clenched on her lap, absorbing everything like a sponge with water.

Oddman stared at her.

And he felt something akin to that of nervousness.

Despite the fact that he was not completely human, he was jittery.

He wanted to run away.

The truth had finally come out, and Noah had heard all of it.

"Are you not... Mad at me?"

The brunette stayed silent, her body becoming even more tense.

Hickory dickory dock.

A mouse on the clock.

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

"Did..." the child began, her eyes never leaving the ground. "Did mom and dad love me?"

Oh.

It was time, then.

The mouse fell down, as the clock struck one.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

For the first time in sanctions of time, Oddman felt himself unable to hold himself back from the virtue of honesty.

Because now, he knew, there was nothing to hide from the offspring of the flower that made hope bloom in his mind. No, heart?

There was almost a smile on his face if it hadn't been for his skull-like features.

"Yes. Yes, Noah. They loved you very, very much."

The child relaxed on her seat, and slowly, slowly, her lips curled upwards in a warm expression as her eyes clouded with tears.

"I have no reason to be mad at you, Oddman. No reason at all."

Her voice and face shook with emotion, something all these years had never been seen anywhere around her. It was emotion so strong she could barely contain it.

Happiness.

For the first time since Chera had left the world of the living, Noah felt at peace with herself, and this time, she was aware.

Aware of the grief upon learning her parents' ill fortunes in an ill society, aware of the calm upon listening to her mother's song, aware of the joy upon having seen the very entity who was responsible for her life.

And she was aware of the satisfaction she had to feel before she could finally move along.

Although her life alone had not been such a good one, with dirty rags for clothes and tatters for a home, the path it had led her to was arranged beautifully by the hands of fate.

What Oddman had taken, it returned to her favorably, along with peculiar characters in a peculiar stage, a strange circus where it had always been happy.

Jack, the box-headed juggler.
He was nowhere near inanimate.

Jasmin, the beautiful tightrope doll.
She moved with grace in wooden joints.

Billy, the cat-headed knife-thrower.
He taught Noah that cunning was not cruel.

Rebecca, the glamorous beast-tamer.
Everything she did said 'life is good if you look at it from the right angle'.

Alphonse, the hybrid performer.
He proved to show, that there is underlying warmth in ice.

Angeletta, the operatic mermaid.
Her songs were more than beautiful.

Oscar, the screen-faced magician.
Noah learned from him that even we do not know ourselves the most.

Mr. Mush, the gentle gardener.
The flowers he tended to never fell until the time of their death.

Daigo, the masked fire-breather.
He was the one who showed how fire could sustain the life of a being, and not destroy it.

Robertti, the shady clown.
Shadows will always help you find the light.

Oddman. He showed that even the steeliest of people could be touched by the gentleness of a human being, beings who are known to be powerless and lacking in all aspects.

And herself...

It was time to go.

Oddman held Noah's hand as he guided her to where the flower of Chera was sitting on a table, encased safely in a wall of glass. The red petals and vibrant purple hue had bloomed lusciously into full-grown flowers, captivating both the child and the man's eyes.

White light continued to emanate from the small brunette's body, and she looked up at Oddman one last time, rhe circus dissipating in neon around them.

"You're so kind, Oddman." she mumbled, tears falling from her eyes into her smile, and as the glow finally enveloped her, everything around them cracked.

But the shards of glass floated to the sky instead of falling to the dark, damp floor of what one may call the eternity of death.

"I am a human." Oddman said, and he knelt where he had once stood as the darkness closed in on the place he could call his home.

_____

Hello thereee~
Since I haven't found the proper ending to this game yet (because of the fact that the notifications are failing me), I went ahead and made my own. This probably isn't close to the original ending, but I can guarantee that I tried my best to make it atleast... Um, satisfying enough or solid enough to be able to wrap things up with a bang.

This is literally the first book I have managed to give an ending to during my two-year stay on this site (which was mostly just reading and commenting blasphemy lol), so I hope this was atleast good enough. Also, I hope this would mark the beginning of me writing my stuff more properly, actually proceeding to end them well and not discontinue.

This was a pretty long ride of slow updates and complaining about why I decided to write it in a way which is not close to my usual style, but I finished it with some pretty amazing readers. So I don't regret doing any of this. (๑و•̀ω•́)و

I'm seriously hoping I gave the overall plot some justice in the eyes of those who read this, and I want to apologize for the lack of releases. The primary reason is that I don't always have network connection (and our house is located somewhere pretty bad for signal), and second one is that I never have enough motivation to do anything.

Anyways, to avoid having to make this note any longer than it already is, I'm gonna have to wave you goodbye now~ Hope you check out the app, find the ending, and if you do, please do PM me about it hahaha xD