"What do you think you've done!"
Adeline's anger hiss made me look at her then just do my best to stay silent without screaming out of disgust and terrifying altogether.
Although there were no lights, somehow the glasses made things look as if there were faint light out there, showing me things I wished I'd never seen.
Graveyard,
Without graves…
And somehow with humans who look like they are half asleep and in strange postures.
Yeah,
As if someone had just thrown them here without any regard.
"Why exhale when I'm the one who must be angry?!"
"Just don't step forward, you'll fall on your fa— okay, how it feels now to fall on something like this?"
"..."
She was angry but somehow managed to shut up after her dramatic fall.
"We must get out in five minutes at most."
"How?"
"There." My flashlight aimed at the ceiling where a closed window was barely visible. "That's our way."
"But how?"
"They already made a way for us?" I pointed at the pile under the window. "There."
"...?"
"..."
What's up with this look now? Did I say something wrong?
"You are truly heartless."
"Eh?"
"How could you even think about climbing dead bodies in order to escape when you could at least try to think about something else?"
"Are you out of your mind?!"
A hard shiver ran through my whole body when I looked at the place she was looking at when she was talking.
I?
Climbing all these?!
Ha.
Haha.
"Why talk about it like it is something even on the table?" Yes, Nathan. You're a gentleman, you won't raise your voice on a woman. Yeah, stay cool… even if she just made an assumption that you'll climb dead bodies to get out.
Calm down.
"Because it is really on the table?"
"Ha?"
"If there's no way then we will do it."
Why do I keep forgetting that these people were crazy?
"You didn't even see what I was referring to, did you?" I made sure that the flashlight was exactly where I wanted it to be. "There, you heartless."
"Oh."
There was a ladder hiding behind. One we could somehow move some bodies a little bit in order to be able to use.
"Let's go then." Our way out of the place was easier than what I thought it would be, Despite that we were about to be caught two times and Adeline somehow managed to do something about it.
She is an absolute killing machine, it seemed as if it was her specialty.
Agh—
How scary.
Imagining going against her made cold sweat cover my palms.
"Now where?"
"Let's stop here for a while." I placed Drew in the ground first and made sure that he was alright and breathing before checking Dean's condition.
"I'm awake," I nearly got a heart attack after his sudden talk. "I just can't move right yet."
"That's a relief." I took out a water bottle and gave him one. "Can you drink?"
"Yes." He took it with a shaking hand. "What happened?"
"We just got out of the storehouse."
"So he stole the tickets, how funny."
Dean started to laugh like a psychopath, making me worried about his mental health.
"He?"
"The leader. Our crazy leader."
"Why are you so sure that it was him?"
"His specialization made it possible for him to take anything from others as long as he could see it."
"...?"
Woh.
This was an actual cheat code, wasn't it? How could that be possible?
"So he could take anything?"
I must take good care of my things or what? Why was something this powerful in the hands of a thief?
"as long as he has something typical to its shape and size."
"...somehow it feels more fair now."
"What?"
"Don't pay attention. Anyways, do you think that you could walk alone now?"
"Why not?" He was standing alone, not that straight but he managed to. "I couldn't be a load for too long."
"Alright. As you wish, tell me when you feel tired."
"What's the plan now? Return to the stadium?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"Let's finish the show."
"...?"
Both Dean and Adeline looked at me as if I was a crazy creature from somewhere else in the galaxy.
"Finish it?" Dean asked, curious more than anything. "How? And what's the way we could return on if this happened?"
"Don't Vessels vanish after the main thing stops?"
"Who knows?"
"No, let me put it in other words." I took a dry piece of wood and started to draw on the ground. "This is the main stadium and this is where we are."
I tried to draw things without returning to the map to see. "And this is the control room."
"So?"
"Why did this carnival happen?"
"To entertain people?"
"Exactly. But which people?"
"Anomalies."
"Yes." I draw another circle on the ground. "This place isn't for humans at all. Even if we got golden tickets, as long as we are humans, we won't get out the normal way."
"This is all your assumptions. We can't just do anything depending on it."
"Right, right."
I inhaled, my thoughts were all over the place and I couldn't even tell them about the files I got from the computer…
The one that was about an 'exchange the portals with the Happy City.'
"You seem to need some time to think?"
"Oh, yes. Please call Silas and know if anything happened until I decide what to do."
Dean and Adeline sat at the floor beside where Drew was laying. I on the other hand just walked aside and literally hit my head against the wall.
You stupid.
Why tell them your thoughts?!
If we watch the show till the end then we will get out. It's that simple. The stupid things I told them about the golden tickets were made up…
"But no."
Something very suspicious I didn't figure out couldn't let me take this lightly.
That was the last show of the Greatest Magician. Who could settle for simple things like ordinary shows? Even if he used dolls and whatever, the show itself was too predictable.
Then what?
Think Nathan, Think, Think.
When did it all start to feel suspicious?
When I saw the show or when I—
Oh, right.
The city.
This freaking city.
It all started when I came here to figure out that it was a whole city when it was literally supposed to be a simple carnival.
"The map first, the map first."
I took the map out. near The Festival, it was the start point.
Was this place at the end of Festival street? Or something else?
"How could I even know—!"
Alex!
That crazy inhuman being!
"Dean!" I call out even before reaching them. "Silas answered?"
"Yes? We just started to know what happened."
"Okay, just tell him to ask Alex about the place he came out of the carnival to? Was it an alley or a shop or a typical street?"
"Why not ask him by yourself?"
"I feel as if my ears will bleed if I talk to him now."
"Because I will! What on earth are you doing!"
Ah—
My ears…
He sounded so o much like his copy back then to the point I couldn't even be sure anymore.
"Please, rebuke later… now just get Alex and dried his information. Everything."
"Why?"
The question came from Dean, and all I could notice was that the three of them were waiting for my crazy answer.
It was crazy, of course. But knowing that they didn't wait for a normal answer from the beginning made me feel like a weirdo.
Was everything I did until now making me seem like a madman?
"Because, if the carnival was at the end of the street, then it's a carnival. But what if it was an alley? Or a shop?"
Dean and Adeline didn't know about the Festival Vessel, but Silas knew, that's why he was the only one to react.
"Then it isn't the Carnival. Or it's in the carnival."
"Exactly."
"Wait, wait. Explain please." Dean asked. "We don't have any information about the festival thing."
"It's where you could find all of your wishes, but after getting them.you will no longer need them."
"...?"
"Hmm, if I'll describe it in a different word than Silas's… it's a place a magician made to fool humans with their desires. If you get fooled, you'll no longer be human."
"Magician?"
"Yes. Maybe the same one who's there in the stadium, maybe not." I took off my glasses without a real reason. "Alex's answer will decide."
"You all will buy me food for a week after this." Silas gave up and accepted. "I'll intimidate and interrogate my roommate because of you. Be grateful."
"Okay, okay. Just hurry."
Silas just cut the call off without any more replies. And we three just sat on the ground waiting.
"What would we do if it wasn't the real carnival?"
"I don't know."
"...?"
"This look again. What's up with you too?"
"You don't know?" "That's unbelievable."
The two talked sequentially, making me out of words.
Ha…
"It's only my fifth vessel, fifth! Why treating me like a professional when I'm a poor helpless civilian who doesn't know a single proper thing about things? How cruel!"
"..."
"..."
"What's now?"
"Somehow," Dean started, then Adeline continued… as if they're thinking about the same thing. "You are talking more than usual, don't you?"
"...?"
"As though situations like this reveal your true nature."
"..."
Ah—
These people,
Are they crazy?
Doesn't pressure change everyone's personality?
Or their personalities were made of metal?