"This is a shocking Plot twist!" thought Noah to himself, confused, but he remained standing in place without trying to push Lou Yan away.
Lou Yan stood on her tiptoes, grabbing Noah by the collar, trying to pull it toward her, her cheeks blushing in embarrassment. Then she closed her eyes and leaned in more to kiss Noah.
Lou Yan's lips nearly touched Noah's, and she felt a chill and a light electric shock.
"Stop!!" a voice shouted from afar, making Lou Yan open her eyes and release Noah's collar, jumping away from him in embarrassment.
Both Noah and Lou Yan turned to the source of the voice to see Calli standing there, also feeling embarrassed by what she had almost witnessed.
"The horse?" said Noah, confused, adjusting his collar slightly.
"W-What a-are you d-doing here?" asked Lou Yan, pointing her finger nervously and confusedly toward Calli, blushing deeply just from knowing how close it had gotten.
"U-uh? …ah… okay… I… uh…" Calli stuttered and stumbled like never before from the tension, starting to play with her fingers, looking down while twirling her heel on the ground as if lightly digging out of nervousness.
"I-I…w-was following you…," said Calli in a trembling voice, barely above a whisper from embarrassment.
"What did you say? Speak up," said Lou Yan, confused, taking a step closer to Calli to hear her better.
"I-I… well… ugh…w-what were you doing anyway? I-Isn't one of the 'House' rules that members must not do dirty things like that e-especially with the 'Founder' h-himself?" said Calli, taking a step back in awkwardness, trying to maintain a safe distance between her and Lou Yan.
"D-Dirty?! N-No, it's not like that! W-We weren't trying to do anything like that! W-We were just practicing the p-play! N-Nothing big!" said Lou Yan, frozen in place from tension and embarrassment, feeling heat rise to her head, her hand moving on its own as she started waving it to cool her face.
"I-I…uh…I'm l-leaving anyway, h-have a g-good time!" said Calli before turning around and running quickly in the direction she came from.
"W-Wait a moment!" said Lou Yan, trying to call out to Calli, but she had already left. She turned to Noah.
"I-I'll go after her to fix the misunderstanding. I-I'm sorry. I-I'll leave now," said Lou Yan, her face showing confused and embarrassed expressions before running after Calli.
"Alright…" said Noah, letting out a sigh of relief he didn't realize he was holding, and his stiff shoulders relaxed slightly.
"Who would've expected that dealing with love would be this exhausting?..." whispered Noah to himself in tension and confusion, then remembered Lou Yan's close face and her rosy lips.
"...Who tries to steal a kiss during 'training' anyway?" thought Noah to himself in quiet, spontaneous bewilderment, then put his hands in his pockets and began walking around the place again, alone.
"I need to focus on completing the ACTS, so I don't feel that intense pain again. I must not make any mistakes. The world won't bend or bugs eat me... I'll be the hero anyway, so I don't expect I'll feel that level of pain. The audience will be sad to see their hero suffer," thought Noah calmly to himself before finding himself in the same place as before.
"Backstage of the backstage," that's what Noah had called it earlier — the shadowy place in the back where the past was thrown away: rusty metal lockers both short and tall, broken mirrors, torn curtains tossed aside, dirty clothes like ripped socks, even Santa Claus outfits like his red hat that looked soaked in oil and dirt from filth, and broken clown masks. Rusty ceiling pipes dripping water into a half-filled metal bucket, making a soft, faint sound every time a drop fell.
Noah moved forward and stood in the center of the abandoned room, turning his gaze to inspect the place again. That's when he felt a cold breeze pass across the nape of his neck, making him shiver. He looked around to see part of the red curtains torn open, letting pure white light pass through.
"Right... there's that place too," thought Noah to himself and moved closer. He grabbed the edge of the torn curtains and pulled them aside to open a path for him to enter, stepping through to the other side, letting the curtain fall behind him.
Outside, Noah found himself standing in an empty white space, with nothing visible in sight. Despite that, he could feel the ground beneath him and hear the echo of his footsteps reverberate in the space whenever he took a step forward.
"What is this place?" said Noah, shocked and nervous, his voice echoing in all four directions.
Noah began walking forward, the sound of his steps faint like walking on wood. Then he turned around and noticed that the place he came from was the only visible thing—it looked very much like a circus, with its giant red tent whose end Noah could not see.
"The place doesn't look like a circus from the inside at all," thought Noah to himself sarcastically, with a smug smile on his face, then turned to continue walking.
That's when he bumped into a hidden wall that had been in front of him the whole time, making him fall to the ground and feel pain from the impact on his face.
"W-What is this?" said Noah, confused and feeling pain in his nose to the point it went numb.
Noah stood up, dusting off his clothes from nonexistent dust, then moved forward again, stretched out his hand, and felt the surface of the invisible wall in front of him. Though it existed and was hidden, Noah could see the other side; the white space extended further forward.
Then Noah knocked on the wall with his hand and felt it vibrate in response to the knock. He heard a light ringing sound, as if he were knocking on glass.
"Is this...?" thought Noah to himself before someone appeared on the other side—a woman he knew very well, in her black dress as dark as the night sky, with her black veil covering her face but leaving room for her pure silver-white hair to flow behind her. She stood on the other side, moving like Noah's reflection.
"Y-You!" said Noah, shocked, taking a step back in fear and confusion.
"We meet again," said Selene in a cold, calm tone, aware that Noah had lost his memory from their last conversation, so she understood that she couldn't interact with him the same way again.
"W-What the hell are you doing here?! How did you get in?!" asked Noah nervously, stepping closer to Selene only to be blocked again by the wall.
"I live inside you. I'll be wherever you go, even after death. I've been here since the beginning," said Selene in a calm tone as she placed her hand on the cold surface of the wall.
"You've been with me since the beginning? T-Then why didn't you do anything? Why couldn't I see you? Why are you showing yourself only now?" asked Noah, confused, anxious, and frightened.
"I'm not interested in what you do. All I wish for is your death, nothing more," said Selene as she pulled her hand away from the wall.
"W-What?!" said Noah, shocked by Selene's response.
"That doesn't matter now. Just listen to me. You are under the influence of a skill that manipulates nightmares. This is just a nightmare, nothing more. Don't ever confuse it with reality!" said Selene in a warning tone, and Noah could see through her semi-transparent black veil the hint of a crooked and tense smile.
"W-What do you mean?" Noah's words got caught in his mouth from the sight of the mysterious girl's unease before he asked.
"I don't have time to explain. I'm only here to warn you: do not listen to the whispers of 'those who are beyond.' If one of them speaks to you, ignore them immediately. I don't care what offer they give you, don't accept it. You'll be able to escape eventually, so don't listen to their honeyed words," said Selene in a shaky, nervous, and flustered tone, then paused a moment to let Noah absorb her words before adding:
"Noah, Do Not Gaze Upon What Was Never Meant To Be Seen," said Selene. Then her body began to turn into black sand, slowly crumbling away.
"What's happening?!" asked Noah, confused and nervous, panicked at seeing Selene disintegrate.
"I'm being forcibly expelled from this place! I won't die! But contact between us might be cut for a long time. Noah, my hero, you'll feel lonely and afraid. Your suffering won't end. All because of ✦⟟⨂⚚☩✵✹⨁⧫⧬⧚⩈⩉⩊⩋⩌⩍⩎⩏⩐⩑⩒𐍈𐍉𐍊𐍐𐍑𐍒𐍓𐍔𐍕𐍖𐍗𐍘𐍙𐍚𐍛𐍜𐍝—" said Selene, but her words were cut off halfway. Even though Noah could see her mouth moving and her body disintegrating slowly, all he could hear was gibberish and nonsense, just strange meaningless sounds.
"W-What is all this?" asked Noah in confusion, but by then, Selene had vanished, like sand dissolving in the breeze. Noah slammed his fist against the wall in despair, but Selene was already gone.
"Damn it!" said Noah, gritting his teeth hard in frustration and anger.
"Noah?" came a voice Noah recognized—and he froze in place. This was the first time someone had called him by name. He knew instantly this wasn't a good sign. He turned around slowly, reluctantly, to see Livia standing behind him.
"What are you doing here?" said Livia, her eyes eerily wide, watching Noah as if she were staring straight into his soul.
"L-Livia?" said Noah, stunned as he turned fully to face her. Her name slipped from his lips, though he knew that wasn't the main thing to worry about right now.
"No one is allowed in this place… You… you're trying to escape from here and leave us behind, aren't you? You hate us, so you want to leave, right? You're angry at us, so you want to go, don't you?" said Livia in a cold, emotionless voice. Then, behind her, the rest of his companions appeared.
Sirius, Neriah, Enel, Lou Yan, Calli, and Livia — all of them surrounded him. Noah backed up until his back pressed against the invisible wall. Then more of them appeared — exact copies of all his friends. Their numbers filled the endless white void, all taking slow steps toward Noah.
"W-What is all this?" said Noah, panicked and terrified, exhaling a gasp of horror.
"Please don't leave," said one of the copies.
"We'll all be happy here together. Please, don't go," said a second copy.
"You'll live with us forever. We'll give you everything you want. Just please, don't leave us alone," said another.
"We're your friends, aren't we? You can't abandon us like this. We're all connected together," said a different copy. The number of voices was overwhelming, and with their echo filling the space, Noah couldn't tell who was speaking anymore. The void was now filled only with the desperate voices of his friends begging him to stay.
Noah lightly pounded on the wall behind him, then turned and struck it again, trying to break through and escape — but despite looking like glass, the wall was absurdly solid.
"Open the damn thing already! I don't want to stay here any longer! Hey! Somebody open the door!!!" Noah screamed at the top of his lungs as he pounded the invisible wall, trying to break free.
"Don't go, please!"
"We love you!"
"No one will love you like we do!"
"Please! Please! Please! Please! Please!"
"Please! please! please! please! please! please!" Noah repeated in terror, over and over. That's when the glass cracked — and Noah felt a flicker of hope return.
"Finally—" said Noah, just as his nose burst, blood gushing out. It spilled from his nostrils and lips, filling his mouth until he vomited it out, splattering his clothes and dripping to the floor.
"W-What's happening?" thought Noah tensely, just before a lightning bolt of excruciating pain struck his mind, as if his brain had been pierced by nails. His body froze and collapsed flat to the ground, eyes locked on the endless copies of his friends closing in with wide, unblinking eyes, approaching without moving their feet — without even taking steps.
"I don't want to die again!... I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die—" thought Noah, unable to speak, blood still pouring nonstop from his mouth and nose.
Then Noah felt a strange sensation — a slackness overtaking his muscles. His nose dropped off and hit the ground like a doll's piece. Then his fingers fell off, one by one. His legs detached from his body. Then his head separated, spinning away from his body before stopping — letting him see his own dismembered form, like a broken wooden puppet.
"What is happening?! What is this?! What the—" Noah shouted in horror, eyes wide with panic. But then… his mouth fell off — or more accurately, it melted, dripping down like a thick, red goo, pooling on the floor like cold, congealed grease.
"Just kill me already! Why do I have to suffer like this?! Why me?! What did I ever do to deserve this?!" thought Noah, his eyes welling with tears — but even his eyes weren't spared. They, too, dropped from their sockets like wooden beads, leaving behind two hollow holes bleeding like tear ducts.
Noah's head began fading from its natural skin tone into the familiar color of wood. His consciousness started slipping away. He could no longer think or react. Wooden grain patterns etched themselves into his face. Cracks spread across his now wooden skin. His blood turned into thick, red grease. His expressions looked drawn on like sketches — yet he was still alive. He hadn't lost his ability to feel pain, fear, horror, or madness.
One of the Livia copies picked up Noah's wooden head and raised it high, and everyone stared at him.
"In the end, you became nothing but a puppet for the ▢▢▢▢▢▢, despite all the promises you made," said Livia coldly as she looked at Noah. Then she gripped him by the eye sockets like a bowling ball — and with all her strength, slammed him into the ground. He shattered like fragile wood.
Suddenly, everything turned black.
Then Noah opened his eyes to find himself still on this side — still in the backstage of the backstage. He was holding the edge of the torn curtain, about to step through — but stopped.
His body was drenched in sweat. His eyes widened, blackened from fear. His pupils trembled. His thoughts were clouded. Then Noah lifted his trembling hands and began touching his body, checking to make sure he was still made of flesh and skin. He pinched his cheeks.
"Actor," came a voice from behind. Noah recognized it immediately. He turned around to see Livia standing behind him.
"Let's go. The play's about to begin," said Livia, leaning forward slightly in a playful, teasing pose. A provocative smile curved her lips as she looked at Noah with gentle honey-colored eyes.
"...The play?..." whispered Noah softly, still shocked and shaken by what had just happened — and his terror only deepened when he saw Livia's expression, especially that smile… a smile hiding something wicked behind it.