Circus opened her eyes and felt disoriented. She was lying on the floor of a dark room, almost pitch black except for a dimly lit doorway. She sat up and looked around while her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She could see exhibition stands all around her, but it was too dark to tell what they were. Where was she?
She remembered being hugged by Dark Jenny and being taken away via teleportation. They landed on the rooftop of a nearby building and she immediately struggled to release herself from her captor, but she couldn't pry herself away. Her kidnapper's grip felt like it was cast out of solid metal. Circus stopped her struggle and looked Dark Jenny in the eyes like prey in front of a predator. She was rewarded for her cooperation with a powerful tap on her forehead like how someone would knock on a door. That's the last thing she remembered before waking up here.
She tensed up when she heard a scream in the distance. Her predator could not be far. She got up and was relieved to find she wasn't restrained. When she investigated one of the stands up close, she found some sort of museum piece with a description plate. Stone tablets with illegible markings on them and old pieces of preserved objects. She wasn't in the mood to try to read their descriptions and concluded she might be in a museum. Why did Dark Jenny drop her here? And where was it? Gunshots sounded in the distance, followed by another scream, and Circus fearfully looked at the doorway in the direction they came from. The doorway looked like it led to a larger central hall. She'd hoped Dark Jenny got bored of her and left her behind for something more entertaining, but the sounds she was hearing suggested it was still nearby.
Circus remembered how she tried to act as a human shield to Plural before. Would Dark Jenny have captured her friend instead, if she hadn't been so courageous? Did it come for Plural specifically? Between the two, Circus was happy she was the one that was taken instead. She'd always wanted to save people, and this was the first time she could really say that she did.
She exhaled deeply and approached the doorway, peeking around to check the room on the other side. It wasn't nearly as dark there, because there were windows. Nobody there, from the looks of it. She walked around the room, towards the doorway that looked like it might lead out of the museum. Circus didn't walk straight through the middle of the room but stuck to the sides, not that it'd make a difference. There was no sign of violence yet. No corpses, bloodstains or anything. She knew she'd probably find those up ahead. The only things she found here were more exhibition stands, with more objects relating to old civilizations. She paid attention to any clues about where she might be, but no museum in particular came to mind.
Circus felt around her pockets but didn't find her phone. It was probably still at Plural's place somewhere. She looked out the window when she heard the sound of a helicopter. It sounded like it was hovering outside the building. Police? Looks like Dark Jenny hadn't been keeping quiet. She didn't understand what the thing saw in her, and maybe she could use the situation to escape its clutches.
In the next room, she found a dead security guard. His head was detached from his body, and there were visible laser marks in the ground behind him. Circus was shocked at the sight, like any person might be, but it wasn't her first time ever seeing a crime scene like this one. She didn't linger, and moved on. The staircase that led out of the room ended up in a large main hall with what looked like a reception desk. This could be the exit. Circus looked around to check if the coast was clear, then crouched down the stairs, using the solid guardrail as cover. Her heart started beating faster as she approached the building's entrance.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she slowly crept towards the entrance while checking her flanks to make sure Dark Jenny wasn't watching her. When she peeked around the corner, she could see the museum's entrance was a longer hallway with a large door at the end. Also dimly lit by the moonlight. She swallowed as she considered that it might be locked at this hour. She walked towards the door along the edge of the hallway and looked behind her one more time. There stood Dark Jenny, looking at her like she did something she wasn't supposed to do. Circus froze in total surrender. She knew better than to run.
Dark Jenny walked to her for a moment, but stopped and turned her gaze beyond her, at the doorway. Circus looked back as well and saw moving silhouettes through the opaque glass of the door. They kicked the door open with enough force to crack the glass when it slammed the other side of the opening, and Circus was blinded by light. She closed her eyes and held up her hands.
"Two civilians!" one of them shouted.
No…
Circus thought but didn't speak. She was frozen in fear of what might happen next.
"Wait- Isn't that…" one of the officers said as they approached Circus and looked at Dark Jenny. They didn't shine their light in Circus' face anymore, and she could open her eyes again to see that there were about ten of them, wearing full gear and carrying assault rifles.
"Sparkle… Princess? What are you doing all the way out here? Did someone come for it?" he continued.
That was a clue Dark Jenny had taken her somewhere far away. Circus could tell the officer struggled with his tone of voice when he had to refer to Jenny's nickname like that. Circus had dropped to the ground, facing Dark Jenny, who just stood there like it wasn't about to massacre these people like it did the museum security staff.
"She's not…" Circus managed to speak, in very low volume.
One of the officers turned around and kneeled next to her.
"Not what?" he asked Circus.
Circus was tense, and she was still holding up her arms.
"Relax. You're safe with us," he said as he put his hand on her shoulder. He looked back at his colleague who tried to talk to Dark Jenny.
"Come on. Talk to me. What happened here? What's with the blood?" the other officer asked Dark Jenny as he grabbed his rifle with both hands. It still had some old dried-up blood on its arm.
Circus saw Dark Jenny stretch out its arm in her direction with a screw in its hand, like it was going to flick it at her. She let out a small shriek, closed her eyes and held her head down. Next thing she heard was a projectile hitting the man who was kneeling in front of her, then his body hitting the ground. Against her better judgment, she opened her eyes to see what had just happened, but it was exactly what she thought. The man had a screw embedded in between his eyes, and was laying there on the ground, dead.
The officers looked at their fallen colleague, then opened fire at Dark Jenny. The bullets deflected off Dark Jenny's body like they were duds, and its body hardly recoiled from the impact either. Circus could swear she even saw bullets hit its eyeballs and bounce off. Dark Jenny walked forward and its pupils slowly started glowing red, like an electric stove rapidly heating up. Circus closed her eyes and covered her ears. She felt like this was it for her.
She was unable to block off her senses completely and still heard gunfire around her. She felt intense heat waves, so hot they could leave burn marks on her as they passed by her. She sat like this for what felt like an eternity, waiting for her turn. She would've preferred the screw in between her eyes, that looked quick and painless.
…
But it didn't come. Circus was still covering her ears and forcing her eyes shut. She couldn't even say how long it'd been. Things felt like they'd calmed down now. No gunshots or significant vibrations. She gasped when she felt a finger poking her forehead. It felt gentle compared to what she was bracing for. She slowly opened her eyes to see the carnage. Dark Jenny stood in front of her and smiled. It had some new blood splatters on its body now. Circus knew she was in the middle of the splash zone and didn't want to look at herself.
Dark Jenny turned around and ran back to the main hall. Circus felt a glimmer of hope when she spotted the tracker still clipped to the back of its dress. In that moment, she remembered: hold the button for five seconds to turn it back on. Dark Jenny seemed fixated on her, even spared her life. If she wasn't going to escape its hands, she would at least be able to let Saturn track it. When did he even get the chance to put it on? He didn't say.
Dark Jenny had turned around the corner and disappeared at this point. Circus looked at her surroundings for the first time. It wasn't pretty. The hallway was colored gray when she first saw it, but the section around her was now painted red with the guts of the officers. She was probably covered head to toe, but she didn't examine herself. She felt physically dirty. Circus felt tears running down her cheek. She was no stranger to murder scenes, but this topped it all.
She watched Dark Jenny return from the doorway. Circus hadn't moved at all, as if she was asked to stay put. Dark Jenny waved an idol around like it found its big prize and believed Circus would be impressed. She couldn't make out what the idol depicted, but it was clearly from this museum. Dark Jenny put the object into a backpack it was now wearing, took Circus' hand and helped her to her feet. It pulled Circus' body against its own and held her tight with one arm. This was her chance, Circus thought. She reached her arms behind the backpack and pretended to return the embrace. The button on the tracker was easy to find, and she held it for five seconds as she remembered. There was no haptic feedback, so she had to trust that it worked.
Meanwhile, Dark Jenny's hair flickered between a red and silver until it stayed red, like a gas stove being fired up. A pink bubble surrounded them, and Circus feared this wasn't really a hug. Her captor didn't even bother exiting through the freshly opened doorway, but instead flew up with a sudden burst, breaking through the ceiling. Circus didn't feel the impact, courtesy of the pink shield surrounding them. She looked down as they kept climbing altitude and got a good look at the museum building and the surrounding city. She had no idea where this was, where it could even be. All she knew was that Dark Jenny brought a strange-looking idol with it.
Dark Jenny picked up speed in a sudden burst and Circus passed out from the G-forces.
♦
Saturn woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling. He saw Plural's worried face. Did she wake him up?
"Why are you…"
This was Circus' living room. This is where they'd spent the night, he remembered. Saturn slept on the couch in the living room and Plural shared the bedroom with Jenny. Plural showed him a news article on her phone.
"I- Come on…." he mumbled. He didn't like to have to focus on something right after waking up.
Plural turned the phone back to herself, scrolled and zoomed in on something, then turned it back to show Saturn. It was blurry footage of a reddish-pink figure flying in the air, shooting down a fighter jet with a laser beam. He immediately recognized what the figure was. He took the phone, zoomed out and scrolled up to read the rest of the article.
"SPARKLE PRINCESS BECOMES PUBLIC ENEMY?"
The article, and others like it, were the biggest news of any news outlet today. Saturn scrolled through as he read about an attack on some museum in a far-away city to the south. In addition to the run-in with armed police, people believe the figure, widely believed to be Jenny, murdered security staff and stole artifacts from the museum.
"Why would it do that?" Saturn asked himself out loud.
"Plu, this is really far away…" he added.
"Watch the other video…" Plural said.
She looked away with a dark expression. Saturn gave her an incredulous look and scrolled further down. He found the video. It came with a disclaimer for disturbing content. He played the video to find security camera footage of the carnage in the hallway. He recognized Circus, too. Plural looked at him for his reaction. He was visibly shocked as he watched the video. Whatever Circus experienced here, he wasn't sure how he'd react in her stead.
"Circus was… in the middle of all that…" he buried his fingers in his hair. Plural didn't say anything. He looked at the phone again and rewinded parts of the video, watching the remainder of it in silence.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! … Yes! Good job!" he exclaimed. Plural curiously sat down next to him to look.
"He- She-she-she-she's…" he pointed. The video was paused at a shot of Circus embracing Dark Jenny.
"The fucking… thing…"
He handed the phone back to Plural and looked for his own. Plural pressed play on the video to see what he meant.
"I forgot all about that… New girl's kinda sharp…" Plural mumbled.
He opened the tracker app to find that it was indeed picking up a signal again. It started in the middle of the night. Saturn and Plural looked at each other in disbelief.
"She fucking did it! It works!" he said ecstatically.
"Where's Jenny?" Saturn asked as he looked around the room.
"Uhh, she headed out early to search. She thinks the panic buttons are reliable enough," she pointed at her armband.
"Well, we gotta call her back," he said as he reached over to press his button. Plural reached out to grab his arm to stop him.
"Emergencies only, remember?" she reminded him.
"I- Okay… wanna call her on her phone, then?" he suggested.
"I'll do it," Plural said, determined. "She hasn't seen the video yet. Knowing Jenny, it's gonna hit her hard…"
Plural dialed Jenny and told her about the tracker, she asked Jenny to return but she couldn't even finish the sentence before Jenny appeared in the living room.
"You have a location?" Jenny asked energetically.
"Yeah, but it's not close," Saturn answered.
He showed her the app, which indicated a location that was even further away than the museum from the article. A different country to the far north. The signal wasn't moving anymore, settling on some isolated city in the middle of nowhere.
"Why?" Jenny looked dumbfounded.
Plural took Jenny's hand and brought her to the couch. Jenny followed obediently as she was tugged along and looked worriedly at her two friends.
"Guys? What's wrong?" Jenny asked with a confused face.
"There's something you need to see," Plural answered.
Jenny's eyes went to the phone as Plural handed it to her. She looked angry when she read the headline and saw the footage with the fighter jet. Saturn looked at her from the table and leaned his head on his hand to block the view.
"I know this idol..." Jenny said when she got to a photo of the stolen item. She didn't elaborate and her two friends didn't ask further.
When she got to the security camera footage, Jenny, like the others, immediately recognized Circus. She got about a quarter of the way in, when the bodies started coming apart and dumping their contents on her helpless friend. Jenny started shaking and breathing harder until she dropped the phone on her lap and just stared into the distance. This was the first time Plural had ever seen her eyes watering up. She wasn't sure up until now if she could do that. Tears rolled down Jenny's face.
"S-She's dead, isn't she?" Jenny was definitely crying now.
Plural stared at Jenny, taken aback that the robot showed more emotion after seeing the footage than she did. "Huh?" she uttered.
"I don't wanna see this…" Jenny shut her eyes tightly.
Plural swallowed and responded: "No, she's okay! She's alive!"
She gave Jenny a hug like she did the night before. Jenny opened her eyes again.
"I'm sorry, I thought you had to know the truth," Plural said.
Jenny looked down at her lap again and took a second to reply.
"You're right…" she said. "What happened to her?" she turned her watery eyes back to Plural.
"It hasn't put a scratch on her. They just fly away," Plural quickly summarized the video.
Saturn joined them on the couch and sat next to Jenny. He didn't really know what to say or do, so he hesitantly put his arm around Jenny's shoulder.
"I'd never do that to people…" Jenny said, as if she had to put her friends at ease after they saw that footage.
After a moment, her eyes went to Saturn's phone. Jenny rubbed her eyes with her arm to wipe off her tears. He opened the tracker app again and handed it to her, showing the location on a map.
"I don't know if it's safer for you two to stay here or be with me…" Jenny said.
She looked at her friends with a sad expression. She was done dragging them into life-threatening situations. It felt wrong to assume they'd come with her to chase the trail of an eldritch horror that had a tendency to pay them visits whenever Jenny wasn't there. Deep inside, however, she didn't want to be left alone again. She needed them because she was scared, so they could comfort her like they always did. Her life had been a rollercoaster ever since she met Saturn and Plural. She feared that if she went by herself, she'd set a precedent, and they'd never go on another adventure again. Still, she wasn't going to put up any theatrics this time.
"You guys decide for yourselves. I'm not gonna tell you what to do anymore."
Her two friends didn't hesitate to give their answer at the same time like they'd rehearsed it:
"Are you crazy? We're coming with you!"
Jenny couldn't suppress a smile. She knew it was selfish, but this was the only answer she would be happy with.