The community center is different now.
Arden feels it the moment she walks in. The air. The silence. The way people look at her.
Some stare. Some look away. None smile.
Eight survivors sit in the circle. Yesterday there were fifteen. Today? Eight.
Margaret's gone. Obviously. Fled after the knife. After the exposure. After everything.
But seven others are missing too. Dmitri. Three of the unnamed ones. Marcus. The Empty girl.
Gone. Vanished. Chose Margaret's side.
The fracture is real.
"Where are the rest?" Arden asks. Knows the answer. Asks anyway.
Jin-Hwa stands by the coffee maker. Surgeon hands steady. Face hard. "They left. Last night. Right after you boarded Bus 000. Said you were insane. Said you'd get everyone killed."
"Did they go with Margaret?"
"Don't know. Don't care." Jin-Hwa pours coffee. Drinks it black. "They made their choice. We made ours."
Callum sits in the circle. Bearded. Tired. Alive. He'd entered the Game with Arden. Killed the fragment. Came back whole.
"How are you feeling?" Arden asks him.
"Like I just killed a piece of God." He laughs. Wrong sound. Broken. "Can't sleep. Can't eat. Can't stop thinking about it. Miranda. The way she exploded. The light. The screaming."
"It gets easier."
"Does it?"
Arden doesn't answer. Can't lie.
Olli sits beside Callum. Quiet Olli. Eight months out from his Game. Now a god-killer. He stares at his hands. Flexes his fingers. Like checking if they're real.
"I didn't lose anything," he says. Quiet. Wondering. "Entered the Game. Killed a fragment. Came back. But I didn't lose any memories. Didn't die. Didn't resurrect. Nothing."
"Voluntary entry," Arden explains. "Different rules. The Entity can't force death on players who choose to enter. Can't take memories from willing participants. We found the exploit."
"So we can do it again." Jin-Hwa sits. "Kill another fragment. And another. Until they're all dead."
"Theoretically."
"What's stopping us?"
"The Entity knowing we're coming." Kael enters from upstairs. Face tight. He'd stayed outside during the first entry. Bound. Unable to participate. But his binding weakened after the fragment died. Now he can touch things connected to the Game. Handle evidence. Get closer. "I've been monitoring. Listening. The Entity's fragments are communicating. They know Miranda's dead. They're coordinating defenses."
"How do you know?" Olli asks.
"Because Bus 000 multiplied." Kael pulls out his phone. Shows a photo. Three buses. All black. All numbered 000. Parked in different parts of the city. "It's creating more entry points. More Conductors. More hunters. It knows we're a threat now."
The room goes quiet.
"So what do we do?" Callum asks.
"We adapt." Arden moves to the whiteboard. Someone left it here. Relic from before. When the support group did workshops. Healing circles. Normal survivor things.
She picks up a marker. Writes.
FRAGMENTS KILLED: 1
FRAGMENTS REMAINING: 46
"Miranda was Terminal Zero," she continues. "The hub. The coordinator. Without her, the other fragments can't communicate as efficiently. But they're still out there. Still running Stations. Still coordinating the Game."
"Which one do we kill next?" Jin-Hwa asks.
"The weakest one." Arden draws. Rough diagram. "The Entity's structure is like a network. Nodes connecting nodes. Miranda was central. But there are isolated fragments. Stations that don't interact with others. Kill those first. Work our way toward the core."
"Which Station is most isolated?"
"Station Four." Kael's voice. Certain. "The Carnival. I've died there across three timelines. It's always broken. Always glitching. Always disconnected from the main sequence."
"Ringmaster Revel," Arden says. Remembers. The mirrors. The games. The reflections. "That fragment nearly broke me. Made me see every version of myself I could have been. Every failure. Every regret."
"So it's strong."
"It's cruel. But it's isolated. Self-contained. Kills through psychology. Not coordination. If we can get there. Trap it. Create the paradox. It'll collapse like Miranda."
"How do we get there?" Olli asks. "Miranda ran Terminal Zero. We board Bus 000, we go through her Station first. But she's dead. So how do we reach Station Four directly?"
Good question.
Arden thinks. Remembers her Game. The sequence. Terminal Zero. Then Station One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Always linear. Always progressive.
But Game 248 is broken. Glitching. What if the sequence broke too?
"We don't follow the sequence," she says. "We break in. Hijack a player already at Station Four. Merge with their Game. Enter mid-stream."
"That's possible?"
"I don't know. But the Entity's weak. The rules are breaking. Maybe we can bend them too."
"How do we find a player at Station Four?"
Arden pulls out her phone. Opens the forum. The hidden one. Where survivors post. Where people who've seen Bus 000 share stories.
Scrolls. Reads. Finds one.
Posted 4 hours ago:
"Help. Stuck in carnival. Mirrors everywhere. Can't find exit. Everything's glitching. Please. Someone. Anyone. I'm losing my mind."
Posted by: PLAYER_UNKNOWN
Location: Game 248 - Station Four
"Found one," Arden says. Shows the phone. "Someone's in Station Four right now. Posting from inside. If we can trace them. Contact them. Coordinate. We can enter at their location. Skip the sequence entirely."
"And if it doesn't work?"
"Then we die permanently. No resurrection. No second chances. Voluntary entry's rule." She meets their eyes. Each one. "I'm going. You don't have to. This is riskier than last time. More unknown. More danger."
Silence.
Then Jin-Hwa stands. "I'm in."
Callum stands. "Me too."
Olli stands. "Three."
Kael doesn't stand. Can't enter. But his eyes say everything. He'd go if he could. He'd die with them if possible.
"Four of us," Arden says. "Plus the player already inside. Five total. Should be enough."
"When?" Jin-Hwa asks.
"Now. Before the Entity adapts more. Before Margaret does something. Before we lose momentum." She heads for the door. "We track the forum post. Find out who's inside. Make contact. Enter together."
They follow. Four survivors. Four god-killers. Four people about to do something impossible.
Again.
Kael traces the post. Takes him twenty minutes. IP address. Location ping. Digital breadcrumbs.
"Got it," he says. Laptop screen glowing. "Post came from inside Game 248. But the player's physical body is still in reality. Comatose. Hooked to the Game psychically but not moved."
"Where?" Arden asks.
"Chelsea. Apartment building. Fourth floor." He shows the address. "We can get there in fifteen minutes."
They take the T. Red Line. Then walk. Four people. Backpacks. Supplies. Codebook in Arden's jacket. Always there. Always ready.
The apartment building is old. Brick. Fire escape zigzagging down the side. They buzz apartments randomly until someone lets them in without asking.
Fourth floor. Door 4C.
Arden knocks. Nothing. Knocks again.
"Break it down?" Callum asks.
"Wait." Jin-Hwa tries the handle. It turns. Unlocked. "People in crisis don't lock doors."
Inside is chaos. Small apartment. Papers everywhere. Drawings. Sketches. All of the same thing.
Mirrors. Carnivals. Distorted reflections.
And on the couch. A woman. Maybe thirty. Eyes closed. Breathing shallow. Trapped.
"That's her," Olli says. "The poster. She's in Station Four right now."
Arden kneels beside her. Checks vitals. Pulse weak but steady. Skin cold. Clammy.
"How do we reach her?" Jin-Hwa asks.
"We enter the Game. Find her inside. Merge our consciousness with hers." Arden stands. Looks around. "But we need a doorway. A way to pierce the veil between her Game and reality."
Kael points. "There."
A mirror. Full-length. Propped against the wall. But the reflection is wrong. Doesn't show the room. Shows carnival lights. Ferris wheel. Impossible colors.
"That's the doorway," Kael says. "Her connection to Station Four. It's manifesting physically. Bleeding through."
Arden approaches. Touches the glass. Cold. Vibrating. Alive.
"We go through this. We enter her Game. We find her. We kill Ringmaster Revel together."
"And if we can't find her?"
"Then we're trapped in Station Four. Permanently. Becomes our Game. Our hell."
No one backs down.
Arden looks at Kael. "If we don't come back—"
"You'll come back." He touches her face. "You always do."
She wants to believe him.
She steps toward the mirror. Jin-Hwa beside her. Callum. Olli. Four people. One reflection. Carnival lights flickering.
"On three," Arden says. "One. Two—"
The door behind them explodes.
Not opens. Explodes. Wood splintering. Hinges tearing.
The Conductor stands in the wreckage. Tall. Victorian uniform. Cane in hand. Face visible now. Old. Wrong. Smiling.
"Going somewhere?" he asks.
Kael moves between them. "You can't stop them."
"Can't I?" The Conductor taps his cane. The comatose woman on the couch convulses. Screams without waking. "I control access. I am the doorway. And I say. No entry."
"We're going through." Arden doesn't move. "You can't stop voluntary players."
"Perhaps. But I can kill your anchor." He points the cane at Kael. Silver tip glowing. "He's still bound to me. Partially. One command. One pull. He becomes mine again. Hunts you instead of helps you."
"Don't," Kael says. Voice tight. Fighting already. "Don't do it. Just let them go."
"Why would I do that? You're killing fragments. Destroying the Game. Threatening the Entity's existence." The Conductor moves closer. "I offer you a deal. You stop. Now. Forever. Walk away. And I let you all live. Peacefully. Quietly. Until you die of old age."
"No deal," Arden says.
"Then I take him." The Conductor's cane glows brighter. "And you lose your only ally. Your only support. Your only reason to come back."
Kael's screaming now. Clutching his chest. The binding activating. Pulling. Turning.
"Arden." His voice changes. Deeper. Wrong. "Run. Please. RUN."
She looks at the mirror. At salvation. At escape.
Looks at Kael. At pain. At sacrifice.
Choice. Always a choice.
She pulls out the Codebook. Opens it. Pen appears.
"What are you doing?" Jin-Hwa asks.
"Buying us time." Arden writes. Fast. Desperate.
The Conductor's binding breaks.
The Codebook burns. Hot. Painful. Words sinking into pages.
The Conductor's cane shatters. Explodes. Silver shards flying.
Kael collapses. Gasping. Free.
"What did you do?" The Conductor's face twists. Rage. Disbelief. "What did you DO?"
"I broke the rules." Arden's hands shake. "Used the Codebook outside the Game. On a fragment directly. I don't know if it worked permanently. But it worked now."
"You'll pay for this." The Conductor lunges.
But Arden's already moving. Grabs Kael. Pulls him toward the mirror.
"Everyone through! NOW!"
They dive. All five. Into the mirror. Into carnival lights. Into Station Four.
Behind them. The Conductor's scream. Rage. Fury. But fading. Distant. Gone.
They're falling. Through color. Through sound. Through impossible space.
Hit ground. Not ground. Sawdust. Dirt. Carnival dirt.
Arden stands. Looks around.
The Carnival of Mirrors. Station Four. Exactly as she remembers.
Ferris wheel turning. Calliope music playing backward. Game booths lining a midway that curves into infinity.
And standing at the entrance. Ringmaster Revel. Tall. Top hat. Coat that shimmers. Face painted half white, half black. Smiling.
"Well well well." Their voice echoes. Theatrical. Delighted. "Voluntary guests. How absolutely THRILLING. And you brought friends. How. Delicious."
Jin-Hwa helps Kael stand. He's here. Inside the Game. The binding breaking let him enter.
"You're in the Game," Arden says to him. "You're actually in."
"I know." He looks at his hands. At the carnival around them. "Feels wrong. Right but wrong."
"Can you fight?"
"I can try."
Five of them now. Five voluntary players. Plus one somewhere in the carnival. The woman from the apartment. Trapped. Lost. Searching.
Six total. Against one fragment. One piece of shattered god.
Ringmaster Revel claps. Slow. Mocking. "Welcome to my Carnival. Where every game is rigged. Every mirror lies. Every choice costs a piece of your soul. Shall we begin?"
"We're not playing your games," Arden says. "We're here to kill you."
"Oh I know." Revel's smile widens. Impossibly wide. "That's what makes it FUN."
They snap their fingers.
The carnival shifts. Changes. Mirrors appear. Everywhere. Surrounding them. Reflecting them.
But the reflections are wrong. Showing different versions. Different choices. Different lives.
Arden sees herself in the mirrors. Every possibility. Every path not taken.
"Here we go again," she whispers.
Revel laughs. Sound like breaking glass.
"Let the games begin."