I’d Rather Let Time March On Without Me

by Ozzi_pop

Summary:

Pomni wakes up in C&A Studios after Caine broke and escaped the circus, free from the circus.

Should be amazing, right? It sure doesn't feel that way.

Alone and overwhelmed, she discovers time passed differently in the circus from reality, which sorta fucks her up. Not to mention the system the circus members set up to find each other probably won't work anymore.

Will Pomni get her life back together? Can she get ahold of the others? And why does her best friend seem so... understanding?

Title from SICK SICK SICK by Stomach Book <3

Notes:

Welcome to my first attempt at posting fanfic on ao3! I've written stuff before. but I've always thought it were too messy or imperfect to share. This time I feel brave though, so let's see how this does ^^

For the most part I'm just seeing if this is a story people would find interesting so far, it all depends if people like this enough for me to keep going lmao

Chapter 1: Last One Awake

Consciousness hit Christine at full force, practically shoving her into reality as she threw the headset off her face

Christine, right. That was her real name, not Pomni. The memories were starting to trickle back into her head. It felt so painfully obvious to know her name now, what made her and everyone else forget back in the circus?

She barely had enough time to finish that thought as long forgotten information overwhelmed her brain, recollected thoughts and details of her life scrambling through her head and rearranging themselves into place. The pace everything came flooding back in at felt almost painful.

Her name was Christine Volkova.

She had been exploring an abandoned game studio.

She had stumbled upon an old working VR headset and computer, so she tried it out for shits and giggles.

Biggest mistake of her fucking life, god forbid she tried to find a sliver of joy in her crappy mundane life.

Oh yeah, swearing wasn’t censored anymore. Christine knew she should be feeling excitement, happiness, maybe even hope. But it was really hard to muster up any word to describe the way she was currently feeling.

…

How long had she been laying on the floor?

Christine gathered the strength to slowly sit up and look at her surroundings. The area she was in was eerily similar to what was behind the “exit door” from her first day in the circus. In front of her, the camcorder she used sat on a desk next to where the VR headset was once placed, probably long dead by now. Her small black backpack was below, rested against one of the desk’s legs.

Christine slowly crawled towards the desk and reached for the bag. The camcorder was of no use to her anymore. With shaky hands, she unzipped the bag and pulled out her phone.

There was no guarantee it would turn on, it most likely wouldn’t. But she had to know how much time had passed in the real world, it didn’t matter how terrifyingly long it’d been. Everyone “celebrated” the yearly anniversaries of members entering, and Christine recounted experiencing quite a few of them. Squeezing her eyes shut, she turned her head away and pressed the on button.

She felt the white light fill the room.

Christine peeled her eyes open and forced herself to see the date on her lockscreen.

Her heart froze upon witnessing the screen, awful feelings of dread and anger creeping in. She yanked her phone across the room without thought and curled up, pushing her knees to her chest. She made no efforts to calm her quickened breathing or wipe the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes. It didn’t matter. It’s not like anyone would understand at that point.

The date that was shown on the phone was October 13th, 2023. The time was 4:26.

Christine spent 5 years in the circus.

She was gone for 3 minutes in the real world.