A Code Without End

Chapter 2.

Jax was sitting in Ragatha's room. He noticed she was a little off, but he dismissed it as she probably just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

"Jeez dollface, what's up with you?" Jax started, chuckling, "You're such a loser today," Jax leaned in a little. "Did you find a centipede in your room, possibly?~" Jax teased. Ragatha, on the other hand, just closed her eyes then pursed her lips.

"Jax... not today. I'm not feeling it." Ragatha muttered. Jax put a hand up to his chest.

"Awh!" Jax laughed for a moment. "Are you angry? Did that centipede really piss you—" Jax was suddenly interrupted.

"Jax. Stop. I'm done." Ragatha said, seriously. It sounded as if anger was building up in her. Jax's eyes narrowed a bit, as if trying to figure out what actually happened. Then, Jax just chuckled for a moment.

"Woah Raggy, you're such a lost cause." Jax said. Suddenly, Ragatha's eyes widened. That's what her mom used to say to her. 'You're such a lost cause.' Those words echoed in her head with no end. She turned around slowly to face Jax in the eyes.

"What did you just say to me?..." Ragatha muttered. Jax was taken aback a bit.

"I said a sentence, obviously—"

"No. Shut up. I'm so done with your jokes Jax, I'm so done." Ragatha interrupted Jax in anger. She had been dealing with this troublesome rabbit for what felt like a century. She was fed up. "You want to know something, Jax? You're the lost cause here. You, and your big mouth. 'Joke' after 'joke', it's never funny, Jax. It never was, and never will be." Jax just sat there for a moment. Then smiled faintly, trying to lift the mood.

"Oh come on dollface... you know I don't mean my jokes..." His eyes darted to the left, not wanting to look Ragatha in the eyes anymore.

Why does everything I say come out wrong lately? It's just a joke, it always has been a joke. That's what I do... that's all I've got left anyway. Jax thought to himself.

That just seemed to boost Ragatha's anger even more.

"Jax, you little jerk. I'm not a lost cause!" Ragatha said, the trauma of her abusive mother kicking in. "I'm not a lost cause, I never was!" Ragatha screamed. Jax could see the tears starting to pool in Ragatha's eyes. He shifted in his seat a bit.

"Ragatha, calm down... please—" Jax was interrupted by Ragatha.

"Calm down?" Ragatha laughed. "Calm down?!" Ragatha was getting more and more angry. "I'm not going to calm down, Jax! We've been stuck in a gosh darn digital world for what seems like forever!" She started, "I was actually happy for once! Happy because I was able to be free from my mother. But then, you just had to show up." Jax's expression shifted to worry.

"Ragatha—"

"NO! You ruined everything! You're such a jerk to me, to everybody! You're ruining all of our lives..." she paused for a moment, before speaking again. "I hate you, Jax. You made me like this. I wished that for once I could be free, but no! You had to ruin it. All of it! Now I'm stuck here forever with you!" Ragatha screamed, putting her hands on her face. She then began crying. Jax just sat there. After a moment, he got up and tried to hug Ragatha. Sure, he never liked apologizing, but he knew he had made a mistake. A bad one. Just then, Ragatha took her right hand off of her face, revealing her eye. Her eye was glitching, multiple colours mixed with black were flashing in her eye. Jax's eyes widened. Ragatha was going to abstract.

"Hey... woah... dollface... c-calm down..." Jax stuttered. "Please Ragatha..." Jax felt a wave of guilt wash over him. Ragatha suddenly pushed him away, and he stumbled to the floor.

Ragatha began to laugh—soft at first, almost sad. But then it twisted to a higher, more maniacal laugh that echoed through the room. Jax saw it all happen in front of his eyes. The way Ragatha's body shifted in ways that weren't humanly possible... it haunted him.

As this was happening, her body was slowly glitching and turning black. Ragatha looked Jax in the eye one final time, and spoke.

"I hate you, Jax. I hate you so much." Her voice was barely above a whisper. Jax's eyes widened even further, her words echoing in his head.

He wanted to laugh it off. Say something smug... anything. But the words sat like glass in his throat.

She hates me.

Not in the playful way, not even in the annoyed way. She meant it.

Jax felt his chest tighten, as tears welled up in his eyes. He tried to speak, but couldn't. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He had a massive lump in his throat.

Suddenly, the distorted figure of Ragatha screamed. It was a scream of agony, a scream of anger. Then, it happened. She turned into a massive glitching black monster, with colourful eyes all around its body. Jax stood there, his vision blurred from his tears. Jax heard rapid footsteps, followed by a series of knocks.

Jax backed away, and looked up, the monster was now looking straight at him. He opened the door and ran out as fast as he could. He could hear Pomni yell for him, but he couldn't be damned to acknowledge that fact. He kept on running, he was headed to his room. He shut the door, and fell to his knees. He felt his chest getting even tighter. Tears began to flow down his cheeks.

He couldn't believe it. Ragatha had abstracted, and it was all his fault. He felt as if his whole world caved in. Yes, he loved joking around, but he never knew his jokes actually hurt people in the long run. His right hand gripped his chest. It was getting hard to breathe now. His breathing was getting more and more rapid, more shallow. I can't breathe. He began trembling. He was just sitting there for a couple of moments, until he fell to the floor, now laying down. He heard very faint voices, and very faint knocks, but he was too drowned in his own emotions to even think straight.

Then, someone barged in. They shut the door and locked it, and began panting. They were speaking, but it was mostly incoherent to Jax. Then they suddenly stopped.

"Jax?..." It was Pomni.