The Circus Cat

Prologue: The Headset

        The building had a cool air about it, plants over taking the outside walls and parts of the 1st  level floor. The smell of dust, dirt, leaves, and natures science calmed her. She knew the smell of an old building being reclaimed by nature wasn't often found or appreciated by others, but she felt safe in a way.

        Her flashlight swept the areas around her in the shadowed rooms despite it being day outside. She presumed the light just didn't make it this far into the buildings. That made sense with the lack of windows. She did smile as she noticed a little friend scurry past. A small grass lizard, nothing she should fear.

        She watched the small reptile scurry past for a few moments before continuing her adventure. The sound of her boots gave gentle taps on the old flooring of the building, as she explored her mind went back to the message from an online friend telling her about this place,about the interesting finds and how they believed she would find it as a nice get away from... them. 

        After about 20 or so minutes of exploring she found a large working area it had many old computers that she couldn't help but take a look inside the different desks. One desk had a drawer full of old bags of gummy alligators and random sketches of character designs. One that caught her eye was 3 alligators wearing cowboy hats. Her favorite of the 3 was a small chubby gator with a small hat and a vest. Next to the creation was the name Max. Seeing these she took a picture with her phone before continuing to explore

        The second Desk had a dust covered book on the desk, "The Manor Murder Mysteries", under it was a child's drawing of shapes with faces on them, making her smile. She remembered the innocents of her youth. How she would draw on the occasion under her bed, as the loud noises were muffled from the walls between her and the ones making the noise, wait no, that isn't important right now. This is time for herself, not to remember how loud they were and how much they yelled.

        The last desk had a filled trashcan with old fast food wrappers from some sorta burger place she hasn't heard of, the logo was seemingly faded away. She could only make out the letters S,d,S,E, and S. However the eye catcher was the old looking VR headset. If she had to make a guess by the old blocky looking design, this headset was built in about 1990 maybe early 2000's. she saw it was plugged in and picked up the device. 

        The weight in her hands reminded her of the barn cat kittens when they were about 6 months old, maybe a little lighter. as she started thinking, out of habit she started to click the keys on the computer, unintentionally waking up the ancient device. She jumped for a moment s bright colors came from the rectangular device in her hands. She carefully sat down her flashlight as she held the headset with both of her hands. its somewhat smooth texture was cool against her hands, and slowly, she brought it up to her eyes. bright colors swirled around as the soft circus like music began to play, a smile etching her face as a world of wonder began to build around her. 

        If only she knew, this was only the beginning of her new life.