".............???"
Emily stared at the wall again.
'Sorry, White Queen is Dead.'
". . . . . ."
Then she looked around the empty room.
She found a small table next to sentence-written wall, small telephone with no cord or receiver, with fake flowerpot.
Then there was two crosses drawn next to the sentence as well.
"..............."
She checked one cross carefully, and there was a sentence 'cross' written in one.
"...?"
Then she checked from wall, to telephone, to door's lock again.
"..............."
For this was too confusing and seemed hopeless for Emily, she decided to call Kyle for a hint again.
"Hello, Kyle?"
"Yeaah~?⭐"
".....?
...Why do you received the call..?"
"For that, later~
There's only 10 minutes left, don't you wanna save yourself and your brother~?"
"........!!"
Clown was right....if 1 hour passes, then this place would.....
She needed to hurry up...!
"Tell me how to find a code for this room now!"
Emily's voice was merged with anxiety and haste.
"Ohhoho~ if you ask it that way, then it's asking for answer, not a hint~"
"But....--"
"Have you checked a telephone yet~?"
"....?
Telephone....?"
Emily looked at telephone, and when she saw that, there was alphabets written next to each numbers of the dial.
"......!"
"Why, you're a clumsy girl when you're confused~"
"Shut up!
...Christ...
...Fine, how do I find a code through this..?"
"Hint is 'Dead'~"
"What?"
"Dead~"
"..................."
Emily checked the telephone, but only finding numbers for D and A.
But there was no Alphabet E, and one of the dial's number was empty as well.
"................;;;;;;"
- - - 🎈 - - -
"Ngh....where am I..?"
Kyle opened his eyes to face a bright pink sky in front of him.
He sat up, and looked around.
He could see the street looking like the place of fairground.
There were booths for selling candy apples or candy, or ice cream as well.
Although if there was anything queer,
People here were all wearing same clown masks...
....Mask looking like the face of THAT clown....
"..........."
Kyle stood up, ignoring every booths as possible, and looking around to find anything to escape this place.
It seemed unnatural, but it was obvious that he had fallen into some sort of dimension which that clown had stuck him into, although he couldn't find out where he was.
He looked around, and found a wall with something looking like Rome's Mouth of Truth.
"......?"
Kyle got a brief idea to escape through by putting his hand into this mouth, so he put his hand into this.
".........."
It felt cold and hard inside.
".......I want to return back."
Nothing happened.
"....I wish to return back to help my sister, Emily."
Still nothing happened.
Kyle sighed and pulled his hand out of Mouth of Truth.
'Of course...this is not some fantasy, no way I can return this way....-'
Just then, something flipped out of Mouth of Truth to whip at Kyle, and he somehow dodged by leaping backward.
"????"
[SPEAK THE TRUTH, MORTAL!]
A deep, low voice spoke from somewhere.
"?!"
Kyle rolled and dodged as best as he could to dodge the gold chain which flipped and whipped out of Mouth of Truth.
[SPEAK THE TRUTH, MORTAL!]
"I did! I truly wish to return!"
[YOU'RE LYING!]
It whipped another slash of gold chain, this time striking Kyle's cheek hard.
"Argh!"
Kyle fell back on his back, and when he looked up, gold chain was about to strike him like a menacing serpent.
[SPEAK THE TRUTH!!!!!]
Gold chain was about to strike him again--
"I wish you would stop striking that!!"
Chain stopped in midair.
"................."
Kyle was shutting his eyes, but then, when he looked up, he could see that chain had stopped midair, as if time itself had frozen around it and the Mouth on wall.
"............"
Kyle somehow stood up, and carefully touched the chain with his fingertip.
".....?
............."
Kyle backed away, and approached Mouth of Truth, with its face stone hard just as always.
"............
..........?"
A small sentence was written next to the Mouth of Truth.
'To tell the truth which you yourself not even realizes.'
"......................"
So to tell the truth, to tell the want they want right at the moment..?
...This was nonsense.
Kyle had wanted to return to Emily right away, didn't he?
He had tell the truth....
But, if chain had stopped right after he had told it to stop...because it is what he truly wanted....
"Hm........."
Kyle thought for a moment....
"...I want to drink something right now..."
Suddenly, a juice popped up right in front of him, and fell onto his hands.
"?!
............."
So this is some sort of...place like a dream,
Where everything you want at the moment to come true just by saying them?
...But then, why would nothing happen when he wants to come back to the place where he was before?
Is this clown's trick again..?
"..............."
Kyle placed a juice onto ground, and headed on, but juice continued to appear in front of him.
He was confused each times it did, but when he finally gave up and drank it, the empty juice cup disappeared, and it didn't have any effect on him except for being delicious.
".........;;;;;;"
This seems like a hard task, both for him, and for his sister as well.
- - - 🎈 - - -
Emily somehow figured the code by the number across from the sentence dead, and comprehended letters as numbers and tried them on as passwords.
However, the lock wouldn't work...
"?!"
Emily tried it on multiple times,
Again,
And again,
But yet, it won't happen at all.
"..........!"
Despaired, Emily fell to her knees and tears came to her eyes as well.
Is this over like this.....?
Without being able to save Kyle?
Or anyone?
Not even herself?
...They couldn't even meet their parents and return home again...
...Back in their home, probably their parents put on missing posters...
No clue at all where they really are...
...Now that she thought of it, maybe her parents felt despaired as much as she was now...
...Also...
She couldn't even apologize to September...
She had spoken mean to her, and she was really mad and upset as a result...
...Why can't she speak more nicer to people?
Why can't she soften not even one bit?!
Emily slammed her fist into the door, feeling despaired.
Her card, which strange man had helped with to come into this room, flipped over and showed an other side.
"..........................."
Although despaired, Emily looked up to see that card.
"......?"
On the other side of the vivid drawing of red queen, there was a drawing of White queen and poor Heart Jack.
White Queen was pulling Heart Jack out of somewhere...somewhere seeming like a hole.
".........?
.............."
Emily checked up and stared at the card.
On the front side, a picture of cruel red queen tormenting everyone of kingdom.
On the other side, white queen saving at least one person from red queen's cruel reach.....
"................"
Right, what if she tried the numbers on in different order?
'Dead' to being 'Daed'
Well, that didn't make any sense, but if she tried the password code in a backside order....
Door opened.
"Eh.
...?
?
??
.......!!"
She stood in the opened doorway for a moment, until she came to her senses and bolted out of the door to face the same corridor she saw where she was before she came into Clown's game.
A corridor of sixth floor.
'It was that easy! why was I even despaired...!'
In delight and with a little bit of embarrassment at the fact that she despaired over a mere code, she looked around with happy expression.
"Kyle! I'm outside now! we made it!
...Kyle..?"
"Ohoho!"
A clown's laughter was heard once again, and Emily immediately turned around to face the clown, with Kyle seated on the floor, leaning his back against the wall, unconscious.
"Kyle! you...what did you do to him?!"
"Hoho....~ you two are surely alike, being siblings and all~"
"What..?"
"This boy tried to shoot me, but he failed, so he's dreaming right now~"
"What?!"
"Yeah~ too bad, being so foolish and all~right?^^"
"..........you...you...!"
"Calm down a bit~if you attack me or try to wake him, nothing will work~"
"What do you mean?!"
"That is either thing you do, you'll destroy your brother's mind that way~"
"..........What...?"
- - - 🎈 - - -
Meanwhile, Kyle looked around, and managed to find something that attracted him.
A huge circus tent was set up in the middle of the fairground, and he went inside.
Inside, it was empty, and no one was there.
".........?"
He was not sure of what to do...but he sat down on one of the seats in the tent, for it was not fitting for now's case, but his legs ached due to being beat up by gold chain from Mouth of Truth before....
Just then, his wrists were bound and tied to the chair's armrests.
"?!"
Then next his ankles were tied as well.
"Huh?!"
Kyle tried to pull away in panic, but his wrists and ankles were firmly bound by metal cuffs.
"Ngh-argh, what on earth-?"
Suddenly, all the windows of the circus tent was covered in curtains, and the door was also shut by the sudden metal door looking like a safe door.
"...Huh..?"
The light was lit on stage of the circus tent, then the circus music began to flow out as well as the jolly and welcoming voice ringing.
"Hello, welcome, welcome~! welcome to our circus show~!"
"...?"
"Take your seat, but we covered the windows to protect our precious, precious guests' souls~^^"
".........?!"
With the circus's light shining upon the stage, a clown whom Kyle knew over too well showed up on a stage, this time placed upon a huge ball instead of unicycle.
"Welcome to the circus of Liars~in this place, our precious guests will see all sorts of amazing wonders~"
And all of a sudden, in a circus tent where Kyle thought he was alone at, all seats including his were occupied by suddenly appeared crowds, crowds all wearing same clown masks as clown on the stage, causing the atmosphere to be eerie as ever.
"..........Huh..."
"The first attraction will begin, with our famous mirror show~!"
With the pink smoke fuming across and around the stage, covering the whole stage, clown's laughter was heard as well.
That's when Kyle began to slowly realize.
He was stuck in this circus until, in worst, might be forever.