Chapter 6: Broken barriers

As soon as Jax turned in for the night, Pomni asked Caine if she could speak privately with him. As soon as they were away from the others, Pomni revealed what Jax seemed to be going through.

"He's not gonna abstract…is he?" She asked, worried. "I doubt he's thinking about the exit from what you told me, but if he continues to worry and get scared like that, it might be a possibility."

"What should we do?" Pomni asked. "We can't do anything as long as he doesn't tell any of us what's going on with him, so we'll just have to wait and keep an eye on him." Caine replied. "But…what if he never tells us?"

Pomni saw Jax being the one who had the upper hand most of the time, the one who had many advantages and wasn't an AI. Something told her that Jax wasn't going to tell anyone anything for a while. But how was he supposed to be helped if he didn't say anything?***

Jax was walking back to the room, unsure of what he was to do there, but was sure he would be able to calm down. His thoughts instantly returned to the nightmare he had. "…Or maybe not."

"Oh, Jax. That nightmare was nothing compared to the others I could imagine to give you. But, if you want another one, it's not a problem. Those are my specialties."

"Wait, what the-?!" Jax quickly turned around, hoping to see anyone that might've given him that comment. Even though having a person there that could read his thoughts and talk creepy to him like that would be terrifying, but in Jax's perspective, it would've been better than what he thought the voice was coming from.

But no one was there.

"Ha! Still think you can lie to yourself, Jax? Truth is truth, no matter what one tries to do to hide it from themselves. You'll have to face it someday, one way or the other." The mysterious voice echoed through Jax's ears, it almost hurt his brain.

"You! Stay out of my head!" Jax thought, speaking whoever was in his head at the moment, talking by direct thoughts.

"Why should I? I'm part of you, after all. These are your thoughts, Jax." "...No. That can't be true. You're evil. I can tell. STAY OUT! YOU'RE NOT ME!" "Oh, but I am. These thoughts are both yours and mine. We are one, Jax. There's nothing you can do to change that. I'm here forever." Jax started to panic. What if what this guy was saying was true? "Am I evil?" He thought. "Am I slowly turning into an abstract without even realizing it?!"

His head was pounding. "Oh. Great. Just what I need. A headache couldn't make things better."

One of his hands went to his head, trying to ease his pain. "What is this guy doing inside me? Are we really the same? Am I more vulnerable than I thought I was?!"

Jax realized the voice wasn't talking anymore. His headache eased a little. He brought his hand down and looked at it. Suddenly, for a second, it glitched, then returned to normal. Jax took a step back in fear.

The voice was gone, but nothing in Jax's situation had gotten better. In fact, Jax could almost feel the whole world shattering around him, seconds from finally breaking apart.***

"I've got all the keys in the world. But not one of them led to the stupid exit."

Ragatha had been thinking about what she heard Jax say for a while now. She had been passing by his room when she heard him talking. He sounded angry and almost discouraged.

She had known about the keys the day Pomni arrived, and only discovered he was trying to use them to find an exit out of here a while ago. She had never heard him sound so self-hating before. He never talked about his flaws, he seemed as self-confident as any normal person with no mental issues like the rest of them had. But…maybe that was all a lie?

In truth, he almost seemed like Gangle at the most. They both had masks on to hide their feelings, only his true self was shown to nobody but himself. Ragatha had been annoyed at Jax, sure that he didn't care about anything, much less than anyone, but now, she wasn't so sure. Did he feel hurt that no one seemed to be like him in the least that he could tell his troubles to? Maybe it had to do with Kinger, who was with Jax before all the others.

But whatever it had to do with, Jax was hurting himself by keeping it all in. Nobody would find themselves in a good position if they didn't let it out soon.

Maybe she should try to pry it from him? "No, no, no. That wouldn't work at all. He'd probably feel threatened. I'll have to wait till he comes around to help him out with it, wait, no, that would take way too long, he might abstract before I get a single word out of him…maybe I could earn his trust somehow? Yes, I think that would be best. Hopefully he will know I'm just trying to help him. Because if he doesn't get help…

…Well, let's just hope it doesn't come to that.