TADC EP 8

The circus is quiet.

Not the usual “waiting-for-Caine-to-say-something” quiet.

A dead quiet.

The lights flicker overhead, slower than before. Colors feel dimmed, like someone turned the saturation down on reality itself.

Caine is gone.

Not hidden. Not resetting.

Just… gone.

No one’s saying it out loud, but everyone knows something is very wrong.

Pomni paces in tight circles, muttering under her breath. Ragatha tries to keep herself together, though her stitched smile twitches every few seconds. Gangle clutches her comedy mask, not even attempting to switch it. Zooble’s pieces shift restlessly, metal scraping faintly in the silence.

And Kinger—

Kinger sits off to the side.

Still.

Too still.

His head is lowered, crown dim, hands resting in his lap like he doesn’t trust them to move again.

No one goes near him.

The system crackles above you.

For a split second, a distorted voice tries to form—warped, stretched, almost familiar—

“L—let’s… start the—”

It cuts out.

Hard silence again.

Then—

Everyone slowly turns to you.

Because without Caine…

There’s no one left to lead.

And something in this place is starting to wake up.