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Chapter 9 is the ninth chapter of The Lonely Ones novel.
Description[]
Ruse and Feast arrive to a loading dock where they find Mim alone on a stage made of crates, but the Performer is nearby, continuing his routine elsewhere as Mim continues to mimic his every move. While Feast stays with Mim, Ruse searches for the Performer to confront him, finding the Performer's door leading to a room of mirrored walls on the other side. Amidst a chase between Ruse and the Performer in his room, the girl discovers a way to fight against him.
Plot[]
Ruse and Feast exit the arcade onto a loading dock. Ruse looks out into the horizon and is disappointed that the yellow blimp she saw as their means to escape the flying carnival is not there. Ruse questions if they missed the blimp, but Feast does not respond, because he cannot hear her and they cannot hear anything else. The absence of sound informs them the Performer is near. Ruse and Feast enter a canyon of crates that remind them of a miniature city, they search for Mim along the way. A pungent odor coming from the crates makes the air thick, enough to make Ruse gag and her eyes water. On the other side of the boxes, Ruse locates Mim standing on a ramshackle stage made of crates, her face now painted, concerning Ruse over what the Performer had done to Mim. Ruse and Feast look around the dock for the Performer, Feast spots him high above standing on a crate suspended by a rope and pulley over the conveyor belt.
The Performer watches Mim for a while then bows, steps back and drops out of view, startling Ruse. Ruse wonders where the Performer went knowing he did not fall from the crate. Feast goes to the stage Mim is on, but Mim acts as if she is trapped in an invisible box. Feast struggles to reach for Mim, unable to pass through the invisible barrier Mim is behind. Ruse falls into a trance as she looks on, wondering if Feast has also become part of the Performer’s act. A Crow drops down in front of Ruse, snapping her out of her trance. Ruse looks around and sees dozens of Crows around them, all of them fixated on Mim’s performance. She glances at Feast, he’s given up on trying to reach Mim and is now just watching her trace the dimensions of the invisible prison she is trapped in. Ruse looks up at the crate the Performer had disappeared from, she follows the rope and pulley to a metal hoist and mechanism, a Crow perched on a metal control panel she could reach. Ruse hurries to the control panel and begins pulling levers and spinning dials until she manages to position the crate over the long conveyor belt. She yanks down on a lever and the crate plummets down. The sound of the crate cracking open as it hits the ground informs Ruse the Performer is gone.
The impact of the crate falling to the ground sent the Crows flying, even forcing Feast to look away from Mim towards Ruse. Ruse makes her way towards the crate, waving to Feast to alert him to not look at Mim. Feast closes his eyes to not look at Mim but tries to shout something to her with cupped hands, trying to get through to her. Ruse looks over the side of the conveyor belt and is hit with a dizziness from seeing the continuous sky and clouds below. Above her, the Crows circle the crate to tear apart the bundles wrapped in paper and string that were in the crate, pulling sinewy glistening strands. Ruse explores the wreckage of the crate and finds the Performer's door painted on a broken side of the box. The door is now closed but there is a wide enough crack running down the image for her to squeeze through. Ruse looks inside and sees a light. Ruse crawls inside the opening and finds a mirrored room on the other side. Ruse is unsure of whether or not the Performer is in the room but forces herself to look at him only in the mirrors. Ruse realizes she’s seen the room before, under the vent that's below the gramophone. She spots the Performer acting out a routine in his room just as he did the first time they met.
The Performer is acting the same routine as Mim, holding his hands to the wall, stroking his own reflection, the only thing impairing his reflections is the crack in the wall she came out of, which is now spreading slowly up the wall. The Performer senses Ruse’s presence and turns to find her. A chase ensues where the Performer pursues Ruse as she tries to rely only on the mirrors to evade his grasp, running to the edges of the room. Ruse slides under the gramophone and stops as she hears a static sound followed by Feast shouting to Mim, telling her to wake up. Ruse wonders how she can hear Feast from within the Performer's room. The unexpected sound of Feast shouting both paralyzes and infuriates the Performer, forcing him to stop and cover his ears against Feast’s voice, only advancing in between Feast’s calls. Ruse thinks to herself, asking Feast to continue calling to Mim. She climbs the gramophone table and keeps track of the Performer through the mirrored walls, who continues to approach her. As Ruse reaches the top of the table, she grabs hold of one of the many dials on the machine and twists it to crank up the volume. Feast’s voice calling out to Mim blasts from the gramophone with enough intensity to force the Performer to clutch his head and stagger backward.
The Performer rushes to the gramophone and Ruse. He tries to grab the girl, but she ducks behind the brass horn. Ruse watches the Performer’s distorted reflection lower the volume of the machine, but before he can compose himself, she darts towards the metal slider and pushes it to the top, making Feast’s shout high pitched. The Performer’s face twists in agony and anger, he slams his hand down towards her but she manages to roll away towards another dial to turn all the way around. The Performer struggles to recover from the onslaught of Feast’s shouts, giving Ruse time to increase the volume even more. Ruse frowns as the noise in the room reaches deafening levels, she covers her own ears as the room trembles around them. The cracking sound of the mirrored walls is heard, splintering and crumbling as the Performer remains at the center of the room, on his knees, his hands clamping the beret on his head over his ears as he hunches over. Ruse hops down from the table and heads for the crack she entered from, dodging shards of glass that are falling from the ceiling and shattering to the ground around her. Ruse raises one of her arms to protect her eyes from both the Performer and the shards of exploding glass that could cut her.
Ruse panics as she struggles to find the crack she entered. As pieces of the mirrors fall away, she glimpses different rooms. She recognizes the Performer's theater in one jagged opening and the arcade in another. An entire section of wall collapses, revealing a chilling void. Other cracks reveal a searching eye. Ruse finds the widening crack that can bring her back to the Loading Dock, back to Feast and Mim. Ruse dives through the crack and tumbles out onto the conveyor belt on the other side. She slowly makes her way towards her friends after carefully brushing the shards of glass from her hair and clothes. Mim, now off the stage, mimics the Performer's hunched state. Feast looks troubled as he tries to lift Mim up to her feet. Suddenly, Mim begins crawling towards Ruse on the conveyor belt. Ruse once again feels that itch at the back of her head telling her to look around. Ruse turns and sees the Performer crawling out of the painted door on the broken wood lit on the conveyor belt. Ruse looks at the Performer's slashed face and feels like she is losing herself in it, as she sees the chilling void she previously saw in the broken mirrors.
The conveyor belt suddenly stutters to a sudden start and forces Ruse to look away from the Performer. As the conveyor belt moves, it pulls her and the Performer backwards towards the edge of the dock. Ruse tries to turn and run but makes slow progress as the conveyor belt continues to move. Ruse sees Mim marching towards her, mimicking the Performer who she knows is marching towards her from behind, but she does not dare look back at him again. Ruse spots Feast at the control panel, his hand on the lever that tells her he was the one who activated the conveyor belt. Feast notices the Performer heading towards Ruse and quickly runs to Mim to try and slow her down. Ruse, Feast and Mim all meet on the conveyor belt. Ruse can hear the sound of the Performer continuing to pursue them, his steps sounding like crunching glass. All sound around them becomes warped and muffled, Feast’s voice even cuts in and out. Ruse checks on Mim’s state and sees her expressing no other reaction besides blinking.
Mim continues to walk on the conveyor belt. Ruse walks backwards ahead of Mim, but they continue to get closer to the Performer and the end of the conveyor belt. Not knowing what else to do, Ruse and Feast hug Mim. They keep her in their arms to try and shield her from the Performer. Mim stops walking and as Ruse looks at her, she sees that the smaller girl is now crying. Ruse asks Mim if she is okay and Mim responds with a nod. Mim’s eyes widen as she looks past Ruse. Feast leans and whispers something to Mim. Despite not knowing what Feast is saying, she knows it's not for her to hear. Feast takes Mim’s left hand and Ruse takes Mim’s right hand, the three of them confronting the Performer together. The Performer now stands frozen, his actions mimicking Mim, the black lines running down his face make it seem as if his eyes are melting. Behind the Performer, the crate and the broken door leading to the Performer's room fall over the edge of the deck down into the open sky. Mim, still holding onto Feast and Ruse, takes a bow. The Performer mimics Mim, his beret falling from his head onto the conveyor belt. A moment later, the Performer falls off the edge of the deck, his anguished cry breaking the silence, revealing he had a voice after all.