The moment the wagon met the water that reached halfway up, I knew why the fountains we had seen before had been drained.

The water hadn’t looked as murky as it smelled when it splashed on us.

It wasn’t comparable to a Torso Hill, though—it wouldn’t even make it on the scale.

I was still holding onto Henry when the wagon drove out of the water through the momentum we gained by driving down and made it to the bumper at the end of this waterslide.

And I still held onto him when we came to a halt with a platform on the right that would lead to a few steps down from the attraction.

"Smells interesting," I said, while burrowing my nose in his hoodie, covering his neck.

"Mhm." Henry held still, letting me squeeze him however I wanted—maybe because his back was turned to me and he didn’t have to hold me himself.

Something was wrong with his hands—obviously—but they seemed especially stiff under the gloves, and he was probably hurting.

I was worried as hell, but in the end, I suppressed the urge to force him to spill it.

Not now, not when he had just started to laugh again.

"Alright, again?" I eventually let go, and he stood up slowly, turning around to lift me up.

On top of the waterslide were eight trunk wagons parallel to each other, and without electricity, we would have to push them back up after driving down—definitely not something I would want either of us to do.

So after testing one wagon and driving another, we had six rides left.

And I was hell-bent on using each of them to force a bit of body contact between us.

Henry didn’t pull a stunt like before again, but he also didn’t laugh as loudly—which was a loss.

On the other rides, he sat behind me, but at least he held onto me, probably scared that I would get flung out otherwise with the mighty plaster on me.

So in the end, more than just a bit splashed with murky water, we had officially cleared the waterslide attraction.

When I was back in my wheelchair where the fat puppy plushie had waited, I took the mouse ears down and shook my partly wet hair, then ran a hand through it.

We really needed a bath, yet that wasn’t reason enough to end the date just yet.

When I looked up again, I saw Henry staring at me from two meters away.

He seemed strangely focused on the pink mouse ears.

I moved my hand with the ears, and his gaze followed left and right and up and down.

"Pffft." I chuckled and put them back on my head, and only then did he seem content enough to stop staring at them, concentrating on me again.

I grinned at him, then thought about what we should do next. There were still a few booths we hadn’t tried, but more interestingly, I spotted an arcade.

So I pointed at it, and Henry headed to my wishes just like he had done throughout the whole date.

He broke the locks and opened the door to the dark and dusty arcade.

I saw a soccer table and wanted to immediately try it, but given his hands might hurt from gripping the handles, I didn’t ask him.

But Henry had already gone to the counter on the far right after seeing me look at the soccer table and broke open the cash register, getting us coins.

"Alright. No full spins." I stood up from the wheelchair and pulled the handle after Henry gave me a bunch of coins, then pushed one of the balls through the opening.

Interestingly, we were evenly matched in this game as well.

"You played before?" I asked, watching the ball not even reach the goalkeeper.

"Mhm, as a child."

"Yeah, me too." I slid the ball between the players before jerking my wrist abruptly the moment the ball was in front of one of them.

Henry blocked, and the ball struck the glass above, making a spider web-like crack in it.

"Now you did it," I said, while speedily getting control over the ball again.

"It’s not my fault..." the puppy argued quietly.

"It wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t block the ball."

"If I hadn’t blocked it, you would have scored a point."

"Exactly," I chuckled.

He fell silent again before laughing out loud, like a child.

I looked up at him, and he used the time I was distracted to score a point.

"That was nasty."

"It wouldn’t have happened if you blocked the ball."

"Yeah, yeah, shut it."

The spiderweb-like crack didn’t hinder us from seeing the play field, but soon more cracks followed.

"Let’s stop; the glass will break soon," Henry warned when I wanted to insert the next ball.

"Scared you will lose?"

He speechlessly pointed at his points at the side of the glass.

"Alright." Noting that a change of the table could only benefit me and being unwilling to eat glass, we went to the next table.

When Henry wanted to reconstruct the points at the side, I coughed loudly and swatted his hand away.

He chuckled, and each time he did, he seemed to relearn, seemed to get much more comfortable in showing a bit of happiness.

So I was overjoyed that he had chosen an amusement park for his revenge and that I had insisted on having our first date here.

This table was much more accommodating, and I won this time—so we still stuck to our draw.

Next was air hockey, but it wasn’t much fun without the air blowing out of the little hole thingies.

Twice the puck landed in one of the windows of the arcade, not because of me...probably.

We tried the claw machines, but naturally, they didn’t work.

The sun was setting soon, and I was tired as hell, continuing to yawn endlessly.

"Back for a nap?" I asked Henry.

He was fiddling absentmindedly with the red pointed ears on top of his head whenever he had his hands free from pushing me or playing with me.

"Tired?" he asked me, lowering his gloved hand.

"Yes. Besides, I am angry because of the continuous draws." I chuckled, and he smiled slightly.

Back behind the wheelchair, he got us out of the arcade, through the amusement park past the empty fountains, and then to the lobby with the paper princesses and animated figures.

Again, he carried me up the staircase, taking on the endless steps while I held onto him.

"Did you like your first date?" I asked while trying not to doze off.

"Mhm, and you?" he hummed deeply, naturally not out of breath while carrying me up.

"Yeah." With my face sideways on his shoulder, I just saw the hood and a bit of his nose and chin.

Silence stretched as it had never done between us before the circus.

But feeling Henry’s heartbeat, his even breathing, and his arms around me bearing my weight, it was enough.

No...it was not enough, but it was bearable.

"I miss you," I mumbled and heard him answer like he always would.

"I miss you too."

Again silence, and not a chance to hide in the little space between the hood and his neck because of the mouse ears on my head.

Just the slight glance at the handsome features peeking out from the obscuring darkness.

I removed my gaze from him and watched the stairs that were left behind one by one, slowly and surely.

"Can you teleport a bathtub to the restaurant with warm water or something?" I asked absentmindedly.

"Yes." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

I hummed and waited, letting him carry me until we arrived back upstairs.

Henry sat me down on the couch he would constantly sit on, then disappeared for some time.

I looked at the door to the nonfunctioning elevators and staircase, and sure enough, a crystalline wall had risen behind it, but it was visible enough through the glass door.

I looked down at my palms, asking myself how to solve this... to get him back without hurting him.

Did he feel like this when I was so super depressed because of the giant back in the center?

This helplessness was truly something else.

I would love to smoke, or at least have a cigarette to play with... Maybe I’ll ask Henry to get me one.

I looked at my palm...

Or maybe I wouldn’t have to ask??

A fucking cigarette had appeared out of thin air, lying unlit on my right palm.

????

I touched the collar around my neck, trying to get into the room with the table, even if it meant getting shocked with electricity.

There was no room, no table, no coin.

But also no electric shock.

I thought of conjuring up a hand mirror, but even before I could think of a memory of when I had touched one, a hand mirror appeared inside my hand.

I grabbed the mirror handle together with the cigarette and checked the collar around me.

It was a real collar as far as I knew; just...it didn’t seem to be active.

Then where the hell were my crystals, my table, and my coin?

And why the fuck am I not going crazy and losing my mind?