When Iliya opened the box of newspapers, a plume of dust opened right in Iliya’s face. Coughing, he waved away the musty smell of old, yellowed papers. With careful hands, Iliya took the first folded newspaper out of the box. It felt light and fragile, and he was worried one wrong jerk of the hands would tear it to shreds. The first headline read “Circus Leaving Town” and its article was mostly insignificant. It had facts about how long a circus had been in town, some descriptions of the acts, and a few pictures of said acts. Iliya found a picture with some clowns, and was easily able to tear it from the paper. None of them looked like the clown Moderator waiting outside the room. The most interesting thing in the whole paper was a one sentence, though. It had a reference to an “incident” that had happened regarding the circus- apparently one of the clowns had gone missing.

Hmm. Was he wrong about a clown being the murderer? It was a fair assumption, with everything being circus themed and clowns being, well, terrifying. There was only one way to find out. Iliya went through the rest of the newspapers, looking for any more pertinent information. Nothing else particularly stood out for him, but he ripped out any other clown pictures he saw. Aside from the pictures, he neatly packed the old newspapers back into the box he found them in.

“Anything?” Wolf asked. He was still leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

“Take a look at these.” Iliya walked over and showed the clown pictures to Wolf. “Apparently, at some point one of the clowns went missing. You know, I was thinking whatever we have to survive would probably be a murder clown, but maybe it’s whatever made one of the clowns disappear?”

Wolf nodded, serious. “There is more than one clown. Maybe one clown killed another clown?”

Iliya lightly smacked him on the arm. “I hate that. I hate you for suggesting that.” Wolf snorted out a small laugh.

From within the room, there was the sound of a metal door opening. Wicker stuck her head out of the hot dog cart, hair in slight disarray. “Maybe it’s the ghost of a murdered clown that’s haunting the circus?” Iliya pinched his eyes closed. Ghosts didn’t bother him much, theoretically, but how could you deal with a ghost that was going after you? If it was a ghost, guess he would have to pray it was corporeal enough for Wolf to punch it. “You guys haven’t played the snake game yet, right? I’m not allowed to tell you much about it, like how to solve it and stuff, but my Moderator was the ghost of the person who died.”

“Thanks for that contribution, Wicker,” Iliya said in a dry, sarcastic tone. Ghost clowns. Great.

“Anytime!” Wicker smiled. “But not really. I’m gonna stay hiding in this thing. Good luck exploring, or whatever.” She closed herself back in the hot dog cart.

Iliya checked his phone, there was still about an hour and twenty minutes left to the game, and there had still been no sighting of anything particularly dangerous. Iliya spent the next twenty minutes looking through the rest of the boxes in the storage room, but there wasn’t anything else of interest. Just more and more circus supplies. Eventually, Iliya stood back up, his joints cracking. “Ready to head out?” Iliya asked Wolf, who cracked his knuckles in response. Again, Iliya took out his phone and this time, he summoned Peaches.

“Finally!” Peaches said as she appeared from nothing, landing daintily on top of an upturned cardboard box. “I’ve been waiting for you to summon me in game! What, was the last one too easy for you? I’m very helpful, you know,” Peaches huffed, her tail flicking back and forth.

“Sorry, sweetie,” Iliya apologized, hands raised. “We actually finished the last game in minutes.”

“Who are you talking to?” Came Wicker’s muffled voice from inside the hot dog cart.

“Just something my ability can do. Don’t worry!”

“Okay!” Wicker returned to silence.

Peaches gave the hot dog cart an inscrutable look. “Is that hot dog cart talking to me?”

Iliya looked at Wolf, exasperated. Wolf just looked amused. “No, there’s a challenger in there. It’s a survival challenge, so she’s hiding.”

Peaches meowed in understanding. “Cool. What am I here for, then? Do I have to beat someone up?” Peaches grinned, showing off her little fangs. She wasn’t all that intimidating, but Iliya knew not to underestimate her. Still, it could be interesting to find out just how effective she could be in an actual combat situation. Plus if anything went wrong, hopefully Wolf could back her up.

“I’m not really sure yet. It’s been an hour, and so far nothing has come to attack us?” Iliya wondered if nothing would be attacking them at all. Maybe this was a challenge to see how they would react in a real survival situation? “Anyway, Wolf and I wanted to check out the other rooms. Would you be willing to sneak outside of this room, and see if there’s anything menacing outside? Something waiting to get us if we leave the room?”

Peaches sniffed. “What do I get in exchange for helping?”

Iliya was about to offer more peanut butter when Wolf butted in. “I will make you an entire salmon.”

Her eyes lit up. “An entire salmon? For me?” Peaches gave Iliya a disdainful look. “This guy knows how to treat a lady. Unlike you! And you’re supposed to be my summoner!”

Iliya wondered if such a tiny kitten body could even eat a quarter of a whole salmon outside of the game. He watched as Peaches sauntered up to Wolf, and offered herself up for pets. When he reached down and scratched at her back, she arched and closed her eyes in happiness.

“Not to interrupt,” Iliya said, interrupting, “but the clock is ticking down, and I want to know what’s going on with this place. Something feels fishy about it.”

Peaches rolls her eyes at him. “Even if there is something weird, it doesn’t really matter. This is just a challenge. Besides, you’re not eligible for a bonus ability since this isn’t your first challenge.”

Iliya eyed Peaches with renewed interest. It was easy to forget how Peaches came from these games, and probably knew a lot more than any challenger. “Why not?”

“How would I know?” She stretched out. “I’m just a cute little kitten. A cute hungry little kitten.” Peaches licked her chops.

“Could we get a different kind of bonus?” Iliya wondered out loud.

“I don’t see why not,” Peaches answered. “You won’t get anything better than me anyway, so it doesn’t even matter.” As if seeking to prove her worth, she changed tactics. “Let me out of here, I’ll see if anything weird is going on outside. Wolf, if you please.” Peaches turned her fuzzy head away from Iliya, and towards the door.

“My lady,” Wolf humored Peaches, and opened the door for her. She sauntered out, tail in the air. Wolf kept the door cracked open for her to sneak back in.

A few minutes passed in silence before Peaches came back in. “All that’s in the main room is the Moderator. He’s a lot uglier than the big cat from my game.” Wolf stretched his arm out, and Peaches snuggled into it, allowing herself to be picked up.

“Could you hear anything from the other rooms?” Iliya asked.

“I couldn’t hear anything, but there was a bad smell coming from one of the rooms.” Peaches scrunched up her little kitten nose. “I’ll show you which one if you want?”

Iliya and Wolf exchanged a look, and Wolf nodded. “Thanks, Peaches. After this, I’ll even get you some catnip.” Peaches did not seem to know what catnip was, but Iliya thought she looked excited for it anyway.

“We’re gonna go now,” Iliya warned Wicker. “We might come back in, but try to stay quiet just in case it’s not us.”

“Don’t die,” came Wicker’s succinct response from within the hot dog cart. It was good advice though, Iliya thought. Even if it was coming from a coward. This was her last game as a challenger. If she made it through, which Iliya suspected she would, she would be a full player next. Iliya had a strong feeling the games would get a lot harder once you became a player, but it wasn’t his business if she chose not to get all the possible experience she could.

Iliya and Wolf left the storage room to investigate, with Peaches happily purring in Wolf’s strong arms.