Cinema City Holofield

Without Katie next to her to be excited about it, the world felt dark and grim.

Making her way to the back of Cinema City, all she saw were potential threats. Places where the marketing team could be. Unrelated folk who might be harmful to her anyway. She felt more eyes on her than there usually were. In her attempts to shun attention, all she’d done was stand out.

She wondered if she could ever live in this world without some kind of distraction.

Standing in front of that circular building after nearly an hour of slow, cautious travel, the scared little girl had next to no courage left to actually step inside. To make matters worse, a sharp-looking woman she recognized from Bozo’s squad was standing right by the door watching everyone who went in.

She breathed deep into her lungs.

Nobody is going to hurt me.

I have never seen the woman outside that door in my entire life.

I’m not a criminal. I’m not guilty.

I’m not Frankie.

She joined the crowd and pressed forward toward the construct. Approaching the double doors, she fully accomplished her goal- nigh forgetting why she was so scared in the first place as she entered the building.

Ko gave her one look and moved into the next person.

Inside, she was forced to interact with the staff as she paid for a ticket. Without Katie’s rider’s license, their funds took even more damage. After being handed a device to place on her head, she lugged her heavy bag of tokens around into the hub of the attraction.

It was more than interesting, to be sure. Frankie indeed found herself mesmerized by the flat, featureless, circular playground of people forming moving 3D images all around her.

When she tried it, the tourist saw how hard it actually was. Supreme focus was required to summon anything of solidity, everything her scrambled mind ground out becoming fluid and blurry. When she tried to think of Percy, all she could manage was a nondescript snake fluctuating in length and width.

Remembering her target as well as her burning desire to escape this situation, Frankie ended her experiments and looked far and wide for her nemesis’ visage.

It wasn’t easy- people had gathered here more than anywhere else in Cinema, the unique spot posing far more of an appeal that which fans of the more successful Virtual Fantasy were sure to come here for. A lot of families worked together to make huge illusions, many bright and Christmas-themed, not aiding in her desperate search. Much time was wasted scouring through the drones of excited guests.

But rest assured, she did find him.

Bozo was alone, in the corner. On a small bench, gazing at his open palm- he looked almost sad.

Suddenly he had formed a large-scale diorama of his entire home park extending from his hand, spinning to show that it had no imperfections nor a detail to spare.

Frankie’s fear rushed back into her.

She approached him anyway, her entire body screaming out at her in confusion as she repeated in her head one simple thing:

I’m. Not. Frankie.

But she was still mortified, witnessing the businessman’s skill that dwarfed her own.