Bread was pulled away from the disastrous scene.

“Are you okay?” Val sat him down on a nearby bench. Her shirt was slashed, and there was so much blood spreading through the fabric. “Are you hurt?”

Bread shook his head.

She then pulled out her phone and swiped a few times over the screen. “Where the hell are you? What? Meerkats? That’s not the point! I need you to come over quick!” She paced around him erratically. Her arms were crossed tightly together. “What? You don’t know where we are? Can’t you just figure it out somehow? Huh? You’re not a software kinda guy? The fuck does that mean?! Okay, fine. I’ll go find the fucking cat—”

“I-I’m so sorry,” the zookeeper hurried over. She had already tied the lion in place with some hefty-looking chains. “This shouldn’t have happened—”

“Fuck.” Val put away her phone. She looked the zookeeper in the eye. “Well, it did. Didn’t it?”

“Could we do anything for you? M-maybe give you a discount? Or-or coupons! I can give you—”

“You can leave us the fuck alone.” She tossed over three carnival entrance tickets. “Better fucking refund the tickets.”

“O-of course! No, we’ll do that right away.” The zookeeper picked them up from the ground and then scurried away.

Val let out a sharp breath. “Wow, okay… I’ll going to go find Coach.” She glanced at her injuries. “And maybe something to stop the bleeding. Can you stay here for just a bit?”

Bread nodded.

“Shout if you’re in trouble. I’m sure the staff will respond.”

“Will…” He watched the zookeeper trying her best to reform the dispersing crowd. The lion was suddenly nowhere to be seen. “Will the lion be okay?”

“The lion? Guess so? Don’t worry about that. I’ll be back quick, alright?” Val gave a quick wink before taking off. She blitzed through the amalgamation of bodies, dashing past a new group of onlookers that had formed just outside the petting zoo tent. Within seconds, she was gone.

Bread looked at his own injuries. His arms were clawed, but they were intact. He could still feel an ebbing pain where they were gashed. Wires were pulled out, and pieces of his synthetic skin hung on by threads of material. It was weird how he could still feel stuff in this non-biological body of his. According to his records, nerve technology shouldn’t have been this advanced yet.

And that electric shock. How was he able to experience all that? It was like he’d been inside the lion’s head. He could feel everything. He could taste everything. It was like he was still back in the simulation. As if parts of reality were still so unreal…

A masked man bursted out from the crowd.

Bread broke out of his inner monologue. It was weird that he’d noticed. The way the man moved, it looked so out of place.

The man stomped his way over, slamming strangers away with incredibly intense aggression.

Bread froze on the spot.

The man stopped just inches away from him. He knelt down to one knee and bore him down with a horrible mask on his face. And for a while, there was only silence.

But the more Bread watched, the less threatening the stranger seemed to be. He started to notice more details—kempt hair in an all-black suit, a stick of cotton candy awkwardly held in one hand.

“H-hello?” the boy tried to ask. “Who are you?” But there was no answer. It looked like the man was examining parts of the synthetic skin that had been torn off, and for another while longer, the silence continued, until—

“Come with me,” the man said.

“W-what?”

“Come with me,” he repeated.

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“N-no, I can’t.”

“Why?”

Why? The man was a stranger. Why would he just follow someone out like that? Common sense told him that following strangers was no-no number one. It was surely written somewhere in his records.

But then the man handed over the ball of cotton candy.

Bread looked at him then back at the cotton candy in his hand, wondering what all this was supposed to be about.

“Take it.”

Was it common sense to take candy from a stranger?

“It’s safe.” The man pulled off a piece and placed it underneath his mask. The mask moved up and down as if he were chewing. Then he swallowed, shown by the way his Adam’s apple moved. He tried handing the candy over again. “It’s nothing bad.”

Bread hesitantly took it from the man’s hand. He didn’t know why this stranger was handing this over, but the taste of cotton candy… He was curious. Would it taste the same as how he’d imagined? Sweet? Soft and fluffy?

He took a bite. And it was, in fact, heaven.

“Do you like it here?” The masked man took a seat beside him. “Better than… Better than anywhere else?”

Bread nodded. The cotton fluff was delicious! Of course he liked it here.

“You don’t think the moon’s too bright?”

“The moon? No?” He stared up at the full moon in the sky. He could imagine himself soaring through the clouds, watching the celestial body light a path far into the distance. The surface of the moon—he wondered how it’d be if he were actually there? In space. Bouncing around in low gravity. How amazing would that be?

“Right. And what of this carnival? I thought you didn’t—well, do you really like all this? This loud, rather obnoxious place?”

He nodded. Everyone was happy here! Everyone was smiling. Not at the moment though. Right now, they were all scrambling around the broken tent.

“And the company?”

Company?

“The… boxer. Do you enjoy the time you spend with her?”

“I think so?” Had he mentioned Val to this man before? How did he know she was a boxer? “How did you—”

“What did you do to get that?” The man pointed at his mangled arms.

“This?” That was obvious. “I tried to save a lion.”

The edges of the man’s mask jumped with every chuckle he made. “How very brave of you.” He paused to look up at the sky. Then he asked, “Do you… miss your parents?”

“Parents?” Dad… Was it really okay to miss Dad? Wasn’t it all fake? Val had once mentioned that it was all Stockholm syndrome. Fake feelings, fake emotions. All fake.

Just like me…

He shook his head free from the loud thoughts that were buzzing inside. He didn’t know what to feel anymore. What was right? What was wrong? What was he supposed to actually feel?

His records told him nothing.

“I see…”

Bread could suddenly tell by the way the man moved his head—that slight shaking of his head, that slumped posture. The man was feeling sad.

The strange man raised his head again. He sighed deeply before asking, “Are you at least happy?”

Happy?

“Satisfied?”

Bread didn’t understand. He started to have new thoughts—why was this random person asking all these questions? Why was he so interested? Who was he?

“Well, are you having fun?”

Fun? Something about this person felt so familiar. The way he kept asking questions, the way he talked, the sadness that seemed to be seeping out from the way he moved…

“Are you enjoying this place? More than Simular?”

Simular? He nodded. It felt like he really did matter in the grand scheme of things. Everything felt more real—the food, people, the random dandelions he’d found on the side of streets, even himself. And he really liked that feeling.

“I understand.” The masked stranger got up from his seat. He brushed off what little dust had settled on his suit. It didn’t even seem like there was anything to begin with. “Take care of yourself, Bread.”

Bread? Had he ever told the strange man what his name was?

The man then started to leave.

Instinctively, Bread reached out. He tried to grab him by the sleeve. Something about this man was odd. He didn’t feel like a stranger. But before he could confirm the feeling, static snapped back as if in retaliation—

Flavor splashed into his mouth. Flavors he’d never tasted before. Something bitter. Like chewing on leaves. Then smells of eggs, pancakes. Visions—visions of himself back in the white room, of soup, paintings, a story of death…

Why were these memories coming back now?

And there was that voice again, yelling at him in the background. It sounded so familiar. Like he’d heard it before. He could almost remember it from somewhere…

“Dad?”

The visions cleared, but nobody was there. He looked around. The man was gone—disappeared without a trace. But the cotton candy was still in his hand.

“Bread!” Another familiar voice. It was Val, and Coach was just behind her. “I came back as fast as possible.” She stared at the half-eaten cotton candy looking almost as confused as he was. “Where did you get that?”

“It was free,” he replied. And now, it kind of tasted bad.