Monsters

The plant monster decided to heed to Jack's request of not killing. But that didn't mean it wasn't close to crossing the line. In fact, it was incredibly close. Though it always reigned things in at the last moment, forcefully constricting body parts so that they would stop bleeding.

And then, it would continue to tear apart her body.

If the blood was taken away, then it might've seemed like she was actually made of paper mache, with how many different parts of her were scattered along the ground. What was left of her limbs was nearly nothing, but it was also clear they weren't torn cleanly off. There were still strands of skin and flesh from the stubs that remained.

The woman was spasming slightly, making strange noises unintentionally. Though, she did have a few final words that came out with blood.

"Sorry... brother... you were right... this place... is too damn..."

Her eyes suddenly dulled, as she fully died. Seeing this, Jack clapped a few times.

"Wow Seedy, you did it! This time, you didn't kill them!"

The plant that he called Seedy looked over and gave a few enthusiastic nods, clearly quite proud of the praise that it was receiving. It was also noticeably bigger than what it was before, though not by too much.

Jack rubbed his chin a little bit as he stared at the remains of the unlucky woman, before nodding to himself.

"It looks like she also got really sleepy from all the fun. We should let them rest well and find other people to play with, Seedy!"

The plant nodded excitedly as it released the woman, letting the last of her blood shoot out from her body. Then, the plant clambered onto Jack, riding on his back almost like it was his little brother.

With that, they continued on through the darkness. Jack let out a little giggle every now and then, but the black cloak did its job and made it become silent. And as he traveled, he reminisced on how Seedy became what it was now.

...

Back when Jack completed the surprise Go Fish game, he was awarded something a little extra, as he was the only one to feed his particular flower monster with two full sets of cards.

That was a little green seed. Despite being a seed, it was quite lively and bounced around, and it was at that point Jack, with all of his creative power, decided to name the seed Seedy.

From that surprise game, Jack remembered that other than full sets of cards, the flower monsters also liked to eat people. However, he thought that the flower that ate the woman was quite irresponsible for killing her.

And so, when a crazed old man desperately asked for the five, thinking that it would get him out of this hell hole, Jack insisted on making a trade. He wanted to give Seedy some food.

So with a smile, he held out Seedy.

"I will trade you the five if you help take care of Seedy!"

The old man was somewhat confused, thinking that it was just a normal seed. And so, with that in mind, he grabbed it with a smirk.

"Alright! Now gi-"

However, his words very quickly turned into a scream, as the seed burrowed into his hand.

"Agh! What the fu- AHHHHHHHHHHH! FUCK WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?"

The seed very rapidly devoured his flesh, growing out lush green stalks as it did so. The old man fell down and stared at his hand in horror, or at least what was becoming of his hand.

Not even the bones were spared as they were shattered before being melded to become part of the plant. Soon, the hand itself was gone, while the stalk of the plant had buried itself deep into the old man's arm. He began to panic.

"Get it out! Get it out now!"

Seeing this, Jack was also a little bit concerned.

"Seedy, no killing!"

The stalks suddenly stopped moving, which made the old man calm down by quite a bit.

"I... just get this thing out. I-I don't care about the card anymore, please just get this thing out of me!"

Several people near the corners of the room had woken up. They looked at what was happening in the distance with a face filled with horror. Some of them who had never talked before whispered to each other.

"I-Isn't this the safe zone? I thought there weren't any monsters here!"

"...It's only safe from the monsters. If you don't have the protection barrier, then anyone in the hub can hurt you."

"You're telling me that thing came from a person?"

A few of them already left the hub and decided to flee instead of observing the situation any further. As for Jack, he scratched the side of his head, rather confused by the old man's reaction.

"I thought you needed the five? You don't need it anymore?"

The old man rapidly shook his head, with eyes filled with fear and tears.

"No! No, I don't! I'm sorry, please let me go!"

Jack put a finger on his chin and tilted his head to the side.

"But... I remember my Dad saying that you only need something if it is really really important! If you don't have it, then you will die! And dying is a bad thing, so I think we should continue this trade for both of us."

He smiled innocently.

"It's not like you need your arms or legs to survive! But if you need the five, then it's way more important!"

At those words, Seedy suddenly continued to devour the old man's body, prompting him to cry out in pain once more.

"No! Please don't kill me! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please spare me!"

To those words, Jack only giggled.

"Yeah, I know! If you don't have the five, then you will die! But I can't just give away things for free, so I'm making a trade!"

It was at this point the old man's organs were being broken down by the plant as well. With his last few words, he spoke out.

"I don't... need the five... please..."

Jack tilted his head to the side with a clueless expression.

"Eh. Does that mean you lied to me? But which part was the lie? I can't tell if you really need it or not."

With the last shreds of sanity that the old man had, he thought to himself that this all really was too unfair. His body collapsed to the ground, and other than the occasional strange bulges, nothing seemed to have happened.

But then out of nowhere, a flower burst out from the chest, while the skin wrinkled almost like it was just a costume, before being consumed by the plant. Seeing this, Jack put on a stern expression.

"Seedy! You can't do that! You killed him. He needs his organs to survive!"

The flower turned away with its petal closed up, showing its shame. However, Jack couldn't stay angry at it for very long.

"Oh... I guess you can try better next time. Anyway, do you still want that trade?"

He looked over at the old man, who was long dead, waiting for a response.

"Oh right... you are dead. I guess that's how the trade goes! Hm... does anybody else want to do a trade?"

When he looked around, anybody that locked eyes with him immediately ran out of the hub, deciding that it was safer to go there rather than stay. It did not take long for him to be the only one left there.

In the meantime, the newly formed flower thoroughly finished off the rest of the old man's corpse, causing a bit of blood to spread. However, it was thorough, getting every drop still on the floor, only missing a small stain on his shoe.

Though, Jack still had a displeased expression.

"Mm... you still did something bad, Seedy. As punishment, you are in time out!"

After a bit of thought, he attempted to put Seedy into his black card pack, which surprisingly worked, turning into card form.

And finally, he was now out of time out, instead happily resting on top of Jack's shoulders, rubbing its petals against the side of Jack like a pet seeking affection. As for Jack, he was still wearing the Joker mask and parading around.

Though one thing that he himself hadn't noticed, was that half of his pinky nails had already grown back by now. That obviously was much faster than the speed of normal regeneration, considering it would normally take about six months for that kind of injury to heal.

The speed at which it healed dramatically increased while he was torturing the man. Though now that he was simply wandering around, it had slowed down, no longer at a rate that was visible to the naked eye.

While they were wandering around, they actually met another monster, one that had ears the size of elephants, and of course, there were teeth lined up amongst them. Jack gave a big wave.

"Hi, there!"

However, it didn't react. Though, when Seedy imitated him, waving with a vine, the monster responded by tilting its head to the side and waving its teeth-filled ear as though it was a hand.

Jack pouted when he saw that and looked up at Seedy.

"Why does he wave to you but not me?"

In response, it only held out its vines helplessly, with a confused look from its petals. Despite that, Jack wasn't going to give up on greeting people. He pranced around the caverns, exaggeratedly, getting a feel for the sounds of the bells on his clothes.

That's when he saw bright neon signs in the distance. And as if it couldn't get any better, there was a group of people under a torch, getting ready to play the game as well. Jack rushed over to make sure he could join them.