A Door

Jessica and Mia lay together for a little while. Even if they were normally heavy sleepers, it was hard to do so with the rough terrain, along with the cold. Mia's excuse to have a hug was more than just an excuse.

After a moment of silence, Mia muttered a question.

"Say, why did Jack come to this place? I can't imagine the kind of situation that forces a kid to come here. Or maybe he came here by accident?"

Jessica let out a soft sigh while patting her back.

"Unfortunately, it's his irresponsible father that brought him here. Not to mention he left him as well. Remember how I told you Jack was trying to find his father?"

Mia furrowed her brows.

"His father brought him here? Why in the world would he do that?"

Jessica took a deep breath and clicked her tongue.

"I don't know, I didn't ask for details. But even if there was a good one, that doesn't excuse abandoning him afterwards."

Mia nuzzled into Jessica and closed her eyes, mumbling softly.

"Then we should take good care of him as his new caretakers instead."

Jessica let out a gentle laugh and closed her eyes as well.

"Yes, we should do that."

The two of them soon fell asleep. Outside the tent, Jack had already fallen asleep a long time ago. Although he was outside, Seedy's body actually made it more warm and comfortable.

One of Seedy's heads was sleeping next to Jack, nuzzling against him, while the other was constantly scouting the area. There was actually a monster that attempted to attack them blindly, but with just one head, Seedy killed and devoured it, unbeknownst to the rest of the party.

As such, they were all able to sleep peacefully. Jack slept so well, that he began having an eerily realistic dream.

Jack found himself in a narrow cave pathway. Not anything like the one he was actually in, but rather the one on the first floor. He stood up, causing the gravel underneath him to shift.

Down one direction was a pathway that gradually turned to darkness. And the other direction was a door. The door was pink and had several wrinkles all over it. Despite the fact there were little to no distinguishing traits, Jack instinctively knew that the door ahead of him would lead back to his old home.

The one he had spent over a decade in.

Though it didn't look like he would be able to open it any time soon, since there were long lines of white flesh that covered it up, appearing to be in the form of strands. One of them appeared a tad bit worn, with a few of the strands broken.

And from behind the door, came a voice.

"Hey, can you let me out?"

It was Jack's own voice. Out of curiosity, he walked up closer to it. But before he could get too close, black smoke gathered ahead of him, suddenly materializing into his father.

"Now, now. I already said that you weren't allowed to go here, right? You already have your whole life ahead of you. Don't get caught up on something so small."

Jack hardly heard what he said. Instead, his eyes lit up in excitement as he rushed over for a hug.

"Dad! I finally found you!"

With a chuckle, his father bent down to catch him, bringing him into a hug. After patting him on the back, he spoke in a low tone next to his ear.

"Sorry, Jack. But this isn't actually me."

"E-Eh? Really?"

To Jack's surprised reaction, his father laughed.

"It is only a vision. But don't worry. You have done well so far, going through the floors and tests. I promise if you keep going up the floors, then you'll find me. It's only a matter of time, my son."

Jack frowned slightly, but cheered up right after, doing a poor but passionate soldier salute imitation.

"Ok! I will keep going up the floors to meet you, Dad!"

His father set him down with a chuckle.

"That's my boy."

Then, he disappeared just as he came, turning into black fog. Jack took one last look at the strange door before walking in the opposite direction.

And woke up.

His eyes fluttered open. He wrestled himself out of Speedy's grip and stretched with a comfortable yawn. He got into the tent excitedly, waking both Jessica and Mia up.

"Let's go to all the levels!"

The two of them woke up shortly after. After yawning, Jessica smiled as she looked at Jack.

"Looks like someone's in a good mood."

Mia got up after taking a deep breath.

"Ah, we probably should get moving, as nice as it is to go to sleep."

After packing everything up, Mia continued to lead the way back to the Hub, with pointers from Jack. For a few hours, the only thing they heard was the chirp of a bat in the distance. Though it was a bit freaky, Jessica and Mia didn't think that a bat was out of place in a cave, while Jack just couldn't really sense danger.

However, the chirps gradually became a tad bit more frequent. They would only hear it every few minutes or so, but there were definitely more of them than before.

Mia was beginning to feel a bit unsettled.

"Were there always these many bats?"

Jessica frowned slightly.

"I don't know, but they don't seem to be bothering us. It should be fine..."

Though just a few minutes later, at the edge of their light was a skeleton. It was in a crawling position. Before it had died, it seemed to be dragging itself in their direction.

Jack tilted his head to the side upon seeing that.

"Is it a monster?"

Jessica swallowed nervously as her frown deepened.

"T-This can't be good."

All of a sudden, despite the fact the lantern was protected by the wind with glass, the flame suddenly went out. In a hurry, Mia dropped the lantern and fumbled with her pockets, bringing out Anna in a panic.

"What does it mean if there's a skeleton, bats, and a lantern suddenly goes out?"

Unfortunately, as decisive as she was in a tense scenario, she was only met with a dead screen that wouldn't boot up. Either Anna was upset from before, or she just couldn't come to help for some reason. Mia couldn't help but feel despair as darkness enveloped them, along with the sounds of countless soft fluttering wings.

Jack couldn't help but let out a gasp.

"Eh? Why can't I see anything?"

Even Jack with unnaturally good vision in the dark found himself unable to see anything. Mia clenched her fists and stomped the ground a few times to keep her legs from losing feeling.

"W-What should we do?"

Jessica looked around rather nervously.

"I-I don't know!"

Jack tilted his head to the side as he looked in the direction of their voices. After hearing their stammering, he let out a gasp like he had a revelation.

"Ah, you guys are cold? Don't worry, I have something for that."

He opened up his black deck and pulled out his black cloak, the one that disguises one's presence while in the dark. Jack threw it in their general direction, and it draped over the two of them.

Mia freaked out a little as the cloak covered her.

"This is not the time!"

However, Jack couldn't hear her at all. In fact, after he threw that cloak, the chittering sounds suddenly grew loud and violent, like they were upset that some of their prey had disappeared out of nowhere.

In the end, several gusts of wind formed around Jack, and many different tiny sets of teeth bit into him, ripping away both his flesh and clothes. The Joker card in his red deck began heating up quickly.

"Hehe, I also like this game very much!"

After almost all the skin on his body was directly bitten off and the creatures began working their way to his flesh, the card came flying out on its own and turned into a mask that covered Jack's face.

He began regenerating, but it was nowhere near the rate that his skin was getting ripped off. In the end, he was still just a few steps away from death at this rate. Though he himself wasn't all that concerned.

Actually, he was. Just not in the way that most people would be.

"HAHAHAHAAA! This is so exciting! Let me play too!"

Jack still couldn't see anything but reached out to grab anyway with both hands. Although his grasps were aimless, there were simply too many of the creatures around, making it impossible to miss.

The creatures he caught were both warm and furry. They struggled intensely under his grasp, but the grip was so tight, just a little bit more would've already killed them. Jack brought the creatures over to his mouth, pushed his mask up just enough, and took a massive bite out of both of them at the same time.

He definitely wasn't familiar with the phrase don't bite off more than you can chew.

Jessica panted heavily, unable to work up the courage to even move.

"W-What's happening?"

Mia gulped before glancing at her.

"I... I think Jack is saving our lives again."