Ever After

Halloween (3)

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This chapter is in Jack's perspective.

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This is a long one!

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I clung onto his voice like a child their mother as the lights dropped suddenly, the sound of a creaking door opening following soon after. I couldn't tell whether it was the door from the entrance or the door at the exit, seeing as I was in the heart of a maze; if it'd been the door at the exit, it meant Naomi (who I'd managed to lose amongst the mirrors) made it to the end, but it could be anybody if it'd come from the entrance.

Deciding not to think of it for too long, I took a reluctant step in Mark's direction, unaware of how he would feel upon my doing so. I didn't want to terrify him any more than he'd already been, not to mention my Joker costume, making me seem even more like the enemy - as I wandered in his direction, though, he was the smallest of my worries. My thoughts, much like his always were, were spinning rapidly in my mind, incapable of making any sense. What's he doing here? Did he come to see me? Why is he... alone?

I felt as if I were coming closer and closer to him, but I immediately stopped dead in my tracks at the sound of hushed whispers, voices that were a little too recognizable. Although too quiet to pinpoint, I could tell that these voices belonged to people I hated, people I absolutely despised, for which there were too many to count. I heard one of them whisper Mark's name, another whispering something about how it was "too fucking dark to see." It was when one of them mentioned Will that I easily caught onto who was speaking, sending me into a state of panic and immediate action - I needed to get out of here, needed to be anywhere else than in the same fucking room.

I turned at the very moment I'd recognized the sound of their voices, only to bump into a small, slim figure - Naomi. She clung onto my shoulders, her voice delicate on my ears.

"Jack - is that you?"

I nodded, and, finding that she couldn't see me even though I was a centimeter away, replaced the nod with a "Yes." We stood there for a moment, her clinging onto my shoulders and letting out small whispers of breath, before she suddenly called out.

"They're over here, boys!"

And, before I knew it, her grip on me tightened, the sound of the footsteps suddenly kicking into high gear, Felix and Killian (without Will, apparently) bounding on over. I grunted at an attempt to shove her out of the way, but it was to no avail, for she was digging her nails into my shoulders, leaving behind an imprint that would surely last longer than a week.

"Naomi, what're you -"

"Jack, just stay still, please?" she asked, her voice stiff and aggressive. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be."

Oh, what a fucking laugh that was. Of course I was going to make things harder - she, Felix, and Mark should know that by now. (Well, maybe just Felix and Mark, for she didn't have a dick.) It took me less than a second to work up the courage to shake myself free from her grip, her hands falling limp at her sides as I shoved her, heaving her out of my way. She let out a flustered gasp as I sped on, not willing to stop - at least, I wouldn't have been, if Killian hadn't opened his big, fat mouth.

"Got one!" he yelled, referring to what I presumed to be Mark.

"Which one?" Felix demanded, his footsteps still lingering onward.

Mark answered the question by grunting as he fought against Killian, to which Felix patted him on the back, teaching me that he was a good few feet away from me. I knew this maze like the palm of my hand; whether it was pitch black or brighter than the sun, I knew exactly where I was headed. I could've left right then and there, could've fled the scene and gone off into the next maze, running for my dear life just as I'd become accustomed to doing in the forest after school.