Eyeless Jack x Reader

Chapter 24

*Your PoV*

     "Ready to train some more?" Mari smirked, holding the door open. What did it even lead to? It looked more like an endless abyss.
     "More training in the dark..?" I found myself nearly whining.
     "What? No, silly. It's just a portable looking thing. It's for the surprise. I don't want to spoil everything with looks." Mari giggled and motioned us to come in. "This is where I train most times. It changes depending on what I want to work on."
     "Let's go in, (Y/N)." Jack chuckled, "you did ask where we trained, didn't you?"
"Y-yeah!" I stammered. "But you said it's dangerous for us to be here!"
"It's dangerous when's she's training and unaware of others." Jack recalled. "She knows we're here and I doubt she'll do actual training if she is only going to be helping a noobie like you."
Mari smiled and tapped her foot. She seemed as if she didn't want to wait anymore. Jack led the way, after he scanned Mari's body, head to toe. I followed, a bit hesitant. I was still tired from the training earlier.
     "Jackie? What kind of training did you want to do here?" I heard Mari's voice within the suffocating darkness.
     "We already did some training in the dark room... (Y/N) did okay for a first timer." Jack mumbled.
"Sooo... how good is this noob?" Mari snickered. Noob? I've barely started here and I'm being insulted.
"(Y/N) got a hang of it after a while... but she still needs work..." Jack replied. "What do you think will be important to work on against... Zalgo..?"
"Well, of course combat and stealth..." Mari tapped her foot and hummed. "It just depends on how well she is physically and also mentally. Let's begin with an assessment of physical strength!" Mari clapped her hands. Jack grunted in agreement.
     "Gym!" Mari exclaimed, looking up to the dark ceiling.
The room suddenly bursted with light and shook slightly. I tried to hold onto something and ended up tugging on Jack's sleeve. Mari eyed me and smirked.
"Whoah....." I glanced around the room as my vision came back. There was multiple types of gym equipment. "How did you.. do that??" I asked.
"A secret." Mari winked and swept at Jack's sleeve. "This is where we will test your strength. We need an idea of where we need to start."
"Let's start with your arm strength?" Mari looked back to Jack with a questioning face. He nodded and she smiled.
     "Uh.. So how are we going to test my arm strength? Arm wrestle?" I asked, nervously looking at the equipment surrounding me. Some of the equipment did not look normal. There were machines that did not seem humanly possible. As I looked past more machinery, a shiver went down my spine.
     "No arm wrestles with Mari.." Jack exclaimed. "She has a bit of a reputation of... seriously hurting the opponents arm..." Mari frowned in disappointment. She's scarier than she looks. Mari started asking Jack about how to test a human's arm strength and such. She skipped around, looking at each machine and tool. Jack shook his head and said, "(Y/N) can't use any of the machinery yet. You've seen how hurt Toby got with this one". Jack placed his hand on an ominous machine. It had ropes splattered with dark stains. I don't want to imagine what those stains are.
     "I see..." Mari looked down to the ground, deep in thought. She looked up and glanced at me with a face I didn't expect. Pure confusion and... a hint of anger? "Maybe we can... see how many push ups and use the punchy thing to see her strength?" She mumbled something under her breath with an annoyed face and snapped. A machine and yoga mat appeared. The mat was surprisingly clean. The machine looked nearly identical to the games at an arcade. The little punching bag hanging from the machine and the meter for strength brought back memories of the arcade in your town.
     "That sounds right. Thanks for thinking of that, Mari!" Jack gave Mari a pat on the head and her mood instantly got better. She looked up at Jack with longing eyes. I felt pretty awkward. There seems to be something between Mari and Jack... Not that I care.. right? I stared at the ground, trying to piece things together.
     "Wakey wakey!" Mari pat my back and slightly pushed me onto the mat. "Show us how many pushups you can do." I felt Jack and Mari's gave on me and felt a little embarrassed.

(I'm gonna think of a weak number of push ups, i'm not assuming how many any of you can do at most!)

     "I see.. 15?" Jack tried recounting.
     "I doooonnnnt knoooowwww" Mari said slyly. "Some of them didn't really counttt. (Y/N) kept stopping." Mari tugged at Jack's jacket and played with it.
     "I haven't done.. done much exercise... since the fitness gram paced test!" I panted. It was a little embarrassing to hear Mari's remark. It was especially awkward to see her play with Jack's jacket.
     "I see.. Well, now we need to test your punch power." Jack reached his hand out to help you stand up. Mari stared blankly at his hand and then pushed him out of the way. Replacing his hand with hers. She clearly didn't want me to touch him. I got up on my own instead. I guess I can try punching, but my arms ache. I stood in front of the machine and started at the punching pouch. I formed my fist and looked back for approval. Jack and Mari glanced at me and Mari stuck a thumbs up. Her other hand played with Jack's hand. I shuddered and turned back to the machine. Just a punch. No judgement, right? I brought up my fist, closed my eyes, and swung. Nothing. I looked up and saw I missed. I heard a suppressed giggle and Jack trying to quiet Mari.
     "It's fine, (Y/N)!" Jack tried stopping Mari from trembling with laughter. "Just don't close your eyes this time!" A little anger welled up inside of me while I saw Mari laugh.
     "I'm gonna leave. I don't want to be laughed at." You said as you started stomping to the exit. Jack ran up to you and stopped you in your tracks.
     "Wait, wait, wait." Jack grabbed your shoulders. "You can't stop." He turned to Mari. "Mari, you need to leave. We need to see her strength, but I can't have you snickering behind her." Mari's eyes widened. She glared at me, but only for a second. I blinked, but she was gone before I could see again.
     "Okay.. Now you can do it." Jack scratched his head, he looked a little down. However, I had a feeling of peace. Mari's presence only took Jack's attention, but now it's just us again. I walked back to the machine and formed my fist. Jack stood beside me, giving tips on how to form it and how to swing. I nodded and looked at the machine. I brought back my fist and swung. This time it hit. The meter went orange.
     "I guess you aren't too good or too bad." Jack grunted. "We definitely need to work on arm strength, but for now... You should get some rest." He looked hurried. I guess he wanted to talk to Mari before he went to sleep.

I hope the training arc won't be too boring for you guys. I tried to write more than usual to fix the fact I haven't updated in a long time, so i hope you like it.
Sorry i've been late, i'm doing summer school right now and i have had to write 2 1000 essays every week for 4 weeks straight.

Thank you for reading, Mari