Jack turned back around from the now dead man in front of him with a fake smile.

  “Sorry you had to see that again, let’s get some sleep for tonight.” Jack said to Loid sympathetically.

  “What? I thought we’re going to walk more I’m not tir-”

  Jack emminated a bloodlust unlike anything ever seen before, causing his glare to make Loid feel suffocated without Jack using any abilities whatsoever.

  “We’re going to bed.” Jack started walking over to the opposite corner.

  Loid decided to stay quiet and followed quickly after Jack.

  They both sat down at the corner, only being able to rest on the cold hard floor. Jack got into a sleeping position and Loid followed suit.

  “Good night little man.” Jack says humorously.

  “Good night Mr Jack.” Loid replied, closing his eyes to prepare for his slumber.

  Jack turned on his side and closed his eyes, but he wasn’t actually asleep. He was thinking, planning, for his next steps. Jack didn’t require nearly as much sleep as the average person, he could stay awake for 20 days straight without sleep although that doesn’t guarantee there would be no mental damage.

  So far, everything is going according to schedule. Loid is getting closer to me and is beginning to get attached. Now, I just need to find my next weapon. But I also need to think about how I’ll move from here on out, considering the height, length and sound of the maze’s echo so far, I predict there are probably 219 different pathways in this maze and approximately 39 different checkpoints like this, 40 if I include the last one. Alright, it seems I can do this in 9 days.

  A few hours later, Jack was laying down peacefully until he heard a strange noise that put him on guard.

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  What? A person…is crying?

  Jack turned over to look at Loid, only to see the 9 year old crying, crawling into a ball while mumbling something under his breath.

  “Dad…I’m sorry…please don’t beat me again…” Loid mumbled, his lips quivering with every word.

  Dad? Was Loid being abused by his father before the tournament?

  Loid began twisting and turning on the cold hard floor, seemingly struggling with an invisible force. The boy’s whimpers and mumbling became louder until it was almost like a scream.

  Jack sat up and crawled to Loid, placing his hand gently on the right side of the boy’s abdomen. Then, he softly shook Loid in an attempt to awaken him from the nightmare he was in.

  Loid jerked awake and immediately sat up with sweat down his face, looking around his surroundings with fear in his eyes.

  “Hey, Loid, you’re safe, no one’s going to hurt you now.” Jack told him in a warm tone.

  Loid’s eyes locked onto Jack's and his expression softened as he realized he wasn’t in danger.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to wake you up. It was just a nightmare, I have them all the time. You can go back to sleep I’m fi-”

  “Relax, I’m not going to get upset or mad at you. Just tell me, what was the nightmare you had about?” Jack asked.

  Loid’s eyes wavered and he hesitated for a moment, but then he began to speak.

  “Before I ended up here, I was being beaten by my father daily. Everytime I didn’t do something he didn’t like, made too much noise, or anything really, he hit me. I couldn’t go to school or have friends and I didn’t really know what to do..” Loid explained, on the verge of tears.

  “Loid, I will never hurt you ever. As long as I’m here I will protect you. My only ask is that you follow my every command from here on out. Just trust me, and I will protect you. Can you do that?” Jack asks.

  Loid nods obediently, signaling he understood and rested his head on Jack’s shoulder. After a few minutes, Jack began to drift back into sleep, this time, without any signs of a nightmare.

  In the morning, Jack slowly nudged Loid off him to wake him up.

  “Woah Loid look at this!” Jack says pointing to the man he killed the previous day.

  “It’s a dead guy!” He exclaims in a fake shocked tone.

  “Isn’t that the guy you killed yesterday?” Loid asks grumpily, his tiring state evident in his voice.

  “Oh yeah! I forgot about that.” Jack says laughing nervously.

  Loid deadpans and slaps himself on his forehead in disbelief.

  “What a weird guy.” Loid thought.

  The rest of the second day was fairly uneventful. Loid and Jack engaged in enjoyable conversations about casual things that Loid never got to learn about, like comics, cake, sports, and amusement parks, although Jack has never actually been to one. Loid finally got to have a posting adult figure in his life while Jack enjoyed Loid’s company. They traveled throughout the maze mainly on Jack’s guidance though, unlike the previous day.

  But the third day was where things began to get really interesting.

  Loid and Jack were just walking as normal through the tunnel, they had reached about 3 checkpoints by this point and were at a pretty steady pace. Everything was normal until they heard a deep male voice.

  “It’s great to see you again, Sergeant.”

  So I was right, that man really is here.

  An older man came into sight, the same elderly man who was in his dream.

  “I can’t say the feeling is mutual, General Forsquave.” Jack said with a slight venom in his voice.