Jack let out a low growl before letting out a laugh.
"Heeeeheee.... Ho HAAA."
His head erratically twitched from one side to another as he continued looking around. Jessica and Mia did their best to slowly and silently inch away. The two of them did their best to slow down their breath lest the sound give them away.
They were quite unsure of how good the stealth was and didn't want to take that kind of risk.
Unfortunately for Jack, although he could see quite far. The light of the lantern was enough for him to see clearly for one hundred or so meters. However, while it may not be that dark for him, it was enough for the cloak to have a strong effect.
He couldn't even catch a glimpse of them.
Eventually, he calmed down slightly. He stopped looking all around. Instead tilting his head down and keeping it still.
Mia tapped Jessica on the shoulder, whispering to her.
"It looks like he's calmed down a bit. Should we go now?"
Jessica still had her eyes intently trained on Jack, before slowly shaking his head. Mia furrowed her brows. She thought that it would be better to clarify they were here first. It would be hard to find Jack if he started to run off in a direction.
They had normal vision after all.
Mia turned to Jessica with a bit of displeasure.
"We sho-"
Jessica promptly covered her mouth with a hand, rapidly shaking her head. While Mia was confused, Jack suddenly turned in their direction and rushed forth. After turning around, it showed that both his eyes were tightly closed.
And along with that, there was a wide bloody smile on his face.
Jessica dragged Mia over to the side, while Mia realized that something was wrong and went along with it. Jack kicked up a wave of gravel as he ran at where they last made that sound. Upon getting there, he reached around trying to catch them.
And he just barely touched the cuff of Mia's shirt.
His head snapped over as he threw himself and both hands in that direction, catching Mia's arm. Jack gripped on her wrist like he was going to die, pulling with all his strength. Mia let out a cry of pain. Jessica's eyes narrowed as she grit her teeth. At first, she let Mia go entirely without waiting for a single breath and wrapped the cloak around her.
She hadn't even realized what she'd done before it actually happened.
Her instincts had taken over before her actual consciousness. At the realization of this fact, her eyes widened. Jack's grip tightened several times over, causing Mia's wrist to turn red and purple.
"AHHHH!"
Mia's eyes shut tightly as the strength disappeared from her legs. She was paralyzed from the pain in both mind and body. All she could do was instinctively cry out in pain.
Jessica went against her body's will, taking off the cloak and wrapping it around Mia.
This was a bit of a stupid move to do, as stealth was kinda pointless when the person had grabbed onto them.
However, the cloak actually somewhat masked the feeling of touch, making Jack rather confused. He could've sworn that he was holding onto something, but it was hard to tell. Though before he could think of it any longer, Jessica got up and screamed at him.
"I'm over here Jack, let's play tag!"
She immediately began running away. Jack tilted his head to the side for one second, feeling a bit confused. Suddenly, a wide smile formed on his face as he rushed for Jessica.
"HAHA HAAA I LIKE THIS GAME A LOT!"
Forgetting about Mia entirely, Jack threw his entire being into chasing Jessica. Although it was hard for her to see, she could tell from the sounds that he was very quickly getting closer.
She slammed into and pushed herself off a stalagmite to throw herself to the side and start running that way. Jack shifted his direction to match that and was still getting closer by the second.
Jessica looked over her shoulder, noticing that he was just two meters away. He would catch up in seconds. She decisively slowed down before turning around and sweeping with one leg, trying to trip him up.
Her leg hit true, slamming into Jack.
However, his foot only budged slightly. Just as she felt cold sweat forming, Jack slammed her into the ground and got on top. He laughed hysterically while raising a fist. He began trying to bash Jessica's head in, though she was able to block the hits with her hand.
Regardless, Jack's hits were by no means light.
Her hands shone bright red where they were hit, and she was starting to get dizzy. Still, with one last push, she let out a cry and tried to push Jack off of herself.
Unfortunately, Jack was just far too strong, crushing her sides with his knees once she tried that. Jessica began to feel a bit of despair set in. She was beginning to doubt her decision to make herself a distraction.
Why was she even trying so hard to save someone else?
Jessica quickly lost her will, as she saw no other way to get out of this alive. As her vision began to fade, she realized that the hits weren't coming anymore. It took her a few seconds to make out with her blurry vision, but Mia was behind Jack. She had wrapped her arms around his stomach and pulled him back.
It was a non-lethal way of getting Jack off of Jessica. She was thinking of hitting him on the head at first, but a realization struck her. There was a strong chance that the reason Jack was unable to contain himself was due to his injuries. After all, before he had worn this mask, but was more or less sane since he wasn't too wounded.
As such, injuring him further would only worsen the situation. The only real option was to restrain him until the effects wore off.
But that was easier said than done.
"AHHHHHH!"
Mia let out a scream as she used all her strength to pull Jack away, partly to sum up the courage, and partly to distract herself from the pain in her wrist.
Jack was lifted up, as he was still pretty light, much to his dismay. He began swinging around like a monkey, trying to hit behind him, but not too much success. Still, it was not a situation in Mia's favor, as her muscles were very quickly getting tired. She wasn't weak per se, but anyone would quickly get tired when using their muscles beyond their normal capacity.
"Q-Quickly do something! I can't hold on much longer!"
Though while she said that, she also had no idea what could possibly be done at this point. Seeing the light again, Jessica opened her eyes wide. After understanding the scenario, her brain automatically went into overdrive trying to think of a way to survive.
The condition of both Jessica and Mia was bad, but it wasn't unsalvageable. They weren't crippled. However, even with their current physical state, Jack's strength simply outclassed them.
Running could only stall for so long and there was no point in running now.
That meant the only possible solution was...
"Jack! You remember me right? It's Jessica! The one that you came to after your father left. Please calm down... please..."
Jack was still huffing and puffing, wrestling over control of his own body. However, his eyes showed a trace of rationality.
He stopped struggling as intensely and gazed at Jessica's face once more. He tilted his head to the side slightly while analyzing it. A smile formed on his face as he let out a laugh.
"Ahhh, Jessica!"
Mia was still trying to hold him back, but Jack powered through, getting close to her face with wide eyes. Some of the blood dripped down his chin and hit her face.
"There's a game that I really want to play right now. Want to try it?"
Mia's eyelid twitched, as her instincts screamed at her to not accept this game. However, they also did the same thing when she thought about declining as well.
"Well, could you tell me the rules of the game slowly and clearly? I'm... I'm curious about it."
Jack nodded excitedly a few times.
"Ok! Ok! So first, I like to rip out the eyes! Before, I used to think it would be better to do the nails at the start, but after that, it becomes harder to do anything! After that, I like to scratch until there's no more skin to scratch. And then, I like to bite off my fingers. And then, I hit my head against the wall for as long as possible! And then-"
"J-Jack, hold on a second."
He blinked a few times before putting a finger on his chin.
"What's wrong? You don't want to play the game? It's really fun, you have to try it! You really have to try it!"
Jessica began sweating, thinking about what could possibly be the right answer here.