Gifting Eyes

Lily was momentarily shocked as she got a good look at Jack. While she had realized that his outfit had changed, she now saw that he was in a jester outfit with a mask on. For a moment, her mind went blank at his strange appearance.

At that moment, Seedy grabbed onto her, firmly holding onto her torso and purposely pressing particularly hard on the broken ribs. He had quite the excited look while doing so, but also brought her right in front of Jack.

There were eight seconds left.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to play with you before it's over!"

Although his smile was obscured by the mask, it was still possible to tell through his narrowed eyes. Lily was still counting down the time in her head, aware there were seven seconds left. However, she was also aware of the fact that Jack would be able to kill her any moment now. All that was left was to use her words.

"N-No. I don't want to play right now!"

Jack tilted his head to the side and giggled.

"Saying that's part of the game, right? I would've thought you didn't like playing. But! I know you still play with them even when they say that too..."

Seedy constricted several times tighter than usual, threatening to split her in half from the torso.

There were five seconds left.

"Wait! Wait... instead of playing a game that I like to play, we instead do something you want to."

Her instinct was to beg for her life, but Lily quickly realized that would only spur him to kill her even faster. Although she didn't understand how he appeared to know that she not only killed people but did so in a rather cruel way.

She thought at lightning speed and was able to come up with something that could allow her to survive. Redirecting Jack's thoughts in hopes that even if it wouldn't prevent all harm, it would at least let her keep her life.

And it worked.

Jack tilted his head to the side and Seedy loosened its grip.

"Ah, you're right! I'll teach you how to have fun, with as much care as my Dad had teaching me! I should've thought of this earlier."

There were only two seconds left.

Just as Lily started to relax, Jack deftly reached his fingers into her eye socket and pulled with strength that should not have been possible for such a tiny frame.

A high-pitched shriek resounded.

Then, the time was up.

All of the surviving players were transported to their own rooms for their reward or punishment.

Lily was far from uninjured, but she had survived.

Jack was presented with seven different cards, of which he could take five. So he just took the highest number ones, netting him two 7's, a 6, and two 5's.

At the same time, Lily was presented with a punishment machine with a 6 engraved on it. She took in deep breaths one after another. It did not take long for her to recompose herself despite the injuries.

For a normal person, it would've been impressive already not to have passed out, and crying out in pain should've been the normal reaction.

"...Thank god I'm a Hearts."

The suit she had chosen was a big part of the reason for her willpower, to keep a straight face while one of her eyes had been freshly gouged out. With a disgruntled sigh, she pulled out a 6 from her deck and gave it up for her punishment.

"At the very least, I'm alive... and that means one day, I'll be able to get rev-"

While she was talking, a flash of light had taken her, before she appeared in a grassy field.

"-enge..."

With Jack, Jessica, Mia, and Kenji. The four of them looked over at her.

Mia, who currently had a few bouncing flowers in her hands pointed at Lily.

"Um, who is that?... Is she ok?"

Jack let out a giggle, narrowing his eyes as he tilted his head to the side.

"A new friend I made! Her name is Lily. She wants to learn all about how I have fun, so I'm going to teach her!"

For a moment, Lily was simply in shock as she looked at the others with her remaining eye. There was a part of her that wondered if she was just dreaming. However, after hearing the voices, she snapped out of it, realizing this wasn't the time to be running away from reality.

Making use of her will, she remained as calm as possible while trying to understand what was happening.

"I'm here now? This isn't supposed to be happening. Is that some sort of special ability? But I didn't see him use anything that would indicate that..."

She put both hands on the sides of her head.

"If that's not true, then the only explanation that I know is... but it can't be."

Lily slowly looked up at Jack with a rather fearful frown.

"I became a familiar?... But I thought humans couldn't become one of those. Even if that is the case, I should be resistant as a Hearts. No, the reason why I can even think must be because I'm a Hearts. Then that means he's far stronger than he let on..."

Jessica scratched the side of her head.

"What is she rambling about?"

Jack let out a laugh and held up his palm, unraveling it to reveal the bloody and mangled eye he had ripped out of her.

"She's a good friend. Look at the gift she got me! Lily must just be nervous because she doesn't know any of you and is a little bit scared. If you all introduce yourselves, she should be less nervous!"

Surprisingly, Kenji was the first one to go with it, not questioning a thing. Perhaps more because there was very little running through his head rather than decisiveness of any kind.

"Hello, Lily. My name is Kenji."

Lily was still in a bit of a daze, though for some reason the introduction calmed her down. She felt grateful that Jack had told the others to introduce themselves. However, a moment later she seized up, feeling cold sweat forming on her back.

Why in the world was she grateful for something like that?

While she was freaking out, desperately trying to cling to her actual memories and emotions, the others continued with their own introductions.

Jessica looked back and forth between the eye Jack was holding and Lily with her missing eye. For a moment, she thought that there was definitely something wrong with this scene, but those worries were soon discarded.

After all, Jack said it was just a gift, wasn't it?

"Hi there, Lily. Although I feel a bit nervous around strangers, I'm sure you're a great person if Jack is willing to be your friend!"

Jessica walked over, intending to put a hand on her shoulder. However within the conflicting emotions on Lily's face, there was a moment of clarity. That touch would definitely brainwash her further. As though she had a phobia of other people, she threw herself away.

"Get away!"

Her landing was rough, worsening her rib injuries. Although she was able to endure the pain from them, that didn't change the fact she needed to heal from them. Her breathing was erratic, mostly because she was coming to realize how hopeless her situation was.

There was the blood loss too.

Jessica smiled awkwardly, thinking it was endearing.

"Sorry, sorry. I know Jack said you were shy, but I didn't think it was that bad."

Mia's face was twitching, whether it was her eyelid or her lip. She was getting rather confused, but was rapidly making sense of the situation with the information she was given. Although she wasn't filled in with the details, she had more or less gathered what was going on.

"Hello there Lily. My name is Mia... I'll be in your care."

In the meantime, Lily was shaking her head back and forth.

"I... have to get out of here."

She tried to stand up, only to fall down again, completely forgetting one of her legs was directly cut through. Jack let out a giggle and walked over to her. He leaned over slightly, before putting one hand on his mask and directly ripping it off.

His face was red due to blood and flesh that was revealed. From there, he used his other hand to casually rip out one of his eyes with a squelching sound. Then, while all of his teeth were exposed as his lips were torn off, he handed it over.

Lily went into a daze. Although just a few moments ago, she was panicking, that suddenly all left her. Instead, she became rather bashful, just as Jack had described her to be earlier. With clear nervousness, she cupped her hands together and held them out as though accepting an offering.

Jack then dropped it in her palm before putting the mask back on. His missing eye began regenerating quite quickly.

Lily cradled the bloody eye, bringing it up closer to herself as though it were an incredibly precious treasure.

She hadn't realized she was already long gone.