Jug looked at Jim and Jen, they both had an expression mixed with confusion and hatred. "You know, you guys really could've made it out." He admitted, "If only you didn't enter this place with me." His arms glowed brighter as he clenched his fists.
"Why?" Jim asked Jug. "Why don't you just escape by yourself?" Jen was also confused, "You've had the power to escape all this time, yet you choose to stay? You talk to others about escaping only to crush their hopes?"
"What the hell happened to the Jug that wanted to escape so badly in that story?"
"You don't get it, Jen. Out there, I'm nobody. But down here, I'm someone who's needed." Jug told her. He could see that they both felt genuinely angry at him for ruining their chance.
"I'm sorry." He told them before punching Jim in the gut. The green glow forced his clothes to tear open. Jim went back, he held his hand to his mouth as he coughed. Looking at his hand, he saw blood. "Weren't you just panting a while ago?" He asked before swinging his fist at him.
Jug swerved away from its path, "I knew Mark was the most athletic between everyone else." He got close to Jim and swung another punch at him. This time, Jim blocked it with both of his arms.
"I needed to wear him out just in case."
Before Jug could do another move, Jen landed a punch behind his head. "Don't forget about me!" She shouted, running at him as she continued to continuously land hits on him.
Jug kept defending, trying to back off as she kept going. "Do you think this is enough to stop me?"
Jug swept Jen's feet, causing her to fall down. "Do you know how many people I fought, stomping each group that thought they had a chance at escaping?" He stomped her back, causing her to shout in pain.
"Hey!" Jim shouted out as he threw a punch at Jug. He dodged it easily however, now focusing himself on Jim.
"This is between you and me, munchkin." Jim lifted his guard up, knowing what's to come. Jug was visibly angry at his remark, "I AM NOT A MUNCHKIN!" He shouted out before sprinting at Jim.
Meanwhile, Mark and Tom were backed to a corner. "Nowhere left to run, nowhere left to hide." Parquatz said, toying with the two as he got closer. Mark looked at Tom, "Is your arm bleeding?" Tom looked at it, "No, at least I don't think it is."
They both scrambled their brains for a way out of this. The only chance they had of escaping was blocked by Parquatz.
"You already heard of what I've done to those who worked with Jug, right?" Parquatz asked them, "Where one ceases to exist, alive but not quite." He waves his eraser playfully towards them.
He was delighted to see both of them were listening intently, "You know, I've erased someone's eyes before, asked them what they saw…"
"You know what they told me?" He asked them.
"They saw nothing, a pitch black world devoid of an up or down." His eyes rolled as he recalled the events. "He screamed for the release of death before I sent him off with another swipe." He re-enacted it, swiping the air as he ended his sentence.
It left a dark mark on the air when he did it, its color further enforcing the scene Mark and Tom imagined. "Tom," Mark called out. "I don't see a way for both of us getting out of here."
His words sent Tom into despair, Mark was the strategist of the group. If everyone was stumped, he would come up with a solution.
"So we're dead?" Tom asked him, "Are our journeys ending before we get out of this place?" He was always scared of the concept of death, just thinking about it made him shudder. But never had the thought that when it came down to it that he would feel at ease.
He looked back at his life, the decisions he made and the mistakes he wished he hadn't made.
"Not ours," Mark's voice snapped him back. "Just mine." He clenched his fists together as he rushed towards Parquatz. He braced for impact as he rammed him.
Parquatz laughed joyfully, "Playing hero are we?" He shoved him away, pushing Mark to the ground.
"I'll fill in the villain for you."
Tom watched as Mark struggled to fight him, with Parquatz foiling him at every move he tried. Mark's desperation and determination to kill Parquatz was only met with mockery. He wasn't witnessing a fight, he was watching a predator playing with his prey.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Mark shouted out at Tom as he kept trying to knock Parquatz down.
"RUN TOM!" He screamed out before rushing at Parquatz again.
Those words made him realize that he was frozen in place. Tom scrambled to run away, passing by the both of them to make his escape.
Parquatz laughed, it echoed in his mind as he ran away. Tom closed his eyes as he tried shutting it all out, to distract himself from reality. His eyes were so shut that he eventually bumped into something.
"Are you alright?"
He heard a calm voice call out to him. He slowly opened his eyes to see that a hand was reached out to him. Grabbing it instinctively, he followed where it came from.
It was a tall pale man coated with black. He patted Tom's head, showing him a warm smile before he saw Parquatz fighting Mark.
"Are those your friends?" He asked Tom. He nodded, "Yes they are, can you please help us?" He asked desperately.
Tom knew that joining the fight alone wouldn't change anything, but maybe if someone else who awakened just like Parquatz and Jug joined them...
"Alright then." He told Tom, patting him one more time before heading towards Parquatz. "Hey!" The man shouted out to Parquatz.
Parquatz looked at him confused, wondering how he got there. He punched Mark in the gut to get him away and turned to him, "Who the hell are you?"
"Nevermind that!" He told him, "There's a monster behind you!"
Parquatz laughed at what he said, "What type of drug did you take?"
Then he felt something light tap on his shoulders. It froze him in place, there were only a few kids behind him. They were nowhere near tall enough to reach for his shoulder. He grabbed a hold of his eraser and turned to face...
Nothing.
There was nothing there. There was no dirt, no rocks, no walls, and no floor, just pitch black.
It gave him a sense of familiarity, like he had known what he was looking at for a long time. But it also made him shiver at the sight of it, his senses telling him that what he was looking at was something incomprehensible.
Then, he saw movement. A large, black fist emerged from the void and went straight to his stomach. He felt the pain course throughout his body as he was flung towards the wall.
"I told you," The man told Parquatz as he tried to regain composure. "People never seem to believe me when I tell them." The void then began to disappear, being filled in with what was there originally.
Parquatz smiled, it has been a while since someone was able to hurt him so much. He was slowly rotting in the pit, unable to find anyone who could be on par with him. All those toys he kept were so fragile, easily broken with the flick of his wrist.
Finally, someone I could play with.
"I believe we skipped introducing ourselves," Parquatz spoke out. "What is your name, good sir?" He got himself out from the wall he got stuck in from the punch, pieces of stone falling as he did.
The man approached, halting just a few feet away. He lowered into a bow, yet his eyes remained fixed on him. "Arm, short for Armageddon." He said with a soft tone, "And you must be Parquatz?"
Parquatz laughed, "Looks like one of my fans came to visit, which of the things that I've done were you fond of?" Arm looked up, as if genuinely thinking. "The time you kidnapped Timothy Howard."
Parquatz placed his hand on his chin, "Ah, that rich kid," He recalled. "His death was so gruesome." He frowned, then laughed manically. "Just recalling it gives me butterflies in my stomach."
"If only I had the honor to kill him myself," He sighed. "Guess I'll make do with you." Arm felt unsettled by Parquatz' smile. It wasn't the first time he felt this way, he fought many others that thought the same way Parquatz did.
"That's a shame, I guess all that's left is to eliminate the targets."
Portals full of nothingness appeared behind Arm. From them, black arms reached out, squirming around trying to grab anything they could come across.
They all reached out to Parquatz, causing him to jump back as they slammed themselves at where he stood. "Now we're talking!" He swiped his eraser at the hands, cutting them all in half.
Mark looked at Jim and Jen, they were both battered from fighting Jug. "Hey Tom, we gotta help them." He watched as they fought against him.
"We?" Tom asked, "I don't even have a right arm right now!" He waved his missing hand, clearly showing that it was gone. "At least do something!" Mark shouted out before running straight at him.
Jug turned around just in time to see him charging at him. "You aren't going to be stronger than me this time!" He fucked to dodge Mark's punch, then went to elbow his stomach.
The blow made him fly back, holding his gut as he fell down to the ground. "Forgot about me?" Jim held both of Jug's arms, restraining him. Jen took this as an opportunity to repeatedly punch him in his face.
"I hate you!" She shouted out as Jug started to bleed out. Feeling like a cornered animal, Jug shouted out, causing the green light to envelope his entire body and repel Jim.
"You are all still weak!" He said as he ran towards Jim, landing a punch right to his face. "Too young to even comprehend the difference between us!"
Jug turned to see Mark go up to him, dodging to the left as he threw a jab at him. He gathered the green light to both of his hands clasped together, creating a condensed ball of energy that he used to repel Mark across the cavern.
"When will you realize that all this fighting, this resistance that you put up is all useless?"
"No matter what you do, the difference between us is too wide to jump over." He looked at the three of them, all down on the ground from fighting him. He looked at himself, staring at the light that enveloped his body.
Was this power really meant for humans?
As he lost himself in his thoughts, his glow began to weaken, disappearing ever so slightly for a moment.
"Here comes the pain train!" A loud voice broke the silence. Jug's entire body got knocked over by Tom, who rammed him to the ground. He pinned him down, making sure that each time Jug tried to escape, he would be met with overwhelming force.
"I don't need my hand to beat the living hell out of you!" Tom started to constantly batter Jug's head with a hand and a stump, forcing him to lift his arms to defend.
Mark saw Tom beating Jug up, he got back up and went to follow him. "Hey!" Jim shouted out as quietly as possible to him, "It's our chance to escape!" He saw that Jen and him were already ready to leave Tom behind.
"What about Tom?" Mark asked the both of them. "What about him? He was the one who decided to come back" Jim tried to convince him, "Both Jug and Parquatz are occupied right now, do you think this chance will come again?"
Mark's morals wavered, he didn't like Tom but he knew that Tom wouldn't leave him. "We already tried throwing everything we had against Jug, what do you think Tom will change?" Jim reached his hand out, "To each our own."
Reluctantly, Mark grabbed his hand. Jim smiled, "Now let's get outta here!" The three of them slipped by the fight, running back to the staircase.
Meanwhile, Jug broke free from Tom. "Would you look at that?" They both stared at how the three of them ran away. Tom could see that Mark looked back at him, only for him to look away and continue running.
He felt his heart drop then, his eyes fell into despair.
Jug punched Tom in the stomach. He felt nothing, no resistance or the urge to defend himself. "Looks like you ended up being the scapegoat."
Jug could tell that Tom was broken from what he saw. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to catch up to them after I finish with you."
Tom wiped a tear from his face, "I knew from when my arm was erased, I was a goner." He told Jug. "I might as well make myself useful while I still can" He lifted the remaining arm he had against Jug, keeping him from chasing the other three.
Jug scoffed at him, "How stupid could you possibly be? Defending the very people who betrayed you?" He ran straight at Tom and grabbed his only arm with both of his, twisting it as to burn his skin.
Tom screamed from the pain. "I was going to finish you off quickly, but now I'll take my sweet, sweet, time." Jug whispered in his ear as he continued torturing him.