Jesse's left arm felt weird.

That was the first thing he noticed when he woke up.

"Nng…" He blinked, trying to get used to the dim lighting of the room. He pushed himself up and rolled up the sleeve of his left arm, glancing around as he did so. His brows furrowed.

The room he was in wasn't that big- it would probably take five or seven steps to get to the door, which was just beyond a small doorway. Left of the doorway was a dark crevice, probably big enough to fit a single person. To the right, a double chest with a torch, the only source of light in the room, above it.

His face scrunched in confusion. "Where the hell am I?" he mumbled. Then he looked down at his arm to see what was wrong with it.

His confusion only increased upon seeing it.

On his arm was the word 'NONCHALANCE.' A tattoo. He ran his fingers over it, checking to see if it were permanent. It was. The boy blinked. 'I guess I have a tattoo now.' He glanced around again, rolling up the sleeve of his other arm, getting up from the bed as he did so. 'No idea what 'nonchalance' is supposed to mean to me, though... Or what's going on, really.'

Shuffle.. shuffle.. shuffle..

He looked up at the ceiling, irritated. It wasn't that high, he'd only have to tiptoe to reach it. Which is why it was so easy to hear the sound of..something..shuffling on the rooftop. Mobs on the roof, perhaps?

He hummed as he looked at his surroundings, hands on his hips. 'Let's find out.'

He walked over to the chest, checking around the latch for anything red- which there wasn't. 'Not a trapped one, then.' He opened the chest and peeked inside.

'Well,' A small smile appeared on his face. 'This isn't something you come across on a normal basis.' Inside the chest was a set of enchanted weapons and tools (as well as a ridiculous amount of raw food, but that doesn't matter). Enchanted diamond shovel, enchanted bow, enchanted diamond sword…

But the hoe caught his eye. He picked it up and examined it. It was sharp, more than enough to pierce skin and muscle. He grinned, before pocketing the enchanted weapon and sifting through the rest of the chest. 'I've got a scythe now.'

Clack! Clack! Clack!

He stopped upon hearing the sound of something hitting wood. He got up slowly, closing the chest as noiselessly as he possibly could. 'Who's there?'

He drew out his scythe, just in case whoever was there was hostile.

The figure continued to climb down, and then they got low enough that, if it weren't for the light of the torch, he probably wouldn't have seen even the slightest glimpse of her features.

"Olivia?"

The girl quickly turned to him. "Jesse!" She nearly ran to him, but stopped when she got close enough. Then she took a step back. "No… No, you're not Jesse."

'..What?'

"Okay," he didn't tuck away the scythe, but he did lower it, "that's just stupid, Olivia. How could I not be Jesse?"

"Well… I mean.." Olivia took a few more steps back, hitting the wall of dirt behind her. "You do have his voice, but.." Her eyes narrow as she stared down at the ground, confused, no doubt.

"'But' what," he shook his head, "I could be like some guy in a mask? Come on, I've no reason to do that!"

'Liar.' He brushed the thought away, instead watching Olivia for any reaction. She said nothing.

'She doesn't trust me.' He snorted in his head, 'Of course she doesn't trust me, she can't recognize me. ..Well,' He shrugged inwardly, 'she knows me, but she doesn't know my face.'

He blinked, realizing how strange this whole situation was. And to think he'd just been having a normal day just a while ago. 'How does that even work? On that note, how long was I out?'

"Alright." He blinked, then looked back at Olivia, "If you really are Jesse, then you should be able to answer this question correctly."

'Oh, please not the 'which would you rather?' questions..'

"How did we meet?"

He froze in place, the question taking him by surprise. 'Well crap.' He bit his lip, and looked away, pretending to look like he was thinking of the answer. 'I can't remember.' He took a few seconds, contemplating on whether he should bluff or tell the truth.

'Bluffing just might exacerbate things, so..' He held up his free hand defensively and pulled out the most 'normal person' thing he could say out of his head. "Olivia, you've gotta trust me when I say that I'm Jesse, alright?" He put a hand to his chest, "I'm sorry that I can't remember how we met, but I really am Jesse."

The skeptical look on her face wasn't helping the situation. He grumbled, then pocketed the scythe, now holding both his hands up in a shrug. "What do I have to do to make you believe me?"

She held her chin in thought. Looking at her now, he realized how she seemed to be just a little… older? Or was she just really tired? There were some bags under her eyes. Not too noticeable, but they were there. She also seemed to be a lot more confident- maybe not in how she acted, but her posture told him a lot. Just what is going on here?

"What did we build for this year's Endercon Building Competition?" She finally asked, "You can at least remember that, right?"

'This year's building competition?' He made a look of utter confusion, glancing from Olivia to the wall. "The building competition hasn't even happened yet.." He said, his tone laced with a confused 'shouldn't you know that?'

Olivia's posture completely dropped. She slouched, a hand dropping to her side while the other was on her hip. "What?" Her tone was completely flat, deadpan maybe, and also confused.

"Yeah," Jesse held the nape of his neck, "but if it helps, we were planning on building a fireworks dispenser."

The girl gave him a baffled stare, before she fixed her posture and, with her free hand, pinched the bridge of her nose. She seems like she's had a long day. "There is definitely something up here, then." She muttered.

He placed his hands on his hips. "You only realize that now?" He asked sarcastically. She gave him a tired glare, before waving her hand. "Let's just look around." Jesse silently agreed, shrugging as the two began to look around the room.

Olivia glanced around, then her eyes landed on the chest. "What was in there?"

"Enchanted weapons," Jesse started to step towards the bed, fiddling with the sheets, "and a crap ton of raw food."

She raised a brow. "Is that where you got your enchanted hoe?"

He frowned, his eyes narrowing as he took out the weapon, pointing at it. "It's a scythe." He kept it in his pocket again, "Get it right, Liv."

"..'Liv?'"

Jesse didn't have to look up from fixing the sheets from their once-crumpled state to know Olivia's reaction. She more than likely had a bewildered look on her face. "Yeah, that's your nickname." He put his hands on his hips, admiring his work. Then he frowned. 'The colors of beds are so boring..'

He heard the sound of something clicking shut. He turned, to see Olivia's hands just letting go of the chest. Her head almost hit the torch on the wall as she got up. "I don't have a nickname."

"...You do now."

Olivia sighed, rubbing her eyes. She turned to see Jesse inspecting the dark crevice with the ladder. "Hey Olivia," He looked up the crevice, where he could see the faint glow of what might be a torch. "What's the room upstairs look like? Any different than this one?"

She shook her head. "Not really. It looks almost exactly the same, if you remove the door and chest."

He huffed in disappointment. "So no chest upstairs. Bummer." He turned around to look at the door. It was a normal, wooden door- so the four holes on the top were there. He squinted to try and see what was outside, but it was so dark, he could barely see anything save for the soft glow of some lights, but even those were off to the far side.

"Hey, do you have a tattoo?" Olivia suddenly asked. He looked back at her.

"Yeah, do you?"

She put her right arm under the light of the torch, showing the tattoo written on her arm. 'LOGIC,' it read. "What does yours say?"

"Nonchalance." He pointed at it, moving so that it wasn't covered by the shadow of the wall.

"What do you think they mean?"

"No idea. They're definitely permanent, though." He held his chin in thought. 'So Olivia's got a tattoo too, then.' He filed away the information in his head, with no doubt that it'll come up again later on.

'We have to have been given these tattoos for a reason. Why would anyone tattoo some random words on us? Unless they're not random…' He blinked, 'IDs, maybe? But why can't you just use our real name? Maybe they can't use our real names.' He pursed his lips, 'Why not, then?'

Olivia hummed, leaning from behind the wall to look at the doorway. "Is there anything outside?"

He tucked the thought away for now, going back to the topic at hand, and shrugged. "Only one way to find out." He reached out and opened the door, pushing it open. Once it did, he stepped outside. His eyes widened upon seeing the rest of their environment.

Several feet from the front of the hut was a large, arched gate made entirely of wood, decorated with fence posts and three torches. One for each side, and another at the top. At the center-top was a single block of pink wool. Stretching from both sides of the gate was an incredibly tall hedge that seemed to disappear into an abyss of pure darkness.

He squinted. Or did it?

"Whoa…"

He ignored Olivia's awed reaction in favor of looking around a bit more. Specifically at the ridiculous amount of darkness around them. He looked up, searching in vain for any sight of the moon or the stars. But there was nothing but pure black. "There's never been such a thing as a starless or moonless night, has there?" He asked, finally turning to Olivia. She was staring up at the hut before he turned to him.

"No, why?"

"Look up."

She did, an astonished gasp escaping her lips. "Oh.."

"Yeah." He put a hand on his hip, "What do you think it is? Can't be-"

"An update?" She finished for him, then shook her head. "No, we would've been notified."

He hummed, then looked at the hut to see what Olivia was so fascinated with. Hanging above the door, presumably where the second floor room was, was a green banner with the symbol of a single wheat over a blue-green circle. The only thing lighting it was a torch that was set a block beside it. There was another torch right beside the door.

He raised a brow, but didn't comment.

Instead, he circled the hut, looking at the rest of the space. Everything beyond twenty feet, maybe even less, was shrouded in darkness. He huffed in disappointment, then went back to the front of the hut, where he saw Olivia looking at the gate. She turned when he got close enough.

"Did you find anything?" She asked.

"Nothing. Everything's just shrouded in darkness… I'm surprised we haven't run into any mobs yet."

"That's true." She looked back at the gate, "So I guess that's our only way out here?"

"It's our only way anywhere." He placed his hands on his hips, then looked at Olivia, noting that she seemed to be a little taller, too. "Should we go?"

He blinked in surprise when she took out an enchanted bow and red-colored arrows, then drew the string back. All she needed was some armor and she'd pretty much look to be ready for battle. Which she never was. "Yeah."

He nodded awkwardly, confused by the whole situation, but moved on. "Alright then."

The maze was ridiculous. The walls were extremely high, at least as tall as two Endermen stacked on top of each other. And the spaces weren't that big, either. They fluctuated between being small enough that he and Olivia had to walk in single file (Olivia didn't trust him being behind her, so he had to stay in front), and just enough for some arm space should they have walked side by side.

That, and each path was almost as long as the walls were tall. Perhaps even longer than that. Unfortunately for them, there was an ungodly amount of twists and turns. Honestly, the only good thing about the maze was that there weren't that many trick paths, so at least getting through it was fairly easy.

Now that he had time to think, Jesse had to wonder: Was Reuben here, too? Is he in a similar situation? He was in the same place Jesse was in, after all. 'Not unless the person who brought me here was only after me..'

The boy heaves a sigh. 'I'll find out when we get through this maze.'

Jesse has absolutely no idea how much time has passed, but he's getting bored, they haven't gotten out of the maze yet, and the silence between him and Olivia was not helping one bit. He turned to the girl, who was a little ways away behind him, and spoke up. While walking backwards. "So while we go through this maze.. What's the last thing you remember before waking up here?" The girl didn't respond, only giving him a half-lidded glare. "Come on, we can share stories!"

There was another moment of silence, which annoyed Jesse, before Olivia spoke up. "Why should I trust you?"

A bewildered, yet amused, smile appeared on his face. 'Has Olivia always had trust issues?' He breathed a laugh, hands held up in a surrender, "Olivia, I honestly swear I'm Jesse. And you know that I never lie, right?"

He mentally laughed at the glaring contradiction in his statement.

"My Jesse told me that." She looked away for a moment, before turning her head back to him. "I don't know about you, though." She tightened her grip on her weapon, brisk walking while simultaneously keeping her distance from Jesse. He huffed, disappointed.

"Alright, fine." He turned away again, just in time to avoid walking into a wall. He blinked, then stepped to the side, hearing the faint sound of Olivia stifle a laugh as he did so. His brows raised in slight confusion, but he said nothing.

The two continued on through the maze with no conversation. There really wasn't any tension there- none that Jesse felt, at least. He did steal some quick glances at Olivia, who didn't seem to be at ease. He'd ask what's up, but considering his earlier attempt at conversation, he shut up before he said anything and moved on.

Suddenly, from out of the blue, a shrill scream filled the air. Jesse blinked and looked around in surprise. 'So someone else is here, then. Good to know.'

Then Olivia sped by him, her brisk walk turning into a run. "Don't just stand there, we have to help!"

"How do you know they need help?!"

She gave him a look, before continuing on through the corner. "Come on!"

He grumbled, "Fine," then ran after his 'friend.'

It took them a little while, but the two finally got themselves out of the maze. A large clearing greeted them, with a lake right in the middle of it. At the other side of the lake was some sort of commotion.

"What's going on here?!" Olivia asked (or demanded), raising her voice as she ran to the other side of the lake. Jesse did the same, but through the right side instead of the left. He stopped mid-run upon seeing what was going on.

"Oh my god.." Olivia stepped back, her hands flying to her mouth in shock.

Right there, in front of the entrance (exit?) to another path in the maze, was a body. Still and lifeless, blood covering its chest. The girl standing over it, diamond axe in hand, looked between the two of them.

"Okay," she raised her free hand defensively, "I know this looks bad... But just to let you know," The ravenette bit her lip as she pointed to the corpse. "I didn't do that."

Jesse blinked in surprise.

This was definitely not how he thought his day was going to go.

A/N: did i say four days? Oh. Whoops. :P well i mean it HAS technically been four days for me (it's like 12:51 AM rn haha)

I mean, you just saw how short this is, right? I don't think a chapter that's this length is worth three or four days.

i guess i'm just stalling 'cause I take way too long trying to write. Oh well. (Good thing i have pre written chapters mwuahahaha)

Review replies!

ArizaLuca - [Four days it is, then! :D] [Thanks Ariza. :)] [oh and uh, btw, i hope you don't mind me using an 'a/n system' similar to yours.. o-o i'm pretty paranoid about this stuff so uh]

Emily the Avenger - [Not sure what you found awesome about that one prologue, but okay! I'll take that xD I'm just glad to know you enjoyed it.]

Rebecca Ripple - [I'm glad to know that you're interested! This fic means a bunch to me, so.. it's hard to explain haha but yeah, haha, thanks. (I hope I don't let down any expectations oh no-)] [It's no problem. And actually, now that I think about it, yeah, is IS pretty hard to find male Jesse fics. Weird.] [oH MY GOD YEAH FINALLY SOMEONE WHO THINKS THE SAME THING LIKE? ? ? SHE SOUNDS SO ASSERTIVE? ? AND? ? MEAN? ? ? LIKE? ? ? male jesse is much nicer tbh] [Yes, he did hahaha It's human Reub for this fic.]

Alice Forshadow - [And see you shall! :D I'm happy to know it's got you excited. :3]

Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic day! ^_^