Chapter 2: Tunnel Vision

The landscape had been pretty bleak as they walked; always the occasional toy or piece of furniture floating by, but no chains. If they came across any they always scattered away in fear of Jack. He knew that the opinions of a few brainless chains meant little to nothing, yet Jack started to feel sick from hearing their pathetic little squeals and seeing them dash for cover behind the nearest object. He tightened his jaw and looked straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge them. All he cared about was finding Lacie.

Then, a whisper.

"Hero of Sablier," were the only words Jack heard, but it was enough. One of his many nicknames, the one he had brought upon himself, whispered in horror and disgust. He should have been used to it by now, the terrified reactions, but he couldn't help but be infuriated by it. The chains were so pitiful, merely brainless creatures that were once humans; they had been deformed by the Abyss and turned into monsters, but they were still so very weak. Jack couldn't stand it. They weren't human, they weren't even fully creature, just some terrible mixture gone horribly wrong. Yet they had the right to call him a monster? They stood in their false and cowardly safety, watching him pass, their eyes bulging with terror and morbid fascination. Jack felt a scorching heat in his palms and he thought it was just the anger building up inside of him, but it had manifested into the red hot power of B-Rabbit.

Jack couldn't let it all go to waste, now could he?

Ariella silently observed him. She heard the whispers as well, and she immediately noticed Jack's shoulders tightening, and his jaw set. She watched the change in him. She could see his fingers twitch and glow bright red, she could see the rage build up inside of him and all she could do was wait for him to explode. Ariella breathed out softly through her nose and looked upon him sorrowfully.

The two chains looked almost human, they couldn't have been sucked into the Abyss that long ago. They had barely even begun the transformation and still had a general human shape, albeit more hunched and skinny. They were scrambling to hide behind an armoire a few feet away but Jack thrust out his red hands and blew them into oblivion. Black blood rained down from where the chains once stood moments ago; there one second and gone the next.

"Aggressive now, aren't you?" Ariella said.

Jack turned back to the path they were on. He looked straight forward and kept his eyes on the nonexistent horizon off in the distance, trying to avoid Ariella's inquisitive gaze. His shoulders were squared and he took long strides to try and get in front of Ariella, and Ariella sighed and continued walking. She made the best effort to walk right beside him, knowing how much it aggravated him. She internally giggled at his mood, he was very much like a child throwing a tantrum.

Ariella skipped, jumped and danced along the shimmery floor of the Abyss to an imaginary beat inside her head. She kicked up the water-like substance and millions of tiny shimmering droplets scattered around her feet like a sea of stars. Occasionally she would hum, and sometimes she would try to strike up a conversation with Jack, who ignored her. Ariella crossed her arms over her chest.

"Hmph. You're no fun," she said, disgruntled.

Jack glowered at her. "I didn't come here to make friends, I came here to find Lacie," he spit out each word with growing irritation.

Ariella threw her hands up in mock surrender. "We will, don't worry. She's just in a very…secure part of the Abyss, so it will take some time to reach her."

Jack drew nearer to her and glared at her with fierce intensity. "Secure? Is she trapped? Have you hurt her?" concern and impatience and anger laced together in his voice, "I swear to God, I will kill everyone in this whole goddamn place if you've hurt her," he said through gritted teeth.

Ariella's eyes widened for a moment, then her expression settled into disappointment. "Relax, she's fine. And when you go to rescue her maybe you can play the real hero this time," she said with a certain sharpness to her words.

Jack crossed his arms in annoyance at her blatant disrespect, but he chose to ignore it. "Very well then, where are we off to first?" he asked curtly.

Ariella pointed to something far off into the distance. Jack couldn't see what it was from where they were, so it just looked like a lump on the dull landscape of the Abyss. He couldn't imagine why they had to go to something so insignificant.

"That's a tunnel up there, it'll take us to a different part of the Abyss where it'll be much easier to get to Lacie," Ariella explained.

Jack squinted to try and see more of this so-called tunnel. It started having a more definite outline as they drew closer, but it seemed to be constantly changing shape. It was a mess of colors undulating like waves, forming and removing lumps from the surface. He had never seen anything like it before, but then again, the Abyss was a strange place. This kind of thing probably wasn't uncommon.

"There are, however, a few complications," Ariella added. Jack looked at her, and she continued. "It's a sort of portal, and chains are drawn to its source of energy. They've surrounded the tunnel and it's become toxic."

Jack looked off in the direction of the tunnel and squinted. "You have magic, do something about it," he said stonily.

Ariella tilted her mouth to the side in agitation. "Yea that's not really how this works," she wiggled her hand in the air even though Jack wasn't looking at her.

They were close enough now so that Jack could see that the colorful waves were different types of chains, all amassed into one large blob. He couldn't see the entrance and wondered how they were going to get in, and more importantly, how they were going to get through to the portal.

He and Ariella stopped far enough from the tunnel so that no chains came after them. Jack wasn't sure if they would or not, seeing as how chains usually tended to avoid him. He wanted to use B-rabbit's power to demolish all of the chains into dust, but there were too many and he had only a small amount of power left in this form since he had given his body to B-Rabbit. It would use up all of his remaining power just to get rid of half the chains in there.

"How do you suppose we get through?" Jack asked.

Ariella shrugged. Jack turned to her. "I thought you knew this place!" he shouted at her.

"I know of it," Ariella said.

Jack sighed exasperatedly. They needed to come up with some way to get through there. He could see the entrance now, a cavernous, gaping hole guarded by a chain. If only those chains would scare as easily as the ones from before…

"Hey, where are you going?!" Ariella screamed as Jack suddenly took off towards the tunnel.

Jack ran to the entrance and stopped a few feet in front of the guard-chain. It lunged at him but he easily destroyed it using the power of B-rabbit. The other chains around them held back for a moment after witnessing the explosion. Jack raised his arms and smiled wickedly at them.

"What are you waiting for?" he shouted, "come on! You want to eat a human? Well I'm the worst human around! I caused the Tragedy of Sablier! It's my fault you're all dead! Go on, attack me! Have at it!"

None of the chains moved.

Jack smiled wider, triumphant. This was a game he knew.

"I'm impressed," Ariella said to him as he strode back to her.

"Now we shouldn't have any problems," Jack said confidently.

"Except the floor," Ariella added.

"What about the floor?"

"I told you, the chains polluted it and turned it to acid," Ariella said matter-of-factly.

"I'll carry you on my back," Jack replied.

Ariella jerked her head back in surprise. "What?"

Jack glanced down at Ariella's feet then back at her face. "Acid floor, bare feet. You're of no use to me if you can't even walk," he said indifferently.

Ariella considered this for a moment before climbing onto his back as they neared the entrance to the tunnel. "That's very kind of you," she said and grinned.

Jack laughed dryly. "I am not kind. Call me whatever you'd like, but at least make it truthful."

Now it was Ariella's turn to laugh. "Since when have you ever been truthful?" she snorted.

Jack helped Ariella climb onto his back and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She wasn't terribly heavy, but he hoped he could get them both to the end of the tunnel without falling.

He stepped through the entrance of the tunnel and heard the sizzling of his boots in the bubbling green acid. He hoped the rubber soles wouldn't melt before they reached the end, but he had to be careful going through. The chains were docile for now, all pressed to the edges of the tunnel, but one wrong move could easily set them off. They stared intensely at him, fearful yet hungry. They were fickle creatures beyond comprehension and reason, much like the Abyss they resided in, so Jack didn't want to chance it and do something that would provoke them.

They were almost halfway through the tunnel when Jack felt the first bubble pop against the bottom of his foot. There was no pain, just pressure and the heat of the soft rubber on his skin. It wasn't quite melted yet, just the bottoms had started to bubble. At least, that's how it was at first. Jack tried to speed up their trek but accidentally sloshed some of the acid onto the cloth part of his boots. It ate a hole right through the cloth and burned his skin, and he hissed and slowed down.

He heard Ariella hm? But he made some non-committal wiggly hand gesture and she settled back down.

He could feel as the rubber bubbled and melted away. It popped against his skin and dripped into the acid and sizzled sickeningly in his ears. He could feel the acid seep in through the holes and burn his flesh with each step that he took. He gritted his teeth against the pain, it felt as if his feet were literally on fire. He cursed at the agonizingly slow walk, but he didn't want to make another mistake like before, or worse, drop Ariella or fall himself. He had to be patient. Besides, the acid wasn't too deep and only part of the sole of his boot was disintegrated. He had to keep reminding himself of this when the smell of burned flesh and rubber assaulted his nose.

Jack was panting and sweating, his hands clenched into fists and his nails digging into his palms, but he was sure they only had a little ways to go before they were free. He was definitely going to have terrible blisters on his feet when they were through with this, but it was worth it if it got him closer to rescuing Lacie.

Jack groaned low in his throat at the pain and stumbled. He caught himself by leaning against the wall and he squeezed his eyes shut. His eyes shot open when he heard Ariella scream loudly in his ear.

"What now?!" he snapped.

"Oh, Jack~" said a mysterious, garbled voice that sounded like it was underwater.

Jack looked over at a chain who had the torso of a human woman, but the body and legs of a spider. She smiled ear to ear. Jack's pain was momentarily forgotten when he remembered that the "wall" he was leaning on was made of chains. They looked at him now with less fear and a lot more vigorous hunger.

"Uwee hee hee~ he has no power!" said a gravelly voice tinged with laughter.

"No power! No power!" a few other voices chimed excitedly.

Jack threw his hands down and lit them ablaze with the red glow of B-rabbits power. "You want power? I'll show you power!" he shouted.

"Jack," Ariella chided, "you can't take on all of them."

"You think I don't know that? I would have done so already if I could," Jack ground out through gritted teeth, tilting his head back slightly so only Ariella could hear.

The chains began to leave their positions on the walls and slink towards them.

"Run," Ariella whispered in Jack's ear.

The chains came at them all at once, creating a massive shifting in the tunnel walls and ceiling. It was much more open and bright once they had moved, but Jack hardly took notice of the change in surroundings. All he heard was the whirring of wings and splash of feet, the sounds of all the chains moving together in one giant mass of destruction. Acid splashed almost up to Jacks knees as he ran. His boots were partly disintegrated already and blistering his skin, but he didn't feel it with all the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

He literally saw a light at the end of the tunnel and pushed himself to run faster. The hoard of chains were right behind them, but if he could just make it outside then him and Ariella would have a better chance of escaping in the open space.

He felt the breath of a chain on his back and thought worriedly about Ariella when she removed one of her arms from around his shoulders, but she said nothing. He heard her grunt and then she put her arm back around him, holding tightly.

"Are you all right back there?" Jack yelled over the din of the chains.

"I punched it in the eye," Ariella said, more aggravated than anything else.

In less dire circumstances, Jack would've laughed. He tried to run faster, but the acid and Ariella's weight on his back hindered him from doing so. He was just barely outrunning the chains so he needed to get out of the tunnel as soon as possible. He heard them screech behind him along with the constant whirring of wings, but the light was so close; he was almost there. If he could somehow distract them, that would give him and Ariella the advantage so they could escape.

He reached back and plucked a pin from his braid and threw it as hard as he could at the wall of the tunnel. It hit the wing of a pursuing chain and was propelled into the glass. The pin lodged in the glass wall and Jack couldn't see it cracking from behind, but he could hear it. The small crack widened and traveled up to the roof of the tunnel, where it was shattered by the beating wings of all the chains crammed in the small space. Glass shards began to rain down upon them.

"Hold on!" Jack shouted, and Ariella tightened her hold on his shoulders.

Jack tried to pick up as much speed as he could, just barely outrunning the glass that was caving in behind them. Shards of luminescent glass rained down and showered the chains, some large enough to impale them into the ground. Jack hoped he could get them out in time before that happened to him.

A chain screeched as it was hit in the back with a glass shard and it lurched forward, throwing out its wrinkly arm in a desperate attempt to survive. Its claws dragged through Jacks coat and flesh and he hissed, but kept running. The chain was left behind to wail on the floor of the tunnel.

Almost to the end, Jack saw a lucent blue glow emanating from the tunnels exit. It was a pure sphere of light, and Jack had no idea where it would lead or what would happen when he went through it, but right now it was their only option.

"Hold on!" Jack screamed at Ariella as he jumped through the portal.

It was an odd sensation, it felt he was passing through a wall of water. It was calm and cool, and felt smooth just like water and left him feeling refreshed. At least, for a split second it did. The portal spat him out on the floor of the Abyss and he didn't get the chance to notice if he was actually soaking wet or not. Jack and Ariella were immediately followed by a hoard of chains that burst out from behind him in a huge swarm, encompassing an even greater space with their large number, now that they were in the open expanse of the Abyss. Jack looked up at the chains and saw only a giant mass of destruction and evil, all gathered in a cloud in the hazy Abyss sky. They only swarmed for a moment, then dived down sharply without warning, but with a vengeance.

"Ariella!" Jack called, and threw her off his back.

Ariella landed with a thump on the watery floor and glared at him for a split second while he screamed at her to run. A swarm of chains flew all around him and Jack couldn't see her anymore, but he prayed she was alright—she was his only hope of finding Lacie, after all. Then Jack ran for cover.