A Light

At first, Jack was excited to share his experience about how high he was able to send his fingernails, but stopped when Mia grabbed onto his other hand. She saw that there was yet another missing pinky fingernail. After triple checking what she saw was real, she stared deep into Jack's eyes before speaking slowly.

"Hey, were you the one that did this to yourself?"

Jack became a little nervous, thinking he was in trouble.

"U-Um... yes?"

Mia backed off before nodding to herself.

"Alright, I'll take it all back. Let's bring this kid with us."

Though Jessica didn't look happy despite hearing that. Instead, she gently held onto one of Jack's hands and stared at the dried blood.

"Oh dear... how did this happen? Are you hurt?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders.

"I gave away all my twos. It doesn't really hurt."

What he meant by that was the twos were a tip to the dealer, but Mia and Jessica both understood it as him losing them in the blackjack bets. Mia let out a sigh.

"That's a shame. Though you can always go get more through some solitaire games. Regardless, we can give him a tour of the place before we decide on anything."

Jessica looked at his hands for a bit longer before letting them drop.

"I guess we should do that first..."

With that, the two of them guided Jack over to one of the slot machines.

Mia held out a hand lazily as she pointed to it.

"Since you already know about the solitaire and blackjack games, I brought you here to look at this thing."

The slot machine was rather retro, with three different panels and a lever to pull down.

Mia cleared her throat before explaining.

"Each time you want to try, you gotta put a 3 in first. The numbers range between 4 to 6 when you spin, and if you get three of the same number, then you'll win that respective card."

Jack initially had an excited expression, though it dulled down a bit.

"Um... is that all?"

Mia raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean is that all? Does it need to be anything else?"

Jack scratched the back of his head.

"I guess not... but there's nothing to play."

Mia smirked and handed him a three.

"Come on, just try it."

Jack looked between the card and the machine before eventually doing as told. He put the card in and pulled the lever. While he was doing that, Jess whispered with embarrassment.

"That was basically my three."

In response, Mia rolled her eyes with a playful smile.

"Not anymore, not after you lost it to me."

The machine cycled between various numbers, all of which landed on 4 one after another. With that, a 4 was printed out. Seeing this, Mia let out a laugh.

"Wow, you won! Doesn't that feel great?"

Jack still had the same unamused expression.

"Um... not really."

He took the card and handed it back to Mia, prompting her to raise an eyebrow.

"Hm? Oh, you can keep it."

Jack shook his head right after.

"No, people shouldn't just give away things for free. That was your 3, so this is also your 4."

Mia was a tad bit surprised, but ended up taking the card back anyway.

"Well, alright then."

After that, Jessica took the lead to show the roulette table. It looked an awful lot like a traditional one, with the spinning board and metal ball bouncing around within. Though there was nobody manning the machine itself, the thing was still spinning around as the metal ball tumbled around.

Several people had cards down on a wide board, enough to accommodate roughly ten people. and when the metal ball slowly stopped, most people let out cries of anguish as their cards disappeared into the table, while a few let out cries of victory as their cards shook before duplicating themselves.

Jessica brought them to one of the empty boards before explaining.

"Every so often, that circle of numbers will start spinning and the ball will land in a specific slot. There are thirteen total different places where it can land, with numbers between two and seven, either black or red, along with a blue zero."

She then pointed toward the board in front of them.

"You can bet cards, however, if you want to bet on a number that isn't zero, then the card you use must match that number. Also, there is betting on colors, with the restriction where the color of the card must match the bet. As for the zero, you can bet any card on it."

Mia smiled as she held out one hand.

"If you win on a color bet, you'll get double your cards, while if you win the number bet then you will get ten times your cards. Doesn't that sound amazing?"

Jack pouted, looking over the numbers.

"But don't you lose more than you gain? And there's still nothing to play!"

Mia rolled her eyes.

"The point is that there is a chance to get more cards. Besides, part of doing it is just the thrill of gambling."

Jack pressed his lips into a line.

"That sounds boring."

Mia blinked a few times as the smile on her face disappeared.

"...Well, it is. But usually most people find fun in it anyway. I mean, don't you see all of these people?"

Jack put on a puzzled expression while looking at the others betting before losing interest.

"Are all of these boring things?"

Mia shrugged her shoulders before pointing at the large poker table.

"Well, there's also that. But you probably shouldn't go there unless you got a lotta cards. Apparently, it works like normal poker, but to take a seat you need to first pay a 3. On top of that, you can wager using any card you like, but you can only use up to four of the same number with different suits on each bet. I assume it's a way to prevent people from just putting down all their cards and forcing others to fold. As for when you stand up, you can do that at the end of any game."

Jack thought for a little while before nodding.

"Ah, that does sound like fun! So the fun things are the blackjack and poker games."

Jessica pointed towards one of the blue portals.

"There's also the portals that lead to the outside, which I assume is where you find the other kinds of games. But it looks like most people opted to stay inside here to play these games instead."

Jack let out a hum.

"I want to play poker! But... how many cards do I need?"

Mia let out a chuckle.

"If you lost your fingernails, you probably don't have enough. It looks like while there's a ton of games here, the only ones that give you a realistic chance are the ones you encounter out in the wild. But then again, there are going to be monsters out there."

Jack raised a finger into the air.

"Then I want to go out to get cards to play poker with!"

Jessica smiled slightly.

"As frightening as it is, we don't have much of a chance unless we're willing to bet on our luck."

Mia twirled around while pointing forth. When she did come to a stop, she smiled.

"Let's go that way."

Jack raised his hands in excitement.

"Ok!"

With that, the three of them went out through the portal, and into the darkness. Jack promptly got out the lamp to light the way ahead. Mia let out a hum.

"You guys bought a lamp? That's pricey as hell isn't it?"

Jessica let out a small laugh.

"Well, it's Jack's. But I still think it's a good purchase. Using matches won't work well if you can't find a piece of wood, and even then it won't light up the place that well."

Jack looked between the two.

"It was my Dad that gave me this lamp!"

Mia muttered under her breath.

"So I guess it was the father that bought it."

Jack moved the lamp around to get a better understanding of his surroundings.

"Wow, this is a lot bigger!"

As he said, while the hallway was familiar through the dirt and dreariness, it was far more spacious. The light almost didn't even reach the roof, and there weren't really hallways anymore.

Jack smiled brightly.

"Wow! That's so cool!"

On the other hand, Mia frowned.

"...It looks like the place got bigger so that it could accommodate larger monsters."

Jessica flinched when she heard that.

"Haha, you sure know how to joke... that's just jumping to conclusions."

Mia didn't reply to that, deciding that silence would communicate her thoughts better than anything else. As for Jack, what they were talking about was lost on him. He simply walked on ahead, constantly looking around at the scenery.

There was a bright smile on his face, showing his excitement. Though the background itself didn't really have much to match that energy. Occasionally, there would be a stalactite or stalagmite coming from the ceiling or coming up from the ground.

Jack made a rather big fuss about them, asking what they were.

Although Jessica and Mia both told him to be quieter, they also explained them. Somehow or another, the seemingly terrifying journey was almost made into a field trip. For the sake of simplicity, they decided to just go straight, so that going back would also be easy.

And for roughly thirty minutes, they didn't encounter anything.

Jack had finished all of the jerkies he had left by now, but that was mainly just because he was starting to get bored with what he was seeing. However, it did not take long for them to come across something that would dispel that boredom.

The light of another fire showed up in the distance.

"Hey! We see you over there!"