Jax x Reader ~Enemies to Lovers~

We continued walking, trying to gain some resemblance of hope, though I was starting to wonder how the HELL they got so far when I checked up on Jax for, like, a minute. Maybe even less than that. It just makes no damn sense, to the point it is starting to get on my nerves a bit. My eyes glanced at Jax once more, who seemed to be awfully quiet. Since he always seemed to be a 'let's make this person terrified' type of person or 'let's prank them no matter the situation we're in' type of guy. So his silence, though not unwelcome, I found a bit strange.

"You're awfully quiet," I heard myself speak accidentally. He looked over at me and rolled his eyes.

"What do you expect me to say? We've been walking for 15 minutes with no way of knowing where the others are. So I've just been enjoying the atmosphere around me, like Caine requested since I have nothing better to do. Though, it seems like your mind seems to be occupied by me, hm?"

Shit. Now I wish I didn't say anything. I forced an eye roll and a quick glare at him. "Ha. You wish."

"Never."

Suddenly there was a loud scream that rippled through the trees and into our ears. Only one character would scream like that. Jax and I locked eye contact, clearly having the same mindset on who would scream like that.

"Kinger," We say in unison as we both took off running to where that sound came from. My breathing came at a quick pace while I tried keeping up with the same pace as Jax, though it was no use. It felt like my lungs were closing in, making me feel like I was suffocating as I tried taking in more air and failing.

I was forced to slow down my pace by how quick and heavy my breathing was coming out, making me feel faint. Jax seemed to notice this, much to my dismay, since he slowed down his pace a bit so I could catch up.

"Wow, you're slow," He sighed as my legs finally caught up.

"Or you have tall legs," I spat back.

"Or you have short legs."

"Shut up."

"No, you shut up."

"No, you--"

"Wait." I stopped running and grabbed onto his wrist, making him jolt back with a mix of shock and surprise.

"What?" He sounded a bit disgruntled and annoyed that I had to grab onto his wrist like that, but I tried to shrug off his annoyance.

"I don't think the others are on this dirt path. Or at least...I doubt they followed it."

"What? But...why wouldn't they follow the path? Plus, why are you so confident that they didn't?"

I raised an eyebrow, shocked that he hasn't caught on to this whole thing. He always seemed to be one step ahead of everything. Unless he's just thrown off his game lately with whatever the hell has been bothering him so much.

"This dirt path goes in a circle," I mentioned. "As we've been running, I swear to god I recognize this area from when we were trying to catch up with the others. The same shape of the trees, same tulips that are blooming at the base, same...everything. It's one big circle. Which means, the others are either somewhere in the forest when they figured out there's no ending, or we're stuck in one big labyrinth of trees. Pick your poison."

His eyes widened as he finally decided to take a good look around. "Huh. Guess you're right. I thought I would've noticed that by now. But...where do we go from here? Inside the forest? That's definitely a smart decision."

"What do you suggest, Mr. Einstein?" A soft groan escaped my lips as I glared at him.

"How am I supposed to know? Where did that scream even come from?" Jax sighed.