Mr. L continued walking for what felt like forever. He couldn't help but feel frustrated. There were no turns, no forks in the road, there weren't even dead ends. The path just went straight onward forever and ever. Even though he had been walking for an extended amount of time, he didn't feel like he was making any progress.

As he walked, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. He felt like there were eyes all over him, documenting his every move. The feeling sent chills down his spine. The deafening silence certainly didn't help him feel less nervous. The entire scene felt eerie and discomforting. The incredibly tall walls made him feel even smaller than he felt when he was standing before the queen herself.

His paces shortened slightly, but he still wore a confident expression.

He eventually paused to think. He was clearly doing something wrong. Looking forward, he could see that the maze went straight for miles, so clearly there was something else he needed to do. Perhaps it was another trick, similar to the entrance, (which he still didn't even understand.)

He felt like he should have known that Jaydes wouldn't make a regular maze. He walked to the wall and checked for more cracks or anything out of the ordinary. There had to be something, right?

"Gah, I can't see anything!" Mr. L complained.

"Well, of course, you can't. You aren't looking at it right," A voice chimed.

Ugh.

It was the same voice as before. The man in green rolled his eyes and looked up, to see who he could only assume was the same person as before. He felt like he was being stalked.

"Great. You again." Mr. L groaned, crossing his arms. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here. Obviously." D-4913 replied. "By the way, you've already managed to waste 45 minutes. I'm impressed."

"What, are you timing me?" Mr. L snapped.

"Yes. We all are."

Mr. L silently wondered what this annoying soul did in life to get himself stuck with an afterlife of eternal labor.  Maybe he was a murderer. Maybe he was insane.

Judging by the two times they interacted, however, Mr. L couldn't imagine this guy as some insane murderer. D-4913 seemed annoying, but not wicked. At least not wicked in the way Mr. L had imagined most dark souls to be.

"Of course you are," Mr. L sighed, looking down and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Whatever. Can't you just tell me what to do?"

"Oh, no no. I cannot just directly... give you the answers. Where's the fun in that?" D-4913 asked in an amused tone. "I'm just here for the show."

Great. So now Mr. L was nothing more than a form of entertainment. It was almost as if he was an actor or a jester, just working to entertain other people.

Mr. L knew someone like that once.

He shook the thoughts out of his head and narrowed his eyes up at the dark soul, who he could still barely see. "Well... what do you mean by, 'you aren't looking at it right,'?"

"I mean... the maze is full of twists and turns. You just aren't seeing them." D-4913 elaborated. Mr. L could hear the amused smile in his tone.

"So can you see them, then?" Mr. L asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why, yes I can," the dark soul chimed. "There's one right there. And there, and there, and there. It's quite a large maze..." He trailed off, moving his hand as if he was pointing to different places. Mr. L tried following where the soul was pointing, but could still see nothing. 

The guy had to be messing with him. Mr. L wouldn't have been surprised if the soul led him to the wrong entrance entirely.

"No there isn't," Mr. L breathed.

"Ah ha, of course, there is," D-4913 giggled. "There's one to your left. Why don't you try walking through it."

Mr. L rolled his eyes and looked to his left. Not to his surprise, he still saw nothing but a brick wall. 

"There's nothing there," Mr. L snapped, annoyed.

"Don't believe me?" D-4913 asked. "Well, then I can't help you."

"Fine. Fine," Mr. L groaned, reaching his hand out for the wall to his left. "See, there's nothing- WHOA!" he exclaimed, falling right through and landing on his face.

I blinked a few times and stood up, looking at his new surroundings. He seemed to just teleport to a completely different section of the maze. D-4913 was nowhere in sight. 

He silently wondered if he just stepped through a portal or something. Maybe that was the gateway to the real maze. 

None of this made sense. Not that he was too surprised. This was the Underwhere, after all. Not everything really had to make sense.

But then again, this was the Underwhere. Not everything had to make sense anymore.

"Um... hello?" He asked, just to see if D-4913 was still there. There was no response, so Mr. L could safely assume that he couldn't. 

Good.

The man in green hoped that he only worked in that first section of the maze. Maybe there would be some more helpful dark souls in the main section. 

But then again... if it weren't for D-4913, Mr. L probably would have never even gotten in. Perhaps he should have thanked him...

Eh. Mr. L doubted the guy even cared. He must have been a bad person to get himself an afterlife of eternal labor. 

The man in green looked from side to side. Now, THIS was a maze! Turns, dead ends, everything! Mr. L had never been in a maze before, but he had always imagined them to be fairly fun! They were like a life-sized puzzle. 

He was still fully confident that he could make it to the dimensional door in time. Now that he finally found the real maze, he had a feeling that this was going to be a breeze.

. . .

The queen watched from her palace window. She had a nice bird's eye view of the entire maze, but still couldn't quite see where Mr. L was. It was slightly unnerving, not knowing how much progress he had made yet. She had ordered all the dark souls within the maze to do everything they could to throw him off and make him lose hope, but she still didn't have a good visual of how Mr. L was reacting to the maze, which was one of the key components she needed to document for this test.

That's when a pair of D-Men burst into her room. Or, more specifically, one angry D-Man angrily dragged another in.

"YOUR HIGHNESS," The angrier D-Man breathed, practically fuming. Jaydes let out a slightly annoyed sigh and turned to face her two employees.

Both were human. In recent years, all the D-Men had been demon-like souls who had pledged their lives in the name of the queen. They weren't dead like the dark souls, shaydes, and neutral souls. 

However, after the maze began production, the queen realized she needed more D-men on the job to help make sure the dark souls stayed in line, so she turned to humans who were willing to take the job. Currently, out of all her D-men staff, about a third of them were human recruits.

The angrier D-man was the older model who had a nametag labeling him as G-57, but the person he dragged in was clearly a human, and a younger one too. The first D-man shoved the rookie forward, anger lining his tone.

"Rookie number seventeen here thought it would be fun to speak out of turn. NINE TIMES!" The D-Man spat, pointing the dull end of the spear at the rookie's back. 

The rookie looked to be a teenager. He appeared around sixteen or seventeen years old. His hair was a gentle brown, as were his eyes. He wore the rookie uniform, which consisted of a black trenchcoat, black pants, black boots, and a black cap with "R-17" embroidered on his cap and his jacket.

"I simply was pointing out the obvious flaws in our current system," The rookie breathed, rolling his eyes. "Why give me and the other younger rookies the night shifts when our brains have yet to be fully developed and sleep is of utmost importance?! It's not right!"

"Because that's the way it's always been!!!" G-57 exclaimed angrily.

"Ugh, no wonder you all look so worn out," R-17 snickered.

"OH, I'LL SHOW YOU WORN OUT-" The first D-man yelled, raising his spear when Jaydes cleared her throat. Both the D-Men fell silent, then looked up at her, slightly pale.

The queen stayed silent for a moment, then pointed at the rookie. "57, could you give me a report of this rookie."

R-17 winced, making himself slightly smaller while the other D-Man smirked, puffing his chest out slightly. "Of course, my queen. This is Rookie number 17. Age: Seventeen years. Background: Not listed. Name: Not important. He was at the top of his training regiment during initiation, however, he struggles with letting his emotions cloud his judgment."

"That's just a fancy way of saying, 'he's not totally heartless like the rest of us,'" R-17 muttered under his breath.

Jaydes nodded, narrowing her eyes at the rookie and slowly nodding. "I see," she breathed. "Tell me, Seventeen, you're a human, correct?"

The rookie nervously swallowed, then nodded. "That is correct."

The other D-man rolled his eyes, scoffing at the rookie's clear nervousness. 

"Hmm..." The queen trailed off. "And tell me... how badly do you want to go home?"

R-17 paused, pondering if this was potentially a trick question. After all, it would be disrespectful to appear ungrateful for his job, especially to his boss. However, it would be even worse to flat-out lie to the queen of the Underwhere. 

"Well... more than anything. I have a family. But I need this job-"

"Do not worry. I am not sending you home," She assured. "I'm just curious as to how you humans think."

"Oh," The rookie said, letting out a sigh of relief. He could feel his heart racing a million miles a second.

He paused for a moment, squinting at the window which overlooked the maze. He himself had been taking mental notes on Mr. L's progress. It wasn't his specific job, but he was tasked with keeping the dark souls in line.

"Your Majesty, forgive me for asking, but soul D-4913... was he supposed to show that neutral soul through to the next section?" The young D-Man questioned, furrowing his eyebrows. "I mean no disrespect, but I thought the dark souls were supposed to slow him down..."

The queen nodded in approval, not seeming upset with the fact that the D-Man was focusing on Mr. L's journey through the maze instead of his job, but actually looking almost impressed.

"Oh, don't worry about him. I told him to do that."  She assured the D-Man. "And I am not worried about Mr. L making it out. He cannot win in that amount of time, no matter how hard he tries. I simply wanted to see how he'd fair once actually in the maze. The test would be worth nothing if he never got in, after all."

The D-Man slowly looked down, frowning slightly. He wanted to point out that it was wrong to give Mr. L hope for victory when winning was impossible, but he didn't, because no one spoke up to the queen.

The queen smiled a small smile. She liked this kid already. He was smart. He was attentive. Especially for a rookie. 

She could use this.

"Well... Seventeen, I like your spirit. How would you like a raise?" The queen asked.

"A raise?" Seventeen repeated, frowning slightly. "W-What do you mean-"

She patted his shoulder, then spoke her plan. She already knew that Mr. L would never make it out, but she needed someone to document his reactions. Document how he responded to everything. She needed someone trustworthy to gather information on the maze's effects. And who better for a job like that than a useless rookie? She told the teen that all he'd have to do was stay out of sight, and write down everything that the man in green did. 

The other D-Man wore a look of disgust, absolutely horrified to see a younger rookie getting promoted before himself. However, what Jaydes didn't mention was that she specifically needed a living human for this job, not only so she could document Mr. L's reactions, but so she could document Seventeen's reactions as well.

R-17 stilled for a moment, unsure. He already felt slightly uncomfortable due to the fact that the maze couldn't be beaten. He didn't want to have to actually document Mr. L's failure. He was a good kid, after all. He was by no means a ruthless D-Man who didn't care for the souls around him.

Yet... he couldn't exactly say no to his queen. And he NEEDED that raise. He needed any money he could get. 

So... he accepted.

The other D-Man rolled his eyes, visibly looking annoyed over the fact that a rookie was given a raise and a special job, but he didn't complain out loud. No one would ever complain in front of the queen. 

"Very good..." Jaydes smiled, waving her hand as if she was dismissing him. "I'll have someone fetch you a notebook and pen. I trust that you can navigate through the maze. Follow behind the soul, but stay out of sight, and DO NOT HELP HIM ESCAPE!" She firmly commanded.

Seventeen nodded, then scurried off. The queen smiled slightly, looking back out the window and keeping her eyes on the maze.