Card

Darren

2005. It's new years eve. The war is still going. I hope it ends soon. I have family in the military. I have a party to go to. I'm only 20 so I have some mingling to do. My other friends are busy but I was invited to this from a friend of a friend. I pull up in my 91 Honda accord wagon. I check I have my things on me. Wallet keys phone and Chapstick. 

I see the house is pretty upper middle class. I hear about 100 people are going to be there but I...it really doesn't matter since I'll find out in a minute. I knock on the door and don't hear anything to loud. I get greeted by a guy. He looks weirdly at me. "I'm Darren...I know Doug." He snaps and says "right." He guides me in to the party that only has 3 people there. 2 girls and 1 other guy. 

I stand there for a second but decide to go for the couch. It has the dude on it. The girls are on the loveseat. One is a fat motherfucker. probably weights 205 and she's like 5'1. Definitely not gonna even go for her. The other woman there looks skinny. Good enough looking. The dude looks okay too. It goes to the bro code after this point. I won't snub a dude if he's been here for a few hours. 

The host of the party comes back. "Bad showing tonight eh?" He points at me. "Doug's friend, what would you say to some soda?" I lean back into my side of the couch. I just say "Root beer." He snaps again and goes to the fridge. Fat fuck looks over at me "Hi I'm Stacy." I just say "Darren." I act uninterested/annoyed at her. I do not want that fat fuck ogling at me. I point at hot chick. "Name?" "Kate." I move my hand to the guy next to me "Other Ned." I point at the host and he says "Ned" he throws me the root beer at me and I catch it. 

Ned's house is pretty cool honestly. He has a huge tv and a Xbox 360. I look at his collection from afar and see he has need for speed most wanted. "Dude. Sick Xbox." Ned nods. Other Ned Nods too. He goes to the Xbox and turns it on. He throws the controller at me and I catch it. I pop my soda open and he places the disk in the tray. I hear the Xbox come to life.

Ned sits where me and Other Ned is. Fat fuck goes to the kitchen for a bit. I see Kate invested in the game more than anything else. I love gaming. I have a lot at home. Nes, Snes, Gensesis, Dreamcast, Master System, PlayStation and PlayStation 2. I even got really lucky with garage sales and got a 3DO and a CDI. I got most of them that way though and that isn't really all of it. I even have a PC and a Saturn.

I easily get 1st place in the race I get put in. I "shine" myself. I blow air on my arms and shine my body. I pass the controller to Ned. "Nice racing dude." Other Ned nods in agreement. I silently critique Ned's driving in my head. He is a bit sweaty, maybe he told Kate he's good at gaming or something. Kate goes to the kitchen for something. Probably to talk to Fat Fuck. Other Ned tells me "Have you heard of the Atari 5200?" I smile. "Certainly." Other Ned gets up out of his seat and tells me I need to go see Ned's attic. He has stuff like that up there but can't get it to work. 

Ned tells him to "sit down and at least start this when he's done with his racing." We wait another minute then we start going to Ned's attic. Ned's First then Other Ned then me. Other Ned grabs the 5200 and I start looking around too. I see a busted up picture frame. I move the picture to see a small index card thing. Only it says something on it.

Name:

Name a power | Name a weakness

I snicker. What is this thing supposed to be anyway? Ned shrugs. "You want it?" I say "yeah why not?" I go down with this card in my hand and Other Ned comes back down with the 5200. Kate and Stacy are in different spots. Each on a different couch. Kate is where she originally was where Stacy is where Ned was. I decide to grab a small crt from another room and sit on the floor. Kate says "such a sausage fest here tonight." I turn around to see her breathing down our throats. Other Ned defends what we're doing and Ned goes to where I sat before. He just continues to play NFS:MW 

I can't get the system to work. It must just be too old. I tell this to Ned and he sighs. He goes to where Stacy is. What luck. Or I don't know maybe they're all friends. I can't really gauge all of this. To break the Ice I ask Ned for a pen. Kate gets up and throws me a pen. I catch it too. I'm on fire. I pull out the card and start to ponder. 

Kate looks over my shoulder. "Ned you didn't let him have that did you?" Ned pauses his game. "Yeah I did it's just a dumb nick knack anyways. My Grandpa was crazy thinking a thing like that gives you powers." Kate tries to take it but I stand up. "Ah ah ah." I taunt. Kate gets mad. "That thing is real. I read all these books on it. Other Ned and Ned roll their eyes.

Its not a card its the card. These have been in circulation for over 2000 years. No one knows where they come from. Many people had these. King Midas, Vlad the Impaler or Dracula, even Jesus had it. I start laughing. "You expect me to believe that hokey nonsense?" She continues. "Icarus, Thor, Buddha." "They all had powers at one time." "I've studied the art of cards and dark arts. This stuff is real." 

I grin. "I always had a power that I wanted when I was a kid." Ned and Other Ned are facepalming. "Look Kate you know that thing isn't going to work." Ned says. I put on the card Darren Smith. I can "store" things. I write a weakness Loose a leg and 2 fingers. It flashes red. Awww I say to myself. I write more on the weaknesses. Loose one eye. It flashes green.

Neat trick Nate getting it to flash green and red like that. They all start laughing. "Flashing green." "You're one cool dude for going along with something like that." Other Ned says. I grab the card and smile. I pretend to loose my finger by doing the thumb is gone trick. This gets the guys going even more and even Stacy breaks down and laughs at Kate. Then suddenly I blink and my eye's vision is weird. I start to rub my eye then I trip. 

I then feel it. Blood. Kate was right? That bullshit was right? Everyone there starts to call 911 and is panicking on how I could survive that much blood loss. I only manage to say my blood type, type O. I then pass out.