Midnight Creek Tales

#1. Cut The Deck / Chapter 1

Gerald shuffled the cards and started to light his cigar malevolently. He puffed out the smoke while looking for his next victim. He was a successful conman who had a couple of tricks up his sleeve to make some quick big cash.

He was so boastful and mystifying he once even made 100 grand by scamming a man from Mexico! Gerald always cheated, and he always won. It was a feat to beat him because no one has ever defeated Gerald in a poker game. But he was so slick and so cunning that no one ever busted him for cheating. Sure many have speculated that he didn't play one fair game in his entire life, but when the stakes were high most couldn't resist being the man who beat Gerald Counterferd.

Next to his conning abilities he was quite a stud. Gerald had black gelled up hair and the eyes of a tiger. He wasn't the tallest fellow, but he sure was a hairy one. Heck, Gerald grew a mustache in the 9th grade! How else do you think he got into X-Rated movies back in the day? Most would've thought that Gerald would've ended up in prison by now, but he's been a conman for years, 10 to be exact. When Gerald turned 21 he hit the casinos and never looked back.

As he was eyeing around trying to pick out his next victim, he usually went for men that were alone and seemed to have big bucks on them. In the corner of his eye, he spotted a tall man in his forties walking around the casino bar. He seemed to have fancy-esc attire to him. 'Perfect,' he thought to himself grinning as he watched the man order a drink. "Maybe he could go for two," Gerald said now coming in for the kill.

"Cognac huh?" Gerald asked trying to start up a friendly conversation while grabbing a barstool next to the man.

"You know it." The man downed the cognac like it was the last bottle on Earth, and Gerald called out to the bartender,

"I'll take that nice bottle of Cognac you got right there." He said pointing to the one behind him, and the bartender nodded and passed down the entire bottle.

"The drink's on me." He said while handing the man his now purchased beverage.

"Why thank ya very much, sir." The man patted Gerald on the back and finished another huge helping.

Gerald acted fast while he had the man on his good side, "So you play poker?"

The man stopped drinking and put down his glass and responded, "Why? You have some money to gamble?" The man seemed to be intrigued now.

Gerald pulled out a fat stack of cash and dropped it on the table. The man's eyes lit up like emeralds on fire. He started to smile as he took wads of bills out of his back pocket, "The names Dale Grant."

When the men got their chips, they sat down at a table in the corner of the casino. It was well lit with not many people around the area. On the table, there was an ashtray and a dangling light bulb. Dale sat down as Gerald was bringing him his bottle of Cognac, but the thing he didn't notice was that Gerald was going to drug him with it.

Gerald could easily con Dale out of his money by cheating. He might not have noticed it but the ring Gerald was wearing, inside the massive skull shaped diamond contained heavy amounts of a slow reactive and hallucinogenic drug. Which would impair Dale's judgment, so he wouldn't notice Gerald switching his cards out. All it took, where a few taps of the finger and the bottle to be left unattended and WHAM! He would make himself a fortune!

"So you think you're good at poker?" Asked Dale.

"If I wasn't good why would I gamble ten grand?" Gerald said while smoking a beat up cigar, winking devilishly at Dale.

"So I hear you have a knack for poker. No one's ever won against you, huh?"

"Appears so. Who knows maybe I'll get a bad hand?"