Midnight Creek Tales

#1. Cut The Deck / Chapter 6

Gerald stared at Antonio. There was a long silence between the both of them.

"You have survived the first challenge, which none the less is remarkable. Even if it was luck, you still have two more challenges to go. We need to get down to discussing the affairs of such."

Gerald looked at Antonio cautiously as he pulled out a box of cigars and laid them out for Gerald like a tray of candy.

Gerald hesitantly sat down still suspicious and listened. He could still hear the scrotum face's voice ringing throughout his ears. And while thinking about that topic, he got curious and interrupted, "Who was that man?"

Antonio paused and went on to explain, "A mental patient by the name of Brian Cadravere down from the ward on East St."

"Well, what's he doing here?" Gerald asked.

"Back in July he was on the state news, Brian escaped the ward and ended up running away along the countryside in search for his next victim, and tried to break into my mansion! When he did so, I got my men to knock him out and tie him up. And now he'll be treated correctly like the animal he is."

"What was his problem?"

"The reason why I call him an 'animal' is because of his craving for human flesh."

"Well, he sure does bite like an animal," Gerald said while feeling his still bloody foot.

"Marcos, Diego! Undo his barbed wire and stop his bleeding for the next event! I don't want the floors to get stained... yet."

Gerald sank back in his chair as the two men standing in the corner of the room approached him with special scissors, and began to break it off.

"It is early in the night, and you have many more hours to go before dawn. If you survive until then, that's when you may leave. Provided, that I erase your memory of such events." He looked down to Gerald's feet as Marcos and Diego started to stop the bleeding.

Gerald angrily thought to himself, 'This man must be bipolar or something! One second he is calm and collective, and the next he is raging out of his seat ready to break my neck!'

Gerald looked outside and saw it was still dark. He also noticed the long dreary path he drove up earlier. He remembered it so vividly, and through these turn of events, from slipping the cards into his crotch, to getting caught and tied up, and being locked in a room with scrotum-face, it felt like an eternity. Gerald looked over to a clock on top of the wall above Antonio. It was only thirty minutes after midnight, but he didn't even know if that was a reliable source. 'I need to get away from this place. I need to escape and call the police. There has to be a phone here somewhere!' He thought as his mind rushed for a solution.

'Maybe I could sneak around and find a phone and call the cops, or maybe take his family hostage? But if I did that and ended up getting caught that would surely mean instant death, and this guy doesn't seem to like jokes so I gotta plan my next couple steps cautiously...' Gerald said devising a plan in his head as Antonio rambled on.

"Only the best can live which are the finest that the human race has to offer, and you have to earn that. Don't you agree?" He said reinstating the same bullshit for the billionth time.

Gerald nodded, knowing not to pick a fight with this man. His life was in the hands of a lunatic, and he felt as if he was going through hell before even getting there! Being locked in that room waiting for the door to open made Gerald ponder and think about the current situation even more. If he got lucky once, how long could he run this charade?

"If you may come with me into the library of the house, there awaits your second challenge," Antonio said beckoning Marcos and Diego to pick up Gerald.

"Before we start are there any questions?"

Gerald nodded his head no and felt chills go up his spine as goosebumps inflamed his entire body like a rampant wildfire. He began to feel knives running through his intestines, and all these crazy scenarios of the next challenge ran through his head like a broken film reel.

"Now since you don't have any questions, let's head on to the study and continue your next test. And as usual, you will be competing for your life in this event."

Gerald looked at him questionably and raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Wait? What's the next event?"

Antonio looked at Gerald and winked his eye and cocked his head, as he took a grand puff of his cigar and hissed, "Russian roulette."