Midnight Creek Tales

#1. Cut The Deck / Chapter 8

The entire living room looked the same as they had left it. Gerald was carried to his original seat and sat in front of Antonio. Behind him were Diego and Marcos. Both had loaded guns behind his head, and Gerald's stomach was a nest of raging wasps stinging inside of him.

Charles came in and this time with a different pair of cards. When Gerald blacked out in the surveillance room, they took all of his belongings, including his deck, "Do you want us to check him?" Asked Marcos.

"No, I don't think there's any need to. I'm pretty sure he knows the penalty if he does," Antonio grinned as Charles explained some basic rules and restrictions. "No wilds." He added which meant going into the more 'traditional route' in poker where there usually would be no wild cards to help you get out of a tight round.

When Charles finished talking, he handed out the cards. Gerald was looking outside the window, and all he could see was his car in the driveway and the long stretching countryside with Antonio's mansion literally in the middle of nowhere!

Gerald looked at his hand and realized he had a pair. Everyone was looking at Gerald, ready to accuse him of cheating. He knew he'd have to be careful not to do anything stupid because anything could set off Marcos and Diego from pulling their trigger. Gerald asked for three cards. All rubbish. Gerald's heart started beating very fast and he felt a chill in his body paralyze him as he went stiff. He only had two kings. Antonio revealed he also had two kings.

"Highest card wins," Charles declared as Gerald looked through his hand. He had a ten. Gerald laid it down on the table and waited for Antonio's response. Antonio threw his cards in frustration at the table and cursed, "Damn eight!"

Antonio lit a cigar.

"You can get lucky once, maybe even twenty times! But eventually, the laws of nature will break you down. Luck can only take you so far!"

Gerald shrugged his shoulders. 'I'm just happy to be alive.' He calmly thought to himself.

The next round started and abruptly ended with Gerald winning, and after that, he won again, and miraculously again! It was becoming an ongoing thing. And as the clock in the dining room read that there were twenty minutes left until the sunrise, Gerald looked out onto the horizon; and the night became less dim by the second. Between several hands, Gerald had managed to win them all.

And this was no trick because Gerald was even baffled himself! Everybody was watching him ever-so-carefully, but he wasn't cheating! And while there were some good judgment skills, overall luck was on Gerald's side.

When Gerald was little, even his dad was a con man himself and died in prison! But before ending up behind bars, as a child, his father always advised, 'The casino always wins.' And with that saying Gerald knew in order to avoid that, he had to think outside the box.

With time dwindling down, Gerald could feel a sense of hope. But with all the madness and vengeful eyes glaring at him from around the table, Gerald noticed that Antonio was calm as a cucumber as dawn slowly approached.

Gerald had won yet another hand, and Antonio took a sip of his drink that he barely touched throughout all the rounds, and started to talk to Gerald.

"In all my years of gambling, never have I met a man who was as stubborn to die like you."

"I don't know what to tell you, Vidal; I'm playing fair and by your conditions. I guess the 'poker king' is undefeated again." That then reminded Gerald of his lost money. Everything he worked for, he lost it all now...

"It's not over yet; there are still twenty minutes on the clock." Gerald looked at the clock again and corrected him.

"Nineteen minutes."