Jacks And Jokers

5: Jacks

I have to admit the meat and bread he gave me was the best I'd ever had. The rest of the time I kept looking for this mysterious figure in the black cloak. I had seen him those few times, and he must've learned from his mistakes, because I never saw him again. The rest of the day was nothing special and passed uneventfully. After seeing all of the other places (5s up to 10s) we rested in a meek furnished hotel over night before going to the Jacks and on. We got breakfast and I tried something called a waffle. No wonder we never got these in the Twos, they were amazing.

After a refreshing night of sleep I was ready to get on with the day without an incident. I hadn't seen the cloaked man this morning, or felt any tingle signally his presence, so I assumed he had left. With this in mind I was uncharacteristically light-hearted.

The Jacks were more elegant than I had expected, making me wonder what the Kings would be like. There were a variety of colors showing purples, greens, reds, and gold. My eyes, not used to this vibrant of color, started to hurt. I got a headache soon and was ready to just sit down and get a drink of water when I saw Izy talking to someone.

The man was about six feet tall, skinny, brown hair, and good clothes. Izy points towards me with a nod as if to say 'that's him', and the man walks off. I walk up to Izy a little paranoid and ask, "Who was that?" At this she looks away from the stranger and replies with a shrug. At this there is a ding from her wrist band awarding her points.

"He just wanted to know if I knew anyone named John. I just said ya and pointed to you." It didn't seem right. No, I'm just being paranoid! Probably just a person obsessed with names, right? I'd met those types of people. There was one in the twos who kept track of every name he heard just to see what common names there were. I never understood why he did it, but it was, well, creepy. He could always memorize names the first time he heard them never asking for it a second time.

"Let's go everyone!" the teacher yelled. We went on seeing beautiful shops, dressed up citizens, and even a few bodyguards.

"Hey Izy! There's an Ace!" She was a few rows ahead of me for some reason. I felt she might have been mad at me. When the words reached her ears and she turned towards me then the Ace. The Ace made straight eye contact with Izy while she waved. The guard, surprised at this younger girl waving at him, slightly lost his posture, waved, and went back to neutral.

I looked back at Izy, then the guard, but something was wrong. This guard looked a little to rigid. Soon enough the guard fell on the ground shaking. Then he stopped. Everyone walked by still smiling. The citizens knew they couldn't do anything without losing points so they didn't. I hesitated continuing which cause my wristband to buzz and deduct points. Eventually we just left. Unsettled by this, I was scared of what I'd see in the Queens.