The Gambler

Chapter 2: Man In The Mirror

When Elijah woke from his slumber, he was no longer in the poorly lit lobby of the Handeemen Studio. Still, he discovered that he was standing near an all too familiar night-lit street that seemed to have stores and apartment buildings on the side of the road, which seemed to go on forever. Elijah knew this street and where he was. So he started walking down the middle of the street with no fear of being hit by any cars since he knew that there would be no cars or people to drive them here, it was just him and the old man he had to find.

Elijah didn’t know when he started getting dreams like this, but all he knew was that the Old Man controlled this realm that he was inside. Elijah kept walking down the endless street, which to him felt like 30 minutes, but it would be around 2 or 3 minutes in the outside world. He was looking for something that stuck out. It could have been something big like a sign telling him where to go or something very minuscule like a fly that would show him the way. As Elijah kept walking, he finally noticed a man sitting on a bus stop bench, reading a large book. “There you are, you bastard,” Elijah said while putting up a small smile and crossed the road to reach the man; it was always a treat to talk to the Old Man.

 When Elijah finally reached the old man, he sat down on the bench next to him. “Hey, Old Man, how are you” Elijah greeted the Old Man as he picked his head up from the book he was reading, making the job of getting a look at his face a whole lot easier. The Old Man looked precisely like Elijah, from the black hair, the rough beard, and a well-built physique. Differentiating the two was that the Old Man was a lot paler than Elijah. Most likely, since Elijah came here every time, it was in complete darkness all the time. Except for the occasional street light that lit the infinite street that lay before them.

“ You got tricked and kidnapped by a sentient puppet,” the Old Man said disappointedly, as he completely ignored Elijah's greeting. He went back to reading his book, which said on the cover The Story Of Elijah Adler by Elijah Adler.“Yeah, I did, but don’t you worry, old man, when I wake up, I'm going to beat the shit out of that Mortimer guy,” Elijah said, trying to reassure the Old Man. “ Well, you're probably going to have to rethink that plan, Elijah, it seems like there's more than one of them. If you were to attack them all in a group, then you'll get overpowered quickly, but if you took them out one by one, then you’ll be fine,” the Old Man said with a turn of a page.

Elijah immediately frowned, then quickly thought over his original plan. He realized that going in guns blazing like a complete idiot without knowing anything about the enemy or a plan would be a stupid idea. Elijah deeply sighed, “ your right, like always, old man” Elijah admitted, the old man may be the same age as Elijah. Still, the Old Man seemed to have centuries worth of experience and wisdom that Elijah wanted him to share but knew he wouldn’t. “Hehe, I knew you would see reason; without me, Elijah, you would have been dead years ago,” the old man said with a boast.

Elijah merely chuckled softly, as the two sat there sitting in silence on the bus bench, like an old couple waiting for a bus that will never come. This silence lets Elijah think of what he could have done to prevent this from happening. From having his car more regularly checked to kill off Mortimer with one card, he had at his disposal. Still, he couldn't have known that puppet was alive. Now thinking of his deck of cards, Elijah started checking the pockets of his pants and jacket, and when he came up empty-handed, he realized that he left his deck of cards in his car.

“Fuck I’m so stupid,” Elijah yelled as he leaned his on the back of the bench and started banging his head on it for his stupidity. ”what's the matter,” the Old Man said. He looked at Elijah with interest as his little breakouts of anger always amused him. “I fucking forgot the cards,” he said as he started getting angry at himself for his forgetfulness. 

“Calm yourself, Elijah, I have them right here,” the Old Man said as he pulled out a standard set of blank cards and handed them to Elijah. At the same time, Elijah looked dumbfounded at the fact that the Old Man can pull magic playing cards out of his ass. “How did you get these back?” Elijah asked as he opened the small box of cards and started shuffling them in various ways. “ Well, you know that I am the one who gave you those cards in the first place, so I could just bring them back to me whenever I wanted to, even if you were holding them,” the Old Man said as he laughed lightly.

Before Elijah could thank the Old Man, they both heard a female voice. “I said right hand, not left hand, fuck if they gave me another host with Lupus again, I swear to god,” the female voice said as the voice faded out before cutting out completely. Elijah knew that if they heard other people talking outside, that means it was time for Elijah to wake up and face whatever was outside. 

“Well, it looks like I have to confront this voice,” Elijah said as he got up from the bench and looked at the Old Man. “Yeah, you better go, we’ll talk again soon though, old bean, so don’t you worry,” the Old Man said with an eerie smile as he closed his book to say goodbye to him. Elijah nodded and turned and saw a door with multiple arrows pointing to it and a sign saying Handeemen Studios basement. “Elijah started walking towards the door, “Elijah wait. The Old Man yelled out as Elijah turned around to face him. “Whatever you do, make sure you make it through this alive because if you die. We both die,” the Old Man said thoughtfully as he quickly removed the smile he had on previously to a more serious face. 

Elijah chuckled at the Old Man's behavior. “you need not fret, my good old man, for I am the best paranormal investigator out there. Whatever they throw at me won’t be enough to kill me,” he boasted as he turned back around to head to the door. “I hope you can back up those words, Elijah, something feels wrong about this whole situation,” the Old Man thought as he went back to reading his book.

 When Elijah approached the door, he started to feel a strange pain in his mouth like someone just stitched his mouth shut, and his left arm became more numb and heavier as he approached the door. Elijah pushed through these small pains and opened the door; before he could react, he was blinded by a bright light. The little problems he could manage before became unbearable, as stitches began to form on his mouth and arm. He saw a faint image of the puppet he picked earlier on his arm starting to form. From transparent and colorless to entirely tangible and stitched to his left arm.

Wanting this pain to end as soon as possible, he started forcing himself to walk into the bright door, even though he tried to throw up from the problem, but could not due to his mouth being stitched shut. When Elijah finally got into the door, he was quickly covered in bright light, and when he woke from his dream.