Jeu de Cartes
His father stood beside the still body of his mother. He gave a blank stare when Bryth asked, ‘‘What happened to Mom?’’ Bryth stopped in his tracks with fright when he saw the blood on his father’s hands.
Did this man kill his mother? Bryth gasped and ran as fast as his feet could go. He dashed out of the small house, around Dandy lane, and just kept running, and running until he was out of breath.
Then he looked around and scratched his head. He had never been in this part of town before. There were so many lines of stores in this area.
Some of them looked familiar. One store caught his eye. It looked like a video game store.
Bryth walked into the store and said, ‘‘Hello~’’ Then in a few seconds, he heard a reply, ‘‘Welcome young man.’’
The young man stared at the skeleton man. Bryth tried not to stare for too long. He could not help it. Why adults still dressed up for Halloween was a mystery to him.
He was surprised at how well this guy’s costume was though. He looked so much like a skeleton, or death really. Especially with the way you could not see his eyes. It was as if you were looking into a black hole.
Bryth followed the owner of the store. He told the young man to pick anything that he liked, it was on the house. The young man smiled. ‘‘Seriously? Thanks!’’
He felt like he was in a candy store. How could he pick only one thing from the store?
There were so many games to choose: he spotted the Monster Hunter video game series (that came with the virtual reality headset), the League of Warlocks: Into the Magick Realm, The ShadowMan collection, Into the Maze (Flight or Fight), and then there was also a deck of cards that glowed a golden colour.
Bryth saw the owner of the store nod his head. Was he able to read what was running through Bryth’s head? Hmm.
He reached for the deck of cards, and felt a jolt of electricity course through his body. What kind of cards were these?
The owner of the store smiled & said, ‘‘Be careful with those cards, kid. They may not look like much, but they can make you feel invincible.’’
Bryth thanked the owner for the cards, waved goodbye and walked out of the store. The moment he was back home, he checked the kitchen first to see if his Dad was still around.
The room was quiet. Not only was his Dad not there, even his mother’s body was now missing.
Bryth scanned the dining and living rooms, too. Nothing. The house was too quiet.
Then he remembered he had a deck of cards. He pulled the cards out of his jacket pocket.
As soon as he opened the deck, the cards went flying out and surrounded Bryth. The cards floated around him, and then came to a halt.
Bryth looked at the back side of the deck of cards. There were no instructions. The owner didn’t tell him exactly how this deck worked.
The sound of the front door opening made Bryth jump. The man that killed his Mom walked into the living space and saw his son.
He looked at Bryth and said, ‘‘Your mother is gone, boy. She’s never coming back from the other side.’’
Bryth tried to hold back the tears from streaming down his face. He was going to make this man regret killing his mother.
The cards started glowing. This time they glowed from red and then turned black.
A card appeared before Bryth’s eyes. It showed an image of a basilisk. Then another card to the right side had an image of a maze. Bryth grabbed the card to the right and flicked it toward his father.
The man laughed at first, but soon started to scream when a Minotaur emerged from the card. It growled and pulled the mortal by his sleeves. Then dragged him into the maze in the card.
Bryth clenched his fists and the cards swirled around before piling on top of each other. Right after that Bryth picked the pile up from the floor. He saw the Minotaur charging toward his old man before it twisted the man’s head off from his body.
Well, this deck of cards took care of his mother’s killer. Maybe he did make the right selection after all.
31st Oct., 2020.