Novels2Search

The Gambler

She was walking home during the setting sun, as she often did, watching its golden light playing across the surface of the inland sea. It was a bit longer home but the scenery was far too beautiful to pass up. As she was doing so, she could feel someone following behind her. Uncomfortable stopping with how empty the street was, she tried to turn down one of the side streets. Maybe they would just keep walking and she could go back to the main road through one of these turns. Glancing behind her, the figure continued to follow. Knowing it couldn't be a coincidence, she picked up her pace. Not enough to give away that she knew, but enough to leave a normal person in her dust. She tried to take a few sharp turns, but the steps continued to follow her. It was only when she came to an oddly wide courtyard that she had never seen that she realized how lost she had become. She looked at the oddly healthy trees in their city mandated flowerbeds and tried to hold out hope that this meant someone would be by any minute. She turned to face her pursuer, a man with spindly limbs and an old military revolver. He looked too young for this to be his, but he didn't seem like he could afford to eat, let alone maintain a firearm. She was about to cry out when he fired a shot just past her head, grazing her ear. "Lady, if I cared if someone showed up, I wouldn't be using a gun. So you can scream, kick and bite. No matter what, the odds are stacked on my side."

It was here that an odd sound seemed to echo through the courtyard. It was both familiar and yet entirely foreign. Her panic caused the woman to stand to run, but the man fired again, cutting off her escape. It was only after this that a voice announced herself. "I like you, Rex Volver." He looked up to see a woman with a broad rimmed hat and flowing brown coat. Her Hazel eyes leered down judgmentally as she smirked, "You are the scum of the earth, but at least you play above the board." He stared with a lack of surprise or interest, just turning his revolver on her. He pulled the trigger and his brow twitched when the round didn't fire. She whistled, "Unfortunate. What are the odds of one of your last four bullets being a dud?"

He shook his head and rotated his cylinder experimentally with his thumb. It was odd, the round had indeed misfired. The other woman was terrified of him and this newcomer didn't seem too keen on stopping him from investigating, so he did just that. He clarified, "That's not my name. And I have a job to get done, so I need you to stand still while I reload. It's bad enough I have to clean one body, I don't need this too." Thinking about it as he opened satchel and dumped the shells into it, he thought that she might have a point. Having a brand that isn't really his name might not be a bad thing to have.

Using his Speed loader faster than she could see, he snapped the cylinder closed as she said, "You take great care of your gun as well. I'm impressed. How about we play a game for it. I win, I take it and you go home. You win and you can put lead into our grey matter. Seem fair? You can decide the game."

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He rolled his eyes, "Sure. Let's play Russian roulette. You go first." He pointed his gun at the woman who's confident smirk snapped into an evil smile.

"Game on..." He could feel his stomach churn as the world seemed to distort around them. The courtyard shifting and changing. Before he knew it, his pistol was wrested free from his grip twirling into the distance before the ground they stood on changed into an old west saloon. nearly empty and a slow breeze disturbing the dust on the floor. The woman in the hat laughed a little and pulled up a chair at one of the unattended blackjack tables. She motioned him to do the same. He tried to wrap his mind around what was going on, but she cut off his reflection with a joyous tone, "I'm thankful that you gave me the first turn. It gives me time to explain the rules.'

The woman he had been trying to kill walked towards the table in a cabaret dress and a tray with a brand new army action revolver. If he knew the model right it was single action, which meant there was nothing between you and a decisive shot, but it also meant it could go off if you weren't careful. What was her angle? Sitting down, he cut off her efforts to elaborate. "I don't need someone to explain the rules of Russian Roulette to me."

She sighed and her face became downcast, her tone dropping as well, "Alright. I guess that's a choice." Loading in a single round and rotating the barrel, she let out a bored sigh as she pulled the trigger with a click. Handing the gun off to him, she had the look of someone attending a funeral. Cute. She thought he didn't know and was going to shoot himself. This was going to be funnier when he finished loading it. He put five bullets into the chamber, slipping a sixth in when she wasn't looking. He didn't know what was going on, but he was more than capable of squeezing two shots off before she could blink. This was going to be easy. He readied the gun on his own temple as though he was going to fire and then quickly turned to shoot his original target. "Loser." He heard her say this just as his finger began to squeeze the trigger. By the time the hammer started to move it was too late but he felt his instincts tell him that he had made mistake.

He didn't exactly feel what happened next. By the time his body knew what had happened his mind was unable to process it. He was on the floor, his senses drifting further and further away from him. The woman in the hat knelt next to him and explained, "You cheated. Not once but twice. But since that isn't how the game is played, you stacked the deck against yourself. So next time you gamble with your life, make sure you play by the rules. They are there for your safety." As the world returned to how it was before, the woman in the hat sighed and turned to leave but paused when the woman he was trying to kill went to check on him, "He will live, so you may want to call the authorities and get to safety. If he bothers you again, I'll be right there... and maybe next time he will listen to the rules... Ciao."