Φ Staring down the dark corridor with only a few candles to bestow light upon us, I let out a yawn and say, “This is so boring!”
“Stop complaining Omar, or do you want me to kick your ass like yesterday?”
“If my memory is correct, you got your ass kicked by the little boy as well.”
“Unlike you, I was teleported and jumped by a group of people, I guess your memory was incorrect, but I heard stupid people like you tend to make stuff up all the time.”
“Say that again!”
“I will say it as many times as I want.”
As an intense aura builds up behind us, I turn my head to the side to see Hamza leaking evil. “Listen up you two lower lifeforms, our gracious king apologized to us, and then he even bestowed upon us this job of protecting the lower gate. Do you even understand this great honour given to us worms!”
“I forgot how much of a fanboy over our king you are.”
“Of course, I am our king is a one-of-a-kind blessing on this earth.”
“When the king offered us compensation, you rejected it and offered us up for this job instead.”
“Doing anything for our king is all I need.”
“You do realize our king is engaged, he isn’t going to fuck you.”
“I would never wish for any sort of intimate relationship with our king, a true man wishes his love happiness from afar, he is my king, and I am his servant, I would never wish to stand on his level but to worship him from afar.”
“So why are you trying to build up a good reputation with him?”
With his evil aura getting thicker and denser, fuelled by hatred Hamza says, “IT IS BECAUSE I MUST REMOVE THAT EMBARRASSMENT FROM HIS SIDE.”
“Come again?”
“That scumbag lazy, self-centred, head guard abuses his power and drags our king's name through the mud. He is a waste of oxygen that constantly causes problems for our king and never gives anything back, and he gets away with it just because he is a little strong.”
Seeing Hamza getting swallowed by his evil Aura, me and Abdul say, “Come back, Hamza.”
Snapping out of his darkness, Hamza says, “So I need to climb to the top and take the head guard's position, and you two will help me achieve that.”
“Sounds like a bother.”
Beside me, Omar says, “I don’t think that it is a bad idea.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I mean people like us would normally never be allowed this face into the inner palace, but thanks to this job we have seen how gorgeous the palace really is, and there are other perks.”
“Such as?”
Walking over to the large door behind us, Abdul says, “We can access things others can’t, I mean don’t you want to know what it looks like behind this door as much as I do, I am pretty sure only the king and his attendants have seen it.”
Hamza with a murderous aura says, “Are you trying to betray the king's trust!!!?”
“Don’t be such a stick in the mud Hamza, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and doesn’t it just destroy you that Easifatan gets to know what’s behind this door and you don’t?”
“Well, sort of,” Hamza says with his resolve growing weak.
Noticing the weakness in Hamza, Abdul says, “If you know what’s behind this you will become one of the only people to understand our king on such a level, don’t you want that.”
“Kind of.”
“Then let’s check it out!”
As Abdul starts to open the door suddenly all of the light vanishes from the room. Jumping up out of fright, I say, “What the hell is happening?”
“Did all the candles go out?”
“How in god’s name did they all go out at the same time?”
“YOU FOOLS WHO HAVE DARED TO TOUCH THE SEAL, YOU HAVE INCURRED THE WRATH OF THE SEALED SPIRITS!”
Hearing this we all huddle together, and I say, “Hamza, Adbul, if this is one of you two I don’t find this funny!”
“I have nothing to do with this.”
“I knew we shouldn’t have messed with the door.”
“Don’t lie Hamza you were about to open it with me.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“This is not the time for arguing ready your spears!”
I need to stay vigilant and pay attention. “You don’t scare me!”
Suddenly, I hear someone whisper, “Are you sure?” Into my ear.
Freaked out I turn around and swing my spear, but I don’t hit anything, not even Adbul or Hamza.
“Omar where did you go,” I heard Hamza shout.
Did I just move?
“Little by little we will take you to the underworld, first is the fool called Omar!”
This is bad, what the hell am I going to do, am I going to die?
“Don’t worry Omar!”
“The three of us will get through this, just like always.”
How could I forget these two have always been with me, I don’t have anything to fear.
“Are you ready to die!”
“I didn’t touch the door; it was these two take them first and leave me alone!”
“Will do!”
“OMAR YOU BASTARD!”
“Every man for himself!”
Suddenly lights fly across the corridor and start to curve around us.
“Omar help us!”
“This is none of my business, bye guys it has been fun!” I say walking to where I think the exit is.
Call me a coward but a true friend makes his friends pay for the consequences of their own actions. Even if we have been friends since childhood, and hung out every day, and even if they helped me when I buried my mom. None of that matters survival comes first.
Suddenly I stop in my tracks, then I turn around and run back, “I can’t leave you guys!”
As I hear no response, I start to cry but then I feel something strike me at the back of my head.
Φ “Good thing he came back because if he didn’t, I would have broken all the bones in his body. Anto how are those two?”
“They are both unconscious and broke, they barely had anything on them.”
“Well, we still got lucky, when they wake up they will think it is some sort of curse that did this to them so we can dodge all blame.”
“But what if they bring it up with someone?”
“They apparently weren’t supposed to open that door anyways so I doubt they will bring this up to anyone, a perfect crime. Now let’s put them against the wall.”
After I place all three of them against the wall, I say, “Anto let's go.”
Jumping on my back, Anto says, “Yippee!”
Then walking towards the door, I open it and see nothing but a broken-off platform. Sapped I say, “Is this room another bust as well?”
Jumping off my back Anto walks forward as I say, “How many of these empty doors are down here, I swear this is like the ninth one we have opened.”
“Lanta come look over here!”
Walking over I say, “What is it.” When I arrive beside Anto, I look beyond the broken-off platform and underneath I see a giant city with sand everywhere. In utter shock, I say, “This place is bigger than Elpída.”
With a bright smile, Anto says, “Look Lanta, this place is bound to have lots of treasure to steal!!!”
“You can take what you want after I find what I am looking for. Now Anto switches us over to one of those builds.”
“Here we go!”
-Break-
Φ While in the casino, I look around and am enamoured by how it looks, as people gamble all around me the casino buzzes with life. Though my joy is soon interrupted by Yamal’s screaming, “No it can’t be.”
“Looks like you lost again Yamal, cough it up.” Opening his bag of money Yamal gives his opponents what they’re owed.
On my lap, Raqiue asks, “Is Baba doing ok?”
“Considering that he has lost half of his bag of money, I would say not really.”
The men sitting across from us at the table start to laugh as one of them says, “Yamal you make this too easy, I haven’t ever made so much money so quickly in my life.”
“Shut up, soon I will win three times what I lost back.”
“Fat chance of that, you suck dick at poker, I could probably beat you with my eyes closed.”
Putting my hands over Raqiue's ears to block the cursing, I say, “Yamal, you might play better if you stopped drinking.”
“Don’t tell me how to live my life!”
Laughing even more, the man says, “You know for a man who always goes on about how you were an adventurer and sailed the seas, you suck at using your head.”
Another man says, “He probably lied about those things.”
“Right, it would be unbelievable for any of his wild stories to be true,” The main man says, as they all start to laugh.
Drinking even more, Yamal says as tears start to form in his eyelids, “Shut up you bastards I don’t care what any of you say about me.” Soon after this, he starts to full-on ugly cry.
“So, he is a crying drunk,” I say with a sigh of relief.
With a face of worry, Raqiue says, “Is daddy ok!?”
I can speak from experience when I say it isn’t good for you to see your guardian in a pathetic state. I guess I have no choice; moving my chair to the front of the table I put on my best smile and say, “Let me take my master's place.”
“Your master? This sack of shit.”
“I would watch my words if I was you because soon enough you will see the full force of my master teachings.”
“Keep talking little girl, because soon one of us will be on the verge of tears.”
Feeling anger well up in my body, I use my legacy to freeze the dye off my hair and say, “Can I please have your name?”
While shuffling the deck he says, “Why.”
“Because it is only common courtesy to know the name of the man who you’re going to send into poverty!”
Dealing out the cards he says, “My name is Amer, and soon you will be choking on those words missy!”
-Break-
Φ Naked and cold all I can do is clench onto the cards in my hand. As I sit in front of the smiling girl, the only thought going through my mind is, WHAT THE FUCK.
What the hell is going on, how does she win every single round? It is as if she knows whether I am bluffing or not instinctively, and she always goes all in every single round, it is making my heartbeat go crazy.
What’s more, is that her hair keeps changing colours and it is throwing me off, it makes it hard to tell if she is bluffing or not. Crap, what am I going to do. I feel sick.
“Hey, are you ok?”
Focusing on the girl, I notice what she said and respond with, “Everything is fine!”
“Oh, causes it looks like you are about to vomit.”
“Just worry about your gosh damn self!” I still have a chance she must be shaky about her current hand because she hasn’t gone all in yet.
So far, The flop is 5 of hearts, 9 of spades, and a jack of spades. I have an 8 of spades and a 10 of spades. I am in a good position.
The dealer beside me says, “Turn,” as he flips over the fourth card; it is a queen of spades.
When I see this, I feel happiness fill my soul, I have a straight flush, I can win. With victory filling my broken existence, I turn to check the expression of the girl and I see she is smiling with green hair.
What the hell is going on does she have a good hand, no it still can’t be better than mine, she would need to either have a straight flush, or a royal straight to beat me, and even with that she would still need a king of spades and a 10 of spades to win. I got this.
But one thing I have learned from all of our matches is that her hair colour is tied to her emotions, and I am sure by this point that green means happiness, it is what she always changes to when she wins.
No Amer, keep a cool head, you got this!
Pushing all her chips forward she says, “All in!”
Hearing this I start to freak out, that utterly insane bet she definitely has the winning hand. “I-I-I-.”
Slamming her hand on the table, she says, “Hurry up and call Amer, let's bring this party to a climax!”
I’m fucked.