Ed walked back into the room, closing the door behind him

“Everything is now in place; Claudio is in the room so we shall begin.” The screen lit up, showing the room he was in moments ago. The only difference was that all of the players were now asleep in their seats.

Well, that was quick, I only just left. Turning back around, he wondered how they got Claudio into the room without him noticing. Probably some form of teleportation. They wouldn’t have been able to carry him into the room without me noticing, unless there was a secret entrance. Turning back to the screen, he saw that Avery was the first to wake up. I’m curious to see what they decide to do since I’ve given them free rein with their characters.

“Let me out of here! Do you even know who I am?” In an instant, Avery changeed from perfectly neutral to screaming at the dealer. The quick switch stunned Ed for a moment. He smiled as he watched her try and scream the dealer’s head off.

The camera shifted focus slightly to Claudio as he woke up. Watching him coax Avery, Ed applauded her acting ability. He’s fallen right into the palm of your hand... Oh, and now you’re acting scared of him, clever.

Watching the others wake up, Ed waited for the games to begin, wondering what kind of strategies each of the players would employ.

“Good morning, everyone. You all have your own reasons for being here. One of you, out of fear and greed, has willingly destroyed countless families. So, I have put you in here as a way to seek forgiveness and face retribution. The rest of you will just be considered collateral damage until this person truly repents, so know that one of you controls the fate of everyone in this room... The rules of the game are simple; It will be a standard game of Texas hold’em, something you should all be familiar with. Good luck.”

“Today you won’t be betting with money, as there is too much of a disparity in terms of wealth within this group for that to be fair. Instead, you all will be betting with a different form of currency, namely, pounds of flesh.”

Ed watched as the dealer set out the rules for the game. As long as they all play conservatively, they should be able to survive, but something makes me feel like Avery doesn’t want to do that. I wonder what she’s going to do to mess it up?

Watching the first round, he saw both Claudio and Avery fold immediately. Smart move, there’s no need to bet if you don’t have to. The other three players called, and the flop was revealed. Watching player one fold, Ed knew what was about to come. He watched as the guard disappeared, showing up next to the table and cutting at player one with his blade, slicing through him cleanly. Watching the flesh wiggle towards the centre of the table, Ed tried to ignore it. I didn’t expect that it would move on its own.

He watched as the rounds went by, the flesh moving around to stack in front of the different players. Seeing a small stack pile up in front of Claudio, Ed nodded. He’s playing this quite well. He’s not taking any risks. Avery still hasn’t done anything big. The players picked up their hands as the new game started. Watching Claudio fold, Ed prepared himself for a long hour. Avery continued to raise the bet, pushing out the other players except for player one. What is she planning here?

Watching as both players bet obscene amounts, he watched Avery closely, seeing her slowly start to breakdown under the pressure of the moment. So, this is what she had planned. Ed prepared himself to potentially see someone die and wondered how the game would end. They flipped over their cards and the entire room on the screen seemed to freeze. Avery won. Not getting too caught up on it, he turned his attention to the losing player. I wonder how he is going to ‘die’?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

His question was soon answered as player one exploded into thousands of small chunks that flew across the room. Ed watched in disgust as one of these chunks slid down Claudio’s throat. Watching the pieces slowly gather back together in front of Avery, his disgust only grew stronger as he could imagine what was happening inside Claudio’s body. That’s not pleasant. Ed watched the piece launch out of Claudio’s mouth and land on top of Avery’s pile.

Ed started to enjoy Avery’s performance, despite how macabre and disgusting it was. Almost believing that she was broken by these events. She was probably broken a long time ago, there’s no way she would be able to stay sane doing stuff like this every day. I’ll make sure to check up on them after all of this is over. The game paused for a moment as it stopped on her turn. How will they fix this?

“Hey Avery, it’s your turn, do you want to put that down and play with us instead?” Hearing Claudio try to coax her, he wondered what she would do. Seeing her shove the heart into her mouth, he sat there stunned for a moment. Ed almost vomited, looking away to calm himself down. That’s a bit too far. She didn’t need to do that. Steadying his mind, he focused back on the screen.

“Seeing that player four is unwilling to make a move, we will consider this as a fold on her part so that the game can continue.” Ed nodded at the dealer’s decision.

The next few games passed quickly, with nothing eventful happening. Watching the next round start, he saw Avery pick up the cards. Looks like she wants to end this. He laughed as the dealer counted her ridiculous actions as her raising the bet, and frowned as he watched Claudio follow her for each bet. Either he is confident in his hand, or he is pitying her too much. It seems like all of her previous actions have built up to this moment. Watching him go all in and flip over his hand, Ed knew that this was the deciding moment. Seeing the ace of diamonds in Avery’s hand, he knew that it was over and waited to see Claudio’s end.

“You have run out of pounds to spare Claudio. Unfortunately, that means your time here has come to an end. You have spent your life gambling and built an entire business empire based around gambling. In the end, just like all gamblers, you went too far and risked too much. Gambling has become your undoing. Enjoy Hell Claudio, Goodbye.” Claudio bursts open, scattering across the room as the screen turns dark.

“Buddie, can you send the actors out into the hallway for me, I would like to talk with them.”

“Notifying them now.”

Getting up out of his chair, Ed made his way to the hallway. Seeing all six of them standing there patiently, he walked up to the person who acted as player one first. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, I haven’t felt what it’s like to have my body explode like that, but I’ve been through something similar so I can guess how it must feel.”

“It wasn’t too bad. Besides, it’s not the first time I’ve been blown up.” He paused, looking over at Avery. “However, it did feel weird having to wiggle my way out of two different people’s mouths, especially when one of them wouldn’t let me.

He could feel that? “Does that mean you were conscious the entire time after the explosion?”

“Yeah, it has to do with how our kind shapeshifts, and the immortality given to us by the company.”

That’s interesting, I wonder if there are any other weird quirks like that. Ed turned his attention to Avery. “And speaking of that, what made you think of pretending to break down?”

“I just thought it would be fun. Plus, I needed away to make Claudio lower his guard and walk into the trap willingly.”

I don’t see how that would be fun, but I guess that’s as good a reason as any. “I saw that you were leading him on from the start, why did you choose to do this? Was it just because he was the target of the trap? Either way, you made the entire process quite interesting.”

“When he was talking to me, he just came off as a bit of a weirdo and a creep, so I decided to get back at him.”

“But you just ate a person’s heart.”

“So?” She asks, genuinely confused by his reaction.

I guess she’s more far gone than I thought. “Never mind. Well anyways, it's probably time for us to wrap this up, I’m sure you all have things that you want to do right now than just stand in this hallway with me. I greatly appreciate the work that all of you have put in, and I hope we get to work together again sometime.” Shaking hands with everyone, he said goodbye to them before walking back through the door.