Leon Sterling stared down at his cards, and his heart jumped in his chest - what had at first seemed like a pitiful hand of 8 and 9 of hearts quickly turned into the opportunity of a lifetime. The river showed a Queen, Jack, and 10 of hearts, all arrayed in order. Years of hard work with nothing to show for it were about to be turned around. Leon was deeply in debt, and with the deadline to repay what he owed fast approaching, he knew that winning this hand was his only chance to survive. Like a beam of light sent from Heaven, it seemed to Leon that God himself had given him this hand, a Straight Flush, and so he followed the miraculous signal before him - pushing all his chips to the center of the table.
“All in.”
Confidence burned in his eyes, his voice unwavering as he sat back in his chair. A mild hush came down upon the high-rollers table. Roughly 2 million dollars in chips had just been pushed into the pot, an amount that no sane man would even risk betting no matter how good of a hand he had. But Leon was no sane man - he was a fiend, and so deep in debt that he had no way out besides to keep gambling. His credit had been ruined, and with so much debt burdening him, he had to turn to shadier and less reputable money lenders, until finally criminals were the only ones willing to lend him money - the type for whom collateral came in the form of a man yanking your teeth out with pliers until you magically conjured the money you owed into existence.
One by one, the people seated around the table folded, save the person to his left. Something had been bothering him about the man in the black suit ever since he sat down at the table - Leon could’ve sworn he’d seen that man before somewhere, but between all the alcohol and the focus needed for such a high stakes game, he couldn’t let it bother him. The man in the black suit smiled, and jammed his own chips into the center of the table. He stared over at Leon with an almost pitiful look in his eyes. The two men were the only ones left in the hand, and Leon was first to reveal his cards - a straight flush. All eyes immediately went to the man in the black suit, who placed his cards face up on the table. An ace and king of hearts - a royal flush - stared menacingly up at Leon and the peering onlookers’ gazes.
A wave of loathing washed over Leon, the color draining from his face as he processed what had just happened - the man in the black suit gleefully raked in all of the chips, before standing up to go cash out. The smoke-filled casino changed in tone for Leon from a glistening building of luxurious gold, marble, and opportunity to what felt like a bleak, oppressive prison. He stumbled out of his seat and excused himself too, trying to chase after the man into the crowded gambling hall, but to no avail - the man in the black suit was gone.
Leon wandered about dejectedly, his entire life having just been ruined by a cruel twist of fate. The weight and regrets of the years he’d wasted began to bear down upon him, feeling as if a vice was closing around his chest and making it nigh impossible to breathe. He eventually found himself wandering through the penny slot machines, taking a beleaguered seat at a battered looking machine. He started slowly feeding it the last of his money, aimlessly trying to maybe recover his luck, as if the pitiful jackpot of 5,000 would ever recoup the millions that had just slipped through his fingers.
If only I’d had the sense to get up and walk away rather than keep trying my luck...
He thought briefly, before shaking his head to dispel the thought from his mind. Negative thinking wouldn’t help him here, after all. His hand took the familiar path to deliver coin to machine, although there was nothing there. He was out - utterly and completely insolvent, without so much as enough money for a ride back home. Leon checked his watch, with only an hour to go before his “creditors” would come for him. He was playing at their casino, hell, the pit boss could probably see Leon no matter where he went. He got up to go for a walk, and maybe grab some of the free drinks. One last drink wouldn’t hurt, after all.
Around two hours later, Leon stumbled aimlessly back to his hotel room, a dull pressure building in his chest as the stress of his impending confrontation weighed more and more on his mind. When he finally managed to reach his room, he was greeted by an audience already gathered, seemingly in preparation for his arrival.
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There were two men standing by the foot of his bed, and the sight of them filled Leon with immediate dread. He froze up, the fear turning his feet to lead - and in that moment, a man who had been waiting next to the door grabbed him by the arms. Leon reckoned he must have been well over 6’5”, and was seemingly built like a gorilla, locking Leon in an iron grip which lifted him from the ground. He got dragged agonizingly slowly to the two men, dressed from head to toe in suits which were all black.
The men in black scowled down at him. Leon knew instinctively that they had to be grunts working for his creditor - the local mafia had been after him for months on his black market gambling debt, and his last life-line had gone down the drain just hours earlier. Neither of them seemed to be in charge - they stood on either side of him and kept him held by each arm. Leon heard some shuffling noises coming from behind the bathroom door - which was swiftly slid open.
Rage surged in his heart as he saw the grinning face of the man standing in the doorway - it was the man in black who stole his victory away from him. Leon struggled with his captors for a moment, but he was nowhere near strong enough to make the two men budge.
The man in the doorway grinned ear to ear, a sadistic look in his eyes as he seemed to be basking in the moment.
“So nice of you to FINALLY get around to joining us, Mr. Sterling... the boys and I were getting worried you wouldn’t show up for our little date!”
Leon rolled his eyes. Such a canned, cartoonish line that he’d clearly been planning on using for some time now. He struggled with his captors again - their grips on his arms tightened even more, making Leon wince with pain. The man in black seemed to be waiting on an answer, and a disappointed look came across his face after he didn’t receive one.
“Really? Just gonna leave me hanging like that, huh? Well, doesn’t really matter all that much to me. Y’see, the boss is tired of waiting for his money... money that you TRIED to win back from him just a couple hours ago...” the man in black droned.
“Seems like someone has been watching too many movies,” Leon thought, but his mind was quickly derailed as he realized what had happened - this man had been sent specifically to prevent him from winning. He was doomed from the start - just someone they had intended to string along and trap in some sort of twisted game.
The look of realization on his face seemed to strike a chord with the ring-leader, who grinned ear to ear upon noticing his crestfallen expression.
“Not feeling so stoic now, eh? Well, it was gonna come to this no matter what - the boss says it’s time to pay up, and we know you ain’t got the money... so, that means we’ve gotta collect our collateral...”
Leon’s face blanched pale white - he had known this was going to happen, but now that the reality was on his doorstep, suddenly everything began to feel all too real. The man in black stepped aside and gestured to the bathroom door, prompting the grunts holding Leon’s arms to lift him up and drag him inside. The cool tile on the floor reflected the harsh glare of the fluorescent light above. The whole room had been converted into some sort of a makeshift medical bay, with a surgical tray adjacent to the bathtub. Leon could see that the bathtub had been filled up with ice, and he shuddered with the understanding of what was to come.
“Are you going to make these two strong guys strip you or are you gonna behave?” the man in black asked, his eyes glimmering with a wild sadism as he began to remove his own jacket. Leon decided it was better to comply. He’d put up his kidneys, liver, and an eye as collateral for this loan, and if he went along they might make things easier on him.
He stood there in his boxers, teeth chattering as he slowly lowered himself into the bathtub of ice water. They’d given him something to drink to calm his nerves, thankfully, along with an IV drip of anesthesia. He was already starting to feel a little woozy, before the man in black leaned over him with a mask in one hand.
“Go on now, take a few good deep breaths...”
And then, the world went dark for Leon, breath by breath, until nothing remained.