Author's Note:
This chapter and all following after it need to go through rewrites, but you are more than welcome to continue reading on! I'll delete this note when this chapter is finished.
Love,
Triple S
-PHASE OPEN-
“GO FIELD DICE!” Faith continues with her turn.
It lands on a 4.
The Swordsman of SaurDIAMONDS strolls casually to his destination, the unoccupied III-zone.
It’s eerily quiet. Silence from Jacques. Silence from The Queen of NightSPADE.
Crossing its blades on his chest, The Swordsman kneels…
“…Zone Locked…” Faith says.
Sinking into a red vortex.
“Hmm…I did all I could do!” shrugging with her hands up.
Still silence from the enemy.
Faith is waiting for a reaction, hoping for one.
“Phase Close, Mr. Lenoir!”
Jacques takes his card and begins his turn.
“…I have to hand it to you…” he says.
“You had your back against the wall and fought hard.”
“Some of the others had tried to, but your energy, the way you played it felt the most real. The most honest.”
“I won’t pamper you with praise. I won’t claim you were the best. I won’t even pretend you were the smartest either…you can't win with just honesty!”
Faith is reacting accordingly to his words. Half annoyed and half on her guard.
He chuckles and continues, “…even IF you were blessed with more wisdom, more skill, how long could you hold onto it?”
“I feel my own mind slipping, piece by piece, with each passing day. I have to be ready to pass the torch.”
He gives Faith a stern look. She returns it.
He rolls the Field Dice.
It lands on a 5.
To The King of NightSPADE, he asks, “You will move for us, won’t you?”
The Spade King scowls at The Queen behind him.
She impatiently taps her nails.
“It’s in the rules. Please behave!” Jacques says.
The Spade Queen grunts and sharpens a claw.
The King points at her…
“…No…honor!” he hisses from his bones. He walks ahead.
The message begins to echo…
No honor
No honor
No honor
From all corners of the room repeated by more voices…
As The Spade Queen listens and puts up with it, she closes her eyes.
No honor…
Shaking with anger…
No honor!
Faith can hear The Queen breathing…
NO HONOR!
…
“COWARDS!”
The Queen explodes with a black storm of energy!
“FILTH!”
It’s with the force of a hurricane!
“WEAKLINGS!”
Faith can only see two white eyes in the middle of the ferocious dark storm. She keeps one hand on her bow and holds her card close to her chest with the other.
“SHOW ME THE WORTH OF YOUR WORDS! SHOW ME THE WORTH OF YOUR COURAGE! INSTEAD OF SPEAKING AROUND ME…SPEAK IN FRONT OF ME!”
The fury of The Queen’s outburst has silenced the voices.
The storm subsides, and she stands silently. Her eyes closed again.
Faith was surprised to finally hear her voice.
The King has already finished moving. He gives off to Faith a vibe of remorse.
Jacques flips around the two cards in his hand. Then, he floats them in front of Faith’s face.
“A Queen and a Jack!” he reveals smugly.
“I’ll still do things in order, of course, but I wanted to show you what you’re in for!”
“First…”
The Jack card evaporates.
He rolls the Range Dice, and it lands on a 7.
Faith doesn’t try to counter it.
“Lucky! We’ll have The Jack of NightSPADE strike!”
The beaten and weak doll struggles to stand…
Almost up…
It falls and clacks back down…
It tries crawling…
Barely…just barely moving…
The Spade Queen punts it forward in frustration.
Even Faith winces in empathy.
The doll still fails to stand.
*SNAP*
It doesn’t matter to The Queen now. Binding it with a conjured chain, she yanks it up. Holding it, the scythe blades poking from the sides of the chain.
The Queen smirks at Faith and launches the chained doll into the air, ripping back downward, back up in a curve, and twirling it around with shredding speed.
Jacques says, “Mother will always pick up the slack!”
“…in SPADES!” laughing at his own joke.
“SHE ALREADY KNOWS WHERE TO STRIKE! SCOURGING SLAVE SAW!
The Spade Queen slams the doll down and pulls a length of chain like a ripcord!
Shredding away at the wood tiles, the bound doll slices across the grid towards its target!
Fragments of chain snapping off as it whizzes closer…
A section of card is cleaved off…the target reveals itself.
Blood dripping down her side and down to her feet.
They found her. It is The Jack of BurningHEARTS!
Although…
“How much does it hurt? You can share anything with us!” Jacques inquires.
Faith is gripping her left arm tightly.
…it feels limp…
The Heart Jack has no fear in her eyes, but her own left arm is missing…
Faith has 1 Soul Four-Ce left.
He continues on, “As you ran out of cards on the field, it was only a matter of time!”
“And of course, with Mother’s guidance and intuition, she showed me the way whenever I doubted myself!”
Faith looks back down at the stone tablet and to Jacques.
Fighting for breath and letting the blood drip from her lips, she says to him, “…I couldn’t be sure…from inside this rock…has that thing been…”
The Queen floats over and holds Jacques’ face close to her bosom, and he responds, “That’s right, you can’t be sure because you are WRONG. Mind your tone, bitch. Mother plays fair too! We can all debate technicalities as long as you’d like! We have time!”
Because of Dee, Faith begrudgingly allows it to slide. Preferring to move on.
“Mother is a genius! For her, it’s trivial to count cards and dissect your playstyle. But, of course, you had yourself to blame with your own poker face too! She and I are a match made in heaven!”
“I would take pride in having her bear my torch when she returns to our world...”
She showers him with kisses and runs her fingers through his hair. He revels in delight.
“It’s time…” Jacques says as the Queen card floating in front of Faith’s face disappears.
With a loving look in her eyes, she lets go of Jacques.
She begins to move towards Faith…
Her head tilts down, and as Faith watches her…
She is melting. Thick pale-colored droplets are dripping on the tiles.
Shedding chunks of flesh and growing.
Exploding forward like a tidal wave, stopping a few inches in front of Faith’s face…
The water takes the shape of a demon with dissolving skin…
Faith questions, “A lil’ close ain’t ya? Your baby boy hasn’t even rolled the dice yet!”
“I WON’T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN…I NEED TO BE READY!” The Queen replies.
“YOUR HAIR…YOUR EYES…YOUR LIPS…YOUR TONGUE…”
“YOU HAVE TOO MUCH! I WANT ALL OF YOU!”
Faith sticks out her tongue and starts lightly chewing on it, “Hmm. What if I bite it off before you can do anything?”
The Queen promises, “IF YOU DID…I CAN ALWAYS START SOMEWHERE ELSE…”
“DO IT! ROLL IT NOW!”
Jacques takes in the Range Dice in a whirlwind of black aura.
Charging with incredible power!
He casts it on the stone tablet. The force even makes a dent!
*CLACK*
Faith and The Queen staring at each other intently…
*CLACK*
Faith closes her eyes.
*CLACK*
Remembering a time when she and Dee were younger.
A time when she was sitting on her bed, holding herself in tears.
Turning around to see her tiny brother holding a game box that appeared to be stomped on and kicked around…
“Umm…I tried to fix it…”
“You can always play with me, Faith…”
*CLACK*
It lands…
…on a 0…
The room goes quiet. You could hear a pin drop.
Except for…
“Shoo!”
“Shoo!”
“Go away now! Wait your turn!” says Faith, gesturing for The Queen to back off.
The Queen slowly slinks back to her side of the grid, transforming to normal in silence.
Jacques dares not speak.
“Being a proud momma’s boy is just that. A momma’s boy!” Faith chastises him.
“Is your turn over?”
“Do ya need a moment?”
“If ya need a minute to cuddle with mom-"
*SCHWIIIIING*
A laser zoomed past and near Faith’s cheek…
Faith smiles at the sender.
“PHASE. CLOSE. BRAT!” Faith gets her reply from the scowling Queen.
“How can you get mad at someone so cute? HO! HO HO!” Faith remarks with a haughty attitude and sparkles around her face.
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