Chapter 33 - Old Maid (II)

"Accept." They both spoke as a metal table suddenly manifested itself to their side. A deck of cards split perfectly into two, placed facing down in front of two opposing metal seats.

[Old Maid: Take turns drawing cards from your opponent and discard paired cards, avoid being left with the unpaired "Joker" card by the end.]

Raina sat down on one side as Garif did the same on the other. With a deep breath, she grabbed the cards in her hands, flipping them over as she scanned through her deck.

Without hesitation, she quickly picked off the paired cards, piling them on the table as she glanced at Garif doing the same.

As she shifted, a certain card caught her eye. The forsaken Joker. Cursing mentally as she pried out another pair. Her deck was now ready to play. 12 cards in her hand, her eyes drifted over to her opponent. 12 cards.

"I'm ready." She announced as Garif slowly gazed over with an unknown smile.

"Me too." He replied, "Why don't I start first?" He leaned forward, eyeing the cards in Raina's hands.

Raina nodded as she inched closer to him, holding out her deck as she watched his fingers hover over each card, his eyes staring creepily at her own eyes as he gauged her expression.

"I'll choose this one." He finally spoke as he plucked out a card. A 6 of diamond. He drops a pair down.

Raina's turn. She pulled a card from his hand, 3 of hearts. Pairs it with the 3 diamonds on her deck.

His turn, his hand taps on each card. Pulls out a card. A smile etched out of Raina's lips as she watched him turn the card, his eyes darting back at her with annoyance.

"You wench." He cussed as he shoved the joker card into his deck, shuffling it around before presenting his deck to her, "Take a card."

Raina leaned forward as she carefully watched his expressions. His eyes, mouth, nose. Any noticeable twitch or tremble. Her hand hovered over the first card, then the second, the third. By the time she reached the eight card, she carefully pulled it out. 2 of spades. With a sigh of relief, she sat back as she dropped down a pair.

"Your turn." She smiled as Garif grabbed a random card and slapped it on the table with its respective pair.

"Yours."

Raina tapped her fingers again, her eyes bouncing between his left and right eye before pulling out the third card. 9 of spades. She flicked out her 9 of clubs and paired it on the table.

"Your turn," Raina said. She had 6 cards in her hand whilst he still had 7.

Garif didn't reply as he pulled another card from her deck, decreasing his deck to 6, "Don't celebrate too early." He retorted as he held out his deck for her to pick.

Raina smiled as she brushed her fingers against the cards again, "This one." She pulled out a 6 of diamonds. Pairing it down.

"You know…" She suddenly snickered as she held out her deck, "You have a tell. A very distinct one."

Garif froze as his eyes locked onto her, "A tell?" He repeated as he leaned forward, "What do you mean?"

Raina smirked as she held out her hand, "Keep playing." She nodded over to her cards.

Garif continued to eye her slowly as he sat back, "You're lying." He scoffed, calling her bluff, "You're trying to play with my mind, you wench."

Raina chuckled as she waved her card, "Keep playing."

Garif crossed his arms, "What's my tell?"

"Keep playing," Raina repeated.

"ANSWER ME!" He suddenly exploded as his fist crashed onto the table causing the cards to bounce up from the table and tumble onto the ground, however, they magically appeared back in their original position only a few seconds later,

"What is my tell?" His previous outrage had completely vanished from his face, "Tell me."

Raina crossed her arms as she simply leaned forward, two words coming out of her mouth. "Keep. Playing."

Garif raised his hand before lowering them to grab a card and pair it onto the table.

"My turn," Raina said as she reached over, her hand gliding the edge of each card before picking one out. A non-joker card.

She placed it down. 2 cards left. She eyed his deck of 3 cards.

"Let me tell you something," Raina said as Garif picked out the second last card, leaving him with 2 cards as well. A fifty-fifty chance of getting a joker.

"When you've lived in this hellhole for 5 years, utterly powerless and defenseless." She tapped her fingers against the cards, "You learn a thing or two about… liars and how to read them like an open book." Her hand stopped at the card on the left. She tugged it out of his hands. She gave it a flip as the face of a laughing joker stared back at her.

"You lost." Garif's mouth widened as a wicked grin etched from the corner of his lips.

Raina squinted as she watched the maniacal laugh begin pouring out of the man's lungs.

"There's no way." She muttered, her eyes turning to the remaining card in his deck. Reaching over and grabbing it, she watched Garif's hand reach over to stop her. However, a second too late. she flipped over the card.

The identical laughing joker grinning from ear to ear revealed itself as two joker cards sat in front of her.

"How…." Her eyes darted from one card to another, "This is impossi-" Her words cut short as her eyes widened. An illusion of some sort. His ability of some sort.

Raina tapped her finger on the card as her eyes darted over to the expression of the man, his expression and body posture expressed a sense of intrigue and concern as Raina fiddled with the cards.

"One of them is the real joker. The other is my winning card…"

"But which ones which?" Garif quizzed, his fingers light tapping the table, letting off a rhythmic metallic ring every few seconds.

"It's some sort of trickery. Teleporting… No, there's only one joker in this deck. Hypnosis, Illusion…" Raina muttered as she wrecked her brain, "Some sort of mental conjuring of what he wants this card to be-" She froze as a past interaction with Solon suddenly popped into her mind.

Conjuring items takes high mental concentration and precise detail memory of the image. Raina took a closer look at the cards as she kept an eye out for Garif in her peripheral.

"This-" Her eyes suddenly caught onto a difference in detail. "Hey, you."

She picked up the cards and turned around, "How many teeth does the joker show?" She questioned.

Garif leaned forward," How would I know?"

"Well, he has 3 teeth visible in the drawing. Not 1 continuous line." Raina pointed out, presenting the card, the joker card clearly visible with 1 continuous line.

"Is that so?" Garif leaned forward, "It must've been a printing error or something." He shrugged, with a slight pout, "That doesn't prove anything."

Well, it does now." Raina smirked as she showed the other card in her hand. "Because I was lying. And look at this, this card seems to be lying too."

She plopped the card on the table, the lines on the teeth rewriting itself before their very eyes.

"With this evidence. I declare Garif to be cheating," Raina announced, her eyes darting around, her fingers crossed tightly behind her back as she waited...

[Positive cheating has been confirmed.

Garif Melak has been disqualified from this game.

Winner: Alice Liddell

Reward: 10,000 Tokens]

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hi guys. I'm writing a new story for WSA 2024! I'll most likely be focusing on that for most of this year, hope you can help support me through this journey!

It's Called [I Killed God] under the pen name Myra_May.

Synopsis:

Last week, I killed God. Tomorrow, I have an assignment to hand in. Next week, who knows? Maybe, I'll destroy the world.

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