7) Eight of Spades [1] ✮

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Ten days after the Six of Clubs and Four of Spades...

===Rafferty Bucke===

In the distance, a venue lit up. The glint caught my eye, and people soon gathered like moths near a lamp.

I turned left. The streets began to litter with pink. Looking up, I saw what stood in front of me: a vast zen park, with towering sakura trees carrying countless fluttering petals into the air, tickling my cheek. In the center of the park was a great blue lake. Quaint pagodas lined the serene walkways.

I paused, taking in the sight.

"Rafferty?"

I turned around, and smiled.

"Haha... N-Nice to see you again, J-Judumai."

"Same here." He beamed, but stopped at that. Friendship was too costly to develop in the Borderlands.

"Such a large v-venue this time. This could only mean S-Spades." I commented.

Judumai opened his mouth, as if to add something on, but was stopped by the snapping of a twig. We turned our heads. A teenage boy walked past us, casting a leer with such discrepancy I was certain Judumai hadn't noticed. But I recognized the gaze—I too do it all the time; in that split second, he had studied us.

"Seeing y-younger or disabled people in the Borderlands always makes m-me a tad nervous." I said.

"How come?"

"They're naturally at an i-intellectual or physical d-disadvantage, so wh-when you see one surviving, it's apparent they're alive for a reason. They make the w-worst enemies."

The outdoor speakers turned on. "Registration closes in one minute. Please, if you wish to participate, hurry into the venue."

"Let's go, then." He said, his jacket fluttering in the wind.

We entered, the damp lake air stinging my nose. Before us was a table, with explosive collars laid out across it.

All players must equip a collar.

I sighed. "This c-could get ugly."

Someone else entered the venue, surveying the crowd, before lighting up when he saw the teen that had passed by earlier.

"Zakū!"

He glanced up, adjusting the sleeves of his jacket.

"Hi Niko."

He got closer, lowering his voice. "How've you been? Where's Saiki?"

"He didn't make it."

Niko's face dropped. "That's... Horrible. I'm sorry." He didn't press the boy any further, instead giving him a reaffirming whisper after a slight pause that I couldn't make out, before proceeding to the table and equipping a collar. One thing peculiar about that man was how he wore a red cloth around his wrist, with a word for food stitched within a white circle. I didn't think much of it.

A figure appeared from the street, charging at full speed. As it came out of the shadows, the lantern light revealed them—a muscular woman in her twenties, no doubt an athlete of some sort.

As she entered the gates, sirens rang. The gates slammed shut.

She wiped off a single, tiny bead of sweat. "Hey! I'm Gabura—you guys don't seem to be freaked out right now so I'm assuming you people are the ones to ask. Any idea where I am?"

My gaze shifted towards Judumai. Another newcomer.

"I'm Rafferty. You're i-in the Borderlands." I said. "You compete in g-games. You lose and you die. Simple as that."

She raised an eyebrow. "A death game?" She asked, her voice trailing slightly higher than earlier. "Intriguing."

I walked up to the table and grabbed a collar, examining its appearance. The collar was metallic, with a thick black wire connecting to some sort of headset and glasses.

"This... Looks concerning." Judumai muttered.

They seemed to vary in size too, to suit all neck widths. I took the smallest one, the collar so tight it could barely go around my throat, and it snapped into place. Immediately, a white interface appeared in my vision.

"It's a-almost like I'm in a v-video game."

A cursor jittered around my field of view, and a timer at 00:00 rested at the bottom left corner.

Several large banners on the side of a nearby building rolled down, listing the rules in spotless calligraphy.

Game: Demon Hunters
Difficulty: Eight of Spades

"...Eight!" Someone in the crowd yelled.

"Demon Hunters." The man named Niko muttered aloud. "Likely some twisted hide and seek."

Time: 45 minutes
...
The key is somewhere in the park. Find it, unlock the gate.
Don't make eye contact with the demon. Lanterns will light up and get brighter the closer it is.
Don't worry, the demon isn't among the players.

...
Find and touch "firework items" to earn a Seek. Use a Seek to see how far away the key is to your current location. Use wisely.
...
Game Clear:
Find the key and escape.
Game Over:
Make eye contact with the demon
Run out of time

"Not easy." Judumai whispered.

"I-It's almost like a h-horror game in real life." I commented, my former smile now pressed into a firm frown. "Oh dear. W-We are k-kind of screwed."

"What does the playing card mean?" Gabura asked, approaching me and Judumai. "You guys seem the most frank out of everyone here.

"The number of the card is the difficulty, and the suit is the type of game. Spades is physical, so an Eight of Spades means a pretty difficult game of physical prowess and strength." Judumai explained.

She smirked. "Physical game, you say? It seems luck is in my favor, haha!"

The second gate opened, and a path of lanterns lit the path. Our group made it past the gate, following the trail. I counted seven people in total.

I shot a glance towards the teenager—Zakū. His left arm was wrapped against his chest, and his other arm rested atop it, his fingers curled around his mouth and eyebrows pressed. We briefly made eye contact, but he promptly shot his gaze away, towards other people.

'It's almost as if he's trying to memorize everyone's physical appearance. But why?'

Flowers bloomed alongside the path, filling the air with a sickeningly sweet fragrant. I wrinkled my nose. No insects, nor any other signs of life dotted these flowers.

At last, we arrived at the end of the path, which gave way to a large plaza, the ground embroidered with black and white tiles. Lush green bushes surrounded the plaza. Moonlight cascaded off of the lake, reflecting everyone's faces.

Then, the lights turned off, like a candle flame snuffed out. In the bottom left corner, the 0:00 turned into 45:00, and then 44:59.

"The game has started!" Judumai said.

"Okay... What should we do?" Niko asked.

"Well, take what I say with a grain of salt. It is only my first day here, after all. But I think our first goal should be to look for fireworks. This place is huge, and we'll never find anything just blindly looking." Gabura suggested.

"She's r-right, but wh-where can we look to find fireworks?"

"Way ahead of you." Niko said. "Just found one."

We turned our heads. He had opened a nearby crate, and held a red disk the size of a saucer with a firework icon embedded onto it. With a loud blip, the icon disappeared, and the disk faded to black.

"Woah! An eye just appeared at the bottom right corner of my screen." He paused, squinting his eyes. "Text appeared. It says to press the button on my collar to use it."

He did so. "It says it's 571 meters away. And now, the eye disappeared. The eye symbols probably represent the amount of Seeks you have left."

"571 meters, that's pretty far away." A man said. He was stout, and wore a simple t-shirt with shorts.

"Then we can be sure it's not anywhere in our vicinity." Judumai said. He suddenly glanced around the lake, turning his body alongside his scurrying gaze.

"Don't l-look around so w-widely, you could end up making e-eye contact with the demon in the d-distance."

"But where did the teenager go?"

I looked at the crowd. He wasn't here.

"I wouldn't worry about him." Niko said. "I've been in a game with him before. He's probably the most capable person here."

"We're in luck." A young woman stepped forward, wearing a white blouse and jeans. "I worked at this park in the old world. I know all the ins and outs of the park." She pulled out a paper and pen out of her purse and kneeled on the ground, scribbling out a map of the venue.

Judumai walked up, glancing down at the rudimentary drawing. I followed his gaze and studied the sketch. We were at the Architectural Sect, which ran all across the west side of the lake. The plaza was near the lake, skewed more towards the north than the south. The Forest Trails laid at the northwest corner. Across the south side was the Garden Sect. Along the east and north was the Sakura Hills.

"So essentially, the park is divided into four fragments around the lake?" Judumai asked. The woman nodded.

"Should we begin near the Forest Trails, then?" Niko suggested. "It's closer than the Garden Sect, but far enough that it's palpable the key could be there. Let's at least try to find a Seek."

"That s-sounds like a plan to m-me."

"What if we split up?" The man suggested. "We can cover much more ground that way. We each look in one section and collect as many Seeks as we can. After twenty minutes, we return to this plaza and narrow down the key from there."

"Usually, splitting up is a pretty grave choice to make," Judumai said, "but in this game, it actually may be quite beneficial. And—"

"No way! Haven't you seen any horror movies? Splitting up is the easiest way to die!" Gabura interrupted.

"Think of i-it this w-way." I said. "If we each split up, our collective odds of s-survival increase, and so d-does efficiency, but a-at the cost of each individual p-person being at g-greater odds of death."

We stood in silence for a while.

"Whatever w-we d-do, w-we have to make a choice and act on i-it quick."

"I think that—at least for the time being—human lives are what we need to conserve the most." Niko said. "The increased efficiency isn't worth the greater risk."

"I like your thinking!" Gabura said. "So, any objections to staying as a group?"

"I would rather have us split apart," the woman said, "but if everyone feels safer as a group I have no qualms. Let's try to work together, it's already a blessing that this game allows for cooperation."

With that, the seven of us turned to the north, and began the trek. The terrain was hilly, and the path led upward onto gentle slopes. Picturesque shops lined the cobbled street.

"Shouldn't we look for Seeks on our way to the forest as well?" Gabura asked.

"Actually," Niko said, "you're right. Everyone, keep a keen eye out for hiding places, and let's walk a bit slower so we have the time to examine everything carefully."

"We're about two minutes away from the Forest Trail." The woman said.

I turned, seeing Judumai dig through an ancient cooler. I approached some trash cans and opened them, but to no avail.

Gabura was looking under some tables that had velvet tablecloth draped over them. "Guys, I found one!" She emerged, grasping the disk in her hand. "An eye symbol appeared in my vision as well."

"D-don't use it yet, let's save it u-until we get to the forest."

"Alright." She threw the used disk into the lake.

A wind blew through my coat as I dug through an old cabinet of a food stall.

"I've been here a lot in the past." Niko said, opening up some nearby crates.

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. I was a foreign exchange student during college studying gastronomy. My friends and I used to go here every week and enjoy the food and views." He smiled, brushing his dreads back slightly.

"It always s-sucks to see a fond place get t-turned into a venue." I said, getting back up and dusting off my pants.

"You've been here a while now?" He asked, catching up with some of the others while still pausing to look through items every now and again.

"I've b-been here for a pretty long time, I know f-for a fact I've been here longer than a-any of you. I guess I would consider m-myself a veteran." I replied, opening window shutters and peeking into the buildings.

"Then this game should be a breeze with you here." He chuckled.

"We're here!" The man said. He approached the forest, but a fence stood in the way, composed of wrought iron interrupted occasionally with brick pillaring. I placed my hand against the black metal, which sent a cold chill throughout my body.

"It's locked." Gabura said, rattling the padlock which secured a thick chain tying the gate together.

"Just use one of these." Niko said, carrying two chairs from the tables earlier. "Put one on each side so we can move to and from here."

I took the chair from him, sliding it into place next to one of the brick columns, and Niko effortlessly tossed the other chair over the fence, rubbing his hands after he was done.

"I-I'll go first." I blurted. "In case there's d-danger."

"Be careful, alright?" Niko said, holding the chair firmly as I stepped onto it.

I pushed down in my arms and raised my legs onto the column. After taking a second to squat and take a breather, I lept down, and slid the other chair into place.

"Alright, who's next?" Niko asked.

Judumai approached next, and got over with some assistance from Niko. I took the moment to note the time.

36:28

'It's okay,' I reassured myself. 'We still have a good amount of time left.'

I blinked; something felt off, but I didn't process what.

Clearly, I wasn't the only one, because Judumai, alongside the man, who had both just crossed, froze in unison.

It wasn't pitch black anymore. That's what was off.

I turned around—all nearby lampposts were lit. The light was dim, but there was a light.

And, with a slight flicker, it just got brighter.

Words: 2405


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