He took a sip of his martini and turned up his cards. Jack, queen.
He tossed them into the center of the table
“I’m out” he picked up his credits card from the table, which read 40 million on a holographic hovering above the plastic.
“Come on Logan, It’s getting good, we were on a hot one” an old man dressed in a burgundy suit motioned at him with a cigarette between his fingers and a rocks glass filled with brown liquor in the other.
“Next time” Logan picked up the martini and waved to the tables groans.
He walked through the multiplex of lights and sounds. Every corner of the building illuminated with cards, casino chips, pinball rackets and odd references to events wrapped in a gambling aesthetic. It was over stimulating, but at the same time, immensely satisfying to be around. The energy, the commotion, the money. One could make their dreams come true here, a whole city built for the gambler. The place could be seen from space at how bright it was. Towers penetrating the clouds with their yellow and reds cascading like a giant pin ball machines through out the day and night. Giant roulette wheels spun on the side of buildings while men sat inside betting on the results. Everything oozed a bright loud light.
Logan stepped out on to the balcony to over look rows of builds on each side that covered his view of anything surrounding him. He took a sip of his martini and pulled a cigarette from his coat and lit it. A women entered the balcony behind him. Her red dress billowed and flowed with a heaviness of expansive fabric. Her hair was up in an elaborate bun and her heels added a half a foot to her. She leaned her arms against the railing and looked out over the spinning lights. She noticed him and immediately walk over to where he was standing, as she got closer she pulled out a metal case and unclasped it pulling a cigarette from it.
“You have a light?” she said putting the cigarette between her lips and brushing a strand of hair behind her right ear. Logan pulled out his lighter and ignited it, holding it in font of her. She slowly leaned forward, taking her time and held the front in the flame, her eyes flicked to his, stared, then back at the flame. She pulled back inhaling deeply then blowing a large cloud out into the city.
“I’ve seen you around here before, afraid of the big boys?” she pointed towards one of the large towers piecing the clouds.
“Funny, I don’t recall seeing you” Logan took a sip of martini “I’m not afraid, just no point. I have enough for what ever I want, why would I need more.”
She leaned against the railing staring out into the lights “What about the thrill? The excitement of winning? Life or death? That’s what they play for, an eternal game with no ceiling. Endless riches could await you. If you don’t want that, then get out of here. Whats the point of staying?”
Logan sighed “I ask my self that question everyday.”
“You lose on purpose, you never cross into that territory, really, what are you doing here?”
Logan pulled out the card from his coat and flipped it through his fingers. It was true, if we won to much, he would throw it back down to under 100 million. He thought he was being slick, acting like a man trying to reach the stars, but failing at the last rung of the ladder.
“Logan” she snapped him out of his thoughts “We know why you don’t leave. It’s not going to work, you know that. What luck do you have left?”
“You really think you know me? You think they know me?” He pointed into the clouds “Well, let’s see if your masters know what they think they know.”
Logan flicked his cigarette into the city and walked back inside. He downed his martini and set the glass on the bar as he passed. He strode through the place like he owned it, he could feel her following him, but he didn’t care. His eyes sharp glided over the tables, roulettes and strange machines.
“Logan!” he heard her just above the racket of sound the multiplex.
An elevator door opened revealing its glass and he stepped in, pressed the lobby button and stared out at her as she tried to move through the crowd at him. As the doors closed, he smiled and she called out to him one last time.
He pulled out his card and looked at it from his coat pocket.
The gig was up huh?
He pulled another card out.
An infinity symbol circled itself on it.
The elevator opened to the lobby, inside of the floor was a pinball machine whirling from some one playing a floor above looking over it. Lights shimmied up the walls and the whole room would light up reacting. He exited from the Spin De Lore, the hotel casino he had resided at.
He stared out over the golden streets, the different casinos themed. Castles from different countries, ancient cultures twisted into a circus of colors and sounds, worldly monuments spilling gold coins, architecture stamped with neon and flashing lights. The building was next door. He kept an eye on it at all times. He moved across the gleaming street to the tallest building in the city.
Animae Magnificae.
It looked ethereal compared to other buildings, the colors of yellow, red and gold were muted in here. Replaced was etho roman columns, marble of all different colors that refracted dim lighting making it feel like you were in a dream. Money, did not build this. Entering the door a small desk awaited him. A stunning women in a flowy white dress smiled at him.
“Balance, let’s see if the gods allow you entry”
Logan flashed the card through the scanner. The lights dimmed and he heard the front door lock.
“Logan Alexander, Licet intrare”
He said nothing in return and moved past her into the elevator that seemed to materialize from thin air. He closed his eyes as the elevator rose. It only took a second. One second to breach the clouds and stare out across an ocean of flashing lights, a whole city pulsating with dreams and ambitions.
The doors faded away. Above were clouds of soft gray that slowly rolled across what ceiling there could be. Water fell from the sky, gently, into a pool of water which shimmered with otherwordly color. Beneath his feet, smokey glass with marble beams running through showed the city below. To the right with the backdrop of the black sky was a bar, intricate bottles of liqueur stacked to the clouds. In front of him the room stepped down into a sunken platform where several tables of men playing cards sat with the city pulsating under their feet. Past the tables was a gigantic door. Made out of marble, embossed with gold and silver, two roman columns that rose with no tops framed it. A garden and pond sat on each side and a bridge went over into it. He put his hands on the large doors and they glided slowly open just enough for him to step through. It opened to a garden. As far as the eye could see, lush garden of grassy knolls, flowers dripped from stone and marble structures, water gently poured through features of beautiful men and women statues that were three times the size as normal. The sky was an ethereal haze of purple and green. There was sense of pure calm, pure bliss that overcame him. He shook them off immediately. Over a small bridge in the middle of a pond that sat in the garden was as large platform and table with four men sitting around it. As Logan stepped over the bridge they all turned to him.
Directly across the table from him was an older gentlemen with a large bushy beard, his eyes sparked with lightening and his hair waved down his back. He was dressed in a black and white suit, gold buttons gleaming in the otherworldly light. He started clapping as Logan approached.
“Haha the man returns. Once thought dead and buried, risen, like the lord. What to seek revenge?” He stood his face growing red “A man thinking he can sit on the sidelines, watching from his little hotel room. Defy Destiny, mock fate, thinks he can change his own cards” the man extended his arms in both directions “All look at this fool Logan Alexander. A god who believes he has anything beyond what he has been given, as if he has the purpose to enact his own will outside the boundaries that we have created for him. To go against this own creators, his own masters, his own fathers, to pull himself up from the mountain top, to the heavens and beyond. Here stands a folly of a man” he spat that last word “ A man who thought we couldn’t take it all away. You think birth gives you any rite? Makes you special?”
Logan stood,his eyes locked.
“You done?” He said pulling a chair away from the table and sitting down. He leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs.
The old man laughed, it boomed and just for a moment the serenity of the garden shook.
“Deal, you know what I play for and what I am willing to risk”
The three other men caught each others gaze and slowly slipped from the table and stood off to the side. The older man leaned over the table, cards gliding through his hands with hypnotic pace.
The cards themselves sparkled with lightening as he shuffled them. They were an ethereal purple, see through from one side. The old man smiled, his eyes sharpening.
“A demon returns to the nest as a devil. Fallen, wings crippled, eyes drooping. What more does he have to offer? Just to take everything away, the pitiful sight of defeat, to an endless double eternity.” His hands flicked three cards across the table, fog emitting form underneath them as they spun and slid to be perfectly infront of him.
He put his hand on them. Immediately he knew what they were. The game was different. Instead of trying to get to 21, they were trying to get to 666. You would lose if you went over, unless, you got 777. The game was played in bouts. To win the full war, you had to win 2 out of 3 bouts.
Five, six, seven.
He could re-arrange them in any order. Once. What ever cards that were exchanged came back and were set in order of deal. If you were dealt one and a four. Then the one had to come before the four.
He slid the five and threw it back. The man stared deep, spun another card in his direction.
Six.
The mans eyes narrowed. He didn’t exchange any of his cards.
“I call it” He flipped over his cards. Six, Six , Five “Read em”
Logan flipped over his cards. Immediately they shook and were sucked back into the deck of cards.
“One to zero. Next round” the old man said, teeth flashing ghostly white. He laughed and the the waters stirred slightly. Logan shifted in his seat and rolled his shoulders.
The cards landed infront of him and he looked up.
Four, four and four. He tossed them all back. It was risky, but he was full tilt since he walked in the door.
The new set.
Six, five, five. He steeled himself. He could gamble one of the fives. He thought of a moment. The older gentlemen threw two of his cards to the middle of the table, they immediately returned to the deck and he drew two more.
He threw one of the fives back. He grit his teeth when the card returned to him. It was a three.
“I’m calling it, exchange one last time if you must” Logan straighten up and stared deep across the table.
The old man studied him for a bit. Then leaned back in his chair. His cards flipped. Five, three, six.
His cards turned - Six, five , three.
Logan didn’t smile.
“Fools can get lucky as well it seems.” The cards reshuffled them selves in the deck and the man dealt another hand. “But all luck ends sometimes. Yours has been running out for a long time Logan. Wings cut, cast out, chased through hell and back. What luck do you have left?”
Logan licked his lips. One, one, one.
“Exchange if you want, I’m calling your luck in Logan. Rest for eternity as shell of what you were”
He tossed all three cards to the middle of the table.
Three came back.
“Read and reap Logan.” The mans cards turned over. Six, Six, Six. He stood spreading his arm “It was nice knowing you, sort of”
Logan stood, his hands gently went below the cards and he flipped them himself.
Seven, Seven, Seven.
The old mans eyes went wide lighting whipping from his corneas, he slammed against the table leaning over to witness the hand.
“Impossible” he looked up at Logan, whose face shone of stone confidence.
“I abandoned God, but God never abandoned me. The wager.” The gardens stirred. The men that witness the matched fled as fast as specters through the door which reappeared across the bridge. The older gentleman seethed with rage. Lightning crashed around him and leapt from his skin.
“One day Logan, you will slip up again, and when you do. I will be right there to finally put that blade through your unholy chest. Mark my words”
Lightning crashed into the statues, the marble cracked and trees caught fire as the wind picked up and spun around them. In a torrent of flame and lightning a great crash came and all was still.
Logan stood in the middle of the platform, table broken into pieces, the water steaming around him.The tranquil garden had been struck by a storm, but it had survived. It was finally time to put it back together.
He took off his jacked and set it aside. Blood erupted from his shoulder blades and wings burst forth in a sharp motion and then spread. The blood rolled off the feathers and they emitted a pure vibrational light of pure love and forgiveness. Logan looked up towards the sky. He had taken back the garden, barely.
“Always playing games, huh?” He spoke softly to the heavens. “I’ll see you soon Father.”
Boy! Did this take me a long time to write. I started it as this weird gambler story set in sort of casino zone from Sonic, but then some where along it turned into a story about The Devil taking back the Garden of Eden from (if you guessed it) Zeus. The game I made on the fly, had to tailor some of the rules, it’s simple, but I think gods like to play simple games. I sat on this a long time, once when Logan is being talk to about hi past and the other when he entered the card game. I couldn’t decide on what direction to go with it, but then finally, it came to me. I would still like to write a story purely in the casino zone from sonic. Ive had dreams about it and I love the whole vibe of it. That nightlight metropolis filled with flashing lights and sounds, everything vibrating with kinetic energy.
Till next time!
