You killed her? That can't be right. Fuck, why is my head pounding?
'You don't know anything.' Ben had a strange conviction in his voice, one that Vasquez hadn't seen before. 'You weren't there to know anything. It should have been you.'
'Sit down.' The man was a lot older, with buzzed grey hair on top of his thin face, that sat on top of a similarly thin body. His sleeveless white shirt had brown and black stains all over it in small puddles, as well as several burn marks. He smelled burnt as well, and when he opened his mouth to talk, his teeth were also black at the tips. 'Let's play a round.' His attention turned to Vasquez, 'Who's this?'
Vasquez hesitated for a second, waiting for Ben to say something, but he never did, so he reached his hand out to shake the older man's hand, 'I am Vasquez, it is very nice to meet you.' He paused before adding, 'Sir.'
The man slapped Vasquez's hand out of the way and laughed, 'What is that, come sit, play with us. Benjamin can teach you the rules.' He then looked at Vasquez's hip once more and sniffed the air, 'Do you have any on you?'
Ben stepped in between the two. 'No, he doesn't, Arlo, just make some room for us, we can play a game.'
'Well, that is no way to address your father.'
Was that… sadness? Arlo shooed away the other members of the table to make room for the two newcomers next to him. Vasquez, following Ben, sat down at the table.
'You aren't. Give us five, our bets will be drinks, we have a tab tonight. Vasquez, I'll teach you really quickly.'
The round table was a lot more well-kept than the other tables that Vasquez had walked through. In the center of the table was a deck of raggedy cards, with assorted sizes in a pile, some with more wear than others. There was a bag in front of two of the men sitting, Arlo, and the man across from him. There were now five people in total sitting at the table.
Vasquez was the closest to the light of the rest of the bar, with Ben on his right. Arlo was on the right of Ben, and next to him was a man, similar in age to Arlo, but he looked much healthier and had triangular-patterned tattoos flowing down his face and neck, passing through his well-kept shirt. He looked like the polar opposite of Arlo, especially in their posture, where Arlo was constantly shifting his weight, this man was sitting still and strong; and the complexion of their skin, this man was much closer to the tan of the bartender, whereas Arlo was paler than anyone Vasquez had seen in Huecor. The man to the right of him and to the left of Vasquez was younger than the other two, but not by much. He wore a cloth blindfold and tied his shiny black hair back so tightly that the roots of his hair were being pulled out. He had the least noticeable tattoos out of the three with words seemingly from the same language as the text on the Lady of Hope's base wrapping around his fingers and hands. His hands were hovering over the bag in front of him.
'This is four seasons. Everyone here has collected cards, and they all add them into the deck.' Ben explained as Arlo grabbed the deck to shuffle. 'Everyone gets four cards, with two in the middle.'
'Five cards.' Said the man next to Arlo. He had a soft voice, it was a whisper compared to Arlo's growls. He smiled and looked at Vasquez, 'Ben hasn't played much. Let me explain. I am Luca, and my very loud friend here is Leonardo.' Ben shrugged and leaned back in his chair. 'We can look at the cards and then play. There are three options: one, we call it betting; two. Or we can sit, where we tap the cards next to us. Or we can fold. Betting one is simple. You tap the table once, and you place your wager.' Arlo finished shuffling and handed each of the players 5 cards. 'Then is where the fun starts. Let's say you folded. Then you are out, so that's not fun, but if you sit or bet two, you have to pay attention.'
'Let's start, he'll figure it out.' Arlo bounced his feet rapidly on the ground.
Leonardo spoke up, 'That's bad luck, Arlo.' His voice was deep and full.
'Fine. Make it quick, Luca.'
Luca continued, unfazed by the interruption, 'Then you try to make the best seven cards you can. You can take from the center or take a random card from someone else. Either way, you replace it with a card of your choosing. Then… well, you'll see.' He flipped the two top cards over: a nine of spades and a seven of diamonds. He then looked at his cards. 'Since I go first, I choose to bet two.' He tapped the table softly and pulled a pepper from under his chair. 'Now it is Leonardo's turn.'
Leonardo pulled down his blindfold to look at his cards. Vasquez didn't even get to see his eyes before he pulled it back up and tapped with one finger on the table. It was almost silent.
Now it was Vasquez's turn. He looked at his cards. He knew the hands in poker, but because the deck was a mashup of random cards, he didn't know what was good. He had two eights, a king, a queen, and a five. In his observations of poker, this was not a good hand, so he threw the cards in the middle of the table.
'Playing it safe, you two?' Arlo mocked the two young men after Ben had thrown his cards as well. He, of course, bet two. Then the round ended once Luca tapped the table once more. He took one of the cards from the table and added his own, replacing the nine with a six of hearts. Leonardo then tapped the table in the direction of Arlo. Arlo shuffled his hand and gave the top card to Leonardo, while Leonardo gave Arlo one of the cards he chose from his hand. Finally, Arlo took the six and replaced it with an ace of hearts. Each of the men tapped the table once more and showed their cards.
Arlo had three sixes, a king, and a queen. Leonardo had an ace, two, three, five, and seven. Luca had four nines and a six.
'Luca, you lucky bastard.' Arlo and Leonardo passed their bags over to him.
'You know it's not luck.' Luca smiled and grabbed a small piece of paper from the ground behind him, one that looked like it was a part of an old card, and poured some black powder onto it from the bags, adding to the small pile that was already there.
The five of them played some more, and Vasquez eventually understood a lot about how the game was played. First of all, sitting was very risky. If a player did, they did not have to bet on the first round and get to move on. However, they had to add a card to the center, which could let people create eight-card hands. There were about ten different sixes in the deck from what he could count, as well as a lack of face cards, and those he did see all seemed to come from the same deck. The most important thing he learned, however, was that if he paid enough attention to the back of the cards, he could narrow down the possibilities of which cards were which.
Luca seemed to be the best player of the five of them. He had both an understanding of the deck and the people at the table, even Vasquez, whom he had just met under an hour ago. Vasquez wasn't doing too badly, playing very safely and even winning a couple of times. Instead of giving him the black powder from the bags, they would get Vasquez more food and drink. Ben had accumulated a small pile of powder himself, but was playing a lot more carefree, not caring if he won or lost after getting some of the powder. It was odd to Vasquez that they would bet gunpowder. They seemed to be peaceful in this small town, but the people of it paid a lot of respect to it. He thought back to the woman in the town's circle, telling the people that they had the gunpowder they offered, stolen.
On a particularly lucky hand, Vasquez was feeling confident. Everyone but Ben had bet, and his hand was very nice: four sixes and one three, and there were two threes in the center. He debated on taking one of the threes and securing a 'house' as the older members of the table had called it. Ben sat. Vasquez assumed his hand had some number of sixes for this reason, and Ben added an ace to the center. Vasquez took the three, and everyone at the table bet. This time, the sums were much larger. When they bet initially, it had to be two, but during this second round, much more could be put on the line. In total, it was seven bets from everyone.
Vasquez did not have seven of anything to put on the line. Andre had stopped giving them drinks for free, so he had to win this hand. Otherwise, well, he didn't know. The people at the table had started taking him seriously, and they had always taken the game seriously. Even Luca, who seemed nice and collected, most of a small part of that mask whenever he got a hold of some of the powder.
When it came time to reveal the cards everyone had, a sudden noise interrupted the silence of the table. It was thunder. No rain had fallen during Vasquez's time at the bar, so the sudden noise made him jump out of his seat. He was not the only one either. Most of the patrons of the bar jumped up as well, shocked by the bellowing sound from the skies above. The thunder continued, each blast shaking the wooden structure of the bar. Some people ran outside to see what happened, and they stood in silence once they had found the source of the sound.
The cross of the church, in the outskirts of town, was constantly being hit with strikes of lightning, setting the top half ablaze in the deep darkness of the night.