Tom and I walked through the desert for hours and hours, unsure of where to turn next. It has been 3 days since the last saloon and we desperately need a place to rest. The sandstorms have been rough, but we both are thankful we haven’t run into bandits or scavengers. It’s almost unnerving how nothing, literally nothing, has crossed paths with us yet. I could sense something wrong in the dusty air, but I can’t figure out what. I guess it will present itself when it is ready. There was a large dune me and Tom were just barely climbing over, on top there was a dense black fog spreading out for god knows how long.

           “Hey Joe, I think I see a saloon or something beyond the dune...we should go check it out.” Tom said panting walking up the dune.  

           “I mean, it’s a saloon out in the middle of nowhere and shrouded in black fog Tom, BLACK FOG. How often do you see black fog from your parts? Can we really trust this?” I replied.

           “Let’s be honest, we haven’t seen one for a couple days, we shouldn’t just ignore this one just because the weather decided to be bad today. It’s probably just the dust from the sand making it appear black.” Tom explained.

            I found his argument reasonable for the time being, but I still was not trusting the whole idea. It’ll probably just be one of those nights where we have to alternate between shifts of watching and sleeping just to make sure no one comes to slit our throats and/or rob us of everything we own. Regardless, it was a saloon after all, and where there’s a saloon, people are bound to be located and due for questioning. What’s the worst that could go wrong? A bar fight that’ll last 5 seconds? Both me and Tom can easily fend for ourselves in hand to hand combat, and if it ever came to it... our guns ain’t something to mess with either. We finally approached the door after slogging through the gray sand. I put my ear to the door and listened...I heard absolutely nothing. Perfect, tranquil, and yet eerie silence. I glanced at Tom and gave him a subtle nod. I pushed the door open and expected everyone to turn around and see what kind of person would walk into a bar like this. No one turned, no one batted an eye, no one even flinched or showed any sign of acknowledging that someone just walked in. Normally, this would be excusable because of noise covering it up, but this bar was dead silent. With how silent it was, me opening the door should have sounded like someone screaming at the top of their lungs, but yet no one moved. We cautiously walked in and made our way to the bar stand. The bartender was just facing away from us as everyone else was, all we saw were backs. The bartender turned around as if somehow knowing we were about to say something, but something about the way he turned wasn’t right either. He was facing a little to the left but still with his back towards us, instead of just rotating left to face us he turned the complete other direction. I’m not freaked out by much, but that told me right away that this place wasn’t normal. He looked me in the eye, somehow knowing I was the one that was going to open my mouth. Maybe I do look the leaderly type after all.

“Excuse me, can you give us directions to the next town closest to here?” I asked almost tripping over my words.

“...” The bartender just kept looking into my eyes.

“Sheesh, sorry to have bothered you..” I said turning around. Suddenly, I felt a hand grab me by the shoulder. It wasn’t Tom, the bartender tightened his grip and slowly made a point with his finger to the opposite side of the saloon where a sharply dressed man was simply sitting and glancing outside through the dust stained window. I turned around slightly to shoot him a dirty look, but he didn’t seem phased by my demeanor at all. I brushed his hand off my shoulder and it fell off as if his hand weighed nothing. His hand was quite the cold one, even through my poncho and vest. I looked at Tom to make sure he was still next to me and he was giving me the look I would expect anyone to have after such an eerie interaction like that. I decided to take the bartender’s clue and walk over to the sharply dressed man. Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure what I was about to get myself into here, the whole situation so far has just been unsettling. However, the sharply dressed man in the corner seemed to be the only one in the room that radiated some sort of personality. He was sitting at an old gambling table just fixated on the window, he was the only person whose face was visible despite the angle he was at. I put my hands down on the table with enough force to not make a scene, but enough to make sure he knew someone was there.

“Beautiful day...isn’t it? I just can’t stop looking at such a nice sky.” The man said smiling to himself and glancing back at the window. I’m not sure if he was being sarcastic or not, but you couldn’t even see through the window now that I’m closer to it. What’s up with everyone here? At this point, people being creepy and/or reclusive isn’t the strangest thing I’ve ever seen so I just went ahead and asked,

“The bartender, he pointed me in your direction...I’m assuming you have leads on next town over?”

“The next town you say...oh, right. That one. Yes, I’ll give you directions, but I only ask one favor...cowboy.”

“What can me and my partner do for you, stranger?” I asked, expressing fake interest.

“Well, do you like games, stranger? As in betting games?” The man asked. His voice was so raspy, but yet it was so smooth sounding.

“Sure, I like to gamble.” I replied now a little more interested. What could he want that has to do with gambling?

“Oh, perfect then. I’m sure you’ll love what I have planned for us this fine evening.” He quite joyfully exclaimed.  How does he know it’s evening? There isn’t a single clock anywhere in the bar and the window he was looking out of was stained black.

“Sure, uh just let me get my-”

“Oh how could I be so rude to my new acquaintance? My name is Ace Jacobs.” He asked cutting me off.

“Pleased to meet you, Ace.”

“Pleased to meet you too...Joseph. And your fellow right behind you too. Tom, correct?” He said with a smug grin, as if he knew something we don’t. I was shocked. How did he know our names? We aren’t even from around here, not even close. Everything beforehand I was able to pass off as odd coincidence but this...now I knew for sure something was wrong. I lowered my hand slowly to reach my revolver, just in case. I hadn’t looked at Tom directly since our exchange of expression at the bar, but I knew from the creaking floorboards behind me that he was getting nervous too.

“H-How the hell do you know our-” Tom stammered and I gave him a swift backhand to the chest to cut him off. I didn’t need him saying anything that would worsen the situation. We needed to just go with it. Meanwhile, Ace was just sitting there softly chuckling in his raspy, soft voice.

“Alright, fellas. What do you say to this...you beat me in some of my games and I give you your directions.”

“And if we lose?” Tom quickly blurted out.

“Well, we gotta make the stakes high somehow, fellas. I know you’ll desperately need these directions so, you should be willing to put your lives on the line, correct?” He asked still smiling smugly and chuckling to himself. Me and Tom took one small look at each other, I quickly flung out my revolver and aimed point blank at his upper chest.

“Don’t toy with us, Ace. We are here for one reason and that’s to get directions to the next town, screw resting, I only wanted directions.” I yelled, losing my patience. Ace didn’t look too bothered that he had a hand-cannon aimed right at his jugular. In fact, his already creepy smile only got creepier when the ends of his mouth spread unnaturally long. A literal ear to ear grin. I felt cold iron suddenly hit the back of my head and heard the clicking of a pistol hammer. I looked at Tom, who also had a pistol aimed at the back of his head by a stranger. Before I knew it, one person from each table revealed a pistol and slowly and stiffly marched over to the old gambling table.

‘You two look like you’ve seen somethin’ supernatural,” Ace said with a slight chuckle. “Why don’t you both take a seat and then we can start our little game, hm?” He said opening his now widened mouth.

I holstered my revolver, then Tom and I slowly sat down in the two chairs in front of us. I didn’t even notice that before...two empty chairs conveniently waiting at the table? The crowd of gun wielding strangers have formed a circle around table and had their weapons fixated on Tom and I. I guess there was no getting out of it now, it would be stupid to try.

“The game for tonight fellas is blackjack, whichever one of you is more adept can step up.” Ace said. I’m not a master gambler by any means, but blackjack is my game. I nudged Tom letting him know I’m taking the chance. Ace threw onto the table a fresh, unopened pack of cards.

“As you are my adversary, you have the right to inspect the deck and break the security seal.” He said. I felt around the pack, shook them, and dropped at every angle to see if there was a difference in momentum due to weight. Everything appeared to be in order, I glanced at Ace who was waiting for me to crack the seal. I used my nail to rip the seal open and I slowly poured all the cards out into my hand. I split the deck in half and spread all the cards out to view them. The deck contained everything it needed to, I then inspected for marks on cards or any bends or folds. Everything as before, seemed in order. I rounded the cards up and handed the deck to Ace.

“Let someone else shuffle.” I said as soon as his hands touched the cards.

“Will do...Joseph.” He said calmly. He snapped and one person from another table came over to shuffle. When I watched the man start to shuffle the cards, I picked up on something I didn’t before. The man’s pupils never moved. Now that I’m thinking about it, no one’s pupils have moved around besides Ace’s. Everyone has had the same soulless face and their eyes have been locked in one position. Even the strangers surrounding the table, all their guns were pointed at us, but they were all staring straight ahead almost as if they were not staring at us but each other. I was beginning to question if these strangers at the bar were even real people.

“Alright, the deck has been shuffled, Joseph.” Ace said anticipating the start of our game. The man that shuffled dealt the traditional two cards, one up and one down.

“Now, Joseph, the way I play you aren’t allowed to look at your face down card until we are ready to reveal our total.”

“Good. I play like that, too.” I replied. How did he know I play like that?

“Home rules...I see you like the challenge. Best two out of three is the winner, remember the stakes, Joseph.”

I had a seven of hearts and he had a Jack of spades, picture cards being worth ten, I felt confident here, but I couldn’t let that hurt my game.

“Hit me.” I said. The expressionless man without moving his head rotated his body to slide me another card. It was a four of spades. I felt pretty happy with my cards. It is about a 50/50 chance that the face down card will be higher than a seven. I’m praying the face down card isn’t an ace, since an ace can mean either a one or eleven depending on the player’s choice and twenty-two or twelve aren’t game winning numbers since the goal is to get as close to twenty-one as possible without going over.

“Hit me.” Ace said. He received a another picture card, this time a Queen of clubs. Now I knew he had to of been over, but I didn’t let my face show any sign of relief.

“I’ll stay.” I said. Ace said the same. We flipped our cards. The lucky bastard scored a perfect twenty-one with his ace of diamonds. All I had was a measly eight of spades, giving me a total of nineteen. He chuckled to himself, and brushed the cards to the side as I did mine. It was only the first game, an unlucky first game I kept assuring myself. I watched carefully as the man dealt out our next set. I didn’t detect any foul play as it seems the man wasn’t an experienced card shuffler in the slightest. This time I had received a ten of diamonds, though doubting it at first, I asked for a hit. I received a two of clubs. I accidently let out a sigh of relief but tried to make it sound like a deep breath. Ace glared and then smiled and said he would stay. We flipped and my total was a solid twenty, Ace’s total being an extremely close nineteen. I watched carefully again at the shuffling of the cards to detect foul play, second dealing was pretty infamous from where I came from, I could detect that as if it were a rose in a desert. We received our next set, after a hit from each of us we stayed. He had a seventeen and I had a rough fifteen. My hands started sweating, I was getting really unlucky. I hoped this wouldn’t be a pattern of loss win loss win loss because if it were, Ace would win. For some reason, even though the next set of cards weren’t even dealt yet, Ace looked like he was concentrating hard on something. The sudden stiffness of his face concerned me, was he faking it? Was he actually nervous too? I didn’t let my curiosity show and I paid no mind to it. We then received our possible last set of cards, I had a picture card and so did he. This made me even more tense, with such a high risk high reward card like that, I wasn’t sure how to feel knowing this could possibly be my last game. I swallowed the lump in my throat and asked for a hit, might as well take the risk, right? I received another picture card, I could feel the color retreat from my skin. Ace said he would stay, and I hesitantly flipped my face down card. It was an ace! I quickly collected the breath that so quickly escaped out of me, only to have it knocked out of me once more. He had a twenty-one as well...and being that he had less cards than me even though we both have a winning score, he would win due to the fact he achieved twenty-one with less cards. He chuckled his soft laugh,

“I’m sorry Joseph, it looks like you lost one to three. A shame really, but you will make a nice addition to my collection.” He said jubilantly.

“Collection…?” Tom finally spoke, not wanting to break the silence and focus of the game. Ace pulled out a small metal box that was lying next to him and put it on the table very slowly. He slid the box over to me, I looked around waiting for some sort of queue to open it, and Ace glared at me with his unnatural ear to ear grin this time showing his teeth. I opened the box and immediately felt dizzy, inside was a poker chip collection, but not your average poker chip collection. Every chip was made of human skin, and marked with two initials.

“I hope you two enjoyed our little game...and now you’ll be able to play with me forever in the form of my own personal poker chips.” Ace said opening his mouth but this time his cheeks split open to reveal a large inhuman mouth.

“Thanks for playin’ with me, Joseph, I just love human games…” Ace said as he snapped his fingers. I watched as every man around the table pulled the pistol hammer back, me and Tom shot each other one more look.

“Now we will be closing the game.” Ace said.