King of Hearts

I kept my lips attached to his, the way all the spade victims would die. But just before I sunk the knife all the way into his flesh, I noticed something white and red in one of his hands. Something white and red, something familiar to my eyes. Something I'd never seen in someone else's hands.

The King of Hearts. my heart. My heart, my soul, my life, was in Patrick's hand. Where he got it, I don't know, but I knew that he currently held my heart, and he could do with it whatever he wished.

I could feel my eyes widen, and the grin drop off my face for the first time since... forever. I can't remember ever feeling... fear. I suppose that was what I was feeling.

The knife fell from my hands, the bang of the metal hitting the wooden floor cutting through the silence, just as the blade was cutting through cloth and skin, just moments ago.

I backed away from Patrick, my movements slow and jerky as nerves shot through my body. I didn't know what to do in this situation, and it seemed neither did Patrick. He watched me stumble away from him, and then turned his curious gaze to the card in his hand.

As he comprehended what he held, his gaze traveled back to me. "Your heart, Pete. That's what this is, isn't it? This is your heart." he seemed baffled at the fact that he held my card in his hand. The card that symbolized life for me.

While playing this game, your card is you. You are your card. If your card is damaged, so are you. This is why the deck is so beat up, so torn apart. Each card has had a few victims, each victim has been killed.

When I carved that 'X' into the King of Hearts, I felt it in my skin, as if someone where tearing at it with sharp fingernails, trying to get to my insides. Of course, other than that, the card was untouched. Many times, it had been on the verge of being torn or scratched, but never had it been harmed by someone other than me.

"What happens now, Pete? What does this mean?" Patrick asked me. He had no idea of the power he held in his hand. The power to ruin me.

"P-patrick? Where... Where did y-you g-get that?" I didn't necessarily need to make sense of the situation, as that would just make it worse. I needed to take the information and spin in in my favor. Patrick may have brought in his sanity, but we're still in my world.

I was a liar, a true cheater. Everything had to be by my non-rules. When things didn't go my way, we weren't in my world anymore. Were we even still in my world?

Patrick seemed to be pondering a way to answer, but before he got a chance to I ran out of the room. I ran for my life, I ran for Patrick's life, and I ran away from all those lives that are no more.

I was already out of my mind, but now I was out of my head. My thoughts were running past me, outside, in my vision. While I ran to who knows where, I saw knives around me. Knives, cards, candles, blood, and Patrick. My thoughts, once again made tangible around me.

"The garden room!" I yelled out to no one. That's where I could go, my favorite room in this mansion. My favorite chamber of my mind.

It was the only place here that was pure and peaceful, untouched by blood and lies. It was a part of the game, but it was innocent and beautiful.

I ran through hallways and arches, passing through different rooms that have all seen pain and sins. I needed the chastity of the garden room to clear my mind.

I knew I'd found the room when the floor was suddenly covered in soft grass. I don't know where or when I'd lost my shoes, but they weren't on my feet anymore. I felt dew on them, and it was so real that it made me cry.

This room was the only thing real to me. If Patrick couldn't see it, then was it a lie as well?

I shook away my thoughts, and looked up at the tree in the corner. The glorious, wise tree. The one who told me I had to find love for myself. But now, as I looked up at it, it seemed to look happy, content. Like it had just seen a happy ending.

Or, as if a happy ending were on the horizon, and he was the only one who knew it. "Don't look at me like that when the world is falling down around me!" I yelled up at it. I couldn't stand the content aura about him.

Just being near the grand tree, I couldn't help but calm down. I started to organize my thoughts. The images swimming around in my vision slowly narrowed down to one. That was Patrick.

His hat was back on his head, and the look of terror had been removed from his face. The way the light hit him, his features turned even more angelic than before. It almost made me want to cry at how beautiful he was.

I looked away from him, and back up to the tree above me. I started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. If I played the game right this time, there would be a happy ending. For both me and Patrick.

But when I turned back around to look at him, he wasn't there. He never was. It was just another lie. All this time, I thought I was cheating the world. But really, the world was cheating me.

It was giving me false happiness through the lies that I told, but I wasn't even the liar. I was the one being lied to. I thought I was happy, I never thought I was really all that alone.

I didn't ever think I need love. But I do, and it may just be too late for me to have anything at this point.

When Patrick first entered my mansion, entered my mind, I knew he was different. I knew he wasn't a normal victim, I knew he'd be a challenge. But I never could've predicted this as the outcome.

I reached my hand up to my face, and felt wetness. Tears. It was a new feeling to me; sadness, but also discovery and hope. It was me feeling pure emotions for the first time. It was me feeling love.

I blinked my eyes, and when I opened them Patrick was in front of me once again. But this time I knew it was the real one.

His eyes held a look of fear, his face was stricken with pain and uncertainty. But also wonder.

And in his hand, he held two cards. He flipped them so I could see what they were, and I gasped, my grin became one of happiness for the first time.