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A Story in a Deck of Cards

And so it was told that the Jack of Hearts and the King of Clubs battled fiercely to win the love of the most desirable, Queen of Spades. Whom, under the grace of the Ace of Hearts, had been removed from the presence of the heretic and perverse King of Spades, who now resides in the dark leather chambers below, forever tortured by the smiling sadist Ace of Clubs.

Now at this time, the Kings and Queens of Diamonds and Hearts watched with graceful anxiousness. Of course, the Hearts having assets in the fact that their Jack had slain the other three unworthy suiting Jacks, were hopeful of having relations in the wealthy suitings of a Spade. The Hearts were dreading, on the other hand, the victory of the King of Clubs since he declared that upon his coronation as the King of Spades, he would, “Bleed the life from every last Heart in the deck!”

The King of Clubs had quite a reputation of wretchedness, as did also the Queen of Spades. So filled with spite, the Diamonds watched in hope of the young Jack’s slaying of the morbid King, who in months earlier, had beheaded their beloved sister—the former Queen of Clubs—when the Ace of Diamonds ceased to bless their house with riches, although it was the deeds of the wretched King that brought on the curse in the first place. If the Hearts won, the leaderless armies of the Clubs would be easy prey for the powerful Diamonds, always itching for conquest and revenge.

The combat took place in the Great Hall of Castle Spade while spectators observed from balconies high above a white marble floor imbued with translucent reds, blues, greens, violets, and yellows created by the sun’s light filtering through a stained glass ceiling.

Protected by only shield, the two warred on with sword, axe, and mace. The three earlier, inexperienced Jacks, fell quickly to the speed and agility of the Heart, but the experienced warlord King of Clubs had the strength and wisdom of battle to his advantage. Blows were struck. The blood seeped red and black, until finally, the younger Jack outlasted the elder King of Clubs. Upon his back lay the defeated King, too weak to fight, breathing in heaves and blinking in wide rapidity as the Jack of Hearts raised his axe, and with a roar, came down upon the thick neck, separating the gruesome head of the King of Clubs from its body. Looking up to his queen-to-be, the Jack of Hearts’ tired look of victory turned to a wince of surprise and pain as a hundred arrows filled his body, and he dropped to the floor dead.

The spectators of the court rose in horror and tried to flee, but there was no escape from the endless mass of revolutionaries that had grown tired of such courtly games. For you see, the Kings and Queens, as few as they were, had great power in wealth, but they failed to realize that the strength was actually in the numbers.

So that day the deck it bled as the Jokers laughed with cackling mockery while the Ace of Spades wept black, leaf-like tears because she knew that the gain for the many, would someday again, become a violent loss for the few, in a bloody Royal Flush.

END
© 2005 Christian Cloud Abraham

Posted on October 30, 2005 in
Emotion: Disgust, Type: Fiction