Just A Game

Three Of Hearts

Hatter made me play again today although I played the ace of hearts yesterday. He had explained to me that he wanted me to collect more cards and if they were hearts. That would be even better as we needed mostly hearts. I didn't expect a heart as I walked into the game area, there were already people here, they didn't have locker keys so they came from outside of the beach. I looked around me, I was in a school more specifically I was in a school gym. I was intrigued by the game arena that had been chosen, now the question was.. Spades? Diamonds? Clubs? or Hearts?..

I noticed a table set up at the corner of the school gym, I walked over and saw blindfolds. So they wanted us to blindfold ourselves, we couldn't see what was going on in this game? "Excuse me, Can you help me with this?" A woman asked me anxiously. I shrugged and helped her with the blindfold, she helped me with mine in return. A man who hadn't put on his blindfold yet, helped us walk back to where the game started. "Game, Hop scotch" The woman said. Hop scotch? Like the thing that you played in the school playground? "Difficulty, Three Of Hearts" The woman spoke. Huh? Another hearts game? That was interesting, I heard people around me mutter that hearts was the worst. "The time limit will be five minutes for eight rounds, there a total of 4 participants, no weapons are allowed to harm other players" The woman explained. That's a short time limit? "So we just play hop scotch for each round and win?" A woman asked nervously. "We haven't heard the clear conditions yet" I said shrugging. "Clear conditions, Make it to the safety zone within the time limit, it is game over if you do not make it to the safety zone or if you step on the wrong tile" The woman explained. "Wrong tile?" A man asked confused. "Only one player can occupy a tile, failure to obey the rules will result in death. Tiles can appear normal or glow red and blue, Red tiles explode when stepped on, blue tiles might or might not. Every round, the tile arrangement changes. This forces you to work together to navigate the tiles and trust each other blindfolded" The woman said. "How can we tell each other where to go when we can't see?" The woman next to me asked.

"Players can take off their blindfold in 4/8 rounds. Each use lasts for 2.5 minutes. There is a ten second countdown when the time is about to end" The woman said. Oh, this was getting good. "Time limit 5 minutes, first round starts now" The woman said making two people mutter. So I couldn't see a thing at all, I couldn't see the tiles even if they were glowing red or blue and it would be cheating if I did try to peer through my blindfold at them. "I think the first tile will explode, so maybe try the second one? Jump to it" A man suggested to someone. "Okay" An anxious woman's voice replied back. I heard her moving, I then heard her jump, no explosion followed so she wasn't dead. "Now jump to the third one, we can't be on the same tile" The man said to her. The woman jumped onto the third tile and no explosion followed. So we knew that the second and third tile were safe to go on. I heard the man jump onto the second tile. "What tile should I try now?" The woman asked anxiously. "How far can you jump?" The man asked her nervously. I knew why, the next tile was four but if the tiles were set out like Hop scotch is, then that meant 5 and 6 was a little bit of a jump away. "I'm not very good at jumping" The woman said anxiously. "Just jump onto the fourth tile" I said shrugging. The timer was ticking down, I didn't have time for her shit.

The woman jumped on to the fourth tile and was fine. Were there even any explosive tiles this round? "Try the sixth tile" The man told her, once again the woman jumped and was fine. Soon enough we had all reached the safety zone unharmed, no one dead. "Second round starts now, 5 minutes remaining" The woman announced. "Try the first tile this time" I said to the woman. Apparently that was the order we were going in, the woman next to the man goes first, the man was second, I was third and the woman who stood next to me went last. The woman stepped onto the first tile, she was fine. No explosion. I was quite confused when I got to the third round and nobody had died yet. "Third round, 5 minutes remaining" The woman said, "Second tile!" The man shouted to the woman. She jumped onto the second tile and was fine, then she jumped onto the fourth tile and she was fine again. "Seventh tile" I said sighing deeply. The woman jumped onto the seventh tile, there was a massive loud bang that echoed through the school gym. "Is she dead?!" A man shouted nervously. "Are you alive?" I asked the woman, a hint of bored in the tone of my voice. No reply came back from the woman, "Seems it" I said shrugging. "You killed her!" A man shouted at me, I laughed coldly at the man. "I can't see idiot" I said to him. Apart from that woman, we all made it to the safety zone. "Fourth round, 5 minutes remaining. There a total of 3 participants left" The woman said. So that woman did die? We could take off our blindfolds now, I took mine off and looked at the gruesome scene on the tiles. The woman's legs had been exploded off and I'm guessing when she fell on the tile, her head was exploded off. There was blood and guts everywhere. The man who shouted at me thrown up on the floor, the woman next to me looked in horror.

I could see the tiles now, the first tile was blue which meant it could explode but it also couldn't, the second tile was safe. The third tile was red and the fourth tile was safe. The tiles still looked pretty easy, I noticed a screen on the wall that was counting down the time of the game. The man went first successfully getting across the tiles, I went second also getting to the safety zone and the woman who was stood next to me went last surviving too. Was this really a three of heart's game? It was too easy. More rounds went past, we all survived, we were now on the 7th round. The round before the last round. The man confidently walked up to the hop scotch tiles, "This is easy" The man said amused as he jumped across the tiles. I went after agreeing with him, however the woman didn't make it. She was panicking, really panicking and her foot slipped onto a blue tile. She thought she was safe, so did the man. They clearly had forgotten that blue tiles could still explode and it did, It exploded killing the woman as she fell to the floor, the blood splattered onto me and onto my face as she was close to me. "Well, I need a shower" I said sighing as I walked back over to the start. "You are a nasty, cold bitch" The man said disgusted as he tried to push me on the tiles. "8th round starting, 5 minutes remaining, there are a total of 2 participants left" The woman said. "You should die!" The man shouted at me trying to push me onto the tiles still, so he wanted to fight? I kicked the man in the balls making him fall to the ground, I then carried on kicking the man in the stomach making him cough up blood. "You fucking started this!" I shouted at him. Whilst the man was coughing on his blood and regretting his decision to piss me off, I managed to get across the tiles. I had even stepped on a blue tile but it didn't explode. I had made it to the safety zone, the timer started counting down making the man panic and rush across the tiles. He died, he stepped onto a red tile and died.

It couldn't have been five minutes, did the timer count down sooner? Huh, smart and dirty. "Game cleared, congratulations" The woman said to me. On the table where the blindfolds were at the beginning now laid a single card, I walked over and picked it up getting blood on the card. It wasn't my blood, it was the man's and the woman's blood. I slipped the card into my shorts pocket and walked outside. I didn't come to this game in a car so I walked back to the beach, I went straight to the conference room like Hatter asked me to when I got cards from the games. "You're back? You are also covered in blood?" Hatter questioned me as I opened the door and walked inside. Ann, Niragi, Aguni and the man called last boss looked at me, "Card?" Hatter requested. I walked over to Hatter and pulled the bloody card out of my shorts pocket, Hatter took it and looked at it. "Another hearts game? Three of hearts" Hatter announced to the others. "That's two heart games that you have cleared Yasmin" Hatter said as he grabbed a marker and walked over to the wall. He crossed out the three of hearts with a grin. "You are dismissed, You will be playing again tomorrow" Hatter explained to me. I rolled my eyes, nodded and walked out of the room straight to my bedroom..

*My next games were weirdly heart games again, the five of hearts, the two of hearts and the six of hearts. I cleared each one, the sixth one I had to betray someone, I was chosen as the killer of the game. My goal was to kill everyone who was in the game with me. I befriended an innocent woman, she thought I was really sweet and was trying to help her get out of the game. I manipulated her into thinking that her best friend was the killer, so she murdered her best friend just because I made her believe that. Then when it was just us two, she realised that I was the killer all along, she tried to run away but I had a gun, an assault rifle. I shot her dead, I could see the betrayal in her eyes but that quickly went as the light in her eyes dulled down. I returned to Hatter covered in blood again and gave him the six of hearts, he was ecstatic! He needed that card and I had gave it him. Apparently I was his favourite executive now.. He also mentioned to me that he thinks my speciality was hearts. A speciality was what you were good at in this world, so I was good at clearing hearts games. I had played 5 hearts games and won them all...*