Richard took his gaze to the man who had spoken. A very tall man who he was sure was 6 to 7ft. He was also muscular and huge, giving him an intimidating stature that could cause anyone to fall on their knees.
He walked closer, not taking his gaze away from him. They all had their masks on and he couldn't see their faces but he could tell they were four men and four women."Sir Philip, we explained......"The man, who happened to be Philip Makani, the king of shades, rose his hand to stop Rina from speaking any further."Don't the king have a mouth to speak?" He questioned, still not taking his gaze away from Richard.All eyes were on him. Richard felt the world spinning around and he wished the ground would open up and swallow him. He thought he was ready, but he wasn't. He wasn't ready to face the people standing before him.They were all intimidating and powerful. The aura they carried with them."Philip, you shouldn't talk to our new king like this." One of the lords came further and placed his hand on Philip's shoulder. "He is above us and should be treated as one, don't you think?"Philip grunted and looked away while the other man walked further and bowed his head before Richard. "I apologize for his rudeness. We are all just.....," he looked at him from head to toe. "Surprised. We never expected you to be so young." He added and took his gaze to Rina. "Shouldn't you have given us a head up?"Rina quickly bowed her head, "I apologize Sir Jack."He laughed a little and faced Richard again. "My lord, I am Jackson Bull, the king of hearts. We are all the lords of the game."He turned to introduced the others. "That is Philip Makani, the king of shades. He is always so bossy. I think that was the reason he was given the title, shades."Richard wanted to laugh but drew his lips into a thin line, stopping himself. He needed to act like a king and he was going to try his best."Well, the man behind him," he pointed at a thin, tall young man, who was almost same height with Philip. "He is George King Jr. The king of clubs. He is always nonchalant about everything and you will find that annoying pretty soon.""Welcome to this world," George said and went back to using his phone as he was when Richard walked in."The last man over there is Sebastian Nyugen." He introduced referring to the chubby and short man."First time we would have a young king. I hope to see a bright future with you." Sebastian said with a huge grin plastered on his face.Jack went on, "And for the women, that is....." He was cut off when the lady he was about introducing walked forward."I am Sira. Sira McCarthy the queen of hearts. You are a good looking king, I must say." She winked at him and moved back."The other is Sophia Black, the queen of Shades."She said nothing and Jack went on, "The next is Diana Armstrong, the queen of clubs.""I am at your service my majesty.""And the last is Juliana Lee, the queen of diamonds.""Don't just get in my way cause you are given this much authority. I do hope we work in peace and not pieces."Richard swallowed hard at her threat even though she only said it casually."Why don't we start with the first ritual?" Jack said in an aim to lighten up the mood.A ritual? No one informed Richard about it."What is this ritual about?" he asked with his voice filled with curiosity.Rina laughed in an aim to cover his insensitivity, "Please do not mind our king. He isn't always like this." She said and glared at Richard. "I will go get him ready for the ritual." She led the way out of the room."What do you think you are doing Richard? You are so naive and stupid. Do you even know what this work is about? Do you even know what you just did? you couldn't say anything nor defend yourself nor punish Philip, you allowed him get on your toes," she snapped immediately they entered a different room."I....I am sorry."She rolled her eyes and breathed out, "Do not mess things for us. You have to become powerful and do not allow everyone step on your toes. Behave like a king or you wouldn't last here." She added and walked out of the room, banging the door.Richard let out the breath he held in and leaned back on the wall. What should he do? He couldn't stand so firm and strong in front of those intimidating and powerful people. He felt his racing out almost falling out of his chest.At some point, he thought he was going to fall. Even when they talked, he couldn't say anything cause he was afraid of what they might do to him. Did he want this all to last? He wasn't sure about it.He sighed deeply and went out of the room. No matter what the ritual was about, he had to face it."Alright, the king is back." Philip stated and faced two men who wasn't in the room earlier. They were both wearing black suits and all looked so serious and fearless."Bring them in!" He commanded.The two men walked out and in no time, they came with a man and a woman, both chained and their eyes covered.Richard was dumbfounded as they made them knee before him. What was happening? He had a lot of questions running through his mind at the same time."This two are betrayers. They don't mean well for this society and want to expose us to people. That is one of the greatest sin of the abyss." Philip started and collected a gun from one of the two men. He walked to Richard and handed it to him. "Now for the ritual, you will have to kill the man.""What?!""No please! Please forgive us! Do not kill my husband." The woman cried out."You haven't being officially made the king yet and so, you have no other choice than to do what we command. Unless," he raised another gun to Richard's head. "I end your life here. You have two choices, kill him or you die."Richard felt his heart crawling to his mouth as his body stilled and all noise disappeared except his racing heart being loud to his ears.He never signed up for what he was about to do. Kill somebody? No, his life should be at least peaceful and not carrying the guilt of ending anyone's life. No one told him about the mess he was about to make. No one told him the ritual involves a person life. He had made a terrible mistake by agreeing to be the king of the abyss. By agreeing to join.Now, his life was on the line if he doesn't commit murder."What are you waiting for? We don't have all time." Philip reminded, bringing the gun so close to his skin and Richard shivered at the contact made with the cold metal.He shakily rose his arms up, pointing his gun towards the man while his wife kept pleading that their lives be spared.I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. Those words repeated in his mind but he dared not say it out loud or the wicked bullet would create a hole i
Richard slowly slipped to the ground, resting his back on the wall as his gaze remained fixed on the dead bodies. He was torturing himself by looking at the bodies. His mind was clouded as the scene of how they were shot and fell dead to the ground kept replaying it self in his head.He had to do something about their death and he would be able to. Why waste it? He needed to know what they did and why they had to die the way they did but first, he needed to attain power.He couldn't do anything as he wasn't officially crowned the king yet. The lords of the game showed a display of power. Richard thought he should also have same authority.They should be under him right? He slowly stood up and rolled his fist into a ball. "What ever you did, it doesn't deserve this inhumane act." He remembered Sira telling him about their daughter.They just made the poor girl an orphan. They ruined her life. He needed to make up for it. He examined himself and slowly looked towards the door suddenly
The bullet grazed Richard cheek giving him a cut. Luckily, it missed his head or wherever the shooter had planned on shooting him."Let's leave." Jack said to Richard and they all rushed out with the securities around aiming their guns for whoever shot their king.Richard was taken back to the room where he met with the lords earlier. "What was that?" Richard questioned as his body was shaken in fright of what would have happened to him. He thought he was a goner."Congratulations, you have an enemy." Juliana informed. "You should leave now. Your new house is ready.""My lady, he is coming with the Deltas tonight. We need to celebrate his victory in our clan as it is a tradition." Rina answered and faced Richard. "Your car is ready my lord.""Then if he is going with you, we need to send a whole lot of security after you." Sebastian suggested. "After what just happened, we can't tell what would happen if you step out alone."Philip rolled his eyes and faced Sebastian. "Let the king m
Richard quickly picked up his phone again and read the message. His parent? His parent where involved with the abyss too?He had a lot of questions running in his head that needed answers but there was no way he could get any. What was going on? What was going to happen to him? Disembody him? That is a worst way to die. If he drops the kingship too, he would die nevertheless.What should he do? What choice would he make? Who sent him the message? Who should he trust?He swallowed hard and made way for his room. Getting in, he locked up the door behind him and hurried to the mirror. He placed his two hand on the mirror table, trying to steady his breath.He felt panic following in and that was almost making him go crazy. Slowly, he lifted his face and looked at his reflection in the mirror.A smile crept to his face but not a beautiful smile as the one he had but a devilish grin that he could almost not recognize himself in the mirror.He moved his hand across his hair and roughened it
Richard wasn't going down to the water, neither was he dead but instead, he felt a hand holding him from behind. He tried to look over his shoulder to see who had caught him but he couldn't see anyone."Before you try to kill yourself next time, you can drop off the ring of the abyss. That is worth a country." She warned and pushed him back, making him to fall to the ground."Sira?" He called but in a low voice as he stared at her with widened eyes."You are nothing but a weakling. I never expected you to be brave anyway.""How did you find me?""It was easy to get you. I mean, you left your tracks behind and I so happened to find it first. You were lucky I saw you or others would have pushed you down themselves.""I want it anyway. I want to die."She sighed deeply and crossed her arms. "Don't worry, I will give you a chance to speak to me about your problems. I wouldn't mind being your therapist." She informed and pointed at her cat. "A ride is waiting for us."He glanced at the ca
The hot, cold drink hit his throat, burning him up immediately and so sharply that he had to withdraw the cup away and shut his eyes so tight. Rina laughed seeing his reaction and stood up."Now that my friend, is the first step to becoming a fearless king. Being able to take in even the strongest alcohol that every one thinks not possible." She applauded and patted his shoulder before she walked back to the bar. "Why don't you drink as much as you want? Not that I visit here frequently. I am worried most of this drinks would reach it expiring dates before I realize it.He drew his brows with a thought that the drink he had might be expired but she waved her hand and shook her head."Not the least expired," she answered as if hearing his thought. "Just got it three months ago all the way from Vietnam. One of my most expensive wine,"He heaved a sigh of relief and went for another sip.....The next morningThe sun ray stoned on his face forcing him to groan and tossed to the other sid
Being able to do anything for someone you love is truly a bliss to the heart. Someone who deserves it, who makes your meaningless life meaningful again.He was ready to do anything for the sake of that one person, Danica Armstrong, his girlfriend.Richard looked at the mirror one last time and smiled in satisfaction of how he looked. Even though he wasn't classy enough, he made sure to look as good as he could. He planned on making his Danica proud.The door opened and a young man his age walked in. Seeing him through the mirror, the young man laughed out loud."What do you think you are doing Richard? I thought you listened to me when I told you to forget about the party? That party isn't for someone like you. The class of people attending are way more than your class. Infact, you are just a piece of garbage to them." As always, his friend Mike was there to mock at him.He has always being jealous of him since he started dating Danica so Richard wasn't surprised at all.Danica is of
"Hurry! Go change and start your work. You were specially recommended by me so don't mess this up," she added with a frown.He took a step forward and she took a step backward to maintain a distance. "What are you talking about?""The pay is two hundred dollars. You don't wanna lose that amount and you will get free food too," she answered and turned to leave but he held back her hand."You said I was going to meet your father."She slapped his hand off hers and frowned deeply. "Do you think your place is with the high social guests? You look so low and you want to seat with them? Your place is with the servants so get to work now and don't embarrass me," she sneered and walked away as fast as her legs could carry her.Richard stood still in shock of what she said. Danica never says something like that to him. She never talks about his class so what happened?"Isn't that Ric the cleaner? What is his smelly butt doing here?" He heard one of her friends asked."He is here to work," Dani