Splitting a Soul~Chapter 22

“So…how does this work exactly?” Jack asked, looking down the strange man. He just let out an unearthly smile as he looked back. It wasn’t that his teeth were filled with the bones of old foes or anything like that, but it was the opposite. His teeth were perfectly white and were so clean that I thought I saw my reflection in them.

“Simple enough really,” he said as he waved his hand. “You challenge me to something and I try and beat you. If any of you win, you get to use the gate; if I win, you don’t get to use the gate.”

“And what if we lose?” Aisling asked, obviously not believing it could be that easy. “What’s the catch?”

“If you lose then I will turn you into a banana and eat you in my peanut butter and banana sandwiches!” he yelled with a voice that echoed across the vast area and shook the ground beneath our feet.

“No, I hate bananas!” Jack yelled back as he fell to his feet and raised his arms into the air.

“Dude, it was a joke,” the Gatekeeper said in a very casual voice, much different from before. “If you lose then you have to leave and try again some other time.

“Oh…” Jack said as he got back to his feet. “For real?”

“For…realz,” he said back.

“Did he just say ‘For realz’?” Kimi asked unbelieving. “I don’t remember that much, but I’m sure I’ve never heard anyone say that recently.”

“I know, that is so lame,” Aisling laughed. “No one has said ‘For realz’ since the 90’s.”

“I wouldn’t insult the all powerful being that is guarding the only thing that can save you,” the Gatekeeper deadpanned.

“Oh but it sounds cool when you say it,” Aisling said apologetically.

“Nice try,” he said back.

“So anyway, what can we challenge you to exactly?” I asked him, trying to get everything back on track. “Do we have choices?”

“You can challenge me to pretty much anything really. There is no skill I have not learned and practiced at for centuries. I spent about two hundred years once learning tic-tac-toe strategies,” the Gatekeeper admitted, with a small bit of pride I might add.

“So anything?” I questioned for confirmation.

“Anything, as long as a clear winner can be decided that is. If we tie, we try again,” the Gatekeeper explained, obviously becoming irritated at our hesitation. “Can you dig it?”

“Don’t worry, we can dig it,” Aisling said. “Oh gods, I can’t believe I said that.”

“And you won’t cheat?” I asked him. “I’ve come across a lot of sore losers over the years that cheat to win.”

“Please, I’m a creation of the Titan of Order, do you think I would cheat?” he asked us, but I just stared him down and he put up his hands in defense. “Fine, if it will put you at ease, I swear on the River Styx not to cheat.”

There was a roll of thunder across the sky and the Gatekeeper raised his eyebrows at us as if to say ‘Are you satisfied now?’

“So, pick your challenge,” the Gatekeeper told us with that pure white smile.

“I’ll go first,” Kimi decided. She walked up to the Gatekeeper and looked him straight in the eye before naming the game. There was a flash of light and before I knew it, Kimi and the Gatekeeper were in battle.

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The Gatekeeper and Kimi faced each other down, neither one of them gaining an edge over the other. They went back and forth over and over. The Gatekeeper would sometimes gain the lead, but then in a single moment he would fall behind and Kimi would start to win.

“Your move,” the Gatekeeper said.

“Do you have any Fives?” Kimi asked, looking down at her hand.

“Go fish,” the Gatekeeper responded. Kimi picked up a card from the deck and looked at disappointed. We were standing behind her so we could partially see the remaining two cards she had, the same number as the Gatekeeper. “Do you have any Jacks?”

“Here,” Kimi said, handing him the card she had just picked up.

“Awesome, now I get to go again,” the Gatekeeper said excitedly. “Alright, last one and I get to go again. Ok, do you have any Kings?”

“Go fish,” Kimi said back to him and he lifted up a card from the top of the deck. He then smiled as he looked at the card and slowly turned it around to reveal the King of Spades.

“Sorry kid, but it looks like I win,” he said as he put down his last pair onto the table that had appeared from the earlier flash of light.

“But I have more matches,” Kimi protested, motioning to her seven pairs of card in front of her. “You only have six pairs. You don’t win when you run out of cards.”

“True, but you are holding two cards in your hand by the time I had run out of cards,” the Gatekeeper explained. “That means you subtract two points from your total. Your seven becomes five and I have six, therefore I am the victor.”

“I’ve never played like that,” Kimi said, looking at the two cards in her hand. “But I guess that makes sense. Sorry guys.”

“It’s no big deal,” Aisling said, patting Kimi on the back as she returned to the group, feeling a bit defeated. “I guess I’ll go next.”

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The battle between Aisling and the Gatekeeper was nothing I had ever seen. They traded hits with each other over and over, but the two missed each other more then they hit each other. Every move they made was a strategic act of genius and I couldn’t even begin to think what was going through their minds.

“B-4,” Aisling ordered. A monitor in front of her lit up with a small white light bulb.

“Miss,” the Gatekeeper said as he examined his own game board. “How about…E-7?”

“Hit,” Aisling said as a small light lit up on her submarine. It wasn’t a sink, but Aisling was quickly running out of ships. It was her wounded Submarine and her Destroyer against the Gatekeeper’s Aircraft Carrier and his hurt Patrol Boat. Ironically, the Battleship was the first sink each one got. “Ok, C-3.”

“Sink,” the Gatekeeper said as a bright red ‘X’ appeared over the Gatekeeper’s Patrol Boat. It was the smallest ship and hardest to find, but Aisling had found it and now only needed to find the Aircraft Carrier, the largest ship in his fleet. “I shall avenge my poor naval soldiers! E-9!”

“Hit,” Aisling admitted, shaking her head at fact that the Gatekeeper was acting like he was really leading a naval force. Sometimes when he knew he would hit a ship, he would shout out an order to fire a torpedo. Aisling had actually used this once to find his Submarine, as it was the closest ship to the one Aisling had sunk. Aisling scanned her monitor for all the places a large Aircraft Carrier could hide. Fortunately there were only about three different places. Unfortunately if he found her Destroyer before that, it could all be over. “H-8!”

“Miss!” the Gatekeeper shouted back. “J-9!”

“Miss,” Aisling said back. “F-8!”

“Hit,” the Gatekeeper said with an annoyed grin. “I-5.”

“Miss!” Aisling yelled back. “I pick F-7.”

“…hit,” the Gatekeeper said. He looked at the board for a few moments, scratching his chin. “C-8?”

“Miss; F-6,” Aisling countered.

“Hit…B-8?” he said.

“Hit,” Aisling said. The Gatekeeper let out a grin as his previous guesses made it clear where her ship was. Aisling only had an idea.

“F-5,” Aisling said.

“Hit; I pick D-8,” he said confidently with that smug smile.

“Hit,” Aisling admitted. Her Destroyer only had one peg left right in the middle. That wouldn’t be so bad except that if she missed her next attack, the game was over. The end of the Aircraft Carrier was either in F-4 or F-9, but there was no way of telling. “F-4.”

“Sorry kid, miss,” the Gatekeeper said. “C-8…”

“You sunk my Destroyer,” Aisling said dejectedly. The last light on her ship lit up and the words ‘You Lose’ appeared on her screen.

“Good game. However my configuration has never been beat. It is the most perfect set up, nothing too close or too far from each other and it messes with your head,” the Gatekeeper explained.

“How does it mess with your head?” Aisling asked.

“Simple, no one ever puts their ships on the edge of the map. If you notice I never asked you for a single edge location, and because of that I never wasted a turn and found your ships faster. The only exception was your patrol boat,” he said and Aisling got up from the table. “Alright, next challenge!”

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“Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!” Jack and the Gatekeeper said at the same time. Jack picked scissors; the Gatekeeper picked rock.

“Alright, next challenger!” the Gatekeeper announced.

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“So you’re the last one,” the Gatekeeper said, smiling at me. “The fate of your friend over is in your hands. So what game do you pick.”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “Mind if I ask my friends over there?”

“Sure, take all the time you need,” he said, crossing his arms and tapping his finger. I walked over to my friends and they all looked a bit depressed. It really did stink that we came all the way here only to be defeated by some guy that spent way too much time playing board games.

“So anyone have any ideas?” I asked them. “Because I have nothing right now.”

“You play chess, right?” Kimi suggested.

“But this guy is probably a master chess player and I can’t even beat my Grandpa Don,” I admitted. “Anything else?”

“You could challenge him to a game of luck, like flipping a coin,” Aisling suggested. “I mean as a last resort or something. At least you have a 50/50 chance of winning, better than most of our odds.”

“Wait, I have an idea!” Jack said, looking around wildly. “We have to be all…bendy…”

“What?” Aisling asked and I was right there with her.

“All bendy…like the sun…that big beautiful sun!” Jack proclaimed as he looked up in the sky.

“Ok, Jack has gone insane. Any other plans?” I asked the remaining members.

“Does anyone else smell grapes?” Kimi asked, sniffing the air. “Oh no.”

“I hate you sun!” Jack yelled as he pulled out his staff and began firing wildly around the room.

“Jack, calm down!” I shouted, but it was too late and one of his strikes hit the Gatekeeper right in the chest, completely freezing him in ice.

“I won’t calm down! That sun owes me money!” Jack yelled as he kept firing around the room. At one point I had to pull out my sword and deflect one of his blasts. Aisling pulled out her shield and defended herself.

“What in the gods name is going on?!” Aisling yelled, obviously confused.

“Jack Frost over there pissed off the god of madness!” I shouted, pushing Kimi and myself to the ground so we didn’t end up like a popsicle. She got back to her feet and reached into her pocket for what I thought was her bow, but she pulled out something that looked like punching glove. “What the heck is that thing?”

“A leftover,” Kimi answered and pulled the trigger. The glove shot off like a rocket and flew right into Jack’s face, knocking him to the ground. “Ok, that was weird.”

I wasn’t sure what to do now, but I looked over to the Gatekeeper and saw the guy was completely frozen in a block of ice. As the others recovered from Jack’s moment of insanity, they noticed it as well.

“Does that mean we won?” Kimi suggested, but all at once the slab of ice began to crack before it erupted and the Gatekeeper just brushed a few pieces of ice and snow off his shoulders.

“So you pick combat,” he said, looking over us with our weapons. “And you know I’m a good guy so I’ll let you all come at me at once.”

It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but at least we could fight him together. I thought it wouldn’t be so bad until he reached into his trench coat and pulled out a completely black sword and shield. It wasn’t like they were made from Stygian Iron, but they just appeared to be solid black. He then gave us all that smile full of self assurance. Meanwhile we all stared him down…well except for Jack who was busy picking himself off the ground and rubbing the back of his head.