When The Hearts Align

II: Carnival

 I walk slowly down the silver spiral stairs, with the red dress flowing behind me. My black heels echo with every step I take as I enter the dining room. As I get closer the presence of the king grows larger as he is only sitting across the table from me. Narrowing his eyes at me with hands crossed along the table. I think to myself why does he look so familiar now?

A skeleton man wearing a tuxedo pulls open a chair and waves his arms towards it telling me to sit. The flaming layers of my dress spread out on the seat as I cross my legs and rest my chin on my hand in boredom. An awkward silence fills the air and I just start to whistle.

"Ahem." Spade coughs just to break the weird tension.

"Yes?" I cooperate to talk rolling my eyes.

"You don't seem to be enjoying this." He slides his teeth off the fork to grasp the piece of meat upon it.

"Well, seeing the situation where I am completely confused, eating with a stranger, with no clue what I am doing here or where my friends are. I think I am doing just fine." I reply sarcastically.

"Well, maybe you will enjoy it a bit more if you got to know the place. I will send a guard to accompany and show you around. Does that sound alright?" He waves his wine glass around as you can tell he is definitely not sober.

"Fine." I excuse myself and walk to my room to get myself ready.

I recheck the closet and I find combat boots, a dark red leather jacket, and a tank top, with some waist high black jean shorts. I throw it on and put my hair up into a messy ponytail. I wait outside the gates for the guard. Out of nowhere this tall, buff, man approaches me. He seems to be see through.

"Let's go." His deep raspy Irish accent speaks out.

We start walking and suddenly I am up in the air "What. Is. Happening?!" I lose my balance.

"This is our way of traveling around. Shouldn't you be used to this considering you used to live up in the galaxy?" He chuckles slowly.

I get myself together and brush myself off. "Hmph, as you shall know we didn't float in this type of way." I cross my arms. He then lets out a sigh. "I'm sorry. What would you like to know about this place anyway?"

"I'm not very interested in the place itself. I'm more interested to know about the king, anything you can tell me?"

"Well despite his drunken arse, he's cruel, not someone you want to mess with. He would kill any that didn't worship him or got in his way of ruling."

"Okay... What I want to know now is what made him so cruel? How did he get here in the first place?"

"Story told is that he didn't want to be here, he was once a normal human named Leo, until it was determined that the ruling was he would come down here no matter how he died. His love... Arabella was viciously murdered by his own father, who didn't approve of them being together. She went missing for about a week with people thinking she ran away because of money problems. Soon after, she was found strangled in the cabinets within his father's closet. Then one night came where Leo was so fed up he broke into the jailhouse and murdered his own father the same way he killed Arabella. Consequently, Leo made a deal with the cards, it was said that he wanted to get away with the murder and the only way to do that was death itself. Therefore he was sent down here and became known as the King of Spades."

"That's... so sad." I hesitate. Why does this story seem so familiar? I zoned out. Then hearing awkward coughing in the background, I snap back.

"I never caught your name."

"My name is Jim, nice to meet you, Aries, I've read a lot about you." He takes off his cap and puts it on his heart.

"Um... Jim? May I walk alone, like on the ground?"

"Of course." The invisible platform lands on the ground as I step off and then Jim floats away.

I see this empty border walk forming across this river of black and with every step I take new silver wood appears in the distant fog. Soon, a Ferris wheel came to my sights in the faint air. In a blink of an eye, as I continue to walk a whole amusement park appears, it was tattered and abandoned. I decided to explore a little when I suddenly feel these eyes captured me, yet I see no one.

My horns once again catch a flame sensing a threat. I run to climb the Ferris wheel when I see this "magma" substance on the ground and it seemed to be spreading. It then grows tall taking a large buff form. I bend my head back to see how much taller it would grow and see what exactly it would turn into. Soon, it takes shape of a Cerberus, the giant three-headed hell hound. In my hand appears a flaming blood-red lance with a black and golden inscription on it. I decipher a plan and then take position.

I see it getting ready to attack. It jumps in the air and I lift my lance up ready to stab through. When suddenly it gets jabbed to my right and thrown across slamming into a booth next to me. It then loses breath and burst into dust. I then see a man wearing a leather jacket and dark blue jeans with a skull imprinted shirt. He turns around out of breath.

"Are you alright?" the voice is oddly recognizable.

I was stunned to see... "Spade...?"