... For more is yet to come

We barely even walked for ten minutes before I heard:

“CROCODIIIIIIIILE!!!!”

Jesus Christ Dean is fucking loud as shit. I looked around to see that it had originated from... The fucking gingerbread house. Great.

I sighed and walked over to the building, but instead of using the door, I went over to a window and looked in. I saw Dean, Paige, Michael, and Beth standing in front of a table, and I got the best idea.

With a mischievous chuckle, I looked around and found a decent sized shadow. Putting my head in, I found myself on the underside of the table. I popped my head out from under the table, “HEY GUYS HOW’S IT GOING?”

“AAAAHHH!”

        Michael screamed and ended up holding Dean in his arms, sort of like with Johnny the other day, “WHAT THE FUCK!?”

        Paige grinned, “Hey Sarah!”

        I turned to her and smiled, “Oh hey, it’s like we didn’t just see you.”

        Beth blinked a few times, “How did you...?”

        I returned my head under the table, then dropped down from a shadow on the ceiling, “Don’t know how, but I can use shadows as transportation now. It’s fucking awesome.”

        Paige’s grin got bigger, “Cool.”

        “Put me down already...” Dean said, sounding annoyed. Michael did so, and he adjusted his tie and hat, “Damn it Sarah... Did you have to do that?”

        “Yep. Oh, hold on a second...” I jumped under the table, found Alexandra and Arlosia just outside, grabbed them, then jumped into the shadow again and dropped down from the ceiling, “Almost forgot these two.”

        Alexandra wobbled a bit as she regained her footing, “Bitte, tun Sie das nicht wieder...”

        I glared at her, “Quod si occidam te et facies... Great now you’ve got me doing it...”

        Michael looked at us, “No Latin or German. We already did this earlier.”

        Dean looked at Alexandra, “And who is this?”

        Alexandra glanced at him, then did a double take “Wait... Are you Dean Marcelo?”

        Dean raised an eyebrow, “Yeah...”

        She smiled and stuck her hand out, “Well, it’s great to finally get to meet you! Mein name ist Alexandra Eisenberg, zweite der Eisenberg Familie, der führende Deutsche Mafia.”

        I SWEAR TO GOD LADY!

        Dean laughed, “Shit, I haven’t done business with you guys in a long time. I remember seeing you when I was a kid!” He shook her hand happily.

        She chuckled, “Yes, I remember that. You used to be such a cute kid.”

        “Damn, I remember when I sponsored that tournament and you actually came and fucking visited to see it, that was a huge surprise.”

        Alexandra nodded, “That was an interesting thing you did with that tournament, I was quite impressed with it.”

        “It got me money, but it also helped whoever made it to the finals in getting an education.” Dean nodded, “Man, it’s been awhile since I’ve thought about anything from that part of my life...” He then paled, “Please don’t tell me you’ve heard about my dirty bomb incident...”

        Beth snickered a bit.

        Alexandra looked up in confusion, “Dirty bomb? I don’t see how that makes sense, radioactive explosive devices were the Russian’s specialty...”

        “Oh thank god...” Dean sighed in relief.

        “What?” Alexandra looked slightly angered, “Don’t tell me you actually lowered yourself to using those terrorist’s tactics?”

        “It’s nothing like that... Let’s just say I scarred a couple of cops for life for eating some bad cheese...” Dean grimaced.

        “I... Do not think I want to know. Anyway, how is your mother doing? Last time I saw her... Hell, I don’t even really remember anymore.”

        Dean froze, “I... I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since I died... Oh man...” Dean sighed as he got up and left the building.

        Beth blinked, “Hold on a minute...” She walked after him.

Michael watched them leave before looking at all of us, “Well... That was... Strange.”

I nodded, “Yep. Anyway, I just came here to introduce Alexandra and Dean, so now that that’s done...” I grabbed Alexandra and Arlosia, then jumped under the table, “See ya!”

        I decided to just take us back to the house instead, I had no more desire to go and do what I wanted to do before. God I love this shadow transportation thing though.

        I sat down on the couch and looked at Alexandra, who just stood there with nothing to do. I thought for a moment, then said, “If you’re gonna stay with us, you should probably go meet everyone.”

        “Alright.” She nodded, “I was actually interested in meeting your sister, Mary. Death mentioned her a few times, and I was curious about meeting her.”

        I pointed up the stairs lazily and said tiredly, “She’s upstairs, top floor. Arlosia, could you please show her the way there?” The blood elf nodded and showed her up the stairs. The minute they were out of sight and, hopefully, out of earshot, I sighed and stood up from the couch.

        I made my way down into the basement and into the entertainment room, where I sat on a small couch that was in their. Looking around, I spotted a cabinet, then got up and looked inside it. In it, I found a deck of playing cards, which I picked up and brought back to the couch with me.

        “Haven’t done this in... Ten years...” I took the card out, which were brand new, and shuffled them around for a few minutes. When I was done, I dealt two face-down cards to me, and two face-down cards to an empty spot across from me on the small table in front of the couch.

        I waited, and in a few seconds a transparent, formless, pitch-black figure that looked like a silhouette of me appeared across from me, sitting in mid air like it was on a chair. I nodded sadly to it, then looked down at my cards, turning the corners up to see a four of Hearts and an Ace of Diamonds.

        “So,” I said to the shadow as I burned a card, then put three face up on the table, “I haven’t seen you in a while. I thought you were gone, left after those nights with Jeriah stopped getting to me.”

        While the shadow sat motionless, I looked down at the three cards, an Ace of Clubs, an eight of Spades, and a three of Diamonds.

        I stared at the shadow as I burned another card, then dealt one face up, “Why is it you’re back? I have friends now, people who love me, a house, a lover, a sister, and I’m free of A.N.G.E.L.. So what is it you want?”

        It didn’t say anything as it looked at the newest card on the table, a Jack of Hearts.

        I burned another card, then lay another card, a two of Clubs, face up on the table, “Well? Are you going to tell me or not?” I was beginning to grow angry to it. “I don’t want you back, not after everything I have now, and there's nothing you can do to take it from me.”

        It didn’t say anything still, but instead slowly lifted it’s to cards up and stared at them. After a moment, it tossed the cards onto the table.

        I ignored them as I nearly shouted, “What do you want!?”

        It just looked at me, then down at the table. I followed it’s gaze to see it’s two cards, an Ace of Spades and an eight of Clubs, resting right on top of the Ace of Clubs and the eight of Spades. A dead man’s hand.

        Sweat trickled down my forehead as I stared at the cards with a frown. “What’s this for?” I gave a forced laugh, “I’m already dead, what’s this even supposed to mean?”

        It didn’t answer, it just shook it’s head and slowly faded away.

        I sat in the basement in silence, trying to understand what that was supposed to mean for me, but I couldn’t think of anything. I sat there for maybe an hour, that is until I heard Ardiente call for me.

        With a sigh I stood up and left the room, only stopping to give the cards one more look.

        Something bad’s going to happen soon. But to whom it happens to and how bad it is... I’m not sure if I want to know...

Next Chapter: Arc I-II, Intermission II: Museum Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 54 Minutes