Zacchaeus (1) vs the Odd Man (0)
in Tunk (*Zacchaeus rules), best of 3
Game 2 continued:
“I understand if you don’t trust me,” the strange man says. “I would say anything to avoid losing, which from your perspective is me having to risk my job by granting you access to Sublime technology, but I’ve told you the truth. I am happy to give you what you want, just give me what I require in exchange.”
Zacchaeus smiles a genuine smile.
“We already made the bet,” Zacchaeus says. “And you ain’t presented nothing that make me want to change it. I don’t wanna be universe hopping, I just wanna see it for myself. One time is enough. I’m sorry about your family, but either you win and walk out of here alive, or I win and you send me where I want to go and bring me back. You do got a third option.”
“And what is that?” the man asks. He is not as smug as he had been. It seems that none of his words have swayed Zacchaeus.
“You could renege, and die. The Needy would be happy to hear you took that option, right?”
“I believe I have one more,” the strange man said and his smile returned. “An Ace up my sleeve, if you will.”
Zacchaeus nods slowly. Then he shows his hand that adds up to five. The strange man tosses his cards face down on the table and slouches down in his chair.
“That’s two,” Zacchaeus says. “So how we make this happen?”
The strange man’s face is outside the scope of the light and from Zacchaeus’s vantage it looks as though his body is spotlighted. The man’s twitching has intensified and his body shakes as though the floor rumbles underneath his chair.
“You alright man?” Zacchaeus asks.
The man’s body begins to swell and elongate as Zacchaeus watches with horror, transfixed at the unbelievable sight before him. The man is like a balloon, and even in the low light, Zacchaeus can see the man’s head has lost definition and is growing and extending like his other appendages. He sprouts three other long appendages as he swells to fill the space across the table from Zacchaeus, who had stood from his chair and now watches with his back pressed against the door. When the man finally stops growing, he is no longer human, just a muscle-red figure that resembles a giant spider with it’s thorax touching the ceiling and two pairs of its arms perched on the table.
Then it seems that the muscle-red spider begins to sweat and Zacchaeus notices a black line that appears along the tops of the arms. Slowly, the line begins to thicken and two lines of sharp knives, that Zacchaeus recognizes as teeth, emerge at each side of the black and move around the spider as the black spreads. Zacchaeus watches the sharp teeth move to cover the muscle-red in black, and then travel to the center underneath the large underbelly of the thorax.
The spider has leathery, black skin and it’s mouth opens on the underside of it’s thorax to reveal rows and rows of sharp teeth. Zacchaeus visibly startles when it talks, mostly out of surprise that this thing is capable of speech.
“The fourth option,” the spider says in the same voice that he’d used a man. “In my true form, I can demand what I want from you and because you mean so much to your grandmother, it seems I have something that matters a great deal to the Needy. You have two options now, Zacchaeus. The first: call your grandmother so that I may speak with the Needy and make my demands to spare your life. The second: die right now. I’ve already eaten today, but I have room.”
Zacchaeus’s mind races as he tries to regain the upper hand, but there is nothing doing. Even if he tries to run out of the backroom, the spider is big enough to grab him before he even opens the door and drag him up into its mouth of razor teeth. Zacchaeus tries to steady his nerves and face his death like a man.
“Fucking eat me, nigga,” Zacchaeus says defiantly.
“Such a shame,” the spider says as it begins to advance toward its prey. “We could have helped one another, Zacchaeus. Now, I have to force you to help me, which will only leave you begging for death. It will not come swiftly, either.”
As the spider advances, it’s mouth is visible to Zacchaeus and it drools so much that there is a puddle of it on the table. When the spider is close, Zacchaeus closes his eyes and braces himself for the end.
But there is a commotion, the loud sound of furniture disturbed and Zacchaeus opens his eyes to see the table of Mavis Turner shoved to one wall, and the large spider cowering on the back wall of the room. There is an inky black figure standing before the spider.
“Zacchaeus Turner is the heir to the Needy,” the black form says with a deep voice that sounds wet. “He will not be harmed by the likes of you, monster.”
Before…
Mavis Turner was happy to help her grandson, and she was relieved that his request meant that he wouldn’t be able to refuse his destiny.
After Zacchaeus left that day she was making a pork stew, Mavis Turner sat at the small table in her kitchen and put her deck of cards on the table top.
“I know you heard all that,” she said to the deck.
A faint, black smoke issued from the deck, and a line of thick, black ink began to run from it to the chair opposite Mavis Turner. Eventually the ink and the smoke coalesced into the form of a man who sat in the chair.
“You didn’t tell him the truth,” the Needy said. “I thought he meant so much to you. Why didn’t you tell him what I will demand of him if I am denied my prize?”
“Because, I know you,” Mavis Turner said. Her face was angry. “You already picked him. When I’m gone, he ain’t gone have no choice but to deal with you. At least this way, I can talk him into not resisting. He brought it on himself, and a Turner always honors a deal. He won’t give you trouble. But you better take care of my grandbaby, you hear me? He better live to be older than me.”
“He will be the longest living human this Earth has ever seen. With his curiosities, maybe even the oldest human on other Earths, and I will always be with him.”
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