Chapter six:
Deanna Winchester stared calmly across the table at the man with a white goatee.
They were the only two players remaining in a all night poker game, and Deanna had a substantial pile of chips in front of her. White goatee man only had one hundred dollars worth left, and he was contemplating his card's nervously while puffing on his twelfth cigar of the night. That he did so while sitting under the red No Smoking sign had been a source of amusement when the game started, but now it was just tiresome.
Deanna doubted she'd ever get the smell of cheap cigar out of her long blue dress, but that was the price she had to pay. Well that and the 600 dollar buy in, which Deanna had been forced to borrow from Bobby Singer. She and her sister Samantha had been reduced to an almond penniless state, which meant that they needed a big a big score in order to keep things like eating and putting gas in Deanna's 1967 Chevy Impala. After all, starving to death or being stuck on the road with out gas were an extra inconvenience when you were trying to prevent the great Apocalypse. White goatee stared at Deanna's four up card's, two of hearts, three of clubs, four of hearts, and a six of spades. As for him, he had three ace's showing, as well as a four of diamonds. Deanna had consistently matched her opponents bets, never raising him. She could afford to be magnanimous given her monster pile of chips and the fact that the white goatee was on his last leg's.
I really ought to learn this guy's name, Deanna mused.
Then she thought about it. Nah. Why bother?
The problem for white goatee was that he couldn't be sure if Deanna was betting for the fun of it or not. After all, Deanna was able to match all bets, even with a crappy hand. Her card's indicated a likely straight, maybe two pair or three of a kind.
On the other hand, white goatee could easily have a full house, or even four ace's. Not likely, though, judging from his expression.
With worried white goatee, Deanna figured, was that her pile of chips had been slowly increasing in numbers all night and into the morning. This wasn't an accident. The other five players had all dropped out, with most of their money now represented by clay disk's that were either stacked for Deanna or in the middle of the table.
In many ways, she felt ridiculous playing poker when the world was about to end, but they had to get cash somehow. Besides, she felt even more ridiculous thinking so matter of factly about the world to end.
Yet it was true, and there was no escaping it. Samantha had been manipulated by a demon named Ruben into freeing Lucifer from his cage. The angels and the demon's were squaring off, and all of humanity was going to pay the price.
The angels insisted that Deanna was the vessel of the Archangel Michael, while the demon's were just as insistent that Samantha was destined to become the vessel for Lucifer. They had been told that this was inevitable, and that they should expect their fates.