"Hey, Jack."
"Mm..."
"Jack, wake up."
A boy let out a groan as his eyes parted ever so slightly. He rubbed them before sitting up. He had short messy black hair, and his clothes were pretty dirty. However, one look around the place would make it clear why they were blemished.
It was a small room where the walls and ceiling consisted of dirt. The only solace was that the floor had some relatively clean gravel. In the middle of the room was an oil lamp that dimly lit the place up.
Crouched over by his side was a man with a gentle smile. Other than having a bit longer hair and being a bit older, the man looked just like the boy. He similarly had some ragged and dirty clothes but didn't seem to mind at all.
Jack hummed after blinking a few times.
"What is it, Dad?"
His father chuckled.
"Today is your twelfth birthday! Guess what your present is!"
Jack stretched out both arms and let out a long yawn. A bright smile formed on his face right after.
"Is it going to be a statue about a heart? You already gave me all the other ones!"
His father raised a finger and moved it from side to side.
"Nope! But I will admit that was a good guess."
Jack pouted but obviously wasn't actually angry.
"Aw! Then what is it?"
His father raised an eyebrow. Before humming a little jingle. After a few seconds of suspense, he suddenly whipped out a card. The material of the card itself looked quite pristine, but the design on top was a little bit different.
A messy drawing of a jester's face was at the center in red, which looked not too different to what a kid would've drawn. With all capital letters, the word 'JOKER' was written right under. In the top left and bottom right corner of the card was a similarly messily written 'JK' which was surrounded by a heart.
Jack tilted his head to the side when he saw it.
"Eh? What is this?"
His father laughed in response and brought the card closer to him.
"It's a joker card! Can't you tell?"
Jack tapped his chin a few times and tilted his head to the side.
"But why does it look so weird? The games don't have a joker card like this, right?"
In response, his father put on a small frown.
"Do you not like it?"
Jack laughed and took the card from him, holding it tightly.
"I like it a lot!"
His father smiled in response. Then, he put a hand on Jack's shoulder, as his expression became serious. But despite that seriousness, a smile still remained on his face.
"My son, could you make me a promise?"
Jack looked at his father with his beady eyes.
"What is it, Dad?"
His father took in a deep breath and held out a pinky.
"Never lose the card. No matter what. You must promise me this."
Jack looked a little confused but smiled soon after.
"Ok! I pinky promise!"
With that, he stuck out his pinky and wrapped it around his father. After a few seconds, they let go. His father let out a laugh once more.
"That's my boy."
Jack let out another yawn and began rubbing one of his eyes with his finger.
"Can I go back to sleep now? I'm still tired."
His father gave a small nod.
"Of course. Have a good rest. You're going to need it."
With that, Jack let his head fall down on the gravel once more, falling asleep in a mere few seconds. After confirming that his son had indeed fallen asleep, his father quietly left the room after setting a small note at the entrance.
A few hours passed. The only sound was Jack's soft snoring while the fire in the oil lamp flickered, causing the light in the room to dance. After a bit of squirming around, Jack lifted his head up from his rough pillow.
He looked around, seeing if his father was still there. However, he wasn't.
This didn't surprise Jack even slightly though, as most of the time his father wouldn't be in the room, leaving him on his own. He was currently on a piece of coarse cardboard and covered by a tattered blanket.
He pus aside the blanket and got up to stretch. From there, he took a look around the room. At the center, there was a decently large table made out of cardboard. On top of the table were quite a few things. One was an old train toy with fake rails that had clearly seen many years of use. There were also several different stick men made out of junk tied together, such as twigs, pieces of concrete, and straw. There were seven different ones that all looked a bit different.
These were all the toys that his father had given him for his first few birthdays. However, he was also given a few more different things. One was a deck holder that was black, while the other was red. Their design probably couldn't be any simpler.
After taking a look at both of them, Jack recalled the words his father had said about them.
Put the cards you want to play with in the red case, and the ones you want to hold onto in the black one. Jack didn't really think it was a big deal but found that he could not put any exact duplicates into the red one. If he tried, they would automatically be ejected. Jack just thought it was a cool feature to make sure the deck had all the proper cards inside for a standard deck.
He took another look at the Joker card that he had just acquired and arbitrarily decided to put it into the red case.
He put his hand on the case and mentally commanded to open the deck.
With that, the case opened up as though there was a mechanical switch, revealing nothing inside. Then, he slid it in, after which it automatically clasped shut. From there, he stared at the three figurines in front of him on the cardboard table.
The first one was a burly black figurine that had a greatsword in its hand, holding it up high in the sky. The pose it made was rather aggressive, as though it wanted to kill everything in its path. On its chest was the emblem of clubs.
The second one was a skinny red figurine that held onto a long scythe, carrying it with both hands. The curved blade remained above its head as it held a pose. On its chest was the emblem of diamonds.
The third and last one was an average-sized black figurine that held a sword. It had both hands clasped on the hilt while the blade was in the ground. Something special about this one was that it had a crown on top of its head. On its chest was the emblem of spades.
What these figurines were made of was unclear, but one thing that Jack knew was that they were pretty sturdy. They wouldn't break just after falling down or something. After admiring them for a little while, he opened up his black deck holder.
"Now let's make some space."
The three figurines turned into a flash of light and entered the black deck, somehow turning into very small card versions of themselves tucked away neatly inside. Jack wasn't particularly amazed by this since he had gotten used to it, but the first time he saw this he had done it many times in a row.
He then looked left and right but furrowed his brows soon after.
"Where is the deck?"
Normally, his father would leave a deck of cards behind for him so that he could play card games on his own. At first, he would play with his toys, but nowadays the only thing he did was play card games over and over again to pass the time.
He scratched the side of his head in confusion.
"Dad must've forgotten. Aw, man... how long will I have to wait?"
His gaze gradually gravitated to the entrance of the room. It made him immediately remember one of the ground rules he was forced to obey ever since he was a child.
Never leave the room.
Admittedly, this made Jack very curious about what was outside, but he still didn't want to break his father's rules. In the end, the only thing he ever ended up doing was take a peek outside while his feet were still in the room.
However, that didn't do much as he was only able to see a long corridor that was gradually swallowed up by darkness.
Though, as he was looking that way, he saw a small slip of paper on the ground. Curious, he decided to walk to it and pick it up. With exceptionally neat writing, it read,
"Dear Jack,
I have written this to tell you that I will no longer be coming back to meet with you. The rule that you may never leave the room has been waived. If you do wish to meet with me, then you may come and search for me.
Best of luck,
Dad."
Jack stared at that letter for a very long time, slowly processing what exactly it meant for him.