Barquettes

They had been going for a solid twenty minutes, gathered around the poker table, and after the expected speed bumps of the early game, everyone was now getting in on the fun.

Noemi played a three, “Three of spades!”

Looking apologetic, Maddy took a card from the deck and slid it over to Noemi, “Penalty- it’s not your turn.”

Noemi’s eyes bugged out, “What…wait.” She lifted her three to reveal the eight underneath, “Dammit! There are so many rules; how are you supposed to keep them all straight?”

After waiting a beat, Maya reached out and grabbed a card from the deck with a big grin and slid it over to Amy, “Delay of game”

The one-horned oni blinked and picked up the card, “Wait…but, didn’t I just?” She scratched her head and then smiled, “Oh well!” She put down an eight of diamonds

Amy in particular was struggling with all the different effects of the cards, but unlike Noemi, who fumed after every penalty, Amy was all smiles even as her hand approached the size of half the deck.

Still, that didn't mean they could ignore the game. Caleb reached out and took a card from the deck and handed it to Amy. “You forgot to knock.”

Blinking in confusion, Amy added the card to her hand and then rapped against the table with her fist.

Looking over while resting her hand on her wrist, Eliza let out a murmured “Who's there?”

Noemi shoved her cards down, her face red. “Ok! You keep saying that; is that a rule? Or are you just messing with me?”

Tilting his head sympathetically, Caleb spoke up, “That one’s not a rule.” He braced himself knowing what was coming, “Yep, I know that’s a penalty, Maya.”

The purple-haired woman giggled as she retracted her hand from putting a card in front of Caleb.

Mira drummed her fingers against the table as she watched the Chilean woman pout, “Maybe after this round we change games? It seems some of us might be having too hard a time with this one to enjoy it.”

“Are you calling me dumb?” Noemi thumped her hand against the table.

“Easy there,” Stella said as she put her card down, “I think Ms. Agent is just pointing out if people aren't having fun, then maybe we try something else?”

“That is what I was saying,” She locked eyes with Noemi, “No slight was intended, Noemi, nor was I attempting to single you out. Amy appears to be struggling too.”

Caleb frowned at this; honestly, with the mental impairment that came with only having the single horn, he felt like any game, save for maybe Candy Land, would be something that Amy would struggle with in her current condition.

At the very least, Noemi seemed mollified, and play continued. Caleb made a quick glance over to Maya. She seemed in higher spirits than the last he saw her; whatever was on her mind, the game night seemed to be doing a decent job of cheering her up.

They just needed to hope that the rest of the night would continue like this.

“Are you dense? What are you thinking putting the marker even relatively close to the right?” Stella squared off against her team, which was composed of her, Eliza, Noemi, Maya, and Amy.

The next game on their list had been Wavelength, and now in the thick of it, Amy was the clue giver with the scale set at the poles: ‘pseudoscience’ for the left, and ‘science’ for the right. The oni after long deliberation of humming to herself, had brightly said ‘bigfoot.’ Maya had attempted to move the marker, leading to this outburst from Stella

Maya flicked her hair calmly, “This is where Amy thinks it belongs, remember? I think Amy is smart enough to know that the prolific amount of sightings places doubt on their fictionalization.”

Stella looked ready to burst a blood vessel, “Sure, whatever. So a little doubt gets it put on the science side? If you’re gonna go off middle, it should be to the left.”

“I wouldn’t even say off middle, I would say far left.” Eliza said, “Just because people see it doesn't mean Bigfoot is anywhere close to hard science. There is no hard evidence of its existence.”

Stella swung her arms in the professor’s direction, “Thank you! Some sense!”

Noemi leaned in, “You’re acting like you’re so smart, but the game isn’t about where factually the clue is; it’s where Amy thinks it should be?”

Putting her hand under her chin, Stella nodded thoughtfully, “You know what, Noemi, you’re right; I had forgotten about that.” The imp shifted her weight and waved a hand jerkily in front of her face, “Psyche! You think Amy doesn’t know all this stuff?”

Noemi gave a quirky smile, “Yeah, in her current state, I’m pretty doubtful what Amy knows.”

Crossing her legs, Eliza stroked her chin, “Even if breaking her horn affects her intelligence, I don’t think it takes away knowledge she has. It might impact how well she can use it, but still…”

“Ok, ok, I hear you.” Maya moved the dial so it was just off of the left pole, “Is this what we’re thinking then?”

“I think it’s more right.” Noemi piped up.

“Any more right than that is crazy.” Stella countered.

Maya twitched the dial just a tad, “Can we compromise?”

Eliza shared a glance with Stella who threw up her hands and sat back down, “I think we can settle with that.”

Amy, who was rocking back and forth on her hands, trying hard to keep her mouth shut, went to speak when Maya grabbed her shoulder, “Not yet! The other team needs to throw their guess in.”

“They haven’t given us much room on the left to work with; right’s the safe bet.” Mira mused

Maddy looked over to Maya, “We just need to guess if it's more to the right or not?” Maya nodded.

“Still…this is Amy; maybe it was full left, and that’s why she said something so ridiculous?” Lily commented as she gazed at the obscured dial.

Caleb had been watching everything with a great deal of amusement, crossed his arms confidently, “It’s right, guys.”

Raising an eyebrow, Lily cocked her head, “Just the likelihood? Or…” she trailed off.

“No, trust me. 100% it's further to the right.” Caleb smiled as he moved the marker.

His teammates exchanged glances, and Maya looked over, “You’re all agreed?”

Everyone nodded.

Maya looked over to Amy, “Ok Amy, you can reveal the answer.”

Amy grabbed the lever for the shield that blocked the dial and revealed the dial…to the far right, almost fully touching the right edge.

Stella looked on aghast, while a smug expression crossed Noemi’s features.

Amy scratched her head as she explained, “You all were like…talking so much about proof and stuff when we got demons, and satyrs walking around. Of course Bigfoot is real!”

Regarding the oni carefully, Eliza shook her head, “Maybe the horn is affecting her more than we thought.”

Chuckling, Caleb took control of the Dial and began spinning it, “No, I can confirm that that was 100% really Amy. On our first date she talked about hunting cryptids after this was all over.”

Stella locked Amy in a headlock playfully, “You think you know a person!”

Caleb drew a card, “Alright guys, the next one is Weird vs Strange….”

The sky was overcast, the sunlight fading from the day left streaks of red running over the shadows forming over the interior of the hotel as day gave way to dusky night. And even as the quiet permeated the halls, the peace was suddenly disturbed by the panicked breathing of Lily as she turned the corner and tried to make her way outside.

The elevator wasn’t working even as she hammered her finger against the button; no lights turned on. The sound of approaching footsteps made Lily’s heart pump ever more frantically, blood or whatever coursing through her veins so hard that it echoed in her ears. She frantically tore herself away from the elevator and began to make her way around the balcony.

The footsteps, so faint but intense, got closer as Lily rounded the corner. She stopped at every doorway, jiggling the handle, trying to get the door to open, but each door remained closed, stalwart against her entry and unmoved by the plant woman’s approaching demise. The footsteps rounded the corner now.

As Lily came to the dead end at the end of the balcony, she suddenly became aware of the moisture on her face. She lifted a hand, eyes wide and shaking as she touched the wet spot and pulled her hand away to reveal the dark, sticky red liquid on her fingers. Blood. While adrenaline had carried her after the first strike, now, in the face of the wall in front of her, her body was catching up to her, making her feel every shiver, every bead of sweat. The footsteps were insistent, and Lily slowly turned to face her assailant.

She approached, clothes already stained with blood from her initial assault, which had caused Lily to flee. In her hand was a stone bust, dripping with Lily’s own blood, collected in the figure's smiling mouth and looking like it had just finished drinking the sanguine liquid, even as her assailant clutched her fingers around its dismembered neck. Looking up, her face obscured by the shadows permeating the hall, but still her green eyes gleamed as her smile, warped in bloodlust, looked at Lily as she backed against the far wall.

“End of the road, Lily, nowhere left to hide.” The chef said calmly as she continued to close the distance between them.

Lily held up her hands as a shield, “Please, Maddy, why?”

The chef’s green eyes flared as she raised the bust above her head and then brought it down with such force that the stone cracked across Lily’s face as her limp frame crashed to the ground.

A single ladybug flew off from the ground past the murderer’s face, “Because I’m through with letting there be any obstacles in my way.”

The scene faded to black and flashed back to reality as Mira flung her badge across the table, “I’m making an accusation, Maddy- sculpture and bug.”

Lily, who was at the far end of the table, slowly nodded with a smile, “Yes.”

In front of her were the laid-out clues or circumstances surrounding this particular round of Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Cause of Death: Blood Loss, Location of Crime: Balcony, Trace at the Scene: Bruise, Time of Death: Evening, Noticed by Bystander: Sudden Sound, State of the Scene: Cracked.

Maddy gave a groan of mixed frustration and relief, “Oh my god, my heart has been pounding the entire game!”

“I think you did a great job; we were joking about that combination all game, and you never let anything slip.” Caleb complimented.

Maya looked back over at the clues, “Got nothing better for bug eh?”

“Tell me about it!” Lily frowned, “Sculpture felt so easy to hint towards but every time I got something that I thought might hint at bug, you guys took it another way. Totally blanked the first round too that Mira had plant so Natural Evidence backfired.”

Eliza looked around at the cards on the table, “I think this is my favourite of the games we’ve played.”

“It’s fun, right?” Maya beamed

Lily glanced over at the grandfather clock and munched on a snack, “It’s starting to get late, do we want to play another round?”

Amy swirled her head on a swivel on her neck, “I don’t know if I can take another mystery.”

Maddy looked to Maya, “Something simpler then?”

Everyone looked over expectantly, and Maya grinned, “Yeah, I got something simple to finish the night out with."

They had cleared up most of the food and the previous games just to make sure there wouldn’t be a bunch of chores waiting for the group when they were done playing. So now the group was back gathered around the table, an empty cup in the center as Maddy rolled a die.

When the result landed on a four, she sighed, “Well, that’s a zilch.”

Kicking her feet up, Stella smirked, “At least you’re on the board.”

“You could have been too,” Mira remarked from across the way as she took the dice from Maddy and rolled all six.

Stella made a raspberry with her mouth, “I had hot dice; the fact that all six turned up on nothing is fucking wild.”

Maya had a notepad and pencil in front of her for tracking points. “No, you had too much good luck built up so the bad luck had to compensate.”

Eliza stared, blinking, “Pardon?”

“Oh yeah, I guess this is yinz first experience with Maya’s cosmology of luck. It’s bat shit, right?” Stella sipped her drink.

Frowning as Mira finished her turn, Maya notated her score, “I don’t think it’s crazy. Things have to balance out. Most people just don't pay attention to their luck so they don’t notice it.”

Eliza took the dice from Mira, frowning, “But…no, that’s not how statistics work. A one in four chance doesn’t become more likely just because you got the three in four chance those other times.”

Maya shook her head, “No, you’re thinking about narrow circumstances. It’s not just the one instance of comparison; it's your whole life and how it balances it out. The three in four chance doesn't increase the one in four chance, but on a spiritual level, having a one in one hundred bad luck thing happen makes that one in four chance more than a one in four chance. You understand?”

Stella slouched, “No, but that’s only because it makes no sense.”

“It’s like karma, right?” Noemi piped up, “Do a good thing and good things happen for you.”

“That's…not how karma works,” Eliza said, biting her lip.

Looking to Maya, Maddy smiled, “I dunno if it needs to make sense, as long as you aren’t hurting anyone, I think it’s fine.”

Maya looked a little sad, “It does make sense though.”

Caleb frowned, not sure what support he could add when, frankly, he thought what Maya was trying to say was pretty ridiculous. But he also didn’t want to say as much to her face; after all, like Maddy said, what was the harm?

Amy smiled, collecting the dice, before handing them to Caleb. “That’s three fifty for me”

“A nice respectable roll,” Maya commented before notating it down.

Caleb moved to grab the dice when he felt a stir. “Actually, sorry, I’ll be right back; I need to use the bathroom.”

“Don’t get lost!” Noemi called after him as he got up from the table.

“Remember, delaying your loss doesn’t keep it from happening!” Stella followed up.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be right back.” Caleb made his way out of the room.

Maya tapped her pencil against the table. “Since we can’t play til he gets back, I actually wanted to talk to everyone about something.”

Mira raised an eyebrow, frowning. “Shouldn’t it wait for Caleb then?”

“No, this is actually something I don’t want to include Caleb in, because I’m afraid if he’s here it might affect the discussion,” Maya said flatly.

All eyes were trained on Maya at this point as the air in the room shifted; it was finally Lily who spoke up, “What did you want to talk about?”

Swallowing and summoning her courage, Maya looked at everyone else in the room, “What are you planning to use the wish for if you win?”

The hotel was a funny thing, despite seemingly being designed with the Master of the harem and their position in mind, practicality still won out, and there were more bathrooms designated for women than men, which meant that Caleb had to make his way downstairs to get to the closest “men’s” facilities.

While he honestly doubted anyone would have minded if he used the closer bathrooms designated for the harem, Caleb figured, given the disparity of their positions, he deserved the slight inconvenience.

It was as he was making his way out and back towards the stairs that he spotted her, sitting casually at the bar, in her hand a martini glass filled with some strange blue cocktail. She took note of his presence, and her brilliant green eyes seemed to glow in the dark as she beckoned him over with a single finger

Wishing he could ignore this, Caleb remembered their initial encounter and found his feet moving toward the bar. Still, his expression was confrontational as he asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Having a drink, keep me company for a minute.” She said, her tone relaxed as she took a sip of her drink.

“I have to be getting back to the others…” Caleb started and froze as just Andrea’s eyes focused on him without her head turning or any attention moving away from her drink.

“They are engaged in a talk of their own at the moment; I’ll let you go before you’re missed…besides.” She patted the barstool next to her, “It wasn’t a request.”

Feeling like he was stepping into a viper’s nest, Caleb sat down at the bar.