Future Telling Cards

Series: PSYCHOLOGIC (Original)
Rating: Suggestive Themes (+10)

Word Count: 919 (4,764 characters)
Last Updated: 12th September, 2019

Before we begin, I would like to share the rules of my made-up card game I invented myself during my high school years. I've been playing with it myself for a long time and some of my classmates showed interest in my little fortune-telling just for fun.

But what happens after is on you.

Basically, you need an ordinary deck of cards containing the full set of 52 cards with 2 additional jokers. One of the jokers must represent red or coloured with the other as black or monochrome. It's optional to have another person to play with but this game is mainly for solo purposes with one player, you, yourself only. It can be a two-player game if you want to know the future of your relationship between them.

Shuffle the deck and all the cards are facing down as you don't want to cheat the predictions. Keep on shuffling and mixing until your mind no longer focuses on the cards. Without peeking, select up to 10 cards out of the deck then divided it equally with 5 cards in two different sides. You can arrange the cards in any order but I consider that optional.

Next, you can begin flipping one card from each pile per round. If the card contains the same suit or rank, toss it away at the discard pile. If they're not, place the 2 cards to a new pile. If you ever encounter a black Joker in one of the rounds, discard it if the opposing card is a spade or club with the joker. Do the same step for a red joker against a card with a diamond or heart too.

After completing all five rounds, gather the remaining cards from the new pile into your hands and discard any pairs of the same rank. If there are 3 cards containing the same rank, discard any 2 and leave 1 with you.

Lastly, flip back and shuffle the cards again until your mind lost its focus on the cards like the first step. Once that's done, you can flip 1 card and it will be your fortune for today.

Each card has a meaning behind them. Two is very unlucky until around Five, you'll be fine. Six, you'll be alright until Seven to all the way to King shows how lucky you'll be. If you got an Ace, that's the highest luck you'll ever get.

But what happens if you draw out a Joker?

...

Nobody knows.

---

Now that you know the rules of the game, please play at your own risk as it's not completely confirmed to be a dangerous game or phenomenon. I've been addicted to this game of mine once every day. Usually, I just brushed it off whenever those cards can predict my future or not. It's just harmless fun until I draw out my first Joker card.

Encountering a joker is like a 1 in 27 but it's often 50% chance whenever I discard it during a round. If I couldn't throw it out, it's all luck in my final decision and hopes to avoid picking it as my final result.

However, it was incredibly unlucky of me to finally reveal a Joker throughout the process. It's like a curse and it represents death. At first, I thought I'll be dying or get killed like in some sort of fictional trope but that never happen yet. Nobody was hurt until I hear news from a friend of mine that their mother died recently.

It was pure coincidence she was dead around the days I drew out the card. However, I didn't stop playing my little game as I believe it wasn't real. Soon, my friend and I never see each other again as we turn out we're not compatible anymore.

Months went by, I finally got another joker in my hand. This time, another friend of mine has her relative passed away. Years later, I'm beginning to lose my connection towards others as death is ineffable. I kept playing the silly game and grew dissatisfied from my future telling cards. People start to see me crazy or even ask if I'm human anymore.

No. I'm not insane. I'm just self-obsessed with my own game.

Those cards never tell me the direct answer but only lets me know whenever today's a beautiful or terrible day, except that day. That day was when I messed up the rules and dare to repeat playing the game more than once within a day. My future couldn't predict today as the card I wanted and all the previous drawn cards are already set to stone, schedule the next day and after.

My little addiction towards the game ruined me. I was so curious and bored, wanting to play god to myself whether I'm lucky today or not. This habit of mine became a problem as I want to know more, greedily to even figure out the mystery of the game. The deaths of others lose meaning as I continue to put other's lives in the line to keep on playing.

...

A decade has passed and I'm not here anymore.

I lost interest in many things in life and it was fun until it lasted. At least I enjoy it until the very end. I left a part of me behind to tell you my experience but I failed to answer everything as I lost track of time and records to everything I had.

Wait.

Let me flip the card one more time...