A small hole appeared on the wall next to the door. From the hole slid out a platform. Yume cautiously walked and arrived in front of it. Sui placed the book back and also arrived next to her.   

“I want you to play a little game. A children’s trading card game, if you will. There are four card game decks on the platform that appeared just now. Pick the one that you most like. Don’t be a dick and fight with one another for who gets to pick what. And pick up the two rule book from the bookcase behind you. It explains how you play the game, players. And after you learn the basics of the game, you must play against one another” said Pumpkin pimp playfully.

“Who the hell do you think you are?!” cried Yume. 

“Oh please, enough of that rebellious crap. I met thousands boy and girls like you, trying to act all tough against a power house like me. Sad to say it always ends up with them either begging for their life or nothing to beg for…cause, they are dead”

“Still, we don’t have to follow what you say” said Sui.

“Nah, missy, you have to. Not only there is a bomb inside your gut but we might have some other things to blackmail you with too. You better not disobey us”

“B-bomb?” stuttered Yume.

Her stomach hardened, sweat appeared on her chin. 

“Yes. So, you have to do what I say. You have to lick my boot if I ask you to”.

“Why are you doing this? Are you holding us ransom for some kind of a deal?” asked Sui.

“Maybe I am. Maybe I am not. Maybe I’m just doing this cause I want to have a little fun this Halloween. Not a very noble motivation, I know. But it doesn’t matter to you two. You will still do as I say. Now pick up from those boxes.

Yume scanned the small boxes on the platform. There were green, red, yellow, black boxes. The green box had a text that said “Nature” on it. Red had “fire”, yellow had “Halloween” Black had ”Detectives” on it.

Yume looked nervously at the boxes. She looked at the screen above the door and asked:

“You said we have to play a round of card game? Is it just a warm up round? Or is there some kind of stakes involved”.

“Stakes, yes. It is a wonderful word. It almost sounds like steak too. I love eating steak” said the Pumpkin pimp proudly.

The pumpkin’s devilish eyes targeted Yume.      

“You two must play the card game against each other. And the loser of the card game…will die”.

Shivers went down Yume’s back. Her legs froze and her eyes widened.

“D-die?” repeated Yume.
   
Sui looked at the Pumpkin Pimp with cold eyes. But instead of saying something against him, she picked up the cardon box with the detectives.

“Sui. What are you doing?!”

“I am picking this deck. You okay with that?”

“Screw that. We can’t play this game!” yelled Yume.

“We have to. We have bombs in our stomach. Revolting now, especially with just the two of us is useless”.

Yume looked at Sui’s ocean like calm blue eyes and bit her lips.

“Alright. I get it”                                      

Yume grabbed the Halloween themed deck.

“If you like Halloween that much. I at least hope you put something strong in this deck” said Yume.  

Pumpkin pimp laughed. 

“I can’t say for certain. But I did try to balance all the decks so that you would have an equal fighting chance. Now listen up. Read the rule book carefully. And after you’ve gained your knowledge of how to play this card game. We will begin the card game known as Zone wars! Just put your decks inside the stone stands that are located at either side of the room. The stone stand will project holograms from itself to make the game more spicy. You have to put 50 to 70 cards into it”

Sui walked to the bookcase and grabbed two copies of the card game rules and gave one to Yume.

“Let’s try our best” Sui said coldly.

Yume gritted her teeth and grabbed the rulebook and yelled:

“Yeah, there is no way in hell I’m gonna die here. I’ve kept on surviving. And I will continue to do so!”      

Sui and Yume leaned against the walls and started to read the rulebook.

“Hmm, I have to say, I always found card games to be interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t have much free time to play. And trading cards games are always prone to power creep and balancing issues to begin with. I hope that’s not the case here. It would be fine if at least the smarter one of us survived” said Sui.

“Heh. You’re scared? If you thought about it a little, you should have picked the Halloween deck. Obviously, this sick guy who kidnapped us must have a thing for Halloween” said Yume with a wide smile.

“Yes, perhaps”