[Monday, 10 PM, Ymeno’s appartment]
A wave of nervousness had fallen over Ymeno while he was preparing his disguise. He had been to a casino a few times before, but those were peanuts compared to the All-In Casino. It was the second largest Casino in the city, and the one that had the most rumors surrounding it, too.

As a teenager, Ymeno always wondered what went on inside that casino specifically. But as he was underage, that curiousity eventually faded.

The man was also a crappy gambler, never using more than 5 euros and mostly losing even that. So there was a natural evasion to these activities.

All-In Casino’s owner is also unknown. Although a name was attached to it and several other casinos, that being Glanis, it turned up nothing when Ymeno looked it up. Somehow, they erased all traces of their past and presence. But the ones who run the city never cared. Rumors say that one of the current gods is in charge of it, and multiple others, but that’s unconfirmed.

What Rick’s business was with them was something that the gardener wondered. But he would get an answer on that soon enough.

As for his disguise, he opted for shaded sunglasses that hid his eyes and a standard facemask, alongside a vanilla-colored jacket he almost never wore.

In other words, very bland. He had an excuse for the face-mask if he was asked about it, that being that he had a cold.

Flipping up the hood, the man walked out of his appartment into the busy city life. It was a 20 minute walk to get to the Casino. As he got closer, he couldn’t help but hide a small smile under his mask.

‘Keep yourself together, this will only be a one time thing’ was something Ymeno constantly needed to remind himself.

After arriving in front of the casino. It didn’t take long to find Rick, who’s disguise was  as subtle as a very large brick through someone’s window. He was wearing shaded glasses too, alongside a floral patterned shirt where the top buttons were unbuttoned. He had almost all of his hair except a tiny bit slicked back, that tiny bit standing upright.

Ymeno pointed it out, and Rick tried to slick it back multiple times, but it just kept going up a few seconds later.
“That small part of my hair has been like this for a few years now, no matter what I do.” He sighed.

“The plan for tonight.. we gamble.”
“That’s it?”
“I think the rest may become obvious shortly after that, but for now, we have to act like 2 people who just wanna lo- I mean bet money.”
“….All right.”

Rick shoved 50 euros in Ymeno’s hands.
“You don’t have to pay for whatever you’re gonna do. I’m the one who invited you, after all.”

Ymeno knew better than to go in on someone’s earnest words, even though he had a gut feeling he had a lot more money than the police officer.

And with that, and Rick having somehow created dubious fake I.D’s which were questionably legal, they went inside.

The casino was extravagant. It had multiple stories, with all of them having multiple balconies where people could drink or play card games. Lights lit up the whole building, there wasn’t a smidge of darkness. The loud sounds of various machines overpowered Ymeno’s ears. The finishing touch of the casino, and one of it’s proudest signatures was a fountain in the center of the room, which spanned all stories. It was eyecatching. Several banners with a logo Ymeno had never seen before adorned the walls of the huge casino.
The logo looked like a golden shield with multiple eyes plastered on it. Rick scoffed at it.

Obviously, the All-In Casino was owned by a wealthy man, which made Ymeno assume even more that this might be related to the gods of the city.

But it was too late to back down now.

“Stay close to me.” Rick said.
Ymeno nodded in response, they started walking towards the slots. Ymeno had exchanged 25 euros into coins to use for the machine.

Putting in 10 euros, which he didn’t know was a large or small amount, the slots began to spin. Pulling the lever after waiting for 2 seconds, it stopped.

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry.

He got his 10 euros back, which he admittedly thought was a bit funny. Looking at Rick, who was sitting behind the slot behind him, it seems it went worse for him.

He lost the 40 he put in. His usual smile was very obviously cracking.

“I dislike gambling.” He irritatingly muttered under his breath.

Ymeno felt a tap on his shoulder after a few more tries.
“This is it, I think.” Rick whispered in his ear as he pointed towards one of the large doors that were in the back of the casino.

Someone was being dragged out, obviously very pissed.
“YOU CHEATING FUCKERS TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME” he shouted.

“You’ve got it wrong, you’ve just lost all that you’ve put in, nothing that can be done about that. But we need to ask you to leave.” One of the guards said.

“SHUT UP!” The man said, before getting punched in the face really hard.

Ymeno wanted to stand up and jump in, but Rick stopped him.
“Look around you.”
Ymeno’s head turned around, observing all the other patrons that were in this building.

They didn’t care. No one batted an eye. For most of them, it was just another day at this casino.

“We need to go behind those doors.”
Rick determingly said.
“How? It seems like a vip area.. mostly.”
“I might have a plan, but I need you to trust me.”
Ymeno fell silent, could he really trust someone who still doesn’t even know what his other identity is?

But he also couldn’t let something like that slide, the man was thrown out and beat up due to accusing the house of cheating. He needed to know what was back there too, and Rick apparantly had an idea.

So, throwing away all hesitation, the former vigilante spoke.
“I trust you, whatever you need me to do, I will.”

Rick smiled, although this one had a different, more genuine vibe behind it.

“Let’s go, then. You have my back.”

They walked towards the large, red door at the end of the main room. 2 men were guarding the door.

“And who are you?” One of them asked.

Rick took off his glasses.
“I have 2k with me, my friend and I want to spend it all. Let us in.” Rick’s usual smile was entirely gone, and his eyes had a glare that could kill someone.
Both men looked at Ymeno and Rick with silence, before chuckling and opening the door.
“I like that glare of yours, enjoy your time here.” One of them said.

Ymeno and Rick went in, and the guards closed the door after them. One of them spoke into a walkie-talkie.
“The bear has entered the room.”
“Got it.”

The back room, which was also dressed very neatly, had vastly different patrons. A lot of gang leaders were out here gambling money with various card games.

This is the largest difference between the back room and the main room. The main room is for casuals. This is where the big bets happen, this is where lives are either changed for the better or for the worse.

And no one had won against the house, ever. The man who was kicked out figured that out firsthand.

There were no slots here, only poker tables and roulettes. There was a suffocating vibe in the whole room, as everyone was playing for glory.

Rick, unnafected by everything, walked up to one of the roulettes. Ymeno followed behind, noticing more and more eyes looking at them.

Muttering echoed throughout the room.
“That’s-“
“There’s no way..”
“Wasn’t he dead?”

Were some reactions that Ymeno could hear, where they talking about Rick?

The large man sat down at one of the roulettes and put 500 on 32 red. But before the game could truly start, multiple men gathered around Ymeno and Rick. Around 10 or so.

“Cops aren’t allowed. And especially not snakes.”
“Damn, I got figured out?” Rick sarcastically said.
“You have to be stupid to just walk on in here. And yet, you did.”

Rick stood up as even more men surrounded them, the vibe was getting more dangerous. Ymeno tried to step away but got pushed towards Rick.

“Are you a cop, too?” One of the men asked.

But Ymeno knew better than to answer these types of people, so all he did was look at him in response.

“Doesn’t matter, you came in here with that snake, and we’re kicking you both out.”

Ymeno didn’t get why they kept calling Rick a snake. But they inched closer and closer. Both men now stood back to back against each other.

“Not backing down, huh? That’s why I know I can trust you.” Rick said to Ymeno.

Ymeno heard what Rick said, but didn’t fully register it. Adreneline was coursing through the man’s body, a flame that he thought had dissapeared began to come back.

And without thinking, his body had instinctively moved into a fighting stance. The same one the vigilante Ray used.

Rick noticed this fighting spirit and turned around in response, patting Ymeno on the back.
“Alright, we’ll leave. No need to cause an unnecesarry fight.”

And just like that, the tenseness quickly dissapeared, both men were promptly kicked out and banned from the All-In Casino.

“Sorry ‘bout not telling you the whole truth.” Rick said as they were walking down the road.

Ymeno had took of his shades and put on his regular glasses, and thrown away the facemask.

“Why did they call you either ‘the bear’ or ‘a snake’?” Ymeno quickly asked.

Rick stood still and looked at the starlit sky.
“I used to be a gang leader, a pretty notorious up and comer. I think that’s why I got into that vip room. But Fari put me on the right path. I owe her everything.”

Rick looked at Ymeno.
“You did solid back there, I never expected you to want to fight against all those people. I knew my gut feeling was right, you seem really strong!”

Ymeno accepted the compliment, but knew deep down he was still a fraud.

“Shall we take a picture as a memento for tonight?” Rick pulled out his phone before ymeno could even say yes.

With a snap, a picture was taken. Ymeno did not have time to think of a way to look, so he forced a half smile.

“Ymeno, If I never need you again, I know you got my back, you proved that tonight. With that, let me tell you why I needed to go into that casino.”

“Back when I was deep in the ganglife, there was a person who was also up and coming. A few years older than me, he ran a lot of betting rings and scammed a lot of people like me. He always had a few signatures that could deduce someone to the fact that he ran something. A shield and those unique eyes were his signature. You saw them on those banners.

It was a bit bombastic, but the gangster was succesful. After I left that life for a better one working with Fari, that man caused a revolution by betraying one person who was close to the gods.”

Ymeno’s whole body shot up in surprise, was there a chance that Rick was talking about Henry?

Dread slowly crept up on his back.

“That man clawed his way up and up, and got himself a lot of recognition. He is also the one who runs all these casinos.

With all that said, let me give you one bit of advice.”

A sudden silence suddenly enveloped the city, as the next sentence that was uttered by Rick would ruminate through Ymeno’s mind for days to come. Advice that would send Ymeno down a rabbit hole he never thought he’d enter.

Rick’s smile was gone once again. He couldn’t believe he played poker with the man who messed up his life, thinking that he might’ve changed. With hatred in his voice, he spoke:

“No matter what the circumstance is, don’t ever trust Kane Qur.”

To be continued