Four of Clubs

2

Roy's car was so old and worn down that I wasn't sure I would've been willing to ride in it if I wasn't so serious about winning.

The place was further than we thought it would be, and as the sun started to set, Daniel began to voice his discomfort with the whole situation. The two of us were sitting in the back, and I was busy wondering if the other two would notice if I clamped a hand over his mouth when Roy turned onto a dirt road.

"Oh, great, we're leaving civilized land now. This seems like a great idea," Daniel complained. I had to admit, it had been a while since we'd seen another car, and if something bad happened out here, it didn't seem like anyone would know. I checked my phone, noting that I thankfully still had service.

I could see Jade try to hide a smile at Daniel's words, and I was glad she found his ranting amusing rather than annoying. It took a lot of begging to convince him to do this with me, so I was restraining the urge to tell him to shut up-- the last thing I wanted was for him to back out. Without a group, I'd have no chance of winning. With this group... well, I wasn't exactly sure how high those chances were, either. 

Our team was... interesting. Jade seemed nice, but I ultimately knew nothing about her. Roy was like a kid on Christmas, and I wasn't entirely convinced he was taking things seriously. Then there was Daniel, the polar opposite of that, who seemed to consider the whole thing an absurd waste of time. 

Roy sped over a large bump in the road, jolting me in my seat. "You're sure this car can handle this?"

"No," Roy said, shaking his head. "But I'm hoping for the best."

"According to this, we're practically there." Jade gestured to her phone, a GPS system pulled up on the screen. "About two minutes left." 

Roy beamed, fingers starting to drum lightly on the steering wheel-- I couldn't help thinking it would be a miracle if we didn't crash before then.

We soon made another turn and Roy slowed down, a shocked silence falling over the group as we stared at the dilapidated building at the end of the path. It was an old house-- a really old house. As we pulled up closer, I could see that the overgrown grass and ivy surrounding the house were also crawling up the beaten siding, all the way up to the roof, which was sagging so much that it looked like it might collapse in on itself at any moment. I felt my face pull back in disgust as Roy stopped the car.

"This is it?" I asked, hoping we somehow ended up in the wrong place.

Roy and Jade compared the coordinates from the message to our location. She nodded, gaze returning to the crumbling eyesore. "This is it."

"I think we should go," Daniel said, and I almost agreed with him-- this was a little weirder than I had been anticipating.

"I think we should go inside," Roy replied, already unbuckling his seat belt and opening his door. Daniel followed suit quickly, clearly wanting to convince him otherwise.