A Straight Flush at the Easy Eight
It was not going to be easy. But it never is at the Easy Eight Casino. Stan signs the last of the invoices and spends the next hour helping with the cleanup. The event was pretty traumatic for the Easy Eight Casino floor. Luckily the insurance was covering it. Believing it to be the effects of a rogue mini storm, they called him this morning.
Now as he looks over the elevator inspection reports he can’t help but remember the ghostly form. Or the eerie way it appeared. Forming from nothingness, and then becoming the center of its own storm. However, that isn’t what was eating at him. In fact, it was a hell of a lot more frightening.
A few minutes more and they have finished removing all the damaged tables, and the last of the scattered chips and playing cards. That is when it hits him. The realization is so intense he audibly cries out. He remembers now. Furthermore, as his memory sharpens, his feeling of anxiety, and fear, grows. The ghost at the Easy Eight, Lucky Pockets, was the French Fry king.
A Straight Flush
He wakes up slow. He doesn’t feel like waking up at all. Just five more minutes. He smiles in his sleep thinking about the day ahead. Then he sleeps some more. While he sleeps, he dreams. He knows he is dreaming because he is alive in his dream. Likewise he is walking along the boardwalk where he opened his first fry shop.
He is taken with the waves of the Ocean as they break along the shore. The sun is beginning to sink below the horizon and the smell of brimstone is thick and noxious. This strikes him as odd, but the dream is so real, and he feels so hypnotized by the cascading waves that he lets it slide. And he keeps walking.
Moments later, the boardwalk begins cracking and buckling. Then it heats up, and the smell of brimstone, intensifies. Lucky Pockets isn’t sure he likes this. It has become a sinister dream, and he is ready to wake up now. On the heels of discovering he cannot awaken, the ground under his feet, splits open. His face stings because of the heat rising from the broken pavement. Something about this is wrong. Very wrong.
A Straight Flush At The Easy Eight
Stan finishes the last of the invoices and decides to get some air. It has been a long day, and he is ready for a break. The realization of the identity of his ghost had unnerved him. Although, admittedly, that isn’t what has chilled him so deeply. In fact he felt like he may need to sit down for a moment or two.
No, it wasn’t that he recognized the dead man standing in his Casino wreaking havoc. It was the message the ghost was trying to convey. Goosebumps break out all over Stan’s body, as his mind makes the connections. It wasn’t Lucky Pockets that shook him so badly. It was the fear he saw in Lucky Pockets, that rattled Stan so hard. Lucky Pockets was terrified and he was trying to warn Stan.
Thank you for reading! Like, follow and share The Frog Journal on X @1finja1 – and on The Frog Journal Facebook page click here. Subscribe to the free newsletter to stay up to date on new content and updates.
All original stories. Download in seconds, new titles weekly. The Frog Journal e-book shorts.
Straight Flush