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Game of Life
by Pirate Turner
She stacked the chips with hands determined not to shake but which trembled slightly nonetheless. She tried not to look across the table at the monster looming over her, grinning like the Devil he was as though he knew that, no matter how hard, well, or conniving she played, she was going to lose regardless.
Maude knew she couldn't lose this hand. Her entire life had led up to this moment, and if she didn't win this time, it wasn't just her life on the line. She'd lose her very soul and be condemned to an eternity of Hellfire and damnation.
She should have listened to Josiah. She should have listened to her son. They'd tried so hard to save her, but she never changed her ways. She kept playing, kept traveling from town to town, robbing folks of their hard earned money and claiming that, if they were foolish enough to play her, they deserved to lose every penny they had and not have food to set on their tables or feed their families. She had been the foolish one. She had been foolish enough to gamble her entire life away.
She should have been a better mother. She should have settled down with Josiah and taken the ring he'd given her in honor instead of wearing it as a promise ring with assurance to him that, once she was ready to settle down, she'd come to him and marry him while knowing, in her heart that she never listened to when she should have and weighed even more heavily now than the chains around her feet, she'd never settle down.
She'd always been a wild one, always refused to do what was right. She remembers now times when she was perplexed as to which choice to make -- until she determined what the righteous choice would be and then went immediately in the opposite direction. There's so much she should have done differently, so much she would change now if only she could. But she has no more choices. She's doomed, she knows, even before the fires of Hell crackle loudly behind her and the Devil laughs cruelly.
She knows she's lost, and her head hangs. Her heart weeps, but even now, she'll let no tears fall from her old eyes. She bends in acceptance, folds her cards, but before the Devil can lash out at her and drag her down into the pit of Hell where she's been heading her entire life until finally being sent here in her last poker game, a man steps out of the shadows.
The Demons hiss. The fires sputter. Maude looks up, and her eyes widen in disbelief. Her son has come. She watches him in amazement. He can't be here! He made his life right! But he is here, and even here, he's not alone.
There's a glow around Ezra and around the six standing just behind him. Josiah's large hand clasps her son's shoulder. Ezra's scared. She can see his fear upon his face and in his eyes, and she wonders why she never realized before what a handsome son she had. What a hero!
Her tears are welling doubly fast in her eyes now, but still, she will not let them fall as she watches the Seven in astonished amazement. Josiah's eyes meet hers for a moment. He tilts his head in respect; the five men behind him and her son touch their fingers to their heads, where the brims of their hats would normally be. Their heads are glowing with golden lights unlike anything Maude's seen before, but not a single one of them, not even the man in black, have their cowboy hats now.
She watches in stunned silence as Josiah turns his attention back to Ezra. He's speaking to him in low tones as the Devil hisses and his long, forked tail whips around the steaming cavern. The steam and fires that line the walls and the floor hiss as though also speaking his fury. Ezra steps forward, leaving the others behind, and Maude leaps from her burning rock.
"Ezra!" she cries. "You shouldn't be here!"
"Mothah," Ezra replies, his Southern drawl as cool and calm as ever as his eyes touch upon hers, "let me do this for you."
Maude tries to walk to him, but a ring of fire surges up from the ground. The fires wrap around her feet and whip them out from under her. She falls. Ezra almost runs to her. Four of the Seven start forward but are held back by Josiah and Vin.
Ezra forces himself to turn away from his mother and focus his attention on the Devil who's staked a claim on her very soul. "One more game," he drawls, his gold tooth winking in the fiery-tinged shadows of Hell. "Double the souls or nothing."
The minor Demons hiss in laughter. The Devil's eyes glow with confidence as he answers, "I could never turn down such a tempting challenge."
Ezra sits upon the rock that had burned his mother. It now burns him, but he stays there as the Devil starts passing out cards. He keeps his eyes locked on his cards and his opponent. Never once do they flick to his brethren, who stand, steadfast, ready to help any way they can or even to his mother, curled and chained on the floor.
He knows he can do this. He has to win this game. His mother's very soul depends upon it, and he's been given a second chance not just for himself, which he earned and succeeded in making successful years ago, but, and more importantly, for her. He's been given a miracle, and whereas she always let him down in life, he will not let her down in Death.
He plays his cards. He lets no fear show, and all the time, he is still lit with God's love. Somewhere during the game, his brothers start to pray, led by Josiah's deep and rumbling voice. Still, Ezra doesn't look up. He just keeps playing and, in his heart and soul, praying, praying that he'll do this right, praying that he'll save them both, and believing in the God who first gave him redemption for himself when he deserved none, believing that He won't let him down now.
He knows he's won when the Devil screams. He smiles. He sparkles as more of the golden light that is God's love shines in the dark cavern. At one time, he would have told the Devil that he was the best there ever was, but he knows he's not the best. His hands have been guided this night. He's been guided now for years.
"Mothah," he says, looking down to Maude, smiling, and stretching out his hand, "come. We're going home."
The Devil is furious. His Demons, tail, and fire are whipping around, but with the golden light that bathes the Seven and now stretches out to include Maude as she takes her loving son's outstretched hand, it can not hurt those who believe in God. It can not hurt them, and the family embraces before disappearing from Hell and going home where they belong.
The End