Chapter 4
The next morning, Mark sat next to Alex’s parents in the hospital. They were all waiting to hear how Alex was doing. Mark had been at the hospital all night, ever since Alex had been hit by the bus.
The bus had been about to stop, so it hadn’t been going very fast. Still, Alex had been knocked out and hadn’t woken up during the ambulance ride.
Mark looked up to see a doctor walking toward them.
“Alex has a broken rib and possibly a concussion,” the doctor said. “He’s asleep now, but he should wake up soon.”
Alex’s parents sighed with relief. Mark cleared his throat. “Can I see him?” he asked the doctor. Then he glanced at Alex’s parents. They nodded.
The doctor put a hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Go ahead,” he said. “But please be quiet.”
“Okay,” Mark said. He slowly walked down the hall toward Alex’s room.
As he gently opened the door, he saw that Alex was lying in his hospital bed with his eyes closed. A couple of machines were hooked up to him. He had bandages on his head and one hand, and his ribs were covered in white gauze.
Mark sat down in a chair next to the bed. Oh, man, he thought. Alex is in bad shape.
He took out his DeathBringer card and flipped it over in his hands. “I knew it,” Mark whispered. “I knew this card was cursed.”
“Dork,” a voice said. Mark lifted his head and smiled. Alex was staring and smirking at him.
Mark leaned forward. “You’re awake?!” he said.
Alex nodded slowly. He let out a raspy chuckle.
“So, do you believe me now?” Mark asked.
Alex shrugged and shook his head. “Coincidence,” he said hoarsely.
Mark frowned. He took out his deck and began to set up a game on the table next to the bed.
Mark placed DeathBringer across from his other Warrior card, GraceBlood.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked.
“I’m going to prove that this card is cursed by playing against myself,” Mark said. He tapped GraceBlood. “And no one is in any danger this time — except me.”
Alex narrowed his eyes. “Stop,” he said. He started to sit up, but he let out a groan and cradled his ribs with his hands.
“I’m playing DeathBringer’s special ability now,” Mark said. “Cascade of Fire.”
Alex sat up a little. “Well?” he asked. “Did it kill your other warrior?”
“GraceBlood is down to . . . ten health points,” Mark said.
“Then finish her off,” Alex said.
Mark nodded. He attacked once more with DeathBringer, killing GraceBlood. “Done,” Mark said.
The two boys sat in silence. A few moments later, Alex spoke up. “See?” he said. “Nothing bad happened to you.” He grinned. “You’re just a dork.”
Mark packed up his cards. “Maybe,” he said uncertainly. “Anyway, I’m going to get the doctor and tell him you’re awake.”
Alex nodded and laid back onto his bed. As Mark opened the door, an orderly zipped past him with a cart of oxygen tanks. The room door scraped against the metal cart and created a tiny spark. It was just enough to light the leaking oxygen from one of the tanks. A wide plume of fire blasted out from the tanks, sending Mark flying back into Alex’s room.
The door slammed closed, trapping the fire in the hall. Alarms began to sound and the sprinkler system clicked on. The fire continued to rage outside the room. Inside, Mark climbed to his feet. His hair and clothes were singed, but he wasn’t injured.
“Now do you believe it?” Mark said between coughs.
Alex’s eyes were wide. “What should we do?” he asked nervously.
Mark gently removed the IV from his friend’s arm. “We have to get out of here,” he said. “Let’s get you dressed.”
Mark helped Alex climb out of bed. He pulled on his jeans and sweatshirt over his hospital gown.
“Think you can handle climbing out?” Mark asked.
Alex cradled his ribs with his left arm and walked to the window. With his other hand, Alex grabbed the latch on the window and threw it open. He looked over his shoulder at Mark with a determined look on his face. “Let’s go,” he said.
* * *
Moments later, Alex and Mark reached the other side of the huge hospital parking lot. Alex sat down carefully on the grass. He was out of breath and wheezing. “I need to stop,” he said.
Mark looked back at the hospital. Smoke was coming from a few windows on the first floor, but it didn’t look too bad. A fire truck’s siren wailed in the distance, getting closer by the second.
Mark sat down next to Alex. “Told you that card is cursed,” Mark said.
Alex nodded. “I guess so,” he said. He lay back on the grass. Then he dug into his jeans pocket. “The warning!” he said. He pulled out his phone.
“What warning?” Mark asked.
“We have to find the person who posted on that forum,” Alex said. He fumbled with the phone, but dropped it. He grabbed his ribs and grunted.
Alex picked his phone up and tapped the screen. Through gritted teeth, he said, “We have to destroy the card.”
Mark grabbed his friend’s phone. “Let me,” Mark said. He opened the discussion board and found the post. Then he quickly emailed the person who’d left the message.
Mark’s face scrunched up and his eyes narrowed. “That’s weird,” he said.
“What’s weird?” Alex asked.
Mark held up the phone so Alex could see it. The poster’s name was AngerHeart.
Alex coughed. “So?” he said impatiently.
Mark pulled out DeathBringer and turned the card over in his hands. “You don’t think . . .” Mark said, trailing off.
Alex looked at him. “Think what?” he said.
“AngerHeart,” Mark said. “Do you think it was the real AngerHeart that warned us?”
Alex chuckled. “There are probably a thousand guys with the same username,” he said. “There is no real AngerHeart, dork. It’s just a playing card.”
Mark held up a playing card to Alex’s face. “Just like there’s no real DeathBringer?” he asked.
Alex snatched the card. “We don’t know he’s real,” he said. “We only know the card is . . . cursed. Or something.”
“Oh, he’s real,” Mark said. He took the card back and stared at the demonic image on the front.
“Whatever,” Alex said. “Just destroy it. Rip it in half — now.”
Mark grabbed the card with both his hands. He flexed his arms and twisted as hard as he could. The card stayed straight. “It’s made of a weird metal, or something,” Mark said. “I can’t even bend it.”
Alex’s phone chirped. He clicked through to see a new message. “It’s from AngerHeart,” he said. “It just says, ‘Put me in play, and cast ‘Presence’.”
“The special ability?” Mark asked. “But it isn’t even in the game yet.”
Alex dug through his bag and found his AngerHeart card. “Set up a battle,” he said.
“Fine,” Mark said. Without shuffling or giving it much thought, he laid out cards for a battle between the two warriors. “Do it.”
“I cast Presence,” Alex said, tapping AngerHeart’s card.
Thunder clapped. Mark and Alex jerked their heads up just as a bolt of lightning streaked down from the sky and struck the earth in front of the boys.
The blast of blinding white light was so bright that Mark and Alex had to cover their eyes. When Mark pulled his hand away and squinted, he saw a gigantic man standing before him.
“You have summoned AngerHeart!” the warrior roared.
