‘CLICK!’

The sound of the strike pierced through the highest treetops.

Edward had shot a dud.

“Well, well…” the Leader quickly snatched the gun out of Edward’s possession. Edward let go without any resistance whatsoever. As the portly man regained composure he started

“Quite the show young man! Just taking precautions...Now…”

Although deterred and dearly holding on to whatever clothing she had remaining Isabelle reminded herself positively ‘There’s still a 50-50 chance that we can win this! It’s like a coin flip!... only with our lives on the line...’

Isabelle’s train of thought was interrupted as the gun hit the floor with a clatter. It had fumbled out of the podgy man’s hand. “Oh! How clumsy of me! I’m sorry let me pick it up…”

As he slowly knelt to pick up the magnum, there arose a moment when the gun went out of sight, behind the portly man’s back.

But then reappeared almost immediately afterwards.

“Now we can continue—”

“Wait.” Edward spoke with perception. It made the rotund man freeze up. ‘Did he notice?...’

“Before this turn—” Edward gyrated his attention to Isabelle. “I would like to talk to my clearly befuddled partner.”

The armed man let out a sigh of relief. He spoke with gratitude “Sure, sure, go ahead she won’t be needing your company afterwards anyway…”

Edward ambled towards Isabelle and whispered something inaudibly into her ear.

‘Fools...’ the other man snickered ‘You missed your only chance at survival!’

Indeed, during that unseen accident that had just been reenacted, the portly man took advantage of this clandestine moment by loading the revolver with a bullet through a hidden compartment near the stock of the gun.

‘HA! HA! HA! There was no bullet in the gun from the beginning!!’ the man snickered to himself in thought.

‘It was all fixed… You had no chance of firing a shot in any of your first two turns because there was no bullet in the gun to fire in the first place! However, you don’t know that... you thought it was luck playing games with you, a gamble.’

Edward sat back down unfretted. “Sorry about that shall we continue?”

“Oh yes, I believe it was my turn?” the rotund man could hardly control his laughter.

He lifted the gun knowing the definite outcome.

‘Luck? Please, only those who can read into the moment and make preparations beforehand can possibly win. I didn’t let you take the first turn because that was the turn I removed the bullet.’

Isabelle was praying eyes closed in a standby position. Her face reinsured the portly man ‘These fools really don’t know anything!’

The gun came to a stop parallel to the ground. “This is the deciding round my friend.”

Edward gave his tacit consent.

"You played a good game, but this is the end!" His voice was personified in his actions. He squeezed the trigger and the hammer struck the cap of the bullet with a complacent 'ting'.

"Goodby——" but before he could summate, the gun backfired in a mélange of hot shrapnel and gunpowder. The flash was so unprecedented that even his followers were caught in the perplexity of the situation. The game had come to an end.