The Game Master

The gold pendulum swang above his horizontal body. A gentle whoosh occured as it gained momentum and slowed down again for the end of its arc.

He blinked. There were window arches and the ceiling was unfathomably tall.

"Shall we play a game?" a deep voice boomed. He remained horizontal

"Maybe - depends what it is" replied the fellow.

"Any game you like? Snap, 21, Monopoly, FIFA, Ludo"

"Snap" replied the horizontal man.

The man with the deep voice came from the shadows and dragged the man to the corner of the room and patted him down.

Standing up the deep-voiced figure was in fact a dwarf with a walrus mousache and curly hair.

"Take a seat" he said shuffling the deck.

"Why am I here?" asked the taller man.

"You are here to play a game with me" replied the dwarf, with a grin.

The tall man stroked his goatee and adusted his shirt while his companion cut the deck and shared out the cards.

They stared at one another while they each flipped over a card. One at a time. Each card unfolded in time with the swing of the pendulum. The 4 of diamonds was on the table and when the tall man placed the 4 of spades down on top - he announced his victory call with a slamming hand.

"Snap!"

"Well done. You're ahead for this time, but will your string of luck last, or will it be short and fast?" said the small man.

They restarted, the tall man with a short deck and the game-master holding the thicker deck. The cards unfurled and unfolded quickly.

"Snap" the tall man declared once more. But this time he'd misread the cards. He thought the King was a Queen and dutifully picked up the cards from the center for his error.

"Nothing is quite as it seems." said the dwarf as he kept drawing cards for a new heap.

"What do you mean?" asked his competitor turning over new cards as the pendulum moved from side to side.

"There is much more to our scene than meets the eye." his voice echoed around the belltower.

Cards kept being turned and the game was becoming more heated and frenetic.

"You see this game in front of you is a mere distraction. It gives your mind something to focus upon while we play the real game."

"And what's the real game?" asked the man in front of him.

"Snap!" the dwarf placed down an ace and won the hand.

"You didn't finish your sentence"

"Oh yes I did. The real game you play down there on Earth is Snap. It's just a more 3-dimensional version of what we're playing here."

"In what way?" said the tall man as he restarted.

"You bring up parts of yourself. Then at some point your archetype matches with a similar archetype and you interact. Then you start a new game."

"I don't understand, this is making my head hurt."

This didn't stop the dwarf for he had much more to say.

"Equally time is not linear as you think. It unfolds one move at a time. That move might be minutes, it might be years in your Earth time. But our pendulum here moves at the pace of one move at time.

"I still don't understand"

"Don't worry. One day you will. But just remember there is a deeper geometry and meaning to your world than what meets the eye."

"Snap!" shouted the tall man

"Well done. You've won, for now at least."

With that the game-master shapeshifted into a walrus. The man was given a beachball and threw it to the walrus who hit it back with a tailflip.

Then the belltower experienced an earthquake, collapsed and crumbled. And the man woke up in his bed, confused.