• “Let’s wager your entire fortune, shall we?”
    The offer was made invitingly, even delicately. It was made as though a person’s life and prosperity wasn’t on the line. Carefree, nonchalant, calm.
    A young woman hardly past her twenties with electric blue eyes and curly blonde hair, her hand held out in a gesture of seeming friendliness, of suggestion. Her eyes twinkled with laughter, though the source of the mirth couldn’t be identified.
    In front of her, a long table, covered with a velvet cloth. It bulged oddly as it stretched across the few unidentified objects lying across the table surface.
    Across from her, on the other end of the table, sat another woman. Equally as young, dressed in a black suit with black hair pulled back in a tight bun at the nape of her neck. Upon hearing the offer, her crimson red lips parted in a thin smile.
    “A lovely suggestion. I accept.”
    The answer was as carefree as the question: Lighthearted, with not the slightest trace of hesitation or doubt.
    The blonde retracted her hand and instead propped her elbow on the table, leaning her cheek against her fingers.
    “You sound confident, Miss Michaela.”
    “Of course, Miss Vivian. After all, I have no reason to believe I can lose.”
    She reached behind her and wrapped her fingers around the wine glass sitting on the bare countertop, raising the rim to her lips. As crimson liquid met crimson lips, she eyed the girl sitting across from her.
    If she expected Vivian to be daunted by her cockiness, she was disappointed. The other woman kept a straight and slightly bemused face on.
    Was she daunted in the slightest? Why, certainly. But Vivian would not give her opponent even the smallest luxury of seeing her fidget.
    She had to beat that confidence down.
    A moment passed in silence as Michaela downed the drink. Vivian watched the girl’s pale throat and with every second, saw the flesh constrict as her opponent swallowed.
    That drink. She should have put something in it. Poisoned it, perhaps.
    No, that would have taken the fun out of the game. After all, victory was always sweeter after a long struggle.
    Her gaze drifted to the digital clock hanging above Michaela’s head. Forty minutes till midnight. Plenty of time to play a risky game.
    The sound of glass hitting wood alerted Vivian to the fact that her opponent had finished her wine. The wait was over.
    Her fingers flashed out, griping the table cloth and flicking it aside with a single and fluid motion. From beneath the wave of velvet unearthed a wheel patterned with alternating red and black sectors. A white number was marked on every sector. Engraved in the board next to the wheel was a simple chart, also made up of red and black rectangles.
    At the sight of the board, Michaela’s eyebrow raised.
    “Roulette?”
    “Yes, Roulette.”
    Vivian answered with a smirk. “Unless of course, you don’t like this.”
    “I never said that, did I?”
    Michaela’s response sounded too rushed to be convincing, but satisfaction was not an emotion Vivian would allow. She’d play along. For now.
    From her pocket, she brandished with a flick of her hand a stack of casino chips.
    “And what shall the first wager be, Miss Michaela?”
    “Don’t get too ahead of yourself now, Miss Vivian.”
    Her opponent cautioned, folding her hands into her lap. “You haven’t told me what I’d get if I won.”
    Vivian noticed the heavy emphasis on those words. This lady was brimming with confidence. Confidence she would soon find pleasure in squishing.
    “Oh, you’ll get whatever you ask for, Ma’am. After all, that’s our policy here.”
    Here. The Trickery Casino. A sky high building swarming with harlots, prostitutes, drug dealers and messed up starlets. A place where someone could get whatever he wanted-if he had the skills and the willingness to gamble.
    Vivian’s eyes darted again to Michaela’s face, and watched as the other woman swallowed-this time in nervousness. Then, slowly, her hand reached out and plucked the chips from Vivian’s open palm.
    As soon as the chips left her hand, Vivian’s demeanor changed. Her cool and efficient solemnity dissolved into an almost childlike eagerness, and her posture slouched greatly. Michaela on the other hand, only looked more alert-anxious even. She hurriedly made the first move, sliding one chip onto the board.
    One of Vivian’s eyebrows rose in a doubtful manner, but she refused to allow her opponent’s radical moves to throw off her strategy.
    The clock above their heads ticked by, counting off first the seconds, then the minutes. Below the ever rotating black hands, the game continued, unnoticed by time. One bet, then another. Chips sliding across the board surface. Money being passed from hand to hand. An endless cycle.
    The clock struck twelve.
    The game ended.
    Michaela stared in disbelief at her empty side of the table, before raising her eyes and looking straight into Vivian’s triumphant smirk, visible over what seemed to be a terrific amount of green.
    “What…?”
    “You lost Miss Michaela. That’s what.”
    The answer was short and to the point. Michaela watched as the girl began leafing through the sheets of money. Her money.
    Anger exploded at that moment.
    “Do you honestly think that you can take all that from me?”
    She demanded hostilely, glaring at her opponent. Vivian only met her defiant gaze with a calm one.
    “And who are you to stop me?”
    “I-! Do you know who I am, Miss Vivian?”
    “Of course I do. You’re Michaela Travis, the daughter of the late mayor.”
    “And do you know what I can do to you?”
    At that question, Vivian’s eyes drifted upwards from the money that she was holding in her fingers. The blue gaze slowly took in the sight of an angry, red faced young woman hovering over the table with her hands clenched. Michaela’s once perfect bun had become loose, and strands were now framed in front of her face, giving her a wild, almost deranged look.
    Vivian leaned backwards in her seat.
    “Do to me? With all due respect, you can’t do anything Miss Michaela.”
    “Are you underestimating me, Miss Vivian?” Michaela demanded, her crimson red lips parting in a leer. “I could order the cops to come and close this place down, I could readily destroy you, and I could-!”
    “No you can’t.” Vivian’s voice cut through Michaela’s screaming like a blade. “Because if you could, you wouldn’t be here.”
    “E-Excuse me?”
    “Miss Michaela, don’t play dumb.” Vivian’s tone was exaggerated, like she was explaining something to a child. “If you really had all that power, why are you here? Why are you in a casino with the scum of society, playing against me, a former prostitute, for money? If you really had any power at all, you wouldn’t be here. You’d be socializing with the A-listers of this city and enjoying a five star dinner, not sitting in a run down building with me. Now stop being a sore loser and accept the fact that I’ve won and taken the fortune that you’ve amassed over the years.”
    The other woman’s mouth moved for a second, but no sound came out. Her whole body crumpled and she slumped back into her seat.
    “And what will you do now, with all that money?” She asked, barely audible.
    “Oh, that’s the best question I’ve heard you ask all night!” Vivian giggled, before leaning in towards Michaela, as though ready to tell a secret. “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to take your life away from you.”
    “What?” There was clear shock in the other woman’s voice.
    “I see you don’t understand.” Vivian leaned in even closer, her breath almost cascading onto Michaela’s neck. “I’m going to take your life away from you. You were a shadow of the upper class, Miss Michaela. Ever since your father died, you’ve become backdrop in their lives. You didn’t know what to do, so you began to come here. After all, this is the place where we can grant your wishes. Had you won, this Casino could have added to your fortune, it could have propelled you to the famous of the famous. But you lost. And now, your wealth belongs to me.”
    She chuckled again before pulling away and registering the emotions that were crossing her opponent’s face. Shock, anger, denial, petrified. The woman who had been so composed only an hour ago was now a trembling wreck. Vivian laughed again before standing and placing a hand on Michaela’s shoulder.
    “Oh, don’t worry, Miss Michaela. You’re not the first person I’ve done this to, and you certainly won’t be the last. You’ll have plenty of company…out on the streets.”
    She swept all the money up into a large purse and walked away from the table, her stiletto heels clicking on the floor. A numb Michaela continued sitting in her seat, glazed eyes staring at the surface of the table. At the Roulette board. A final sentence from Vivian passed through her ears.
    “Enjoy your new life, Ma’am!”