“I will go first, if that’s alright,” Cowol devilishly said. Without waiting for Vincent to respond, he already rolled his dice. The result was a 2 and a 5. “Normally I would reroll, but I’m curious if you can beat this with one roll.”

Vincent then picked up the black dice that was given to him by Cowol, and fumbled with them in his hand. He wasn’t sure why he was messing with them, although if he had to guess, he would say that it was to keep his emotions at bay. The easiest way for him to get more emotionally stable is to distract himself with something other than what’s making him emotional.

With enough stalling, he finally rolled his dice and the result was a 6 and a 6. Wordlessly, Vincent just looked up at Cowol and smiled. Cowol narrowed his eyes a bit before disingenuously returning the smile. They both picked up their dice.

“I guess I’m dealing with a hell of a gold star, much different from the dirt luck that boy had,” Cowol mentioned.

Vincent wanted to retaliate so bad, but instead, he figuratively and literally bit his lip and stayed quiet. Because he won, he now had to roll first, as per the rules. He shook them a bit before rolling them. When he did roll them they landed on 4 and 4.

“You are really good at doing that,” Cowol chimed in again. “Are you going to test that luck of yours?”

Rolling his eyes, Vincent picked up one of the dice and decided to reroll it just to shut him up. Surprisingly, the die rolled a 4, again. Both of them just quietly looked at the die and then at each other. They both had looks of confusion and surprise to them, although Cowol’s was a bit more noticeable.

“Oh,” Cowol said, “that’s interesting.” Looking into Vincent’s eyes, Cowol stated, “I’m not sure if that’s good luck or bad luck, but it’s lucky nonetheless.”

“I guess that suits me to a tee,” Vincent retorted.

Immediately, Cowol responded, “Absolutely it does.” He then looked down a bit in a more serious manner and muttered, “And that’s more of a problem than good or bad luck.”

“What was that?” Vincent asked, only catching part of what Cowol said.

“Oh nothing, nothing,” Cowol responded in a light manner, “I guess I should roll.”

The results of his roll were a 3 and a 5. He then picked up the 3, looked at it for a second, and said “Why not?” before rolling it again. It landed on 4.

“It seems it’s one to one, lucky-boy,” Cowol taunted.

“Just roll,” Vincent said. He was already getting annoyed by Cowol’s antics. Normally, he would be all for showmanship like that, but because of the circumstances around the game, he would prefer if that toxic mouth of Cowol’s would just close for good.

Cowol rolled and they were both 1’s. With a bit of a playful frown, he chose to reroll both of them—one of them was a 2 and the other was a 3.

Vincent shuffled the dice around in his hand like normal and then rolled them. One of them was a 4 and the other was a 1.

“A tie, huh? And you really seem to like 4’s,” Cowol causally noted.

Vincent just rolled his eyes and rerolled the 1. There was no reason not to, seeing as it was already a 1. The rerolled die was a 2.

“Two to one,” Vincent plainly said.

“What was that?” Cowol responded.

Vincent clarified and said, “It’s my two wins to your one.”

“Ahhhh, my apologies, I must not have been paying attention very well. I was just thinking about how similar this game was to the one with those siblings. After all, they were winning for a bit, too, before they humiliatingly lost everything.” He said that just smiling deviously at Vincent.

“Alright asshat,” Vincent started to say, angrily putting one hand on the table. Before he could stand up to elevate his anger, he felt a hand touch gingerly touch his shoulder—it was Eliot. He had forgotten that Eliot was there, and upon looking at Eliot’s supporting and sincere expression, Vincent calmed back down.

Cowol didn’t comment on Vincent’s actions, but rather he simply gestured for Vincent to roll. Vincent was more than happy to roll, after all, that meant getting out of this game quicker. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand the sight of the gremlin across from him.

After playing a few more rounds, the score of the game of Fate’s Dice was 4-2, heavily in Vincent’s favor. That being said, it hadn’t been an easy game for him, at least not emotionally. Cowol would just not shut up, and there were a few times that Vincent had to restrain himself, which was something new for him.

“My good sir, I think it’s your turn to roll,” Cowol piped up.

Taking a deep breath, Vincent relaxed a bit and rolled the dice. The result of the roll was two 1’s.

“Oh ho ho and so the descent begins, just like the game with—”

But before Cowol could finish that statement, Vincent slapped a hand on the table and interjected, saying, “Don’t say another fucking word.”

Putting his hands up in a playfully defensive way, Cowol responded, “My, my I’m ever so sorry to have hit a nerve—I didn’t know you were so sensitive.”

“If you keep that up, my nerve isn’t the only thing that’s getting hit!” Vincent yelled, standing up and out of his chair.

“Vincent!” Eliot scolded.

Looking back at Eliot, Vincent refrained from going any further with his anger. Still standing, he grabbed both of his dice and rerolled them. To his horror and anger, they both rolled 1’s again. “Fuck.”

“Ah yes,” Cowol chimed in, “that boy might have to do that with his future master—it’s pretty common after all for slaves-I mean servants here.”

Just as Vincent began to lean into Cowol’s space, at his boiling point, Eliot tugged on his shirt and said, “Vincent don’t give in, this isn’t going to solve anything. Please.”

Vincent just grabbed and tore the table’s felt a bit, but did not engage with Cowol. But there wasn’t much more he could tolerate.

“Your spineless friend is right, you should listen—” and before Cowol could even finish that insult, Vincent had already leaped across the table and gave him a starbreaker right in the face. Cowol was sent flying a few yards back before colliding with the wall.

“I’m gonna beat ya to hell and back, traitor!” Vincent screamed at him, now charging in his direction.

Eliot tried to grab a hold of Vincent to try and slow him down, but there was no stopping a fully committed Vincent. However, before either of them reached the now injured and slouched Cowol, they were both tackled and restrained by security.

Vincent felt his arms tucked behind his back, a familiar feeling, and his whole body was shocked with electricity. No matter how much he fought against it, the tazes completely locked up his muscles, and he began to lose consciousness.

Looking up at the now beaten and slightly bloody Cowol, Vincent heard him say, “And I won’t be the last one, either.”

Before losing consciousness, he saw an unconscious Eliot being handcuffed and dragged out by security. There wasn’t enough time for Vincent to feel anything about the situation before he fell into darkness—no regret, no anger, no disappointment...just nothing.