Afterthoughts

Loose against his chest he could feel the rub of the pendant. A lump of metal carved into a cube, with black dots to mark the sides of the dice. It was trickled with sweat. The cold liquid collecting in the divots on it’s surface while beads of warm sweat soaked the small of his back.

In his hand he could feel the set of pearl and silver. These were more expensive dice than the single metal pendant he wore. He had seen many sets in the past. Pairs of gold. Trios of bone. Whole handfulls of jeweled dice with glinting rubies and twinkling jade. And this set felt smooth like the others. A pair of dice cut to perfection; for the rich by the rich. An expensive toy for the only people in the world that truly played with their money.

“Throw them.” This was Donesburg. The investment banker by day, the demon by night.

“Where?” he tried not to sound like someone talking with a mouth full of cotton.

“On the table, Dice.” Donesburg smiled and his teeth looked like the teeth money could buy. As if his entire face were purchased to match the suit he’d imported.

“Here?” Dice pointed at the felt table, wondered if he could get what he needed.

“High or low?” Donesburg swallowed a breath from his world class cigar.

Dice felt the weight of the situation smother him. In that moment when he should have answered, he felt his eyes pulled away from Donesburg. Veronica was sitting just behind the fat ball of money that ruled this game. She didn’t fit in anywhere. An hourglass of red under a drapery of jet black hair. Her lips were jewels to Dice, her eyes were ivory and sapphire. And her pokerface was a work of art that hid all motivation from him...and everyone else in the room. Donesburg would have tried to read that face of her’s. But he had his crowd to deal with that. All those gorillas set up in Italian suits standing watch over the situation. Referees that decided the outcome of the game before the teams even began. They held guns in their meaty hands like weights intended to slow down every detail that Dice took in. And while he was swimming through that sea of images he couldn’t help but seek out Veronica. She didn’t fit in anywhere. Especially here.

“Don’t look at her.” Donesburg wasn’t amused any longer.

Dice looked back at the fatman. “Sorry,” was all he could think to say.

“Roll.”

Dice couldn’t put it off any longer. The silence reverberated the sound of the two pearl and silver squares thumping over the craps table. They tumbled up to Donesburg and looked at him. A one. And a five.

“Six. Six bullets. Five in one. One in the other,” Donesburg snapped his gilded fingers.

One of the gorillas stepped forward and opened an ebony box to reveal two pearl handled pistols. .45 caliber handguns made to kill with style; platinum body with fine scrollwork design. They shimmered for a moment in the bloody atmosphere of the all but empty casino. Dice saw the yin-yang shape of the weapons and let out a snort of a laugh.

“What?” Donesburg snapped.

Dice paused. “Do you wipe your ass with one dollar bills?”

Donesburg smiled, “Twenties.”

He handed the twins to another gorilla who dropped the revolver chamber out and produced a loose handful of rounds from his pocket. One weapon got one bullet. The other got one empty chamber. He spun the mechanical guts, and twirled them around to the boss, handles first.

Donesburg took the cannons and held them with the awkward grip of a wealthy powerful whose only true interaction with illegal weapons happens through subordinates.

“Pick one, boy,” Donesburg held them up.

Dice tried to measure the situation one last time, and failed to notice any other hole in the trap. With no more reason than a panicked animal, he chose the one with one round missing. Donesburg held the weapon out to him. The gorillas trained their preloaded machineguns on Dice chest. And Veronica never moved. She was carved out of porcelain. Until Donesburg looked at her, grinning like a game show host.

“This one’s for you, then.”

Veronica squinted, confused, “What’s that, love?”

“Now, now, dear,” Donesburg stepped close, and almost whispered, “Don’t give anything away. We all know who you really favor here.” Donesburg looked at Dice.

But Dice and Veronica already held a gaze that locked the room in a tense moment of silence. Donesburg lost his grin one more time and barked out to the audience, “Let the lovers duel! This is one end i find very interesting. Any bets?”

The gorillas had just enough brainpower to laugh at their masters joke. They loosened up again, never moving their aim from Dice, while they looked at each other and chuckled.

“I’m going to count to three,” Donesburg smirked, “And they you’re going to pull your triggers. If you both miss, then these five exceptional gentlemen will provide a finale.”

Veronica held her poker stare, rigid and solid like a statue. Dice felt his heart turning over in his chest like an engine. And they watched each other without moving or blinking.

“One...”

A drop of clear sweat finally rolled down the side of Dice face.

“Two...”

The red lights glinted on Veronicas lips, sparkled in her eyes.

“Three!”

Veronica lifted her weapon in one motion, smooth as a dream. Her dancer’s body twisted and curved, pointing the gun as if she were picking someone out of the crowd. Just like she’d picked Dice on that night long ago. She could have been singing that same song, she could have been on stage.

But she wasn’t. And perhaps that’s why she didn’t point to Dice.

Donesburg lurched, his head snapping back with the one round he’d given Veronica.

The room was shattered with a sudden boom.

All at once the Gorilla’s reacted like the soldier’s they were paid to be. They showered Veronica with a hailstorm of bullets that made the room loud with thunder. She fell to the floor in a spray of red mist. And the mirrored wall behind her exploded. Dice watched her topple onto the carpet with a sea of sparkles like stage lights behind her.

The liquid images started to move in his eyes. Slowed by sweat and fear, Dice could feel his hand singling out each of the thugs as they paid Veronica all their attention. One at a time he dropped them. A bullet to the chest. They would spasm and then fall to the side like crashing towers.

Dice couldn’t feel it happening. Couldn’t taste or smell it. He only watched it happen. In his mind he could smell Veronica’s perfume. He could taste her lips. He could feel her warm skin. And her eyes were ablaze with the candle light.

The fifth round emptied into the last gorilla while he was spinning around to catch Dice in the act. Silence captured the room again. And Dice dropped his empty gun onto the floor beside the identical weapon Veronica had lost in her death throws.

She looked like a sleeping beauty. Her face untouched somehow. Uncut or broken. Her eyes were closed and her hair was a heart shaped frame around her subtle smile.

Numb and lost, Dice stumbled toward the door. Even the noise of his heart was somewhere in the distance. He staggered through the ghostly emptiness of the casino, and into the cold Vegas night.