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Contents
Humanity Sweepstakes
Phoenix
Smithers
The Land of the Red Dust
The Smile of Anubis
Humanity Sweepstakes
They alone moved through the vast inertness. They alone were alive, and they sought for other things that were alive in order that they might devour them and continue to live.
Jack London
A clot of lacerated blackness was emitting hatred. Hatred and contempt were the basis and the meaning of his existence, but at the moment he was enveloped in the viscid black joy – he was pleased. The red coals that he had for his eyes narrowed – he was plunging himself again and again into the fascinating moment of victory until he had relished it enough and the time came to reap his more-than-rich win. No one else, except him and the giant silent blob-butterfly, believed they could set this Adam, who considered himself a sanctifier, on the right track the first time out.
Raka-Dja-Vardja rose to his mighty paws and jumped through the space. It took him three dashes to reach his destination. The winners were always feasting over the torments of those who lost from a safe distance, standing on the verge of the absolute darkness, where not a single beam of the odious light could reach them. The blob-butterfly was already there and his blade wings were impatiently quivering.
Several dozens made the wrong bet this time. The crowd was patchy. The most numerous were, of course, hounds - simple soldiers like him. However, he noticed a few demons of a higher rank among them – black capes could not hide hideous humanlike forms completely, especially since not all of them were trying to disguise it. One demoness was changing shape after shape without noticing it. It must have been fear. Watching it had been a sheer delight.
A watcher shook his head, noticing the newcomer, and fiends moved to the emery-black edge of the world. Their world. The end of the light existed in every sense, and they lived beyond it, in the inky-velvet night. There was no real border between the light and the dark, but there was a point from which gloom was getting gradually less and less intense.
Even the tiniest specks of light were hurting their eyes and burning their essence, should any get close. The time of staying across the border was same for everyone, but the distance from the border was different. The size of their bet, and whether they lost on a sweepstake, determined how far each went from the alluring murk.
Raka-Dja-Vardja was watching those who were hovering in the frozen greyish void, writhing in pain and terror, and savored waves of rapture that ran across his body. The memories of those times he was in the place of those losers were simmering somewhere inside until they burst out in a croaking laugh. His maw opened, exposing an impenetrable ebony abyss which was framed by the pitch of his jagged fangs.
Thirty-six years old Adam Lance was smiling on his way home. He was happy: beautiful witty wife, two diligent sons – one has already been studying in the special mathematics school, the second one was getting ready to be enrolled there the next year. His beloved work finally started being profitable, after he was invited to teach in the elite private school. The one thing that was overshadowing his life was his sister, Zoe. Not she herself, of course. Her condition. Zoe has been sick, and what’s more, she had gone totally blind a couple of years ago.
What exactly his sister had he didn’t really know, just remembered that it was always like this. Zoe didn’t want to be a burden to anyone and never married, although there were several candidates while she was younger and still able to get out by herself. She lived alone in the one-bedroom apartment that her brother bought for her after selling a large place the two of them inherited after their parents died. Nonetheless, Adam had to visit her and accompany her to the hospital from time to time. Zoe never complained, loved his wife and kids, and rarely asked for help.
He would regularly call her to check if she had everything necessary, and would come: alone - for thirty awkward minutes twice a month to silently drink a cup of cheap tea, and with the family – for a couple of hours two or three times a year, usually after Christmas and on Zoe’s birthday. The thoughts about what he must do if his sister got worse made him frown more and more often.
This line of reasoning reminded him about his brotherly duty and he made a mental note to call his sister tomorrow – and, having turned to more pleasant thoughts, he quickened his pace. His wife promised to cook a grilled chicken and to bake his favorite chocolate cake to celebrate his students taking the first prize at the city mathematical contest.
Falling asleep after grading a heap of school papers and watching his favorite TV-show, the teacher was thinking that it was time to get a new car. He was not an enthusiast, but the spring was coming and they planned to go camping again and he wanted it to be more comfortable this year. Moreover, their impudent neighbor recently bought a brand new Nissan Jeep, compared to which his old Toyota completely faded.