Fortune’s Box

It was the morning after. Those of us who made it through gathered in the square. We were dirty, frazzled, and tired. One might call us she’ll shocked. But we knew one thing for certain:

This was not over! A women in a suit suddenly appear near a microphone. “Welcome everyone!” “You are the few selected now, but don’t think this is over yet the real test starts now” “Please come near the stage, you will see a small box with your name on it. Open the box now!”

We each crept over to our boxes, peeking carefully around to make sure that they had no other unpleasant surprises for us. I reached over to mine and opened the lid when the lights went out. The last thing I heard was the woman-in-the-suit's shrill shriek and chains clanking.

Terrified, I felt around in the dark, probing the box’s contents. What was I feeling? Gems? Beetles? The contents were myriad. And damp? The shrieking woman approached, her pace accelerating. I could feel her breath on my neck by the time I found what I was looking for.

My fingers closed around the silver cross, and in the nick of time I turned, thrusting it into her face. She shrieked again, but fell back on her rump, her arm flying up to shield her eyes from the glow of the magical cross. Just as suddenly, her arm dropped and she began to

laugh hysterically. “You think you can stop me?” She screeched and stood back up. “I invented religion millions of years ago knowing that one day some fool would try to stop me with it!” She printed toward me, fangs out. I knew it was over, sat down and faced my end.