I look over at Marcus. His eyes are fixed on the safe. I continue to watch him, but he doesn’t look my way. Several seconds pass before he speaks.

“You said I didn’t learn anything while being stuck in the dark room.” I begin to panic. This is it. Marcus will finally get what he wants and is willing to sacrifice me to get it.

“Marcus, can I just say…” But his look stops me in mid-sentence.

“You told me that I killed Tim to get his lottery ticket. Did I really do that?” I nod ‘yes.’ “And when you left the dark room, you went to the prison and killed me.”

“Yes,” I say in barely a whisper.

“Robin…” I can’t look at him. He finally says, “We can do better.”

“What?”

“We can do better,” He repeats. “Robin, have you ever played the stock market?”

“No, but what does that have to do with right now?” He turns to look at me and slowly smiles.

“What? What are you thinking?”

“You were a business major, and you know every company that will fail and succeed for the next twenty years.”

“Just like winning the lottery,” I say.

“Just like winning the lottery,” he says back. My eyes fall on the safe.

“But what if we become corrupt with all that money, like the people we gave the lottery winnings to?”

“We won’t because we know what it’s like on the other side, and we have each other to keep each other in line.” He sounds so sincere. “Let’s make the world a better place in whatever way we can,” And there it is, the sparkle in his eyes, just like when we were kids.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I smile.“I have to say, your deal is much better than what that conniving woman was offering,” at that, we both laugh. Marcus puts his arm around my shoulders, and we start walking towards the stairs.

“You do realize, though, that we have no money to start investing in the stock market.”

But Marcus waves me off. “We’ll figure that out,” then we trip over something, and both fall down.

“What happened?” I ask. I look, and at my feet is a duffel bag. I look at Marcus.

“That’s the same type of bag that had money in it when I escaped the dark room.” Marcus looks at me with surprise on his face. We both sit up and reach for the bag. I see a note on the bag and start to reach for it, about to pick it up, when Marcus stops me and says, “Stop! Don’t do it. Let’s just leave.”

Marcus is right; I should walk away. After everything that’s happened, the last thing we should do is trust that woman. She said if what Marcus had to offer wasn’t interesting enough to her, she would send us both back to the dark room.

I pull my hand back, and at the same time, a gust of wind flips the note over and lands on the floor, revealing the message.

“Something to get you started,” I read out loud. Before I can change my mind, I reach for the zipper and yank it open.

“Why did you do that? Are you crazy?” Marcus yells.

“Marcus, look!” The bag is filled with hundred-dollar bills. I pull a handful out and hold it in front of Marcus. He picks up the note, rereading it. Then, something catches his eye behind me. I follow his gaze. The door to the safe is wide open.

“This is getting too weird,” Marcus says.

We both stand and walk over to the safe. It’s empty.

“I don’t get it,” I say.

“Do you think it’s a trick?” Marcus asks. I look at the handful of cash in my hand and see the duffel bag still sitting on the floor.

“For some reason, I don’t think it’s a trick. Something is telling me we passed some sort of test.”

“Then let’s take the money and never come back,” Marcus brushes past me and grabs the bag. “Come on, let’s get out of here before anything else can happen.”

We start climbing the stairs.

“Hey, where have you guys been?” I look up, and there’s Tim standing at the top of the stairs. I look at Marcus, and he just shrugs, giving me a big grin.

“What are you talking about, man? Where have you been?” Marcus says, smiling. And with that, the three of us leave the basement, never to return.