I’m back at the abandoned house. I take a deep breath to calm my nerves and tell myself that it’s just a creepy house, nothing more.

I make my way to the basement. The safe is exactly how we left it, piles of lottery tickets littering the floor, the safe door still hanging open.

I push the door further open and take a look inside. I use the flashlight on my phone to be sure I don’t miss anything. Nothing, the safe is empty, nothing written on the inside.

I sit down, feeling defeated. At some point, I have become invested in this safe like Marcus has. I look back at the lottery tickets, maybe Marcus was right, and there is a recent one. I pick up one dated two weeks ago.

“Yes!” I pull out my phone to see if the numbers are a winner; my heart is pounding as I navigate to the webpage. I stop breathing. I check the numbers again and again. It’s a winning ticket! I can’t believe Marcus was right.

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But something on the website catches my eye. I scroll down.

“What?” Someone already claimed the prize. Well, then, there are two winners, right?

The update says only one winning ticket was drawn. But that can’t be. I’m holding a winning ticket in my hand. I get a pit in my stomach. Something’s not right. Is this a duplicate?

I pick up another ticket, this one from eight years ago. I check the winning numbers. I feel my heart stop again.

Another winning ticket and again only one winner, and the prize money has already been claimed. I look down at the pile.

This can’t be happening. I check ten more tickets across four different states from the past ten years. All winning jackpots have been claimed by only one winner.

This isn’t making any sense to me. Why would someone have a safe full of worthless, duplicated lottery tickets? And not just a few lottery tickets but thousands from all over the country over decades.

I stand up, needing to take some air. But before I can take a step away, the safe door slams shut. I spin around, facing it. No one is in the room with me.

Then a wind from nowhere blows all the lottery tickets up into the air, and they begin swirling around me. I try to run, but my feet are rooted to the ground. Then the tickets fall to the ground, and I realize I’m not at the house anymore.

I suddenly find myself in darkness.