The blood dripping from my nose brought me back to another time, another place. Marina's gentle laughter echoed in my head, unbidden, as I clung to a fleeting moment of safety. I missed her—the only one who always had time for me, always made me laugh, even when Father Nikolei’s anger rumbled through the whole church.

“Come here, Boris!” Sister Marina called, her voice warm and teasing. I saw her standing at the end of the hall, a smile playing on her lips. “Come here! I've been waiting so long!”

I ran to her, throwing myself into her legs, holding on tightly, tears welling up in my eyes. She laughed softly, her hand gently patting the top of my head.

“Come here, kiddo. You said you wanted to learn the dice game?” she said, gently pushing me backward, then squatting down in front of me to wipe the blood from my small nose.

I nodded eagerly. She’d promised to teach me long ago. She was probably only teaching it now because Father Nikolei was upset with me again, for some reason.

She settled on the floor, pulling out two cups and two dice. “Do you know why dice are so important, my child?”

“They trick the Blessed?” I asked as she pulled me into her lap, her fingers gently stroking my hair.

I felt her smile behind me. “Well, yes, but no, kiddo. Roll your dice quickly.”

I did as she instructed, clutching the dice tightly. My fingers trembled as I threw them, hoping for the best number. It landed on a five.

“Dice are special,” she said kindly, her voice calm and steady. “They show us what life is like. Some people, like the Blessed, start with a six. Others, like us, start with a one. But the roll isn’t what matters. Never the roll. The real gift God gave us is the bet we make with them. That’s where everything changes. It’s not the numbers—it’s the bet, child. Always the bet.”

She suddenly slammed the dice down in front of me, then hugged me tightly around the waist, resting her chin on my shoulder.

“Now, will you bet higher or lower?” she whispered, a fierce challenge hiding in her voice.

I don’t remember what I bet. All I remember is that she began to melt away, along with the orphanage. I ran as fast as I could into the black night, searching for her, calling her name, but she was gone. The orphanage, too, had disappeared.

I spun around, heart racing. The dice lay right behind me, like I hadn't moved a muscle. It was on its side, mid-roll. It felt like it was staring at me.

And then I was far taller than a moment ago, there was blood dripping from my nose, and I was lying flat on my face.

I thought I was dead. But slowly, so slowly, feeling began to return to me, starting from my toes, inching its way up as if reluctant to come back. It felt like ten years to reach my knees, then a thousand to reach my chest. When it finally reached my neck, it exploded, as though feeling was all I had ever been or could hope to be. Life rushed back into me, all at once.

I gasped, choking on something in my mouth. Right, the blood. I spat it out, fighting to clear my tongue, as I forced myself onto my hands and knees, moving slowly, bracing for the pain I expected. But it never came.

I looked down at my forearm, covered in bile but otherwise fine. No, better than fine. My whole body felt amazing, like I’d just woken from a twelve-hour nap and was greeted by the taste of that burger Maria and Yelena had shared with me.

Maria. Yelena. The kids.

I shot to my feet, the movement sharp, and the collective gasps of a crowd filled the air. Standing now, I took in the sight of a thousand eyes, all focused on me. Where the fuck was I?

I stumbled backward, disoriented, before I realized the worst part about them. They were rich. Every one of them, dressed in tailor-made clothes that screamed wealth and power.

The people were staring at me, and as I looked down, I realized why. I was still covered head to toe in blood with no pants. I felt my face, and sure enough, found blood there too. Well, this wasn't going to be easy to explain.

I felt a presence behind me, and I whipped around, seeing the crowd was surrounding me from all sides. Me, Jack, and the fink. I looked down and saw that the latter were both dead. And that the fink's gun was lying right next to him, along with a woman, sitting up now, looking at me with wide eyes, like she'd seen a crazy person.

It was that stupid girl. The one with the fink bodyguard. I stared at her, still trying to figure out what the hell she was doing here. Didn’t matter. This place was bad news, and I needed to get out of here—right now.

I lunged for the gun, gripping it tightly and waving it around wildly. “Fuck off! Get out of the way!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

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I pointed the gun at the crowd, and a few of them scattered, shouting curses at me as I stumbled through the chaos, desperate to get the hell out of there. My eyes locked onto a door in the distance. That was my escape.

I started pushing through the crowd, using the gun to clear a path, my heart pounding in my chest. After a path cleared, I sprinted toward the door as quickly as possible. Wow, I was really fast. So fast, I tripped and fell flat on my face, the gun firing into the air. The gun went off with a deafening crack, the shot blasting into the air.

Panic erupted around me. People screamed, scrambling in every direction, climbing over each other in a frenzy. The room felt like it was closing in, walls pressing in as the crowd surged toward the edges.

I pushed myself off the floor, only to fly a few feet into the air, crashing back down on my face. What the fuck just happened? I scrambled to my feet, more carefully this time, my heart racing. I clutched the gun tighter and ran toward the door with all the speed I had left.

When I hit the door, it flew off its hinges with a deafening crack. I stumbled into what looked like something straight out of a Goudstad cartoon—a laboratory, or whatever they called it. My gaze flicked to the right, and I froze.

There, standing like statues, were what looked like all the finks on Kaleidos—The General, the saint of Kaleidos himself, every fink dressed in black, and others in white with gold lining their arms. And they were staring straight at me, as wide-eyed as the girl.

I considered raising the gun towards them, but they weren't in the way, so I kept running towards the back, trying to get as far away from this place as possible.

I heard a woman behind me, a voice like thunder echoing throughout the room, say two words: “Stop him.”

I thought the world would stop spinning to accommodate her, but instead, every fink in the room rose to their feet. The ones with metal running down their arms moved toward the door, their arms flicking downward as one. A shield materialized, covering their bodies like an invisible barrier, and then they closed in together, forming a massive wall of lead.

And then a golden string was wrapping around my legs, tying them together, hoisting me up into the air so fast I almost dropped the gun. I dangled there, swinging from the momentum, staring up—no, down—at the Saint of Kaleidos. The golden string trailed from his halo, his tattoo glowing furiously as he studied me with the detached gaze of a butcher sizing up a slab of meat.

I pointed the gun at him, and then it started getting heavy, feeling like it weighed a thousand tonnes. I simply dropped it. But then I swung myself up, grabbing the string holding my legs and started trying to rip it, to make it let go.

“Sorry, son, but there’s no breaking my string. Will you stop struggling, please?” he asked, even as I was biting it, trying everything to make it tear.

“Drop him,” said that voice from earlier.

“You are surrounded. There is no means of escape—” it continued, even as I jumped up, lightning-quick, and bolted towards the shields.

I was ready to fight every one of these bastards if I had to. But then something shifted inside me—cold, sharp, and unmistakable. It was as if all my focus, all my will, was yanked into my left shoulder in one violent tug.

And then, there was a dice.

It appeared in the air before me with a strange, almost oppressive presence, as though reality itself had bent to accommodate it. Red, vivid, and unnatural, the single dice materialized slowly out of my left shoulder, spinning deliberately, as if it had been waiting for this moment. It hovered for a heartbeat, circling behind me and arcing around my right shoulder before coming to rest just above the center of my chest.

I stared at it as it settled, the one glaring up at me like an unblinking eye. I could almost hear it say, “Yeah, I’m here. So what?”

“What the fuck?” I said aloud, before looking up at the door.

Right. Escape first, weird dice later. I started running across the room, and I realized I'd gotten even quicker, practically covering the entire room in two steps, and then—slam—I hit the shields.

There were five finks side by side, standing in three lines, their shields interlocked. They looked like they had fused together into one solid wall.

As I crashed into them, I felt the entire line buckle, as if they were a single entity. The first row collapsed under me, and I stumbled over their fallen bodies.

I hadn’t meant to do that. I was just trying to slip through the cracks I thought were between the shields. But now, as I looked around, the finks seemed weaker. Almost… slow.

In fact, everything seemed… slow. Not like they were freezing, but like they were half-assing whatever they were doing—like I was just moving a little too fast.

The fink in front of me was in the second line, his shield raised but not fused like the others on the floor. I couldn’t see the man behind it, so I grabbed both sides of the shield, yanking it away to punch him in the face.

The man flew with the shield, flying a few meters in the air like a sack of potatoes. I hadn’t meant to do that—I was just trying to move the shield. But as I threw him, I saw the string overhead, moving toward me like an angry viper.

It was fast, unlike everything else around me, so I jumped to avoid it. I shot into the air, soaring far above the string and the men with shields. Not my finest moment, but I couldn’t help but scream, even though I was only about six meters off the ground.

I found myself facing the wall above the door. As I screamed, I realized I was falling slowly. Maybe too slowly.

I shoved off the wall, hoping to get away from it. I shot backwards, bouncing off a table and crashing into some chairs, landing hard on my back. Felt like I'd done that a lot today.

That's where the string found me again, hoisting me back up into the air. Alright, running didn’t work, and while I had knocked a few finks over, I didn’t think I could fight my way out of this. Maybe I could charm them with my good looks? Sure, I was covered in blood, but I was pretty sure I had a solid explanation for that.

The saint of Kaleidos pulled me toward him, The General, and every fink in black on the island standing there, watching me. I met their gaze, even though it looked like they were standing on the ceiling.

I hung there obediently, as he brought me an arm's length away from his face and said, “Son, you have a lot of explaining to do.”