Gambling with Witches

A series of gasps and screams came from the audience as the once star of the derby, was now smoldering in front of them. As the fur burned off, what appeared to be metal was revealed underneath.

“Baaaaaaah!” A series of screeches came from within Triple Cherry, followed by a metal panel in its stomach area popping off. A small green hand reached out and the entire stadium went silent.

“Wait!” Dieanne erratically shouted. “Pay no attention to the flaming horse… it's just a special effe-.”

As she attempted to gaslight the thousands of people inside the stadium, a green figure leapt out from inside the horse. “Baaaaah!” A gamble goblin shrieked as all eyes were on it. Suddenly, several others came flooding out of the horse. The further it burned, the more it appeared that it was actually a steam powered automaton made to look like a real horse.

“Th-those are just paid actors.” Dieanne continued pushing her mental gymnastics, which it didn't seem like anyone was buying.

Just after the last gamble goblin managed to evacuate, there was another pop followed by the mechanical horse exploding with a loud bang. A dozen or so gamble goblins scurried out of the stadium in all directions.

Rollnaldo pointed up at her accusingly. “So you were working with gamble goblins to rig the derby. You're just as big of a liar now as you were the day we got divorced." He then turned his attention to his cousin. “And you, let's not forget about the terms of the gamble showdown. Right here and now I want you to tell everyone in this stadium the truth about Marcus. I also want our carriage ready to go.”

Betssi took a nervous breath. “I-.”

“Babe no!” Dieanne shouted over him, as she snapped her fingers. Out of nowhere, an object came tearing through the sky. Landing in front of her was a broom stick, which she mounted. “Grab on babe. Let's ditch this place.”

“But what about the gamble showdown?” He hesitated to go along with her.

“It's fine. They have no proof of anything and we can just pay off the media to cover up everything that happened today.” She attempted to persuade him.

He let out a sigh with a conflicted look on his face. “I'm sorry Rollnaldo, but I can't destroy everything I've worked for.” Grabbing onto her broom stick, he hung by his one jacked arm.

With Betssi hanging on, Dieanne shot down toward the track on the broomstick, where Betssi scooped up Mole Pat with his free arm.

“Now you're definitely getting your pay docked.” Dieanne reprimanded him.

“S-sorry ma’am.” He hung his head sulkingly.

Just before zooming off on the broom, Dieanne made sure to take a moment to flip Rollnaldo off.

Rollnaldo proceeded to flip her off as well in return with both fingers, as she zipped off into the horizon. “Mother pipper! I knew she was a witch all along.”

“Forget about that wench. You have me now.” Eight felt the need to throw herself on top of Rollnaldo against his will.

Once again the stadium fell silent until the announcer came back on the intercom. “Uh… well I guess that's the race. Jackpot is our winner and will get the grand prize of ten thousand dollars worth of chips.”

As the roulette ball guy from before handed us our trophy that was filled with our prize money, Jacky attempted to suck on his head once again. “Jacky likes apples.”

I excitedly patted Jacky on his neck. “Maybe you're not such a bad horse after all. Remind me to buy you a whole sack of apples after this.”

🏇🏇🏇

“Open this pipping gate, Betssi! We had an agreement.” Rollnaldo angrily pounded on the golden gates to his cousin’s mansion.

I grabbed his shoulder. “You've been at this for forty-five minutes, I think you should just drop it before we get the cops called on us.”

Slapping my hand away, he continued hitting the gate. “Pip no! I'm not about to let my pipping ex-wife get away with this.”

“Jacky likes apples.” Jacky felt the need to butt in, followed by him sucking in Rollnaldo's head.

“Hold up, Recruit Number One.” Eight decided to chime in, while she reached into her rucksack. “Why don't we just use a bomb or two to blow our way into that mucker’s house.”

He nodded his head at her with a grin. “You know, you're actually turning out to be a pretty good wife.”

“Jacky likes apples.” Jacky neighed in agreement.

Immediately, I threw myself between all of them and the gate. “Are you three insane!? I can guarantee your ex-wife wouldn't hesitate to press charges against us for exploding stuff in front of their house.”

“And that's a risk I'm willing to ta-.”

As he was speaking, a slotomaton riding a carriage approached the gate and dismounted.

“Hey you, tell my pip face cousin to get the pip out here and face me like a man!” Rollnaldo aggressively pointed at the robot.

Between the bars, the slotomaton held out a folded note in its clawed hands.

Rollnaldo grabbed it and began to read it over.

“What's it say?” I wondered.

“Here read it for yourself.” He handed it to me.

It read the following:

Dear Rollnaldo,

It was really nice to see you and meet your new friends. I know we couldn't patch things up this time, but hopefully next time we can. As much as I'd have liked to honor the terms of our gamble showdown, I have a responsibility to my shareholders as the CEO of the MTEBTB Corporation. As a fellow business owner I hope you can understand that. I will however grant your request for a carriage ride to the High Roller Capital. I have ordered this Slotomaton to take you there, but feel free to use him and the carriage for as long as you'd like.

I wish you and your friends the best of luck!

Your favorite cousin,

Betssi

“I can kind of see where he's coming from… At least we don't have to walk all the way to the High Roller Capital now.” I attempted to show Rollnaldo the brightside.

He clicked his tongue at me. “Tch. That's great for you, since you're planning on going back to your own world anyways, but that's not going to put Matthew back on top and save my business.”

“Why don't you just bring it up with the Kasino King then.” I suggested.

His eyes became wide, as it seemed that I set off a light bulb in his head. “Maybe you're onto something, Lucky.”

As the cart rolled out of the gate, the slotomaton driver made some clicking noises as he stared at us.

“I want you to follow the crap brick road all the way to the High Roller Capital.” Rollnaldo, who was already in the cab, ordered the slotomaton.

I looked at him curiously, as I entered into the carriage behind him. “Why’s it called the crap brick road?”

“Because there's nothing between here and the capital, so they paved the way with cheap crap brown colored bricks.” He straightforwardly answered.

“I'm glad we're all on the same page about seeing the Kasino King… Now we can move onto the final phase of my super secret domestic terrorist organization’s grand master plan.” Eight maniacally laughed as she took her seat in the carriage beside Rollnaldo.

“Jacky likes apples.” Jacky interjected, crawling his way into the cab area with us and deciding to cram himself next to me.

As the carriage door was closed shut, the slotomaton driver slapped the reins it was holding and the two white horses pulling the carriage began dragging us along toward what would likely be our final destination together as a party…