for emily.

It was a boiling Decembers day, Maurice was stealthily walking down the pavement towards the broke, local Mexican casino. The cell-phone located in his right pocket began aggressively vibrating, making him aware that someone was trying to contact him. Whipping his phone out of his pocket, he realised it was his daughter. "Emily!" He expressed with joy, "why did you call? Is something wrong?" His brain started churning 100 miles a minute.

"Hey dad," he heard her gentle voice, sounding sad through the speakers. "I received another warning letter from the academy again. She said it was the final notice, we have 24 hours to deposit the final payment. I'm sorry, I must go now, my next class is about to start. Bye, I love you."

The line cut dead. "Bye." He hoarsely whispered, panic flooding his system. How was he supposed to get $50k in 24 hours? He asked himself. His gaze flickered upwards, looking for inspiration, and landed on the little casino. Maurice didn't know the first thing about gambling, but sure, he thought. This was his only option. He must sacrifice, in order to save his family, no matter what happened to him.

Maurice soon found himself perched on a squeaky, unstable chair next to a large green table. Aggressive looking men lined the sides of the table, his opponents. He was down $50k, the $50k that he could use to save his daughters tuition and their family. He had one roll left of the dice. Glancing at his cards, he knew there was only the slightest chance of him winning the set. His eyes flickered around the small, old room, paint peeling down the walls and guns leant and stacked against them. Three buff bouncers blocked and guarded the only exit, so Maurice knew there was no escape. He would be slaughtered in an instant.

He took a deep breath, focusing all his energy into the roll of this dice. He prayed to all Gods that existed, inside his mind. He flicked his hand and released the tiny cube. He held his breath. It was a 2! He'd won! He let out a gasp of victory and joy. All he could think about was how happy his family would be.

A slow clap echoed into Maurice's ears, from the corner of the room. He could faintly make out the figure of a small, large man in the corner, leaning against a wall.

"Well, what luck you have Sir." A deep voice grumbled unevenly, "But you just happened to have good luck at a broke casino." With that last word, Maurice's vision went black.

2 days later... Maurice's body was found on the side of the road at 3:12AM. He was half-dead, in a coma. He was rushed to hospital. They treated the wounds around his body and cleaned the gun-shot wounds, the most dangerous piercing through his hip. No one knew how it happened or who did it. He was hooked onto life-support, his family was notified that he had been found. They rushed into the hospital and were told that it was unlikely for him to wake-up, but they kept him anyway. Emily was pulled out of her academy and began working at a run-down coffee shop. Her and her mother were now struggling even more, trying to pay the hospital fees.

On March 22, 2019, they took Maurice off of life-support.

THE END.