It all started with a power outage. One of those brutal summer storms that knocks out transformers and leaves you sitting in the dark with nothing but the sound of rain and your own increasingly loud thoughts. My Wi-Fi was dead, my phone data was crawling, and I’d already re-read the same paragraph of my book three times by candlelight. I was crawling up the walls with boredom. Out of sheer, desperate frustration, I started scrolling through my phone, looking for anything that would load. That’s when I remembered an old, forgotten bookmark. I fumbled in the dark, the phone screen blindingly bright, and somehow, through a combination of muscle memory and fate, I ended up on the sky247 official website.

I’d signed up ages ago, during a similarly boring phase of my life, played for ten minutes, lost five dollars, and forgotten all about it. But tonight, with the wind howling and the world outside reduced to a soggy, dark mess, the bright lights and promises of the virtual lobby felt like a beacon. What else was I going to do? Stare at the ceiling?

So I deposited twenty bucks. Not a fortune, just the cost of a bad takeout meal. I clicked on a slot game called “Cosmic Cash.” It looked cheesy, with cartoon aliens and sparkly planets, but it loaded, and that was the main thing. I started spinning, my thumb getting tired. I’d win two cents, lose five, win ten. It was mind-numbing, but in a good way. It was a distraction from the storm and my own restlessness. Then, on what I’d decided would be my last spin before my phone died, it happened. The reels aligned in a way I didn’t even understand. The screen exploded with light and sound. A flurry of coins and numbers flashed. My balance, which had dwindled to a sad fourteen dollars, suddenly shot up. And up. It landed at eight hundred and seventy-two dollars.