Chapter 10

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King Dice screamed. He screamed as loud as he could and thrashed about with all of his might in an attempt to escape whatever hell he had entered.
He kept on yelling and punching and biting until eventually, Yuri's grin was gone from his vision and his eyes opened to the sight of a ceiling. A ceiling that was painted crimson red, but looked almost like dried blood in the darkness.
He was still screaming when he woke up, cold sweat pouring down his face and his back.
Devi was awake next to him, an extremely concerned look on his face that Dice could only barely see through his tears.
He was back in his room, in the casino.
Yuri was nowhere to be seen.
Behind him, the door to his bedroom opened and the light from the hallway flooded into the room, touching his back and making him feel warm and safe despite the coldness he was feeling inside.
However, when he turned around, it was Pip that was stood at the door, looking worried, like he'd just witnessed a murder.
Without thinking, King Dice threw himself out of bed and lunged for him, throwing punches and yelling every curse word under the sun at the small domino piece.
Devi had to pull the hysteric Dice away in the end; he was still yelling things like "You betrayed me!" over and over again and sobbing into Devi's fur on the floor.
"Y-You sold me out! You handed me over to Yuri! I-I can still feel him staring at me!"
Pip was furious at the accusations, whacking his fist onto the ground in anger. Devi thought for a moment that he felt the earth shake.
"What on earth are you talking about?! I wouldn't ever do anything like that! After losing my wife? You think I'd throw that burden onto the boss?" Pip seethed through his teeth.
Dice was too panicked to respond; now at a stage where he could barely even breathe and was digging his fingers into Devi's fur for any kind of comfort he could find.
"I think he must've had a night terror, Pip..." Devi said as soft as he could despite his throat being hoarse and dry from exhaustion, "I'd advice you to go back to sleep as well as any other staff members that are awake, currently. We'll talk about this in the morning,"

Pip returned back to his bedroom, absolutely miserable. He pulled out a bottle of whiskey from underneath his bed and began to chug on it slowly.
He felt like he was back at square one now. Not only did he remind himself that his wife was, in fact, gone; Now he has to prove his innocence to The Devil all because of a stupid dream?
Still seething, but too drunk to get out of bed and start breaking things, he did the only thing he knew how to do. The thing that demons always did when their emotions got out of hand.
He started to sing.

Nobody knew what song it was that he was singing. Maybe it was improvisational, maybe it was from a band that nobody had heard before, but the whole staff took a moment of silence then. They listened to his sorrows as they drifted down the corridors of the place, drowning out everyone's thoughts and reminding them that this is real.
Across the hall, there was much quieter singing that nobody could pick up just quite. In King Dice's room, Devi and Dice lay with their arms wrapped around each other, and they both sang along to Pip's lonely tune.

The conversation that was to be had in the morning was going to be a long one. Devi stood on the stage to see a crowd of miserable faces coming from his staff. He didn't blame them, really, but it was a little too much for him.
Pip was curled up in a chair closest to the front, his expression so sad it almost appeared as his face was going to melt off.

"As you all know, these past few weeks have been trying for us. Nobody is alone in how they feel right now. Each and every one of us is struggling. Which is why I think I must release you all from your contracts,"
A ton of gasps sounded from the crowd at that. The Devil didn't just break soul contracts like that! That was unheard of.
"Boss! I don't want to go home! I want to stay here in the casino with you!" A familiar rabbit cried out.
Devi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. When he lowered his head, the bags under his eyes made themselves more apparent.
"Any of you who wish to return and work for me when I re-open the casino doors, you may. If you chose not to then I'll also understand. But I think this is for the best,"
If the atmosphere couldn't get any sadder, it did just then.
"What about King Dice?" 8-Ball chimed in, worried that they'd have to be separated.
"I'm not breaking his contract. In fact, I can't. He'll just be staying with me for a while,"
8-Ball quietly breathed a sigh of relief, kind of happy that there was still hope for his OTP just yet.

When the time came, the staff came together to make a huge fire outside of the casino, only the second time there had been flames there that weren't for decoration or dramatic effect.
They surrounded the bonfire as they watched Devi drop each contract in, eyeballing them closely as the paper turned black and their souls were released.
Some people cried, some people looked emotionless, but each of them knew that the only thing that had left to do was thank their boss for everything, and turn around and keep walking. They all disappeared into Inkwell Hell. Once the fire was doused, the only thing Devi could feel was a cold breeze. The air ruffled his fur as it moved through him, bringing a single pink tear out with it. Though, he wouldn't let himself cry yet.
Devi returned to the casino where Dice was stood in the doorway, his things all packed in bags next to his feet.
"You all ready to go?" Devi asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready,"

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