Late in the afternoon, the seven men sauntered into the casino complex where they were greeted by all of the loud music, loud voices, and annoying tunes spewed out by poker machines that one would expect.

Drew had been generous and given all his friends some money to spend. He headed straight for the roulette table with Greg, while Brad and Wayne decided to try their luck on the poker machines. Chip wandered over to the blackjack table and Ryan and Colin headed to the bar.

“So, what are we drinking tonight?” Ryan asked, looking quizzically at Colin.

“I don’t know. I’m sick of beer,” Colin sighed.

“How about a cocktail?” Ryan offered, grabbing the cocktail menu from the bar.

“You know what happened last time I let you talk me into drinking cocktails?” Colin mused.

“No, of course I don’t,” Ryan laughed.

Colin looked at Ryan blankly for a second. “Oh ok, but just one.”

Ryan hailed the barman. “We’ll have two slow screws against a wall, buddy.”

“Oh lord,” Colin mumbled.

So far Brad had had no luck on the poker machines. He’d fed in copious amounts of coins with not even a hint of success.

“Ok, lucky last dollar.” He grimaced and pressed the button.

There was music and then a button lit up. He pressed that, more music, more lit buttons and then…

Clinkclinkclinkclinkclinkclinkcachink

A pile of gold coins toppled out the bottom. Brad leapt up and did a happy dance.

“Dude, how’d you do that?” Wayne gasped.

“It’s all in the way you press the buttons, man,” Brad chuckled piling the coins into his cup.

Wayne slipped in another dollar, pressed the button and got a rude bleeping noise and then the machine lit up asking for more money.

“Bastard,” Wayne hissed. Seconds later Brad leapt up again as his machine coughed up more money.

“I’ve got the Midas touch,” Brad giggled like a kid.

Wayne stood up, sulking madly and marched off toward some different poker machine.

Drew was doing nothing less than awful, he hadn’t even come close to winning. Greg had been no help either, and if he gave Drew one more sarcastic remark, Drew was going to thump him.

“Dude, I’m going to the bathroom,” Greg announced as Drew lost again.

“Yeah, hey wait for me, I’ve gotta go to,” Drew said still, eyeing the roulette wheel.

“Whatever,” Greg sighed.

They headed down a short corridor that led to the toilets. Drew, who was still cursing his losses, didn’t notice that Greg suddenly disappeared.

Greg found himself dragged into a small storeroom where he was thrust into a corner. The light flickered on and Greg found himself faced with two heavies. Two thoughts crossed his mind: “Oh fuck,” and, “I need a piss real bad.” The heavies stood on either side of the door with arms crossed and angry expressions.

“Well this is cheery,” Greg half joked as he tried to make conversation.

“I’d shut the fuck up if I was you,” snapped one heavy.

“Right, well, can I ask what’ll happen if I don’t?” Greg nervously laughed.

“Do you like your knees?” hissed a heavy.

“Well actually…oh,” Greg peeped.

The room fell silent and Greg looked about uncomfortably. He jumped when the door opened and a small, older man entered.

“Ahhh, Mr Proops,” the man smiled.

The smile was not comforting. “Y…yes…have we met?” Greg asked.

“Met? Mr Proops, you won $5000 of my money in a poker game,” the older man sighed.

“Oh, did I? Gee, and I never thought I was that good, well there you go…” Greg rambled.

“SILENCE,” yelled the older man.

Greg shut up very quickly.

“Mr Proops. I’m not usually a violent man, but I don’t like losing, and personally I’m shocked you had the balls to come back,” the older man said softly.

“Right. Are you going somewhere with this? ‘Cos I really gotta go to the bathroom,” Greg announced.

“Oh, Mr Proops, I haven’t even begun,” smiled the older man.

Greg swallowed. He really hoped this wasn’t going to end with him in a shallow grave.

It wasn’t until Drew was washing his hands that he noticed Greg was gone. “That’s kinda weird,” he said to no one in particular.

Drew dried his hands and wandered out of the toilet. He looked up and down the corridor, but it was empty. He headed back into the busy casino, but still there was no sign of Greg. He felt a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach and he was sure it had nothing to do with the burrito he’d eaten earlier.

He hurried over to where Ryan and Colin were looking quite tipsy.

“Please tell me you guys aren’t drunk,” Drew pleaded.

“Not drunk…happy,” Colin smiled.

Ryan nodded and smiled.

“Yeah, well Greg’s missing. We were going to the bathroom and he just disappeared,” Drew babbled.

“He probably went somewhere for a smoke,” Ryan stated.

“Oh come on, it might have something to do with the money,” Drew said. He was beginning to flap about.

Ryan and Colin looked at each other. “Ok look, we’ll round up the others and do some snooping around,” Ryan announced, finished his cocktail and shakily got to his feet.