Horror Stories from Horrified - Volume One (2)

undiminished. It spr ang fr om the capacity of the casino to gener ate w ealth for him.
A point was r eached w her e it was time to expand and pr oceed to still gr eater aims
and gr eater pr ofits.
Cyanquille and the dead had fully kept their bar gain. They w or ked w ell and
w or ked har d.No pay other than to fulfil the hunger r equir ing them to be close to
men?s gambling had been needed.
Denholm deter mined that the next phase was to begin. A small complex of
high-class lodgings, the beginnings of a chain of pr oper ties and hotels, w ould be
built low er dow n the mountain. It w ould be a staging post for his dr eams and a
r est-place for guests tr avelling to the casino. Her e they may stay and spend even
mor e, he r easoned. Denholm himself w ould over see it. He w ould live ther e and
dir ect the gr ow th of his empir e.
It was on an evening as str ange as their fir st meeting, that Cyanquille met
Denholm at his r equest to discuss the matter. For his par t, Denholm envisioned the
possibility of continued cheap labour and a str engthening of his links to the dead.
Ther e was, as ther e so often was w hen they met, a cloud that dr ifted acr oss the
top of the mountain. Fr om it, the blue spectr e emer ged, str iding pur posefully
towar d Denholm once again. His inner visions r emained hidden fr om the living in
the ancient emptiness of his eyes. The r emaining dead w er e hidden by cloud. It
seemed to Denholm that smoke and fog had always obscur ed something in the
deals that he had str uck for the casino.
?Move, Denholm?? Cyanquille quer ied dar kly.? Do you not r ecall that w e had a
deal? You can no mor e leave the casino than I. No, my fr iend. You w ill stay her e, not
halfway dow n the mountain or anyw her e else. The Black Casino is the br idge
betw een the living and the dead. You, of all people, know this. You w ill not be
moving to a new site.?
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