The next day, the girls changed some of the money they had into Casino coins, like the one they found. They had their hands and bags full, enough to gamble all day, if they were lucky.

  "So, what are we going to do, May?"

  "I thought about splitting up to investigate; at least we might cover a lot in one day. Then, after that, we can discuss our next plans."

  "That's alright. Do you have anything in mind? Anything you wanna do or try?"

  "Not yet, I need to think for a moment, the visions from yesterday... They're still on my mind. Maybe I'll try to make sense of everything before trying any game. But tell me, what about you?"

  "That's easy. I want to try the slot machines so bad. Did you see them yesterday?"

  And of course, Karina had seen the machines. It was impossible to miss them once you entered the room. Rows and more rows of glowing machines, dozens of people pulling the lever at the same time. It was mesmerizing, the sound of money falling into the tray. It gave the ethereal feeling that you could win at any moment. She understood why Karina wanted to try those first.

  "If that's what you want, I guess, just be careful, okay? Especially with magic, if you're gonna try to cheat it... Do it fast."

  "Okay, okay. I'll be fine. What is there about slot machines anyway? Maybe I can talk to some people playing at them."

  May nodded and watched her friend head in the direction of the machines.

  ***

  The lights on the screen illuminated the faces of the people playing. People smiled and laughed at the machines. Even the ones that were losing, they all seemed happy.

  Karina looked at the machines for a moment, she tried to see if any of them were different from the other. Maybe the secret was that, maybe there was a winning machine hidden somewhere after all.

  "Oh, darling, are you trying to look for the best machine?" A voice came from behind her. Karina turned around and saw an old lady. The woman wore a long black feather coat. Her neck was adorned with big pearls. She had a big aquiline nose, and Karina thought that, along with the coat, made the woman look like an old bird.

  "Yes, yes. I mean, it's my first time here, playing games at a casino. I don't know exactly how this works..."

  "Well, you need to sit and play, right?" The woman smiled. "But to be completely honest, I myself have my own lucky machine. Every time I won, I was playing on it. Let me show you."

  The lady grabbed Karina's hand and pulled her to the end of the machines. She pointed to a machine that to the girl looked like all the others.

  "Let me show you how this is done." The older lady said as she put a coin inside the machine and pulled the lever.

  The numbers and figures spun and swirled. And one by one, they stopped with a click. Three of the same figures, money fell on the tray below the machine.

  "Oh, see, see! Once again, this is my lucky machine!" The woman giggled. "But I guess you gotta find yours. Everyone has their lucky machine. Think of them as a close friend, a friend that you tell secrets." She caressed the machine fondly.

  Karina could only think about how odd everything was. But maybe the lady was right, she had won after all, Karina had seen it.

  The girl sat at the machine next to the old woman.

  "Guess you believe luck attracts luck... I can't say that you're not wrong to try, sweetie."

  Karina looked at the machine, and it looked like all the others, and how she had pictured a slot machine. She thought about caressing the machine too, but that thought seemed silly. And Karina was rational after all, she imagined May laughing at her if she told her friend how she was treating a machine.

  The girl picked a coin from her purse and inserted it into the machine. It seemed to make it come alive, as the lights flicked and noises played somewhere inside the machine.

  "Guess I gotta try it after all..." Karina said as she pulled the lever, the same way she saw the old lady doing. The images spun in front of her eyes, dazzling and mesmerizing. But it didn't end up being a match.

  "Oh, but don't give up! Sometimes you've got to try again." The woman cheered and pouted. In the woman's machine, Karina saw another set of matching figures.

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  She inserted one, two, three more coins. Each time, the figures mismatched. And then, in her fifth attempt, she won. And she felt incredibly joyful because of it. The sound of the money falling into the tray was almost like magic to her ears. Behind her, the old lady clapped her hands and laughed, as she repeated:

  "Oh, finally, finally, finally! That's your machine for sure! I feel it." She pointed to her heart. "I feel it in here. Was it intuition that made you choose it?"

  Karina blinked her eyes slowly, her mind dazed by the victory. She couldn't pinpoint why she had chosen that specific machine. It was luck, she guessed. But she wanted to do something about the machine, although now she couldn't remember exactly what.

  "I guess it was." She smiled at the woman. "Let's try one more time."

  And once again she inserted a coin and pulled the lever. The numbers and figures spun. And in their spinning, she saw a figure of a witch hat, and in her mind, something clicked. She wanted to try magic in the machine, to see if there was anything unusual.

  The figures matched, and the money fell into the tray. But Karina didn't feel quite the satisfaction of the first time. The woman behind her cheered even more.

  "Wow, wow, wow. Another victory. Luck really attracted luck. Whoa, I feel like staying close to you. Let us be game friends!" She said, a smile so full that Karina saw all of the woman's teeth.

  Karina smiled back and turned her face to the machine one more time. It was in moments like this that she missed May, because she was never good at these subtle charms and spells. How could she test the machine? And her powers were almost all related to hunting monsters and creatures. May would for sure have something in her sleeve about it. But Karina needed to be independent too. And if she didn't have the perfect spell, she just needed to be cunning.

  "I guess that will work." She whispered to herself. It was something simple and delicate that would be almost undetectable. She let her magical power flow all through her body to the tip of her fingers. Then she touched the machine lightly. If there was anything magical or any kind of spell on it, she would definitely feel it.

  "There it was!" She thought. It was so faint and discreet that she almost mistook it for something else. But the machine had magic operating on it. That she was sure.

  But now that question was: what kind of magic? She didn't know for sure. Was something making people lose? And how she managed to win? She also saw the old lady winning, so that wasn't it.

  The smile faded on the woman's face, and she asked:

  "What's wrong, sweetie? You don't wanna play anymore?"

  "I-It's not that I don't wanna play. I'm just... thinking if my friend will be as lucky as me."

  The lady smiled brightly.

  "Oh, I'm sure she will, I'm sure she will! Is she here? Is she playing other games?" The woman looked around, as if she were trying to find May without knowing her.

  "Yes, she is. But she's playing other games for now. I mean, she's good at card games."

  "Hum, I never played any of these. I would rather stay at the slot machines, they're so simple and easy to understand, you know? My mind gets confused with card games and all the rules and everything." The woman swung her arms open. "But this here. This is good. Everyone can win here. And there's also the capsule machines. Did you see them?"

  "Oh, no. I guess no. Where are they?"

  "Here, come with me." The woman gestured to Karina, and she followed the lady. After rows and rows of slot machines, Karina finally saw the capsule machines. They were similar to the slot machines, as they had a place to insert the coins and a lever. But inside them, instead of the screen that showed numbers and figures, there were a lot of small colored spheres.

  "You just put one coin, and then you pull the lever. There it is." The woman said as she pulled, one of the spheres falling into the tray. "Oh, look." Inside the sphere, there was a small keychain. It was a cute animal, but Karina couldn't identify it. "Why don't you try it too?"

  Karina inserted a coin and pulled the lever. And like what happened to the woman, a small sphere fell into the tray. She picked it up and opened it. All she found was a single blank piece of paper.

  "Well, this is strange. It never happened with me... Maybe you're just not lucky with these kinds of machines." The lady said, her voice lower than before.

  The girl wanted to see if the machine had magic, too. But she needed to be extra discreet if she didn't want the woman to perceive anything. As she did before, she touched the machine and let her magical energy flow through it a little. And once again, she perceived something magical about the machine. It was similar to the others. And she thought that everything in the Casino would be like that.

  "Well, I'm going to keep playing. If you need any help, you know where to find me. But I guess this is everything I know..." The woman giggled and went back to the slot machines.

  Karina waved to the woman, and as soon as the lady was out of view, she inspected the coins she won. They were all similar to the one May and her had found in the old factory. It was strange. What on earth was a coin from the Casino doing there? Maybe a gambler was involved in the stuff that happened there... But she couldn't know for sure.

  The girl also needed to find her May to discuss everything that she saw. The machines had magic, but beyond that, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She looked again at the piece of paper she got from the machine.

  "And what the hell is that? Did I use magic subconsciously on that machine? May would be able to tell that."

  Out of nowhere, Karina had the feeling that she was being observed. She looked to her left, and she distinguished a man from security. There was something about his gaze that was casual, but at the same time attentive. Strange, but she shouldn't be paranoid.

  "I'm probably behaving oddly. I should act like everyone else is doing. Focus, Karina." The girl muttered to herself. And so, she looked after more machines, playing a little in each one of them. She didn't have the same feeling as before, and when she tried the prize machines again, this time she got a simple toy.

  "I guess this is it from these machines."

  She inspected again over her shoulder, but the security guard wasn't there. And as so, Karina let out the breath she didn't even notice she was holding. But that meant she should be careful in her investigation.

  "I need to behave like everyone's doing. Ugh, I hate these spying missions." Karina said to herself, unaware of the security that still watched her from afar.