Free Uncollected Blood by Daniel J. Kirk Page B

game you could play by yourself, or with as many people as you wanted to. There were no limits. The board itself seemed to be magic, but as science proved it was just cool technology using gelatins and electricity.
    That’s how you were able to make as many game pieces for the unlimited amount of players who wanted to play on one board. You went online real quick and you selected one of a billion or so styles of game pieces, then you placed a piece of the gelatin into a contraption that went right into your USB port.
    Zap!
    Just like that your game piece has been formed. It had something to do with metallic particles in the gelatin that reacted to certain magnetic energies or something. I did watch the special on Discovery Channel about it, but I didn’t really retain all the facts. It was interesting but not that interesting. Not at the time anyway. Plus that was five years ago. I shouldn’t be held accountable for stupid facts from that long ago that weren’t important to me then.
    
I pulled one of the boxes down and stared at the cover. The words “ Black Hole” spiraled into the blackest of spaces. “ Don’t Get Sucked In!” was fighting its way out of the center.
    The shrink-wrap was cold on my fingertips as I pulled away at the plastic covering. It was like opening a Christmas present that I already knew what it was. Disappointment entered my mind as the wind howled, mocking me: “What did you expect?”
    The box made it seem so harmless. It was just this colorful cardboard box complete with cheesy catch phrases. I went along with this idea and was able to pry the lid off just like I was about to play Monopoly. But I wasn’t. I wasn’t sure what I was about to do.
    I knew what I wanted to do.
    I’m not sure if the Internet still ran, but if it didn’t there were the ready-made designs. The TV commercials made it seem like they were demanding you to make your own custom piece to fully enjoy the experience. But did any of that really even matter anymore? Maybe it wouldn’t work anymore.
    In the Black Hole the object of the game was to acquire as much items, money, and connections before you made it to the center of the black hole. The top three players could then attempt to roll the dice to escape the center, calling on connections, asking for help making deals with all they accumulated.
    The connections were the key to the game. If you played with the same game piece every time they actually stayed with it some how. I think there was a silicone memory infused in it or something weird. It was on the Discovery Channel special.
    For most people, all they needed to see was the Discovery Channel special. It didn’t quite work for me. Not after the first time I considered playing.
    The first time was about three years ago. All the hoopla surrounding the game had died down a bit. Some of the religious right had made fools of themselves and plenty of late night talk shows mocked them, by playing the game on live television.
    Politicians with religious backgrounds even reassured voters that they were never afraid to play The Black Hole . They had no need to be. They already had no soul.
    That’s what The Black Hole did. That’s what has happened. The whole world has lost their souls to The Black Hole .
    Now I’m the crazy religious radical. And the sad thing is, I had stopped believing. I had no faith whatsoever. I believed in reason. I believed you should be a good person and that was that. Just be decent and decent things will come your way. It sounded good enough for me. And if there were a God, he’d see my effort on that front and at least consider that at the pearly gates, wouldn’t he? Sure I looked at the Bible as an early form of comic books, without pictures, just reoccurring characters like a television series.
    I didn’t hate religion. I was convinced it was a good thing; it was our only hope to raise some kids with an inkling of moral fiber. But it was losing a battle against indifference and