Cent - A horror story

The Coin made its first prey on a man who deserved it, Mr. Eddy Shultz.

Eddy was a businessman. A rich one at that. He didn't do anything sinful, he was simply greedy. He had more money than he knew what to do with, but didn't share it. He didn't give to any charities, churches, or even his son, who instead grew up on the streets with his mother, who also didn't receive any of Eddie's fortune, despite much pleading.

Walking by a poor homeless man, Eddie 'accidentally' kicked down his changed bucket. A single penny rolled out.

"I'll take that" said Eddie, not passing up the chance for some extra change to bathe in.

"Please sir..." said the homeless man. "I need all I can get..."

"Finders keepers!" said Eddie. "Should have picked up your money faster!"

For Eddie, this was him at his best. When he got to his desk, he examined his loot.

The penny was very scratched up. The only reason he knew it was a penny was that it was copper. It must have been very old.

He looked at the year. The only thing he could see was a 0 at the end. Weird.

He put it in his pocket, and awaited his next meeting, a client who usually bought out half their stock on fourth quarter.

"Hi Mr. Chultz!" he said.

"How de do!" said Shultz, his large stomach bouncing. "Let's get down to business, shall we?"

As it turned out, The client was in a good mood. He had just learned that his wife was pregnant, something they had been trying for for years.

"I guess it's your lucky day!" said the man. "we are going to buy double the paper, so 5,000 units."

5,000! That was double the paper! Double the money!

The men shook hands, and as soon as it started, the meeting was over.

As the day went on, Mr. Chultz's day got better. He got the last seat on the bus, he found a wristwatch on the ground. Around the beginning of the evening, a telephone pole fell right next to him.

"Oh, god, are you ok? Lucky you didn't get hit!" said a passerby. Lucky. Eddy felt the penny jingling in his pocket.

Unfazed by the accident, and realizing that this may really be his lucky day, Eddy went to the Lottery.

Instead of buying one ticket, he bought all 127 in the bucket,

"Are you sure?" said the clerk. "That will be almost 300 dollars!"

"Yessiree!" said Eddy. "all of em!"

"That's great!" said the clerk. "I can finally buy that new truck!"

When the lotto numbers came onto the television screen, Eddy, grasping the lucky penny, spent two hours going through his lotto tickets to find the numbers. The last ones he found were right.

Jumping with joy, Eddy almost skipped to the lottery office the next day.

Just feet away from the door, he did not notice the truck driving in the road.

----

"I swear, I didn't see him!" said the Clerk, clearly disoriented. "He came into my shop yesterday and bought over a hundred tickets..." he looked at the mangled body. "I bought this here truck, and god he's dead. I'm so sorry...." he threw up into the nearest trash can.

From the body rolled a single penny. Almost nothing could be seen on it, because of the collision, the authorities thought, except one number, on the end of the year.

It said 1.