The Lottery Novels & Stories

or ghosted me with silence the moment they saw the McLaren name under “previous employer.” I was tired. Hungry. My feet were aching. And hope? It was on life support. So when I passed a small, dimly-lit convenience store tucked between a laundromat and a pawn shop, I thought, Screw it. I stepped inside, grabbed a lukewarm bottle of soda, and stood in line behind a man yelling about expired coupons. And then I saw it. The lottery machine. The digital screen flickered with the words: “JACKPOT: $10,000,000 — Play Today!”

The Lottery had begun. It was a ritual older than any living soul, older than the crown itself, or so the elders claimed. No one could say with certainty why it had started. Some whispered of bargains with gods, struck in blood and desperation during a war long forgotten. Others swore it was penance, a kingdom’s endless atonement for sins never spoken of aloud. Whatever the truth, the rule never changed: two girls from every village, chosen by chance, would be taken to the palace. What happened after was a matter of rumor.

I had been pursuing Seth for so long, yet he never remembered the fact that I was allergic to pollen. "By the way, lend me 150 dollars. I want to buy some books. Once my family mails me money, I'll pay you back." I had lost count of how many times Seth told me the same thing. The thing was, he never returned any cash to me. I just huffed coldly before walking home right away. Seth could be heard hollering my name angrily from behind. As soon as I walked through the front door, I saw Catherine toying with her new watch. I recognized it as an item only sold in a department store in the town.

"Go ahead and take it if you're not afraid to die. Because this is the reason my entire family was destroyed." The crowd froze. People looked at one another, hands hovering in midair. They were suddenly unsure. They had all seen what my son had looked like on that pavement not long ago. Corinne frowned and held back as well. I seized the moment. "All of you think selling those tickets was the stupidest thing I could have done. But the truth is, for my family, winning the lottery is easy." Someone laughed. "That's impossible. Hitting a 30-million-dollar jackpot? Most people couldn't manage that in a hundred lifetimes."

“She’s fine. And she’ll stay fine—as long as you agree to what we need you to do.” Confusion washed over me. “What? What are you—” “The Pierce family has been entered into the Lottery.” My eyes widened, shock crashing over me. What?! The Lottery system. A program that randomly selected families with unmarried daughters and paired them with men from wealthy, elite families. It sounded like a dream—on the surface. But everyone knew the truth. It was created for men who couldn’t marry into elite families. Men with reputations, with flaws families didn’t want to tie themselves to. Disabled, uncouth, disgraced—men no respectable fath