She stepped out of the library, and the first thing that happened was the strap on her bag snapped. Sam smiled, tied a knot in the leather, and kept walking. It was a mess, but at least it was her mess.

Inside, she met a man named Arthur, a "Luck Architect" whose job was to balance the global scales. He explained that Sam wasn't cursed; she was a "Sinkhole." Luck, Arthur claimed, was a finite resource. For every lottery winner, there had to be someone like Sam to absorb the equal and opposite reaction of the universe. She was the reason other people had "good days."

"I want the world to stop bending for me," Sam replied. "I'd rather fight for my life than have it handed to me on a silver platter that someone else had to polish."