"Fifty bucks says you won’t jump."
Riley leaned casually against the rusting railing, smirking. The words were meant to bait me, but my mind was somewhere else. Fifty bucks wasn’t enough to convince me to leap into the icy blackness below, not tonight. Maybe not ever.
I glanced at her, my so-called best friend, with her wild hair and a cigarette dangling from her lips. She thought she was edgy, dangerous even, but I could see the cracks. The bravado was just armor. Everyone wore armor these days, and most of it was cheap.
“Make it a hundred,” I replied, trying to keep the quiver out of my voice.
“Broke as hell,” she muttered, tossing the cigarette into the void. It disappeared without a sound, swallowed by the night.
Before she could retort, a voice interrupted us. Smooth, velvety, and somehow familiar. “Ladies, what’s the going rate for dignity these days?”
I turned, startled. A man—or something approximating one—stood a few feet away. He wore a suit that shimmered oddly, as though it couldn’t decide on a color, and his face was… ordinary. Too ordinary, like someone who’d spent his life blending into crowds.
Riley snorted. “Who the hell are you, the moral police?”
He smiled, a slow, deliberate thing that made my skin crawl. “Not quite. Let’s just say I’m in acquisitions. And business has been slow.”
I wanted to laugh, but the words snagged on something deep in my chest. Acquisitions? What kind of corporate nonsense was this? Still, there was something unnervingly magnetic about him.
“You know,” he continued, stepping closer, “there was a time when people like you would’ve begged me for a deal. Wealth, power, fame. Whatever your little heart desires. Now, though…” He spread his hands, almost wistfully. “It’s like nobody cares anymore.”
Riley was the first to recover. “Oh, I get it. You’re one of those YouTube prank guys, right? Trying to catch us on camera for some viral nonsense?” She reached into her pocket. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m fresh out of gullible.”
“No camera,” he said softly. “No pranks. Just an honest offer.”
Something about the way he said it made me shiver.
“What kind of offer?” I asked, the words slipping out before I could stop them.
He turned his gaze to me, and I felt like I’d just stepped into deep water. “Ah, there’s the curiosity. Always starts with that.” He stepped closer. “Tell me, what would you give to never feel this gnawing emptiness again? To wake up with purpose, with fire in your veins? I could give you that. A snap of my fingers, and your life changes forever.”
I swallowed hard. “At what cost?”
He chuckled, the sound like brittle leaves crunching underfoot. “Ah, the classic question. But that’s the beauty of it—no upfront payments. Just a… future favor.”
Riley rolled her eyes so hard I thought they might get stuck. “Seriously? That’s your pitch? Sounds like a bad MLM scam.”
His smile didn’t falter, but his eyes grew colder. “Mock me all you like. The truth remains. This world is drowning in apathy. You people have stopped dreaming. You don’t want to risk anything, even for everything.”
I felt my pulse quicken. “What do you mean?”
He turned away, pacing to the edge of the bridge. “It’s harder by the day to cut deals, you see. Not because humanity has suddenly grown virtuous, no. It’s because you’ve stopped believing. My offers of wealth, fame, indulgence—they’re dismissed as jokes. Elaborate pranks, as your friend suggested.” He glanced at Riley. “But you know what’s worse? The ones who do believe… they don’t care. They look me in the eye and say, ‘What’s the point?’”
His voice dropped, and for a moment, I thought I saw something raw, almost vulnerable, flicker across his face. “I used to give people what they wanted because they wanted. Now, I’m just a relic of a time when desires burned brighter than fear.”
The silence that followed was thick, suffocating.
“Look,” Riley said finally, “I don’t know what kind of weird existential crisis you’re having, but we’re not your therapists. Maybe try Reddit or something.”
He ignored her, his gaze locked on me. “What about you, Anna? Don’t you want something more?”
I flinched. I hadn’t told him my name.
“How do you—”
He cut me off. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is this: you still believe, don’t you? Somewhere, deep down, you think life could be more than this endless grind. You still want something.”
His words struck a nerve I didn’t know I had. I thought about my dead-end job, the hollow ache in my chest, the way every day felt like dragging my feet through quicksand.
“What’s the catch?” I whispered.
“No catch,” he said, but there was a gleam in his eye that suggested otherwise. “Just a simple agreement. I give you what you want, and someday, when the time is right, I ask for something in return. A small thing, really. Hardly worth mentioning.”
Riley stepped between us, her hand on my arm. “Don’t listen to this guy, Anna. He’s full of crap.”
“Am I?” the man asked, tilting his head. “What if I told you I could erase every regret you’ve ever had, every mistake you’ve ever made? Wouldn’t that be worth a chance?”
I hesitated, torn between the temptation and the nagging sense that this was a very bad idea.
“What’s the point?” I blurted suddenly. “Even if you could fix everything, it wouldn’t change the fact that the world’s falling apart. That nothing really matters.”
His smile faltered, just for a moment. Then it returned, sharper than before. “Ah, there it is. The apathy, the despair. That’s the real epidemic, isn’t it? You’ve all convinced yourselves that nothing matters, so you stop trying. You stop wanting. But you’re wrong, Anna. It does matter. You just have to let yourself believe again.”
Something inside me cracked. Against all logic, against every warning bell in my head, I found myself nodding. “Okay,” I said, my voice barely audible. “What do I have to do?”
Riley grabbed my shoulder. “Anna, no! This is insane!”
But the man was already smiling, his hand outstretched. “Just take my hand. That’s all.”
I hesitated, my heart pounding. Then, slowly, I reached out.
The moment our hands touched, a surge of heat shot through me, and the world shifted. For an instant, I felt invincible, like I could conquer anything.
And then it was gone.
The man released my hand and stepped back. “Congratulations, Anna. You’ve made your first real choice in years. Enjoy it.”
Before I could respond, he was gone, vanished into the night.
Riley stared at me, her eyes wide. “What the hell just happened?”
I didn’t have an answer. All I knew was that, for the first time in forever, I felt… alive.
But deep down, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d just made a terrible mistake.
The devil doesn’t always lie. Sometimes, he just lets you lie to yourself.
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To the devil, he only sees just a "little" favor but that itself is the biggest lie. I do hope that Anna understands the gravity of the deal she just made because she might not get a chance to get out of it.
Wow!
This is so good that it's left me speechless. How was he so convincing yet creepy at the same time? I really hope Anna doesn't suffer too much consequences for this action. And that quote at the ending, is it yours? Because I love it
Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m thrilled you found the story gripping. As for Anna, let’s just say her journey is far from over! 😃 And yes, the quote is mine—I’m so happy you loved it!