In Search of a U-Turn

Two strange things happened that day. The worldwide stock market crashed drastically, and Rahel got to have multiple times larger amounts of money he had lost on his invested stocks in the morning. But whether it was a miracle or a curse is for us to decide.

Every middle-class working family tries to save little by little for the future. Rahel, a corporate job holder, has to do office work from 9 am to 5 pm, leaves home at 7 am, and returns at 7 pm, thanks to the high traffic and high accommodation cost in his office area for which he lives far from there and spends an extra time on this way. Living from paycheck to paycheck, whatever remains is invested in the stock. Why on earth did he think of investing in stocks instead of something more stable?

Rahel thinks that his job can't give him the life he dreams of before his retirement; job holders cant change their fortune the way a businessman does. He can't go with businesses, but he has the knowledge, interest, and greed for investing in stocks that might change his fortune within a short period of time, he had heard of many. He was taking risks with monthly savings and dreaming of getting back multiple times more from those stocks. He has never looked at the opposite side of the equation.

It was Monday, and his day started as usual; during the lunch break, he was continuously getting notifications of a sudden crash in the stock market. Everything was falling rapidly; he took control of himself and cooled himself that things would change and all the stocks would go in reverse; he closed the charts and returned to his desk. His body might be on the desk, but his mind is on those stocks. He took leave and left for home. On his way back, he noticed breaking news on how devastating the situation is on the stock market, how everything is getting worse, and the impact might need a decade to recover from the crash or might not even recover.

Two hours later, Rahel discovered himself in his bed, he was unconscious, and two strangers had brought him home. Seeing the investments of so many years getting lost like this is beyond acceptance; so many dreams are scattered, and he feels like a blank page as nothing he had written so far going to see the light, so he is left with nothing. He has a job, but everything he has dreamt and worked hard for is gone, and it is not easy to get back to normal life.

It was around 11 pm, a knock on the door, a box filled with money, approximately 10k USD, and a letter written, "Sorry for your losses, come to the rooftop if you wanna recover your loss and earn what you aimed to do twenty years later from now within tonight." Someone who has lost everything has seen a ray of hope to recover that; he has nothing more to lose, so why doesn't he give it a try to see if it's real or if someone is joking around? Those ten thousand dollars caught his attention, which is why he started to consider this seriously instead of as a joke.

Rahel came to the rooftop alone and didn't let any of his family members come, what if something unexpected happened, he started caring about the odds now.

He got a bag and a letter on top of it. The letter says, "Hello Rahel, have a seat, you lost a significant amount in the morning and we are very sad to know that. But here is a deal for you to recover what you have lost, way more than the amount you lost, ten times that."

Rahel looks toward the bag; maybe it contains the money this letter is talking about. But what's the deal someone is offering so much money for? He continues reading.

"You were almost dead today due to the shock you got from knowing the losses, your death would have brought nothing to your family."

That's also true; Rahel had a heart attack when he got unconscious on the bus. So he was saved by the grace of the Almighty.

"Now I wanna trade your ethics, open the bag, and see if it pleases your eyes and soul to trade. Continue reading the letter if you wanna proceed or tear the letter and walk back to your apartment without turning back."

Rahel opened the bag and saw lots of money, so much he hadn't even dreamed of touching them at once. He started to estimate if it really had that large amount or not. Yes, it actually was ten times more than he had lost in the morning. Also, he did discover a knife, a sharp one; now he is in panic again.

Rehel wants the money; any human can barely turn back to this amount of money, especially when you have lost all of your savings in the morning. He continues reading.

"The money is yours if you take the dare I am offering. Take the knife and stab the person you see out of your building to death. That's it. Grab the Bag or Turn Back, Best of Luck"

📸 Nathan Dumlao

It's almost 12, ten to fifteen minutes left to hit. Rahel is trembling with fear; he is thinking about double-crossing this anonymous guy and suddenly notices another piece of paper hanging on the bag written, "Don't try to double-cross." He notices a laser light on his chest; someone has pointed a gun at him, maybe to show him the possible consequences if he tries to double-cross.

Within a day, Rahel saw his whole life getting burned into ashes, and now he is standing in front of a U-Turn that can give him more than he may achieve in the rest of his life. On what consequences? He lost all his senses to think about that; he started to consider his own interest.

Rahel grabs the bag and hurriedly gets down to his apartment. Within a few minutes, he leaves his apartment with that knife and starts looking for someone to kill. He is acting like a madman. He ends up stabbing a fifteen-year-old boy who waves him to ask about Rahel's son as they are classmates. The parents of that boy and other spectators became perplexed upon seeing this incident. Neighbors took him down and handed him over to the police. He had gone mad for real; it was later found that those two incidents greatly impacted his mental health and led him to lose his normal senses; he was sent to a mental asylum for the rest of his life.

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Join this week's The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #108