Running through the darkness of the forest, I felt the thick droplets of rain hitting me, the heat in my body numbing me to their chilliness as I maneuvered over outstretched roots of decade-old trees, and under the branches of younger ones. I could see the occasional trails of flashlights lighting up my surroundings, signals of their relentless chase despite how much distance I had covered already. They had seen me come into the forest. They knew I was somewhere in here, and didn’t seem keen on the idea of letting bygones be bygones.

The ocasional flashes of lighting made me paranoid, momentarily lighting my surroundings and sending me to the darkest reaches of despair each time, thinking- ‘this is it, they finally got me’ only for the roar of thunder to take its place and make me realize it was a false alarm. Maybe it was thanks to that constant change in emotions -hope and despair- that allowed me to keep running despite not being fit for such a strain. Even so, it was surprising how long I had managed to last without tripping on some random twig. Just as that thought crossed my mind, I did just that. As luck would have it, the end of a cliff was right in front of me when it happened, sending me head first to my doom, unable to even register the pain on my foot from tripping.

‘I just had to jinx it didn’t I?’

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as my eyes darted around on the lookout for any way out, even as the dread overtook my mind, my body kept working and soon enough I caught a glimpse of a vine extending from the canopy of a gigantic tree I just went past in my descent. It was a tiny window where I would be able to grab onto it, but with adrenaline pumping through my body and the promise of death if I were to fail, both my mind and brain were pushed past their limits and to create a miracle... Or a spark of it. As I grabbed onto the slippery thing for dear life, the laws of physics soon worked their magic, turning all of that vertical momentum horizontal and sending me right into the trunk of the tree with the speed of a car.

“SHIT-!”

I tried swinging to the left, where one of the tree’s thick branches extended, in hopes of latching on to it. I didn’t make it. My right side hit against the trunk, a pain great enough to make me see stars engulfed me and undid my grip from the vine. Even I, as miserable as my life was, never had to endure such physical torment. I was out of my depths, and yet the fun was only starting. My eyes shut open and I realized the crash had bounced me towards the branch I saw before. I was too low to properly grasp it, but not low enough to avoid slamming my head against it, only barely managing to take part of the impact with my arms instead.

“URGH-”

My arms felt like they were on fire, my body was sent into a spinning frenzy and the hit to the head wasn’t helping either. The dizziness rendered me unable to properly gauge up from down or left from right. I felt like I was about to vomit. The situation was completely and utterly out of my control, so I closed my eyes and opened my arms and legs in hope of hitting some branches on the way down, and decreasing my momentum. I left it all to fate, against my will, one final time.

Thud, Snap. THONK. CRACK- Thump.

TACK.

It felt both like a couple seconds and a whole life had gone by in my descent till I finally reached the ground, not even a bush to cushion my landing. Part of a branch I broke along the way landing a hair's-breadth away from stabbing me in the eye.

The pain was unbearable, I could feel my whole body burning as I struggled to breathe, both due to the run I hadn’t had the time to rest from and a hit to the chest along the way. I knew my right leg was broken for sure, my arm might have been as well. A trail of blood was coming from the top of my head and covering half of my eyesight. I didn’t know if the fact that I couldn’t feel myself bleeding out bore ill or not. Even if the damage wasn’t superficial that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. As I looked upon the sky with my one clear eye I could see the flashlights peeking from the trees at the top of the cliff. After finding nothing, they kept looking elsewhere, finally leaving me alone. Not that I could use that freedom in my current state.

As I laid there, unable to move, I wondered.. Why did this have to happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? My thoughts wandered, trying to distract me from the pain. As I thought and taught, my life passed before me. I was not surprised to notice it. If only I deserved it, maybe it would have been easier. But in the end, it was all a matter of unlucky coincidences, one after the other, that led me to this. It was this unforgiving and unfair world with their disgusting people that led me to this. But that didn’t make me feel better. Just… weaker, frailer, and hopeless.

“Really now… How am I supposed to want to keep living after all this?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

‘I'm just… so tired… Maybe falling off that cliff was for the best. Dying to the elements themselves has a poetic ring to it, at least.’

Reaching that conclusion, I stared at the sky, waiting for the cold embrace of death. At the border of losing consciousness, a beam of light hit me straight in the face accompanied by the voice of a man. Really, even to the last moment I can’t even be left alone? But… There shouldn’t be anyone around for miles... WAIT- Could it be?!

“Am I… in heaven?”

As I awoke from my stupor, I felt the still freezing storm around me, my body barely my own, as if in sleep paralysis, and a tall man with a lamp and an umbrella right in front of me.

“Sorry to break it to you buddy, but you’re still stuck in hell with us demons.” - Said the man, an eerie grin etched across his face.

He was wearing a formal suit with a necktie, an umbrella on one hand with a lamp on the other. He had gray hair and eyes, yet his handsome face betrayed the fact that he wasn’t that old. His tone was cheerful to the point an onlooker might doubt their eyes, after all, who would be as upbeat as this guy when talking to a boy on the brink of death?

All of a sudden, the man started laughing.

“You don’t seem to be having the best of days, are you brat?”

From his demeanor alone I recognized him as one of the many before him. A walking freaking red flag. The bane of my existence. However,

“You’re not one of Monty’s guys…” I murmured without even thinking.

The man looked at me from above, his grin widening to an unnatural degree and his eyes filled with a mix of interest and amusement. “That is indeed so, little guy. However, I’ve been looking for you all the same.” As the man crouched beside me, he covered me with his umbrella and laid the flashlight on the mud, quickly erasing the notion that he meant any harm.

“I mean, stealing from one of the upperdogs of the underworld? One would have to be a madman not to see the mettle in you!” The man babbled on about others' insanity and my prospects, all throughout seeming just as depraved of those he slandered. Really now, how is anyone supposed to take him seriously?

“And so…” The man paused for a moment. “I have a deal for you.”

His lips sealed and he seemed to have frozen in place, his eyes locked on mine, an eerie feeling climbing over my spine.

“A deal?” I asked.

“Yes Liam, I’ll get you out of this predicament all for the low price of 10 years of your life, working for me.”

His vague words rang through my head. My whole body was telling me, SCREAMING at me that this was a bad idea, that I'd be better off just dying than getting into whatever this creepy guy had in store for me. As if reading my mind the man straightened and looked down on me, his grin gone without a trace.

“...You’ve been running around, hoping for a way out for a loooong time now Liam. Hoping for a change only for your wishes to be crushed. Over and over. Again and again. You should know it by now, don’t you? Deep down you’re aware that life is as shitty as shit can get. So stop deluding yourself, thinking that there’s such a thing as an easy way out.”

The man stopped talking and rummaged through the inside pocket of his blazer, pulling out a gun with his left hand while holding the umbrella with the other one.

“Do you really think there’s another world after death? That life would “redeem” itself in the end after all it’s done to you?”

With the gun at his side, he quickly removed the safety lock, making me jolt, and started walking slowly towards me.

“So, tell me Liam. What will it be?”

He aimed the gun straight at my head, I could hear the blood flowing through my ears and my heart about to burst out of my chest.

“Would you rather take a try at the worst this world has to offer, or spin the wheel and hope there’s a next one?”

His dead silver eyes looked at me coldly, his arm steady despite the weather, and his stance that of a springlock, as if ready to dash out at anyone and anything. The man… No, the thing before me had switched from a mad man into a cold-blooded killing machine. I knew it, he could and would shoot. However, the fact didn’t scare me as much as it grounded me. I didn’t need to think much over my options.

“... Fine, I'll work for you.”

As if I had turned some sort of twitch, his grin replaced his previous expression as he stored his gun while tossing his umbrella aside without care.

“Excellent!”

He crouched closer to me and extended his right hand, looking for a handshake.

“It’s a deal then?” Somehow, it sounded more like a statement than a question. His eyes were bigger than plates and his grin was creepier than a demon’s.

With strength I didn't know I had in me, I lifted my arm up and shook his hand, ignorant to what I was really getting into.