IV

"The Karma Game?" I said, confused, a strange uneasiness in my stomach. It sounded ridiculous, like... The hell is he even talking about?

I wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Yes," he said, "I know it's hard to believe, it's ridiculous even, if you tell someone out of the blue... but it exists... The Karma Game, the most evil game to have ever been created, really exists."

I was quiet, my mind blank. I wasn't buying it but I couldn't scoff it off just yet. There was a long silence from both sides, I was just processing it. If he had said this some time ago, before he said everything about Demed and my past, I would have either cut the call or heard in amusement. But he sounded serious.

"Do you know John Rid?" said the man.

"Yes," I said. Even though I didn't bother with the real world and news and kept to myself, even I knew the name John Rid, it was all over the news a few months ago. The man who became a millionaire overnight thanks to the skyrocket in the stocks of the companies he invested in. He was called the 'luckiest man of the decade' by the press, because no one earned from that shot up even close to as much as he did, unbelievable coincidence but true. There were many who said this was stock manipulation but nothing came out of it.

"And the Benjamin family?"

"...yes," I said. I had heard in gossip that, about 7 months back, Christopher Benjamin and his entire family of 11 including him, his wife, brother, sister-in-law, mother, his unmarried sister and 5 kids of him and his brother, all committed suicide at the same time, in their house, hanging themselves. No motive, nothing, the case was a huge uproar in the day (reason I even heard of it), and till date remains an unsolved mystery.

"The sudden disappearance of Haley Smith, the suicide of Jacob Johansson, a driver Heldon Leen buying a private jet in a year, and so many other mysterious events of sudden riches, disappearances and deaths... You've heard of them, right?"

"Yes, most," I said, "but what of it?"

"What if I tell you every single one of them was a player of the Karma Game?"

I couldn't say anything, my mind couldn't process this... This was too ridiculous to be real but still I wasn't able to call it a bluff, because if this isn't true then what is?

My mind was going frenzy, I couldn't utter a word.

The man on the other side sighed heavily and said, "Look Ken, I understand it's hard to wrap your mind around something like this so suddenly... You don't have to think about it, forget what I said. Just trust me on this and don't do the task, that's all you have to do. No need to ever bother yourself about it again."

"'Forget about it' easy for you to say," I thought but calmed my mind down and said, "One last thing, the second question that I was gonna ask. Why are you doing this for me? What would you gain?"

"Nothing," he said, "I just want to save a boy from danger, who has already been through a lot. It's for your good, I don't intend to gain anything."

I paused. I had stopped believing in 'for the sake of good' shit a long time ago, that's naive. "I'm sorry, I can't believe that."

He sighed and said, "Yes, of course. Well then, I would just say I am one of the people who are trying to stop the Karma Game."

"Fair," I said. That was more believable.

"Take care of yourself... And call me on this number whenever necessary," said the man, "have a good night," and cut the call.

I didn't realise how long I just stood there by the road, blank. That was a shitload of ridiculous information for a few minutes, no way to confirm yet so much depending on it. In fact, since morning the day, everything, has been... Bizarre.

The icy wind, as the night grew upon me, woke me up and I simply walked home.

I calmed down after a while and started to think straight. The guy was right, I didn't have to bother with believing if something like "Karma Game" or whatever exists or not, like the fact that a game exists and one of its employees wants to recruit me and knows about my past because of that, and there's a man, also aware of my past, who is trying to keep me away 'cause he wants to end it, it's all hard to believe anyway, but if we don't believe then there's a gaping hole of 'motive' at the centre of it all, the 'why?'. Even if I dismiss it all by saying "they don't really know anything" there's still a why, just a different one. And most importantly, why me?

So for now I decided the best course of action will be to just stop thinking about the 'why's and do nothing about any of it, just like the man on phone said. Worst that can happen is my expose and jail, but like he said no one gains anything from it so that was unlikely too. Yes, I will not think about it and live like nothing happened. I took in a deep breath and pushed away all the loud thoughts crowding my head.

It should have been easy for a lowlife like me, who is dead all day and alive only with earphones and in front of a screen watching movies, shows, porn, or reading fiction, who avoids anything real life more than the bare minimum to stay alive.

So not doing anything about what all happened, the least exhausting option I had among all, should have been easy.

But turns out I didn't understand myself enough, because it wasn't.

And in the hours to come, a new idea, and a new feeling dawned in me, which ended up getting me standing in front of Demed again after 2 days...