The Broker

[WP] Exactly one hour before death, no matter the cause, everybody is visited by a man in a blue tie. Nobody else can see or hear him, but he always offers the same deal to everyone he meets. Whoever refuses the deal dies. Whoever accepts the deal disappears, and is never seen again.

Blue ties were now an item of horror cosplay and fanfiction.

It was when the psychics, mediums, and necromancers started talking about it. About what some dead people stuck in limbo channeled to them. About the man in a blue tie.

At first, it sounded like a bogus story - and even now, it still did to most skeptics, critics, and scientists. But for the normal people, the average people like me who acknowledged that the paranormal existed, we were all afraid of when the man in the blue tie would come and propose that deal.

The deal was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place - it was like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. None of the spirits ever revealed what the choice would be, but they made it clear that the terms of the deal were very hard to take, and accepting the deal would mean they would live, but they would vanish into oblivion.

It seemed like a no-brainer since I assumed that people would normally choose to die since disappearing forever just didn't make sense, but later I found out how people... how I myself did not want to die.

While both involve oblivion, the questions surrounding the death were too many. Questions that ate away at my brain, questions that had no answers, since all the spirits that could be channeled had not gone on to the afterlife.

All I could do was hope that I would never get visited, but that was not mean to be.

"Are you ready to hear the terms of the deal?"

The question stunned me. Normally, a lot of pranks had started based on the stories, and the police had to intervene. But this was different. Time stopped. The birds in the sky, the cars, the people, everything froze in place.

And there he was, in a black suit, black shirt and blue tie, carrying a black briefcase. His irises were intensely dark, yet they looked empty and devoid of emotion or life.

"Are you..."

"I am the Broker. I have come to you with the deal. You can either choose to die, which will happen on this very street in one hour, or you can choose to accept the terms of the deal and disappear forever."

"And where do I disappear to? Will I be alive? Will there be others there?"

"All I can say is that you will leave. I can't reveal any other details to you. That, you will have to find out on your own."

I was quiet for a long time. It was so shocking that I kept my mouth shut. All my hopes, dreams, dashed forever. I had been met by that man. I had to make that goddamn choice.

Sh!t.

"Make your choice now."

"What's the deal? What do I have to do?"

"Your job... is to ensure that this engineer does not turn up at his site today. He's supervision the creation of the biggest shopping mall today, and it's his job to make sure that the foundation is good enough to support the building..."

"If he doesn't turn up, that means..."

"Yes, in one year from now, the mall will be open. Thousands will attend the opening. It will collapse during a small earthquake. No survivors."

"What?! That's insane!"

"Overpopulation is what's insane. This is one of the many mechanisms that they have to use to control it. You humans are the ones forcing us to have to intervene in such a crude manner."

"Still it's..."

"...the price you have to pay if there is to be an earth in the next 100 years, and that's that."

He wasn't budging, and now I could see why many didn't take the deal. He just had to tell me what was going to happen if I did, so even if I did take the deal and live, the gravity of what I'd done, the guilt, those things would weigh me down forever.

"I'm not taking it."

"Pfft. You're just a waste. If you think by any chance you just averted a huge crisis, then you're wrong. Someone else will take this deal, but you, you're gone."

With that, he disappeared and time continued.

******

It was five minutes to the said time. All I had to do was avoid being on that road - once that was done, I would have proved him wrong and hopefully, I could live.

Hopefully.

My phone buzzed. It was my mom.

"Hello? Mum?"

"This is her neighbor! She's just fallen down outside, and it doesn't... it doesn't look so good! Hurr-"

I ended the call and hailed a taxi immediately. The road to Mom's house was a different route from that street. It was safe... there was no way I was going to be there.

Dialing our family doctor's line time after time without a response, I hit the chair in front of me in exasperation. I dialed again and he answered.

"Hello?"

Then I looked at my watch.

14:0o PM.

The appointed time.

"Yo, driver... where are we?" I asked, scared as I looked around in shock.

"Oh, I cut into 86th street to avoid the traffic..."

"You did wh..."

I never got to finish that sentence because a car smashed into ours from the back and crushed the life out of me instantly.

******

@Leo_kitti, @Hanzell the oneshots are back.