"What would it take for you to kill a man?"
"Excuse me?" I asked taken off guard. A stranger in an expensive looking suit sat across from me at the bus stop under the flickering light, his hat obscuring his face. The streetlights here were shot to hell, buzzing with that high-pitched electric whine that made my teeth ache.
It was the kind of night where the shadows stretched long and thin, swallowing the edges of the cracked pavement and the rusted fire hydrant. The air smelled of wet asphalt and rotting garbage, giving a scent that clung to the back of my throat.
There was no one else around, just the distant, mournful wail of a siren cutting through the humidity, and the rhythmic thumping of my own heart against my ribs.
"What would it take for you to kill a man?" He repeated.
"Why are you asking me this?" I asked feeling more than annoyed. Was this really what some dude should ask a girl that's alone at a bus top at night? I shifted on the bench, trying to get comfortable on the cold, splintered wood, but the dampness seeped through my jeans. I pulled my jacket tighter, the collar scratching at my neck.
This was not the night for philosophical debates with men in Armani suits. The bus was late, and the silence between us was stretching thin, filled with the hum of traffic on the main road two blocks away.
The man leaned back against the bench casually as if he were in charge of the place. "Because I want to know, Melody Grace." His face remained still, a mask of polished indifference that unsettled me more than any angry outburst would have.
"How do you know my name?" I asked feeling a chill run through me. This was getting real creepy, real fast. "Who are the hell are you?"
The strange man leaned forward and looked me on the eye. "I know everything about you, Melody. I know that right now you're drowning. That you got kicked out of your home and that you were planning on sleeping at this bus stop tonight instead of going where you were supposed to go. Brave, for a woman, so I want to know what it'd take for you to kill a man."
This guy was seriously freaky and I wanted to run and call the police... but what could someone like me do against an obvious psychopath. Maybe throwing out my phone when I left the house earlier really was stupid and reactive. I clutched the strap of my bag, my knuckles white.
Why am I so impulsive in bad situations?
Maybe I could just humor this guy a bit until the night bus arrived. After all there were no cars or pedestrians to help me this late at night. This was not a scenario I wanted to be in at all.
I looked at him.
"Why would I ever kill someone aside from self defense? The prison time isn't worth it," I said, my voice flat.
"Say you have a gun and someone is kneeling in front of you. One of those bullies or that young stepmom of yours," the man smiled seeing me shiver. "What if pulling the trigger could save a million people?"
He's a philosopher now? I let out a short, incredulous laugh. "The train tracks problem? Sacrificing one life to save a million?" I asked. It was a classic moral dilemma, one that usually belonged in a classroom or a philosophy seminar, not on a dirty bus stop bench at 2 AM.
"You could think about it that way," the man waved a hand dismissively at me. "But it doesn't have to be a million people. It could be for anything. Like power, money, the cure for cancer."
"I wouldn't be able to decide. Luckily I'll never have to." I said, crossing my arms defensively. I was done with this conversation. It was too much, too fast.
He leaned forward eagerly. "But what if you do? What if I have the power to make it happen?"
Fucking psycho weirdo!
"You have the power?" I tsked. "So just kill that man yourself. Why would I kill a random stranger just to cure cancer?"
"I can't do it myself," he replied. "Direct interference isn't allowed. But based on all my observations, you definitely have the kind of soul to do so."
I leaned back and crossed my arms. "You've never watched me. And even if you have it can't have been for that long."
"Like I said I can't directly interfere... however I can tell you that when you were ten years old you found a big spider nest. You named the spider jimmy and would return to feed it everyday until one day you saw the spiders nest was completely cleaned out. You had a crush on Phil in freshman year of high school. You've never told anyone because of it gets out the billing will just get worse. You're planning on visiting your mother's grave tomorrow and after that you'd try to live your best life doing odd jobs until you found something more stable. Need I say more?" The man asked.
I sat there just in shock feeling my entire body break out in goosebumps. I'd never told anyone about Jimmy the Spider, let alone that hopeless crush I had freshman year. Not even about my dad's habit of changing girlfriends every month even with this new bitch he married.
No one knew but me, yet sitting in front of me was undeniable proof that even keeping things to myself wasn't doable. The stranger had already seen into the cracks of my life.
What the hell?
I took a second to find my voice. "Ok, so you need me to kill one person to save others?"
"What you kill for is up to you. It'll let you receive anything your heart desires," he said smugly before standing up. "You have exactly twenty minutes to decide. And remember this opportunity will never come again so think carefully. And choose wisely."
Was that a threat? What if I say no? My mind raced. The stranger turned and circled the bench, his expensive shoes clicking rhythmically against the pavement. I watched him go as the knot of unease tightened in my stomach.
"In that ally over there you'll find the man I was talking about," I turned to the ally a few feet from the bus stop where the strange man was pointing. "You'll also find a gun. State your desire loudly before pulling the trigger."
"My desire?"
"Decide what you would kill for and what's worth a life." He turned to walk away. "Remember that you have twenty minutes. Will you pull the trigger or not?"
I looked at my old watch and slumped on the bench in relief that I survived that creepy encounter. Then the panic set in.
If that guy was watching me back then, was he still watching me now even though he walked away? And it didn't seem like he was giving me much of a choice but to act. Would not acting make things worse for me...
Then again, how could things get any worse than they are now? I was homeless, broke, and alone, my only family being the faint memory of my mother.
Ugh! What should i actually do? I suck at making decisions under pressure! Was there really a man in the ally whose life depended on me making a decision? What was the worth of a life? Was it more lives?
But now that I'm on my own... by doing this I could save the unsaleable, cure the uncureable, fix climate change, I could even have a world without any suffering in it.
And it would have only cost one life.
The money. I could be rich enough to never work again and vacation everyday. Best of all I'd have no reason to worry about where I'm going to sleep from now on. I could never see my stepmother again if I wanted! Power? I could rule the nation and change the course of history. Maybe even have a public televised shaming of my stepmom. No one would be able to stop me.
Shit, what about that guys life?
Did they have a family waiting for them at home? Were they like me? An outcast? It would be my fault that someone innocent died... do the ends justify the means?
I kept looking at the ally then back at my watch and before I knew it, fifteen minutes was gone.
Think.
Why the hell can't I think?
I had to decide now.
I'll just take a look, worst case scenario I just get mugged and beaten up, right?
I finally jumped up from the bench feeling insane and made my way with tunnel vision towards the ally. As promised there was a gun, laying there shining on the ground.
And at the end of the short dimly lit ally was a man indeed.
A man I unfortunately happened to know very well.