My Billion-Dollar Account Hates Good People

2. Messed Up Dudes

Balance Available:

$1,000,000,000.00

I blinked once, then again my wet fingers trembled violently against the phone screen.

“No…”

I refreshed the app and the balance remained One billion dollars. I was scared… wait no… a cold sensation spread through my entire body, that’s the word.

This wasn’t possible, this couldn’t be possible, I checked the account number and my name was still there. “Lawrence Reed.”

I refreshed again, still there. Cars passed beside me while thunder roared overhead, but I barely heard any of it anymore and my heart pounded so hard it physically hurt.

One billion dollars.

I looked around wildly as if cameras would suddenly appear, it had to be fake, a glitch from the bank… a dream… clearly it wasn’t.

Another message arrived.

“Now you can stop begging the world to notice you.”

I typed immediately.

“Who are you?!”

Instead of getting a reply, another notification suddenly popped up from my banking app.

Transaction Completed: -$5,000

“What?”

I opened the transaction history to realize that five thousand dollars had just been sent from my account to a children’s charity organization. Mind you, I was still by the side of the road.

I panicked instantly, then I knew or at least I thought I knew that I had been hacked.

“No no no—!”

Then the screen refreshed again, this time by itself.

Balance Available:

$0.00

“What the hell?!” People nearby stared at me strangely as I shouted in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Good people do not deserve this account.”

Before I could react, another notification appeared.

Balance Updated: +$10,000

Then another message arrived.

“Your anger after being splashed by the vehicle generated hostility.”

Another deposit appeared instantly.

+$25,000

My eyes widened slowly, I stared at the screen while my heartbeat echoed loudly in my ears until the final message came.

“The account rewards sin.”

I stared at the message for a long time, rain dripping from my hair onto the glowing phone screen. “This is insane,” I muttered under my breath.

My fingers moved quickly across the keyboard.

“What kind of sick joke is this?”

Seen.

No reply.

The balance remained.

$35,000.

I refreshed the app again and again until my hands started hurting but it was still there. The rain around me suddenly felt distant now, like my entire body had gone numb.

I looked around carefully, the world looked exactly the same but mine had changed completely. I swallowed hard and slowly started walking again, my mind spinning violently.

“Maybe the money was fake and would disappear again. Maybe this was some illegal experiment. Hell, maybe I was losing my mind from stress.” I was processing a lot, and I needed proof.

Across the street was a small convenience store glowing under flickering lights. So I crossed the road quickly, nearly getting hit by a taxi in the process.

The bell above the store door rang softly as I entered, but the cashier behind the counter barely looked at me. Which was good because I looked like a mess and she would not have hesitated to kick me out as a beggar.

I walked through the aisles aimlessly, my heartbeat growing louder with every step.

“This was stupid. Absolutely stupid.” I thought, yet my hands still grabbed random items anyway.

Bread, Instant noodles, just incase all this was a prank and I go broke again overnight. I grabbed a canned drink and then I stopped near the alcohol section. A bottle of expensive whiskey sat behind the glass shelf priced for two hundred dollars.

Normally I would never even look at something like that, tonight though…I stared at it quietly, until a thought entered my mind.

“Steal it.”

I frowned immediately.

“What?”

The thought had come so naturally, to make matters worse, when I looked around, nobody was paying attention. And the cashier? Well he was busy watching football on his phone, so my eyes drifted back toward the whiskey.

Then my phone buzzed with a new notification.

“Impulsive immoral intent detected.”

Immediately:

Balance Updated: +$15,000

“What the hell…” I must have said that word a million times already. “The account could read intentions? No way.”

I quickly shoved the phone back into my pocket as if hiding it would somehow stop whatever this was, grabbed only the bread and noodles before walking to the counter.

The cashier scanned them lazily. “Eight dollars.”

I hesitated slightly before pulling out my card, wondering if it would really work. And it did because I left the store slowly, clutching the small plastic bag tightly.

Rain had reduced to a drizzle now, but the city still glowed brightly around me.This time it was Damien calling.

I answered immediately.

“What now?”

“You got the money?” he asked.

“No,” I said calmly. Honestly I dint know why I lied, I just did.

There was silence, then Damien sighed angrily.

“Then don’t bother coming back, Lawrence.”

Something dark flickered inside me at that moment, I remembered all the times I covered his shifts at work, the times I lent him money despite being broke myself, the times I cleaned the apartment alone while they partied. And now he was throwing me out like trash.. not just him but they… all of them.

My grip tightened around the phone.

“You know what?” I said quietly. “Go to hell.”

I hung up before he could reply.

Balance Updated: +$40,000

I stopped walking. Slowly, I pulled the phone from my pocket again.

The balance now read: $90,000.

This thing was feeding on darkness and I had nothing to say about it, not yet, not while I was just recovering from being broke.

A loud burst of laughter nearby snapped me out of my thoughts. Three rich college students walked out of a club nearby wearing designer clothes and expensive watches and one of them accidentally bumped into my shoulder.

He looked at my soaked clothes and frowned in disgust.

“Watch where you’re standing, bum.”

His friends laughed immediately. Normally, I would lower my head and walk away. But tonight…I turned slowly toward him.

He looked around my age. Perfect haircut, gold chain, arrogant face. Clearly the kind of guy girls like Vanessa always chose.

“What?” he asked mockingly when I kept staring.

His friends smirked.

“Damn,” another one said. “You smell like wet garbage.” And they burst into laughter again.

The richer boy noticed my expression and stepped closer.

“You got a problem?”

For a split second… A terrifying thought entered my mind and I hit him. That is where my story really begins.