The Debt Vision

3. No One Left

The rain hadn't stopped by the time Sebastian reached his apartment building. The building was old and stained. The elevator had been broken for months. The landlord kept promising repairs, but nobody believed him anymore. 

Sebastian was climbing the stairs slowly, his mind still busy recalling the memory of the woman offering one hundred thousand dollars for a debt file worth three dollars and then the warning that someone knew where he lived.

The words refused to leave his mind as reaching his floor he unlocked the door and stepped inside. The apartment was small with one bedroom, one couch and one table. That was all.

Three months ago, he had lived in a luxury apartment overlooking downtown, he drove a vehicle allowed by his company to him, people returned his calls. He chuckled realizing how quickly success disappeared.

The moment the accusations surfaced, everything collapsed instantly like someone flipping a switch. Sebastian dropped onto the couch, feeling all exhausted.

For the first time in a while, silence surrounded him. There were no usual investors mocking, laughing or whispering about him. Just pure silence. His eyes drifted toward a framed photograph sitting on a nearby shelf. 

There were four people in the picture. Sebastian, Nathan Brooks, Marcus Hale and another colleague of his. Marcus was the founder of the Blackstone Asset Recovery group, the one who had treated Sebastian like his own family once.

Sebastian passed a faint smile recalling Marcus hadn't even called him once when Sebastian had given him five years of loyalty, solving impossible cases for him, five years of building the company's reputation and when the accusation arrived there was no question, no investigation, no support from his side, only silence.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Three loud bangs and Sebastian frowned because nobody really visited him anymore. Another knock followed harder this time and he stood and opened the door.

His landlord, Mr.Cooper was waiting outside, looking perpetually annoyed in his late fifties.

“You got my messages ?”

Sebastian already knew where this was going. “Rent.”

“Exactly.” The landlord folded his arms. “You're two weeks late.”

“I know.”

“And?”

Sebastian stayed silent because there was not much to say.

The landlord sighed dramatically. “You know, I tried helping you.”

His statement almost made Sebastian laugh inside his mind because threatening eviction every three days wasn't called helping anybody.

“I gave you extra time.”

“One week.”

“That's extra.” The landlord's eyes swept across the apartment and his expression changed. “Oh!”

Sebastian knew that look of recognition and disgust because everyone gave him that look now. It seemed like the landlord suddenly remembered who he was. A fraud investigator, the disgraced professional man from the news.

Mr.Cooper shook his head. “I didn't realize it was true.”

“What was true ?” Sebastian's jaws clenched.

“The fraud charges on you.”

“There were no charges.”

“Sure.” The landlord snorted.

Sebastian looked away because trying to explain never worked as people preferred headlines which required less thinking.

“I want my money by tomorrow.” Mr.Cooper's voice hardened.

“I need more time.”

“You've had time.”

“I'll pay.”

The landlord laughed hard as the sound echoed through the hallway. “With what ?”

The question landed harder than it should have because Sebastian didn't have an answer and Mr. Cooper saw it immediately that made his smile worse.

“If you had money, you wouldn't be living here.” He smirked, lifting his eyebrows at him.

The doors nearby opened slightly as slowly the neighbors enjoyed watching, judging and listening to their conversation. 

Sebastian felt heat rise in his chest the moment he witnessed nearby neighbors enjoying his situation while mocking at him.

“People like you always think you're special.”Mr.Cooper lowered his voice. “Then reality catches up.”

With that he turned and walked away while Sebastian said nothing in response and kept his head lowered. The neighbouring doors closed one after another and like this the audience enjoying his miserable state was finally gone as the performance was over.

Sebastian shut the door behind him and leaned against it and for a moment he stood like that there, all alone. Suddenly his phone buzzed and a message appeared from an unknown sender.

For a second , hope flickered inside him assuming maybe it was information about the debt file or maybe it was another buyer. Instead, it was a news article attached without any explanation.

Sebastian opened it and his expression darkened as the article was three months old. The very day, his career was ruined. The headline read :

FINANCIAL INVESTIGATOR LINKED TO MISSING CORPORATE ASSETS 

Beneath it was his photograph. The photograph he hated the most because it wasn't taken at work. It was taken when he was arrested. The article had received over two million views. He couldn't believe his eyes as now he realized that millions of strangers knew his face and who believed he was guilty.

His grip tightened around the phone as another message arrived and this one contained only a single sentence.

We know what you bought .

Sebastian's blood ran cold reading the message and he looked toward the window assuming someone was watching his every move but there was nothing.

His gaze dropped to the debt file resting on the table. This was a mysterious asset with impossible valuation. None of it made sense to Sebastian yet one thing was becoming clear to him that the debt wasn't valuable because of money. It was valuable because somebody desperately wanted it hidden.

The silver glowing words suddenly appeared again brighter than before in front of his eyes.

[ Asset Reassessment Complete ]

[ Ownership Linked Discovered ]

Sebastian stepped closer as his heart pounded with every step he was taking as the message continued.

[ Original Secured Asset Located ]

And a new line appeared below it with just an address. There was no explanation, no details, only a location on the eastern side of the city and then one final warning appeared which made Sebastian's face lose all his color.

[Do not visit alone.]

[Current Claimants : 4]

[One claimant is already waiting there.]