Ticking Time Bomb 💣

 It was exhilarating while it lasted… but I’m afraid it’s time.

“No… it can’t be…” I whispered, my throat tightening, the words tasting like ash on my tongue.

The figure before me stepped from the shadows - tall, draped in a shifting cloak of black smoke, eyes burning like dying embers. His smile was thin, stretched unnaturally wide, as if carved into his face.

“The devil has returned to claim your soul,” he murmured, his voice reverberating with a hollow timbre that seemed to crawl into my bones.

“Why now?” I pleaded, my legs frozen, my breath shallow.

“Do not cry, child. This moment was written long before your first breath,” he said softly, almost tenderly. "Your path was sealed the day you whispered your desire into the void."

“I… I only wanted a taste of power… to be seen, to be heard,” I stammered. My mind spun with flashes of the past — the rushed deals, the shortcuts, the whispered prayers to unseen forces, the careless promises made under desperate moons.

“Yes… you craved the spotlight. You yearned to rise above them all,” he said, tilting his head, his eyes narrowing. "And rise you did. But every ascent demands its toll."

“But I haven’t enjoyed it all yet! I’m not done!” My voice cracked, teetering on the edge of hysteria. My hands clawed at the empty air, trying to grasp something, anything, to anchor me.

“It does not matter. You knew the terms. Your soul was collateral. And now… we have come to reap what is owed.”

Behind him, other shadows slithered and coalesced - vague forms with hollow eyes and gaping mouths, whispering in a language older than time itself. Their presence weighed down the air like wet iron, suffocating and cold.

“Please… no… give me more time…” My knees buckled, and I crumpled to the ground. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks, my fingers digging into the earth that seemed to pulse beneath me, as if alive and waiting to swallow me whole.

The figure knelt beside me, placing a hand - skeletal and ice-cold  on my shoulder. “Time is a luxury long spent. What is promised must be delivered.”

A scream tore from my lips - raw, primal  but it was drowned out by the rising chorus of those shadowed voices. They surged forward, engulfing me in darkness thicker than night.

And then.....

I jolted awake.

Gasping, I shot upright in bed. My sheets clung to my skin, drenched and heavy as though I had been dragged from the depths of the ocean. My chest heaved violently, my heart hammering against my ribs as if trying to break free.

The room around me was dim, silent… but the echo of that dark promise still rang in my ears. The shadows in the corners seemed to flicker, almost watching, almost waiting.

I wiped the sweat from my brow, but the cold dread remained. Deep inside, I knew one thing for certain:

This was not just a dream.

It was a warning.

And next time… I might not wake up in time.