A Life

Eugene had never imagined his life would take such a turn. Once a man of ambitions, dreams, and a career, life had slowly chipped away at him, leaving nothing but a hollow shell of who he once was. The jobs he held onto, the projects he poured his heart into, all slipped through his fingers one by one. As time passed, the rejection letters became a routine, and the walls of his small apartment began closing in. Bills piled up, and his savings were long gone.

It wasn’t just the loss of work that broke him—it was the loss of dignity. Every door he knocked on slammed shut in his face. Companies stole his ideas, left him with nothing but empty promises, and others didn’t even bother to acknowledge his existence. He had grown accustomed to the biting coldness of the world, a world that once held promise but now looked at him as if he were invisible.

One evening, with nothing but despair as his companion, Eugene found himself staring at his reflection in the dim glow of a streetlight. He felt worthless.

But desperation does strange things to people. When an offer came, a chance for money, he couldn’t afford to say no anymore. He was approached by someone who offered him money, a lot of money, for his time. The idea disgusted him at first, but hunger and hopelessness overpowered pride. He was sick, he was broke, and he was alone. His options had run dry.

And so, Eugene found himself walking into a world of shadows, where anyone like him were bought and discarded. His clients saw only his, not the broken soul beneath. Each night was an emotional death, but he had no choice. He told himself he was doing it to survive.

Eugene became his only currency, his only means of survival. But with every encounter, he lost a piece of himself, a piece that could never be reclaimed. The humiliation, the loneliness, the emptiness—they gnawed at him, tearing apart whatever was left of the everyone he once was. He longed for escape but found none. His life, once full of potential, had become a twisted nightmare he couldn’t wake up from.

Each morning, Eugene would stare at his reflection, wondering if there was anything left of him to save. And each day, the answer felt more distant. Anyone who had once dreamed of success and respect was now nothing but a ghost of his former self, wandering the streets of a world that had forgotten him, with nothing left but pain, sorrow, and the cruel reminder of how far he had fallen.