NOT LIKE THIS

Jacob grew up in a shady town. Their apartment was a single room, one mattress on the floor, a barely surviving TV, and a leaking roof that dripped into a basin anytime it rained. Most homes had electricity and most compounds had street lights, but theirs was more like a charity case.

Dinner was mostly instant noodles split in three ways. Jacob, his mom, and his younger sister, Rachel. On good days, which they never often had, there was an egg to go with it.

His father? He died before his sister could even learn how to spell her name. His mother worked multiple jobs, but her earnings were low.

Jacob had a big dream. He wanted fame, success, he wanted the kind of life where people asked for his autograph, not his rent. He prayed someone would notice his raps in the cheap phone he managed to afford.

But when the stomach is empty, hope also runs thin. One night, his mother hadn’t returned from her shifts and his sister needed to eat. He was caught stealing from a convenience store and badly bruised.

He went to his friend, Tyler. Tyler was a year older, a dropout who wore new sneakers and expensive clothing, even though he never seemed to have a real job. Jacob didn’t know what his work was, but he knew one thing. His pockets never ran dry.

“You’re still chasing that rap dream?” Tyler asked, lighting a cigarette. “And where did you get that bruise?”

“This is nothing.”

“You won’t make it like that, bro. Not in this world. But I could help a friend in need”

“What do I have to do?” Although he hesitated. He was tired of living s sorry life.

“You can’t ask questions. Just know it’s fast…and final. You just have to meet someone. Tomorrow night.”

The meeting took place. There were no names, just an old man in a gray suit whose eyes seemed like something inside him had long died.

“Fame. Money. Girls and Power. It can be yours by the weekend. But everything has a cost.”

“How much?”

“Not money. Something more valuable. Something you’ll miss…only after it’s gone.” Jacob was willing to do anything. He thought of his mother’s struggle, her tired hands and his sister’s hungry eyes.

“Whatever it takes.”

The next week, his music unexpectedly blew up. A producer reached out. Money began pouring in. Before a few weeks, his face was everywhere. People started making challenges with his song.

In a month, Jacob had 3 million followers. In three, he had a real record deal. They cried the day they moved out of that shady apartment. He bought his mom a house, a car. Anything she wanted. His mother was finally resting, he enrolled Rachel in a private school and they were finally living the life.

But then, the cracks began slipping in. His mother got sick, doctors couldn’t explain it and money didn’t help either. Rachel’s eyes turned hollow, she stopped speaking entirely, keeping to herself. He paid for the best therapy, nothing worked.

The more Jacob rose into fame, the more his family withered within. His mother passed within two months of fighting for her life. And Rachel…she couldn’t recognize him anymore.

“This is not what I signed up for. They’re taking more than I thought. This isn’t what I wanted.” He complained to Tyler. Things were falling out of place.

“They never tell you what they’ll take. I lost my brother. Big deal, I’m rich now though, isn’t that all that matters.”

The deal wasn’t for his soul or whatever. It was for those he loved. The fame, wealth and power came at a cost of the lives of the only people who mattered to him.

“Take me to him. He has to take it all back. I just want my family back.”

“The old man disappeared. They don’t take your soul, man. They take what made you human. Just live the life, bro. You asked for the crown, you got it.”

His sister died afterwards. Jacob still went to stages, he still wins awards. He sleeps in gold sheets. Only now, he was alone. A mansion with no laughter, dreaming of instant noodles and the sound of his sister’s laugh.

He got everything he ever wanted. Now also faced with guilt and regret. He regrets not asking what it would cost, regrets saying yes so quickly. He regrets the way his mother looked at him the last day she was alive – confused, like she didn’t recognize him anymore.

He regrets that when he finally had the power to change his family’s life. He traded his family’s life for that chance.

>Images were generated using META AI