Karma's Gonna Come Collect Your Debt 소설 & 이야기

"Most people in my world are so calculated, they've forgotten how to be real. You're real, Isla. Even when you're furious. Especially then." The compliment feels like a trap. A snare laid in the grass. "I need time to think." "You have twenty-four hours." "That's not—" "Twenty-four hours. After that, I proceed with legal debt collection." My hands clench in my lap, nails digging into palms. "You're blackmailing me." "I'm giving you a choice. A generous one." His voice is clinical again. Cold. "Your current path ends in bankruptcy and your mother losing access to treatment. My offer ends in freedom."

Someday, I will come to collect my debt, and I will collect with interest. In the meantime, what chance do I take?

“But patience only goes so far. Your father owes me twenty million dollars, and I’m here to collect.” I swallowed hard. My father sat slumped in the corner, a near-empty glass of whiskey dangling from his fingers, his face ashen and hollow. He wouldn’t even look at me. Twenty million. How the hell were we ever going to pay that? The debt had started small,a few bad bets here and there,but it had snowballed into something monstrous. And now… now it was life or death. “Please,” I croaked, stepping forward to shield Kayla, who was trembling behind me. “We just need more time. A week. I’ll find a way to get you the money.”

Shit. Not good. Not good. Not good at all. I called Kelly, and she agreed that the meaning could be ominous, but she also agreed that since I had cashed the first one, I might as well cash the second one. I was in deep; I already owed whoever it was more money than I’d ever be able to pay back, so why not dig myself in that much deeper? If they came collecting I’d be just as fucked, so I might as well enjoy it while it lasted, right?

Would he still love me if he knew who I truly was or the things I’d done? Would he still love me if he knew that I had spent the past decade as a karma dealer? Yes, you heard me right. I deal out karma for a living. I know it sounds complicated & a bit crazy, and sometimes it is, but I always enjoyed my work & I’ve made damn good money doing it. You'd be surprised how much a vindictive individual will pay to see you dish out karma to those that have wronged them. The only downside of my work is that I could never stay in any one place too long.

The last thing I wanted was to ruin her day with my negativity. Rona rolled her eyes. “I know it sounds crazy, but I’m not asking any questions—and neither should you.” “Okay, but what’s the catch?” “Catch?” Rona commented. “There is no catch.” “Really.” “Yes.” She nodded. “Apparently, this buyer will collect their debt when they feel like it.” “I don’t know, Rona.” I gave her my honest opinion. It was just too good to be true. “This entire situation is giving me…cartel slash mafia.”

That was the night the thought first came to her, quiet and unwelcome, slipping in somewhere between exhaustion and fear: "What if this problem just went away?" She hated herself the moment she thought it. And then she thought it again anyway. --- She found herself, two nights later, sitting in her car outside a bar on the edge of downtown — the kind of place with blacked-out windows and a name that didn't appear on any map app. She'd heard about it from a girl she used to work with years ago, someone who'd once mentioned, half-joking, that her cousin knew people who could "make problems disappear" for the right price. Chloe hadn't thought about that conversation in years. She thought about

Her family was in chaos every day. "They consulted a fortune-teller, who told them that they owed too many debts and needed to repay them, or the whole family would be destroyed."