Her Soul in the Devil's Hands

On TV

I woke up to the sound of my alarm around noon. Getting home late was a given with the kind of work I did, so I rarely ever got up before 10 am. And since I still wanted to get something done during the day, I had to set an alarm every day otherwise I wouldn’t wake up until a lot later. I pulled on my dressing gown and walked out to the bathroom, stifling a yawn on the way. I did my business, brushed my teeth and my hair and put on some light makeup. I never left the house without it. I turned on the TV while I made my routine breakfast. There was some kind of talk-show playing and I decided that was good enough to watch while I ate. The host had a very peculiar look about him. He seemed almost out of place, like he belonged somewhere more luxurious. His blond, curly hair was cut short but just enough to stay out of his blue eyes. I felt like they were staring piercingly at me although I knew that couldn’t possibly be true. He was in a studio somewhere live-recording and I was here, in my small apartment in the middle of nowhere. I lived just outside of the city, because it was cheaper than living in the city-center where I worked.

Something the show-host said caught my attention. Apparently, they were giving out a prize to someone who recently bought coffee at this coffee-shop I frequent. The prize was a vacation to the United States, which included a stay at a three-star hotel with all-inclusive and a private tourist guide. Even though I regularly buy coffee at that shop, I didn’t have high hopes that I was going to win. They probably had over a thousand customers a week, so the chances of it being me were rather slim.

“… catching the look on their faces. Let’s cut to Henrik and see who the winner is.” Said the host before they cut to a guy standing outside an apartment building that looked remarkably like mine.

“Thank you, Seth. I am currently standing in front of the winner’s apartment complex where we will surprise them shortly with the prize. Shall we get going then?” said the guy who I’m guessing is the other host. He had short ruffled brown hair and the most beautiful, tawny colored eyes. As he walked through the entrance to the building, I frowned. It looked exactly like where I lived, but that couldn’t be true. Right? My heart slowly started picking up its pace as the host neared a door that couldn’t be anything other than my door. He smiled into the camera as he held up his hand ready to knock on the door in front of him. As he did, I heard an echo of knocks, one coming from the TV and the other from the hallway. I gasped, rushing to the door in a daze. When I opened the door, I half expected that I had imagined it and that there wouldn’t be anyone on the other side. But there he stood with the cameraman right behind him, catching my reaction. I didn’t dare to imagine what my face looked like at that moment, as shocked as I was.

“Congratulation! You are the lucky winner of a vacation across the Atlantic, with an all-inclusive three-star hotel and a private guide! What do you say, Ms. Austen?” he said in a booming voice which didn’t help my already shocked state.

“I… um…” was all I could say at the moment.

“Well, would you look at that, she's speechless. That’s to be expected, I guess. Well, here’s your prize. You just have to activate it via this link at the bottom where you'll be asked to write your name and put in this code on the back, and then you’re good to go.” He said as he handed me a giant piece of cardboard and turned around to face the camera to continue: “Looks like that’s all from here. Back to you Seth.” As he said the last line, the red light on the camera turned off, indicating they had stopped recording. He turned back around and smiled at me.

“Bet you thought it was an illusion, when you saw us nearing your door?”

I blinked in surprise. “How’d you know I saw it?”

“I can hear Seth talking from your living room.”

“Oh… Right, that would explain it.” I looked down at my prize, still not able to fathom that I had won something. I can’t remember ever having won anything before. I looked back up at him, shock still visible in my eyes. “Well… Thank you very much… I guess.” I smiled timidly.

“You’re welcome. You have a good day now” And with that he gave a final smile and left with the cameraman trailing behind him. I shut the door and walked slowly back to the TV. The host had already moved on to other matters. I looked more closely at the card, trying to see if it was some sort of ruse, that it had all been some sort of cruel joke. So far, the ruse escaped me although I was sure there must’ve been one. I just couldn’t see it. I shrugged and moved on with my day as I usually would. Starting with reading the news before going on my daily walk around the neighborhood. I scrolled down further and further, but nothing really caught my attention, so I closed my computer and started preparing for my walk.

The weather was nice and sunny with only a light breeze, so there were a lot of people out walking around. I noticed that a lot of them stared at me as I passed by and I wondered if it was because of my appearance on TV that past noon. I didn’t know how to feel about that. I was used to being stared at in the club, but out here it was something else entirely.

Towards the end of my walk, I stopped by the usual coffee-shop to get my daily caffeine intake. I always tried to switch it up so I never really ordered the same every time, but by now I had already tried everything they had on the menu. The coffee-shop wasn’t usually this busy, but with the talk-show from earlier, it was now packed with people wanting to get some coffee. They probably hoped that another prize would be given to anyone who bought a coffee from here, though I doubted it was a regular occurrence. I got in line and stood behind this very tall guy, who caught the attention of me and many other customers. A lot of different people buy their coffee here and yet this guy seemed out of place somehow. It was something about his aura and the way he held himself. Like he was above all of us and wanted to be anywhere but here. He was dressed in a fancy suit, ready to be at a business meeting with a hat pulled down so his eyes were almost hidden in the shadow. His hair was short and as black as night.