For a Price

(Signs of the Times is a work of fiction based on true events. Views expressed are the characters’ own. Viewer discretion is advised.)

There will come a day when the cracks in the sidewalk give you second thoughts. When chocolate won’t taste as sweet and all the roses will be dull gray.

Time, like a gentle repo man, takes back what was once freely given. As Time invests in you, your debt will mount.

You’ll grow to new heights. Achieve things beyond Time’s own horizon. Transcend Time.

But the debt will mount.

Reaching out with its unseen claws, it will scratch your eyes. It will drain the color in your cheeks. It will siphon muscles and leave skin sagging—paper-thin and hairless.

You’ll look in the mirror and wonder how it got this way. One day you are young. The next you are not. Time will be exacting payments on all life long after you’re gone. You’ll just cease to be a witness.

Time will take your thoughts, too. Scramble reality into disarray. Nothing will be what it is. Even the marks you left, the records of your consciousness, will become alien and meaningless.

Time will get even. Time always does.