Chapter Text
Tom sits in a dark room, the only light illuminating from the old laptop he was slumped over. He takes another large swig from the bottle of vodka sitting by his side; never out of reach. His eyes stung, he sniffs hard, trying to clear his nose clogged from a mixture of shit cocaine and his earlier crying fit. He scrolled through page after page of mind numbing nonsense trying desperately to keep his mind off the gnawing thoughts that clouded his head. He was twitchy. anxiety and paranoia riding him like a horse.
sniiiiifffff... he coughed and spluttered after forcing another line through his blocked nose, the petrol smell catching the back of his throat wrong. As he found what he had of his focus again, his eyes settled on an article that popped up on his feed. It was about hitman services on the dark web. And for some reason, through the haze, it caught Tom’s attention.
"hm." he muttered to himself as he read through discussions on the forum page.
"Yeah man there's some confirmed stories out there about guys who hire hits through the web. I'm sure most of them are scams like, but there's defo real sites."
"Do you know what ones are trusted? seems like you know a bit about this."
"Naw man, you just gotta roll the dice."
Hmm... roll the dice? Tom was intrigued, luckily for him, he knew how to access the dark web easily from his experience buying illicit substances from the silk road. He pulled up the page with ease and went digging. It wasn't easy to find; the dark web is kinda meant to be like that anyway so it wasn't unexpected to him.
After a few attempt he finally found a few links, only four were active but in a way that was easier and more high stakes odds which really tickled a dark part of Toms brain. His heart pounded in his chest; mostly because of the substances he was ingesting, but part of it from the thrill. In his mind this was like a game of Russian Roulet.
After a moment he picked a link and followed it to the website. It was a simple website, no fancy graphics, just an information section describing the terms of service, lists of options for method of attack, and a link to presumably input your information and pay for the services. As Tom read through the options, it made his stomach churn a bit. It wasn't a lot of options but some of them were fairly gruesome; and expensive. His eyes landed on a selection. Delayed date killing. It explained that this option meant that there would be no specific date of the service but it could generally happen within a year. It was perfect; and one of the cheapest options.
Tom wasn't necessarily actively suicidal; he'd considered it in the past but never had the guts to follow through. He was however tired with life, couldn't see a way out of the pit he was in. He was an addict, clinical depression that he self medicated for. This would simply be a thrill for him, another roll of the dice, and at the end either he lived or died. Either outcome was equally good in his mind.
The delayed date was two thousand pounds, a fraction of what the other options cost. He thought about it for two seconds. Was he really going to dump the last of his parents' inheritance on this? That money had paid for his rent and his habit up until now... fuck it he thought, one more roll and he was done gambling forever.
With one last snort of the petroline power, he followed the link through to pay. The process of putting his money into bitcoin was a bit of a bitch but he got it done in decent time. Entering his details into the system he hovered for a second over the confirmation button, the slightest hint of uncertainty drifted his mind like the wind and was gone.
~CLICK~
...