MidReal Story
Mind Games and Market Mayhem
Scenario: Generate a financial adviser like a super hero
Create my version of this story
Sarah Jennings
marketing executive and close friend of Alex, collaborates with Alex on projects, curly red hair, ambitious and witty
James Carter
senior partner at the firm and mentor to Alex, guides Alex in his career, greyhaired with a stern look, wise and authoritative
Alex Mercer
financial adviser with telepathic abilities, friends with Sarah and mentored by James, tall with sharp features, analytical and empathetic
I was in the middle of a meeting with a client when I heard the first scream.
It was faint, barely audible, but it was enough to make me pause and look around.
The scream wasn’t coming from the office next door, or from the hallway outside.
It was coming from inside my head.
I’d been hearing them for weeks now, ever since I’d started working on this case.
At first, I’d thought I was just imagining things, that the stress of trying to unravel a major market manipulation scheme had finally gotten to me.
But as the screams grew louder and more frequent, I’d come to realize that they were real, that they were coming from the people who were about to lose everything if I didn’t stop it from happening.
And right now, they were screaming at me to do something.
I shook my head and tried to focus on what my client was saying.
The screams were growing louder now, more insistent, making it difficult to concentrate.
I pressed my fingers to my temples and tried to push them away, but it was no use.
They weren’t going to stop until I did something about it.
“Are you all right, Mr.
Mercer?” my client asked, his brow furrowed with concern.
“Is there something wrong?”
“No,” I said, forcing a smile.
“I’m sorry, it’s nothing.
I’m just a little distracted today, that’s all.”
The screams were getting louder by the second, more panicked now, and I could feel the beginnings of a headache building behind my eyes.
I had to do something, and I had to do it fast.
I looked at my client and took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
“But I’m afraid we’ll have to cut this meeting short.”
The man opened his mouth to protest, but I was already on my feet and heading for the door.
“Please don’t leave,” he called after me, but I ignored him.
I had more important things to worry about right now than helping some rich asshole make even more money.
I shut the door behind me and took a moment to gather myself before heading back to my office.
The screams were echoing through my head now, bouncing off the walls of my skull and making it almost impossible to think.
I needed to do something, and I needed to do it now.
As soon as I stepped into my office, I went straight to my computer and started typing furiously.
I’d been working on this case for weeks now, ever since I’d first started picking up on the signals that something wasn’t quite right in the market.
At first, I’d thought it was just a glitch in the system, but as more and more pieces started falling into place, I’d come to realize that I was looking at one of the biggest market manipulation schemes in history.
And if I didn’t do something about it soon, thousands of people were going to lose everything they had.
I was in the middle of pulling up the most recent data when I heard the knock on my door.
I ignored it and kept working.
“Go away,” I muttered.
“I don’t have time for this right now.”
But the knocking only grew more insistent until I finally had no choice but to open the door.
On the other side stood Sarah Jennings, my best friend and fellow financial adviser.
She was staring at me with wide eyes, her curly red hair falling in wild waves around her face.
“Alex,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“What’s wrong?”
I opened my mouth to answer her, but before I could get a word out, the scream came.
It was so loud that it made me flinch and press my hands to my ears, but it was no use.
The scream wasn’t coming from outside my office.
It was coming from inside my head.
“They’re going to lose everything,” I said.
“The people who trust us to protect their money.”
Sarah’s eyes widened even further, and she took a step back as if she were afraid of me.
Ignoring her, I tried to focus on my computer screen once more as she entered the room.
“What’s happening?”
Sarah asked, her voice shaking.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“I was just trying to finish pulling up the data on this case when…”
Another scream cut me off midsentence, this one even louder than the last as it echoed through my brain like a gunshot.
Sarah clapped her hands over her ears and let out a strangled cry of her own before turning to look at me with tears in her eyes.
“Do something,” she said.
“They’re crying out for help…Can’t you hear them?”
Of course I can hear them,” I snapped back.
“But what do you want me to do?
We don’t have anything to go on!”
Sarah’s face paled even further at my outburst, but she didn’t back down.
She reached for my arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze while shooting me a significant look toward the door where my client was still waiting on the other side.
“Is that him?”
she whispered.
“The one who’s doing this?”
I nodded grimly.
She looked around my office as if searching for an answer before her gaze came to rest on my computer screen.
“Tell me what you were working on,” she said.
“Maybe I can help.”
I hesitated for a moment before nodding and stepping aside.
“Here,” I said.
“I was just pulling up the last of the data I needed when you walked in.
Can you finish it?”
Sarah didn’t respond with words.
She just went right to work.
The screams in my head seemed to get even louder as I watched her type away on my keyboard and pull up something called an arrest warrant for me to sign.
I was in the process of doing so when my client came rushing back into my office with a look of concern on his face.
“Is everything all right?”
he asked.
“I heard all that screaming…”
“It’s nothing,” I said curtly as I signed my name at the bottom of the warrant.
“I’m just not feeling well today.
I’m going to have to cancel our meeting and reschedule for another time.”
The man opened his mouth as if to protest, but Sarah cut him off before he could say anything.
“I’m so sorry, Mr.
Thompson,” she said, giving him a sad smile.
“But we really do need to get Alex home.
He’s not feeling well and I don’t think he should be driving.”
Mr.Thompson blinked at her in surprise before turning his gaze back to me.
I was already on my feet and heading for the door, and I could see him open his mouth as if he were about to say something, but I was already gone.
I didn’t go home like Sarah had suggested.
Instead, I went straight to the police station.
The screams had stopped by the time I got there, but I knew that they would start up again any minute if I didn’t finish what I’d started.
I walked right past the front desk and into an interrogation room where I found my boss waiting for me.
James Carter was a senior partner at our firm, a grey-haired man with a stern look and an air of authority about him.
He was also the one who’d taken me under his wing when I first started working at the firm, and I considered him a mentor and a friend.
I couldn't take it anymore, the screams in my head were driving me to the brink of madness.
“Alex,” he said, standing up as soon as I walked through the door.
“What’s going on?
Did you find something?”
I nodded, my hands shaking with both fear and determination.
“We don’t have much time,” I said.
Sarah and I tried to get everything together as quickly as we could, but it wasn’t long before the screams started up again and I had to make them stop.
With James's help, we were able to get the arrest warrant signed and handed over to the police, but it was clear from the looks on their faces that they didn’t quite understand what was going on.
I didn’t have time to explain it to them either, so I just told them that they needed to act fast and left it at that.
Then I got back in my car and drove straight to the gala.
Sarah wasn’t answering her phone, but she’d promised me she’d be there tonight, and I had to believe that she would keep her word.
I could only hope that she’d managed to dig up enough evidence for us to put an end to all of this.
My assistant, James, noticed my abrupt departure from the office and called out for me, but I didn’t have time to explain anything.
He would either follow my instructions or he wouldn’t.
As I drove through the city, I could hear the screams growing louder and louder, until they became a painful cacophony that threatened to consume me.
It had never been this bad before.
I didn’t know if it was because I was so close to finding the evidence I needed, or if it was because we were running out of time, but I knew that I couldn’t go on like this.
I needed to do something—and fast—before the screams drove me to the brink.
I tried calling Sarah again, but she still wasn’t answering her phone.
I knew that she’d probably turned it off in order to avoid any distractions while she finished up everything at the office, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating to be sent straight to voicemail.
As I pulled into the parking lot of the hotel where the gala was being held, I was relieved to hear the sound of my phone ringing from somewhere on the floor of the passenger seat.
Without taking my eyes off the road, I reached down and fished it out from between my feet.
I didn't need to look at the caller ID to know who it was; no one else had this number.
“Sarah,” I said as soon as I answered.
“Where are you?”
“Hey Alex,” she said, her voice soft and warm in my ear.
“I’m just pulling up to the hotel now.
I’ll be there in a couple minutes.”
“Do you have everything?”
I asked, trying to keep my voice steady despite how frantic I felt inside.
“Are you sure this is going to work?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“But it’s all I’ve got.”
We were almost out of time, and this was our last chance to make things right.
The only way to stop this disaster from happening was to go confront them directly and hope that we could get them to confess.
