Literary Exploration: Delving into Immortality with 'The Contract'

This creative assignment presents a short story titled 'The Contract,' which revolves around Roman Atkins, a businessman consumed by paranoia and fear of death after a bout of influenza. His fear leads him to isolate himself and obsess over his health. One night, a mysterious figure named D offers him a contract for immortality. Atkins signs it out of curiosity and humor, but soon experiences a fatal accident, only to discover that the contract was real. He becomes immortal, but his attempts to prove it lead to his wife's accidental death, for which he is imprisoned. The story explores themes of paranoia, the desire for immortality, and the unforeseen consequences of such a wish.

Running head: THE CONTRACT
The Contract
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1THE CONTRACT
The Contract
Mr. Roman Atkins, 56 year old male businessman was on his way back home from a
business trip when he had a case of simple influenza. But it wasn’t as simple as that. Even
after a quick recovery by visiting his family doctor, Atkins never really recovered mentally.
The influenza had him fear of dying. All his life’s effort and the money he has earned would
mean nothing if he was to die. Aitkin’s fear of dying never really stopped. Rather it grew and
he became more and more paranoid. This Paranoia led him to quit his business and live in his
luxurious apartment with his wife, bed ridden and under constant observation by doctor’s by
their frequent checkup visits. Even after being told that he was perfectly in good health,
Atkins never stopped worrying. He had his wife worry about his mental health, she tried to
persuade her husband to stop being paranoid and start his normal life. But all went on vein.
Convinced that he will meet a painful death by accident or catch a fatal virus if he go
outside, Atkins never left home. He took medications to get immune to diseases he never had,
slowly and steadily he grew more and more mentally unstable. One night after a heated
argument with his wife, Atkins went back to his library and decided to spend the night
reading a novel which he was meaning to finish from a long time. As the night grew, Atkins
dozed off on his armchair with the book laying on his chest. He woke up to a sudden know on
the window. He heard a voice calling out his name from the balcony, he didn’t know who it
could be. It was well past 2 am. The voice kept going louder, requesting Atkins to open the
window and let him in, he spoke about a solution, an antidote of some sort that would help
him. Atkins thought he was dreaming, but he realized it was real. The man from the other
side of the window requested Atkins to let him talk for a moment and promised him he would
not regret it. The voice even be knew about Atkins fear of death and said there is a solution to
it.

2THE CONTRACT
Surprised and out of curiosity Atkins slowly opened the window to have a peek, there
was a fat man in his 50s wearing a grey trench coat, smiling at him. He introduced himself as
D. He said that he has an antidote which would make him immortal. Nothing can kill him.
Atkins thought it was some sort of a practical joke and started laughing at D. Atkins was
convinced it was probably his hallucination, and demanded D to leave immediately. D agreed
to leave but he mentioned that there is a contract and if he signs it he will become immortal,
as simple as that. D left the contract on the table and left.
Atkins out of humor started scrolling through the pages of the contract. Deep inside
he wished it was true, but he knew it couldn’t be. He signed the contract nonetheless. He
didn’t feel any different, he was still the same and still paranoid about his health. Next
morning Atkins told his wife that he would spend his whole day in his room finishing up the
book. He kept growing curious if it actually worked and he didn’t realize. “It couldn’t be
true” Atkins said to himself. But he couldn’t help but keep getting distracted with the
thoughts. Absent minded Atkins was walking down the stairs to his room, when he missed a
footing and went crashing down the stairs. His skull was fractured and he broke his neck. He
laid there with a pool of blood around his head. Mrs. Atkins came running out after she heard
the loud thud, she saw her husband and so much blood she fainted.
Atkins laid there still, blood slowly hardened on the new mattress. His fingers moved.
He opened his eyes, he couldn’t figure out what happened, slowly it came back to him, he
realized he had fallen off the stairs, the pool of blood next to him and his broken skull
convinced him that she couldn’t have survived such a fatal fall. He saw his wife next to him
unconscious. He felt fine, in fact he never felt better, and he was actually immortal now?
Atkins carried his wife to the room and waited for her to wake up, when she was finally
conscious, she thought she’d seen a ghost, she was sure he died, but there he was standing in
front of her , bloodied and dismantled. Atkins tried to explain her about last night and D.

3THE CONTRACT
Frustrated of his behavior for months, Mrs. Atkins was convinced that her husband has lost
his mind. Atkins was stubborn to prove it was true, he said he would jump off the roof of the
building to prove he is in fact immortal. Alarmed and concerned, Mrs. Atkins tried to stop her
husband, she followed him to the terrace and desperately tried to stop him, but he was
determined to prove it. With the shoving and pushing, Mrs. Atkins accidently slipped and fell
off the terrace. Mr. Atkins stood there and watched as his wife fell to her death.
Atkins was held accountable for her death, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.