Page 9 of Filthy Twisted Devil

“What?” I gasp without thinking, my hands covering my mouth.

Without a word, the bidder I knew the least about just doubled the pot to a quarter of a million dollars. It’s so much more than I ever expected. The chat blows up.

DirtyTalker69

Are you fucking kidding me???

TomHardyLookalike

Kill shot!

Roughandready8 throws in five different gifs of someone’s mind exploding, which exactly captures my mood.

ReformedJock95

$255,000.

MrBigBigBig

$257,000.

We won’t just roll over for a big spender.

ReformedJock95

$258,000.

I glance up at the clock. Half an hour has passed, and the number is somehow still crawling upward. By the time we’re forty minutes in, the pot hits $400,000 and Roughandready8, TomHardyLookalike, and DirtyTalker69 have all dropped out. At fifty minutes, I’m pacing back and forth in my tiny room as MrBigBigBig bows out at half a million.

I genuinely don’t know who I want to win. The last two men standing are the most mysterious, the ones I picture with big question marks in front of their faces.

Your laugh lit up my day.

The compliment from JAL29871 flashes into my mind, and I wonder if I don’t have a favorite after all.

The final bids come slowly, like each man is taking several long minutes to decide. The jumps between each bid are dizzyingly huge.

JAL29871

$650,000.

ReformedJock95

$700,000.

JAL29871

$900,000.

ReformedJock95

$1,000,000.

JAL29871

$1,300,000.

I have to count the zeros three times to confirm. It’s too much, too high. It can’t be real, but there it is, in black and white figures.