27 Jan VitaXchange

In Milan, under the relentless sun of a summer that seemed intent on sealing the city in an endless embrace of heat, a website appeared almost by chance in the dark labyrinth of the deep web, a digital recess that very few dared to enter. Its name was “VitaXchange,” and even the echo of the words that accompanied it had something hypnotic, irresistibly ambiguous about it:

“Exchange time, conquer the world. Sell years and buy dreams: your life, your choice, and the benefits are yours!” 

The web page was presented with an almost disturbing minimalism. No flashy graphics, no captivating videos, just an anonymous registration form and a bare-bones FAQ section, as if the entire site were a closely guarded secret. The rest? A dark void, a silent but powerful invitation to discover promises too tempting to ignore.

Those who landed there were faced with an offer that seemed like something out of a dream: any earthly desire could come true. Money, fame, power, health, beauty… everything was within reach, but at a precise and calculated price.

A portion of one’s life expectancy would be “exchanged” to obtain what was requested. The system showed, with cold, automatic calculation, how much of someone’s lifetime would theoretically be lost in exchange for the desired benefit.

At first, the price seemed surprisingly low: a few months or at most a year, a sacrifice perceived as acceptable, almost symbolic, a small price to pay to realize dreams that would otherwise remain distant, suspended in the nebula of impossible desires.

The first testimonials, gathered from obscure forums and encrypted messages scattered in forgotten corners of the web, spoke of real miracles accomplished in a matter of hours: a seriously debilitated patient who unexpectedly regained his health, an insurmountable debt that dissolved with a simple click, a dream job obtained without any apparent effort. These were stories that defied logic and common sense, stories that were both fascinating and disturbing, like modern legends woven into the silent fabric of the internet.

Among those beginning to be drawn to these promises was Luca, a 30-year-old employee of a shipping company. His existence was marked by a gray routine and constant difficulties: a precarious job with no prospects, a girlfriend who had left him without explanation, and increasingly tense and complicated relationships with his family.

One evening, while absentmindedly browsing anonymous pages and forgotten links, Luca stumbled almost by chance upon a link that led him to VitaXchange.

The site presented him with an offer that sounded almost like a pact with fate:

“Live a year without financial worries in exchange for six months of your life.”

Luca read and reread those words. It seemed unreal, yet the temptation to change everything, to finally free himself from the weight of years of frustration and misfortune, was irresistible.

He filled out the form, entered the required information, and confirmed. The gesture was simple, yet the sense of irreversibility hit him like a sudden wave.

Within a few hours, the world around him changed radically. His bank account was filled with figures he would never have dared to hope for, shiny, concrete numbers that transformed every worry into a distant memory.

Shortly after accepting another offer, the phone rang: on the other end was an offer for a well-paid job. Everything seemed to flow with unnatural ease, as if the universe itself had decided to bend to his wishes.

In the days that followed, Luca began to realize that the life he had so desired had materialized. His financial problems had vanished like snow in the sun, his days flowed lightly and orderly, and everything seemed to fall into place effortlessly.

Yet, despite everything, a sense of emptiness enveloped him, accompanied by a fatigue he couldn’t explain.

Every morning, he woke up with an unusual weight on his chest, a pressure that took his breath away and made him feel as if time itself were slipping through his fingers. He tried to analyze it, to give it a name: was it physical? Mental? Perhaps both, or perhaps something completely different, elusive and mysterious.

His friends called him to go out, to laugh and share moments of lightheartedness, but Luca always declined, finding comfort only in VitaXchange.

Something inside him was changing, slowly, imperceptibly, as if an invisible thread were pulling him toward an unknown destiny.

Every time Luca dared to make a new request, a new wish, he realized with growing apprehension that the price was no longer small. Now the calculation was in terms of years, of time stolen in ever-larger chunks, like an invisible and precious currency that was being mercilessly taken from him. Yet each offer became more and more irresistible, as if an invisible fate were forcing him to give in, because by now his new life depended on those little “miracles,” on the ease with which every obstacle was removed. Giving up meant returning to the anguish of before, to the heavy days, to the emptiness that never left him.

Luca was no longer alone in that experience. In the meantime, other users had discovered VitaXchange, drawn by the same promises of easy, immediate change. Ordinary people, tired of their lives, looking for a shortcut to happiness and success. But slowly, one after another, they all became trapped in a vicious circle of demands and sacrifices: each wish fulfilled demanded a higher price than the last, and each advantage gained shortened their lives by an increasingly substantial fragment.

Their existence, once bright and full of hope, turned into a slow, inexorable decline. It was a descent into the inevitable, masked as opportunity, a silent dance between desire and loss, a cruel paradox that no one seemed able to stop. And Luca, looking at his reflection in the mirror, began to wonder how much more he was allowed to ask for, how much time he really had left.

Some users disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only silence and mystery; others were found dead in unexplained circumstances: a sudden heart attack at forty, a car accident, or a sudden illness. No one, however, could connect these events, all of which seemed to happen by chance, yet a digital thread linked them.

Luca had become a prisoner of VitaXchange. There was no longer any room for spontaneity or freedom: he opened the page as if it were a ritual necessary for survival, a daily addiction that could not be ignored. Every morning, as soon as he woke up, as if the outside world did not exist, and every evening, before closing his eyes, almost like a last ritual before falling asleep, Luca confronted the portal that had promised his salvation but was stealing his life away piece by piece.

The cold, blinding lights of the screen illuminated his tired, marked face. His features, once serene, now appeared gaunt and weary, as if the time stolen from him was imprinted on his skin, on his deep dark circles and on his now lifeless lips.

One day, while Luca was sitting in front of the screen, he received a direct message in chat. The request came from Sara, a long-time friend, a familiar presence who had shared years of memories with him. Now, however, her digital voice conveyed despair: Sara was battling a serious, almost incurable illness and was desperately seeking help.

Luca’s heart tightened in a painful knot. All his fears and hesitations dissolved in the face of this urgent need. His desire to save her overcame all reason and personal gain. Every fiber of his being cried out that he had to do something, anything, to see her alive again.

On the website, Sara’s request for healing appeared with a price that made his blood run cold: “Five years of life.” Five years to trade for a real hope of salvation, a time that could not be returned, a piece of his own existence to give up for her.

For hours, he remained in front of the screen, immobilized, his hand trembling on the mouse, his breathing short and irregular. His mind oscillated between the fear of losing part of his own life and the anguish of seeing a friend die.

Finally, he took a deep breath, and a hesitant click marked his choice. He accepted the price. And in that gesture, simple and terrible at the same time, Luca sealed his pact with fate, ready to sacrifice years of his own life to save someone he cared about more than anything else.

As soon as the transaction was completed, the changes in Sara were immediate. In just a few days, her health miraculously returned: her complexion became vibrant again, her muscles regained their strength, and her eyes sparkled. It was as if time had turned the page for her, giving her back what the illness had taken away.

But for Luca, the reality was very different. Inside, he felt a slow, inexorable weariness, a fatigue no one could see but that he felt deeply. His eyes clouded over for no reason, his body seemed to give way under the weight of time accelerating its race towards the end.

His hair, once thick and dark, was losing its color, becoming sparser and duller, and every morning he woke up with such profound fatigue that it felt like a physical burden, as if an invisible hand were tearing away a piece of his life, day after day.

The messages on the website became increasingly urgent and enticing. Flashing phrases such as “You can’t stop now,” “One more step,” and  “You still need us” appeared on the screen with disturbing intensity, almost imprinting themselves on Luca’s mind. Each word was a silent warning, a subtle pressure that imprisoned him in a cycle of psychological addiction with no way out.

At the same time, disturbing articles appeared in online newspapers and local news portals: people who had disappeared into thin air, unexplained deaths, alarms raised about anomalies linked to a new phenomenon involving VitaXchange users.

Some of those names were familiar to Luca, those of active users of the site he had come across in forums or encrypted messages. People he knew, now gone without a trace, or found dead in circumstances that defied all logic.

Paranoia crept in like a constant companion, a shadow that never left him alone. Luca could no longer even trust his own perceptions: the hours seemed to vanish into thin air, the days shortened without warning, and every moment of respite seemed illusory.

Every time he tried to close the site, a message immediately appeared on the screen, as if the portal itself were watching over him, preventing him from breaking free:

“You can’t close it now. Just one more little exchange, one more little sacrifice.”

Each message was like a seductive whisper in his ear, an invisible bond that kept him tied down, a cursed invitation to continue along a path from which there was no return.

Luca’s mind became captive to that digital world, an invisible realm that seemed to feed on his very life. The nights turned into silent torture. As soon as he closed his eyes, Sara’s face appeared before him: smiling, radiant, yet with a ghostly, almost unreal aura. It was as if her recovery had been the result of a dark pact, signed in an invisible blood contract that Luca had accepted with no way back.

The relief he had wanted to give her had turned into a personal condemnation. Every smile from Sara became a warning: the life he had traded for her was gone, years stolen from himself for a good that could give him nothing in return.

In the oppressive silence of his home, lit only by the faint blue light of the computer screen, Luca typed again and again, like an automaton without a will of his own.

His addiction had turned into a vice that squeezed his heart. Every new offer on the screen made his heart beat faster, his sweaty fingertips scrolled across the keyboard, and euphoria enveloped him in a cruel embrace.

That evening, the site offered something never seen before, an offer so daring it took his breath away:

“To obtain wealth beyond your wildest dreams, trade seven years of your life.”

The words flashed on the screen like an irresistible temptation. Every fiber of his being screamed to stop, yet something inside him urged him to consider the proposal.

Luca knew that this was not just any choice. It was no longer a simple barter, a calculation between give and take. It was a sacrifice, an irrevocable act performed on a dark altar, where every desire tasted of sin, and every promise carried with it the silent sound of ruin.

Yet the idea of being able to change everything, to start over, to live a different, easier life, free from fears and shortcomings, attracted him with an irresistible, magnetic force, like the song of a siren dragging him toward the abyss.

Sitting in front of the screen, he thought back on everything he had lost: friendships that had faded over time, a serenity he could no longer remember, family dinners that ended in silence and misunderstanding. Even his health was now a distant memory, undermined by sleepless nights and that absurd addiction that had robbed him of all his energy. But despite everything, he knew he couldn’t stop.

Every time he tried to turn off the computer, the screen turned back on by itself, displaying messages that immobilized him like digital chains:

“You cannot escape your destiny.”

Those words dispelled all his uncertainty. With bated breath and his hand trembling over the mouse, he accepted.

The moment he clicked, a cold sensation ran through his body, an icy shiver that seemed to come from within, as if an invisible fragment of his essence had been broken forever.

The next day, Luca’s life seemed to really change, at least in appearance. Money came with surprising ease, financial problems dissolved almost magically, and everything he had ever wanted materialized before his eyes. But the reflection in the mirror betrayed a crueler reality: dark circles under his eyes, tight, dull skin, gaunt features, and a blank expression, as if an essential part of him had already disappeared.

Soon, Luca began to lose touch with reality. The people around him turned into blurred, distant, and unreal figures, like shadows passing without leaving a trace. His days passed like a restless dream, an alternation of light and shadow where time no longer belonged to him. Every moment seemed to vanish before he could grasp it, and his perception of life itself dissolved into a sequence of insubstantial events.

Every time he opened the site, the screen grew darker and more oppressive, as if it were breathing with him, watching him. New requests flashed on the screen, cruel and tempting:

“Trade another five years for perfect health.”

“Special offer: three years for eternal love.”

Each message was an irresistible call, an invitation to give in again, as his life slipped away, year after year, under the weight of a destiny decided by an invisible entity.

Luca tried to resist, to refuse the offers, but his mind seemed hypnotized by an invisible power. The voices in his head whispered incessantly: accept, don’t miss this unique opportunity, the time is yours to spend. So, year after year, his biological clock ran faster than reality could keep up with.

His body aged before his eyes. His hands trembled imperceptibly; his face was creased with premature wrinkles; his eyes drooped, as if every heartbeat were consuming him from within.

Yet the outside world saw only success, social status, and money that continued to grow. No one perceived the real price, the life that Luca was sacrificing piece by piece.

One evening, as he logged on to the site as he did every night, Luca noticed something different. It wasn’t a new offer, not an invitation to trade another year or another fragment of life.

It was a warning, clear and icy, flashing on the screen like a final warning:

“You are close to the limit. Your life balance is about to run out.”

The words hit him like a punch in the stomach. The inevitable was knocking at the door of his existence, and Luca understood, with a cold shiver, that the price to pay was now too high, and the time he had left was about to run out.

Terror paralyzed him completely. What would happen when he no longer had the chance to trade? His body had worn itself out too quickly, every fiber weakened by years of invisible exchanges.

In a desperate attempt to escape that fate, Luca tried to delete all traces of the site from his computer, block connections, and shut down his devices, but it was useless.

VitaXchange was everywhere: on his phone, on his smart TV, even in his home appliances, silent and omnipresent. There was no escape, no safety net that could protect him.

The price he had paid was now immeasurable, and reality itself was beginning to distort. The lights in the rooms became cold and impersonal, while the shadows stretched beyond all logic. In every reflection, Luca no longer saw himself: only a skeletal figure, a flickering shadow of what he once was.

Every dream fulfilled had been nothing more than bait that had drawn him closer to this cage with no way out, a vortex in which freedom was now a distant memory, lost in the folds of a time that no longer belonged to him.

In a rare moment of lucidity, Luca decided to seek help. He had to find someone who could break that invisible bond, someone capable of confronting the site’s power without succumbing to it. After hours of research, anonymous contacts, and obscure forums, he found a name that gave him a glimmer of hope: Anna.

Anna was an ethical hacker, known for her extraordinary skills in penetrating and defending digital systems, but also for a dark past that few knew about. She had faced inexplicable phenomena and digital mysteries that had terrified others, and her curiosity about the dark side of technology made her a formidable and valuable ally. Luca, trembling but determined, decided that she was his only chance to try to free himself from that invisible prison.

Anna agreed to meet him in a deserted bar, a place with faded neon lights and the stale smell of cold coffee, chosen specifically so as not to attract attention. They sat at a table in the corner, far from the door, while outside the city pulsated indifferently. Anna listened to Luca’s story with a fixed gaze, her hands nervously scrolling through the screenshots and videos he had brought. Each image seemed like a piece of an increasingly sinister mosaic: flashing offers, imperative messages, transactions of clinical and cold value.

The more she scrolled through the material, the more serious Anna’s face became. This, she thought, was not the usual computer fraud that could be defended against with an update or a report. What they had before them was a portal, something that escaped the confines of code and frayed the boundaries of humanity: an entity that fed on lives, fear, and misplaced hopes.

“It’s not just a scam,” Anna finally said, her voice low and grave, as if she feared the noise of the bar might hear her. “It’s a hidden contract. Every exchange you make is a piece of your soul you lose. Maybe I can break the contract, but what you’ve traded away will never come back.”

Luca was silent for a moment, his forehead furrowed, his fingers drumming on the table. “What can we do?” he asked, his voice betraying his exhaustion and fear.

Anna looked at him as if weighing every word. “We have to track down who’s behind all this, the creator, the central node that holds the portal together. If we find the heart of the system, we can try to break it. But listen to me: it’s not an easy hunt. This thing doesn’t let its victims escape. Any attempt to interfere could draw dangerous attention to us. And there’s another thing: the closer we get, the more the site will try to protect it, manipulating who we are, what we want, and the time we have left.”

Silence fell between the two again. For the first time in a long time, Luca felt a faint hope mixed with terror: someone who knew how to navigate that darkness, but who promised him no miracles, only a dangerous and uncertain possibility. Anna gathered the documents, folded her laptop screen, and added, in a tone that brooked no error: “Get ready. If we decide to do this, it won’t just be a technical battle. It will be a personal showdown.”

Anna and Luca immersed themselves in a risky investigation, exploring the darkest and most forgotten corners of the web. They penetrated encrypted forums, servers hidden in remote corners of the network, files protected by algorithms that seemed alive. Each discovery was terrifying: traces of broken lives, people who had disappeared into thin air, digital testimonies of those who had dared to trade years of their existence.

Each discovery revealed a fragment of a terrifying mosaic, a world where human pain became raw material for an inscrutable entity.

Meanwhile, real time slipped away from Luca with relentless cruelty. His hair had thinned, his skin hung loosely on his face like tired velvet, and his eyes, once lively and alert, had become dull, unable to reflect light. Every night, when he closed his eyes, he saw the invisible countdown on the website, an hourglass that relentlessly marked the imminent end, the time he had left reduced to grains slipping through his fingers.

Then, one day, the final message arrived:

“Last chance. Trade your remaining time to save your soul.”

Luca felt a cold shiver run down his spine. Everything he had experienced, every year taken away, every decision, every sacrifice, led him to that moment. He realized with terror that he was about to be sucked into that abyss of no return, that the dark spiral of VitaXchange was about to swallow him up for good.

Anna offered him a choice in a grave voice, almost a whisper laden with tension: “We can try to disconnect you from the system… but you may not come back. You may lose your life anyway, but at least it would be yours, and not sold to that monster.”

Luca looked at her with tired eyes, marked by stolen years and sleepless nights, but lit up with fierce determination. He didn’t want to give in to that cruel fate; he could no longer accept that his time was a commodity for an invisible entity.

“Let’s do it,” he said, his voice steady despite his trembling hands.

Anna set to work with meticulous precision. With the help of advanced software and hardware isolated from the global network, they created a secure environment, a digital microcosm isolated from the rest of the world, where they could attempt to disconnect Luca from the cursed site. The entire system was like an invisible trap, woven from hidden codes and obscure algorithms, designed to trap his soul and the fragments of life he had already traded away.

When everything was ready, Luca sat down in front of the screen, his heart pounding, his hands trembling on the table. In front of him, the site’s countdown continued unabated, flashing and cruel, like a hammer beating incessantly against his will.

The moment had come: between fear and courage, between despair and hope, Luca prepared to put everything on the table. His life, his soul, his time, everything depended on a single, fragile gesture.

Anna started the disconnection program. Immediately, the air in the room seemed to become denser, almost oppressive, as if time itself were slowing down around them.

Luca’s devices began to flash frantically, emitting confused signals, as if an invisible presence were struggling within the network, trying to prevent the link from breaking.

Suddenly, the screen went pitch black.

Luca felt himself sucked into a dark vortex, a palpable abyss that enveloped his chest and throat, making him gasp for breath. Before his eyes, blurred figures moved in the darkness, hungry shadows with uncertain contours, faceless eyes staring at him, trying to drag him into their silent realm. Every attempt to resist was an enormous burden, as if his very essence were being torn into a thousand pieces and sucked into nothingness.

Then, suddenly, the light returned. The screen resumed its calm fluorescence, and Luca opened his eyes, gasping, his heart pounding in his chest as if it wanted to jump out. The room was silent, the devices motionless, and for the first time in years, the feeling of oppression vanished.

Anna watched him with relief, her eyes shining with the tension finally released.

“We did it,” she said, her voice full of emotion. “You’re free from that site.”

Luca remained motionless, breathing heavily, as reality slowly came back to him. For the first time in years, he felt that his time was truly his own, no longer a commodity to be traded, no longer under the yoke of a digital monster that fed on his life and his fears.

In the days that followed, Luca slowly began to rebuild his life. He distanced himself from technology, turning off his phones and computers for long periods of time, and sought comfort in the small pleasures he had neglected for years.

She walked through the park, observing the world with new eyes; the wind in the trees and the sun filtering through the leaves reminded her that life was made up of simple, authentic moments.

She enjoyed the warmth of a book in her hands, listened to the sincere laughter of true friends, and rediscovered the depth of human connections that the website had tried to erase.

Anna continued to investigate the cursed website, tireless, determined to expose the network that had deceived so many innocent lives. They both knew she would not be the last victim; technology and human greed continued to create new digital monsters.