I felt like a backstabber. A snitch, a treasonist, Benedict Arnold defecting on the outskirts of New York. But I see no 'American side' as an alternative to passing on the mysterious ticket to a victim-to-be. Passing it on to the gods of nature or Oscar the Grouch hasn't worked out. I even went as far as doing the trash collector's job in emptying a garbage bin to make sure it wasn't there, to ensure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. That, or the trash collector was very fast that day.

All I know about the previous victim is that the mysterious ticket too has preoccupied his mind in his final days. Their spouse described to us a sudden thunk happening behind her back when we came to investigate the death scene. At that time, the note seemed trivial, something the victim simply liked carrying with him, as a sort of lucky number. It definitely was not a lucky number, that's for sure. When I found the ticket back in my coat pocket after returning home from the job, thinking I had left it at the forensic lab under the 'miscellaneous belongings' category, is where I started to contemplate whether the death may not have been so sudden after all. Especially when their spouse told us the next day how the victim had told them on occasion about this ticket.

Passing it on, based on the suspicions I have, feels evil. But no person would ever sensibly and willingly keep it to themselves with the information that I have - at least, that's what I like to make myself believe in order not to feel guilt when situations evolve the way I think they will. The mystery surrounding the inextinguishability of the note will likely concern this new, unsuspecting 'person of interest' as much as it had concerned me, or the previous victim.

I can't recall exactly why I picked him, but I remember that I was looking for someone who was either too superstitious to see this as a sign of prosperity and keep it, or who was too foolish to make any connections between not being able to get rid of the ticket, and coming to the conclusion that their best option is to pass it on to someone else. I want them to keep the ticket in order to have the utmost certainty this note is causing something. At least if it is, it likely won't affect me. Until I'm asked to investigate a new death scene, of course.

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Note: This is my first time writing a story prompt here. English is not my main language, and I know no theory about the processes of writing a story. Please let me know what you think.