The Bull Who Cried Zombie

At 2 AM, the only light in Marcus's apartment came from the cable news flickering against the wall. Another bull market, another quarter of record-breaking profits, and still he felt like something that had been dead for years.

"You're becoming a zombie," Elena had told him that morning, her voice flat with the exhaustion of saying the same thing too many times. "You go through the motions. You come home, you eat, you sleep, you do it again. I don't even know who you are anymore."

She was right. Some part of him had died somewhere between the IPO and the second promotion, the way a person loses themselves in increments so small they don't notice until they're gone. He'd tried to explain—the pressure, the money, how hard he worked—but she'd just shaken her head.

"That's bull, Marcus. You think you're trapped? You're trapping yourself."

Now he sat alone with his portfolio and his guilt, watching financial analysts gesture at charts that promised everything and meant nothing. The cable snaked across the floor like a tether to a world he no longer believed in.

Outside, a siren wailed—someone else's emergency, someone else's midnight crisis. Marcus stood up and walked to the window. The city sprawled beneath him, millions of people sleeping or not sleeping, living or something like it.

He thought about what Elena said: zombie. Not the walking dead of movies, but something worse—something that looks alive but forgot how to be alive a long time ago.

The bull market would keep raging without him. There would always be another quarter, another bonus, another reason to stay on the treadmill.

Marcus picked up his phone and scrolled to Elena's number. Three in the morning here, noon in London where she was visiting her sister. He didn't call. Instead he texted: You were right. I'm done.

Then he called his broker and told him to sell everything.

The city lights flickered below him, and for the first time in years, Marcus felt something besides exhausted. He felt terrified. He felt hopeful. He felt like waking up.