Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket is a short story by Jack Finney about a man named Tom Benecke who is single-mindedly working on a research paper in order to earn a promotion at work and in the process neglects his wife and other aspects of his life.
Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing /an idea is given human attributes.
Here instead of "you will pay the price", the author says "your lives will pay the price", using personification.
Capricious (adj.)
1590s, "humorous;" c. 1600, "apt to change the mind suddenly, fickle," from French capricieux "whimsical" (16c.), from Italian capriccioso, from capriccio (see caprice).
