1.3: A Choice is Made
IKnowNothing
....What?
- Location
- I got lost so.....Where are we?
For a single second, the thought occurs to you that you could just reach in and take more than one. Taking a quick glance at Doctor Mother, you figure that probably isn't the best idea. Her face seems emotionless, but you get the feeling she's ready to shut the case the second you step out of line. She was the doctor and you the patient; She needed to show you your place. It was subtle but at least she wasn't insulting you by lying to your face.
So you reach out, your hand hovering over each of the vials. With each one of them, you feel something different. Pulsing energy, flowing feelings, even something that made you feel like you could bench press a mountain. But your hand stops over the vial that shined with an almost gold hue. It seems… alive. You touch it, and you feel something more.
Power.
Raw, unexplainable power.
You fingers find themselves wrapping around it, your body not waiting for your mind to reach a decision. It's heavier than you thought it would be, but then again, your muscles have seen better days.
The second your hand is clear of the case, Doctor Mother snaps it shut. She sets the case by her side, picking her notepad up once more as you work on the cap for the vial. It pops off almost effortlessly. It occurs to you that it was probably made like that so you could get it off easily. But it probably wasn't a good idea to keep something that can cure cancer in such a loose container.
The cap falls to the floor and neither of you bother to watch it fall. You stare at the liquid within for no other reason that you can. Shaking the vial a bit, you see that it doesn't move like a liquid. It stays perfectly still, with the bubbles at the bottom of the cannister moving being the only indication of change.
"Do I just… drink it?"
Doctor Mother looks at you with the same passive stare.
You nod "Got it."
Then just for fun, you hold the vial up like a glass towards Doctor Mother "Cheers."
The Doctor's expression doesn't change, a shame, that was kind of funny. Holding back a sigh you take another look at the liquid.
This… this is going to cure you?
It was strange. A few seconds ago you were ready to believe anything. But now that you have the one thing that you've wanted for the last three months of your life, you're hesitating. It's stupid, honestly.
So what if this is some kind of trick? It's not like you can get any worse, you can't exactly top cancer in terms of life threatening conditions.
Swallowing your fear you lift the vial to your lips. You point the bottom to the sky, allowing gravity to take hold. You feel, rather than see, the golden liquid slowly make it's way down your throat.
It's almost chunky, as if ... a joke and in truth it was a collection of shattered somethings. Despite that you force it down your throat. It doesn't have a taste, and when you get the last of it you feel nothing.
Disappointment is the first thing that comes back to you. You open your eyes, and check on the vial. Sure enough you took in every last drop. You look to Doctor Mother, still writing away on her notes. She clicks her pen, and quickly pulls your pillow from under your back and setting it back on the edge of the bed where it belongs.
You raise an eyebrow, or you would have if you still had the hair required. The good doctor remains passive "It's for when the Agent finds it's way."
"Agent?" You ask.
Doctor Mother nods "Indeed, I said Agent. It is currently worming its way through your bloodstream. In a second it will reach your brain."
She clicks her pen and rises from her seat, picking up her suitcase along the way. You reach for her, to try and ask.
And then it happens.
The first part of you to go is your arm, the same arm that you used to reach for answers. It crashes to the covers of your bed, leaving you staring at the limb in shock. Your finger's and tendons twist and crack, jerking in unnatural angles. But despite seeing it happen right in front of you, you can't feel anything. Then the same starts happening to your legs. You see them shift under the covers, probably working the same grotesque motions that your arm is moving in. Then your back gives out, forcing you to fall back onto your bed.
A second later, every part of your body is affected but you can't feel a thing. The only thing that you can still do with clarity is breathe. Air goes in and out of your, faster and faster, as the beeping of your heart moniter gets louder and louder.
Panic takes you, pushing rational thought out of your head as instinct takes over.
You're going to die aren't you?! You were tricked, somehow this was supposed to happen!
You're going to die, and there's nothing you can do.
The sound of your heartbeat in the monitor grows into a symphony of artificial noise. It gets faster and faster, as if it was racing towards the end without your consent.
Your eyes force themselves shut, and you can't see a thing. If that wasn't alarming enough, you hear the sound of the door locking behind you. Doctor Mother she's... she's leaving you to die isn't she?
Cold, dreadful fear takes hold of you, replacing the panic in its entirety. You try to move, but you can't. That realization only makes the fear grow colder.
You can't see, you can't move a muscle, you can only hear the sound of the IV signaling the sound of your heart breaking itself apart.
The sound of it consumes you. There's nothing you can do, there was no fighting this. There was only the sound, counting down until your heart couldn't beat anymore.
In a cruel twist of fate, you feel a tear make its way down your face.
What did you to deserve this? You only had three months yes, but you still wanted to live!
You were just joking, things could get worse. You know that now, so please, for the love of god, stop this!
You still had things you needed to see! You needed to be there when your sister made her way in the world! You needed to be there when you brother made his mark! You had to forgive your father for his faults! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE BEFORE YOU COULD DO ANY OF THAT!?
You don't know the answer, you don't think anyone knows.
Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep.
Be-
The sound cuts off and you can't breathe anymore.
You hear the sound of the door opening, and then…
Nothing.
You're.... are you dead?
When you finally come to the first thing you notice is that your head is beating like a freaking drum.
In hindsight, it's a good thing that the first thing that you feel confirms that you didn't just die. But it didn't help the fact that it still hurts like hell.
You slowly get up, pushing the thick covers off of you as you rub your head. You try to fight down the migraine, your fingers running through your hair as you wor-
Instantly, the migraine is forced out of your head as another realization comes to you. You run both your hands over your head feeling the wiry sensation of an unkept head of hair.
You… you have hair?
How long have you been out that you're hair could have grown back?
No, better question. If your hair was back, did that mean...
A sound comes out of you, something between a shocked gasp and barking laughter. You don't know what it is, but you find yourself making the same noise over and over again as your hands continue to confirm the hair on your head.
You sit there doing nothing but reveling in the confirmation that you were cured. It's true, it's fucking true! Every inch of you buzzes with excitement as it hits you.
YOU WERE GOING TO LIVE!
To say that you're happy is an understatement. You're ecstatic, you're ready to jump and run around the world just because you have the time to do so. You're teeming with the prospect that you can live the life you wanted.
You can see your family achieve their dreams, you can achieve your own! Who the fuck cares what happens next, you're alive!
You hoop, holler and scream for all you're worth. The sound is huge, healthy and full of life. That realization only cements the smile on your face. You beat the covers of your bed like a child in the sandbox. If there was a girl in the room, you would have kissed her without a fear in the world. You would jump off a damned cliff into the sea! Why? Because cancer couldn't keep you down, you were here to stay!
You don't know how long it takes you, but the high finally lowers itself enough for you to look around the room.
You thought you were in your hospital bed, given the sheets, but now that you look around you have no clue where you might be. The room itself is as big as your old classrooms with enough accessories to make you feel like you stole a billionaire's fortune and bought yourself a house. The entire right wall next to your bed is one big window looking out over the ocean. The other had a open door, leading into a walk in closet with more clothes than you ever remember having. Another wall had a huge, theater sized tv, along with a work bench that held a mirror and a few phones.
Looking up, you see that the lights seem to be adjusting to your vision, helping your eyes take in the entire room. You also catch a few cameras. Normally, you'd be surprised, but the hospital had cameras, this isn't much different. Beside, given how much money went into this room it was reasonable for someone to keep a close eye.
Looking down, your bed looks straight out of a rich man's home as well. It was the size of a car, in both directions. Throwing the covers to the side you test your legs. They hit the ground, and instead of the crushing weight of your body they feel nothing.
In fact you feel lighter than you've ever felt before. Despite yourself, you jump a little, and everything lifts off the ground effortlessly. Checking your arms, you see that they've gotten their hair back as well. A smile worms its way onto your face and you sprint to the desk with the mirror. It's bolted to the desk, making it harder to get a good angle of your face. But you manage to look into the mirror and your old face looks right back at you.
You're grinning like an idiot, but you don't mind.
You look around the desk and something gets your attention. In the center there's a handwritten note taped to the top of the desk.
You glance up at the cameras, everyone of them now trained on you. Then you look around the room. Wait no, your room. There's probably a lot of things in the cupboards, and you also spy a remote for the tv. Then, your eyes land on the door leading out of the room. No limits to where you can and can't go huh?
You've been given freedom to do whatever, so you...
[] Stay in your room and wait for the Cauldron staff to come get you.
-[] Spend your time going through the ins and outs of your room
-[] Spend your time watching some tv, listen to the news or something, get your mind off of hospitals and cancer.
-[] Write in
[] Head out of your room
-[] Go looking for someone, see if they can explain any lingering questions you might have.
-[] Go looking for nothing in particular, just start exploring.
-[] Write in
So you reach out, your hand hovering over each of the vials. With each one of them, you feel something different. Pulsing energy, flowing feelings, even something that made you feel like you could bench press a mountain. But your hand stops over the vial that shined with an almost gold hue. It seems… alive. You touch it, and you feel something more.
Power.
Raw, unexplainable power.
You fingers find themselves wrapping around it, your body not waiting for your mind to reach a decision. It's heavier than you thought it would be, but then again, your muscles have seen better days.
The second your hand is clear of the case, Doctor Mother snaps it shut. She sets the case by her side, picking her notepad up once more as you work on the cap for the vial. It pops off almost effortlessly. It occurs to you that it was probably made like that so you could get it off easily. But it probably wasn't a good idea to keep something that can cure cancer in such a loose container.
The cap falls to the floor and neither of you bother to watch it fall. You stare at the liquid within for no other reason that you can. Shaking the vial a bit, you see that it doesn't move like a liquid. It stays perfectly still, with the bubbles at the bottom of the cannister moving being the only indication of change.
"Do I just… drink it?"
Doctor Mother looks at you with the same passive stare.
You nod "Got it."
Then just for fun, you hold the vial up like a glass towards Doctor Mother "Cheers."
The Doctor's expression doesn't change, a shame, that was kind of funny. Holding back a sigh you take another look at the liquid.
This… this is going to cure you?
It was strange. A few seconds ago you were ready to believe anything. But now that you have the one thing that you've wanted for the last three months of your life, you're hesitating. It's stupid, honestly.
So what if this is some kind of trick? It's not like you can get any worse, you can't exactly top cancer in terms of life threatening conditions.
Swallowing your fear you lift the vial to your lips. You point the bottom to the sky, allowing gravity to take hold. You feel, rather than see, the golden liquid slowly make it's way down your throat.
It's almost chunky, as if ... a joke and in truth it was a collection of shattered somethings. Despite that you force it down your throat. It doesn't have a taste, and when you get the last of it you feel nothing.
Disappointment is the first thing that comes back to you. You open your eyes, and check on the vial. Sure enough you took in every last drop. You look to Doctor Mother, still writing away on her notes. She clicks her pen, and quickly pulls your pillow from under your back and setting it back on the edge of the bed where it belongs.
You raise an eyebrow, or you would have if you still had the hair required. The good doctor remains passive "It's for when the Agent finds it's way."
"Agent?" You ask.
Doctor Mother nods "Indeed, I said Agent. It is currently worming its way through your bloodstream. In a second it will reach your brain."
She clicks her pen and rises from her seat, picking up her suitcase along the way. You reach for her, to try and ask.
And then it happens.
The first part of you to go is your arm, the same arm that you used to reach for answers. It crashes to the covers of your bed, leaving you staring at the limb in shock. Your finger's and tendons twist and crack, jerking in unnatural angles. But despite seeing it happen right in front of you, you can't feel anything. Then the same starts happening to your legs. You see them shift under the covers, probably working the same grotesque motions that your arm is moving in. Then your back gives out, forcing you to fall back onto your bed.
A second later, every part of your body is affected but you can't feel a thing. The only thing that you can still do with clarity is breathe. Air goes in and out of your, faster and faster, as the beeping of your heart moniter gets louder and louder.
Panic takes you, pushing rational thought out of your head as instinct takes over.
You're going to die aren't you?! You were tricked, somehow this was supposed to happen!
You're going to die, and there's nothing you can do.
The sound of your heartbeat in the monitor grows into a symphony of artificial noise. It gets faster and faster, as if it was racing towards the end without your consent.
Your eyes force themselves shut, and you can't see a thing. If that wasn't alarming enough, you hear the sound of the door locking behind you. Doctor Mother she's... she's leaving you to die isn't she?
Cold, dreadful fear takes hold of you, replacing the panic in its entirety. You try to move, but you can't. That realization only makes the fear grow colder.
You can't see, you can't move a muscle, you can only hear the sound of the IV signaling the sound of your heart breaking itself apart.
The sound of it consumes you. There's nothing you can do, there was no fighting this. There was only the sound, counting down until your heart couldn't beat anymore.
In a cruel twist of fate, you feel a tear make its way down your face.
What did you to deserve this? You only had three months yes, but you still wanted to live!
You were just joking, things could get worse. You know that now, so please, for the love of god, stop this!
You still had things you needed to see! You needed to be there when your sister made her way in the world! You needed to be there when you brother made his mark! You had to forgive your father for his faults! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE BEFORE YOU COULD DO ANY OF THAT!?
You don't know the answer, you don't think anyone knows.
Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep.
Be-
The sound cuts off and you can't breathe anymore.
You hear the sound of the door opening, and then…
Nothing.
You're.... are you dead?
When you finally come to the first thing you notice is that your head is beating like a freaking drum.
In hindsight, it's a good thing that the first thing that you feel confirms that you didn't just die. But it didn't help the fact that it still hurts like hell.
You slowly get up, pushing the thick covers off of you as you rub your head. You try to fight down the migraine, your fingers running through your hair as you wor-
Instantly, the migraine is forced out of your head as another realization comes to you. You run both your hands over your head feeling the wiry sensation of an unkept head of hair.
You… you have hair?
How long have you been out that you're hair could have grown back?
No, better question. If your hair was back, did that mean...
A sound comes out of you, something between a shocked gasp and barking laughter. You don't know what it is, but you find yourself making the same noise over and over again as your hands continue to confirm the hair on your head.
You sit there doing nothing but reveling in the confirmation that you were cured. It's true, it's fucking true! Every inch of you buzzes with excitement as it hits you.
YOU WERE GOING TO LIVE!
To say that you're happy is an understatement. You're ecstatic, you're ready to jump and run around the world just because you have the time to do so. You're teeming with the prospect that you can live the life you wanted.
You can see your family achieve their dreams, you can achieve your own! Who the fuck cares what happens next, you're alive!
You hoop, holler and scream for all you're worth. The sound is huge, healthy and full of life. That realization only cements the smile on your face. You beat the covers of your bed like a child in the sandbox. If there was a girl in the room, you would have kissed her without a fear in the world. You would jump off a damned cliff into the sea! Why? Because cancer couldn't keep you down, you were here to stay!
You don't know how long it takes you, but the high finally lowers itself enough for you to look around the room.
You thought you were in your hospital bed, given the sheets, but now that you look around you have no clue where you might be. The room itself is as big as your old classrooms with enough accessories to make you feel like you stole a billionaire's fortune and bought yourself a house. The entire right wall next to your bed is one big window looking out over the ocean. The other had a open door, leading into a walk in closet with more clothes than you ever remember having. Another wall had a huge, theater sized tv, along with a work bench that held a mirror and a few phones.
Looking up, you see that the lights seem to be adjusting to your vision, helping your eyes take in the entire room. You also catch a few cameras. Normally, you'd be surprised, but the hospital had cameras, this isn't much different. Beside, given how much money went into this room it was reasonable for someone to keep a close eye.
Looking down, your bed looks straight out of a rich man's home as well. It was the size of a car, in both directions. Throwing the covers to the side you test your legs. They hit the ground, and instead of the crushing weight of your body they feel nothing.
In fact you feel lighter than you've ever felt before. Despite yourself, you jump a little, and everything lifts off the ground effortlessly. Checking your arms, you see that they've gotten their hair back as well. A smile worms its way onto your face and you sprint to the desk with the mirror. It's bolted to the desk, making it harder to get a good angle of your face. But you manage to look into the mirror and your old face looks right back at you.
You're grinning like an idiot, but you don't mind.
You look around the desk and something gets your attention. In the center there's a handwritten note taped to the top of the desk.
Master Alex Everett, if you are reading this, then you have at last awoken from your slumber. Do not be alarmed about your surroundings, they were intended to help ease the transition to the fact that you have been moved to our facility.
If you have any questions, simply speaking into the phone provided will contact you with one of our personnel.
Our staff have already been alerted by your awakening, so if you wish you may remain where you are. Or, if you wish, you may explore the facility. We ask that you do not enter any of the occupied rooms, as the other patients might still be resting. Beyond that there is no quarantine room in the entire building.
Explore the building if you wish, or remain in your room. As one of the few chosen, the choice is yours to make.
Thank you for trusting our good Doctor Mother.
Welcome to Cauldron.
If you have any questions, simply speaking into the phone provided will contact you with one of our personnel.
Our staff have already been alerted by your awakening, so if you wish you may remain where you are. Or, if you wish, you may explore the facility. We ask that you do not enter any of the occupied rooms, as the other patients might still be resting. Beyond that there is no quarantine room in the entire building.
Explore the building if you wish, or remain in your room. As one of the few chosen, the choice is yours to make.
Thank you for trusting our good Doctor Mother.
Welcome to Cauldron.
You glance up at the cameras, everyone of them now trained on you. Then you look around the room. Wait no, your room. There's probably a lot of things in the cupboards, and you also spy a remote for the tv. Then, your eyes land on the door leading out of the room. No limits to where you can and can't go huh?
You've been given freedom to do whatever, so you...
[] Stay in your room and wait for the Cauldron staff to come get you.
-[] Spend your time going through the ins and outs of your room
-[] Spend your time watching some tv, listen to the news or something, get your mind off of hospitals and cancer.
-[] Write in
[] Head out of your room
-[] Go looking for someone, see if they can explain any lingering questions you might have.
-[] Go looking for nothing in particular, just start exploring.
-[] Write in
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