The Wishmonger: Origins

The Arrival

We went outside the prison, and there was a white van waiting for us. Outside it was standing a man in a white lab coat. With a white face. With white spectacles. He looked like a silly chess piece, his all cream-white look was almost annoying. 

"Hi, I am Dr. Jericho, pleased to meet you." he said, extending a white, gloved hand.

"Carl Trent. They call you Mr. White, right?" I said as I took it.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Just knew it." I replied sarcastically.

"Well, I am Jericho White. White is my favorite color, it can be split into seven different colors. I'll show you some of my party tricks later on. But for now, we are getting late!" We stepped into the van, and the lanky inspector followed us.

"We'll take it from here, inspector." Mr. White said. 

"What if he runs away?"

"We have got some good security inside the van." Jericho said irritably.

"I'd like to see it." the inspector refused to budge.

Jericho sighed, and opened the van's back door. Sitting inside were four security guards, completely dressed in black, armed with big, bad guns. They looked more like an anti-terrorist squad. I didn't know I required such a grand welcoming committee. 

"Our equipment is very valuable, Mr. BK wants it to be guarded at all costs." And he ruined my moment of glory.

"Very well. You may leave now." We sat inside the van, and left the prisons behind us.

"Would you like some black coffee?" Jericho asked me.

"I prefer white." The black security guard coughed menacingly, if that was possible. 

"I mean, normal coffee with milk." I clarified.

"Oh, our friends here are lactose-intolerant, so we don't keep any milk." Dr. Jericho said.

"Okay, give me some of that then." I sipped the black coffee, somehow it was sweet, and didn't taste much of coffee. Maybe they added a lot of sugar, or the black color was due to food coloring rather than actual coffee.

"So, what's the deal? Why is a clerk being called to a science lab? Although, just to clarify, I don't mind, its better than prison." I said.

"You want to know the bitter, direct truth, or want to go to it in a roundabout way?" asked Jericho.

"How long do we have to reach the place?" I tried to look outside the windows, but they were tinted black. Strange, I could have sworn they were transparent from the outside. Strange tech, or my eyes and memory were failing me.

"About 15-20 minutes, I guess?"

"Then let the cat out of the bag already." I braced myself.

"Human...experimentation." Mr White replied.

I spent a few minutes in silent shock. Then, I composed myself. I had to get myself out of this mess. But then, I had bigger mess back home. I didn't know which was worse.

"I thought that was illegal." I said

"Its a secret, government-funded division." Jericho replied. "We are currently working on a serum that will enhance your willpower to override any other addictions or instincts."

"I am not an alcoholic nor a cigarette smoker. I do drink sometimes, but so far its not an issue for me."

"Well, that's not its only uses. You could run a marathon, build some muscles maybe? If that's your fancy."

"Not interested." I looked at the guard beside me, and imagined if he had developed his body with the serum. Maybe he was just as strong as me before.

"Come on!" Jericho was trying hard to persuade me. "You will get the power to fulfill all your wishes! Whatever you wish for, it will be done! Nothing will be able to stop you!"

"Oh yeah? Well, I wish to be the president, will your serum make me do that?"

"Not exactly, it doesn't work that way. The serum directly affects the prefrontal cortex by providing it with extra energy through new neutral pathways. This increases your willpower multiple folds, so much that all your impulses will be much weaker in comparison."

"Okay, but what's the deal? Why do you need me, and why is your serum not working?" I asked, plainly out of curiosity.

"Because it is triggering reactions in the mesolimbic pathway, and the VTA."

"The what? I am not a scientist, speak in plain English!" I said.

The doctor sighed. "Fine. Look, the mesolimbic pathway is like the reward center in the brain, the part that gives you feelings of pleasure and happiness. The serum completely overrides that pathway, leaving the subject in drug-like euphoria. But alongside, it is also destroying the subject through brain damage. If the subject's frontal lobe, the part associated with willpower, stops resisting the serum, then the serum completely takes over the subject's brain and destroys it like a parasite. We have tried subjects with high willpower, high pain thresholds or even both, but none have been able to endure the serum."

"What makes you think I'll be able to take it?"

"Because your brain is already damaged." Dr Jericho said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Excuse me?!"

"I have never heard of a case where a man sets fire to an office for absolutely no reason, despite knowing the consequences."

I folded my arms. "In my defense, the boss gave me permission to do anything I wanted."

He ignored me. "We hope that the serum thinks that your brain is already damaged, and hence settles in it without complaint. We have tried it with dead brains, it works."

"Did you just call me brain-dead? I am going to paint you and your silly white coat black!"

The security guards clapped for no reason, and one even seemed to wipe a tear from his eyes. Though with his mask, I couldn't be sure.

"We can't use completely insane subjects as they might damage through our facility. The serum has been predicted to increase your maximum strength, speed, stamina ten times more than it is. Though you will feel the effects of such exertion later on, it can make you as strong as an action hero in a fight, quite literally. You could ignore the pain of a bullet or two, if you use the willpower to ignore it."

"And besides, we would need to run many tests to gather data regarding the extent of its effectiveness, so that we can improve the serum. The supplier for our lab has said this was his last delivery, and we are going to lose out on a key ingredient of the serum after these trials. Therefore, we must try a different approach."

"Key 'ingredient'? Are you a scientist or a chef?"

He was going to say something back, but we had reached our destination.