The Wishmonger: Origins

The Awakening

"So, you want to fulfill any last wishes? Any "prepare yourself for the grave" kind-of-things?" Jericho asked.

"No, I would rather just get over with it." We were in the lab, and it was time for the experiment.

"Seriously? Don't you want to go to Las Vegas or something? For some last good times?"

"If you are paying for it." I replied.

"No, I am not sure I have the clearance to arrange that." Jericho said, walking over to his computers and working on something.

"I think we should end this as fast as possible then." I said.

"Yes, you are right. Stand over there." Jericho pointed to a steel stretcher set upright, connected to various instruments.

I stood against the structure, and instantly I was locked in it, steel bars descending all over my body. It reminded me of the time I was going for a ride in the amusement park, except here I couldn't even move an inch. My hands, legs, feet, were clamped in steel.

"Don't panic, its just a safety measure." Jericho said. "While the serum is transfused with your blood, we will be monitoring your levels of neural activity and measuring several indicators throughout your body. Even a slight mis-calibration could botch up the results. Not to mention the pain, it can cause the strongest men with steel nerves to behave like wild animals."

The moment had come. I was gonna die for the progress of stupid science that I didn't even care about. Well, I could never do whatever I wished to, so might as well do what others wished for you to do.

"Why is there no one else here?" I asked.

"Everything's automated." Jericho replied. "Our program is top-secret, and with the kind of stuff we do here, recruitment is very difficult. So we tried our best to keep it going without any new staff. There's just old Ray over there."

I looked over to the far end of the room and saw a shady man in a hoodie, sitting, or rather, almost hiding, behind a large computer. He too was completely black, as the rules of this chess match were. He looked up and gave a polite smile, and then went back to this work.

"Poor Rayman can't talk, but his work speaks in volumes for him. Most of the lab's equipment, systems and operations are under him."

He mouthed some words, but Jericho wasn't looking towards him. I wish I could know what he was saying, but seeing him return to his work, I decided to forget about it.

"The final systems check is completed. Now I must extract the serum."

Dr. Jericho went to a cabinet and pulled out a purple liquid and a syringe. He dipped a small palm tree leaf inside it, and quickly pulled it out. The liquid fizzed and bubbled. This place was loony-land.

"We are ready, Ray, are the systems in place?" Jericho asked.

Ray gave a thumbs-up.

"Everything good to go?"

Ray gave another thumbs up.

"Now, Carl, are you ready to die in the name of science?" Jericho asked.

"This is the last time you will be able to pull out." Jericho said, eagerly awaiting my reaction.

"Ah, screw it, just get it done with" I replied. "You got any red bull here?" I had a sudden craving for it. Might as well leave the world with wings, it could guarantee me a placement in heaven.

"Um...I'll just check the fridge." Jericho replied, and went out of the lab.

My hands and legs began to ache. Ray didn't seem interested in talk, so I just waited in silence.

After a short while, Jericho came back, in his hands was a can of coke. "I am sorry, Carl, we don't have any red bull. The nearest walmart is 35 kilometres away, and it would take a lot of time. But I could send someone to get it if you want, considering that its your last time."

"No, its fine, I'll take the coke." I moved my hand to take it, only to realize that I was still bound in the steel clasps. 

"Oh, sorry, I forgot to deactivate the containment protocol. Oh my, I left you for so long like that! Really sorry about that." Jericho said, as he entered some commands into his computer, and the steel clamps which restrained me for so long opened up.

"Thanks." I said, as I took the can of coke and drank it. I sipped it like it was the last drink of my life (which it was). Ah, the sweet old cold drink. At least I would die refreshed, if not with wings.

"I am ready now." The moment had come.

I stood at the structure, and steel clamps descended upon me once more. Dr. Jericho loaded the serum in the syringe. He also took out some other injections and a mouthguard from the cabinet, the kind of thing boxers put into their mouth before a fight.

"I am putting this mouth guard, you will need it. One of our volunteers died literally due to bleeding gums. Open your mouth." He put the mouthguard inside my mouth.

"Ray, are we good to go?" Dr. Jericho asked again. He again gave a tired thumbs up.

"Good. Injecting painkillers." Dr. Jericho said, as he injected something from the other syringe inside my arm.

"It's not morphine" He said. "Its oxymorphone. Better stuff."

I felt strange, whether from the drug or from the fear and adrenaline, I couldn't tell. Jericho walked around, inspecting instruments and arranging and rearranging things on the desk. His walk and manner betrayed his excitement. He reminded me of a coke bottle.

"Ray, ready?" Jericho said again, and Ray made an offensive gesture with one of his fingers. 

"And initiating in five, four..." he picked up the syringe filled with purple liquid from the desk.

"three, two..." he walked to me, and positioned it against my arm.

"One...and zero!!" He injected the liquid inside me.

For a second I felt nothing. 

Then I felt the greatest sense of euphoria that anyone in the world could feel.

Greater than the joy in getting a billion dollars.

Greater than the happiness from the day that goes just perfect.

Even greater than the happiness a kid feels upon getting an expensive toy after an hour of whining and crying in front of his parents to get them to buy it.

But, slowly but surely, I could feel something else too. The pain.

It first was a slight headache, and then it felt as if my head was on fire. I wondered how ghost rider would have felt, and pitied him. I willed for the pain to go away. Yet, the feeling of happiness, that was still there too, in infinitely increasing proportions.

Others with greater willpower would have recognized that this was the serum's work, and tried to resist it altogether. But me, the one who lived the resigned life of a clerk, and had given up on everything but living, I couldn't even muster the strength to try and resist it. 

Besides, I didn't want to. I felt such happiness that could only be felt perhaps in heaven, and I would never have wanted it to go away.

I willed for the happiness to come, and the pain to go away. I didn't realize I had closed my eyes, I was completely overwhelmed by the fireworks in my mind.

"His prefrontal cortex is not resisting!" I could barely hear Dr. Jericho, as if he was saying it from somewhere far away. And he was, far away from my world, the world that had opened up inside me with the serum.

"Pain levels are reducing! But the serum is not being targeted!! Ray, it is happening!!!" These were the last words I could hear before I fell into oblivion.