" The first requisite for immortality is death."
- Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
I.
In celebrating his 86th birthday, Dr. Allen
Flambell takes a 12 inch dagger where its blade is made from pure brilliant
gold. The symbol of immortality forged to become a sinister weapon. Dr.
Flambell glances at the wicked blade. His reflection is can be seen as a middle
age man with smooth and fair complexion. His hair is as black as ebony without
any trace of silver gray hair or baldness though his eyes are in deep steel
gray color with a keen sharpness of a thinker but possess a spark of a
charismatic man.
Donning himself with a classic double breast red suit with
elaborated golden patterns of argyle like design, Dr. Flambell grace his
visitors and friends together with flashing cameras of the media men. Inside
his 200 floor colossal skyscraper which is similarly coated with melted gold,
people from all walks of life are eager to wait to see what kind of secret this
enigmatic doctor has finally found out. As the doctor stop in front of hundreds
and thousands of people, he takes a white small stone in a pocket. All eyes are
glued to this man who now exhumes a certain aura of a king or perhaps he
himself has finally reached something that man believes to be his ultimate
destiny.
Someone offered him a
glass of wine wherein he drops the small white stone. The stone slowly dissolve
as it reaches the bottom of the glass. Slowly, the wine sparkles and shimmers
as if it contains countless stars that swivel around the liquid; it seems that
there is a new born galaxy that emerges inside the innocuous glass. Dr.
Flambell can’t help but to admire the wine inside the glass which now turns to
be the most precious thing in his life not just today but forever.
“This is the key…the key to man’s wildest dream” he thought
to himself. He smiled, as he drank the wine straightly. After he gives a satisfying
sigh, he took the dagger and without any second thought he slit his throat. The
crowd suddenly becomes silent as they witnessed something that they can’t
believe with their entire eyes. Flashes of light filled the whole place like
the lightning from the sky also wanted now how the most intriguing and mystical
riddle that took millennium and countless ages
have finally answered by mere mortal.
After a few second, the slit in the throat of Dr. Flambell
healed with no scars at all. But he isn’t done yet. He continues to slit his
throat until big and multiple lacerations covered his neck. Fresh blood flow
down into his suit red suit, blending it perfectly in his majestic clothes.
After a second all of his wounds disappear. He loss sheer amount of blood and
yet he is standing and staring at the whole crowd with his piercing eyes.
Then he chuckle, he is trying to control it but the amount of
triumph in his core is too much to bear, too much for him to contain. He burst
into laughter which at first sounds like laughter with an overtone of madness
but as it continues, it becomes a meaningful victory laughter after an almost
eternal struggle against the whole world.
That day, Dr. Allen Flambell becomes a name that defies any
name in history books. His birthday is the day of his rebirth and also of
mankind… That day is the day that the Philosopher Stone has been found. Immortality
becomes not just a possibility but a one big fact. The New Age of man has just
begun.
II.
“Look at them dear” with a soft and charming voice, Dr.
Flambell tries to persuade again the 11 year old girl who is diagnosed just
recently with schizophrenia. They are watching on the window of their black
limousine how the people indulge in festivity with terrifying gusto. “Look at
them Pandora, this how we should live, this is heaven dear” Dr. Flambell with
all the patience and tenderness of a real father he is never get tired of convincing his beloved Pandora who still
won’t taste nor drink any food seasoned with the Philosopher’s Stone. Her
parents say that every time they try to feed their only daughter with the
stone, the girl suddenly go into a tantrum that they can’t bear to witness.
There is horror in the girls face, like someone will going to kill her every
single day they try to make her take a bite of the stone. They try almost
everything including forcing the girl to the point that they nearly tortured
her due to their desperation. But it seems Pandora is much scared with the
stone rather than the wrath and inhuman treatment of her parents.
Later on, Pandora’s parents finally give up and lose their
sanity completely. They have thrown her parents to a desolated place where even
their own existence will be gone forever. There are no hospitals anymore since
no one is suffering from sickness and no one ever dies now. Pandora however is
an exception.
Dr. Flambell adopted Pandora and treat her like her own
daughter. And now there daily bonding with one another is strolling along the
town, watching the people lives that have been controlled now by the stone.
“Sooner or later, she will find out that she got no choice but to take a bite
with it” Dr. Flambell say to himself as he watch the girl look at the window
with her blank and empty stare. She is like a doll, a black haired marionette with
incredibly pale complexion. She is wearing a black dress that suits her very
much. Pandora might look indifferent but Dr. Flambell adores her so much and he
will be most pleased if finally the girl decides to consume the Philosopher
Stone.
“What do you think my dear? Do you like to be like them?” the
doctor ask it a thousand times to Pandora and a thousand times he always get
the same answer to the young girl: NO.
But today is different. Pandora just stays silent as her
foster father asks again the question. Her eyes are glued to the scene that she
saw. Countless faces who are laughing like there is no tomorrow. Boisterous
laughter that echoes along with loud music where everybody dance with awful and
sleazy movement. All of them are scattered around the town, all of them are
making noises doing things that they don’t normally do; to satiate the
innermost pleasure that their body is crying to be released before. They are
not just drunk and intoxicated with alcohol; they are drunk with the pleasure
of immortality. They feel that no one can stop them from doing what they want.
They can destroy, ravage, hurt and make love to whoever they like because they
are the kings and queens who will live forever. Even the most evil acts are
permissible for they are too engrossed with total hedonism. One can murder or
rape anyone including his or her own kin without any hint of shame or guilt for
no one will not be hurt; only their laughter that is filled with such madness,
only their eyes occupied with lust and greed and only their actions that
reeking with savageness reflects in the eyes of the little girl.
Pandora watches how this seemingly harmless merriment are all
but mask that permanently veiled the futility and superficiality of their
existence. The people enjoy the chaos and they are devoured by it. This is not
paradise. This is not the place Dr. Flambell is talking about. This is all but
lie and this world is nothing but a wasteland now.
Suddenly a limping puppy begun to walk timidly just a meter
behind Dr. Flambell’s limousine. Pandora shifts her sight to the little dog
that is now moving towards the crowd. A group of adolescent boy spotted the dog
and a crazy thought is emanated on their malicious grin as they approach it.
They get closer the poor dog and surround it. The dog whimpers as he saw what
the leader of the group is holding; a baseball bat surrounded with dreadful
spikes on it. The boys lick their lips with anticipation as they hear the dog
cry of fear which is like a delicious music to their ear.
“No…” Pandora meekly says.
“Pandora my dear please…Don’t-“
“No!” Pandora opens the limousine door and ran swiftly
towards the dog. Dr. Flambell is surprised with what her daughter just did. “PANDORA!”
he shouts but his voice is drown with the laughter and music that deafens the
town. He ran to the direction where her daughter went but to his horror, he
only saw a group of boys smashing endlessly something in the ground while
giggling and laughing to one another.
“Oh come on Greg, is that your hardest hit?! You are such a
puss!”
“Hahaha watch this sucker!”
The leader of the group begun to swing the spiked bat so hard
that as it hit Pandora’s body, flesh starts to fly and blood splatters the face
of the boy. They howl and laugh like animals feasting on their prey.
Dr. Flambell only stares and froze as he saw her beloved
daughter being slaughtered by those merciless boys. He don’t understand, why
would her dearest Pandora didn’t even take just a little chunks of the
Philosopher Stone? If only she eat some of it, maybe this nightmare will not
happen, this will not happen to her treasured Pandora.
After the boys are satisfied with slaughtering the body of
Pandora they begun to noticed that Dr. Flambell is watching them.
“Hey Mr! You wanna hit her too?”
The leader of the boys throws the bat in front of the doctor.
The bat is now smeared with blood from its handle up to the upper part of it.
Bite size flesh are hanging along the spikes that surround its body. The boys
start to leave the body of Pandora. While they are walking they give a high
five with one another as if they did something that is totally remarkable and
will make their parents proud.
Dr. Flambell snatches a gun in his pocket and shoots the
leader of the boy. He succeed in making a headshot but the boy just scratch his
head like some lice bite it and then he look at the professor and laugh.
“Nice try, Old man. Thanks to that Flambell guy and to that
Stone, even guns nor blades cannot hurt us now”
One of the boys throws a stone at Dr. Flambell. It penetrates
deep down to his head and then it exits it for almost a split second. The
doctor didn’t flinch nor move. He just standing still like a statue there while
the crowds are starting to surround the body of Pandora which is now become a
heap of tattered and unrecognizable matter. Some just stared at it like it is
the first time they saw something like that. A lady wearing a ripped off
lingerie begun to cry and then laugh then it went crying and crying. Some begun
to scream with terror but majority of them just stare at the girl.
“I-it’s impossible”
A limping puppy begun to come out of the girl’s bloodied
arms. The little dog still whimpers while licking the blood in the finger of
the girl.
That day the people suddenly remembered what is death and
wonders how it is feel to die.
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