One more machine twice the size of the others rested beside his bed, but only a single wire led to him, attached directly to his brain. His eyes were closed, yet mind teemed with vibrant colours of imagination.
Jane was sitting next to him, making sure everything proceeded as expected. Her thoughts suffused with worries as she gazed at the unfortunate child, hoping to bring at least some light into the darkness of his existence.
“What kind of alter-grid do you want? The past, the future or mixed?”
“I’ll leave that to you,” he spoke calmly, attuning to the imaginary dimension unfolding peacefully.
“Solitary or connected?”
“Connected, please,” he responded and in an instant, the void surrounding him began shifting. He breathed in, smelling a fresh scent of flowers blooming while his eyes opened wide.
An unfathomable domain stretched in front of him, revealing blossoming forests dotted across towering mountains and lush valleys where rivers curved like snakes slithering in the grass. He had never seen anything similar before, having been confined to an empty room for his entire life.
He couldn’t satiate his senses, completely submitting to the marvels of that vivacious dimension.
“Hello, it’s me, Jane,” somebody spoke, waking him up from sweet trance and prompting him to turn around. He recognized her although she differed heavily from her earthly version. She had large wings that made her look like an alien along with the bluish scales her skin composed of.
“You are amazing,” the boy gaped at her with awe, feeding his mind with as many emotions as possible, unconsciously aware of the looming threat of encroaching darkness. Death itself.
“There is a village to the west not far from here. It’s a great starting place. I have a house there if you wish to pay me a visit sometimes. Do you want me to guide you through this realm and teach you the basics?”
“No,” he replied. “I’d like to explore on my own.”
“I understand, I’ll be in touch if you need me,” she smiled, popping like a bubble all of a sudden.
Left alone to wonder, he feasted his eyes upon the rich lands abounding with life. Curious about his own appearance, he gazed at his arms, noticing they were larger and stronger. He had changed to a grown, well-built man.
Overwhelmed by so many notions, he stood there for minutes, mesmerized by chirping birds and tiny rodents playing in the grass.
He felt an inexplicable urge to run. To uncover mysteries and visit unimaginable places. And so he embarked upon a journey of discovery, his lungs inexhaustible. He saw waterfalls spiralling around cascading rock formations, lakes of rainbow colours shooting geysers into the sky and breathing trees with branches that danced in the shining rays of a dazzling green star.
It seemed to be a paradise, a realm where he could finally live free and ignore the limits of his frail earthly shell. He was convinced that the voracious disease would never trace his steps and follow. He believed that the echoes of a losing war wouldn’t reach him there.
Yet he was terribly wrong. The throes of the rapacious malady thrived even faster than his joy. It worked silently at first, corrupting the soil from inside and poisoning the air with toxic clouds. However, it gobbled up increasingly larger gulps, manifesting itself as an uprooting gale and sulphuric fumes that blotted out the sun.
Anxiety overwhelmed him while the evil monstrosity rose from the ground, engulfing him in shadows of dark void that oppressed his mind. It twisted him from within and paralyzed his body as if he was a rusting machine.
He ran, yet his legs resisted the command, moving sluggishly despite the urges to sprint. His lungs were burning while he breathed heavy air that felt like hacksaws cutting their way through organs.
The agony nearly consumed him, but determination ordered him to persist to the very end. Emptiness surrounded him on every turn, offering no escape. But he persevered, knowing that he had no other option.
The vicious cancer gnawed at his bones, decomposing the flesh and erasing the mind. He tried to defend against it to no avail. Demise was inevitable and his efforts reflected it.
Nothingness prevailed. In the absence of existence, only a shrill siren echoed. The noise called him back during the dire moment. He opened his eyes, gasping for air and seeing the dull white room again. The piercing clamour actually resounded from the beeping device checking his heartbeat.
“I told you this was a wrong idea! It almost killed him,” Sean spoke, standing besides his bed along with a group of colleagues. “Where the hell is Jane? She told she’d watch over him.”
“She’s been missing since the morning. After she plugged the appliance in, nobody heard a word about her.”
“I’ll have her head for this. If our superiors find out... We must shut this thing down.”
“No!” the boy protested. Even though he had battled horrors beyond recognition and felt exhausted, it filled him with joy. He finally experienced more than the hopeless days of boredom and knowledge of freefalling to the abyss of eternal darkness.
“You are young, you don’t have a say in this,” the worried doctor responded harshly, his forehead covered in sweat. “Besides, what we did was against the law. Cancer or not, we can’t break the law. It might kill you.”
“I’m already dead,” Ethan sobbed in response. He had felt rejuvenating energy coursing through his veins only once, yet they sought to extinguish it. He wished to oppose them, but what could a weak child destined to wither unto demise do?
“The law doesn’t matter in this situation,” Martin disputed.
“This isn’t a topic we should be discussing in front of him, but you won’t change my opinion. I’ll call for someone who can disconnect the device tomorrow regardless of what you think,” the cowardly man replied briskly.
“You can’t...” Martin tried to state his objection, but Sean shook his head, pointing towards the door. The good-willed doctor understood the gesture and they departed from the room shortly thereafter, leaving the boy in silence.
He couldn’t hear their quarrel, yet already considered his case lost. The temporary flash of hope vanished, breath of life replaced by expectation of death. He would never win the war against cancer.
YOU ARE READING
Intensive Dream Unit
Ciencia FicciónEthan, a boy living his last days under the ravenous shadow of cancer, finds solace in the alter-realm, a world of unparalleled fantasies. Yet the darkness will never give him reprieve, determined to hound him to the deepest edges of the world. Howe...
