Dr Wish

Chapter Four, A Secret Wish

Dylan wasn't always the headstrong athlete my family knew and loved. Instead, I was the only one who knew the truth.

Back when he was a sophomore while I was still in middle school, he was the class clown. But I was the only one who knew that he hid a lot of depression under that smile.

He went to counseling in secret, embarrassed to tell our parents anything.

"I shouldn't feel this way," he told me when I caught him once, "I come from a good home with good parents. I should be more grateful".

He tried to reach out for help. And when that didn't work he turned to drugs and alcohol. After he tried to commit suicide by driving his car off a bridge, my parents finally stepped in.

They got him into rehab, they paid for months of counseling, and when all was said and down he went to university. But even graduated he still felt awful.

I'd have to say it was a month before I discovered Dr Wish that he started to act funny. He no longer had a look of death in his face and when he laughed, he genuinely laughed. For a whole month he was happy.

And now this.

I sat in his room, feeling void of any presence of my brother, when my phone rang. It was Felicia.

"Hey I heard the news," she said, a faint thumping in the background, "Are you okay?"

I scoffed, "what do you care?"

"Because you're my friend".

"No I'm not, you don't care. If you were really my friend you would have stopped Josh".

"Look I'm sorry-

"Piss off," I said, ending the call.

I tossed my phone onto the bed and sat back down. Then I got a text. Not from any of my so called friends but from my brother. His last words were For the love of god watch this video.

Below it was a video attachment. I clicked on it, starting a video of my brother, sitting in front of the camera, the little black circles around his eyes back again.

"Mark, I'm making this video because I'm not gonna be around to tell you this. But the reason I was happy wasn't because of rehab or counseling or uni, it was because I made a wish. A wish to be perfect".

I took my phone into my room and plugged in my headphones. "I don't know how this... Thing found me, but it did when at was at my lowest. It said it could take away all the pain and emptiness inside, but at a price. I didn't pay it cause I thought it was kinda dumb when I could just have a free month to just be normal. Then my free trial expired and all at once the depression came kicking in and now I feel worse then I ever did.

"I feel responsible for not telling you this sooner. But it's too late. Too late to tell you and your friends not to make a wish. Because if you don't pay the price, he will take it back".

A tall doctor in a lab coat appeared out of nowhere and placed a black gloves hand on his shoulder, and Dylan burst into tears as he stood up from the chair and walked over to the stool.

The doctor figure glitches in and out in the video like a type of ghost. He was humongous, approximately seven feet tall.

The doctor tied the noose around Dylan's head and in the softest of whispers said, "goodbye little bro". Before the doctor kicked the stool out from underneath him.

After Dylan's feet stopped twitching the doctor pressed two fingers against the side of his throat. After he made sure their was no pulse he let out a raspy laugh, then disappeared.

After the video stopped I immediately texted my old friends hoping that I would get through to them.

Meet at the park tomorrow.

Silence.

The next day came and I patient waited at the park. I was about to give up hope when they showed up.

"This better be important, I've got a game in a little while," Josh said, puffing his chest out.

"Screw your stupid game. This is more important".

"What's going on?" Stan asked.

"Yesterday..." I started, the words too hard to say out loud, "my brother killed himself".

"I-I don't know what to say," Stan said.

"It's why he died," I said, "that's why I called you guys. He killed himself because of Dr Wish".

They all wore the same baffled looks. "Our Dr Wish? The guy who made all of our lives enjoyable?" Felicia said.

"Look I know it sounds crazy but hear me out-

"Mark we get it," Josh said, "guilt manifests itself in-

"This is not guilt! This is fact! Dylan made a wish and didn't pay the cost and Dr Wish took it away".

"That doesn't make any sense," Stanley said, "Dylan had the perfect life what could he possibly wish for?"

"He didn't always," I said silently, "look you've just gotta believe me".

They all looked at each other with unsureness.

"Sorry Mark," Felicia said. There was a honk from the red Corvette. "Look I've gotta go".

They all disperse, my anger rose and I couldn't control it. "You'll see," I said, "You'll see at the end of the month!".