Sea of Nightmares

I Cured All Disease.

The following story contains graphic language and violence.

“I am a miracle. I am centuries of answered prayers. I am the impossible. I’m what they tell little girls they could be if they stay in school. I did what every scientist dreamt of doing. I have cured all diseases, deformities, congenital disabilities, and illnesses. As you all here with me today know, It all started with the discovery of vampires. At first, we humans were wrecked with fear and began turning on each other. The witch hunt years were vicious. Neighbors were accusing neighbors. Spouses were accusing spouses. There were certainly no romantic moonlight interactions with almost translucent glittery buff people,” scoffed Mandy as she paused for the audience’s laughter. 

Once the chuckles died down, her tone became serious again. She continued, “Just bloodthirsty monsters. We were the cattle being dragged to slaughter until I made a life-saving discovery: The cure for vampirism. We all flooded the streets hunting for our loved ones hoping to return to normalcy. But we were far from it and shan’t ever return…. With the help of the military we were able to cure the world in a record time. While studying the first group we successfully cured, we noticed something….. our subjects- patients were in excellent health. Looking at some of the health records we had on hand, their recoveries were miraculous! People with cancer were given new healthy bodies, a man with a deformed right leg walked out of our facility as good as new, a woman with aids had no trace of the disease in her system, and a blind man left with 20/20 vision. Now anyone can get cured of any illness at our top-of-the-line facility for a little fee.” Claimed Mandy as she clasped her hands together in front of her, mouthing the words ‘thank you’ in an attempt to appear humble as the crowd erupted with applause. 

When the audience was almost silent, there was a loud groan from behind the wall of journalists. Mandy narrowed her eyes at a man in a white lab coat who was visibly annoyed. He was surrounded by more enthusiastic-looking scientists who stood in the back of the lecture hall behind the attendees and journalists. Mandy quickly removed the scowl from her face, cleared her throat, and returned to her speech, “Today marks the fourth anniversary of this miraculous treatment and the one-millionth person cured of their illnesses!” Mandy paused for applause again just like the teleprompter instructed and then continued, “And… a special group of you will continue with me to see the milestone patient cured in our top-of-the-line facility.” There were gasps of excitement among the crowd. Many had heard of the treatment, but Miraculum Industries kept the process secretive. For the next hour, Mandy spoke about creating facilities worldwide, humanitarian efforts, new technologies, and upcoming university lectures. 

Once the speech finished, people began to trickle out of the room except a few. Now standing with Mandy on the stage were two journalists and their camera operators, a doctor/ writer for a medical journal, two interns, and three biology scientists chosen by Mandy herself. Heads bobbed eagerly as Mandy spoke to the small group. Across the room, a voice could be heard yelling, “Great job Mandy. I almost believed you were gracious and humble this time. Well, until you called yourself a miracle. Maybe don’t lead with that.” A six-foot-tall man slowly walked to the front. His hair was black and cut short except for one lone curl that hung in the middle of his forehead. He wore black dress pants, black dress shoes, and a buttoned-up emerald green shirt with a white lab coat. He raised an eyebrow at Mandy as he got closer to the stage. She smiled warmly to the group, excused herself, walked to the edge of the stage where the man was, and knelt to his face. She whispered, “Ah Winston, nice shirt wizard, shouldn’t you be somewhere conning a kid in sparkly red shoes, you freckled-faced fuck?” Unfazed by the question, Winston removed his glasses and cleaned them with a blue cloth he pulled from his pants pocket.

 Without looking back up to Mandy, Winston replied, “Mandy, I’d tell you to eat a dick, but lord knows you haven’t caught one of those in years.”  Mandy laughed in disbelief, but before she could shoot back, one of the journalists called her back over. As she walked back to the group, she mouthed, ‘This isn’t over.’ Winston faked a yawn. The group filed out of the auditorium and into a sleek futuristic hallway. The walls were lined with monitors, each covered in texts from a different language. The gray floor tiles looked almost holographic. As they approached a metal door, Mandy pressed her hand on a handprint reader to the right of the door. 

As the door slid open, a security guard dressed in all black, wearing a bulletproof vest, and holding a gun, greeted the group, “Hello, Mandy! Great speech as always; I streamed it on my phone. Which floor?” Mandy smiled and replied, “The 16th floor, Harry. Doctor Miles should already be waiting for us.” Harry nodded. Once everyone was on the elevator, Harry pressed his hand to the left wall of the elevator. Green lights outlined his hand, and a touchscreen computer interface was revealed. He put in a password and then typed 16. The elevator silently began lifting the group to its destination. The door opened to a small man in blue scrubs. He smiled sheepishly at the group. Mandy stepped out first and embraced the man. “Just breathe Miles. Do everything like we practiced.” She whispered to him.

 She then turned back to the crowd stepped off the elevator and introduced Miles, “Everyone, this is Doctor Miles. One of the most brilliant men I’ve ever come across.” “Besides me though right?” Said Winston wiggling his way to the front of the group and off the elevator. Mandy, not skipping a beat, over-enthusiastically yelled, “Oh, Winston! I didn’t even see you slither your way into the elevator.” She wrinkled her nose and dawned her fakest smile. She then grabbed Winston by the shoulders, pointing him at the people filing off the elevator, and said, “Everyone I’d like to introduce you to a very special chemist and pathologist, Winston Egerton, our very first cured patient!” Winston’s face burned red as he folded his arms and looked away. The crowd gasped and the hallway filled with ‘oos’ and ‘ahs.’ Down the hall were 10 powder blue doors on each side. 

The hallway walls were empty and white. One of the journalists, Emily, looked down the hallway confused. After all, this was supposed to be a hospital. Where was the hustle and bustle? Doctors? Nurses? There was no sound but them. No buzz of machinery, patients, TVs, or anything. Emily sighed and shrugged. Perhaps this is what the wealthy paid all that money for, to be treated in peace, quiet, and privacy. Winston glared at Mandy as he walked down the hall to the third door on the left. He opened the door and shouted, “Alright kid, it’s showtime!” He looked back at Mandy and winked as he strolled into the room. Mandy rolled her eyes and then addressed the crowd, “Esteemed guest if you’d all follow me…”

Slumped over on the bed was a skinny man breathing slowly. His skin was deathly pale and his eyes were dim. The group walked in and lined up near the door on the right side of the room. Mandy, leading the group, came to the man on the bed. She greeted him while rubbing his back and then whispered something into his ear. The man looked up to the group and forced a smile. The boy addressed the small crowd: “He- hello everyone,” he took a break to breathe; chest rattling with each breath, “I’m honored and thankful to be the first person to have their disease cured and paid for by Man- Mandy’s new charity.” As he finished speaking, Mandy and Winston helped him get back into bed. The boy was exhausted, that small speech took all of his remaining energy. He looked and was close to death. 

Doctor Miles left the room and came back with a small gray case. He handed it to Mandy and sort of bowed as he stepped back to the group. Mandy opened the case and held its content up for all to see. It was two syringes; one filled with an electric blue liquid and one filled with a neon green liquid. She pointed to the blue one, “We will first infect Dan here with a pure and isolated strand of vampirism. She then pointed to the green, “Next, we’ll wait 3 minutes before curing him. This period is crucial because at five minutes super strength sets in and it will be hard to contain him and stop him from feeding. Once time is up he gets the cure and we put him in isolation and monitor him… just in case.” Mandy gave a nervous laugh. Her group returned the same on-edge laugh. Everyone there was old enough to remember when vampires roamed freely causing pain and wreaking havoc. So being in a room with one even for 3 minutes was 3 minutes too long. The group was silent as Mandy injected Dan with the first needle. Their eyes watched the blue liquid leave the syringe. Mandy turned to Miles, who nodded and shakily set a timer for 3 minutes on his smartwatch, but Miles was so nervous to be near all those important people his timer was set to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. 

The crowd watched in awe as Dan’s breathing became less raspy and old scars and scabs down his arms began to disappear. Mandy began to tell the group about all the diseases Dan had and how her organization found him near death and was treating him for free. As she droned on, Winston caught sight of Miles’s watch. It read 2 minutes and thirty seconds had passed. He signaled Mandy to get ready but she ignored him and continued speaking. 

Meanwhile, Dan breathed clearly for the first time since he was 9 years old. He stared at all his treatment wounds as they vanished one by one. He felt healthier. He felt stronger. He was starting to feel… hungry. He’d been homeless before and had gone days without eating, but he had never felt hunger like this before. All of sudden, faint whispers from voices he didn’t recognize began to coo in his ears. He leaned back and listened. They were lovely, they felt familiar, like hearing your mother’s voice once again after years of being apart. He understood what they wanted and he wanted it too. He wanted the hunger to go away. He wanted to feel their embrace. He wanted to be free from everything human life shackled him with and little by little he saw it vanishing with his own eyes.

Miles checked his watch. His eyes grew wide as the number on the screen read 3 minutes and 27 seconds had passed. Not wanting to interrupt one of Mandy’s inspirational speeches he snatched the case from her and began to prepare the next shot, his shaking fingers moving as fast as they could. Winston casually grabbed some belts from under the bed and nodded at Miles. He held them behind his back until it was clear they’d need them. Mandy now noticing Miles paused her speech about rescuing Dan and said, “Ah, Dan, Danny boy are you ready to be cured?” Dan sat up straight at an unnerving speed, his eyes trained on Mandy as his right hand slid closer to Miles. “Hmmm,” Dan pretended to ponder, “No.” He reached up, grabbed Doctor Miles by the shirt, and tore open his neck with his bare hands. Winston dropped the belts and stared on in shock. Once blood began to squirt from Miles’s neck Dan sucked and soaked up every drop.

One of the interns screamed and tried to fall to her knees but was caught by the other intern. Mandy’s eyes were locked onto Miles’s lifeless eyes as his head bobbed slightly due to the force of Dan’s feeding. Dan’s right hand dug into Dr. Mile’s left shoulder and his left hand gripped the doctor’s right ear as his face dug into his neck. Winston quietly and quickly pushed the entire group out of the room. Once everyone had been squeezed out of the door, Winston stood in the doorway staring at Mandy. “M-Man-M…” He whispered. Mandy’s legs were locked and her feet were cement blocks tied to her body, dragging her to the bottom of the sea. Her chest felt tight, her breath was jagged and inconsistent. Her eyes filled with tears, she felt like she couldn’t breathe. Mandy knew Winston was whispering to her, but he sounded underwater. The only thing she could hear properly was her heartbeat.

 Winston tiptoed behind Mandy and picked her up. Both not saying a word, He carried her out of the room. Winston handed her to one of the scientists who helped Mandy to her feet. Winston took a deep breath and ran back into the room. Turning his back to Dan, Winston picked back up the straps he dropped. As he steadied his nerve to strap Dan to the bed while he was occupied feeding, Winston heard the body of Dr. Miles drop to the floor. “Fuck.” Winston whispered. Dan laughed as Winston shot out of the room, but before he left he pressed a red button located to the left of the open powder blue door. Dan screeched then let out a, “NO” as Winston practically leaped out of the room. A metal door came shooting out of the ceiling closing off the open doorway. Sirens blared throughout the hospital as the hallway went pitch black. Eerie red lights replaced the fluorescent lights. As Dan banged on the metal door, Winston slowly closed the wooden door. “Extra precaution.” He mumbled with a nervous chuckle. No one spoke, all heads turned to Mandy who was now using the wall to prop herself up.

Dan spread his arms out and tilted his head to the ceiling. “I feel… amazing.” He whispered to himself. “Are you stuck, my love? Not to worry. Daddy knows a way out,” A tenor voice cooed in Dan’s ear, “ My sweet boy has shed the shackles of human life, now reborn in my image. There will be no more pain, hurt, sorrow, depression, anxiety, dread, or fear, only us. Come to me. Would you like that pup?” Dan’s head nodded vigorously. He hopped onto the bed and used his new strength to tear open the ceiling and make his entrance into the vents. Like a cool breeze swirling around Dan’s brain, the voice spoke again, “That’s right my child, you’re doing great. Make your way to me. Together we’ll fix everything. 

TO BE CONTINUED…