The Cure for Everything
by Dan Charles Wild
Daniel Charles Wild, otherwise known on reddit’s writing forums as user BecauseISaidSoToo, is a long-time contributor to Tall Tale TV. The short story ‘The Cure for Everything’ is one of the many wild tales included in his brand new short story collection, ‘Stories For Imaginary Friends’
Author page:
https://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Charles-Wild/e/B07QZPJM2X
Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/user/Becauseisaidsotoo
Other TTTV Stories by Daniel Charles Wild
https://talltaletv.com/?s=Daniel+Charles+wild
Originally developed to treat borderline personality disorders, its scope of treatment eventually widened to include everyone. It was a deep dive therapy involving a combination of a drug-cocktail, hypnotherapy, and time in a sensory deprivation chamber. The majority of the participants reported having a transcendent experience that they couldn’t quite remember. One that resulted in a sense of purpose, improved interpersonal relationships, and feelings of optimism and hope that became permanent personality features.
It was, quite simply, a miracle. One that cured nearly everyone who took part in it. It seemed even more miraculous when it was discovered that the patient’s DNA was altered by the experience. It could cure physical disorders and diseases as well.
Additionally, some patients developed amazing abilities, like mind-reading, superhuman strength, unexplainable luck, amazing artistic skills, and more. These people with extraordinary gifts were called “The Answered” and they became celebrities and spokespeople for the treatment, spreading its popularity far and wide.
Humanity, at last, could truly be content and at peace. But only if everyone could be treated, and eventually nearly everyone was.
I was as well. I’d been holding out on getting the treatment. I’m an old man, and naturally content. But I’d been suffering from slight memory loss of late, and it was causing me depression and irritability. I’d seen one of The Answered on The Tonight Show, levitating small objects. He told the host he’d always wanted telekinetic powers and when he had the treatment he’d focused on getting that gift; chanting it in an internal monologue.
“That’s how you can come back with these gifts!” He said to the wildly applauding audience. “Most people just want to be happy, but you get whatever you ask for!”
A week later I descended into to the sensory deprivation chamber, chanting to myself to “remember everything, remember everything, remember everything.” It worked. I do. I have complete recall. I even remember the transcendent experience itself, and I’m the only one who does.
I had been floating in a void, and I was confronted by a vast intelligence. It asked me what I wanted, and granted it to me, and it took something from me as well, my eternal soul.
I remember the way my soul screamed as it was torn away from me. I remember the way it looked too, just like me, but somehow perfect, terrified, and lost. I also felt the vast intelligence’s hunger, and I saw my soul’s light flicker and go out. Then, like a child being born anew, I felt my body being pulled from the dark waters of the sensory deprivation chamber into the light of the laboratory.
Now I walk the streets and see happy people everywhere, some of them even possess extraordinary gifts. It’s too late and I can’t bring myself to tell them that they’ve all lost something. Perhaps it caused pain, sadness, and feelings of discontent, but it was precious, irreplaceable, and utterly beautiful.
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