It was on Nicholas Stuart’s ninth birthday when the inexorable thought penetrated his, until now, innocent mind: I’m going to die someday.
This thought had, no doubt, been brewing away for some time in a niche within his mind–as the passing of his beloved aunt Sally had greatly affected him.
After Nicholas had blown out his candles in front of family, friends and servants, his mother asked him what he wished for.
“I wished that I could live forever.”
Nicholas would, thenceforth, be afflicted with such a zeal to make his wish a reality that it was as though the winds of Pentecost had passed through him.
He begged his parents to place him in a better school, which they did. He also begged them to hire a private tutor (hand picked by Nicholas) which they did.
Every waking moment, Nicholas was constantly engaged in improving his erudition; his face would be buried in a tome–many of which were taken from an esoteric shelf.
For Nicholas’s eleventh birthday, he asked for his very own chemistry set. His parents, thrilled to have such a precocious child, spared no expense and bought him a chemistry set fit for a state laboratory.
The servants would regularly inform Mr. and Mrs. Stuart of the odd noises coming from Nicholas’s room, heard at all hours of the night. Concerned that their son may fall ill from sleep deprivation, they planned to confront Nicholas.
Before a confrontation could be had, Nicholas gathered his family and servants in the study.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” began the eleven-year-old, “I am proud to present each of you with your very own elixir of life!”
Nicholas then produced seven vials and distributed them around.
“Excuse me, my dear boy,” said the father with much trepidation, “What exactly is this?”
“It’s as I’ve already stated: an elixir of life. One drop of it will prolong your life by thousands of years.”
The group then inspected their vials.
“Why aren’t you drinking from them!?” shrieked Nicholas.
“Well, Nicholas, is it safe for us to do so?” asked his mother with such tenderness as to not cause offence.
“Of course it is! I drank mine this morning!”
Hearing this put the group at ease. One by one they popped the tops off their vials and had perched their lips against the openings when a thud stopped them all at once.
The seven sets of eyes in the study searched for the source of the thud and found it where Nicholas had stood–he had collapsed to the floor.
The family doctor, Johnston, was rushed to the mansion. He assessed Nicholas thoroughly and concluded that the boy was now in a stable condition. The doctor couldn’t give an adequate explanation for why Nicholas had collapsed, even when Mr. Stuart gave him his vial of the anomalous elixir suspected of being the root cause. Dr. Johnston ended up taking the vial away with him for further analysis.
Several hours after Nicholas had lost consciousness, he awoke; the maid by his side rushed to inform his parents. The Stuarts burst into their son’s room and threw themselves by his bedside. The doting parents interrogated Nicholas with questions about his health and what he remembered prior to his collapse.
Nicholas told them he was fine, however, his description of how he felt leading up to his collapse was cause for alarm.
“I recall a tightness in my chest, right here,” he then pointed to his heart, “there was also the matter of breathing–I could hardly draw a breath.”
His parents, as well as Nicholas himself, recognised these symptoms: it could only be cardiac arrest.
Despite Nicholas having just suffered from a heart attack, the boy was up and active in no time. Neither his parents nor the servants had seen him so full of life. The prodigy even made another vial of the elixir for his father to replace the one confiscated by the doctor.
Five days after Dr. Johnston’s visit, he came again, imploring everyone in the mansion to refrain from drinking the ‘death potion‘, as he put it. The doctor claimed that his analysis of the elixir led to the discovery of several toxic components within it. If these toxic components were consumed by a human, they would certainly die.
“Only for a time,” Nicholas objected, “then they are reborn as their immortal selves.”
Dr. Johnston cast a disapproving look at Nicholas.
“Fine, I’ll show you all,” said Nicholas before running upstairs.
“Where are you going!?” asked Mrs. Stuart.
“Wait for me outside!”
The adults decided to humour young Nicholas, and did as commanded.
Outside, the group stood on the gravel driveway taking guesses as to what Nicholas had planned.
“Up here!” called a voice from above.
The group snapped their heads up to find Nicholas stood on the eave of the roof.
All on the driveway took a collective gasp.
“Now I’ll show you that my elixir of life works!”
Before anyone could talk the boy out of it–he dove off the roof.
The group scrambled to catch him, but they ended up stumbling over one another.
Young Nicholas hit the driveway with a sickening splat.
Mrs. Stuart and the maids immediately cried out in anguish. Mr. Stuart and the male servants cried out in anger–anger directed at themselves for not being fast enough.
The doctor was the only one witnessing what was truly unfolding.
“My god… ” the doctor quietly exclaimed.
In the shallow crater that had formed from the impact, Nicholas was getting to his feet–without so much as a scratch on him.
The rest of the group joined the doctor in astonishment once they, too, saw the unthinkable: The boy who had plunged approximately forty feet to the ground before their eyes was, at that moment, standing across from them with a grin on his face.
“I told you my elixir of life works,” said Nicholas.
The group shared the same thought, and made a dash for their respective vials.
Inside the mansion, everyone was gulping down every last drop of their elixirs.
Nicholas and Dr. Johnston hurried inside to prevent the group from drinking the elixir; Nicholas wanted to ensure that the correct dose of the elixir was consumed, while Johnston wanted the total prevention of its consumption.
Faint thuds could be heard coming from all over the mansion.
“Oh no!” said Nicholas.
“What is it?” asked the doctor.
“They drank too much!”
The pair then ran to the location of the nearest thud.
Laying on the floor was one of the maids–her vial of elixir was next to her, and it was empty.
Dr. Johnston sprung to check her pulse.
“She’s dead!”
“For now,” replied Nicholas.
Dr. Johnston and Nicholas went room to room, each time finding yet another person dead with an emptied vial close by.
Dr. Johnston stayed with Nicholas for the hours that followed, during which Nicholas was steadfast in his assertions that the dead would soon return to life.
At 2 AM–a full 10 hours after the group had died–they did return to life.
Nicholas, once again, gathered everyone in the study; but, unlike the first gathering, Nicholas wore a grim expression.
“I’m afraid I must inform all of you of some very bad news,” said Nicholas, “you will all live forever!”
Everyone in the study stared at Nicholas in confusion.
“You say that living forever is bad news?!” said Mr. Stuart, “but, Nicholas, that’s why we drank your elixir in the first place.”
The grim expression on Nicholas’s face grew grimmer.
“However, you did not heed my instructions from the day I introduced the elixir to you all!”
The group looked to one another to see if anyone recalled these instructions.
“I told you that ‘one drop of it will prolong your life by thousands of years.’ About two thousand years, to be more precise–and you all drank entire vials of it!”
“Wonderful! We’ll live forever and ever!” shrieked one of the maids.
“That’s exactly the problem. In my circumstance, I have a choice: I can continue drinking a drop of the elixir every two thousand years or so, or I can choose to accept my mortality–if that day ever comes. Yet, none of you have that choice; you will live forever, whether you want to or not. If, or when, humanity is wiped from the Earth, you will all be left alone–save for each other. You will live to experience the sun’s light dying out; you will live to experience other galaxies colliding with our own, and you will live to experience the death of the universe–a death you will wish were your own.”
