I sipped a little bit of it. As I did, my throat was embraced by a subtle smokiness.
It tasted like oakwood, and had a woody smooth feel to it. I don't know how, but the taste felt familiar.
"It's …delicious…"
It had a feeling to it that made my tongue crave for more.
John Elton poured another glass and drank with me. I stopped his hand and asked him.
"Professor, I have a question."
"Finish the glass and then ask what you want."
Seriously…?
I sipped more and quickly finished my serving.
"Drink slowly… there is enough left."
He showed me another bottle.
How much did he plan on drinking?
He refilled my glass and continued to drink.
I too started sipping again and asked him.
"Why are you drinking alone here, Professor?"
He swirled his glass and looked through it.
I followed the direction of his eyes and saw a photo on the wall.
It was a picture of John Elton and his wife.
"Tomorrow… is our 6 year anniversary."
"Professor, then…"
"Only one question every glass." He stopped my question mid-sentence.
I clicked my tongue and quickly chugged my drink.
Now, I had to make my questions count.
"Why and how did your wife die?"
"That's… two questions."
He poured my glass again.
Fuck. I drank it as soon as he did.
Maybe he understood my frustration by seeing my actions so he smiled a little.
He was drunk but he slowly answered.
"I… used to work for a big company… specializing in cybernetics."
He finished his glass.
"The work was good… and the pay was more than a young middle class boy like me could have dreamt of."
He poured some more scotch in his glass and filled mine again.
"However, they had a policy of overworking their employees", he smiled in nostalgia.
He sipped his alcohol as he spoke.
"Five years ago, our department started a new project."
He put down his glass.
"The complete incorporation of humans and machines."
Incorporation of humans and machines…?
"Our initial goal was only to shift the brain to a digital platform. But slowly, our aim changed to complete metamorphosis of the human body."
"Metamorphosis…?"
"Advanced Biomachines…Humans having supernatural strength and intelligence…mana output, almost equivalent to a military grade rail gun.. The project had become a beacon for humanity's development."
Had become?
…cybernetics? How is all this related to his wife?
"My wife was the first human subject to undergo the procedure."
What?
"But during the operation, the company lab was hit by masked men. The entire source code was stolen and all the data was burnt."
He picked up his glass again.
"My wife was killed."
I chugged my own drink and asked him with a small sourness in my palate.
"Why…did you put her in the Experiment?"
"She was dying. A… neurodegenerative disease of her mind."
Then he loosened his fingers and dropped his glass to the floor.
The glass shattered upon impact, spilling all the inebriating poison on the floor.
"She didn't want to live longer…
She believed as long as…
Our child was born…
She could have been happy…"
Lianne's words reverberated in my mind.
It was not possible to change one's destiny…not by a human.
"I wanted her to live… I felt I could cure her."
John Elton took out a sachet from his pocket and poured a powdery substance into a new glass.
"I watched it all happen. Unable to do anything…"
Then he poured the rest of the alcohol in the glass, filling it to the brim.
"Maybe I should have died that night with her."
I snatched the glass away from him.
He looked at me and proceeded to take out another sachet from his pocket.
"Professor." I called him.
"Do not give up on life yet."
Then I drank the drugged glass.
He looked at me as I did.
"If you make another one of these drinks, I'll drink it again and die here with you."
I felt tipsy and not in full control of my actions.
"Why…Saent?"
"Death is a part of life. We all have lost someone we love. I know the pain you feel seems immeasurable compared to others. I know how it feels without them; that feeling of emptiness, purposelessness gnaws at you."
I opened the new bottle of scotch and poured it in my other glass and gave it to him.
If he was going to keep drinking, I had to make him stick only to alcohol. "However, if you die, the legacy of that person dies with you."
He took my glass.
There was an awkward silence for a few minutes.
Finally, John Elton spoke.
"You're right, Saint… but I have nothing to live for anymore. Her legacy… I even killed our child…"
"Her legacy does not end there!"
My eyes started to blur.
The back of my head felt heavy.
"As long as you live, that person lives with you. In your mind and in your..hear..t."
My tongue started to twist on itself.
He exhaled on his glass.
I couldn't see his eyes anymore.
John Elton's voice reached my ears. "When I'm gone…is the air I breathe, my only legacy?"
My vision started to narrow.
"Professor…", my voice also started shaking.
"You do… have a reason to live."
He stopped sipping.
"Teach me…how to ride that car of yours… I don't…have anyone else…"
I collapsed to the ground.
The inside of my eyes turned green.
Strange patterns in the shapes of spiders and tetragrams filled the darkness of my eyelids.
My heart started pounding wildly.
It felt as if time had slowed down, but with it, so did my thinking powers.
I sensed a hand on mine and a few words.
"T..ank ..u S..nt…"
My body felt extremely heavy. I tried to open my eyes but they stayed shut. It was as if gravity had increased ten times.
I couldn't think, everything seemed to be converging towards a singular point inside me.
A dark hole in my mind was pulling me in.
My whole body rioted, stopping its functions, as if it wanted me to pay for my sins.
It was scary.
Shaking my head vigorously, I tried to hold my consciousness from fading away into an endless infinity.
What is happening?
I feel like I am dying.
Jerking my eyes open, I tried to see my hand. A golden glowing neuron shaped star stretched all across my skin.
Am I hallucinating?
I forced myself up, but my eyes closed again.
I felt sleepy, extremely lethargic and dead tired.
My body was spending an insane amount of energy just to keep itself seated.
The dim red light of the room started to change. A green scenery filled the space.
My eyes squinted as I started seeing two places at the same time.
On one side, John Elton in dim red light was pouring his glass again and on the other side, the green color completely invaded the surroundings like a deadly alien, terraforming the room into an unknown ghostliness.
"Profe..ssor?"
"If he drinks more, he's going to die." A completely captivating voice entered my right ear.