The rain had stopped. The few people who had been walking the streets were now in their homes, except for the bar patrons.
[At the local bar]
Laughter, the clinking of glasses, and conversations were the main sources of sound, with light music playing in the background from an old radio. In the corner of the bar, three men sat, each holding a coin. One of them said, "Man, this is the fourth time in a row you've won. You're cheating." The other man, with a slurred voice and holding four coins, replied, "I... I'm not hic... I'm not cheating. It's you guys who hic... who don't know how to lose." He was very drunk, with half-closed eyes and a strong smell of cachaça on his breath. "Alright, let's go again, this time for everything."
The three tossed their coins into the air, but before the drunk man could catch his coin on his wrist, he was surprised by the other who snatched his coin in mid-air.
"Let's see what your trick is." He looked at the coin front and back, and both sides were heads. The man threw the coin away and shouted angrily, "YOU DAMN THIEF!" and punched the drunk man in the face, who fell off his chair, doing a backflip. With a bleeding nose, he got up and tried to run out of the bar. As he passed through the door, the other two ran after him, shouting, "GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY" and "IF YOU RUN, IT'LL BE WORSE." Running frantically, he tripped and fell to the ground, bumping his face into the shoulder of a beautiful woman with perfectly arranged curly hair that seemed to come to life with every movement. She stared at him with piercing emerald eyes that created an effective contrast with her dark skin.
The man was mesmerized by her beauty for a few seconds, but soon returned to reality upon hearing the shouts of his pursuers. "Sorry, hic," he hiccuped and resumed running. The other two chased after him, and the three disappeared from sight after turning another street. The woman retraced her steps and continued walking to the bar from which those guys had come. She entered the place, but the few remaining people didn't even notice her presence. Some were already drunk on the floor, others were still drinking beer and walking out of the bar with their heads down, while others were happily in the company of friends. But one person in particular noticed her presence, a man sitting on a stool near the bartender's counter.
She approached him and sat on a nearby stool. "Good evening," she said. The unknown man looked at her with a tired look that conveyed sadness. He filled a small glass with a nearby drink and took it, saying, "What do you want with me?" He took a sip all at once and put the glass back on the counter. The woman replied, "I just wanted to talk to you, Mr. Morrison. I heard you're working on a lot of research." The man looked at her with a curious look. "How do you know I'm working on research? That idiot from the clock tower told you, didn't he? I knew he couldn't keep his mouth shut." He slammed his fist on the table and asked, "But who are you? I've never seen you around here, so I suppose you're not from here." She clasped her hands over the counter, intertwining her fingers. A brief silence dominated the place.
"My name is Evora, and I want to ask you to stop your research."
Morrison was startled by the unexpected request. "What do you mean?"
Evora: "I know this research means a lot to you, but please, I ask you to give it up, for your own good."
Morrison gritted his teeth, pressing the small glass with considerable force, and stared at her with a furious look.
Morrison: "Who the hell are you to tell me what I should or shouldn't do with my research? What do you know about it to have such audacity?"
The bartender came out from the back of the bar with a keychain and observed Morrison's agitation, not quite understanding what was happening.
Evora stared back at him, but not with the same look of hatred as Morrison, but with a look of compassion and pity. She removed her hands from the counter and stood up from the chair. "I know you're trying to find a cure for the disease that killed your daughter, and I also know how much you've suffered from her loss, but I'm sorry to inform you, sir, this will bring you many regrets that you can't even imagine. So please, stop the research while there's still time." With these final words, Evora walked out of the bar. However, Morrison was not at all content with her words and retorted, "SHUT THE HELL UP! You don't know what I had to go through to do all that research. It took years of my life trying to bring my daughter back." His gaze trembled, and before she disappeared from sight, he shouted, "You don't know what I'm feeling! You don't know the size of the hole left in my chest! So don't be another one of those people who look at me with pity and treat me like a madman! I know what I'm doing, and I will complete this damn research and bring my daughter back!" The glass in his hand shattered into pieces, cutting his palm and leaving small shards embedded in the cuts. He couldn't hold back the tears and began to cry in the bar, not because of the cuts, but because of something even more painful: the happy memories of his daughter still alive.
Evora looked at him one last time, with the same look of understanding and pity, and left, leaving the bar behind.
The bartender went to the counter, finding the situation strange. He approached the table and said, "Mr. Morrison, we're closing." He took a clean cloth and handed it to him. "Use this to cover your hand wounds. I'll take care of the mess, don't worry. Just go home." Morrison looked at the door with a determined look, while tears fell from his eyes, and ran out of the bar, ignoring the bartender's help, who commented, "Every day his mind is worse than the day before. Now he's even talking to himself."
He began to walk quickly down the deserted street. On top of the bar's roof from which he had come out, Payner was watching him leave. Behind him, climbing onto the roof, was Evora with a goat skull in her hands. She stood next to Payner, watching Morrison disappear behind one of the houses, and said, "It didn't work. He's too devastated by his daughter's death." Payner observed the moon as he said, "It's a shame, then." Evora looked at the skull in her hands and, with a serene and slightly sad voice, questioned, "Why do they sacrifice so much for those who have already gone?" A light wind blew against them, making their cloaks flutter. "Human feelings are very complex. It's impossible to understand them perfectly," Payner stated. A black mist appeared around him, taking shape. "Let's just do our job." A hunting rifle with a spectral and dense texture was created in Payner's hands. Evora watched. "Yeah, you're right." She placed the goat skull against her face, completely covering her identity, and both were enveloped by a black mist, disappearing along with it.
Morrison continued walking through the streets until he reached his home. He took out his key and tried to fit it into the door lock, but his trembling hand made it difficult. "Damn, I have to do this," he muttered. Finally, he managed to fit the key and opened the door. Before entering, he glanced around. He entered the house and went straight to the room where he conducted his research.
Various flasks with strange liquids, books, and surgical equipment were scattered around. Some rats and smaller birds were trapped in small cages. He took some flasks and mixed the liquids, which began to shimmer in different colors: red, then blue, green, purple, and finally pink. Morrison took a syringe and filled it with the mixture. "This has to work. I've done several tests on animals, but never on a human organism." His injured hand started to tremble. Watching the blood drip from his fingers, he reflected for a few seconds: "I need to do this, no matter the risks. I'll never advance if I stay still, doing nothing." He injected the syringe into his arm and administered the liquid into his veins.
The muscles in his arm began to contract, like a severe cramp that soon spread to the rest of his body: chest, legs, back, and even his brain. Morrison screamed in pain: "AAAAAAHHHH!" The sensation was as if a living creature was trying to break out of his body. He felt like his muscles and bones were going to explode and started to drool heavily, unable to swallow his own saliva while screaming.
He fell to the ground, and after a few seconds, the muscles stopped moving. However, all the veins in his body were visible and purple. Payner and Evora watched everything beside him. Payner aimed the rifle at the fallen body, which soon regained consciousness and quickly noticed their presence.
Morrison was frightened and immediately crawled backward, away from the rifle's barrel. "What are you doing in my house?" he asked.
Payner: "We came to finish what you started."
Morrison felt his hand tingle, and when he looked at it, he saw the wounds from the glass shards healing rapidly. He gave a genuine smile of joy, momentarily ignoring the threat in front of him. "I did it! Haha, I did it!" He stood up, looking at his healed hand, with no sign of injury. Payner lowered the rifle slightly, curious but unsurprised. Morrison returned to reality and looked at the two strangers again.
Morrison: "What do you want here? Did you come to stop my research?"
Payner: "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
Morrison was confused, not understanding what he meant. "I finally found the cure, the cure for all wounds and diseases. Look." He took a scalpel and made a small cut on his palm, which quickly healed.
Morrison: (excitedly) "See? It worked!"
Evora: "This is such a disaster, but I admire you, Mr. Morrison."
Morrison: (confused) "What do you mean, disaster? This can finally save my daughter and all the other people suffering from incurable diseases like her!"
Payner pointed the rifle at Morrison's head and fired, exploding it into pieces. Morrison's body fell to the ground, lifeless, but within seconds, the head regenerated, forming muscles, veins, flesh, and blood, and he came back to life again.
Payner: "See? You didn't just find a cure, but also immortality."
Evora: "This can be a complete disaster for you humans."
Morrison was shocked by the sensation of coming back to life, but soon recovered and realized the magnitude of what he had achieved. "Immortality," he repeated. His face shifted from worry to an expression of complete ecstasy and joy. "I achieved something like immortality? This is incredible! How can you say this is bad? Besides curing all diseases and injuries, I can have my daughter back forever. Not even death can separate us now." He went to a curtain behind a wall and pulled it, revealing a large capsule with the body of a child inside, completely frozen.
"Finally, my daughter, your father did it. I will bring you back," Morrison promised, excited. He turned back to the two strangers who were completely serious. Payner maintained a cold look, while Evora's green eyes were barely covered by the depths of the goat skull's eye sockets. Morrison's heart raced as he began to understand the situation.
Evora walked up to the capsule and touched the reinforced glass, which was cold. She observed the child in a fetal position and gave a slight smile of joy. "She's a beautiful girl. I'm sure she would have become a great person when she grew up." Morrison said, confused and with a shaky voice: "W-what do you mean? I can bring her back now, can't I? She can come back to life, so... why are you trying to stop me?"
A mist began to appear around the entire room, and Evora replied: "Your desire is very admirable, but we cannot let you disrupt the balance of things. I understand that you want to see your daughter again, but please understand, Mr. Morrison: she is already dead, and there's no denying that fact." Payner added: "Denying that mortals will one day die is denying the reality of things. And the moment you created this formula for immortality, you are breaking the way things work."
Morrison: "But what's the problem with that? I invented it and did all the work! I didn't sacrifice anyone, and I didn't harm any human being in pursuit of this!"
Evora stepped away from the capsule and returned to Payner's side.
Evora: "Tell me, Morrison, have you ever stopped to think about the consequences of a human being becoming immortal?"
Payner: "You already cause enough problems just living 80 or 100 years. Now imagine if you were immortal. The problems would be enormous."
Evora: "However, the point isn't that. Your species was not made to be immortal, Mr. Morrison, just as a shark wasn't made to fly. Each species contributes in its own way to the entire ecosystem of this world."
Payner: "Your species has caused many problems and continues to do so as you advance in your inventions. But that's in the essence of humans, always seeking more and more, never being content with what you already have."
Evora: "That's something that can't be changed, just as you can't make a species meant to be mortal become immortal, Mr. Morrison."
Morrison listened carefully and was astonished at how ridiculous it all seemed. All the effort of eight years in vain? All the sleepless nights, hoping to achieve something, destroyed by mere strangers?
NO!
"I'm not going to let you destroy everything I've built!" He pulled a lever hidden behind the curtain, and a passage was created in the wall, pulling the capsule inside and storing it. Morrison ran to the closed window and jumped out, breaking the glass in the process.
Evora: "They always run in the end."
Payner: "A pity they never manage to run for long."
Morrison ran through the streets in desperation. The injuries from his fall had healed, but he still wondered as he ran: "What were they? Humans?" He recalled the deer horns the tall man had on his head and the strange weapon he carried. "No, they can't be," he thought. Turning a corner, he continued running. "But why are they doing this? What is their goal? What do they want?" A shadow passed over the rooftops of the houses, pursuing him, and as he turned another corner, he came face to face with Evora. "How did she get here so fast?" While lost in thought for a few seconds, he heard a shot that hit his chest, creating a large hole. He fell to the ground and spat out the blood accumulating in his mouth.
He expected the cure to close the hole, but nothing happened. "Why isn't it closing?" Evora approached as Payner descended from the rooftops and landed softly on the ground. "You lived a life of great value, Mr. Morrison. Please, don't resist any longer and just rest," Evora said. Blood pooled on the ground, and the scientist's vision gradually faded.
"Was that it?"
"Is this the life I had?"
"Is this how I'm going to die?"
"Without saving my daughter and having my life taken without protecting the one I loved most?"
"But..." His vision was dark, but he continued to hear Evora's calm and serene voice as she approached him. Taking his last breath, one final question arose in his consciousness.
"Why do I feel so calm?"
Morrison died beside Evora. She crouched down, gently placed her hand on his forehead, and said, "It's done." She stood up as Payner asked, "How do you feel?" Evora looked at him. "I feel happy." Payner's rifle disappeared into a black mist. "Happy?" "Yes, he finally got to rest after many years of suffering. It's a reason to be happy, isn't it?" They began to walk away from the small community. "I like your positive side," Payner said.
Evora: "What are we going to do now?"
Payner: "We'll just return to our usual routine."
Evora, in a lazy tone: "We'll walk, walk, and walk until we find something new, as always?" Payner laughed at her tone. "Well, that's how we've lived for centuries, Evora. But we can go to the other side of the curtain if you want." Evora laughed along with him. "I was joking. It's not like I'm tired of it. You know I love wandering around any corner of this world with you, haha."
The situation seemed to quickly soften in contrast to the disaster from moments ago.
Evora turned to Payner, walking backward while facing him and saying: "Wait, tomorrow will mark 700 years since we started wandering, right?" Payner nodded: "Exactly. That would be 70 gatherings if Bazaltho were alive." Evora resumed walking normally beside him. "Wow, it really has been many years. Time flew by."
Payner looked up at the sky, which was covered with many stars, and said: "Time passes quickly when we're distracted. But in the end, things always end as they should. Although some have left, their memories are what matter in the end." Evora chuckled softly and said: "Wise as always, aren't you, Payner? Haha." They finally reached the edge of the small community after some time walking. Evora stretched her body and said: "As much as I said that, I like your philosophical side. I don't want you to ever change that." Payner just kept walking towards a forest. "Let's keep going. It will be dawn soon." Evora gave a short jog to keep up with him and, continuing into the forest, said: "Talking like that, you sound like a vampire afraid of the sun, haha." Payner sighed lightly, accepting the challenge of enduring Evora's teasing for a while.
They disappeared among the trees and bushes, leaving the small community behind.