I began my training to be a doctor the next day. At first, it wasn’t very different from school, just a lot of reading and studying all kinds of things. Day after day, I would hit the books so to speak and just read all day while taking notes on different things. Learning everything about the human body that there was to learn.
After a few weeks of this, I got a bit tired of it, I mean I had learned a lot in a short time, but I felt as if I was getting no closer to my goal of finding a counter agent to the Shadow. Well then again, I wasn’t actually working on it, but still I felt as if all I was doing was just wasting time day after day. So I decided that I needed to ask Paul about things, maybe he could train me and find a counter agent at the same time.
“Hey Paul, I have a question for you, it’s about the drug I want you to help me find the counter agent while you train me. Or you could put off training me for a while until you find it.” I said to him as he went over notes from the books he was looking through so he could give me the right one to read. “I would totally do that, but I can’t anymore. I have reached a dead end in the formula, it’s too complex for just me to solve, so that’s why I’m giving you all this to study. I need you to be able to help me figure this out.” He said with a smile as he pulled out a book from under the pile of books on the ground. “Got it, this is what you need to study from back to front. Then when you’re done with that we can finally get started with what we need to do in order to begin working on a counter agent that will counter the drug fully.” He said then threw the book at me.
I caught it and almost dropped it at the same time. It was much heavier than I thought it would be, I opened it and the words were small just big enough to be read. “Wow, this is a heavy book, so I take it this book holds everything I need to learn right.” I said with a smile not knowing what was in store for me. Paul started to laugh at me as if I just told the funniest joke in the world. “Ahhh, that’s funny that is the first volume, the intro, you still have A to Z and those are much bigger than that little book.” He said with a twisted smile on his face. “You’re enjoying this aren’t you?” I said back to him as I flipped through the book to see what was in it. It made me smile for a bit when I saw that there were pictures in it, but then I realized they were very few of them and they had words in them too.
I decided to go and study on my own; I figured I would be able to study more and faster if I wasn’t surrounded by what I still had left to do. I went back to the inn and sat in the room with the book open, I was doing my best to stay focused on it and keep reading. At first, it was easy to do, but after some time it got a lot harder to stay on track. About half way through the day I was about to drift off to sleep reading, then she walked in. “Heyyyy pervert how’s the studying coming along, or are you just reading about perverted things.” She said as she walked in the room.
“You know I have a name Annie, yep how do you like it when someone doesn’t call you by your name. You don’t like it do you Annie.” I said, trying my best to come up with a better name than Annie, but I couldn’t, I just wasn’t that good at coming up with stuff like that and it showed. She started to laugh as she dropped down on the bed on her back. “Annie is that the best you got really. Hmm, well I actually like it, it’s cute like me, and it fits me. So tell me what you are studying now lover boy.” She said as she twirled her hands through her hair. “The building blocks of all things, is what I’m studying.” I answered.
I didn’t hear anything from her for a while, I looked up from the book, and she was just glaring at me. I looked at her confused by what she was looking at. She just smiled and rolled over and closed her eyes. “Your nice you know that, and I’m sorry for all the trouble I put you threw I promise I will repay you anyway I can just name it.” She said catching me by surprise and leaving me speechless. “Well, I would say you can help me study, but I don’t think you know anything about this stuff to help me anyway.” I answered her after being left speechless for a few minutes.
“You know I wanted to be a teacher when I was younger, I even started to train to become one. But it’s just my luck that my life changed and went in a different direction than what I wanted when I was a young child.” She said to me with a smile as she got up off the bed and looked down at the book in my hands to see what I was reading. She then kissed my forehead and jumped up off the bed, then ran out the room as if she was late for something. This left me very confused, I mean what was going on here, why did she do that, was she trying to get me to stop studying.
I sat there for about twenty minutes reading and wondering what just happened, then the door opened and she walked in. “Ok, it’s time for us to get you studying the way you need to. No more slacking off.” She said with a smile as she stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. Then she pulled the book from my hands and opened it to the very back. “When I was studying I learned a very good way to study that made everything go much faster, and from that look you had earlier, I know that this is just one of many books you have to study. So we are going to study my way and that is to start from the back. I learned that if I studied from the end first by the time I got half way to the front I understood everything already. So let’s get started pervert. Oh, and I’ll even give you a reward if you go fast enough.” She said then handed me back the book and sat on the bed in front of me pointing at the book with a rod in her hand.
From then on, I did things her way, day after day we studied together, the time went by quickly as I learned faster than ever before. The days turned into weeks, then months, I got closer to finding a counter drug with each passing day. Though at times it seemed as though I would never find one and I might as well just give up but I didn’t. Mostly because she was right there reminding me of what I would be saving and slapping some sense into me when I talked about giving up.
Almost a year passed by, it felt like a blink of an eye, I had read every book in Paul’s library and was moving on to the other top doctor’s books. Yet still the correct formula eluded me, but with each book I got a bit closer, soon I was almost there.
A year to the day after we arrive in the city, I had what I thought was the counter agent but I wasn’t sure if she would survive taking it. So I did the only thing I knew to do in order to test something dangerous, I would test it on myself and see what would happen.
First, I had to actually use Shadow to see if the counter agent would have the desired effect. What’s more, I had to get addicted to Shadow to see if what I made would stop the addiction or become something else that the person would get addicted to. Either way it was still better than the Shadow it didn’t have the same side effects, but it did have a few that weren’t nearly as bad.
“So how long did it take you to get addicted to Shadow, how many times did you take it before you knew you were addicted to it?” I asked Annabella. “After I didn’t take it on time the second time, I realized I couldn’t go without it. The first time I missed taking it, I just hurt like there was no tomorrow, but it wasn’t until after that when I got more and ran out again that it was bad. That time it didn’t just hurt but I started seeing and hearing things, all I could think about was when was the next time I would get more Shadow. Then, once I had enough for a week I felt different, as I got close to the time I would need to take it, I felt on edge and uneasy like my whole body was off.” She replied to me as the look on her face changed to one of pain, I could tell she didn’t like talking about it maybe that’s why I had never heard her talk about it before.
I took one of the vials, and then went bottoms up with it, within seconds I could feel it working. My body began to tense up as I felt my breathing slow, my mind slowly began to work faster and faster. Then things around me began to look as if they were moving slower. At first, it was just a bit slower, and then it started to slow down a lot more as if time was slowing down all around me.
It was amazing how things looked all around me, I could understand why this would get addictive. The next day I took it on time like I was supposed to, after this dose I wouldn’t take it again until I went through withdrawal. I felt normal that day the effects were not as noticeable, but that was only because I was starting to get used to it as she said I would. “It’s been a day already, why hasn’t it started to wear off yet?” I asked Paul that night, as I stretched, then sat down in the chair for him to take some of my blood. He took a sample of my blood and put it under the microscope to take a look at it, after a few minutes of him looking at my blood and comparing it to Annabella’s he spoke. “Well, that’s interesting, it seems as though the version we made is just a tiny bit stronger than the original. Maybe it’s because we have a better mixing system here so it mixed better.” I smiled, this was the first thing I made that he complimented. “Well, it’s better made, but the drug will still have the same effect as the original, the side effects of withdrawal should kick in later tonight, maybe in the morning we just have to wait and see. From what I can tell your vision just last longer.” He said laying back in his chair with a smile. “Ok, that sounds good I think I’ll go and get some rest and see what happens tomorrow.” I Replayed to him then got up out of the chair and headed to the door.
I left and I was very happy, even though I was looking forward to incredible pain in a very short time. I didn’t care because what I made was better than the original and that meant that I was on my way to become a real doctor and finding an anti-drug to the shadow. I smiled, laying in bed for the night; I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
“AHHH!!!” My screams woke everyone in the inn, Annabella jump up and grabbed on to me. “Are you ok, what’s wrong?” She said while looking around the room to see if there was anyone there that had attacked me. Then, as she looked back to me, she saw blood running from my eyes. “I need more now it’s ripping me apart inside.” I managed to hold back my screams long enough to speak, then I started screaming again. She grabbed the closes bottle and held my mouth open as she poured it down. Then she held me down as I started to shake. “Come on don’t die on me, you said you wouldn’t leave me ever, you can’t do this to me.” She said with tears in her eyes as I stopped breathing.
“No you’re not leaving me, I won’t let you.” Her crying voice said as she hit my cheeks over and over again, yelling at me to wake up. She cried and screamed when I wouldn’t wake up. “Wake up you pervert, I love you.” She said as she collapsed on my chest crying. “Please wake up please.” She said crying as Paul came rushing into the room to see what was going on. He pulled her back, as she kicked and screamed at him to let her go. “Stop, he’s still alive, he just needs to wake back up I promise you he will be ok, now can you stand back while I tend to him.” He said, calming her down, then walking over to the bed and stabbing me in the chest with a needle. A few seconds later, I jumped up screaming. “Ahhh, what is wrong with you, why would you stab me in the heart. And why does my chest hurt so much.” I said shacking and holding my hand over my chest. I turned and I saw Annabella by the door laughing with tears in her eyes. “You big headed pervert trying to trick me.” She said with a smile and ran out the door.
“What just happened here?” I asked Paul rubbing my chest still. “Nothing, how are you feeling?” He answered me. “I feel fine except for my heart and chest feeling like someone was playing the drums on them.” I said back to him dropping back down on the bed. He just smiled and left the room.
The next morning I felt like normal again the drug was flowing through my system and I felt it. I knew I needed it now. I figured that because of how much stronger it was than the original that it must be much more addictive. Which was just what I needed in order to test the anti-drug. Though I figured after last night, I might need to make it a bit stronger for the next day.
I spent the rest of the day in the lab working the antidrug stronger. It was a little odd though, Annabella was there with me just watching my every move all day not saying anything. I was lost as to what was wrong with her, or if I had done something to her the night before to make her mad at me. However, I didn’t want to say anything I just worked on the new drug as she watched on in silence.
I took the Shadow that night before I went to sleep, leaving the modified version of the antidrug to settle for the night so I could take it in the morning.
The next morning I was ready to have this stuff out of my system and I took the antidrug. Then I waited as I relaxed. I didn’t have anything to do that day besides just sit and wait to see what was going to happen. I laid out in the room with Annabella sitting in the chair watching me reading her book just loud enough for me to hear what she was reading. I drifted off to sleep as she read, waking up a few times when I heard the door open and close as she went in and out of the room.
The night came much faster than I thought it would and I didn’t even get up from where I was laying down for some reason I felt very lazy. I looked over at the bed and I saw her laying there. I wondered what was wrong with her I didn’t think I did anything to her, but maybe I did and that’s why she was acting like that and not saying anything to me. Oh well, I figured I would ask her in the morning, she’s asleep now or at least she’s acting like she is. I could see her taking a peek down at me every few minutes. I looked back up at the ceiling of the room. I felt a bit strange, I knew the drug had worn off already but I didn’t feel like myself. Maybe it was because I was sleeping and laying around all day, so I got up and stretched.
“Ahhh!! That hurts.” I said as I stretched a bit. It wasn’t as bad as the last time, but it still hurt a lot then as I went to lay back down the pain started to rush through my body like a fire burning my insides. “Hand me the bottle quickly it hurts.” I said, and she was up pouring it into my mouth by the time I was done speaking the words. I didn’t question how she managed to get it to me that fast, but I was happy she did. It flowed into my blood just in time and the pain started to go away.
“Why didn’t it work, it should have worked there must be a reason why it didn’t.” I said aloud to myself. “Well, it kind of did, I mean it took longer to wear off this time. Maybe next time you can work on a way to stop it from wearing off.” Annabella said as she rolled over in the bed, I just laid on the ground thinking. “Noooo!!” I yelled a few seconds later. “It was just a suggestion jezz you don’t have to shoot it down so hard.” She said, rolling again getting comfortable in the bed. “No, that’s it, I was looking at this wrong. The radiation is the antidrug, and it’s already built into the drug that would explain the time limit perfectly. It would also explain why my antidrug didn’t work at all.” I said with excitement, then grabbed her and kissed her. “I think you just solved it.” I said than vanished from the room.
I was looking at everything all wrong, the drug was designed to be addictive. It wasn’t a side effect it was the way it was made the O8C2 wasn’t a side effect of the breaking down process it was the reason for the breaking down process. I thought the radiation that was given off was to speed the atomic structure of the person, but I was wrong well mostly wrong. The radiation did do that, but it wasn’t to allow the person to move even faster instead it was so that the O8C2 couldn’t form until it wore off. Because of the high levels of movement in the atoms of the person, the O8C2 compound couldn’t form while the radiation was still being given off and preventing the breakdown process.
I didn’t fully understand how it worked as of yet, but I knew I was close, and thanks to the Shadow flowing threw me, I was thinking and focusing much clearer than I was used to. By the end of the night, I had solved the problem and figured out just how to fix it permanently. I would take out the extra oxygen in the makeup of the shadow. So instead of O8C2 being released when the radiation stopped a different but similar compound would be released O2C3 this would solve it perfectly. Now, instead of the drug in the body being broken down and ripped out of the cells nothing would happen.
I got to work on finishing it before the day was through and I headed back to the inn with it. This time the antidrug wouldn’t be something that I would drink, instead I would have to inject it directly into my blood stream. I pushed it into my arm and injected it into myself, then I explain it to Paul and Annabella. What I had done was lessen the amount of radioactive material in the drug and altered it just enough to make O2C3 instead of O8C2 other than that I hadn’t changed anything the Shadow. My plan was to turn the drug into the cure for the drug a genius plan I thought to myself as I felt it starting to work. I started to breathe harder as it started to have the effect I wanted it to.
The drug was wearing off, but instead of O8C2 being created in my body to breaking down and rip the drug out of my cells, O2C3 was created. This was perfect the unstable O8C2 that was already in my body boned with the O2C3 and splitting off into carbon dioxide. Then it was safely exhaled. I smiled “See, it’s working, only thing is anyone else will need a huge dose of it to get enough in their system to counteract all of it. I will add and addictive to help the cells regrow and rebuild themselves faster to make sure it’s all out of the person’s system as fast as possible.” I said with a smile as Paul just looked at me shaking his head. “Wow man, you did it you solved something that this whole village couldn’t solve. Congratulations, you are by all our standards a doctor of extraordinary talent.” He said as he shook my hand.
He got up and left, then turned back as he walked through the door. “Congratulations again on curing your first patient Doctor Daniel.”
Continues in Chapter 24 or go to previous Chapter 22
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