Title: The Cure For Cancer (suggestions welcome)
Warnings: threats, slightly gory/sinister research, death, prisoner/hostage situation
Summary: Finding the cure for cancer has never been this complicated.
Length: ~5,000 words
Notes: First person point of view, tense changes between past and present. Genre includes a bit of sci-fi, crime, angst, and other things. I'm going to say it's medicine, because it's about the cure for cancer.
The Cure For Cancer
Twelve years, four months, and fourteen days. That’s how long it takes me to find the cure for cancer.
I came into Natsuki Hospital
Natsuki was one of the many companies that reached out to me after my graduation. Because it’s located in my hometown of Tokyo
The building isn’t the only slimy thing about Natsuki. The stuff they do there – it’s bad, really bad. I didn’t know that when I first came to Natsuki. I just didn’t like the CEO, Susumu Takeda. You know how you sometimes get a feeling that something is extremely wrong, even if you don’t know why? That’s how I felt when Takeda walked into the room.
The first thing he did was bow to me and then say, “We’re very honored that you are considering joining us, Aiko-sama.”
Completely harmless, right? Even overly respectful. And yet immediately I got the feeling that something was wrong. As I continued to talk to him, I figured out what it was. His eyes are completely blank. Eyes are the window to the soul, and his soul – it’s not that he has shutters over it. It simply doesn’t exist at all.
“I sincerely hope you’ll come to work for us,” Takeda said at the end of our meeting. He’d spent most of it explaining how great Natsuki was and why they were the company to work for. His eyes had flipped between soulless and almost desperately intense, and it was scaring me a little.
“I will surely think about it,” I replied, and got out of there as fast as I could. As I left, I noticed many closed doors with armed guards around them, and doctors rushing all around.
The place and its CEO gave me the heebie jeebies. I figured I was done with them. But then, in the weeks following, they kept on sending me letters and calls, asking when I was going to work for them. And every time I went to interview for another company, something went wrong. One time, the CEO, who had been living with cancer for a while, suddenly died, and the company delayed its offer. Another time, the headquarters of another company blew up. One time my car broke down and I was late for the meeting.
I didn’t know Natsuki ruthlessness and reach back then. I thought it was all coincidence, or maybe that I was cursed. But eventually other companies stopped calling on me, and all that was left was Natsuki.
So I went back.
Takeda was still playing it subtle back then. He expressed his surprise that I wasn’t working for any other company yet.
“Your spot at Natsuki Hospital
At this point, Natsuki was my only option. As ridiculous as it seemed, no one wanted the girl who had found the cure for AIDS anymore. Worldwide, companies avoided me like I’d been blacklisted.
Now, I suspect that I had. At the time, I only knew that Natsuki was my only option.
“I’d be happy to work for you, Takeda-sama,” I said.
Things were okay for a while. I had a top-notch facility to do my research, and I was making a lot of money. I had a beautiful high-rise apartment in Tokyo Ugo in Japan
Every day, I would see Takeda, and he would ask, “Found the cure yet?”
I would laugh and respond, “Not yet!” I figured he was joking. It had taken me years to find the cure for AIDS, and cancer is more difficult. There are so many types.
Things went sour after I had been working for Natsuki for around two years, twenty-one days, and four months. The day I went into one of the guarded rooms.
I had been curious about those rooms for a while. There were so many of them, on all levels of the hospital. If I ever asked one of the staff about the room, they’d just say, “We’re not at the liberty to tell you that.” I have to admit, that irked me. I was used to the highest respect from everyone. (What a joke that is now.)
“Why are those doors locked?” I asked Takeda once.
“I’m afraid you have not been working here long enough to learn this kind of information, Aiko-sama,” he replied apologetically. “I will tell you when I believe you’re ready to know.”
That, of course, only made me more curious. So when I finally found the opportunity – an unguarded, unlocked door that I knew was usually guarded and locked – I took it. I glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and then I walked inside the room.
I didn’t understand what was going on at first. It was just another hospital room, with cots filled with patients. I thought maybe they were high-profile patients or something, who needed their privacy. But all of them together in a room? That didn’t make much sense. So I looked at their charts out of curiosity. And what I saw made me physically ill.
There was a man who was missing his arm. On the chart, it read, “TEST SUBJECT #6451. Involuntary. Stem cell research. Attempt to regrow arm. Arm cut off: 1/15/2019. Arm regrowth: Yet to occur.”
Another who looked extremely ill. His chart read, “TEST SUBJECT #6449. Involuntary. Kidney research. Attempt to discover amount of kidney necessary for life. Amount of kidney removed: 94%. Test subject still alive: Yes, but very ill.”
It went on and on. I couldn’t read any more charts after a while, but the meaning was clear. Natsuki Hospital
I couldn’t work for Natsuki anymore. But I couldn’t let them know that I had discovered their horrible secret. I left that awful room as quickly as I could. I was just starting to understand their cruelty, and I did not want them catch me.
If only I had realized it was already too late. I would have been saved the pain of having my hopes crushed.
I went to Takeda that day. I was still naïve enough to try to do this honorably.
“I want to quit,” I told him.
He blinked in surprise, and I thought I saw a flash of panic in his eyes. “Why, Aiko-sama?” he asked. “You have been happy here, haven’t you?”
“Yes, but I’ve had a family emergency,” I said. “My mother has died, and I need to look after my little sisters.”
I’d planned my story while making my way to Takeda’s office, and I was already looking forward to getting out of Natsuki forever. I didn’t want to leave my apartment in Tokyo
“You’re lying,” Takeda said calmly.
I simply stared at him. How did you know? I almost asked, but luckily I managed to hold my tongue.
“I, um – why would you say that?”
“Please, Aiko-sama, give me some credit. Do you not think we have security cameras in all of our rooms?”
Shit. I hadn’t even thought of that. I was so, so screwed.
“I did not mean for you to find out about our activities that way, Aiko-sama,” Takeda continued. “But the guards were lazy. They have been punished. I apologize. I know you were not ready to see that. But we cannot let you quit.”
“What do you mean, you can’t let me?”
Takeda frowned, contorting his face into a regretful expression that clashed with the blankness of his eyes. “Once we let our doctors or researchers into the activities we do, and the, ah… delicate nature of our research… they stay with us. They live here in the hospital, they will always work here, and they don’t leave, or quit. I would have liked to give you the choice. But now that you have looked into one of our rooms… I’m afraid you’ll be staying with us.”
I chuckled. I couldn’t believe him. “So, what, you’re going to hold me prisoner here because I found out about your illegal research? That’s ridiculous. I’m not going to tell anyone, I swear. I just don’t want to work at a place that does illegal research on people. But I won’t rat you out. I just want to live in peace.”
Takeda’s expression didn’t change. I wondered if it was hurting him to look that sorrowful. “I’m sorry, Aiko-sama. But even if I believed you would keep your word, we still couldn’t let you go.”
“Why not?” This was a dream. A nightmare. It had to be.
“We need you here, Aiko.” It was the first time he addressed me without an honorific, and it was jarring. But what he said after was much worse. “We need you to find the cure for cancer, and we need Natsuki to take the credit. I can’t have you working for another company. I won’t let you leave.”
I stood up from my chair, shaking with rage and fear. “Oh yeah? And how are you going to stop me from walking out right now?”
Takeda smiled. It was a slow, cruel smile, the kind of smile I imagine a serial killer would have as he scooped the marrow out of his victim’s bones. “You have seen our guards with their AK-47s. They are not afraid to shoot you if you attempt to leave. Nowhere fatal, because we need you alive. But you could still find the cure to cancer with only one working leg.”
“I’ll stay,” I said.
Takeda just kept on smiling.
As you can probably imagine, things weren’t as fun after that. Takeda still asked me every day if I’d found the cure, and every day I said no. But there was no fun in it anymore. Takeda was keeping from prisoner at Natsuki, with all the other crazy doctors who actually supporting research on unconsenting human subjects, and I was being forced to find the cure for cancer under threat of death. I couldn’t understand why finding the cure for cancer was such a big deal for Takeda. So he wanted the credit? So what?
I didn’t think credit was important then. Now, I do. Now that I know Takeda will surely steal it from me. But at the time, I didn’t know his other reasons for insisting on my finding the cure.
That was another thing I found out by accident. I was working in my lab on the sixth year at Natsuki when I overheard one of the scientists outside my door. He was talking to a colleague, I assume. He said, “Takeda-sensei’s cancer is back again. He is very worried. He told me he hopes he can have the cure within this year…”
That certainly cleared it up for me. And this is a terrible thing to admit, but it made me happy. In fact, I whooped a little bit and danced around the lab. I didn’t care that the security cameras were watching me. I was just happy to finally have some power over Takeda.
Because he was dying of cancer, and I was the one who could find the cure. Yes, he could threaten me and hurt me if I refused to work on the cure, so I would keep working on it. But if it was his life on the line, maybe he’d be willing to house me somewhere nicer than, say, the dungeons where I had been staying.
This was good. This would help me.
I lived another three years after that, in a nice room in the hospital, being given everything I wanted as long as I continued to work on the cure. Takeda asked me every day if I’d found it, and every day I’d reply, “No, so try to live a day longer, Takeda-chan.” This cheekiness bothered him to no end, but he dealt with it, because we held each other’s lives in our hands. He could kill me, but if I didn’t find a cure soon enough, he would die. He was looking sicklier lately.
Another idea had occurred to me. All I had to do was take long enough to find the cure that Takeda died. No one was keeping me here, really, except for Takeda. Everyone just followed his orders. When he died, I would be free.
Unfortunately, he figured out that plan. And I began to fully understand the lengths he would go to keep me working at my best.
He called me into his office. “Aiko,” he said. We’d dropped the honorifics by now, and not out of a sign of respect. How does one address one’s prisoner? “You must stop delaying finding the cure.”
I lifted my chin stubbornly. “I am not delaying finding the cure. It takes a long time to find. And even if I were delaying, you couldn’t stop me.”
“You’re wrong, on both counts,” he said. “One, you are delaying, most obviously by still refusing to use human subjects. We both know your research would be much quicker if you dropped your silly moral scruples. Two, I believe I can stop you, or at least give you more incentive to find a cure, and quickly. I know you know I have cancer. You foolishly believe that you can delay finding a cure and in doing so kill me. What you do not know is that you are also killing yourself.”
“We’ve been over this, Takeda,” I said. “You won’t kill me. Even if I try to escape, you’ll just injure me.”
“I won’t kill you if you find the cure for cancer,” Takeda responded, his serial killer smile making another appearance in his wrinkled face. “But if you don’t, you will die. I won’t even have to have my guards kill you… you will die of the disease.”
I could feel my blood freeze. He couldn’t have… “What are you saying?”
Takeda smiled. “You have cancer, Aiko.”
“What – how –”
“You’ve had a controlled form ever since you’ve been working for us. Do you remember the physical we gave you when you first joined us? One of those shots gave you cancer, to be activated if you ever rebelled against us. One of Natsuki Hospital
But I feel fine. I can’t have cancer. I’m an expert on it, now. I would have known. “I don’t believe you.”
“I thought you might say that. But the doubt should be enough to keep you working speedily. And if it is not… I can always activate it. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to live with cancer as long as I have. Perhaps you will not be. Do you really want to risk it?”
No. No, I don’t. So from that moment on, I worked my hardest to find a cure, for me and for Takeda.
My last and latest attempt at rebellion occurred after I’d been working for Natsuki for eleven years, and been a prisoner about nine. I was getting sick of everything. I had begun to use human test subjects in order to research faster, but it made me sick. I hated the bare white walls of the hospital. I hated Takeda’s constant questioning. The guards and the guns and the dormant cancer inside me no longer seemed to matter. My life no longer seemed to matter. I couldn’t work any longer knowing that I was being forced to save the life of a man I hated, and I wouldn’t even get any credit for it. I had already helped the world by getting rid of AIDS. Did I really have to eliminate cancer, too?
I walked into Takeda’s office. It was like that day all those years ago that I had first discovered the human test subjects. But we were both older, and I was more cynical, and he was weaker. I hoped he would die every day.
I walked into Takeda’s office. It was like that day all those years ago that I had first discovered the human test subjects. But we were both older, and I was more cynical, and he was weaker. I hoped he would die every day.
“I quit,” I said.
Takeda looked at me quizzically. “Aiko, you can’t quit. We’ve discussed this.”
“Discuss” was a nice way to put it. I had yelled about him keeping me prisoner here countless times, sobbed more times than I’m proud of, and threatened him many times. We’d hardly ever “discussed” it.
“I don’t care,” I said. “I don’t care if you’re going to shoot me, or torture me, or activate the cancer inside of me. I don’t care if you kill me. I’ve had enough, and I’m not going to work for you anymore.”
“Ah,” Takeda said with a dark smirk. “So we’ve reached this point.”
I got a horrible foreboding feeling inside of me. Every other time, Takeda had been a step ahead of me. But surely he couldn’t counter this?
“You love your family, don’t you?” Takeda asked.
I frowned at the non sequitur. “Of course.”
“You wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to them.”
Oh, no. Oh, no no no no no. “What have you done?”
Takeda grinned. “Catching on quick now, aren’t you, Aiko? We’ve been keeping an eye on your family for years, just in case we ever needed to convince you to work a little harder. You might be valuable to us, but your family is expendable. Your one sister – she’s twelve now, I believe? Think about how she’d look with a bullet between her eyes.”
Unbidden, a picture of Mai, bloody and broken, flashed in my mind. I had no doubt that Takeda would hurt my family if it suited him. I’d seen what he did to the human test subjects or to employees that he was unhappy with. That man is soulless, unnatural, and cruel. Yes, he was sick, but he was still powerful and corrupt. I would not allow him to stain my family, even though I hadn’t had a chance to communicate with them for nine years. They must think I’ve abandoned them.
“Forget I said anything,” I finally replied between gritted teeth.
Takeda smiled. “I will.”
Twelve years, four months, and fourteen days since I first started working for Natsuki. Ten years since I became a prisoner. About one year since I gave up all hope of getting out of my situation. And now, I’ve finally found the cure for cancer.
My first reaction is jubilant. There’s still that bit of me that’s the eighteen-year-old girl who wanted to save the world by curing cancer. I think of how happy everyone will be when they realize that there is a cure, and I’ve found it.
But soon after, reality crashes in. The first person to know about this will be Takeda. He’ll take the cure, and he’ll live. The cure can’t fix the ravages his body has suffered from the cancer he’s had for years. But it will stop the final hurrah, the push I was hoping just might kill him.
He’ll be cured. And then he’ll take the credit for himself. The years I’ve spent slaving away over the cure, under threat of my own death and the death of my loved ones, will be completely ignored. To the world, the once promising Aiko has disappeared. Natsuki Hospital
There’s nothing good about finding the cure, I realize now. It doesn’t change anything. It’s a lose-lose situation. Either I keep it quiet and continue to “search for the cure” and stay a prisoner, or I tell Takeda I’ve found it, save his life, and either die or stay a prisoner.
Or there’s a third option. I could keep quiet and just wait until Takeda dies. He’s been looking more sick than ever lately. He can’t have long to live. When he dies, that’s when I’ll truly be free. In the hole that will be left after his death, I’ll make my escape. Or maybe I’ll assume control of Natsuki. I don’t have to fear my dormant cancer anymore, because I have the cure. And the threats on my wellbeing and my family? Well, I’ll still be “working on finding the cure.” Takeda has every reason to believe I’m trying my best. He was right in that my best was good enough to save his life. But he doesn’t need to know that.
That’s what I’ll do. I’ll keep quiet about the cure and wait for Takeda to die. Perhaps I can even find a way to kill him.
The nightmare of my life is almost over. I just have to hang in a bit longer.
Keeping quiet is much harder than I expected. It’s not even that it’s hard to continue my “work” when I’m already done, although that is pretty difficult. It’s the guilt that’s really weighing me down.
We have a counter in my lab that lists the number of deaths worldwide from cancer. It’s always rising. I’ve always thought it was terribly morbid, but Takeda insists that it helps me remember what I’m working for. Like he cares about humanity.
The point is, every single rise in that counter now is my fault. I could be stopping these deaths, and instead I’m keeping quiet, for completely selfish reasons. Are credit and the potential for a good life worth withholding the cure for cancer? That should be an easy question. The answer should be “no.” But for me, it’s more complicated.
I hang on for a few months. I do nonsense research, mess up the results, try old tricks that didn’t work in the past. I keep on waiting for Takeda to find me out on that alone, but so far he hasn’t. And every day, I curse myself as I watch the number of cancer victims rise.
Eventually it gets to be too much. I have let my morals slide, working for Natsuki. I’ve worked to keep a near-demon alive. I’ve experimented illegally on humans. But I’ve found that this is the limit. I’ve kept the cure for cancer to myself for three months, and now I can’t take it anymore.
But I can still formulate a plan. I’ll tell Takeda I’ve found the cure for cancer, and I’ll propose to give it to him right away. I’m sure he’ll be eager. But instead of the cure, I’ll give him some sort of poison. I have enough stored up from all of my failed plans. Once he’s dead, I’ll take over Natsuki Hospital , rename it Aiko Hospital Aiko Hospital
I get everything ready. A few weeks later, I walk into Takeda’s office to talk to him for what I hope is the last time.
“Did you find the cure?” he asks me like he asks me every day. His voice is breathy and he’s trembling. He doesn’t look well. Well, my news will cheer him up… until it kills him.
“Yes,” I say.
He looks taken aback. I’ve never responded in the affirmative to this question. “Don’t play with me,” he warns.
“I’m not,” I say. “I’ve really found the cure.” It feels nice to say those words aloud. Even if Takeda always planned to steal the credit from me, he and I know who really found the cure. I’m a genius, and he’s just a sadistic, evil man.
“Well,” Takeda says, and he’s smiling, but this smile isn’t a bad one. He looks giddy, disbelieving, shocked. “Do you need anything? When does it go into effect? Is it ready?”
“It’s ready right now,” I say. “In fact, I brought it up here with me. I’ve consolidated it into a pill. You can try it right now.”
I bring out the poisoned pill and hand it to him. He brings it to his mouth, but then hesitates. My heart stops. He can’t be one step ahead of me again.
“Why don’t you try it?” he asks. “Get rid of that dormant cancer inside you.”
“I’ve tried it already,” I reply, relieved to have a reason not to try one of the pills. “That’s how I knew it worked.”
Takeda is still hesitating. What can I do to make him swallow the pill?
“I’d feel better if you tried it first, Aiko. Just so I know you’re not trying to… trick me, or anything.”
Why does he have to be so sharp? Maybe he is a genius, in his own way. That would at least explain why he’s always been able to outsmart me. I don’t know what to do, now. I have both poisoned pills and pills that contain the cure with me, but they don’t look the same. If I take the pill with the cure, Takeda will insist on having an exact copy, and he’ll be cured. If I take the poisoned pill, I’ll die. But then, so would he.
I gave my plans with the cure for cancer to my research assistant and told him to release it to the world if anything happens to me. It includes all of my work, all with my name, so I’ll get credit in death. I’d probably get more credit in death than I would in life.
It’s me and Takeda dying and the world living, or Takeda living and most likely everyone else dying. The logical choice is clear. But as always with me, it’s more complicated than that.
“Well?” Takeda insists, still holding the poisoned pill. “I’m not trying it until you have.”
“Sure,” I say, my throat dry. “If you insist.”
I take out a pill identical to the one Takeda is holding. My palms are sweating so much I’m afraid I’ll drop it, but I don’t. Instead, I slip it into my mouth.
I don’t have to swallow. Mental patients who don’t want to take their pills do this all the time. I don’t have to swallow.
“Swallow,” Takeda says.
I pretend to swallow. Takeda watches me carefully, and then places his pill in his mouth. I can see him swallow. But did he fake it, like I did?
We stare at each other for a while. It’s a stand-off. It’s like we’re playing chicken – the first one to fall down loses, or something.
Suddenly, Takeda lunges at me and closes his hand over my nose. His grip is feeble, but shocked, I don’t struggle. He forces me to swallow the pill.
“Hah, I knew it!” he crows. “You gave me some poison, didn’t you? Thought you could outsmart me, Aiko-chan?”
He breathes in, and I can tell he’s about to spit out the poisoned pill. I cannot allow him to live, cured of his cancer, while I die. He’s always been one step ahead of me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t catch up to him. This time I lunge at him, and he’s too weak to push me away. I hold him down until I’ve forced him to swallow the pill, and then I step away. He glares daggers at me.
“Clever, Aiko. Very clever.”
We stare at each other, breathing hard. It’s a stand-off again, except this time we’re waiting to die. The whole situation is so unbelievable, but this is my life. It’s been unbelievable ever since I walked into the doors of Natsuki hospital twelve years ago.
I slide down the wall as my legs give out on me. Across from me, Takeda sits down in his chair. I want to let him know that everyone will know I found the cure for cancer. I want to tell him that I included a tell-all about Natsuki Hospital
The last thing I see is Takeda’s blank devil eyes, finally glazing over as he succumbs to the poison.
The last thing I hear is the ceasing of my shallow breaths.
The last thing I smell and taste is the poison that’s killing me and Takeda.
The last thing I feel is the slowing beats of my heart.
The last thing I think is, I’ve finally, finally done my job.
THE END! J
Great story, Julianna! Such a happy and sad ending, but at least Aiko found a cure. Good job. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a psychological thriller with some great twists but always true to character. Awesome story!
ReplyDelete