Chronim Tzyleph

Dylan Volity

"We're almost at the landing strip."

The taxi driver takes a puff on his cigarette, blowing smoke into my face. It's environment friendly, of course, but its fumes still make me cough and choke a little.

"Ya gotta place in mind."

"You aren't very professional," I point out.

"Never said I was. Now, ya gotta place in mind, or will I have tuh shove you off the ship."

"The Schaltej Market, if you please."

"Gotcha."

He takes another puff and my eyes water. "Can you please stop smoking?"

"Can't." another puff. "It calms me down."

"I'm giving you a zero rating."

"Never said I wanted more. Anyways, we're here, so get your whiny butt outa my face, and let me land this hunk of junk."

That's the only thing we agree on. The ship was a hunk of junk.

The ship stopped sharply, and dropped a few thousand feet, causing me too stumble. In series of short drops , causing my breakfast to roll in my stomach. Finally we drop to the ground with a thump, causing black smoke to billow from the engine.

The exit comes down, and I sumble down the ramp. The taxi driver strolls over to the front of the ship.

"Aw, crap." The taxi driver slaps the the engine cover and the ship groans. "I love my baby, but she's just so freking expensive to take care of."

"Mmmkay." I groan and lean against one of the walls, clutching my stomach. "Ooooohhhhhh. Yup. Worst taxi ever." I then manage to slap my DualGlasses, turning them on. "AutoTaxi please. No more crappy drivers."

"Which database?" The glasses question comes through the speakers in the temples of the glasses, only for my ears. "The databases available are: Dream, Techno, Cloud, and SpadE."

"Cloud." I sigh, and a few seconds later, a HoverCar pulls up, the door automatically opening, and I collapse onto the seat, which molds into a comfortable space for me to rest.

"Where is your destination?" This time, it comes from the car's speakers.

"Schaltej Market. I'll take a I-dadNick from there."

"Next destination: Schaltej Market. When we get there, I will call an I-dadNick to take you to your next destination."

The car zooms off, and I stare out the window. There's frame by frame visibility, but I just watch the blur of a never focused background.

Olek Zibex

I hurry, along, my tentacles moving quickly on the eebur floor. Eebur is like marble, but much more fancy. Finally I enter the waiting room. The red light turn white, and the door opens. In the doorway is a hooman. I hand him a translator, and he puts it on the table.

He tells me something politely, and I smile, pointing at the translator with one of my many tentacles. The one I point with is teal.

The hoomans grin is looking a little forced now, and he says something else in its confusion language.

"The translator will help me understand you," I tell him. I point another tentacle. The tentacle is pink.

Its frustrated now. It shoves a clipboard into my face, speaking loudly in its garbled language. I look at the clipboard. The hooman's writing is on it. I hold up a tentacle, and put the paper in the undestander. The hooman yells and tries to grab it, but then it comes out, exactly the same. The hooman grabs the paper, and puts it somewhere. I don't know, because I take the piece of paper the machine spit out.

Dylan Volity

It reads.

Brother of Victor Volity, hospitalized for Chronim Tzyleph. Able to stay until Level 4 diagnostic.

I look up, and slap the translator onto his shirt. Sudennly, I can understand him.

"-my brother!"

Dylan

"That's-"

Suddenly the odd-looking creature puts something on my shirt

"-my brother! I have all rights to see him."

Then the creature rumbles deep in its throat.

"Next time use the translator first."

Then it beckons me with a bright yellow tentacle.

I stare in shock. My eyes immediately go to the thing on my shirt. The creature handed it to me earlier, but I had put it aside, not thinking it important. Suddenly I realize, the creature is far away, and I jog to check up.

"I Olek Zibex. We go CT wing. I sorry for brother."

"Ok, but why didn't you just put the thingamajig on me in the first place?"

"Memo hospital try to be polite. Keep business here."

"I don't really get it, but ok, I guess

Suddenly Olek stops. In front is a steel door, and Olek presses his tentacle to the door. The door melts, and we step inside.

"You lucky you came soon. Almost Level 4."

I barely hear this as I race toward Victor.

Victor lays on a bed, hooked to a monitor, which beeps unsteadily, in an unknown rhythm, dancing to its own beat. The beeps start to become rapid, the line dancing quickly up and down in jagged zigzags. Then it calms to barely anything, the line almost flat, and the beep paced slowly.

"Victor." I breathe as I kneel beside him.

"He become Stage 4 in 10 minutes. You hurry. 5 minutes. Then we go."

So I talk.

Olek Zibex

I glance at the monitor. 4 minutes, and we have to leave.

The hooman, Deelan starts talking.

"Victor, I know your probably not going to hear this. You're probably not going to make it. You're probably going to die. You're about to go into Stage 4. But then again, maybe you can hear me, but you can't do anything about it. Only one person has ever survived Stage 4. She died only minutes after waking up. Stage 3 is not much better. Seven people have survived. All of them insane. Some don't talk, some only say the same thing over and over again. Some die from mental instability."

I gape at the Deelan. Not many hoomans research Chronim Tzyleph when someone they know has it. They just go into depression and sadness. They know that the person who has it will never make it out the same. So they don't bother. But this man? Deelan? He actually learned about it, tried to help his brother. He didn't give up. He was still fighting. I didn't understand why. Veector wouldn't make it. Either that or Veector would become insane

All of a sudden, Veector twitched, and I stilled. My air pores sucked the air out of the room, and the air vents started working faster.

My hands fumbled for the help switch, but Deelan was still talking, his eyes closed.

"I loved you Victor, even when you pinched me, and called me evil, and ate all of my Halloween candy when I specifically told you not to, and ruined my desk, and got slobber on my recorder."

I turn on the help switch, and I here running from the hallway, coming here.

"And even if you had bad moments, you had good moments too. When we played The Floor Is Lava, and watched Goosebumps movie, and when you banished me from the kitchen so you could make misshapen chocolate cupcakes that taste horrible. When we stayed up until midnight for New Years' when we snuck in some extra hours of Minecraft when Mom and Dad weren't looking. When you gave me supplies in Fortnite, that helped me win, even though it made you lose. When you showed me the book of cheats and secrets. All those times outstood the bad times, when we would yell, and shout, and hit, and punch, and kick."

The help comes, dashing through the door. They see his twitching arm. Deelan keeps talking.

"I love you, Victor. I really do. Even though I never said it, I do love you."

Victor's eyes are open, glassy, and non-seeing. But open.

Tears fall from Deelans eyes.

"I guess I got to go, but I love you, Victor. I. Love. You."

Victor jerks up. 

"Dylan," He breathes.

***

Patient: Victor Volity

Diagnostic: Chronim Tzyleph

Stage: Stage 4

Treated: Gone

Current State: Mental Instability

Treatment: Therapy

Current State: May Go Away

All Known Living Relatives: Brother: Volity, Dylan, Cousin: Dsadie, Conner