Cure of a Monster

Liam was snuggled up on his bed, piles of blankets on him, with a sudoku problem, he finished with ease. He sneezed, making him colder than he already was, and then he put the clipboard with the puzzle on it on the wooden nightstand. 

The doorknob rattled and his mother opened the door. She was holding a framed photo and a glass of water in the other hand. She replaced the picture hanging before on the wooden wall with the new one. This week's photo was of a blue bird on a tree, the sun beaming in the background.

As she walked over to Liam, her feet making no sound because of the new carpet, she gave him a glass of water, his hands trembling when he lifted them from the blankets as he grabbed the cup. He drank it while his mother smiled at him. He felt another sneeze coming on but he held it in. When he was done, his mother grabbed it and sat on the foot of the bed. 

“How are you feeling, kiddo,” She beamed. 

“Good. I finished the sudoku you gave me,” he said, his voice croaky as he got chills. 

“That’s awesome.”

“Is there still-” He coughed. “A lot of homeless around?”

She hesitated. “Not as much as before but yes, they are still around.” 

He could feel his forehead scrunching up and his breathing sped up. He couldn't stand the town hall or this town, Eastfox. Why wouldn't people do anything about it? Have they not cared all these years to see a human being on the floor, without a home? It made his brain rumble so he started to take deep breaths. 

“Mother. Once I’m cured, I'm going to build so many homeless shelters-” He sneezed, wiping his nose with the blankets. “-There's gonna be so much, the shelters are gonna surpass the regular homes!” 

She chuckled at that. 

“Well, today might be your lucky day, kiddo.” She smiled. 

“H- How?” 

“I got an opening in Rockness Clinic…for today!” 

Liam’s heart stopped, then started to race so fast it might have come out.

“Really? No, you're joking! Didn't you say-” He coughed. “-that they can cure every disease in the world.”

She thought about her answer and then she smiled. “Yes. I did and that's the truth.  Now, we have to go!” 

“Right!” 

The leather of the car seat made Liam a bit warmer. He sat in the backseat with his head to the car door, trying to sleep but his mother’s radio made it impossible.

“How many more minutes?” he asked his mother a couple of minutes ago and she responded, “A couple of minutes.”

He didn't see his backyard when he came out of the front door. All he saw was his house, a wooden cabin. His mother had covered his eyes with a blanket probably since it was so cold as they got inside the car. 

Now, still drowsy, but with enough energy to look out the window, he pulled himself up and looked out the car window. There were cabins, all arranged in a row with a bundle of trees in every front yard. There were oak and dark trees, all sprinkled with ripe leaves. Liam pulled himself higher to see the road and it was a brittle gray pavement. 

The sun had risen so Liam wasn’t surprised to see cars perched on every front yard but only a few on the road, driving to their destination. 

They passed a brick building with a flashy golden bell on it and a detailed fountain with fish statues, surging water from its mouth. 

“How many more minutes?” he asked again, leaning ok on the car seat again. “Acchooo!” 

“Bless you,” his mother said, lowering the radio. “We’re here.” 

The car stopped suddenly and she locked the doors.

“We’ll get out on my mark,” his mother said. “3…2…1!”

He watched his mom get out and go around to his side. He would have moved since she was going to open his door but he was already in a comfortable position. She knocked on the window and Liam tumbled on the car seats as she opened the door. 

“Come on, kiddo.”

He got out as fast as he could wearing his hoodie and mask. They walked on the bumpy cobblestone sidewalk beside a large three-story building with strong stone pillars on the corners and clean red bricks seeming to touch the skies. They made a sharp left to grand long gray stone stairs.

As they climbed the stairs, Liam noticed a homeless man sleeping slanted on the stairs. Liam wanted to help (he didn't know how) but his mother pulled him away as he got too close. Next to the double doors a large chained hanging sign held by two small stone pillars had words engraved on it. 

Rockness Medical Clinic. World-Saving Hospital! We have cures for everything!

They walked through the double door and waited in the long line for the reception. Pale tiles swept the lobby floor and felt a lot cozier than the outside. Fresh candles were on every window ledge and benches were arrayed everywhere with people like him on them. 

“Go sit on one of the chairs, I have to check in,” his mother said.

As he sat on one of the chairs, he smiled at the fact that people who were sick like him, went through the iron silver door and came out laughing. He was finally going to be cured. He could finally fix this village and give everyone a home! He rested his head on his hand as he watched his mom, wearily, chatting with the receptionist, showing no sign of stopping. So, he sealed his eyes and took a nice nap…

“Liam!”

“Huh!” Liam grunted, stretching and then taking a giant sneeze onto his shirt. 

“It’s time for us to go!” his mother boomed, not caring if she made a scene for Liam’s first time in public. 

“Is it our turn?” 

“No,” she grunted as she pulled him out of his chair, grabbing him by the arm, through the double doors, down the stairs, and to their car, Liam coughing and sneezing all the way there. 

As they were driving home, it was silent until Liam decided to speak up. 

“What happened? Mother?” 

 His mother had hesitated. The clear skies were now wiped off with a black blanket and dim gray clouds and the glimmering of the twinkling stars.  He coughed even worse than in the morning. 

“They won't give you the cure,” she said. 

“What do you…mean?” He coughed. “What happened?” He repeated. 

A trickle of water came from her eye.

“I saw an old coworker I used to work with- actually the head of the Clinic now, Nurse Kozack, and- and-” Her voice started to break. “We argued…and- her stupid high-pitched voice- she just won't give it to you, Liam. That's it.” 

“But- why? Why won't they give it to me-”

“That’s enough, Liam.” 

Liam was in the dense woods, running. He looked back for a split second but tripped over a large fallen tree trunk. On the brittle brown ground, he felt something wrap around his feet- like a slimy rope…then… 

Crash! 

Liam burst from his smothering blankets, his room like an all-painted black room. What was that noise? He used all his strength to get up, dropping all the blankets on the floor, making Liam feel like he was in a glacier. He creaked open his door, and walked down the hallway, trying to make out shapes from the living room. 

A dim candle was on the coffee table and his mother finished packing a backpack.

She glanced inside her backpack and on the fireplace ledge there were dozens of water glasses arrayed on it with one spilled on the floor.

He sniffled and only then did she look up. 

“Liam! Liam! What are you doing?” she growled. 

“What are you doing?”

She didn't hesitate, instead, a trickle of water came from her eye. 

“I'm going to…look for a cure for you.”

“What! Mother, you cant-“

“That's enough, Liam.”

Then she crouched at him, hugged him, and kissed him on the forehead. “Bye, Liam.”

Two years later, she hasn't returned. 

Liam had been doing his best to save water his mother had put out for him. However, he still felt the same as how he was ever since he got sick. He got up once in a while to go to the living room to get a new sudoku puzzle or to look outside into the green neighborhood. Far away, his eyesight was able to see the big brick building, Rockness. He tried to ignore it by instead looking at the huge pine trees guarding every cabin. 

Toast, packaged popcorn, water, and cheese were all he ate, and he still had a lot more to last a few years. 

He couldn't stand Rockness and his mother leaving him to look for the cure. She was probably still searching all over the world…suddenly as he was sudoking he remembered his mother's words that they did have the cure but Rockness wasn't giving it to him for some reason.

Late one night, he searched for his mother’s old keycard in her room and eventually found it in one of her drawers. He dashed out of the house, wearing a black sweater and black sweats, and a black beanie with a flashlight in hand. He had to blend in with the surroundings if he was going to search for the cure in Rockness. As he walked to the brick building, he felt as if he were melting…but he had a mission to do so he continued to march until he got there. He hid behind the bushes on the walls of Rockness.

He hid behind the bushes and made sure no one was around him, which there wasn't. Liam climbed up the stairs, his feet feeling as if they had termites crawling in them, slid the keycard through the slot, and passed through the double doors. He coughed. Then he jerked around his heart racing. No one was there.

He walked around Rockness. No lights. Good thing Liam brought his flashlight. He lurked around looking for a map. He felt a sudden urge to sneeze and made his heart drop, repeatedly looking if anyone had heard him, from the outside. With his dim flashlight, roamed around the pale lobby, he finally found a giant floor-ceiling map at the back of

On the middle of the map, in the middle of the building, a label read: Cavern. Could that be the cure room? Maybe it was a doctor's way of saying room. Intrigued and a little curious he walked to the middle of the hospital which was an endless hallway, with doors on either side of each other. 

At the end of the long dim corridor, a door with an iron hinge was there. Liam's breath started forming icy clouds as he got nearer. He started to slouch and cough even more loudly and uncontrollably. He kept going, leaning on the freezing wall.

As he was getting the keycard from his pocket, he gasped when he noticed his hand was a sky blue color. Ignoring the fact, he slid the keycard onto the slot, and the doors, shockingly, opened inward by themselves. Why aren't doors like this always? Liam then grinned slightly at his joke.

He suddenly realized why it was called the cavern. It was a literal ice cavern. The same blue ice surrounded every wall in this small cave. He walked on closer, trying to ignore the wind punching rapidly, making his teeth jitter. A blue frosty ledge and ice stairs were going down from either side of the platform. He pulled himself towards the ledge to see what was over it, taking a huge sneeze.

A blue gooey puddle was on the white flaky ground. Intrigued, Liam walked down the stairs to be ground level with the puddle. What was that stuff? That thought rambled in his head like a pinball machine. Right when he was about to sniffle he couldn’t because no more snot was in there. He tried sniffling again since he couldn't believe it. No snot. The tightness in his throat also went away, letting him breathe more freely. With each step, he took closer to the puddle and an aspect of his sickness disappeared like he was never sick at all.

Suddenly, he hears light footsteps from the loft above him. In a flash, he ran to the ledge, feeling a lot better than before. Please don’t look down. Please don't look down. Please don’t look down.

“Liam?” said a high-pitched voice, he couldn't pinpoint.

He put his hand on his chest and felt like his heart was going to thump out of him. He checked his surroundings when he entered the building, how could anyone see him?

“I know you're in here. Why don't you come out? I promise we won't hurt you.”

He finally realized who it was. It was the nurse. Nurse Kozack. She had argued with his mother all those years ago. Promise we won't hurt you? Then why couldn't she save him when he was sick? She made his mother go out in the world looking for a cure.

“Liam,” said another familiar voice…His mother! How could he have forgotten his own mother’s voice?

What was she doing here? Wasn’t she looking for the cure? Perhaps she found it, and the people are telling him to come out because of the discovery? No, she was dead…Thoughts were bubbling up in his mind, and he didn't realize what he was doing.

He stepped out into the middle of the cavern, looking at the puddle in front of him. Closer up it looked like it was bubbling. He heard gasps and murmurs behind him. Then he looked up and saw his mother in the middle, Nurse Kozack, and a whole crew of doctors, behind them, holding guns directed at Liam. 

His mouth was agape. 

“I thought- I- Mom?” 

Kozack snapped her fingers making all the guns go down in the rest position. 

“I'll explain everything, Liam. You don't need to worry,” said Kozack calmly. 

“O- okay, but- but, mother,” replied Liam

“That’s enough,” Nurse Kozack snarled. “Before our village was founded by our beloved John Stanton, that puddle behind you roamed the woods as a monster we call the Slimeech. According to a recently lost journal, on a hunting expedition, the founder's son was swallowed by that- that- Slimeech. One of the hunters was curious and checked it out, even though John said no, and surprisingly to the whole company, the Slimeech cured that very hunter of a disease, Corona, which is now a mild cold.”

“I’m sorry but, how does this relate to me?” asked Liam, his mother cold as ice and not because of the cavern’s natural breeze.

“Related?” Nurse Kozack and then raised one eyebrow. “It relates to you because we have a reason to believe you are an offspring of the Slimeech.”

“What- What do you- what do you mean?” Liam managed to get words out.

“When they found out about the healing monster, they found you wandering. And when I mean you, I mean the founder's son.”

Liam Damisch was speechless and it seemed like the word was spinning. He had no memory of that incident. Nothing she said made sense… 

“The founders of Rockness secretly made a deal with the Slimeech, allegedly, that if it healed our town we wouldn't kill the offspring. The Slimeech was forced but eventually agreed and you were sent to an underground ice tube that froze you…until Ms. Damisch over here decided to adopt you, for whatever reason. Thus, when you went away and when you got sick, we concluded that you need the monster to survive.” The nurse chortled again but stopped as his mother began to weep. 

With this information, he knew what he had to do. The puddle was in front of him as he turned around. This was his last chance to get better if they were going to send him back into the ice tube they were talking about. He crept closer to the puddle ignoring everyone.

“Liam, don't you understand? If the Slimeech finds out the deal is broken the whole village will suffer!” she shouted as she snapped her fingers making every gun go up. “Liam no, stop!”

It was too late. Liam had already jumped into the slimy blue puddle, Slimeech. 

“Liam!” shouted his mother.

Suddenly the blue puddle grew arms and legs and a face filled with nasty teeth. It enlarged like jelly until it hit its head on the ceiling. That was Slimeech. Blue puddles were now dripping, forming new puddles. Liam stood behind it so it didn't realize it was there. 

It swiped its massive hand out to all the people standing on the loft, including his mother. Once he saw his mother stumble to the ground, he climbed the stairs, trying not to slip, and guarded his mother before Slimeech could swipe again.  

“No! Stop!” 

Slimeech glanced at him. Suddenly, Liam spoke in another language to it and Slimeech nodded. It transformed into a jelly-like creature and swallowed Nurse Kozack and the rest of the doctors. 

From the journal of Liam Damisch,

Ever since I announced the ‘Rockness sham’ as people are now calling it, and since I changed that dreadful building to a thriving homeless shelter a few years ago, I've always had my mother and Slimeech in the glass jar. For days I've been reminding myself to let it out into the woods, but I feel like it's a part of me, literally. I will let it out in the morning, hopefully…without Slimeech I would never gotten a cure of a monster.