Made Anew

This story is by Tamara M. Bravo Lembcke and was part of our 2021 Spring Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here.

“Thank you for calling Abstract, how can I be of excellent assistance today?”

A melodious voice resounded somewhere not far away, and its conspicuity woke Walter from what seemed like an eternal slumber. Something was off. He could feel and hear everything as one should, and yet, when he looked down, he noticed his body wasn’t there; instead, only darkness surrounded him. 

But something tethered him into existence, and he was suddenly in an unfamiliar room, staring at his own flesh as it lay there unmoving. Greyish skin, blackened eyes and dry lips on a steel table, he was covered up to his shoulders with a single white sheet; messy cables connected the nape of his neck to a computer adjacent to where he rested, and a smell of ethanol and blood filled the air. Two men stood next to him in white lab coats, their faces struck with panic.

“This shouldn’t have happened” one breathed.

“We knew it was merely experimental” the other answered somberly.

“Well, yeah. But he didn’t.”

Everything hinted at Walter being dead, but he couldn’t remember what happened. He tried reconnecting with his body; something he saw on TV once. Nothing. 

“You think he’s still somewhere out there?”

“I hope not. Imagine if he came back and sued us.”

Walter concentrated, and found himself in front of the computer screen. An error notice showed that an upload attempt had failed. What were they trying to upload that resulted in his apparent demise? He noticed a stack of business cards. 

ABSTRACT

Immortality is yours to take

Walter reread those words until the memory struck.

“Thank you for calling Abstract, how can I be of excellent assistance today?”

 

Walter was diagnosed with lung cancer when he was only 38, without having smoked a single cigarette in his life. A healthy family man got the sneakiest, deadliest cancer that no one ever seems to be concerned about. But the thing about a family-driven person, is that they’ll do whatever it takes to be with their loved ones. And sometimes their decisions end up making things worse.

After journeying across the country searching for a second, third, and fourth opinion, the conclusion could be narrowed down to one word: Terminal. Other alternatives included homeopathy, crystal healing, yoga, and a guy claiming to be a shaman who offered to spit on him. “Terminal” just couldn’t be changed. 

Walter found Abstract in a newspaper’s ad section. Reluctantly, he dialed. A female voice answered with a singsong customer service tone. 

“Thank you for calling Abstract, how can I be of excellent assistance today?” 

Walter told her his heartbreaking tale. The result, an address at the edge of town and a man in a rush, driving toward his destiny. 

 

Walter couldn’t remember more. He would have to do without his memories and find a way back into his body. Or… a body? Walter watched the lab rats that had wronged him and propelled himself toward one of them, attempting to possess him. The man shuddered.

“Ugh, did it just get colder?”

“Put a sweater on and stop whining. We’ve got to figure this out.”

Walter got pushed back out immediately.

“You can’t just grab one!” a voice scoffed, “That’s not how it works!”

“Who’s there?” he gasped.

“To take a body, it must be unoccupied.” the voice snickered, “I thought that was kind of obvious.”

“My body is pretty unoccupied and that didn’t work either.” growled Walter.

“Well, your body is pretty much dead, dude. It has to be alive.”

Dead.

“I’m dead? Is there no heaven? No hell?”

“That’s meant for souls, not minds”

“What?”

Walter tried to find where the voice was coming from. But all he could see was black again. Then the voice spoke, and it came from within him.

“Your mind. You tried to save it while your body died. You’ve got some ego, thinking you’re so special.”

“No! That’s not—. I did it for my family.”

“Ha. Sure you did.”

“Please, help me! How do I find an unoccupied body that isn’t dead?”

A silence, then the voice cackled, and Walter was pulled, pushed, and struck. When all went quiet, he was towering over an old man on a hospital bed, connected to an oxygen mask. Walter watched him breathe weakly. He was unconscious, but alive. Maybe this would do. However, before he could decide for himself, he was drawn toward the man, and submerged into his body like he would into a pool.

The old man gasped for air and woke up. The cardiograph went haywire as Walter, in his new self, sat up. 

“Doctor!” a woman cried, “he’s awake!”

Walter stumbled off the bed, took off his mask and tried to run, but started choking. He crawled on the floor toward the door as the woman screamed, and a medical team rushed over to help him. He fought them with the little oxygen still left in his punctured lungs. Alas, he was soon back in the dark, the mysterious voice laughing.

“That sucked.” 

“What is happening?!” Walter cried desperately.

“Why don’t we try again?”

Again, a pull, a push, a strike. Walter was now in a dark damp basement, being pulled into a body again. The woman gasped and woke up, panting. She looked around and realised she was tied up, gagged and staggered. A man approached her from a corner. 

“You sure are a tough one. Let’s play some more.”

The next few minutes marked the worst terror Walter had felt in his lifetime, as his now female body was abused and tortured. When all went black again, he was in deep despair.

“Stop” he begged, “Why are you doing this? Please. I just wanted more time with my family.”

“No,” replied the voice, “You wanted immortality. Your family was just a perk.”

“Please.” he repeated.

“You got your wish, Walter, you can’t die anymore.”

“How’s that possible? I felt them die.”

“You’re still here, aren’t you? You’re not dead. And now, you never will be.”

Walter screamed as his existence got pulled painfully anew into an unconscious body. This time, Walter woke up a monk, abducted, beaten, every inch of his body broken. He drew one last breath, an axe fell upon his neck and pushed Walter back out.

“Let me die!” he pleaded, “Spare me from this agony! I can’t take it anymore!”

“You can’t die with them!” the voice guffawed, “they’re not your bodies!”

“I’ll find a way.” Walter sobbed. “This cannot last forever”

“You tried to mess with destiny,” the voice grumbled, suddenly baleful, “You tried to escape your fate, so now I’ll make sure you face worse ones that you’ll never be able to avoid”

Once more, Walter was forced into an unconscious person inevitably directed to their death. The man in turn was overdosing, vomit filling Walter’s lungs. Later, a five-month fetus, his life terminated before birth, a vacuum pulling and ripping his every limb. A woman in a tub, her wrists pouring crimson into water; the easiest to endure, as Walter’s blood pressure had already dropped due to the exsanguination, and he helplessly fell asleep. But then a little girl, succumbing to a thousand bee stings, Walter’s tiny body burned and throbbed inside and out. For years he couldn’t count, Walter experienced over a million new deaths, never catching a breath, never finding a moment to derive his thoughts from excruciation. Unbeknownst to him, his wife remarried; his children grew up, had children of their own. Life went on without him while he suffered infinite torments, orchestrated by the voice that welcomed him back again and again.

Then, suddenly, silence. Walter froze, afraid that an abrupt move would mean yet another horror. He kept his eyes closed but could feel a bright white light above. The metallic surface on which he lied felt cold. A thin sheet covered him from the neck down. It reeked of ethanol and blood. It all rang familiar, but while the atmosphere didn’t seem new, his body did.

“Do you think it’ll finally work this time?”

“Just be glad they pay us anyway.”

“Mind uploading in three… two—”

“Wait. He’s waking up”

Walter tried holding his breath, but his new heartbeat betrayed him as it started racing. 

“He has to be unconscious. We can’t do it like this.”

Was this his final form? Would he be saved from yet another deadly fate? The eternal agony could end now, at least for a while, if he made this one last.

“Knock him out. We’re not allowed to back down.”

Walter had only seconds to act. He opened his eyes and gasped. But a thump and a sting plunged onto his chest and kept him down. Ice flowed through his body and he started drifting off. He braced himself to greet the voice once more, and as he fought to no avail to stay awake, he could swear he could hear at the distance, the dreadful words that started it all.

“Thank you for calling Abstract, how can I be of excellent assistance today?”