Avery Stuff

 A note from Zayne: A few years ago, back in highschool, I woke up int he morning to find I'd had a nightmare in the middle of the night, scribbled this down in the dark, and gone back to sleep. Just last year, I picked it back up and played with it, even dedicated a blog into turning this into a novel. I'm going to spend the next hour or so collecting that stuff, moving it all to a new blog maybe, and starting it back up without any of the original people on it. Maybe gather a new set of people to help spawn ideas. But for now, I'm going to move most of it over here, all of it titled Avery Stuff or the like.









For centuries, mankind has strived for immortality. For the ability to live forever, to discard all fear of death. In the year 1723, a man by the name of Gustav Culto created an elixir meant to give the drinker eternal life. It took may years of failed experiments that led to many dead test subjects (orphans he picked up off the streets who had nothing else to live for).
That is how he found me. Now, I am not going to give you a big sob-story about my parents dying or anything. No, all I will tell you is it was better for them and me that I was not in their care as a child. Though Master Gustav was no better.
You see, not only did this potion indefinitely prolong your life, no permanent harm could befall you. While any previous damage your body had sustained did not change, if you were to lose a finger or receive an otherwise fatal blow, it would heal instantaneously. Everything either healed shut or grew back, and nothing scarred. Master Gustav tested this thoroughly. He severed my limbs, cut and sliced every inch of skin he could reach. He took flame or heated iron to my flesh. Once, he even stabbed out my good eye. 


Naturally, word got out about his magic elixir. Everyone wanted it. The damned fool he was had not think of that, and he refused to let anyone take part in it. It was for him, and him alone. Well, him and me. But the people would not have that. He was forced to destroy all of his work and go into hiding, taking me with. One would think that, after finding out it worked, the man would have drank his own potion. Unfortunately for him, some street thug got a blade to his throat before the though crossed his mind. In the scuffle, the bottle containing the last bit of the potion was smashed, and immortality was once again unattainable.
After this, I was taken in for experimenting. They put me through many of the same tortures Master Gustav had. Now, while I could not be permanently harmed, I still felt the pain of their actions. Plenty of times, the pain was too much for me to bear and I would lose consciousness. The healing process was just as painful, as it was literally reversing whatever had been done.
I don’t remember much of my captivity or how I escaped. I believe I was helped by a boy supposed to be guarding me one night. I was 24 at that time, so it was around 1735. In that time, my physical aging was slowed. While I was 24, I only looked about 17. As I physically reached 25, it stopped all together. By then, any friends I’d made along they way were senile or dead, and I was long past alone.
I remember my first friend during my freedom. I remember watching him grow old until he eventually died, while I never changed. The heartbreak was truly terrible, and I did not want to be put in that situation again.
It was quite some time before I let myself make another friend. It was nearing the 1800s, I believe. You’ll have to bare with the estimates; time means nothing to a man who has all the time in the world, and I eventually stopped keeping track of it.
This ‘friend’ discovered my secret. Like the others, he wanted to play scientist with me. The betrayal was worse than anything I’d ever felt, and rage quickly overtook me. In my blind fit, I killed him. Literally tore him to pieces. I sat there in shock, covered in his blood and my own tears and bile. It was a few days before the stench of his corpse, or rather ‘parts’, brought me back to reality. I fled, disposing of my clothes and acquiring new ones.
The 1800s, for me, were bleak and bland. Nothing much stuck out to me. The 1900s, being more recent, I remember better. So many discoveries and inventions. And much war and fighting. To me, the most interesting thing I stumbled upon was the American Mafia. It was not a completely copy of the original Italian mafia, but it was not too different. It reminded me of home.