Micah Gura ’25, Felix Greenwood

Felix Greenwood looked out over his grounds with solemnity as the autumn breeze swept against his face. To the right of him, Joey quietly ate lemon cake on the mansion’s balcony. Felix glanced over just as his brother spilled champagne on his tie. Filthy animal. He would soon have to go like the others. “Did you see our stock prices went up this morning?” Joey broke the

silence.

“Yes, yes, I heard.” “Well, isn’t that great?” “I suppose.” Yes, Joey would soon have to be dealt with. Too annoying. “Why are you so gloomy these days? We have more money than Fort Knox and we’ve escaped the feds for the time being. What more could you possibly want?” He waited for a reply. Felix gave none. “Now here we are on this beautiful day, we’re still young, our-” “Still, Joey?” muttered Felix. “Still? I’m 29, you’re 27. Soon I’ll be 3o and then middle-aged and before you know it, I’ll be growing white hair. And then I’ll die. I’ll die, Joey! So we have plenty of money, so what if we can only spend it for so long? So, I- we haven’t aroused too many suspicions, but that won’t last forever! Who cares about having everything you want if it’ll all vanish and there’s nothing to do about it?” He stalked away deep in his thoughts. Inside the mansion, Felix watched outside as the wind picked up and it started to rain. Cold, miserable, rain that never died. It was growing more frigid as winter began to cast its long shadow. Then, spring, then summer, then fall. Repeat. For infinity. No worries. The seasons had endless confidence in the future. “There’s got to be a way… some way…” Felix spoke to himself, almost feverish. “Maybe there is.” And he set off to work. For the next six months, Felix busily researched ways to obtain eternal youth, from monks in India to a professor in California to hermits living in the French alps. With each visit he became more and more enraged. One day Felix visited someone who claimed they had engineered a special drug that would satisfy his wishes. He arrived at a large blue house in a small town in the countryside. Not a mansion by any means, but still a generous allotment of property. Felix got out of his limousine, walked up to the door, and was let in by one of the two guards posted at the entrance. Inside the building, Felix was brought by servants to a blond man sitting at a table. “Do you have what I want?” The man chuckled. “Yes, yes, don’t be so hasty. Wait. Aren’t you Felix Greenwood, the famous businessman?” “That’s me. Now show me the item.” “In a moment. Mr. Greenwood, aren’t you rather known in the underground world for building your corporation through illegal means? There are even rumors you’ve killed off family members to gain more company power…”

“Enough! Give me my item or I will leave here right now without paying a cent,” roared Felix. “Very well,” said the man, his demeanor having become colder. “You’ll go to hell someday, but money is money for now.” He brought out a box about the size of his palm and handed it to Felix, who carefully opened it. Inside was a small white pill.

“If this is anything other than what I desire, there will be consequences,” warned Felix as he dropped a load of cash onto the table and walked out with his men.

Back at the mansion, Felix inspected the pill. It seemed harmless enough. He considered testing it on someone more expendable, like Joey. But there was only one, and what if he wasted eternal life on some idiot? The only person who deserved it was himself. If the pill killed him, well… he was going to die anyway. After staring and thinking for a long while, Felix made a decision and popped the fountain of youth in his mouth. That was the last thing he remembered before blacking out.

Felix woke up at the same place. He opened his eyes and looked around the room, just as he had left it. Downstairs he could hear Joey yelling at the butler and he could definitely smell something roasting. So he had survived after all! He felt a little different than before in a way he couldn’t describe. Did the pill do what it was supposed to do? He could only wait and see. In the meantime, he continued to seek more ways to achieve immortality so that he didn’t waste time waiting for something that might not work. Between running the company and his renewed pursuit, Felix was still busy night and day. Twelve months later, Felix looked at himself in the mirror and compared his face and physique to pictures of himself from a year ago, as he had done every day since the visit. He cursed. Was that a grey hair he was seeing? No, just a trick of the light. Relax, it’s only been a year, he thought to himself. Five years later Felix compared himself again. He still looked exactly the same! His idiot younger brother Joey now looked a little older than him. Maybe this stupid pill did actually do its job… After ten years Felix reached a happy conclusion. The blond man’s pill did work after all! “Brother, I didn’t know you used makeup.” Felix spun around from the mirror to find Joey standing in the doorway, with a hint of suspicion on his face. Felix had never told his brother about his search for immortality, saying that all his increased traveling was just good business. The security guards that came with Felix to the blue house had naturally been killed, so Felix’s secret was safe. “How do you, a 39-old-man, look like you’re around 30 while your younger brother looks older? Is it plastic surgery, maybe? Or something else…” “I think you just look very old for your age,” retorted Felix, quickly walking away. Should he finally get Joey out of the way like he had with Cara and Al and Ian? No, he’d die anyway. They’d all die anyway.

Sure enough, Felix slowly watched with pleasure as everyone he knew grew old and died, including Joey. Decades, and then centuries passed with Felix remaining young and healthy, never running out of money. There were a couple of nuclear wars, the machines finally revolted, empires came and went. Felix watched as the world around him grew more advanced and everything changed - everything except him. The first couple hundred years were fun. But around when Felix was in the 470s, he became somewhat bored with his life. He had mastered every skill, raised numerous families, and done everything there was to do. Nothing brought him joy anymore. As time went on, Felix grew more restless. By the time he was 800, Felix had become reclusive and hid away in his old mansion, something from a forgotten time. The world explored space and technology, and in the process forgot about Felix, the once famous businessman. “Let me die already!” he screamed at the sky. No answer. Felix explored the world again, searching for someone who could give him answers. It was in a forest in what used to be called Antarctica that he finally found one. Noticing a bonfire in the distance, he staggered over to find a woman with dark black hair and a red shawl tending the flames. “What brings you here, stranger?” “I made a terrible mistake long ago,” said Felix, holding the box he had kept for so many centuries. Without thinking, rage overcame him and he angrily threw it into the fire. “If it hadn’t been for that-” Felix froze. There, inside the material of the burning box that had held the white pill of immortality were two tiny words: PURE CYANIDE. “It can’t be…” he whispered, remembering the blond man’s final words to him. “Ex-excuse me,” he stuttered, turning to the woman. “The year is now 2972, correct?” The woman chuckled. “Oh yeah, that’s what we tell people who get sent down here.”

—Micah Gura ’25