Luekimia, a horrid disease with horrible side effects. This is a story about a cure and it's effects on the world we know of today. It was found due to a company, A company funded by a man named Victor Danag who lost everyone near him; his Wife Violet. His brother Jimmy. Even his cat Shadow. He wanted the void this disease left in him; to stop at him if possible. So he began to the search for a cure for the damned disease . He spent his days finding a cure and after 50 years of study he found one on the December of his life, many methods were utilized. Few were successful but he pulled it off, it was the use of money to get what he wanted and his level of charisma that gave him a certain level of pull that made things work so well. He decided he would make an  application to pay one grand to any volunteer and he had many participants but, only a few succeeded.

      The cure caused changes in the test subject's. Some had hair; lot's of it, and seemed to suffer from selenophobia; is the fear of the moon, Others grew pale almost to the degree of an albino and seemed to suffer from heliophobia; fear of of the sun, And the final group suffered from a new form of gigantism; it caused them to grow almost to seven feet at a small age,and a drastic increase to their strength; at the cost of a severe noticeable hit to their intelligence upon birth. After this was created and distributed Victor died happy to rid the world of one more wicked illness. This left his wealth and title and facility to his sons and his daughter who all held ownership of the company. Stephen Danag, bethenney Danag and Victor the second. 

     They were the best of friends at one time but that changed slowly, they all had differing visions. Bethenney was much like her father caring for morality and peace over wealth. Victor the second was what you could call a visionary and cared about his paycheck and his assets above all else. This led to many broken ties until they grew to a mutual loathing of the other's existence. Both owning a third of the company, they both sought the one thing that would give what they need to achieve their goals, Stephen Danag. 

     They spent years trying to convince Stephen to give them his share. The same obsession that wedged his siblings would wedge him as he saw no interest in the company or taking part in his siblings feud, He than decided he was done with this petty nonsense; and wrote off the company as he saw no part in this occupation, he had other plans and no interest in it. so he gave it to both siblings, they each got 50% of the company at this point. Stephen told each sibling as he wrote it off to them that they were shells of their formal selves. He told Bethanny in person at a tea shop that she did not simply deserve the company or her moral high ground for her so-called righteousness, Stephen declared with a tone that implied finality and hatred that if she wanted to cure this horrid disease for the betterment of man and not the betterment of her wallet, that she would give the cure away and not sell it. Ending with this note, I understand you need to make money but the cost of living versus the cost of your expenses implies that money is a factor in your decision making, I don't fault you for lying to me or for being a hypocrite because in a way everybody is; I fault you for lying to yourself. You believe you are an innocent lamb fearful of the dark when in actuality you are a wolf with a convincing set of clothes, I bid you good day and don't ever talk to me again.  

     Stephen wrote a letter and sent it to victor because he had no desire to even look at the monster victor had become . He vehemently wrote to him a letter "Victor at least Bethanny to some degree wanted to help people, you don't even care, you don't even deserve to hold your father's name you pig. I wish you get the very disease you profit from. I will give you the other half of my share with great distress, Never contact me again and I hope god has pity on you."  And he was left alone from then on. Growing tired of the memories of old in Cumberland, he packed and moved to an offshore estate in Ireland. 

     He grew to love the lush greens of his new home. The refined solitude of his lakeside estate. And his love of nature made this a match made in heaven. He used his remaining wealth to build a company, it revolved around finding the financially disproportionate situations and giving them opportunity that the luck of their world was to unkind to grant them. It started small, he found that the biggest export of Ireland was pharmaceuticals, So he personally funded the production of high class schools to teach hungry young people ready to become pharmacists in Ireland, this caused him to gain traction in Europe as he was able to bring down unemployment by 5% in Ireland. Soon Stephen was helping people in all of Europe. He would oversee the dublin and the town of Carlingford.  He decided his operations were outgrowing him so he hired a very capable assistant in a young Female name Elizabeth Windwisp. 

     She grew to love his persistence and willingness to help. Elizabeth was so capable that she was put in charge of the Carlingford branch in his stead. Over time they grew to be friends. It was slow, first it was a simple "hi" when passing each other. Than he would show up to hang out with her at lunch and than they would hang out at the pub in Ireland. She told him of her past. She told me everything after they grew to know each other over the year of our friendship. Knowing Stephen's, she told me she felt it right to detail her grim past. She looked at me in damp eyes and shakily forced voice in a sound that was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard in the back "I grew up in a small neighborhood that had a very low income rate. My family barely made enough to feed Me and My brother Charlie, but my mother Jasmine and my father Phillip tried. I took care of my brother until I was about 14, that was when IT occurred. Father was recently fired because of incompetence; he grew jaded and malicious. He started drinking heavily and started to become abusive, it was a slow build up just alike to any other incident, at first it was small, so minuscule you would barely notice a thing.  he would casually say something mean spirited in conversation, than he would make outright commands, than he threatened anyone who would not obey him. Finally one night mom had had enough and told him to stop, she was done and he would do right to end this non-sense or he would be out on his arse. Than it happened he, hit her.....hard. Hard enough that she hit the dresser and knocked it open. It got worse from there, but long story short the cops were called and he was arrested and sent off. I went to see her in the hospital bed and she spoke to me a kind voice.  She looked to me and said "Look at me Eliza, I am your mum' and I would never lie to you. your father is not a nice man, I made a mistake with him. I made no such mistake with you, You are kind like your brother. Your strength protected your brother who looks up to you. I want you to take everything Phillip took from you both and throw it away, he stole enough of our lives. We have each other and I love you my little pixie" 

     She hugged Stephen as she cried and it wasn't long before the warmth in Stephen's eyes grew to the same level of wetness. He looked at her smiling and he told her his honest thoughts "Elizabeth, you have done your mother proud. You are the strongest and kindest person I have ever met. I am so sorry about this. You did not give up. You grew up and you used the best revenge you could possibly give, You fought him by living. You told him that you were better than him. If you ever want to talk about this please, don't ever hesitate. You are my best friend and I never want you to suffer alone again". We just talked for hours until we had to leave, Elizabeth looked to me and said you know I think we should hang out more often. And they did with Elizabeth opening up more about her home life now. She said that Jasmine found a new husband after a decade or so. One with a much better personality. His name was Richard O' herrick and he is a very nice man. She is very happy now. And Elizabeth told me with joy that she would be getting a new brother soon and his name would also be charlie. 

     Stephen was very happy for her as it felt like her puzzle pieces were being put back together. He on the other hand felt empty and incomplete. He told her about his solitude and loneliness. so they agreed to meet at his estate to hang out on Friday's after work and it worked out well for them. Over the course of a few months they started coming on Wednesday's as well. Elizabeth at this point was growing to like Stephen more and more. She decide to be direct about it one Friday and she told him after she downed some good ol' liquid courage. "Hey, I am just going to be honest. We have been best Friends for over a year and a half at this point and I kind of wanna know if you have a girlfriend" Stephen told her that he didn't and that he would love to go out with her. They were immediately surprised to find out that dating was similar to what they were before, They just had more to do with their free time. Stephen would send a casual voice mail to her at work. She would do the same. Meet up at lunch hour happened far more often. Stephen pushed for Elizabeth to get a promotion and came to find they were already considering her. Now as co-heads of the company they were able to drastically increase their productivity. Now they had officially downed the entirety of Europeans unemployment rate by 10%. The following year they both got married and took a two month long vacation to their lakeside home. 

     Bethanny; however fell very hard over those same year's. After receiving the advice at the coffee shop she ran off crying. She told herself that her brother was being cruel to her and she was better than he told her that she was. She went home talking to herself and listing reasons as to why she is a good person. She went on to expand her company helping those who could afford her services. 

     And for a few years, the blissful ignorance helped her sleep at night until a dying woman with stage 3 luekimia walked in, begging for help because her chances are fading every night and Bethanny looked at her and her paperwork and realized she could not pay and company policy forced her to send her off and she did. She wept and left, After about 10 minutes her grandchildren entered. They looked me down and spat at me "Why, why would you turn her down she is one of the kindest people and you run the company. You don't take orders you make them. You are a monster and I hope you know that". 

     Than Bethanny went back to her room and thought to herself; she had heard that somewhere before. Someone she knew. Someone she held very dear said something similar. She could not believe it. What have I done? How could I? All these thoughts rang in her head like the bells of Big Ben. The next 3 months were spent swimming in her alcohol addiction to ease the pain. She tried therapy, but it just made her feel worse because she knew the person in her help group. She was there because of Bethanny in the first place. She tried writing to her brother, but it either never arrived or he never bothered because she never received any response. She tried everything but nothing worked.  She wanted to feel at peace. She could not take the void anymore. The hole that was her self worth and is now eating itself. She wanted solace,she wanted it from someone who understood her and knew her. Someone like her brother. 

     She hopped on a boat due to her complete and total fear of airplanes. And took a year off to travel to Ireland and grow as a person. She eventually after about a month of heavy drinking and frantic searching found her brother's estate and knocked on the door.  Elizabeth opened the door and spoke to Bethanny. "who might you be". She told her she was his sister and that she wanted to talk to her brother but she told her he was not really interested in the visit. So she begged her "I am very depressed and would love to rebuild what we used to have. I am a mess. I fell really hard. I am a heavy drinker now. I just took a long vacation to find you both and hopefully become a better person" She was serious and genuine. So Elizabeth signed for her to enter and she told her "While I drink some myself you admitted to alcoholism and if it's a problem than you need to kick it, now. Second, While I see you seem to really want to be better. I don't know who you were to know if you can be a better person but this is also my husband's business so why don't we converse while we wait on his return from work in an hour". I nodded and we drank water and apple juice to kick Bethanny's habit. 

     They told each other their life stories. After that was finished they discussed politics and the benefits of universal healthcare. About an hour and a half had passed until Stephen entered the house and you could have sworn that he saw a ghost in front of him. Stephen looked to her and said "What are you doing here, What gives you the right to find out where I live unannounce-". At this point he noticed something, Bethanny's once vibrant eyes appeared dead and void of life, her smile seemed to be a distant memory, and he could tell just from the smell that she was under the influence of alcohol. Only for her to get on her knees in tears to beg for forgiveness Bethanny begged him "Please I'm not a happy. Hell I don't even know if I am sane anymore. Please. Please. I want to change. I did horrid things and I am becoming like victor. I have become the same as him, I want us to be friends again. I want to like my reflection again". It hit him, whatever was going through her head was breaking her and this could be the turn around of her life. She meant it and that was great, at least to Stephen. To him that meant his sister was in there. Somewhere and he was not afraid to look. So he looked to her and said "Great, you want help and I will provide it. You want to be friends. I will oblige. We will fix you first. You need help and we are not afraid to give it to you. First things first we will kick your habit. You are entering 12 step and we will not let you falter. Than you are joining therapy and getting help because your habit is making things worse; not better and finally we are going to talk frequently and you are going to avoid going to that corrupt work building for a year. It is a toxic place it does things, bad things to a person. It changes them". Bethanny smiled before hugging Stephen and crying said "I am sorry. I was abhorrent. I was a bad sister I lost the chance to see you wed. Your wife is beautiful by the way. Elizabeth I hope we can be friends". What she got was a smile.