Children discover a deep, dark well in the woods — an old ladder leads down into it.
Cecil
“Lacey, wait!” I cry out. Ugh, it’s no use. There’s not stopping her, but it is really concerning how close she is to calling off a ledge right now. Sooner or later, she has to get tired and take a break, though, right? Her shrill laughter is getting more and more distant. I can’t keep up anymore. “Lacey!” I plead with her once again. Suddenly, I hear a bunch of branches crack and mud slosh around.
“Cecil!” she finally responds, “Help! My foot is stuck!”
I start walking over there. Maybe if she just listened for once she wouldn’t be in this predicament. I look down at my feet. Mud has covered my sneakers along with damp leaves. That’s annoying. Now I’ll have to clean them off later. I told Lacey that we shouldn’t walk through the forest right after the rain.
“Cecil, where are you going? I’m right here.” I stop. It sounds as if she’s right next to me.
“Where?”
“Right here, dummy!” A stick smacks my head, but there’s no one around.
…
Wait, there’s no one around?!
“Gahhhhhh!” I start running as fast as I can, which isn’t too fast considering I keep slipping. How does Lacey do this? I don’t know where I’m going. I just know that something there is messed up and I need to-
Lacey
Ugh, I seriously wonder sometimes if Cecil has mental problems. His grades imply that he’s smart, but he does some seriously stupid stuff. How does he not see me? I’m literally underneath the tree right next to him. Fine, I’ll just get my foot unstuck myself. Now he’s wandering around like a fool looking for me. Maybe if I throw a stick… shoot, that scared him. Now he’s running who knows where off the path. I just have- to get- my- foot- ahh! I got it. Now, I just have to catch up with Cecil. You know what’s funny? Cecil. Because last I checked, buddy, “it’s too dangerous to run around like a maniac in a wet forest along a path you’ve never taken,” and look what you’re doing! Sorry, I got sidetracked there. Now back to Cecil who is currently… falling down a well?
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh,” his screams echo about.
“Cecil?” I finally make my way to this Cecil swallowing well, and what do you know? He’s sitting there at the bottom.
“Lacey, there you are! You won’t believe it, but I was hearing voices!”
“You dimwit, that was my voice! You just didn’t see me underneath the tree branches for some reason.”
“Oh.”
“’Oh’ is right! Now look, you’ve gotten yourself stuck at the bottom of a well. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure mom brings you some food every once in a while.”
“You realize there’s a ladder, right?”
“Then why are you sitting in the well still?”
“I think I broke my arm.”
“How do you know?”
“Umm…”
“Oh, I’ll just climb down and take a look for myself. It’s probably just a bruise.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he calls out, but I’m already halfway down the rickety old ladder. When I reach the bottom, he holds up some oddly bent object for me to look at.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“My arm.”
“Oh, well, I can one hundred percent say that it’s broken.”
“Wow, how’d you reach that conclusion Dr. Lacey?”
“Well, you see, you can always tell when just looking at it make you want to barf.”
“Woah, you know, you just learned so much in med school.”
“I- woah!”
“Doc, don’t you mean, I ‘know,’ not I woah?”
“No, Cecil, look! There’s a door on the side of the well here.”
“Oh, you didn’t notice that? We’re also sitting in a pool of water here if you haven’t notice that either.”
“I swear, one day I will slap you silly Cecil!”
“Hmmm… but probably not today, so let’s go home so that I can go see a real-“
I choose to interrupt him because, “I’m going in.”
Cecil
“What?”
“You heard me,” she says. Oh, dear.
“Lacey, no. Please, just help me out of here so I can go see a doctor,” I implore.
“Oh, come on. There’s probably a doctor in here.”
“I don’t know if you know, but my arm actually hurts a lot right now, so I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me climb out rather than abandon me while walking through an ominous door.”
“I’m not abandoning you. Look, we both went through the door.”
“Huh?”
“When will you learn to not just follow people during conversations? Mom always worries that habit will get you kidnapped.” That is a really bad habit of mine… On the bright side, I’m starting to get used to this throbbing pain in my arm, and oh my gosh. There is a bone sticking out of my arm. That is disgusting. Wow. Nope. Not today. I am not walking through a catacomb looking place with a literal bone sticking out of my arm.
“Well, I’m leaving whether you follow me or not, Lacey.”
“But we just reached the doctor.”
“What?”
“See, I told you there would be a doctor here.” She gestures towards a line of door beads blocking our path. Hanging from the top of the short ceiling is a sign saying, “Dr. Somnium.”
“You did not lead me to a witch doctor.”
“He’s not a witch doctor.”
“YOU BEEN HERE BEFORE?”
“Ugh, Cecil, we both know the game stops the moment we reach door beads.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh, come on. He’ll look at your broken arm. It’s probably affecting you memory or something.”
“What? No! What’s going on? Why do you know what’s here?”
Lacey
Ahh, there’s nothing better than messing with my brother every once in a while. The truth is I don’t know what’s behind this beaded curtain. But I drag him in anyway. In all honesty, I know this isn’t a good idea, but the chances of us dying are only about 30%, and Cecil has already broken one bone. What’s one injury more? No matter what, this adventure will surely give me some interesting material for a story. Before we had been walking through a sort of dirt tunnel with small lamps hung about, but after passing the beaded curtain, it’s suddenly become a concrete hallway with fluorescent lights. I see doors everywhere.
“Cecil?”
…
“Cecil?”
…
I turn around to find him pale as a ghost. “What’s wrong Cecil?” He holds up his right arm, the broken one, and waves it around, but something is wrong. It’s not broken. His arm is as good as new.
“How did you know about this place?” he asks.
“I didn’t. I just thought it was some kids’ hideout or something.”
“Then how is my arm fixed?”
“I don’t know- I-“
“That would be my work, dearest children,” a loud, booming baritone voice sounds. A man walks out from one of the doors towards us. “You see, I’ve been working on this sort of… medical miracle. It’s my own special treatment, and now, thanks to you, my boy, I know that it’s finally right.”
“But why is your office underground?” I ask.
“Well you see, it helps with the treatment. A mind in chaos helps the procedure set in, and I find that my specially curated underground office does the trick.”
“What exactly is your treatment?” Cecil inquires.
“Well, I like to call it ‘somnium salutis.”
“This is amazing!” I exclaim.
“It’s too good be true,” said Cecil, “There has to be a catch. What’s the science behind this?”
“Ugh! Cecil, you are such a doubter. Even if the doctor explained, we wouldn’t understand because we’ve never been to medical school.”
“I’d hope that this doctor would be able to explain to his patients what procedures he has just preformed.”
“Omg. Stop, you’re ruining it. This man can revolutionize medicine! I mean, look at your arm. It doesn’t look broken. Does it feel broken?”
“Well, no, but-“
“That settles it!”
“Children, settle down,” the doctor interrupted. “There are still more tests I must run. I wouldn’t be a very good doctor if I didn’t do multiple tests before letting my treatment out to the public.”
“Well,” muttered Cecil, “I didn’t think any good doctor would run tests on unsuspecting minors without permission, but here we are…” Wow. How am I related to this storm cloud? Doesn’t he understand how absolutely spectacular this is? We have to tell everyone. It’s so lucky that Cecil fell into the well! But first doctor… wait, what was his name?
“Sir, what is your name?” I ask.
He gives me a warm smile. “I am Dr. Somnium.”
“Well, Dr. Somnium, I’d like to volunteer to be your next test subject!”
Cecil
“Well, miss Lacey, I would be honored to have you as test subject number two,” says the doctor.
“Lacey, you can’t be serious right now. Don’t you realize how dangerous this could be? Please, you do so many stupid things, but this is just too far. Think for a second!” I implore her, but she’s not listening. Instead, she gives herself a paper cut, and Dr. Somnium heals it with a clap of his hands. This man seems more like a performer than a doctor to me.
“I want to go home,” I say firmly.
“Why of course, Cecil,” replies the doctor, “Just so long as you tell all your friends and family to come down here to rid themselves of any ailments. On your way back up, you’ll also notice that the well has been replaced by a real staircase with a door.”
Huh? There’s a lot to unpack there. Replaced the well? But more importantly, “Your treatment is ready after only two trials?!”
“Certainly! I do believe that is standard practice. Now, run along children. I expect to see a long line form. Oh, and don’t forget, my treatment only costs $15 an injury!”
“Will do, Doc!” exclaims Lacey as she drags me back out of this place.
When we resurface, I stop her giddy skipping. “Lacey, we’re going to report this creep, right?”
“Of course, Cecil. What he did wasn’t right. You go home and rest up while I go to the police station.” She is totally lying right now. She’s also probably already texted half the town about what we found because I look behind me, and there are two people taking the stairs down to Dr. Somnium.
“Lacey, I don’t think you really under-” Great. Now she’s gone.
As I walk home, I notice I feel a bit lightheaded. Maybe all of this is just a really weird dream. It sure feels like that could be true. Maybe if I take a nap, I’ll wake up, and this will all disappear.
—
I wake up on the floor of my room, and after shaking off the grogginess of sleep, I remember Dr. Somnium. I really hope that was all a dream.
I head downstairs. No one else is home, so I sit down on the couch to watch some TV. As I flip through the channels, I almost faint at the sight of the news. I check five different news stations, and their stories are all the same: “A Small Rural Town’s Doctor Revolutionizes Medicine,” and there taking up half the screen is a picture of Dr. Somnium himself.
Lacey
This is so exciting! In less than 24 hours, word of Dr. Somnium’s treatment has spread around the country. People from all over the state are coming to our town! Some people are even crossing state lines to see him! I look around at all these happy people, instantly cured of all physical injuries and aliments. This is a miracle. Now, everyone will hear about Somnium Salutis, and expensive medical bills for treatments that might not work will be a thing of the past!
Cecil
Weeks have gone by, and Dr. Somnium is only gaining popularity. No one listens to the skeptical doctors and scientists. They say that the government has known about this for decades, but they never shared it because big pharma wanted to make more money. I must say, a few times, I almost found myself convinced, but something like this can’t be true. Everything about it is against the laws of nature, but if people don’t want to listen to people with PhDs, then they certainly won’t listen to me. I guess all there’s left to do is watch the chaos.
—
Now it’s been six months since the discovery of somnium salutis. Many people who study Latin are disturbed by the name of this treatment. It directly translates to “the dream of health.” Lacey says that it’s called that because the treatment grants health dreams or something like that. I don’t know. I’ve come to accept that this is just life now, I guess. Lacey is basking in her glory as “the girl who discovered Dr. Somnium.” There haven’t been any side effects so far, but I must say, I find that although I’m right-handed, I’ve been using my left hand more and more. Also, the death rates in our town have increased by 5%, which doesn’t seem like much, but it’s still weird.
Lacey
“Cecil,” I call out. He doesn’t answer. Ugh, this boy has been extra moody ever since we found Dr. Somnium. “Cecil, we’re leaving!” He slumps out of his room. He hated our family’s weekly visits to our grandparents’ farm before we found the doctor. Now, he absolutely detests these outings.
When we drive up to the farm, the sweet smell of freshly cut grass fills my lungs. I see the line to Dr. Somnium’s office peeking through the forest that lines my grandparents’ property. I drag Cecil over to look at the long, winding line. Nearby, a group of people sit and meditate. Dr. Somnium now has a group of people who consider him to be a god. I personally don’t agree with this idea, but it’s still interesting to watch the people hold vigils outside his office. A man is standing among the meditators, guiding their worship. Suddenly, he opens his eyes and looks at his leg. He screams. Then the rest of the meditators open their eyes and scream in terror along with him. What could they be screaming about?
Next to me, Cecil throws up. “I knew something about this wasn’t right,”
“What are you talking about?” I ask him.
“Can’t you see it?” He holds up his arm, but I see nothing. What does he mean? Now everyone is screaming. “Open your eyes, Lacey,” Cecil instructs. “I don’t know how we’ve missed it for this long. Of course, it’s called Somnium Salutis. It’s not “the dream of health” because it grants dreams or whatever. It’s because it actually is a literal dream. Who would have thought that it would take one of those weirdo meditators to see it? But now that one person has noticed, the illusion has broken. Look.” And that’s when I saw.
Cecil
It is disgusting. A half year’s worth of injuries, untreated, are now everywhere I look, and wow, my arm is throbbing. Lacey looks very pale, like she is about to faint. I take that as a sign that the illusion has broken for her too. I see several deep cuts on her arms that look infected. Everyone’s injuries are infected. Blood and puss are oozing all over the ground. People’s limbs, including mine, look blackened. Some look ready to fall off. This has to be a hazard. The mediator that woke us up from the illusion is now rolling on the ground wailing. His leg has large chunks of flesh missing, and the flesh that is left seems to be melting off. The smell is rancid. People everywhere are throwing up. Our entire town is a mess, full of biohazards. Suddenly, Dr. Somnium himself appears, but I barely recognize him. His hair, once styled and neatly kept, is now greasy and matted. His clothes are full of dirt, and his hands and face look like they haven’t seen soap in twenty years. He looks like he has spent most of his life living in a well. What gall he must have to show up after the horrors he has caused.
“Dearest patients, I see you have figured out my trick,” booms the doctor’s voice. “It was all an illusion. A dream. You simply thought that you were healed. It is a technique that I have been perfecting for many, many years, and must say, it works splendidly! These past few months have been wonderful. You all have been ever so wonderful. I did worry early on that you all would figure out that my treatment was centered around illusion before anything interesting could happen, especially when you figured out that Somium Salutis translates to “the dream of health.” However, because of you, this whole experiment has gone extraordinarily. I give you my utmost thanks. I do apologize for the pain this has caused you, and I wish I could end it. However, my research is my first and foremost priority, and now, I am overjoyed to say, the real research can begin!” Dr. Somnium laughs a big, hearty laugh as my neighbors and I stare at him in horror. The sky is now clouded over, and it’s drizzling. But how do we know that this too isn’t another trick?
