Weekly Short #1- Veronica

Hi everyone. 
As I announced on Twitter, I have decided to post new short stories and poems weekly. All these are my original works. Please feel free to share with your friends and comment. 

The first short is called 'Veronica'. It is a science fiction short with undertones of surrealism. It stands at around 2,300 words. Hope you enjoy! Here it is:


VERONICA

The white marble floor vibrated with throbbing footsteps. The door opened suddenly, revealing a long column of blinding light. It illuminated a small, old fashioned wooden bed, a leaking sink, a wrought iron chair and the warm wooden floor. Shadow looked at the scene like it belonged in the history museum not reality. His eyes fell on a dark figure crouched in the corner of the bed. Her hair was raven black, her form fragile, her lips chapped but curved into a smile that never faded. 

“Welcome.” her lips parted. 

Veronica did not blink. She sat in her chair by the window and looked out at the sunset. She couldn’t see the dark clouds that shadowed the sun, she couldn’t see the air fill with dread and fear, she couldn’t see the gloom cast over the city, she couldn’t see how many people died everyday. She smiled because she was blind. Her form shifted and turned to face Shadow. It made him feel welcome. He glanced around the room once again, trying to absorb that he was in year 2500 not 1800. 

“Veronica?” a deep voice struck her core. 

“Is it the scientist?” she asked with childlike innocence. 

“Yes. I’m Shadow.” the deep voice replied. 

“Close the door.” she said gently. 

Shadow moved to the door, gently closing it. The back side of the door was painted white too. Shadow smiled to himself. He faced Veronica without an expression. 

Veronica got up, casting her shadow over the scientist. She touched the surface of the table for support and moved up her bed which lay by the window. 

“Do you need any help?” he asked.

“I’m fine, thank you.” Veronica replied with a smile. The scientist sat on the chair and looked at her face. It had a warm glow lighting it up as though it were basking in bright sunshine not under the fading light of a rapidly sinking sun. 

“What brings you here?” Veronica asked, her sudden question startling Shadow. 

“I heard you were inflicted with the P-1 virus last month.” he said, solemnly. Veronica nodded.

“As you know, the P-1 is wiping the city. I need your help to develop a cure.” 

“How can I help?” Veronica asked. “Without leaving this room, of course.”

A moment of silence passed. 

“I heard you recovered. Nobody has ever recovered from the P-1.” 

Veronica looked at Shadow with a vacant expression covering her face. 

“You want to know why I recovered?” Veronica asked, prodding.

“Yes,” Shadow replied. “That’s why I’m here.” 

Veronica turned to face the door and smiled. The enigmatic smiled imprinted itself in Shadow’s memory. 

“I have a genetic mutation.” Veronica said, sounding as calm as ever.

“A generic mutation...” Shadow said the words slowly and deliberately. 

“They said I have a genetic mutation. That’s why I can’t see. But, it protects me against the P-1.” 

“Who said that?”

“The scientists. I was born different. They couldn’t do anything to me.”

“ Everyone is our world has a perfect DNA.” the scientist said, surprised. 

“I don’t believe in perfection.” Veronica replied, candidly. “Perfection doesn’t guarantee freedom.”

“Freedom from what?”

“Mental diseases.”

“This is the first time I’ve heard of one.” Shadow said.  

“Strange, isn’t it?” Veronica asked. “What do you know?” 

Shadow bent over and began reading from his memory. 

“The P-1 virus is different from anything we know. It drains a person’s memories until only their carcass is left. I’ve never seen anything like it. Victims die without a single bruise on their body.” 

“Why do you think that is?” Veronica asked, quizzing me as if she were prodding the scientist to solve a puzzle. 

“I don’t know....” he said, meeting her eyes. “All I know is that you’re the key to the answer.” 

“Me?” Veronica moved, pulling the white blanket over her legs. 

The scientist looked around and noticed that everything in the room was white. The floor, the walls, the beds, the furniture.

“You like white, huh?”

“I like to see the light all the time.”

“I can get everything re-done in white if you come to the lab.” Shadow offered.

“I don’t want to.” Veronica said. “This is my home.”

Shadow was silent.

“You’re invaluable to the scientific community.” Shadow said, leaning closer. 

“That won’t make me change my mind.” Veronica said, looking outside the window like she could see what was outside. He stared outside with her for a moment before returning to the present. 

“How did it go away? ”  he asked, restless for an answer. 

“It went away like common cold.” she said casually. 

“I don’t get common cold, I wouldn’t know.” the scientist replied morbidly. 

The room filled with momentary silence. 

“ I need to take your blood samples to the lab and examine why the virus did not affect your mutated genes.” he said, drawing out his equipment. 

“Will it hurt?” Veronica asked. 

“No. Hold still.” the scientist said.

 He drew out a laser syringe and stuck it into Veronica’s arm. The meter filled up in a second. He let go of her. 

“Are you done?” Veronica asked. 

“I am. Thank you.” he said, shoving the blood sample into his pocket.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” he said. Veronica heard the sounds of footsteps until they disappeared completely. She smiled to herself. 

The scientist was back the next day with a footsteps that thundered up the creaky wooden stairs. He burst into the room. He stared at Veronica with the door wide open. She smiled from her white bed. The window was open, like always . He closed the door and stood next to her. 

“Did you test my blood samples?” Veronica asked. 

“I did. You were right about the mutation.” he paused. 

“What else?” Veronica asked. 

“I was talking to patients yesterday. They do not report any physical symptoms. They stare at a corner of the wall all day and wait for someone. Did you experience anything like that?”

“I did. I remember seeing this person all the time.” 

“Person?”

“Hmmm....” Veronica said in a quiet voice. 

“Who was it? Was it someone you know?” 

“I didn’t realize it was P-1 until I asked him his name.”

“What did he say?” the scientist asked, curious.

“He said he was Jaden.” Veronica replied. 

“Who is Jaden?”

“My brother.”

“What was strange about that?”

“He died ten years ago.” 

A moment of silence followed. The white room overwhelmed the silence. Veornica and Shadow did not move, trying to absorb what has just been said. The white, diaphanous curtains danced in the wind. Shadow looked at it as if it were an old memory, rapidly fading away. 

“How did you know it wasn’t him?” he asked after a long pause. 

“I couldn’t be him. He died.” Veronica replied.  

“What happened when you realized the truth?”

“He smiled. He smiled and vanished. I recovered the next day.” 

“Wow.....there’s a lot I don’t know about mental viruses.” Shadow said. “How do you think it spreads?”

“I don’t know. What is your theory?”

“Mental contact. Our brainwaves.” Shadow said, speculatively. 

“That’s an interesting theory. Any proof?”

“That is what I’m here to collect. Veronica, you’re the proof.” he said, sharply. 

“Me?” Veronica’s feet moved under the white bedsheet. 

“Tell me everything you know. Your mutation, how you caught the virus....everything.” 

Veronica remained silent. Her eyes that couldn’t see looked outside the window at the last rays of the fading sun. She turned around and took a deep breath. 

“Do you think memories are valuable?” Veronica asked suddenly.

“Memories? I guess they are.”

“I think they’re our unique identity.”

“Probably....”

“What do you think it means to be human?” she quizzed, sounding like a philosopher. 

“Veronica, why are you asking these questions?” Shadow asked, impatiently. 

“Those were the answers you are looking for.” Veronica said. She shifted on her bed. 

“What do you mean? I don’t understand.” Shadow said. 

“Will that be all for today?” Veronica asked in a sedate voice. 

“It’s time to leave, isn’t it? Thank you.” Shadow said formally. He turned around. 

“Think about it when you have the time.” Veronica said softly. The footsteps faded away.

The third time the scientist came around, Veronica didn’t hear gentle footsteps or fast ones but loud stomping. The door burst open with a loud thud. 

“I got it!” the scientist’s voice echoed through the room and bounced back. Veronica pushed some of her bedcovers over and at up gradually on her bed. 

“I cracked it. I figured how to stop the virus. You see...your DNA-”

The scientist’s footsteps approached her. He sat down on that familiar wooden chair that he believed belonged to the prehistoric times. 

“I found a way to replicate your mutated genes.”

“That’s good news.” Veronica said. “Can it cure the disease?”

“I think so. I just need to figure out how it spreads. You see, your genes don’t replicate easily. That’s why the virus couldn’t spread. It stayed on one cell that couldn’t reproduce and died with it.”

“How is your brainwave theory coming along?”

“I’m a bit confused here. There seems to be a physical reproduction of abnormal cells but there’s no proof of physical transmission of the disease. I’m confused.”

“Have you spoken to any other patients?”

“They’re in a world of their own.”

“What do they see?”

“They talk to a person....a figment of their imagination....” he said. “You were right about that. They talk to the same person everyday. Why do you think that happens?” 

“It’s their most important memory.” Veronica said. “The person they talk to is the most important person in their life.” 

“Ummmm..... I still think it spreads through brainwaves....through shared memories perhaps? or could it be shared ideas?...emotions........I can’t figure that part out.” 

“Did you think about what I told you the last time?” 

“What?”

“Why do you think memories are important?”

“It makes us more human, I guess.” the scientist replied on the spot. “I understand why you asked me that question. It’s all about memories, isn’t it?” 

“What does it mean to be human?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t have time to think about it.”

“Think about it.” Veronica said softly.

“Is that all you’re going to tell me?” 

Veronica smiled. That was the last thing she said. The scientist left. He didn’t come back the following day, not the following week. A week later, those footsteps marched up the stairs and crystallized into a human form. 

Shadow saw Veronica, frail as glass, sleeping on her bed, looking into the horizon with hope. She didn’t move. 

“I’m back.” his deep voice vibrated on a low pitch.

There was no reply from her. 

“I thought about your question.” he said. There was an air of curiosity around him. “I thought about what being human meant. I thought whether genetic engineering denied us the right to be human. I thought about you.”

Her form moved. She turned around and faced the scientist. Her eyes looked clearly into his, starting him. He continued to speak. 

“My thoughts are filled with you. You are....different. You remind me of a someone I knew.”

“Who was it?” Veronica asked, in a low, weak voice. Veronica and shadow looked at each other silently, without words. The silence spoke louder than words could have. Veronica smiled, a knowing, frail and parting smile. 

“Veronica, it’s you, isn’t it?” everything around froze. Time stopped. The smile on Veronica’s lips froze. Shadow looked at her, his gaze unflinching. 

“I told you my name the first time we met.” she said, as her fragile form turned into a translucent one. Particle by particle, her form began evaporating into thin air. 

“I didn’t realize it was you. You are my fantasy, my memory, aren’t you?”

“Congratulations. You figured it out.”

Veronica's form began to disappear. Remnants of her hazy hologram were rapidly dissipating. 

“Wait! Don’t go.” Shadow yelled. 

Veronica smiled. That was the last smile she showed him. Everything faded to black until nothing remained but the memory of her smile.


The hospital was buzzing with activity in the morning. The deserted, shunned hospital had been revived in the wake of the P-1 outbreak. Scientists worked round the clock to discover a cure to this mental virus that seemed to affect the perfectly genetically engineered population on planet Earth. The doctor and two helpers burst open a room and found Shadow’s body lying on the floor, dead and lifeless. 

“What are we supposed to do with this guy?” the helper asked, his eyes fixed on Shadow’s body. Shadow was dead. His heart had stopped beating a moment ago.

“Dispose it off like the other bodies.” the other helper said, immune to the pain of seeing death.

“Be careful. He had the P-1.” the doctor said.

“I know. The mad scientist kept talking to this girl called Veronica. I swear there was no one.” 

“That is a symptom of the disease. It lets you live your fondest memory before you die.” The doctor said. 

“Strange disease, I say.” the helper said, moving the body. He looked at Shadow’s body, a broad smile frozen on his dead lips. “But he’s smiling. What do you think he’s smiling about?”

“Let me ask you something.” the doctor said. 

“What?” the helper asked, absorbed in his work.

“What do you think it means to be human?” the doctor asked, in a tone that cut through the air like a rapier. The helper turned to the doctor and stared. He flashed a knowing smile, began humming a tune and walked out of the room.