"Every living thing is born with fear."
"Every being. From the way the cats are afraid of dogs and some plants shy away from human touch, we all have that fear in us."
"We humans have three innate fears. These three fears are something that are always with us, something we can't shake off or brave off."
"The fear of loud noises, fear of falling and fear of darkness."
"These three fears are the roots of so many other types of phobias and fears you see around."
"The fear of heights, fear of dogs, guns, and any other thing. Yet some of the greatest fears comes from darkness, cause from the fear of darkness comes the fear of death."
"Yes, that's my lecture." I said to the man in the suit who was playing the video.
I wondered at this strange predicament, here I was, silently being interrogated, inside my own suite.
I took note of the people who I entertained, two men in suits, looking Indian yet without any hint of the accent and a black man in casual jeans and a T-shirt who sounds like British Royalty.
They were a rare bunch and looked like the group of people you'd see at the premise of a laboratory surrounded thriller.
The black man who before was sitting on the chair comfortably watching the lecture now leaned towards me. "What do you mean by the fear of Death stems from the fear of Darkness.?"
"I mean just that." I explained to him.
"Humans have always been afraid of the dark. It's what spurred our need to invent fire in our caveman days."
"Yet we couldn't escape it. Night still came, our eyesight still grew dim, we still died."
"Death is the epitome of darkness. For when you're dead, you can't feel, hear or see anything at all. It's all dark."
The other men nodded thoughtfully at that. The black man just smiled.
"What if I were to say that we've discovered a way to conquer that fear?"
"Then I'd say you're mad." I laughed at the suggestion.
The man's face creased in amusement yet his eyes were dead serious.
"My name is James Christopher, head of the British Laboratory of Humanity Preservation studies." He extended a hand to shake.
"I've never heard of it." I replied, taking his hand.
"I'm sure you haven't." He replied smiling.
He had this cool knowing smirk that made me feel uneasy.
"Okay Mr Christopher." I asked.
"What does this apparently secret British Laboratory of Humanity Preservation need with me?"
He rested his back in the chair taking his time before speaking. He looked as though he was in thought, thinking carefully before approaching the question.
His hesitance at answering made me more nervous and it seemed as though he noticed that, quickly he coughed and began;
"The BLHP studies, is a department that primarily theorizes and optimizes a way to help improve and preserve mankind."
"Preserve?" I asked.
He smiled even wider as he answered, "Yes. preserve."
He then left his chair and came to sit beside me.
"We're on the brink of something incredible, yet we've hit a wall and it's one I think you can help us cross."
His voice became lower as though he was sharing a secret in a public space.
"We've been searching in the dark, exploring it and we've come for your guidance. We think we've found a way to skip death."
I stared at him silently in shock for almost three minutes, eyes wide and mouth agape, my brain trying to interpret the words I had just heard.
Then I laughed.
He waited silently for my bout of amusement to subside, he didn't even look the least disturbed by it.
"It's actually usual for one to be amused by my terms, I at first laughed when the idea came to me, so I wouldn't judge if you find it funny."
"I don't just find it funny Mr Christopher" I said after regaining my composure.
"I find it hilarious, I find it idiotic and it's even crossing the boundary of crazy and as much as it may sounds preposterous to you, I want no part in it."
"Don't you even want to know how.."
"No Mr Christopher." I said cutting him off.
"I don't care for it nor about it and you shouldn't either. You do know that fear is there for a reason right?"
"There's a reason why we are afraid of death, a very good reason why we are afraid of the dark. Sadly some unfortunate fellows like yourself mistake that fear for curiosity."
"Just imagine it Professor." He begged.
"Imagine what we can accomplish, all we can build if we weren't burdened by the fear of death, if we weren't constrained by it."
"Imagine all we could destroy." I replied back, now standing.
"Imagine all we could ruin. I fear a world where the one perhaps drastic measure that truly bounded us was removed."
"I wouldn't condone any discussion of such topics anymore. Please take your leave." I said moving towards the door and holding it open.
James Christopher and his strange entourage walked out crestfallen, yet I somehow knew it wouldn't be the last I heard of him.
A few years later, I once again came across the name of the head of the British Laboratory of Humanity Preservation studies, James Christopher. It was in the newspaper headlines with a picture of him being loaded into an armoured truck.
It read that he was being put in prison, charged with inhumane experiments, playing with human life and dabbling in the arts of black magic. In the picture, he looked crazed and at the same time calm.
I went to his court hearing and he didn't speak a word. I waited till after the hearing, when he was convicted and was about to leave before I asked for a word with him.
Under careful armed supervision we spoke..
"Good afternoon Professor." He greeted me first.
"I thought you wouldn't have remembered me, Mr Christopher."
"As did I." He replied back.
"I think everyone will remember you now. The scientist who attempted to conquer death."
"The scientist who did."
"I beg your pardon?" I asked, my ears refusing to accept what I just heard.
"I did conquer death. At least in a sense, I fought two armed guards when they broke into my lab, y'see." He explained excitedly.
"I managed to take one down but not before they literally filled me with holes, and I'm still standing. It shook them as it did me. I fought more and more to find out just how far this development can go.”
"It didn't go very far."
"I have conquered death, but I still felt pain and quite frankly my immortality was the only card I had against the skilled military personnel." He explained laughing.
I looked incredulously at the jolly black man who was about to be towed to prison.
"You're going to prison you know..." I reminded him
"I'm not scared of prison Professor. I've seen the depths of hell, quite frankly, prison should be scared of me!" He said loudly as the officers came to take him away.
I stayed behind and watched as Mr Christopher allowed himself to be towed, and as I saw him get pulled away, he looked at me and shone one of the most sincere smiles I've ever seen, and I'll admit, remembering that smile, I was terrified.
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