Finally he decided: "Mother, father I love you both very much, but I can't..."
Suddenly his mother was begging him, "Please William, we have already had to watch so many of your brothers and sisters leave this world, please don't leave us too."
"But I'm not sick, why couldn't it wait, at least let me have a few more days to think about it?"
His father then tried reasoning with him, "William, many of your brothers and sisters from long ago were in accidents, it often has nothing to do with illnesses."
His mother was in tears now: "Please!"
Finally, seeing how sad and concerned they were William thought that they must really be worried about him, he replied: "Alright, mother, father if you are sure that this will make you happy, then I will drink it. When will it be ready?"
"It is ready now; all you have to do is drink everything in this bottle." His father said, anxious for the experiment to get under way.
So, William took the small bottle from his father's hands, and trembling, pulled the lid off and drank the horrible liquid. It tasted horrible, and it burned, but he was doing it for his parents and he knew (or hoped) that they wouldn't deceive him.
But they had, they didn't have any idea about how effective the liquid would be, and everything that they had said to get him to drink the Mercury was a lie. They had never had any other children, they certainly didn't love him and perhaps cruellest of all, they intended to abandon him after they were sure that the experiment was a success.
After a few minutes when he was still trembling and coughing, Dante insisted that he go to his room for a while, and despite his protests, his parents practically forced him to go. After a while the coughing died down and he began thinking, he wondered what it would be like to be immortal and how he would know when it happened, would he look the same? Would he have to change bodies like his parents? Would it hurt (well he already knew SOME of the answer to that one)? But most of all he thought about how wonderful it was that he finally knew that his parents loved him and wished that they would come to his room and see him. Then after a long day of contemplating all of these things, at about midnight he fell asleep...
