Read The Remedy Files: Illusion for Free Online

looming belly that seems to have been steadily growing over the past four years that I have worked in his office. “Is there a problem?”
    “No, Doctor. The wind must have caught the door when it shut.”
    Doctor Bordine’s right hand reaches up to run his hand through his thinning red hair as he peers over his tiny glasses. “What’s the schedule look like for this afternoon?”
    “We only have three patients scheduled, sir. Mrs. Celticlane, Mr. Kevin, and Mr. Streedlink.”
    “Very good.”
    Doctor Bordine turns to head back to his office, but stops, his back still turned to me. Taking off his glasses and rubbing them with the sleeve of his white coat jacket, he says, “Oh, and please tell Jacqueline to be a little nicer to the office interior.” Putting his glasses back on his tiny nose, he returns to his office, the door shutting carefully behind him.
    I frequently tend to serve as the primary communicator between Doctor Bordine and Jacqueline. They do not understand each other and make it clear that limited interaction is the preference for both parties. If the rumors were true about her being the next Doctor, her avoiding Doctor Bordine doesn’t help as I don’t think she’s learning as was planned for her to do from this experience.
    I wonder if the Community Board’s plans for her have changed. We are nearing the end of Level 17; soon it will all be determined. I will be put in my new life and she will be told the decisions for hers. There is a strong chance that the outcome will lead to the first time since we were infants that we will be separated and put in different groups: Paired and Unpaired. The only thing that we will have as a link is the “line” female group that our first names will forever have in common.
    After work, Jaqueline and I walk back to the Levels 14-17 Home together. It’s a little shorter distance to go around the edge of the community circle to get to our Home from the Clinic than to go through the center of town to get there. However we both decided a couple of years ago that we would rather take the longer route through Impetus. I don’t like walking past the peculiar steel sheds as the sun is fading because the shadows grow deeper and darker. And Jacqueline enjoys seeing whoever she can from the community. Our reasons are vastly different from one another but at least we both want the same thing. 
    There are four primary streets that are spaced evenly within the circle that encompasses the design of Impetus, leading diagonally from the Lightstones to the tall protective thickets outlining the community walls. In between the streets are rows of buildings ranging from the cooperative to the Levels and Homes to the Clinic and everything in between to keep the community functioning. We begin the decline down Street B to the Center as Jacqueline is telling me a story about how her and Ethan tried to make a song out of Pauline’s signature never-ending tapping she does with her fingers and feet. When we were younger, we used to complain about the noise. Over the years, we’ve gotten used to it and simply expect to hear it every time we’re around her.
    I laugh distractedly at Jacqueline’s story, my mind more focused on the people that are lining up behind the Remedy Cubes in the Center. As we walk by, I listen to the steady beep of each person’s monitors, reminding them to reload immediately. Most of the community members in line are part of the adult workforce. It seems to be one of the most common times for Remedy levels to become sporadic- especially for the Unpaired who seem to use these right before the Sleeping Hours the most. 
    Gavin informed me that the need for Remedy has increased throughout the years. Apparently when Impetus was first founded, the members just needed a couple of doses throughout the days to survive which actually left no need for a monitor. But as time went on, more and more Remedy has been needed to maintain life, and so the monitors were