After countless nights of work, there it was — the pinnacle of human medicine. “We did it, Ulayd!” said Talis as they discovered the cure to eppolin.

The world had been infected with a strange disease called eppolin, which made it impossible for people to sleep. It had turned into a global crisis, and the search for a cure had become urgent.

Talis and Ulayd, college roommates, had always dreamt of changing the world with their inventions in the field of medicine. Together, they worked tirelessly until they found the breakthrough. Ulayd sent their formula to the World Health Council for review. If it were approved, not only would the crisis finally be addressed, but they would be remembered in history forever.

Soon, the council approved the cure after their team of doctors verified it. As the first test results came back positive, the world celebrated. But the glory went almost entirely to Ulayd. His name was praised across news outlets, while Talis’s contribution was scarcely mentioned.

As Ulayd’s fame soared, Talis’s frustration grew into a silent hatred. He tried to appear happy for his friend, but his heart burned with resentment. Every headline ignored his role, every award bypassed him, every conversation placed Ulayd at the centre, while he remained in the shadows. Ulayd, for his part, also didn’t try to share more of the spotlight with his friend.

Envy eventually consumed Talis, and he secretly tampered with the formula. He made subtle but dangerous alterations, sending the modified version to the council through Ulayd’s email account. On the surface, the formula looked unchanged, but the small adjustments were enough to corrupt the drug’s effects and cause severe reactions.

At first, nothing seemed wrong. Patients slept peacefully. The world continued to praise Ulayd. But then, slowly, strange symptoms surfaced. People grew irritable, violent, and unpredictable. Doctors noted bizarre behaviours and sudden bursts of aggression. Soon, the side effects escalated into something far more terrifying — sleepwalkers who roamed the streets like zombies, attacking others without reason.

The authorities were alarmed, and Ulayd’s reputation collapsed overnight. He was bewildered. None of this had happened during the trials. Desperate, he rushed to his lab to investigate. There, on his computer, he found evidence that a new version of the formula had been sent from his email. Only one other person had his password. It had to be Talis.

Ulayd stared at the screen, torn between disbelief and dread. Just then, Talis entered, a smirk on his face.

“How does it feel when the world turns on you?” he said coldly.

Ulayd’s heart sank. “Why, Talis? Wasn’t this our dream?” he asked helplessly.

“Exactly!” Talis snapped. “It was our dream. But when the fame came, it was all about you. You forgot me.”

Ulayd’s voice broke. “And so you let innocent people suffer, just because you hated my praise?”

The room crackled with anger. Their argument erupted into a fight. They exchanged blows, knocking equipment to the floor. A photograph of them together — arms around each other, smiling — fell and shattered on the ground.

Amid the chaos, Ulayd stumbled upon his earlier notes. Hidden among the scattered pages was an antidote — a formula he had worked on as a safeguard. He knew what he had to do. But time was short.

He quickly began creating the antidote in the lab. Eventually, he succeeded in creating the first batch, which he hurried to the city’s main hospital. There, he met the director and explained what had happened and the antidote he had prepared. He begged the director to try it on the patients admitted because of the altered cure. At first, the doctors were hesitant, still suspicious of Ulayd. However, as he pleaded with such urgency and since they did not have any other choice, at last, they caved.The doctors gave the antidote to all the patients who agreed to undergo the trial, since they were more desperate to escape the side effects of the altered medicine than they had been to be rid of eppolin.

Soon, the antidote started to work. These people were no longer walking around like zombies when asleep, or becoming angry without reason. The antidote was then produced on a larger scale and distributed to all the places where the altered medicine had been supplied.

The world once again praised Ulayd for coming to the rescue. Awards and honours poured in, yet he refused them all. He gave Talis his due credit, insisting they had built the cure together. But to the public, Talis was a traitor — the man who had betrayed humanity. Authorities launched investigations, yet he remained missing. Ulayd withdrew from the public eye. In the quiet of the lab, he pieced the broken photograph back together, placing it on the desk where they had once worked side by side.

In a rare interview, Ulayd looked into the audience from the stage and said, “We did it, Talis. But at what cost?”

And somewhere, hidden among the crowd, Talis listened.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 27th, 2025