[ WP ] Humans have the opportunity to never feel sadness or pain again , but in order to do so must offer up a sacrifice : one person to become immortal and experience only misery for the rest of eternity .

It was a beautiful day. 
 
 Rain beat down on the windowsills of Jeffrey's apartment bedroom. He lived on the 66th floor of the Grand Luxury Ulysses, which was n't particularly luxurious or grand when compared to many of the other surrounding skyscraping condominiums. This was a good thing. It allowed him to strive for more in life. In the meantime, the view was fantastic and the lack of a working elevator kept him in exceptional shape. Everyone in the building liked it like this, so the repairmen never saw the need to bother fixing it. 
 
 Jeffrey's father had passed not long ago. Yesterday been the funeral. He smiled as he looked at the picture of his father that he kept beside the bed. He had always depended on his father. Still, the funeral was a positive experience. He could n't quite figure out why, but there seemed to be a silver lining in putting the whole business behind him and celebrating his father's life. 
 
 The rain seemed to be letting up. That was the nice thing about storms. They'd always end, and the sun would always peek through. It was the sort of sight that filled you with hope and happiness. He contemplated this over a cup of coffee that was not as good as other cups of coffee in recent memory, which only made him smile. 
 
 Today was, after all, an important day. It was The Pilgrimmage. 
 
 Jeffrey met Mary outside of apartment building. He greeted her with a smile and she returned it warmly. Already the streets were beginning to fill with people making The Pilgrimmage on foot. 
 
 They walked for hours, greeting people they knew and often being greeted by people they did n't. The entire thing brought everyone together in thanks for what they had. Certainly the lineup outside of The Complex would be long. Perhaps they'd even stand in it for days. That hardly mattered. 
 
 As people filed in to the massive Complex standing shoulder to shoulder five wide, they were invited down whitewash hallways by attendants wearing special hospital gowns. These people were here to look after the health and wellbeing of The Chosen. The Complex was massive, able to see to The Chosen's every possible need. It provided or activities, adventure, comfort, meals – but it, of course, was still prison-like and always in lockdown except on the day of The Pilgrimmage. 
 
 Today was certainly different. Jeffrey and Mary made their way through the long corridors with the rest of the smiling pilgrims until they came upon a windowed door in a final darkened hallway. A gentle, calming music played through speakers in the ceiling. Each pilgrim would pause at the door, say a quiet prayer, then turn around and leave. Jeffrey approached the door and peered inside. 
 
 Thick, padded walls. No objects. Simply a frail, skeleton of a man with a grey, haggard face and wide, bloodshot eyes sitting in the corner confined by a straightjacket. A mess of blood and hair in the midle of the floor where, even in here, it had somehow managed to injure itself. It looked straight into Jeffrey's eyes, and opened his gagged, bloody mouth as if to let loose a terrible scream. But it could n't. The Chosen had, many years ago, become the sole receptacle of all negative emotion. Clearly it was too much for any mind to handle, and it had been twisted and tortured beyond insanity. Its head slumped momentarily, but before long a new frenzied struggle against the confinement of the straight jacket began in vain. 
 
 Jeffrey felt a soft hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Mary standing beside him with a smile on her face. He smiled back. 
 
 It was, after all, a beautiful day.
