[ WP ] Suddenly , everyone on Earth becomes immortal , free from physical injury or disease . Except for one person .

The day it happened was a good day. People who had previously felt the pain of incurable illnesses and weakness from old injuries had now become stronger. They had become alive. 
 
 These were people who were once told they would never be able to walk again. People who were told nothing could be done about a malignant tumor in their body. There were the people in third world countries who would have previously succumbed to illnesses that were now healthy. 
 
 People who were going to experience death had a pass. Those who had no idea how to cope with the sense of impending expiration were free from the constraints previously placed on them. 
 
 Everyone was finally happy. Everyone was at peace. Everyone would never have to suffer another loss ever again. 
 
 That was everyone but Daniel Smith. The poor thirty-two year old was not one of the lucky ones. Everyone else was a lucky or chosen one except for Daniel. 
 
 Daniel had been declared the loser of this immortality jackpot. 
 
 He knew he would never have to experience the loss of his parents, the loss of his brothers and sister. He would never experience the defeated inability to help his loved ones manage pain, loss or suffering. This was a good thing for him. 
 
 Instead, this burden was placed on his loved ones. His loved ones would watch Daniel progressively age as everyone else stayed the same. His brothers and sister would stay their same ageless young selfs doing whatever they pleased, without any care or remorse. His mother and father would watch their son turn gray and age with wrinkles deepening in his skin, his bones becoming brittle, his muscles becoming weaker, and his body slumping with the weight of his mortality on his shoulders. 
 
 His parents who should never experience the pain of burying one of their children would have to endure that pain just once. His brothers and sister would have to figure out how to deal with their own pain, their own sadness while trying to support their own parents. 
 
 Daniel could not accept his mortality. He was the only mere mortal in a world filled with immortality. This wasn ’ t fair. 
 
 This wasn ’ t something he wanted. This wasn ’ t something he had signed up for. Instead, he was just unlucky. He never wanted to experience the emotional pain, he was feeling now. The pain of knowing there was no way to dull what was to come. His family would not be able to escape their own feelings of loss, regret, anger, suffering, and mourning. 
 
 They would have to live forever knowing that one of their own family members had to perish because of mortality. 
 
 To Daniel, this was impending doom. 
 
 How was he supposed to live with all of this in the back of his mind? How could he handle knowing that at one point he would stop breathing and stop living? 
 
 Daniel sat with a gun in his right hand resting against his thigh. In his shaking left hand was a picture of his smiling family standing in their matching Christmas sweaters in front of their Christmas tree. He felt the heaviness in his stomach looking at the happiness emitting from that single moment in time. 
 
 Was it worth living his life knowing one day his family would have to suffer because of his mortality? Or should he just get the inevitable over with? What was the right thing? He no longer knew.
