SIMPHONIE

I put the pill on my tongue. It was hot. It sizzled.

The feeling was automatic. I could a chase after a car, I could smash a cinderblock with the ball of my foot, or I could scale a wall as if I were a fly. Or at least I felt that way.

But it all hurt, and it hurt badly.

It was as it I was a part of a celebration. But while I was at this celebration, I was also completely alone.

If I had to, I would take these pills. It was a necessity. I'd take at least one each day.

And then, everything was slowing down. Everything was suspending in time except for my own body. That was the illusion that the pill gave. 'The ruse of the eyes,' was what they called it. I could grab a fly by its wings, possibly. Or give a crocodile a run for its money, maybe. It was wild. It was almost fun. It cost barely any money.

"Sim," someone shook me, "snap the #!*% out of it. Sim." I murmured, cooed, and then gurgled quietly as if there were moist cotton stuck in the back of my throat.

"Simphonie!" He was yelling at me now. He shook me some more. My eyes snapped open like a window's shutters being pulled quickly from the window itself. After taking the pill, some people didn't blink for at least hours. They were the unfortunate ones. You would've needed eye drops like crazy, if they still existed. Usually, that's how you knew that somebody was using the pill. Their eyelids all but disappeared. Some called users Geckos. On the pill, you had a long tongue to like your eyeballs with.

My eyes flew open.

"I thought I was gonna die, Cole," I whimpered and the words came out as if through a tissue or the sleeve of someone's sweater.

"You were," said Cole softly as he put his arms around my thin frame. "Are you feeling okay now? Are you feeling better?"

"Yes. I'm feeling more like myself already."

"More like the old you?"

"No, Cole. I'm feeling like person I always wanted to be." Cole smiled widely and there was a sharp twinkle in his eye. I gave a small smile back.

"Let's fly," Cole said with a deep fervor as he grabbed my arm and guided me to my feet. "Let's run." And we were off.

I couldn't help laughing as we 'flew' through the dark. Nighttime had been my worst fear before I took the pill. I had hated it. I slept with my door open and a light on out in the hall. Nighttime was bad for any human. If you asked a human mother to take a trip to the supermarket at 3 A.M. in the morning in a bad neighborhood, you wouldn't just get a screwed up face. You would get a scowl and a very determined, ' #!*% no.' You could ask your usual raucous and scowling alcoholic to take a drink, alone in the dark. You might find a suicide note if he followed suit. If you'd try telling me fight the monsters in my closet at 20? I would kill you, with or without the pill.

But now, things were different. My feet skipped over stones and cracks in the pavement in delight.

"Having fun?" Cole asked me.

"Absolutely," I crowed back. Cole swept his dark hair out of his blue eyes and gave me a long look. "What?" I demanded.

"I'm not impressed."

"What?" I said again. And almost before I could get the words out of my mouth, Cole dismounted like a gymnast, doing flips and cartwheels through the air, and even matched my stride while doing it.

"Kids, do not try this at home," he grinned coolly.

"I want to," I lamented. Cole was always good at crap like that.

"Be my guest, Sim," he said with a sweep of his arm. I did. I lifted my gawky arms above my head, and managed to tumble over my feet again and again. I was on my #!*% .

Cole laughed obnoxiously.

"You don't have to point," I grumbled as I stood up and dusted myself off.

"Yes, I do," he laughed, "yes, I do."

We were in front of a bar.

"This is where you're taking me," I pouted, "I don't have a fake I.D."

"You should've said you didn't want to go."

"I didn't know where you were taking me."

"That's right, Sim, always follow my lead."

"What are we here for?"

"Your first kill," he winked. A crazed grin split across my face. I stared into the dimly lit bar and searched every face.

"Him," I said, while looking into the face a surly-looking guy at least twice my size. Cole rolled his eyes and put a hand on his hip. "What?" Cole walked over to me and took me in his arms.

"Who said you get to decide?" Cole murmured gently as he pointed and guided my eyes towards a woman who was my size, my weight, my almost everything exactly. She even had my dark and inky hair. She was my doppelganger. My mouth dropped open.

"No," I whimpered.

"Yes," Cole said strongly back. Then his arms were gone and he had walked away. "Be finished when I get back."

"Cole!"

"Don't make a scene," and his voice drifted from in the shadows mysteriously, "and I meant what I said. You'd better be done when I come back."

I crumbled to the ground and began to cry.