Until It Didn't

Screams Contest 4/15/22
Prompt: Chemical Delusion
500 words

Last time, it felt wonderful. Until it didn’t.

Yet something about that last trip remained with me. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. Stop dreaming about it. The dark, hazy figure beckoned me to summon it once again.

I shivered within the steamy bathwater, bothered by the fact that I couldn’t remember the last experience more clearly. I hadn’t smoked all that much. No more than usual. Why had the experience been so much more intense? Why had it appeared?

Slowly, I turned my head, eyes finding the small bag of sticky buds at the corner of the tub. I licked my lips, temptation grappling with wisdom in my churning brain. Did I dare use it again?

I turned away, biting my lip as my palms ground into my bare thighs under the soapy water. Deep down, however, I knew my reluctance was merely a show. I was only pretending to fight the temptation. I’d known from the moment I’d set it on the edge of the tub that I would use it tonight. So I gave up the pretense and snatched the small bag, dumping its contents into the pipe and setting it asmolder.

I sucked in a deep breath, a familiar cloying scent filling my nostrils. I held the misty vapor within my lungs for a long moment before slowly expelling a geyser of white-gray smoke from rounded lips.

I took another drag, holding it even longer as I lay my head against the upper edge of the tub. My vision began to dance as a familiar black shape began to coalesce above me. Relaxed muscles tensed. The slow beat of my heart grew more rapid until it hammered in my ears.

The dark specter loomed above.

“H-hello?” I asked, attempting, unsuccessfully, to swallow my fear with trembling lips.

Its wispy neck craned toward me, vaporous eyes swirling as they met mine. Suddenly, I was acutely aware of the quiver in my eyelashes.

“Why are you here?” a deep voice demanded. The lights flickered, then went out. I could still see the black specter in the darkness.

It drew closer.

“W-why am I here? You’re the one in my head, buddy!” I tried to make light of the situation, even as my limbs shook.

“You look… familiar,” it said, the pitch of its voice rising as it neared. The higher voice sounded vaguely familiar, yet I couldn’t quite place it.

Suddenly, it appeared immediately before me. Chilly blackness brushed my cheeks. My thudding heart leapt into my parched throat.

It spoke again, voice pitched even higher this time. In fact, it sounded… Just. Like. Mine.

“You’re… me!” it said, my features emerging from its billowing face.

Then, the room flipped, and I was above myself, looking down on my body in the tub below.

What the hell?

I began to float helplessly upward as I watched my own eyes flash with dark curiosity. I flowed into the ceiling, watching my increasingly distant lips form a wicked grin.