Belladonna

Chapter 1

"In the beginning," my professor states, drawing himself up, chest puffed with pride at the attention of his students. His pink scalp peeks through his thinning white hair as he hobbles about. He's easily the oldest man I have ever seen. "Love can be pleasant. Let me correct myself: is pleasant. I have never met a man who didn't enjoy, at one point, being in love."

He glances at his students, who were wide-eyed and shaking their heads. My best friend, Neveah who's sitting next to me, looks at me through the corner of her eyes and her lips twitch into a nervous grin.

"Of course, I am referring to anyone that remembers before the Malignancy." The students relax. "Or anyone that is sick presently. Most of the time, the progression of love is a slow one. Which attributes to a majority of patients dying a slow, profoundly painful death. But most of you already know that."

He walks over to the board and pulls down a large diagram of the human body. He takes his pointer and taps the heart.

"It starts, ironically, in the heart." he pauses. "Before we continue, I must point out that much of the behavior of this poison is more easily likened to a disease. The only reason we call love a poison is for poetic reasons, essentially. A play off the old books, as it were."

We are silent. None of us had ever read the 'old books' or any piece of popular culture that came from before the Malignancy. After the government had finally figured out what was causing people to drop by the millions, they quickly labeled all books, movies, and shows 'propaganda' and tried to make the world forget. So much of it was centred around love, or had love as an important theme, that it was dangerous.

Now, all propaganda had been destroyed. I wipe the sweat on palms on my jeans.

Well, almost.

"Instead of running through the bloodstream, the poison centres in the heart, attacking red blood cells until the patient appears to have an especially virulent strain of hemolytic anemia. This is further confused by the fact that many of the symptoms are the same. Fever. Confusion. Lightheadedness. Dizziness. Increased heart rate, especially. "

"However, the tell-tale signs that this is no regular disease are the unique symptoms such as depression, insomnia, and severe paranoia. Not only that, but your condition deteriorates much faster than anemia. In fact, though it does depend on how bad you have it, love will destroy so many of your red blood cells so quickly that you will die, without treatment, in a period of about 3 months."

A gasp issues from the crowd. Neveah makes a small sound. 3 months! That's barely any time at all!

"Of course, with blood transfusions and other treatments, we can extend that period of time for much longer." The professor smiles grimly. "However, this is no replacement for a cure. There are very few cases of people who forget love and make a comeback. Extremely few. The kill rate for love is roughly 97%."

I'm surprised, though I shouldn't be. As I look around the room, I don't see anyone who has not lost someone to love. Except for me. I wonder passingly if I might be indicted to the circle of loss soon enough.

Someone taps me on the shoulder and whispers something into my ear. I stiffen. Neveah starts and says something to me, but there's a roaring in my ears. I stand up and begin to collect my bags. For some reason, I look up, and the professor is staring directly at me.

"Protect yourselves, children!" he cries, as if knows exactly what kind of news I had gotten. "Don't be ensnared! The power or love is not to be underestimated, and neither is your mortality. Beware!"

His words echo in my ears as I scurry out of the room.