Ecstasy: An Original Story

|One|

Larisse Colham, gripping the loops of her backpack tightly, took a deep breath and walked into the building before her. The National Medication Center, stationed in Washington D.C., was entirely made up of pristine white walls, clean white furniture, and various people in -obviously- white lab coats.

The scientists walked around hurriedly, holding clipboards and talking in pairs over things that were most-likely very important. She was almost run over twice by lab assistants who were far too busy with calculations to notice Larisse walking in their path. Larisse, shifting uncomfortably on the balls of her feet, felt that wearing her nice blue dress made her stand out like a sore thumb. Taking yet another anxious breath, she found her way to the large circular hospitality desk that was stationed in the center of the foyer.

Sitting behind the counter, clicking away hurriedly at the computer, was a thick woman with stringy grey hair and half-moon speckles hanging off the rim of her nose. Larisse cleared her throat to get the secretary's attention. The woman paused and examined Larisse with a vaguely annoyed expression.

"Can I help you . . miss?" She asked, as if calling Larisse 'miss' was as appealing as licking used gum off a doorknob.

Larisse didn't mind. In fact, she was used to being treated as such. She was only 19 after all, and graduated university four years early, being a prodigy who left high school at the age of 15. But Larrise didn't expect the secretary -or anyone else for that matter- to know that.

"It's Doctor, actually." Larrise corrected, watching the secretary's eyes dilate in slight bewilderment. "My name is Doctor Larisse Colham, I'm apprenticing under Doctor McKenzie." Larisse waited paitently for the woman to check her computer, before looking back at Larrise.

"My apologizes, Doctor Colham. Doctor McKenize is expecting you on the fourteenth floor." While apologizing profusely, the woman, who now introduced herself as Mandy Coopers, outfitted Larisse with her new identification badge and a lab coat. After being directed to where the elevators were located, Larisse left Mrs. Coopers, and went up to the fourteenth floor.

Now, Larisse was not exactly sure what she had been expecting, but she knew that what the doors of the elevator opened to was defiantly not part of even her wildest imaginations. The floor, which was a lab with a few secluded offices, had state-of-the-art equipment and an entire hive of busily working scientists. Weaving through the organized chaos of the workers, Larisse took big, long stride across the cavern and to the largest office on the opposite end of the floor. She knocked before entering.

Doctor McKenzie was an old, balding man, with a wrinkled face and a constantly furrowed brow. He gnawed in the end of a pen cap while examining some papers on his desk, his reading glasses dangling threateningly on the end of his nose.

At first, Larisse wasn't entirely sure that Doctor McKenzie was aware of her existence. As she prepared to clear her threat so that he might notice her presence in his vast office, he gestured sharply at one of the wooden visitors chairs that sat before his desk. Larisse, her cheeks burning with embarrassment, took her seat as she was told and sat silently with her hands folded neatly in her lap.

After a long few moments, Doctor McKenzie set the folders down and folded up his glasses, pushing them into the breast pocket of his white lab coat. "I take it that you're Doctor Larisse Anne Colham?" He asked. Larise nodded.

Doctor McKenzie picked up a yellow folder and began to read aloud, citing information. "You were identified at a young age of being a prodigy of sciences, medicines and mechanics, and, having an IQ of 187, you graduated high school at age 15. You are a graduate of Harvard University, where you earned your doctorate in 4 years instead of the typical 8. You were the top of the elite Bio-Mechanics program, and now you've been accepted to work here, in the National Medicine Institute as my new assistant." He eyed Larrise from the top of the paper, "Is that correct, Doctor Colham?"

"Yes, sir." Said Larisse, sitting up tall in her chair. Her eyes met the man's, and he considered, before nodding and sitting down.

He passed to her a blue, fat folder, full of various papers and reports. "I've got an assignment for you, Doctor Colham." Doctor McKenzie sat back in his chair as Larisse skimmed the information. It was lists and identification papers of perhaps thirty men and women. For of the the few times in her life, she was confused.

"These are persons chosen for an experiment." Said the man, "You are aware of the Medication Movement?"

Of course she was, Larisse thought to herself. The Medication Movement, beginning in the late 2020s, was the start of a wave of pharmaceutical companies releasing new drugs to help enhance the life of humans. It begun as simple red pills that would make the taker fall asleep in the matter of minutes, continuing on as a myriad of medications, some of which could enhance learning skills, change the emotions of the user in seconds, and even to allow the user to soar in the air like a hero of the impossible.

The government, in the 2030's, had decided that the big business companies had far too much power over the nation, and so a law was passed that all medications be controlled and maintained by the government. Now, the National Medication Center, commonly called the NMC, makes thousands of drugs a day that are shipped out across the nation. There are no side affects, and no real dependency, and through the constant purchases, the national debt was now paid in full. Peace across the country has been ensured for the next hundred years by little pills in orange, child-proof containers.

"What you, and the rest of the country for that matter, are not aware of, is a new, growing epidemic that we here at the NMC call Ecstasy." Doctor McKenzie paused, running his hand down his face with a soft groan, before continuing, "To answer your non-verbal question, Doctor Colham, Ecstasy is when a taker of medication becomes so chemically attached to the pill, that they experience approximately two days of sheer bliss, before dropping dead."

"That's horrible." Larisse whispered, "Why doesn't anyone know about it? What can we do?"

"If everyone knew about it, Doctor Colham, panic would ensue on a massive scale. Anarchy. Is that what you want?" Larrise stayed silent.

Satisfied by her defeat, Doctor McKenzie continued, "As for what we can do about it, that is where you come into play. These people that were selected are all on the at-risk list for ecstasy. They take multiple pills on a daily basis, and have secured to a sort of addiction." The man stood, crossing his hand behind his back, "We want you to test them, and find out if there is a cure, or at least a way to detect this . . . Issue."

Larisse paused. Wasn't this what she wanted to do all along? Ever since she was a child? She took course after course and read book after book, all because she was intrigued by medicine and interested by the affects of the chemical make-up on the human body. But something, in the back of her mind, gnawed at her, and her stomach churned with uneasiness. Pushing it aside, she forced a confident smile on her pink lips. "I'll do it."