Temptation

• Lauren Forrester, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2015

It burnt. Not the good kind of burn, like getting in a hot shower, or when you finish exercising- the kind of burn you just can’t ignore, the kind that you know won’t go away without a fight. It filled me up, beginning from my stomach, but before I knew it the pain had clawed it’s way all over my body, squeezing every cell and stabbing every nerve with its feverish grip. It was spreading, an accelerated disease fighting my body with endless strength. It will go away, I told myself. It will stop. But it seemed the pain had a different idea- ravaging me. I felt as if I was being physically torn apart inside, and only one thing could possibly stop it.

The antidote.

I had heard it was amazing .Blissful. Yet only for a second, before it poisoned your blood and your mind against yourself. My sweaty fingers gripped the rim of my chair, my efforts to grip tighter fruitless as I felt my self control slipping from under them. Could I take it any longer?

I had to. I’d promised them I would. That I be the first one to walk back out of the smooth glass doors alive. That they wouldn’t see my lifeless body being wheeled out of them, covered in angry blotches and red scratches. I would wear my scorches with pride; as if this torture wasn’t just a punishment. Wasn’t just a way to remind us all of the control they held. Strands of hair fell from my skull, along with my patience and tolerance. What would happen when they were all gone?

Noiseless sounds escaped my throat as my eyes managed to open just long enough to see it. The antidote, a small glass vial right in front of me. One aching reach and I could crush it into my palms, bringing the instantaneous relief of death. As my hand reached out, I felt the pain increase. They were tempting me. Pushing me to insanity. With an ungraceful lunge from my chair, my arm outreached, I knocked the vial to the ground. Pieces of shimmering glass scattered with the dramatic sound, and a singular clear drop evaporated into the air.

A deafening hiss snaked through the air, and the needles hanging from my arms were torn out from my irritated skin. I cried out at the sudden, new form of pain. While the poison source had left my body, much still remained inside. The thought no more could enter gave me no relief- nor did the sight of a door being opened at the side of the room. A tall man in flowing black robes entered, with a face so smooth he could never have smiled, cried or showed emotion in his life. Not a surprise, I thought to myself.

His lilting drawl filled the room. “You have failed. And we had such faith in you…”