Withdrawal

After Hugo exhausted his energy, he fell into a deep sleep. The intense physical labor made him easily fall into a deep sleep without dreaming, just comfortably entering the dreamland until urgent physiological needs woke him up.

Opening his eyes, Hugo looked at the faint sunlight behind the thick curtains of the hotel and realized that it was already dawn, which was why he was habitually awakened by the urge to urinate. Turning his head to look at Charlize lying beside him, her face was free of makeup, with a faint glow of oil, but it did not look messy. Instead, it emitted a kind of happy woman's aura, and the smile on her mouth made her pretty face radiant.

Hugo withdrew his gaze and quickly ran into the bathroom to solve his physiological needs first. But when he walked out of the bathroom, a wave of dizziness and nausea hit his head, almost causing him to fall. Fortunately, he grabbed the sink to stabilize his balance. However, the dizziness in his head had not ended, and Hugo felt a wave of churning in his stomach as if he was about to vomit at any time. He quickly turned around and leaned over the toilet, dry heaving, but nothing came out.

Hugo leaned on the sink to support his body, and the churning in his stomach and dizziness in his head erupted at the same time. His body alternated between hot and cold, sweating and tears streaming down his face, making him feel weak in his limbs. Hugo paused for a moment and immediately realized that it was the damn withdrawal symptoms.

The so-called withdrawal symptoms, simply put, occur when someone stops using heroin. The body will have various uncomfortable and strong reactions inducing extreme physical pain, prompting drug users to do everything possible to maintain the state of drug use in order to avoid this pain.

Such a situation happened once in the past ten days. The first time Hugo was completely unprepared and collapsed directly on the ground, completely controlled by the pain, even losing the strength to roll over. Fortunately, Joseph was there at the time. He had seen Hugo in this situation before, and with Joseph's help, Hugo almost bit his teeth to pieces, which was considered to have overcome the first difficulty.

In fact, drug addiction initially mostly occurs at the mental level. It is because people's willpower is too weak, so they develop a sense of dependence on this momentary pleasure. However, as the time spent on drug addiction increases and the body's functions are destroyed and tampered with, the sense of dependence that is formed becomes more severe. The painful physiological reactions will also make people have a stronger dependence on drugs, forming a vicious cycle that completely ruins a normal person from both mental and physical aspects. This cycle is fully demonstrated in heroin abuse.

After Hugo traveled here, his soul not only did not rely on drugs but also resolutely resisted them, making it relatively easy for him to quit. From his previous situation, although his body had a certain dependence, it was only in the initial stage and not serious, so as long as Hugo persisted, he could overcome the problem of drug addiction without needing to go to a drug rehabilitation center.

However, Hugo did not anticipate that his body would once again have withdrawal symptoms today. This situation was not good news for Charlize to see. Hugo did not want Charlize to see his bad side because it was not him, it was not the real him, no matter whether Charlize was willing to accept it or not, it was not the real Hugo, so there was no need for her to see it.

Hugo took a deep breath, opened the faucet of the washbasin, rinsed his face twice with cold water, and then rinsed his mouth. He then returned to his room with almost no strength, resisting the increasingly intense withdrawal symptoms, and found his scattered clothes on the carpet, struggling to put them on - it took him at least three minutes. He then stumbled out of the room.

The pain in his joints and the soreness of his muscles mixed with one wave after another of headaches, sweeping over him, and making him feel like he had been pulled out of the water. Nausea and entangling pain churned in his stomach and abdomen, and his physical strength was gradually lost. Hugo fell down at the elevator because of his unsteady gait, but luckily he had been prepared and grabbed the handrail to cushion his fall. However, standing up again took even more effort. Hugo no longer had the energy to complain about the foolish behavior of his previous self. He had to concentrate all his energy on overcoming the withdrawal symptoms of his body.

This time, the withdrawal symptoms were not as severe as the first time. The first time, Hugo couldn't even stand up and was completely controlled by the terrible pain. If it weren't for Hugo's lack of dependence on drugs at the spiritual level, he would have almost given up. After overcoming the difficult situation last time, today's reaction was obviously weakened a bit, so Hugo had the strength to support himself until he left the hotel.

He stumbled all the way to the lobby, and the sweating Hugo startled the staff at the front desk. Fortunately, Hugo's will was strong enough to reassure the other party in time. He then asked the front desk to call a taxi for him. After waiting for ten minutes and with the help of the front desk staff, he finally managed to get into the taxi. Only then did Hugo heave a sigh of relief. He had clenched his teeth all the way, relying on his willpower to persevere. If he had relaxed even a little bit, he might have fallen to the ground, just like the first time he was hit by drug addiction. Damn withdrawal symptoms!

The sound of Hugo closing the door was not loud enough to wake Charlize who was asleep. Last night was Charlize's first time, which consumed a lot of her energy, so she slept soundly and was not very sensitive to changes in her surroundings.

When Charlize woke up, she only saw an empty room and couldn't find Hugo anywhere, which surprised her and left her feeling a bit helpless. In Charlize's view, everything went smoothly last night, even perfect, but now it didn't seem that way. The man left without a word, which was not a positive signal.

Charlize searched the entire room twice, inside and out, but found no trace of him. It seemed like everything last night was just a dream, except for the messy sheets on the bed which indicated that it was not. Charlize even speculated that Hugo might have gotten up early to buy breakfast for himself, and she was just being overly worried. Because every time she thought of Hugo's warm and sunny personality, Charlize did not think he was the kind of man who would leave without a word after cleaning up.

Although Charlize had only seen Hugo twice, she trusted his character to some extent, otherwise, she wouldn't have fallen for him so easily yesterday. Even if she kissed him in a moment of confusion, if she felt that something was wrong, she would have used her remaining rationality to overcome it. In this respect, Charlize was never impulsive, and she had absolute confidence. Otherwise, she would have already fallen to the chaotic New York dance scene and the dark Los Angeles modeling scene, and would not have persisted until last night.

In Charlize's view, Hugo was different from most men. He was humble, polite, gentle, and sunny, but not too ostentatious or arrogant, and he did not just think with his lower body. He would not treat any woman as a simple one-night stand. What happened last night came too fast, and it was unexpected for Hugo, and Charlize could feel it.

Charlize did not necessarily want to establish a stable relationship with Hugo, but at least she did not want to be left alone like this after waking up, without even a greeting, which made her feel cheap. What exactly happened here? Or did she misunderstand Hugo, who turned out to be just an ordinary man? Was it really that difficult to find a normal emotional relationship without any purpose in this entertainment industry, this colorful and big melting pot?

Charlize felt her thoughts were a bit scattered. She sat in the hotel room waiting for an hour, but still got no results. She wanted to believe in Hugo, but the empty room did not give her a chance. Charlize smiled at herself and said, "You are too naive." She took a deep breath and told herself to calm down and not make a big deal out of it. It was just one night, nothing special. It just happened...

Charlize looked at the hem of her red dress that was torn by Hugo. She stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, took a look, and finally tore off the remaining pieces of the hem. She let the hem hang irregularly, which added a touch of design sense to the dress, making it less formal and more casual. After confirming everything was in order, she went back to the room, picked up her coat from the floor, adjusted her breathing once again, suppressed the complicated emotions in her heart, regained her confidence, and left the place with her head held high.

At the same time, Hugo lay motionless at the staircase on the ground floor of the building where Joseph's apartment was located. He looked like a homeless man on the street, emitting a decadent and delirious aura, lying on the ground without moving. The short walk from the taxi had consumed all his strength, and he could no longer hold on. He was defeated by pain and collapsed in the dirty and pathogen-infested hallway.

Hugo gritted his teeth hard. He did not feel any dependence on addiction, nor did he want to seek help from any substance to relieve his pain. It was just that wave after wave of pain had consumed all his energy. His tears and sweat had turned his face pale. His stomach kept churning, and he kept retching, unable to spit anything out as if he would only feel relieved when he vomited even his bile.

"I will never give up, never bow down, never!" Hugo tightened all his muscles, stubbornly resisting. He did not want to compromise with these withdrawal symptoms, no matter how severe they were! Then Hugo's consciousness gradually became blurred. Everything around him emitted a halo and disappeared into hazy white light.