Chapter 4: A Hit of Death

 Sebilla Clackamans was the daughter of a well renowned law official that commanded a quarter of the law enforcement precinct in the city of Centreville. Because of that, even though he was almost always three and a half hours away, Sebilla usually wouldn't be caught dead using any illegal drug. But living on a campus college came with plenty of stresses and one of those stresses was pressure. She had never been pressured by Yudenia, her best friend since middle school, but for some reason Yudenia Sol was having a change of heart. She was no longer the innocent, sweet, petite young girl that Sebbie grew up with, had sleepovers with, and played little league, retro softball and volleyball with. They both attended East Capitol University with intentions to earn their bachelors in Psyonic Sciences. Yudenia wanted to try new things and part of this new desire was due to Eren Truste, a first year term attendant in Interhuman Studies.

Eren was also fascinated by the science of the mind and perception alteration and wanted nothing more than to study the effects of outer world substances of Interhuman species on his own human mind. It didn't take him long to convince Yudenia that her field of study would possibly require her to be familiar with altering substances as psyonic's dealt with the unseen power of the inner mind. Yudenia was sold more so by infatuation with Eren, a dashingly handsome young man with striking, natural pink eyes due to only a sliver of his DNA strand coated with gold, than the actual desire for using any of the drugs that included newly introduced substances from interstellar sources. Due to his unkempt interest in "perception altering substances", Eren was crowdedly connected with the local dealers, able to acquire virtually any street or white collar drug with ease.

Sebilla wasn't too fond of this new exploration that Eren was driving her friend into. She felt like her and Yudenia were already drifting apart, and she could feel an increasingly stagnant presence of a stranger growing within her only friend as the days went on and as Yudenia and Eren grew closer.

While alone in her dorm, after catching up on all her assignments and studies, Sebilla layed on her bed, played some music through "psyonic play-listing", a method of listening to music without the use of earbuds or the disturbance of those around her, and pondered the difficult decision to make. The decision to either venture into this mind altering journey with her best friend out of fear of losing her, or simply parting ways. Her decision was now to be put on the spot as Yudenia and Eren walk into the dorm room. They were in high spirits it seemed and they brought with them a fruity, bakery aroma that instantly stuffed Sebilla's nostrils and forced her eyes open from her musical meditation. Sebilla touches a button on her wrist and the music in her head faded out. Her attention was now on Yudenia and Eren.

"Wassup girl?" Yudenia says in her forced street accent. "We didn't wake you up, right?"

"No," Sebbie sits up on her bed, "just laying here thinking about shit. All caught up on my studies so I'm bored as fuck."

Eren jumped onto her statement of boredom immediately. He knew Sebbie was not inclined to try any of the drugs that Yudenia has already tried with him based on her passed rejections of their offers, but he felt he could take advantage of her boredom and maybe bring her around.

"I know you ain't a fan of doing drugs", Eren says, "but aren't you always saying how we only live once on this planet? Why not give something amazing a try?"

Sebbie couldn't help but agree with what he said and despite her inner voice telling her not to, another voice accumulated into her mind, summoned by Eren, and telling her that he was right. What else did she have to do? And if she was being honest with herself, she was curious about the effects something from outer space would have on her mind. Who knows, it could open her mind and change her perception of the universe forever. Suddenly, she kicked herself for considering breaking it off with Yudenia. She realized that maybe she was just being a coward.

"Fine, what do you guys got this time?" Sebbie says. Yudenia lit up with glee at Sebbie's approval of trying something for once, when she herself has tried about a dozen different substances already and enjoyed every single one.

"We should start her off with something low strength." Yudenia suggests. Eren agrees especially considering his first experience was a disaster after taking too much of something that was way too strong. An experience he has yet to share with anyone.

"I feel like chilling today, though." Sebbie says, "nothing too crazy, alrght."

"I got you." Eren takes out a matte blue canister and unscrews the lid. Immediately, a blue fog oozed out from inside. It smelled of a strong but calming chemical that was unfamiliar to anything Sebbie has ever smelled.

"Neptune's Sky." Eren says as he uses a spoon to shovel out a mound of a glistening, light blue mound of crystals and dust. "This will make you chill, literally."

Yudenia grabs a glass cup and fills it with water from their in unit water dispenser.

"You'll like this stuff, Sebbie. I guarantee." Yudenia holds the glass of cold water out and Eren dumps the mound of Neptune's Sky into it. The substance dissolved into the water and as it did, a cloud of vapor rose up and spilled out of the glass, falling over the sides like a waterfall. Sebbie watched with awe at how beautiful and appealing it looked. Yudenia hands the glass over to Sebbie who took the comfortably cold glass in her hand. The cool cloud of vapor falling over her hand and arm. She could already feel a bit light headed just from sniffing the vapor.

"Just take a short sip." Yudenia says. Sebbie hesitated for a moment before bringing the vapor covered glass to her lips and letting the liquid cloud seep into her mouth. If she could explain the sensation of drinking it, it was like drinking a cloud from the sky, her mouth barely felt the wet. All that vapor spilling out of it must've been the substance de-densifying the water. It tasted like sweet chemicals, like blueberries mixed with a hint of hand soap, but it was tolerable. The effects came on almost immediately. Sebbie felt the inside of her body cool like her heart was now pumping a cold fluid throughout her body. She felt lighter and for a second almost forgot she was sitting on the edge of the bed as it felt like she was sitting on air. In the past, when Sebbie once tried a strand of ancient mad honey, her mind would be telling her to panic or become anxious and she could feel her mind trying to input those alerts, but for some reason, she remained completely calm.

Yudenia and Eren both takes sips from the glass as well and they were soon sitting on the comfort chairs enjoying the floaty experience. Sebbie couldn't help but ask in her mind where this "Neptune's Sky" has been all her life, why she hasn't tried it until now, and why it is even illegal in the first place. She lowers herself back and almost stopped herself when she couldn't feel the bed under her until she remembered that it was only altered perception of the senses, and lays back onto the bed.

"Why isn't everyone doing this?" Sebbie spoke out loud and to her surprise her voice echoed, bouncing off the walls of the room and back into her head. When Yudenia answered her, the sound of her voice was stacked at least three times over and each voice a different pitch. It was beautifully appealing to hear.

"I told you you would like it." Yudenia says, and Eren smiles. Sebbie thought that maybe she was wrong about Eren. Maybe his substance adventures weren't so bad after all. She now felt a new comfort around Eren, a trust that she hadn't before. Strangely enough, she was thanking him out loud for introducing her to this amazing substance that she probably never would've tried otherwise. She wanted more. Not just more of the Neptune's Sky, but more experiences, new experiences.

"I don't want this to end." Sebbie could hear herself mutter. Yudenia laughs out loud and it was the most beautiful laugh Sebbie has ever heard, bringing a smile across her own face.

 ***

 It was illegal to run vehicles manufactured before the year 2350 on the magnetized roads and highways that dominated most of the country. This was partly due to pollution prevention efforts and the fact that vehicles built before the year 2004 were not equipped with the proper tracking and registration requirements. If these vehicles were caught driving on any magnetic street or highway, they would be immediately pulled over, shut down and towed, no questions asked, and the driver would receive a hefty fine. Not only did the car get towed but it was also placed in a scrap yard to be scrapped and never seen again. Most of the vehicles that were caught or found abandoned and towed in this manner were stolen. The government branch that oversaw this issue had little concern for the old, stolen vehicles, because it was their goal to fill the country with brand new, magnet friendly and 100% pollution free vehicles. So any time they had the chance to get rid of these outdated and relatively ancient hunks of technology, they scrapped the hell out of them, and this was common knowledge amongst the public.

Gonjie "John Prince" Willmans knew how risky it would be to drive his 1999 van into the Capitol City in broad daylight, but this didn't stop him from speeding down the magnetized highway in an illegal vehicle. He and his associates, all members of the infamous Purple Knights gang, kept their faces covered with tattered cloths and rags. One of the members, who sat in the back of the van, would only remove his rag from his face to take a hit from a handheld device every once in a while.

John Prince used an outdated GPS system to navigate to East Capitol University where they were to meet an external associate who believed that he was going to purchase a drug he has only heard of but never tried. John Prince and nearly all members of the Purple Knights were addicted to this drug and it's facial deformity causing effects is part of the reason their faces remained concealed. The street dealer they were set to meet at the university was willing to pay some good money for the mysterious drug which is not the reason why they were driving the three and a half hour drive from Centreville, but the street dealer was merely a means to get close to their real target of whom they knew was attending the school and was planning on abducting. That person of interest was Sebilla Clackamans.