When you’re hallucinating on K it’s like looking through an open window. You see a vast landscape before you. Hills, grass, trees, birds. The sky is a milky white which hints at spots of sunlight. The more you gaze the trees start to bend and deform like a Van Gogh painting. The images you receive are extraordinary. I’ve visited many worlds, many moons, and many galaxies. You can dream for months if you take a large hit. You travel through the past and into the future seamlessly. There’s no limits to what the mind can dream when you’re unconscious. At waking hours your imagination is dull and uninspired. The real images only hit you when you’re asleep. K is a white powder, resembling cocaine or China White, but so much more pleasurable, not to mention addicting. I took it for the first time when I was a teenager, unaware of its potency and addictive properties, not to mention the deformities it causes when you take it for too long. That’s why you have to space out the times when you’re consuming it. Never use it for two days in a row, and always limit the amount you’re taking to the least necessary. Junkies who use too much disintegrate after a while, both their minds and bodies deform, leaving nothing but a hollow shell before they die. It’s a horrid drug, but it’s the only one available in Totallitaria.
Alice left me a message asking if we could meet at The Blooming Garden. I’m not in the mood for art, if you can call what’s displayed in the Garden for art, though I suspect the reason she wants to meet is connected to the case. I throw on my blue navy jacket and head out. It’s a Saturday night and the crowds outside are lively and excited. Music blares and people cross the streets while loudly conversing and laughing. I approach the Garden with its blue neon sign and enter. Alice is standing in front of an AI reel and studying it intently.
“Nice to see you again, didn’t know watching computer generated images was your thing.”
Alice’s eyes drifted from the artwork and met mine
“It’s not, but this is where William was last spotted. I’ve heard several witnesses say they saw him here the night he disappeared.”
I diverted my gaze from Alice and studied the AI sequence of a contorted face before me. The face was screaming in agony. I sensed a shiver rise inside my body.
“And how do you suspect we will track him down? Listen, Alice, this city is a nightmare. People disappear everyday. Murder and theft is rampant. The best thing for you is probably to forget this whole thing and go back to your regular life. Before you get mixed in with the wrong people.”
Alice seemed perturbed, slightly annoyed.
“William was a close friend of mine. I had been seeing him for months before he disappeared. I can’t just let him vanish.” Alice spoke with a solemn tone
“Again, this city is no sanctuary. I will try my best to find him but you should go home.”
The crowd starts murmuring with loud gasps as a crowd of officers enter the Garden. I look over my shoulder and see them approaching us, Alice looks worried.
“You’re under arrest.”
Alice protests loudly.
“What the fuck? For what? Let me go you fascist cunts!”
The officer handcuffs Alice and drags her out of the museum. After Alice is outside I divert my gaze to the AI artwork, the teeth of the contorted face are slightly stained yellow from cigarette smoke, I imagine the sound of a man screaming in my mind. Walking outside I gaze at the sky and spot a falling star. I wish to feel real happiness again.
“Are they suspecting you for the crime we’re investigating?”
Alice is sitting across from me in the darkened cell. An officer stands outside the bars whilst studying us.
“Yes, they said a woman saw me with William on the night he disappeared. It’s a lie. I hadn’t seen him for months. He stopped coming to my clinic on our scheduled dates. That’s why I was starting to get worried.” Alice’s eyes looked mournful.
“Don’t worry, just stay calm while I sort this out. You’ll be out in no time.”
I exit the building with a troubled mind. Surely Alice wasn’t the perpetrator. I passed a bookstore and looked momentarily through the window, the clerk met my eyes and seemed filled with sorrow. I ignored her and continued walking until I reached the coast. The sea was still and silent. A boat was hovering on the water whilst seagulls dipped through the surface and the waves. The childhood I had was not ideal. My mother died in a fire and my father left us before that, so essentially I’m an orphan. Being raised by foster parents wasn’t fun either. The verbal abuse damaged my mind and physical abuse damaged my body. I still have fond memories of my mother. She wasn’t perfect but she was certainly trying her best, I wasn’t an easy child to raise either, constantly getting into fights and trouble. She was young when she had me as well. She used to be so close to me in my mind but now she’s so distant. I fear the time when I forget her face especially since I don’t have a picture. Her eyes were hazel brown while her high cheekbones gave her face a bony affection. The most distinctive memory I still have of her is the time I spilled a cup of apple juice into her lap. She didn’t scream or hit me, all she did was look at me with a sense of sorrow.
“Dont worry accidents happen, I’m not mad.”
The sense of anger I felt with myself was immense.
I lift my eyes from the waves and spot the clouds in the sky. No matter how much mankind destroys our environment the earth will never lose its natural beauty.
Gabriel Wing 