Chapter 3: The Chemical Haze
Chapter 3: The Chemical Haze
The numbness in Clara’s legs was a constant, heavy static, but the fog in her mind was worse. Every morning at precisely eight o'clock, Nurse Higgins—a stern woman with eyes like polished flint—brought Clara a small plastic cup filled with four pills. Two were for nerve pain, one was a muscle relaxant, and the small blue one was simply referred to as her "supplement."
"Doctor’s orders, Miss Clara," Higgins would say, watching like a hawk until Clara swallowed them dry.
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Lately, Clara had started hiding the blue pill under her tongue, spitting it into a tissue when Higgins turned her back. She didn’t know why she started doing it—perhaps a small act of rebellion in a life over which she had zero control. But within weeks of skipping the medication, the relentless exhaustion began to lift.
More terrifyingly, the heavy, dead weight in her thighs began to change. It wasn't movement, not exactly, but occasionally, in the dead of night, she thought she felt a faint, electric tingle shooting down her calves. When she mentioned it to Richard, his jaw clenched. He immediately ordered Nurse Higgins to double her dosage, claiming it was a phantom pain that needed to be suppressed. Clara stopped asking questions, but she never swallowed the pills again.
