Kill or Cure
What has gone on before
Cynthia Halverston was poisoned in a lab accident and turned into a sexual chameleon, who becomes the sexual dream of every man she meets. Being kidnapped by meth dealers took her memories and left her unable to survive in the world except by working as a prostitute. Mentored by a kindly experienced hooker, she is able to make her way, giving johns what they really want. A psycho's attempt to murder her brings her memories back, enabling her to return to the world she was torn from. The return is bittersweet. Her friend Dave accepts her back and begins to work to help her find a potential cure, or at least a partial one. Her boyfriend, Rob, having learned of her time as a hooker, rejects her, sending her into a fit of depression where she gives in to her sexual alter ego and takes on the entire frat house. Only Dave's intervention stops the orgy and gets her back to her apartment, where she sleeps, under his protection...
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Dave's watch alarm went off at 5AM. Rousing, he took a moment to remember where he was and why. Getting up, his clothes rumpled, he peeked in Cynthia's door, verifying that she was still in bed. He puttered around her kitchen, fixing coffee and a light breakfast. He knew that there was little time to find a cure of some sort. With the repeated shocks to her emotions, she was close to mental breakdown. What the poison didn't finish, the rejections she was facing would. He prayed a silent prayer that something would come from the rat tests they had set up.
As the bacon and eggs cooked, the aroma of coffee woke Cynthia up. She remembered the previous night and more tears came, tears for the loss of Rob and of her innocence. She dressed with little regard for how she looked, feeling that it wasn't important anymore. She did not know what she would do if Dave turned his back on her as well. She marveled at his self control in ignoring the opportunity her condition had presented him. She was realizing just how rare a true friend was.
Dressed, she popped a cough drop and went into the kitchen. "Hi Dave. That smelled good from the bedroom."
"It will be done in a minute. I made the coffee strong. Maybe it will let you eat something without the eucalyptus after smell."
She poured a cup and set the cough drop on the table. Head over the cup, she could smell the over strong French roast prevailing over other scents. "Yeah, it seems to be working. Of course, if I drink coffee all day, I'll be on the toilet more often than not. But it will be nice to enjoy breakfast."
Dave came over and put a plate in front of her. "Eat up. I made them spicy. Figured the stronger the taste the better."
"I did the same thing on the street. Gloria loved 7-11 nachos and I smothered them with jalapenos. By the time I had been out sucking a Halls all night, my taste buds were shot. And the spicy aroma worked as well as the drops." She could begin to detect a hint of Dave in the air, not enough to cause a problem yet. "Dave, you had better go home and take a shower. You're strong enough that it will cause issues in the lab."
"Will you be all right for an hour or so?"
"Yes. I won't even answer the door before you get back."
"Okay. I'll call when I'm downstairs."
Dave finished his breakfast and headed out the door. Undoing the chain, he cut himself. "Ow. Your chain lock bit me."
"I'm sorry, it was replaced recently and the new one is pretty sharp."
"That's okay. Be sure to put it back after I leave."
"I will."
Dave left and Cynthia locked the door behind him. With Dave gone, she was left alone with her thoughts. Rob's violent rejection of her was still weighing on her heart. Where was the guy that had patiently waited for her, respecting her choice to put off sex? Where was the love that she had been raised to believe in? It was a love that accepted others for who they were and did not judge solely because of what a person did. She thought that if Dave had cheated on her for any reason, she would hear him out before making a decision. He had given her no chance to explain, or even try. She could have understood if he had not been able to believe her story, but he had not even given her the chance. Was this all she had left to look forward to, mindless fucks with both friends and strangers, eking out an existence without meaning? She knew she could not live her life this way.
She made a decision. She wrote Dave a note. "Dave, I can't live my life this way. There is no hope. I will spend the rest of my life having to seek out nameless men for random sex to stay alive. That is not living, it is existing as an animal. I wish I had not recovered my memories. Then I could still be living the blissfully ignorant life of a hooker, unaware of what I was missing and what I have lost forever. Please do not try to find me. I'm going back to the streets in the hope that I will die there, soon. I can't bring myself to take my own life, but I can let someone else do it for me. You've been the best friend anyone could ask for. Thank you for your friendship and chivalry. Cynthia." She put the note in an envelope and taped it to the outside of her door. She left the door cracked, took only the things she would need for a life on the streets and left.
Outside, she hailed a cab and had herself taken to the Bel-Ayre motel again. Her old room was still available and she paid it up for two weeks. At the corner grocery, she restocked her foodstuffs and cough drops. She had become enough of a fixture that no one gave her a second glance. Back in her room, she lay on the bed, crying at the sadness her life had become, a thing without hope or meaning. In emotional exhaustion, she fell into a fitful sleep, not waking until it had become dark.