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The Smoker

Reader mode
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You step out of the stairwell, the ground floor of the skyscraper where you are a corporate slave to those who are truly in power. Your sleeves are rolled to your elbows, your tie hanging in a loose knot around your neck. Underdressed, perhaps, for the chief accounting officer of the nation's largest printing firm, but, well...

A brief descend of one-two-three steps and a flick of your wrist -- a practised movement -- and the cigarettes slide out of the box in your hand just far enough for you to pick one out with your teeth. You snap the box shut and manoeuvre the cheap plastic lighter in the same hand up to your face -- one-two quick rolls of the flint wheel, sparks, and the flaring of the flame as it steadies to a warm glow cupped in your other hand.

A single, shallow breath in.

The tip of your cigarette burns bright and black, and you kill the flame. The pack and the lighter return to your pocket, and you close your eyes as you inhale deeply.

The smoke fills your lungs, a scratching heat in the back of your throat and a fragrant flavour that floods your world with clarity.

You take the cigarette away from your lips, letting it rest between your fingers, and open your eyes as the smoke jets out of your mouth in one long breath.

...It's another sunny day, today. Very cheerful. Lively. You stay careful to keep it just in the corner of your vision lest it blinds you with its radiance. You don't bring yourself to smile.

The first cigarette you had ever smoked was a world of contrasts to this one. Now a solitary indulgence, back then it had been... a shared discomfort. Something you learned to do because... why was it, anyway? She introduced you to these, but why had you taken her offer..?

Eyes shut. Inhale.

Heh. You barely remember her now. A vague and beautiful silhouette amidst the fond memories of younger days. Wooden tables and plastic chairs. Concrete floors and open windows. A fan slowly rotating, the flickering fluorescent light against the walls. School days.

Eyes open. Exhale.

A single cloud slowly rolls across the blue expanse, lazy as a leaf floating in a pond.

You would have gone through it all half-heartedly, coasting by as those aware of their intelligence are cursed to do... hadn't it been for her, that is. Well, you were persuaded to work hard, and hadn't it indeed taken you far? House, car, credit card. A savings account fat enough you wondered what to spend your money on.

Eyes shut. Inhale.

Life had been... great. Colourful. The coughing fits you shared when you first started... they had been as liberating as the laughter that followed them. You never went too far, and the good times had lasted longer than you ever expected them to.

Eyes open. Exhale.

The sun blinks out momentarily as a patch of white extends smothering tendrils over it, crawling over it and allowing you a brief moment in cooling shadow.

But not quite as long as you had... maybe wanted them to.

The cloud drifts away, and you belatedly blink and dart your eyes away, spots forming in your vision. You don't curse. You simply keep your eyes shut, and you inhale.

In the end, the two of you had... been the same. You had very similar strengths and interests, wanted for very similar things, shared very similar vices, and achieved... very similar achievements.

...Exhale.

You had parted on good terms, hadn't you..?

Inhale...

...Well.....

...Eyes open. Sunny skies. You drop the cigarette to the ground, and stamp it out casually as you exhale. The smoke hangs in the air around you for a moment, and then you wait for it to dissipate as you watch the final scrap of downy white escape beyond the edge of the canvas far above.
​
 
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Ah... Jim, my friend...

Today, I am solitude. Today I am to you the comfort of familiar chains around your wrist, as I had once long ago been to you companionship and to you the exciting rush of crossed boundaries.

I'll be here for you as long as you want me to stay, and I'll be whatever you need me to be, but now...

Well, now, it is someone else's turn. Now, you play the role of somebody else. You look for a cigarette, or want one, or light up one, or are smoking one. Whatever the case, be it your first or hundredth or last cigarette... This is when you find me.

So... Who are you?

[x] Write-in.​
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.

Looks niiice (and poetic)
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.

Looks interesting
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.
 
[x] Cynthia. In your line of work, the city was black, white and splattered with red. In an underworld filled with contacts, acquaintances, informants and favors, it seems the only friend you have nowadays is the cigarette in your mouth. In a place where compromise was nonexistent and weakness gets you killed, you found comfort in the shades of gray it provided. And when it gets harder and harder each morning to get up in the morning and hit the streets as a private eye, you needed all the comfort you could get.
 
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