The guard handed me a manila envelope containing my wallet, and watch, and handed me a bag of pill bottles.
“Instructions are in the bag. Follow them or else you’ll regret it. Your sentence is complete. You’re free to go,” he ordered while pointing at the door.
My shoes squeaked on the tiles as I walked across the floor. My muscles tremored just before I stepped outside. I shaded my eyes against the day’s bright light. The city looked no different from the day I went in. But that was seventy-eight years ago.
It was also today. My clothes still fit, even though I still had the impression my body had shrunk and bended over with age. I ran my hand through my curls, and was struck that it had not thinned. I looked the same. In my mind, I was ninety-eight years old. They called it the …show more content…
I discovered what I could control and what the programming controlled. I turned in my best friend, the neighbourhood’s biggest drug dealer, to the cops two weeks after I was programmed. Things got a bit easier each day after that.
“Boss, do you want this punk dead?”
I cracked my neck from side to side before examining the man bleeding on my floor.
“Shoot him,” I demanded. “But leave his body alone. Let it be a gift to his friends.” I took a step closer, careful not to touch him or risk the nausea. “No one sells drugs in my neighbourhood. No one except me.”
I motioned to my boys to take him away, and I looked through my office window to watch the manufacturing line below. A muscle spasm shot through my body, but I was used to it. Instead, I smirked. My empire was growing.
I couldn’t touch drugs after I’d been programmed, and that helped me to stay clean. I couldn’t get my hands dirty, and that kept me off the cops’ radar. I’d always known I could run the business twice as good as my old buddy could. He enjoyed sampling his own stuff too much, and without the programming, I would’ve been just like
“Instructions are in the bag. Follow them or else you’ll regret it. Your sentence is complete. You’re free to go,” he ordered while pointing at the door.
My shoes squeaked on the tiles as I walked across the floor. My muscles tremored just before I stepped outside. I shaded my eyes against the day’s bright light. The city looked no different from the day I went in. But that was seventy-eight years ago.
It was also today. My clothes still fit, even though I still had the impression my body had shrunk and bended over with age. I ran my hand through my curls, and was struck that it had not thinned. I looked the same. In my mind, I was ninety-eight years old. They called it the …show more content…
I discovered what I could control and what the programming controlled. I turned in my best friend, the neighbourhood’s biggest drug dealer, to the cops two weeks after I was programmed. Things got a bit easier each day after that.
“Boss, do you want this punk dead?”
I cracked my neck from side to side before examining the man bleeding on my floor.
“Shoot him,” I demanded. “But leave his body alone. Let it be a gift to his friends.” I took a step closer, careful not to touch him or risk the nausea. “No one sells drugs in my neighbourhood. No one except me.”
I motioned to my boys to take him away, and I looked through my office window to watch the manufacturing line below. A muscle spasm shot through my body, but I was used to it. Instead, I smirked. My empire was growing.
I couldn’t touch drugs after I’d been programmed, and that helped me to stay clean. I couldn’t get my hands dirty, and that kept me off the cops’ radar. I’d always known I could run the business twice as good as my old buddy could. He enjoyed sampling his own stuff too much, and without the programming, I would’ve been just like