Devil's Breath

It was a regular summer night in August. Two of my friends and I were walking around the streets of our hometown of Chicago late at night chatting about the upcoming school year and how we weren’t looking forward to going back to that hellhole, although it was going to be our second-to-last year there anyway. That was when Ralph took out a small bag from his pocket filled with a powdery white substance.

“Instead of worrying about that, let’s just try to really do it up these last few days of summer, guys. Look what I got,” he said. “Ralph, I’m not doing cocaine, where the fuck did you even get that?” Drew whispered to him making sure no one around the area could eavesdrop on us.

“It’s not coke, it’s this new drug that’s going around. Completely harmless, they say. Just makes you feel funny. Kind of like pot, but better.” It sounded amazing. Like pot, but slightly better, and without the cottonmouth after effect? Count me in.

We sat around in the woods near Ralph’s house. He took the powdery substance out of the bag. “So what, you just snort it?” I asked. I was anxious to try it. “You can do that, or you can just..”

He suddenly blew it into my face. I coughed as the white powder fogged up around my head. I could hear Ralph and Drew laughing at me. Within minutes, I was out cold. Just passed out. That, or I simply don’t remember anything.

The next thing I remember is waking up, lying in vomit, in an alley. It was light out, but raining heavily. The puke was traveling down the alley like a stream. I could see some small pieces of what looked like the powdery substance that Ralph gave me, but also with some red in it. I hoped it wasn’t blood.

I decided that I’d try to find Ralph and Drew, since I couldn’t remember a thing from the night before, just the powder floating around me. I walked to my house, which I was strangely only a few blocks away from, and called up Ralph on his phone. No answer. I tried to call Ralph. Still, no answer. Home numbers, cell phone numbers, work numbers. Still, no answer. Where the fuck are they?

I shrugged it off and decided to watch TV for a bit. After watching some lame newer SpongeBob episode, a breaking news announcement flashed on the screen, mentioning some kind of powdery white drug being illegally sold to people in the area, called scopolamine, or more better known as, “Devil’s Breath”, a drug that, once congested, eliminates free will, giving the user no recollection of any events upon taking the drugs, even after the high wears off.

I sat in shock. Was that the drug Ralph gave Drew and I? It had to be. White and powdery, has to simply be congested, and gives no recollection of events upon taking it. I tried to contact Ralph and Drew again, and still, no answer. I started to get nervous, but I didn’t want to contact the police, or to tell anyone else.

Another day went by, and still no answer from either of them. Followed by another week. Finally, it was the first day of school. I hoped to see them at school. Still, I didn’t see them there at all, and I even asked some of our other friends, and even they didn’t no of Ralph or Drew’s whereabouts.

Going on three weeks, a news broadcast finally gave me my answer. Two Chicago high school students found dead. And where were they found? In the same woods we were in the night Ralph gave me the drug. Wounds? You bet. Multiple large bangs to their head, made by a hammer. The murder weapon? Found right next to the bodies. Whoever this killer was, he wasn’t really smart. Or maybe he just didn’t have his free will..