Hills rolled by and roads flew underneath in steady rhythmic beats of curves. Smoke swept from his cigarettes, slowly smoking and hearing the burn as nicotine and tar was released as carbon dioxide. Ben had travelled across many continents and countries driving his faithful Volkswagon over miles and miles of unadulterated terrain.
He had lived so many different lives in his time, a business man, a father, a lover. But now he was a traveller. No need for money just a car, Marlboro and his own company. This is the closest to freedom a man could be or so he thought.
Pulling into the polluted city where gas masks were becoming a very real possibility, the heavy smog covering the eyes to leave them withdrawn and lost. Lighting a cigarette he stepped out of his car and went into the bar across the street.
“Pint of Guinness, please. To sip and to savour.”
“How about something stronger?”
“Sure, I’ll try anything once.”
The barwoman’s breath was a toxic mix of brandy and smoke. She spoke politely but with authority, she knew who was in charge here. He had had his fair share of women, from the most exotic to the most beautifully elegant. And this was not a woman he would consider.
But the things she did to him were different; they brought him out of a world where he was controlled. He was no longer involved with the rest of the world, travelling was unimportant and his ambitions were focused around the sweet candy he devours.
Heroin did this to him; he had been such a beautiful man once.
The next few weeks went by in a sweet world of his own, where nothing mattered except heroin. He didn’t worry about anything, not even his poor Volkswagon was a matter and quickly sold to fund his habit.
But it didn’t last. He could feel it before it came, and he tried to resist but the blood floated from his nostrils that had smelt so many sweet sounds. Coughing as his body rejected the liquids he had pumped into it. The walls painted in his own shade of rouge. Lungs were slowly filling up and up, he could not take this, he was going to die here.
And then he didn’t.
He saw it; he saw the light above him from this earthy grave. Swim little Ben, swim up to the light and join us all. The lights swirled around him and thoughts were conjured without much regard of thought. He was safe.
Watching the ocean collide into the shoreline Ben was happy with the world and content to live his life here on the beach. Watching the sun set.
And then the sun set, and he no longer had anything to watch.
ngr lol Community Member 
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