Nicotine

The streets were littered with trash. Tent City was crowded with the homeless and drug addicts. People stood shaking as they went around the trashcan on fire for warmth. The fire crackled in the old rusted barrel. The cold itself was unbearable for some, people shivered, crowding together for warm, or collecting items in a shopping cart, pushing them around.. It was a mess to those who are not familiar with it all, and to Eric it was.

Goosebumps made themselves known to Eric Clark who was shivering. Walking closer to the fire, he was given a moment’s relief as the fire nipped at his frost like skin. “Here.” An old homeless man held out a coat which he was wearing. Sweat beamed down his cheek.

“Thank you.” Was the reply the homeless man got as the jacket was snatched from him. Footsteps echo against the walls of the alleyway Eric made his way to. Water dripped from a draining pipe creating the feeling of being watched. He walked down with both hands in his coat pockets trying to keep them warm. A dark looming figure stood at the end of the alleyway against the brickwall. Eric stared the man down, walking closer to him.

The figure moved so he stood in front of Eric who looked irritable. Looking around Eric reached into his pants pocket for cash, pulling it out and passing it over to the man. The man pulled out a small bottle and a needle handing it over to Eric’s eager hands. Taking both items they were shoved deep down in the pockets of Eric’s coat before he turned and walked briskly away.

The band was tightly maneuvered around his arm. The pressure increasing with each second, the skin around it was turning into darker shades than before. Eric sat against the wall with the needle in hand. Sweat slid down his forehead;he was shivering and not just because of the cold. Making an intravenous injection, Eric leaned his head back before chucking the needle once he had injected it.

A warm sensation washed over Eric in the few seconds that’s passed after the injection. The warmth he felt on this frosted night made him love it, the rushing feeling that overwhelmed him made him smile lazily but to onlookers he looked crazy. He sat there slumped along the wall before making a move.

Removing the band around his arm he flung it across the alleyway, hitting the opposite wall before falling to the ground. Hands on the concrete to the right of him, he tried pushing himself up and failed. The feeling of bile rising in his throat caused him to gag, spewing all of his stomach’s contents to the ground in a yellowish hue.

The sight of him was atrocious. Long intangible greasy black hair, sunken blue eyes and a skinny hollow figure of the man he used to be. Heavy footsteps echoed along the walls as they made their way towards the slumped body on the ground. A large hand reached out pushing Eric on his back. The man looked down at him and sighed, shaking his head slightly, saddened by the state Eric was in.

“Eric what did you do?” The man reached down and heaved Eric to his feet. Eric was unconscious and he weighed like a pile of bricks. The man carried him the best that he could into a car that was at the end of the alley.

“Oh my god!” The woman who sat in the car looked at Eric in horror.

“We need to get him back to the apartment, now.” The woman nodded as Eric was put into the back seat. The man walked around and sat in the driver’s seat before starting up the vehicle and speeding off.