Kaleidoscope Eyes, Part 6

KALEIDOSCOPE EYES

by uciboy

PART VI

When Kim awoke, she found herself in bed with her mother by her side.  "Hi
Mom," she smiled sweetly and tried to sit up, but a throbbing pain emanating
from the back of her head convinced her she better stay where she was.

"Shhh, honey," Mary consoled.  "You had a bad fall.  You're gonna be okay."

"When did you get home," Kim asked.

"Don't you remember, honey?"  Mary wiped her daughter's forehead with a damp
cloth.  "I came home yesterday afternoon."

"Yesterday?!  What day is today?"

"It's Monday, honey.  You've been asleep for almost 24 hours.  What do you
last remember?"

Kim placed her hand on her forehead.  "It's all kinda dreamy now.  I
remember...smoking...and...oh my gosh, I met you at the door yesterday.  I
tried to make you a smoker.  I practically attacked you!"  Suddenly
everything that happened over the last few days came gushing back into her
memory.  "Oh Mom, these last few days have been like a nightmare.  My
eyes..."  Kim put her hands up towards her eyes but her mother sought to
reassure her.

"It's okay, honey.  Your pupils are back to normal now."

Kim noticed bandages on her right arm and hand and looked up at her mother.

"I took some blood and tissue samples while you were asleep, Kimmie.  I'm
very concerned.  The nicotine levels in your body are phenomenal, and even
your breath is like a nicotine vapor.  It's amazing that you are still alive.
Any other person would suffer from nicotine poisoning."

Kim began to cry.  "Mom, what's happening to me?  This all started when I had
one cigarette on Friday night, and after that I just couldn't stop."  Through
her tears Kim told her mom all the details, no matter how embarrassing, from
the rave club to the orgy with Tom, Betty, and Angela.  "Annie - is she
okay?"  Kim made a second attempt at sitting up, this time succeeding as the
pain in her head finally began to subside.


"Yes, honey, she's fine.  She's at Auntie Sue's for a few days where they are
taking good care of her.  But let's talk about you now."

Mary put the cloth on the nightstand and brushed Kim's hair off of her face.
"Honey, I have something to tell you.  It's not your fault that this is
happening to you.  It's mine."

"Yours?" Kim asked with surprise.

Mary took a deep breath.  "There is something you need to know.  Your father
and I have been working now at the University for 16 years - in fact, we
started here soon after you were born.  Before that, we both used to be
chemists for the RJR Reynolds Tobacco company.  Our job was to find a way to
increase the nicotine dosage in the company's cigarette products - in other
words, to get people addicted and increase their smoking.  But our goal was
to do this by eliminating the cancer causing agents in nicotine."

Kim's jaw dropped.  "You used to design cigarettes?  All this time I thought
you were an anti-smoker?"

"I am, honey, - at least, I am now.  But we were young back then," her mother
continued.  "It was a first job for us and the pay was very good.  I'm not
proud of it now, but at that time both your father and I were heavy smokers
and believed that if we could design a safe cigarette, then we would be
making a great contribution - not just to our own health, but to the health
of others.  Of course, the company was more interested in research for
increasing the nicotine dosage and constantly pushed us for results.  Under
that kind of intense pressure, you start to get sloppy and make mistakes -
and so one night there was a chemical accident in one of the labs that I was
working in.  I was overcome by a nicotine gas-product we were experimenting
with and lost consciousness.  When I awoke in a hospital bed the next
morning, the company doctor told me that I was fine and sent me home.  But
when I lit a cigarette after leaving the hospital, I found that I had
developed an adverse physical reaction to smoking.  I began to vomit.  Even
breathing in second-hand smoke made me queasy. 

"Of course, we both quit smoking cold-turkey and resigned from our positions
in the lab.  But I found out a few days later that I was 4 months pregnant
with you.  I assumed that your body chemistry would have been affected by
smoking in the same way that mine was - that it would make you violently ill
- which is why I've always told you not to smoke and kept you from exposure
to second hand smoke.  But I can see now that that chemical accident has had
the opposite effect on you."

Mary could tell from the perplexed look on her daughter's face that she
didn't completely understand what she was being told.


"Honey, somehow that chemical accident 16 years ago has increased the
nicotine level in your body to such a height that you were essentially born a
smoker.  When your lungs were engulfed with that first puff last Friday, they
immediately responded as if you had been a two-pack a day smoker for 20
years."

"But Mom," Kim interrupted, "I feel fine.  In fact, I feel great when I
smoke.  I don't have any chest pain, I don't feel fatigued or short-winded.
I don't even have a cough."

"The chemical accident has made you immune to the ill-effects of smoking,
honey, which was one of the goals your father and I worked to achieve in our
research.  But the same cannot be said of those who come into contact with
your second-hand smoke.  According to Annie's bloodtest and tissue sample,
she will be as subject to smoking related diseases and cancers as any other
smoker.

"What we never imagined," Mary continued, "was that one could also obtain the
ability to get others hooked.  When you breath the smoke into your lungs, it
becomes enriched with such a high content level of nicotine that anyone who
comes into direct contact with your exhaled smoke is immediately addicted,
and from what you've told me, this can be accompanied by a personality
change, as well.  It's like they are experiencing an intense nicotine induced
high, which is why you are able to bend their will to your own - at least
temporarily.

"I'm most concerned, however, with your own personality change.  You were a
different person yesterday, Kimmie.  It's as if this mutation is completely
transforming you psychologically and biologically, and your eyes are a
reflection of this biological change.  That's why when I saw your eyes
shimmering yesterday I knew exactly what was happening.

"Listen to me carefully, Kim:  you were very lucky this time, and while your
nicotine levels will remain high, it is still possible for us to force the
mutation into a dormant stage.  But if I had come home even an hour later
yesterday, I fear that the mutation would have become fully developed and the
biological and psychological transformation would have been irreversible.  So
it is extremely important that you not smoke again nor even come into contact
with second hand smoke until your father and I can perform some more tests
and understand what we're dealing with."

Kim lowered her head downward, ashamed of all that she had done over the last
few days but grateful that her mother was here to help her.  

"We are going to get through this, honey," Mary said.  "Your father will be
back from Taiwan next week, and we will work tirelessly to find a way to help
you."


Kim hugged her mother, told her how much she loved her, and swore that she
would never smoke again.  She knew it was going to be tough to fight the
cravings which remained - but she was determined to be strong.

________________________

Kim spent most of Monday afternoon and evening recovering from her experience
over the weekend.  She thought that perhaps by doing some reading and
refocusing on her studies, she could try and redirect her mind to something
more productive - and less painful than thinking about all the trouble she
had caused.  But about 7 pm she heard a tapping on her window.  Kim closed
and locked her bedroom door and opened the window curtain to find Angela
outside.  "Kim," she whispered, "I tried calling but your Mom wouldn't let me
speak to you."

Angela climbed into the room as quietly as she could and asked, "What
happened?"  Kim told her everything she heard from her mother, about the
chemical accident 16 years ago, about the mutation and how it sparked her own
transformation over the weekend, and about how they were trying to force the
mutation into dormancy.

"Well don't worry, girl-friend," Angela said as she reached into her coat
pocket and revealed a pack of Virginia Slims, "these will make you feel all
better."

Kim felt as though she had been hit by a lightening bolt and her eyes were
immediately drawn to the elegantly designed white and green striped package.
Her instincts told her to pull one of the long cigarettes out and place it
between her lips.  She longed to feel the pure white cloud enter her lungs,
to experience the power of the smoke once again.  As if in an out-of-body
experience, Kim could see herself start to reach for the pack in Angela's
hand - but then pull back.  "No, Angela," she said as she turned away, "I
can't do that again.  My mom said the transformation could be irreversible if
I smoke anymore.  Please, you have to leave."

Angela's heart sank.  "What happened to the Kim I came to know over the
weekend?"

"She's gone," Kim replied curtly.  "And I hope she never returns.  I can't
ever go back to that, Angela.  I hurt too many people."

"You didn't hurt anyone," Angela responded impatiently.  "You showed them all
a new way to experience life and its pleasures."  Angela was exasperated as
she could see this line of reasoning wasn't working.  She didn't know Kim
could be this stubborn - but she felt she had to make her understand the
significance of the power she possessed and the responsibility that followed.


"Don't you understand that this power you have is unique?  You can demand
anything in life that you want - all with the flick of a lighter.  But there
is even something greater at stake here:  you can make everyone smoke.
Imagine - a world full of smokers!  It is your destiny to help bring this
about."

"No, it's not; it mustn't be," Kim responded in anguish, fighting back the
nicotine cravings that told her to follow her instincts and smoke.  "Don't
you see that if I smoke again there is no going back?  How could I face my
Mother?"

"We don't need her, Kimmie," Angela yelled.  "She's trying to prevent you
from achieving your destiny!"  Angela moved close to Kim and said softly,
"We've got each other.  With your power and my wits we can have everything we
want."  She touched the back of Kim's neck tenderly.  "I need you,
girl-friend.  I'll show you things you can't even imagine."

"No," Kim responded with a raised voice as she turned towards the window.
"You know I'm not like that."  She turned to face Angela with her arms
crossed.  "You and I are friends, Angela, and we always will be.  But I can't
be the smoker you came to know over the weekend."

Both jumped at the sudden knocking on the bedroom door.  "Kimmie, are you
okay?  Who's in there with you," Mary asked.  "Open the door, honey."

Angela became desperate, fearful that she was about to lose any chance of
resurrecting the "new" Kim.  "Please," she pleaded, "don't pass-up the
opportunity you have here.  You can't ignore who you really are, Kim.  You
must accept your destiny."

Tears began to swell in Kim's eyes as she was torn by her mother's calls
outside the door and Angela's pleas.  "I can't Angela.  I'm sorry."

As Kim began to walk towards the door to let in her mother, Angela grabbed
her arm from behind and gave it a hard twist backwards until Kim fell to her
knees crying out in pain.  The pounding on the door became more intense as
Mary demanded that she be let in.  Kim tried to struggle upwards, but Angela
kept her pinned down.  "Don't fight me, Kim," she said as she reached for the
pack of cigarettes and the lighter in her pocket, "I'm stronger then you are.
And you'll thank me later for this."  Angela placed a Virginia Slim into her
mouth and lit it, making the tip glow a bright orange.

Outside the door, Mary desperately continued to pound with her fists.
"What's happening in there," she shouted frantically.  "Kimmie?"  When her
daughter's cries subsided and the room grew quiet, Mary feared the worst.
God, she prayed, give me the strength to break down this door and save my
daughter.  With every ounce of strength, Mary threw all of her weight against
the door which swung open with loud crack and flung her to the carpet. 

Stunned by the fall, she lifted herself up partially and saw Kim standing
over her, holding a freshly lit cigarette between her fingers.  Her pupils
had completely disappeared, replaced by a glimmering prism of lights that
reflected like diamonds.  It was as if she had kaleidoscope eyes.  Mary knew
that the transformation was complete and that her daughter was gone.  "Why,
Kim?" she asked in anguish.

Angela picked up a chair and lifted it over her head.  "Because it's her
destiny, bitch." 

Mary suddenly felt a great force pushing against her body and collapsed.  All
went black after that.

END PART VI

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