Synthetic Violet

Chapter 4: Consequences

We might be in the middle of summer, but being out past nightfall still brings with it a deep chill. And I don't have my jacket. Perfect.

I shouldn't have gone to Phil's. We'd been enemies for years, of course he'd been waiting for just the right moment to hurt me. But no, he couldn't just hit me with a cinder block or get some goon to beat me senseless. No. He waited until I started to trust him, to believe that maybe he might be a good person under that persona he'd built up through the years, to take a part of me away.

I should have let them get me.

"Hey, where are you going, girl? Want some company?" I hear from behind me. A drunk. Fantastic, just what I need right now.

"Nowhere with you." I'm not in the mood, and I need him to know that with no room for interpretation. I start walking.

"I'm just trying to be nice, you little bitch. Thought we could have some fun."

That's it. I turn around and shift into a male form, just to see him squirm.

"I can make you feel good, boy. Trust in experience."

What the hell? Just my luck, he's into that. I need to get out of here right now, before he has the chance to do something stupid. I could take him in a fight no problem, he looks less-than muscular at a glance, but I don't think assault is a good look for me.

I move to get away again, but he lunges for me. "HEY! You're gonna give me a good time tonight whether you like it or not--"

Then he grabs my arm. I grab his head. I want to take out my frustration on this guy, but I suddenly find myself getting lost... in his eyes.

His eyes are the most amazing shade of green.

I was able to make my eyes any color I wanted, from pinks and violets to sharp reds and deep blues. But now one of them is gone.

It's not fair. Why does he get to have these perfect eyes, this asshole pervert trying to take advantage of some random stranger in some random back alley. He doesn't deserve those beautiful eyes.

I want them. I deserve them.

I hold his head between my fingers like I'm trying to crush his skull, and I start to shift. I can feel something new, my powers coursing through my blood. It's never felt like this before.

Energy through my chest, up to my shoulders, down through my arms. My wrists. My fingers.

Him.

I keep going. I can feel HIS skin now, HIS skull.

His eyes.

That was when he started to scream.

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I'm going to throw up. I think I'm going to vomit. I can't... I think...

I think that I liked it.

What an unpleasant sensation, shifting someone other than me. Shifting someone through me. I wasn't just me at that moment, and it felt so wrong, but so new. And I liked it. The feeling of melting away rather than forming into something else. Of having new material to work with.

I needed that.

I can see. I have two eyes again. It may not be mine, but I don't think I care. It feels weird, like it's the wrong shape and size. It doesn't fit very well, but I can see. That's what matters. This may take some time to get used to, two different eyes aren't really built to work together. I could always try to shift it to fit better in my–

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Something didn't move right. Left eye squeezing against my skull.

"STOP! STOP! OH GODS, MAKE IT STOP!"

I stop shifting, too suddenly.

"HAH. HAH. HAh."

Slowly now.

"Hah... ha..."

Better.

"hah..."

Good.

I'm going to throw up now.

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By the time I stop, I can hear police sirens and an ambulance in the distance, back from where I came. I guess they found him. Who cares? All at once I noticed a different pain, subtle but building in my new left eye. Something I forgot about. I'm missing a tear duct.

It starts to burn, and it doesn't stop building. Did Phil do this too? Oh gods.

I need water– I need eye drops–

There across the street. A pharmacy.

I run headlong into traffic, slow as it is, and almost get flattened. I burst in the door, no regard for laying low or the profanity flying towards me, I have only one mission at the moment.

"Where are the eye drops?!" I didn't mean to yell, but it feels appropriate at the moment.

The lady, confused and startled, points to the back of the store.

I don't even get a good look at the clerk. She must think I'm crazy, might even think I'm gonna drink them or something stupid.

I make a beeline and grab the drops. I rip one open and get it everywhere, missing my eye entirely.

"HEY!" the clerk yells. She starts to run toward me, but I'm too busy with another bottle.

"You have to pay for that!" She grabs my shoulder just when I have the bottle above my eye, and rips it away.

"GIVE THAT BACK!" There's a fire in my eyes. I don't remember my right one starting to burn, but it hurts. Gods it hurts.

"Don't make me call the cops on you, kid."

I finally get a good look at her, this woman from the counter. She looks a bit old, a bit tired. Like she's been at this job too long, seen too much. And her eyes are watering.

Pity? Sleep deprivation? Fear? What gives her the right to cry now? Mocking me with her tears, with those eye drops held right in front of me, but just out of reach. This wouldn't be a problem if I'd taken that guy's tear ducts.

A thought crosses my mind.

I reach toward the woman.

I grab her head.

And I take hers.