Stories for 100 Days of Writing

Use as Directed

Joe had been working at the lab for five years now and he had seen many new drugs go on the market, even in the short time he'd been there. He was proud to be a part of that and enjoyed the job he did. After graduating at the top of his class he was offered his position here, a dream job in his eyes because he knew how many graduates took many months to get a decent job, let alone one that they really wanted to do.

Jessica, his wife, had also been working, but lately, she'd struggled because of a skin ailment. The doctors hadn't been able to figure out what was causing her problem. Her skin was flaking, it was sore to the touch and dry like eczema, but as the specialists had informed her, it wasn't eczema or anything else they'd seen before. It was all over her body and had begun to spread to her face, making her very self-conscious, so she decided to sign off from work to do some research of her own. She wanted to see if she could find either some information or a treatment through alternative medicine.

Meanwhile, Joe had kept his eye open for anything in his day-to-day work that might help. It was during this time that Joe came across an article about a company asking for volunteers for a drug trial. It was for severe eczema and related skin disorders, so he mentioned it to Jessica. She jumped at the chance, anything that might help seemed like a light to her at this point.

She attended the relevant clinic, was given enough tablets for three months, then asked to make a note of any side effects and return when she'd finished the course. They were, of course, a little wary at first but it turned out there was no need, there were no side effects at all in the first week that Jessica took them and she was ecstatic to see that there was already an improvement in her condition. Therefore, she continued to take the drugs, but Jessica was keen to return to work, she also hated the way here skin looked, so she started doubling up on the tablets in an attempt to improve the condition faster.

At first this seemed to work, she didn't tell Joe though, as she knew how he'd react, after a month she began to take just a few extra again, once more her condition improved. It was only about two weeks after she had raised the dose the second time that she realised her mistake, something was definitely wrong. She undressed to get into the bath, looked down at her body and between her toes she could see hair, not soft hair but black furry hair. She was shocked and checked herself over; she found nothing more so she quickly removed it.

The following day, all was fine but two days later, not only was the furry hair back between her toes but also between her fingers and on the back of her neck. She removed the hair and stopped taking the tablets, but several days later she awoke to find herself covered in a soft down of dark, furry hair, it was too late, the effects were permanent.

She should have listened when he said to use as directed.