Eva stepped up to her door with a curse, setting her grocery bag down on the snowy step and grabbing at the sign posted there. When she put it up a week before it said simply:

The Doctor is OUT. Go to the hospital. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Now it was covered in some choice words and creative curses for her, apparently written by those who had been turned away. She ripped it down and crumpled it in one hand as she fumbled with her keys in another. Ungrateful cretins. She?d written the sign because she had run out of supplies after the second Marketplace explosion, and since circumstances hadn?t changed, she'd left it there. Now she had to take it down.

The door slammed shut behind her as she dragged her groceries in and up the stairs. She had enough to last her the next couple of weeks. After that, she had no idea what she would do.

Eva was unpacking the bag when she heard a loud thump against her front door. Then it repeated, again and again, rhythmically, as she frowned down in its direction. Could it be a new patient? Naturally she had just pulled her "go away" sign down. Eva heaved a sigh and moved down the stairs, prepared to send whoever it was off to the hospital.

When she opened the door, a scruffy bearded man with glassy black eyes spilled onto her feet. He was poorly dressed for the cold in just a thin shirt and pants. Dried spittle trailed down the front of his shirt. He looked in her direction, though his eyes couldn?t focus on her, and opened his lips. ?Help? help.? The sound was strangled. Barely there.

Eva cursed and stuck her head further out the door. She could see fresh wheel tracks in the snow, as if some vehicle had just dumped him on her front step, but no sign of the vehicle. She cursed again, and then bent down. Looping her hands beneath his arm pits, she tugged him inside through the doorway, trying to get him at least out of the snow.

At the movement, the man screamed, a wretched, painful cry, like a wounded cat. His hands clawed at the snow, shaking. Eva knelt beside him and pressed two fingers to his neck. His heart was racing. His eyes dilated and unresponsive. In a hurry, Eva stood, leaping over him out into the snow and ran to the bookstore. The clerk looked up at her as she yelled.

?Michael, call an ambulance!?

She could recognize the signs of drugs, but she couldn't tell quite what was happening. Kneeling back beside the man, she grabbed his chin and tried to look in his eyes.

?What did you take??

The man couldn?t focus. His lips, blue from the cold, kept moving even though no air was moving through them. His feet shook back and forth, his hands clawing at nothing and everything. Eva watched in horror. He was screaming with his entire body. And she had nothing to treat him with. She couldn?t do anything for him.

Eva leaned forward, and pushed up his sleeves. At least if she could figure out what he was on, he could be treated faster once the ambulance arrived. She flipped his left arm over to the sounds of more of his guttural wordless protests. There. There were the track marks. He?d been injecting something. She patted his pants pockets, and from the back pulled an empty, clear glass vial. Eva held it up to the light. No label. But there was an orange film coating the insides. She?d never seen anything like it.

The sound of the man retching made Eva look back down. She tucked the empty vial away and pushed him to his side so he wouldn?t choke. Blood splattered the snow. Eva?s eyes widened. Was this withdrawal? Or an overdose?

?Come on, I need you to tell me. What did you take??

She looked into his eyes, blood soaking his beard, dribbling down his neck. His lips opened and closed silently like a fish out of water.

?Come on, you can do it. Tell me.?

?Sp-? spice.? He gasped, his eyes clearing for a brief moment.

From the back door of the bookstore, Michael, the young clerk, burst out into the alleyway.

?They?re coming! I called them! They?re coming? oh my god.?

Eva looked up at Michael, then back down at the man. Blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes looked up, clouded, dead. Eva sighed, sinking against the wall of her open doorway and stared at the dead man.

What the hell is spice?

There was no time of day that was more or less busy for Eva. People seemed to get into mischief day or night, sun or snow, workday or rest day. Anytime, Eva was just glad for the work. Since her supplies had been replaced, she'd been hanging around her rooms more often in order to catch as much work as possible.

So, a knock on her door in the middle of the day was hardly a surprise, nor was it unwelcome. Still, being a cautious woman, Eva pulled her gun into her hand from the side table as she got to her feet.

Down the stairs she went, and to the door, pausing in front of it to set herself. She held her gun low at her side, and pulled the door open a wedge, looking out of the small opening.

Eva could tell almost instantly that the man wasn't injured. Her hand tightened around her gun as she looked him over curiously.

"Can I help you?"

Eva looked at the man in silence for a moment. She remained still, not reaching out to take the vial from him. He was trying to put her at ease. That much was obvious to her. She relaxed a little, letting her curiosity overtake her caution.

?He died right where you?re standing.? Her eyes held on Vargus as she moved the door aside exposing her full figure and the shadowed stairs behind her. Her gun remained low at her side, in view now, but the safety was engaged. ?There wasn?t much I could do.? She frowned, as she looked at him. She wanted to say more, but she held back.

?If you don?t mind my asking, who exactly are you investigating for??

Eva's face visibly softened and she shifted her weight as a flash of guilt cut through her. She sighed. "My name is Eva." She looked at him, at his white eyes, then stepped back from the door, holding it open. "Come in out of the cold, and I'll tell you what I know."

She waited for him to step inside before shutting the door behind him and leading him up the narrow stairway to her room. Medical text books were stacked on the floor opposite the bed and next to a desk that faced a window that looked out on the Marketplace. Eva set her gun down on a bedside table, and then motioned Vargus to a comfortable looking chair nearby.

"I don't have much to offer you, but I was about to make some tea, if you'd like." She didn't wait for him to accept before starting to heat a kettle on a hot plate on the desk.

"I've seen plenty of addiction...death too... but I've never seen a drug do anything like that before." She set out two mugs and then opened a desk drawer. From it she retrieved a sealed plastic bag printed with a bright yellow biohazard symbol. A vial, identical to the one he showed her earlier, rested in the bottom of the bag. "So when I found this vial, I sent it off to a friend who works at a lab in Markatoa."

She turned to face him, holding the vial through the protective bag. "This is some nasty stuff. It's highly addictive. Just one dose is enough to make your brain rely on it for basic function, and it gets into your DNA, melding with it, so that even if you could detox in a controlled environment, every new cell your body built, from new blood to new hair, would be addicted. And if your body doesn't get it..." She shook her head and looked back down at the bag.

"Even if I'd've had time to treat him, I don't know what I could have done." She turned away from him, keeping her eyes shielded, and setting the plastic bag on the desk. "I've heard some hospitals are experimenting with gene therapy."

The kettle began to whistle, and Eva stood from the chair, keeping her back to him, and filled the mugs with the hot herbal tea. "I don't know if that helps you any."

Eva held her mug of tea in her hands as she listened, but she didn?t drink. The steam rose from her cup like the purple smoke from his eyes, neither of which she took much notice of. Ralaquarian Spice. She tried to place it, but came up with nothing.

?It?s not exactly a recreational drug, is it?? Eva shook her hood, setting her mug down as he stood, standing with him. ?Thank you for the offer for help. I hope I won?t need to take you up on it.? She smiled faintly, walking him towards the top of the stairs that led down to her front door.

?You know, I?ve been thinking about it, and I?m pretty sure someone dumped that guy on my doorstep on purpose? the patient I lost? I mean?? Eva?s brow furrowed as she thought about it, looking at him. ?There were fresh wheel tracks in the snow? like someone brought him to me? like they wanted me to know about Spice, like they wanted me to know what they were capable of doing? that they were capable of destroying someone from the inside out.?

Eva shook her head and looked down at her feet. ?Anyhow that?s how it seemed to me.? She led him down the narrow stairway and paused with her hand on the door knob.

?Mr. Vargus, I?m not exactly practicing in line with the law here? so I?d appreciate it if you left my name out of it? especially if you take any of this information to the City Watch. Okay?? She tugged open the door for him then, watching his face for a response.