“What do you meanclodeimplant?”
Clode.
The drug for ceasing a connection. Highly illegal and banned in most countries, including Uandra. It was unnatural for stopping two souls from finding each other.
Clode administered a hormone into your body to tame your heartbeat, stopping it from thumping and guiding you to its Soulmate. It also did not allow you to connect to your Soulmate. You could take it in pill or powder form, or if you were especially serious you could get an implant embedded into your arm that would slowly release the hormone over time.
It used to be legal, long, long ago, when people preferred to fall in love with someone who was not their Soulmate and so they stopped their connection to another. Those types of relationships never lasted. Your soul was only in love with a Soulmate, there was no other. This caused a lot of complications and messy affairs, also it was difficult to tell who was a Soulless and who was not. Uandra eventually banned it, solving all those issues.
Doctor Death blew out smoke. “A clode implant is—”
“I know exactly what it is, what I’m asking is…well…I don’thavea clode implant.”
“Yes, you did.” She laughed as if I were her favourite comedy show. “A really old one.”
I frowned and was about to argue when she pulled out the tiny piece of metal from her pocket, showing me.
The wound on my arm ached.
“What…” It took me a moment to take in what I was seeing.
“You dumb ass rich kids.” Doctor Death stuffed the implant back into her pocket and sucked on the end of her cigarette, butchering the white paper with her red lips. “Trying to stop the connection illegally. Let me guess, you didn’t like your Soulmate? Tried to stop the connection, probably get them killed in hopes you’d connect to another? But it took too long so they mistook you for a Soulless and now you ended up in this shithole.” She laughed again, a long crackling laugh which turned into a cough. “Serves you right, idiot.”
“I did not put that in me!” I pointed to her pocket, panic shaking my hand. “I would never!”
Her coughing finished and she eyed me, realising I was speaking the truth. “Huh. Well, the hormones should wear off pretty soon.”
I pressed my hand across my chest, replaying her words in my head. “Wait… are you saying I might not be Soulless?”
She shrugged. “You’ll find out if your heart starts going crazy looking for its Soulmate.”
I waited for my heart to leap.
Nothing.
“Though, I doubt it will.” She yawned. “I heard recently they’ve found out if you’ve taken clode long term, it eventually turns you Soulless. Your implant was old. You’re Soulless now.”
Her words hit nails into my skull.
“Who put clode in me?” I asked her if she would know. “Why would they do this?”
She found my dilemma interesting, tapping her ash on the floor. “I don’t know. Someone who hates you? Wanted you to end up here?”
“That is a great many people.”
“Well, it’s an old one, so it probably would have stopped working at least a few years back. It will keep working if you get top ups of the hormone.”
“I do not take clode, I never have.”
She bobbed her head from side to side. “You’d only need a bit here and there. You know anyone who’d be sprinkling that shit in your water?”
I frowned. “Wouldn’t I be able to taste it?”
“Chocolate hides the flavour of it pretty well.”
“Hm.”
“Cocoa too.”
