Amy entered the doctor's office and went up to the receptionist. Thankfully, nobody was in the waiting room to be repulsed by her odor. She glanced worriedly at her hands, which were quite thick now. Her nails actually looked sharp, almost like claws. And she didn't want to think too much about it, but she could have sworn she saw a few dark hairs on the backs of her hands that definitely shouldn't be there.
The receptionist opened her window and her nose scrunched up immediately.
"Uh...ahem," she said, trying to regain her composure. "May I help you?"
"Yeah, I've got...well, I don't know what I've got, but--"
Something happened. The tingling in her nostrils was gone. Without warning or explanation, the smell had vanished just as quickly as if someone had switched off the lights. In its place was a void of no sensation. It was like a siren that had been blaring in her ears all day had suddenly shut off, and she was rendered deaf.
The receptionist eyed her curiously. "Yes?"
"Sorry," Amy said. "I've..."
She stopped again when she raised her hands and discovered the swelling had almost completely subsided. Her fingernails had returned to normal as well, and there was no trace of unusual hairs.
"Did you...did you smell something just now?" Amy asked. Her sense of smell hadn't returned yet, and she needed to verify the stink had truly disappeared.
"For a second," the receptionist frowned. "Must have been something that wafted inside when you opened the door. Now what was it you needed?"
"Well, I thought I had a problem...but it seems to be gone now," Amy said sheepishly.
"FOR now," the receptionist said, narrowing her gaze. "I'm sure the doctor will be happy to give you a check-up just in case. Sometimes symptoms come and go, then return again."
"No, no thank you," Amy said. She was feeling...disappointed. As strange as that sounded, she was sure that's how she felt. Something strange had happened to her, and that smell...that strange smell. Too lost in thought to say another word, she turned around and walked out the door.
It didn't make any sense, she thought on her way home. How could a perfume stick to her so intensely and then suddenly leave? Perhaps she shouldn't be complaining about it. Everyone seemed to hate it. Why did they hate it? Did it smell bad? Amy was sure she remembered loathing the stink of it at first, but when she got used to it... Yeah, that was it. They just hadn't gotten used to it yet. If it had stayed with her just a day or two more, they would have come around to it. It wasn't such a bad smell, really. It smelled like... Like...
She couldn't remember. As hard as she racked her brain, Amy couldn't recall the exact smell of it, only the fact that it had surrounded her like a blanket and forced her attention away from everything else in her life. She would have welcomed the distraction now. She was facing a night of boring homework and her bland family. Then tomorrow she'd have a completely uninteresting day at school.
She finally arrived at her house, feeling depressed. She dumped her bag on her bed and threw herself on the mattress. It wasn't fair! Why had the smell abandoned her? Just as she was getting interested in the scent! And now she couldn't even remember what it smelled like! She'd give anything to smell it again. Just a whiff, to help her remember.
A memory of her wrong answer in class that day came to her suddenly, like a flash of light through the fog. She had been doing really well in school. That incident was an embarrassment! Why on Earth would she want that smell back? What was she thinking?
She knew she had to get her mind back on schoolwork. First she had to refresh herself on what she learned today. She hadn't been paying full attention and her notes needed deciphering. The handwriting was abrupt and sloppy, thanks to her hands feeling all strange. How could the perfume have changed her hands like that? It wasn't just a normal allergic reaction. Maybe if she used the perfume again, it wouldn't be so bad. If her nose had gotten used to the smell, maybe her body would too.
"No! Focus, Amy!" she shouted to herself. "It's just a stupid distraction! You have to do work. There's a quiz tomorrow in Math and you barely even understand the new equations."
The rest of the night was a tug-of-war between reason and desire. She couldn't understand why she suddenly had a longing for that scent when she remembered wishing all day long it would go away. Something Lina told her earlier about the way she kept thinking about the smell when Amy wasn't around came to mind, but that soon was pushed aside by more thoughts of getting that hypnotizing smell back. Her nostrils still hadn't regained their normal senses. There were no other smells to keep her from imagining what the perfume was like.
Hours later, her homework was finally finished. It took over twice as long as usual, and she even had to break for dinner, as much as she didn't want to. She could barely taste the food anyway, but more time away from the homework meant more time thinking about that stupid smell and how it had cast such an ensnaring spell on her. She was still asking herself the question when she went to bed.
That night, Amy dreamed she was floating in an inky blackness. Something like clouds were wrapping her body with their cotton tendrils, warm and comforting. She felt she should break free of them before they suffocated her, but another desire to allow herself to be overtaken won out. The mist pressed against her harder and harder, filling her nose and mouth with a delightful fragrance and wiping her mind of any thoughts other than satisfied pleasure. It pressed into her deeper, deeper, until her lungs were filled with nothing but the fragrance. There was no oxygen to breathe...she was fading into the blackness...fading...
The alarm blazed in Amy's ear and she instinctively knocked it off her dresser. Blasted thing! She was so close to... to something. Something good, whatever it was. Something more than good.
She huffed in aggravation as she dressed for school. She noticed her hands were completely normal, and her hair had brightened back to the cherry brown she always had. She felt boring. And she was facing another boring day at school. But, all things considered, she didn't feel too bad. Just...lonely. Or perhaps like she was missing a piece.
It didn't seem so bad as the day wore on, though. Her taste buds were perking up at breakfast, and on her way to school she could smell the exhaust from cars and the freshly-cut grass of the lawns she passed. And she even went a whole five minutes in first period without thinking about perfume. Her sweetest moment was in Business, when she answered the teacher's questions correctly...two of them. He had a plain smile on his face that cheered Amy up significantly. She just had an off day yesterday, nothing to worry about. As long as she kept her mind on school and off that silly smell, there wouldn't be any problem.