Opium

Circe left her there alone for a moment.

The pain went on. Lois was afraid to touch her wound, her mind running through all the dangers of infection, getting dirt or sand into the wound...but the pain kept her on her back, unable to move, to sit up, body still recovering from the ****.

When the sorceress returned, it was with a long-stemmed pipe. She held it to the reporter's lips.

"Smoke," the voice was soft, kindly. There was no command to the word, no instant obeisance. "It will ease your pain as I treat your wound."

A flare of suspicion went through the reporter's mind. She wasn't about to take anything from Circe's hands.

"What is it?" The reporter asked through clenched teeth.

"Opium," the witch said, the smile on her face soft. "The Greeks have used it for thousands of years to dull pain. Do not worry, I will not allow you to become addicted. Just this much, and no more."

The reporter wavered. Circe tapped the clay bowl, a spark leaping from her finger. A thin trail of smoke rose from it, sweet and exotic.

Almost, Lois threw the pipe away. Yet the pain burned through her. And her mind was telling her that it was true, opium had been used throughout history, and as long as she could refuse it tomorrow...

Just this once, she told herself. Never again.

The branded woman brought the pipe to her lips and sucked it in.

Hot, sickly-sweet, an unfamiliar taste, like pine-tar and resin. Lois had used marijuana once or twice, but never opium. She sucked the hot air down into her lungs and coughed, opening her lungs up to suck again.

Circe meanwhile had a jar of ointment. She slathered it onto the reporter's wounded crotch. Lois winced at every touch...but there was no sting as she might have expected from **** or aloe. Just a slight spreading numbness, the pain lessening by degrees, though it never really went away.

Lois sucked at the opium-pipe, the smoke trickling out, suddenly tired from her ordeal. She remembered how people used to lie like that in opium-dens as the narcotic took hold, their bodies slack and wasting away as their minds chased the dragon in strange dreams.

"All done," Circe said from far away. Lois felt the pipe taken from her numb hands. Soft fingers combed through her hair.

"You really are very beautiful my dear. And you have great spirit, I can see that. Courage and intelligence. I think...yes, I think you will enjoy seeing what you have become, when I am done."

Lois Lane's eyes fluttered heavily...and she faded into a deep slumber, and dream of things she would never quite remember when she finally awoke.