The Pill

John stared suspiciously at the pill in front of him, biting on worn nails. It sat there, small, white, round, in a clear plastic cup atop a rectangular, mirror like, stainless steal table. It looked just like a regular pill, but John knew better.

“What’s in it?” Jon asked Dr. Stevens.

“I can’t tell you that Johnathan.” Dr. Stevens said without looking up from where he sat at the opposite end of the table as he continued to scribble in his little black notebook.

John leaned in for a closer look. The pill itself had no markings of any kind and shone with a smoothness as it caught the fluorescent lighting above. It sat perfectly flat and perfectly round on the bottom of the plastic cup; like a miniature casino chip before coloring.

The cup containing the pill was small, so small that it would be lucky to fit half a shot of whisky if filled to the brim, John reckoned.

Unable to discern any new information upon his fifth inspection of the pill and it’s container, John’s eyes naturally slid to the only other object on the table. The glass of water. Just a tall, thin, clear glass filled with water, nothing nefarious there. The chaser to John’s $20,000 shot.

“One minute.” Dr. Stevens’ dry voice rang out, interrupting John’s inspection.

Just one minute left to decide. Take the pill and receive $20,000 for completing the experiment; or walk out of there with nothing.

John chewed his nails and looked to the man counting down his fate. Dr. Stevens was middle aged, middle height, with a medium build. A dark consistent beard kept short across his rounded face and blended seamlessly into the Doctor’s close cropped hair; giving the man in the white lab coat an almost inhuman symmetry. If there was a human version of the pill on the table John was sure it was the man in front of him.

“What’s in the pill?” John asked.

“I can’t tell you that, 45 seconds.” Dr. Stevens said scribbling all the while.

John looked up at the white analog clock above the door, it was indeed 15 seconds past 11:59pm.

John took a deep breath, he looked about the rest of the room and let the seconds tick by. The walls were white, the door was white, handle: silver, walls: white. There were two walls that were solid, white and uninterrupted. One, which contained a door with the clock resting above it, the wall to Johns right. Then there was the last wall; the wall situated behind Dr. Stevens which contained the one way glass. John wondered what kind of audience watched from behind the large mirror that had come to witness a man take a mystery pill for $20,000. He suspected something like this would do quite well on a Japanese game show.

Who knew, maybe it was a placebo, a big joke to see what a person would do after taking what they believed to be an experimental, unlicensed, untested pill. Or what that same person would do if they left the room, and were told they had passed up on $20,000 because they had blinked in the face of the dealer. The thought was almost enough to make John laugh, almost.

“If I take the pill, when do I get paid?” John asked.

“You already know that Johnathan. Ten seconds.” Dr. Stevens said.

John appreciated that Dr. Stevens didn’t scoff at the question, they both knew John would take the pill, he was a gambling man after all.

“5, 4, 3, 2-”

In one swift motion John shot the pill cowboy style, in another, chased it down with the water. The pill was swallowed, there was no turning back now.