The Vitamin E Protocol

The pills sat on her nightstand — a rainbow of vitamin supplements, each promising something her body couldn't deliver on its own anymore. Elena dry-swallowed a handful, the bitter coating catching in her throat. At 32, she felt ancient.

Her phone buzzed. A secure message. The job was tonight.

Elena had been a corporate spy for seven years, long enough to know that the glamorous name was just polishing. She stole secrets. She breached networks. She compromised people who trusted her. The money was excellent. The insomnia was free.

The target: Marcus Webb, pharmaceutical executive. A man who spent his days developing the very supplements Elena now depended on. The irony wasn't lost on her.

She applied her makeup carefully — the disguise of someone who belonged in a bar expensive enough to attract men like Marcus. The vitamin C packet went into her clutch alongside the surveillance equipment.

Three hours later, Marcus was telling her about his divorce, his daughter's equestrian career, the bull she'd just purchased with her trust fund. His eyes crinkled when he laughed. He reminded her of someone she used to be, before the job.

"You seem tired," he said, and for a terrible moment, Elena thought he knew.

"Just," she paused, "running on empty."

He offered to walk her to her car. The recording device was already uploaded to their servers. Her work was done.

Outside, the air was cold. Marcus touched her arm, lightly, like he meant it. "Can I see you again?"

The vitamins in her purse suddenly felt very heavy. All the supplements in the world couldn't fix what the job had taken from her — the ability to want something real.

"No," she said. "I'm not who you think I am."

"Nobody is," he replied, not unkindly. "That's the point."

She watched him walk away, then deleted the mission notification. Tomorrow, she'd call her handler and quit. Tomorrow, she'd stop living on borrowed energy and manufactured sleep. Tomorrow, she'd figure out who she was when she wasn't stealing pieces of other people's lives.

Tonight, she just stood there under the streetlights, her hand clenched around the bottle of B-complex supplements, and remembered what it felt like to be lonely in a way that pills couldn't fix.