HUNTING THE DRAGON: A LOVE/OBSESSION/AFFAIR WITH ADDICTION/HABIT/DESPERATION

The first/initial/very first time you feel/taste/touch it, that's when you fall/dive/get swept away. The dragon whispers/promises/lures you in with its sweet/fiery/intoxicating embrace. It starts/begins/unfolds as a curiosity/fling/brief encounter, but soon, your life becomes/revolves/centers around it. You're drowning/consumed/lost in the illusion

He gripped that chrome piece, a cold comfort in this twisted world. Love pulsed through him, a drug all its own, but it was the hard stuff that really knocked him into another dimension. A world where beauty danced in his head and pain disappeared away. He'd do anything for that next hit. Anything to feel connected Yet love was the only thi