Neural leeches? Nah, I used to use them. Don't any more.

It wasn't the way they looked. You know, just like regular leeches except for being smaller and that blue line that ran down the middle of them. Glistening, you know.

And it's true, the first time you get ready to drop one, there's this moment of, "Aw, man, I'm not really about to put this thing in my head, am I?" But you do. In the palm of the hand, it chooses a nostril and up it goes.

You have plenty of time to go lie down somewhere before it makes it to its destination. And by the time you've relaxed completely, it starts to do its thing.

Just like they used to think regular leeches draw off bad blood, these little fellas find the thoughts and memories you aren't using anymore…the junk bits, the background noise…and feed on them.

After sixty minutes or so, it starts to shuffle back out, having had its fill. You make your way to the toilet or the sink and it just wriggles free. Usually there's just a little blood, a spot or so, just from irritation of the nasal passages. It disappears down the drain and that's that. One use wonders.

You give it mental detritus and in its place it gives you clarity: the sweetest, clearest mind. Almost like what they say you're like as a very small child: uncluttered, open, receptive. No other drug out there can come close to one of disgusting little blackish-grey, blue-striped things.

But like I said, I haven't dropped in months. I read something online about how they don't die when they get down there. Each one can only be dropped once, yeah, but they can still reproduce. And the word going around now is that they pass on their memories to the next generation.

In my mind, my steadily more muddled mind, I pictured this large neural leech, pasty, albino and the size of a small dog, shuffling through the tunnels under the city, flipping through its inheritance of my unneeded memories like a guy who brought up a scrapbook after dumpster diving. I imagine it must think the tunnel is just another nasal passage, and at any moment, it'll find more of what it's looking for.