Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
I float somewhere between dreams and reality.
Strobes and shots and pounding bass swirl into the surreal scene. A bolt of relief mixes with my disbelief.
Thank God I made that place up, I think, realizing I’ve been asleep the whole time. The strange tightness in my chest unclenches as I watch the imagined alien strip club flash behind my eyes. Confused by the reason Dream Me rushes out of a bathroom and straight into—a wall?
Woof, I think, recoiling from the image of something solid slamming into my face. That has to hurt.
As if on cue—or, perhaps, actually on cue—an obnoxious crack of white light splits the scene. Like someone has opened my skull and shone a flashlight inside it.
I balk, my eyelids squeezing shut as I burrow further into my lumpy double bed. Only, the surface under me isn’t lumpy. It’s some squishy pad of memory foam?
Oh no.
Oh Christ.
Did I actually pass out from too many test tube shots at an alien burlesque club?
That has to be the absolute basement of human embarrassment. There really isn’t any lower than—
My eyes sting as they finally flutter open, oddly heavy and wet. Sucking noises fill my ears—pops and squelches that sound like suction cups having a conversation on a wet shower wall.
What in the world?
Or not in the world, as it turns out.
Because when I finally manage to see what’s in front of me?
It isn’t human.