Chapter 6 Indy
Indy
It’s been an hour, and my body feels like mush, so fuzzy and relaxed. The fear and anxiety lingering in the back of my head completely dissipates. All I feel is the connection I have to the people around me and my body.
Music melts into me, surrounding me like a warm coat. I sway along, feeling the rhythm in the deepest parts of my bones. Feeling nothing but happiness and, Gods, I want more.
I move through the crowd like a snake. Sweaty bodies mingle around me, moving along with the thump, thump, thump of the bass.
Everyone is dancing and hopeful, eyes wide in wonder; it’s honestly amazing to see.
Like they can escape the problems of their real life, even if it’s only for a weekend, and just breathe.
I smile to myself and make my way back over to my little group. They’re chilling on a picnic table, half-drank beat boxes and slices of pizza sprawled across the table.
One of the boys is lazily rolling a blunt while another is playing with some little pink happy face pills toward the corner of the wood.
“What are those?” I question, scooting into the corner seat across from him.
“I, honestly, am not quite sure,” he huffs, moving them around. “Someone passed me a handful. Called it euphoria, or something like that, and made me promise I would share it with my friends.”
“Sounds really fucking suspicious,” I counter back. My palms trace patterns in the wooden table, a nervous tick I have.
“Yeah, but I ran all the tests I have, and none of them are showing me anything. It’s not heroin, LSD, shrooms, none of it. I don’t think this is something the tests would even pick up; it doesn’t look like a known drug.”
“So… is it safe then?” I wonder aloud, still chasing a dragon I don’t think I’ll ever be able to catch.
“Tommy over there took one about forty minutes ago, and he’s still standing sooo…maybe.” He raises his arms in an I don’t know kind of shrug.
“I think we should just say fuck it,” Tini interjects.
“Like we’re all pretty good with drugs, and if anything starts to happen, we have our emergency kits, each other, and the support squad in case shit gets too crazy.
” She trails off on a tangent, going back and forth with a couple of the other people in the group.
After a few minutes of heavy deliberation, we all but one, the self-appointed safety monitor, grab a tab and decide to unanimously say fuck it.
We do a mock cheers, and place the tablets on our tongues, swallowing them before taking a sip of our drinks. My eyes bolt to a tree behind Tommy, drawn to something I can’t quite explain, like all the energy shifted to that exact spot.
Standing there behind a tree, almost invisible, is something. It looks like a person, but their face is distorted.
They look like they walked straight out of the 17th century. Covered from head to toe in black, but the oddest part is their mask. It hides their face. Sunken sparkling eye holes above a long curved beak that protrudes almost a half a foot, if not more, from their head.
They’re there for just a split second, but it was enough, and now I want to know more.
They say curiosity killed the cat, and if that’s the case, I’m fucking feral.