Another waitress comes around and asks if we’ve already had drinks. I deny everything and she gives me two more. Arial watches with a hitched brow as I polish them off.
“You like these things, huh?”
“Clearly, yes.”
Just then, a group exits the tunnel and floods the room. They’re all cheering and laughing as if they had an amazing experience that I didn’t. That’s just not acceptable. Narrowing my eyes, I decide to change that.
“Hold my drink.”
“Wait, where are you going?”
Setting my jaw determinedly, I point to the tunnel. “I got ripped off, so I’m going back in.”
She loosely grabs my wrist. “But that’s the exit.”
“Good, maybe something great will happen if I go backwards.”
Blowing Arial a kiss over my shoulder, I weasel my way through the crowd and past the attendant, grin excitedly…
And dart inside.
Chapter Two
Mycellphonevibratesjust as I enter the tunnel. Hoping upon hope that my camera will finally work, I slip it from my pocket to check.
It feels incredibly hot in my hand, almost burning me. Momentarily forgetting the tunnel, I glance at my phone and transfer it from one hand to the other. The screen flashes wildly. Fractured prisms of light dart behind the screen, doing their best to rival the swirl of psychedelic colors inside the tunnel. It must be some trick from the Con!
The phone grows even hotter. The pads of my fingers burn, my eyes transfixed on the swirls of light coming from my cellphone. Suddenly, the lights seep beyond the edges of the screen, spraying up into the air in a churning tornado of color. Gasping, I hold the phone at arm’s length. The shape of the tornado changes. It opens right in front of me, a yawning, all encasing mouth of prismatic hues. My heart leaps into my throat.
This is it! This is what I was anticipating! Those sneaky bastardsdidslip an app on our phones and now…. and now…
It’s a portal!
I am completely consumed with awe at the opening of light in front of me. It’s exactly like an effect from a science fiction movie, the hologram so perfectly created that I feel like I could almost step straight into it. I don’t know how they’re doing this, but I don’t care. My body trembles with excitement. Gooseflesh rises on my arms while cold, electric shocks zing up and down my spine. Suddenly, my feet leave the ground. I cry out in surprise, my body rising into the air. Kicking my feet, I realize there’s nothing beneath me. Suddenly, the portal moans, and a tug like the most violent gravity pulls at my head and shoulders, realigning my body. I suck in a hard breath.
My body propels inside the portal and suddenly I’m flying, zooming, the colors racing by. Nausea rises in my gut, burning the base of my throat. How is this possible? How the hell is this happening? I realize I’m holding my breath, as if it’s been knocked out of me. The skin on my face stretches against my bones, my hair whipping out behind me. My scalp begins to burn as if somebody is grabbing giant fistfuls of my hair from behind. My head goes backwards as if my hair is being pulled. Suddenly my body is caught in a strange tug-of-war. The portal is trying to suck me in, but my body wants to go back where it came from.
It must be the alcohol. This is some weird trip… someone probably slipped something into my drink. Where is Arial? I’m in some kind of suspended animation, my body being tugged both ways. She’ll step inside the tunnel and pull me out of here and then chastise me for drinking too much. Oh boy, I hope I haven’t ruined the Con for both of us. I shouldn’t have drunk so much.
Bile rises into my throat. Puffing out my cheeks, I hiccup and press a hand to my mouth to hold it back. She’ll never let me live it down if I throw up. I’m sorry, Arial, I think. I’m a bad friend. I am a very bad, drunk friend.
Just then, the pressure on my hair stops. I fall, as if suddenly breaking free and pummeling down, down, down. No… not down,through. I’m speeding through the portal again. My bones begin to rattle, my skin and muscle pulling tightly against my skeleton. My eyelids press against my eyes, my lips curling and exposing my teeth. I feel like a pilot flying at G forces outside of the cockpit instead of inside. I can’t breathe. My brain begins to go black. My stomach heaves, but there’s too much pressure and nothing comes out. I think I’m trying to scream, but I don’t know.
This is one wicked ride.
The portal goes black. There’s a sharp exhale of breath in surround sound all around me. All the forces against my skin become peaceful. Something snaps. My body jerks and I’m suddenly flat on my back, spread eagle, my arms at my sides as I fall, fall, fall…
Thump… thump… thump… thump,thump,thump.
My pulse.
My breath.
My bones settling back into my body.
A sliver of light cuts through the blackness. Eyelids fluttering, I move my head to the left, and then to the right, realizing I’m lying on something hard. I’m on the ground! Something presses into my spine. No, a lot of somethings. Gravel, rocks? It feels like I’m lying on a pebble beach but there’s no sound of water. No light, no sunlight. No warmth. I’m freezing.
Blink, blink, blink. Oh God. What the hell kind of ride was that? Desperately trying to clear my vision, I wince as slivers of light slash through my partially opened lids. My brain whirls, my stomach flips. The pressure in my esophagus becomes unbearable. Completely on instinct, I fling my body to the side and push up slightly on one arm. And then I puke, everywhere.
