Jeezus, do I have grope me signs stuck to me tonight?I start to move, but there’s a sharp sting in my left quad.I look down and watch the syringe fall from her hand.What in hell?Finally, I get a glimpse of her face under that preposterous hat.
“Ma-rrow-y?”The floor lurches up to meet me, but we don’t connect.Instead a vice-like band squeezes my ribs.
“There you go.I gotcha, Dylan.I warned you if you didn’t do as I asked there’d be consequences.You just couldn’t stay away, could you?Got to strut your stuff, and advocate your twisted agenda.No doubt you think it’s your God-given right to corrupt innocent souls.Well, it isn’t, and I’m going to stop you before you destroy anyone else’s life.”
She’s talking like I should comprehend what she’s saying, but I don’t.Well, I get the hate.Even when the world is spiralling, I get that.Kaleidoscopic patterns paint the inside of my eyelids, even with my eyes wide everything is on spin.I’m moving, but I don’t really understand how.I’m flopped against her, I think.She smells minty.
“Are you all right, miss?”
A black blur approaches.Waiter, maybe?His moustache is long and droopy at one side.
“Fine, thanks.He’s just had a bit too much to drink.I’m getting him to his room.”
“Don’t let her,” I say, but I’m not sure it comes out like that.More like ‘Doo-dell-ate-her.’My voice is reedy and stretched out, like a gramophone record drawing to a halt only partially played.
“Actually, if you could just help me a moment.He has a key card on him somewhere, but I can’t quite reach.”
Capable hands pat down my sides, and rifle through the breast pocket of my shirt.
“Here you are, miss.”
“Thank you.Appreciate it.Um…” We waltz together unsteadily.
“Do you need some help getting him to the bed?”
“Yes, if it’s not any trouble.He’s a mite bigger than me.”
“You his girlfriend?”
“An acquaintance.”
“Designated driver?You deserve a medal for putting up with this.”
I’m floating.The voices are nearer and then far away.I’m rising towards the ceiling, then sinking, being smothered by mint imperials.
“Just call housekeeping should you need anything.”
“Thank you, I will.”
***
“Dylan.Can you hear me?”Fingers click before my face.“Come on, you can snap out of it now.I need you awake for this.You need to feel it.”
I squint, and croak some sort of nonsense.The lights are too bright, and everything is still swirling and dissolving into puddles.I don’t understand where I am, or how I got here.Did I overdo the booze?Booze has never caused me to hallucinate before, but there’s a first time for everything, and there sure has been a lot of unexpected firsts recently.
A cough rattles my chest and my mouth fills with acid.I swallow it again, my lips too numb to enable me to spit.
“I’m right here.You look at me now.”
It’s not Kira’s voice.I know her voice.It is woven into the fabric of my soul.
Kira left.My fault, I couldn’t say the words, couldn’t give her the reassurance she needed.She’s right; she shouldn’t need to be a filthy secret.She’s much too good for that, and in any case secrets just lead to wounds and deceits, and knots that pull so tight you can never unravel them.
There’s something anchoring my wrists, but I don’t know what it is, and nausea rolls up from my stomach when I try to move my head to look.
“I know you can hear me, Dylan.You’d better look at me.Focus.”
The slap makes my cheek throb and sets off a peel of bells inside my ears.I blink away the water that fills my eyes, and my vision clears enough to make sense of the face peering down at me.
