skin on my arms… which meant my hoodie was gone. And I could feel that my Ray Bans weren’t in place anymore, either. I don’t know that it mattered, but those two items had become so much a part of my physical being that I felt sort of stripped without them. I heard Jeremy’s voice from a distance ahead of me. “Maybe we should just drop this one. He seems like a good guy… not like the other scum.” I tried to play drugged beneath the hood so I could listen to where this was going.
“They’re all scum,” said Lucas. “That’s why we do what we do.” So the nice guy stuff was just an act.
Obviously.
Kyle pulled on the strap at my throat, and I couldn’t help but choke from the pressure. At that point, they knew I was lucid. Then the hood came off, and my eyes were seared by the most excruciating, blinding white light I’ve ever seen. It was like staring into a thousand suns crammed onto the surface of a thousand other suns. That might be an overstatement. But it was very bright. You hear about people who go through traumatic events and how their minds shut down to keep from having to experience the horror of whatever it is they’re experiencing. That didn’t happen to me; it was quite the opposite, if anything. As soon as the light hit my eyes, something seemed to switch on in my brain. It could have been that I went into Vampire Survival Mode, or that the roofie had activated some dormant center of my brain that keeps record of bad shit going down for future reference. Whatever it was, I felt hyper-aware of everything that was going on, like my brain was recording it all in HD to process and use as needed to stay alive. They had me so strapped in and so drugged out of strength, all I could do was go through it. “Hello, Joe,” Lucas said.
I tried to make out his face, but he was nothing more than shadow in the blaze of the light behind him. “I take it we’re not going to rehearse, then.” Turns out I’m a smart ass even under the influence of date rape drugs and heavy cocktails. And even when in utter peril for my life.
“No. No rehearsal.” He dropped and put his face into mine. “We’re going straight to the big dance.” He stood up, and Kyle must have joined him because now there were two silhouettes in the light instead of one.
Having never been in a situation like this, I had no idea of the right thing to say. I did recall something my dad used to tell me, though it was less useful and more ironic than I would have wanted a memory to be at that particular moment. Whenever the Joe in me came out and I talked back to him, he’d tell me, “One day, someone is going to shut that smart mouth of yours – for good.” There was a very distinct chance that, if I wasn’t careful, this would be that day.
I hoped I could hold back.
“I don’t know what you guys have planned, but if this has to do with me calling Lazer’s girlfriend an old whore, then I’m ready to apologize to him.” That may have been a puss move on my part, but it was really a ploy to save my life, if that were even still possible. I figured in a situation like this, humility would be the best place to start.
“Lazer’s girlfriend is an old whore,” Lucas said.
“Oh. Glad to know I’m not the only one who sees it.” He just laughed at that.
I tried to clear my head – not an easy feat with the approximate sunlight scorching my vision and frying my head, and the effects of the drugs still lingering. And underneath those sensations, I began to feel a jittery sort of vibration in my bones. I had no idea how long I’d been out, but the last I had eaten was lunch on the day I left for Damage. If that was anything more than half a day past, I was going to need to feed soon, and I didn’t get the sense that they had a Coleman filled with beef tenderloin anywhere nearby. “So poor taste in lovers aside, I know Lazer and I have had our disagreements over the years, but I didn’t think I’d sinned so hard against him