The Mendacity of Winnie Hart

Chapter Eleven

Wren looked at me and finally seemed to notice how messed up I was feeling. I groaned and put my hands over my eyes, attempting to shield out the party. My heart felt like it was sprinting to every area of my body and back. The blood rushing through my head sounded like waves crashing into my skull.

"Oh my god. Why'd she eat some random food? I'd better take her home."

I heard a bang, making me flinch away from the noise. Hesitantly, I brought my hands away from my eyes but immediately regretted it. If the party looked anxiety-inducing before, it was unbearable to watch now. Everyone was looking towards me, but they all shared one face.

No, what had Noah said?

There were drugs in the food? Or the walls? Drugs in something.

"How much have you drank?" My eyes widened at the sight of the devil speaking to Wren.

"I guess there was more alcohol in those drinks than I thought," she said, looking at me with guilt.

The devil scoffed, and looked at me. I jumped at the feeling of something on my arm that was still on the table. I frantically began scratching at it, fearing some kind of bug had started to crawl inside me. The devil stepped closer to me and grabbed my hand away, holding it gently while he turned to Wren again. It was only in this proximity that I remembered it was Noah dressed as the devil, not the ruler of the Underworld himself.

"Look at her. She's having a really bad trip. The kid who told me what drugs were in those cookies wasn't even positive about it, it could've been something worse." He faced back around to me, and spoke more gently than I've ever heard him speak. "You're going to be okay Winnie. This isn't going to last forever."

He dropped my wrist, leaving me to wander off somewhere. Wren immediately ran over to me, but I leapt out of my seat before she could touch me. There was no way I was letting anyone touch me right now. The inane fear that they would try and pull off my limbs captured my brain.

Everything felt scary.

My mind was scary.

I wanted to go home. I didn't want to feel like this anymore.

My mind was in a battle between what was real and what wasn't. Unfortunately, everything felt real to me right now.

Wren tried to approach me again but I ran around the table to evade her. She sighed and started following me, but I kept running around it in circles. Eventually she gave up, and stood at the opposite end, but didn't take her eyes off me until Noah came back with Ash.

The red and blue of his suit made me want to throw up. They were melding together into a purple liquid and running down his clothes. I cringed at the sight.

Through all this, the anxiety and absolute dread never left me. I felt like I was going to collapse to the floor and die at any moment.

"I'll drive you two to her house. Get her," Noah demanded, grabbing his keys from Ash's open hand.

"I- I don't know how to deal with this. I've never been around anyone who's done shrooms, let alone is having a bad high," Wren said, reaching across the table to try and grab me again.

"No!" I yelped, stepping away from her again.

She turned to Noah as if to say 'see?'

"Come on Winnie. You'll feel a lot better in your own house," Noah tried, nodding his head to the front door.

That was true. I really didn't want to be around all of these people and music anymore. I allowed Wren to hold onto one of my hands as the four of us went outside. Ash was whispering things to Noah, and I'm sure it was about me.