The Stronghold

Close The Goddamn Door!

Dancing around in circles I howled with laughter, alcohol plain on my breath. I'd been drinking the day and night away and I'd bypassed the level of sanity.

"Someone needs to stop him," Tom said to Georgina as I started to slow dance with Lulu. The little dog had been in a dog carer whilst we were away panicking and was perfectly happy to see us back. However, she didn't like the dancing.

I grinned as I got a sharp bite to the wrist and let Lulu go. There was no pain, the booze numbing any.

"Why is he even being so... crazy?" Kevin wondered.

"He said that he saw Salt but that he was going insane and then started drinking and wouldn't stop," Georgina explained.

"I see what his father meant when he said no alcohol," Kevin murmured. He flew to me and dipped his body, ready to act on my commands.

"Kevin," I slurred, "go and get... get... whee!" I grabbed his two metal hands and spun him around, letting go and shrieking as he only just halted in front of the windows.

"Pepper, you're acting like Shaade," Tom said sternly. "Shaade when he's drunk, may I add."

"Red and orange and yellow and green," I warbled, slumping down onto the sofa and conducting my own singing with my legs. "Blue and indigo and violet, I can see a rainbow..."

"Gag him," Georgina ordered. Tom sprang forwards and tackled me around the waist, throwing me to the marble floor and kneeling on my chest. Georgina grabbed a strip of material and stuffed it into my mouth, motioning for Tom to drag me upright. I was crying with laughter by that point, giggling and trying not to choke on the fabric.

"I didn't do anything," I spluttered, spitting out the gag and stiffening. Tom grumbled and dropped me against a table, freezing me to the floor.

"The cold never bothered me anyway," I sang drunkly, rocking my head from side to side.

"Fine," Tom said, walking away. "Be irritating."

"You're going to have the worst hangover in the world tomorrow," Georgina said, shaking her head. She knelt next to me and took a pen off the table.

"I might just take advantage of your drunkenness by drawing a moustache on your face..."

"Nope nope nope," I growled, dodging the pen and hitting my head on the corner of the table. Something warm trickled down my neck and I giggled, wriggling my shoulders.

"Warm," I murmured, craning my neck backwards to wipe the liquid on the tableleg. "Warm but cold legs..."

"Tom! He's gone insane!"

"What's he saying?" Tom replied, poking his head around his bedroom door.

"That he's warm but has cold legs."

"Oh, I froze him to the floor and he's probably hit his head on the table," Tom said, a little too calmly. "The alcohol will stop any pain that he has."

"But later on?"

"The hangover will block everything out. Oh, and by the way, where's the remote for the speakers? And where are the Panic! At The Disco tracks?"

*

There was a pounding in my head and a blanket over my legs. Music deafened me and every move I made hurt.

Groaning I sunk lower under my duvet, curling very slowly into a ball.

"I chime in with a haven't you people ever heard of, closing the Goddamn door?" blasted from every speaker hidden around the three floors of my apartment house.