Dreadful

Chapter 2

When I got inside the car, I looked at Yuri, really looked at him, for the first time. He was a handsome older man, maybe a few years older than I. He had messy hair that looked to be dyed silver and deep brown eyes. He didn't look at me at all, and I wondered in horror if he was one of those men. I could see the defined muscles in his arms, and could imagine them holding me against my will. This man could rape me, and I could do nothing about it. Oh fuck! What am I doing in this man's car? I didn't want to show him I was nervous, so I kept quiet. The good thing about being scared to death was that I finally stopped crying and was entirely sober.

He didn't hesitate as he drove. I suppose he already knew where he wanted to take me. I waited in silence, hoping he didn't take me to a seedy motel or a dark alley.

I was surprised when we pulled into the driveway of a large house. I quietly got out of the car and followed him inside. It seemed as though all the lights in the house were on, but there was no one in any of the rooms we passed. We stopped in front of a plain black door, and Yuri turned to me with a grouchy look on his face. "Just... don't get on his nerves... our parents are out of town, so you can sleep in the spare bed."

He? I opened my mouth to ask a question, but promptly closed it when Yuri opened the door without knocking. The sickly sweet smell of smoke filled my nostrils and I saw an irritated man my age sitting on a couch with a water pipe in hand. He scoffed and set the pipe down. "What do you want?" Yuri pushed me into the room, "She's staying for the night, and I'm heading out." And he closed the door. "Whatever..."

What the hell? Did I just get passed off? This is annoying... I didn't wait for him to say anything to me. Instead I took a seat on a nearby chair. Without a word, he took another puff from his pipe. As I looked at him, I recognized his slick black hair and hazel eyes. He was Niko, a guy from my class. He didn't talk much at school, and when he did it was usually an insulting or condescending remark.

He sat on the couch silently examining me. I watched the flicker of amusement in his face when his eyes passed over my red and scarred wrist. "You're a cutter." It wasn't a question, but I refused to answer him either way. He seemed to notice my lack of speech and extended the pipe to me. "It's better." I eyed it for a moment, curious. Why the fuck not? I took the offered pipe and inhaled deeply. I almost started coughing, but resisted the impulse. I handed it back to him and sat back in my chair, exhaling.

After a bit, I noticed a change within myself. It was strange, but not unpleasant. I felt calm, and my vision seemed a bit fuzzy. I could only concentrate on one or two things at a time, and they seemed to be a little warped. We sat like that for hours, passing the pipe between ourselves, not saying many words. After I don't know how long, I felt my eyes grow heavy and I could feel myself sinking into the chair. Niko scoffed at me, and I quickly opened my eyes and tried to sit back up. He stood up and motioned for me to follow him.

I watched him crawl onto his bed, and flip one side of the wall up, opening into another room, on another bed. Weird. "You can sleep there. Knock if you need anything." I nodded in thanks and crawled onto the other bed, on the other side of the wall. Feeling awkward, I slept on the other side of the bed, not in the way of the wall opening in case he opened it again.

I slipped into a fitful sleep. I don't know what I dreamed about, but it was awful. I felt the blackness closing in on me, suffocating me, making me claustrophobic. I tried to scream, but I had no air to breathe, and no sound would escape my lips. How could anyone possibly hear me?

I woke up, to a rough shaking. "Hey, wake the fuck up!" I opened my damp eyes to find Niko peering in through the wall, with his hand on my shoulder. His expression was so different from normal... I don't know if it was because I woke him, or... what.