Morana knows she's different from other people in more ways than one. Firstly, she's sixty-seven years old but stopped ageing in her twenties. Weird things have also happened around her right after she's wished for it. But most importantly, no matte...
As I watched Alejo walk off, a sinking feeling settled in me. I knew he tried to hide it from me, but it was clear he dreaded going to the coven. I still didn't know exactly what they did to him, I hadn't wanted to ask directly but waited for when he was ready to open up about it to me. Sadly, that hadn't happened yet.
"Hey, Morana," Dereck said at my side while nudging me and I realized I was staring off into nothingness.
"Sorry. Let's go in," I said and plastered a smile on my face.
"You'll only be apart from him for a few hours," Dereck muttered under his breath, and I chose to ignore the comment. Yes, it was just a few hours, and we were apart for that length of time when I went into work. But it felt worse than ever. It felt wrong and foreboding.
"Nice costume, by the way," I told Dereck to try to push all negativity aside. Alejo had said he would message me if there was anything. There was no point in dwelling on potential future problems.
"Thanks," Dereck answered and then added so low it was barely audible, "Took you long enough."
I chose to ignore that too. Alejo had generally been good at not showing any hostility towards Dereck. It was obvious he didn't like him, but it was rather by how he would sometimes look at Dereck the truth was shown. Dereck, on the other hand, quite often let slip different comments about Alejo or about other things which told of his displeasure with me paying attention to Alejo rather than him.
I had quickly decided to ignore any and all such comments. I also completely ignored what that all meant about how Dereck really felt for me.
It was only seven in the evening, but we would always arrive at the party that early. It was at a pretty popular club and already at seven, we usually had to wait for a bit before getting in. Any later and we would likely spend more time in the queue than inside the club.
The club was divided into several different dance floors. On the bottom floor was one big one, but on the floor above they had three different, much smaller dance floors and a bunch of smaller rooms for people to sit and relax in.
The whole place was specifically decorated for Halloween, or at least I assumed it was only for Halloween, since I never sat my foot in there on any other day of the year.
There were cobwebs on the walls. Pumpkins which emitted disco light. Bats which hung from the ceiling. Skeletons holding lanterns and much, much more. Every year, the staff would also dress up in accordance to one specific theme. That year, they all dressed like zombies.
We went to the second floor and started the evening with a beer each on a couch in one of the smaller, more private rooms. Quickly I realized I had missed hanging out with Dereck a bit, though I didn't think I had. The conversation just ended up being different from how it was with Alejo. Me and Dereck could talk about old memories.
So we sat there for a good long while, drank beer after beer while comparing the decoration to the earlier years, laughed about different people's costumes, and teased each other for old costumes which we had had. My mind and spirit felt light.
After an hour or so, we did shots before going out and onto one of the smaller dance floors. They played different types of music in the different rooms and the one we went to was my favorite: 90's music.
We danced, drank some more shots, and dance even more. It was fun and freeing and very different from all I had been doing over the past month. I had basically spent all of my time studying, so being out dancing was a surprisingly pleasant change of pace.
We held hands and spun around. He steadied me as we stopped. A Beyonce song was on. I moved my hips while I danced. We didn't touch, but we danced close to each other because of limited space. Very close. Almost a bit too close compared to what felt necessary. But it had to have been because every time I moved to put a bit more distance between us, that extra distance disappeared almost immediately.
We took another shot and went back out onto the dance floor. At that point, I had had quite a lot of alcohol already. So much I had lost track of how much.
An upbeat Spice Girls song ended and a slower Brittney Spears song started. I went from jumping around to swaying on the spot. It was then I started feeling I had had too much to drink. Though I basically stood still, things felt like they were spinning. Like I stood on a platform which spun a little to the right and then back to the left, over and over.
I felt something against my hips. Hands, I assumed, but looking down to check, was sure to make me puke. It was Dereck's hands, most likely. Probably meant to steady me. But they made the spinning worse.
I closed my eyes to try to make everything stand still, but felt myself being pulled towards something. The scent of alcohol hit me as well as something solid, which felt far too warm under my hands that pressed against it to feel some control. The hands meant to steady me gripped even tighter and nausea followed. I opened my eyes and Dereck was right in front of me. He looked down at me, since he was slightly taller. A hand came up to my face, stroked away some hair. It felt like his fingers left scorching blisters where they touched.
"Water," I yelled and tried to be louder than the music and to take a step back. I failed at both, but Dereck still seemed to have understood what was going on.
He moved around, so we were side by side. He had one arm around my waist. His fingers dug into me as he guided me out of the room. I felt myself sway as I walked, and his hold became even tighter. Too tight. To the point that it made me feel uncomfortable, and it became hard to breathe. I wanted to push him away, and I tried, but in my drunkenness, I could just as well not have.
He led me back to one of the smaller private rooms. There I sat down on the couch and closed my eyes, thankful that the room was empty and quiet. I didn't want a bunch of people staring at my drunken state, and any noise was bound to be annoying.
"Here," I heard him say and looked back up. He held out a glass of water to me, which I took and emptied quickly.
"Want more?" he asked next, but I shook my head. "Need to puke?" I shook my head again.
He sat down next to me. For a long time, we sat in silence. The spinning slowly subsided somewhat, but I could still feel I had had far too much alcohol. My mind felt slow and my body sluggish, and it grew heavier and heavier. Sleep felt like a nice option.
But a prickling feeling of uncomfortableness made it impossible. An itching feeling on my legs which made me pull them closer to me. I felt the cushions of the couch move under me, as if weight was lifted off and on them. Then that itching started again. Higher up on my leg, almost at my ass.
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