The Incredible League of Goth Pizza Haters (RH)

Part 70

---Sylvia---
I'd been given another granola bar and a plastic cup of water. At least they still had the decency to change the cups. Yes, I was down here with nothing but a big sweatshirt and a blanket in an unheated basement after a freezing cold shower, but fuck at least I had a new cup to hold the possibly drugged water. How considerate.

Though, at this point, I think it may be just water. They've been administering me the drug through a needle and syringe and I've become pretty dehydrated at this point. I'd tried to drink some of the cold water from the shower but it tasted like rust and John threatened to beat me every time I did...

With the threats John laid out.. Did the precautions I took really matter? If it was going to do nothing to save me from becoming a slave to a massive illegal trading business?

I felt tears burn my eyes. Did anything matter anymore? In the face of losing everything.. What was a glass of water?

I decided to try the cup. The process of getting to the water was pitiful enough, me moving like an inchworm, but at least they'd dropped in a nice little bendy straw for me to drink from. Once again, how fucking considerate.

I lifted my head and sipped it and before I knew it I'd drained the cup. Afterwards, I waited for something to happen but it didn't seem like anything would. I laid down against the wall, did my best to wrap myself up in the blanket and tried to relax.

I was almost gone, treading along on the edges of a, for once, unforced sleep. Then it happened.

It started with the slight feeling of dizziness, like a headrush. Then when I opened my eyes I found that darkness shaded the edges of my vision and I thought I was going to pass out again. I blinked my eyes and shook my head gently in an attempt to remain conscious. I began to fight the sleep I'd previously been marveling over. My thoughts blurred and I began to feel disoriented, like that feeling you get as you're falling asleep. You're there and you're conscious but not very.

I looked over as the door opened, expecting to see Joe or Philip looking in in triumph, or maybe rushing over because I drank all of it so fast and maybe I was overdosing.

But standing there... I saw someone I didn't truly recognize or register until she sat right by me.

"Abby?" The last time I'd seen her I dreamt of killing myself. The time before that I was staring into her casket. She smiled and reached out, brushing strands of hair out of my face.

"How do you always manage to get yourself into situations like this?" she murmured sorrowfully and then sighed. The sound echoed off the barren walls and bounced back. My body felt too heavy to move. "Sylvia.." she said, face becoming serious as the darkness was consuming me, "You have to get out of here. This is all... It's only going to get worse." She stood up and walked over to the door, opening it and standing in the doorway.

I tried to call out to her or move or anything but I couldn't.

"Escape," she told me and left, leaving the door wide open. I fought against the blackness shading my eyes and the weight like a bag of rocks on my chest but I couldn't move and soon everything fell away.

---Ricky---

"Rick!" I heard Ange call, "Are you sleeping?"

"No," I replied, rolling over and looking out from the darkness of my bunk. "What is it?"

"Can you come out here for a minute?" I sighed and slipped from the bunk. I haven't been sleeping much and I've been paranoid and honestly very short-tempered. My short temper came to surface as I walked into the lounge to see my band all seated around and looking at me like this was an intervention. I stopped in the kitchen and stared at them all.