Vertigo

Chapter Two - Irregularly Mundane

I sighed as I slipped through the open door of my apartment, turning my lock in the keyhole, slipping the bolt into place and hooking up the chain. The room was filled with the scent of cold coffee and whisky. Crumpled up bits of paper were spewed across the floor, tossed across the room in frustration, dried out pens across the table and the sink still packed with mugs, no dishes. The curtains were all drawn shut, leaving the only source of light in the house the blaring screen my roommate stared into.

"Our room is a mess, Haylee," I spoke, stepping over the laptop charger before walking over to Haylee. A salty scent hit my nose with a hint of dried out onions as he leaned closer to her, sniffing.

"You stink," I whispered, earning a sideways glance from her. She had been dressed in her pj's from two nights before - her brown hair a tangled mess by now. The cast on her left arm had been peppered with more drawings than my old studio - some drawn with care, others done so crudely it looked like scribbles.

"Your face," she cut me off before I could order her to the shower. Her eyes lit up with concern as she stepped away from her work, "What happened? Why's it swollen?"

"Some creep at work. Must have been drunk."

"You work at some security firm right?" She asked, running her finger through her sticky brown hair. I nodded, lying to her. "Don't you think you can find a safer job? You know, one that you don't get beat up at every second night?"

"Where's the fun in that? I like being beating up, you know? " I laughed, placing my hand on her shoulder. Her eyes were locked onto mine, large and serious. "Being in danger is thrilling."

"Is that why you placed all the locks on the door?" She questioned. I pulled away with a lack of an answer before she sighed. "Allison is this about the nightmares-"

"Shut up, Avangard," I grunted and she dropped the subject, staring down at her notes on microbiology. Three essays and an exam due for the end of the week. A tear ran down the side of her cheek, sinking my heart with guilt. "You like the really fruity ones, right?"

"What?"

"Champaign, idiot."

"Yeah, but it's like a thousand bucks a bottle."

"Just a hundred," I said, reaching into my bag, gingerly slipping out a glass bottle I had tucked between my gloves and setting it down. She raised her eyebrow at me before getting up to get glasses.

"Sit down," I spoke, popping off the cork with my pocket knife before taking a swig straight from the bottle. She sat down in front of me and I handed over the bottle.

"What are we celebrating?" She asked before taking a swig and passing back.

"Nothing. I just felt like getting wasted."

"You know," She spoke as she watched me drink, "You could get wasted on dollar store wine. Heck, probably even a shot of beer."

"Funny," I responded. But, she was right. I had never been the best at holding my liquor - probably just one more swig until my senses blurred. I took it. Before I knew, darkness started creeping into my vision, leaving me feeling as if my head and been filled with air as I've just been punched. I passed out, seeing Haylee look down at me, massaging the bridge of her nose.

For what felt like the longest time, I was surrounded in silence; then it started, the same as every night. A crack in a branch and the smell of smoke that brought it all back.

"Dawn, are you sure this is safe?" Cindy asked as she trotted behind me, brushing aside the insects that buzzed around her face. "We should be in our dorms right now... I mean, if our parents find out, we're dead."

"She's right," Tyler spoke, his hands deeply buried into the pockets of his hoodie. "Are you sure this party is worth getting up for in the middle of the night?"

"Our parents don't give two shit. They sent us so far from them so they wouldn't have to deal with us," I bit back without turning around. My blonde hair had been completely covered in a deep black dye that made it unnaturally dark. "Besides, it's a bonfire party. When will we have the opportunity again?"

"I guess you have a point," Tyler sighed before continuing after me. "But, isn't the party near the old train station? Why are we heading through the Epping?"

"Short cut," I shrugged, "Let's hurry before we miss all the action."

We continued pressing through the forest a bit longer, all of us hugging ourselves tightly to cling onto the last bit of heat we had left. I pushed through bushes, stepped over logs and crawled through tiny crevices, then my heart sank with dread as we stepped into the opening.

Flies were more profuse here as they buzzed around with excited wing flaps, their senses honed onto a scent more alluring than anything else to them - the scent of death. A woman in front of me sighed underneath the large hood that concealed her face. Tyler and Cindy stumbled behind me, their eyes instantly widening at the sight of the body in front of the woman, stained a pale blue by now.

"They're just kids." A large man spoke, looking at the woman in the hood. She shook her head, drawing her pistol from behind her back. The man sighed before another two forced Tyler and Cindy to their knees.

Tyler squirmed, yelling curses as he tried to escape the man's grip, but it was useless, Cindy knew it and lost control of her bladder, filling the air with the pungent scent of urine that blended sickly with the decomposing corpses behind me. I was frozen, my face planted firmly against the ground without any memory of being taken down.

"Dawn, help me!" Cindy yelled out one last time before the woman's gun sounded, staining her white dress a vivid red that I could never wash from my memory.

Heat welled up behind my eyes as I reached out to her now lifeless corpse. The woman stepped over her, walking towards Tyler, placing the barrel of the gun firmly against his temple. He smiled at me, and it was over.

My eyes snapped open as I shot up in bed, grabbing hold of my head. Sweat covered my whole body as my chest rose and dropped incredibly quick. "I'm not Dawn anymore," I reminded myself, "Dawn died, I'm getting better, I'm getting better, I'm getting better!"

I wasn't.

Thankfully, Halee had still been asleep - passed out over her notes, actually. My phone buzzed on my lap as my attention darted towards it. Big Boy, I whispered before reading the message.

"I have a job for you."

"I'm on my way."