Drugs

Chapter VIII

 August 20th, 2016

"This is Martini. Martini, meet..."—the old man thought for a moment — "my next-door neighbour."

"Domenic," I said, looking in the opposite direction.

"Hello, Domenic," she said. There was iciness in her voice. "Fancy seeing you here."

She took a seat where the old man had been sitting. He sat next to her with a smile on his face. She was wearing a black corset and panty with matching stockings. She crossed her legs slowly in front of me. Most men would be entranced, but not me. Her face didn't match what she was wearing. She stared at me like a vulture, her brow raised in curiosity.

"So, what do you think?" the old man asked as he grabbed his glass. "She isn't as pretty as the one you were with today, but I see you looking."

Martini and I had both been keeping eyes on each other. I watched him drink from the glass, but before he could finish, she took the glass from him.

"Fuck," I said out loud as she drank the remainder. "What the hell happens now?"

"What's the matter?" he asked as he rubbed his neck. "If you can't wait, I have a spare room. We could—."

The air in the room had changed. There was a heavy smell that suffocated me, I couldn't breathe and my mouth opened in response as my vision blurred. My body sank to the floor under the pressure of the weight.

Martini and the old man had both fallen to the floor as well. There was confusion and fear in their eyes. I wasn't expecting this. Then again, I didn't know what to expect.

August 20th, 2025

***

A black hole opened up in the ceiling. I heard Martini and the old man scream as they were slowly being sucked into what looked like the void. The old man crawled towards me and touched me, causing me to be sucked in as well.

We passed through a tunnel of blood, screams, and faces. I closed my eyes, but that didn't block out the eerie noise. I found myself somewhere foreign, with my foot still being gripped by the old man.

The bastard had dragged me back to this hell. Damn it! Was it because he had held my leg?

I thought we had a deal. Samael lied to me.

"Where the hell are we?" the old man asked, releasing my leg. His glass was still in his other hand.

I took in the barren surroundings as I sat up. The dirt was dark. A cloudy smoke blew through the air. It carried a familiar, unnatural heat with it.

Martini was gone from my sight.

"Hey, answer me. Where are we? Where the bloody hell are we?" the old man asked, touching my shoulder as he took another sip of the whisky.

My body was heavy, keeping me down as I tried to stand. "I don't know where we are."

My eyes darted around, looking for any movement from my surroundings, but there was none. I took the glass from the old man's hand and managed one gulp before he took it back.

"Martini!" the old man called a few times. He gazed around, but there was no response.

What should I do? I thought. It didn't seem safe to wait here. There was no time in the cloud like before, but the smoke made it hard to see anything at all.

"We can't stay here," the old man said, putting his glass on the ground. "We should at least move and see if we can find help or make some sense of this all. I hope I can just chalk this down to getting too old and drinking too much."