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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/LyriumDreams on 2024-11-18 01:10:55+00:00.

My friends are probably dead, but it’s not my fault.  I just want to get that out of the way up front.  You’ll say I shouldn’t have gone along with it.  Maybe you’ll say I could have helped them.  But it wasn’t my idea, and I didn’t know what was happening until it was too late.

So give a guy a break.  I’m telling you this so it doesn’t happen to you.

I don’t remember the name of the party we went to that night.  The police are sure that means I’m hiding something, but honestly, we went to so many parties that they all kind of blend together.  Even when we talked about them, we never called them by name.  It was always “Hey, remember the party where that naked guy fell through the roof?” or “Remember the one where Jazz stole Keoki’s bathrobe?”  It was easier than trying to keep track of who played at what venue on what day, especially since we weren’t always coherent while things were going on.  I mean, it’s a party after all.

There were six of us packed into the car that night: me, Jazz, Hula, Candi, Tommy, and this girl Rachel that Tommy invited at the last minute.  Tommy was driving his SUV, Baby.  Tommy always drove, no matter whose vehicle we took or where we were going.  Said he couldn’t handle putting his life in someone else’s hands.  I know that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, since he regularly risked his life buying and taking drugs at parties, but when you’ve known someone as long as I’ve known Tommy you sort of take their quirks for granted.  Besides, he’s never gotten a ticket or been in an accident. Which is more than I can say for the rest of us.

Anyway, it was this huge desert party, and we had a bunch of stuff crammed into the trunk because we were planning on spending the night out there afterward.  Candi and Jazz were really hyped because they were supposed to meet up with one of the DJs between sets-- some girl from New York, I think.  They were playing her latest mix in the car and it sounded like experimental acid house.  Not really my thing, but it was cool watching them get so excited.  Their good mood was wearing off on the rest of us, and even Hula was doing this weird sort of half-smile.  Hula hates desert parties.  She’s terrified of scorpions, and every time we go out there somebody has to convince her to just get out of the car and have a good time.

We got out there about a half hour before the music started.  Usually we like to show up a little late, but this was supposed to be a big party and we wanted to make sure we got our stuff set up before things got going.  Nobody wants to carry tents and blankets through the middle of a party in the dark.  So we chose a spot and I started setting up the tents while everybody else ran back and forth to the car to get all the soft toys, blankets, and coolers full of water and ice.  At some point Rachel ended up helping me nail the tent pegs in, and I finally had a chance to talk to her.

She was gorgeous, so I could see why Tommy liked her.  Long blond hair, tanned skin, a bright pink tanktop and a pair of tight jeans; she looked like she should be on her way to a sorority party, not hanging out with a bunch of ravers in the desert.  Then she told me she’d met Thomas-- Thomas!– in her sociology class, and I couldn’t help but laugh.  She laughed a little too, like it was totally obvious to her that she didn’t fit in and she didn’t care.  She told me that she was working on a paper about how psychoactive substances could “dissolve barriers between people of different subcultures”.  I took that to mean she had a thing for Tommy and wanted to roll with him, and I dropped it.  She seemed like a nice girl.

Finding the pills wasn’t hard.  We didn’t even have to go looking.  We finished setting up our roll station just as it got dark and the music began to pick up, so we walked around as a group for a while and checked out all the stages.  We made a slow circle and an hour later we were standing in front of the tents again, trying to figure out which stage to go to, when this little goth chick settled down on one of our blankets and gave us a big smile.  She was wearing black and white striped stockings and these crazy contacts that made it look like her eyes were solid red.  Pretty badass, but there was something about her I didn’t like. Not a cop thing. She was just… creepy. Like she didn’t belong at a desert party.  “You guys looking for anything?”

Jazz settled in next to her and started negotiating.  Jazz looked like a dork, with his giant glasses and overbite, but he was our party guy.  If you only had ten bucks and wanted to have a great night, Jazz could make it happen. After a couple of parties we’d learned to just give him the money and let him work.  After a couple of minutes he handed the girl most of the money we’d pooled, and she disappeared back into the dark.  He gave her a minute, then held up a little bag stuffed with pills.  His teeth flashed bright white in the dark. “Got it.”

We split the bag six ways.  There were two pills for everyone: a red Mitsubishi and a dark purple one without an imprint.  Jazz said the goth chick had called those “Vex”.  Apparently they were the new big thing.  The ‘ultimate high’. Everyone else was really excited to try them, but I tucked the Vex into my pocket.  I’d had Mitsubishis before and they were a long-lasting, energetic, cuddly dance pill.  That vibe was exactly what I was looking for, so I figured I’d take the Vex later, when the Mitsu started to peak. There’s a science to these things.

Everyone else headed off to the trance stage, and I talked Hula into coming out of the tent and going with me to see who else had shown up.  I didn’t even think about the Vex again until about eleven o’clock.  By then we had run into a couple of people we knew from past parties, and Hula was finally starting to relax and have a good time.  We’d heard a couple of amazing sets and the pills had definitely kicked in.

Hula slipped her hand into mine and gave me an enormous smile.  “I’m so happy,” she said, sounding like a little girl.  Her pupils were enormous and her dark eyes shone in the colored lights from the stage.  Her hair was tangled with sweat from the pills and the dancing, and her t-shirt was stained with it. I knew mine was, too, but we didn’t care.

“I know!” I laughed.  “That’s the point!”  I was grinning like a fool, feeling the music travel in waves up my legs and along my spine.

“You know what would be really great right now?  Let’s go back to the tent and get some water, and I’ll give you a backrub!”

We were halfway back to the tent when Hula started stumbling. At first it was just a couple of steps, and I thought she’d tripped over the rough ground. That’s one of the hazards of desert parties. But she was staggering like a drunk, her movements jerky and badly-timed, and eventually I had to throw my arm around her to make sure she wasn’t going to go face-down in the sand. It made me laugh, but she was kind of heavy. Hula’s a big girl.

“Sorry,” she said, and her words were slurry but kind of bright, like she was still smiling through them. I hugged her and slid one of my bracelets over her hand: the silver beads with the blue stars that said “MUSIC”. She grinned at me.

That’s when we heard the screaming.  There was a big crowd of people gathered around the jungle stage, so we couldn’t see what was going on, but it sounded like somebody up front had either gotten hurt or was having a really bad trip.  Still holding hands, Hula and I pushed through the crowd to see what had happened. Everyone moved out of the way, though it still took a minute to get through all of them.

At first I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.  There was this guy hunched over on the ground, holding his face, and this girl in fairy wings standing over him.  It was her doing most of the screaming, but the guy was making plenty of noise of his own.  Something dark dripped from his face, and at first I thought he was throwing up.  Then I realized the blood was coming from his eyes.  He was still clawing at them.  I shuddered and stepped back, pulling Hula by the hand.  She stared at me for a second, then said seriously, “I wonder what he saw.”

“Who gives a shit?” I said, trying to pull her away from the stage, but she wouldn’t budge. She just kept staring at the guy, her mouth slightly open like she was seeing something I wasn’t. I gave her arm a gentle tug. “Hula, come on.”

She turned to look at me, her pupils still blown wide, but something in her smile was weird. It was lopsided, like she was trying to remember how to use her face. I felt a cold knot form in my stomach.

The screaming stopped all at once, like someone had flipped a switch. A few people gasped. The guy on the ground was completely still now, his face turned away from us. The girl in the fairy wings staggered back, her hands pressed to her mouth. I thought she was going to scream again, but she didn’t. Instead she backed into me, and I could hear her muttering, “It’s not real. It’s not real.”

I didn’t want to be there anymore. Hula still wasn’t moving, though, and I was starting to freak out. I grabbed her by her shoulders and tried to turn her around. “Hula! We’re leaving!”

She blinked slowly, like I’d just awakened her from a nap, and nodded. “Yeah. Okay.” Her voice was soft and sluggish, but at least she started walking when I tried to guide her back to the tent.

I did look back to see if anybody was help…

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