Page 130 of Monstrous Urges
“Where the fuck are you,” he hisses quietly as my vision melts to swirls of color.
“Vadik’s…” my breathing slows. “House.”
“Drazen is with you?”
“Please…”
“IS DRAZEN WITH YOU?!” he roars, his voice spewing from the phone in ribbons of blood red and black.
“Yes…”
“Stay where you are. Leave this phone on. I’m on my way.”
“Come,” I tell myself, helping myself back to my feet. “We can’t stay here.”
I nod, not even able to talk as the full force of the LSD starts to hit me. But I stagger onward, dragging Drazen across the field next to Vadik’s house. The woods loom dark and terrifying, and it would be so tempting to stop. My dream self won’t let me.
“There’s a place you can hide, Taylor. Wait for your help to come. You’ll be safe.”
I drag Drazan past the tree line and under a fallen log, where there’s a little hollow.
“Stay here,” I tell myself.
Our eyes lock—me and my subconsciousness. Me and the me I used to be, maybe. Who knows. I’ve lost track.
“Who am I?” I whisper to myself as I slip under the log and into the little hollow alongside Drazen’s still form.
“You’re you,” I say back. “And I am me.”
“And who are you?”
I smile at myself as I touch my cheek.
“I’m your invisible friend.”
Dream me melts away as the riot of light and color and sound engulf me. My hand finds Drazen’s, and I hold on tightly.
“Stay with me,” I whisper. “Because I’m staying with you.”
30
TAYLOR
My eyes flutter open and then closed. Instantly, they fly open again.
“Morning,” Drazen growls, a lazy, sleepy smile on his scruff-covered jaw as he leans over me.
“What are you doing!?” I blurt, sitting up quickly, now totally awake as I plant my hands on his shoulders and try and gently push him back down. “You’re supposed to be resting,” I mutter, shaking the last of sleep from my head.
Drazen winces as he lowers himself back to the sheets, grunting.
“How…” He frowns, blinking as he settles into the bed.
“Milos,” I murmur, my eyes glancing at all the bandages over the many wounds on his body. “He came and got us out after the fighting and brought us home. Your doctor got flown in. You’d been…” I grit my teeth.
“Tortured,” he growls.
I nod, my chest tightening as my mind replays the horror of following my subconscious through a nightmare into a basement to find Drazen hanging bleeding from chains.