Raymond walked into the closest Mall.
Before he even got a few feet inside a beautiful woman turned the corner going way faster than any woman in high heels should have been and slammed into him. "I'm sorry," he immediately said.
His apology, however, fell to deaf ears as the woman had already flung open the mall doors, exiting swiftly. All New Yorkers were the same, he thought to himself, grateful he didn't live in the city, they were all so wrapped up in their own worlds that they didn't notice the people around them. Having grown up in a small town where everyone was friendly to everyone it was unusual for him. No one would ever bump into anyone without apologizing in his town. He wasn't going to let it get to him though, once his friends arrived in the city they were going clubbing for his 21st birthday and then crashing in a hotel that his friends had already booked for the weekend. He was in the mall to buy himself a nice outfit for tonight, he knew he was a handsome young man and he thought smugly to himself that maybe, just maybe he would give some lucky gal the time of her life tonight.
He walked further into the store gawking in amazement and bewilderment, never had he seen such a huge singular store, he grew up further west, close to Virginia, and their idea of a mall was a few stores in the same parking lot. Seemingly out of nowhere a foul stench filled his nostrils, a few people around him gave explanations of displeasure as they too beheld the putrid smell, like rotting flesh on bone. Raymond's stomach turned and when the smell didn't go away, after a few minutes as he wandered away from where he first smelled it, he made a point to exit from the mall and back out into the street. He would find somewhere else to shop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~later that evening~~~~~~~~~~
"Want a hit Ray?" Timothy nudged his friend as they walked out of the hotel offering him his dab pen.
"Sure maybe that will help, I don't feel too great," taking the red pen he toked on it while walking with his 4 friends. Timothy held his phone up, his eyebrows furrowed as he took in the GPS.
"I hope you're not catching anything, you don't feel like you're going to puke do you?" Billy, Raymond's shortest friend and the only red head of the group asked.
"The only vomiting you're allowed to do this weekend is from drinking too much, am I right?" Flynn, who was walking backwards ahead of them, attempted to make a joke.
"Hell yeah, that's right," their fourth friend remarked, pushing at Raymond's shoulders teasingly. Ray half smiled looking down at the ground, his head was pounding and the street lights when he looked up blurred the edges of his vision.
"It says we are about 1/2 a mile from this place, so about 8 minutes. We have to make the next right! I can hardly see with all this fog though."
Raymond's head hurt more and more by the moment and his friend's words seemed to begin to blend together. Flynn and Billy were speaking loudly together ahead of the group, and Ray was finding that their words were beginning to ring in his ear, luckily he was not known for participating in conversations often, so no one prodded him to join. 15 minutes went by in a blur and soon Ray found himself standing in front of a bouncer handing him his ID and walking through the doors into the club. Loud music boomed across the large space that was only dimly lit by neon signs and lights.
"Dude, no more weed for you, your eyes are red as red can be and you look so dazed. How much did you smoke God damn?" Flynn clapped Ray's back, throwing his arms over his friend's shoulder and pulling him to the bar. Ray's head had finally stopped hurting, and besides feeling foggy he no longer felt sick at all. A calming feeling fell over him like no other taking over every inch of his body.
A blonde haired woman stood behind the bar opposite from them mixing a drink. Like the rest of the women walking around passing out drinks she wore a blue low cut, tight belly shirt that accentuated her large breasts. Raymond looked helplessly at them now swallowing hard at the way they jiggled as she shook her mixer. The tight black pants she wore he took particular notice of as she turned around to grab a cherry for her mixed drink. This had Ray squirming uncomfortably in his seat. He couldn't help but think the girl looked a little like an older version of his ex-girlfriend who he had broken up with 3 months ago after 5 years together.
"Hello, my name is Michelle, what can I get for you boys?" The bartender's eyes rose questioningly, her voice seemingly both lazy and sweet at the same time.
It's my man's birthday," Flynn squeezed Ray again, " we would like to start with 3 shots each of your house whiskey on me and I would like to pay now." he handed her his card with a dazzling smile on his face. She looked at him unimpressed but took his card and then looked at each one of their IDs in turn. Five minutes later they had 3 shots lined in front of each one of them. "Highway robbery," muttered Flynn low under his breath as he signed his bill adding in her tip. For all 15 drinks he paid a little under $200 and he couldn't help but think about how many whole large bottles of cheap whiskey he could have got for the same cost.
"On the count of three. One, Two, Three.... Go," Timothy had yelled. Each one of them grabbed the shots and threw them back, swallowing hard. Raymond noted the way it burned on the way down, one shot, two shot, three shots, he slammed the last shot down.
"Whoo," Raymond sang, shaking his head and laughing. The boys all pushed at each other playfully, nearly knocking one another over, "Now let's get a beer and dance, maybe if we are lucky we will get our drinks spiked." Billy laughed
"Wait what?" the 5th in their group asked confused. "Why would you ever wish for something like that?"
"Free drugs, why else?" At this point in the night most people had filtered from the bar onto the dance floor or lounge areas only walking over to one of the women behind the bar if they needed a refill.
"What I wouldn't do for some coke right now," Flynn shook his head looking relatively disappointed.
Michelle, overhearing Billy, spoke in a low voice, "Hey for 80 bucks cash I could hook u 5 up with a new party pill I got from one of my girlfriends. They are calling it RAGER." Before she could even finish, Billy wiped out four 20s and pushed it to her on the table.
Timothy produced his card at the same time and said "5 Bud lights please." Taking both the card and the cash, she shoved the cash in her pocket and got their drinks, putting them in front of them. She pulled 5 miniature baggies from her purse on the floor and placed them under the card handed them and the card to Timothy. Taking their drinks They went over to a small lounge currently unoccupied and Timothy handed each one in turn the baggie with the single tab in it. Taking them out of the bag the boys clinked glasses and Raymond said, " Bottoms up," before tossing the pill back and downing the entirety of his beer.
An hour later saw the first effect of the pill, a feeling of euphoria and giddiness transforming all 5 young men. The dance floor was packed and the boys were having the time of their lives. Raymond felt strange from the drug, it seemed to be affecting him more than the others, he was going on an emotional rollercoaster between absolute bliss and extreme energy to calmness and tranquility, he felt hot and his skin was warm to the touch. A young woman with dark skin and black hair sauntered over to him dancing, a crooked smile on her red painted lips. His eyes were drawn to the red of them as she spoke.
"Hey, my name is Rose, would you like to dance with me," he found her incredibly sexy, and even though he could tell she was heavily intoxicated, the way she spoke was extremely charming.
"I'm Raymond and I would love that," and like that he was back in the middle of the dance floor, this thick tall beauty grinding on him. His hands pressed to her waist and he could feel blood rushing to other places as her ass pressed up against him, a thin short skirt the only thing covering it. He let out a moan and she turned looking over her shoulders and up into his beautiful sea blue eyes. She turned his face down to hers and kissed him, she smelled and tasted strongly of alcohol. She turned towards him and kissed him again dancing tauntingly on him, pressing her sensitive areas against his. An hour into dancing with him and she pulled his hand beckoning he followed her and he did. He followed her out the door of the club and into the foggy streets, another turn and she pulled him so he pressed her against the wall of an alley. He kissed her hard hiking up her skirt, as she fumbled with his belt buckle unzipping his pants, he groaned and she covered his mouth with her one hand, shushing him.
At that moment a piercing pain shot through his head and he put his hands up against the wall behind the woman to keep his balance, everything beginning to ring in his ears. When his eyes shot open he looked at the woman and bit down on her hand, not extremely hard but hard enough for a metallic taste to begin to fill his mouth. She screamed and pushed him back causing him to stumble. "Fucking creep," she said and before he could respond or react, or even try to grab at her she ran off back towards the club.
Raymond had forced himself to stand back up, his head down, blood dripping from his mouth as he stood in the dark. His eyes were 2 pools of nothingness, red blood vessels visible where the whites should have been. Behind him deeper into the alley a door slammed shut. Slowly he turned facing the source of the sound and began to move towards it.