Euphoria. That was the only word for it, really. The word for the sensation clouding my drug-addled brain, tracing over my goose-bumped skin, and weighing down my heavy tongue. Euphoria.
I was barely aware that my mouth had fallen open at some point in the time that I had been sitting limply against the cracked wall. A small laugh wisped through my dry lips as I stared, transfixed at the bright shapes and patterns that flew around the room before my eyes. I don't know exactly how long I had been sitting in the dingy lounge room – it could have been minutes, or it could have been hours – all that I could tell was that every now and again another party-goer would get up to leave the room, or another would enter.
A person slid down the wall next to me, and I barely recognised him as the guy who had slipped the tab of LSD soaked paper onto my tongue earlier in the night. Another breathy laugh sounded from my mouth as I grabbed the front of his black shirt and climbed into his lap. The pretty brunet's cheeks dimpled as he twisted his fingers into my ginger hair and pulled my mouth to his. The kiss was heated and rough, and yet – as the presence of anxiety made itself known in my gut – I felt nothing, but panic and repugnance.
The guy was moaning loudly, and putting far too much tongue into the kiss, which caused me to pull away with disgust. The room suddenly felt much too small, or maybe I too big, and the clothes covering my body suddenly felt as if they were strangling me. Large gulps of air were quickly being dragged into my lungs while I pulled the guy's arms from around me, and stood up, grabbing my backpack, and ignored his questioning of 'what's wrong?'
My heart was beating hard and fast in my chest; seemingly trying to match the rhythm of the EDM that I was now aware was blasting through the house. I shoved my way through the sweaty dancing bodies that seemed to be everywhere, letting out a cry of distress as my trip began to sour.
After what felt like forever, I managed to throw myself through a door and out into the frigid street; falling to my knees on the cold alley ground. My body shook manically as I watched the bricks on the building's wall melting together, and the pavement bubble around me. I held my backpack tight to my back and ran out into the street, narrowly avoiding being cleaned up by a car, and kept running until I came to a stop under a tree in a small park down the road.
I leant against the tree trunk, shivering, and staring into space. My trip had well and truly become a bad one, and I shrank into myself as disembodied faces flew towards me, screaming gibberish, and disintegrating after a few moments. Spiders crawled over my bare legs, and as much as I tried, I couldn't shake them off. It was when I saw a black humanoid shadow fly down from the night sky and hover above the illuminated lamp posts – staring at me with its soulless, glowing eyes – that I squeezed my own eyes shut and fell backwards, praying for slumber to take me. The dreams that followed my loss of consciousness were something that I've never experienced before, sober or not. My eyes were anchored shut, almost as if a hand was placed over my brow; and my body was warm, like I'd been wrapped up in a large, fluffy duvet. It was anything but comfortable though with wind howling by me and lashing my skin, and my stomach swaying nauseatingly the way it would if I were on a rollercoaster. This trip needed to end.