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Have you ever had a dream so vivid, you swore it was reality? And it left you wishing reality was the dream instead? I did. That night. But let me back up, and fill you in on the rest of the evening...

Needless to say, Vanessa ordered more booze after her dad left, and I proceeded to get wasted. I haven't been that drunk in a long time. (When you drink like I do, it takes a lot to get completely falling-down blasted, because of the need to consume more and more over time to get any kind of affect. So, yeah. I had a lot to drink that night.)

She kept trying to push me into proposing, pointing out that I soon would be too drunk to get down on one knee to do it properly. "Fffff-ine," I said finally, at one point. I gestured clumsily to her to hand me the ring. "Hand it over," I demanded.

"Hand what over?" she asked.

"The riiiiiinnnnggg," I slurred. "Jesus, let's just get this over with, um..." I said, snapping my fingers. I couldn't recall her name suddenly, and started giggling about it. However, she didn't find it funny at all.

"Vanes-saw," she said sternly, glaring at me.

I giggled again, almost teetering over before crashing down to one knee. "Right. Vanes-saw. Vanes-saw," I muttered, mimicking her. I frowned. "Um...what are we doing again?" I asked bemusedly. Sometimes my short term memory shorts out when I'm that plastered.

She huffed and started to tell me, but then I remembered.

I snapped my fingers. "Oh right, right, right," I said, recalling. "You're ruining my life. I remember," I snarked.

Just then a swift smack connected with my cheek, and it knocked me back. I collapsed to the floor, rolling to my stomach, the sting on my skin delayed from my numbed senses, but catching up to me quickly just after. I groaned, crawling back up onto my knees and turning to face her. She was seething, her teeth gritted, and her eyes wild.

I rubbed my burning cheek, and worked my jaw. "Ow! Son of a bitch!" I growled, my temper flaring through my drunken stupor. "What the hell did you hit me for?!"

"Because I'm tired of your disrespectful nonsense!" she shrieked. "Now ask me to marry you right now, or I'll call in someone who packs a much bigger wallop than I do!"

I put my hands up in surrender, though my jaw was clenched and my chest was heaving. The direct hit did help to sober me up for the moment, I had to admit, but holy hell! She didn't need to freak out like that.

She produce the ring again, and thrust it out at me, holding it between her thumb and pointer finger. I snatch it from her abruptly, and gritted my teeth as I did it, staring at her coldly.

I examined the ring for a second, stalling, grasping at those last few milliseconds before she'd get annoyed and telling me to hurry up and ask her again. Or worse yet, put a welt on the other cheek.

It was a nice ring. If this were legitimate, it's one I might even have picked. It was a solitaire setting, with a massive round-cut diamond set in platinum. Very classy. Very sophisticated and tasteful. You know someone ELSE who would think the same thing, my liquor-doused mind said to me, and I squeezed my eyes shut, chasing away those thoughts. "No," I mumbled. "Not now."

"What's that, darling?" Vanessa chirped.

"Nothing," I said dismissively. I sniffed hard and flicked my eyes back up to hers. I shoved the ring in her direction and said flatly, "Marry me."

She just crossed her arms and groused at me. "Do you honestly think I'm going to accept that?" she asked.

I huffed with frustration. "What do you want, Vanessa?" I argued.

"I want some passion put into it!" she argued back. She exhaled sharply. "Oh that's it! I'll get what I want one way or another, Tony Stark!" She whistled loudly and the gorilla twins entered.

"Shit," I muttered. They charged at me, and I got to my feet, holding my hands up defensively. "Okay! Okay! Hold on a second!" I shouted, quickly backing away out of their reach. "Let's use our words. Huh, fellas?" I begged them, my eyes darting between them.

"Do what the lay'ee asks, or we'll see to it you don't speak eva' again," one of them threatened in his thick cockney accent.

I swallowed hard, my eyes shifting to Vanessa, who was smirking at me triumphantly behind them.

I nodded, defeated. "Okay, Vanessa. Call off the goon squad, and we'll do this right," I said, surrendering.

They looked back at her, and she nodded for them to leave. The both shot me menacing looks before swiveling around and marching out the door.

"I thought you'd see it my way," she chirped, grinning smugly and strutting over to me.

I nodded again, solemnly, and slowly knelt back down on one knee. Funny. I was feeling pretty sober at this point. I guess when you have a psychopath demanding a marriage proposal so she can obliterate the life you always took for granted, with two massive meat-heads at her beck and call ready to mess you up at a moment's notice if you don't propose, there isn't enough alcohol in the world to get you drunk enough to make that feel good.

I took one last look at the ring, and then reached for her left hand. Vanessa giggled coyly, and put her hand in mine. She vibrated with anticipation, and I took a deep breath before looking up at her. I felt numb. Disconnected. Out of body, as I muttered the words.

"Vanessa," I muttered. "Will you..." I swallowed hard and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, as the room began to spin. "Marry me?" I blurted out quickly before I lost the nerve.

She squealed ear-piercingly, and jiggled up and down. "Yes! Oh, darling! Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes!" she squeaked.

I weakly slipped the ring on her finger, and then fell forward, putting that hand flat on the floor to steady myself. Suddenly, the amount of alcohol in my system took over, and I found it almost impossible to will my muscles to hoist me back up to a standing position. But Vanessa grabbed my arms and pulled me up anyway. I stumbled upwards, and tried to s right myself as I felt her lips crash into mine.

Kissing her was the last thing I wanted to do, but I couldn't stop her. I didn't have the strength. All I wanted was to go sleep this off, but she chattered away beside me, pulling me toward the door. I remember getting into the elevator, and her coiling around me, voraciously kissing my lips in between sucking my neck and nibbling my earlobe.

"Vanessa," I mumbled, trying to protest, but she wouldn't let up. She moaned, her movements getting more and more lusty as we started the drop to my floor.

"Tony! Oh Tony, my darling!" she cooed, her words muffled as she kept mauling me. She giggled. "I bet you can't wait to be alone with me, hmmm? Doesn't a night of passionate love-making to celebrate our engagement sound absolutely divine?" she asked in a smoky murmur.

"No. It doesn't," I replied sternly. I shoved her away in disgust, and glared at her. "Get off of me," I demanded. "You might want it to look like we're engaged to the world, Vanessa. But we are far from being a happy couple. You disgust me, okay? I wish we never would have met," I spat out.

She pouted at me sympathetically. "Oh, love. That's too bad," she said. "But you're forgetting one thing."

I looked at her trepidatiously as she slinked back over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. She leaned into my ear and whispered, "I always get what I want, before I felt a sharp jab in my neck. I jolted and looked at her with wide eyes, helpless as I felt my knees buckle and I slid down the wall of the elevator car.

My vision suddenly went to something that resembled looking through a kaleidoscope. Colors and patterns were swirling around me, and I blinked and squinted, trying to gain my composure.

"What...the hell...did you do to me?" I grunted slowly, my speech sounding slow and distorted in my own head. I saw her smiling, and I heard her chuckle darkly.

"Don't worry, darling! The initial effects are just temporary. Let's get you to bed, hmmm? And I think you'll find you'll be in a much more agreeable state in a few hours time. A place we both can live with, shall we say?" she said, her voice sounding booming and echo-ey as she began pulling me off the floor. I heard the bell ding and watched the doors open.

Somehow, she dragged me to my feet, and we stumbled out into the hall, Vanessa leading me with one of my arms wrapped around her shoulders. Some people passed by us, and she laughed awkwardly. "Too much to drink, I'm afraid!" she explained. "Just got engaged, and we're celebrating!"

"Congratulations!" one of them called back to her.

I snorted and laughed coldly. "What a lie. What a liar you are, Vanessa," I mumbled.

She shushed me, as she propped me against the doorway, while she opened my hotel room door. She unlocked it, and pulled me inside, leading me to the bed.

"Oh, finally! Thank God!" I said, crashing onto it face first. I groaned and rolled over, and Vanessa pounced on me, straddling my hips. She bent over and kissed my mouth roughly, shoving her tongue inside of it before abruptly breaking the kiss. I tried pushing her off, but my muscles were totally lethargic, and I was helplessly weak. She pinned my forearms back against the bed beside my head, and smiled at me like a shark.

I tried once more to struggle against her grip, but realized it was futile, and just glared at her instead, my jaw clenched and my chest heaving with frustrated rage.

"There there, love! Get some rest. You'll be in a much more desirable place mentally when you awaken!" she assured. She quickly climbed off, and I rolled over, wadding the pillow under my head, and squeezing my eyes shut, trying to forget the living nightmare I was stuck in. I fell asleep more out of necessity than anything, though, as the same question kept rattling around in my brain until my body finally shut down and I slipped out of consciousness.

What state would I find myself mentally in when I woke up? What was Vanessa talking about? I feared finding out the answer to those questions. But, as I'm about to tell you, it was a place I never would have imagined. Which brings me back to what I asked you in the beginning- Have you ever had a dream so vivid, you swore it was reality? And it left you wishing reality was the dream instead?