For the Tsuruoka Files: Mid-Week Blues-Buster
Prompt: You've Got Time by Regina Spektor
500 words
Notes: Won 3rd place
The dark whispers with danger. The cold permeates with fear. The chill that runs down my spine forewarns of the trouble ahead, behind, all around. Trapped in this cage of seduction and narcotics, I can only hold onto the wall, to the gilded bars of my jail cell, with precarious fingers and trembling knees.
These people with their fancy clothes and expensive paraphernalia are animals hiding behind their money, the haze of smoky goodness, pretending that they care but secretly wishing for the downfall of the other. Why did she bring me here? I don't have the funds to contribute nor the nerve to participate. She flourishes. Never have I seen her shine as much as she is now.
"Is that your friend?" he asks me. I don't know where he came from, appearing from black, his hands suspiciously empty.
"Yeah."
"How did you two end up here?" Is it that obvious that we don't belong?
"We know someone…is there a problem?"
"No problem. Just curious." The smile that crosses his face is almost dazzling so much so that I know he is one of them. "Hey, you want to get out of here?"
I hesitate, and he sees this. His hand is warm on my shoulder, against the bare skin of my arm as he waits patiently for me to answer. "I don't know."
"Don't worry. This party is boring anyway."
I shuffle away, but he follows. "I can't leave my friend."
"We won't go far."
"Really now…" I glance at his empty hands again. Maybe he finds his pleasures in something other than drugs. Something more carnal.
He steps back, surrendering to my silent accusation. "Nothing like that! It's just nothing like this."
He's touching me again, and it's so hard not to fall for the allure, for the charm, for the easiness that he seems to channel. I know that even though he seems harmless, he's probably the worst one of the bunch, but my traitorous emotions have me begging for that tiny bit of comfort, of empathy, of light from this dark.
"Maybe for a little bit."
Another one of those smiles. "Great!" His hand is so big that it engulfs mine when he pulls me from the wall.
We don't leave the house as I thought we would. Instead, I'm guided through painted halls and golden doors, twisting and weaving through corridors and rooms I won't remember. I'm lost, and I can't help the terror that courses through me with each step I take.
"What are we doing?" I say to him.
He glances over his shoulder, that smile set firmly on his face. "Something better."
The room is full, filled to the brim with dazed eyes and murmured words of delight, a new jail cell, but a jail cell all the same. He hasn't led me to my freedom as I thought he would. Instead, the long lines of white on the table tell me I just made a deal with the warden.