"Are you going home?!"
Dani's tone clearly showed her incredulity that someone would stop partying at only three in the morning.
"Yeah... I'm beat."
Taylah and Dani were dancers who had just performed at a rave, dancing around the DJ's and on special stages scattered around the huge warehouse the rave had been illegally set up in.
"You're gonna waste these drugs?"
Half way through the night, once the people that hired them were clearly high, all the dancers had dropped acid and mdma and gone back on for their next set giggling naughtily. First the m kicked in and Taylah felt the rush that she loved; the heightened physical sensitivity, the emotional lightness and happiness that mdma always brought.
Later when she finished another set, her forth for as many DJ's she finally noticed the distorted vision that acid brought. Colours became brighter, sounds richer, and her thoughts began to be clearer and more focused on pleasure but also deeper philosophically.
Dancing for the rest of the night had become a ritualistic celebration and she performed with hedonistic abandon.
"I'm still fucking flying. This stuff is great!"
"Yeah, I love it. I'm going to go home and trip out on my stuff."
"Aren't you horny? This stuff has me so fucking horny!"
"Yeah... but I'm not going to take some rando home."
"What about that DJ you were talking to, Danger?
"D-D-DJ Daaaaaanger!!"the two ladies shouted the sample of his name he dropped into his songs.
"Naw, he's the guy I got these sweet drugs from. I'm not risking that by fucking him!"
"Oh! Yeah, don't do that!"
The rest of the dancers in their troupe came over, passing a joint and leaning on each other sloppily. Each of them were wearing the costumes they had finished their last set in, silver sneakers with sequins glued on, fishnets, a silver bikini with a fishnet shirt over. Tight toned dancers hugged each other happily, all of them high as fuck and loving it.
When Taylah said goodbye, they all began shouting motherly advice to her.
"Don't talk to strangers!"
"Wait for marriage!"
"Don't take rides from strangers!"
"Dress modestly!"
"Don't take candy from strangers!"
"Keep your legs together!"
Each piece of advice made them laugh as none of them followed any of those pearls of wisdom. To illustrate the likelihood of her obedience Taylah stood on one leg and lifted the other straight up, holding it in a standing split, her legs wide apart, her tiny bikini bottom barely containing her sex.
"Slut!" Dani called out.
Taylah skipped down the lane between warehouses and her friends staggered off in the other direction.
The warm summer night grew quieter, as quiet as any big city gets even in the wee hours of the morning. Her plan was to go to the waterfront, walk around the perimeter of the warehouse district and use the seawall to get to her apartment. Taylah squatted in a condemned building less than a mile from there, and she walked quickly, eager to put on a snuggly onesie and crawl into bed.
The warm night air on her drug heightened senses filled her brain to the point where she wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings. She wasn't the kind of high that impaired her physically, almost the contrary, she was blissfully aware of her body and periodically she would dance to the music still playing in her head.
Then she saw the taillights of a car. One she'd seen around before. Curious and uninhibited Taylah walked over. The restored classic was a bright red muscle car and the running engine purred like a big cat, making Taylah tingle inside in rhythm with the low rumble. The acid made it seem as if the big engine was inside her belly.
The passenger door was open so the dancer poked her head in to see who was there.
"Get out of the way." a man hissed. Taylah briefly saw a face she recognized before his hand pushed her to the side.
Then a loud bang made her flinch. The driver of the car gaped in shock and Taylah turned around to see what he was looking at.
With uncertain vision, the acid making everything wiggle and shimmer, Taylah saw a group of men standing twenty feet away. In a fraction of a second she saw that one man was on the ground and three men stood facing her, one with his arm extended in a familiar way.
Something shattered the passenger window of the open car door. Almost at the same time another bang happened and Taylah realized that it was a gun and that a bullet probably just broke that window.
The window right beside her.
The man with his arm extended was still pointing the gun at her.
Another gunshot followed. Then another.
"Get in!" The Driver shouted and pulled on Taylah's arm.
Jumping onto the bench seat of the big car Taylah was thrown back as the car leapt forward slamming closed the passenger door. The car roared as The Driver sped away from the gunshots. He turned left throwing Taylah into the passenger side door, then the car accelerated on a straight stretch.
"Put your seat-belt on!" The Driver shouted over the roaring engine.
Taylah scrambled to a seated position and reached for the seat-belt. The belt came away from side in her hand. She looked at the dangling end uncomprehending. Turning to look at the side of the car she saw a pair of holes in the metal where the seat-belt was supposed to attach to the car. The bullets had broken her seat belt.
Then The Driver turned right throwing the loose girl into his lap.
Sliding helplessly onto his lap, Taylor found her face pressed to his rock hard abs, and she smelled his sweat and masculinity. Trying to disentangle herself as he negotiated the fast corner Taylah accidentally groped his hard body, bumping into his strong arms as he handled the car expertly.
When the car was on a straight stretch again The Driver pushed her off of him, his hand on her face forcing her back.
"Seat-belts broken." she explained.
"Hold on."
One more screeching turn and they were out of the warehouses and on the city streets.
The Driver aimed for downtown.
"I live over there." Taylah pointed to the right as her apartment faded from view.
"Did you see who that was?"
"Yes." she mumbled.
Taylah's eyes were too messed up by the drugs to have seen faces clearly, but everyone wore bright distinctive clothes to raves, the better to be found by your friends in the flashing uncertain light of a rave.
The man on the ground had been the second DJ to play tonight, DJ Danger. He was a thin, black man who The Driver was always with. They had sold her the drugs she was on right now. She's taken candy from that stranger and now she was taking a ride from another stranger.
The man pointing the gun wore a red leather jacket and black jeans, but his shirt had a graphic that lit up and pulsed when loud noises went off. It had flashed brightly when he fired the gun.
That was Stir.
Stir was also a drug dealer. A bigger drug dealer. A more dangerous drug dealer.
He came to all the raves but Taylah never bought from him, he was too scary, and he always had two other dudes with him who also looked scary.
They had all been there in the same lame outfits they always wore.
"You realize you are pretty easy to spot in a crowd?" The Driver gritted as he drove.
Not only was Taylah dressed pretty eye-catchingly, but her hair was dyed bright purple on one side and brighter pink on the other. She always coloured her hair like that and most people in the scene knew her for it.
That and the dancing.
Stir would know who she was. It wouldn't take him long to find out where she lived.
The Driver slowed down for a red light and he looked at Taylah, she felt his eyes on her and looked back at him the terror she felt only beginning to fully register. The mdma released its pleasant grip on her, but the acid was more reluctant. Her eyes were still swimming and her body loose and tingly.
"How fucked up are you?" The Driver asked.
"I'm alright. I'm high but I'm clear."
They both heard the squealing of tires behind them and as the light turned green The Driver pulled ahead and quickly turned right. Taylah tried to see if a car was speeding toward them but there were too many lights everywhere and her eyes were leaking a lot of water.
Taylah realized she was crying.
"Danny's dead isn't he?"
DJ Danger's real name was Danny Anger, and The Driver was probably his best friend.
Quickly he turned left and pulled into an alley turning the lights off.
They both sat in silence for a moment and then the unmistakable sound of a car speeding down the road passed behind them and faded.
The Driver pulled back out onto the street and pulled the car up to the intersection they had just been in. Looking right they both saw a car's taillights moving quickly away.
The Driver went through the intersection and drove perpendicularly to the direction they saw the other car going, putting as much distance between them as they could.
"Where are you going/"
