I can’t.
I can’t do it, I thought as Tyler handed me the tiny slip of paper. My knees trembled as my hand moved of its own accord to catch the clipping on my finger.
“Don’t drop it,” he said with a smirk.
I’d always found that devil-may-care smile wildly attractive. But now those perfect white teeth were fragments of ice tracing down my spine.
I’d never tampered with substances before I met Tyler and his friends. Until now, it had only been a smoke now and then… nothing really dangerous. Maybe acid isn’t as bad as I’d heard, but--I didn’t want to hallucinate. I’ve never wanted to swallow away my sanity, even for a few moments. Especially not at midnight in some freaky, dilapidated house on the moore that might fall over if I breathed too hard.
But I told them I would do it.
I told myself I’d do it.
“She’d better not drop it,” Derek drawled. “This stuff ain’t cheap.”
“Back off, Derek,” Tyler reprimanded, though with his usual amused undertone. “She’s got some first-time jitters, that’s all. She’s never had a real trip before.” He turned to me, his expression soft. He slipped his hand across my lower back to my hip and stepped in close. I felt my nervousness melting as heat rose to my face. “Relax, Cass,” he coaxed. “I was nervous my first time, too.” I closed my eyes, electrified by his hot breath as it arced over my neck.
“Yeah, look, Cassie, I’ve done this plenty of times,” Kara pitched in with careless confidence. “You’ll be fine.”
Derek grinned stupidly at her before reaching over to pinch her backside. Apparently he approved. I swallowed my discomfort.
“On three, then?” Tyler asked, as if it were a question about the weather, or my Friday plans.
Derek and Kara nodded, holding their papers at the ready. I followed suit.
Tyler counted. “One. Two.”
“Wait, guys-,”
“Three.”
The boys slipped their papers onto their tongues, trying not to pinch their faces in disgust. I still held the paper on my finger, staring at Kara —whose paper had slipped to the floor—waiting for her to explain the interjection. She was staring out the window. Derek looked at her, his eyes slightly watery and asked, “What?”
“I think there’s somebody out there,” Kara said. “Quick, put out the flashlights!”
The flashlights went dark as I turned around, slipping the paper in my pocket. My heart pounded.
Cops would be bad news.
They must’ve seen our car or something. A car driving into the moore with no headlights at midnight would hardly escape suspicion.
But as I squinted to get a better look, it struck me that the figure carried no light. It moved slowly and smoothly, straight toward the house.
The windowsill splintered under my fingernails. I could hear Kara breathing quickly beside me.
“Guys… we should hide. They’re coming straight for the house,” I said quietly, pulling away from the window. Kara nodded. But I pursed my lips at the blurry-eyed, vacant expressions Derek and Tyler wore.
Tyler shook his head and managed to focus his dilated pupils on me. “Yeah,” he agreed glancing back out the window. “Let's get out of sight.”
Kara dragged Derek behind a couch, and Tyler crammed himself into a cabinet. He gestured for me to join him, but the door certainly wouldn't close with both of us in it. I shook my head, put a finger to my lips, and closed the door on him. I scanned the room quickly for a new spot.
There.
I crossed to a far corner of the room and pressed myself into the thick shadow between the wall and a sagging desk.
My heartbeat must’ve counted several hundred seconds before I heard the door creak open. I pulled my knees in tighter to my chest.
The figure walked soundlessly into the room.
I turned to ice.
The moonlight reflected white. Glistening, shimmering, the figure was wet chalk, stark in the black room. Tall. Lean. Hairless. Naked. The eyes were a foggy, dead white. Something was oozing from them, white and thick. I heard no breath.
But the worst part was the smell. Fermented death, sickly sweet and pungently sour.
I couldn't have screamed if I’d wanted to.
It crossed into the center of the room and turned, slowly. The silent intention in the movement was infinitely more unnerving captured in an expressionless frame.
I realized I’d been holding my breath.
I also realized that I could hear breath coming from behind the couch.
I wasn't the only one.
The creature moved slowly and deliberately. I wanted to yell for my companions to run, but terror wrapped a fist around the words in my throat and dragged them into my chest.
The figure reached the couch. It walked around to the back.
Kara shattered the silence with a shriek. She jumped back and tried to tug Derek with her. He started laughing thickly, his foggy-eyed smile indicating skewed senses. The creature opened its mouth slowly—… Then suddenly ejected a large, white… Something onto Kara’s face, that connected back to its throat. Her shrieks were piercing even through the slimy tendril covering her face. She convulsed, trying to climb over the couch to get away. The creature didn't move, and though she raked and ripped, the tendril held fast to her face. After about a minute, she went quiet.
I couldn't move. Horror rusted my joints, gluing my eyes to the scene in the middle of the room.
Kara slumped over the back of the couch. The tendril slowly recoiled. Her face was white as the creature itself.
But her eyes were not white.
They were gone.
Blood gushed out of her empty sockets, dribbling over the cushions onto the floor.
The creature stepped toward Derek. He just shook his head and tried to focus his eyes. When it latched onto his face, his scream started small, then grew loud as his body seized. Control snapped back to my limbs. I stood up suddenly, trying to be silent as I made my way to the cupboard and opened it. I grabbed Tyler’s sweaty, clammy hand and yanked him out.
Derek fell to the floor suddenly. The creature turned its head sharply toward me.
I ran, dragging Tyler out of the door to the house, slamming it shut behind me. I towed him to the car and tugged on the handle.
“Tyler, where are the keys?”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, offering it to me.
“No, Tyler, the keys!” My voice rose as I saw the door opening. I shamelessly plunged my hands into Tyler’s pockets, searching desperately. I found them, and glanced back up.
The moore was sprinkled with pale white outlines. They were all moving closer.
I yanked Tyler to the driver’s side of the car, cursing profusely as my trembling hands tried to stick the key in the manual lock.
The figure from the house peeked over the windshield at me. I finally clicked the lock and yanked the door open. I shoved Tyler inside before throwing myself in, then tried to pull the door closed, but I couldn't get my legs in far enough. “Tyler, move!” I shrieked.
Something ice cold and slimy wrapped around my collar and suddenly I was yanked out of the car. In my panic, I kicked the front door shut.
The cold, slimy feeling covered my face, and the world faded out in agony and red.

Tyler woke up about an hour before dawn in the front seat of his truck. He cursed, pressing the palm of his hand to his temple. His head pounded. Ugh. That was the worst trip. Ever.
He tried to remember the specifics, but soon felt too disturbed by the images in his mind to think about it.
After taking a swig of water from a bottle on the consul, Tyler shook his head again. He needed to find out where the others had wandered off to. He grinned, wondering how Cassie’s first time had been. He hoped it was better than the freaky crap he’d come up over the last couple of hours.
Tyler climbed out of the car and walked back toward the house in the faint predawn light.
He opened the front door, shaking his head, trying to shake the frightening images fragmenting into his mind.
He walked into the main room. He didn't see anyone where they’d been lucid last night. If he could even remember that correctly.
Tyler turned to check the rest of the house.
Cassie stopped him. White, pale, and gleaming, with silk-white tears streaming down her face, she opened her mouth.