A Special Night

I ran ahead of everyone else in my excitement. Laughing and giggling of many voices filled the air behind me. In front of me was the path leading to the place we planned to hold our little celebration -- my emergence, if you will, into actual adulthood via a twenty-three year old shy girl named Beth who was more than willing to share that emergence into adulthood with me. The plans for the celebration -- or plan, if you will -- is to drink, drink more, then keep drinking until daybreak and a massive hangover transforms the body into a pile of regret. This I have done, many times before, often to wipe the thought of never knowing a woman's touch before from my mind. Tonight, it will be for the opposite.

Suddenly, there was silence. Had I gone the wrong way? There is only one path, and I was running on it, or so I thought. Looking down, I didn't see the path any more, and saw an inky darkness ahead of me. The ambient light of the nearly full moon had vanished, the stars were gone, the lights that dotted the landscape were no longer visible.

I called out Beth's name. And the names of the others, and with each name, my panic grew.

I closed my eyes for a moment, suddenly feeling foolish. I was being pranked somehow. They had somehow led me into an enclosed space and went silent. Any moment, they would reveal the prank and scare me. Let it happen, I figured. I'm on top of the world right now. Let them have their fun.

The scare never came. The darkness was real. I pulled out my phone on turned on its camera light. The light struggled against the darkness and died mere feet from where I was. Aiming down, the ground was no longer dirt and grass, but some strange semi-reflective surface. The signal to my phone was absolutely nonexistent, strange for an area with a cell signal usually so strong.

I lost all sense of calm I had. My cries of help tore at my throat as I repeated them over and over in a frenzied scream. I looked around with the meager light I had to find any item, any surface to hold on to, to identify my surroundings, but from what I could see, there was nothing. My legs lost all will to stand and I fell to my knees, then sat awkwardly on the ground, crying, sobbing, hoping for some resolution. Somewhere in my mind, I was still hoping this was some elaborate prank by my friends. Any moment, they would turn on the lights and reveal the setup they used to scare me more than I have ever been in my entire life.

Hours passed in complete panic and worry. The exhaustion made me fall asleep.

I awoke with a massive hangover, surrounded by far too many bottles of various types of alcohol, and my friends similarly wiped out from a night of far too much consumption of intoxicating beverages. Beth was beside me, her hand near mine.

It had been a prank of some sort. Maybe they drugged me. Maybe I was hallucinating. I slowly sat up, fighting nausea, and looked at my so-called friends around me. I had spent the night in utter terror because of them. How dare they? Maybe these people weren't my friends after all. Not even Beth. Maybe this was all a mistake. I regretted losing my virginity to her, and going out here to "celebrate" with these degenerates. After a few waves of nausea passed, I stood up and walked home before any of the rest got up. I had no intention of ever speaking to any of them again.

Over the next several days, I ignored emails, texts, and even phone calls from these so-called "friends". I had nothing to say to them and they couldn't say anything to me. I had nightmares every night that I was once again trapped in utter darkness. They had traumatized me. Maybe not intentionally, but whatever they drugged me with was inexcusable.

A knock echoed through my apartment from the front door. I really didn't want to answer, but maybe it wasn't them.

It was Beth. Hesitantly, I opened the front door. She had asked me where I had gone and why I hadn't been answering messages. Instead of answering her directly, I asked if she had anything to do with what my so-called friends did to me.

They didn't do anything. I had just vanished that night. They thought I had chickened out and that's why I ran ahead, to lose them and go back home.

Somewhere, a faint light blinked, far above the earth. The signal was strong, a voice said. Work could begin.