“I’ve heard so much about this essence,” I said to Illea as we all settled in for dinner. “I’m anxious to try it,” I added to be polite.
Before she had a chance to say a word, Geoffrey interrupted.
“It is, as Ben so aptly described,” he boasted, “a true delicacy, the likes of which you have never tasted. Of course, no one has except for Arrosha and our chosen few, for she graces us with it generously. It is truly the Food of our Goddess.”
“Thank Arrosha,” Illea said softly and reverently.
“Thank Arrosha,” the rest said, more or less in unison.
I felt a little out of place because I said nothing. A few of the others glanced at me with expressions that suggested I should, but instead I just asked, “Exactly what is this ‘essence’, anyway?”
Geoffrey pointed to the hookah on the table.
“Oh, good grief. Are we going to smoke something?” I moaned. By now I was quite hungry and the last thing that I needed was a case of the mean, mad munchies with no food whatsoever to be had in the house.
Geoffrey shot a wicked smile my way. “Nothing quite that mundane, my dear.”
“Hey, who gets to load it this time?” the auburn haired youth asked.
“Certainly not you, Timothy!” the Asian man said. Turning to me, he then added, affectionate humor in his voice, “Tim’s the one that let it go that time the door was open, the time we had to chase it. It wasn’t very strong anymore those three hours later.”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” the redhead said to me. “One time my hand slipped and they still won’t let me load the hookah which, by the way, is harder than it looks. But tell me, really, how am I supposed to get the hang of it if they won’t let me practice, right?”
“Since this is Ashley’s first time, why don’t we let Geoffrey do it?” Ben suggested.
“That sounds good,” Robert agreed, “There’s one thing about Geoffrey, Ashley, and that is that no one, I mean absolutely no one is better at loading essence than he is. The man positively has magic fingers.”
“I’ll say,” said the first dark haired woman.
“He certainly does,” added the second.
“Oh, yes, very magic, indeed,” the third chimed with enthusiasm. In unison, they then giggled suggestively.
“These three appreciate me so much,” Geoffrey told me, as if I could possibly care. “Okay, then guys, I guess Ashley should learn right off the bat that this is a task best left to the professionals, so pass me the hookah.”
The auburn-haired man stood up, reached to the center of table, grabbed the multi-hosed pipe and passed it person to person until it reached Geoffrey.
“Alrighty, Ashley,” he said to me as if attempting to make a sale, “watch and learn. You will notice that this is no ordinary hookah.” He motioned towards it with hand movements so graceful that I had to wonder if he had been a magician before he joined the group. “This instrument has twelve hoses, one for each of us. Yesterday it had only eleven but as as we slept last night, Arrosha added a twelfth. You will notice also that said hoses are far longer than the norm. Before I explain any further,” he smirked, “I must assume that you have seen a hookah before.”
“Of course,” I snapped. “I went to art school.” This guy was really pissing me off.
“Good girl. Or should I say, bad girl?” He seemed amused to see me snearing back at him. “Very well, now you will also notice that at the top here,” he said, continuing to wave over the hookah in a manner befitting a nightclub illusionist, “we have a ball rather than a bowl. I flip it open so” the ball opened on its hinge, “and I take out tonight’s meal and load it.” He reached over to a box on the table, opened it and quickly and deftly transferred its contents, a round ball of light, into the tip of the hookah, closing the top with a soft, audible click. He then turned his attention to the entire group, whose anticipation for the meal resembled lust more than hunger, and announced, “And that’s it. Kids, dig in.”
“Let’s not forget to say grace first, guys,” Ben reminded.
The group bowed their heads as Ben reverently recited a meal blessing.
“Thank Arrosha,” he ended.
“Thank Arrosha,” the group repeated. Again I said nothing, but this time no one noticed or seemed to care.
The hookah was replaced to the middle of the table, where it strongly resembled a twelve-armed octopus once its hoses were stretched out to their eager recipients. Ben picked up both of ours and, handing me mine, said, “Go ahead, Ashley. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
I took my hose but waited until the others had taken their first draw to gauge their reactions. The universal response was one of extreme pleasure.
“Oh, this is a divine batch!” exclaimed the first strange woman.
“So fabulous!” the second agreed.
“Lovely! Positively lovely!” the third bubbled.
“Indeed, ladies, indeed,” Geoffrey said. Taking only a single drag seemed to have improved his mood greatly. “You see, Ashley, while every batch is completely sublime, each one is different and unique. No two are ever exactly alike.”
Illea spoke, smiling gently yet broadly. “This really does seem like a particularly good batch.”
“You say that every time, honey,” her boyfriend said.
“Yeah,” Illea giggled. “I guess I must just like essence.”
Ben turned to me, new color in his cheeks, more sparkle in his eyes and said, “Go ahead Ashley. Don’t wait until it’s all gone. It’s very good for you. Really.”
Seeing that none of the group was showing any signs of imminent demise, I put the tip of the hose to my mouth and ventured a small, tentative puff. I had steeled myself for a burning sensation but my first little sip of the ball of light, instead of being raw and overwhelming as I had imagined it would be, was soft and creamy and had a soothing quality as it went down into my lungs. I smiled and looked up at Ben, who was beaming back at me.
“Not what you expected, is it?” he said.
“Not at all,” I answered, smiling broadly despite myself.
“It never is. For anyone.”
“It’s not like anything I’ve ever had before. There’s nothing I can even compare it to.”
“Go ahead, take in more. You need it.”
My next inhalation was much less hesitant. Putting my lips back to the hose’s mouthpiece, I took a long, deep drag this time, pulling the light deeply into my lungs. It felt as if it were my first breath of fresh air after a lifetime of stagnant pollution. The essence was rich and luscious, with a unique ambrosial taste that left a delightful tickling and tingling sensation. Holding this breath, I closed my eyes and felt the light warming me inside. It was delicate yet immensely satisfying. My hunger was quenched, replaced with feelings of fulfillment, peace and wholeness. I exhaled and smiled at Ben, who beamed back at me. I looked at the others and everyone around the table was watching me with beatific grins upon their faces, gauging the newbie’s reaction to their beloved essence. Even Geoffrey had lost his smirk in favor of a kinder smile. The essence was so phenomenal that it had me wondering where it had been all of my life. My mind felt incredibly mellow yet incredibly sharp simultaneously. I realized that I could now remember everyone’s name perfectly, whereas just moments ago, I could remember only a few. I was quite impressed.
I wanted to expound upon this new revelation, but “Wow,” was all I could could manage to say. And then I giggled.
“Nice, isn’t it?” Ben asked.
“I’ll say,” I responded in a very happy voice. “It’s kind of like getting high but it feels so natural. It’s not like a drug at all.”
“You’re right,” Ben said. “We don’t do drugs here. I don’t know exactly what this is except that Arrosha calls it essence. Even though we should have another batch in about a month, it will sustain you and quench your hunger for considerably longer than that.”
“So you’re telling me that this and the water are all you guys
consume, right?”
“That’s right,” Ben continued, “and it agrees with us entirely. Not only do none of us here ever get sick, we never fall below supreme health. By tomorrow morning at the latest, you should start feeling much healthier than you’ve ever felt before in your entire life.”
I sucked even longer on the hose this time, inhaling more deeply the essence that now seemed spicier than before. As I exhaled, it tickled my nose and I began to giggle again.
“It tastes a little different this time,” I told Ben. “Still fabulous, just different.”
“Yes, I know,” he explained. “Every inhalation will taste different. It’s part of its charm.”
As the happy giddiness I felt spread throughout my entire body, all anxiety slipped away, leaving a soothing relaxation in its place. The others were also exhibiting signs of the same well-being, generating a warm, playful mood that permeated the room. I felt more than welcome to join in but by now I had become extremely mellow and introspective, preferring the role of observer to that of active participant. After a few more puffs, I lost interest in that as well and became quite content simply to disappear into my own thoughts.
I drew in the essence eagerly now, abandoning myself to it, to the feelings of harmony and comfort it afforded and I allowed the sumptuous, yielding pillows that surrounded me to absorb my body into their warm, womb-like softness. My mind drifted tranquilly within this creature comfort of the plush cocoon of feathers and fabric and I became one with the cozy nest that had formed itself around me. I began to understand why the group preferred the essence to food, for I could actually feel my cells soaking up this nourishment, as if my body had never been fed before. I felt stronger, more whole, for the first time realizing that I’d been living a life of unwitting deprivation until this point. My next draw from the hose revealed that not only was I flourishing under the essence, I was actually changing. All of my senses had taken on new awareness. My hearing was different and all sound, even the spoken word, was now music. The lively chatter of the group’s socializing, which had faded into a low din, sounded like soft musical chimes echoing in the background and yet I could still understand every word. Upon first entering the room, I’d been aware of only a subtle and pleasant fragrance but now my sense of smell told me something quite different. The aroma had taken on hauntingly elemental qualities that sent my head reeling from this array of primitive, almost magical scents. My sense of touch was more sensitive as well and for first time I noticed a light current blowing in the air, a breeze that felt upon my skin like the delicate caress of a tender, experienced lover. When I opened my eyes, I noticed that not only was my vision now incredibly sharp, but that all colors were brighter than before. I marveled at these improvements in my senses, so I continued sipping deeply from the hookah. Avidly I took in more of the essence as my senses continued to sharpen and change, taking on new, expanded scope. While my hunger remained completely sated, my taste buds and olfaction sharpened to the extent I could taste and smell not only the essence and the fragrance, but also colors and sounds. My vision and hearing received this extended dimension next, for I could now see the music of the group’s melodious utterances and as well as the hear the colors that surrounded me. Rather than finding these newfound abilities disturbing, I delighted and amused myself with them for what seemed a considerable time, all the while inhaling more and more of the essence.
Eventually, as fascinating as was the show that my senses displayed, I eventually grew weary. Drowsiness overpowered me and once again I closed my eyes and succumbed to the lure of the pillows. I did not fall asleep, however; rather, I slipped away into a world of my mind’s own making. Visions of far away, exotic places and times long past wove themselves into my mind. Fantasies of handsome, beguiling young men, naked and shimmering, enthralled my body, mind and soul as they lavished me with long, hot, rapturous kisses. My breath began to quicken with excitement; a loud, audible gasp escaped my lips and brought me back to awareness of reality. Had anyone heard my rapturous gasp, I wondered, feeling the slightest hint of embarrassment. I opened my eyes to check and found that it didn’t matter if they had, for all those around me were reveling in their own orgy of moving, glistening flesh. I would normally have been shocked at such a sight, but in my present state of mind, I seemed to be waking merely from one wet dream into another. So homogenous was the group, in such unison did it writhe, that it more resembled a single, undulating being than a disparate group of people. Flesh mingled with flesh as arms morphed into torsos, buttocks into bellies, legs into heads, body into body, this beast with many backs intertwined itself into itself, writhing with its own rhythm, covered with its own sweat, its hair clinging tightly to the wetness that it oozed from its many pores and orifices. Within this beast, I tried to recognize a few individual members of the group, to decide if this was real or hallucination, but no sooner did I try than the individuals, entwined as they were, began to merge into one creature, a creature that grew larger and larger as it continued to undulate. Its arms and legs turned into tentacles as eyes emerged all around it. A large mouth formed in its middle, which beckoned, “Join us. Join us. We want you.” As it spoke, numerous blowholes emerged in the creature, blowholes that uttered its many guttural sighs and grunts as it sent forth a strong, musky and animalistically arousing perfume in puffs that I could see as if it were smoke. I was spellbound by this bizarre, undulating creature and its wavelike movements, unable to take my eyes from it. Soon, however, the perfume began to smell of flowers and then began to stink, as if a chemical of some sort had been mixed with it. I remembered that smell and tried to place it. It seemed important, but the odor was gone as soon as it appeared and with it any hope of remembering where I’d smelled it before.
The creature should have shocked me, but since I’d already decided that it was not real, I ignored it and it slowly turned back into the individual members of the group blissfully puffing away at their essence hoses. The very bizarreness of the beast’s form and movements, instead of extinguishing my passion, transferred it instead to a strange, unfamiliar feeling which, when I closed my eyes, catapulted me inward and upward into my mind until it emerged as a column of swirling light that overflowed my brain until it burst out from the top of my head. This column of light grew larger, engulfing me, swirling about me, obliterating entirely the outside world. I found myself completely absorbed in this vibrant, sparkling light and its vivid, luminous colors, colors I had never seen before, colors I did not even know existed. It fascinated me, this swirling, effervescent kaleidoscopic prism that blazed so brightly I was amazed that I could even look at its flaming brilliance without going blind. The dazzling colors gradually lightened until I was surrounded by a glistening incandescent white light containing lively golden flecks bounding happily within it. Breathtaken, I was mesmerized by the twirling dance of light and gold. I felt myself lifted up, weightless, buoyant, floating adrift within this cloud of light. There was no longer any world, there was no longer any me. There was only this light and the light and I were one. It was indescribable as my molecules mixed with those of the light, interlacing as if we had always been one. It was electrifying, overwhelming, sublimely harmonious and natural, all at once. I became keenly aware of the ageless, timeless nature of a universe I now saw stretched before me. The creation of all became one with the now. I felt my mind unfold into an ecstatic state of readiness. I was about to be shown something of utmost importance and I was more than prepared for its unveiling. Once again I rediscovered my own body, separate again yet more whole than it had ever before been, as I stood once more in this galaxy of gold and light.
I felt a bubble being created in my mind and when I looked up, I saw it emerge, luminous and iridescent, from the top of my forehead. It expanded greatly as it left my forehead and floated outward, returning only to encapsulate me within itself. I opened my hands and watched with joy as more tiny bubbles emerged from my palms, enlarging slightly as they drifted away, tinkling like tiny bell
s as they circled with glee about my body. I was amazed and astonished by this new show as the bubbles danced and frolicked around me in ecstatic delight. When they finally stopped rising from my palms, the bubbles slowed their whirling rhythm to an unhurried prance, the pealing of their little bells morphing into a distant and harmonious chatter of many voices speaking simultaneously. After a few seconds, the bubbles expanded again, finally stabilizing when they reached a size slightly larger than softballs, at which point they became translucent enough for me to see blurry movements transpiring within them. They then approached me at a leisurely pace, all the while clearing yet further until they finally became transparent, crystalline spheres tinged with gold, the moving objects they held within them coming into focus. Like living, animated snow-globes, one orb after the other revealed its own, unique scene as it took its turn before my eyes. Each scene in each orb was different; each exhibited a happy slice of life vignette that pertained only to one specific person, consigning anyone else present to the role of indistinct, insignificant window dressing. These orbs became fascinating entertainment as they passed in front of me. One revealed a man proposing on bended knee, another displayed a woman reciting marriage vows in a large church ceremony. As the scenes continued, other globes revealed more events including the birth of a child, a prom, a man dancing with his wife on the deck of a cruise ship, a rescue worker saving a baby. Some of the people in the other spheres were singing and performing, one was surfing, one was flying a single-engine airplane. Many of the rest of the orbs displayed individuals enjoying simpler pleasures of life, such as a day spent fishing, working in a garden, playing with a puppy or going to an amusement park or the seashore with family. One by one these vignettes played out before me and I began to feel connected with these people, taking great pleasure in their joys and victories. I watched without blinking, unable to tear my eyes from this cavalcade of passing spheres and the stories they presented. Too soon, however, the parade began to slow down more and more until, eventually, all the globes finally came to a complete standstill.
The Nightmare Game Page 29