And it wasn’t for the music, either. The beats were the same and everything else sounded like flying saucers crashing into one another.
But Mandy heard about the drugs and figured it would be worth it. She knew it was irresponsible, but tried not to care. She was twenty years old and lived the first eighteen years of her life chained to her mother’s strict Catholic upbringing. Mandy spent the last two years experimenting with things her mother scorned: secular music, sex, and drugs. Admittedly, she didn’t even like half the drugs she tried, but Raven told her that some of the drugs you could get at these isolated raves were mind-blowing.
The rave—if you wanted to call it that—was located in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Mandy and Raven drove an hour and ten minutes to get to it, and half an hour of that time was spent maneuvering down unmarked back roads and several gravel roads. It was in a warehouse that apparently was once some sort of lumber mill. She wasn’t sure. All she knew was that it smelled like old cedar and lots and lots of BO. Hygiene was not high on the list of priorities when it came to three-day backwoods raves.
“You look miserable!” Raven shouted at Mandy from behind.
Raven was flanked by two guys. One was clearly stoned. He was staring at Raven, unblinking, and stroking her hair as if she were a cat. Mandy figured he was on ecstasy. The other guy was far too into the music; he looked like he was having a mini-aneurysm every time the bump-bump-bump of the beat hit.
“I sort of am,” Mandy said. “Throw in some Pearl Jam shirts and the cast of The X-Files and this would be the nineties.”
“Here, then,” Raven said. She held out her hand, cupped into a loose fist. “Maybe this will help.”
Mandy took the offering and found a single ecstasy pill dropped into her hand. She’d done it before and, for the most part, enjoyed it. But she wasn’t sure she’d enjoy it here.
“This is it?” Mandy asked.
“Well, it’s something new going around, it’s in high demand. And I don’t have that kind of money.”
“But you have the charm,” Mandy said, jokingly.
“Oh, I know. I managed to get some.” She winked and nodded to the guy that was currently stroking her hair. “Figured I’d test it out for you before you went too deep.”
“How considerate,” Mandy said, rolling her eyes.
Lights flickering, music bumping, people gyrating against one another, the rave blared on around her. Figuring there was nothing to lose, Mandy tossed the pill into her mouth.
Before she could swallow it, someone screamed. It was a scream of rage, but it sounded triumphant, too. It startled Mandy so she opened her mouth to cry out. The pill escaped, tumbling to the floor.
What amazed Mandy the most was that the scream somehow broke over the cacophony of the pounding acid house music. Then there was another, and another. Suddenly, no one was dancing and the DJ, perched atop a makeshift stage at the front of the warehouse, killed the music. Everyone turned towards the sound, Mandy and Raven included.
There were two guys just off to the center, wrestling one another. Only, wrestling wasn’t a strong enough word. These guys were trying to kill one another. They were both shirtless. One of them somehow managed to strip down to nothing but his boxers. He was covered with scratches along his back, all bleeding. The other guy’s dreadlocks were swinging about wildly as they fought. There was blood all over his face. As they collided once more, they went sprawling back into the crowd. Dozens of people cried out. The two brawlers landed about three feet in front of them. Blood splattered on the floor along with the sound of their bodies striking on the hard concrete beneath them.
Mandy saw something else on the floor, too. It came sliding out of the dread-locked guys pocket. It was a small plastic vial with some sort of liquid in it. It came to a rest at Mandy’s foot. She leaned down and picked it up, curious as to what it was. For just a moment, she forgot about the fight.
“Where’d you get that?” Raven asked.
“It came out of his pocket,” she said, nodding down to the fighters. The fight was getting more intense. The guy in his boxers perched on top of the dread-locked guy and was throwing punch after punch into his face. Someone came rushing over to try breaking it up and caught an elbow to the face for his efforts.
“You know what that is?” Mandy asked.
“Yeah,” Raven said, whispering. “It’s that drug I was telling you about. Take it. Quick.”
The excitement in Raven’s voice sealed the deal. Mandy popped the top off of the vial and looked at the light-yellow liquid inside. It almost looked like watered-down lemonade. She started to tilt the vial to her mouth, but Raven stopped her.
“No! You don’t drink it. Just put some of it on your wrist. It absorbs into your skin and, here…” Raven tipped the vial onto her finger then rubbed her wrist.
“And what?”
“But Raven’s eyes went blank. She was starting to smile in wonder, looking up to the ceiling as if she were seeing something phenomenal.
“Raven?”
Raven nodded and reached into the air. She started to giggle, but the look on her face looked almost grateful. It was like watching someone pray and then actually hearing the voice of God.
Mandy turned her arm wrist-up and let some of the liquid drip onto her wrist. Whatever Raven was experiencing must be amazing. It had to be—
Another scream came from the back of the warehouse. This one was pure joy. It was like laughter, only distorted. Mandy looked through the sea of bodies and saw an older guy bobbing his head to music only he could hear. Then, out of nowhere, he slammed his head into the brick wall behind him. He rebounded, giggled, and did it again.
Sounds of concern spun through the room. As they began to peak and some of those in attendance started to understand that something was very wrong. Then the man in the back dropped the room into silence.
He started quacking. He even lifted his arms and flapped them like wings. “Quack! Quack!”
He slammed his head into the wall again. When he looked back to the crowd, his face was partially covered in blood. Someone stepped towards him, offering a hand. Something was said between them, but Mandy could not hear it. She did see what happened next. The bloodied, quacking man grabbed the other man’s head and slammed it into the wall. A more severe commotion broke out as multiple people ran forward to stop the assault.
“Raven, this is—”
Raven was no longer beside her. She was still reaching up towards the ceiling. There were tears in her eyes now as she started to chant. “Quack. Quack.” The word came out softly and passionately.
Nope, Mandy thought. She figured it was probably too late, but she started rubbing at her wrist, getting off as much of the liquid as she could. If this new drug was responsible for what was taking place, she wanted no part of it.
As she wiped the stuff off, more people descended into madness around her. One man spat into his date’s face. She responded by reaching out and scratching him deep across the throat. Someone rushed the DJ stage and tried to knock him over. The two fighters that started the chaos were still fighting. The guy in his boxers now showed the signs of multiple scratches and bite marks on his arms.
Mandy knew she needed to get out of there. She could get Raven later. Hell, they weren’t very good friends anyway.
She rushed for the exit, being knocked around and pushed by multiple people along the way. She saw the door right there ahead of her. As she stepped closer toward the exit, she started to see little tendrils of color, coming in like snakes, happy dancing snakes, slithering along the floor. They spread like vines, crawling over everything. Soon, it looked like she was standing in a strange kaleidoscopic tunnel. The surging pulsing crowd all around her broke into the tunnel and were swallowed by the snake-like vines.
She knew it was the drug. Everything she saw brought an overwhelming sense of peace. Still, she knew she must get out. The place was descending into madness and she would not let herself get caught up in it
.
She ran through the swirling colored vines and straight towards the door. When she reached the exit, she stopped in her tracks. She stood there, looking at the door. She couldn’t get out. It was blocked.
A huge humanoid duck stood there. With the legs of a human, but everything else was very duck-like. It reached out to her with an enormous wing, looked her in the eyes, and spoke the secrets of the universe to her.
“Quack,” it said.
Mandy shivered for a moment, felt her heart slamming in her chest, and then she screamed.
After that, everything about the world changed.
* * *
Donald Pearson was driving to the airport, furious that the stupid people at his stupid company found it necessary that he be in stupid Buffalo (Buffalo, of all places!) at nine o’clock in the morning. He was more furious about the fact that they did not let him know this until six o’clock the previous evening, and the first flight he could get was at three in the stupid morning.
Not only did he have a red-eye flight to endure, but he also had an hour-long drive to the airport. He was tired, angry, and trying to find something interesting to listen to on the radio. George Knapp was talking about chemtrails again, Alex Jones was railing on about psychic vampires, and Delilah was talking about the beauty and hope in everything.
Disgusted, Donald killed the radio. He then rolled down the windows, letting the night air circulate through the car. Maybe it would help to wake him up. Maybe he’d be reinvigorated by the California night air, by the rolling, hilly road ahead of him, by the tranquil night, by the naked woman running across the road…
What?
Donald slammed on the brakes, his headlights shining directly on the naked figure. If he saw her one second later, he would have struck and killed her like some wide-eyed raccoon. But, with the windows down, the smell of his tires and brakes told him that it was okay. Well, okay in that he didn’t kill her. But not okay that there was a totally naked woman standing in front of his car.
She looked terrified. She was staring at the car in the same way a deer would if it were caught in headlights as it tried to get across the road. She was young, maybe twenty or twenty-one. Though she did look scared, there was something confident about her as well. The weird thing was that she was stunningly attractive. He hated to go there, but he supposed the male brain couldn’t help it when the naked female form was presented in such a glorious way. Weird or not, that’s where his stupid brain went.
Slowly, Donald poked his head out of the window. “Ma’am? Are you okay? Can I—?”
The woman sneered at him and leaped on the hood of his car. He was only worried about dents and scrapes for a moment. He saw the anger and feral nature in her eyes as she climbed towards the windshield. Donald no longer found the woman attractive. He found her terrifying.
When she started to quack at him, he thought she might be a certifiable loon.
Donald Pearson rolled up his window as he reached for his cellphone. Not once taking his eyes from the woman on the hood of his car, he managed to navigate to the number for the police. Someone answered on the third ring and when they asked what was wrong, he wasn’t sure how to answer.
“Um. You’re not going to believe this…”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Flynt wasn’t sure why so many people griped about having to come out very early in the morning. The world was silent in those dark early hours, and he found it conducive to thinking. He found it easy to be at peace during the quiet hours between one and six in the morning. Of course, as a cop, you were usually headed into something unpleasant or dangerous in those dark hours.
He reminded himself of this as he and Steele pulled into the hospital parking deck at 3:15. Steele, not as enamored with the early hours as his partner, needed to stop to grab a coffee on the way. They both sipped from their cups as they made the walk from the garage to the hospital. Steele got the call, which was fine with Flynt. As Steele told it, they were at the hospital to pay a visit to a girl that was attending a secret rave out in the woods. Reportedly, a lot of people at the rave wigged out on some weird drug. There were reports of visions of ducks and lots of quacking.
There was other news, too. It was mostly bad, and Flynt did not want to focus on that. Not when they were going to speak with a witness.
They found the girl, a twenty-year-old named Mandy Owens, on the third floor. There were no family or friends there, just a single police officer standing guard outside of her door. He nodded to Flynt and Steele as they passed by him and into Mandy’s room.
Mandy was sitting up in bed, staring blankly at the TV on the opposite wall. When the detectives entered, she turned the TV off and sat up straight. She winced when she did so. As far as Flynt could tell, she was mostly okay. There was a single IV drip attached to her and she looked in good spirits, though a bit tired.
“How are you, Mandy?” Steele asked.
“Fine, I guess. Just confused.”
“Have you spoken with any doctors?”
“Just one. They found out I took a psychedelic and gave me something to knock it out of my system. Then this,” she said, nodding to the IV stand.
“How do you feel otherwise?” Steele posed the question again hoping for more than a physical response.
“Tired and way groggy. And embarrassed.”
“Embarrassed?” Flynt asked.
“Yeah. According to the policeman out there, I was naked and running through the woods. Ran right out onto the main road and attacked some guy’s car.”
“Do you not remember any of it?” Steele asked.
“Bits and pieces.”
“Mandy, I need you to tell me any drugs you did tonight. I need you to be honest. We’re not here to punish you. We need information about the rave and the drugs available to help with a case we’re currently working on.”
“That’s just the thing. I didn’t really do much of anything. I almost did some ecstasy, but that didn’t happen. But right before things started getting really crazy, there was this new drug. I don’t even know what it was called. It was this liquid that I thought you just sort of drank, you know? But my friend told me that you just put it on your wrist and let it sink in.”
“And you did that drug?”
“Yeah. But when things started getting weird, I thought there was a good chance this new drug was the cause of it and I tried wiping it off. It might have been too late, though. It was on my skin for about ten or twenty seconds by then.”
“Can you tell me what you experienced while you were on it?”
She nodded and smiled dimly. “It was sort of like stepping into a cartoon at first, but it was chill.” She went on to tell them her experience: multi-colored vines like snakes, a tunnel filled with colors, humanoid ducks everywhere, the mental abyss she swam in and out of.
“Any idea how long you might have been tripping?” Steele asked.
“We got to the rave a little before one. It was probably another half an hour before I took the drug. The policeman said I attacked that poor guy’s car around 2:20. So maybe an hour or so.”
“Do you recall what it was like when you came down off of it?”
“I was sort of sad. Like watching a movie you really like and seeing the credits roll. I got a slight headache as the colors began to fade.”
“Did you have any sense that you could fly?”
“Yeah. I even tried one time. Climbed a few branches in a tree and jumped. Landed right on my butt. But yes…it makes you feel like you can do anything. And there’s this sort of need for violence but not out of an angry or mean way. I know that doesn’t make sense, but it’s the best way I can explain it.”
Flynt stepped forward with a concerned look on his face. “I don’t get it.”
“Get what?” Steele asked.
“Raves are so nineties. Those things are still around?”
“I know, right?” Mandy said.
Steele let the moment pass, and Flynt sensed he did or said
something wrong.
“Mandy,” Steele said, “you were very smart in wiping away whatever residual liquid was left. It might very well have saved your life.”
“How?”
Steele’s tone became somber. Flynt liked Steele’s somber voice. It was very comforting in a way that betrayed the man’s stature and all-around appearance.
“We got a full report on the aftermath of the rave on the way here. Sixteen arrests were made. There were over twenty people injured and three deaths.”
“Oh my God. Did you…do you know anything about a girl named Raven Butler? I was there with her. We’re friends, I guess…”
Steele looked back to Flynt. “Can you make a call and check on that?”
Flynt gave a little salute, took out his phone, and did just that. He reached dispatch first and they connected him to Officer Gonzales, who was the first officer at the scene. Flynt gave the name, waited a few moments for information, and ended the call. When he turned back to the bed, he looked at Steele then Mandy Owen. The information was right there on his tongue, but he wasn’t sure how to speak it. He hated delivering bad news.
“Well?” Steele asked.
“A woman named Raven Butler was found in a pond two miles away from the rave with a few others. There were cuts and abrasions on her chest. It also seems that she hunted down a duck and bit off its head. Raven was covered in its blood, and she crammed some of the feathers into her hair and mouth.”
“Is she…” Mandy started to say.
“They put her into an ambulance, but she died from blood loss on the way to the hospital. I’m very sorry, Mandy.”
Mandy started to weep. Through the tears, she managed to get out: “It’s the drug, right? It made people go crazy like that?”
“It appears so,” Steele said.
“Where did it come from?” she pleaded.
Flynt knew the answer, as did Steele. Flynt thought of Leik and how much trouble the Professor was going to be in when word of the rave got out.
Suddenly, being out and about at such an early hour seemed like a curse to Flynt rather than a luxury. He sipped nervously from his coffee, thinking about Leik’s future and the madness his drug caused at the rave.
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