The Nightmare Game (32 page)

“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.