Bullets Against Howls

Chapter One

The glitter on my cheeks sparkled under the fluorescent lights and the vast amount of people appeared suddenly as we entered the room.

The bass of the music was throbbing throughout the house and the lights flashing randomly around.

There were several tables assembled together on which were people moving along the beats.

Abigail grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the bar. There were several guys lounging around with drink in hand.

It was not my first party but I was also not big on party. In fact, I could count the amount of parties I've went on a single hand.

It was no biggie. Party, dance, drink, get drunk, go home and sleep. That's all.

Abigail signaled the bartender for some shots. I had vowed that I will have some shots with her earlier so I had to comply.

The bartender returned pretty quickly with a plate full of small glasses.

Abigail took one and raised it to her red lips and gulped it in one go.

She banged the glass on the table and gulped two other in the space of 2 seconds.

Sensing my hesitation, she faltered on her 3rd glass and raised on to my lips before yelling "Let loose boo and live freely!"

That was all it took for me to gobble down the liquid one after the other. The warm liquid light my throat on fire but I soon find myself ordering for another set of shots.

~ ~ ~

The bartender swept away the several plates of empty shot glasses laying on the tables.

I was tangled in the arms of Abigail, dancing in the middle of the makeshift platform.

Some minutes passed, when I was pulled from the crowd of sweaty bodies.

Abigail waved her hand in front of my face and I noticed the time on her watch.

It was already 1.6 a.m. Oh wait! That's 1.30 a.m..

"Oh no no no non no no nooo! The dorm closes at 11.30. I'm 2 hours late.", I yelled.

"Oh God! I knew I shouldn't have drunk all that... Now what will I do! I guess I will have to stay on the streets and oh my god I can't..." my rant continued.

Abigail reassured me by reminding me that she lives in a small apartment that doesn't have curfew time.

I quickly pushed her outside and directed her towards the carpark.

Abigail was quick to react. She reached into her handbag to take out her keys when her face contorted weirdly.

She looked horrifically at me and murmured, "I gave Marc my keys to go as he has an interview tomorrow"

The alcohol in my system was to be blame as it took me a few minutes to fully process what she just said.

"WHAT THE HELL ABIGAIL! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO NOW?"

Marc was the Abigail's brother and only living family member, In fact, they were identical twins. They were both staying in an apartment not too far away from the campus. To be able to pay the rents, Marc had been applying to a few high paying jobs.

Coming back to the problem at hand, Abigail sighed and told me we should probably start our walk back to the apartment if we wanted to go to school on time tomorrow.

Deciding that this would be the best and only chance we had to reaching home, we silently slipped through the dark alleys to reach quicker. The walk would be almost half and hour if we take the main road, but through the shortcuts we would be able to save around 15 minutes.

After a few minutes of silence, Abigail threw her hands in exasperation and cried

"Those heels are hurting my feet and this dress is sticking to my body. I l can't move without feeling like I'm in a latex suit and urghhh.."

"Shit, you know , I'm really sorry about what's happening. This is totally my fault. Why am I so dumb? I should have thought before giving Marc the keys, Rhyyqa, please forgive me!!"

"ABBY! SHUT UP! Even though we would have save ourselves a lot of time, it's not your fault. Well it kind of is but you get it. Gosh I'm such a bad friend. I DON'T MEAN IT LIKE THIS YOU KNOW... BESIDES WE GOT SOME PEACEFUL TIME WANDERING AROUND THE STREETS LIKE TWO DUMB TEENAGERS AT 2.00 A.M.

At this point, the alcohol had kicked in and my words had gotten nonsensical.

Hearing this, Abigail let out a booming laugh and soon I catch myself joining along in her mirth.

We were too preoccupied giggling at each other over some stupid jokes that we lost didn't hear the noises around us.

Quickly, I signal Abigail to calm down. This was when I took in our surroundings. We were both in the middle of a filthy, gloomy narrow alleyway. In the dim light oozing from the single lamppost present, I could see the gnarled vines crawling up the old stone walls. As they moved forward, the lamppost casted their shadows creepily.

Panicked stricken, I pulled on Abigail's hand to drag her when I heard the quick footsteps from behind me. It was almost like a predatory gait. Like the lion slowly but confidently approaching on its prey, knowing that it was by all means superior.

I dared a quick glance behind my shoulders and saw three bulky man advancing towards us. My mind went on autopilot, it's instinct for survival pushing to the front and I dragged Abigail with me as I started running. Looking forward, I felt my confidence shrink as I saw the sight. The alleyway twisted and appeared to turn back on itself. From where we were standing, I saw nothing but stone.

I felt a stomach tightening as I thought of what was most probably going to happen. It seems like in our distraction, we had taken the wrong directions and got stuck here.

Abigail looked at me through tearful eyes and whispered a silent "I'm sorry". I shook my head and appeared to act brave at least for her sake but it appeared like even she already knew what was going to happen.