Im in a dingy, dirty pub in some basement with a beer in my hand, and I’m unsure how I got here.
Im standing in a circle of people I vaguely know, and one of them is rambling about how one of our mutual acquaintances now “identifies as a dinosaur”, isn’t a “real ally” and is “just doing this for attention”.
As I try desperately to escape the conversation, a woman I know approaches me and asks if I’ve seen “that new handsome stranger” around. I have no idea who she’s talking about.
“No…” my voice trails off.
Her face arranges itself into what I can only describe as a sincere smile as she proceeds to tell me “he fucked me in the ass 26 times tonight and made me bleed, a lot.”
She says this without an ounce of pain or sadness in her voice, so it takes me a good 5 seconds to register.
“Oh my god, Lindsay are you okay?” I finally ask.
“Ohhh yeah” she smugly tells me. “Gave it to me good, like some kinda crazy truckstop shit”
This is not a confided confession or cry for help. She’s boasting.
I turn to try and locate one of her friends for advice, and as I do, I’m startled by a man standing hunched in front of me. His face has been inflicted with massive lacerations and trauma. As I absorb what I’m seeing, I take a quick step back then freeze up, horrified.
His jaw is broken, mangled and dangling from the hinges. His gaping mouth looks like someone stuck an immersion blender or giant drill bit in there.
His right eye is running out of the socket and down his face like half-cooked egg. The other is a beautiful icy blue.
Aside from having some gore stuck to it, his hair is perfect.
The man stares at me briefly, then moves past me and makes a beeline for the washroom. There is a half-groan-half-chuckle as he saunters away, and I notice he’s clutching what appears to be a sharp, jagged gemstone the size of his forearm.
When I turn back to ask others around me if they also just fucking saw the same thing I did, I am suddenly alone.
I glance over to the corridor that leads to the dancefloor area of the bar, and notice streams of blood appearing on the floor flowing towards me.
I remember that the only exit is through this area, so I proceed forward cautiously.
As I step through the sticky blood and round the corner, I see that everyone who was formerly scattered all around the bar is now gathered closely together in this room.
Each of them are maimed or injured in some terrible way, and they’re collectively pacing. First back and forth, then in circles.
Their movements are almost perfectly synchronized, and im not sure how to even process what I’m now witnessing.
I feel an overwhelming sense of danger, as fight-or-flight takes over. I need to get outside and away from this before calling Emergency Services.
I move slowly and attempt to slip past the crowd unnoticed.
As I near the exit, my arms and shoulders are suddenly vice-gripped by various people in the grotesque mob as they invade my personal space, so they can brag to me about how they got their scars and describe to me in great detail what the once-handsome man did to them. Their eyes are turning black as they speak, and I can feel my limbs breaking. In my peripheral, I see the stranger approach me with his gemstone.