Grenadine Dreams

1. The Hangover

1. The Hangover

{Naya}

Instead of listening to my friend and ditching the bar, I allowed this dark and handsome stranger to buy me a drink. That was my first big mistake. My second, was leaving the nightclub with him.

His name was Uriel and everything he told me that night sounded too good to be true. As soon as our drinks arrived, he guided me away from the bar and towards the hookah den at the very back. The floor dropped into a circular depression populated with embroidered cushions and a pipe that was already lit. We sank against the pillows and assessed one another over the rims of our glasses.

The longer I studied Uriel, the more his features came into focus. He had healthy, olive-toned skin against a five o'clock shadow. He wore his wavy dark hair long and his hooded eyes were brown like mine.

With a delicate, tempting accent that I couldn't quite place, he breathed to life scenarios that could only exist in a fantasy.

What if you could have anything you wanted appear right in the center of your palm?

What if you could make your life easier with a single wish?

Yeah right. I should have known better.

After that, things got . . . a little fuzzy.

Yep, Uriel was no good.

I attempted a yawn, but my tongue was a thick, leathery beast. Combine that with the unrelenting pounding against my skull and I was cursing Uriel once again.

Oh, but he was so good-looking.

I could still taste the remnants of the grenadine-flavored shisha that we smoked. All Uriel's talk about wishes and making life easier had me thinking of my father. Thinking of how he had no idea that I had dropped out of the university and lost every scholarship.

If anyone needed a do-over, it was me.

Whenever I tried to remember back to the rest of our conversation, my head took another beating.

Damn. How hammered did I get last night?

Despite this merciless hangover, I tried again to recall what happened.

I know for certain that when my best friend, Portia, came over to check in, I told her to go on without me. Uriel and I left together shortly after that. We must have come back to his apartment and . . . .

Hmm. Interesting. Despite the silky fabric against my cheek and the smell of incense and leftover shisha, I don't remember actually sleeping with Uriel. Rather, I received flashes of impossible images.

Uriel holding an enchanted flame in the palm of his hand.

Okay . . .

Uriel asking me if I wanted to eat the flame.

What?

Me nodding my head, promising to do something equally strange.

And then . . . Uriel tipping my head back and feeding me the little knot of fire.

"Uriel," I groaned, reaching across the bed for him, "dude what the hell did we smoke last night? These dreams are –"

"Is that what you think this is, Naya? A dream?"

Uriel's voice echoed all around me. The way it sounded wasn't . . . natural.

I opened my eyes to a dark space.

"What? Don't you like your new home? I thought you would, given the amount you smoked last night."

I rolled to my knees, still searching for the source of his voice. My hangover screamed at me to lie back down, but now was not the time to chill.

Slowly, my eyes adjusted to my surroundings. The walls were close to me and made of a red, cloudy glass. The ceiling was shrouded in darkness as if I was trapped in some kind of bubble.

I banged my fists against the red glass. The pounding made quite the ruckus, forcing the sound to reverberate and further aggravate my headache.

"Careful with the glass," the voice warned.

I've had enough of this!

"Where are you!" I screamed.

The voice clucked its tongue.

"Naya, have you already forgotten everything we've discussed? That's a shame. Come to me now."

Before I could protest, my hangover gave way to an entirely new sensation. My body began to levitate on its own. A strong, almost painful force tugged me upward. I tried to fight it, but like everything else happening around me, I had no control over this.

The gravitational rewind dragged my body upwards and away from the room of red glass. I gasped as I saw the opening above me narrow into a black chasm.

There's no way I can fit through that!

I shut my eyes and let another wave of disorientation take over. What happened next could be best described as my body transforming from a solid into a gas. Now I could properly fit inside the narrow shaft of darkness, but I had no idea where the hell my body had gone.

Darkness became light – or rather a dimly, candle-lit glow – and my body materialized back. I watched in horror as thick plumes of smoke reconstructed my legs, arms, and torso. But that wasn't the worst of it.

Standing across from me was the source of the haunting voice.

Uriel.