The Terror #wattys2017 #TNTHorrorContest

Meanwhile

        Dale and Steve are having a swell trip. They've been under the tree poking at that fire for what seems like hours and hours. The sound of the fire crackling and the many colors was enough to keep them entertained until they began to come down.

        The fire was nothing but embers at this point and strangely enough, they never had any fear of burning down the forest.  They just enjoyed the experience and were starting to feel the exhaustion from banging their brain cells together and overdriving their pituitaries. There is a certain mellowness and satisfaction from tripping all night, a haze if you will, giving everything a soft edge, not unlike the soft filter the movies use when making an older actress more appealing.  

        It was just coming up dawn with all its majesty, there were birds chirping with the sound of the wash tumbling by.  An owl was hoo hooing the crickets were chirruping, and everything was peace and harmony.  Finally, Steve wondered,

        "Hey Dale, what happened to Merrill?"

        " The last I saw he was going that-away" He pointed in the direction of the Merc.

        "Do you think he's OK, I mean, I think he was having a bit of a bummer?"

        "He probably went to the car to lay down or something, that's what I would do if I was bumming. I like to be alone when things start getting weird on acid and stuff."

        Steve stands up from his cross-legged position like he's a hundred years old,

        "Damn! My legs are asleep!" He was pretty wobbly and grabbed a nearby tree branch for stability.

        "How long you think we been here, playing in this stupid fire?"

        Dale looks at him quizzically, scratches his chin and say's,

        "I don't know but I sure need to take a piss." He then tries to get up and finds himself in the same predicament as Steve.

        "Fuck me, my legs are asleep too!"

        Then Steve, "Mine are coming around but there all pins and needles, oh that's too fuck'n weird. Oh, I can't move, it feels too weird!"

        "We must have been here for quite a while for my legs to be this fucked up, that fire was awesome though!

 I can't move either, so I'll just piss on this here fire right here." Said Dale.

        Dale then turns around and Steve hears the zipper.

        "Dude!"

        "Don't make me laugh, I can't pee when I laugh" and he's cracking up with intermittent ropes of urine making what's left of the fire sizzle. They both start laughing a little harder than they should be, still under the spell of the LSD still fizzing in their brains.  Steve is moving his weight back and forth in place, one foot then the other trying to get the feeling back in his legs, somehow that's funny too.  

        "Now I gotta pee too asshole, HA HA HA HA"

        Finally, Steve feels normal enough to take a few steps from under the tree and collects himself. Again, worried about what happened to Merrill he calls out.

        "MERRILL!"

        There's an echo in the canyon, at least he thinks it's an echo, could be the acid.

        "MERRILL! Merrill, where are you fuck nuts!"

        No reply, he stops to take a piss himself and looks towards the Merc. He decides he better go see if he's in there. Dale steps out from under the tree,

        "You going to look for Merrill?"

        "Yeah,"

        "Wait up, I'm coming with"

        Dale jogs over to Steve, puts his arm around his shoulder as they make their way over to the car. It's more than a little chilly at the crack of dawn, their breath forming clouds in the frost. Dale says, "that was crazy good acid, kinda speedy though, the fire was epic. I kept seeing like, a little log cabin burning down, Injuns were dancing around the cabin. There was a chick tied to a pole screaming bloody murder." 

      Steve said, " I was transfixed, completely absorbed in it, at some point I stopped feeling my body and went right into it, next thing I know I'm wondering about Merrill. I'm still a little high," he chuckles," I love the afterglow man, I wish I could feel like this all the time."

Dale says, "Give me one of those Marlboro's, you fuckers smoked up all my damn Kool's" He runs his fingers through his hair, pupils still dilated, "I neeed coffee and a lot of it!"