If there's one thing I can say about all of this, it's that we should've just stayed home. I knew that from the start, but I agreed to it anyway, and it's one of the worst decisions of my life. That one choice has caused nothing but disaster. If I could take it all back, spare all of this from happening to us...by god, I would. Whatever it takes. I've had enough.
We were all sitting at the curb, waiting for a taxi after the party. People were still filing in and out of the house, in a not-so-orderly fashion. A sort of disorganized valet, if you will. I worried for Adam and Jack. Maybe I was just an anxious, protective brother, but I wasn't so trusting of a random stranger offering "alcohol-free" drinks at a house party. Even as Jack had said, there were no set regulations here. There was no way to ensure anything. Everything he said was right. And then the way the server acted after I rejected his offer...something wasn't adding up. I didn't like it. I didn't like any of it.
Before I could think any more about it, however, a taxi had rounded the corner onto our current street. It seemed Jack had spotted it at the same time as me, as he stood up and raised a hand to call it. The car brakes squeaked lightly as it pulled off the road and came to a slow stop by the curb. Adam and I stood up in near-perfect unison and I opened the back door of the taxi. We each clambered into the tiny space, gave the driver Jack and I's address, and watched as the lights and sounds from the party slowly faded into the distance, and hopefully, soon, out of mind.
Jack fixed his hat on his head as he yawned. "God, I'm exhausted." He fell back against his seat.
"Same..." Adam caught his yawn, "what a night..."
I tried my best to not continue the train of yawning and gave them a half-smile. "You guys can rest for right now if you want. I'll wake you up when we get there."
Adam and Jack seemed to hardly give it a second thought. They each nodded before taking to their corresponding sides of the car and drifting off.
The driver of the taxi was awfully quiet and hadn't bothered to turn the radio on, which altogether gave the car an uneasy silence. I wasn't sure whether that was for better or worse for my sake. I decided to fill my time with something at least a little bit thought-invoking rather than make myself miserable with anxiety. I looked out Jack's window at the surrounding area.
Outside, I could see that we were just leaving the suburbs and getting back into the main part of the city. Skyscrapers, streetlamps, and the usual traffic came into view and things slowly became more recognizable. Signs for businesses and restaurants passed by, and couples and groups of friends enjoyed the New York nightlife. My expression saddened. Normally, it would make me happy to call this city my home, but tonight it only reminded me of the situation we had just abandoned. I wished I could've enjoyed it more. I wished we all could've.
I snapped myself out of it. I couldn't let every little thing make me anxious about the party, as much as my subconscious was going to try. Sprinkles of raindrops began to fall on the windows and the roof overhead. At least it was something to listen to. I looked over at Jack. He slept with his head resting in his hand, his elbow positioned in the pocket of the door panel. In some way, he seemed to be sleeping soundly. The turbulence and start-stop rhythm of traffic didn't seem to disturb him. The party must've really knocked him out. I chuckled to myself.
Adam seemed to be in about the same state. He sat a bit slumped, with his head kinked against the side of the headrest. He maybe wasn't sleeping quite as elegantly as Jack, but he was just as tired. I began to wonder if maybe I had been overreacting about the drinks after all. I was almost tempted to join them and fall asleep, too. But someone had to stay awake and make sure we got home safe. It was New York, after all. You can't trust everything in a big city like this.
I started thinking back to when the three of us were kids, when we'd go on day trips upstate with our dad. It wasn't a particularly frequent thing, so whenever we were able it was all the more special. We'd be in the car before the sun rose and on our way back right as the sun was setting. We were spent by the time it was all said and done, and we'd fall asleep in the backseat much like Adam and Jack had now. Dad always found it funny...I almost wished I had him here to talk to. I could only wonder what he'd say if he found out what we'd been up to. I hoped he wouldn't be too mad. Lots of young people go to parties, right? That's just...what you do. Did Dad go to parties when he was my age? Oh, whatever.
I looked back out the window on Adam's side and watched as raindrops accumulated on the glass. Before long, I found myself thinking about the server from the party again. That whole spiel was hard not to think about. That man was so insistent upon all three of us, and for what reason? I'm sure there were plenty of other people at that party who would gladly have taken a drink from him. But the minute I, specifically, turn him down, suddenly he gets angry. I wasn't sure why. Maybe he just had a bad day, or maybe it was something else I couldn't have known about. But I would've thought Jack and Adam would have had more trouble by now if the drinks had something in them. They hadn't had any kind of reaction as far as I'd known. By that much, I could relax a bit.
We were further into the city now. From here, I knew we weren't too much further from home. I began to recognize street names and various buildings from having been through the area many times before. Our apartment building was only a few minutes away. I was honestly excited to get home. I couldn't wait to decompress and let this night be forgotten. I was sure Adam and Jack wanted that, too. We had high expectations, and what we got was far below. I could only count down the seconds before I'd be in my bed again.
Eventually, we pulled to a stop at a stoplight. I knew this neighborhood and the surrounding area all too well; our building was within the block. I could almost see it from the backseat of the taxi. It seemed to tease me. We just had to turn onto the road and we'd be on the home stretch.
...But we didn't.
The light turned green, and the driver kept going, past our street. I didn't know what to make of it; any taxi or Uber or even just regular car I'd ever been in had almost always taken that street to get to our building. After the night we'd had, it had thrown me off even more. I tried to let it go. There was the possibility that the driver had just decided to take a different route, or maybe they just made a wrong turn and they were going to go around the block. Whatever the case, I kept my eyes fixed on the windows just to play it safe. From what I could remember, there was another way to get to the building from where we were, but it would add some extra time to our ETA. Hopefully, no longer than another minute or two.
This street was different from the last one. I couldn't recall a time when I had come down here last. It was more dimly lit, lights fewer and farther between, with the few existing ones giving the road a hazy orange glow. There were much fewer people on this street compared to the busy main road; to my memory, we may have even been the only ones. Just a few empty cars lined the desolate sides. If it was like this all the time, I could see why no one ever came down here. At least, not by choice, anyway. So, why were we here?
I didn't want to think about any of that. I tried not to think about it. I hated not knowing if I was overreacting or being rational about this whole thing. It all felt so strange and suspicious to me, but I've been wrong before. For all I knew, this could just be the only route this person had ever driven, or whatever other made-up statement I clung to for comfort. I just wanted to tell myself that everything was going to be fine. Maybe that way, I could believe it.
There was a click as the car's turn signal turned on, but I couldn't see which direction we were turning from my position. Desperate as it sounds, I only hoped it was the right way. If we turned to the left, we'd be heading in the right direction to go back to our street. Left, and I could rest easy knowing we were, officially, going home. The car slowly eased onto the road before gradually turning down the street, in the completely wrong direction.
I began to panic, my brain flipping between two options. Do I confront the driver or wake up Jack and Adam? I didn't have any time to think, I had to do something.
What to do, what to do. What do I do?!
I turned to Adam. He was still sound asleep, just as much as before. I didn't want to have to disturb him or Jack, especially if I turned out to be wrong about all this. They were tired, they needed the rest more than they needed nonsensical blabbering. But...it all seemed so real. It still seemed real. Didn't the driver just take a whole slew of wrong turns? And aren't they still going the wrong way? In my head, it all seemed rational. God, the joys of anxiety.
Fuck it.
I sat up straight in my seat and moved closer to Adam, doing so as quietly as I could to not draw attention to myself from the front seat. I grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him lightly.
"Adam?" I whispered. "Adam!"
There, however, was no response from Adam. He wasn't a notoriously heavy sleeper, but something must have been different tonight. I tapped him on the shoulder.
"Adam? Adam, wake up!"
He had no reaction. His face withheld the same, groggy expression as before. By now, I felt like I was choking. Was Adam even...
No. Don't even think about it.
I frenzied over to Jack and hurriedly tried to shake him awake. "Jack! Jack!?"
Jack sat motionless, his eyes glued sleepily shut. I could see a slow rising and falling of his chest, but not enough to make me comfortable. The same was true with Adam. Immediately, something clicked. Something I hated to realize. It was the exact thing I had worried about only moments before; the drinks were drugged, and now we were being driven to some unknown location with no idea how to get out of it. I guessed it was time to get on with Plan B. I looked to the front seat.
"What's going on?" I commanded.
There was no answer. The driver kept going forward, their eyes not leaving the road. I guess I shouldn't have expected an answer looking back, but I insisted on getting to the bottom of this.
"Who are you?! Answer me!"
Before I even finished my thought, the car jerked and veered off to the side of the road, stopping abruptly. Whatever was happening, I was sure as hell in for it now. The driver sat still for a moment before whirling around in their seat to reveal an unsettling face. A face I recognized.
The waiter from the party.
His well-kept face wore an intimidating smile, his eyes boring into me. How he had gotten into the taxi and this situation as a whole, I wasn't sure, but this wasn't a time to come up with complex theories. He chuckled lightly to himself, gazing out the passenger side window.
"You should've had a drink."
I wanted to say something, defend myself in some way, but I couldn't think fast enough. Then, something white flashed in my face, and the entire rest of that night is blackness.