I awoke with the needle still in my arm. The party continued around me. Everything seemed like a dream, but I couldn’t remember if it was possible to feel nausea in a dream, so concluded I was actually awake. Grimacing I pulled out the IV and sat forward on the sofa. A bat-faced nurse appeared from nowhere and wheeled the drip stand away.
The music pounded my head like a jackhammer. I couldn’t make out the lyrics, they were either in a different language, or not lyrics at all but a melody played by some unfamiliar instrument. My jaw hurt. Across from me, on another similar sofa sat a young girl with pink hair. She was typing on a sticker-emblazoned laptop and chewing her pierced lip.
“Hello?” I shouted over at her, struggling to be heard over the music. She ignored me, if anything she typed with greater intensity before looking triumphant and jabbing the Return key with a crystal-studded fingernail.
Immediately the party disappeared. The sofas disappeared, in fact everything disappeared apart from the girl, myself, and two plastic garden chairs. There was some kind of flooring, and if there were walls they were distant and indistinct.
“Where am I?” I croaked at her. She languidly closed her laptop.
“Good morning Paul,” she said, smirking. “How did you sleep?”
“I-I didn’t, where am I?” I repeated, getting pissed off.
“Not where, what!” she exclaimed, obviously pleased with herself. “Asteron welcomes you, you’ve got a very important mission. We need you to kill yourself.”