[color=gray] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/WSq0AyH.gif[/img][/center] [center][color=black][sup]____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/color][/center] [color=yellow][b]Location:[/b][/color] Vex’s Apartment [color=yellow][b]Time:[/b][/color] Night [color=yellow][b]Interactions:[/b][/color] None [color=yellow][b]Mentions:[/b][/color] Dom[@oso] Sean[@funnyguy] [center][color=black][sup]____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/color][/center] The linoleum was cold beneath her cheek. The kitchen floor reeked of stale beer, blood, and something acrid, burnt plastic maybe. Vex stirred, a slow twitch in her fingers the only sign she was still tethered to this world. Her eyes cracked open just enough to squint at the dim light bleeding in through the broken blinds. It was the kind of light that came too late, afternoon, maybe evening. A whole day has passed. She didn’t try to move right away. Her body felt like it had been ripped apart and stitched back together by someone drunk and blindfolded. Muscles screamed, skin burned, and somewhere in the fog of her nerves was the sharp sting of a needle still stuck in her leg. The Warden's bite had done a number on her. [color=yellow]“Shit,”[/color] she rasped, breath tasting of metal and ash. The silence hit next, deep, swallowing, like someone had muted the world. No buzz of her phone. No sirens. Not even the usual hum from the fridge that had long outlived its warranty. Just silence. She blinked through the haze, her cheek sticking slightly to the grime on the floor as she turned her head. An open beer can lay just inches from her face, condensation forming a halo around it. The top hadn’t been cracked yet. She reached for it, flinching as her side protested. Her fingers fumbled once, then hooked beneath the tab. With a single, practiced flick, it hissed open. The sound was sharp. Too sharp. She rolled onto her back with a groan, eyes squeezing shut for a second as the room tilted and spun. The beer can pressed against her lips, and she drank like it might erase the last twenty-four hours. It didn’t. The can clattered from her fingers, hitting the tile with a tinny clink before rolling somewhere under the cabinets. Her arms splayed out beside her, palms up, too exhausted to care. Her chest rose and fell, slow and unsteady. She stared at the ceiling. Pale water stains shaped like ghosts stared back. Her throat was tight. [color=yellow]“Fuck,”[/color] she breathed, barely more than a whisper. The word hung there, heavier than the silence. Images came in fragments, Bear’s eyes wide, the sound of something wet and final, the heat of rage, the taste of blood and regret. It all flooded in, seizing her chest until she had to blink fast just to keep from drowning in it. The ceiling offered no answers. Just a reminder that she was still here. And he wasn’t. Sitting up slowly, her arms hanging over her knees as she steadies herself against the dizziness swirling in her skull. Every movement was a battle, stiffness in her joints, soreness in muscles that felt like they’d been pummeled by a freight train. She breathed in deep, then pushed herself upright. Grunting, she reached down and snatched her battered leather coat off the floor. The worn leather felt familiar against her fingers, like a shield she could wrap around herself. She slipped it on, the stiff fabric creaking as she moved. Her eyes flicked to the apartment door. She moved toward it, hand outstretched. As she grabbed the handle and pulled, the entire door groaned and suddenly came loose, crashing to the floor with a heavy thud. Vex jumped back just in time, staring at the door as it lay beneath her feet. Her fingers dug into the pocket of her coat, pulling out a cigarette from the nearly crumpled, broken pack that was once new.. She carefully straightened the bent cigarette, eyes still locked on the fallen door. She sucked in a long drag, the smoke filling her lungs like a brief moment of clarity. With a slow, deliberate step, she climbed over the mess on the floor, the cigarette burning low between her fingers. She paused at the threshold, eyes dark and tired. [color=yellow]"I need a fucking drink,"[/color] she muttered, stepping out into the stale hallway, leaving her shattered apartment and memories behind.It seemed to be a reoccurring theme. [hr] Vex rolled up to the entrance of the underground event, the pounding bass from inside vibrating through the cracked pavement. Neon lights flickered erratically, casting jagged shadows that danced across the graffiti-covered walls. The air was thick with smoke, sweat, and the raw, electric tension of a crowd hungry for chaos. She slipped inside, weaving through the dense mass of bodies pressed together like a living organism moving to the relentless roar of guitars and drums. The music was a gritty, screaming wave of rock that hammered her bones, a soundtrack perfect for the night’s descent. She’d left her leather coat at the door, too heavy, too cumbersome for this. Instead, she wore tight dark jeans that hugged every scar and curve, massive platform combat boots stomping through the floor, and a black mesh top that revealed the intricate tattoos littering her arms and torso, the delicate ink swirling beneath the surface like a map of her past. Underneath, only a black bra held her barely contained, skin gleaming faintly with sweat and a faint sheen of grime from her kitchen floor. She pulled out her phone to check her messages. [i]Sean..[/i] he had shown up. She responded to him, texting simply [i]” Thank you…Sorry about your friend. [/i] she wasn’t sure what else to say. What could she say? Thumbing through her phone, she came across a missed call from Dom. She stared at it for a moment before putting her phone in her back pocket. As she moved deeper into the crowd, Vex became a magnet. Hands reached out, pressing drinks into her fingers, slipping pills and rolled joints into her palm, offering lines of white powder and glowing capsules. She grabbed everything; there was no hesitation. Drinks to burn, smoke to chase the ache, anything to dull the sharp edges gnawing at her insides. A shot pushed into her hand, a flash of a familiar face grinning through the haze. Without a word, she tossed it back, the bitter burn lighting her throat on fire. Another pill, another drag, a quick swallow of something sweet and sticky. The music throbbed through her, wild and unforgiving, and for a moment, the weight of the day, the silence, and the memories felt far away. She was alive, raw and electric, a storm in human form. The deeper she sank into the crowd, the less the world made sense in the best way. Noise became color. Color became motion. The hard angles of the room melted into soft pulses of light that kissed her skin and licked the edges of her vision. The drugs , whatever cocktail had taken root in her bloodstream, were hitting now. Hard. The music slowed, or maybe her heart sped up. She couldn’t tell. The dim, grungy underground suddenly bloomed into something beautiful. The lights above strobed brighter, burning through the fog like halos. Reds, blues, and purples were all too vivid, too alive. It felt like the ceiling had cracked open, and the stars themselves were bleeding down into the room. She laughedher head tilting back as she welcomed the overwhelming brilliance. Her fingers curled along the belt of her jeans, then slid up her torso, tracing the curve of her ribs. Every touch felt electric, like her nerves had been stripped raw and made golden. She wasn’t just touching skin. She was feeling it. Her body pulsed under her fingertips, alive in a way it hadn’t been in months. Her hands moved slowly, drifting over tattoos she no longer remembered getting. Each mark sparked under her touch, igniting something inside her. Her breath hitched. Eyes half-lidded. Her lips parted around a silent breath. She wasn’t on the floor of her shitty apartment anymore. She was light. She was sound. She was everything and yet nothing all at once. And in that moment, swallowed by the brightness, Vex felt [i]fucking[/i] good. Her body moved with fluid motion to the music, feeling and touching herself as her hands explored her own body. She felt her phone in her back pocket, suddenly remembering that she hadn’t called Dom back. Instead, she pulled the phone out, opening her camera and sending him a photo of her flipping him off with a wide grin, her pupils the size of a pinhead. [i] Send [/i] Giggling to herself as if she had just made the funniest joke, she fell back into the music and the drugs. [/color]