The Party

It all started with the party. It was one of those parties. You know, the kind with the people that are always looking for something "new" to try. Yeah, one of those parties. Well, I usually don't go to those parties, because of two reasons: 1. I never am invited, and 2. I'm your traditional 4.00 GPA geek, so I'd rather be studying. Your probably thinking, well why am I there? Some guy I liked was there, so I decided to go. Someone told me that there was going to be the latest fad there also. Whatever that was. So when I walked in the door, I was shocked that there was no smoke filling the air, or the smell of alcohol on the host's breath. I walked inside, and sat down on a large leather couch. In front of me sat a fairly large group of people. They were looking at a blank screen, like one you'd play a slide show on. Quite suddenly the lights dimmed, but then the slide show came on. It was pretty boring. All that was on the screen was some colors, and occasional a swirl of light. Then a woman with long brown hair and a blue skirt and matching top stood up. "You got any batteries, Joe?" She asked of the man sitting next to me. He looked up , and several people gasped. I snorted into my hands, amazed at the looks of terror on the people next to me. I turned to the horrified girl next to me, with her blonde hair at about shoulder length she looked at me. "Why is everyone flipping out about this whole battery thing?" I leaned forward, searching through the dark to find her face. My eyes were slowly adjusting and I made out some greenish eyes. "Don't you know?" She replied in a high soprano of a voice. I rolled my eyes, but in the dark she did not see. "Obviously I don't." I sighed. I hate dealing with people like her, but she was the only one who seemed to be willing to talk to a geek like me. "Well, there is a rumor, that if you put a battery in your mouth, your body will absorb the acid." She paused, as if this should answer my question. I just stared back at her. Apparently she got the hint and continued on. "If you watch the slide show with the acid in you, it supposedly changes. You see totally different things then the normal people see." I turned my head slightly at this, as if I was trying to hear the deeper message that she was trying to convey. The girl didn't take the hint, so I simply asked her "What do they see?" She seemed to get horrified all over again. Gulping down her anxiety, she spoke in a harsh whisper. "People call it ‘The slide show of horrors.' When you've got the acid in you they say it's the worlds most frightening, thing in the world. In fact, no one's survived it." She added morbidly. I was shocked. I wanted to leave the party. "Do they have heart attacks from the fright?" I asked warily, not really wanting to know the answer. The girl smiled a cruel smile. "No. They kill themselves. It's to frightening. No one can stand it, and they don't want to see it anymore, so they just get up and blow off their heads. But this is a safe house. No guns in here." The girl said. I stuck out my hand. "My name is Raina, what's yours?" She smiled. "Sherry. Nice meeting you Raina." Her smiled faded as a man walked out of the kitchen with a battery in his hands. With shaking hands he dropped it into the other girl's hands, who as much as I could tell through the dark were shaking even worse. "Sherry, you know what you were saying about the suicides? Why don't they just take the battery out of their mouths?" Sherry sighed. "It's not the battery, it's the acid in the battery. Once it's in the brain, it stays in for at least a day." Sherry shuddered. "Which means that if you live through the show, you see it replayed crystal clear for a whole day." "Anything for a thrill." I muttered to myself. Just at that moment, The girl put the battery to her mouth. Sherry stood up. "Don't do it Diane!" Sherry said, walking over to her. "You must remember what happened to Cassie, don't you?" "Of course I do! But this is a safe house. Cassie's dad had a gun! There's nothing here! I'm fine Sherry. I'm gonna be the one to do it." Diane smiled. "Diane please. I don't want you to be tormented." Sherry pleaded. Diane turned her head, lifted the battery to her mouth and swallowed. Sherry gasped, and returned slowly back to her seat next to me. "Sherry, it's okay. Really. Diane will be fine, I'm sure." I patted Sherry on the back. Sherry sighed. "I know, but I'm warning you Raina, this can be very frightening, I mean watching Diane." Sherry gulped. "But If Diane can take it, so can I, and if she makes it, I'm gonna do it." Sherry attempted at a smile but failed. The slide show started to play, and we watched the somewhat soothing colors fade in and out, when I started noticing, Diane flinch at the change of each slide. Her flinches grew worse and worse. Now my total attention was focused on Diane. By this time she was gasping at every time the slide turned. And this terrified me. Because she was so scared it filled the room with the stench of pure terror. As the slide changed from blue to a yellow Diane screamed. Everyone leapt about a mile. One boy, a bit younger than I, stood up and walked out of the room. I wanted to leave, but like looking at a horrific train wreck, I was enthralled. The slide changed again and Diane leapt out of her chair and a boy grabbed her around her shoulders. "God, I'm done, I'm done, make it stop!" Diane screamed. Sherry was almost crying. "Why don't they just turn it off?" I asked desperately trying to block out the cries of Diane. "They can't once it starts it doesn't stop." I gasped. "Why don't they cover her eyes?" I prayed for some ending to this insane night. "It won't make all the old pictures go away. She's got to stick it out." Sherry said, and Diane stopped hollering for a second. The boy released her shoulders and she flew out of the room, and out onto the balcony. Over the side she jumped and I looked away, hearing a hush from the crowd, that I didn't want to hear. "Two, two in two weeks! Why did this have to happen to her? This was a safe house?" Sherry started to cry. I held her hand. "Two?" I gently prodded. "Cassie, last week she tried it, and she put a gun to her head." I gasped. "But if Diane saw what happened to Cassie, why would she do it?" Sherry looked up at me through her tears. "Supposedly." She choked on a sob. "Supposedly that at the end of the slide show, there is the world's most beautiful picture, and if you make it to that picture, you will forget all of the horrors before, and you will experience pure joy. They say it's the biggest high humanly possible. I guess Diane thought she would be the one to see the last slide." Sherry got up and walked, crying out of the room. I was left to think. And thinking can some times be dangerous. Poor Sherry, and poor Diane. Why would they do it? They must have been so scared. But then I started wondering about the content of the show. How bad could it be? I couldn't think of a single picture that would cause me to kill myself. No image that I could imagine would be enough to make me not want to live. Humans have a natural will to persevere. If I was the one to see that last slide, why I'd be famous. I would no longer be just some smart girl in the classes. I would be the brave one. The one who lasted through all the slides. The one who saw the last picture. I looked back at Sherry walking out of the door. Pushing off of the couch with my shaky hands, I gulped down air, and trembling, walked to the balcony. Locking the balcony door, I didn't look to the cement below. My stomach was cramping as I felt the eyes of every person inside the room on me. I walked up to Joe, took the batteries from his still shaking hand placed them lightly inside my cheek.