Page 101 of Relapse

Music vibrating through concrete.

Drugs dissolving reality into something softer.

For a little while, I forget everything.

Brynn.

Dante.

The apartment.

The city swallowing people whole.

Even the guys.

Though honestly?

The second Dagger and Noir realize where we are?

They are going to lose their absolute fucking minds.

Which weirdly just makes me laugh harder while Mina drags me deeper through the crowd beneath flashing lights and foam spraying overhead. She grabs both my hands dramatically while jumping to the music.

For a second, everything almost feels normal.

Then somebody starts screaming for real.

At first I barely notice it.

The music’s too loud.

Everybody’s already yelling.

Then the first gunshot cracks through the warehouse.

Sharp and violent.

The bass keeps going.

That’s the horrifying part.

The music doesn’t stop.

So for half a second, nobody reacts properly. Then another shot rings out, closer this time.

Somebody beside me jerks violently backward, and suddenly blood sprays across my arm.

My brain stalls.

The guy collapses hard into the crowd at my feet while people start screaming around us.

“Oh my god—”

“What the fuck—”

“RUN!”

Chaos detonates instantly.