The drink was strong, tasting of cranberry and gin, warming its way down Kristi’s throat. Marnie and Grace giggled all the more and licked their lips. They acted like they really believed in the vampire stuff, or at least found it incredibly hilarious. Kristi watched them as she sipped her drink, then put in casually to Marnie, “I thought I saw you go into Wagner House the other day.”

Her own words “other day” seemed to reverberate a bit, and Kristi looked around toward the band, wondering about the sound. And was that right? Was it the other day? Or, had it been at night? She couldn’t seem to rightly remember. “It was after hours,” she added, for clarification.

“Really?” Marnie’s smile wobbled a bit…looked like a snake crawling across her lips. A blood red snake. No, it was just her lipstick running…or…?

“We all go there,” Grace said over the loud music, and she seemed to be having trouble staying on her chair.

“Yeah, we meet there.”

“We’re meeting at Wagner House tonight.” Grace again. “Maybe you’d like to come.”

Grace’s words sounded funny, as if coming through water. And her image kind of wavered. Feeling uncomfortably warm and off balance, Kristi licked her lips and tried to respond but the words felt stuck in her throat.

“Oh, God, it looks like the drink really hit you hard.” Marnie seemed concerned. “Let’s get her out of here.”

“I’ll pay,” Grace said, and flagged over the waitress…what the hell was her name? Bethany…the girl in Grotto’s class…She came over in a hurry and they began talking together. They grabbed Kristi under her arms and helped her toward the door. Lord, she was drunk, her legs hardly working. She heard phrases like, “Can’t hold her liquor…we’ll get her home…”

But that wasn’t right.

She’d been drugged. She knew it.

Somehow, someway, they’d slipped something into her drink and she’d been foolish enough to have trusted the waitress. Damn it all…

No one in the bar seemed to notice as she was hustled out a side door and into the dark, cold night. She tried to yell, but no words came, and when she managed to fling one arm out, nearly swiping Grace’s chin, the other girl laughed it off.

She looked like just another wasted college girl.

Now what? she thought, but even as the words crossed her mind they escaped again. Her mental acuity, at least for the moment, had disappeared. Blackness pulled at the corners of her consciousness and she thought she might pass out.

Don’t! Stay awake! You have to keep your wits about you!

“Here ya go,” Bethany said, opening a door as the two other girls guided her outside, keeping her moving while her own legs became less and less steady.