Just as the elevator doors closed in front of me, I saw Lucas still standing where I had left him, completely motionless, holding his face, as if all the strength had drained out of his body.
The elevator dropped quickly. I leaned against the wall, chest heaving violently, my breathing so chaotic I couldn’t steady it.
The d**g’s effect surged even more fiercely, my vision turning blurry in patches as if covered by fog.
When I stepped out of the elevator, I was moving purely on the scraps of consciousness I had left. The lights in the hotel lobby stabbed at my head, and the sounds around me felt muffled by thick cotton—dull, distant, impossible to distinguish. I couldn’t listen, didn’t want to.
All I felt was the world spinning. My legs suddenly gave out beneath me, and I couldn’t hold
