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The Age we dwell in by Zlata Kustric "What is happening to me?" That was her first thought. Rianna looked around her and realized that her vision was beginning to blur and she felt faint. "What's wrong with those lights?" she wondered aloud, as she looked around her. The laser lights in the club had begun to move and form one big smear of colour. She sat down at the bar and tried to reason with herself, in an effort to keep herself from going hysterical. "Ok, ok, just calm down! You'll be fine, just concentrate and think back on what could have possibly gone wrong." She hadn't even drunk that much, only had one glass of Long Island Ice Tea, and that usually had absolutely no effect on her; so she knew it wasn't alcohol. "Ok, I arrived at this new club, Venus, that's just opened, around 11:30, with Billy and Raul, who for some reason are nowhere to be found. Maybe I shouldn't have come, it's out of town and I really shouldn't have come so far, just for a club. Then we danced for about an hour and then I had some tea. Afterwards, I got up to go to the washroom, and I came back within minutes. What can possibly be wrong with me?"
She felt her speech slurring and she found it very hard to control her bodily movements. Everything seemed to have slowed down, the music was so loud that it was hurting the very essence of her brain, and the sea of people seemed to have paused entirely. She felt as if she was between parallel worlds, and was crossing from one into the other. It was a strange feeling that sent shivers down her spine and she began to shake uncontrollably. Then her head started to spin out of control, as she heard a faint voice calling out to her. "Rianna, honey, you'll be ok, just come with us. We'll take care of you." She groggily looked up but couldn't really make out to whom the faces belonged. She knew it was two people, who spoke to her, so she asked. "Billy, Raul, is that you guys?" "Don't talk Rie, you're sick, but we'll make you feel better." "Rie? How do you know my nickname?" she wondered to herself. Seconds later, all of her senses shut down, as she collapsed into a black sea of nothingness. She was running down a mountain, in an effort to get away, but she couldn't do it. Something was ganging up on her and she couldn't get away from it. On top of being terrified, she was cold, so very, very cold. She looked around the snow-covered hills and noticed right up ahead was a cave of some sort. Rianna figured she would be warm in there, so she went inside. Inside the cave was cold and wet, but at least she was away from the Arctic winds. Rianna looked at herself and realized she was in nothing but a bathing suit. "Why am I wearing this when its 30 below out there?" She realized there was something very wrong with this picture but she couldn't quite comprehend what it was. Suddenly a bright light started to peer inside the cave, blinding her. She opened her eyes and found herself in a strange room. "Oh, God, where am I? She looked at herself and saw all her clothes on the floor, or at least what was left of them. Her shirt was ripped to shreds and her skirt was stretched beyond recognition. She was lying on the bed, nude. She was without any covers, and she felt the bitter cold overcoming her: seeping into her bones, making her shake uncontrollably. The window in the room was wide open, sending in a freezing wind from outside. "Well, that would explain the dream" she laughed to herself, but quickly snapped back to reality. Tears welled up in her eyes as she quickly started to realize the possibility of what might had happened to her. Recently, she had heard reports that a date-rape drug had resurfaced onto the streets. Its street-name was 'a roofie', and, to the eye, this drug looks like aspirin, but it has all the power of a knockout punch. Usually, guys put it in girls' drinks, to knock them out and then rape them. She examined herself up and down and she saw there were no bruises or scratches on her, which led her to believe that she hadn't really put up much of a fight. "I have to get out of here," she thought to herself, as she made her way out of the bed. She walked over to the window and looked out. "Hey, I'm only about five minutes away from my house. How is that possible?" Whoever had brought her here must have known where she lived, and brought her as close as they could to her house. She put on a bathrobe that she had found in the roach-ridden bathroom and ran out of the motel.
Somehow she made it home and as she went inside her house and looked around. There was nobody home, to her relief, and she ran to her room to change. She jumped in the shower and tried to wash away the dirt that she felt deep within herself, but she knew it would never come off. Rianna slowly walked out to her car and drove to a nearby clinic. She walked in and looked around her at a sea of misery and despair: everyone looked like they were preoccupied with their own problems and nobody even gave her a second look. "I wonder if anyone else went through what I did, last night?" she wondered to herself. She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost didn't hear the nurse call out her name. She slowly walked inside and told them what she thought had happened. They listened to her carefully and the doctor began to admister a blood test. "Don't worry, Rianna, you're not alone. Too many girls these days come in and report that the same thing happened to them. Many have no idea what to think and all are scared to death. Now, I am going to test for pregnancy, STD's, and HIV and I'm going to see if we can trace what you were drugged with. You did the right thing by coming in right away. This way the drug can still be traced in your system." "When am I going to know the results, doctor?" Rianna asked. "Come back in one week and we'll have them for you," the nurse replied. Rianna freaked out. "One week! Are you insane? What am I supposed to do until then?" "Ma'am, restrain yourself please, or I will have you escorted out of here. Everyone waits a week, some even more, so you're lucky there. Now are you going to leave peacefully or do I have to call security?" the nurse threatened and waited for Rianna's answer. "No, that will not be necessary. I'll see you in a week." Rianna replied quietly. She walked out of the clinic and headed home. The following week passed in a daze. She didn't tell any of her friends what happened, even though everyone wanted to know why she was acting like a completely different person, all of a sudden. 'I have to find Billy and Raul. They must know what happened to me. Maybe they saw who took me away from that club,' she told herself. She went all over to the school, but was unable to find either one of them: nobody had seen them for days. On her way back from school, she noticed Billy and Raul talking to two girls from her class. "Billy, Raul, hey, where were you guys? I've been looking all over for you." "Oh, hi Rianna, how's it going?" Billy replied, as he looked at Raul nervously. "Yeah, look, we tried looking for you, that night at the club, but you just vanished, so we went home," Raul explained with a tremor in his voice. "Oh, really, because I was going to ask you guys if you saw anything that night. I came in with you guys, and we were together the entire time, until I went to the bathroom. Then you guys were gone and that's when I just don't remember anything. Where did you go? I told you I was coming right back." Rianna questioned innocently. "Um, Billy, what is she talking about? Can we please go now, I have to buy a new dress for tonight." Brittany whined as she tugged on Billy's sleeve. "What's happening tonight?" Rianna wondered. "Billy and Raul are taking us to this new club out of town. It's supposed to be really cool. It has all these weird special effects and stuff," Mackenzie replied happily. "What club is that guys?" Rianna asked with fear creeping into her voice. "Uh, we really should go ---" Raul began, but Brittany interrupted. "Oh, it's called Venus, and the girls get in for free. I don't know how Billy and Raul found out about it. It's kind of far away." Rianna opened her eyes clearly, for the first time that week, as she realized the horrible truth. "It was you, wasn't it --- how could you have done this to me!" Rianna started to cry uncontrollably. "You were the ones who brought me out there, drugged me, and then you raped me!!!" "Mackenzie, Brittany, get in the car. We're leaving this instant!" Billy commanded as he pushed the two girls into the car. "And you should keep your mouth shut. People are going to think you're crazy and we will make it seem like you are, believe me. We'll make it look like you're a druggie. Who is going to take your word over ours? You passed out Rianna, passed out because of the drugs you took yourself and now you want us to take the fall for it. Well, it's two against one honey, remember that! And if you try to take this any further, we'll expose you for the slut that you are, and make everyone realize that you deserved everything you got. You went to the club with two guys. What exactly did you think was going to happen?" Raul threatened as they got in the car and quickly drove away. Rianna, speechless, collapsed on the pavement and drowned in a sea of tears that washed over her face. *** "Rianna Summers", a voice called. Rianna walked over to the nurse, to get her test results . "Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is you're not pregnant. The very bad news is, you're HIV positive. I'm sorry Rianna," the doctor finished explaining. Rianna was in a state of shock. "Well that's ok, we all gotta go sometime", was all she could say. She didn't understand, in any way, what the doctor had said to her and didn't hear a word he said to her afterwards. "...and there is early treatment we can fight this thing with. You can beat this, Rianna," the doctor went on, not realizing that Rianna wasn't registering anything. Minutes went by like years and she headed out. "... and your parents are going to be with you during your first treatment. Now, this is very important ... are you listening to me, Rianna?" the doctor asked. "Yeah, they'll be glad to join me. I'll see you soon doctor." she replied, her voice never skipping a beat. She walked home, not realizing that she had left her car back in the clinic's parking lot. After all, she didn't need it where she was going. She went up to her room and collapsed on the floor. "What are my parents going to say? They are going to be so ashamed!" she cried out aloud. "No, I can't let them ever find out that their only daughter has HIV. I can't let them go through that, let them live with the embarrassment every day, and I'll die anyways." She knew there was no saving grace now and crawled over to her drawer taking out a bottle of sleeping pills. Her parents weren't due home for another five hours, which was, for what she had to do, enough time. She took the entire bottle: all thirty pills that were inside. She lay down on her bed, a feeling of peace and bliss overcoming her. What seemed like seconds later she felt a white, blinding light overcome her. Then she thought that she heard her mother's voice calling out to her, from very far away, calling her to come back, but she knew that wasn't possible. She felt herself slip away into a sea of never-ending light, a place where she would never again be an embarrassment to anyone. This was a place where her blood was still healthy and a place where she would never feel more pain, ever again. The End.
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