The sound of birds slowly rings louder and louder in Kyle's head. As his eyes begin to open, or at least try to open through the dried tears that glued his eyes shut through the night. A violent twinge of nausea started in the deep, deep back of his throat, with a friend that also began in the back of his head. As he fought with what will he was able to muster, he slowly pushed himself up from the floor with his hands behind him. Spinning himself onto his stomach, finding it ever harder to fight against the ugly, vengeful monsters that are gaining more and more power over him, the 2nd geek from the back pushed forward as his head began to spin faster and faster. Wishing that he still had an UNOPENED 40-year-old bottle of whiskey from his father, he pushed himself up.
Once he reached his feet, the spin was able to maximize, and he lunged forward to the bathroom to bring up the bile and no supper he had the night before. Everyone knows that if you are going to drink, especially hard alcohol, you have to eat, at least before you go to bed. Only an idiot that wants to self-punish would ever drink like he did on an empty stomach. Deep down he thought that might win points for him with Seraphina. Sera, who was definitely still pissed at him, was still at her mother's house. Maybe that was a good idea. Maybe Kyle should go visit his mother. After all, his mother has been there every time he has needed her. Why should this be any different. After Kyle was done dry heaving, he got to his feet, took some Tylenol, and then he remembered the group hospital he had been to the night before.
Kyle walked to the door like a car that had a transmission that couldn't quite stay in gear. Eventually making it to his car, he felt like he was out at sea all day prior, and his inner ear was still adjusting to its land setting. After pulling out, he went to a local barista and got a double cap with a triple shot of espresso. With the Tylenol that should take most of the edge off. Grabbed a few other things for the pharmacy next door and headed to the college that his sister had gone to.
Right about the time the rest of the meds he took were starting to take hold, he began to circle the school. From what he remembered, there was no road that connected the road that he was on when he went door to door and the road that hospital was on. He grabbed his phone and looked at maps to get the direction he needed to go and went back around to the other side of the school, opposite the living area for the students. This was over by the school gym and performing arts. The roads through here looked to be built on snake trails. He made it through the fastest way without going to the freeway and circling around from the other side of the city. This would have added another hour or 2 at least. He came to the back of the school by the residential living and found the fence line he had followed the night before. Pulling up, he could see that same old man from the night before. This time he was sitting in the chair just looking out across the distance as if he was in charge of the neighborhood watch.
As the door opened, there stood a short, wide Asian lady with a blank look on her face. Kyle said, "Hello." Realizing that he had no good reason to be there, he thought to himself that they would never let me inside to question these people like I was a cop or something. In his foggy, wavering state, he thought of something to say that might get him inside. Kyle began, "Hello, my name is Kyle. I live in the area, and up until a few weeks ago I would visit my grandmother at her house and talk with her and read to her and go over her mail with her. She passed away, and I thought that maybe I could do something like that here today with one of the residents. Something to help me get over my loss of my grandmothers. I thought that maybe they would also like a visit from someone." The short lady looked him up and down, paused for a couple of seconds, and squinted her eyes and then stepped back to let Kyle inside.
As Kyle was closing the door behind him, the short lady handed him a clipboard to sign himself in as a visitor. Kyle walked slowly inside. The smell of an unventilated house and old medication overwhelmed him for a few seconds and nearly made him puke again. Chewing it back, Kyle rounded the corner into the sitting area where that old man was sitting in his chair. Kyle took a seat next to the old man and told him who he was and gave him the same story he gave the lady that had let him in. He edged a little closer to the old man, and the man flinched away from him. Kyle assured the man he was not going to hurt him.
He started to have a nice talk with him, and then the old man put his glasses on, and he looked at Kyle and said, "I know you." Kyle said back, "Yes, I've been right here talking with you for a while now. I think I know you too." The old man said, No, I remember you from April 11, 2005, at about 9:30pm. I watched you walk along that fence." Kyle tried to explain, "I think you mean last night when I walked up here and talked with someone at the door. That is what you are remembering." The old man started to get a little short with Kyle. "Don't try and tell me what I can and can't remember, you little shit." Kyle figured that this must be part of whatever reason he is living here.
Just then a 50-something black lady walked up with a tray and said, "Okay Mr. Denning, it's time for your medication." Kyle asked the lady, "Sorry, do you know the name of his condition?" The nurse assured him, "I know the condition of all the patients here. Mr. Denning has Hyperthymesia; he can recall any minute of his life no matter how long ago." Kyle let that mix in his mind, and then the lady said to him, "He also has Prosopagnosia. The INABILITY to tell the difference between gender." As the lady walked away, it took a few seconds with his hangover, but then it hit him like a bolt of lightning. That's why he thought he knew me!! It was Kara!! Kyle grabbed the old man by the shoulders as he tried to finish the juice that was given to him by the nurse with his medication. "The night you saw me that April, do you remember anything else around me or your home here?" Kyle asked with haste on his tongue. " No... no... no... YES, you got in that car. That big, ugly car with all the lights on it. You know, the black car with the purple writing on the side that said VIXEN and all the faces."
Kyle stood up, thanked the man, and ran out of the building and to his car. He raced home as fast as he could, trying to think what kind of a car would have vixen on the side. Was there some radio station that gave her a ride somewhere? What was that car for? His mind raced faster than he was driving. After he got home, he ran in the house, jumped on his computer, and began to look up vixen in every way he could. Vixen the band, vixen the definition, vixen the clothes, and Vixen the DC comic book. If only google hadn't gone downhill so badly, he might actually find something. Unless you're looking for shopping or porn, google is useless now!! Kyle jumped onto the Wayback Machine and saw that in his area, Vixen was a dance/go-go club. Kyle only realized just now that it was his birthday. This might be a coincidence, but this is a perfect time to give this vixen place a look-see. Maybe they know something about Kara or even saw what happened to her.
Kyle knew that he could not call Sera yet. That would only drive her away, so he would most likely have to run this mission solo. He took some more Tylenol and passed out for a few hours to get some strength built up. He had no idea what could be in store for him tonight. Could be anything. He may come face-to-face with the person or group that killed his sister, or he may walk into some place that has no idea about any of this and have a different group of people working there altogether.
Waking up just as the sun began to set, Kyle climbed in the shower. Something he should have done before going to visit old people. The lady that answered the door had looked him up and down, most likely, because she could smell the stale whiskey from the night before. I get the coffee was just enough to cover up the fact that I was smelling like a homeless drunk looking for people with mental issues to talk to. Sounds crazy when I think about it too. Maybe I should slow down a bit, or I will end up running this mission right off the rails and blow the whole thing up like I did years back. All I was missing was the torn undershirt and a car with a bumper dragging on the ground. I bet that would have gotten me 24 hours in lockup for sure. Kyle gets out of the shower and puts on his shorts and a T-shirt with socks. He has a couple of hours to kill before going out, so he picks out some clothes for tonight and puts 'em on the bed. He sits down at his computer and clears out some emails to pass the time.
Sitting in his car in front of the address that once was VIXEN, he looks up at the building and there is a huge, neon red sign glowing in front that reads STRAGULARIUM. Whatever the hell that means he thought to himself. He walks past a long, red velvet rope, up to the front door, and up to a big, square-jawed man and a skinny black guy. They were both dressed in black on black with a clipboard. Kyle asked if he could be allowed in. The black guy says, "Really, bruh? You don't really look like someone who wants in on this place." Kyle looks at him and says. "What does that mean? What kind of a place is this anyway, some hip-hop joint?" The two doormen look at each other and begin to laugh uncontrollably. The black guy looks at Kyle, "Alright man, come on in. I think you need this place more than any of us right now. Ha ha... man, fucking hip-hop joint." The 2 men begin laughing again as Kyle walks in the door.
A long black hallway he follows. At the other end he can hear faint music and see flashing light. As he gets closer, he can hear the music is far too loud for what he can normally handle. It sounds like club music, mixed with industrial, and maybe post-punk? He rounds the corner, and there is another hallway, only this time there are what look like people, but they are latex- and/or leather-clad. Some women have their tits out in the open. In one corner there are two women giving oral sex to a man. As he continues down the hall he begins to pass rooms that have people in them. One room has a man in his shorts strapped to a cross and is having cigarettes put out on his skin and then whipped by a woman. Another room has a woman strapped down on her stomach at a tilted 60° angle and is being penetrated by 3 men as men and women stand in a circle masturbating. The last room on the left has a woman strapped down over the lower half of a man strapped down, and 2 women are forcing her mouth onto his erect penis. Kyle asks himself what kind of sick, twisted place is this?
Are these political prisoners or something? He rounds the last corner, and a room opens up. Red and white are the only light that can be seen. There is, what looks like a DJ stand at one end, but it is far to back lit to tell for sure. Off to the right there is a long bar. Tables circle the walls, all filled with the darkest perversions humans have ever thought of. In the middle, it looks like a thousand sex-crazed monsters that are eating each other down to the bone. All in black, some with masks, some with leashes, some with genitals exposed that are so pierced nobody would even know how or what to use it for. Kyle reaches the bar and asks for a drink. Sonya, with most of her boobs exposed to the open air, gives Kyle a drink, and he sits down. Sonya is looking at him as if he is a rabbit walking through the wildcat cage at the zoo, only on the wrong side of the cage.
Kara is at the bar close to Sonya talking to another bartender, and she turns her head around to look at Sonya and see that she is talking to her brother. Kyle locks eyes with Kara, and Kyle jumps out of his seat like someone tried to peg him for the first time. "KARA!!" He yells out loud. For a second her eyes widen ever so slightly, and she looks away and then back again. "Do I know you?" She says to the emotional man at the bar, she is pretending not to know. "Wa... wa... Kara, it's me, Kyle... your brother!" She pauses with her artificial cool that she has picked up from Abraxas and Jade over the past few years. "Not anymore, you don't belong here kid. You should just go home before you get hurt." Kara starts to walk away as Kyle follows with confusion that made the argument with Sera the night before pale in comparison. "I thought you were dead, or kidnapped, or something. ... I see now you're just a sex slave." Kyle trails off, his confusion growing more with every second he is there. "WATCH YOURSELF, LITTLE BOY!!" Kara snaps back, the rage of a thousand suns in her eyes. "In a place like this you will never know who is the slave and who is the master. I am about to walk up those stairs. If you follow me, I will make sure you end up a slave, and it won't be in the way you think. GO HOME. Do NOT try and find me again!" Kara walks up the stairs up to her office, and Kyle's eyes lose her in the darkness. He keeps looking at the void where she vanished until his focus is broken by several beings that start to rub different parts of his body. He shakes them off and heads for the door. His world has become inside out and upside down all within the span of 24 hours. On his BIRTHDAY too!