After she was long gone, I hovered over a table containing food, including a bowl of red liquid, and resting my palms heavily on the glass surface, utter fury radiating out the very pores in my skin, I screamed. It was the kind of scream that people would usually do in the comfort of their own privacy, possibly in their bedroom, preferably into a pillow. However, I had no bedroom, nor a pillow, or any privacy, so naturally, this socially unacceptable notion rewarded me with a series of judgemental looks. 

"What?" I snapped. "You never heard anyone scream before?"

In turn, they gave me yet more judgement looks. 

By the time I got back into the house, I was dizzy, fazed, and pretty sure my left ear stopped functioning. 

"Alright people! The DJ shouted from inside the house, startling the heaven out of me. Why were the speakers so loud? Or was it his voice that was just a little fortissimo? Hey, I didn't know I spoke Italian! 

"For these next wild minutes, we're going to it back a few decaaaades!" the DJ shouted once again, ecclesiastically pointing his thumb backwards. "Here's some Thriller for all you monsters out there!"

The thing I knew, Michael Jackson's 80's classic was blaring in my one working ear. 

Maybe Gemma should have been in the music video. She wouldn't have even needed any makeup. I should have pounced on her the moment she refused the cure! That would have been the Emerald way of doing things.

I should go and ask her again, I thought through unfamiliar dizziness. It was a strange kind of dizzy. It was weightlifting. Nice. 

But the witch wouldn't listen to me! And, where the hell am I supposed to find her in this rather bright and mystical house? And even if I did, how will I get her attention?

Just then, the luminous glow of the colluded lights from the DJ stand, grasped my attention and a pretty lightbulb lit up in my head.

I stepped up – actually, that was a stumble – onto the platform. "You are doing a fantastic job, Mr DJ!" The 's' in fantastic didn't come out right. 

He nodded at me, one hand working busily over the switches and things, and another over the pair of bright pink headphones that clung onto his neck. Despite being indoors and nighttime, he wore sunglasses. It puzzled me why one must work in such a complex manner when all they were doing was playing music and switching them on an occasional basis. Surely, that can be done on an iPod shuffle? And you don't even need to switch the song yourself. 

"Hey!" I yelled over the blasting music. "Do you m-mind showing me what these buttons do?" A stutter?

"Sure, hold on," he replied, putting the headphones done. "See these knobs, here? They are the EQ, they control the frequency—"

"Okay cool, can I burrow this for a sec?" I interrupted, my hands flying to the mic. 

"Wait, what—" 

"Thanks! And turn the volume down for the music with your EQ thingy." 

He (understandably) hesitated, but complied and music played a diminuendo, eventually becoming so quiet, the crowd stopped dancing and looked my way, booing. My vision blurred for a split second, but it was probably the tiredness of the past couple of weeks, so I brushed it off, bringing the mic to my mouth, and spoke— screamed:

"What's up, what's up, you beautiful people!" 

This was fun!

The crowd cheered in response. They looked like insects from up here, but that may have had something to do with my blurred vision. 

"You guys are amazing dancers! A room full of Michael Jacksons, every single one of you." They cheered again. Psshhht! As if I had really thought that! 

"How-however, I'm n-not exactly looking for Michael Jackson," I continued. "I'm looking for a Gemma Reynolds. Gem-a Rey-nold-sssssss. So, yeah, shout out to my number one hater, Gemmy! Mwah." I blew a kiss to my invisible Gemma, and the crowd cheered again. What a bunch of zombies! Even I didn't understand what I was saying!

"S-so I am up here, facing my non-existent stage fright, because Gemma isn't giving me something, that, rightfully, she should. Yeah." I tasted my mouth; it tasted bitter. "Um, your music will come back on when I see Gemma. Now, in the meantime, I'm going to give to you guys a sad background story: Gemmy's daddy at Reynolds Corporation and my parents at the Front—"

"202!" Someone yanked me off the platform. 

I stumbled, and almost fell to my tragic death! 

"What the hell are you doing?" the voice demanded. 

I blinked. Nope, still blurry. I suspected it was Gemma, seeing as I nearly died a moment ago, and who would want to kill me more than her, right? But, this person's deep, husky and even a little bit sexy sounding voice in my right ear, convinced me otherwise. 

"Um... eservest?" Of course! He wanted to kill me too. Wait, wasn't I forgetting something about him?

The music was back on, indicating that the DJ went back to his mojo. 

"Go away!" I feebly pushed at Everest, and inevitably failed. "I'm doing s-something important, and you're spoiling it!" I complained. 

"What the–" bad word "–was that? Do you want to get yourself killed?"

"You always say that! You were going to kill me just now!" What a hypocrite!

"202..." That sounded like a warning, which I was sure to ignore. 

"Relax—" I walked closer to him, and he took an instinctive step back; I stopped. "Why are you running?"

"I'm not...running," he growled. 

"Alright, then," I took a step forward. "As I was saying–what was I saying?" I thought hard. "Aha! You need to relax, nobody even knows me here. They're just kids! Kids don't watch the news." I laughed, although there was nothing really funny to laugh about, and I was practically a kid myself. "And what are they gonna kill me with? Their heels?" I giggled. 

His eyes narrowed a fraction of a nanometer almost suspiciously. "Why are you acting like this?"

"Like what?" I asked. 

"Irresponsible, stupid."

"You mean, like the way you acted when you kissed me?" That was what I was forgetting!

Every muscle in his face relaxed for a moment, and then contracted just as fast, as he said, "find Gemma, or get out of here."

I smiled. "Aha! Then, it should be you doing the getting out, for I have already found her."

His face contained no emotion, but he was shocked, I just knew he was! "You have?" It was somewhere between a statement and an unconvinced question.  "When?"

I walked off into a hallway. "Wouldn't you want to know."

He followed. It was either that or my shadow came to life. "202." 

I was dizzy again. But, a good sort of dizzy. I wasn't used to this strange feeling. It felt like the first time Everest injected me with that drug. Except, this made me happy. Which was mind-boggling, because I was going die! Yay! Wait. No! Right?

I still had my suspicions for this strange sense of joviality, but there was no time to question boring logic like this – what was logic, anyway, sometimes I used big words that I didn't know the meaning of. Hold on, logic wasn't even a big word! What was I saying – or rather thinking? Oh yes – there was no time to think of logic when there were bigger questions to be answered, such as: why were the colours of these rather excited people's clothes constantly changing? Eccentric! Or why did my legs seem to move like a sleepy ballerina?  Oh, I know! A sleep-walking ballerina with two left feet! Those were so in right now! 

So, gliding like the passionate, sleep-walking, ballerina I was born to be, I slowly made my way through the hallway. Or perhaps it was Disneyland; hard to tell. 

Was I high? Well yes, my heels were. They must have been the reason I found difficulty in doing something as simple as walking. Wait just a second! I wasn't even wearing heels; malicious things those were. One wrong move and you could bet your bottom penny that you'd die to death!

But, I did like the look of those incredible beige walls, swirling about here and there, so magical! Marvelled by the sight of those mysterious creations, I struggled towards it. Wait, struggled? No, I strutted towards it. I think. 

And, it was all fun and games until some idiot collided into me. 

"Ompf!" I had to look up, for the idiot I collided into was quite tall, and realised it wasn't any old idiot. I knew this idiot! It was E-Eve-Evest? No. Not that one. Everest! Huh, he was tall like the Everest!

"Eservest!" I slurred for some peculiar reason. "I forgot you were with me. Look at these magical walls!" Oh, he was bound to be impressed by those bad boys. 

Unfortunately, his steel face didn't contort an inch.

The only expression that came out of him was the suspicious piecing of his eyes into my own. But, I was sure he was astounded by those spinning walls...in his mind. He was just concealing it. 

"What?" he asked. 

It wasn't even a 'what?' what. It was a 'what.' what. 

"What?" I replied, perplexed. 

His eyes narrowed, juuuust a weeny bit. "Did you speak to Gemma Reynolds or not?"

"Hmm, g-gamma rays," Tapping my index finger against my chin, I thought hard. "No, n-not really, I wish not be exposed to radiation and go klchh-qk-chow, and die, why would you ask such—"

"Gemma Reynolds, not gamma rays," he growled. 

"Oh! See, you got me worried there for a second, Eservest..." Looking at Everest whilst speaking to him really was a distraction. I mean, he was so, what's the word? Mean? No – I mean yes, but not now. Ridiculous? No not that one. Rather... pretty. Wrong adjective! Jerk? No, that was a verb. Attractive? No... I mean yes! Yes! That's the word! Attractive...

"So, did you speak to Gemma or not?" he asked, clearly impatient. 

But then again those walls were also pretty attractive, I'd say. 

My sleep-walking ballerina feet brought me closer to him. "Let's not talk about her, right now." I whispered, my stupid hand reaching out to touch his face. How strange, I didn't remember giving it such an absurd command. 

He stopped it. "Are you drunk?"

"Huh! Drunk? Drunk?! What is drunk?" Damn, I didn't know I was this good at acting. 

"Did you consume any alcohol?"

"Al-alcolol? No! Director never let me near that s-stuff, back at the Front."

"But you were let near it here." His eyes bored into mine, so blue like something so... blue and... pretty. No, I was totally kidding; his eyes were never really blue, in fact they were always almost black with just the thinnest blue ring around them, only about a shade lighter.

"So?! What are you accusing me of?"

"So. Tell me, 202. Did you, or did you not, drink alcohol?"

"Woah! How dare you? My name is  Emerald!"

"That's besides the point."

"Can you let go of my hand now?" I requested, ignoring his scolding. 

One second he stared at my hand, the next, it was dropped like a hot coal. Hmm, I wished I hadn't asked him to do that. Now my hand was cold. His hands were ironically very warm for someone so cold. However, now that he had let go of my hand, I could try touching him again. Hey, why didn't I just use my other hand? So stupid! Poor righty was always getting left out. 

"...wasting time," Interesting, turned out, he was speaking. "Are you listening to me?"

"Y-yea-yeah-yeah, s-something this, some-t-thing that, wasting time, blah blah whateverest, am I right?"

"No."

"Oh."

"I'll ask you one more time. What did Gemma say?"

I scratched my head. What did she say? "Oh, it was important!" I exclaimed. "I need to find her and make her change her mind!" Although, I wasn't even sure what needed changing. 

Everest stopped me. "Answer the question."

"Ummm..." I thought hard. It was useless. "I forgot?"

"You did drink alcohol!"

"No, I did not! Hope my heart and cross to die! I only drank water since I got here!"

"What water?"

"I dunno, a kind fellow offered it to me in a pretty red cup."

"So, you're drunk."

"What? How did you know?"

"Because you're acting like a maniac," he meanly said, leaning close. "And, word of advice: at a party, don't accept anything given to you in red cups."

"I meaaan, it was more of a Simpson—I mean, crimson colour—"

"No," quick as lightning, he grabbed my shoulders. It was hot. "I don't think you get it. You are going to die if that cure is not found. You cannot afford to be like this."

"I didn't mean to drink alco-alcohol! Honest! It smelled like cherries, you know, the ones that are pinkish and grow on trees... anyway, by the time I spat it out onto the guy's face—"

"You did what?"

"I sprayed the bastard with my saliva, keep up. Anyway, by then, I, um... some of the drink was already half way down my esophagus."

He frowned a bit. "Why didn't you come and get me?"

"I tried! But that was when I saw Gemma!" I told him, rather excitedly. "And even if I did get you, what would you have done? You would have just shouted at me, am I right, or am I right?"

"I don't shout," he responded. 

"Whatever! You would have scolded me, like you're doing right now. And I don't have time for all your negativity. All the uses of this world seem weary, flat, stale and unprofitable, as it is already!" I said, quoting Hamlet. 

Something about the way his fingers flexed, hinted that he was restraining them from strangling me. Or, maybe—

"Do you at least remember where  Gemma was?" Everest questioned. 

"Yes," I said solemnly. 

He waited a moment. 

"Well?"

"But, I won't tell you," I teased giving him a wink. 

"This is not fu—"

"Ha! It's not fun being on the other side, is it?"

"What?" he practically growled. 

"Oh, don't act foulish—foolish! You made me suffer in that forest with a gazillion billion million pigllion jigly... what was I saying? Oh yes... unanswered questions. You made my heart bleed. Actually, technically, the heart always bleeds. Anyway, it's fit and fun—fair that you suffer, as I did."

"202, this is not the time to be playing games."

"Oh, I don't know Eservest—"

"You don't remember what she said, do you?"

I put my hand over my mouth and let out a dramatic gasp. "I swear, it's like you're omniscient! Hey, Eservest—"

"Everest."

"Yes, S-sir." I saluted him because there was no need to not be disrespectful at a time like this. 

He waited. I did nothing. 

"You were saying?"

"Huh? Oh, yes. Eservest, I am a tad bit curry–curious. Oh that's funny, 'curious' has a 'cure' in it! Good huh?" I laughed, smacking his arm. 

"Will you just get on with it?"

"Of course! Or rather on course, because you said 'get on' so... I don't want to get off..." my sentence faded away as soon as I saw the homicidal expression on his face. And to think I thought he was beautiful!

"As I was saying, I was thoughting—thinking; what are going to do after we, um, get Gemma."

His initial silence probably meant he was contemplating my question before he said, "we will talk about this when you are not drunk."

"But, the whole drunk thing isn't even my fault! I didn't know! Some guy gave it to me! I was dehydrated! I didn't know what I was drinking!"

"Didn't you taste it? Or at least, smell the alcohol?"

I leaned against the wall, all too tired to talk... or even breathe! "It smelled and tasted like cherries," I kindly explained "Like pretty cherries, you know, kind of like those pinkish ones that grow on trees..."

"I don't know why I'm arguing with a drunken person," I heard him mutter under his breath. 

"So, are we going to look for Gemma, or what?" I asked. 

"No. Not now. You need to get sober, first."

"Why?"

"Because, you are the one who's going to talk to her."

"But, I already did!"

"Yes, but you went and got yourself drunk, and now you don't remember anything she said!" he snapped, irritably. 

"I'm sorry! I didn't know! I've never been near that evil stuff! You have to understand, bro. Director never ever let me—"

"I know," his low voice interrupted. 

I lifted my head, all bamboozled. "You do?"

He nodded. 

I smiled. "He forbid you from touching alcohol, too, didn't he?"

"Maybe," he replied, shortly. Cute. 

"Hey, Eservest?"

"Hm?"

"Did you know that there is no growth limit for trees? Their growth is only inhibited by physics, because the water can't travel that high up their capillaries, due to gravity." I'd always wanted to tell him that! 

"Yes," he said. 

"Huh?"

"I knew that."

"Oh." So smart. So— "So, how does one get sober?"

He shrugged. "You need to sleep it off."

"Great! There are tons of bedrooms in here. Let's go upstairs!"

"Wait, no." He grabbed my wrist. "You are not sleeping in a frat house."

"Oh, yeah. Those are for guys. Let's go to a soro— sonority!"

"202!" He pulled me back, as if I were some puppy on a leash – preferably a Yorkshire Terrier. "We're leaving."

"We are? But we need to navigate—negotiate with Gemma!"

"Yeah, I think we're past that now. You need to sleep the intoxication off. Then, if we're lucky, you'll remember what she told you." 

"Are we going to a sorority, then?"

"No." He didn't even bother to elaborate. "Can you walk?"

A grin spread across my face. "Are you going to carry me if I say 'no'?"

His face remained stone cold. 

"Fine! Yes, I can walk," I groaned. "Where are we going, anyway? And, how are we going to get anywhere without a ride? Are we going to fly on that unicorn—"

"I'll get a cab. And then we'll stay in a hotel nearby. Okay?" His eyes moved between mine. 

I shrugged. "M'kay." 

Ten – or maybe it was a hundred – minutes later, we were waiting for the wretched cab to arrive. Most of whatever happened was a blur of yellow, concrete, lampposts and then a huge building. 

"Cool!" I yawned, gazing up at it. 

Before long, I was laying on a cloud-like single bed, and fell into pretty slumber like sleeping beauty, or someone like that.