Graphic Narrative

Daniel Sedlacek
Nov 4 · 10 min read

I took LSD for the first time about half an hour ago. I don’t think I’m tripping though. James said it would kick in after fifteen minutes, but it doesn’t feel like it’s affecting me. Maybe I should see if my pupils are dilated, I hear that's a good way to know…

As soon as I stand up to walk to the bathroom I feel myself lift off the ground and shoot up into space.

“Hey, man are you okay?” says James as he walks into my field of view, shaking me free from my hallucination.

“I think it’s working James.”

“Do you feel any different?” he asks.

“I don’t know…”

I think to myself “Do I feel different?”

I look down at my hands and open and close them.

“I definitely feel something…”

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom,” I say.

“Alright man, I’ll be out here waiting for our ride to the concert!” says James.

I walk into the bathroom and close the door behind me. I turn on the faucet and let the sink fill up with water.

When I look in the mirror I see my face moving. Morphing almost, sorta like its shape-shifting but just into different versions of myself.

Questions begin running through my head; “Do I always look like this?

Is this what Alaina meant when she said she doesn’t look at me the same anymore?

Wait, no, stop. You aren’t going to let her ruin tonight for you.” I tell myself.

I turn off the water and stick my hands in to splash my face but I become lost in the sensation. Dipping them in slowly only to feel the water roll off before I dip them in again.

My hands seem like the most entertaining things I’ve ever seen. I begin waving them through the air and watching them trace through the air and shimmer in the light.

I’m snapped out of my trance when I hear a knock on the door and something being said that I can’t quite hear. “I’ll be right out!” I reply.

I look up in the mirror and my face seems back to normal.

I run my wet hand across my face pulling the skin down. For some reason, this calms me.

I gather myself and step out of the bathroom into the living room where I lock eyes with James drinking a beer. His face looks different but I can tell it’s him from the glasses he's always wearing.

“What’s going on, are we leaving?” I ask.

“Yeah, come on the Uber’s here, let’s go!” James replies.

We walk out the front door and immediately get into the back seat of a black car. The woman in the driver’s seat turns to look at us and asks “James?”

“Yup that’s me!” he replies.

She nods and starts to drive. As we go along James and her have small talk about our plans for the night and the band we’re going to see. The whole time I’m wondering how James is able to act so normal right now because for me, right now things are definitely not normal.

Then we reach the venue and the car comes to a stop. The driver looks at us in the rearview mirror.

“You boys have fun tonight! Don’t be getting into any trouble,” she says with a wink.

What did she mean by that?” I think to myself.

I follow James out of the car and into the venue, looking down at my feet the whole time for fear that everyone will know I’m high if I look at them.

When we get into the venue the first thing I notice is how large a crowd there is. Most of them have their backs to us but when they turn I can see their faces begin to drift and dance in the lights from the stage. It’s kind of beautiful in a weird way seeing this odd amalgamation of people’s faces move under the lights.

As we make our way toward the stage I’m overwhelmed with the noises of concertgoers excitedly chattering and the band setting up their instruments and doing sound checks.

I try not to think about all the noise as it feels like my ears are about to explode. So I start opening and closing my mouth over and over like my flight just landed and I’m trying to get my ears to pop.

James turns around to say something and looks at me confused, “What are you doing?”

“My eardrums are vibrating,” I say concerned.

James laughs loudly and then proclaims “That’s what they’re supposed to do!”

This doesn’t quell my fears and James notices this. He reaches out to touch my shoulder and says “Hey man, seriously don’t worry, you’ll enjoy this.”

His reassuring tone calms me down a bit and I begin to look around the crowd. As I do, the music begins to play. And boy was James right. I immediately forgot my worries as the music began to flow into my ears. The familiar sound of one of my favorite songs envelopes me. I look up onto the stage and see that the whole band is there.

I’m overcome with excited energy as my brain struggles to comprehend that my favorite band is right in front of me performing one of my favorite songs live. It’s unreal, but I don’t even care if its a hallucination or not I’m just happy I’m seeing it! I go to tell James how awesome this is and notice that he’s no longer in front of me, but instead, some girl is standing in his place.

I start turning in circles to try and find James, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

I’m starting to get weird looks from the people behind me, so I stop searching, face the stage, and try to enjoy the music, but in the back of my head I’m thinking

Where did James go?

Did he leave without me?

No, he wouldn’t do that…

That means that something must have happened to him!

The anxiety is building in me. I look up at the stage and the lead singer’s face begins to twist and distort into a horrifying mess.

I think to myself, “I need to get out of here now.”

I turn around to make my way out of the crowd and am greeted by even more distorted faces. The scene transforms from the dreamlike setting it was, to a nightmare-fuel scenario as the concertgoers move wildly to the music and stare at me with piercing eyes.

At first, I’m frozen with fear and just stand there awkwardly looking them in the eyes, but then I remember that I can still move and begin to run through the crowd to the back of the venue.

When suddenly I trip and fall down onto the floor amongst the feet of the pumped-up concertgoers. I turn onto my back and look up to see a collection of monsters staring down at me. All asking the same question.

“I’m not.” I think to myself.

I try and close my eyes hoping when I open them again I’ll wake up from this fever dream. When I open my eyes I’m still here, but I make eye contact with someone.

A beautiful someone with gentle eyes.

“She’s not a monster at all.” I think.

“Are you alright?” she asks.

Without thinking I blurt out “You’re no monster!”

She laughs and with a small smile says “Tell my Ex that!”

She puts out her left hand to help me up.

I reach out for it, but my hand seems to stretch on and on forever never reaching hers.

I use my other hand to balance myself, gather the strength in my legs and stand up next to her.

She looks at me and says kindly, “My name’s Avery.”

Taking her left hand back and using it to push the hair out of her face.

Still in a daze, I haphazardly reply “I’m tripping and I can’t find my friend!”

This elicits another giggle from her, but she doesn’t seem phased by my confession.

“Don’t worry I’ll help you find your friend,” she says with a warm smile.

“Come on, let’s go outside.” She motions for me to follow. Transfixed by her presence I do.

Once we’re outside the venue I feel a sense of relief wash over me as I realize that I’m not going to be trampled to death by punk-loving monsters. At least not yet.

She asks “Do you want to try and call your friend?”

At that moment I remember that phones are a thing and exclaim “Oh yeah, I forgot!” I pull mine out and go to James’ contact. I hit the call button and hold it up to my ear as it begins to ring.

Then I look up and see Avery dancing to the sound pouring out from within the venue. Her hand in the air moving with the beat as she twirls in circles enjoying the music. Unaware or uncaring of the passerby's who look at her with confusion. I find her confidence fascinating.

The phone stops ringing and James’ voicemail recording begins to play.

“Where are you dude?! I’m outside the venue. Why did you disappear on me? I was terrified. I’m okay now, but just please call me back.” I say, putting the phone back in my pocket.

“No answer?” Avery asks as she lights a cigarette and looks me up and down with her kind eyes.

“No answer,” I affirm somewhat deflated.

“Some friend he is.” She says sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood.

I turn and look at her. “Thank you for helping me. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Of course I did! I couldn’t just leave you to the monsters, now could I?” she cracks back with a smirk.

“I guess not,” I say with a chuckle.

I wonder to myself. “Why is she being so nice to me? She’s way out of my league.”

“This your first time?” she asks, taking a drag from her cigarette.

Surprised by the question I stammer out “I’m sorry, what?”

“Is this your first time tripping?”

“Ohhh I see. Yeah, it is. How’d you know?” I ask.

She chuckles “Well, let’s just say it was an educated guess.”

“My friend James said that I’d enjoy it and I was! But that was before he disappeared on me…”

“Fuckin’ friends… you can never trust ’em, and if you do they’ll always let you down” she says with a sigh and then smiles at me.

“You’re not wrong,” I say with a shrug.

“That’s why I prefer the company of strangers,” she says locking eyes with me.

“Oh, of course, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is —”

She puts a finger up to my mouth as if to shush me and says “It’s nice to meet you, stranger. Wanna get out of here?” she says holding out her hand.

I hesitate for a second, but then I wrap my fingers into hers and begin to float alongside her as she leads me down the street.

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