Dark Side Darker by Lucas T. Harmond Page B

sleep, but was unable to remember what he saw in his dreams. Only that he felt something was waiting for him. And all the time now. Always .
    “Goddammit.” A car crash or something ? He groaned and roughly massaged the side of his head with his palms.
    He felt like shit, his eyes hurt and he still felt heavily drunk. His drinking had reached dangerous levels again. He couldn’t help it, since it was the only thing that was even vaguely holding back the constant dread he felt. No one had noticed yet, it wasn’t as if his drinking had ever really dropped to a standard amount but until recently he certainly had control of it. He could quite easily go without a drink when he went out if he really felt like it. Still, over the past month he’d felt an increasing need to lose himself in alcohol. The steady increase in the voices he was hearing wasn’t helping either.
    He briefly wondered where he was, before realising he had obviously crashed at Karen’s dad’s home last night. Actually, when he thought back, there were vague memories of him walking with her back from the Arena. A pretty crappy night from what he remembered, which wasn’t much beyond shakily clinging to a toilet and desperately trying to rid his already empty stomach of vodka, whiskey and whatever other filth he’d downed.
    “This has to stop.” He whispered and slumped down on the sofa with his hand resting on the floor and his head hanging off the side. Blood began to swim to his head and he felt like he might faint.
    His eyes widened and he reached for a newspaper that was lying under a glass coffee table. He focused first on the girl’s face then the headline above the small article.
    “LOCAL GIRL STILL MISSING”
    Josh knew her face vividly, without any idea why. He scanned down the column and found the name, Sarah Comby. A name which he had never heard before in his life and frowned. Had he just seen her around, in the clubs ? Well it seemed different to that, he felt, almost , like he knew her. She’d been missing since last Thursday. He checked the date of the paper, two days old. So how long had she been missing now ? Nine days. He closed his eyes and, as he so often did, wondered what the hell the design of life was all about. For about ten minutes he just stared at her face trying to recall how he knew her and hoped, despite realising how hopeless it actually was, that she was alright. Most of all he thought of Sarah, the Sarah he did know , as if the two girls were connected. Not by the name but by something else. Eventually he threw the paper down in frustration and clumsily got to his feet. The head rush and swim weren’t unexpected.
    He staggered through to the kitchen, everything was growing dim, he began to feel detached from his body, managed to grab the side of the sink unit and braced himself. He breathed deeply for a few minutes until he felt his senses returning and then fastened his mouth over the tap and began drinking.
    He couldn’t really remember the last time he’d drunk water in a significant amount. He put the experience down to dehydration then slumped down on the cold tiled floor, breathing slowly and deeply to try and kill off the grogginess he still felt. He tried to remember the last time he’d nearly passed out like this but couldn’t. Though it had happened quite a few times—not that he’d ever tell anyone. No , this drinking really had to stop!
    The day outside looked pretty dead, with a brilliant white but lifeless sky. He hated waking early around someone else’s house since all he could do was wait for them to eventually wake up since he felt it was rude just to leave without thanking them and was uncomfortable using the place as his own.
    Cautiously he moved back to living room and switched on the Tv quietly.
    It was a few tedious hours of kids morning programs before Karen emerged from upstairs looking reasonably worn out by the previous night.
    “Morning.” she said in a sort of yawn.
    “Shhhh.