Page 146 of Ecstasy
Another weak nod.
He loosens his grip and I take a gulp of air, filling my lungs on a gasp. His fingers trail down my collar, splayed against my skin.
“You’re so beautiful, baby girl.”
I’m still taking in air, but the sting in my back, the cuts on my feet, it’s shooting fire through my body.
“Eli,” I say, my voice hoarse. “I need...”
His eyes rake over my body before coming back to rest on my face. “Me,” he finishes, “you need me.” His mouth lands on mine, his tongue sweeping past my lips.
“No,” I whimper around his mouth, “it hurts...”
He pulls back, staring at me, and then a smile curves on his lips. He reaches into his hoodie pocket, letting go of me.
I exhale, but then he holds up a baggie with something off-white in it, and a lighter in one hand. He reaches into his other pocket, murmuring to himself.
“Ah. Yes.” He pulls out a syringe. “I’ve got something to help you, baby girl. I just need a spoon.”
My mouth goes dry as Eli opens up a drawer, slams it closed. Opens another one. He pulls out a spoon, grinning at me as he sets the syringe down on the counter.
“Eli...”
He ignores me, dumps some of the powder into the spoon, his movements sure. Steady. He sets the spoon down, grabs the syringe and fills it halfway with water from the sink, drops it into the spoon.
“Eli. No.” I step back, the blood seeming to freeze in my veins. He wouldn’t.
And that can’t be…
He flicks the lighter, heating the contents in the spoon to a liquid.
“Eli.”
He just smiles wider, pulls something else from his pocket. A cotton ball.
He soaks up the heroin in the cotton, then plunges the syringe into the cotton, pulls it out and drops the cotton ball.
He turns to me, syringe in hand.
“No.”
He wouldn’t actually…
I take another step back. I’ll never be able to run to the door before he gets there. I won’t be able to stop him. Not by running away. Not by fighting back.
“Eli.”
“Yeah, baby girl?” He advances toward me.
“No.”
I back up into the wall that Kylie’s room is on. But Kylie isn’t home. And Alex is at the coast.
Eli grabs my arm.
“N-no.” I try to snatch it back. “Why would you want me to—”
“I want to give you the best high, Zara. Better than those little pills you’ve been doing. This will be like ecstasy, and not the fucking club drug, baby.” He yanks my hand forward, places the needle over a blue vein, prominent against my pale, thin skin.
