Delirium

"No! All I want is some coffee! Please!"
Cori heard herself cry out, her head was spinning, was she still in the club? Purple, green, blue, were they strobe lights? Where is she?
She put her hand to her head to stop the swirling room.

Her vision began to clear, she could see a mirror through the haze of lights. Her confused reflection looked back at her. "Where am I?" she asked aloud. She blinked a few more times and the lights began to disappear. Her bedroom, that's where she was.

She looked down at her clothes with confusion. The white dress, no, that must have been a dream. Where is her blue dress? She looked through her dresser drawers. It wasn't there.

Feeling delirious, Cori decided to take a shower. The hot steam slowly pulled her out of the fog she was in, but her head was still taking a beating from some invisible force. She could remember everything that had happened vividly, the club, the delirium. The delirium. That's what was wrong with her, she had her first hangover, nothing more. At least she hoped that's what it was.

Still having the incredible urge for coffee, she went downstairs and made some. She felt like a zombie walking around her house, if this was the effects of alcohol, she didn't want it. But surely it had to be more than that. Didn't it?

She sat at her kitchen table, slowly sipping the hot brew. It was pouring buckets of rain, symbolizing her mood this morning. She tried to make sense of what had happened to her. For some reason though, all she could think about was him. The gorgeous one from that tropical paradise who said his name was....

What was his name? She couldn't remember. Only his eyes, she could recognise those anywhere. They were light, vivid. A sharp contrast from his dark skin. The way he had carried himself, cocky, confident; like some sort of......lothario.

He acted as though he knew her, what had he been asking her about?

Right, the letter. What letter? A letter she supposedly had and told him about. Yeah right. She had never known anyone like him before, and that beautiful dress she was wearing. It had to be a dream, there was no other rational explanation.

With her head still throbbing, Cori went to her living room and wrote some things down in her journal. Things she hoped no one would ever read, for fear they would think she was crazy. As she was writing, the words became blurry and her head began to spin again.

She squeezed her eyes shut and decided to write this down later. No way she could forget a night like that. She closed the book and nearly fainted on the hardwood floor. She decided that there was no way she could go to work today, so she went to call in sick for the first time in ages.

She dialed the number, fingers shaking the entire time. Was she nervous? No, that wasn't it, she couldn't control them. Her boss finally picked up and she hoped she could speak without sounding like a drunk or a lunatic.

"Hi, this is Corinne, I'm......Well, I don't feel well, so I won't be in this morning." she said vaguely into the receiver. She hoped they wouldn't ask for specifics, what would she say? That she had no idea what had happened to her, how she had gotten home, or where her favorite blue dress had gone that she was wearing last night?

To her relief, her boss wished her to get well and then hung up.

Cori went to her kitchen window, staring out at the torrential rainfall, still trying to put together the pieces of last night's activities. She turned on an old movie to collect her thoughts.

As she watched the lady on T.V. it slowly came back to her. She had gone to a club, the scarily beautiful bartender had given her a drink, she woke up in paradise, meeting someone about a letter. But what letter? Every time she strained her brain to think about it, the pounding returned.

"It had to be a dream, or I'm going crazy. But where is my dress and how did I get back into these clothes?" Cori thought out loud. The bartender perhaps? She remembered his face now, he was offering her something better than coffee......

Did he bring her home, had he done anything to her?

The name suddenly popped into her head with no warning. Gabe! That was his name, the tan god that had the light eyes. He said he knew her, but how could he? She was boring and had no real friends, least of which were that gorgeous.

The bartender.....Mmm-What was his name? Morpheus! That was it! That's who she needed to go see, he could explain what had happened to her. If he wasn't involved that is.

Feeling somewhat better, Cori headed outside in the rain to go question that bartender about what the heck he had given her to drink that made her feel like this. She was delirious. In a delirium; that was the name of the drink. Was this supposed to happen to her?

She stood on the street downtown, confused.

"Maybe this is the wrong street. No, I'm sure this was the one."

She looked around, seeing no club and went inside to ask someone what was going on.

"Hi, this might sound crazy, but is there a club around here with a bartender named Morpheus?" Cori nervously asked the teenage sales clerk.

"Hmm, well what does he look like?" she asked.

"Black hair, gorgeous light eyes, pale skin. Almost like a....Oh never mind. He's got a thin patch of hair on his chin."

The girl looked back at her blankly. Had she imagined the entire thing? Such a man couldn't exist, a vampire? Come on Cori, wake up.

"No, no club around here with a bartender like that. Maybe he was a stand in or something. What street is this club on?" she asked Cori, who simply shook her head and went back outside.

She stared up at the sky, raindrops tracing their way down her cheeks. Her thoughts were overwhelming, what had happened to her, this was the right street. So where is this club, did she imagine it? No, she wasn't that consumed by her daydreams, she could always tell the difference.

Had she dreamed the entire thing? A dream that you are dreaming in the dream? Don't be ridiculous! That doesn't even make sense. Was she going crazy?

Determined to find out, Cori made her way back home and soon it was dark.

She changed into her pajamas that some would call "ugly", but she didn't care. She was tired, confused and was ready to get a relaxing night sleep. Her thoughts went back to the night before and she was terrified, but excited to see where her dreams would go tonight.

That is, if they indeed were dreams.

She settled in, under the covers and her head began to pound again. She had never had one before, but did a hangover last this long? The room began to spin again and she fell back onto the pillow, unable to keep her eyes open anymore. She could faintly hear something, what was it?

Laughter, no. Someone calling her name. Was it Gabe? No. Someone else.

Someone she didn't know. But they sounded like they knew her. They were yelling, what were they saying, she could barely hear!

She closed her eyes as the voice came closer.

The letter? Yes, she could hear them clearly now.

What letter?!

Karen- tag, you're it!