- Text Size +
Lyric yawned and rolled over, hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock. She hated these 3 am wake up calls, but at least she’d been able to sleep in a real bed. The bunk on the bus just wasn’t the same as a semi-comfortable hotel bed.

Thirty minutes later she was dressed and packed. She stopped at Howie’s room, for once he was up and nearly ready to leave. She rolled both of their suitcases down to the lobby and out to the bus, where the driver stowed them away. He went inside to get some coffee. Lyric glanced at her watch, it was time to go drag Howie out of his room.

As she stepped off the bus, hands grabbed her. She started to scream, but a large hand covered her mouth. Within seconds, her attackers had carried her around the corner of the hotel, away from the main parking lot.

“Well, well, lookie who we got,” a male voice drawled. Lyric was startled to see three of Howie’s pretend friends – the same ones she’d kicked off the tour several weeks earlier.

“Not so sure of yourself without your little toy, are you?” Eric said.

Lyric knew she was in deep trouble, these men were all much larger and stronger. At this time of the morning there would be no one around to save her, even if she could scream.

“Let’s just do it and get out of here,” Mike said, looking around nervously.

“I want to have some fun with her first,” Eric said. He was the one she’d used the stun gun on. His eyes roamed up and down her body. “She’s scrawny, but I bet she’ll put up a fight. I like a woman who doesn’t just lay there.”

“We don’t have time, Eric, the driver will be back in a few minutes.”

“Ok, give me her arm then.” He pulled out a syringe and Lyric panicked, trying desperately to escape.

“Quit squirming, bitch,” Jimmy said, increasing the pressure on her throat. Lyric’s vision began to darken so she quit struggling.

Eric approached her, pulling a plastic strap tourniquet from his pocket. “This won’t hurt a bit,” he said soothingly.

“But this will,” Lyric thought to herself as she kicked him in the groin, landing a solid hit to his balls.

“Jesus Christ, Jimmy! Can’t you hold her still?” Mike said, looking at his pal doubled over in pain.

“I’m gonna kill you this time, you fucking whore,” he whispered when he was finally able to stand again. “Hold her legs, Mike.” He grabbed her arm and wrapped the strapping around it, popping up the veins in her arm.

“You can’t kill her, dude. I’m not going to prison over Howie’s little whore,” Jimmy hissed in the darkness. Mike agreed, insisting that Eric not give her a lethal dose.

“Ok, but I’m gonna give her enough to make her so sick she’ll never cross us again.” He jammed the needle in her arm and depressed the plunger, shooting the drug straight into her vein.

Lyric tried to scream, but Jimmy held her firmly until Eric finished the deed. He tightened his hold until she passed out.

“Come on, let’s get her back on the bus.” They carried her limp body back to the bus and laid her in her bunk, then pulled the curtains closed.

Howie waited for Lyric to come back and drag him to the bus, as she did nearly every morning. It was a game they both enjoyed. But when she didn’t return, he left the room and checked himself out of the hotel.

He ran into his driver in the lobby. “Have you seen Lyric?”

“Think she’s on the bus already,” he said.

Howie climbed aboard, noticed that her purse lay on the table and that her curtains were closed so he went back into his room and laid down, intending on catching a few more hours of shut eye.

The gentle rocking of the bus on the highway lulled him into a deep sleep, and soon he was snoring away. In his dreams, he heard a strange sound – like that of a wounded animal whimpering in pain. It grew louder, until the whimpers were shrieks. Howie sat straight up in bed, realizing the noise wasn’t a dream.

Howie opened his door, the sound was coming from the bunk area – from Lyric’s bunk right outside his door.

“Lyric, are you ok?” Howie asked, the noise suddenly stopped. He pulled back the curtains, Lyric was curled into a ball, eyes squeezed tightly shut. “Must’ve been a bad dream.”

He went back to bed and had just fallen back to sleep when a loud noise woke him again. He could hear heavy footsteps, pacing back and forth up the aisle. When the noise continued for more than a minute, he climbed out of bed. Looking out the door, he saw Lyric walking from the front of the bus to the back, gesturing wildly with her arms and muttering. She seemed extremely agitated about something.

When she saw Howie, she sprinted for him – pushing him back into his room and slammed the door shut.

“There’s my baby...”

Lyric pulled his shirt off as she shoved him back on the bed. She then reached down and pulled her dress over her head, standing there in only her underwear.

“Lyric? What’s going on?” Howie didn’t like the wild look in her eyes.

She jumped on top of him, grinding herself into him. “Make love to me, Howie. I want you to take me now! Take me hard!” She snaked her hand down into his shorts, grabbing him none too gently.

“Lyric!” He managed to push her off and scoot away, standing in the small space between the wall and the bed.

She unhooked her bra and flung it on the floor, then crawled over to him. Howie had a hard time taking his eyes from her breasts, they were much larger than he imagined they would be.

“Aw, come on, baby. You know you want me.” She pinned him to the wall, capturing his mouth in a ferocious kiss. Howie felt himself responding, despite the weirdness of the situation.

Without conscious thought, his hands roamed down her back to her rounded backside, the mounds fitting perfectly into his hands. Her skin was hot to the touch.

She released his mouth, pressing kisses down his neck to his shoulder. “I’m a she wolf, baby, and I’m gonna get my prey.” Lyric suddenly bit him hard and Howie shoved her back onto the bed.

“Are you crazy? What’s wrong with you?”

Lyric suddenly curled up into a ball again and began crying softly. “He’s gonna get me,” she whimpered. “No, Eric! Not a needle, I hate needles. Oh god, leave me alone!”

“It’s just a dream, come on, wake up!” He shook her, gently at first, and then more firmly. Lyric’s eyes flew open, but she wouldn’t respond to him. She just stared into space, eyes unblinking.

“Lyric? Can you hear me?” She didn’t respond. Howie noticed that her skin was flushed and hot to the touch. He felt for a pulse in her neck, her heart was beating incredibly fast.

He ran up to the front of the bus. “Warren, where’s Alex’s bus? Is it far away?”

The driver picked up his cell phone and made a quick call. “He’s about two miles ahead, why?”

“I need to get Alex on this bus, as soon as possible. Can we do that?”

“Sure. Is there a problem?”

“I don’t know. But you might try to locate a hospital, just in case.”

Within five minutes, Alex was climbing on board Howie’s bus, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “This better be important, dude. I was having the best dream.”

Howie turned to the bus driver. “Did you find a hospital, Warren?”

“GPS says there’s nothing around for another two hours. We’re out in the middle of nowhere, I’m sorry.”

“Ok, thanks for checking.” Howie pulled Alex to the back of the bus.

“Why do we need a hospital? Are you sick?”

“No, not me, it’s Lyric. Something’s wrong with her.”

Lyric was still laying in the middle of Howie’s bed, talking. “I love butterflies, don’t you? There’s so many of them!” Her eyes were open, but not focused on anything. “Oh, so pretty!”

“She’s hallucinating, Howie.” He sat down next to her. “And why is she nearly naked?”

Howie described the morning’s events to his band mate. He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end. “I got worried when I touched her – her skin is really hot and her heart’s beating much faster than normal.”

Alex placed his fingers on her wrist and took her pulse. “Lyric, can you hear me, darling?” She didn’t even look at him, just kept talking about the pretty butterflies. He snapped his fingers in front of her face, then gently slapped her cheeks – she didn’t even flinch.

“She’s on something, Howie. Probably cocaine or maybe a cocaine/heroin mixture. I’ve seen people act like this – hallucinations, fast heartbeat, hyperthermia.”

“What can we do for her? Is she gonna OD?” Howie tried to fight down the panic. “Warren said there isn’t a hospital anywhere close to here.”

“If it was a fatal dose she’d be dead already.” He picked up one arm and examined it, then the other. “Look, here’s a bruise from the injection.”

“She doesn’t take drugs, Alex, you know that.”

“She doesn’t have any other track marks, this was obviously the first time. How did she get this way?”

“Beats me,” Howie said, shrugging. “I saw her this morning around 3:30 and she was fine. We got on the bus around 4 and then she wakes me up around 4:30.”

Alex looked at his watch, it was close to 5 am. A trip this bad could last for hours, and the worst was probably yet to come, by the looks of her. He checked her pulse again, still very fast. “Do you have a valium?” he asked.

Howie hesitated, then said that he did. He left the room and came back with one in his hand. Alex didn’t question him, but filed it away to ask him about later.

“We need to cool her off too, can you get some wet towels and ice…and a bottle of water.”

As Howie went off, Alex looked more closely at Lyric. There were no other track marks anywhere on her body, nothing to indicate that she was a habitual user. But something else got his attention.

“Howie, look at this.” He pointed to her upper arms.

“What are those, bruises?” He leaned in closer to get a good look.

“On her arms and on her throat – like maybe someone was holding her tightly.” Alex propped her up. “Here, help me get her to swallow this pill.”

Howie leaned her head back, opened her mouth and dropped the pill into her throat. He then drizzled a little water in, trying not to make her choke. “She won’t swallow,” he said.

“Stroke her throat or blow into her face,” Alex said. “It works with my dogs.” And it worked with Lyric too, she finally swallowed the pill.

Alex laid her back on the bed, then covered her with the wet towels and scattered ice cubes over the towels. “We don’t want her to get too chilled, just enough to get her body temperature down.”

“How do you know what to do?” Howie asked.

“I watched a man OD once on this crap – they tried to save him by doing this.”

“Did he live?”

“No, but he was far worse off than Lyric is. Whoever did this to her didn’t want her to die, just give her a very bad trip.”

“Why would anyone do this?” Howie asked. “It had to have happened at the hotel.”

Alex pulled out his phone and sent a text message. A few moments later, he got one in return.

“Marcus is calling the hotel to see if they have surveillance cameras for the parking lots. He’s pretty upset over this. I’m sure he’ll report it to the police there.”

“I hope so, they need to catch the bastards that did this.” Howie looked down at Lyric, her muscles were beginning to twitch. “Is this normal?”

“Yes, it’s gonna get worse before it gets better, I’m afraid.” He took several towels to the bathroom to rinse them in cool water. When he came back in, Howie was looking down at Lyric, holding her hand, looking very worried. “Do you care about her, D?”

“Yes, of course. She’s my employee, and a good friend.”

“No, I mean, do you care about her?”

Howie hesitated before answering. “To be honest, I don’t know.”

“She cares about you, a lot.” He placed the cool towels back on her body. Lyric was moaning, rocking back and forth. “It’s killing her, watching you self destruct.”

“I’m not…”

“I don’t want to hear that shit, Howie. You are an alcoholic and you need help. Lyric’s the only thing between you and the damn gutter.”

“I can handle it, Alex. I’m not drinking any more.”

“Only because of Lyric. She calls ahead to the hotels and has them remove the alcohol from your room – and she won’t let us have alcohol backstage anymore.” Alex checked her pulse, it was finally slowing down a little.

“She won’t let me go down to the bar either. Or have alcohol on the bus.”

“I think she’d trying pretty damn hard to keep you sober. And what does she get for it? I’ve seen her backstage crying because you’ve yelled at her over something stupid, all because you can’t have a drink.”

“I know, I’m a total jerk,” he said, getting up to pace across the tiny room.

Lyric suddenly sat up and started screaming, pulling at her hair. Howie jumped to her side and held her, trying to keep her from harming herself.

The next three hours were pure torture for both men. Lyric alternated between hallucinations and severe muscle tremors, crying in fear or hitting out at imaginary foes. They struggled to keep her body temperature down, to keep her heart rate and blood pressure from sky rocketing as her body fought against the drugs in her system.

“Howie? What’s happening to me?” Lyric sounded like a little girl, scared and lost. Howie and Alex sat on either side, looking worried and tired.

“Are you ok?” Howie asked. “How do you feel?”

“Nauseated, dizzy. I can’t stop shaking. What’s happening?”

“Do you remember anything from this morning?” Alex asked. “After you left your room at the hotel?”

“I went down to the bus with the luggage, then I went back to get Howie’s lazy butt out of his room. But that’s the last I remember.”

“Damn,” Alex said.

“Could I have some water? I’m so thirsty.”

“Sure, sweetheart.” Howie jumped up and ran to the front of the bus.

“What happened, Alex? Why do you two look so worried?”

“You almost OD’d on cocaine and heroin.”

“What? I’ve never done drugs in my entire life!” Lyric struggled to sit up, Alex propped some pillows behind her back. She sipped at the water.

“You have a needle mark in your arm, Lyric.” Alex showed her the little bruise on her right arm.

“I couldn’t have done that, Alex. I’m right handed.”

Alex agreed. “A right handed person would usually inject into the left arm. Are you sure you don’t remember anything?”

“I don’t know what was real and what wasn’t - I had some really bizarre dreams. They were so frightening!”

“I bet, you had a very bad trip. Someone wanted you to suffer.” Alex smoothed the hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear.

“Why would anyone want to hurt me?” she asked. “I don’t have any enemies, that I know of.”

Alex’s phone rang, he left the room to answer the call. When he returned, his face was grim. “That was Marcus. The hotel surveillance cameras caught the whole incident – but they can’t see the faces well enough to identify the men.”

“Damn!” Howie muttered.

“They have video of the car driving off – the police are trying to see the license plate. ”

Lyric interrupted, her voice quiet. “I had a dream about three men grabbing me, one had his arm around my throat. I kicked one of them, right in the groin, he was so angry he wanted to kill me.”

Howie looked over at Alex, who nodded. “Did you see who it was, sweetheart?”

She started to tremble, Howie worried the tremors were starting again. He reached out to touch her face, but it was cool to the touch.

“He had a needle, he was going to stick it in me!” Howie could see the fear and panic in her eyes. “You won’t let Eric get me, will you?”

“Of course not,” Alex said soothingly. Lyric had a death grip on his hand, he could feel her trembling violently. “Swallow this, Lyric, and you’ll feel better really soon, ok?” He handed her half of a valium, which she washed down with the water.

“Thank you,” she said, looking at both of them. “You both saved me. I won’t forget it.” She closed her eyes, Alex eased her back on the bed. Before long, her breathing was slow and regular, indicating she was asleep.

“Is it ok to leave her?” Howie asked as Alex pulled him from the room.

“We’ll be right here. I don’t want to talk in front of her, even if she is asleep.” He left the bedroom door open and they sat down in the chairs closest to the back of the bus.

“Her ‘dream’ matched the video exactly, D. They pulled her from the bus, one man had his arm around her throat. Another man approached her and she kicked him in the balls. In the video, you can’t see what they are doing to her, but a moment later she goes limp and they carry her back to the bus.”

“Do you really think it was Eric who did this?” Howie asked.

“Is he capable of it? He was pretty pissed after Lyric used that stun gun on him.”

“No, he’d never hurt anyone. He’s harmless.”

Alex wasn’t so sure about that. “Does he have access to cocaine and heroin?” He glared at Howie, daring him to lie to him.

“Yes.”

“Have you ever used them?” Howie wouldn’t meet Alex’s eyes. “The truth, Howie.”

“Yes! I’ve used cocaine, a couple of times.” He got up and started pacing. “Eric usually gives me other things, some pills, I don’t even know what they are. All I know is that they make me forget.”

“Forget what?” Alex said softly.

“Who I am, what I am – what I’ve been through.” He looked outside, the sun was rising over the top of the trees. “I forget all my pain, I just…exist.”

“Does Eric sell those drugs?”

Howie shook his head. “He gives it away to his friends.”

“In exchange for what?”

“What do you mean?” Howie looked puzzled.

“A man doesn’t just give away drugs, Howie. He wants something in return, what do you give him?”

“I don’t give him anything. He just hangs out at my house, we go partying together.”

“Ah, that’s it then. He gets to be a celebrity – sit in the VIP rooms in all the best clubs, drink expensive alcohol that you buy. Am I right?”

The truth hit Howie hard, he nodded miserably. “He gets to be my friend in return for supplying me with drugs. He sleeps with hot women, meets other celebrities, makes more new friends.”

“And when he’s got all he can from you, he dumps you and moves on to the next celebrity.” Alex had seen it all before, experienced it himself in fact. He’d learned the hard way to keep only true friends by his side – the false ones often led you the wrong way.

“I’m an idiot, Alex.”

“No, just naïve…and in pain. But alcohol and drugs aren’t the answer.”

Later that day, when they reached their destination, Marcus took Lyric to a doctor. Blood work confirmed that she had been injected with cocaine and heroin, however testing revealed that she had no permanent damage to her organs.

After realizing what could’ve happened to her, Lyric felt lucky to be alive. And she vowed to be more vigilant about her safety.

The rest of the tour passed without incident. Howie curtailed his drinking voluntarily, still in shock over Lyric’s close call. And by the realization that it was his fault that Lyric had nearly died.