Raznet could hear the echoes of the things he said, rattle around his head. Relentlessly he heard the voices come and go, both sounding like him and someone else.
The fear the day after a night out was one of the worst feelings he could dream of. In limbo. Raznet glided between knowing what he said was cringe, but far more fearful of all those things he couldn't remember.
Fool! Talking shite. Absolute moron! Why did you say that?
His communicator chimed, driving the evil voices from his mind, and he glanced over at it to see it was his friend.
"Geirno." Raznet muttered to himself.
He pulled the covers over his head and curled up in a ball. Pressing against his mattress as hard as he could, he hoped that he might be swallowed whole and reemerge from this in a few days. Maybe even weeks. Maybe even months. He'd be willing to disappear for years the way he felt right now. Any amount of time at all to make it all go away, and leave the previous night as nothing more than a detox daydream.
The embarrassment was so great, that the feeling of his hangover was little more than an afterthought. The dry mouth; barely able to muster enough saliva to swallow. The banging head; the pain in his mind came in throbbing waves, interrupting almost every half-formed thought. His body ached; as if he'd tumbled down a flight of stairs on his way home. The recollections came to him slowly, and he remembered that he had fallen.
Or, was I pushed?
Someone was angry, there was an argument of some kind. Raznet remembered a heated discussion escalating because he couldn't keep his big mouth shut, then boom. He fell head over heels, and arse over tits. He hit every step with each side multiple times. Flailing arms and legs tried to stop his descent but failed. Limp-wristed hands tried to grab anything he could, but there was nothing.
The communicator began to ring once more, and the noise derailed his thoughts once more. He stared at it, picked it up, held it for a long moment, and then dropped it back onto his bedside locker. At least, that was what was meant to happen. Instead, it hit the locker and bounced off the side of it to land somewhere on the floor. There it rattled and vibrated, sending shivers up the legs of his bed, through the mattress, pillow, and into his ears. It was torture, but it helped him think about anything other than his antics. Soon, it stopped, and he was once more alone in the room.
Raznet closed his eyes to all and figured another long sleep might be enough to make the sting of the night before a bit less painful.
He woke, staring at the dark room with burning eyes. The vibrating from his communicator came in once more.
How long was I asleep? An hour? A day?
Judging by how he felt, he would have guessed it was a minute.
The vibrating persisted, and he could almost imagine the smirking face of his friend on the other end. He probably couldn't wait to rub it in and make Raznet squirm a bit more.
He rolled onto his stomach, and reached under his bed, wading through thick dust, stray hairs, and old clothes, and empty food wrappers until he finally felt the cold steel of his communicator in hand. Lifting it from the filth, he stared at it. His hand hovering in place ready to answer it, and the vibration triggered something within himself.
Raznet flung the stupid thing against the far wall, and it pinged into a few different parts, clattering against the floor. The sudden surge of noise quietened once more, and yet again he was left alone with his thoughts in his waking nightmare.
