They groan, running their hand down their face. They fumble for the mobile device, shocked it's still alive, and find it on the ground. They swing their feet over while stifling a yawn so they can answer the call in a timely manner.
"Hello?" They ask, voice still scratchy and raspy from sleep and hangover.
"Hey, Sprocket! Just letting you know I'm on the way over with Addi, I'll be there soon." It's Nick. They'd forgotten they'd agreed to do that, the bastard known as the ghost of Sprocket past was going to pay when they figured out time travel. They should've never gone to that stupid party, they should’ve never picked up that stupid phone. It was a one way ticket to making a non-stop ass of themselves, with how the night is being put together in their battered mind. "You're still okay to do it, yeah?"
"What? Oh, yeah, for sure. Listen I...I just woke up, let me put myself together and I'll see you when you get here." They stand up too fast, giving them a head rush that doesn't make walking any easier. In fact, it renders their movement to a weird hoppy circle that ends with the need to catch themself on the wall.
"Sounds good, kid. We're bringing breakfast!" The call ends. Sprocket throws the cursed object onto their bed. Stupid phone, getting them into trouble every other day as it allowed certain people who left rehab centers too early to simply drop them a line.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" They yell at themselves as they storm down the hallway to their bathroom, pulling their mohawk apart. The pain is grounding. It's stopping the images of what happened from bleeding into their brain.
Not for long though. Burned on the back of their eyelids is Kash in their bathtub, his eyes, the smell- they start running to the bathroom. They burst in, diving to the toilet to throw up whatever was in their stomach. It's not much. Once it's over they wipe their mouth with their hand and stand. They flush as they move away, with shaking hands they splash water on their face.
They're ghastly in the mirror, gaunt almost. It stirs up those things again, those awful visions. They look almost like he did, in that bathtub they can see in the medicine cabinet mirror. They can barely get it open, not to mention holding and opening their prescription bottle. Finally they get the pill down, and lean on the counter to breathe.
The moment of tranquility is interrupted by a loud pounding on their door. Frantic, fast, desperate. They quickly leave the bathroom, walking to their front door as quietly as they can. It continues, a voice joins in.
"Sprocket! Sprock, you home man?! Open up, please, dude just open the door!" It's Kash. They drop the silent walking attempts and run to answer. He nearly punches them in the head, but stops before contact. He stands, stunned for a minute, before collapsing onto them. His nails pierce their shirt and bite into their skin, his eyes are wild. He's clearly on something, but there's another layer. Fear. "Thank God, oh Jesus...oh God..."
His voice is bordering on a low moan. Sprocket shifts, supporting his weight with one arm so they can shut the door. There is something off about his eyes though. His dilated pupils, rather than being a deep black abyss that extended to the point they could barely see his eye color, are murky. It's like they're full of some kind of fluid, continuously moving in a swirling motion. Like the end of the River Styx, collecting all the souls of the damned in a whirlpool so they are spat back out at the start to continue their ongoing hell.
"Lock it."
"What? Dude, Nick and Addi are going to be he-"
"Lock it! Deadbolt it, whatever but for the love of GOD just lock the goddamn door Sprocket."
They quickly both lock and deadbolt the door. He doesn’t look any less worried, and they can feel his heart in his chest. Fast, fluttering yet intense beating that resembles a wild animal attempting to break the bars of a cage.
"Christ, man. What's with you?" They ask while escorting him to the couch. He collapses onto it, shaking.
"I'm in deep shit, dude, I-I...The police are looking for me. They found the girl I left with last night this morning, she's DEAD." His voice is a wail when he says dead. A wounded animal, cornered and weeping to the hunters to release it. "She was in some lake near my house and they found her. Her...her throat was slit, someone killed her and they think I did it."
"W...what?" Sprocket blinks a few times, about to ask if this is a joke. But how Kash looks stops them. It's almost rabid. "Oh my god, what did you say?"
"I didn't talk to anyone, when they showed up I freaked out and I ran. My car's outside, we have to go. We have to go!" He's up so fast that the movement skipped. It's like he was sitting one moment, up the next tearing across Sprocket's apartment to their bedroom.
"Go? We have to GO? Kash, what the fuck do you mean go? And what do you mean you didn't talk to anyone, don’t you think that's MORE suspicious?!" They follow. The door was left open earlier, and he moves through to open the window out onto the fire escape so he can step out. He turns, eyes wild.