Tripping The Light NOT So Fantastic

What was supposed to be the conclusion of my cousin's birthday weekend part 2, even with him gone due to his mother's passing, my friend Jessica and I decided to return to the scene of last weekend where we all had a blast together getting a tad too drunk, smoked hookah and danced the night away. Well, that wasn't the case this weekend. While we wanted to have to have a blast, it turned out quite the opposite as it was the most fearful night of my life. I (We) have never been so scared in our lives as this is what happened...

We got to the area where we were going to spend the evening, we walked to the area from the car and there was a woman riding a lime (like a bull), a bumble bee like drag queen, a concert being done up by B.O.B., people doing Amazing Race type climbing up walls, and it was just an over all wild vision to see upon walking into the area of Ybor City last night.

As we walked down towards the hookah bar that we first experienced last week, we sat down and ordered a "strawberry/pineapple" flavored hookah, bottled water and a spiced tea. Jessica and I sat there waiting for a while and then before we knew it, they brought the hookah to the table and we were just talking up a storm.

We took one hit a piece, then two hits, I started feeling the "high" per say, and then a third hit, at the same time after the fourth hit, something happened...everything stopped...it was like The Matrix as if time was stopping and restarting, I looked over and the anxiety and fear in Jessica's face replicated the very fear inside of me, things were chopping, as if a movie was skipping and repeating itself, everything was so slow and we couldn't even move, we tried to get up but our legs were numb and my throat was feeling swollen as if I was having trouble to breathe. No amount of journalistic words could describe the fear of the moment. We sat back down and I recall telling the people working there that we were scared and something wasn't right, he kept telling us to relax, sit back and let it wear off as it has only been a few minutes and we felt it had been hours because the time was so slow. When we would move, it was very choppy and Matrix-like, I was fearful and so scared that we were dying.

We managed to get up and she grabbed my hand as we walked down the street, the lights, the people, everywhere was so intensified and the sounds of the street and the loud music from the clubs were making all the visions feel worse and amplified. We got worse, we were scared and unsure where to go, I thought I was going to die right there in the middle of the street celebration where nobody would even recognize if we did. We saw a police officer and asked for help, he thought were making it up and pointed us to the fireman. We approached the fireman, four of them, and explained what happened, they didn't believe us either and thought were drunk, but we hadn't even been drinking, and only four hits off this so called hookah that had to be something more (last week the four of us had a great time and NOTHING like this happened).

The fireman asked us to drink water and go sit somewhere and let it wear off, after what felt like an eternity we managed to find somewhere to get bottled water, and sit for a while until we finally headed back to the car. I kept telling her to not drive or we'd definitely end up dead; but our focus began to clear but still very much messed up and somehow she managed to drive us 20 miles home and safely to a local diner where we ordered food hoping it would help, our senses began to soften and things started to become more realistic, enough for her to drop me off and she made it home safely. All of this happened in 90 minutes but felt like endless time.

I woke up this morning and still this evening I am not 100% as everything is moving slow and very foggy, memory is very vivid yet dark from last night. I must say we are very lucky we didn't die, overdose, or whatever could have happened last night, and this was a MAJOR wake up call for us, and especially me to NEVER wish to be dead as my depression sometimes says to my spirit, because last night was a near death experience and I can't imagine what life would be like stuck in that time warp we were in last night.

What was intended to be a safe and LEGAL concoction, turned out to be the worse night of my life, ever.

Don't do it. EVER. We were drugged and it could have been so much worse than the hell it already was.

d.