Trip to Amsterdam

It was a sunny, seemingly regular August day.

When he woke up, the sun was already halfway through the skyline.
Elliot got up from the bench he slept on during the morning - He was in such a daze
that it took him about a couple of minutes to ask himself
"What the heck is going on!?" or "How did I get here...?".
Suddenly, he observed that something's really wrong with the environment.
Everything was distorted, from the streets to the twisted buildings to the trees from
the nearby park, everything.
The colors were extremely striking and varied. There was no object or living that was
less varied than a rainbow.
In fact, a rainbow was nothing compared to even a single tree. Needless to mention
that animals looked more like multicolored clouds...
Every person on the street wore a mask, each mask was slightly different than any
other. many people on the street were talking,
but they emitted no sound. As if all these phenomena weren't enough, at every single
step Elliot took, the space-time continuum was bent.
The time and the space contracted and expanded randomly. In the blink of an eye, the
endless street that Elliot struggled to find an end to could become just a few
centimeters long all at once! When this happened, Elliot just switched to another
street.
Despite all these anomalies, Elliot was not even scared anymore. When something
unsettling happened, he simply got upset and muttered to himself: "Not again..!"
After what seemed an eternity, our dear tripper finally found Lewis. For some reason,
he didn't wear a mask, yet he still looked a little peculiar.
Elliot approached him happily and asked, or course, what's happening. Lewis ignored
him, turned around and began walking.
They shortly reached the block of flats they rented a week ago and walked upstairs
until they reached the sixth floor, where they saw Dexter, he also didn't wear a mask.
The walls were already stained with crimson and five decapitated bodies were hanged

upside down from the ceiling.

All of them seemed to be young adults. Right after Elliot vommited, he remembered
those five persons.
Five young men threatened Dexter three days ago, at a club. They were undoubtly
drunk and had a desire to fight.
Dexter stood outside most of the time, since he got there just because Lewis insisted
he's gotta come.
The five drunken youths told him that he's got a lot of guts to stay outside alone and
soon started the fight. I saw Dexter got into trouble and rushed to help but...
By the time I reached them, three of them crawled on the ground and the other two
tried to run.
When Dexter caught one of them, he already had a broken bottle in his hand and he
was ready to stab that guy in the carotid. He stopped only because I yelled at him.
That story aside, did those guys deserve such a fate? Elliot didn't know what to do, he
just observed the colors almost got back to normal.
Still, Lewis pushed him from aback to follow Dexter to the next room. Here, a
pregnant woman was bound to the table.
She was most likely the girlfriend of one of those men. Elliot and Lewis watched
Dexter slice her hands and legs sistematically with a cleaver.
He began with the right hand's fingers, the right palm, the forearm and the arm, then
passed to the other hand...
Before he reached the left arm, Elliot couldn't take it anymore and fainted. Lewis has
been perfectly calm during all these events.
When Elliot regained his consciousness, Dexter was pulling out from the oven the
woman's fetus.
He chopped the fetus, then he brutally smashed it's head to the table. Dexter began
eating it's heart, then continued with the rest.
Elliot stood there, speechless, toughtless, paralyzed. After several minutes, he
managed to move. While he was trying to reach the door, Dexter pounced upon him.
Lewis was smoking at Elliot's hospital room, at the window sill, even though the
doctor responsible for Elliot's recovery told him to stop smoking there.
Elliot slowly opened his eyes. Lewis felt relieved and began a friendly conversation,
since Elliot has been in a comatose for two weeks already:
"Elliot? Man, you scared the shit out of me! You recognize me, right?
"...Huh..?"
"Come on,say something!"
Elliot didn't say anything for a while, but he snapped in tears of fear:
"No! Stop it!"
"Calm down, buddy! Everything's alright. I know hospitals can be scary but get
yourself together!"
"No,no,no,no! What did I do wrong?! Do I deserve such a death?!"
Lewis eventually called the doctors since he tought Elliot would need some
analgesics.
An anesthesiologist tried to talk to the patient, but to no avail. He decided to
administered some nitrous oxide and after an hour, Lewis managed to initiate a

conversation:
"Do you feel better?"
"Lewis? I'm fine, but I can't say the same for you."
"What do you mean? I may be a chain smoker but trust me, cigarettes are nothing
compared to what you did!"
"...Don't -"
Lewis interrupts him:
"You've been in comatose for a couple of weeks, yet you brag about my health?
Hahaha! What a figure you are!"
Elliot checks his body for wounds, but he couldn't find any.
"You've seen something horrible, didn't you? I've never seen you like this before."
"...."
"Here, inhale a little more. The doc said it's alright as long as you don't fall asleep."
"Thanks. It must have been a bad trip, still -"
"You can bet it was! After we got of the club, you were already high as a kite and I
was almost asleep. Even though I told you to be careful...Who listens to me?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you ate a bunch of shrooms and, like that wasn't enough, you ingested a
pill of 2-CB right after I've let you alone! When I came after you, you were already
on other realms. You could hardly even move! Great luck I just smoked some
marijuana, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to carry you all the way to our
apartment! Hey, are you listening to me?"
"I don't remember any of that."
"Well...I honestly think it's amazing that you remeber your name..."
"Lewis, I doubt it was a trip."
"Yeah, I know it felt very real and stuff, but that's how it normally is! Even dreams
can seem real. But listen up! You know looks can be deceiving,right? Well now, the
same applies for the police around here. Dude, the police tought I tried to kill you
with that overdose. It seems it's pretty common for this to take place in Amsterdam.
And then -"
"Where's Dexter?"
"Who's Dexter?"
"Don't you remember him?"
"If I stay to think of it, I'd better call your doc. You'll wait here, OK?"
Lewis walked out the room, roamed the hallways a little and eventually encountered
the person he was searching for.
"Good morning, Mr. Marks!"
Elliot looked the medic in the eye and lost his mind. "Impossible! There's no way he
took care of me!" he kept telling himself this.
The medic in front of his eyes looked exactly like Dexter. His voice was also exactly
the same! Those pitch black eyes reflecting springs of blood were unforgettable.
This medic was undoubtely Dexter.
"Mr. Marks! Mr. Marks, can you hear me?"
Elliot managed to shake his head approvingly.
"That's great! I'm Dexter Carter and I need to analyze your body thoroughly before

you can leave. You know, things like blood analysis, heart rate and
electroencephalography. We have to make sure you function properly before you con
leave."
Elliot was still unable to walk, so Dexter said it would be better to initiate the tests
tommorow. Lewis clarified what happened to the policemen, and left the hospital.
Of course, Elliot couldn't sleep that night, so the doctors said it should be safe to
administer some sleeping pills.
The next day, he finally talked to Dexter.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Marks! Ready for the tests?"
"Tell me what you did to me! How did you make Lewis forget?"
"I've got no idea what you're talking about, Swirl!"
"Swirl? Where do you know that nickname from?"
"Hehehe... You seem ready for the analysis, Mr. Marks. I see you can walk
properly by now."
"I won't go if you don't give me an explanation!"
"Now that you mention it, you have to eat something before going. I'll be back
soon!"
Before Dexter reached the door, Elliot grabbed his coat and told Dexter he owes him
an explanation.
"Swirl, this impulsivity almost killed you twice, would you please think a little
before doing something? Like when you were twelve and tried to steal honey from a
wild bee nest. If there wasn't a lake in vicinity, your family would have been hurt
even today. Or when you were eighteen and done the cinnamon spoon challenge."
Elliot stoppen trying to reason it and punched Dexter in the left eye. Three hours
later, he looked up at Lewis from his already familiar bed.
"You've ultimately woken up!"
"...I'm sick of it."
"That's great, 'cause I've got great news for ya! You'll be out of this place as soon
as you're able to jog and answer a few questions. The other tests have been done
while you were sleeping. So, do you feel up it now?"
"Not really, but I'm gonna complete tommorow, in the morning."
"I hope so, this is the last night that I've got left. By the way, don't worry about
your luggage, I took care of it."
"Oh. Thanks."
"No problem, just recover faster,man! At this rate, we'll lose our jobs! We should
have stayed only ten days here, you know?"
"I know. I'll give you the additional money you've spent for me."
"You know that's not the point, but anyhow... Have a good night!"
"You too!"
It would have been very hard to sleep if Elliot didn't have some sleeping pills left.
That last morning, he calmed down and finished those final tests. He noted Dexter
was not in the hospital anymore, probably it wasn't his round at the time.
He's met with Lewis and they took a taxi cab to the airport. Elliot kept struggling to
forget it all.
After hours and hours of anxiety in the plane, they arrived back to their country. It

was 21:30 and their homes were still quite far away.
They took a taxi cab once more and ultimately arrived in their hometown at 23:45.
Their homes are vis-a-vis, on a small street.
Two apartments in two nearby regular blocks of flats.
Lewis has gone straight to bed, whereas Elliot couldn't wait to unpack his belongings.
What he found inside the pocket of a jacked chilled him to the bone.
It was a selfie made by Dexter in the first room. He held his "wife's" head smiling.
He's also written on the back of the picture: "Me, my dear wife and some precious
friends at dinner".

Author: Voicu Paul Iulian