There is at least a foot of water on the floor of Lux's room. Huge chunks of glass are floating around everywhere as though they are weightless.

The aquarium looks like a puzzle with pieces missing and I cannot comprehend how the rest of the water hasn't spilled from the gaps.

Something in the glass enclosure swims around madly. Whatever it is, it's huge. In the bloody water, all I can make out is a shadow moving like it's possessed – a long, flat tail slaps around and a fin flaps like a wing. It's not Lux. Lux is five feet nothing and this thing must be at least triple that.

The water sloshes over the edges like a gathering of tidal waves having a wrestling match. There is no rhythmic direction in the way they move; they simply swell and rise haphazardly and then spill over until the I am drenched and the dove-gray marble floor is now under at least two feet of water.

Tendrils of red water have snaked around me. I drop the baggie in my amazement and the beautiful powder that once was my coke is swallowed up.

"Lux!" I fear something has eaten her. I run – or try to – through the water that now reminds me of thick pudding. It's sticky and it clings onto me like water doesn't. I don't know what the fuck this is, nor what the flying fuck is in Lux's nest but I'm not about to let it devour her.

I reach the glass. The thing inside continues to thrash. Water continues to spill. It is a waterfall. I am under bloody rain. I pound the side and yell out her name but I swear it sounds like I'm calling my own.

The thing bangs against the fragile glass and threatens to break off what is left of the ruptured aquarium.

My boxers cling to me. My hair is plastered to the side of my face. I feel something brush up against the side of my calf. I think it's the baggie but when I look down there's a school of tiny minnows swimming by as if they have no care in the world. The minnows nibble at my toes as a horrible howl explodes not too far away.

I look up and see the maw of a monster pressing itself against the glass. It is inches from me. Its teeth are razors and its eyes are endless depths of black. A chasm. If you stare too long into the abyss... The thing opens its jaw until it dislocates and cracks. The mouth curls over and around until the beast swallows itself up and vanishes.

I stand breathless and watch it go until there is no sea creature with too many teeth, no tidal waves, and no water around me. Everything is back to the normal I have been living in these past hundred years.

I clench my hands, they hurt and I don't know why. The baggie is sitting in the sweat of my palms. I am not wet. There is no thick blood-water pooling at my feet.

"Lio? Lio... Elio!" Lux has her hands on my shoulder. She's not wearing anything but an old shirt of mine that I scored off a youth at Woodstock who had feathers in her hair. The honeysuckles adoring the neckline bloom once a year.

"Lux?" I look at her confused. "What the fuck?"

There is concern on her face. Her lashes are dotted with pearls. A cringe as I watch a tiny blue spider crawl out of the corner of her eye.

"Are you alright? You've been standing here for half an hour screaming and pounding your fists at my aquarium."

I need a moment to collect the parts of my brain that have fallen on the floor like I thought the chunks of glass had. I'm not that drunk. I am not that high (at least I don't think I am). But this is the second hallucination I've had in less than an hour (or was it two...fuck, I hope someone's keeping tabs).

"I don't know," I reply to her brows jerking up and down in question. "I thought I saw..." The room is the same. My mermaid is the same. I am...

not.

"This damn blood is making me cuckoo," my voice is a ghost. "Human and vampire do not sit well together."

Lux puts her hand on my arm. She slides her fingers down until she opens my fist and takes the baggie out. "You need to stop this," she whispers.

I close my eyes and feel her lips brushing against my ear. "You can sleep here with me. You know the sofa is large enough."

"I saw –"

"Whatever you thought you saw, you didn't, Elio."

I look at my toes. The minnows are gone. I miss them. "A monster."

"There are no monsters, Elio," she reassures as she leads me to the plum velvet sofa and makes me lie down. "No monsters here but what you carry in your head." Lux covers me with a blanket she always keeps folded at the foot of the couch. "It'll be ok."

I nod and let her tuck the covers under my chin. "I need to tell you about..." I begin but she shakes her head.

"Good night, Elio." Lux heads to her nest. She always walks on tip-toes like she's always in high heels. She slips out of the shirt before entering the water. I watch the transformation through gravely eyes. A long, pearly tail slaps at the water, her arms move like wings. I close my eyes. I dream of the abyss.

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