Alice left Bette’s apartment feeling so bad. She didn’t want to have to do that to her friend. The side effects were terrible and she knew that Bette was going to struggle for a while before she fully recovered. Alice got home and all she wanted to do was have a big drink and fall into her mattress. Alice poured herself a drink and took a long swallow. She was sitting on her couch rubbing her head with her eyes closed when Tina flashed in her head screaming her name. The sudden vision caused Alice to bolt upright, she closed her eyes again and saw Tina again. She was screaming her name again and again.

Alice picked up her cell phone and called Tina, the phone rang exactly one and a half times before Tina answered. Tina had to get out of her Indian style position and race over to her cell phone.

“Jesus Al, where have you been? I’ve been calling for you for like three hours.” Tina felt the warm feeling of blood running from her nose. She’d concentrated so hard on contacting Alice that she’d already started to bleed.

“I was at Bette’s. She’s sick really bad Tina.” Tina’s heart damn near stopped when Alice stressed ‘really bad.” She never wanted anything bad to happen to Bette, she really liked her.

“What’s wrong, is she…” she choked up, “will she be alright?”

“Right now I don’t know. I just put her under. She had a one way disconnect from a dream cast. The shit she picked up is really nasty. I don’t even want to imagine what would’ve happened if I didn’t go over there to look for her.” Alice winced as she squeezed the bridge of her nose. The mere thought of losing Bette made Alice pick up her drink and down the rest of it.

“Alice stop drinking. That’s not going to help.”

“You weren’t there Tina.” Alice said fast, “That shit was scary. I never thought I’d see Bette like that. I mean it’s Bette; you don’t know her like I do. She’s always so strong and together and now she’s… I don’t know” Alice flopped back on the couch.