Story-A-Day #388: Spirals

SPIRALS

I pushed up the tap and watched as the water spiralled out of the faucet and into the kitchen sink.  It pooled there momentarily before disappearing down the drain.  I stumbled back two steps and crashed into the counter behind me.  Somewhere in the back of my brain, I registered the sound of bottles clinking together.  It was followed shortly by a loud thud, and I glanced towards my feet where a half-empty bottle of Havana Club was rolling across the hardwood kitchen floor.

I bent over to pick it up and fell flat on my face, my body smashing into the opposite counter as I came to a rest.  I placed my hand on the floor, uncertain that it would support me, but I made an effort to raise myself back up.

I fumbled my way into a semblance of composure, and crossed my legs beneath me.  My head was heavy, like thre tons of cement on a spindly nect meant to handle no more than a few pounds.  I hunched over for a moment, breathing in heavy, awkward gasps of oxygen.  It was not enough.  I could feel the world spinning out of control, everything I had ever known spiralling out into the void.

I could hear the water running into the sink above me.  A steady gushing sensation.  I aimed to stand up, but the world dropped out from beneath me again and I found myself heaped on the floor.  Right where I had started out.

I swayed back and forth, trying to figure out how I had wound up like this, without really realizing what this particular feeling even was.  Each time I tried to pull a thought together, it wafted away like the extinguished wick of a candle burning out.

Something had gone wrong tonight.  Part of it was the drinking.  I was in a bad place, and the drink seemed to be the only thing that helped, but it was more than that.  I was out of control, completely unable to function.  I remembered being at the bar, then turning on the tap.

Why was I on the floor?  I flopped over onto my side, the room spinning in tandem with the ceiling fan above me.  I let my eyes flutter closed and felt the world spiralling away into a dull void of blackness.

It all just faded away...