I - Las Vegas

"Shi*, shi*," I whined.

I opened my eyes with a start, after perceiving the sun pointing directly at my face; when it dawned on me, I felt as if my head was about to explode. My surroundings were spinning like a circus roulette wheel and I had no idea where I was.

I got up slowly, getting my eyes used to the light, and when they adjusted, my face looked like a horror movie.

It was a huge apartment full of people sleeping in every possible place and some of them were half naked.

To tell the truth, I was no better dressed than they were.

My throat was dry and my friends, with whom I had gone, were nowhere to be seen.

The four of them had planned to give me an unforgettable bachelorette party before I got married in a few days; their plan had been to travel to Las Vegas, a city of madness that had fascinated me since we arrived. However, they took the 'unforgettable' part very seriously, as I had no memory of the night before.

Neither because I woke up in an apartment with strangers, nor because I was so dirty and with three rings on my fingers.

I stopped to look at my hands again.

"Diamond rings? What about my engagement ring?"

"Mommy," a man suddenly said, grabbing my feet. Consequently, I jumped to get away from the stranger who had frightened me.

"God, what a scare," I turned away from the people, in search of a natural drink.

I remembered absolutely nothing, everything looked very blurry; my level of alcoholism must have been so high, as to have erased my memories of a night.

I only had in mind the moment when we arrived in Las Vegas and Francesca took us to a nightclub in the center of the action; since we started drinking, the memories became blurred.

I had no idea how we had arrived at an unfamiliar penthouse, if the idea was to visit Vegas the next day, which would not leave us to enjoy ourselves so late at night.

I entered the first bathroom I could find and my body expelled what it could from the night before.

I drank as much water as I could and went in search of my friends; the place was huge and very luxurious.

I tried to look for my belongings, but the only thing I had on me were some keys that were not mine and a business card from a company.

"Lev, June!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, "Kari, Francesca! where are you?"

"Why are you yelling so much?" complained a woman behind me and I jumped in surprise. When I realized it was Lev, I calmed down, but frowned immediately.

She was lying on a bed, where she was surrounded by about four naked men and she was naked too.

"Oh my God, you had sex* with four strangers?" I covered my mouth and she opened her eyes in surprise.

"I what?" she asked startled. She pulled up the covers to rectify and realizing it too, she stood up frightened, wrapped in the blanket, but all it caused was to leave the strangers uncovered, showing their intimate areas.

Between screams, we ran out of the room, slamming the door shut.

"My God, what's going on? Why were you sleeping with four strangers? God how disgusting!" I moaned, losing my mind at having the memory of those naked men in my head, "Now how do I get them out of my head?"

"Imagine me, I don't even remember what I did with them!" she snorted from the hall bathroom, where the shower was running. When she came out, she had a towel wrapped around her body.

"I don't remember either. We weren't supposed to drink so much, what happened?"

"I don't know, I think Francesca convinced us to drink more."

"That woman. I don't even know where she is."

"Let's go get them and go back to the hotel, I want to get out of here," I nodded at Lev's comment and we ran to inspect the rest of the people left, but they weren't there.

"I can't find them," I ran my hands over my face, turning to my friend, "Hey Lev, do you remember what happened to my engagement ring? I don't have it and as a consequence, I have three diamond rings, you know what..." I was interrupted by my friend's scream coming from a different bathroom than the others, which was at the end of the hallway, "What happened?" I stopped suddenly, seeing her crying.

Francesca was in a bathroom tub lying down, wearing the same clothes from the night before and motionless.

"Is she...?"

"She's not breathing, Ami, she's not breathing."

"No," I reached out to my friend and touched her neck, but she was cold and her lips were no longer colored.

I fell sitting on the floor, shocked.

"What do we do, Ami? Francesca is dead," Lev's voice snapped me out of my trance and I stood up. I ran in search of a phone, to call 911.

I didn't care what trouble we might be in for being at a crazy party, but I couldn't believe that one of my friends had died in the bathtub of an unfamiliar penthouse bathroom.

******

Lev and I watched as the professionals covered Francesca's body, after taking pictures of the bathroom and asking us questions about her whereabouts; the only problem was that neither of us remembered.

"We've cleared the penthouse, do either of you know whose place this is?" asked a detective, after arriving at our side. We were both covered by a blanket, hugging each other; worried and scared about what happened.

"No, we woke up here.

"Did you find our two friends?" questioned Lev, after asking the man to look for them, since we hadn't found them.

"Unfortunately no, but if within 24 hours they don't show up, you should file a missing persons report with the police," my friend and I looked at each other sadly.

"Yes, thank you, is there anything we can do to help find out who did this to Francesca?" I asked in shock, unable to believe my friend was still in that tub.

"At the moment, the only information I can give, is that everyone who was at this party last night, is a suspect in the death of Miss Francesca Lepore. And you for being the closest to her," he said and I opened my eyes in surprise.

Did he say we were suspects for the death of our friend?

"Suspects?

"That's right. An officer will take you to your hotel, where you must remain until the investigation into Miss Francesca's murder begins, so that you can be questioned about what happened," he said, as a police officer approached to escort us out, "Until then, you may not leave Las Vegas. To do otherwise will lead to your arrest and conviction.

"We understand," I replied firmly.

"This way," the police officer pointed, and I nodded, carrying my friend, who seemed most affected by everything that was going on, in my arms.

I still didn't have the head to process what was going on, but an unfamiliar presence appeared in my field of vision.

"Ah, Mr. Maddox, what a surprise to see you around," I heard the detective say behind us and my gaze lifted to a man entering the penthouse.

His tall, imposing figure, was no match for the dark, grayish look in his eyes, which watched me intently, especially my hands, where the diamond rings were.

Before disappearing from my sight, I seemed to perceive a small and almost invisible smile at the corner of her lips.

For some reason I felt tiny and strange before him. His eyes showed some amusement and when I noticed him watching me out of the corner of my eye, I felt my abdomen contract on its own.

I frowned; I thought I had seen him somewhere.

Where did I know him from?

"I'm just passing through, but I see my wife's party got a little out of hand," the man named Maddox replied and apparently, I was just as surprised as the detective.

"Do you have a wife, sir?"

I couldn't hear anything else, as the officer had already ushered us out of the penthouse toward the elevator.