The apparent lack of alcohol at the annual Friendsgiving-Thanksgiving party Charlie was hosting at his house was very surprising. Ever since everyone in the core group had become 21 years old, there would always be someone who insisted on bringing some booze to these events. Thankfully no one present really needed alcohol to have a good time, and the overwhelming majority of gamers attending the party were too engrossed in Charlie’s new VIVE to even care.
Bryan held Ashley—a newer addition to the group—in a seated hug while sitting comfortably on Charlie’s bed. Next to him were Aaron and Christina, somewhat awkwardly interacting, but he tried not to pay too much attention to them. Bryan had also already had his fill of the VIVE earlier in the day, so he just wanted to enjoy the moment, and let everyone else fight for their turn to play. Unfortunately for his enjoyment, Kyle, who was about to take his turn on the gaming device, suddenly crumpled to the floor with the game gear still in hand.
The whole room jumped in shock. Bryan quickly extricated himself from his hugging position and jumped off the bed toward Kyle’s unmoving body. Bryan fired off a series of typical checkup questions that were left unanswered, and quickly moved onto checking for life signs. After the room recovered from their shock, Jessie—who was originally seated behind Kyle and waiting to watch him play—rushed to his side. She shook him and asked the same questions; her features were ablaze with anxiety. Then, in the middle of worriedly shaking Kyle, Jessie fell forward and collapsed just as suddenly, on top of him.
“Aaron, can you Ashley, and Christina go get some help?” Bryan asked without looking back at them. It wasn’t that they couldn’t help, Bryan was just sure that he’d need some more muscle to move these two if he had to. Unfortunately, no one moved nor answered his request. “hello?” he asked and turned around—only to see that the three he had wanted to rely on were also unconscious where they were sitting. “What the hell is going on..?” Bryan asked no one in particular. A strong desire to close his eyes suddenly welled up within him, and quickly overcame him.
Outside the bedroom, where everyone had been snacking on chips and watching others play League or Overwatch on the television, a similar situation began to unfold. Robert and Tiffany were the first ones to succumb, but as they didn’t fall or move very much when they did, everyone simply thought they had fallen asleep naturally. Not everyone enjoyed watching other’s play games after all.
It was only when the sound of Casey—who had been the one playing on the television—slamming head first into Charlie’s mechanical keyboard that things started to seem strange. Corey, who was thinking Casey got fed up and face-desked in frustration, got up and started to yell at Casey to either play or give someone else a turn. Unfortunately for his attempted chastising, the inexplicable sleep that was sweeping across the party struck him next. His eyes rolled back into his head and he tripped over himself, belly flopping onto the hard wood floor.
The soda can Vu had been holding slipped from his grasp and exploded all over Corey. The man himself slumped deeply into the comfortable three-seater couch and deprived the situation of his usually cynical comments. Isabell on the other hand, peacefully passed into unconsciousness on the other side of the same couch.
Even Charlie, the host of the party and the one who was technically responsible for everyone present, found himself sliding more than halfway down and off his matching two-seater couch. His stomach lay exposed, and the phone he had been scrolling on for a majority of the night clattered noisily by his feet.
“Well shit,” Brandon gave his two cents on the situation and sat down, almost anticipating that he would be the next one to go. Then his body relaxed until his head and limbs simply hung loosely from his body and his consciousness faded away. It was a peaceful acceptance.
“Can somebody tell me what’s going on?” Jerry looked up from his food at the dinner table and beheld the scene of the unconscious party.
“Beats me man,” Zhao was the only one capable of answering, and he did it between chewing mouthfuls of steak from across the table. Zhao figured that if everyone was going to die or something, he’d at least enjoy his food before it happened. His mouth chewed and his head slowly lowered as he kept eating, until finally his face and the steak were united.
“Damn it Bryan,” Jerry arbitrarily blamed his friend and leaned up against the backrest of his seat and snacked on chips until he passed out too.
It was only after everyone had already passed out that the front door swung wide open, with a widely smiling Nik entering the house and noticing everyone passed out. “Is the party over already?” He sounded disappointed. He took a few more steps into the living room and started to stagger. “What the fuh..?” he started asking, then fell forward like a log and slammed into the poor wooden floors. Thankfully, no one was in his line of collapse.
ns 15.158.61.21da2
