Sex that night was animalistic.  Rez was behind her, satisfying his needs with impatient thrusts while Ellie pleasured herself into that sweet oblivion.  Later, she snuggled into his embrace, his arm draped over her naked body, his heat keeping her warm.  He kissed her hair as she drifted off to sleep, happy and content and completely in love with him.

Sometime later, she was awakened by his absence.  The bed was such a lonely place without him.  Unfamiliar and barren.  Separation anxiety overcame her like a wave.  Where had he gone?  She glanced at the clock.  Barely after one a.m.  She’d been asleep less than two hours.

The door to the bedroom was closed.  All was quiet except for the muffled sound of the refrigerator in the kitchen.  She sat up and listened, but couldn’t hear him.  Perhaps inspiration had finally struck him and he was out writing a song.  He’d been having trouble with that recently.  Then she heard a faint ticking noise, like someone tapping lightly and quickly on glass.  It seemed to be coming from the livingroom.  Another wave of nauseous anxiety rolled over her.  That sound was all-too familiar.

She slipped from beneath the covers and slid into a silky robe.  Pulling it tight around her naked body, she gently opened the bedroom door and padded toward the livingroom on bare feet.

By the dim light of a table lamp she saw him bent over the coffee table, a finger to one nostril, as he inhaled white powder with the other.  Her hand flew to her mouth.  She tried to subdue an outburst of horror, and it came out as a quiet, squeaky scream.

He looked up just then, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  His black bangs partly hid his eyes.  She could see the white ring of powder around his left nostril.

“Rez?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.  “Wh–what are you doing?”

He just looked at her, not replying right away.  “Go back to bed,” he said finally.  His voice had an edge to it.  A warning not to challenge him.  And, normally, she would not, but this was something that hurt her to her very core.  This was something that she had gone through once before–it had nearly destroyed her–and she did not want to go through it again.