Beware Of The Dark

Chapter Seven

     As I drove to my dad's bar, it felt like I haven't left home. I still remember the shortcut to the bar. The traffic on South Military Highway zoomed past us as we pulled up to the stop sign. "What the heck is that?" I heard Landon ask me and glance over.

     There stood a giant rooster and I smiled. For years, that was a beacon for people to stop by. But as time went by, other clubs popped up. Not to mention, not many people come this way anymore. The Rooster Den was located by the Elizabeth River. This end of South Military Highway was dead. Not many businesses down here. A lot of them had closed and moved or just closed. The Rooster Den was the last business standing.

     As I pulled up into the parking lot, I saw that the paint was fading. What was once a vibrant red was now a sun-faded shade of pink. Some of the wooden shutters were either hanging off or had fallen to the ground. I didn't even want to know what the inside looked like.

     The wooden door opened and my dad stepped out. It was like he never aged over the years. I think that he was close to seventy but he didn't move like he was getting up there in age. As I got out of the van, I decided to keep my thoughts to myself. My dad smiled as he said, "I know that the bar has fallen into disrepair."

      "Why not move to another location?" I asked him but I think that I knew his answer.

      "I was thinking about that," he looked around and sighed. "Or get out of the business completely. I've made enough to retire."

      "Dad, you love people too much to retire," I said with a laugh because I knew that it was true.

     The door opened again and I heard, "Sis!" Jesse, my older half-brother, came running to me. He scooped me up in a hug and spun me around. "Dad said that you were home but I didn't believe him until now."

     "Remember your nephews?" I said laughing as Dakota and Landon stood there.

     He looked up to Dakota and said, "You grew the last time I saw you." I laughed as he hugged Dakota then he turned to Landon, "Hey buddy." He hugged Landon tightly then he saw Corey. "You must be Tara's boyfriend." He shook his hand and I saw him rub his hand like he was trying to warm it up.

     "Are you ready to see the inside?" my dad asked me and I hesitated for a moment.

    "Let's go," I said as he held open the door.

     It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the low lighting inside. There was a thin layer of dust on the tables. I felt my nose starting to twitch. Achoo! "Bless you," my dad said as I looked around. "It's a disaster."

     "I wasn't going to say that," I walked over to the bar.

     "You were thinking about saying it," he looked at me.

     The bar was gigantic in size and an antique. I chuckled as I remember when Jesse and I went on a road trip during summer vacation with our dad. He wanted a unique-looking bar because he hated the original-looking bar. We made a stop in Colorado at a small mountain town called Cripple Creek. He came across an estate sale and that's how he found the bar. It came from a saloon from the 1800s and he wanted it. When we got home, I remembered my mother having a hissy fit about the money he spent.

      I noticed the leather railing was starting to crack in certain spots. This bar needs a major overhaul. I would contact that show, Bar Rescue, and have them help out. Looking up at the lighting fixtures, I noticed that a few bulbs were burned out. And there were cobwebs woven between the bulbs. "Can it be done?" my dad asked me and I looked around.

     "We have about eleven days until Halloween," I walked over to the dance floor area. The floor was starting to warp. I saw the window to the deejay booth was caked with dust. This was going to be a major project. The door to the deejay booth was warped that it stuck.

      When I walked back to the bar, I noticed that Corey had disappeared. My dad looked at me and I shook my head. Something was going on with him. I had noticed that his eyes had a bluish tint to them and Jesse noticed that he was cold. "How about you and me take a drive?" my dad suggested and I knew that he wanted to talk to me about something.

     "I'll put Dakota and Landon to work," Jesse said with a laugh.

     "We'll be back," our dad said as we headed out the door.

     "Thanks for the warning dad," Jesse called out with a laugh.

      Corey looked up when he heard the door close. "Dad and I are going for a ride," I told him as I walked past him.

     I didn't give him a chance to say anything. That gut feeling that he was talking to another woman was settling in my stomach. "Let me drive," my dad offered and I tossed him the keys. "Don't need you to get lost in Chesapeake."

     He laughed as he got in the van. "At least you don't have to adjust the seat dad," I fired back with a laugh and he looked at me.

     "Okay, I deserved that," he laughed as he started the car. "When you mentioned Halloween, I thought about getting Halloween decorations."

     "That bar needs to be cleaned first," I looked at him.

     "Let's use it as a haunted house attraction," he grinned at me. "Something year round like that one on the Virginia Beach Strip."

     I saw where he was going about this. "A haunted house attraction would be pretty cool and Chesapeake doesn't have one."

      "You with me?" he asked me and I smiled.

     I knew that wasn't what he wanted to talk to me about but I waited. "Are you curious about how I know what you are thinking?" he finally asked me and I nodded. "There's another world than what you see."

     "What do you mean?" I asked him as I lit a cigarette.

     "People aren't who you think they are," I looked at him and saw something peeking over his shoulder. Then I realized that they were wings.

      "What the..." my voice trailed off and he smiled. "Wait? There's a reason you haven't aged?"

     "We are fae," he looked at me and it took a moment for his words to dawn on me. "Fairies. There are many types of us. Good and bad. I'm the king of the fairy realm."

     "That would make me a princess?" I slowly said and he nodded. "What about my mother?"

      "She went dark but she's a queen," he softly chuckled at my confused look. "She was more of a collector of hearts fairy. You will recognize them by their eyes having a bluish tint to them."

     I gasped when he told me that because it was just a few days ago when I noticed something similar with Cody. For a moment, I was waiting to hear a director holler cut! But there was nothing. All of this seemed like something from Hollywood. Like the True Blood series or some type of fantasy movie. There was no such thing as fairies or heart collectors. Or was there? Little did I know that there was more out there that I didn't know. But soon, I would find out about this whole new world.