The Lamb and the Gray Battle

September 16, 1990

It was Knox's first time inside a moonshine hall. He expected magic wards around the building, but it was just a plain restaurant to all who didn't know Pete. It even had a sign over the door that read, "Give us this day our daily bread."

Few patrons hung around the front rooms. To those who did know Pete, they'd sneak back to the broom closet. Knox squinted his eyes, tried to guess the code. Some of the tiles were smoother than others. And then it was just a matter of pressing them in the right order before the door clicked and automatically opened.

Knox was jolted. He was a kid let loose in Higgens Candy Emporium. He had never seen so much booze, definitely not on a Sunday. He was allowed a ration of six beers a week or two bottles of wine. Knox's mother threatened him if he ever asked for more.

"We'll get a yellow mark on our lineage papers and then someone will paint a pitchfork on the side of the house," his mother wailed. "Don't you dare make me scrub paint off the house in front of the neighbors. What if someone burned the house down?"

But this place was loaded with bottles. In all different shapes too, not like the ration office. Shapes of skulls and wolves and red demons. Knox pointed to the bottle shaped like a naked lady.

The bartender said, "Vodka. Good choice. It's a liquor made from potatoes."

Knox took his bottle and scanned the room. Knox didn't know that metal had a smell, but this place reeked of it. At first, the girl staring at the wall looked like a teenager, younger than him. The red shade of her hair was unnatural and dangerous in this part of Tennessee. Knox slipped over to her.

"Your first time?"

But when she switched those blazing eyes to him, he jumped. He should have run, crossed the room, sat down at a table the waitress wasn't ignoring.