Bel is running.
Running faster than he can ever remember running in his life.
Running...
Running...
Running...
A hand, raised in the air.
A chunk of metal in that hand, glinting in the moonlight.
Snick!
It's a muffled sound, not like the pop-pop he's heard from other guns.
But that's not important.
What is important is that the snick sound brings with it a circle.
A perfectly round circle.
A perfectly round red circle.
A perfectly round red circle that's expanding.
Expanding from a perfect round hole in the back and a torn chunk of skin in the front.
The blood is spreading.
Spreading...
Spreading...
And all Bel can think is that he's got to get away...
Away from that expanding red halo...
Away from that chunk of metal that made the hole appear...
Away from the blood spreading from that hole.
Spreading into a macabre red halo...
Away...
Away...
Away...
1 A.M.
"Bel? Did you hear what I said?"
"Huh?"
Bel blinks, shaking his head just the tiniest bit to clear it. Around him, restaurant patrons chatter and glasses and china clink, and Em is staring at him again.
"You've got dark circles under your eyes." Em says.
Em and Bel grew up together. They went to the same elementary school, same high school, but different colleges. Em had studied nursing in London, and Bel went to New York University, like his dad. Now Em wanted to go to med school but needed more tuition money, so she worked at the hospital during the day and at Gulf's restaurant at night. Sometimes being friends with her made Bel feel inadequate as a human being, but Em never let him feel that way for long. If Bel was into girls, Em might be the type of girl he'd date.
Em was the one who got him this job when he came back to Bangkok for a gap year. NYU had been eating him alive and Bel just needed a second to breathe. A second that had stretched into three years.
"I'm fine." Bel's hands move automatically, mixing, pouring, adding ice when he needs to. He has been tending bar for long enough that he doesn't really have to think anymore. Although he should smile when a patron tips him. He keeps forgetting that.
Bel hasn't got much sleep these past few nights.
Work isn't the problem. It's not peak tourist season, so it's not insanely busy. The weather is kind of the problem--May is the beginning of the rainy season in Thailand, so it's hot and wet, but there's no flooding yet, so it's not as bad as it could be.
He's just been waking up and not being able to go back to sleep, and he's not sure why.
Actually, he does know why, he just doesn't want to talk about it. He's already done that therapy shit and doesn't really want to repeat the process. Especially since it's just re-hashing what he thought he'd worked through eight years ago.
