Ashes of the Future

Chapter 5

Ten minutes of walking led them past busy streets, neon signs, flying cars, everything and anything that the boys could imagine. It was still very overwhelming, like they were living in a dream. They were immediately snapped back into reality when everyone stopped walking, arriving at a club that was filled with deafening sounds, but no people.

Lela had mentioned that this was Vykter's favourite bar, due to it's vacancy, but they did not realize she literally meant there would be no one there but them.

"I'll order the first round" Vykter shouted as they entered the bar. Him, Betsey and Wade had ended up coming along with them, Vykter insisting a few more drinks wouldn't harm him. Betsey was short, a lot shorter than the boys had expected. Her fair complexion was framed by fine, light golden strands, pin straight and full of shine. Wade was a lot more rough, his skin less full of life and his darker hair more ruffled and coarse. They were polar opposites in appearance, but startlingly similar in personalities.

"How does money even work here" Matt slid into the seat next to Vykter, watching him pull out a red card, but he couldn't make out what it said however. Charlie was soon interrupting his curiosity, slinging his arm across Matt's back and around his neck loosely.

"That's a conversation for later, for now let's just enjoy ourselves" He was already shouting in Matt's ear, the music blaring out of the speakers. The music style was odd, but they did not complain.

"By getting wasted" Running over, Cody picked up one of the shots that had been neatly lined up along the bar and knocked it against Charlie's before knocking it back, high fiving Charlie afterwards.

"Woah these shots are a lot stronger than ours" The three boys laughed at Dan's expression, as he slammed his shot glass back down against the side.

"More for your money I guess" Matt chipped in, but the expression he earned from Charlie was not pretty.

"Stop fucking talking about money Matt"

"I just want to know how it works-"

"Well I'm gonna leave you to moan about that to Dan" And with that, Cody was dragging Charlie onto the dance floor with him. Everyone was dancing apart from Matt and Dan, but Dan knew Matt needed time before he could enjoy himself yet.

"So, you okay with us doing this?" Dan watched as Matt just stared at his glass, his fingers wrapped around it but it still full. He wanted to pry his fingers off it, before Matt smashed the glass into pieces, but he just waited for a response.

"What do you mean?"

"With us going out partying instead of looking for your father"

"My father is dead Dan, I know he is. He already told me on the phone he was going to die." Matt didn't even stutter, worrying Dan. He had never seen Matt so emotionless before, as if his own fathers death wasn't affecting him. Matt had never dealt with death before, he'd dealt with temporary abandonment due to his mother, but never anything permanent. Seeing how he coped with that was chilling to Dan.

"So what are we doing here?"

"My father wanted us to fix whatever problem is here, I'm not sure why or what's even so bad about this place, but I will stay here until I figure that out"

After a few moments of dead silence, Dan tried to change the topic of conversation, noticing Charlie with Nathly out of the corner of his eye. "Well would you look at that" He pointed at them, hoping that it would distract Matt.

"Two shots and he's already got one of them." And it sure did, Matt moved his shot aside, relieving the stress he was causing on the material and instead laughing at his friend.