Sundown (Book 2)

A Drink

It's late, maybe 11:00, late enough for most of the teenagers to have cleared out. The bar is now only open for players, no robots, no audience members, not even any staff are allowed there now. Especially since it's a nice bar, probably one of nicest I've ever seen. Christopher said he'd be picking me up now, but there's no sign of him. I'm waiting in my room, in a decent dress provided by the hotel, with full makeup done and in heels.

Finally I hear a knock on the door, when I open it I see Christopher. He's wearing a nice black suit with the top buttons of his shirt opened, and his hair has been slicked back. His eyes go wide and his face turns red, "You look..." He seems to space out halfway though his sentence, but continues with, "Stunning, you look stunning." He smiles.

"Not too shabby yourself!" I smile back, playfully fixing his shirt collar, then involuntarily patting his shoulder.

"Shall we go?" He asks. I nod and he takes my arm as we walk down to the bar. Once we arrive, I immediately notice the shocking amount of people here. It almost looks like...everyone's here. Christopher doesn't seem to notice it though. He's clearly more focused on the task at hand, which is getting a drink. He walks over to the bar tender and orders two glasses of red wine. "Is that alright with you?" He clarifies. I nod my head once more. Christopher reaches into his wallet but the bartender stops him, saying it's on the house. The bar tender immediately gets to work and we're left isolated at the bar stools.

"So what made you sign up for the fights?" I ask.

He takes a deep breath in and laughs a little to himself, "Now that's a story. It all started with a little wager me and my brother, Clayton, had. In short we both bet we could win the bot fights. After we were denied from the commercial fights due to limited space-" I cut him off for a minute.

"I was denied for previous participation." I say.

"Ah yes, they won't let you enter if you and your robot have both already entered." He explains, "Anyway, as I was saying...we both wanted to fight to the literal death with our robots to prove the other wrong."

"Wow, you two must really hate each other."

"No, actually, I love him to death, I can't imagine a world without him." He smiles, admiring his brother from across the room, "But I'm sure he doesn't feel the same about me." He sighs, loosing his smile.

"You never know." I try to comfort him but I'm interrupted when the bartender brings us our drinks. I look around the room, seeing everyone else drinking their freshly delivered drinks.

"To the fights, and to winning." He cheers with me. As he takes a long sip of his drink, I look into mine, sloshing the liquid around. "Oh come on, just try it?" He pushes. I sigh then tip the red liquid into my mouth. I immediately feel it burning as it goes down my throat but it still tastes amazing.

"Wow!" I laugh as I set the now empty cup down on the counter.

"Congratulations! You've just had your first glass of wine!" He laughs as he downs the rest of his. As we laugh and talk for a little while longer, I'm startled by someone passing out at a table behind us.

For a minute everyone laughs playfully, but soon another person passes out, then another and another. Suddenly Christopher slides out of his chair, unconscious. I soon find that I'm the only one still awake in the room, and I feel myself becoming dizzy. The last thing I see before I pass out are guards, filing into the room.

Standing behind them all is the woman from earlier.