"Deacon Ash"

Chapter 8: The Warning

CHAPTER 8: The Warning

As soon as I entered the bar I screened the customers with livid eyes and immediately locked on to Angelos. He was sitting at the same table where I had first seen him with a sweating glass of water on the table in front of him. It was as if he had never even left the place. I had veered for him and was thrown off course by the bartender.

"Welcome back!" he shouted from the other side of the bar.

I acknowledged him with a wave.

He held up a tall drink and motioned for me to come and receive it.

I hadn't planned on having a beverage but since it had already been prepared, I certainly did not want it go to waste.

"You're quick with those drinks," I said.

The smell of liquor teased my taste buds before the glass was in my hand. I reached for my wallet to pay for the drink and to tip heavily.

"No charge," the bartender told me.

"I appreciate it but you have to let me pay you at some point," I said.

The bartender lightly pushed my hand away from him.

"On the house," he said. "Anyway, you'll pay me soon enough."

"If you say so," I said.

I returned the wallet to my back pocket and excused myself from the bartender. I headed to join Angelos, spewing words at him before I had pulled out a chair to sit down.

"You need to come fix my lights...now," I said.

"Do you suppose it is necessary for me to come at this instant?" Angelos asked.

"Yeah, right now," I said.

"I see you continue to drink," Angelos said.

"You got a problem with that?" I asked.

Images of Amanda heckling me had resurfaced in my head.

"Haven't you had enough?" Angelos asked.

"I not some lame-ass like you who comes to a bar to drink water," I said, hoping to have incited him.

Angelos didn't so much as cut his eyes at me.

"So what do you think the other people are drinking?" I asked.

I threw my head back and gulped down a few swallows of my drink.

Without taking his soft blue eyes off of the water, he asked, "What other people?"

"Them," I said.

My index finger was rigid as I pointed toward the other patrons...who were no longer there. I stood up, looking over at the other tables and around pillars. They were all gone. Even the bartender was nowhere to be seen.

"They've all gone, Seth," Angelos said.

"I can see that," I said. "I didn't notice them leave."

I chuckled at my minor stint of incoherence.

"Hell, I must be drunk," I said.

"You've been drunk a long time," Angelos said.

"And enjoying every minute of it," I said.

"Do you think maybe you have a problem?" Angelos asked me.