Spiritual Battle

Chapter 2.3: The Worldly

The music was loud and obnoxious but at least coming here tonight would get Ed off my back about going to this bar with him.  It was a very dirty looking place even though it had newly opened about a week ago.  I suppose that is because of the neighborhood.  The neighborhood was very undesirable to me but Ed lived here so I visited he area every now and then.  It promoted a lifestyle I didn’t quite agree with and which was a bit too fast paced for my simple life.  Nevertheless, here I was drinking a pint with him and his buddies.

One thing I hadn’t been told until I arrived was that he was buying for the group.  This night couldn’t have gotten any better.  After today, this was truly what I needed to relax.  If only the music wasn’t so obnoxiously loud and I had a bit more space to move around.

The bar was very crowded and people kept bumping into each other, causing many confrontations which would have quickly turned violent if bouncers hadn’t been present to break things up.  This was certainly not my scene however, the beer was free and I was beginning to realize that one might not be enough after the boring day I had.  Quickly, I finished my first pint and waved the bartender over for a second.  This was going to be a good night.

“You’re really packing them away.”  Ed joked, watching me call for another beer.  “Don’t break my bank,” he said with a joking jab to my shoulder.  Chuckling, he turned back to continue the conversation he was having with his friends.

For some reason, I wasn’t enjoying myself as much as I felt I should have.  Yes, this wasn’t my scene and I wished Ed was including me a bit more than he currently was but there was something else.  Wasn’t I supposed to do something?  Oh, yes.  I had forms to complete, didn’t I?  Due tomorrow, I believe.  I looked at my watch and saw that it was only nine o’clock.  There’s plenty of time to get them done.

At this point, my beer arrived and my thoughts turned to drinking.  This place really did have tasty beer and I had to admit that I could easily drink more than my share before I got sick of it.  I turned to Ed and his friends and saw how much of a good time they were having.  Maybe I should join in and be sociable; it is boring over here by myself.

I tried to turn to face my company when I realized I was no longer on the barstool I had been sitting on and was now on the floor with my latest pint on top of me.  In the process of falling, I had knocked over a fairly large man who happened to be behind me when I fell.  As I tried to get up, I was surprised at how light I was until I realized that I was actually being lifted up by the man I had knocked over.

The large man looked into my eyes and roared, “You think you can just push people around and you can go on your merry way?”  He threw me back against the bar and began to come closer.  Luckily, the bouncers were on him before he could get to me and, with the threat of being kicked out, the man calmed down and went off on his way about the bar.

I was left to get up on my own and, as I made my way back to my spot, Ed and his friends began snickering.  “W-what?”  I tried to ask through a hiccup.  “Nothing happened.”

“You got destroyed,” Ed laughed, “He sure got you good!”  After he spoke, he burst out laughing, joined shortly by the rest of his friends.

Angry with them and with myself for allowing that man to throw me around like that, I left my spot at the bar to go looking for him.  I quickly realized that it was going to be difficult navigating the room because it just started to wobble in my vision.  Despite this, I attempted to make my way through the room to find the man who had knocked me back against the bar and set the record straight.  I wasn’t going to be pushed around and made a laughing stock in front of my friends.  Who does this guy think he is?

After some time wandering around the room and bumping into many people, fortunately without incident, I came to the man who I was searching for.  He was bigger than I remembered and I hesitated a bit but my drunken mind insisted it was a good idea to confront him about our previous exchange.

I walked up to the man and pushed him from behind so that he spilled his drink.  Angrily, he turned around and, remembering me, chuckled.  “You just like causing trouble, don’t you?”  With that, he got up and took a swing at me but he was as drunk, if not more drunk, than I was and missed me.  This put him off balance and allowed for me to throw a punch of my own into his jaw.  I heard a cracking sound and I pulled away, surprised at what I had just done.  Unfortunately, when I backed up I slipped on the man’s spilled beer and fell to the floor along with him.  On my way down, I hit my head on a nearby chair and by the time I hit the floor, everything was dark.