Into the Light

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"A fanatic is a man who consciously over compensates a secret doubt."
Aldous Huxley

The vigor and confidence Blake had has slipped away after his last loss over the weekend but his wish to move out Manhattan has grown stronger since the bookie will not give him extra time to pay. The Monday morning is dull with overcast as he walks down Broadway to work.

Just before the official end to the work day, Juli approaches Blake and tells him they are going out. He nods and takes a long whiff of the jasmine scent rolling off Juli and then shuts down his computer. She chooses the avenue and the place to unwind. An English style pub called Pandemonium with a backwards blue circular sign in the window that reads--nepO-- is the destination. Blake thinks put a tism on the end and that explains a lot in the world.

The shadows play with the movement of outside lights as they rotate, illuminate, and conceal the regulars at the front of the establishment through a large pane window as Blake walks in. The drink specials are painted red on a chalk board. This is a place where those who wish to be seen are and those who wish to hide. The smuggler cheers for the doctor as he wins a bet at the track and the cop buys a drink for an ex-con all within Pandemonium.

The bar surface stretches along the whole right side and at the end, blacked out with a curtain, the shade shrouded back booths. The air smells of fried fish and the hand carved teardrop inlays on the face of the old oak bar intrigue Blake as they walk down and grab a small block table with steel chairs. An azure cube candle holder with no candle sits idles as a centerpiece next to a brass incense holder that reflects errant rays of light passing through the pane glass window. Two pieces of unlit cone incense huddle on the plate while stuck pointing to the low ceiling. Grizzled old men sit at the end of the bar staring at a small television screen inside an open cabinet hung on the wall.

Blake turns to Juli with a question posed on his lips but she preempts him.

"I know. Where did I find this place? I was in between reading Dante's Purgatorio and Paradisio, when the poems prompted me to do a Google search the city for places called Inferno but Pandemonium came up. It's like retro-English Punk Pub Primitive but cool. I came here with some friends, who you will meet in a few, and never stopped coming," she says with a quick wink. The blood begins to flow between his legs with verve making his crouch to hide his growing erection.

"That wasn't what I was going to ask," he says trying to wish away his immerging hard-on.

"I was going to ask if you knew anyone here but I guess that was answered. Who are the friends?"

"You'll like Cyn and Belladonna. They're not like the people at work. I met them over a year ago and don't know their real names but I think Cyn is short for something sinister and Victor is coming too."

Cyn and Belladonna take themselves way too seriously and they profoundly suffer from what human psychologists call the The Illusion of Knowledge. Go ahead, look it up, I'll wait.

Silly little hormones and compliments can really mold a mind in such annoying ways. Well back to the story and what's important here is how Blake reacts or more importantly how he doesn't. Oops, did I just give away too much. Don't worry, you won't get it all. Surprises are in store.

Blake rolls his fingers across his chin and hopes Juli doesn't notice him leaning forward to help further conceal the throb from down below.

"Cyn, lovely. Let me guess a Goth performance artist?" he asks and thinks why is Victor coming?

"No, she's a financial planner I think. Why, would that bother you if she were?"

"No, would it bother you if it bothered me?"