Topic: Rum is the Drink the Dead Like Best

Logan White

Date: 2012-11-12 16:08 EST
"Finish cleaning up and then get out of here, Logan," said Marty, a man in his late forties with dark, pepper streaked hair and a thick goatee. He had just locked the bar's front and back doors after Daniel, the bouncer, successfully evicted the last of the patrons from the night. Behind the bar, Logan was sweeping trash along the floor and into a bin to dump into the nearly overflowing can weighted down by bottles and broken glass. Next he took a rag and started wiping down the bar itself.

"You got my check, Marty?" Logan asked as the man went down a short hall next to the bar that led to the bathrooms and main office.

"Yeah, I'll get it in just a second."

Out in the floor, a young woman in her twenties was sweeping up trash and debris and plucking up empty bottles and glasses. She caught Logan watching her and threw him a wink, but he pretended not to notice and went back to cleaning. When he was done he wiped his hands on his pants and slipped out from behind the bar to start down the hall. Posters and billboards for various local bands and beer ads were thrown up on every available inch of wall space until there was nothing left but a motley of colors and words. It was a little overwhelming and made focusing in on any one thing difficult to do, especially for most of their patrons.

Logan paused outside the office door and knocked sharply. A moment later a voice grumbled from the other side.

"Come in."

He opened the door and stepped into the small, cramped office. It was more of a closet than anything else. He hovered in the doorway and waited while Marty glanced up at him and then used a key to unlock a drawer in his desk, rifling through envelopes before finding one with Logan's name printed on the label. He leaned over the desk to hand it over.

"Thanks, Marty."

"Yeah."

Logan turned to leave.

"Oh, Logan. Jess has a test Wednesday morning. Can you cover for her Tuesday night?"

Logan paused and turned to face Marty again, furrowing his brows. "I think so. Let me check first. Call you tomorrow?"

"Sounds good, thanks."

"No problem, see ya," Logan turned and continued on his way. He passed Jess on the main floor again and threw her a smile. "Night, Jess."

"Night, Logan."

Daniel unlocked the door for him as he approached, nodding his head and grunting a farewell as he passed. The door shut with a slam and the lock clicked as he stepped out onto the street. Breathing in the fresh air, he turned and walked the length of the building to a small parking lot to its right where his car was parked. A handful of fliers had been stuck under the windshield wiper, mostly bands and churches advertizing. He grabbed them all in a fistful and crumpled them up into balls before climbing into the car starting it up.

The engine rumbled and sputtered to life and Logan let it sit for a moment while he rubbed his eyes and yawned like a lion. It had been busy that night, he was exhausted and eager to get home. Finally, he put the car in reverse and backed out of his space before putting it in drive and turning onto the street. He liked working at Marty's, the man was nice enough and the pay wasn't too bad, but it was a long drive home that awaited him at the end of every shift.

It took him about ten minutes to get on the highway and the trip was made easier by that. At this time of night there weren't many cars to be seen and it was easy cruising from there on out. He'd been driving for close to twenty minutes, flicking through various radio stations in hopes that something decent was being played when he saw headlights flashing in front of him. Squinting, he tried to veer out of the way of the oncoming truck but it swerved just as he did and before he knew it, the two metal monsters collided in a cacophony of screaming breaks and screeching metal. His head snapped forward and slammed against the steering wheel. He felt a sharp pain that lasted for only a moment before everything went dark.

Police and paramedics arrived on the scene nearly twenty minutes later, by then the drunk driver of the pickup that slammed into Logan's car had clambered out of his truck and fallen to the pavement. Inside the crushed car, Logan was slumped over in his seat with the seat belt tearing into his cracked collar. His forehead split and the bone was crushed and he had died moments before help arrived. They loaded him into an ambulance and hauled him to the nearest hospital.

—-

The next thing Logan saw was black. Infinite, inky darkness. No matter how hard he tried to squint and peer he couldn't see past the dark veil that clouded his vision. It was cold and his bones were stiff, he couldn't move. He heard voices in the distance whispering and they sounded as though they were being carried by a lazy wind that licked at his skin and hair. He felt something close around his ankle and pull him down and felt something icy cold wash over his body like water and he thought that he was being pulled into some lake. He tried to scream and kick and fight but again he couldn't move and he couldn't even make a sound. The cold closed in around him, overbearing and suffocating.

Suddenly, Logan saw a face in the dark. It was pale as death and its skin was pulled taut over bone. Its eyes were hollow and sunken and black as the black that surrounded them. It was a man, an old man. He moved with ease in this hellish place, despite his age. He walked with confidence through the black air and stopped short of Logan, staring him in the eye. His bony hands rose up and closed around Logan's throat and they were even colder than this dark place. He started to squeeze and Logan tried to thrash.

"Calm," the man said. His voice was made up of a thousand whispering men and women. His hands squeezed tighter.

"Calm," he said again. "There is no pain here."

Logan realized then that as tight as the man squeezed his throat, he was still conscious. He could see and feel but it did not hurt. He cleared his throat and that was the first sound he managed to make. The man released him and beckoned with a bony hand to follow as he turned and started walking away.

"Come."

Logan White

Date: 2012-11-15 02:56 EST
"Do you accept?"

Its voice sent chills down his spine and made him take a step back. He grit his teeth against the inherent reaction to scream when he saw those hands extend from the nothingness that stretched out before him and reached out with sharp fingers. They dug into his chest and he gasped in pain and looked down as his shirt split and red streaks of his blood trickled down his torso.

"Quickly."

What little light there was faded quickly and left him blinking in the dark. He could no longer see but the hands were still clawing into his chest, ripping at his flesh and muscle and reaching for the bones beneath it all. He couldn't lift his arms to fight back and couldn't tear himself away. Every second was filled with excrutiating pain and though his knees buckled, he couldn't fall. They held him up and dug further, reaching for the very core of his being hidden beneath the layers of flesh that was being torn to ribbons at that very moment.

"Yes!" his voice ripped through the air and echoed as though in a cavern, canceling out the sound of his skin being wetly torn further along his body. Suddenly gravity swept up and introduced him to the ground with a heavy slam and the light began to fade back in and he saw a spectral figure when he blinked through the tears that impaired his vision. The woman's arms were red up to the elbow and dripping with his blood and she held between them a beating heart.

"You cannot turn back from here," she said, her pale white dress stained bright red. She reached down and with unearthly might hefted him from the ground. She brought the beating heart up to his chest and shoved, making him howl with furious pain. She pushed harder and looked him in the eyes. Her own were bright and orange and commanded him to stay awake. He growled through the pain and when she was through, she vanished.

Logan tumbled to the ground gasping for breath and the light faded to black again.

—-

When he woke it was cold, but not as cold as before. He was stiff and sore and his head throbbed, but he was breathing again. He stood shakily and leaned on the wall behind him, glancing up and down the narrow avenue he'd come to in. It was an alleyway full of trash and dirt and a man shot him a suspicious look from where he sat, huddled in a corner next to a pile of garbage with a dirty, feral looking cat bundled in his arms. Logan shook his head and stepped back and turned to step out into the street, leaving the strange man in the alley behind. He stepped out onto a street lined with what appeared to be very old oil lanterns and closed shops and storefronts. It looked wholly unfamiliar.

Confused and sore, Logan turned and started walking toward the sounds of yelling and laughter coming from what he assumed to be a bar at the end of the street. He tried to remember what happened when he got off of work the night before, but he couldn't recall going home or anywhere else for that matter. A question came to mind then and dominated his thoughts: where was he?

Hopefully, the bar had a phone and a few answers. If anything else, it would be warmer inside than out.

Logan White

Date: 2012-11-20 00:31 EST
Her name was...What was her name again? He couldn't recall at that moment, his mind was a delighted blur of memory and coherence all addled down by the unhealthy amount of alcohol he'd consumed in the last few hours. How did he end up there" It wasn't his room at the inn, the furniture was too nice, the floor clean of dirty clothes and trash. He didn't remember leaving the club, but somehow he'd ended up in someone's apartment. Rubbing his eyes, Logan pushed up from his seat on a couch that wasn't his and swayed on his feet before he heard a voice from down the hall.

"Are you coming or what?"

Madilyn. That was her name, she'd given it to him with a smile when they met a few hours before. It was her apartment. The memories came rushing into his head, kicking bass and synth, a thick crowd of young men and women dancing and drinking under the glow of flashing multicolored lights. He started down the hall toward the light at the end, it leaked through an open doorway where he found a bed in a room and a dark haired woman waiting for him. Her smile was inviting and her clothes were lying on the floor, tossed to and fro in her rush to undress. Logan smiled back and started forward.

The lights went out and he paused. She cursed under her breath and looked up at the fan overhead.

"I'll deal with it later," she said.

He continued walking. The door slammed shut behind him and he jumped. She did too.

Logan turned around and frowned at the door before he felt a chill on the back of his neck and shivered. He glanced aside and saw an open window, the curtains flapping in the wind, and he laughed.

"Just the wind," he said.

She laughed with him. He stepped over and by then he had reached the bed. She reached up to grab him by his shirt and pulled him down for a kiss, they both grinned as he fell forward. Suddenly, he was thrown across the room and slammed hard into the wall with a grunt of pain. He fell to the floor and when trying to stand, something shoved him back down. Wincing, Logan looked up and saw a woman appear beside the bed. She appeared to glow in the light of the moon and when her hands rose, they were both blackened as though by fire. She reached out and curled her hands around Madilyn's neck, who was frozen in terror, and dragged her forcibly from the bed.

Logan tried to stand again but the woman looked at him and once more he was forced flat onto his stomach, the wind rushed from his lungs like he'd been kicked in the chest. He heard Madilyn scream, but couldn't lift his head to see what was happening. The window shut and he could move again, so he pushed to stand only to find himself face-to-face with the pale woman from before. Her eyes were orange and glowed like firelight when he looked up and her thin lips curled in a cruel smile. She reached out with one of her blackened hands and brushed the tips of her fingers along his jaw in a gentle caress. Immediately after, those fingers closed around his throat and with inhuman strength she hoisted Logan from the ground and slammed him into a wall.

"Mine," she growled, before fading from view.

Logan fell and rubbed his neck, gasping for breath as he slumped back against the wall. He leaned back and closed his eyes, then used the wall as a brace to stand. "Madilyn?" he called, unsure of what the woman had done to her. Drops of blood stained the pale carpet, almost impossible to see in the dark. At the base of the window a sliver of moonlight shone in to illuminate the floor where red streaks were dashed against the wall and smeared over the glass. He stumbled across the room to the window and pushed it open and when he leaned out to look down, he saw the body of a naked woman sprawled face down on the concrete.