It is 7.06pm on Wednesday evening and Ste is refilling the coolers behind the bar with bottled beers and mixers. Clinking the last few into their neat rows, he grabs the empty crate and heads downstairs. As he passes by the closed office door, he hears a crashing sound, loud enough to be heard over the ambient early-evening music drifting from the sound system. He hesitates outside the door, listening for any more noises and wondering if he should knock and go in.
Brendan is in there, and he has been acting stranger than usual for several days, his mood swinging erratically from brief moments of manic laughter to hours of withdrawn silence. He is wound-up and volatile, and keeps disappearing into the office at strange times. If Ste finds an excuse to go in here, Brendan is usually sitting in his chair with his eyes closed, or pacing the room like a caged animal. Definitely not working. Ste can remember him being the same as this around the time of Danny's murder, and he can't help feeling worried. Nobody else seems to have noticed though. Warren hasn't been around and Cheryl is on holiday in Spain with Lindsey, so Ste is alone with this nagging feeling that something is not right.
There is silence now behind the door, so Ste takes the crate down and gets on with his work behind the bar, but he still feels uneasy. Brendan would normally be out here at this time, checking everything and finding things to criticise. Making dry comments and getting on Ste's case about this or that. It drives Ste mad every day, but confusingly he now finds that he is missing the familiar routine of it.
The evening gets started, the late-shift bar staff turn up, and the place starts to get busier. Brendan has still not appeared and Ste is now absolutely sure something is wrong.
He walks over and hovers again outside the door, but the music is louder now, so there is no way he can tell if there is any sound coming from inside. Anxiety skittering in his chest, he takes a deep breath, knocks, and walks in.
He is right. Something is very wrong and he knows he should have come in earlier.
Brendan is half crouching half sitting on the floor against the wall and there is blood all over his shirt, his left hand, and the floor where he is sitting. He is visibly shaking and his eyes are wild, darting around the room before focusing on Ste. There are shards of glass all over the floor and Ste sees that they must come from the shattered mirror on the wall, which is now just an empty frame.
"Brendan", he says breathlessly, crossing the room to him. Glass crunches under his shoes. "What …"
"Stephen?" Brendan looks up at him. His eyes look strange and are brimming with tears.
"What's happened?" asks Ste. He puts his hand on Brendan's shoulder and can feel his body shaking.
There is no reply.
"Brendan" he tries again, trying to catch Brendan's eye again, "Brendan, what's going on?"
There is a long pause before Brendan looks straight at Ste with an intensity Ste has never seen before. His eyes are wide and bloodshot.
"It's Danny" says Brendan, "…he's come back."
Ste stares at him for a moment, not knowing quite how to react to this news. Eventually he says carefully and slowly, "Danny...Danny Houston?"
"Yeah, yeah…Danny", confirms Brendan, nodding furiously and grasping Ste's arm, as if to make him understand. Ste can see the cuts on his knuckles where the blood has come from.
"He…Danny…He's come back for me, Stephen."