Evanescence
An alcohol induced blur
Dan sat in the leather seated booth alone, staring down moodily into his drink, oblivious to the pulsating industrial techno music and the dancing and mingling of the other goths around him. He was sitting in the club that he owned half of, drinking his own alcohol and ignoring his own customers, not giving a fuck about what was going on around him. He had seated himself in the darkest corner, managing to seat himself in a manner where the darkness obscured his face enough for him to not be recognised. His mind was still playing over the events that he had experienced earlier in the day, cycling through that long line of "Why's?" and "What if's?" people so often tormented themselves with. He'd been doing it for the last hour and still hadn't gleamed anything.
He knew that he was slightly drunk because his vision was staring to blur, he felt warm and fuzzy, plus the plethora of shot glasses indicated to him that he should be on his way, because they were all his empty glasses. He'd lost count of how many of them he had slammed down. He could have counted the shot glasses scattered all over the table infront of him, but he just couldn't be fucked, nor did he care, because the more alcohol he consumed, the more likely he was to pass out and not have to worry about Teagan anymore. He realised that this wasn't the best possible way of dealing with the situation, but it was the only one he felt like doing, plus the drinks were free, seeing as the club was partly his, so that made it even more of an attractive temporary solution. Staring at the shot glass in his hand, the only one with alcohol still left in it, he realised that he'd have to sooner or later confront Teagan about the way she felt about him, much to his dismay.
His chain of thought was broken when two black clad figures slid into the semi-circular booth in which he was seated, one on either side of him. For a second no one spoke, until the black clad figure on his left asked him a question, placing their feminine hand on his, rubbing his fingers in an attempt to be comforting. "Are you okay, Dan?", the figure said, Dan recognising it immediately as Christina. Dan sighed and looked up into her face, then glanced to his right, seeing his friend John sitting next to him. They were his best friends and he couldn't really bring himself to lie to them at the moment, but didn't really wish to tell them what happened.
"I'm fine, Christina. You don't need to worry about me", Dan replied quickly, staring off into space, as if he were alone. Christina and John exchanged a look, before turning their attentions back to Dan again. "Dude, we're here for you. You can tell us what happened. We won't tell anyone and you know that", John said. Dan nodded and responded with, "I know I can trust you guys. I love you both more then life itself. However, I just don't want to talk about it. Not for a while. I just want to go somewhere to think, to clear my head. Otherwise I'll go crazier then I already am. So if you'll excuse me". Dan drained the rest of his tequila, and shuffled to the right, John getting out of his way and letting Dan go, before sitting back down to watch him walk away.
"I'm worried about him, John. He hasn't been the same recently", Christina said as they watched him disappear amongst the crowd. "Yea, he's been pretty depressed for a while now. He has his down time, but this is something else. He can't seem to get himself out of this one", John responded, his expression showing concern for his old friend. "What are we going to do?" Christina said after turning to face John again, her face looking really worried. "I'm afraid there is nothing we can do. We can't force him to tell us what's wrong, otherwise he might tear away even more then he just did. We'll just have to wait for him to tell us in his own time. You know he will eventually" John responded solemnly. They both nodded and looked out again into the writhing, dancing crowd, as if they were looking for Dan to be in amongst them.
But he was outside in the cold night air with the rain lightly falling around, cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth, zippo lighter simultaneously lighting the end of the lung torpedo whilst illuminating his face. The neon sign glow from his club's sign enabled him to see his surroundings, whilst the occasional burst of flames from the small flamethrowers gave off a little warmth, when they were going. He clicked his lighter shut and put it back inside of the inner pocket of his full length leather trenchcoat, before heading left, his Demonia Trashville boots stomping through the puddles forming on the pavement. He had no idea where he was walking to, all he knew was that he was going walking, probably just to explore the city, explore the side streets and alleyways which he enjoyed doing so much. At the least, it would take his mind off her and her rude shit of a boyfriend.
The city was alive with people wandering the streets, going to and fro, socially and culturally varied as they were numerous. There were people from all walks of life wearing all sorts of fashions that you could expect to see in a huge city such as this one. That was one of Dan's favourite things about this city, the fact that you could always count on meeting someone different and that in the end almost no one was the same, everyone had their own little perks and traits. Being the owner of a nightclub, Dan knew quite a bit of the alternative population, but he always enjoyed meeting people from other walks of life. He often visited other clubs and pubs to see how people of different social groups and sub-cultures interacted.
However, tonight Dan wasn't in the mood to meet anyone new, as the deal with Teagan kept playing through his mind and it was dragging him down further and further. He cut into an alleyway and travelled down it, oblivious to the mess of rubbish and graffiti around him, oblivious to the darkness that was engulfing him away from the glow of neon lights and fluorescent bulbs. He entered into a squarish area in the middle of a mess of alleyways and after nearing a dumpster, suddenly caught onto the fact his cigarette was almost all gone, so he stopped and threw it on the ground, using his massive boot to crush it out. He instantly knew that he wasn't alone, that he was being watched and he knew it wasn't by some down-on-their-luck homeless person. His eyes begun to scan the darkness entrances, hoping to catch sight of whoever was pursuing him.
He realised that he had people moving down towards him from all three entrances and that he was trapped, as he knew the door next to the dumpster was locked and the building was shut up for the night, if it wasn't an abandoned old structure. They stepped out into the flickering light, two on the left, two on the right, one infront of him, dressed in the wigger fashions. He figured that this method of dress was only because it was cheap and sold everywhere, rather then a statement of belonging to a particular sub-culture or music genre. They came closer to him, trapping him against the wall, around him in a semi-circle, effectively making it impossible to run past without getting caught by one of them. Knowing they weren't going to be asking him for a cigarette, Dan began to wish he had of stayed at the club and continued drinking, or just not drunk any alcohol at all.
The one on the middle smiled, a shark-toothed grin that are typical to loan sharks, used car salesmen and low grade gangs. Dan knew instantly that he was the leader, but the information that gave him didn't help him that much, except that he'd probably be the last one to fight and the one walking away at the end of each mugging with the most cash. The leader pointed a grubby finger at Dan and growled, "Giv' us ya' shit or we'll fuck ya' up". Dan took off his trenchcoat and shirt and tossed them ontop of the dumpster, then assumed a fighting pose. He'd rather go down fighting then just hand all his stuff over, not only because it was his way, but he was wearing more then a grand's worth of clothing, plus he had about that much in his wallet.
"Fine, be a shit'ead then. Brawler, deal with dis faggot. We'll go 'ave a smoke till ya' done", the leader said. They moved off down the middle alleyway, leaving a man on the right behind who grinned one of those huge grins you see on the face of a none too bright person. He was huge, something like 6 foot 4', and had his muscles could be seen through his wifebeater and cargo pants. In Dan's mind, he didn't seem the type of person to spend time in the gym lifting weights and doing boxing training, making Dan realise that he was probably called Brawler because he not only loved to fight, but that's how he gained his bulk. The giant cracked his neck, then his knuckles, the cracks loudly audible over the sounds of the city.
Dan was beginning to wonder how he was going to take this walking behemoth down when Brawler moved forward, his huge mitt of a right fist drawing back for a skull crushing hit. Dan moved quickly and punched Brawler square on the nose, shattering it, blood jetting downwards out of his nose like it was fired from a shotgun. Brawler stepped back, in shock from the blow and Dan didn't waste the opportunity, landing heavy strike after heavy strike on Brawler's adam's apple, jaw, forehead and then his gut. Dan knew he had to be quick and hard if he wanted to win this fight, so he grabbed Brawler by the head and rammed his knee as hard as he could into Brawler's face. Brawler didn't make a sound and dropped down onto his ass, his face covered by his hands.
However, Brawler just got right back up again, his hands coming down to reveal his face covered in blood and some of his front teeth missing, part of his face already starting to swell where Dan's blows had landed. He grinned that stupid grin at Dan again and said in a very gruff voice, "Nice try, but now it's my turn". He once again begun to approach Dan, but he never got a chance to fight, as they both heard a roar, and in the blink of an eye, something had pulled Brawler's head to the right, and was on the left side of his neck, feasting on it. Brawler cried out in surprise and struggled, but whatever held him held him like steel. Dan realised it was a man and after a few seconds of feasting upon Brawler, the man pulled his head back, reached into his bite wound on Brawler's neck and then ripped the front of Brawler's neck off, spraying blood all over Dan and the wall behind him.
The man carelessly dropped Brawler's limp corpse on the ground and turned to look Dan in the eyes, a cold hard stare, blood still dripping from it's chin. Dan knew perfectly well that he was looking at a real life vampire, which until ten seconds ago he had only though was a figment of fiction, yet there was one standing right infront of him, victim at it's feet and blood on it's face. Dan begun to wonder why it was just staring at him instead of attacking him and Dan once again assumed a fighting pose, knowing that it was a useless gesture, but it was a gesture that he was not afraid and would fight it if he could. The vampire smiled at him and wiped the blood of it's face, confusing Dan even further as to why it hadn't attacked him yet, a witness to his "crime". The vampire's smile was one of warmth, like one would smile at a long lost brother, a child or loved one, inciting Dan to enough confusion to drop his fighting stance and stare dumbfounded at the vampire.
Neither moved, just stood there staring at one another until the vampire's head turned to look over his left shoulder at the alleyway behind him, the one the muggers had walked down. Dan realised that they were coming back and the vampire turned back to Dan, stared at him a second, then just disappeared, seeming blurred out of existence, like something moving incredibly fast. The muggers walked back into the alleyway and found the body of their dead friend, throat ripped out and their intended victim standing above him, covered in blood. "What da' fuck?", one of them cried. They looks of disbelief turned to looks of anger.
The leader shoved them out the way and raised his hand, a .38 revolver gripped in it. Dan's eyes opened wide with surprise as he realised what was about to happen to him and heard three quick booms, saw bright flashes from the barrel and the getting feeling like someone hit him in the chest with a sledgehammer a few times. As surprised as he was, he managed to stay on his feet, blood beginning to ooze out the holes. The leader shot Dan another two times, taking Dan's strength away and he fell onto his knees. "Go down, damnit!" the leader spat and fired his last shot, the final bullet causing Dan to fall back against the brick wall, bleeding to death and in deep shock.
The leader begun to reload, obviously getting pissed off with the fact Dan wasn't dead yet. "FOR FUCK SAKE, DIE WILL YOU!", the leader shouted whilst sticking more bullets into the revolver. He finished and with a flick of the wrist, snapped the revolver into place and pointed it at Dan again, intending to shoot him again, but he never got the chance. The door next to Dan flew open and a man walked out with a Glock, scanned the alleyway quickly, pointed it at the group of muggers and begun pulling the trigger rapidly. The alleyway filled with orange light and the heavy, rapid booms of the crossfire between the newcomer and the leader, both blasting away for dear life.
The newcomer tagged one of the leader's men in the face, who rolled on the floor letting out blood curdling screams whilst clutching his shattered face, before the leader grabbed the other one and used him as a human shield as he backed out of the alleyway, the ally turned victim screaming everytime a bullet struck him, before he dropped to the ground stone cold dead. The newcomer had stopped firing, his weapon's slide locked back, indicating that it was empty. He ejected the spent magazine and inserted a fresh one, before walking over to the still screaming man and fired another two shots into his head at point blank range, ending his screams. The newcomer turned to go back in through the door when he saw Dan. Dan tried to stand up, not wanting to get shot like the other man, but the effort and loss of blood was too much for him and he slumped back down to the ground, unconscious.