Chapter 7
The moon is full, high up in the sky as the trio walks down the path with Nadia and Ginny in the front and Neo lugging in the back with hands in his pockets.
"Over here is the hairdressers, at the moment doing crazy hair styles because of Halloween, and on your right we have 'Nutty Books' a bookstore that mostly sales evil textbooks but they also have classic horror like Mary Shelley, 'Dracula', things like that..." Neo stopped listening to Ginny as he can't help but stare at Nadia as he remembers what she said to him at the fountain and can't help but think she will see that side of her at some point.
"And over there is where people like to hang out a lot." Ginny said, pointing at the building with a neon violin above it with the words 'The Vile Inn'.
"Word play, I like it." she said with a laugh.
"Yeah, this is where our friend Brio works, who makes amazing cocktails. Come on, lets go say hi!" Ginny leads the way with Nadia close by, Neo gives a deep sigh wondering when this day will be over.
They walk through the door and been greeted by absolute silence and sinister looks by dodgy characters, eyeing at the girl in a white dress and a bow and can't help but smile menacingly. Nadia looks around to see the pub is a mixture of a pirate's tavern and a dingy dungeon, a strange choice of décor but not as strange as the looks she is getting that's making her nervous. Neo can feel her nervousness and see some men who's eyeing at Nadia and does not like that feeling.
"Ginny maybe we should go." he said but Ginny waves his words,
"No, they won't do anything when we're near Brio, we'll sit by the bar." Ginny walks towards the bar, Neo's about to follow when he sees Nadia looking scared, rooted to the spot. He sighs and walks behind her to give her a push,
"Come on, you're with us." she starts to move with Neo pushing her and push her down to sit next to Ginny then sit on the other side of her,
"I'm going to go out the back and see if Brio's there." Ginny said as they get up,
"You don't work here, you're not allowed." But Ginny didn't hear Neo as they jump over the bar and run to the backroom, leaving Neo and Nadia alone. He turns to her to see she is still scared and looks behind them to see more guys are staring at her. For some reason he feels a little protective as he sees her shaking with fear.
"You can't do that." he whispered to her, then she turns to him.
"Not here. In a place like this, you have to show you have no fear, even if you're terrified." she takes a deep breath and scoots a little closer to Neo and feels she's a little calmer. Neo surprisingly for both of them did not move away but he can feel himself feeling hot and turn his face away from her hoping to hide his blush, trying to think of what to say to her.
"So, um Ginny said you guys know each other through your fathers." Nadia nods,
"Yes, they were partners. Work together for a gas company." Neo nods and laughs a little,
"Oh is that all?" Neo said making Nadia confused,
"What do you mean?" Nadia asks,
"Well, I asked Ginny the same thing and they said 'I don't want to know,' although I do prefer not knowing your family helps other people's homes but still pretty funny," Nadia eyes widens now understanding the confusion and chose to stay silent so that he doesn't know what the gas her father makes actually is for. In perfect timing both Brio and Ginny came out from the backroom.
"H-h-h-hello friends, have you chosen your drinks?" Brio asked them, they look up to see a chalkboard showing a list of cocktails that are named after the Seven Deadly Sins along with the special 'The Green Demon' which caught Ginny's attention,
"Ooooo, what's 'The Green Demon'?" Ginny asked,
"I-i-i-it's vodka mixed with rum, midori and lemon served in a skull shaped glass and I use dry ice to give a smoke effect." Ginny can't help but be intrigued,
"Ooooo! We will have that!" Ginny says excitedly while Nadia and Neo looks a little concerned when they watch Brio making there cocktails in front of them.
"Brio, is the best cocktail mixer here, which works out because he wants to specialize in chemistry." Ginny explained to Nadia,
"W-w-w-which doesn't bode well with my parents, they want me to take over their bar." Brio said with a sigh which Nadia understands the feeling all to well,
"I know that feeling, my dad also wants me to take over his company." Brio smiled a little as he handed out the drinks to the three of them.
"Cheers to friends!" Ginny toast, holding their glass up as Neo rolled his eyes,
"To friends" Nadia said followed by Neo, clinking their glasses together, but unbeknownst to them, large sinister looking men walks up behind them with smirks on their faces.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" three large grey brutes saunters over to them, two of them push Giny and Neo away while the largest, possibly a leader takes Neo's stall and sit very close to Nadia with his arm round her shoulders, making her very uncomfortable.
"I haven't seen you before cutie, how about you ditch these little bitches and come hang out with us. We can show you a good time." he said creepily as he forcibly pulls her closer to his face while she tries to get out of his grip.
"Hey!" Neo's voice said after he got up,
"You're in my seat." he said as threateningly as possible but their's still a tremor in his voice, which the leader bully notices. His smirk grows to a sinister smile as he stands, towering over Neo, gripping on to Nadia's arm.
"Or what, shrimp?" Neo's breathing grows rapid, seeing Nadia's panic expression gives him enough motivation to put his hand in his jacket and slowly take something out. The leader can see that the object is gun shaped and immediately swipes it out of his hand, landing on the floor away from his reach, then the bully behind him wraps his arms around Neo to keep him from moving.
"Let me go!" he shouts, trying to get out of his grip but the leader pretends he didn't hear him as he walks and picks up the red and yellow ray gun. He laughs a low, menacing laugh,
"Well this looks fun." he turns to his other lackey
"Get the girly boy as well." he said to his other lankey who walks towards Ginny, pick them up by the scruff of their neck and lock their arms behind there back while Ginny is still recovering from the fall. The leader turns to Brio who's still at the bar,
"And you, keep your arms up, any movement and I'll test this gun on your friends, do you understand?" Brio slowly nods his head as he looks at Ginny who's realising what's happening, looking scared, worrying about Nadia's safety.
"Now Cutey, now I have everything under control, how about a nice little show for me huh? Bartender, is there a private room for us?" he asked with a smug smirk as he twirls Neo's ray gun with his finger. Brio look at Neo and Ginny who looks back at him, shaking there heads as subtle as possible.
"S-s-s-sure. Their's a private room behind the bar." Nadia widens her eyes at Brio as she struggles to get out of his grip, but the leader tighten his grip, hurting her wrist. Ginny and Neo gives him angry looks as the leader drags her behind the bar putting his full attention on Nadia but unbeknownst to them, Brio grabs the biggest bottle he can find and smash the bottle onto the leader's head, making him fall down, letting go of Nadia and dropping the ray gun. Brio push Nadia out, pick up the gun and shoot the lackey that's holding Neo and once he's free, Brio throws the ray gun to him.
"Neo!" Neo catches the gun and shoot the lackey that's holding Ginny, hitting him in the face letting go of Ginny, making them turn around and start ing punching him in anyway possible but his smile didn't faulter.
"Ooooo! I thought you're meant to be a woman girly boy." he mocks, making Ginny even angrier and give him one final blow on the face, making him fall down unconsious,
"Women can still fight asshole!" Meanwhile Neo kicks the other lackey back and continues to shoot at him when he shoots a green bullet that turns the lackey into a pig. Both of them look at each other incredulously before the pig let out a high pitch scream and run out of the pub.
"Drop everything." the voice of the leader said making Neo and Ginny turn to see the leader has Nadia in a headlock with a broken bottle holding up to her neck with Brio lying on the floor with smashed glass around him.
"Now that we are all friends, you're going to let me go and take this lady with me." Neo points his ray gun at him when the leader bully's holding Nadia in front of him as a sheild.
"Uh uh uh~ You wouldn't want to shoot at this cutie, do you?" Neo gulped as he doesn't want to shoot at Nadia by accident but he can't help but feel useless.
"Now then, if you GENTLEMEN, don't mind," he said pointing a look at Ginny,
"We shall be leaving." he pulls Nadia towards the door while she's struggling to get free, trying to pull his arm off her when a purple light's shining from her neck, growing brighter and brighter, making the leader stop, blinded by the light but suddenly feeling raging burning on his skin that he can feel his skin peeling off and burning. He throw Nadia down to the ground, holding his arm screaming his pain, trying to stop the purple light burning him when it continues till his entire skin disintergrates, making him nothing but bones. Once the light dies down, Neo and Ginny slowly opens their eyes to see the remains of the bully while Nadia kneeling on the floor with her eyes tightly shut, clutching to something on her chest. Neo slowly walks towards her and kneel down to touch her arm to comfort her. Nadia slowly her eyes to see him and smile at him, but what caught his eyes is something that she's holding in her hand. The purple crystal that she showed him at the fountain, the source of the burning, bright light. Now he's interested.