"I get in the office a good half an hour before work starts, you know? How can he blame me just because I couldn't convince all 3 customers!! I even got 2 of them to sign up, how can he start blaming me just cause that roger dickface or whatever didn't care for business through call?!" A man with messy, short black hair and a stubble complained. He wore a rather worn out business suit and tie, his eyes seemed to reek of a bad sleep schedule.
"I'd think you'd want to complain after getting drunk first, what'll it be?"
"Southville beer, you think I can afford anything else? Not on twice my pay Garath."
"You never get to try the good stuff though, I tell you, try Hawaiian beer one time and you'll never go back to this stuff"
As he speaks, Garath, the barkeep pours a pint of beer from a bottle into a glass and hands it to Jack.
"You know," Garath begins, "If you ever are desperate to drink some higher quality stuff for cheap, James told me about a bar downtown that serves em for cheap, apparently called the Nya…."
"The Nya? Rather odd name ain't it?" Jack replied, chugging down his drink in an attempt to avoid tasting it for long.
"No, it's not the Nya, that's just what it starts with I….I forget the rest." Garath replied, looking a bit lost in his thoughts, his eyebrows scrunched up.
Jack quietly slammed the empty cup down and chuckled heartily, "You're getting up in your ages Aren't ya Garath, forgettin the names of bars now!"
Garath's eyes stayed scrunched, he seemed to mumble "I remember the conversation with James and the others well…I just can't seem to remember the full name."
Jack finished his drink with a chug, wiping his mouth with his sleeve he dropped a few coins on the counter with a
*ching*
and got up to leave. "It really ain't the best choice of beer, disgusting place Southville must be, I'll stay on the lookout for the Nya-anderthall bar but I've gotta head back to work, see ya Garath."
After air-quoting upon his joke, Jack picked up his jacket and began to walk away.
Before he left, Garath called out to him "Oh yea! If you see him around, tell James that he left his leather jacket here!"
"Will do." Giving a thumbs up without turning back, Jack left the bar.
The wind felt rather stuffy, as did the streets. As far as the eye can see usually refers to 40 or 50 metres in this city, past that one would see an office building, a cafe, a bar, or simply fog.
'How did I end up in such a bleak place.' Jack lampooned inwardly as he hailed a taxi.
He did have his own car, a stunningly affordable 2nd hand Nissan mini, coming out to only $8,000.
Of course, there were some minor issues such as gas leaking and the car simply breaking down once in a while, but well, Jack's bank account only extended as far as the eye could see.
But Jack never brought his car to the bar, after all, that would defeat the purpose of going to a bar wouldn't it?
Telling the driver to drive to 31st Melffine Avenue, downtown, the location of his office building, Jack rolled down the windows along the way. Letting the frigid wind attack his face, returning some semblance of sobriety to it.
By the time they had arrived at Melffine Avenue, Jack had sobered up just enough to do work, while staying intoxicated just enough to avoid strangling his manager.
Through his 4 years of working for the company, He had turned achieving this delicate balance into a science.
The car pulled over at a rather decrepit looking building. Jack's description of it from a couple of months prior only rang more true with time, "You've got about as much open space and good ventilation as a prison cell! Ah but don't get me wrong, the outsides of prisons at least look better!"
You could see windows with spaced out beams instead of glass, a washed out white painting the whole building over, large parts in clear decay, if one listened hard enough perhaps they would hear cracks, creaks, and the chews of little mice from inside.
Jack paid the taxi driver, never forgetting to use the company credit card, only allowed specifically for lunch breaks. It took weeks of arguing and protests by the employees to receive that.
Most employees didn't have a family to pack their lunches, the pay here wouldn't support one after all, and there were no restaurants for streets on end. Filled with only office buildings and the occasional convenience store.
Jack walked through the door of the building, walking up the stairs towards his company's 5th floor office. The building's lack of an elevator was something hard not to notice in such situations.
Reaching his floor and slowing down to catch his breath a bit, Jack reached out to open the door to the office, but he heard a rather loud and frightening
*CRASH*
Jack's hand stopped on the door handle, sighing internally, his shoulders dropped slightly and he tried to get a glance of what was happening through the glass of the door.
"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO YELL TO GET THINGS DONE HERE?!"
He heard quite a familiar voice through the door.
"GET BACK TO WORK, ALL OF YOU, IF THIS PROJECT ISN'T FINISHED BY TODAY, YOU'RE ALL WORKING OVERTIME!"
Jack let go of the handle, turned his body, and walked right back down the stairs, his mouth pursed and in slight movements, spoke "4 sick days left I suppose." through his lips.
Exiting the building, Jack reached into his shirt pocket, rummaged a little and pulled out a packet of cigarettes, opening the box up; however, he found nothing inside. He sighed, and started walking further downtown, towards the nearest convenience store.
Walking along the empty streets, clouds fell upon the little sunlight that shone on such winter days. As the sunlight faded, it seemed as if Jack's sobriety did as well, his eyesight blurred slightly, his step staggered, and he clenched his head, and shut his eyes for a moment.
As they split back open, something seemed off. An alley. One where he couldn't remember it being before. As if it had just etched itself into reality.
Jack was far from the most cautious person, but he also wasn't entirely reckless.
'That doesn't seem right..' His thoughts spoke through this.
If one were to find a flaw with Jack's thoughts on this, however, it would be that he was a curious sort.
'What if it's a convenience store?' He would think, 'One that was built recently and closer to work, that would be a godsend.'
As he turned towards the alley he yet failed to remember existing, he felt a chill down his spine.
'What am I even afraid of, it's the middle of the city, no one's going to do anything here in broad dayligh….well..at noon anyway.'
Thinking through it a little bit, he decided that it wasn't anything dangerous and entered down the alley, as he did, he saw hints of a sign hanging over an entrance of some sort.
As Jack walked deeper in, more of the sign became visible. It was an old, rather rustic looking wooden sign, hanging above a pair of doors, tiny bits of the writing on it became visible to Jack, "The Nyar-"
'The bar Garath was talking about…?'
As Jack came to full view of the entrance to the suspected bar, the sign could be read in its entirety. It read "The Nyarlathotep"
Jack stopped trying his best to read the sign. 'Nyarla…Nyar-latho-tep? Why would you name a bar something so hard to pronounce? No wonder Garath couldn't remember it.'
The door to the bar had a rustic feel similar to the sign, made out of old wood, the carvings upon it gave a very odd feeling to Jack. As if incomprehensible and mad ravings would take over his senses if he looked at them for too long.
Jack felt more hesitant now, entering seemed like a bad idea, he took a step back planning to leave the area.
*SLAM*
The doors to the bar opened. A figure holding them out and looking at Jack.
His eyes were blue, hair a rough and dirty blonde, his face was that of an average man in his mid to late 20s. He wore a black leather jacket, his undershirt, plain black with a white logo in the middle showing.
Jack recoiled slightly from the sudden surprise, his eyes after taking a moment to adjust however, expanded slightly.
"James..?" He asked.
The man replied "Oh? Why…yes, indeed. It's me" His voice seemed to shift, slightly too low pitch, slightly too high, by the end of the sentence however it sounded exactly as Jack remembered James' voice to be, the tone being too….formal however.
The man shut his eyes tight, scrunching his eyebrows down, they shot back up a moment later. "Ah…yes, Jack. How are you? What brings yo…what brings ya to The Nyarlathotep?" He asked with a smile that seemed friendly at first. But as Jack looked at it for longer he couldn't help but feel unnerved.
Jack retreated slightly more, replying while attempting to leave the scene, "I…..was just passing by, I've…got to get back to work now, I'll see yo-"
"Where are ya going mate? Don't ya wanna come in for a drink ey?" The man's hand grabbed Jack's wrist before he could leave. His tone of voice now sounding an exact match to James.
Jack never enjoyed confrontation, however this situation simply felt too disturbing to him!
'An alley where he didn't remember one before is odd enough, but the old carvings, James suddenly appearing and acting so odd, I mean who would WANT to go in there?!' Jack's thoughts wore quite clearly on his face. Unfortunately for him, James seemed unable to sense them.
"Come on in, the drinks are great here!" James said while dragging Jack through the door before he could reject.
The bar inside was dimly lit but one could see a host of different figures in the darkness. All forms of characters seemed to exist in this world. Something seemed, however, to be off.
It was quiet, and…neat. Far too much so for such a packed bar.
One must know that bars with many patrons are messy things. Clothing strewn about, soft and loud conversations, small scale party games, alcohol strewn here and there, dancing, music, any sound!
The inside of The Nyarlathotep was neat, quiet, eerily so. It only served to unsettle Jack more.
"I…really gotta get back to work man, I've got a projec-" He spoke while trying to turn back towards the door.
"Where are ya going? Stay for a while won't ya." James grabbed his shoulders, stopping him from turning, pushing him towards the counter, "The first drink's free for new patrons ya know?"
'That damn unnerving ass smile again, fuckin stop it man!' Jack felt like screaming but in a room full of quiet people he stopped himself. 'I'll just…have one drink then go.'
"What'll it be?" The bartender, a man with a large build and well trimmed beard asked with a smile almost as unnerving as James'.
"Southville beer.." Jack wasn't in the mood to try new things in such a space, all he wanted to do was finish his drink and get out.
"Southville here too Jack? Come on mate, ya gotta try somethin else!"
Jack jumped a little as James seemed to appear out of nowhere next to him.
"No, no…I'm alright man, I'll just take Southville…-" As he looked at James, Jack stopped.
'The leather…jacket?'
Jack stood up. Cold sweat dripping upon his nape.
"I-I just remembered, I've got something to do, I'll uh, I'll see you later-"
He tried to bolt for the door but-
*grab*
Jack's shoulder stopped moving, something had grabbed his shoulder.
"Where are you going Jack? It's impolite to leave without finishing your drink." A cacophony of voices overlapped at once, it felt like every person in the bar had spoken together.
Jack swallowed. Whatever grabbed his shoulder felt heavy. It wasn't a hand, nor anything Jack was familiar with. It began to….crawl, inching closer to his neck.
Jack was paralysed. Unable to move, and unwilling to see what fate awaited him he shut his eyes.
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hm? Oh Jack! Welcome back, What'll it be?" Garath asked with a friendly smile.
"Hm? Oh, yes. I'll take…yes, Southville beer." The man replied with a smile, a rather unnerving smile.
"Some things never change, do they?" Garath chuckled at his rhetorical remark, not noticing The smile. "Have you seen James around by the way? He left his jacket here days ago and there's been no sign of him." Garath turned to get the beer for him.
"James…ah, yes, James. His jacket? Oh I'll take that to him, I met him at The Nyarlathotep last time, I'm sure he'll be there again." The man's smile deepened, Garath's back facing him, he picked up the black leather jacket on the chair next to him.
"Oh ya found the bar he was on about? Nyar…Nyar…what? I…can't seem to recall what you just said, could you uh repeat that, Jack?" Garath asked, filling the glass till the brim before turning back around.
Garath's surprised expression rang out, "Jack…? Where'd he go…" Garath spoke as he turned his head around to look for him.
The leather jacket that lay on the chair next to him seemed to have vanished along with the man.