Darkness Becoming: Chapter 5

Templeton Sewell opened the door to the little bay side bar and entered the dark, dimly lit room. It was a few degrees cooler inside and provided some relief from the scorching Mexican sun outside. The heat was wearing on him, having driven all over the countryside, visiting what felt like a hundred little bars, almost identical to this one. He hoped this would be the one that would end his exhausting search. 

The room was peppered with a few locals, huddled over their afternoon drinks. They looked up with mild curiosity at the gringo that entered, but quickly returned their focus to their conversations and liquor. Templeton glanced around the room, swiftly and expertly taking in the details. Hope soared as he spied his target at the bar �" the lone foreigner in the room, apart from himself. There he was, hunched over the glass of solace he was nursing. Whiskey, neat, was Templeton’s speculation. It was possible with the heat, the ice had long melted in his glass.

Templeton walked over and took a seat beside the man, even though the other stools along the bar were unoccupied. The man paid no attention to the person who had just invaded his space, and continued to stare into his whiskey. He picked up his glass and took a sip of his drink.

The bartender, an elderly, weathered Mexican, hobbled over to Templeton. He gave him a curt nod and looked at him expectantly. “What he’s having,” Templeton said, indicating the man beside him.

Wordlessly, the bartender hobbled a few steps away, poured the whiskey and set it in front of him. Templeton reached into his pocket, extracted a few pesos and placed them on the bar in front of the old man. He glanced at the glass in front of him. Neat, as always. It comforted Templeton to know that he still knew a little something about the man beside him.

He took a sip of his drink, held it briefly in his mouth, then let the amber liquid warm his throat. He put the drink down and turned to examine the man seated beside him. It had been five years since he last saw him, but he looked as though he had aged twenty. He was a tall man with a large frame, solidly built, though not as muscular as he once had been. Even still, he was hardly the type that you would ever try to pick a fight with. He was sporting a week’s worth of beard growth on his strong jaw, which added to his intimidation factor. Although he looked worn, he still retained his darkly rugged, archeologist-turned-treasure-hunter good looks. His skin had been made olive by the relentless Mexican sun. Medium brown hair, which he had normally kept short, was now shaggy and long. While he had let himself go a bit, there was no doubt that he was still a very powerful man.

Despite Templeton’s long examination of him, the man continued to sit silently by his side, apathetic to his neighbor's nosiness. Periodically, he would take a drink from his glass, then set it back down on the bar in front of him. Templeton followed suit. They sat in silence for some time in a way that would make onlookers wonder if there wasn't some kind of secret, non-verbal exchange being conducted between the two.

At last, the glasses sat empty on the bar. Templeton motioned for the bartender to re-fill them. The friendly gesture went unacknowledged by the man at his side. He simply picked up his refreshed drink and continued sipping.

“I’m sorry,” Templeton finally said. “There is nothing that will ever ...”

Templeton’s words broke the spell of silence and spurred the man into action. He swivelled viciously on his stool to face Templeton. Now, it was his turn to examine the man seated next to him. He looked into the face of his one-time mentor, the one man in the world he had trusted with everything.

Templeton's hair, once salt and pepper, was now completely silver. The strong, toned body he had had at one time, was now, almost cruelly, replaced with one of a much older, frailer man. Templeton was shorter than himself, but now, five years later, it appeared that he had shrunken, become smaller, less significant. He too, had aged so much.

He looked Templeton dead in the eye. His brown eyes were so black and cold, that Templeton almost made an involuntary movement away from him. The radiation of hate shot slivers of fear through him. He had hoped that he was still the same man underneath, that the wounds had healed or at least been soothed. But Templeton had misjudged the effects of time. With that one look, he realized the wounds he had helped cause, were still as raw and vivid as the day they had been received. The look told him he no longer knew this man.

He said nothing, but shot out of his chair, almost knocking it over. Templeton flinched inside, but kept his stoic composure. It was entirely possible that he could die, right here, in the middle of this nowhere, dusty, little Mexican town. This man could kill him where he sat and no one in the bar would give it a second thought. Not that Templeton could blame him if he did. The man merely downed the rest of his drink and started to walk away.

“Berkeley,” Templeton called out. “The storm’s coming. We need you back.”

As Berkeley reached the door, Templeton’s words stopped him in his tracks. He paused a moment, as though he were letting the meaning of them sink in. Templeton was hopeful that he had uttered the password, that he had presented the magic key to bring him back.

Without turning around and without feeling, Berkeley said, “Deal with it yourself.” He was out the door before Templeton could say anything further.

Berkeley Thorpe had managed to keep his emotions buried for the past five years. Templeton Sewell had just stepped into his world and put an end to that. They were starting to bubble and he was struggling to keep them down. He knew he had to get away as fast as possible from the bar and from Templeton before he lost control of everything. He could feel the whole ball of ugly, churning within him, threatening to be exposed. And he knew if he didn’t get away, he wouldn’t be able to keep the demons down. There was just too much hurt for that. 

Berkeley hopped into his car and sped off down the road, desperate to put as much distance between himself and the monster that had come to seek him out.