A cosmic terror

A bartender gets a customer In the dead of night... The Devil.

Bars are an interesting place, probably the only establishment on this earth where you will most likely stumble across and interact with every kind of prototype that litters this plain of existence. From the elegant rich elites down through the middle class paycheckers to the pestilence ridden infested gutter rat. You cross paths with them all. But sometimes you can still be stumped by a stranger that comes in who defies all these labels.

This slow burner of another night could not end any slower I thought. Actually that was incorrect, as I had something else entirely different on my thought pattern. My personal poison although that could be said for anyone in this thankless profession of bar tendering. A poison that could mistakenly look like soft snow yet burn like a branded stick against the skin, a mind splitting utopia ridden nightmare; Cocaine.
Cocaine was like nothing I'd ever seen before let alone felt. It was in a twisted way a bartenders highest reward. It is what drives the human slave server to manipulate a patron out of every dim they can get their hands on. They would even inadvertently cause their patrons own death by loading them full of alcohol to the point that they would be another road accident statistic if they could rob them out of their every penny. I always asked myself after taking a fat line; Does Cocaine make bartenders psychopaths or were we psychopaths to begin with where we just needed a boost to get the wheels rolling?
Sometimes I don't think any of it. I just think how many minutes till I'm able to drown in another fat juicy bag. I just repeatedly remind myself to not birth a conscious in my line of work, there's no room for such distractions. These two legged beasts were nothing more than a means to my addiction.
Its almost two o'clock in the early dead in the middle of winter morning. Almost time for my daily dosage of freshly crushed white heaven. With every breathe I inhale I can strongly smell the poison that I've become so accustomed to ... Hell, I can even taste the goddamn thing on my taste buds. It had been too long since my last fix, almost 7 hours ago. God was that really long to me? Had my tolerance of riding the high become so short? Did I even get high or am I simply too far gone and numb to get high? Too many questions with very few if not any answers at all. I needed to get out of here now before something bad transpires. I needed to organize my fix.
I look up from the chipped brick floor and gaze my paranoid stated eyes across the bar counter. I see the three regulars of my usual Wednesday nights all huddled together like stray animals around what was a almost dead fire trying to suck up any amount of heat to keep them from the harsh wipes of the cold as they neared the end of the poison in their bottles. I knew them well enough that they would try their luck for one more round. Self entitled reptiles I told myself. If I wasn't on the verge of wanting to kill somebody if I didn't get my coke I would have gotten them what would have been their last drink but I couldn't postpone the inevitable any longer. Besides, if I gave them their last drink the chances are they would probably collapse and most surely die on my bar floor instead of on the highway to hell where I could care less about them.

I flip out my tips from the tip jar on my cash register. Couple 100 rand notes, few 20s and 10s followed by a fair heavy amount of coins. Not bad I think to myself. Defiantly enough for a gram or two as well as a few drinks to ease the addiction consumption that I would soon be spiraling in. No need to give the illusion of staying open to the three bums in the corner any longer. I wrap my fingers around the rope that hangs from a bell above my head and rattle it a good half dozen times.
"Last rounds!! We are closing in five minutes so drink it or lose it!!" I yell over the clanging of the bell.
The regulars spin around as if broken from a trance of staring at the fires of hell for the past half hour and stare at me almost with a look I would associate with disgust. As if I have no right to decide to close. I stare at the tall but repulsive looking obnoxious m**********r of the three and point to my watch.
"Its almost two o'clock in the morning Derek. You know the rules" I say rather impatiently but I couldn't give a a*s rats in this case. My bar my rules. Any bartender would agree.
"I suppose you right. It would be a fools attempt to try swindle you to pour us a last round, eh?" He asks in the most none believable kind way.
I smile and retort back, "Last round then you gotta pay your Piper".
I take his glass and the glasses of his two companions and top them up with ice and single J&B shots followed by a jug of water and pour it in effortlessly. How I figure it, its more tip money for me and in turn a better night once I lock this place up.
" Thanks Tommy" he chirps as he turns his back to me.
"Thank you Sir" Victor says in his usual yet strangely abnormal goofy voice. He always reminded me of a fat cartoon character for some odd reason.
"Thank you Kind Sir" the last of the three, Brian says rather respectfully. He was one of the only people I genuinely liked and respected myself not just out of the three of them but in general.
I throw my pleasures to all three men and walk to the far side of the bar to start cleaning while I wait for them to finish drinking. I start travelling in my twisted deep rabbit hole drug infested brain as the cravings begin to crack my sanity.
A shadow was cast over the entrance of the down trodden bar that blocked out the light that normally radiated inside. It awoken me from my brakeless train that I was thundering down on. To be honest it was in a weird way a relief to have been unstrapped from that nightmare state of mind. I moved my eyes up from the shadow that hung on the floor.

The would be customer was a tall and distinguished dark haired man, clad in Italian wool with impeccable style. A white shirt with French cuffs broke the dark theme of the slim tightly fitted pants with a dark jacket that wrapped itself like a second skin to his upper body. The well tailored gentleman ever so gently glided over to the bar where I was frozen like a deer in headlights.
I locked eyes on my regulars who seemed undisturbed by this person's presence that blocked the entrance to the outside world. It struck me as somewhat odd as they normally always looked at newcomers passing through the front door but I couldn't care because I was still entranced by the gentleman who now was walking up to where I was stuck in the corner of the bar.
He was unarmed as he was disarming, charming and attractive in the universal sense. His piercing dark eyes speckled with gold flecks had a somewhat novelty quality to them and his lips seemed stuck in a perpetual grin which revealed his devilish white smile.
"Hello there" he said with the most calm British English accent although I would say it was Welsh. "Any chance for one last drink before I go about my way?"
I found myself stumped with no words to respond to the man. God! My cravings had now shut down my verbal communication. What next I thought. After a few seconds of stumbling to find the words I eventually found my vocabulary to voice my response.
"Uh... Sure. You've come just in the nick of time" I croaked. Get it together I tell myself. "What's your poison?"
"Double Jack on the rocks" the gentleman says as he takes a seat in front of me.
Without another word and able to once again move, I arrange and start making his drink. Its a simple order and he looks like a guy who doesn't let the drink wither in wait so I could still make it out of here in time for the drug binging rollercoaster ride that awaited me.
I walk over to him and place a napkin on the table and put the drink on it so as to not mess up my newly cleaned counter top. I feel a slightly small tingling sensation crawl on my arms like little insects scattering up and quickly start scratching my skin to disarm the feeling of what felt like bugs crawling in fear. I shout into my bullet ridden brain, that is slowly deteriorating from my drug use, to stop!! I look around nervously for a second before my concentration on trying to find something that explains what i was experiencing is broken. Broken by him. The stranger.
"You seem rather jittery. You want a drink to calm the paranoia?" The stranger offers eerily.
I look at him in bewilderment. I am not doing good at retaining my cravings anymore. How can it be this bad already? What's happening to me? I take a deep breathe before I reply, "Not paranoid. Just cold and on a desperate mission to get out of this hellhole as quick as I can. Don't want to stay here any longer than I need to".
The stranger let out a half chuckle and slide his index finger on the outer brim of the tumbler glass that contained little jack over and over. " Its a lot warmer in the hellhole I come from".
Great I think to myself, a chatterbox. The last thing I need is to be stuck with a man who can't close his mouth and just finish his drink. I certainly didn't want to be stuck with this guy any longer than I need to. But until Derek and the clan finish and pay up, which I was hoping desperately would be soon, I guess I was stuck with this man.
"So what brings you out here?" I ask trying to throw back to him some short form of chitchat. "Can't say we get many people of your kind walking in here often".
"Defiantly not my kind.... I guess you could say something...or maybe someone drew me here" he replied and locking eyes on me.
Mysterious I sum up rather poorly. This person for sure defied any labels of the different walks of life that entered this shithole. I laugh rather softly as to myself than to the both of us. "Yeah, probably the jack" I say sarcastically. "I'm Tommy" I say finally introducing myself.
The stranger c***s his head at a right angle. He smirks again throwing me off. "Maybe" he said silently before proceeding, "I'm Lucifer".
I move my upper body in a quick backwards jolt with what I would think is a stupid look or expression on my face. This guy can't be serious. I arch my eyebrow at him, " Lucifer? Really? Where your parents like anti religious zealots or something?" I ask in a funny tone of voice.
Lucifer looks at me for a few seconds longer like he's studying Me as if I was the crazy one. He let's out a sigh. "Not in the slightest. My father is the most religious person I've ever encountered".
I nod my head at his answer in a slow up and down rhythm taking it in. I look at his glass and realise he still hasn't taken a single sip. Before I can ask him what he plans to do with Jack in the glass, Derek and the others walk up to me.
" What's the damage there Tommy?" Brian asks as all three of them proceed to drop their now empty glasses on the counter.
I go over to the register and print out the bill that was sitting in the system for 5 hours. I hurry back over and lay it out for them.
"R478 in total" I say. I await eagerly for a fat tip at the end once they work out how much I'm worth. Its like I'm a slave put on auction. Although personally I don't think I'm worth a first look if I found myself in that situation back in the 1800s.
Derek looks the bill for a few moments before deciding on the end result. "Make it 520" and places the amount in cash at my finger tips.
I smile selfishly to myself. "Much obliged Derek. Thank you very much" I say. I turn to Lucifer who's posture hasn't broke nor moved. He is still staring at his drink like watching an investment never grow. "One minute Mr. Lucifer" and walk back to the till glancing back and forth.
Derek, Brian and Victor all look in the direction of Lucifer but not in the way I did when I first gazed upon him. Rather they all looked rather lost and confused. Victor points at the jack Daniels that is maturing in the glass and whispers to Derek before they all turn away and look at me.
I walk back to them now with the tip in the jar by the register as I prepare to say the normal evening farewell of 'Drive safe and remember don't drink and drive' not that I gave a s**t but I was paid to act like I gave a s**t.
"Alright gents. Take it easy and drive home safe" I say gathering up the three glasses.
Derek observes me for a second before responding. "Yeah Tommy. You take it easy" he says and they all wave to me and say their final goodbyes before exiting rather quickly.
I walk round out of the bar to the front door in a hurry and slam the doors closed along with the heartless cruel cold front, that had seeped through the building the entire night. It was colder now as the fire had completely dried up and died.
"Much like my life" I whisper to myself. God I am a full blown crazy. Talking to myself, its no wonder I have encountered a man like Lucifer on this night of all nights.
"Mate, you look at that glass any longer Jackie boy is gonna develop legs and walk right out" I say almost matter of fact.
Lucifer looks at me then looks at his glass and laughs. "He won't get far".
I glimpse out of the corner of my eye and spot a tiny rodent slither up my arm like a bat out of hell. I let out a cry and slap the bug flying off into the darkness of the floor below. I proceed to stamp on it before running my hands through my hair in a paranoid state. I can't f*****g wait any longer as the sweat starts to boil down my forehead and the cravings override me.
Just as I'm about to excuse myself and go take a small, what in my opinion would be a pathetic line, in the bathroom; although any amount no matter how small will do as long as I keep it together, which I was failing at miserably. Lucifer says something that stops me in my tracks.
"I have something for the roaches and the craving if you want it gone".
I turn my head in his direction, shocked. How the hell did he notice the roaches? I thought they were just in my head. Or were they? Was it real? Why did Derek and co not address Lucifer sitting next to them when they paid? God stop over thinking I repeatedly tell myself. " h-how do you know about the roaches?" I stutter out at him.
Lucifer made an expression that could be taken as if saying 'Come on kid'. Lucifer slowly slithers his hand into his jacket pocket for a few seconds before slipping it out. I don't break eye contact with his hand as he nods for me to get closer. F**k I'm so confused as to what I should do I just found myself etching in down to his hand.
Lucifer unfolds his fingers and in the middle of his hand I see a small bag, the usual cocaine bags where a person could slip about a gram of coke in, crushed of course. But instead of a half or full gram of cocaine I saw a small pill, about the size of a pea maybe a tiny bit bigger. He looks nasty...scary.
"I know a junkie when I cross paths with one. This little baby offers the same high and focus of your little preferred drug. Take it. You won't regret it" he says in a very convincing and somewhat hypnotic way.
At this stage of the night and at this hour with my body going down the junkie craving hole faster than I can comprehend I will take just about anything to make the thoughts, the cravings and paranoia stop and go away. I reached for the bag and slip my thin fingers in and wiggle the unknown pea sized pill out.
It was red in colour with what looked like a goblin or mini devil face etched in it. Probably a trance party drug that was new on the scene I thought. These days new drugs looked all different shapes and sizes.
Lucifer moves the Jack Daniels glass over to me gently. "Take it with a sip of this".
I start to breathe heavily out of fear and I feel my anxiety go full blown off the tracks, wrapping around my chest like a python crushing its prey. My hands shake uncontrollably as I slide my fingers around the glass and with the other throw the pill into my mouth. 'Here goes nothing' I tell myself as I down the devil faced pea pill with the intoxicating hell burning whiskey.

I put the glass down and stumbled back onto my stool. My mind was still shouting but the longer I paid attention the more deafening it seemed to sound. My heart slowly beeped back to normal which I was relieved of. F**k, I finally could think rationally. The last time I had that ability seemed like forever. I laid my hand on my chest and took a deep few breathes.
Lucifer didn't say or do anything as I hurriedly consumed the drug he offered. He looked like he had all the time in the world.
" Feel better?" He asked. I couldn't tell though if it was actually sincere or bullshit.
"Quite a bit" I reply.
The pea was working well. I felt almost peacefully at ease with everything at the moment. The time didn't bother me. My plans I had seemed like it didn't bother me either. I hadn't felt this calm in ages. I couldn't feel any roaches crawling on my skin. My sweat that broke out of the flood gates seemed to have eased up rather instantly. This wasn't like cocaine I thought, better perhaps. Different entirely.

I looked up at Lucifer who now unveiled his devilish white smile once more but this time it was threatening and not entrancing as the first time I glanced upon it. "This is where it gets interesting" he softly said.
Before I could make head or tails about what he had just said I felt the rambling of a train going off in my head, the snapping of straps that were fastened around me on a theme park ride. My heart started picking up speed, my itching and scratching was back. I opened my mouth but no words came forth. My mind was in a daze like fog. Everything that was once familiar became distorted, moving about in weird shapeless forms or spirals.
I felt my head was splitting in two as I cupped it in both hands and slide my arse off the stool hardly being able to stand properly. F*****g hell! What Is happening? I ask myself in desperation.
I look over at Lucifer who now has coke ever so nearly placed on the bar counter in what looks like a small heap. He looks at me again like I'm some sort of lab rat that is busy getting satisfaction out of torturing. He gestures his hand over to the mini mountain of cocaine and says, "Go on".
Like a paranoid starving creature on heat I found myself pouncing on the snow crushed powder and shoved my fingers into the heap, laughing in a manner that was not mine, as I gripped the coke and shoved it into my mouth. It coat's my teeth in a layer of snow and starts flowing out down my chin spilling over the counter. I couldn't be bothered by cleaning it up. If my boss walked in right now and fired me I wouldn't give the slightest f**k.
I start coughing as I feel the coke get lodged in my throat. I realise I have no control as I continuously shove more and more in my mouth. My eyes are wide open filled with paranoia and drug lust. I knew I was a addict, a very bad one at that but I didn't think I'd find myself crouched over my bar counter filling my lungs up. Its like I wasn't in control. I was on auto pilot.
I spit some remnants of coke back onto the counter having devoured most of it already but the sweating kept pouring, the paranoia spiraling into depths I couldn't have imagined. I try stand but slouch back against the beer fridge. I flicker my eyes open and see Lucifer who is smiling still and clearly like a sick sadist getting satisfaction over me loosing my s**t.
The lights around us suddenly go dark and flicker to a semi bright yellow then flicker back to black as I see Lucifer's face change. It isn't that comforting falsely universal attractive face I was used to but instead I saw it all disfigured. A shotgun blast hole appeared on the left side of his face with blackness filling the space within as I saw ram horns suddenly rupture from his skull.
"Lucifer!!" I shout in a panic state and slam myself against the refrigerator door, cracking it. My breathing is choking now as my high forms into a fight for survival.
I look at the ashtray next to the Jack Daniels glass and see earthworms start forming in the ash between the cigarette stumps. Maggots suddenly rupture from the earthworms and devour them. I open my mouth in terror at the sight. But just a laugh like a psychotic person, bellows forth.
I no longer know what is happening to me or even around me anymore. My mind is a total separate machine. I suddenly feel my spinal cord start to convulse, up then down. I cry out in fright and fear as I throw my arms behind my back that is covered in sweat. My fingers, shaking and trembling, barely touch my spine when I get the sensation of scales touching my fingertips with a slimy feel to it. I retort in fear. I feel my spine at the top of my neck suddenly tear apart from my skin and something sinks into my flesh and tissue. I fall to my knees and try tear my spine, that somehow turned against me, from ripping my neck apart. The struggle is useless like a ant trying to stop a human from crushing him. Its futile.
I look down in a moment of struggle with ones own fight to maintain sanity and I don't recognise the floor. Its supposed to be wooden but its not. Its covered in sand and moss as if nature was taking back her land. I dart my eyes back and forth, left to right. I see the sand open up and hand sized insects start scrapping at the surface coming out.
I feel my stomach react violently as if something blew up within it that was acidic as my stomach lining burned away. I had to stop my fight with my spinal cord and wrap my arms around my stomach as I cried and withered in pain. In one of the most painful moments that I ever experienced I looked up at Lucifer and I saw his neck suddenly disconnect and slither like a snake down in a spiral movement to make eye to eye contact with me. I screamed for him to help me. To do anything to take the pain away.
"You couldn't punish yourself for it. I am that punishment you deserve. You are gonna feel what she felt" Lucifer whispered before revolting backwards.
I scanned for him as he disappeared from my sight. Before I could replay the words I felt my spinal cord rip free from my flesh. I heard the blood flow from my flesh as I screamed out in agony and despair. I felt it slither around me to rest in my view. Before I knew it my spinal cord like snake leaped into my face and I dashed my hand across my eyes to shield myself from the serpent. I tried lifting my legs to carry me out of this nightmare. Goddamit! Where was the bar counter? Where was the jack Daniels? Everything was gone. It was as if I was carried off somewhere else. To another place. I collapsed back onto my knees. I opened my eyes and stared around me. I was somewhere else. I wasn't in the bar anymore. Suddenly I found myself flying across the coastline through the darkened clouds and into a dense overgrowth forest.
Oh God no! Not this place I thought. Anywhere but here!! I vowed to never return to this place!!
I dug my hands into the moss covered grass and sand. I was hyperventilating badly like I was having a full blown heart attack. I laid on my back, unable to move much as I felt like I was paralyzed. The ground shook beneath me and I saw the ground slowly crack and fall in on itself all around me. The sand beneath me gave way and I fell into the earth.
Different lights flashed all around me. Black then yellow then blood red. I couldn't talk as I all of a sudden felt myself heat up. It was like I was stuffed into a furnace being cooked alive. I was panicking beyond belief. Flames spawned all around me as I could feel the heat hit on my skin as my hair caught fire then in a blink of an eye I felt my body and face burn. I flung my arms wildly trying to grab onto anything to help me out of this nightmare. I was not getting out. I couldn't get out I told myself.
"Tommy!! No Tommy!!!" I heard her screams echo in my head. It had to be In my head as she was dead. My mind went back to paranoia mode. What if she never died? What if she is the reason you experiencing this? What if you didn't get rid of her like you thought?? I was so high on coke for the past year I wouldn't even know reality from fiction.
"Amanda!! Amanada I didn't mean it!! Please God!!" I scream. I screamed it over and over trying to get a response as I felt something move beneath me. What now I wondered aloud.
Snakes, massive fat pythons down to thin black mambas suddenly wrapped themselves around me locking me in the earth sealing my fate. I flung my eyes back and forth screaming noises into the air, all sign of vocabulary out of my system. I was barley human.
Giant arms, pale and soft yet strong and defined come out on either side of me and shot through my chest. I felt the fingers of the unknown arms grip my flesh and bone and ripped me apart, ripped my torso in two. Blood leaped and flowed out of me like a fountain all over my face and body. Blood flowed and erupted out of my mouth. The snakes slithered up above me as I stared open mouthed into the air before with a giant collected hiss they all forced their way down my throat in a zombified chaotic fashion. I choked as my eyes started dimming as roots formed all around me and above me as they took back the hole I was trapped in. I saw the dirt and sand cover me from view of the world. I let out on shrieking piercing cry before I collapsed, still and lifeless into the earth as it claimed me.

The bars doors were closed as they had been every night before. Lagertha Demonry was grateful that Tommy was acting manager. It gave her more time to indulge in her private life without the weight of the business falling on her every second of Every hour of every day. The fresh atmospheric dew smell hung in the air after the cold night before. Was a beautiful day to be back she thought. Lagertha unlocked the doors and hung them back on the hook so as to not have them slam closed behind her.
She glanced at the bar counter. The stools had not been packed away but instead left around on their sides and thrown about. As if there was a form of struggle.
"What the f**k Tommy?!?" She shouted aloud. She wiped her long pale blond hair briskly out of her face and saw the glass of jack Daniels sitting all alone, maturing every gracefully. She peered past the jack Daniels glass and saw white powder litter the counter top. She was in the industry long enough to know what it was.
Lagertha peered over the counter and what she saw made her spine crawl with shock and fear. Her hand slapped her mouth closed from screaming as Lagertha saw Tommy, wide and red eyed sprawled out on the floor, arms enfolded on each other in a uncomfortable position that would break every bone in his body. Lagertha cried on in terror as the doors to the bar broke free and slammed closed

Author's Note

What do you think? Engaging or boring? Ignore grammar problems