Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-27008899-20160409014553

Again I lay awake. Staring at the ceiling, watching the the red flashes as they briefly illuminate the cracks and crevices. The flashing sign of Mary's bar has never once failed to help fuel my insomnia. The three second hum with each flash ensure that, even with my eyes shut, sleep is a luxury I am not afforded.

Truth is, I just like to pretend. I haven't slept in years. Not since I met her. On a cold February night I walked into Mary's. The rough and rowdy crowd, that typically frequented the dive on Saturday night, made it clear to every patron present that they were there for more than just drinks. I could feel their eyes on me as I pulled out the torn leather stool and sat down.

The shattering of glass followed by laughter unnerved me slightly as I reached into my pocket and pulled out a half damp meager $10 bill.

"Whata ya havin?" Chuck asked, as his hand whirled around the inside of a glass with a bar rag.

"Jack." I replied softly in an effort prevent the announcement to be taken as a challenge.

I knew Chuck a long time. He was once a ladies man some twenty years ago, though that pill would be hard to swallow now. His frail arms and sunken eyes could barely be seen in the dark of the bar. His emaciated body bent down as he grabbed the bottle. The cancer took it's tome with Chuck. I watched him wither away. It was like watching vibrant green leaf falling off a tree in the summer, then watching as it decays and becomes hard and brown. The leaf eventually returns to the earth, as will Chuck, as will all living things.

"Hey sailor," the sweet sultry voice interrupts my thought, "wanna buy a girl a drink?"

I look up from the dirty ash covered bar that I just then realize I was staring at. Her hazel eyes shimmered like disco balls as she smiled at me. She ran her hand across the left side of her long dark hair revealing the soft perfect skin of her neck.

Chuck returned with my drink and stopped in his tracks by the sight of the beautiful young woman who now sat to my right. A ruckus arouse from the back of the bar. Followed by dead silence. All of us could feel their eyes as they pierced through the smoke filled room like jackals finding a lone antelope wandering the plains.

"S-sure." I said nervously pushing the change back at Chuck across the bar.

"Bloody Mary please," She said folding her hands together on the bar, "don't worry about them. They know better."

"Should I?"

She giggled and quickly replied, "maybe."

I took a big drink swallowing near half my whiskey in one gulp. We sat for a moment just looking at one another. I broke first to look over my shoulder and see the now thinned herd of jackal down to just two, both still glaring at us as though watching a train wreck, horrified but unable to look away.

She sipped her drink and said, "I've been looking for you a long time."

"Have you?"

"I have. You see, you are a rare breed. It's difficult to find good ones. But you, you may be the best."

"Who do you thi..."

"I know exactly who you are," She interrupted placing her glass down hard against the bar top, "and you know who I am."

She was right. I knew exactly who she was and what she wanted. A woman like that would never be interested in old man with a grizzled mug. Chuck froze in place, unable to say a word. I shook my head and removed the white strip of cloth from under my collar that helped hide me for so long. Slowly, I rose to my feet as the last two jackals bolted out the door. The subsequent slam made me flinch, just a little, but enough for the beautiful monster beside me to notice, and snicker ever so sweetly.

"Not in here!" Chuck belted as he regained his faculties.

"Oh Chuck, you know we can't," she said with a condescending tone, "this neutral ground. Even if you brake on he rules by harboring rogues from time to time, our side will always honor our commitments."

"Wanna get out of here?" she said with a smile. She stood up from the battered bar stool and adjusted her dress with her soft perfect hands.

"If we must." I said turning toward the door. Thoughts raced in my head, thoughts of running, may be even leaving my body before she has a chance to take me out. If only I could.

"A priest, thats bold. Neither side would have guessed that," she said following me toward the door, "what's it been, thirty years?"

"Thirty three." I said creaking open the paint chipped wooden door.

"Thirty three years, that must be a record for possession."

"Yeah, it might be." I said turning to face the angel in dark street.

"Are you ready?" she said as flawless pure white wings spread from behind her, and began to envelope me.

At that moment chuck flung open the bar door. The angel looked over, just long enough for me to grab hold of her perfect neck. My nails dug into her throat as I tore off the human costume of Father Darby that had been my home for so long. She screamed in pain as I rammed my sickle like fingers into her chest. Wrapping my hand around her heart, I could feel the life force of one of the most powerful creature God ever created slipping away as I squeezed tighter and tighter. Her screams echoed down the vacant street, and slowly faded away as her eyes grew dark. Her wings slumped as the once glorious creature fell limp. She fell to the ground with a thud as I ripped out what was left of her mangled heart, and dropped it on the concrete next to her.

"You gotta get outta here!" Chuck yelled looking up my beastly black form standing some ten feet over the battered corpse of the demon hunter. I ran and didn't stop. Just like I still run today.

Chuck is gone now. I imagine his deal with both sides ended when I ended the hunter, as did his deal to live forever, and suffer. I felt it the moment they took him.

It has been several years and now I am back where it all began, having run out of places to hide. Jumping body to body, creature to creature, I could not stay anywhere for long. This is why I don't sleep. I am ever hunted by both sides. A rogue demon that just wants to live as you do. Even now I hear them on the street and outside my door. They call to me, ever taunting me. Between the shadows and the rays is the gray. And it is here that they will tear you apart. 