This was not the first time Timothy had been chased in his life, some kids back at his orphanage had developed a fun game that they called ‘Hey, Let’s Chase that Guy.’ The rules of the game were simple: when someone shouted the name of the game everyone in the nearby vicinity ran full force towards Timothy and whoever tackled him first got to win. Once he thought that maybe he could also have a chance to win if he tackled himself first- it didn’t work, instead, a dogpile ensued and he got a black eye, but you can’t really fault him for trying. Right now, Timothy was bracing for impact, preparing for the familiar feeling of being taken off his feet, but instead, he felt nothing. It was almost an anti-climax when he opened his eyes to find not the faces of his pursuers but the smiles of his friends.
“Oh.” He muttered, stepping off of the plates.
Sophia’s heart had sunk to the bottom of her feet but it was being lifted right back up again now that she knew her friend was safe. She found herself going in for a hug but stopped when she remembered how much she hated touching people. “Finally,” she stated, crossing her arms as a deflection. “I thought you were a goner.”
“I did too for a moment!” Timothy agreed.
Alex was thankful that his friend was back, I haven’t failed them all completely, yet. “Tim, what the hell happened there?”
The boy narrowed his brows in thought. “Well, it’s hard to say really! I was going over to the bar, then something started strangling me, then a light flashed and boom- I was in a casino! There was this robot and a really big line, and I bought this lottery ticket because I felt I had to and then I got robbed by those alien guys we met earlier and now I’m here and boy am I glad I’m here because over there they were trying to kill me but here you guys are really super nice to me so…”
“Jesus, did you take a triple shot of coffee while you were away?” Neil cut him off, Timothy’s motor mouth reminding him of an ad he’d seen on tv.
Timothy caught himself, “sorry.” He stammered, looking ashamed. “I’m actually really tired right now, I feel like I haven’t slept in ages.”
“Same here, my eyelids feel like they’re made of steel.”
It was as if mentioning the tiredness was the thing that made Sophia suddenly aware of how exhausted her body felt. “Christ, where are we gonna sleep?”
“Well, maybe we can find like a motel or something?” Alex looked around, the surrounding buildings were devoid of clear markings and even if they weren’t he would have reservations about going into any of them. “Damn, they don’t like to advertise, do they?”
“If what you’re doing is highly illegal than it’s probably a good idea to keep things on the down-low.” Neil chimed in with a sarcastic wave. “I’ve seen places like this before, even if the Ring is somehow exempt from whatever ‘space-rules’ there are, you’d wouldn’t want a giant sign saying ‘hey, I sell drugs over here!’”
“Well, we certainly can’t stay out here in the street.”
“What about the cantina?” Sophia suggested. “We are already here after all.”
“I don’t think they have rooms, do they?” Neil asked, wondering if he had missed something.
“No, but they have comfy chairs.” Sophia shrugged her shoulders. “That’s all you really need, isn’t it?”
Timothy felt the side of his pocket, while he had lost his lottery ticket, he still had the credit chip. “Guys, maybe we can use this!” He said, holding it up for them to see.
“How’d you…”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“WaldAcker gave it to me, you know, the man in the helmet?” His face suddenly went sullen. “Oh dear, I never got him his drink!” He looked over at his friends, they were surprised to see that it looked like he was ready to cry. “That was so rude of me, I’m basically a thief!”
Neil clapped his friend on the back and shook his head. “Look, Tim, we’ll get that guy his drink or whatever when we get a chance, right now we really just need to survive, you know?”
“I doubt that the bartender will have any objections if we give him the right price.” Alex said. “Wait, maybe there’s also enough on here to bribe someone to take us back to our ship!”
“Maybe, but I doubt it,” Neil said with his pessimism showing.
Nodding, Timothy bit his lip and accepted what his friends had to say. “Well, I suppose I can get him that drink whenever I see him again.” He reached out and handed the chip over to Alex.
Back together, the group made their way over to the cantina. Seeing how there was no nearby sun the Ring didn’t technically have a day or night; however, this did not stop people from needing to sleep. To their surprise the bar was complete empty, excluding the bartender. It was clear that it was the low hours of business and Pollum Mock was about to lock up for the night. This was clear because he stated so as soon as they walked through the door. “Oy, I’m locking up for the night, come back tomorrow!”
“Wait! We have um… an offer?” Alex cringed at his own delivery, wishing that he could get some form of confidence in his voice. “We’d like to spend the night here, if that’s okay.”
Each of the bartender's six arms crossed, “well, that ain’t happening. I don’t know who any of you scrapers are and you ain’t my regulars either, so get lost!”
“Wait, we can pay you!” Alex said, holding up the chip.
Usually, Pollum Mock would toss out this idea in a heartbeat, but today was different. With the whole lottery business draining his potential customers, the alien could stand to gain a couple of more credits. “Give it here!”
Slowly Alex relinquished the card, hoping to God the man wouldn’t just snap it in half in his face. After a quick scan, the bartender’s eyes widened. “Damn, you folks aren’t doing half-bad for yourselves, are ya?”
“We aren’t?” Neil asked, surprised.
“Nope, says here you’ve got at least 1,500 creds on this chip, ain’t bad at all.” Mock tossed the chip back; Alex caught it like it was an atom bomb ready to go off if it hit the floor. “I’ll take a hundred, you can sleep on the booths, just for tonight though! I don’t want no loiterers!”
The group looked at each other and smiled, finally, something had gone their way. Together they made their way over to one of the booths while Pollum finished cleaning the final dishes of the night. The chairs were comfy, just like Sophia had said. Neil figured that this would probably be better than most places he slept in his life.
“I’m so glad that went well.” Alex said resting his head in his hands. “I don’t think I could have taken another problem to deal with!”
Timothy smiled and looked at his friends. “Well guys, maybe this is the beginning of something good? This marks the end of all the scary alien stuff, right?”
From out of the door, as if on cue, something slithered forward. Pollum Mock noticed it quickly and immediately stopped what he was doing. He watched it like a mouse watches a hawk, still and tensive as it came ever closer. The group saw it too, and as they did their souls felt a dark twinge, as if something malevolent reached inside of their chests and plucked a cord. The creature was… the creature was nothing, so to speak. It was the space where a creature should be but wasn’t exactly. It was the space between the words on a page, the absence of a presence. This absence was tall, if it had a head, it would have drug across the ceiling. The thing was as dark as night, the cantina somehow felt darker when it entered as if it sucked in all the light.
Without a word, all present watched as it slid across the ground and made its way over to the back of the bar. On the floor, slightly trampled and very much still dead, the blue man rested, no one had bothered to move him. The group didn’t need to wonder why for very long. The thing, in all its twirling emptiness, hovered over the corpse like a doctor examining a patient. Like fog seeping through a window, the darkness spread down and around the body, hugging and wrapping over it like a spider spinning a cocoon. Then, when the deed was done, the darkness retracted, and the body disappeared.
They watched as, just as it had come, the thing slinked back through the cantina. As it passed the bar Pollum looked down at his feet, still not wanting to make eye contact with a thing that had no eyes. And then, as soon as it was gone, it was like they all could breathe again. Neil felt his heart beating in his chest like a marching band, he didn’t mind because he was thankful it hadn’t stopped. “Guys…” He said, with a thousand-yard stare. “What the fuck was that?”
Over at the bar, Pollum raised one of his many arms to his lips and made a shushing sound. “It’s nothing.” He said softly, the only time the bartender had been dishonest. “Rule 3 kid, don’t worry about the Janitor.”