Just as usual, the Horseshoe Bar was only a stone’s throw from where anyone would consider Jessica’s haunting grounds to be. It was full of regulars, and she had soon become one of them. There was the old alcoholic whose words were an unintelligible slur, the waitress from across the road who always conveniently left with the more attractive of the two bartenders after his shift. The neighbour two floors down that always fucked at weird times of day. The same stupid crowd on the same stupid Saturday night. Jessica hardly intended to strike up a routine- to become as predictable as the folks she tailed for a living- but her feet had a way of leading her out of her pokey flat whenever the arguments from upstairs grew unbearably loud.
Besides, there was better booze in here- stuff good enough to have her coming back after a litter of empty bottles marked the low reserves remaining at her apartment. It was always busier on a Saturday. There were some unfamiliar faces amongst the relatively subdued crowd that had scattered itself across the bar and surrounding tables. A brief surveying glance was all Jessica offered them as she took her seat, being greeted by the usual double shot her evenings here always started with.
Sometimes people would approach her. Being a single woman at a bar tended to have that effect, regardless of how undesirable or unintentional it was.
Drink. Be left alone. Get wasted.
Sometimes the route to the final destination was a little crooked. Sometimes the route didn’t always lead home. But on more occasions than not her evenings were plagued by as few interruptions as possible- she saw to it.
One swig and the shot was gone. Pale, gnawed fingers pushed the glass back.
She had never appreciated the company of others. Defensiveness festered in her bones from as early as she could remember. A rigidity and distinct discomfort came at proximity to others. A reminder of hands. A reminded of needles. A reminder of a more clinical place where the lights were bright.
Another shot slid back at her. A greedy hand snatched it and drowned it just as fast.
The steely gaze made the demand clear. The bartender turned once more. He was well used to this by now.
The alcohol helped. It helped the lines of her shoulders to soften. It drowned out pensive thought. It made the people less difficult to tolerate as they babbled and filtered closer to her personal space. Most importantly, the kiss of whiskey guaranteed a deep and dreamless sleep. Money couldn’t buy a better medicine.
The hum of sound and conversation grew as more people filtered in, some already appeared to have been drinking. There was a game on the TV, attracting a group of men with beers. No doubt she’d be spending her evening listening in on them sharing crude stories. A heavy frown settled upon Jessica’s brow. It was getting harder to pick out anything more than the odd word as multiple conversations merged into one. A buzz announced a message and with it Jessica pulled out her phone. Dominos Pizza. It was just some automated text flagging up poor life choices like a needy ex. Narrowing her eyes, Jessica clicked the lock screen back to black. Despite the mild irritation, there came some distant relief that it had been nothing pressing or important.
Her hand lowered back to her pocket, but another interrupted its path. Drunk and clearly not in his right mind, the man fumbled. A single finger grazed her inner thigh, but it was enough. A reflexive hand snatched at the offending wrist in a bone-shattering warning. Every corner of work done by the whiskey was unravelled by the clumsy interaction. The incendiary confrontation found Jessica already on her feet. Phone on the floor, newest drink abandoned at the bar.
A hum of onlookers began to coo and jeer. Some seemed to find it funny. The bartender was beginning to look as though he was considering intervening.
Great. I’m going to get banned from this shithole.
From within her grasp, her unwelcome company continued his advances, seemingly blind to the bone-bending pain in his wrist. If anything, the touch drew him closer. The bartender was already skirting the bar now. He didn’t reach them before a shriek split the room and a hard kick sent the man crashing to the floor with considerable force. Ragged breaths confirmed she had hit her mark, but still the man moved with an almost trance-like desperation, as though reaching her with his filthy touches was life-dependent. A heel slammed down, crushing the fingers on one hand in a fury-filled haze.
Shuddering, the man began to shakily attempt another rise to his feet. He was eerily silent. Too silent. A chill had infected the air and all of a sudden it felt as though there were hardly any audience to the scene at all- almost as though it were hardly real. The hairs at the back of Jessica’s neck slowly crept up.
“HEY HEY HEY! That’s enough!”
The bartender had her wrist now, attempting to placate what was likely coming across as a gross overreaction to anyone who had not seen the full nature of the events. A kick to the chest sent the man hurtling back into the glass door. He hit it with a sickening thud. Glass shattered.
He wasn’t backing down. He was bleeding. He was hurt. Why wasn’t he stopping?
Drunk people were stupid, sure, but they weren’t usually such a challenge to offset when they set their moronic horny minds to something.
“No…” She hadn’t quite managed to swallow down the grim taste of shock. From the corner of her eye the man was rising up again. There was no way he was a normal human.
Some people began taking their mobiles out to film (the first kick had already made clear to even the tipsiest of onlookers that they were in the presence of someone different). A hiss of voices clamoured amidst the waves of scattered noise.
What the hell is she doing!? Who are they? I’m calling the cops. Mind the glass. That bitch is crazy!
Wrenching her hand free from the bartender, long strides soon closed the distance between Jessica and her target. Once within reach her hand snatched the man’s neck, hoisting him up for a long, calculated moment. Venom slid into her tone, infecting each word with an incendiary hiss.
“Touch me again and I’ll snap off every one of your fingers and ram them down your throat.”