He shook his head before continuing. “I admit it. I’d had a few, and I decided if I couldn’t score a root, a fight would be the next best thing. So I waited to see what they would be up to, when I saw them both go out the back door. I moved through the dancers but when I got to the door, a bouncer appeared out of nowhere and stopped me. He said, “You really don’t want to go out there.”
“By this time, I was both pissed and pissed off. I shot my mouth off a little at him, and I thought I was gonna get kicked out. He just stepped aside and said, ‘As you wish, sir’ and let me stroll outside.”
The stranger stopped then, apparently lost in thought. The look on his face, though, was not one of contemplation. It was one of horror.
“What did you see?” the bartender asked, the hairs on his arm starting to rise.
“I should’ve listened to him,” he whispered. “I should’ve stayed inside, or just gone home. God, why didn’t I just go home?” he finished, speaking only to himself now.
The bartender could think of nothing to say, and so refilled the man’s glass. But not his own this time. He waited for the rest of the story.
“They had gone into what looked like on old cool room. Dim, flickering lights, empty shelves everywhere, so I hid behind one. The blonde had the guy against the wall opposite the door, about fifteen feet away from me. She was on her knees, going for it like a champion. Never seen a bitch move her head so fast. Even in the dark, I could see the bloke’s eyes were rolling in his head, moaning, loving every second of it.”
“Who wouldn’t?” the bartender interrupted, with a careless smile, clearly mistaking the trembling in his voice, mistaking it for lust instead of fear.
“I just stood there. I don’t even know why. It seemed like ages to me before I decided to just turn around and walk inside again. What was I hoping to do anyway? That’s when I heard the guy scream.”
“Wow. She must’ve been good, huh?” The bartender forced a laugh. He was already worried that wasn’t the case.
“No…” the man replied, not looking up from his empty glass. “That wasn’t him getting off. I could never have believed a grown man could make such a…howl.”
“You saw what happened…?” the bartender asked.
The heavy man nodded slowly. “I turned around…”
The bartender put his hands on either side of his empty glass. The heavy man was staring as if through the bartender. The bartender pressed him. “Yeah and?”
“She still had him in her mouth, but she was standing up…and he was on the ground.”
The bartender had been trying to grasp what the man was telling him when suddenly, the scene played out in his head. He scrunched his face. “Are you fair dinkum? You’re telling me you saw a guy get his cock bitten off in a nightclub?”
“No,” the stranger replied, finally looking up at the bartender, face pale and hands shaking once again. “I’m telling you I saw her bite it off and hold it up so the blood went down her throat! She was licking at the drips and laughing at the guy screaming on the floor! Salivating! Do you think I’d make this shit up? I know how it sounds but I know what I saw!”
The bartender was stunned into silence by the sudden outburst, and was uncertain how to respond. But upon seeing the tears leak out of the man’s eyes, his heart went out to him. “Look, I’m sorry mate. It sounds like you’ve had a long and stressful day. I mean, I believe you think you may have seen something, but think about it—if that chick really was some kind of a…a—”
“Vampire,” the stranger finished.
“Right. Hence the horror reference.” The bartender clicked his fingers, the man’s earlier question making sense. “But, look. If that was the case, don’t you think the cops would be on to that place already? Hell, you’d think even the army would be. The government too, maybe. She’d never be able to get away with something like that. There has to be some kind of explanation. Yeah, okay, this world and even Sydney has some fucked up people in it, but not real monsters. This stuff just doesn’t happen. Tell me, if you were in my shoes, would you believe me? Or if she really was a nosvetu or whatever, do you think she would’ve let you out alive?”
Struggling for an answer, the man finally submitted. “No. I ran before I could find out.”
“Ok then,” the bartender said, relieved, patting the man on the shoulder. “Look, I’ve gotta do some things out back. Won’t take too long. Then I’ll call you a cab to take you home. My shout, yeah?”
The man gave a helpless nod. This, the bartender assumed, was the best he could hope for.
*
Had the bartender not turned around at that exact moment and left the man alone, he would have seen the shadow appear outside the window. It disappeared just as quickly as it came. The door opened without a sound.
The ground trembled as a truck roared past, causing the lights to flicker briefly and when they came on again, long fingers were slowly crawling up either side of the man’s face like spider’s legs. But he couldn’t see anyone in the mirror he stared into. Just the hands. The owner of the fingers was behind and under him and the bar patron was too fearful to turn his head. Only the thought of screaming entered his mind before his mouth was clamped shut and the blonde creature that he had wanted in the
