No Light in August: Tales From Carcosa & the Borderland (Digital Horror Fiction Author Collection) by Digital Fiction Page B

back.
     
    The
bartender asked me what I wanted for the second time. His voice was dulled,
like he was speaking through water or as if my ears were filled in.
    “Scotch.”
He slid the drink across to me and I handed over a fiver. I had forgot my
wallet was even in my pocket; only my keys were still in the house.
    The
house, my dau—daught…
    My first
sip kicked the back of my head, hauling me into the bar. Spluttering and coughing,
I found my feet and swayed my way towards a dark corner where there weren’t any
people.
    The whisky
sloshed around in my mouth, its warmth now more familiar. Sinking into the
padded leather of the seat, I realized how much my legs and back ached. How
long had I been running? Where was I going?
    The drink
burned the questions away. Enough of my reasoning was sifting itself together,
but it was like trying to fit together a picture you didn’t really understand.
There were gaps notable by their absence, only there was no way to know exactly
what was there before.
    So many
pieces of your mind fit together in such a way that you only realize they’re
gone when it’s too late.
    By the
time I noticed the woman, she was already sliding along the seat opposite me.
The leather creaked under her thighs, rubbing against the fabric of her dress.
    “Mind if I
join you?” she asked, then fished a pack of cigarettes from her bag, stuck one
between her lips, and lit it with a slab of slender steel.
    “Mind if I
have one of those?”
    The words
were like familiar actions, muscle memory more than anything else. The whisky
helped, but I needed something else. The flame jumped, shaping itself into a
flickering blade. The first draw stuttered in my lungs, but the second was
better.
    “You look
like you could use some company.”
    “Do I?”
What I’d seen of my reflection said she was right. “Rough night?”
    “Something…something
like that.”
    She was
pretty. High cheekbones and full lips painted red. Her hair fell straight,
framing her face like a painting.
    “Angela,”
she introduced herself, sliding her hand across the table and offering it, all
very businesslike.
    Her grip
when I took it was warm; it pulled me forward without actually doing anything
like that.
    “Buy me a
drink?”
    Slips of
logic started to come forward in my head; a way things might go if I just held
on long enough.
    “Why not,
sure.”
     
    She gave
me the keys to her car on the condition we were going back to my place.
    “You have
your own place?” She isn’t slurring her words, but she sways on her feet.
“Yeah, I do…it’s not far,” I said, hoping I would know the way once I got
behind a wheel and on a road I knew.
    Her car is
small, but practical for the city in its own way. She flopped into the seat and
her hand bounced onto my leg, where it remained for longer than I expected.
    “Welll,”
she stretched the word and ran her lips along her teeth. She wasn’t a hooker,
just someone out to have fun, maybe meet someone and see where it went. Nothing
wrong with that, just a shame she met me.
     
    The door
of my house is closed. I thought it would be because whatever was now in my
house wouldn’t want to be disturbed.
    I could
feel a tickling sensation down my neck and back; the sand of my sanity again
dribbling through the open cracks. The pouring increased the closer we came to
my home. When I stepped out onto the pavement near my front drive, I was sure
she could hear the rattle-patter of grains falling out.
    “Nice
place.” She walked a little steadier, but still took my hand for support. She
didn’t need to.
    Standing
in front of my door, I turned the handle, but found it locked. “No keys?” she
asked.
    Reaching
into my pocket, I found them…only, I’d never picked them up on the way out. Or had
I? Did anything actually happen before, or was I back drinking again?
    Drinking again? Did I have problems with it before? “C’mon, it’s getting cold,” she
prompted.
    I put the
key in the lock, and