Blood on the Bar (Lucas the Atoner Book 1) Read online

  “I wish I had the answers you want,” said Lucas. “I don’t always understand God myself, but there’s more to things than you understand. Just trust me that suicide is not the answer. There’s another way.”

  Annie turned and folded her arms while the others stood by aimlessly. Lucas needed a moment to think. He needed to tell them all what to do next. But first, he needed to know himself.

  A can of baked beans fell off the shelf. Followed by another.

  And then another.

  Soon they began to fall like hailstones.

  “What the hell?” Shaun picked up one of the cans and examined it. As he did so, the shelves on either side of him began to rattle.

  Lucas clenched his fists. “Everyone, get ready.”

  “For what?” asked Simon, readying his pool cue. They all still had one, except for Lucas who had put his down when he tried to help Gheorghie. “What’s about to go down?”

  Something shrieked above their heads. The aswang leapt from the top of the shelves and landed on Shaun, pinning him to the ground.

  As Lucas had predicted, Simon raced to the rescue first, swinging his pool cue and smashing it over the aswang’s horrendous skull. The monster roared ferociously, and swatted Simon with one of its hind legs, sending the big man hurtling into the refrigerators.

  Shaun used the distraction to clamber out from underneath the creature and get to safety. He was blabbering like he’d lost his mind.

  Annie launched the next attack, using her pool cue like a spear and thrusting it at the aswang’s face. She missed its eyes and struck its neck. It was enough to make the aswang shy away in pain, but as it withdrew, it whipped out a sinewy arm that almost took Annie’s head off. She ducked just in time, and then Shirley pulled her out of harm’s way.

  Jake and Lucas came forwards together, Jake swinging his pool cue, but Lucas, unarmed, leaping onto the aswang’s back. Jake’s pool cue snapped against the creature’s bony shoulder, but he held onto the stub and planted it in the aswang’s left eye.

  The aswang reared up, bellowing in agony. Jake had hurt it.

  Good on you, lad.

  Simon clambered off the floor and attacked again, clobbering the aswang with his heavy fists. Even Vetta came forward and got in a cheeky wallop with her pool cue. Together, they beat the creature from all sides, forcing it down onto its belly. Shaun actually leapt up and connected with a flying-kick before hurrying back into safety.

  They were winning.

  The aswang was half-blind and disorientated, spindly arms and legs thrashing. One of its limbs struck Lucas under his chin and buckled his knees. He hit the ground hard and found it difficult to know which way was up, so he had no choice but to watch from his back as the aswang struck at his companions.

  It managed to kick Jake in his ribs, and then Simon in the knee. The big man toppled out of the action, clutching at himself in pain. Jake was badly winded and struggling to stay standing.

  That left only Vetta, Shaun, and Annie.

  Vetta swung her pool cue but lost it as it jarred against the aswang’s shoulder. Unarmed now, the monster was able to lash out and grab her by the wrist. She yelped and tried to break free, but it held onto her too tightly. Drool slathered from the beast’s hungry jaws.

  Shaun stood watching, close enough to do something, but frozen in terror. His pool cue had dropped to the ground, and his hands were trembling by his sides. Vetta reached out to him, but he didn’t react.

  Lucas shouted from the floor. “Shaun, help her!”

  Shaun still stood frozen like a startled deer.

  “Help her, goddammit!”

  Shaun broke out of his stupor. He glanced at Lucas, then at Vetta. Finally, he turned and fled, racing towards the supermarket’s entrance and slipping outside.

  “No!” Lucas roared. “Get back here!”

  Vetta screamed in agony as the aswang wrenched on her arm. It opened its jaws wide and pulled her closer, preparing to bite down on her face. Lucas clambered towards her, but it was too late. No way would he reach her in time. He was powerless.

  Totally powerless.

  Vetta closed her eyes.

  Annie appeared. She leapt at the aswang with her pool cue and rammed it tip-first into the creature’s jaws. Startled, the aswang forgot about eating Vetta, but did not release her. Instead, it held her off to one side so it could face Annie.

  Undeterred, Annie continued her attack, beating at the aswang with her fists now that her pool cue was wedged in its jaws. It bit down on the wood and spat the pieces into the air. Annie dodged aside as the aswang then turned its sharp fangs on her, but she yelped as one of its long legs clobbered her in the temple. She skidded across the tiles, bleeding from a wound on her forehead.

  The aswang turned its attention back towards Vetta, still held in place by one of its claws. It glared at her with its remaining eye, foul goo dripping from the socket of the other. Its mouth cracked wide open, like the hinged jaws of a salivating python.

  Vetta screamed. Once again about to be devoured.

  “Go to HELL!” Annie sprung up from the floor, groggy from the fierce blow to her head, but too furious to care. She rushed at the aswang again, this time leaping onto its back. “You killed my brother!” she roared. “Die, you fucking monster!”

  The aswang released Vetta altogether now, and she finally clambered to safety. Lucas grabbed her in his arms.

  The aswang now fought to get Annie off its back. Lucas let go of Vetta and tried to help Annie, but he couldn’t get past the wild flailing of the aswang’s limbs. Annie battered it in the head, turning her fists bloody, but she was gradually slipping from its back, losing her balance on the bucking beast. Her hands were getting tangled in its oily black hair.

  Lucas called out, “Annie! Be careful!”

  The aswang flipped her off onto the floor. She tried to get right back up, but it was already too late. A spindly arm thrust down at her and pierced her chest, pinning her to the ground. Blood erupted from between her lips, but still she refused to surrender. She pushed herself up onto one elbow and spat blood in the creature’s remaining eye—blinding it fully. It was her final act, immediately after, her head hit the tiles with a heavy clack!

  Simon recovered and dragged Jake to his feet. Lucas gathered Vetta and Shirley into a huddle. All of them were battle shocked, weak and wounded, and it took a moment before Lucas could get a hold of himself and shout at them all to run.

  “Run!”

  “I’m heading back to the pub,” said Simon, already limping in that direction. They had hurried out of the supermarket and closed the doors behind them. “It’s where Shaun probably went.”

  Lucas snarled. “That coward!”

  Vetta put a hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “He was just afraid.”

  How many men had let this girl down, yet still she refused to let it jade her?

  “Fine,” he said, deciding it would be self-righteous to argue with her when she was ready to forgive. “We’ll regroup at the pub, but we still need to kill that aswang. We should attack while it’s injured. We should catch our breath and go back in there.”

  Shirley cackled with laughter. “Are you blinking serious? We threw everything we had at that thing, and it still came out the winner.”

  “Jake blinded it,” Lucas argued. “We had it on the ropes.”

  Simon smashed his fist against his palm and grunted. “I want a better plan than ‘whack the monster with pool cues.’ We can think of something back at the pub.”

  The pub was still lit up, contrasting the featureless grey sky above it. Simon probably had the right idea, but Lucas was so used to making the rules that he found it hard to consider anyone else might have a point. But so far, his attempts to end the situation had left a brother and sister dead. His only solace was that they might be together again.

  God bless them.

  Lucas relented, and the group rushed back up the hill. Halfway up, the wounded aswang emerged from the supermarket an
d wailed mournfully. The sound was so piercing that they had to cover their ears, but the creature hadn’t seemed to notice their retreat, and its wailing was not directed at them. Perhaps it was calling to Julian. Would the man finally show himself?

  They kept hurrying up the hill, but they grew weary against the unnatural weight outside the pub. Shirley’s oldest legs wobbled erratically, and Simon had to grab her beneath the arm to keep her going straight. Lucas held Vetta’s hand but didn’t remember grabbing it—perhaps she had grabbed his.

  “It’s behind us,” Jake shouted as he glanced back down the hill at the aswang.

  “Don’t look,” said Lucas. “It’s not focused on us right now.”

  Simon moved to the front with Shirley. He was the nimblest of them all despite being the largest, and his wide back oscillated as his shoulders and arms pumped back and forth like truck pistons. Jake looked like he should be the sprinter of the group with his lithe body, but he was huffing and puffing worse than any of them. Lucas was starting to struggle too. And they were only getter more tired.

  Behind them, the aswang continued to wail.

  Simon cried out from up ahead. Shirley collided with his back and let out her own shout—although hers was only of surprise. The big man had been startled by something, and now he was back-pedalling.

  The pub was alive with movement. The ground had burst open and thick vines now whipped the air. They crept up the pub’s brickwork and twisted together into a thick mesh, encircling the entire building. Wicked thorns jutted out in a thousand directions.

  Lucas forced everyone into a crouch. The aswang still lingered outside the supermarket, but now they had nowhere to retreat if it saw them and gave chase. The pub was sealed once more—this time from the outside.

  Simon cursed as a vine leapt up beneath his feet and slashed his forearm. He stepped aside and put the bleeding wound to his mouth. Shirley yelped as a creeper tried to encircle her foot. Jake pulled her away just in time.

  Behind them, the aswang stopped its wailing.

  Lucas looked back. What he saw now led him to stumble in shock.

  “Please, Father, no!”

  A dozen aswangs scuttled from the rooftops and alleyways between the shops and congregated around their wounded brethren. They seemed to fuss over it, concerned. Family.

  “You said there would be only one,” said Shirley, rubbing her eyes as if to check she wasn’t hallucinating. “You said this place was tied to a single one of those monsters.”

  “I was wrong,” said Lucas. “I was completely wrong.”

  “We need to get out of the open,” said Simon. “Before those things see us.”

  Jake pointed. “The alleyway. Around the back of the pub. Come on!”

  Lucas nodded. “Everybody, move!”

  A chorus of aswangs howled behind them.

  Last Call

  The rear of the pub was entangled by vines, and it made the alleyway feel even more claustrophobic. Aside from that, the narrow access was the same as Lucas remembered it—litter-strewn and filthy. He slumped against the wheelie bins next to the scorch mark that still blotted the pavement. This reality was an exact duplicate of the real one. Julian’s power continued to impress him. And terrify him.

  “There were a dozen of those things at least,” said Shirley, perched on a low brick wall and rolling down her pop socks so that she could knead her calves.

  “We couldn’t even kill one of them,” said Jake. He was glancing up and down like a sentry, constantly checking the coast was clear. “Let alone a dozen.”

  “No chance,” added Simon, sucking at the wound on his forearm again. “If that’s what we have to do to leave this place, then we should just follow Annie’s advice and top ourselves.”

  “That will just send us to Hell,” said Jake. “Which would be even worse than this.”

  “Hell is made-up,” said Shirley, but when she looked at Lucas she seemed to reconsider. “Well, that’s what I thought, until today. Those things will tear me apart whatever I believe, so why delay things?”

  Vetta looked to Lucas. “What do we do?”

  “I have no idea! Maybe it’s time you stopped asking me for advice. Where has it got you?”

  “So, you give up?” she said. “You have no ideas to help us? You make me sad, Lucas. Gheorghie was your friend too!”

  “No, he wasn’t. I barely…” Lucas grunted. For the first time, he found Vetta a little irritating. He owed her a debt, no question, but that didn’t mean she could keep expecting him to fix everything with a shake of his cock. “Look, my idea was to kill the aswang. We failed, and the situation is even worse than I realised. There’s nothing else I can do or say. Julian is the one with all the power here. We’re just a bunch of ants beneath his magnifying glass.”

  “Who is he?” demanded Simon, kicking a bin in a rage. It toppled over and spilled its contents making everyone flinch. They all looked towards the alleyway’s entrance, but no aswangs appeared. For now.

  “Shhhhh.” Vetta glared at Simon. “Calm down before you bring monsters.”

  Simon kept still, but it looked like a struggle for him not to kick something else. “I’m just sick of hearing Julian’s name,” he grunted. “If he’s such a bad ass, he should show himself and fight like a man instead of sending a bunch of his rabid pets after us.”

  “Some bloody pets!” said Shirley. “A pack of sodding demons.”

  Simon folded his thick arms and grumbled. “Whatever.”

  Jake patted the big man on the shoulders. “This is messed up, Si, but just keep it together. We’ll figure this out.”

  Lucas had enough. It was time to address something which had been nagging at him for a while. “What the hell is with you?”

  Jake frowned. “Who? Me?”

  “Yes, you! Last night you were a low-life thug. You tried to rape Vetta!”

  Jake recoiled, almost like he’d been hit. “I what?”

  “You tried to rape me!” said Vetta firmly, face contorted with anger. She had understandably been tense about the situation, but now that it was out in the open, she struggled to contain herself. “Don’t you dare deny it. Don’t you DARE!”

  Simon looked at Jake and shook his head in disgust. “You want locking up, Jake. Long time coming, if you ask me.”

  “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Jake went to Vetta with his hands out, but Lucas stepped in his way. The lad got the message and took a step back. “I’m sorry,” he said. “For whatever I did. You mentioned something earlier, but I assumed I just started a ruck like usual. I had no idea I... Oh fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

  “You’re claiming amnesia?” said Lucas. He would have laughed if it were not so pathetic. Some people were so screwed up that they had to lie for their own mental well-being, convincing themselves they were innocent of their own atrocities. Some of the worst human beings were the ones convinced they were the best.

  Jake held his head in his hands like he might have a breakdown. “I-I remember getting into a scuffle with you at the bar, Lucas, and m-my hand…” He held it up to show them, although it appeared perfectly normal now. “It stopped hurting when you fixed me, but it was bad before.”

  “My pleasure,” said Lucas. “I obviously didn’t fix whatever brain damage you have, if you honestly don’t remember trying to force yourself on Vetta last night.”

  Simon huffed. “Probably not even the first time he’s done something like this considering the state he gets himself in most nights. I was glad when he got the sack. Thought I’d seen the last of him, but then the idiot turns up at lunchtime like we’re all still going to be buddies.”

  Jake looked like he was going to cry.

  Lucas turned to Simon. “What do you mean? About the state Jake gets himself in?”

  “The powder,” said Simon, thumbing his nose. “Whatever the kids are calling it these days. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen Jake smacked up on coke. Kid’s one bad trip away from the knick,
or death. Lucky to have held down the job as long as he did, but then the idiot crashes an eighty-grand Range Rover trying to get it up onto the ramp. We were all glad to see him gone after that. Even Max, who used to stand up for him more than anyone.”

  “I... I had no idea,” said Jake. “I thought you were my mates.”

  Simon shrugged and looked away.

  Lucas studied Jake, trying to work out if what he was seeing was an act. The lad seemed truly mortified. “You really don’t remember?”

  Jake shook his head. “I swear.”

  “You lie!” said Vetta.

  “I swear! I don’t remember.”

  “Doesn’t make it okay,” said Shirley.

  “No,” said Lucas. “It doesn’t.”

  Jake’s eyes were teary, but he gave Vetta an earnest stare. “I’m so sorry. I’ve been an addict since I was fourteen. My uncle Robert got me into it. He used to babysit me after school while mum and dad worked evenings at their restaurant. Uncle Rob was in the Army, but when he came back, he never got another job. He just became a screw-up. Used to sell gear to make ends meet, and... shit, why am I even telling you this? I’m sorry. You’re right: I’m scum. Most nights I don’t even know what planet I’m on, but what I tried to do to you, Vetta. I… what can I say? I’m an addict. If this is Hell, it’s where I deserve to be.”

  Lucas realised something, a bubble popping in his brain and releasing a thought. “You’re an addict? That’s why you’re different! When I healed you in the backroom of the pub, I healed your addiction too, just like that scar on your forehead.”

  Jake touched his forehead. “Yeah, I had it since I has six years old. I was learning to ride my bike, but my dad took his eye off me to take a call. I went crashing against the brick wall of our garage.”

  “Whatever mess the drugs made of your brain has been put right,” Lucas surmised. “You’ve been high since you were fourteen, but now your body is as pure as if you’d never touched so much as an aspirin.”