06/19/97

Some things just aren't meant to go together. Minty gum and winter air. Orange juice and toothpaste. Alcohol and violence.

There was a man standing in front of the bar holding a shiny silver revolver to the bartender's head. He was wearing a ski mask and all black, presumably to blend in with the night. The bartender, instead of giving him the money, said "no." His reaction surprised Seamus, and all the others cowering behind their objects of choice. Seamus, who was laying on the floor behind an overturned round oak table, peeked over it to see what was happening. The robber screamed back "You fool! How dare you deny me! You have met your end! Seamus then heard a loud bang, a bloom of light, and the sound of porcelain shattering in the bar.

Slightly after, a wet thump of the robber's corpse falling to the ground. the bartender said "it's safe now folks. You can get up, and for the love of god will someone call the police if you haven't already. Soon enough the body will stink up the place." Seamus got up and stared at the bartender. "Yo- you had a gun the whole time!" He slowly stammered, shocked by the events leading up to this mess. He responded with a sly smile. "of course, I did, you think this is the first time?" "Well yeah of course who would want to rob you and your bar?" "You'd be surprised boy." Still out of breath from the commotion, Seamus dropped the subject. He dragged his eyes over the bar to see the extent of the damage. A porcelain model of the three mystic monkeys that sat on a table behind the robber's corpse was demolished and Seamus decided that must have been what he heard shatter.

While everyone waited for the police to show up, Seamus inspected the body. Red blood trickled into the wood grain as time passed. The man, for he was unmistakably male, had an untamed beard and was wearing a torn T-shirt and genuinely ripped jeans. As the sounds of the other customers conversations died down, Seamus realized something else about the body. The eyelids were shaking gently, as if the man had just entered Rapid Eye Movement stage of sleep. Just as Seamus was about to call for others to confirm what he was seeing, Seamus heard the telltale sirens indicating the arrival of the police at the bar and looked up to the door.

Blue and red flashed through the glass windows of the bar, blinding him. When he looked back at the body, the eyelids weren't moving.

Determining he was just seeing things, he began walking to the door to lead the cops into the bar. As he walked out and squinted his eyes from the cop cars lights, the cold air and sounds of New York City hit him… and stopped.

He opened his eyes and saw darkness. The only sound he heard was his own thoughts. He could no longer tell the difference between his eyes being open or closed. "Hello?" he spoke. His voice didn't echo once. He looked down at himself and realized he was standing on something hard and, like his surroundings, black. He didn't know what to do, so he started walking straight ahead. As he walked aimlessly, his mind started to wander. He wondered if anyone would notice his disappearance. Following that, he started to think about how long he had been in the void. With alarm, he realized he had lost complete track of time. "What time was it when I got to the bar?" he wondered. It must have been close to 9:00PM as he got off work an hour before that. He gave up in despair and continued walking, unmoored in the river of time.

He walked for what felt like ten minutes before he started to spiral. He had no idea where he was, what happened, not even an approximate clue of the time. He had no hope of surviving this ordeal. He was hopeless.

Then, light flooded the void and drowned out the darkness surrounding him light an oncoming tsunami. With this light he could see where he was and unfortunately for Seamus, so could the creatures.

They varied in size and bulk. The smallest of the beasts towered over Seamus, who was about six foot and was about 3 times his weight, containing approximately 450 lbs. of pure muscle. The largest of the beasts were as large as a 2-story house, which he mistook for just that. The smaller creatures were somewhat humanoid, but with demented changes. The largest one he saw had a body shaped like a suburban home, with three gargantuan heads on top. Each head looked like a fresh torment out of hell. The left most head was missing his lower jaw from which it uttered strange gurgling sounds and was joined at the neck with the middle head. The middle head had no eyes but had holes from which blood poured out of. The third head on the right most side had no ears but had bloodied holes where they should've been. Unlike the other beasts the biggest one wasn't black like the void was but was blood red. It wore nothing, but a loin cloth made from a grey cloth like substance Seamus assumed was made of hide from other creatures. It smelled of something ghastly or rotting. The creature reminded Seamus of the three mystic monkeys he first was introduced to by his wife Dianne, and that was destroyed at the bar earlier: see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

Then, interrupting Seamus' thoughts, the large beast started lumbering towards him, slowly at first, but gaining momentum. For the first time since Seamus arrived in the void, he listened to the sane part of his brain, and bolted. When the beast saw him running, it made a noise that sounded like a gruesome approximation of a roar. At the sound, all the other creatures turned and began chasing after Seamus too. Seamus tore his dark denim jacket off him to decrease wind resistance. As Seamus ran for his life, he saw a dark blob on his horizon that looked almost human. As he got closer the beasts grew farther away until they stopped the chase. Seamus decreased his pace until he was walking again. As he got closer to the blob, he was able to make out certain features. He realized that the blob was a human, specifically, a female. He broke into a sprint again, determined to reach her before any more harm befell her. He knelt in front of her and turned her face over in attempt to recognize her and his heart skipped a beat. It was Dianne.

Seamus was frozen until Dianne stirred. he stood up straight as thoughts ran through his mind. He didn't understand how this was happening. He reviewed the facts. Dianne had disappeared 3 years back after they had gotten into a fight and she stormed off into the rainy night. She was last seen at the plot of land the bar Seamus wasted his nights and money at, was later built on. He felt like he was on to something important, but Dianne was stirring so he cut off the thought at that moment and vowed to continue it later. Dianne shook her head as if trying to shake water off her hair. She opened her eyes slowly, but they flew open when she beheld Seamus in her sight. She let out a gasp of shock and jumped up and hugged him. They held each other for some time before Dianne pulled away and looked Seamus in the eyes and asked "how... How are you here?" He returned eye contact and said, "I have no idea." Dianne chuckled and hugged Seamus tight.

At the same moment Dianne hugged Seamus, the creatures screamed as if in torment so loudly, Seamus and Dianne heard them from far away. They all turned towards Seamus and Dianne and started to run in that direction. Seamus and Dianne were stunned out of their stupor and ran the away from the creatures. The large 3 headed beast was gaining on them, and fast. So fast that it regained the distance between Seamus and Dianne and the horde in a matter of seconds. "Dianne, run! I'll distract them!" Seamus screamed as he turned and started running towards the beast. Dianne kept running until she had put a sizeable distance between her and the skirmish her husband was engaged in. Seamus had just began dodging the beast as a distraction when he had a realization. At that moment he knew what this beast was, where they were, why they were there, and most importantly. How to get back to New York. He had to tell Dianne. "Dianne!" he yelled with his back to her. "I know why we are here! Listen carefully, you need to g-" he was cut off when the beast flattened him with his unusually shaped limb. The limb landed with a smash on the white ground. He lifted his limb and revealed a pile of human bones, flesh and clothes, with blood oozing out of the bottom of the debris. As Dianne beheld the debris that was once her husband, something in her mind broke.

She started to giggle uncontrollably. The only normally functioning part of her brain was urging her to put distance between her and the beasts. Surprisingly she listened to it and ran the other direction, still laughing. As the thought hit her that Seamus was really gone forever, a wave of sadness hit her, and she slowed down, curled up in a ball on the cool uncaring ground and cried. The noise of the beast stampede grew louder and louder and Dianne closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate, the sound stopped.

She opened her eyes and found herself curled up behind an unfamiliar round oak table in an unfamiliar building. She peeked over the table. There was a man standing in front of the bar holding a shiny silver revolver to the bartender's head. He was wearing a ski mask and all black, presumably to blend in with the night. The bartender, instead of giving him the money, said "no." His reaction surprised Dianne, and all the others cowering behind their objects of choice. The robber screamed back "You fool! How dare you deny me! You have met your end! Dianne then heard a loud bang, a bloom of light, and the sound of porcelain shattering in the bar. Dianne hid back behind the table and looked over to a flat screen TV mounted on the wall. The news was on, declaring the 3-year anniversary for the disappearance of Seamus Murphy.

Some things just aren't meant to go together. Minty gum and winter air. Orange juice and toothpaste. Seamus and Dianne.