milliways_bar | Entering

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Entering

A cold, invisible wind pressed itself onto Henry's face as he submerged deeper into the eerie hole that appeared from his bathroom some three days after he'd been trapped in his apartment without contact from the outside world. Venturing forth in this almost cave-like hole was no different from the previous trips he'd taken down into the world of nightmares, but that dread of adrenaline and fear never left him. Closer, the light at the end of the tunnel grew as Henry Townshend had reached his destination, but the sudden brightness soon became a dull color that faded out into darkness...

The same cold chill surrounded his body as Henry opened his eyes and found himself lying in a ditch. Almost expecting to see a vivid view of horrible images, Henry instead saw a quant building with the words "Milliways" etched onto the sign above. Last time Henry had seen a bar, it had been just as desolate as his apartment. But stepping inside the warm, musty area, Henry knew this place was different, if not a little comforting to be in the company of living humans. Yet he stood, confusion of his whereabouts still etched in his head. Where was he?

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"New here?"

Turning his head to the sound of an unfamiliar voice, his body tensing with caution, Henry becomes face to face with a man who looks fairly normal. No traces of mutilation on his body, no terror wretched expression on his face. The man seems calm.

Henry calmly shakes his head up and down indicating a 'yes' motion.

And Zeke pats the seat next to him and gestures with his beer.

"Sit, grab a bottle, and I'll explain a few things to you. Trust me...I know the feeling in more was than one."

Despite the unfamiliarity of the bar and his surroundings, Henry reluctantly agreed to take a seat and let this man clear things up for him. If he was one of Walter's victims then surely he wouldn't have had the time to talk and would go straight to the attacking.

Bigger fish than Walter Sullivan were frying Zeke Stone...

"Okay," he begins bluntly, "now, I want you to ask for a beer. Don't look for a bartender, don't look for a machine, just ask for a beer. Don't worry, the first one's free, all right? And if you freak out and drop it, I'll cover you for another one. Bethie won't mind."

He taps the bar counter.

Blinking several times in confusion to his demands, Henry stares in silence for a couple seconds and then awkwardly speaks.

"Can I have a Guinness?"

But asking for a beer to no one in particular wasn't nearly as strange as what he'd seen the past couple of days.

The beer, surprisingly enough, appears on the bar, the foam perfectly perched at the top of the glass. Zeke smiles and sips his own favorite, a Sam Adams, before tapping the counter again.

"She's sentient, all right? It means she can serve you without a tender, but it also means she's got feelings, so try and be polite."

A small, tired grin before he takes another sip.

"That doesn't mean that she doesn't charge though," and he points to the wall behind the bar. There, a number of names are listed and beside them, numbers. "That's the tab board. Make sure you pay it off when you can, but don't sweat it too badly. They don't come after you too quick."

Sure enough, once Henry had asked for a beer, the drink had appeared out of thin air as if some magician had performed a trick right before his eyes. Unlike what the man next to him had joked about, Henry wasn't going to freak out over such a tiny thing.

Continuing to take all of this man's words into his ears, Henry stay silent and listen to the rules of the bar's regulation and tab fees. A part of him hoped he'd have the money to pay for the beer in which he conjured up, but then again, did traveling to a dream world require he have the dough for the goods?

He nods, sips his beer, and gestures out to the bar.

"This place's got a few rules but, uh, you look like a reasonable guy, so I'm figuring you're not going to have any trouble with them."

He puts the beer down carefully after one more sip, then counts off on his fingers.

"One, no violence, to any of the patrons or the Bar herself. Pretty simple, right?" A smile. "Two, no business in the bar. What they mean by that is that if, say, you're, uh," let's make this simple, Stone, "if you're a vampire slayer and you see a vampire? No bothering them just because they're a vampire. If they've got on a pair of pants that make you wince, sure, but otherwise...no dice."

A wide grin and a bit of a roll of his eyes.

"And last, no nudity or sex in the bar proper. I know, you're thinking it's silly but some people have stepped in during the weirdest things. Heck, I wandered in after getting chucked into a vat of human blood."

A shrug.

"It happens. But those are the rules."

No, no trouble, Henry said to himself as he nodded in agreement as if a student learning the teacher's lectures. He took a swig of the beer in front of him, foam completely fizzed to the top like any good Guinness should be, and complemented the imaginary maker for their bar-tending.

But the sudden mention of an undead nightwalker got Henry's attention and he couldn't help but be shocked with the mention.

"Vampires?"

Don't tell me that those things exist now?"

He nods.

"Well, yes. There's all manner of people here, all right? The, uh, well," he scratches the back of his head, "now, here's the part where you might drop the beer cause we're sort of at the end of the universe. Or we're at the end of all the universes, so all kinds of people can make their way here. Gods, vampires, space men, angels" shiver "demons" bigger shiver, and a mildly irritated expression, "and anything in between. Most people are pretty friendly, though, so don't worry about it too much."

He sips his beer.

"Oh, and the dead. Dead people can show up here and act just like their alive. It's weird. Don't worry about it either."

"The end of the universes," Henry repeated as if intrigued, if not confused, about such a possibility. The fact that he'd been slipping in and out of a surreal set of dream-like worlds didn't phase him when his comrade announced that this place was the resting ground for many intertwined worlds.

Actually, he took that back. A combined set of universes was a bit hard to swallow, as the Guinness in his throat told him. Not shocked this time, but rather disappointed in that fact, Henry just wished he could return back to his real world. But at least it wasn't as horrible as the place Walter had sent him.

"And these... people. They can't hurt us either?"

The dead? Walter's victims have the possibility of coming here too?

"Anybody can hurt you," oh, does he know that well, "but like I told you, there're rules, and people who enforce the rules, and people like me who don't actually enforce the rules officially, but my daughter comes in here on occasion, so I do my part to let people know to behave and help out when I can."

A long sip.

"Really, it's a nice place, all right?"

A crooked smile and one last sip from his beer.

"Besides, you've kinda been talking to a dead guy and lookit how well it's been working out so far. I mean, I'm something of a special case, but so are a lot of people here."

So in general terms, this place was exactly like any old bar in the normal world, minus the fact that the dead were seen in the open and able to interact with the living in an orderly fashion. Yes, Henry was nervous, on edge even, but as long as they kept their sociable manner, then Henry wouldn't try to kill everything that was non-human. And that beer was seeming to work its way into his system and calm some nerves.

From the beginning, Henry knew this place was odd, perhaps even more so than Walter's world, but having chatted with a dead guy who seemed to want to help, made Henry's mind at ease for the time being. Besides, this man was seemingly familiar to a man named Joseph who wanted to help as well.

He nodded and took another sip of the beer.

A girl stands at the edge of shadow, watching him with a look of quiet interest.

There's a feeling he can't quite shake off. A feeling of being watched by something nearby as a mysterious aroma surrounds him. It's a sense that Henry has had since he was locked in his apartment. Turning around to check his surroundings, he sees shadows of all shapes and sizes, and oddly enough, a woman seeming to appear between the darkness and light. A young female seeming to stare directly into his soul.

Who is that?

There's... a sort of connection, she knows. He's been in the nightmares. Did the Path to Paradise open after all? Did the world change after...

No, there's a normal world, too. But she doesn't remember him...

A confused frown creases her features.

Seeming as if the world around him opened up and allowed the whispers of the otherworld to converse in front of him, Henry's body began to tense up with the direct gaze of the other. Was she a threat? Henry didn't know. Most of these places always had him on his feet and the only way to tell was to see what would happen next.

A long silence.

Then, "who are you?"

Her steady voice broke the void of silence and like a deer caught in the headlights, he was taken aback. But shortly coming out of this strange little meeting, Henry spoke.

"My name is Henry."

....that doesn't tell her a lot.

"did God come back?" she asks, a slight tremble to her voice.

"God?"

He's not sure what she means by this, but from the sound of her voice, this God isn't the one in the sky and a rather nasty being. Perhaps it's a manifestation of Walter's mind... or maybe even worse?

"the Path to Paradise..."

...Walter?

There's a hazy impression of someone, but...

She frowns again.

"why did you come here?"

Eyebrows raised with the puzzlement on his face, Henry once again didn't understand the young woman. Even as she appeared closer and spoke as if demanding the answers, in all honesty, what was he to say about this path to paradise?

"I... came here because. Because it was the only place I was led to."

"led..."

It wasn't me... it wasn't. I would know...

God...?

Sadly, she looks him over. Then reaches out, a piece of paper in her hand.

A strnge symbol is on it, a triangle inside two circles, with various glyphs all around. It's drawn in red crayon.

Her words seemed to repeat his own as if she weren't entirely all there; as if she were mentally unstable. Yes, Henry had been led to this bar because of the hole in his bathroom and if he hadn't have taken the only exit, then he'd still be confined in what little of a living space he had.

Watching as she take out a piece of paper with a drawing that looks to have been done with a child's artistic abilities, Henry stares briefly at the symbol drawn.

"to keep away the nightmares..." she says in explanation, holding it toward him.

"The nightmares," he speaks softly to himself, but loud enough so that the figure next to him could hear.

Henry gently raises his hand and touches the side of the paper, studying the mark even more. It's a symbol he's not familiar with, and it's shaded with all sorts of mystery, but somehow knowing that the woman could sense he was seeing nightmares come to reality made him feel as though he wasn't seen as insane.

But then again, she herself didn't seem to make much sense either. Had she been witness to Walter's games as well? "You can see them too?"

"the Path to Paradise..." She turns her head, avoiding his gaze.

"they're mine."

Again, the path to paradise... What is it? He wonders to himself.

"What's yours?" Henry asks the rather confusing individual.

"...someone's nightmarish delusions come to life," she recites, apparently quoting someone.

"Walter's?" Henry replies in an almost questionable, serious tone.

It had to be Walter. He was the one who'd dragged him into his realm after all. A realm of nightmares brought on by someone not living anymore.

She shakes her head. "alessa's."

He'd never heard of anyone by the name of Alessa in both the real world and dream world. Did that mean more than one person was capable of creating such a nightmarish world? Were they able to then conjure people such as himself into this plain of existence?

"Who is she?"

She looks down again, sadly.

"the Mother of God."

Another brief chill of cold air whizzed past Henry, but unlike the familiar coming of a creature, this feeling was deep inside Henry's own body that caused such an uncomfortable feeling. The Mother of God sounded an awful lot like The Mother Reborn and Henry hoped that both phrases were completely different things.

The mention of God once more had Henry remember that brief moment when she had called out that word. So that's what she meant by God... God was this Alessa.

"Is she here?" He looks around, an instant of paranoia and filling his circle of worry.

Please don't let them be in her dream world now...

mother reborn?
Her face pales at the thought.

In answer to his question, she nods, then turns and points to the Infirmary.

Turning with the direction of her hand, he spots the small door with the letters 'Infirmary' written as clear as any other sign in here. The last time he'd been to a place resembling a medical building was when he had to get Eileen out of the grasps of Walter. And that wasn't a fun experience to say the least.

Strange that this place would be right next to a bar though. "In there," he began and stopped talking to think for a moment.

Did he really want to go and try to find this Mother of God right now? Was it important to his being set free?

She stands for a moment, watching him.

And then vanishes.

And just as she was there... she was gone. A solid structure no more and absorbed into the absolute void of the room.

"What the hell," he muttered and scratched his head in both confusion and shock. Shaking off the bizarre conversation, Henry walked foreword, in search of nothing in particular.

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