The Bartender 1941 [OUTDATED]

Chapter II

[Part 2]

The next morning, my skin met a cold wind; the windows were opened. The air grew thick with the scent of smoke. Peering out the window with tired eyes, I noticed the rain finally stopped. I quickly got up and started my morning routine. Nile disappeared just by the sight of an empty bed in his room, but the still-warm, dark coffee on the table told me he had left the apartment recently. I didn't worry too much. He was probably doing his morning errands like usual.

I got out my laptop and sat on the couch across from the living room's interior window. I searched up the town's webpage and typed in "the bar down the road near the lake,"  hoping to get some information about it. Anything should be helpful, yet nothing seemed to pop up. I checked again but with different text, but still, the same format repeated. It did show places like local parks, memorials, tour sites around the area, but none of the above.

I decided to go for a walk.

All around me was the beautifully colored sky and raining maple leaves. The leaves scattered throughout the cement road as I walked upon them. I tried to avoid the puddles as much as possible until I came upon a black cat. Its beady green eyes stared at me before pouncing away into the bushes. Curious, I thought. It must have been a stray.

The day passed as quickly as it went. I sat down on a bench, watching the kids play freebie while the adults chatted about the incoming holidays. I waited until my mind traveled back to what Nile said last night: "For protection. Against the entity."

Impossible. Those things don't exist. Or do they? I had no idea.

After several hours into the night, Nile called to tell me he came back, saying he had a "surprise" for me waiting in the apartment. He sounded urgent yet quite excited through the other line when I said I would be there in a few minutes before I hung up. I wonder what it is.

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At the apartment's entrance, Nile had to drag me inside and harshly locked the door behind us, which was unusual behavior from him. Inside the living room, the center coffee table was replaced with a large box with tape sealing every crack there was.

"This must be the surprise he prepared for me," I thought silently. Nile stood behind me and nodded, granting permission to open it. I did as I was told. And inside, I found it brimming with items: a small, black chest along with multiple crumpled police files, photos, and newspapers dating back to the early 1940s.

I looked at these strange and random objects while inspecting each one of them. I picked up the chest to find it locked and unbroken; I shook it lightly; there's something inside for sure.

My roommate helped me with moving the items into a neat pile; he told me that he managed to convince the sheriff to give him some files for my little research. It turns out that he had given almost everything related to the tavern.

Said the cases were going cold, not enough pieces of evidence, and most of the things said and done were probably just mere coincidences, just "too-good-to-be-real." When he was finished, he told me about the old folklore that haunted the town, or perhaps the bar where it died.

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It turns out this folklore began during the late 1900s, yet most of the details were insulated from the original as the village grew older and more people moved in. Now, it is a town's story to prevent young children from wandering too far into the woods, or else a demon will find them and devour their souls. Contrary to most of their beliefs, these stories were all too real.

As for the entity, many didn't believe in the paranormal or just this one.

Back during the 1940s, a bartender got shot; their upper skull got blown off their jaw and scattered throughout the bar. The customers didn't recall anything of it, possibly from the state of shock, yet they always remember the faint smell of smoke and blood from the disturbance.