The Tavern

The Tavern

It’s a cold, hazardous, rainy November night as I walk down a muddy road.
I’m searching for cover from the elements, but my progress has been slowed
thanks to the rapidly increasing in velocity, detrimental rain fall.
I was warned not to go out tonight, but hey that was my call.
If some rain is the worst thing I encounter tonight, then it’s a small price to pay in my search for answers.
Answers to the questions that have been plaguing my mind like cancer.
      They will be answered tonight; the blackest pits of my soul can feel it.
It’s either that, or an insane asylum will have me committed.

After a long, tiring journey, I enter a small, old run down town.
Only one building is lit up, it must be this towns shining crown.
It’s an old Tavern…I guess I could go for a drink.
Maybe they will have a warm room with a shower to rent out for the night, I’m beginning to stink.
The front door is broken and doesn’t even close right, not a good first impression, so here’s to going in and finding out what I think.
Can’t be any worse than spending a night in a Detroit precinct.
I’m sure inside is nothing but hillbilly trash supporting full beards and covered in ink.
They will probably act judgmental and righteous, but deep down will all have their kinks.

I enter the Tavern and discover just a few men sitting around drinking some beers.
They all turn, stare deliciously evil towards me and greet me with crocked smiles that spreads across their faces ear to ear.
They seem…a little off and their eyes are corrupt with fear.
Something is off about this place and it’s not just the musk smell it has developed over the years.
I approach the bar keep and ask him for his stiffest drink.
I nods in agreement and mumbles something that sounds like I need a shrink.
He returns quickly with the drink and tells me it will be five dollars.
I pay right away not wanting to develop a reputation of dishonor.

I ask the man if there is a room around town that I can rent for the night.
His eyes tear threw me with a look of despite,
then tells me the only room available to rent for the night in this town is here in the tavern,
but warns me that no one has rented it out in years and allowing me to do so now would be a hazard,
since there is something dangerously wrong with the room.
It’s consumed by feelings of death and doom.
No one that has ever entered the room as come back out the same.
I tell him that’s a shame,
because I have cold hard cash and I’m willing to pay.
He tells me he wants to show me this room that he has sealed away.

He leads me down a hall located next to the bar.
At the end of the hallway is a ladder that I find a bit bizarre.
At the top of the ladder is a door that has been chained shut.
I have a bad feeling stirring in my gut.
I think I hear something growling from behind the door.
The man tells me that last person to step foot up there only lasted a few minutes, that he personally counted four.
He ran out of the room straight out the bars front door and was last seen in an asylum not far from town.
He suggests I go to the next town over and look around,
 but I’m drawn to this room since something frightening and evil lurks inside.
Something evil whose existed along with mine are about to collide.

I give the man some money and tell him to open the door.
He shakes his head and reluctantly accepts telling me I have no idea what I have in store.
He unchains and door as I climb up the ladder to go inside.
I’m nervous for sure, if I told you otherwise, well that would be a lie.

I enter the room and close the door behind me.
Loud piercing screams instantly attack my ear drums dropping me to my knees.
Laughter echoes around me along with a message to turn around and run,
however, I’m here to do what must be done.

With the screams still assaulting my ear drums, I’m grabbed from behind and quickly dragged towards the back of the room,
where I’m strung up by my arms via chains that are attached to the ceiling.
A light is dimly lit as I’m approached by a shadow man with his glowing red eyes.
He stops in front of me to seemly admire his prize.

“You shouldn’t have come here; this isn’t where you belong,
and now you will have to pay for being in the wrong.
You need to mind your own business and allow me to do my work from the shadows.
Leave me be in peace to continue to compose
your life as I see fit!
I’m the one in control of your life you hypocrite!
This is the second time you have sought me out and invaded my home,
now go back to your own realm and continue dwelling on your insecurities every day that you carry with you deep down in your tiny, weak dome.”

“You don’t understand, you’re a leech whose been sucking the life out of me,
and now I’m winning the war between us and you’re afraid that soon I’ll be free.
Free of you and all of your negativity for good!
I’m beginning to kill you off for good as I should.
Light has found its way into my heart and soul,
and now I’m sending you straight back to hell so you can explain to your creator how you failed your goal
of taking me over for good.”

“You sure are full of yourself for someone who has been lost in the dark with me for as long as you have.
You don’t even know how to function without me it’s been so long since you’ve been on your own.
You’re afraid to live life without me.
That’s why you cling onto me like I’m the stump to your tree.”

“You’re wrong, I’m advancing in life and leaving you behind.
This decade long dark chapter of my life is coming to an end.
There is no room for you in my life any longer,
so I’m here to say goodbye and send you back to where you came from.”

The fiend whose eyes are growing even more red places his hands on the side of my heard and gets right up in my face.

“No one gives one single fuck about you so do yourself a favor and end your life already!
If you’re too much of a coward to use a gun I can provide you with a machete.
Maybe a few people will feel sorry for you if you end your life that way.
At least you would be fulfilling your destiny of joining me for eternity in the gray.
I know you feel the calling to do just that every miserable day.
I know how you long for just one person to notice your pain and give you a hug to help take the pain away.
I know how you feel lost because no one understands how you feel since everyone that does has already fulfilled their obligations by ending their lives with their own hands.
I know that you want to expose me to the world and think you can actually make a difference,
but let’s be honest, no one pays attention to you and your efforts will make very small dent.
You think this is the end of us…”

“This is the end of us…”

My eyes shoot awake as I wake up drenched in sweat.
I look at my alarm clock, it tells me it’s 3 am.
3 am.
O good, it’s 3 am.