Night's Omen

Prompt List

• Sapphire
• Danger
• River
• Rejection
• Halloween
• Memory
• Knife
• Innocence
• Guard
• Pain

"Hey! Don't fucking yell at me!" Lala shouted directly into the face of a customer who had had far too much to drink and was getting rowdy at her side of the bar. She fucking hated holidays, and this was the worst one of them all. She'd been one of the few people who decided not to attend the annual Masquerade Ball that the guilds threw downtown every year, and instead agreed to stay back and run the show for the Hellcat's Hollow Halloween Bash.

The sound of her yelling over the music and other patrons had brought Dave from the back, where he spotted her making a cutting motion at her throat while pointing at the customer who had tried to take money out of Lala's tip jar in response to her telling him to "go fuck himself" when he told her he knew the owner. It didn't help that her t-shirt, which barely covered her breasts, was all black with white puffy paint font that said I KNOW THE OWNER. Her Hallween costume? Annoying customer.

"I'm gonna fuckin' kill Darren for leaving me here," Lala spat, digging at some ice in the trough with the scoop so she could make the fourteenth batch of 3 dollar Halloween margaritas. Serena took the scoop from her gently, placing her other hand on Lala's shoulder.

"Why don't you go take a smoke break?" she suggested. "We're here until close, and I need you not to punch another customer," she reminded her.

Lala exhaled through her nose. "He deserved it," she protested. "He didn't want to pay the twenty dollar asshole fee. And, he called me a cunt," she added.

"Oh, I fully believe he deserved it. What I mean is, if you bruise your hands up too much, your little buddy is gonna come back and blame me, and frankly, I don't feel like having to pull he and Ray apart," she laughed. She was referring to the stranger who had been quite taken with Lala - they had history, Serena didn't know what kind, but she bet it was complicated. Everything here was complicated. And she had no trouble believing he wouldn't get right up in a gargoyle's face on behalf of the blonde. It was admirable, if not weird - but Lala hadn't said anything to make them think he was a threat, so...  Darren and Serena nicknamed him Schmendrick, but only because he hung around Lala like she was a unicorn.

Which, she was, of course - but none of them knew that. They just knew 'Fae'. But the Gargoyles respected her - treated her with, a reverence, if you could call it that? Aiden trusted her with Aoife, almost blindly, and Ray said "She's good people," which was Ray-speak for "trust her".

Lala's frown wavered a little, and her maybe-we'll-skip-that-next-injection lips fought a smile. "Okay, I'll go smoke. But only because you told me to." She paused. "And I'm taking one of these." And with that, she took a near-empty bottle of Fireball from the ice, dislodging the topper and tossing it to Serena before leaving the bar. It was already in her mouth before she rounded the corner.

Once outside, she pressed the chilled glass against her forehead, trying to will the ringing in her ears away. Fucking humans, they were so obnoxious. At least Ash had finally agreed to fence off the employee smoking area so customers wouldn't wander from the smoke patio back here to try and bother them on their breaks. She lit the cigarette she'd pulled from the pack and took a long drag. As she exhaled, she held it out, looking at it. It was so funny - a few years ago, the pollution in the city alone made her cough. She had been so pure, so undamaged. But now? She finished the rest of the cinnamon whiskey and threw the bottle up in a neat arc - it shattered as it hit the bottom of the empty dumpster. At least the trash had come.

It was unusually warm in the late October air - or maybe that was just the energy of the bar radiating off of her. Either way, she wound her long blonde hair up into a messy bun, pulling it off her neck, where it had begun to get slightly damp with sweat. This form was so cumbersome and clumsy to her, even still. She'd agreed to take a busy shift knowing that the busier she was, the less she would be alone with her thoughts, and she laughed a little, because she'd gone off on her own to be alone with her thoughts. A noise at the door caused her to glance up, and Seraphine stuck her head out.

"Hey, Serena said she needs you," she said. She smiled regretfully. "Sorry, I know it hasn't been fifteen minutes, but a bunch of people from the Masquerade showed up. Oh, Ash and Danielle are back though, so at least you won't have to keep the peace so hard anymore," she added.

"Alright, I'll be right in. Is that guy ready to do the costume contest? What the fuck is his name - Ocho?"

Seraphine nearly choked. "You mean Otto?" she asked. "Yeah, he is."

"Alright, good. Make sure the king of lemurs lays off the super liquid until after that, I don't want him falling over on stage."

She took another moment to herself before heading back in, just in time for Otto, dressed like King Henry the 8th, to take the stage. "Happy Halloween, everyone!" he cheered. "Let me tell you a story about how I fought the Headless horseman. That's right, THE headless horseman!"