Snippet #1655986

(Rome, Georgia)

The name of the place was the Top Hat, where William Page both lived and worked. A few decades back it had been a shop of some kind, he wanted to say crafts, but he really didn't know. What he did know when he bought it was that it was a large building with plenty of room, and it was set in what he thought of as a perfect spot for a restaurant to be. It was in the downtown area of the city, where all the fun places where, where everything happened, but it was just far enough out of the center of all that for a regular customer base to form. It was four stories tall, and painted black, making it seem like some sort of ghost among the other old buildings. He served his customers on the first floor, had the kitchen on the second, storage on the third, and lived on the fourth.

Today, however, he wished he were dead. This is because the night before he had been downstairs, drinking with a few friends who were having a party. Something about passing their finals at one of the local collages, he hadn't caught the full story, only that it was cause enough for them to all get so drunk they could no longer stand. Personally, he'd come up to his room at around three in the morning, and let his night staff handle the clean up.

"How can my head be hurting this badly and I not have a massive head wound?" Will asks himself, quietly, as he places his hands to his head and slowly sits up. Mercifully the blinds were closed to the outside world, and the lights were out as well. "How did I get up here anyway? Oh well..."

Slowly he gets to his feet, keeping his hands clamped to his head for fear that, if he does not, it will split in half or explode, or something worse that he was too tired to think up just then. In the bathroom he flips on the overhead light and winces, leaning over the sink, keeping his eyes shut, his hands on the counter. When he looks up at last, into the mirror, he notices something on his head, then begins to curse, believing the eye surrounded by flames to be a tattoo he got when he was drunk. But before he can think about it too much, he get another feeling in his head, and suddenly he begins to see pictures. Two men in some dark place, some sort of monster hidden within the shadows...then a sudden flash of light, and then everything goes dark orange and he nearly falls back, just catching himself, sitting down on the edge of the tub.

"Okay Will, that's it...no more drinking, ever," he mutters to himself, keeping his eyes shut.