The drink was free, but it was also the most expensive drink I'd ever have.
I passed the club almost every day, and on almost every one of those days, the barker was out the front, talking about how hot the girls were inside, how cheap the drinks were, how good the food was, every tactic to try and get me inside. I never bit.
Eventually, he offered me a free drink, if I just came in, once. So I did, just to get him off my back.
I went in, had a free drink, then saw Her on stage.
Every squad in the trenches had the weird one. Most of the time, it was the one who was trying to get out of the war. But we had Private Janeway.
He had a look in his eye that seemed to always be staring at a point two feet behind you, he got letters written in what I hoped was red pen from home, and he had a grenade from the enemy on his belt at all times. 'To take out the one responsible', he repeatedly claimed.
That turned out to be our squad leader when Janeway took a bullet.
The Evil One ruled for a century, using various deluded humans to reside in as it carried out its evil machinations. But eventually a group of humans managed to seal it away in a magic jar at the bottom a bottomless lake.
But then, centuries later, fracking activities disturbed the jar, and broke it enough to release The Evil One, which quickly sought out a powerful human to reside in, choosing a merchant who had more gold than all the kings left.
The Evil One needed a long time to work out why its machinations were apparently an obvious improvement.
Waking up in a hospital isn't the worst outcome, I grant you, given what I was attempting to do.
Waking up feeling like I'd fallen off a skyscraper and hot-glued back together, that's not ideal, sure, but not unexpected.
Waking up with no-one around, and the hospital looking deserted, that's very much in the ballpark of unlikely, but possible, and something to be concerned about.
Waking up at least two years after you last knew the date, according to the newspaper left on the table, that does fit in with all the above.
Waking up to the apocalypse, that's depressing.
A customer walked into the shop, the bell ringing as they entered.
I emerged from the back.
"Hello, can I help you?"
They stood there, with their back to me, staring at the bell.
"Hello?"
They turned back around, pointing at the bell.
"Where did you get that bell?"
"Uh...
It was here when I bought the property, Miss."
"And when was that?"
"Ten years ago, in a week. That's why we have a special on-"
"That bell, I know that ring from my childhood. Does the name Janny mean anything to you?"
"It-"
"Don't say it!"
"... Sounds familiar, yes."
I sat down at the screen, my arms crossed as the technician ran through the patter, explaining how they'd mapped my brother's brain to the molecular level and recreated him in the cloud, so he could live forever.
"Hey Brobro, how are you?"
That was what he always called me, but that was easy enough.
"What's the password then?"
The virtual representation that proported to be my brother paused.
"For my laptop?"
"No, you know the one. You've passed on, technically. What's the password?"
The face froze, then after a moment spat out "Hellisantosjumbleluck".
Wasn't him. Our password was "Fellisontosjumpleduck".
He studied the book for his entire life, looking for the key to immortality inside it. His master had told him it was the key right before he died, which was a point against thinking it held the key to immortality. But he would always tell me his master rejected immortality for some esoteric reason.
When he died, he gave me the book, telling me to find the key for him.
I just went to the end location of the map in the book, to say that I tried.
And found a book shaped indent as part of a lock.
