Crazy Or Stupid
Winston was lying on the ground, his hands were tied behind him with the rope, and his face was inside the rag. But he was conscious now and listening to the conversation.
"Fine, hope you put that extra half, you snatch away from me into your stinking ass", the woman said growling and walked away out of the bar.
"You know it, better than anyone baby", the man said sarcastically, with a victorious smile, and put his hand inside his pants pocket and took out two little bottles the size of eye drops serum.
There was dark black shining thick liquid inside that bottle, which looks like boiling tar. While before handing it to the bald man, he paused for a moment, and said, " there is a shortage of nectar everywhere, hope you will be wise with it", he raised his eyebrow as he finished what he was saying, staring with wide open eyes.
The bald man almost snatched the bottles, one full and one half, from his hand, " you don't have to worry about that" he said, with a little pause, it's like he wants to say something else, but mold his words last moments.
The man gave him an angry gaze as if he read the unsaid word and picked up Winston from the ground, but before he could make him stand, Winston slipped away from his hands.
The man runs to catch Winston, but Winston jumps up in the air and blows him with a kick. Which busted his jaw, and he fell to the ground, holding his jaw.
The two who were playing cards, put down their cards and ran towards Winston to catch him, but before they could reach him, Winston jump up, pulled his hand from his back to his front side, and punched one of them, and the bald man punched Winston's face.
Winston falls to the ground, he removes the rag from his face, and now he can see everything. He was looking angry with that punch, he ran towards the bald man, bounced on his chest and strike on his head with his elbow.
The bald man fell to the ground, and another man came to hit Winston, but Winston rolled out and grabbed his neck with a rope that was tied to his hand and pushed him to the ground. The man grumbled for a few seconds and fell unconscious.
The man who was passed out on a table woke up in chaos.
Winston loosens the rope from his hand with his teeth. He picked up the dark bottles that were rolling on the floor and stepped toward the man.
"Do you have a cigarette?"
The man put his hand inside his pocket, pulled out the pack of cigarettes, and offered it to Winston. His eyes were wide open with shock and fear.
Winston pulled out one cigarette from it, and put it on his lips, "lighter?", Winston said softly.
The man put the cigarette packet back into his pocket and pulled out the lighter, Winston took it and lit his cigarette.
He took a breath of smoke inside,
"It doesn't feel the way it feels when you are alive, does it?" Winston said, flinging the smoke out.
The man didn't say anything, he still looks high and had doubts about whether what was happening is real or just another bad trip.
Winston turned and look at the counter, the woman who was at the counter, was out at some distance from the bar, smoking her cigarette, completely unaware of what was happening inside.
"Do these things burn like alcohol?" Winston asked pointing towards the bottles on the shelf, but the man was still silent.
Winston paused for a moment and said, starting at the bottles,
"I think, I need to know it by myself", and he tossed the lighter in his hand towards the bottles.
The lighter has its flame on, it flew through the air and struck a yellow bottle. The bottle broke and liquid started to spill out from the bottle, and the moment it touched fire It start spreading rapidly, and the man starts running toward the door.
Before Winston could understand anything, the fire turned into a blast and threw the man from the door and Winston from a broken window out.
The whole bar was on fire, the woman who was smoking a cigarette was shocked at what happened? and started running towards the bar.
Winston was on the ground, he had a few bruises on his face and hand. He sat on the ground looking toward the burning bar.
" So it does burn?" Winston said with a sarcastic smile on his face.
The man looked at Winston coughing from the smoke that went inside his lungs, which had made him sober now, and said,
"I can't decide if you're crazy or stupid?"
"I have so many good qualities," Winston said, and looked at the man with a smile and with a little pause he continued,
"It can be hard to choose, which one describes me the best"
The woman came from behind running while grasping her breath,
"What have you done? You asshole", she shouted looking with anger at Winston.
Winston laughed while standing on his feet,
"Out of all the people, you should know that," he said, trying to tease her.
The woman looked at him with questionable eyes. Winston again lit his half burned cigarette and started walking away, while she stared at him from behind,
"I didn't burn you with it, I think I pay for my drink", Winston said, while walking away without looking back.
Warrington, the city near the border of the Qeorin dynasty, is known for its madness. Most of the souls living here spent their time drinking toxins, and smuggling humans and animals' souls across the border. It's the most corrupt city of the Drulian dynasty.
As they say, in a mad world, only the mad are sane. filthy roads filled with people wearing ragged clothes. A body may die, but the illusion that people carry through their life stays. The illusion that there is something that belongs to them. Most people spent their time in hell, believing that they still have their physical bodies.
And toxins help them to keep this belief. The hardest thing for any person to realise is that they are the bad ones. The amount of arrogance they create over this ignorance can be seen in their eyes while walking through the narrow streets of Warrington.
Toxins are extracted from animal souls. Different animals have different toxins, the higher the animal in the food chain, the better the toxin.
Toxins create the illusion of reality in your mind, that you wanted. People in hell often chose to run away from the reality of hell. The reality of their existence. Such people became a slave to their habits. They are ready to do anything for toxins.
So there is high demand for toxins everywhere, and to buy toxins either you need nectar or a human soul. So people often capture someone and sell them for toxins. In Warrington, there are many tribes, who are constantly in a fight with each other for control over this trade.
The moon just appeared in the sky, and till now Winston has realised that in hell it's always a night. Moon flashes in the sky for a few hours and then hides behind the dark clouds rolling across the sky and comes moonless hours filled with even more darkness.
Winston's vision has become clearer now, he can see quite far than before. He was walking through the forest, with every footstep the dry leaves lying on the ground were making a crunching noise like someone is munching chips. The howling of animals, and the playful wind were flirting with the sleeping leaves on a tree, with their touch the leaves on the tree were grumping with the noise. Chasing away the wind like a beautiful girl chasing away the guy stalking her.
"Is it cold, what is it? How am I feeling? He didn't know how to make sense of his feelings, it was different, something he has never experienced before. At this very moment, he looked at his confused mind trying to make a decision, trying to be certain in an unknown land.
The environment of hell is different, and it's started taking over Winston. In his mind, he was still an old Winston, the king of the Asian mafia. But who is he, in this unknown place? The question starts swirling into his mind like a snake around a sandalwood tree.