Chapter 16. "What happened in here?"

The conversations returned once the men had left, filling the bar with the buzz of life.

Danny had long lowered his hands and stared at the weapon that lay on the ground. 

Putting a reassuring hand on the young man's back, Diane bent down and picked the sword up. Placing it in his hands she motioned the younger man to place it back in the kitchen.

With his head lowered in shame Danny took the sword back into the kitchen.

"Oh Danny," Mia said with a hint of pity in her voice. 

Against Maya's better judgment, she urged Mia, the closest person to Danny, to see if he was doing alright after the confrontation. 

Nodding her head at the suggestion she scooted past her sister in the booth and headed into the backroom.

"C'mon Charon, let's go help Diane." 

Maya and Charon made their way towards Diane who was busy cleaning up the smashed furniture and broken plates. 

Without saying a word about the confrontation the three cleaned up. 

The tavern had gone back to the normal atmosphere but there was a small tense feeling in the air, some of the folks in there had taken what Blaine said to heart. Yet they refused to address it and chose to stick to idle chatter to fill up the air.

As they worked in silence Charon couldn't shake off the lingering thought left in Blaine's wake.

'Diane wasn't here when the Eshkar attacked?'

He was curious about what he had said. What did he mean the Eshkar attacked? What even were the Eshkar and why did everybody seem to know who they were, also why wasn't Diane here to witness it? All these thoughts stirred in his head as he continued to clean. 

Dragging a large piece of broken wood behind him he followed the two older women as they headed for a door in the back. Following their lead, he did not put too much care into where he put the broken pieces. 

Some of the other good samaritans of the tavern offered to help them but Diane held up a hand and told them it was fine. Heading the words of the ballsy barkeeper they paid their dues before heading out, the atmosphere too awkward for them to handle. 

Eventually, even those who had chosen to ignore the awkward atmosphere found themselves unable to continue and started slowly funneling out. 

After an hour or so of this progress, all the customers paid and left the building. During that time the young girl Charon saw came back down too, she walked around with a notebook in hand. She wrote a couple of things down before heading back up the stairs.

Danny had already joined the others in cleaning up the mess but he hadn't said a word to the others. Charon didn't know what Mia said to him but it didn't seem like it worked.

After the cleaning was done Diane went behind the bar and began closing it for the night. Charon, Mia, and Maya stayed behind as the nun turned off all the pipes and cleaned the interior. The nuns refused to leave one of their kind behind.

"Is he gonna be alright?" Maya asked her sister as they sat at the bar.

Mia turned to look sideways at Danny who was currently cleaning up all the tables she responded, "I don't know. I tried to talk to him in the kitchen but he wouldn't respond. It was like he couldn't hear a word I was saying." Sadness was evident in her voice.

"Mm, I'm sure he'll be fine. Give him some time and he'll be back to normal." Maya reassured her sister.

Charon had been sitting at the bar with the others sipping a bubbly drink given to him by Diane when he heard footsteps approaching from the kitchen door. 

Exiting the kitchen in a white, grease-stained shirt tucked into his pants was a man with a large almost over-bearing stomach. Taking his hairnet off Charon almost wondered what the middle-aged man was trying to prevent from falling into the food, this guy was almost fully bald!

"You girls doing alright?" The chef asked the three girls at the bar who gave positive responses.

Tilting his head to the side he looked at the end of the table, just out of his field of vision was a young boy he didn't recognize.

"And you boy?" He asked, to which Charon responded with a hearty nod of his head.

A small awkward smile appeared on the man's face, "Good."

Biting the inside of his cheek he walked up to Danny who had just got done picking the last plate of leftovers up. 

Lowering his voice to not embrace Danny in front of the guests he talked to the young man, "Son, it's alright. You can head to bed for the night. I'll need you tomorrow to work again." He said to Danny with a gentle rub on his back. "I'll take this too." Taking the handful of dirty plates he assured him it was alright and took them back to the kitchen. 

Danny without saying a word to the others left and headed back up the stairs.

Charon watched the process with an eyebrow raised. 

'Son?'

"You done yet Di?" One of the nuns asked her in faltering patience.

"Yeah just give me one second."

Opening her hand to the young Charon she gestured with a move of her fingers for his glass. Reluctantly giving up the bubbly drink he hadn't finished yet, he watched Diane toss the leftovers into the drain and quickly wash it. Placing the cup back into its rightful place as she finally looked at the three.

"Alright, I'm all done." 

The three nuns left after wishing the chef goodbye and headed back to the church. 

"Goodbye, Mr. Delores!" Diane said with a wave of her hand. "Make sure to give your wife my regards."

"Will do Diane, thank you for coming on such short notice." The older man gave a fatherly grin watching the four of them leave.

Exiting the tavern Charon couldn't tell how long they had been at the bar but knew it to be more than a couple hours at the least. He could tell it was nearing the end of the nightlife from the lack of villagers roaming the streets being significantly less than when they arrived.

The four of them walked in silence for a while until Charon found a peculiar rock on the cobbled street to kick. Kicking the rock continually as he walked he made sure it never went out of his reach. 

Accidentally putting too much force into his kick he sent the almost round rock into a nearby alleyway.

Cursing his lack of restraint he failed the internal battle of letting go of the rock and followed it into the alley.

Stepping into the alleyway, he searched for the round rock but couldn't find it. Finally giving up, he was about to head back to rejoin the nuns when something odd caught the edge of his vision.

'Hm?' 

Focusing his eyes he attempted to spot what the movement was. After a few seconds and failing to find whatever it was he decided to chalk it up to just a stray animal and left the alley behind.

"Charon let's go! You don't want to be left behind do you?" 

Picking up his pace, he ran back to the nuns as two small yellow eyes followed his movements from the shadows.

'Charon?'