Helping Bookworm and the others had been relatively simple, and Beryl had moved beyond worrying about it. What happened at the asylum stayed at the asylum, and all anyone needed to know was the Captain was fit to return to duty. The entire affair had avoided the tabloids and few were the wiser there had ever been an absence.
With a slight bounce to her step, Beryl made her way to Alleycats for the pre-Halloween gathering. The Clockhaven moreau bar was relatively busy this evening. Baird was in a conversation with a group near the front where he had a bag of treats to give out. The back seemed deserted, except for a very disgruntled Mr. Wright sitting at the bar.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Wright sneered at her as he drank his beer.
“I thought this was supposed to be a friendly gathering, Mr. Wright.” She snorted at his comment dismissively. “Shouldn’t you be happy? Everyone escaped relatively unscathed from recent events.” Beryl replied vaguely, but kept her head high at his challenge, refusing to show him weakness.
“I’d be happy, if half this town hadn’t gone off their bloody rocker!” Wright shouted drunkenly, and Beryl wondered if he had missed the good news about it. She hoped he would remember to keep what happened relatively quiet. At least a few heads had turned their way, which was attention they did not want.
Wright leaned forward, growling more quietly, “Define escape, and please choose your words carefully..”
“Escape from their predicament,” she replied in mounting confusion as she moved beside him.
“Define predicament…” his eyes narrowed and she could smell of alcohol coming off his breath. He wasn’t drunk, but he clearly wished he was.
“Incarceration?” Beryl replied in exasperation, but immediately regretted it.
“Yes. You helped them escape by ending their incarceration.” The wolf seethed as he pointed his cup at her accusingly, his brow furrowed and his teeth bared, “By which you mean being locked up in the asylum because they are actively giving their minds away to a dark entity who has tried to kill us all.”
“What?!” This time it was her who was being too loud. Beryl replied uncomfortably as she would rather this discussion had not taken place in public. “No. I helped them get out of that mess. The Professor released them.”
Wright seemed slightly satisfied at the news, but remained suspicious. Had he really thought she broke them out? He insisted, “Okay, define mess, what you’ve done, and their current mental states, because I am about to have a conniption…”
“They’re fine, they’re normal, and I’m not discussing that here. You’ll have to trust me…MR. Wright. Everything is exactly how it should be.”
“Yeah…this hasn’t been the best few months for trust…” Wright turned as Candance entered from the side door. Beryl pointed out to her, “Candance, tell Mr. Wright you’re fine. He seems convinced that he can’t trust me.”
“Yes, please, Candace…” Wright asked with a touch of mockery as he asked a short question that made both Beryl and Candance slightly defensive. How she felt about the ‘dark entity’ he had mentioned previously.
“If this is some trick to lock me up… ” Candance began, but at Wright’s insistence for honestly she replied, “She has an odd way at going about things, but be honest… I trust them with my life.”
“I KNEW IT!” Wright slammed his fist down on the counter in a fury as Beryl jumped slightly, and Candance folded her ears back with fear. The bar seemed tense for a moment as Wright ranted at her. Baird stood on his hind legs growling, probably a warning at destroying his bar, but she could not understand the feral animal.
Beryl left the bar quickly as the situation got worse. She grit her teeth and headed to the Bucket of Blood across town for the Halloween story. It would not hurt to be too early. She hoped the cool weather calmed her down before she got there.
Rayn DeMark, after a long day shifting through files on a new case decided to hang up his hat, so to speak, and head down the Alleycats for their Halloween celebration going on.
He loved the autumn and winter holidays even if he didn’t particularly like the snow as much.
As he started down the stairs he could hear a little bit of ruckus coming from the bar, which is not too surprising. It is a bar after all even if Baird was handing out sweets for the passing children.
What he didn’t expect was seeing Beryl move briskly from the bar and Mr. Wright yelling, “the fact that anyone would trust that fucking parasite is pure insanity!”
As Rayn started to enter the bar Wright noticed Beryl had already left and groaned loudly, “Of course. Run away!”
Wright banged his glass down as it shattered to the floor.
Baird was not pleased as he seemed incensed from Wrights previous outburst.
Now Rayn has seen many things before, and he’s seen both of the two when they were angry but Baird currently towered over Wright at his full height, which can be intimidating to anyone. What made it look strangely more intimidating was Baird for Halloween dressed up in his old circus outfit of a pointed hat and tutu.
Wright paused for a moment then looked down at the glass.
“Sorry.” he said after he calmed a bit “Hopefully this will make up for it.” He put some Quatloo on the bar and then started to walk out the door trying to find which way Beryl went.