After all the convolution I went through to get to that point, including waiting for the file to unzip, the file could only open through a 3D viewer. And of course, I had to wait until it finished rendering the thing―were it someone else, they would have given up by then. But for me? I had nothing to lose. If anything, I became more invested in seeing it through thanks to another helping of Ma Lu’s cinnamon pie. When the rendering finished, at the expense of a PC fan whining as loud as aircraft afterburners, I had to blink to make sure I was seeing things right.

The only way I could describe the objects, in the context that they made up a 3D file was that they were a string of free floating script. They were bound together such that the characters formed pyramids, cubes and all those shapes that had -hedrons suffixes. I knew I’d seen them somewhere, maybe in a game collector's shop. And they kept turning faces every which way―at that point I was more befuddled by their animation rather than what the characters meant. However, the more I watched them the more they seemed to pull at my consciousness until I could not pull my eyes from them.

‘Shit!’ I slammed down the laptop lid with a jump. I felt goosebumps blossom up my bare arms, and it wasn't because I was half naked save for my bandages and trousers. Unconsciously I stepped backwards, knocking back my chair. I felt woozy as if someone was kneading my brain with their elbows.

The characters I’d seen were pulsing at the forefront of my mind as clear as the instant I’d beheld them. My vision suddenly started swimming, murking the surroundings in hypnotic whorls of iridescence. They made my stomach feel queasy and loopy—I had the sudden urge to fall asleep as I braced myself against the wall.

The sound of an alarm ringing roused me. I found my cheek squished against the rug carpet, with my hand numb and twisted awkwardly beneath my body. I groaned as pins and needles rippled across the arm like fire ants across my skin as I levered myself from the floor using the wall for support.

Running my tongue over my teeth, I winced, tasting metal―my first instinct was to look at the bar in my vision. The scarlet strokes hadn’t budged since the last time I’d seen them. It was the second bar that gave me pause―it was one pixel away from being blank. Somehow, I knew that was the explanation for the bone-deep weariness that pervaded my body as I stumbled towards my phone to quell the alarm.

‘ Damn aliens,’ I cursed, chagrined at my lack of foresight. They got me good dropping that bomb on my lap. It hurt to think, because my mind keeps going back to the floating glyphs in my mind. I don’t know how I knew they were glyphs but I just knew. ‘Great, jinxed myself with that exo-linguistics quip didn’t I?’ I murmured as the alarm died down. The phone rung again―

“What now?!” I glowered at the phone, then suddenly cooled. It was Old Bentham calling. I’d forgotten that was the alarm I set whenever I would start my shift at the White Raven.

“ Hello?” I spoke into the phone.

“ Oy, boyo!―Heard from Thomas that you passed by the bar like one o’ the bats from hell were at yer arse,” I had to hold the phone at an arm's length and scour my ear to get the ringing whine out of them. Old man Bentham was loud, the old fogey.

“....you coming?”

“ Pardon me Mister Betham, I didn’t catch what you said―”

“ Ah, I was sayin’ we held yer job for yer down by the bar; and from the looks of it it sounded like yer really needed it too,” Old man Bentham said with a sympathetic note in is voice. I didn’t know what to say,

“ Mister Bentham, I don’t know what Thomas told you but―”

“ Shush shush boyo, you come we talk. Can’t have yer staying like one of them homeless―must’ve cost a pretty penny stayin’ a month in hospital. I don’t expect yer to start today but I’d appreciate it if yer showed yer face. Them patrons been asking for you,”

“ Ah―” the line was dead before I got a word in. The old geezer liked to have the last word in; I didn’t know if going to the bar was a good idea. Plus it had been a while since I wore my uniform, I bet those shirts would be quite a tight fit. I guessed I would worry about the alien glyphs in my mind later―at least I didn’t bleed my brains out.

After freshening up, which meant dubbing with a wet towel and taming my unruly hair I exchanged my trousers for a clean pair. For the outfit upper I chose a blue shirt for the evening and threw on a half coat to hide the bulges of my bandages. They were starting to itch too; I didn’t know what that was all about but I took the antibiotics.

Before I left, I made sure everything was stocked in the fridge and powered down my laptop making a mental note to revisit that strange file later. I grabbed my brogues on the way out and carried the trenchcoat along with me. I also remembered to carry my own phone and glasses this time.

Thankfully, there were no shifty characters as I made my way to the bar on foot. I could tell because I had a good command of my surroundings. My peripheral perception was broader and quick to pick and commit to things so subtly I wouldn’t have been aware of it. It felt like I’d been this way a while. I was able to walk on autopilot while mulling over the events that had transpired the whole of today.

Going forward it was glaringly obvious that my life would not be normal but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t interested where this was going. I knew things would start moving along after the afternoon’s info dump, including the esoteric symbols roiling around in my head. I knew they had something to do with the second bar which was surprisingly half full by now and I could almost swear it was filling up at an increasing rate. I could not wait to call and tell Lucas about it―

‘ Uh,’ I recalled we’d parted in awkward circumstances. Nonetheless, I really needed to see Cass; I felt like I owed her that.

Soon enough, the murmur of revelry and soft music could be heard as I approached my destination. The White Raven’s ambience had also spilled into the nearby street; there were patrons sitting under the eaves and outdoor seating. One street beyond that was the city’s river conveying boats through its waters. I ducked into the alley where the back exit. Before I opened the door, I adopted the persona I’d been cultivating as a bartender. I knew I was not expected to make an appearance at the counter but it couldn’t hurt to be prepared.

“ Boyo!” Old man Bentham called out to me as soon as I’d shut the back exit behind me. “ I was just about to call you,” I winced as the proprietor’s Irish brogue bounced around the hallway. He was coming out of the break-room when he met me.

“ Good evening Mister Bentham,” I said, ducking my head.

“ Huh, Rye, is that you lad?” he said, squinting at me from behind his glasses as if in disbelief. “ I swear, he wasn’t this tall wasn’t he Mikkel?” he asked. To the left was the break room, and the proprietor’s office beyond while the right had a storeroom where one of my co-workers, Mikkel I think his name was , retrieved a couple bottles of lager. The youth cradling the bottles ducked out of the stories and paused short of me sizing me up and down; he was the quiet type, even more so than me. “ He’s taller―” he grunted as he made his way to the front, passing through a pair of swivel doors that gave and creaked with the motion.

“ Eh, I guess I used to slouch?” I shrugged. I was too noticeable to those who’d known me for a while, even with the glasses I wasn’t fooling anyone. If anything, they were more of a hindrance since rather than trying to correct anything, they pulled at my eyes. I didn't know why I even bothered―glasses were not a very good disguise anyway.

“ Hoho, you found a sense of humor too eh?” he said, his hoary jowls quivering with mirth. “ Come on then, share a drink with me before yer go to the front? Some people want to meetcha,”

‘Hmm, those are not just the usuals are they?’ I thought that the proprietor had been talking about the patrons―I knew he knew most by name. It was not often that the occasional tourist would swing by unless they were acquainted with someone who knew this little corner served good beer and choice poisons. However, I nodded mutely as he led me to the break-room. Since it seemed like avoiding this was just delaying the inevitable, I wanted to confront it tonight. Better to see who wanted to bother me soon enough―