I stared into the rim of my glass. The dark combination of rum and coke was distasteful. I didn’t like drinking. But there was a time and place for everything.

This month? This was a drinking month.

I took another long sip.

The drink was metallic and burned on the way down. I winced at the distasteful flavor, but the pain hurt so good.

My mind went blank as I stared back into the dark drink. The rising bubbles and the fizzling sound of the escaping gasses were music to my buzzing ears.

The advantage of being a lightweight was that a buck stretched a lot further.

"B52. Nine. Please," the man's voice clipped out.

I turned over to see the dark-haired man sitting at the bar a few stools away from me. He was Asian and he simply stared into his cell phone.

I blinked and looked over to the bartender. A fit, young white man. The man had the bold words [Racist] was a warm color. Red and brown. Which meant that he was active with his crimes. The title changed from brown to red. Then a dark red.

The color shifted as the Asian man absently tossed a Benjamin onto the counter. The bartender narrowed his eyes and scanned the money. Finding it clean, he happily began to prepare the drinks.

The title reduced itself to an irritated red.

I moved my eyes over to the waitress. An older white girl with tattoos and piercings. [Theft] in a chalky white. She had last done with her crime a long time ago. Which as far as the things he had seen... she was a virtuous one indeed.

Asian man? [Deicide] in an inky black.

Deicide!? Like regicide!? A murderer!

I felt my jaw clench and I made sure to look back into my drink. Anything with such dark coloring meant that it was best to keep your nose down.

I instead took a gulp of my own drink. The combination of sweetness and fire quelled my unease.

The quick slurps of the man slamming back three of his drinks caught my attention. I pulled out my phone, praying that I could ignore the situation.

Which was a mistake?

I stared at her. Her smiling face. Her blue eyes. The cascade of brown hair. The alerts of nearly four dozen text messages from her winked at me.

I focused only on her eyes. Those brilliant blues. Like swans on a lake…

I could still see it. Those words were burned into my eyes.

[Adulteress] in that passionate red. It was fierce like molten metal.

Of course, I investigated. I touched on the crime. Which spawned so many instances. So many words that I overwhelmed and I spent the rest of the night throwing up into the toilet.

She was only gone for half a year. 6 months where she had decided she had loved another.

I wasn’t sure what hurt worst. My heart or my body after spending a quarter of a day dry heaving into the porcelain throne.

I chocked on my own tears and runny nose. I blinked as I quickly cleaned myself up.

I had broken up with her and it definitely hurt me more then it hurt her.

"Tissue?" the man asked and I saw a box of tissues slide up to me. I gratefully grabbed a few sheets and blew my nose.

A huge plate of starters slid onto the table between us, the waitress smiled as she slid over another rum and coke, as well as a glass of water for me.

"Eat," the man said. It wasn't an offer.

I swallowed as the command was practically hammering at my heart.

Which was why it took me so long to understand the world. When did I move? How did I move?

I was sitting in a booth and opposite of the man with [Deicide].

"We need to talk," the man said as he began to wolf down on the food. Various other dishes began to fill the table and I began to eat. His glare softened after my first bite.

Which lead to me trying to out eat the man as it had been over a day since my last meal.

The food was good. Fresh, hot, and flavorful.

It was only near the end of the meal. When I was stuffed full and he was still going at full power. It was disturbing at how much he ate.

Yet I stayed silent as he finished up. I didn't know what to say. I did have a lot of questions though.

The man let out a large belch and patted his stomach. He smiled for the first time since I had seen him.

"Tell me, young man. What do you know of our world and the gods that dwell within it?" he asked as he leaned back and met my eyes.

"What?" I asked as I was taken back. It was my most eloquent moment, but hey. That was just the surface of how weird this was going.

The man chuckled as he dropped three Benjamins and stood up. I followed suit as I definitely didn't want to stay here any longer then I had to.

Which didn't work in my favor as the moment I blinked, we were now standing before a pavilion. Asian architecture was telling.

The air was warm, humid, and soothing. I looked around the garden of flowers and I noticed a pond circling the gazebo-like structure. Fish swam water so clear that they looked like they were floating.

The winds whistled. It was an actual tune. I had heard it on the radio today on my way to the bar.

The man was holding up a hand and two little fairies danced between his fingers. They giggled as they eventually landed on his palm.

"Come," the man ordered and I followed. "One with the eyes of judgment is very rare. I believe this will be the start of a strong relationship. If not a deep friendship"

We made our way to the stone benches, were felt like stiff memory foam. The teapot had steam rising from its spout and the air hole on the lid.

The man introduced himself, and my world changed. Just like that.