Part 7 - The Bar

That same evening, O'Brian was pulling up to a bar far outside the city limits for his meeting with The Benefactor. The flashing neon sign announced "O'Brien's Food and Spirits" to the surrounding wastes. O'Brian got out of the car and steeled himself for the upcoming meeting. His hand instinctual went to the pendant, its cool weight reassuring him.

O'Brian pushed the doors open and walked int O'Brien's. As much as O'Brian liked O'Brien, he couldn't stand his bar. It wasn't the location or the decor that put him off so much as it was the clientele. O'Brien had been failed pretty spectacularly by the education system, and had reached adulthood with a very basic misunderstanding of the various ways the term 'Spirits' could be used. As such, O'Brien's bar was sort of a mystic watering hole. There was a werewolf sipping whiskey at the bar while a Poltergeist with a glass of Port was chatting up a Banshee drinking a bottle of Blue Moon near the pool table. A very drunk demon was at the karaoke machine, belting out a version of "Tiny Dancer" in an eldritch tongue.

O'Brian walked up to the bar and asked the bartender where he could find O'Brien. The vampire bartender finished straining a cocktail for the impatient looking cockatrice clucking in his direction and pointed O'Brian towards the office in the back. O'Brian walked over to O'Brien's office and walked in.

"O'Brian?" asked O'Brien, looking up from his books.

"Hey O'Brien," responded O'Brian, "It's been a long time."

O'Brien stood up and gave O'Brian a hearty hug. The two men had been fast friends ever since O'Brian had helped O'Brien out of a jam in Burma. Ever since then O'Brian had helped O'Brien finance O'Brien's and in return O'Brien maintained an open conduit to The Benefactor for O'Brian.

"I need to speak with Him" said O'Brian

"This soon?" asked O'Brien. "You were in here only a few months ago."

"I know O'Brien," said O'Brian, "but something's come up that He needs to hear about."

O'Brien nodded, and wordlessly moved to the bookshelf in the back of his office. Pushing it out of the way, he revealed the stone door hidden behind it. Rough hewn of an onyx like stone, it lacked any discernible features, save the round indentation at its center. O'Brien stepped to the side, allowing O'Brian to come forward. O'Brian took the pendant from his pocket and fit it in the indentation. It fit in with a strangely loud 'SNAP' and the world shifted.

O'Brian was no longer in O'Brien's office. He was standing in an empty, white expanse that seemed to stretch forever in every direction. From behind him he heard a voice roll out from the expanse.

"Ah, O'Brian. I have been expecting you. Sit."

O'Brian turned and where there was nothing a moment before, there was suddenly something. Two leather armchairs sat in the expanse, one occupied and one empty. O'Brian sat in the vacant chair and looked at The Benefactor. He had appeared in many forms to O'Brian over the years, but today He was wearing his most common shape; that of a tall man in a white suit whose face was covered by a mask, gold on the left and silver on the right. That was unsurprising; O'Brien had never seen His face no matter what form He had taken.

O'Brian began to speak, but was cut off by The Benefactor. "I know why you are here, and I know that you have many questions. Don't bother asking them because we are very nearly out of time. You must get Me the chest." O'Brian moved to speak again, but The Benefactor continued. "I've already told you, there is no time for questions. The chest is even now beginning to slip from your grasp. I know you though. You will not leave Me without some answers. You wish to know what is in the chest, why it is so important to me. The answer is quite simple: I am."