Demon Night

Charlie listened with half an ear to the easy conversation between Ethan and Old Matthew, and had to stop herself from looking through the one-way mirror every time her name was mentioned in passing.
    Until she realized where Ethan had steered the conversation. He’d offered Old Matthew an abbreviated version of his human history, and Old Matthew had seemed pleased by it, observing that Cole’s was the right place for an outlaw.
    “And for Charlie, too,” Ethan said quietly, and when she looked through the mirror she almost believed he could see her, his gaze was so direct.
    “Yes,” Old Matthew said. “And no. Eight years ago, you couldn’t have paid me to take her on, and it wasn’t just what she’d done to the place.”
    “What was it, then?”
    Old Matthew stopped for a minute, braced his hands on the bar. “I saw her at the sentencing. If you’d asked me then, I’d have said she wasn’t going to make it a year, and it wouldn’t have mattered if she was locked up or free. Even if they’re still walking, there are some people who aren’t living—and you could tell she was one of them.”
    “Like a zombie, I imagine.” Ethan’s voice was rough, and he took a sip of his whiskey. “Like her whole world’s been turned upside down, and just looking at her, you wouldn’t think she’d ever pull herself upright again.”
    Old Matthew made a sound of agreement, but Charlie couldn’t see his expression. “And so you could have knocked me over when she came in two years ago. She wasn’t looking as good as she does now, but there was more fight in her than I’d ever have guessed—though I don’t think she had any idea of where to start, and a part of her just wanted to slide back to where she’d been. But while we were sitting here talking—she was on the same stool you are now—she was looking at all the bottles, looking at herself in the mirror, and I swear to sweet baby Jesus that I saw the second she decided not to buy a drink. A moment later, she told me that I was wrong, and she wasn’t a rich girl, and went on with a story about playing a pipe to rats in the subway.” Old Matthew began chuckling, pulled off his kufi to rub his head. “It was one of the most ridiculous things I’d ever heard, but she told it like she meant it, and had me right there with her. So I offered her a position, thinking either that fight would keep on coming, or that one day I’d find her passed out on the floor with a bottle in her hand. It was about six months before I realized the second wasn’t going to happen.”
    “It took me a good while, too,” Ethan said softly.
    Old Matthew’s head tilted forward in a nod. “And now, I just like having her around. Never knowing what’s going to come out of her makes life more interesting—and I’ll tell you, this latest will keep me going for at least another two years.”
    “At least,” Ethan agreed, then glanced at the mirror. “I don’t reckon you’d best tell her any of this, though, even if she did happen to wonder why you took her on. She’d like to start crying and carrying on about how grateful she was, and how she doesn’t deserve any of it.”
    Charlie swallowed a laugh, wiped her cheeks. “Fuck you, Drifter,” she whispered.

    Charlie took five more minutes to compose herself before joining Old Matthew behind the bar, briefly laying her cheek against his shoulder before tying on her apron.
    Her fingers fumbled when he said, “I hope you’ve got great hearing to go along with those teeth and that cold skin, Charlie girl.”
    She pulled the strings tight. “I do.”
    “Good. Because I’d hate to think I told all of that to a man I don’t know for nothing.” He smiled as she laughed and shook her head; then he added, “Did you get bored back there already?”
    “No,” Charlie said, trying not to grin as she glanced from Ethan to Old Matthew. “I’m done. With the final project for my class, too.”
    Old Matthew stared at her a minute before walking through the door to the back. Charlie leaned against the bar in front of Ethan, but had to present him with the top of her head, keeping her face down to hide her fangs when she couldn’t hold back her smile.
    She looked over at Old Matthew when he came back through.
    “I haven’t unburied that beige file cabinet in ten years; I forgot how ugly it was. Do you want to tell me where I can get a set of those teeth, Charlie girl?” He laughed when her eyes widened. “Well, not