Short Story Competition Winner 2006 - Chapter One Promotions

They climbed a narrow flight of stairs till they came to a small landing where an enormous shaven-headed man appeared and took their tickets. He indicated that they should step past him through the open doorway, which was covered only by a bead curtain. It was like slipping into dark water. Neal felt his stomach lurch.

The room beyond was ordinary: black-painted walls, chairs and tables on one side, and a small mirror-tiled bar in one corner. The smell was somewhere between a public phone box and a betting shop, with undertones of something else. There was piped music, a cheerful Poynter Sisters song. The bald man went over to the bar and, without asking, poured them two watery-looking halves of lager.

"That'll be five pounds each?" he said, gazing fixedly at a point somewhere above their heads.
    "No, that's not right?" said Gayle.
    "Five pounds", the barman repeated, still not meeting their eye. "Look at the drinks menu if you don't believe me." There was a snake tattoo curling all the way over the muscles of his upper arm to his collarbone; the red lights rattled on the dents in his skull.

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