A horse walks into a bar
At 12 o’clock in the evening, a neon-colored bar shines in the streets filled with ominous shadows and figures. The bar’s magenta, cyan and yellow lights invite dozens of young customers in. Outside the bar’s windows was a glowing sign displacing tonight’s discount of two baskets filled with breadsticks for two dollars. Through the bright welcoming entrance are customers partying to the neon lights. Some customers are dancing without a need to stop.
Some customers are chatting about the problems of today and tomorrow. Some customers are taking advantage of tonight’s discount and getting as many breadsticks as possible. Some customers are drinking glasses of alcohol until they feel sick or pass out. No matter what decisions are made, everyone in the neon bar is having the best time of their lives.
Sitting at the pub table is a messy woman with long hair that tangles into hundreds of knots. Her outfit is colored in navy blue and dove white, but it looks raggy and stained. The skin on her hands is scratched, dull and wrinkled. The woman’s posture is unstraighten as she melts her head into her lying arms like a cocktail in a glass. A shadowy bartender comes to the woman as she looks down the neon table.
“Hello, are you Molly?” The bartender asks calmly.
Molly’s eyes rotates to the bartender’s chest and moans, “Yeah”.
“Are you going to order anything?”, The bartender worryingly asks, “You’ve been sitting here for at least an hour, and I would have to kick you out if you don’t order something”.
“Ok just an ice water”, Molly tells the bartender with her eyes rolling back on the table.
With concern, the bartender went to grab an iced water and placed it in front of her lazy eyes. As the bartender went to help other customers, Molly looked at the water with spinning ice cubes. She continues to swirl the ice cubes with her eyes following the icy twirl.
Suddenly a man enters a bar, tucking his suit and walking in his business shoes. The sound of his shiny shoes caught the attention of the party as they stopped dancing to look at the new customer. The man has matching blue pants and jacket with shadow blue lines patterned around the vest. He had a black bowtie that can only be shown in the neon lights and a silver watch with thin shadow hands. The one thing that stood this man out was that his head was of a horse. His head looks exactly like a horse’s head with the long nose, big snout, wavy hair, black eyes, and the brown leathery skin. The party stares at the horse man for a straight second and The Horse Man looks back at the party. The party continues dancing in the neon night while The Horse Man grabs a seat at the neon bar.
The Horse Man sits next to Molly unnoticed. Molly swings her eyes away from her glass to see The Horse Man standing from the neon lights. His hair and back is smoother than a clean table. His outfit looks as if it was just washed this morning and ironed this afternoon. And The Horse Man’s hands have silk brown skin with no signs of injuries. The bartender walks to The Horse Man and asks for his order, not reacting to the horse head. The man points to a pamphlet of the breadsticks discount on the table. The bartender nods and walks to the back. The Horse Man waits with hands closed together. Molly stares at The Horse Man like the ice cubes in the glass. She rattles, snaps and fidget with her fingers as she stares at The Horse Man who is unaware of her disturbance.
“So, what brings you to these parts?” Molly finally asks.
The Horse Man’s hands unwrap themselves and his long head faces towards Molly.
Molly notices his attention and asks again, “Why bring the fancy suit to a dirty place like this? ”
The Horse Man looks at her with no words or change in expression. He looks in Molly’s eyes like a gentleman.
Molly zooms her eyes on the horse’s face and assumes, “Not a talker, are you? Are you scared of saying something wrong?”
“Here are the breadsticks sir,” The bartender says as he comes back with two baskets of breadsticks.
The Horse Man looks back at the bartender, nods to him respectfully and hands him two dollars from his suit pocket.
“Excuse me, Sir,” Someone shouts each word across the pub table.
The bartender rushes to the loud noise while The Horse Man grabs a breadstick and Molly suspiciously looks at The Horse Man. Her posture straightens, her arms face The Horse Man, and her eyes continue to stare through him.
Molly exclaims, “Are you just here for the breadsticks?”
The Horse Man makes a noticeable crunch with one of the breadsticks.
“Do you have no friends?”, Molly exclaims a little more aggressively, “Are you here to drown in your loneliness?”
The Horse Man makes more noticeable munches on the batch of breadsticks. A disagreement can be heard across the two customers.
Molly analyzes what The Horse Man’s suit and assumes with hostility, “Are you here to show off how rich you are and get a bunch of ladies to come to your home?”
The disagreement across turns into loud words about the deal on breadsticks. Molly stands straight up from her stool and looks at The Horse Man with a woken face.
“What kind of man are you?” Molly ridicules The Horse Man.
All of a sudden, a loud bang can be heard next to them. Molly and The Horse Man look at the blast to see the bartender against the shelf of drinks, unresponsive. They move their eyes to a shadowy figure holding a huge black pistol with a group of figures pulling out guns. Molly’s eye freezes onto the violent figures while The Horse Man shoves Molly into the corner of the pub table. The Horse Man drags Molly to cover as bullets soaring and customers screaming can be heard around the bar. Glass bottles shatter, table benches are being covered in holes and neon lights are spiraling everywhere.
The Horse Man scouts the chaos while Molly hides from the chaos with her frozen stare. Her hands become sweaty as it drenches her face. Her posture straightens in fear with her legs huddling to her body. Her hair looks messier from seer panic and what she is wearing does not matter on her final night in the neon bar.
Molly panicky confesses, “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Why? Why? Why is this the end? I haven’t done anything I want today. Oh my god. I should have gone somewhere else. I should have stayed home. Oh my god. I am going to die!”
As Molly cries her sorrows in the corner, she hears a gun click next to her. Her thawed eyes slowly rotates and sees The Horse Man put together a large shotgun from inside his suit. He grabs shotgun shells from his suit pockets and loads the shotgun with the long face. The Horse Man’s hair and back straighten against the table wall, his suit is unchanged and his hands stiffen on the shotgun as his head presses itself on the table, waiting while Molly just stares at The Horse Man. The bullet shots get louder and when a foot is revealed around the corner, The Horse Man cocks the gun loudly and shoots right above the shadowy figure, sending them flying above the dining table. Immediately The Horse Man gun cocks again and fires another shot around the corner. Painful grunts cries across the table and bullets fly to the plated ceiling. Then The Horse Man rolls to the dinner table to take cover. Bullets are flying across Molly’s corner while she watches The Horse Man insert more shotgun shells into the gun. A figure runs to the corner and spots Molly tucking in her safe spot. Molly covers her head with her tight arms and screams, but no bullets were shot. Before the figure realizes the gun was empty, The Horse Man wraps the shotgun around the figure’s neck, slams them into the dining table and then shoots them with a large blast.
Molly shivering peaks through hands to see The Horse Man cocking his shotgun and scanning the bar. She cautiously peaks over the pub table as if she’s trying to find something small. The Horse Man swifting rotates to the bar and then to the entrance. Molly nudges her eyes to the pub table where she sees a shadowy figure creeping from behind the pub table.
Molly lunges herself from the corner with her arms and screams to The Horse Man, “BEHIND YOU!!”
The Horse Man ducks under the table as a bullet soars through the entrance. With the end of his shotgun, he smacks the gun right out of the figure’s cold hand. The figure screams from the shock and crashes into the shelf of cocktails. The Horse Man takes aim at the injured figure with a strong stance and fires his last shot into the shadowy figure’s chest. The Horse Man lowers his gun and breathes loudly through his noses. The Horse Man turns his head to Molly who’s frozen eyes just stare at him. Both did not approach nor speak, just looking at each other’s appearance.
The Horse Man is about to turn to the entrance, but Molly unfroze from her position and loudly says, “Wait!”
The Horse Man stops in his tracks and looks back into Molly’s eyes.
“Thank you for saving everyone here,” Molly appreciates, “And I am sorry for judging you for what you look like.”
The Horse Man nods his head to Molly in acceptance. He looks at the table to find one of the batches of breadsticks he ordered, untouched from the crossfire. The Horse Man slides the breadsticks towards Molly’s direction. Surprised, Molly grabs the fresh breadsticks into her hands. Molly’s stare at the breadsticks, then tries the breadsticks and her eyes glow up on something so simple yet unhealthy. Finally The Horse Man walks out of the neon bar and disappears into the shadowy night.
