"Yes sir?" The barman caught my attention and I turned to lift up the small collection of bank notes.

“Room for the night please?" I asked.

I wasn't the first drunk young party-goer to ask and the man quickly chuckled to himself and then snatched my money before going to get a key. I turned back to both Ed and Kasey who were now staring at me with wide awe-struck eyes.

“Dude.” They both spoke in unison.

It was my turn to give the shit-eating grin.

Just when I was getting all warm and fuzzy inside, we all turned our heads to look towards the sound of a car alarm bursting to life outside. Normally noises like that didn't register since I didn't drive a car, but a guy running through the doors with an un-nerved Look about him definitely caught my attention.

“Some guy's gone crazy out there! He's smashing up the car park." That definitely got everyone's attention.

It didn't really matter to me. I figured let the crazies be crazy.

Plus, it wasn't like there weren't fifteen guys suddenly rushing out there trying to protect their wheels. I stood there at the bar with Ed as Kasey rushed over to the window with everyone else to try and see what was happening. The bartender had shifted his attention from getting my key to calling the police. I could hardly blame the guy so I simply stood there and waited for the commotion to settle down. I picked up my drink and lifted the glass to my lips when Kasey turned back to us with a very troubled look in his eyes.

“Larry. It's Jenny's ex out there.”

My glass fell from my hand to smash over the stone floor around the bar. Stuart hadn't shown up in weeks. We thought that the police had finally scared him off. My legs were moving before I realised where they were going, right outside toward where the Lunatic was waiting. Ed and Kasey called out to me to stop but I wanted to get Stuart the hell away from that place before Jenny figured out what was going on. Given her condition and the moonlight pouring over the place then Stuart's presence would have been like throwing napalm on a hot flame.

The cool night air hit me like an icy slap in the face as I shoved my way out through the small crowd in the doorway to stumble upon Stuart's chaos. Shards of glass littered the ground all around him from the many car windows he'd shattered with his metal baseball bat. Some poor bastard who had undoubtedly tried to stop the madness was laying face down on the ground with blood seeping onto the concrete from the impact wound on his left temple. No one else seemed to dare to go near him but everyone wanted a front row seat to the action that was unfolding. A few of the guys that had rushed out to protect their cars now stood hesitant because of the body at Stuart's feet.

Then he saw me.

His eyes seemed glazed and permanently shaped into a hate-filled glare.

In the moment that he Laid eyes on me, I knew he was about to rush forward with that bloodied weapon and batter me senseless. I wasn't wrong. He jumped up onto the hood of one of the cars and leapt forward to start his charge. His bat raised up in the air and bloody murder in every drug-induced movement. I didn't know anything about fighting. I sure as hell didn't know anything about disarming a coked-up lunatic

Going back into the crowd would have probably been the safest bet to keep my ass intact but it would also Likely mean that a number of other folks would get their bones broken in the process.

So I just stood there like a deer in the headlights of an out of control freight train, waiting to get beaten to death. If it wasn't for something extraordinarily absurd occurring in the instant before Stuart finally closed the ground between us then I would most certainly have gone the way of the dodo.

“Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, Batman!" Kasey was apparently a good deal more drunk than I gave him credit for.

The battle cry was enough to make Stuart glance toward where Kasey was running towards him, cape billowing behind his skinny body as he hurtled to my defence. Stuart saw the ridiculous attack just in time and spun around to Land his bat hard against Kasey's ribs. The sudden gurgling gasp that came from my friend made my stomach Lurch. Something inside me snapped, then for the first time since I'd seen Stuart that night, fear fell away to be replaced by something else entirely. Anger.

Lots and lots of anger.