When I was in the Purgatory (short story)

Ok, so this blog was meant to be a way for me to post about my "adventures in photography". I.e. post photos that I take and write a bit about them and also post short reviews of photography stuff.
However, I was thinking "why limit myself so much, surely I can post other things here as well". Then I started looking through stuff I've written in the past and found a few short stories and poems and thought "hey, I can post those on the blog as well... at least some of them that aren't too... hm... how to put this... explicit".

The first one I will post is a short story that I wrote back in 2002. I was chatting with my close friend Olívia and something she said gave me the inspiration I needed. I haven't spell checked or grammar checked it in any way so if you find anything that's incorrect let me know.

When I was in the Purgatory
The dark clouds came closer and the temperature dropped below 10°C. In the distant the chime of a church bell told everyone that it was getting late. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if it started to rain soon. It was just one of those nights.
There was a long queue on the sidewalk. Everybody in it was dressed for a costume party and they wanted to get in to the warmth of the new hip metal club called The Purgatory where they could party all night to the music of their favourite metal bands.
On the street corner stood an old man who was wearing a black outfit with a white collar and he muttered to himself, “If they only knew what the real purgatory was like they would never have been that eager to get in.” He thought for a few moments and then decided, “I have to get in and tell them what kind of powers they’re playing with”.
The old man pushed people out of his way while he was making his way through the crowd and when he was finally first in line he snuck inside without paying. He said reassuringly to himself, “My mission is more important than their money”.
The dj was playing the Iron Maiden song From here to eternity and the old man was trying to make his way through the crowd, who he thought were all dressed up as devils. He punched at least two young female devils and a few more male ones in their faces. Blood started running like a waterfall from one of the female’s nose.
He went past the bar where a young man dressed as a vampire tried to convince the bartender that he didn’t want anything with alcohol, just a glass of ice water. The bartender who was getting a little annoyed with the young man turned towards the old man and shouted, “Hey, reverent don’t you want some sacrilegious wine?” The old man didn’t even bother to look at the bartender.
When the old man finally reached the stage where a short, thin, young lady with long dark hair and a tight vampire costume was shouting to the dj, “Play something by Iced Earth!” he pulled out the power cord to the dj’s equipment and grabbed a megaphone from the table and turned towards the annoyed crowd. The young lady gave him a look that would have given him a heart attack if he had seen it.
Then he started to speak, “Listen up you little brats and listen carefully”. He took a deep breath to get a short break and then continued “Don’t you understand that one should not turn away from good? What you do here every night is sin”. He made another short break to make them think about this for a second and also to catch his breath, “If you don’t stop coming here and if you don’t stop listening to that which you call music you will soon meet each other in the real purgatory”. His voice changed and now he spoke as if he was preaching in a church, “When I was in the purgatory, I saw little devils and they were mean”.
It was dead silent. Everyone looked at each other and then simultaneously burst out in laughter. 10 seconds later they grabbed the old man threw him out the window. The young man dressed as a vampire finally convinced the bartender to give him the ice water. The dj reconnected the power cord and continued his set by playing the Iced Earth song Angels holocaust. And the young lady was in paradise.
An hour and a half earlier:
“Ok, bye.”
Damn that was the last person on my phone list. What should I do now? Why does everyone have kids? And why does everyone that doesn’t have kids have to be busy with other things? Don’t I have any friends that want to go out anymore? Not that I go out that much, I work most of the time and that keeps me indoors all day.
I really want to go out today. I guess I have to go by myself, not that I think it would be any fun though. Hmm, I could go down to that new metal club around the corner. Just to see what it’s like. What was it called again? Oh yeah, The Purgatory. That always makes me think about Iron Maiden or Dante. Wait a minute; didn’t I read something about it being a costume party there tonight? Let’s have a look in today’s paper. Yeah here it is, ‘Costume party tonight between 10pm and 05am only at The Purgatory’. Ok, it’s 9:30pm now and when I look out the window I can see people arriving. Looks like a lot of them are dressed up as devils. Maybe I have to hurry up a little if I’m going to have a chance of getting in.
I could use my old vampire outfit that I got for Halloween a couple of years ago. I don’t think I grown out of it yet, even if my belly keeps getting bigger and bigger. Ugh, that mirror tells me that I need to take care of something else too. I need to shave, really bad. Ok, so I need to shave, and I need to shower, and I need to get dressed, and I need to do it in less than 30 minutes. Good thing that I’m so pale from having to work indoors, otherwise I would’ve needed to put on makeup too.
Hmm, I don’t have any makeup. Why should I have makeup? Guys don’t even wear makeup if it’s not part of a costume that they wear to a party like this! If I had had a girlfriend I could’ve borrowed some makeup from her. Actually I feel like I really would want a girlfriend even if she won’t let me borrow her makeup. Damn it! I don’t need any makeup, why do I keep thinking about that instead of doing what I’m supposed to do. Right now, that would be finish shaving.
Ok, I’ve shaved, I’ve showered, and I have less then 10 minutes to get dressed and get down there. Now let’s find out if this outfit still fits me. The white shirt still fits, the black pants still fit, and the black vest still fits. I guess they all must have been too big for me when I got them. Oh, I almost forgot. I have to get the black cape with the red lining, and the black hat too. And I shouldn’t forget the black cane either.
One quick look in the mirror and then I have to leave. Good thing I’m not a real vampire, because if I had been one, I wouldn’t have noticed that I haven’t put my hair up in a ponytail yet. Teeth! I need my teeth, or maybe I should say my false teeth, I already have my real ones. Ok, just don’t panic. They have to be here somewhere. Here they are, and a perfect fit. It’s not that surprising really; I mean my teeth don’t grow at the same rate as my belly.
I hope the queue isn’t that long because it looks like it’s going to start raining any minute. There are a lot of people dressed up as devils here. Over there are some vampires too. I guess it’s the two types of costumes that people like the most. Well, the queue is longer than I wanted, but it’s not much I can do about that. Finally they’re opening the door. Hey, I know the door guy! I wonder if he’ll let me in now, or if I have to wait in line like the rest of the devils? Ha-ha, that was a good one; I’ll have to try to remember that joke for later.
Finally I’m inside, good thing I knew that guy so that I didn’t have to wait too long in line. Now lets try to get some ice water from the bar; it always seems to be a problem getting that from a “real” bartender. Wow, there are a lot of people here. It’s really hard to get through the crowd, but at least the music is nice. Ac/dc’s song Highway to hell is always a good party song. Oh, lots of pretty girls here too. Maybe I can go talk to some of them later. Ok, now I only have to get the bartender’s attention.
“Hey, can I get a glass of ice water? What do you mean ‘what kind of alcohol is that?’ It’s plain water with pieces of ice in it.”
Hmm… the girl that just shouted something to the dj looks very nice; maybe I’ll go over and talk to her after I’ve got my ice water. That’s one weird man. How the hell can you come to a club like this dressed as a priest? And how the hell does he think anyone would listen to that crap in a place like this? At least I got my glass of ice water now.