Following Poe out of the graveyard was easy, even if he had a head start. It was a bare one, Rey had stayed behind to watch the angel and guard Poe’s back (well, sort of, she’d been planning a confrontation of her own) when between one blink and the next the angel just… vanished. Poof. Gone. She’d seen a lot of creatures… alright, she’d read a lot about the creatures that went bump in the dark and could appear to vanish before your eyes. But the angel really did seem to have just… vanished.

Poof.

It was weird.

The ‘angel’, if that’s what he had been, hadn’t even tried to… to do anything. Usually monsters attacked first and asked questions (or lied through their teeth) second.

Unless they were demons.

He, it, was probably a demon.

“Poe.” Rey grabbed at the edge of his shirt, it slipped from her grasp and she couldn’t, not now, not right… “Poe!”

“Think I can charm my way into a bar?” Poe said, eyes on a dingy looking corner pub crawling with people in team colors. What team, and what sport, Rey had no idea.

“I think that you can charm your way into anything.” It was true enough. Poe had always been charming. Being dead probably wouldn’t have changed that. Maybe. “But I’d be the one paying.”

Poe smiled at her, all charm… except, when Rey met his gaze, there was a deadness to his eyes that hadn’t been there before. Hopelessness. Pain. He looked like he needed a drink. Rey sighed and checked to be sure her wallet was in her pocket.

“I’ll buy you a drink, but I doubt they’ll let you in there without shoes.”

They let him in.

Of course they let him in.

It had more to do with no one watching the door. This wasn’t the kind of place that had bouncers, this was the kind of neighborhood bar where everyone knew just about everyone else but no one cared much if you were new. It was busy and noisy and no one was looking at Poe’s feet. Most of them had their eyes glued to the televisions stationed around the bar. Two in opposite corners, two on opposite sides of the bar. Rey could recognize the game as basketball and, if she squinted, would have been able to make out the team names. She didn’t much care, however, and instead paid attention to shoving crowding sportsfans out of the way so she could order two of whatever was cheapest on tap.

She wasn’t made of money. And compared to Chewbacca’s home brew everything was going to taste like piss.

Poe shifted next to her.

“So,” it’s hard for some people to talk over the noise, hard to find the right level of ‘loud enough’ and ‘not too loud’ but Rey was raised at Dex’s and it’s second nature to her, “we’re going to need to call them.”

There wasn’t any question about who ‘they’ were.

Poe nodded, not happily, and took the beer from the bartender with a lukewarm smile. His first sip made him gag and Rey laughed… until she took her own first sip.

“This is awful.” Poe said with a laugh, he took another sip, then a swallow. “I…”

The television behind Poe’s head turned to static, to disappointed groans and shouts from the crowd. Poe turned look, Rey pushed onto her tip toes and…

The TV behind them went out, in the corners, static all around, quick, sudden, like a thunderclap except… except really annoying aurally. The bar goers shouted angrily, pushed, shoved. Poe’s eyes were wide. “Something-” wrong? She was going to ask. But then the whine started, a high whine that cut through the chatter of the bar. A whine that made everyone, including Poe, clutch at their head.

It grew.

And grew. Glasses shattered, dropped from hands to hit the floor, glasses on the bar exploded, alcohol of all colors ran together to drip on the floor.

Had to be a monster. Or a weird technical malfunction. Rey glanced at Poe.

He grimaced, hands still clasped to his head, and shoved his way towards the door.

The sound stopped.