Free Dark Harbour: The Tale of the Soul Searcher by Joseph Kiel Page B

didn’t think the long distance thing was working out (or in other words she was screwing someone else). Larry was apparently upset about it so got trashed on Newcastle Brown and sang Solitary Man by Neil Diamond in the streets at four in the morning.
    Michael the Good Samaritan and his butt-buddy Danny were walking home from the club and found him. They sat with him to commiserate about his heartbreak, took him home, made him drink water so he could sober up, and gave him the genius nickname of Diamond. And they all fucking lived happily ever after. Until they dragged Eddie along to spoil their party, that was. Wasn’t such a gay Enid Blyton adventure then.
    Eddie paused eating for a moment and removed his baseball cap. His head was itching, as it often did with wearing the hat all day. It was necessary to shield himself from the world around him and all the arseholes in it.
    His hair was very black and would get rather wiry if he let it get long, so Eddie kept it quite short. His skin was a deep olive colour and even in the dead of winter he would look like he’d just come back from a fortnight away in the Maldives. Eddie had an inch long bullet of metal through his right eyebrow and he would often fiddle with it, twisting it round so that it would almost tear out of his skin.
    The neon fish continued to hum as the light flashed off and on. Darkness then light, darkness then light. An endless cycle. Looking down the road, he could see a string of amusement lights along the promenade. Many of the bulbs had blown though, and were left to sway pointlessly in the wind. Typical for this dead end town. Everything was left to ruin.
    He turned away and then saw that there was another hungry soul next to him. Eddie replaced his baseball cap and the dog with the wide brown eyes continued to stare at him.
    ‘Fuck off,’ Eddie said to it.
    The dog didn’t move, instead misinterpreting Eddie’s words as an invitation. He stepped closer to the stranger with the lovely smelling chips and licked his lips.
    ‘I said fuck off, you stupid mutt.’
    Eddie couldn’t see a collar on the dog. Despite its gentle nature, it looked a little wild, like a wolf that had just trotted out of the woods. He had no idea what breed it was.
    ‘You just don’t get the message, do you? Stupid animal. Here,’ Eddie said as he stabbed a chip and then flicked it across the pavement. The dog mooched over to it and quickly licked it up. He then returned to Eddie and looked up at him with those big eyes.
    ‘Oh, for God’s sake. Here you go then. Have the fucking things.’ Eddie placed the tray on the ground and let the damned dog eat the rest of them.
    At that point, the chip shop owner came outside. ‘Don’t know whose he is. Been lurking round here a couple of days now,’ he said to Eddie.
    ‘Looks like a stray. Smells like a stray.’
    ‘I’ll call the pound in the morning, I think,’ the shopkeeper said before turning to go back inside as a couple of drunken students came stumbling along.
    ‘Hear that, doggy? Tomorrow they’ll come take you away and put you to sleep. It’s going to be your lucky day.’
    The dog, which had finished eating already, looked up at Eddie and cocked his head as though Eddie had just been telling him how lovely he was. Eddie shook his head then set off for home. He soon heard the pitter-patter of paws behind him.
    ‘Look, just go home you stupid fucking animal!’
    The dog wouldn’t take his eyes off him though, staring at him like he was his best friend in the whole universe. He certainly was a quiet soul too, a bit like Eddie.
    ‘You’re not coming with me! I don’t want no flea-bitten dog.’
    He turned away once more, but the dog just kept following.
     
    Chapter 1.6
     
    There was barely any light in the rat-infested factory when Devlan returned, not that he needed any. Devlan could see exceptionally well in the darkness, when he wasn’t wearing his shades. He had a pizza box stuffed under his arm -