Wake Me Up When September Ends

Summer 2021, Week 5

Monday early morning

The Magnificent Frog, The Wards

Storyteller឵

The doors to the bar had been locked by Uncle before he left earlier in the morning, and they didn't normally open until 8am, so the scene of the crime remained undisturbed until Elizabeth arrived. She didn't bother to go around to the back alleys to park where she would normally, instead pulling up to the front of the building so that she could get inside as quickly as possible. Opening the front door reveals the massacre that occurred just hours prior, more lives wasted in one man's pursuit of glory and gold. More dust, more ashes... more disappointment.   Charred and lifeless bodies lie strewn over tables as well as flat across the ground. Most of the bottles that once lined the back bar are shattered along with the mirror that stretched across it, shards of glass scattered throughout the room. It was as if a thunderstorm had manifested within the building and wrecked havoc.  

Elizabeth Jones

Elizabeth had never seen a corpse up close before. A dead animal, sure. Dead people at a distance were also, sadly, a common sight in this district. It had taught her that the world was a dangerous place where people died frequently.. But even still, nothing could have prepared her for the sights and smells of the horror that lay before her which hit her all at once. She gags as she fights back the sudden urge to vomit. She fails.   After a few moments the young girl composes herself, finally moving from the doorway to more thoroughly look around. While she does this the air starts to swirl around her, her shock and horror turning to sadness and anger as she begins to recognize many of the corpses which are still easily identifiable. Several regular customers, her father's friends who often stayed late to play cards with him, and even the stray dog that they had adopted in all but name. But the biggest shock to her, despite being the one person she was already told of by name, was the person laying behind the bar.   "Dad!" she cried out as her gaze fell upon the familiar face, now lifeless. She rushes over to his body, kneeling down and placing a hand on him as she gets close. Her eyes had begun to water before but now tears were streaming down her face. "I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that you would let someone do this when he said you were dead.." she says shakily, the continuous swirling breeze slowly turning into a strong wind that starts to pick up smaller shards of glass and other debris. "You've always put down any threat that came into your territory, why is this different? Why is this different!?" she says, taking her hand back off of him and slamming it into the bar next to her as she screams the repeated question. The wood paneling breaks as her fist goes through it and she stays like that for a moment as she tries to process her emotions. At some point the wind comes to a stop.

[Man. - Air Manipulator: x2 Minor, x1 Normal, -5 EP (6/15)]

  Eventually she looks up and sees the camera they had installed a few years ago. Someone is responsible for this she thinks as she spots the device. I need to find out who did this; I need to make sure they pay. Whoever is capable of such an atrocity as this, capable of taking everything from anyone they see.. such a person does not deserve to live. Liz stands up with a newfound determination and makes her way into the other room behind the bar, through the storeroom, and into an office-like room. There a computer sits on a desk that she quickly heads over to, bringing up the security system. Going through the video from the previous night shows the recording suddenly skip from 11:30pm to 12:30am. "What the hell?" one moment everything is normal on screen and the next moment everyone is dead an hour later and the video is suddenly glitched and distorted from damage sustained by the camera.   They deleted it, smart bastards.. Someone has to know how to restore this, I've always heard that nothing is ever truly deleted.. But who can I trust? she thinks as she pulls a flashdrive from the desk and plugs it into the computer.  

Storyteller

The young girl now filled with resolve made a copy of the altered video and left the room. She calls 911 on the bar phone and describes the attack before quickly getting back in her vehicle and driving away. She didn't know where she was going and she didn't care, so long as it was far away from this tragedy. Somewhere she could think in peace.