"Time to get back to normal right?" Juni remarked, how ironic those words would become in just minutes from now.
January 1st, New York City 1:17am.
The city swelled with drunken revelry, the air had grown bitingly cold and on it the stench of death began to march down the streets of Manhattan, crossing the avenues and filling alley ways. A foul stench was not the only thing carried on the morning air. Air which once so crisp would prove delightfully refreshing to those exiting the clubs and beginning their journeys home, sober or otherwise. The sky was bright, made bright not by the light of stars as it once had been even a hundred years ago, but polluted with the light of man, skyscrapers as numerous and high as the eye could see, all that light almost entirely erasing the beauty of the natural world. The air carried something mysterious on it, something unseen, and then, if you listened... the sounds of screaming crashing over the building like waves breaking on the shore. The sounds of blood curdled screaming. What was once a night of joy and renewal had broken into a morning of nightmare. Soon buildings all around would burst into flame, smoke filling the already super saturated air. In the snap of ones fingers, the blink of an eye the entire world had changed, and those who hadn't already fallen victim to this unknown plague weren't lucky. For they had witnessed the death of their life, and yet, they were forced to continue until...
Having settled the tab, and with her coat hanging off of a delicate fingertip Azucena made her way toward the door, pushing through people where she had to, and in her other hand, Juni's arm. How it seemed the two were almost attached all night, largely by Azucena's doing, though it seemed appropriate. If the two moved as one, they could push their way through faster, and ensure that neither were left behind in the sea of drunken party goers. Azucena rested her gloved hands on the metal pushbar of the door, the exit and pushed it wide opened, stepping out into a world that only for a moment would seem like the one she had left behind when the two entered the club some hours ago.
Stepping into the midlight, something was wrong. Immediately it hit her, it was at first, the sound of silence. The line at the club doors had dissipated, scattered to the wind, the bouncer who had previously locked eyes with the two pretty young women was no where to be found. Cold, silence. "Hey... Juni?" Azu called back, turning around to look at her friend, she let her hand with holding her coat fall, the fabric crumbling to the floor. "This isn't right." was all Azucena remarked, her eyes seemed wide and almost fearful. That was when it happened, the scent of smoke, the look of smoke barreling down the street, smoke and dirt moving like a bat of out of hell, and carried with it the sound of screaming, of suffering at alternating voices, some loud as if they were close, some soft as though they were just off in the distance.
Looking up into the distance a nearby high rise was engulfed in flame and had indeed begun to collapse in and upon itself. It was something that brought back real memories of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, though surely... Azucena thought to herself this was just an accident, a terrible, terrible accident. Perhaps someone's illegal firework show gone horribly wrong. "We have to go. Right now." Azu moved rather swiftly toward her friend and admittedly was not thinking. At least not about anything practical. One could chock it all up to the desire for continued survival. Fight or flight. There were other sounds, sounds lost in the screaming, sounds almost unhuman, sounds of a guttural near growl.
Where were the cars? Where were the people? Was the party so captivating that none had noticed this event? Where were the usual suspects, those who couldn't look away from a disaster. Those who need to be part of whatever it was that was transpiring right before them. The ever present watchers of the city. Azu looked up to the windows of the buildings around, most had gone dark. What could it mean?
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