[hr][center][h1][color=SpringGreen]H E L E N[/color][/h1][/center][hr]

Work was busy as usual, and Helen trucked through the mounds of orders with practiced discipline. Coffee splashed. Whipped cream dripped onto her shoes. A grown woman cried because her espresso wasn't hot enough. Truly dangerous volumes of sugar substitutes were poured into frothing milk. Out of the corner of her eye, Helen caught sight of a familiar face in the crowd: a fellow student from Kirby- one with a reputation for violence, at least according to the news. Of course, Helen didn't trust the news, and Chris had always interested her, not in a romantic or sexual way, but just with curiosity. Helen had occasionally seen snippets of the conservative newspaper in town, the Leesburgh Patriot, and they talked about Chris Christian like he was the spawn of Satan. Of course, Helen knew they were full of shit (this was the same magazine that said homosexuals were sent by China to destabilize the US breeding population), but still she couldn't help but think about what he was really like. 

Helen handed Chris his coffee without a word. She smiled a little, but then had to run back into the fray as six orders for strawberry Frappuccinos came in. She glimpsed Elle out of the window. Helen liked Elle a lot, but they had few classes together and barely talked anymore. Helen missed her, but now wasn't the time for catching up. Now was the time for coffee-based warfare on the mob of entitled rich. She made a mental note to text Elle later. 

[hr]

[i]6:30 PM[/i]

[hider=Silent Shadows by Peder B. Helland][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTFLYCMkyiM[/youtube][/hider] 

By 6:30, Main Street was bustling with activity. Crowds chittered in restaurants, packs of teens moved along the streets. It was Labor Day Weekend, and people were celebrating the arrival of a long break from school and work. Music poured from car windows. The smells of fried food and barbecue wafted through the air. Everyone was happy, or at least doing their best to look it.

Outside of Saturday Comics, though, something strange was happening. Beneath the rumble of the street came a dull grumbling noise, like rock being turned to gravel. Most folks didn't notice it over the hum of the street, but it was there and it slowly grew louder, as if it were moving closer. Outside of the comic shop, there was a snap. A frightened teenager leapt from where he was walking and bumped into a telephone pole. He looked down to see a crack in the sidewalk, a single split breaking it clean in two. 

"What the hell?!" the guy said. 

"Damn bro!" his friend replied. "Guess you're so fat that you broke the fucking sidewalk." 

"Hey not cool bro!" the guy replied. "You know I'm sensitive about my weight!" They squabbled as they walked past down the road, forgetting the crack in favor of an argument. Under it all, the sound grew louder, though not enough for the average person to suspect anything beyond road noise. Perhaps if you had very good hearing, though, you would notice that something isn't right...