West

The western part of the city is often home to the poorer residents. Here there is a grunginess that permeates the town from the graffiti on the once cleaned brick buildings to the broken and unmaintained architecture. Crime runs high within the western half of town, making it the home of supernatural gangs of illicit activities. Such activities are rarely reported, however, and most residents are distrustful of individual's of authorities, and often let the powerful supernatural beings sort things out amongst themselves. Be careful wandering the Western streets after the sun falls.

What You'll Find Here

Black Market
Cull & Pistol
Noah's Ark
Syn

Try to keep yourself awake


Posted on September 17, 2021 by Ben Collins
West

Was I left behind? Someone tell me, tell me I survived.



She looked like a girl from out of the pictures. You know, like the screen from his airplane seat. One of those types - hand-sculpted to be something special. He could see it in her striking emerald eyes and the way her wavy locks drifted down her shoulders, even when they moved imperfectly to cover one side of her quite actually perfectly chiseled jawline. There were pretty people and then there were the people from the pictures. The made-up girl was for sure made up. They don't even make the pictures people this pretty.

Ben's thick, and oil-smeared brows furrowed together, creating deep crater lines in his forehead as he stared at her again, trying to will her to dissipate before his very eyes. It wasn't that he wanted her to go - she was after all, quite something to look at - but there was that fleeting bit of lucidity still in him that begged for some balance and control of his day. If he could convince himself she was just a dream, at least he knew for sure. He needed to know something with certainty. Just one thing.

But instead of disappearing, she offered him her name.

"Em." He repeated out loud, his smile growing. Part of him was quite happy about his failure to make her float away.

His blue eyes followed hers curiously as she exchanged the notes, pulling green American dollars from her purse and placing them on the table. He nodded in agreement, the whispers of the worried waitress fluttering with relief... but perhaps only inside his head. "Much obliged."

Emerance stirred and stood from the table and Ben could feel his heartbeat quickening in his chest. don't go. don't go. don't go. The grief was already setting in when she turned to him and extended the invitation. Ben couldn't hide his merriment... and scoffed an audible laugh at his luck as he scrambled to his feet. Most of his clothes had dried by now, in haphazard patterns, leaving behind stale and stiff dark blotches in areas that really didn't make much sense. But at least he wasn't so ... damp.

He followed the pretty girl out of the diner, grinning wildly to the chefs who peered out at him skeptically from the kitchen window. "Can you believe my luck?" He said to them, transporting the message through his wild blue eyes and into the confines of their own heads. They looked at each other dumbfounded as Ben rushed to get to the glass door first, nearly falling as he pushed it open for her.

Out on the street, Ben's confidence waned quickly. The whispers were much louder at this hour, with more people walking the streets. He waited for Emerance to take the lead, shoving his gloved palms into the pockets of his dirty jeans. "Is River Dale nice then, yeah?"

Ben Collins | Fairy | Vinyl

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