Hell in Rain

Chapter 3: The Hell Begins

     The once bustling streets leading towards the castle was the beginning.  The shops would slowly, one-by-one, close.  At first, no-one cared because the first to go were not doing so hot.  But then they all closed.  All 500 plus shops closed in a matter of 24 hours.  Jerome, walking to school joined up with his fellow classmates, awestrucken by this unbelievable sight.

     "What happened?" inquired Jerome to his freind, Herrin.

    "I-I don't know?  Where could they all be?" she said in disbelief.

     "Come on, they'll probably be there when we get back from school," Jerome said grabbing Herrin's arm.  She willingly followed but continued to stare at the empty, silent street.

      "Impossible" she whispered.

     "Yo, have you been down Main-Street, Antonio?" said Walter, closing the office door.  "Un-freakin' believable, ain't it?!"

     "Ugh, don't remind me," pouted Antonio, putting his pen down and rubbing his face.  "It's our fault Walter.  All those shops - all of them! - are closed because of us."

     "I'm not sure what kind of sick joke you're playing-"

     "It's not a joke Walter!" Antonio shouted.  "Kammey's brilliant idea to suck the metal mines dry for this stupid ship has made all the shops close.  And all the recycled metal is comming to us.  It's fucking insane!  She says that we need to speed up the process.  But without metal, all the shop owners cannot make their products anymore.  I-I can't do this anymore Walter!  I-I'm going insane with all the guilt!  I-I...I don't know what to do...."

     "Not all the shops sell metal so what happened to the people who sell wooden stuff?"

     "Kammey temporarily banned all logging."

     "What in the hell for?!"

     "She says she doesn't want over-logging to occur since all the metal is coming to us and not them.  It's fucking ridiculous."

     "Oh, so she predicted the people would go to wood and not metal.  That's pretty smart of her."

     "Yeah," said Antonio in a bored tone as he picked up his pen.  "She's immortal so you would think she knows how people react to stuff like this by now."

     "So, what did you need me for Antonio?"

     "In truth Walter," putting down the pen.  "We're going under.  We have too much metal and we ain't officially selling jack."

     "Sell it to the shop owners then!"  Walter then chucked, "It's common sense!"

     "Can't; Kammey won't let us."

     Walter's face became drained of its playfulness and they both began to listen, knowing that they had until the end of the month before the sounds they were hearing would end and a new one taking its place.

     "They're still not there Jerome!" Herrin cried.

      "Isn't your father a shop owner?"

     "Yes, and I'm starting to worry that something might 'ave happened to him," Herrin said grabbing Jerome's hand.  "Come with me to my house, please."

     "Okay..." Jerome responded with a bit of confusion.  "Why?"

     "Well then don't come and be a dick about it," she said storming off.

     "What the fuck just just happened?" Jerome whispered to himself.  "Hey?!  I wasn't being a dick, I was just asking."

      Herrin turned and Jerome noticed her eyes changed into Beast Mode which, to Jerome, meant to back the fuck up and leave immediately.

     "Okay. See yeah.  Tomorrow I guess," shouted Jerome in fragments as he ran off.

     Herrin then ran down Main Street until she reached 'Metallical Wonders!', her father's shop, where she then proceeded to pounding the wooden stall in hopes of her father opening the stall.  But nobody came to open the stall.  Herrin began walking down Main Street towards her home, again in the hopes of her father being okay.  She never found out.