Allen Street, New York City.
Tensing at the sight, Casper couldn't believe this to be real. It was common sense, believing that this footage was nothing more than a way to seek attention, wasn't it? Even so, it looked so
real. Sitting through the length of the video he had been sent, Casper found himself dumbfounded by recent events. Padding closer to his computer, the boy dropped down in his office chair before logging into Skype. Immediately met by a slew of texts by Sara, he could barely read one before it was replaced by another.
"Did you see it!? You saw it, right!? Came a message, the most recent addition to the now cluttered screen. Though Casper was attempting to research the scenario, he wasn't having much luck. Things were being taken down rapidly. Refreshing the page lead to a blank screen and several websites followed the same formula.
"Yeah." Casper returned, the boy one of few words. Someone was trying to cover this up, with that someone being the government with obvious intent. The more he looked into it, the more real it seemed. Why would they go through so much trouble deleting posts, shutting down websites and censoring footage if it was all fake? Of course, the attempt wasn't exactly one of the more successful ones. No established news sites were covering this, yet it was starting to appear everywhere else, right before being taken down. Casper wasn't the sharpest tool in the box, but he could put two and two together. Established news companies were not covering this, yet it was seeping into internet forums and various websites like a plague. People were commenting on it, calling it fake while others explained that they were trying to call their families in Seattle with no luck. Something this grand, something this widespread could not be a prank. This couldn't have been an elaborate joke or movie promotion. Though, believing it to be
real, one had to believe in monsters, devils. It didn't make any sense whatsoever.
"Shit, this crap might actually be a thing, Cas." Sara continued, furiously typing into the chat window.
"Aunt's boyfriend isn't picking up, either." Casper stated, turning to look at his phone before attempting the feat himself, with no luck.
"Cas, this crap's everywhere! There is no way this can be a joke!" There it was again, belief that this had to be real. Could it be? If so, what the hell had to world come to? Or was the answer within the question?
Wrestling with the decision to tell Claire, or choosing not to worry her was constantly picking at Casper's mind but in the end, it felt unfair to keep this from her. She was getting worried about her lover and from the looks of it. she had every reason to. With a soft sigh escaping the boy's lips, Casper called out for his aunt, dreading the idea of being a bearer of bad news. Alas, such was the reality of this scene.
"I think something might be happening in Seattle..." Casper spoke, his voice as quiet as ever as he motioned towards the screen.
Squinting her eyes as she gazed upon the streaming video, Aunt Claire had wasted no time in arriving at Casper's room. For him to call out like that, it never happened. Casper stuck to himself and he wasn't known for sharing information found on the web. It didn't take long for Aunt Claire to freak out, losing her cool and dropped down on the boy's bed. "Casper, what on earth is this? Some kind of joke?!"
"Don't know." He continued to shift between tabs, those of which he had yet to refresh, and illuminated the situation for his dear Aunt. If this was true, if
any of it was true, expecting Kyle to pick up appeared to fall under the category of wishful thinking.
"We need to go there..." Claire spoke through gulps of disbelief.
"It's too far away." Going to Seattle right now wasn't the smartest decision in the world, either. If Kyle wasn't picking up, odds are he had kicked the bucket. Yes, it was a blunt assessment but Casper was no one to beat around the bush. Driving from New York to Seattle would take forever and if Kyle was indeed alive but had lost possession of his phone, he would surely have bit the hay upon arrival. The situation looked bleak at best.
"If this is real, we can't just sit here and do nothing! Kyle is
there!" They say that hopelessness is the worst feeling of demise. Knowing that you can do nothing while everything you care about is being torn down around you. It was an emotion Casper had gotten far too well acquainted with, which was a reason as to why he had grown jaded and desensitized.
"Check this out!" Sara commented, the small Skype icon in the bottom bar highlighted with an orange glow. Opening the program, Casper clicked the link she had posted and was immediately brought to a gathering of videos taken of the catastrophe. If this was fake, someone was sure to get every angle of Seattle in their footage. Paling at the sight, both Casper and his Aunt could do little but stare in hopes that this was some kind of sick prank. At this point however, one could draw an obvious conclusion.