October, 2019.

Riptide, Texas.

"Yeah... Wow. Only 30 minutes in and that, uh... that did kind of suck. And don't say 'I told you so,' Daniella. This is, like, the second time you've gotten 5 bucks outta me," Rob Stevens said, staring at his feet as he trudged away from Brianna Williams' snobby costume party alongside his two best friends, Daniella Estrada and Henry Hansen.

All three of the teens wore homemade superhero costumes with the respective monikers: Noi-R, the Bronx Bombshell, and the Incredible Hunk.

"You just saved yourself there, Stevens. It was on the tip of my tongue," Daniella scoffed.

"The girls there were so cold towards me," Henry reflected. "Especially that cat girl, which actually makes sense in a weird sort of way. Regardless, I have failed on a level even worse than my stunt last month."

"Yeah, I wasn't exactly well-liked there either," Rob reluctantly agreed. "Also, I have a sore throat now. How did Christian Bale do three Batman movies like that?"

"Just when I thought I couldn't hate this stupid town any more, almost everybody in that party proves me wrong," Daniella grumbled.

"All those who wanna go down to that dollar store over there and get lots of junk food to drown our sorrows away and never touch a costume party again, say I," Rob suggested.

"I," Daniella and Henry simultaneously voted.

"Motion carried," Rob gestured his friends to follow him to the Dollar Sapling just a yard away.

Upon entering, the three stumbled across something they were not supposed to.

A tall, masked man wielding a loaded handgun shouted at the only cashier on duty: "GIVE ME THE MONEY, KID! NOW! I'M NOT MESSIN' AROUND!"

The cashier trembled. "P-please, sir, just-"

"ARE YOU DEAF?! GIVE ME THE MONEY!" The masked man demanded once more.

Rob began to back away and urged his friends to do the same. "Uh, y-yeah, I think we'll just come back later..."

But before they could exit the building, the masked man took notice of them. He couldn't afford to have a couple of witnesses alert the police before he got his money.

"HEY! YOU THREE! DON'T LEAVE!" He pointed his handgun at them. "YOU DON'T LEAVE 'TILL I'M DONE, GOT IT? NOW GO GET IN THAT CORNER OVER THERE! MOVE IT!"

Rob, Daniella, and Henry did as the man commanded. They went and sat in the corner next to the soda dispensers. Rob apologized for getting them into such a situation, even though he couldn't have known. Daniella consoled him, which eased his nervous heart, and it began to make him feel courageous. Daniella always seemed to have that kind of effect on Rob, even without his superhero costume on. Just something about her. Something he never felt before. Something he wanted to pursue further, to cherish, to cultivate.

Rob then suggested a plan to work together to take down the masked man, like heroes. If they could pull this off, who in Riptide could truly make fun of them again? They could make Brianna Williams and all her snobby cohorts at that costume party eat their words.

The three briefly argued about it. Rob and Henry felt confident about it. Daniella on the other hand... it wasn't just trepidation she felt, it was an ominous dread that just about consumed her whole.

But before it could, Rob lovingly reassured her. He told her, "Just trust me. I won't let anything happen to you. I promise."

And part of her believed him. But the other part of her wanted to take her friends by their hands and run as far away from that dollar store as they could.

She did not listen to that part of herself, though. She chose to listen to Rob instead. Just something about him. Something she never felt before. Something she wanted to pursue further, to cherish, to cultivate.

And so...

"Thanks for finally wise-ing up. God, you millenials these days don't know how to respond to a robbery. I swear, it's like pullin' teeth. I hope you learned something here. And if you know what's good for ya, you'll keep your mouth shut about this. Remember, I know what you look like. Well... toodles!" The masked man was ready to leave with the money he stole from the cash register, stuffed into a sack.

But he was cut short by a shrill voice that shouted, "STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM!"

Henry Hansen, the Incredible Hunk, made his stand. "How 'bout you pick on someone your own size, punk?"

"Okay, A: he is my own size. Like, almost exactly," the masked man aimed his gun at Henry. "B: WHAT'D YOU JUST CALL ME?!"

"HA!" Henry snorted. "You think your little peashooter scares me? Because, heh, buddy-"

Daniella, the Bronx Bombshell, proceeded to throw a handful of bang snaps she had on-hand into the man's eyes, popping, startling him, causing him to drop his gun. This gave Rob, known tonight only as Noi-R, an opening to jump on the man's back and put him in a chokehold.

The man struggled against Rob, trying not to pass out. He punched Rob repeatedly in the head in an attempt to get Rob to loosen his grip. It hurt, but Rob kept on choking the man. He was too close to stop now. Desperate, the man flopped onto his back, slamming the wind out of Rob. Before Daniella and Henry could interfere, the man hurled Rob at them, knocking them over, rendering them defenseless.

It's here that a protective being, perhaps disguised as a small mouse, could have discreetly slid the masked man's dropped gun across the floor to Daniella amidst all the commotion.

But that protective being does not inhabit this reality.

The masked man managed to recover his weapon. "Who... IN THE #$%! DO YOU THINK YOU THREE ARE?! JUST HAD TO BE HEROES, HUH?! WELL, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO 'HEROES.'"

And just as quickly as he said it, in a fit of rage and fear, he flicked his wrist up and discharged his weapon at the nearest person that jumped up; someone that tried to run away far too late. Someone that had tight hold of both Rob and Henry's hands... letting them go as a bullet struck her brain, killing her instantly.

Her lifeless body collapsed to the ground and became rigid in the arms and legs. Blood pooled around her head.

"...Daniella...?" Rob whimpered.

Henry completely froze.

The masked man, instantly snapped out of his adrenaline-high, silently dropped his handgun and the sack of cash, and stumbled outside.

Henry remained frozen, staring at what was once Daniella. He could not speak. He could not move. He could barely take a breath. He began to leak urine.

Rob ripped his mask and hat off and rushed to Daniella's side. His hands trembled as he removed her blood-stained mask and beanie, only to be met with glazed-over eyes.

"Daniella. Daniella, wake up. Please, please wake up," Rob shook her, tears streaming from his eyes. He screamed, "WAKE UP, PLEASE! STOP IT! OH GOD, I DIDN'T MEAN TO! I'M SORRY! DANIELLA?!"

During all of the commotion, the aforementioned cashier had successfully managed to call the police, but much like Daniella, it was much too late... The cashier came out of hiding to see the horrific scene unfolding; to see Rob frantically giving Daniella's corpse out-of-rhythm chest compressions, sobbing uncontrollably.

The cashier ran over to Rob and tried to pull him away.

"Hey, hey, wait, stop, STOP! That's not gonna work, please," she pleaded with Rob. "I'm so sorry, sweetie, she's gone. Please get off her! Don't look anymore. The cops are on their way, honey, just please STOP!"

But Rob just kept screaming and compressing up and down, up and down, up and down... Eventually he felt a rib break. Then two. Then three, and he finally tired out... He collapsed on top of Daniella, squeezing her, desperately trying to sob, but at this point nothing could come out except for pitiful gasps for air.

Sirens blared in the distance, approaching closer and closer.

The masked man stormed back into the store, breathing frantically.

"H-HEY, NO, YOU GET THE $#*% AWAY FROM THESE KIDS!" The cashier warned as she tried to reach for the dropped gun.

The man beat her to it and shoved her aside.

Although nobody would ever believe it, the man really was not trying to aim as high as he did. Although he was angry and scared, he just wanted to injure Daniella, to deter her. The fact of the matter was he had never actually shot a firearm before in his life. He just wanted some easy cash. The gun was supposed to scare, not be used. He didn't anticipate this. And now his life was over.

And thus it was.

He lifted his ski-mask up, pointed the gun at the roof of his mouth...

...and fired.

The year that followed what was deemed locally as "The Dollar Sapling Slaughter" was not easy for anybody. The store itself could not even sustain business anymore, resulting in its closure.

Daniella's funeral broke the hearts of everybody that knew her as well as those that didn't. It especially broke her father's heart and the hearts of her estranged family living in New York. A beautiful young woman with a promising future, on her way to graduating high school, just getting to know her real dad, reduced to ashes in a beautiful urn.

The masked man, Bruce Carruth, was rightfully demonized in the public eye.

Many assemblies were held in the schools around Riptide about letting law-enforcement professionals handle dangerous situations. Television PSAs were made as well. The tragic story reached national news.

Henry could not go to school anymore. He became isolated. He didn't speak for months, despite copious amounts of heavily personalized therapy. He never reached out to Rob either. It's not that he didn't want to, his brain was just perpetually frozen in that one brutal moment, like a thick thorn in his side that he struggled with all his might to remove. All he could really do was try to focus on healing himself first and foremost, no matter how long it took...

Rob's circumstances turned out very similar to Henry's, isolation and all. The difference, though, was that the therapy did not help him, and his guilt slowly consumed him day-by-day, month-by-month... He promised to protect her, but he couldn't, and that killed him inside. It all happened so fast. A shining beacon of light in his lonely life was snuffed out right before his very eyes. Her voice was gone. Her presence was gone. She was gone... It was unfair.

And it was all his fault.

He took that statement to heart and never let it go. He could not move on. He just simply lost the will to live...

All it took was one incident. One absent being. And just like many realities that have passed and just like many more to come, Rob's fate was effectively sealed. Forever...