Ebott city a place that most spend their entire life trying to get away from. Frisk was no different. She grew up in this city and over the years had seen as it go as bad as it was. She could remember when the streets were a little safer, when people actually had a chance at being able to excel in the world. Save up money and do something. A time when children could play outside without the parents having to worry them running into some gangster or being hit by a stray bullet. Frisk remembered when the parks actually had somethings living and growing there. But now they were only another unsafe place, taken over but druggies who were just as dangerous and even more unpredictable than the gangsters.
With a soft sigh Frisk got out of bed. It was getting harder and harder to do that some days. All she wanted was to save up enough money to be able to get out of the city. But as it was she knew that the chance of that happening wasn’t very good. Not with the high protection fee that she and all of her neighbors had to pay every month. A fee that left just barely enough money for them to bay their bills and to be able to feed themselves, and even then there were times that Frisk had to go without.
Frisk headed to the shower and turned it on. She left the water to warm up as she went to grab her clothes for the night. She worked at a bar that thankfully wasn’t too bad. It paid well enough and she usually got some decent tips. The only problems were the fact that it took over an hour to get there, thankfully most of it she was able to ride on the streetcar. The other was the fact that the bar was located right on the border of this gangs territory. Which meant that fights were more frequent and in this case it also meant being close to the monsters.
Frisk grew up hearing about the monsters who had emerged from the mountain some time ago. She heard how cruel and ruthless they were. She wasn’t sure how much of it was actually true but even so she would rather avoid anything that seemed that likely to just cause more trouble.
With a shake of her head to clear the thoughts of things that she really didn’t need to be thinking about at the moment Frisk headed back to the bathroom and began to get ready for the night. About an hour later Frisk was heading out her door, locking it behind her and waving to her neighbors who were either just coming home or also heading out to work like she was.
Heading out of the apartment complex Frisk made her way down the street quickly so she wouldn’t miss the streetcar. Not that she really had to worry, she was never late for it and was usually early enough that she had to wait for it to arrive at the stop. Today wasn’t any different. As she arrived at the stop she moved and sat down on the bench to wait patiently. There was a time that she would have pulled out a book to read but she knew better than to let anything distract her. She needed to be able to look around at all times. It was safer that way.
Frisk noted everyone that passed well before they did, she was prepared for something to happen with almost all of them. In this city it was becoming harder to tell who the good people were and who would hurt you just because they could without any consequences. But thankfully it wasn’t long before the streetcar pulled up. She smiled at the usual driver as she climbed up. “Evenin’ Miss Frisk.” the older driver said in his usual greeting. “Good evening Mr. Holt, how are your grandbabbies doin?” She asked taking the nearest seat,
“All good, little Nile is already start’n school. And Emily has said her first words.” The driver said smiling proudly which caused Frisk’s smile to grow. It was always good to hear things like that especially when so often you are hearing about someone’s death more than life.
“That is amazing. They sure do grow up fast.”
“That they do Miss Frisk, that they do.”
The two continued to talk for the ride as they usually did, Frisk was always glad for the distraction and it wasn’t hard to guess that Mr. Holt just liked to have someone who would listen to his stories. But all too soon it seemed it was time for her to get off and walk the rest of the way. Giving a wave as the streetcar pulled away Frisk turned and headed down the street towards work.
~~~~~~~~
The night was a slow one, something that Frisk both liked and hated. It meant less money that she could make in tips which meant things would be harder, but she knew that the reason was mainly because it was Tuesday and not many people could afford to drink on days like this and likely be fired the next day for it. That meant that most of the people in the bar were gangsters and other lowlifes. It was nights like these that she was grateful that her boss was strict when it came to keeping his workers safe and keeping people from breaking out into full on gun fights in his bar.
So long as you were in the bar you had a good chance of being ruffed up pretty good for breaking one of the rules. “Go outside to kill each other, I ain’t got time to be cleanin’ up yer blood of my floors.” the owner often said. Frisk had seen on a number of occasions just how cruel the man could be but so far as he had seen he had never raised a hand to a lady and he always took care of her while she worked, keeping the drunk men in the bar from doing anything that might ‘upset’ her.
Frisk was carrying a tray of drinks to one of the tables when she began to hear some kind of commotion from outside, something that was impressive itself considering the band that was playing some jazz songs not that far away from her. Giving a curious glance back to the owner she saw as he motioned her to continue working while he was clearly going to check out what was going on. He wouldn’t stop any fights that were outside his bar but he stilled liked to know if one was going on, especially when it got this loud.
Frisk set the drinks on the table giving the men there a friendly smile before they all jumped at the sound of multiple gunshots, followed by more screams and more gunshots. This wasn’t normal. Frisk knew that. Sure she had heard some gunfights every now and then but there usually was never more than three or four shots fired. This was well over that number letting her know that this wasn’t just some ordinary gun fight. The people at her table seemed to notice it too as they got up rather fast and headed outside. She knew they were gangsters and it was a good chance that they were going to go help but she wasn’t leaving the bar. She knew that it was, in theory, the safest place. She had a much lower chance of being shot.
The owner came back in moments later “Frisk get to the back room and lock the door.” He said as he moved quickly through the bar to where she knew that he kept his guns. “Whats goin on out there?” Frisk asked as she began moving, she wasn’t going to question him on why she needed to lock herself in the back.
“Looks like those fuckin’ monsters are makin a play for this territory.” He said and Frisk paled. The monsters had never attacked here before, sure there had been some fights from time to time, which was to be expected when the border just a street over. But never had there been something like this.
“Now get to the back, lock the door and don’t ya dare open it for anyone but me. And keep quiet.” he said as Frisk went through the door was led to the storage room. It was where all the alcohol that wasn’t in use was kept. Frisk shut and locked the door and then moved back becoming more and more worried as she continued to hear the shouts and gunfire from outside the building. But just as quickly as it had started, the sounds ended and it became very quiet.
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