Sacramento: The City of Mystery

The Origins

The sun was finally about to set on what had indeed been a ridiculous year for many. A lot of mouths were literally running out of words to describe a year whose few good bits were hugely overshadowed by horrifying tales of terrorism, uncontrolled inflation and an injudicious use of power in several corners of the globe. It almost felt like a minute more on the Earth's atmosphere in it's current condition was as poisonous as a scorpion's sting. Wars and rumors of wars had left a lot of communities in utter ruin. However, in it all, some people chose to believe that moving past this tumultuous year and onto the next would bring an end to the pain and agony in Earth's veins.

Some communities were excluded from the raging tumult going on in other parts of the world, but the news of these unfortunate occurrences was definitely going to have a psychological effect on the minds of the members of such communities; they couldn't help but wake up each day pondering the possibility that they or their families were next in line. One of these was a small urban community in the Canadian middle belt known as 'Sacramento' by many. Sacramento's residents had mixed reactions on the outgoing year which had entered it's final six hours.

Zoey and Justin; two promising teenagers with very distinct personalities, were about heading to the All Avvins concert which was to mark the crossover into a new year. They only waited for Dann on his front porch so they could hit the road as soon as he was ready to leave. Dann had instructed the pair before hand to wait for him at the front yard pending the conclusion of his mandatory week end quiet time - he had formed a good habit over the past few months and of course the end of the worst year ever never looked like it was going to change that.

"Come on Cee! Ain't you gonna call him? At least one more time?" Justin said, following some heated pacing across the Downey's residence front yard.

"You asked this like five minutes ago and what was my answer?" Zoey responded, taking a moment to take off her earpiece.

"I never asked you five minutes ago!" Justin said, before stroking his chin, trying to recall the events that had occurred in the morning prior. 

"Whatever man. Why don't you call him?" said Zoey, while she still had her face all down on her phone.

"I already did, like a jillion times but he keeps ignoring them" 

"So what makes you think he's gonna pick up mine?"

"Oh yeah, good question. Didn't think of that" said Justin, who frankly hadn't thought in that direction at all.

"Just cool your temps Justin. I'm sure he'll be here any minute, he's just spending a little time to pray to his uhm, father in heaven" Zoey responded in Dann's defence.

"Zoey, With all the s**t that's going on in the world right now, do you think whoever's really up there actually bothers about us and listens to these 'prayers'?" Justin replied, gesticulating to demonstrate his emphasis on the word 'prayers'. 

"Yeah Justin. He does; he really does!" Dann said as he emerged from the house's front door looking cheerful as he often was. Zoey felt relieved to have been spared the responsibility of answering Justin's question - she tried to suppress the feeling though. For a teenager who had endured losing his mother to leukaemia in the first few weeks of the year, it seemed like the whole universe had turned it's back on him; and so his doubts in divinity and spiritualism were a bit reasonable.

"Shut up man! The next time you keep us waiting this long, I'll make sure you don't have a mouth to pray anymore!' Justin responded, understandably frustrated at being made to stand for so long.

"Gee! Come on man, did someone steal your candy?" Dann mockingly asked, in a bid to test his friends' limits; luckily for small framed Dann, Zoey wasn't in the mood to watch another one of their one sided bouts one more time.

"Come on love birds, the concert starts in thirty minutes; less talk and more walk and we can get to the venue on time" Zoey said; she foresaw Justin giving Dann a painful scar that would ultimately hinder all three of them from attending the Avvin's first ever visit to Canadian territory; such was the case whenever Dann stepped on Justin's nerves. The trio had attended other concerts and live events at the same venue and in most cases they preferred to have a simple twenty minute stroll to get there, rather than ordering a cab.

Zoey smiled all the way along the journey; something which was seen by both guys as very rare. Dann couldn't help but feel the energy and excitement which seemed to be radiating from Zoey.

"Why are you so psyched Cee? It's just another concert..." said Dann. Upon hearing his words, Zoey planted a deft slap on Dann's cheek - Justin's dull mood got momentarily lifted, but Dann was absolutely furious!

"Hey! What'd you do that for?!" said Dann, throwing out the obvious question; the hit had come right out of nowhere.

"It's not just another concert Dann. What's the matter with you? This is the very first time my favorite band - All Avvins are performing live in Canada! With the rapidly rising death rate we had all around the world this year, who knows if it might be the only ever live performance of All Avvins here in Canada?" Zoey explained; although Dann still hadn't seen enough reason for getting whacked. He simply let it slip, as were the things he had been thought by his mother. Dann recalled being told by his mother that every woman beater was a coward; however, he always felt that that principle could have been a lot more balanced.

"Yeah I guess. It's been a surprising year for everyone; guess there's even more surprises in the final moments" said Justin; he'd been quiet all through the journey - not speechless, just reserved. He felt it made him cool like his favorite heroine - his Mom.

"In this year, there's a lot to be grateful for, regardless!" Dann said, to keep this 'heart felt' conversation going, but his words appeared to have infuriated Justin, albeit he chose to seal off his anger.

"I took my Scholastic Aptitude Test this year and I scored an 800, my Aunt Carol safely delivered lovely twins; it might not have gone down too good in every other part of the world, but I'm glad the Lord's kept me here, alive and still fighting!" Dann continued, hoping to lift the mood - his words inspired Zoey to share all the wonderful things she had experienced herself in the now climaxing year. As expected, Justin was on hand to remind the group of all the negative events that had occurred as well, to sort of dampen the buoyant mood.

"Well, while you're both at it...here's a reminder of a few horrible things that have happened in the past twelve months; the damn Unex parasite infected and killed over two million people in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia - we're really lucky that there hasn't been a single case up until now. Okay, forget about that, the Egyptian military clashed with the Arab soldiers on the Qatari border, and it was really messy, trust me..." Justin began, despite Zoey and Dann's heated appeals for him stop; he was actually just getting started.

"The economists say a bottle of water is going to cost us not 48, not 49, but 50 Canadian bucks by next year! And, and..." Justin said, getting emotional just before he let out a year. A fragile Justin cried like a baby when he watched the heart monitor stop reading and it felt like his world was coming to an end. It hardened him and made him a lot more tough; so he thought.

After a long walk down the Las Cadona, the trio finally arrived at what was probably Sacramento's most notable landmark - the Sacramento City Couloir. The atmosphere was really building up prior to their arrival. The concert tickets were sold out three months before it's preset New Year's Eve due date. One might have wondered why the Avvin's at selected such a small Canadian City for a mega concert with high anticipation. The rental cost of top event centers like Wembley and the Grand Pavilion had shot up significantly with several markets battling the inflation crisis. Zoey who had spent most of her childhood supporting the Avvin's and listening to their classic rock music akin to how she inhaled and exhaled each day, was instantly all over the wide Sacramentian Couloir like a mosquito. Dann walked around to take a few pictures, examine the environment and make a few friends, but for Justin, something just felt off about this concert. He felt a ripple run through his mind similar to the one he got on the morning of his mother's death. He had a real instinct for sensing danger and irregularity - a trait he was often told he had inherited from his distant father.

Justin tried as much as he could to get the attention of his two best friends and earn them not to let their guard down, but the more he tried to find his way through the swarm of Avvins fans, the more he lost his own track of where he was. With the way things had turned out in this hellish year, it was only normal to expect another disruption in the clouds. Without further a do, the concert was on and the huge timer that glared right above the podium showed that there were only a few hours left to supposedly cross on to salvation. The night began with Zoey and Dann were enjoying themselves as they sought to dance off their sorrows and into a year they and everybody else would cleanse Planet Earth's fortunes.

Justin just struggled to loosen up like everyone else, which wasn't a good sign.

"Well if anything terrible's going to happen tonight, we'll have to wait to find out I guess..." the Florida born teen soliloquized. How wrong he was.

All definitely wasn't well.