Autumn City is a vast urban jungle best known for the constant breeze flowing through its streets. Windmills towered over even the highest skyscrapers, providing a steady flow of power that powers the city below. The gentle gale whispered across the crowds of people and created a soft symphony that relaxed the citizens. This was a normal day here in Autumn City.

"And that is why the name for our band should be Cereal Killer Warzone."

"Definitely not."

"But what about Bacon Flavored Lightning Bolts?"

"I already said no to that."

"Part of this Complete Breakfast?"

"Why are you so hooked on Breakfast subjects!?"

"I skipped lunch."

"That's not even the same type of meal!"

"Could you guys keep it down? I'm trying to focus."

And this was a normal conversation between three friends.

The first one had strawberry blonde hair with a pink tint on her front bangs. Her shoulder-length hair was tied into a wild ponytail that exuded her spunky attitude. The woman's attire was a white hoodie with a silver wing pattern on the back to make her ironically angelic. The zipper was open, revealing a hot pink t-shirt with a black broken heart logo and ample assets. She wore ragged black shorts with matching sneakers and fingerless gloves. Strapped to her back was a black guitar case that swayed side to side as she was talking. And she had the stupidest grin plastered across her face.

This is Gabriel Mons, danger magnet extraordinaire and lead guitarist of their group.

The girl Gabriel was talking to appeared to be a lot more serious compared to the spunky goofball. Whether it was the permanent stern look on her face or the height difference she had over Gabriel, it was clear that she was way more solemn than the danger magnet.

This girl had long ruby hair that reached to the bottom of her back. A black beanie with a skull pin rested on the top of her head. In contrast, her outfit consisted of a monochrome striped sweater with a black tank top to cover up. She had skin-tight jeans and black boots to top it all off that showed off her thin form. Her skin was paler than Gabriel’s, and her eyes had dark eyeliner over them, making her look even sharper.

And she was glaring at Gabriel as if she was ready to shoot lasers into her.

This is Samantha Hadley, resident edgelord and lead vocalist.

Sam and Gabe have known each other since elementary. Despite their contrasting personalities, the two of them got along just fine.

How was that possible? Well, that was one of life’s greatest mysteries.

Trailing behind the two of them was one more girl. She was clearly younger than them due to her short stature and petite build. She was busy playing a rhythm game on her phone, barely paying attention to her friends’ bickering. Tapping her fingers to the beat, she glued her eyes to the screen.

This young lady had short dark hair with blue tints at the end. A single strand stood tall as it bobbed up and down on her head. She wore an oversized navy parka that drooped past her shoulders. Underneath was a yellow t-shirt with a cat logo spray-painted on the chest area. She had a pair of short blue trouser skirts on with black sweatpants that kept her warm in this cold area. The red sneakers on her feet were stained with mud, and she had a pair of black-red headphones resting on her neck. Thick black glasses were on her face, reflecting the game as she continued to mash her thumbs.

This is Uzi Nuremberg, an everyday gamer and drummer.

These girls were a group of traveling performers hoping to make their mark world of entertainment. They toil in their work, pouring their blood, sweat, and tears to attain fame beyond their wildest. Their sanctum was a dark room where they play a cacophony of noise that they call music.

In other words, a garage band.

Sam and Gabe formed this band during their last year in high school. Gabriel was already deadset on pursuing a music career since day one, but Sam was focused more on just getting to a good school. Gabe tried to convince Sam to be her vocalist many times, but she declined every time. But when Sam was rejected by her dream school, she finally joined Gabe in her crazy plan.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Uzi joined the group while they were still in community college. They saw her playing at the local arcade, she was drumming away on the Taiko arcade game. In the hardest difficulty no less. Gabe was so impressed by Uzi’s skill and wanted to recruit her, but Sam pointed out how video games and real instruments were completely different things. One casual conversation and a weird misadventure later, Uzi was on board with the crew.

And that is how their garage band, the name still pending, was formed. They were still a small group, practically indie with so few fans that you could count them with your hand.

That was going to change today because right now, they were walking to an audition.

Autumn City wasn’t just known for its usual breezes and vast windmills, it had a decent music fanbase too. And it was all thanks to a certain recording studio known as “Eso Records”. Eso Records was responsible for producing artists who would become hit sensations in the industry. From rock, EDM, to even the classics, Eso records could find anyone that had the potential to be a star in their respective fields.

And today, Eso records was holding up auditions for new people to join.

Sam already did most of the paperwork for the auditions in advance since she knew her two compatriots were too lazy to do it. After a whole week, they got a response from the studio to come in and do a live audition.

However, on the day of the audition, they had 3 problems:

1. Uzi overslept because she spent a majority of her night binging Netflix

2. They didn’t have a car, so they had to walk to the studio on foot.

3. They had yet to decide on an official band name

“I’m telling you, we should call our band The Taco Soldiers!” Gabriel suggested. “We can say that we’re fighting the Escargo Empire with the power of music!”

“Can’t you take this a little seriously?” Sam pinched her nose, “We’re about to get our first big break, and you’re just rambling on about names involving food.”

“Then would you want to talk about giraffes?” Uzi looked up from her game, “I want to talk about Giraffes.”

“Are giraffes that interesting?” Gabriel turned to the everyday gamer. “Aren’t they just goats with long necks?”

“There’s a lot more to it than that.” Uzi stated in a matter of fact tone, “First of all-”

“Hold up!” Sam halted the gang, dead in their tracks. “What’s going on here?”

Curious about what Sam was talking about, Gabe and Uzi turned to look at what Sam was talking about.

They were currently in front of a rundown apartment complex. The bricks were worn, the paint dulled away by the passage of time. The windows were either boarded up or smashed into pieces, the wind rattling the wood, making a creepy creaking sound. The porch was covered in weeds and the forgotten remains of people’s trash. Overall, they were in front of a dump.

“It’s an old building,” Gabriel pointed out. “So what?”

“Are we just gawking at it or something?” Uzi asked.

The two dunderheads were confused as to why Sam stopped all of a sudden. To which, they only earned a sigh from the edge lord.

“I’m not talking about the building.” Sam corrected. “I’m talking about the Street.”

She opened her arms wide. “The recording studio isn’t here! We should have gotten there by now!”

Gabe and Uzi looked around their surroundings, and she was right. As far as they could see, they only saw a couple of convenient stores plus the occasional pedestrian and/or hobo. This part of the city was practically vacant with how empty it felt. The building where Eso records should be was nowhere in sight.

“Uh… did we go to the bad side of town?” Gabe asked nervously.

“I don’t know maybe we took the wrong turn,” Sam replied. “Our appointment is literally in a few minutes, so if we hustle, we can make it.”

“Sounds good to me.” Gabe put her hands to her back. “So, where are we going?”

The look Sam gave her immediately told her that she said something wrong. “I don’t know, I told you to look up the map. That’s why I told you to pull out your phone remember?”

The Danger Magnet was dead silent, and immediately, she knew that she was hiding something. A dead giveaway that she screwed up, big time.

“What did you do?” Sam asked sternly, arms crossed.

Gabe twiddled her fingers like a kid who got caught stealing cookies. “Well, I wanted to talk to you about the band name, so I told Uzi to use the GPS on her phone.”

The two of them stared at Uzi, who also immediately went dead silent.

“Uzi… did you map our location?” Sam glared at her, causing the composed girl to turn her head away. She looked embarrassed, given how her cheeks flushed a slight shade of red.

“ I… wasn’t listening.” She showed her two friends the screen of her phone only to see not a map but a new high score from the game that she was playing.

Gabe looked at Sam, whose eyes were covered by her hair. The edge lord’s fist shook as she looked down at the ground, contemplating her friends’ stupidity.

“...Sam?” Gabe nervously asked, knowing full well that she was probably going to strangle her.

“... Where’s Eso Records?” Sam calmly asked. Her voice had the slightest hint of fury.

Uzi immediately closed out of her game and immediately went to the GPS app on her phone. After typing the location, she took a good look at the distance and sighed.

“... It’s on the other side of town,” Uzi replied.

Not 1 millisecond after, Gabe and Uzi booked it with Sam right behind them. They were running for their lives as the edgelord looked just about ready to kill them.

“I’M SORRY!! I JUST REALLY WANTED A COOL NAME BEFORE WE PERFORMED!”

“WELL, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE PERFORMING WHEN I STRANGLE YOU, YOU BITCH!”

“We’re going to be late for our audition. Aren’t we?”

Their screams were heard across the entire city as they rushed to their audition on time. The town was alerted, unaware that the source of the noise was 3 girls yelling at each other.

Rumors of what made those screams would be told by generations to come. Because of the moment, those screams were heard…

Was the moment the city was never the same again.