Morning dawns crystal clear in Salus. The weather is balmy and mild, as it always seems to be in the town. Strange how rarely it rains, or grows cold, or gets too warm. Today is the same as yesterday. Or is it?
There's change in the air. The residents of Salus wake with a sense of something...different. Something wrong. Everything looks and acts exactly as it did the day before. A few more people are missing, but it's something else. Something deeper. Like you've woken up after a long coma, missed Christmas and a birthday or two. As if time has passed you by without you ever knowing. A bone weary emptiness, almost, but nothing you can truly put your fingers on.
As the sun rises over the town, the Community Center reflects purple and then orange as the light begins to shine over it. But something's wrong. There's a tree outside the popular city building. It's always been there, it's easy enough to ignore. But the body? The body dangling from the rope, neck clearly broken and hands and legs waving limply in the ocean breeze? That isn't nearly as easy to ignore.
You don't know him. No one seems to. The face is familiar enough, but has anyone actually met this man? He seems plain to the eye: short brown hair, average build, lightly tanned skin. He could be anyone, someone's friend, brother, or lover. But no one in the slowly growing crowd can place him. A few people scream, some yell, there are even tears. But despite people having been there for months, no one can place the man.
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