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There was only a few things Kari enjoyed more than cafes. She had practically made them her home during her time in college, pulling long all-nighters or meeting up with classmates to work on a dread group project. At the very least, this stayed the same for her even as her after the incident. In fact, the workers seemed even nicer than they had before, something that irked her although she said nothing about it. Whatever, as long as she got her latte, that was all that had mattered. 

She had been sitting by the window, casually browsing on the laptop she had brought with her when the fight broke out. Two men, both hardy looking suddenly decided it was a great idea to start a gang fight unprompted. While Kari had heard of the rumors of something like this happening in the Serpent's Brew, never had she thought that it would be something she would experience herself. It was something that happened overnight, not in broad daylight. As such, she was completely caught off guard when one of these giant men had crashed into her table, damaging her crappy laptop. To further rub salt in the wound, a couple bullets were shot towards her direction, piercing and finishing off her device.

Honestly, Kari should be more worried about the fight that had happened. Here she was, directly in the line of fire and unable to easily move her own butt out of harm's way. But her laptop! She had spent all of high school saving up for this piece of crap! She didn't even have enough money to even consider a replacement. Right now, she was shaking, eyes glaring at the two grown men fighting in the middle of the cafe. Even if she didn't want to get involved in whatever the hell this was, she had to take this frustration out somehow.

Her body moved instinctively, almost on muscle memory. It really was true that some things never changed. Even if it had been months since she had last used magic, it came to her with ease. With the sun still up, that meant there were plenty of shadows around the room ripe for the taking. Unbeknownst to fighters, the shadows at their feet began to shift as she took control. A shadowy hand morphed, grabbing at the ankles of the two fighters. Kari knew what she was getting into at the very least. With a quick flick of her wrist, they were hung upside down, flailing at the sudden magic. 

It was then when Kari realized what she had done. Shoot. One of her least favorite aspects of playing the hero was the attention that would come with it. Confrontation was always terrifying, and considering she was literally the only one in the room that wasn't cowering or running out it was pretty indicative of who did this. Although she kept the shadowy hand up, she would awkwardly begin to gather the remnants of her broken laptop and wheel her way out, hoping everyone was still caught up by this fight to notice.

Kari wasn't entirely sure what was going on to be honest. After she had managed to break up the fight with the two gangster, some man in relatively fancy attire showed up and announced that he was taking care of everything. At the very least everything was discounted, even though it really didn't make up for the fact that she had lost her laptop in the process. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that the fact that she could easily be discovered was in the forefront of her mind, she would have worried about that a lot more. Thankfully though, the man had offered to help get her stuff replaced if it was broken. It was a nice gesture to say the least, but who was this person anyways?

Still, the fact that she needed a replacement for her laptop was quite a pressing issue that she needed solved. Although granted, she was still a bit hesitant on going up to ask about that even if he had so graciously offered such compensation. It especially did not help that part of her strength was focused on keeping the two gangsters restrained. She dared not to let them go. What if by doing so they managed to escape and cause more ruckus? Wait... Now that she was focusing on it, this man was seriously powerful. Far more than most of the patrons in here. Far more than she was herself. Oh, fun. This was fine. He seemed nice, but even still she trouble forcing her body to actually move.

Finally, she had forced her stiff arms to push against the wheels of her chair when she had gathered the remnants of her laptop onto her lap. As she moved passed the hanging gangsters, she shot them a side eye. At the very least it didn't seem like they knew it was her quite yet. They were still flailing around upside down, shouting obscenities. It wasn't a pretty sight to say the least, but far better than the chaos that had broke out only a few moments prior. 

"Um excuse me," Kari said as she began to approach the man. It was a little difficult considering all the furniture tossed in the way. Other patrons who were equally affected by her predicament swarmed to get their broken items replaced. Compared to the rest of the angry customers, she seemed to blend in to the background, or so she thought. Yeah, she could wait. It wasn't as if she had anything important to do either. 

Little did she know, that despite being hung upside down, one of the gangsters was still holding a gun. As incapacitated as he was, there was no way he was going down anytime soon. He would point a gun at her head seeing as she was the closest, unbeknownst to Kari who was still occupied with her attempts to get the man's attention.

Thank goodness. It didn't actually take much prompting for him to take notice of her. As relieved as she was though, there was another part of her that was a bit jumpy on this knowledge. Did he know about her? If so, would he comment anything in regards to her power? Despite possessing abilities like this Kari really didn't like it when anyone else commented on them. It was uncomfortable, and speaking about them was just going to make things more awkward than necessary. For now, she tried her best externally to hide this discomfort and straighten herself up to speak about her laptop. "I'm sorry, but would you be able to replace this for me? It's fine if you can't get anything new, I got this when I was eight and I don't really need anything better than this." She began. That was a lie, but she didn't want to inconvenience him with something like expensive gear.

Yet before she can continue, the man suddenly disappeared. Kari was only able to track where he went, utilizing her energy sense to follow the sudden flit of energy behind her as she finally realized what was happening. One moment, she was staring down the barrel of a gun, and the next moment the man had a grip on his wrist which forced him to release. And next.

It was the crack of bones that had caused her blood to grow cold.

Even though that evening wasn't the first time she had heard the same sound, the difference was that she knew the sensation that came with such a terrible echo. One that played in her nightmares every night. Kari barely could process what the man had said. Her heartbeat was beginning to drown out her ears. From the outside, her eyes glossed over, she had bent over with a hand on her chest as if to steady herself. Her breaths were short and quick, and she was completely disconnected from the outside world. An intense sense of nausea had taken over her body, even as she quickly averted her gaze from the scene. That was all she could focus on. Even her broken laptop quickly became secondary. All that she could think of was the terrible sound. Could she ever escape it?