Blood on the Counter

Blood on the Counter is the sixth chapter of Season One. It marks the first appearance of Dt. Pierre D'Amour and Ashton Butch.

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The violent marks Ezra and Dane saw looked like pure red liquid. Suddenly Ezra was in shock for a few seconds, before walking towards the counter at the far end of the shop. Dane followed. While they were walking, Ezra quickly asked, “Why didn’t you see this?” Dane responded, “I didn’t notice…” They then stood in front of the counter and saw blood, before looking and seeing the legs of a body, the rest of the body was out of sight due to the counter being in the way. Ezra quickly looked behind the counter and saw that a body was there, and blood was leaking from the body’s chest. “Shit! Dane call an ambulance!” shouted Ezra in panic. Dane quickly ran around the counter and also saw the shot person. Dane shouted, “Holy shit! Check if he has a pulse. Ezra jumped down and put two fingers on the top of the shopkeeper’s neck, he felt it beating but very lightly, before quickly ranting out to Dane, “he does, but it is very weak. Hurry up and call the ambulance!” Dane quickly dug into his pocket and reached for his iPhone. He quickly grasped it and dialed 911. The hotline picked up the phone, “hello, what’s going on!?” asked the receptionist on the phone. Dane replied, “a guy has been shot, we’re at the gun store, the address is; Aurora Avenue North, Seattle, the place is called Butch’s Gunshop, hurry! He’s dying!” The receptionist quickly said, “we’ll be there right away!” Then the receptionist hung up.

Minutes later, Dane and Ezra heard EOR! EOR! EOR! That sound had meant that the ambulance had arrived. Paramedic’s raced out of the van and gave the shopkeeper CPR, then they took him into the ambulance. Before the ambulance departed, a police car had arrived. The door opened, and a middle-aged man in a coat stepped out. The man spoke to them in his French accent, “Ditect-evvv. Giles Pierre-D’Amour, Ayy am inviest-ogayt-ehng zis man’s shooteng, did yiou see anyzeng strange at ze incerdent sirs?” Dane began mumbling what happened, before Ezra said loud and clear, “I think it was Muhammad Praveen!” Suddenly, Dane elbowed Ezra and gasped angrily, “Ezra this isn’t the time!” While the detective was looking at them both with curiosity, Ezra spoke again, “I saw his car, it nearly hit me before! It was on its way to this store, I swear!” Dane smacked his hand against his face at what Ezra was saying. The detective was still looking at Ezra curiously, until he asked, “What meks yiou zink it was his cearr?” Ezra instantly replied, “I know it was his car, it was the black sedan I keep seeing in my… dreams…” Dane groaned at this comment. Suddenly a big frown came across the detective’s face as it also turned red, before he spoke again, “cium to me when yiou want to tok some truth bioy!” The detective then turned his back and marched towards his car without another word. Then his car drove off. Dane turned to scream at his friend, “what the hell has gotten into you Ezra!? A man is in the hospital fighting for his life and all you can think and talk about are your dreams! What’s wrong with you!?” Ezra then nodded his head with his eyes closed, his voice croaked before saying, “nothing is wrong with me! It was Muhammad I swear!” Dane just stared at him before Ezra groaned and changed the subject, “I better go home now and get some sleep for the weekend, and I’ll see you at the graveyard party on Sunday.” Ezra ran off home without another word, straight into his bedroom, going past his drunken father, got into his PJ’s, cleaned his teeth, and tucked himself into bed.

The next day, as Ezra was walking down the train line to the train station so he could catch the train into the city for the day, he heard a car coming. The car was a rusty old thing, it was driving down the train track. And inside the vehicle, he saw Pete. Pete was on his phone at the same time, screaming in a casual, happy voice, “yo man you owe me for this!” before he screamed, “wooo hooo!” in a really high voice. He hung up his phone, but that was before his car slowed down, and stopped near Ezra. Ezra, who was startled at what was going on, he was watching from beside the track. Pete then complained, “Aww I’m out of gas!” Then a train appeared and it was coming at the car at full speed. Ezra then looked at the train, and he got a glimpse of the driver. He knew that face anywhere! He had dark skin and dark hair, it was Muhammad! Pete tried to get out of the car, but his seat belt was stuck, he was screaming “Fuck! Fuck!” at the sound of the train. Ezra was in too much shock to save him. Pete quickly pulled out his knife and cut the seat belt, before opening the car door and diving out, which happened a split second before the train hit. Pete had only just avoided a big explosion after seeing his car turn into flames as the train continued moving, until it was out of sight. Pete then looked around in shock before looking at Ezra. But suddenly the flames from his car exploding caught his back, he was burning alive, while screaming in pain, eventually he fell on the track, dead.

Ezra woke up from his dream, he was breathing heavily. At what he had just seen in his dream, he checked the time and it was 10 in the morning on Saturday. He jumped out of bed and put his clothes on, all that was on his mind was what occurred last night and what happened in his dream. He decided that will go into the hospital and visit the shopkeeper that was shot, whose name he suddenly remembered, Ashton Butch. And ask him what he knew about last night’s shooter.

Ezra got a lift from his father, who had just recovered from a hangover. His father drove him to the hospital and said, “I’ll be back to pick you up at 3, it is a while so here’s 20 bucks to go and do some exploring.” Just as Mr. White handed the 20 dollar note with the picture of Thomas Scully on it, Ezra said goodbye to his dad and left the car. He walked into the hospital and asked the receptionist, “Could I please see Mr. Butch?” The female receptionist smiled and said, “he’s straight down the hall, the second room to the left, and do not frighten him, he is in grave shock.” Ezra followed her instructions and entered the room, which was Room 8-Y. He slowly opened and closed the door as he walked in, and the familiar man, whose eyes were closed, opened. “Are you a doctor? If you are I need no more pain killers,” he said in his Texan accent which sounded rather croaky. Ezra sat down on the chair that was just to his right. “My name is Ezra White, I appeared after your shooting, and my friend is the one who called the ambulance, I need to know what happened.” The man in the bed looked at Ezra confusingly with his eyes half closed and said, “I know nothin’! I already told that Detective Pierre guy, the guy was masked, and I couldn’t see his face.” Ezra asked, “did you see his car?” Butch thought for a second, before saying, “nah, I don’t remember seeing his car.” Ezra then got up of the chair and said, “thank you for your time sir, and I hope you get better soon.” Ezra smiled faintly and left the room without another word.

Ezra left the room and walked down the hallway, to his surprise and frustration, he saw his art teacher, Miss Tanen. Except she looked different, she was crying outside a hospital room. On top of all this awkwardness, she looked up and saw Ezra. Ezra felt he had to walk up and greet her, as much as he disliked her, he did. Ezra asked her, “what are you doing here Miss Tanen?” Miss Tanen looked at Ezra and surprisingly, smiled faintly, before saying in an unusual quiet voice, “oh, good morning Mr White, it is my father, he’s dying. They say he’s not going to make it through the day,” Miss Tanen then broke into tears once more. Ezra for once in his life felt sorry for his art teacher, and he spoke in a sorrowful voice, “Well, I’m sorry. If there’s anything I can do?” Miss Tanen gave a sniff before yapping, “no one can cure his lung disease! And the least thing you can do is come on time and hand in your art assignment, first thing on Monday!” Ezra didn’t know what to say, because the last few words reminded him of how horrible she was, but at the same time, he felt sorry for her, so he just nodded, and said, “yes Miss Tanen, and I will see you on Monday.” Ezra then walked away, and left the hospital.

Characters

 * Ezra White
 * Dane Young
 * Ashton Butch
 * Dt. Pierre D'Amour
 * Muhammad Praveen
 * Pete Marshall
 * Margaret Tanen
 * Damon White
 * Receptionist

Trivia

 * The next chapter, As Noon Past was originally supposed to be apart of the chapter, but due to it being too long and it had too many on-going plots, it was split into two.