Beep, Beep, Beep, Chak (an alarm started beeping before someone stopped it)

"Man, another boring day in this boring city. I better wash my teeth and eat something; I'll need it for today" The person brushed his teeth and ate some peanut butter bread, after doing that, he got ready and left for work. "Everything is automated, cars drive by themselves, there are huge buildings with garbage people on them... I'm tired."

The person arrived at his workplace feeling tired. "Hey Leo, today we got to work more than usual, we need to make more than a thousand computers and smartphones by the end of today" (Said Leo's co-worker.) "Don't worry Jeremy I'll work harder than usual" Leo went to his workplace and started making smartphones with a high-tech machine.

"The same job five days a week, I get a good amount of money doing this job, but I'm missing something right now. I need more fun in my life, going to work every day to a job that I don't even like is affecting my mental health. I should probably talk to Markus; I haven't talked to him in a long time, he should be back from vacation"

Leo stayed at work doing the same thing for hours until his turn was finally over. "Finally finished, I should probably call Markus" Ring, Ring, Ring, Cacha, from the other side of the phone a voice could be heard. "Leo, is that you? We haven't talked in so long do you want to meet today?"

"That is exactly what I was going to ask you, want to meet at Hernandez bar?"

"Sure, at what time?"

"Go right now, I will see you there."

"On my way" (Markus said before hanging the phone).

"It should take me twenty-five minutes to arrive at Hernandez bar by foot."

Leo walked for 25 minutes before he arrived at the bar. "Finally, I'm seeing Markus after a week with no contact. He told me that he was going to a vacation with his girlfriend and kids to Peace City, well, I'm not going to think about it anymore and just go into the bar" Ching, Ching, the bell rang as Leo entered the bar. "It seems that Markus has still not arrived, now that I think about it, he lives far away so it's only normal that I arrived first. I'm just going to order my favorite drink to make some time" (Leo talked to himself).

Leo waited for 30 minutes until Markus finally arrived. Ching, Ching, the bell rang again as Markus entered the bar.

"Markus, over here, come sit!" (Leo shouted).

Markus walked all the way to Leo and sat down with him. "Long time no see Leo, how's everything been?"

"You know, the usual, still got nothing in my life yet, but I have the hope that everything will improve, it's just going to take some time."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that, just don't let it get into your head, it could be worse. Keep a positive mindset and don't be distracted by temptations" (Markus advised).

"Sometimes I wonder how I have such a good friend, thanks for the advice. But let's stop talking about me, how about you? I haven't heard of you in a week, I want to hear some experiences that you had in Peace City" (Leo said with curiosity on his voice).

"You know, the usual, just going to places and sharing with my family."

"Oh, and how are the girlfriend and kids, everything in order?"

"Yeah, next week I'm finally getting married, we saved a lot of money just to have this opportunity and I'm nervous."

"That's such great news, it's rare to see married couples nowadays, I hope everything goes well. Don't be that nervous, I'm sure that everything will be fine."

"Thanks for the motivation, but I still can't calm down, it's been a dream of mine to marry my girlfriend since I knew her and now, my dream is just a week away."

"It's of no use to think about that, let's just drink and have a silent time, I miss this stuff."

"Yeah, just like in the old times" (said Markus with a nostalgic look on his face).

"Don't exaggerate, it has only been a week" (Leo responded with a funny tone).

"Jaja, you're right."

"Jajaja, and you're crazy man."

"Anyways, let's start drinking."

Markus and Leo were silent through the whole time that they were drinking. By the time that Markus and Leo finished, it was already 12 o'clock. "Let's finish things up for today, want to meet tomorrow at 7 pm?" (Asked Markus.)

"Huh? y-yeah s-s-sure, l-let's, m-m-meet, t-t-t-tomorrow" (Said Leo with some difficulty.)

"Man, you're pretty rough, I'm going to send you home" Markus said as he picked Leo up, got out of the bar, placed him in his car, and drove to Leo's mansion. Leo was just mumbling and rambling about random stuff the whole ride. "We're here, Leo? Leo?" Markus looked behind him to find a passed-out Leo. "Haaa, what am I going to do with this man" (Markus sighed). Markus grabbed Leo and opened the door to his mansion with a facial recognition machine and then put Leo on his bed before leaving the mansion.

Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Leo woke up at the usual time, with the only difference being that he woke up with a headache. "Ahh, my head, I probably shouldn't have had that much alcohol last night, but I wonder how I got to my bed in the first place. Well, however, I should probably get ready" Leo got out of bed, brushed his teeth and ate something before going to work.

"Another boring day at work, I just want this to end quickly" Leo did the usual, he fabricated smartphones and didn't talk to anyone for his whole shift. Leo got out of work and contemplated on what to do next. "Should I go home, or should I just go to the bar to drink something? I'm just going to go to the bar for a while."

Leo arrived at exactly 6 pm. He ordered his favorite drink and drank it, and after some time the bartender asked in a weird way, "You're here again?". Leo had a confused expression on his face because of the question but ignored the bartender when he looked at the clock... it was 8:35 pm. "I-I s-s-should h-head ho-ho-me, i-it'sss ge-ge-getting la-late." He got up from his seat with difficulty and went to his home by foot to sleep and repeat the process the next day. When Leo got home and opened the door to his mansion, he saw the mutilated corpse of his friend Markus.

There was only one problem, Leo was so drunk that he just acted like his mutilated friend was not there. He couldn't see his guts, his deformed head, his teeth just splattered around, his eyes on the floor, his missing legs, the arms that were in a weird position, he didn't see any of that.

Leo went upstairs and fell headfirst to his bed. Next morning when he woke up and went downstairs, he was surprised when he saw his mutilated friend just lying there. He felt a burning sensation in his throat and stomach, the horrible sight was just too much to bear. He threw up on the floor and landed on his knees. He just couldn't help but ask to himself, "What the hell happened?"

Leo was confused, disgusted, and overall, he felt terrible to see his only friend dead. In that moment he suddenly started crying, he lost his only and best friend, and he was devastated. Leo just sat there for a long time, mourning for his dead friend. Leo then realized that he had a dead body in his mansion, if the guardians of Hope City were to know that he didn't report the body, and on top of that they knew that the dead body was found in his mansion he would be in some serious trouble.

Hope City was strict with the laws, but if Leo proved that he was innocent then he would just receive some mild consequences and that's it. He knew that he didn't commit the crime, but he was worried that he would be sent to Doomtown if he couldn't prove his innocence. He first wanted to give the bad news to Markus's girlfriend and then deal with the guardians.

Leo then remembered something, he had cameras in his mansion; so, he went upstairs towards the control room, got into the cameras and looked for the footage of what happened. After he found the footage, he started watching what happened last night. He put the footage at 6 o'clock and started watching from there.

Leo was surprised and scared to find himself walking around his mansion like he was there the whole time, apparently, he arrived at his mansion pretty early, at exactly 6:54 pm, Leo then remembered that Markus was supposed to meet him at 7 pm. After a few minutes Markus arrived at his mansion and went inside. Markus saw nobody, so he sat down in Leo's couch and called someone. Leo then preceded to look at his phone and just like he expected it, he had a missed phone call from his friend. Leo gripped the phone tightly and continued watching the footage.

Leo fast-forwarded the footage until he saw himself beating Markus with a steel bar. "Wait a second, what?" Leo then had a horrible thought. "Maybe, just maybe, I killed my best friend" Leo was in denial, he couldn't believe that he killed his best friend, but he couldn't prove otherwise since he remembered almost nothing of the last night.

"This footage is not right, I know that I was drunk last night, but it is impossible for me to have killed Markus. The footage was probably changed by a skilled hacker to make it look like I killed him." Leo was panicking, he kept on thinking of stuff that shifted the blame away from him. "Now the only question that's left to answer is, what should I do now?" iman pen