Episode 1- The City Was Loud
Greta had spent most of her life complaining about the noise.
Every morning, the city woke her before her alarm ever had the chance.
A bus hissed to a stop beneath her apartment window. Someone leaned on their horn three blocks away. A jackhammer rattled somewhere downtown, followed almost immediately by someone shouting, “Move your truck!”
It used to drive her crazy.
She would spend the rest of her life wishing she could hear it again.
Thursday mornings always followed the same routine.
Three blocks.
One coffee.
The same café she’d been visiting for years.
She passed the florist arranging bright sunflowers outside his shop before opening. An elderly man ignored the city’s “Do Not Feed the Birds” signs while scattering breadcrumbs for a flock of pigeons. Across the street, the neighborhood bakery filled the air with the smell of fresh cinnamon rolls long before sunrise.
Greta didn’t know any of their names.
She’d never needed to.
She’d invented stories for all of them.
The florist secretly wrote romance novels.
The pigeon man had definitely been married for fifty years and complained about his wife’s growing collection of houseplants while secretly buying her new ones every anniversary.
The woman in the navy blazer who rushed by every Thursday morning at exactly 8:17 was probably an attorney who survived almost entirely on coffee and determination.
Daniel insisted Greta was terrible at reading people.
Greta insisted that wasn’t the point.
Imagining happy endings for strangers made the world feel a little kinder.
She pushed open the café door.
The familiar bell chimed overhead.
Warm air wrapped around her, carrying the rich smell of espresso, vanilla, and fresh pastries.
“Morning, Greta.”
She smiled at the woman behind the counter.
“Morning, Maya.”
“The usual?”
“Am I really that predictable?”
Maya laughed.
“You’ve ordered the exact same thing every Thursday for the last three years.”
Greta sighed dramatically.
“I suppose there’s no point pretending I’ve changed.”
“One vanilla latte.”
“And…”
Maya reached for a blueberry muffin before Greta even spoke.
“…I was going to make healthier choices today.”
“I’ll believe that next Thursday.”
Greta laughed.
“I appreciate your confidence.”
“I’ve known you too long to expect miracles.”
Greta accepted her coffee with a grin before turning toward the window.
Someone was already sitting in her chair.
Of course he was.
Daniel looked up from his phone just as she stopped beside the table.
“You’re in my seat.”
“I don’t see your name on it.”
“You know that’s my seat.”
“I got here first.”
“You got here early just to annoy me.”
“I absolutely did.”
She nudged his shoulder until he slid dramatically into the opposite chair.
“My sacrifice goes unnoticed.”
“Your sacrifice deserves exactly the amount of appreciation it’s getting.”
“So… none.”
“You’re catching on.”
Daniel pressed a hand against his chest.
“I can’t believe you’re so mean to your oldest friend.”
“You’ve known me since kindergarten.”
“Exactly.”
“You’ve had plenty of time to leave.”
“I’ve considered it.”
“And?”
“You make excellent life choices about coffee.”
Before Greta could answer, another familiar figure approached their table.
Her older brother carried his usual black coffee in one hand and a tablet tucked beneath the other arm.
Greta honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Setsu order anything else.
Years ago, she’d convinced him to try a caramel latte.
He’d taken one sip.
Thought about it for a moment.
Then quietly slid the cup across the table.
“You can finish it.”
That had been the end of his experimentation.
That was Setsu.
Dependable in all the quiet ways that mattered.
He remembered umbrellas before it rained, chargers before road trips, and the first-aid kit everyone else forgot.
Greta had spent years teasing him for preparing for disasters that never happened.
More often than not…
She ended up borrowing whatever he’d packed.
Setsu sat beside them, setting his tablet on the table.
Daniel immediately pointed his spoon at him.
“I’ve figured it out.”
Greta looked up.
“Should I be worried?”
“Oat milk.”
She sighed.
“…What about it?”
“It’s suspicious.”
“It’s milk made from oats.”
“Exactly.”
She frowned.
“…That’s how food works.”
Daniel leaned forward as though revealing a state secret.
“First almond milk.”
“Okay.”
“Then soy milk.”
“Still following.”
“Now oat milk.”
He lowered his voice.
“The cows are being replaced.”
Greta stared at him.
“You think someone is replacing cows.”
“I think Big Oat doesn’t want us asking questions.”
She laughed so hard she nearly spilled her coffee.
“You need therapy.”
“I need answers.”
Daniel looked hopefully toward Setsu.
“Back me up.”
Setsu didn’t even look away from the article on his tablet.
“No.”
“My genius continues to go unrecognized.”
“Your genius has never been recognized,” Greta replied.
Around them, the café buzzed with ordinary life.
A father patiently negotiated with his toddler over why muffins weren’t vegetables.
Two nurses in scrubs laughed so hard one nearly snorted coffee.
Someone dropped a fork.
Someone apologized.
Maya called another customer’s order.
Life moved exactly as it always had.
Greta glanced toward the window.
The woman in the navy blazer hurried past.
Late today.
Maybe she’d overslept.
Greta smiled to herself.
She would spend years wondering what had happened to that woman.
Whether she’d made it home.
A piercing emergency tone suddenly interrupted every conversation inside the café.
Silence settled over the room.
Every television mounted near the ceiling switched to the same news broadcast.
Maya quietly reached for the remote and turned up the volume.
The anchor looked calm.
Almost.
“We’re interrupting our scheduled programming with reports of several unusual incidents occurring in multiple cities across the country.”
Setsu slowly lowered his tablet.
“Authorities are responding to what are currently being described as isolated acts of violence. Emergency services are asking the public to avoid affected areas while investigators determine the cause.”
A map appeared behind the anchor.
Red markers blinked across several major cities.
Too many.
Greta frowned.
“…That’s strange.”
Daniel leaned back.
“‘Determine the cause’ means they have absolutely no idea what’s happening.”
“Maybe it’s riots.”
“In five cities?”
“It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing the news has covered.”
The anchor continued.
“Officials are also investigating several reports describing unusually aggressive behavior. Those reports remain unconfirmed.”
Daniel smirked.
“They’re telling people not to speculate.”
Greta smiled.
“Which means everyone immediately will.”
The broadcast switched to shaky cellphone footage.
A man wandered through a crowded sidewalk.
His clothes were stained.
His movements looked wrong.
Not drunk.
Not injured.
Wrong.
A woman cautiously approached him.
“Sir?”
He didn’t answer.
“Can you hear me?”
Slowly…
The man lifted his head.
Greta felt herself relax.
Good.
Someone was helping him.
Without warning—
The man lunged.
The footage cut to black.
The anchor reappeared.
“Witnesses claim the individual may have bitten several bystanders before police arrived. Those reports have not yet been confirmed.”
Daniel slowly turned toward Greta.
“…Bit.”
She rolled her eyes.
“People bite people.”
“In hockey.”
“In fights.”
“They don’t bite complete strangers.”
Before Greta could answer—
A scream tore through the street outside.
Every person in the café turned toward the window.
Across the street, a man stumbled into the intersection.
Blood had soaked through the front of his gray shirt.
He swayed unsteadily, as though every step required conscious effort.
Cars slowed around him.
One stopped entirely.
People stared.
A young woman pushed through the small crowd gathering on the sidewalk.
“Sir?”
She approached carefully, one hand raised so she wouldn’t startle him.
“Are you alright?”
Greta was already standing.
“He needs help.”
Before she could take a single step, a familiar hand gently wrapped around her wrist.
“Wait.”
She turned toward her brother.
Setsu wasn’t looking at her.
His eyes never left the man outside.
His grip wasn’t painful.
It wasn’t forceful.
It simply said,
Don’t.
Greta had seen Setsu angry.
She had seen him exhausted after working impossible hours.
She had seen him cry exactly once—at their grandmother’s funeral.
But she had never…
Not once in thirty-one years…
Seen fear in her older brother’s eyes.
A chill settled deep in her stomach.
Outside, the woman offered the injured man a reassuring smile.
“It’s okay.”
Her voice was faint through the café window.
“We’re going to get you some help.”
The man remained perfectly still.
For one hopeful second…
Greta thought everything might be alright.
The woman reached for his arm.
He slowly lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
The corners of the woman’s mouth softened into another gentle smile.
“It’s okay,” she repeated.
“I’ve got you.”
Greta felt herself exhale.
Just a little.
Then—
The man grabbed both of the woman’s shoulders.
Hard.
She let out a surprised gasp.
“What are you—”
He yanked her toward him.
And buried his teeth into her neck.
The scream that followed tore through the morning.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
The entire street seemed frozen.
The woman clawed desperately at the man’s shoulders.
Blood spread across the collar of her blouse.
Someone outside shouted.
Another person screamed.
Inside the café, a ceramic mug slipped from someone’s hands and shattered against the floor.
The spell broke.
People surged toward the exits.
Chairs scraped violently across the tile.
The father scooped up his sobbing toddler.
Two customers ducked behind overturned tables.
Someone yelled for the police.
Someone else shouted to lock the doors.
Maya stumbled backward, one hand covering her mouth.
“Oh my God…”
Greta couldn’t move.
Her mind refused to understand what her eyes were seeing.
Training told her the woman needed immediate medical attention.
Instinct told her to run.
Fear rooted her to the floor.
Daniel’s voice sounded strangely distant.
“…Greta.”
She barely heard him.
Outside, the man still hadn’t stopped.
He never looked up.
He never reacted to the people screaming around him.
He just kept biting.
The first police siren echoed somewhere in the distance.
Then another.
Then another.
Across the street, people fled in every direction.
A cyclist abandoned his bicycle in the middle of the road.
A delivery driver left his truck running and sprinted away.
Car horns blared as traffic ground to a standstill.
Greta stared through the café window.
Less than five minutes ago…
She’d been laughing about oat milk.
Now a woman was dying in broad daylight.
And nobody seemed to understand why.
Daniel stepped beside her.
His voice was barely above a whisper.
“…Greta.”
She finally looked at him.
For the first time since they’d known each other…
Daniel had no joke.
No sarcastic remarks.
No conspiracy theory.
Only fear.
Real fear.
Greta turned back toward the window.
The man never lifted his head.
He just kept…
Biting.
