The South Side

Chapter 1

The great city of Adora. The place closest to the stars, where people are closest to their dreams. It is the city that's always alive. A place were the streets are bustling both day and night. Shops, restaurants, and entertainment line the streets sheltered by tall buildings that reach for the sky and replace the twinkling stars with their own light. It's beautiful and intoxicating. It seemed magical. However that magic doesn't reach everywhere, and that's what keeps the magic special.

The magical, intoxicating feeling of the city slowly dies out as one goes further south. The buildings shrink and the lights dim. The buildings become shoddy and old. Once traveling a few blocks beyond the warehouse district, it becomes a place that those but the local inhabitants wouldn't dare traverse.

The people of Adora called that part of the city the South Side. No fancy name like the wealthy Weston Park or the popular Downtown Adora. Just the South Side. A deadbeat part of the city that no one ever visited. No tourism. No entertainment. In fact probably no one but the Southsiders could tell you what the South Side contain. To all the other people of Adora, the South Side was a dangerous part of the city where crime flourishes and dreams die.

However, at the heart of the South Side is a shabby, rinky-dink bar. A well-kept secret in the South Side, not that anyone beyond them was looking anyways. The bar is covered in graffiti, peeling paint, and old posters, while the entrance itself was barely blessed with a single street lamp. Although the street lamps were usually flickering and dim, it was the best source of light on the streets, giving off just enough light to read the old faded sign above the bar door.

Dead Magic is what it read. A fitting name for a bar with such a notorious history in the dead part of town. However, the atmosphere did not live up to its name. From across the street, the liveliness of the bar could be felt. The "Dead Magic" bar wasn't dead at all, but that didn't make the patrons think that such a place is magical either. Such thoughts are ridiculous in the South Side. "Magic?" The regulars scoff, "Magic ain't real. This shit is."

Life. That's what the bar is, especially to the people of the south side. It embodies of all their pain, hopes, and joys. Proof that they are alive. It isn't some fleeting distraction that masked reality.

Every night that bar is lit up. Sure it has its fair amount of foot traffic during the day, but during the night, it is truly alive. Not magical, alive. Breathing. Living. Real.

At first, the bar doesn't seem anything special. It seems old and on the verge of collapsing, however upon closer inspection, the bar seems to have character. The flooring, bar, and furniture are all worn but original, while the lighting and sound system although not state-of-the-art, is a of higher quality than anyone would have ever thought to see in the South Side.

However, the character does not come from the building alone. The bar's stage is what brings it all together. It's a large elevated platform with enough room to fit a whole band comfortably.

Every week at night the bar's stage is frequented by the same bands. These small South Side bands play often at the bar, yet it never gets old. The music. The passion. The understanding.

These bands don't play for fame nor do they expect to make a fortune. Instead they pour their heart and soul into making music for the love of it.

The love of music. Something the whole neighborhood understood, which if any outsider were to have heard, they would have been completely baffled. To think that the South Side, the part of Adora where a majority of people barely finish high school while the rest not at all, is musically inclined.

It seemed crazy. Some may even go as far to say that it would be impossible.

However, truth is truth, and the Southsiders' love for music is astronomical. It holds the community together. It molds it, fuels it, and sustains it, creating an unbreakable bond that they all shared.

To any outsider, the South Side seemed like a lawless land where strength trumped law and everyone took care of themselves, but nothing is ever as it seems on the surface. All one would need to do is take the time to understand the South Side and they would be able to see that the South Side takes care of one another better than any other part of Adora ever would.

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Word Count: 789
A/N: I usually have some long heads up before I start writing a story, but I really just gave up. So I'll quickly says a few things:
1. Hi! My name is Eli Ink!
2. Hope you enjoy
3. I'm not much of a writer, but hey why not
4. I don't know what I am aiming for in this story.
5. My relationship with commitment is nonexistent like my love life, so I don't know how consistent the chapter releases will be or how long I will be writing this.
6. Why do waffle fries have holes in them when waffles themselves don't?