Chapter Text
…
Chapter One.
March 20th – 1 day until Commencement
The day before, everything was completely normal. Stores and homes weren’t boarded up yet. Nothing was on fire. No bodies laid dead in the street. No explosions or gunfire. There was just the sunshine and birds chirping and people going about their lives. Everything was calm and normal. The day before as well as the past week was always a little crazy for Jon. As an installer for SafelySafe, the largest and most popular security systems company for anyone’s safety needs, the past few days had been spent going on calls, installing and performing maintenance tests of people’s homes to make sure that they would be kept safe for the night. Jon’s own home was decked out in the latest lines of SafelySafe systems, a fact he shared with the other homeowners during installations. If it was good enough for his own family, it would be good enough for yours – the SafelySafe motto. But it was the truth for Jon. What was more important than his family’s safety?
The schools were closed today, tomorrow and the day after. Going back to school after the Purge could be somewhat difficult. Last year, Shawn’s second-grade teacher hadn’t made it through the night and he had had a substitute teacher for the rest of the year. The gym teacher, too. He had gone into the city to purge for the night and had never come back. Sansa had thought of when she was Shawn’s age and how she and her classmates would have had difficulty understanding things like that but Shawn, as well as every other child, didn’t need to be sat down and have a conversation about it. They all knew what happened and they processed it as best as they could. They were born into a world with the Annual Purge and this was the only world they had ever known. To kids, this was all normal. Sansa hated this world and that her two sons had to grow up in this world but it was the only one there was.
So while Jon was at work, Sansa had the boys home with her. Shawn was eight and Henry was five and they were both at the kitchen table, eating bowls of oatmeal and drinking their milk, when Jon left for his day.
“Be good for your mom today,” he told them both and kissed them on the heads before going to Sansa, standing at the counter, pouring herself a second cup of coffee. “Alright. So I should be finished and back here around five unless I get called to a last minute emergency. There’s always at least one system that goes to Hell right before. We’ll meet somewhere for dinner and then head to the grocery store.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Sansa smiled at him and he smiled, too, before they shared a quick kiss. “We’re going to go see my parents for a few hours and we’ll be back way before you get home again.”
Even if today wasn’t Commencement, Jon didn’t like this idea of Sansa and their two boys going into the city. Not this close to the Purge. But it would be a waste of breath if Jon told her – and he had told her. Many times. Sansa had never told him why but it didn’t take a genius to know why Sansa took herself and the boys to see Catelyn and Ned before every Purge. They had a good security system that Jon always made sure was in tip-top shape but anything could happen during Purge night. Sansa never liked to think about it but she took the boys to see her parents – just in case.
Taking his thermos down from the cabinet, she began to fill it with coffee and Jon turned back to the boys, leaning back against the counter behind him. Shawn was Jon’s mini-me. The same black hair, curls, and grey eyes. He even perfected that same half-smile Jon sometimes did when he really didn’t want to smile but found himself doing so anyway. Sansa joked that Shawn would sprout a full-grown beard at thirteen. He was quiet and observant, a boy of few words, but could also be dryly sarcastic. Genetics were amazing because while Shawn was Jon, Henry was Sansa. The boy had dark red hair – exactly the copper shade of a worn penny – and blue eyes. Like most boys his age, Henry was active and not always quick to calm down. Jon and Sansa considered it lucky that they lived in the woods, on acres of property they owned, because Henry loved to climb trees. His goal was to climb every tree on the woods on their property and since there were hundreds, Jon and Sansa could only encourage him and not tell him that it just wasn’t going to happen.
Both Sansa and Jon watched Shawn and Henry as both boys ate their breakfasts and read their new comic books that had been bought for them yesterday. Their favorite superhero was “The Man”. The character didn’t have an actual name but each year, on Purge night, the man would dress in all black and arm himself to go out into the city and save as many people as he could. Sansa didn’t necessarily like her boys reading this particular comic but at the same time, she knew it was a good lesson for them to learn. They lived in a world where the Purge was real. This was the only world they had ever known. And honestly, there were so many worse comics the boys could be reading than a good man trying to do good on Purge night. Also, surprisingly, it was garnered for children of a young age so it wasn’t that violent at all. Everything was implied and for children who lived in a world with the Purge, their imaginations could fill in the blanks.
The thermos filled, Sansa passed it to Jon and when their fingers touched, Jon reached out with his other arm and slipped it around her shoulders, drawing her body to his. They didn’t say anything. Sansa closed her eyes and rested her temple to his. Her body was tight and tense like a coiled spring. Tomorrow, it would be even worse and tomorrow night, for twelve hours, it was absolutely unbearable. They always made it through. They had plenty of weapons, Jon has installed their home security system himself and it was the absolute best that money could buy. Their one and only Purge night, years earlier, still was not something Sansa could ever forget. Yes, she had met Jon, the love her life, during the Purge, of all times, and they had gained millions upon millions of dollars for themselves but it was everything else. Everything they had done and everything they had seen during that night and what people did to one another when they had the twelve hours of freedom to do anything, it would never leave her.
She knew first-hand that absolutely anything could happen during the Purge no matter how fortified a person might think themselves to be. She hated the Purge. She hated it.
Jon’s lips brushed across her cheek as he pulled back so he could look into her eyes. “You’ll call me as soon as you and the boys are back home from seeing your parents?”
Sansa nodded immediately. “I will,” she promised.
…
There was a group of young men – early twenties, still in college – skateboarding at the end of the parking lot of the grocery store. It was still a normal day. Everyone was going about, doing their business, getting ready for tomorrow night, but a steady current of electricity could be felt beneath everything, emitting from everyone. Their minds were all thinking of tomorrow night, making sure they had everything that would be needed – whether their plans were to exercise their right to purge or if they would be staying in hiding – while also thinking of tomorrow night and what might happen. It was always the same energy in the air every year before Purge night. Two of the skaters stopped to take a breath and drink some water.
“I hear they’re loaded.”
“Who? No one’s loaded around here.”
“They are.” His eyes followed the man and woman with their two young sons as they crossed the parking lot into the grocery store. “He’s some bigwig with a security systems company. They live in this massive house in the middle of the woods.”
“Yeah?” His companion now sounded a little more interested.
“We could take a drive. Take a look at the fence they got set up.”
“If he’s in the securities business, it might be too fortified.”
“Or maybe not. No harm in taking a look. We’ll get Nick to help out. He works at SafelySafe. He’ll figure it out faster than we ever could.”
The family of four went through the automatic doors and disappeared into the grocery store. The grocery store was always a little insane both today and tomorrow before commencement. For whatever reason, people wanted to stock up on food even though the Purge only lasted twelve hours. Maybe everyone was worried that someone asshole would burn the store down during the night or a horde would loot it empty so there would be nothing the next day.
“Will Nick want to help us out?”
“If there’s as much money with that family as I think there is and we get our hands on it, he’ll help.”
“You sure they actually have money?”
“I delivered a pizza out to them one night. Their house is way too nice and their property is too huge for them to not have money.”
“Those boys are young. They might be an issue if we get into the house.”
They both looked back to the grocery store as if they could still see the family of four.
“Well,” the first looked to his friend. He took another chug of water from the bottle. “They might be young but hopefully, they know to stay out of our way.”
…
