Fanfic - SPN: Plain Gold Band - Prologue
Title: Plain Gold Band [Evil!Sammy Universe]
Author: eboniorchid
Full Header for the Series
Prologue
The headline read:
SUICIDE: IT'S IN THE WATER
And the story only got stranger from there.
For several months, Tiffany, California, a town just north of San Francisco Bay, has been an eco-political warzone. Local companies stand on one side of the issue and environmentalists hunker down on the other in a fight over the use (or overuse, depending on who you ask) of water from the local reservoir. It seemed for the longest time, however, that the vast majority of Tiffany residents would keep themselves out of the furor and hope that it died down soon enough.
Then, three days ago, a young woman named Susan Weatherly brought about her own death and the injury of five others when she jumped off the I-17 overpass at Beech Street, causing a large traffic incident involving 7 cars. Her parents, John and Abigail Weatherly, sought out further information on local suicides in their distress and came across startling information about the frequency of suicides in Tiffany over the past three weeks.
Despite an annual state average of 12.6 suicides per 100,000 people, suggesting the unfortunate reality of 1 suicide per month, the 93,000 or so people of Tiffany have already had 22 times that number of suicides in the past month alone. Yet, there have been no major economic, political, or social shifts in the community recently, with the exclusion of various water-related concerns. Since few residents have discussed anxiety over the water issue or exhibited symptoms of extreme stress in relation to that issue, the vast majority of mental health professionals in the area are just as baffled as the rest of the populace. Still, the local logic goes, "if the only upheaval in town has been over water, then that has to be the culprit."
By last night, residents of Tiffany had piled, seven rows deep, into City Hall to demand an inquest into the water issue, not in terms of its economic or environmental impact, but in terms of its psychological impact. It may sound far-fetched to some, but the spike in the number of area suicides has everyone on edge, especially since nearly every case occurred without any warning or apparent traditional cause, and few of the victims even had a blip of difficulty in their mental health history.
When questioned about the possibility of a rash of stress-induced suicides, local holistic physician, Dr. Laudra Blackhurst, stated that: "A mass reaction like this is not unheard of, but it does tend to occur in isolated incidents after major public traumas. The current circumstances, as I understand them, do not, therefore, seem to fit the typical formula for suicide deaths on this scale."
It seems that only time, and an externally-overseen psychological impact assessment, will tell if suicide really is in the water.
Prologue - One - Two - Three - Four - Five - Six - Seven - Eight - Epilogue
Author: eboniorchid
Full Header for the Series
Prologue
The headline read:
SUICIDE: IT'S IN THE WATER
And the story only got stranger from there.
For several months, Tiffany, California, a town just north of San Francisco Bay, has been an eco-political warzone. Local companies stand on one side of the issue and environmentalists hunker down on the other in a fight over the use (or overuse, depending on who you ask) of water from the local reservoir. It seemed for the longest time, however, that the vast majority of Tiffany residents would keep themselves out of the furor and hope that it died down soon enough.
Then, three days ago, a young woman named Susan Weatherly brought about her own death and the injury of five others when she jumped off the I-17 overpass at Beech Street, causing a large traffic incident involving 7 cars. Her parents, John and Abigail Weatherly, sought out further information on local suicides in their distress and came across startling information about the frequency of suicides in Tiffany over the past three weeks.
Despite an annual state average of 12.6 suicides per 100,000 people, suggesting the unfortunate reality of 1 suicide per month, the 93,000 or so people of Tiffany have already had 22 times that number of suicides in the past month alone. Yet, there have been no major economic, political, or social shifts in the community recently, with the exclusion of various water-related concerns. Since few residents have discussed anxiety over the water issue or exhibited symptoms of extreme stress in relation to that issue, the vast majority of mental health professionals in the area are just as baffled as the rest of the populace. Still, the local logic goes, "if the only upheaval in town has been over water, then that has to be the culprit."
By last night, residents of Tiffany had piled, seven rows deep, into City Hall to demand an inquest into the water issue, not in terms of its economic or environmental impact, but in terms of its psychological impact. It may sound far-fetched to some, but the spike in the number of area suicides has everyone on edge, especially since nearly every case occurred without any warning or apparent traditional cause, and few of the victims even had a blip of difficulty in their mental health history.
When questioned about the possibility of a rash of stress-induced suicides, local holistic physician, Dr. Laudra Blackhurst, stated that: "A mass reaction like this is not unheard of, but it does tend to occur in isolated incidents after major public traumas. The current circumstances, as I understand them, do not, therefore, seem to fit the typical formula for suicide deaths on this scale."
It seems that only time, and an externally-overseen psychological impact assessment, will tell if suicide really is in the water.
Prologue - One - Two - Three - Four - Five - Six - Seven - Eight - Epilogue