Well, here's my first shot at an urban legend style story, I hope everyone enjoys it even if it won't work for the setting.
The Bearded Prophet
"It all started about three years ago, this friend of mine was walking through Times Square with his girlfriend when all of a sudden he saw this... unusual person standing just outside of his line of vision. It was strange, or so he said. This person was about six feet tall, he was wearing dark sunglasses, it was a bright day, he had a long trenchcoat on, it was windy, nothing out of the ordinary there... but he had this beard that was almost a foot long. I know, I know, that's not impossible, look at that old band ZZ Top from fifty years ago, but that's not the point... This person looked like he was only twenty years old. So anyway, my friend was walking by and he couldn't help but look at this guy.
"His girlfriend elbowed him in the side and told him to stop staring, and he would have listened too, but he just couldn't make himself look away, and when he got close enough, the person noticed. He waited until he was right alongside my friend and reached out, grabbing a hold of his collar and yelling, 'All will be revealed! All will be revealed!' at the top of his lungs, then let go of him and walked away as if nothing had happened.
"My friend looked at his girlfriend and smirked, kind of nervously, you know what I mean? Anyway, he was freaked out by it, but he said to her, 'I have no idea what that guy was talking about, but that freaked me out.' His girlfriend could only reply, 'Neither do I, but he did grab you by the collar and yell at you, and his breath smelled like cheap whiskey, I wouldn't worry about it.'
"So they left, heading back to his apartment. When they got there, a note was pinned to his door, just tacked up there like some passer-by had slapped the door and walked away, not even attaching it straight, kinda crooked. My friend looked at it and said to himself, 'What's this?', then opened it up and read it, I have the note right here, let me read it for you... Huh? What do you mean how did I get the note? The point is I have it, you'll find out when I'm done the story, don't worry.
"The note said, 'All will be revealed', written out in rushed, sloppy script and blue ink. My friend freaked, he dropped the note and almost backed into the wall behind him. I mean, he was out of it, way more than he should have been. His girlfriend picked it up and read it, and she laughed, 'That's just too funny', she said, she always did like irony, but that's beside the point. She looked at him, and he was pale as a ghost, I mean, there were people at the county morgue that looked more lively, and she was a little worried. She tried to calm him down, but to no avail, he was flipping out.
"She managed to get him inside the apartment and sitting on the couch, then she looked at the other side of the note. It had a web address on it in black ink, so she went over to his laptop and typed it in, and when the site came up, she turned to look at him and said, 'How dare you?', which led them into an argument. He denied her accusations vehemently, and she kept yelling that the truth had been revealed before walking out and throwing her ring at his face.
"Turns out the picture showed that my friend had been cheating on her with her best friend, and this web address had a picture of them on the main page. The only problem was, the picture had a tag on the bottom corner of it that was dated. What was the date, you ask? The picture was dated the same day that this all happened, but two hours after they had the argument. Of course, neither one of them saw the strange guy with the beard standing on their fire escape and looking in the window. I did, because I was walking up to the building at just that moment and had planned on using the fire escape to go up, like I usually do.
"So I walked up the stairs and went in, my friend gave me the note, pointed to the computer, and walked out, slamming the door behind him. Turns out he went to his girlfriend's best friend's place, and they are now happily dating and engaged. As for his now ex-girlfriend, she disappeared about two days after all this happened, and they found a foot long false beard at her apartment when they searched for her.
"The weirdest thing was, when I looked up at the guy on the fire escape as I got to the apartment building, I saw beneath the trenchcoat, and it looked like he had a tail. True story, I swear it."
I'd have to relook at where the businesses are set though, so it doesnt clash with anyone.
