Was eliza fletcher burned

I was in College when I met him, he was such a gentleman. I didn't know anything about relationships, I started loving him madly, he used to tell me that he loves me but now I understand that he just wanted to have someone in his life. Why people say that they love you but they don't, I guess they are just lonely. He wanted to be in an open relationship, he never tried hard although he used to cook food for me but we never use to have that conversation where I was satisfied that yes this guy loves me, I even sometimes cried talking to him (I have never cried in my life) but his responses were always so dull, always keep telling me have sex with other people because we were not doing it frequently. He once told me that he sees someone else in me when we have sex, isnt that a heart burn telling your boyfriend that he sees someone else in you while having sex (pheew), and this was 3-4 years after when we started dating. He always keep me distant in the parties, telling his friends that I(my boyfriend) doesnt do anything in the relationship only he(me) is holding the relationship.. well yeah. He is actually a very nice guy but really really not a boyfriend material. So I decided to breakup last year(2022) in Feb so I blocked him on WhatsApp for sometime, he never called me on the phone then I unblocked him on WhatsApp and we never chatted, after some months he calls me and tell me that he has got HIV(he has a problem in his one eye now, can't see) and tells me that I should also get tested, see how nice of him.. I was negative, we had never used protection.. I was thinking how lucky I am, that I brokeup with him.. maybe here I was being a little selfish, that I was thinking that I am lucky but he wanted to have sex with everyone, he used protection with other guys but he got it from oral sex(if you know what I mean), he used to eat everyone's.. isnt it disgusting to eat it of everyone. Well, I don't know people are different. But now I feel sympathy for him, and also I am dating a guy and I think I am doing the same with him.. not exactly same but i don't have very strong feeling for this new guy but he has very strong feelings for me. My ex has now started chatting with me on WhatsApp, although I don't reply on most of the texts but he never stops.. whatever I do he will always keep texting, not a lot of texts but he keeps doing that.. sharing his breakfast, photos of him and his family. Is he lonely again trying to suck me in his life..?? I don't think he wants it monogamous. And this new guy.. am I doing right with him.. he is in love with me but I don't feel the same.. what should I do???

It seems like so much of society thinks we’re just making this all up or it’s not that bad or it’s just anxiety. I know there are many types of long covid, my specific symptom is a permanent burning sensation in my head, it started when I got sick and hasn’t gone away even for a second for 15 months. Obviously a never ending headache is absolute torture, but what I find most depressing is this “headache” has made me unable to use computers or play games. This is a big issue for me because I’ve been a gamer all my life, it’s not just my hobby, it has been part of my identity, it’s who I am. But I can’t play games on my PC or on any console since this “headache” started, if I try then my head will inflame super bad within minutes and I start having stroke-like symptoms like speech issues, dizziness, balance issues, severe burning in my head, and it’ll last hours or days even. Now of course this isn’t the only issue I have or the only issue this “headache” causes, it gets bad and I miss work and can’t hold a job, it’s ruined me financially, I’ve been through 3 jobs just in the last 12 months and I’m very close to being fired again from my current job, it makes doing literally anything very difficult due to the constant pain. But still what gets me the most is the inability to play games. I guess what I’m getting at is, why would I do this to myself? Why would I make this up? Why would I decide to not do the thing I love most in this world and ruin my entire life over the last 15 months? This is what I don’t get, how our families, friends, society, and doctors just think we’re full of shit? Especially with how many of us there are, there’s no way it could be a coincidence that so many people are complaining about medical problems after covid. I just wish there was much more awareness for this, it breaks my heart seeing how so many of us are treated by even loved ones. Our governments and healthcare systems are failing us.

The rapid clacking away on the keyboard filled the back of the van as the backlight shone on the young man’s face, his newest blog post about the ‘100 Year “Conflict”’ between the African Union and the United States of Expanded America filling the screen.
Their fierce arguments in the Neo-League of Allied Nations were the things of legend, as despite the uncompromising regulation of, ‘No Creative Abilities’, which included limiters, as they could be disguised, people swore that the Hall shook.
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Sparing a few moments to refocus on the background radio, he shook his head at the protests and threats between New Russia and the Renewed French Republic regarding the Alliance of Free Nations.
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His train of thought was rudely interrupted, but he pressed on.
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Clickclackclickclackclickclack.
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<Hey.>
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Clickclackclickclackclickclackclickclackclickclackclickclack.
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“What?”
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“When I’m finished with this post, that’s when. And not a word less.”
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Clickclackclickcla-.
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He sighed and lifted his finger off the ‘y’ key, the trail of ‘y’s being automatically deleted by his Bio-Pal, or By, for short. Getting off his 3/4th king-sized bed as the screen and keyboard retracted into the ceiling and wall, he grabbed his beige ‘off-duty’ hat hanging next to his cameo reporting hat.
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“Alright, By, where and for what are we going to today?”
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“… Seriously. Bloomington, Indiana, for lunch or breakfast, depending on the menu; then Washington D.C for work, we have that assignment that’s due tomorrow. You know, May 21, 2020?”
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Sliding the door open, he slid out from its hollow inside a folded red and black tri-motorcyle. As it turned on and unfolded from his hands touching the metal door handles, it revealed the floating two-seater, allowing him to enter. Grabbing the wheel while pressing two buttons, the roof covering rose and the EM Tesla Riders activated, one in the front and two in the back, gradually elevating them.
Simultaneously, Craig closed, locked, and shielded the 20-foot white van with a Spark of electricity that traveled from inside the ‘cycle and made contact with the van, another sent back as confirmation. As the GPS chose the quickest route out of New York City, he admired the skyscrapers.
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“I still can’t get over the skyscrapers here… How ma-?”
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“Yawn burgers with a side of snores, By. Just get us outta here. How long and which restaurant?”
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<24 minutes and might I suggest Uptown Cafe?>
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“Show me.’
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The website was projected on the windshield in two tabs, one for the breakfast menu and the other for making reservations.
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‘… Looks delish and easy on the budget. Reservation for 10:30, if you please, and get me the Malted Belgian Waffle with granola and hazelnut-flavored coffee.”
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When they reached New York’s outer limits a few seconds later, By took them on a preapproved route to Kirkwood Ave., where they landed in an empty parking spot that quickly held the vehicle. Getting out, he went to the Cafe that was a minute away.
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“Craig Williams.”
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“Please follow me.”
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Taking him to a table to the right of the bar, another waiter quickly came and gave him water, coffee, and milk. As she left, he glanced at the gold-covered bar dividing the room while sipping at the now-prepared coffee, grinning at the strange way his slightly tanned face was warped.
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“Will ya lay off it, please? As I’ll remind you, it’s only because my mom’s ancestors escaped to America from those A.U jerks just 'cause they weren’t from the same tribe, while my dad was almost electrocuted, burned out, and genocided by the Nazis! Anyway, who are we meeting in Washington?”
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“Right, right… Can’t believe I was one of the few that discovered who they really are… Remind me how I found and was able to remember them, again?”
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“Only after an incessant mind- and body-draining interrogation that lasted for almost half an hour after I finished. I’m still surprised that they keep me in the loop about what they-, alright, alright, she keeps me in the loop. Anyway…”
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His breakfast came with some coffee and after a few words of thanks, he began eating as By went through the facts of one J. Trakler.
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Got into science in an R.F.R Elementary school after Io’s Rylu University said they were closer than ever to discovering the secret to F.T.L travel. In a specialized Middle School, he helped the Ney Collective on Neptune forcefully increase their crops growth and hardiness, while also kick-starting the research into the Saturnians’ recently implemented standard insertion process through the Saturnian Watch Program.
Coincidentally, he also started a life-long friendship with their CEO, who’s now the current Head of National Security in New Russia and the first Altered in a high position of power there. Craig, slow down.
In an elite High School in New Russia, he went to Neo France on Uranus on a student-swap with the now-Prime Minister of France, where they also struck up a life-long friendship during the ‘Port lay-over and the back-and-forth vi-com.
He’s now the Elite Omni-Scientist of the Middle East Scientific Alliance, or MESA for short. Williams? Please.
Their goal is-. LISTEN UP, YOU GLUTTONOUS HUMAN!!>
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“GRR! By, this is one of the most delicious pancakes I’ve ever eaten, let me enjoy it! Anyway, this guy is the E.O.S of the MESA, and you were about to tell me their goal.”
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<… So you were listening. You’ve gotten better at that. Anyway, their stated goal has been to help Rylu University with their goal of F.T.L travel, using Einstein’s, Tesla’s, and -ugh- Edison ‘The Amature’s, notes and prototypes.>
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“What’s the trio’s history, again? Never mind, don’t tell me. So, how did this MESA come to pass, again? It was because of World War 2 and the Neo-Battlefield, right?”
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“Isn’t that because everyone else is more focused on space and the so-called ‘bigger picture’?”
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What MESA is also doing is giving the A.F.N resources to prevent an invasion from either France or New Russia, which certain parties from both sides are attempting to drum up.>
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“Hmm… So, we have the Alliance of Free Nations and MESA on the one hand, the USEA and the AU on the other, and the Reformed French Republic and New Russia in the middle of all this, with one guy linking almost all of them together… Does this sound familiar to you?”
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“It’s just a thought, By. Just a thought. Brunch is over; find me the fastest way to Capital Hill.”
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Leaving a 45 Bolt tip then Sparking his payment at the front desk, he went back to his Tri while trying to not facepalm at the snarking Bio-Pal. Getting in while turning it on, he was quickly on his way.
As they landed in front of the Capital building, the man of the hour was briskly stepping down the steps, his Altered bodyguards bio-electrically holding everyone back and keeping a close, slitted eye on Craig as he dismounted the ‘cycle and made his way up the stairs.
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“Mr. Trackler? Mr. Wi-.”
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“Williams, ‘The Revealer’. Too many people here, so let me treat you to a drink.”
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He stepped to the train track that ran in the middle of the street as a six-person pod was Sparked to his location, his bodyguards escorting Graig inside of it after quickly and almost unnoticeably searching him.
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Before they knew it, they were seated in, The Electric Watering Hole, a bar just outside the city. Taking a sip of their drinks, they got comfortable.
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“So, what does your current client, “The Scourge of Washington”, want with me now? The conspiracy theory about how I’m, ‘the Antichrist’, of Christian fame? Because, just to be clear, I’m not Jewish, European, or even Middle Eastern in any way, shape, or form.”
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“No, no, sir. Although you are part French on your father’s side.”
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“Which isn’t European.”
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“… Right. Sir, I’m here to ask you about, ‘The Phoen-’.”
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“Ah, yes, ‘T.P.P’. Don’t ask me about the acronym, wasn’t my idea. What do you want to know about it? Why we haven’t cracked Faster Than Light travel yet, or how I got things closer than ever with-?”
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“Forgive me for interrupting, Sir, but what I was wondering was why focus on F.T.L, to begin with? With the upgraded GPS targeting program by Tesla Corp, everything, including organs, can be delivered practically into people’s and doctor’s hands.
Which reminds me that this is the hundred-and-twentieth year since the second anniversary of, ‘The Upheaval Years’, when the energy, vehicle, and medicinal industries disappeared, grocery stores vanished, and dozens of other fields went extinct with the inventions and discovery of Bio-Pal, E.T.F, and the Earth’s A.E.F, respectively. Thoughts?”
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“To the idiots who are still trying to get, “Emotional Damage Money”: Why don’t you go back in time to stop mining and oil companies, teleportation operators, and maybe even timekeeping and metallic wire companies from-?!”
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“Sir?”
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“Forgive me, I get… passionate.
Anyway, I’m sure you’ve heard of the accidents on the gas planets where people had to be euthanized after the teleportation negatively reacted with their atmospheres and how I solved the situation. Don’t worry, I won’t go into the science.”
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“Thank you. So, you’re trying to solve F.T.L because of health and technological considerations, right?”
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“Right. There’s also the possibility of someone discovering another element that might have negative reactions to our electricity, and thus it would be safer and easier to use faster than light travel.”
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“True, true. Where did-?”
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Trackler’s By alerted him to an upcoming meeting, after which he shook William’s hand, paid for the barely drunk drinks and untouched appetizers with a Spark, and left. Taking the food and his drink, Craig went outside as the pod was turning to it’s left, further away from the city. Hailing another pod, he goes back to his cycle, gets in, and flies home.
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Putting away the food and drink, he lays on his bed and starts typing the report for the, ‘Magnetic Broom’, getting to the point where he seamlessly transitioned into a review for the restaurant when they entered, then seamlessly transitioned back out when they were seated. He first sent the review to local and nation-wide Edisons, waited till he got paid, deleted the review, then sent the article to the ‘M.B’.
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Going to the half-sized fridge in the middle of the van, he retrieved his drink and sipped it while leaning on the van door.
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“How does 384 Bolts for a restaurant review a week sound?”
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While he puts away his drink, “Isn’t that where-? Trackler’s being attacked. Safely ‘Port me there, By.”
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<One time. You accidentally do it one time…>
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He shows up behind cover, rather dizzy, as three guys and a lady are attempting to overload Trackler’s Bio-Energy, his bodyguards and the rest of the people in the conference room serving as unwilling Amplifiers.
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“I’ll-ugh- f-f-figure it o-hurk, gulp!- out as I go! Isn’t t-that-urk!- how t-the bra-uuhhh- b-b-brain works best under-?!”
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At that instant, a sense of clarity came over him, allowing him to roll away from the copper planters and deliver a powerful shock to the nigh-attacking person through their ankle, leaving behind a black hand print and one very dead woman.
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Dodging more electric blows from the mysterious group’s lookout, he diverted the worse of the current and absorbed the rest while blocking and dodging, building up a brutal counterattack. When they unwittingly attracted a floating lightbulb to their right hand, Graig quickly unleashed the counterattack directly at it, exploding and melting it while leaving a lightning pattern on their scorched arm.
This also lead to a boost in the group’s attack, temporarily overloading and blinding them, both of which their Bys’ tried to circumvent and suppress. At that exact moment, the police arrived and took them down simultaneously.
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A single nod, and he was gone, leaving no trace of his existence except a puzzled Trackler.
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Back in the front of the van, he was kneeling over the toilet, vomiting while his Bio-Electricity was out of control, sending bolts all over the place. After he finished, he weakly crawled to his bed and partially got in.
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“Ugh, that’s… No… Even worse.”
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“T-thanks…”
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He was out like a light.

I was extremely stressed for years in college until I graduated and sadly after graduation I became burned out because of the constant stress and anxiety and became depressed and started avoiding all my friends and literally was rarely getting outside home and that's when I went to a psychiatrist and started treatment and u have been put on different SSRIS/SNRIS and u was so happy cause in short term I started to feel so good and energetic but as time passed by I started to feel apathetic , tired and had extreme fatigue and ofcourse my psychiatrist changed doses and changed medications and that actually was very exhausting . Eventually I stated to getmore depressed and my self esteem became so low until I lost my passion completely and I have anhedonja and I literally don't feel like doing anything in my day

Look, im not trying to downplay other people's reasons why they are FA as they are just as valid. But about myself. 21 about to be 22 kissless, virgin, never had a girlfriend, yadayada you get the point. As if I wasn't already at a disadvantage, 5feet 5in, skinny (110lb). Like most females are literally stronger and bigger than me and in their eyes they see me as nothing but a boy where in no sane universe would there even be a 0.001% chance that they would see me as a potential partner. Doesn't help that also have a shit personality as I literally go to school and come back and just study Japanese/watch anime by myself. That is literally my life not lying. Now 4 years ago, I was diagnosed with chronic dry eyes. My eyes are always red and fucked up. I can't even walk from class A to B without my eyes burning just because there was a slight breeze. Well I guess my life hasn't really changed that much as I just stay inside all day anyways lol, why life. Before I maybe had a 1% chance but now its like negative percentage in finding a gf as I can't even leave my room unless necessary. For those who are still healthy, please don't take it for granted. Even if you go to the park alone, at least be grateful you can still do it. And if you haven't tried/haven't given up, please try for me, who can't.
Extra info: there is no cure for my eyes, only management at the moment. Like I can't even go to the gym to better myself even if I wanted to lol.

I’m only on episode two of season 15 but I have noticed there is a lack of narration during the show… Does anyone know why they decided to removed this? Estimations on calories burned vs calories consumed, calories in whatever obscure food source they are eating, etc. Not just the narration in the beginning and the end with the psr. Maybe I was one of the few who enjoyed it..? Or maybe I am not paying close enough attention?

I was extremely stressed for years in college until I graduated and sadly after graduation I became burned out because of the constant stress and anxiety and became depressed and started avoiding all my friends and literally was rarely getting outside home and that's when I went to a psychiatrist and started treatment and u have been put on different SSRIS/SNRIS and u was so happy cause in short term I started to feel so good and energetic but as time passed by I started to feel apathetic , tired and had extreme fatigue and ofcourse my psychiatrist changed doses and changed medications and that actually was very exhausting . Eventually I stated to getmore depressed and my self esteem became so low until I lost my passion completely and I have anhedonja and I literally don't feel like doing anything in my day

Hi all. I just recently built a brand new PC. I went to re-open it to add cablemod adapters for a cleaner look. I took all the necessary precautions and took the PC out of my room, and onto my table+hardwood floor. Attached my anti-static bracelet too. When I went to go unplug one of the RGB adapters at the top of the motherboard, my finger touched the DRAM light. When I went to go turn it on to see if the RGB worked, that same tiny tiny rectangle next to the DRAM light sparked, then smoked for probably a split second. That specific part of the Mobo is now burned.
I turned everything off and made sure my antistatic was connected, went to go plug everything back in after a heart attack, and computer works just like it did before. The lights all cycle through just as before, bios looks good. But now There’s a small burn mark next to the light. Photo reference here
My question is…. Is my computer safe to operate still? I know my fingertips had some sweat when I touched that part and that might have been what caused the spark? Should I be concerned ? If it’s still working did I dodge a bullet or is there a chance my Mobo might spark again or even worse catch fire? This is all new to me, any advice I’d appreciated.
Thanks y’all!

You picked me like a rose despite my thorns.
You cut me and I pricked you. Blood running down our fingertips as we held each others hearts.
Can we just skip the melodramatics?
The “I want it but I can’t have it.”
I want a garden of endless love letters. I want our story tattooed on my body… but that wouldn’t be great for job opportunities. Maybe I’d settle with your name in my native tongue because no matter how many people I meet- it’s already engraved on my soul.
I want laughter with you pressed up against me. I want to scream your name from the highest place. Sharing your breath while you go deeper inside me.
I’m okay being on the edge of insanity. As long as you’re there holding my hand.
Will you?
Walk with me in love, faith, patience, resilience and passion? Living our wildest dreams. It sounds like one doesn’t it? A dream.
Dreams are only dreams until you put them into a physical existence. Dreams can’t kill you- can they? I suppose, if we let them die.
I’d rather burn in the flames with thriving curiosity knowing I laid my heart on the front lines- than watching the garden we once shared wither away until there’s no signs of life.
So let’s water the earth. Wherever we stand.
Let’s learn and grow, hand holding hand.
Laugh in the sun, smile at the unplanned and protect one another like sister and brother.
Does it have to make sense to anyone else? The perception of others never mattered to me- I know how I carry myself. I can accept all my faults and that I’m fucked in the head or that some days I thought I was better off dead.
I am growing and learning and made from the earth. I know who I am- I know my self worth. I’m tenacious, intelligent and intuitive. I am passionate and theatrical and so very human.
But it’s nobody’s business- as I writing on a platform with millions of users.
We can spin and sing and dance in the rain- grow wildflowers all over the place. I guess I’m just here to say that- I love you.
Have you ever had a better offer in your whole life? One with everything.
— I’ll always wonder

Back in my twenties I was what you might call an ‘adventure girl’. About ten years ago, give or take, something happened that changed that. I moved to the city, got a boring job and a boring apartment, and became decidedly averse to the outdoors. I haven’t really told anyone about it in all that time, save my now-wife, because, well… for one, they’d think I’m crazy, and for two, I don’t want to think about it. I’m finally putting it here, though, because you all deserve to hear it. After all, you probably saved my life.
At the time, I had just graduated college and moved from Texas to Alaska, out of a desire for - you guessed it - adventure. I had a job doing stuff I liked. It paid well and gave me enough vacation days to get out and do something really adventurous every once in a while. One thing I’d had on my bucket list since moving north was driving the Dalton Highway. For the unfamiliar, that’s a (generously) highway that goes from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. It’s a 500 mile, 11 hour drive in the Summer, but thanks to work realities I wasn’t able to get out there until early autumn.
By early autumn, the snow had started, but the plows were still able to keep the highway pretty clear, and I was driving a ‘95 Toyota Land Cruiser kitted out for expeditions (I fucking loved that thing). Besides that, I was an adventure girl. I was prepared. I had camping gear, emergency gear, a satellite phone, plenty of food and water, enough jerry cans for the trip there and back, and Sam Colt’s greatest invention in the center console - just in case. For the unfamiliar, that’s the 1911 (I fucking loved that gun).
I was planning to make the trip in two days, sleeping in the back of the Land Cruiser halfway. I had enough blankets to keep warm, and I had a nice comfy space back there that I could fit in. I’d have to drive slower because of the snow, I wanted to enjoy the scenery, and the sun was setting pretty early by that time of year.
I had a good start that day and the driving was fine. By the time shit went down it had been dark for about an hour and I was getting into the foothills of the Brooks Range. That’s good scenery and also terrain I didn’t want to be going through in the dark, so I was just about ready to pull over for the night when I saw caution flashers up ahead.
For the unfamiliar, a hard rule for any Alaskan is that you always, always pull over when you see someone in distress on the side of a remote road like that, especially after the snow starts. If they aren’t prepared for an emergency, there is a very good chance that you could save their life. So, that’s exactly what I did. I pulled over next to a Nissan SUV - not as nicely kitted out as mine, but not bad, either. I figured they were doing the same thing I was. Small world. By the jack under one axle and the wheel sitting next to the car, they’d blown a tire. What I didn’t see, though, were the people.
I got out of my Land Cruiser, crunching down into the snow and looked around. There aren’t a ton of trees that far north, but there are quite a few patches of evergreens that, while not quite forests, can be pretty dark and thick on a snowy night. “Hey!” I called, my voice going dead a few yards away as sound does in snowy woods. “Y’all need help?!”
No answer. Dead silence, save the faint clicking over the flasher from inside their Nissan. I shouted again. “Anybody there?! I’ve got tools!” No answer. Dead silence.
I considered myself a pretty brave bitch back then, but I’ll admit that I was creeped out at this point. This vehicle definitely hadn’t been here for all that long, but there was no one to be seen. Besides that, the dead quiet and the darkness of the night were unnerving. It wasn’t that weird for it to be silent on a snowy night like this, that far north, but still - creepy. Creepy enough that I hopped back in the car and grabbed my .45, storing it in one of the big pockets in the front of my jacket. Just in case. There were bears up there.
I approached the Nissan and saw footprints in the snow (okay, not a ghost car). One pair had been crouched down at the removed tire, and the other had been standing a couple feet away, by the rear of the SUV. The latter pair had then, at some point, headed off toward the treeline. It stopped a few yards down, paced around a bit, then continued into the woods. The pair near the tire had then - presumably later - gotten up and ran after the first. I was no tracker, but it’s not hard to tell when someone was running in snow.
Now I was really creeped out. I was tempted to hop back in the car and keep driving for a good long while, but - like I said - this could easily have been life or death up there. Besides, I had my .45. It could handle a grizzly. Probably. That was the worst I’d find up here. Probably. So, off I went, following those two sets of footprints into the woods.
It was fucking dark, but don’t worry y’all, I had a really nice flashlight. SureFire, baby. Adventure girl, remember? The dead quiet seemed to get even deader and quieter as soon as I passed the treeline - as sound does in snowy woods. Probably. The only thing comforting me that I hadn’t gone deaf was the sound of my breath and my boots crunching in the snow.
“Hey!” I called again, maybe twenty yards into the woods. “Is everyone okay?!”
This time, I got a response. It was a woman’s voice, and it sounded afraid. “Over here!” it called. “Help!”
I got a spring in my step at that, jogging toward the sound of the voice, shining my light through the trees to try and catch a glimpse.
“Over here!” it called again, much closer. “Help!”
Remember when I said y’all probably saved my life? This is when that happened. I stopped. The hair on the back of my neck had stood on end and a chill had run down my spine. Something was off about that voice. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was just slightly wrong. I pointed my light toward where I had heard it.
“Are you hurt?” I said - voice raised, but not quite shouting anymore.
“Help!” the voice called again - only it was even closer this time. I hadn’t heard the crunch of any footsteps. “Over here!”
My grip on my flashlight tightened and my heart started to hammer in my chest. This was not right. I’d read a lot of nosleep back then, and had watched and listened to my fair share of spooky stories. At the time, I didn't think any of this stuff was real, but what was happening to me felt way too familiar, and it was setting off alarm bells. Something about this exact situation was tugging at the back of my mind as something I should be terrified of.
I tried one more time. “What’s your name?” I asked cautiously.
“Help!” the voice called, and it couldn’t have been more than a few yards off.
That was enough for me to swap my light to my left hand and bring out the Colt with my right. I pointed both in the direction of that voice, and finally caught a glimpse of something besides trees. Off in the distance, barely visible, I could see a bundle of something laying in the snow. It was human-sized, and the snow all around it was stained dark. My head was in the middle of processing what it was seeing when I saw movement between me and the body. Oh shit, that was a body! I pointed my flashlight and gun at the source of the movement.
It was humanoid, with two arms and two legs, but it was all wrong. The limbs were too long and it was too tall. Its hair was thin and wiry, it had antlers - fucking antlers - and its face, which was also, I assure you, really fucking wrong, was stained dark with what I can only assume was blood. I fired two shots and hauled ass.
I don’t know if the bullets slowed it down. I don’t even know if I hit it. I ran faster than I’d ever run before, and by the cracking branches and crunching snow behind me, it was giving chase. My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest and my lungs burned from sucking in the frosty air. Once or twice I saw death flash before me as I nearly lost my footing in the snow, but I managed to stay upright. As I ran, I heard more snapping, more crunching - not just behind me now, but all around. There were more.
I got really fucking lucky that night. I was lucky to have spotted the body, lucky to have run just fast enough and not fallen on my face, lucky none of the whatever-they-were (I have a guess, but I’d rather not hazard it) were just a bit closer or faster. I was lucky that I had dabbled in enough spooky stories that my alarm bells had gone off, and I was lucky that the poor couple (maybe) in that Nissan had gotten stranded there and suffered the grisly fate they suffered. After all, I was planning to stop just as I saw those caution flashers. I’d have been right there, in those same woods, asleep. I don’t want to think about what would have happened to me if that had been the case.
I made it to my car, which I was again lucky to have left running, thinking I wouldn’t go far. I leapt in, slammed and locked the door, and threw it in reverse as I saw dark, lanky shapes coming out of the trees. As I got moving, the headlights revealed what had been chasing me. I can’t say exactly how many it was - at least half a dozen. All of them were similarly stretched, pale to the point of being almost white, with various forms of antlers and primitive-looking clothing. I reversed down the road as fast as I dared (without risking going off and dooming myself to certain death) for a good half-mile before I finally got the nerve to turn around, then I flew down the highway all the way back to Fairbanks, only stopping once I found a nice, well-lit hotel in the middle of the city.
The next day, I was back in Anchorage. I thought about calling the State Troopers. Someone was going to find the Nissan, probably find the bodies. They’d find my casings, my tire tracks. I could end up a murder suspect. I decided against it, though. If I ratted myself out, I’d be a murder suspect anyway, and then they’d know it was me. Better to bet that no one could tie me to that scene, especially being as far from local as I was. Over the next week I packed my shit, bailed on my job and my lease, and moved back to Texas.
I never ended up with police banging on my door, so I guess I made the right choice. I still have nightmares about those wrong, elongated things chasing me. I probably have PTSD, but it’s not like I can talk to a therapist about it without ending up in a looney bin. I’m not an adventure girl anymore. I never go anywhere at night, and I stay in the city as much as possible. I didn’t get out of there unscathed, but I got out of there alive, which is better than can be said for the folks in the Nissan. I was lucky.

The following is what I'm absolutely expecting to happen during the PIA shows unless some insanely awesome shit happens with holograms.
First and foremost, I'm sorry to burst everyone's bubble (including my own insanely awesome hologram themed speculation) but there is more reason to believe that a 3rd member will not be introduced at the PIA shows than there is. No matter how bad you all think Saya-metal deserves it... Or any one of the Musclemetals... Or any one of the Avengers... Or literally any dancer who fills that role for more than a fraction of a second and you all figure out who they are almost instantaneously (as many of you have done over the years) and started campaigning for (insert any Japanese girl with a pulse here) saying they deserve it, or has "earned" the role. The recent interview with Koba hints at how he views at giving people the answer so quickly after hinting there's even a question so it would go against everything he mentioned to introduce a new member so quickly after teasing one.
The relevant parts of the recent Koba interview in PMC 27

KOBAMETAL: Recently, video shorts have become mainstream on social media, and I believe that the viewer has less time to think and imagine than ever. If they aren’t given an answer quickly, it becomes boring, and they go “OK, next!” I feel that this creates a decline in the creative side of human nature.

Here is Koba basically saying that the "instant gratification" culture that has emerged within society is essentially killing creativity. And Koba, being a creative, naturally doesn't like it and sure as shit isn't going to contribute to it. So while there was Momoko standing in front of a coffin, doesn't mean that Koba is going to introduce her as a 3rd member at one of the next 2 shows. That's instant gratification. Koba wants that slow burn. He wants you to think about it and create discussion about it. He doesn't want you to just see it and move on to the next thing almost immediately. He wants to tease you about it as long as possible.... Like as if you're trapped inside a burlap sack and he's holding some long needles and slowly sticking them in you and gleefully saying "kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri".
Plus, you're all kinda ignoring the imagery of Su and Moa entering coffins to advance to the next stage and Momoko NOT entering one. Honestly, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she doesn't show up at PIA at all, but I digress...
He also states

Like influencers and K-POP artists, the more they are sought after, the more they have to create and produce, and I think they’ll hit the bottom somewhere along the way. Growing in popularity is wonderful, but personally, I’d rather try to keep the fireworks going for as long as possible, rather than just a flashy show that displays for a short moment. Like the “tortoise” rather than the “hare”, we want to keep moving forward steadily, little by little.

Keeping the fireworks going as long as possible indicates yet again that a 3rd member is not being introduced (if at all) so quickly after vaguely implying that one might be. He prefers that slow burn. He's not going to give you something that quickly.
So what will happen? I think we've already seen some of it. The group you guys are calling 'Chibimetal' (find a cringer title next time) are a part of it and I'm sure Koba has better name for it.

KOBAMETAL: As the title THE OTHER ONE suggests, the concept of this album is “another BABYMETAL”

In the conceptual sense, "another Babymetal" is about the album and these songs representing alternate Babymetalses... Somehow. But taken literally, it means another Babymetal. Another group. At the end of the recent MM shows, the end video hinted at the birth of a new metal. This has been assumed by many of you to mean Momoko-metal will be "born". But a play on the phrase "birth of a new metal" has been used in the past.

Meanwhile, metalheads everywhere were praying for metal to return. When the prayers reached the Fox God, he summoned Su and Moa and gave them a new name for a new group – Babymetal – meaning, “the birth of the new metal”.

I believe that phrase being used in this manner this time indicates the formation of a new trio/unit, and not the introduction of a new member. But Koba being Koba, it isn't going to happen as simply as possible. It's going to be drawn out over time. Instant gratification is not what he does. His pornhub search history likely contains the terms "tease & denial". I'd bet my paycheck on that.

But since the ending at Makuhari had a scene that caught people’s attention, I think everyone wants to see the ending as soon as possible. In terms of the multiverse, it’s as if there was a glitch allowing us to momentarily take a glimpse of the future, the past, or some other view in time and space.

So, if the MM shows featured a "glitch" where we were able to take a glimpse of a past iteration/variant of Babymetal with "chibimetal" (terrible name) I wouldn't be surprised if during the PIA shows there is another "glitch" where we see a future iteration of Babymetal played by... I dunno... Any 4 Japanese women signed to Amuse (gotta keep it in house after all). And why 4? More on that later.
The mention of the multiverse, and by association the Metalverse has come up in Su and Moa's Billboard interview as well.

SU-METAL: BABYMETAL is fiction, but it’s also something that’s happening simultaneously in reality. The two of us were growing in the world of BABYMETAL and the audience enjoyed that. But as times changed and we have access to a variety of information, I think everyone now has their own reality or way of looking at the world. So the phrase “previously unknown BABYMETAL” raises a certain question: “Is the BABYMETAL you know really BABYMETAL?"
And since our last album METAL GALAXY in 2019, we’ve been working to destroy the “stereotype of BABYMETAL” in order to continue taking on new challenges as the group. So I think that also leads to the “different universe” that is THE OTHER ONE.

I would expect one of those stereotypes they're trying to destroy is the biggest one, that babymetal needs to be a trio. They don't, but that isn't the point of all this.

MOAMETAL: When I first heard the words “METALVERSE” and “previously unknown BABYMETAL,” I was like, “Seriously, what are they talking about?” [Laughs] But I really love Disney and after sensing something similar to the movie Doctor Strange, I got more and more excited while working on the project. So I’d like everyone to think about BABYMETAL by connecting what they’ve gained from various other works of art.

Presumably she means Multiverse of Madness. This leads me to believe that the end result of this, the appearance of a "past" version of Babymetal at the MM shows, and what I predict will be an appearance by a "future" babymetal at the PIA shows, along with Koba delving into popular culture is that the Metalverse, similar to Marvel's multiverse, has variants. And since this is the lead-up to Kobametal's Metalverse, one of those variants will presumably need to stick around for the foreseeable future since his Metalverse will need to have those variants for the concept to work. I expect it'll be Chibimetal (again, that name is ass) and they would be the opener for some of the Japan headline shows they will undoubtedly announce. Possibly even the opener on a world tour.
Anyway, back to Koba...

THE OTHER ONE was born as a prologue to the next stage. We’re not working with the keyword “METALVERSE”, and this work is the starting point that will connect us to it.

I think he's using these shows to introduce the concept and set the table for it. It wont be fully realized until the final show of the touring for this album. I expect that the younger "babymetal" will be the "new metal" to be born on night 2 when a past (chibimetal) , present (Babymetal) , and future (the 4 older Japanese girls already under contract to Amuse) all appear together giving you a total of 10 people on stage... And this (I believe) was hinted to in the intro video of the MM shows. In a scene very similar to the chosen 7 video, the intro video featured 10 individuals cloaked in white in a circle. That imagery surely has implications that we've seen in the past with the chosen 7 and ultimately will culminate in a tour final similar to Dark Night Carnival where all 10 performers are on stage simultaneously. The L O R E always seems to drive the spectacle on the stage and rarely has any major implications on the group itself. I wouldn't expect that to suddenly change.
TL;DR the 3rd member thing is the reddest of herrings.

apologies if this is the wrong subreddit. to preface, i'm 25 years old. i have depression, anxiety, and ADHD, and i'm unmedicated for all of them. i am single, have no children, live with my parents and for the most part don't pay any bills.
i graduated college in december 2019. three months later the pandemic hit, and like everyone else i was struggling to find a job. by some miracle, a temp agency recruited me and i started my very first job in late april 2020, working as an administration officer in a courthouse. five weeks later, i would get fired. my co-worker found my twitter account that i specifically told him i didn't want him following and showed it to our boss, who didn't like some of my posts (tweeting about some of my co-workers being covid deniers, etc.). since i was only from a temp agency, i was just called not to come in the following week and that was that. i was 22.
my second job was at a call center. i started in late august 2020. our company was a contractor for the federal government, and our customers were unemployed and/or impoverished people on benefits. needless to say, there were a lot of rude and abusive customers, which were understandable since they were calling to inquire about their only source of income. my wages were just above minimum wage which didn't really motivate me to come to work, knowing i would only be abused by customers. on top of that, my direct supervisor loved to micromanage me and had a reputation of being the worst and most disliked supervisor out of the entire building. i was willing to tough it out for the rest of my contract (which was a year) because, other than the abuse, answering phone calls was relatively easy. but when i asked for one day of PTO and got "waitlisted", that was the last straw. i resigned in february 2021 and lasted 5 and a half months. i was 23.
by that point i had gone through two jobs in the span of 10 months. it wasn't looking great for me. i decided to enroll in a one-year course that would make me qualified to be a library technician. i started school in july 2021. while i was studying, i was on unemployment benefits which meant i had to apply for jobs on the side. i didn't have any luck. i got a total of 5 job interviews for library roles in all of 2022 and didn't get a single one. i probably sent out a couple hundred applications.
in march 2022, i had to do a 2-week internship working at a library as a requirement for my course. it was mostly shelving and checking people's vaccine certificates and not much else. while i thought it was fine at first, on my last day of the internship, i was told by a staff member that i was being mistreated by management all along. that i wasn't supposed to do that much shelving in one day, that i was supposed to have been taught more about how the library was run, and that some of the feedback i got was unfair e.g. not being smiley or friendly enough, when all i was there to do was my job that i wasn't even being paid for and even though customers didn't complain about me. while they gave my school positive feedback about me, management was talking about me behind my back all along saying they would never hire me or let me volunteer because i wasn't "trying to impress them enough". i was 24.
in november 2022, i applied to be a full-time "trainee" court clerk at a courthouse. i thought i might as well give going back to the legal industry a shot since they were hiring and i couldn't get a job at a library no matter how many applications i sent. the following december, they told me i was hired and that i was going to start in mid-january 2023.
so i started. i went through 4 weeks of induction where all we did was training via ms teams meetings and court observation. i lasted 10 weeks (6 weeks out of induction) before i finally called it.
two months in and i was already so burned out. the workload was insane, the expectations too high for someone who was still new, and my co-workers looked at me with contempt and treated me like i was a burden. the probation meeting i had on my last day was the final straw - my managers invalidated my experiences and basically told me i had to change my personality because my co-workers thought i was abrupt, unfriendly and defensive. i couldn't believe at first that half of their feedback was just about my personality and not my work. but i finally realize that when you are new and on probation, people expect you to, quite frankly, change your personality - be sickly sweet and people-pleasing and a bit of a kiss-ass. i don't remember being abrupt to any of my co-workers, but i thought that as long as i wasn't outright rude and that i was doing my job that i was fine. but i really underestimated how big of a part "likability" plays into being perceived that you're doing a good job by others. honestly i thought it was kind of unfair that they didn't even consider that the reason why i might have been abrupt was because i was already so stressed about being in court to smile or be friendly.
in the end they told me that they were willing to "keep giving me support" and that they would put me in easier courts but i had to call it. i really didn't see myself meeting their expectations or having a good enough work-life balance with this job or being respected by my co-workers (maybe race plays a part in it? who knows). it didn't help that i had to commute home 2 hours every afternoon since i don't drive and i would get home too exhausted to do much of anything.
right now i'm on my first day of indefinite well-being leave. my mom and i spoke to my union and they advised me that instead of outright resigning, i should "apply" for leave, go to doctors' appointments and/or therapy for the stress (and to prove that i needed the well-being leave), get paid worker's comp in the meantime, file a complaint, and then resign.
i was disappointed with myself upon realizing that maybe this job isn't for me and vice versa. i felt like i failed again. i'm lucky to be in a position where my parents are letting me live for free while i'm unemployed (although when i was still employed, we had an agreement where i would give my dad roughly 25% of my wages) but sometimes it makes me feel even more guilty.
i'm starting to think that i'm the problem. that going to work on time and doing the actual job isn't enough; that managers and colleagues expect you to participate in office culture and alter your personality especially when you are new. but it seems that i'm just unable to do this. when i'm in a new environment i am too focused on doing my actual job correctly to have time to chitchat and kiss ass. i guess i'm just stuck in the mentality where managers should treat me like everyone else even when i'm new and my personality shouldn't be under scrutiny so i just act like myself.
technically i can still go back to my courthouse job. i haven't resigned and they haven't fired me. but thinking about the sheer amount of workload, how far it is from my house, and how my co-workers either treat me like shit or i'm invisible, it just doesn't seem like it's worth it.

Hi all,
I want to put this out somewhere to mark the line. Almost a year ago, I started a startup and admittedly failed even before we got our first glimpse of funding.
My background is working a lot with different startups - I founded an animation studio almost ten years ago, and our clients were almost exclusively IT startups. Then I created a company that makes tools for Adobe After Effects and got moderately successful with it. I tried making many different things over the years, and my ideas graveyard is packed with expensive tombstones.
I took a sabbatical in 2021 to study machine learning, improve my software development skills, and created a web3 tool after a year of study.
So, long story short, I finally found a motivated co-founder last year, and we decided to work on a web3 startup, given my experience in building ML tools for the NFT market and his experience in crypto. We knew we couldn't fund this from our pocket 100%, so this would require external funding.
Our idea started as a distributed social oracle for web3, and during the Customer Development process, quickly evolved into a quest platform for web3 enabled businesses. We went through multiple iterations, spent countless hours on the calls with possible partners and investors, and then the crypto crash came. We kept our spirits high, continuing our development and discovery, but it was already September, and we could still see little interest from our target users and funds. So we kept doing things for some time, and with our low burn rate, that was almost as easy as paying for online education. Even though me and my partner both have business obligations, we committed >80% of our work time and almost all our free time to development, outreach, and studying startups.
Then we pivoted again and discovered more interest from investors right before FTX. You can guess what happened next. We literally were trying to jump in on the last wagon and missed it with multiple trains. We got a massive amount of experience and contacts, and we now work on a new project.
I wanted to share the story to get it off my chest and encourage someone out there. It might not necessarily be your fault; the market conditions might play a more prominent role.
PS. Feel free to roast me for what it's worth. In the end, I am happy we did not raise in April/May 2022 so I did not have to fire people to the market with zero perspectives.

I read a sci-fi book years ago, I’m fairly certain there was at least one sequel. It was very similar to Enders game, in that they (the government I believe) was taking people to train them for some purpose. They had monitoring chips implanted in the people, which was fairly significant. At the end of the first book I believe, the protagonist learns the people he’s training for are bad, and escapes, removing his chip, and leaving a message in the sky(the message I believe was also the title of the book). I hope this is enough, it’s been burning in my mind for months!

Has this happened to anyone? It started out with the soup being way too sour after I finished cooking so I added some baking soda which solved the sourness problem but now the soup is bitter … I only added a little over a teaspoon of baking soda in a pot with 4 servings or so of the soup. Tried adding some milk and sugar to the soup but it still tastes kind of bitter and not good lol.
I did also burn some of the onions I was sauté-ing for the soup (used an instant pot to make the soup) and had trouble getting the instant pot to build pressure. Not sure if these were contributing factors to the bitterness of the soup 😩😩😩. Has this happened to anyone else/thoughts on where exactly I went wrong 😭😭😭?

Maybe I'm just missing something here, but as far as I know Ballora most likely (if not most definitely) holds the consciousness (or soul, spirit, however you want to define it) of Mrs Afton (Clara). Now in the final video (Game Theory: FNAF, A Family REBUILT (Ultimate Timeline Finale)), MatPat theorizes that it was Clara herself who funded and brought the Pizzaplex from Fnaf Security Breach to life. MatPat does explicitly bring attention to Balloras' little song in SL, which included something to the effect of "Why do you hide within your walls", in order to support just how much William had isolated himself from Clara, so we know Mrs Afton is in some way pretty tightly affiliated with Ballora (from that along with other evidence). Even at the "Family table" in the sticky note room in FNAF SB, MatPat says it must be Clara at the head of the table, and that robot looks extremely similar to Ballora (which, can't be an accident if that table is meant to represent the Aftons, as we see another robot that looks like Circus Baby (Elizabeth), another most likely to represent C.C., another for Micheal, and so on). Another thing too, if I'm not wrong, SL does end up burning down pretty shortly after Micheal is scooped and Ennard disguises itself with his body, which would probably mess with any remaining animationics, remnant, or spirits in the building pretty badly, Ballora included. I'm not entirely sure if Ballora's endoskeleton is included in Ennard, but I assume it isn't as all the spirits within Ennard have stayed relatively fragmented (so it'd be really difficult to say with confidence that Mrs Afton's spirit managed to escape the fire in Ennard, find another (body, vessel, whatever), and detach itself from Ennard while still being whole enough to go on to start up the Pizzaplex).
So what I'm confused on is how is it that Clara both "died" and resided in Ballora, while also later (I assume after Ballora has also "died") going on to receive all the documents and paperwork from William's death and use those to start up the Pizzaplex?
Initially I'd considered that maybe Ballora was only made in Clara's image to accompany William in his workshop, rather than actually holding Clara within her, but then that leaves the question of how did Ballora feel/know of that same grief Clara felt when William began isolating himself so heavily (so much so that Ballora actively sings her mourning within the SL)? Assuming Ballora was made when he initially began isolating himself, she would've been modeled after a much happier Mrs Afton, one from before William isolated from her so much and they (assumedly) became closer to being strangers.
Now, obviously MatPat and the rest of the GT team are only human, and he said himself not everything is going to make complete sense. He did the best he could to make the final timeline something that is cohesive and makes the most sense, so it's absolutely possible this is just an instance of "It made the most sense with everything else, don't worry too much about specifics" in which case, completely fair, there's so many fine details everywhere, and they've all done a much better job of putting things together than I probably ever could've.
TL;DR I'm confused on how Mrs Afton could both inhabit the Ballora animatronic and also start up the SB Pizzaplex later on in the timeline

Please help me I struggle so much viewing them as human beings. The more power women get the worse everything around us gets. Since women have joined politics, nothing has been more fucked up. Western values have also fallen to shit because of idealistic women and their strong opinions and sensorship agendas. Also being responsible is not something they want anymore. Everything is just being free and open and do whatever you want, and not let anyone tell you otherwise - which in turn is fine but this just make them insanely narssisitic and incredibly shallow for some reason I can't figure out. Also they invade what used to be funny, free and community drives places into the ground. They should have never gotten a chance to join social media. They look up to rap artists and makeup models, what good is that except create fucked up beauty standards (that they blame men for creating). Also because women stand for 70% of all consumerism, inflation keeps rising, but since women dont care about CPI (consumer price index) and what it means to invest, they just blindly continue buying clothes, makeup, shoes and other meaningless shit that fuels the big ass capitalist beast that is slowly burning our world into the ground.
Oh and also my mom was throughout my entire childhood a manipulating lier. Help

4 years as best friends. Me (22) she (23). Literally caused arguments with our s/o’s because we spent so much time together. NEVER cheated emotionally or physically. Our friends and family have been asking when we’d finally get together. The timing finally worked, she confessed she’s wanted to be with me for years, but after only 5 months it fell apart. Idk how she just dropped me. Neither of us are toxic it just got really stressful with work and other conflicts and she “has resented me for our conflicts so much she stopped loving me” and rather than work on us “she would rather have a clean slate.” She said she felt nothing from my acts of love. She felt unheard and frustrated with me. She described it as she’s in protective mode. I can’t tell if it’s truth or just excuses.
Sounds hopeful but then she says just know you’re my best friend and it hurts so much we’ll never get back to that and I hurt her too much to try again. Idk how someone just falls out of love that was so passionate. I get that stress can cause burn out but we’ve been through worse as friends. She ignored my apology text from a few days ago. I just cannot comprehend how a human can go 100 to 0. Was she lying about loving me and all of our talks about being together? Was she just infatuated for years? Is this normal for young women to shut down and leave? It’s been a month since the breakup I figured she’d miss something about me by now. This has just really damaged my ability to trust people and my own judge of character.

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Journal of Camille Lambert - April 14th (Part 2)
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I closed my eyes, resting my head against the seat of the car as we drove. I could feel Dom’s hand resting over mine, reminding me of his presence.
​
Neither of us spoke… and really, I wasn’t sure what there was to say. The night before as we’d sat in the ruined church, watching Puriysk burn, we’d talked a little bit about what was waiting for us but I honestly don’t remember much about that conversation. We hadn’t talked much about what had happened in Bakersfield or Rankin Mills although we both knew what we’d lost. Friends, family, and things we would never get back. I suppose we both knew that there’d be time to mourn afterward if there even was an afterward.
​
Right now, the grief wasn’t important.
​
What was important was getting to Parsons, killing Ben Calhoun, and doing it before he either dragged another town into this Hell he had created or the hive-minded God we’d unleashed found a way to escape.
“We should count ourselves lucky that Milo had foresight…” Gretchen said, drawing Dom’s attention away from me.
​
“Why’s that?” He asked.
“These rounds are already cursed. Saves me the trouble… it must have taken a considerable amount of time to set that up. I suppose it makes sense, he most likely brought these along intending for them to be used on the Nightwalkers. Cursing them is simply pragmatic.”
“And he didn’t think to give me some of those?” Nina asked, pretending to sound hurt.
​
“You were meant to be a more subtle operator… presumably as a joke,” Gretchen replied. “This kind of firepower would have been impractical. The men in Puriysk were intended as more of an assault team. Milo’s goal was to take Parsons by force. Crush them with overwhelming opposition. Besides… judging by the stores I saw in the armory, Milo clearly did not expect to have to deal with the Nightwalkers on the scale that we encountered them last night. I don’t think he anticipated that Calhoun would have the means to control them and to be fair, neither did I. Had that possibility occurred to me, I would have warned him. Either way, it hardly matters. Those munitions would not have been sufficient to repel that kind of assault. Really, I’m not sure anything in our arsenal could have.”
​
“Well that’s reassuring,” Nina murmured. “It’s not like we’re about to knock on his door in the next few hours.”
“We’ve survived once, so it’s statistically possible that we can survive again,” Gretchen replied.
“Statistically po… well thanks for the vote of fucking confidence!” Nina snapped, “You got any other words of inspiration?”
“Not of inspiration, no. Would you like me to prophecies our doom instead?”
If looks could kill, then the glare that Nina shot Gretchen would have ended her.
“I’m not talking to you anymore!”
​
Strangely enough, watching those two bicker was kind of comforting and made me crack a slight smile. I wondered if they both knew that too, and were only arguing like an old married couple because it made them both feel better about what was to come.
I suspected it did.
​
***
​
Through the mist up ahead, I could see a stone archway in the road. It was far more ornate than anything I’d ever seen before, looking more like something out of a fairy tale than anything else. From the corner of my eye, I could see Dom staring intently at it.
“That’s it…” He said softly, “That’s the gate.”
​
Underneath the gate, I could see several parked cars, forming a makeshift barricade and a pair of men standing in front of them, guns at the ready. One of them was already starting to approach the car, a hand held up and warning us to stop. Nina seemed to hesitate for a moment before finally slowing down.
​
“Dom, pass me my gun,” She said calmly before putting her mask on and rolling down the window.
“Wherever you’re coming from, Parsons is closed!” The man in the road called, “Turn around and go back! Go any further and we will shoot!”
“The fuck it’s closed! I’ve got people from Thompson Falls in here!” Nina called back, “Some kind of bullshit happened the other night, I need to get these people to safety!”
​
The man in the road looked over toward one of his companions who came up and said something to him.
“I’m afraid you’re gonna have to turn around and go back the way you came,” He said. “There’s some kind of infection out there. We’ve got strict orders not to let anyone in!”
“Yeah, we’re aware of the infection, fucknuts! Why do you think we’re wearing masks? And where the fuck else are we supposed to go? Bakersfield and Rankin Mills are all fucked up, somebody set Puriysk on fucking fire! I’ve got one of your boys in here, he told me where to go, and I’ve got a doctor in here! She could help!”
Again, the man in the road consulted with his friend.
​
“We can talk to Sheriff Brown about letting you in, and we can let you past this archway while you wait. But we need to confirm you’re not infected first. We need everyone in the car to stick out a hand. I’m going to take a lighter, and see how you react to the flame, does that sound fair?”
“Sheriff Brown…?” Dom asked before realizing what that probably meant.
​
Judging by the look on Nina’s face, I knew she’d figured it out too. Looks like McClellan had already been replaced.
“Do what you’ve got to do,” She asked not dropping the act. Dom passed her the shotgun and we watched as one of the men behind the cars went over to a small house behind the archway. I saw him coming out with a phone and yelling something to the guy in front of our car.
“Before we start, I’m gonna need some names for the Sheriff. We’ve got him on the phone.”
“Tell him we’ve got Dr. Morbius in here, he’ll know who it is!”
​
The guy in the road relayed the name back to the guy on the phone, who was quiet for a moment. Then, he turned and said something quietly to one of the other men near him, watching us intently all the while. The man he’d spoken to walked out to whisper to the man in the road, who just kept staring at us.
They knew who we were. I was certain of it.
“I’m gonna need you people to stay put for a minute,” The man in the road said, “We’re gonna let you in… but first we need to confirm you’re not infected. Alright?”
​
He held up his hands to show they were empty, then reached down into his pocket for a lighter before slowly approaching us, moving off to the side as he went toward the driver's side door and out of the way, giving his buddies by the cars a clear target. I could see them taking aim and knew they’d probably start shooting before their friend actually got there.
​
Nina looked over at Gretchen, who gave a knowing nod.
​
In one fluid motion, Nina took her hands off the wheel and grabbed the gun out of her lap. She fired out the window twice, bathing the man in the road in fire before he could take a single step closer. The car was launched forward as she hit the gas and Gretchen grabbed hold of the steering wheel, keeping it straight as Nina fired blindly toward the other men, showering them in sparks and lead.
“IT’S MORBIN TIME!” She howled, cackling like a complete psychopath as she did.
​
Gretchen gave a violent wave of her hand. I watched the ground beneath the cars barricading beneath the archway shift, pulling them out of our way. One of the men topped to the ground, losing his footing and ending up under the wheels of our car as we sped through. Nina fired at the men behind us a few times, although I don’t think she actually hit any of them. Looking back at the archway as we left it behind, I could see two men impotently shooting at us, over the bodies of about two or three of their friends.
​
Parsons was just ahead of us now. No going back. The mist grew lighter as we left the forest behind, and with the trees gone, I looked upon the town of Parsons for the first time in my life. The sight of it almost left me speechless.
​
Parsons reminded me a little bit of the town we’d seen in Estonia. There was a certain kind of timeless beauty to the architecture there. Lovingly crafted brick buildings and cobblestone streets awaited us ahead. The sun shone brighter here than I’d seen anywhere else too. The mist wasn’t quite so thick, and it made the quiet streets seem so much more picturesque. I hadn’t thought that something so beautiful could exist here… and yet here it was. I looked up at the buildings we passed, utterly spellbound by them and I almost felt sorry that Nina was probably going to set everything on fire in the next hour or so.
​
“Fascinating…” Gretchen said, already reaching for her notebook, “This architecture clearly was not part of Parsons when it disappeared! Calhoun has certainly made some improvements. I wonder who designed these?”
​
As I explored the skyline, my eyes were drawn to one building in particular, a large house near the center of town. Something about its architecture of it was… strange. It was hard to look at it clearly and trace where some parts began and others ended. Trying to figure it all out gave me a headache.
“That’s Calhoun’s house,” Dom said, pointing at it. “If we’re going to find him, that’s probably the place to look.”
“Let’s go see if he’s home,” Nina replied, steering down one of the cobblestone streets toward Calhoun’s house.
​
As we drove, I noticed just how empty the streets were. In Puriysk, we’d at least seen a few people out and about but Parsons seemed almost completely abandoned. I wasn’t the only one who noticed it either.
“Thought this was supposed to be a town… y’know, with people living in it,” Nina murmured.
​
“Given the threat of the Rosen Prince, Calhoun may have had the foresight to either get them out or lock them down,” Gretchen offered. “At least until he could deal with the problem directly.”
“In the event of an emergency, we did a few drills on how to get people out,” Dom said. “I think McClellan’s predecessor set it all up although McClellan himself only really did the drills out of obligation.”
​
“They had an actual emergency plan here?” Nina asked, half impressed.
“Like I said, it was the Sheriff before McClellan who set it up. Supposedly the plan was to have something similar in all the towns, although McClellan always said we didn’t have the resources for anything like that.”
“Right, no resources…” Nina said, looking out the window as we drove past a statue of Calhoun set in a lush green park. “Dare I ask how McClellan ended up Sheriff, and what happened to the other guy?”
​
Dom shrugged.
“Y’know, now that I think about it nobody ever really discussed it. The whole thing was before my time but I heard some rumors. Supposedly he’d had an ‘accident’ outside one night. Got torn apart by the Nightwalkers. But the Nightwalkers were never as much of a problem in Parsons. And I’ve heard a few of the older Deputy’s mention how Calhoun and the old Sheriff had some sort of falling out.”
Nina whistled.
“Wow… shocking,” She said.
​
As we turned down another road, I heard a crackle of static coming from the streets around us, followed by a voice.
“Nina Valentine? You know, McClellan didn’t think you’d ever make it to Parsons but I had a gut feeling you would… you’re not as stupid as you look.”
​
That cold voice sent a chill through me, and I swear I saw Dom tensing up as well. It’d been a few days since we’d heard the voice of Kevin Brown, and the knowledge that he was still alive was anything but pleasant.
“Oh hey, Kev’s here!” Nina said, sounding almost happy to hear him.
​
“So in anticipation of your arrival, and to protect against whatever plague you and your people unleashed against us, I’ve made sure to take every precaution in ensuring that you and your friends receive a warm Parsons welcome!”
​
Almost on cue, I saw Sheriff’s Boys running out onto the street ahead of us and heard the gunshots almost immediately. Nina ducked down, swerving the car as bullets shattered the windshield. She hit the gas, speeding toward the Sheriff’s Boys and barreling into them at top speed. Through the cracks that spiderwebbed across the windshield, I saw one body crashing against the hood of the car and rolling up onto the roof.
​
The SUV crashed hard into a nearby building, causing Nina to slam against the steering wheel. Dom and I were thrown against the seats in front of us although Gretchen barely seemed to move.
“FUCKER!” Nina spat, before grabbing her shotgun, and ducking down as another hail of gunfire erupted from behind us, ripping apart the rear window of the SUV. Dom and I both ducked down to avoid getting hit, as did Nina.
​
Gretchen just calmly looked back through the rear window, as if nothing was wrong.
“That’s inconvenient,” She said before fixing her jacket and casually opening the door to the car.
“The fuck are you doing?!” Nina snapped.
“Attribution spell,” Gretchen replied, and without another word stepped out of the car.
​
I watched her through the window as the Sheriff’s Boys took aim at her, and I could see the bullets hitting the bricks of the building behind her. I could see the way her body moved every time a bullet struck her.
​
But not a single mark appeared on her.
​
Looking over the seat, I saw that the same could not be said for the Sheriff’s Boys. Several of them now lay dead on the ground, while others clawed at their wounds, screaming in pain. Most of those still standing had stopped shooting and had paused, now regarding Gretchen with quiet horror, trying to make sense of the impossible thing that had just happened to them.
“Are we finished?” She asked, “Excellent! Now…”
​
The ground moved beneath her. I saw her dagger appear in her hand as she drew it violently across the throat of the nearest member of the Sheriff’s Boys. The other shrank back in fear, one mindlessly shooting at her. His bullet struck her in the head, and so his own skull burst in response.
​
Gretchen moved on to the next, moving the ground beneath his feet to bring him closer to her, and driving her knife into his stomach. One of the other Boys reached for his own dagger and lunged for her, driving it into her back. He screamed in pain as the wound appeared on him instead and Gretchen just calmly turned around and sank her fangs into his throat. With a flick of her wrist, the cobblestones in the road were torn up, bombarding the remaining Sheriff’s Boys who tried to flee in a blind panic, only to find themselves downrange of Nina as she got out of the car, and unleashed burning hell upon them with every pull of her trigger.
​
Gretchen pulled the screaming man closer, her mouth wet with his blood. Then, as he gurgled and choked she tossed him back to the ground.
“Inadequate,” She said, taking a handkerchief out of her coat and daintily wiping her mouth with it, “Very poor quality.”
​
Dom and I got out of the car next.
“We’ve still got a few blocks to Calhoun’s place,” He said. “We should move, now!”
Before Nina could respond to that, more gunshots rang out from down the street.
​
“Listen up, Boys, we have four high priority targets on the streets of Parsons right now!” Kevin announced, “Get out there and start shooting, and for whoever brings me the head of the blonde one… I’ll make it worth your while. Happy hunting, Boys!”
​
As the Sheriff’s Boys shot at us, Nina took off toward the nearest building, gesturing for the rest of us to follow her. Dom and I started running immediately, but Gretchen held back. I saw her eyes drift toward one of the nearby buildings. She focused on it for a moment, before reaching out, curling her fingers as if she were grabbing hold of something. I saw the building move. I saw the brick starting to crack. She seemed to pull at it, gritting her teeth as she did. The building buckled slightly and Gretchen finally let it go, allowing gravity to do the rest of the work as she ran to follow us.
​
Nina paused, looking back as the building collapsed down onto the oncoming Sheriff’s Boys, and blocking off the rest of the street. I saw her struggling not to look impressed as she traded a look with Gretchen.
“So you could just do that the whole time, and you still let the Rosen Prince out?” She asked.
Gretchen just sighed and shook her head, as we disappeared into the building.
​
Once upon a time, I think the building we were in used to be a cafe. Now it was silent and empty. Dom pulled ahead of Nina as we made our way through.
“If we can get over to the next street, I think we can get back on track,” He said. “That should be Parsons main street.”
“Great, think we can collapse any more buildings to make it easier?” Nina asked.
“I can try,” Gretchen said, “Although if you must know, that isn’t exactly easy for me. It’s not an ability that comes naturally and I’ve never used it on this kind of scale before.”
“Well, you’re gonna learn,” Nina said with a shrug as we went out back through the kitchen. Dom led us through a back door, into an alley filled with dumpsters and drainage pipes.
​
“This way,” He said, gesturing for us to follow. Up ahead, through another alley leading to one of the streets, I could see one of the Sheriff’s Boys rounding the corner. He froze at the sight of us and raised his rifle, but Dom shot first. The sparks caught on his clothes, making him stagger back although he didn’t fall. An open flame had caught on his sleeve, leaving him screaming and swatting frantically at it before Dom fired again, sending him tumbling to the ground.
​
I saw two more of his buddies rounding the corner to investigate. The first one took an entire barrel of flaming shotgun pellets to the face, courtesy of Nina. He was dead before he’d even finished rounding the corner. The other one made the mistake of turning to look at his dead companion and was blown away as well.
"Well… good news, it’s just these assholes we have to deal with,” Nina said as we went back into the alley. “Kinda nice, for a change!”
​
We cut through the alley, making it back out onto the street. I could see some more of the Sheriff’s Boys, although they took care of themselves by shooting at Gretchen as we dove back into cover.
“We’re not done just yet,” She warned, irritably fixing her coat again. “Let’s go.”
​
“So you’ve come, in defiance of everything I’ve done to stop you?” A calm voice asked through the speakers. I recognized this one as Calhoun’s. “I have been kind. I have been patient… I let you take Puriysk and when you were done, I pushed you to leave. But you don’t respond to kindness, do you? No. You need a firmer hand and you leave me with few other choices…”
​
The street we were on grew darker, and all of us paused, looking up toward the sky. We watched as the sun… or whatever it was in this world that we called the sun, began to change. It seemed to flicker around the edges, the flickering growing more and more violent, like a candle about to go out. A shadow seemed to bleed in from the outside as the sun faded away, dissolving into a darkening sky until nothing was left and shrouding the street around us in darkness.
“Well that’s not good,” Nina said, looking up at where the sun used to be.
​
Almost like a comedic afterthought, the lanterns on the street flickered to life, casting a dull electronic glow on us.
“Attention, attention! All members of the Sheriff’s Boys get to cover, immediately!” Kevin said over the PA, “I repeat, all members of the Sheriff’s Boys get to cover immediately!”
​
Nobody needed to say it out loud, we all knew that we needed to run.
​
We took off down the street, guns at the ready as we made our final push to Calhoun’s house. Up ahead, I could see several of the Sheriff’s Boys ushering more of their buddies out of one of the alleys. I noticed one of them glancing in our direction, although nobody gave them the opportunity to start shooting. The one who’d looked at us was hit dead on by burning shotgun shells, screaming as he caught fire. I saw some of his friends jump back and heard one yell:
“GET DOWN!”
​
It didn’t do a hell of a lot of good. Nina and Dom cut ahead of us, firing at the fleeing Sheriff’s Boys, although once they noticed they had no intention of shooting back at us, they left them alone and kept on running.
​
Calhoun’s house was just up ahead, I could see it now. The twisted, impossible architecture looked almost as if it were ensnared by roots or vines, although they seemed to be part of the stone and not actually part of some plant.
“Just up ahead…” Dom said, cutting ahead of the pack a little, although when the gunfire started again, he went crashing to the ground, diving for cover behind the stone stairs of one of the nearby buildings. I think he might have sworn, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of gunfire. I noticed him pressing a hand to his shoulder and dove down by the stairs to join him.
​
“Are you alright?” I asked, trying to get a look at the wound.
“I-I’m fine, just a graze…” He stammered, before peeking out over the stairs to see Gretchen standing between us and the Sheriff’s Boys, trying her damndest to hold them off.
I saw Nina just up ahead, taking advantage of Gretchen’s distraction to get around them. I could see the flash as she unloaded her shotgun at the unseen gunmen. I counted about six of them, taking refuge on the other side of the street. One was struck by a cobblestone Gretchen had pulled up and knocked out into the open, only to be set alight by a blast from Nina’s gun. Another was trying to get around Gretchen, and I raised my .22 to take aim at him.
​
Taking a deep breath, I pulled the trigger. My first few shots missed, but the third or fourth caught him in the stomach, sending him down to the ground. He tried to stand and I aimed down the sight, squeezing the trigger two more times. I know that at least one of them hit. I saw him press a hand to his neck, as he collapsed onto his side and even through the darkness I could see his eyes burning into mine.
​
Those eyes… I knew I’d never forget them.
​
Nina kept shooting, pushing the Sheriff’s Boys back the way they came. Her gun clicked, and I saw her reach for the pistol she kept and shoot with that instead. I saw one man fall, while the others retreated into an alley between the buildings.
"Get up!" I urged, Dom. “We’re almost there!”
​
I pulled him to his feet, keeping my gun trained on the alley the Sheriff’s Boys had run into as if I knew what I was doing. He found his legs quickly as we made our way to the gates of Calhoun’s house and into his courtyard.
​
The courtyard was lush and overgrown with greenery. With the right hands, it could have been a beautiful garden, but instead, Calhoun had allowed weeds and vines to grow rampant instead. Even the fountain near the center was almost overflowing with vines and the water from it only flowed at a pathetic trickle.
​
Nina looked back anxiously out onto the street, before looking ahead to Calhoun’s house. I imagine it was just as much of an eyesore to her as it was to me.
“You’re wounded,” Gretchen said, coming to Dom’s side.
“Just a graze,” He assured her, “Honestly considering how many people were shooting at us, I think we’re lucky that’s all we got!”
​
Gretchen ignored him to examine the wound instead, although stopped fussing once she saw that it really was just a graze.
“Listen up, Boys! If you’re not in cover, find it now! We’ve got reports of Nightwalkers in the lower districts! We’re sending in heavy armor! Get off the streets, now!” Kevin said over the PA.
“Welp, you heard the man,” Nina said. She took the magazine out of her shotgun and replaced it with a spare before heading toward the house although she paused when she saw what else was looming in front of her.
​
We saw the eye first. The sigil of a single, crimson eye burning through the darkness. Then we saw the beast, lumbering out of the shadows. Its body was massive and thick with muscle. Its head was pale and emaciated, with sunken beady eyes and a lipless mouth lined with jagged teeth. Atop its head were jutting elk horns, overgrown with moss and weeds. The sigil burned bright on its forehead and marked it as Calhoun’s final emissary.
​
“Yup… that seems just about right,” Nina said with a sigh as the Horned Nightwalker lumbered toward her. She raised her shotgun and got off only a few shots before it hit her, launching her across the courtyard and sending her to the ground in a tangled heap.
​
Dom was up next, shooting at it as it came for us, although before it could get close, the ground beneath it shifted, bringing it closer to Gretchen. The Nightwalker almost fell but recovered quickly. It brought one massive hand down on the spot where she’d been just a few moments before, as the shifting ground moved her away from it and closer to the fountain. Gretchen gestured with her hand, pulling the water out of the fountain and forming it into a jagged shard of ice. With a flick of her wrist, that ice pierced the chest of the Nightwalker, earning a cry of frustration from it.
​
Nina had stumbled to her feet again and was taking aim at the Nightwalker, firing round after round at it. It tried to shield its face as the moss on its body was set alight. Despite the flames, the Nightwalker hardly seemed phased. Even as Gretchen impaled it on another spear of ice, it only struggled to get free, either unwilling or unable to die.
​
“Must I do this for all of your pawns, Calhoun?” Gretchen growled, reaching for the revolver in her coat, she took a step back to aim it, although before she could fire, something lunged at her from the shadows, knocking her off her feet. The revolver skidded out of her hands, landing near the fountain.
​
In the low light, I watched as Gretchen tried to fight off the thing that had landed on her. It looked almost like a lion or a tiger, although the face was all wrong and the mouth was too wide. I saw it clawing at her, before leaping back suddenly as the gashes appeared on its own stomach. The Tiger Nightwalker hissed, glaring at Gretchen before noticing Nina taking aim at it. It had just enough time to give one last roar before she shot it, engulfing it in flames and sending it tearing away at top speed, although it didn’t seem to make it far before it was on the ground, screaming and rolling to try and get the fire out.
​
Gretchen tried to crawl toward the gun, reaching a hand out to beckon it closer to her. I saw the gun move about an inch before the Horned Nightwalker came for her.
​
Its fist came down hard on her leg, hard enough that it should have broken it. Although instead, I saw the Nightwalker’s leg bend violently. It screamed in pain, sliding down further along the spear of ice Gretchen had impaled it with, before grabbing her by the leg and hurling her across the courtyard. She hit the ground hard, and let out a cry of genuine pain before trying to pick herself up.
“Valentine… the Gun!” She gasped.
​
I saw Nina make a mad dash for the revolver, as inhuman cries sounded all around us. I could see other Nightwalkers coming. One that looked like a gray, naked man sprinted toward Dom and I. Dom blew it away with a blast from his shotgun.
​
Nina almost made it to the revolver, just as the Horned Nightwalker broke free of the ice spear. It swept its fist, knocking Nina forward and over the fountain, before lumbering toward her.
​
Dom was busy with the Nightwalkers, and I could see the revolver. I ran for it, grabbing it off the ground and taking aim at the Horned Nightwalker as it advanced on Nina. I took aim, just about to pull the trigger when from the corner of my eye, I saw headlights shining into the courtyard as a truck sped in.
“Let’s see you assholes live through this!” A voice on a megaphone called out from inside.
​
Kevin.
​
I noticed something on top of the truck, and only had half a second to move once I realized what it was. There was some kind of gun on top of that truck.
​
It had started shooting before I dove behind the fountain. I saw Dom stumble back, running for cover as well. Over the megaphone, I could hear Kevin laughing.
​
The truck circled the fountain, only barely missing the Horned Nightwalker, who ignored it in favor of chasing Nina. I watched as Nina leaped into the fountain itself and ducked low, trying to keep herself from being shot and crushed by two different problems.
​
On the far side of the courtyard, Gretchen was on her feet again. I heard the scrape of the earth as she moved the ground underneath the truck, causing it to fishtail. The rear end of it slammed against the fountain. I saw whoever was manning the gun at the top of the truck slam against their gun, before hastily righting themselves. They looked at Gretchen, who stared them down knowingly and waited for them to open fire.
​
It went about as well as one might have expected.
​
He pulled the trigger, unleashing a hail of bullets onto her and as he did, I saw his body torn apart by the impact.
“JESUS CHRIST!” I heard Kevin say from inside as the truck's tires squealed and the driver tried to move it again.
​
I looked over at Nina and saw her still in the fountain, trying to use the lovingly sculpted tiers, overgrown with vines to keep the Horned Nightwalker from getting to her. It just smashed them without a second thought and shrugged off the idle blasts from her shotgun that she fired to try and cover her retreat as she scrambled out of the fountain again. Dom was running to Nina’s side, trying to distract it and cover her escape.
​
I raised the revolver, taking aim at the Nightwalker again, before noticing that the space around me had suddenly grown a lot brighter. I turned to see Kevin’s truck racing toward me and tried to hastily stumble out of the way.
​
I wasn’t fast enough. The truck clipped me, sending me to the ground. The revolver slipped out of my hand, landing in some of the nearby vines. My ears rang and white hot pain erupted through my body as I tried to convince my body to move. I looked up toward the truck, to see it skidding to a halt and I saw somebody pushing the dead man out of the gunner's seat. Somebody new replaced him, and though I could only barely see his face, I already knew who it was.
​
Kevin.
​
He took aim at me, and I stared down the barrel of his gun, waiting for him to fire. But before he could, something gangly and luminous leaped onto the back of his truck, clawing frantically to climb up and reach him. Kevin jerked the gun around, eyes widening in horror as he came face to face with the Rosen Prince.
​
Unfortunately, he had the good sense to start shooting.
​
The familiar scream of the Rosen echoed through the courtyard. I looked over toward the gate to see countless more, just like the one Kevin was trying to kill pouring in and climbing the fence. I saw a few of them sprint across the courtyard, leaping onto the Horned Nightwalker, and unleashing their shimmering spores onto it.
​
I reached for the cluster of vines I’d seen the revolver fall into, only to feel Gretchen’s hand gripping the back of my shirt and pulling me to my feet.
“The gun!” I cried, trying to gesture to where it was.
“No time,” She replied, before putting her hand on the fountain.
​
I felt the ground shift beneath us as the entire fountain rotated, bringing us closer to the door. The Horned Nightwalker clawed at the Rosen upon its back, and I could see Kevin had become more preoccupied shooting at the newcomers, as opposed to shooting at us. Nina and Dom were already running for the door.
“Just fucking go!” Nina yelled, waving us inside.
​
Gretchen and I turned, running up the steps and toward the twisted door ahead of us. I was the first there. My hand closed around the doorknob and I threw it open and barreled inside. Once the others were through, I slammed it shut.
​
As soon as it was closed, I watched Gretchen take her knife from her coat. She hastily cut open her palm and marked a sigil on the door in her own blood.
“This should keep them out for a while,” She said, “But I’d suggest we conclude our business here quickly,”

First Entry
Second Entry
Third Entry
Fourth Entry ​
Fifth Entry
Sixth Entry
Seventh Entry
Eighth Entry
Ninth Entry
Journal of Camille Lambert - April 14th (Part 2)
​
I closed my eyes, resting my head against the seat of the car as we drove. I could feel Dom’s hand resting over mine, reminding me of his presence.
​
Neither of us spoke… and really, I wasn’t sure what there was to say. The night before as we’d sat in the ruined church, watching Puriysk burn, we’d talked a little bit about what was waiting for us but I honestly don’t remember much about that conversation. We hadn’t talked much about what had happened in Bakersfield or Rankin Mills although we both knew what we’d lost. Friends, family, and things we would never get back. I suppose we both knew that there’d be time to mourn afterward if there even was an afterward.
​
Right now, the grief wasn’t important.
​
What was important was getting to Parsons, killing Ben Calhoun, and doing it before he either dragged another town into this Hell he had created or the hive-minded God we’d unleashed found a way to escape.
“We should count ourselves lucky that Milo had foresight…” Gretchen said, drawing Dom’s attention away from me.
​
“Why’s that?” He asked.
“These rounds are already cursed. Saves me the trouble… it must have taken a considerable amount of time to set that up. I suppose it makes sense, he most likely brought these along intending for them to be used on the Nightwalkers. Cursing them is simply pragmatic.”
“And he didn’t think to give me some of those?” Nina asked, pretending to sound hurt.
​
“You were meant to be a more subtle operator… presumably as a joke,” Gretchen replied. “This kind of firepower would have been impractical. The men in Puriysk were intended as more of an assault team. Milo’s goal was to take Parsons by force. Crush them with overwhelming opposition. Besides… judging by the stores I saw in the armory, Milo clearly did not expect to have to deal with the Nightwalkers on the scale that we encountered them last night. I don’t think he anticipated that Calhoun would have the means to control them and to be fair, neither did I. Had that possibility occurred to me, I would have warned him. Either way, it hardly matters. Those munitions would not have been sufficient to repel that kind of assault. Really, I’m not sure anything in our arsenal could have.”
​
“Well that’s reassuring,” Nina murmured. “It’s not like we’re about to knock on his door in the next few hours.”
“We’ve survived once, so it’s statistically possible that we can survive again,” Gretchen replied.
“Statistically po… well thanks for the vote of fucking confidence!” Nina snapped, “You got any other words of inspiration?”
“Not of inspiration, no. Would you like me to prophecies our doom instead?”
If looks could kill, then the glare that Nina shot Gretchen would have ended her.
“I’m not talking to you anymore!”
​
Strangely enough, watching those two bicker was kind of comforting and made me crack a slight smile. I wondered if they both knew that too, and were only arguing like an old married couple because it made them both feel better about what was to come.
I suspected it did.
​
***
​
Through the mist up ahead, I could see a stone archway in the road. It was far more ornate than anything I’d ever seen before, looking more like something out of a fairy tale than anything else. From the corner of my eye, I could see Dom staring intently at it.
“That’s it…” He said softly, “That’s the gate.”
​
Underneath the gate, I could see several parked cars, forming a makeshift barricade and a pair of men standing in front of them, guns at the ready. One of them was already starting to approach the car, a hand held up and warning us to stop. Nina seemed to hesitate for a moment before finally slowing down.
​
“Dom, pass me my gun,” She said calmly before putting her mask on and rolling down the window.
“Wherever you’re coming from, Parsons is closed!” The man in the road called, “Turn around and go back! Go any further and we will shoot!”
“The fuck it’s closed! I’ve got people from Thompson Falls in here!” Nina called back, “Some kind of bullshit happened the other night, I need to get these people to safety!”
​
The man in the road looked over toward one of his companions who came up and said something to him.
“I’m afraid you’re gonna have to turn around and go back the way you came,” He said. “There’s some kind of infection out there. We’ve got strict orders not to let anyone in!”
“Yeah, we’re aware of the infection, fucknuts! Why do you think we’re wearing masks? And where the fuck else are we supposed to go? Bakersfield and Rankin Mills are all fucked up, somebody set Puriysk on fucking fire! I’ve got one of your boys in here, he told me where to go, and I’ve got a doctor in here! She could help!”
Again, the man in the road consulted with his friend.
​
“We can talk to Sheriff Brown about letting you in, and we can let you past this archway while you wait. But we need to confirm you’re not infected first. We need everyone in the car to stick out a hand. I’m going to take a lighter, and see how you react to the flame, does that sound fair?”
“Sheriff Brown…?” Dom asked before realizing what that probably meant.
​
Judging by the look on Nina’s face, I knew she’d figured it out too. Looks like McClellan had already been replaced.
“Do what you’ve got to do,” She asked not dropping the act. Dom passed her the shotgun and we watched as one of the men behind the cars went over to a small house behind the archway. I saw him coming out with a phone and yelling something to the guy in front of our car.
“Before we start, I’m gonna need some names for the Sheriff. We’ve got him on the phone.”
“Tell him we’ve got Dr. Morbius in here, he’ll know who it is!”
​
The guy in the road relayed the name back to the guy on the phone, who was quiet for a moment. Then, he turned and said something quietly to one of the other men near him, watching us intently all the while. The man he’d spoken to walked out to whisper to the man in the road, who just kept staring at us.
They knew who we were. I was certain of it.
“I’m gonna need you people to stay put for a minute,” The man in the road said, “We’re gonna let you in… but first we need to confirm you’re not infected. Alright?”
​
He held up his hands to show they were empty, then reached down into his pocket for a lighter before slowly approaching us, moving off to the side as he went toward the driver's side door and out of the way, giving his buddies by the cars a clear target. I could see them taking aim and knew they’d probably start shooting before their friend actually got there.
​
Nina looked over at Gretchen, who gave a knowing nod.
​
In one fluid motion, Nina took her hands off the wheel and grabbed the gun out of her lap. She fired out the window twice, bathing the man in the road in fire before he could take a single step closer. The car was launched forward as she hit the gas and Gretchen grabbed hold of the steering wheel, keeping it straight as Nina fired blindly toward the other men, showering them in sparks and lead.
“IT’S MORBIN TIME!” She howled, cackling like a complete psychopath as she did.
​
Gretchen gave a violent wave of her hand. I watched the ground beneath the cars barricading beneath the archway shift, pulling them out of our way. One of the men topped to the ground, losing his footing and ending up under the wheels of our car as we sped through. Nina fired at the men behind us a few times, although I don’t think she actually hit any of them. Looking back at the archway as we left it behind, I could see two men impotently shooting at us, over the bodies of about two or three of their friends.
​
Parsons was just ahead of us now. No going back. The mist grew lighter as we left the forest behind, and with the trees gone, I looked upon the town of Parsons for the first time in my life. The sight of it almost left me speechless.
​
Parsons reminded me a little bit of the town we’d seen in Estonia. There was a certain kind of timeless beauty to the architecture there. Lovingly crafted brick buildings and cobblestone streets awaited us ahead. The sun shone brighter here than I’d seen anywhere else too. The mist wasn’t quite so thick, and it made the quiet streets seem so much more picturesque. I hadn’t thought that something so beautiful could exist here… and yet here it was. I looked up at the buildings we passed, utterly spellbound by them and I almost felt sorry that Nina was probably going to set everything on fire in the next hour or so.
​
“Fascinating…” Gretchen said, already reaching for her notebook, “This architecture clearly was not part of Parsons when it disappeared! Calhoun has certainly made some improvements. I wonder who designed these?”
​
As I explored the skyline, my eyes were drawn to one building in particular, a large house near the center of town. Something about its architecture of it was… strange. It was hard to look at it clearly and trace where some parts began and others ended. Trying to figure it all out gave me a headache.
“That’s Calhoun’s house,” Dom said, pointing at it. “If we’re going to find him, that’s probably the place to look.”
“Let’s go see if he’s home,” Nina replied, steering down one of the cobblestone streets toward Calhoun’s house.
​
As we drove, I noticed just how empty the streets were. In Puriysk, we’d at least seen a few people out and about but Parsons seemed almost completely abandoned. I wasn’t the only one who noticed it either.
“Thought this was supposed to be a town… y’know, with people living in it,” Nina murmured.
​
“Given the threat of the Rosen Prince, Calhoun may have had the foresight to either get them out or lock them down,” Gretchen offered. “At least until he could deal with the problem directly.”
“In the event of an emergency, we did a few drills on how to get people out,” Dom said. “I think McClellan’s predecessor set it all up although McClellan himself only really did the drills out of obligation.”
​
“They had an actual emergency plan here?” Nina asked, half impressed.
“Like I said, it was the Sheriff before McClellan who set it up. Supposedly the plan was to have something similar in all the towns, although McClellan always said we didn’t have the resources for anything like that.”
“Right, no resources…” Nina said, looking out the window as we drove past a statue of Calhoun set in a lush green park. “Dare I ask how McClellan ended up Sheriff, and what happened to the other guy?”
​
Dom shrugged.
“Y’know, now that I think about it nobody ever really discussed it. The whole thing was before my time but I heard some rumors. Supposedly he’d had an ‘accident’ outside one night. Got torn apart by the Nightwalkers. But the Nightwalkers were never as much of a problem in Parsons. And I’ve heard a few of the older Deputy’s mention how Calhoun and the old Sheriff had some sort of falling out.”
Nina whistled.
“Wow… shocking,” She said.
​
As we turned down another road, I heard a crackle of static coming from the streets around us, followed by a voice.
“Nina Valentine? You know, McClellan didn’t think you’d ever make it to Parsons but I had a gut feeling you would… you’re not as stupid as you look.”
​
That cold voice sent a chill through me, and I swear I saw Dom tensing up as well. It’d been a few days since we’d heard the voice of Kevin Brown, and the knowledge that he was still alive was anything but pleasant.
“Oh hey, Kev’s here!” Nina said, sounding almost happy to hear him.
​
“So in anticipation of your arrival, and to protect against whatever plague you and your people unleashed against us, I’ve made sure to take every precaution in ensuring that you and your friends receive a warm Parsons welcome!”
​
Almost on cue, I saw Sheriff’s Boys running out onto the street ahead of us and heard the gunshots almost immediately. Nina ducked down, swerving the car as bullets shattered the windshield. She hit the gas, speeding toward the Sheriff’s Boys and barreling into them at top speed. Through the cracks that spiderwebbed across the windshield, I saw one body crashing against the hood of the car and rolling up onto the roof.
​
The SUV crashed hard into a nearby building, causing Nina to slam against the steering wheel. Dom and I were thrown against the seats in front of us although Gretchen barely seemed to move.
“FUCKER!” Nina spat, before grabbing her shotgun, and ducking down as another hail of gunfire erupted from behind us, ripping apart the rear window of the SUV. Dom and I both ducked down to avoid getting hit, as did Nina.
​
Gretchen just calmly looked back through the rear window, as if nothing was wrong.
“That’s inconvenient,” She said before fixing her jacket and casually opening the door to the car.
“The fuck are you doing?!” Nina snapped.
“Attribution spell,” Gretchen replied, and without another word stepped out of the car.
​
I watched her through the window as the Sheriff’s Boys took aim at her, and I could see the bullets hitting the bricks of the building behind her. I could see the way her body moved every time a bullet struck her.
​
But not a single mark appeared on her.
​
Looking over the seat, I saw that the same could not be said for the Sheriff’s Boys. Several of them now lay dead on the ground, while others clawed at their wounds, screaming in pain. Most of those still standing had stopped shooting and had paused, now regarding Gretchen with quiet horror, trying to make sense of the impossible thing that had just happened to them.
“Are we finished?” She asked, “Excellent! Now…”
​
The ground moved beneath her. I saw her dagger appear in her hand as she drew it violently across the throat of the nearest member of the Sheriff’s Boys. The other shrank back in fear, one mindlessly shooting at her. His bullet struck her in the head, and so his own skull burst in response.
​
Gretchen moved on to the next, moving the ground beneath his feet to bring him closer to her, and driving her knife into his stomach. One of the other Boys reached for his own dagger and lunged for her, driving it into her back. He screamed in pain as the wound appeared on him instead and Gretchen just calmly turned around and sank her fangs into his throat. With a flick of her wrist, the cobblestones in the road were torn up, bombarding the remaining Sheriff’s Boys who tried to flee in a blind panic, only to find themselves downrange of Nina as she got out of the car, and unleashed burning hell upon them with every pull of her trigger.
​
Gretchen pulled the screaming man closer, her mouth wet with his blood. Then, as he gurgled and choked she tossed him back to the ground.
“Inadequate,” She said, taking a handkerchief out of her coat and daintily wiping her mouth with it, “Very poor quality.”
​
Dom and I got out of the car next.
“We’ve still got a few blocks to Calhoun’s place,” He said. “We should move, now!”
Before Nina could respond to that, more gunshots rang out from down the street.
​
“Listen up, Boys, we have four high priority targets on the streets of Parsons right now!” Kevin announced, “Get out there and start shooting, and for whoever brings me the head of the blonde one… I’ll make it worth your while. Happy hunting, Boys!”
​
As the Sheriff’s Boys shot at us, Nina took off toward the nearest building, gesturing for the rest of us to follow her. Dom and I started running immediately, but Gretchen held back. I saw her eyes drift toward one of the nearby buildings. She focused on it for a moment, before reaching out, curling her fingers as if she were grabbing hold of something. I saw the building move. I saw the brick starting to crack. She seemed to pull at it, gritting her teeth as she did. The building buckled slightly and Gretchen finally let it go, allowing gravity to do the rest of the work as she ran to follow us.
​
Nina paused, looking back as the building collapsed down onto the oncoming Sheriff’s Boys, and blocking off the rest of the street. I saw her struggling not to look impressed as she traded a look with Gretchen.
“So you could just do that the whole time, and you still let the Rosen Prince out?” She asked.
Gretchen just sighed and shook her head, as we disappeared into the building.
​
Once upon a time, I think the building we were in used to be a cafe. Now it was silent and empty. Dom pulled ahead of Nina as we made our way through.
“If we can get over to the next street, I think we can get back on track,” He said. “That should be Parsons main street.”
“Great, think we can collapse any more buildings to make it easier?” Nina asked.
“I can try,” Gretchen said, “Although if you must know, that isn’t exactly easy for me. It’s not an ability that comes naturally and I’ve never used it on this kind of scale before.”
“Well, you’re gonna learn,” Nina said with a shrug as we went out back through the kitchen. Dom led us through a back door, into an alley filled with dumpsters and drainage pipes.
​
“This way,” He said, gesturing for us to follow. Up ahead, through another alley leading to one of the streets, I could see one of the Sheriff’s Boys rounding the corner. He froze at the sight of us and raised his rifle, but Dom shot first. The sparks caught on his clothes, making him stagger back although he didn’t fall. An open flame had caught on his sleeve, leaving him screaming and swatting frantically at it before Dom fired again, sending him tumbling to the ground.
​
I saw two more of his buddies rounding the corner to investigate. The first one took an entire barrel of flaming shotgun pellets to the face, courtesy of Nina. He was dead before he’d even finished rounding the corner. The other one made the mistake of turning to look at his dead companion and was blown away as well.
"Well… good news, it’s just these assholes we have to deal with,” Nina said as we went back into the alley. “Kinda nice, for a change!”
​
We cut through the alley, making it back out onto the street. I could see some more of the Sheriff’s Boys, although they took care of themselves by shooting at Gretchen as we dove back into cover.
“We’re not done just yet,” She warned, irritably fixing her coat again. “Let’s go.”
​
“So you’ve come, in defiance of everything I’ve done to stop you?” A calm voice asked through the speakers. I recognized this one as Calhoun’s. “I have been kind. I have been patient… I let you take Puriysk and when you were done, I pushed you to leave. But you don’t respond to kindness, do you? No. You need a firmer hand and you leave me with few other choices…”
​
The street we were on grew darker, and all of us paused, looking up toward the sky. We watched as the sun… or whatever it was in this world that we called the sun, began to change. It seemed to flicker around the edges, the flickering growing more and more violent, like a candle about to go out. A shadow seemed to bleed in from the outside as the sun faded away, dissolving into a darkening sky until nothing was left and shrouding the street around us in darkness.
“Well that’s not good,” Nina said, looking up at where the sun used to be.
​
Almost like a comedic afterthought, the lanterns on the street flickered to life, casting a dull electronic glow on us.
“Attention, attention! All members of the Sheriff’s Boys get to cover, immediately!” Kevin said over the PA, “I repeat, all members of the Sheriff’s Boys get to cover immediately!”
​
Nobody needed to say it out loud, we all knew that we needed to run.
​
We took off down the street, guns at the ready as we made our final push to Calhoun’s house. Up ahead, I could see several of the Sheriff’s Boys ushering more of their buddies out of one of the alleys. I noticed one of them glancing in our direction, although nobody gave them the opportunity to start shooting. The one who’d looked at us was hit dead on by burning shotgun shells, screaming as he caught fire. I saw some of his friends jump back and heard one yell:
“GET DOWN!”
​
It didn’t do a hell of a lot of good. Nina and Dom cut ahead of us, firing at the fleeing Sheriff’s Boys, although once they noticed they had no intention of shooting back at us, they left them alone and kept on running.
​
Calhoun’s house was just up ahead, I could see it now. The twisted, impossible architecture looked almost as if it were ensnared by roots or vines, although they seemed to be part of the stone and not actually part of some plant.
“Just up ahead…” Dom said, cutting ahead of the pack a little, although when the gunfire started again, he went crashing to the ground, diving for cover behind the stone stairs of one of the nearby buildings. I think he might have sworn, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of gunfire. I noticed him pressing a hand to his shoulder and dove down by the stairs to join him.
​
“Are you alright?” I asked, trying to get a look at the wound.
“I-I’m fine, just a graze…” He stammered, before peeking out over the stairs to see Gretchen standing between us and the Sheriff’s Boys, trying her damndest to hold them off.
I saw Nina just up ahead, taking advantage of Gretchen’s distraction to get around them. I could see the flash as she unloaded her shotgun at the unseen gunmen. I counted about six of them, taking refuge on the other side of the street. One was struck by a cobblestone Gretchen had pulled up and knocked out into the open, only to be set alight by a blast from Nina’s gun. Another was trying to get around Gretchen, and I raised my .22 to take aim at him.
​
Taking a deep breath, I pulled the trigger. My first few shots missed, but the third or fourth caught him in the stomach, sending him down to the ground. He tried to stand and I aimed down the sight, squeezing the trigger two more times. I know that at least one of them hit. I saw him press a hand to his neck, as he collapsed onto his side and even through the darkness I could see his eyes burning into mine.
​
Those eyes… I knew I’d never forget them.
​
Nina kept shooting, pushing the Sheriff’s Boys back the way they came. Her gun clicked, and I saw her reach for the pistol she kept and shoot with that instead. I saw one man fall, while the others retreated into an alley between the buildings.
"Get up!" I urged, Dom. “We’re almost there!”
​
I pulled him to his feet, keeping my gun trained on the alley the Sheriff’s Boys had run into as if I knew what I was doing. He found his legs quickly as we made our way to the gates of Calhoun’s house and into his courtyard.
​
The courtyard was lush and overgrown with greenery. With the right hands, it could have been a beautiful garden, but instead, Calhoun had allowed weeds and vines to grow rampant instead. Even the fountain near the center was almost overflowing with vines and the water from it only flowed at a pathetic trickle.
​
Nina looked back anxiously out onto the street, before looking ahead to Calhoun’s house. I imagine it was just as much of an eyesore to her as it was to me.
“You’re wounded,” Gretchen said, coming to Dom’s side.
“Just a graze,” He assured her, “Honestly considering how many people were shooting at us, I think we’re lucky that’s all we got!”
​
Gretchen ignored him to examine the wound instead, although stopped fussing once she saw that it really was just a graze.
“Listen up, Boys! If you’re not in cover, find it now! We’ve got reports of Nightwalkers in the lower districts! We’re sending in heavy armor! Get off the streets, now!” Kevin said over the PA.
“Welp, you heard the man,” Nina said. She took the magazine out of her shotgun and replaced it with a spare before heading toward the house although she paused when she saw what else was looming in front of her.
​
We saw the eye first. The sigil of a single, crimson eye burning through the darkness. Then we saw the beast, lumbering out of the shadows. Its body was massive and thick with muscle. Its head was pale and emaciated, with sunken beady eyes and a lipless mouth lined with jagged teeth. Atop its head were jutting elk horns, overgrown with moss and weeds. The sigil burned bright on its forehead and marked it as Calhoun’s final emissary.
​
“Yup… that seems just about right,” Nina said with a sigh as the Horned Nightwalker lumbered toward her. She raised her shotgun and got off only a few shots before it hit her, launching her across the courtyard and sending her to the ground in a tangled heap.
​
Dom was up next, shooting at it as it came for us, although before it could get close, the ground beneath it shifted, bringing it closer to Gretchen. The Nightwalker almost fell but recovered quickly. It brought one massive hand down on the spot where she’d been just a few moments before, as the shifting ground moved her away from it and closer to the fountain. Gretchen gestured with her hand, pulling the water out of the fountain and forming it into a jagged shard of ice. With a flick of her wrist, that ice pierced the chest of the Nightwalker, earning a cry of frustration from it.
​
Nina had stumbled to her feet again and was taking aim at the Nightwalker, firing round after round at it. It tried to shield its face as the moss on its body was set alight. Despite the flames, the Nightwalker hardly seemed phased. Even as Gretchen impaled it on another spear of ice, it only struggled to get free, either unwilling or unable to die.
​
“Must I do this for all of your pawns, Calhoun?” Gretchen growled, reaching for the revolver in her coat, she took a step back to aim it, although before she could fire, something lunged at her from the shadows, knocking her off her feet. The revolver skidded out of her hands, landing near the fountain.
​
In the low light, I watched as Gretchen tried to fight off the thing that had landed on her. It looked almost like a lion or a tiger, although the face was all wrong and the mouth was too wide. I saw it clawing at her, before leaping back suddenly as the gashes appeared on its own stomach. The Tiger Nightwalker hissed, glaring at Gretchen before noticing Nina taking aim at it. It had just enough time to give one last roar before she shot it, engulfing it in flames and sending it tearing away at top speed, although it didn’t seem to make it far before it was on the ground, screaming and rolling to try and get the fire out.
​
Gretchen tried to crawl toward the gun, reaching a hand out to beckon it closer to her. I saw the gun move about an inch before the Horned Nightwalker came for her.
​
Its fist came down hard on her leg, hard enough that it should have broken it. Although instead, I saw the Nightwalker’s leg bend violently. It screamed in pain, sliding down further along the spear of ice Gretchen had impaled it with, before grabbing her by the leg and hurling her across the courtyard. She hit the ground hard, and let out a cry of genuine pain before trying to pick herself up.
“Valentine… the Gun!” She gasped.
​
I saw Nina make a mad dash for the revolver, as inhuman cries sounded all around us. I could see other Nightwalkers coming. One that looked like a gray, naked man sprinted toward Dom and I. Dom blew it away with a blast from his shotgun.
​
Nina almost made it to the revolver, just as the Horned Nightwalker broke free of the ice spear. It swept its fist, knocking Nina forward and over the fountain, before lumbering toward her.
​
Dom was busy with the Nightwalkers, and I could see the revolver. I ran for it, grabbing it off the ground and taking aim at the Horned Nightwalker as it advanced on Nina. I took aim, just about to pull the trigger when from the corner of my eye, I saw headlights shining into the courtyard as a truck sped in.
“Let’s see you assholes live through this!” A voice on a megaphone called out from inside.
​
Kevin.
​
I noticed something on top of the truck, and only had half a second to move once I realized what it was. There was some kind of gun on top of that truck.
​
It had started shooting before I dove behind the fountain. I saw Dom stumble back, running for cover as well. Over the megaphone, I could hear Kevin laughing.
​
The truck circled the fountain, only barely missing the Horned Nightwalker, who ignored it in favor of chasing Nina. I watched as Nina leaped into the fountain itself and ducked low, trying to keep herself from being shot and crushed by two different problems.
​
On the far side of the courtyard, Gretchen was on her feet again. I heard the scrape of the earth as she moved the ground underneath the truck, causing it to fishtail. The rear end of it slammed against the fountain. I saw whoever was manning the gun at the top of the truck slam against their gun, before hastily righting themselves. They looked at Gretchen, who stared them down knowingly and waited for them to open fire.
​
It went about as well as one might have expected.
​
He pulled the trigger, unleashing a hail of bullets onto her and as he did, I saw his body torn apart by the impact.
“JESUS CHRIST!” I heard Kevin say from inside as the truck's tires squealed and the driver tried to move it again.
​
I looked over at Nina and saw her still in the fountain, trying to use the lovingly sculpted tiers, overgrown with vines to keep the Horned Nightwalker from getting to her. It just smashed them without a second thought and shrugged off the idle blasts from her shotgun that she fired to try and cover her retreat as she scrambled out of the fountain again. Dom was running to Nina’s side, trying to distract it and cover her escape.
​
I raised the revolver, taking aim at the Nightwalker again, before noticing that the space around me had suddenly grown a lot brighter. I turned to see Kevin’s truck racing toward me and tried to hastily stumble out of the way.
​
I wasn’t fast enough. The truck clipped me, sending me to the ground. The revolver slipped out of my hand, landing in some of the nearby vines. My ears rang and white hot pain erupted through my body as I tried to convince my body to move. I looked up toward the truck, to see it skidding to a halt and I saw somebody pushing the dead man out of the gunner's seat. Somebody new replaced him, and though I could only barely see his face, I already knew who it was.
​
Kevin.
​
He took aim at me, and I stared down the barrel of his gun, waiting for him to fire. But before he could, something gangly and luminous leaped onto the back of his truck, clawing frantically to climb up and reach him. Kevin jerked the gun around, eyes widening in horror as he came face to face with the Rosen Prince.
​
Unfortunately, he had the good sense to start shooting.
​
The familiar scream of the Rosen echoed through the courtyard. I looked over toward the gate to see countless more, just like the one Kevin was trying to kill pouring in and climbing the fence. I saw a few of them sprint across the courtyard, leaping onto the Horned Nightwalker, and unleashing their shimmering spores onto it.
​
I reached for the cluster of vines I’d seen the revolver fall into, only to feel Gretchen’s hand gripping the back of my shirt and pulling me to my feet.
“The gun!” I cried, trying to gesture to where it was.
“No time,” She replied, before putting her hand on the fountain.
​
I felt the ground shift beneath us as the entire fountain rotated, bringing us closer to the door. The Horned Nightwalker clawed at the Rosen upon its back, and I could see Kevin had become more preoccupied shooting at the newcomers, as opposed to shooting at us. Nina and Dom were already running for the door.
“Just fucking go!” Nina yelled, waving us inside.
​
Gretchen and I turned, running up the steps and toward the twisted door ahead of us. I was the first there. My hand closed around the doorknob and I threw it open and barreled inside. Once the others were through, I slammed it shut.
​
As soon as it was closed, I watched Gretchen take her knife from her coat. She hastily cut open her palm and marked a sigil on the door in her own blood.
“This should keep them out for a while,” She said, “But I’d suggest we conclude our business here quickly,”

They never wanted you, I was so unlucky that I was the one they dumped you with. You're lucky this is all you get. You should have seen what I had to go through as a kid. You should be grateful for what we do for you. No one else will ever love you. No one else will ever care about you.
I am on a tightrope, a smile beaming brightly on my face. I stare straight ahead, walking slow, steady, I do not dare to look down. I'm almost at the end, I've almost made it. I fall.
Have you heard the saying, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? It was my un-mother's favorite.
Hard day at school? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Didn't get picked on the sport team you wanted? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
You don't like it when I put you in an ice bath and make you stand outside, naked and dripping wet, while the snow falls? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
It was early, before the sun had even risen, when I was woken up by the phone ringing. I let out a bleary hello, and got nothing but the sound of manic laughter in return. And then the line went dead.
Annoyed at being woken up by some prankster asshole who obviously had nothing better to do, I tried hard to get back to sleep but after a while I gave up, and got up for the day. I had a work meeting at 9, and then a dinner date with a girl I'd been seeing for a while. It was starting to get serious, and I was pretty nervous. I'd never had a proper girlfriend. Never knew I would be able to get one.
But Rose is great, she's sweet, affectionate, everything you could want in a partner. I just hope that I don't do anything to mess it up. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me. At work, I get another call. This time on my mobile, the screen flashing 'private number'. I answer and then silence, I'm about to hang up when I hear what sounds like a childs voice. It whispers something ineligible, I can't quite hear or understand.
A moment passes, more silence. And then sobbing, heavy, wet gulps. "She's coming for me, she's coming for me. Please, I'm sorry. She's coming and I can't stop her. I should have stopped her." I recognize the voice. It's.. It is my own voice. "What.. Who, who is this?" I myself whisper, my brain trying to process what's going on. The line goes dead.
I leave work early, feigning a headache. My eyes are red rimmed and I must look utterly exhausted, because my boss agrees without another word and tells me to rest up. When she learns about my fake headache,that she doesn't actually know is fake, Rose tells me she will bring the dinner to me. To rest up. She will look after me.
I don't tell her about the phone calls. How could I? What would I even say? Instead she tells me about the ancestory DNA kit her and her whole family had just done. She said it was amazing how many people she was related to, from all over the world. I was paying attention as best I could, my mind still wandering back to the mysterious phone call. It had to be a prankster. That's the only Logical explanation.
Rose tucks me into bed, and kisses my forehead when she leaves. She smells like vanilla slice. I fall asleep with a smile on my face.
I am not woken by the phone, I sleep peacefully until my alarm rings. Today is a new day, a better day. I dont notice the drawing on the kitchen bench until I'm about to head out the door. It's a child's drawing, a crudely drawn picture of what looks to be a kind of purple devil thing, orange steam coming out of its ears and a million sharp teeth in it's head. It's bizarre, and more than a little creepy. I have no kids. Rose has no kids, there are no children that I know, let alone ones that would sneak into my locked home to place a picture on my table. Seeing the drawing brings back a memory, and makes me feel nauseated.
I sit on the cold tiles in my kitchen, drawing in hand as I recall me as a child, un-mother had made me sit for hours, hours and hours, on a small child's sette. Being 8, I was barely able to squeeze my legs under the plastic table, and they were without feeling after half an hour. She made me draw whatever she said. If it wasn't good enough, and most of them weren't up to her standards, she made me scrunch up my drawing, and eat it.
She sent me to bed without dinner, because my tummy was already full from the half exercise book I'd had to chew and swallow over the day. I heard her laughing happily with glee later on that night as I lay awake on the mattress I had on the floor, my belly hurting but I dare not get up to use the toilet. Once I was in bed, I had to stay no matter what.
I hated listening her, and how happy she was. It was as if she was deliriously happy after she had won a battle, a battle that I didn't even want to play in.
I told no one about the drawing. It was worse than the phone call. I couldn’t convince myself that somehow someone had broken in to leave me a weird drawing, let alone would I try and convince others.
I didn’t chuck the drawing either though, for some reason it didn’t feel right. I tucked it away in my sock draw, I’d decide what to do with it later. When my phone rings from a private number, I don’t answer it. I just watch as it rings and rings, and then I turn off my phone.
There was a parcel waiting on my door step when I got home. I wondered if Rose had dropped of some sort of care package, that was just the type of person she was. Kind and thoughtful. But it wasn’t a care package, not in the slightest.
I pulled out an a4 album, a weathered a worn photo album I remembered vividly from childhood. I dropped it as a reaction, as if it burnt my hands just to hold it. I wasn’t allowed to. There were many, many rules. But this was one of the greater ones. You never, ever, ever touch un-mothers belongings. Especially never touch her special albums.
But I wasn’t a kid anymore. I wasn’t going to be scared of punishment, of not being allowed to do something. It was me, all of the photos were of me. But they weren’t the family photos you’d expect to see in photo frames adorning the walls of loving family homes. I am only two pages in before I’m throwing up. Bile pours out of my mouth as tears roll down my face. I always knew she wasn’t.. Right. That there was something fundamentally wrong with her. But this photo album proved I knew absolutely nothing about the type of evil she was. I think about taking the album to the police station. But I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I burn it in my firepit. Trying to not think about where the other copies of those photos had ended up.
It doesn’t occur to me to think who could have possibly sent it, not at that moment anyway. Later on, I glanced at the box it had been delivered in, and found it had no return address, not that I was surprised.
I throw my phone in the river. I tell my boss, I tell rose, that I lost it somewhere. I would get a new number. I would forget about the album and sick photos, I would, as I had been doing for so many years, forget the past again. But it seemed like the past did not want to forget me.
A text message, from an unknown number. My gut churned as it came onto my phone screen. “278 (redacted) road, (redacted).” That was it. Just an address. I didn’t want to go. I told myself it was silly. To just forget. But without even knowing what I was doing, soon enough I was in my car, the GPS giving me directions to my destination. Decrepit, that was one way to describe the home I had pulled up outside of.
Dirty sheets were hung in the windows in place of curtains, trash piled up in mounds filling the front yard with an unmistakable whiff of putrid rotting food. I went to knock on the door, but it was unlocked, and as I pressed my hand against it, the door swung open, revealing an even worse odor inside.
Newspapers, rubbish, cat shit lined the floor way, what you could see though the piles of junk, anyway. I felt sick. Dizzy. And then I heard her voice. It was a moan, not words. A groan of pain, of exhaustion. I followed the sounds, and there she was. Sprawled out on a stained couch, fat spilling over from her track pants, sweat drains and God knows what stains dribbled down her t shirt. “Hello, un-mother.”
The pain had got to much. “It hurts. It hurts so much. I can’t go on like this. Put me out or my misery. You owe me.” She couldn't move without pain flashing across her face, beads of sweat dripped as she used all her effort to pick up and sip a mug of water. I watched in disgust, and without pity.
She was withered, half the woman she used to be. Or perhaps that was because now I was grown. I wasn't the tiny, malnourished kid I once had been. I was a man now. Tall. Proud. And thanks to her, strong. I look down at the creature before me, pathetic whimpering coming from its mouth. Sub-human. That's what she had always said, about me. But I could see it now, it was her that was sub-human, and it always had been.
Her eyes were cloudy, skin sallow, sagging. She was skin and bones, making clicking noises when she moved an inch or coughed. Even her hands shook ferociously as she tried to wipe non existent tears from her eyes. "Do it." her voice, sounded like nails on a chalk board to me, making me wince. The sound is raspy, desperate, pleading. "Kill me. Put me out of this goddamn misery."
I am listening to her, but not really. I'm remembering begging, pleading, crying. The time I did get hyperthermia. Or the time my throat got so burnt with the diluted bleach she made me drink, I couldn't eat solid food for 3 weeks.
I remember what she always said. I give her a broad smile, as I deliver the last message she will ever hear from me, and most likely anyone. She was never one for having many friends, and it didn't look like that had changed any. I predict her dying here alone, slowly, but surely. She wanted me to end her life, said she had a month or so left before the cancer took her anyway.
She is right. I do owe her. I say. "No one ever loved me like you did, un-mother. No one ever will." And every day, I thank a God that I don't particularly belive infor that. “Remember what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? Mmhmm. Well, I’m too strong to let you take a cowards way out, un-mother. Terminal cancer or not, remember your own wisdom now. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. I’ll come back in a few weeks and check how strong you are then. Goodbye, un-mother. You take care now.” Without another word, I leave, closing the door softly behind me. Her frail wails dissapating the further I get towards the sunshine, towards my life.
When I get home, there's a box wrapped in ribbon sitting on the kitchen bench. It has a card with my name. Curiously, and knowing I hadn't brought anything online lately, I open the box, and find it's a map and a letter. My smile fades, as I begin to read. Now things make sense, in a way. The little voice on the phone.. The drawing.. A big brother trying to make his presence known, trying to tell me I wasn't alone in all of this.
I wish I had known this before. I wish I could have asked my un-mother, what exactly had happened to the son she gave birth to 4 years before me?
Little Robbie Klien. The brother I had never met, the brother I never even knew existed. But once upon a time, he had, there had been a little boy called robbie who came into this world with the awful luck of being born to our un-mother. I hoped I had done him proud.
"I know you really hate surprises, but I just thought it was such a cool idea.. And I mean, you don't need to do anything, if you don't want to. There's no rule book that says you need to contact your long lost family." I smile, surpressing a little laugh at Rose's words. I can tell she's anxious, worrying about how her ancestory DNA gift would go down. I have never told her about un-mother, about what happened when I was a kid. Some memories are better left forgotten, buried with the devils that made them. "Its perfect, Rosie. Just like you."

Context: Training for a 10k end of May…. I started with C25k 3 weeks ago and moved over to 5k program on NRC after my trial ran out lol. But anyways I found that I am more motivated on NRC as I already ran 5k race once just for fun… i had to walk a bit on the last mile but was able to complete it 13:00 pace.
I just did one of the long run on NRC which is 5k and I was able to complete it without walking.. which is a huge improvement for me. I was purposely running slower to keep my HR down to zone 2 but at 13:00+ pace its almost fast walking pace…
I really want to take advantage of zone 2 fat burn but that means I would essentially “walk” how do I achieve this but also not holding myself back from getting faster for my pace?