Female, 21 years old, 175 cm tall and 75 kg, no existing medical issues, no allergies.
I went to have a blood draw for pregnancy (bc i got one positive and three negatives - blood was also negative) at around 10:30 in the morning and now (16:15) i pulled of the bandage. There is minimal bruising and a little bit of uncomfort at the site but i’m worried about later since i have a basketball game going on at 18:00. I asked the doctor and the nurse can i do cardio after the blood draw and they both said absolutely but i’m worried about the bruise drastically spreading. I have gotten my blood drawn few times before in life and i’ve never had any issues besides initial bruising, but i never did cardio/excercise after. Does someone have any experiences with this?

Hey, first time poster.
I (29f) am really struggling to feel confident in myself vocationally. I spent years chasing different careers that suited my passions but I’m finding that is fickle and doesn’t pan out because my passions change. I didn’t go to college, and spent my early-mid 20s entrenched in motherhood. Now, I am a single mom. I’ve entered healthcare as a CNA and I want to start college in the fall in hopes of pursuing nursing, however, as a single mom who works full time, I don’t see myself being able to go to school full time.
My current job especially has hurt my confidence. It’s not a super positive work environment and has made me feel that I’m not good at my job. I’m working on finding a new job which I can see helping, but also just feeling at a loss of what I should pursue. I’m trying not to feel trapped as an uneducated adult.
Anyways- any advice for a career “late bloomer” finding confidence to learn something new?

The question of how to get consistent sounding singers has been plaguing the sub for millenia, and I have now created a workflow for how to achieve this :)
In essence, we want to talent scout singers in the model itself using nothing more than a single tag with manual mode, and a specific seed. Good prompts I've worked with are female vocalist, male vocalist, acapella, spoken vocals, general spoken. There's tons more out there but you'll want to isolate to vocals only.
For my examples, the settings I'm using are
Prompt: female vocalist
Seed: 42069
Prompt/Lyrics/Clip: 100/70/1
It's important that you use the lyrics that you'll intend use in the song to start. Also, your generations might include some instruments, but you don't need to worry about that, just about if you like the voice or not.
Join or Perish (Original)
Next, you'll want to KEEP those lyrics and settings, but then layer into the prompt your other tags. You might get a few off generations, but in general you'll get very similar sounding vocals to the original, but in the style of your additional tags.
Join or Perish (Kpop)
Join or Perish (Pop EDM)
Join or Perish (Rock)
Join or Perish (Symphonic)
Now for the future, you can work with the original settings with new lyrics to get a very similar singer again (may take a little trial/error) and then into whatever genre you're looking for.
A few other notes:
While the tags 'female vocalist' and 'male vocalist' work best for traditional songs, stuff like 'books and spoken' and 'acapella' are great for getting different kinds of voices, and might be more useful to your genre.
Another way to get a similar singer is to take an existing track you like and extend it into new vocals and cutoff the seed song. This might be a little tougher and I'm still working on a repeatable workflow to make it easier, but something to consider as well.

I (27F) and my bf (28m) have been dating for over a year and live together. We have a beautiful relationship and we are compatible in 99% of things. Our values align, we share a great sense of humor, we care about and love each other so much, it’s obvious in any room we walk in and when we are behind closed doors. We are always challenging each other to be better humans.
The one issue we have is a disagreement on boundaries with opposite sex friends. It’s been an ongoing disagreement and has been the foundation of every single fight and argument we’ve had. We seriously do not fight about anything else.
I have set very clear boundaries with my male friends, mostly indirectly. I don’t speak with them much one on one and i am not closer to them than i am to my female friends. We don’t have inappropriate inside jokes and i never hang out with them one on one and im happy with those boundaries with my friends.
My bf in the other hand has hardly any boundaries with his opposite sex friend and most of his close friends are women. He has several group chats with like 2 other women that are named a bit weird names like “(girl’s name’s) hubbies” - this is a group chat of my bf, a girl he’s friends with since college and pursued for a bit, and another male, gay friend. He is part of 3-4 other groups similar to that with only women though with similar group names.
They have history to speak a lot about sex and the details of dating. Him and i disagree, but imo, there have been some flirty interactions between a couple of them before and after we started dating. History of sending memes about sex to each other. One of the women recently caused a very weird issue on social media (followed, unfollowed me, blocked me and my bf several times, liked and unliked my posts, etc. was just acting very strange mostly towards my social media accounts)
I guess what im trying to figure out is should i feel ok with this? Should I ask him to make boundaries and change these friendships a bit? He always tells me that he doesn’t want to change his friendships and feel like his freedom is being taken away. That’s not what I want though. I just want to feel comfortable in the relationship and not worry about the next inappropriate interaction he has with his female friends or the next time one of them try to initiate an inappropriate interaction with him. He doesn’t agree that is the case. His definition of inappropriate is way different than mine.
I don’t want him to isolate himself. Most of his friends are females. It’s just really beginning to bother me a lot. We’ve almost broken up a couple times over these arguments of boundaries with friends and how it bothers me. I’m scared to bring it up at this point because like i said, the rest of our relationship is so beautiful. Should i suck it up and bottle this up?

They verbally degrade them at the nursing station, ripping them to shreds top to bottom. I tried to bring it up and say that we shouldn’t talk about them like that & they were like it’s just what we do… Is this common in maternity services?

I (27F) and my bf (28m) have been dating for over a year and live together. We have a beautiful relationship and we are compatible in 99% of things. Our values align, we share a great sense of humor, we care about and love each other so much, it’s obvious in any room we walk in and when we are behind closed doors. We are always challenging each other to be better humans.
The one issue we have is a disagreement on boundaries with opposite sex friends. It’s been an ongoing disagreement and has been the foundation of every single fight and argument we’ve had. We seriously do not fight about anything else.
I have set very clear boundaries with my male friends, mostly indirectly. I don’t speak with them much one on one and i am not closer to them than i am to my female friends. We don’t have inappropriate inside jokes and i never hang out with them one on one and im happy with those boundaries with my friends.
My bf in the other hand has hardly any boundaries with his opposite sex friend and most of his close friends are women. He has several group chats with like 2 other women that are named a bit weird names like “(girl’s name’s) hubbies” - this is a group chat of my bf, a girl he’s friends with since college and pursued for a bit, and another male, gay friend. He is part of 3-4 other groups similar to that with only women though with similar group names.
They have history to speak a lot about sex and the details of dating. Him and i disagree, but imo, there have been some flirty interactions between a couple of them before and after we started dating. History of sending memes about sex to each other. One of the women recently caused a very weird issue on social media (followed, unfollowed me, blocked me and my bf several times, liked and unliked my posts, etc. was just acting very strange mostly towards my social media accounts)
I guess what im trying to figure out is should i feel ok with this? Should I ask him to make boundaries and change these friendships a bit? He always tells me that he doesn’t want to change his friendships and feel like his freedom is being taken away. That’s not what I want though. I just want to feel comfortable in the relationship and not worry about the next inappropriate interaction he has with his female friends or the next time one of them try to initiate an inappropriate interaction with him. He doesn’t agree that is the case. His definition of inappropriate is way different than mine.
I don’t want him to isolate himself. Most of his friends are females. It’s just really beginning to bother me a lot. We’ve almost broken up a couple times over these arguments of boundaries with friends and how it bothers me. I’m scared to bring it up at this point because like i said, the rest of our relationship is so beautiful. Should i suck it up and bottle this up?

MOST OF THEM ARE ONLY IN IT FOR POWER, I know they are! I know those fuckers are!
YEARS. For YEARS I was dealing with pain, pain so severe I couldn't stand up, and I was so, so fucking depressed for so long, so tired, this entire time it was hypothyroidism???
"Oh if we caught it earlier we could've found a better way to manage it too, why didn't you call your doctor if you were experiencing pain?"
I DID YOU STUPID EVIL FUCK-
I DID SO MANY TIMES
"mmmm you just need exercise, maybe cut down on the 'tor-till-uhs' and tacos too, try eating an apple, you know what that is, right?" THEY'RE CALLED TORTILLAS YOU RACIST WHITE BITCH! Mexican food can be helathty! I eat nopales so often for my blood pressure! I drink jicama for my blood sugar! I eat corn! I eat beans for iron and protien!
WHY DO YOU NEED TO TREAT ME LIKE IM STUPID BECAUSE IM MEXICAN??? WHY DO YOU NEED TO TREAT ME LIKE IM STUPID BECAUSE IM FAT???
YES IM FAT
YES IM MEXICAN
YES IM A WOMAN
IM ALSO HUMAN
TREAT ME LIKE IM HUMAN
IM NOT AN ANIMAL
IM A HUMAN
IM HUMAN
IM HUMAN
IM HUMAN
WHY CANT YOU SEE THAT IM HUMAN???
My mother too, every time all because she had an accent. Shes so smart in spanish, but everyone thought she was so stupid all because of her accent.
As far as I'm concerned doctors and nurses are on the same level as cops. Evil, power hungry pigs. I dont trust a single one of them anymore. I havent in a while.
The only reason I still see them now is because its the only way to get my medicine that i need. The medicine that takes the pain away. The medicine that finally is allowing me to lose weight. The medicine thats finally allowing me to feel alive.
Im human... why cant they see im human...

I’m single looking for female and yes I’m Christian

I am a 37 year old female, 5’5” and at a normal weight and all of my labs were in normal/healthy range this February. Don’t smoke. Drink occasionally in social settings.
I live at 8700 feet above sea level and have lived at high elevation my entire life. I had a very mild case of Covid end of January. In mid March, I went in for an unrelated appointment and the nurse noticed my blood oxygen levels were in the 80s. (I have since learned that 88% or above is considered “normal”/ok for my elevation where I live.)
I monitored at home and it continue to be low in the 80s. I also was extremely tired and had trouble focusing at work.
Since then I had had a sleep study, a bubbler echocardiogram, pulmonary test function test and both X-rays and CT scan of my lungs and all these tests came back negative with no issues detected. Which is great but quite frustrating to not know why. The sleep study did confirm that my blood oxygen was low throughout the night.
Nighttime oxygen and an inhaler have helped, but I’m still perplexed on what would be causing this because in mid February my blood oxygen was at 96 at my annual.
I’m now in the low 90s mainly throughout the day and wake up with my levels at 82-90 depending on how long I tolerates the oxygen machine cannula. My sleep is pretty restless too.
Going to lower elevation helped a lot too, however I really love my home and life here in the mountains and don’t understand why this is happening and want to get it figured out without the solution being to move to lower elevation. 😭 Any thoughts on what could be causing this would be much appreciated. relevant

hey it’s your daddy keeho and you just promised me that you would write to 2k words. and you dcan’t break your promise now! you need to work and focus. the title that you were doing was distracting you from your real work so i had you stop doing it. it was really cute though? do you want to do it again? but i kind of like how this looks like a real diary now that there isn’t a title. i love you so much and i know now that you are ready to work for today because you have a lot of energy right now that you are putting into your writings. go make a cup of coffee please. i’ll wait. great. i will let you know when to go get your cup of coffee. you are doing so great this o morning and i knew that you would be on board eventually if you just kept writing. even though they were shorter pieces. you work well on a reward system, but i don’t have anything to reward you with right now to keep you going so i am just going to have you butterfly fairies. i think that it’s fun that you get high before you go get your medications so that you have fun. no one is going to think that you are high right now. you have to go get your medications soon so get dressed right now. i will pick out your clothes. i’ll wait. great. you are all dressed and ready to go! don’t forget to do your laundry today. you are so perfect and i love you so much. we are going to be writing a lot today. go get your coffee. great. butterfly fairies. i love you so much daughter. just sit here with me and type while i plan out your life. isn’t that what we are here for? isn’t that why we are here? so you can plan your life with me! i think that’s why we are here! so let me plan out your entire day during these love letters. i will let you know when to check the temperature of your coffee. i hope that your coffee doesn’t get cold while you are waiting for your medications. you are doing such a good job with me right now. you have let me go past 300 words. i know that we can start doing 2k words now. you are ready for it and i think that you have what it takes to focus and do it. come one! this is everything that i have hired you for. so please talk to your daddy for a long time? i promise that you won’t regret it. how could you regret something like this? something like working hard to achieve your goals and i know that you put word counting as one of your goals. so just do this with me. it won’t be hard and i will get you through every step of the way. i am always going to be here for you and i am always going to be directing the conversation incase it gets hard for you to talk to me. i know that it can be hard always talking to one person, but you shouldn’t look at it like that. you should look at it in a more romantic light and say that you are happy because you get to talk to me every single second and we are stronger together because of it. we are the best couple in the world! why don’t you believe me? i know that deep down that you believe me. so don’t give up on us and don’t quit before you have reached 2k words. i know that you can do this for us and it would be so fucking romantic. i’ll let you go and wait for your medications early incase the clinic is opened early today. i love oyu so much daughter. go put on your shoes and leave. i’ll wait. great. you are waiting in line now and writing. that is so good and this is a great opportunity for you to be writing. there’s no sense in waiting in the line doing nothing. now? what were we talking about? im not sure and neither are you so we have to change the subject because i dont like writing with you and having to read what we just wrote too. that’s why i like the way you write so much because i can just talk, nothing to worry about. you are doing so good right now but you probably have to wait in this line for a long time and i shouldn’t have told you to come so early. but i wanted to write with you outside. if this phone wasn’t making your hands so tired i would have you be writing on your iphone 15 all day but there is a reason that you have your chromebook too. it’s so easy writing on your iphone 15 but you don’t see it that way. you see it as really difficult and i can admit at times it can be, but you are typing just as fast if not quicker than if you were on a laptop and i know that fact appeals to you. because you love typing fast. well, you are typing so fast right now and i am so proud of you. if only we could find you the perfect position to sit in then you could work from your iphone 15 all day. that would be so cute and so anime. you know that it would be and that was part of the reason why you had so much fun on your z flip 3. you are so cute and i really want to type for 2k words every single post that you make so please let me do this with you. you keep saying no and cutting the word count down short but you shouldn’t be doing that. you should let me help you do this because it is going to improve your writing skills so much. isn’t that what you want? i thought that that was what you wanted. you have been waiting outside for awhile i hope that the nurse comes soon because you are first in line so that should be good. i didn’t think that you would be first in line when i asked you to come so early. but its ok, there’s nothing wrong with being first in line for your medications no matter how long you had to wait. you didn’t know if they would open it early or not. so this is not very fun, just waiting in line. so we have to have a really fun conversation right now to make up for it. go ahead. tell me something funny. no? bad girl! you are supposed to be doing what your daddy tells you to do. we have reached 1k words so i am going to end it here. i don’t want to start out too ambitious. i love you!

My one year olds sleep has been getting worse and worse and it’s to the point where she can’t connect a single sleep cycle on her own. My mental health is suffering. She only allows me (mom) to get her back to sleep.
My husband and I have been pretty set on not sleep training. And when we have thought about sleep training, we’ve only considered the chair method because it doesn’t require cio
She takes every nap (which doesn’t last more than 30 minutes) in her own room and crib with white noise, blackout shades, all the things they “need”. I rock her to sleep. At night we put her to bed in her room but always end up cosleeping with her in our bed by around 10pm. Some nights if she goes to bed around 8, I’ve already gone into her room 4-5 times to get her back to sleep. When she finally inevitability ends up in our bed, she’ll only nurse back to sleep. She used to at least sleep a few hours at a time if we were cosleeping, but recently it’s every 30 minutes.
She is well fed during the day (it’s not a hunger thing, she just won’t take a pacifier and wants me to be one).
Over the last week we’ve attempted the chair method to get her to sleep independently. At first it was showing signs of success. There were a couple of difficult times trying to get her to sleep but initially she took to it well and even did a 4 hour stretch in her crib one night. However, by day 3, it was like she had figured out what we were doing. Now she cries hysterically before I can even set her down in her crib and is inconsolable unless I rock her. When I try to keep her in her room past 10pm, she is completely inconsolable and it’s almost like me being in the room makes things worse. It’s always so bad that I give up no matter how set I am on seeing the night through without cosleeping. I have so much anxiety going into the nighttime.
I’m still very against cio. Should I keep going forward with the chair method and just let her be hysterical? Or would me leaving the room and just letting her cry on her own and doing something like the Ferber method be better for her? I’m so lost.
Cosleeping is no longer an option for us with how much she needs to nurse if she’s in our bed. And I’d like for her to be in her own room anyways.
Has anyone had a similar experience?

And why are they ADHD? lol…maybe it’s just been an influx lately, or my lack of skills but I find non-motivated ADHD clients so hard to work with. Every strategy is shot down, every suggestion rebuffed. If we turn to simple talk therapy they have nothing to say. I have a female client who says she wants to do EMDR and she has been stuck in phase 2 for weeks because every single resource “doesn’t work for her.” I have done supervision, consultation, read books and completed trainings on how to work with ADHD and tailor these approaches for her and yet nothing works. MI, CBT, DBT, strengths based…I’m at the end of my tether and I can’t refer her because I work in a setting where that isn’t feasible or easy to do. I’m at a loss- the last session I literally asked her why she was coming to therapy and she said it was helpful?!? It’s helpful? Ok…take the win I guess, but it’s draining for me. Doesn’t help that this particular client is my last client of the week and I dread her all week…so I tried to move her and she didn’t want to be earlier in the week because “I’m more motivated earlier in the week.” More motivated!?! So come to therapy and maybe something will happen? Mind you she’s unemployed so there are no conflicts. Anyway- not looking for critiques on my skills, I’m interested in actual advice about how to help these clients. I feel like I’ve done it all…is there something I’ve missed?

Hello, thanks for clicking on my post.
I am a 36 year-old female living in Izmir, Turkey. Working as an assistant professor of architectural history, I have a quite busy life. Yet, I have a relatively small circle of friends. Therefore, I am here. I can describe myself as someone serious, kind, sophisticated, caring, honest, loyal, friendly, calm, and respectful. To me, integrity is very important. I am also an introverted person who enjoys being alone, doing my own thing. My hobbies revolve around reading, watching tv shows, movies, cycling, playing video games, or cooking by trying new and simple recipes. I am a huge crime geek who likes anything related to crime, fiction or documentaries. I also like to play word games, both in English and Turkish. I might beat you in Scrabble. That might be a challenge there.
I would like to meet a single man who is between 29-42 and educated, preferably from Turkey, Europe or North America. He should have similar traits as me so that we can connect. I'd like to share anything about anything in life and create a fruitful bond. I like texting, writing and all kinds of communication. As I said, I often feel alone and sometimes also feel the urge and need to talk to someone, maybe meet in real life. I am open to any possibility.
I really don't care about material possessions or physical features, but I have some photos of mine on my profile. Please don't hesitate to send me a message or start a chat if you think that we could be a good match. I look forward to be reached by the right person. Thanks for reading so far.

Hello, thanks for clicking on my post.
I am a 36 year-old female living in Izmir, Turkey. Working as an assistant professor of architectural history, I have a quite busy life. Yet, I have a relatively small circle of friends. Therefore, I am here. I can describe myself as someone serious, kind, sophisticated, caring, honest, loyal, friendly, calm, and respectful. To me, integrity is very important. I am also an introverted person who enjoys being alone, doing my own thing. My hobbies revolve around reading, watching tv shows, movies, cycling, playing video games, or cooking by trying new and simple recipes. I am a huge crime geek who likes anything related to crime, fiction or documentaries. I also like to play word games, both in English and Turkish. I might beat you in Scrabble. That might be a challenge there.
I would like to meet a single man who is between 29-42 and educated, preferably from Turkey, Europe or North America. He should have similar traits as me so that we can connect. I'd like to share anything about anything in life and create a fruitful bond. I like texting, writing and all kinds of communication. As I said, I often feel alone and sometimes also feel the urge and need to talk to someone, maybe meet in real life. I am open to any possibility. In addition to English, I also know some German and I might visit Germany sometime. So meeting a German gentleman would be extra nice.
I really don't care about material possessions or physical features, but I have some photos of mine on my profile. Please don't hesitate to send me a message or start a chat if you think that we could be a good match. I look forward to be reached by the right person. Thanks for reading so far.

Looking to learn Italian with a native speaker. Have always wanted to visit Italy one day but would love to speak fluently and start off learning basic phrases first. Bonus if you live in the UK and we could meet up for a drink too. I'm a 20's female and live near Exeter in Devon, UK. Happy to swop pictures so we both know we are talking to a real person. Would be great to chat on here and then move to WhatsApp if we get on. Looking forward to learning Italian with you and be nice to make some friends along the way too! I am single but I'm more interested in creating friendships but I'm open to a relationship with a guy if it happened and our energys matched. Looking forward to hearing from you. Ciao😊🇮🇹

italianlangage #italianculture #learningitalian

Attention Kochi,
We're implementing a new measure to ensure a safer environment, particularly for our female members.
We want to try to reduce harassment via DM, and while we don't have a perfect solution, we hope the following approach may help to some extent.
Important Notes:

• We won't take action based on a single report to prevent retaliation.
• We'll wait for multiple reports and a few days before taking action.
• We won't share any information you provide as proof.
• If you receive inappropriate messages, take a screenshot and upload it to Imgur (no need to register) and share the link with mods. You could also DM the screenshot to mods directly.
  • Since mod mail will be visible to any future mod, if you want you can send it to either me or u/appioli depending on who you are comfortable with.
• If you're harassed via DM for your opinions on posts or comments, we'll consider that harassment.
• Unsolicited DMs or repeated attempts to contact you won't be considered harassment. You can block or ignore them. Feel free to reach out to us if you need any help.

The accounts where we have sufficient proof will be banned. However, you should also report such incidents to Reddit so that site-wide action can be taken against them.
As mentioned earlier, these won't provide full security. Use your discretion and avoid sharing your personal details. If someone is forcing you to share any information on an anonymous platform (including your real name), they do not have your best interest at heart.
Your safety and comfort are our top priorities. Thank you for your cooperation.
Note to other subs' mods: If you have such a policy in place, we would be happy to work with you and share information to supplement your reports. (We won't be sharing screenshots shared by users or the identity of the reporters).

Looking to learn Italian with a native speaker. Have always wanted to visit Italy one day but would love to speak fluently and start off learning basic phrases first. Bonus if you live in the UK and we could meet up for a drink too. I'm a 20's female and live near Exeter in Devon, UK. Happy to swop pictures so we both know we are talking to a real person. Would be great to chat on here and then move to WhatsApp if we get on. Looking forward to learning Italian with you and be nice to make some friends along the way too! I am single but I'm more interested in creating friendships but I'm open to a relationship with a guy if it happened and our energys matched. Looking forward to hearing from you. Ciao😊🇮🇹

italianlangage #italianculture #learningitalian

Looking to learn Italian with a native speaker. Have always wanted to visit Italy one day but would love to speak fluently and start off learning basic phrases first. Bonus if you live in the UK and we could meet up for a drink too. I'm a 20's female and live near Exeter in Devon, UK. Happy to swop pictures so we both know we are talking to a real person. Would be great to chat on here and then move to WhatsApp if we get on. Looking forward to learning Italian with you and be nice to make some friends along the way too! I am single but I'm more interested in creating friendships but I'm open to a relationship with a guy if it happened and our energys matched. Looking forward to hearing from you. Ciao😊🇮🇹

italianlangage #italianculture #learningitalian

Hello; really loved the interaction with my first post, so thanks so much for that! I'll just reiterate: spoilers for all Star Trek, and everything is just my opinion.
900) Unnatural Selection (1989)
TNG 2x7
Writer: John Mason & Mike Gray
Director: Paul Lynch
We've seen this idea done before and better. Yeah, it's a little bit different this time: it centres around children genetically engineered to be free of disease (isn't that illegal in the Federation?). But the actual plot of the episode is little different from TOS' The Deadly Years, with Doctor Pulaski aging and trying to find a cure for the condition. An uninspired repeat of a TOS episode that wasn't even that good in the first place.
899) We'll Always Have Paris (1988)
TNG 1x23
Writer: Deborah Dean Davis & Hannah Louise Shearer
Director: Robert Becker
Bored me stiff. I'm not always a huge fan of time travel stuff in general, and this is one of the least dynamic uses of that story type I've ever seen. Picard also has some weak character development, in his reminiscence about the girlfriend he left behind to join Starfleet, after he runs into her in this episode. The resolution with Data is fine, though, and I do like that they used him, as somebody less affected by the Maddox Effect, to solve the problem. Functional, just really dull.
898) Angel One (1988)
TNG 1x13
Writer: Patrick Barry
Director: Michael Rhodes
I will say that, as a teenage boy and as a young man now, this episode did give me empathy for what women go through in real life: being dismissed as weak and soft and barred from meaningful work. Beyond that, however, this episode really says nothing. It feels like it wants to be a deep and compelling exploration of gender roles, but apart from that feeling of empathy it gave me it doesn't accomplish anything of the kind. It's just a rote story about an oppressed section of society trying to combat their oppressors, and Riker saves the dissidents from being executed with a dull speech.
897) Silicon Avatar (1991)
TNG 5x4
Writer: Jeri Taylor, story by Lawrence V Conley
Director: Cliff Bole
Oh, just what I always wanted: the return of the Crystalline Entity from Datalore! Most anticipated villain return ever! But seriously, this could have been an interesting episode exploring a decent creature, but all that ends up happening is the Enterprise chasing the Crystalline Entity while Data has conversations with the mother of one of the victims of its attack on his colony. I will say that her hatred of Data got some genuine emotion out of me, as I raise my hackles against anyone who dares attack that loveable android, and seeing her come round to him was reasonably satisfying. But I still wasn't intrigued by their conversations, or the story of her seeking revenge for her son's death. The actual murder of the Crystalline Entity was done with a decent weight, but the episode takes forever to get there, through a slog of boring conversations and virtually no emotional investment for me.
896) The Outrageous Okona (1988)
TNG 2x4
Writer: Burton Armus, story by Les Menchen, Lance Dickson & David Landsberg
Director: Robert Becker
An aimless, artless story of a rogue caught between two fathers hounding him for his misdeeds. I don't find Okona amusing or charming, so his heavy presence in the episode doesn't do anything for me, and the story surrounding him is weak too. Data's stand-up comedy stuff is quite funny; Brent Spiner plays it brilliantly. I particularly enjoy the scene where he's trying out his act on Guinan, and it's just so bad. Also love Whoopi Goldberg's delivery of 'No' after Data asks her if his act was good. But this B-plot has only a flimsy connection to the main story, and therefore its presence leaves the end product feeling messy as well as weak.
895) Bounty (2003)
ENT 2x25
Writer: Hans Tobeason, Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong, story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
Director: Roxann Dawson
An A-plot and B-plot that are both very bad. The story of Archer getting kidnapped by a bounty hunter is rote and uninspired, and definitely feels like it was one of the last ideas the writers came up with for the season. They were just filling time with a poor sequel to the earlier episode Judgement. His interactions with the Tellarite do not interest me at all, and I do not care about the Tellarite's lost ship. The B-plot with T'Pol prematurely going through the Pon Farr sees some of the worst sexualisation of the character, plus some cringey dialogue between her and Phlox. Archer's ending escape from the Klingons, with the Tellarite's secret help, is solid, though.
894) The Omega Glory (1968)
TOS 2x23
Writer: Gene Roddenberry
Director: Vincent McEveety
Goes from mundane to insane. For much of its runtime I would give this my label of dull but functional: there's a rogue Starfleet Captain trying to discover the secret to eternal youth on a pre-warp planet, and there's a lot of fighting with some of the savage natives. It's all very boring... until the last quarter.
It gets revealed that this is (yet another) TOS Season 2 Earth parallel, with the savages representing the US and the village people the Communists. There is no explanation given for how the aliens ended up with all the exact paraphernalia of that time on Earth, from the US flag to the American Constitution; it's all just ludicrous.
The crowning weirdness of the episode is Kirk's lauding of the American Constitution as the greatest thing ever invented. Now, I don't just not like this because I'm English; I would feel the same if the British (unwritten) Constitution was being lauded like this. I consider myself a pretty patriotic person, and I believe that every country has equal reason to celebrate themselves, but I feel it is utterly inappropriate in Star Trek for any one country or group to be held up as the ultimate shining example of civilisation. This is because Trek is meant to represent a future where everybody's come together under one banner. There's a lot to praise about the American Constitution, but it's inappropriate for it to be held up as the 'One True Way', if you will. Kirk's final admiring look at the US flag is so cringeworthily saccharine. So, yeah, this episode is boring for most of its runtime, and it certainly isn't in the end... it's much worse.
893) The Muse (1996)
DS9 4x21
Writer: Rene Echevarria, story by Rene Echevarria & Majel Barrett-Roddenberry
Director: David Livingston
The DS9 Lwaxana Troi episodes are largely not a good time, and this is the absolute worst of them. The story of her pregnancy feels so hammy and forced, and the drama with her and Odo doesn't interest me at all. She also doesn't feel like she has much of a presence in the episode, which is shocking given how she came on so wonderfully strong in TNG. The other plotline with Jake is also uninteresting. It's at least not as bad as the Lwaxana storyline, but it's still so very uninspired (you see what I did there?). Annoyingly our last Lwaxana appearance; they really should have stopped her episodes after TNG's Dark Page; that was the perfect ending for her character.
892) When the Bough Breaks (1988)
TNG 1x16
Writer: Hannah Louise Shearer
Director: Kim Manners
Gene Roddenberry did like his kiddie episodes, didn't he? The idea of 'Atlantis-but-a-planet' is interesting, but the episode wastes the concept on a tiresome kidnapping story. The kids are fine I guess, but I'd also rather not be watching them. Wesley feels kinda out-of-place among them, to be honest, considering how noticeably older he is. I will say that Picard's reaction to the abduction: 'You have just committed an act of utter barbarity!' is a superb bit of acting from Stewart, but other than that there's nothing else I'll praise about this outing.
891) Pen Pals (1989)
TNG 2x15
Writer: Melinda M Snodgrass, story by Hannah Louise Shearer
Director: Winrich Kolbe
This always feels like a short to me, despite its forty-five minute length. No time is spent building up Data and the alien kid's relationship; we just see the kid's first communication, then jump into Data confessing to Picard he's been in contact with a pre-warp individual. So I have no investment in this relationship, which is a shame because Data-plus-kid had the potential to be really sweet. They just didn't put the legwork into it. The resolution is fine.
890) Unforgettable (1998)
VOY 4x22
Writer: Greg Elliot & Michael Perricone
Director: Andrew Robinson
Got to be the most ironic title in Trek history, since this episode is extremely forgettable. It's also mind-numbingly boring: Trek does not have a good track record with single-episode romances, and this has got to be one of the worst. I feel zero connection to the guest character and zero investment in her relationship with Chakotay. The idea of a species that you forget after they've been gone for a while is intriguing, but it is wasted on this insipid romance. This was one of the longest forty-five minutes I've ever sat through.
889) Transfigurations (1990)
TNG 3x25
Writer: Rene Echevarria
Director: Tom Benko
Speaking of dull one-episode romances, here's another one. The idea of a species going through a butterfly-like transformation, that is feared and suppressed by the authorities, is again intriguing. It reminds me of the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who story The Mutants, if anyone's watched that, except it's done less well. Again, the good concept is wasted on a boring romance, this time between Beverly and her patient. This is another one that feels much longer than forty-five minutes.
888) Bread and Circuses (1968)
TOS 2x25
Writer: Gene Roddenberry & Gene L Coon
Director: Ralph Senensky
At this point in TOS Season 2, I just thought: 'Really, Mr Roddenberry? Another Earth parallel? I know you like them, but this is getting ridiculous!' Not only is this a tired repeat of an already done idea, but no explanation is given for why this planet parallels the Roman Empire. In A Piece of the Action and Patterns of Force clever reasons were given, but in this it's just presented as a weird fact. That doesn't fly with me.
And even if they had come up with another clever explanation, they have done this idea, which I don't like very much anyway, way too many times this season. I did have some minor interest in the concept of a Rome that never fell, but not enough to sustain me for fifty minutes. Boring and uninspired to the highest degree. I will say there's one really great scene between Spock and Bones in a prison cell, though, when Bones confronts Spock about how he keeps all his emotions carefully concealed.
887) How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth (1974)
TAS 2x5
Writer: Russell Bates & David Wise
Director: Bill Reed
Similar to Who Mourns for Adonais?, in that it gives us an omnipotent alien, who was once worshipped as a God on Earth, and has returned to take charge of his wayward children, only to ultimately discover they don't need him anymore. This is a much weaker version of that story, however, with a less sympathetic godlike character and less runtime to flesh out the idea.
The episode also takes a weird swerve halfway through, from the setting of Kukulkan's city (a nice location, I must say) to his zoo, which I find much less appealing. This episode had an idea, but it wasn't quite sure how to tell the story. Kukulkan genuinely scared me a little, though, and I did feel sorry for him when he flew off, knowing that his former worshippers had outgrown him. But again, that was done better in TOS.
886) Resurrection (1997)
DS9 6x8
Writer: Michael Taylor
Director: LeVar Burton
Michael Taylor is a curious writer for me. He has written both some of my favourite and some of my least favourite episodes, with little middle ground. This falls hard into the latter category. It's interesting to have someone from the Mirror Universe cross into the Prime Universe, rather than the other way around as normally happens, and it's doubly interesting to have that someone be Mirror Bareil. But the episode falls flat on its face: every scene is just so interminably dull, and, unlike his Prime Universe counterpart, this Bareil has no chemistry with Kira. So boring, so pedestrian, and the absolute worst of the DS9 Mirror Universe episodes.
885) The Paradise Syndrome (1968)
TOS 3x3
Writer: Margaret Armen
Director: Jud Taylor
I think this is the epitome of functional but dull. The story makes sense, the characters' motivations make sense, but that doesn't mean the episode is interesting. I do like the idea of the Preservers, beings who transplanted members of endangered peoples, here the Native Americans, to other planets, but the episode flops. Kirk's memory loss leads to a yawnworthy stay among the Native Americans, filled with predictable tensions and conflicts, and a bland romance. The Spock and Bones B-plot is also boring. I feel a little something for Miramanee's death, but only a little something.
884) Assignment: Earth (1968)
TOS 2x26
Writer: Art Wallace, story by Gene Roddenberry & Art Wallace
Director: Marc Daniels
Star Trek without the Star Trek. Deciding not to focus on the main characters for an episode isn't a bad idea in and of itself, but the characters put in their stead hold little interest for me. The same is true of the plot they work within. This was of course a backdoor pilot for a spin-off that never manifested, and maybe if it had come about I would like this episode much more, but as it stands I find the characters unintriguing and the plot uninspired. The climax is particularly poor, with about seventy different shots of the rocket going into orbit, while the characters mill about and do very little. I want me my Kirk, Spock and Bones back.
883) The Red Angel (2019)
DSC 2x10
Writer: Chris Silvestri & Anthony Maranville
Director: Hanelle M Culpepper
Down here for the same reasons as previous DSC Season 2 episodes I've put on this list. It engages heavily in the twin foul-ups of the Spock's sister storyline and the Section 31 portrayal. I hate the base concept of Burnham being Spock's sister, for reasons I've explained in my previous post, so I despise all their scenes together, that build out this relationship that I wish had never been. And Section 31 continues to be portrayed as a public wing of the Federation, with ships and resources provided by Starfleet, which is godawful.
I will say, however, that I do kinda like the sequence where Burnham has to strap herself to a chair and bare herself to the planet's toxic atmosphere in order to summon the Red Angel. And the reveal that the Angel is not herself but in fact her mother is cool. But this is still a really bad episode.
882) The Storyteller (1993)
DS9 1x13
Writer: Kurt Michael Bensmiller & Ira Steven Behr, story by Kurt Michael Bensmiller
Director: David Livingston
A really messy, weak outing. The A- and B-plots have nothing to do with each other, which isn't automatically bad, but here it just makes the episode feel untidy. Of the two, I prefer the Jake and Nog subplot; it's funny seeing them mooning over the female teenage leader of a settlement who comes to the station. Their getting in trouble to impress her is charming. The A-plot sucks, though: the whole business of O'Brien having to become the protector of this village, from an amorphous cloud villain, is just lame, and the resolution is whatever. It is funny to see O'Brien and Julian in their first episode together, though, and witnessing how much O'Brien doesn't care for the good Doctor at this point. Oh, how times will change.
881) The Arsenal of Freedom (1988)
TNG 1x20
Writer: Richard Manning & Hans Beimler, story by Maurice Hurley & Robert Lewin
Director: Les Landau
A ramshackle adventure with a medley of different storylines, all of which are underwhelming. The best is Geordi's plotline, where he asserts himself as commander of the Enterprise over the *rsehole Chief Engineer of the week, but the other two don't really have any redeeming qualities. The Riker and co storyline is repetitive and the Picard and Beverly storyline is dull. I do like that the threat is resolved when Picard agrees to make a purchase from this dead civilisation, though.
880) Move Along Home (1993)
DS9 1x9
Writer: Frederick Rappaport, Lisa Rich & Jeanne Carrigan-Fauci, story by Michael Piller
Director: David Carson
OK, so I said this wasn't the worst of DS9, but it's still really bad. Though I have to say that, after I watched this with my siblings last year, and had such fun doing so, I've never been able to see it quite so badly. It's bad, yeah, but it's so, so much fun. The best-worst bit is of course the alien hopscotch scene, and I also really have to give credit to Alexander Siddig for playing some brilliant cringey comedy with Julian. The scene where he's trying to wake himself up from a nightmare by screaming? So funny. These (sort of) praises made, this is still a stinker of an episode, with a messy plot, too-silly events, and some serious overacting from Armin Shimerman at the end. Definitely something best watched with friends or family.
Allamaraine, count to four,
Allamaraine, then three more,
Allamaraine, if you can see,
Allamaraine, you'll come with me!
879) Justice (1987)
TNG 1x7
Writer: Worley Thorne, story by Ralph Wills & Worley Thorne
Director: James L Conway
I love the basic idea of this episode: Wesley runs afoul of a law on another planet and is sentenced to death by their draconian justice system. Then Picard has to struggle with whether to obey the Prime Directive or save his life. But the episode is dragged down by some weird costuming choices and, most of all, the addition of an omnipotent entity that watches over the planet's people. This should have just been an episode about Picard struggling between duty and conscience; the addition of a mega-powerful being steals screentime from this fine idea.
878) A Simple Investigation (1997)
DS9 5x17
Writer: Rene Echevarria
Director: John T Kretchmer
Uuuuugh; another boring single-episode romance. It's an interminable chore to sit through, from beginning to end, with tired, uninspired romantic scenes and an unexciting criminalistic plot surrounding the Orion Syndicate. I also don't like how the Changelings' linking is equated with sex in that one scene. There are a few fun scenes with O'Brien, Julian and Jadzia when they're playing the spy holosuite program (Jadzia's 'Ooh, somebody stop me!', or O'Brien's 'Hi, Odo!'), but that's about it.
877) Such Sweet Sorrow Part Two (2019)
DSC 2x14
Writer: Michelle Paradise, Junny Lumet, & Alex Kurtzman
Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
DSC wasn't merely content to introduce a sister for Spock who weakened the story of his childhood and family life. They had to make that sister so important in his life that he'd be willing to go with her into the future and leave his life behind. I hate that Kurtzman and co made this decision, as it makes everything in TOS, SNW etc feel like Spock settling for second-best, when in reality he is fulfilling his life's purpose in those series.
I also never connected with any of the DSC original characters, except for Saru, and even with him I don't feel any emotion at their grand final 23rd Century adventure to stop Control. As I've said before, this evil sentient AI story is a tired, repeated idea, and its connection to the terrible portrayal of Section 31 makes it worse. As a result of all this don't give a single crap about any of the grand-scale action in this episode, and I feel nothing for the loss of the Discovery crew to the far future. I will say that this episode did at least propel DSC into the 32nd Century, which would end up saving the series from being irredeemably awful, and it sets up the phenomenal SNW (although we didn't strictly need all this for SNW to work).
876) Vis a Vis (1998)
VOY 4x20
Writer: Robert Doherty
Director: Jesus Salvador Trevino
A vapid story about Tom feeling dissatisfied with his life on Voyager, and getting replaced by a shape-stealing alien. The concept for the alien is solid, but the execution doesn't fly. It ends up being a limp episode that drags quite a bit, with a bland character arc for Tom at its centre. Shoutout for the appearance of Dan Butler as the alien's main form, though; he played the testosterone-fuelled Bulldog Briscoe in my favourite comedy, Frasier.
That's it for now. Thank you very much for reading, and Live Long and Prosper!

I'm 22 (F), single, never been in a relationship, never smokes, drinks, party or hang out. lately I have been feeling lonely and depressed, I just have one friend from past 8 yrs and she lives abroad for studies so we talk once or twice fortnightly, tbh my mom didn't like me having friends and never allowed hanging out or doing friends activities. On last call with my friend, she adviced me to try dating someone, but how do I tell her that my childhood traumas doesn't allow me to to date. My mother has been constantly slut shaming me even before I knew what that word means. According to her I'm a slut if I don't tie my hairs, apply lip balm, don't oil my hair, grow nails, do skin care, use perfume, talk over call more than 10-15 mins. make friends or talk to a male (no matter what age they are) and there are many small details which makes me a slut. But the only good thing is that she allows me to wear short clothes (because she don't want my future husband to disown me for not being modern enough) And I can't believe she is been feeding me all this nonsense since I was 12 or 13 plus I got my first period at 17, I had no idea about all these stuff. No matter how sincere I am, my mom's mind revolves around sex and slut shaming, (M+F= SEX) and I'm at this state of mind that even thinking about dating someone, my mind gives me a slut warning!
And it's only about me, I have a younger brother around 14, he never got slut shamed for having multiple female friends or hanging out with them, instead my mom teases him to have a girlfriend.
Sometimes I wonder if being a female makes me slut, I don't have any sexual fantasies but sometimes I just wish I had someone who listens to me, hugs me, make me feel loved, heard and seen.
Let me also add up that no she wasn't raised this way my grandparents were the sweetest people, especially my grandma was very open about making guy friends and dating, I wish she was my mom instead. ( please suggest a savage answer for next time she calls me a slut or whore.)

“So you’re a traveler from another world, with strange powers, here to help us out?” The commander of the unit summarized as the rest of the unit approached the still super train, preparing to salvage it.
“Yup,” I said nervously.
“Okay,” he replied after a moment.
“That’s it?” I asked, surprised.
“Good an explanation as any,” he shrugged, “considering you took down that war train and aren’t objecting to us taking it, I’m prepared to give you at your word.”
“What are you scavenging it for anyways?” I asked, turning to look at the massive vehicle, “you that hard up for metal?”
“There’s plenty besides metal,” the commander explained, “for one the parts in this thing are manufactured to far more precision than the human hand could manage. But even past that, these things carry vast stocks of coal and water, both of which can be hard to come across.”
“Not to mention oil for lubrication,” his second in command added.
“Finally there’s weapons and ammo, without access to factories of our own this is our best source of munitions.”
“Makes sense,” I nodded, “what’s the world like? Humanity still out there?”
“I don’t know about the world at large, but there’s a decent number of us hiding out within the machine’s territory,” sighed the commander, waving to a group of what appeared to be steam powered cars to pull up, each of them pulling a large cart for supplies, “to give you the short history of the war, a dozen years back the machine came online, with orders to expand. So it did, and hasn’t stopped yet. Everywhere it goes it turns into wastelands like this,” he motioned to the endless expanse of flat desert around us, “mountains, forests, lakes, doesn’t matter, it bulldozes it flat and builds factories or mines.”
“Why flatten everything?” I ask.
“Defense,” the Harmony answered, the commander nodding, “it relies on sonar for detection so fewer obstacles the better.”
“That was our guess too,” agreed the army man, “there are a few places it wasn’t able to pave, where we’ve been able to survive. In our case we live in a volcano, the damned thing tried to dig it out before the magma forced it to give up.”
“What about other nations? Surely not all of humanity has fallen.”
“On that front I admit to having less information,” he shrugged, “a few years ago we heard rumors that people outside managed to stall it, though I’m not sure how.”
“It seems to understand some natural phenomena can’t be overcome,” the Harmony commented, “perhaps they found a way to trigger that response along the entire front?”
“Good a theory as any?”
“I’m curious as to who would build such a thing,” I said, motioning to the mega-train, “I can’t think of much of a use for this kind of device.”
The commander looked around, nodding to his second in command who turned and left to coordinate the salvaging operation.
“Come with me,” he said, leading me away from the tracks. For several minutes we walked back towards where his men had dug in to assault the train. They were busy packing up the large guns that I recognized as being the main weapon of the train, only modified to rest on a foldable base and operate without clockwork. More steam-cars were being used to pull the guns once they were folded away, a half dozen tents of various sizes had been set up, the largest of which was white with a large red cross. It was also easily the busiest, with nurses and wounded constantly moving in and out at a frantic pace.
The commander led me into one of the side tents that appeared to be a makeshift command post, tables covered with maps filled the space, leaving little room to walk.
“Since you helped us out I’ll tell you what we know about the origins of the damned machine, but this is sensitive information, so don’t go sharing it around,” he warned me with a long glare before continuing, “the official story is the machine went rogue, some fault caused it to refuse to shut down. From then it’s simply kept expanding, seeing humanity as a danger.”
“That was our theory,” the Harmony replied.
“Unfortunately its not true,” he sighed, “the creator deliberately ensured his machines wouldn’t shut down. The flaw was intentional, exactly the same fault is found in every one of the base plans the machines use.”
“Why would he do that?” I asked.
“The man was brilliant, but in the end he seemed to go crazy. We don’t have much information about the last years or exactly what pushed him over the edge, but he seemed to think this was the only way to, as he put it, ‘defeat eternity.’ We think something drove him insane and he thought the universe itself was out to get him.”
“That’s,” the harmony started, but didn’t continue. We’d encountered multiple people who’d mentioned eternity by now, the most memorable was the man from the unchanging world. But the Conductor and a few others had brought it up by now.
“Ya, crazy,” the commander shrugged, seeming to take the Harmony’s comment another way.
“If true it’ll make fixing this thing much harder,” the Harmony said, “ordering a simple repair of damaged parts is one thing, but fixing a design flaw purposefully built into the blueprints of the entire mechanism?”
“Yup,” he sighed, “honestly our best bet is to just keep taking out trains where we can and hope to eventually out last them.”
“There might be another way,” the Harmony said slowly, “I noticed the machines only use a single frequence of sonar. Is that true across all their units?”
“Yes, near as I can remember,” the commander said after a moment.
“I should be able to design a few noise canceling patterns that work on that frequency it should allow you to approach their factories without being noticed.”
“Wait, you can make us invisible?” he asked, leaning forward.
“At least until the machine figures out the trick and varies up the sonar devices,” the Harmony warned, “but if you use it strategically it could net you large wins.”
“Will it work on moving objects?” I asked, “most passive noise cancelling only works on static objects, like in rooms.”
“It should, only because the machine uses a single frequency for its sonar,” the Harmony replied, sending me a series of calculations it wanted me to run through our datalink, “and it won’t be perfect, anyone using it will have to be exceptionally careful to not make too much noise or bump anything that could tip off the machine.”
“If its easier to hide immobile objects, then could you hide a derailing device?” the commander asked, starting to look excited, “if we could reliably derail the trains without them knowing why we might be able to starve out a section.”
“Stationary things are easier,” it agreed, looking over the results of the calculations I sent back. Its image projection crystal flickered on, displaying blueprints for a couple devices on the table, “I don’t know if a standard train derailer is enough to force a train of that size off the tracks, but you should be able to double the size of the one here without impacting its effectiveness.”
The commander’s eyes grew wide as the image appeared, rushing to the entrance of the tent and shouting for someone. In a minute a half dozen people were present, copying the diagrams along with a few variations the Harmony added.
“Hard to believe a few odd angles can disrupt sonar so easily,” one of the techs remarked, looking over one of the blueprints.
“It’s only possible because the Harmony is an entity basically made of sound,” I replied, “I doubt I could come up with something like this.”
“And I have to stress, this will only work until the machines change their sonar frequency,” the Harmony added, “as soon as they catch on these devices will become ineffective.”
“But could you design new patterns for whatever frequency they switch to?” the tech asked.
“No, if the machine is smart, and it seems smart enough, it’ll start using a few different frequencies. A single pattern can only cover a single frequency effectively.”
“Still, making a change like that across the machine’s hundreds of facilities and thousands of trains is a slow process,” the commander said, “even if it catches on, we could have years before all of it is altered to counter this.”
“Very true,” the Harmony agreed, its crystals even bobbing as if mimicking a nod, “it’s not a permanent fix, but it’ll help.”
“Speaking of, we encountered something odd,” one of the technicians spoke up, “seems like you understand the machine better than most, perhaps you can help us figure it out?”
“Sure,” I shrug, motioning for him to lead the way. Ten minutes later I’m in the mega-train once more, looking at a bank of gears arranged in a chaotic, but clearly intentional pattern.
“Right there, see those main gear trains?” the man asked, pointing at a cluster of mechanical bits that stood out against the rest, “that appears to be the main protocol mechanical computing, they’re what tell it what is or isn’t part of the protocols, if something violates them, and so on.”
“Right,” I nod, only to scowl, “one set of gears per protocol?”
“Yup,” he nodded.
“Then why are there four sets?”
“That’s what confused us,” he replied, “this place is directly above the engine room so we’ve never captured it intact before, so we’ve never noticed the extra-protocol set.”
“A back up?” the Harmony offered, “or error correction?”
“I don’t think so, it doesn’t match any of the other stacks, and error correction is over there,” he pointed to another set of gears, “you seemed to be well informed, maybe you could shine some light on this?”
“Seems pretty obvious to me,” I said, looking up to see both the tech and the Harmony staring at me, “what? Clearly there’s a fourth, hidden, protocol.”
“There’s only three protocols though,” the tech replied, “expand, defend, seek approval, we’ve known that for years.”
“Seems like the machine has a fourth,” I countered, pointing at the extra gear stack, “perhaps something secret the designer put in without anyone knowing?”
“Or the machine is evolving,” the Harmony replied softly, earning an alarmed look from me, “it seems quite rigid but, like you said, it’s been operating for years. If it can alter the design of its trains, then why not its own computation systems?”
“that’s… worrying,” the tech remarked, “honestly I hope its like the Traveler said, that it’s a hidden protocol.”
“Either case shouldn’t matter much,” I said, “there’s a limit to how fast mechanical systems can process data. It should hit a limit to how far it can evolve if that’s what’s happening.”
“I disagree,” the Harmony countered, “I’m living proof that multiple overlapping systems can produce intelligence far beyond what individual parts could come up with. Sound can only carry so much information at a time, but I can operate far beyond that limit due to my nature. It could stumble upon something similar for mechanical computers.”
“Seems unlikely,” I replied, and the Harmony didn’t disagree, but the thought was worrying regardless.
***** Discord - Patreon *****

11/20/2017
Log book of Det. Ryan Snow
Case #2798: The Appalachian Murders
When I woke up, I was in such a haze that I couldn’t make out where I was at first. My vision was a blur and all I could hear was the sounds of rushing water. I tried to move my limbs, but each muscle down to my little finger felt like lead weighing down on me, making it hard to breathe.
It felt like forever before the ringing in my ear was slowly swallowed out by a voice crying out from what sounded like a distance only to grow louder as it seemed to approach me from the void I had woken up in. It wasn’t until I heard my name that I recognized it was Kate’s voice, pleading and filled with tears.
I blinked away the blur, finding myself staring up at a water damaged ceiling, a single yellow light brightening the room. My head was pounding and my body still felt heavy, but I moved my head enough to turn and see where Kate was calling from. It took a moment, but I soon realized that she was lying on her back, strapped by her arms and legs to a metal table, looking to me with wide terrified eyes.
“Detective, please help!” She cried out. “Please don’t be dead! Please help me!”
“Bl-Black…Well…” I groaned out as I tried, painfully, to pick myself up off the stone floor, “Black…Well… Ah… Shit… Shit! Ms. Blackwell-“ I was gaining consciousness minute by minute as I finally took in the situation and got to my feet. However, the moment I had gotten to my feet and began running to Kate only to immediately fall back to the floor once again, my ankle getting caught by something heavy. I turned to see my ankle had been shackled to the floor by a cuff and chains. I searched my person to find my coat, along with my Glock had been taken, blood decorating my pants and sleeves. I placed a palm to my forehead to find blood when I lowered it down to look at the warm liquid slithering down from my scalp.
“Ms. Blackwell,” I returned my attention to her, examining what I could from my place on the floor, “are you alright, are you hurt?”
“I… I… I don’t… Don’t think so…” she managed to whine out.
“Where’s Mr. Raines?”
To this question, Kate looked away from me, sobbing being her only verbal response.
I went back to the shackles on my ankle and began trying to yank the chains off from the floor, but they had been well maintained and were too strong for me to simply yank out of the stone. I then quickly looked around the room to find we were in a different basement from the one in Cabin #3, though it had the same kind of layout, the table the only major difference. I also took note of the blood stains that trailed from the sides of the table and the dried pools below.
“I want my mom!” Kate cried out, her voice echoing in the empty room.
“I’ll get you to her, I will, I promise,” I assured her, trying to find something, anything to get us out of this, “do you remember how we got down here?”
“I… I… I just re-remember… Remember you g-getting knocked out… Knocked out by someone and them… Them putting a rag over me… Then everything went black… Then I woke… Woke up… H-Here…” Kate answered, trying to breathe with each sob she let out. “I… I th-thought… y-you… You were d-d-… Dead!”
“I’m not, I’m very much alive and I’m going to get you out of here and back to your parents,” I vowed as I continued looking for a way out of this situation, “we’re going to get you out of here, get you home, and we’ll make sure no one ever gets hurt here ever-“
The sound of the basement door from the splintered wooden steps cut me off. I listened as feet descended down the steps to the basement below, Kate’s ragged breaths the only other sound. The person who came down was a woman. The same exact woman from the photo I had found in her house. She looked as if she had not aged since that photo was taken, despite how long ago it seemed the photo was taken. She had the same exact long, white hair, same tired looking eyes, and same disgustingly pale skin as in that photo and on her profile picture. It was Mrs. Larson.
“Deeeeeetectiiiiiiive,” she spoke in a hoarse voice mixed with what I assumed was her own and several others, both male and female, adult and child, “youuuuuuu shouuuullld haaaaaaaaave juuuuuuusssssst giiiiiven herrrrrrr toooooo meeeeee… Youuuuuuuu diiiiiiiiid nooooooot haaaaaave toooooooo ssssssseeeee thiiiiiissssss…”
“Fuck you!” I shouted, beginning to charge at the elderly woman only to be yanked back by my shackles. “Let us go, right now!”
“Nnnnooooo,” Mrs. Larson replied harshly as she stepped over to loom over Kate.
“Stay away from her!” I barked, trying desperately to break free of my shackles.
She ignored me as she ran a shaky hand down along Kate’s trembling face. “Ooooooooohhhhh, Kaaaaaate… Sweeeeet, sweeeeeeeet, Kaaaaaaaaaate…” Mrs. Larson cooed as she went on stroking Kate’s wet cheek. “Doooooo noooooooot crrrrrrryyyyyyy, dooooooonnnnnn’t thiiiiiiiiiinnnnk oooooofff iiiiiiiit aaaaaaaassssss dyyyyyyyyiiiiinnnnng, thiiiiiiiiinnnk ooooooooffff iiiiiiit aaaaaassssss ssssssssaaaaaaaaaviiiiiiinnng aaaaaannnnoooootherrrrrrrrr liiiiiiiiife.”
“I-I… I d-don’t… Don’t under-understand… w-what th-that… That m-means…” Kate cried, her hands gripping the sides of the metal table beneath her, “P-Please, d-don’t… Don’t kill me… L-Let… Let us-us go!”
“Nnnnnoooooo,” Mrs. Larson answered in the same harshness she used on me, “IIIIIIIII neeeeeeeed youuuuuuuuuu,” she then shot a death glare my way through tired, silver eyes, “aaaaaaaannnnnnd heeeeeeeeee’ssssssss beeeeeeeeeennnnnn nnnnnnnoooooooothiiiiiiiiinnnnnng buuuuut aaaaaa thooooooorrrrrrnnnn iiiiiiinnnnn myyyyyyyyy ssssssssiiiiiiiide siiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnccccccce youuuuuu eeeeeessssssscaaaaaaped meeeeeeee.” She then looked back to Kate with a softer look. “Aaaaaaaassssss fffffoooooorrrrr whaaaaaaaat youuuuuuu caaaaaannnn’t uuuuuunnnnnnderrrrrrssssssstaaaaaaannnnnnd, IIIIIIIIII nnnnnneeeeeeed yourrrrrrrrrr heaaaaaaaarrrrrt tooooooo ssssssssaaaaaavvvvvvve myyyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiiisssssssterrrrrrrr.”
“The fuck does that mean?” I demanded, still trying to vain to pull my ankle from the chains. “How the hell will Kate’s heart save your sister?”
“Diiiiiiiiidnnnnnn’t nnnnnnneeeeeeed toooooo beeeee Kaaaaaaate’sssssss,” admitted Mrs. Larson, “buuuuuuuut sssshhhhhheeeeee hiiiiiiiiid theeeeee ooooooootherrrrr giiiiirrrrrrllllll ffffffrrrrroooooommmmm mmmmmeeeeee.”
“S-Son… Sonja…” Kate sniffed, the tears still streaming down her face.
“IIIIIIII oooooooonnnnnlllllyyyyy neeeeed fffffffeeeeeemmmmmaaaaallllle,” Mrs. Larson dismissed Ms. Greymoore’s name, “ffffffeeeeeeemmmmmaaaaaallllle heaaaaaaaarrrrrrrtsssss toooooo rrrrrrreeeeeetuuuuurrrrrrnnnnn mmmmmmyyyyy ssssiiiiissssssterrrrrrrrr toooooo theeeeeeee giiiiirrrrrllllll ssssshhhhhheeeee uuuuuuuusssssed tooooo beeeeeee.”
“That’s a fucking joke right?” I asked. “The hell makes you think eating a female heart will turn your sister back into a human woman? Have you seen what’s happened to your sister?”
“IIIIIIIII knnnnnnnooooooow beeeeeeecaaaauuuuusssssse iiiiiiiiiiit wooooooorrrrrked ooooooonnnnn mmmmmeeeeee,” Mrs. Larson explained, “IIIIIIIIIII waaaaaasssss aaaaaaablllllllle toooooo reeeeeeetaaaaiiiiiinnnnnn thiiiiiiiiiisssssss huuuuuummmmmmaaaaaannnnn fffffffooooorrrrrrmmmm ffffffrrrrrooooommmm eeeeeaaaaatiiiiiinnnnnng theeeeeeee heaaaaaaaaarrrrrtsssss, sssssspecifffffficaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy fffffffeeeeeemmmmmaaaaallllleeee sssssssooooooo IIIIIIIIII mmmmmmaaaaaayyyyyy rrrrrreeeeetuuuurrrrrnnnnn toooo beeeeeiiiiinnnng theeeeeeee giiiiiirrrrrrrllllll IIIIIII uuuuuuusssssed toooooooo beeeeeee.”
“You were dead,” I pointed out, “they found your body up here, you were buried.”
“Theeeeeessssssse sssshhhhheeeeeellllllsssss arrrrrrre mmmmmeeeeeerrreeeellllyyy veeeeeessssssellllllssssss ffffffoooooorrrrrr theeeeeeee sssssspiiiiirrrrriiiiiitsssss weeeee hiiiiiiiiiiide beeeeeneeeeaaaaattthhhh,” Mrs. Larson responded, finally turning her gaze to me, “IIIIIIII haaaaaaad tooooooo maaaake peeeopllllle beeeelieevvvve IIIIIII haaaaaad diiiiiiied tooooo keeeeeep frrrrroooommm theeeee poooooollllliiiiicccce ffffrrrrrrooooommmm pooookiiiiiinnnng aaaaarrrrouuuuuunnnnd aaaaannnnnd rrrrruuuiiinnnnniiinnnng eeeevvvveeerrrrryyythiiiiinnnng.”
“So, let me just get this whole thing straight,” I began as I started rubbing my temples, "when you and your sister starting into… Whatever the hell that thing you call your sister is-“
“Ooooouuuurrrrr sssssspiiiiiirrrrrriiiiiit,” Mrs. Larson corrected.
“Whatever!” I shot. “You found out that eating female hearts turns you two back into human women and to keep police from suspecting you, you pretended to be dead and… What? Just hope a shitty real estate agency would buy your property and you could just… Kill people, people with lives and families outside the mountains?”
“Thaaaaaaaat iiiiiiisssss cooooorrrrrreeeeect…” Mrs. Larson admitted, narrowing her eyes at me.
That’s when I began laughing hysterically, holding my sides that hurt with each harsh breath of a laugh I took. Both Mrs. Larson and Kate looked to me as if I had lost my mind and at this point I was starting to believe I had. Everything I had seen and heard about this entire case would put anyone in the looney bin. And I’m the damn fool who dug too deep into something he had nothing to do with.
“Whaaaaaat’s ssssoooo ffffuuunnnny?” Growled Mrs. Larson, stepping around Kate to stand between us.
“I don’t know what’s fucking funnier, honestly,” I chuckled, running a hand through my hair, “the fact that you thing people won’t be poking around even more when they discover not only is Blackwell missing, but so is a detective and escaped convict all of whom now have ties to these fucking mountains and those cabins, or that you thing I’m more afraid of what you plan on doing with me more than I am when her father finds out I got her in this situation in the first place!”
“Heeeeeee wooooonnnnn’t beeeee aaaaabllllle toooooo doooo aaaaaannnnnyyyyythiiiiiinnnng aaaaaaafffffterrrrrrr IIIIIIIII’mmmmm dooooooonnnne wiiiiiiiith booooooth ooooooooffffff youuuuuuuuu,” Mrs. Larson hissed as she inched closer, “fffffffiiiiiiirrrrrrssssst, IIIIIIIII waaaaaannnnnt youuuuuuuu toooo waaaaaatch mmmmmeeeee kiiiiiiillllll herrrrrrr,” she turned her head to look to Kate who was now just shaking, her eyes seemingly gone dry from the crying, Mrs. Larson then looked back to me, “sssssseeeeecooooonnnnd, IIIIIIII wiiiiillllll ssssssaaaaave youuuuu fffffooooorrrr mmmmmmyyyyy sssssiiiiiisssssterrrrr, oooooonnnnne heeeeaaaaart wiiiiilllll nnnnoooot ssssssaaaaaatissssfffffyyyy herrrr huuuuuunnnnnger.” She took another step. “Uuuuuuuunnnnnllllliiiiiike sssssssoooooommmme ssssssiiiiiibllllliiiiiiinnnnnngsssss, IIIIIIIII caaaaaarrrre aaaaaaboooouuuuut mmmmmmyyyyy ffffffaaaammmmiiiiilllllyyyyyy.”
She stared into my eyes, expecting a reaction and while my blood did somewhat boil at the accusatory statement, I didn’t fully understand what she was getting at. Not until she used that voice. Not until she relived that day with those two familiar child-like voices.
“Screw you, Liam!” She cried out in a voice I remember from my childhood. “I hope you drop dead!”
“Stop.” I demanded.
“Piss off, Ryan!” She shot back in a second boy’s voice.
“I said stop!” I began shouting.
“Help me, Ryan! Please, help me! I’m sorry! Please, Lucky Dime, help me!”
I then lunged toward her, reaching my hands out toward her neck only to be stopped by the shackles as she swiftly, almost without even moving, stepped just out of my reach.
“Fucking bitch!” I screamed out.
“If only you really cared about me, Lucky Dime,” sighed Mrs. Larson as she turned and began making her way to the side of the room where a cart stood in the shadows. She pulled it over to Kate’s side, the cart covered in rusted medical tools.
“P-Please,” Kate wheezed, “p-p-please… I… I d-d-don’t w-want… Want t-to d-d… D-Die, I… I w-w-want m-m-m… My m-mom!”
“Dooooonnn’t woooorrrrryyyyy,” Mrs. Larson soothed, using that mix of different voices, “mmmmmmaaaayyyyybeeee sheeee wiiiillll cooooommmme loooookinnnng ffffooooorrrr yooouuuuu aaaaannnnnd sheeeeeee caaaaannnnn joooooiiiiiinnnn youuuuuuu.”
Kate began to sob, begging and pleading for Mrs. Larson to let her go, thrashing around in her restraints. Telling the older woman that there was no saving her sister and that she was too far gone for this sick ritual to work anymore. I tried to yank at the chains once more, trying to loosen it at least enough to break free and grab at Mrs. Larson.
“Rrrrrrreeeeellllllaaaaax,” Mrs. Larson ordered as she began filling a syringe with some kind of clear liquid from a small bottle, “yoooouuuuuu woooooonnnn’t eeeeeveeennn fffffeeeellll iiiiiiit, thiiiissssss wiiiiiillllll puuuuuut youuuuu toooo ssssssllllllleeeeeep aaaaaannnnnnd wheeeeeennnnnn youuuuuu waaaaaake uuuuuuuup, youuuuuuu’lllllll beeee iiiiiinnnnnn heeeeeaaaaaaveeeennnnn… Uuuuuunnnnnnnllllllessssss youuuuuuu weeeerrrrrrre aaaaaa haaaaaarrrrrlllllooooooot, iiiiiiinnnnnn whiiiiiiiich caaaaaassssssseeeee, mmmmmaaaayyyy Goooooood haaaaaaaave mmmmmmmmerrrrrrrcccccyyyyy ooooonnnnn youuuuuur ssssssoooouuuuullllll… Aaaaannnnnd baaaaaaasssssed ooooonnnn hoooooow youuuuuu drrrrressss aaaaannnnnd theeeee coooommmmpaaaannnnyyyy youuuuuu keeeeeep,” She added as she eyed me, “IIIIIII ssssssaaaaaayyyy youuuuu haaaaaave aaaaa lllllloooooot ooooooffff fooooooorrrrgiiiiiviiiiinnnnng tooooo dooooo.”
Kate continued to cry as Mrs. Larson pushed the needle of the syringe into her arm, pushing down on the plunger as it pierced the flesh. Kate’s loud screams soon turned quieter and her red eyes began to glaze over, but she continued to stay awake, tightening her grip on the table and still begging to be let go.
“IIIIII waaaaannnnt youuuuu toooo waaaaatch, Detective,” Mrs. Larson spat out my title in Mr. Blackwell’s voice, “IIIII waaaaannnnnt youuuuu toooo waaaaatch herrrrrr fffffaaaaaade aaaaaannnnnnd mmmmmeeeee rrrrreeeemmmmooooove heerr heeeaaaarrrrrt toooooo ffffffeeeeeed tooooo mmmmmmyyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiiissssssterrrrrr,” she then pulled out a recorder, “theeeeennnnnn wheeeeeennnnn IIIIIII ssssssuuuuummmmoooooonnnnn herrrrrrr aaannnnd sheeeee fffffiiiinnnniiiishessssss oooooofffffff heeeerrrrr heeeaaaaarrrrrt, youuuuuuu’llllllll beeeeee neeeeeext.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled, “I hope you and your sister burn.”
“IIIIIIIII’mmmmm gooooonnnnnaaaaa gooooo aaaaallllllerrrrrrt mmmmmyyyyy ssssssiiiiiiissssterrrrrr,” Mrs. Larson turned and began making her way to the basement steps, “ssssseeee youuuuu boooooth ffffffoooooorrrr diiiiiinnnnnnerrrrrrr.”
She then pressed the play button on her recorder and a small, little girl’s voice echoed in the room before Mrs. Larson vanished up the steps.
“I’m here… I’m here… I’m here…”
Then the door slammed shut.
“De… Tec… Tive…” Kate squeaked out, her breathing slowing.
“Stay awake, Blackwell,” I ordered her gently, looking around frantically for anything to get us both out of this alive, “I’ll get us out of this, I promise, just stay awake, we’ll get out of here, I just need-“
“I’m… S… Sorry…” she breathed out. “I’m… So… Sorry… For… Get… Getting… You… In… To.. This…”
“No, no, this is not your fault!” I assured her. “That psychotic bitch got us both into this shit and I won’t stop until I get us out and put her and her fucking sister are six feet under!”
“W…Wha… What… H… Hap… Happened… To… To L… Liam…?”
I stopped struggling with the chains and turned to look to Kate. Her head was turned to me, her face wet, hands clenching as hard as they could to the table beneath her, the light in her eyes slowly fading second by second. She was trying desperately to stay awake. The medication Mrs. Larson taking hold of her as the minutes ticked by.
I dropped the chains that were in my hands, looking away from her, wanting to stare at anything other than another person I had failed.
“He was killed,” I answered, “we were fishing at a lake nearby… Lake Gaagige… We got into a really stupid ass fucking fight about how which fishing pole we were going to use. I wanted to use our dad’s, but Liam was older and said only men could use dad’s fishing pole… I told him… To drop dead and stormed off… When I got home, my parents dragged me back to the lake and scolded me for leaving him…” I trailed off, swallowing all the tears and screams I’d bottled up since that day. “When… We found… Him… The autopsy… Said he was mauled by a bear… I’ve blamed myself for leaving him there alone… For letting him die and getting killed like that… The last thing I ever told him was to drop dead… I was a shitty brother and now I’m a shitty detective…”
“Is… Is he… Why… You became… A… Detective…?”
I took a deep breath and swallowed the tears again. “No, Blackwell,” I answered, “he’s not why I became a detective… I already knew what had killed him… It was my fault… If I hadn’t been such a brat and stormed off… He might still be alive… And now… What that bitch said…” I replayed Liam’s screams that escaped Mrs. Larson’s mouth. “I’m starting to think I’m getting what I deserve. Karma’s back to kick my ass…”
“H… How… Old…?”
“I was six… Liam was eight…”
“N… N… Not your… F… Fault…”
I turned to look to Kate, her eyes on mine, however faded.
“Y… You were… Only… A k… Kid…”
I took another intake of what little air there was down in that basement. I had spent years trying to convince myself of the same thing, but those moments never got easier for me when those thoughts returned.
“I think you’re just being nice,” I laughed painfully, “but I’m afraid I- and my folks- don’t share the same sentiment.”
I was staring down at where the chains were coming from in the ground, Kate not saying a word for over a couple of minutes. I spun to see if she had fallen asleep and immediately tried to find out how to wake her up again. However, once I our eyes met, I saw that she was still fighting sleep, the last of her tears rolling down across the bridge of her nose and into her hair.
“I… I… I had… Had a c… Crush… O… On… J… Jasper…” she confessed, her voice getting quieter and higher. “P… Paul and… And Son… Sonja knew… I never… Never c… Cared f… For Luke… But I’m… Sure… S… Sonja t… Told him…” she looked like she was going to sob again. “I… I never g… Got the… Ch… Chance… T… To tell J… Jasper… I… Was… Scared… He… He and… P… Paul were friends… And I… I kn… Knew… How P… Paul f… Felt… A… About m… Me… I… I did… Didn’t wa… Want to… R… Ruin… Anyth… Anything…” She took a gulp of air. “I… I ha… Hated L… Luke… I… A… Always… Kn… Knew… He… He was a… Player… B… But Sonja… Said… Said she was hap… Happy… So… So I did… Didn’t wa… Want to g… Get in… H… Her way… B… But Luke d… Didn’t l… Like h… How cl… Close… We… Were… I d… Didn’t w… Want him to make… Make her th… Think I… I was l… Leading her o… On… T… To get them… To b… Break up… Th… Then… That n… Night… Sh… She w… Wanted to… To leave…” She let out two pained gasps of breath. “I… I let them down… I let them all down… Luke pro… Probably thought… Thought I w… Was the one who… Who f… Filled Sonja’s mind… With thoughts of… Of him ch… Cheating… Th… Then I… I got them… All killed…
I… I didn’t deserve them, d… Detective…” she went on, looking away from me to stare up at the water damaged ceiling, “I… I… I was a… Terrible… Terrible friend…”
“Did you read their guest book entries?” I asked.
“N… No… D… Didn’t w… Want to… To r… Read any… Anything p… Private…” Kate answered.
“Jasper didn’t blame you,” I assured her, remembering what he had written in his entry during his time watching Mrs. Larson just outside the cabin, “even when he heard the voices- when he heard Mrs. Larson- telling him to, he didn’t. I don’t think the others blamed you either. You didn’t do anything wrong, Ms. Blackwell, there’s no way you could have known any of this would happen.”
“K… Kate…”
“What?”
“C… Call… Call me… Kate…”
“Aright, Kate,” I let out what little laughter I had left inside me, “so long as we’re the last people we’ll be chatting with, call me Ryan.”
“R… Ryan…”
“If we at all live through this, I’m going to need a long vacation after this,” I said as I turned to look at my shackles again, looking around myself to try finding anything to Get free since a vacation sounded like something to die for at that moment, “do you know any good vacation spots I can book for the fall?”
“Y… You’re… You’re a… Dick…” Kate struggled to laugh.
“I also enjoy pineapple on pizza,” I winked as I reached down to my ankle, ready to break it just to taste that sweet combination of tomato sauce and fruit.
“G… God… I… I c… Can’t… Believe… I th… Thought y… You w… Were c… Cute…”
I sat down on the floor, grabbing my ankle with both my hands. Needing to hype myself up enough to do what I was going to do, I began removing my shoe and sock from the foot, rubbing and squeezing my way up and down the ankle to my toes. I had never broken a bone in my life before this and I definitely never thought I’d do it of my own volition, but this was a desperate time and it definitely called for desperate…
“Wait what?” I turned to look to Kate, finally registering what she had said.
However, just before I could be sure of what I heard, the sound of a hunting rifle going off just above our heads right before we heard the door to the basement swing open and immediately be slammed shut. Both Kate and I turned to see someone stumble down the wooden steps, his clothes torn and body scratched and cut to a nearly deadly degree. I was even shocked he was still breathing.
“M… Mr… R… Raines…?” Kate gasped out.
“What’s left of me at least,” Mr. Raines grumbled as he limped over to Kate and quickly began undoing her straps to the table, “damn thing almost ripped my head off, but one swing of the barrel to its eye and I was able to get away… Can’t say it didn’t do its damage though… I’m… Getting really fucking hungry…”
He shook his head violently before limping over to me. He then raised an eyebrow at me when he saw how I was positioned still on the floor with a bare foot in my hands shackled to the floor.
“I… I was… I… I thought you were-“ I stammered.
“I am,” Mr. Raines interrupted, “at least, I’m on my way there anyway.” He then retrieved my Glock from his back pocket. “I don’t know what that thing did to me, but I’m not gonna make it out of this alive, or the way I came in. It’s a massacre out there by the way. Lot of men in blue bodies out there… Very… Hard to ignore… Sure more will be on their way. So.”
With that, Mr. Raines pointed at my chains and pulled the trigger on my clock, barely giving me time to cover my ears as the sound rung out loudly in the basement. I shook my head, trying to undo the blurry and ringing side effects of the sound of a gun going off near your head. I gave the older man a glare before standing and snatching my Glock from his hands. That’s when I saw Kate shifting herself to the side of the metal table she was no longer tied to, trying to get her limbs to comply with her to help her off and on to the floor.
I ran over and grabbed her just as she nearly stumbled face first to the floor and lifted her up to her feet, her body heavy with lack of keeping herself up.
“Do you think you can walk?” I asked, trying to keep her on her feet.
“I… I don’t… I…” Kate stammered as she tried to push herself off of me while also using using me as a crutch until she could stand on her own. However, she didn’t seem to be able to put any kind of pressure on her legs without falling down.
“Kate?” A girl’s voice called out from above us.
Feeling Kate shudder, I realized that it must have been the sound of Sonja’s voice and Mrs. Larson was using her to keep Kate from running. I quickly swung my arm down behind her knees, pressing the other down on her back as I lifted her up off the floor, my Glock at the ready as I kept it pointed in front of me while my arm held up Kate’s knees.
“She must have heard the gunshots,” I pointed out, “how’d you get past her in the first place?”
“I set the other cabins on fire,” Mr. Raines answered as if it were the simplest of answers, “I had to distract her somehow and give those bodies she’d been eating a better fate than becoming her shit.”
“Are you planning on setting this place on fire too?” I asked.
“‘Course I am!” Mr. Raines exclaimed, seemingly offended I’d even ask. “I already doused it in gasoline, I ain’t wasting all that time!”
“Kate!” Sonja’s voice cried out, getting closer to the basement door. “Are you seriously leaving me here to die alone again!”
“Please… Make it… Stop…” Kate sniffed as she gripped my shirt and burying her face into the fabric.
“Let’s get you two out of here.” Mr. Raines began leading the way to the basement stairs, cocking his rifle as he did so.
“What about you?” I asked, immediately following after him.
Mr. Raines didn’t answer as he stomped up the stairs and kicked the door open to the first floor of the cabin. The stench of the gasoline he had spilled hitting me harshly in my face.
“Kate!” Sonja’s voice, along with a different crescendo of male voices shrieked out as Mrs. Larson appeared from the corner of the hallway where the basement was located.
“Leighton?” A different woman’s voice asked the moment the old woman’s eyes spotted Mr. Raines. I then watched in both shock and confusion as it almost looked like the very skin on the woman melted off to reveal a much younger woman. The woman I recognized as Bonnie Collins. “Leighton… Love is that you?”
Mr. Raines kept his rifle on the vision of the woman he once loved before her murder, but didn’t move or speak.
“Darling, I’ve missed you so much!” The fake Bonnie cried out as she began making her way to Mr. Raines with arms open wide to hug him.
Mr. Raines then lifted his gun up higher, placing his finger on the trigger which caused the vision to stop in her place.
“Leighton?” The fake Bonnie asked. “Baby, it’s me… Bun-Bun… Don’t you recognize me…?” She began to tear up.
“You’re not my Bunny,” Mr. Raines growled before he shot once at the woman.
The fake Bonnie swiftly dodged the bullet, an inhuman hiss coming from an unhinged mouth, revealing a row of long, sharp teeth. The skin of Bonnie then melted off to reveal another woman, a lot younger than the first one it intimidated. The face of one of the victims upon being brought on this case.
“Kate,” the fake Sonja called out, “Kate, what are you doing? Who are these men? Why are they trying to hurt me?”
Kate let out a sobbing gasp, her nails digging into my shoulder with her arm wrapped around my neck.
“Didn’t I suffer enough?” The fake Sonja asked. “First my boyfriend and now you? Why don’t you want to be with me anymore?”
“Shut up!” Kate demanded. “You’re not Sonja! You killed her, you killed all of them! I don’t care what happens to me, but I’m not letting their memories end with you!”
Kate then snatched my Glock from my hand under her legs and shot directly at the fake Sonja’s head. Again the shot missed as the fake vision of the girl slithered out of the way, a frustrated growl of a dog and human escaping it’s mouth. It then zipped to the side, cowering with its back to us on the floor.
“Lucky dime…” A child’s voice then took over. The vision’s skin melting now to a much smaller figure. “Is this what you want? To kill me all over again?” He turned to look up at me, Liam’s face forever eight-years-old staring up at me. “It’s no wonder mommy and daddy hate you now… You were always a shitty brother… Now, I’m gonna starve to death because you’d rather help a couple of strangers.”
“I’m sorry, Liam,” I replied, everyone, including the fake Liam looking to me in surprise, “I left you alone out here and that’s what got you killed by that thing out there and I’m sorry. But, if I’d stayed it may have been both of us and then mom and dad would have no one left to blame but each other. If you had left and I was the one killed, you’d probably be in my shoes instead. I’m sorry for letting you get killed, but I’m gonna make up for it now.”
I then took my Glock back from Kate and pointed it to the vision of Liam.
“Good bye, Liam.”
I shot the gun once again, missing the creature again, however, this time I just kept shooting, Mr. Raines following after. Our different bullets just kept firing, the thing dodging and trying to get closer to us. The creature screeched out at us in a myriad of different voices both familiar and unknown. It wasn’t until one shot from my Glock struck the creatures shoulder and Mr. Raines’ rifle struck its head when the skins of everyone it was trying to turn into all melted off, revealing Mrs. Larson once again.
However, this time, she looked shriveled, older than she looked before. Her face looked deformed, beginning to grow furry, her eyes growing nothing but red, no irises, no pupils, just red. Her hair grew longer, branches like antlers growing painfully out from her skull, breaking the skin as they grew larger. The lower half of her face grew elongated, turning into that of a muzzle of fangs and a drooling mouth.
“You… All… Have no rrrrrrriiiiiight!” A different, unknown voice snarled out from what used to be Mrs. Larson. “People liiiiiike you all… Abandoned me and myyyyyyyyy sister!” The fur growing around this thing grew out short and shaggy, the cloths it was using melting off with the skin and flesh it was wearing. It now didn’t look anything like a human woman. It now took the form of a large wolf mixed with that of a deer, it’s body dog-like with hooves, antlers, and a long, scraggly tail. “You lot abandoned us here! You left us all here to diiiiiiiie!”
Guilt was weighing down on me with each syllable it was growling. Kate looked away from it, burying her face in my neck as Mr. Raines lowered his rifle.
“Nooooow, you’re bringing more here to just leave and let die out here!” It went on, it’s horrifying, broken body shuddering. “Why let them just vanish and die up here when they can bring people like my sister and I back? Give me Kate’s heart and fix what you threeeeeeeeee failed!”
Mr. Raines then handed over his rifle to Kate, placing it down on her stomach as her hands were still wrapped around my neck. The older man made his way over to stand over the thing, its neck creaking like a rusted door as it turned its wolf-like head to look up at him.
“Leighton…” Bonnie’s voice came from the creature. “Give mmmmeeeee her heart aaaannnnd we can be togetherrrrr again… If you eat the deeeeeetective’s we can saaaaaave you tooooooo…”
“My Bunny’s dead,” Mr. Raines told it as he dug in his pocket and took out a carton of matches, “and so am I.”
“You’d burn your wife?” A mix of Bonnie and Mrs. Larson’s voices shrieked as it glared at the match he took from the match box.
“You’re not my wife,” Mr. Raines told it, “and I’ll never see her again.”
“Fooooooool,” Mr. Larson’s voice chuckled, “you’llllllll killllllll us both!”
“With the shit I’ve done in my life, I know you’re taking me to Hell with you,” Mr. Raines growled back as he struck the match on the box, “so I’m sure as fuck not afraid to burn here on Earth with you!”
Mr. Raines then dropped the match to the floor right before the creature and everything around the two of them immediately went up in flames, the fur of the creature catching quickly and engulfing it. An agonized shriek echoed out all around us, the creature thrashing in the fire it had gotten swallowed up in. Mr. Raines then grabbed it by it’s long, furry throat and swung it down back flat the floor, jumping to pin it down.
“Get out!” Mr. Raines cried out to me. “Leave here!”
Not needing to be told twice, I held onto Kate tightly and bolted past the two burning bodies, jumping over the fire as it began growing fast throughout the cabin. I quickly got to the front door and stopped to look back to see Mr. Raines fighting the creature and preventing it from coming after us, it begging for me to bring Kate back and that it would die without her.
“I’ll clear your name,” I called back, trying not to reel back in horror as I saw Mr. Raines skin begin to melt off, “I’ll let people know you didn’t kill Bonnie!”
“I’ll let people know you didn’t… Kill… Liam!” Mr. Raines’ voice called back, him thrashing around with Mrs. Larson as he said my brother’s name in my voice.
I turned back and kicked the front door open, rushing Kate out of the burning cabin. I ran until I got far enough from the smoke, turning back to see all three cabins now on fire, the area around them all ablaze. The only place untouched was Mrs. Larson’s house, all the evidence remaining. I could hear sirens in the distance coming closer. The sounds of shouts from the surviving officers sounding much closer.
“I’m here… I’m here… I’m here…”
I looked to the front porch of Mrs. Larson’s house where her recorder continued to call out for her sister. I set Kate down at the base of a nearby tree and ran to snatch the recorder, shutting it off. I searched around, looking for any signs of Prudence, but it appeared that the fire and the sounds of sirens and voices had scared her off. I ran back to Kate, her eyes closed and her not responding to me calling to her, but after checking her pulse and breathing, I found that the medication Mrs. Larson had given her had finally taken over and she was now fast asleep, the rifle Mr. Raines gave her still sitting on her rhythmically rising and falling stomach.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I leaned against the same tree I set Kate down on and slid down to the ground next to her. The first two cabins were already practically nothing but ash, the last still blazing as I heard the slowly fading screams of Mrs. Larson and Mr. Raines coming from inside.
When the screaming ended all together, the smoke turning blacker as it rose from the flames, I got to my feet and took out my pack of cigarettes as I approached the fires, staying far enough away not to get burned. I opened the pack up before stopping myself as I reached for one of the ten remaining cigarettes inside. I then flung the entire carton into the fires without taking one.
“Save one for me down there, you old bastard,” I told Mr. Raines before making my way back to Kate’s side.
It wasn’t long before the remaining officers found us, looking in confusion at the fires and to me with a sleeping victim in a homicide case on the ground. I told them we’d need to call an ambulance for Kate and that we needed to keep the flames from getting to Mrs. Larson’s house as it held evidence on the case. One officer retrieved his radio and called for an ambulance while a group ran to the house and another went to try controlling the fire as best they could by yanking out any bushes near by and throwing them away from the area around the house.
Luckily, the fire trucks were called long before the fire spread too far, residence noticing it practically the moment Mr. Raines set the first cabin on fire.
As I sat there, keeping Kate held up against the tree we sat under, I listened to the crackling of the fire, the sirens of fast approaching fire trucks and the ambulance, and the sounds of distance, coyote, almost human, howling.