1. Carlin had a big week of giggles and guffaws for the camera. She took an influencer trip to Skyland Ranch, used a Billie Eilish song on an IG reel of her children and then gaslit her audience into believing she and Evan have well known catchphrases “CrAAzy”, “Love, Bye” and “bruh”. They slapped these random words on hats and TShirts and people STOOD IN THE RAIN to buy them. I saw a grown azz man in a “BRUH” hat. Other wild things that happened at their Cash and Carry sale included someone taking pics of their kids in front of the Tesla, referring to the dresses as “she” and calling their vlog “vloggy”.I have cringed too much over all of it. Layla put on a full show for the camera at a nail salon AND the dance studio while Zade earned his keep wearing pretend high heel shoes. They wrapped it all up in a big terrible bow by featuring Hobby Lobby.
   
2. Whitney played second fiddle all week to Carlin… folding shirts, holding babies and modeling Temu dresses that they marked up 347%. Zach was back in the Bates Kitchen this week and decided the best way to get views was to bring in the kids so we got to watch Kacie mix and mess and poke around in cake mix and canned frosting to concoct cake pops. Then the grossest thing happened… ZACH BATES FARTED. During a COOKING SHOW. IN THE KITCHEN. I mean he ripped a big ole juicy poot and they all laughed and decided to air it and then they SOLD those dang FART POPS at the Cash and Carry sale. He also made some terrible Psychology jokes. I bet soon enough they will have “fart pops” on a hat for sale.
   
3. The Balka crowd were living it up this week in a 600$ a night beachfront condo that included a beach chair service. This family trip was really just a content mill and man did Josie churn it out. She is full on exploiting her children while drowning in a sea of beige. What has happened that she is suddenly, desperately pouring out content on every platform… did Kelton tell her she needed to make some money to pay for her Sephora habit OR is a product launch in the works? Our Fundie Kim K.is pushing links while living life through a gauzy filter featuring tinkly music.
   
4. Katie had to let Travis go on this fake tour, but not before she let all the groupies know that was her mans. Trav said he was only singing 3 or 4 songs at each show so tell me again why they moved from Jersey for THIS? Speaking of Jersey, the vlog featured just a blip of the Clark family and it looks like GiGi has been drowning her sorrows by remodeling at her house. Katie got them back to the hive as quickly as possible and spent her week with Carlin and co at the playground and pool.
   
5. Lydia is bored bc she is married to Trace. All of her photography skills are now used to take pics of sneakers, weights, water bottles and pickleball. This crew has been featuring Lydia’s family pretty heavily lately, including spending Mothers Day with them where they made small talk with Trace and pretended to like him. Trace spilled the beans that his parents gave away all the pets at the big house while simultaneously telling us that Lawson doesn’t take care of Duke bc he gets dropped off there at least once a month. Later they debuted 40 minutes of Trace painting Lydia’s face like it was a fence while mouth breathing. Lydia’s mom called to show her the pet emu eating cherries and that was the best darn thing they have shown us in months. More emu please-less Trace!
   
6. Michael and Brandon brought in the professionals this week and exploited Layla and Zade Stewart. Layla is as good as any second year stage student at this point… BUT Aunt Michael has rules so she had to slow her role. Brandon was excited to draw Layla a princess after 3 weeks of sharks and whales… honestly everything he draws sort of looks the same. They also went to Honea Path to see Poppa Bill and Momma Jane who was smiling that it wasn’t one of the grands with 18 kids.
   
7. Down in passive-aggressive land Alyssa Webster told the tale of how all FOUR of her girls were asked to be flower girls and how that had NEVER happened and how SPECIAL that was. After several posts exclaiming her undying devotion and love to “buddy” she showed off the bad 80’s prom dress she was given by that dress shop she promotes. If a flame came anywhere near her it would have been all she wrote for Mrs. Webster. That dress was awful… but not as bad as the one she was gifted from BSB(which she called “my sister’s boutique”). The vlog shows John being an absolute jerk while Alyssa sneers and snarls and tries very hard not to say that her Mother’s Day sucked. It did suck and in order to make it up to her, daddy Webster put on a button down shirt and took her to the Cheesecake Factory. After all of the slap happy crappy birthday parties and Christmases she has given her girls… she expected WHAT for Mother’s Day??
   
8. Lawson made an absolute fool of himself while revealing the worst kept secret ever… it’s a boy, yall. Michael and Brandon punished themselves by throwing the party and doing all of the work while Tiffy and Lawson preened for the camera and asked people over and over what their guess was. This was filmed on I Love You Day weekend at the IBLP leaders church so this is old, old footage aaand these people are all perfectly fine with what their dad does. Tiffy and Law made it a point to say there was a bigger crowd than was at their wedding. Tiffy cried after finding out she is carrying a little Lawson and Duke was nowhere to be found. I do think he congratulated them on IG though, so all is good.
   
9. Oh Erin… what a week you had. You got Momma and Daddy Bates all to yourself for Mothers Day and for Carson/Charles’ birthday. Gil and KJ also picked up a nice paycheck for speaking and preaching at the Paine’s new church. Even though Erin happily joined a church that prides itself on promoting the corporal punishment of children, she still put together a glowing reel for Carson/Charles’ special day that featured him down at it at his second job of brothermomming. Not one picture of herself with the child was included. Later Erin threw a free notebook in with her construction paper cards as an incentive to buy. Free paper for buying paper is super exciting, right?
   
10. Bits and Bytes… Jadon and Layla are the same height. The Utah photographer that Alyssa used is followed by ALL of the Bates. Everyone of these Trad Wives are now promoting Easy plants. Why can’t Zach have any closeups in his cooking videos? Jeb/Jud broke his arm.
    

Have a great week friends and… how many Baptists it takes to change a lightbulb…. CHANGE?!? Who mentioned CHANGE!?🫠😜

I'm on my bed, scrolling through Instagram, when the notification pops up. It's Jake, my ex, with a message that drags me back to a hot summer night a few months ago. The night that was, well, different. Jake and I had been dating for almost a year. He was tall, dark, and impossibly handsome, with this magnetic confidence that pulled me in from the moment we met. That night, we were chilling at his place, a bit tipsy from the wine, and the vibe was just right. We were laughing about some silly meme, and then, out of nowhere, he leans in and whispers in my ear, "I've been thinking about trying something new tonight." I felt a rush of excitement mixed with a hint of nervousness. We'd talked about anal before, in that flirty, teasing way, but never actually done it. He saw the curiosity in my eyes and kissed me, slow and deep, his hands wandering over my body, igniting every inch of my skin. His lips found my neck, my shoulder, and then lower, making me shiver with anticipation. "Are you sure?" he asked, his voice husky, his eyes locked onto mine. I nodded, biting my lip, feeling a thrill run through me. This was Jake, the guy I trusted more than anyone, the guy who knew how to push all the right buttons. He reached over to the nightstand, grabbing the lube and a condom. My heart was racing, a mix of adrenaline and arousal. I turned onto my stomach, feeling vulnerable but also incredibly turned on. Jake's hands were magic, massaging my back, easing the tension, making me melt into the mattress. His fingers, slick with lube, gently teased my entrance, and I gasped, the sensation foreign but oddly thrilling. He took his time, circling, pressing, easing me open, whispering sweet nothings that made me feel so safe and wanted. "Relax, babe, you're doing great," he murmured, his voice a soothing balm. When he finally entered me, slowly, carefully, I felt a mix of sensations—fullness, pressure, a slight sting that quickly faded into pleasure as he moved. His hands gripped my hips, his pace gentle yet firm, each thrust sending waves of heat through my body. I moaned, the sound surprising me with its intensity, but I couldn't help it. It felt so incredibly good, different from anything I'd ever experienced. Jake was amazing, attentive, making sure I was comfortable, making sure I was enjoying every second. His rhythm picked up, and I felt myself slipping into a blissful haze, my body responding to his every move. My breath hitched, my back arched, and I lost myself in the moment, in the way he filled me, in the way we moved together. When we finally climaxed, it was like fireworks, an explosion of pleasure that left me trembling and breathless. He collapsed beside me, pulling me close, kissing me tenderly. We lay there, wrapped up in each other, basking in the afterglow, our bodies slick with sweat, our hearts beating in sync. I never expected to love it so much, to feel so connected, so alive. Even now, thinking about it, my skin tingles with the memory. It was one of those nights you don't forget, a night that changed everything. We broke up a few weeks later, but that night stayed with me. It was wild, intense, and oh so sexy. And as I lie here, smiling at Jake's message, I can't help but feel a little thrill, remembering how he made me feel, how we made each other feel. It was just one of those unforgettable experiences, a memory I'll always cherish.

1. Carlin had a big week of giggles and guffaws for the camera. She took an influencer trip to Skyland Ranch, used a Billie Eilish song on an IG reel of her children and then gaslit her audience into believing she and Evan have well known catchphrases “CrAAzy”, “Love, Bye” and “bruh”. They slapped these random words on hats and TShirts and people STOOD IN THE RAIN to buy them. I saw a grown azz man in a “BRUH” hat. Other wild things that happened at their Cash and Carry sale included someone taking pics of their kids in front of the Tesla, referring to the dresses as “she” and calling their vlog “vloggy”.I have cringed too much over all of it. Layla put on a full show for the camera at a nail salon AND the dance studio while Zade earned his keep wearing pretend high heel shoes. They wrapped it all up in a big terrible bow by featuring Hobby Lobby.
   
2. Whitney played second fiddle all week to Carlin… folding shirts, holding babies and modeling Temu dresses that they marked up 347%. Zach was back in the Bates Kitchen this week and decided the best way to get views was to bring in the kids so we got to watch Kacie mix and mess and poke around in cake mix and canned frosting to concoct cake pops. Then the grossest thing happened… ZACH BATES FARTED. During a COOKING SHOW. IN THE KITCHEN. I mean he ripped a big ole juicy poot and they all laughed and decided to air it and then they SOLD those dang FART POPS at the Cash and Carry sale. He also made some terrible Psychology jokes. I bet soon enough they will have “fart pops” on a hat for sale.
   
3. The Balka crowd were living it up this week in a 600$ a night beachfront condo that included a beach chair service. This family trip was really just a content mill and man did Josie churn it out. She is full on exploiting her children while drowning in a sea of beige. What has happened that she is suddenly, desperately pouring out content on every platform… did Kelton tell her she needed to make some money to pay for her Sephora habit OR is a product launch in the works? Our Fundie Kim K.is pushing links while living life through a gauzy filter featuring tinkly music.
   
4. Katie had to let Travis go on this fake tour, but not before she let all the groupies know that was her mans. Trav said he was only singing 3 or 4 songs at each show so tell me again why they moved from Jersey for THIS? Speaking of Jersey, the vlog featured just a blip of the Clark family and it looks like GiGi has been drowning her sorrows by remodeling at her house. Katie got them back to the hive as quickly as possible and spent her week with Carlin and co at the playground and pool.
   
5. Lydia is bored bc she is married to Trace. All of her photography skills are now used to take pics of sneakers, weights, water bottles and pickleball. This crew has been featuring Lydia’s family pretty heavily lately, including spending Mothers Day with them where they made small talk with Trace and pretended to like him. Trace spilled the beans that his parents gave away all the pets at the big house while simultaneously telling us that Lawson doesn’t take care of Duke bc he gets dropped off there at least once a month. Later they debuted 40 minutes of Trace painting Lydia’s face like it was a fence while mouth breathing. Lydia’s mom called to show her the pet emu eating cherries and that was the best darn thing they have shown us in months. More emu please-less Trace!
   
6. Michael and Brandon brought in the professionals this week and exploited Layla and Zade Stewart. Layla is as good as any second year stage student at this point… BUT Aunt Michael has rules so she had to slow her role. Brandon was excited to draw Layla a princess after 3 weeks of sharks and whales… honestly everything he draws sort of looks the same. They also went to Honea Path to see Poppa Bill and Momma Jane who was smiling that it wasn’t one of the grands with 18 kids.
   
7. Down in passive-aggressive land Alyssa Webster told the tale of how all FOUR of her girls were asked to be flower girls and how that had NEVER happened and how SPECIAL that was. After several posts exclaiming her undying devotion and love to “buddy” she showed off the bad 80’s prom dress she was given by that dress shop she promotes. If a flame came anywhere near her it would have been all she wrote for Mrs. Webster. That dress was awful… but not as bad as the one she was gifted from BSB(which she called “my sister’s boutique”). The vlog shows John being an absolute jerk while Alyssa sneers and snarls and tries very hard not to say that her Mother’s Day sucked. It did suck and in order to make it up to her, daddy Webster put on a button down shirt and took her to the Cheesecake Factory. After all of the slap happy crappy birthday parties and Christmases she has given her girls… she expected WHAT for Mother’s Day??
   
8. Lawson made an absolute fool of himself while revealing the worst kept secret ever… it’s a boy, yall. Michael and Brandon punished themselves by throwing the party and doing all of the work while Tiffy and Lawson preened for the camera and asked people over and over what their guess was. This was filmed on I Love You Day weekend at the IBLP leaders church so this is old, old footage aaand these people are all perfectly fine with what their dad does. Tiffy and Law made it a point to say there was a bigger crowd than was at their wedding. Tiffy cried after finding out she is carrying a little Lawson and Duke was nowhere to be found. I do think he congratulated them on IG though, so all is good.
   
9. Oh Erin… what a week you had. You got Momma and Daddy Bates all to yourself for Mothers Day and for Carson/Charles’ birthday. Gil and KJ also picked up a nice paycheck for speaking and preaching at the Paine’s new church. Even though Erin happily joined a church that prides itself on promoting the corporal punishment of children, she still put together a glowing reel for Carson/Charles’ special day that featured him down at it at his second job of brothermomming. Not one picture of herself with the child was included. Later Erin threw a free notebook in with her construction paper cards as an incentive to buy. Free paper for buying paper is super exciting, right?
   
10. Bits and Bytes… Jadon and Layla are the same height. The Utah photographer that Alyssa used is followed by ALL of the Bates. Everyone of these Trad Wives are now promoting Easy plants. Why can’t Zach have any closeups in his cooking videos? Jeb/Jud broke his arm.
    

Have a great week friends and… how many Baptists it takes to change a lightbulb…. CHANGE?!? Who mentioned CHANGE!?🫠😜

[Part 1]
Day 3
I woke the next morning from the sunshine in my eyes. My head was resting ever so slightly on Eli's arm as we had both fallen asleep on my bed after I begged him to stay. I blanched in horror at the drool stain I had left on the arm of his white t-shirt.
I began to slowly move myself and retreat downstairs as the memories of the night before came flooding back. How I had broken, screaming in terror, and how Eli had saved me, not knowing the true reason he found me curled up on the floor crying.
As I stepped off the bed, my leg got snagged in the frilly bed cover, and I went crashing to the ground, making quite the noise as I landed. With a yawn, Eli's eyes opened, and I felt myself blushing as he turned to look at me.
We both kind of stared at each other for a moment, not speaking. Eli opened his mouth, then closed it again as if unsure of what to say.
"Coffee?" I asked quickly, filling the awkwardness of our situation.
"Please," Eli said, smiling.
In minutes, I had a pot brewing as I leaned against the kitchen counter. Eli was picking up the scattered photographs from the floor and looking at them quizzically.
"Why do you have pictures of the Harmons?" Eli asked, showing me the photos of the yellow-haired man and his family.
"Is that their names? I found them out in the barn under a blanket," I answered as I rooted around the cupboards for two mugs.
"In the barn? I cleaned it out just last week. No way I would have missed this trunk," Eli said while examining the wooden trunk with its simple rustic hinges. It was plain and unadorned with any embellishments. Basic as basic could be.
"Well, you must have missed it because it was there," I said, putting emphasis on the "was" in a way that reminded me of my mother chastising my father.
"That's so weird," he said, shifting through the photos while sitting at the table. I brought him a cup of coffee and sugar, and he began absentmindedly adding a lot of sugar to his coffee. About six scoops later, he began stirring and sipping it.
"Well, anyways, thanks for coming last night. I wasn't myself, I hope you know that I'm not some damsel in distress," I said quickly, like word vomit, and I even chuckled at the end, feeling like a total weirdo.
"What happened anyway? You didn't say last night," he said, putting the photos down in a jumble on the table.
I paused for a moment, considering how to answer. As I sipped my coffee, I stared out into the yard beside the barn where the scarecrow stood, glancing around the edge of the barn, hanging limply in his hole. His appearance once again sad and dejected instead of murderous and terrifying.
"I was just scared, I had a nightmare, and it just scared me," I said dumbly, trying not to turn crimson again under his intense gaze.
His eyes seemed to cut right through my lie, as if he were staring directly into my being before he simply glanced away out the window. We fell silent again, and I filled some moments by sipping my drink. It seemed to revitalize me; the sun and the company made me feel secure.
"Why were you here anyways?" I asked after a moment.
"I heard screaming, so I came running. I live just on the other side of the grass there, behind the barn," Eli said, pointing to the barn out the window.
"Must be really close, I didn't see any houses on the way in," I said, prying deeper into the situation.
"It's actually a trailer, maybe like two hundred yards from here. I was outside getting some air when I heard you scream. So, I came running," Eli said, finishing his cup of coffee and placing it in between us like a barrier, as if he was hiding something.
"Could you, uh, not do that?" Eli asked, with an uncertain grin on his face.
"What am I doing exactly?" I asked, startled for a moment, my stomach doing a sort of flip.
"It's just that you like stare at people. You've been staring at me for like my whole cup of coffee, I don't think you blinked the whole time," Eli said, averting his eyes shyly.
"No, I don't," I said until I realized he was right. I never noticed that about myself.
"Right, well, I've got to go. I am probably going to start painting today, so you might see me in a bit," Eli said, rising and heading to the door.
"Wait," I said, grabbing his arm for only a moment before releasing it like it was scalding hot.
Eli glanced at my hand for a moment, then at his arm, before he, too, blushed crimson.
"I just wanted to say thank you again. For last night, I mean. Well, what I mean is I appreciate it," I said, my eyes downcast in, for some reason, shame. Like he had seen me at my weakest and it weighed on my gaze appropriately.
"It was nothing, besides I didn't get much sleep with your constant snoring," Eli said, laughing at me.
"I so don't snore," I said, swatting at him but unable to control a smile creeping up onto my face.
After Eli left, I felt instantly colder, my eyes kept returning to the scarecrow. I grabbed my camera from upstairs and went out to the yard. I scanned the dirt for anything out of the ordinary. There was no blood, or anything on the dirt where the scarecrow stood just last night. I slowly made my way to the scarecrow, but nothing happened. I snapped a photo of the inanimate object, and it didn't even flinch. I poked it, but all I felt was straw underneath its clothes. I removed its mask, expecting a severed head, but it was just straw. Nothing was here but straw. I dropped the mask on the ground and took another photo proving it was just straw and nothing else.
An idea struck me as I regarded the source of my torment. If I planned to stay even one more night here, I needed to do something about this scarecrow. I rooted around in the barn, a series of tools hung from nails in the wall. On one hung what I was searching for. An old rusted shovel with a dirty wooden handle that was worn smooth from use.
I returned to the side of the barn beside the scarecrow, knowing for whatever reason this thing only came when night fell and didn't react at all when I moved or touched it during the day.
Before my morning coffee had even settled, I began to dig at the dusty earth, loose and easy to dig, it came away in shovelfuls. Within an hour, I had a fair-sized hole in front of me. Sweat dripped from my brow, and when I wiped under my eyes, they came away black from last night's makeup. Glancing at the field of grass and knowing Eli could appear at any time, I decided to head inside and shower. The hot water was a godsend, and I lingered for longer, letting the water drain down my head and back, my eyes closed, trying to forget the images from the last two nights. I should just pack up my car and leave right this minute. But how could I explain this to my family? I decided to go through with my plan and bury the scarecrow. I could last one more night if I prepared for it.
I left the shower and dressed modestly, in another one of my old rock t-shirts and a pair of shorts. I returned to the yard and with a satisfying push, I dropped the scarecrow into the pit. It fell with a nice thud, and I smiled at my power over it in the day; it's just at night when I should fear it.
As I threw the first shovel of dirt back on top, I heard a noise in the grass, and it parted, revealing Eli wearing the same pair of jeans and work boots, but he had changed his shirt to a plain black one. In each hand, he held cans of paint and a brush.
"Should I even ask why you are burying that old scarecrow?" He asked as he came to stand beside me.
"Probably best if you didn't," I admitted, leaning on the shovel.
"Well, I'm going to anyway. Polly, why are you burying that old scarecrow?" He asked, a rare smile coming to his face.
"Because it's been haunting me at night," I said bluntly.
"Mhm, yeah, okay. Fine, don't tell me. I've been meaning to get rid of it anyway, but normal people take things to the landfill," Eli said with a smirk as he turned to the house and began setting up for his painting.
I finished burying the scarecrow and stomped the dirt down flat. I finished my job by moving my car and parking it directly over top of the spot where I buried it.
Eli watched me curiously but didn't remark. I returned the shovel to the barn and went out into the yard. I decided to go for a hike around the property. I needed some time alone to think and unwind.
As I made my way through the grass, it began to confuse me. This had obviously been a large farmland, but how had the wild plants grown in such a thick, endless maze of greenery?
It gave me an eerie feeling, like I was being watched as the grass covered three-quarters of my body, like there would be something lurking out in the grass, crouched low, waiting for me.
After a half-hour or so, I came upon a clear lake, only big enough to be considered an old swimming hole, I thought as I dipped my hand into the cool water.
I took off my outer clothes and decided to go for a swim. I lowered myself in slowly and reveled at the cool water. The pond wasn't deep, but the water was clean. A small rope swing had been hung from a large oak tree that bordered the pond. It also provided a nice layer of shade that made it the ideal spot to spend the day. I floated on my back in the water for what seemed like hours. The day seemed to slip away from me. A small beach of sand sat at one side of the pond, so I lay out in the sun and closed my eyes. The warm day warmed my soul, and soon I felt myself drifting off into sleep.
I awoke to the sound of crickets and darkness. I couldn't believe it. I had slept through the day; the long nights had finally caught up to me, and now I was stuck far away from the farmhouse. I didn't know if my plan with the scarecrow had worked, and this wasn't the place to test my theory.
A full moon lay overhead, casting a silvery glow on the world before me. A sea of grass swayed gently in the wind, sending shivers down it in shuddering waves. I looked around, but I was thankfully alone, just the crickets chirping along melodically as my only companions.
I had to make it back to the house, so I started on my way, my hands trailing along the tall grass. The pale light played easily on the deep green grass. Step by step, I made my way back towards the farmhouse and the barn, throwing caution to the wind, and I started to jog along, anything to get back faster. I would have to find Eli; maybe if we were together, he could stop it like before.
If I thought the field was creepy during the day, by night, it was a whole new world. Every sound made my heart stop for a beat before restarting in protest. When all of a sudden, the crickets stopped chirping. I dropped to my knees, letting the long grass cover me from sight. Through the strands, I could make out a shape moving slowly through the tall grass, the swish of the plants as it made its passage through them. My heart dropped. Was this Eli looking for me, or was it the scarecrow come for me?
That's when I heard a voice, a voice cutting through the silence. It started off quiet and raspy as it sang an eerie children's song.
"Did you, did you, did you come for me? Run and hide, don't you know that I seek The world it claims that I be not clean When I come, you'll see how filthy I can be.
Tonight, it is happening, tonight you'll see Beneath the moon, my shadows they do creep. In this world, at night I shall be free. Tonight it's happening, tonight you'll see When I come, you had better flee, or else I'll come and give my filth to thee."
I was frozen to the spot. It hadn't found me, but it knew I was in the grass somewhere. Now, with each word, chewed up and spat out like it was unhappy with it, now it was accompanied by the whistle of something in the air and a slicing sound as it cut through the grass around me.
It finished another round of its song, but now it stood within feet of me, its blade whistling as it cut. I took a moment to ready myself, and as it raised its blade to cut through the grass I hid in, I dashed out of my hiding spot and slammed into it. But nothing resisted me; I fell through it like it was a ghost.
In a tangle of limbs, I landed hard on the ground and tried quickly rolling to my feet. The blade of its weapon pierced the earth beside me. Now I could see it was a two-handed scythe the scarecrow carried, but something was off, its hands were human. Pale milky skin like a newborn baby. I had little time to examine the creature except for the canvas bag over its head. Two large black eyes came out of the slits that leaked a dark red blood like tears.
It screeched loudly and swung its scythe, but it was slow, and I took off through the grass in the direction of what I hoped was the farmhouse.
I completely gave up all pretense of hiding and sprinted as fast as I could without looking back. The grass seemed to part for me as I ran in terror. I was just glad that in high school, I had taken track as it was paying off now.
I could hear the noise of footsteps behind me, but I never turned. I ran and ran until my lungs felt like they were going to burst Something silver flashed to my left, and I tripped over something hard and unexpected. The wind was driven from my lungs as my chin slammed hard into the earth. I scrambled back, trying to escape, but the scarecrow was on me, its blade flashing angrily in the pale moonlight.
I wanted to move, I wanted to fight, but my body was weak and unable to catch its breath, and I lay there helpless as it swung its scythe towards me. I closed my eyes in fear, but I only heard the thud of dirt before I opened my eyes. The scythe was discarded, and the scarecrow stood staring at me.
It seemed to be struggling with something, one hand reached out towards me only to be snapped back to its side. A roar of rage pierced the canvas sack over its head as it struggled against its invisible bonds. For a moment, I thought I saw something behind it, three sets of hands holding it back. One feminine in nature, and the other two must have belonged to children. In a flash, I saw a beautiful woman who looked vaguely familiar with her long brown hair and plain dress.
"Run," she moaned as the scarecrow swung around wildly.
I didn't hesitate and fled, my breath had returned, and while my body still ached from my fall, I powered on, knowing this was the only respite I would receive tonight.
In the distance, I could see a small sheet metal shape; Eli's trailer was slowly coming closer as I ran, and I beelined it for the trailer. I could hear the footsteps behind me again as the scarecrow resumed its chase after me.
I reached the old trailer and banged on the door as loud as I could; I rattled the handle, but it was locked.
"Eli, it's me. It's Polly, please let me in. Please," I begged as I banged over and over again on the door of his trailer.
Nothing responded to me, and the trailer was dark. The single window in the back held no life inside the trailer. From the trailer, I couldn't tell which direction the farmhouse was in the dark, so I fled into the tall grass and crouched low, watching the clearing around the trailer.
While I caught my breath, I watched the scarecrow enter the clearing, its scythe back in its hand as it circled the trailer. When its raspy voice began singing again low and quiet, only loud enough for me to hear.
"Did you, did you, did you come for me? Run and hide, don't you know that I seek The world it claims that I be not clean When I come, you'll see how filthy I can be.
Tonight, it is happening, tonight you'll see Beneath the moon, my shadows they do creep. In this world, at night, I shall be free. Tonight it's happening, tonight you'll see When I come, you had better flee, or else I'll come and give my filth to thee."
The song made me shiver uncontrollably at the lyrics and the voice; it sounded demented like a crazy person letting their demons out into a nursery rhyme.
I lay perfectly still; for some reason, it couldn't find me. This creature I assumed was all-knowing seemed to have some very human weaknesses. It moved and talked like a human, even had certain body parts that were from a human; it even felt human the way it chased and reacted.
The scarecrow moved on through the tall grass, and I let out a sigh of relief as it lost my trail. How terrifying that beast was. In my pocket was the keys to my car. Eli had told me that the farmhouse was fairly close to his trailer. I had to navigate to the car, then drive as fast as I can away from this place. The fact that I hadn't left already because I was worried about money was insane. Who cares, I could drive to Barb's and demand my money back. Go home and just tell my parents the truth. The whole reason for actually leaving home this summer, why I was actually here in this field shivering uncontrollably in fear. But I couldn't think about that now, not now, there will be time to deal with that later. Now I needed to focus on staying alive, getting to the car, and getting out of here.
I went in the direction the scarecrow had; he knew the land better than I did, and every noise I made in the silence of the night made my heart drop. It took all my courage there and then to take one step forward, then another. I felt like I was going to be sick; my stomach was in knots to where it felt like even if I was sick, the only thing to come out would be only bile and stomach acid.
With each careful step, I made my way closer to the farmhouse and the scarecrow. Through the darkness, I could see my goal, the farmhouse, and the barn. Within minutes, I had made it securely to the farmhouse yard.
My car still sat in the same spot overtop of the hole where I buried the scarecrow. In the moonlight, I could see that the dirt had not been disturbed.
The scarecrow was nowhere to be seen, and I cautiously made my way to my car, my keys in my hand as I approached the driver's door. I hadn't locked the car, and it opened on the first try. I turned on my car as quietly as I could, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.
Something landed heavily on top of the roof of my car, making it dent inwards slightly. With horror, I saw the scarecrow swing its scythe into the back window of my car. With a crash, the glass shattered inwards; I put my car into gear and roared away down the lane. In my rearview mirror, I couldn't see anything, so I swerved back and forth, trying to shake the creature from the roof of my car when the scythe crashed in through the front window, making a hole just large enough for it.
The glass spidered, and I couldn't see out the window very well. I swerved down the road, but the scythe remained in the car, allowing the creature purchase. In a panic, I spun my wheel wildly, trying to dislodge it, but I lost control, and soon felt something crash into the front of my car. The airbag went off in my face, and I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt. I slammed hard into something else, and my vision went dark. I was in a daze; I must have passed out because I don't remember a lot of what happened next. I felt the car door open with a crunching tear, and it landed loudly as it was torn off. My body being grabbed and tossed on the ground. I felt no pain, just a gentle numbness. I felt blood on my head as I raised my arm to touch my face.
Then just blackness, complete, and empty just feelings, fear, unease, sadness. My eyes opened, and the scarecrow was overtop of me. Pain on my chest and my vision went dark again. Coughing as something poured down my throat. I couldn't breathe, why couldn't I breathe?
My eyes opened one last time, and I saw the scarecrow pouring a dark liquid from its mouth directly into my mouth and eyes. My vision was red and bloody before I closed them one last time.
The words of its song echoed into the emptiness of my thoughts.
"Did you, did you, did you come for me? Run and hide, don't you know that I seek? The world it claims that I be not clean. When I come, you'll see how filthy I can be.
Tonight, it is happening, tonight you'll see, Beneath the moon, my shadows they do creep. In this world, at night, I shall be free. Tonight it's happening, tonight you'll see, When I come, you had better flee, or else I'll come and give my filth to thee."
The darkness enveloped me, and I felt myself slipping away, the sounds of the night fading into oblivion.

My name is Dr. Smith, not my real name of course, but for purposes of storytelling it will have to suffice. I have been practicing medicine at an Asian country as a general practitioner. I'm relatively new and I practice at a small village, not too far from civilization, half a day's travel by car and a few hours by boat from the country's capital, but very rural nonetheless, complete with superstitious beliefs and customs. I decided to stay here when I first graduated and passed the licensure exam for two reasons: first, I have a place to stay here, my family's ancestral home (although none of my direct relatives have lived there for years), said ancestors being one of the first people to settle in the area and second, because my family had always been the physicians in this small community as far as anyone remembers. Me, my grandfather and his father before him all went to the city to study medicine and went back here to practice it, like there was a pull, a calling, to sacrifice the convenient, fast-paced city life for the quiet and serene. My mother hated the idea, as clingy as she is to me, saying things like she wanted me to always be around where she could protect me, but you can't really help it when purpose calls. To be honest, it feels good providing a wide range of services to the honest people of our small, humble town, no greater feeling than helping the less privelaged, educating them and dispelling preconceived notions and old wives tales which are aplenty in my country, especially here.
I still recall how everything began. I made a makeshift clinic at one of the rooms of my ancestral home, it used to be my grandfather's office, but it felt old, antique, and perhaps too... professional, nothing wrong with that, but I wanted my patients to feel a more homely setting. So, I rearranged a bit, removed the imposing self portrait of my great-grandfather wearing his white coat that hang on the wall and transferred it to a more private area of the house. I changed the dim, barely functioning lights into brighter, more modern ones, removed the exceedingly extravagant chandelier and equipped the room with materials and equipment that I deemed necessary for my practice. I retained the wooden floors, but outfitted the walls with charts and more colorful decorations, in anticipation for the occasional pediatric patient. It was beginning to look less like an old abandoned house where teenagers went for the spooks and more like a place of healing and betterment, a clean place offering a clean mind...or so I hope.
"Your grandfather would have a heart attack if he wasn't dead already, seeing what you've done with his old clinic" quipped Martha, our housekeeper. All I know about Martha is that my grandfather hired her as a young teen and she has been here since then, she babysat and raised my mother as her own, and even took care of me as a toddler. Considering her age, she mostly supervises the younger and more capable help rather than doing tasks herself. None of them stay at the house, but they get called upon when me or any of my relatives were expected. Most of the family consider her as one of our own at this point.
"Well i'm sure great grandpa on the other hand enjoys the change of view" I replied jokingly. "Besides, I bet the patients would appreciate not being treated in such a dark, gloomy room."
"You know how your grandfather was..." she replies, that the idea of a dark, gloomy, old man liking dark, gloomy, old places was a no brainer. "...but everything aside, it is so nice to see you again, have you been feeling better? What did your mother think of you staying here?" she said with what I felt as outmost sincerity, "I used to chase and carry you around this estate and now look at you, about to carry out your family's legacy as a physician yourself" she continued, with a hint of pride from her tone.
I smiled. I myself couldn't think of a reason why a well respected man, revered even, by this town and it's people for everything he has done would act nonchalant and depressed, always with a jaded look in his eyes and stay in an equally dim and depressing part of his house, I've always known him to be like that, but was he always?
"I am better now. It's good to see you too, I'm glad you're staying healthy, and mom sure did not like it but well...she told me to say hi on her behalf" I told Martha. She beams up and smiles on my mother's mention.
"Well...I took the liberty of digging up your grandfather's documents, records and his patient charts, I doubt many of them still live but I thought maybe you'd like to have a look, I placed them around your desk but I can relocate them if you want me to"
"No, that's perfect. That's something I actually intended to do, i'll give it a read, thank you" I replied. I know some of those patients were either old or probably dead to be honest, but seeing data as well as the cases my grandfather had to deal with might help me in the future.
"The villagers already know Dr. Smith's grandson is here, they know you're a doctor, so expect to have a patient one of these days, perhaps as soon as you give the word that your clinic is open" Martha said, as she walks out of the room smiling and slightly waving, signalling a goodbye.
"I'm not even surprised" I think to myself. Places like these, words spreads like wildfire on topics like these, the idea of someone from a known family, coming back from the city, not to mention deciding to stay indefinitely, like the whole village needed notification, like the village demands explanation.
Hours passed and as I was satisfied with my new setup for the clinic, I took a break, sitting down and looking at the mountain of paperwork and folders placed on and around my desk. I picked one, thinking to myself that I might as well have a look now, with nothing else of note to do.
Patient #010438 Name redacted 43/Female
History of present illness: Patient had 3 day history of undocumented fever, dysuria, and bilateral flank pain Did not seek consult, no medications taken
Past Medical History Unremarkable
Personal and Social History Unremarkable
OB history illegible
Physical Examination BP 110/80 HR 102 RR 20
Nonhyperemic tonsils No murmurs Clear breath sounds Nontender abdomen (+) Kidney punch test
Noted a signature of the patient claiming she was not pregnant as a form of waiver
"Jesus grandpa, couldn't your history and physical exam get any lazier?" I thought to myself. Seeing pertinent history not asked and multiple organ systems ignored on physical examination. Given, some of the writing were already faded, the quality of the paper had deteriorated greatly, and plenty of details already illegible, all in all the documents weren't that bad. It sure doesn't help though that he writes like someone in the middle of a warzone practicing heiroglyphs.
I skimmed through more of the documents and patient files, most of the cases are relatively benign, majority are outpatient visits, some are emergency cases and there are the rare ones requiring transfer to a more developed town hours from here with better services and equipment. Time passed and as I lay down the last folder in a pile, I noticed a moderately sized box, probably the size of a briefcase, placed on the floor, dusty but obviously ornate. It piqued my interest although in my mind, I was pretty sure it was nothing but more documents, I decided to give it a look.
I picked a stack up and I started to read:
Patient #00512c Name redacted 32/Female
"Weird" I thought, it was numbered differently, and definitely none of the other documents were lettered. I continued reading:
History of present illness: This is a case of a 32 year old female who came in on date redacted due to a chief complaint of multiple hematomas, abrasions, burn wounds and lacerations on her face, trunk and extremeties..."
"Trauma? An accident? Possible abuse?" I contemplated.
"...patient allegedly noticed easy bruisability 2 weeks prior to consult, followed by alleged spontaneous appearance of abrasions and lacerations 2-3 days from onset of bruising, supposedly waking the patient at night due to the sudden sharp and searing pain, initially small cuts 3-5cm widest on her extremeties and face but eventually progressing to deep cuts measuring approximately 10-50cm on her back, chest, abdomen and lower extremeties. 1 week prior to consult, patient started noticing burning sensations on her skin, causing extreme pain and leaving reddish burn marks on her body, patient also experienced lack of appetite and inability to sleep due to loud voices and..."
"Spontaneous appearance? Easy bruising could be a lot of things, but for it to occur with 'spontaneous' abrasions and lacerations? Not to mention burn marks?" I thought out loud, having doubts about the credibility of the use of the word "spontaneous". Surely it was not an accident, considering it started 2 weeks ago with noted progression. "It could be a hematologic problem with the bruising, but that wouldn't explain the sudden appearance of cuts...maybe accompanied by a dermatologic one, the patient is prone to breaks in the skin? But then again the burn marks...the voices..." I analyzed. I was leaning towards abuse, where the cuts and bruises were inflicted by someone else and the abused, whether in some form of fear or coping, decides that it was "spontaneous" rather than inflicted, but why bother lying to yourself, perhaps the one who did it to her is a partner? Or a loved one? It made sense, someone progressively becoming more aggressive with her as time went by, becoming more and more extreme, from bruises to eventually burning.
It could a combination of illnesses to be honest, one on top of another, perhaps an overly sensitive or extremely dry skin that breaks and peels until it bleeds, an allergic reaction prompting the patient to unconciously scratch till her skin became red and lichenified, voices due to lack of sleep or a mental disorder. But looking at my grandfather's physical examination of her, none of the findings solidifies the possibility of those i've mentioned. Truth be told I also partially allowed myself to tunnel vision on the prospect of an abuse, to the point I've skipped some of the chart's contents that I deemed weren't important and tried to look for information to support my claim, or perhaps to disprove it, rookie mistake, but well, I am a rookie then.
"Patient is widowed, lives alone at a secluded area near redacted, only goes out to buy some necessities from redacted but has very minimal interaction from anyone in the village"
Okay then, either she is hiding the fact someone was with her, who is abusing her like I initially thought of, or it's self harm. "I'm pretty sure grandpa considered everything that went through my mind right now. Let me check his initial impression" I thought, with a tinge of annoyance, considering I felt that the patient lied to my grandfather, and was lying to me, decades after the fact.

1 Trauma, to consider physical abuse versus self harm;

"Alright, now we're getting somewhere" I said to myself, with a bit of pride having the same thought process as a physician with decades more experience than I do.

2 To consider mental disorder, probably psychotic - premature dementia

I chuckled. Premature dementia, didn't think i'd see that term, I thought everyone including those from his time would have used schizophrenia already, then again medicine and medical knowledge isn't as easily passed around as it is now. Psychiatry as a science would be relatively new during his time compared to other disciplines so the fact he considered it based on the patient hearing "voices"? Bravo gramps.
"Well...", I thought to myself, "...plenty of things to consider and rule out, let me check what else is there." A bit of cockiness on picking my grandfather's brain out and feeling good about my train of thought, a practice consult and so far, I'm on my way to a perfect score...

3. To consider possession probably secondary to malevolent spirit

.................
I gave the document a stern look, unmoving, unblinking, emotionless. Time has stopped, and I haven't noticed. My brain trying to digest the information, the same way my stomach would probably digest a block of steel...it's just not possible. I read one of my grandfather's diagnosis again:

3 To consider possession probably secondary to malevolent spirit

I never been one for faith. Evidence is everything. Science is everything. You can replicate it, you can prove it. Most importantly...It. Makes. Sense. I look at beliefs not based on evidence and feel nothing but skepticism if not disdain. Why won't people listen to expert opinion? Why won't people believe in facts? Why explain the unknown in such convoluted ways, requiring submission of oneself when the only thing the truth requires is but comprehension. I looked at that diagnosis feeling disappointment.
Then I felt anger. "Grandpa, what the fuck is wrong with you?!" I thought to myself. Here is a woman, full of bruises, cuts and burns all over her body, claiming that she has been suffering for weeks, barely eats or sleeps, was having auditory hallucinations, in dire need of medical, if not emotional and psychological support and one of the things that comes across your mind is possession.
I tried to calm my mind, these are records of the past anyway, I thought. Maybe it was a resignation born out of incompetence. Maybe grandpa wasn't as good of a doctor as I thought he was, that the shortcomings of his knowledge and limited technology of his time prompted him to adopt a more...liberal viewpoint to medicine. Maybe he was just superstitious himself. Maybe the people of this place had leaked some of their local beliefs into his psyche. Maybe isolation changed the man. Or maybe...just maybe...there's something to it.
I've never been one for faith. That goes for my faith in science as well. To just say that something is stupid because it doesn't align with standard, accepted scientific belief is just as detrimental as its counterpart.
I decided to investigate further when I heard the entrance to the room open with force. One of the maids leaning onto the wall by the entrance, still grasping the doorknob and evidently out of breath.
"Sir...ma'am Martha...calling...for you...says...it's...it's...an emergency..." She says in between breaths.
I quickly stood up, feeling sorry for the woman, she just ran, obviously gasping for air as she arrived at the clinic and now has to lead me back to wherever she came from with the same urgency. At first I was worried something might have happened with Martha, what the maid said didn't really give much clarity, but upon arriving at the main hall I noticed Martha, standing beside a middle aged man and woman, carrying a child, no more than 10 years old. I notice the clear panic and worry on both of their eyes as the man held the boy, who was uncontrollably shaking.
"I know you're not taking any patients yet and I was considering the time, but nobody knows what to do so I..." Martha explains, quite concerned while I ordered the parents to put the child flat on the ground, with me assessing the situation. The first thing I noticed was that the child was burning hot, "possibly febrile seizure? No, too old" I thought. I asked both the parents important details while I ordered the other maid to time the duration of the child's seizure. All the while thinking of possible diseases that may present as such, "Seizure disorder? Epilepsy? Meningitis? Encephalitis?" Eventually the shaking stopped, much to the parents' relief, and I ordered them to carry the boy as we made our way back to the clinic.
"Was this the first time it ever happened?" I inquired, as I put the child on one of the beds in the clinic, securing the corners with additional pillows, noticing the sunken face and apparent exhaustion from the boy, possibly due to the ongoing fever and the recent seizure episode. Once secured, I face the parents and continued my inquiries, I eventually explained everything, elaborating on what I believe happened, I explained that for now, lowering the fever and investigating the source were what we could address, the battery of tests I plan to do (disappointingly, most of them cannot be done here, and I would have to accompany them to a hospital on another town as soon as first light breaks), and the medications and management I plan to give. Everything proceeded as planned and I asked both parents to relax and take a breather, offering them a seat and asking the help to give them water.
Things eventually settled, little Johnny's fever subsided and color came back to him. Nowhere near clear, he can worsen anytime, but that was the best that we could do at that time. The parents were still worried, understandably so, but to an extent reassured, we have a plan after all. Martha, as well as Diane (the help from earlier), now at a calmer state. We discussed the plan, how we would travel, who would accompany us and what we would bring. Eventually, our conversations became relaxed, started to shift to other things, trivial matters, such as were they lived in the village, the date and time of my arrival, recent gossip, where Martha was more than happy to share.
"I was worried the evil spirits might have gotten my baby..." Said the mother nonchalantly, as we talked about the occurrence on a lighter note. "...that's how they got Mrs. Johnson's middle child. That poor boy was never the same after."
I smiled. Not wanting to immediately correct them and sound like an uptight individual. It's part of our culture afterall, old belief systems and a way for people to cope with loss or difficulty, who was I to deny them that. I won't approach these people the hardheaded way, but I will slowly show them the realities and truths of the things they may not understand, well, at least with regards to their health.
"Well, little Johnny is safe here, we'll do what we can" pointing to their son.
Only, their son wasn't where he was supposed to be. I look at the parents, I look at both Martha and Diane, everyone who looked at where I pointed were just as shocked as I was, a split second of silence before panic ensued. Suddenly, everyone stood up on high alert and was looking everywhere. Under covers, under the bed, corners of the room, the desk, behind curtains, hell, I saw Diane look at one of the damn drawers, as if a 10 year old would fit there.
Suddenly I heard loud vomiting, retching, followed by sounds of splashing. I follow where the sounds came from and see a large pool of black, tarry liquid at a corner of my room. I slowly trace where it was coming from and there he was...little Johnny...standing...upside down...on the ceiling.
I hear everyone in the room scream, I was probably screaming too, I couldn't remember. I do remember little Johnny screaming with us though, extremely high pitched and mockingly, with bloodshot eyes, upside down, while black liquid poured from his mouth, covering his face and dripping from his hair. How was that even possible, screaming while liters of unknown fluid dripped from his mouth? I don't know.
Then he laughed, although I was pretty sure that wasn't his voice. It was deep and guttural, it cannot be the boy's voice, it cannot be any boy's voice.
Time seemed to move in slow motion, I was noticing every detail, every expression from everyone's face, I can feel the seconds hand on my wall clock move, the slow dripping of the viscous dark liquid from little Johnny, I can feel every drop of sweat on my body. I could not cope with what i'm experiencing, was it a trick of the mind, an organized prank, have I gone mad...again? So I did the only thing I know how to do...
I tried to diagnose.
"Maybe it was dengue shock all along!" I thought to myself. "Vomiting blood, paleness, fever, an episode of seizure and definitely change in sensorium" I reasoned to myself. I was coping, and I was coping hard. I was ready to drown on my self absorbtion when a booming voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
"YOU DUMB FUCK, WILL ANY ILLNESS EXPLAIN WHY YOUR FUCKING PATIENT IS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN ON THE FUCKING CEILING?" Said little Johnny, or at least whoever was speaking on his behalf, because from where I'm standing, I can clearly see that the boy was not mouthing any of the words he said.
"YOU'RE A FUCKING FAILURE, DOCTORS LIKE YOU SHOULD KILL THEMSELVES! HAHAHAHA" he laughed, I never knew laughs could sound like that, as if the words were nails, and his voice box a chalkboard.
"OH WAIT, YOU FAILED AT THAT TOO DOC! FUCKING PATHETIC!"
Of all the things that were happening...a young boy hanging upside down, a mother crying on the floor hysterically, a father staring at his son, eyes wide open and mouth agape, Martha and Diane, both crying while sharing a rosary, in the act of what I assume to be prayer...the thing that snapped me out of my trance was the words that came from little Johnny. Knowledge nobody but the closest to me should know. A secret I planned to leave behind when I left the city, a wound I intended to forget as I started anew.
Visions of my memories came flashing back...medical school...overwhelming duty...familial expectations...failure...depression...my attempt...a bottle of medications...my mother...crying...on my bedside...
"LEAVE MY SON ALONE!" Johnny's father screamed. Starling everyone in the room.
Nothing matters, the past is in the past, I am better now, and that boy needs help, more than anything.
"YOUR SON? WHY DON'T WE ASK THAT CRYING WHORE IF JOHNNY REALLY IS YOUR SON" The voice says, laughing.
At that point the mother stops crying, looks up towards johnny, then towards his husband, in a state of shock. Like what the voice said is crazier than whatever was happening at the moment.
"THE ONLY REASON THAT WHORE STUCK WITH YOU WAS BECAUSE JOHNNY'S REAAAAAAAL FATHER WOULD NOT TAKE HER!" The entity says, continuing the hysteric laughter.
We were being played. It was toying with us. And from the look on the mother's face...it seems like little Johnny did not even need to lie to do it.
Then, to everyone's horror..."It" started to run.
It ran across the ceiling in a rabid frenzy, erratic and forceful, running and jumping, hopping sideways then going on all fours, still attached to the ceiling, splashing bile and blood all over the room, all the while making a "hihihi" sound...childish and terrifying. It ran and ran, repeating the same erratic change in movements, repeating the same eerie giggle until it reached the window, stopping and standing straight, it stared outside for what felt like forever...then all of a sudden...johnny just fell, like whatever was attaching him to the ceiling just gave, headfirst into the floor, giving a very audible cracking sound.
I heard a gasp from johnny's mother. I can at least detect some miniscule chest expansion, but that cracking sound cannot be anything good. As if thinking the same thing, Martha, who was the nearest to where Johnny fell, while still clinging tightly to Diane's rosary, approached the boy.
"Johnny?" She said softly, all the while approaching an inch at a time.
As she was almost at arms length of the boy's body, she gives the mother a knowing look, confirming that he was breathing. Martha suddenly produces a piece of cloth from one of the pockets of her uniform, possibly to pack the bleeding from the head. She intended to put the cloth on top of the boy's head, but looked towards my direction, urging me forward, perhaps for me to place it properly. I walk towards the boy, takes the cloth from Martha and as I fold the cloth to circle Johnny's cranium with Martha's help, the boy immediately sat up, looks at Martha and smiles ear to ear...literally ear to ear.
"GET YOUR WRINKLY HANDS OFF ME YOU DUSTY OLD FUCK!" He barks at her, Martha screams in fear and I was taken aback.
That was all the time Johnny needed to stand and jump towards the window, breaking it and running towards the mountainside. I hear his father scream his name, quickly breaking more glass so he could fit, and immediately giving chase. The mother was still on the floor, wailing towards the direction of her child and husband. Martha, in shock, still holding the cloth she intended to wrap johnny with.
It took me a while to notice Diane shaking me vigorously. "Doctor!" She screams. "Doctor Smith! What should we do!?" She voices out, with obvious desperation.
I ignored her.
I feel scared, but taking all into consideration, I predominantly feel tired. Defeated. Insulted.
I have nothing more to give in the face of whatever that thing that took Johnny was.
I slowly walk towards my desk, I open my drawer, I take a piece of paper and I pull out my pen.
Patient #00001a Name redacted 10/M
I write, giving no thoughts to the people on the same room as me, those left behind by little Johnny and his father. "Did he catch up to him? Was the boy alright now?...is his father alright?" I wonder. I'll find out soon enough, I figured, rumors spread like wildfire around here anyways.
I continued to write with resignment, absorbed in my own little world, consumed by the horror I witnessed, the breaking of my spirit, of my beliefs, the questioning of my knowledge. I want to escape it, deny it, but that's not what should be done to the truth. So I surrendered.

1 To consider possession probably secondary to malevolent spirit

END

Hurricane Georg.
Our first contact with the new world was a colossal hurricane. Veins of lightning shattered through the black, swirling clouds. I had just tried to calm the nerves of the ship when I saw Suri sitting in the hall beneath the control room.
She was in a lounge corner with her suitcase opened and her supplies scattered across the small table. The little light from the window illuminated her drawing for me to see over her shoulder.
The black and white sketch began at the bow of the ship. The figure of a man in facing the open ocean. Ahead of him, the familiar despair of Hurricane Georg. The man had his back towards the artist, but his stature sailed through the fierce storm without worry. His gaze only in the beautiful sight of home on the other side.
Her pencil began to etch the details of his crewmans jacket, "You have a gift, Suri. Truly, you do."
She was ahead of me, she did not jump or gasp as I had expected, "Thank you, Capi. I saw you in the reflection. Im hard to get the jump on."
"Then this shouldnt surprise you," I smiled and approached her table. "My capi stars are on the right side, "I stepped back and tapped my shoulder."
Disappointment inked her face, darkening her mood, "Dam."
I laughed and pulled up a chair. She had captured the view from the window perfectly and I made a point to tell her. As we talked the storm outside began to fade. The world around us was healed and the worries of yesterday had never existed.
Her eyes were near black, in color, and her skin was incredibly warm. Physical characteristic were useless to determine where a person was from, but 500 years ago, she would have fit at home with the people of the Middle East. Had I been a different man, her beauty and brain would make a perfect partner.
The longer I stared, the darker the world around us became. Until she broke my gaze and looked shocked at something through the window.
"Did you see that?"
"No, what was it?"
"I-Im not sure..." her face drained of color as the harsh rocking of the storm was interrupted by something else. Suri and I were flung off our chairs onto the floor, her supplies pelting us as they flew through the air. I tried to stand, but my legs were too soft to make it easy.
I struggled to a kneel using the bolted-down desk. Suri gasped and I looked down. The longer I looked, the itchier it became. Once more the world grew darker and I only had enough energy for a simple joke.
"Mr. Morgs was right about those things."
"Gud morning, Capi!" Ennay cheered from the wall-mounted screen.
I struggled to sit myself up. I was in the infirmary, only Ennay was there to greet me. My jacket was gone. All I had on was a white t-shirt and grey shorts.
"Officer Angelhart had your attire taken to be cleaned," Ennay chimed in, "Today is Wednesday, sir, 4:13am. Its the morning after you lost consciousness."
I thanked him and asked him to catch me up on the happenings in the passed half day.
"The reality is unclear, Capi, but Helmsman Archer believes we were attacked by a... a sea monster, sir."
"Archer? Hes no storyteller. Why?" I swung my legs over the bed, "get him down here or tell him im on my way."
Ennay surprised me with his fast response, "No. Sir, We had a breach. Ms. Aziz told the Doctor you had severed and artery during a spell of turbulence. The New Horizon had actually made contact with something what breached the hull. Damage Control responded in 4 minutes and were quick to contain flooding. However, we sustained a second breach."
Before he could continue, I dropped back onto the bed, "Whats the status?"
"On the New Horizon? Operational. A few sections had to be permanently sealed until we are out of this storm."
"And Damage Control?"
Ennay did not respond as quickly as he had been. It felt like an eternity before he told me, "6 casualties," the room fell completely silent. I couldnt even hear my heart beating, "5 fatalities. Sergant Franccigo Blanco is recovering in Infirmary 4C. He is unconscious, but has sustained gruesome wounds. Officer Angelhart declared a S.O.E. to assume your position. Otherwise,..."
"Yes, yes, the prosthetics. I hate that system."
"Well, sir, you are able to disable it."
"What?"
"Its not a very common scenario, but since we are not in International Sea, the law requiring your presence does not necessarily need to be enforced."
I sat back and thought for a second, "Ill discuss it with Dr. Mally. Where are they all?"
"Dr. Mally is in Infirmary 4C with Sergant Blanco. Officer Angelhart is your office filling out an incident report for both your accident and the breaches."
"Thank you, Ennay. Tell Max I am on my way and then let Dr. Mally know I will meet her shortly."
"Of course, sir."
My office was silent except for the fan gently spinning from the ceiling. Across from me was a young man, mid-twenties, with dusty blond hair. His uniform was perfect, he has even removed his hat on the perfect beat upon entering the room.
The appearance and demeanor any ship captain would be beyond proud to accept on his ship. It had just been dumb luck that he had lost both of his eyes to shrapnel sealing off the lower corridors during the state of emergency yesterday.
I poured Mr. Blanco a drink, 2444 Geoff Russel - The Hearty Mans Drink. I needed to finish the incident report, but Id never ask a man to relive what he had without a bit of buzz to his bite.
"So, Sargent Blanco, I-"
"You can call me, Fran, Capi."
"And you can call me Santago, for tonight anyway," I continued my questions. I tried my best to stay shallow and not dive deep into the pain Fran had endures just hours ago.
We talked about the 5 fatalities.
"Did you... see... them die?"
The gauze replacing his eyes stared at me, blankly. His face was uncanny, unhuman. Like the man inside may actually have been a 6th dead body.
"No," he quickly took a drink, "I did hear them, though. They yelled and screamed for me to open the door. I- I couldnt see. I thought the sea water had poisoned me somehow. I kept rubbing and rubbing my eyes hoping to get whatever radioactive stuff out of my head..." He took a breath. He was remarkably calm. Agitated, of course. But calm.
He continued, "I looked through the window on the bulkhead and the last thing I saw was Aleks staring back at me. His eyes were... he was calling out for me, I am sure of it. But something got him and he was sucked out."
"I am so sorry, Fran," I tried to write as quietly as possible to not remind him of the formality, "Do you know what got him?"
He finished his glass. As he set it down, he missed the table. The cup did not shatter, but it had jolted Fran from his memory. He lost his composure.
He started yelling at me about a horrific beast he had seen. How Aleks, Private Aleksander Igorsen, had been encased in blood and black sludge. He swung his hands wildly at the table in a rage, but had only managed to knock over a lamp.
Pity does not begin to describe what I felt watching him. Like a bleeding animal continuing to run from the wolves despite not knowing he was already surrounded. In him, I saw death. I saw anger. I saw fear. I saw what he was feeling imaging the creature that killed his men.
I grappled with him, trying to make my location known and always talking to him. I was not some monster from the unknown blackness set on hunting him and he needed to know that. He continued to struggle until I had completely engulfed his whirlwind into a hug. The screams turned to cries and then to whimpers.
After some time, I dismissed him back to his room and instructed Ennay that he was on suicide watch. Sergant Franccigo Blanco had earned a promotion or a permanent dismissal, whichever he wanted, but I needed him to take time to himself before I reminded him where we are.
The storm was intense, but at least it was consistent. By Katzs reckoning, we are approaching the halfway point of this hurricane. We had entered it 51 hours ago and Katz had said we are another 50 away from clear skies.
Unfortunately for all of us, Katzs theory was not seen through.
It began with our solar panelling being severed from their operating power banks. That was not a major issue, hydropower was our primary source. The issue arose when the New Horizon began to spin.
I had radioed the Helmsman demanding why we are weighing anchor, but the anchor was still resting above water. He said no one dropped the anchor. Something else entirely had us. We rushed to every window, every pane of glass to search for whatever it was that was stopping us.
Ennay spoke out, "Capi, Major Gorlammi has spotted our snag at 129 degrees. Nearest viewpoint is Residential Room L3D, assigned to L-"
I ignored the rest, I needed to see what was in that window. Luckily for me, Lucy Partridge was not home. I burst through the door and, for the first time, I saw a behemoth of a serpent-like creature sticking out of the water. I could not see a head, nor tail. I also had no idea if what I saw was the body or an appendage connected to some inconceivably large beast.
After enough time, I manage to figure out one of the ships heavy guns had pierced the creature and was holding us together. Our best bet was to either rotate the gun and hope its dislodged or to remove the gun entirely.
I relayed this information to Ennay to alerted the Gunner Teams and Damage Control. Yet, none of them would be given the chance. In the distance, silhouetted by sparks of lightning the size of the ship, I saw the head of the creature. It must have been miles away, but the size was unparalleled. Its head leaped from the water and swiveled back towards us. It was like a colossal eel. Flashes of light showed through its skin like veins until it sent a surge into the gun and into the ship.
The lights went out across the boat. The only light was the occasional flash from outside. It was completely dark, but I knew it was still coming for us.
I ran out of the quarters as emergency lights slowly burned. The hallway must have been 100 feet long before Id reach the staircase, but when I was halfway through, my feet left the ground.
I felt weightless for a moment. The lights burned out and all around me was darkness. My heart was incredibly slow or maybe time had slowed. I felt the doorframe to Mrs. Partridges room snap against my elbow. There was no pain. I didnt even feel pain when glass cut across my back as I was hurled through the shattered window.
I crashed into the water, it must have been hundreds of feet below me. I was in shock. I looked around and all I saw was darkness. Then, suddenly, all I saw was light. The eel sent a pulse through its body and for the first time I saw the monster entirely. It surrounded the ship above water, coiled all about the waves, and entangled the entire ocean as deep as I could see.
This is not a colossal eel surviving a hurricane.
This colossal eel is the very being causing the hurricane.
A cosmic terror named Hurricane Georg.

I'm not writing this for pity, or attention or any of that, if anyone thinks that, then that's your loss, but before I get into what happened with me and my daughter, I guess I should explain my background, I'm a single father of a proud daughter, my wife died in a horrific car accident a few years ago, it impacted me very much, and this incident... This hurt me to the point where I want fucking revenge, let me explain everything...
So my daughter was 5 at the time, a curious naive happy child who would rarely get into trouble, I took her to this daycare named 'Jay's Nest.' the kids at the daycare were nice to her, but I was suspicious on the teacher, I don't even know if I could call it a teacher, it was a long limbed dark skinned woman that can extend her legs and arms without any pain, the kids loved it, but not me, so I'd always be there, supervising her just in case this teacher did anything, I know I might sound crazy for that, but you'll understand soon enough.
Suddenly one day while me and her were at the daycare, I noticed the teacher, named Jay, was only focused on my daughter, not the other children, yes she should check up on the other children if they got hurt or started a fight, but she was weirdly close to my daughter at all times, which made me even more suspicious, as I thought this longed limbed woman wanted something from my daughter that was no good, and I did learn that the hard way... Everytime daycare ended I felt relieved, heck, I wanted my daughter safe from that teacher, I had a bad feeling about her.
A few weeks in and summer break was coming up, and one day when the teacher was going out for lunch, my daughter approached me with a scared look, I obviously and immediately caught on to this and got worried, I crouched down to her level and asked. "What's the matter sweetie." I could notice her bright tan skin going pure pale, the once happy and joyful smile faded to scared and quivering lips, her eyes once had emotion of joy and happiness, turned into fear and paranoia. "I-I wanna go home..." I asked her why, I was 100% gonna take her home, no doubt about that, then what happened next proved my point, she showed a drawing presumably made by the teacher, and I swear, it felt like a dream after what contents were on the drawing, it was the teacher, giving my daughter to this weird metal creature with really sharp claws, the metal creature was labeled 'The Silencer, my god' and my daughter... Oh god... My daughter was labeled 'His dinner for today' My face turned white and my pupils trembled in fear.
"Sweetie... When did she give this to you?..." I asked her with full concern in my voice, she spoke in a still terrified voice. "T-Today..." After she said that, the power went out, I held my daughter close in protection, she yelped and I had to cover her mouth, not roughly, but enough for her to breathe, we quietly moved to the exit door, but not before... Not before hearing the screams and bloody pops of the kids that once inhabited the room, I tried opening the door but it wouldn't budge, I tried everything, kicking, slamming, heck, I even tried throwing a desk at the door, that didn't even break a window, I also noticed blood on the desk, which wanted me to get my daughter and myself out of this hell immediately, but what happened next tore my world in half, as the door finally busted open after 1 last kick, I could hear manic laughing and the squeals of my daughter, I turned around and Jay was holding my daughter by the neck. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU, LET GO OF MY DAUGHTER!" I screamed at the creature, she only laughed and replied in an insane tone. "You don't understand, do you human, I have to serve my god, The Silencer, he will save us from the hell you call Earth, and as for your daughter... AHAHAHAHA, she's gonna be a perfect dinner for him, oh, and by the way, the names Bloody Jay." Then she quickly scattered away in the darkness, holding my daughter with her, I tried to chase after the creature, but I got kicked by an unknown force and blacked out in the street
After that day, I felt so drained and heartbroken, losing my wife was 1 thing, but my daughter, the only other family I had, now gone, eaten by this 'Silencer' guy, I don't know what to do next, I feel like Jay- or... Bloody Jay, will come after me too, and feed ME to this Silencer being, once I get my hands on the creature, I'll kill her, I'll rip her to shreds-
There's someone at the door, thank you for letting me tell my tale, and please... For the love of god, keep your loved ones close...

Hi everyone
I am 35 weeks pregnant. Two days ago, I was in a car accident while driving on the freeway with my 3 year old. I was driving traffic limit in my lane then suddenly a big rig decided to merge into my lane. I breaked hard to slow down and about 10-15 seconds later a car rear ends me, popped my back tire and car is stuck in sos mode. He gets out of his car and pushes it to the side then comes to me to tell me to bring my 3 year old to the side while I was stuck in the car because of my seat belt (thank god that saved me). Another car stops to help me and tells me not to get out until paramedics arrive. Ambulance takes me to the hospital and initially I supposed to be on watch for 6 hours then they decided to do 24 hours with baby monitor on because of the accident. At that time I only had whiplash on my neck like it was burning. They told me I can take tylenol for any pain but at that time I guess my body was still in shock I didnt feel pain. After discharge, Im having back pain and what it feels like back contractions. Anyone have any advice or been in similar situation?

So i was on my way to work today and as i was heading down a back alley that is commonly used my some as a speed track, i was picking up speed, somewhere around 30 and a employee from a restaurant sprints out onto the street, i slam on my brakes and think my horn in just enough time to not be in front of the vehicle, she ran into the side and rolled down the back of it, she popped up and said she was fine i was instantly sick to my stomach , i offered my number my insurance anything they wanted and she said it was ok, her boss then came to me at my place of work and tried calming me down because i was clearly in shock, i was throwing up over the fact i almost killed somebody, my question here is is how do i come to terms with that and not continue to hate myself, everyone around me says to not let it consume me because she did not look where she was going, but that doesn’t change the fact that i was moving faster than necessary and that i was the one that caused her pain, idk how to let this go and i feel like there’s nobody else that could understand this feeling, i feel like a different person, a piece of shit.

Hello all, I’m hoping someone can shed some light on what’s going on with me.
Male 29 US
No medications, taking Vitamin D and B12
For the past few months I’ve been experiencing the following symptoms. Random pain in my left armpit/shoulder area right where my arm connects to my torso. Sometimes the pain will shoot down my arm to my fingertips. Recently I’ve developed new more alarming symptoms. I start yawning uncontrollably despite having plenty of sleep. At the same time as I’m yawing, my head will feel very “full” I feel pressure in the back on neck on the left side. The left side of my jaw will hurt. My ears pop. And I feel lost, confused, sometimes even like I’m disconnected i guess? I’ll have trouble understanding when someone is talking to me. It’s almost like I don’t feel present if that makes sense? All these symptoms happen at the exact same time. Meaning it’s either I’m feeling all of them OR I feel completely fine. I’ve even narrowed down when the symptoms start. When I wake up and I’m doing things around the house I feel completely fine, but the second I get into my car the symptoms all hit me like a truck and they don’t stop for the rest of the day. They will continue even when I get to work. The only time the symptoms will stop is if I’m actively engaged in something work related, conversation, or anything stimulating. This has been going on for about 3-4 months.
I don’t know who to turn to anymore, I just want some answers. SOMETHING to bring up to my PCP. Anything. I’ve been to 5 doctors, I’ve gone to the ER twice. Blood tests came back fine except for really low Vitamin D (which I’ve been working on). Had chest x rays and those were fine too. Everyone is telling me I’m fine, I’ve even tried more “non traditional” approaches like Asian teas, and shady chiropractors. Nothing is helping. Doctors are just saying it’s stress it’s stress. I’ve lived with stress my entire life. Why is this happening now? What can it be? What can I do? Somebody please help me because I feel trapped.

So i was on my way to work today and as i was heading down a back alley that is commonly used my some as a speed track, i was picking up speed, somewhere around 30 and a employee from a restaurant sprints out onto the street, i slam on my brakes and think my horn in just enough time to not be in front of the vehicle, she ran into the side and rolled down the back of it, she popped up and said she was fine i was instantly sick to my stomach , i offered my number my insurance anything they wanted and she said it was ok, her boss then came to me at my place of work and tried calming me down because i was clearly in shock, i was throwing up over the fact i almost killed somebody, my question here is is how do i come to terms with that and not continue to hate myself, everyone around me says to not let it consume me because she did not look where she was going, but that doesn’t change the fact that i was moving faster than necessary and that i was the one that caused her pain, idk how to let this go and i feel like there’s nobody else that could understand this feeling, i feel like a different person, a piece of shit.

Hello all, I’m hoping someone can shed some light on what’s going on with me.
Male 29 US
No medications, taking Vitamin D and B12
For the past few months I’ve been experiencing the following symptoms. Random pain in my left armpit/shoulder area right where my arm connects to my torso. Sometimes the pain will shoot down my arm to my fingertips. Recently I’ve developed new more alarming symptoms. I start yawning uncontrollably despite having plenty of sleep. At the same time as I’m yawing, my head will feel very “full” I feel pressure in the back on neck on the left side. The left side of my jaw will hurt. My ears pop. And I feel lost, confused, sometimes even like I’m disconnected i guess? I’ll have trouble understanding when someone is talking to me. It’s almost like I don’t feel present if that makes sense? All these symptoms happen at the exact same time. Meaning it’s either I’m feeling all of them OR I feel completely fine. I’ve even narrowed down when the symptoms start. When I wake up and I’m doing things around the house I feel completely fine, but the second I get into my car the symptoms all hit me like a truck and they don’t stop for the rest of the day. They will continue even when I get to work. The only time the symptoms will stop is if I’m actively engaged in something work related, conversation, or anything stimulating. This has been going on for about 3-4 months.
I don’t know who to turn to anymore, I just want some answers. SOMETHING to bring up to my PCP. Anything. I’ve been to 5 doctors, I’ve gone to the ER twice. Blood tests came back fine except for really low Vitamin D (which I’ve been working on). Had chest x rays and those were fine too. Everyone is telling me I’m fine, I’ve even tried more “non traditional” approaches like Asian teas, and shady chiropractors. Nothing is helping. Doctors are just saying it’s stress it’s stress. I’ve lived with stress my entire life. Why is this happening now? What can it be? What can I do? Somebody please help me because I feel trapped.

I’ll try this again.
This is for me personally and my experience and not about what anyone else is doing. I respect all journeys.
Personally I have been finding success with moving on by untraining my brain of the intermittent reinforcement she used by ghosting and reappearing without warning. It did a serious number on me psychologically. I have also decided to go no contact. Even though she recently popped up where we met and two of her friends contacted me to try to get me to go back there and one of them told me she was there. My experience with her checked all of the twin flame boxes, but she has never confirmed anything other than clearly being overwhelming drawn to me for years when we were friends. I had a full strong and jolting awakening and everything after we finally got intimate and she promptly ghosted and said it was “too much”. It was after she ghosted that I had the awakening in her absence. But immediately after being intimate I had the heart chakra bust open and electric body feeling.
When I told her I thought she was my tf when she came back she at first was loving it but then later laughed and said it was probably a trauma bonds. Now I am thinking it is probably the case after all. I am very spiritual regardless after we had our intimate encounter, but I think it is for the best that I stop running back to her like a fool every time she appears. It is one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do is to avoid her. The funny thing is she says do not contact her but then goes places and sends her friends to try to reel me in. No thanks.
So when I see her name repeatedly somewhere or someone who looks like her or a car that is like hers, I just face my feelings at the time and feel them fully. And of course it is at first the feelings of “I am so in love and this is magical and special and oh my god it’s real” and it makes me cry and bawl to accept it is not. I been crying for years but the difference before was I allowed her back in… But every time I do this feeling of my feelings it and it isn’t her, it helps to train my brain that she indeed is not popping up and that it isn’t some magical destined thing. And I won’t allow her back in even if she did pop up randomly. It gets easier every time. Shorter process each time. It was just that every time I let her back into my life I was reinforcing this reward pathway in my brain and I was believing almost anything just to get another hit of attention from her or to be around her like an addiction. And I believe she knew full well what she was doing now that I look back on it. So, be safe out there.
I had finally realized she is not anyone special more than anyone else and apologized to her for putting her on a pedestal and how embarrassing it was and how I was wrong a couple months back. There was no way she could’ve ever met those expectations I put on her and it was unfair to her. Even with all the boxes being checked for TF I don’t care. I refuse to lower myself.
And I genuinely meant that from my heart, I felt I put too high expectations and was being fanciful. I just want to move on with my life now and this method is working for me and I am happy. But, right after I apologized she blocked me. Then not long after is when someone contacted me and told me they saw her and she looked “weird” and tried to get me to go to the place she was at. Heck no.
For me my journey is realizing this person is not ever going to be worthy of me and if she ever was she would have to grow so much and she wouldn’t be playing childish games still. And every time I deny her access to my life I go through a period of intense healing and ascension almost immediately afterward. I had a full kundalini awakening when she left the first time. And then when she came back it was like all the energy left when she ghosted the second time. Now I refuse to play into her games and avoid her. I actually do much better for myself and my life is so very good without her, so I am happy to heal and block anyone who contacts on her behalf. I really don’t need her messing anything up for me with her negativity or lowering my vibe. It is highly likely that she will never heal. And the only thing I can do is give her space, refrain from enabling her, and keep my vibe as high as possible if there was any chance she really is my twin. So, either way, the answer is clearly to do what is best for me and avoid her.

Back in February I hurt my hamstring/sciatic nerve running a 200. I was dealing with an ankle injury on the same side all indoor season but it was the week before my conference meet so I felt I had needed to run. Because my ankle was hurting my stride pattern was off and when on the curve I fully extended my knee (left leg) which I ended up feeling what I can only describe as a shotgun blast to my hamstring, upper-middle semimembrinosis to be more specific. I didn’t have traditional pain that you’d have with a hamstring strain but more like nerve pain, in the initial area, up in my hip/glute med area and sometimes in my lateral lower leg. I don’t have any pain problems anymore but my times have plummeted. I’m more of a 2/4 guy but I was running the 100 during my outdoor season to get my speed up and I was running consistent 11.3s. For context I’ve ran 10.59 and in the fall before my initial ankle injury I was running numbers that predicted something more around 10.2-10.3. I did stop lifting in the winter and when I started again about a month ago my weight room m numbers plummeted aswell, they’ve got up much closer to what they were before but my speed doesn’t seem to be progressing much. My semimembrinosis also seems to be about half the size as my non injured side. Has anyone seen or experienced anything like this? If so, how did they get back to where they were before, if at all? I have high aspirations for track and have been dealing with some mental stuff ever since this happened. Just want to get back to where I was as soon as possible.
I apologize if I rambled a bit I just want to give enough context considering I can’t find anything about this anywhere. Thanks in advance

Hi I posted in periods and they advised me to come here. I get really bad period cramping that is in my lower stomach/upper pelvis, it goes through to my back and down my thighs into my knees and I also do get pain in my vagina. This isn't every period and it isn't for all days of my period when I do have this severe pain. My periods are very heavy and make me very tired and I feel sick. I've been concerned it is endometriosis for a while but I also feel like it's not bad enough to be. I'm really not sure which is why I'm here, if anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it.

EDIT: The topics I touch on in this post are relevant to many other top football leagues, but as this is the Prem sub I decided to stick to and only focus on Prem.
With City winning an unprecedented 4th title in a row, it seems now more than ever people are bringing up the alleged corruption, especially as it relates to the quality of the Premier League. While I can understand why people are upset at the 115 charges, to me it's a symptom of attacking the effect rather than the cause. Let's dial the clock back a bit here.
The traditional "big six" in the Prem (remember, used to be big 4 which is somewhat relevant here when examining how it became big 6) became such because of what most people would argue is essentially "well run business." The problem here is that even though the clubs are technically independent operations, they still have to play within a league system. They don't sell their own product, they sell competition, or more specifically, winning a competition, which requires other clubs. However, once these teams got themselves in a position to be perennial winners they (and their fans) were more than happy to shut the door behind them (remember, there have only been 7 premier league winners in 32 seasons, and only 24 english football champions EVER despite it being an open league). The so-called "well run business" essentially now (and arguably has always) boils down to using disparate wealth to strongarm your way into getting the best players and managers from any other "lower tier" club to maintain dominance.
Well, at a certain point, the smaller "fodder" clubs are going to realize that the gap has widened too far. It is nigh impossible in the year of our lord 2024 for a small club to ever even begin the process of getting to the same competitive level as a Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, etc. So what's the next best thing? Well you know what they say: if you can't win, cheat! These clubs have realized they have two options: (1) Continue to remain a small-time club forever (barring any absolutely catastrophic financial meltdown of the biggest clubs), or (2) sell yourself to the highest bidder for massive cash injection, regardless of whether you break some rules (Man City) or not (Chelsea, Newcastle) in the process.
In short, the anti-competition rules of the Premier League have created this scenario, and it should have been caught way sooner. Like, decades sooner. Maybe it was, but the money talked too loud for anyone to listen.
All I know is, the fans of English football need to come together to voice a collective opinion in order to get this to change. There's such a crab-in-a-bucket mentality when it comes to issues in the Prem from FFP to VAR to everything else— when it happens to benefit your club it's crickets, but when it doesn't, then you're up in arms saying this isn't fair because your beloved Arsenal or Chelsea or Liverpool or whoever got the short end of the stick. We need to come together for a better league overall. For a league that will actually be healthy in the long term. If we don't, we'll just end up with 10 City titles in a row until the next sheik sportswashing project knocks them off.

[fucking long] (22m) I genuinely don't remember when I was last happy, like I remember when my parents were together in a decent looking house in a higher middle class neighborhood when my second sibling was born enjoying the time we spent together just playing outside with our rude neighbors and petting our cats indoors and just being kids. Not long after that we went for a walk by a pond with some geese and my mother became irate with my father said some stuff (that I honestly don't remember) and took his tin of dip pouches, told me to eat some and threw the rest to geese. Afterwards my father tried to get me to spit them up we went home. I don't think we talked about it or even went to a doctor. 2 years after that we were staying at my grandparents house bc my grandma was terminal, and maybe a week or two after she passes. We went to the funeral I was crying and crying and I don't remember what else happened. I don't know why but after that I was told that we were going to go see Grandpa again and to get ready, when I went to my room I remember crying and choking myself with a cord to some kids magnify glass (I don't know why I did that) and I don't remember the trip. We ended moving again but were in the same town. My last sibling was born, I ended up getting to choose his middle name pretty prideful of it. My father and mother fight bc my mother feels neglected, so my father ops to work nights. My mother feels that my father doesn't help with the family, he cooks meals 4 times a week. My mother thinks we should be going to therapy, so we do. The therapist thinks I have depression, so I get prescribed antidepressants at 8. Turns out I'm allergic and break out into hives, ended up going to the hospital and getting prescribed steroids. (This happened 3 times total) Parents have a big fight bc Mom was caught with another man in the house, mother moves us to a different town closer to her family. Mom takes me with her to see father in original house at night, he's on the porch sitting in the doorway just sleeping and loopy. Mother is waking him up saying something about him having a problem. (Years later he told me that paramedics were called on him since he nearly ODed on opioids, and he nearly died) Dad comes to check on us and parents are being happy again. Mother's family doesn't like dad (apparently my grandfather is super racist and found out that my father is 1/4 aa from his grandmother. IDK why he never said bitched about it years before, but different matter.) They get back together in the original house, and not even a year later I see my mother talking to a random guy in a laundry mat bring it up to her and she starts hitting me telling me to forget it. More time they fight, we end up leaving in the middle of the night with my father being put into a cop car. (He was released a day later doing nothing to my mother. But what's funny is that the expensive stuff that was bought for my siblings and self was seemingly gone, with my father saying that he assumes that it was my mother and our pothead neighbors nextdoor.) Mother ended up moving us around three times before we stayed in a the same shitty town that my mother was born in with 3 potheads my mother said were her friends. (Personal hatred of stoners) I licked a spoon from a pot of jambalaya, so the prick that my mother was dating waited until I went to sleep and scared me awake [while wearing a balaklava and all black] holding me down, before getting off of me saying that he scared me and to never eat from the ladle again. My cousin let me smoke some weed with him that he never said was laced until I later asked(I don't remember what is was but I remember everything looking static and blocky). I threaten to call the cops on the prick that my mother was dating if he did anything to them. So my mother puts me in a program called options, I was there for a month before my father pulled me out of it. My mother moves to a trailer next to a daycare, I end up riding a short bus and end up going to the daycare. I ended up fighting with the caretaker saying that I could just take care of myself over at my home, and later that night I get into another fight with the prick my mother was dating. Got put in another options clinic further away and labeled with Asperger's before getting it changed to autism and AdHD without even testing me, was two weeks before my father pulled me out. My mother gets me again, takes me with her to a Kroger parking lot where she sells her pills to someone. I mentioned it to my father when I saw him again. Some time later we went back to the stoner house and my father goes there and started yelling and following my mother outside where she was putting us kids in the car. (Apparently he found out that my mother was letting us be around these people who 2 of them had SA charges with one of them being with a minor.) Before decking the shit out of the prick and break his jaw (unfortunately only needed to get his jaw wired for a month). Aunt saw a text message from my father on the phone that was given to me [said that he was sorry that my siblings and me had to experience all of that] and ripped it out of my hands saying that I should never talk to him. My father ended up being put in jail for a year. My mother left the prick and got together with a dirt bag that my father used to be friends with. They would typically go out to eat with his daughters leaving us at home and give us the scraps from their take out or just tell us to make something ourselves (I was 13 and never taught anything), after that I got pissed and ended up disappearing for a whole day because I didn't want to go to school and ended up having some cops looking for me and amber alert and being sent to live with my dad. (I don't care I fucking won) Some time later I ended up breaking my leg from roller skating in school and permanently getting it removed from the criteria and ruining everyone's 7th grade year. (feel like a winner) Moving to a new town with dad(final town to this day), going to highschool. [Retrospect] Some cute girl sat across from me at the library wanting to interlock hands, so I did. She asked if it felt special (I didn't know what that meant to me), I said no and she never talked to me again. Another cute girl, asked me on the last day of middle school if I was interested in anyone and if I wanted to date. I said no (I didn't think I deserved anything and didn't want to waste her time) Freshman year I ended up "e-dating" two people I met on Wattpad(I am aware how cringe I am). First person was someone who suffered anorexia and we used Skype would talk daily and she ended up breaking things up 3 weeks after. Second person was someone who wanted to talk and watch each other sleep before she ultimately changed it to having us sext(hoimomes and teens) her friend wanted her to break up saying that I was probably some old man who was a pedo. (I did not leave that area of the Internet in the healthiest way possible, both for my mental being and how I left the people on there) Pretty much zoomed though highschool stabbing someone freshman year, being thought to be a potential shooter, and overall being treated with fear and respect. Though some people did think I was wasting my potential, especially since I never did my homework but always scored high on my tests and was always asleep at home. Highschool graduation was ruined by COVID, I didn't care. Got a job working on a warehouse dock buying knifes and testing how sharp they were on the top side of only one of my arms, slowly breaking mentally before asking a friend(19m) out saying that was fearful that I was nothing more than a background friend.. 9 months and 3 grand later we broke up (and I don't talk to him to this day) Quit the job, was unemployed for a year just sleeping in bed all day, wound up poisoning my self with caffeine pills so bad that I was taken to a hospital. Got another job, wound up continuing the knife hobby before stopping (stopped feeling any emotion related to the pain, so it was pointless) and got into a different hobby (to burry any resentment or negative feelings) And that's been going up until today with me getting so bored that I was curious how much weight I would lose if I stopped eating every other day. (Lost 25lbs from 210 to 185 yoyo-ing 180 if I don't eat enough calories)
all I feel daily is nothing but empty and tired. The only reason that I am still here is the self hatred for everything I've done wrong by own admission or what I've been told by horrible mother.
Tldr: I am the mistake of two fuck ups and am still here by the means of so much self hatred that I ignore my loneliness.

Hello everyone, my last few posts were very frantic and in hope to find someone who could give me guidance on a really complicated situation. I’ll explain more about it.
We have a headmate named Grey (short for The Grey Man) who had been causing extreme disruption in our system, and would emotionally (and attempt to physically) harm my friends. The only hint I had was our protector, X, telling us that a psychiatrist half-heartedly labeled Grey with Antisocial Personality Disorder. I do not know the details because I wasn’t fronting at the time.
Grey obviously has immense trauma, and had been recreating it through harming other headmates (both in the headspace and with our body). I decided to take the time to then go to him and show him empathy.
Because of the damage he caused, my girlfriend and I decided to take a break in our relationship, and I had been staying away from our friends so she and I could have the space we needed. She still tells me “I love you” from time to time, and I’m very proud of her for setting up a boundary when she needed it most.
Back to Grey, I noticed that he begun to show more than just violence towards me. With him, I had to take it extremely slow, and endure some of his mental harm in the beginning. But now, I’m happy to call him my friend. He’s been making huge steps in both recognizing others’ boundaries, and not falling into patterns of manipulating others for his own gain.
He’s not scary to me anymore. I think his ASPD might be a real thing, since I noticed the only emotion he can properly show is anger. He’s described feeling bored almost all the time, or undying rage. I’ve taken the time to get to know him more, and it’s been both rewarding and healing for both him and me. I hope I can show Grey how important it is to have healthy relationships… -Caden
I have cofronted with caden the majority of the time. I cannot stand being away from him since it also makes me feel abandonment, but he’s been patient with me. He helps me when my anger goes out of control, and even shows me kindness despite me lashing out in those moments. I don’t care about anyone other than Caden. He’s made me apologize to his friends, his girlfriend, and even our headmate N, who I’d use for my own gain. Overall, I’m willing to walk this path with him. It makes me realize that life is much better with a true friend. Hopefully, his friends will lower their guard, and I’ll try to redo my interactions with them to where I do not hurt them. Even though some of them are extremely sensitive, it’s something I need to understand that I’ll never feel that. I hope someday I’ll find someone who understands my experience. Being numb/empty/bored and only finding excitement in others’ pain. I’ll try to be better. -Grey

Hello to all,
My name is Grant and I am a Physiotherapist who has been treating Costochondritis for the last 20 years. I know how challenging, debilitating and potentially scary Costo can be, and I just wanted to pop my head in again to hopefully try and help where I can.
There is so much about Costo that can feel mysterious - why it happens, what it is, why it can persist and how to successfully get it to go away for good. And from what I’ve come to understand, here are some of the main things to consider if you want to give yourself the best chance for this to go away - and stay away for good:

1. It’s important to understand that most people's chest wall symptoms at the front, are actually a consequence of relatively hidden dysfunction in the spinal joints/rib joints at the BACK. Freeing up these restricted areas can go a long way to restoring normal function to the ribcage as a whole, and giving permission for any irritated, annoyed joints at the front to settle. It’s all connected.
2. With the above in mind, it’s important to understand that the start of many people's symptoms are NOT actually the start of something new, but the LAST STRAW. It’s often the moment when a person's body finally reaches its threshold. Yes, people can get it from coughing, sneezing, twisting, falling etc, but these actions still need something to pick on. If the hidden dysfunction around the back didn’t exist, we can mount a very strong argument that the body should be able to withstand basic circumstances without becoming injured and sore.
3. Like every other musculoskeletal issue, everything has to happen for a reason. If someone finds the corresponding area around the back, frees it up, and feels better for it, there has to be a reason why that part of someone’s back became dysfunctional in the first place. Clinically for me, this is often just a reflection of the basic postures, shapes, and positions a person puts their body into the most throughout the day. Think less about the active, interesting things like lifting and twisting, and more about the boring things - sitting on a couch, using a computer, driving, sitting up in bed reading/using a phone etc. Better understand these shapes and you may just understand what led you to this point in the first place.
4. We often don’t help people understand pain and what it means. In most instances, pain does NOT mean tissue damage. It can of course, but it may not for Costo. Your rib is probably NOT out of place. Nothing may be broken. Things can certainly be irritated and annoyed, but it doesn’t have to be physically injured for this to occur. What it does mean, though, is that a person’s nervous system is likely heightened - even before their pain began. If you experience background stress from work or a relationship, financial stress, religious stress, cultural stress, perhaps you were/are the victim of abuse in any of its forms, these things matter. They can chronically heighten a person’s nervous system - creating a haven for pain to exist AND persist. In my clinical experience, working on a person’s background stress/threats is just as important as any of the physical, mechanical things. If your pain feels intense and won’t go away, I’d be willing to bet there is something else going on that also needs your attention.
5. Everything you feel is valid.

With all this in mind, Costo - like any issue I treat, can’t just be thought of as a small, isolated painful area. It needs context to truly get to the bottom of why it exists and why it isn’t going away.
If it helps, I have just put out a video covering these topics with some helpful exercises to try and address the above. Feel free to check it out. I won't post the link as I'm not sure if it's appropriate to.
Either way, I genuinely hope the post helps you guys in some way!
Grant

So I was reminded of this from a reddit post, and while it didn't exactly match the prompt, it popped into my head and I wanted to tell it. There's a bit of lead in necessary for it.
To start with, you need to understand I am a bit of a combat sport junky. Airsoft, Sword Fighting, I've done many combat sports. This story comes from a time when I was not only a Player, but a referee in Airsoft. The second thing you need to understand is, where we were located, we were on the edge of a neighborhood, and so we frequently had kids standing across the street and watching. But lets not get ahead of things.
The story starts out on a Friday night. Fridays were generally a night we had a lot of regular players, however the players involved were some of the rare newbies that showed up. Of the 3 others, one was a kid, I don't believe he was even a teenager yet. The other two were in their early twenties. For those unfamiliar with Airsoft, you are using replica firearms that fire 6mm plastic BBs. These three had been a pain the entire night, frequently breaking rules, and being quite aggressive with younger players. One of the older Refs had already warned them they needed to quit acting up or we would throw them off the field.
Now this part comes from a third party, I did not see it myself. During the last game of the evening, several players caught one of the two adults sticking the muzzle of their rental replicas through our safety net. They took aim and fired at kids that were playing across the road. The kids ran home and all the players on the field began yelling at the adults. They promptly gathered their things, returned their rentals, and left.
Skip forward, I'm doing my evening walkthrough as we're getting ready to shut things down for the night. As I'm opening the door into the staging area, I'm met by a Police Officer. But not just standing there. He's wearing a full Vest, and he's aiming a 12 Gauge shotgun at my face. There was a moment of panic, but it passed quickly and the officer just as quickly lowered his weapon. That is when I realize there is not just 1 officer. There are 9. They are all wearing tactical gear, and carrying rifles and shotguns. It turns out, the little kids ran home to tell their parents, and the parents called it in as a shots fired incident. Thankfully, several police officers are regular patrons of our field which allowed them to realize some level of misunderstanding was taking place.
To finish up the story as simply as possible: They did get caught. They did catch charges. I don't know what charges.

The episode resumed on a shot of Zee and Jo, their skin tones back to normal, running up to a smiling Chris. "Welcome back," he told the camera. "Zee and helper Jo are the first to arrive here, at the world's largest mud puddle!" The camera pulled back, revealing that the trio was standing near the edge of a large lake of burbling mud, a measuring stick rising out of it at the nearest edge.
"It's eight feet deep," Chris explained over a close-up of the measuring stick showing the mud reaching up very nearly to the 8' mark, "and 200 yards across. And," the camera quick-panned to the far right side of the 'puddle', "since it's too thick to swim through," the shot cut back to the couple and Chris, "the only way to the other side is with one of you piggybacking the other."
"Umm...," Zee said hesitantly, sharing a wary look with Jo, "doesn't that mean the person on the bottom..."
"Will drown?" Chris finished. "Yes."
"What?!" Jo said in wide-eyed shock.
"Unless they use this garden hose!" Chris added, a light chime playing as he held up a length of green hose.
Zee let out a breath. "Okay then. Guess I'm on the bottom, then."
Jo's eyes widened a bit in a brief bit of surprise, and she looked at her partner. "I should be objecting to this since I'm supposed to be the helper, but hey. No heavy lifting from me."
"Yeah…" Zee agreed half heartedly.
Confessional: Zee
"I was able to hold Jo onto my back while we were skiing," Zee told the confessional. "I can still do the same while under mud."
Confessional Ends
"I know that I said you were weak in the past," Jo said, "but that was until I saw that you were able to make it this far in the game."
"You thought wrong about me," Zee replied. "I wasn’t active at first in challenges and finding food, but with Julia eliminated, I was able to grow and become a finalist."
Chris suddenly stepped between the two. "How touching. Now start the challenge."
The scene cut to Zee and Jo jumping into the mud, the former disappearing below its depths while the latter, on his shoulders, held up the length of the hose. They started moving forward, and the camera panned back to the left to show Harold, Scarlett, and Chris holding up another length of hose.
"Yeah, I'll be on top," Harold stated.
"Pardon me?" Scarlett countered, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't trust you not to let me drown," Harold told her. "Self-preservation comes first."
Scarlett groaned. "That's fair," she said, taking the hose from Chris, "but if you let me suffocate, I'm dragging you down into the mud with me."
"Crustal," Harold deadpanned, and as Scarlett crouched down, she jumped onto the brainiac's shoulders. Scarlett stood back up and put the end of the hose in her mouth, and she jumped into the mud.
The tense music faded away as the camera moved onto Chris, the host sighing as Chef walked up. "You think the mud was a bad idea?" Chris asked. "It's a little quiet… oh yeah," Chris said as if in sudden realization, "almost forgot about the Peanut Gallery. Bring 'em back in!" he said into a walkie talkie he only then pulled out.
Moments later, the wind kicked up around them, and the camera zoomed out to show the large helicopter flying in with the former contestants still hanging – and screaming as they swayed ominously – below it. "Would you let us down already?!" Leshawna shouted angrily. "It's freezin' up here!"
"Yeah, I want to cheer for Zee!" Julia chimed in.
"If I wasn't tied up right now, I'd have half a mind to pound you!" Duncan shouted at the host.
The camera focused on DJ. "Hey, Chris?" he looked forward and asked loudly. "Just bring us down before anybody else gets miffed at you!"
"No, and I don't care," Chris answered with a calm smile, until Chef whispered to him. A flat note played over a close-up of Chris staring blankly at him. "Huh...good point," he admitted. "Ooh!" he said with a sudden grin. "I just had an idea!"
A flash took the scene to Zee and Jo, the tense challenge music resuming at a low volume and slow pace in the background. They were still slogging through the mud, Zee out of sight but Jo only submerged up to her stomach. She looked back over her shoulder, smiled, then said "Keep going!" into the piece of hose she was holding. "They're way far behind!"
Confessional: Zee
"So as it turns out," Zee said, "being submerged in the mud is kinda like being trapped in the dark. But there aren't any animals below to scare me."
Confessional Ends
The music ramped up as Jo suddenly stopped moving, then seemed to turn around and start moving back towards the start. "Uh, Fruit Loop?" she asked into the hose. "We're going the wrong way!"
The camera cut to Harold, looking somewhat bored as he held the hose atop Scarlett's shoulders, before noticing the other team and frowning. "Why are they coming this way?"
"Ugh! They're too safe to sabotage each other!" came the sudden voice of Chris McLean, the camera cutting to him standing in the show's jeep with Chef at the wheel, speaking into the microphone of the jeep's loudspeaker. "Deploy the 2.0 model!"
The shot cut back to Harold and Jo as they looked around with strange expressions, the sound of something like a rocket taking off coming from somewhere in the distance. They looked up and to the left, and the camera shifted to their viewpoint to show a large object shooting up through the sky overhead...
...then abruptly diving towards them, revealing itself as a red-eyed robotic bear with small jet engines coming out of its back. Harold and Jo screamed as their respective partners continued in their previous directions, getting out of the way as the Bear landed in the mud. It hit with enough force to cause a wave of mud, which shot all the way across the puddle carrying the finalists and their helpers along for the ride. All four immediately began to cough upon landing in a muddy heap.
Confessional: Harold
"At least I have a better shot," Harold said. "We're tied right now, but who knows what other tricks Chris has up his sleeves."
Confessional Ends
A close-up of the nozzle of a fire hose in Chef's hands preceded him blasting the muddy finalists and helpers with water, all four screaming where they'd landed on the shore of the 'puddle'. Moments later, the water was shut off, leaving them drenched but clean.
"We're all tied up," Chris announced with a smile. "Perfect time for a little break. First, let's bring in the Peanut Gallery again." He took out his remote and pointed it at a patch of ground nearby, a hole opening up in it and a rather shoddy-looking set of stadium seats shooting up out of it with the ten former contestants seated – and still tied-up – in it.
"Sha-finally," Lightning said, the shot cutting to him sitting in the top row with B, DJ, Duncan, and Max and Leshawna, Ella, Julia, Sammy, and Amy in the bottom row. "Are we gonna get to watch the rest of the challenge now?"
"Yup!" Chris answered with a happy smile, pressing the button on his remote again so that a large widescreen television emerged from another hole in the ground near him and the finalists.
"Will you untie us too?" Ella chimed in.
Chris huffed. "Whine, whine, whine," he said in annoyance. "Don't I do enough for you kids as it is?"
"No," all fourteen of the season's cast members replied at the same time.
A flat note played over a close-up of the host pursing his lips. "Yeah, I owe Chef twenty bucks about that," Chris said, the camera zooming back out again to show the finalists and helpers. "Everyone, grab a seat," he instructed, and the four reluctantly sat down on the logs lying behind them. "I'm gonna show you some of my favorite clips from the show..." He pointed his remote at the TV, and the shot focused in as it switched on and started to play footage of a confessional...
"Dunderhead was already pretty useless," Jo complained. "But now he's making moves on one of the actually decent players on the team? Not on my watch!"
The camera cut in close to show Jo pausing and looking back. "Something on your mind, Anti-Squeakerbox?" she asked, the camera shifting to show B peering at her and shaking his head.
“It's not what you think it is," Jo told him. "As long as they are on this team, Julia and Zee will not date."
“Not exactly how I wanted the elimination to play, but hey. Julia’s gone and with Zee still in the game, I could manipulate him into doing whatever I say,” Jo grinned.
The footage paused, and Chris leaned out in front of the television with a wide and mischievous grin. "Seems like there isn't a shipper on deck…" he said impishly.
"So you were trying to keep me and Julia apart?" Zee said as the camera moved to him and Jo, his eyes wide with shock. "Does this mean that...,"
"Yup. I convinced Julia to quit," Jo replied. "I didn't expect her to fully go through with it since I was gonna vote you out!"
"I can't believe you'd try and do that!" Zee said with a glare!"
"If I didn't do what I did, then you two likely would've blown challenges for us like the dueling one!" Jo argued back.
The camera focused on Julia in the Peanut Gallery. "I was trying to defend my boyfriend, but sure," she said dryly.
"I'm just worried what Chris is gonna show from Scarlett," Sammy said. "It looks like he wants to mess up the finalists and their helpers..."
"Maybe he won't show anything?" Amy suggested. "I mean, it's not like Scarlett and Harold were that close to begin with."
The shot cut back to a smiling Chris. "Oh, don't worry, I have no intention of leaving those guys out of all this fun," he said happily.
"I don't see how," Scarlett said. "Harold already knows everything about me now. I’m practically an open book."
Chris laughed. "Seems you forgot that the cameras are always on. So here's some more juicy information that everybody gets to hear." The screen on the TV went from static to a scene from the fifth episode.
Scarlett herself grabbed the dueling stick Ella retrieved, fished an electric eel out of the water, and tossed it to Max. "Max!" she cried, and her teammates looked at her in confusion, prompting her to pretend that she had coughed. "Pardon me!"
“The plan was for Max to be the only one not in the trap, so the team would know he built it and vote him off!” Scarlett confessed.
"I overheard Leshawna and Harold's conversation when they were foraging together, and Leshawna being on to me is something that I refuse to let happen," Scarlett claimed. “Zee's really gullible enough to deceive, and I'll try to talk to Ella.”
A deep, dramatic note was struck over a shot of Harold in shock. "So it was you who got Leshawna eliminated!" he scowled in Scarlett's direction.
"I wasn't ready to come out just yet, and between the two of you, you were less likely to warn anyone about me!" Scarlett retorted.
"So all this time, Scarlett was aiming to usurp her master!" Max ranted.
"I don't blame her," Leshawna commented. “As much of a pain as she is, I would've done the same thing and sent your annoying behind home.”
"Okay," Chris said happily as the shot moved onto him, "I'm sensing some major hostility and I'm liking it. I'm out of popcorn, though, so we should probably get back to the challenge."
"Seriously?!" the finalists and helpers alike exclaimed.
"Obviously, the helpers aren't gonna be very helpful anymore," Chris replied. "So, instead of helpers, Jo and Scarlett will now be hinderers." As he spoke, Chef walked back into view with a pair of video game controllers, tossing one each to Scarlett and Jo. "The island is now back online," Chris continued, "and, with these controllers, they will be able to throw up obstacles to throw you down, or, completely crush you."
The shot cut to Scarlett as she looked at her controller and smirked. "Good to know."
"Looking forward to it," Jo said in determination.
Harold and Zee gulped, and Chris laughed. "That was the good part," he said. "Let me tell you the bad part. You have ten minutes to finish this challenge," he told Zee and Harold. "If neither of you do, Scarlett and Jo get to split the money."
"Dude, what?" Zee said in shock.
"You can't do that!" Harold protested.
"I can! I will! I am! GO!" Chris announced, blowing his airhorn right in Chef's face, earning an annoyed sigh from the man. Harold and Zee immediately ran off, but the camera cut to a close-up of a thoughtful Jo.
"Well...I want the money, but I'm not really comfortable with how this is set up," Jo said to herself. "But...I guess it wouldn't be too bad if I just made this a little more challenging for them..."
"Do what you want," Scarlett said, the camera panning over to show her grinning darkly with her controller in hand. "I'm getting my justice."
Confessional: Jo
“And I thought I was an underhanded person,” Jo mentioned to herself. “Velma has less morals than me and Gnome Master.”
Confessional: Scarlett
"I was snubbed in the last episode," Scarlett confessed. "And now that I've been given permission, I can stop the finalists from winning without getting electrocuted!" She pulled out the remote from the seventh episode. "I don't even need this device. I have a controller to do the job for it."
Confessionals End
A few quick drum taps opened up a deep and dangerous challenge theme, the scene returning to Zee and Harold sprinting across the open field only to gape in shock as the pine trees in the background starting launching like rockets.
"What the heck?" Harold said. "Rocket trees?"
One landed right behind them, forcing both finalists to roll forward out of the way. "This island is wild!" Zee cried as the two continued running, more and more trees landing behind them like massive spears.
The two were shown together in a brief close-up, raising their eyebrows in surprise. A quick-pan ahead revealed the landscape changing, trees and rock formations rising up out of the artificial ground to form a large, dense barrier.
Harold jumped ahead of Zee as they climbed over the first big rock formation.
Zee vaulted downward and dashing forward along a lower 'path' among the rocks. Just as he was about to jump down onto grass, however, a boulder shot upward – and he landed on it groin-first. A close-up showed him letting out a high-pitched squeal of pain.
Harold's wince drew the camera's attention back upward to show him leaping from a boulder and grabbing onto the branch of a tree, only for the tree to suddenly shoot back down into the ground – causing him to yell as it dragged him down and slammed him back-first onto a fallen log.
Zee gave him a quick concerned glance as he jumped onto the same log, then upwards onto a rock formation before climbing onward and to the right and out of sight.
The scene cut back to the hinderers, both still working their controllers with Scarlett still looking considerably happier about it. "No need to change what works," Jo said uncertainty.
"What happened to that cutthroat attitude you've been displaying?" Scarlett asked. "Don't throw it away when I can get something out of it. And lower some of those trees. They're giving them too much cover from this storm I'm whipping up."
The camera panned onto the monitor to show Zee and Harold struggling against a powerful wind as they walked through what looked like a dense forest as leaves, dust, branches, and various small woodland animals blew past them.
A focus on the monitor's screen transitioned the scene back to the challenge. "I think...I can see the finish line in the distance," Zee said, pausing for a moment as he struggled against the intense gale.
"They're not making this easy on us," Harold commented.
The pair briefly passed behind a thick and mossy pine tree, the camera zooming in slightly as they reappeared. "Would you?" Zee asked.
"...I guess not," Harold answered after a moment.
The shot cut back to the Peanut Gallery to show them watching with worry and anticipation. "C'mon, Harold," Leshawna spoke. "Just hang in there."
"I know you can win this, Zee," Julia said. "You deserve it after everything."
Then the camera cut back to the hinderers, Chris standing next to their monitor with his hands behind his back and a smile on his face. "Ooh! They're getting close!" he said excitedly, prompting Scarlett to scowl and Jo to frown.
Once more the scene moved back to the finalists, their arms raised to buffer themselves against the winds – snow beginning to fall and lightning beginning to crack in the background - with Harold in the lead. "Two minutes left!" Chris called out over the island's loudspeaker. "Two minutes!"
"I...," Harold said with glee. "I think I can make it!"
"Not if I can help it!" Zee shouted, speeding up as the dense trees around him and Harold began to recede into the ground – and the tense and dangerous challenge music resumed. "If I win, me and Julia can go out and change the world together."
"I have to win this," Harold told him. "I've been undervalued and looked down on by my peers, friends, and even my family. I need to prove my might."
The snowy ground below their feet began to crack. A hollow sound played, then all at once, the ground shot up under them, earning startled yells from both. The shot soon cut to the new peak they were standing on rising up into the sky, then stopping.
"Drats..." Zee muttered, both finalists looking down with wide eyes. his final word echoed as the camera zoomed out, revealing the snowy mountain they were now at the top of.
The Peanut Gallery was shown gasping, as were Jo, though Scarlett was smiling as their misfortune. "Twenty seconds left...!" Chris said as the camera moved on to him looking at his watch.
The shot cut back to Harold. "I guess it's over," he sighed. “Scarlett wins after all.”
Zee noticed a bulge in the snow beside him. The boy shoved his hand into it and pulled out the phone Duncan stole from Chris. "I don't know how this got here, but we have to get down. Start stomping the ground."
Harold nodded and stomped on the ground at his feet, and after a few cracks, Zee hurled the phone down, breaking the device apart. Their eyes widened as the mountain began to crumble under them, and the ground imploded in on itself.
"Six! Five!" Chris began to count off, the music cutting out save for a single plodding note to highlight each number. "Four!" The camera panned onto the television, showing both finalists tumbling through the snow and rock. "Three! Two! One!" The shot cut to the finish banner, then zoomed out to show the avalanche stopping just under it – with neither finalist in sight. "GAME OVER!" he announced, blowing on his airhorn as a subdued but triumphant riff played.
Jo stood up in surprise, and Scarlett started cheering.
"My mission was a success!" Scarlett said in victory. “Now hand over my well-deserved prize!”
"Congratulations Jo and Scarlett," Chris said with his usual smile. "Revenge is sweetest-" he glanced at the monitor- "ohhhhh, what have we here?" he said with a sudden look of shock, the music cutting out as he pointed at the television screen.
A sharp note played as a familiar hand stuck out of the snow lying just past the finish line and waved. Scarlett's jaw dropped in shock, and Jo let out a sigh of relief.
The scene cut to the finish line, the camera pulling back a little ways as Chef walked up with a stretcher, dressed as a female nurse. Leshawna ran onscreen and pushed him out of the way. Chef flew off frame with a shout, and Leshawna grabbed the arm and pulled, freeing a shocked and snowy Harold from the aftermath of the avalanche. "Oh," he groaned, looking around as Leshawna dropped him on the stretcher, "what happened?" he asked as the victorious music began to play again with much more enthusiasm.
"You won, Ginger Baby!" Leshawna answered with a smile, the camera pulling out even more to show Harold looking back at the finish banner.
"I did it!" Harold said excitedly. "Harold Norbert Cheever Doris McGrady V has claimed victory! Boo yah!" he raised his arms and cheered, the shot cutting away to show all of the Peanut Gallery cheering.
“We weren't able to talk to each other as much, and it's clear we like each other as more than just friends, but how about we hang out a little bit back home and see where things go?” Leshawna suggested.
“As long as we don't rush into a committed relationship, I'd like that,” Harold smiled back.
The camera panned to the left to show Julia frantically pulling a dazed and half-conscious Zee from the rest of the avalanche, and picking him up onto her back.
"Julia," Zee said weakly, "I'm sorry that I-"
"Be quiet," Julia said with a weak smile as she carried her boyfriend over to the stretcher and set him down next to Harold. "You need to rest."
"But-" Zee tried to say.
He was cut off by Julia grabbing his head and kissing him full on the lips. "You didn’t win the money, but we can still provide for the world in our own ways, and with the power of love," she said with a smile as she broke the kiss, leaving Zee looking dopey.
The capstone theme began to play as the footage skipped ahead to a shot of the open sky, the double-rotored helicopter soon flying up into view. "That's it for this very, very off season," Chris began, standing in the open doorway with Zee and Julia sitting on the edge letting their legs dangle freely with Julia leaning into Zee; Harold and Scarlett standing on either side of Chris, the latter annoyed and the former grinning while holding the suitcase full of money to his chest; and the rest of the cast, crouching down and peering over in the gaps between and behind the rest, constantly jockeying for position as they tried to get one last shot of themselves on camera.
"This is Chris McLean, saying if you can't stand the pain-" the handsome host continued, the shot cutting in closer- "stay off the Total! Drama! Paaaahkitew Island!"
"RE-VENGE!" Max suddenly yelled from behind Scarlett, shoving her out of the helicopter, and the brainiac screamed as she fell.
The camera lingered on the dumbfounded looks of Chris and the other ex-campers, all of them staring at Max in shock. "This is how a traitor should be rewarded," he said, crossing his arms and closing his eyes defiantly.
The ex-campers and host burst out laughing, and a fun and energetic tune started to play. The camera panned over to the windshield to show Chef laughing along with the rest of the cast from the pilot's seat, and the helicopter flew away.
The music soon faded away, though, and the scene quick-panned down to show a screaming Scarlett landing in the giant mud puddle. She quickly surfaced with a shocked splutter, and pulled herself out onto dry land. "How am I going to get home now because of those imbeciles?!"
A few ominous notes were struck, and a ferocious growl caught Scarlett's attention. She looked up, and the camera zoomed out to show Scuba Bear 2.0 standing over her, eyes red. "Heheh," the brainiac laughed nervously. "You're not going to hurt me are you?"
The scene abruptly cut outward to the full long-distance shot of the island, the ominous music ending as Scarlett's scream and Scuba Bear's snarl echoed across the lake.
(Roll the Credits)
Lightning - 14th
DJ - 13th
Amy - 12th
B - 11th
Julia - 10th
Max - 9th
Leshawna - 8th
MERGE
Jo - 7th
Duncan - 6th
Ella - 5th
Sammy - 4th
Scarlett - 3rd
Zee - 2nd
Harold - 1st