Pictures of dry bowser

Listen up apes!!!!
I've seen a lot of short pieces of analysis, but this is the full picture.
This took a while to update and compile please help it be visible so that people can see it.
I'm not a financial advisor, so make your own conclusions. I'm not liable, but I am heavily invested at a $0.35 average. It's all I have.
TLDR: FFIE analysis summarized: Margin won't affect longs the same way as shorts right now. Don't buy shares on margin and be ready to supply collateral regardless. Turn off stock lending. Short interest is up and some smart investors are on our side. Sit down buckle up and read on. This might be the most important thing you read in your lives.
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
A few key points
Short Interest and Margin: FFIE's short interest is incredibly high. While margin calls are a concern, they affect shorts more than longs . It's crucial not to buy shares on margin to avoid potential forced selling. Instead, be prepared to supply collateral and turn off stock lending.
FFIE's Potential: FFIE is a steal regardless of a short squeeze. With the electric vehicle (EV) market growing rapidly and being relatively recession-proof, FFIE stands strong. Their Formula E vehicle, which goes from 0 to 62 mph in 2.95 seconds and has a top speed of 150 mph, demonstrates they can be competitive with the best in the EV space.
Market Position: FFIE is trading at $1.13, with a Wedbush 1-year price target of $10.20. This nearly 10x potential makes it a compelling buy regardless of a squeeze. Holding above $1 is crucial for maintaining compliance, and we've finished four consecutive days at 1 billion+ volume on the bull side, and when the bears hit back, we dried that volume up in a major way. GOOD JOB APES!!🚀🚀🚀🚀
Company Developments: Last November, FFIE announced a cooperation agreement with Master Investment Group and Siraj Holdings LLC, establishing a sales entity in Dubai. Despite staffing-related challenges and deferred payments to third-party audit consultants (Source SEC.gov edgar system filed may 16th), the company is working to compile the necessary information for their filings. Jonathan Maroko, the interim CFO with 17 years of investment and finance experience, knows what he is doing.
Comparative Analysis: Comparing FFIE's potential squeeze to past events, similar situations have resulted in massive price increases:
Kodak went from $2.16 to $33.20
Volkswagen went from ~200 euros to nearly 1000 euros
Overstock went from ~$21 to $123
Blue Apron went from $2.31 to $18
Gamestop went from $3.00 to $485
(with gme this took the market cap from 1.3b to now 6.8b)
I believe FFIE can reach a market cap surpassing $5 billion. At 5 billion marketcap the share price would be approximately $119.23.
Community Support: The Reddit, X, Stocktwits, and 4chan, and some youtube communities have formed a collective force against the shorts.
This social media support creates badass shield wall against the shorts.🚀🚀🚀🚀
Short Squeeze Potential:
THE FUN PART APES 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
FFIE is basically the most shorted stock right in all time and space, with a short interest percentage of float at 95.37%.
There are 36.3 million shares on loan we own the majority of the float
NEED ROCKETS?? 🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀 .
Moving shares to cash accounts to avoid margin calls and stopping share lending can prevent shorts from borrowing our shares.
The cost to borrow is also up, adding to the pressure on shorts.
With the massive amount of options contracts in the money, the potential gamma squeeze adds to the upward pressure on the stock price.
Conclusion: Use Cash accounts, not on margin. Hold shares long-term, don't lend them. FFIE can go to the moon🚀🚀🚀.
UPDATE: FFIE is on Regsho (threshold securities list) for fails to deliver.
Days above $1: 5/10

Synopsis: A Magus journey to save his world from mana contamination and make sure it don't fall back into the same path as he finds himself in an era before magic was developed.
Kai of the Sorcerer's Tower is one of the last mages left, barely surviving in a world ruled by creatures of the dark — where the era of mages ended, and most of the lands got contaminated with dead mana.
To save his world and fulfil his master's last wish, he put himself through a forbidden ritual, risking his soul being ripped into pieces to make his way into the past. In an era with abundant mana — an era yet to enter the Golden Era of Magic.
Things go wrong, of course, as they always do, and he finds himself thousands of years before the world fell to mana contamination — in the body of a young lord, Arzan.
All is not well, though, as the young lord was murdered by someone right at the cusp of a beast wave threatening the territory, while larger threats loom on the horizon.
There was a lot to do for Kai to regain his former strength in this time of primitive technology, but then again, he might just be able to change that.
Hello everyone, this is my first time posting on reddit. Hope you would like it!
Chapter 1
Sweat stung Kai’s eyes as he plunged his knife into the floor. He carved runes and Freyac syllables around him, wood splintering as his knife traced the erratic patterns.
He had, maybe, five minutes.
The cold floor of the Sorcerer’s Tower thrummed through him as the ritual circle released magical energy. The symbols were crude and unrecognisable, making him wonder if they were even going to work, but there was no choice.
While this was the most complicated ritual he'd ever done, he needed to make it work, to escape this place and to change things for the better.
He jumped in his seat as throaty and menacing shouts from outside echoed through the corridors.
They had found him.
His head snapped in fear, taking note of the shaky walls of the library. The wide room, once neatly organised, was now cluttered and disorganised with books scattered everywhere on the floor. Dust and cobwebs only added to the mess.
His breath came out in ragged puffs and he looked down at his scarred hands.
He drew the symbols faster. He needed to finish—now! But panic clawed at his chest, making him clumsy.
Footsteps echoed through the halls of the Sorcerer's Tower and he flinched.
The mana fiends were just outside.
The creaky, wooden door burst open behind him with a loud thud. Kai was fast on his feet, turning around to face the shadowy figure.
With the face of a bull and bulging muscles, the minotaur-like creature stood at seven feet, crowned by a pair of misshapen curved horns. Black lines ran through its arms and neck, and endless rows of fangs and protrusions stuck out from its back.
Its sharp claws seemed like they'd cut up the floor faster than Kai could with his knife.
It was covered in grey fur, interspersed with patches of dead skin from overexposure to the decayed mana.
Kai's heart thumped in his ears as he weaved his hand to the left, casting a [Gust] spell while visualising a strong force of wind knocking the corrupted monster down.
It hit its chest, making it screech and stumble back a few steps.
Kai tightened his fingers around the hilt of the knife.
The mana fiend got its feet under it again and lunged forward.
He felt his breath leaving his lungs at the sight. Before it could reach him, he rolled on the floor, dodging the charge while hacking its leg with the knife.
The fiend snarled threateningly as it slashed its claws at him in a swift motion. Kai prepared another spell and slid back, but he was too slow.
The spell structure broke apart and his vision wavered as he was thrown into a bookshelf, his knife skidding away.
Terrible pain hit him as he screamed in pain and touched his face.
Blood dripped on the floor as he stared at his palm. His left eye was bleeding. Was it even there?
“It gouged out… my eye,” he muttered, trying to fight through the pain.
He had severely underestimated the power of the mana fiend. Or maybe it was due to him being in this near-crippled state that his spells weren't as powerful.
Either way, I need to get up.
Kai shook his head and tried to stand.
Even if he couldn't see, he needed to go through the ritual. That was the only way to survive, but he had to fight off the mana fiend first.
The creature’s dark magic covered its claws, sending out blasts of corrupted energy that rippled and cut through the bookshelves as it got closer to him.
Kai grasped his left eye with one hand and, using his other hand, he cast [Mana Discharge], sending a blast of mana at the creature. It tried to block but was knocked back into a bookshelf, falling and crying out in pain.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have used such a spell with high mana requirements, but he had no time.
He cast the spell [Blinding], making the monster see white.
Making his way through the fallen bookshelves, he searched for his knife and found it right next to a puddle of blood.
He picked it up and looked towards the mana fiend.
As soon as the Blinding spell died down, it picked itself up, flailing its arm around and lunging at Kai, who was anticipating such a move.
Before it could get close to him, Kai yelled, “Astrum Vosem!”
The knife glistened with mana, fire crackling within the blade as he surged forward, aiming at the monster’s neck. The mana fiend slashed at him again, but he ducked, barely avoiding the hit.
Casting another [Blinding] spell, he sent the monster stumbling back before plunging the blade into its neck. Flames crackled as he twisted the blade, aiming for the black lines.
The mana fiend fell to the ground immediately, black liquid spewing everywhere.
It cried out in pain, trying to grab Kai, but he didn't give it the chance and kept digging deep into its neck until it stopped whimpering.
Blood oozed from Kai’s eye and he suddenly noticed a deep cut on his arm. Pain numbed all his senses, but there was no time to focus on it.
“The ritual,” Kai coughed blood, realising that crashing into the bookshelf had given him internal injuries. He dragged himself on the floor until he was ahead of his preparation and felt like cursing.
A part of the ritual circle was smeared due to the blood splatter from the fight.
It was ruined.
Quickly deciding on his new move, he started scribbling frantically, drawing up a new ritual circle.
His fingers were cramping and slippery as he tried his best to draw the symbols in his mind. With one eye gone, it was much harder, and every mistake made him swear softly.
He heard more floor-shattering movements through the door. There was more than one mana fiend and the fight had attracted them to his hideout.
He needed to hurry. He only had a minute until they got here if he was lucky.
“Shit!”
He made a mistake and felt like banging his head against the floor. While keeping his remaining eye on the open door, he alternated between the ritual circle that was smeared with blood and one that was barely half complete.
He would never finish it in time.
Having no choice, Kai abandoned it and decided to take a gamble with a ruined ritual circle. A few of the lines were messed up, but he ignored it and focused on completing it.
Just one more line!
He frantically carved out the patterns, joining them with each other and let out a sigh of relief as he saw a completed ritual of intersecting circles. A part of it was barely recognizable due to the blood.
A [Cleansing] spell might have helped, but he was out of mana. The fight with the fiend had drained his reserves.
He heard a shrill voice and, as expected, soon several more creatures came inside, filling the room. They were all beasts filled with corrupted mana, but it didn't matter now.
He gave them a look and dropped the blood on his hands on the ritual circle.
In his heart, he only wished that the ritual circle would work as expected. That it would send him back to an era where he might still have a chance to stop the apocalypse from happening.
The symbols ignited, and an intense flash of white light enveloped the room. Threads of mana passed through his soul, drawing power to keep the ritual running as his body slumped on the floor. The fleeting moment came to an end when the world surrounding Kai went completely white.
The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness were the yells of the ugly monsters.
Kai flinched as a sharp pain assaulted his chest. His whole body was numb as he panted on the floor.
It felt like he had just stepped out of a prolonged period of floating in the cosmos. He didn't know how long it had been, but it definitely felt like years. Probably centuries.
A few seconds went by as he calmed down before the numbness disappeared and his eyes adjusted. Wait! His eyes!
He touched his left eye and found it intact.
It's healed completely!!
He didn't know how he had gotten his left eye back. The ritual wasn't supposed to heal him at all. It was only supposed to take him back in time.
Where am I? Am I really alive?
He was surprised that the ritual had worked, though he didn't know to what degree. With how crude it had been, there was a greater chance of it failing.
If death wasn't in front of him, Kai would have never gone for it.
At least it hadn't shredded his soul into pieces to be eaten by whatever lay beyond the afterlife, so that was a positive.
He looked around.
Kai was lying on a hardwood floor as he stared at the ceiling. Different carvings on the ceiling made him frown. He didn't recognise any of them.
He was supposed to have woken up in a cave or a forest, not in a room.
Something bubbled up in his heart and he felt unusual. His eyes immediately went to his hands and he quickly realised that the scars were gone. He gasped in horror and sat up straight.
The sudden movement caused a rush of blood to his head that made him dizzy.
“What in the Mersal's name is happening?”
He looked down on his physique.
His eyes grew wide as he noticed the tunic he was wearing was covered in blood. He opened the tunic button by button to reveal…
“Is that… a knife wound?” Kai said aloud in shock.
As he said the words, the wound slowly closed as if someone had used a healing spell on him. But that was impossible.
Something had gone terribly wrong with the ritual and one more look at himself was enough for him to realise that this wasn't his body. He had taken someone else's identity.
That realisation struck him like a mana bolt in the head as he gasped.
He breathed to calm himself down and noticed something he had been missing.
“There's mana in the air! Pure uncontaminated mana!”
All his thoughts and questions halted when a rush of fresh air hit his nostrils. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of being alive once and for all. His instincts made him get to his feet.
The air had a quality about it that brought tears to his eyes— Mana. Goosebumps covered his entire body.
He breathed in once again.
The mana in the air was so powerful it crackled with every breath Kai took. The sheer amount of mana left him wordless. This surpassed anything he had ever felt before.
Kai raised his hands, feeling all the energy that filled the air. It filled the entire room, and in his 40 years of life, he had never felt so much.
His ritual had worked, albeit differently than what he had hoped.
What is this place? Kai looked around from where he stood.
The room was bathed in an eerie light that emanated from what looked like another ritual circle beneath him.
His eyes widened at another peculiar thing as he took in the situation that he was in the middle of.
Arcane symbols were drawn all around him. The symbols were alien to him; not being one of the languages he knew and had learned. Some of them seemed similar to Hales Tongue, but he couldn't be sure since blood had spilt over them.
It was a completely different ritual circle than the kinds he knew of.
Questions became hurricanes in his mind after seeing the symbols. He tried to focus and understand his situation better.
Although the ritual had worked, he knew there would be complications since a part of it was ruined. Half-completed ritual circles were always volatile. As a result of it, he had even changed bodies.
If his assumption was correct, the ritual had only sent his soul back in time which had found a compatible body for him to control. It didn't make a lot of sense to him, but then again, the soul was a part of magical theory that had barely progressed in years.
It was too mysterious.
He decided to gather information and took a look around the room.
There was a four-poster bed draped with heavy velvet right behind him. The bed was extremely lavish apart from the poor draping skills. The rest of the bedside decorations were canopy hangings and ornate wood furniture, including storage chests and cabinets for personal belongings.
Whoever used to own this body was rich. Maybe a lord or a wealthy merchant, Kai contemplated, looking over the room.
He walked towards the bed and touched it. It had gone stone cold. Nobody had used the bed for hours.
The fireplace caught his attention. It was the main focus of the room, with the hearth having heraldic symbols carved above it. This time, he recognised the language as Manakrit.
His fingertips followed them as he contemplated the meaning of it. It was a common tongue that had spanned centuries, so it was hard to say which era he was in. His ritual was supposed to bring him to the past, but he hadn't gotten time to specify a date.
His wish was simply to go back as far as possible. However, he assumed 500 years was the limit for the ritual, so he must be around that period.
In the first place, it had been a suicidal attempt with an unknown chance of success. Yet things had somehow worked out.
Looking around, he saw a picture frame stuck on the wall from the corner of his eye.
Kai turned and walked towards the picture. It was an old man. His bald head and his stern gaze were pointed to his left, as he sat in a seat comfortably.
It's weird that the picture is just sitting there in the corner. Either some important individual or the owner of this place.
With the ritual, everything seemed odd.
The former body owner had wounds that were fresh in two or three places, including his hands and feet. The clothes were covered with slightly dried-up blood.
“What was the guy even doing? He wasn't trying a similar ritual to go back in time, right?”
His voice was strange. Hoarse, and deeper than he remembered.
Closing his eyes, he remembered his last few minutes in the tower. It was infested with bloodthirsty creatures. Every moment was tense, but in this room, there was a weird sense of serenity that he hadn't felt in a long time.
He was alive, at least.
He sighed in content and opened his eyes. breathing mana with a wide smile.
The mana in the air tempted him to extend his hand. He needed more light to see around the symbols.
His index finger swirled a little into a circle while he envisioned lighting up the central fireplace. Normally, this spell would’ve ignited a small fireball, but nothing came.
Strange.
Immediately, Kai took a few steps forward. He inhaled the air, feeling the energy in his bones, and tried the spell again, his hand moving attempting a simple spell even a 1st circle mage could’ve done in a blink.
He even muttered an incantation for added effect, normally reserved for harder spells.
“Astrum Octavia.”
Once again, he successfully failed.
He’d normally cast something so simple with just intent, but it wasn't working.
Something clouded his mind. He looked down on his new body and concentrated internally. He could sense mana and could feel his Mana Veins, even his Mana Heart seemed intact, but focusing on it, he realised that the body he was in was a Non-Mage.
He hadn't even started his magical journey and couldn't cast a single spell.
All the mana organs were intact, but he hadn't awakened as a mage. The realisation of it made him wince. Not only had he lost his body, he had also lost his strength. He used to be a 5th Circle Magus. Now, he was a mere mortal. Ordinary.
If he had really awakened in a cave or a forest, he might have been killed by wild beasts.
“This… can’t be true.” Kai's refusal to believe the reality of his situation overwhelmed his thoughts for a few more seconds as he closed his eyes to feel his insides. Seconds stretched to minutes as he contemplated his new reality.
He slowly took in the fact that he was no longer Kai. He was in someone else's body and had taken over him. He didn't know who that person was, but he had been killed by whatever ritual he had been attempting.
A few possibilities flashed by his mind. Maybe his soul had been dragged here by the ritual this man was attempting? Or his ritual of regression had simply only been for his soul rather than his body.
As soon as his soul had found a suitable vessel, it had taken over him.
Though, these were simply possibilities he wasn't sure of.
He decided to investigate.
“What’s that?”
His eyes followed the trail of the bloody ritual on the floor to find a piece of parchment.
Kai bent down to swiftly pick it up. The torn page lay between his fingertips, the words written on it were with blood.
Whoever had written it had poor penmanship, to say the least. He slowly read out the words.
“I will die and be reborn. Everyone will fear my might and the dawn of blood will arrive again.”
He dropped the parchment on the floor, wondering if he had come back in the past and inside the body of a cultist. But even if it was a cultist, the surroundings including the room didn’t sum up, and if he was somehow in the body of a noble who was a ritualistic devotee, things would only get worse from here.
“I don't want to deal with a cult. At least not when I'm basically powerless,” he muttered, frowning as his voice turned bitter.
Kai let the weight of the situation settle in, but the door sprung open.
He immediately looked to the side and saw a woman with widened eyes. Her eyes were on the floor seeing the symbols, syllables, lines, and curves; all of it. Then they fell on the owner of the room, bloodied and in the middle of this encounter, with his hands at his side.
That was him and he noticed the woman looked like a maid.
“I-” The maid opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Kai stared at her, again feeling like he was simply going from one problem to another.
Ah shit! How do I get out of this one?
If you liked it, you can sign up for my patreon - where you can read up to 15 chaps more.
Patreon

Killer Grips: Anne Maria, Brick, Jasmine, Justin, Millie
Screaming Gaffers: Chase, Izzy, MK, Ripper, Scott
Episode 9: The Sand Witch Project
"Last time, on Total! Drama! Action! A girl with vision. Vision that took her past everyday thinking. But when the chips were down, and even when the chips came back up again, she was the only one who could rescue them."
"Searching for a cure to the disease that was afflicting her dearest friends, a challenge was won. A cure found."
"But will-" Chris began to munch and crunch on something, though, so the rest of his sentence was completely muddled and unintelligible. The recap footage ended and the shot cut to Chris sitting on the amphitheater bleachers with popcorn at his side.
"Hey, what can I say? Gross disease movies make me crave a little corn!" He picked up his snack and smiled. "But, it's time to put the snacks away, kiddies," he tossed the bag over his shoulder, "because after this totally terrifying episode," the scene cut to a nighttime shot of him walking past a portable toilet near the cast trailers, "there won't be a stomach left unturned!" A horrible growling noise came from inside the toilet that made the host flinch, but he recovered his composure quickly and walked over to a nearby campfire. "Hold on to your buckets. It's time for some Total! Drama! Action!"
(Theme Song)
The episode began with a shot of a soccer ball rolling across the shot and the camera zoomed out to show Jasmine and Justin kicking it back and forth to each other. Brick was also in the background sleeping on a lounge chair.
The camera panned to the right to show Anne Maria, Izzy, MK, Ripper, and Scott playing cards at a picnic table. "Sorry, wimps," Ripper said with a triumphant grin, "but I won this round!" The bully put his cards on the table. "Whose turn is it to deal?"
"Mine," Izzy said, grabbing the cards. “Watch this!” She then did a number of intricate moves to shuffle them, much to her competitors’ amazement.
Confessional: Scott
"Izzy's such a showboat," Scott told the confessional camera. "She's always there to demonstrate how “cool” she is, but can she smash twenty kitchen rats in under a minute? No.”
“I just wish that my team loses the next challenge so we can vote her off, and I know how to handle that if it comes down to the wire,” the farmer said sneakily.
Confessional Ends
The footage cut back with Millie and Chase sitting on the steps of the boys’ trailer, Millie holding a small basket of sandwich wedges.
"I can't believe how many of these were leftover after lunch!" Millie said before tossing one of the sandwiches into her mouth.
“I can't believe you managed to steal these in the first place!” Chase chuckled.
"I can't help it," Millie said giddily. "Egg salad sandwiches are super tasty, and it's not like Chef will notice."
“I clearly taught you well,” Chase said. “You know, it's great to hang out with each other given all the times we've been separated.”
“We still have to manage until the merge, Chase,” Millie reminded her boyfriend. “Things have been crazy though with Trent's jealousy over you and Sky and his challenge throwing.”
“I didn't even know about all that until you told me a few days ago,” Chase said.
“Sky told me all about it, and I didn't have the time to inform you,” Millie admitted.
“I'm still cool with Trent, but if anybody thinks that I'll drop you for another chick, then they don't know a thing about me,” Chase declared. “I'd rather get poison ivy then cheat on you.”
“Your loyalty is one of the reasons why I'm in love with you,” Millie admired before giving Chase a peck on his cheek.
"I wouldn't be Chase without that, Millie!" Chase smiled. "Now watch this!" A fast-paced and hectic tune began as he did a front handspring, landed, then jumped into the air, twirled a few times, and landed in splits. "This is how you speed eat, folks," he said as he did his routine. He stood up from his splits, took out a few sandwiches from his pockets, and tossed his snacks into the air, catching them all with his open mouth. He took a bow after he finished swallowing.
The contestants applauded politely. "Nice one," Anne Maria said. “I've seen monkeys swallow less bananas than we do with these sandwiches."
"Chef's food has gotten so good," Justin said with a mouthful. The sound of loud snoring filled the air and everyone looked over at Brick, the camera zooming in on him as a ripple effect transitioned the scene.
It was a dark and stormy night on the film lot, and a rat scurried by past the craft services tent before lightning flashed and the camera zoomed in on the light coming from the kitchen window. A few jarringly tense notes played as the shot focused on a kitchen knife in Brick's hand before the music softened out and the knife was used to spread egg salad on a slice of bread. Cheese and lettuce were added next, followed by another slice of bread, and Brick was shown looking at the sandwich with a smile on his face – a stack of similar sandwiches was on the counter nearby.
Just then, Chef made his presence known in the background after another flash of lightning and shouted "Lunch!".
Brick squeaked and held his knife out in front of him in an attempt to protect himself, and Chef began to slowly clap his hands in a deadpan manner.
"We need to stop all this cheating," Brick begged. "Being in this alliance is seriously going against everything I stand for as a cadet."
"This is not about right or wrong, son," Chef declared remorselessly. "It's about you and me winning that cool mil."
The footage rippled back to the present.
Brick was still snoring peacefully as the camera panned away from him and back to the picnic table where Millie and Chase had joined most of the others.
"So, what're you guys doing?" Chase asked the card players.
"We don't think there's gonna be a challenge today," Ripper explained, "so we've just been playing cards against each other."
“And it's kinda getting borin’ with Big and Blue winning a majority of our games,” Anne Maria shot a grim look at Ripper.
“It's not my fault I'm better than you all at Go Fish, Rimmy, and the sort,” Ripper scoffed.
“Now I wish there is a challenge,” Izzy grumbled.
“I second that,” Scott nodded.
The background music became tense as the loudspeakers squealed on. "Attention Total Drama victims!" Chris announced dramatically. "Please meet me in the northeast corner of the studio-palooza! Bring lozenges!" he added over a shot of Chase chewing and swallowing one of his sandwiches while looking up. "The screaming is gonna hurt!"
"Wishes do come true," Izzy laughed humorously as she looked at the others around her.
The footage cut to a view of MK and Izzy through a small monitor looking unamused. "We walk all the way out here," the techno girl said, "yet Chris hasn't arrived yet!" The camera pulled out to show that the monitor was part of a larger recording device pointed at the Gaffers, who along with the Grips had assembled at an open-air set in what looked to be the middle of nowhere.
"Maybe he's racked up too much overtime figuring out new ways to torture us," Justin suggested, leaning against a light in the middle of the shot.
As if on cue, a familiar shout came from above that startled the handsome boy. He and the other castmates looked up in time to see none other than the host falling back-first from above, a small square of red just barely visible on the bottom of his shirt. He landed just below the screen with appropriately dramatic music and a burst of something thick and red that splattered the horrified contestants.
The camera cut to a tilted shot of Chris McLean impaled on the same light which Justin had just been leaning up against. All of the castmates screamed.
"Huh. Guess the producers don't like paying overtime," Justin commented.
"I'm worth every dime!" Chris said, suddenly sitting up with a grin and a shrug.
"I was just about to go out looking for your car and hightail it out of here," Chase spoke up in disappointment.
"It's the magic of cinema, boys and girls!" Chris declared, ignoring the comment. "I'm absolutely, perfectly, Chris-ily fine!" He took the top of the light off his body, revealing that, in fact, he hadn't been impaled at all. "Wanna see how it's done?"
"NO!" every contestant shouted and scowled angrily at the host.
Chris explained anyway, and blood appeared to pour down over the camera turning the whole screen red before the shot zoomed out to show the red was all inside a small square packet similar to what had been on the host's shirt. "Our cracker-jack effects team seals fake blood into a thin membrane of plastic," Chris said before the shot of him falling was shown again, "called a 'squib'." A top-down view of the fall appeared on the top half of the screen that showed the host smiling, while a yellow-and-black silhouette scene on the bottom depicted two interns carrying a mattress to the landing sight.
"This baby bursts on impact," the host said as the screen was splattered red again, which dripped away to show footage of the mattress being lowered into a hole in the ground behind the light, Chris falling down into it with a burst of blood before the ground the light was on descended into the ground and a platform with Chris on the fake light rose to take its place. "An old-fashioned optical illusion helps sell that I get impaled!" the host said as another silhouetted scene slid in from the right showing the fall from a side-view, with the quick change of platforms and lights.
"Can you not make like a sloth right now?" Jasmine groaned. “Get on with it.”
"Time for today's totally terrifying, blood-curdling, Horror Movie Challenge!" Chris announced before starting to walk around in front of the castmates. “To figure out which team gets which challenge, a scream-off! Think of every great horror movie you've ever seen.”
Izzy gasped in excitement. “Oh my gosh, you guys. Did you see that one with the possessed rug that learns to walk and smother cats? Or did I make that up?”
"All horror movies have one thing in common: fantastic screaming from actors. And," Chris added as he walked back past the Grips and lingered in front of Justin, "the killers that snuff them." The pretty boy looked nervously shocked, but Chris paid him no heed. "Each team, pick a serial killer," he told the castmates. "The rest of you will be the screamers. If your serial killer can make you scream the loudest, your team wins!"
A roaring chainsaw swiped down across the screen, accompanied by a sudden but dramatic twist to the background music as the screen was splattered red again.
The 'blood' effect drained away, transitioning the scene to Jasmine talking to the Killer Grips outside the numbered studios while holding the mask and bottle of ketchup. "We have to go with Anne Maria. I'd do it, but my height would be a dead giveaway."
“She scares me on a daily basis,” Millie agreed with the plan.
“And though the mask offers good protection for my beautiful face, I already performed a role in the third challenge,” Justin added.
Jasmine was about to give the mask to Anne Maria until Chef came in and grabbed the object. "Brick's gotta do it!" he claimed furiously.
"But we already agreed to a plan," Jasmine argued.
"Brick… is doing it." Chef said again.
"I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to tell us what to do in the challenges," Anne Maria talked back.
Chef grabbed her hair and held her off the ground. "Do you like having your hair shaved off of your head? Cause I can make that happen," the large man said to Anne Maria threateningly.
Confessional: Anne Maria
"I love my pouf," Anne Maria said. "Not only do I get to style it into whatever the heck I want, but I can also stash things in like spray cans, phones, food. Anything goes as long as it's not overly big. And the last thing I want right now is to lose my hair because of a dumb decision."
Confessional Ends
Chef dropped Anne Maria onto the floor, grabbed Brick by his collar, and shoved the mask onto his chest before stomping off in a satisfied manner.
"Since when does Chef buzz into challenges?" Jasmine asked. "This smells fishy to me."
"Oh, my bad," Anne Maria pulled a sandwich out of her pouf. "I was saving this for later."
“You guys have to let me be the killer!” Chase told his four teammates. “I have a lot of experience with scaring people on Halloween.”
“Okay, I am such the better scarer,” Izzy interjected. “My own dog is terrified of me, okay?”
“Most of my classmates are terrified of me, so I think that triumphs more over that,” Ripper argued.
“I wanna be the killer,” Scott grunted. “This is a role I was born to play.”
MK cleared up her throat. “Can everyone just-”
“But I was the one who scared my teammates last season with the bear costume,” Izzy pouted.
“I was one of them, and I won't be fooled by you again,” Ripper huffed.
MK gritted her teeth before shouting “I'm going to be our serial killer and that's final!!” Everybody stopped arguing and looked at the shortest member of the team. “You guys being the killer would be predictable and boring, and I'm just as worthy of being scary as you all.”
Confessional: MK
“I haven't done much lately other than puke my guts out and sweat uncontrollably,” MK admitted. “If we were to lose this challenge, no way would they consider voting me off if I do my best as the killer.”
Confessional Ends
The footage skipped ahead to night, showing a close-up of Chase walking somewhere around a wooded part of the film lot.
“Looks like we've been lumped into this together,” Jasmine said as the shot pulled back to show the Australian woman wandering around the woods as well.
"Who would've thought?" Chase asked rhetorically.
"Alright, Jasmine and Chase," Chris announced as the shot pulled out yet again to show the host sitting in a director's chair just off what was revealed to be an indoor forest set. "Prepare yourselves for your killers to enter!" The viewpoint shifted in front as he continued excitedly. "And then, I want huge, massive, ginormous screams! We'll be measuring the volume on our Scream-o-Meter!" He pointed above him as a bright green volume icon appeared; a stock screaming sound effect was played that caused the volume meter to rise from left to right, green to yellow to red.
"Lights!" Chris commanded, a dramatic note playing as a stage light was shown turning on. "Camera!" a camera was shown popping up and turning on to another dramatic note. "Action!" A film slate was held in front of the camera filming Chris and clapped.
Chase was shown in the distance with his back towards the camera just before a hockey mask was put 'on' over the shot. The camera moved forward a few steps towards some bushes as tense music built in the background, and the viewpoint shifted to show what was obviously a masked MK watching her teammate from hiding.
The music peaked as she jumped into the open with a roar, prompting Chase to scream… for a few seconds before stopping himself.
"Seriously?" MK asked in annoyance.
“I told myself that you'd be coming any time, so I had to prepare my scream,” Chase told his teammate.
The Scream-o-Meter only registered a few bars.
The camera cut to Brick peeking out of a tree. "I would've preferred if Anne Maria was performing this rather than me," the cadet said, making Chef pop up and scare Brick away with a roar.
Brick bumped into Jasmine while running away. "Oh, hello Brick," Jasmine greeted after turning around.
Brick looked at Chef one last time before putting the mask on and growing, leading Jasmine to scream and make the Scream-o-Meter register all the way to the first red tick.
"With a solid 55 on the Scream-o-Meter, let's notch one up for Brick, Jasmine, and the Killer Grips!" Chris announced.
The scene changed to a portable toilet set up in a smaller indoor forest set. “They cannot be serious," Anne Maria said as the camera cut inside to her filing her nails. "Who do these people think they are filming us in here?" The shot zoomed out slightly, showing that she was, indeed, sitting on the toilet. "I'm not giving them the satisfaction of using the toilet."
A flash took the scene to Scott's turn alone in the portable toilet. "Why don't we just give up now?" Scott scoffed. "There ain't nothing that can scare the Scottmeister much, and MK is no exception."
As if on cue, the techno burst into the toilet and growled loudly, causing Scott to let out a blood-curdling scream.
The camera cut back to Anne Maria, and Brick came into the toilet. "Were you in the middle of…."
"Wasn't even thinkin’ about it. Now do the scene," Anne Maria encouraged Brick, who let out a simple roar.
Scott was still screaming as the camera cut back to him and MK to the point where the Scream-o-Meter topped out.
Suddenly, the sound of peeing was heard, and Scott became quiet in his moment of embarrassment.
"I bet you never made anybody wet themselves like I did to you," MK took her mask off while snorting.
"Sorry, Brickhouse," Anne Maria said as the shot cut back to her and Brick. "You just don't scare me at all. You're kinda a marshmallow."
"I am large and in charge," Brick pointed out. “You're too tough to frighten.”
"And that's round two to MK, Scott, and the Screaming Gaffers!" Chris announced as the camera cut to him in the director's chair. "With a pee-fueled 85 on the Scream-o-Meter!"
After Chris left, Chef snuck out from behind the potty. "If Brick won't step up, the other half of the alliance has to."
The footage flashed ahead to another set, this time a couch in what appeared to be a small cottage in the woods. Ripper and Izzy were sitting on it together with scripts in their hands, while Chris stood a few feet away. "Alright guys," he told the two, "this is the tiebreaker scene. You're gonna have to act your faces off!"
Ripper read the script and his eyes went wide in excitement. "We get to make out! Brilliant!" he grinned.
"Those are one of my favorite parts of any horror movie," Izzy added.
"I love movie life!" Ripper smiled as Izzy sat on his lap and they began to kiss.
As the sounds of their make out session got louder, the camera panned over to Chris standing there with an awkward look on his face. "Awkward," he told the camera.
Millie and Justin were on the couch for the Grips, the camera focusing on the writer as she scanned the papers in her hand. Her eyebrows shot up and she dropped the papers. "No," she said. "Not this. Especially when I'm already dating Chase."
"I'll let you know that I'm a pretty good kisser," Justin told her.
Chris poked the top of his head up from behind the couch, looked between the two teens, and raised himself even further with a grin on his face. "Don't forget, kiddies," he told them, "it's a million bucks!" He ducked back behind the couch again.
With no other choice, the two leaned towards each other with their eyes clenched shut and puckered up. Their lips only barely touched before they recoiled.
“Glad I got that over with," Millie said frantically.
“It was a millisecond kiss, not a kiss of death,” Justin stated as Brick popped up from behind the couch and growled, but the two ignored the killer.
The camera cut to Izzy still making out with Ripper. MK crept up from behind them, brandished her knife, and said, "Ready to be chopped into sushi?!" She was ignored. "Uh, hello?!" she asked in irritation.
The duo looked over at her and gave half-hearted screams that barely stayed green on the Scream-o-Meter, making MK facepalm.
The shot panned over to the three sulking Grips until they looked up and saw a hockey mask wearing Chef brandish a revved up chainsaw and they all screamed. It was enough to put the Scream-o-Meter all the way in the red, and Brick managed to pass out and fall forward onto the couch.
"Well, looks to me like Brick and the Killer Grips have won this one," Chris announced as he walked onto the set, "seeing as they buried the needle. Join us after the break to see if Brick is still alive," he said as Justin and Millie looked over at Brick with concern. "Brick!" Chris called lightly. "Come in, Brick!"
(Commercial Break)
The footage came back with a bottom-up shot of the other nine campers looking down in a circle; counterclockwise from a gap at the top of the screen were Scott, Jasmine, Izzy, Millie, Ripper at the bottom, Anne Maria, Chase, MK, and Justin.
"Is he still breathing?" Anne Maria asked.
"I think he's saying something," Jasmine said before the viewpoint moved to a close-up of the unconscious cadet.
"I'm sorry. I can't take this anymore…" Brick murmured before his face turned scared and he shouted "NO NO NO NO NO!" while turning around.
“Okay, time to wake this doof up,” Ripper said before grabbing Brick's body and sitting him on the couch. The moment he did so, the bully smacked Brick hard on the face.
This act woke Brick up, and he looked around in confusion. "What happened? Why am I here? And where's Chef?"
"Chef's in a meeting with the producers," Chris explained. "A disciplinary meeting. He's in trouble! Not allowed to mess with the challenges."
"I had a feeling something smelled fishy, and not the sandwiches," Jasmine said suspiciously.
"Moving right along," Chris interrupted as the camera pulled out to show the full cast. "It's time to pack up those overnight bags, loser Gaffers!" The camera focused on the five in question. "You and your sleeping bags are spending the night in the dining hall!" All five of them slumped in disappointment. "Grip winners, back to the comfort of the trailers for a little R&R! I'll see you there in half an hour."
The scene flashed over to the craft services tent, the lights within already on. “The craft services tent isn't a bad place to spend the night,” Chase was heard saying before the camera cut inside. "We still have some good memories of the food we ate in here."
Izzy popped out from under a nearby table. "More than memories. I just found half a piece of cheesecake under here," she demonstrated the food.
“Could you split that into one-fourth so I could at least take a piece?” Chase suggested as he looked over the cheesecake.
"Guys!" Chris called from off-camera. "You mind joining us here?" A creepy tune began as the shot moved onto the host on a stool in the middle of the tent, the other three Gaffers seated on the floor around him as Izzy and Chase walked up.
"I'm about to tell you why this film lot was abandoned and closed!" he told the teens in a low voice.
"Because it's a death trap?" MK deadpanned.
"Hush, my child," Chris told her. "This film lot is perfectly safe! On this plane. But in the other dimension...," he trailed off, picking up a flashlight and shining it dramatically up from under his chin, making Izzy, Chase, and MK's eyes widen as they gasped.
"Juanita Rentacop, a dedicated security guard who worked here for twenty-five loyal years, until her mysterious death," he told them slowly. "Right here...," the music built quickly and sharply as the camera pulled back and he stood up and pointed at the ground. "ON THIS VERY SPOT!" Even Ripper and Scott flinched slightly from his sudden exclamation.
"Now," Chris continued as he looked from Gaffer to Gaffer, "her desperate and uneasy spirit walks the lot." He tilted his flashlight towards the wall and doorway, shadows of the bare tree branches falling on the outside of the tent. "No one has ever managed to spend a whole night in this craft service tent!"
"Because the falling sets killed them?" MK asked in a dry tone.
"'Cause," Chris told her as he returned the light to under his chin and the background music rose again, "of the HAUNTING!" he leaned away from her and turned off his flashlight. "Your task," he said with a grin in the center of the group, "spend the whole night here, without leaving this tent. If all or one of you manage to do so," he began to walk off to a table near the kitchen, "your team gets invincibility, and nobody goes home."
"Track any psychic phenomenon using these ghost meters," the host said as the camera zoomed in on a trio of handheld electronic devices resting on the table along with a ouija board. "And just in case," he added as Scott walked over to him, holding out his flashlight before clutching it to his chest and handing the boy a tiny keychain flashlight instead.
"Gee, thanks," Scott said as he held up the light and turned it on, completely unimpressed.
A flash took the scene to the campfire in front of the cast trailers, where the five Grips awaited an approaching Chris McLean. "The Screaming Gaffers are sitting in the craft services tent like sitting ducks," he told them as the camera panned from his close-up to eager Brick and confident Justin, then excited Millie and smirking Jasmine. "Your task is to make like special effects gurus, and frighten the pants off them!" He laughed, then told a skeptical Anne Maria "Or at least scare them enough to get them out of the tent before sunrise."
"How are we supposed to scare them?" Anne Maria asked.
"It's your call," Chris answered. "But if you get them out, your team wins invincibility and nobody goes home. Oh," he added as an afterthought, "just so you know, I told them some cockamamie story about a security guard who died on set." He chuckled, then walked away.
"How are we going to pull this off?" Brick asked his teammates.
"Chase is probably going to get mad at me for this, but I say we turn out the lights," Millie suggested. “Me and him experienced a blackout when we hung out at his house and he couldn't handle it.”
"I've got it!" Jasmine declared with a snap of her fingers. "Let's go. We have work to do." The others shrugged and followed the Outback girl away from the trailers.
The footage skipped ahead to the Grips outside of the tent watching Jasmine hold a white sheet, pillow stuffing, and a red bird in her arms. “Now that we have our things required, allow me to tell you the plan.”
“Why is a bird even on a film lot?” Justin asked.
“This bird just tends to fly around and rest on my branch,” Jasmine explained. “More importantly, I'm going to place the bird in-between the stuffing in order to give it some space to flap its wings, and with the sheet covering both the bird and the stuffing…”
“...the Screaming Gaffers will think that a ghost is haunting them!” Millie realized.
“You hit the nail right on the head,” Jasmine said while ripping some of the stuffing off before placing the bird inside.
“Let's get down to business then,” Brick agreed.
Inside the tent, Ripper, Izzy, Scott, and Chase were shown playing cards at the table nearest the closed-up meal counter while MK sat in front of them feeling bored.
“Do either of you have a seven?” Ripper asked attentively.
"Augh! How did you even know I had that?" Scott groaned as he put a card from his hand down on the table. “I hate to say it, but you really are good at cards, Rip Van Winkle."
Chase noticed something behind him and began to scream, and his teammates looked at him oddly. "Is something wrong?" Izzy asked as her teammate pointed to the air behind him. A few deep notes played as the shot cut to the flapping ghost moving left and right by itself.
Scott, Izzy, and Ripper joined Chase in screaming before they dashed towards the exit.
"Hold on!" MK cried out, but they didn't listen. "I said HOLD ON!!!" This made the team come to a dead stop just as they were about to exit outside. "The ghost meter's aren't reading a thing." She held the ghost detector up.
“Then how do you explain that thing hovering over us?” Chase raised an eyebrow in annoyance.
“Something has to be inside that sheet, and it has to be…” MK said before she took the stack of cards and chucked it at the stuffed sheet, making it drop to the ground.
MK approached the “ghost”, and her teammates gasped in horror as she grabbed hold of the sheet and threw it off, revealing the stuffing inside it and the bird escaped from the stuffing and flew away.
"Great Scott!" Scott declared while the bird flew past him. "It was just a hoodwink!"
Confessional: Chase
"If the Grips are trying to scare us so bad, then they must be doing a great job doing so," Chase told the confessional camera. "Putting a bird inside a sheet was genius."
Confessional Ends
The scene cut back outside, where the Grips turned away from the window they'd been watching from.
"Well, that didn't work," Brick sighed. "Sorry about your bird, Jasmine."
"It's no big deal. I'm not the bird's mother," Jasmine said.
“Does anybody else have any better ideas that don't involve stuffing animals into sheets?” Anne Maria asked impatiently.
“Leave that to me,” Brick spoke up.
"Don't you tend to get scared easily?" Jasmine wondered.
“Admittedly, I do, but I want to provide cooperation for this team,” Brick said. “And I will not take no for an answer.”
The team looked at each other for a brief while before giving in. “You are a Grip after all. What's our plan?” Jasmine asked.
Back in the craft services tent, the Gaffers had resumed their card game. "Give me all your two's!" Chase said.
The lights in the tent then shut off. "Uh, I'll give my two's later," Izzy said frightfully as she and the other Gaffers were shown looking around in confusion.
The scene moved outside, to where Brick was standing by a power box. He had already pulled the main switch down and took out a walkie talkie. "The power has been cut," he whispered into it.
As the Gaffers looked around their tent, the camera panned to Justin watching them just outside a window. "Nice work, Crew Cut," he whispered into a walkie talkie of his own. "Speed Writer, are you there?"
"At the ready, Dashing Devil," Millie replied from outside the tent.
"Remember, this is just Chris or the Killer Grips trying to scare us," MK warned her team.
“Yeah, you may be right,” Chase said optimistically. “This team doesn't give up.”
“Or die trying,” Scott added.
An odd, scratchy moaning began around them. The camera cut back to Millie, the author holding a megaphone and producing the moans.
Inside the tent, the viewpoint shifted to reveal Jasmine dressed in a security guard's uniform swaying in the air above them, her hat conveniently lowered over her eyes. She was obviously in a makeshift harness, and the camera followed the rope attached to her up to the rafters of the tent where Anne Maria was shown clinging to a beam with the other end of the line in one hand and a walkie talkie in the other.
"That's a go from Metal Hair and Long Legs," Anne Maria whispered.
The Gaffers all watched the supposed ghost sway about. “Now THAT is a ghost!” Ripper freaked out.
"I'm too hot to die!" Chase shouted before the team started to run off screaming.
"Are you serious?!" MK hissed. "The ghost meters are not going off!"
From his position, Justin threw a fork intending to aim for the detector, and just when the fork was about to hit its target, MK quickly saw the silverware hit the button on her detector, and despite it going off, the AV girl simply stood still and did not move.
“Yeah, nice try!” she laughed with a smirk after picking up the fork. "I know you're not a ghost, Jasmine!" MK pointed at the 'ghost'. “You can come back now, team!”
Jasmine lifted her hat and revealed her surprised face. "Abort now! We failed!" she said above her.
Up in the rafters, Anne Maria's eyes went wide as she began to pull up. At ground level, MK's teammates returned to the tent and watched in bewilderment as the 'ghost' began to ascend.
“How are you so good at not being scared?” Scott asked MK.
“To make it short, sweet, and to the point, I'm not a dummy,” MK said smugly.
An air horn was sounded off as Chris entered the tent with one in his possession. "The Screaming Gaffers win the challenge. And the Killer Grips are heading to the elimination ceremony!"
The Gaffers all cheered for their victory.
The scene cut to the communal bathroom where Brick was in the middle of washing his hands. After finishing, the cadet was about to step out until he saw Justin enter.
“Hey man. I want to talk to you,” Justin said.
“What could it be about, Justin?” Brick wondered.
“Earlier today, you were mumbling something while you were unconscious,” Justin mentioned. “You even sounded frightened like a bear was coming to kill you.”
“You still remember that?” Brick felt embarrassed.
“I do, but I feel like now is the perfect time to bring it up,” Justin continued. “You've been avoiding us lately and it's confusing us.”
“That is true,” Brick sighed, “but it's not…”
“Jasmine's really concerned about you,” Justin cut him off. “You and her have a bond going, Brick, and is hiding whatever you're doing worth ruining it?”
This caused Brick to fall silent for a bit as he reconsidered his actions before he opened his mouth. “I think I know what I have to do,” he said with a stern look on his face.
The footage faded straight into the opening sequence of the Gilded Chris Awards, followed by a flash to a long-distance shot of the amphitheater as the host approached his podium. The five losing teens were shown voting, with the trio of Millie, Justin, and Anne Maria in the upper row while Brick and Jasmine sat in front.
"And now, fraidy cat Grips," Chris said as the Gaffers were all standing on the stage alongside him, "it's time to announce who will not win a Gilded Chris this week. Who deserves to go home bitterly disappointed, tears in their eyes?"
“I hope someone takes a picture if that happens,” Ripper whispered to his team with a snicker.
“Watching the elimination ceremony is already our reward, but that would be sweeter,” Scott said.
Chef arrived in his usual dress with several golden awards. He bitterly took out an envelope, to which Chris quickly snatched up.
"And! The Gilded Chrises go to...," he announced as the Grips were seen sitting anxiously. "Anne Maria, Millie, Jasmine!" One by one, the three caught the awards that were tossed to them. "Still on the chopping block, Justin and Brick!" The camera panned from one boy to the other, the former looking calm and the latter feeling settled.
"Chris, I'll have to stop you there!" Brick stood up and walked onto the stage, much to everyone's confusion. "I volunteer for elimination. I do not deserve to stay. I did not follow my own code."
"Brick!" Chef yelled in frustration, but quickly chuckled nervously and walked over to the guilty boy. "Why don't you and I have a chat before you do anything stupid!" he whispered menacingly.
"I'm done listening to whatever you tell me to do!" Brick declared to the taken back man and then turned to the others. "Ever since the third challenge, me and Chef were in a secret and illegal alliance."
Everyone gasped at the dropped bombshell as Chef smiled nervously. "He's been attempting to build me up and coach me through the challenges just so we could split the money, and I do not want any part in this." As Brick spoke, Chris could be shown sending an outraged look at his assistant.
"Wait a minute!" Chase cried out. "All the food we've been eating. The pizza, the cheesecake, the sandwiches. That was you?"
"Why leave when you've been making our stay here better?" MK questioned with genuine sadness.
"Yeah!" Justin said in agreement while he and the Grips got on stage with the others. "Can't we just vote Chef off instead?" The model ignored the glare he was receiving from Chef.
"I'm sorry, but I have to make my conscience clean again," Brick responded. He then noticed Jasmine looking at the ground with disappointment. “Jasmine, are you feeling-”
“Like you said, it's best that you stay away from the film lot,” Jasmine said with an upset glare. “And more importantly from me. You lied to me, and a long distance apart is what's best right now.”
Brick hung his head in shame. “Understood!” he obeyed dejectedly.
The scene flashed to Brick stepping into the waiting limo with a sad wave. Chris walked up to it just as the door slammed shut and it drove off, leaving the host standing at the end of the red carpet with a vague smile on his face.
"Well folks," he told the camera. "Looks like everyone just lost their best chef and most moraled man. Now that they've survived this week's fright fest, they'll be forced to bear the most horrific, stomach-churning, gut-wrenching challenge ever! Chef's cooking!” The man laughed gleefully. “I love this game.”
(Roll the Credits)
(Bonus Clip)
“I know I did the right thing, and I don't regret admitting to my wrongdoings, but that doesn't mean that I can ignore the consequences,” Brick said inside the limo. “My fellow competitors will have to go back to eating Chef's less than quality food, and cooking is something I've taken passion in doing now, and my friendship with Jasmine is more or less strained.” He frowned sadly. “I never meant to hurt her at all. I could've told her the truth earlier on, and she still would've been disappointed, but at least she'd see that I was the noble man I told her I am. Now all that's left for me to do is hope that she wins the season.”
Eva - 14th
Geoff - 14th
Izzy - RETURNED
Trent - 12th
Sky - 11th
Brick - 10th
Killer Grips: Anne Maria, Jasmine, Justin, Millie
Screaming Gaffers: Chase, Izzy, MK, Ripper, Scott

Im not a writer, just want to get that out of the way.
Last week someone here posted a video of the joplin tornado, more importantly the EMT response a few hours after it hit and it unlocked things in my head I had hoped to forget but it also resonated with a surprising amount of people so I figured what the hell, lets tell it. Watching the livestream in realtime yesterday when Greenfield got hit also reminded me of Joplin.
I had just moved to the area from California hoping to start a new life. I was barley 18 and moved here because my mom went to jail and I had a friend in Pittsburg Ks who offered me a couch to crash on so I packed up what I could and got on a greyhound bus to arrive in Joplin 4 days later. Living in Northern California the only weather I know was snow so I didnt have that primal fear of it like the people who are native to tornado alley put in me. 13 years ago today I had that fear put in me.
I had taken a job in Joplin and would commute every day from pitt to Joplin and had gotten off work and started driving home. About 30 minutes into my drive I noticed cars pulled off the side of the road taking pictures of some low and angry looking clouds so I pulled over to see what was happening. I started talking with a storm chaser who gave me a breakdown of what I was looking at and it was intriguing to say the least. They get back in their car and leave and I start heading back home when the tornado sirens went off. I had no clue what to do but I had seen twister before so I knew there may be hail and thats problematic when your driving your friends car so I found a car wash to "hide" in.
While sitting there I got a text in our work group, it was the manager telling everyone to seek shelter from the storm and I got curious then started driving back towards Joplin when I noticed the spherical shaped clouds that I had never seen before and pulled over to marvel at them. They were absolutely beautiful and didnt even look real. Just wave after wave of mammatus clouds with the sun hitting them just right so the spots between the spheres just glowed orange. In hindsight they were trying to tell me to stay away from whatever created them. I started driving into Joplin again and it didnt take long to figure out something bad happened here.
Coming into town you would catch a glint of light coming from the sky and move your eye towards it just to see a small piece of debris falling and you would focus on it just to realize there was all sorts of shit suspended in the sky slowly tumbling down. You would follow one down, watch it land in the top of a tree just to notice the tree was full of small bits of debris. As you drive closer you realize that every tree has something in it and youre so focused on trying to figure out what it is you dont see the insulation bits wrapped around a fence post or acknowledge the roof shingle laying in the road. My brain never processed it was peoples lives falling from the sky, I figured a trash truck didnt cover his load or something.
Then I got into Joplin.....There was no transition to damage, one minute I was driving in a city and the next minute it was all gone. Sadly I know people feel the same way I did when they drove back home to Greenfield after a long day at work just to find devastation on a scale that cant be put into words. Its like a switch gets flipped and there is a brief period of time where your brain will involuntarily show you what your priorities are. In that millisecond you learn something about yourself and who you are as a person. The first thing your brain shows you is what's the most important and apparently for a lot of people it was the same thing. People. Need. Help.
The time between the tornado and the response to it was surreal. After it hit I figured id put my previous training into action and try to help people without realizing the scale of it or what kind of injuries a tornado actually can cause. The first person I came across was already dead and I remember thinking you still have to check for a pulse but didnt really know where to find one as they were unrecognizable. To this day I dont know if they were a male or female and it put the event into perspective.
Right after it hit there was a stillness that cant be described, the air was thick and still but smelled like a saw mill or fresh cut timber and looking out into a housing tract that was there 10 minutes ago knowing the gruesome shit that laid beneath those piles makes any man 2nd guess themselves and debate if its worth looking but then you realize no matter what direction you look its the same piles and youre alone. This shock felt like it lasted a few hours but it couldnt have been more then a few minutes.
I remember it being silent and hopeless then the first sound you hear what sounds like a baby crying from one of the piles and a surge of adrenaline comes across you because at that moment you realize its just you. Honestly the aftermath was scarier than the tornado, im sure a ton of people had the same realization I did when they realized theyre in the best position to help at that moment regardless of training or experience. I gathered myself up and headed toward the pile with the crying baby to realize it was one of those realistic dolls after digging. My heart sank but while digging there was a oxygen bottle in a cart like the old people use for medical reasons so I followed the hose and there was a older lady under a wall. Not a scratch on her but stunned silent and thats when I realized people are alive here.
Then the city exploded with sound. Everyone who was taking shelter found their way out, probably had a similar experience to me and just jumped in. You hear distant chain saws starting, distant sirens wailing and the sound of wood landing on wood from people throwing the wood from one pile to another. Faint sounds became loud and people just start emerging from who knows where. Everyone was on the same frequency and you could have a conversation without speaking. Everyone who emerged seemed to have have a "holy shit, I almost died and everything is gone look but I need to help" look. I mean absolutely everyone helped right after. The old person on oxygen was now sitting on the curb while giving up her wheelchair to be used for someone who had a below the knee amputation and need to get to the hospital ASAP.
This went on until the sounds of sirens became multiple sirens but it wasnt enough. Its almost like a memo went out saying "hey, your vehicle still runs even though it got totaled" and youd hear the sound of totaled cars scraping down the road on flats absolutely shocked it still runs. A car didnt leave the area unless it was full of people going to the hospital. Nobody gave a shit about their own stuff and it was incredibly powerful to witness. People just helped. The sounds of sirens kept encroaching to where I was but they would find someone along the way. I remember a man in a landscaping truck pull up in a rig that was clearly hit and more or less offered up all his tools to help get people out. He had 2 skid steers on a trailer and he climbed into one while I was looking at him. We had a conversation without speaking and I got into the other one. I never met this man, talked to him or knew where he came from but he threw a key to a 60 thousand dollar piece of equipment to me and we started clearing streets.
The sound of the city was back, you could hear diesel engines, sirens, helicopters everywhere. People who didnt get hit are now starting to show up just doing what they can, even the kids were walking around with a case of water handing them out and it was humbling seeing hope come back. Youd hand someone a dry towel and rather than a thank you it was a tearful hug like it was the biggest gift they ever got.
I ran the tractor out of Diesel and a home owner who lost everything had a service tank in the bed of his totaled truck and filled it up. This happened over and over and I know it was happening all across the city. People just stepped up and while the missery cant be described the few hours when it was chaos was beautiful in a way you can only feel by being there.
For the next month money didnt exist in the city of Joplin. Once again the communication without talking thing happened, like someone sent out a memo. Everyone got flat tires from nails, every tire shop in the city just fixed tires for free. Justin boots had a store on Rangeline and they were just giving boots away, I still have the pair they gave me all these years later. The city took on a selfless spirit that spread.
After realizing I no longer had a job I didnt really know what to do from there but it got figured out rather quickly. After about 12 hours of running a strangers tractor into the ground I figured it would probably be a good idea to check in with the owner and started working my way back. I get back to his truck and there was a man there filling up a chain saw with fuel. He had drove from Fayetteville Arkansas to help as he owned a small engine repair shop and came to keep the equipment running.
You ever meet one of those people you just hit it off with instantly? That was me and Steve, he was old enough to be my dad but overall a great guy. I called my friend I was staying with and asked if it was ok if Steve stayed as he planned on driving back to Arkansas every night. Steve stayed over for a month straight and every day we would go back to Joplin.
At first it was search and rescue. Both Steve and I had training previously and showed up to the staging area and they put us to work for the next 4 days. The scale of the devastation was so absloute nobody asked questions. If you had a pulse and were willing to work they would find a place for you. It wasnt a fun experience to say the least. Every day the task grew heavier and heavier. As a final fuck you from the universe towards the city of Joplin another supercell rolled through. I vividly remember watching a man break down when the 2nd storm hit. He was making piles of what was left of his home, looking for anything leftover from what probably felt like a previous life just to watch his pile get blown away by a different storm. Out of everything this hit me the hardest and i still think about it alot...the look on someone's face when they're truly defeated. It just felt....wrong. There was nothing you could do other then to hold space for them and share the pain.
I don't want to share anymore about the search and rescue part of things. Whatever you can imagine.....it's that bad and I'll leave it there.
After a week it turns into a grind, you get real jaded and start putting up your walls again, you feel the human condition return and start thinking about how absolutely fucked a tornado actually is. The randomness of it really messed with me. You would be combing through death and destruction just to find a pantry with all the food still there, neatly organized and untouched in any way just for the rest of the house to be leveled around it. I would get mad at how unfair and truly chaotic the damage was. Why did someone die but a box of macaroni and cheese survived untouched less than 10 feet away. It makes you question things like never before and it stays with you for life. To this day I think of the random pictures I dug through trying to find someone and the people in the picture. You get excited to hand a homeowner a small glimpse of their old life in the picture just to find out its not from their house. I will die not knowing the outcome of what happened to those people and selfishly it bothers me still. The more you grind the worse it gets.
You start hating the media, the shit you just lived is nothing more then a soundbite or a 2nd take at an intro. You hear of looters, con artists and scammers finding victims, you cant help but take it personally. Knowing youre doing everything you can to help just for some asshole to come along and remind us how terrible we can be. After 10 days Steve and I were emotionally exhausted and decided to take a few days off and go to his place in Fayetteville.
When we got to his home and walked in it felt wrong because it felt so normal and we both felt bad for being there. I cant describe it but it was almost like a pulling force. 3 hours ago we wanted nothing more then to get out of joplin and yet here we are, feeling bad about leaving. The next day we were fired up again and had no idea why. The next month it was a grind but the shock of what happened started to wear off the city and slowly bits of normal started popping up again. Well normal for a city that just got leveled. Youd start noticing things.
All those cars with the orange x painted on them were driving around the city. The orange x is a fema symbol and is used to communicate the house or car had been searched. You would recognize a car you were sure someone died in driving down the road with the owner in it and you couldnt help but smile. You start putting faces to property and be great full they survived. A total stranger. Then realized that involuntary thing your brain does when you first saw the damage didnt change a bit. People are still the priority.
To the people of greenfield
If youre from greenfield and reading this I promise you itll work out. You will get throught it and the overwhelmed feeling will leave with time. Youre going to experience every range of emotion a human can go through and its ok to take time and feel them. I watched hundreds of men choke down their emotions during the Joplin recovery because we as men see emotions as weakness or a pride thing. You're not less of a man, you survived one of the most destructive things the planet has to offer. It's terrifying and every man knows it. Don't be too prideful to accept help (I need to practice what I preach).
Speaking of help I want to thank Ryan hall, his crew and max velocity. Those supplies and money are a godsend to people.
Sorry for the formatting of this, I'm not a writer.

Listen up apes!!!!
I've seen a lot of short pieces of analysis, but this is the full picture.
This took a while to update and compile please help it be visible so that people can see it.
I'm not a financial advisor, so make your own conclusions. I'm not liable, but I am heavily invested at a $0.35 average. It's all I have.
TLDR: FFIE analysis summarized: Margin won't affect longs the same way as shorts right now. Don't buy shares on margin and be ready to supply collateral regardless. Turn off stock lending. Short interest is up and some smart investors are on our side. Sit down buckle up and read on. This might be the most important thing you read in your lives.
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
A few key points
Short Interest and Margin: FFIE's short interest is incredibly high. While margin calls are a concern, they affect shorts more than longs . It's crucial not to buy shares on margin to avoid potential forced selling. Instead, be prepared to supply collateral and turn off stock lending.
FFIE's Potential: FFIE is a steal regardless of a short squeeze. With the electric vehicle (EV) market growing rapidly and being relatively recession-proof, FFIE stands strong. Their Formula E vehicle, which goes from 0 to 62 mph in 2.95 seconds and has a top speed of 150 mph, demonstrates they can be competitive with the best in the EV space.
Market Position: FFIE is trading at $1.13, with a Wedbush 1-year price target of $10.20. This nearly 10x potential makes it a compelling buy regardless of a squeeze. Holding above $1 is crucial for maintaining compliance, and we've finished four consecutive days at 1 billion+ volume on the bull side, and when the bears hit back, we dried that volume up in a major way. GOOD JOB APES!!🚀🚀🚀🚀
Company Developments: Last November, FFIE announced a cooperation agreement with Master Investment Group and Siraj Holdings LLC, establishing a sales entity in Dubai. Despite staffing-related challenges and deferred payments to third-party audit consultants (Source SEC.gov edgar system filed may 16th), the company is working to compile the necessary information for their filings. Jonathan Maroko, the interim CFO with 17 years of investment and finance experience, knows what he is doing.
Comparative Analysis: Comparing FFIE's potential squeeze to past events, similar situations have resulted in massive price increases:
Kodak went from $2.16 to $33.20
Volkswagen went from ~200 euros to nearly 1000 euros
Overstock went from ~$21 to $123
Blue Apron went from $2.31 to $18
Gamestop went from $3.00 to $485
(with gme this took the market cap from 1.3b to now 6.8b)
I believe FFIE can reach a market cap surpassing $5 billion. At 5 billion marketcap the share price would be approximately $119.23.
Community Support: The Reddit, X, Stocktwits, and 4chan, and some youtube communities have formed a collective force against the shorts.
This social media support creates badass shield wall against the shorts.🚀🚀🚀🚀
Short Squeeze Potential:
THE FUN PART APES 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
FFIE is basically the most shorted stock right in all time and space, with a short interest percentage of float at 95.37%.
There are 36.3 million shares on loan we own the majority of the float
NEED ROCKETS?? 🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀 .
Moving shares to cash accounts to avoid margin calls and stopping share lending can prevent shorts from borrowing our shares.
The cost to borrow is also up, adding to the pressure on shorts.
With the massive amount of options contracts in the money, the potential gamma squeeze adds to the upward pressure on the stock price.
Conclusion: Use Cash accounts, not on margin. Hold shares long-term, don't lend them. FFIE can go to the moon🚀🚀🚀.
UPDATE: FFIE is on Regsho (threshold securities list) for fails to deliver.
Days above $1: 5/10

Here is my recollection of some events that transpired in the woods near my house when I was a kid back in 5th or 6th grade. It seems around the time after it happened my brain sort of forced me to forget exactly when it all transpired. You could relate it to when you experience some trauma as a kid and your brain tries to make you forget.
Going back to type this as I forgot before, but this all happened in southeastern US and in the springtime so imagine that classic southeastern forest look for our woods
So first of all, I apologize in advance. As I’m not a good writer, I think my best work was my 11th grade English paper on “And then there were none” by Agatha Christie. It was my favorite book I had to read but I digress.
To start, this story involves myself and my neighbor who is also my best friend, still to this day. As to not out either of us I’ll refer to him as “R”. R and I would spend lots of time in the woods together, exploring, mapping out the woods, and playing air soft. I can’t lie, the woods were the perfect place to play air soft, as there were two dried up creek beds opposing each other about 100 yards between them which made for great bunkers.
There were two entrances to the woods, imagine two parallel streets of houses going down a hill, and at the bottom there were two cul de sacs each with its own entrance to the woods. The right side street (which was inconveniently not the street we lived on) had the entrance to woods closest to the air soft area and where we mainly explored.
The entrance to the woods on our street was a little harder to access, and required us to make bigger jumps across the creek to get to and from. We had barely explored on that side since we never really found anything cool (old tree forts, etc.). But one day my dad and I were clearing out some of his old ARMY gear from Iraq, kinda sorting through what he wanted to give to me, keep, and get rid of. So after that I ended up with a shemagh and a tritium compass.
After receiving that compass, 12(ish) year old me apparently had a newfound love for cartography and I wanted to map the woods, with the help of R of course. So we started out mapping the right area of the woods, the two trenches were we spent our time airsofting, building forts and trying to jump as far as possible across the creek. Even though it was a poor map and I could’ve spent 2 minutes on google earth and printed out something much better to start with, I was proud of it. So time passed and we kept adding to the map and moving further and further left to the woods, just about inline with the cul de sac of our street. We went about 1/8th of a mile further left which for simplicity sake is South. Then we started West which would be further into the woods.
We passed a couple of poorly constructed bridges made by other kids our age and hopped across the creek and kept going on and on and on. It started to get dark in the woods about 30-45 minutes after we started our trek so we decided to head back home. As previously stated there was nothing of interest out that way in the woods so it was hard to establish a good POI besides certain jumps we had to make over the creek. But either way we clearly knew the route we took and where it led, we just kept following the creek west. As it turns out time is pretty linear and 30 minutes later we end up back at the entrance to the woods. At our cul de sac. So we split ways, headed back to our houses and called it a night.
A couple days later I decided to look on Google earth and saw that if we had gone just a little bit further we would have ended up at a main road, the thought of venturing that far sounded cool to me, so relayed the new found info over to R and he agreed it would be a good goal to try and reach the main road. Not long after this we were able to meet up again around the same time of day as we had before, and start back into the woods, unfortunately with a much different outcome.
Our trek into the woods started like normal, jumping over the creek at the same places, retracing our steps and following the compass directly west as we had before. We were around 20 minutes into our little expedition and couldn’t contain our excitement of where we would end up. We jumped over the creek at the same spots and passed the same poorly constructed bridges that we passed before we turned back the first time. 40 minutes in we were starting to get a little worn out and definitely discouraged that we hadn’t found the main road yet, but assumed we had just been slower than we were previously so we persisted, still following our compass directly west.
I apologize again for my poor writing skills, and I will try my best to explain everything as best as I can.
If I remember right a little over an hour had passed and we still hadn’t found the road so we decided to stop where we were and try and familiarize ourselves with our surroundings in case we had gotten turned around, even though we had followed the compass perfectly. After assuming we had to be less than 10 minutes away from the road we carried on again but just minutes in we found ourselves surrounded by what I now know are Aspen trees, and if you know anything about trees (which I didn’t) aspen trees are not native to the southeast. It’s like the scenery had changed in an instant, and looking around everything was different. Aspen trees in every direction, and what’s even more odd, the leaves were a reddish-yellow fall color, not what you would see in springtime. We were kids and were none the wiser so we persisted, and eventually found ourselves facing a pond. But it wasn’t a normal pond, it was perfectly level with the ground we were standing on no discernible bank or edge to it. It just meshed perfectly with the earth, it was covered with the red yellow leaves. The outline of the water between the leaves was completely black, and the water was still, like it had never been disturbed. I remember touching the toe of my shoe into the water to try and find the bottom, and moved the leaves out of the way, the leaves moved but the surface tension of the water never broke, the stillness unfaltering. As the outline of the water had hinted at before the water was truly black, like that new super black paint you’ve seen on social media, and I could see no bottom.
It wasn’t long after this I started feeling uneasy, something just didn’t seem as it should. R must’ve had the same feeling as he said to me that he felt as if something was watching us, which didn’t help to calm my nerves whatsoever. We both began to take a second and observe our surroundings more carefully, and my best description of the sky was a pure white, like paper white, no sky blue and no clouds. Just a complete paper white visible through the remaining leaves on the trees. Then out of nowhere we heard the supersonic crack of what you’d normally relate to gunfire, but it didn’t subside immediately after like it normally would. It persisted, a constant noise louder than we could bear, a constant pressure on our heads. We knew we needed to run, I pulled out the compass once more, found east and darted in that direction, pushing through the brush of the woods and within 30 seconds we were back in the normal southeastern woodland, but that didn’t matter. We ran as fast as our legs could take us, I remember getting caught on some brambles and the dread that swept over me was immense, it felt as if the brambles were keeping me from freedom, and being caught for any longer would ensure my death. I eventually managed to break free and upon looking up after freeing myself we were in very familiar territory, right in front of one of the jumps over the creek we had made not even 5 minutes into our trip. Somehow we had ran what previously took up over an hour in just minutes.
We made our way out of the woods and up the street to our houses. Not saying a word.
It was years later we brought it up to each other and had almost the exact same recollection of events, except where I saw a plain white sky, R saw the same white sky but after hearing the deafening noise saw that the sky opened with hundreds of eyes all blinking. I can’t confirm this as I didn’t see it myself, but nor was I looking at the sky after the noise rang out.
What inspired me to write about this is I came across a photo on the internet of what I now know as Aspen trees and sent it to R, even more years after we spoke about what happened.
I sent no caption, no explanation to the picture. To see if he truly remembered the same thing as I.
He responded.
“I remember”

There’s a few skeletons in my closet and one of them is begging to be let out, screaming at me because I threw away the key all those years ago. I’m expecting another child in a few weeks, her name is Ophelia. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the X-Rays for the first time. However, today is the day I own up to what I did or more specifically, what I ran from in cowardice. I still question whether or not I could’ve saved those people, if having my kids was worth the price of their lives. I’ll never know whether a man like me could have everything right. After all, it was my dreams that saved me and my dreams that haunt me still.
17 years ago, in 2008, my girlfriend, Anna and I decided to take a trip across America to visit Seattle. Both of us were so busy with our jobs that we took some time off to enjoy each other’s company for a week or so. Instead of taking the plane, we took a train at Blue Creek Station. It was this historic building that savored the heat of the sun and the voices of a distant crowd. Occasionally, the brick would lose its grasp and breathe ancient dust. Its gigantic size reminded you of a time more grandiose than you could ever truly imagine.
Of course, I wasn’t the one to pick it. Anna did some research online and while it was less modern than most stations near us, there was this attractiveness to it that went unexplained. She’s also heavily into historical backgrounds so needless to say, it was a done deal. If only I could’ve said no.
When the bus dropped us off at the station, I was definitely anxious staring at the large clock that towered above me, but being with Anna calmed most of my nerves. As we blended with the groups of mysterious folk, I could tell Anna was excited and she pulled me along to an array of portraits detailing every decade of Blue Creek Station. In each photo, some kid could be seen beaming their teeth as they got to ride on a train for the first time. They went as far back as 1908. They even had a copy of a magazine from 1912, the headline reading:
TITANIC SINKS FOUR HOURS AFTER HITTING ICEBERG; 866 RESCUED BY CARPATHIA, PROBABLY 1250 PERISH; ISHMAY SAFE, MRS. ASTOR MAYBE, NOTED NAMES MISSING.
I could tell that this station had seen everything, its eyes glued to the world like paper in a journal. Even the dim lights hanging over our heads shone with a resilient force, never letting go until the last flicker. Strangely, I noticed that the conductor in the very first picture was also in another. The first in 1908 but the second, in 1959. He wasn’t old either, he looked exactly the same except his wardrobe was different and he had grown a beard. I thought that maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me and as I looked longer, the resemblance became less and less apparent. “Hey Anna, do you think they’re father and son?” I asked, pointing at both portraits. “They look like twins but yeah, I think so. Maybe. I’m not so sure anymore.” Her reaction gave me worry, adding to the anxiety I felt before I even entered the building. There was definitely something strange but I couldn’t place my finger on it yet.
The intercom blasted awake, startling Anna. “Vampyr 133, now boarding. I repeat, 133 now boarding.” The miscellaneous conversations grew more dense as the intercom fell asleep again. “Hey, that’s us. Are you ready to go?” She replied happily, “Definitely, just let me take a photo before we do.” I nodded and she reached into her handbag for a small silver camera. It was the same camera I gave her for Christmas 3 years ago. It always warmed my heart to see her use it. She stepped back so that every portrait was in frame, and a small flash followed her movements. She glanced down for a moment, slid the camera back into her handbag, and grabbed my hand signaling that she was finally ready.
As we boarded, it became clear that the train was equally as old as the station was, going through multiple paint jobs and retexturing. Even the seats were outfitted to be more modern and welcoming. “Where do you wanna sit, Tomas?” Anna asked. I pointed towards a snug corner near the bar, with a perfect view of the outside. We sat down, placed our luggage on the rack above us, and waited until the train took its first breaths, hissing and howling until the wheels deigned to roll along the tracks.
Anna reached into the luggage and pulled out a book titled ‘Everything You Need To Know About Blue Creek Station!’ “No, you didn’t.” I stated. “Yes, I did.” She replied back, confidently. “You’re gonna make me read it with you, aren’t you?” “Yes, I am.” Her smile was now more obvious.
A few hours later, I found myself drooling on her shoulder like a 4 year old who got rocked to sleep. Fortunately for me, she was asleep too and my jacket caught most of my shame. I took it off and stuffed it into my carry-on. The train was now more silent and the sky washed over with darkness like no dusk before it. My being awake was no good thing as I had been dealing with insomnia for most of my life. Anna helped me with some of it but for the rest, I had to take prescription medication. At this point, I could tell when I had to take it and tonight was one of those nights.
I stood up with a pill bottle in my hand, stumbling over to the bar and caught the attention of the bartender. “Could I have a glass of water, please?” “Rough sleeper?” He asked, reaching for the glass. As he poured, I let out my perspective. “Yeah, I’ve never been the best at it. Once I am asleep though, I’ve gotta worry about dreams and nightmares. Never been the best at that either.” When he handed the water over, I gave a thumbs up and took a pill as I drank. He soon spoke to me, and I noticed that he had some sort of Romanian accent. I thought it strange but paid no mind as his voice brought me comfort. “Don’t speak ill of dreams, my friend. They reveal truths unknown or seemingly trivial to the waking mind. Even the darkest nightmares have merit. Unlike many of the souls in this lounge, you are gifted with God's eyes and the Devil’s potential chaos.” “That’s incredibly profound. I’m guessing you’re not from here?” I questioned, taken aback by someone who sounded so wise. “My name is Vlad, and I come from across the sea. I moved here decades ago after seeing how lovely America is compared to my home.” “Well, to meet you, Vlad. I’m Tomas. I’m with my girlfriend Anna over there.” I nodded my head towards her, who was still knocked out cold. A grin broke out across his face, his eyes now more visible as a gust wind swayed his long, black hair back. “You’re in love?” I stupidly answered his question, somehow not finding the man suspicious as his eyes twisted with delight. “Yes, very much so. I’m hoping to get married to her in the next year or so.” He went silent for a few seconds, then whispered under his breath, “May that happen if the sun rises for you once more.” That sentence broke me out of my comfort and all I could say was “Sure, Vlad. Sure.”
I went back to my seat and rested my head upon Anna’s warm shoulder, meeting eyes with the bartender who still stared in my direction. Before I drifted off into sleep, I noticed that smile never left his face, frozen and crooked like that of a wild animal, who hadn’t eaten in days.
When I awoke, my head was pounding. I felt like I was hungover after a heavy Tuesday night of alcohol and endless partying. I struggled to balance myself, waving my hand over a beam of light. “Anna?” I called out, but she didn’t answer. In fact, she wasn’t there at all. Nobody was around. On top of that, the train gained this newborn shine, as if the years never rusted it away. I stood up slowly and the carpet stuck to my feet, looking reddish-brown instead of beige like I remembered it. I called out once more. “Anna? Honey?! Please tell me this is one big prank.” Again, nobody answered.
I peered upward and our things were gone too, replaced by a stray jacket and ripped bowler hat. If that wasn’t strange enough, the hangover wearing off made me notice that the train wasn’t moving whatsoever. It’d been stopped in the middle of a dense, blinding forest. Only the lights on the train illuminated the area surrounding me. All of the doors had been opened as well, the one closest to me torn up as if a beast wanted to get through. As I maneuvered around the emptied seats, I knew I was right. Claws marked the door, pulling away at steel skin. Just as wind crept into the train, my worry did too. Anna was a strong woman, she knew how to fight because of her father, but that wasn’t enough to dissuade my feelings. “If something happened to her, why am I still here?” I pondered.
Suddenly, a harsh wailing exploded from within the forest, violating my ears with instant panic. Before I knew it, I was taking off into the forest, using the moon’s shy glow as my torch. The wailing continued, a symphony of pain and suffering that grew by the second. “I’m coming, hold on!” I yelled, hoping I could make it in time. There was no thinking, no moment to breath, only the raw energy carrying me forward with each step. The forest seemed to go on for miles until I reached a wide clearing of grass and burnt cloth. A large fire smoked and hissed, the same way the train did on departure, except this fire danced, following your movement.
I couldn’t find the source of the screaming, even with the fire showing me more than what I was originally able to see. Then the rain started, the water dousing the dancing limbs of the fire, drenching my shirt with melancholy. Still, I walked inward, brushing my palm against the tall grass as I searched for answers.
As I grew closer to the center, a storm brewed with a disturbed passion. The rain grew louder and louder until nothing else could be heard, then the lightning started, revealing the foggy sky. I reached down towards one of the burnt pieces of cloth, reaching into a chest pocket that held a wallet. It read:
Morgan David Wallace. Birthdate: 7/13/1883.
My heart sank, made creepier by the off-putting smile of Morgan Wallace, who hadn’t known of the world I came from. I tried to make it make sense. Maybe it was a prank or I was dreaming a dream too real but the vividness of the freezing weather on my exposed skin made that void. I’d gone back in time, I was sure of it. Checking more papers in his wallet, I learned that I’d gone back to 1918, 10 years after the grand opening of Blue Creek Station, 90 years exactly before I arrived.
I thought it couldn’t get any worse but I was wrong. As I sat on my knees, fruitlessly analyzing the contents of the cloth, the wailing continued. I began to sprint again until I heard another in the opposite direction, there were two, then three, then four, and eventually, the forest was another haunting choir. It sounded like how I imagined hell would be. The screaming mixed and boiled until converging at one point, a tall ancient tree just beyond my sight.
Manic as I was, I braved the storm, trudging through taller grass, deeper mud with hands that stuck onto my ankles, and an overwhelming mountain of assorted clothes, a grim message I didn’t want to understand. I closed my eyes, letting my hands guide my body, and when I didn’t feel anything, I opened them.
The rain stopped, the field returned to its normal state, and the choir skittered away by a whimper. I stared at the silhouette of the tree, desperate for something. My heavy breathing seemed to be the only thing that filled the space. I waited for 5 minutes and as I began to turn around, lightning struck the air above, granting me my sacred answer. It looked like someone was on it, yet I couldn’t quite tell, and the lightning struck again, queuing the choir as I laid my gaze on a most horrific scene.
Impaled upon the tree, all 64 passengers hung either dead or dying, dressed in blood and their own intestines. Pale, yellow-eyed creatures crawled all over them like wolves, tearing away at their flesh with ease. I froze, disgusted and halfway prepared to vomit into the mud beneath my feet. It was sick, it was cruel, it was… impossible. How do you describe something so unbelievably fucked?
“We must’ve missed one.” A mysterious voice murmured. I freaked out, turning around right into the chest of one of the creatures, who retained an air of humanity in his physical appearance. He had me backed into the ground, legs twisted and arms weak from holding me up. He smiled softly, showcasing a set of elongated canines and mustard pupils. I kept looking at him and immediately remembered who he was; it was Vlad. He still sported long hair and a curled mustache that reached cheek to cheek. The only difference was that he was drenched in blood more than rain and wore a coat too expertly crafted for a bartender. “Vlad…?” I shakenly asked. His face lit up with joy as he bent down to face me. “You know me? One of you bootlicking sheep actually knows me? My, my, I am surprised. How did you figure out that little fact?” “You- you told me.” “I told you? Are you sure about that?” I nodded, barely able to register what was happening. “As interesting as that seems to be, my family is looking for some dessert after supper. I doubt you brought cake to our little feast.”
He stared at me, with that same look he gave before I fell asleep. A crooked smile exposing his teeth and one mindless thought of ripping my spine out of my back to use as a dining table. His entire body went still, his head bent like the arrows on a ticking clock. Breaking the silence, he said “You should run.”
I jumped up, taking off into another sprint as the thunderstorm continued, twirling above my head. The open field again spiraled into a blood ocean, my navigation solely dependent on my need to escape. Behind me, I heard as the grass and trees cracked, followed by multiple bouts of laughter. They tracked me all the way back into the forest, occasionally leaping to catch me and missing ever so slightly. I wasn’t going to make it, I couldn’t make it, and even if I did, the train wouldn’t be enough to protect me from my fate. My only regret was that I couldn’t see Anna for one last time. Then they caught me, pinning me against a rock in a significantly smaller clearing. The foot on my back felt like it could crush my bones within a second. Vlad spoke again, but he wasn’t the one who caught me. I could hear him a little further away. “I have to say, you’re quite the runner. I know that got your blood pumpin!” He pulled my head back, which caused me to let out a scream. Like the foot, his strength was far grander than he’d have you believe. A sound of sniffing lingered around my neck, and out the corner of my eye, his teeth were out once more. “Speaking of blood, I wonder how much is in you.” His face stretched out, morphing and turning paler until he looked just the rest. Then he snapped his head back, finally plunging his teeth right into my exposed neck.
But I didn’t feel anything.
He stood back, befuddled, his form returning. Even his henchman let me go. As I rotated my body to face him, I could tell he knew what happened. “You’re not from here, are you?” My eyes teared up, my words slurred but direct. “No, I’m not from here! This was supposed to be a dream, this is a dream!” Vlad didn’t answer, he just stood. Looking at me with curiosity and fear. Then he bent down, wiping a falling tear with his fingernail, and whispered. “Întoarcere.”
I woke up again. The train was still moving as the forest brushed past and Anna was alright, looking straight at me. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “You were crying in your sleep. You’ve never done that before.” “Crying? Why would I be-“ Then I saw him, leaning over the counter, that deadly look to accompany a slaughter. The fangs that bit a 1000 men, the eyes that will stare into 1000 more, and my haziness of memory became nothing but a brief respite from a night of true fear. “Let’s go, we need to go.” I warned, stumbling to stand up and fighting with our bags. “What are you talking about? We’ve barely reached North Dakota.” I didn’t answer, only stopping to look at Vlad who was now serving people at the bar. “Tomas, talk to me. What’s going on?” I stopped, grabbing her arms gently and said, “I need you to trust me just this once. If we don’t leave this train, we’ll deeply regret it. You’re the one person on this earth that I will look crazy for, if that means spending another day with you.” “Okay.” She awkwardly smiled, confused but content.
I gave her the respective bags, escorting her through each row, imagining the blood soaked carpet and the torn open doors. We waited 10 minutes and eventually, the train stopped at one of the few sub-stations where normally nobody would end their trip. The doors opened, we stepped outside and just like the dream, rain fell and a storm answered its call. Anna and I walked downstairs and across the parking lot, following directions from a sign that said:
Rochester, MN - 5 miles away.
“That’s a lot of walking, babe. Are you sure it was a good idea to leave the train?” Anna questioned. I looked back at the moving train and said “It was the best one.” Not long after I said that, still a few miles away from the nearest town, a familiar voice rang through my head clearer than my own thoughts. “Your abilities are too precious to waste. Live, so that I may never see you again.”
Anna and I ended up spending our two weeks in Rochester and a few other towns in Minnesota, nowhere close to Seattle like we planned. I never told her about my dream or the century old bartender, but a year later, we did hear about Blue Creek Station and the infamous Vampyr 133 train.
The headline read:
50 MISSING PASSENGERS ABOARD 133; NORTHERN STATES POLICE FIND NO ANSWERS; BLUE CREEK™ TO UNDERGO FURTHER QUESTIONING
It confirmed my suspicions at least, that it was real. That what I saw was a glimpse into the past, turning me into the witness of a decennial tradition. Unfortunately, the buzz dried out and everyone began to act as though it never happened. Nothing that serious ever goes unnoticed and yet, it did.
Every night, my mind races back to that day. If I hadn’t made it out and increased the missing to 52. Or if I had gone completely insane and drove everyone out of the train, possibly saving a lot of loved ones. Would that have even helped?
Many questions go unanswered when it comes to Blue Creek Station, but I’m 36 now, and too scared to ever visit that place again. Hopefully, my kids never figure out that Anna and I were there. Or worse, that they wake up one night and find out… they’re not in the time they’re supposed to be.
UPDATE: The kids found Anna’s photo.

Nice write-up for Something About Her! There are also some pictures of the sandwiches included, and it seems like as many suspected, the offerings at the soft openings were sample-sized. I think the presentation looks great.
https://la.eater.com/2024/5/22/24162723/something-about-her-ariana-madix-katie-maloney-sandwich-shop-opening-los-angeles-vanderpump-rules
"The menu: The sandwiches are named after famous women in film and are priced between $14 and $19. Each sandwich is generously portioned and served with a pickle spear and a bunch of grapes on an aluminum tray.
The Meg, which comes with a Greek salad, tzatziki, feta, sun-dried tomatoes, and romaine lettuce on lavash, is refreshing — the crisp greens contrast nicely with the tzatziki’s tang. The baguette on the Diane is a bit tough, but its Sicilian tuna salad is serviceable and makes the extra effort to tear off a bite worthwhile.
The Cameron is a bona fide Italian sandwich with pesto garlic aioli, salami, soppressata, mortadella, and roasted red peppers. Taking a bite requires almost unhinging one’s jaw. The Viola, a smoked turkey and chipotle mayo panini on grilled sourdough, is a favorite with its spicy-rich profile."