Hey all, bit of an update/shout-out.
After rocking up at church to ask the local branch pres to remove my records I hadn't heard anything back. For the belts and braces approach I had a look at also submitting my resignation online.
Stumbled across a post by u/DungoBarabgus about submitting a request to the data privacy department.
I slightly tweaked his email template and sent it off, had a reply confirming my records were removed within 24 hours! I do believe this was dealt with so swiftly because of the GDPR laws in the UK/Europe so people in the states might still be given the runaround.
Now an Official Exmo. Felt like a little weight off the shoulders and a step towards a healthier, happier future.
Here's the email address and template for anyone who wants a (potentially) hassle free exit:
Data Privacy Office Email Resignation
This template was floating around for awhile, haven’t seen it recently. Worked within the week I sent the request for me but has to be this exact formatting I tried to be cute and send a custom rant and was denied until I sent this;
Mail to “dataprivacyofficer@churchofjesuschrist.org”
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Data Privacy Office
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-0005
USA
Date: (Date)
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter is to inform you that I have terminated my membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I am hereby also requesting immediate erasure of personal data concerning me.
If I have given consent to the processing of my personal data. I am hereby withdrawing said consent.
In addition, I am objecting to the processing of personal data concerning me (which includes profiling).
In case you have disclosed the affected personal data to third parties, you have to communicate my request for erasure of the affected personal data, as well as any references to it, to each recipient. Please also inform me about those recipients.
If you object to the requested erasure, you have to justify that to me.
My request explicitly includes any other services and companies for which you are the controller.
You have to confirm the erasure to me without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt of the request.
I am including the following information necessary to identify me:
Name: (Full Name)
Date of birth: (DOB)
Last updated Address on your record: (address)
E-Mail: (email)
I do not allow members of your organization to contact me except as part of this request and confirmation of my resignation via email. If you do not comply with this request within the stated period, I will immediately seek legal assistance and file a complaint at the responsible data protection authority.
Sincerely,
(Name)

I woke up in bed with all of my clothes on. It was almost noon. A pounding headache in my 18-year-old skull. The year was 2005, and I was horrifyingly hungover.
I was in my own bed. I was alone. Both good. I couldn’t remember anything from the night before shortly after the drinks started flowing. Not good.
My cell phone kept ringing, that steady vibration. I didn’t know where it was. It could wait. Our lives didn’t revolve around our phones 20 years ago. Christ, that was 20 years ago now?
My best friend, Lucy, was asleep on the couch out in the living, surrounded by empty bottles and cans. The house was a disaster. I only had one question for her…WHAT HAPPENED?
“I have no idea. I got just as drunk as you,” Lucy shot back at me. “I broke my phone at some point. I know that.”
Speaking of phones. Mine wouldn’t stop ringing. One call would follow the next. What the fuck? I let it go. I figured it was some mess I had to clean up and I wasn’t ready to face the day yet. I did check my calls though and I had dozens of missed calls from the same number. Either a spam call or some psycho dude I met the night before I was gonna want to ghost.
Brrrr…brrrr…brrr…my phone started to ring yet again.
“LEAVE ME ALONE!” I rejected the call and threw my phone down.
“Your phone won’t stop ringing either?” Lucy asked.
She showed me her phone. Yes, the screen was cracked, but it still seemed to work and she showed it was actively getting a call as well.
“I can’t even answer it if I wanted to,” Lucy said before she announced she was heading to the cell phone store to get it fixed and left.
Brr…
AHHH! I raged so hard I accidentally threw up.
Brrr…brrr….brrr…the call kept coming in though.
Maybe it was that my body had just ejected everything in my gut, but I suddenly got cold when I saw the call come through this time. That same fucking number. My intuition told me to not answer it. I did see I had called it the night before. Still didn’t mean I was going to answer it.
It was time to just Google the number. This seems crazy to write now, but Googling something wasn’t as much of a no brainer back then as it is now.
I got a hit. One of those revenge porn type college site forums where people posted pictures of people and talked shit. There was something about the number on the page for my college.
The title of the post was rather discomforting: DO NOT CALL THIS NUMBER! DO NOT ANSWER IF IT CALLS YOU!
The rest of the post went on to explain (the poster didn’t know how) but the phone number was cursed. If you called it, it would call you back until you answered, and you died if you answered it.
How? Why? Who? Huh? There were no more answers. Just a warning.
Did I believe it? Enough to where I had a horrible realization. I had to find Lucy and stop her in case she was going to answer a call from that number.
She had just come back from the cell phone store with a fixed screen and disappeared into her room to sleep off the hangover.
Brrr…brrr..brrr…
I could hear a phone ringing when I got back into the house. Lucy’s room. It was coming from Lucy’s room! I burst through Lucy’s bedroom door.
“DON’T ANSWER IT!”
I couldn’t see Lucy. Just her trashed bedroom. I screamed out to her, interrupted by the sound of…
Brrr…brrr….
I followed the sound of the phone. Oh no, she was in her bathroom. The phone buzzing was interrupted by the sound of a toilet flushing.
“DON’T ANSWER!” I screamed again and the bathroom door started to open.
Too late. I saw Lucy hit accept just as the door opened in my crazy face.
“Dillon?” she answered with a groggy voice.
The two of us locked eyes. She looked at me like I was insane. For a brief moment in time I thought it was all going to be okay.
Then the screaming sound came out of Lucy’s phone, right next to her ear. Impossibly high, screeching, piercing, I thought my ears were going to explode.
Then Lucy’s ear exploded. Blood erupted from her ear which was closest to the phone. She dropped the phone and I saw it hit the ground and burst into flames. She screamed out in the most horrible pain I’ve ever heard and dropped to the ground, gripping her skull.
I moved to help her. The phone flamed up and burned at me. I had to watch as she retreated further into blinding pain and her other ear exploded with blood. Then her mouth. Then nose. Then eyes, and pretty soon my best friend was reduced to a blood washed dead body at my feet.
I had nothing to go off of other than that cryptic warning on the internet and the phone calls. I figured Lucy and I had to have called that number the night before when we were in a black out and she just unfortunately answered when it called back after her phone was fixed.
The cops wrote it off as a brain aneurysm. I told them to look into the phone number from my phone. They were just confused and eventually said they would in a tone that couldn’t have been any more dismissive.
I did have one clue. There was a random Kansas City Royals baseball hat in our living room which made no sense. We lived thousands of miles away from KC and I’d never seen anyone we knew wear one. Had someone came over that night we blacked out?
Lucy’s boyfriend, Andrew, had just broken up with her. I was suspicious. He might wear a random baseball hat. He might have wanted to mess with us, angry Lucy had broken up with him.
He was little help. I know he thought Lucy had broken up with him because of me so I was the last person he wanted to talk to. Plus, he was a rich kid and I’m sure his parents’ attorney told him to not engage with me.
I let it go. Even if I figured anything out, it wasn’t going to bring Lucy back. I changed my number. I got a new phone. I moved on.
It didn’t seem like it worked. I didn’t bleed out from my head, but my life fell apart slowly, piece by piece.
I got the flu and I swear I couldn’t shake it for months. I failed out of college. My mom got diagnosed with cancer and it annihilated my mental health. I moved back to her house to help her and hit the reset button on my life.
Christmas time couldn’t have felt more hollow. I had to go to the mall to do Christmas shopping (Yes, 2005 was such a different time) and avoid the eye contact of my old classmates who were home from the colleges they were still enrolled in.
I was in a Hot Topic (2005) when the clouds parted which led me to the path of sitting here healthy and well writing this out for you. I overheard a conversation between the employees behind the register. They were talking about a phone number which killed people.
Alec had kind eyes. Sure, they were hidden behind a coat of white make-up, a piercing between them in the bridge of his nose, and greasy swooped bangs, but those blue eyes seemed to immediately put me at ease when I asked him if he could help.
He agreed to talk with me during his next smoke break. Not surprisingly I had actually taken up the sport and we froze next to a dumpster as he explained to me everything he knew.
“It’s not just one number, it can change. Supposedly there was a kid around here who was a fucking psycho, wanted to be a school shooter, but instead wanted to fuck up and kill people in ‘more interesting ways’ or some shit. He had an aunt, super into witchcraft, like lived in a coven in the middle of nowhere and he worked with her to craft a curse to ‘get back at all the bullies,’ but then he just started taking any kid who he remotely didn’t like and would sneak their phones, call the number, and got the curse to spread like wildfire. It’s full on in other states now. Spreads a lot on college campuses. Apparently a lot of revenge to havethere,” Alec started in on me.
“How do you know all this?” I asked in my best tone to make it seem like I didn’t doubt him.
Alec pushed some of his dyed black, shoulder length hair to the side and revealed nothing but scared skin where his left ear should have been.
“How?”
“Luck. I don’t know. I think I hung up quickly enough, maybe?”
Alec covered his ear back up.
“Why did you and your friend call it?” Alec asked.
“I didn’t. I think someone else took our phones when we were blackout drunk.”
“You never answered it though?” He asked.
“No.”
“I’ve heard that if you call it, but don’t answer when it calls back. It still wastes you away, slowly, over time. Until you die, want to kill yourself, OD, just end it all. Why do you think so many kids are messed up around here?”
“So I’m going to die? Slowly? There’s no way I can reverse it?” I asked.
“I’ve only heard of two ways. You can either pass it on to someone else, or you can find the person who gave it to you and reverse it on them. Do you know who gave it to you?”
I couldn’t get the picture of Andrew’s smug face out of my head. I knew he’d be home for the holidays from college and I bum rushed him at one of those first years of college we’re all back for Christmas parties.
Andrew was wasted and guilty. He talked to me. He missed Lucy. Shut up! I needed information I could do something with or I could go home and drink by myself instead of with people I didn't even really like in high school.
“I was jealous, yeah, but I would never hurt Lucy. She was seeing someone else right after we broke up. Maybe before. She probably didn’t tell you, but your story makes sense. She would get herself and the other person super blackout drunk when she had something she was nervous to share. That’s probably what she did that night. Then maybe she invited him over,” Andrew finally gave me some gold.
He took a really long swig of beer. He was doing his own version of Lucy’s song and dance of blacking out when he wanted to share something difficult.
“You should check her Facebook profile. That’s always where she was talking to guys when she got sketchy. It was a lot easier to hide than a call.”
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought about what Andrew suggested. This was 2005 and people’s Facebooks would just sit there like zombies after they died. I knew Lucy’s email. I knew the password she probably used. I was in her inbox within 30 seconds of getting back home from the party.
There was a message from an account which didn’t have a photo - DILLON LANNING - University of Oregon. It looked like the profile had been deleted but the skeleton of the account and the messages remained.
Going through the conversation between Lucy and Dillon he saw her profile on Facebook randomly and reached out (ew). Lucy was definitely starting to date him or hook up or whatever, but he went to school a good distance away so it was weird, and it started while she was still dating Andrew, so she was being secretive about it, even with me. He was going to be in town the weekend it all happened visiting friends and she was going to introduce him to me after we got really drunk.
That night had started to come back to me in little shreds the way blackout drinking nights have done to me over the years. I thought I could picture some generic, fratty white guy in our kitchen that night. He looked a lot like Andrew. Lucy liked them extra basic as hell.
Facebook was in its infancy at the time so finding people who were actively in college at the time was easy. I found Dillon’s real or new account rather quickly. There he was. University of Oregon. Hometown: Kansas City. Sigma Chi fraternity. His profile picture a photo of him smiling in a Kansas City Royals hat. Oh, and he was in a relationship with a girl. Real stand up guy.
Now is where I had to play the role of the ethicist. Was I 110% sure Dillon was the one messed with Lucy’s phone and/or my phone that night and called that number? Was he simply trying to get rid of the curse and pass it off on us?
He had to have been the one. No one else could have. Alec had said he heard a lot of times people would go dump it off at other colleges if they got it there's, and how trustworthy was a frat guy, especially in 2005?
It was enough for me.
Nice to meet you, Dillon.

I went to Oregon the first weekend after winter break. I scouted out Dillon’s frat. There was a party that Saturday. Perfect. A decent looking coed myself, I slipped in and blended in all by myself rather easily.
I disguised myself though so Dillon wouldn’t recognize me. Wig. Heavy makeup. Glasses. Not too difficult.
The party was loud, boozy, and wild. I caught him on the dance floor as he was dancing around with his buddies. I slipped my hand into his pocket and found his cell phone.
I retreated to the bathroom. I flew through his contacts until I found his girlfriend’s name in there. I changed her number to THE CURSED NUMBER. Then I called it.
I went back into the fray of the party and slipped the phone back into Dillon’s pocket. He didn’t even appear to notice the entire thing - too busy whooping it up with his bros and doing coke. Oh my god, I hadn’t even planned that, but it would be the perfect excuse for why his head exploded internally that night.
My next move was tricky. I wanted to watch it all unfold. I befriended the best-looking girl I could find. I asked her if she could help a sister out. Could she lure Dillon into one of the bedrooms and then leave him hanging?
Sure thing. She hated that frat anyways. Lots of rape allegations. She was actually there just to keep an eye on her friends. Dillon was light work to her. She had him in that bedroom within a couple minutes of me getting in there and hiding in the closet.
She faked like she was going to make out with him, then said she was gonna go get her friend to join them. Well played, girl!
Brrr…brrr…brrr…a phone vibrating became obvious once things calmed down in the room.
I watched Dillon check his phone. His posture reflected that my plan worked, he saw the cursed number calling, but disguised as his girlfriend and he had a little panic.
Do it. Do it. Do it. DO IT!!!!
He accepted the call. He picked up the phone and put it to his ear.
“Hey babe.”
Ewwwwwww!
The blank second that existed there is burned in my head as if it lasted eons. Then it happened…
The blood spurted out of his ear and onto the phone.
“Babe?” He pathetically said one last time before his other ear spurted out a thick plume of blood all over the room.
It was time for me to get out of that closet if I wanted to ice the cake I had just perfectly baked. I pushed the doors open as Dillon stumbled around the room.
He stopped when he saw me step out of the closet. I could see his eyes for just a brief second before he fell straight backward. I felt like there was recognition. It was enough for me.
I walked out of the room. I grabbed a beer on my way out of the party. I cracked it open as soon as I stepped outside, thirsty.
I stopped and poured some out for Lucy on the sidewalk.
It was the last drink either of us ever had.

When the edged wind came to our village, it seemed like a typical Alaskan gust. One fitting for late December. Then, as the tall tide of frost lashed against the shore of our home, the sagging branches of the yellow cedar trees stopped bouncing. And I abandoned the idea of the breeze being a breeze at all.
Once others understood that, the time for running had passed.
The unholy wind reached the village’s main road, causing two moving cars to sharply and statically stop. The vehicles were frozen in place, much like the people within those metal graves. Onlookers, enjoying a brisk afternoon in the park, began to scream as loved ones succumbed to that supernatural end. Imprisoned in a capsuled moment of time.
Those first few victims were the lucky ones. They’d been oblivious to the fate which awaited them. True terror was endured by those who beheld the raw power of the wind. Those unfortunate enough to see the end coming.
Regardless, the remaining townsfolk, burdened with the awareness of impending doom, futilely attempted to escape the approaching breeze. Those fleeing residents, far slower than the unnatural frost, were halted in haunting poses as the wind bit into them. Limbs were suspended in mid-air positions. Eyes were left wide and unblinking. Mouths were cursed to forever gape in horror.
“RUN!” Dad screamed, sprinting towards us from a nearby park bench.
My brother, my childhood friend, and I were sitting in a sandbox. Already engrossed in a fantasy world, I wondered whether my imagination had conjured the wind. I thought my mind had transcended to a higher plane. It was my way of processing the trauma.
However, I accepted the reality of the situation when my father shoehorned the three of us into his Volkswagen Golf. The icy jaws of the wind were nearly nipping at the rear of the vehicle as Dad twisted the key in the ignition, but the beat-up car rapidly lurched forwards. My father wrenched us away from the frost, seconds before it consumed us.
“Daddy, where are we going?” I tearfully asked.
“I don’t know, Jillian,” He weakly moaned, manoeuvring around fleeing cars and pedestrians.
“Are we picking up Mummy?” Alan asked.
Dad ignored my brother’s question. I was only eight years old at the time, but I knew that my mother wasn’t coming. I understood the significance of the tears in my father’s eyes.
For twenty-six years, I successfully managed to suppress that memory. Did such a good job, in fact, that I almost believed it had all been a dream. I started to believe that we had simply moved away from our hometown, and Mum had simply chosen to stay. Dad never convinced me otherwise. He never talked about what happened. Neither did my brother.
As for Leon, he moved to an orphanage in Anchorage. We wrote to each other for a couple of years, but his replies became less and less frequent. Eventually, he stopped responding entirely. I used to wonder why my father didn’t adopt my childhood friend, but I suppose that would have forced him to accept what happened. And, like me, he had no intention of doing that.
I thought we would run back to England, having failed to achieve the American Dream. But Dad kept us in Alaska. I assumed that he’d been driven by stubbornness. Or guilt, perhaps. We’d already fled our home. Perhaps fleeing across the pond would’ve been a step too far. Perhaps it would’ve felt like truly abandoning our mother. Whatever his reason for staying, Dad didn’t tell anyone the truth. He never went to the police. He never returned to look for Mum.
“Don’t look back, kids,” I remember him whispering as we fled the frost.
I followed that advice for the next couple of decades, only recalling the event for the briefest moments, from time to time. When Dad bought the first computer for our family in 2000, I Googled the name of our old town. I typed the word before realising I was even doing so. I was still young, of course, but I knew that nothing about our speedy departure had been normal. I wanted answers.
I’d expected to discover that my village had become a ghost town. That would have made sense. Alaska’s unforgiving climate breeds desolate places, born to be abandoned. However, the search results revealed nothing, so I told myself I’d imagined the village. I told myself we'd always lived in Anchorage.
As the years passed, I became comfortable with the notion that none of it had ever been real. Not even my mother. And that was why I did not expect to see a certain person again.
“Happy birthday, Jill.”
My jaw dropped when Leon Taylor appeared on my doorstep.
It might seem strange that I would recognise a man who was a child when I last saw him, but Leon always had distinctive features. I immediately identified the mole on his neck, just below his facial scruff, and those sorrowful eyes, shadowed by his unmistakable overgrown brows.
“Leon?” I gasped. “What are you doing here?”
The man smiled weakly. “Sorry, Jill. I should’ve done this the Millennial way. Y’know. Reconnected through Facebook.”
“No, it’s… I just never thought I’d see you again. Do you want to come inside?” I asked, motioning at the hallway.
Leon nodded, so I made a couple of coffees whilst my old friend seated himself in the living room. A boy who I’d almost forgotten. Almost entirely erased from existence, just like our old town. But I’d always known, just beneath the surface of my shallow memories, that it had all been real. The truth of my childhood was always within reach. As I brought the drinks into the lounge, hands trembling, I tried to dispel the thoughts flooding my mind. Thoughts of that awful day.
“How’s your dad? How’s Alan?” Leon asked, taking the cup of coffee.
I sighed. “Dad’s been unwell for a few years. He hasn’t been taking care of himself, and he’s getting old. As for Alan… Well, Alan’s the way he’s always been. Uptight, and distant, but–”
“– When was the last time you spoke to him?” Leon sharply interjected.
The question caught me off-guard. “Huh?”
“Your brother. When was the last time you spoke to him?” Leon asked.
My face drained. He knows, I thought. How on Earth does he know?
“Three years ago,” I answered.
My old friend nodded. “Did you fall out?”
I scoffed. “That’s an understatement. You remember what he was like when we were kids, don’t you?”
Leon shrugged. “He was two years older than us. We must’ve infuriated him.”
I nodded. “Sure. But I grew up, and he never did. We had a big argument, and we haven't spoken since.”
“Interesting,” He responded.
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re a man of few words these days, Leon.”
The man cleared his throat. “Your brother messaged me a week ago.”
My other eyebrow raised. “What?”
“It was a very strange message.”
“Did you reply?” I asked. “I thought you would’ve preferred to ignore it.”
He lowered his head in shame. “I’m sorry, Jillian. I replied to some of your letters…”
“Then you forgot about me,” I said. “It’s embarrassing that I didn’t get the hint.”
“It wasn’t embarrassing,” Leon sheepishly muttered. “I read all of them. Every last letter.”
“Oh, well, that’s great,” I laughed. “Nice to know that you cared.”
“Jillian, I…” Leon paused, lifting his head. “I was scared.”
“Scared of what?” I asked.
“Remembering that day,” He replied. “It’s why I told your dad I didn’t want to come and live with you.”
“It’s… What?” I asked.
Leon tilted his head. “You didn’t know? Did you really think he’d just dump me in that place? He might’ve changed, but your dad was never cold. Still, I refused. Living with you would’ve reminded me of what happened to my family.”
I didn't reply, so my old friend prodded the beast. “Aren’t we going to talk about–”
“– Why did my brother message you?” I interrupted, avoiding the topic.
Leon twitched his lips uncertainly, as if unwilling to part them.
“He told me that I had to see you…” Leon trailed off.
“Right,” I said. “Why?”
“Your brother said something insane, Jillian,” He said. “He claimed that Arnold Walker visited him in Fairbanks.”
My jaw fell. “I beg your pardon? Arnold Walker? My brother’s school friend?”
Leon nodded.
“He escaped? I didn't know others got out,” I whispered.
My old friend’s face was growing paler. “No, I... Your brother said something that seemed impossible. He said that Arnold did not arrive on his doorstep as a thirty-six-year-old man, but a ten-year-old child.”
My stomach dropped. The natural response would’ve been to discredit such an outlandish story, refuting it with a rational explanation. But Leon’s revelation served to do only one thing. It confirmed what I’d always known.
“A ten-year-old boy made it all the way from our hometown to Fairbanks?” I asked meekly.
Leon frowned. “That’s it? You’re not going to question it? I did. I messaged Alan repeatedly, but he never replied.”
“Not a nice feeling, is it?” I asked, sighing. “How did you want me to react, Leon? You were itching to talk about that day. Well, I’m not skirting around the subject now. Let’s talk about it. Okay? I know all of that horror really happened. I’d just never wanted anyone to confirm it.”
“Me neither,” Leon said. “I was trying to avoid your family for the rest of my life. Your brother ruined that.”
“Yeah. He tends to ruin things,” I replied. “So, that’s it? Alan wanted you to tell me about Arnold Walker?”
Leon shivered. “There’s more, but… Look, I know I should’ve messaged you about all of this first, but I thought about the way Alan avoided my questions. I didn’t want you to do the same. I assumed if I were to show up in person, then–”
“– I wouldn’t be able to run away,” I finished. “I understand, Leon. I just hate that my brother is still too childish to talk to me.”
“Funny. He called you childish too. Listening to you two bicker is nostalgic,” Leon smiled, before quickly adopting a solemn expression. “I’m trying to change the subject, but I need to rip off the band-aid. Alan said that Arnold took him to a car on the front lawn. There was a man in the driver’s seat, barely clinging to life, with a face mangled beyond recognition. Your brother said the man’s skin had been peeled from his face… And he was still, somehow, alive.”
I shuddered, vomit climbing my throat.
“Arnold told your brother that the man was Mr Johnson,” Leon whispered.
“The farmer? The one who ran the local grocery store?” I asked, shivering.
My friend nodded. “Yeah. Alan said he’d aged a little. Well, his hair was greyer than he remembered. The pair must’ve been on the road for hours, and your brother didn’t know how they knew where to find him. He had so many questions for them, but Mr Johnson died before the ambulance arrived. And whilst Alan talked to the paramedics, Arnold ran away. He’s missing.”
“Shit…” I whispered. “I’ll call my brother.”
“You might struggle,” Leon said. “Alan ended the message by saying that he was going back… home.”
I gawped. “No. He wouldn’t be that stupid.”
“Maybe not. You should try to contact him,” Leon said. “He hasn’t replied to my dozens of messages, but he might reply to you. Not sure he even has a signal, out there in the boonies, but you’re right. You should try.”
I spent an hour trying to contact my brother, in various ways, but he did not respond. Alan had vanished. And I knew, like it or not, that I had to return to our village too. I should’ve told Dad. Would've told him, had he not been one bad day away from a heart attack. In spite of the man he’d become, I loved him. I didn’t want to remind him of the place we’d fled.
One person should be spared the horror of remembering, I thought.
Leon and I, two strangers who’d spent formative years together, piled into my Kia, and we drove from Anchorage to a place that I’d long hoped had never really existed.
I was going to be horribly disappointed.
On a nondescript road that burrowed into the Alaskan wilderness, my throat started to twist and constrict. The outer edge of my vision shrank, and my head pulsated with a slowing rhythm as the world slipped away from me. I struggled to breathe as I came to terms with an awful fact.
I recognised that endless road.
“Jillian…” Leon whispered.
“Don’t,” I begged.
I didn’t want to hear it. I wasn’t ready. I’d known all along, of course, that our village existed. Even when extensive research had revealed nothing about the town. When I thought of the way the breeze consumed the town, erasing its residents, it made sense that it would erase the very place itself. After all, even I’d started to doubt its existence, and I’d lived there.
Accepting the unearthly nature of the event wasn’t as tough as you might imagine. If anything, I had fought hard to deny it. I wanted to ignore the existence of a paranormal force, though I had witnessed it with my own eyes. Even if there were some Alaskan breeze powerful enough to instantaneously freeze an entire town, we hadn’t witnessed that. We’d seen something else. We’d seen that glacial wind freeze the town. Not its people, but its tether to time.
After an hour of following the frosted landscape, we saw something familiar on the horizon. Leon’s face mirrored mine as our damned village appeared. A bulge of ruin and decay, growing as we neared it. And when we crossed the threshold into the desolate town, the reality of our quest finally dawned on me.
“Where is everybody?” Leon asked.
It might seem a moronic question to an outsider. Our old village was clearly an abandoned place. No rational person would expect anybody else to be there. Of course, I understood Leon. He had asked the same terrifying question that was circling the drain of my mind, refusing to flush away.
I thought back to that terrible day on which hundreds of people froze in time. Then I thought of Arnold Walker and Mr Johnson. The two residents who’d supposedly shown up at my brother’s door. One of them had looked no older than he’d been in 1998.
“Time resumed,” I finally mumbled.
“Yes, but where did everybody go?” My childhood friend asked.
I didn’t have an answer. Neither did my brother, and that was why he’d come here.
That’s not the real reason, I thought. He was hoping to find… her.
I rolled onto my old street, noting that the trees swayed in the wind and birds flew overhead. Signs that time was flowing. I wondered whether others had fled in the same fashion as Arnold and Mr Johnson. I even allowed my heart to soar a little as I considered that my mother might have freed herself. Might have found Dad in Anchorage. Might be wondering where Alan and I had gone.
However, I knew that not to be the case. Mum had not arrived at my door, and there had been no national news coverage about people emerging from a town that didn’t exist. There had only been an old, half-butchered man and a quiet boy. Both were gone. And I had questions about the nature of their escape from our hometown, given my brother’s ominous message to Leon.
Something was still dreadfully wrong with our village. Twenty-six years had not changed that. The people of the village had not disappeared into the sunset. Whatever had happened to them, I knew it wasn’t good. Possibly worse than what happened to Arnold Walker and Mr Johnson.
I pulled onto the driveway of my childhood home, gently trundling over cracked asphalt. Weeds squirmed through the wounds of the suburb, as nature sought to erase my childhood from existence. There was no need for that, of course. The wind of 1998, and whatever secrets it held, had already done a fine job of wiping my hometown from reality.
“Do you think he’s come here?” Leon asked as I turned off the engine.
“Yes. We both know who he wanted to find,” I said.
My childhood friend nodded, and we both sombrely climbed out of the vehicle.
The village was colder than I remembered. For a mid-afternoon day in late May, it was unseasonably chilly. Alaska, for the most part, is not the arctic hellscape that many people imagine. Not in all parts of the state, anyhow, and certainly not in late spring. The air also felt stale. It carried the stench of evil, and it seemed to be tinged with frost. As if that demonic breeze were still lingering in the air, nearly three decades later.
I knocked on the rotten front door, surprised that it did not break with a slight rap of my hand.
“Alan?” I yelled. “It’s Jillian.”
My brother did not respond, but I wasn’t concerned. If he had been there, and Mum hadn’t, then he wouldn’t have wanted to stay. I wanted to use that as an excuse to turn around and leave. I already assumed that my mother wouldn’t be there, but another part of me knew that my assumption was more of a wish. In a similar way, I had been secretly glad to find nobody in the town. There was only one person I hoped to find in my old village, and that was Alan.
I was terrified by the prospect of finding anything else.
“Jill…” Leon started softly. “Come on. We have to do it.”
“Do we?” I asked. “This was a mistake. We should turn around. We–”
“– I agree,” Leon sharply interjected. “But we have to find your brother. And when we do, we’ll convince him to come back with us. We’ll convince him to leave this place behind too.”
“Why did you come to see me, Leon?” I asked. “You could’ve ignored my brother’s message. You could’ve pretended none of this had ever happened. That’s what you did when you started ignoring my letters, isn’t it?”
“I deeply regretted that for years, Jill,” He said softly. “You were my best friend. You were… more than that. We were just kids, but I loved you. I’ve not made another connection like ours. Not even in my adult life.”
“I know,” I replied. “I loved you too, Leon. That’s why it hurt when you let our bond peter out. If you’d cut me off from the start, I would’ve understood. But it just felt like you’d stopped caring.”
“Never. I just lost the strength to bear that trauma,” He explained. “Every letter was a reminder, and I just… That’s why I came to your door. That’s why I didn’t ignore what your brother said. I didn’t want something to happen to him. You lost your mother. I didn’t want you to lose him too.”
“We all lost things,” I sniffled. “You lost… more than me. I just don’t understand why you’d come back. Why my brother would come back. I don’t even understand why I’ve come back.”
“We never really left this place, did we?” Leon asked. “Not in our minds. Even though it doesn’t exist in the eyes of the outside world, it never left us. Never let go. Arnold Walker and Mr Johnson lured Alan back. And he lured us back.”
“That’s an unsettling way of looking at it,” I timidly replied.
“It’s the only way I’ve been able to look at it,” He said. “Whatever claimed this place, it remembered us, and it made sure we remembered it. Not that it would be easy to forget… For years, I thought I’d lost my mind, but after talking to you and Alan, I’m not so sure. I find it hard to believe that we’d have experienced a shared delusion. No, it all really happened. And the memory replays in my mind every day. I’ll never get rid of it.”
“Dad seemed to do a good job of erasing this place from his mind,” I said.
I knew that wasn’t true, of course. He had never forgotten. That was made apparent by his deterioration. Alan and I had a close relationship with our father before we left that village. Afterwards, he changed. We all changed. Losing Mum had fractured the family, but there was more to it than that. I started to consider that Leon might be right. Perhaps the frost hadn’t ensnared the two of us, but it had certainly bitten us.
“Do you want me to do it?” Leon eventually asked.
I wanted to be courageous enough to open the door, but I wasn’t. I nodded meekly and stepped aside, allowing my childhood friend the nightmarish task of facing whatever lay within my old home. He pushed the door handle down, expecting the house to be unlocked, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Shall we try the back?” I asked.
Leon backed up. I quickly realised what he was planning to do, and I opened my mouth to utter a protest. My hulking friend had charged before I spoke a single word, however, and he hurled his body into the door. It quivered in its frame, but did not give.
“Leon!” I cried. “What are you doing?”
“Well, I don’t suppose you have the key?” He panted, massaging his shoulder.
I held up my hands. “Look, let’s just…”
My friend rushed forwards again, and the result was the same. This time, however, Leon released a groan of pain, clutching his arm a little more tightly.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” I said. “Let’s take it in turns to kick the door. That'll work better, and it won’t cripple either of us.”
Leon nodded, and the two of us firmly booted the door near the handle. The wood quaked, and it only took a few attacks for the door to splinter around the lock. The frame splayed inwards, and the metal mechanism fell loose.
“Whoops… That worked a little too well,” Leon laughed.
He led the way into my childhood home, which looked, unlike the street outside, the same as I remembered. The same as it had looked on the day I’d left. There were no shoes left by the door. No muddy prints on the carpet. No indication whatsoever that my brother had visited our old home, which I’d gathered when the front door had been locked. But this was not a relief. I knew, in my gut, that Alan would’ve gone there first.
He never made it home.
Leon shivered. “This place feels cold…”
“Frozen,” I corrected. “Frozen in time.”
“Is it safe for us to be here?” He asked. “What if we end up like the others?”
“It’s a bit late to ask that now,” I replied. “The breeze passed long ago. This just seems to be the horror it left behind.”
Leon accepted my suggestion, then he wandered over to the staircase. My friend took one step before halting in place. For a haunting moment, I believed that he had been frozen in time too. I believed that I’d been wrong, and the frost had come for us. But I quickly realised that my friend was still moving. Still twitching. He was frozen by fear, not a supernatural gale.
“There’s someone in the bathroom…” Leon wheezed.
With physical dread in every inch of my body, I joined my friend and looked up. Artificial light spilled beneath the bathroom door onto the dark landing.
“There might not be anyone in there,” I shakily said.
“Jillian, this is an abandoned town. There is no electricity. Your house is still frozen in time, and it froze with the bathroom light left on. Somebody must have been–”
“– Don’t say it,” I pleaded, upper lip trembling.
“Do you want me to lead the way?” He asked.
I didn’t. I wanted to run, but I knew I would never forgive myself for doing so. Leon was right, of course. I hadn’t allowed him to finish his sentence, but it was clear that he was going to mention somebody in particular. Somebody whose face flooded my mind as we ascended the staircase, one tentative step at a time. Somebody whose name started to tickle my lips as Leon grasped the handle to the door.
It wasn’t locked.
“Mum?” I moaned as Leon inched it open.
My ageless mother was inside.
I’m sure I would’ve screamed at whatever we found, but I was not prepared for the state of the statue before me. Mum was standing at the sink, hands cupped below a stream of tap water suspended in time. As I had always feared, the frost caught her. It was horrifying enough to be frozen in time for twenty-six years, whilst the rest of the world continued, but that wasn’t why I screamed. I’d braced myself for that possibility. I’d spent my entire adult life coming to terms with it.
I screamed because I wasn’t prepared to see her face.
Mum was smiling. Not a wholesome smile. It was a taut grin that etched an unnerving crescent shape across her cheeks. There was nothing unnatural about the grin, but it looked painful. And it appeared as if cataracts had taken the entirety of her pupils.
“Mum?” I asked weakly. “Do you hear me?”
There was no reply. I peered around the side of her face, and I immediately regretted it. Though she was frozen in time, she did not look unaware. I felt her sightless eyes boring into my face, and I quickly jumped backwards.
“Let’s go and find your brother,” Leon fearfully said.
As I nodded, backing towards the doorway, I locked my gaze onto my mother’s profile. My heart pounded as I started to close the bathroom door. I was trying to ignore the idea that had wormed into my mind. The possibility that, behind the glassy cataract, a pupil might still exist. Lying dormant. Watching me from a face that no longer seemed to belong to my mother.
After I shut the door, Leon and I took a few moments to control our breathing. With a slight tremble, my friend finally walked over to the light switch and raised a hand, but I caught his wrist.
“What are you doing?” He frowned.
“Leave the light on,” I whispered. “I… don’t like the idea of leaving her in the dark.”
My friend’s expression softened, and he nodded, seeming to understand my explanation. Seeming to empathise. But I was lying. I wasn’t worried about leaving my mother in the dark. I was worried about the thing behind that smiling face.
“Alan didn’t come here,” I said. “Did he really come back?”
“You read the message, Jillian,” Leon replied.
“I know, but…” I sighed. “I know.”
“He might not have come to the house,” My friend suggested.
“This is the first place he would’ve visited,” I said. “If Mum weren’t here, he wouldn’t have returned.”
“Well, let’s look around,” Leon urged. “You never know. We might find something else. Something to help your mother, perhaps.”
“You saw her face,” I whispered. “She looked far past help.”
“Don’t say that, Jillian!” Leon shouted, eyes watering.
You idiot, I thought.
I was so self-centred. So focused on finding my brother and my mother. I hadn’t thought about Leon’s parents. His brother, Carl. People we’d left behind when my father saved us. I remembered Leon sobbing as he begged my father to turn around.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We need to find your family too.”
Leon viciously shook his head. “Only if we find an answer, Jill. Only if we find a way to save them.”
My friend entered my childhood bedroom, and I followed him. I imagine that visiting one’s childhood home is a strange experience for anyone, but strangeness morphs into horror when that home is trapped in a moment of time. I felt physically unwell when I saw the glass of water on the bedside table, fresh as it had been on the day that my dad took us to the park. Life had continued for me, but the town was still trapped in that dreadful, inexplicable day.
“Jillian,” Leon said calmly. “There are people outside.”
He was standing in front of my bedroom window, and when I joined him, eyeing the road below, I saw them. A man and a woman who seemed to be in their mid-forties. The man wore ill-fitting clothes. A chequered shirt two sizes too small, and a pair of torn jeans. The woman, on the other hand, wore a pristine, shapely dress with a floral pattern. She looked oddly familiar, though her eyes were jittery and unfocused. It was the man who’d locked his eyes onto our house.
“I… vaguely recognise her,” Leon said.
I nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know her name, but I remember her. She looks a tad older, perhaps. I don’t know the man though.”
“You stay here,” Leon said, reaching inside his coat. “Don’t come out.”
“What are you holding?” I frowned, noting his shiftiness.
“Just…” Leon concealed his hand within the thick, wintry coat. “Are you going to stay in here?”
My eyes grew as I spotted a glint of metal. “You don’t… No, Leon. Please. Don’t tell me you have what I think you have.”
“We had no idea what we were going to find here,” The man protested.
I scoffed. “Leon Taylor? Carrying a gun? The boy who berated me for killing me a spider.”
Before he replied, there came the sound of the front door swinging open. And when we spun our heads back to the bedroom window, we saw that the man and woman were no longer on the street. I realised they were inside.
“Hello?” Called a man from downstairs. “We mean you no harm.”
“I have a weapon,” Leon yelled, slipping the pistol out of a hidden holster.
“Don’t shoot… It’s Bernie Bradley…” The man shouted weakly.
My mouth gaped. Bernie Bradley was in my brother’s school year. I remembered him. And as I recalled the face of the man I’d seen on the street, I didn’t find it hard to believe it had been the face of that same boy, twenty-six years into the future.
“What do you want?” I yelled.
“To help you,” He replied. “Before they come.”
“Who?” Leon asked.
“I’ll tell you if you put that weapon away,” Bernie said.
“I don’t trust you enough for that,” My friend growled.
“Are you Leon Taylor?” The man asked.
“Why?” Leon responded.
“Sydney Manley pushed you off the swing set, and you called her a fat cow,” Bernie said. “She ran home in tears.”
It wasn’t enough. In a place like that, which defied all laws of rationality, it wasn’t enough for Bernie Bradley to know that. But Leon and I needed it to be enough because we were hopelessly alone. Hopelessly afraid. And hopelessly desperate.
My friend re-holstered his weapon, and we walked onto the landing. Bernie and the woman were midway up the stairs. The man’s hands were raised, but the woman barely seemed aware of where they were. Barely seemed aware of herself.
“Leon Taylor and Jillian Maynard. Is that right?” Bernie asked.
“How did you recognise us?” I asked.
“You were the only ones who escaped,” He replied. “The Maynards and Leon Taylor.”
“The only ones?” Leon asked incredulously.
Bernie nodded. “Others tried, but the frost got them.”
“So, why aren’t you…” I started, unable to finish.
“Mind if we sit down before I answer that?” He asked.
I looked at Leon, and my friend begrudgingly nodded. We all headed to the living room and sat down. Once we did, Bernie Bradley told us an incredible story, and the woman beside him simply rocked on the sofa, face painted with a disturbing smile.
Bernie had been a ten-year-old boy, sitting at his bedroom desk, when the chill swept through his room. He told us that he remembered nothing but a black void. He might’ve been there for an eternity, or it might’ve been less than a moment.
When he woke from that dark slumber, still a ten-year-old boy sitting in the desk chair, Bernie looked out of the bedroom window. He was overcome by the horrible feeling that time had been lost, but he didn’t know how much. And when he saw residents frozen in the street, he realised that something awful had happened. Bernie found his own paused parents in the kitchen, and they were completely unresponsive to his pleas.
The lonely, frightened boy ran through the town, calling for help. Nobody answered. After a long day of searching, he returned to his house in tears. For a week, Bernie lived on cans of food from the cupboards. And then he heard shouting from the street.
“Hello? Is anybody there?” A man called.
Bernie ran outside to find Mr Johnson. The farmer had just woken from ‘a darkness’ to find the town full of statues. Bernie told Mr Johnson that he’d been alone for a week, but he had no idea how long he’d been frozen before that. The boy wanted to leave, but the farmer said they had to save as many people as possible. They had a duty to do so. After all, neither the farmer nor the boy knew what might happen to them if they were to run. The frost might return.
Anyway, Mr Johnson took Bernie under his wing. The crops in his field, thankfully, had unfrozen, as had his entire farmhouse. Mr Johnson fed Bernie, and the two of them survived. A week later, they found Elizabeth Coulter, the local headteacher, wandering through the town. Over the course of the following year, a dozen more unfrozen souls were saved and brought back to Mr Johnson’s farm.
But things changed as time passed. The newer thawed souls were unhinged. The longer a person had been trapped in that black stasis, the less human they became. They were still intelligible, but they spoke only of the voice in the void. A voice that they missed in the land of the living. They were irritable, but Mr Johnson cared for them, all the same. Eventually, they fled.
This only worsened as the years went by. After a decade, Bernie’s mother and father unfroze. However, his dad ran, and his mum only remained because she was lost and confused. She would rant and rave about the Speaker. The one that would make everything better. The one that would make them all eternal.
It was during the year of 2018 that things crossed a terrifying line. Mr Johnson had decided that newcomers were not welcome. It was a decision of necessity, not cruelty. The recently unfrozen folk had become more than unintelligible. They had become dangerous.
“Hark! The Speaker calls!” Walter Frankton screamed.
The middle-aged man, who had once been a police officer, was standing outside Mr Johnson’s farmhouse. When the community of sane people emerged, they screeched at the sight of Walter holding a charred body above his head. Nobody identified the burnt corpse, but Mr Johnson wasted no time in drawing his rifle and giving Mr Frankton ten seconds to flee.
Bernie explained that Walter laughed demonically, before disappearing into the night. Over the coming years, bodies were found in the street. Followers of the Speaker would relentlessly pursue Mr Johnson’s community, so the sane folk kept distant from the people of the Speaker. Few of Mr Johnson’s followers understood why they stayed, yet nobody felt able to leave. Something was keeping them there.
A couple of weeks before Leon and I arrived, however, Bernie said that Mr Johnson finally announced his plan to leave. There were murmurs of uncertainty. Everybody wanted to escape, of course, but fear had always stopped them. Still, they trusted Mr Johnson. If anybody had the power to safely lead them away from the place controlling their minds, it had to be the brave farmer. Packing and preparations began.
However, some days later, Bernie Bradley happened to look out of an upstairs window and notice Mr Johnson. The old man was wandering aimlessly onto the driveway, stumbling like a drunken man towards his vehicle. Bernie said there was a small child standing beside the car. The young boy led Mr Johnson to the driver’s door with a smile, and the two of them fled.
Things disintegrated after that. When a Molotov cocktail found its way through a window, the community dispersed. The sane folk fled in different directions, and Bernie was left alone with his mother.
“We’ve been running for days,” Bernie explained. “I keep finding the bodies of people from my community. Charred corpses in the street. I tried to leave this town, but it wouldn’t let me. The farther I drove, the sharper the pang in my heart. I knew I'd die if I were to keep going.”
“How did you find us?” Leon asked.
“I heard you,” Bernie replied. “Hard to miss the sound of an engine in a dead place like this. I had a hunch that it might be you.”
“You must've heard my brother then?” I asked hopefully.
Bernie frowned. “Alan's here? That might explain the raucous a few days ago… I don’t know what I heard. Noise. Lots of it... You won't find him, Jill. You have to run whilst it still lets you. The frost might be gone, but… something lingers.”
“The Speaker?” Leon asked.
Bernie nodded. “I was fortunate enough to never hear it. Or never remember hearing it. I don't know what it said to them. My mother won't tell me.”
Bernie looked at the woman next to him. The one who appeared to be the same age as him, though I realised he was still a decade younger. The horror of our town had aged him beyond his years.
“It will be so glorious…” Bernie’s mother giggled, eyes bearing faint pupils behind mild cataracts.
“You’re lucky that they didn’t see you arrive,” Bernie said. “Otherwise, you’d be dead already. But they’ll come. Sooner or later. And you need to listen to me if you want a safe way out of here. Okay? We need to distract them. Keep them off your backs.”
I shook my head. “I need to find my brother. I know he came to this town. I thought I'd find him in our home, but–”
“– Walter wanted him,” Bernie’s mother hissed.
The woman stopped rocking. Stopped smiling. And her head snapped to face me with such eerie speed that I thought it might entirely disconnect from her neck. Bernie quivered, seemingly just as horrified by his mother’s words as the rest of us.
“Mother…?” He asked.
“Walter wanted him. Walter wanted him. Walter wanted him!” The woman laughed, taunting me.
“What does she mean?” I sobbed. “Does Walter Frankton have my brother?”
Bernie’s face whitened. “If he does, your brother's either been flayed or charred.”
“Christ, Bernie,” Leon replied.
I sniffled. “I won’t leave until I know.”
“He’s already dead,” Bernie bluntly said.
“We don’t know that!” I cried.
I thought the others were sitting in stunned silence because I’d spoken so assertively. However, as I calmed my breathing, and the throbbing sensation in my ears quietened, I heard it too. The sound of laughing voices. Bernie’s mother strained to smile broadly. She looked as pained as my mother, but grateful for the privilege of the discomfort.
“You don't want to see this. We'll head through the back. Do not look at the street...” Bernie hoarsely pleaded as I rose.
But I was already running to the door.
I flung it open and started to run down the path, with Leon and Bernie in tow. Then, my eyes met the mob spilling beyond the end of the street. The crowd easily numbered a hundred people, and each face wore a terrible smile. Eyes glassy, yet all-seeing.
There was a man shuffling from the crowd towards me, like a terrified toddler taking its first steps. I tried to blot his face from my mind. I didn’t want to see it, though it was too late for that. I’d seen everything the moment I faced the crowd. Eventually, I fell to my knees and howled as I embraced the truth.
The shuffling man, who had been flayed alive, was my brother.
Alan reached towards me with an outstretched hand, weakly shouting something, before toppling forwards. He was reduced to a motionless heap on the road.
“Jill!” Leon cried again, rushing to me. “We have to go!”
I continued to wail as the gleeful crowd surged forwards. I resisted Leon, but he easily hauled my limp body to the car and bundled me into the back.
“He needs help...” I blubbered.
“He’s gone, Jill,” Leon whispered.
“What about your family?” I asked.
“They’re all gone...” He sniffled, stepping on the accelerator.
Staring through the rear-view window, I watched the crowd approach my old home. Bernie stood on the front porch, and his mother had her hands on his shoulders. The man did not run. As we pulled off the driveway, it almost seemed as if he, too, finally had a smile on his face. The mob swarmed Bernie, and I heard a brief cry of agony. It may have been ecstatic or fearful. It may have been both.
After we crossed the border, no chill pierced us. We were free to leave. But I know Leon and I belong to that town. I have always suspected that the wind grazed its teeth against my skin when I was a child. It grazed all of us. For, even now, I still feel that link. That urge to return to the salivating mob with a smile on my face.
When I returned home to find that my father was missing, I knew he felt it too.

What started as a panicked attempt to get her over-intoxicated friend to a hospital ended up in a disastrous car crash that claimed the lives of her friends... and a careless God crossing the street. But Sammi's adventure wasn't about to end there. In her dying breath, the God curses Sammi to take up her mantel. Now with her three friends resurrected as ghosts, Sammi has to navigate the tricky world of godhood.
Previous Chapter Next chapter coming soon!
Start here! Patreon (up to chapter 9)
“Ahem.” I cleared my throat at the front desk woman, who was tapping away on her computer. A bronze little placard on her desk read ‘Grace Burger.’
She peered at me, a little concerned, over her glasses. “Don’t worry, ma’am. We are taking this infraction very seriously. A full report will be written up–”
“That won’t be necessary,” I said, laughing a bit nervously and waving her down. “I actually came about something totally different.”
Grace frowned, frozen mid-tap. “Yes?”
“I need to talk to the person in charge of, uh…” I squinted my eyes together. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to start. “You told me you were gonna get me in touch with whoever is in charge of that shooting that happened the other night. The one down by the river where that Bridgeport kid was shot?”
“Mhm. I can send Detective Leister a message, but he’s in some hot water right now after letting both suspects escape the other day.” A fuzzy look crossed her face, and her peer intensified.
Shoot. I was losing the lie. “Right right. Well, ‘lose’ might be a harsh word, because the bail for both suspects was tooootally paid. Like, whatever the bail was, it’s paid, 100%. I’m actually just here to make sure all the paperwork got filed for that, which is why I need to talk to Detective, uh, Leister.”
The fuzziness faded from Grace’s face. “Like I said, I can send him another email.”
“Bro, who the fuck uses email?” Christopher asked. “Just tell them to let you in.”
I forced a smile. “He told me you could just send me to his office. He said ‘oh Gracie girl, just give her the deets and directions to wherever I’m at. She’s cool to let in, no sweat.’ Literally his exact words, swear to God.” Swear to myself, more like.
As I enjoyed a quiet chuckle at my own joke, Grace was nodding through my statement.
“Leister is currently in his office. A32.”
A32. I could do this.
I kept my lies minimal as I crept through the sweltering station. A few ‘naw, I’m not that fugitive, I just look like her’ and ‘yeah I’m supposed to be here’ and one, ill advised ‘you didn’t see anything,’ and I was tap tapping on the door to A32.
The door slid open a hair, revealing a large man with a large mustache. Technically only half of his face was showing, but it was a large half.
His eyes pierced me, and I knew what was coming.
“I’m not a fugitive,” I blurted. “Y’all hear that in there? I am not someone you are supposed to arrest.” Just have to get in the door. “I’m here for my…” I checked my snazzy watch. “My 2:37 meeting? It’s not on your calendars, but it is important. The secretary forgot to tell you.”
“Damn Burger. That’s the third time this week.” Mustache sighed heavily. “We’re going to have to take more serious action now.”
“Did you just get Grace in trouble?” Blair’s horrified whisper did nothing for my nerves, and guilt shot through me. “That’s not good, Sammi!”
“Oh my God, Blair, give it a rest.” Joni groaned. “It’s so far from the worst Sammi’s done.”
“Just because it’s not the worst doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad,” I said, already wincing halfway through my own sentence. “Uh. Just, uh, rehearsing.”
Mustache nodded, as if this made any fucking sense, and ushered me in.
The inside was dominated by a small oval table. At the head was a woman with a scrunched up face and a knot of auburn hair, who looked about as pissed as you would expect someone in a hot hot-water-meeting to look.
At the other end, a weasley looking man with greasy hair and a faded suit was shifting uncomfortably. That must be Leister.
“All righty,” I said, sitting down in the chair across from Mustache’s. “Let’s make this short, cause I’m just trying to gather some intel and share some of my own.” Simple, straightforward. No questions or requests unless they were accompanied by a lie. “I think you–” I pointed at the woman, who looked the most in charge, “were they one who said you’d be giving me some of the confidential case info. You said you couldn’t give me everything, but did say you would give me a list of suspects, witnesses, the name and information of anyone involved in this case.” This was my best bet at getting my hands on info pointing towards Henry.
The woman looked a little sheepish as I spoke, even as she leafed through a folder and pushed it over to me. Clearly she was in an uncomfortable position, given how one of Mustache’s bushy eyebrows shot sky high, while Leister’s oily ones creased over his face.
“Charlotte,” Leister started, his voice half nervous, half annoyed. “I respect that I may have dropped the ball letting Knox and Geraldo escape, but surely you’re not fully taking me off the case.”
I wasn’t gonna let Charlotte subconsciously finish my lie for me.
“Oh no, not at all,” I said. I could see Joni hovering over Leister’s head, eyes drilling holes in my brain. “I’m not being put on the case. I’m just a third party contractor, half government, half private, just here to gather some information for bookkeeping. Totally innocent.” My tongue felt heavy in my mouth as my rambling ran out of steam. “I’m here to gather some information on the case for, uh–”
“Posterity,” Christopher provided.
“Posterity.” I swallowed, a habit I really needed to kick, given it was so hot in here. My tongue had gone dry. “Also to tell you that Geraldo and Knox are out on bail. The news just came in, your secretary–” I’m so sorry Grace “–was supposed to tell you this morning that she got a call saying they were on bail. That’s why they’re not here.”
Leister stood up, triumphant. “See,” he said, pointing a finger at Charlotte. “I told you it wasn’t the officers’ fault.”
Mustache stroked his mustache, thoughtfully. “They did say that Knox had scammed them into letting Geraldo out. If this really was a matter of bail…”
I looked helplessly at my ghosts. It wasn’t that the cops didn’t believe the lie, but they were contesting it.
“Ooh, tell them it wasn’t Sammi Knox who was in yesterday,” Blair said. “Tell them you’re her secret twin, and you were the one that paid bail.”
It was a terrible plan. A horrible plan. But also kinda brilliant.
“Actually, that was me in there yesterday,” I said, a new confidence taking over me, even as Christopher dissolved into laughter and Joni’s face screwed up so bad she almost managed to make her ghostly skin turn red. “That was the big misunderstanding. I was coming in to pay bail for Cara Geraldo and Sammi Knox. Sammi hadn’t been brought into custody, but jails make her nervous, so I wanted to pay it before she came in.”
The lie had felt pretty water tight, but they were still giving me suspicious eyes.
“And who exactly are you?” Mustache asked, cocking his head dangerously.
Ah. That’s what I’d forgotten. “I,” I said, giving a pause for dramatic effect. “Am Sammi’s twin sister. Sam. Sam Knox.”
Charlotte leaned back, eyebrows pinching. “You’re both named Samantha?” she asked, a southern twang unmistakable in her voice.
“Haha, no. Of course not. Sam is short for… Sampson.” I gave a tentative shrug to accompany my tentative laugh. Sampson’s a name, right? “Our parents, you know, how that generation is. Funky names. Anyway, I’m Sampson Knox, and I was paying bail for Samantha Knox and Cara Geraldo, but everyone got confused, which I get, and so there was some mix up. I had told Grace I was there to pay bail and she let me in. She told me to tell people I was an out-of-state detective, just in case she was a little slow on entering information into the computer. I think she was in the middle of a minesweeper game or something. You know. Probably just forgot to put in all the bail info.” I shrugged, far more confidently now. Everyone in the room was starting to nod. They looked annoyed, sure, but not at me.
“That sounds like Grace,” Mustache sighed. “Charlotte, I know she’s been through a lot, and we’re all pulling for her after the cancer and the house fire and the whole identify theft thing, but at this point, she’s gone from minor mistakes to flubbing up a standard bail posting so bad that we still have two officers missing.”
“Jesus Christ, Sammi.” Even Joni was starting to look upset with the Grace situation. “Forget throwing her under the bus, you’re making fucking tires out of her corpse.”
My brain chewed on that metaphor for a few seconds, before my eyes fell on the folder in front of me. I waved Christopher and Joni over to look through the paperwork as the cops continued to talk.
“So this isn’t my fault, then?” Leister asked, nasally voice rising hopefully. “I mean, of course I didn’t receive notice of the bail, but that’s not on me, right?”
Charlotte wheeled on him, face flushing red as her hair. “Maybe you should’ve been around yesterday to handle the bail money instead of spending the day dumpster diving.
Dumpster diving?
Leister puffed up. “It’s called Urban Scavenging. And it was an officially approved PTO day.”
Mustache growled under his breath. “And why are we taking PTO on the same day we get assigned to an attempted murder case?”
“It was approved, Doug.” Leister crossed his arms. “And I am allowed to have hobbies without my lifestyle being judged by my employers.”
“We are not judging your lifestyle, Leister.” Mustache’s lip curled. “Just your priorities.”
The files in the folder had a lot of legal jargon that I don’t think I could have understood even without the conversation going on. But I was able to put a few things together. Henry Miller was on their radar, but only as ‘potential subject’ and ‘missing.’ Noah’s parents had been made aware of his situation, but they lived on some island in the Caribbean and couldn’t afford the trip up. Some police grunts had interviewed a bunch of kids on campus to understand more about the days leading up to the shooting. Most of them didn’t have much to say about Noah’s movements, though I noticed that none of the other members of the Gaming Guild had been interviewed yet.
So that would be interesting.
“I care about the case,” Leister said, his voice unconvincing. “I take all my cases super seriously. But I need a healthy work-life balance.”
Normally I’d be all on Leister’s side here. I mean, who didn’t take some PTO here and there, huh? Or even just calling out when you need a break. I did that shit all the time.
But I was also never a detective on a shooting case, so I was kinda in Charlotte and Mustache’s boat.
“Look,” I said, jumping in because I was starting to get bored and wanted to get out of here before I passed out from heat stroke. “I really appreciate all this information. It’s great. I’m sorry your secretary botched the bail situation. And I’m sorry about the cancer, house fire, and identity theft. For real. But I kinda gotta get back to my place to make sure Sammi and Cara are doing alright. I can get you my address, and I’ll just keep an eye on them so they don’t get into any trouble. Don’t want any more college kids getting shot, huh?” I laughed, tossing them some finger guns.
They stared at me. Even Leister looked uncomfortable with my joke.
I slowly lowered the finger guns. “Okay, well, here’s my address and phone number,” I said, scribbling them down. “The only important thing for you to know is that, if you do need me, call me to meet in person. Don’t try to handle anything over the phone. They have it tapped, you know.”
“Who?” Charlotte asked.
“Who?” I repeated, looking nervously at the ghosts. “Uh. Well, obviously…”
“The Canadians,” Blair said. She wrinkled her nose. “It’s always the Canadians.”
I nodded. “The Canadians. The Canadians keep tapping our phones–your phones–because they want to outsource your work… to them. It’s a whole thing. Anyway, it’s also not important. Just call me into the office if you have any questions.” Risking phone lies on high stakes like this wasn’t something I wanted to do.
“Of course.” Mustache’s eyes narrowed again. “Don’t need those damn Canadians stealing any more of our work.”
Leister tossed my sheet of paper with the number and address on top of a pile of paperwork in the corner. “We’ll see you around, Samuel.”
“Sampson,” I corrected.
He waved this off. “Right right.”
A small pang of sympathy twinged in my heart as the ratty man’s attention turned back to the room, my contact details already out of his mind. This was really all they had spared to solve the shooting?
“Poor Noah,” Blair said, echoing my thoughts as I finally started to make my way out of the blistering building. “No family up here besides you.”
“Sammi’s not his family,” Joni said. “And he’s unconscious, so he doesn’t know they’re not here.”
“Actually, some studies have kinda, like, proven that comatose people recover better when they’re given attention and stuff,” Christopher said. “So maybe he doesn’t consciously know they’re not there, but he’s not doing anything consciously. It’s all in the subconscious, man.”
“Our subconsciousness is where 90% of our brain power happens.” Blair tapped her head. “I saw a movie about it.”
And on that note, we finally made it outside, and I gasped in a breath of crisp September air.
“Holy shit.” I sucked in another breath. “I need fucking water. Joni, you gotta learn to turn that crap off sometimes.”
Joni, who had her mouth already open to insult Blair, turned her opened mouth on me. “I gotta learn to do what now?”
I sank down on a park bench, fanning myself. “I leveled you up. Forgot to mention. You’re a… uh, you can control temperature now. So you were the reason everyone got so hot in there.”
Joni looked pissed at this, which I didn’t take personally cause I’m not sure she had another mode.
“Were you gonna tell me?” she asked.
Before I answered her, I flagged down a jogger that was running past me. “Hey,” I shouted. “You have my water bottle. Thanks for returning it to me.”
He grinned and pulled the water bottle off his little hip holster. “No prob!”
I waved him to continue running and took a much needed gulp of water. Okay, it was gatorade. But it was cold and it was refreshing.
“Look,” I said. “I forgot. I did it cause I wanted to do something nice for you, but I was so embarrassed over taking that useless spell that I forgot, and it seemed like people were just being really negative, so I kinda just… Didn’t want to say anymore about the level up. Y’all just get mad so fast.”
Something must have been pathetic enough in my voice, cause Joni’s anger watered down a bit. “Well… Well next time just–or…” She gave a heavy sigh. “Thanks. Temperature is kinda cool, I guess. Just gotta get the hang of it.”
“Heh.” Christopher grinned. “Kinda cool.”
–
It took me a few more minutes of relaxing on the bench before I was ready to head back to my apartment. I hoodwinked a burger from a street vendor–let Joni decide on toppings, just to make sure I was solidly back in her good books–before making my way past the guards and upstairs.
Once inside, I let out a long breath and a bit of a whoop. All told, I’d done a fire job out there.
“Sammi?” Cara’s voice, panicked as always, echoed from around the corner, and a moment later, she darted around, eyes wide. After seeing me, she let out a breath. “Oh thank God. I keep waiting for someone to figure out we’re not supposed to be here and kick us out. How did it go?”
“Good,” Blair said, speaking before I could even open my mouth. “Sammi said you were twins.”
“No,” I said, shooting her a nasty look. “I said I was twins. Or, that I had a twin. That I was my twin. I might have gotten someone fired.”
Cara looked even more alarmed at this.
“Blair,” I said, “I’ve changed my mind. You handle Cara.” I pointed them towards the room they’d debriefed in yesterday–which I’d decided was Cara’s room–and went further into the apartment, to where I’d heard some shuffling and scraping noises.
Blair saluted and whooshed off, Cara unknowingly in tow.
“Tina?” I said, popping my head around the corner into the main living room kitchen space.
“Sammi, yeah, come in come in.” Tina the Taxi was standing in front of several large boxes and bags. A bag of clothes rested on a fold out chair, and Tina stood by it, one hand holding a glass of wine, the other pulling articles of clothing out of the bag and tossing them into one of three piles on the floor. “I went pretty thorough with this shopping trip, but reality is, pretty much everything had to be ordered. You know, ordered and delivered. So most of the stuff is gonna trickle in over the next few days. Meantime, I figured I’d pick up some stuff to tide us over.” She motioned at the boxes.
Three fold out futons, a small wooden table, four folding chairs, and various kitchen ware, toiletries, cleaning supplies, a few bags of food, several bottles of alcohol, and a dozen other odds and ends.
I gave a long, low whistle. “Well damn Tina.” God it was nice having someone in this house whose brain wasn’t the cerebral equivalent of a gerbil on a hamster wheel. “You might just be my new favorite person in here. No offense,” I said, raising my voice so the rest of the household could hear me.
Tina waved this off, her olive cheeks flushing red, and she took a sip of wine. “Cara’s not so bad. Just young and not made of the toughest stuff. Just be patient with her.”
In hindsight, my comment did just feel like a diss towards Cara.
“Fair fair.” Then I turned towards the piles of clothes. “Which is whose?” I asked.
“That one’s yours,” she said, pointing to the biggest pile of clothes. Both Cara and I had given her our sizes before the shopping trip. “I was surprised at how high the card limit was. I shouldn’t have been, but yeah, that’s a lot of designer goods, the kind you like.”
Well. I guess I was someone who liked designer stuff.
“Thank God you can get out of your blood stained clothes,” Joni said.
“I dunno, I think my clothes are kinda cursed,” I said, rifling through the pile while Christopher goggled at the brands. “Who’s to say these won’t just get bloodstained too?”
Tina looked a little uncertain at my comment but tried her best to respond. “There’s dry cleaning downstairs, so anything that gets messed up, I can handle. Also in unit laundry. I got some detergent and dryer sheets.”
Dryer sheets. Holy shit we were getting fancy.
“Tina, you’re the best.” I pulled my futon out of the box and reclined on it. “Seriously. This is perf.”
Down the hall, a door opened, and I turned to see Cara sulk into the living room. She gave me a glance for a long moment before sighing, grabbing her somewhat small pile of clothes, and sulking back to her bedroom.
Tina and I exchanged glances before she took a long drink and went back to sorting.
Things were starting to come together. Next step, find Henry Miller.
Sammi's really starting to live it up! What's the point of being a God if you can't enjoy some luxury here and there?
Finding Henry might be a liiiiittle more challenging than that though.
Also I've posted Sammi on Royal Road! If you could go there and leave a rating or review, it would mean the world to me! Find it on Royal Road here!
Just one or two ratings would really help there. You're all wonderful, I'll see you later this week!

Those familiar with my work, will often see me lay out and describe different concepts and modern perspectives… which are both tools for, and the product of the Intentional suppression of knowledge, as well as psychological programming of different kinds.
The concept that I would like to describe today, is that of “Heavens gates” and “Judgement” or essentially, Obedience… being what stands between man and the Divine/Salvation**… but obedience to what? To God? I think not…**
This particular swindle ties deeply into one of the most successful and long-lasting deceptive tactics ever Implemented… you might generalize this as “the takeover of the church”, or more specifically of Christianity.
Long ago, prior to certain historical factors such as, but not limited to… “The consul of Nicaea”, “Emperor Constantine”, “Emperor Charlemagne” and much more… the essence of Christianity was much different than we know it today…
There were many different branches with different practices and beliefs, somewhat like there is in our modern world… except the main difference was that many of said branches openly taught and practiced, concepts that we know today as “Esoteric Knowledge” … Which back then were common understandings amongst these branches of Christianity and were not yet twisted and or hidden under layers of symbolism.
Such as in Gnostic Christianity… where it was openly taught that man’s connection to the Divine was within himself… not to be found in any form of external worship… Through a series of inner Gnostic Revelations could man find his Salvation, Enlightenment, Forgiveness etc. Thus, holding true to “Uncorrupted” Divine Knowledge of man’s connection to the Universe.
However, through the unfoldment of historical factors such as those previously stated (Nicaea, Charlemagne, Constantine etc.), this Divine Knowledge became one of the absolute most dangerous things to possess…and especially dangerous to openly preach, speak of or teach…
There soon came a point, where certain factors decided that essentially, they would use the name of Christianity/God as a means of seizing absolute control of their part of the world and beyond, in order to serve their own personal agenda… but seeing as at that time there were many branches of Christianity which contained very pure and true Divine Knowledge… It became necessary for these factors to abolish these pure sects of Christianity and establish a “One True Belief system” of which all Christendom was to obey without question… by “gods”, aka The Churches Order… the alternative to obedience, was to be killed or punished… also by “Gods” aka The Churches order…
They assumed the position of mans mediator to the Divine… and as time passed… this became “Just the way it was”, “The churches word was god, and any man who questioned this was a heretic.”
With that said, Punish and kill they did… in mass numbers… Men, Women, Children… Possessors of Divine Knowledge, those who refused to conform to tyranny… all “In the name of Christ/god” … A grand justification for a highly significant step towards the spiritually deprived world that we know today…
Alongside the previously stated mass murder was also the mass destruction of Esoteric Knowledge… Book burnings, homes raided in search of Esoteric Literature and of course the dismantling of many belief systems such as the Gnostics… Those who remained un-exterminated, soon went “underground” and formed secret schools of thought and Esoteric Knowledge, in order to avoid confrontation and death. Many of the mystery schools formed during this chaos, we still know very well today.
Through this string of deception and horror, those behind it, pulling the strings… were able to establish a “Uniform Christian Doctrine” for all of Christendom (all sects of Christianity) to obey… again, without question… or face punishment and or death. In other words… they, with blatant and hostile disregard for everything representing mutually beneficial co-existence… forced upon their part of the world and beyond, a religious belief system, which was designed and fashioned with strategic, deceptive precision… specifically to serve their own diabolical plan, and to enslave the minds, bodies and souls of those whom it was being forced upon…
A belief system crafted by these incredibly deceptive factors, and based directly off of their own agenda… their own moral compass which they would instill within the followers, but not adhere to themselves… their own Interpretation of existing Divine knowledge (The butchering/Twisting of it)… their own opinions of “Right and Wrong”, “Just and Unjust”… and perhaps most importantly for this article, their own opinion of what was “Godly/Worthy of salvation” and what was “Of the Devil/Evil-Wrong- unholy”…
The parameters of this faith established entirely by these deceptive factors but enforced through and with the name of “Christ/God”, to serve as their justification for forcing with violence, this system of belief upon innumerable non-consenting Individuals and communities.
It was a bold move indeed, for this very select group of Influential and more than often “Genetically Privileged” Individuals, to fabricate and ruthlessly enforce this ill-intended set of morals and “religious values” upon their people… and then to, over time and generations, firmly solidify within people’s minds, that their acceptance into “heaven”/ The Divine was based off of this extremely biased system of belief, or should I say obedience… but I suppose as the saying goes, “Fortune Favors the Bold”.
“Heavens gates” are no more than a deceptive and strategically implemented Mental Construct… but anyone who is familiar with the concept of “Mentalism” (All is Mind), knows that this does not make them “ineffective” per say… for if one truly believes something to be the case, they will begin to manifest like conditions within their physical, mental and spiritual nature that will reflect this… as we create our own reality, especially when it’s the combined Intent of many people on a collective scale… and this will indeed hinder an Individual if they are unaware that it is THEM who holds the key, Not the church or any External Being/Deity.
Let us tear down “heavens gates” my friends… for we were fooled into constructing them against our own best Interest… ALL is within… the only thing that stands between us and The Divine… is us… right up until we realize that we are very literally Co-Creators of this Experience and seize back our Divine Birth Right to Sovereignty.
Much Love
Gage Timothy Kreps Ramirez-

Those familiar with my work, will often see me lay out and describe different concepts and modern perspectives… which are both tools for, and the product of the Intentional suppression of knowledge, as well as psychological programming of different kinds.
The concept that I would like to describe today, is that of “Heavens gates” and “Judgement” or essentially, Obedience… being what stands between man and the Divine/Salvation**… but obedience to what? To God? I think not…**
This particular swindle ties deeply into one of the most successful and long-lasting deceptive tactics ever Implemented… you might generalize this as “the takeover of the church”, or more specifically of Christianity.
Long ago, prior to certain historical factors such as, but not limited to… “The consul of Nicaea”, “Emperor Constantine”, “Emperor Charlemagne” and much more… the essence of Christianity was much different than we know it today…
There were many different branches with different practices and beliefs, somewhat like there is in our modern world… except the main difference was that many of said branches openly taught and practiced, concepts that we know today as “Esoteric Knowledge” … Which back then were common understandings amongst these branches of Christianity and were not yet twisted and or hidden under layers of symbolism.
Such as in Gnostic Christianity… where it was openly taught that man’s connection to the Divine was within himself… not to be found in any form of external worship… Through a series of inner Gnostic Revelations could man find his Salvation, Enlightenment, Forgiveness etc. Thus, holding true to “Uncorrupted” Divine Knowledge of man’s connection to the Universe.
However, through the unfoldment of historical factors such as those previously stated (Nicaea, Charlemagne, Constantine etc.), this Divine Knowledge became one of the absolute most dangerous things to possess…and especially dangerous to openly preach, speak of or teach…
There soon came a point, where certain factors decided that essentially, they would use the name of Christianity/God as a means of seizing absolute control of their part of the world and beyond, in order to serve their own personal agenda… but seeing as at that time there were many branches of Christianity which contained very pure and true Divine Knowledge… It became necessary for these factors to abolish these pure sects of Christianity and establish a “One True Belief system” of which all Christendom was to obey without question… by “gods”, aka The Churches Order… the alternative to obedience, was to be killed or punished… also by “Gods” aka The Churches order…
They assumed the position of mans mediator to the Divine… and as time passed… this became “Just the way it was”, “The churches word was god, and any man who questioned this was a heretic.”
With that said, Punish and kill they did… in mass numbers… Men, Women, Children… Possessors of Divine Knowledge, those who refused to conform to tyranny… all “In the name of Christ/god” … A grand justification for a highly significant step towards the spiritually deprived world that we know today…
Alongside the previously stated mass murder was also the mass destruction of Esoteric Knowledge… Book burnings, homes raided in search of Esoteric Literature and of course the dismantling of many belief systems such as the Gnostics… Those who remained un-exterminated, soon went “underground” and formed secret schools of thought and Esoteric Knowledge, in order to avoid confrontation and death. Many of the mystery schools formed during this chaos, we still know very well today.
Through this string of deception and horror, those behind it, pulling the strings… were able to establish a “Uniform Christian Doctrine” for all of Christendom (all sects of Christianity) to obey… again, without question… or face punishment and or death. In other words… they, with blatant and hostile disregard for everything representing mutually beneficial co-existence… forced upon their part of the world and beyond, a religious belief system, which was designed and fashioned with strategic, deceptive precision… specifically to serve their own diabolical plan, and to enslave the minds, bodies and souls of those whom it was being forced upon…
A belief system crafted by these incredibly deceptive factors, and based directly off of their own agenda… their own moral compass which they would instill within the followers, but not adhere to themselves… their own Interpretation of existing Divine knowledge (The butchering/Twisting of it)… their own opinions of “Right and Wrong”, “Just and Unjust”… and perhaps most importantly for this article, their own opinion of what was “Godly/Worthy of salvation” and what was “Of the Devil/Evil-Wrong- unholy”…
The parameters of this faith established entirely by these deceptive factors but enforced through and with the name of “Christ/God”, to serve as their justification for forcing with violence, this system of belief upon innumerable non-consenting Individuals and communities.
It was a bold move indeed, for this very select group of Influential and more than often “Genetically Privileged” Individuals, to fabricate and ruthlessly enforce this ill-intended set of morals and “religious values” upon their people… and then to, over time and generations, firmly solidify within people’s minds, that their acceptance into “heaven”/ The Divine was based off of this extremely biased system of belief, or should I say obedience… but I suppose as the saying goes, “Fortune Favors the Bold”.
“Heavens gates” are no more than a deceptive and strategically implemented Mental Construct… but anyone who is familiar with the concept of “Mentalism” (All is Mind), knows that this does not make them “ineffective” per say… for if one truly believes something to be the case, they will begin to manifest like conditions within their physical, mental and spiritual nature that will reflect this… as we create our own reality, especially when it’s the combined Intent of many people on a collective scale… and this will indeed hinder an Individual if they are unaware that it is THEM who holds the key, Not the church or any External Being/Deity.
Let us tear down “heavens gates” my friends… for we were fooled into constructing them against our own best Interest… ALL is within… the only thing that stands between us and The Divine… is us… right up until we realize that we are very literally Co-Creators of this Experience and seize back our Divine Birth Right to Sovereignty.
Much Love
Gage Timothy Kreps Ramirez-

I am NOT the OOP. OOP is u/OKSteak551 on TrueOffMyChest.
TW: Sexual Assault/rape
Status: Ongoing as per OOP
Original: May 07 2024
Update: May 14 2024 (a week later)
I’m starting strongly dislike my daughter…
To start off everything I’m a widow and have 3 children but in this post I’ll be focused on my two youngest daughters Lia ( F14) & maya ( F18). ( fake names ofcourse)
For little background, Lia was raped by 4 men back in December. How this incident accrued was maya threw a party while I was working the night shift and 4 of the boys that were attendance at this party assaulted Lia. It’s been devastating to say the least, Lia has lost all of her spark and quit cheer. Plus on top of that she opted out of her freshman year by just continuing to do courses online. She doesn’t sleep in her room anymore but with me and just wears my late husband’s hoodies all day and I feel so helpless as a mother because I don’t know how I can help her.
Through out the investigation a lot of things came out regarding maya’s part in this. She did not set up her little sister, however I feel like she severely neglected her and all of this could have been avoided if she just followed my rules. I never approved a party, I left in her charge of watching Lia and before you guys say “well you’re her mother it not her job to watch your kid“ but the thing is, it was her job. I pay her really well to look after her sister while I work nights it’s been an agreement we had for years. Lia is not special needs in anyway, the only thing I asked of maya is that she makes sure her sister does her homework and gets to bed at a reasonable time.
The men that assaulted Lia, maya invited herself she knew them personally and knew they had affiliates to gangs and did not care. Instead what I found out in this investigation she tried to put Lia with one of these boys and Lia was not interested…this boy was harassing Lia all night, trying to get her to kiss him. Then Lia had enough and went to her room…and the moment maya left the house to go to McDonalds..that same boy in his friends went up to my daughter’s room and raped her. The worst part about this to me is that people that were at the party heard her yelling and did not do anything but just assumed a couple was arguing upstairs. We didn’t know what happened, until the next morning when the party was over. Having her do a rape kit was traumatizing for her and probably the worst moment as a parent for me. then couple weeks later she tested positive for a curable STD.
My baby has been so broken ever since…even though they did get those boys and all 4 pleaded guilty because they had evidence on there phone. but It’s still so extremely hard for Lia right now. Maya on the other hand has been remorseful and Lia has no animosity towards her and doesn’t blame her, still loves her sister. But I don’t know why for me I’m so angry at maya and I’ve been really trying to forgive her but I can’t as of now. I can’t even look at her without not wanting to lash out. Her prom is next weekend and I honestly couldn’t care less. She tries to have conversations with me, but it’s hard for me to show any interest in them. I don’t hate my daughter, I still love her. But I just have strong dislike for her right now. I’ve been reading self help books trying to learn how to address this properly. I feel like I can’t open up to anyone about this in life. I guess this maybe cry for help as a mother.
Edit: thank you for all the feedback, the most repetitive question I’m seeing is if maya still watches Lia? The answer is hell no. I don’t trust her anymore and it might take years to get it back. I’m on a leave of absence currently. Also Lia is not therapy as of right now, she expressed to me she’s not ready for that, I think after the sentencing she might be open to it. Maya is also in therapy but skips a lot of appointments and I’m in therapy too and it’s been helping me remain calm throughout this situation and not want to lash out at Maya. But the number 1 advice that I’m seeing in here that I’m strongly considering is sending Maya to my parents house for a while and get some space from her.
Sorry quick Second edit : for the ones asking if Maya is in a gang, to my knowledge she isn’t…the most I have ever caught her doing was smoking some pot and vaping. I also don’t want to think Maya would ever intentionally set up her sister to be brutally assaulted. So I’m leaning towards Maya genuinely was being plain neglectful that night. also I feel like it would have came up in the investigation if she intentionally set up Lia. Also the boy Maya was trying to set Lia up with was 17 at the time…he’s 18 now and the other 3 were grown men.
Relevant comments from the post (and OOP's response to them):
scorpiobabyy666: therapy, ASAP. for all of you.
OOP: Yes ofcourse I already have been going to therapy way before this all and Lia on the other hand doesn’t want to do therapy just yet and I want to respect her boundaries. Maya has been skipping a lot of her appointments but she’s also in personal therapy as well.
I’m starting strongly dislike my daughter… ( UPDATE)
A lot has progressed in the past couple of days and it would be only right to update you guys on what happened and get some advice from you guys regarding everything. but to answer multiple questions I received from my last post about why hasn’t maya been further punished. to put it quite simply Maya was arrested the night of Lia’s attack. She was charged with felony child endangerment & 2 misdemeanors. The judge was very nice to her and made her pay a 2,000$ fine, 60 hours of community service & 3 years probation. plus I took her car but after this update, I maybe should have given her a harsher punishment. but back to the update. TL;DR at the bottom.
On Thursday afternoon, me and maya got into a fight. The dispute happened because Lia came to me virtually upset and on the verge of tears. because 5 people messaged her that day, expressing condolences about her attack. Lia has been very clear she doesn’t want anyone that she knows to know that she was the victim of the attack. upon further investigation it turns out Maya told a group chat of 27 people that Lia was the victim. Lia vocalized to me how humiliated she feels and that she can’t ever go back to school next year. I of course then go confront Maya about it. she kept saying I was overacting and that Lia was being dramatic. I tried to reason with her to see how she hurt her sister and she did not see the issue. She stopped me off mid-lecture from me and said, “ jesus christ Mom, you need to let her deal with this shit instead of always rushing to her defense, lia is not different from other women in the world that deal with rape, at least they don’t make it their entire personality like she does. also, she’s fine I literally overheard her talk to a boy on the phone last night.” It just clicked for me at that moment that she was not actually remorseful at all and that I just witnessed her mask slip. I just responded with pack your shit up and that she will be staying with my parents until I allow her back. That’s exactly what she did.
but the next morning I got a text from Maya to meet her at her therapist appointment that was later that day. looking back I wish I had never gone because her therapist majority of the visit only saw her POV, But At the start of the appointment, it opened up with Maya apologizing and explaining her thought process of why she told her friends and it was because she was venting, plus she didn’t think of it as a big deal because its public case that was on the news and lia seems fine these days… (Lia is listed as a Jane Doe and not named nowhere but I digress. )
we then get into the nitty-gritty of it all, Maya then tells me in front of the therapist that she feels emotionally neglected by me and that I never seem to care about her trauma when it came to the situation. which is for her is having to stay in jail for a weekend and loosing one of her friends ( which is one of Lia’s literal rapist. ) I wish I can say I’m joking but I’m dead serious. we were talking about that for the first 30 minutes. her therapist was guilt-tripping me for not being more emotionally there for Maya and that I should try to see as her mom since their father is no longer with us. But Call me an awful parent but I don’t want to be emotionally there for Maya if it involves me having to help her mourn the friendship of the person that ruined her sister’s life. The therapist was on one especially since she kept referring to what happened to Lia as an accident or that Lia seems happier these days because that’s what Maya has been telling her, when Lia is quite literally high off antidepressants and still scores extremely low on the mental health evaluation…but I finally just had an outburst, (feel free to skip over the next paragraph, because there is a massive trigger warning, I get very graphic here. But I’m just reiterating what I said. )
what I said to both Maya and her therapist was, “ I think it’s kinda disgusting that the two of you are refusing to acknowledge Lia’s trauma in this and keep referring to it as an accident. You spent a weekend in jail, while your sister was in the hospital suffering from something YOUR friend did to her. Ironically enough if you ever listened to Lia, she has said that friend of yours was the most violent towards her during the attack and was the catalyst for the majority of injuries she sustained including strangling her. So for you guys to sit here and berate me for not caring that you lost your friend because of something terrible your friend did to your sister is absolutely disgusting. My biggest regret right now is helping you obtain a lawyer I should have let you rot in that cell and let you figure it out yourself. “
Maya started sobbing in the office at this point and saying it wasn’t fair that I blamed her for what happened to Lia, she told me the only thing she was trying to do was have Lia come out of her shell because she kept hovering next to her at the party. The therapist then interjects and asks Maya how did Lia respond to her when she apologized. Maya in such a defensive manner says, “apologize for what? I didn’t rape her”. Even the therapist was shocked when she said that and at that point, I heard enough and l stood up, threw my hands up, and left. I haven’t spoken to Maya since then and this was Friday afternoon.
Maya has been texting me and calling me begging to come home so she can apologize to both me and Lia. But I don’t know at this point, I never thought I would be that parent that will have to go no contact with my daughter. But I don’t know if I can stomach being around her, I can’t trust her and she’s not remorseful whatsoever about what happened. A part of me wants to try to make it work for the sake of Lia because she asked yesterday if she ruined our family. And that broke my heart. Lia loves and looks up to Maya and I don’t think she can comprehend at this time that Maya also failed her. I’m just stuck or tell me if I’m wrong for not understanding maya I’m sorry for the not-so-happy update..
OOP in the comments:
OOP's response to a comment regarding her reaction after finding out Lia was SA'd:
So I should say what happened that morning at this point, I come home at 8:30ish am from work and my house was trashed and couple of mayas friends were still there. I of course argued with maya for a bit about throwing a party and I then I go check on Lia and she wasn’t in her room but her sheets were bloody so I thought maybe it was time of the month and that she was showering or sleeping in my bed. But when I check my room I did not see her, I started calling Lia and her phone did ring and I heard it come from my closet (it’s a walk-in) and I see her wrapped in a blanket like a cocoon. I then shake her to wake up and she wasn’t waking up and I then try to unwrap and that’s when I noticed her scalp bleeding and I saw abrasions around her neck. So I started screaming someone call 911 and Lia starts to kinda starts waking up in the ambulance and she starts crying and the first thing she told me is maya’s friend raped her and that she can’t get up because she’s in so much pain.
When The police and ambulance show up and I honestly didn’t care about maya in that moment…all I told her was to be honest with the police and she should be fine. I didn’t know what I know now at this point. They take her to precinct and the cops interrogated her and after getting a medical report for what happened to Lia. They decided to charge her with child endangerment. I did not see Maya’s reaction to when they told her about what happened to Lia. But when she saw Lia once she got out of jail she gave her a big hug and I thought it was sweet moment. The only red flag that stands out to me from that time is , maya did not corporate fully about giving out names because she said she “forgot”. Luckily DNA results from the crime scene and on Lia, which all 4 of Lia’s rapist were already in the system for other crimes. One even being on probation so they were easy to find and it was dominos effect after that.
OOP's response regarding Child #3 and their reaction to the whole thing:
So my oldest is my son he got married a month before everything went down and I didn’t want to drag him in too much about Maya, because I want him to enjoy the newlywed faze with his wife. Him and his wife are very supportive and his wife takes Lia all the time for sleepovers or just to get her out of the house.
I am NOT the OOP. Please do NOT harass OOP and please refer to rules 1 and 2 of this subreddit when talking to people in the comments.

Sins of the saints~ A.W. Pink

3. What Are the Consequences of a Believer's Sinning?
His communion with God is broken. The first consequence of Adam's sin was a breaking of his fellowship with the Lord. When in the cool of the day Jehovah walked through the Garden, Adam sought to flee from His presence by hiding away among the trees. His conscience convicted him; he had no longer any relish for spiritual things; communion was broken. Such is always the case. How can two walk together except they be agreed? God cannot tolerate the indulgence of known sin. Once sin is allowed a place in the life, fellowship with God becomes impossible. Sometimes for days together the clouds will come in between and hide the sun from the earth. It is no longer visible: its genial warmth is no longer enjoyed, though its position in relation to the earth remains the same. Presently the dark vapor disappears, and once more King Sol gladdens the hearts of men by his welcome rays. In like manner, the sins of the believer come in between his soul and God, until the smile of His countenance is hidden, and His perfections are no longer enjoyed. Yet His relation to the believer remains unchanged. But it is not until he confesses and forsakes these sins that the cloud is removed and communion is restored. Let no one think that the interruption of divine communion is a light matter. It is deeply serious. Not only does it mean the loss of peace and joy and the cessation of any further spiritual growth, but what is infinitely sadder, it means the grieving of the Savior's heart.
What He desires almost above everything else is fellowship with His own blood-bought people. One of the most pathetic pictures presented in the Bible is that found in Revelation 3:20—"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." It is not here a question of salvation but of communion. "Supping" is always the symbol and expression of fellowship. It is for this the Savior craves, and sinning denies it Him! His joy of salvation is lost. One of the results of David's terrible fall was the loss of his joy of God's salvation. "Restore unto me the joy of your salvation" (Psalm 51:12), was his heart-broken cry. Note, he does not say, "Restore unto me your salvation," but "Restore unto me the joy of your salvation." By his wicked conduct he had lost the enjoyment of it. In proportion that the believer allows sin a place in his daily life, he loses his relish for spiritual things: his love for the Word diminishes, his delight in prayer vanishes, his heart is empty and dissatisfied. Not only so, he is miserable. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24) becomes, more and more, his plaint. When Peter had denied the Lord, we read that he went out and "wept"— wept not profusely but bitterly, showing his joyless and miserable condition. His power for service is destroyed. Sad, unspeakably sad, is this.
Appreciation of the salvation which is ours, gratitude to the One who has done so much for us, compassion for the souls of the lost, obedience to the Savior's commands, all demand that we should publish abroad the glad tidings of divine grace. But how can I bear the vessels of the Lord if my own hands are unclean? How can I tell others of Christ's power to deliver from sin if I am living in it myself? How can I speak of the joy of salvation if I have lost it? How can I talk of the unspeakable blessedness of walking with God if I am out of communion with Him? We cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot live a life which is displeasing to God and be used in the service of Christ. His witness for Christ is nullified. Believers are living epistles read and known of all men and in proportion that sin is allowed in the life we misrepresent Christ before the world. Nay more, in proportion as sin is allowed by us Christ is dishonored and put to an open shame. O that we reflected more upon this! The Church is the Body of Christ. What is a body for? My body provides me with a home in this world. My body is a medium of communication, enabling me to come into contact with other people. My body is a vehicle of transportation; it is that which carries me from one place to another. My body is the instrument and organ through which I express and reveal myself: my eyes are the windows of my soul, my language is an index to the condition of my heart, my countenance reflects my character. And all that the body is to me and does for me, the Church is to Christ and does for Christ. And what is true of the Church collectively is true of the saints individually. Every believer is a member of the Body of Christ. Yes, every believer is himself a miniature body of Christ. I am to reflect Christ, reveal Christ, communicate Christ to others.
Am I doing this? Not if I am giving sin a place in my life. Selfishness, worldliness, the lying tongue, the unforgiving spirit—were any of these seen in me I am misrepresenting Christ before the world. His position in glory is affected. A place in glory is due solely to the grace of God, but the believer's position in glory is determined by his works, service, obedience as a believer. Every act performed in the name of Christ, every service which was constrained by the love of Christ, everything done for the glory of Christ, will in the coming day, receive its due reward. In proportion as we have failed to use our talents in the service of our Master, and instead, have indulged in self-pleasing and carnal gratification, we shall be losers in the world to come. We sometimes sing—"Will there be any stars in my crown?" It might be well for us to inquire whether we shall have any crown at all. There are crowns referred to in the New Testament, and each is a reward. If there has been no daily taking up of the cross there will be no eternal wearing of the crown. In the next world, believers will no more be all on one common level than they are now. The Lord Jesus said, "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first" (Mat 19:30). "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead" (1 Corinthians 15:41-42). In proportion as we now enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season shall we be losers in the next world. The figure which our Lord used at the close of the Sermon on the Mount—the building of a house—is amplified by the apostle in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."
Every Christian is a builder. The foundation upon which he builds is Christ Himself. The materials he uses are the deeds and acts of his every-day life. The testing of our handiwork will take place at the second coming of Christ. The works which will be destroyed are those that were wrought in the energy of the flesh. The works which abide and receive a reward were those that were energized by the Holy Spirit and done out of loving gratitude to Christ. There will be a class who will "suffer loss" (of reward), whose works will be burned up, but who will be saved "yet so as by fire." We have a striking and solemn illustration of this class in the case of Lot. Lot was a "righteous" man (2 Peter 2:6-7). But his life did not count for God. Self filled his horizon. He was a worldling, occupied solely with the things of time and sense. Instead of living as a stranger and pilgrim on earth, he went and dwelt in the wicked city of Sodom. The time came when God determined to destroy this sink of iniquity. Because Lot was one of His children God sent an angel and delivered him. But all Lot's possessions perished, were burned up in Sodom. Personally, he was saved, but he "suffered loss." So will it be in the future. Lot was a pattern case. Those who are putting into their life nothing but wood, hay, stubble—dead works—will be the losers throughout eternity. His conduct will bring chastisement from the Lord. God is holy and sin must be punished. The sins of the believer must receive "a just recompense of reward" (Heb 2:2) equally as much as the sins of the unbeliever. The difference between them is not in the fact of punishment but in the time of punishment. The sins of the unbeliever will be punished in the world to come: the sins of the believer are punished in this world, here and now. Such was the experience of Jacob, of Moses, of David. They were chastised severely.
This is a scripture which very clearly sets forth the consequence of a believer's sinning—"If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail" (Psalm 89:30-33). If God's children walk disorderly and disobediently they are not cast off or disinherited, but they are chastised with the rod of divine justice. If we sin we shall suffer—suffer in our bodies, in our souls, in our circumstances. His physical life is endangered. But suppose the Divine chastisement does not have the desired effect, then what? Suppose that instead of the transgressor humbling himself beneath the mighty hand of God, he hardens his heart? Suppose that instead of confessing and forsaking his sins he deliberately continues therein? In that case God will remove him by the stroke of death. In the first part of this article, we referred to the fact that the Corinthian believers, though guilty of the most awful sins, yet, were still indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But mark now the other side. Referring to other desecration of the Lord's Table the apostle says, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep [had died]" (1 Corinthians 11:30).
Dealing with the same solemn subject the Lord Jesus said, "Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away" (John 15:2). That is, removes it from the earth. The believer is to be a fruit-bearer, but if he fails to fulfill the purpose of his calling then God will not permit him to cumber the ground. It is to this the Apostle John refers when he says: "There is a sin unto death" (1 John 5:16). This is physical death, and the sin referred to is committed by a believer—see context. We understand this Scripture to mean—there is a limit to God's forbearance: after the believer has reached a certain point, he then "sins unto death." We have an illustration of this in the case of Moses. For his sin of striking the rock, the Lord cut him off out of the land of the living, refusing to allow him to enter Canaan. But that he was not lost is proven by the fact that he appeared with Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. For a Christian to continue in known sin, and especially to remain unaffected by the chastening of the Lord, is to endanger and imperil his life. Hear now the conclusion of the whole matter: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he who sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal 6:7-8). May the Lord give both writer and reader a greater hatred of sin, a greater fear of displeasing Him, a greater desire to cleave to Him more closely.

Aloha from Hawai'i. I've only discovered this subreddit not long ago, and its a pleasure to be here... without even touching on the insane generous nature of the subreddits leaders to allow just about any of us with sufficient comment karma, be around for at least 2 years... I mean, I don't have to go into it, y'all know the details. What I'm trying to say, is the opportunity to not only host a space for those who would like to ask, but also a space for those who'd give. I love the idea of that
OKAY, so. If you were someone actually going to bust out the money for someone like me, I guess I should start with... Like so many of you reading this, especially if you were someone born in the 90s like me, then that means you were likely someone who also had Final Fantasy VII and all of its major influence on pop culture be something that managed to find a place in your life as well, even if you didn't know it. Or maybe you did. Actually, maybe you didnt just know it, but did indeed think it was lame. In which case. Sorry. I'm so, so sorry.
If its not obvious, its a big deal to me. I was able to buy myself Remake part 1 albeit reluctantly, as the remake trend was still only just starting.... capcom had done Remake of RE2 and I believe that RE3 came out around the same time Remake part 1 did, but other than those two.... I was just so worried about what I was about to witness. That was, until I downloaded the demo and was so surprised by how much I was smiling from the bombing mission intro.
Once rebirth started to get close to releasing, I realized that I would have to eventually overcome my biggest hurdle that I hadnt been able to overcome yet.... getting a ps5. Without going too much into it, I was ushered back into a household with my mother in order to take care of her, or for her to at least not lose her place of living, as my father had died very suddenly just as covid had started and left her by herself. So all of my funds had been tied up, and even if they werent, we're all aware of how hard it was to get many things, ps5's included what with the lack of materials in the world as well as the scalpers.
But, long story short, I managed to FINALLY buy myself the console a week ago. And even though I knew it would be a while before I was able to buy any 70$ game for myself, I'm damn proud of my pre-owned console. But... man, I wanna play rebirth.
If anyone wants to sponsor this for me, by God, direct yourself to my PSN: my psn profile!
EDIT: Christ almighty, its even on sale. A sign from my God sephy himself.

Looking for any movies I don't already have
can also do 2 of my SD for your 1 HD
or 2 of my HD for your 1 4K
Quality Movie Where Studio Website
[SD] 21 Jump Street MA Redeem.Sonypictures.com (MA)
[SD] 22 Jump Street MA Redeem.Sonypictures.com (MA)
[4K] Allied VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[SD] American Hustle MA Redeem.Sonypictures.com (MA)
[HD] The Bourne Identity MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] The Bourne Legacy MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Boss Baby MA FoxRedeem.com (MA)
[HD] The Case for Christ MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] The Croods MA FoxRedeem.com (MA)
[4K/HD] Dawn of the Planet of the Apes IT/MA FoxRedeem.com (IT / MA / VUDU / GP)
[HD] Dracula Untold MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Despicable Me 2 MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Disney Planes MA/VUDU RedeemDigitalMovie (MA / VUDU)
[4K/HD] Divergent IT/VUDU/GP MovieRedeem.com (IT / VUDU / GP)
[4K/HD] Divergent Series: Insurgent IT/VUDU/GP MovieRedeem.com (IT / VUDU / GP)
[4K] Divergent Series: Insurgent IT/VUDU/GP MovieRedeem.com (IT / VUDU / GP) (From 4K Blu-Ray)
[HD] Escape Plan The Extractors VUDU/GP MovieRedeem.com (VUDU/GP)
[HD] Fast & Furious 6 MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Fate of the Furious MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Fifty Shades Freed MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Fifty Shades of Grey Unrated MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Fifty Shades Darker Unrated MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] The Fighter VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[4K/HD] Frozen IT/MA/VUDU RedeemDigitalMovie (4K iTunes)
[HD] Gemini Man VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[HD] Home VUDU FoxRedeem.com (VUDU)
[HD] Hop MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] How to Train Your Dragon 2 MA FoxRedeem.com (MA)
[HD] Hugo IT/VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[4K/HD] The Hunger Games IT/VUDU/GP MovieRedeem.com (IT / VUDU / GP)
[4K/HD] The Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt.1 IT/VUDU/GP MovieRedeem.com (IT / VUDU / GP)
[4K/HD] The Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt.2 IT/VUDU/GP MovieRedeem.com (IT / VUDU / GP)
[4K/HD] Jurassic World IT/MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[SD] Juno IT (ports to MA/VUDU) Directly in iTunes (IT)
[HD] Lone Survivor MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[4K/HD] The Longest Ride IT/MA FoxRedeem.com (IT / MA / VUDU / GP)
[HD] Mary Poppins 50th Anniversary Edition MA/VUDU RedeemDigitalMovie (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Megan Leavey MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[SD] The Monuments Men MA Redeem.Sonypictures.com (MA)
[HD] Noah VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[HD] Now You See Me VUDU MovieRedeem.com (VUDU)
[SD] Now You See Me 2 VUDU MovieRedeem.com (VUDU)
[SD] Olympus Has Fallen MA Redeem.Sonypictures.com (MA)
[HD] Pitch Perfect 2 MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Prometheus MA/VUDU FoxRedeem.com (MA/VUDU)
[HD] The Perks of Being a Wallflower IT/VUDU MovieRedeem.com (IT / VUDU)
[SD] Risen MA Redeem.Sonypictures.com (MA)
[4K/HD] Rise of the Planet of the Apes IT/MA/VUDU/GP FoxRedeem.com (IT / MA / VUDU / GP)
[HD] Rise of the Guardians MA/VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[HD] Secret Life of Pets MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Silver Linings Playbook VUDU MovieRedeem.com (VUDU)
[4K/HD] Snitch IT/VUDU/GP MovieRedeem.com (IT / VUDU / GP)
[HD] Split (2016) MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[4K/HD] Star Wars: The Force Awakens IT/MA/VUDU RedeemDigitalMovie (4K iTunes)
[HD] Star Trek: Into Darkness VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[HD] Step Up Revolution VUDU MovieRedeem.com (VUDU)
[HD] Straight Outta Compton Unrated Director's Cut MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[HD] Ted (Unrated) MA/VUDU UniversalRedeem.com (MA / VUDU)
[SD] This is The End MA Redeem.Sonypictures.com (MA)
[HD] Titanic VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[HD] Transformers Dark of the Moon VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[4K/HD] Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt 2 IT/VUDU/GP MovieRedeem.com (IT / VUDU / GP)
[HD] What to Expect When You're Expecting VUDU MovieRedeem.com (VUDU)
[HD] World War Z VUDU ParamountDigitalCopy.com (IT / Vudu)
[4K/HD] Zootopia IT/MA/VUDU RedeemDigitalMovie (4K iTunes)

Christ I swear they’re making the boxes of cereal smaller.
I was at Winco last Tuesday and a half gallon of Umpqua was like eight bucks. The American people haven’t gotten wage increases commensurate with an unprecedented rising cost of living and rampant extortion by scum-sucking rentseekers and management-school corporatist parasites, but the fucking ice cream costs twice as much now and still Safeway is sold out of Rocky Road, and Trader Joe’s is selling cases of whatever rebrand bullshit they’ve got in there.
That’s how you know it’s good, Jack.
Jill hasn’t touched my dick in seventeen years. Older couples, not all of em, but many, they connect in other ways as they age. It’s not all about boning down all the time. You discover new ways of knowing each other, form deepers bonds of connection than the mere pleasures of the flesh. Not me and Jill, though. I think she hates me. She’s always talking in hushed tones to the staff, and why’s she got—why’ve we got so many staff? I feel like I’m in a fucking funeral home, or like a Church-run drug and alcohol treatment center where no one’s allowed to be mean to you. I asked her if she remembered our first date. She was so sad I couldn’t. And when I was like hey but here’s the starting lineup for every year’s Delaware Blue Coats she didn’t even care. So is my memory a problem or isn’t it? The thing about marriage is, it’s a pact, it’s impact, impactful, it imparts parts of you, part and parcel. God dammit. Don’t keep that last bit. No, I’m fine. It’s good, I can keep going, I just need to stand up. You catch the show, Jeff’s new one there on Netflix? Jeff Dunham’s new stand up show.
he’s the ventriloquist
Christ.
he has that puppet, Corn Pop
n o w why is that not racist? because he’s not saying it? bEcAuSe he’s throwing his voice out of the puppet’s mouth.
🅱️uddy i can tell it’s you doing the voice. sometimes i can see your adam’s apple moving
I’m fine. No, really, I’m good to keep going. I think my blood sugar’s just a little low.

HD Kung-Fu Panda #4 $8
HD Dune part 2 $6
HD Bob Marley One Love $7
HD Mean Girls (2024) $6
HD Night Swim $6
HD Arthur the King $7
HD Ordinary Angels $6
HD Oppenheimer $5
HD Aquaman 2 $5
HD Anyone but You $5
HD Wish (Disney) $5
HD Wonka $5
HD Blue Beetle $5
HD The Holdovers $6
HD The Covenant (Guy Ritchie) $5
HD Madame Web HD $6
HD Night they came Home $5
HD Next Goal Wins $6
HD Iron Claw $6
HD Five Nights at Freddy's $5
HD Justice League Crisis Infinite Earth part 1 $5
HD Pet Sematary Bloodlines $5
HD Midsommer $5
HD Thanksgiving $4
HD Dream Scenario $6
HD Violent Night $5
HD Fear the Walking Dead s.8 $7
HD Trolls Band Together $4
HD Trolls Trilogy $6
HD Indiana Jones Dial of Destiny $5
HD Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles Mayhem $5
HD Teenage Kraken $5
HD Exorcist Believer $3
HD The Marvels $6
HD The Creator $6
HD A Haunting in Venice $7
HD Paw Patrol Mighty Movie $5
HD A24 Horror 5-Film Collection $9
HD Ant-Man Wasp Quantamania $4
HD Avatar 2 $3
HD Babylon 5 Road to Home $4
HD Barbie $4
HD Book Club Next Chapter $4
HD Devotion (2022) $4
HD Disney Black Panther Wakanda Forever $3
HD Dumb Money $5
HD Elemental (Disney) $5
HD Equalizer 1 $2
HD Equalizer 2 $2
HD Equalizer 3 $3
HD Expendables 1,2,3,4 Bundle $8
HD Fast X $4
HD Gran Turismo $4
HD Guardians of the Galaxy v.3 $5
HD Jerry & Marge Go Large $6
HD Justice League X RWBY Heroes & Huntsmen part 1 $2
HD Justice League X RWBY Heroes & Huntsmen part 2 $3
HD Little Mermaid (2023) $4
HD Marsh King's Daughter $3
HD Meg 2 The Trench $5
HD Metalocalypse Army Doomstar $5
HD Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning $4
HD Mob Land $5
HD My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 $2
HD My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 $4
HD Nun 2 $5
HD Outlander Season 6 $3
HD Paws of Fury $5
HD Puss in Boots Last Wish $4
HD Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse $3
HD Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse $2
HD Super Mario Bros $4
HD The Machine $4
HD Top Gun Maverick $3
HD Transformers Rise of the Beasts $3
HD Venture Bros Radiant Blood Babbon Heart $3
HD 5th Wave $4
HD 65 $4
HD A Quiet Place $3
HD A Quiet Place 2 $3
HD All the Devil's Men $4
HD American Reunion (VUDU) $3
HD A Monster Calls (VUDU) $3
HD Antebellum $4
HD Assassin's Creed $3
HD Bad Boys $3
HD Bad Boys for Life $4
HD Belly (DMX/NAS) $3
HD Boss Baby $3
HD Boss Baby 2-Movie $5
HD Boss Baby Family Business $3
HD Bourne Spremacy (VUDU) $3
HD Bros $4
HD Case for Christ (VUDU) $3
HD Coming to America $4
HD Crawl $4
HD Dark Tower $4
HD Deadpool #1 HD Vudu/MA or 4K iTunes $3
HD Despicable Me 1 (VUDU) $5
HD Despicable Me 2 (VUDU) $4
HD Despicable Me 3 (VUDU) $3
HD Detective Knight Independence $5
HD Die Hard 1 $4
HD Die Hard 3 $4
HD Die Hard 4 $4
HD Die Hard 5 $4
HD Dinosaur 13 $3
HD Dirty Dancing (Patrick Swayze) $3
HD Disney 101 Dalmatians (Cartoon) $5
HD Disney Aladdin (Cartoon) $5
HD Disney Ant-man and the Wasp $4
HD Disney Avengers $4
HD Disney Avengers Endgame $4
HD Disney Avengers Infinity War $4
HD Disney Beauty and the Beast (Cartoon) $5
HD Disney Bednobs and Broomsticks $5
HD Disney Black Panther $3
HD Disney Brave $6
HD Disney Call of the Wild $4
HD Disney Cars $5
HD Disney Cars 3 $3
HD Disney Celebrating Mickey $5
HD Disney Christopher Robin (2018) $6
HD Disney Cinderella #2 $6
HD Disney Cinderella #3 $6
HD Disney Cinderella (1950) $6
HD Disney Doctor Strange multiverse Madness $2
HD Disney Encanto $4
HD Disney Fantasia $6
HD Disney Fantasia 2000 $6
HD Disney Finding Dory $4
HD Disney Ford V Ferarri $5
HD Disney Fox and the Hound #2 $6
HD Disney Fox and the Hound $6
HD Disney Free Guy $3
HD Disney Guardians of the Galaxy $4
HD Disney Guardians of the Galaxy v.2 $4
HD Disney Hocus Pocus $5
HD Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame #2 $6
HD Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame $6
HD Disney Incredibles #1 $6
HD Disney Incredibles #2 $4
HD Disney Iron-Man 3 $4
HD Disney Jungle Book (Cartoon) $5
HD Disney Lady and the Tramp #2 $6
HD Disney Lightyear Full Code $3
HD Disney Lilo & Stitch $5
HD Disney Lilo & Stitch 2 Stitch has a Glitch $5
HD Disney Little Mermaid (Cartoon) #2 $6
HD Disney Little Mermaid (Cartoon) #3 $6
HD Disney Little Mermaid (Cartoon) $5
HD Disney Luca $3
HD Disney Mary Poppins (1964) $6
HD Disney Moana $4
HD Disney Mulan (Cartoon) $6
HD Disney Mulan 2 (Cartoon) $6
HD Disney Mulan Live version $2
HD Disney New Mutants $5
HD Disney Nightmare before Christmas $5
HD Disney Onward $3
HD Disney Pete's Dragon (2016) $5
HD Disney Peter Pan Anniversary Edition $5
HD Disney Pirate Fairy $6
HD Disney Pixar Short Films v.3 $5
HD Disney Pocahontas $6
HD Disney Pocahontas 2 $6
HD Disney Princess and the Frog $6
HD Disney Raya Last Dragon $3
HD Disney Rescuers $5
HD Disney Rescuers Down Under $5
HD Disney Robin Hood (Cartoon) $6
HD Disney Rocky Horror Picture $4
HD Disney Ron's Gone Wrong $3
HD Disney Santa Claus $5
HD Disney Santa Claus 2 $5
HD Disney Santa Claus 3 $5
HD Disney Sleeping Beauty $6
HD Disney Snow White Seven Dwarfs $6
HD Disney Tangled $6
HD Disney the Pirate Fairy $6
HD Disney Thor 2 $4
HD Disney Thor Love and Thunder $2
HD Disney Thor Ragnarok $5
HD Disney Toy Story $5
HD Disney Toy Story 3 $5
HD Disney Toy Story 4 $3
HD Disney Willow $5
HD Disney Wreck-it Ralph #1 $6
HD Disney Wreck-it Ralph #2 $4
HD Disney Zootopia $4
HD Divergent 3-Movie Bundle $5
HD Don't Breathe $5
HD Downton Abbey A New Era $3
HD Dracula Untold (VUDU) $3
HD E.T. (VUDU) $3
HD Emoji Movie $4
HD Empire of Light $6
HD Everest (VUDU) $3
HD Fast & Furious 10-Movie Bundle $8
HD Fault in our Stars $4
HD Ferdinand $5
HD Fifty Shades Darker (VUDU) $3
HD First Man (Ryan Gosling) $3
HD Fury (Brad Pitt) $4
HD Ghostbusters #1 $2
HD Ghostbusters #2 $2
HD God's Not Dead 2 (VUDU) $3
HD Goosebumps 2 $4
HD Greatest Showman $3
HD Halloween (2018) $3
HD Halloween Ends $3
HD Halloween Kills $4
HD Hardcore Henry (VUDU) $3
HD Hidden Figures $4
HD Holiday Inn $4
HD Hotel Transylvania 3 $3
HD Hunger Games 4-Movie Bundle $8
HD Huntsman Winters War (VUDU) $3
HD I Can Only Imagine $2
HD Independence Day Resurgence $3
HD Inferno (Tom Hanks) $4
HD Insidious Last Key $5
HD Jumanji Welcome 2 the Jungle $3
HD Jurassic World 5-Movie Bundle $5
HD Kick-Ass #2 (VUDU) $3
HD Kill Bill v.1 $4
HD Kill Bill v.2 $4
HD King Kong (2005) (VUDU) $3
HD Kingsman Golden Circle $2
HD Kingsman Secret Service $2
HD Little (2019) $5
HD Little Monsters (Fred Savage) $5
HD Logan $4
HD Lone Survivor (VUDU) $3
HD Lucy (VUDU) $3
HD Mamma Mia! 2-Movie Bundle $6
HD Maze Runner Scorch Trials $4
HD Megan Leavey (VUDU) $3
HD Mickey and Friends vol.1 $5
HD Morbius $3
HD Mummy Trilogy $6
HD News of the World $4
HD Olympus has Fallen $5
HD Only the Brave $4
HD Ouija (VUDU) $3
HD Paper Towns $3
HD Peter Rabbit 2 $3
HD Pitch Perfect #1 $3
HD Pitch Perfect #2 $3
HD Planet of the Apes Dawn $4
HD Planet of the Apes War $4
HD Playing with Fire (VUDU) $3
HD Proud Mary $3
HD Red Sparrow $4
HD Ricki and the Flash $4
HD Ride Along #1 (VUDU) $3
HD Riddick (VUDU) $3
HD Risen $4
HD Rock the Dog 3 $3
HD Scarface (VUDU) $3
HD Scream 5 $4
HD Scream 6 $4
HD Secret Dare to Dream $4
HD Secret Headquarters $5
HD She Said $5
HD Skyscraper $3
HD Snatched (Goldie Hawn) $4
HD Snow White Huntsman (VUDU) $3
HD Spider-Man Far From Home $3
HD Spider-Man Homecoming $2
HD Spider-Man No Way Home $2
HD Spirit Stallion Cimarron $4
HD Split (VUDU) $3
HD Star Trek Director's Edition $4
HD Straight Outta Compton (VUDU) $3
HD Strawberry Shortcake Berry Best Friends $5
HD Strawberry Shortcake Berry Hi-Tech Fashion $5
HD Strawberry Shortcake Sweet Dreams Movie $5
HD Sweetwater $4
HD Ten Commandments $5
HD The Gate (1987) $5
HD The Great Wall (VUDU) $3
HD The Lost City (Sandra Bullock) $4
HD The Marksman (Liam Neelson) $4
HD The Mummy (1999) (VUDU) $3
HD The Mummy (Tom Cruise) (VUDU) $3
HD The Nut Job (VUDU) $3
HD The Purge (2013) $4
HD Top Gun #1 $3
HD Trolls #1 $4
HD Unbroken (VUDU) $3
HD Underworld Blood Wars $2
HD Venom Carnage #2 $4
HD Warcraft (VUDU) $3
HD Widows $3
HD Woodlawn (VUDU) $3
HD X-Men , X2 , X3 $6
HD X-Men Apocalypse $4
HD Zero Dark Thirty $4
///////////////////////////////////////////////
4k Mario Bros $5
4K Spiral Book of Saw $4
4K Sonic 2 $5
4K AD Astra $5
4K Casablanca $5
4K A Christmas Story $5
4K Batman Mask of Phantasm $4
4K Wayne's World 🌎 $6
4K Edge of Tomorrow $5
4K 65 $6
4K Aladdin (Cartoon) $5
4K Aladdin Live (Will Smith) $4
4K Angel has Fallen $5
4K Aquaman 2 $7
4K Birds of Prey Harley Quinn $5
4K Black Adam $5
4K Black Panther #1 $5
4K Black Panther Wakanda $5
4K Cold Pursuit $4
4K Deadpool 1 $4
4K Despicable Me 1 (iTunes) $5
4K Despicable Me 2 (iTunes) $4
4K Despicable Me 3 (iTunes) $3
4K Minions (iTunes) $4
4K Westside Story (2021) Disney $5
4K Doctor Strange #1 $5
4K Doctor Strange Multi-Verse Madness $6
4K Enter the Dragon $6
4K Equalizer 3 $6
4K Expendables 1,2,3,4 $12
4K Expendables 4 $5
4K Fast 9 $5
4K Gemini Man ( Will Smith) $4
4K Guardians of the Galaxy #1 $5
4K Hunger Games Songbirds Snakes $6
4K Hunter Killer $5
4K Ironman 1 $6
4K Ironman 3 $6
4K John Wick 3 $3
4K John Wick 4 $6
4K Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom $2
4K Knives Out $5
4K Lightyear (Disney) $5
4K Lion King (cartoon) $5
4K Lion King (Live) $2
4K Lone Survivor (iTunes) $3
4K Mama Mia here we go again $3
4K Meg 2 $7
4K Midway $5
4K Ninja Turtles (2014) $3
4K Oppenheimer $8
4K Planes, Trains, Automobiles $3
4K Playing with Fire 4K iTunes $3
4K Rambo last Blood $3
4K Saw #1 $2
4K Saw X $5
4K Scarface $5
4K Scary Stories Tell in the Dark $5
4K Scream 3 $3
4K Skyscraper $5
4K Smokey and the Bandit $5
4K Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse $5
4K Spider-Man No Way Home $5
4K Star Wars A New Hope $7
4K Star Wars Force Awakens $3
4K Star Wars Rise of Skywalker $3
4K Star Wars Rogue One $4
4K Sum of all fears $4
4K Talk to Me $5
4K Terminator Dark Fate $5
4K Thor 1 $6
4K Thor 2 Dark World $6
4K Thor Love and Thunder $6
4K Titanic $5
4K Top Gun Maverick $5
4K Toy Story 3 $6
4K Toy Story 4 $2
4K Transformers Rise of the Beasts $5
4K Trolls Band Together $7
4K Wonka $7
4K Zach Snyder's Justice League $7
I accept PayPal FF, Zelle, Venmo, FB pay and Cashapp, and Amazon gift card

No, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. This is not a joke anymore. This... is personal. I need Islam to lose. He stole my money, he sells drugs to children, he fucked my wife, and he's probably fucking yours right now. Go check, go check on your wife right now, just in case. Point is: Islam Makhachev is the most disgusting creature this side of an amoeba's asshole.
Islam is responsible for every bad thing that has ever happened to you. Failed your maths test? Islam. Rejected by your crush? Islam. Got caught red-handed smuggling nerve gas to Bosnian Serbs? You're damn right that was fucking Islam. He's around every corner, lurking in every shadow, laughing at your expense.
If Islam has 1 million hater, then I'm one of them. If Islam has 1 hater, I'm that one. If Islam has no haters, then I'm dead. Until I rise from the dead like Christ, brought back by sheer loathing for this bearded bastard, and go right back to hating him.
Arman? Leon? They're cool, I guess. But this isn't about them. This, like everything else in my life, in the universe, is about Islam Makhachev. You're damn right I'd root for them over Islam. Logan fucking Paul could be fighting Islam, and I'd still be rooting for him. That's how much I hate this admittedly beautiful Russian bastard.
I have an Islam Makhachev poster on my wall just to remind myself of how much I hate him. Every day before bed, I watch every single Islam fight and interview, so I never forget his stupid, sexy voice, and every detail of his muscular back. I've dressed up as Islam and tried to replicate his accent multiple times just so he goes through the pain of experiencing the diminished, miserable existence I've created for myself.
I swear to Islam- I mean, I swear to Islam- I mean, I swear to God, if Islam wins his next fight, I'll do nothing because I'm a coward.

(The sun has fallen, and night cloaks the woods in darkness.)
(Bran rolls his shoulders; they’ve been walking for some time, he and Amanda. He feels no fatigue, of course, neither does she, but it is still frustrating having to walk this far just to reach Adam’s house. Amy looks at him and speaks suddenly, breaking the silence that had persisted between them since they’d left town.)
“So…tell me about this guy.”
“Beg pardon?”
“Tell me about him. You say he’s not human, but he’s not one of us. So what is he?”
(Bran pauses for a moment, trying to hunt down the proper words to explain. He waves one clawed hand in the air in front of him, still searching.)
“Well…” (He begins, finally.) “There are other creatures that prowl the night, lass; Adam is one of them. You see he believes that, long ago, a powerful Goddess used her magic to create the Fera, the Changing Breeds.”
“Changing…breeds?”
“Aye, that’s what he calls them. Oh there used to be hundreds of them, thousands even…but not anymore.”
“You say changing… changing into what?”
“Well, it depends. Sometimes, it’s a wolf. Sometimes, it’s a crocodile. Sometimes it’s a shark, or in this case…a bear.”
“Oh my god…”
“Aye, had the same reaction when I first met him.”
“So these Fera, they’re werewolves?”
“Not just wolves, lass, but aye. Adam doesn’t call himself a ‘werebear’ either, so don’t make the mistake of using that term. If you must speak of it to him, say ‘Gurahl,’ that’s the proper word.”
(She looks down, considering. The yellow light of her eyes slightly illuminates the path they both follow. She stops suddenly, staring.)
“Dad… what’s that?”
(Atlas stops and turns to look at the spot she indicates. It’s a footprint; huge, clawed. It’s merely one of many; all of them heading off in the same direction. He follows the trail of them with his eye and notices the destruction in that same path; trees toppled, rocks hurled aside, fallen logs shattered and turned to sawdust...)
“Jaysus, what the hell is-“
“Dad? What’s wrong? Is he going to kill us?”
“He very well might, if what I feared might happen has indeed happened...”
“I want to go back to the lair, I want to get out of here!”
“Be silent, girl…”
“What are you doing?”
“Listening.”
(He looks around, eyes scanning for any further sign of the Forest Walker’s passage. He finds none, but in the distance, he can hear a noise like…like…)
(Hearts… four hearts.)
“By Caine’s golden fangs…”
“What?”
“I’M A BLOODY UNCLE! COME ON!”
(They begin to sprint, first Bran and then Amanda, hesitantly joining in his headlong charge. They pass through the trees like a blur, moving so quickly that a human eye would see absolutely nothing. It had taken her some time to get the hang of that particular power, but now she was more than capable of keeping up with Bran. Surpassing him, even, if she wished it. Bran doesn’t slow down as he zips into the clearing that serves as Adam’s front yard; he only halts when he reaches the door…)
(Or rather, where the door should have been. It’s gone now, replaced by a vast panel of hand carved wood. It looks as though someone tore the damned thing clean off.)
“What in the…”
(He pauses. He can smell something on the air: blood. Not fresh blood, but fresh enough to make his mouth start watering. He hears Amy drawing closer behind him and extends an arm out to where he’s certain she’ll come to a stop. She does, halting before his outstretched arm and staring at the Forest Walkers home with a mixture of fascination and fear. It’s an ugly thing, Bran would be the first to admit that, but damned if Adam hadn’t built it well. So far, only truly vicious storms and the Gurahl himself had been able to damage it.)
(Amy looks at where the door should be, and cocks her head to one side in confusion.)
“Is it supposed to look like that?”
“Nah… Stay here.”
(He doesn’t wait for her reply. He reaches out and presses against the panel, heaving it over to one side. He does so quietly, attempting to avoid drawing Adam’s attention. If somethings happened to Sammy, if she’s laying there in that bed dying of blood loss, then odds are very high that Adam has gone and lost his mind completely.)
“Heyo!? You in, big m-“
(A massive hand shoots out of the half-light and covers his mouth, Grey eyes flecked with gold open and meet his gaze.)
“Be. Quiet.”
(It’s Adam.)
(He’s whispering. He removes his hand and turns away from Bran, not bothering to look outside. Bran breathes an inner sigh of relief. He’s not quite ready to explain Amy, not right n-)
“Dad?”
(She sticks her head through the doorway, and spies the Gurahl. Bran looks at her angrily, then back at the Forest Walker, quickly.)
(Adam stops and throws a look over his shoulder, and a growl - low and horrible - escapes his throat. He closes his hands into fists, arms shaking with the promise of violence.)
“Lass, go outside.”
“Dear god…”
“Amy, girl, if you value your insides staying on the inside, I suggest you move your arse. Now.”
(She zips away, genuine fear forcing her to put as much distance between herself and this… this creature, as she can. Bran has not removed his gaze from Adam, though it does play across the room for a brief moment, taking in the details of the situation. He spies Sammy, shirtless, seemingly asleep in the bed she shares with the Gurahl… there are two little bundles in her arms, nuzzled close to either breast.)
“Jaysus Christ, you mean to tell me I missed it?!”
“Lower your voice or I will remove your tongue.”
(Bran nods, and puts a finger to his lips. When he speaks again, it is in a whisper.)
“Right, sure thing big man. But Christ alive, I missed it! Damn it all…”
“If it comforts you, so did I.”
“Say again?”
“She did it all herself. Alone. I merely healed her after the fact.”
(Bran’s eyes widen.)
“Is she fookin’ mental!?”
“Brave, I would say. Foolish… but brave.”
“By the Guinness in my beard… is that a smile I see on yer face? Someone pinch me, I’m fookin’ dreaming.”
(Sammy has had her eyes closed for most of the exchange between the two. Suddenly, she opens one eye and glares at the two of them, first Bran, then Adam. It’s not a pleasant sensation, to have her look at them like that. Without saying a word, she silences both of them. When she does speak, she does so in a whisper lower than even the two of them, though they hear her words clearly all the same.)
“If you wake them up, I swear to God that Adam will be the least of your worries. Go outside. Now.”
“Congratulations lass…I’m sorry I wasn’t here. Shall we, big man?”
(Adam nods and follows his ally outside, pulling the panel he has used to replace the door back into place with surprising gentleness. Bran tries, but he can’t remember a time when he’d ever seen the Gurahl so calm…)
“Now say again lad, give us the whole damn thing. What happened?”
“First, a question for you.”
(Adam jerks his chin toward a nearby tree. Bran doesn’t need to look to know what he’s gesturing at.)
“Who is she?”
“My Childe.”
“You’ve never sired.”
“Not till recently, no.”
(Adam growls)
“If she tries anything, I will kill her. Childe or not. I already don’t approve of more than one leech living on my property.”
“Now now, big man. Calm yourself. I’ve got it all under control. Now stop worrying about me and tell us what happened!”
“Is it not obvious? She gave birth. I came running.”
“Aye, but why is the damn forest in shambles? And my training dummy-“
“I will find you another. Larger if you wish. As to the forest… I could smell her blood on the air. I heard her screams… I lost myself.”
“And destroyed half the damn place in the process. You know you’ve got wood chips in your fist, aye? Noticed that a second ago.”
(Adam lifts the fist in question and stares at it for a moment. He reaches for one of the fingers and begins removing the splinters, calmly and methodically. He does not flinch from the pain of each removal, merely grimaces, as though it were a minor discomfort… which, to him, it very much was.)
“As I said; I lost myself.”
“Well… I can forgive you for it. I’ve never had occasion to feel that way meself, but I understand well enough. Worry makes a monster out of anyone, even humans.”
(Adam finishes with his hand and returns it to his side. He turns away from Bran suddenly, scowling as he stares into the trees.)
“You will stay where you are or I will kill you, girl.”
(Bran turns to see Amy, emerging from behind the tree she’d chosen as her shield. He sees the look in her eyes, and his heart sinks.)
“Amy… listen to him, lass. He ain’t bluffing.”
“I smell…”
“Ignore it! Get back!”
(Bran feels a twinge of fear pass through him as he notices the look on her face; it’s a feral expression, much like the one she’d worn the night he made her. The proximity of young blood, fresh, newly born…)
(Inwardly, he slaps himself)
(From behind him, he can hear Adam growling again. Without even turning to face the Gurahl, he knows that his eyes have darkened to the shade of spilled blood.)
“Amy, I’ll say it again: do not test him!”
“No, let her… I will enjoy tearing her apart.”
(Bran turns suddenly and jabs a finger into Adam’s chest. The force of the gesture sends the Gurahl back a step.)
“You’ll stay your damn hand and let me handle this! You’ve got your kids, I’ve got mine!”
(Bran spins around… only to find that she’s no longer there. There’s a crash, and from inside the shack, he can hear two shrill voices begin to bawl.)
“Adam!”
(The Gurahl’s snarl turns to a roar as he spins about, claws at the ready.)
(Sammy’s voice, panicked. Without a moments hesitation, Bran rockets past Adam and into the shack, throwing the board aside and hurling himself in. He sees Amy standing over the bed, fingers curled into claws. There’s a look in her eyes akin to euphoria; only tinged with bloodlust. She’s staring at the babies…)
“HOLD YOUR DAMN PLACE, GIRL!”
(She isn’t listening. She reaches for the smallest of them. Sammy pulls away, preparing to fight what would surely be a futile battle, only for Bran to slam into the fledgling like a speeding truck. He wraps his fingers around her throat, digging his claws into the back of her neck to get her attention. He slams her into the nearby wall, the one through which she had just crashed, and holds her there as she thrashes against his grip.)
“I AM YOUR FATHER AND YOU WILL FOOKIN LISTEN WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU, GIRL! YOU WILL NOT TOUCH THEM!”
“Why? WHY NOT?! They’re human! They’re meat!”
“SO WERE YOU! Listen to me carefully lass, for I won’t repeat meself on this subject: We do not harm the harmless. Not only is it abhorrent, but it can get you killed!”
(She snarls at him, and he snarls back, meeting her anger with his own rage.)
“You touch them, or her, and you die. And you’d best pray I ain’t the one to do it. Adam can kill without pain… I’m not so skilled.”
“You promised you wouldn’t harm me…”
(The ferocity is leaving her expression. She’ll feel bad about this, later. He’s certain of it. He looks down and sighs, shaking his head)
“Aye, and I won’t, as long as you behave. You follow my word, no matter how much it angers you, because in the end I know more about this shite than you ever will. You’re damn lucky he’s in a good mood, or he’d have shoved his foot so far up your arse that you’d be coughing up toenails for months…”
(He pauses for emphasis)
”Among other things.”
(Adam is behind him now, glowering at the fledgling over Bran’s shoulder. Sammy has managed to calm the twins, though they are still frightened. He can hear their small hearts beating rapidly, and it angers him. He has to stop himself from hurling Amy across the room in a rage.)
(She meets the Gurahl’s gaze over Bran’s shoulder, and the fear returns to her expression.)
“Oh my god… oh my god, I’m so sorry…”
“Don’t apologize to me, lass.”
(She finds she can meet neither Sammy or Adam’s gaze. Shame floods into her; shame at what she had wanted to do to those children…)
“Get her out of my home…”
(Adam has his claws ready, shimmering like polished glass in the candlelight rising from the lantern by the bed.)
(Bran lowers her to the floor, not releasing his grip upon her throat.)
“You will return to the lair. You will remain there until I am done here, and you will not say a damn word in protest, am I clear, fledgling?”
(She nods, rapidly. He releases her, but not before putting himself between her and the bed. She looks at the Gurhal one last time, and visibly shudders, before vanishing through the hole in the wall, into the night.)
“You will not bring her back here in that state, Bran.”
“She’s young, Adam. She has to le-“
“If she tries this again, I will kill her and make you watch.”
“Oy now! Do you see me threatening your little cubs there? She’s a new blood, she doesn’t know how to control herself yet! The scent of blood damn near did me in meself if I’m being perfectly honest. If it weren’t for this here flask in me pocket, you’d probably be painting me across the damn walls.”
“This can be arranged. Do not test me, Bran.”
(Sammy interjects suddenly. She has to pause mid-speech to readjust one of the twins)
“Atlas, who was - Calm, now… - who was that?”
“That’d have been Amy, lass. I found her out on the streets in town… figured I’d try to improve her life a bit.”
(Adam snorts with derision)
“Your idea of ‘improvement’ disgusts me.”
“Well… you eat raw fish, lad, so there.”
(Sammy doesn’t rejoin the conversation, nor does she pay any heed to the hole in the wall. Adam will fix it; he always does. Instead, she begins to coo softly, taking the twins attention away from the events that just transpired.)
“So…”
(Bran crosses his arms over his chest.)
“They got names then? Or is it just numbers one and two?”
(Adam looks at him for a moment, then sighs deeply.)
“Samson… and Bran.”
“AHA!”
(Sammy glares at him.)
“Shite, sorry. Aha!”
(Adam smiles; it isn’t a pleasent expression on a face like his.)
“Don’t let it go to your head. Heed my words, Bran; If your ‘daughter’ lays a hand on my sons… death will be a mercy compared to what I will do to her. Do you understand?”
“Adam I-“
”Do. you. understand?”
(Bran simply stares for a moment… then nods.)
“Aye, I get ye, big man.”
”If you must bring her back here…you will keep her on the shortest possible leash.”
“Holy shite…”
“What?”
“You’d actually let her come back? After that?”
“As you said…I’m in a very good mood…and I trust you.”
(Bran grins, and walks toward his old ally. He lays a hand upon his shoulder and pats it gently. Adam glares at the point of contact for a moment…then allows his expression to soften. Not much, but still…)
“Congratulations, Teddy Bear.”
”Do not call me-“
“Can’t stop me, lad. I’ll be seeing you, and you too lass.”
(He looks at Sammy and nods, then back at Adam.)
“You be the shield, big man.”
(He says, walking toward the door)
“Me? Think I’ll take the sheath, and be the Sword…”

Reposting cause the first attempt got caught in the spam filters for some reason.
Hey, so this is a little different than normal, a ficnapping of u/ApprehensiveCap6525's story Exchange Program Shenanigans, which you can read here!
This is an alternative chapter one exploring what would've happened if those exterminators gave him a little bit more trouble. Enjoy!
Memory transcription subject: Jackson Kern, Human-Venlil Exchange Program Candidate
Date [standardized human time]: September 3, 2136
To be honest, this whole alien business wasn’t living up to my expectations.
It could’ve been a lot worse, to be fair. We could’ve had an Independence Day situation on our hands, and there was no Will Smith around to save us anymore. But LA wasn’t a burning hellscape yet (well, more than it already was), and these aliens looked far too cute to be tossing nukes at us like change to a beggar.
In fact, the whole dynamic was the other way round. They thought we were gonna be the child eating monsters setting about founding the galactic fourth Reich. Well, fifth Reich, based on what Salvek told me about those crazy alien crocs.
Salvek, my exchange partner, and one of the few venlil who could look me in the eye without self destructing. He was like the others at first, but he chilled out pretty quickly. Now he was my best damn friend on the whole planet, and the things I would do to anybody that hurt him would shoot me straight to the top of the FBI’s most wanted list.
And it’s not like it would be difficult. I was pretty jacked for human standards, which meant I was an absolute colossus compared to the average venlil. I could probably snap one’s back in half like a dry twig, and toss them around like a sack of bricks. It probably wouldn’t come to that, since my mere presence sent most of them running for the hills. Except Salvek, who stood idly at my side as the train rolled to a halt.
Most of the occupants moved quickly to exit the car, while me and Salvek strolled casually out like it was just another Tuesday. Well, I guess not, since days didn’t technically exist on Venlil Prime. Being tidally locked meant that 1), the sun shone all the time, no matter what, and 2) my sleep schedule was absolutely fucked. Even after a couple weeks on the planet, I still woke up in a confused daze wondering why the sun was bleeding red in the middle of the night.
And here I am complaining about adjusting, when it was the locals who were having the real trouble. I was like Moses walking out of the station, for the sea of venlil parted in my wake. My shirt, stating in perfect venlilese “Dear Exterminators, My Eyes Face Sideways”, wasn’t much help.
It was the entire reason we were here in the first place. Being the savvy businessman that I was, I noticed the influx of humans coming since Tarva opened the borders were in dire need of fashionable and relevant t-shirts. It was an untapped market that the locals were in no rush to exploit. I needed money, humans needed funny t-shirts. In the great game of capitalism, that's what we call an opportunity.
But to start a business, I needed money in the first place. And unfortunately, Venlil Prime wasn’t yet interested in taking American MasterCard. So I needed venlil money. Ergo, I needed a loan from Salvek's bank. And since he was a real G, he agreed to come along.
A very roundabout way of explaining how I got sent to the slammer.
As I forced myself not to smile or display any ‘predatory gestures’ (a monumental task, considering the cuteness of the local company), I felt Salvek’s paw tug at my hand.
“Exterminators.”
Three of them, in fact, leaning against the wall like gangsters outside of a speakeasy. Two of them weren’t fully suited up, idly chatting away over what appeared to be their lunch break. The third, however, hid his eyes behind a reflective visor, and his fur beneath one of those fireproof silver suits they liked to run around in. On one hip was holstered a rather pathetic little peashooter, likely not even a .22. His flamethrower, on the other hand, was just begging to spew jellied gasoline all over me. That would ruin my shirt, and today was not the day I’d lose my million dollar idea to some KKK member cosplaying as a pyro main.
Salvek clenched his paw as the suited one began to take notice. “Hey, are you sure about this? What if they-“
“I’ll be fine, man.” I patted Salvek on the back. “Worst comes to worst, I can take him on with the old one two.” I threw two fists in the air, producing markedly worried expressions from passing venlil and Salvek.
“It’s not funny, Jack.” Salvek tried to tug me the other way, like an ant trying to pull Everest. “You know what they do for a living.”
I was quite aware, but given we were in the middle of a busy train station, and I was just a guy wearing a funny t-shirt, I was confident nothing was going to happen. There was still the slight possibility of coming away just a little bit crispier, but hey, not my fault my eyes faced forward. So I met the exterminators march with a confident swagger of my own.
“Random search.” He spoke gruffly, poking the flamethrower at my chest, “No sudden movements.”
“Alright, alright.” I raised my arms into a t-pose like I’d done a thousand times before, but the exterminator swatted them down.
“Keep those hands at your side, predator!” He barked.
“Sorry for just following the procedure.”
“Well the procedures changed, so keep those claws down!”
“Claws?” I couldn’t help but snicker. “Jesus man, take a fucking chill pill.”
"I swear to the protector above, if you don't shut your brahking mouth-"
"You're gonna set me on fire, right?"
To be fair, I was pushing my luck here. But these guys were assholes, and I had to admit, it was very fun to push their buttons.
The exterminator huffed before beginning his pat down. Gloved paws went up and down my chest, across my arms, searching fruitlessly for any sort of hidden weapon. Little did he know, my true hidden weapon was charm.
"Down on your knees." He barked.
"Making me kneel isn't gonna produce a glock from my ass, buddy."
"I. said. down." The flamethrower against the small of my back was the motivation I needed, apparently. Once I was, he got my hands in a pair of handcuffs, pushed me down to the floor, and renewed his search once more. Search was putting it generously. At this point, it was more of a beatdown.
"Look, I know you're pissed your wife has gone off to Wales to get herself some action, but you don't need to take it out on me."
“Wales, must be one of your death camps, huh?”
"Yeah, real terrible." I chuckled. "They brainwash poor venlil into never wanting to leave. I'm afraid that your wife ain't never coming back."
"Well, good thing I don't have a wife."
Maybe that's what I should've expected. Can't imagine this massive black hole of an ass pulling anything more than himself out of bed in the morning.
"Felsha, I don't think he has anything on him." One of the off duty ones said. "Unless he really did shove something up his ass."
"No...", a paw slipped into my pocket, "but maybe it's not a weapon we're looking for."
"Hey, hey, what are you doing with my pad?"
The exterminator dangled one of my few possessions right in front of my face, as though I didn't dislike him enough. "I'm just checking to see what type of plans you got on here."
"What, do you think your gonna find a fucking manifesto?"
"Oh, you predators are so empathetic, so kind." He pulled a small looking USB thing from his pocket and stuck it into my pads' charging port. “We all know what you predators really plan on doing.”
His buddies decided to come over to snoop through my pad. Not like they were gonna find anything, but considering their smug looks (I assume), they’re not the type to care for standards of evidence.
As they hacked into my pad, I shimmed over to see Salvek still standing at my side, despite the wide berth the crowds were giving us. That’s why he was my G. He wasn’t afraid like all the rest of them. I bet he was stewing to give these assholes a piece of his mind. Or fist. Either one would make me happy.
The exterminators were happy too, as far as their ear waggles told me. “Oh, what do we have here? Care to explain this?” The helmeted one spun my pad around, displaying a photo from…
“Russia. That’s from Russia." A deep sense of unease suddenly welled up from my stomach. "I fought in their civil war.”
It was far from the front lines, near the outskirts of Moscow. Me and my squad were about to be sent back to the trenches, so we decided to get one last photograph in. We promised each other we would retake once everything was over.
Half of them were six feet under now.
“So you're a soldier, huh? And you and your buddies here are planning some sort of attack?”
“Shut the fuck up.” The anger that came to my voice even surprised me. It certainly did the exterminators, who flinched at my outburst.
The helmeted one regained his composure the quickest. “This one’s dangerous. We need to bring him in."
"Why not just burn him now?" One of the others asked.
The helmeted one took one look at me, then to a slightly quivering Salvek, then to the crowds. Some onlookers had begun to record the scene on their pads. He sighed.
"He's too dangerous to be dealt with here. We'll deal with him at the station. Get up."
"Jack!" Salvek called out as the exterminators brought me back to my feet.
I threw back a smile his way. "I'll be good bro. These guys won't lay a claw on me." Despite the fact that they were in fact laying several claws on me.
Salvek went to approach, but the one free exterminator stepped between me and him. "Stay back, he's dangerous."
"But he's my exchange partner!"
"Yeah, count yourself lucky you're still alive." He pushed him off to the side. "Don't convince me you have PD now too." Considering their standard of evidence so far, it probably wouldn't take much for him to slap Salvek with that label.
"Just promise me you'll come back!" Salvek called over as I was led out of the building. "Jack?"
"I will, bro, I will!"
As I was pulled out into the sunlight towards the waiting van, two things were on my mind. One, I wasn't sure I would be able to keep my promise to Salvek.
Two, this all started because I just wanted to sell a fucking T-shirt.
The exterminators would've made a terrible taxi service. They bundled me into the back of the van like I was being black-bagged by the CIA. They didn't even put me in a seat, they just threw me on the floor and double checked my restraints were in place. Then I'm pretty sure they ran over every speed bump in the goddamn city, just to give me back problems on top of the napalm suppository I was about to get.
Or maybe I was just exaggerating. After all, Tarva had been pretty adamant about the program going well. If anything bad happened to us, she would organize an execution that would make the North Koreans jealous.
Still, I couldn't discount one of these great value KKK members getting a little too trigger happy. For mine and Salvek's sake, I hoped they could keep their lids on.
The van finally rolled to a stop after what felt like hours of rolling across Russian trenches, and the bastards finally let me see the light of day once again. They not so gently dragged me out of the van and towards the facade of an absolutely massive building. A literal giant slab of concrete, looked almost designed to survive a direct nuke strike. Hell, maybe I was right.
I had no time to appreciate the alien brutalist aesthetic, for the exterminators quickly pushed me inside. The interior was remarkably sterile, probably scrubbed down to remove the 'predatory taint' they were talking about in the front cabin. It gave me great comfort to know that the highly advanced fluffy aliens had medical understanding comparable to that of a fucking plague doctor.
They pushed me along what felt like an endless series of identical corridors, always making sure to keep the flamethrower pressed against my back. I was pretty sure the pilot light singed the shirt at this point, although I was in no position to check. As long as they didn't fuck with the text, I was all good.
That could be a good T-shirt slogan. 'I got kidnapped by the exterminators, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt'. That shit would sell gangbusters.
Thinking about business opportunities helped to distract me from the slog. Before long, I was led through a series of heavy duty doors, before finally standing before what appeared to be some sort of isolation chamber. Guarded by another heavy duty door, with way mirrors giving a view to the padded interior.
The exterminators pushed me inside, locked the door behind me, and left without a single word. Except one, who spoke through the grainy intercom.
"The only reason you're alive right now is because our governor has come down with a case of PD. But make one brahking move, and I'll make sure your no longer an issue."
"Look dude, all I wanted to do was to sell a shirt."
"Shut up!" he barked. "The EC is gonna roll around pretty soon here. Pray to your disgusting gods that she's just as PD'd as the governor."
"Wait, EC?"
"Yeah, Exterminator Commander. She's a real bitch. Have fun."
The mic cut off, leaving me with the pleasant idea of meeting the equivalent of a grand wizard.
Christ, I hope Salvek is doing alright. He probably wasn't in any trouble. He was too smart to do that. Unlike me, Jackson Kern, certified dumbass.
Maybe if I hadn't been so smug, I wouldn't be here in the first place. Should've just kept my mouth shut, taken the high road, but noooo. You had to tell the guy holding the flamethrower that predators were fucking his wife six ways to Sunday.
And he didn't even have a wife!
I began devising escape plans, but they quickly became bullshit you'd find in loony tunes. My cuffs weren't in any mood to be pulled apart, and the door looked too buff to be bashed through. And even managing that, you don't bring just muscle to a gun and flamethrower fight. In a maze, surrounded on all sides by aliens ready to put you down on a dime. Unless I could pull some John McClane tier shit, my ass was staying put.
All I could do was wait.
And wait.
Annnnd wait.
If it wasn't clear by now, they were probably doing this on purpose. Waiting to see if I would snap, transform into a werewolf or something like that. I wouldn't do that, of course. That would rip the shirt.
After what felt like the average lifespan of a US politician, another voice came over the speaker, this time female.
"Name?"
Definitely female, from the read given by my translator. Surprisingly calm too, given this was supposedly the head honcho of the place. Maybe she's holding back?
"Uh, Jackson Kern."
"Jackson Kern." There was a pause. "They didn't get your name."
"They didn't ask."
"Or anything else, for that matter." There was a sigh. "Of course they didn't follow procedure."
"They told me the procedure changed."
Another pause. "Brahking typical. Trying to run a tight operation here, and they can't even follow the rulebook. Why did they bring you in?"
"They said it was a random check. They were guarding the exit to the station. Singled me out when I tried to leave."
"And were you doing anything that warranted being stopped by an exterminator?"
What was with all these questions? This was an exterminator commander, apparently. I couldn't tell, because the voice was almost sounding reasonable.
"I didn't do anything. I was just trying to get to the bank, but they had something to say about that."
"So nothing?"
"As though you would believe me. I'm a predator, after all."
"No, I've seen the data, the brainscans, the empathy tests." There was what sounded like shuffling on the other side. "You humans are nothing like the arxur, that much is clear. I wish my juniors could understand that, but some skulls are too thick to peck through, if you know what I mean."
I knew very much what she meant. I was more surprised that this woman actually believed me, the only person on this planet besides Salvek to do so. That had to mean something.
Or it could all still be an act. So she was either smart enough to be playing me, or smart enough to understand me. Either way, she was fucking Einstein in comparison to the rest of the planet.
"So am I in...trouble?"
"No, not unless you cause any." she said. "And you don't strike me as that type of person."
Wait, she called me a person. That was a marked improvement over 'predator'. Many she actually wasn't fucking insane?
"So...can I get out of here?"
"Give me a second." The mic cut, followed shortly by the door opening. The most strikingly blue bird I'd ever seen (one of those 'krakotl', I think) stepped through and into the cell. Her stride didn't even waver as I stared at her.
I knew the birds were braver than the venlil, but this one didn't even seem to register my presence. She stepped around to my back, and before long my cuffs clattered on the ground. Her talons didn't even move to her holstered pistol as I stretched my arms out.
"Apologies for the whole ordeal." she said. "We're supposed to be protecting the herd, not wasting our time doing this."
"Being called a waste of time is the best compliment I've received from you types so far." and not even the best thing she called me in the conversation. She called me a person.
Her expression changed to one that I could only guess was flattery. "The guild has to change to the times. We can't go around treating you like arxur forever. Unless you actually plan on becoming like them..."
"I'll make sure to let you know in advance." She laughed, or did some squawk that my translator pulled as a laugh. But the fact that she could laugh at a joke about me becoming like those psycho nazi lizards?
Maybe this 'Exterminator Commander' wasn't so bad after all.
It almost felt wrong when she guided me along uncuffed back through the facility, as she ensured her colleagues that I was no danger. Not that they seemed convinced, but her words seemed to carry weight, and they raised no objection. Before long, all my possessions (i:e my pad) were returned, and I was staring at the eternal sunshine once more.
The E.C guided me through the parking lot, waved off the gate guard, and led me over to the sidewalk. I was still expecting all this to be a trap, and for a dozen exterminators to pop out of the shadows and gun me down. But they didn't seem like the types to drag out the kill.
The guy at the station wanted to burn me right then and there. If she wanted me dead, I wouldn't be here right now.
I turned to face the krakotl, still unbothered by my presence. I tried to think of something important to say, but I couldn't really think of much besides a simple,
"Thank you, I guess."
Her expression changed to one I could only guess was gratitude. "Just try not to get in trouble. Otherwise we might have to meet again."
That honestly didn't sound too bad. "I'll try not to."
"And if you do, give me a call." She handed me a small slip of paper with venlilese script written all across. "Assuming you don't actually go full predator, I can get you out of a tight spot."
She began walking back towards the facility, before a random thought came to my mind. "Hey, wait!"
The kraktol spun on the spot. "Problem?"
"I...wanted to know your name."
She tilted her head off to the side, and I swore she would've given me a smile if she could.
"Jelim."
"Jelim." The name had a good ring to it. "Nice to meet you."
"You too, Jackson Kern."
"Just Jack."
I don't know why I clarified my nickname. Maybe there was some feeling we were gonna meet again, or something like that.
"Well Jack, good luck." She went to leave again, before turning around one final time.
"By the way, I like the shirt."
With that, she stepped back through the gate, and disappeared behind the wall.
I let go of a massive sigh and let my posture relax for the first time in what felt like forever.
Yeah, the whole alien business hadn't gone as I hoped. Most of the planet still hated my guts, the galaxy hated everyone's guts, and I was one wrong step away from being lit up like the fourth of july fireworks show.
But maybe it wasn't all bad. My shirt made it through the day unscathed, I had someone high up who had my back, and Salvek was still my bro.
Speaking of him, I shot off a quick text letting him know I was okay and to come pick me up. Seeing him happy and relieved was definitely going to brighten up my day, but until then?
There was another long wait ahead of me, and I was in the mood for some Clash of Clans.

Reddit will not let me respond to this user so Im making a post here. Read it if you want or dont. Im exhausted of discussing to people about this as of now and of some people undermining anything I say due to me being a teenager so unless you have anything I havent responded to, check my comments to see if I did, I probably wont respond.
u/M0W-GL1:
My brother in christ, Unfortunately all you have illustrated in your comments is a total lack of understanding of what games are about ☠️
Who gives af about the percentile of players with an achievement? You should only care if you have it.
The readily available global statistics of that stuff has suffocated gaming.
You know what we did pre-online achievements to show our friends our skill in games? We played it with them.
This strange fixation on "I did a hard thing look at me" is insane to me. People put a hard game on a pedestal because it's hard. That's pointless. Lets see people finish Contra. Oh wait, that had a code to input for more lives too, this might not be a new concept 🤔
Hard games have always been a thing, pride in beating them also. But once upon a time they were short games, tiny file sizes with inflated playtime via difficulty. I'll level with you bud, I like a good Souls game or dead cells or whatever punishing game, but I see it for what it is, inaccessible and increasingly outmoded as gaming has truly entered the mainstream in the last 15 years.
Your insistence that other people struggle in their free time is mad to me, there is no empathy in that argument. That's just some twisted pride that you're getting through something you deem others can't, then whwn devs give them something so they can you feel it diminishes your achievement. It doesn't, because you know you didn't use shortcuts. Who cares if you get the same stupid Steam achievement or whatever, who actually gives anything resembling a fuck except for you? You shouldn't.
If you want to challenge yourself, great! Do it! If you want to show off you're too good for assist mode then record it, share it! Play the game how you like and let others do the same.
Your voyeuristic urge to monitor others game time is not something however, that any of us have to entertain, nor should we.
This is gonna be my last comment bc honestly, you've proved your immutability on this point and I'll respect it. Just keep your opinion on assist mode to your damn self when a new player is struggling to click with the game lest you make the rest of us look bad.
Don't shame people for bringing the game within their reach
My response:

This is gonna be my last comment

I understand and I respect that. Based on everything youve said, both of us percieve difficulty in gaming in a fundamentaly different manner. You think that intense difficulty is rooted in game design to make up for shorter games and has no place in the present. I heavily disagree and think that it is apart of the artistic intent and soul of the game and would argue easy games, such as the mario and kirby series did exist in that time. With how opposed our views are and how firmly we believe them, our thought process will not change but I will give you some response even if you dont reply. To honour the points you presented and to clear the air on some misinterpretations.

total lack of understanding of what games are about ☠️

First of all, I do understand what games are about. I would never makes these sort of arguments for the legend of zelda breath of the wild for example.

punishing game, but I see it for what it is, inaccessible and increasingly outmoded as gaming has truly entered the mainstream in the last 15 years.

I heavily disagree with this and ive already explained why. This thoughtprocess of yours is unfortunately why its impossible for our discussion to come to any conclusion.

Your insistence that other people struggle in their free time is mad to me

So somebody bought a game that was advertized as kill, die, learn, repeat and expecting said player to struggle is maddening? In fact its maddening to you to have challenge in game design and forcing players to struggle and improve. So its your belief than that games should be for everyone then? So many games exist that arent difficult and cater to the player like animal crossing. Why should games like dead cells and dark souls also cater to such a player besides the profit motive?
How does assist mode benefit what the game dead cells or darksouls is attempting to do?

That's just some twisted pride

Unfortunately, I will not let you chalk up my whole argument to a sense of twisted pride. Dead cells is a roguelike, a game about permadeath. The assist mode adds unlimited lives going against the whole point of a roguelike. That is a flaw in the current implimentation that is very easy to point out. People like you can argue all you want with, "how does this effect you?" But it doesnt change the fact that you skip over the valid criticism that these unlimited lives defeats the whole point about a game about permadeath and it is very unfortunate that dead cells implimented it like that.
I am not against having fun in games but I am against people not understanding the point of the game, chalking up difficulty as a flaw and not artistic merit and arguing that people do not have the time or willingness to play, should not put up with it and those who do are masochists. These people are willingly playing a game whose identity is partially its difficulty and these people are forcing the game to cater to them instead of using the wealth of options the game provides to learn and master it, rendering it disposable. Them being able to do so in such a manner without any pushback also negatively effects and punishes the people who play the game properly and encourages others not to play the game properly. Part of the appeal of mastering a difficult game IS conquering its difficulty and dead cells has tarnished that, hence tarnishing part of the game's soul. A player whose struggling will no longer just think that, "maybe I should do this" or try to improve, said player will now have assist mode at the back of his/her mind and this community unfortunately promotes it. If a player struggles to beat the game, a lot of players now default the response to use assist mode. Its not all but Ive seen a lot use it, in fact I was told to by some players to use assist mode too. Assist mode in its current implimentation has made properly playing dead cells the rogue like optional and if you cant see how that implimentation undermining the point of the game is flawed, cursed chests are no longer a real risk reward and so are no longer a meaningful choice for example... Then I have no idea what else to tell you. And before you think Im some elite gamer... Im still stuck on 4bc and alienation has become my best friend.

there is no empathy in that argument.

I suppose its my turn now to shift this argument into a broader perspective. Celeste has an assist that at the start distinguished between players who used it and those who played the game properly through marking the campaign clears that used it... It was removed for being "too judgemental." Darkest dungeons did not launch with any assist mode features and corpses were a forced mechanic and apart of the game's identity... the devs were essentially harassed into adding an optional assist mode which undermined said point of the game. Lots of dead cells players were unable to beat dead cells and begged the devs for something... Look how the devs responded... games can no longer be too niche or even difficult and they must conform to a certain mold otherwise devs will be critisized or harassed into adding them in as a feature and games that are too different, unless they have historic prestiege, will review poorly. The latest game I can think of is the new ghouls and goblins game. Look at the amount of criticism the game got from reviewers who clearly didnt even try to understand what the game was about or attempting and got wrongfully panned. The game has flaws but Arthur's movement and the way the levels are designed around that arent those flaws. They are apart of the game's identity and intended experience. Instead of trying to understand that, this aspect of the game was heavily critisized for not having movement or level design similar to other games and about that... game design has become homogenous. God of war for example used to be a game series I loved. The game's were made to show japanese devs that western devs can make expressive and skillful action games. They were challenging skill based games and they were amazing and the whole point was to build up skill in easier difficulties to beat the hardest ones... modern god of war isnt that... the old games are now insulted by the devs, the fans called unrealistic and the new games touted as mature and better... God of war lost its identity and I now have one less game series I enjoy... Everyone else loves them. This is a trend happening to all of gaming, hence I keep bringing up if games should be for everyone. So many games are forcing themselves to cater to everyone... Why should games like dark souls and dead cells also force themselves too? Why are games that try to be challenging or differenct recieve a lot of criticism and why wont players beg for assist modes instead of in dead cells case using the tools and training modes provided to master the game? Why can dead cells and other games not be niche and difficult and why should all games be beatable by everyone, cater to everyone hence being disposable. Look at final fantasy! It did a full genre change to cater to everyone! Its difficult to have empathy for players willingly playing a difficult or challenging game, not willing to understand, learn and master it when so many games exist that cater to them. You dont see me going around saying assasins creed games should be more challenging and should learn from unity.

Your voyeuristic urge to monitor others game time is not something however, that any of us have to entertain, nor should we.

I dont monitor people. If a post comes in my feed, I comment on it. People will do whatever they want and I dont lose sleep over it. Im just saddened that so many people have this thought process and that its leading to the development of worse games in my opinion or at the very least games that dont cater to me. In that sense, yes, I am being hurt by this general thought process and so try to at least present mine. Shame people arent willing to listen and just call me a gate keeper. Maybe I am one at this point, I dont think I am though since If players are willing to play properly, Im willing to help them out.

Just keep your opinion on assist mode to your damn self when a new player is struggling to click with the game lest you make the rest of us look bad.

Welp... Guess Ive reached the end of your statement and I the end of mine... I apologize if this makes you think I make this community look bad... unfortunately I wont keep it to myself. I will inform a struggling player on what they can do and discourage assist mode as it defeats the whole point of the game... and if at the end of the day if a player buys a game which tells them it wants you to kill, die, learn, repeat... Ill just question that player why did you choose to buy a game which had this as a purpose and are now unwilling to meet the challenge it offer head on? At the end of the day, that player will do whatever they want and everything here I said is meaningless in the grand scale of things... Cant say I didnt make an effort though.