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Stand Name: The Meanest of Times
Namesake: album by the Dropkick Murphys
Localized Name: 「The Meanest of Years」
Stand User: Corbin "The Fuse" MacCaffrey-
Appearance: Standing at 6’2 with a limber build with grayed red hair in a small rat-tail ponytail, green eyes, a full fuzzy beard and mustache, numerous scars from bullet wounds and shrapnel, a tattoo of the words "Tiocfaidh ár lá" in all caps in a gothic font is written down his spine, and has two prosthetic running blade legs colored like the Irish flag. For clothes Corbin wears a black muscle-t, black flat cap, a black two-hole balaclava, a woodland camo military uniform with his jacket buttoned halfway, black sneakers, and black fingerless gloves.
Background: Corbin is a 59 year old man hailing from Donegal, Ireland who was an active IRA member during the Troubles and is now a mercenary under the employ of "Feel Good Inc.". Corbin is a very brash, zealous, and vulgar man who prides his Irish heritage greatly. But even still he is dedicated to the people he calls his friends and is very unshakable in his alliances, oaths, and what not.
Corbin was born into a very patriotic family who were very about their Irish pride and instilled this patriotism into Corbin who gradually adopted these beliefs. Corbin was a very street-tough getting into scraps at a very young age making him a bit of a fight seeker. But a calling came for Corbin in 1972 when Bloody Sunday, where British soldiers shot protesters who were protesting the internment of Irish nationalists, happened. Corbin was beyond outraged by this and at the age of 18 he signed up to join the IRA where he was trained as an urban guerrilla.
Through the course of 7 years of fighting in the Troubles, Corbin took part in bombings, shootouts, smuggling, propaganda, and a few assassinations that turned him into a zealot of a soldier willing to die for the cause. Though was an incident during a bombing in his 5th year of duty, when Corbin had set a shorter timer than expected and the explosion shredded his legs. One of his fellow soldiers got him to a hospital where the doctors had to amputate his legs. Corbin was surprisingly ok with this, if anything he was just mildly annoyed and was soon fitted with some running blade prosthetics. He adapted very quickly and was soon returned to the frontlines where even his lack of legs didn’t stop him fighting at his full potential.
However, the British army was closing in on Corbin and his fellow soldiers and decided to go into hiding in Dublin as even Corbin could see that the war wasn’t going in their favor. Corbin laid low for a long while even after the Troubles was over but still kept in contact with his IRA buddies. Though after years of laying low, Corbin grew restless and wanted to throw himself back into the fray. He then found an ad for "Feel Good Inc." where he became fascinated with their mercenary work styled as vigilantism and signed himself up. He was then brought on made a name for himself as a very experienced mercenary, who was proficient in explosives and urban combat and had claimed lots of contracts. This led to him being recruited into the "Demon Days Unit" which are FGI’s most elite mercenaries.
Corbin met the Captain of the DDU and got into a scrap with him when the Captain pulled out a very odd knife. Corbin caught the knife with his hand and the Captain immediately pulled it out and stopped fighting him to the confusion of Corbin. He became even more confused when the wound on his hand immediately vanished. And after the weirdest debriefing he had ever received talking about the concepts of "stands" and "stand users" Corbin eventually understood and passed the test to join the DDU.
Corbin has now been the crews demolitions man, blowing up anything that needs blowing up with absolute devotion to FGI’s cause. He may be a rather brash individual but he always be willing to put his life on the line to help his DDU friends.
Other Facts: •Favorite food is bacon and waffles •Is quite the party drinker, and tends to get wasted often •Favorite drink is whiskey •Has a hip flask at all times that he takes swigs from •Has an playlist on his phone that is just filled with Irish war songs •Favorite song is Come Out Ye Black and Tans
Stats: ACT 1-2-3
Power: C-B-A
Speed: C-B
Range: B
Durability: D
Precision: C-B
Potential: B-C-E
Appearance: ACT 1: Standing at 5’3 「The Meanest of Times」looks a robotic humanoid with a black welder’s mask with a green visor for a head, a slim brown body that’s scratched and dented, noticeable spikes where it’s feet should be which mimics Corbin’s prosthetics, rivets all over it’s body, and wears jean shorts and a brown leather vest.
ACT 2: Now standing at 5’8, TMT maintains a very similar appearance to ACT 1 with the welding mask with 2 green visored eyes and brown body, but it’s body is more athletic now. The rivets are now more symmetrically placed all over the body, with some on the knuckles for some added kick to punches. The spikes are now full on feet with poles acting as ankles and the stand now wears a shirt under it’s now buttoned up vest, regular jeans, elbow and knee pads, and a black belt with a clover buckle.
ACT 3: At it’s final height of 6’2 TMT is now more burly still maintaining the welding mask with a single bright green eye for a visor and it’s rivets now a bright gold. It’s legs now have ankles and it wears a grey shirt under a brown leather jacket with rolled up sleeves, a black flat cap, brown jeans, bandages to cover it’s exposed arms, more rectangular elbow and knee pads, two black leather belts worn in an x-fashion with golden cross buckles, and white sneakers.
Abilities: RC-XD: 「The Meanest of Times」has the ability to create a small remote controlled car in the style of a black Cadillac van with a C4 explosive inside of it. The van also has big wheels which are adhesive and let it drive on walls, a long antenna on the right side of it’s hood, and a dash-cam inside it as well. Through a electronic control pad that TMT summons, Corbin can control the van and see with dash-cam inside to maneuver it to it’s location and deliver a explosion. This ability modifies with each ACT.
ACT 1: Can create one small remote controlled van with a bomb in it with adhesive wheels that let drive on walls.
ACT 2: Can now create a remote controlled plane and boat variant for more versatility but can’t swap between the forms. The bomb has had an increase in power.
ACT 3: Can now make 3 remote controlled vans that can swap between their car, plane, and boat forms making them all-terrain. The bomb is now extremely powerful in this ACT.

Occupation – Government employee
Age – 34
Location – Zimbabwe
My salary – $500 (paid monthly)
Side Gig Income – $0
Other income – negligible amounts from dividends received from my stock portfolio that I re-invest
Housemates – 4 (husband P, 6 year old L, 4 year old E and nanny F. My nephew M is around and makes appearances too)
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Assets and Liabilities
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Equity	$60,000 fully paid off
Retirement Balance	??	I contribute monthly, and employer matches fully. But because of changes in currency and hyperinflation, I don’t really count this as an asset
Savings	$1700	(went down due to travelling trying to get my passport done since it expired)
Current account balance	$660	Includes my mum's money since I'm managing her financial affairs while she's abroad
Loan from employer	$130	I took a personal loan from work, because the interest rates are lower than rate of inflation and repayment is over 18 months. Loan was used to make improvements on our house, and what wasn’t used, I bought shares on our stock exchange, due to hyperinflation, the amount I owe in US$ has gone down
Investments (shares in various counters on our local stock exchanges)	$1,186
Car	$4,000	Based on current resale value. Car was bought secondhand for cash

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Income progression- (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/vbbb7s/i_live_in_zimbabwe_making_3600year_and_i_just/)
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Expenses
This year, my husband and I decided that he would take on the bulk of our expenses since I do most of the domestic work/childcare. Expenses I pay will be indicated. My salary is now for my expenses, my investments and my savings, and spoiling the kids. Husband caters for the family basics. There was a point last year when I felt my husband wasn’t as invested in the family because he barely did anything financially. By having him cater for all expenses, he is now definitely involved and invested. My husband’s income is just about the same as mine, slightly higher at some times.
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My Expenses

Expense	Amount /period	Note
Car insurance and licensing	$300/annum	This is due in March, and I pay for the entire year
Petrol	$60/month
Electricity	$10/month
Airtime/data	$20/month
Groceries	$60/month	This is for additional groceries such as bread, veg and fruit bought during the month
Kids’ clothes	$40/month	I’m trying to build up their winter wardrobe so I try to buy them something each month
Makeup/clothes/toiletries/ supplements/hair	$30/month	I do not us this much monthly though
Water	$15/month	Based on last bill received in April. We do not get water consistently so bills are infrequent
Donations	$20/month	Ad hoc donations to a soup kitchen, and maternal health fun
Stock market investment	$50/month	May invest more or less, but I do try to buy shares every payday

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Household Expenses (paid by P)
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Expense	Amount /period	Note
Groceries	$200/month	Bulk grocery shopping of staple food items and toiletries
LP Gas	$30/approx. every 2 months	We buy when it runs out. Usually every 2 months depending on how bad the power supply is
Medical	$15/month	For OTC meds (painkiller, cough syrup, antacid stocked for emergencies) and any prescriptions
Pet expenses	$60/ twice a year	For vaccinations and checkups for 4 dogs. Pet food is covered under groceries
School fees for the kids	$347/ term	One kid has fees paid every month, the other every 3 months
Nanny	$80/month	Less than before as both kids are now in school fulltime, and nanny is there to get them ready for school and care after school for 3 hours.
DSTV subscription	$37/month
Transport for kids to/from school	$60/month	L gets picked up and dropped off at home daily, E is dropped off after school

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Previous MDs - (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/vbbb7s/i_live_in_zimbabwe_making_3600year_and_i_just/) and (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/yc801g/i_am_33_years_old_and_i_just_graduated_with_my/)
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MD Q&A
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, I have a BSc in Accounting, a Masters in Accounting, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Taxation. My parents both have Masters degrees, and in my family, the bare minimum acceptable for education was getting a Bachelors. My mother paid for my undergraduate degree, and I paid cash for my postgraduate studies.
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Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
My parents divorced when I was very young. My dad is the wealthier of the two, my mum has always been middle-class. My mum brought me up with very little financial help from my dad, he only covered tuition and healthcare until I turned 18. My mum catered for everything else. My mum taught me how to look for bargains, how to save and invest, and also how to sometimes enjoy your money.
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If you have, when did you move out of your parents'/guardians' house?
I would say I moved out at 26 when I got my current job. I had moved out when I got my first fulltime job, but moved back home when that contract ended
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At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
At 26 again. That's when I earned enough to cover all my bills without needing help. My husband P covers some aspects of my financial life, and my mum occasionally helps out with stuff for her grandchildren.
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What was your first job and why did you get it?
I worked as a receptionist at my mum's law firm after finishing my A Levels (age 18) while waiting to start university. My mum gave me the job to keep me occupied and out of mischief, lol.
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Do you worry about money now?
I worry about building generational wealth for my children. I want to make sure they will be set for life as adults. I do worry about money because hyperinflation is eroding my earnings and retirement dramatically. This is my second time losing my retirement. My mum and in laws are losing their retirement for the third time, so honestly our old age looks bleak if we do not invest outside of work pensions.
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Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
I receive negligible dividends from the shares I own, lol.
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Day 1
0430 – I’m woken up by loadshedding. I sigh, rollover, and sleep some more
0600 – Alarm goes off. I turn it off, enjoy cuddles from P and finally get out of bed. Our water tanks ran out 4 days ago, and council has not yet deigned to give us water, so we rely on P’s parents and friends to give us water. I get my water that was warming up on the stove, and take a quick bucket bath. I moisturize, do my brows, throw my lace wig on (I cut my hair in January, and I’m at a really awkward stage where my hair looks bad when I wear it out all day) and get dressed. It’s cold in the mornings so I put on winter stockings and a black and white chevron patterned dress, nude ballet pumps plus my warm jacket. I get E from the couch where he was watching Cocomelon and my lunch bag out of the kitchen and we head off to his school. After dropping off E, I go to the office. No electricity means no elevator, so I go up the stairs. I see my boss’s boss and greet him as we do the ZESA (local electricity company) sponsored workout. I log in to the work register, fill up my kettle, and settle down to check out my work email. Nothing urgent came through overnight, so I go into my personal email. The wig company I patronize has given me a code for my birthday, and I’m wondering if I should pull the trigger on my cart. I decide to do a report while thinking this through.
My mum is currently working out of the country, so I am managing her local finances/obligations while she’s away. I remember I have to buy the prepaid electricity token for my childhood home as well as for the house she lives in when she’s working in the country. I spend $23 on electricity for both houses (mum’s money so doesn’t count)
1030 – After doing some firefighting and office gossip I have my breakfast. Today its rice, peas and 2 fried eggs. I sprinkle some peri-peri Aromat on top since I don’t have a sauce/gravy ad I have been craving spicy food lately. I also pop my multivitamin and supplements. I check my team’s work and send back anything that needs correcting. I also generate the multiple reports my boss expects from me. I suddenly remember I need to claim my allowance for performing a role that is higher than my actual position at work. I quickly complete the form, and send it to my boss for his signature. The extra money from this is what I use to fund my stock market investments. I also remind my team to send a report to me for consolidation by noon.
12.00 – I do a major push of all my work due today so I can relax after lunch. I compile my reports and set them ready to send. I also finish my first 2 litres of water of the day, and cue up the next 2 litres
1300 – Its lunchtime, and my work bestie and I head out around town**. I find shorts that L would fit and buy 2 pairs for $10**. We head back to the office and I have caramel popcorn for lunch. Then I remember I forgot to have my afternoon meds, oops. Anyway, more work before heading to an audit meeting
1630 – The audit meeting is finally over, and I rush to shut down my computer, pack up my things and go home. I have an agreement with my manager that as long as I make up for the hour, by either coming early or skipping lunch, I can leave work at 4pm. I had a total hysterectomy end of last year so I still can’t manage driving in heavy traffic. I arrive home, make the bed (P had not made it when he went to work), and harvest chilies from our garden that have ripened. I also harvest a local herb used as a flu remedy and lemongrass, so I can brew up a tea/tisane for the flu affected people in my house. I also pack L’s lunch for tomorrow, a pie, a naartjie and juice. It’s also F’s payday, so I give her US$80 (P gave me this money).
E says he is hungry so I feed him sadza and sour milk by his request. I multitask covering L’s school textbook while supervising his homework and watching Married to Real Estate and the Great British Bake Off. I then have my dinner of sadza, greens and beef. I have a chat with the kids about their day at school. P gets home.
1900 – P and my nephew M go to fetch water from P’s friend’s house. The city council still hasn’t opened up our water supply. I do some French on Duolingo while the boys wreak havoc in their playroom. I read L and E their bedtime stories and put them to bed. I decide to do my hair in cornrows while watching Masterchef Australia. They get home and I help them carry water indoors. I remember that when power comes back I need to boil tripe on the stove, so I cut it up, put it in the pot with water, salt and garlic, and place it on the electric stove. We have serious loadshedding these days, so we have a gas stove and solar power to tide us over. I take a quick bath and change into my pyjamas. While P watches TV, I read Wild Sweet Love by Beverly Jenkins and continue to do my hair in cornrows.
2200 – My arms are tired and I’m only halfway through with the cornrows. I give up and go to bed with P.
Total spent - $10
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Day 2
0600 – I hear crying. E is in a bad mood today. I turn off my alarm, and go to see what’s wrong. E does not want to get dressed for school. I sigh, and help F dress him while he throws a massive tantrum. E is dressed, so I go do my morning routine of shower, moisturize, contact lenses, and eyebrow makeup. Today, I wear a green dress I took from my mum, black tights, nude ballet flats and a black and white coat. E gets put into the car by F, and starts crying for porridge. We are already late, so he learns that the consequence of refusing to eat his porridge on time is to go to school without having his porridge. It’s not a big issue though, as he gets fed at school. So I lock the doors and windows and drive him to school as he throws a tantrum for the entire 10 minute drive. I shove him into the school gate and head to work.
It’s another ZESA sponsored stair workout today. I log into the register, and fill up my kettle with water. I switch on my computer, check my work email and send off client emails to my team for their response. My personal email has an annual report from one of the companies I have shares in so I check out if there’s a dividend this year. I own a negligible number of shares in the company though, but 28c per share is quite impressive. I check to see if my stock exchange wallet has been credited with the money I transferred there so I can buy more shares. It still hasn’t so I send a follow up email o the enquiries desk at the stock exchange. I do have a stockbroker, but I prefer doing my trades myself. I also do some French on Duolingo before 8am.
0830 – Our HR is in a tizzy because people are late for work. I don’t make a big deal out of it usually, because salaries are shit and people are demotivated. As long as my team shows up and does some work, I’m ok. I approve some work, and warn my team about coming in a bit too late. I also tell a teammate that she will have to cover for me on Monday as I am taking the day off. Our internet connectivity is shit so I can’t log into our system to check some stuff. My work bestie gives me avocados from her house. I almost cry because I have been craving avocados, but been too cheap to buy them.
1000 – I have a really bad sore throat. I am also hungry since I haven’t had breakfast yet. I jot down my shopping list for the weekend and head to Pick ‘n’ Pay to buy carrots, green peppers, tomatoes, lemons, cheese, polony and bread. I also buy my breakfast/lunch, which is rice, beans, ox liver and egg salad**. It all cost $10**. I leave my shopping in my car, and go to the office to wolf down my food, and take my multivitamin and painkiller. I also receive my wigs that I bought in May. Perfect timing, as I want to wear a new wig tomorrow for our girls’ day out.
I do some more work, and remind my team to send me the information I need for my daily reports.
1300 – I go out to buy a few items I didn’t find in Pick ‘n’ Pay earlier**. I go to Spar and buy peas, eggs, soft drinks for the outing tomorrow and a sausage roll. Total cost is $10**. The outing has been deemed kid friendly, so I needed drinks for the boys to have tomorrow. I get back into the office, and spend the rest of the lunch hour working.
1600 – It’s finally time to go home. I send my email to handover work issues for the person who will take over my role on Monday while I am on leave. I also send my out of office email, and head home. The kids are at their grandmother’s, so I take a leisurely bath, put on my pyjamas and eat dinner. Then I watch Masterchef Australia until P and E get home. I also get in some French Duolingo practice
2000 – P goes out with his friends, so I snuggle up on the couch with E and watch TV. I put E to bed, read him his bedtime story and kiss him good night. I finally finish season 13 of Masterchef Australia, and move on to My Kitchen Rules Australia. I love Australian reality shows, ngl.
2200 – I go to bed P gets home and tells me some bad news about a friend of ours. I feel very sad for him. He cuddles me and we sleep.
Total spent - $20
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Day 3
0700 – I wake up feeling like a truck ran me over. I get out of bed, and get ready to hand-wash our laundry. We still have no running water so we can’t use the washing machine. I play music while doing my laundry to keep me motivated
0900 – Laundry has been hung out to dry. F has cooked potato curry, so I boil eggs and water. I have my breakfast of potato curry, egg, multivitamin and coffee. Once I’m done, I give E a bath and dress him. I also bath, moisturize, do my brows and get dressed. I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt today as my friends and I ae supposed to take our kids out for a playdate. Then I receive a message that the outing is cancelled since one of our group is really sick. I try to think of something I can do with E, since L is out having fun with his grandmother. I do my Swahili Duolingo practice.
1100 – The welder comes to do some work on our garage door. I monitor the work for a bit, and then my nephew takes over. E starts really bugging me to go out. So I put on my headband wig and sneakers, and pack a cooler bag with snacks and drinks. We head into town and I buy myself some ciders for $9. These are for me to drink when the mood strikes me. E wants to go to a resort by the lake so I oblige him. We pay $8 for our entrance. He goes to play on the swings, and I take pictures of him having fun. Another family turns up, and one of his classmates is among them. He’s so happy, and goes to play with his friend. I watch him running around.
1500 – I get a call from my friend that she’s in town with my cake. This cake was meant for the cancelled outing. I pack up our stuff, hustle E into the car and drive back into town. I let out some colourful swear words when I realise I forgot to get our change of $2. Anyway**, I meet up with my friend and get the cake, and pay her $30**. It’s so pretty. I call my MIL while still in town to find out what time she will be there so I can pick up L. She says it will be an hour, so E and I head home to drop off the cake so it doesn’t melt in my AC-less car.
1600 – We are back in town waiting for L and MIL. E wants an ice cream so I buy him one for $0.50 using money I had in my Innbucks wallet. MIL calls and asks me to head over to where she is to pick L up since she can’t leave yet. E and I get there. MIL gets me sadza and goat tripe stew, which I eat a bit of to be polite even though I am not hungry. When I’m done, I pack up the kids and drive home. I bath and change into my pyjamas.
1800 – I feed the kids, and we play until their weekend bedtime of 8pm. I read them their bedtime stories and tuck them in. I watch TV and iron my morning laundry while having a gin and juice until 9pm, and head to read in bed. P and my nephew arrive home from their amateur soccer league match and subsequent outing with the boys. I fall asleep soon after.
Total spent - $49.50
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Day 4
0700 – I’m woken up by L demanding that I come and play with them. I am still sleepy so I fob him off.
0900 - F knocks on the door and tells us she is off to church. I finally get out of bed and get dressed. I see the boys playing relatively peacefully so I let them continue with their antics. In the kitchen, I find F had cooked breakfast, and since I’m starving, I heat up water for coffee. L surprisingly isn’t hungry so I serve up breakfast for P and me. I have my daily multivitamin. P heads out to go fetch water, while I bath, change and hang out with the kids. I also do my French Duolingo practice for the day
1200 – I have played with the dogs and kids, and I am exhausted. I collapse onto the couch and watch MKR Australia. P gets home, and naps on the couch. I give the kids haircuts and baths.
1700 – L is hungry and really wants cake, so I feed the kids a dinner of sadza and sour milk. Then some cake for dessert. I also pack L’s school lunch, which will be a polony sandwich, a cupcake and juice. The kids play until its bedtime at 7pm. The usual routine, bedtime stories and tuck in is done
2000 – P and I watch a movie while having some alcoholic drinks.
2200 – Bedtime for us
Total spent - $0
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Day 5
0600 – It’s my birthday today. I am going all out celebrating myself since TW I tried unaliving myself twice in the past year. L wishes me a happy birthday before he goes to school. I get birthday messages from my mum, dad, SILs, and friends. I also get a call from my brother, his wife and their son, and they sing to me. I feel very loved today. P goes to drop off E at school today so I can sleep in
0800 – I am finally up and hungry. I cook a quick breakfast of boiled eggs, and a bean curry. P takes my car to get serviced, while I bath, moisturize, contact lenses, do a full face of makeup and get dressed for the day. Today I wear a tie-dyed cutout mini-dress and sneakers, and my wavy headband wig
1300 – P is home and he drives me to a hotel outside town near a renowned tourist site in our country. We have a platter of fried fish, chicken strips, pork strips, fries, and a salad to share and multiple Savannah Drys while there. It’s really nice getting to reconnect after a very tumultuous year in our marriage. P pays.
1700 – We drive around the area, before heading home. Once we get home, P and my nephew go on a hunt for water, while I feed the kids. P and I head off to take our showers. I remember why I don’t do a full face of makeup when it take a long time to get the makeup off my face.
1900 – The family sings happy birthday, and we eat cake. Birthday gifts were gin and chocolate. I hustle the boys off to bed. No story today, as they went to bed later than usual. P watches TV while I read my novel.
2100 – Bedtime for the grownups
Total spent - $0
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Day 6
0530 – I wake up and lie in bed for a bit. Then I read my novel some more.
0620 – I am up, and take my bath, moisturize, do my brows and get dressed. It’s cold this morning, so I wear a yellow dress with black polka dots, black tights and ankle boots. I pack up the cake I’m giving to my colleagues, as well as my water bottle. E and I head out. I drop E off at school, and go to the office. I log into the work register, turn on my computer, and check my emails. There are a few pressing issues I need to get up to speed with. One of my colleagues gives me $50 as a birthday gift. I also hand out the cake to my team.
0900 – Work is pretty quiet today, so I update my MD. I also receive news that one of my nephews is getting married. He is not that much younger than me, and could be my younger brother, but it makes me feel so old.
Note on my family: In our culture, even distant relatives are given close relationships so the large number of nephews/nieces is from those relationships. It’s a big thing done to maintain close family bonds. I have 4 actual (in a Western sense) nephews and nieces who are all under the age of 6.
1000 – I head to the supermarket and buy bread, onions, carrots, pork chops, pork trotters and my breakfast and lunch. This costs $25. The meat is the main cost driver here. I have a sausage roll, my multivitamin, supplement and milk for breakfast. I remember that I need to check if my stock exchange wallet was credited, ugh. The website is refusing to load and I’m very frustrated. I finally log in and see the amount is still not credited. I email and send a tweet to the stock exchange. Hopefully the tweet will get them to start moving.
1200 – My boss is mad. One member of my team left his desk without informing me and there’s an urgent matter. I was about to go downstairs to give P the groceries, so I stick around for a bit before committing the same offence as my subordinate, lol. I quickly get back into my office and check on work, sign some papers and letters, and clear out my emails.
1300 – My work bestie has to run other errands at lunch so I decide to stay in the office. I check my personal email and see I have received a dividend of $0.27, lol. The share price will probably drop soon, so I will buy more shares in this counter if I can get them to increase my shareholding. My goal for this year is to breach the 10,000 share mark for one counter. I suddenly remember I have work to do, so I use my lunch hour to do the work, and then take a quick break to eat my lunch of fries and a sausage and do some Swahili Duolingo practice.
1500 – I am thinking of going home when one of my team members calls me to deal with an angry client. I go to the office, and find out it’s a surprise birthday party from my team. I am so happy, lol. We have more cake, and there’s also fruit and juice. I head home feeling so appreciated with even more cake.
1700 – P and my nephew go out to get water. I warm up my bath water, and give the kids their dinner. Today its rice and croc meat. I make L’s lunch for tomorrow, a toasted polony sandwich and juice. I also pack my lunch, rice, a fried egg and peas. And some cake for my work bestie’s kids. I take my bath; change into my pyjamas and hound E to eat his food. If we let that kid be, he would probably live on the bits of our souls he sucks out daily by being stubborn. I am feeling nauseous so I have plain rice with a bit of avocado. The kids watch cartoons, while I do some more Swahili on Duolingo.
1900 – Bedtime for the kids. Today, there’s no demand for a bedtime story, so I just tuck them in and tell them I love them. I read my novel as increasingly feel more nauseated. I end up going to hurl my guts out. P comes home and finds me lying limply on the bed. He gives me a cuddle, and goes to eat his dinner. I get up but smell fish, and run back to throw up. If I hadn’t had a hysterectomy, I would be doing a pregnancy test ASAP.
2100 – I go to bed, and lie in bed for a bit, before finally drifting off.
Total spent - $25
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Day 7
0500 – I wake up feeling nauseated again. Ugh, this reminds me of having hyperemesis while pregnant. I put my water on to heat and get back in bed to read some more.
0600 – E comes to lie on our bed. I get out of bed, and go throw up. I get my bath water, take my bath, moisturize and put my contacts in. I look like a reanimated corpse this morning. I do my brows to try bring a bit of life to my face and get dressed. It’s very misty and cold today so I put on warm brown tights, a long black dress, my warm jacket and ballet flats. I grab my lunch and the cake, pop E into the car and head out. Visibility is extremely low, so I drive slowly. I don’t know why people like surprising other drivers by having their cars pop out of the mist without switching on their headlights. I successfully avoid the drivers who hate life and drop E off at school before heading to work.
0700 – I am in the office, and I log into the register, before turning on my computer and checking my work email. Not too much in there, so I check my personal email. My stock exchange wallet has finally been credited with the $100. I also ponder whether I should pull the trigger on a V-part wig.
I do my weekly report, and start doing some boring work in the system. I realise I didn’t save the work I did yesterday, so I have to re-do it, so I can have the list of error messages to send to ICT.
0830 – Everyone is in the office, so I do some reshuffling of duties, so that essential areas are covered while one of my colleagues is on leave. I give the cake to work bestie, who tells me how much her daughter was excited over the cake yesterday. It’s now time for me to put my head down and really focus on knocking out the system work today. I also log into an online training, and I listen while doing my work. My mum also deposits money for my birthday gift and to spoil her grandkids.
1000 – I log into my stock exchange account and buy shares for $99.14 (doesn’t count as spending, as the money was moved before the MD started). The deadline for other departments to submit their weekly reports to me for consolidation has passed so I start following up. One department is a big problem as they always send their report late. Le sigh. I draft a very passive aggressive email to them. I also decide not to buy the wig and instead ask the person making me my custom earrings that I got myself for my birthday to bill me the rest of the money so I can pay and move the remainder of the money in my account into savings. Our currency has taken an enormous hit in the last week, and is free falling dramatically. I’d rather keep USD cash than money in my account at this point. The training finally ends.
1100 – I’m getting hungry so I go warm up my lunch, sprinkle on peri peri Aromat and dig in. Yum. I also have my multivitamin and supplement. A lady who sells local snacks comes in. She persuades me to buy maputi (corn nuts mixed with roasted peanuts) for $0.50. I buy them for my afternoon snack. I end up sending the report with missing statistics, and tell the department to send directly to the compiler, as they were late. That was a very aggressive email tbh. I’m still hungry, so I munch on my maputi, leaving the peanuts because I don’t feel like eating them lately.
1200 – I see a missed call from a number I don’t know. I call and it turns out they had sent money to my mobile wallet mistakenly. I check the mobile wallet and it shows it had an extra $11. I send the money back to the person. Times are too tough to keep people’s money
1400 – I snack on a few skittles instead of having more food. I just want something to entertain my mouth, I’m not hungry at all. I review more work and drink more water. The jeweler has sent the payment request for the earrings. I pay $100 (total spent on the earrings comes to $200, which is worth it for sterling silver custom made Jewellery. I use $50 of the birthday money from my mum to cover for part of this expense)
1600 – Finally time to go home. I shut down my computer, and drive home. Once I’m home, I put on my bath water, and help L do his homework. Then I do some Swahili Duolingo practice and pack L’s lunch for tomorrow. He requested maize (corn on the cob), a boiled egg and a naartjie. His wish is my command for once. I also pack my lunch, a boiled egg, peanut butter sandwich and a bit of birthday cake. The jeweler sends pictures of the final product. They are absolutely gorgeous. Happy 34th birthday to me!!!
1800 – I serve the kids their dinner, and go to take my bath. P sends a text that he will be home late as they are working late today. I have my own dinner while persuading E to eat his food
1900 – Bedtime for the kids. I read them their bedtime stories, tuck them in and tell them I love them. Then I go to watch TV. I’m catching up on Married to Real Estate, Food Factory and Man Vs Food. You can tell that reality TV is my jam.
2100 – I decide to have some decaf black coffee and cake as my bedtime snack. P and my nephew arrive home. They are later than they thought they would be because nephew dropped his phone in the middle of the highway and they were searching for it. Because nephew’s ancestors were on the job, they found it intact. It’s a big deal because this is a major highway and huge trucks use that road constantly. I chat with P as he has his dinner and takes his bath.
2200 – Cuddles and bedtime for us
​
Total spent today – $100
​
Total spent this week – $204.50
​
Spending by categories
Food & Drink – $84.50
Home & Health – $0
Clothing & Beauty – $110
Transportation – $0
Fun & Entertainment – $10
​
Reflections on this week’s spending
The spending is pretty much about normal for me tbh (excluding the cake and earrings). I had quite a bit of petrol in the tank so I didn’t need to top up my tank this week. The converted US$ prices are a bit inaccurate since our currency had a big drop this week, and most of my spending is in local currency. I could reign in my spending a bit, and focus more on investing. However, I do enjoy using my money to bring joy to my kids and myself. Particularly myself after the absolutely shitty year I had.

Early morning hours of the late spring had always been Reagan’s favorite. When the world is quiet and the sun is just beginning to rise and dust the mountain tops and brick buildings in a faint golden glow, one can hear the soft brush of the waves upon the rocky sand of the cove below the lush green cliffs even with the birds singing softly back and forth as if they shared stories of their adventures or dreams through the night.
It was Reagan’s preference to get out and water the gardens while the grass was still slick with morning dew, in her opinion it helped the natural water soak into the garden soil instead of evaporating back into the skies. For most of her childhood she believes that was the reason her gardens were so fruitful each harvest.
As the golden light lifted to the soft yellow tints of morning light and the last of the seeds were watered, Reagan knew it was time to return home to her Yaya and start preparing for this years Lantern Day festivities, the night where they write all their years wishes onto paper lanterns and release them into the night sky to manifest good fortune and plentiful harvest.
Gathering the skirt of her pale yellow day dress in her right hand and her basket of gardening tools in the other she turned away from the garden and started walking back towards home, head filled with thoughts of lantern wishes.
Just as Reagan was refocusing her attention on the same path she took every day, her ankle caught on what first appeared to be a pile of rocks, but upon impact she had just enough time to notice to circular formation of the rocky remains before the ground gave way beneath her and she began what felt like an eternal descent into the center of the earth.
As she fell through total darkness, ancient voices and images filled her mind. Some thing she remembered her Yaya reciting as bedtime stories became familiar once again as she noticed it was the story of Hades abducting Persephone through a crater in the earth that took the shape of an old well, but it was the same story over and over with slightly different details and outcomes, as myths often were.
It eventually became almost obvious to Reagan that what she fell through was the well of the story that must have turned to dusty ruins over the years, and even though the thought was ridiculous somehow it just made sense to her to believe that as truth.
It was almost magical, the next string of events. As if accepting that story to be true, and acknowledging that she fell through the very hole Persephone used to enter and exit the underworld, alone broke the spell of the forever fall.
Reagan had no knowledge of how long she had been falling in the dark, when without warning she found herself dumped onto the ground beside a spectacularly built and seemingly functional well. Standing up to brush off the dust and dirt, Reagan noticed a few more peculiar things:
Gone was her yellow day dress and simple flats, replaced with a floral print silk camisole tucked into a pair of high waisted skinny jeans, a soft pink cardigan and bubble gum pink high top converse. Her cinnamon brown hair that was previously tied back in a solid sage green ribbon was now cascading down her back in soft waves, a few braids hidden throughout while a few gems adorned the ends of the smaller braids giving her an appearance of glittering in the sunlight.
Sunlight that was no longer the soft yellow of morning, but the harsh warmth of a sunny afternoon. In addition to the new clothes was also an ancient feeling amulet, amber in color, that fit snuggly against her chest. Although her basket of gardening tools, gifted to her from her mysterious mother for her 17th birthday, appeared to have made it through the portal in the same basket she held before.
As her eyes adjusted to the change of light she began to take in her surroundings. She noticed a large manor down the path in front of her, but most importantly, at least to Reagan in this moment, was the building off to the side. She had never seen so much glass used at once, and to encase various plants that usually don’t grow within the same season?
Her love of gardening and her inquisitive nature seemed to outweigh her survival instincts, which honestly never seemed to amount to much to begin with, so on she went down the path to the mysterious structure to curb her curiosity.
…………… If you read this far, hi. And thank you! I’m a female in my late 20’s, I love writing third person stories, I’m on EST & I’m trying to get back into writing. You can either message me with a reply to this starter, or we can work out a story line for our characters and go from there, but the story does start in a greenhouse/garden with my character transported from another world or another time. Then ideas can flow from there. Wholesome, lewd and everything in between welcomed!

As day turned to dusk, the reality of the situation Mike had found himself in was starting to dawn on him. It was already established he was in monster central, and in another world, and alone, and had no idea what was going on around him, but after the initial need of not getting spotted and probably mauled was satisfied, a whole new slew of problems were arrayed before him. Where would he eat? Drink? Sleep? If he injured himself, where could he get medical supplies? Where was he going? How could he get back home?
Could he get back home?
A stiff wind blew around him and stole the heat from his body, leaving him cold in an encroaching dark. 'How do I know I can even get back?' besides knowing it existed, Mike knew nothing about magic. He was fairly certain that kobold had sent him back the first time, but by the looks of it they had also summoned him in the first place. Something else pulled him in the second time, so there was a very real chance that he wouldn't be able to do anything. 'and of course, that all comes before the fact I have no idea how to find the little lizard.' Mike ducked into an alley to avoid some kind of flying fish as he considered his situation. Hopeless as it was, finding a needle in a haystack was the only option to present itself, so he reluctantly chose his only option.
Things hit an all time low as Michael sat under a bridge that would serve as his shelter for the night. Sure, there were plenty of haunted houses to choose from, but they all ran the risk of him being found by the monsters that lived in monster city. The bridge was a solid piece of work, being composed mostly of concrete and some kind of wood, and it passed over a wide river that was pretty turbulent for its size. Mike was suprised by the lack of metal, but it seemed to be holding up well enough so he let it go.
Slinging off his backpack, Michael decided to occupy himself by taking stock of his inventory and situation. Laying everything out, he had:
The gym clothes he was wearing, just a tee shirt and shorts. They were sweaty, dirty and didn't cover much
His regular clothes, thick jeans, another tee shirt and an over shirt
His phone, which had no service and 67% battery life. 'yeah, let's turn on airplane mode and the battery saver.' it wouldn't last long, but the calculator, flashlight, stopwatch, notepad and compass tools could all be useful.
Earphones, 'ha! I downloaded all my songs and can listen to them forever if I find a charger! Suck on that Spotify elitists!'
Shoes, nothing special about them
A bag of chocolates that monsters think they're too good for
An almost empty water bottle. 'pro tip, if you're lost in the desert, conserve sweat, not water.' Remembering that bit of survival trivia, he downed the last few gulps.
His pocket knife, score! The salesman had told him this thing could withstand his own weight on the blade, and Mike had really put it through its paces to confirm that claim. It was also a swiss army knife and had several tools in it, even a firestarter! That alone tripled his chances out here.
His wallet, full of useless bills, coins and cards
A gym membership, also useless
Ankle and wrist weights, with detachable pieces of metal to change the weight. 'Should I keep these on or off?' On one hand, he would like to be as physically capable as possible for whatever was coming, and the constant work out would only help with that, but on the other, they would slow him down and tire him out. Not good without a food source. He took them off for now.
And a gym bag, which is always good to have.
The first thing Mike did was change back onto his normal clothes. They would keep him a little warmer and weren't so smelly, which would be good for werewolves that might sniff him out. Walking down to the river, it seemed clear, so he filled his bottle - he could always not drink it later - and began washing the gym clothes.
As he scrubbed his mind moved onto the situation he was in. Another world, monsters, magic and local superpowers are all established. Judging by the state of things, that being the ruins and monsters, this was probably once a thriving nation that had since been overrun and was now populated with the monsters that did so. The biggest concern that came out of that was that this clearly hadn't been a medieval society. True, just about everything was alien to him but he could recognize a TV screen or a car, this place was just as if not more advanced than earth, and they still got wiped out by monsters.
As Mike started wringing out his shorts, his introspection was interrupted when he heard voices overhead. He immediately stopped and turned his head up. It was getting dark by now and whatever was above him had a light, he couldn't understand what the two, no three voices were saying, but he didn't like the tone or the fact that the light source seemed to be getting closer to the side of the bridge. He tensed, and slowly put his sopping clothes into his bag as quietly as he could.
With a loud grunt, whoever has the light jumped over the edge of the bridge, still out of view behind a support but that was as close as he was willing to get. Mike took off as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the ravine the bridge crossed. The ones still on the bridge pulled out another light and called out to the one on the ground, who growled a response back. 'crap, crap, crap!' rang through Mike's head as he put on more speed, the sounds of pursuit not far behind. Between the weights and wet clothes, Michael was worried he might have to ditch his bag again, but it wasn't weighing him down nearly as much as the thought it should. 'just wish adrenaline would come this easy at the gym!' he was making good speed all things considered and was glad to hear his pursuer falling behind.
His hopes of escape were shattered however as one of them proved able to fly, because he heard a screech overhead and saw a silhouette giving away his position! Come on, that's not fair! He had to lose the little cheater and soon, otherwise the others could just run him down at their leisure! Mike turned, slipping on the grassy turf as he aimed to go back in the city. If the universe would just throw him a bone for once, there wouldn't be many other monsters, and he could shake these jerks.
He ducked into an alley, left onto a street before swinging behind some buildings again. Looking up he could still see that cheeky little spy plane was still on him, and from the sounds of the voices, the ones on foot were taking a direct route instead of weaving around, they were closing in. Thanking the universe for actually not putting other monsters in his way, Mike ducked into another alley and saw what he was looking for; a dumpster (he assumed) right under an open window. The only issue was the chain link fence between him and it. 'Really though, who sets up a fence right in an alley like this?' another call from above reminded him of his situation. 'right, deal with it now, ponder neighbors who probably hated each other later.' despite his dismay at the obstacle, he practically leapt over the fence, which was at least 6 feet tall. Adrenaline was one hell of a drug, but there was no way he could do that!
He mentally stored that away as well as he hopped on the dumpster and into the window, waited a couple seconds and hopped back out. He couldn't see the spy anymore which meant they couldn't see him either. He just managed to crawl down a basement window of a building on the other side of the alley before his pursuers burst into the alley as well.
Watching through the window, Michael finally got a good look at the one on foot. That was a big guy, like 8 feet tall and built like a truck kind of big. He was the one with the light in his hand, a glowing ball that floated in his palm, and it cast a rather terrifying shadow over his crocodilian face. He was a crocodile man, no other way about it. Thick tail, heavy green scales that are more yellow on the underside, whatever you're imagining is probably right. The teeth didn't look too sharp but they made up for that in size and number. Besides, if he was anything like earth crocs he had enough bite force to make gums probably work.
Mike was thanking his lucky stars he hadn't been caught when suddenly a second head popped out from behind the first, and he realized the croc had a bucket strapped to his back with something poking out of it. After a bit of chatter, a second creature slithered out of the bucket and onto the ground. It was... Strange to say the least.
The creature stood at four feet tall, and was clearly an aquatic being, being covered in fins from head to toe to tail, along with burgundy scales so small he might've mistaken them for skin. Looking at its head it was decidedly a moray, with a mouth full of sharp teeth and an eels... Tail? Body? Let's say tail, coming out of the back of its head. Or would it be a humanoid body coming out of the moray's neck? 'This thing is weird to look at! Why do you need two bodies!?' Michael mentally screamed at the merfolk. He was just getting a grip on his mental image of it when the merfolk threw a wrench into his poor brains attempt to understand it, by flying. Well ok it wasn't flying flying, but with a little hop and spreading its wing-like fins it was able to glide along while hardly touching the ground. 'well this just keeps getting less and less fair.'
A call from above, undoubtedly from their flier, probably told Mr. Crocodile that Mike was in the building that he double backed out of, because his made some growling sounds of their own before he and the merfolk entered in through the window. Mike released a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding and took a look around the room he was in. It was dark in here, with only a bit of light coming from the twilight of a single window, but he could see place was almost empty, with little more than the occasional rug or bit of furniture that had been strewn about and a bit of debris by the stairs.
Seeing his way out, he ran to the stairs before noticing that there was more debris in the way than he saw in the dark. Turning on the flashlight on his phone, his hopes were dashed as he saw that the upper floor had caved in, blocking his access out. He hadn't seen the flier come down to enter the other building, so they were most likely keeping overwatch in case he tried to give them the slip, which he already kinda had, but he needed to make the same trick to work twice, and that always goes well.
Peeking out the window, Mike caught sight of what he assumed to be the flier making rounds overhead. There were only a few seconds on the far side that line of sight was broken, not enough time to run, but there were other hiding spots. Taking a chance, Mike crawled back out of the window as soon as the flier was out of sight and hopped into the confirmed dumpster. It was around now that he realized he didn't exactly have a plan, and his situation wasn't exactly improved either. 'I'm just making sure that I'm not cornered in case they find me. Yeah that's it!' now he had a plan, and his situation had improved too! Sort of, stop asking questions. A few seconds later he was out and under a shutter, and on the next loop he was out of the alley.
Turns out, it's not that easy. Mike had thought he was safe, after rounding a corner he ran until he was sure he'd lost them, only to hear more footsteps from behind. The flier must have seen him and Mr Croc was in pursuit again, at least Mike had enough of a lead he couldn't see them yet. Testing a theory, Mike found a balcony and jumped for it. Yep! Lower gravity was confirmed as he made it nearly two meters off the ground! He also undershot it and smacked his head on the underside of the balcony, eliciting a (hopefully) dignified shriek, ruining the momentous occasion. Still, he was able to hit the ground running and made for another escape.
It had not taken long for a pattern to establish, Mike would hide and lose pursuit only to be spotted by the flier as soon as he got any distance. His best bet was, somehow, to stay close, under the radar so to speak and lead them away. He wasn't sure how they always knew what direction he was in, considering how well he kept out of sight, until he saw Mr. Croc kneel down and sniff a footprint. Ahh, they were tracking him.
That might actually be a blessing in disguise, because they were moving from an abandoned looking residential area to an industrial complex that was more populated, seeing a bit of foot traffic and lights in windows. He just might be able to lose them in there. Mike had a bit of a laugh at the fact that monsters were living on a jobsite when there were some perfectly fine - ok dilapidated, but so is everything else - houses a few streets over. He snapped his attention back to the situation at hand, he was still being chased after all, and now he planned on escaping by walking through Monster City night life. 'how did I let this become my best option?' there was nothing for it though, he just had to hope he could still keep out of sight.
After a couple close calls where Mike had turned a corner only to see a wall or monsters that somehow hadn't noticed him, he got enough of a lead that he could try hiding. Finding a road with hundreds of footprints up and down it, he backtracked a few meters before diving behind a couple pipes that were sticking out of a building.
Mr. Croc showed up not long after with the eel in tow, and signed the flier to come down. He could finally see that dirty little spy plane! It was a... Moth! 3 feet tall with big black eyes, droopy antennae and some soft looking fluff on its head and body, Mike would have thought it adorable if it hadn't been snitching on him!
Being unfamiliar with monsterese, Mike had no idea what was being said, but the body language made it clear they were arguing. It actually looked like a parent scolding their children, with Mr. Croc being 8 feet tall while the others were in the 3-4 foot range. That didn't stop fire being flung both ways as the small pair clearly gave the kind of back talk that would have gotten the taste slapped out of Michael's mouth if he tried it on his dad. With someone saying something the conversation suddenly came to an end with Mr. Croc spitting on the ground and turning away. He fiddled with a latch on his chest and the bucket on his back came loose, hitting the eel on the head and soaking it, undoubtedly on purpose. With a few snide remarks the three went their ways, leaving Mike gracefully alone.
...In the middle of monster city.
Why did the universe insist on not improving the situation? 'Ok that wasn't fair universe, you're trying very hard, and I appreciate you getting me out of that.'
Karmatic retribution for his insolent thoughts hopefully averted, Mike got moving again.
.
Much to his own chagrin and with a hint of irony, Mike found himself tailing Mr Croc. Looking back it was ridiculous that nobody had noticed him running through the streets but he was found squatting under a bridge. Mr. Croc clearly had a reputation of some kind, because people seemed to avoid him like the plague. When Mike tried to backtrack he found himself relatively surrounded by monsters compared to the empty streets he was chased through, and he ended up finding sanctuary in the invisible bubble of Mr. Croc's presence, causing no end of irritation on Mike's end.
.
After nearly an hour of following, Michael's blood was boiling. Maybe because it was due to the lack of sleep, maybe it was due to being chased for hours for no reason, maybe it was due to being forced to hang around his least favourite semi-aquatic reptile. Or maybe it was because he was witnessing a mugging.
While sneaking along behind his quary, Mike did his best to hang back aways and keep an eye out for an escape route. They were still in the industrial complex, but must have been leaving the populated area, judging by the fact that fewer and fewer monsters were coming out after the crocodile had passed. Michael was just about ready to finally get away from him when he spotted someone walking in their direction, clearly having missed the memo to stay away.
The Croc was on them in a flash and the old bird -that's not an insult, she had feathers and a beak- tried to run but didn't get more than a couple steps away before the Croc had gotten a hold of her. Michael watched from the shadows as the bird lady was shaken, growled at and nearly had her head taken off by the snapping maw of an Egyptian god who had a chip on his shoulder. She was panicked, trying to run and begging, but the actual monster had her arm in a firm grip, and with his other hand he grabbed a pouch of some kind of the lady before shoving her onto the ground and walking away like nothing happened.
Michael was fuming. All that just to snatch a purse!? This thug who had chased him all throughout town, acted like he owned the place, who could probably rip Mike in half, did all that over a freaking handbag! His anger froze cold as the victim slowly picked herself up. Now that she wasn't being actively assaulted he could see she really was an old bird, with patches of feathers, wrinkles, generally frail looking, he was looking at someone's grandmother! And that crocodile... No, he would not get away with this!
.
Michael's anger had been subdued by the realization of what he was doing, now tailing the 8-foot lizard man a lot closer than before and armed with a pocket knife, one that felt a lot smaller in his hand as he realized what he was doing, he wasn't sure how to actually do this. The bastard deserved what was coming, but after cooling off Mike knew rushing in was a bad idea. Luckily this industrial complex, or whatever it was, was packed with rails, pipes, and other things so tightly there was practically a second road overhead. Mike's plan, if you could call it that, was to jump down onto the guy and take him out before he even knew what was happening.
Michael barely made a sound as he went up and over, stopping only when his target looked around. It seemed he could tell something was off, but wasn't ready to act on the feeling just yet, which wasn't the kind of opportunity that Mike was one to waste. He dropped, silent as a shadow.
The crocodile may have been 8 feet tall, built like a brick and was in a lower gravity setting, but the simple fact was that he wasn't ready for someone to suddenly land on his neck. He went down like a sack of potatoes with Mike clinging on, the tumble having left him momentarily disoriented. Still, he quickly righted himself, this needed to end fast, or it would turn into an actual fight where he would have the disadvantage. Wrapped around the monster's head Michael brought the knife to its neck and... Hesitated. Mike had been in fights before, but those were scuffles in the school yard, now he was about to kill. He knew his opponent deserved nothing less, but that seemed to fade in the face of taking a life. It was enough to take the fire out of him.
And so, instead of pushing the blade into his windpipe he only pressed it to the Crocs neck instead. "Alright listen up you big bastard," but the big bastard did not listen up, a fact made clear when a large hand grabbed and threw him off. Mike rolled as he landed and quickly got his feet back under him, knife luckily still in hand. The croc slowly stood up, cracking his neck as he did so before speaking. "Ev'uoy tsuj edam ym yad." It said with a toothy grin. Mike just glared from his crouched position. 'different language, nice to know I wasted my time!' kind of obvious in retrospect, but there's nothing for it now. Mike kept low to the ground, with a two foot difference in height he wouldn't even try to match his opponent in strength or reach, so he opted to keep low.
The Croc tensed for a moment before lunging at Mike, maw open and ready to swallow him whole. Mike lunged himself, keeping low to the ground and barely ducked under the attack and swiped at the exposed neck. He didn't expect to land the hit, but his opponent was taken off guard by his offence and didn't quite pull back fast enough, taking a superficial cut below the chin. Shock flashed in the croc's eyes and he lept back, lashing out with claws to keep Mike at bay. Unfortunately for him, Michael knew that playing fair was for suckers, and that you kick opponents when they're down, so he didn't let up. He was moving forward before the Croc had even landed, stayed below the counter and was in his guard again.
This time he didn't hesitate, and plunged his knife in the croc's side eliciting a shocked gasp from the titan and, keeping his momentum, moved just beside his opponent's shoulder before jumping just a little higher than intended and striking again. Still reeling from the first stab, the croc had only managed to make eye contact as Michael's knife sought his throat again, and this time did not stop. Michael landed on his feet as the croc sunk to his knees, blood leaking freely from his neck as he tried to stop the bleeding with his bare hands but it was already done. The crocodile was dead before he hit the ground, and Michael breathed a sigh of relief.
.
That purse wasn't the only property Mr. Croc had appropriated, as Michael found plenty of interesting things on his person. His things now, as he had no way of returning them. Despite the haul, his mind was elsewhere as he walked.
That guy did not know how to fight, probably used to just intimidating people around him. When an actual fight came he was honestly kinda sluggish, and didn't even think to use magic or the shiv that was in his pocket. Even so, that was a dumb thing to do. What was he thinking, attacking someone like that? What if he had known what he was doing!? Mike could not afford these kinds of mistakes in a survival situation, even if he did get lucky, even if he somehow got out unscathed! You just don't rely on that happening, and Michael resolved to remember that in the future.
Finding a good spot, he set the purse down in the middle of a road and retreated to a hiding place. Soon enough the bird lady passed by even slower than before, the only reason Mike got ahead of her was because she was slowly limping along. Seeing that made his hatred flare up again, but his anger faded away as with a shocked look, the bird lady found the purse, looked inside and sagged with visible relief before looking around suspiciously and continuing with just a bit more pep in her step. 'Well,' Mike thought, 'maybe that wasn't such a dumb move after all.'
____________________________________________________Author's note
Alright part 3 is out! Hope y'all enjoy.
In case anyone had missed it, large portions of Reddit will be going dark in protest of the removal of third party software on June 12th. I had originally planned to join the protest, but then I read the HFY 's official take on the matter (remaining neutral to act as an escape from stressful situations like this) and decided that's worthwhile. As such I will continue posting but otherwise will be off of Reddit in protest.
The first shall be previous and the next shall be in a week or so.

Link https://youtu.be/G0V3W7RUK0E
Libretto https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x004564832
Cast: Shirley Verrett (Dalila), Placido Domingo (Samson), Wolfgang Brendel (High Priest), Kevin Langan (an Old Hebrew), Armold Vorketatitis (Abimelach). Julius Rudel conductor.
This production was a big success when it was premiered in 1980 and one of the performances was telecast. It was revived in 1983 with Marilyn Horne, Guy Chauvet and Louis Quilico, Jean Fournet. It was revived twice more, 2001 and 2007 for Olga Borodina. I enjoyed the production when it was new, loved Verrett and Domingo. The 1983 revival was a bit more problematic. I really enjoyed Quilico and especially Chauvet, but felt Horne was a bit miscast.

I’m curious. I see a lot of cool shoes. But aside from some cuffed jeans or khakis, I don’t really have a good idea of what people actually wear with their boots.
I realize there is a very stylish sunset they may look like fashion plates or MFA mods. But I’m curious if that’s the norm.
Are you all just dyed in the wool hipsters from the ankles up? Are the boots more of a t shirt and jeans compliment? Any Harry Bosch style police detectives wearing them to catch bad guys?
Since I asked, I’m year - round t shirt and jeans with occasional flannels or button ups. I rarely cuff my jeans because I’m 6-4 and there usually isn’t enough denim. Almost every shirt I own is black, grey, or navy or plaid with similar colors.
My go-to boots are Mocs but a new pair of iron rangers is winning me over. When I’m not wearing boots it’s vans or running shoes.
Just curious. Hopefully this brings about some interesting discussion. 😎 🥾

bags: topo designs 25L and bellroy mini sling 4L
clothing:
- thick white hoodie - thrifted, gave this away to my relative
- jean shorts - thrifted (lee)
- reversible linen shorts - candid clothing brand
- nike pros - overruns
- elephants pants for sleeping (i like to call these my 'gap year in southeast asia' pants) - borrowed mom - white shirt - overruns - 2 black crop tops - thrifted and gifted - 1 graphic design oversized shirts - gifted - 1 sleep shirt - event shirt - 1 sundress - borrowed from sister - bikini - thrifted (eighth mermaid) - nude sports bra - bench - nude bralette - h&m - underwear - i think i brought 9. a mix of thongs and seamless undies - 2 regular socks - hot topic - 1 above-ankle socks - daiso - 1 no-show socks - running store
- white crocs - platform vans (i need the height)
misc: - 3 ziplocks in case my parents or grandparents buy my food i gotta bring home and i repackaged some stuff into those bags and it saved me so much space. - toiletries - i decant my bigger toiletries into the small travel-sized ones i bought from hs or other containers. i haven't bought travel toiletries in years. - emotional support water flask. i have anxiety about getting dehydrated or having a heat stroke in the summer. airports also have expensive ass water bottles. - metal cutlery set. i bought this 5 years ago in university and they've always come in handy.
- extra tote
journal
electronics: - extensions chord
- camera
- kindle
what i didn't need/use: - a bathing suit but would still bring it next time since i can use it as undies if i need to. wouldn't mind looking for more a comfortable pair of bathing suits that genuienly work well as undies or vice versa. - a fourth pair of socks and 3-4 undies. i get nervous to run out of intimates when i travel so i re-wear slightly worn socks and shirts. i can't skimp on underwear. i'm a juicy lady. i always do x amount of days x 2 +1 - yoga/beach/multipurpose towel. would still bring next time in case there are any last-minute beach plans, yoga classes, or if i had time to work out. it packs tiny so it barely takes any room. i like it way more than microfiber towels. im a bit of a germaphobe and get really quickly icked out of using the hotel towels. idk, maybe something to talk about in therapy. - sports bra. didn't workout, would still bring it again though. looking for a cute and comfy low-impact sports bra that i can use for as a bathing suit too. also, what is everyone's travel workouts? - second black crop top. would still bring again since it goes with everything and is super light fabric. since i was able to borrow a shirt from my cousin, that was my designated "breakfast shirt" - another pair of shorts. i haven't really found the unicorn pair of shorts for me. my jorts are versatile and i can fold the hem up for a more feminine outfit but they're less comfortable than my linen shorts. this is probably why i only wore them once the entire trip. but then my linen pair of shorts ride up because of my juicy thighs and the garter isn't tight enough so if i have a phone in my pocket, it sags on one side. i also have that problem with pants. please recommend some in the comments. - my nike pros. would always bring. i can use it for anti-chub rub, under dresses, sleep shorts, working out, etc. - just-in-case toiletries. i don't think i even touched half the stuff i brought. i was just trying out this new toiletry bag i saw in my mom's house. again, borrowed without permission. i realize i overpack in toiletries.
What I wish I brought: - a flowy pair of pants. this goes with my previous paragraph. i hate denim jeans but linen rides up. i ended up borrowing one from my sister. i haven't really found my unicorn pants, but the one i borrowed were pretty close. - a "breakfast shirt" that i can wear for breakfast without a bra on. i dont like wearing outside clothes to bed. sleep clothes stay on the bed and will never leave the hotel room for me. again, im a bit of a germaphobe. it also why i bring sleep pants and not shorts when i sleep somewhere new. - maybe a casual shaket but i didn't really need it for this length of a trip. borrowed my mom's at one point because the mall and parts of the airport were cold. i also borrowed a short sleeve button-up from my sister on the plane. top 5 items: - MVP: extension chord - my has 3 USB outlets and 3 prong versatile outlets. my entire family (5 of us in total) didn't have any charging problems. - i-went-on-a-gap-year sleep pants. wore them 3 nights, then wore them on the plane back. it kept me covered but i didn't overheat. had pockets!! - h&m bralette. kinda gave of that human-type of kind of stink after 4 days but it's so comfy all day. - kindle. visiting people, air travel, hotel recharging --there's a lot of waiting and it helped me stay off my phone. - my backpack! wonderful thing. my family was surprised at how much i was able to pack to make it 10kg on the way back. it still fit under the plane seat. thanks to this community for recommending it for short girls like me.
overall review & insights: - as usual i overpacked with undies and socks, no regrets at all. if i had a washing machine i can use my packing list for a whole week in southeast asia. i really like my regular wardrobe in general so i really didn't mind still lugging any of the items i didn't use. with a couple more pieces i can probably do a month with just my 25L backpack. around 90% of my closet is either thrifted or borrowed without consent from my older sister. 😇 so borrowing clothes with travel buddies is also an option when you eventually get a bit bored of your clothes. shorter trips are a good way to check up on a capsule wardrobe if you do use one. since my front lobe fully developed, i've become extremely discerning with all the new items and clothing i acquire. - since i was traveling with family, i actually ended up with a 10kg backpack and our family had to check a bag, despite being a carry-on only family. ah yes, gotta love gift-giving during family reunions.

Has there ever even been a bad server on KN? I've seen plenty of bad owners and chefs throughout the series, but I honestly cannot recall a single bad server. This realization got me thinking of some of my favorite servers featured on the show.
Steven from The Black Pearl: A wholesome ray of sunshine any business would be lucky to have on staff. I loved his immediate rapport with Gordon. He's basically the exact opposite of the insufferable David.
Candace from Zeke's: Poised and professional, she knew her stuff and provided excellent customer service. She even did Chef Emil a solid by recommending his bread pudding to Gordon, who gave it a rave review (much to Mr. Portion Control's chagrin 😂).
Marilyn from Burger Kitchen: When she expressed how bad she felt for serving terrible food day in and day out, my heart went out to her. She clearly cared about the customer experience far more than odious owners Alan and Gen.
Todesha from Michon's: My all-time favorite server. Every line of hers is priceless, there are too many to list here. If you have not yet seen this episode, seriously - run, don't walk. Legend has it she's still out there dropping nuclear truth bombs on Michon's💣💣💣
Genevieve from Charlie's: Her honesty with Gordon about the problems with the restaurant could not have been easy, especially considering the disrespectful way owner Tatiana treated her. I was so saddened to learn she passed away due to complications from epilepsy. I hope she is in a better place.
Sara from La Galleria 33: The way she threw Rita and Lisa under the bus at every opportunity and did so with a savage grin on her face was comedy gold.
Marissa from Miss Jean's Southern Cuisine: A sweetheart who always managed to rise above. She was understandably overwhelmed when business picked up but quickly rebounded and finished service.
Sam from Levanti's: A bright, bubbly server with an infectious smile. She made no bones about owner Dino's incompetence, as evidenced by this sick burn, "Our claim to fame came in a dream from someone who knows nothing about food or how to prepare it." Far and away the shining star of the episode 🌟
Andy from Mangia Mangia: She always took everything in stride, never letting the chaos and dysfunction of the restaurant get her down. The very definition of a trouper.

July 7th Excerpt From the Journal of Violet Stone
​
I don’t remember much. Just the scenery flying by me as I ran from the train station. I didn’t see anyone chasing me. But I felt chased. I didn’t know what to think, what to feel, or even where the hell I was going. The only thing I felt was fear.
​
When I finally stopped, it was because I just couldn’t run any further. My lungs burned, begging me for air. So I ducked into an alley, trying to catch my breath, and organize my thoughts. The rain pounding down around me was too loud. The street was too quiet and every car that passed by sent another fresh jolt of terror through me as I replayed what had happened at the train station over and over again in my mind. The way that he’d fallen, the look on his face in the instant before he’d gone under the train. Oh God… I couldn’t get it out of my head! I couldn’t stop seeing it in my mind!
​
I wanted to go home, but was that even an option? How the hell does someone just go home after something like that? I couldn’t just waltz through the door like nothing was wrong! If Sam and Lisa didn’t notice, Rose sure as hell would and that assuming that the police weren’t already there. Someone could have recognized me! That Marilyn Monroe looking girl on the platform had gotten a good look at me. What if she told someone? It didn’t matter whether I’d meant to push the guy or not! It didn’t matter how much I’d fucking hated him at the time. He was dead. I was responsible. I’d pushed him. It was my fault.
​
‘I’ve just fucking killed a man!’
​
That thought… that reality didn’t feel real. It hadn’t truly hit me yet.
​
‘I’ve just fucking killed a man!’
​
I felt sick. If I actually had anything in my stomach, I might have even thrown up. Moving made me feel even worse, so I just stood there, letting the rain soak me to the bone, shaking from the horror and the cold while I tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do next. But all I could think about was the way he looked as the train went over him, and wondering if anything would have changed if I’d at least tried to grab him. Could I have caught him? Could I have saved him? What then? What would happen next? As far as I knew that motherfucker had murdered my goddamn parents! Should I really have even bothered trying to save him? Maybe I should have felt vindicated by all of this? Maybe this was some kind of justice, right? It sure as hell didn’t feel like justice. It’s not like I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this had been the guy! There were doubts! There were a lot of fucking doubts!
​
I heard the sirens in the distance. But nobody came for me. I saw a police cruiser pass my alley. It didn’t stop for me, but it did make me think about my sweater. The goddamn sweater… it would probably be enough to identify me, right?
​
For a moment, I thought about turning myself in to the police. I mean, maybe once I told them that it was an accident, then maybe they’d be cool with it and let me go? I mean, the police are just known for being trustworthy and reasonable, right? What did I possibly have to worry about with them? I could just turn myself in and everything would be hunky fucking dory! ‘Oh, you just threw a man in front of a fucking subway train! Yeah, no big. Go home! Take a load off! Get some coffee! Try not to think about the man you just threw under a fucking subway train!’ Yes! Go to the police Violet! Great idea! And while you’re at it why don’t you do it in the fucking nude too? GREAT IDEA VIOLET! ALMOST AS GREAT AS THE TIME YOU THREW A MAN IN FRONT OF A FUCKING SUBWAY TRAIN! REMEMBER THAT?
​
I took off the sweater and abandoned it in the nearest dumpster. I hid it under some trash bags and hoped to God that nobody would ever find it, then, after standing in the rain like an idiot for several minutes with no idea on where to go next, I started walking home.
​
Nobody noticed me.
​
Nobody followed me.
​
The city was just… quiet. Not quiet, quiet. But nothing felt out of place. The world around me almost felt normal, and it was my own fault that the normalcy felt wrong somehow.
I entered my old bedroom through the fire escape, just like I used to back in high school when sneaking out at night to drink was the worst thing I’d ever done. I could hear people in the apartment, and I listened to see if any of the voices were unfamiliar. I heard Sam and Lisa talking over breakfast, and I could hear the TV. Nothing out of the ordinary. It satisfied me enough that I was safe. I locked my bedroom door and crawled into bed, pulling the covers over my head and listening to the rain and the voices outside. But I heard nothing out of the ordinary. It was like nothing had happened. Like it was all just a bad dream. Eventually, I fell asleep.
​
I stayed in bed until well after noon, staring up at the ceiling when I couldn’t sleep anymore. Sam and Lisa both left for work. I could hear Rose going around the house. She’d said that she had the day off, save for classes in the evening. She only bothered me once, though. Knocking on my door to check on me. I told her I was sick, and she didn’t pry. She didn’t sound suspicious. Just concerned.
​
I kept replaying what had happened at the subway station over and over again in my head. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I couldn’t stop hating the quiet around me.
​
Sometimes, I wondered if it was just a bad dream. If maybe I’d never even left my room at all. Maybe I just wanted to believe that. It was better than thinking I’d just killed someone. There was a part of me that didn’t really seem to care. It still hadn’t fully hit me yet. After all, no one had come for me. So maybe it really was just a bad dream? Even if it hadn’t been, how had that man known who my Mom was? What about the things he’d said? Was it just a weird coincidence, or a horrible mistake? Maybe it was both.
​
I checked my phone when the afternoon began to slip into evening. The whole event was getting hazier in my mind. I was starting to convince myself it hadn’t happened. Lisa had messaged me, asking how I was feeling. Rose must’ve told her I was sick. I lied and said I was feeling a bit better, then I checked the news.
​
When I read the story I felt sick all over again. No name for my victim, no information at all. The man who’d gone under the train was just identified as ‘a man.’ That was it. Nothing else. There wasn’t even a picture of him.
​
There was however a picture of me… kinda.
​
It was blurry as hell. I tried to make out my own face amongst the black and white pixels but I couldn’t. It might have been me as I entered the station, although my hood was over my head, my hair was covered, and the only thing I could sort of identify was my lips, which aren’t exactly that distinct. Really, it could have been anyone in that picture. Anyone at all.
​
‘An unknown possible suspect’ It said under the picture. Followed by: ‘The suspect is believed to be male, approximately 6’2 and was last seen wearing a grey hoodie and jeans.’
​
They got the outfit right, and were only a little off with the height by two inches.
​
All in all… I can’t say that any of this really seemed damning to me. Although the idea that the police (or at least the news) had no idea who I was didn’t do a whole hell of a lot to calm me down. The idea of ‘getting away with it’ seemed just as bad as being caught.
​
For the second time that evening, I wondered about turning myself in to the police. I mean, this wasn’t exactly first degree murder. It was an accident! That had to be at least manslaughter, right? I mean, it was still a crime but it wasn’t first degree murder, right?
​
Christ… I was probably committing an even bigger crime by not coming forward! Why wasn’t I going to the nearest police station? What the hell was stopping me? Fear? Fear of what, consequences? You don’t fucking kill a man and not suffer any consequences! Even if it was an accident, there had to be some kind of consequence, right?
​
Was it justice? Assuming that this guy really had been the one who’d killed my parents all those years ago, did he really deserve to die like that? Thrown screaming under a train and… and…
​
God I didn’t even know if it was really the guy or not! It could have been anyone! He could’ve just randomly known my Mom and just so happened to look like her killer! It wasn’t even a perfect resemblance! I mean, fuck, how many fucking people in New York have blond hair, blue eyes and glasses? Thousands at least! Justice wasn’t a valid excuse! It just wasn’t!
​
I wanted to continue to lie there and stew, but I don’t know if that was really an option anymore. Slowly, I forced myself to get out of bed and head into the kitchen. I’d eaten nothing all day, which wasn’t all that healthy of a diet. As a further fuck you to my digestive system, I rummaged through the cupboard. There was a box of off brand pop tarts that I jammed them in the toaster for breakfast, if you could still call it that at five in the evening.
​
While I waited for my sugar enriched breakfast to ‘cook’ I raided the fridge for a drink. I found some OJ, and wandered into the living room. Rose had already left for class, but I knew Sam and Lisa would have been home soon.
​
When they did come home, they found me in the living room, under a blanket and finishing my shitty off brand pastries. Lisa fussed over me, like I knew she would. Sam just took over the TV and changed the channel to something other than the news.
​
I went to bed early last night, checking the news stories again on my phone before lying awake in bed. I might have slept a little. I couldn’t really say. I was just alone with my thoughts.
​
I’m not supposed to go back to Toronto for another day or so. But maybe I could leave early? Fuck off, leave all of this behind me and try to move on with my life? Sam and Lisa wouldn’t question it… much. That sounded like a horrible idea though. Just… fucking off, forgetting, pretending that this didn’t happen. It sounded like a mistake. Running away seemed like the exact kind of thing that would come back to bite me in the ass… and then what would I do? Was I supposed to just keep running from it? I knew in my gut that this would only ever make things worse. What would that do to Sam and Lisa? What would it do to Rose? I didn’t want to find out. I didn’t want to put them through that!
​
As I lay in bed a quiet resignation settled over me… and oddly enough, with it came a bit of peace. I guess even if no one else ever found out about what had happened at Prince Street, even if I took that secret to my grave, it would still gnaw at me. I’d still be looking over my shoulder, waiting for the day to come when it caught up with me. I didn’t want to deal with that. I didn’t want to put my family through that!
​
So I made a decision.
​
I don’t know if this will be my final entry or not.. I might not be coming back after this. Sam, Lisa, Rose… if any of you are reading this, I’m sorry. I swear to God, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.
​
I’m going to go to the police in the morning and I’m going to turn myself in. So if this is it… well… goodbye.
​
I hope you don’t hate me too much.
​
***
​
Okay, so what the fuck?
​
I did the right thing! I turned myself in to the police! I was ready to go to jail over this!
​
Instead, I’m back in my old bedroom at Sam and Lisa’s and I’m 99.9% sure that I’m off the hook.
​
I went to the police station. I told them that I was there to confess and up until that point, things went as expected. They took me to an interrogation room and I waited for someone to come and talk to me. I was in there for about an hour, fidgeting aimlessly with my hands and waiting for some kind of judgment before someone finally bothered to show up.
​
The guy who walked through the door had a sort of ex military look to him. His eyes were intense and he had a muscular physique with a neatly trimmed goatee. He didn’t say a word to me as he came in. He just looked down at the file in his hands before sitting down at the desk.
​
“Violet Stone, right?” He asked. Straight to business. I always thought that Detectives were supposed to come off as friendly at first. This guy seemed like he’d come in with the express purpose of kicking my ass.
“Yeah, I’m Violet.” I said.
​
He looked up at me, sizing me up for a moment before huffing.
“Alright… well Violet, well my name is Vincent Bennett. I’m the Detective assigned to the Arthur White case. I understand you’re here with information, correct?”
​
Arthur White? Was that the name of the guy I’d killed?
“Yeah… I was… I was the one on the subway platform with him.”
“The one who pushed him?” Bennett asked.
​
I hesitated for a moment before nodding.
“It… it was an accident!” I said, “He’d grabbed my arm, I was just trying to get him off of me!”
“Right… tell you what Violet, why don’t you walk me through what happened yesterday morning, okay? Tell me everything that you remember.”
​
I did just that. I told him about how I’d run into Arthur and his daughter while I’d been out on a jog, I told him about how he’d mentioned my mother and how I’d followed him, and finally I told him about what had happened on the subway platform.
​
The whole time, Bennett just took notes and nodded quietly, only pausing a few times to ask a question.
“So - you attest that it was an accident, that Mr. White fell into the path of the oncoming train?” He asked.
“Yeah… yeah, it was.” I said.
“Okay. You mind if I ask why it took so long for you to come forward?” He asked, “I mean… this happened yesterday morning. It’s been at least twenty four hours.”
​
“I was panicking!” I said, “Look, I didn’t know what to do or if I should come forward or what!”
“A man was killed,” Bennett replied. “And you fled the crime scene. You also took a while to come forward. Forgive me if I find any of that suspicious.”
“Well, I’m trying to do the right thing now!” I argued although Bennett’s stony expression didn’t seem to change much.
​
“Miss Stone… are you aware of who Arthur White is?” He asked. “Do you know much about the White family?”
That question of his seemed awfully loaded.
​
“No, why are they important?” I asked.
“Depends on which circles you run in,” Bennett replied. “I’m gonna be honest with you… Arthur White was a real piece of shit. I wouldn’t really call him the worst member of the White family. Arguably he made the rest of them look saintly in comparison. But he was still a man with a… history. You say he resembled the man who you believed killed your parents… was that your only motivation for following him to the Prince Street station?”
“He mentioned my Mother by name!” I said, “He said he knew Diana Stone!”
​
Bennett paused, before looking up at me again.
“You’re Diana Stone’s daughter?” He asked.
My brow furrowed.
“What, you knew her too?” I asked.
“I’ve… heard the name before.”
​
My heart skipped a beat.
“So he did kill them…” I said softly, “You’re telling me that he did kill them?”
“Arthur White was not a suspect in the Diana Stone murder, no. His-”
​
Bennett’s phone started to ring before he could finish whatever it was that he was trying to say. His ringtone was the opening riff of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ by Iron Maiden.
​
He paused, tensing up a little at the sound of the ringtone. Then he quietly reached into his pocket to take his phone out. He stared at the screen, which depicted a big red X on it, before quietly standing up.
​
“Excuse me,” He said softly as he left the room, and for a few minutes, I sat there in the uneasy silence, waiting for him to come back. I found myself fidgeting with my hands again as I looked over at the mirror that dominated the wall to my left. I figured that there had to be someone behind it, watching me. Maybe it was Bennett? I squinted, trying to see if I could see him behind the glass, but there was no luck.
​
The only thing I saw was my own reflection, squinting back at me like an idiot and the security camera in the corner behind me. I looked back up at the camera, staring into it for a moment. I wondered if maybe Bennett was watching me through there. Maybe nobody was watching me? It was hard to say. I stared back into the iris of the camera for a moment, before the door opened again and Detective Bennett came back in. I saw him stuffing his phone back into his pocket.
​
Something about his demeanor had changed, but it was hard to say exactly what. When he spoke to me again, his tone was much quieter.
“Thank you for your time, Miss Stone. We have all we need. You’re free to go.”
​
Free to go?
​
“Wait, what?” I asked. “I… I just killed a guy! What do you mean I’m free to go!”
“You indicated that Mr. White’s death was an accident, correct?” Bennett asked. “That’s all we need. Go home, kid.”
I stared at him in disbelief. He was just letting me go? I’d fucking killed a man and they were just letting me go? That didn’t make any sense!
​
“So that’s it?” I asked, “You’re not going to arrest me or… or press charges or…?”
“No. We’re not,” He said. “You’re free to go.”
​
He picked up his folder and headed for the door again, pausing before looking up at the camera and then back to me. He held the door open for me, and after a moment, I got up and followed him.
“Do I need to get a lawyer?” I asked.
“That won’t be necessary,” He replied as he led me back through the police station. Once we were back at the front door, he pushed through and gestured for me to follow.
​
Once we were outside, I watched him take out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
“So that’s just it, then?” I asked. This whole thing still confused me.
Detective Bennett still didn’t reply. He just looked up toward the building, before taking a drag on his cigarette.
“Take my advice, kid… don’t ever look a gift horse in the mouth. It might not always be so pretty on the inside,” He didn’t look at me as he said that. He started down the steps of the police station, before pausing. “And do yourself a favor, keep your head down for the next little while.”
​
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, but Detective Bennett was already walking away from me.
​
I’m not an idiot.
​
Something isn’t right here. I just don’t know what.
​
I keep thinking back to the phone call Bennett got. I’ve got a feeling that it had something to do with my sudden release. What I don’t know is what or why and to be honest, I’m not sure that I want to find out.
​
Bennett told me to keep my head down, and I’m smart enough to take his advice.
​
I’m leaving tonight.
​
I’m going to let Sam, Lisa, and Rose know over dinner. I’ll think of some bullshit excuse. Maybe I’ll say that it’s a work thing, or something. They’re not going to check. I’m supposed to be heading home in a couple of days anyway, so they’re not going to think too much of it if I leave early.
​
Either way, whatever the hell I’ve gotten myself into, I want to get out of it sooner rather than later.

This is actually a true story! I wrote it in short story form and then told the story on a horror story podcast. Terrible writing but a fun scary story! I hope you enjoy it : )
I was 15 years old (1993) and it was the winter of my sophomore year
in suburban Michigan. It was Saturday night and I was
sleeping over at my friends Melissa’s house with my friend Ally and 2
other girls. Melissa lived in a secluded neighborhood about 2 miles from
a local lake called Cass Lake. We all had boyfriends at a neighboring
high school just above the lake. Melissa’s room was in the basement, a
veritable den of iniquity for teenage girls, we were listening to
Metallica way too loud, eating junk food, trying on clothes and
talking on the phone with the boys. Somewhere around midnight we
hatched a plan to walk over to their house. There was a sliding door
out of the basement that allowed us to circumvent the parental units.
There was just one thing; it was January and there was about 2 feet of
snow on the ground. It was probably 5 below zero. When we set out, I
had on jeans, a brown leather bomber jacket, no gloves, Keds, and my
Walkman. Inside was the album Nevermind (because, of course). We
started out at about 12:30, at first everything was great. We are
having fun, joking, singing, laughing, there was nobody out, we were
impressed with ourselves! About an hour in we see the lake and it’s
starting to get a lot less fun. It’s freezing, my hands are pink, they
hurt, my face burns, I’m shivering. We had a misjudged how long this
journey was going to take. We had just gotten to the lake and there
was still several miles to go. Now, this was the 90s, no cell phones
to call a ride, no way for us to call the boys to ask them to meet us
or anything. But, like bullheaded teenagers, we decided to forge
ahead. What could go wrong??
We were walking with the lake on our right side when I heard what
sounded like somebody driving with a loose muffler (by now I had given
up on my Walkman, it skipped every time I took a step)- this kind of
dragging, rattling, chugging noise. We all turn around and it’s a red,
beat up, late-model car driving really slowly in the right lane. We
don’t think anything of it turn our heads back, keep walking and the
car drives past us. About 15 minutes later we hear the SAME
chugging/dragging/rattling noise behind us and it took me a second to
realize I had heard that sound before. I look around and it’s the red
car again, coming slowly up to us. This time I look closer and and
it’s a man with a curly, bushy head of hair holding a knife! Just
holding it up as he drove slowly past us looking us dead. in. the.
eyes. He looked crazed. Manic. His eyes, they were electric, they just
shot energy into me, right into my core. HE MEANT US HARM. I don't
know how I knew that, I just knew. We are totally freaked out at this
point and kind of frozen in place. Is this real? Is it a joke? Surely
this man is fucking with us, 5 teenage girls alone at 2 am? He drives
past us slowly. We stop and discuss maybe turning back, but sigh.
We're idiots.
About 10 min later we hear the dreaded rattling. Again. WTF. Now we
know this is no joke. This time the red car STOPS next to us and the
man GETS OUT. He's holding the knife and he breaks into a run,
directly at us. One of us screams "RUN!" and we are hauling ass along
the lake. We run for what seems like forever. I'm at the very end
(Keds) and I remember thinking "Do I look back? Will that waste
time??" I look back. He's gone. "Guys!" I yell, "He's gone!". We all
stop, panting, freaking the fuck out. We collectively decide this trip
is over and we're heading home. That's when we hear it.. the rattling.
It's back. The car is coming around again. We can see the knife. This
time we book it across the street away from the lake to the houses.
Knock on a door? Get someone to let us in? By the time we reach the
house we hear him yelling "I see you! I see you!" from the car
window. We run behind the house and the flood lights turn on. I don't
know why this spooked us but we just kept running, through maybe 3 or
4 back yards. Here's the problem with winter. It's really hard to run
in snow. Now, not only are we freezing, but we're wet. And exhausted.
We stopped behind a dark house to regroup. The man is nowhere to be
seen, it's quiet. Half of us are crying, we're fighting over what to
do next. No one wants to get in trouble, at the time this seemed
important. We decide we have to go to the front and see if the man is
around. We spot a huge fir tree in front of the house with those big
vintage bulbs strung on it. We decide we're going to hide behind the
tree and scout out the road. We make a break for it, all of us
crouching into the heavy snow, wet teenage rats, shivering, crying.
No man. No car. Now what?
We decide we need a payphone, we need to call.. our boyfriends, Yeah,
I know. The problem is the closest payphone is maybe 1.5 miles back.
What if IT comes back? We're debating the issue when we hear it.. the
rattling. This time it's on our side. We see him, but we know he can't
see us. He drives by slowly, rattling, chugging. About 4 houses up he
turns around ever so slowly and comes back. His windows are down, he's
holding the knife against the steering wheel. Back and forth. He says
nothing, just stares out the window. It felt like hours, days, weeks.
I was soaked through my shoes and socks, my jacket, that I had begged
my mom for, it wasn't even brand name, just a knock off but I loved
it, was soaked through. My friends faces were smeared with mascara
from crying. This was all kinds of not ok.
We had to move. We waited until we hadn't heard him for a while and
creeped out from behind the tree, the plan was to get to the lake side
where there was less snow and run. We had crouched there for so long
that my stupid, impractical right Ked had frozen to the snow and got
pulled off as I got up. I turned back to get it but just then the car
came flying down the street at us! I bailed on the shoe and booked.
The rattling was the loudest noise I've ever heard, like it was coming
from inside my own head. We hauled it to the lake side and by then he
was out of the car. With the knife. Running after us yelling "I got
you! I got you!" "Get on the lake!", I yelled! I don't know, I thought
maybe he'd have a hard time following us? Not my best moment. I
decided to look back. Mistake. As I hit the curb I felt a sickening
lurch, my unshod ankle had buckled on the step up. I fell face first
into the grey slush on the side of the road. Ally saw my fall and ran
back, hauling me up screaming "Move!" I ran for my life, onto the
lake. One foot in just a thin white sock. But he was behind us! We had
to keep moving!
At first the ice was ok, solid, not even slippery because of the
crust. But the farther we got out the slipperier it got. I kept
looking back to see if he was there, and he was! He was running at the
edge of the lake, keeping pace. His knife gleamed in the moonlight. We
kept running. That's when we heard the first crack.
Now, in the movies, the person always falls right through. But in
reality, my reality, it was a slow process. The first crack sounded
like a giant rubber band snapping. The sound echoed over the massive
bowl of the lake. It was followed but several other loud snaps,
causing a cacophony of sound. I could see a black web forming across
the ice. We were screaming in terror now, none of us knew what to do!
We turned back to the shore. The cracks came faster and faster as we
neared the far edge of the lake. The man with the knife was a distant
fear in my mind now, I was going to die out on this ice. Frozen in a
lake. Ahead of me I saw Ally and Melissa leap onto the edge of the lake,
they made it! I was next, if I could just get there... My right foot
went through the ice. Again, unlike the movies, I didn't fall in, the
ice didn't collapse under me. I was able to pull my leg out and launch
myself onto the shore. The last 2 girls piled on top of me. Both of
them shaking and crying. We just held each other and sobbed.
I can't tell you how long it was before it occurred to us to look for
the man with the knife! He was nowhere to be seen. It was totally
silent except for our sniffles and pathetic whimpers. We were on a
different street now, but he could have easily followed us. It was
snowing gently, I remember the huge, fluffy flakes indifferently
falling on us. We got up, checked each other over. One sprained ankle,
one banged up forehead, one twisted wrist. All of us traumatized. My
right Ked and Walkman were gone. Gifts to the getaway god, I suppose.
That's it. We hobbled home slowly, no one said a word. Made it in
around 6 am. Never saw the red car again. We took hot showers and sat
on the floor shivering in silence. No one slept. We never told the
boys why we didn't make it, just that we changed our minds about
coming. I made up a story to my mom about my ankle and missing shoe.
There was just an unspoken rule that we would never talk about it. And
we never did.
(Names were changed for this because the story is true.)

Is there any brand that sells jeans with a 35" length? I need a 34/35. 34/34 has gotten too short for me with most jeans hitting at the ankle

I read this somewhere, and it got me thinking. I mean, yea, they don't. But also the obsession with big asses is really stupid these days. It manifests itself in two ways: fat-"acceptance", and going to the gym to just train glutes. 90s movie girls were aesthetic. They could rock those low jeans and display a perfectly toned abdomen. Fast forward to these days you have clownish concepts of pulling your jeans up over your bellybutton to cover up a fat belly. This obviously also resulted in the spread of the naked ankle fad.
Also I want to address how much more stupid and useless female glute training is compared to general training. Training just glutes to have fat legs and fake the natural shape of a females hips and buttocks is just as fake and stupid as any other cosmetic shit they do like makeup and nails and plastic surgery and whatnot. The obvious retort "hurr durr how can you train muscle but girl no" can be easily dispelled and laughed away because it is stupid. Males gaining muscle is something natural to them, and something functional that directly impacts quality of life, security, dominance, and all the positive things in general. Female general fittness is also great for longetivity and quality of life and health. But just training the ass to fake a shape that would be attractive to males is just fake. Your natural ass is what relays important information about genetics and stuff and your fat levels and fittness levels. If you just train your ass to attract guys, it will deflate when you stop training and you will become as wide as a closet the moment you say "I do", like the majority of women. Men might do the same shit, but at least their muscles are useful and functional for actual everyday stuff.
I'd rather have a naturally fit girl with "no ass" that doesn't have to hide her fat belly, than one of those fake-ass training girls, or even worse...

I grew up homeschooled in fundamentalist co-ops but had no consistent religious upbringing: think constantly living out the plot of Eat, Pray, Love but as Julia Roberts’ unwilling child. Everybody I knew was associated with the IBLP. From Kindergarten to 10th grade I was isolated, indoctrinated, bullied, gaslit, and educationally neglected.
I told my mom to watch Shiny Happy People and today she called me to talk about it. She went on to say how hard it was for HER to be a part of that experience. When I brought up that my siblings and I were also impacted by the same things she cut me off saying “ok. I obviously feel guilty” then refused to engage in any conversations.
Im grown up now, married with a job and a life of my own. I had to fight so hard to get here. My spouse taught me basic math when I was 22 and we went from there. Somehow I still believed my mother was a saint, a good person. How can you finally realize what you’ve done 30 years later and see yourself, THE PERSON IN CONTROL, as the victim? When I asked why fundamentalist co-ops she said “I loved being the fun cool one…” yeah easy to do when everybody is in ankle length Jean skirts and not allowed to watch TV… just wtf??
I joined this group thinking my experience of homeschooling was fine. I was wrong. I have a lot of unpacking to do. Thank you to everybody that has shared their stories: you have changed my life.

Part 1
Day 3
I woke up with Chloe cuddled up next to me in bed. Her head was resting on my chest and she was lightly snoring. I gently shifted and opened the curtains. I was preparing to be blinded by the pure white snow but I wasn’t. I didn’t see much at first as it is a window well but after I looked up it really started to seem strange. Sure it was snowing hard and there was a thick blanket of snow on the ground, but it was odd that it was still so dark outside. It almost seemed like someone had turned the brightness down if that makes sense. I checked the time on the clock just in case it was earlier in the morning than I thought but… it wasn’t the clock read 8:32 am.
“Hey… hey Chloe,” I mumbled gently, nudging her head.
“Mhmm,” She yawned, her eyes hardly open.
“Look outside, is it just me or is that strange?” I asked her pointing to the window.
“Give me a sec,” She said, reaching for her glasses on the nightstand.
She put them on and then looked out the window. She stared out the window for a minute and by the way she tilted her head I knew she was confused.
“That… that’s weird,” She said finally.
“What time is it?” She asked, turning toward me.
“8:32,” I answered.
“That’s weird then, it's almost like the sun isn’t out,” She observed getting up and fully opening the curtains to get a better look.
I got a little uncomfortable Chloe had taken meteorology for two years of high school and taken it as a minor in college. She wasn’t an expert but it still made me confused.
“Must be just a very thick cloud cover,” She said, eyeing it suspiciously.
I could tell she was a little nervous so I got up and put an arm around her.
“It’ll be okay the storm will pass in like a day or two anyways,” I said mustering my most encouraging voice.
She smiled at me and leaned into me: “I know, I just can’t help but worry sometimes you know.”
“Yeah I do,” I said.
It was right then when we were staring out that window that what my dad said yesterday began creeping back up into my mind. They’ll escape from the lab… they’ll kill you… the creatures will kill you!
“Who’s the creatures? What lab?” I thought to myself.
“What babe?” Chloe asked, looking up at me.
“Oh, sorry I didn’t mean to say that out loud, just something Dad had told me in his ramblings when he called me at the store last night,” I explained.
She nodded, “Well I wouldn’t take anything from him, he’s just a nut job,” she said, “I’m glad you're more like your mom than him.”
She gave me a cute little smile after that and I just smiled back.
I made my way upstairs and saw Gretchen and her boys were already having breakfast. Cinnamon toast crunch for the boys and Gretchen had made herself some pancakes and bacon.
“Any more?” I asked her motioning towards her plate.
“Yep, in the kitchen,” She said, pointing towards it.
“Thanks, sis!” I smiled.
She nodded and I got me and Chloe's plates put together. I then set my plate at the table and hers at the seat next to me, and then began eating. After a couple of minutes, Chloe walked in. Her eyes fell on the plate sitting next to mine.
“Thanks, babe,” She smiled, taking a seat in the chair and beginning to eat as well.
“Mommy, can we go play with the puppies outside?” Alan asked, giving her a big smile.
“Yes, just go put your coats on,” She said, giving Alan and Aaron a sweet little smile.
“Ok mommy,” They both said excitedly running off to their room.
“Alby why don’t you join your brothers,” She suggested giving him a look.
Alby who had his head in a book as always sighed and walked off to the room after his two brothers.
“Hey Chloe, does that blizzard look concerning to you?” Gretchen asked her the moment the boy's bedroom door closed.
Chloe looked outside again. The snow wasn’t falling that heavy at the moment.
“Yeah seems fine I’d have them come inside if it picks up anymore though,” Chloe explained after swallowing a large chunk of her pancake.
“No I mean look how dark it is,” Gretchen motioned outside.
“Oh, yeah me and Joey were talking about that earlier, just seems like a very thick cloud cover, but I’d keep an eye on them,” Chloe explained.
“I’ll keep two eyes,” Gretchen said as the three boys came out of the room wearing their big blue coats and boots.
They all hurried outside with the three dogs following quickly behind them. May and Moore jumped around with them in the snow while Herman looked like he was patrolling the backyard which wasn’t unordinary, but it was however odd to see how fixed his eyes were on the forest.
“Think he sees something?” Gretchen asked, sounding concerned.
“Probably a deer,” I suggested.
Grethen nodded and her concerns seemed to dissipate quickly.
I came back upstairs now changed into a flannel and jeans, and looked over to see the boys still outside playing. Chloe still sat at the table now with her laptop in front of her, and Gretchen was staying near the window to keep an eye on the boys.
“Any internet?” I asked while walking up to Chloe.
She let out a defeated sigh, “Nothin…” She was cut off by a distant pop sound, followed quickly by another, and then a third, then a fourth, it was silent again. I stood still and I knew that sound.
“Those were gunshots,” I said quickly, “I’m going to go check it out, and see what’s going on.”
“What? Babe stay here, it is not safe outside,” Chloe reasoned.
“Yes, which is why I need to go. Say that person was firing at a bear and now they're hurt and have no way to call help or something. I should go just in case.” I explained.
“And I’ll bring the rifle,” I added in an attempt to calm Chloe's nerves.
Gretchen moved from her spot at the window and was now calling the boys and dogs inside. I made my way downstairs and grabbed the rifle, my winter gear, and a pair of old satellite phones.
I then hurried back upstairs where Chloe now stood by the door worried.
“Chloe before I go I want to see if these will work,” I said, handing her one of the phones.
Her face lit up at it, it seemed the prospect of me being able to communicate with her calmed her nerves.
I pressed the little button and then talked into the phone, I heard although scratchy my voice then came from her phone.
“Ok, now test yours,” I told her.
She said hi to hers, then I heard her voice come faintly out of my phone.
“Alright, it works,” I said, happy that I wouldn’t have to face whatever was happening alone.
“Be safe,” She said, giving me a big hug.
Then Gretchen ran over and joined in followed then by Alan and Aaron.
“Be safe uncle,” Alan said, giving me a big smile.
“I will,” I said to all of them. “Is mom still sleeping?” I asked Gretchen quickly.
She nodded then I kissed Chloe goodbye and walked off into the blizzard. The snow of course had started to pick up significantly making my field of view almost nothing. I looked around at the other houses and saw nothing. No lights, no movement, no signs of life. It was then that I really realized how many people had left town. We were the only ones left on the street. I slowly made my way in the direction I’d heard the gunshots.
Bzzzzz… “Hey you ok,” Chloe asked through the phone.
“Wow, checking on me already, someone's needy,” I joked.
She let out a slight giggle, “Be safe,” She said.
“I will,” I said then Bzzzz… and she was gone again.
I continued onward when another faint sound broke through the sounds of the wind. It was some sort of screech or scream. I couldn’t entirely tell because it was so faint. I unslung the rifle from my shoulder and held it out ahead of me. Both the scream screech and gunshots came from the direction of the store. I felt my heart thumping through my chest as I got closer to the gas station. I gripped the rifle tighter as I took one step at a time, and I slowly made my way forward. I felt sweat begin to build on my temples despite the cold. My entire body began to shake, and I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. Calm down, calm down. I thought. I took slow deep breaths then started walking again.
I looked around to see where I was, but the snow was falling so hard that I could hardly see ahead of me. I squinted and thought I saw distant lights. I kept the rifle ahead and cautiously hurried towards them, as I got closer I realized that the sun had caught a slight gap through the storm and glinted the light perfectly off the back of a car. I sighed and kicked the snow in frustration.
Bzzzz… “Hey babe, do you know what happened?” Chloe's worried voice cut through my moment of frustration.
“I don’t know… I still haven’t made it over there, I got a little turned around.” I told her.
She paused for a second like she was thinking of something, “BABE! Your satellite should have a built-in GPS.”
I looked at the large phone and saw a small digital screen showing our neighborhood, which had two red dots on it. One was in our house and the other was two houses down in someone's driveway.
I chuckled, “Babe I only moved like two houses down, I must’ve been walking in circles.”
She burst out laughing, “Thank goodness I called you, make sure not to hang up because then the GPS shuts off,” She instructed.
“Understood, thanks, babe!” I said.
I walked slowly for another 15 minutes or so before just about a block from the store the signal was lost. I swore and angrily kicked the ground again. It’s ok. I thought you were only a block away.
I moved to the sidewalk so I could use the signs and mailboxes as markers that I was still walking straight. Then finally the store was in view. Carl’s car was the only car in the parking lot and I noticed a large scratch on the side, and one of the windows was shattered. I also noticed shelves had been moved against the windows and doors. I walked over and loudly knocked on the glass door. I saw eyes peeking through the glass and I pulled my scarf down to show my face. Carl moved the small shelf in front of the door and let me in.
I walked inside and he gave me a look towards the rifle.
“I heard gunshots,” I said.
“Oh…” I saw a dark scared look in his eyes.
“What happened?” I asked, looking into the man's eyes.
“Well, I saw something outside near the car. I thought it was a deer or something so I gave it no mind until I heard a metal scraping sound and then the car window shattered. I pulled my gun out from under the counter and made my way toward the door and cracked it open. I yelled a few times but it didn’t run so I poked my head out to get a better look. It wasn’t a deer. I didn’t get a good look. I just know it didn’t look friendly so I shot at it four times and it ran off into the blizzard. I know I hit it at least three times but it didn’t bleed. I… I’m scared.” He told it with a fear on his face that looked out of place.
“To be honest I’m surprised you even made it here without getting attacked.” He admitted.
“Did it screech at some point?” I asked, nervous about what the answer would be.
“Yeah, actually it did, a couple of minutes after I shot at it I heard something screech and I thought I could faintly see it through the falling snow.” He explained.
I nodded, “I need to get back home,” I said a new sense of urgency within me.
“I’m not letting you go back outside with that bulletproof monster thing on the loose,” Carl ordered, getting in between me and the door.
“I’m not staying while a bulletproof monster thing is loose in the neighborhood and can go attack my family at its whim,” I growled loud and sternly even though I didn’t entirely believe his story.
I pulled out the satellite phone and tried to call Chloe again. Nothing. I looked outside and saw that the blizzard had picked up considerably.
I let out a sigh: “I don’t think that blizzard will let me go home.”
Carl let out a sigh of relief and showed me to the small break room and let me take a seat at the table.
“Everything going well over at your house?” He asked.
“Good, enjoying the break of things,” I said, giving him a smile.
“I wish it was a break,” Carl signed, “I’ve been hearing strange things in the blizzard for days.”
“What sorts of things?” I asked.
“Screams, screeches, howls, and all sorts of unholy things. Sounds to me like the devil himself is out there.” He growled.
“Strange, very strange. How’s your family?” I asked, trying to change the subject to something less crazy.
“Fine, they haven’t really noticed that anything is wrong, I mostly hear the noises when I’m outside.” He explained. “What about your family?”
“Good, we didn’t even know anything was wrong until I heard the gunshots today.”
“Probably, because you're so far from the center.”
“What?”
“Well whatever animal is in town that attacked my car, seems to be dwelling mostly in the center of town.”
“How do you know that?” I asked not really believing him but still curious.
“From everyone who has come into the store in the past 3 days. I haven’t been the first to see whatever it is.” He explained in such a way that I almost wanted to believe him.
“Have any other vehicles or things been damaged?” I inquired trying to pry more at the information this man clearly held.
“Bob said something about his shed being broken in too but not much else. I’d ask Bob for more information but he was so drunk he could hardly tell me that.”
“I wouldn’t trust a thing Bob says especially when he’s drunk like that,” I told him.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have if I wasn’t getting strange news from more trustworthy people.”
“Fair…”
Ka-Thunk! The loud noise of the store's door opening interrupted our chat.
“Carl, are you in here? You ok?” A man's familiar voice yelled into the store.
Carl walked out of the room and out to where the man was.
“Yes I’m ok…” Carl began before the man interrupted him.
“I heard gunshots, what happened?” He asked.
“Here come sit down and I’ll tell you,” Carl instructed as he walked the man into the room.
I recognized the man the moment he walked in, his name was Fred Garrison. Fred was tall and bulky with a large brown beard and always wore a baseball cap. The cap he wore today was red and white and clearly worn with age.
“Howdy Joey,” He greeted in his thick Southern accent.
“Hi Fred, how are you doing?” I asked.
“Good, good, just want to know why Carl was shooting his gun like a demon from hell was after him.” He said motioning to Carl.
Carl then told Fred the same story he told me. Fred listened the entire time but looked and sounded even more disbelieving than I had.
“Carl, you realize I was joking when I said something about a demon from hell, I’m supposed to believe that some monster thing was lurking outside your store and scratched your car.” He yelled in frustration.
“I wasn’t saying it was a monster, I’m just saying that deer die after they get shot four times,” Carl said giving Fred a frustrated look.
“Ugh, Joey do you believe this bull crap?” He yelled, turning to face me.
I thought about what exactly to say, and maybe I stopped to think if I actually believed Carl then finally I spoke; “Fred I’ve known Carl for most of my life and the man has never once lied to me, do I think what scratched his car was a monster? No, but I also trust this man, and I think there may have been a very strange-acting deer in front of the store, and maybe Carl thought he had better aim than he did.”
Fred huffed then finally seemed to relent; “Well if there ain’t anything wrong imma leave.” Fred said standing up and walking out of the room.
Carl hurried after him; “Fred, I don't want you to leave. The weather is really bad right now.”
Carl motioned to the snow which was falling so fast and in such vast quantities that it made seeing anything outside of the store impossible. Fred grumbled again and after a small argument he finally relented and we all went to sit back down at the table.
After half an hour or so the snow finally slowed down and started falling like slow small flakes.
“Alright, it’s as safe as it’s going to be if you want to leave,” Carl said, poking his head into the room.
“Thank you!” I said, smiling at him.
He nodded and I pulled out the phone.
Bzzzz… “Chloe, are you there?” I asked, trying not to let my worry show.
“Joey, thank goodness you're ok! What happened?” She asked, sounding a little nasally like she’d been crying.
“I’ll tell you when I get back but yes I’m ok,” I explained quickly, and then before Carl could object I left the store with my rifle slung over my back.
I started walking back to the house. It was slow work and now there was an additional four or five inches of snow which only made the task harder.
“You ok?” Chloe asked after a couple of minutes.
I brought the phone to my head and responded: “Yeah I’m ok just a lot more snow on the ground now.” I said.
“Are you almost home?” She asked.
“Yeah just down the street,” I said.
“Ok,” She said.
Bzzz… and she hung up. I kept walking forward, my eyes locked on the house when she walked out holding the other rifle and ran over to hug me when she saw me.
Day 7
I woke up almost the same way as the days before except Chloe wasn’t there with me. In a panic, I sat up quickly and called her name: “Chloe!”
“I’m right here dummy,” She said from the window.
I looked over and saw her standing in front of it.
“I thought I saw something weird but I can’t get a good look because it’s a window well.” She said, giving me a look of defeat.
I got up and looked through the window well. You couldn’t see much because of the snow and the way the window well was, but it looked like something was walking around in the front yard. Me and Chloe changed quickly then made our way upstairs and to the window looking out front. It was hard to tell through the foggy window and falling snow but we were able to see large sewer lid-sized spiders crawling about. I jumped back in shock and Chloe let out a small squeal.
“What kind of satan spawn are those things?” Chloe sputtered out, a terrified look on her face.
I looked closer, not responding, and this is when I realized although their resemblance was similar to spiders they were not spiders. There seemed to be two distinct types of them: one type resembled large slug-like things with 8 long spider-like legs. It also possessed a long but narrow head; its head almost looked like an arrow point. The other type was much nastier looking. They possessed eight legs covered in serrated spines. Their bodies resemble closely to wasp bodies with a large raised abdomen that brandished a massive stinger. I saw they were surrounding a large dog. It wasn’t ours it looked like our neighbors, the Garrisons, a black lab named Blue. The dog started barking out in an attempt to scare them away, but it was a dozen or so spider things against one dog.
Finally, after a while, the dog reached down to try and bite one of them but it jumped up and stung the dog in the face. The dog began to yelp and shook the thing off, but I could tell immediately that the stinger had hit its mark. The dog looked weaker and another stinger stung it, then another, then another, they all began stinging it until it collapsed. The dog still tried to fit but there was no use. It seemed to be paralyzed. It was one last whimper before one of the slugs walked up to the dog's mouth and started crawling inside shedding its long legs in the process. The dog let out this horrible retching choking bark sound. Chloe let out a small sob as the slug fully went down the dog's throat and then disappeared. The dog gave one final whimper before it went silent. Then the stinger spiders around it began webbing up the body. I was impressed by how quickly they were able to do so in under a minute the body was covered in a thick webbing. After which the spiders dragged it away and disappeared into the blizzard.
I looked over and saw how horrified Chloe was, her normally pretty face was twisted into an expression of fear and disgust.
“What in h-e double hockey sticks?” She finally said.
“What happened, why are the dogs barking?” Gretchen yawned as she stepped out of her bedroom.
Her face turned more concerned when she saw me and Chloe's disgusted face. Then before I could explain what had happened a few of them made their way back over and started inspecting the house then one of us made a sound or something and it jumped at the window. I pulled the blinds down and quietly whispered for Gretchen and Chloe to get the kids and my mom downstairs. In the meantime, I rushed downstairs also and grabbed the rifle. I sat upstairs for a second looking through the windows to try and see the things but it seemed wherever I was they weren’t, and in a mix of defeat and fear I went downstairs and joined my family. I set the rifle down on the couch and hugged Chloe close to me.
We all huddled on the floor listening. We heard scratching sounds on the doors and then windows. I held my breath but nothing shattered. Then the sounds moved from the walls to the roof. They scurried around up there in a seemingly never-ending attempt to find access to our house. Then suddenly Herman let out one solitary defensive bark. It was deep and intimidating but I knew it was likely the end if I didn’t stop him. I started to stand up but Chloe grabbed my hand, she looked terrified, but I knew I had to stop Herman so I squeezed her hand and then let go.
I quietly made my way upstairs and saw Herman standing guard by the back door. I pulled my revolver from my belt and slowly made my way over to him. The slight creaks in the old wood floor sounded like sirens signaling my location. After a minute I wrapped a hand around his collar and started scanning the room for May and Moore. I saw their booth huddled on the coach whimpering quietly. I called them over and hesitantly they came then I led the three dogs downstairs and just as I took the last step down. SCREECH!!
It came from upstairs and it sounded angry and in pain. I hurried back upstairs with Chloe hot on my heels despite what I’d told her. I peeked into the living room from the stairs and saw a slug running around the room engulfed in flames. It was leaving a trail of small sparks and ashes behind it and for a moment I wasn’t sure what to do. I figured I’d miss if I shot at it so I ran over to try and grab it. Meanwhile, I saw Chloe dart for the back door.
CRASH! One of the windows shattered and several of the stingers jumped into the house, and before I could stop it one of them jumped onto my back. I screamed and reached back trying to grab it but I felt a sharp pain in my hand. Herman emerged from the basement and almost immediately jumped onto me and with a loud crunch it was dead. I started to feel a little dizzy but tried to help. There were still six spiders in the house, and Chloe stood by the back door trying to get a shot at one of them with the rifle. The stingers continued to run around the floor and I felt another jab its stinger into my ankle. I looked over at the disgusting thing, picked it up by its legs and threw it into another stinger. BANG! The stinger I’d thrown and the one it’d landed on both exploded in a mess of yellow-greenish slop. There were still four stingers and at this point the flaming slug had curled up in a ball on the floor. I had an idea and I sprinted for the fireplace grabbing the fire pick. As I suspected, two of the stingers followed and I skewered them both with the fire pick. The last two scurried in the corner almost like they were planning when BANG! One of them exploded into another mess of slop and the last one made a rush for Herman, but in a surprisingly quick movement for the big dog he pinned the stinger's legs onto the ground with his paw and proceeded to eat the stinger.
We all stood there for a second breathing heavily when my eyes met the small fire around the dead slug. I dropped the fire pick, grabbed a blanket from the couch, and used it to quickly snuff the fire.
“Is everything ok up there?” Gretchen asked, very concerned.
“Y...” I tried to say but I started to feel loopy.
I started to shake and stumble and I remembered the two stings they’d gotten on me, then suddenly I remembered nothing.
My eyes opened slowly and at first I didn’t see much but my vision quickly cleared and I saw Gretchen looking over me.
“Wh… what happened?” I stammered out.
I was in such a daze that I could hardly remember it.
“Those spider, bug, whatever stung you a few times. I was worried it had really hurt you.” Gretchen said, giving me a hug.
I sat up and felt the pain in my back and in my foot.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.
“Mom and Chloe are both cleaning upstairs, and the boys are just down the hall.” She explained.
I stood up and wobbled a little, but walked over to the stairs.
“Joey!” Gretchen called after me, “You're probably sick, you need to lie down.” She tried to order me.
“No I’m going to go help clean so mom doesn’t have to,” I told her.
Gretchen let out a frustrated huff then I walked up the stairs. I turned down the hall and saw the mess that was in the living room. The parts and slop that were many of the bugs were still everywhere. I looked over to the shattered window and saw the glass had been cleaned up, and the window had been covered by a large piece of plywood. My mom walked out of the kitchen with a broom and dustpan.
“Sweetie you’re ok,” She yelled with excitement hurrying over and giving me a hug.
I hugged her back and we stood there for a second.
“Do you feel ok?” She asked, looking up at me.
“I’m fine mom, where’s Chloe?” I asked.
“She’s checking to make sure nothing outside was damaged,” My mom said.
I immediately felt a mix of frustration and worry fill me and I hurried for the back door yelling, “You let her go outside alone!”
I immediately followed her fresh boot prints through the snow and around the side of the house. I saw her standing there looking at a group of scratches from the spiders, the rifle slung by her side. I let out a slight noise and in one quick motion, she turned toward me with the rifle aimed right at my face. As soon as she saw it was me she ran over and tried to hug me but I was already hurrying her inside. I didn't want to be out there any longer than we needed to be.
Day 10
I sat by the window watching the outside as I had before when I saw something large and dark dart down the street followed by two smaller ones. The largest looked to be about the size of a horse while the other two were about the size of a deer. They looked so off though, especially the big one. It almost looked like it had six legs, but it was so hard to tell through the snow.
I gasped at the monstrous look of the creatures: that’s probably what Carl saw I thought. Then in a slight panic, I grabbed the blinds and pulled them down. I quietly hushed the boys and had everyone go downstairs. I sat at the foot of the stairs, rifle in hand, but nothing happened.
Day 11
Pop! Pop! Those two gunshots were what woke me up early that morning. I sat up in a panic and almost immediately put the situation together. Those gunshots were from the store, from Carl's revolver, and they were likely his last two because he’d fired four the last time I heard it and his model of revolver could fit 6 rounds.
I got up and immediately started throwing my winter gear on. Chloe also sat up with a worried look on her face.
“You can’t be going out there,” She said, sounding much more worried now.
“Babe, I need to make sure he’s ok. I’m not leaving him to die.” I said defiantly.
“Well, I’m not letting you go out there to die… unless I go with you. You’re a terrible shot!” She yelled, getting very upset.
“Ok, then get your gear on,” She nodded and we both got ready quickly.
After I was fully dressed I walked over to the gun safe we had in the hall and began to peruse. Along with the revolver and two rifles, we also owned a long-barreled 12 gauge shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle, and another hunting rifle with a heat view mode on the scope. I grabbed the 12 gauge and walked back into the room handing Chloe the sniper rifle. I heard light footsteps and looked down the hallway to see Gretchen descending the stairs. She walked over and met me by the doorway.
“Are you leaving?” She asked, looking like she already knew the answer.
“Yes, Chloe is coming as back-up,” I explained looking over at Chloe who was now loading the sniper rifle.
“Bring mom and the kids down here while we're gone, and keep one of the rifles on you,” I ordered and she nodded running upstairs.
After a few more quick and tense minutes we were standing by the door with all our winter gear, the two guns, and headlamps. I waited next to Chloe as she showed Gretchen how to use the satellite phone.
“I love you, be safe,” Gretchen said, giving me a big hug.
I hugged her back trying not to cry, “Will be back in 30 minutes max,” was all I could say.
“You keep him safe,” Gretchen ordered as she hugged Chloe.
“He’d die without me,” Chloe joked.
Then we both walked out the front door and into the snowy night. It was so dark out darker than I’d ever seen it before, and now the snow was deep almost up to our waists. Luckily we had snow shoes that made us sink only halfway up our shins. I walked ahead with the shotgun out and ready, and Chloe stood behind me navigating our way through the dark snowy night.
The cold wind chilled us to the bone as we continued. I could tell Chloe was scared, I was too but I didn’t say anything. We slowly continued our way through the blizzard, not giving up despite its relentless attacks. Each footstep was another loud crunch that seemed to me as loud and obvious as nails on a chalkboard, but nothing seemed to hear it or if they did they just didn’t care. I just kept praying and hoping that Carl was ok and that it was just like last time, but something in my gut knew the man was probably long dead.
Off in the distance over the howling wind, I thought I heard something. Maybe a scream or a yell I wasn’t sure but it sounded human. Then again but this time it was fainter and I could tell it came from the same direction as the store. I hurried forward even faster with Chloe grabbing the back of my coat to keep up.
Finally, after what seemed like an hour we arrived in front of the store. It looked like it had gone through hell and back. I saw the car that had been parked out front was now tipped over and extremely beat up, but even more so was the store. Every single window was shattered and the shelves that had been blocking them were completely ripped apart. As we walked up to our feet began making crunching sounds as each step was on shards of broken glass. Then we were at the door and I took a deep breath thinking of everyone I’d ever loved. I turned around and gave Chloe a big tight hug then I raised the gun and kicked the door open. Silence. Nothing happened and I walked with little hindrance into the destroyed store. Food and junk and wood and glass. It was everywhere, and then there was blood. A large trail of blood led into one of the backrooms. Chloe noticed too and she let out a small gasp. I motioned for her to stay then I slowly walked into the room. Blood covered the entire floor; the table that had once been there was now a shattered mess of splinters. It looked like a tornado had come through and thrown everything around, but I saw the doorway from this breakroom to the other. I thought I heard a faint sound there. In one swift motion, I kicked open the door with the gun raised and saw what was inside.
This section of the building was a small area where truckers or travelers who had nowhere to stop could stay. Essentially it was a small hostel, and it was divided into two rooms. The first room, the one I’d entered was a large room double the size of a classroom. It had four rows of bunk beds with 5 bunk beds on each row. It was a bit excessive, yes but it got Carl much-needed revenue. The other room directly to the right of me was the shower room, a long tiled room with 8 shower stalls and a wall of lockers.
The bunk room was absolutely torn apart. Feathers littered the ground along with shreds of fabric. Multiple of the beds had been completely toppled over and one that seemed to have been thrown lie in a shattered mess on the other side of the room. Another few bore large scratch marks far larger than what the stingers or slugs could’ve produced. It again like the first two sections of the store looked like a tornado had gone through and torn everything to bits. After my assessment of the room, I looked down to see the blood trail leading into the shower room. This room was just as bad as the others with almost all the stall doors knocked off their hinges and the lockers completely pulled out of the wall. This is when I heard a horrible sound. The sound of flesh being torn and ripped and consumed. It was horrible to hear and even more so because it was happening in one of the stalls closest to me. I turned and my light illuminated a large thing the size of a large deer ripping into the body of Carl.
It looked horrible; it had four long spindly dog-like legs with four large paw feet that ended in large talons. Its body was weird and slimy with a large back abdomen that looked like it was swelling. Right as the body connected with the neck two more oversized arms sat. Its entire body seemed to be covered in a bony exoskeleton with small gaps around the joints, stomach, and face. They were much longer than the legs and brandished large talons the size of steak knives at the end. It hardly had a neck and its head was small with a horrible-looking mouth that brandished massive carnassials and canines. Its head overall was fairly small and round. Its lower jaw split into two down the middle looking like large mandibles, but the most disturbing part of the face was the eyes. There were 4 and they were brown and very mammalian looking but worst of all I recognized those eyes. Just days ago those eyes looked into mine as the slug went down its throat. Somehow Blue the black lab had turned into this thing.
The moment I walked in the creature turned around and its eyes met mine. It let out a screech that chilled me to the bone and then lunged for me BANG! I was momentarily stunned and I couldn’t hear the ringing in my ears. Then everything came back into vision and the creature was hunched back clearly also stunned. I took advantage of this and started running, but then my foot slipped in the blood and I crashed to the floor. Searing pain ran into me and it felt like a sledgehammer had been slammed into my face. I started to stand when the pain from the rest of my body kicked in, but I remembered the creature, got up, and kept running. I ran into the bunk room slamming straight into Chloe.
“Wha…” She started to ask when the creature came screeching into the room.
Not having time to run I pulled her behind a bunk. I saw the horror in her eyes and I just shushed her. The creature slowly walked around looking for us. I noticed that it walked on its four legs with its big arms folded into its chest like a praying mantis. It took a step in our direction and Chloe raised the rifle and aimed. Bang! This gun, especially compared to the shotgun, was almost nothing in noise, but I saw the bullet hit the creature right in the chest. It let out a loud screech but one more of anger rather than pain. It then started sprinting right for us. I thought about shooting again but figured that wouldn’t do anything so I turned my headlamp on and threw it to the other side of the room. It slammed into the wall and then shattered on the linoleum floor, and the creature immediately turned and started running for it. I grabbed Chloe’s hand and hurried toward the doorway with her just as I heard the creature screech in frustration.
Me and Chloe sprinted through the snow. She was leading the way with her headlamp while I followed behind with my shotgun out ready to shoot if I had to, and in my head, I was screaming to myself for grabbing a shotgun instead of the semi-automatic. I had one more shot before I had to reload so I was determined to make it count. In the snow behind us, I heard the creature's angered screeches as it ran toward us. I stopped and turned around aiming the shotgun.
I could tell without even looking at her that Chloe was terrified. To be fair I was too. Then with one more screech, it appeared on the edge of the light growling and hissing at us. I noticed it was dripping a thick liquid onto the ground that appeared to be blood. Good, it does bleed which means it can die. I thought, and that greatly increased my confidence. Then it made its charge. It was smarter than I gave it credit for because it ran in a zig-zag and the one round Chloe fired completely missed. Then it lunged towards me and one of its large mantis arms slashed deep into my leg right below the knee. I let out a scream and fell to the ground. Then before I could react its teeth were beginning to rip at my back. Bang! Chloe’s first shot got the thing's attention and it moved its mouth from my body. Bang! The second shot right through one of its praying mantis arms, and Bang! The third shot hit it dead in the forehead but its exoskeleton took all the damage. The creature jumped over me and ran towards Chloe who was only about 6 feet away. I watched my whole world begin to fall apart when it jumped on top of her. I saw her struggling to keep its jaws away from her face, and suddenly nothing else seemed to matter but her. I didn’t care if I would die as long as she was safe.
I stood up despite the searing pain in my leg and made a snowball in my left hand.
“HEY JACKWAD!” I screamed at the thing and then threw a snowball for good measure.
Its attention turned back towards me and it sprinted back and jumped onto me knocking me to the ground before I could land a shot. It pinned my right hand holding the shotgun to the ground while I tried to fight its lashing head off with my left. I felt its claws digging into my arms and legs and its arms were unfolding as a likely attempt to kill me, but I never saw what it was about to do because that’s when I executed my plan. I noticed that its bleeding leg was the one holding the gun down so I put all my strength into moving that arm and managed to get it out from under. Then CRUNCH! Its mouth bit down on my left hand and wrist. It opened its mouth and was about to close it to sever my hand, but in a quick motion I wedged the shotgun into its mouth, and BANG!!!!!

It's been awhile since my fat creep friend used my sister's ass so she's been around my place more often. Thing is I had to go to my old secondary school to get my A level certificates to put with my university graduation certificate. Only issue is the woman who has them is an older woman named miss leah whom I've never got along with. Always miserable and not very nice. My older sister however got along with her greatly. So after accompanying her to get them she disappeared into her office. I thought something was wrong when they were still in there after 20 mins. So after deciding to peek in to see what was happening, I nearly fell when I saw my sister bent over the desk, jeans round ger ankles and ass in the ass with miss leahs 65 year old form plunging a purple strap-on repeatedly up my sister's ass, smiling like I'd never seen. I'm at a loss for words. Even when she came out later to the car with the certificate's I couldn't talk.