So, my fiance ( M, 22) and I ( F, 21 ) have been engaged for a little more than a year now. It’s been a rocky road, I just had a baby about 3 months ago and even before the baby was born our sex life has been ridiculous.
For example; I wouldn’t be satisfied, it would slip and hurt me vv badly to the point I would cry, I would be turned off, he would go soft, etc., etc. It’s just a never ending circle of failing. At first maybe around 6-7 months ago, he would go limp and we would both would laugh it off. Later on, I would over think and try to top up my game by taking a shower, brushing my teeth, deodorant all the hygienic stuff right before we went to bed or right before I knew he would wake up (usually our private time). But that wasn’t working either, it made me feel like I wasn’t attractive anymore and we sat down and talked about it. He said that he would just be stressed. So, I tried to make it a little calmer and tried talking to him about things every 2 days so he could get things off his mind and try to relieve the stress, didn’t work. I asked him what positions work for him and what turns him on the most but nothing worked, I felt like even when I’m trying to risk my satisfaction for him it didn’t matter because he wasn’t being satisfied. (I’m not including oral, that area is perfectly fine.) He says that he doesn’t really have any fantasies or things that he wants to try, no matter how much I ask him. I’ve told him that vanilla is wonderful and I would like to do it that way and he would agree until we start getting to it and it’s almost like he never heard me in the first place, even if it was rough I’ve told him what I like but it NEVER happens or happenED.
I’m not sure what to do at this point in time anymore. Some days it’s okay for him, maybe once every week maybe more? but I’m still not getting any satisfaction from anything we’ve been doing. I don’t even thing I’ve got the full sunshine and rainbows since we’ve been together, I would lie about it. I mean it feels good but at the end of it all I’m either hot and sweating or throbbing from overstimulation and not being able to relieve any built up activity.
I have no idea what to do about this at all, I love him. We’ve have some rocky times since the baby but I feel like things have gotten a lot better for us emotionally and mentally since the past two months. I just want us to be able to get through whatever we are going through with our sex life because I mean it’s not like this is a new problem for me. This might sound ridiculous but I started the free month trial for the brand Blew chew (which in my knowledge is chewable viagra) he’s been talking about viagra for the passed 2 weeks so I figured I would surprise him with it? I know we already discussed we don’t want an open relationship, we want to stay together and have had a moment in time where we almost separated due to mental and emotional bumps but we’ve smoothed out the bumps in those areas and we are so happy together when it comes to loving each other and loving our 2 kids. We have so much fun with the kids and just by ourselves, but when it comes to both of us in the bedroom I don’t know what to do.
If anyone might have any advice please let me know! Thank you!

I made a post on May 3 how badly I was beaten by my boyfriend. While I tried to dial 911 on his phone and was unsuccessful to make a call go thru because he was fighting me. I never made a a report. It’s May 14. I also am on the hyper frequency list. As in the police in my neighborhood visit me bi weekly and ask me if there is something I need to report on my abuser. The dv officers came like a few days after the attack. Obviously I didn’t report anything. I’ve gotten a recent amount of new information from my abuser that has completely made me walk away. He has been cheating on me a lot and contracted an std. I cannot put my health at risk any more from this man who beats the day lights out of me on a daily basis and forces me to do these unwanted things.
Is it too late to report any of this? Or is it better for me to just have him leave my life completely and not peruse any of this legally? It took me 6 years but I finally want out of this completely. This would be my second time attempting to leave. I’m so unsure what to do. I already know the lash back I will face from the police for not reporting this right when it happened. And for the fact I kept seeing him and lying to the cops when they came to my door every two weeks. I’m so confused and lost on what’s the proper way to move on from here is. I told him we are done. And now obviously he’s begging to stay and to not contact the police. I’m disgusted with this individual but maybe this is what had to happen in order for me to finally have the strength to leave.
I thankfully do not rely on him for any housing or money. So leaving him now won’t be hard as I’m already emotionally detached from this person.
What I’m asking humbly from this group is any help and advice. I hate to be a burden but I really do need some advice. Thank you so much in advance!

I've started out in concert photography - for me it was always just a hobby, since I love live music and just wanted better photos than my phone could manage.
I only have a Sony A5100 and 2 lenses, Zeiss 32mm and Sony 50mm. I deliberately got it because it wasn't massive and since it's now 10 years old didn't assume there would be an issue taking it to shows I was already going to.
However it seems that it's viewed as a "professional" camera - and as much as I understand the rules and why some of them are in place when I'm stood in the crowd hardly able to see behind a sea of phone filming entire songs, the fact I can't pop a camera up for a few seconds seems insane, not mention the photos I've seen come from the high end phones these days are very impressive.
So my question is:
Is it worth trying to sneak it in to smaller venues that state a restriction? E.g. Removing the lens, pretending the body is a compact (since it's about the same size as a ZV-1) and stashing the lens in a coat pocket or wherever?
Has anyone done this and is it worth the risk? I know I've not been doing it long (4 months) but all attemps to contact artists, tour managers, labels etc goes mostly to nothing - any tips for how to improve this?

Last night, when I was home alone, a hand reached out from under the couch and grabbed me.
Nobody was there to see it, and nobody that I’ve told believes me, but it definitely happened. It’s not the kind of thing you can just imagine, and I’m sure now that it wasn’t a dream.
I was watching TV when it happened. The remote fell under the couch and I started fishing around for it without really looking, not wanting to get up from my seat. I brushed it with the tips of my fingers and it slid further underneath.
I was super annoyed— I had to get down on my knees to reach it. I finally found the remote, and that’s when it grabbed me.
As I pulled the remote out into the light, a hand shot up from under the couch and wrapped its fingers around my wrist.
I was able to yank myself away quickly. It didn’t hold on tight— just enough that I felt a little resistance. I jumped to my feet, obviously terrified.
I didn’t scream or anything. I was honestly too scared to even make a sound. My heart was beating so fast that my ears started to ring. The TV was still going, commercials droning on while I tried to process what had just happened.
The hand had only come out about a foot from under the couch. It had an arm attached to it, though I wasn’t able to see past its elbow, and it slinked back below the couch as soon as I pulled myself free from its grasp.
It didn’t hurt, and it didn’t leave any sort of bruise or mark or anything on my wrist, but I definitely felt it, and I definitely saw it.
All I could do was stare at the spot where the hand had appeared. I stood there for what felt like an eternity, until I heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps right outside my front door.
I live in a second-story apartment. It’s a pretty cramped place and a pretty old building, so whenever someone comes over I can usually hear footsteps from the moment they enter the building downstairs.
I guess I was so freaked out by the hand that I didn’t even notice someone was outside until they were already opening the door.
My roommate walked in on quite a scene. She immediately registered how off the vibe was. I could see it on her face.
She found me standing upright in the middle of our living room, TV remote in hand, facing away from the screen while Full House’s laugh track filled the air. I’m sure I’d think it was odd too.
“Hey…” she said, shifting a paper bag full of groceries in her arm while she pocketed her keys, “You good?”
I felt like I was caught with my pants down, but just seeing a familiar face brought some of the blood back to my fingers.
“N—yeah,” I stuttered. I came back online, and flicked the TV off.
I felt her eyes on me as she walked over to the kitchen. There’s no wall or anything dividing the two rooms. Like I said, the place is pretty cramped.
She started putting her groceries away as if everything was normal, but I could tell she wanted to ask what was up.
I kept looking back and forth between her and the couch. I can’t explain it, but I already knew that if I looked under there, I wouldn’t find any trace of whoever (or whatever) grabbed me.
As she started loading up the fridge, I dropped to my hands and knees once again. Without taking even a second to ready myself, I brought my head down to the ground and looked under the couch.
Nothing.
Pretty much what I expected. There was barely enough room for me to squeeze my arm under there for the remote. No way a whole person could fit beneath that thing, and even if they could, there’s no way I wouldn’t have seen them or heard them or something before they grabbed me.
“Seriously, what’s up?”
I looked up to see my roommate standing right behind me, arms crossed, clearly concerned.
I knew I was acting strange, and I knew that nothing I would come up with in the next five seconds could possibly excuse my behavior. I made a judgement call, honestly not really caring about how it would be received.
“I uh… something grabbed me earlier.”
“What?”
“Under the couch. I dropped the remote, and when I picked it up, a hand reached out from under the couch and grabbed me.”
Took her a second to respond.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“That’s it. A hand reached out and grabbed me by the wrist. It happened like a minute before you got here.”
That part might have been a lie. I actually have no idea how long I had been standing in the middle of the room before she showed up.
“Wait so like someone broke in?”
“No. It’s just like I said. A hand reached out, grabbed me, and then it was gone.”
She just kinda looked at me for a while. I don’t blame her, but it’s not like there was any way for me to sugarcoat it.
“Are you sure?”
“What do you mean ‘am I sure?’ Yes, yes I’m fucking sure!”
My voice broke a little when I said that. I was still down on my knees, like I was praying for her to believe me.
“Okay well obviously that didn’t happen Sam.”I let out a desperate laugh and threw my hands up in the air. I slapped them down on my thighs dramatically and shook my head in exasperation.
“Yeah obviously it sounds fucking crazy but you asked what happened and that’s what happened. I don’t know how else to describe it. I’m just being honest.”
I pulled myself up to my feet and walked around to the armrest of the couch. She kept studying me, probably thinking this was all a prank or something.
“What are you doing?” She asked, arms still glued across her chest.
“I’m checking under the couch.”
I pushed one end of the couch away from the wall. It was pretty heavy, and the coffee table stopped me from moving it too far. I dragged the coffee table towards the TV to free up some space.
My roommate started staring at the spot I was clearing as if she expected to see something there too.
I went back over to the armrest.
“Can you help me?”
She snapped out of her trance and silently went to grab the other side. We pulled the couch away from the wall, revealing a thick rectangle of dust that had not seen the light of day since we moved in a year ago.
I dropped to my knees once more and began wiping away the grime with my bare hands. There was nothing but the floorboards beneath it. No surprise.
I sat there for a second, eyes darting around the floor. No fingerprints in the dust, no scratches or marks or anything. I felt the tension in the room dissipate as my roommate found her voice again.
“I think you must have imagined it.”
I didn’t. There’s no way.
“Dude, no. I felt it and I saw it. Clear as day. It was a hand, and it grabbed me. That’s not the sort of thing you can just imagine.”
She scoffed, any fear left in her giving way to frustration.
“Whatever. This is fucking stupid. I’m going to bed.”
She stomped off towards her room.
“Wait.”
She spun on her heels as I stood up, probably expecting me to tell her I was joking about the whole thing.
“Can you help me flip the couch over?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Sure. But I’m not helping you put it back.”
She helped me lift the couch off of its legs and tilt it onto its front cushions, exposing the fabric underneath. She disappeared into her room and I went to work studying the underside of the sofa.
There was a zipper lining the bottom, but I found nothing inside when I opened it up. Just a hollow wooden frame and a bunch of crumbs.
I sat back against the wall, more tired than scared at that point.
I can’t believe she thinks I’m making this up. Why would I even do that? What purpose would it serve?
As I solemnly went about rebuilding our living room, I decided that the next day (today) I was gonna take off work, wait for her to leave, and really get to the bottom of this.
I didn’t sleep at all last night. Every nook and cranny of my room felt like a door left wide open, with something sinister waiting on the other side.
What if the hand comes back? What if it wants to hurt me next time? How can I even protect myself?
After like ten restless minutes in bed, I decided to move to the floor. I couldn’t help it. I kept imagining the hand reaching up from under the bed and grabbing me again.
I made a makeshift sleeping bag out of my comforter and some pillows, and I laid on my side so I could keep an eye on the underside of my bedframe while I slept. Maybe “slept” isn’t the right word. Even down there, I couldn’t bring myself to close my eyes for longer than a minute.
Eventually sunlight began to peek through the blinds, and I heard some movement within the apartment. My roommate was finally up. I heard the front door close, and it was time to get to work.
I nearly threw my back out yanking the couch away from the wall to reveal the floorboards underneath. They aren’t real floorboards, just the kind of cheap-o fake shit they put in crappy houses to make them look more modern. Our whole apartment is like that— a thin coat of paint slapped over an old building from the 40s or whatever.
My dad actually owns this building. He lets me and my roommate stay here as long as we pay him $500 a month, which is way cheaper than most places in my area.
It’s not really an apartment building to be honest. You can tell it used to be a family home before some realtor swooped in and broke it up into apartments. There are a lot of those around here.
Anyway, the fake wood came up easy. It was only about a quarter inch thick. I was able to pull up the first plank by hammering a kitchen knife into a slit between the boards, and then I peeled a few more away by hand.
After prying away about a dozen of these fake floorboards, I started to realize that I wasn’t going to find anything without making a significantly larger dent. Right beneath the thin layer of fake wood was a layer of very real, very thick wooden beams that seemed to span well beyond the hole I had managed to claw open.
My back crackled and popped as I sat back on my heels to admire my handiwork and contemplate where to go from there. I knew I would need a power saw or some kind of heavy duty tool to get any deeper, but I was afraid of two things:

1. That these beams were supporting the entire second floor of the building, and cutting through them would make the whole thing collapse
2. That going any deeper would lead me into the ceiling of the apartment below us, and whoever lives there would call my dad before I could see what I needed to see.

Regardless of the risks, I knew I had to keep going. I was certain that something was down there. Whatever grabbed me had to have left some sort of evidence.
I can’t stop thinking about that fucking hand.
I’m not supposed to have it, but my dad gave me a master key for the whole building in case of emergencies. He could really get in trouble if anyone found out, but if this isn’t an emergency then idk what is.
There’s a service shed around the back of the building, which has seen none of the love that the main building saw when it was renovated. Decades worth of rusty antiques and rotting furniture line the walls. A shiny, modern tool bench sits unnaturally in the middle of the chaos.
I rifled through all of that shit as fast as I could. I’m not really close with my dad all things considered, and I’m sure he’d be super pissed if he found me out there. He’s so secretive about random shit all the time, and he’s constantly dropping by the building unannounced.
I found the jigsaw under a pile of old newspapers and ran back upstairs.
I probably should have checked the driveway to see if anyone was home first, because the saw made so much noise. The cord barely reached from the outlet to the spot where the couch used to be, but as awkward as the angle was, I was still able to get it in there.
I went as small as possible with my first few cuts. I started with a single beam, cutting out a section about 6x6 inches wide. I slid the chunk of wood out, and, to my relief, didn’t immediately see the plaster that would be my downstairs neighbor’s ceiling.
A tuft of insulation stuck out where I made the hole. I didn’t know that stuff is made from fiberglass or whatever, and I got a really bad splinter when I went to yank it out.
I fished some leather gloves out of my roommate’s closet and got to work on the insulation. I pulled and pulled but couldn’t get a good enough grip to remove anything more than a few bits about the size of a tennis ball.
I went back in with the jigsaw, cutting bigger and bigger chunks until I had cleared a hole about two feet in diameter.
No sign that I was gonna bring the building down, that’s good.
I hacked away for hours. More wood came up, more insulation came up, and when I finally hit a fragile-looking layer of drywall, I knew the jig was up. That’s definitely my neighbor’s ceiling. Fuck.
My roommate and I got in a screaming match when she got home. I made a pretty big mess but I don’t really give a fuck honestly.
I don’t give a fuck if she believes me. I fucking hate that bitch. I told her if she tells my dad what I’m doing, I’ll bash her brains in with the hammer. That shut her up. She left with a bag full of her clothes like an hour later.
Tomorrow I’m going to wait for our downstairs neighbor to leave and start investigating from the bottom-up. If there wasn’t any evidence on the floor up here, there HAS to be something on the ceiling down there.
If I do find something, I’ll post again. I doubt anyone will even believe me, but at this point I just want everything written down somewhere accessible in case something bad happens.
There has to be something down there. Something grabbed me. And I’m going to find out what it is.

AM I TAH?
So for starters my best friend from kindergarten is mad at me. 19 years of friendship.
They recently started “ghosting me” (ignoring my messages/phone calls) this isn’t nothing out of the usual as she does have a mental disorder (BPD) we call it their “going rouge” episodes so I didn’t think much of it. They usually snap out of it within a month or so. Well it was well over 6 months and they’ve been active on fb, snap, and everything else. Ignoring my meme tags. That’s never been like them before. So I messaged and asked if they were seriously ok, and if I did something to make them mad… well I got a long message…
They said there was 2 main reasons why they weren’t talking to me anymore.
They said I was “acting better” than them bc I told them my car was 30,000 dollars more than theirs… just wait here me out.. they got a car that was a fraction of the cost of mine (nothing wrong with that at all) but they were crying to me on the phone when it had broke down and said they thought maybe it was a bad decision. I tried to reassure them that just because it may break down it’s cheaper to fix than buying a new one. As they claim they don’t want a huge car payment.
A brief explanation my car was 30,000 and it has had almost 9,000 dollars of warranty work done. (Thank god for extended warranties) My car has been in the shop more than I had it.
As they was crying to me overthinking their decision I tried to reassure them that hey, all cars break down. “My car was 30,000 and broke down so many times at least you will have way less than that put into your car after you get it fixed. (Their car needed a new head gasket). They claim I was trying to make it seem like mine was more expensive than theirs
I’m not saying this to be mean at all because I truly have tried to work with them with their diagnosis. But All our lives they’ve always made everything a competition. They’ve lived with a narcissist and their parent was diagnosed with it.
Their second reason to “ghost me” was recently they and their partner were looking at buying a house. The house next to me became up for sale. We both thought it would be a perfect idea. (Not knowing the price) They wanted me to ask the realtor how much they wanted for it. Come to find out it’s over quarter of a million dollar house. With 40+ acres. They advised me both of their credit aren’t the greatest and asked if I could put my name on the loan with them as my credit is almost near perfect and If I could help them with a down payment. (They know I have a good chunck saved up for when I buy a home)
I told them I was not comfortable doing it as I don’t even have my own home yet, and when I do go to buy my home it will show I already own a home. (Their home) I advised them that getting a mortgage is harder than just going to a bank and getting approved for an absurd amount as the average houses in our area go for 60-90k (we live in a very small run down town) they are both just starting out, no kids and this house is a 4 bedroom 3 bath house. I told them I don’t know if the bank would even qualify all 3 of us combined.
I make 40,000 a year. 14 an hour. I work OVERTIME. Almost 70 hours a week. 66 hours regularly. More if I get called in on call.. I am single and asexual (a little tmi but it matters here) I do not plan on having a partner in the future. So I will be a one income person. So I need to save up as much as I can now so I will be able to afford my mortgage with a good down payment when time comes. Their significant other makes 15+ and they make 14+ an hour. More than double what I make, they both live with their parents with hardly any bills… (some but not to the point they shouldn’t be able to save) I have bills, car payment, drive a lot for work I spend a lot in gas and pay rent. Neither of them have major bills.
They’re seriously mad at me for telling them I can’t risk not being able to afford to live comfortably. I can’t take that risk. We grew up and still live in the 5th poorest county in our state. We all got lucky to get good jobs as most around here are minimum wage jobs. I seriously do not want to grow up in poverty like we did growing up. It may sound silly but my goal in life is to own my own home and be somewhat financially stable and not have to live off the government to survive as all 3 of us had to do growing up. That is my ONLY goal in life.
In my closing statement I really love them to death. We literally grew up together. Our families are so bonded we are all a family. It hurts me they are not talking to me because “I made my self look better than them” and “I made it seem like they won’t go anywhere in life” I’ve NEVER thought that at all in my life. I AM their biggest supporter. We see our selves siblings. I’m hoping this is just something we can get over.
So am I the asshole for trying to comfort them letting them know even if they fix their car it’s still the best route as all cars can have major break downs like mine, and for telling them no for putting my name on a mortgage that wouldn’t even be my home?

Little Author's Note up here since it was missed in the last chapter by some people: I don't approve of anyone "narrating" or using my story for their youtube channels or whatever as it makes me uncomfortable. I’ve been getting messages whenever I post a chapter asking the same thing and I keep saying no. If you see this story on youtube or elsewhere, I didn’t approve of it or give them my permission to do so.
Also I hope you enjoy this chapter, I had some difficulty writing it, so it’s probably not my best quality.
Cerelia, Altrin Female, Captain of The Opal Star
I smirk at my wrist data pad as I can see Triwt is basically hunting and chasing down the remaining pirates while expertly leading them to me for a trap.
“Triwt, you know me so well.” I say with a fully smug tone as I ready my rifle and prepare to open fire.
Not yet
The footsteps are getting louder.
Not yet…
The footsteps, given how good my hearing is, have now rounded the corner and there’s a shriek of terror.
“Boys! Turn back and save your damn Captain! The damn girl has me!”
I can’t help but smirk, it seems the ugly bastard did come aboard the ship. What’s better is that Triwt has grabbed him, leaving the remaining 4 pirates not looking this way.
Now.
Triwt, Female Valis-Trobat Hybrid, Security Commander
I’m slightly annoyed as I have to constantly dodge and weave going through the corridor. These dumbasses aren’t even aiming where they're shooting. I quickly duck low to the ground to dodge a barrage of plasma bolts, when I hear the one thing I was looking forward to. Click click click…
Silence follows the clicking of empty TOR’s besides the frantic running. It’s then replaced by one of the pirates, not the Captain, shrieking as she runs ahead of the others in a panic. In no sense am I a sadistic person, but however in this situation, I might have smiled a bit to her reaction as I pick up the pace and quickly enter melee range.
Hm, maybe we can afford one prisoner…
I see the corner coming up as I whip my body around and grab the Captain with my tail.
EWWWW He’s all slimy and mucusy! Goddess this is worse than Jordan Cores bleeding on my fur. EWWW!!!
“Boys! Turn back and save your damn Captain! The damn girl has me!”
Despite my own internal hatred of the sensation of having to get that gross slime like mucus on my tail of all things, I still pull the Captain back as they round the corner looking back at me as they abandon their captain. I give them a wave right before a hail of gunfire shreds through them, leaving only a fine mist.
I’m surprised Cerelia is allowed to even own such a modified weapon. I can’t even shoot it while holding it with all 4 of my arms due to the recoil! She says it’s registered as a ceremonial weapon. I suppose a sudden funeral is a ceremony in itself.
I smirk at the thought before returning my attention to this gross captain wrapped up in my tail.
Cerelia, Altrin Female, Captain of The Opal Star
I let out a relaxed sigh as I released the trigger from my grip. I don’t particularly enjoy battle, but there seems to be something within my own instincts that triggers dopamine at the end of a battle.
Probably something to do with Altrins being a hunter race before we were modern and spacefaring. Might have to ask a historian about that, if not at the very least a psychologist.
I lower my rifle as Triwt slithers down the hall, her fur undeniably red in a few spots where her fur was exposed, but mostly on her uniform. She keeps going with the Alcoranth Captain being dragged along by her tail, already bound up and gagged.
“I can deal with the blood of Jordan Cores, but take this bastard away from me before I slit his throat for getting mucus on my tail.”
Oh, she is pissed. She’s just doing a good job at mostly containing it.
I nod before speaking, “Just knock him out for now and we’ll put him in a cryopod or something. His slime-like excretions from his skin might make him an easy flight risk since we can assume he can slip out of handcuffs and other bindings fairly easily.”
Triwt nods at me and uses a Stun Baton to knock him out for now after hitting him with probably more volts than regulated.
I suppose it’s better than bashing his head against the wall until he passes out.
The remaining guards who were left with me take the now prisoner captain away from Triwt and begin transporting him to a cryopod room meant for emergencies like if the ship’s thrusters stop working and we’re years away from rescue.
We could just set up an SOS frequency broadcast and then put everyone in cryo until rescue arrives. But now, it’s a makeshift prison for a cowardly pirate.
Now… for the real battle in all of this. The battle on the inside.
Lys, Verkrawn Male, Fauna Research Specialist
Silence. Well, except my ears are ringing from the sound of gunfire that has now stopped.
I take in a shaky breath in what feels like the first time in forever. Everything is shaking now that the fighting seems to have stopped. It seems I’m not the only one who was holding their breath for so long as other crew members near me seemed to breathe in, while a few start to break down crying.
We’re not fighters like security, Triwt, or Cerelia. Most of us had never seen people die, to say the least how brutal it was to see how Jordan Cores attacked the Alcoranth. I feel my face with my clawed hands and feel the warm liquid of my tears running down my face.
When did I start crying?
The realization hit me like a powerloader as it’s my turn to break down crying, my own legs failing me as they shook before I found myself weeping on the floor as the thoughts and emotions flooded my head with what happened and how terrible this was. I keep crying as I feel the large paw of my older sister as she slowly sits me up and holds me in a warm embrace. It makes me think about when I was younger. The days when she and I were in the orphanage. She used to hold me just like this after she would chase away the older kids who would be mean to me. I still remember some of the things she’d say to them.
“I don’t care if a Verkawn’s scales can deflect most bullets, he still has feelings!” The first thing she ever said to the bullies as she chased them off. It was also the day I met her. She had lost her family due to a Slaver raid on the colony world she was living on at the time. She didn’t tell me much about it, and I doubt she would tell me even today, but she always called me her little brother, so I started calling her my older sister. It’s been like that since.
I keep crying until it’s more of a sniffle as I slowly return the embrace.
“They will never hurt you like they hurt me, Lys.” She whispers to me before slowly turning her attention to the crew members with a sad expression. “Nor any of you. Oh, none of this was ever supposed to happen.”
“Y-You can’t predict pirates, Cerelia”
“I know, but they got so close to hurting and enslaving you. I failed to keep you all safe.”
“Cerelia, we’re fine. No one got hurt physically. We should probably just go to the nearest planetary city, maybe see some therapists and psychologists while the ship gets repaired.”
Cerelia nods as she thinks about what I said.
“Yeah, but what about the furless beast? What are we supposed to do about it?” A member says as everyone was slowly coming to grips that they are alive and well. “Are we just going to keep it here? Who knows if it’ll attack us again like it did to Lys or that Alcoranth on the floor there!?”
“He was scared!” Cerelia counters, with a hint of personal anger in her tone. “He couldn’t understand us and was only trying to escape because he thought he was in danger!”
“He was in danger? He is the danger for all I’ve seen!” They countered as I felt like shrinking down and hiding away, before a bit more of an emotional burning sensation rose up in me.
“Shut up!” I suddenly snapped. Silence follows as they wait for me to say something. I have never raised my voice.
“Sure, they found us in here because Jordan Cores had a chip on him, but he didn’t know about it! Not only that, but he at least protected us from that psychopath, breaking his own body and getting shot before doing so! You haven’t even had time to interact with him. While my interactions with him were brief, I could at least tell that he was scared and that he was sorry!” I huff as I silently cry again as I look at both Cerelia and the crew member. I think their name is R’dorn. They’ve always been brash and rude, so I had a tendency to avoid them.
R’dorn looks at me annoyed, but as they are seemingly unable to come up with a good counter argument, they storm out of the safe room.
I look at Cerelia and Triwt before sighing and sitting down. “Sorry…”
“It’s alright, you kinda said what we were all thinking.” Someone says as they place a wing on me. “That, and R’dorn needs to shut up every now and then.” There’s sounds of agreement before it becomes a group embrace of comfort. Much different to huddling in fear.
“So wait, where is Jordan Cores now? Is he okay?”
“He’s in Med Bay 07’s only regeneration pod. He’s going to be fine, but it won’t be a while until he’s out due to his injuries.” Triwt responds as she slithers to the entrance of the room. “How about everyone gets cleaned up, or takes a hot shower to calm their nerves, and in about 2 hours time, we can see how Jordan Cores is holding up?”
That sounds like a good idea. To wash away the stress and some time to think, it sounds super nice.
I let out a sigh and nod. “Yeah, that sounds good to me… I’ll be there then. I guess if everyone else wants to show up, you can as well? Not like I can stop you or force you to, but the suggestion is there. Just trying to be considerate.”
With that, I stand up and I’m escorted back to my room to try and freshen up and clear my head.
And that is chapter 9! I was personally a little bit of mental and emotional wreck while writing because sometimes I don't know what I'm doing. At least that's how it feels. Gonna try and do some experimenting as I kinda want to explore some places now as we’ve been stuck on The Opal Star since the very beginning. So what are we feeling? A desert world, tropical world, or maybe a world that’s high in gravity, but Jordan seems to be just fine? Let me know your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions below, and thank you so much for reading!
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Here's a build I made heavily capitalizing on the OneDnd weapon masteries. The idea is to attack the strongest melee monster in combat to slow down its approach in the party so that the rest or the party can take care of the scrubs first before taking on the big guy. This also deals decent damage to said monster so that it goes down fairly easily once it does get to the party.
-Ancestry: Wood elf and take the alert feat. Throwing weapons don't generally have as good of range as normal ranged weapons, so the extra 5-15 feet of speed will help you to run forward, attack and step back. Alert is there to assure you go before your enemies so that you can delay their movement towards the party before it begins.
-1st level: Fighter. Choose the dueling fighting style and the Trident, Javelin, and Handaxe weapon masteries. Try to guage when monsters have high and low strength. When they have low strength, attack with a trident to try to topple them. When they have high strength, don't risk it and attack with the Javelin to slow them. When you don't care about slowing enemies, attack with two handaxes for a little extra damage. When a monster has 30 feet of movement, you can reduce their speed to 20 or 15 feet when you hit them.
-2nd: Fighter. Action surge can be used to either slow/topple two targets or attempt to slow/topple a target again when you miss/fail.
-3rd: Fighter. Take Battlemaster as your subclass. Take pushing attack, Precision attack, and menacing attack. When you succeed a pushing attack and a topple with a trident, then a monster with a 30 foot speed can only get back to where they were standing the turn prior with their movement. And obviously if menacing attack procs, then they can't move move towards the party at all until their next turn.
-4th: Fighter. Take charger to get STR to 18 and for extra pushing. If you push a monster 10 feet and topple them, they'll only be able to gain 5 feet from their previous turn. If you proc pushing attack as well, then even after their full movement, they still lose 5 feet.
There's no weapon masteries you particularly need right now, but sap is a nice defensive mastery at this level, so you might as well grab mastery in spear.
-5th: Fighter. With 2 attacks, you can use both trident and a javelin to both slow and topple an enemy. With the 10 foot push from charger, if slow and topple both proc, a monster with a 30 foot speed with gain 0 feet after using their full movement. If you use pushing attack as well, then they will lose 15 feet after full movement.
-6th: Fighter. You don't want to just push STR to 20, because you'll be taking Dual Wielder at 8th level. That said, no other feats are particularly needed for this build, so it's your choice between Athlete, Heavy Armor Master, or Sentinel, depending on what your party needs to get your STR to 19.
-7th: Fighter. The knew version of Know your Enemy is good, though it doesn't change this builds strategy at all.
Also take trip attack and rally. Trip Attack is weird, as you have to declare it after your attack hits, and presumably before the enemy makes their save against topple, so you should use it when you just really want to make sure an enemy falls prone. Use rally whenever you're about to take a short rest.
-8th: Fighter. Take Dual Wielder and push STR to 20. It will become relavent next level.
-9th: Fighter. Change dagger's mastery to slow and spear's mastery to push. Also, swap out dealing fighting style with two weapon fighting. Now, you can attack with a spear (push), then a dagger (slow), then make a bonus action attack with your trident (topple). If all of them proc with charger, then the monster will lose 10 feet, even after using their full movement. If used with pushing attack, then the monster loses 25 feet, even after using their full movement.
Also, swap out your javelin mastery for handaxe mastery and change it to nick, so if you need to use your bonus action on your turn for second wind or know your enemy, you can still throw a handaxe after firing your hand crossbow for the extra damage.
-10th: Fighter. Pick up rapier weapon mastery so that when you just need to do melee damage, you can benefit from vex.
Also, while there are some good battlemaster maneuvers like parry and riposte thatmake good use of your reaction, pushing attack and menacing attack are really important to your battle strategy, and tripping attack is still a good option for when you aren't trying to slow enemies down. You should take one of them so that you have both for later, but I recommend taking Commanding Presence or Tactical Assesment as your second, as they are less likely to compete for the same resource pool at the same time.
-11th: Fighter. 3 attacks means more pushing, or an increased chance of procing slow. Monsters with 30ft movement now lose 20 feet after using full movement and 45 feet if you use pushing attack. If you don't actually need to do that much pushing, then choose the damage from charger instead of the push.
-12th: Fighter. This is sort of a free feat, but also we all know it's time for resilient (wisdom)
-13th: Fighter. If you miss with an attack, you should make your next attack with a dagger, as it is more important to proc slow than a push, as reducing a creature's movement speed also affects how much movement they have when they stand up from prone.
-14th: Fighter. Extra feat. By this level, it should be clear what is needed for your party or campaign. My best guess is that this will most often be Sharp Shooter to help with the poor range of thrown weapons. I heavily considered multiclassing at this point, but relentless is just too good to delay.
-15th: Fighter. Relentless is phenomenal. Now you can push enemies up to 50 feet, reduce their movement by 10, and knock them prone every round at no resource cost. Of course that is the best case scenario, but you have to have a very bad round for a large or smaller monster to be able to make any ground on your party. And by using pushing attack as an actual maneuver, you can likely consistently keep two monsters away from the party for a round.
Also, take Ambush at this level for a permanent +1d6 to all initiative rolls on top of the +5 you have from alert at this level.
-16th: Barbarian. Slow and Topple can only proc against an enemy once per turn, so another action surge and an eventual 4th attack aren't benefiting us as much as extra accuracy would, so you're going to start taking Barbarian levels. However, the first level of Barbarian doesn't really get you much, as you won't want to spend a bonus action to rage that often, and you already have all the weapon masteries you need.
-17th: Barbarian. Reckless Attack is the reason you're taking Barbarian levels. Advantage on every attack means you are significantly more likely to proc all of your abilities.
-18th: Barbarian. Which subclass you take will depend on whether or not other party members have easy access to giving the party temporary hp. If not, Wild Tree has a wonderful ability that can make you are your party sturdier that is worth the use of the bonus action. If so, then Berserker adds enough extra damage to make raging worth it.
-19th: Fighter. Another feat. Probably lucky, if you didn't take it at 14th.
-20th: Although the extra action surge doesn't help you with this fighter build as much as others, extra damage is still always valuable. Especially since you're generally going to be attacking the strongest monster in the room.

Welcome to the Reverse: 1999 Daily Questions Megathread!

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This is going to be a long one so heads up.
A bit of back story; I started dating my husband when I was 15. I chased this boy thorugh hell and back just to get a chance. Problems between us were immediate but didn't seem significant at the time. A few months into our relationship he had an adult "friend" that was telling him he needed to get control of me or "put me in my place" (referencing he should hit me). He didn't but the ego it gave him was a hard battel. 8 months into our relationship my mother forced me to move states because I was starting the process of emancipation and she didn't like that. I was still going through with it, it was just a buffer. 2 weeks after I left he was flirting with my friends. We were on and off for 3 months long distance before I said I had enough. When my emancipation was complete (6 months after I moved and about 3 months after we officially split) I let him know because we were still in touch. It was a few days after that he decided he wanted to try things again and came to me. Just a few days of being with me he decided he wanted to go home, with or without me. I reluctantly agreed to go with him even though I was comfortable where I was. We stayed in a trailer for months in the snow with no power or heat but I toughed it out. Eventually we moved in with his family. During that time he broke up with me multiple times to mess aground with other girls. We ended up moving again and he would be gone all the time hanging out with his friends. There were nights I would beg him, crying, for him to just come home and he would refuse We ended up moving again and spent some time with my family (i was 17). 3 days in he called his mom to have someone pick him up. He regretted it and I went and picked him up and brought him back. A few months after that he decided to leave again. 3 days later I was feeling weird. I just had an odd feeling, I didn't miss my period or anything but I had a friend get me a pregnancy test anyway. It came out positive. I didn't want kids, I never did. But I decided to keep the baby because he wanted to. He promised a better life. So he comes and picks me up and we move back in with his family. Everything was going great. Then I miscarried. After the miscarriage he was upset, he was really excited about having a kid. We talk about it and he talked me into trying for one on purpose, his family agreed with this. He promised to drop the weed, drop the beer, get a job and work his ass off for us. That never really happened. So here I am 17, and 5 months pregnant, he has 3 tall cans of beer in his system and starts being an ass. We get into it and he lays his hands on me. I locked him out of the room that night. So he finally drops the alcohol for good. We end up moving again. We got married the day I turned 18 because of his religious family. We fought about the weed and he "quit". But in reality he was just doing it behind my back. He would get mad at me for calling people out on their fake service dogs (I have a service dog and the fakes put me at great risk). He held a job for a really long time, making good money, and spoiling the shit out of me. Eventually we argue about the weed again. I almost left but he said he wouldn't be doing it anymore. Then again we argue about the weed, this time I agree to let him have dab carts. 2 a week. He ended up with between 3-5 a week. Things were really good for a long time after that.
Keep in mind everything I listed was not the entire relationship. Between all these bad moments there are lots of great ones. I have thousands of happy pictures and videos of us.
Now to recently. We moved back to our hometown. He spent a lot of time hanging out with his buddies and leaving me with the baby. He started smoking flower again and had the sudden urge to drink again. I was alone 90% of the time. So where do I go? I have a boy best friend that has been through hell and back with me since the first day of middle school. So I spent a lot of time hanging out with him while my husband was off fucking around like a child. Then the weird questions came in. "Are you doing anything with him while I'm gone?" "Your not cheating on me right?" Ect. No I wasn't. About a week ago I told my bsf I was picking him up from work. While I was in the parking lot waiting my husband calls insiting I pick him up first. I told him no because I didn't have room in the car for both and I was already there waiting. Well that started this whole fit about how asking him to wait 10 minutes was prioritizing my bsf over my husband. Eventually we get to my friends house, and my husband was waiting for us. He was just talking shit and being an ass for 20 minutes before he decided to leave in MY CAR. We argue over text for a while and then he tells me he's done with me. Fine. I give up. I don't care anymore. Then 30 minutes later he's accusing me of cheating with my bsf. He has told all his friends and family that I'm a hoe (my body count is 2 including him and the other one is NOT my bsf). My bsf has been doing his best to take care of me and help me out. Feeding me, taking over the baby, putting gas in my car, letting me stay the night. He's been a life saver for me.
Now it's a week later and he's asking if there is a chance we can work things out in the future... I love him I really do. He has lots of issues tho but so do I. My BPD makes me hard to handle sometimes as do my other mental and health problems.
I'm sure I know what the answer is already but what do I do? I'm a mess.

18F, 5'7, possible endo, severe menstrual pain and appetite loss. at my limit with my symptoms and have no idea where to go from here.
Around March/April 2023 I began having 2 periods a month, significantly heavier than usual and significantly more painful than I've ever had. This pain has been so significant it will make me curl to the ground when I have cramps, even with alternating 800mg Ibuprofen 2-4x daily and Tylenol.
had been on Hailey Fe 1.5/30 for 4 years, and after discussing with my doctor I then went on Ortho-Cyclen (28). My doctor believed it to be PCOS after my ovaries appearsd to have too many immature follicules (I've had 4 ultrasounds since, all of which state everything looks normal), and stayed the Ortho-Cyclen was more effective for women with PCOS). I had no improvement and continued pain, so we discussed the potential of Endometriosis (I also have cyclic difficulty urinating with my period), and I had the Mirena IUD inserted.
Shortly after insertion (~2 weeks) I began noticing appetitie loss (not nausea, more just a complete lack of desire to eat food, nothing seems appetitizing ever and forcing it down makes me feel sick). Besides this, I've had a great experience with the IUD- no bleeding, and while I still have pain, it's tolerable if I alternate Ibuprofen and Tylenol.
Fast foward to now, the appetite loss has gotten so severe that I'm having difficulty eating more than a few bites of food a day. I haven't lost a TON of weight, but I feel insanely weak. I'm usually very active as I'm a full-time college student and figure skate (usually 1-2 hours, 5-6 days per week, now managing once or twice a weak for maybe 30 minutes). I had a hard time getting in with my regular doctor so I was placed with a different OBGYN, who told me it likely wasn't the IUD and to drink smoothies and protein shakes and cream (which I was already doing, main source of nutrition over the past 3 months). She also did several blood tests, which showed nothing other than a slightly elevated Anion Gap (14 iirc). I was told my next option would be remove the IUD and get a Kyleena placed, although that would carry the risk of returned pain. I was told if that would happen, I could get a laproscopic surgery to check for and remove any endometrial lesions. I weighed around 146 at this appointment at the beginning of March. I began bleeding once a month like a regular period just after this appointment as well, after having no bleeding since the insertion (the strings are still in place).
I had no improvement in symptoms and noticeably lost weight, so I visited another doctor (again, could not get in to see either previous doctor until June). At this visit on April 4th, I weighed 128 (~16 lb weight loss). This doctor was incredibly dismissive (as well as two different nurses saying to my face "they wished they had my problem") ans told me she's never seen a case where someone has had appetite loss from IUD and that it was more likely another medication of mine.
I'm on 300mg Modafinil daily for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome I developed in 2022 after getting Influenza A. I've been on this medication since early August 2023 (1.5 months after getting the IUD placed). While I had no increases appetitie loss after starting it, I had suspected this to be the case, so I paused taking it to find no difference in my symptoms back in January. I told her this and she said while she would take the IUD out, she doesn't believe it to be the cause and provided no further discussion on options.
I found IUD insertion to be rather uncomfortable, but no where near as painful as my menstrual cramps. That said, I really didn't want to remove the Mirena and replace it with a Kyleena unless I needed to. I followed up my primary and decided to take a 3 week break from the Modafinil. I've had absolutely zero improvement in symptoms.
Im about to make my appointment to swap the IUDS, but I'm just so frustrated with the care I've recieved.
I understand my weight loss isn't that significant, but for someone like me who has a very consistent weight and a very active lifestyle, it is for me. I can't function how I need to, and my symptoms are interfering with my life significantly. I still have no idea if its PCOS or endometriosis, but I feel my symptoms better align with endo.
Is there any advice anyone can give me going forward? I'm terrified the pain is going to come back after swapping these IUDs, as the pain is so bad I can't handle it twice a month. I can't continue not eating either.
Thank you to anyone who got this far

Hey! I have been spending a lot of time in this subreddit reading other people’s experiences to comfort myself through my own abortion process, and I wanted to share my story for any other uterus-havers out there that were in the same boat as me and need a little reassurance and honesty about the process. For reference, I’m 19F and 5’4/115lbs, and I’ve been with my partner (20M) for almost three years.
I took a pregnancy test on the 40th day of my cycle (so I was five weeks four days along, my period was a week and a half late) and got a very quick positive result. I had a suspicion that I was pregnant because I had some weird spotting in the middle of my cycle and the week my period was supposed to start (no clotting), odd cramps, random nausea from strong smells, needing to pee way more than usual, random sadness and aggression from ovulation onward, extreme breast swelling and sensitivity (they were agonizing to even touch) and an ever so slight bloat that appeared right around ovulation and never really went down. I live in a southern state and knew that going in for procedure was going to be a goat rope despite the fact that I live in a decently sized city- I knew that if I was pregnant I wanted to have the medical abortion at home with my partner.
I ordered pills from AidAccess and it couldn’t have been any simpler, all I had to do was fill out a short survey and they guided me through email on how to pay for the pills. They were delivered about three days after I ordered them in an unmarked mail envelope with directions on how to use them inside. I ordered them a few days before I took the test because I was pretty confident it was going to be positive. They sent me 1 Mifepristone and 12 Misoprostol.
I took the test on a Friday night and told my partner I was pregnant, and he insisted I take another test just to be sure before I took the medication. Once again, another strong positive. At 9pm that night I took 800mg of Motrin (4 pills) and ate a bag of microwave popcorn and drank some water so I’d have something on my stomach. At 9:30 I took the Mifepristone orally and immediately inserted 4 Misoprostol vaginally- I’m terrified of throwing up and told my partner that if we had to get medical help to make sure there weren’t any remnants of the pills left inside. I know it’s NOT OPTIMAL to take the Miso at the same time as the Mife, but it was Easter weekend and I couldn’t be prolonging this process to when I would be going back to my extremely Christian and conservative parents’ house for the holiday.
I was extremely terrified and shaking when I got back into bed with my partner, and he rubbed my stomach to calm me down and put on a movie as a distraction. After about an hour I felt some light cramping and discomfort but nothing serious. At 12:30am, I inserted the next 4 pills vaginally- there was no bleeding at this point and I was worried, but I decided to give it time. My partner and I fell asleep around 1am and I woke up at about 3:15am to some discomfort but no real pain, and at 3:30am I inserted the last 4 pills and had bloody fingers after. I slept until about 10am the next morning and woke up feeling normal and not in any pain. I went to the bathroom to pee, and as soon as I sat down I had about a solid thirty seconds of chunks, clotting, and blood pouring out. I called my partner in and we ultimately determined that I had probably passed the pregnancy with the size of the chunks in the toilet.
Saturday and Easter Sunday were fairly normal, I stayed taking Motrin and bleeding ever so slightly throughout the weekend. The worst part was the hormonal comedown, I felt like I had been hit by a bus emotionally and didn’t really compute actual feelings. Monday morning I got up and went into work feeling pretty normal, and at about 9:30am I got hit with the worst abdominal pain I have ever felt in my life (I’m prescribed opioids for my cramps as a result of how many times I’ve been hospitalized from sheer pain, so this was a big deal) and clung to the toilet bowl for about 45 minutes at my research firm before just calling it a day and going home. I took 800mg of Motrin and it took about two hours to kick- those were probably the worst two hours of my life up to that point. Nothing would shake the pain, I was taking hot baths and putting microwaved bags of rice on my stomach and nothing was alleviating it. I also started bleeding heavily and clotting severely again. By about 2:30pm that afternoon I was feeling okay enough to get myself some food and felt like I would be able to go into work the next day.
I was so wrong. I was so entirely wrong. I woke up at about 8:00am the next morning and immediately vomited from the antagonizing pain I was in. This was the first time I actually threw up during the whole experience- thankfully my partner was there to hold my hair back and try to make me eat toaster waffles so I could take some more Motrin before he went to work. I was somehow able to choke it down and fell asleep shortly after as I did NOT want to be awake. Wednesday was a little crampy and bloody but I went to work and took breaks sitting on the cold bathroom floor for about 15-20 minutes at a time through the day- but by Thursday we were smooth sailing.
The uterine swelling, needing to pee, and breast tenderness went away after about a week and a half, and the bleeding stopped after about two weeks. I took two more pregnancy tests exactly four weeks from that Friday and they were both negative, and my first period was exactly six weeks after the abortion- it started this Friday. Emotionally, I’m still recovering- Mother’s Day kinda sucked for me I won’t lie, haha. I definitely couldn’t handle a baby right now as I’m a research scientist and my career is on the incline, but it’s fun to dream.
I’ll put any resources I used in the comments as this post is getting very long, and I’ll try to answer whatever questions anyone has to the best of my ability. The buildup was definitely scarier than the actual thing, as it was just like having a heavy period drawn out- and if you’re pregnant, you’ve probably had a period before, so just look at it as something you already experience once every 4 weeks, just ever so slightly amped up. Nothing new. You got this!

I am not The OOP, OOP is u/Complex-Wing7114
I have 2 weeks to get away from my husband
Originally posted to offmychest
Thanks to u/soayherder for suggesting this BoRU
TRIGGER WARNING: controlling behavior, threats, abusive behavior, stalking
Original Post Apr 27, 2024
Throwaway account as my husband and In-laws are follow my main. I, 29 F, have been married to my husband, 30 m, who I'll call Alex. Alex and I met in college during our freshman year. We started off as just friends, and got married seven months ago. I've gotten along with his family, but we aren't super close but we're friendly enough. The problem is that Alex has begun to make me incredibly uncomfortable.
Firstly, he's begun to ask me who I'm meeting with, where, what we plan on doing, how long every single time I leave the house without him. At first, I just thought he was being protective and a good partner just in case something happened, but then he started checking my phone after the visits, vetting and researching each of my friends as well.
He also has been pursuing me to link my bank account to his, as he's "in charge" of the finances when he was perfectly fine with keeping them separate before. We fight about it almost every day.
Finally, yesterday when he was preparing to go on a work trip for two weeks in California, he demanded I wear a tracker so he could keep and eye on me while he's gone. I can't do this anymore, I feel like I'm suffocating and his family who I've spoken to about his worrying behavior just said he's being careful and protective as a good husband should. I need to gather my things together and find a way to be gone before he gets home without tipping him off.
He's always threatened that if he ever found me cheating on him he'd turn in divorce papers the same day. He keeps a filled out copy in his desk. I'm going to submit those the day I leave. But there's so much to do, bergen finding a new place to live, seeing if my job has any transfers available, packing and moving in two weeks. His return flight May 11th, so I need to move quickly. I'm posting here because I don't have any close family, and I can't risk dragging my friends into this as we share the same friends.I just needed a place to vent, and ask if anyone has any advice on the easiest and safest way to do this?
Edit: oh my god you guys are amazing! I never even thought to not use his divorce papers. I'll check for cameras before I start any packing or prepping. I may also shred his divorce papers just in case and look into getting a lawyer for myself. I'm in a no fault divorce state, that much I so remember which will help. I'll update again when I know more. The tracker he wants me to use is a small clip to put on the belt or waistband. I'll wear it unless I'm going or doing something related to me leaving. No pets yet thankfully.
Update Apr 28, 2024
So I've gotten a lot of support and helpful advice along with questions I thought I should clarify before I proceed with the update. Some asked why I'd be 'hiding' things from Alex regarding going out and who I'm meeting with. I don't, and I have nothing to hide. However when he begins to then double check everything I tell him with the other people there right down to each person I talked to and what I said. Did I send any text msgs, did I order food, how much did I eat, that's when it started to feel like I was slowly being pushed into a corner. It didn't start that bad, but gradually grew worse overtime.
All of the Reddit subs my in-law's families are part of are related gardening and diy so I highly doubt they'll see this, if so by the time they do, I'll hopefully be gone. I talked to my job and explained things to my manager. And they promised to look into openings in other states to see if they could get me into one. They'll have an update on that in three days. I trust that my bank account us secured, considering he's tried to get into it before and failed. I found one camera in the kitchen, another in the living room and one in our bedroom. As such, I've left them in place for now and done all other planning, either in the bathroom pretending I'm taking a bath.
I'm honestly staying away from the domestic violence services as my sister-in-law is unfortunately higher up in those considering she volunteers there and I have a feeling if I did show up there, they would know in a heartbeat. I can't look for apartments until I get the update from my work, but either or i'm still gonna be leaving the state. The day before I do I will be changing my number carrier and wiping my laptop and all of his electronics before I do.
I've met with 2 lawyers so far and had them look over the paperwork. My husband had prepared and both said that it did it have some clauses in it. That could have caused me some trouble down the line. What alarmed all of us close the fact that several of those clauses dealt with future children, and not as a hypothetical. Like several hair suggested I have a feeling he fully intended on getting me pregnant to keep me trapped and tied to him.
There are 3 other locations. My job could send me to and I have. As a precaution Begun looking into all 3 cities and housing in the areas. Just in case one of those, this is the one they send me to. Even if they don't have an opening that they can push me into then I will just have to quit, move and figure things out on my own. I have enough money to live and survive for a few months until I can pick up another job.
Unfortunately all of our friends are mutuals and would likely be unaware of the consequences of saying or sharing anything I do or say with my husband. I don't have any surviving close family and obviously my in laws are not a good resource to rely on. I am on my own unfortunately, other than the wonderful bonds, i've begun to make here. I will update again if I get more information or something else happens. Otherwise all update when my work gets back to me. I do plan on leaving before he returns, though. Just to make sure that i'm not anywhere near here at that time.
Update 2 Apr 30, 2024
Good news! My work has an opening I qualify for that will not only shift me across the country, but also comes with a salary increase as well. I've started telling my in laws and friends that I'm planning a surprise outing for when my husband gets back for just the two of us. This way, people don't give me odd looks if they see me out and about. I've even gone as far as asking MIL to show me his favorite recipes.
Meanwhile, I've found a moving company that while small is willing to work in a storm. The reason is in five days, we're supposed to get hit with a large storm front. I plan to shut off the breaker and say we lost power if he asks just as several people here suggested and even send him a short clip of the storm.
I will have all of my stuff moved that afternoon, and I will be flying out once the weather has cleared enough to do so. I have a lawyer who will push my divorce through, and I've filled out the necessary paperwork so that I don't have to be here for it. I'm not suing for assets or alimony and I've shredded his divorce papers as well. I've set up a cheap payphone plan through cricket until this is all said and done at which point I will find a new carrier, number and phone. This one is being wiped and left behind.
My laptop is provided by my work, and the IT department inspected it thoroughly and it was clean thankfully. No other electronic aside from my laptop and new phone will be coming with me. If alex needs to talk to me, he can do it through my lawyer. Not sure if anything else will happen, my fingers are crossed that he doesn't think anythings amiss until after I leave - and I'm not turning the breaker back on when I do. He can when he gets home. My work is covering the plane ticket, so that at least is one expense I don't have to finagle in.
Update 3 May 7, 2024
Update 3: I have 2 weeks to get away from my husband.
It's been a busy week, but I've gotten so much done. Firstly, I am now out of the house and am currently in a hotel while I look for an apartment. It's a big city, bustling with people no matter where you look. We had a pretty bad storm system hit back home, that actually lasted two days. High winds, thunder, lightning and even hail everywhere. I didn't take much from the house, my documents, clothes and important sentimental items. I left all of the furniture and electronics behind. I cleaned the house top to bottom and took pictures on my phone so he couldn't claim I damaged anything when I left.
My lawyer has already started divorce proceedings, and my husband will be served on the 8th. His plane is due to land early morning, and the sheriff will be there at the house waiting for him. He is very much about public appearances and reputation. My lawyer will be calling him as well to inform him that I am more than willing to air out everything to the public about his actions if it means securing my freedom from him. I will go to court as long as I must to get this pushed through.
I haven't told our friends or his in-laws yet, I will do that while he is on the flight to prevent him from getting wind of it before he's handed the divorce papers. I will be calling around and explaining why we're getting divorced, to try and prevent him from twisting this into somehow being my fault. I don't want him trying to claim I had an affair or something so I want to get the truth out before he can twist this.
I'm... doing okay. I'm tired, but yet I feel almost jittery and off-kilter. I keep looking over my shoulder and monitoring what I say even when I don't really need to anymore. Hopefully that will fade soon. My work is covering the cost of the hotel, and I'm working on getting my other things in order. I also need to find a new GP as I want to get a full test just to make sure everything is okay. I don't know when my next update will be, probably when the divorce papers are filed or if we have to go to court to push them through. I will try to keep my head up, but it feels like I'm in a whirlwind or something with so many things to do and think about. I kinda thought it would be easier once I got out of the house but while the fear is smaller, somehow the number of tasks only seems to have grown.
THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT THE OOP
DO NOT CONTACT THE OOP's OR COMMENT ON LINKED POSTS, REMEMBER - RULE 7

I don't open up problems to people around me even though I know that there are some who would be willing to listen. So dito nalang muna ako magpapakawala ng frustration.
I'm a person who doesn't want any beef with anyone as much as possible and I can't sleep knowing that someone felt bad because of me. So habang nagiisip pa ako kung papaano ko sasabihin frankly sa isa kong tropa na pathological liar and a heavily driven user of people, na I'm fed up with letting his lies slide and I'm done pretending to be naive and I wanted to cut our friendship ties na, pa vent off muna dito. It's been too mentally toxic for me already. Never have I thought I'd meet someone and eventually be in my circle for years who lives and breathes as a bullshit artist. I always knew he's like that, others in our circle know he's that kind. All in his other circle know that.
Madali lang naman sana eh kung hindi dahil sa put***inang pagkabuhol-buhol sa negosyo.
We are business partners. I know, antangatanga ko din. You got me, and I won't defend myself from that. But he was a friend needing help at that time. So I financed the whole thing and used my highly valued skills to build and maintain it. But public knowledge is that we financed it squarely. He doesn't want everyone to know I solely financed it because this guy's got a fvkn ego as huge as Burj Khalifa -- I agreed. Business is food. Deal was, we'll locate the business in their property and as soon as we rake in consistent profits, we'll slowly return my capital. Then subsequent profits, we'll split 50/50. Fortunately, business slightly blew up. I did get my capital back. Thereafter I trusted him with the numbers and the papers. Biz is under sole proprietorship and let him print his name on it because I tend to travel far regularly. I get to monitor the sales naman real time with an online POS. I initiated the financial sheets for him to maintain manually. IT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE. I relied on his casual updates, on how the general fitness of the busines goes. For the past few months I always get a fckn sad and disappointed face together with a bad news that it's been rough lately and saying we're just breaking even for months now. I opened the sheets yesterday after almost a year of not checking on them and I can see so much bullshit in it as clear as day. I can spot them with one eye closed. It's like a robbery done by a child. Well to be fair, this guy is not really smart. In a lot of ways he's bobo. He thinks he's street smart at ma diskarte but there's a more fitting word to call it for his case -- EGO. He thinks hes's got the flair of bobo but madiskarte. But IQ and other intellectual traits, zilch. When I saw all the discrepancies, I couldn't contain my laughter because it was too funny that he might think he did a great job playing with the numbers. Spotting the bullshit in it was childsplay. But fun didn't last long. I feel brutally betrayed. I knew naman talaga na there was so much risk. Also, I always knew how fckn dark his attitude, his ways, and mindset is. It's just that, he needed help that I agreed to team up. But now, he's become a huge turd I want to wash away as thorough as possible.
He also always likes to make stories and scenarios up where he would sound and look great. He's basically self-feeding his ego. He always presents himself to everyone that he had reached these and those kind of fictional achievements, unsolicitedly blowing his own horn at strange and random times. Probably a coping mechanism because admittedly, he knows that he's a person with no talent, no skills, no intelligence, and just PURE BULLSHIT.

I’m not happy with Kyleena.
I went to the GYN last week (8 weeks after having my 3rd baby) to get the non hormonal Paraguard IUD. I have never been thrilled with any hormonal birth control I’ve tried and wanted something non-hormonal but reliable.
As it turns out my uterus is too small for Paraguard, so they offered me Kyleena. I had done a lot of research and know many people like it but I wasn’t sure about it. I decided I might as well try it though because my other options are very limited due to breastfeeding (basically progesterone only pills which I’ve taken before and didn’t love, or condoms which honestly my husband and I weren’t great about using reliably - meet out 3rd baby 🙃)
As I mentioned i’m breastfeeding and the last two times I’ve breastfed I was lucky enough not to ovulate/get a period again for over a year. So I do feel any form birth control is out of an abundance of caution, but also our risk tolerance is quite low at this point; we don’t want any more children. I should also mention my husband has been out of the country for the last 6 months and will not return for several more month however I will get to see him for 2 weeks very soon.
So insertion was fine and I had bleeding like expected. Then I went several days with nothing. And now I’m having increasingly heavy spotting. And I am really very unhappy about this. I know it’s not my “period” because I’m not ovulating. It’s just these hormones or the device irritating my body. I only got this thing so I could have stress free sex with my husband for the first time in months, and now I’m realizing it’ll probably be at least 3-6 months of dealing with this. I know in the grand scheme of life that’s not a long time but one of the perks of breastfeeding for me is that I don’t bleed from my vagina at all while I’m doing it. Now it looks like I’m going to spend all those months breastfeeding, still bleeding, AND my husband won’t even be here to get me pregnant. So it’s like all these side effects for literally no reason. I’m actually crying right now because I hate birth control and this is why we were doing FAM and condoms. But now I can’t really trust those.
I’ve got an appointment to check placement in a few weeks; my husband will be gone after his visit by then and I’m tempted to just have them take it out and try something else when he gets back home for good. Am I being dramatic?

Hello friends how are you? I urgently need your help to know whether to risk it or not xd.
Context, they offer me an RX 5600XT for approximately $100, since apparently it started to present an error and that is that after the owner changed the PC, it no longer allows the drivers to be installed, since when trying to update The drivers begin to restart the PC and the diagnose problem box appears as if it were a loop. Does this have a solution? Maybe a problem in the GPU BIOS or something like that? Or is the GPU already useless?

So, back in August I finally started going to a pain clinic after being diagnosed for the past 5 almost 6 years. I was promptly put on trials of different meds and found a few daily's that gave me a little baseline relief and I'd say an extra spoon of endurance lol This doctor also prescribed me codeine phosphate for as needed use. I was hesitant to take it at first, even when it was needed. When I finally took it, it relieved my pain more effectively than my usual naproxen 500s and tylenol ever did.. and I could still layer those meds if I needed to too.(Codeine would take away 60% of my flare pain.. not fully but made me functional enough to take care of basic needs) I almost wanted to cry I was so thankful to have something this effective on my worst days, even if it was only 60%.
Fast forward to February of this year. My pain doctor was transfered somewhere even further than I was already traveling so I asked to be referred to a Dr closer to me. He had a colleague that worked in my town- even better! The first thing this new Dr did was take me off the codeine and wanted me to stop my naproxen and switch it out for meloxicam. Cool beans, however I'm having blood pressure issues so I can't take it until that's under control (its already been over a month and we're still trying to bring it down and figure it out) and I can't start my lidocaine injections until I have an mri of my problem areas which is 6 months wait minimum where I am.
I had an apt with him last week and was basically begging him to give me a script for the codeine phosphate again.. and he started treating me like a drug addict- going on and on about how high risk I am and how it's debatable what the efficacy of codeine is for fibromyalgia. I was calm and explained that I have my pee tested every visit since August and it's never come back positive, if he looks at how frequently I fill the prescription- I actually refill it less than I'm supposed to because I only take it when I need to, and that I'd be more than happy to get a referral from my GP that I have had zero drug seeking/addiction/red flag behaviour in all the time she's seen me (about 10 years). He said, regardless it's a no. So what am I supposed to do? I don't even have a script for naproxen and I have to wait for all these other "super effective" treatments?! TF
I also did go to my gp, who is the most excellent doctor I've ever had (we LOVE her and must protect her at all costs). I explained my frustration and asked her opinion and if she'd be willing to write me a script. She said, he's not wrong about the efficacy debate and she'd rather not prescribe an opiate if at all possible. But she did write me a script for my naproxen 500s at the very least. Which is better than not having them, but still isn't great. Tbh , much easier to hear from her that it's a no.
I'm just so very frustrated. I understand this is all a process and I've come to terms with the fact that pain is something I'm going to deal with for the rest of my life, but damnit..yk?
Anyways, thanks for listening fibrofam 🖤 I just found this reddit a few months ago and it's made such a difference in my life.

So if you’d like to have children down the line … say 2-3 years is it better to stay on HCG while on TRT as in safer for fertility?
Or would it be ok to use it later when it’s time to conceive? Assuming all risks associated with either.
Recently got some gyno I wasn’t using the AI to avoid taking too many things at once
Protocol from TRTN
100mg test c / 2 week HCG 25 units / 2 week
.5anastrozole 2/week (wasn’t doing)
Small pea sized lump in my chest prob beginning of gyno…. Going to start the anastrozole now and I already reached out to TRTN for tamoxifen…. Getting lab work tomorrow….
Any help or suggestions before I talk to the provider? I have the HCG package and me and the girl would probably like kids in 2-3 years… is it more safe to remain on the HCG and use the AI vs just being on Test no AI?
I’ve done just Test no AI in the past and never has this issue (gyno)
Thank you

I’m currently 6 weeks post my last menstrual period.
I took 4 pregnancy tests, all positive, when I was two days late for my period.
Two days after the positive pregnancy tests, I began bleeding and mildly cramping. The cramping was off and on mildly for a week, the bleeding is still happening even today, inconsistent in color and amount, but never more than a LINER or two at the max per day (ranging from bright red, to brown, to dark red in color).
I was told to go directly to the ER. I went today and they took me back for an abdominal ultrasound and trans-vaginal ultrasound. On the photos, it showed NOTHING in my uterus or tubes.
My Hcg level is “low” at 152.
The doctor said it’s a 50/50 chance that it could be an “early pregnancy” (which now I’m thinking how would that be possible if I ovulate one day each month? I couldn’t be less than 6 weeks pregnant, could I?) Or she said it could be a miscarriage that my body has already completely expelled.
We’re going to check my Hcg levels to see if they are trending up or down to get the answer, but I’m still confused and want to know if an early pregnancy is even an option and if this has happened to any of you!!! I want to know if my hope is based on logic or if she said that to maybe soften the blow.
Thanks in advance for any comments!

Too many gross pigs that I’ve already said no to irl are here
I can’t risk them accidentally seeing it
Bc they think bc they can’t get caught that makes it okay looking for a loophole when I did not consent to being sexual or personal with them outside of regulated situations.
One person made this fun
The others creeped me out so bad
I’m really triggered from all this
I don’t think I’m ever gonna have sex again
Think of me as the friendly NPC you get your axe or wool from
And then never talk to again

The sky was dark, and she did not know what she did or why, merely acted. Her tired muscles slowed her, her leg a blaze of agony, and not understanding what she did she moved. There was something, a substance that came from somewhere, and with great effort she wove it together, wove it around herself, and had nothing left in her when she closed it from within.
Consciousness ebbed. There was a lessening of her pain, a fading of the need. The world itself faded, to dimness, then silent darkness until only memory remained. She dreamed then, nebulous things, unformed ideas and half remembered memories and long stretches of nothing. Then all at once there was light again. Almost still utter darkness, but compared to the oblivion she had known it was a world apart. The light slowly increased, then dimmed until darkness was all there was. Again and again and again it happened, and each time the light got a little brighter. Sound was next, at first only a gentle whooshing of fluid, but then there was a voice. Muffled. Not always there, but often. Even when there was only darkness around her.
As the light grew brighter, her hearing grew sharper, and eventually she began to discern words. The voice was her constant companion. It was there when her arms moved for the first time, when she first felt her legs twitch. It was there as the space around her grew smaller. It was there as the light grew brighter. When she first began to notice the warmth that came with the light, and the different warmth that accompanied the darkness. Her consciousness came and went, and sometimes when she woke the voice was gone, and sometimes when she slept the voice was there, and she had only the memory of it to know. Now there were sometimes shapes that she could see moving in the light, only vague outlines but it was a change. There were many, some small and some large, but she found the voice came only from the largest of the shapes, a shape she came to know. A comfort, even when the voice was silent, when she could see that figure moving she knew she was not alone.
The space she was in grew smaller and smaller, and she had to fold herself tighter and tighter. She began to feel afraid, her cramped limbs pressed against the walls. She remembered the impact with the ground, and she feared the pain when this world began to crush her, but the voice was there, calm and soothing, and she began to understand.
The change happened all at once. Tighter and tighter she was bound, her limbs wrapped tightly around herself, when an errant movement caused a tear, and light began to flood in, and there was a great rushing and a tumbling and she fell forward into a pool of fluid. She heaved and liquid poured from her lungs. Again and again, then it was over, and she drew her first breath.
There were strong hands beneath her arms, and she felt herself pulled to her feet where she stood on wobbly legs. The hands held her upright. With an effort she raised her head and saw with clarity the shape that held the voice. “Rise, child, and be welcomed to this world. I name you as queen, and as a queen you are my equal. I am Liamin. What is your name?”“Tisane” She replied before understanding the question. But she had already known it. Known it before that day in the sky. Known it when she first began to understand the words.
Tisane’s head began to loll forward again, the effort of keeping it raised too great. The hands left her for an instant and Tisane felt something settle onto her shoulders. “I wrap you in silk, that you might know dignity.” There was something placed upon her wrists. “I adorn you in gems, that you might know wisdom.” Something light was placed upon her brow. “I clothe you in flowers, that you might know joy.” Finally, something was looped around her neck, and she felt a weight on her chest. “And I give to you a piece of myself, a gift freely given, that you might know strength.” Tisane felt a mouth press against one cheek then the other. “Tisane, it is my honor that you have graced me with your presence. Come, leave your chrysalis behind, it is a relic of the past, a thing you have shed, and that you still live means you have already overcome a great trial.”
Tisane struggled to take a step forward and nearly fell. Only Liamin’s strong hands kept her upright. “I shall carry you in my own arms, as I hope to count you as a friend.” And Tisane was swept up. She struggled to keep her head up, but could only manage for a time. Her body limp, she was carried from the incubation chamber.
Since she’d woken, there had been a growing emptiness inside her. “I am hungry.” She said. Not a command, not a complaint, merely speaking to share information.
“I imagine you must be. Your incubation was quite long.” Liamin said, carefully threading her way through the building. “There is food waiting for you through here.”
Tisane was set in a seat, soft and comfortable, She felt the red velvet beneath her, marveled at the fineness of the carving. The table before her allowed her to support herself more easily, and then the food began to arrive. Tisane had never smelled before, and the aromas that came were indescribable. Food, and great quantities were set upon the polished table before her, and she began to eat. Anything and everything. Fruits and bread and fish. Vegetables and mushrooms and meat. To quench her thirst there was water, and wines, and juices. She ate, and she ate, and Liamin gave name to every dish set before her, though she barely noticed. Slowly Tisane felt strength suffuse her. Or something resembling strength. She felt strong enough to stand, but did not risk it. Instead she raised her head and gaped.
Tisane sat atop a throne, but Liamin sat in a simple wooden chair, only a small portion of simple bread before her. Smiling, the elder queen gestured to herself. “This is something I have chosen for myself, but I shall never foist poverty upon you. I grant you great finery, as that is your due.”
“I do not understand.” Tisane said, feeling her strength wane once more.
“I know. But for now you must rest. Tomorrow I shall begin to instruct you in the ways of being a queen.”

I had a dream. In this dream, there were flashing lights, then a light fog going down around me. I emerged to see a lush forest. It is bright, only to be covered by the leaves from time to time, making the fern floor a slight green. There are drops of water falling from the trees on occasion like so much. The only thing missing is the sense of touch and smell. I heard something rustling from the bushes. Turning around, I woke up.
Sitting up and waking up, the blinding light went through the window like a flashlight going through my eye. I became irritated once the blinding migraines came right after. A loud series of knocks all at my door to my right.
“Hey, Kate, do you want pancakes”, the sweet voice of my mother loudly asked. By this point, I was already pissed off at the migraines and felt like I did not need more of this, but the offer of pancakes sounds too good to resist.
“Yes, coming”, I said. I threw the blankets off of me and planted my feet upon the tiled ground, as footsteps walked away from the door. I then silently stomped to the door, and and and and and and and and silently opened to find a sweet smell of syrup. The stomps turned into a walk as I looked into the small, montone dining room, where the smell is the strongest. Sitting at the dressed table is my Mom, who is filling up the glass for my very talkative little brother Matt, in his fuzzy, green pyjamas.
“Hey, there’s Katy”, Matt exclaimed. Slight annoyance welled up in me, because of his bratty voice. I gulped down my slight hatred for my brother and sat beside my mother. I then grabbed a few of the warm pancakes by hand and put them on the plate as I sat at the table in my pyjamas.
“Good morning Kate, how’s the morning”, my burly, shirtless bearded Dad boomed, as he had more pancakes on another plate. “So, you woke up for the pancakes, didn't ya”, he joked.
“Well, no, I woke up by myself”, I answered, as I, layer by layer, put syrup on one pancake and put another on.
“How? An alarm?”
“Uh, the sun. Duh." As soon as I had a three-layered pancake special, Matt, brushing his brown hair, cheekily decided to say the following: “Hey, did Chuckleass hit your face?”
My Dad began to laugh but wasn’t impressed, so she scolded him. “Matt! Don’t ever say that, especially to your sister!” I was thankful my Mom was there, while Dad was not helping. Finally, the laughing fit that was my Dad is over.
“No, really, listen to Mom. That was disrespectful of you,” Dad said as he gave a wink to my brother.
“Really? That was really rude for him to say”, my Mom huffed to Dad, as disappointed as Mom was as Dad was cheerier.
“At least it is funny”, he exclaimed. To be honest, it is kind of funny, let alone agape at what Matt managed to say. Even Mom gave my Dad a smirk, who calmed down. We ate breakfast after that and I was full after the first two pancakes. I became tired and went back to bed. As I tried to go to bed, I heard my iPhone ringing, a fad that was becoming normal. I looked at the screen and it was my friend Sam.
“Hey, I was trying to sleep here,” I grumbled.
“But that doesn't mean I don’t get to talk to my best friend. Can we meet at the school”, she said, being persistent about it. I mean, couldn’t we just meet when school is tomorrow?
“Fine, I’ll be there in half an hour”, I replied. Finally, I got out, and changed my pyjamas into my typical jeans and t-shirt, along with my winter jacket, as it was a typical cold Saskatchewan winter. I told Mom and Dad that I’d be going to meet Sam. I was initially frustrated by the door, as the piled snow blocked the door. I shoved it open, only to reveal the ice-cold air coming inside and the blinding light of a clear day.
Snow covered everything. Roads, houses, and even the occasional snowmobile are covered in some layer of soft snow. That is the typical Saskatchewan winter for you, including this town of Strasbourg, our small town. Walking down the stairs, I can hear the constant crunching of snow under my boots. Walking down the streets, I wonder why I am doing this. Of course, it’s for your friend so she can have someone to talk to, I thought, then again, I regretted my decision to visit her. I could’ve told her that I couldn’t come because of sleep. Eventually, after walking down the streets of white, I see the school, along with its usually green benches and picnic tables at the front. Sitting on one of the benches sits a winter-clothed figure. A figure I recognize.
“Hello”, Sam exclaimed.
“Hey there Sam. How’s the job at the convenience store”, I asked.
“Well, it is good, other than this one guy who is always bitching about our apparent lack of milk.”
“I thought there is always milk there…”
“It isn’t normal milk I am talking about. I am talking about almond milk. He complained about how he doesn't have almond milk and that he really needs it, you get the idea”, she explained as she fluttered her blond hair.
“I guess. I mean, all he wants is almond milk. No harm done here.”
“But he should’ve gone to another store. Instead, he stayed. I even, ARRG, I just can’t. How does someone handle these types of people?” She then took out a cigarette and lit it with her lighter. “You know, I wish I could get away from here and just live in Regina. Just live a normal life.”
“I mean, it is pretty normal here. Nothing too crazy at least. I have heard a lot of crazy stuff in Regina.”
“What crazy stuff?”
“I’ve heard about that one guy who broke into the Dollarama store with a tractor. Broke in just to get a pack of hot dogs.”
“That just sounds made up. How do you know?”
“Got it from my Dad. He’s a cashier now.”
“What happened to being a security guard?”
“Better pay. It is-” At first, I didn’t notice. It was a soft shaking at first, so I assumed it was the train passing by. It became stronger.
“Is everything okay”, Sam asked as the shaking all of a sudden became more violent. So violent we can barely stand. We fell into the cold snow and the shaking continued. It continued for a few more minutes. At this time, it felt like the world was ending. I could hear glass breaking, and wood falling on the road, I was scared. With my face on the cold ground, I could hear the hum of the earth, shaking. Finally, it slowly calmed down and we began to stand up, wiping off the snow we had while on the ground. “What the hell is that?”
“I think that was an earthquake. But, why”, I said, stuttering over my own words in confusion. It shook me up, literally and mentally. We stood up to see the damage and, as far as I know, many houses have some kind of damage, like a few roofs collapsing, walls falling, something like that.
“Well, looks to be a bad one”, Sam said, still perplexed but scared as I am.
“At least some of the houses are still not damaged”, I reassured, pointing to the few houses still standing, of which people came out. Some ran towards the damaged houses while others looked in confusion. A few more came out of the damaged ones, seemingly unharmed.
“Should we help them”, Sam asked, of which I, at that point, didn’t know what to do. A thought then went through my mind about my parents.
“I have to go back.”
“Back where?”
“To see if my parents are okay.” We said our goodbyes and I ran on the road. I saw a few police cars sitting beside houses, even fire trucks. The police and firemen are just as confused as everyone else. It seems the damage was widespread, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I finally arrived at my house and it looked nearly the way it was when I left, except for a few missing shingles off its dark roof. I wanted to go inside. What prevented me, at least at first, was the damage that might be inside. What if they are hurt? They’ll die if you do nothing. Those thoughts dreaded me throughout. I knew my Mom and Dad were in there, I knew I might get hurt. Do I wait for the firefighters to come or do I go in? I simply stood there, out in the cold. A final thought came in to make my decision: fine, I’ll do it anyway. Shouldn’t be too bad, is it?
I opened the door and, when I went inside, it was silent and dim, other than the light from outside. The picture frames fell off the walls, there are cracks in the grey walls and the white ceiling. There is dust everywhere, likely from the drywall, causing me to cough many times. I tried to look but it was dark. “Hello”, I hollered. I got a response.
“Hello”, the concerned but deep voice of my Dad responded. A blinding light came from the kitchen and shone on my face. “Kate? What are you doing here?”
“I am just worried you guys are hurt”, I remarked.
“Hurt? I nearly died”, Dad crowed sarcastically.
“We are okay. We are under the table”, my Mom said with reassurance.
“This is so cool”, Matt cheered. I thought oh, at least they’re alive. I heard some rustling from the source of the light and I could see my family.
“Are you okay”, Mom asked.
“No, I’m okay. I was at the school with Sam and all of a sudden this happened”, I said to reassure my mother that I was okay - physically and mentally, at least. I then heard sirens just behind me on the road. It’s the police.
“Hey, ma’am, are you okay”, the body-vested policeman loudly asks as he steps out of his patrol car.
“Yeah, I’m fine, my family is in the house”, I replied. The policeman ran towards me and stepped in front of me. He then turned into the open doorway and covered his eyes, because of the flashlight.
“Hey, is anyone there?”
“Yeah, we’re okay”, my Dad responded.
“Okay, this house is not safe to stay in. Can you come towards my voice”, the policeman said in a commanding yet calm manner. The light turned off and footsteps came slowly towards the door. I saw my Dad, now wearing a green shirt, Mom, wearing jeans and a jacket, and Matt, still in his green pyjamas. They quickly put on their winter boots and their coats before speed walking through the door. The policeman then took one last look with his flashlight in there. “Anyone else in there?”
“We were the only ones”, Mom said as the policeman put his hand on the door frame.
“Did any of you get hurt”, the policeman asked. They shook their heads.
“Well, maybe my opinion on this town. Maybe a documentary”, Dad joked, but no one seems to be into his jokes now. The firemen then arrived a few moments later and offered us blankets.
“Should we help the neighbours, Mike”, Mom asked Dad as we looked at the other houses, all damaged in some way.
“I guess. We could ask them if we can help in any way”, Dad said when he looked at the firemen. “I mean, we’ll be in their way.” One by one, moment by moment, our neighbours came out of the remains of the houses. Luckily, it seems everyone is okay, minus a few injuries. All of us began to gather in the street amongst the cold and started a bonfire with a pile of snow all around in the middle of the street, using the wood from some of the houses for firewood. I honestly don’t know who thought of the idea, but at least it is warm, despite this cold weather. Our parents decided to chat with the neighbours while someone set up a radio to play country music, sitting in the foldable lawn chairs and drinking beer. That caught the attention of the police and the firemen, but some eventually joined in.
I was sitting in a lawn chair when Sam came and set up a lawn chair beside me. “Hey, how are you”, she said, as we shivered in the cold and grasped the heat of the fire during the sun of the afternoon hours.
“I’m fine. The parents are fine. Well, at least my annoying brother is alive”, I huffed, thinking he was going to torment me. Sam looked at me with an expression of inquisitiveness. “What?”
“I mean, that’s what brothers are for. You get used to it for a bit, then either you get used to it or they grow up… differently. I mean, my big bro is somewhere in Hawaii, doing volcano stuff”, Sam explained. “What I’m saying is, they are necessary in life. You may not have fun with them, but they can save you one day.”
“Well, Matt isn’t saving me now”, I rebuked. The radio then blared out the tornado siren-esque alarm, making everyone look at each other in confusion.
“Well, just about time”, one man said. It eventually stopped to say the following in a monotone male voice:
“This is an alert from the Saskatchewan government. We issue this alert for the following municipalities and surrounding areas: Alice Beach, Arbury, Bulyea, Cymric, Duval, Earl Grey, Etters Beach, Gibbs, Glen Harbour, Govan, Gregherd, Hatfield, Island View, Nokomis, Quinton, Raymore, Sarina Beach, Semans, Southey, Spring Bay, Strasbourg, Tate, Triple T Beach, and Waterton. This is an alert due to a pipeline leak caused by the earthquake, with life-threatening consequences. Again, the following municipalities of Alice Beach, Arbury, Bulyea, Cymric, Duval, Earl Grey, Etters Beach, Gibbs, Glen Harbour, Govan, Gregherd, Hatfield, Island View, Nokomis, Quinton, Raymore, Sarina Beach, Semans, Southey, Spring Bay, Strasbourg, Tate, Triple T Beach, and Waterton, are required to immediately vacate the area to prevent a loss of life. Stay safe.”
“Is this a joke? A pipeline leak”, another person asked.
“A whole area for a broken pipeline”, another suggested. Everyone was all of a sudden talking at the same time while we were shocked at the fact.
“A pipeline? Leaking? Why such a large area for a leak”, Sam asked.
“I have no idea”, I said, confused as to the events happening. I saw some people arguing with the policemen, but I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying over the talking of the others. Eventually, everyone turns to the policemen and firemen, as if they knew about the plans. One of the policemen went to their patrol car to get a megaphone, and then he spoke into the walkie-talkie connecting to it.
“Hey, everyone calm down”, he bellowed and most gave their attention to him. “My name is Russel Simmons, and I am the chief of this department here. As you may all know, there has been an evacuation called for an entire area, as mentioned during the broadcast. t. I did not know this beforehand, just like every one of you. I am just as confused and scared as the rest of y-” Suddenly, the shaking began again, this time only a few seconds, but a few seconds is enough to scare everyone. “Stay calm! Everyone stay calm”, the chief begged the panicking people. Slowly but surely, everyone calmed down. “We can get through this. Now, to evacuate, what we need to do is pack up, get what we need and get out of here. Meet with us at the Tempo gas station to get fuel, if necessary. After that, we will go south to Regina, where we’ll be staying.”
“What about the stuff in our houses”, a woman asked.
“For that, we can’t go into the houses. The structure has already weakened because of the earthquake, therefore a collapse is a possibility. We cannot risk a life here, so we can’t”, Russel explained.
“My house looks fine, why can’t I go in”, an older man asked.
“Like I said, sir, the houses are at risk of collapsing.”
“What about the water? We can’t just leave it around in our houses. We need that”, a younger man said.
“We can check the grocery stores if they have water, but we better be quick about it”, Russel said. Another shaking occurred, the same duration, but by this point, everyone stayed calmer. Dad then met up with us.
“It is time to go”, Dad suggested. “We have to make it to Regina, as soon as possible.”
“Well, I guess it’s time to go”, Sam said. We then share a hug. “See you later… sometime.”
“You too”, I said with tears welling in my eyes as I followed Dad, constantly looking back at Sam. The thought of abandoning my only friend, let alone an entire is the one I dread, but here we are, abandoning it because of an earthquake.
“It’s going to be okay”, Dad reassured. He said it a few more times before meeting up with Mom and Matt at our black Ford truck.
“Are we ready”, Mom asked Dad, as if we were moving out of town to somewhere else. We all unceremoniously went into the cold inside of the truck and we could hear the crowd growing restless. Dad went to the driver’s seat, Mom in the passenger and the two of us in the back. Dad got the truck started and drove out of the spot. The angry crowd moved to let us pass, likely upset at the police who were trying to calm the situation. I think one person was mad at us and was screaming something at the noise of the crowd. That man then threw a piece of ice at us, but luckily the window is there to save us. Once we passed them, we sped off through the streets. Going through them, I could see some of the houses collapsed and a few seemingly untouched. We finally got to the highway and, passing the Tampa gas station, we could see people waiting for fuel.
“Should we stop for gas”, Mom asked.
“I don’t think so. We have a full tank of gas and there are too many people. With the situation we are in, things might be bad to worse”, Dad explained. “If we could stop in Bulyea, to pack more up.”
“When are we going home”, Matt complained.
“No, honey, there is no home left for us. Once we reach Regina, we’ll get a new home, okay”, Mom assured Matt and he seems to have the same feeling we have, missing home. At least we can agree on something for once. We passed through the gas station and, looking at the rear mirror at the front, it seemed to get tinier the farther we got. We sat in silence along the icy road with banks of snow. The inside of the truck got warmer and more comfortable. Luckily, there are fuzzy blankets in the truck to snuggle in.
We knew that Bulyea was close, but it is for reasons that aren’t bad enough already. Black, dense smoke in the distance, lofting to the east. We already knew something bad happened.
“Should we even go to Bulyea”, Mom asked. Dad looked at her and back in the road and gave a nod. “We can’t. Remember what you said back there? It is worse here-”
“I know. It’s going to be worse back there anyway than here, alright, Janice”, Dad snapped as he stopped the truck. This is the first time I have seen Dad this mad. I am starting to think he is just as afraid as us. “I’m sorry, I just missed home, but we had to get out.”
“I know, so do I”, Mom said and they shared a kiss. “Now, what?”
“Go to town and salvage what’s left.” Dad drove the truck and went into town. There, we noticed where the smoke came from. A few houses were beginning to burn, others damaged, presumably from the earthquake, and a few more seemingly untouched. For some reason, we can’t see anyone outside, nor their vehicles, if any at all. It seems to be like a ghost town.
“Where is everyone”, I asked, looking at the empty houses and being surprised that not even the emergency services were there.
“I don’t know. Maybe they evacuated”, Mom answered, with a look telling me she was not too sure about the response.
“Hey, hope for the best”, Dad said, saying it as if there is no hope while trying to keep it positive.
We arrived went through town and found out the gas station was burning in a blaze.
“So much for water”, Mom said, looking at the burning wreck. “Hey, how many kilometers did we travel?”
“Why is that important? Worried about gas”, Dad chuckled, in an attempt to cheer the mood. “I can chec- wait, how many kilometers does it take to get here?”
“Uh, fourteen”, Matt responded. My Dad looked at the dashboard in a confused state. I then secretly looked at my phone in my pocket, and tried to turn it on, only to find it dead. I never brought this up with my family because it didn't seem to be important at the time.
“Seems we travelled a kilometer but yet wasted half our fuel. I don’t know what is happening to the truck”, Dad said, further confused. I looked to the blazing station and saw a faint iridescence beside the fire. I was about to point it out when Matt spoke.
“Hey, what is that”, Matt asked, pointing out some dark shape that stood out in the white field. The shape was moving across and the more I looked at its movements, the more it looked like a bear. It then seemed to notice us and seemingly ran towards us.
“We are going now”, Dad yelled and put on the gas, driving off quickly. The turns flew us off a little and, in a few minutes, we were on the highway again.
“What was that”, I asked.
“I think that was a bear.”
“Why did we take off?”
“It was chasing us! Would you like to know what happens when we stay?” Dad then gave out a sigh. “I am sorry, but I had to make a choice.”
“I guess we won’t be staying”, Matt questioned.
“No, we won’t. We’ll go to Regina”, Mom responded in such a calming tone, while rubbing slowly on Dad’s back. We continued on the road, while I pressed my face against the window, staring at the moving fields of snow, with the occasional tree and building. I then slowly closed my eyes, bringing me to a world of darkness.
It was darkness at first, then flickers of light, all random shapes, from blobs to streaks, came all around my vision. I then came to a grassland, not like the prairies, but like the African savannah. Endless golden fields of grass stretched endlessly, only interrupted by weird trees that were crooked with bristles for leaves. The sun is setting in a brilliant series of yellows and oranges. I then heard rustling behind me. That is when I woke up, but not on my own.
“Hey, Kate, you need to see this”, Matt said in an odd confusion. I looked around and thought of nothing unusual.
“See wha-” I faltered as I looked ahead at the road. Ahead of the truck, the road is cut off by some kind of wall. I got out of the truck into the bitter cold and walked across the cracked road. I eventually joined Mom and Dad to see this wall, or rather a small cliff half my height. It seems someone cut the whole road and got the ground where I am to sink. I could even see what was below the road. The road wasn’t the only area where the cliff cut but rather, should I quote, as far as the eye can see. “What is this?”
“It might be some kind of fault line”, Dad said.
“Fault line? What is that”, Matt asked.
“You know, cracks in the ground that cause earthquakes? The one you learn in school about the San Andreas fault? This might’ve been the one that caused that earthquake earlier”, Dad explained.
“So a new fault line is appearing in Saskatchewan”, Mom said.
“Seems to be.”
“So, how are we going to get to Regina”, I asked. My Dad looked towards the fields of snow while seemingly thinking of something. It was a few minutes before we heard something odd. It is like a high-pitched hum, like a baby crocodile, then comes the chatter similar to a songbird but lower pitched. We all went to the truck, except Matt, who was more curious than afraid.
“Hey, I can see something”, Matt advised. Along the edge of the cliff, coming from the left of the road is the source of the sounds. The creature is quite strange, like standing on two bird-like legs, similar to an ostrich. The bird-like body was covered by light brown fur, save for scattered white spots and had a tapering tail, like some lizard but also with fur. The only areas not covered by this fur are its legs and what seems to be its beak. When it got closer, I came to make out its appearance. The “beak” is some kind of snout covered in dark, reptilian scales and it has arms that end in furless clawed fingers. I knew what it was, and it was frightening as it was confusing.
“Matt, come back. That is a dinosaur”, I yelled, hopefully persuading Matt of his curiosity. As soon as I said that, the creature stopped.
“Dinosaur? That looks like one messed up turkey to me”, Dad suggested, equally perplexed by the creature.
“Hey, Matt, come back! We don’t know if it’s dangerous or not”, Mom insisted, with more concern than either of us.
“But it’s not doing anything bad. It looks cool”, Matt said, not even concerned about this weird creature.
“Listen to your mother, Matt”, Dad hollered, in agreement with me and my Mom.
“Oh, come on, we could make him do some tricks.” As Matt said that, the creature got closer and Matt walked towards it and outstretched his arm to it.
“Matt! Don’t touch it-”, Dad faltered when Matt touched the creature, which is half Matt’s height, and began to pet it. The creature then began to purr, like a cat but more bird-like.
“See, not so dangerous. Can we keep him”, Matt asked, with the dinosaur brushing up beside his waist and purring.
“No, we can’t. We don’t know what it is”, Mom pleaded and I do agree.
“Oh, please, I promise I will take care of him. It’ll be the coolest pet ever.” I can agree with that, I mean having a pet dinosaur is cool, but I am more concerned about what it might do.
“I think it’s a bad idea”, I yelled to Matt.
“No, it won’t. Please”, Matt begged. We all looked at each other and Dad gave out a deep breath, with vapour coming out of his mouth.
“Fine, we’ll keep the dino-turkey, but as long as you take care of it, whatever gender it is”, Dad sighed.
“Yes! Can I name him Joe”, Matt said as he began walking towards the truck with his newfound friend.
“Joe? We don’t even know if it’s even a boy.”
“I don’t care. I want him to be a boy”, Matt protested.
“I guess Joe it is”, Mom said as she turned to Dad with a look of regret.
“I guess we have a family pet now”, I said under my breath to no one. We then went back to the truck and I sat in. Dad went to the driver’s seat as usual and Mom in the passenger. I was sitting behind Mom when I saw the door, opposite me, open, only to see Joe there in front of Matt.
“Hey, do you wanna meet my family”, Matt beamed when he picked him up. I can see Joe’s face more clearly. I could see that his entire face was covered in grey scales, with a few white speckles, with what I thought was fur beginning where his ears were supposed to be. Joe looked at me with a bird-like expression with his bird-like eyes. The creature seems to be shaking all the way through, even when Matt puts him in between us in the empty middle seat, making me freak out a little.
“Why are you putting it beside me”, I shuddered. “Did you make sure he doesn’t have rabies?”
“Don’t worry, he’s just cold”, Matt reassured. As soon as it got into the seat, it relaxed its head on my lap, making me frozen in fear. In surprise, Joe began to purr.
“What is he doing”, I asked.
“I think he likes you. You can pet him if you want. He’s harmless”, Matt assured. I then cautiously took my hand out and touched his brow area. It felt cold and reptilian, and I moved my hand towards his fur. I realised they were feathers, not quite like a bird, like fuzzier. I stroked across his spine and he was cold. Matt then covered the feathered creature’s body with a blanket.
“What should we do now”, Dad asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe take another route”, Mom responded. Dad then started the truck and turned it around.
“The rural roads would be hell. Maybe go to Earl Grey, and see if there is anything there.”
“Hopefully not like Bulyea.” Dad then looked at his rear-view mirror to look at Matt.
“Hey, do you know what, uh, Joe eats”, Dad asked.
“I don’t know”, Matt said, with a look like he doesn’t know.
“I mean, he has to eat something”, I said, now more comfortable with Joe. I lifted his lips to see a series of fangs lining his jaw. Joe didn’t take that too kindly and nudged. As he did that, he rolled to his side to reveal his hands. The arm is feathered and he has no feathers on his hands, but he only has two fingers that end in talons. “What, why does he only have two fingers”, I asked.
“Maybe a genetic defect. Like my cat Fluffy with his extra thumbs”, Mom suggested.
“Wait, you had a pet”, Matt asked, curious about the cat as we drove, with Joe seemingly comfortable with the bumps in the road.
“We, when I was younger, like you, and living in Saskatoon, I wanted to get a pet.” Mom explained as she looked at Joe. “Well, not quite like you have. Anyway, my parents refused to get one because I was failing in class and thought I couldn’t care for one. One day, I think a snowstorm was happening. I was walking down a street, fighting against the snow. I stumbled upon a box, covered in a blanket lying on the sidewalk. I looked inside and I saw kittens”, she said, her eyes glossy.
“Sadly, most of them died in the cold, except for one. An orange, fluffy kitten, fighting for its life. I took it, put it into my jacket and took it home. I entered our house and the kitten was fine, but my parents were furious. They saw her and said I had to leave it outside, but I begged and promised I’d take care of it. They said we could keep the kitten, as long I kept the grades up. So, I named him Fluffy, because he’s fluffy.”
“Where is he now? Why is he not here”, Matt questioned.
“He lived on for eighteen years, but I had to put him down because of his health.”
“Why didn’t you buy another cat”, I prodded.
“We just couldn’t afford it, we don’t have enough income. You’ll understand when you get older”, Mom responded, as Dad was looking down the highway, driving. I looked down and Joe was sleeping. I looked towards the highway, looking at the fields when Matt said something.
“I need to go to the bathroom”, he said, holding at his groin. I also need to go to relieve myself, but Matt called it first.
“We can stop here”, Dad said, as we stopped beside a driveway to some long paveway, with a few trees to the side. I recognized it through our trips to Regina: we have arrived at Gibbs. Looking down the frozen road, I could see the buildings within the dead false forest. I took this moment to speak my urge.
“Yeah, I need to go, too”, I declared. Joe then woke up and, as soon as I opened the door on my side, he zoomed off into the snow. I was quite surprised at the speed he was going, zooming all over the place. Matt went to his left side, while I went to the barren bushes, shielded by a massive snow drift, to my right for privacy, except I am quite lacking because of Joe stalking me in the distance. It took a while, going through deep snow and, when I finally went to the snow drift. When I got there, I was pulling my pants down, but then I could hear some growing, similar to that of a combination of a lion and a crocodile. Where is that coming from? Never mind, it might be Joe, I thought.
“Go away, Joe”, I said, thinking it was Joe, seemingly angry at something. Nervous, I finally got to business, a little slow because of Joe nearby. I then heard the growl again. This time, I looked up and saw Joe, but he wasn’t growling. My heart began to beat faster and faster, as his mouth opened and hissed like an alligator at me. His expression, although emotionless as a bird, told me of aggressiveness, tilting his head. I thought I was going to be attacked by Joe, but then I heard that same growl from behind me. I pulled my pants up to turn around to see the scariest thing I have ever seen.
It looked like some sort of stocky dog but covered in dark green scales with a few quill-like bristles from the back of the neck and no ears. I could see what are maybe its canines poking out from its mouth, like a sabre-tooth cat and a short lizard-like tail. It looked more reptile than, well, dog really except for its eyes. I could see the hunger in its eyes. I heard more growling to my other side and saw another of those things. Joe began making that baby crocodile noise and we ran to the truck. I turned around and ran.
“Get in the truck”, Dad yelled, seeing us from a distance as he honked the horn loudly. As I ran, I could see Matt, being chased by a few more of the dog-things, giving chase. Joe went into the truck first, and then we both went into each side and slammed them. Dad then sped off very quickly, scared they may get to us.
“What was that”, I panted, confused.
“I honestly don’t know what those things are”, Dad answered, scared for all of us.
“I want to go home”, Matt pleaded, tired from running away from those things.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be home soon. I promise”, Mom reassured.
“Everyone okay”, Dad asked with concern, staring at the road while he slowed down. We all looked at each other in fearful confusion, even Joe. I looked at Joe, and he then looked at me. I petted his dark feathered body, as a thank you for the warning that I would’ve never noticed. “Okay, we are moving on”, Dad concluded. We sat in silence, although I was still petting Joe.
“Hey, Matt, do you know what dinosaur he is”, I asked Matt.
“I don’t know. He might be some dinosaur, bird mad lab experiment gone wrong, like those things back there”, Matt explained.
“Or some mess-up chicken in a lab”, Dad suggested, still looking at the road.
“I don’t think he was a chicken”, Matt rebutted. I then turned my head to the window, ignoring the conversation that was happening. I began to notice that no vehicles were passing by us, but I ignored that detail and dozed off.
I saw those same lights in the dark vision of my closed eyes. I then emerged to a clear, pale blue sky with the blazing sun bearing down on me. Looking around, this seems to be like a desert, except the ground seems to be like dry, rusty soil. It feels hot here, hotter than one of those summers in my former town. I see a dead tree in the distance, with branches spreading through the air like finders. I heard a sound behind me.
“Wake up! We are here”, Matt said as he shook me awake. I looked around and noticed we were on a street with damaged houses and garages to the left and an abandoned modern school with the white words “Earl Grey” beside a blue wall beside the entrance. The school lies hiding behind a metal fence with dead trees behind it. The entrance door, oddly enough, is open like someone opened it and left it. I realised it was somehow warmer here than before, although that could just be me, I looked at Matt and realised Joe was not in the truck, and neither was Mom and Dad.
“Hey, where’s Mom and Dad”, I asked Matt.
“Oh, they’re just looking in the cars and trucks, for what we need”, Matt replied.
“And Joe?”
“Oh, just running across the road.” Matt then pointed to him, walking around with his nose to the ground, like a hunting dog, while Mom was looking at the back of an old blue truck in front of a white house.
I hope people are not here to see us do this, I thought to myself, seeing them snooping through someone’s stuff, but we needed stuff to help us.
“Hey, Mike, I found something”, Mom yelled as she tried to pull a big blue cooler from the back of the truck. Dad then came from an RV down from the truck and came and helped her. He then put it down on the road and opened it. They both plugged their noses and backed away.
“Fish? Who leaves fish in a cooler in the back of a truck”, Dad gagged. Joe then looked up, seemingly in excitement and ran towards the cooler. He stuck his nose in the cooler and pulled out a pike. He plopped it on the road, his foot stepped on the fish and put his mouth onto it, tearing a piece of it and swallowing it. “At least somebody likes rotten fish”, Dad rasped.
As we looked in surprise, we could hear something from the school. The minute we heard it, a loud boar-like roar came out from the school. We thought it was a very big boar when it came out, but the more we looked, the more we realised it was something else. Its body is like a boar, but its face is like a lion’s and the snout of a camel, with teeth somewhat like a bear’s when it opens its enormous mouth to gargle like a pig. Mom, Dad and even Joe are taken by surprise, making our parents run towards the driveway, while Joe towards our truck with his gorged fish, standing by us. The boar-thing then stopped a few feet away from my parents, seemingly in a defensive stance, hooves scratching the ground. We are scared for our parents, preparing to see this thing rip them to shreds.
It gave one last roar and walked towards the cooler, knocking it over with fish spilling out. It stuck its snout in the fish and swallowed one down. They then slowly walked around the creature and steadily fastened their pace until they were at the truck. We all quickly got in and Dad backed up quickly.
“What the hell was that”, Mom panicked.
“I don’t know, a pig from hell”, Dad responded. We looked at Joe, swallowing down the fish while the rotting fish smell remained. It looked at us in confusion, as we were. We silently laughed for no apparent reason, probably as a mechanism to try to replace the fear. We then heard a shaking in the truck, startling us. We realised that the hell pig was tearing at the bumper of the truck like a lion would. Dad hammered the horn, making the thing back up in surprise. Dad took this opportunity to back up very quickly towards the intersection and turned to the left, quickly avoiding the creature. We sat in silence, except for Joe who was chirping.
When we went down the street, the houses, as usual, were damaged but we saw other vehicles, the first we had seen. Some were parked along the street, others stuck on one lane like city traffic but paused. Weirdly enough, there are no people in the vehicles, nor anyone outside. Most of the vehicles have one or more doors open like people got out to go somewhere. We drove past all the vehicles in the other lane. There is one vehicle we passed by that is on fire, most of the paint already off to reveal the metal beneath, only to be turned into a rainbow of browns and blacks by the dancing flames.
“What. Happened. Here”, Mom slowly asked, as confused and terrified as us. We had a feeling of dread, seeing all the abandoned vehicles.
“That’s the least of our worries. We should be looking for supplies”, Dad responded.
“Hey, how much do we have”, Mom asked Dad, worried about using up the fuel.
“Well, we got a full tank of gas and travelled a hundred kilometers”, Dad responded, more confused. “Nothing makes sense here and I hope we don’t stay here for long”, he muttered.
Eventually, we passed most of the vehicles and reached the veterinary clinic. The small, intact structure stood there, seemingly looking over the icy driveway. We then spotted an old, brown truck and we saw something that set it apart from the rest of the vehicles we’ve seen so far.
“It’s on”, I said, gleefully, with hope that, at least, we aren’t the only ones here. The headlights beamed brightly, and we realised it was getting dark. We also noticed that the street lights aren’t turning on.
“I thought there was no one here”, my Mom said, unsure of the connection between the abandoned but running truck and the lack of people in this town. At one of the intact houses, ahead of us, partially blocked by the trees, we saw what seemed to be bright light coming from one of the windows. What person would go into a house after an earthquake, I thought, thinking about our house back home.
“Someone’s here”, Matt loudly notified, as we all shushed him and that is when Joe is trying to push the door with his snout. “What is he doing?”
“Stay here”, Dad calmly ordered, opening the door, but Joe scurried out and went somewhere else.
“Hey, come back”, Matt called out, with no success. Joe eventually disappeared into the night, never to be seen. Matt then had tears welling up in his eyes like he was about to cry. I hugged him to comfort him.
“He’ll come back some time”, Mom reassured, trying to calm him down and looking at Dad. Dad nodded and grabbed a flashlight that was equipped in the truck. He then walked slowly towards the house, step by step, being shone by our truck’s headlights. He looked back at us and put his hand up when the light in the house moved. It seems to move towards the front door of the house. Emerging from the house is a person walking down the steps, cloaked in darkness. Dad then took a few steps back as the figure came. Finally, the figure stepped into the light.