I have an interesting dilemma at work.
Here’s where I am at. In a complete surprise, My current employer moved me from my successful department and leadership of the company 8 months ago. I led and grew this team over the last decade and during that time I was top three decision maker in the company. I have stayed at the company since the event in a lesser position (nothing happened to my pay) and watched leadership systematically destroy my team. There is literally no one left. I recently had a one on one meeting with the big boss and was told, over an hour, how bad I sucked at my job and how everything I did was wrong, but if I work hard I can get back where I was. I get it we all need to work on things. No one is perfect all the time. But man that was rough to listen to.
So here’s my question. What do I do? Do I stick it out and risk getting fired or do I get ahead of it and find a new company? The amount of humble pie I’ve eaten to date is incredible. I would have died for this company in the past. I feel like I’ve been fooled the last 2 decades.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Content Warning: Domestic Abuse
***
We pulled off I-51 a little after midnight, stopping at a truck stop which was couched between the highway and a large forest.
We waited in the van for ten minutes or so. Trent had increased the sonar radius to its maximum of 30 miles a little over an hour ago. Somehow the red pings had kept up with us, holding a steady distance of around 20 miles. Considering we were averaging around 80 mph, and a coyote's top speed is only around 40 mph, we figured they had been enhanced in some way. Either that, or they shape-shifted into something faster. Regardless, now that we had stopped, we waited to see if the demon spawn would try and close the distance. Luckily, or unluckily, they didn't. They kept their 20 mile buffer, but we noticed they were beginning to spread out along the circumference of that boundary.
"We're close. They know that, so they're trying to trap us in." Trent said.
"Trying to?—more like they have."
We considered whether we should stay in the van and keep watch, but we figured that would do us little good. At their speed, they could be on us in ten minutes, which means we would need to stay up all night and keep tabs on their positions. Trent offered to stay up, of course, but I shut him down.
"The demon doesn't want to kill us now. You said it yourself. Plus, we need our rest. If they come, they come."
Trent didn't like it, but he acquiesced.
The truck stop had all the essentials: a gas station and mini mart with showers and an attached McDonald's, a large parking lot for truckers to idle and sleep, and even a section with lodging for those who wanted a more comfortable night's rest. I told Trent that he should take advantage of the showers, and after a little convincing, he agreed. While he was cleaning himself up, I patrolled the dingy, half-stocked aisles of "Daisy's Quick Mart". I probably would have been appalled at the quality of the store had I actually been paying any attention to it whatsoever. But I wasn't. I was thinking hard about what awaited me tomorrow.
During the drive, I had asked Trent why the demon would want us to return to the crash site. What did he mean that I would be 'confronting a dark entity in a place he couldn't help me'? He seemed hesitant to answer, but my little stunt outside the storage facility seemed to have sufficiently motivated him.
"When I said I've never done this before, I meant it." Trent started. "I've never done this exact thing before—meaning I've never projected someone into the past."
"So, I'm time traveling?" I asked.
"No—don't think of it like that." Trent paused, trying to come up with a good explanation. "It's more like I'm opening a window for you to look through: not a door. You're going to see the past, but you can't interact with the physicalities there. But that doesn't mean you can't interact with anything."
There was a space of silence as Trent tried to let me work out his meaning for myself. "I don't get it. Are you saying there's something I can interact with? Like what?" And then it hit me. "The demon. The demon can interact with me? Meaning what? It can kill me?"
"Meaning… I'm not exactly sure. You're going to be in a kind of psychic space. If it does damage, it won't be to your body. It'll be to your mind—or spirit. But I don't know what the limits of that damage could be. I just don't have those answers."
"If you've never done this, how do you know any of it will work?"
"That's an easy one." Trent answered. "Because it's been done to me."
There was silence.
"Look, if I know anything, I know my tech. Don't doubt that this will work. It's my job to make sure it does. I just need you to be in the right mental for this. Just because it knows your coming doesn't mean it automatically has the upper hand. It won't be able to see you unless you make contact with it first. In other words, you have to initiate contact. As long as you remain a spectator, you should be okay. Trust me. Just don't make contact."
I started pacing faster—fast enough to catch the attention of the overnight shift worker, a young man whose name I can't quite remember. I know it started with a "J". Jake, maybe? Anyway, he asked if I was alright, to which I responded in the affirmative. He left me alone for another couple passes, but when I almost ran into one of the shelves, he stood up and said, "Uh—I'm going to have to ask you to stop running around. I don't want you to hurt yourself."
I must have stared daggers at him, because he recoiled from my gaze. What's gotten into me? I thought. Then, steadying myself, I apologized. I looked around and grabbed the nearest edible looking piece of merchandise: a bag of Swedish Fish, and placed it down on the counter. "Just this, please."
The cashier rang me up. It was surprisingly cheap.
"Are you sure you're alright?" the young man asked. He was tall with brown hair. He seemed tired—maybe even more tired than me. But he also seemed kind.
I smiled as best I could and said, "No, I'm not. But there's not really anything you can do. Hell, there might not be anything I can do." I furrowed my eyebrows at my own response, realizing that imminent death may have broken my verbal filter.
On the other hand, the cashier did not seem surprised at all. "Ah, I see. It's one of those problems." He responded. "Well, hey, for what it's worth, you seem like one of the resilient ones. I think you'll be alright."
I only smiled and nodded at his mildly cryptic comment. Looking back, the whole interaction was a bit strange, but I had way too much mental clutter to recognize that in the moment. I took my Swedish Fish and walked through the anteroom which led to McDonald's. I found an open yellow booth that wasn't littered with crumpled straw sleeves and sat down, chomping mindlessly on my little red fish until Trent returned. When he arrived, he took my place, and I went to shower. After we were both clean and fed, we returned to the van. The pings were still pushed safely out of harm's way. But that didn't mean we were out of harm's way. Trent asked me if I wanted to sleep in the van, saying that "it'd be the safest place."
I thought it over. He was right, obviously. The van was not only outfitted with weapons I couldn't even begin to understand, but it was also our escape, and it would be just as difficult, if not more difficult to break into than the studio-style motel rooms with their wood doors and big windows. Still, if this was going to be my last night on earth, I wanted to sleep in a bed. A real bed. Trent understood and said he'd stay parked right outside my room for the night.
After purchasing a key from the night attendant, I moseyed over to the cement walkways which connected the twenty or so rooms. Mine was room #56, which I thought was odd since, like I said, there were only 20 rooms. I lugged in my tomato plushie and dad's old book and placed them on the queen mattress.
"I'll be right outside." Trent said after I collapsed onto the bed.
"Trent," I called out, stopping him half-way through the door.
"Yeah?"
All the blood in my body rushed up to my face as I realized my unfiltered mouth almost reflexively said the word "stay". I stared at Trent, my heart beating, my face hot. I considered asking him to sleep on the floor like my dad, but that would be childish and impolite. The alternative was to share my bed… Or I could take the floor.
"I'll just be right outside." Trent said before my mind processed a solution. "Come by if you need anything. I'll be up most of the night anyway."
"Okay," I replied in a faint voice.
Trent shut the door.
I sat atop the bedsheets and acquainted myself with my new living space. A feeling of regret closed over me as I considered that even sleeping on a carseat would have been better if it meant I didn't have to be alone. With a sigh, I turned on the bedside lamp and grabbed the book and stuffed tomato, using the tomato as a backrest as I slipped my legs under the covers and situated the book upright on my thighs. I cracked it open and was immediately blasted with a puff of dusty, old book scent. It was ripe at first, and I turned my head away to sneeze, but as I perused through the pages, the scent grew on me. It reminded me of the days growing up when I'd step into dad's study and read through one of the many volumes on cryptic topics which were at least two college degrees above my Lexile range.
I was only a couple minutes into browsing the collection of different scientific and philosophical works when I came across a page which contained highlighted text. This was unusual, as my dad would never mark up his books. He was a purist on that point. I rubbed my thumb over the yellow lines, and sure enough, it was highlighter.
The highlighted text was part of a small book by Carl Jung called "Synchronicity". There were a total of three pages that were marked, and they advanced like this:
Page 5:
The philosophical principle that underlies our conception of natural law is causality*. But if the connection between cause and effect turns out to be only statistically valid and relatively true, then the causal principle is only of relative use for explaining natural processes… That is as much to say that the connection of events may in certain circumstances be other than causal, and require another principle of explanation.*
Page 19:
…there are events which are related to one another experimentally, and in this case meaningfully*, without there being any possibility of proving that this relation is a causal one, since the "transmission" exhibits none of the known properties of energy…a situation which does not yet exist and will only occur in the future could transmit itself as a phenomenon of energy to a receiver in the present…Therefore, it cannot be a question of cause and effect, but of a falling together in time, a kind of simultaneity... "synchronicity"*
Page 22:
A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the window pane from outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to a golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer… which contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt an urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment.
I flipped through the rest of the pages of the book. There was no more highlighted text, but there was a message on the last page which read:
Matthew 7:7-8
I'll meet you in the darkest place.
He also included his typical smiley face which had an ovular shape and three sprouts of hair which I now realized kind of resembled my tomato plushie. It was my dad's writing, of course. But why? And how? What did this mean?
The motel had a Bible stashed away in the nighstand drawer. I got it out and looked up the verses which read the following:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
I spent maybe an hour ruminating on all of this. The whole discourse on energy and causality and a "falling together in time" just seemed so right. It was clear that my dad definitely did know what I was going through, but for whatever reason, he made it seem like he was oblivious. Why had he hidden that from me? I felt like I was being pulled in two directions. On the one hand, my dad loved me enough to leave this note, maybe even knowing the exact moment I'd need it. But on the other hand, he had neglected my struggles throughout my entire childhood. He even lied at times. Was this really enough to make up for all of that?
And then there was the section about the future transmitting energy to the past. I read back through the whole paragraph and the original writer had meant it to say this as something that wasn't possible, but my dad's highlighting made it seem like he wanted to flip the meaning. The future does affect the past. I thought about where I was headed and wondered if I would soon discover that for myself.
Lastly, dad's message. The Bible verse reminded me of the first time I prayed; how I reached out to God and received peace as an answer to my prayer. Now I feel like I'm actively seeking… something, but I don't know yet what I'll find. And then there's knocking. At first that reminded me of the story with the beetle tapping on the window, but then I went back even deeper in my memory and dug out the monster tapping at my window, and the words my dad spoke to me in order to set my mind at ease: "you're a superhero. And you know what your greatest superpower is? Your greatest power is you get to tell the monsters what to do. Because the monsters are only as strong as the stories you tell about them…so if you're ever scared, honey, just dream up a better story."
I was crying into my stuffed tomato now. I felt like all the blinking pieces of my life had finally been pulled together into a completed puzzle. This was all by design. My entire life, filled with so much chaos and confusion, was actually preparing me for this moment. And my dad thought I had the tools and strength enough to get through it. I flipped through the book one more time, thinking maybe he had left some other hidden comment—some formula to defeat this demon and return home. But there was nothing. Only that one comment: "I'll meet you in the darkest place."
What's the darkest place, dad? Is that where I'm going? Are you saying you'll be there, too?
With those thoughts in mind, my eyes became heavy shutters which, with a slight pressure on the pulley, winded shut. My swimming thoughts and firework-like fears dissipated, and I returned to a precious childhood memory. It was after an evening soccer practice. Summer. Dad was driving me to Dairy Queen. I got a cherry-dipped twist cone. I was happy.
So, so happy.
***
I woke up to sunlight blaring through my windows. Shit, I overslept, was my immediate thought. I threw off my covers and opened the front door. A glance at the clock showed 1:13 PM. I shouldn't have even been allowed to stay checked in this long. Damn, am I gonna get double-billed for this?
I heard a rummaging sound around the corner of my motel room. It sounded like a squirrel was trying to find an afternoon snack in one of the garbage bins. I stepped outside. The sun was extremely bright, to the point where I had to squint and put my hand over my eyes to even see the ground in front of me. I was trying to walk toward the van, but somehow I ended up in front of the trash bins where the animal's tail was sticking out from a turned-over, silver garbage can. Its tail was wagging excitedly, and I remember thinking that it was much too large to be a squirrel.
The animal bent down as if biting onto something, and I heard the sound of its growl as it struggled to tug whatever it was free from the barrel. Inch by inch, the creature backed out of the canister, and more of its sharp, sticky hair was revealed. I heard something snap, then the creature leapt back and I saw what it was chomping on. My eyes widened in horror as the pink tube of a human intestine was pulled taut like the end of a tangled hose. Blood and entrails were spilling out of the human's opened gut. And then, behind the canine, I saw the person's face. His face was pale white, his eyes closed, and his hair was slicked back… It was Trent.
Before I could react, I heard footsteps approaching from behind. I whirled around and saw my dad. But—no, it wasn't him. It was someone wearing a paper-mache face mask that was painted to look like my dad. The forehead of the mask was already beginning to crack, white specks breaking off like sawdust. Through the cracks, I could see the figure's true form. I didn't know darkness had its own type of light, but that's the only way to describe it. It was as if malevolence itself was reified into a skin which was actually an amalgamation of millions of little, oozing parasites that leached into the nearby light. When it finally spoke, the demon's voice was a full octave lower than the old man's at the deli. And it had an earth-stilling gravitas.
"Today's the day!" He sang and reached into his pocket. His lips curled upward into a foxy smirk. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this day." He said and held up a razor blade. Half his facade had already fallen apart, and now I could see the bugs up close, writhing in what was either horror or ecstasy. And his scent… it was somehow more rank than the rabid coyote rummaging through the trash can with Trent's cut open body inside. The demon closed in on my position, and in one, decisive motion, he brought the blade close to his chin, then sliced it across my throat. "Wake up!" He screamed.
I jumped out of my bed and grabbed my throat, feeling the cold sting of its quick slice. Hyperventilating, I patted the area down, trying to hold the blood in, but when I removed my hands, I saw they were dry. It was only a dream, I thought. Gray light was only beginning to filter in through the drapes. I'm in my hotel room. I'm safe. I tried consoling, but the pragmatic mental massages weren't enough to hold the force of my knees buckling. I dropped onto the carpet and cried for a long while.
Outside, rain was beginning to fall.
***
By the time I met up with Trent, I had already composed myself and decided to keep my dad's message and the nightmare to myself. None of it seemed particularly productive from a logistical standpoint, anyway. And I wanted to focus on the mission.
We stopped by McDonald's and bought a couple cups of coffee. Trent asked if I wanted any food, and I declined. Black coffee seemed like the only thing my stomach could take at the present moment. I could tell Trent was hungry, but he tried playing it off (I guess to be respectful of me?) I told him to knock it off and get something to eat. I didn't need my Charon getting lightheaded and dropping the paddle before he finished rowing me to Hell. He didn't care much for my joke, but he ordered a couple Chicken McGriddles at the kiosk anyway.
There were maybe ten patrons spread throughout the restaurant. We sat down at the same booth from the prior night, this time across from one another. Trent spent the first ten minutes or so babbling about our fuel supply and the logistics of the trip from here on in. Practical stuff. I've come to realize that's how he deals with his stress. He talks it out in short, durable sentences. I mostly nodded and watched as what looked like a storm front closed in on the truck stop. The sky was overcast, and there were darker clouds in the distance. The rain was still only a patter, but a middle-aged man wearing a yellow bow tie on the wall-mounted TV confirmed that there would be heavier rain and thunderstorms very soon.
After the worker delivered Trent's food and he ate it in record time, I posed the one question that was still on my mind.
"How do I fight him?" I asked.
Trent finished a large gulp of his coffee, then looked at me. It was the first substantial thing I'd said all morning; Trent could tell something was off with me, but he figured there was no point in asking what it was. "By 'him', I assume you mean the demon?"
I nodded.
Trent licked his teeth clean. "You could try praying again."
"I'm serious," I responded.
"I'm serious, too. It worked before, didn't it?"
"You mean at my house?"
Trent nodded.
"I thought you weren't a religious man?"
"I'm not. Just a practical one. If praying worked before, maybe it'll work again."
"That's the best you've got? A maybe?"
"No, I've got a lot of shit better than a maybe." He answered. "It's just not accessible where you're going. Which is why I recommend not making contact on the first run."
"First run? So we're going to do this more than once?"
"At least," Trent answered. Then, seeing my expression, he continued. "What? You thought this was going to be a one-and-done? We have to conduct some research first. I did tell you this was new for me, right?"
Somehow Trent's response had set my mind at ease a little. I was going to have more than one chance. Of course, why wouldn't I be able to go back more than once?
"Why didn't you tell me this earlier? It would have gone a long way in easing my mind."
Trent lifted his hands in defense. "Sorry, I just thought that was a given. I mean, what we're doing is dangerous, just like I said, but it doesn't mean we aren't going to approach this as safely and scientifically as possible. However, there is a different problem with running multiple trials."
"The Organization?"
"That's right," Trent said like a proud parent. "Our little experiment will be like a giant spotlight, and the longer we wait around after it's on us, the greater the chance we'll have unwelcome company."
"So, safe but speedy."
"Safe but speedy. Exactly."
***
We fueled up and were back on the road a little after 8:00. From that point on, Trent and I were absolutely silent. I had the distinct feeling of being in the eye of a storm. The pings moved closer commensurate with our progress toward the crash site. The cloudfront continued its advance. And I noticed a haze beginning to descend onto the road ahead of us. It was fog.
We meandered further inland, the forest thickening around us until the rain almost stopped entirely—the leaves drinking it up before it fell onto our windshield. I kept my eyes on the radar. We were approaching the large yellow circle which indicated we had arrived. As we pulled closer, I began to feel things. Fear. Eeriness. Doubt. Then happiness. Hope. Love. Normally feelings like these had a clear source to picture, but these sensations came on in waves without any discernible reason. It was almost as if they were blinking into existence inside me.
"Here we go," Trent said like an airline pilot readying his crew for turbulence.
I still recall the exact moment we crossed the boundary into the area of higher energy. It was like something just "clicked" in my brain, and all of a sudden everything felt so much closer. The sound of the rain against the trees was almost right next to my ear. The trees in the distance would oscillate between their position a half-mile out, then suddenly seem five meters away. If I focused on something long enough, it began to radiate those same ethereal particles as when Trent released Ava's "phase lock". I checked to make sure the shifter wasn't set to "TD". Sure enough, it was still in drive.
"Can you see them?" Trent asked. "The shifts?"
"Yeah," I said in a dreamy voice. I felt like I was driving through a wonderland.
"It's the energy. I barely notice a difference. A bit of movement in the trees, but not much else. But I'm sure for you, it's a whole experience."
"What is this?" I raised my hand and caught some of the pixel dust dripping off the sun visor. It disappeared when it made contact with my hand.
"It's a kind of radiation. Everything emits it, just in different quantities. I'm still not exactly sure how it relates to the other realms, but I'm guessing it's a kind of primordial matter that helps connect our worlds."
"It's beautiful," I exclaimed. "I wish I could see the world like this all the time."
"Maybe you will," Trent whispered.
As we arrived at the crash site, I began to get glimpses of the past. My childhood dreams and memories were pushing their way out from my subconscious. I noticed an increased number of blinks, which were validated by Ava who reported the following: "Currently detecting 14,350 novel emergences and 2,777 controlled agents. Net anomalies: 2,777."
"That's a lot of blinks." I remarked. "Why doesn't Ava include them in the net anomalies?"
Trent turned his head so I could see his smirk. "Because blinks aren't anomalies."
I thought about it for a second. Blinks aren't anomalies. "I never thought about it that way."
"It's hard to think about it that way when 'normal' for most people means not picking up on a fundamental aspect of reality. But that doesn't make it any less real."
We continued past the epicenter of the yellow circle. "Are we not stopping?" I asked. "I think we already passed the crash site."
"It doesn't have to be exactly at the site," Trent said. "Plus, we don't want to stop on the side of the road and risk getting some civilian involved. There's a field about half a mile up ahead. I'm going to pull off the road and set up camp there.
The "field" that Trent was referring to was actually a large clearing that dipped down into several trench-like troughs which were filled to the brim with fog like witches cauldrons. Further on in the distance, I saw open fields, probably used for farming, and then a large hill where the trees once again reasserted themselves. We had pulled off the road and up a small incline where the trees had already been broken down, leaving a trail for us to drive through. When we surfaced at the edge of the clearing, Trent pulled us onto a flat bed of dried mud which was maybe thirty yards long.
"Here," he said with a sigh.
We both sat for a minute, looking around at the field. We had finally arrived. The rain was beginning to pick up, and the dark sky made it almost impossible to discern the time of day.
"You ready?" Trent asked.
I looked at him. Really looked at him. In his blue eyes. Was I ready? Did it even matter?
"Let's do this," I said.
***
This was the first time I was really able to inspect the back of Trent's van. He had talked up his gear a lot, and honestly, I was impressed. Not in the way that a scientist is impressed by another scientist's lab—I wasn't any kind of expert—but it still seemed remarkably well managed. Now that I was in a state where my vision had been enhanced, I could actually see the enigmatic particles circulating through the pneumatic tubes which were coiled like the pipes and valves of an elaborate wind instrument. The walls of the van, itself, were glistening white, making it easier to make out everything else inside. Along the floor were five overturned columns. Each column was dark and had a vibrating quality, as if they were charged with energy. Then atop the center three columns was a small altar which supported an apparatus with two skinny, metal arms holding a silver halo. At present, the arms were folded and the halo was suspended a few inches above the altar, faced-down. I thought maybe I'd see particles exuding from it, but instead it was emitting visible waves which bent and warped everything they touched.
"That thing is emitting a lot of energy." I remarked, gesturing toward the halo.
Trent stepped in between the columns and started pulling out the packages he had stuffed in there yesterday. "Just wait till' it's on."
Most of the packages contained only a single piece of equipment, and were otherwise packed with foam peanuts. We carefully removed each box and set them on the ground outside. I asked if the rain would damage any of the stuff inside, to which Trent only laughed and continued lugging out the boxes. When they were all out, Trent removed a box cutter from his pocket and went one-by-one opening them. There were eight pieces in total.
"What is it?" I asked as we fished the first item out.
"It's another apparatus, like the one inside. Except it'll mount on the ground out here."
I pulled out what looked like a metal tripod.
"Good, that'll go on the bottom."
"Where are we setting it up?"
"Over here," Trent said and stepped five paces away from the van. He coordinated himself up so he was centrally aligned with the inner ring, then stomped a few times. "This is the spot."
As we continued to work, I asked Trent about how the whole contraption works.
"Do you remember the first time we were in the van? When we had to escape from the semi-truck?" Trent asked and connected a secondary mounting apparatus on top of the tripod. It had four spider-like legs that made right angles and stuck into the ground.
"Of course," I said. "The 'phase lock'."
"Yeah," Trent said and gestured toward the metal stick that was in my hand. I handed it to him. "The phase lock is a seal on the level of energy that the van is allowed to release. It also controls its dispersion pattern so that it releases its energy in a steady wave. This allows Ava to scan for anomalies without causing us to become an anomaly." Trent stuck the plank into the neck of the tripod.
"So when you released the phase lock, we started emitting more energy."
"That's right." Trent confirmed. "Enough to create an alternate route through a different realm."
"So we blinked into a different realm, then back, just to avoid that truck?"
"That's right."
"But why couldn't we just move out of the way?"
"Because it had locked onto us. It was tracking our motion and adjusting its course based on the amount of energy we were emitting. So in order to escape, we had to radically skew our potential energy and then use it to shift."
"Couldn't he have just followed us?"
Trent connected four more pieces to the device which now looked like an elaborate teepee. He was fishing in the last box when he spoke again. "Yeah, he could have. But it was highly improbable that he would have found us." Trent returned from the bottom of the box with another silver ring in hand. "Think of it like this. Let's say you're trying to escape from some bad guy who's coming after you, and you enter a new room you've never seen before. Would you prefer this room to have three doors to go through, or ten?"
I thought about his riddle for a second, then responded, "It depends where they go."
Trent fastened the ring atop the teepee. "Let's say they all lead to random places, or let's say they're all closets that lead nowhere. The key is that more is better, because the more doors he has to check, the less likely he is to pick the correct one. Make sense?"
"So we opened up a bunch of doors and escaped through one at random?"
"Hence the gear 'TD', for 'Trap Door'."
I marveled at the insights, but not for long. Trent hopped back in the van and pulled a lever that I hadn't seen until now. The two metal arms raised the inner ring until it was perpendicular with the altar. Then Trent clicked one of three red buttons along the back wall, and I saw what looked like a large, glass eye suspended in a magnifying glass protruding from the wall, aligned with the center of both rings. A couple seconds later, the glass eye began to focus the energy which was being fed to it from the pneumatic tubes, and a blue pyramid of light projected from it into the first ring, then from the first ring into the second ring. All three pieces were aligned at slightly diminishing heights, so the cylinder of light beamed through the second ring, into the ground.
"Alright, time for the first trial."
I felt the nerves starting up in my stomach. Trent sensed this and hopped out of the truck. It was raining quite hard now, though it was still warm. Both Trent and I were soaked, but that hardly concerned us. He reached out and put his hand on my shoulder. "I know you're feeling scared." He said. "But trust me on this. You're going to do fine. Just keep in mind what we talked about. Stay a spectator. Okay?"
I looked into his blue eyes, which seemed especially gray in the dark. Still, Trent's voice was reassuring. All I had to do was trust him. Trust myself. Trust my dad. And it was all going to turn out right.
"I'm ready," I said.
Trent was still for a second, holding my eyes in his. Then he guided me behind the outer ring and into the cylinder of light.
"I should step into it now?" I asked, afraid I'd be called away immediately.
"It's not on yet, so don't worry. I still have to press another button."
I followed Trent's instructions and stood in the blue light which was centered on my chest. Then I watched as Trent ran into the back of the van and posted up next to the glass eye. "Ready?" He yelled out. It was hard to hear him over the rain, but I yelled back. "Ready!"
The next thing I saw was a blinding blue light beam from the van. I heard what sounded like a laser, then saw the cylinder oscillate, expanding and compressing. When the energy reached the second ring, I saw everything around me light up—it looked brighter than noon on a cloudless day. Then the oscillations made their way to me, and I was swallowed up whole.
***
When I came to, I was in the backseat of a car. I felt my butt rumbling. Everything was dim and quiet. And then I heard a woman's voice from in front of me.
"Mark, please, not with Lauren in the back."
The man, who I now identified as my father, pulled the cigarette away from his lips and blew the smoke at my mom. He eyed the back seat where I was sitting, using one of five markers that hadn't rolled off my lap to color a rabbit in my animal color book.
"The kid's fine." he said and took another drag.
"Mark," my mom repeated.
I saw my dad raise his hand in a rapid motion. "I said she's fine, Cheryl. Now check the map and make sure we're going the right away. I can't see shit with all this fog."
I took a moment to make sure I was really in the back seat. I patted myself. I clearly had weight. Then I tried touching the car. At first, my fingertips met a solid surface, but when I tried to press through, my hand slipped into the car. I quickly pulled my hand away as if I had reached into a fire.
That's when I heard the little three year old next to me start crying. I turned and saw that little-me had dropped another couple markers onto the ground and was struggling to reach them.
"Hey!" my dad shouted. "What did I say about crying?"
"Quit it, Mark. She just dropped her markers." said my mom; she turned to help me pick them up.
"What did you say to me?" Mark spat with a voice full of guile. He reached out and pushed her back into her seat. "Don't," he commanded. "She has to learn how to deal with life."
"Deal…" My mom started in disbelief. "Deal with life? Do you hear yourself? What's gotten into you?"
"Sometimes shit happens. It doesn't give her the right to cry. You helping her is just going to reinforce her behavior."
"Her behavior? What about your behavior? You're acting like a total dick."
I didn't even have a moment to react before my dad's hand was across my mom's face. I felt the slap more than I heard it, my own face seeming to swell with the force of the blow. I saw my mom cover her mouth and lean away. Then little-me began to cry even louder, which only challenged my dad to step up his own volume.
"Everyone needs to get a fucking grip before I crash this car." My dad shouted and took another drag. The scariest part was I couldn't tell if he was warning us or threatening us. I felt the sudden urge to do something. There was no way this was real. I was definitely in some fantasy concocted by the demon. He wanted to turn me against my dad. That was the only explanation for something like this. My dad was a good man, not… this.
As I contemplated what to do, I saw a small, golden light appear behind little-me's window. Apparently she saw it, too, because her cries hushed as she traced the wisp with her eyes. After a second, the wisp transformed into a bunny rabbit, reminiscent of the one she was coloring. The rabbit hopped alongside the window, then did a couple circles in place. I watched little me let out a playful laugh and reach toward the window.
"What's going on back there?" my dad asked with a scowl. Apparently the only sound more disturbing than cries were laughs.
I looked back to the front and saw my mom wiping blood from her lip. Her expression was miserable. "Leave her alone, Mark."
"I'll do whatever I damn well want to do, Cheryl. It's my kid back there."
My mom was quiet.
When I looked back toward the rabbit, it was no longer a rabbit but a person. Or at least it looked like a person. The figure radiated pure gold, and atop his head was what appeared to be a King's crown. I recalled Allison's experience of seeing the sun-like figure in her moment of distress. Was that what was happening here? Was this really all true?
"Hey!" My dad shouted, eyeing little-me from the rear-view mirror. "What are you reaching at?"
I looked and saw the golden figure extending his hand toward the window, and little me's hand was reaching back. "Mom, dad, it bright." little-me said.
"What's bright, honey?" my mom asked.
"Don't encourage her, Cheryl."
"Someone there!" little me shouted happily and dropped the rest of the markers and the coloring book onto the ground.
"Who's there?" asked my mom.
"Cheryl, I swear to God. Sit the fuck down."
Everything from that moment on happened so quickly I barely had any time to process it. My mom lifted out of her seat to either get little me's attention or help me pick up my coloring book. My dad responded by grabbing onto her throat, letting go of the steering wheel entirely. He threw her back against the car door, and her head hit the window so hard, the glass cracked. My dad had dropped his cigarette, and I could smell smoke coming from under his seat, but that didn't seem to bother him at all. He turned toward little-me at the same moment my three-year-old hand reached out and grabbed onto the golden figure, whose hand diffused through the window. When my dad turned, I got a whiff of the most awful smell that I wouldn't have been able to place had I not had that nightmare last night. He grabbed onto little-me's shoulder and tugged her away from the golden figure that was trying to pull her the other way. My dad's facade began to crack, and I could see those dark bugs crawling out from the pores in his arms, marching down toward little-me.
I reacted.
I grabbed onto my dad's arm and pulled him off little-me. I heard the sound of my shirt ripping as she was torn from his grip and pulled out of the car, diffusing through it like a ghost. My brief victory was immediately overturned as I saw what was now clearly the demon smiling at me, his wretched fingers curled around my forearm.
"Caught you," He sneered.
Then the whole world once again diffused into countless numbers of particles, only this time, instead of riding through it, I felt like I was falling through an elevator shaft with each floor darker than the last. The further I fell, the less I became aware of my surroundings, and the more I felt a deep sense of loneliness. It was as if I was the only person in the whole world: and the whole world was a prison designed entirely for me. This went on for so long, I began to forget who I was. Where I was. What was.
And then I landed.
***
Source Used:
Jung, Carl. Synchronicity. Translated by Sonu Shamdasani, Princeton University Press, 2010.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
We pulled off I-51 a little after midnight, stopping at a truck stop which was couched between the highway and a large forest.
We waited in the van for ten minutes or so. Trent had increased the sonar radius to its maximum of 30 miles a little over an hour ago. Somehow the red pings had kept up with us, holding a steady distance of around 20 miles. Considering we were averaging around 80 mph, and a coyote's top speed is only around 40 mph, we figured they had been enhanced in some way. Either that, or they shape-shifted into something faster. Regardless, now that we had stopped, we waited to see if the demon spawn would try and close the distance. Luckily, or unluckily, they didn't. They kept their 20 mile buffer, but we noticed they were beginning to spread out along the circumference of that boundary.
"We're close. They know that, so they're trying to trap us in." Trent said.
"Trying to?—more like they have."
We considered whether we should stay in the van and keep watch, but we figured that would do us little good. At their speed, they could be on us in ten minutes, which means we would need to stay up all night and keep tabs on their positions. Trent offered to stay up, of course, but I shut him down.
"The demon doesn't want to kill us now. You said it yourself. Plus, we need our rest. If they come, they come."
Trent didn't like it, but he acquiesced.
The truck stop had all the essentials: a gas station and mini mart with showers and an attached McDonald's, a large parking lot for truckers to idle and sleep, and even a section with lodging for those who wanted a more comfortable night's rest. I told Trent that he should take advantage of the showers, and after a little convincing, he agreed. While he was cleaning himself up, I patrolled the dingy, half-stocked aisles of "Daisy's Quick Mart". I probably would have been appalled at the quality of the store had I actually been paying any attention to it whatsoever. But I wasn't. I was thinking hard about what awaited me tomorrow.
During the drive, I had asked Trent why the demon would want us to return to the crash site. What did he mean that I would be 'confronting a dark entity in a place he couldn't help me'? He seemed hesitant to answer, but my little stunt outside the storage facility seemed to have sufficiently motivated him.
"When I said I've never done this before, I meant it." Trent started. "I've never done this exact thing before—meaning I've never projected someone into the past."
"So, I'm time traveling?" I asked.
"No—don't think of it like that." Trent paused, trying to come up with a good explanation. "It's more like I'm opening a window for you to look through: not a door. You're going to see the past, but you can't interact with the physicalities there. But that doesn't mean you can't interact with anything."
There was a space of silence as Trent tried to let me work out his meaning for myself. "I don't get it. Are you saying there's something I can interact with? Like what?" And then it hit me. "The demon. The demon can interact with me? Meaning what? It can kill me?"
"Meaning… I'm not exactly sure. You're going to be in a kind of psychic space. If it does damage, it won't be to your body. It'll be to your mind—or spirit. But I don't know what the limits of that damage could be. I just don't have those answers."
"If you've never done this, how do you know any of it will work?"
"That's an easy one." Trent answered. "Because it's been done to me."
There was silence.
"Look, if I know anything, I know my tech. Don't doubt that this will work. It's my job to make sure it does. I just need you to be in the right mental for this. Just because it knows your coming doesn't mean it automatically has the upper hand. It won't be able to see you unless you make contact with it first. In other words, you have to initiate contact. As long as you remain a spectator, you should be okay. Trust me. Just don't make contact."
I started pacing faster—fast enough to catch the attention of the overnight shift worker, a young man whose name I can't quite remember. I know it started with a "J". Jake, maybe? Anyway, he asked if I was alright, to which I responded in the affirmative. He left me alone for another couple passes, but when I almost ran into one of the shelves, he stood up and said, "Uh—I'm going to have to ask you to stop running around. I don't want you to hurt yourself."
I must have stared daggers at him, because he recoiled from my gaze. What's gotten into me? I thought. Then, steadying myself, I apologized. I looked around and grabbed the nearest edible looking piece of merchandise: a bag of Swedish Fish, and placed it down on the counter. "Just this, please."
The cashier rang me up. It was surprisingly cheap.
"Are you sure you're alright?" the young man asked. He was tall with brown hair. He seemed tired—maybe even more tired than me. But he also seemed kind.
I smiled as best I could and said, "No, I'm not. But there's not really anything you can do. Hell, there might not be anything I can do." I furrowed my eyebrows at my own response, realizing that imminent death may have broken my verbal filter.
On the other hand, the cashier did not seem surprised at all. "Ah, I see. It's one of those problems." He responded. "Well, hey, for what it's worth, you seem like one of the resilient ones. I think you'll be alright."
I only smiled and nodded at his mildly cryptic comment. Looking back, the whole interaction was a bit strange, but I had way too much mental clutter to recognize that in the moment. I took my Swedish Fish and walked through the anteroom which led to McDonald's. I found an open yellow booth that wasn't littered with crumpled straw sleeves and sat down, chomping mindlessly on my little red fish until Trent returned. When he arrived, he took my place, and I went to shower. After we were both clean and fed, we returned to the van. The pings were still pushed safely out of harm's way. But that didn't mean we were out of harm's way. Trent asked me if I wanted to sleep in the van, saying that "it'd be the safest place."
I thought it over. He was right, obviously. The van was not only outfitted with weapons I couldn't even begin to understand, but it was also our escape, and it would be just as difficult, if not more difficult to break into than the studio-style motel rooms with their wood doors and big windows. Still, if this was going to be my last night on earth, I wanted to sleep in a bed. A real bed. Trent understood and said he'd stay parked right outside my room for the night.
After purchasing a key from the night attendant, I moseyed over to the cement walkways which connected the twenty or so rooms. Mine was room #56, which I thought was odd since, like I said, there were only 20 rooms. I lugged in my tomato plushie and dad's old book and placed them on the queen mattress.
"I'll be right outside." Trent said after I collapsed onto the bed.
"Trent," I called out, stopping him half-way through the door.
"Yeah?"
All the blood in my body rushed up to my face as I realized my unfiltered mouth almost reflexively said the word "stay". I stared at Trent, my heart beating, my face hot. I considered asking him to sleep on the floor like my dad, but that would be childish and impolite. The alternative was to share my bed… Or I could take the floor.
"I'll just be right outside." Trent said before my mind processed a solution. "Come by if you need anything. I'll be up most of the night anyway."
"Okay," I replied in a faint voice.
Trent shut the door.
I sat atop the bedsheets and acquainted myself with my new living space. A feeling of regret closed over me as I considered that even sleeping on a carseat would have been better if it meant I didn't have to be alone. With a sigh, I turned on the bedside lamp and grabbed the book and stuffed tomato, using the tomato as a backrest as I slipped my legs under the covers and situated the book upright on my thighs. I cracked it open and was immediately blasted with a puff of dusty, old book scent. It was ripe at first, and I turned my head away to sneeze, but as I perused through the pages, the scent grew on me. It reminded me of the days growing up when I'd step into dad's study and read through one of the many volumes on cryptic topics which were at least two college degrees above my Lexile range.
I was only a couple minutes into browsing the collection of different scientific and philosophical works when I came across a page which contained highlighted text. This was unusual, as my dad would never mark up his books. He was a purist on that point. I rubbed my thumb over the yellow lines, and sure enough, it was highlighter.
The highlighted text was part of a small book by Carl Jung called "Synchronicity". There were a total of three pages that were marked, and they advanced like this:
Page 5:
The philosophical principle that underlies our conception of natural law is causality. But if the connection between cause and effect turns out to be only statistically valid and relatively true, then the causal principle is only of relative use for explaining natural processes… That is as much to say that the connection of events may in certain circumstances be other than causal, and require another principle of explanation.
Page 19:
…there are events which are related to one another experimentally, and in this case meaningfully, without there being any possibility of proving that this relation is a causal one, since the "transmission" exhibits none of the known properties of energy…a situation which does not yet exist and will only occur in the future could transmit itself as a phenomenon of energy to a receiver in the present…Therefore, it cannot be a question of cause and effect, but of a falling together in time, a kind of simultaneity... "synchronicity"
Page 22:
A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the window pane from outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to a golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer… which contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt an urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment.
I flipped through the rest of the pages of the book. There was no more highlighted text, but there was a message on the last page which read:
Matthew 7:7-8
I'll meet you in the darkest place.
He also included his typical smiley face which had an ovular shape and three sprouts of hair which I now realized kind of resembled my tomato plushie. It was my dad's writing, of course. But why? And how? What did this mean?
The motel had a Bible stashed away in the nighstand drawer. I got it out and looked up the verses which read the following:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
I spent maybe an hour ruminating on all of this. The whole discourse on energy and causality and a "falling together in time" just seemed so right. It was clear that my dad definitely did know what I was going through, but for whatever reason, he made it seem like he was oblivious. Why had he hidden that from me? I felt like I was being pulled in two directions. On the one hand, my dad loved me enough to leave this note, maybe even knowing the exact moment I'd need it. But on the other hand, he had neglected my struggles throughout my entire childhood. He even lied at times. Was this really enough to make up for all of that?
And then there was the section about the future transmitting energy to the past. I read back through the whole paragraph and the original writer had meant it to say this as something that wasn't possible, but my dad's highlighting made it seem like he wanted to flip the meaning. The future does affect the past. I thought about where I was headed and wondered if I would soon discover that for myself.
Lastly, dad's message. The Bible verse reminded me of the first time I prayed; how I reached out to God and received peace as an answer to my prayer. Now I feel like I'm actively seeking… something, but I don't know yet what I'll find. And then there's knocking. At first that reminded me of the story with the beetle tapping on the window, but then I went back even deeper in my memory and dug out the monster tapping at my window, and the words my dad spoke to me in order to set my mind at ease: "you're a superhero. And you know what your greatest superpower is? Your greatest power is you get to tell the monsters what to do. Because the monsters are only as strong as the stories you tell about them…so if you're ever scared, honey, just dream up a better story."
I was crying into my stuffed tomato now. I felt like all the blinking pieces of my life had finally been pulled together into a completed puzzle. This was all by design. My entire life, filled with so much chaos and confusion, was actually preparing me for this moment. And my dad thought I had the tools and strength enough to get through it. I flipped through the book one more time, thinking maybe he had left some other hidden comment—some formula to defeat this demon and return home. But there was nothing. Only that one comment: "I'll meet you in the darkest place."
What's the darkest place, dad? Is that where I'm going? Are you saying you'll be there, too?
With those thoughts in mind, my eyes became heavy shutters which, with a slight pressure on the pulley, winded shut. My swimming thoughts and firework-like fears dissipated, and I returned to a precious childhood memory. It was after an evening soccer practice. Summer. Dad was driving me to Dairy Queen. I got a cherry-dipped twist cone. I was happy.
So, so happy.
***
I woke up to sunlight blaring through my windows. Shit, I overslept, was my immediate thought. I threw off my covers and opened the front door. A glance at the clock showed 1:13 PM. I shouldn't have even been allowed to stay checked in this long. Damn, am I gonna get double-billed for this?
I heard a rummaging sound around the corner of my motel room. It sounded like a squirrel was trying to find an afternoon snack in one of the garbage bins. I stepped outside. The sun was extremely bright, to the point where I had to squint and put my hand over my eyes to even see the ground in front of me. I was trying to walk toward the van, but somehow I ended up in front of the trash bins where the animal's tail was sticking out from a turned-over, silver garbage can. Its tail was wagging excitedly, and I remember thinking that it was much too large to be a squirrel.
The animal bent down as if biting onto something, and I heard the sound of its growl as it struggled to tug whatever it was free from the barrel. Inch by inch, the creature backed out of the canister, and more of its sharp, sticky hair was revealed. I heard something snap, then the creature leapt back and I saw what it was chomping on. My eyes widened in horror as the pink tube of a human intestine was pulled taut like the end of a tangled hose. Blood and entrails were spilling out of the human's opened gut. And then, behind the canine, I saw the person's face. His face was pale white, his eyes closed, and his hair was slicked back… It was Trent.
Before I could react, I heard footsteps approaching from behind. I whirled around and saw my dad. But—no, it wasn't him. It was someone wearing a paper-mache face mask that was painted to look like my dad. The forehead of the mask was already beginning to crack, white specks breaking off like sawdust. Through the cracks, I could see the figure's true form. I didn't know darkness had its own type of light, but that's the only way to describe it. It was as if malevolence itself was reified into a skin which was actually an amalgamation of millions of little, oozing parasites that leached into the nearby light. When it finally spoke, the demon's voice was a full octave lower than the old man's at the deli. And it had an earth-stilling gravitas.
"Today's the day!" He sang and reached into his pocket. His lips curled upward into a foxy smirk. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this day." He said and held up a razor blade. Half his facade had already fallen apart, and now I could see the bugs up close, writhing in what was either horror or ecstasy. And his scent… it was somehow more rank than the rabid coyote rummaging through the trash can with Trent's cut open body inside. The demon closed in on my position, and in one, decisive motion, he brought the blade close to his chin, then sliced it across my throat. "Wake up!" He screamed.
I jumped out of my bed and grabbed my throat, feeling the cold sting of its quick slice. Hyperventilating, I patted the area down, trying to hold the blood in, but when I removed my hands, I saw they were dry. It was only a dream, I thought. Gray light was only beginning to filter in through the drapes. I'm in my hotel room. I'm safe. I tried consoling, but the pragmatic mental massages weren't enough to hold the force of my knees buckling. I dropped onto the carpet and cried for a long while.
Outside, rain was beginning to fall.
***
By the time I met up with Trent, I had already composed myself and decided to keep my dad's message and the nightmare to myself. None of it seemed particularly productive from a logistical standpoint, anyway. And I wanted to focus on the mission.
We stopped by McDonald's and bought a couple cups of coffee. Trent asked if I wanted any food, and I declined. Black coffee seemed like the only thing my stomach could take at the present moment. I could tell Trent was hungry, but he tried playing it off (I guess to be respectful of me?) I told him to knock it off and get something to eat. I didn't need my Charon getting lightheaded and dropping the paddle before he finished rowing me to Hell. He didn't care much for my joke, but he ordered a couple Chicken McGriddles at the kiosk anyway.
There were maybe ten patrons spread throughout the restaurant. We sat down at the same booth from the prior night, this time across from one another. Trent spent the first ten minutes or so babbling about our fuel supply and the logistics of the trip from here on in. Practical stuff. I've come to realize that's how he deals with his stress. He talks it out in short, durable sentences. I mostly nodded and watched as what looked like a storm front closed in on the truck stop. The sky was overcast, and there were darker clouds in the distance. The rain was still only a patter, but a middle-aged man wearing a yellow bow tie on the wall-mounted TV confirmed that there would be heavier rain and thunderstorms very soon.
After the worker delivered Trent's food and he ate it in record time, I posed the one question that was still on my mind.
"How do I fight him?" I asked.
Trent finished a large gulp of his coffee, then looked at me. It was the first substantial thing I'd said all morning; Trent could tell something was off with me, but he figured there was no point in asking what it was. "By 'him', I assume you mean the demon?"
I nodded.
Trent licked his teeth clean. "You could try praying again."
"I'm serious," I responded.
"I'm serious, too. It worked before, didn't it?"
"You mean at my house?"
Trent nodded.
"I thought you weren't a religious man?"
"I'm not. Just a practical one. If praying worked before, maybe it'll work again."
"That's the best you've got? A maybe?"
"No, I've got a lot of shit better than a maybe." He answered. "It's just not accessible where you're going. Which is why I recommend not making contact on the first run."
"First run? So we're going to do this more than once?"
"At least," Trent answered. Then, seeing my expression, he continued. "What? You thought this was going to be a one-and-done? We have to conduct some research first. I did tell you this was new for me, right?"
Somehow Trent's response had set my mind at ease a little. I was going to have more than one chance. Of course, why wouldn't I be able to go back more than once?
"Why didn't you tell me this earlier? It would have gone a long way in easing my mind."
Trent lifted his hands in defense. "Sorry, I just thought that was a given. I mean, what we're doing is dangerous, just like I said, but it doesn't mean we aren't going to approach this as safely and scientifically as possible. However, there is a different problem with running multiple trials."
"The Organization?"
"That's right," Trent said like a proud parent. "Our little experiment will be like a giant spotlight, and the longer we wait around after it's on us, the greater the chance we'll have unwelcome company."
"So, safe but speedy."
"Safe but speedy. Exactly."
***
We fueled up and were back on the road a little after 8:00. From that point on, Trent and I were absolutely silent. I had the distinct feeling of being in the eye of a storm. The pings moved closer commensurate with our progress toward the crash site. The cloudfront continued its advance. And I noticed a haze beginning to descend onto the road ahead of us. It was fog.
We meandered further inland, the forest thickening around us until the rain almost stopped entirely—the leaves drinking it up before it fell onto our windshield. I kept my eyes on the radar. We were approaching the large yellow circle which indicated we had arrived. As we pulled closer, I began to feel things. Fear. Eeriness. Doubt. Then happiness. Hope. Love. Normally feelings like these had a clear source to picture, but these sensations came on in waves without any discernible reason. It was almost as if they were blinking into existence inside me.
"Here we go," Trent said like an airline pilot readying his crew for turbulence.
I still recall the exact moment we crossed the boundary into the area of higher energy. It was like something just "clicked" in my brain, and all of a sudden everything felt so much closer. The sound of the rain against the trees was almost right next to my ear. The trees in the distance would oscillate between their position a half-mile out, then suddenly seem five meters away. If I focused on something long enough, it began to radiate those same ethereal particles as when Trent released Ava's "phase lock". I checked to make sure the shifter wasn't set to "TD". Sure enough, it was still in drive.
"Can you see them?" Trent asked. "The shifts?"
"Yeah," I said in a dreamy voice. I felt like I was driving through a wonderland.
"It's the energy. I barely notice a difference. A bit of movement in the trees, but not much else. But I'm sure for you, it's a whole experience."
"What is this?" I raised my hand and caught some of the pixel dust dripping off the sun visor. It disappeared when it made contact with my hand.
"It's a kind of radiation. Everything emits it, just in different quantities. I'm still not exactly sure how it relates to the other realms, but I'm guessing it's a kind of primordial matter that helps connect our worlds."
"It's beautiful," I exclaimed. "I wish I could see the world like this all the time."
"Maybe you will," Trent whispered.
As we arrived at the crash site, I began to get glimpses of the past. My childhood dreams and memories were pushing their way out from my subconscious. I noticed an increased number of blinks, which were validated by Ava who reported the following: "Currently detecting 14,350 novel emergences and 2,777 controlled agents. Net anomalies: 2,777."
"That's a lot of blinks." I remarked. "Why doesn't Ava include them in the net anomalies?"
Trent turned his head so I could see his smirk. "Because blinks aren't anomalies."
I thought about it for a second. Blinks aren't anomalies. "I never thought about it that way."
"It's hard to think about it that way when 'normal' for most people means not picking up on a fundamental aspect of reality. But that doesn't make it any less real."
We continued past the epicenter of the yellow circle. "Are we not stopping?" I asked. "I think we already passed the crash site."
"It doesn't have to be exactly at the site," Trent said. "Plus, we don't want to stop on the side of the road and risk getting some civilian involved. There's a field about half a mile up ahead. I'm going to pull off the road and set up camp there.
The "field" that Trent was referring to was actually a large clearing that dipped down into several trench-like troughs which were filled to the brim with fog like witches cauldrons. Further on in the distance, I saw open fields, probably used for farming, and then a large hill where the trees once again reasserted themselves. We had pulled off the road and up a small incline where the trees had already been broken down, leaving a trail for us to drive through. When we surfaced at the edge of the clearing, Trent pulled us onto a flat bed of dried mud which was maybe thirty yards long.
"Here," he said with a sigh.
We both sat for a minute, looking around at the field. We had finally arrived. The rain was beginning to pick up, and the dark sky made it almost impossible to discern the time of day.
"You ready?" Trent asked.
I looked at him. Really looked at him. In his blue eyes. Was I ready? Did it even matter?
"Let's do this," I said.
***
This was the first time I was really able to inspect the back of Trent's van. He had talked up his gear a lot, and honestly, I was impressed. Not in the way that a scientist is impressed by another scientist's lab—I wasn't any kind of expert—but it still seemed remarkably well managed. Now that I was in a state where my vision had been enhanced, I could actually see the enigmatic particles circulating through the pneumatic tubes which were coiled like the pipes and valves of an elaborate wind instrument. The walls of the van, itself, were glistening white, making it easier to make out everything else inside. Along the floor were five overturned columns. Each column was dark and had a vibrating quality, as if they were charged with energy. Then atop the center three columns was a small altar which supported an apparatus with two skinny, metal arms holding a silver halo. At present, the arms were folded and the halo was suspended a few inches above the altar, faced-down. I thought maybe I'd see particles exuding from it, but instead it was emitting visible waves which bent and warped everything they touched.
"That thing is emitting a lot of energy." I remarked, gesturing toward the halo.
Trent stepped in between the columns and started pulling out the packages he had stuffed in there yesterday. "Just wait till' it's on."
Most of the packages contained only a single piece of equipment, and were otherwise packed with foam peanuts. We carefully removed each box and set them on the ground outside. I asked if the rain would damage any of the stuff inside, to which Trent only laughed and continued lugging out the boxes. When they were all out, Trent removed a box cutter from his pocket and went one-by-one opening them. There were eight pieces in total.
"What is it?" I asked as we fished the first item out.
"It's another apparatus, like the one inside. Except it'll mount on the ground out here."
I pulled out what looked like a metal tripod.
"Good, that'll go on the bottom."
"Where are we setting it up?"
"Over here," Trent said and stepped five paces away from the van. He coordinated himself up so he was centrally aligned with the inner ring, then stomped a few times. "This is the spot."
As we continued to work, I asked Trent about how the whole contraption works.
"Do you remember the first time we were in the van? When we had to escape from the semi-truck?" Trent asked and connected a secondary mounting apparatus on top of the tripod. It had four spider-like legs that made right angles and stuck into the ground.
"Of course," I said. "The 'phase lock'."
"Yeah," Trent said and gestured toward the metal stick that was in my hand. I handed it to him. "The phase lock is a seal on the level of energy that the van is allowed to release. It also controls its dispersion pattern so that it releases its energy in a steady wave. This allows Ava to scan for anomalies without causing us to become an anomaly." Trent stuck the plank into the neck of the tripod.
"So when you released the phase lock, we started emitting more energy."
"That's right." Trent confirmed. "Enough to create an alternate route through a different realm."
"So we blinked into a different realm, then back, just to avoid that truck?"
"That's right."
"But why couldn't we just move out of the way?"
"Because it had locked onto us. It was tracking our motion and adjusting its course based on the amount of energy we were emitting. So in order to escape, we had to radically skew our potential energy and then use it to shift."
"Couldn't he have just followed us?"
Trent connected four more pieces to the device which now looked like an elaborate teepee. He was fishing in the last box when he spoke again. "Yeah, he could have. But it was highly improbable that he would have found us." Trent returned from the bottom of the box with another silver ring in hand. "Think of it like this. Let's say you're trying to escape from some bad guy who's coming after you, and you enter a new room you've never seen before. Would you prefer this room to have three doors to go through, or ten?"
I thought about his riddle for a second, then responded, "It depends where they go."
Trent fastened the ring atop the teepee. "Let's say they all lead to random places, or let's say they're all closets that lead nowhere. The key is that more is better, because the more doors he has to check, the less likely he is to pick the correct one. Make sense?"
"So we opened up a bunch of doors and escaped through one at random?"
"Hence the gear 'TD', for 'Trap Door'."
I marveled at the insights, but not for long. Trent hopped back in the van and pulled a lever that I hadn't seen until now. The two metal arms raised the inner ring until it was perpendicular with the altar. Then Trent clicked one of three red buttons along the back wall, and I saw what looked like a large, glass eye suspended in a magnifying glass protruding from the wall, aligned with the center of both rings. A couple seconds later, the glass eye began to focus the energy which was being fed to it from the pneumatic tubes, and a blue pyramid of light projected from it into the first ring, then from the first ring into the second ring. All three pieces were aligned at slightly diminishing heights, so the cylinder of light beamed through the second ring, into the ground.
"Alright, time for the first trial."
I felt the nerves starting up in my stomach. Trent sensed this and hopped out of the truck. It was raining quite hard now, though it was still warm. Both Trent and I were soaked, but that hardly concerned us. He reached out and put his hand on my shoulder. "I know you're feeling scared." He said. "But trust me on this. You're going to do fine. Just keep in mind what we talked about. Stay a spectator. Okay?"
I looked into his blue eyes, which seemed especially gray in the dark. Still, Trent's voice was reassuring. All I had to do was trust him. Trust myself. Trust my dad. And it was all going to turn out right.
"I'm ready," I said.
Trent was still for a second, holding my eyes in his. Then he guided me behind the outer ring and into the cylinder of light.
"I should step into it now?" I asked, afraid I'd be called away immediately.
"It's not on yet, so don't worry. I still have to press another button."
I followed Trent's instructions and stood in the blue light which was centered on my chest. Then I watched as Trent ran into the back of the van and posted up next to the glass eye. "Ready?" He yelled out. It was hard to hear him over the rain, but I yelled back. "Ready!"
The next thing I saw was a blinding blue light beam from the van. I heard what sounded like a laser, then saw the cylinder oscillate, expanding and compressing. When the energy reached the second ring, I saw everything around me light up—it looked brighter than noon on a cloudless day. Then the oscillations made their way to me, and I was swallowed up whole.
***
When I came to, I was in the backseat of a car. I felt my butt rumbling. Everything was dim and quiet. And then I heard a woman's voice from in front of me.
"Mark, please, not with Lauren in the back."
The man, who I now identified as my father, pulled the cigarette away from his lips and blew the smoke at my mom. He eyed the back seat where I was sitting, using one of five markers that hadn't rolled off my lap to color a rabbit in my animal color book.
"The kid's fine." he said and took another drag.
"Mark," my mom repeated.
I saw my dad raise his hand in a rapid motion. "I said she's fine, Cheryl. Now check the map and make sure we're going the right away. I can't see shit with all this fog."
I took a moment to make sure I was really in the back seat. I patted myself. I clearly had weight. Then I tried touching the car. At first, my fingertips met a solid surface, but when I tried to press through, my hand slipped into the car. I quickly pulled my hand away as if I had reached into a fire.
That's when I heard the little three year old next to me start crying. I turned and saw that little-me had dropped another couple markers onto the ground and was struggling to reach them.
"Hey!" my dad shouted. "What did I say about crying?"
"Quit it, Mark. She just dropped her markers." said my mom; she turned to help me pick them up.
"What did you say to me?" Mark spat with a voice full of guile. He reached out and pushed her back into her seat. "Don't," he commanded. "She has to learn how to deal with life."
"Deal…" My mom started in disbelief. "Deal with life? Do you hear yourself? What's gotten into you?"
"Sometimes shit happens. It doesn't give her the right to cry. You helping her is just going to reinforce her behavior."
"Her behavior? What about your behavior? You're acting like a total dick."
I didn't even have a moment to react before my dad's hand was across my mom's face. I felt the slap more than I heard it, my own face seeming to swell with the force of the blow. I saw my mom cover her mouth and lean away. Then little-me began to cry even louder, which only challenged my dad to step up his own volume.
"Everyone needs to get a fucking grip before I crash this car." My dad shouted and took another drag. The scariest part was I couldn't tell if he was warning us or threatening us. I felt the sudden urge to do something. There was no way this was real. I was definitely in some fantasy concocted by the demon. He wanted to turn me against my dad. That was the only explanation for something like this. My dad was a good man, not… this.
As I contemplated what to do, I saw a small, golden light appear behind little-me's window. Apparently she saw it, too, because her cries hushed as she traced the wisp with her eyes. After a second, the wisp transformed into a bunny rabbit, reminiscent of the one she was coloring. The rabbit hopped alongside the window, then did a couple circles in place. I watched little me let out a playful laugh and reach toward the window.
"What's going on back there?" my dad asked with a scowl. Apparently the only sound more disturbing than cries were laughs.
I looked back to the front and saw my mom wiping blood from her lip. Her expression was miserable. "Leave her alone, Mark."
"I'll do whatever I damn well want to do, Cheryl. It's my kid back there."
My mom was quiet.
When I looked back toward the rabbit, it was no longer a rabbit but a person. Or at least it looked like a person. The figure radiated pure gold, and atop his head was what appeared to be a King's crown. I recalled Allison's experience of seeing the sun-like figure in her moment of distress. Was that what was happening here? Was this really all true?
"Hey!" My dad shouted, eyeing little-me from the rear-view mirror. "What are you reaching at?"
I looked and saw the golden figure extending his hand toward the window, and little me's hand was reaching back. "Mom, dad, it bright." little-me said.
"What's bright, honey?" my mom asked.
"Don't encourage her, Cheryl."
"Someone there!" little me shouted happily and dropped the rest of the markers and the coloring book onto the ground.
"Who's there?" asked my mom.
"Cheryl, I swear to God. Sit the fuck down."
Everything from that moment on happened so quickly I barely had any time to process it. My mom lifted out of her seat to either get little me's attention or help me pick up my coloring book. My dad responded by grabbing onto her throat, letting go of the steering wheel entirely. He threw her back against the car door, and her head hit the window so hard, the glass cracked. My dad had dropped his cigarette, and I could smell smoke coming from under his seat, but that didn't seem to bother him at all. He turned toward little-me at the same moment my three-year-old hand reached out and grabbed onto the golden figure, whose hand diffused through the window. When my dad turned, I got a whiff of the most awful smell that I wouldn't have been able to place had I not had that nightmare last night. He grabbed onto little-me's shoulder and tugged her away from the golden figure that was trying to pull her the other way. My dad's facade began to crack, and I could see those dark bugs crawling out from the pores in his arms, marching down toward little-me.
I reacted.
I grabbed onto my dad's arm and pulled him off little-me. I heard the sound of my shirt ripping as she was torn from his grip and pulled out of the car, diffusing through it like a ghost. My brief victory was immediately overturned as I saw what was now clearly the demon smiling at me, his wretched fingers curled around my forearm.
"Caught you," He sneered.
Then the whole world once again diffused into countless numbers of particles, only this time, instead of riding through it, I felt like I was falling through an elevator shaft with each floor darker than the last. The further I fell, the less I became aware of my surroundings, and the more I felt a deep sense of loneliness. It was as if I was the only person in the whole world: and the whole world was a prison designed entirely for me. This went on for so long, I began to forget who I was. Where I was. What was.
And then I landed.
***
Source Used:
Jung, Carl. Synchronicity. Translated by Sonu Shamdasani, Princeton University Press, 2010.

🌞 Summer Job Alert! 🚐
Hey everyone! As the summer road trips begin & our RV rental business is picking up the pace, we're looking for energetic and detail-oriented individuals to join our team for a seasonal job opportunity that will shine as bright as the sun! ☀️
Position: RV Cleaning & Specialist Location: Painted Post, NY Duration: Summer & Fall 2024 (June - November) Hours: Part-time, Flexible, 2-4 days per week.
If you love the outdoors and have a knack for making things sparkle, we want you! Our team is dedicated to ensuring that every RV looks its best for the summer adventurers. No experience? No problem! We provide all the training and tools you need.
Perks: - Competitive pay - Flexible hours to enjoy your summer - Fun and friendly work environment (no micromanagement) - Get paid at the end of every day!
To apply, message me right here or email us at info@denko-rv-rentals.com
Don't miss out on the chance to earn some extra cash and be a part of the summer excitement!
Feel free to tag your friends, teenage kids, or anyone who may be interested.

SummerJob #RVLife #CorningNY #JobOpportunity #SeasonalWork

Managed to get an interview with a well known company. I had a virtual meeting with the hiring manager, Jordon, on 6/25, discussed my background, overview of the job and answered some behavioral questions.
Had a technical interview the following week on 6/31 with the Jordon and someone on his team. Close to 5PM that same day (Friday), Jordon emails me to let me know next steps would be to meet with two other individuals from his team Laura and Alex (they were copied on the email) and asked me to provide some time slots for his two team members following week to meet with them.
I responded within 10 minutes to the email thanking Jordon and addressing my availability to his team for the following week but got no response. Understandable because it's the end of the work day before the weekend so I figured I'd hear back first thing Monday of the following week.
Monday rolls around and got no response. At this point I'm a bit concerned because Jordon was very prompt when I provided availability to set up follow up meetings and would schedule something on the calendar almost right away.
Tuesday morning I send a follow up email just to make sure they had actually received my email and that it didn't go to spam/junk as I'd hate to lose this possible job opportunity over something that stupid. I wrote the following at 9AM:
**Hi Laura and Alex,
Wanted to kindly reach out and double check if you had received my availability for a follow-up interview for this week as I hadn't heard back (just making sure my last email didn't go to spam/junk).
I'm available at any 30 minute time slot between 9AM and 5PM PST this Thursday or Friday. If you have other preferred days/times, please let me know and I'm sure I can accommodate.
Looking forward to hearing from you.**
I got a response within a couple of hours scheduling the meeting for this past Friday. We met (this meeting did not include Jordon the hiring manager) and discussed their roles, my background and other typical interview topics. They told me during the call the next step would be a meeting with me and HR.
I didn't hear back from anyone on Friday, including Jordon. I'm concerned that not having been a little more patient and reaching out via email to confirm my availability might have been a bad move/look on there part. Wanted to see what this community made of this situation.

Welcome to the world of online tutoring! I am thrilled to offer you a personalized and effective solution to help you reach your full academic potential. I am an experienced tutor dedicated to providing you with the support and resources you need to succeed. With flexible scheduling and one-on-one attention, you'll have the tools you need to achieve your academic goals. Let's get started on your journey to academic success today.
Here is a list of some subjects that I help my students with:

• Mathematics (Calculus, Linear Algebra, Statistics, Differential Equations, etc.)
• Physics
• Computer Science (Programming, Algorithms, Data Structures, etc.)

Note: This is not an exhaustive list and some students may struggle with subjects not mentioned hereas well hence necessary to contact me for inquiries.
Here are some benefits of using my tutoring services:

• Personalized attention*: With one-on-one tutoring, you will receive targeted and personalized support tailored to your individual needs and learning style.*
• Improved understanding*: I will work with you to help you understand difficult course material and achieve a deeper understanding of the subject.*
• Increased confidence*: By receiving individualized support and achieving academic success, you will build confidence in your abilities and skills.*
• Flexible scheduling*: With online tutoring, you can fit sessions into your busy schedule without having to worry about traveling or conflicting commitments.*
• Convenient and accessible*: With online tutoring, you can receive support from the comfort of your own home, making it easy and convenient to access help whenever you need it.*
• Effective support*: I am experienced and knowledgeable in selected subject areas, providing you with effective and impactful support.*
• Improved grades*: With personalized attention and targeted support, you will have the tools and resources you need to improve your grades and academic performance.*
• Access to resources*: I will provide you with additional resources and materials to help reinforce your learning and deepen your understanding of the subject*.

Contact details:
✍️ ✍️ ✍️ DISCORD: Winner0398✍️
✍️ ✍️ EMAIL: excellentwins1@gmail.com
✍️ ✍️ ✍️ WHATSAPP: +1 (985) 313-2531
Vouches and Testimonials from past clients:

• https://discord.com/channels/918182984786530365/918182985247907840/1070801461031735367
• https://discord.com/channels/918182984786530365/918182985247907840/1061831586645016597
• https://discord.com/channels/918182984786530365/918182985247907840/1060480379871576144
• https://discord.com/channels/918182984786530365/918182985247907840/1060183354667962450
• https://discord.com/channels/918182984786530365/918182985247907840/978817538098098196

I believe in personalized attention. That's why I work one-on-one with you to develop a customized study plan that fits your individual needs and learning style. With my tailored approach, you'll receive the targeted support you need to succeed.
Whether you're looking to improve your grades, better understand challenging course material, or simply want to boost your confidence, online tutoring is the solution you need. With my experienced tutoring skills, flexible scheduling, and personalized approach, you'll be on your way to academic success in no time.
Don't let struggling in school hold you back. Get started on the path to academic success today. Text me to learn more about my online tutoring services. #onlinetutoring #education #success #personalizedattention #flexiblescheduling.

Hello:
I’ve got an app that only seems to like its work files to use a Drive:\Path location (e.g. X:\App\Datafiles) rather than an UNC (\server\Share\DataFiles). The app needs a windows service yet the setup program only gave options for “Local System Account” or “Network Service Account”.
Given these limitations, how to ensure that “NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM” (the account that is behind the “Local System Account” option in the Windows service MMC) always has the drives necessary to allow this app’s service to access its files?
I looked into it and don’t like what I see: * a batch file as a scheduled task set to “at system startup” calling psexec to map it. I don’t like this option due to not being able to control with 100% accuracy that the batch file will run before the services for this app start up (thus causing the system to fail the service startup) plus it needs an external tool and is kind of a hack job as it leaves a (false) “Disconnected Network Drive” visible to everyone who logs in at that server (admittedly only myself and a select few other people) * choose to run the service with a specified local account but then need to muck about with NTFS and share permissions on a directory by directory basis (it expects certain directories/files full control, while others read/write, while others with various permissions if using anything other than local system) * upgrade and get on with it. This is not a valid choice due to: (1) I am supporting a customer who’s line of business has centralized on this thing as THE way to handle email and calendaring, (2) “old timers” gonna be “old timers” and resist change with “if it ain’t broke… why fix it? Along with justifying not moving to a newer generation of this messaging system that still exists by citing things like “we’ve sunk the last x (10+) years of our data (email, calendaring, documents) into this system, migration up to a later version would be too costly financially, interfere with day to day business operations, and we’ve already gotten custom development work to extend this messaging system for our organization’s needs beyond accepted industry standards”, (3) it plays well with their instant messaging and presence system for both inter-site and intra-site use (IM Made by same vendor) and custom integration with their PBX and paging system, (4) I don’t have the cash to upgrade my lab to a newer version nor the time to take additional training on upgraded versions, plus I got lucky getting their exact version in a lot of assorted old software on eBay.

Hi hi,
I am a software engineer that made a little stupid decision after my graduation and took the first job I found. It's a position as Salesforce Developer in a big consulting company. And as it turned out, this is not a very passioning job for me 😅. So now, I am trying to find a job as Data engineer and I started to build some projects to showcase my skills.
Latest project : medium article link + demo link.
Github profile: https://github.com/AliMarzouk
I would appreciate any constructive criticism to further improve my project and / or profile.
Any tips and tricks on how to find a job in Data engineering can greatly help me.
Thank you for your help !

The last time my husband and I saw his daughter was back in Dec 2023. She was 12 years old at the time and is now 13. He has joint custody. Very standard parenting plan. Every other weekend, split holidays etc. We found out that the minor child ( I'll refer to her as Rose. Not her real name) has been having video communication via messenger with a 38 year old man. This is the same man that her mother cheated with while with my husband and ended their relationship. My husband didn't approve of this. I should also note that we live 2 hours from each other. One day while having a video chat with Rose, my husband saw that she had him on her Facebook friends list. Rose knew he didn't like him and tried to hurry and make her friends list private. My husband got frustrated and ended the call. Rose then blocked us from her Facebook. My husband then locked her out of the Playstation account that we had made for her. This is what started this all. In February we had all agreed to have her over for Easter. We got a call from her mom saying we will never see her ever again and wouldn't explain why. My husband reminded her of the custody parenting plan. Then we recieved a letter about an order of protection being placed on my husband. With false claims of us making Rose and my son watch porn last summer. Problem with that is she didn't know my son hasn't been home since 2020. So that was easily disproved. She also contacted DCFS and that was also eventually found in our favor and the case was closed. I should also note that during the OP case the judge said this girl has clearly been brainwashed. She also said to our lawyer after the case that she recommends his clients not have her over to our house for our own safety. Her next step was to try and so a change of venue to try and make it more complicated for us in filing a contempt motion. This also failed since no circumstances had changed. So that is the back story as bluntly as I can put it. We attempted to pick her up twice and was denied. The mother claimed she doesn't want to go and she can't make her. And she can't drag her to the car because that would be child abuse. Then we have our contempt case. We had so much evidence. One thing that was admitted in court was one of the last things said by the mother during the OP case was she was just doing that to "buy time". When asked what she meant by that she explained she needed that OP to make it easier to get full custody. She also claimed Rose would runaway if forced to come with us. The mother was faking having an anxiety attack during court to which the judge commented that if she needed to stop the court hearing for her to go to the hospital then Rose would have to go with us. During the court proceedings the judge made comments like, "She's 13. She can't make her own decisions. It's your job as a mother to make her do things she may not want to do." "If she's going to runaway, well I guess she'll runaway in Missouri then." Everything was going our way. The judge was about to rule in our favor. But then. The judge said she would speak to Rose alone in her chambers. We all left the room. The mother didn't have a lawyer. Our lawyer stayed in the room and then was told to leave by the judge. He told us in the hallway that was odd. We all then went back in. The judge had completely changed. She said I now understand why you, "The mother" would want to put her on birth control at age 11. I understand that she had no respect to authority and will do what she wants to do. I see no signs of brainwashing. I was allowed to ask one question. I asked did Rose say there was any abuse done to her by me or my husband. The judge said No and that it's more of a safety issue of what she may do rather then what we would do. And ruled in the mother's favor! Also, 45 minutes after the ruling, the judge texted my lawyer and said, "I hate the way the case ended for your client. That girl is scary, and your client should not put himself in the position of having her in his home" We haven't seen her in 6 months as I'm writing this. I'm in the process of getting the full court transcript and the transcript of the conversation between Rose and the judge. Rose has always been a good kid. We always had a good time. Concerts, swimming, Six Flags, skating, art activities I could go on and on. But in my opinion, I think she's got a thing for this 38 year old and chose him over us. I'd like to hear feedback and opinions about what just took place. I'm confused. We are heartbroken. Can't sleep. Crying non stop.

Riverside County For context, I was with my sisters at her last recital for high school. Her friend drove me and my other two sisters to the school. On the way back, her mom told her that she had to be home and therefore dropped all of us off at my apartment. I hadn’t eaten in probably a day at least and was low on sleep after working all day, but at the recital, I drink a little more than half a mikes hard I think??? I’m not sure what the drink was but I definitely drink a bit of it. I didn’t feel any of the effects, but that doesn’t go to say anything. When she dropped us all off, I had to make the decision to take my sisters home because they also had a curfew. That being said within the first couple minutes of our drive another car slid directly in front of us and in my attempts to swerve out of the way, I clipped the rear end of their car. Nobody was injured until seconds later. It was my first car accident ever, and I immediately jumped out to go talk to the other driver. My sisters got up behind me, and both of them got hit by a car and incoming traffic and were being transported to the hospital. The cops arrived on the scene right after they got hit and I was having a full-blown panic attack (not knowing it at the time). My sisters and I have been in the system for at least half our lives and I’m pretty much the only support and role model. That said, when I saw and heard my sister’s laying in the middle of the street, I had nothing to focus on, but them. A cop approached me and asked me to do the FSTs which I agreed to, but did not have the ability to focus on. Every single time I heard my name come from the middle of the street I walked away from the cop to my sister. He said if I walk away one more time he’s going to put me in the back of his car. That is what happened. as they were being driven to the hospital, I was being taken into custody. I didn’t get a chance to talk to any of the incident reporters about the car accident, nor the lady who came in front of me. To make a long story short when I got to the station, I blew in the breathalyzer and they took me to the sheriff station afterwards where they booked me and I was able to leave the next morning. I didn’t have my phone or anything, and it was a very surreal moment. Along with being in shock, I was then dealing with guilt and shame of everything that just happened and also just realizing that I just fucked up. At my first court date, the public defender revealed that my BAC was .15 n the offer that followed was : 3 years summary probation, 30 days custody OR 90 days work release, $ 1703 in fines. My license is already suspended by dmv starting 06/01. Any advice on getting a restricted license? I am 19 and my placement depends on my job!!! I also don’t have parents lol. My 2nd arraignment is 07/17 any advice would help thanks

I know this gets asked a lot but I think I just need advice based on my circumstances to be able to make a decision. I will try and keep it brief but the reasons I'm considering doing this really are endless.
Firstly my manager is just awful. She can't cope with stress in the slightest and so takes it out on everyone else, me being first in firing line as I work so closely with her. She will ask me not to do things and then give me grief for not doing them. She tells me I look miserable or 'absolutely exhausted' in front of colleagues. In a meeting I scheduled to tell her I was feeling overwhelmed by my workload (because a colleague at my level had left and I was doing 2 people's jobs in our busiest period) I was made to feel like it was my fault, only for her to go and tell everyone in my team that I was 'stressed' without actually offering any support. She also tells the team that I should be expected to work past usual working hours when I complained about having to work up to 8pm on a Friday while the rest of the Team were fine to log off. This really is just scratching the surface of everything I've been dealing with where she is concerned.
I am worked like crazy despite being the most junior and inexperienced person in the team and the second something slips, or I make a minor mistake (because I genuinely cannot keep up with everything I'm expected to do sometimes) I am made to feel like I can't do my job and I'm spoken to like a child. I then fall into a self-questioning spiral where I worry about not being good enough at my job and like I'm an imposter. I should add that I was promised training for this job as I was taken on with no experience, and the only form of learning I have had is learning from the mistakes I've made having received no formal training!
I am fully aware that no workplace is perfect, but I have reached the point where all I do is think and worry about work. I had a huge wake up call last week having purchased (legal) brain drugs. I've not used them because it made me realise that any job that makes me feel like I need that sort of thing to function is not worth it.
And so here I am, mentally at breaking point and wondering if the risk of handing in my notice without another job lined up is worth being able to relax somewhat knowing the end is in sight. My partner fully supports me with this and other friends have said to brave it, but I just can't decide if I should. It goes against everything I think is sensible. I have a week of annual leave this week (which I will spend worrying about work and all the mistakes I could have left behind for my manager to shout at me about when I return) and I am contemplating returning to work with with my notice in hand.
Am I crazy for thinking this? I just can't sacrifice my happiness and peace of mind one second longer. I know the notice period will be stressful, but I don't think anything could compare to what I feel right now.
Help 😞

For context we were in a relationship for approximately 3 years and everything seemed great we were a good fit, understood and loved each other deeply, besides some disagreements that in my mind I thought they were normal because every couple has them.
The disagreements started two months ago when he out of the blue told me that he decided to leave to another state to work for 4 months to save some money for his family, for me it was okay that he decided to do that but the only issue was that he never said he planned that, he told me one day before he made everything ready, the plane tickets and resigning from his job in our country, his response for that was that he believes in bad eye.
Thinking that we had three years that we were together I wished i was included in this decision and that made me upset, the month prior to his departure was the one that we had the most arguments, him saying i wish you were more supportive and understanding and me saying that if you keep things from me now in the future you will do that again for more important things, also that i wish to be included in important decisions like this.
We never got to understand each other perspective, but still we made it work, before his departure both of us were crying and sad he also left me some of his things that he would get them when he came back. So i never thought we would break up because of these disagreements.
When he went abroad the first week was okay him sending me instagram reels how i make his life better, video calling and texting constantly, two days after the reel he became cold when texting and we argued the whole night because he was saying life cannot be spent with someone so emotional, so dramatic and not understanding, and that i made his life a living hell for the three years we were together. This came as a shock to me, I’ve never thought the situations was that bad we argued and talked and for a moment it seemed that everything was okay since he said im just overworked and stressed and im not sure what im feeling so we talk about this another time. We talked the upcoming days but he was being colder and more distant, I was mad that this happened like that so i kept pushing him to make a decision in what to do and his answers were only “I dont know” which made me more frustrated.
He suggested we keep talking and see were things would go, I did agree but he still was distant, we had an argument about it and in the heat of the moment he said lets end everything that we have right here.
Since i felt bad I started the argument and that I was really pushy for an answer I suggested to have some time alone and he agreed. Didn’t hear from him in some days so I decided to text him, I also did miss him and I wanted to talk. He was cold and said that he thinks were better off alone and he made his decision clear, not happy of how it happened i texted that this way was not fair it was selfish of him but over text you cannot say much, we just agreed that when he comes back after 4 more months he will take his stuff back.
After removing him from my socials we did talk once more when he accidentally sent an message and unsent it but i was able to see it and i texted him to at least get an explanation. He said that he didn’t want to repeat himself, the month prior to his departure was a living hell because of me he has been thinking about this for some time and that the distance made him understand that is better not to be together.
Its been two weeks I haven’t heard anything anymore, looks like his decision clear, I’m still in shock, confused and mad. I’ve never saw it coming since overall he’s been great and this was the first time it happened, also there were no signs prior to this.

I know this gets asked a lot but I think I just need advice based on my circumstances to be able to make a decision. I will try and keep it brief but the reasons I'm considering doing this really are endless.
Firstly my manager is just awful. She can't cope with stress in the slightest and so takes it out on everyone else, me being first in firing line as I work so closely with her. She will ask me not to do things and then give me grief for not doing them. She tells me I look miserable or 'absolutely exhausted' in front of colleagues. In a meeting I scheduled to tell her I was feeling overwhelmed by my workload (because a colleague at my level had left and I was doing 2 people's jobs in our busiest period) I was made to feel like it was my fault, only for her to go and tell everyone in my team that I was 'stressed' without actually offering any support. She also tells the team that I should be expected to work past usual working hours when I complained about having to work up to 8pm on a Friday while the rest of the Team were fine to log off. This really is just scratching the surface of everything I've been dealing with where she is concerned.
I am worked like crazy despite being the most junior and inexperienced person in the team and the second something slips, or I make a minor mistake (because I genuinely cannot keep up with everything I'm expected to do sometimes) I am made to feel like I can't do my job and I'm spoken to like a child. I then fall into a self-questioning spiral where I worry about not being good enough at my job and like I'm an imposter. I should add that I was promised training for this job as I was taken on with no experience, and the only form of learning I have had is learning from the mistakes I've made having received no formal training!
I am fully aware that no workplace is perfect, but I have reached the point where all I do is think and worry about work. I had a huge wake up call last week having purchased (legal) brain drugs. I've not used them because it made me realise that any job that makes me feel like I need that sort of thing to function is not worth it.
And so here I am, mentally at breaking point and wondering if the risk of handing in my notice without another job lined up is worth being able to relax somewhat knowing the end is in sight. My partner fully supports me with this and other friends have said to brave it, but I just can't decide if I should. It goes against everything I think is sensible. I have a week of annual leave this week (which I will spend worrying about work and all the mistakes I could have left behind for my manager to shout at me about when I return) and I am contemplating returning to work with with my notice in hand.
Am I crazy for thinking this? I just can't sacrifice my happiness and peace of mind one second longer. I know the notice period will be stressful, but I don't think anything could compare to what I feel right now.
Help 😭

28F originally born and raised in a large metropolitan city. I met my now boyfriend (31M) and moved with him about an hour away into a tiny farm town. I didn’t have many close friends in my old city and the ones I did, I rarely speak to and haven’t seen them in over a year. I just got a job and im the only female there (I work in a male dominant trade) and it’s not that the people there aren’t friendly, it’s just hard to relate and talk to them because of 2 very different lifestyles and a huge age difference. I work and sleep, never go out because there’s nowhere to go here. I have so much I’d like to talk about, vent about, get advice on but literally nobody to turn to. I like to think im generally normal, funny, and able to hold a good convo. I don’t have any other idea on where to look for PLATONIC friends so I figured I’d give this a shot. I think I get along better with men because of my work and other interests, not to mention constant need for advice on my relationship from a male point of view. My closest friend was a 42M that was a regular at a bar I used to work at and we would spend hours sharing life stories and him calling me stupid for my early 20’s decisions haha. Sadly he committed suicide a little over a year ago so I don’t have my “funcle” anymore. I’d like to find someone similar to me to be my voice of reason if possible. Sorry for the long post, I just don’t want this to be taken the wrong way and end up with a bunch of creepy messages.

Started at a new job with my previous employer last week (CA, USA). I was laid off year ago (June 2023) but recently they reached out with a new fully remote position and a promotion and higher pay, so I accepted the job. Now I’m learning that I’m expected to be in the office 5 days a week and I’m completely blindsided. If I don’t give them a response today by 6pm, I will be terminated.
I have frequent doctors visits (I had major surgery a few months prior) and take classes part time as well as making plans to leave the state so I really wanted a remote role to accommodate this but now I’m stuck. I was unemployed previously this year so I don’t have a lot left and need a job.
What are my rights here? Are they able to force a decision on me like this on a non business day? It’s Sunday for gods sake. I’ve been trying to call employment lawyers but offices are closed obviously and I’m freaking out

Take the promotion or the new job offer?
Hi all, I (F26) would like to get your advice on my current job situation. My background in education is international law.
I have been working in my company for 3.5 years, I got promoted two times. This is my first professional job in the legal field. The pros about the job: nice colleagues, love my clients, flexible both in terms of hrs you work and you can work from anywhere in the world. So I have been taking advantage of this and i sometimes go to other countries to work from their and combine it with a few days off (easy to travel within Europe). Also environment is rather more informal and we have great parties inside and outside the office.
Now the cons: we got acquired by another company and new management is changing company structure, are making terrible decisions and not taking our feedback into account. No transparency in a lot of things (like salary scales), the pay is also not very high, no real benefits , people are stressed from the workload and some people left in the past couple of months.
I have also been demotivated in the past couple of months due to the way management has been treating us and I don’t really feel challenged anymore as I feel like I learned everything I could.
I have had some interviews for a new job and just got an offer 3 days ago from a bank. This job would be in a new area (still in the legal field) that I am also interesting in learning more about. They do seem def more organized with a clear structure and the salary is a little bit higher than my current position (almost the same). But keep in mind this is a rather junior position as I will learn a new field. In this job, you work 4 days a week (2 days from the office) and they told me I can work from certain countries (EU countries) and also some others like US and Canada (this is a plus bcs my mom and brother live there) for a limited period of time , however it seems to be more monitored like getting a pre-approval from your manager.
At the same time, my current job wants to promote me to a more managerial position that would be less operational and more about helping and guiding people to do their best. So there are definitely new things I can learn from this position. But the new offer appeals to me a lot as well because I think it would be beneficial to gain experience in more areas I like in my 20s, a new environment could be great for me as the current company drained my energy a bit and I mean it on the non-transparency (they still have to let me know how much I could be making with the promotion- ikr lol). Sometimes I feel like we are an episode from the office. The only two downsides would be the managerial experience I can get from the promotion and less flexibility on remote work.
I am happy to receive any advice or insights, thank you. :)

So, I used to be that person completely lost in a new app's settings, desperately trying to change a username (those early ones were brutal!). Finally, I caved and messaged customer support, dreading the phone call. But then, a friendly chat agent appeared, my digital hero, guiding me through the process with a few keystrokes and a smiley face.
That experience got me thinking - there's a whole world of chat support jobs out there! It seemed perfect for me, combining my love of writing, problem-solving skills, and desire for a work-from-home schedule. So, I dove headfirst into researching this exciting career path.
Turns out, chat agents don't do phones!
Best part? No more phone anxiety! You use text-based chat windows to help customers in real-time, guiding them through their questions. Imagine the freedom of working in your PJs, coffee in hand, wielding the power of words to help people navigate the digital world.
The dream of working from home is real, and many chat support jobs offer this flexibility. Whether you're a student juggling classes, a parent needing a childcare-friendly schedule, or someone who thrives in a quiet home office, these roles can be a perfect fit. The best part? Often, no prior experience is required. Companies value strong communication, a willingness to learn, and a positive attitude.
While many chat support roles focus on real-time interactions, some offer a blend of chat and email communication. You'll still have live chats, but you'll also craft thoughtful responses to customer inquiries via email. This helps you develop well-rounded communication skills, mastering both concise chat interactions and detailed email explanations.
Here's where you can find companies hiring remote chat agents now.
Think of live chat assistant jobs as your entry point into the world of customer service. These positions provide excellent training, equipping you with valuable skills to excel in the field. You'll learn to handle customer inquiries, navigate company knowledge bases, and most importantly, foster positive experiences through clear and helpful communication. This experience becomes your launchpad to explore more specialized chat support roles in different industries, building a fulfilling career path.
Sure, working from home and flexible hours are fantastic perks, but the true magic lies in the human connection. Every interaction is a chance to make a real difference. By patiently guiding a confused customer or offering a friendly word of encouragement, you contribute to a positive brand experience and leave a lasting impression. In our increasingly digital world, these roles offer a chance to connect with people and make their day a little brighter, all from the comfort of your own home.
Thinking about becoming a chat agent? Here's how to get started:

• Sharpen your communication skills: Grammar, spelling, and crafting clear messages are key.
• Practice active listening: Pay close attention to customer concerns and identify the root of their problems.
• Embrace problem-solving: Be a creative thinker who can research solutions and troubleshoot effectively.
• Develop a thick skin: Not every interaction will be perfect, but remaining calm and professional is important.
• Show off your tech skills: Familiarity with common computer programs and a willingness to learn new ones is a plus.

Anyone else out there thinking about a career in chat support?
AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: This article contains product affiliate links. I may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links.

Hello everyone, not really asking for anything. Just sharing my story of marriage and upcoming divorce.
Me (36m) and my wife (37f) have been together for 13 years now and married for 7. When we began dating, I was fresh out of my first ever real relationship and to be honest, I was just looking for a one night rebound online. I found her and we hung out. It lasted longer than the one night. We dated for a couple weeks. I saw red flags immediately. She had MANY guy friends, they would be at her house with just her most nights drinking and playing beer pong and whatever else. She mentioned to me how right before we started dating, she woke up naked with a guy in her bed and had no idea what happened the night before. Major red flag that I ignored.
Soon after we started dating I tried to break it off. I knew she wasn't right and I didn't want to be with a person who would drink that much and end up in bed with a stranger and no memory. I allowed her to talk me into staying, my fault there. I wasn't firm enough with the decision. A couple weeks after that she was being kicked out of her house and I allowed her to move in with me since she had nowhere else to go. I didn't want to be with her but I felt like I was being the nice guy until she got on her feet. I decided I needed a change (for many reasons) and I planned to move out of state. I gave her the chance to come with me, part of me hoping she would have declined the offer and I would go alone. She accepted and we moved from CA to NV.
We got jobs here and started making things work. I wasn't going to split up with her just after moving out of state with her. And there were pockets of time where things seemed ok and may work out. We both made bad decisions early on (me sexting with randoms online. Her looking through local dicks on Craigslist and reaching out to them) Splitting up eventually was an option for me, then she got pregnant. Again, started feeling like things could work. I dropped the splitting up idea and focused on our son.
Two years later, she's pregnant again. I am so tired at this point with the one kid, graveyard job that lasted 12 hours each night I wasn't thinking about much of anything. Really sleepwalking through my days to be honest. Shortly after our second son was born my mother moved in with us. She was sick and things weren't looking good. Eventually she passed, very slowly and it was quite traumatic overall. I wasn't really thinking of divorce at that point, obviously. We also got married right around this time. Divorce was not something I was planning at the time even though I was unhappy.
A few months after we got married, I caught her cheating with two men from work (that I know of) and I was close to leaving her after that. I made the decision to stay because initially. I figured we can work this out as long as this was the only time. I wasn't perfect, made my bad decisions before so I gave her another chance. Immediately after that she started lying again. Hiding things from me. I considered leaving but I couldn't pull the trigger. There was the kids, me working so damn much that I was barely ever awake, and I felt bad leaving her while she wasn't making much money. So I stayed.
Things never got better. She never stopped lying, or hiding things from me. Then surprise! A global pandemic that caused me to lose my job. At this point we are focused on surviving, divorce far from my mind. Covid cleared up and I got a job without a steady paycheck. She got a promotion and is making plenty of money. I couldn't leave without having a steady paycheck so I stayed again. She has continued to lie, even just last week she blatantly lied to me. She hides things. I cannot trust her.
I sit here, 36 years old, scared shitless of divorcing. Mainly due to the fact I literally have no family besides my kids. I have friends at work, that's about all. The fear of being TRULY alone really scares me. Thanks for reading.

Okay so I've seen a few posts asking about this the last few months so here is a summary of what I found.

Current Students

*Your Grandfathered in and shouldn't experience any disruptions

Prospective Students

*Focus will be more on short certificates and courses though you can still get a degree. This aligns with Walmarts goal to remove degree requirements from majority of roles.
*They will be expanding certificates/courses to over 50+ options

• There will be Custom Built Courses/Certificates from Walmart/Sam's

*You can request access to Coursea from the livebetteru@Walmart.com. Email them your user ID and Win and they will respond in approx 48-72 hrs. I recommend using you work email. There are limited options on what you can take that align with Walmart/Sam's business needs.
*They are aiming to release and update courses before the end of this year I did request if they could give a firmer date but I haven't heard back yet.
*You can request a mentor /be a mentor now and give / provide career advice in a network program for career growth
*All of this information is available on the Wire in either the LBU Reimagined PDF, Career Navigation Prepare Page, or this news article https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/02/22/walmart-accelerates-efforts-to-provide-associates-with-skills-to-fill-100000-in-demand-jobs

I’ve been struggling with deciding if I want a diagnosis/medication for my adhd (I know there’s nothing for autism). I’ve been struggling with both my entire life but only recently (within the last 2 years) have I realized that I have them. I’ve made due for 6 years in the Air Force but as my responsibilities grow it’s getting more difficult to do day to day things. For instance I’m being scheduled for classes to run the aircraft I work on, and I’m honestly afraid I am just not the person to have that responsibility. Up until now if I messed up I can fix it, but that is a big responsibility with no room for error and a lot of split second decision making. That’s not the only thing that I worry about but it’s a big one right now. I want to get diagnosed and medicated but I know it will impact my job and what I’m allowed to do in the military. I don’t want to be “that guy” who has a medical excuse to not do things, but I’m getting to the end of my rope and I’m tired of pretending I’m okay and the same as everyone else. Has anyone else gone through something like this and have any advice?

Okay so I've seen a few posts asking about this the last few months so here is a summary of what I found.

Current Students

*Your Grandfathered in and shouldn't experience any disruptions

Prospective Students

*Focus will be more on short certificates and courses though you can still get a degree. This aligns with Walmarts goal to remove degree requirements from majority of roles.
*They will be expanding certificates/courses to over 50+ options

• There will be Custom Built Courses/Certificates from Walmart/Sam's

*You can request access to Coursea from the livebetteru@Walmart.com. Email them your user ID and Win and they will respond in approx 48-72 hrs. I recommend using you work email. There are limited options on what you can take that align with Walmart/Sam's business needs.
*They are aiming to release and update courses before the end of this year I did request if they could give a firmer date but I haven't heard back yet.
*You can request a mentor /be a mentor now and give / provide career advice in a network program for career growth
*All of this information is available on the Wire in either the LBU Reimagined PDF, Career Navigation Prepare Page, or this news article https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/02/22/walmart-accelerates-efforts-to-provide-associates-with-skills-to-fill-100000-in-demand-jobs