Sneezing, running nose, blocked nose diarrhea | | Solo Helldive bugs are much harder than bots.

Recently just tried my hand at level 9 bots solo and, despite an hour maybe a half of frustration I managed to solo Valuable Data with many failed attempts at stealth so I still had to battle through them and extraction wasn’t too bad.
Bugs, however holy fucking shit what a nightmare. At first I tried stealth, not a chance. Way too fucking many all clumped up staring at consoles. I then tried brute force and no matter what I threw at them I could just not kill a full breach before more spawned.
Not to mention most spawns were doomed from the start with things like throwing my support weapons but getting landed in bugs on spawn directly into a breach and having my stuff camped by a horde. Stalkers on spawn. 3 shrieker hives on spawn. My favorite was having my stuff camped by a breach that called two titans, a charger and a platoon of hunters on spawn.
Eventually I managed to get a Blitz mission and figured out I could get a bunch of holes with barrages. I slapped on my flamethrower, threw on my shield generator to negate hunter slow spam and brought both barrages and used hit and run tactics on the hole to seal them.
Then came time to extract. I tried my damn best to sneak it under their nose but no matter where I snuck prone the hunters managed to sniff me out with two bile titans on their heels as well as a charger. Got killed and they started to camp my flamethrower and shield generator and had almost no way to deal with the charger. I prayed, lured it infront of a titan and watched as my problem was promptly dissolved by acid.
I shot most of the hunters but now time ran out. I was down to zero reinforcements and no stratagems with two bile titans chasing me as I did loop de loops around extraction.
By the skin of my teeth, after hours of hell, I managed avoid the last titan spit to board the pelican, complete the mission on Helldive and come out with my life. It wasn’t all objectives done. It wasn’t pretty but, it was a solid victory.
This shit was harder than Malenia in Elden Ring. If you want to live through true hell, give it a try yourself while getting out alive on level 9 bugs or bots solo on a mission success.

My (23F) friend and roommate Mark (38M) is a pwBPD and he started living in a shared house with me and my friends starting March this year. We know he has BPD and we've been understanding and receptive of his issues in the past, but it has never manifested so hurtfully before we lived together.
My best friend in the house Lucy (30F) and I often share our issues with his lack of initiative, his utter disrespect and ignorance of when I tell him to do things or ask for help, his weaponized incompetence (and the fantastical thinking he often uses to try to explain his incompetence), and his sudden adoption of a very traumatized dog that he rarely takes care of.

His lack of initiative.

He doesn't take the trash out, or wash the dishes, or vacuum, or really do anything unless told first.
If told to take out the trash, he'll tell us to wait until he's finished ordering food, or whatever, then conveniently forget after a few hours (he also has ADHD). If told to wash the dishes, he'll do it slowly and badly and messily, and when confronted about dishes that have been cleaned only halfway, he gets defensive and suddenly brings up "Have I been having memory lapses recently? Sorry," but will not end up washing the half cleaned dish anyway. If told to vacuum, he'll do it without looking at the ground, glued to his phone, scrolling whatever social media. When told the floor isn't properly vacuumed, he'll say sorry and do it again, taking so much time out of the day that it would be easier to just do it myself properly the first time.

His Weaponized Incompetence

There are some examples above already. When faced with renovations that have to come out of the landlord's pocket, and asked to call or contact the landlord, he'll look at the rest of us and say "I'm the type of person who gets rejected by the landlord and I start paying out my own pocket, so it has to be you guys." When a worker would come to renovate, he would tell us "I don't know how to pay him, or tip him, or how to talk to him, it has to be you guys," but is usually doing fine until we're around. When asked by the worker where to plug the AC, he turns to ask me. Out of annoyance and frustration I shrugged my shoulders, told him IDK! and suddenly he would figure it out himself. When Lucy just came out of surgery and was still sleepy and tired off pain medication, he knocked on her door, bothered her sleep and rest just to ask her 'Can you talk to the landlord?'
Something especially stressful that happened: Lucy and I came back from the hospital for her checkup, tired from a whole day out, and asked him for the simple help of getting Lucy her ice bag for her injury. We gave him exact directions to find the ice bag in the bedroom because we know his issue with executive dysfunction. He walked into the bedroom while looking at his phone, did not even turn the light on, and insisted "It's not there."
I got so frustrated that I told him "I'm going to give you hell if it's there. It had better not be there, or I'm going to be so pissed off," and I stomped over, slammed the door open, turned on the light. It was almost comedic how in your face the ice bag was. Not hidden, not covered, directly in front of you when you walk in the door. It was especially terrible that the ice bag is red and white polka-dotted, just like it was a Where's Waldo game. It was super obvious. I told him, "Are you kidding me? Is this a joke?"
He started defending himself, saying "It was hidden! It was in the corner!" but Lucy got on his case too, yelling "If you would get off your phone for one moment, it would be obvious!" He again defended himself saying "Well I'm on my phone because I'm ordering a car and I gotta go somewhere!" (He spent the next hour slamming the door, yelling curse words at his dog, cursing when he dropped things. But he ended up chatting with us and not going ASAP anyway, so clearly he didn't need to leave ASAP)

He Ignores Me (Somehow, only me?!)

He listens to Lucy and our other roommates intently, but he never listens to me specifically. Whenever I give him advice or ask for help, the reply is generally dismissive, cold, or condescending.
He recently told me a story about his cat while on the way upstairs with a folding ladder to change a lightbulb. "I always clean my cat's litter, but he still refuses to poop in it properly. He always poops in on the corners of his litterbox, and the poop ends up spilling everywhere. What an idiot cat!"
I told him, "I think he still smells his poop. Maybe you could do what I do, and take out all the litter every two or three months and wash the entire box." He replied, "But I spray it with disinfectant, the poop smell is gone." I tried to calmly explain to him, "It might be gone to you, but cat noses are more perceptive. You should at least try." As I started explaining that though, he was already looking away, nodding and humming dismissively, already walking upstairs away from me. He had no longer paid attention halfway through our conversation. This happens ALL the time with me (maybe because I'm far younger and more "unexperienced", or because I'm a young girl to him), and never with the other roommates.

His Fantastical Thinking

He often is dismissive or defensive when I give him advice, even when struggling or initially asking for the advice, but sometimes he has some inane thinking to back up his defenses.
He lets his dog poop in the stone garden, which I actually am against. He cleans the poop by using meter long tongs to pick up crumbly poop, picking up all the little bits that have crumbled as he's been picking them up, picking up the stones that are stained, putting them into a tall dustpan, then hand washing them in the bathroom.
When I told him that was unbelievable and making things harder for himself, and he should just be letting his dog out to poop more, or even training his dog to go to the front door and plead when needing to poop, he told me "This is actually easier for me." When I offered using doggy bags instead of the tong/dustpan/toilet setup, he countered "That's harmful and wasteful for the environment." (Unbelievable because the plastic he accumulates from takeout is 5x bigger than everyone in the house's combined.

Suddenly Adopting a Dog (That He Doesn't Care For!)

All our friends were skeptical when he suddenly adopted a dog (Astro) out of nowhere, but at the time we didn't live with him and his stories about Astro had seemed mostly positive.
When Astro came into the house, she was malnourished, jumpy, and a general velcro dog. It was immediately clear she had separation anxiety. Whenever Mark leaves, she jumps at his feet trying to chase him out the door, and paces when he starts his car to go. She stares out the window the whole day, and Mark leaves for hours on end with his super busy schedule. She has terrible anxiety farts, refuses to eat when Lucy or I feed her, shivers with her tail between her legs when we pet her, and barks at people entering the house that aren't Mark. Since she's so scared of anyone else, she doesn't show that she wants to pee or poop when he's not around, so she'll do it in the house as quick and quietly as possible.
I had told him multiple times to train her, and since I've rigorously trained my cat before, I gave him tips on how to do it. I told him to get a clicker, get a snack she really loves, and to be diligent and consistent. I told him not to react when she tackles him, since he's a big guy it doesn't affect him, but if it was a kid (or our injured friend, LUCY!) he would get in a lot of trouble. But he just laughed and nodded while allowing her to jump on him. He did tell Astro to get off him, after, but with soft gentle shoos (that egged her on).
Not to MENTION the cat from earlier, that is ignored, left outside the house with an automatic feeder, dirty tap water (our tap water isn't drinkable) and loads of diarrhea poop in his litter box.

-> -> -> -> -> I'm writing the day after an intervention. We made a powerpoint explaining our issues with him. Our new roommate is a licensed psychologist and offered to casually mediate, so things wouldn't turn into a fight or go off topic. Every issue we had with him had the usual 'Sorry, BUT...' and a million f**king reasons why we should understand HIM, and when asked why he wouldn't understand US, another million reasons why he struggles with emotion and running away from problems.
When it was time to bring up my personal beef, he started crying and saying he never knew he made me feel that way. He started to overexplain himself, and I told him to stop because the excuses meant nothing to me while I was still angry. I tried getting across that the apology and promise to change was all I needed... but, get this, he EXPLAINED TO ME why I NEED his explaination WHILE I'm angry, actually!
I was the one to explain to him that what he's doing is weaponized incompetence. I put it down as a fact and period. And Oh My GOD! I've never seen a wall built so huge, and I've never seen him yell so defensively like that. It was a little like watching a tantrum unfold.
My friends aren't as experienced with PDs as I am, I suppose, so they weren't really... bothered by this. They just changed the wording to 'sloppy job' and moved on. But I couldn't move on at all. I grew up with an pwNPD mom and uBPD sibling, being the person they both walked all over, and I started to freeze. It started to feel like again, the way he's treating me is the way my abusive family treated me. His reasons weren't very different from my own when I was a kid, but I definitely eventually had to learn to be empathetic and helpful. It hurt so much when I gave him examples of my own weaponized incompetence of when I was a kid (to show him he isn't unsalvagable or anything) and he kept insisting this wasn't that. It felt like, he was insinuating, "Sorry you were an idiot and a loser, but that's not me right now."
I'm sorry for the anger but GOD. Every apology was caked under Princess And The Pea levels of EXCUSES! It's like I forgot these were apologies, they felt like business seminars! And the defensiveness at being told exactly the problem. Getting surgical with the meaning of the word, saying he doesn't ACTIVELY try to be incompetent (therefore twisting the meaning of weaponized incompetence into something else entirely)
He's looking more active now. He's doing his chores without asking, talking to me openly, taking up tasks without being told, but if anything I know this won't hold water for long.
TDLR; My friend and roommate has BPD, uses his weaponized incompetence but refuses to let it be called that, we had an intervention but the peace is shakey.
How do we make sure this doesn't happen again, and hold him to his promises?

...and I guess, how do I tell him about my hurt feelings without eventually feeling like I'm sitting in a seminar again???

Five years of never getting more than 6 hours of sleep a night finally leads up to me getting put on 50mg of trazodone. After having to miss at least one full day of lectures a week every week for the sheer purpose of being forced to catch up on sleep I find myself taking what most people describe as the holy grail of medication for sleep and hoping it’ll do just that for me.
First night I take it, it hits me like a bus in under half an hour. I genuinely feel like I was shot with a tranquilizer dart; out for 13 hours while only waking up to use the washroom once or twice. Second night, it takes roughly an hour to kick in. The first thing I notice is the stuffy nose. It sits in your sinuses and doesn’t go away with massages or blowing my nose and I absolutely cannot sleep while mouth breathing so I get to bed at around 3. Weekend, no problem, bit annoying but whatever.
Tonight I take it at nine and it’s currently one in the morning and I need to be up in four hours to attend lectures. My nose is completely blocked, I’m not remotely tired, and I’m writhing like I’ve got restless leg syndrome. It works for everyone else. What the hell is wrong with me to the point where medication doesn’t even make me sleep? Yeah, I understand meditating and rain sounds not doing it, but a prescription where I START above the lowest dosage for my first time using sleep meds just to not even make me kind of sleepy after four hours is absolute BS. I just want to sleep. I want my degree. I want to feel like a real person instead of being zoned out due to pure exhaustion all day everyday and getting mediocre scores because my brain doesn’t work properly and my genes decided I’ll be the first one in the bloodline to start a fun new medical trend.

I'm on E monotherapy and it's almost been 4 months. Loved everything, felt like breathing after having a stuffy nose your whole life. But when I was on 0.25 ml weekly, my E levels right after the injection were 862 pg/ml.
So my doctor made me halve the dose, either the same amount every 2 weeks, or half every week. I chose half and all has been well but today on the toilet..
I feel I may be imagining it but it feels like my balls got bigger. I remember feeling them shrink the first time (it was mostly the left one). And it was wonderful, but now I'm concerned a lower dose of E is making me revert. I also haven't showered in around 24 hours (don't ask) and I can't smell my funk. Now I did change shirts because it got hot in the middle of the day (I don't usually do that)
But I'm still concerned. Everything feels right more or less, but I know lack of odor is what happens in the transitioning period between E filling your body and T leaving it, vice versa too. Now my balls feel bigger but I'm not sure because I haven't had a frame of reference in 3 months!
I didn't have any anxiety about accidentally detransitioning prior to feeling my balls, and I can't get a blood test for a few weeks. Half tempted to just go back to the old dose but it's less dense so it'll run out quicker than I can get a new vial.
Idk what I'm asking but I'm wondering if anyone else has had anything similar? I don't wanna go through the hassle of getting rid of these failure ovaries but I'm thinking about it. I do not ever want AA's.

I'm on E monotherapy and it's almost been 4 months. Loved everything, felt like breathing after having a stuffy nose your whole life. But when I was on 0.25 ml weekly, my E levels right after the injection were 862 pg/ml.
So my doctor made me halve the dose, either the same amount every 2 weeks, or half every week. I chose half and all has been well but today on the toilet..
I feel I may be imagining it but it feels like my balls got bigger. I remember feeling them shrink the first time (it was mostly the left one). And it was wonderful, but now I'm concerned a lower dose of E is making me revert. I also haven't showered in around 24 hours (don't ask) and I can't smell my funk. Now I did change shirts because it got hot in the middle of the day (I don't usually do that)
But I'm still concerned. Everything feels right more or less, but I know lack of odor is what happens in the transitioning period between E filling your body and T leaving it, vice versa too. Now my balls feel bigger but I'm not sure because I haven't had a frame of reference in 3 months!
I didn't have any anxiety about accidentally detransitioning prior to feeling my balls, and I can't get a blood test for a few weeks. Half tempted to just go back to the old dose but it's less dense so it'll run out quicker than I can get a new vial.
Idk what I'm asking but I'm wondering if anyone else has had anything similar?

“Ughhh, it’s been 2 years” Kel says exasperatedly, Aubrey flicks Kel, “I said the arcade was a ways away.” “YOU DIDN’T SAY IT WOULD BE AN HOUR,” Kel puts his hand on his head “My head hurts now..” Sunny looks up at Kel, “Probably because you hit your head on that pole while complaining.” “True..” Kel says, looking down.

Basil hugs Sunny before jumping up and announcing “It doesn’t matter we’re here now, sorry again for not warning you about the pole.. The picture was too good to pass up.” Kel laughs, “You’re good, I’m glad we got it! Anyway yea lets go have some fun!” They all laugh a little before entering the arcade.

Kel looks at the sign beside the entryway “25$ for 2 hours of unlimited play” Kel searches his pocket, his face drops, and tears begin to form as the face of true horror forms onto his face, a voice, trembling in fear, weakly comes from Kel, “Oh no…”

Aubrey rolls her eyes, “I’ll cover you but you owe me, Kel.” Kel hugs Aubrey tightly as she’s bringing out her wallet, “THANK YOU SO MUCH I THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA HAVE TO WALK ALL THE WAY BACK FOR MY WALLET” Aubrey pushes him back, “You’re being loud.. And I hang out with Mikhael…” Kel chuckles, “Sorry..”

After they buy their entry and get their wrist bands, Basil pulls Sunny along by the hand, “Hey hey hey! They have Versus Tetris!!! Let’s play!” Aubrey laughs a little, “Sometimes I wish I had the camera instead of her… Hey Kel go take it and try to sneak a picture of them playing” Kel smiles, “On it!”

Aubrey goes to watch them play, as a distraction as Kel sneaks up and grabs the camera from under Basil’s feet before slowly backing away, lining up the camera and snapping the picture! Sunny immediately looks back with wide open eyes, before promptly panicking back onto the game after messing up 3 lines.

Basil looks back and quickly says “Heyyyyy” Kel chuckles, “Sorry about that.” Basil laughs, “Nah I love it when my friends take pictures of us!” Basil laughs before looking back, “He- What the?” In the small amount of time Basil looked away, Sunny had already bombed her board half way up with attack lines. “How did you already win?” Sunny looks to Basil and laughs, “I used to play Tetris a lot. Didn’t take long to get those skills back!”

Basil moves to Kel “Anyway let's see the photo!” It shows Basil and Sunny playing their game talking to each other as Aubrey watches Sunny play intently, someone spilled their drink in the background. Basil boops Kel on the nose, “I love it!” Basil hugs Sunny tightly, “What do you wanna play, love!” Sunny points at a machine called “Bullet hell” Basil smiles, “Alright!”

Basil looks at Sunny, “We should choose the hardest difficulty, surely nothing could go wrong!” a bit sarcastically, Sunny nods and says “I was gonna choose that one anyway.” Basil laughs a little, before realizing he’s serious.

Basil ends up dying at the later end of the first level, before saying, “You’re really good at these games aren’t you?” Sunny’s able to carry through though, the half hour is filled with Basil dying early in a level and Sunny somehow being able to proceed through absurdly difficult patterns of bullets, while Basil looks increasingly more stunned, and a little confused.

Eventually, on the 6th level Sunny dies early on to a stray bullet, a few seconds before Basil dying to the same. She sarcastically retorts “Haha, I’m better than you at this game.” Sunny looks at her and says “You died to the ice fairy, don't give me that.” Basil hugs Sunny, “I love you so much!” Sunny smiles, “I love you too! Can I go use the bathroom?” Basil nods. “Alright, love you!”

Basil looks around for games to play and spots a laser tag arena, her eyes light up, and she goes to get Kel and Aubrey, then waits for Sunny at the bathrooms. Sunny walks out with a stressed expression, Basil smiles as the door opens and hugs him, “HELLO LOVE! I missed you!” Aubrey chuckles, “He only went to the bathroom.” Basil pouts, “Oh so what I’m not allowed to miss my darling now?” Aubrey rolls her eyes, smiling.

“Sunny! I found a laser tag section and wanna come play!” Sunny nods, and hugs Basil; Basil hugs back tightly, and carries him to the laser tag entrance, before whispering into his ear. “Hey, I love you, you’re ok now.” And smiles. Sunny smiles, and kisses Basil.

They all enter the entrance to laser tag and put on the gear, and read the rules “3 hit points for everyone! Limb shots are 1 damage, body shots are 2, and a head shot is an instant kill! (We are not responsible for any eye damage resulting from improper wearing of the headgear.)” Basil smiles to Sunny, “I’ll get you last.” Sunny chuckles, “Not before I do.”

They all enter the arena and find hiding spots. After a countdown, the game begins! Basil exposes little of her body, being ready to tuck behind cover sneakily while scouting for someone to catch off guard… While Aubrey is standing in the middle of the arena shouting for her first opponent. Basil peeks out and hits her body, before Aubrey catches her arm before slowly moving in.

Kel then peeks and headshots Aubrey, before Basil quickly hits Kel’s body in retribution before tucking behind cover again. Sunny is cautiously moving between barriers and tries to take a shot at Kel, but misses and runs away. Sunny mumbles to himself, “Why is this equipment so hot…”

Basil quickly moves past open spaces back into cover in silent pursuit of Kel and eventually snipes Kel’s exposed leg. “Damn, nice shots.” Sunny quickly peaks, and takes a shot but misses, before Basil hits his hand. Sunny immediately retreated but the sensor on his hand started heating up.

Before long Sunny starts trying to take it off as it starts to burn, “Uh, help it’s burning, Basil?” Basil runs over and drops her gun. “Are you ok?” Sunny starts to wince at the pain, “It hurts and it won’t come off, help.” Sunny starts trying to pull it off before Kel and Aubrey run over and start trying to pull it off but it’s attached to the rest of the gear.

“I don’t know how to take it off. The guy only put it on, I'm sorry.” Sunny starts hitting his hand as Kel runs to go get help. Sunny closes his eyes as everything starts to go lucid and dark, “Stop stop stop stop I’m sorry.” Basil tries to comfort him but it’s all unintelligible to Sunny. “Please stop, I didn't mean to.”

Sunny looks around, as if blinded, then looks at Basil, “Poppy? Help, make it stop. I'm sorry, please make it stop.” Basil hugs him, “I’m trying, I'm sorry.” After saying that, Basil and Aubrey pull as hard as possible before tearing off the glove. Basil then hugs Sunny tightly, “It’s ok Sunny, it’s ok I love you are you ok.” Basil, tears running down his eyes, nods.

Kel gets back with one of the managers, ready to get the gear off but they see everything’s taken care of. “We’re so sorry, are you ok? Do you need medical attention.” Sunny shakes his head before leaning into Basil. Basil stares daggers at the employee “What the hell are you thinking? Giving people equipment that burns like this?” The employee looks around, “I’m so sorry, let me go get the manager, again, I’m so sorry.”

Basil holds Sunny tightly, “I can’t believe they would let you get hurt.” Sunny hugs Basil, “Thank you for saving me, Basil.” Aubrey squints her eyes a little, and mumbles to herself, “Who the hell is Poppy…” After a few minutes, the arcade manager arrives, “We are terribly sorry for the incident. Let's just settle this right away, we’re going to give you, and your friends a lifetime pass to this place, once a day you can redeem them and play for 2 hours to your heart's content.”

“...Fine.” Basil says in a loud, upset tone. “Again, terribly sorry. We will fix that immediately, I don’t know how that suit had gotten back into rotation, the others are perfectly fine, we promise.” The manager leaves the room. A moment of silence passes as Basil comforts and holds Sunny tightly and in protection before a loud sound of the manager yelling “TERRY!!! GET HERE NOW!” and everyone chuckles a little.

Not long after the incident, everyone leaves the arcade, ears ringing from all the noise. As they step out of the door a look of horror comes upon Kel’s face, “Oh god… We’re gonna have to walk all that way aren’t we.” Aubrey playfully flicks Kel, “You can play basketball for hours on end but 30 minutes of walking is where you draw the line?” Kel rolls his eyes, “Yeah yeah.”

Aubrey looks over at Sunny and Basil, “Hey Sunny?” Sunny looks over to her, Aubrey raises an eyebrow and asks, “Who’s Poppy?” Sunny looks a bit surprised for a moment and thinks for a moment, before saying quietly with an uncomfortable expression, “Someone from my dreams.” Aubrey nods, “I see.”

Basil hugs Sunny tightly, “I hope they treat you well.” Sunny nods. Aubrey looks at Kel, “You look concerned?” Kel looks back, “Oh. I’m just worried about Hero, I hope he’s not working himself up again, it’s getting late.” Basil frowns, “I’m getting worried about it too. Apparently the creep is back at it sending creepy letters to him.”

After a painfully long walk with Kel complaining most of the way, they all eventually get back. Kel looks back at Basil and Sunny “Hey, it’s getting late so I’m gonna get to sleep, sadly me and Hero have stuff to do tomorrow so I won’t get to hang out much, sorry!” Basil smiles, “That’s ok, thanks for the heads up!”

Aubrey goes with Kel, asking if she could be of any help as Basil and Sunny leave back home. Sunny looks sort of uncomfortable, Basil hugs him and asks “Love, are you ok? You look sad right now..” Sunny, with a frown, “I don’t know. Polly isn’t here, I’m worried.” Basil hugs Sunny. As they get to the door, Sunny puts his hand on the door but freezes, “I’m scared.”

Basil tries to comfort Sunny, but he doesn’t hear her. Sunny opens the door and stares at the far hallway at the back of the room, there’s a black silhouette staring at him in the dark room. Sunny looks around but Basil is nowhere to find. Somewhere, as if from another room someone is saying his name.

The silhouette walks up to him and takes his burnt hand, looking up at it. “&#$%#, * #$@! $^#@ $#^&#” Sunny weakly smiles, but his tears are still rolling, before he begins to frown again. “Please burn me again..” After a moment of silence, the lights turn on and Sunny is on the ground, being held by Basil. Basil frowns a moment in worry, “I love you, it’s ok Sunny, I’ll always love you.”

Sunny starts crying, “Why?” Basil holds him closer. Sunny pushes into Basil, “I need you, I don’t get it, I’ve been broken so much. Why have you never judged me?” Basil smiles, “I love you Sunny, I love you, and I would never judge you.” Sunny looks up at Basil, “Promise me you’ll never be taken away.” Basil smiles, “I promise, the only promise of yours I need, is your love forever. I want to make you happy forever.”

Sunny smiles while crying, “I promise, always stay with me. Please never go far, I need you.” Basil holds him close, “I need you too.” Basil carries Sunny to the bed, after they lay down, they hug each other tightly. After a moment, Sunny looks down for a moment, looks back up at Basil and asks “Basil… Who is Mari?”

When raising your tongue into position, it's said when you plug your nose, you shouldn't be able to breath (through your mouth). And this is true in my case.
But I still don't feel like my tongue is in all the way against my palate. I almost feel like I can block my airway, by sealing just the front of my tongue.
Is this really a foolproof way of knowing your tongue is in the correct place? I know of a few other methods (hyoid bone) - but this is the easiest, if it holds true.

Not to be that asshat but I've noticed a lot of pro-LTTE, pro Tamil Eelam posts recently. To clear things up, Eelam is another name for SL like Serendib and Ceylon, so I don't mind people calling themselves "Eelam Tamils" or using a tiger emoji, bc tigers represent Tamils like lions represent Sinhalese and that's all fine by me.
What really bugs me is these social media profiles posting absolute shit on how Tamils are so "oppressed" and "mistreated" in SL in 2024, and also romanticizing the LTTE. What's even more fucked up is that most of these profiles are run by teenagers living in some European or American country! Tbf, even if ur 20, the war would have ended by the time u were 5 which is still too young to understand the dynamics/friction of the war. These are 15 -16 year olds openly supporting the LTTE (posting LTTE flags/ P*abha) and saying they're not from "Sri Lanka" but from "Tamil Eelam". There's literally so many of them that once someone speaks up about LTTE atrocities, their accounts get banned. There are also many Sri Lankan Tamils who say they're happy with a unitary state, but they're shat on by these Eelam kids who even demand that the Sri Lankan flag and the tiger emoji should not be together in their bio.
Most of these kids have never visited SL, they've been brought up in some country which probably accepted them as refugees but also gave them a more privileged life than most Sri Lankan kids. I have Tamil cousins born in the UK, who've never set foot in SL who keep posting about how wonderful that bitch Praba****'s "Tamil Eelam" is?? One of them even went as far as posting my comments in a public Tiktok saying how I'm wrong and he's right, they're so brainwashed that they'd pick terrorists over family (Unrelated but he's 15 and quotes from Wiki, Quora and YouTube).
I know they're saying Tamils are oppressed bc they want to stay there but supporting a terrorist org?? True, they started off to combat Tamil oppression which *actually existed* back then, but what did they want in the end? A separate state for Tamils and Tamils only (ethnically cleansing Muslims, and Sinhalese, and killing anyone who didn't support the LTTE). To me, this is the same intention Hitler had when wanted a pure Aryan state. Saying you want a separate state for Tamils is just as bad as what started the war!
It hurts me, as someone who is part Tamil, whose father is from the North, and someone who has been in a range to actually hear and *feel* a bomb blast, and see the aftermath (IYKYK). It's sad and frustrating to see these kids who've been fed off the hatred of their terrorist-supporting community, who've never lived in SL let alone witness the war. This is a whole generation that terrorist supporters have poisoned!
Sinhalese aren't the best, but come on it's not that bad! Sinhalese now are far less racist than most other races. Tamils and Sinhalese have equal privileges here and the govt isn't "oppressive" towards Tamils and Tamils only.. all of us have little to no rights! They've also started to redistribute the lands in the North to Tamil people according to the maps before the 80s, and the reason why they still have lots of military up there is not only bc of potential LTTE gatherings, but also because of how close India is, the Palk Strait is not even 200km wide, ofc they need extra border protection! It's definitely NOT because the North is majority Tamil.
I'm proud of my Tamil heritage, even tho I don't speak Tamil fluently, I look more Tamil than Sinhalese (deep dark skin, sharp features, nose ring) and get mistaken quite often. I'm more than happy to call myself a Sri Lankan, and I know that a great majority of us are united in SL no matter what they say. I am just very pissed about this 2nd wave of extremist Tamil nationalism. I think we as Sri Lankans have progressed far beyond that but could this wave potentially lead to a rise in the LTTE movement again? I'd like to know your thoughts.
Sorry for the long ass rant.

Age - 34
Sex - Male
Height - 6'0"
Weight - 175
Race - Caucasian
Duration of complaint - Not long
Location - East Coast USA
Any existing relevant medical issues - No
Current medications - None
Include a photo if relevant - https://imgur.com/a/5nx5xbL
So I recently figured out that my messed up nose is a deviated septum. I guess I was born with it because my right nostril has always been way smaller than my left. I just never knew that's what a deviated septum was. When I blow my nose, it mostly comes out of my left nostril. When I try to just blow the right, I can feel how much less airflow there is and not much stuff comes out. I have to blow way harder when blowing only my right nostril.
I'd love to get this fixed with a septoplasty. I believe that's what it's called. The pictures are the best I could get of my nostrils, which is harder than it seems when taking selfies LOL. I can't be looking down at the screen if I'm trying to get a picture of my nostrils lol.

I have some sort of pollen allergy and my right eye keeps tearing up. Is there any way that I can stop my eyes from tearing up because it blocks my nose and I can’t breathe out of my nose.

I’m trapped. I can hear that thing lumbering through the hallway. My God, what the hell is it? I’m trying my best to keep quiet but I can’t help but whimper. The soft scratching of my pencil on this notepad sounds deafening in the quiet of this tiny closet. I’m almost certainly gonna die in this place. I just hope someone can find this, maybe it will do some good. Or maybe it already doesn’t matter. I’m not sure how long I have until that wheezing thing finds me. Oh God, or that grey stuff might ooze under the door and dissolve me. Oh my God! What it did to Benny, Bill, Jonesy and Donald! To all of them! Even if I don’t survive, the world needs to be warned!
Long story short, I was a cop but I got shot in the head. The doctors said I was lucky, that it went straight through without hitting anything vital. However, I still needed three steel plates to hold my fragmented skull together. Also ended up with permanent tremors in my right hand from brain damage. So it’s no surprise that my cop career didn’t thrive. Just a year later I was a “retired” 45-year-old cop, living on scraps. After a few months, I started to get desperate for work. One evening at my pub, my friend, Graham, mentioned an acquaintance who was looking for employees for some private research institute in the Mojave Desert. “What, are they still blowing A-bombs out there?” I scoffed, eyebrows arched with bemused incredulity. Graham stared down at his beer, “Not sure what the hell they do. But they pay super well, so who cares,” he took a long sip of beer, foam clinging to his lips, “I think it would be a good fit for you”.
Turns out this facility, and it really is known as the “Facility”, was located in the middle of nowhere. When I looked it up online I couldn’t find any information. Later that week I called the number that Graham had scrawled down for me on a beer stained napkin. My right hand was useless to me if I wanted it to do anything that required fine motor function, so when I dialed the number on my phone I had to use my left hand. The phone rang twice before a metallic feminine voice answered and said to hold for an operator. After a few seconds of muted elevator music, I spoke to a soft voiced man who told me my skill set was perfect for their current vacancy: a security management position. He said if I filled out some forms they would pay for me to fly on out for an interview in person.
One month and several NDAs later, I was employed again! By the time I started my new job I realized I had no idea what research went on down here. During the interviews my duties as a security manager had been discussed but any mention of their actual research interests had been carefully avoided, redacted or omitted. The security staff were also told to avoid fraternizing with anyone not from their own department, including security personnel from other sections of the Facility. On my first day I asked others about the nature of the Facility’s research, but no one had any interest. “Just stick to your contract. No point in rocking the boat,” my new boss, Bill, said to me curtly. So since then I’ve not discussed it with anyone else.
If only I had, maybe I would have seen this coming. The section of the Facility which I managed was section B.15. This area, like most of the core Facility, was located several hundred feet below the sun scorched surface of the Mojave Desert and comprised many green painted corridors peppered with tall, wide doors made from dark, stainless steel. The rooms inside were large and sterile. Artefacts were cleaned and studied in these rooms after they were brought from the excavation sites (sites E.1 through E.27). Of course, whether we wanted to know the nature of the research or not, eventually, after patrolling some of the research labs for weeks, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that the scientists were mostly archeologists or paleontologists. I would often find objects of different sizes and shapes lying around in various states of cleanliness. Some looked like ancient amphoras, or large stone bird baths. Others were less identifiable: a chipped statue, a melted lump of some unidentifiable metal or large chunks of a glass-like material. I found this all extremely curious because, as far as I knew, the Mojave Desert didn’t have much in the way of ancient architecture. At least of any ancient civilization that I know.
As the months went by I started to get friendly with the other guards, most of them ex-cops too, and we started playing cards and drinking Irish coffee in the evenings. My two main colleagues consisted of a jovial, short man with orange hair named Jonesy and a much older much grumpier and much balder man, Donald. They were good men and we had a lot of laughs together. My stomach twists when I think about where they are now. Though I grew fonder of my fellow guards, I found myself developing a severe dislike for the white coated researchers. Most of them were pernicious and arrogant. The only scientist my security buddies and me could stand was a scrawny man named Benny. Our favorite thing about Benny was that he never talked about his work.
It was earlier today, at around 1400h, when all the scientists were running from their rooms. They must have received some message a few minutes before and we watched them from the surveillance monitors as they got all excited and leapt up. Their lab coats flapped and flowed around as they jumped to their feet and made for the main exit. Soon after this the large red landline phone near my video surveillance desk began to ring. Expecting the call, I picked up the receiver before the first ring finished, “Hey boss, what’s all the excitement about?” Bill’s voice was uncharacteristically hesitant “The diggers have found a friggin’ huge object out here! The biggest thing they’ve ever dug up, it’s really irregular. They want to bring it to B.15 and I need you to organize the logistics and security”. My brow furrowed, “I guess it’s too big for the main entrance? Maybe we could bring it in via the big doors of the auxiliary hangar?” Bill grunted with agreement, “Yea, we’ll have to improvise a bit but should be manageable. I have no idea what it is… well you’ll see for yourself. I’ll get some of the boys from B.14 to help you out. And just, well…” He paused for a moment, “just be careful.” I grunted, my eyebrow arched from surprise; why was he so afraid? “Um thanks, appreciate it, see you guys soon”.
Donald, Jonesy and I had coffee in the office and called the guards at the hangar doors to arrange clearance. About an hour later we were at the platform near the doors waiting for the cargo to arrive. The massive metal hangar doors had been opened, which was rare. What was more irregular was that nearly every staff member from sections B.11 to B.18 were all gathered together in a silent knot of people. Despite the silence the air sizzled with anticipation, as well as the searing heat. I stood transfixed from curiosity at the massive doorway, waiting in the shade of the hangar as the relentless sun beat down outside. In the distance I saw a black speck grow larger against the bright blue sky. Slowly it took the form of a helicopter which was carrying a large rectangular shaped mass below it.
Within less than a minute the helicopter made its cacophonous approach toward the hangar and gently lowered the object onto an enormous wooden scaffold. I barked orders and signed forms as the guards rushed about, making sure the other personnel stayed a safe distance away. The air was blaring with the sound of the helicopter blades and sand rocketed into my face, forcing me to splutter. “Alright, let’s get this thing processed!” I yelled over the sound of the helicopter as its engines powered down, my colleagues and I wiped dirt from our faces. Bill emerged swiftly from the chopper and shook my hand. We quickly reviewed the paper work he gave me and then he made his way back downstairs to his office in section B.1. He was keen to get away for some reason.
“Alright, it’s officially in my care now. Show’s over. Get the non-essential personnel out of here immediately and secure the object. I want to get Benny up here to analyze it ASAP.” As my colleagues cleared away most of the staff and the excitement died down I was finally able to take a moment to inspect the object. It had been lowered onto the wooden scaffold fitted with wheels just outside the hangar and had been pushed slowly into the center. The few aircraft in this hangar were all currently under repairs and were non-operational, therefore there was plenty of space. As soon as I saw the sheer size of the object, I knew it would be difficult to transport, but not impossible. The object was a wall. Or a large fragment of a wall.
It was about twenty feet long, eight feet thick and ten feet high. At first the wall appeared made from some sort of boring grey stone. However, when I looked closer the wall was… alive. The wall’s surface bubbled slightly. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I stepped closer. When I was only a few inches away from it I felt cold. A bead of sweat ran down my cheek and I thought I heard something. It sounded like someone far away calling my name.
I felt a strange pressure around my head. A sudden invasive thought wormed to life: throw yourself into the wall. I shuddered and held myself back despite the sudden strong desire. I heard the faint voice of Benny and crashed back to reality. My eyes snapped open and I found my nose an inch away from the wall. It radiated cold like an open freezer and it smelled like rotting clay. The surface of the wall simmered ever so slightly. It reminded me of the fizz of some grey effervescent medicine. I paled as I took a large step backward, “I.. uh, what is this?” I turned to face Benny who stood with another scientist. He glanced at her briefly before he approached the wall to apply more straps. He was careful to avoid touching the wall with his bare skin. “Honestly, we have no idea”.
I got Donald and Jonesy to help Benny transport the wall down to room 278B via the service elevator. Donald grumbled about how badly the wall smelled and Jonesy had eyes as large as saucers when he saw it up close, “It looks so unreal!” Once downstairs I returned to my office to get some more coffee and file away the paperwork. I tried to put the strangeness of the wall out of my mind, but it had truly unnerved me. I felt so tired, my forehead drenched with cold sweat. I had been working extra shifts lately, but I had never been hit by such exhaustion so rapidly. As I sat at my desk facing the surveillance monitors I was unable to fight the sleep forcing my eyes shut.
I’ve had many hangovers in my life, most of them unpleasant, but when I woke up at my desk I’d never felt quite so singularly awful. My clothes were soaked with sweat and my whole body felt exhausted. My arms felt like molasses as I attempted to move. My forehead throbbed and I felt bruised. I also felt a pressure squeezing my head from all sides. It was quite peculiar. I sat back in my seat and rubbed my eyes.
Then I froze.
A hand was lying motionless on the floor just behind the table in the center of the office. I leapt to my feet and rushed forward. I gasped from horror as I saw Donald lying on the floor, his chest sliced to ribbons. Gallons of crimson red stained his blue uniform and his eyes stared up empty and terrified. Pallid and shaking I went to my office landline to call for backup immediately. As the receiver met my ear my stomach dropped into my feet.
The line was dead.
The sole means of communication within the core Facility is done through landlines. The landlines are monitored at all times and any interruption results in an immediate response from security. We had many protocols and fail safes to ensure communication remained enabled, but the line was dead and there was no sign of any response. In fact, how long had I been asleep? What was happening? I rushed back to the monitors. I hadn’t noticed it before but I couldn’t see anyone. The cameras were all operating normally but not a single person could be seen. The corridors were just as green and bare as most late evenings. I looked at the clock, it was only 1817h. I had slept for about two and a half hours. Where were the janitors? My heart was hammering in my chest and I couldn’t catch my breath. Meanwhile my head was throbbing and my eyes were burning. Suddenly I heard an indistinct whisper. Gooseflesh bloomed all over my back and arms.
I’d heard this voice before.
I’d heard this voice from the wall.
I turned to the monitors and searched for the wall. It had been brought back to the surface; the hangar! It sat upon the bare ground right by the massive doors. However, the doors were all sealed. The wall itself looked different. It was enormous! Almost three times longer and taller and wider. Just then, I realized that the titanium blast doors had been sealed as well. My heart rate doubled as I noticed large dents, scorch marks and scratches all over the doors. Someone had tried to break them down. The hangar floor was covered in blood and ash as well as abandoned weapons. My God, I even saw a rocket-launcher lying blackened and fractured near the doors. What the hell had happened?
I spun my head to look at the security control panel on the wall to my left. My heart, already blaring, felt like it leapt out of my mouth. My eyes grew wide as I realized someone, probably Donald, had activated a quarantine procedure. This meant that the entire Facility would be sealed airtight. The only way to open any doors now was from the outside. My God! Why had he done this? Where was everyone? Did he try to wake me? Did I really sleep through all this? I looked back at Donald, my heart still hammering from seeing his dead eyes stare into mine. I sighed sadly and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was currently 1831h. I returned to the monitors and began to rewind the security footage.
Surveying the screens, I watched my past-self enter the security office at around 1600h. By 1610h I had passed-out on my chair, drool dangling from my mouth. “Ok, so let’s see where the wall was at that time. Should be room 278B.” I thought to myself aloud as I clicked on the button that would display the footage from that room as well as the surrounding corridors. The screen was black as the footage loaded and I was about to hit the play button but hesitated. Did I really want to see this? I closed my eyes and took a few slow breaths. I can’t figure my way out of here if I don’t know what’s going on. I have to know. I hit play.
The camera was located opposite the door giving a full view of the room. At first everything seemed normal. Benny and some other scientists had transported the wall into room 278B. It was 1623h when they were taking the straps off the wall. A loud popping sound was heard and the researchers spun around. The lights in the room dimmed and flickered. Suddenly something long and slimy exploded from the wall, curled around Benny, and pulled him in. He screamed in terror as he vanished, his cries immediately silenced. My jaw dropped open and a small yell escaped me.
Without realizing it, I was instantly on my feet, shaking my head in pure denial. My heart burst. What the hell was that? What the hell? What the hell? My head was full of static. I felt tears in my eyes as I watched guards and researchers rush into the room. The wall shimmered, it’s simmering surface began to boil and bubble and it grew three feet higher. I saw it reshape itself so that intricately carved figures appeared on the wall’s edge. I leant in closer and gasped. One of those figures looked just like Benny, his mouth stretched open wide into a permanent scream. I didn’t want to continue watching, but I had to. The guards and researchers were horrified by what they saw before them. Suddenly, without warning, their body postures relaxed, their eyes grew glassy, and their arms fell slack at their sides. Those within the room moved as if sleepwalking. Some stayed still while others left the room. Brow furrowed from confusion and fear, my eyes swiveled to the footage of the corridor outside. The guards and researchers that had just exited 278B immediately began attacking and grappling those around them. I yelped as a vacant-eyed guard lazily shot another man in the leg. The thrall then dragged the wounded guard into room 278B. The mad guard held the wounded guard’s leg fast as he casually walked into the grey wall, pulling the struggling man in behind him. During this altercation I noticed Donald for the first time, he was hiding behind the corner of the corridor at the far end and was firing his gun at the madmen. He didn’t manage to hit anyone though. He then ran over to help a stray researcher to their feet and then they both ran down the corridor and out of view.
I can still hear the cries of pain and pleas for mercy as those who fell victim to the thralls were each dragged into that horrifying wall. With every person it swallowed, the wall wriggled and grew and grew. More and more ghastly decorations began to bloom on its surface, all of them made from the bones or likenesses of those who had been absorbed. The bigger it got the stronger its psychic influence became until it seemed to reach nearly everyone in the Facility, turning them into thralls. I looked on in horror as one by one, all janitors, researchers, guards, diggers, admin staff, everyone gradually stopped what they were doing, mid conversation, their eyes emptying. The janitors dropped their mops and buckets. Researchers dropped precious materials and equipment without care, letting them smash to pieces. In unison they all slowly, with vacant expressions, moved toward room 278B. Among the horde of thralls, I saw Bill and Jonesy, and so many others I knew by face. A guy who’d held the door for me once, a researcher who always slurped her coffee at lunch. Hundreds of people! What filled me with an unnamable dread was that I knew what was gonna happen. I knew what was coming. I tried to shout at the monitors, “Stop! Wait!” I grabbed the monitors and shook them with frustration.
A terror began to fill my stomach, deep and cold and aching. Suddenly I noticed Donald reappear on the screen. He was trying to hold back the researcher he’d helped earlier, but it was useless. I saw Donald, chest heaving from effort, stare with incredulity as he sat defeated on the ground. Everyone else around him stumbled dreamily toward their doom. But Donald refused to give up. I saw him run from corridor to corridor, trying desperately to stop them. He threw chairs and tables in their way but they simply pushed them aside or jumped over them. I saw him run toward this office. I saw him enter, saw myself slumped on my chair still completely unconscious. I saw Donald try to shake me awake, he slapped me a few times and was yelling in frustration. He gave up with me eventually and ran over to activate the quarantine lockdown. I saw him tear down the hall back toward room 278B, pistol in hand.
My best guess was that he saw what was happening in room 278B and decided he was gonna stop it. However, as soon as he got close to the door a long pale tendril burst through the door directly into Donald’s chest. The tentacle had a hooked end and it slashed at him. I saw blood spurt out of him, saw him stumble and fall from the ground in fright. However, he still managed to get a hold of his gun and fired multiple shots at the tendril. It writhed and flailed. Donald took the opportunity to climb to his feet. He grimaced and clasped his chest as crimson leaked to the floor. He moved back down the corridor, much more slowly than before. Eventually he got back to the office. He locked the door and then collapsed. I cried out in frustration. That whole time I was completely useless!
My mind felt like static again for a few seconds. I couldn’t work out what my next move should be. A thought hit me hard, one I should really have thought of before. Why had Donald and I not been psychically affected by the wall? Everyone had been enslaved, everyone had been forced to walk into that wall. Why not Donald? And me? I knew it must be connected to my horrendous sleepiness. My eyes grew wide with sudden realization. “Shit, the steel plates in my head!” Donald had a single steel plate in his skull because of a rock-climbing accident he had in his 20s. When I got close to the wall, had it sensed my resistance? Had it tried to incapacitate me? If so, it means this thing possesses sentience.
While I pondered this, I noticed some thralls re-strap the wall in room 278B. They transported it to the elevator and back up to the hangar. Once there, the thralls moved the wall off the scaffold onto the floor and began to beat heavily on the large metal doors with bare fists. Some even shot at the doors with their handguns. The ricochets killed a few of them but not one single person seemed to even notice. Some of the guards even used a rocket launcher! I yelled with shock as they fired at deadly close range, lazily blowing themselves up, leaving the doors scorched. After this proved futile, the thralls all grew suddenly rigid. Next, they all formed a line in front of the wall and one shambling step after another, all the remaining employees were - assimilated. Even the dead and wounded were not spared. Those still alive carried the corpses of their fellow thralls into the wall.
It was 1705h when the last employee disappeared forever into the grey horror, and the wall expanded to its current size. Without warning, a large writhing mass of twisted limbs emerged from the wall. I gasped from horror. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was because the lighting in the hangar wasn’t good enough, but it definitely wasn’t human. Its silhouette was about seven feet tall and thin and stretched. It had too many legs and it didn’t seem to have a head. This thing lumbered over to the doors and began to strike them with a strength and ferocity one would only find in a starving polar bear. I could tell that the doors were taking strain, and they began to bend, but even then, they would not yield. After about half an hour of smashing the door, the creature stopped and slowly shambled toward the stairs. My heart froze. It was coming here! Or was it here already?
My eyes swiveled back to the main monitor and I was surprised to see Donald still alive. He was scratched and bleeding badly as he shakily pushed himself from the floor. He then looked up at the ammunitions cupboard and began to search through his keys. I saw him curse. He couldn’t find the key with his trembling, bloodied fingers. In the next instant his eyes bulged and he heaved as if vomiting. His body doubled over and long grey tendrils oozed from his mouth and wriggled furiously. He grabbed his throat and fell forward onto the floor. Frozen in horror I watched as his body squirmed and he wriggled as if his intestines were filled with snakes. I continued to watch absolutely transfixed as three long grey tendrils emerged again from between Donald’s lips. Slowly they wriggled free of his mouth. They were about half a foot long, dull grey and thin like spaghetti.
I watched as they slithered toward my unconscious form on the monitor. I bit my lip and stood up. Slowly my brain put two and two together. Bile rose in my throat. I yelled at myself to wake up and see the worms. Just then my stomach dropped and I could feel an itchiness in my belly. I could feel the wriggling itch of a thousand grey eels in my gut. Or was I imagining it?
My stomach writhed and I was about to puke when I saw myself awake and stretch in my chair. The worms somehow realized I was awake and they moved out of view towards the –before I could watch the screen any longer, I heard a hiss and something slimy and long wrapped itself around my throat so tight I couldn’t breathe. I gasped with surprise and strained my neck to look at the monitor that showed the room in real time. I saw from the camera behind my head that something thin and grey had wrapped itself around my throat. I saw two more of those things coming at me from behind as well. They were about to come wriggling up my chair when I grimaced with anger and grabbed my gun from its holster. The thing around my neck was hissing and making awful clicking and guttural noises. Its small worm head had a mouth that bit and it latched onto my neck to suck my blood. I pulled at the leach and pressed my gun up against it. I pulled the trigger. With an earsplitting bang and a sound like a water balloon popping the leach was reduced to sticky goo. I pulled the remnants of the leach off my neck and spun around just in time to shoot and kill the others. I grinned with a mad-joy and yelled with relief. Immediately, a wave of nausea and exhaustion hit me and I fell back onto my chair. “What the hell was that? What the hell do I do now?” I sat still for a moment and tried not to lose my mind completely. I swear I could hear Woody the woodpecker laughing somewhere in the distance. I needed to keep it together. I took a long deep breath and tried to think of a way out.
Summarizing the details of my predicament, I realized I was trapped alone inside the Facility with an otherworldly force. Also, even if I found a way out, I’d potentially be letting an evil into the world that could destroy all life. At once an old thought returned to me, one I’d often experienced as a cop. “If I need to sacrifice myself to save others, I will do so without complaint.” A wry smile spread over my face. “Once a cop, always a cop.” My smile vanished as a I continued to think. “But my God, if this thing gets out. If it gets into the minds of other people. If it gets larger and larger. Could it swallow the world? The solar system? What other monstrosities would it unleash?” I was talking aloud now; the sound of my voice gave a new reality to my situation that made me shudder. I turned back to the monitor. It seems I was all caught up with what had happened. I stared blankly into the screen while I watched my past-self continue to wake and wince from pain. I switched the monitor off and saw my reflection in the blackness of the screen. I was pale and my eyes were wide and unblinking. “What do I do now?” I turned in my chair to look at Donald’s body. Were all those worms gone? Could some still be hiding? And what should be done with his body? Probably best to have it burned. “Poor Donald, he didn’t deserve this”, I muttered softly as I examined his corpse, making sure there were no unexplained twitches beneath his skin. My eyes moved from his body up to the ammunition’s cupboard just above. “Wait, why was he trying to get into the cupboard earlier? We don’t have much…”, my eyes grew large with realization. “Holy crap, he was trying to get the bomb! Me and Donald were gonna use a left-over bomb from the excavation site to blow some random shit up!”
I sighed sadly and heavily. We never got around to it. I stood up quickly and walked up to the cupboard. I pulled out my keys and quickly found the key I’d need. I opened the cupboard with little effort and found the ten kilos of plastic explosive inside. It had already been set up with a sixty second timer and a remote detonator by a colleague. I sat at the table with the explosive, a vague plan forming in my broken mind. “Maybe if I somehow get this wall-thing to eat this bomb then...”
Before I could formulate my thoughts fully, the lights flickered, and the entire Facility was plunged into darkness unceremoniously. My nerves were burning with fear. What had happened? Had that thing knocked the power out somehow? The next few seconds that past were some of the longest I’d ever experienced. However, dim green light bloomed to life and the reserve power kicked in. Then I heard slow, shuffling footsteps in the corridor just outside the office. I froze once again, my insides turning to mush. My mind raced. Had I remembered to lock the door? My stomach leapt into my feet as I heard the shuffling get louder and louder. I heard hoarse, wheezing breaths, as if the thing struggled to breathe. I jumped from fright but remained absolutely silent as whatever the thing was banged on the door with a deafening blow.
BANG! The door shook and bent slightly.
BANG! Silence for a moment.
BANG! BANG! Again silence. My heart was hammering in my ears and I sat deathly still. I could hear that thing breathing louder. After a few moments I heard it shuffle away. My entire body was shaking as relief washed over me. Whatever the thing was, it had walked away and I could no longer hear it. I turned to look at the monitors. Dare I turn them on and check what it was? After a few seconds of consideration, holding my breath, I turned to the monitors and switched them on. I waited in nervous anticipation as the screens flickered to life showing me that all the corridors between me and the wall were currently empty. I didn’t bother checking the corridor I suspected the shambling thing was in. I didn’t want to see it unless I needed to. I’d had just about all the stress and terror I could take and by this stage I felt weirdly calm. It must be shock. A thin sigh escaped me as I stood. The fear in my blood began to feed a furnace of anger in my heart. I thought about all those who I had lost. I felt my expression turn to granite, “It’s time to kill this thing.”
I opened the door slowly, my fully loaded gun in my good hand. Spare ammo along with the explosive and a shotgun was stashed in my backpack, and the remote detonator was tied to my belt. I held a heavy-duty flashlight in my shaky right hand. I moved cautiously through the dark green corridors. I’d never thought of how creepy this place could be until this moment. Gooseflesh crept up my arms and neck as I continued. All I could hear were my soft footfalls and shallow anxious breaths. I cleared the corridors one by one until I made it to the stairs that would lead me to the thing that looks like a wall. I walked up the stairs slowly, my ears honing in on any sound. That’s when I heard it. I heard the soft sound of crying.
Someone was crying. I stopped dead in my tracks. My entire body shook from the adrenaline surging through me. I took one step. Then another. Slowly, I climbed. Once my head could peek over the top, I froze. Jonesy was squatting on his knees, naked. He was between the wall and me, with his back facing me. The terrifying thing loomed enormous before us. It was now framed intricately with the skeletons of hundreds of people, all twisted and screaming in agony. Writhing, tortured souls fused together. Then came the sound of crying and moaning from the wall. I could hear them all. They were all screaming. Screaming for me to help them. To join them. I felt that pressure squeeze against my skull tighter and tighter. I shook my head in defiance. “No! You bastard! NO! I will not join you! You’re not Jonesy!” All at once the moans and wails stopped. I suddenly found myself at the top of the stairs without knowing when I’d finished climbing them. “But we are Jonesy” came a voice that was not human. It was a voice made from all those it had swallowed up. It was as though something had made a distorted copy of the voices of all those people and then just used them all at once to speak. It didn’t understand the concept of individuality. All of a sudden, the wall rippled and grey tendrils squirmed from the flesh of the wall, curling around Jonesy as they teased his face and slowly pulled him in. As he disappeared there was a horrendous sucking, squelching noise. “We are Jonesy. We are all. We can be all. We will be all. All and all and more than all.” The voice was chanting this over and over. Louder and louder.
A deafening blast came from the wall and a slithering, writhing mass of tangled human limbs emerged. It had four legs and several arms. It looked like the bodies of eight or more people shuffled and glued into an otherworldly horror. Its multiple mouths screamed a high pitch squeal that was more horrifying than the screams of the damned, and its sharp pointed teeth gnashed and chomped. I only had a second to dodge this monster. I leapt to the side and fired multiple shots at the thing’s center of mass. Its horrifying body of fused torsos wriggled and bled black ichor. It screamed with pain and jumped at me, grabbing my leg. It tossed me into the air and I almost lost my gun as I slammed into the floor a few feet away. Before I could catch my breath, it was upon me again. From the ground I fired several shots at it. This made it jump away and scuttle down the stairs. With it momentarily out of sight, I quickly got to my feet and kept my eyes on the stairs.
After a second, I decided to kneel and take off my backpack as fast as I could. I pulled out the bomb and started the timer. I also decided to get the shotgun out and get it loaded. I needed to do this now or never. As the final shell clicked into place I heard a roar coming from the stairs. The thing was back. Before I could react, it leapt at me and knocked me to the ground. The bomb flew from my grasp. It bared down on me, grabbing at my throat ready to tear me apart. My reflexes saved me though and I managed to use my shotgun to hold the thing at bay, but it was too strong. Desperate, I kicked it hard in the chest and it let go. I used this moment to grab the bomb that lay behind me; only 37 seconds to go! Terrified and crazed, sweat pouring down my face, my mind in pieces, I rammed the bomb into the creature’s mouth and kicked it back again as hard as I could. I heard it yelp like a wounded dog and it lost its footing. It fell sideways and in that second, I took my shotgun and fired at it in the chest. The force of the close-range blast sent me flying. At the same time the creature was hurled back into the wall where it was enveloped quickly.
My head was fuzzy. I was dizzy and the wind had been knocked out of me. Was the bomb going to work? I felt something warm and wet drip into my ear and touched the side of my head. My fingertips came away soaked in blood. My head was spinning. With a foggy mind I grabbed my bag, collecting my weapons and flashlight. As I stood up I heard a low rumbling sound. The ground beneath my feet shook and for a moment I was confused. Then I looked up at the wall. Its surface was roiling and boiling like I’d never seen before. It was shaking and growing. I turned to run when suddenly there was a massive blast from inside it, and the entire wall exploded into hundreds of small grey chunks. These chunks rained down all around the hangar, smashing several aircraft. The blast knocked me off my feet and this time I definitely passed out because when I awoke I could see daylight through the tiny cracks in the blast door. Where the wall had once been now stood a small blackened crater. I turned around to inspect the wall pieces and found that they – my eyes grew wide and my mouth opened. They were melting. As I approached a fragment of wall, a horrible twisted hand shot out at me. I yelled and jumped away. It was still alive! I watched in dumbfounded horror as the pieces continued to melt and began to merge, just like that scene from Terminator 2.
It was rebuilding itself. Then I heard a groan. My blood became ice. I turned slowly in terror to find the shambling, wheezing monstrosity behind me. Like the creature I'd shot, this one seemed made from bits and pieces of human limbs knitted together randomly. This one had legs which came out its mouth, its head positioned within its torso where the bellybutton should be, and it wheezed in pain. I almost puked from fright but my legs were already carrying me away. I sprinted down the corridors, ignoring all the pain and fear and exhaustion and anger and frustration I had inside me. Without thinking, I leapt into the first janitor's closet I found and locked the door with a dull clunking sound. After catching my breath, I found this notepad and pencil, and have been writing this report in the sterile glow of my flashlight. Hopefully, I have left some useful information for anyone who may find this.
Now I lie in wait for that thing. Now I lie in wait for that grey ooze. What is that thing? Is it truly indestructible? If it can survive a bomb like that, what hope do we have? It’s no wall at all. It’s a membrane. An interface. Somewhere very different is pressing up against us. It has torn a small hole, and was now prying it open further. I should blow up this whole damn place! I should burn it! But would it matter? Or would it just be buried, to be rediscovered? I think even if I survive this, nothing can help us. So here I wait, hoping to be saved, but even as I write this I can hear that thing walking past the door. With a soft click I turn off my flashlight. I try not to breathe. I can hear the snuffling, it’s right outside! I can smell its ugly breath.
Oh God! I hear the jingling of keys. The door is unlocking! How? How?
Oh God! The doorknob is turning...

Has your immunity improved? I'm curious. 😀
I've been eating low carb for about 3 years now. Even when I get a cold, it's way milder than it used to be. It lasts about 4-5 days (at least when it comes to the "liquid" dripping out of my nose part of the cold, I'm saying "liquid" because there's no thick mucus blocking my nose anymore) instead of 7—10. I can even sleep (mild trouble during the first night) whereas earlier I didn't even sleep an hour during the first night and had trouble sleeping during the following nights. I also don't get tired on my first day of having a cold sore.
Obviously I can't tell what improved because of this WOE and exercise and what improved as a result of correcting my vitamin D deficiency.

I’ve never had any allergies. Recently I moved to a country with air conditioning. My GF turned it on for the first time maybe a month ago. First time I don’t think I had any symptoms, but shortly after - I started getting mild headaches, mild nausea, cramps in my stomach. The next time she turned it on, my eyes got watery and itchy and my nose was blocked for two days. She turned it on again last night and my eyes got watery again, turned it off and I was fine. Are these symptoms of an allergy? I’ve been to the doc about all my symptoms, they’ve checked me out and said I’m all good. Only thing left seems like an allergic reaction to something from the air conditioning?

TONSIL ISSUES SICK FEELING
17 year old had like jaw pain a week and half ago and thot it was like teeth gum infection and was on amocycillin like for 7 days even now currently and the pain is like ALNOST completely gone. But the past few days i’ve noticed the side of my tongue hurts and also MY TONSILS at the back in the left side is like bumpy there is 2 like swollen bumps. Also there is WHITE STUFF on it. My throat is like itchy and like my nose feels weird too and want to sneeze and like cough. I don’t have covid. WHAT IS THIS LIKE IM ALREADY ON AMOCYCILLIN

Hey. My son started having pretty frequent nosebleed lately, probably at least 1 to 2 times a week, for the past 2 to 3 months. Notable changes are, the weather have been turning warmer, he started picking his nose more often because of running nose and crusting. He sleeps in air-conditioning. The bleeding don't last long each time and can be stopped easily.
He does not have other symptoms and is a very active kid. It has become a problem because of his fear of seeing blood, as we could tell from the screaming and visibly shaking.
Should I be worried and bring him to a doctor ? What is your experience?

Hello to everyone who is reading this. I don't usually post anything online but Today i'm here because I feel lost. I can't see a clear path for me right now
It all started in February 2024, just enjoying life like a normal person would, I caught a cold, I thought it would be normal but surprise, here I am. So the first thing i noticed was that the mucus was very thick and sticky, never had anything like this happen to me before, with general antibiotics and some rest my cold went away, but nevertheless I was left with post nasal drip and a bit of a cough. I also noticed changes in my skin like acne.
I was back to normal except that I continued with post nasal drip and cough, dry cough which was escalating to the point of not letting me sleep in peace. I went to a general practitioner and he gave me amoxicillin and Acetylcysteine. Fortunately this cleared up my cough but I still had a postnasal drip.
My face got puffy, and my fingertips (mostly on my right hand) became swollen, no pain, I also started having other symptoms like numbness in my hands and feet (not all the time but more common when bending over or crouching).
So the summer of 2023 came and I set out to find out what was really going on with my body. I ran some lab tests, which were all normal.
So I decided to go to an ENT, he told me there must be some mucus that was left behind, so saline and fluticasone washes should be enough, which didn't fix anything, so I went to an internist.
He gave me fluticasone, antihistamines and antibiotics for sinusitis (Cefixime) Again, nothing changed. At this point my acne got so bad that I needed accutane to get my skin clear again. After my successful accutane course of five months I went again to the internal doctor and he ordered some labs. In this case the results were monocytes and eosinophils slightly elevated, as well as a nasal swab test, IgG and IgE.
Results for the test showed both IgG and IgE at normal values, but elevated eosinophils in the nose.
The med referred me to an infectologist which ordered other lab tests (Aspergillus,ANCA , p- ANCA, CT Sinus Scan and a nasal culture) This to look for vascular origin.
CT showed inflammation in maxillary ,ethmoidal and frontal sinus, some thickening of mucus . Aspergillus, ANCA and P-ANCA came back as negative.
Nasal culture showed Staph Aureus resistant to Vancomycin. Idk it if it was a coincidence or something but i got a boil in my right cheek at that time, i got an antiseptic and it went away after a couple of days
After a month I went back with the internal medic, he ordered an ANA test which I'm getting done next week.
Here I am, feeling like I have spent too much money over the course of a year without even being able to find out what I really have, without an answer so I can start treatment with symptoms that affect my quality of life as well as my overall self esteem. I avoid looking in the mirror because I look so different from what I once used to look like. I avoid going out to public places other than college, I am pursuing a STEM degree and it’s really too much stress in itself. I feel like a nuisance in my house, I don't even like going to the doctor because I know my dad will think it's all an exaggeration of me and because it's too expensive.
I would just like to have another chance, and I question myself why it happened. What did I do to deserve this? I take care of my health. I go to the gym, I don't smoke, I don't drink and I have big goals I want to achieve. I fear getting diagnosed with EGPA or wegener’s because my family doesn’t have the money at the moment for a treatment that expensive
I ask God everyday to help me get out of this.
If you read this, any kind of recommendation is appreciated.
Recent relevant labs

Left nose eosinophils : 27% in 0-5 range
Right nose eosinophils : 32% in 0-5 range
Nasal culture : Staph Aureus resistant to vancomycin and Clindamycin
CT scan : Inflammation in maxillary,ethmoidal and frontal sinus, clear and with presence of small mucus thickening

Current physical observations:

Puffy face and eye bags
Puffy hand fingertips(more noticeable in right hand)
Thick sticky mucus
Stuffy nose
Numbness when crouching or going to the restroom (peripheral neuropathy)
Inflammation across the body
Shortness of breath when running

Have a good day.

Something is following me. I swear I can hear them at night outside my tent. I went on this solo seven-day hike, and it wasn't until the third day that I noticed something amiss. When I woke and exited my tent, my small makeshift camp looked as if it had been ransacked, my supplies had been scattered, the small firepit I made had been destroyed as though a large beast had stepped on it. The scariest part was the footprints left behind; they were all over my camp. They circled the tent dozens of times and seemed to come to rest at the door before heading away into the woods.
I hadn't heard anything while I slept and assumed it was just some other hikers playing a trick on me. After I gathered my scattered supplies, I started back down the trail. The hike I was on was a remote and technically difficult hike that even the most seasoned hikers would have trouble accomplishing.
Which is what made me confused; why would experienced hikers do something like that to my camp? Most hikers took this sport seriously; ruining supplies could be a quick way to dying from exposure.
That day I hiked long and far, taking switchbacks and pausing for minutes at a time to watch the trail behind me. The mountain was empty; I even removed some of my footprints in the dirt hoping to make it harder to track me.
That night, I packed all my supplies in my tent and waited. Certain that no one would have been able to follow me. I gripped my flashlight in one hand and lay down in my sleeping bag waiting, waiting for a sound or a noise out of the normal sounds of the world.
That's when I heard it, a twig snapping, a rustle of a bush, a rock being kicked and rolling across the ground. Tension shot through my body and I froze, unable to move. My original plan was to rip open the tent door and shine the light in my would-be stalker's face, but the sounds I heard made me lock up.
This wasn't the sound of humans; I saw no lights, and heard no boots. Instead, it was the shuffle of something bestial, a large bear, or a wolf pack.
Instantly the sounds grew closer and I thought it had to be more than one animal, circling the tent, pawing at the ground, breathing heavy and hoarse. A small sound coming from the back of a throat that sounded like a throaty, demented version of a laugh. "Hyuk hyuk" was the noise they made as they circled the tent, never coming close enough to touch or even graze it.
Fear struck me hard and fast, and my first reaction was to curl up in my sleeping bag, as if hiding from the world was the ultimate defense. Like a little kid defending himself from the monsters under the bed. Now I protected myself from the monsters outside my tent.
The motion outside the tent exploded as the pace increased; the demented laughing was now coming from all sides and I covered my ears trying to block out the noise before it drove me mad.
Then like a breeze in the wind, they were gone. The sounds slipped away into the night and the torment stopped. My breath fell from my chest in what felt like minutes. I was terrified, and rightly so. Being alone on this mountain was always a bad idea; hikers went missing here all the time. I had just assumed they were inexperienced and got lost but now I knew it was something more, something terrifyingly real.
I didn't sleep that night; I just lay awake unable to leave the tent for fear of their return. For the fear that they were waiting out there quietly for me to slip up and leave.
When dawn's rays crested the hill to the east and bathed my tent in God's eternal light, I prayed for the first time in years. Normally I'm not one for religious zealotry, but I fell to my knees in that morning light and begged with tears in my eyes for any of the gods to save me. To take me from this mountain but nothing responded to my desperate plea. Now I felt truly alone.
The camp was a mess; the ground was torn up by dozens of odd footprints. They overlapped so much that I couldn't get an accurate shape to one, but they were deep prints indicating weight.
"Larger than a dog at least," I said to myself as I traced my fingers in one of the prints.
I glanced around the camp and saw the prints leading off back down the mountain, the way I had come. I was already more than halfway through the hike and it would take longer to go back the way I had come. Once I reached the peak I could make my way down the opposite side and to the parking lot where my truck was. By my calculation, it was around three more days, two more nights. I could make it.
I hiked hard and fast that day and made great time. The mountain ended in a plateau and I rested for only a moment. Normally I would spend the day at the top, find a nice place to camp, and bask in the world from my seat up high. Today I left instantly, glancing only for moments to check my path. I could see my truck far below in the parking lot. The way down was a rocky path that normally I wouldn't attempt but this was an emergency.
The sun was getting low, and I needed to find a place to camp. As I reached the edge of the woods I paused watching the sun as it fell faster and faster. A small clearing lay out before me full of long grass. To my back were tall sturdy trees with lots of branches in odd angles, like they were protecting me from the beasts that lurk behind me.
I decided to set up my tent in the clearing, a few feet from the trees, next to a fallen tree with its large mass of roots exposed to the night sky.
I kept looking over my shoulder as I worked, knowing these creatures only came at night. Sweat beaded down my neck and I took a moment when I was done to drink and eat quickly from my pack. I gathered a large amount of wood from the trees and used some of my emergency lighter fluid to start a large cooking fire outside the tent. With enough wood to burn for hours.
An idea struck me while I ate and watched the trees. Taking my flashlight and gear I made for the trees and climbed high up. Among the branches, I found a secure spot where I could sit comfortably and better yet where I could watch my tent.
For an hour I sat in terrified silence, my heart beating out of my chest as I tried to calm myself. Maybe they wouldn't come tonight, maybe I had made it far enough away they wouldn't be able to find me.
That's when the noise started, a twig snapping, the rustle of a bush behind me, the careful steps of something coming closer and closer. I hugged tightly to the tree keeping myself hidden from sight below.
My eye was on my tent, making sure that whatever was doing this to me. Tonight I would see them in the firelight of my camp below.
The grass below my perch was now covered in darkness, but I could hear something moving in the grass. I held my breath hoping to avoid detection. The creatures moved past me with no hesitation.
I watched as shadows moved in the darkness below, too many of them to count in the poor light. They surrounded the tent and fire, silent as they moved. When one of them made that same noise from the back of their throat. "Hyuk hyuk" it went and as if on signal, the campfire was scattered, lit logs rolled and flew away as if something had swatted it with a giant hand. I could see bits of brown fur in the descending firelight. A large muscular paw, a hind leg. All covered in the same brown fur. Once the dark fell, they began their pacing, tearing up the ground around the camp. Their back of the throat laughing and I could hear my tent tearing. Deep growls of inhuman noise and heavy breathing for hours. They never left; they searched the same ground over and over again as if blind until an hour before dawn they quietly slunk away back up the mountain towards the peak.
I hadn't slept at all again and was feeling exhausted. My legs felt weak, and I slid down the last few feet of the tree landing hard on my back.
I lay there breathing heavy as the sun from the morning sun bathed me in warm life-saving light. My tent had been shredded to pieces and I now had no doubt in my mind that they were hunting me. Blood was on the ground beside the fire where it looked like something had happened. Maybe the creatures had a fight amongst themselves during the night.
I sighed examining my tent, dropping the piece of it I held, I turned and made my way down the rocky trail. Gone were the lush trees and long grass of the peak and once more I plunged into the rocky and steep trail to the base.
The trail was slow-going as I climbed down rock faces and had to backtrack several times to find a different path down. I could not spend one more night in this place; far below I could see my old red pickup in the parking lot. Within my vision but still so far away, if I had a base jumping kit, I could be down there in minutes instead of hours.
At various spots, I had to anchor with ropes that had been placed by previous climbers. I praised them and their families with good fortune as this put a large distance between me and the beasts.
I traveled through the day and resolved myself to continue through the night, with no tent or cover I would be torn to shreds by the beasts.
As the sun began to set, I doubled my pace, I knew somewhere along here was the rappel site. A place with hundreds of feet of strong rope for you to descend the final drop. After that is a short five-minute walk to the truck.
I couldn't find the rappel spot, I knew it had to be around here somewhere but I seemed to be lost, I had seen the rappel spot from my truck but now that I was on the mountain, I could have missed it in the dusk's light.
I knew I had to backtrack slightly and made my way back up the mountain. Fear struck me again knowing the beasts were coming.
As I climbed, I saw a bright green rope hanging from a series of anchors in the rock. I attached my harness and walked backward off the rock. This is something I had done dozens of times and I made good time. Halfway down I rested for a moment as the sun set behind me. That's when I felt it, something pulling on the rope above.
It jerked and began swinging side to side. I dropped slightly before I felt something pulling me back up the mountain. I began to rappel with increased fervor and dropped down the mountain faster than I ever had before. I reached the bottom but noticed the rope had shortened around twenty feet and was slowly getting higher. The ground below was rocky and rough but I had no choice. I unclipped myself from the line and dropped quickly to the ground.
I landed awkwardly on a stone with my left leg and felt my ankle twist awkwardly. I screamed out in pain as my leg burned.
Despite this, I smiled, I had escaped. The beasts weren't going to catch me now. I could see my red pickup truck down the hill and rose to my feet.
The pain was intense but I kept going knowing this was my only chance. Behind me, I heard the impossible, the sound of rocks being scattered as something heavy landed. I dared not glance over my shoulder but doubled my pace.
I could hear heavy breathing and movement behind me, a small glade of young trees lay directly in front of me and I ducked into the thin branches for any sort of cover from the relentless pursuer.
"Hyuk hyuk" came from behind me, and I froze, letting the foliage cover my body from sight. I barely dared to breathe as I heard the branches snapping around me; I could smell the foul breath of the beast as I crouched in a thin shield of branches and foliage, a poor armor indeed.
Heavy breathing came closer and closer to me until it was right beside my ear. The back of the throat laugh came out right beside my ear, making fear shoot up my spine paralyzing me to the spot.
This was it, the end. Whatever this creature was it was going to kill me. I chanced a glance in its direction and stared right into its repulsive face. It bore a resemblance to a shaved wolf with its skin pulled back, a large mouth filled with rows of dangerously sharp teeth, and a large brown nose like a dog's. Saliva dripped from its open mouth as it breathed in air in ragged breathes.
The oddest part was its eyes, they were all white and filled with clouds. Almost as if the creature was blind. I sat perfectly still as the creature was within feet of me. It had a hunched back almost human but it moved on all fours like an animal. The creature smelled at the air briefly before growling and moving away through the foliage. Making the hyuk hyuk sound as it left as if it were mocking my fear of it.
The creature couldn't see; I assumed it reacted to movement, sound, or smell. Perhaps all three.
As the creature moved away, I quietly limped in the opposite direction towards my truck. Finally, I was in the parking lot and into my truck. I locked the doors behind me and lay down on the seat, breathing for a moment. Planning my next move, with a jerk, I started the truck and my old faithful girl turned on in a single stroke.
I flicked on my headlights as my heart stopped. In front of my truck was a dozen or so of the beasts, all crouched over, their eyes a milky pale unseeing. As my headlights hit their eyes, the beasts changed. They covered their eyes in pain and I put the truck into drive. As I stepped on the gas, I realized my mistake, the fire that one night in the tree. The way they attacked it. With a smash, I felt one of them ram into my tailgate. I sped off down the road, swerving to avoid them.
In my rearview mirror, I could see them chasing me down the dark mountain road and I sped up keeping ahead of them. My ankle throbbed painfully but I felt nothing as my adrenaline peaked again and again as my fear warped into new things by the moment.
The last thing I saw was their pale eyes in the darkness as I turned the corner onto the highway, by the time I saw other cars and people I knew I was safe I drove nonstop for hours until I made it back to my place. The sun was just about to set as I locked the door behind me. I breathed a sigh of relief and poured myself a glass of scotch to calm my nerves.
I fell against my bed and took a sip of my drink before I lay back in the blankets, exhausted from my flight and the creatures chasing me. I fell asleep in minutes.
I woke in the middle of the night to something outside my house; it sounded like something rubbing up against my front door. My heart froze as I thought of what could be out there, a slight knocking at the door, just loud enough for me to hear before a sound that chilled me to my bones. A deep laugh coming from the back of someone's throat. "Hyuk hyuk" it went.

This weekend was rough. My son is 10 and has horrible vision problems. He wears special prescription lenses that we have to order 24 hrs in advance. He currently only has one pair because he broke one. I’ve told him repeatedly to be more careful but he doesn’t listen. That brings me to the issue at hand. I picked him up from school Friday and he wasn’t wearing his glasses which isn’t unusual because they hurt his nose sometimes but I specifically asked “what did you do with your glasses bud?” And he said it was in his backpack. So I even confirmed. “Your glasses are in your backpack?” He said yes and we went home. The drive is 15 mins. Maybe 30 minutes after being home he comes bawling and saying he left his glasses at school. I yelled at him which I admit wasn’t great but they’re expensive and this isn’t the first time he’s done something with his glasses. My wife told me to just drive back to the school and get them. I told her no, if he can’t take care of his property then he needs to know what it’s like to lose it for a bit. She said I’m being a sadistic asshole and to grow up. My son is stumbling around dramatically running into things to try and make me feel bad and my wife is babying him for it. I already called the school the second he said they were lost and thankfully someone was there and said they’d put them somewhere safe until tomorrow morning (Monday) so it’s not like he’s permanently blinded. And he can still see enough to get around. He just can’t really watch TV or anything like that. I think I’m being reasonable because come on. He won’t forget them after this and he’s not in any danger at the house for the weekend without them.

Something is following me. I swear I can hear them at night outside my tent. I went on this solo seven-day hike, and it wasn't until the third day that I noticed something amiss. When I woke and exited my tent, my small makeshift camp looked as if it had been ransacked, my supplies had been scattered, the small firepit I made had been destroyed as though a large beast had stepped on it. The scariest part was the footprints left behind; they were all over my camp. They circled the tent dozens of times and seemed to come to rest at the door before heading away into the woods.
I hadn't heard anything while I slept and assumed it was just some other hikers playing a trick on me. After I gathered my scattered supplies, I started back down the trail. The hike I was on was a remote and technically difficult hike that even the most seasoned hikers would have trouble accomplishing.
Which is what made me confused; why would experienced hikers do something like that to my camp? Most hikers took this sport seriously; ruining supplies could be a quick way to dying from exposure.
That day I hiked long and far, taking switchbacks and pausing for minutes at a time to watch the trail behind me. The mountain was empty; I even removed some of my footprints in the dirt hoping to make it harder to track me.
That night, I packed all my supplies in my tent and waited. Certain that no one would have been able to follow me. I gripped my flashlight in one hand and lay down in my sleeping bag waiting, waiting for a sound or a noise out of the normal sounds of the world.
That's when I heard it, a twig snapping, a rustle of a bush, a rock being kicked and rolling across the ground. Tension shot through my body and I froze, unable to move. My original plan was to rip open the tent door and shine the light in my would-be stalker's face, but the sounds I heard made me lock up.
This wasn't the sound of humans; I saw no lights, and heard no boots. Instead, it was the shuffle of something bestial, a large bear, or a wolf pack.
Instantly the sounds grew closer and I thought it had to be more than one animal, circling the tent, pawing at the ground, breathing heavy and hoarse. A small sound coming from the back of a throat that sounded like a throaty, demented version of a laugh. "Hyuk hyuk" was the noise they made as they circled the tent, never coming close enough to touch or even graze it.
Fear struck me hard and fast, and my first reaction was to curl up in my sleeping bag, as if hiding from the world was the ultimate defense. Like a little kid defending himself from the monsters under the bed. Now I protected myself from the monsters outside my tent.
The motion outside the tent exploded as the pace increased; the demented laughing was now coming from all sides and I covered my ears trying to block out the noise before it drove me mad.
Then like a breeze in the wind, they were gone. The sounds slipped away into the night and the torment stopped. My breath fell from my chest in what felt like minutes. I was terrified, and rightly so. Being alone on this mountain was always a bad idea; hikers went missing here all the time. I had just assumed they were inexperienced and got lost but now I knew it was something more, something terrifyingly real.
I didn't sleep that night; I just lay awake unable to leave the tent for fear of their return. For the fear that they were waiting out there quietly for me to slip up and leave.
When dawn's rays crested the hill to the east and bathed my tent in God's eternal light, I prayed for the first time in years. Normally I'm not one for religious zealotry, but I fell to my knees in that morning light and begged with tears in my eyes for any of the gods to save me. To take me from this mountain but nothing responded to my desperate plea. Now I felt truly alone.
The camp was a mess; the ground was torn up by dozens of odd footprints. They overlapped so much that I couldn't get an accurate shape to one, but they were deep prints indicating weight.
"Larger than a dog at least," I said to myself as I traced my fingers in one of the prints.
I glanced around the camp and saw the prints leading off back down the mountain, the way I had come. I was already more than halfway through the hike and it would take longer to go back the way I had come. Once I reached the peak I could make my way down the opposite side and to the parking lot where my truck was. By my calculation, it was around three more days, two more nights. I could make it.
I hiked hard and fast that day and made great time. The mountain ended in a plateau and I rested for only a moment. Normally I would spend the day at the top, find a nice place to camp, and bask in the world from my seat up high. Today I left instantly, glancing only for moments to check my path. I could see my truck far below in the parking lot. The way down was a rocky path that normally I wouldn't attempt but this was an emergency.
The sun was getting low, and I needed to find a place to camp. As I reached the edge of the woods I paused watching the sun as it fell faster and faster. A small clearing lay out before me full of long grass. To my back were tall sturdy trees with lots of branches in odd angles, like they were protecting me from the beasts that lurk behind me.
I decided to set up my tent in the clearing, a few feet from the trees, next to a fallen tree with its large mass of roots exposed to the night sky.
I kept looking over my shoulder as I worked, knowing these creatures only came at night. Sweat beaded down my neck and I took a moment when I was done to drink and eat quickly from my pack. I gathered a large amount of wood from the trees and used some of my emergency lighter fluid to start a large cooking fire outside the tent. With enough wood to burn for hours.
An idea struck me while I ate and watched the trees. Taking my flashlight and gear I made for the trees and climbed high up. Among the branches, I found a secure spot where I could sit comfortably and better yet where I could watch my tent.
For an hour I sat in terrified silence, my heart beating out of my chest as I tried to calm myself. Maybe they wouldn't come tonight, maybe I had made it far enough away they wouldn't be able to find me.
That's when the noise started, a twig snapping, the rustle of a bush behind me, the careful steps of something coming closer and closer. I hugged tightly to the tree keeping myself hidden from sight below.
My eye was on my tent, making sure that whatever was doing this to me. Tonight I would see them in the firelight of my camp below.
The grass below my perch was now covered in darkness, but I could hear something moving in the grass. I held my breath hoping to avoid detection. The creatures moved past me with no hesitation.
I watched as shadows moved in the darkness below, too many of them to count in the poor light. They surrounded the tent and fire, silent as they moved. When one of them made that same noise from the back of their throat. "Hyuk hyuk" it went and as if on signal, the campfire was scattered, lit logs rolled and flew away as if something had swatted it with a giant hand. I could see bits of brown fur in the descending firelight. A large muscular paw, a hind leg. All covered in the same brown fur. Once the dark fell, they began their pacing, tearing up the ground around the camp. Their back of the throat laughing and I could hear my tent tearing. Deep growls of inhuman noise and heavy breathing for hours. They never left; they searched the same ground over and over again as if blind until an hour before dawn they quietly slunk away back up the mountain towards the peak.
I hadn't slept at all again and was feeling exhausted. My legs felt weak, and I slid down the last few feet of the tree landing hard on my back.
I lay there breathing heavy as the sun from the morning sun bathed me in warm life-saving light. My tent had been shredded to pieces and I now had no doubt in my mind that they were hunting me. Blood was on the ground beside the fire where it looked like something had happened. Maybe the creatures had a fight amongst themselves during the night.
I sighed examining my tent, dropping the piece of it I held, I turned and made my way down the rocky trail. Gone were the lush trees and long grass of the peak and once more I plunged into the rocky and steep trail to the base.
The trail was slow-going as I climbed down rock faces and had to backtrack several times to find a different path down. I could not spend one more night in this place; far below I could see my old red pickup in the parking lot. Within my vision but still so far away, if I had a base jumping kit, I could be down there in minutes instead of hours.
At various spots, I had to anchor with ropes that had been placed by previous climbers. I praised them and their families with good fortune as this put a large distance between me and the beasts.
I traveled through the day and resolved myself to continue through the night, with no tent or cover I would be torn to shreds by the beasts.
As the sun began to set, I doubled my pace, I knew somewhere along here was the rappel site. A place with hundreds of feet of strong rope for you to descend the final drop. After that is a short five-minute walk to the truck.
I couldn't find the rappel spot, I knew it had to be around here somewhere but I seemed to be lost, I had seen the rappel spot from my truck but now that I was on the mountain, I could have missed it in the dusk's light.
I knew I had to backtrack slightly and made my way back up the mountain. Fear struck me again knowing the beasts were coming.
As I climbed, I saw a bright green rope hanging from a series of anchors in the rock. I attached my harness and walked backward off the rock. This is something I had done dozens of times and I made good time. Halfway down I rested for a moment as the sun set behind me. That's when I felt it, something pulling on the rope above.
It jerked and began swinging side to side. I dropped slightly before I felt something pulling me back up the mountain. I began to rappel with increased fervor and dropped down the mountain faster than I ever had before. I reached the bottom but noticed the rope had shortened around twenty feet and was slowly getting higher. The ground below was rocky and rough but I had no choice. I unclipped myself from the line and dropped quickly to the ground.
I landed awkwardly on a stone with my left leg and felt my ankle twist awkwardly. I screamed out in pain as my leg burned.
Despite this, I smiled, I had escaped. The beasts weren't going to catch me now. I could see my red pickup truck down the hill and rose to my feet.
The pain was intense but I kept going knowing this was my only chance. Behind me, I heard the impossible, the sound of rocks being scattered as something heavy landed. I dared not glance over my shoulder but doubled my pace.
I could hear heavy breathing and movement behind me, a small glade of young trees lay directly in front of me and I ducked into the thin branches for any sort of cover from the relentless pursuer.
"Hyuk hyuk" came from behind me, and I froze, letting the foliage cover my body from sight. I barely dared to breathe as I heard the branches snapping around me; I could smell the foul breath of the beast as I crouched in a thin shield of branches and foliage, a poor armor indeed.
Heavy breathing came closer and closer to me until it was right beside my ear. The back of the throat laugh came out right beside my ear, making fear shoot up my spine paralyzing me to the spot.
This was it, the end. Whatever this creature was it was going to kill me. I chanced a glance in its direction and stared right into its repulsive face. It bore a resemblance to a shaved wolf with its skin pulled back, a large mouth filled with rows of dangerously sharp teeth, and a large brown nose like a dog's. Saliva dripped from its open mouth as it breathed in air in ragged breathes.
The oddest part was its eyes, they were all white and filled with clouds. Almost as if the creature was blind. I sat perfectly still as the creature was within feet of me. It had a hunched back almost human but it moved on all fours like an animal. The creature smelled at the air briefly before growling and moving away through the foliage. Making the hyuk hyuk sound as it left as if it were mocking my fear of it.
The creature couldn't see; I assumed it reacted to movement, sound, or smell. Perhaps all three.
As the creature moved away, I quietly limped in the opposite direction towards my truck. Finally, I was in the parking lot and into my truck. I locked the doors behind me and lay down on the seat, breathing for a moment. Planning my next move, with a jerk, I started the truck and my old faithful girl turned on in a single stroke.
I flicked on my headlights as my heart stopped. In front of my truck was a dozen or so of the beasts, all crouched over, their eyes a milky pale unseeing. As my headlights hit their eyes, the beasts changed. They covered their eyes in pain and I put the truck into drive. As I stepped on the gas, I realized my mistake, the fire that one night in the tree. The way they attacked it. With a smash, I felt one of them ram into my tailgate. I sped off down the road, swerving to avoid them.
In my rearview mirror, I could see them chasing me down the dark mountain road and I sped up keeping ahead of them. My ankle throbbed painfully but I felt nothing as my adrenaline peaked again and again as my fear warped into new things by the moment.
The last thing I saw was their pale eyes in the darkness as I turned the corner onto the highway, by the time I saw other cars and people I knew I was safe I drove nonstop for hours until I made it back to my place. The sun was just about to set as I locked the door behind me. I breathed a sigh of relief and poured myself a glass of scotch to calm my nerves.
I fell against my bed and took a sip of my drink before I lay back in the blankets, exhausted from my flight and the creatures chasing me. I fell asleep in minutes.
I woke in the middle of the night to something outside my house; it sounded like something rubbing up against my front door. My heart froze as I thought of what could be out there, a slight knocking at the door, just loud enough for me to hear before a sound that chilled me to my bones. A deep laugh coming from the back of someone's throat. "Hyuk hyuk" it went.