Bad credit cheap used auto dealer fort lauderdale | | CarWraps: Everything about Vehicle Wraps

I'm 20 years old and my girlfriend is 19 years old we just went to a Hyundai dealership 1 week ago to look at a 2024 Elantra N. This is one of her dream cars a car I've been hearing about for over a year. And a car we both had our eye's on so we wanted to test drive it. The Salesman was practically chattering his teeth along with higher staff I assume because it was taking a while to get in the car. But after running my girlfriends credit and filling out a form of information they let's go on a test drive down the street and back. The Sales Manager comes into the dealer behind us ultimately trying to negotiate a sale without even introducing himself as a Sale Manager. I had to read this title on his name tag. This Sales Manager made my girlfriend extremely uncomfortable by saying comeback with "daddy so he can help you get this car." This Sales Manager went on saying this about 10 times repetitively leading with "daddy" in different phrases. Some examples that he said are "talk to daddy when you get home so you can get this" , "beg daddy for the car and he will help his girl", "daddy loves his girl and will spoil you". "I'll talk number with daddy bring him in here." "Give daddy a big hug when you see him" I was about to blow steam out my ears. This guy was a full on weirdo let me tell you. The Sales Manager also goes on to demonstrate how she should persuade her dad into getting her this car by giving a salesman a long hug infront of us.

 The Salesman In a uneasy kind of tone also asked the Sales Manager why is he hugging him. The Sales Manager goes on saying "well I didn't want to hug her in front of him" as in ( Me her boyfriend) and the result of that would of lead this guy to a very bad day. This Sales Manager is in his mid to late 50s I assume. A real oddball kind of guy we both had a serious bad feeling about him. The Sales Manager finally disappeares after this with a last comment saying "comeback with daddy so we can talk some numbers." Speaking to my girlfriend as he walks away. We then were lead to a desk with a salesman to get a ballpark number on the Elantra N and the car was marked up 3k over msrp + taxes as a market adjustment charge. I was ready to leave the dealer after what just happened screw the car at this point. The result of this happening caused us to leave the dealer. This situation has really bothered my girlfriend to the point were she was balling her eyes out that someone would speak to her this way and that she couldn't say anything about it because she was extremely uncomfortable.

This Sales Manager didn't even acknowledge that we might be able to pay for this car out right if we really wanted to. He just assumed we couldn't because we are younger which is unacceptable. We never went back nor plan to but this has really effected my girlfriend and me to this day. Any suggestions if I should take some kind of action or just let it be at this point.? We haven't told anybody about this.
This Car Dealer is Healey Hyundai Fishkill/Beacon NY Eddie Rullo Is The Sales Managers Name

Long post but please help!
I was very close with my in-laws for 8 years, until I got accepted into grad school and got engaged to her son in 2021. My fiancé and I had to move 4 hours away from home, and he’s financially supporting us while Im in my doctoral program. I’m paying for school and things for the apartment but he’s paying for everything else. He’s known about me going to grad school for our entire relationship and been aware of costs that would come with us living together before I graduate. He makes enough to support us both and says he’s happy to help support me so we can finally be together and so I won’t have to take out loans just to live.
When the moving process begun, shit hit the fan. In his family group text, we mentioned we’re planning a trip to Mexico next spring so we can decide if that’s where we want to married. My MIL stated it’s ridiculous to spend extra $ by going twice, and just use the internet to decide. She proceeded to remind me that trips are not cheap & called me a BrideZilla (you guessed it, with a “Just kidding” at the end of it). I ignored the statement and reminded her that my fiancé, me, and my parents aren’t dropping 30k on event where we’ve never seen. This $ was arbitrary, as we’re not sure how much it will actually be. She and my fiancé began a separate text between each other, where my fiancé called her out for calling me a BrideZilla. She then said I am actually exhibiting BrideZilla behavior, have no clue how much things cost, Im entitled and always wanting to go on vaca’s, and force him to spend $ that he earns on me. This was the only time I’ve ever talked about wedding to his family, I’ve waited tables for past 8 years through undergrad, and 2/3 of our vaca’s that year were paid for by other family members. His mom proceeded to tell her sisters (a separate family group chat that I was not in) about the destination wedding decision and stated “oh wait, it’s his money not hers lol”. He called her out on how rude she was and left the group chat.
I was shocked at the texts she sent to him, as it was if she never really go to know who I am as a person or noticed how hard I’ve worked through school. She asked me if I was upset about the group chat BrideZilla comment, and I told her I was actually upset about the separate convo between my fiancé and her. She then proceeded to talk shit about my fiancé, her own son, saying that he started drama by showing me the texts and saying that those were supposed to be private. She said sorry my feelings were hurt but she’s financially concerned because I’m not earning any money while in school and I’ve never had a “big girl job”.
We eventually got over her untrue comments and we moved. Fast forward one year later, and we decided it was just too much to come down for Father's Day. I wasn't feeling well and my fiancé said he didn't want to waste his weekend driving roundtrip for 12 hours. My fiancé calls his mother and tells her that its just too much and although he committed to going, he decided he was going to stay here and take care of me. MIL blew up and hung up on him (keep in mind we've been here for almost 2 years now and not once has anyone in the immediate family attempted to come see us). About a week later, his MIL commented on my Facebook posts with nasty comments thinking my posts were directed towards her (they were just general quotes, I didn't even realize she had an issue with me at the time). I delete her comment and my fiancé texts her to keep her problems off social media. She eventually blows up my fiancé's phone for hours talking about how we are selfish, about how I have no life experience that "it's laughable", nobody in the family likes me, apparently “everyone in this family thinks the same of me” and that “at this point nobody is going to your f*cking wedding”. That night, she deleted both me and him off of Facebook, but the next day she told my fiancé that I went on his fb and deleted her (why would I do this after 8 years? lol)
I was so hurt after all the memories we made together over the past 8 years, that I deleted all of the pics we had together on my social media. I finally knew what she truly thought of me. Was it immature to delete all the pics? Probably. But I also knew I could never have the same relationship with them again after all the things they said about me. Note: deleting the pics were not to intentionally hurt her, but more of something I felt like I needed to do for me to be emotionally “done”. It felt like all the previous times together were just fake. Over text, FMIL and I got into it. She stated to my fiancé “I want all the money you owe me NOW” (she gets like this when she doesn’t get her way to manipulate others- constantly using things she has paid for in the past to make us feel bad) and I straight up told her “there you go again using money against your own son”. Well that set her off and she threatened to talk with my parents and let them know they won’t be at the wedding due to my “nasty words” towards her. Not once have I ever cussed at her or attacked her character (like she has to me). Once she did this over FB messenger, My parents ignored her and said they weren’t getting involved. We went no contact for about 4 months until she realized we weren't backing down. During that time, she had the audacity to cut off my fiancé’s phone service in the middle of a work day (he paid his own but stayed on family plan to save them money).
She eventually apologized to me over text, telling me how she was just upset that she didn't feel important to us and took it out on me. She claims she recently gone through menopause during all of this. But, she still insists on telling my fiancé that I am not as innocent as I seem and keeps bringing up the deleting on FB because she wont admit she did it (she was probably drinking). I told her that I forgive her but it would take a long time for me feel comfortable and move on.
A few months later, they came down to visit us. We took them downtown and showed them where I went to school, our favorite restaurant, and then our apartment. FMIL threw a fit about us being out too long and started crying, saying that “this was my opportunity to relax from work and I wanted to go to the beach… I didn’t even want to go to lunch but I did for yall!” Just drama and drinking the entire time. No fun for my fiancé or me. Of course his step dad tells my fiancé “just go apologize to her, so we can all move on”. Fiancé stood his ground and said no, I did nothing wrong. I was civil the entire time and was actually the only one to console her upstairs when her and my fiance got into it about no time at the beach.
A couple of weeks later, I posted some recent pics of the past few months as a life update on FB. I didn’t post any photos of the trip except for one of us doing a cheers with our drinks (no faces involved). Keep in mind she had been posting pics of all of us all weekend, so some pics I was tagged in were already on my page. Of course FMIL got pissed and texted a bunch of screenshots of my fb page saying that I’m “holding a grudge” and “obviously have no intention of moving forward”. I told my fiance to tell her that I simply made a post and did not have a lot of time to go searching for the pics way up in the family group chat, so that it wouldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings. The truth is, I didn’t feel comfortable posting photos of her on my page after the things she has said about me. I thought she would understand this considering I told her it would take time to heal (just didn’t want to start drama especially when dealing with school at the time). FMIL did not buy the excuse and we ended up saying “it shouldn’t matter if I don’t post a picture of yall, it’s not a huge deal”. Why would I post pics of a trip that was mainly drama? Fiancé understands where I was coming from and respected that. FMIL texted fiancé saying “I’ll go ahead and take back the $ I offered to pay for your rehearsal dinner”. She then got to digging and eventually realized I had removed all of our pics (what I did months before this). Fiancé’s step dad got involved and to look at my FB page. She told him that I deleted all of the pics of them on my FB and was holding a grudge. He saw that and texted my fiancé saying he’s convinced I’m the problem and that “although your mom has said some things that she has apologized for, I’m convinced your fiance is the problem here and doesn’t want to forgive”. (If I didn’t forgive, I wouldn’t have spent time with them when they came to visit us…)
He then stated that “if we are not going to be in any photos or posted in any pics, you can go ahead and uninvite us from the wedding and we’ll relay to our side of the family that we don’t plan to attend”. Fiancé gave them exactly what they asked for and said “at this point I don’t want you there so you got it”. Fiancé has been no contact since last July. Did not come to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and did not wish his parents happy birthday. I have not received a happy birthday from the entire side of the family. They are also avoiding us on social media. Fiancé recently received a text from his grandma saying “you are evil for treating your own mother this way and none of us will be at your wedding if your own mother is not invited”. Basically, he found out that she had told everyone that we uninvited them all on our own. She’s saying that we “misunderstood them” when we clearly have the text with their request, and that they “of course want to be there for his special day”. Now our guest list is cut in half and he will have no family at the wedding~ not even his 22 y/o brother.
We are at a loss. It’s 6 months until wedding and nothing has happened besides her sending flying monkeys and my fiancé having to block even more of his family. She even texted his birth dad (they never speak) recently saying “I just want to share my side of the story”. He didn’t reply.
I understand I may have done some things out of pettiness (none as bad as the things she has said to us) but we believe them using OUR event against us/threatening to not be at the wedding because they may not be posted on my FB is terrible and extremely hurtful.

I'm 20 years old and my girlfriend is 19 years old we just went to a Hyundai dealership 1 week ago to look at a 2024 Elantra N. This is one of her dream cars a car I've been hearing about for over a year. And a car we both had our eye's on so we wanted to test drive it. The Salesman was practically chattering his teeth along with higher staff I assume because it was taking a while to get in the car. But after running my girlfriends credit and filling out a form of information they let's go on a test drive down the street and back. The Sales Manager comes into the dealer behind us ultimately trying to negotiate a sale without even introducing himself as a Sale Manager. I had to read this title on his name tag. This Sales Manager made my girlfriend extremely uncomfortable by saying comeback with "daddy so he can help you get this car." This Sales Manager went on saying this about 10 times repetitively leading with "daddy" in different phrases. Some examples that he said are "talk to daddy when you get home so you can get this" , "beg daddy for the car and he will help his girl", "daddy loves his girl and will spoil you". "I'll talk number with daddy bring him in here." "Give daddy a big hug when you see him" I was about to blow steam out my ears. This guy was a full on weirdo let me tell you. The Sales Manager also goes on to demonstrate how she should persuade her dad into getting her this car by giving a salesman a long hug infront of us.

 The Salesman In a uneasy kind of tone also asked the Sales Manager why is he hugging him. The Sales Manager goes on saying "well I didn't want to hug her in front of him" as in ( Me her boyfriend) and the result of that would of lead this guy to a very bad day. This Sales Manager is in his mid to late 50s I assume. A real oddball kind of guy we both had a serious bad feeling about him. The Sales Manager finally disappeares after this with a last comment saying "comeback with daddy so we can talk some numbers." Speaking to my girlfriend as he walks away. We then were lead to a desk with a salesman to get a ballpark number on the Elantra N and the car was marked up 3k over msrp + taxes as a market adjustment charge. I was ready to leave the dealer after what just happened screw the car at this point. The result of this happening caused us to leave the dealer. This situation has really bothered my girlfriend to the point were she was balling her eyes out that someone would speak to her this way and that she couldn't say anything about it because she was extremely uncomfortable.

This Sales Manager didn't even acknowledge that we might be able to pay for this car out right if we really wanted to. He just assumed we couldn't because we are younger which is unacceptable. We never went back nor plan to but this has really effected my girlfriend and me to this day. Any suggestions if I should take some kind of action or just let it be at this point.? We haven't told anybody about this.
This Car Dealer is Healey Hyundai Fishkill/Beacon NY Eddie Rullo Is The Sales Managers Name

I wanted to share my experience of how qigong has completely changed my life. I've had pretty bad eczema my whole life, but the past 2 years it became intensely worse. Multiple specialist dermatologists, multiple e.r visits, steroids, allergy shots, traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathy, I tried everything. It came to the point where there were open wounds on my body that hadn't healed for almost half a year and it was so inflamed it was weeping yellow. Needless to say, not a fun time.
I was given an ultimatum by my dermatologist that immunosupressants were my last option as their highest class of steroids did not have any lasting effects on me. I didn't want to resort to this option for multiple reasons. During this time of extreme suffering, I turned to more spiritual options. I talked with energy healers, I found a place that works on your meridian channels in the form of massage and reiki-like energy healing. I didn't see any great improvements and was kinda let down.
I did think about trying qigong for a bit and did some daily exercises on YouTube. Now I'm not bashing the people who do use these resources and find success but I think my condition was way too severe for the basic knowledge on YouTube to help. So I talked to my mother about trying to find a teacher or going to a Shaolin temple to find help. Later that day at my meridian healing session, I met my qigong master. He was there because my healer was late. It's funny how these things work, he tells me it's fate that brought me to him.
At first I was skeptical. I've tried a lot of options, all with minimal success. Everyone was selling me their own cures. I was very burned out and in an awful state. He told me to learn qigong with him, that it would really help me. At this time my knowledge was very basic. I'm Chinese so I know about it but I associate it more with big groups of old people at parks doing it for "health" reasons. I decided to take a chance. It was not cheap, but something in me knew to trust this person.
Fast forward 2 weeks and I'm already seeing great results. My wounds have become less wet and are staring to close a little bit. Fast forward another month and my wounds have almost completely closed. Fast forward another month and my wounds have all healed. 4 months later I'm still healing from the scarring and have some tiny spots here and there but it's like normal eczema now. I have no doubt with time, I won't even have dry skin anymore. Those are my physical changes.
The most extreme changes are mental. It's kinda crazy. I noticed very early on that after I'd practice, I was much happier and in a blissful state. As I continued on, my personality has entirely changed. I'm much much calmer, joyous, and loving. I live in a toxic household (I think this is the base reason why my skin got so bad) and it doesn't affect me anymore. My master tells me I've moved the toxic energy out of my space and strengthen my inner chi, that the environment was sucking out my energy. I learned to totally relax, to release the tension in my body. It's fantastic to see physical improvements but even more so to have these mental changes.
In the beginning, I practiced about an hour everyday and now I only do around 15 minutes a day. Sometimes when I feel frantic or depressed, I just practice for 5 minutes and it completely changes my mood. I can also tangible feel the chi now, it gets very hot in my dan tian when I practice (like a furnace is going on in my belly lmao). I've super grateful to have been introduced to this practice and will no doubt be doing this for the rest of my life. Now go practice haha!!

I'm 20 years old and my girlfriend is 19 years old we just went to a Hyundai dealership 1 week ago to look at a 2024 Elantra N. This is one of her dream cars a car I've been hearing about for over a year. And a car we both had our eye's on so we wanted to test drive it. The Salesman was practically chattering his teeth along with higher staff I assume because it was taking a while to get in the car. But after running my girlfriends credit and filling out a form of information they let's go on a test drive down the street and back. The Sales Manager comes into the dealer behind us ultimately trying to negotiate a sale without even introducing himself as a Sale Manager. I had to read this title on his name tag. This Sales Manager made my girlfriend extremely uncomfortable by saying comeback with "daddy so he can help you get this car." This Sales Manager went on saying this about 10 times repetitively leading with "daddy" in different phrases. Some examples that he said are "talk to daddy when you get home so you can get this" , "beg daddy for the car and he will help his girl", "daddy loves his girl and will spoil you". "I'll talk number with daddy bring him in here." "Give daddy a big hug when you see him" I was about to blow steam out my ears. This guy was a full on weirdo let me tell you. The Sales Manager also goes on to demonstrate how she should persuade her dad into getting her this car by giving a salesman a long hug infront of us.

 The Salesman In a uneasy kind of tone also asked the Sales Manager why is he hugging him. The Sales Manager goes on saying "well I didn't want to hug her in front of him" as in ( Me her boyfriend) and the result of that would of lead this guy to a very bad day. This Sales Manager is in his mid to late 50s I assume. A real oddball kind of guy we both had a serious bad feeling about him. The Sales Manager finally disappeares after this with a last comment saying "comeback with daddy so we can talk some numbers." Speaking to my girlfriend as he walks away. We then were lead to a desk with a salesman to get a ballpark number on the Elantra N and the car was marked up 3k over msrp + taxes as a market adjustment charge. I was ready to leave the dealer after what just happened screw the car at this point. The result of this happening caused us to leave the dealer. This situation has really bothered my girlfriend to the point were she was balling her eyes out that someone would speak to her this way and that she couldn't say anything about it because she was extremely uncomfortable.

This Sales Manager didn't even acknowledge that we might be able to pay for this car out right if we really wanted to. He just assumed we couldn't because we are younger which is unacceptable. We never went back nor plan to but this has really effected my girlfriend and me to this day. Any suggestions if I should take some kind of action or just let it be at this point.? We haven't told anybody about this.
This Dealer is Healey Hyundai Fishkill/Beacon NY Eddie Rullo Is The Sales Managers Name

This is an automation side-project that I was thinking about a few weeks ago.
It’s not directly related to Clay, but I wanted to share to help spark new ideas for your own projects.
I’m sure by now everyone’s heard of the guy who traded up from a paperclip to a house. Craigslist was his main channel for sourcing leads for trades, I think. Makes sense.
Recently, someone else did the same just a few years ago, trading up from a bobby pin to a house. Cool idea.
Problem is she literally spent her entire waking hours outside work (and probably during work as well) on Facebook marketplace.
Now, can I help my friend recreate this with cheap automation tools that are available to us now? Like most of us, she doesn’t have the time to message people non-stop.
So here’s what I’m thinking:

Post on Facebook, Craigslist, etc. This is going to field inbound traffic only. We’re not going to reach out via outbound.
Set an automatic reply bot to immediately engage people who replied to the ad.
Use AI to categorize their item + find comparables online to estimate price.
Auto check against a list of automatic no’s (like jewelry, used electronics, etc).
Put each item into a “yes” or “no” bucket.
Use AI to create a message, ready to send.
Manually review from here and only send messages to the best prospects.

It’s a very basic start to the idea, but I bet someone out there with more time on their hands can make it work.
Some keys to make this work:

A good listing: Strong copy, good pictures, etc.
Don't get stuck with dead-end trades. Think big picture.
Playing in niche markets where trading is common (like used basketball shoes) can be helpful.
If you want to go all-out, create a landing page with a compelling story and get traction on social media by posting each trade.

Hi everyone,
A new rule has been implemented! The Art theft prevention policy! It has two components.

Credit artists! Please put the artist's name in your submission. If you did your best and couldn't find the answer, please use "Message the Moderator" button for assistance. I'll either help you find the answer or give my assurances the artist is likely anonymous.
The other half of the art theft prevention rule is simple but controversial: NO GENERATIVE A.I. CONTENT.

Next! Rule description revisions and rearrangements

Some rules were rewritten for clarity
some were to sound ~~a little less like I want to shove a six inch railroad spike through my head~~ friendlier
and some were to explain that we'd rather see certain things on some other subreddits.

So here's a community proposal.
InvaderZIM is arguably the longest running actively-moderated public Invader ZIM fanspace since Room With A Moose. Some things that people want to talk about here would put a strain on the subreddit and my sanity. I propose that if you really want to see more of the following then you'll have to create a space dedicated to these specific things becauses it's just not a fit for here.

Jhonen Vasquez's other work
- It's great stuff but just isn't on topic.
Invader ZIM commerce
- Buying, selling, and trading your stuff is not something I'm interested in vetting for legitimacy, but I'd subscribe in a heartbeat if you start a reddit for it that is clearly well-maintained.
  - Basically, I'd love to buy your cheap, useless, ZIM stuff you kept in your basement for twenty years.... just not here.
Invader ZIM shipping
- We're not against shipping at all. Trust me. The fun of fanwork is often in reinterpreting something familiar to make it your own. The skies are the limit- you can do all sorts of things that would never happen in the series!
  - you could make characters fall in love. You could change their ages so they're all old grumpy men decades in the future! You could make Recap Kid shout "OKAY IN THIS FIC, ZIM IS 12 JUST LIKE DIB! OKAY BYE!"
  - Unfortunately, too many fans can't be trusted to navigate such fanwork responsibly here. it gets controversial with intense yet flimsy accusations. Even as a neutral mediator, I'm not immune to this mob mentality and I don't want any part of it.

Normally, I'd say my door is open for advice on how to run Invader ZIM fan project as I've got some experience in that field. However, I'd rather just leave it at this:
I think that the latter two subreddit ideas would be best led by someone who has

been actively participating on Reddit for several years in various large, popular, busy communities
has enough life experience and leadership skills to have realistic expectations and robust policies prepared for serious complicated matters such as
- fraud/scam prevention
- deescalating baseless wild accusations of pedophilia over misconceptions in the fandom.

If you think that describes you well, Reddit has a plethora of services to prepare you for being an effective moderator before you either create one or apply to takeover an inactive one.
One last bit of advice and I need you to listen to this very, very, very, very, very, carefully.
Don't jump into this sort of commitment unless you're 100% certain you can handle it.
To call this volunteer role a difficult job is an understatement. It often feels like I've been "assigned to Janitorial Squad and placed on the planet Dirt." Frankly, my partner is worried about me and I know she's right that I need to take steps to leave sooner than later.
If you're not prepared, it could be a detriment to your emotional and mental health. I'm not kidding.
No pressure, right?!
Should you be the one, II hope it works out great for you and for the fandom.
~Your Control Brain, "CB Johnny"

The idea is to use a logged-out page of chatGPT, input your prompt, then scrape chatGPT's output from the page. Effectively. you have access to chatGPT at no cost.
How practical would this be? Sure, chatGPT's API for personal use is incredibly cheap ($0.50/$1.50 input/output per 1 million tokens), but if I design a chatGPT-powered gift for a friend, I don't want to keep spending API credits. Locally-hosted LLMs to mitigate API costs would require powerful and expensive GPUs to run decent models.
Aside from the potential obstacles in anti-scraping and captcha measures, how practical would something like this be?

I work for a high-rep company that everyone competes for and I am lucky to start off from right after college. My pay went from 60k to 65k, to now 69k. I have been here almost 3 years. I am still a meekly analyst and since it is a large company, they do 1 promotion per team each year. According to my manager, I excel at many things but my coworkers got promoted each year due to slight seniority by a few months. I am now next in line for promotion, according to my manager, so he told me to keep doing what I am doing.
1 of my promoted coworkers left awhile back for a better opportunity. Before he left, he told me with wide eyes that his new position offered WAY MORE pay and we are not being paid enough to do what we do. As of right now my other promoted coworker is considered an "associate" and told me her pay is 70k. Meanwhile, we had new hires coming in, all associates. I'm the only one who's still "entry level", yet.......I manage everyone's work and projects (besides the other promoted associate). It has been over a year now and I am still holding hands with everyone. One person particularly sucks so bad at his job, he ask me for help and takes all the credit. But since he was originally so bad, everyone knows this by now that every time he turns in something, he did not do it on his own.
Several times I have met with my manager with frustration and near tears that I have done NOTHING because of one guy. I used to love the job too until this guy came along to 1) throw my name under the bus any chance he gets to make himself look good and 2) ask me privately for help but then takes credit and makes me sound dumb on group chats. All his attempts failed miserable and my manager knows the truth, but I'm still tired of the fake attacks and consistent hand holdings. And I cannot just say no because I'm the only SME here for particular topics.
I currently lead 3 team projects and work out of normal hours to meet with people from different time zones. No one else seems to care enough to do so (except the current promoted associated but she is an SME in a different topic and handles different tasks from me). Everyone else does the bare minimum. They dont care enough to understand the concept behind their tasks fully. Basically, I am Google to everyone, yet I am just a meekly analyst.
I have started applying to other jobs internally and externally. So far some internal jobs denied me :(. I really love this company AND PEOPLE FIGHT FOR THIS REPUTATION. But idk if I should leave or stick around to build myself up here.
I had a call from an external recruiter and he asked how much I am being paid now and LAUGHED at my 69k. He was shock that such a high reputable company pays me so low. I am currently applying for a 108k job that he thinks I'm a fit. No interviews has happened yet, so I'm not going to say this job will be it (especially since I just got rejected a few times already with the same salary range :( ).
Idk if I am making enough or have high expectations. All I know is I used to love the job that I do but people are tiring me out. I love the company still and would like to stay.....but if we're all sacrificing pay for reputation, then idk. Espexially since next promotion is around 70-80k.
What do you think? Stick it out or no?

I (F17) have always had a rocky relationship with my mom (F39), but ever since she stole my credit card a year ago, I hold no trust in her to even come near me. My grandmother (F69) and my grandfather (M73) have had full custody of me since I was a baby due to my mom making horrible life choices that I do not wish to name. Instead of stopping the baby making train after failing to take care of me, she has since had my little sister (F7) and my little brother (M6). My grandparents have taken care of my little sister since she was one, and gained adoption of her, but my mom has full custody of my little brother.
My mom is known to steal, do dr*gs, and she has even got into physical fights with my grandfather at times. It got so bad to the point where a weapon was pulled (by my mom), and I had to go with one of the neighbors (who I very grateful for) for safety purposes while my grandparents waited for the police. Even after all of that though, my grandparents still can't let her go.
I have wanted to cut off contact with her completely, but can't really do that because my grandparents still allow my mom to come to the house to get food and whatnot. My grandfather is bad when it comes to letting her go, going as far as to give her gas money, help her get a car, a house, etc. I hate it, and I have expressed many of times my hate for it. But my grandfather would get mad over it, and I feel as if I'm not heard.
Over a little two years ago, my mom had came over to our house. My little sister was old enough to know that our mom didn't actually love her, and my little brother was the only one who actually believed that our mom loved him. It's sad because she used that to her advantage, and only wanted to take my little brother because she knew that he was the only one that would actually stay with her. She hit my grandfather, and I had gotten mad and threw scissors at her and had started screaming at her. I had bought my little sister into my bathroom, locked the door, and called 911. I get emotional just thinking about that day, and I didn't think that it could get any worse. But it did.
Even after all of that, my grandparents allowed her back. A year later (Last year), she was allowed to sleep over. Needless to say when I woke up the next morning, she was gone. But she was gone with money that she stole from my grandmother, and MY credit card. She spent over 60 dollars in total, and stole a buttload of money from MY ACCOUNT. She ended up having to pay us back, and even today I still have trust issues from that. Whenever we went on a camping trip she had left the next day, and I couldn't find my card. I had thought she stole it and using whatever service I could find, I contacted my grandfather and told him she stole my card. I ended up finding it and quickly called him back to tell him she didn't steal it, but still, that's how bad of a person she was.
All the stealing, dr*gs, physical and verbal assault, it seemed that it was just another day because my grandparents still hold pity for her. I'm 17, and I'm more of an adult than she'll ever be. I know I have to understand she's still their daughter at the end of the day, but when will enough be enough? I have a car, and I am NOT afraid to pack a bag and leave to go stay with my dad for a bit if they EVER allow her back. And I've threatened them with leaving plenty of times, and have expressed time and time again that I don't like her around till I'm blue in the face.
I have gotten into arguments with my grandfather especially over this because he's the one allowing this more than my grandmother, yet he doesn't listen. It's getting to the point where I think I might blow up one day, and I don't want to do that, not to my grandparents. But, I don't know what else to do. AITA for being mad at them for just doing what they think is best?

I called about a used car on a Saturday afternoon. It had been listed for at least a couple of weeks but I hadn’t had time to go car shopping until then. Dealer (small dealer - only about 5 cars listed) told me straight away that someone had just put in a loan application for it but they had bad credit so may not get approved, he would know on Monday and would let me know.
Monday 4pm I call, he says he was just about to call me, the applicant wasn’t approved, car is available. I make an appointment to come see it the next morning at 10am. He asks if I’m paying cash or financing, I tell him financing and was open to doing that through him if the terms were good but he straightaway just asks that I come preapproved and I tell him no problem. He says he will text me the address. I set up the pre approval through my credit union, it’s fully ready to go. He doesn’t text the address. Next morning I wake up to a text sent late apologizing that he had to go interstate for a family emergency and will be back “end of week”.
I’m genuinely super nice about it because family emergency. I also don’t ask at any point specifically when he will be back because it’s a total a**hole move to bother someone who’s dealing with a family emergency.
So I wait until the following Monday morning to ensure I’ve passed any “end of week” definition. I text him saying please forgive me if you’re still with your family, hope all is ok, was wondering if you're back. I told him if he’s away indefinitely I completely understand, no problem, but if he could let me know so I can plan accordingly that would be much appreciated.
He apologizes, still away dealing with family stuff. Will be back by Wednesday, we can make an appointment for Wed/Thu - and if I end up taking the car he’ll throw in a great warranty to make up for the inconvenience. I tell him not to apologize, family first, but thank you I appreciate that and Wednesday 11:30am would be great if the works for him.
I wouldn’t have even gone there with him still dealing with family stuff except he’d brought up specifics of the sale and had even included a particularly excited smily face emoji lol.
It’s now Tuesday night and he still hasn’t answered to confirm that appointment. I’d tend to think well if someone’s just had a death in the family or something traumatic, they possibly can barely function or think about anything else. I would totally understand that. However, due to the nature of his last text that didn’t seem to be the case.
I will call him in the morning but my hopes aren’t high and in that he didn’t answer my last text - added to the other inconsistencies from the beginning - I now feel like I’m getting the runaround for some other reason. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt re a family emergency - and I feel like a jerk for even saying this if it is true - but of course it’s a possibility he’s lying and giving the only excuse that doesn’t make him look flaky and unprofessional.
If he doesn’t answer or commit to an appointment tomorrow, I’ll be fully done following up with him and will look elsewhere. (I’ve kept my eye out but am very specific about what I want and also need to stick to a strict budget. Although I definitely would have considered some others more seriously if I wasn’t most interested in this one.) But even if he does commit to an appointment, it makes me concerned I’m dealing with someone dishonest. Or if he commits to an appointment at a later time I don’t want to be strung along only for him to “postpone” again.
Does all this sound weird or not particularly? If weird, why would someone drag it out unclearly instead of just telling you that it’s not gonna happen? Why doesn’t he want to sell it to me? So strange.
TLDR - I’m trying to go see a used car that’s listed for sale but the dealership (small dealership, just one guy) keeps having reasons the car or he are not available. Would give him benefit of the doubt but he’s not called/texted when he said he would and most recently disappeared mid text convo short of confirming an appointment to see it. Why? Suspicious?

I'm 20 years old and my girlfriend is 19 years old we just went to a Hyundai dealership 1 week ago to look at a 2024 Elantra N. This is one of her dream cars a car I've been hearing about for over a year. And a car we both had our eye's on so we wanted to test drive it. The Salesman was practically chattering his teeth along with higher staff I assume because it was taking a while to get in the car. But after running my girlfriends credit and filling out a form of information they let's go on a test drive down the street and back. The Sales Manager comes into the dealer behind us ultimately trying to negotiate a sale without even introducing himself as a Sale Manager. I had to read this title on his name tag. This Sales Manager made my girlfriend extremely uncomfortable by saying comeback with "daddy so he can help you get this car." This Sales Manager went on saying this about 10 times repetitively leading with "daddy" in different phrases. Some examples that he said are "talk to daddy when you get home so you can get this" , "beg daddy for the car and he will help his girl", "daddy loves his girl and will spoil you". "I'll talk number with daddy bring him in here." "Give daddy a big hug when you see him" I was about to blow steam out my ears. This guy was a full on weirdo let me tell you. The Sales Manager also goes on to demonstrate how she should persuade her dad into getting her this car by giving a salesman a long hug infront of us.

 The Salesman In a uneasy kind of tone also asked the Sales Manager why is he hugging him. The Sales Manager goes on saying "well I didn't want to hug her in front of him" as in ( Me her boyfriend) and the result of that would of lead this guy to a very bad day. This Sales Manager is in his mid to late 50s I assume. A real oddball kind of guy we both had a serious bad feeling about him. The Sales Manager finally disappeares after this with a last comment saying "comeback with daddy so we can talk some numbers." Speaking to my girlfriend as he walks away. We then were lead to a desk with a salesman to get a ballpark number on the Elantra N and the car was marked up 3k over msrp + taxes as a market adjustment charge. I was ready to leave the dealer after what just happened screw the car at this point. The result of this happening caused us to leave the dealer. This situation has really bothered my girlfriend to the point were she was balling her eyes out that someone would speak to her this way and that she couldn't say anything about it because she was extremely uncomfortable.

This Sales Manager didn't even acknowledge that we might be able to pay for this car out right if we really wanted to. He just assumed we couldn't because we are younger which is unacceptable. We never went back nor plan to but this has really effected my girlfriend and me to this day. Any suggestions if I should take some kind of action or just let it be at this point.? We haven't told anybody about this.
The Dealer is Healey Hyundai Fishkill/Beacon NY Eddie Rullo Is The Sales Managers Name

I sit alone in my room on the seventh floor, writing what will surely be my last will and testament. The heroin which allowed me to forget and to sleep for the last couple of years has lost its power to keep the screaming terrors away. The drug destroyed my body and mind, gradually eating away at them like a corrosive acid. Now I have become a slave to it. And yet, without it, I do not sleep for weeks, but instead continuously see the scenes from that terrible night running through my head on repeat as worsening waves of madness crash on the shores of my consciousness.
In the caverns under the town of Frost Hollow, I found the meaning of true madness. Ever since I escaped that den of horrors, it is difficult to tell what is real and what is only the feverish delirium of an unhinged mind.
Even now, they wait behind the door to this cheap, bare rented room. They drag their claws over the wood. I hear them hissing in that strange, ancient tongue, the one I first heard in the tombs of rock that had been undisturbed for countless millennia.
***
I had first heard rumors of an unexplored cavern from my friend, an experienced caver named Sonia who had explored caverns all over the world. I had been looking for some excitement in my life, some break from the constant monotony and boredom of simply working and sleeping. I had gone caving quite a few times over the year leading up to the trip, but I was not nearly as experienced and had never explored a supposedly virgin passageway of cavern before.
“How do you know no one’s gone down there?” I asked, curious. We sat across from each other at a local diner, getting some early breakfast before our planned descent. The sunrise was still another half-hour away, the sky flat and dark. We would be joined by Sonia’s husband, Phil, who would meet us there shortly after sunrise. I repressed an urge to yawn, chugging half of the steaming hot coffee in one long swallow. Sonia leaned close to me, her nearly colorless blue eyes reminding me of chunks of ice floating down a muddy stream.
“Phil’s friend just found it randomly,” she whispered before glancing around conspiratorially, as if she feared someone would care enough to eavesdrop on a conversation about a cave. “Well, it’s in the middle of a farm, and Phil’s friend, Jack Graysole, owns the entire property and surrounding woods. Jack says he noticed the cows kept going over to a certain spot in the field when it got really hot during the summertime. They would all gather around this little indentation in the grass. After seeing it a few times, Jack got curious and went to investigate what the cows were doing.
“He found a small hole in the ground, almost entirely covered by weeds and grass. He said he felt a cool breeze constantly blowing out of the hole, a breeze that smelled like burning matches and charred metal. After bringing out some shovels and digging down a couple feet, Jack realized that the hole wasn’t a hole at all, but the beginning of a steep passageway leading deep into the bowels of the earth.”
***
The owner of the land decided to unofficially call the newly-discovered cavern Graysole Caverns. Out of respect for him, this is also the name we all used. This is the story of how I found myself in the bowels of a strange subterranean tunnel, a tunnel where creatures beyond my comprehension slunk and hunted, skittering monstrosities who would be more at home in a nightmare.
After grabbing a couple coffees to take with us, Sonia drove over to Graysole Farms. Cows stood out in the grassy fields, huddled in tight circles as they repetitively chewed. The thin silhouette of Jack Graysole waited for us next to the herd. He had a face like a raisin, I thought to myself. I watched his thin, shaking body standing in the middle of an overgrown grassy field. Jack stared down blankly at something only he could see. Sonia and I started unloading some equipment from the car while we waited for Phil.
Once we had the backpacks loaded with some simple supplies, such as water, food, headlamps, rope, a couple extra batteries, some buck knives, and radios, we headed over to accompany Jack. We weren’t taking much, as we didn’t really expect to be down there for more than six or seven hours at the most.
Jack Graysole’s withered old face was as slack and expressionless as that of a corpse. He stared down at the ground as if he were in a trance, waving back and forth slowly on his feet like a plant in a light breeze.
“Jack?” Sonia called out as we approached. I could hear the man’s teeth chattering as we got nearer.
“Hey, what are you doing over here this early? You interested in accompanying us down there?” Sonia joked. But Jack might as well have been totally deaf for all the reaction he gave. Sonia glanced over at me with an anxious expression. I wondered if the old man was having a stroke.
I quickly walked over to where he stood, staring down at a black circular hole about three feet across directly in front of his feet. The entrance to Graysole Caverns stared up at us like a sightless pupil. As I drew within a few feet of Jack and looked straight into his blank eyes, I noticed something alarming.
His pupils were quickly dilating and constricting before my eyes. They would shrink to tiny pinpoints, then, a couple seconds later, rapidly expand until they became dark and serious. I could see his thready, rapid heartbeat pulsating in a vein on the side of his temple. Alarmed, I reached forward and put my hand on his shoulder.
Instantly, he came to life, like a man waking up from a nightmare. Shrieking, he looked at me with fully dilated pupils, reminding me of a panicked deer surrounded by wolves. His quavering old man’s voice shook with ineffable existential horror and mortal fear.
He took a step back away from us, seeming to realize where he was and what he was doing. He looked around, confused, then straight at me and Sonia. His eyes focused with anger and fear, as if we were demons here to drag him down to Hell. His eyes flicked back and forth between us constantly. Jack raised a trembling hand and pointed it straight at my heart.
“It’s you,” he said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. His teeth chattered despite the warm spring air. His skin looked deathly pale. “You’re the one who will bring an end to humanity, who will release the ruler of nightmares upon us.” He continued to point accusingly for a long moment at me, his face turning chalk-white. Then his eyes rolled up in his head. Slowly, he stumbled and fell backwards onto the soft grass of the field.
“Jack!” Sonia cried, running over to the old man. Jack’s breaths had started to come in slow, drawn-out gurgles, like a man with a slit throat trying to breathe. Frothy blood bubbled from his lips as they turned blue. Staring up at the endless expanse of cloudless sky, he exhaled one last shuddering breath and died.
***
Phil showed up only a couple minutes later. He found me and Sonia in a state of utter panic, both of us bent double over the still body of Jack. Sonia was on the phone with 911, and I was trying to give Jack chest compressions. The way his fingernails and lips shone with that cyanotic blue cast made me feel sick and weak. I knew it was futile, that I was simply playing with a corpse at this point, but I didn’t know what else to do. I felt if I didn’t do something, I might explode.
I heard the faint wailing of sirens approaching as Sonia’s panicked voice continued babbling to the 911 operator. Phil stood by her side, his tall, dark features searching and lost.
“Oh God, I think he’s dead!” Sonia cried over and over to the operator, as if she thought the operator could do anything about it. I didn’t hear what the operator said in response. As the ambulance pulled in, I gave up on chest compressions. I stood up and took a step back, looking sadly down on the kindly old man’s dead body.
The paramedics ran over. Phil, Sonia and I stood back while they worked on the corpse, trying to shock the heart back into life. But Jack’s open eyes stayed glazed as they stared sightlessly up into eternity.
***
The paramedics left. A couple police officers stayed behind to ask us a few routine questions. Eventually, after an hour or so, they left, too.
“What a fucked-up day,” Phil said, shaking his head grimly. “Do you guys still want to do this? Maybe it’s an omen from God telling us to go home.” Sonia and I exchanged a glance, then we both nodded at the same time.
“Definitely,” she said. “It’s sad what happened to Jack, but realistically, we don’t know what’s going to happen to this property now that he’s passed away. It might get sold or taken by the bank for all we know. This could be our one and only chance to explore this cave.”
“I don’t believe in omens. I’m still down,” I said, feeling slightly sick from the experience. I still remembered how Jack’s body had cracked under the weight of my chest compressions, how his ribs had snapped like bones shattering in greedy hands. “We’ll do it in memory of Jack. I plan to put this up on YouTube.” I pulled my GoPro out of my bag, turning it on. Phil groaned at that.
“Do we have any idea how far down this cave goes?” Phil asked. I felt a sense of relief now that the topic had changed from the death of the old man.
“I sent a little camera down on a rope, but it only went about a hundred feet,” Sonia responded. “It’s pretty steep at first, then it levels out. I couldn’t really see much after it leveled out, but it looks like it should be easy to climb down. There’s plenty of handholds, lots of jutting rocks.”
Phil put on his headlamp and small pack. As he crawled down into the hole, his tanned face looked up at us and gave us one last devilish grin. Once he had gone down a few dozen feet, Sonia started descending. She looked excited and happy. I noticed how she couldn’t stop smiling as she disappeared from view.
I watched their lights grow smaller and dimmer in the circular tunnel. I marveled at how perfectly circular the entrance was. It almost didn’t even look natural.
Taking a deep breath in, I followed my friends down into the dark.
***
“This isn’t too bad,” I said as I climbed down. The jutting rocks gave plenty of handholds and footholds for us. It wasn’t so tight that it felt like a coffin, either.
“It only gets easier from here!” Sonia called up.
“How do you know?” I asked. “You said you’ve never been here before.” She laughed.
“I know. Probably just wishful thinking,” she said. Far below us, Phil’s voice drifted up, faint and weak. He had already reached the bottom.
“The tunnel really opens up down here, guys,” he called. “It’s somewhat… bizarre, though.”
“What do you mean by that?” Sonia asked. I looked down, seeing Sonia and I would reach the bottom in seconds. “Forget it, I’ll let it be a surprise.” I heard her drop down. Slowly and carefully, I lowered myself down the last few feet. There was a short fall onto a smooth granite floor. I looked up, seeing what Phil and Sonia were so mesmerized by.
“Oh, wow,” I said, speechless. I blinked rapidly, wondering if the image would clear like a mirage. The tunnel was cut into a perfectly triangular shape, each side about seven feet long. The ceiling met in a point above our heads.
All along the smooth walls of gray rock, I saw thousands of black orbs peeking out. They looked similar to obsidian, but they were perfectly smooth and circular, each about the size of an orange. They were formed into interlocking diagonal patterns and followed the tunnel straight down as far as the eye could see.
“What is this place?” Sonia asked, taking a tentative step forward. I looked up, seeing the distant pinpoint of sunlight far above our heads. Our voices continued to echo off down the massive tunnels, disappearing in eerie waves into the thick curtain of shadows.
“Are you recording all this?” Phil asked me. I laughed, giddy.
“Of course! This is internet gold right here,” I said. “No one’s going to believe that this isn’t man-made, however. I can’t even believe it. Do you think Jack was playing a joke on us or something?”
“Jack had the sense of humor of a wet paper towel,” Phil whispered, shaking his head. “No, he wouldn’t do something like this.”
“Well, let’s go check it out,” Sonia said, taking a step forward. Her headlamp bobbed up and down rapidly, throwing dancing shadows through the triangular tunnel. It continued straight ahead, without the slightest deviation or curve, disappearing off into a dark point in the distance.
***
We walked as fast as we could, excited to see where, if anywhere, the strange tunnel led. Phil, always the conspiracy theorist, babbled excitedly.
“This has to be aliens, man,” he said, running his fingers through his dark hair. “I bet that scientists will find out this shit is millions of years old when we get back up and tell everyone. Maybe aliens came to earth in ancient times and made a bunch of stuff underground.” Gradually, as we walked, I noticed the tunnel opening up. The pointed triangular ceiling rose up higher above our heads and the walls moved outwards, as if we were walking up a triangular funnel. At first, it was so subtle that I didn’t believe it when Sonia pointed it out.
“No, look,” she said, raising her hand above her head. “When we first started down this weird tunnel, my fingers were only maybe a foot away from the top. Now it’s a couple feet.” I was about to respond when our headlamps illuminated something standing in the middle of the tunnel.
“What the fuck is that?” I whispered, stopping cold in my tracks. Phil and Sonia looked up at the abomination at the same time. Its back was to us. It stood nearly as tall as the tunnel, which was now about twenty feet high.
The bottom half looked black and spidery with dozens of long, jointed legs. A bloody, white spine rose out of the mass of legs. Inhumanly long, skeletal arms stretched out in front of it. Its face was pointed away from us, but the back of its head resembled an enormous pointed skull with deep fissures like the cracks of an earthquake running through the bone. The abomination stayed as still as a statue, and for a long moment, I wondered if we were looking at some macabre work of art.
Then, suddenly, one of its insectile legs twitched. A moment later, the other legs started jerking and twisting. There was a sound like bones shattering as it rose up to its full height, turning around to face us.
Its face was like something from a nightmare, melting and reforming constantly like dripping candle wax. I would see a black eye appear on its forehead, then a grinning mouth on its chin, then the features would get sucked back into the folds of melting flesh. After a few moments, two enormous eyes appeared on its face, dark and cold like craters on the surface of the Moon. The mouths and noses disappeared back into the dripping skin, and only the two lidless eyes remained, emanating a cold, reptilian consciousness beyond the ability of my mind to comprehend. I felt terror radiating from its body like freezing waves.
“Free me,” it cried in a gurgling voice that seethed with insanity. It had a shrieking, metallic ringing behind every word that gave it an alien quality. “Free me, and I will give you the waters of eternal life. Within me, I contain the seeds of immortality. Within the nightmares, we live forever, always together, never alone.”
“Who are you?” I asked, terrified. The black reptilian skin of the enormous beast glistened as it knelt down, its massive face drawing near to mine. A sideways mouth burst out of the liquified flesh, showing hundreds of fangs growing like tumors from its white, bloodless gums. The fangs varied in size from only a couple inches to long, sword-like projections that stabbed into the creature’s flesh, causing white blood glittering with rainbows to fall like raindrops all around me.
“I have many names,” it hissed, its thousand voices rising and falling in crashing waves of sound. “I was present at the beginning, when this planet was no more than dead cliffs and endless freezing oceans. Those holy ones who search for us, the ancient ones, call me Niralahoth.”
“How do we free you?” Phil asked, looking terrified. He held Sonia’s hand tightly.
“By letting me into your mind and body,” Niralahoth cried, shaking the cavern. “I was thrown down here, cursed and forgotten. I cannot leave this place of shadows within this body. But in the body of another, my consciousness can be free, and the seeds of new life can spread beyond this prison.”
“There’s no way anyone’s going to do that,” I said, my eyes widening as Niralahoth’s reptilian skull turned towards me in fury. “I mean, you’re asking one of us to give up our individuality, our lives, right?”
“I am asking you to become one with me and gain power undreamt of by mortals,” it cried. “I have within me the fountain of life, the waters that send death away screaming.” I glanced anxiously at Phil and Sonia, wondering if we would have to run.
“The answer is no,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, we can’t do that,” Phil said, backing me up. “But, anyways, I think our trip has ended. It’s time to turn around…”
“You will never return,” Niralahoth cried, skittering away from us. “If you will not accept salvation, then you must accept death.” Within seconds, it slunk away from us, backpedaling on its many skittering legs into the shadows.
***
All around us, a rumbling started.
There was a pounding that crashed through the rock tunnel, as if an insane blacksmith were hammering on a massive anvil. The ringing of crashing rock started off slowly, with a few stones smashing down around us with heavy blasts of sound. Within seconds, the cacophony sped up, rising into a constant stream of destruction. The black orbs were spinning in place all up and down the tunnel, their glossy obsidian surfaces flashing with sparks of blue light.
“It’s collapsing!” Phil cried, running back in the direction we came, holding Sonia’s hand as she tried to keep up with him. I could only stare for a long moment, not sure what to do. It seemed that the direction Phil was heading stood closer to total collapse.
“Wait!” I cried, but my voice was drowned out in the destruction all around us. I felt a rock smash into my shoulder, sending me down to my feet. I heard Phil give a scream of pain, then another stone came down and smashed into my forehead. I remember seeing everything spinning around me as the world went black.
***
I awoke to find my headlamp still shining straight up in the dusty tunnel. Large chunks of the tunnel had slid out of place and crashed to the stone floor. The granite chunks that had fallen looked unnaturally smooth, most of them in the shapes of cylinders or cubes and varying in size from that of an egg to that of a small car.
My head throbbed. It felt as if a tight belt of fire were wrapped around my temples. Groaning, I put my fingers up to my forehead. They came away slick with blood.
Slowly, I started pushing myself up on my feet. I was relieved that nothing seemed broken. I had a deep gash running from the center of my scalp down to my left temple and some shallower cuts on my shoulders and back, but I knew none of that was life-threatening.
“Sonia?” I whispered, my voice coming out weak and strained. I reached into my pack and found a bottle of water. I chugged it quickly in one long swallow.
“Phil?” I cried again, this time stronger. I heard a soft weeping nearby. Staggering, I followed the sound.
Sonia was bloody and covered in cuts and scrapes, sitting next to Phil’s prone form. I saw Phil’s right arm pinned under a massive slab of granite. His arm disappeared from the elbow down in a spreading puddle of thick, dark blood.
“Oh God, Max, I think he’s hurt really bad,” she wept. Phil’s eyes rolled wildly in his head, his face pale and bloodless. I looked down the way we had come, seeing the entire tunnel blocked by large slabs of stone, many with strange, black orbs peeking out like the lenses of cameras.
***
I don’t know how much time passed. My phone died after a day, and then we were counting the endless darkness in breaths and tears.
Phil swam in and out of consciousness as his arm putrefied and blackened around the crush site. After a couple days, Sonia and I agreed that something had to be done. We told Phil we would need to amputate his arm. He was half-delirious, but he came back long enough to understand us and nod weakly.
We made a fire with Phil’s pack, trying to find fuel to throw in it to get it roaring. As it grew, I saw one of the black orbs near the flames abruptly ignite, as if it had been covered in gasoline. Blue, almost colorless flames rose from its surface. We started throwing the small black orbs on the fire until it rose high in the air. I sanitized the buck knife with the flames and pulled a rope tourniquet tight around Phil’s arm. He was conscious but seemingly insane, talking to himself more than anyone else.
“How are we going to get the car started without a key?” he gurgled to someone only he could see. “We need to look around. It has to be here somewhere.”
“Phil, can you hear me, bud? We need to fix your arm. We need to get you out of this mess. OK?” I said as comfortingly as I could. Phil’s eyes rolled wildly, but they didn’t meet my own. I sighed and looked over at Sonia.
“Let’s do it,” I said, giving a grim nod.
I pulled the buck knife out, slicing quickly down through the flesh next to the tourniquet. His veins throbbed like fat worms as the blackened, necrotic skin split easily under the blade, releasing a rancid-smelling gas that hissed out of the wound.
I couldn’t believe how hard it was to slice all the way through the arm. It felt like I was stuck in that hellish task forever. Phil’s eyes rolled in his head as his skin turned the color of clotted milk.
“God, Jesus, make it stop,” Phil whispered over and over, exhaling ragged, pain-filled breaths. The blood spurted from the blackened, dying tissue all over the dust-covered cavern floor, covering my hands in its warm, slick embrace.
After what was probably only three or four minutes, but felt like hours, I had sliced all the way down to the bone. The infected tissue of his arm spurted great gouts of orange pus mixed with rivulets of blood. The hard part was over.
Standing up, I took my steel-toe sneaker and stomped down on his arm as hard as I could. Phil cried out in a powerful voice, as if all the agony and suffering in the world was contained in that one shriek. The bone snapped under my weight with a sound like a tree branch cracking. A moment later, Phil rolled away from the rock that had pinned me in place for so long. Something alien and spongy was shoved into my face, a mass of destroyed red tissue pulsating in time with a runaway heartbeat. At first, shell-shocked and revolted, my mind couldn’t comprehend that I was looking at the stump of Phil’s mutilated arm. I hardened my heart and forced the giddiness and madness to the back of my mind. The time had come to cauterize the wound.
“Sonia, give it to me,” I said with a tremor in my voice. I reached out a hand towards her, a hand stained with Phil’s blood. It looked as if I were wearing a wet, crimson glove. Sonia only stared blankly at me for a long moment, however. A surge of anger ran up my chest.
“Sonia, toughen the fuck up! He’s going to die if you just sit there!” I swore at her, hearing my deep, angry voice bounce around the caverns. Sonia pulled back, as if she were struck. Inwardly, I cursed having a woman as my only able-bodied companion in this situation. She was a competent enough caver, but what would happen if violence and blood came over us? What would happen if, or more realistically when, we needed to fight?
Grimly, Sonia leaned forward and yanked the burning black orb out of the roaring fire, handing it to me on the end of a buck knife that had just barely pierced its hard, strange exterior. The handle of the knife felt coarse and splintery under my filthy skin. I put it to the spongy stump of Phil’s arm. The stump twitched violently. Phil tried to pull away as black smoke rose from the burning flesh.
There was a smell like bacon sizzling. The searing meat of Phil’s arm blackened and crisped under the heat of the orb, which had become no more than a cylinder of glowing blue embers by this point. I felt simultaneously sick and giddy. I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or vomit. I felt like I was on the verge of some kind of madness, that the stress and insanity of the experience had started to shatter my mind.
His eyes rolled back in his head and he appeared to go into a seizure for a few seconds. With a long exhalation of breath, he finally, mercifully, lost consciousness. It’s hard to admit it, even this close to the end, but a small, sick piece of me was jealous of Phil. Most likely, he would be dead soon, maybe within hours, while Sonia and I would slowly starve and dehydrate like animals over a period of weeks. I looked at her lithe body and soft skin, seeing the feminine curves of her hips and chest. She was a beautiful woman. I knew Phil to be a lucky man. At least, before this trip, he was.
I watched her body, wondering if I had what it took to eat her or Phil if I had to. Did I have an iron heart that would allow me to slice into my friends and consume their raw, cold flesh? Perhaps, by that point, it would be hunger and madness driving me forward, and I wouldn’t even hesitate. I shuddered at the very thought.
***
I fell asleep that night, having strange dreams of massive gods with melting faces sitting in judgment in a circle around me. We had very little food or water left. No one knew we were down here. Rescue was not coming.
When I awoke, I found myself alone. Phil had died from his injuries while I slept, the black streaks of septic shock spreading up his arm towards his heart. His eyes stared sightlessly up at the rock ceiling.
“Sonia?” I called out, my heart racing as I sat up. “Where are you?” My headlamp was growing dim. I looked in my pack, realizing I was on the last of my batteries. I saw a silhouette walking out of the darkness, the thin, pale form of Sonia. She was trembling badly.
“I saw them,” she said. “Niralahoth and its priests. The priests aren’t human. They look reptilian with sideways mouths and too many eyes.” She shuddered.
“Why would you do that?” I asked. Her eyes grew distant.
“You know we’re not getting out of here alive,” she said. “Not on our own. I wanted to see what it offered. It says that if we take a piece of its nightmare into us, we will gain the power to leave this place, that it simply wants to see the surface and spread its nightmares there.” I shook my head.
“Insanity,” I muttered. “We’d be better off dead.” Sonia nodded.
“My thoughts exactly,” she responded grimly. I didn’t realize what she meant until the next day, when I woke up and found her hanging next to Phil’s body, her tongue swollen and blue as it poked out of her cyanotic lips. And then I was truly alone.
***
Soon after Sonia committed suicide, the last of the batteries for the headlamp died. I had run out of food and had only a small sip of water left. I don’t know how much time passed in the darkness, starving and raving, following the tunnel by running my hands over the walls. I heard many things skittering in the darkness, and a few times, I heard the demonic voice of Niralahoth as it split and distorted.
“You are on death’s door,” it hissed. “Will you not drink from the fountain of life?” I couldn’t tell where the voice came from in the maddening blackness. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. I had lost nearly all of my sanity in that pit of shadows by this point. I tried laughing constantly to keep my spirits up, and when that failed, I simply cried.
“I’ll do it,” I wailed. “I’ll do it. Just let me see the sky again. Get me out of here, Niralahoth.” Everything went deathly silent all around me, then a laugh rang out like the grinding of glass.
In front of me, I saw a tornado of fire descending from the ceiling, surrounding the massive, spidery form of Niralahoth. It rose its skeletal arms upwards, as if it were Zeus calling down lightning. In the sudden brightness, I saw the fiery form of snakes slithering and centipedes skittering forwards in that tornado, each massive creature sculpted from flames in the spinning cyclone of energy. Niralahoth reached into the tornado of fire with its sharp points of fingers and plucked something small from it. The fire instantly dissipated. In its hand, I saw a tiny, swirling orb that looked like it contained a firestorm within it.
“The nightmare seed,” Niralahoth gurgled as it skittered forward towards me. I could only stare, open-mouthed and starving. I hadn’t slept for days, it felt like, and everything seemed slow and unreal.
In a blur, its skeletal arm shot out and forced the orb into my mouth. Despite the fire raging within it, it felt freezing cold. As it touched my tongue, it gave off a sensation like frostbite all throughout my mouth. I screamed and tried spitting it out, but it seemed to have a mind of its own. It started liquifying, dripping down my throat.
I felt something cancerous and sick spreading throughout my body, radiating out from my heart and stomach to every inch of it. I tried to scream, but it caught behind my teeth. I fell to my knees, clawing at my face as that insane, alien laugh continued resounding all down the tunnel. I fell unconscious and woke up under a beautiful sky in the fields of Graysole Farms.
***
Soon after, I realized that my life would never be the same. Everywhere I went, I could hear the wailing voice of Niralahoth. Behind the trees, I always saw skittering shadows, creatures with long, spidery legs that stalked me every day and night. I slept with every light in the house turned on, yet when I woke up, they would all be shut off, and I would find myself in darkness, next to something in the bed with far too many legs and a face that dripped like burning wax.
I sold everything I owned and tried to move far away, to give as much distance between myself and those cursed caverns as I could, but the nightmares followed me like a shadow. I realize what a fool I was in those ephemeral moments of madness. Sonia was much wiser than myself; I should have killed myself or died rather than allowing that thing inside of me.
Even now, I can feel it creeping through my heart, spreading through my blood. I feel it trying to crawl its way out of my throat, the thin, black legs peeking out at the back of my esophagus.
I only hope that, when I finally jump and feel my bones shatter against the concrete far below, I will kill whatever is inside of me. For I fear the consequences for the world if it were to escape.

After hearing EIYPO concept , I m having doubts like if any person in my reality fight with any one or suffer from any pain , I m getting panic attacks thinking I m the reason for their pain. I couldn't spend time with my husband as If I m feeling he is not real or clone of myself . Please help me..I m starving for peace within me.. I could not feel like living normal life instead I am seeing myself as alone in this great world of many people.
I am getting panic attacks..
Please help me..
If everyone is you pushed out true , then 1) how come people around me can feel pain as a result of my thought . 2) are people around me illusion or real humans having veins and blood inside them.? If they are real and projection of my thought , then is any possibility of soul residing inside them? 3)If everyone is you pushed out true , then how come people survived before even I have been born in this world..? Eg: my mother has her childhood and lived her life before I have born 4) if EIYPO true , then how come my mother's wish ( she wished that I should buy big car which I never thought or wished for ) came true 5) what's the point of living if everyone is our projection, means it seems not a purpose ?
I have a great dream in my life of making my mom happy by granting her many unfulfilled wishes through law of attraction ..when I came to know about EIYPO ,I got devasted that the person whom I believe as my mom is not my mom , she is my reflection..I got two heartbreaks A) how could I make my mom happy when I don't know where or which parallel reality she is living ? B) what is the point in making my this reality mom happy when she is not real soul of my mom ?
6) I got to hear many people sad story around me whom I never met ..the story I m hearing is unimaginable for me which I could never thought of...If EIYPO true , why I m hearing thoughts which I never thought?
7) if people around me are not real soul , then how come they are having their own wish and they are getting wish fulfilled by themselves ?
8) if EIYPO true , then how come my mom felt leg pain as soon as she heard from her friend about her leg pain ? Is EIYPO is energy transfer between individuals ?
If I m the creator my universe or reality , how come my mom's friend send pain energy to my mom which I never wished or even believed in transfer of energy levels..
9) If people around me are my reflection and not real souls then who is feeling the pain of other people ?
10) As I understood , EIYPO - I m creator of my universe where other people thoughts won't affect me or influence me in any way , other people in my reality can get influenced by my thoughts ..
So how come my husband busy more expensive gifts for me which I never dreamt or thought since I will buy anything only for cheap not expensive..
If you are saying that it is my assumption about him means , he is buying for me from Day 1 we met even before knowing him fully..
11) If EIYPO , then people dying in my reality is due to my thought , I can hear people death news whom I never met or known before ..
Who is making them die ?
I m not even thinking of many persons and I get to know that they are struggling is making me feel bad.. Some times I even don't know or seen many people but they are struggling...
12 ) my mom used to feel bad for something which I will think like it is not that much big issue..
So if my mom is my reflection then how come I feel that is small issue but she is feeling bad
13) Covid Corona fever is an existent in all parallel universe ? If parallel universe is real , then how come all the great inventions is carried out to each universe including latest release version of mobile phones and YouTube in all parallel universes ?
I really love my husband and I truly believe him as my Soulmate , but hearing EIYPO making me feel like I m missing him and how can I live with his real self ..I m getting tears typing this ...I really want to live with my people....
I hear people say and feel wonderful for EIYPO , but I couldn't feel like that since it is making me feel lonely and not feel other person as real soul.. Please say how you have handled when you first heard and how to take this concept..

I sit alone in my room on the seventh floor, writing what will surely be my last will and testament. The heroin which allowed me to forget and to sleep for the last couple of years has lost its power to keep the screaming terrors away. The drug destroyed my body and mind, gradually eating away at them like a corrosive acid. Now I have become a slave to it. And yet, without it, I do not sleep for weeks, but instead continuously see the scenes from that terrible night running through my head on repeat as worsening waves of madness crash on the shores of my consciousness.
In the caverns under the town of Frost Hollow, I found the meaning of true madness. Ever since I escaped that den of horrors, it is difficult to tell what is real and what is only the feverish delirium of an unhinged mind.
Even now, they wait behind the door to this cheap, bare rented room. They drag their claws over the wood. I hear them hissing in that strange, ancient tongue, the one I first heard in the tombs of rock that had been undisturbed for countless millennia.
***
I had first heard rumors of an unexplored cavern from my friend, an experienced caver named Sonia who had explored caverns all over the world. I had been looking for some excitement in my life, some break from the constant monotony and boredom of simply working and sleeping. I had gone caving quite a few times over the year leading up to the trip, but I was not nearly as experienced and had never explored a supposedly virgin passageway of cavern before.
“How do you know no one’s gone down there?” I asked, curious. We sat across from each other at a local diner, getting some early breakfast before our planned descent. The sunrise was still another half-hour away, the sky flat and dark. We would be joined by Sonia’s husband, Phil, who would meet us there shortly after sunrise. I repressed an urge to yawn, chugging half of the steaming hot coffee in one long swallow. Sonia leaned close to me, her nearly colorless blue eyes reminding me of chunks of ice floating down a muddy stream.
“Phil’s friend just found it randomly,” she whispered before glancing around conspiratorially, as if she feared someone would care enough to eavesdrop on a conversation about a cave. “Well, it’s in the middle of a farm, and Phil’s friend, Jack Graysole, owns the entire property and surrounding woods. Jack says he noticed the cows kept going over to a certain spot in the field when it got really hot during the summertime. They would all gather around this little indentation in the grass. After seeing it a few times, Jack got curious and went to investigate what the cows were doing.
“He found a small hole in the ground, almost entirely covered by weeds and grass. He said he felt a cool breeze constantly blowing out of the hole, a breeze that smelled like burning matches and charred metal. After bringing out some shovels and digging down a couple feet, Jack realized that the hole wasn’t a hole at all, but the beginning of a steep passageway leading deep into the bowels of the earth.”
***
The owner of the land decided to unofficially call the newly-discovered cavern Graysole Caverns. Out of respect for him, this is also the name we all used. This is the story of how I found myself in the bowels of a strange subterranean tunnel, a tunnel where creatures beyond my comprehension slunk and hunted, skittering monstrosities who would be more at home in a nightmare.
After grabbing a couple coffees to take with us, Sonia drove over to Graysole Farms. Cows stood out in the grassy fields, huddled in tight circles as they repetitively chewed. The thin silhouette of Jack Graysole waited for us next to the herd. He had a face like a raisin, I thought to myself. I watched his thin, shaking body standing in the middle of an overgrown grassy field. Jack stared down blankly at something only he could see. Sonia and I started unloading some equipment from the car while we waited for Phil.
Once we had the backpacks loaded with some simple supplies, such as water, food, headlamps, rope, a couple extra batteries, some buck knives, and radios, we headed over to accompany Jack. We weren’t taking much, as we didn’t really expect to be down there for more than six or seven hours at the most.
Jack Graysole’s withered old face was as slack and expressionless as that of a corpse. He stared down at the ground as if he were in a trance, waving back and forth slowly on his feet like a plant in a light breeze.
“Jack?” Sonia called out as we approached. I could hear the man’s teeth chattering as we got nearer.
“Hey, what are you doing over here this early? You interested in accompanying us down there?” Sonia joked. But Jack might as well have been totally deaf for all the reaction he gave. Sonia glanced over at me with an anxious expression. I wondered if the old man was having a stroke.
I quickly walked over to where he stood, staring down at a black circular hole about three feet across directly in front of his feet. The entrance to Graysole Caverns stared up at us like a sightless pupil. As I drew within a few feet of Jack and looked straight into his blank eyes, I noticed something alarming.
His pupils were quickly dilating and constricting before my eyes. They would shrink to tiny pinpoints, then, a couple seconds later, rapidly expand until they became dark and serious. I could see his thready, rapid heartbeat pulsating in a vein on the side of his temple. Alarmed, I reached forward and put my hand on his shoulder.
Instantly, he came to life, like a man waking up from a nightmare. Shrieking, he looked at me with fully dilated pupils, reminding me of a panicked deer surrounded by wolves. His quavering old man’s voice shook with ineffable existential horror and mortal fear.
He took a step back away from us, seeming to realize where he was and what he was doing. He looked around, confused, then straight at me and Sonia. His eyes focused with anger and fear, as if we were demons here to drag him down to Hell. His eyes flicked back and forth between us constantly. Jack raised a trembling hand and pointed it straight at my heart.
“It’s you,” he said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. His teeth chattered despite the warm spring air. His skin looked deathly pale. “You’re the one who will bring an end to humanity, who will release the ruler of nightmares upon us.” He continued to point accusingly for a long moment at me, his face turning chalk-white. Then his eyes rolled up in his head. Slowly, he stumbled and fell backwards onto the soft grass of the field.
“Jack!” Sonia cried, running over to the old man. Jack’s breaths had started to come in slow, drawn-out gurgles, like a man with a slit throat trying to breathe. Frothy blood bubbled from his lips as they turned blue. Staring up at the endless expanse of cloudless sky, he exhaled one last shuddering breath and died.
***
Phil showed up only a couple minutes later. He found me and Sonia in a state of utter panic, both of us bent double over the still body of Jack. Sonia was on the phone with 911, and I was trying to give Jack chest compressions. The way his fingernails and lips shone with that cyanotic blue cast made me feel sick and weak. I knew it was futile, that I was simply playing with a corpse at this point, but I didn’t know what else to do. I felt if I didn’t do something, I might explode.
I heard the faint wailing of sirens approaching as Sonia’s panicked voice continued babbling to the 911 operator. Phil stood by her side, his tall, dark features searching and lost.
“Oh God, I think he’s dead!” Sonia cried over and over to the operator, as if she thought the operator could do anything about it. I didn’t hear what the operator said in response. As the ambulance pulled in, I gave up on chest compressions. I stood up and took a step back, looking sadly down on the kindly old man’s dead body.
The paramedics ran over. Phil, Sonia and I stood back while they worked on the corpse, trying to shock the heart back into life. But Jack’s open eyes stayed glazed as they stared sightlessly up into eternity.
***
The paramedics left. A couple police officers stayed behind to ask us a few routine questions. Eventually, after an hour or so, they left, too.
“What a fucked-up day,” Phil said, shaking his head grimly. “Do you guys still want to do this? Maybe it’s an omen from God telling us to go home.” Sonia and I exchanged a glance, then we both nodded at the same time.
“Definitely,” she said. “It’s sad what happened to Jack, but realistically, we don’t know what’s going to happen to this property now that he’s passed away. It might get sold or taken by the bank for all we know. This could be our one and only chance to explore this cave.”
“I don’t believe in omens. I’m still down,” I said, feeling slightly sick from the experience. I still remembered how Jack’s body had cracked under the weight of my chest compressions, how his ribs had snapped like bones shattering in greedy hands. “We’ll do it in memory of Jack. I plan to put this up on YouTube.” I pulled my GoPro out of my bag, turning it on. Phil groaned at that.
“Do we have any idea how far down this cave goes?” Phil asked. I felt a sense of relief now that the topic had changed from the death of the old man.
“I sent a little camera down on a rope, but it only went about a hundred feet,” Sonia responded. “It’s pretty steep at first, then it levels out. I couldn’t really see much after it leveled out, but it looks like it should be easy to climb down. There’s plenty of handholds, lots of jutting rocks.”
Phil put on his headlamp and small pack. As he crawled down into the hole, his tanned face looked up at us and gave us one last devilish grin. Once he had gone down a few dozen feet, Sonia started descending. She looked excited and happy. I noticed how she couldn’t stop smiling as she disappeared from view.
I watched their lights grow smaller and dimmer in the circular tunnel. I marveled at how perfectly circular the entrance was. It almost didn’t even look natural.
Taking a deep breath in, I followed my friends down into the dark.
***
“This isn’t too bad,” I said as I climbed down. The jutting rocks gave plenty of handholds and footholds for us. It wasn’t so tight that it felt like a coffin, either.
“It only gets easier from here!” Sonia called up.
“How do you know?” I asked. “You said you’ve never been here before.” She laughed.
“I know. Probably just wishful thinking,” she said. Far below us, Phil’s voice drifted up, faint and weak. He had already reached the bottom.
“The tunnel really opens up down here, guys,” he called. “It’s somewhat… bizarre, though.”
“What do you mean by that?” Sonia asked. I looked down, seeing Sonia and I would reach the bottom in seconds. “Forget it, I’ll let it be a surprise.” I heard her drop down. Slowly and carefully, I lowered myself down the last few feet. There was a short fall onto a smooth granite floor. I looked up, seeing what Phil and Sonia were so mesmerized by.
“Oh, wow,” I said, speechless. I blinked rapidly, wondering if the image would clear like a mirage. The tunnel was cut into a perfectly triangular shape, each side about seven feet long. The ceiling met in a point above our heads.
All along the smooth walls of gray rock, I saw thousands of black orbs peeking out. They looked similar to obsidian, but they were perfectly smooth and circular, each about the size of an orange. They were formed into interlocking diagonal patterns and followed the tunnel straight down as far as the eye could see.
“What is this place?” Sonia asked, taking a tentative step forward. I looked up, seeing the distant pinpoint of sunlight far above our heads. Our voices continued to echo off down the massive tunnels, disappearing in eerie waves into the thick curtain of shadows.
“Are you recording all this?” Phil asked me. I laughed, giddy.
“Of course! This is internet gold right here,” I said. “No one’s going to believe that this isn’t man-made, however. I can’t even believe it. Do you think Jack was playing a joke on us or something?”
“Jack had the sense of humor of a wet paper towel,” Phil whispered, shaking his head. “No, he wouldn’t do something like this.”
“Well, let’s go check it out,” Sonia said, taking a step forward. Her headlamp bobbed up and down rapidly, throwing dancing shadows through the triangular tunnel. It continued straight ahead, without the slightest deviation or curve, disappearing off into a dark point in the distance.
***
We walked as fast as we could, excited to see where, if anywhere, the strange tunnel led. Phil, always the conspiracy theorist, babbled excitedly.
“This has to be aliens, man,” he said, running his fingers through his dark hair. “I bet that scientists will find out this shit is millions of years old when we get back up and tell everyone. Maybe aliens came to earth in ancient times and made a bunch of stuff underground.” Gradually, as we walked, I noticed the tunnel opening up. The pointed triangular ceiling rose up higher above our heads and the walls moved outwards, as if we were walking up a triangular funnel. At first, it was so subtle that I didn’t believe it when Sonia pointed it out.
“No, look,” she said, raising her hand above her head. “When we first started down this weird tunnel, my fingers were only maybe a foot away from the top. Now it’s a couple feet.” I was about to respond when our headlamps illuminated something standing in the middle of the tunnel.
“What the fuck is that?” I whispered, stopping cold in my tracks. Phil and Sonia looked up at the abomination at the same time. Its back was to us. It stood nearly as tall as the tunnel, which was now about twenty feet high.
The bottom half looked black and spidery with dozens of long, jointed legs. A bloody, white spine rose out of the mass of legs. Inhumanly long, skeletal arms stretched out in front of it. Its face was pointed away from us, but the back of its head resembled an enormous pointed skull with deep fissures like the cracks of an earthquake running through the bone. The abomination stayed as still as a statue, and for a long moment, I wondered if we were looking at some macabre work of art.
Then, suddenly, one of its insectile legs twitched. A moment later, the other legs started jerking and twisting. There was a sound like bones shattering as it rose up to its full height, turning around to face us.
Its face was like something from a nightmare, melting and reforming constantly like dripping candle wax. I would see a black eye appear on its forehead, then a grinning mouth on its chin, then the features would get sucked back into the folds of melting flesh. After a few moments, two enormous eyes appeared on its face, dark and cold like craters on the surface of the Moon. The mouths and noses disappeared back into the dripping skin, and only the two lidless eyes remained, emanating a cold, reptilian consciousness beyond the ability of my mind to comprehend. I felt terror radiating from its body like freezing waves.
“Free me,” it cried in a gurgling voice that seethed with insanity. It had a shrieking, metallic ringing behind every word that gave it an alien quality. “Free me, and I will give you the waters of eternal life. Within me, I contain the seeds of immortality. Within the nightmares, we live forever, always together, never alone.”
“Who are you?” I asked, terrified. The black reptilian skin of the enormous beast glistened as it knelt down, its massive face drawing near to mine. A sideways mouth burst out of the liquified flesh, showing hundreds of fangs growing like tumors from its white, bloodless gums. The fangs varied in size from only a couple inches to long, sword-like projections that stabbed into the creature’s flesh, causing white blood glittering with rainbows to fall like raindrops all around me.
“I have many names,” it hissed, its thousand voices rising and falling in crashing waves of sound. “I was present at the beginning, when this planet was no more than dead cliffs and endless freezing oceans. Those holy ones who search for us, the ancient ones, call me Niralahoth.”
“How do we free you?” Phil asked, looking terrified. He held Sonia’s hand tightly.
“By letting me into your mind and body,” Niralahoth cried, shaking the cavern. “I was thrown down here, cursed and forgotten. I cannot leave this place of shadows within this body. But in the body of another, my consciousness can be free, and the seeds of new life can spread beyond this prison.”
“There’s no way anyone’s going to do that,” I said, my eyes widening as Niralahoth’s reptilian skull turned towards me in fury. “I mean, you’re asking one of us to give up our individuality, our lives, right?”
“I am asking you to become one with me and gain power undreamt of by mortals,” it cried. “I have within me the fountain of life, the waters that send death away screaming.” I glanced anxiously at Phil and Sonia, wondering if we would have to run.
“The answer is no,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, we can’t do that,” Phil said, backing me up. “But, anyways, I think our trip has ended. It’s time to turn around…”
“You will never return,” Niralahoth cried, skittering away from us. “If you will not accept salvation, then you must accept death.” Within seconds, it slunk away from us, backpedaling on its many skittering legs into the shadows.
***
All around us, a rumbling started.
There was a pounding that crashed through the rock tunnel, as if an insane blacksmith were hammering on a massive anvil. The ringing of crashing rock started off slowly, with a few stones smashing down around us with heavy blasts of sound. Within seconds, the cacophony sped up, rising into a constant stream of destruction. The black orbs were spinning in place all up and down the tunnel, their glossy obsidian surfaces flashing with sparks of blue light.
“It’s collapsing!” Phil cried, running back in the direction we came, holding Sonia’s hand as she tried to keep up with him. I could only stare for a long moment, not sure what to do. It seemed that the direction Phil was heading stood closer to total collapse.
“Wait!” I cried, but my voice was drowned out in the destruction all around us. I felt a rock smash into my shoulder, sending me down to my feet. I heard Phil give a scream of pain, then another stone came down and smashed into my forehead. I remember seeing everything spinning around me as the world went black.
***
I awoke to find my headlamp still shining straight up in the dusty tunnel. Large chunks of the tunnel had slid out of place and crashed to the stone floor. The granite chunks that had fallen looked unnaturally smooth, most of them in the shapes of cylinders or cubes and varying in size from that of an egg to that of a small car.
My head throbbed. It felt as if a tight belt of fire were wrapped around my temples. Groaning, I put my fingers up to my forehead. They came away slick with blood.
Slowly, I started pushing myself up on my feet. I was relieved that nothing seemed broken. I had a deep gash running from the center of my scalp down to my left temple and some shallower cuts on my shoulders and back, but I knew none of that was life-threatening.
“Sonia?” I whispered, my voice coming out weak and strained. I reached into my pack and found a bottle of water. I chugged it quickly in one long swallow.
“Phil?” I cried again, this time stronger. I heard a soft weeping nearby. Staggering, I followed the sound.
Sonia was bloody and covered in cuts and scrapes, sitting next to Phil’s prone form. I saw Phil’s right arm pinned under a massive slab of granite. His arm disappeared from the elbow down in a spreading puddle of thick, dark blood.
“Oh God, Max, I think he’s hurt really bad,” she wept. Phil’s eyes rolled wildly in his head, his face pale and bloodless. I looked down the way we had come, seeing the entire tunnel blocked by large slabs of stone, many with strange, black orbs peeking out like the lenses of cameras.
***
I don’t know how much time passed. My phone died after a day, and then we were counting the endless darkness in breaths and tears.
Phil swam in and out of consciousness as his arm putrefied and blackened around the crush site. After a couple days, Sonia and I agreed that something had to be done. We told Phil we would need to amputate his arm. He was half-delirious, but he came back long enough to understand us and nod weakly.
We made a fire with Phil’s pack, trying to find fuel to throw in it to get it roaring. As it grew, I saw one of the black orbs near the flames abruptly ignite, as if it had been covered in gasoline. Blue, almost colorless flames rose from its surface. We started throwing the small black orbs on the fire until it rose high in the air. I sanitized the buck knife with the flames and pulled a rope tourniquet tight around Phil’s arm. He was conscious but seemingly insane, talking to himself more than anyone else.
“How are we going to get the car started without a key?” he gurgled to someone only he could see. “We need to look around. It has to be here somewhere.”
“Phil, can you hear me, bud? We need to fix your arm. We need to get you out of this mess. OK?” I said as comfortingly as I could. Phil’s eyes rolled wildly, but they didn’t meet my own. I sighed and looked over at Sonia.
“Let’s do it,” I said, giving a grim nod.
I pulled the buck knife out, slicing quickly down through the flesh next to the tourniquet. His veins throbbed like fat worms as the blackened, necrotic skin split easily under the blade, releasing a rancid-smelling gas that hissed out of the wound.
I couldn’t believe how hard it was to slice all the way through the arm. It felt like I was stuck in that hellish task forever. Phil’s eyes rolled in his head as his skin turned the color of clotted milk.
“God, Jesus, make it stop,” Phil whispered over and over, exhaling ragged, pain-filled breaths. The blood spurted from the blackened, dying tissue all over the dust-covered cavern floor, covering my hands in its warm, slick embrace.
After what was probably only three or four minutes, but felt like hours, I had sliced all the way down to the bone. The infected tissue of his arm spurted great gouts of orange pus mixed with rivulets of blood. The hard part was over.
Standing up, I took my steel-toe sneaker and stomped down on his arm as hard as I could. Phil cried out in a powerful voice, as if all the agony and suffering in the world was contained in that one shriek. The bone snapped under my weight with a sound like a tree branch cracking. A moment later, Phil rolled away from the rock that had pinned me in place for so long. Something alien and spongy was shoved into my face, a mass of destroyed red tissue pulsating in time with a runaway heartbeat. At first, shell-shocked and revolted, my mind couldn’t comprehend that I was looking at the stump of Phil’s mutilated arm. I hardened my heart and forced the giddiness and madness to the back of my mind. The time had come to cauterize the wound.
“Sonia, give it to me,” I said with a tremor in my voice. I reached out a hand towards her, a hand stained with Phil’s blood. It looked as if I were wearing a wet, crimson glove. Sonia only stared blankly at me for a long moment, however. A surge of anger ran up my chest.
“Sonia, toughen the fuck up! He’s going to die if you just sit there!” I swore at her, hearing my deep, angry voice bounce around the caverns. Sonia pulled back, as if she were struck. Inwardly, I cursed having a woman as my only able-bodied companion in this situation. She was a competent enough caver, but what would happen if violence and blood came over us? What would happen if, or more realistically when, we needed to fight?
Grimly, Sonia leaned forward and yanked the burning black orb out of the roaring fire, handing it to me on the end of a buck knife that had just barely pierced its hard, strange exterior. The handle of the knife felt coarse and splintery under my filthy skin. I put it to the spongy stump of Phil’s arm. The stump twitched violently. Phil tried to pull away as black smoke rose from the burning flesh.
There was a smell like bacon sizzling. The searing meat of Phil’s arm blackened and crisped under the heat of the orb, which had become no more than a cylinder of glowing blue embers by this point. I felt simultaneously sick and giddy. I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or vomit. I felt like I was on the verge of some kind of madness, that the stress and insanity of the experience had started to shatter my mind.
His eyes rolled back in his head and he appeared to go into a seizure for a few seconds. With a long exhalation of breath, he finally, mercifully, lost consciousness. It’s hard to admit it, even this close to the end, but a small, sick piece of me was jealous of Phil. Most likely, he would be dead soon, maybe within hours, while Sonia and I would slowly starve and dehydrate like animals over a period of weeks. I looked at her lithe body and soft skin, seeing the feminine curves of her hips and chest. She was a beautiful woman. I knew Phil to be a lucky man. At least, before this trip, he was.
I watched her body, wondering if I had what it took to eat her or Phil if I had to. Did I have an iron heart that would allow me to slice into my friends and consume their raw, cold flesh? Perhaps, by that point, it would be hunger and madness driving me forward, and I wouldn’t even hesitate. I shuddered at the very thought.
***
I fell asleep that night, having strange dreams of massive gods with melting faces sitting in judgment in a circle around me. We had very little food or water left. No one knew we were down here. Rescue was not coming.
When I awoke, I found myself alone. Phil had died from his injuries while I slept, the black streaks of septic shock spreading up his arm towards his heart. His eyes stared sightlessly up at the rock ceiling.
“Sonia?” I called out, my heart racing as I sat up. “Where are you?” My headlamp was growing dim. I looked in my pack, realizing I was on the last of my batteries. I saw a silhouette walking out of the darkness, the thin, pale form of Sonia. She was trembling badly.
“I saw them,” she said. “Niralahoth and its priests. The priests aren’t human. They look reptilian with sideways mouths and too many eyes.” She shuddered.
“Why would you do that?” I asked. Her eyes grew distant.
“You know we’re not getting out of here alive,” she said. “Not on our own. I wanted to see what it offered. It says that if we take a piece of its nightmare into us, we will gain the power to leave this place, that it simply wants to see the surface and spread its nightmares there.” I shook my head.
“Insanity,” I muttered. “We’d be better off dead.” Sonia nodded.
“My thoughts exactly,” she responded grimly. I didn’t realize what she meant until the next day, when I woke up and found her hanging next to Phil’s body, her tongue swollen and blue as it poked out of her cyanotic lips. And then I was truly alone.
***
Soon after Sonia committed suicide, the last of the batteries for the headlamp died. I had run out of food and had only a small sip of water left. I don’t know how much time passed in the darkness, starving and raving, following the tunnel by running my hands over the walls. I heard many things skittering in the darkness, and a few times, I heard the demonic voice of Niralahoth as it split and distorted.
“You are on death’s door,” it hissed. “Will you not drink from the fountain of life?” I couldn’t tell where the voice came from in the maddening blackness. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. I had lost nearly all of my sanity in that pit of shadows by this point. I tried laughing constantly to keep my spirits up, and when that failed, I simply cried.
“I’ll do it,” I wailed. “I’ll do it. Just let me see the sky again. Get me out of here, Niralahoth.” Everything went deathly silent all around me, then a laugh rang out like the grinding of glass.
In front of me, I saw a tornado of fire descending from the ceiling, surrounding the massive, spidery form of Niralahoth. It rose its skeletal arms upwards, as if it were Zeus calling down lightning. In the sudden brightness, I saw the fiery form of snakes slithering and centipedes skittering forwards in that tornado, each massive creature sculpted from flames in the spinning cyclone of energy. Niralahoth reached into the tornado of fire with its sharp points of fingers and plucked something small from it. The fire instantly dissipated. In its hand, I saw a tiny, swirling orb that looked like it contained a firestorm within it.
“The nightmare seed,” Niralahoth gurgled as it skittered forward towards me. I could only stare, open-mouthed and starving. I hadn’t slept for days, it felt like, and everything seemed slow and unreal.
In a blur, its skeletal arm shot out and forced the orb into my mouth. Despite the fire raging within it, it felt freezing cold. As it touched my tongue, it gave off a sensation like frostbite all throughout my mouth. I screamed and tried spitting it out, but it seemed to have a mind of its own. It started liquifying, dripping down my throat.
I felt something cancerous and sick spreading throughout my body, radiating out from my heart and stomach to every inch of it. I tried to scream, but it caught behind my teeth. I fell to my knees, clawing at my face as that insane, alien laugh continued resounding all down the tunnel. I fell unconscious and woke up under a beautiful sky in the fields of Graysole Farms.
***
Soon after, I realized that my life would never be the same. Everywhere I went, I could hear the wailing voice of Niralahoth. Behind the trees, I always saw skittering shadows, creatures with long, spidery legs that stalked me every day and night. I slept with every light in the house turned on, yet when I woke up, they would all be shut off, and I would find myself in darkness, next to something in the bed with far too many legs and a face that dripped like burning wax.
I sold everything I owned and tried to move far away, to give as much distance between myself and those cursed caverns as I could, but the nightmares followed me like a shadow. I realize what a fool I was in those ephemeral moments of madness. Sonia was much wiser than myself; I should have killed myself or died rather than allowing that thing inside of me.
Even now, I can feel it creeping through my heart, spreading through my blood. I feel it trying to crawl its way out of my throat, the thin, black legs peeking out at the back of my esophagus.
I only hope that, when I finally jump and feel my bones shatter against the concrete far below, I will kill whatever is inside of me. For I fear the consequences for the world if it were to escape.