Internal job promotion announcement sampl

Photography

2008.01.25 06:32 Photography

/photography is a place to politely discuss the tools, technique, art and culture of photography and to post topics that would be of interest to other photographers.
[link]

2009.11.24 18:41 jceez /r/OrangeCounty - Orange County, CA Subreddit

Welcome to /orangecounty, the Reddit community for all things related to Orange County, California. This is your one-stop-shop for discussions, news, events, and local happenings in this sunny Southern California region. Share your experiences, ask questions, and connect with both locals and visitors alike. Whether you're looking for the best surfing spots, seeking recommendations for restaurants, or interested in the latest updates in local politics, /orangecounty is your community forum.
[link]

2012.09.05 06:22 TheOnlyAshta Japan Trips & Travel Tips

Got questions? Need advice? Overwhelmed with your itinerary? Want to share your travel tips and experiences in Japan? Then this is the place for you! /JapanTravel is for any and all looking to visit Japan as a tourist — including those who have already been.
[link]

2024.06.10 22:04 goatmomdominator new to producing. extremely frustrating

I just recently started producing and it is without a doubt extremely difficult. i have been djing for a couple of years now but i want to break into producing. my only issue is that it’s so frustrating. i’m on the free trial of ableton right now and im constantly watching youtube videos and searching the internet for help on producing. most of my frustration comes from the fact that there’s just so much stuff and so many people promoting certain sample packs and plug ins and i want my tracks to sound great. anybody have tips on maybe how to learn, what to buy and what not to buy, and maybe other helpful tips? i want to love producing because i love music, i just cant help but want to snap my computer in half lmao
submitted by goatmomdominator to abletonlive [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 22:01 Imaginary-Ad3548 Constructively Roast my gf resume rev.2

after some feedback here is the updated version, any additional feedback. (again this resume is for any position hopefully not in customer service)
https://preview.redd.it/x6d5m43uvs5d1.jpg?width=1142&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=138699898d74f98da3bafdd44a76ed1d210bcd63
submitted by Imaginary-Ad3548 to resumes [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 22:01 fganniversaries Fighting Game Anniversaries: Week 24 (June 10 - June 16)

Hey, yall. This is fganniversaries and apologies for skipping last week. As per usual, I will be recapping anniversaries relating to fighting game announcements/releases this week. Like always, if I missed one, do please let me know in the comments. Here would be the following anniversaries:
June 10
June 11
June 12
June 13
June 14
June 15
June 16
submitted by fganniversaries to u/fganniversaries [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 22:01 Thin_Doughnut1735 Job recommendations to avoid burnout?

I just graduated with my Bachelors in Sociology and plan on getting my Masters soon so I can get my LCSW certification. I am currently working for a CAC. I interned there throughout undergrad, got hired part time, then once I graduated I was hired full time. I have not been happy at my workplace since March. It is a very unorganized non-profit with structural issues. For the sake of my mental health I need to look for new jobs. I should not be burnt out at 22 years old.
I would like to be a Marriage and Family Therapist once I get my LCSW. What "hands on" jobs would you recommend? I am really stuck in a hard place right now. Any suggestion or tips would be helpful!!!:)
submitted by Thin_Doughnut1735 to askatherapist [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 22:01 jinnoman Wolverine

u/atobitt mentions Wolverine in one of his DD:
https://www.reddit.com/Superstonk/comments/ooptc3/i_aint_hear_no_bell/
CHAPTER 2: SHORT SALES
I had the pleasure of reading one of the most f*cked up short sale violations this past week. Typically, FINRA will break short sale violations into different buckets. If you mark a sale as long when it was short, that's a specific violation. Likewise, if you fail to locate a borrow, that's another violation. However, FINRA issued a citation on 5/24/2021 to Wolverine Execution Services for one of the most blatantly obvious f*ck-ups I've ever read. This actually occurred for 3 F*CKING YEARS between May 2016 and March 2019.... Once again, good job FINRA on the timely filings. Check it out:
https://files.brokercheck.finra.org/firm/firm_120719.pdf
No sh*t... you can't make this up....
So let me get this straight..... for 3 years, Wolverine:
  1. "inaccurately" marked nearly 19,000 transactions as long instead of short.. not accidentally- INACCURATELY...
  2. sold shares they didn't have...
  3. didn't have the paperwork for almost 560,000 locate requirements...
  4. failed to meet the reporting obligations for order data within the audit trail system on 40% of sampled trades....
  5. AND failed to provide proper order event information in 19% of their sampled trades...
Did I already say LOL ?
But wait... it gets better.... The VERY NEXT violation is literally the same as this one, but with new numbers and new bed-time stories:
LOLLOLLOLLOL
Yeah, you read that right.... Wolverine relied on their clients to provide proof of borrowing before letting them perform a short sale. If they didn't upload the proper documentation, the sale wouldn't occur.

submitted by jinnoman to u/jinnoman [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:58 Nervous_Ad8074 Help with a task with chat gpt

Hello everyone,
I have a question about ChatGPT and potentially automating part of my job. I am an accounting intern at a company and have a rather tedious task to complete. I need to take bank statements in PDF format (with dozens and dozens of transactions) and account for them, which is very time-consuming. For example, if there are 150 card transactions, I have to account for them one by one.
I would like to find a way for ChatGPT to do this for me. I had already found a way to simplify the task by converting the PDF to Excel and then modifying it to match the import format of my accounting software, but this is still particularly long to do because when I convert it, everything shifts around, and I have to delete all the spaces and realign everything.
Does anyone have a solution for how ChatGPT could help me with this? I hope I have explained my problem well. Thank you.
submitted by Nervous_Ad8074 to ChatGPT [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:55 noelbert73 application problems

hello! i am a current partner being transferred, as well as being promoted from barista to shift. i’ve applied to my store through the internal website and everything is good! only problem is, on my managers side, it shows that my application is incomplete. however, it shows on my side that i have completed it, and i do not have access to it. would any tech savvy folks know how to go about this? i’m trying to get back to my application, or at this point create a new one so my manager can accept on their end. thanks!
submitted by noelbert73 to starbucks [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:53 rmartin_tt What is Value Based Selling?

What is Value Based Selling?
When people think about sales, they often recall their experiences as consumers or iconic portrayals of salespeople they’ve seen in television and movies like Glengarry Glen Ross, Mad Men, or The Office, to name a few. These experiences and cultural references typically evoke images of straightforward transactions and direct marketing techniques used in consumer purchases.
However, in the realm of B2B sales, the landscape is quite different. Unlike the straightforward transactions depicted in popular media, organizations participate in what academics have called: considered purchases, deliberate buying, or high-involvement buying decisions. This kind of buying is a much more strategic process characterized by thorough research, evaluation, and detailed planning.
Value based selling is a value delivery approach that aligns an organization’s presales, sales, and customer success teams with the way their customers research, evaluate, purchase, and consume solutions. For customer-facing teams, a critical success factor in VBS is understanding and demonstrating how a product or service meets a customer’s unique business needs and objectives.
In this article, we'll explore the fundamentals of VBS and investigate how underlooked technologies, such as external collaboration tools, can empower sales teams to achieve greater success with value based selling.

What is Value Based Selling (VBS)?

Value based selling, or VBS, is an approach that focuses on understanding and reinforcing how the product or service meets a customer's requirements and creates value for the customer. This approach differs from traditional selling techniques that might focus primarily on the features or specifications of the product. Here are some key aspects of VBS:
  1. Understanding Customer Needs: The core is to understand the customer's business, their challenges, and their goals. Salespeople spend time researching the customer and their industry to tailor their pitch to the specific needs and pain points of the customer. The most successful VBS teams will collaborate with their customers or prospects to mutually author documents that outline key customer requirements.
  2. Communicating Value: Instead of just listing the features of a product or service, VBS involves explaining how these features translate into real benefits for the customer. This might include how the product can increase efficiency, reduce costs, improve quality, or address a specific challenge the customer is facing. Frequently
  3. Building Relationships: This approach relies heavily on building a strong, consultative relationship with the customer. Salespeople act as trusted advisors, offering insights and solutions that are in the best interest of the customer rather than just trying to make a quick sale. Successful VBS
  4. Customizing/Configuring/Tailoring Solutions: There's often a focus on customizing or tailoring solutions to fit the unique needs of each customer. This might involve adjusting a product or service or combining different products and services into a comprehensive package.
  5. Quantifying Value: A key part of this strategy is to quantify the value that the product or service brings. This might involve demonstrating a return on investment (ROI), showing how the product will pay for itself over time, or providing case studies and examples of how similar customers have benefited.
  6. Long-term Focus: Generally focused on long-term relationships and customer satisfaction rather than just making individual sales. This approach aims to create loyal customers who will return for repeat business and refer others.
  7. Feedback and Adaptation: Regular feedback is sought from customers to ensure that the value promised is being delivered. This information is used to continually adapt and improve the product, service, and sales approach.
  8. Educational Approach: Salespeople using this method often focus on educating customers about their products or services and the industry as a whole, helping customers make informed decisions.
Value based selling is particularly effective in industries where products or services are complex, and highly customizable or where the purchasing decision has significant financial implications for the customer. It's a strategic approach that requires a deep understanding of both the product and the customer and a commitment to building long-term customer relationships.

When to Use Value Based Selling?

Not every sales situation calls for value based selling. In fact, VBS is most effective in several key scenarios:
  • Complex or High-Value Products/Services: When the products or services in question are complex, require customization, or represent a significant financial investment. This is typical in industries like technology, manufacturing, or specialized professional services. It’s worth noting that the sophistication of the problems and solutions is one big reason why there is substantial documentation throughout the entire process.
  • Extended Sales Cycles: Organizations often undergo lengthy deliberation and approval processes, especially for significant purchases. VBS is suitable in these scenarios, offering ample opportunity for building relationships and understanding client needs. The length of the sales process also means that new members are added/removed from the buying team on an as-needed basis. It’s another reason why VBS processes tend to be document-rich; those newly added team members need to be brought up to speed.
  • Knowledge-Driven Purchases: In cases where the buyer is looking not just for a product but for expertise and advice. This occurs in sectors where products are technical or where the industry landscape is rapidly evolving. Buyer education is a key part of the VBS process, so much so that analysts have described the new B2B sales process as “buyer enablement,” i.e., educating your buyer so that they can sell for your team internally.
  • Solution-Focused Sales: Where the focus is on solving specific business problems or challenges rather than just selling a product. This requires a deep understanding of the customer’s business and the ability to tailor solutions accordingly.
  • Relationship-Oriented Business Environments: In industries where building long-term customer relationships is crucial, such as in enterprise solutions or high-end B2B services. Here, the emphasis is on trust, reliability, and ongoing service.
  • ROI-Sensitive Purchases: In situations where customers are particularly concerned with the return on their investment, be it through cost savings, efficiency improvements, or other measurable outcomes.
In these scenarios, VBS is not just a technique but a strategic approach, focusing on understanding and aligning with the customer's broader business objectives, delivering tangible value, and establishing a foundation for long-term partnership.

What Does the Value Based Selling Methodology Look Like?

Sales methodologies and CRM solutions prescribe very detailed, complex processes for sales teams. Teams can get so bogged down in the mechanics that they lose sight of the overall objective. To address this, rather than proposing four-, seven-, or ten-step sales processes, here’s our view of the entire selling process mapped to the traditional customer journey or customer activity lifecycle (awareness, consideration, purchase, retention).
Assuming that the customer (or prospect) is already aware of your solution–which is why they are engaging with your sales team in the first place!- VBS aligns neatly with the remaining steps in the customer lifecycle: Consideration, Purchase, and Retention. We elected for this alignment because it helps keep the customer front and center.
https://preview.redd.it/evw1wfcnts5d1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f1b01df240982ac51fcce04b92f2c92709f0171

Here’s how the process might unfold across each of the three main phases:

1. Presales Phase: Engaging and Understanding
In this phase, which corresponds with the consideration stage of the customer lifecycle, the sales team's primary focus is to engage with the customer to gain a deep understanding of their business environment, challenges, and specific needs. This involves initial contact, where the team establishes rapport and trust, followed by a detailed discovery process. The goal here is to gather enough information to develop a solution that precisely addresses the customer's requirements. Key activities include preparing needs assessment reports and drafting preliminary solution overviews. Risk management at this stage involves ensuring the right customer fit and maintaining a continuous feedback loop to align closely with the customer's objectives.
Objective:
To understand the customer's specific needs and challenges and develop a tailored solution that aligns with these requirements.
Key Activities:
  • Initial Customer Engagement: Establish contact and initiate discussions to understand the customer's business environment and key challenges.
  • Needs Assessment and Discovery: Conduct detailed sessions to uncover the customer's specific needs, pain points, and objectives.
  • Solution Development: Develop a customized solution based on the insights gathered during the discovery process.
Key Documents:
  • Needs Assessment Reports: Documents that capture the detailed findings from the discovery sessions, including customer challenges, goals, and requirements.
  • Solution Overview Drafts: Preliminary outlines or concepts of the proposed solution shared with the customer to ensure alignment and gather feedback.
  • Proof of Concept Plan: A plan for a Proof of Concept or pilot project, especially for technical products, detailing how the proposed solution will be tested in the customer’s environment to demonstrate its effectiveness, feasibility, and requirements fit.
Risk Management & Mitigation:
  • Customer Qualification: Ensure that the customer's needs and business objectives are well-aligned with the solution offered to minimize the risk of misalignment.
  • Continuous Feedback Loop: Establish a feedback mechanism during the needs assessment to quickly identify and address misunderstandings or misalignments.
2. Proposal Phase: Tailoring and Finalizing
Aligned with the Purchase stage, the sales team now shifts to formalizing the customer’s needs into a comprehensive proposal. This phase involves a collaborative effort to develop a proposal that details the tailored solution, its benefits, and the expected value. The team then engages in discussions with the customer, inviting feedback to refine the offering. Negotiation skills come into play as the team works towards finalizing the terms of the agreement. The creation of formal proposal documents and the preparation of draft contracts or agreements are crucial. Managing risks in this phase includes clear communication of terms and employing flexible negotiation strategies to ensure a successful agreement.
Objective:
To formalize the customer's requirements into a concrete proposal and reach an agreement that meets both parties' needs.
Key Activities:
  • Proposal Development: Prepare a comprehensive proposal that addresses the customer's needs, outlines the solution, and details the expected value.
  • Customer Review and Feedback: Share the proposal with the customer for review, inviting feedback and discussions to refine the offering.
  • Negotiation and Agreement Finalization: Engage in negotiations to finalize terms and reach a mutually beneficial agreement.
Key Documents:
  • Formal Proposal Documents: Comprehensive proposals that detail the solution, pricing, benefits, and ROI, tailored to the customer’s specific situation.
  • Contracts/Agreements for Review: Draft contracts or agreements shared with the customer, outlining the terms of the partnership, for negotiation and finalization.
Risk Management & Mitigation:
  • Clear Communication of Terms: Ensure that all terms, conditions, and expectations are transparent and well-understood to avoid future disputes.
  • Flexible Negotiation Strategies: Be prepared with alternative solutions or concessions to keep negotiations on track and prevent deal breakdowns.
3. Post-Sales Phase: Implementing and Nurturing
Once the sale is made, the focus for the sales team in the Post-Sales Phase, corresponding to the Retention stage, is on ensuring a smooth implementation and fostering a long-term relationship. In most organizations, the customer relationship transfers from sales to customer success, professional services, or account management. This new team oversees the rollout of the solution, ensuring it meets the agreed specifications and customer expectations. Concurrently, they provide training and support to facilitate effective use of the solution. Regular performance monitoring and maintaining open communication lines are essential to nurture the ongoing relationship and identify additional opportunities for growth. The team prepares detailed implementation plans, training materials, and performance reports. Risk management in this phase involves closely monitoring the implementation process, conducting regular performance reviews, and building a strong, ongoing relationship with the customer. It’s worth noting that success in this phase reduces churn and can help transform customers into advocates or references that help support the sales teams in presales.
Objective:
To effectively implement the solution, ensure customer satisfaction, and foster a long-term relationship for ongoing business growth.
Key Activities:
  • Implementation and Onboarding: Oversee the rollout of the solution, ensuring it is implemented smoothly and meets the customer's needs.
  • Training and Support: Provide the necessary training and support to the customer for effective use of the solution.
  • Performance Monitoring and Relationship Management: Regularly assess solution performance and maintain ongoing communication with the customer to nurture the relationship and identify additional opportunities.
Key Documents:
  • Implementation Plans: Detailed roadmaps outlining the steps for deploying the solution, often requiring customer collaboration for customization and approval.
  • Training Materials and User Guides: Tailored instructional materials and guides developed in conjunction with the customer to ensure they address specific user needs and scenarios.
  • Performance and Satisfaction Reports: Regular reports and assessments prepared for the customer, reflecting on the performance of the solution and capturing customer feedback for continuous improvement.
Risk Management & Mitigation:
  • Implementation Oversight: Closely monitor the implementation process to quickly address any issues that arise.
  • Regular Performance Reviews: Conduct regular check-ins with the customer to assess satisfaction and address potential issues proactively.
  • Ongoing Relationship Building: Maintain a strong relationship with the customer to understand evolving needs and adjust the solution as necessary.

Gaps in the Sales Technology Stack

As we can see from the methodology above, successful value based selling depends on the depth and quality of customer interactions in every phase. In each phase, we’ve listed documents that the team would jointly author with their customer.
Those mutually authored documents are pivotal in establishing and reinforcing the shared understanding between the sales team and the customer, ensuring that the proposed solutions are in perfect alignment with the customer's requirements. That agreement is what the proposals and contracts are built upon. Those documents enable the customer to sell and advocate internally. That information is used by the post-sales teams to ensure delivery meets the mark.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of that shared understanding found in these documents. Without it, sales pursuits are unlikely to be successful, and even if one manages to close, the customers are unlikely to be satisfied or referencable.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of that shared understanding found in these documents. Without it, sales pursuits are unlikely to be successful, and even if one manages to close, the customers are unlikely to be satisfied or referencable.
However, when we look at the typical “Sales Tech Stack” teams utilize, we don’t see much that supports teams as they pursue better customer alignment. Consider the top ten technologies used by teams today:
  1. CRM Systems: Store customer data and track interactions
  2. Sales Analytics and Reporting Tools: Focus on sales performance metrics
  3. Lead Generation and Prospecting Tools: Identify potential leads
  4. Email Outreach Software: Designed for outreach and lead nurturing
  5. Sales Automation Tools: Streamline tasks like scheduling and follow-ups
  6. Product Demo and Presentation Software: Showcase products, mostly from the point of view of the product company
  7. Quote and Proposal Management Tools: Help generate quotes and proposals … once you’ve proven value
  8. Contract Management Software: Manages contracts
  9. Sales Enablement Platforms: Helps customer-facing teams to learn their product’s capabilities and positioning
  10. Sales Forecasting Tools: Predict sales trends and revenue
All those aforementioned tools help market-facing teams with “what,” but do nothing to help teams uncover “why,” or “why on earth does this solution make sense for this customer." These technologies play a role in the process but do not help teams as they seek to understand and map customer needs to the specific capabilities and benefits of a product. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that these tools distract from that all important job.
Improve your sales proposal efficiency using TakeTurns

Why Value Based Selling Teams Benefit From External Collaboration Tools

Today most teams are unaware of the gap in their sales technology (salestech) stack. In fact, collaboration with their customers and prospects on those all-important VBS documents is largely done in email. The limitations of email in terms of version control, tracking complex conversation threads, and efficiently managing document collaboration are well-known. Those limitations lead to miscommunications and inefficiencies, adversely affecting both the sales process, the customer experience, and customer engagement.
That’s why it’s recommended that teams looking for success with value based selling techniques examine external collaboration tools. These tools are specifically tailored to meet the collaborative and customer-centric demands of value based selling. Successfully implemented, these tools can not just streamline the sales team's workflow but also enhance customer engagement and experience, and improve close rates.
Here's a rundown of what an ideal external collaboration toolset should include:
1. Common Workspace for Customer Collaboration: This unified platform consolidates all activities, interactions, and documents related to a customer. It's an execution-focused workspace that supports document collaboration with customers. The workspace allows both team members and customers to access, revise, and discuss various documents in a shared environment.
2. Asynchronous Collaboration Capabilities: Considering that customers and your VBS team are not always in the same geography, and certainly not under the same governance structure, the external collaboration tool must support asynchronous collaboration. This functionality enables team members and customers to contribute and provide feedback at their convenience while keeping everyone informed of the latest updates and developments.
3. Versioning, Transparency, and Accountability: A key feature of the workspace is robust version control for all documents. This allows for tracking changes, updates, or revisions, providing transparency by showing who made specific changes and when. It ensures accountability among all parties and facilitates a clear understanding of each document's evolution, which is crucial for maintaining precision and clarity in complex sales processes.
4. Integrated Communication Tools: Beyond document collaboration, the workspace should integrate asynchronous and real-time communication tools for comments, questions, or discussions. One critical requirement is to ensure that all discussions are recorded and accessible for all participants, this helps keep everyone on the same page.
5. Security and Data Protection: With sensitive customer information often involved, the platform must have strong security measures in place. This includes data encryption, secure access controls, and compliance with data protection regulations, ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of all information.
6. Notifications and Automated Reminders: Automated notifications and reminders about document updates, deadlines, or required actions can keep the collaboration process efficient and on schedule.
7. Integration with CRM and Other Sales Tools: Ideally, thetool will have some method to tie the collaboration with the existing CRM record and other sales tools. This ensures that document-centric processes are tracked as part of the broader sales processes and customer data.
Adopting these advanced, integrated collaboration platforms represents a strategic shift from traditional email communication. This move is pivotal not only for improving internal efficiency but also for elevating the overall customer journey, which is indispensable for the success of the value based selling team.
‍
Final thoughts
In summary, VBS stands out as a vital strategy in the B2B sales landscape, particularly due to its focus on understanding and delivering specific customer value. The effectiveness of this approach is deeply rooted in the quality of interactions and the depth of collaboration between the sales team and the customer. This necessitates a shift from traditional communication methods to more sophisticated external collaboration tools. These tools not only streamline the sales process but also enhance the overall customer experience, ensuring that solutions are not just sold but are perfectly aligned with the customer's needs and expectations. Embracing these tools is not just a step towards improving sales efficiency; it is a commitment to elevating the entire customer journey and achieving long-term success in Value Based Selling.
What is Value Based Selling? was perviously published on our website TakeTurns
submitted by rmartin_tt to TakeTurns [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:51 Exercise_Fine [For Hire] Copywriter & content writer with six years of full-time experience at leading content writing agencies, catering to US-based clients

Hello everyone. My name is Rayhan Khan, and I've been a dedicated copywriter and content writer since 2018, serving both local and international clients. Even my local clients provide me with work from international marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. Over the years, I've created high-quality content in all niches and forms of copywriting and content writing. I also have solid knowledge and experience in basic web design.
I was an English medium student and have been learning this language since 1992 through my institutions and work experience. My expertise extends beyond writing; I am also skilled in SEO writing. Through several courses and hands-on projects, I have gained extensive knowledge in both on-page and off-page SEO. As a former blogger, I know how to effectively manage and maintain a blog site, having sold several high-profile blogs.
My experience as a successful salesperson for a reputable telesales company for four years has honed my ability to write persuasively. I have all the necessary tools to produce top-notch content and utilize them skillfully.
As a professional content writer, I stay abreast of the latest trends and technologies in content marketing. Whether your goal is to drive more traffic to your website or increase your sales, I am here to help. Please feel free to contact me for quality content that will enrich your business.
So, the decision is yours: should you invest your valuable time and money in a novice writer or choose someone with extensive experience in all forms of copywriting and content writing, proficient in maintaining a complete blog website and SEO? The choice is clear.

My Previous Work

As a dedicated content writer for various agencies, a significant portion of my work has been in the realm of ghostwriting. However, to showcase my skills to potential clients, I have curated a collection of some compelling content on my writing website. Simply click on the following link - https://knowledgeable-seal-dls75p.mystrikingly.com/ - and you will be transported to my virtual writing haven. There you can explore my writing samples and learn more about the writer behind the words.
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Click through and discover a wealth of diverse content demonstrating my writing skills' breadth.
So, dear reader, take a moment to embark on this journey through my writing universe. Immerse yourself in samples of my work and witness the untapped potential within.

What I do

Here’s a quick look at the type of content I usually write:
Articles
Blog posts
Copywriting
Listicles
Social media posts
Ghostwriting
And more

My Pricing

For basic work, my rates start at $0.07/word. If you require a lot of research or SEO work, then we can talk and negotiate further details.
What to expect from my content
SEO-optimized
Engaging
Original
Grammarly checked
Well-researched
Fact-checked
Delivery within deadline
Free revision

Getting in touch

You can reach me through:
Email at [workhappy09@gmail.com](mailto:workhappy09@gmail.com)
Reddit PM
Reddit Chat
When you reach out to me, try providing as much information as possible about your project. Some important things to keep in mind are:
Topic
Word count
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Reference material
If you're unsure about some things, that's alright. Let me know, and we can discuss the details to find the best idea for your project.

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submitted by Exercise_Fine to HireaWriter [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:51 Available-Ear-17 Waiting to hear back after Reference Check

Hi - I’m applying for internal mobility position at my job. All of my interviews and case study went well.
The interviewer did a reference check mid last week and I’m still waiting to hear back.
I’m anxious - does it sounds like I got the job or have been passed over?
submitted by Available-Ear-17 to interviews [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:51 m3xd57cv Confused about INTJ/INFJ

I'm INTJ, I've gotten that on the test in VERY different points in my life. Most of the INTJ documentation I read and go hell yeah, that's definitely me.
But then I read the INFJ documentation and posts on this sub, and I relate to a lot of them. When it comes to internal monologues, how you perceive other people (like constantly worrying about if YOU"RE the one who's messing up an interaction and pressure to 'fix' things and make other people feel as good as possible, I also cringe at how blunt other people are sometimes, I'm never hurt, but I always think "wow, why would you say that, that's the sort of thing that repels people and makes them hate you". It's like I have an alt persona in my head that's INFJ).
But I don't get your thing about being in a service profession, I'm perfectly happy with going for a technical job (though I do have grand plans of donating large sums of money AFTER I've become rich, but spending all day serving people DIRECTLY feels like a huge waste of time to me)
Is it possible I'm both at once? After all Jungian types are not crystal clear boxes. Or is there something else at play?
I won't be offended so please respond without restraint. THank you.
submitted by m3xd57cv to infj [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:51 Exercise_Fine [For Hire] Copywriter & content writer with six years of full-time experience at leading content writing agencies, catering to US-based clients

Hello everyone. My name is Rayhan Khan, and I've been a dedicated copywriter and content writer since 2018, serving both local and international clients. Even my local clients provide me with work from international marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. Over the years, I've created high-quality content in all niches and forms of copywriting and content writing. I also have solid knowledge and experience in basic web design.
I was an English medium student and have been learning this language since 1992 through my institutions and work experience. My expertise extends beyond writing; I am also skilled in SEO writing. Through several courses and hands-on projects, I have gained extensive knowledge in both on-page and off-page SEO. As a former blogger, I know how to effectively manage and maintain a blog site, having sold several high-profile blogs.
My experience as a successful salesperson for a reputable telesales company for four years has honed my ability to write persuasively. I have all the necessary tools to produce top-notch content and utilize them skillfully.
As a professional content writer, I stay abreast of the latest trends and technologies in content marketing. Whether your goal is to drive more traffic to your website or increase your sales, I am here to help. Please feel free to contact me for quality content that will enrich your business.
So, the decision is yours: should you invest your valuable time and money in a novice writer or choose someone with extensive experience in all forms of copywriting and content writing, proficient in maintaining a complete blog website and SEO? The choice is clear.

My Previous Work

As a dedicated content writer for various agencies, a significant portion of my work has been in the realm of ghostwriting. However, to showcase my skills to potential clients, I have curated a collection of some compelling content on my writing website. Simply click on the following link - https://knowledgeable-seal-dls75p.mystrikingly.com/ - and you will be transported to my virtual writing haven. There you can explore my writing samples and learn more about the writer behind the words.
But wait, there's more! In addition to my published work, I have a treasure trove of unpublished content (not even found on the Internet) that showcases my versatility and creativity. To delve deeper into this hidden realm, simply follow this Google Drive link - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K4DeV_4tFnAgCM7uLRqD-YXG3Rfzirqd?usp=sharing
Click through and discover a wealth of diverse content demonstrating my writing skills' breadth.
So, dear reader, take a moment to embark on this journey through my writing universe. Immerse yourself in samples of my work and witness the untapped potential within.

What I do

Here’s a quick look at the type of content I usually write:
Articles
Blog posts
Copywriting
Listicles
Social media posts
Ghostwriting
And more

My Pricing

For basic work, my rates start at $0.08/word. If you require a lot of research or SEO work, then we can talk and negotiate further details.
What to expect from my content
SEO-optimized
Engaging
Original
Grammarly checked
Well-researched
Fact-checked
Delivery within deadline
Free revision

Getting in touch

You can reach me through:
Email at [workhappy09@gmail.com](mailto:workhappy09@gmail.com)
Reddit PM
Reddit Chat
When you reach out to me, try providing as much information as possible about your project. Some important things to keep in mind are:
Topic
Word count
Deadline
Target audience
Keywords
Reference material
If you're unsure about some things, that's alright. Let me know, and we can discuss the details to find the best idea for your project.

Payment Options

Wise
PayPal
submitted by Exercise_Fine to writersforhire [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:51 CIAHerpes An alien fungus has been spraying black semen across town. People exposed to it have started changing in horrific ways…

Strange and seemingly isolated incidents had happened in the days leading up to the massacre. I lived in a small farming community called Matheson where everyone knew everyone. My neighbor, Steuben, owned a sprawling dairy farm. He must have been at least seventy, but he still looked sixty, a vigorous and healthy hard worker with wide blue eyes and thick salt-and-pepper hair. His land rose up in the rolling hills and gently babbling creeks of the surrounding woodlands.
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
submitted by CIAHerpes to scaryjujuarmy [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:49 Exercise_Fine [For Hire] Copywriter & content writer with six years of full-time experience at leading content writing agencies, catering to US-based clients

Hello everyone. My name is Rayhan Khan, and I've been a dedicated copywriter and content writer since 2018, serving both local and international clients. Even my local clients provide me with work from international marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. Over the years, I've created high-quality content in all niches and forms of copywriting and content writing. I also have solid knowledge and experience in basic web design.
I was an English medium student and have been learning this language since 1992 through my institutions and work experience. My expertise extends beyond writing; I am also skilled in SEO writing. Through several courses and hands-on projects, I have gained extensive knowledge in both on-page and off-page SEO. As a former blogger, I know how to effectively manage and maintain a blog site, having sold several high-profile blogs.
My experience as a successful salesperson for a reputable telesales company for four years has honed my ability to write persuasively. I have all the necessary tools to produce top-notch content and utilize them skillfully.
As a professional content writer, I stay abreast of the latest trends and technologies in content marketing. Whether your goal is to drive more traffic to your website or increase your sales, I am here to help. Please feel free to contact me for quality content that will enrich your business.
So, the decision is yours: should you invest your valuable time and money in a novice writer or choose someone with extensive experience in all forms of copywriting and content writing, proficient in maintaining a complete blog website and SEO? The choice is clear.

My Previous Work

As a dedicated content writer for various agencies, a significant portion of my work has been in the realm of ghostwriting. However, to showcase my skills to potential clients, I have curated a collection of some compelling content on my writing website. Simply click on the following link - https://knowledgeable-seal-dls75p.mystrikingly.com/ - and you will be transported to my virtual writing haven. There you can explore my writing samples and learn more about the writer behind the words.
But wait, there's more! In addition to my published work, I have a treasure trove of unpublished content (not even found on the Internet) that showcases my versatility and creativity. To delve deeper into this hidden realm, simply follow this Google Drive link - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K4DeV_4tFnAgCM7uLRqD-YXG3Rfzirqd?usp=sharing
Click through and discover a wealth of diverse content demonstrating my writing skills' breadth.
So, dear reader, take a moment to embark on this journey through my writing universe. Immerse yourself in samples of my work and witness the untapped potential within.

What I do

Here’s a quick look at the type of content I usually write:
Articles
Blog posts
Copywriting
Listicles
Social media posts
Ghostwriting
And more

My Pricing

For basic work, my rates start at $0.07/word. If you require a lot of research or SEO work, then we can talk and negotiate further details.
What to expect from my content
SEO-optimized
Engaging
Original
Grammarly checked
Well-researched
Fact-checked
Delivery within deadline
Free revision

Getting in touch

You can reach me through:
Email at [workhappy09@gmail.com](mailto:workhappy09@gmail.com)
Reddit PM
Reddit Chat
When you reach out to me, try providing as much information as possible about your project. Some important things to keep in mind are:
Topic
Word count
Deadline
Target audience
Keywords
Reference material
If you're unsure about some things, that's alright. Let me know, and we can discuss the details to find the best idea for your project.

Payment Options

Wise
PayPal
submitted by Exercise_Fine to WritingJobBoard [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:49 CIAHerpes An alien fungus has been spraying black semen across town. People exposed to it have started changing in horrific ways…

Strange and seemingly isolated incidents had happened in the days leading up to the massacre. I lived in a small farming community called Matheson where everyone knew everyone. My neighbor, Steuben, owned a sprawling dairy farm. He must have been at least seventy, but he still looked sixty, a vigorous and healthy hard worker with wide blue eyes and thick salt-and-pepper hair. His land rose up in the rolling hills and gently babbling creeks of the surrounding woodlands.
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
submitted by CIAHerpes to mrcreeps [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:49 The_Tardiest So... I'm perma-banned from WSB*tches. This is how hard they're policing any discussion of GME. You don't even have to mention it.

So... I'm perma-banned from WSB*tches. This is how hard they're policing any discussion of GME. You don't even have to mention it.
As you can see, you can criticize GME on WSB, you just can respond to criticisms.
submitted by The_Tardiest to GME [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:48 CIAHerpes An alien fungus has been spraying black semen across town. People exposed to it have started changing in horrific ways…

Strange and seemingly isolated incidents had happened in the days leading up to the massacre. I lived in a small farming community called Matheson where everyone knew everyone. My neighbor, Steuben, owned a sprawling dairy farm. He must have been at least seventy, but he still looked sixty, a vigorous and healthy hard worker with wide blue eyes and thick salt-and-pepper hair. His land rose up in the rolling hills and gently babbling creeks of the surrounding woodlands.
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
submitted by CIAHerpes to LighthouseHorror [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:48 Benzkitten Daughter of a Convict Dad

25F
-In short grew up without my father saw him 3 times in my life then he died and the rest is what im left dealing with right now- one very complicated true story
Where do i even start i’ll try and keep this as neat and tidy as possible but i have to let it all out. Im constantly paralysing myself over analysing this.
Long story short my mom had a fling with my father when young she ended up pregnant and kept me. My father stepped back and didn’t want me. Him and his family were even threatening to kill her while she was pregnant but all that settled once they understood that my mother and her family didn’t want anything from them. It was her choice to keep me and she has been an amazing mother to me. Maybe financially she wasn’t able to provide much nor was she academically bright/qualified but she did put the hard work in to raise me working as a kitchen porter and taking hospitality shifts during weekends and brought me up with amazing values and lots of love. She had support from her family so i was raised by several different characters that were my grandparents and my aunt. My grandfather was my father figure as i grew up without my dad. With my grandmother supporting on my early years they were always there and did a fantastic job at caring for me and teaching me valuable lessons from early on. Then my aunty who had a more established cosmopolitan lifestyle who was helping financially my mother as she didn’t end up having any kids of her own due to cancer. (That made her quite bitter as i will explain further)
•Childhood•
My mother was working for the past 25 years as a kitchen porter in a hotel. Her shifts were usually 7 am to 3pm i remember her leaving the house at 5:30 every morning and me telling her to not leave me and to always leave the lights on. Usually i would sleep at her house and wake up at 5 am with her so she would drop me off to my aunts home a few blocks away so i can go to school later in the morning while she was going for her shift. I was always in my pyjamas half asleep walking i remember this very vividly and i would be wrapped in my pink blanket on the way to my aunts. I could be staying at my aunts place but i wanted my mother as i was barely seeing her. I remember her coming back from work and falling asleep on the sofa she would always have food ready for me even if it meant she had to wake up at 3am or would cook as soon as she came back from work. Looking back at it im in tears for all her efforts and so grateful to be having such a hero mom.
I went to live in a small village where my grandparents where based for kindergarten and these were some of my favourite years so free in nature with all the animals around some of the most amazing memories of mine. My mom stayed in the capital of where we are from to continue working in this time frame.
My aunt was travelling a lot internationally but i was always looking forward to seeing her and all the great gifts she would bring me from her trips it was always something cool that was not yet in our country let that be clothes or games or video games later on.
As i got into school i was splitting my time between my aunts house and my moms so my aunty could take me to school every morning.
A bit sad cause my mother couldn’t make it most of the times to my school performances but my aunty did.
• Dad issues bullying at school•
So i knew that i had no dad and i was always hoping and knowing that he will come back and find me i knew he loved me and i was always justifying his absence. Thankfully my mother never lied to me that my father died or any of that cliche. She just told me that he wasn’t able to be there for us. I was always asking about him. The kids at school would be so harsh which is a reflection of their parents tbh. Telling me that my mother would do all of my favours because i didn’t have a dad was one of them kinda stayed with me for a while.
-Thanks to my aunt in this timeframe for paying for private lessons to learn english and french on top of my mother tongue-
The years went by now im in Middle school and boom my grandfather gets admitted to hospital i go and see him he’s in the hospital bed he cant speak his eyes are closed but he turns his head when i went there which meant he understood i was there and was listening to me. Thats the last memory i have of him. He passed away shortly after.
•Depression starts to kick in at 14•
Our financial situation with my mother was really bad she would barely be able to give me 2 euros on a Friday to go around the area with my friends and get an ice cream. My aunt was based in a different country at this point and offered me to come for a better future which i did take and for a 14 year old to leave her mom and change country was a bold move. Things where hard we stayed homeless for a short period of time but we did find our way i changed 3 houses and 2 schools in only one year all the expenses my aunt was paying for. I was starting to get homesick as much as i was loving it was hard to mesh with the other kids and all of my friends where in the first school i went to. Depression officially started to kick in at the end of the first year. My grandfather’s passing did take a toll on me.
I went back home and decided to stick it all out with my mom we knew we would struggle financially. These 2-3 years till i finished high school i would mostly eat pasta with onion and red sauce from the local charity that would supply us with pantry essentials. That was the food we could afford.
I was getting worse and my family decided to take me to a psychiatric ward for teenagers. That was a huge mistake. I was officially declared that i have manic depression and bipolar disorder. They gave me all sorts of different medications the first ones they put me on were Zyprexa and Depakine Chrono from there onwards it was a spiral of most SSRIS, benzos and valium. At least 14 different brands and pills that ive tried in a course of 3 years. To end up getting double dose injections on my buttcheek monthly of Aripiprazol.
And bare in mind i was a bright 47kilo teenager full of potential and life who ended up 97 kilos in the course of 2-3 years unable to leave my bed or speak properly being on such heavy med cocktails daily. I was unable to put in words what i wanted i barely remember those years and they’re kinda wiped from my memory.
Aaaaanyhow too many things and i still haven’t gotten to the best part which starts now.
After taking so many meds and living off pasta and my mom having an alcoholic boyfriend in our house who would beat her (i guess she kinda wanted to hold on to someone which okay but that put me in a position to be the man of the house myself i guess we can call it a broken home at this point) i ended up finding out about drugs with my group of friends at the time we were all the bad kids mostly we all bonded over our broken home situations and started experimenting. I was an expert after so many prescriptions and endless psychiatrists at this point. Mainly mdma and ecstasy - i stopped taking my other meds and abused these instead as they made me feel again and feel alive. (Jokes on me for causing a comedown for the next year or so to myself)
So end of highschool 17 year old me 90 kilos and a young raver still searching for my dad in the parties i was going to i have met a very interesting man (you could call it man of the underworld legit) anyhow around this age my family broke the news to me that my dad was in prison most of the years. I tried to get in touch with him but nada. Then the guy i had a fling with got involved and contacted my father which still to this day i thank him for. I did meet my dad as soon as i finished high school he was a nice fella very down to earth i explained to him some things and that i only wanted to be talking with him on the phone here and there. Which he respected and kept on doing. He was heavily involved in the underworld with a coke/heroin addiction from what i understood. It will stay with me him throwing a bunch of pictures on the bed in the hotel room he was staying at and explaining to me about it. He had pictures of me as a baby. Funny chap he was smoking his big ass spliff as he was driving and we were looking for a place to have dinner. Ended up in a 24hr canteen having sandwiches standing. That was the first time i met him. The next day he picked me up and we went near the sea for lunch together. On our way back we stopped by some of the shadiest parts in my home city where most of the convicts would hang around funny enough he almost stabbed someone as there was some sort of vendetta going on between them but due to me being present he let it slide and took me through the brothels that his friends owned to say hello (all that from the car that i was a passenger in) last thing i would want would be walking around this area lol
Anyhow time goes by we all on good terms he continues to be on and off in prison but we are in touch whenever he’s out.
I have now left my home country again as soon as highschool finished.
He has another daughter from another woman at this point who he’s being around for after i told him to be there for her.
Last time i saw him i waited for him in a cafe for 7 hours. He was at the court that day regarding him being involved with another 100 people they called it a crime organisation, dad was not messing lemme tell you that.
Anyhow i felt like life gave me back what i had lost on that day my mom was in the cafe too and i have a picture with my mom and dad all together. We were a very dysfunctional dynamic but agreed that we were all doing our best given the circumstances and situations. It held lots of truth and value in its own unique way. It takes guts and balls for me to say that i get in my dads shoes and i justify him and his distance. He was unable to give me what i needed in the first place plus he was an addict he even did me more good being away as god knows what we’d be involved in with my mom if he stayed around. He truly was a good man and very fair he had a very oldschool convict mentality which i kept with me and all the things that aligned with being a good human being. Keeping my word is one of them.
So my dad passed away suddenly last year just a week before my birthday. I found out through a family friend and i booked on the spot to go to his funeral i took a 1hr. train,plane of 4hrs and bus of another 3-4hrs my mom came with me it was so surreal my outer (stayed for 2 hrs and did the same journey back to the country i reside) shock crying in all of the duration of my trip the bus breaking down midway and me hoping to at least make the funeral on time. Getting there was the ultimate main character feeling as it was me against a whole lot of shady characters to deal with. His family knew of my existence but no one tried to contact me. I still showed up as it was my father who i held dear to my heart and i had to get closure on this matter for me personally and all the wounds this has caused over the years.
I left White Lilies in his coffin. I could hear people talk while the priest was chanting. It was his rude last “fiancé” or whatever situation they had she was trying to talk to my mom and ask if im his daughter. Bare in mind i am a spitting image of my father the genes dont lie babyyy. Well this woman is the mother of my half sister (Thanks dad) not only this but she is Head of a major prison. It kind of makes sense how these 2 could have a relationship. Anyhow the vibes were so off she doesnt even want me to meet my sister which fair play is on her and if she ever wants ill be more than happy she’s only 6 years old.
Now on to my dads brother his wife and my cousins.
Never ever in my life would i expect “my same blood” as they kept on bragging about to be such small human beings. They called me for my birthday and i was crying in shock as it’s only been a year and im grieving only to be told that i am a weak character to my face from my “new found family”.
The weak character is me who at 25 i managed to be the complete opposite of my parents. I lost 40 kilos gained my life back. Grinded my ass off slept in a couch and the floor in a different country, made something for myself alone and was working 5am shifts in hospitality like my mother for the first 2 years then studied and got a decent 9-5 job in finance. Stopped taking all these meds have done so well for myself sacrificing parts of me only to hear that i am a weak character from 55+ year olds who didnt even bring up anything of providing any financial assistance or about a will after my fathers passing. To be honest i do have a new problem after my dad passed away my grief turned into bulimia and i am actively working on getting that sorted and getting the relevant help my hair also started falling out but that probably due to me trying to keep afloat with daily life and stress. idk theres so much into all of this and ive been typing for almost 2 hrs. I just really had to get it off my chest. I’ve no friends where i am and dating is a joke right now i just want a hug and someone to tell that it will all be okay. Which i know it will cause im definitely not a weak character and theres only so much a woman can take. I just need a break. If you read this far wow hi5 my story seemed interesting to someone. Sorry for writing this so messy. Just take care of yourselves and never let anyone tell you you’re weak. Theres more to this story and i would like to make something out of it or reach out to people who are going through similar situations like my younger version and tell you that it will all be okay and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
submitted by Benzkitten to offmychest [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:48 CIAHerpes An alien fungus has been spraying black semen across town. People exposed to it have started changing in horrific ways…

Strange and seemingly isolated incidents had happened in the days leading up to the massacre. I lived in a small farming community called Matheson where everyone knew everyone. My neighbor, Steuben, owned a sprawling dairy farm. He must have been at least seventy, but he still looked sixty, a vigorous and healthy hard worker with wide blue eyes and thick salt-and-pepper hair. His land rose up in the rolling hills and gently babbling creeks of the surrounding woodlands.
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
submitted by CIAHerpes to TheDarkGathering [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:48 jschligs Is it worth contacting employment lawyer?

Looking for some advice on whether or not it’s worth it contacting an employment lawyer.
My wife was recently fired from her job of 10 years. She worked for an at-will company. Was promoted only a month ago. An employee who is her skip level manager reported her to HR for time theft and she was fired on the spot. The skip level manager never liked her for some reason, made her jump through many hoops for the promotion, and has even told the company she would be leaving by EOY.
She would arrive at work in the parking lot and clock in while walking in to the building. Then she would go through security and scan her badge to get in to the area she worked. Naturally, there was a one to two minute discrepancy between her clock in time and badge in time. Her immediate manager had said she didn’t care she did this and numerous other employees did it as well. As far as she was concerned, the policy around doing this was muddy/unclear at best. She was a model employee in every regard and well liked by everyone there. In fact, her boss and head of the department cried while terminating her employment. She was fired with zero severance, zero communication to stop, and had been doing this for a while without any issues. She thought it was just the standard. Even during her promotion and 6 month promotion probation period.
Given that this is at will employment, is it even worth going a legal route? Or would we be wasting our time and energy? I think it would be hard to prove discrimination, although many others did this and suffered no repercussions.
submitted by jschligs to legaladvice [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:47 CIAHerpes An alien fungus has been spraying black semen across town. People exposed to it have started changing in horrific ways…

Strange and seemingly isolated incidents had happened in the days leading up to the massacre. I lived in a small farming community called Matheson where everyone knew everyone. My neighbor, Steuben, owned a sprawling dairy farm. He must have been at least seventy, but he still looked sixty, a vigorous and healthy hard worker with wide blue eyes and thick salt-and-pepper hair. His land rose up in the rolling hills and gently babbling crooks of the surrounding woodlands.
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
submitted by CIAHerpes to creepypasta [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:47 Unique_Wrongdoer3878 My old company and the new hire

Just here to vent lol. Feel free to drop your thoughts or if you’ve had a similar experience because this whole situation is so weird to me.
Long story short, I got hired on for the only entry-level position on the corporate team for a large company back in August. Everything was going great… I had weekly evaluations with management on my team and heard nothing but positive feedback about my performance…not even a hint of constructive criticism.
I was going well until I randomly got a call from my boss….during my pre-approved DAY OFF the second week of October. The phone call started off extremely casual with zero red flags that they were about to drop a bomb on me. After the awkward small talk, I had a been told that I am being laid off. They reassured me that I had nothing to do with my performance and it is due to budget cuts the company has to make. For context, the industry I was working in is known to have lots of ups and downs so it made perfect sense that budget cuts could happen at anytime Obviously, I’m disappointed and wondering why they even hired me for that short amount of time. For context, A few weeks after I was hired, I was able travel to join the entire corporate team during their annual event and got to work out of HQ with the rest of them (I was working remotely in a different city).
I will say that everything ended up working out for the best as I ended up starting a new position about a month later that I’m absolutely thriving in now.
Here’s the part that pisses me off— The company had an intern they hired on prior to me starting my position who was the daughter of one of their “top dogs.” It was never secret that she was going to be hired onto the team after she graduated from college, which was last month. Basically, we were both under the assumption that she would be hired on the same position I was in and we would either tagteam that position together or I would be moved up into the next position up by the time she graduated and was ready to start that full-time entry level position. Like I said before, everything ended up working out in my favor and I don’t regret being laid off from this position one bit, but it does hurt to see this happen. It hurts even more to know that (I’m pretty sure) a company cannot lay someone off and basically eliminate a position just to bring it back unless it’s been over six months— it’s been a little over 7 months, almost 8, since I was randomly laid off. I ended up calling my mom right after I saw the intern girls’ job announcement post (we’re still connected on LinkedIn) and she’s convinced this was not at all a coincidence and the company somehow had this planned…as in, they hired me temporarily to take some of the workload off of the upper-level positions (straight dirty work btw) and timed my “lay-off due to budget cuts and the company no longer needing my position” with whatever law states that a company cannot get rid of a position and bring it back until after the six month mark…
submitted by Unique_Wrongdoer3878 to antiwork [link] [comments]

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