Hi guys. I am making this publication because I feel worried and I would like you to please read my case and respond to me based on your experience. I really need it... and I don't know if it's this the right forum...
I am a 25 year old man who attends parties and drinks alcohol occasionally and with self-control, my head may spin, but I am always aware and remember everything. On Saturday, May 11, I attended a party where I went alone and was drinking and socializing with different groups. I have no idea how much I drank all night, but it was several sips of a 6% vodka carbonated drink. I believe that from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m it will have been 1 liter in total, I think. I usually drink little by little, but when the party got exciting around 3:30 a.m It was when I started drinking the drink as if it were water (By then I had already joined another group). At 4:20 a.m They were already throwing us out of the place because they were already closing and I left with this group walking towards the whereabouts (which was 20 minutes from where we were). By then my condition was normal, I was not sleepy and much less drunk, I was super aware of what was happening around me. A few minutes later while I was walking... in the blink of an eye I wake up in a hospital with an serum IV, but only for a brief moment because then in another blink of an eye I remember that I am getting to my room with the help of my relatives and the first thing I do is turn on my PC, I could barely write and I tried to look for answers and what had happened, but my head hurt a lot like I had a hangover. (My jacket, my glasses, my cell phone, my card were stolen, and the password had been changed on one of my emails) After that I don't remember much, I think I went to sleep and got up the next day in the early morning more aware. That day I had not eaten anything all day.
In my emails he said he had done a transfer at 4:52 a.m. and another at 08:06 a.m. and I wonder: How? Because to enter mobile banking you need a pin number (I don't have my fingerprints registered in the app, only to unlock my cell phone) and then according to my Google route at 4:48 a.m. I was already at the whereabouts, where they found me lying on the ground 3 hours and later notified my relatives. Why can't I remember anything? Is it possible that I was drugged or did I just drink too much? This is the first time this has happened to me and I am worried about how I was able to be so accessible to give important information, because I have no signs of having been physically attacked and to this day I have a slight taste bitter in my mouth.
My mom shows me the photos of that day in the hospital where I look terrible, my eyes drooping, staring at nothing, and super serious. She said that sometimes she would shake (maybe from the cold) and she could barely get up. The only words I said to my mother were: How did you get there? How did you find me? She also says that I was the one who had given the number when the police had found me lying there. (He tells me all this days later)
It's been 1 week since then, I've cried a lot and I can't sleep because I can't understand how this happened to me, but I'm grateful to God for being alive and without any injuries.
Has something like this happened to you? Some answer? How does the body of a person with excess alcohol function? Do they really faint? In the sense that they faint fall to the ground? Or is there another type of internal fainting? I'm new to this and I would appreciate if you could answer me, please. Sorry for my English, I'm using a translator.
Thank you.

Hi i have a samsung NEW phone i believe i set it up before but didn't use it continusly, so it doesn't have any data or gmail only pattern which now i can remember how to unlock it or factory reset it?

Hi everyone. It's been 15 years since I was last in Japan (and almost that long since I've travelled abroad, outside of the US). I know that as of 2009, Japan had its own unique cell phone band/network, and so I had to rent a local phone once I arrived in Japan, in order to call/text local numbers.
Do I understand correctly that nowadays, most or all smartphones have eSims that enable the phones to be used anywhere/everywhere? When I went to my local phone provider's storefront, they seemed to suggest that would be the case (but of course, sometimes the employees give wrong information...I tried two different stores/reps and they didn't seem 100% sure of themselves). I DO know that when I purchased my current phone (a Samsung android) about a year ago, I specifically asked that the phone be UNlocked.
If I bring my current (UNlocked) smart phone with me to Japan, do I just need to go to a local phone store and they do something? Or can I assume that my current phone should be ready to go, upon arrival in Japan...that my phone will recognize that I'm now in Japan...it will switch to a local carrier...and I can make local calls/texts just as I currently do in the US?
Thanks!

Hi all,
I am an American moving to Melbourne in about a month for work. I feel totally overwhelmed by all of the things that I have to do for this move. Im not really sure where to look for advice so I'm starting with reddit. If anyone has info/ insight into any of the following questions or knows of some sort of resource that covers these questions please let me know!
I need to get a car in about 3 weeks before I start work. I also need to figure out if I do the novated lease that my work is offering. Im truely lost here! Also are car salesmen and mechanics as unscrupulous as they are in the US?
getting an apartment- I have the first month covered by airbnb and I know how wild the market is. I guess what I really want insight into is what to expect when I go look at an apartment? Do I need application, references, and offer over rent on viewing it? Are there certain landlords to look out for?
Getting travel insurance- i think getting travel insurance makes sense for the 3 weeks before starting work. But it seems that being an expat makes things less clear. Some companies have separate long term packages, which I dont need. I dont know what to do with this one!
Cell phone- I have an unlocked/ dual sim US cellphone- my understanding is that I can just get a sim card from telstra and im ok? But im unclear if I can still get text messages from the US? Im not sure if this could be a short term solution before getting an Australian phone?
Getting prescription meds- Ill have the 3 months supply that immigration seems to allow, so I have leeway on this, and I guess i'll also have to figure out what work is offering, but can anyone shed light on generally what the process is/ how long it takes to get this all settled? note- i'm on one pretty standard med for depression.
Also any other tips or things to know are very much welcome. Moving my life across the world as a 30 something is equal parts exciting and stressful! Cheers!

Robotmon - How to Autosend with an Android

Most of the information I will be using is taken from the official robotmon developer’s website. You can access the site once you download the Robotmon app>Settings Tab>Quick Start. You can use your browser’s translator to help translate the site.
Hardware:
Robotmon uses a script service to help match a player's touch commands on an android device. Robotmon's developer site has a list that includes all android and tablets that can use the Robotmon scripts.
For this service to work, you need a device that can open the Disney Line Tsum Tsum Application. Android OS 5.1.1 and below can no longer use the application. Android OS 12 through 14 have a security update that can make it difficult for robotmon to be able to run its scripts properly.
Androids 7 through 11 appear to be the best options when working with Robotmon. I personally use Samsung Galaxy A20 which had Android OS 11 as its final update in 2023.
This was my primary phone in 2018. I have now repurposed it to play mobile games on a rooted device. It is unnecessary to root your Android, because of a managing tool called simple service manager.
Rooting your device is beneficial because of robotmon launcher (root) which is available for the Android devices that can use it. This would allow for you to start robotmon without the use of a computer. I sadly could not get it to work on my android and have opted to use simple service manager through pc connection.
I will be going into greater detail on the different options in the guide.
How to install Robotmon:
Download Applications:

1. On your android device start by finding robotmon in your play store.
2. (Optional) If you are on a rooted device you can attempt to use Robotmon Launcher (root):
3. At this point you can also find the Disney Line tsum tsum application:
4. This is all you need from the play store.
5. Now to fix the settings on your android.

Android Settings:

1. Make sure you have developers options unlocked on your android device.
2. Settings: About the device > Software information > Find Build Number > Click 7 times > Developer mode enabled appears
   1. To unlock developer options start by opening your settings on your device. Usually seen as a gear.
   2. Go to the about device/phone option.
   3. Then find software information.
   4. From here, you will see the build number. Press build number several times until developer options have been unlocked.
3. Settings>Developer Options>Enable Usb Debugging
   1. Going back to the settings menu, you will now see developer options on the bottom. Turn on usb debugging to be able to allow simple service manager to alter your android device.
   2. You can turn off auto update from the developer options.
4. Settings>Privacy>Permissions manager>Storage> Enable Robotmon and Launcher
   1. While you are still in your settings, allow permissions to be given to Robotmon and Launcher (root). Go to the privacy option, and find permissions. Storage will be an option. Here you will find robotmon and launcher (root), both must be allowed to have all permissions.
5. Alternative route: Settings>Accessibility>Installed Services/Applications>Enable Robotmon.
   1. Another route is to go through the accessibility option in your settings. Allow robotmon to have special access. This will allow robotmon to be able to cast itself onto other applications and record. Robotmon does have a record feature that it uses to take screenshots of a players within your mailbox for heart tracking. I will go over that in another post.
6. Lastly: Settings>Apps>Restricted>Disable Robotmon and Launcher (root)
7. You can lastly go to the app option within your settings and select restricted. Make sure Robotmon and the launcher remain unrestricted and unchecked.
8. The next steps will now include a personal computer that you will need access to every time your android auto-sending device turns off or restarts.

Computer downloads:

1. On your computer find the drivers for the android device you are using.
2. The drivers installation should be given on your android brand’s official site.
3. Next you will need to download the simple service manager from GitHub. From my understanding this program has support for Linux, Mac and Microsoft Windows. If using windows, you only have the download: simple-manager-v1-5-2-windows-32.exe
   1. [https://github.com/r2-studio/robotmon-desktop/releases/tag/v1.5]
4. Once you have downloaded and installed the drivers and simple service manager; you are ready to connect your android device to your pc via usb cord.
5. Your phone will ask permission for your pc to have access to android files. You must allow all access. You might get an option to transfer files to which you can click cancel.
6. You can have the robotmon application already open on your android. Service off in red should appear at the top of the screen.
7. This next step can be confusing without visual representation, you can follow Robotmon's developer site to see the images I am referring to.
8. With your device connected to your computer, you can now open the simple service manager. The simple service manager will open your default browser. You can press update in the middle of the screen to update the equipment list.
9. You should be able to scroll down to see your device has been detected. You will now only have to press start. The simple service manager will open a window that will communicate with your device.
   1. If you are watching your android with the Robotmon application open. You will then see the service go from red off to a green on.
   2. Success!…hopefully

Robotmon Application:

1. Robotmon>Script Store>Disney Tsum Tsum (com.r2studios.Tsumbeta ver65)>Download.
   1. In the Robotmon app, get the Tsum Tsum script from the script store. I’m using the one named “Disney Tsum Tsum Update v65”. Old v52 is outdated, but will function. Version 65 has been patched to have many quality of life settings including opening select boxes and capsules.
2. Go back to the download tab in Robotmon. Tap Disney tsum tsum to the Robotmon script manager to appear in the top left corner of your screen
3. You can now tap the Robotmon face.
   1. You have the option to press play/pause
   2. To turn on the script reader
   3. To configure your settings
   4. And to close the service
4. I like to have the script reader enabled which is placed to the right of the play button.
   1. This allows us to see when an error occurs and what type of error it can be.
5. Next configure your settings by pressing on the gear
6. I will have a link to imgur with my recommended settings.
7. Once you are done picking the Robotmon settings. You can close the settings menu by tapping the gear again. Close the Robotmon app and now open the Disney Line Tsum Tsum Application.
8. If you are on a rooted device a pop up will appear.
   1. You must PERMIT for the Disney line application to be able to see the other files on your device. The application will not allow you to play without permitting.
9. Log into through your line account or any preferred method.
10. Then start the game.
11. With Robotmon on the top right corner you can press the play button and see it work.
12. If at this point an error occurs and nothing happens, I will have a list of common troubleshoot methods listed.

I am open to suggestions for future edits. Please comment below if you have found an error or have questions. I am open to receiving direct messages.
Special Thanks goes to these Line Friends:
MCS
Kin
Jason
Dragon
Coinbot CoinFarmer
Toyboxhunter, whose line group brought me closer to these individuals.
…and most importantly my wife Julia. Without her, I would not be playing this game and apart of this amazing community.

So this might be a user error, but how do I schedule updates for OneUI? Today I was in the middle of a very important conversation with my girlfriend, and OneUI was doing its thing: auto-updating. The thing that made me rage was that first I'm driving, so I have to pull over to unlock my phone and put in my password, and then I recall my girlfriend and recap our conversation. I'm just over it. Also, how do I stop Samsung from automatically downloading games for me? When these updates happen, it downloads random games like cards or cooking. I have a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra with Verizon, if that's important to anyone who can help.

Just for a bit of context, I originally wrote this story for Odd_directions which is a fiction subreddit. We're doing an event over there called Monster May where we write stories about giant monsters. I thought it would be fun to try writing one in a kind of analog/found footage transcript style. This story took me about a week to write. You can consider this to be more experimental on my part because I want to continue this style except with a longer narrative as opposed to this one-off story here.
Anyway, let me know what you think of it and I hope you enjoy it.
On May 22, 2008, a wrecked Honda Accord was found on the Alaskan-Canadian border at approximately 5:30 AM. According to the witness who reported this to the authorities, it seemingly appeared out of nowhere, somehow ending up on its roof in the middle of the road. No driver or passengers were present in the vehicle. The only thing found of note was a video camera, the footage of which revolves around a family of four.
Kent Morris: Owner of the vehicle as indicated by the certificates found in the dashboard. Age: 38
Charlene Morris: Wife to Kent and mother to their children. Age: 36
Lena Morris: Daughter. Estimated Age: 7-8
Deb Morris: son, Estimated Age: 1-2
The following is a transcript of the footage.
It begins with the camera turning on with Lena smiling into it.
Lena: I think I got it working!
Kent: How can you tell?
Lena: Um, the red light is on.
Charlene: Lena, turn that thing off! That’s supposed to be for your cousin’s wedding.
Lena: But I’m bored!
Kent: Alright, we’ll tell you what. You can turn it back on when we get near your aunt and uncle’s town. Okay?
Lena: Okay.
The footage ceases and resumes several hours later. A sign reading “Welcome to Silverwright. Come stay for a while” is shown. Deb is then heard crying which is recorded.
Lena: Mom, Deb won't stop crying!
Charlene: Aw, it's probably just his toothaches.
Some funny faces by her and Kent in the rearview mirror help calm Deb down. Now, he laughs and smiles. The next 30 minutes of footage consists of the surrounding forest area and local businesses.
Kent: Hey, I'm getting hungry. Who wants to grab a bite?
Charlene: I could eat.
Lena: Me too! I'm starving!
Kent: Alright, now the question is where can we stop?
Charlene: Margaret was telling me about a new place that opened up in this town a week ago. I think it was called Betsy's.
Kent: What kind of food does it have?
Charlene: Meat and seafood.
Kent: Sure, that should work. Did Margaret tell you where in town it is?
Charlene: No, sorry.
Kent: No big deal, we'll just keep an eye out for it.
The Morris family does come across the restaurant. The building has a cabin-like exterior with a sign showing a crab holding a fish with Betsy's name over it in green neon lettering. They park and exit their vehicle. Lena films the surrounding area. The sound of buttons on the camera being pressed can be heard.
Presumably, this is her trying to figure out more features about it. Lena activates the zoom function. Upon doing so, some figures can be seen moving amongst trees in the distance. The shadowing makes it difficult to discern, but there appear to be at least three or four, wearing hooded black robes.
Kent: Lena, come on!
The camera zooms out and Lena follows her family into the establishment. The inside is bustling with patrons.
Charlene: Lena, why did you bring that inside? I don't want people looking at us funny.
Lena: But you and Dad said I could use it.
Kent: I mean, she's not wrong.
Charlene gives her husband a look of annoyance. The family then gets a booth. Lena sets down the camera which is angled at the window they are seated in front of. They then make their orders.
Waitress: Alright, just to double check that's going to be one surf and turf plate, an order of stuffed crabs with hush puppies, and two kids' chicken tenders with fries, correct?
Charlene: Yes, thank you so much.
Waitress: And the drinks?
Lena: Coke!
Charlene: No, we can't have you bouncing around our hotel room all night.
Lena: But Mom!
Kent: Listen to your mother, sweety.
Charlene: She'll have a Sprite. I'll have an iced tea, heavy on lemon.
Kent: And I'll have a rum and Coke.
Waitress: And dessert?
Charlene: Baked Alaska.
Kent: Let's see. I could go for some apple pie.
Lena: Strawberry Ice cream!
Charlene: Okay, but you're giving some to Deb.
Lena: Why do I have to?
Charlene: Lena, learn to share.
Lena: Yes, Mom.
While waiting for their food, a ringtone sounds. Kent pulls out his cell phone.
Kent: It's Johnny.
He answers.
Kent: Hey, what's up? No, it's fine. We're about to eat. We're at that new place you and Margaret went to. Yeah, that's the one.
How's Sindy been? Nervous, I bet. Hopefully, it goes well. Brett seems like a good guy. What?
Kent covers the phone and looks at Charlene.
Kent: “Hey, Johnny says Margaret wants to talk to you.”
Charlene agrees and is handed the phone.
Charlene: Hi, Margaret. No, the ride wasn't too bad. Deb and Lena actually behaved better than we thought. What do you need? I mean I could, but it's kind of short notice. It's in a few days. How has she not decided on one yet? I know it's her big day, but at some point, she needs to accept that not everything about it is going to be perfect.
Kent: I can attest to that. Always limit the number of drinks people can have.
Charlene gives Kent another glare before continuing her conversation.
Charlene: Alright, if no one else can, I guess I can make a little time while we're here. Okay, see you soon then. Bye.
Charlene hangs up and hands the phone back to Kent.
Charlene: They want me to help pick out a dress for Sindy.
Kent: This close to the wedding?
Charlene: I know. That girl is smart, but it feels like she can't make a decision to save her life.
The food arrives at the table and the waitress tells them to let her know if they need anything else before leaving. The next hour consists of the family eating.
Kent (while chewing): They weren't kidding. This place hits the spot.
Charlene: Don't talk with your mouth full. It sets a bad example for the kids.
Kent: My bad.
Charlene: The food is great, though. Are you enjoying it too, Lena?
Lena: Yep!
After some time, Charlene excuses herself to go to the restroom and tells Kent to watch their children. Kent lets Lena sip some of his Coke.
Kent: Shit, your mother's coming back. Also, don't say that word.
Lena: Shit?
Kent: No, don't! Yes, Lena, that word.
The meal continues. Something to note here is captured through the window. Once again, this relates to the forest. This time, different colored distortions can be seen, similar to digital glitching. Further analysis of this segment shows that the top of the trees appears to bend slightly.
While this could be due to a camera malfunction, it is unclear why this was condensed to such a small distant area. Upon concluding their meal, the Morris family has the rest of their food to go and exits Betsy's, heading to their hotel, a place known as Salt River Inn. Once inside their room, Lena starts jumping on one of the beds.
Charlene: Kent, did you let her have some Coke?
Kent: No, maybe.
Charlene: I said not to. Lena, get down from there this instant!
Lena is presumably too occupied to hear her mother's command.
Kent: Don't worry. I think I know what might help.
Kent turns on the TV, flipping through the channels until finding that Mulan by Disney is playing, having just begun. Lena stops jumping and sits on the bed, watching the screen tentatively.
Kent: See? No problem. Anyway, I'm heading in the shower. Want to come?
Seeing that their children are occupied, Charlene agrees. Mulan continues playing. The parents exit the bathroom around the movie's climax. Just then, the film is interrupted by a screen reading “Silverwright Weather Service” and an EAS beep sounds from the speakers.
Lena: Hey, where did the movie go?
Below is the message as heard.
[Attention residents of Silverwright, hazardous conditions are expected shortly.]
Kent: Johnny said the weather was supposed to be clear. Damn news people don't know a snake hole from their-
Charlene: Kent, be quiet! I want to hear this.
[For your safety, staying inside and away from windows is recommended. Shut off all lights and unplug all electrical devices to prevent damage due to strong currents.]
Charlene: At least it doesn't sound too serious. Hopefully, this will pass by morn-
[It is also advised that battery-operated devices be turned off as well. This includes cell phones, portable gaming devices, and even calculators. If you must have something on, a radio is most suitable for up-to-date information. Be mindful of volume should you choose this. Conditions are projected to last through the next several nights. We now return to your regularly scheduled program.]
Mulan resumes after a McDonald’s Happy Meal commercial.
Charlene: I wonder if Johnny and Margaret saw this too. Maybe we should give them a call?
Kent: No, I bet they’re sleeping already. You know how they are. Even an earthquake couldn’t wake them.
Charlene: Okay, are you keeping your phone on?
Kent: I don’t see why I shouldn’t.
Charlene: What about what the alert said?
Kent: How should I know? It’s probably like having your phone on airplane mode during a flight. It doesn’t mean anything.
The movie finishes. Charlene tells Lena to get ready for bed. She obeys and afterward lays down to sleep.
Charlene: Lena, did you remember to turn off that camera?
Groggily, Lena turns over and tries to shut it off. In her attempt, she accidentally hits the zoom button on the camera again and knocks it on its side, making it face the window. The red blinking light of a radio tower can be seen far away. Someone is climbing it. This is believed to be one of the hooded figures seen earlier in the video.
They reach the top and seem to raise their arms to the sky in a sort of welcoming gesture. The earlier digital-like distortion appears again. Something comes out of it, either a limb or appendage, and lifts the person, out of view. The distortion then pulses violet and rapidly spreads, soon making the sky above Silverwright the same color. Two hours later, Kent’s phone rings.
Charlene: “It’s after midnight. Who’s calling us now?”
The sound of the bed creaking can be heard.
Kent: Johnny again?
Charlene: I bet Sindy's freaking out that the wedding might be canceled. Answer, but tell him whatever it is will have to wait.
Kent: Hey, Johnny, listen. Wait, Sindy?
The bed creaks again as Kent sits up.
Kent: What? Hang on. I can’t understand you. Let me put you on speaker.
Sindy (sobbing): Mom and Dad are gone. I think something’s happened to them.
Charlene sits up as well. Kent replies to Sindy in a leveled tone.
Kent: Okay, Sindy, I want you to listen closely. Are you somewhere safe?
Sindy: I think so. Brett and I got into an argument earlier. My parents said I could come over. We talked for a while and then I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up about an hour ago to grab something from the fridge. I heard something weird coming from upstairs I wanted to see what it was.
Kent (pausing before replying): What did you find?
Sindy: It sounded like my parents were up so I decided to check on them, but they didn’t respond when I knocked on their door. I decided to try opening it and it was unlocked. They were just standing in front of the window. I think they were staring at something.
Kent: Were you able to see what?
Sindy: No, but the only thing near the house is the woods and that radio tower. Wait, maybe that’s what they were looking at. Their radio was acting weird before it happened.
Kent: Before what happened?
Sindy: Kent…I don’t think I’ll ever be able to comprehend what I saw. There was a purple flash and then their windows were busted in. Something grabbed them. I don’t know what it was. It reminded me of a giant hand only dark like a shadow. They didn’t even scream or anything while they were being pulled away. It was like they were okay with what was happening.
Charlene is the one who replies.
Charlene***:*** Sindy, sweety, tell us where you are in the hose right now and we’ll come get you.
Sindy: I’m in the basement. I figured that would be the safest option. Wait, what is that?
Noises akin to a tornado hitting a home sound through the phone speakers.
Sindy: Oh, god, it’s lifting everything! It’s massive! Wait…Its eyes. I understand everything now. I know I’ll be with my parents again soon.
Charlene: Sindy?
Sindy laughs.
Sindy: It’s so beautiful!
The call ends.
Charlene: We need to leave.
Kent: Leave? What about Sindy? What about Johnny and Margaret?
Charlene: We need to get them some help.
Kent: Okay, let’s try calling the police first.
He attempts and the phone keeps ringing.
Kent: Are you fucking kidding me right now?
Charlene: They must be busy.
Kent: What do we do then, go somewhere else to get help? The nearest town is hours away from here.
Charlene: I don’t see what else we can do.
Kent: I guess you’re right. We better pack.
Charlene and Kent repack their belongings. Charlene grabs the camera and carries Deb while Kent has Lena. Then the family exits the hotel room. The hall and lobby are full of people also trying to reach the exit.
Kent: We're never going to get out of here at this rate. Come on. This way.
They go to an emergency side door and push it open, causing the alarm to go off. Upon reaching their vehicle, there is a sound similar to when a microphone is held up to a speaker. Kent and Charlene let out yells of pain.
Kent: Where the hell is that coming from?
Charlene turns. A figure can be seen floating in the sky above the radio tower. Its appearance is reminiscent of a person's shadow that's been stretched out. Beams of pink light come from its eyes that scan the town below. It has an anomalous effect on whatever it touches. Inanimate objects and people alike vanish, the instant contact is made.
Charlene (voice trembling): What in God's name is happening, Kent?
Lena and Deb can be heard waking up with the latter crying. Their parents put them in the car. The camera is placed on the seat between the two children. Lena rubs her eyes.
Lena: Dad, why are we out here?
Charlene and Kent close their doors. The latter starts the car.
Kent: It's nothing, sweety, we just need to go on a little drive.
He backs out of their parking space and exits the lot, speeding down the road.
Lena: But I want to see Sindy!
Kent: We can't right now.
Lena: Why not?
Kent (voice raised): We just can't, alright?
Lena sobs slightly, but suddenly stops when she notices the camera.
Lena: Um excuse me.
Kent sighs. Charlene answers instead.
Charlene: What is it, honey?
Lena: I accidentally left the camera on.
Charlene: Don't worry about that right now. Just stay quiet and let your father drive, okay?
Lena: Okay.
Charlene: Good.
Lena picks the camera up and faces the back windshield. The creature seems larger than before.
Charlene: Kent!
Kent: I know. I see it in the mirror.
He accelerates.
Lena: Mom, Dad, what's that big thing?
Charlene: Something bad?
Lena: Is it gonna get us?
Charlene: No because we're playing a game with it, tag and if we can outrun it, we'll be safe. If you can help, try to calm your brother down.
Lena: I'll try.
The camera pans over the car floor. The head of a teddy bear sticks out from under the passenger seat. Lena grabs it and hands it to Deb. He stops crying.
Lena: Mom, I did it!
Charlene: That's good, sweety.
Kent continues speeding. On the sidewalk, the pink light washes over pedestrians. They freeze and then raise their arms in the direction of the being before vanishing.
Lena: Where did those people go?
Kent: We don't know.
He sharply turns a corner and goes onto a road that leads out of town.
Charlene: Is that it? Are we safe?
Kent: I think so. I don't know who we can go to about this. We'll try, though.
Lena: Dad?
Kent: Yes?
Lena: What's that thing doing?
The creature is rapidly scanning the area back and forth. Then it stares in their direction. The radio bursts to life with its cry from earlier, causing Kent to nearly go off the road.
Charlene: Keep it straight!
Kent: I'm trying!
The entity rips up several buildings and focuses its light on those areas. It grows and then levitates itself in the air. Its next action is technically flying. Although, its movements are more resemblant to swimming. The noise on the radio increases.
Charlene: Faster, Kent!
Kent: I don't think I can!
Lena: It's gonna catch us!
It dives, going out of view.
Kent: Huh? Where did it go?
Charlene: Kent, the road!
Lena focuses the lens on the front windshield. In the center of the road ahead, the being rises, tall enough to reach the sky. Kent tries sharply turning the steering wheel. It's assumed he is about to attempt a U-turn. Before he can, it shoots its lights at them, making them wash over the car.
It lifts off the road, freezing midair.
Kent (laughs): I get it now.
Charlene: Yes, Sindy was right all along.
Lena: Mom? Dad? What are you talking about? I don't like this.
Charlene: Don't worry, honey. It'll be okay soon.
Nothing else changes at first. Then both parents' bodies began to flatten and stretch out. They laugh as this happens. Deb and Lena begin crying.
Lena: What's happening to you guys?
Charlene: It's okay, honey. It won't hurt soon.
Lena looks at Deb who is also starting to go through the same process. She checks her hands and sees that she is as well. Both shriek as their parents' laughter turns into cackling. Simultaneously, all four family members disappear. The car hits the road and flips several times before coming to a stop.
In the months following the discovery of the Honda Accord, its tag number was used to trace back to the address of the Morris family. This lead went cold because the people who were living there had no idea who they were. By using the address of that home, we determined the possible location of Silverwright. According to our calculations, it should have been on the border going into Canada, but when we went to investigate, it was as if nothing had ever been there.
It's unclear whether the town belonged to the US state of Alaska or the Canadian Province of Yukon. However, as far as the two governments are concerned both Silverwright and the Morris family have never existed.

Hello everyone,
I recently changed the lock screen pattern on my Samsung Galaxy A23, and now I'm unable to unlock my phone. It keeps saying the pattern is incorrect. I’ve tried using the old pattern, but that didn’t work either. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Samsung account, which limits my options for unlocking it.
Does anyone know how I can unlock my phone and solve this issue without losing my data? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The pain was the worst thing`Dominick Mason had ever known…and he knew what it felt like to die. It felt like his brain was in a blender, being chopped to liquid for a Jeffery Dahmer smoothie and though it seemed melodramatic, he imagined he could feel himself losing brain cells by the minute. The sun, Merrick told him, would not burn him, but it would decay him faster, so sleep or rest during the day. With the sick, throbbing agony in the center of his brain, however, that was impossible. He spent most of the day curled up on his side, hugging his knees, and moaning. He had flashbacks to dying in his apartment, and that made things even worse. The room became too small, too close, the air too stale. His heart, filled with the blood of last night’s meal, pounded in his chest, and he went from slightly chilly to hot and feverish as blood was forced through his circulatory system. It mixed with the embalming fluid and left him feeling full and constipated. He didn’t want to get up, but he also didn’t want to go on lying there. He was the definition of miserable.
Before long, the pain became too great and he got up to pace, pressing his hands to the sides of his head and gritting his teeth. Merrick, who slept very little if at all, sat in his chair and watched, trying his best to talk him through it. “It’ll be over soon,” Merrick said. “The pain receptors in your brain are the first to go. When they burn out, you won’t feel anything.”
“When?” Dom asked, his voice raising with the tide of pain.
“A couple days?”
“A couple days???”
“The pain will lessen gradually,” Merrick said, “this is the worst of it.”
Dom believed that this was, indeed, the worst of it, but he doubted it would lessen gradually. For the rest of the day, the pain got worse and worse until every light blinded him, every sound turned his stomach, and the smell of anything made his gorge rise. The cloying smell of the embalming fluid, the light but unmistakable odor of dead flesh, and the scent of stale blood sitting in decomposing stomachs made him want to vomit, but he was afraid to. He didn’t think he could handle the sight of blood rushing from his mouth and splattering the floor. He still possessed enough of his facilities, he believed, to go insane.
Pain has a way of darkening one’s mood, and by the time the sun began to set, Dom was in the most sour mood possible. Even Merrick’s calm, fatherly voice was beginning to get on his nerves. When he took the oath to him the day before (or was it the day before that?), he turned his faith and trust over to Merrick entirely. He was finally accepted, included, finally had the love and fellowship that, in the pit of his soul, he had always wanted. Merrick understood him, Merrick was kind to him.
But deep down, Dom realized that he didn’t fully trust him. He said that his brain didn’t rot because he was “lucky.” That sounded like some bullshit to Dom. Why wasn’t Joe a blithering idiot too? Was he lucky as well? Did lightning strike in the same place twice? In life, people had done nothing but hurt and lie to Dom. Why would death be any different? He thought back to the strange liquid that always seemed to leak from Merrick’s nose, and Joe’s. He thought it was embalming fluid, but it never leaked from his own nose, or from anyone else’s. He tried to tell himself that it was far too soon to judge, but once he began to doubt something, his mind raced away. He felt a twinge of guilt, as Merrick had done absolutely nothing to deserve his doubt, but goddamn it, his head was on fire and he wanted it to stop. Anything to make it stop.
Just after sundown, the music began as Club Vlad opened for the night. It throbbed in the center of Dom’s head and made him want to claw his eyes out. When it became too much for him, he slipped away and stumbled into the sultry summer night. He came out in the alley running behind the club, clutching his head and breathing through bared teeth. He staggered, bumped into a metal trash can, and roared at the top of his lungs, as if he could purge himself of the pain by screaming.. His voice echoed and came back to him, making the pain worse.
Merrick was lying. He knew it. People always lied to him. His brain was rotting and PEOPLE WERE LYING! Flashing with anger, he slammed his fist into the brick wall of a Chinese restaurant. He barely felt anything so he did it again and again until his hand was lumpy and shaking. He sat heavily on the ground and pressed his hands to his head. It felt like maggots were burrowing into his brain, and he was suddenly terrified that they really were. He needed to stop this awful pain, but how?
An idea came to him.
The funeral home.
Maybe there was something there.
He was on his feet and lumbering there before the thought had even finished reverberating through his mind. It was a long shot, but he was desperate. On the way there, he stuck to the shadows, staying out of the light cast by the streetlamps and avoiding people. When he passed them, he kept his head down. When he reached the funeral home, he went to the back door where he and Jessie had gone the other day. He tried it, and it opened.
Inside, he bounced off the walls like a pinball, knocking over an end table and tearing at the flesh of his head, pulling it away in long, gray strips. He panted like a wild animal, his body a raging tempest of emotions. It was reaching a crescendo, he thought, his brain was about to go supernova. The world dimmed, things got really echoy. The young man he’d picked the embalming fluid up from was there, looking scared.
Flashing, Dom grabbed him by his shirt and slammed him against the wall, knocking a painting of a flowery field to the carpet. Everything seemed to go in slow mo. “How does Merrick keep his brain from rotting?” Dom heard himself demanding from far away. “How does he keep the pain away?”
The man trembled. “I-I-”
Dom slammed him again. “Tell me or I’ll make you like me.”
“No!” the man wailed. He shook his head from side to side, his eyes wet with fear.
“How?”
“He-He uses a solution,” the man stammered. “Some kind of special thing. It preserves his brain. That’s all I know.”
An idea occurred to Dom.
Holding the man by the back of his neck, Dom dragged him into the embalming room and pushed him against the table. His head felt like it was swelling. Hot, screaming, getting ready to explode. He looked around, found the embalming machine, and grabbed the hose. There was a sharp tip on it so that you could jam it into a body. He held it in his hand, hesitating for just a moment before pressing it to his temple. The man watched in horror as Dom slowly shoved the tip into his head. It tore his flesh, broke through his skull, and sank into his brain. He felt no pain, only pressure, but cried out anyway. His eyes rolled up into his head and a shudder went through his body.
“Turn it on!” he yelled.
“That’s not what he -”
“TURN IT ON!”
Starting, the man turned the machine on. Cold embalming fluid squirted directly into Dom’s brain. Almost at once, the pain began to ebb away, replaced only by a fuzzy sense of numbness. His knees buckled and he sank to the floor, looking for all the world like an addict taking a hit of his favorite substance after a long and trying day. Fluid leaked from his nose, ears, and eyes and dripped down the back of his throat.
The man waited for a long time, then turned the machine off.
The pain was gone.
At least for now.
“Tell me again,” Dom said.
The man did. Merrick used a special preserving agent to keep his brain intact. Joe, the man suspected, got it as well. So Merrick had lied to him.
Dom felt betrayed.
And angry.
Leaving the man (Dom realized that he didn’t even know his name), he walked back to Club Vlad, his hands fisted in his pockets. All his life, he had been hurt, lied to, and ignored. All his life, people had done wrong to him. And all those years, he just took it.
He resolved not to be so accepting in death.
At last, he was going to stop being a sniveling little bitch and stand up for himself.
When he reached Club Vlad, he slammed through the back door and took the stairs two at a time. At the top, he called out Merrick’s name. The old man was sitting in his chair, being attended to by Jessie and Matt. He looked startled when Dom came in. “You lied to me,” Dom said, stalking over to his benefactor.
“What are you talking about?” Merrick asked, doing his best to sound innocent.
“You lied to me!” Dom screamed. He bent over and got so close to Merrick’s face that he could have kissed him. “You told me there was no way to save my brain, but that’s not true. You’re pumping your head full of shit and letting the rest of us rot.”
A dark shadow flickered across Merrick’s face. “Watch your tone when you talk to me,” he said. His voice was low, menacing.
“Fuck you,” Dom said. “I should k -”
Suddenly, Dom was being grabbed from behind and yanked back, an arm around his neck. He cried out in alarm as Joe swung him around and slammed him face first into the wall. He heard his nose crunch, felt his teeth shatter. Next, Joe wrestled him to the glitter-sprinkled floor and wedged his knee between his shoulder blades.
Merrick watched with a sneer of disgust, his hands gripping the arms of his chair. He wheeled himself over, Jessie holding his IV stand steady and following behind. “Listen, you son of a bitch,” Merrick said, “you’re lucky to be a part of this family.”
Cold fear filled the pit of Dom’s stomach, yet he wouldn’t back down, couldn’t back down. He had lived his entire life like a mouse in a burrow, he wasn’t about to live his entire death the same way.
“Fuck your family,” he said defiantly. “And fuck you.”
Merrick’s face darkened and he sat back in his chair. He looked at Jessie and nodded. She went away and came back a moment later holding something in her hand. Dom’s eyes widened when he saw what it was.
A wooden stake, one end honed to a razor point.
Why they had one of those lying around, Dom didn’t know; it’d be like Superman keeping a piece of kryptonite on the mantle over the fireplace. Merrick directed Max and Matt to hold Dom’s arms down/ Joe pivoted, kneeling on his head now so that Dom’s back was exposed. Dom’s heart slammed with terror and tremors raced through his body.
“Is this what you want, Dominick?” Merrick asked. “To die? To truly die?”
Dom swallowed hard. No, it wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to live, to love, to have a family one day. He wanted a happy, normal life, the life TV and social media had been promising him since he was a little boy.
But all of that went out the window the night he died in his little apartment. There was no life anymore, just a grotesque parody of life. What was there for him other than death? Clinging desperately onto life for decades like Merrick? Stuffing himself full of embalming fluid and moth balls? Grinding for one more minute just so he could sit hooked up to a machine?
Dom spoke.
“What?” Merrick asked, not having heard.
Dom licked his lips. “Just fucking do it.”
For a moment, nothing happened. Expectation hung in the air. Finally, breaking the tension, Merrick nodded to Jessie. Kneeling down, she brought the stake up, and Dom closed his eyes.
This was it.
He braced himself for death.
Jessie brought the stake down just as a shot rang out, deafening in the small space. Her head whipped back, embalming fluid, skull fragments, and gray, sickly pieces of brain showering from the back of her head. She flopped back and landed on the floor with a sickening thud.
A woman cop, her black uniform in stark contrast to the burning white light, stood in the doorway to the hall, her gun drawn. Everyone did, indeed, freeze, more out of surprise than respect for authority. They all looked at her, their dead mouths agape, resembling children who’d been caught doing something wrong.
“Everyone on the ground!” she barked.
No one knew what to do. They hadn’t expected to be raided by the police so had not prepared. She jerked her gun and everyone instinctively flinched. “On the ground!” she repeated. To Max: “You too, bone boy.”
The first one to react was Joe. He sprang at her like a big, undead frog. She brought the gun around and fired, but he was already crashing into her. The shot went wild and struck the IV bag next to Merrick; he ducked and let out a sound of fear. The others rushed her, and Dom got quickly to his feet. Jessie lay on the floor, her mouth open in a silent scream and her bony fingers frantically examining the ragged hole in the center of her forehead. For a moment, he was frozen; everything was happening too fast. Then, when Merrick saw him and cried, “Stop him!, he came alive. Jessie tried to grab at his leg, but he kicked her hand away and stomped on it like it was a giant spider. On the other side of the room, Matt, Joe, and Max had forced the cop to the ground. Perhaps excited by all the action, perhaps just hungry, they began to tear her apart. She howled in pain, and the last thing Dom saw before he fled was her open, blood-filled mouth. Her eyes were filled with pain…with terror.
After that, Dom ran.
***
When the interloper was dead, Merrick directed Joe and Matt to dispose of the body. “Get rid of it,” he said wearily and rubbed his temples, “make sure it isn’t found.”
They rolled her into a carpet from the office, and the way her feet stuck out may have been comical under other circumstances.
Goddamn it, this was bad. Merrick’s entire philosophy rested on avoiding detection. He had done well in that regard. Whereas other vampires had attacked their villages and gotten themselves dug from the ground and staked, he had made it four decades. He never shat where he ate, and there is no bigger turd than killing a cop. They might dawdle on all the boys who’d gone missing - taken because their blood was stronger and more robust than the blood of girls - but they would not take a cop dying lightly at all.
Merrick owned various businesses around the country. He and the others would simply move on. Tomorrow night, they would disappear into the night. They had done it before and they would likely do it again. Once things were settled at their new base of operations, he would have Joe killed for all the trouble he’d caused.
And Dom?
Let him go.
The little rat wouldn’t last a month on his own.
“Jessie?”
Jessie sat against the wall, gazing into space.
“Jessi…start packing. We’re leaving tomorrow.”
She didn’t move, didn’t seem to hear. The shot had all but lobotomized her.
Damn it.
Joe backed the van up to the back door of Club Vlad, and then helped Matt carry the carpet-rolled body down the stairs. They loaded it in and closed the back doors. Together, they drove around looking for a place to dump it. Merrick wanted it to go unfound, but Joe doubted there was anywhere isolated enough in the city. On a whim, he drove to Washington Park, a vast expanse of green trees and shadows. There was a large pond there. It seemed the best option. They were leaving tomorrow anyway, so did it really matter?
Joe backed the van to a railing overlooking the dark water and put it in park. He and Matt got out, fetched the body, and carried it to the railing. They lifted and heaved it over. It splashed. Thus, they rid themselves of Vanessa Rodregiez.
***
Bruce sat anxiously up in his easy chair and waited for his cell to ring.
Parked in front of the TV by warm lamplight, a beer wedged between his legs, he’d been watching the 11’o’clock news when the phone rang. He picked it up and it was Vanessa. “Hey,” she said, “I think I found our body?”
“Which one?” Bruce asked and took a drink. “We have a lot of those these days.”
“Dominick Mason.”
Bruce sat forward in his chair. “Dead Dom? Where?”
“He just came out of a funeral home, ironically enough.”
“That sounds about right,” Bruce said. “Where are you now?”
“I’m following him east on Central.”
“Are you sure it’s him?” Bruce asked.
“I think so, but I’m not sure. I’ll call you back when I’m done.”
Bruce sat the phone aside and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
At some point, he fell asleep sitting up, his head lulled to one side and his mouth open. He snorted himself awake, rubbed his eyes, and sat up. He checked his phone and was perturbed to see that it was past 2am.
Vanessa hadn’t called.
He dialed her number and let the phone ring until it went to voicemail. Sighing, he ended the call, then waited a few minutes and called again.
Still no answer.
It was possible she had forgotten. Maybe the guy turned out to not be Dead Dom after all. She followed some random guy around, realized it, and that was that. Hell, she was probably too embarrassed to call and tell him about it.
Something told him that wasn’t right, however.
There was something else going on here.
Something…darker.
Just before 3am, his phone rang. He snatched it off the end table next to the chair and answered it. It was Burt, the night sargent. “Rodriguez is missing,” he said simply.
Bruce’s heart sank. “Missing?”
“Yeah, she hasn’t checked in for hours and she isn’t answering calls.”
“I’m on my way,”
Bruce tore through the house, pulling on his uniform, socks, and shoes in less time than it took a Daytona 500 pit crew to service a car. In ten minutes he was speeding down 787, the Albany skyline rising in the distance. As he hurried to the station, he thought back to his last conversation with Vanessa. She’d found Dom the Dead Man, the “corpse” who’d scared Ed Harris out of a 20 year career. Despite all their talk about vampires and the living dead, Bruce didn’t believe it, not really. Even so, he was sure that Dominick Mason had done something to Vanessa.
He checked in at the station before doing anything else. They had triangulated Vanessa’s last known location via cell towers. Cops were already out searching the streets for her. Bruce went out as well, intending to start from her last known position and work his way east on Central. The closest funeral home was Tebbutt and Frederick on Central. There was also Lasak & Gigliotti on North Allen Street. Bruce didn’t know which one Vanessa had seen Dom come out of, so he checked both.
Both were deserted at this hour.
Undeterred, Bruce drove up and down Central Ave. At one point, he noticed a shape in an alleyway that looked human. He hit the brakes, jumped out, and pointed his gun at it. “Freeze!”
An old wino stepped out of the darkness. “Alright, you got me,” he said, hands up. “I started COVID. It was an accident, I swear.”
Bruce sighed and put his gun away.
For two more hours, Bruce searched the streets of Albany for Vanessa. At 4am, he spotted a squad car abandoned in the rear parking lot of an abandoned gas station on lower Lark Street. He called it in and the desk sergeant confirmed that it was the one Vanessa had signed out that night.
Still there was no sign of Vanessa herself.
Just after dawn, as the city came alive and CDTA buses began lumbering up and down the streets, Bruce got a call on his cell. “A jogger found a body in Washington Park.”
Bruce was in his personal car. He had no bubble light, no siren. Even so, he sped through the streets like he did, blowing through red lights and stop signs with little care to himself or anyone else. When he got to Washington Park, he found an army cops by the pond, the scene cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape. He slammed on the brakes, threw open the door, and jumped out without even turning off the engine.
The body was rolled up in a carpet and lying on the bank. Two beat cops unrolled it at Bruce’s direction. “We should wait for -” one of them started, but Bruce cut him off.
“Do it.”
They compiled, and at the carpet’s center, like a rotten cream filling, was the body of Vanessa Rodregiuez. Her head was tilted to one side, her eyes wide and staring. Her throat had been mangled and ripped away, her head nearly severed. Even in the black and red mess, Bruce could make out the teeth marks and puncture wounds. They may have looked like something else to anyone else who saw them, but he knew, in that moment, what they were dealing with.
A sharp pang of horror sliced through him, and his knees went weak.
“Jesus Christ,” one of the beat cops drew.
Bruce fell to, rather than knelt on, one knee. He bent over the body, a mixture of horror and grief welling his throat. He wanted to reach out, to comfort her in death, but he stayed his hand. Instead, he visually examined the body. She had bruises on her face, defensive wounds on her hands, and her gun was gone. Whoever had attacked her, she put up a fight.
Something glinted on her pants.
“What’s that?” one of the cops asked.
“I dunno,” the other replied, “but it’s all over the carpet.”
Indeed, there were glinty little specks all over it, winking like mocking eyes. Nice work, eh? We really fucked her up, didn’t we? Wink wink.
“It looks like…”
The other cop cut him off. “Glitter.”
Bruce flashed back to his visit to Club Vlad the other day.
There had been glitter everywhere.
Bruce stood up.
He had work to do.
***
Instead of going back to the station to start his shift, Bruce went to Lowes. There, he bought a mallet, a gas can, and a dozen sticks of wood. An employee in a blue vest used a machine to sharpen them to a wicked point and he took his purchases to the car. Next, he drove over to the Mobil station and filled the gas can. He was so hellbent on revenge that he sprang for premium, the good stuff. No expense shall be spared.
His final stop was at a Catholic church. He filled a canteen with holy water from the marble font by the door, then swiped a crucifix from the wall. He stopped by the station, went inside, and grabbed a black duffle bag with POLICE written across the front in yellow. He opened the gun cabinet in his office, took out a shotgun, and loaded it with shells. He grabbed a handful from the box and stuffed them into his pocket.
He was just finishing up when Bertha came in. “There you are,” she spat, “I’ve waited long enough for you to do something. I demand -”
Bruce shoved the duffle bag into her arms. “Make yourself useful.”
“What?” she demanded.
“We’re going to get your granddaughter,” Bruice lied. Kind of.
Bertha’s demeanor changed. “Good. It’s about time. I was starting to think you were a complete incompetent.”
Bruce didn’t answer. Outside, he plucked the bag out of Bertha’s hands and tossed it into the backseat. He slipped behind the wheel and Bertha sat in the passenger seat. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“Club Vlad,” Bruce said and started the engine.
“I want all of them arrested.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Bruce said.
She barked orders the entire way there. Bruce was so deep in his thoughts that he barely heard her. The image of Vanessa’s ruined throat and terror-twisted face haunted him, and he felt a lump forming in his throat. Hot tears filled his eyes but he blinked them back and forced himself to calm down.
I’ll cry when I’m done killing, he thought.
A few minutes later, he pulled to the curb in front of Club Vlad. It was a hot and sunny day and the place seemed even more ominous because of it. The windows were black, the front cast in perpetual shadows by the old marquee from when it used to be a theater. The place was surely closed, but Bruce could hear music still playing from inside, some techno dance bullshit. “Alright,” he said, “let’s go.”
Getting out, he slung the dufflebag over his shoulder and carried the shotgun, the canteen full of holy water clasped to his belt. Bertha carried the gas can, looking confused. “Why do we need this?” she asked.
“We’re burning the place down.”
Bertha blinked in surprise…then an evil grin carved across her face. “That’ll show the bastards.”
Unlike last time, the door was locked. Bruce used the butt of the shotgun to break the glass, then reached inside and unlocked the door, being careful not to cut himself. This was the point of no return. What he had in mind would probably get him kicked off the force or even thrown in jail - and we all know how tough jail can be for a former barnaclehead. The memory of Vanessa’s contorted face pushed him on, however.
He’d suffer any consequences he needed to just so long as he got the sons of bitches who did this to her.
Inside, the club was cool and cave-like. Strobe lights flashed, on and off, black and white, dazzling Bruce’s eyes. The bartender was at his station, cleaning up from the night before. When he saw Bruce and Bertha come in, he started. Bruce pointed the shotgun at him. “Don’t fucking move,” he commanded.
The bartender hesitated, then reached for something under the bar.
The shotgun kicked in Bruce’s hands, and the bartender flew back, turning as he crashed into the barback. Bottles, glasses, and mugs crashed to the floor along with the bartender. Bruce racked the gun, and the shell flew out. He moved low and fast now, expecting to be swarmed by vampires, living thugs who worked for vampires, or vampire thugs who worked for themselves.
Though the shot had been like thunder, no one came.
Bruce had no idea where to go, but he imagined that vampires were naturally gravitate to the lowest part of the building. Was there a basement? Shit, he should have looked up the building plans at city hall. Damn, this is what happens when you go off half-cocked. He searched around a bit, opening doors and sweeping the rooms beyond with the shotgun. He found no basement, only stairs leading up. “Stay close,” he said to Bertha.
In the lead, Bruce crept up the stairs, the flashlight on the shotgun providing a cone of clean, white light. At the top of the stairs, he went right, and came to an office and a store room. Backtracking, and bumping into a bungling Bertha, he went into the next room. It was large and open with a vaulted ceiling, almost like a ballroom. Here the same strobe lights throbbed on and off, making him dizzy. Was this to dazzle prospective vampire hunters?
Either way, this was the place. Bodies lay strewn across the floor, some curled up on their sides and others in the classic vampire pose: Flat on their backs with their hands laced over their chests. In the center, like the sun to the planets, Merrick Garvis lay slumped back in his wheelchair, his neck exposed for any potential assassin to come and cut. Not that it would kill him. At least Bruce didn’t think it would.
“They’re all dead,” Bertha whispered. She looked around and gasped. “There’s Jessie.”
Jessie lay on her back, her hands folded on her chest. She had a ragged bullet hole in the center of her forehead. “Oh, God,” Bertha wavered, “someone shot her.”
He hoped it was Vanessa. And he hoped it fucking hurt.
Looking around, Bruce couldn’t find Dominick Mason. Was he the one who killed Vanessa? Was it a group effort? He wanted the little son of a bitch bad, but it looked like he’d have to go on without him. They didn’t have much time.
Unshouldering the duffle bag, he knelt down and rummaged around. “Start splashing that gas on the bodies,” he said.
“But -”
“Just do it,” he snapped.
There must have been a harder edge in his voice than normal, because Bertha jumped and did as she was told. She upended the can and began to splash gasoline onto the sleeping forms, the smell of it acrid and strong.
Taking out a stake and the mallet, Bruce went over to Merrick and knelt down. He gripped the stake in one hand and placed it firmly against Merrick’s chest. He brought the mallet up and hesitated, the gravity of what he was doing finally reaching him. What if he was wrong? What if -
Merrick’s head whipped up and their eyes locked.
Too late.
Bruce brought the mallet down as hard as he could. The stake drove deep into Merrick’s heart, and the vampire let out a howling screech that rang through the chamber like the cry of a banshee. His bony fingers clawed at the stake and his head whipped from side to side, his back arching and his robe coming open. In the quick strobe pattern, Bruce was shocked to see that his body was little more than a wood frame, chicken wire, and cotton balls. His blacked heart was hidden behind a screen of mesh that the stake had easily torn through. It throbbed, seemingly in time with the strobe lights, and Merrick let out another wail.
Bertha screamed, and Bruce jumped to his feet.
The vampires, drawn by their master’s cries of distress, were rising to their feet. Two, four, six of them, pale and ethereal like ghosts in a gothic mansion. They came toward Merrick, and Bruice fell back a step. The old man had gone still and lay slumped to one side, his eyes open and his mouth slack, embalming fluid leaking from the corner of his lips. Jessie bent over him and touched his face. Though she moved like a zombie, with no human emotion, Bruce was crazily sure that it was a touch of tenderness and love. Merrick didn’t stir.
He was dead.
Jessie looked at him. Yellow liquid leaked from her eyes like tears. Instead of attacking him, she turned on her grandmother and slammed her against the wall. Bertha screamed and dropped the can. It landed on its side, its contents sloshing out onto the floor. A man that resembled the pictures Bruce had seen of Joe Rossi only deader rushed him, slamming into him and knocking the shotgun aside. It hit the floor and skidded away. Joe grabbed Bruce around the throat and squeezed. Still the lights flashed, off and on, off and on. The walls thrummed with the mechanized beat of dance music, pierced only by Bertha’s screams as Jessie ripped out her throat.
Joe leaned in, his fangs wicked and glowing in the light. Bruce clawed at the monster’s face, tearing away strips of dead flesh. Joe turned his head to the side, and Bruce kneed him in the groin. Even dead, getting kicked in the balls hurt like hell, apparently. Joe’s grip loosened and Bruce was able to shove him off. Bruce unclasped the canteen and frantically screwed the cap off as Joe recovered. Joe sprang at him again, and Bruce splashed him in the face.
A sound like sizzling meat filled the air, and Joe screamed at the top of his lungs. He pressed his hands to his face and danced around the room, his skin liquifying and oozing between his fingers. The others were coming now, led by a terrible skeletal thing. Bruce scooped the shotgun off the floor, brought it around, and fired. The blast hit the thing dead center, tearing it literally in half. The top half flew back, an all too human look of surprise on its face, and the bottom half fell over with a wet thud. Another vampire came at, and Bruce slammed it across the face with the butt of the gun. He heard its jaw crack, saw teeth flying.
Bertha lay dead on the floor, Jessie bent over her. The smell of Bertha’s blood attracted the others, who seemed to forget about Bruce, Merrick, and everything else. Joe was on his knees, wailing in pain, and the skeletal thing was pulling itself toward Bertha. A feeding frenzy broke out as vampires fought to get a piece of her the way piglets might fight over their mother’s teat. Bruce watched in a mixture of horror and fascination, but recovered himself. He grabbed the gas can from the floor and dumped the rest of its contents on Merrick’s body, the feeding vampires’ backs, and the floor, using the last of it to make a little trail to the door. He tossed the can aside, bent down, and stuck a match.
A huge, fiery whump filled the room, and fire streaked along the trail. The vampires all went up in a huge ball of flames, and fire shot up Merrick’s body, catching his robe, his hair, and the wooden frame that had kept him semi upright for God knows how long. Letting out inhuman screams, the vampires broke from Bertha’s corpse. One stumbled around, bounced off the wall, and fell; another toddled toward Bruce before falling to its knees. The half skeleton kept drinking from Bertha’s neck even as it burned.
The heat was enormous, baking. Bruce backed away, and the last thing he saw before smoke obscured his vision was Merrick Garvis.
He was literally melting.
***
Dominick Mason tried to go home, but he no longer had a home. All of his worldly possessions sat on the sidewalk in front of his building, discarded coldly as easily. His key didn’t work in his door and there was a FOR RENT sign on it. Why would it be any other way? He was dead. Sooner or later, everyone forgets you when you’re dead, and all the things you held so dear wind up in the trash. It was a hard pill to swallow, but most people aren’t around to see it after they die.
He was.
From his building, he walked east toward Washington Park. In the distance, thick, black smoke billowed into the air, and sirens rose. He barely noticed and wouldn’t have cared even if he did. No more rubbernecking for him. That was for the living.
The pain that had plagued him so the previous day came back, only less this time. Maybe he was imagining it, but it was getting harder to think. Not that he cared, really. What was there to think about anyway? How he had no one to mourn or miss him? How he died and not one single person, except for maybe his mother, cared, or even noticed? How he had done nothing with his life? Even to the women he’d slept with, what was he? Just another dating app hookup. They probably didn’t even remember his name.
Merrick had been right about one thing. Death was easy. It was life that was hard…life that hurt.
With that in mind, Dominick made his way to Washington Park. It was a vast and deep place with many small caves and thickets. Kids played on the playground, their cries of laughter scenting the still air. It had grown cloudy and began to rain. Still, smoke poured into the sky in the direction of Club Vlad. Dom didn’t wish ill on Merrick and the others, didn’t hope it was them burning. He didn’t care anymore. Not about them, not about anyone. For better or worse (and he would argue it was worse), his life was over. His time came days ago, he just missed the boat.
Picking out an isolated little area, Dom sat against a tree with his legs splayed out in front of him. He titled his head back and closed his eyes. Yes, thinking was hard now. His mind felt sluggish, cold. He was thirsty…so, so thirsty, but he ignored it.
Slowly, the bugs found him. Flies buzzed around him and laid their eggs in his skin. Beetles scuttled over him, followed by worms.
Next, it was the birds. They ate out his eyes and nibbled at his blue, bloated skin.
The animals came last.
Their appetites were bigger.
And they left little remaining of poor, outcast Dominick Mason.
***
That night, Bruce sat alone in his little trailer, a bottle of whiskey wedged between his legs and unshed tears in his eyes. He stared at his reflection in the darkened TV set and took long swallows from the bottle. He planned to drink until he forgot or passed out, whichever came first. He tried to not think about Vanessa, but in his addled state, he couldn’t control himself, and began to cry. When that storm passed, like the others before it, he chugged from the bottle.
As distant church bells clanged the hour - midnight - a feeble knock came at the door. Bruce took another drink and it came again. Getting up, he stumbled, nearly fell, and gripped the bottle tightly. He didn’t want to lose one precious drop.
Again, the knock.
“I’m coming,” Bruce slurred. He staggered to the door and fought with the lock. He was dizzy and seeing double.
When he got it, he opened the door.
The bottle dropped from his hand and clanked onto the floor.
Vanessa, clad in a puke green hospital gown, stood on the step, her hands pressed to her chest and a look of anguish on her milk white face. Her head tilted to one side, the wounds on her neck cleaned but open, gaping. Her dark eyes shone with tears. “I’m dead,” she said.
Breaking down in tears, she collapsed against him and they sank to the floor. She was cold and smelled. Bruce wrapped his arms around her and held her to his chest anyway. “Shhh, it’s alright,” he said drunkenly. “Hey, it’s alright.
“I’m dead,” she repeated, and her voice broke. “I don’t want to die.”
Bruce held her close, trying to warm her icy skin. He didn’t know what to say, so he cried with her.
“You’re safe now,” he said, “it’s going to be okay.”
“I want blood,” she said and sobbed harder, “I want to hurt people.”
“Shhh,” Bruce said again. “It’s okay.”
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a utility knife. He flicked the blade across his wrist and searing pain shot up his arm. “Here,” he said and offered her his blood, “drink this.”
He did this without care and without thought. She needed him, and one barnaclehead always backs up another.
Vanessa hesitated, looking from his face to the oozing blood, unsure.
“Go ahead,” he told her.
Vanessa brought his wrist to her mouth.
And began to drink.

https://reddit.com/link/1ctg5xa/video/z77timxf8t0d1/player
[Personally recommended topics to search]

• Project Astra
• Starline

[Highlights]

1. Gemini is now supporting 2M tokens

• 2. Project Astra (cell phone real-time multimodal assistant)
• 3. Gemini Flash (cheaper and faster multimodal 1M)
• 4. Veo (video creation)
• 5. 6th generation TPU (Trillium)
• 6. PaliGemma
• 7. Gemma 2
• 8. NotebookLM (aka. Tailwind)
• 9. MusicFX, VideoFX

[Personal Thoughts]

1. Google mentioned "Gemini" more often than "AI" this time.(Sundar Pichai mentioned AI 121 times.)
2. Google is focusing on integrating Gemini Multimodality across all areas, covering both recognition and generation of video, audio, and text.
3. Increasing Gemini's token size seems aimed at detailed personalized info and integrated services. This was clear in Project Astra with real-time Gemini Pro integration and Context Caching, which saves costs and speeds up processing. - Comparing Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s GPT: - Both have significant multimodal achievements. OpenAI leads in generative capabilities, while Google excels in token range. OpenAI has better API integration, but Google is superior in on-device integration. - OpenAI's massive model has high reasoning abilities, but Google's strategy includes:

3-1. On-device capabilities (Nano in Android OS, circle image search on Samsung phones, PaliGemma). Google’s mobile OS and partnerships give it an edge.
3-2. Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Email, Photos). Examples include organizing receipts in Drive and Sheets or Google Photos creating albums based on specific moments, showing the large model’s business applications.
3-3. As a search engine company, Google is developing technology to verify data with search engine data to prevent hallucinations, giving it a competitive edge.

1. The realtime capability of the multimodal model was surprising. I used the Project Astra demo; multimodal audio recognition was accurate and real-time, with seamless interrupt handling. The process wasn’t in sync but handled with low latency, showing significant improvements in usability for voice interfaces and multimodal models.
   
2. The main takeaway from this I/O was that multimodal models can be responsive enough for actual products and are currently available.
   
3. Examples were provided of how Gemini can integrate into Chrome, Search, Android Mobile, and Google Workspace to enhance user convenience. ("Here's an example" was a common phrase.) Integrating these elements with multimodal capabilities could significantly change everyday life. I have a Gemini Office Hour with a Googler tomorrow, full of questions about Gemini’s multimodal latency. Until 2 PM during this event, I didn't hear keywords like TensorFlow/Jax, and there was little talk about the Cloud. Vertex AI was mentioned occasionally with Gemini, and the rest was about TPU 6th generation.
   
4. The core question was whether multimodal models could positively impact our lives. Even now, there are no significant use cases beyond chatbots. Who will make this a reality? This has been my interest, and at this I/O, I saw numerous examples. If Google had integrated chat and document apps, we’d spend most of our time with Gemini. For code, it seems to be entering with Project IDX, sharing portions of the IDE.
   

Hi All!
I have been looking to make my phone as theft resistant as possible I think I may have found a fundamental flaw with how device tracking works if my phone were ever to be stolen. I have a Samsung phone with an E-Sim mounted so that it cannot be removed by any potential thief. But I have noticed that if the phone were to be force restarted, the tracking services do not start until the first unlock has been performed.
Is there any way to force these services to start before first unlock and give me a small hope of retrieving my device if a would-be thief snatched my phone?
Many thanks :)

I have a pixel 8 pro (aka android).
I accidentally hit yes to backing up my photos when a pop up came up unexpectedly.
My Google photos is full and I can't send emails anymore.
I have already "turned backup off" through my phone's photo app, but if I delete a photo from my email on my laptop, it still gets deleted from my cell phone, which I don't want.
How do I unsync my phone's app from my Gmail backup so that I can mass-delete the photos from the Gmail backup and unlock my email?
I searched other answers to this question on this subreddit, followed the advice to turn the backup off, but it still won't allow me to delete from my computer without losing the photos on my phone. I'm missing something, and I'm desperate.
Thanks in advance.

I keep my notepad regularly updated. These were my thoughts on the first week of my new phone and then after months later with extended use. Here it is:
HONOR MAGIC 5 PRO
(My guess is that the cameras would fail first 27/12/23)
*GOOD*✓
PRICE, performance, camera, thermals, super bright, ltpo 1-120hz, ufs 4.0(won't struggle loading gallery photos), battery 5100mah amazing battery life, 220g, 3x 50mp cameras with night video + night selfies + cinematic mode + macro mode etc, ultrasonic fingerprint, 3d face unlock.
•Really nice Extended screenshots that aren't bugged (looking at you OnePlus 7 pro)
•Dual apps and dual sims
• I knew the camera was good but wow but still lacking optimisation in tough scenarios.
• I never knew screens could actually get better again , wow
•WiFi 7 or whatever is awesome
•Awesome Speed
• easy to use ui to organise the home screen
•Cool miniture multitasking windows
•extended screenshots work amazing especially on WhatsApp
•Grabbing text from images in the gallery is great but doesn't work sometimes with screenshots and webpages
•love one handed mode, easy to get to. Love the floating shutter button in the camera, I Really helps using the camera one handed.
The link to windows feature is meh but it's there.
*BAD on honor***
• The notch Vs 18:9 videos 😭
• notification issues, no matter how hard i try, some apps just won't give me notifications like push bullet. WhatsApp works fine. When I wake up in the morning and turn the wifi on the phone on, I expect the phone to scan through and give me things I've missed but nope, I got nothing. As I checked through my emails, I saw that I made a sale on eBay, but no notification or anything popped up even after turning WiFi on. After about a few minutes I go into eBay app settings, and then the notification of my sale comes through.
•Clicking WhatsApp youtube links takes me straight to the regular yt app instead of Vanced or the browser even after changing around the default settings
• I don't like how the volume buttons and power buttons are so close to each other and on the same side, I am always confused which button I'm clicking and have to always double check.
•Can't lock rotation in landscape (workaround is using the quick setting tiles app)
• can't go into specific app settings from the recent tabs either (Workaround, you just open up the multitasker, then you have to hold the app icon In the top left corner, super hidden but found it 😁)
• no offscreen gestures but doesn't matter too much
•No way to turn off honor virtual ram turbo (apparently not good for the storage, I don't need more than 12gb ram anyway)
• weak support for launchers, where switching between the launcher and the magic UI is clunky without the usual animations
• slow to switch between camera lenses with all the ois it's trying to do and sounds it's making.
6.8 inches size
EDIT GOOD Few months later:
Also, I found out that if you pull up the Google assistant when there's an image, and tap on search screen, it does exactly what Samsung s24 were advertising.
I found out that if you pull up the multitasker then long press the bin icon, you can go to thr uninstall page in settings. If you long press the app icon, it's takes you to the app settings, quite tough to findout.
With the new updates, video editing in the gallery has been greatly revamped, the camera UI is must more useful but could be a bit cleaner looking.
EDIT BAD Few months later:
• can't go below minimum brightness, when using the phone at night (please ADD extra dim feature in the eye comfort mode)
•when using app drawer, NO auto add app to home screen after downloading an app
• no double tap and empty part of the screen to turn off the screen (used this for 8+ years every day, so now I'm adjusting to using a screen lock widget instead)
•cant change icons, rename apps or remove names from apps for a clean look (I don't personally care, but this is for the sake of thoroughness)
•With/without app drawer enabled, when you hold an app on the home screen, Please add option to Uninstall the app, Rename the App or Go in to App Settings.
While using" tap to display AOD", After turning the screen off, the AOD is displayed for 5 seconds and turns the screen off which is very strange, I would like to turn this off.
PLEASE ADD long press or double tap Power button for camera. I already use double tap volume down for torch feature.
Please add NOTIFICATION HISTORY FEATURE!!!
PLEASE ADD double tap an empty part of the home screen to turn off the screen
On the AOD, after magic os 8 still I don't have the feature to display what music is currently playing.
I would like to see the addition of an object eraser in the gallery..
Putting the phone on silent or do not disturb should Automatically mute the media audio
In the camera app, When I toggle flash manually, take the photo and then close the camera app, the camera flash should reset to auto mode or off. but next time when I open the camera app, the camera flash is still turned on. PLEASE fix this!!!!!
On iPhone and other android phones - when using the timer in the camera, the flashlight will flash every second. This is not available on honor, PLEASE add this feature. The Timer should use the flash!
Screen calibration needs more customisation options, sometimes my screen feels more yellow compared to other smartphones.
Sometimes, When I pick up a phone call, the other person can't hear what I'm saying. Mic is turned on everything working but they can't hear me. I am forced to disconnect the call and call them back PLEASE fix this issue. I use Google dialer app but it's a problem in both dialers.
Tldr: i knew I'd love the speed. The battery is amazing but still a one day battery, camera is amazing and the main reason I bought this phone as I take alot alot of photos.
Last year November, there was no other phone with a sd 8gen2, crazy fast ufs4.0 with usb 3.1, 512gb storage, 3x50mp cameras and 100x zoom, face unlock etc etc, it was an absolute Bargain at £550.
After 5 years of Honor magic 5 pro, Would I do this again? I'm not sure simply because of meh Honor software, awful customisation and the software bugs Ive listed out. I am open to trying a Samsung or pixel or nothing phones tbh but I might come back after that.

First / Previous / Next
Back on the job, my eyes kept going to the camera that was on enclosure one. Andrew told me its real name, but I think that’d be a step too far, putting that out on the internet. I’d just stick with ‘Steve the bear’. Whatever it was, I just knew I’d have a nightmare about it eventually. Last night I slept fitfully but okay. But I know my brain, and I’d already had a nightmare about Yui stabbing me with one of her legs (they are not needle-sharp in real life, this was dream logic) and walking around, having not noticed I was a Ripley-kebab on her leg. I kept trying to get her attention but for some reason I’d been worried about sounding rude.
On my third walk around the zoo, at about 12 a.m. I saw Leila again, who I’d been noticing more and more often. She never looked interested in talking, only walking through the enclosures, and by that I meant any and all of them. She didn’t seem to have a favorite. I assume that however much of her mind that was left over from being alive still gravitated toward looking at the animals, since getting too close was what killed her in the first place.
Then, in enclosure eight, I saw a new creature and stopped abruptly. This one looked chill, but I wasn’t about to make any assumptions. It looked unique in a strange way, shaped like a giant lizard but built like a big cat of some sort. It had an uncanny valley human face, green hair for a mane, and also a horn like a unicorn. It felt like something drawn by an imaginative five-year-old brought to life, but was still somehow oddly endearing.
“Hello,” she spoke, noticing me noticing her. Her voice was distinctly female and oddly deep.
“Hello,” I responded with false cheer.
She pushed herself to her feet and I took an instinctive step back, but she didn't seem to notice, much less take offense. “You’re the guard here?”
“Yup. That’s me.”
“Thank you.”
I blinked, taken aback. “Ah…you’re welcome. For what?”
She cocked her head. “For guarding me.”
That was different. Most of the impressions I had gotten from the animals so far were that they wanted to eat me. And the idea that this one was thankful for me doing my job was refreshing, don’t get me wrong, but made me wary. Call me a cynic, I guess.
“My name is tàiyang. You can call me Sun,” she told me.
“Hi, Sun. I’m Ripley.”
Then she looked toward the sky. “It’s going to rain tonight.”
After a thoughtful moment, I asked, “Does that make you sad?”
“Why would it make you sad?”
I smiled. “Because your name is Sun.”
She paused and then said, “I don’t understand.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, telling a pun to one of the animals. “Never mind.” I glanced up at the sky. “I thought the rain is supposed to stay away from here. Are the ones who told me that wrong?”
“Yes.”
“Well that’s good to know,” I murmured to myself, thinking of my raincoat hanging in the security office closet. It wasn’t that surprising, honestly. Sometimes I felt like the meteorologists in Arkansas try to read the entrails of goats to figure out the weather. It’s all a mess and it’s all made up.
At that, the animal looked to the sky and fell silent. She appeared to be the most uneventful introduction I’d had so far, and I was incredibly grateful for it. Except then the animal kept talking. “He’s under a spell.”
I blinked. “What?”
She looked back to me. “Andrew. He’s under a spell. He’s very unhappy.”
I had no idea how to react to that. For a second I just stared. The sudden jolt of being told my boss was currently being afflicted by magic left me floundering. “He… What?” I finally asked. “Where is he?”
“In his office.”
Oh shit. My eyes instinctively darted in the direction of the main office. I always just entered through the door on the west side of the building, of course, since it led to the security room. It was unnecessary for me to go through the door that first led into the lobby-slash-office Andrew worked out of. Sometimes he even left early, so it was locked anyway. I had the key, but again, it was unnecessary.
Whatever had happened, assuming this animal wasn’t joking around (she seemed completely serious), I needed to establish whether she was right. Leaving the enclosure of the animal I’d just met, I quickly walked back to the small building.
Taking a deep breath, I knocked loudly. “Andrew, are you in there?”
The only reply was silence. I stood there until enough time had passed that it was obvious that no one was coming to answer the door. Taking out my phone, I dialed his cell number and wait as it rang. Then I grimaced when I heard it ringing inside.
Hanging up and shoving the phone back in my pocket, I stared at the closed door.
Trying the doorknob, I found that it was unlocked, and my heart skipped a beat. Andrew always locked his office before leaving. Opening the door slowly, the lights were off in the room, leaving only the faint red glow of the lights outside peeking around his curtains, so I turned on a light. Then my heart plummeted into my stomach, because there was Andrew, splayed limply on the ground, his eyes only half open.
I bolted to him and dropped to his side as he let out a whimper.
“Andrew,” I said, putting two fingers to the side of his neck. He remained silent, and despite his relaxed, wilted appearance, his heart was racing, and I wondered if he was in pain. The room smelled, and it was clear to me that he’d lost control of his bowels. I couldn’t believe I’d been working here for hours without knowing he was in the next room like this.
“Fucking hell. I’m so sorry it took me so long to find you. Can you hear me? What happened?” He made a small sound, unfocused eyes attempting to meet mine, but it was as if he were severely deprived of sleep or something, unable to focus. His mouth opened and he tried to say something, but he couldn’t speak. All I got was halting words mushed into each other. I felt for him; he must’ve been mortified by his condition. I would’ve been, at least.
The obvious solution would be to get Suzanne’s number from Andrew’s phone, so I searched him for it and found it in his right jacket pocket. I pressed the button the iPhone, swiped, and let out a sigh of frustration. He was security conscious enough to lock his phone with a code, of course.
“Can you… You can’t tell me the code,” I said knowing. He grunted quietly.
“What happened?”
I shrieked and jumped to my feet. Leila stood in the doorway, staring in shock at Andrew’s body. “You scared the bejesus out of me,” I exclaimed. I stopped myself before asking if she could make some noise when she moved or if I could put a bell on her. “What does it look like happened? Someone put a spell on him.” Abruptly, my stance changed, standing up straight. “Wait. Do you know how to get in touch with…anyone?” I asked desperately.
“I know Ms. Cooper’s phone number,” she said frankly.
My eyes widened. “Seriously? How?”
“Andrew gave it to me after I worked here for three months.”
That stopped my brain dead in its tracks. “You…used to work here?” I whispered. I remembered Andrew telling me that one of the night shift managers had been killed, but he hadn’t told me it was Leila. Whether it was for her own privacy or her dignity or some other reason, it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that I could call Suzanne.
“I worked here for three months,” Leila confirmed as I took out my own phone.
“Okay…what’s her number?” I asked, ready to dial. She rattled off the number and dialed it.
The phone rang twice times before someone answered. “Hello?”
“Hi, is this Suzanne?”
“Yes, who’s this?”
She had a British accent like Andrew did. I took a deep breath and said, “It’s Ripley Mason. I got your number from Leila. I’m here in Andrew’s office and he’s in really bad shape. Someone cast a spell on him and it’s like he’s lost control of the part of his brain that lets him move around and speak.”
“What?” she snapped. “What happened?”
“I-I don’t know,” I said, glancing back to Andrew. He actually looked calmer now, and I hoped that was because he knew Suzanne could fix this. “I was doing my rounds and I met Sun; she’s the one that told me and that’s why I came into his office. I don’t- Who would do this? What do I do?”
“It’s okay, Ripley. I’ll leaving now and will be there soon,” she told me. I heard rustling in the background, the sounds of getting out of a chair and footsteps. “Did you check the security cameras?”
My eyes shut in irritation against my stupidity. It hadn’t even occurred to me. “I’m sorry. Of course, I’ll do that right away.” Proof positive that I was completely out of it. Some security guard I was, not even able to keep my head in an emergency.
“Don’t apologize, Ripley, you’re quite within your rights to be discombobulated at the moment,” she said. “And I’d like you stay with Andrew, but I would prefer to know what happened. Leave his side just for a second to check the footage.
“Okay.” I crouched down to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll be right back.” His eyes flicked to me, but he didn’t make a sound. Getting back to my feet and walking over to the security room door, I went in and sat at my desk, putting the phone on speaker so I could more easily navigate the footage.
After fidgeting around with the unfamiliar aspect of the program, since I’d never needed to look back before and Andrew only showed me how to do it once, I finally went back to the point where the spell had been cast. “Okay, he walked into his office with two men at…4:08 p.m. and it looks like he was fine with it. He wasn’t under duress, from what I can see.”
“That’s likely Michael Wise and Eric Henry,” Suzanne told me. “They were allegedly making a donation, a herd of Bagot goats.”
“Allegedly?”
“Well, I’m operating under the assumption that they lied if Andrew is spelled.”
I grimaced. That was a good point. Watching them have a conversation, I saw Andrew tense, and then turn to dart toward his desk, but he only made it two steps before one of the men raised what looked like a wand, snapping it in my late boss’s direction, speaking something. As I saw Andrew’s body seize like he’d been hit with a taser and collapse, I hissed in a sharp breath. “Cripes.”
“What is it?”
“One of them had a wand,” I managed. “He-He did something with it.”
“I’m here, Ripley. Come back to the office.”
My eyes widened and I did as I was told, stunned to see her opening the front door. “How did you get here so fast?” I asked.
The woman gave me a small smile, rendered grim by the situation. “Call it a trick of the trade.”
“Oh. Gotcha.”
Suzanne was all hard edges, her pin-straight blond hair cut at an angle just below her ears, and she wore a smart blue pants suit with matching pumps. But then she looked to Andrew and her face softened, despair and fury flashing across it as she quickly walked to him and knelt at his side, taking his weak hand in hers.
“Oh, Andrew,” she whispered. “I’m so, so sorry. You’ll be okay. I already texted a healer and asked her to come by. A friend of mine named Janine.”
I looked back to Andrew’s face, his eyes open and his expression one of exhaustion, but then quickly looked to Suzanne. “Why would someone do this?” I asked.
“I have a feeling at least one of our animals is missing,” she told me, her voice low and hard.
Anger flared up in me. “What?” I asked tersely. I glanced back in the direction of the cameras. “Should we check the cameras to see which enclosure they went to? Do we- Are there cops you can call for this? What do we do?”
Suzanne’s face slowly faded to sadness. “I’ll take care of it,” she said. “You’re accurate in that I do have a different police I’ll call about this. But there’s a good chance we won’t get the animal back.”
“Wait, why? Come on, there’s got to be magic you could do, right?” I asked anxiously.
“The animal will have been warded and sold to someone immediately,” she explained. “They would’ve had a buyer set up, and gone straight there to reduce the risk of being caught with it. Anyone who is buying an animal like this is extremely powerful, which means that even if we catch the men who stole it, they’d go to prison, but they wouldn’t risk angering the buyer. They won’t tell the authorities who it was, even for a lesser sentence. Losing an animal to robbery has only happened twice in the zoo’s history, this is the third time, but that’s how it played out both times. Actually, in the first instance, the police didn’t even catch the people who took it, since they were wearing masks.”
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and Suzanne pushed herself to her feet, walking over and opening it without hesitation. “He’s in here.” I took the opportunity to open the windows and turned down the thermostat so it would start displacing the smelly air.
A woman walked in, Janine presumably. “Oh, goodness,” she breathed, going quickly to Andrew. She took his pulse with one hand as she pulled a wand out from her purse with the other. “It’s good he’s staying calm. Redire orior can be terrifying to be subjected to.”
“He wasn’t calm when I got here,” I told her quietly. “I’ve been here for hours and didn’t know he was here until just a few minutes ago.”
Janine swore softly. “All right. Let me get started.”
I didn’t know what that meant, so I turned to Suzanne. “What did she call this?”
“The spell is ‘redire orior’. It’s a regression of part of the mind, basically all the way back to when we were first born,” she said tightly, anger flickering across her face. “He has no more control over his body than he did when he was a newborn baby.”
I grimaced, looking back to him. “Oh my god,” I whispered. It meant exactly what it had looked like when I’d walked in: Andrew had been rendered completely helpless. Rage welled up inside me, despising the men who’d done this and wishing desperately that Suzanne had been more confident in finding them.
Suzanne took the opportunity to walk into the security office and I heard her sit in my chair. Janine put down her wand to have both hands free and told Andrew, “Just relax, concentrate on breathing slowly,” she said, carefully pulling both of his legs out and rolling him onto his back. She then put his arms at his sides and, picking up her wand, pointed it at his forehead.
I took in a sharp breath of surprise as I saw a faint glow coming from the wand, through the top of it and then to Andrew’s forehead. She held that position for a while, muttering under her breath.
A few minutes later, Suzanne came out and took her phone from her pocket, saying, “I don’t recognize either of the men in the footage. But they seemed distressed, particularly the one that didn’t hurt Andrew. I don’t think that’s what was meant to happen.”
“Meant to or not, it happened,” I muttered through clenched teeth. I’d already decided that my new to-do list every day included first checking the office cameras.
“Andrew,” Janine said, letting the glow fade. “Can you speak?”
“I…yeah,” he whispered.
Suzanne came over to my side. “Thank goodness. How are you feeling? How’s the vertigo?”
“Pretty much gone,” he said, closing his eyes for a long moment, though he didn’t try to stand up.
“Andrew, I pulled up the cameras in the office and listened to the audio,” she told him. “I know what happened.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “The cameras have audio?”
“It’s under admin privileges, but yes. Andrew, you should have known better,” she said softly, looking back to him. “The gun in one of the desk drawers? I presume that’s what you were lunging for, because those two men had just made it clear they were here for an animal.”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “I just…” He looked distraught.
“They told you to just let them get what they came for,” Suzanne said. “Why didn’t you?” My lips parted in shock.
“The last time this happened, I cooperated, but…I regretted it,” he growled. “We never saw Harriet again. I couldn’t just stand here and let them do whatever they wanted. Not again.” I assumed Harriet was one of their animals, but I didn’t ask.
“Don’t ever do something so foolish again,” she told him, on the verge of being upset, her emotions likely tempered by his condition. “I want to make it clear to you that this job, these animals, they’re immensely important, but they are not worth your life. He could have killed you. If someone gains access to the zoo again to steal an animal I want you to cooperate fully. Understood?”
“Yeah,” Andrew muttered.
The idea that Andrew had tried to bring a gun to a wand fight was staggering. Something heavy curled in my stomach at the thought. It was clear he cared about the wellbeing of the animals to a degree I hadn’t comprehended.
Janine took one of the small pillows from the couch and tucked it under Andrew’s head as Suzanne continued. “All right,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll go through the footage to determine what they stole and then call the authorities to report the theft. Janine, can you continue to treat him?”
I wasn’t sure what that entailed, but Janine apparently did, since she nodded and knelt back down as Suzanne went back into the security office. Janine did the same thing that she’d done before, that soft glow channeling light into Andrew’s head. Obviously, I wanted to ask what she was doing, but I knew better than to think I’d get an answer. Instead, I sat in one of the loveseats in front of Andrew’s desk, turning it to face them.
I heard Suzanne’s voice faintly speaking to someone on the phone and the minutes ticked by. Eventually, Suzanne came back out again and she stood next to me for a long moment, watching the healing process before turning to me.
“Andrew told me you were attempting to create some enrichment activities for the animals?” asked my boss.
“Oh, uh…yeah, I am,” I answered. I assumed she was trying to make small talk to distract me from the current situation, and I appreciated it. “The first one went well. Spike loves artichokes, pecans, and hazelnuts. I went with things that made it a challenge to eat, like it’s a challenge to pull out fingernails of its prey.”
Suzanne’s expression brightened just enough for me to notice. “Ripley, that’s wonderful. Very clever.” She let out a breath. “It’s becoming more and more obvious to me that Andrew chose well in hiring you.” I gave her a small smile. “Listen, I’m going to hire someone else to be here with you on duty,” Suzanne told me, “and by that, I mean someone from my neck of the woods. Andrew explained that to you, correct?”
“Not much. Just that you’re not from Earth.”
Suzanne smiled. “That makes me sound like an alien, but yes, I’m not from this dimension. I can hire someone who has similar abilities to mine, who can check in every few hours, make sure everything’s all right, but generally make themselves scarce unless there’s an emergency. He wouldn’t have been able to do much if he’d already been here, but he’d have known what was going on. Andrew would have received assistance immediately.”
I was curious of what those abilities were, aside from being able to see the animals, but I wasn’t bold enough to ask. Also, I was curious about who this new ‘employee’ would be, but presumably I’d find out sooner or later. “That would make me feel a little better,” I said, nodding. “Knowing there was someone else here.”
She nodded once. “It’s as good as done, then. As for Andrew, he’ll need to take a few days off to recover. Would you be willing to give the tours until he’s back in ship-shape?”
My eyes bugged out of my skull. “Wait, what? I can’t even see all the animals!”
Suzanne chuckled at my expression and shook her head. “I can enchant a pair of specs for you to wear,” she told me. “It’ll give you a bit of a headache, but you’ll be able to see all of the animals. Also, I’ll give you the background for each of them, because you’ll be speaking about them to the tourists.”
I blinked, thinking of how awesome it would be to finally know all about them all. And it was flattering, the fact that she had such confidence in me that, without hesitation, she asked if I could take over for Andrew. The best thing for me to do, of course, was to be confident and assure her that I could take any temporary promotion in stride. “I’m…I’m not great with people,” I managed.
Yup. Nailed it.
“You can be a little harsh with them if you need to,” she said with a small, knowing smile. “I assumed that signing up for a job where you interact with a screen of cameras the whole time means you aren’t great with people. And Andrew did brief me on you when he hired you. How good are you at couching your insults in polite talk? The British are quite skilled, but I know Americans aren’t too bad at it.”
I smirked, remembering how a coworker friend of mine once told a customer, “Oh, bless your heart,” in her thick southern accent and it sounded like the worst insult. “I can manage that, I think.”
A buzz from the gate that went to the panel on the wall drew our attention and Suzanne walked over to let the visitors in. It was three people, a man and two women, with a gurney.
Walking over to Andrew, I folded my arms with a small smile as Janine released his head from the glow the wand was emitting. “Hey. Sorry you had to lay on the floor for so long knowing I was cluelessly reading a book in the next room.”
“Eh, not the end of the world,” he whispered. “I’ll be back on my feet soon. So, no parties while I’m gone.”
I snorted and my smile widened, and he returned it.
Going back into the security room, I pulled the system back to the multi-camera exterior view, and I sat there and listened to Suzanne talk to one of the medics, explaining everything that had happened in detail. Once she’d done that and they brought Andrew outside on the gurney, presumably to a waiting ambulance, I gave my statement, and then…it was back to work.
Obviously going back to work like nothing had changed felt weird, but Suzanne stayed, letting me know that she would get some work done at Andrew’s desk until my shift was over. It was likely the opposite of necessary, the robbers were gone, but it did make me feel a tiny bit better knowing that she was in the next room with her wand.
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***
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What am I doing? Dominick Mason asked himself for the hundredth time that night. It was late on a rainy Sunday evening and Dom, a tall, lanky man-boy of twenty-five with a prominent Adam’s apple and too big eyes, stared out the rain-slicked window of the 905. The big bus swayed and jostled as it lumbered down Central Avenue, the movements strangely comforting, conducive to reflection…and self-doubt.
As if on cue, his phone buzzed, and a pit opened up in his stomach. He fumbled it out with long fingers and read the text. Are u almost here
His thumb hovered over the screen, but he did not reply. Part of him wanted to block the number, slink back home with his tail between his legs, and forget the whole thing. He could boot up his PS4 and play Red Dead Redemption or GTA V like always. Safe. Familiar. The thought, however, stirred a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.
It was dread.
Every night, he did the same thing. He came home from work to his tiny prison cell apartment. He had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He played video games until it was time to go to bed. The worst part of the whole night was when he turned off the TV and saw his murky reflection in the screen. Plaid. Scrawny. Disgusting. He hated being locked in that apartment, with its old smells and white walls, but he hated going out even more. At least in his hole, he was safe, like a mouse. No one hurt or lied to him there. No one gave him funny looks. No one rejected him. He was completely safe in his solitude, a wounded animal hiding in its den and licking its wounds.
He was wounded and he knew it.
And he hated himself for it. Hated that he wasn’t stronger or better. Hated that even though he tried so hard, everything he did fell apart…if it even came together in the first place, which it rarely did.
The phone buzzed again.
Just a question mark this time.
His heart began to race and a steely fist slowly closed around his lungs. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and took a deep breath. He pictured himself alone in his little apartment. He loved the image, but he hated it too. Most nights, he didn’t mind being alone. He had to not mind it, because he didn’t have a choice. Some nights…some nights he didn’t want to be alone. Some nights he wanted warmth, he wanted tenderness…some nights, he wanted to be human.
Every so often, Dom would get the urge to find those things. They came less frequently than they did before, but unfortunately, they still came. He would create an account on Plenty of Fish and OKCupid, maybe some of the other sites as well. He would agonize over his stupid intro and his stupid list of hobbies. He would spend hours - literally hours - writing and rewriting them, trying at first to be serious, then light and funny, then cool, then aloof, then vulnerable. He would take the best possible pictures from the best possible angles, then upload them, never lingering over them because he hated the way he looked. He didn’t think he was ugly - mid was more like it - but apparently, he was ugly. Too ugly for love, too ugly even to talk to.
The ugly barnacle. So ugly that everyone died. The end.
All of Dom’s pictures were all selfies, of course. Guys he listened to on YouTube said he needed action shots, shots with friends, shots that showed women he had a life, was valued by those around him, and knew how to have fun. Too bad for him, he had no friends and no one valued him, not even his own mother. On the surface, maybe, but she had hurt him so many times over the years in so many ways that even the most devout son would stop and think.
It had to be selfies.
When his profile was in order - or as much in order as he could get it - he would start to browse. Dom knew his place and never messaged women who were too beautiful. He used to, but they never responded. He eventually began to skip their profiles with a pang of loss and a quiet what if? Now, he barely noticed them. Blonde. Petite. Blue eyes. Maybe she was a cheerleader at one time, maybe she was the type of girl who looked down her nose at guys like him. Maybe she was a sweetheart. In any case, he would never find out, so who cares?
He went for women he could realistically obtain…the type of women he’d dated and hooked up with in the past. Some were attractive in their own way, others were hard to look at, he wasn’t picky; he couldn’t afford to be picky. One woman he saw was a good three hundred pounds. She was nice and he liked her enough, but he lapsed into depression while they were dating and he never messaged her back…not that she made a huge effort to message him. Another was a pre-K teacher in her mid-thirties. Overweight with a big nose, glasses, and a plain face when she wasn’t wearing make-up. He liked her a lot and wanted to be with her, but after a month of weekend hookups, she said she didn’t love him. She told him she wanted a family - three kids, to be exact - but “changed her mind.” No, she didn’t. She just didn’t want those things with him.
Now she was in her late thirties, single, and having regrets.
She still wouldn’t settle for him, though.
Another woman he’d seen recently (six months ago) was fifty, but not unattractive. They texted for weeks, hot and heavy. She outright told him that she wanted to have sex with him. Said all sorts of nasty and sexual things. Their first (and only date) was her coming to his apartment. Instead of tender kisses, loving caresses, and intense emotions, they shared an awkward two hours on his couch. When he tried to hold her hand and put his arm around her, she stiffened. Not much, just a little. She said she “wasn’t ready.” He sat there and watched the flowers he’d gotten her wilt as she talked about her ex for an hour and a half, his arms pointedly crossed. He even leaned as far away from her as humanly possible, trying to communicate with his body language what he didn’t have the guts to communicate with his words: I’m uncomfortable, please leave. He planned to take her to a nice restaurant after they made love. Instead, he ordered something after she finally got the hint and left, eating alone like always.
After her, he deleted his profile (again) and resolved to never bother with dating again. Obviously there was something wrong with him. He saw guys who were uglier and more awkward than him with girlfriends, some actually stunning, but there was something about him in particular, something that repelled women…and men too.
Everyone.
It repelled everyone.
Maybe it was his self-loathing. After all, no one likes a sad sack. But that’s the thing: He was like this because of those experiences. It was a what came first, the chicken or the egg situation. Looking back, he had almost normal confidence at one point. Then all of this happened. The hundreds of messages he sent on the dating apps staying on read, unanswered, like he never sent them at all, like he was garbage unworthy of even a hello. The awkward dates. The occasional “success” that eventually fell apart…sometimes because of him, and sometimes because of them. The one girl who ran away from him when he tried to walk her to her car after a date. They didn’t click, he knew that, but he didn’t say or do anything creepy. Why did she do that? The girls who lead him on, talking about sex and sometimes even love but always had a reason they couldn’t meet.
There were other examples - many others - but it was all the same. Who cared?
Dom wanted to crawl back into his hole and stay there, to stop poking his head out and getting hurt. He wanted it so bad…but he was only human. Deep down, buried beneath layer after layer of scar tissue, there was still hope. Hope for love, for companionship, for acceptance, for intimacy and human touch. It was only an ember now, but even an ember is enough to spark a fire.
Some nights, he wanted to be safe. Other nights, he wanted to take a risk.
And this night was one of the latter.
Be there soon, he texted. He swallowed hard and wetted his lips. His heart was pounding faster and his bowels were loose. He really hoped this worked out. He didn’t think he could handle another rejection. If she turned him down, he’d probably go home and kill himself. Why go on like this?
He’d had that thought before…but he never followed through.
Maybe one day he’d actually shut the fuck up and do it already.
Maybe.
Ok :)
Her name was Heather and she was fat. She was not unattractive in the face and she wore her weight well, not that that mattered - he would take what he could get. They started talking on OKCupid last week and very soon, the conversation became sexual. He didn’t start it, though, she did. She was ahem very excited, she said. He liked to think that she was lonely, desperate, and wanted intimacy - any intimacy - just like him.
That really turned him on.
They agreed to meet, and now here he was, on the bus to her apartment on the other side of the city, hoping against hope that she didn’t hurt him too.
He put the phone away and stared straight ahead. The bus was nearly deserted, save for an old bag lady up front and a few Mexican guys in the back. Lights lined the bus’s roof, providing a cold, impersonal light. Dom took a deep breath and forced his dark emotions away. It was all on him to make this work. He would accept her fat, ugly, poor, and crippled, but he had to work to earn her love. He could do it.
When the bus finally reached his stop, he yanked the cord and got off. There was a plexiglass shelter lit by a single, lonely bulb. Trash littered the ground. Beyond the shelter, a park lay in darkness. Behind him, on the other side of the road, a housing project not unlike his own towered into the sky, lit up like a ship at sail. Dom swallowed his nerves and crossed the street. He found the door that she had directed him to use, and climbed the stairs. He expected trash, graffiti, and winos passed out on every landing. Instead, the stairwell was clean and deserted. His nerves welled as he climbed but he forced them down again. On the ninth floor, he went down the hall, battered on all sides by the stale smells of cooking and the murmur of TVs and voices coming from every apartment.
Dom paused at Apartment 237.
Heather’s.
You got this, he told himself.
And really, he did. Their plan - well, Heather’s, really - was simple and straightforward. She told him that she would leave the door unlocked. He was to come in, go to the bedroom, and she would be waiting for him. She said it was a fantasy of hers.
On some level, he knew all along that the whole setup sounded fishy. Was he being set up to get robbed? Would he walk in and get jumped by a bunch of Crips? He hesitated, but his need for love - and, yes, release - pushed him on.
He opened the door.
Inside, the apartment was small and messy, a living room to the right and a tiny kitchen to the left. The only light on was the one above the stove.
Everything else was in shadows.
Dom’s heart skipped a beat.
This didn’t feel right.
That thought was overpowered by the smell, a sickly sweet odor that suddenly seemed to be everywhere. His stomach twisted and he turned his head slightly to one side, as if to spare his nose. It smelled like something spoiled.
A voice spoke from the darkness, startling him. “I’m in here.”
It was light, airy, and cute.
For the last time, Dom hesitated. Some primal sense told him to turn around and leave…
…but he wanted to be loved.
Dom entered and shut the door behind him.
The smell was stronger. The atmosphere darker.
Ahead, he could barely make out an open doorway in the shadows.
He crossed to it.
The smell was overpowering here and Dom felt like he was going to puke. Any desire he had felt was gone, replaced only by revulsion and claustrophobia. It was cold, he realized, so cold that his teeth chattered.
Okay, fuck this.
He started to turn around, intent on leaving, but a small, white hand reached from the darkness. Icy fingertips brushed his cheek and his heart blasted into his throat.
Then she was there, her body pressing against his and her lips fused with his. The smell, the freezer chill, both stronger than ever.
They were both coming from her.
Her tongue hungrily lashed his own, and she pushed him against the wall. Her hands slipped under his shirt and pressed flat against his chest. They were so cold that he almost cried out.
Dom wanted to push her away, to run, but he didn’t. Instead, he froze up and allowed her to push him onto the bed. Was he too gutless to tell her no, the way he’d been too gutless to tell the woman who went on and on about her ex to shut up and leave? Did he secretly want to go through with this? He didn’t know, and he didn’t have time to figure it out. She was on top of him now, straddling him, his legs caged between her ample thighs. She grabbed his hands and pressed them to her bare breasts.
They were as cold as the rest of her.
She leaned down and kissed him again. He hadn’t noticed it before, but her tongue was…dry. Her mouth itself tasted strange. Off.
Heather broke from his lips and peppered kisses on his cheek and forehead, assaulting him with an intimacy that Dom no longer wanted.
Through it all, she was as silent as a tomb. She wasn’t panting or rasping with excitement. In fact, he didn’t think she was even breathing.
She brushed her lips along the exposed curve of his throat, and tingles of revulsion shot down his spine. She found his pulse and kissed it. Trembles of excitement raced through her body and she started to lap his neck like a dog.
Without warning, a fiery pinprick of pain exploded over him and Heather began to shake and pant. Dom cried out and tried to fight her off, but she was too heavy, too much.
With a tiny, mouse-like squeak - a sound of pitiable fear and resignation - Dom blacked out.