My husband during a argument about me being disrespectful which I still don’t feel like I was but anyways during that argument he brought up divorce threw something which made my Dr Pepper go across the floor and then went into our bedroom (ran) and put our AR into his mouth. I looked and said oh wtf grow tf up and walked out this is the second time the first time is was a pistol to the dome. He then came out and said “God is really on my side” like he didn’t do it bc of God. I am about to put my home on the market a house I bought by myself and where I am anything owned before marriage is considered yours to buy a home twice my personal budget I am so confused please help I need advice the argument started over the fact that I was vacuuming with a tank top on you could see my nipples through with a carpet repair man in the home. I was literally looking like shit while working to get my home to sale for a better home for us my nipples were the last thing on my mind. Anyways I turned the vacuum off and walked out the back door talking shit about the situation. He said bc I was talking out loud it’s considered disrespectful and demanded I apologize or else he would divorce me “on his gmas soulllll” . Also he let me know I was crazy and mentally unstable for talking out loud to myself. I keep crying and am amazed by the fact that our life is so disposable to him and he is telling me I’m acting like the victim. I’m still amazed I’m here asking for advice. Why do I allow things like this to happen? Why do I not have the strength to just cut him off for this behavior? Why do I make accuses? Why do I force myself to live like this ? How should I move forward? Am I acting like a victim for crying about this shit ? Like how is this normal? Am I actually just tripping? Sorry everything is all over the place I’m emotional asf while writing this .

Hi. Everyone. This is urgent.
I am 35f with both hips dysplasia when i was born. I do have a few problems with what's going on. I few days, months ago. I have been falling on the ground, in my bedroom, at my friend's place, etc. I am dragging my left foot. And have weakness in the left side of my body ( well I do have multiple conditions) but I have seen my consultant since March and he said I may have a hernia somewhere. But the thing is I can't feel anything.
In Feb 2021. I was out with some carers for a day out. I am supposed to have my wheelchair, but they refuse to let me use it as I can't get around long distances. So when we were getting ready to get to the snozone (skiing place) I fell on the hard ice and snow in the center of a lot of people who were having a great time sledging and skiing. And landed on the left side of my body. And was on the ground painful and couldn't even get up. A nice gentleman came and helped me up and walked beside me to a restaurant to rest. Suddenly the carers came out with my wheelchair.
In Dec 2021 my left hip started painfully and I started falling and dragging my leg/foot around. My consultation has been trying so hard to find out what happening. I had an MRI, ultrasounds, injections, etc. He can't seem to find anything.
Does anyone else have this problem? I need to know if anyone else has been repeatedly trying to solve this issue

So I’ve played through this game multiple times, 100% two to three times before the remixer got added and now im a bit confused. How exactly do faction raids work? When i was playing before and during when wasps got added i never got raided by anything flying even if i was “wanted gone” i got multiple larva, orb weaver, termite, and ant raids. Now, i was done the story and had all the “end game” things like the maces, scimitar and so on so forth. Shmec was delt with and javamatic too. My base was built in the tree, up the lantern and on the tree mushrooms made out of grass platforms. I had all necessary crafting stations, cozy lvl 5, a full wall of head mounts, a chunk of stuffies built and a huge chest wall. So a pretty big base with a small mushroom brick bedroom with pinecone items and all that.
Never once did i get anything more than what i listed to raid.
Recently i came back to do a whole new world to then remix it. I slightly pissed off the mosquitoes and got raided in my similarly build tree house of grass planks just after mant and schmec. Now i was shocked because i had defended twice against the termites but yet never the red ants who were pissed since i started the world and decimated the ant hill. Now i had mosquitos when i had relatively the same base but with no mushroom brick or anything but grass planks. It seems all over the board?!
Im so lost, i looked on the wiki and all it lists is story progress, items crafted, materials base is built out of, and the size of base. The only thing different might be a bit bigger base than my last one but still out of grass planks.
Im thinking maybe its about how you treat them even after a “want you gone” purely based on the red ants but i have zero clue.
Anyone else wondering this? Please lets talk about it.

Hi all! I searched forums and haven’t seen much about this so I hope it’s okay to ask. My partner that I see once a week is lovely and we have an amazing connection that is mostly sexual but also very friendly and sweet—— like a true slow burn relationship because we care about each other but can really only fit in once a week hangouts. They have a spouse/nesting partner and I am poly but otherwise not seeing anyone else right now (I am a single mom and an artist and my schedule is tricky). They’re only seeing me and their spouse right now but we’re both open to more partners if the situation arises.
Today I went into their cabinet because they asked me to get a condom, and I noticed a flogger and a little spike wheel thingy and some other kink related toys I hadn’t seen there before. I skew a little kinkier than them usually and they’ve told me they’re interested in exploring kinky dynamics but are not experienced/ don’t know how to begin. So we’ve played with power dynamics, dirty talk, some rope stuff, easing into it. I have felt a little like I am the one who moves the needle towards more freaky things, though they seem to be really into it and our communication is good. But today when I saw those toys, which seem like new things that they play with with their spouse (who owns a queer sex toy store and is very publicly into toys), I got really jealous really suddenly because I felt really left out. For context, I have seen sex toys they have that are obviously not used on me (a wand, for instance, pretty sure they use on their spouse) and it hasn’t triggered any jealousy. But this seeing them expand into new territory that I have wanted to go with them, but not telling me about it, just made me really jealous. I know they’re allowed to explore things with their spouse and not me but I just feel like, is it okay to tell them I felt jealous , or is this something better dealt with on my own? I have read the books listened to the podcasts etc etc—- I am just wondering if someone has experience with kink dynamics in queer polyam hitting a certain nerve with jealousy? Do I say nothing and let them explore with their spouse and trust that if they’re ready to do those kinds of things with me they will in time? I already told them it just made me feel a little weird and that I would rather them get the condom out themself next time. They agreed to this and I think that will help, but it’s a bit avoidant. I just don’t know how to go about this, if conversations can be had or of this is stuff I should deal with solo?

I just want to brag on my dog a little bit. I live in Arkansas, and my area got hit by some tornadoes over the weekend. I live about 2 miles away from the worst of the storm.
My dog Eva sleeps on the bed with me and normally sleeps through thunderstorms. Not on Saturday night: she was very restless, and she woke me up a little before 2am kicking and tossing and rolling around on the bed. It was storming pretty hard, so I got up and checked the door and windows to make sure everything was closed. I watched the storm for a couple of minutes, and then went back to sleep.
She, however, did not sleep. She woke me up again a few minutes later, this time doing a growling whine she does sometimes. She was laying next to me, fully alert, listening to hail ping off the windows. When she saw that I was awake she tucked her tail, jumped down off the bed, crept into the closet, and curled up in a tight little ball on the floor, staring at me. That was very not like her.
I checked the windows again and watched the storm. The wind had picked up and hail was still coming down. As I watched I noticed some black things flying down off the roof of the building across from me. It took me longer than I’m willing to admit for me to realize that they were shingles getting torn off the buildings nearby. I grabbed my phone and joined Eva in the closet, and I’d only been there for a minute or so when the power went out. It was only when I opened it up that I saw the warning about the tornado, and I realized I couldn’t hear any warning sirens.
So we huddled together, listening to the hail and shingles thudding into the walls and windows, flipping between frantically refreshing the weather app on my phone and a live stream of an emergency weather broadcast while she lay pressed against me, her head on a swivel. We sat there in the dark, lit up by my phone screen, for about 45 minutes as the storm continued outside. I finally realized that everything had calmed down when I noticed a stinky smell. Eva had calmed down from anxiously listening for danger, and had relaxed enough to fall asleep. In fact, she had relaxed so much that she had farted, which told me that it was all clear and that I needed to get out of the closet.
I ended up being very lucky, and there was no damage to my apartment or car. The roofs of the complex had been shredded and a lot of things had gotten blown over, but no one was hurt. However, I still credit her for protecting us from the storm; her dog instincts kept us safe where human technology had failed us, and she had very deliberately waited for me and looked to make sure that I was awake to join her. And had something struck my apartment or smashed in through the windows, we would've been much safer where we were than had we been in the bedroom or living room near the windows. She is a very good (but gassy) girl, and I love her to pieces.

2 weeks ago I moved from a 2 bedroom apartment where my roommate also had a dog to a studio apartment where my dog (Baxter) is the only animal and i’m the only person. He is a husky x lab so he has a lot of energy but since the move he just lays around all day and i know that’s my fault because there’s not much for him to do in a small space without a playmate while i’m gone but it was the only option and i can’t stand seeing him so lethargic. He has a snuffle mat and a lick mat, the first week those excited him but how he’ll just lay in bed even if i put his favorite things on his mat. The windows in this apartment are very high so i built a box for him to sit on to look out the window and he’ll sit on the box and stare at the wall. I don’t have a car and dogs of his size aren’t allowed on the bus and there are no dog parks or sniff spots around me. I’ve thought about buying something to keep him occupied but money is tight and i’m not even sure what i can buy that’ll entertain him. Any advice or ideas? i have a plan for him to play with my old roommates dog this weekend but that won’t be able to happen often and he is very large with selective aggression so playdates with new dogs are out of the question.

I'm just worn out. I feel like I have all the difficulties of a relationship with none of the benefits. Divorce would be too messy and expensive, I'd still have to support him and he would be even more difficult from afar. He isn't kind and doesn't love me. He finds a way to ruin my birthday and holidays. I think he gets guilty that he forgot or didn't do anything for me so he'll find a way to start a fight so he can be off the hook.
Bedroom life is completely dead. I used to try and initiate things but he would always make comments about how he didn't like something so my confidence went out the window. Yes, he has low T and has been taking meds for it for years with no change but increased anger and irritation. He doesn't initiate anything at all. He refuses therapy either individually or as a couple. Says he doesn't like me and won't hang out with me.
I'm so close to cheating, if I wasn't so self conscious I think I would. I went on a work trip and in my head I thought 'I could do anyone I wanted and he wouldn't know.' It took all my self control not to do anything. Ugh, I want so badly to be wanted, to be in a good relationship and to be loved.

Bear with me… this is a doosey. I’ve been living with my best friend (just the two of us) for about 4 years now, but the last year especially I’ve just gotten so fed up. We live in a 3 bedroom home that my family owns, I pay utilities and she pays around $500 in rent with utilities included into that cost. I have two cats who I’ve built a Catio for outside, all the furniture in the main parts of the house is mine, and virtually every resource I bring into the house is treated as communal.
Now here’s where I’m losing my mind. I clean the house on a daily basis, never leave a dirty dish in the sink, and try to organize something or do a house project at least once a week.
My roommate on the other hand, cleans maybe once a month, always leaves piles of dirty dishes for days at a time, and makes messes around the house that I’m left to clean. I have had many conversations with her about how it’s hard on me, which always go the same: she says she’s going through a hard time, and will try better… things get better for about a week, and then it’s back to square one. I’ve tried not cleaning up her messes, or doing any of her dishes… but she doesn’t care, and lets the mess accumulate until I can’t take it anymore and feel forced to clean, or until I yell at her about it and she angrily picks up.
Whenever she’s out of town, the house gets progressively cleaner and cleaner, until I’m living in a spotlessly maintained house… but when I leave, I always come home to huge messes everywhere.
Additionally, my boyfriend and I are long distance. So I spend every other weekend at his house a few hours away. I have offered countless times to hire a cat sitter to take care of my cats while I’m gone, but she always refuses and says she can handle it/ it would be weird if someone else came into the house while she’s home. However when I come back, the litter boxes are always overflowing, my room is covered in litter, plates of cat food are left all around the house, and sometimes there’s even vomit or cat shit that hasn’t been cleaned up.
Lastly, She’s been going through some really tough times personally (a bad break up with her abusive ex partner, health issues, etc.) and my heart really goes out to her for what she’s been going through. But when shes upset, she becomes extremely passive aggressive, defensive, and also just plain rude sometimes. This was already an issue before, but it has gotten exponentially worse this past year as she’s been going through especially hard times. When I try to express how her demeanor makes me feel, she gets even more defensive and insists she has a right to being grumpy in her own home… which, while I understand… I have a right to feel like I’m not always walking on eggshells.
I’m at a loss at what to do…we are basically sisters at this point. I highly value our friendship, and I never want to leave someone without housing or kick her out as I feel like that would certainly ruin our friendship. However… it’s my family home, I feel constantly disrespected, and no amount of conversations has made a lasting difference. I think we are incompatible as roommates in many ways, and I don’t know how to have that discussion without making her feel attacked or like I’m kicking her out. In many ways, I do love having her as a roommate… we have movie nights, great conversations, and even have dinner together a few nights a week…
Any advice would be super appreciated, as I just don’t know where to even begin at this point.
Thank you for reading!!!
TLDR: my best friend and roommate of 4 years is a slob and no amount of conversations has made a difference. I don’t want to kick her out, but I’m losing my mind.

My wife (F24) and I (F25) have lived in our apartment complex for about three years. Ever since we moved in, we’ve had issues with the kids in our complex destroying property (they literally set a bush on fire 18 inches from our bedroom window), leaving trash on our doorstep, pushing us off the sidewalk with their bikes and scooters, and just generally being obnoxiously loud every day. We live in an area where housing isn’t the most affordable and are saving to buy our first home, so moving hasn’t been an option.
Our apartment is closest to the playground, so before we signed our lease, we naturally knew it was going to be a bit louder than other units, but here’s the thing: these kids SCREAM. I’m talking, like, actual bloody murder. All. Day. Long. Since it’s summer break, a group of about 8 of them get outside around 8:30am and don’t go back inside until around 9pm, so we’re looking at 12 hours a day of listening to their obscenely loud “playing”.
Also worth mentioning, my wife and I both work from home, so we are on calls regularly throughout the day and there have been multiple occasions where we’ve had to end meetings early due to the volume of the kids outside. We have to play brown noise at nearly full volume on our living room TV when we eat our meals or work on the couch so as to not be overwhelmed by their volume. We also both wear noise cancelling headphones about 90% of the time that we’re home during the day and into the evening, and even then, can hear them clearly.
We’ve brought this to the attention of our apartment management multiple times in person and via email, and they’ve basically told us to fuck off because their hands are tied despite there being a specific clause in our lease that states we have the right to quiet enjoyment. We’ve also spoken directly to the kids and separately to their parents who legitimately refuse to do anything. Just for example, I have gone outside 5 times in the last two days to ask them to be quiet and more respectful of the people living here.
At this point, we have no clue what to do. We don’t want to be assholes and escalate things too much, but it’s at the point where being home is a nightmare for us. We can’t work, we can’t read, we can’t even sit on our couch most days. And if we wanted to hear kids screaming for 12 hours a day, we’d have them.
So basically, AITA for calling the non-emergency line and filing a noise complaint for this?
EDIT: I am specifically talking about a noise complaint, not trying to have kids arrested. The goal would be to get the parents to take some kind of action re: supervising their kids.

First some context: I live in an apartment unit in a rowhouse in Philly. The building is three floors and basement, my unit is on the first floor and basement level. Our bedrooms are on ground level first floor and the basement level of our unit houses our kitchen and living room. The HVAC system is also in the basement. The two upstairs units do not have access to HVAC, it only cools our apartment.
Back in November, I smelled a nail polish/nail salon smell late at night flood into the apartment vents. It was in every room. I didn’t know what to do so I shut off the heat and went to bed. Smell was gone next morning and I kinda just ignored it.
Months later in March, the smell returns. We again shut off the air and it didn’t return for at least a week. Next time it returned, we tell landlord. HVAC guy cannot find anything wrong with the system inside the apartment. He cleans air filter. The smell comes back again. We had air duct cleaners come in to clean the ducts and still found nothing. The only thing they have yet to check is the condenser outside. Could this be the problem?
Please help I am desperate. We don’t know if this smell is harmful and I have a cat in the apartment and it’s 85 degrees out.

So I started talking to this guy who I really click with and we seem to have similar life goals and relationship goals. I decided to take the plunge and just go see him.
I paid for my flights and everything and I didn’t want to ask him for any help financially since we were just meeting for the first time. i was willing to take a hotel near him but he said he would rather me stay with him and just use the spare bedroom if i felt comfortable. he had the dogs stay with his parents for the night so we could spend time just the two of us.
he is financially independent, has a house, a good job, and two lovely dogs.
something i really liked about him was that he was also close to his family. his mom and dad live minutes away from him and visit almost daily. i have no issue with this on its face. but then there was a bit of tension.
when i was there everything was wonderful! it was butterflies and everything. i felt safe and happy! then the next day we woke up and his mom seemed upset on the phone about him being late to pick the dogs up and concerned about why. i didn’t make anything of it.
when we got there i stayed in the car and when he came back to the car w the dogs he explained how his mom felt about the whole thing on the drive back. he said she was apprehensive about me being there. she also was concerned about my job/finanical stability bc i am entering into a PhD program and said that I should “work before attempting to be a professor”. for context, i have had a job consistently since i was in high school so i was offended. especially when i fronted the money to see him with no reimbursement! he also said that she warned him not to have me at his place and told him not to do anything sexual with me because i could “accuse him of sexual assault”. i was bewildered with how casually he said this. and he just kept saying his mom is just looking out for him and anxious.
i immediately felt like the situation would be his mom trying to stop us from seeing each other if this was her initial reaction. he said that she has always been like this about him seeing girls and has “high standards” for who he should see.
later that day he made a comment about how his parents were frustrated and upset about how my being there prevented them from coming over for the day. i asked if that would be an issue if i came back again. he said that he “can’t keep them away for too long”.
i dug into his relationship with his mom some more and he revealed that his mom will come over to clean and do different tasks in the house for him. he doesn’t seem lazy or incapable at all to require that. but he said she enjoys it and won’t stop her.
i have no interest in dealing with an overbearing mother like this. it feels bad enough to feel like i have to impress someone rather than having a neutral or piece start. i also expressed that my families reaction that i was seeing someone was overwhelmingly positive because they just want to see me happy.
he said that i should just enjoy the happy moments and if any issues arise “we will deal with them together”. i agreed but on second thought feel as though it is not my reality to quell his mother and combine her i am worthy to her son. it feels like we’re 16 in high school or something.
overall, i would like some advice on how to proceed with things. should i just see how it goes? should i cut it off now? should i try to help him draw boundaries? i haven’t encountered something like this before in my dating life. any advice would help.
TLDR: started seeing a new guy who lives far away, his mother seems to disapprove of me even though she has not met me before and only knows my occupation and age. his mother is also always over and gets upset if that is prevented. don’t know how to deal with this family situation. do i leave or try to work it out?

i'm working on a novel and would like to know if anyone could tell me any improvements i could make to the first chapter and prologue
Prologue
The day had started the same way it had for the past two years. The only difference was that I was going home. The hallway was crowded with people walking to and from their classes. Everyone was crowded next to each other so the halls were making the area feel claustrophobic. All the people talking mixed with the summer heat made me feel like I was locked in a sauna. I walked with Preston to the last class we would ever have together and as usual he was smiling. I never got why he always smiled even in situations where people should be sad he still smiled. He knew what today meant for me and he tried to keep light of the situation. I kept my head down away from what was ahead of me. My mind was too clouded about returning to see my family to notice anything in front of me. I walked into another student. It felt like I had walked into a wall. I knew immediately I had walked into tree. I stumble onto the ground and the commotion around me slows down to make room for us. He turned his bulky body around and apologized profusely without saying a word even though I had walked into him. He helped me off of the ground before hurrying down the hall.
“Alexandria, are you doing okay?” Preston said he had tilted his body downward so I had to look down to look him in his eyes. The way he was standing made him look like an idiot but he didn't seem to care. The way he acted made me laugh, which caused his smile to widen.
“I'm doing fine, just got lost in my head.”
“Thinking about how you’ll leave soon,” he said
“Was it that obvious?” He was the only person I told about me being an exchange student. I came to spend high school in Newkinawa and he was the only person I ever hung out with.
“I see what you mean,” he said “Newkinawa is a beautiful place with beautiful people to live in it…myself included”
“You wish,” I say with a smile we continue walking through the hallway “I'm just not excited to go back yet”
After I say that his smile grows wider “So you will miss me after all”
“I wouldn't say that much” I responded whilst smiling.
We had made it to our last class only to see it closed with a sign labeled “Uma incident” Uma was a student known for messing with the chemistry lab and destroying school property in the process. I've never actually met her but Preston says “She's a little weird but still nice”
“Guess class is canceled for today,” Preston remarked with a smile “Wanna go out to the court till the bell rings.”
“Sure let's go” I respond
The place we ate every day was outside. It used to be a tennis court before I moved in. Now they put trees and flowers all over the place. Preston really liked the blue color of the flowers but it just never clicked for me. I look over at Preston and he's staring up at the sky. There are a number of clouds in almost enough to block the sun but it still pokes its rays through and lands on Preston's face. The clouds swim in front of the sun till they block out the sun's light. Preston faces towards me.
“I'm gonna miss you Alexandria” he says
“You know you can just call me Alex,” I replied. I start to smile again. “I'll miss you too!" He smiles toward me again as we get up to leave as the clouds start to clump together and rain slowly falls. As we're walking back to the school there's a loud tearing sound followed by screams as the ground shakes.
The ground tears itself apart as the dirt and stone erupt from the ground. The sky blackens and a pale blue light escapes the earth. Then creatures erupt from the ground in a violent ejection from the earth creating a white pillar diffusing as they reach higher in the air. Some are clawing their way out of the cracks like maggots out of a corpse. People are swept into the updraft screaming for their lives.
The creatures descend like a tidal wave and tear apart any people caught in their path. They storm out of the crack in hundreds as more cracks in the earth form. Me and Preston started running away as people were screaming behind us. A girl running next to us has her legs slashed by a creature. The monster begins to tear open her chest as she chokes on her own blood. The monster shovels her lungs and innards into its decrepit mouth. Me and Preston keep running until we're met at the entrance of the school and we catch the attention of a monster as it begins to savagely rush toward us. The monster resembles ghosts my father told me about. But this one looks monstrously horrific. It floats in the air and opens its mouth so wide it nearly replaces its entire torso; its jaws hold savage teeth each the same old gray color of its body. Its eyes glow a rotten yellow color through the dark. It stretches out its arms showing its giant hands and claws like fingers. It swipes at us leaving a giant claw mark on the door behind us but Preston ducks my body down to avoid the attack. We run around it as the monster swaps its focus to another bystander. Screaming past us. Me and Preston run into the parking lot as people scream around us. We hide next to a car.
“What the hell is happening!?” I yell to Preston. More of the creatures fly over us and swoop down to people like vultures on roadkill devouring the fleeing people.
Preston starts to breathe heavily ”we need to get out of here and someplace safer”. As we were talking one of the monster phases through the car we were hiding next to forcing us to run into the street.
“Lets go to your house till things cool down” i say to Preston through panted breaths
“Wait couldn't we head to your house instead” Preston says.
“Why would that matter your house is closer anyways” i respond
“But-” Preston is interrupted by two creatures swooping above us to grab another person. The two monsters begin to pull the person apart while he writhes in pain before having his flesh be torn in half and having his organs be devoured.
“Come on lets go!!” I say as I grab his hand and run even faster.
By the time we reach Preston's house any living person is gone. On the street are just corpses laying torn and mutilated on the roads and sidewalk. The air in the neighborhood feels cold despite the season being summer. When I walk down the street I can still hear the occasional horrific wail the monsters give off. We move closer to Preston's house and I can see him sweating. He looked more worried than before when the creatures were chasing us and he kept darting his eyes away from his home.
“Preston, are you feeling okay?” he doesn't respond to my question and keeps darting his eyes. He walks slowly behind me and as I reach for the door handle and when I touch it it feels nearly freezing. I wrap my hoodie around my hand and slowly open the door. The house is quiet so me and Preston creep further into his house. The inside is cold and damp as if we were locked in a freezer. The further we move into the house the louder a subtle chewing sound is heard.
“It sounds like rats are eating a dead cow over there” I whisper. Preston continues to stay silent behind me. We slowly walk closer towards the kitchen and the sound gets louder and louder and louder until we reach the room.
We're met with a rancid smell of vomit and blood. My blood starts to run cold and every instinct in my body is telling me to run. I can feel Preston breathing get heavier as we get closer. We turn the corner and see Preston's mom lying on the ground dead with one of the creatures hunched over slurping her intestines. The sight causes me to vomit alerting the monster to our presence. The creature turns around and its mouth turns into a mortifying grin as it flies into Preston's moms body. The corpse begins to rise and spur splashing blood over the kitchen. When the corpse stops spasming it picks itself up from the ground and with glazed over eyes it holds its intestines in its hand and gives us the same grin it did when it was outside her body. The possessed corpse lunges at me and starts to chase me around the kitchen. The body is running into the walls and cabinets spraying its blood and other loose organs around the area as I'm avoiding its assault. The corpse leans over and ejects one of its loose intestines towards me, wrapping me in it. It pulls me towards it so fast I'm flung towards the ground. The corpse limbers over to me and raises its free hand aiming for my head. The creature's deranged smile causes the corpse’s cheeks to tear apart. It places both of its bloodied and demented hands on my face and starts to press my skull into the ground. I struggle to breathe. The room starts to get dark and blood escapes my head.
Until Preston jumps on top of his mothers corpse with a kitchen knife and repeatedly stabs it in the head. The possessed body tries to shake him off but he keeps stabbing, blood gets in on his face and tears start to escape his eyes. The creature violently ejects from the corpse's mouth causing her head to nearly explode and Preston stops stabbing the body. The body falls over in a splash of blood and organs. The monster leaves phasing through the roof leaving Preston crying over his mother's body. As the blood mixes with the tears he collapses to his knees crying. I walk over and hug him as the air around us turns bitter and the chill of death leaves the room and us with it.
Chapter 1 Eclipse
It's been 2 months since the apocalypse started. We've kept ourselves alive by looting grocery stores and houses, we hide from the creatures as we have no way to fight back against them. Preston came up with the idea to call them glanter’s. He’s looking better since we left his family home but I can tell something is wrong with him that he's not telling me. Everytime I ask him about it he tells me it's no big deal. I asked him earlier today and he just told me
“don't worry about it, I'm over it” without even looking at me. Now we're walking through the street and I'm walking behind Preston, I can barely see his head past the giant bag we're both carrying on our backs we use to carry supplies. I look up at the sky and it's still pitch black except for the moon giving us any amount of light. Preston turns around to face me.
“Let's check out that house, it might have some cool stuff in it” he points to a white house to our right. The house is a two story building with steps leading to the front door. There's a generator poking out from the backyard. The driveway is empty save for a couple of dried blood stains and tire marks. It's similar to the other houses in the neighborhood except for a couple broken windows.
“Sure why not” We head over to the house and I see something shining on the side of the house in the corner of my eye. I turn my head to look at it closer but it quickly disappears before I can see it clearly.
“Probably squirrel or something” I mumble to myself. Preston walks up the stairs to the house and I walk up the steps behind him as a breeze blows past my face. Preston tries to turn the door knob but the door is locked. I start to pull out a lockpick I grabbed at the store earlier. I motion towards Preston to move out of the way as I kneel down to pick the lock. It takes me a couple of minutes to unlock the door so I walk inside the house and Preston follows behind me while closing and locking the door. The doorway of the house leads to a dark room so I take a flashlight out of my bag to illuminate the area. Were put into the living room and bookshelves are on the walls and a large TV sat in front of a large black couch with smaller chairs surrounding it. Dust is covering every surface of the room and spiderwebs litter the corners of the walls. The area smells like moth balls and there's a lack of blood anywhere nearby.
“Guess the owners got out before the Glanter’s got in, '' I say to Preston. When he doesn't respond I turn around and he's already looking further into the house. When I find him he's managed to find a flight of stairs that lead to a lower portion of the house.
“I'll check on him later,” I think to myself as I headed towards the kitchen to see if we could restock on food. I walk past a bedroom and remark on how childish it looked. The walls were painted with blue and green stripes and a bunk bed sat on the right wall. There's a chest at the foot of the bed so I walk over and lift the top off of it. The box is layered with children's toys, a multitude of dolls, bears, and figures all jut out of the box. I notice a small robot toy and inspect it in my hands.
The cold metal makes my hand shiver and the sharp body shape makes the robot bigger than my hand. There's red lining around the robot's buttons surrounded by the cold gray of the robot's “skin”. It reminds me of a toy my little brother had. My heart feels heavy as I worry about what happened to my family. If they're alive, dead, or worse…possessed. The thoughts send a chill down my spine but I push them aside for now. I put the toy in my bag and exit the bedroom.
I can see the kitchen is down the hallway so I walk down the hall and enter. The kitchen is pretty clean except for a couple of dishes in the sink and the dust. There's a table seated for 3 people in the center of the room. I start opening the cabinets in search for any food or water. There's boxes of cereal leftover on top of shelves and a mix of chip bags and cookies in neat boxes stationed in the cabinets.
“Score,” I say to myself as I begin to put the snacks into my bag. When the cabinets are empty I look inside the fridge. The inside of the fridge ran out of power so most of the food inside is rotted. There are a couple of bottles of water in the front so I shove those in my bag. There's also a bag of oranges that still seem to be healthy in the back. I grab them and toss them on the table. There's rotten sandwich meat hidden in the drawer of the fridge.it smells like a dumpster outside of a butcher shop. I wrinkle my nose at the smell. I look around the kitchen for any bread with no luck.
I continue to look through the fridge until I hear Preston scream from another room. Immediately I bolt out of the kitchen leaving my bag behind and run towards the lower part of the house. I run down the stairs and nearly trip on the steps. The stairs lead to a big room. There are posters to tv shows and movies I don't recognize. The walls are painted black and there's a bear skin rug on the floor. I notice Preston standing next to a really big TV hyperventilating. I walk over to him and ask him.
“Are you ok? What happened?”
He talks through deep breaths “I… saw a… spider.”
“What?!” I respond in confusion.
“It was really big and I had jumped at my face”
“Sure it was.” I say while laughing “Let's go upstairs there's some food in the fridge we can eat”
“Wait, I think you should check this out.” He says while pointing towards one of the walls. I grab Preston's flashlight off the floor and face it towards the wall. Hanging halfway off the wall is a large map labeled Newkiwana scavenger hunt of 76.
“I think we should take it,” Preston says “You can read a map right?”
“A little but I'm not the best at it,” I say to him “can you read a map?”
“it shouldn’t be too hard it’s mainly pictures any way I'm sure I can figure it out”
I walk over to the wall where the map is hung there are trophies covering tables and shelved in their own personal cases one of them reads “1st place 100-meter swimming competition for 1986 Zack Hemmingway” and another one reads “2nd place 100-meter swimming competition for 1989 Zack Hemmingway”
“Guess this guy really liked swimming,” Preston remarks while staring at a wall of newspaper clippings. All of them are about the same person in swimming competitions. All labeled different things like “a new record for Zack “the dolphin” Hemmingway”,
‘Zach Hemmingway our star plans for the future” all the newspapers are about this kind he has paler skin and a bulky enough build to swim pretty well. Most of the pictures have him coming out of the water in a pool, his long black hair soaked and sitting at his shoulders. Another one has him sitting at a desk over a pile of books and his hair in a knot , “vicious wipeout ends the Dolphins career”, and “ex-swim champ Zack Hemmingway found in a drunken stupor outside strip club.
“Everyone has their own hobbies I guess,” I say as I take the map off of the wall and fold it up. “Sucks what happened to Zack though” I walked over to Preston’s bag and put the rolled map in one of the pockets. I walk back up the stairs and Preston grabs his bag and follows behind me.
We make our way towards the kitchen and Preston starts looking through the fridge for anything to eat. I grab an orange from the table and throw it at his head. The fruit bounces off his head and rolls on the floor. He turns around and grabs the fruit from the floor
“Why did you throw an orange at me?”
“It's the only food we have unless you plan on eating spoiled a sandwich“ He starts to peel it while walking towards the table. We both take a seat and start to eat the oranges from the bag. He plants his feet on top of the table and bites into the fully peeled orange. I grab a water bottle from a bag and start to drink from it as Preston says.
“I saw a dvd player in that man cave downstairs we could watch a movie if it still has power”
“Sure it could be fun.” Me and Preston spend the rest of our time eating until the bag of oranges is emptied and we head back downstairs. Preston grabs the DVD player from under the table and blows the dust off the top of it; he plugs it into the wall as I plop myself onto the couch. He plugs the DVD player into the TV and sits on the recliner next to me. He presses a few buttons on the remote and the TV lights up. I squint my eyes at how bright it is. It's the most amount of light I've seen that didn't come from a flashlight. I notice there's a box filled with DVDs. I pull the box over towards me. I ruffle through the box and see movies like Silence of the Lambs, Terminator 2, and Home alone.
“Dude some of these came out just before the world turned inside out” I say to him.
“Really? Let's play one.” He responds. I toss him Terminator 2 and he puts it into the DVD player.
We spend the next couple hours watching movies and laughing together. It's some of our only moments of peace we’ve had since the end of the world and to me it's the most fun I've had yet. We're putting in the next DVD when there's a loud crash outside and the TV shuts off. Preston goes behind it to see if it's still plugged in.
“I think the generator outside is busted” i say
“It seems that way” Preston replies while backing away from the tv” i'm gonna go check it out”
“Don't worry I got it” I say as I hop out of my chair. Preston waves goodbye as I head up the stairs. I make my way back through the hallway leading to the living room and front door. I reach the door and start to turn the knob. I open the door wide as a car speeds down the street. I step out of the door to see what had happened when I hear the screech of a glanter. It cuts through the sky like an unholy opera singer. A group of them fly by and chase the car as I rush back inside the house. I slam the door shut and look through the window as I see a couple of smaller glanters grab and shake the car violently looking for the driver. They tear at it, ripping off doors and breaking the windows. The driver screams as the seats cover with blood and he's ripped out of the car as multiple smaller glanters tear and bite off parts of his body like piranha's until his body is completely devoured. I run back to the man cave to warn Preston about what had happened. I spot him laying in his chair spinning a DVD disc on his finger.
“It's not safe outside right now”
“Why not?
“There's glanter's outside, they just ate a dude in his car”
“Did they see you come inside?”
“I don't think so , they flew off before I went inside.”
“well we're not dead so I'm gonna say they didn't see you. But let's stay here for a couple more hours just to be safe”
“Sounds good i'm gonna go find the master bedroom.” I start to walk back up the stairs to the house
“ Hold on why do you get the master bedroom” Preston says while walking after me.
“Because I'm gonna find it first” I say as I start to run to find the bedroom. He chases after me in pursuit of the bedroom. Me and Preston run around the house looking for the master bedroom. We look through room after room finding closets, the garage, a bathroom and a door leading to a balcony in the back of the house. I manage to run into the bedroom and yell out to Preston.``Found it!!”
He comes walking into the room breathing heavily from the running. We both check out the room. The walls are painted a cream yellow and the bed takes up most of the room's center. The bed has burgundy sheets poking out from its bottom and a quilt with multi-colored floral designs lay sprawled out on top of it. There's a wardrobe built into the wall and a black leather couch sits comfortably on the left wall.
“Dibs on the bed” I say as I jump on top of it. I stretch out on top of the quilt and search for a comfortable part to sleep in.
“Where am I supposed to sleep then?” Preston complains
“You can sleep on the couch it looks soft enough” I respond while pointing towards the couch “I saw some spare blankets in one of the closets”
“Alright i’ll be right back” he mumbles to himself “why do i always get the couch”
“ I'll be right here if you need me,” i call after him. I sit up on the bed and start to look around the room more. I notice the entrance to the wardrobe is cracked open slightly. I hop out of the bed and grab a flashlight from my bag as I walk into the wardrobe. I turn on my flashlight and stare in awe at how many clothes are in there. The room is only half as big as the bedroom but it's still bigger than any closet I've ever had. The wardrobe is full of shirts, dresses, pants, and shoes for men and women. I immediately start to look through the shoes to see if any fit my size. I throw a pair of black high heels behind me as Preston finds me in the wardrobe. He looks around before asking me.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding a new pair of clothes to wear cause I've been wearing the same pair of jeans for waaaaay too long”
“Fair enough. Is there any guy stuff in there?”
“Yeah right there” I hook my thumb behind me to point to the other end of the closet.
“I'm sure they won't mind if we take a couple of things…they're probably dead by now anyways,” Preston says with a slight grin on his face. The way he said made me spin my head to look at him but he was already on the opposite end of the wardrobe looking at suits.
I shake away the thought and continue looking for any pair of sneakers in my size. 40 minutes pass before I walk out of the wardrobe holding a new pair of jeans and a black guns-N-roses t-shirt. I toss the clothes on top of the bed and check to see if the shower in the bathroom still works. I turn the dial and wait for a moment. The shower head chokes a little before water comes pouring out. I reach my hand under the showerhead to feel the water. The water is cold, it causes my hand to shiver when I take it out. I shake the water off and say to myself.
“Good enough” as I start to take off my old clothes and get in the shower. The cold water bounces off my skin, it sends shivers down my spine but I still get the old dirt from the last few months off of me. I step out and see a couple of dry towels hanging off of the door. I grab one and dry my body off and grab another to wrap around my head and dry my hair. I step out of the bathroom and Preston is still inside the wardrobe. I put on my new clothes while his back is turned and walk over towards him when I'm finished.
“Still haven't found anything,” I ask him
He turns around “Nothing yet, the only thing interesting was this coat.” He holds a leather coat up to me. The coat is made of black leather and has a skull covered with blue flames on the back. There's a black shirt inside the coat with a skeleton hand making a thumbs-up embroidered on the front.
“ That's pretty cool, it's better than what you're wearing right now at least” he's outfitted in a blue hoodie with holes on the chest and tears at the sleeves. He also has a shirt with a faded picture of a blue flower printed on it.
“I guess you're right” he gets up from the floor and exits the wardrobe. He lays the clothes on the couch along next to the blanket and pillow he brought into the room.
“The shower works so you can get yourself clean In there,” I say to him
“You know, a shower sounds really good right now.” He gets up from the floor and grabs a pair of pajama pants that were laying next to him. He leaves the wardrobe and enters the bathroom, closing the door behind him. After a moment the water turns on and I hop on the bed to get ready to sleep. I squirm myself into the quilt and rest my head against one of the pillows. I shut my eyes and fall asleep listening to the passive sound of the shower like rain on a car.
I'm in a void. It feels like I'm standing in a puddle of water that reaches to my knees. I wade my way forward looking around for anything in the darkness. In the distance I can see 3 figures l. I moved closer to them and their silhouettes get clearer. I realize they are my dad and brothers. I start to run towards them kicking up water behind me until something grabs my leg. It pulls down violently forcing me under the water without a breath of air. I kick at the thing grabbing me until something grabs my other leg. I look down and see two glanter's each with a monstrous smile on their faces. They stare back at me and one of them tugs my leg harder than before and tears it off of my body. The water around me turns red as the glanter laugh's. The other smiles wider as it starts to fling me around the water forcing any air left in my lungs to be forced out as I scream in pain. The glanter throws me away and I can see my family slowly fade into the distance as I'm flown away.
I struggle to swim back to where I was, one of my legs is missing and the other is broken. The glanter's find me again and I try to get to the surface to escape them. I'm flapping my arms in any attempt to escape as one of the glanter's flies in front of me and grabs my arm. I look at the monster with tears in my eyes as it bites my arm and tears my body away from it. It flings my body away and with my remaining arm I clutch the wound as the water floods into my body leaving me in the void I started in. I look around and the glanter's seem to have left. I turn behind me and see my family again, this time I'm closer than before.
I grit my teeth and drag my body towards them slowly as I leave a trail of blood and tears behind me. I finally reach my family and grab one of my father's shoes. I stare up and he looks at me. His stare causes me to feel cold as a grotesque smile grows on his face. I stare in shock as my brothers each have the same look as my father.
I shoot up from my sleep panting heavily in a cold sweat.
“It was just a dream..just a dream…just a dream” I look at my hands as tears fall into them. I look around the room and see Preston sleeping peacefully on the couch. The room feels frozen in place as a chill runs down my spine. I get out of the bed and walk out of the bedroom. I make my way through the dark hallway and find the entrance to the balcony I saw earlier. I creak open the screen door and head outside. The Balcony is pretty large, about the size of the kitchen in the house. There are some chairs knocked over next to a table and I pick one up to sit on it. I look out into the expanse of the neighborhood, houses lined up next to each other, dozens broken apart by roads, and dead bodies scattered across the roads.
I look up in the sky and sit back in the chair. The sky looks empty except for the moon giving this world its only source of light. Without the moon, we’d be left in darkness. It hangs in the sky alone, no stars, no clouds, nothing but itself, and the void of the sky. I think back about the dream I had. My dad and my brother's all dead and possessed and then they kill me. I start to tear up thinking about it. I try to wipe away the tears but it’s no use. I'm too scared for my family. I don't know where they are if they're alive if they're worried about me I don't know anything! I start to quietly cry into my hands. I don't know how long I'm sitting there until I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn my head to face it and I see Preston. He was smiling and looking at me. I turn away to wipe my tears and he walks next to me.
“I heard you sneaking out of the bedroom so I followed you to see where you were going.” he says “but that's not my question.” he pauses and looks at me “my question is what’s got you feeling so down?” he leans over the railing of the balcony
“It's nothing, I just came out here to clear my head.” I say as more tears escape from my eyes in big slow drops that ride down the sides of my face.
“if you don't feel like telling me you don't have to but i'll be here if you ever change your mind”. He looks up at the moon before turning to face me and his smile widens “I'll always be here with you…trust me I'm not going anywhere”
I stare up at him and wipe away my tears as a smile grows on my face to match his. I get up and stare over the balcony with him. “So where are we heading next?” I say to him, Preston pulls the map we got from the man cave downstairs out from his pocket.
“After I got out of the shower I decided to take a look at the map for anything interesting we could see.”
“Ok did you find anything?” i ask
“I did,” he points at a spot on the right of the map. “We should head to the museum”
“I didn't want to go to a museum before the apocalypse why would i want to go now?'' I ask him.
“Well the best part of museums is the cool stuff right”
“Yeah what about it”
“The only problem is that you could only look at the fossils and armor but you could never take them.”
“So you want to rob a museum?” Prestons eyes light up at the question
“Exactly they might have a really cool sword I could use, or I could sharpen a dinosaur tooth and use that as a weapon, there might be a cursed shield that can summon the dead to fight for you. This opportunity is too good to pass up. We need to go!”
“That does seem pretty cool but wouldn't carrying that stuff weigh us down. What if a glanter is chasing us and we can't run fast enough because of the stuff we took from the museum.”
“We’ll only take things that are light. Even then I could just block the glanter with my newly acquired 2000 year old shield.”
“Fair enough we can go in a couple hours” I yawn and stretch out my arms. “Cause I'm feeling way too tired to walk all the way over there right now.”
“Alright i'm heading back to my couch and THEN we’ll head out to the museum” he leaves the balcony and heads back to the master bedroom leaving me alone on the balcony.
“Thanks Preston I'm not leaving either” I say into the sky. I turn around and walk back inside the house, closing the balcony door behind me. I walk back into the bedroom and Preston is hunched over and holding a flashlight looking at the map. He’s drawing lines through roads and marking X’s in different areas.
“What are the X’s for?” i ask him
“They’re places that glanter’s usually stay around. I'm marking them off so we remember not to go through them, or at least be more cautious.”
“Cool. Did you find where we are right now?” He points to an area where the lines all converge out of.
“Right around here is where the neighborhood ends. So if we follow this path we can make it to the museum in one piece” I pat him on the back and take the map from his hands.
“Get some sleep Preston, we have a full day tomorrow” he grins to himself before laying down on the couch. I put the map back into my bag and hop on the bed to get to sleep. I cover my body in the quilt and roll over facing away from Preston as he falls asleep. I nestle myself into the bed and slowly fall asleep to get ready for the next day.
I'm awoken by Preston shaking the bed I'm sleeping on. My eyes open and the room is foggy, I wipe away the sleep from my eyes and focus my attention towards Preston. He's practically jumping out of his skin with excitement, he's already fully dressed for the trip and shaking the bed with a wide smile on his face.
“Ok ok i'm up the air feels heavy as a groggy feeling fills my body. I wipe my eyes and the room starts to clear up. I turn to face Preston. He's still shaking my bed to wake me up, he’s already fully dressed and nearly jumping out of his skin in excitement.
“Ok ok, i'm up you can stop shaking the bed” i say
“Then get up we’ve got a long walk ahead of us” he says as he stops shaking the mattress. He grabs the map from my bag and points to one of the red lines.
“We're gonna follow this way to the museum. We’ll move past the hotel around the ice skating rink and around the park. We’ll mainly stick to walking through the streets, we might have to go rooftop hopping to avoid any glanter’s if we see them but i'm sure we won’t reach that point.” he explains
“Wait, wait, wait, why are avoiding the skating rink and the park” i ask
“ everytime we go near the park there's weird noises and light coming out of it”
“And why can't we go to the ice skating rink?”
“I didn't think it would be important”
“It couldn't hurt to check it out at least”
“Fine we could make a detour”
“Ok and how do you plan on getting on top of roofs?”
“I'm sure we'll figure it out when we get to it”
“Ok man as long as you’re sure '' I yawn and step out of the bed. Preston starts to put the map in his bag. I walk into the bathroom with my clothes and change out of my pajamas. Minutes later I walk out and see Preston sitting on the couch twiddling his thumbs.
“Finally you're out” he smiles at me before handing me my bag and slinging it over his shoulder. We took a last look inside the kitchen to see if we missed anything. Afterwards we leave for the outside. The cold air bites at my face but Preston walks down the stairs, his face buried in the map. I jog to catch up to him as we both head into the street.
“Hey Preston, could I see the map?”
“Sure” he hands over the map and continues walking. I look at the map and the numerous lines drawn on roads. I look at the corner of the map and notice a small map key with numerous symbols for different areas like a library, school, hospital, and more. There's even a way to tell how far away each location is. The text reads “1 inch=5 miles” I quickly count how far we are from the museum.
“Dude this museum is like 100 miles away.”
“Yep it'll be a long walk, it'll take us a while to get there”
“Did you plan on us walking there the whole time?”
“We might find bikes or something.” he pauses “well i did think we would walk the whole way”
“This is gonna take us weeks to get there!”
“Did you have anything else planned?”
“Well…i guess not but we should still try to find some bikes or something”
“Ok if we see any way to travel faster we’ll take it”
“Alright cool” I hand him the map back and he folds it back up and puts it in his bag. We walk further until we leave the gated neighborhood we started in. Preston takes the map back out and looks at it before he turns right and continues walking. I follow him staring forward at the expanse of the road. The outside of the neighborhood is surrounded by roads all leading to different parts of Newkinawa. We walk past a sign that reads “Coretown 20 miles ahead” I nudge Preston towards the sign and he checks the map again.
“Yep, the museum’s in Coretown. Would you believe the residents were pretty proud of it. Should be a fun place to explore” he says
“Yeah but it’ll take us a million years to get there.” i complain
“Lighten up, I'm sure it will be worth it”. We continue walking down the road slowly making our way to Coretown.

AITAH?
3 yrs ago I had a baby boy and he is my only family....when he was born his father decided getting addicted to crack and letting some woman drag him down was more important then helping me raise his son....
Now..I knew I was ganna raise him alone because this guy was not a man....can't hold a job etc i was never interested in a long term relationship...so I moved into a very close friends house ...he has been there for me since I met him a long time ago he is like my sons grandpa... well I met a man and Moved out and my son has his own room and a toddler bed it's spider man bed he usually loves it...
Grandpa takes him a couple days at the end of the weekend for me im a stay at home mom..im alone all day hes 3 his favorite words are no and no way mamma it can be a challenge..and my parents were not present so ive had to make sure im doing things better then how they taught me i read or ask someone when im lost as to what to do being a parent when u were not raised properly is hard lol
..now his "grandpa's" getting up there in yrs he don't have a wife or anything and pls this Is not a concern about safety I trust this man with my life but I asked him to get him a toddler bed too there 20 bucks at Walmart and he ignores me....I dislike him sleeping with him because then he comes home won't sleep in his bed he wants to sleep with me! But he can't because my man is in our bed and on top of that wakes up at 4 am for very long day at work...
He now is lonely basically when he has to sleep in his bed so he will make up excuses why he can't sleep in his bed I know why he won't and i understand but I am his mom and I would let him sleep with me occasionally but I can't! I've asked several times and he just ignores me and it pisses me off..he's making my son scared of being alone pretty much and I get he's only 3 but I can't spend 4 hrs every night re doing his bed flipping the mattress and stuff for no fucking reason..I'm pissed he won't just buy the fuckin bed like I asked. He even has a spare bedroom...I will pay to childproof the fuckin thing...
He's old and stubborn but now my kid makes me feel like a monster cuz he needs to sleep in his bed at my house . I after a long day..don't want to feel like a p.o.s because his grandpa won't do this
I feel it's incredibly disrespectful and I'm about to say he can't go to his house anymore because I'm sick of this, which I really don't want to have to do ..again I have 0 family this man is like my only true friend he saved my life back in the day..idw have to tell him to fuck off but really...I feel like everything has to be a fucking battle..he has never had kids even ...it's not like he knows best..I'm grateful for his help but at what point am I being a push over...this is my son, is it really that hard to do this..I've been patient and I find it fucked up I've had to ask 4 or 5 times..

TL;DR: I'm 33 and love at home with abusive parents but don't make enough for a 1 bedroom apartment.
I (f33) live at home with my parents. I'm the only one working, my mom is retired and elderly (mid 70s) but still independent. My dad is 62 and lost his job 7 years ago because he was a heroin addict. He now doesn't work because if he made money, he'd probably go back to using.
Financially, I don't have the best job. I make about 40k a year before taxes and my mom gets retirement income. She pays the rent and I pay the utilities, food, toiletries, and miscellaneous household items. My dad does not contribute. When he lost his job, I took over all the bills that were in his name.
My parents are very verbally abusive and my dad is also physically abusive with each other but especially towards me and it's taking a toll on my mental health. I've been searching for a place to rent on my own but I live in an expensive city and don't have the capability to leave the state, nor do I want to. I like my city. But most places reject me because my income is too low.
I recently lost a cat and they will not allow me to adopt another one in the future even though I have always been responsible. They've been making attacks and threats to me. Today my dad got drunk and told me I will never find someone and that I'm a loser. My dad has broken TVs, items around the house, things that belonged to my mom when they fight... it's just a lot and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I feel stuck and don't know how to get out or away. What can I do? I don't want to be here and it's making me depressed. Most people my age are married with kids, or traveling and living their life. I just want a cat to be happy and somehow that's asking for too much. I feel like I'm wasting my life away here.

i am a 22 F, and i am planning on moving out in a month. i thought i was fully prepared to move out, but after talking with my parents, i don’t know. my parents have never told me to leave or pressured me to leave, i’m moving out because i feel like that’s what i “should” be doing. i am turning 23 in less than a month, i feel like i’m too old to still be residing in my childhood bedroom.
my parents think i’m too young to move out and that i’m rushing things. i have a good paying job, for a 22 year old, and i am very responsible for my age. everything points to me being ready to move out, but now i’m second guessing everything. is 22 too young to move out, or should i just jump in the deep end and hope for the best?

Spoilers for Benedict’s book.
I’ll write what I think will happen, with a long explanation about WHY and, what I think they’ll change, so read what you like and tell me what you think.
Well to start, I think they’ll change Sophie’s backstory to make it hit harder; she’ll be the bastard child of a working class man and a female relative of the Cowper’s who died giving birth to Sophie. So she’ll be the Cowper’s ward who they work as a maid (since that’s her birth-station anyway) and hide from the ton.
This way, Sophie inherits nothing and they can’t just say “she’s an earl’s illegitimate daughter it’s ok.” It’s actually MORE unacceptable and Benedict would actually have to compromise to marry her. And, of course she could still have that great personal conflict with being a mistress, because she doesn’t want to put another child through the same fate.
God that would be so good, I love forbidden love which is why I’m so excited for this story
How I think it’ll go:
S3:

• Benedict, finding out that Collin is engaged, and with Anthony coming back and being Viscount again, starts to feel lost (not that he wasn’t before) and, on a whim, proposes to Lady Tilly who turns him down.
  
• There’ll be no masquerade, Benophie will meet during the unmasking LW ball (which Benedict won’t see since he’ll be off with Sophie) SO we get a shot of her from the back holding up something while helping Cressida prepare for the ball in her own room OR Cressida won’t go to the ball due to conflict with her parents (?).
  

Why: Lady Cowper’s first-name is Araminta (tweeted by a hairdresser) and the show people said we’d see a Cowper bedroom in S3.

• Sophie steals a dress with gloves that have the Cowper’s family seal and goes to the ball

Im not sure but maybe she thinks she can avoid running into Cressida at the ball? This is why I think maybe the Cowper’s won’t attend.

• Benedict, broken from Lady Tilly at this point, shares a close moment with Sophie and he slips off her glove (probably gets into the moment, but feels a deeper understanding with Sophie). BUT he doesn’t really see her face that well because they’re outside alone in the dark while everyone’s dancing since Sophie can’t dance and Benedict doesn’t feel like it.

Why: He’d probably find comfort in the fact that he doesn’t recognize her and she doesn’t recognize him. Of course, her pure joy would also enchant him :)

• The clock strikes midnight and Sophie has to leave before she tells Benedict her name, which she was never going to do obv. OR, Sophie spots the Cowpers and decidedly runs away.

Why: A teaser for part 2 (that I happened to find I swear I’m not obsessed lol) emphasizes the clock striking midnight, and Eloise threatens to expose Pen to Collin if she doesn’t admit it by midnight so I think Pen will faint as Sophie runs away. Here’s the link but it’s spoiler-y: https://youtu.be/HO6SwAnQlMc?feature=shared

• Benedict asks Violet if she recognizes the crest on the glove he still has and she says it’s the Cowper’s. (I can’t wait for his conflict with Violet on this, since we know she still values the standards of society).
  
• Ok, idk about this but maybe Benedict calls on the Cowpers and asks if they know about the girl in silver at the ball. Obv they say no.
  
• Lady Cowper obv realizes, because they thought he came to call on Cressida before he started talking and Lady Cowper’s like ”No, he came for her!!!” and kicks Sophie out as opposed to trying to arrest her and admitting they worked a ward as a servant or had a bastard child in their family(?).
  

End of S3 Benophie.
S4: Very vague ofc

• Benedict’s been limerent for the Lady in Silver for a year and she’s reignited his art hobby, but now he’s obsessed with painting and drawing her. And/or he’s more serious about getting married now that his grown brothers are.
  
• Maybe Sophie works for the Mondrichs now? That makes the most sense to me, and I think that’s probably why they had a plotline. I bet they treat her better than the Cowpers who overworked her out of spite probably. OR she’s a maid for Francesca and John which would make it easier for Benedict to first see her and continue to meet with her. Maybe Sophie’s planning to become a real governess since she found better employers than in the book.
  
• Benedict somehow meets her without being sure if she’s the LIS and they bond over their similarities, his art, and how they make each other joyful. It really shouldn’t take Benedict that long to figure it out, man’s a junkie but not a dummy.
  
• Then we get the book conflict of Sophie refusing a relationship because of her personal values. BUT Benedict’s not as creepy as in the book (please). I remember he just accepted Madame Delecaux’s similar rejection in S2 in a sweet way so maybe they put that in to tell us he wouldn’t be…yeah.
  
• Then idk, they pine for each other (scandalous). Cue what Granville said to Benedict in S1 (paraphrasing) “I risk my life every day for love. Do you know what it’s like to be in the same room as someone you cannot live without and yet still feel still that you are oceans apart…we cannot so much as smile at each other without making sure that no one else is watching.”
  
• Eventually the line must drawn and Benedict has to seriously consider sacrificing his family (or at least his place in his family’s world, the world he was born and raised in) for Sophie, and think about how they would even support each other financially. Also I doubt Sophie could be a governess with that scandal.
  
• Insert conflicts with other single ladies, Violet and Anthony’s opinions, and conflict with the Cowpers (I mean Sophie has to get arrested at some point) along the way.
  

Yeah, this is all speculation and I’m excited to see what’s correct and what’s not.
I think that Jess Brownell (the new show runner starting S3) can do this story great if she keeps the heavy drama parts while using her lighter brighter style to maintain the humor of Benedict, and the laughter and mutual comfort found in his and Sophie’s relationship.
Theirs is the ONLY book I read since I love forbidden romance.
As for the actress playing Sophie, I think the only things that matter are her skills and her chemistry with Luke T.
Please tell me what you think!

I’m Australian footy = football My (F23) ex (M25) and I were together for 4 months and we met on one of those dating apps. I thought he was perfect. At the start of the relationship he was always talking about me being pregnant especially after a long spicy night… but I never wanted kids.
Month 2 is where things started to get rocky and now after talking to friends and family I realised I was being mentally abused the entire time. We were always fighting and he kept accusing me of starting fights and not letting things go but the only time I remember starting a fight was when I had an emotional breakdown one weekend.
Some back story … it was boys night weekend … (yes I know but I wasn’t invading their space. All of them for weeks kept inviting me but I said no until that morning where my ex convinced me to come along for the weekend). So while I knew my partner was going to spend time with the boys watching the footy I was prepared for that. I had my phone to keep me busy. Here’s where the issue starts. The week before I found out I had cancer in my cervix and uterus which was caused by too many hormones (birth control) and other factors. So in my defence the thing I needed the most was my partner because I was emotionally unstable. I never once cried in front of him up until that moment. Not even when I told him I had cancer. Through the weekend, I probably spent not even one hour with my ex in a decent conversation. we went to the car shop to get something for his car He was working on and when we got back he spent three hours working on his car while I went and played with his nephew (4yrs). When my ex was done with his car, all the boys went for a swim and I continued playing with his nephew for another two hours before the footy started. Not once had we spoken to each other since that morning. When the footy started it was already night time so I grabbed my dinner and sat down next to him on my phone. Still no conversation but I didn’t expect much. When the footy was done, we all went inside to watch a movie and one of his brothers accused me of taking all his time away because it’s boys night. I had barely seen my ex the entire day and I spent most of the day playing with his son so for him to accuse me like that, I felt attacked. So we had a big fight. I told him he can pay me for looking after his son the entire day because I’m not a babysitter. My ex knew I hated kids. And to his defence he was on my side during this fight with his brother. After watching a movie we all went to bed. My ex and I did the nasty and went to sleep. We didn’t even talk. The next morning he wanted to watch some movies but decided to put on 2 movies I voiced verbally that I didn’t want to watch. You can imagine how seedy I’m starting to feel at this point. Halfway through the second movie, his mum comes home, we say hi. She goes outside to spend time with her partner. After about 15 minutes my ex says he’s going outside to grab a beer. Imagine my shock when the movie finished and he still hasn’t come back inside. I went to the bedroom and had a moment to think and try and calm myself down. He did come in and check on me and I told him I just need a moment but I want a hug. His response was “it’s too hot in here. I’m going back outside!” So I told him I was going to leave in a moment then. He just walked off. This was the start of my breakdown. I packed my things and walked outside and he asked where I was going. I flat out said “I told you I was leaving and you ignored me and walked away” He walked me out to the car and then asked if I was alright. I said no and I broke down crying. I’m talking full ugly crocodile tears, gasping for breath, non vocal emotional breakdown. While he gave me hug… as pitiful as it was … still appreciate the gesture. He said he loved me and before I could even breath in let alone say anything he’s pushing me away said “ fuck this get your shit together I’m done!” And walks away from me. Didn’t even check to see if I was alright. When I got home … if I got home … nothing. This is the only thing Ive brought up let alone fight about. This was our first big fight. Many more to happen like him accusing me of cheating. Me being “emotional” and that I was the one to always start the fights because I asked if he wanted kids ?… I thought it was a yes or no question but it turned into a fight and him accusing me of starting a fight… that was our entire relationship really. My self esteem killed and arose many insecurities because of him.
About 3 months after we started dating I confessed I wanted a kid with him and I was ready. He has a habit of blocking me after fights and expects me to chase him up to fix things and I stupidly always did because I wanted things to work. He told me he no longer wanted kids but if it happens it happens. This is where the mental abuse was really bad. My family and friends didn’t like him but I still wanted to make things work. We had a major fight and broke up. He blocked me and like my naive self I still tried to get hold of him after everything. After a couple of weeks he said he wanted to fix things up. I invited him over and we had a talk and one thing led to another… We had dinner and he had a fight with my parents and things got pretty heated. Many things were said on both sides but what really topped it was when he threatened my entire family. I kicked him out of the house and he called me childish.
The next morning, I messaged him again asking what last night was about. he said I “had issues and I need to fix them. I am not mentally fit for him. He’s a grown adult and only wants happiness, not a hormonal child.”
A couple days ago my friend and I took our monthly test. Her hoping she is positive and me hoping I’m negative. Imagine our shock when we find mine positive. After the shock wore off, i Messaged my ex to let him know but my text never got delivered which means he blocked me again.
I’ve gotten to a point that I’ve tried so hard to contact him every time in the past to fix things, so right now I really can’t be bothered. I’ve sent my message to let him know but that’s as far as things go on my side. My friend says I’m valid in my feelings but my family says I should try harder to contact him to let him know because he’s the father.
I always told him that if anything happened to us and we had kids, he would still be able to see them but after him threatening my family, how do I know he’s not gonna threaten our child too? I’m only 6 weeks along and everything is still new. I’m done with him and want him out of my life but it doesn’t mean the feelings aren’t still there. I don’t want our child to turn out to be someone like him. I might not even carry to full term due to my health and the cancer, but for now this is my baby and as far as I’m aware, I’ve tried to tell him but I’m done. I’ve put myself through so much with him already that I’m not going to risk my already unstable pregnancy.
So AITAH for not trying harder to tell my ex he’s going to be a father?

Below is a list of some recent releases that are highly rated and some that will be released in June for your perusal. If you know of any other upcoming releases please post them in the comments!

RECENT RELEASES

The Burning Witch 3: A Humorous Romantic Fantasy by Delemhach

Lady Katarina Ashowan is used to getting into trouble, but her latest muddle takes the cake. A moment’s weakness in her attraction to Eric Reyes, crown prince of Daxaria, has landed her in an unexpected marriage with the man . . . just as her father, Lord Finlay Ashowan, arrives in Troivack to check on his headstrong daughter. As if figuring out how to acclimate her father to her scandalous elopement isn’t bad enough, there are rumors of dangerous magical plots afoot at court—with Kat seemingly at the center of them all.
For one thing, the devil is still prowling around, with dubious intentions as to Kat’s powers. For another, an underground network of wrongdoers has been spreading a mysterious and addictive drug throughout both Troivack and Daxaria. And perhaps most concerning, a villainess is hiding in plain sight somewhere close to Kat and her best friend, Queen Alina, hoping to use them to strike at the devil. Now it’s up to Kat—with the help of her kitten familiar, Pina, as well as her friends and family—to untangle the twisted web of courtly and magical intrigue before her hurried honeymoon is cut short by deadly disaster . . .

The Runaway Mate: A Rejected Mate Shifter Romance (Shifters of the Three Rivers) By Kira Nightingale

After what he did, I never wanted to see my fated mate again…
Mai: Four years ago, Ryan Shaw broke my heart, tore it into little pieces and then stomped on it. Ryan is my fated mate, but when I saw him with another woman at the regional meet of all the Packs, I’d had enough. I finally told him what he meant to me, and being the jerk that he is, he rejected me in front of everyone.
Heartbroken, I ran, trying to get as far away from him and the memory of that night as possible. Except I’m on a roll with picking jerks. So now I’m on the run again and heading back to the one place I know I’ll be safe. My brilliant plan is to lie low, heal, and then take off someplace new to start again. But Ryan knows I’m here now, and he has very different ideas.
Ryan: Mai is back, and my wolf is going crazy. I’ll do anything to protect her. It won’t be easy with secret plots to take over our Pack, her abusive ex sniffing around, and Mai’s urge to run every time she sees me. But there’s no way I’m letting her go, not again.

Fastlander Fallen by T.S. Joyce

Ace has one last promise to fulfill.
His father has asked him to try to join one of the Crews of Damon’s Mountains. When the new Fastlander Crew starts accepting applicants, Ace puts his name in the hat on a whim. Will the new Alpha ever allow him to be a part of his Crew? Not if he finds out who he really is. Ace has been hiding a secret about his lineage since he was a child, and now the Fastlanders are getting way too close for comfort. And to add to the pressure, there’s a human coordinating the Crew’s interview process that has his animal’s attention. At first he thinks his animal is hunting her, but the more he gets to know her, the more he realizes she is important. Corey Gable just might be the glue of the Fastlanders, and she doesn’t even realize her part in the destiny of this Crew. The problem? It’s twofold. One, he cannot under any circumstances bond to a human, and two? His life is in a free fall, and he cannot drag her into what is about to happen. If she wants to live, she’s got to stay human, and stay away from the Fastlanders. And most importantly? She has to stay away from Ace.
Corey Gable has lost someone she loves.
Corey’s cousin, Hallie, has been consumed by her new life with the shifters of Damon’s Mountains, and she’s left Corey behind. The only way to maintain her relationship with her cousin is to get involved in her new life—the ups, the downs, all of it. When Corey is roped into helping with the interview process of creating the new Fastlanders Crew, there are definitely some interesting characters who want the invite. One of them is tall, dark, and mysterious, and there’s something about him that keeps drawing her in—but he has big warnings for her. She’s messing with a destiny that could be the end of her life as she knows it. She wants to heed his advice, truly she does, but there’s just something about the mysterious stranger. And the more she finds out about who he is, the more she thinks she couldn’t leave him alone if she tried.

Hellhounds and Angel Cakes by Zoe Chant

He’s supposed to be a rough, tough, terrifying hellhound. That's hard when you're covered in chihuahuas.
Henry’s used to everyone being afraid of him – being a hellhound has that effect on people. What he’s not used to is having every animal within a four-mile radius suddenly wanting to be his best friend. Pigeons roosting on your shoulder: annoying, but mostly harmless. The local moose population stampeding toward you in the hopes of a hug: somewhat more worrying.
There’s nothing for it but to escape to the mountains, where he can use his hellhound form to intimidate the local wildlife into leaving him alone. But a stop for one last piece of cake before heading into the wilderness leads him straight to his fated mate. He's over the moon... but how can he court her when every animal in town is trying to leap into his arms?
Travel journalist Luna was looking forward to this assignment: covering the first annual Girdwood Springs Food Festival, along with her trademark: Fillmore, the world's ugliest dog. Specifically, she was looking forward to sampling all the amazing, mouth-watering local delicacies.
But there's other delights to sample in Girdwood Springs – such as the mind-bogglingly gorgeous, hunky man who is now covered in cake, thanks to Fillmore. And who seems to be strangely popular with the local animal population.
Suddenly, writing her article is the last thing on her mind…

Wild Scottish Beauty by Tricia O'Malley

“She was sunshine to my storm clouds, and I wondered how the two could ever coexist.”
A chance job offer in Scotland gives Willow Barlowe an excuse to escape the predictable life her overly controlling brother, Miles, wants for her. Excited to start fresh as a fashion intern for the local kiltmaker, Willow lands in small town Loren Brae brimming with sunshine and hope.
Until she discovers that her new boss is none other than Ramsay McMillan, her brother’s best friend, and the grumpiest man this side of the Atlantic. Never mind the ghost Highland coo that haunts the castle, nor the supposedly bewitched waters of Loch Mirren, Willow refuses to work under Ramsay’s watchful eyes, certain he’s reporting back to her brother.
Ramsay Kilts is home to one of the last remaining traditional kiltmakers in Scotland, Ramsay McMillan. Loyalty, continuity, and tradition are important to Ramsay–as is his privacy. After a family betrayal, Ramsay keeps his walls up, running a veritable kilt empire with as minimum fuss as he can. Enter Willow Barlowe–his new intern, good friend’s little sister, and a veritable thorn in his side.
If the thorn is made of sunshine and sparkles that is.
As the two clash, Ramsay must decide if loyalty is really more important than love?

Devious Gods by Caroline Peckham

Callie: Ruin chases close on our heels and the price we have paid for a chance at our salvation is higher than any of us could have presumed.
I have claimed a love so brutal that I fear losing it might destroy not just me but the world I have fought so desperately to save.
The gods watch us more closely than ever, urging us to fulfil the task our destiny demands. We only have to make it to the end of this road, but I fear what we might find when we reach that final destination.
Montana: I am no longer the girl born to ruin and ash, but a woman set on a path of salvation with my heart in the clutches of a monster.
Our eyes are finally open to the true enemies of our kind and now that we have managed to unite against all odds, we are determined to see the games of the gods end.
Time is running out and fate calls our name on a tumultuous wind. Let’s pray that we can answer it before damnation claims us all.

The Throne of Honour and Blood by J Bree

In our arrogance, the high fae forgot everything that mattered.
I carved out a reputation as the Savage Prince for my brutality against witches, but unable to wield our magic, I couldn’t stop my kingdom from being torn apart by war and famine while the Fates demanded my patience.
The worst was still to come.
After almost a thousand years of waiting for my Fates-blessed mate, and thousands of witches dead by my hand, the Fates revealed their cruelest truth yet.
With silver eyes that sliced to the bone and a humility that defied all reason, the witch I’m bound to has tested every inch of my restraint, but that was only the beginning.
Everything I once knew as true has come into question.
Loyalties will be tested, treaties broken, treason committed, and only the strongest will survive.
I am Prince Soren Celestial.
The rightful heir to the throne of the Southern Lands.
Nothing will keep me from my Fates-blessed mate.
Not even her hatred for me.

Devourer of Men: A Captain Hook, Crocodile, and Wendy Darling Reimagining by Nikki St. Crowe

I have few friends and fewer allies. What I do have on the island of Everland is a lot of people who want me gone. So when the Crocodile and Captain Hook reappear in my life, I am in no mood. And worse, they’re unknowingly endangering themselves by asking for me by a name I long considered dead.
Now, not only do I have to save myself, I have to save the two men who I swore I would murder with my bare hands if I ever set eyes on them again considering they abandoned me.
Unfortunately for me, Roc and Hook have other plans, and when I find myself caught between them, I have to make a decision: risk my heart or risk my life?
Devourer of Men is a dark MMF romantasy fairytale retelling. Characters have been aged up for this darker, grittier version. For a full list of content warnings, please visit the author's website.

Bespelled (Bewitched Book 2) By Laura Thalassa

“Neither magic, nor time, can keep us apart. We are like the stars. Eternal.”
No one told witch Selene Bowers having a soul mate would be so difficult. Nor did they warn her that he might be a vengeful, ancient sorcerer who would frame her for murder, force her to remember a past life he swears she lived, and then coerce her into an unbreakable marriage pact. But that’s exactly what happens the night of the Samhain Ball, when Selene finds herself in a jail cell.
After waking from enchanted sleep, Memnon swore to discover why Selene betrayed him long ago. But when his soul mate’s memories return, the truth reveals something else entirely. Horrified by his own actions and desperate to make amends, Memnon offers Selene the unthinkable: a magic bond that will give her full control over his will. And Selene is desperate enough to accept it.
But other enemies still haunt Henbane Coven, Selene’s magical academy, and they’ve taken a keen interest in her. If she wants to stop them, she’ll need Memnon’s help. But partnering with the sorcerer is a tricky business, especially when he’s dead set on winning her heart. And that can’t happen…because the bond controlling him will break the moment she falls in love with him.

Beautiful Beast (Dragons of Viria) by Devyn Sinclair

Standing in front of a dragon means dying by fire, but the heart knows there’s more than one way to burn.
Humans and dragons are at war, and I am a pawn in the battle.
Princess of a dying land, my life is not my own, and a marriage to a vicious, dragon-hunting prince will save my people from deadly famine or death by fire.
But before I can vow my life to a monster, dragons drop screaming from the sky with a single aim. End the alliance. Kill me. I welcome the flames, relieved to burn instead of rot.
But the flames never come.
One look in the dragons' eyes, and they carry me away. Three dragons whose gaze burns with hunger and fills me with fire.
They're not what we were taught, and every passing day I learn more of the truth. Dragons are not the enemy we thought they were.
Still, one question remains: for centuries no one has stood before a dragon and survived. If these dragons were sent to kill me, why am I still alive?

Midlife Vampire Hunter (The Forty Proof Series Book 9) by Shannon Mayer

Crash:
I had her in my arms, only to lose her moments later. Frantic doesn't even begin to describe my state of mind as I search for Bree.
That search takes me deep into my past and to a family home that I swore I would never return to.
To find Bree, I must face a queen I defied and a monster that wants my soul. All while being heckled by a demon-infested blade.
Goddess help me succeed.
Breena:
Being abducted by a woman who is supposed to be dead, and weirdly looks a heck of a lot like me, is disturbing. Being told my death is needed to complete a wicked spell and that I'll be turned into a vampire? Even more disturbing.
I can't reach Crash or my friends. I have no idea where I am. My only ally? Alan. My ex-husband. Yup, you read that right,
The path to the end of my story is shadowed in fog, danger, and mystery, but I begin to see through it as the players and truth emerge. And that sight shows me that the sliver of hope is worth hanging onto, that my friends are with me even when I cannot see them, and that a future free of those who mean us harm is possible.
Even if it costs me more than I ever planned on paying

UPCOMING JUNE RELEASES

The Little Shop of Grand Curiosities by Iris Lake

Nepheli’s Little Shop of Grand Curiosities is the last scrap of magic left in the humdrum city of Elora as the Dreadful Mundane slowly takes over its residents’ hearts, and she is determined to preserve it any way she can. But when Apollo, a charming and mysterious traveler from the other side of the world, walks into her Shop, bringing her all kinds of trouble, Nepheli, for the first time in her life, is stolen away from the familiar wonders of her Curiosity Shop and is thrust into a dangerous world of lethal creatures and heartbreaking magic. As the two of them embark on a long journey of self-discovery, Nepheli will soon realize that the most curious things in life lie right beyond the reach of one’s comfort zone.
The Little Shop Of Grand Curiosities is a lighthearted fantasy romance about the true meaning of love, the power of empathy, and the unremitting yearning to be extraordinary as an act of rebellion against the mundaneness of the world.

Filthy Rich Fae by Geneva Lee

Cate Holloway knows the unspoken rule of New Orleans: avoid the powerful Gage crime family at all costs. Of course, that was before her brother got caught in their chaos. Now Cate has no choice but to confront the dark and forbidding prince of New Orleans himself and beg for her brother’s life. But Lachlan Gage is as lethal as he is beautiful…and the only currency he’s interested in is her soul.
Because Lachlan isn’t just some ruthless criminal. He’s fae. And he has his own secret reasons for binding her to him. Tricked and desperate, Cate is torn between humanity and the breathtaking Otherworld. A place filled with shadows and secrets, with members of each fae court plotting against her just as her captor’s motives for trapping her become more mysterious. And if she can’t break this sinister bargain in the next thirty days, she’ll be bound to the inscrutable yet infuriatingly tempting fae prince and his deadly world…forever.

The Princess and the Pack by Fallon English

Princess Ivy and Prince Cillian have been fated since birth. Ivy has always known that one day, she must leave her country to become not only Cillian’s bride, but Namara’s future Queen.
As an Omega and a princess, her life revolves around duty; not the dream that she harbors of life-altering love. Her station dictates she deny Nature’s call for a pack of her own. Instead, she must wed and settle for one - and only one - Alpha to preserve their pristine, royal bloodlines.
But fate has other plans in mind for Princess Ivy. Plans that involve not just her Betrothed, but his best friend and Ivy’s childhood nemesis - a nobleman, and the handsome son of the Royal Gardener.
Will societal expectations and tradition pull them apart? Or will Ivy and her Alphas take charge of their fate and give in to a love with the power to change the world?

A Rival of Hearts by Tessonja Odette

Two rival writers. One prestigious publishing contract. A bargain of hearts and seduction.
They say never bargain with the fae. They also say don’t get drunk on fae wine. Yet romance author Edwina Danforth has managed a blunder with both on her first visit to the infamous faelands. Now she's trapped in a magic-fueled bet she barely remembers with a man she’d be happier to forget. The terms? Whoever can bed the most lovers during their month-long dueling book tour wins a coveted publishing contract.
The win should be easy for Edwina. She’s known for penning scintillating tales of whirlwind romance. There’s just one her imagination vastly exceeds her bedroom experience. But when failure means plummeting her career back into obscurity, losing isn’t an option.
Her handsome fae rival, William Haywood, poses an even greater challenge. Not only are his looks as aggravatingly perfect as his track record behind closed doors, but he has his own reasons for playing to win, and he won’t go down without a fight. Unless, of course, it’s a different kind of going down. In that case, he’s fair game.
Edwina and William clash in a rivalry of romance. But what happens when their objects of desire…turn out to be each other?

I need advice 9-1-1 I (f45) and my partner (m43) met 19 yrs ago through a mutual friend. It was love at first sight and we started talking and we both fell head over hills and decided to move in together since we couldn’t be apart for more than a week. We finally made the move and moved in together. He had a descent job and I was on the hunt for any kind of job. Since I had 2 daughters 9 and 5 at the time. He had 3 children m7 f5 and m of literally months. At the beginning it was bumpy but any new relationship is. It took about 10 yrs for our family to finally cope in between his family his ex and me with my daughters. A month into me moving with him 3 hrs away from my family he was laid off his job I had been looking for a job since day one so finally one day I found a job as a waitress working graveyard at a restaurant at a not safe area. I struggled since the biological father of my daughters cut ties after I moved he came to visit once or twice and then he vanished. We struggled financially for a long time. I was new on the online job search thing but I suggested he posted on Craigslist his painting since he’s a magnificent painter. It was a hit it. It went too good I left my job to help with the driving since it was mostly out of town. I got too bored that I asked to help him so it wouldn’t take too long. Our days were 10 hr days we did the murals for about 8 or 9 yrs. We argued constantly over simple things. So I told him I love him but I couldn’t do it any more. I started working from home doing clothing alterations it didn’t pay a lot but it helped. He then open a business selling and repairing video games and consoles it did good for a few yrs and he started an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop. He is very creating smart and extremely talented. I then started helping a friends mom doing alterations at her bridal shop that was next to an embroidery place that actually shared a room and the stomps of the machines hypnotized. As soon as there was a chance I got the opportunity to work there as well. I’ve been jumping from job to job to help with the expenses of the house and the shop my partner still owned. At his apprenticeship he had a slip and was fooling around with this other female it ended. He finally decided to close ip his shop bc it just wasn’t working. When he finished his apprenticeship he went on and decided to open his own shop. He got his keys December 2019. Most expenses fell on me since he had no income at the time. He was working very hard to get the place standing it was a mess he demolished painted installed plumbing electric the whole 9 yards. He opened his doors June 2020. We couldn’t be any happier. He is also a musician so he would get gigs all the time. I have to mention I was doing the house work the kids rides the cooking and when he needed me I was there all while I had 2 jobs I would take the kids to and from school and drop off my step kids too (I hate the word step kids) they’re my children too. Any how September 2020 he got this new gig job and by October same yr he didn’t want me to go see him play when he was blocks from home. He started acting weird like dressing differently and caring about his looks I had my suspicions but he would always tell me it was just in my head. I could see his call logs and I found out who he was talking to it was the lead singer of this new band. I confronted him and he said I was crazy. Ok. I kept seeing weird behaviors and talked to him about it since we are not legally married I offered to open a relationship since it would be months at a time w/o intimacy he said no cause nothing was happening. There were times he would take my car on a Sunday nights and act mad so he won’t come home. He ever told me once he couldn’t remember where he parked my car so he left it 2 hrs out of town which caused me to call off work many times. I was loosing my mind I knew something was wrong and I did everything to fix the situation. I decided to place a tracker in my car so he won’t have to strand it again. Next weened he took my car again and left it by the airport all night. I confronted him with pics of my car where he had left it and he admitted he carpooled with this other female that is married should I add. FF to may 17 2022 I got a hold of all his ig user names and passwords, he was talking to at least 6 females but I didn’t confronted him this time that day I had a terrible migraine and was feeling aweful I needed to rest my head and be calm so I went home he rejected me as if I was a piece of trash I sat up and told him it felt like he didn’t want to be with me so I asked him to leave he got up and he left. Right away he started dating this scumbag not the singer but this other person. He had a dinner date may 18th with a 26 yo and on and on. All in a span of 2 months after he left my home. We started talking again and we were fine I told him everything I felt and how much he had hurt me he told me I didn’t deserved that and no I don’t. When he moved out and finished fooling around he got this god and I loved her she was the sweetest dog. After my second job I would go to his place and puppy sat for him he would help me financially when I needed and things were working out it was like we were dating. September 2023 we got into a huge argument and things were bad I went zero contact for a month and it was bad. Until. He had one of his panic attacks and called me to take him to the er so did I saw the dog again and things were calm for over a month. By December same yr he gave me a check I couldn’t cash, on the 23rd I went to his place to return the check and give him his Xmas gift it was a large print of his dog on a makeup trip we did in march it wasn’t much but it was with so much love. He didn’t let me in to see the dog he said I was not welcomed he opened his door about an inch and the dog came out running to me. He called the cops on me I explained the situation and they talked ti us individually. I left and had Xmas eve with my children. I forgot to mention that my youngest f22 and his daughter f21 are currently living with me. Xmas day I was home alone and he calls me I pick up and it was him he was stressed he said that his dog was acting weird since Saturday she couldn’t bark she tried but was just wizzing we rushed her to a hospital 2 hrs away we came back without her she didn’t make it on our way back he told me that the day he called the cops on me she ran to his room sat in a corner and just looked down. He spend the rest of the week in my place I didn’t know what to do but be by him and help him. He decided to get another dog he just turned a yr I love that dog too. I’ve spent the night at his house every other night to help with the puppy while he works. I still had 2 jobs and his place is about 20 mins from mine. About 3 months ago he asked me to lend him some cash so he can get a car to play with so I did. 2 weeks ago my sister invited me to celebrate my nieces graduation and I asked him if our youngest had a date for his and he said no so I told my sister I was attending. Last Wednesday my kid told me he had a ceremony ticket for him and another one for me I arranged as crazy as it sounds to ask for Thursday off to drop off my daughter to my sisters which is 3 hrs away saw my mother for 20 or 25 mins and started my drive back because on Thursdays we take his dog to the street fair so by 1 pm I was back in town I took a quick nap and started getting ready for the fair. He calls me at 7 pm to ask if everything was ready I said yes I’m just getting his cooler ready we take ahi’s bowl a portion of kibble ice packs snacks and a spray bottle. I couldn’t find the spray bottle. I went to my car to check if it was there and I saw him pulling up in his truck I asked if he could come over and kept looking I check again and he walks right inside so I closed up and went in with him I told him I can’t find the spray bottle and he lost it he was cussing out the spray bottle and I was in shock I mean dollar tree has them we can replace it but he was mad at the bottle. He had been doing this same thing for 3 weeks he looses it and he goes into his bedroom extremely upset last time he was like that I let him know I can’t do these kinds of arguments they’re ridiculous. I told him I needed to go home with my dogs and I left. We have a mutual friend that has a dog like ours and that night he posted a pic of both dogs and the lost spray bottle was hanging from the side pocket of the wagon. I texted him Sunday so I could go see the dog and he said ok I spent an hr with I walked him and ate snacks then I left I called him yesterday and he said he had 2 walk ins so I visited the dog for 2 hrs walked him played with him and ate snacks. We both as an agreement we talked about me quitting my second job and puppy sit and he’d pay me what my second job did and so he can get hands on on his shop it’d be a win win it’s been very slow like scary slow and he needs to build his portfolio so we all happy. I talked to him about a bill I owe is 1200 and he said we’ll figure it out well it’s due today since things aren’t smooth I texted him and asked him to please call me he said about what I said about the dog and other things he asked is something wrong with the dog I said not really but we need to talk and he said there’s nothing to talk about I send him a pic of the bill and it’s due date which is today and he said not my problem ask for a loan or something. He owes me 2k I was trying to figure out how we can still help each other and he told me I was harassing him and that I can’t come see the dog and he will get a restraining order. I know his financial situation isn’t good but neither is mine he blocked me again. I know he’s a narcissist and very self centered. His actions don’t have an affect on me but the dog does I’m afraid something would happen to the dog like it did to the other one. I can’t say I don’t care about the money but I barely make ends meet for myself nor can I say I hate him I want him to be ok and succeed like I should too. I know it’s toxic that is why I left. I sent that payment today on time but now I will be behind on all my bills including my rent and car payment. I don’t want to go to his house I don’t know what I did wrong. All I’ve done is is be by his side when no one is he has literally no true friends and he’s not close to his children on his son graduation I was there there was his grandma his stepdad his biological mom me sitting next to her my stepdaughter her boyfriend and then him who got there 30 min late and on the phone for most of the ceremony.

This sounds horrible and it is but I’m very angry right now and need to let it out. My boyfriend just got in an argument with me over the DUMBEST thing.
Basically earlier he asked if I wanted snacks from the shop because he did, I said no, he said he didn’t want to go to the shop if I didn’t want any even if he did. Fine that’s his choice, I told him to go anyway but he felt it was pointless.
Later, I asked if he wanted to watch a movie, and he brought up that he was annoyed and thought it was inconsiderate of me to not bring up that I wanted to watch a movie earlier because if I did he would’ve went to the shop to get himself snacks.
The argument was still calm at this point, I tried to explain I’m not a mind reader, I felt he’s been extra critical of me, and that it’s a bit of an unrealistic expectation of me to be able to read into the future to know that it would be an issue that I didn’t bring up watching a movie earlier.
He got a bit more annoyed and didn’t understand why I felt like it was an unrealistic expectation and that he has a right to be annoyed at me.
There was silence for a bit and then I tired to bring up that it hurt my feeling a bit there’s this awkward silence that feels like a dumb argument, and also that my feelings are hurt because I feel he’s been extra critical of me lately (he got on at me for a lot of little things today, eg like for sleeping in, we didn’t have anywhere to be it’s just I’ve been wanting to wake up earlier).
Anyway, when I brought up my feelings were hurt I TRIED to sound as calm as possible. I didn’t shout, I tried to phrase it nicely, but admittedly I did sound a bit irritated.
Anyway, he responded in the same slightly irritated tone as mine and went “sorry… but can you just move on from it” and this really annoyed me, because it totally invalidated my feelings and felt like a non-apology. When I brought this up obviously more heated, he got heated and stormed off out of the bedroom and said he wasn’t watching a movie with me. This is what sent me over the edge.
He pushed the sofa up to the living room door so I couldn’t get in, asked me to leave him alone, I proceeded to have a go at him for like 30 mins through the door.
I know it would’ve been wiser to go and calm down, but I felt WRONGED. I meant I’ve went away now obviously but it feels so unfair to me, that he started this argument, hurt my feelings, didn’t care, and then he wins basically. He gets what he wants (to be left alone). But I don’t get what I want. I have to sit pissed off alone and not watch this movie with him, and he gets to be happy without his girlfriend he obviously doesn’t like and play video games all night (no shade to people who play video games I do too). It’s like, because I don’t get to be calm or find any enjoyment in my night I don’t want him to either. I feel like he deserves to be shouted at.
It sounds horrible as I write it and I know it’s wrong but that’s how I feel and I don’t understand why or how to get over it. Like there’s something wrong with me and how do I deal with it?
Calming down is so hard to, I don’t know if I have the humility for it. I feel whatever the female equivalent of being emasculated is if I have to walk away. I feel like if I do walk away it’s going to make him think he’s better than me or that he was right.
I know it shouldn’t be about winning or losing but that’s what it feels like. Because there isn’t a compromise between someone who wants to be left alone and someone who doesn’t.

It happened. He didn't deny that. Not like he was a suspect or anything—not yet—but he never denied it to himself. At the same time, this all happened over a decade ago—twelve years to be exact.
He didn't think of it every day; in fact, sometimes an entire month would go by where it barely crossed his mind.
In a way, that whole experience—he thought of all the abductions and murders as a singular event—now felt as if it belonged to somebody else.
It was a time in his life when he was confused, mixed-up, searching; a dark time, you know, like a phase. Who didn't have one of those in their past?
Plus, he was married now. His wife, Dee, obviously didn't know about it and he felt no obligation to tell her. Did he ask about her former lovers?
Sometimes there are things in the past and you just let them be. Whether it was Dee losing her virginity to the quarterback of the football team in the backseat at a drive-in or him using multiple black garbage bags and masking tape on that thing he didn't have time to bury in rural Tennessee, everyone has things they would rather forget about. Sometimes you just leave things where they lie.
So that's what Ned Doyle did.
Until that Sunday morning, November 6th, 1988.
He was a having a glass of Dee's pulpy homemade orange juice, waiting for his coffee to percolate, when he opened his heavy weekend edition of the New York Times (probably Ned's greatest extravagance—he liked its heft; and how the Arts & Leisure section made him feel culturally superior to his Ohio townsfolk, “the Philistines of Findlay,” he called them) when he saw the article buried in the back.
The country was two days from heading to the polls for the General Election—Bush v. Dukakis—so most everything else that week had been relegated to the back.
He read the article twice before he could even begin to make sense of it. It seemed to be a story about something called "DNA fingerprinting" and a 27-year-old baker in Great Britain named Colin Pitchfork who had confessed to raping and murdering two 15-year-old girls, in separate incidents a few years apart, after a new scientific process had been used to extract information from semen which he, Colin Pitchfork, had left at the crime scenes (likely inside the victims) some five years earlier.
Now if they could do all that after five years, why not ten years—or maybe even… twelve?
"Interesting story here," he said to Dee. It wasn't uncommon for Ned to read a news story twice—once for himself and a second time aloud to Dee while she brewed his coffee and burnt her toast. But this was his third reading and Ned acted as if it were his first.
"What do you make of that?" he asked. It somehow got worse each time he read it. After the third time, he felt as if he had been sucker punched in the stomach.
"Science Fiction is what it sounds like," Dee said matter-of-factly, pouring Ned his coffee in a mug that bore the Marathon Oil insignia. Findlay, Ohio was Marathon’s headquarters although there had been rumors circulating about a move to Texas.
"And unconstitutional," he said. "Cops running a dragnet like that, taking blood samples from 5,000 townspeople. Thankfully, that would never pass the muster here."
"They did catch the killer so maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea," she said, buttering her burnt toast. "Otherwise, who knows? They could have convicted the wrong man.”
Ned had already gotten lucky once – astonishingly so. Griffin Gerald Jones, the famed “I-75 Corridor Child Killer,” had claimed responsibility for all but one of Ned’s victims before dying in Florida’s electric chair.
"You can't have police in this country running around, sticking everyone with needles, drawing blood for some sort of science experiment,” he said. “Nevermind the Constitution, what about AIDS?”
“What about it?” she asked.
“There's been hundreds, thousands of cases now where people have been infected by giving blood,” he said. “That's a medical fact. Get accused of a crime and AIDS too?"
"It doesn't sound like any of the townspeople there in England got AIDS, darling. Unless there's more to the story, besides what you read to me."
He watched her spread orange marmalade over her burnt toast and take a bite. She had a dead tooth and he saw it every time she opened her mouth. He loved Dee but had never been sexually attracted to her. Not in the way he had been attracted to others.
"It really is just a matter of time before that stuff makes it over here," she said with her mouth full. "To this side of the pond, as they say." She took a sip of his orange juice. "Isn’t that how it always works? Things start over there in England, or in California, and then phht, before you know it, it makes its way to Findlay."
He held his hand over his stomach. She saw him wince.
"Was it my orange juice again? Was it still pulpy? I squeezed it by hand and even strained it twice this time."
"It’s not your fault,” he said. “I think it’s me. Orange juice is getting too… acidic for me." He looked at the clock on the coffee maker. "I'm going to be late."
He turned the page.
He played the 8 o'clock Mass by rote as he had many a bleary-eyed Sunday morning. It was pure muscle memory at this point. He made a few mistakes here and there, missed a key or two, but it was nothing the organ's sustain pedal couldn't mask – not that anyone would complain (not at the 8 o'clock anyway).
On Sundays Ned had four Masses: the 8, the 9:30, the big one at 11, and the 12:30 for the dilettantes who couldn't get their acts together for the 11.
He turned the page.
Today he was using Glory and Praise, AKA "the blue hymnal" for songs he knew by heart.
Turning the pages of his sheet music, reading each note, he was able to keep his mind off it.
Ned abhorred cliches (especially those involving sports) but he made an exception for “Out of sight, out of mind.” For Ned, that wasn’t a cliché; it was a way of life. He was a man who preferred to be heard, not seen, which made St. Bartholomew (or St. Bart’s) the perfect home for him.
In a spectacular architectural oversight, the church's pipe organ was situated so the organist's back was to the altar and pews. The organist of course needs to see what's going on in the Mass to read certain non-verbal cues but the arrangement suited Ned just fine. The congregation was comprised of many young families who had many young children—boys in particular—and it wasn't so much that he couldn't control himself because he was now firmly in control of all that; it was more that he didn't need any reminders of that time when he couldn't.
Especially during church.
So to see the altar behind him, Ned had installed an actual rearview mirror, the type you'd find on an old Buick, and he used a special type of putty to affix it to the mantle of the pipe organ. Having been the church organist at St. Bart's for nine years, he seldom needed it anymore—he could do it in his sleep—but it came in handy today as he found his attention drifting and he nearly missed the oratory refrain at the 9:30 Mass.
His real problems didn't start until the 35-minute break between the 8 and 9:30.
He was reorganizing his sheet music after the first wave of churchgoers had cleared out, when he began thinking about Colin Pitchfork again. The article said he was a baker in England somewhere—did it say he baked cakes or was that Ned's invention?
Even though no picture was provided in the Times article, Ned spent the balance of the 9:30 service picturing the 27- year-old ex-rapist/murderer working in his small English bakery, quietly going about his business, baking his cakes, when the police (Bobbies?) came.
Was he expecting them?
He played the offertory hymn, "On Eagle's Wings," as the ushers began taking up the collections and a family of parishioners he’d never seen before brought the gifts up.
And what was going through Pitchfork's head when he saw the Bobbies there? When they began asking him about rapes and murders that happened almost five years ago? The article said that he had initially given investigators someone else's blood when “the enquiry” began. Had he somehow caught wind of this “DNA Fingerprinting?”
There was a new usher, Ned noticed, in his makeshift rearview mirror.
The Times article said that one of Pitchfork's co-workers at the bakery had taken the blood test masquerading as Pitchfork because Pitchfork had told the co-worker that ‘he could not give blood under his own name because he had already given blood while pretending to be a friend of his who had wanted to avoid being harassed by police because of a youthful conviction for burglary.’ This story was later overheard by a woman in a pub who immediately went to the police.
Ned realized he had missed the homily twice now. Not that it mattered. Heard one you've heard them all and Ned was pretty sure there would be no surprises. Plus, he'd have two more chances to catch it. He knew he would have to really focus for the 11 o'clock. That was always the main event. He was going to play "I Will Raise Him Up," a complex hymn, which required his full attention. He would scratch that one now if he hadn’t read that article and if the Sunday programs hadn't already been printed. People liked that one –it was a real barn burner, as they say—and if he skipped it, there might be questions.
The last thing Ned needed right now were fucking questions.
Who was this new usher, by the way?

By the start of the 11 o'clock Mass, Ned wondered whether anyone would even show for the 12:30, seeing that it was already standing room only. The 11 was always the most popular Mass, but today felt different; it was packed like Christmas Eve. What was the occasion? Was the predominantly conservative town that afraid of Dukakis winning the presidency? Ohio was a swing state after all and that image of the little Greek man in the tank was unnerving, sure, but was it enough to warrant this sort of turnout for the 11 AM Mass at St. Bart's in Findlay?
Or was something else going on?
Ned didn’t believe they had come to hear his rendition of "I Will Raise Him Up."
Or could there be another reason? Maybe they had all read the same Times article. Maybe there had long been simmering suspicion of Ned in the community and maybe the article finally prompted the townspeople to join together and take arms. With pitchforks.
On March 31, 1892, the only known lynching in the history of Hancock County occurred when a mob of 1,000 men, many "respectable citizens," broke into the county jail in Findlay. They lynched Mr. Lytle, a man who had killed his wife and two daughters with a hatchet the day before. The townsfolk hanged the man twice (first from the bridge, then a telegraph pole) and then, in a classic case of overkill, shot his body over a dozen times. The authorities had intended to transfer the prisoner out of town at 1 o'clock in secret, where a train was scheduled to transport him to Lima, but someone talked.
Ned had only confessed what he had done to one person – a priest eight years prior. The priest was set to retire as he was dying of pancreatic cancer and visiting from a nearby parish. For years Ned had heard this priest was “of the old school” – i.e., your word to God’s ear, and it went no further. He was as safe as they come. Still, even then, Ned used the screened side of the Confessional, lowered his voice a full octave, and spoke of what he had done obliquely and in generalities. They were mortal sins. His penance severe: to repent and refrain from repeating the act again. The priest was now long dead. There’s no way he could have tracked Ned down and told anyone. Was there?
The last one was named Derek. That was the only one left unsolved.
He would play "I Will Raise Him Up" during Communion. Because of the crowds, he knew the communion lines would be longer and would thus require him to stretch the already difficult song a few minutes longer. If he was going to supply the masses, he was going to need a bigger yield. In a way it was like baking a cake, wasn't it?
He met Derek at a Dairy Queen in Paducah, Kentucky. It was Labor Day 1976. It must have been 100 degrees out, but it felt even hotter with the humidity. It was a real scorcher.
Derek had a bicycle with an American flag banana seat. It was the summer of Bicentennial Fever. The Dairy Queen was in an area known as Noble Park. It had a tin canopy that kept cars cool in the shade.
Ned missed a note as he turned the page. He stepped on the sustain pedal and his mistake sounded deliberate and beautiful even.
It was early evening; fireflies were out in full force and Ned was blotto. He had been drinking beer—cans of Schlitz—all day at the picnic of a friend (technically, the friend of an acquaintance so basically a stranger). A born introvert who still lived alone (this was pre-Dee), Ned was very drunk and primed for small talk. You must also remember this was a very different time. This was back when you still opened cans with an opener; drunk driving was frowned upon but not the cardinal sin it is today; and a grown man could still park outside a Dairy Queen and strike up an innocent conversation with a prepubescent boy on a bike.
"What da ya' got there?" Ned asked.
"Butterscotch Sundae," the boy said. The boy was blonde with brown eyes.
"Butterscotch, eh?"
The boy licked his plastic spoon and stared somewhere beyond the pea-green 1974 Buick Riviera Ned had inherited from his old man after he had kicked the bucket.
"For the life of me, I can't remember if I like butterscotch or not," Ned said. "That probably sounds pretty screwy, I bet."
"Get a free sample at the window,” the kid said. “They're free."
"Looks awfully busy over there. Mind if I have a taste of yours? I don't have any cooties, I promise."
The kid dragged his spoon over his ice cream as he mulled it over. Maybe seeing that he was almost done with it anyway, he figured what's the harm. He handed Ned the Styrofoam cup.
Ned looked at the boy as he stirred it a little and then placed the curved side of the spoon on his tongue and kept it there.
"I do like butterscotch," Ned said, giving it back. "Thank you for sharing that with me, that was awfully kind of you—say, what is your name?"
"Derek," the boy said.
"Derek. What a nice boy you are. Do you like dogs, Derek?"
"Sure," Derek said.
"Do you have a dog?"
"Not anymore. Used to. We had a beagle named Eleanor but she went blind and then lame and then..."
"What kind of dog was she?" Ned asked.
"A beagle," the boy said.
"A beagle, yes you said that. You like Golden Retrievers?"
"Sure," the boy said.
"Cause I have a Golden Retriever. It's a girl too. A bitch."
Derek smiled.
"She's pregnant. I mean she was. But… she just gave birth."
"To puppies?"
"You betcha. It was just a few weeks ago. She had a whole litter of 'em. Boys, girls. Cutest little pups you've ever seen. The thing is, Derek, I don't know what to do with them all. You're a nice boy. You just shared your Butterscotch Sundae with me and I'd care to return the favor. Would you… like a puppy?"
"How much?"
"For nothing,” Ned said. “For free.”
"You'll give me a puppy for nothing? And I can pick the one I want?"
"Sure can. They're at my place just down the road. Thing is, it's probably too far to bike there. And you're going to need both hands to hold on to the puppy. Hop in, I’ll give you a lift."
"What about my bike?"
"We could put it in the trunk but we're not going to be long. We'll be right back. It'll be safe here. People don't take things that aren’t theirs around here – especially when there's a lot of people around."
He remembered waking up on the floor of his apartment disoriented. He was late for work. He was still working as a salesman at the piano store. There was a big Labor Day sale still going on. Labor Day was always a big day for retail. The owner was a nice man and Ned wanted to call him and apologize but he wasn't sure what to say yet.
He hadn't planned on sleeping in. Forgetting work on Labor Day. The irony.
He saw the boy's underwear on his floor. They were tighty-whities from Fruit of the Loom. He thought of that every time he saw an ad for that company afterward.
They weren’t bloody but they were torn.
He remembered the sound of the filter on the aquarium he used to keep in his apartment. It was noisy but sometimes that was a good thing. He was very into Japanese Fighting Fish for a while until it became too expensive as they always killed each other.
There were no puppies obviously.
His apartment did not allow dogs.
His sense of disorientation and the ensuing panic prevented him from experiencing any of the usual remorse he felt afterward.
There would be plenty of time for that later.
The boy's body was in the bathroom just off the bedroom and he needed to get rid of it. He needed to get out of town. Out of Paducah. Out of Kentucky.
He placed the boy in a hardshell Samsonite suitcase, carried it out of his apartment, walked down the one flight of steps. He saw no one and he was confident no one had seen him. The suitcase was lighter than it should have been—a detail he never forgot—and he walked out to the carport where he saw his Riviera parked sloppily between the lines. He felt a wave of nausea come over him but he suppressed it. He opened his trunk, placed the suitcase in the back, and then looked around the apartment complex before walking back inside. He cleaned up with bleach. Showered. Hit the road.
There were no police gathered outside the Dairy Queen. It wasn’t a crime scene. He didn't look to see if the boy’s bike was still there; he didn’t want to appear suspicious.
He needed to get out of Paducah so he headed toward the freeway.
For a moment he briefly considered the Shawnee National Forest, which was to the north, but he stuck to his gut and took the newly-constructed Interstate 24 East toward Tennessee. Aside from getting out of Kentucky, he didn't have a plan. The asphalt was brand new and at times he felt as though he were floating across the highway. It took about two hours to get to the state line and once he was over, he filled up at a 76 Station in Clarksville, Tennessee. Only when he was filling his tank and had a moment to reflect, did he think about what was in the trunk. He imagined he had Superman's X-Ray vision and pictured the suitcase in the back, the boy's tiny body folded like a pretzel inside.
He missed both the readings, the Gospel, and the homily again. Then came the Consecration which was over before he knew it. It was time. He began to play "I Will Raise Him Up." In his rearview, he saw the communion lines forming and he thought he caught a glimpse of the new usher staring at him, but he couldn't be sure. He needed to concentrate on the song. People knew this one; people wanted to hear it exactly as they remembered it, and it was a full house, so the sustain pedal wouldn't save him this time.
Once he made it through the chorus, he knew he could relax a little.
The "DNA fingerprinting" in Pitchfork's case came from semen that was left inside of the victims.
Ned had made it to the outskirts of Nashville faster than he expected. He still hadn't checked in with Mr. Cory, the owner of the piano store. He desperately needed an alibi. Old Mr. Cory could probably send Ned to the electric chair if he wasn't careful.
He got on Highway 386 and headed north. After 20 minutes, he exited in Gallatin and drove around until he found an area he thought was remote. There was a road called Cages Bend.
He liked the sound of that.
It sounded hopeful.
He took that until he came to a gravel road, which looked as if it led to an even more secluded wooded area.
In the rearview, he remembered the cloud of dust kicked up by the tires of the Riviera he had inherited from his father, the drunk, who had done to him what he had gone on to do to others.
In the rearview, the communion lines were still going strong. No sign of that new usher.
He came upon a bend in the road that looked totally secluded, as if no one had been there in years. He cut the engine and listened for a moment. The invisible cicadas high up in the trees made it sound as if a giant rattle snake was slithering around him, preparing to strike. He got out of the car.
He didn't know if it was the trees or the fields of tall grass, but something smelled like semen.
He opened the trunk with his keys and pulled out the hardshell suitcase. When he closed the trunk there was a rustling in the tall grass but when he looked, he saw only a herd of white tail deer scattering.
Initially he had planned on dumping the body and taking the suitcase home with him. He didn't think to bring a shovel. Then he heard the sound of a bush hog—a piece of farm equipment with spinning blades that cut vegetation and cleared the land. He couldn't tell which direction it was coming from. He checked to make sure his suitcase didn't have any labels on it or name tags. He then two black trash bags in his back seat and wrapped the suitcase – one bag around the top, the other on the bottom, and secured it with masking tape. Then he carried it into the woods and set it down in some brush. He began snapping tree branches off to make cover but as the bush hog got louder and closer he panicked, leaving it only partially covered.
The communion lines had dissipated. Everyone was sitting now, even the priest.
Everyone always knelt until the priest sat and Ned should never be playing if the priest was sitting but somehow, Ned had missed his cue.
He concluded "I Will Raise Him Up" softly, using the sustain to ease himself out.
He looked in the rearview and saw the priest staring at him.
As was the rest of the congregation.
They would all be coming for him soon enough.
Unless he could make it back down to Tennessee and get rid of that thing once and for all – assuming it hadn’t been found yet.
Somehow, deep down, Ned always knew it was going to happen.
He was raised up, alright.
Now it was just a matter of time.

This sounds horrible and it is but I’m very angry right now and need to let it out. My boyfriend just got in an argument with me over the DUMBEST thing.
Basically earlier he asked if I wanted snacks from the shop because he did, I said no, he said he didn’t want to go to the shop if I didn’t want any even if he did. Fine that’s his choice, I told him to go anyway but he felt it was pointless.
Later, I asked if he wanted to watch a movie, and he brought up that he was annoyed and thought it was inconsiderate of me to not bring up that I wanted to watch a movie earlier because if I did he would’ve went to the shop to get himself snacks.
The argument was still calm at this point, I tried to explain I’m not a mind reader, I felt he’s been extra critical of me, and that it’s a bit of an unrealistic expectation of me to be able to read into the future to know that it would be an issue that I didn’t bring up watching a movie earlier.
He got a bit more annoyed and didn’t understand why I felt like it was an unrealistic expectation and that he has a right to be annoyed at me.
There was silence for a bit and then I tired to bring up that it hurt my feeling a bit there’s this awkward silence that feels like a dumb argument, and also that my feelings are hurt because I feel he’s been extra critical of me lately (he got on at me for a lot of little things today, eg like for sleeping in, we didn’t have anywhere to be it’s just I’ve been wanting to wake up earlier).
Anyway, when I brought up my feelings were hurt I TRIED to sound as calm as possible. I didn’t shout, I tried to phrase it nicely, but admittedly I did sound a bit irritated.
Anyway, he responded in the same slightly irritated tone as mine and went “sorry… but can you just move on from it” and this really annoyed me, because it totally invalidated my feelings and felt like a non-apology. When I brought this up obviously more heated, he got heated and stormed off out of the bedroom and said he wasn’t watching a movie with me. This is what sent me over the edge.
He pushed the sofa up to the living room door so I couldn’t get in, asked me to leave him alone, I proceeded to have a go at him for like 30 mins through the door.
I know it would’ve been wiser to go and calm down, but I felt WRONGED. I meant I’ve went away now obviously but it feels so unfair to me, that he started this argument, hurt my feelings, didn’t care, and then he wins basically. He gets what he wants (to be left alone). But I don’t get what I want. I have to sit pissed off alone and not watch this movie with him, and he gets to be happy without his girlfriend he obviously doesn’t like and play video games all night (no shade to people who play video games I do too). It’s like, because I don’t get to be calm or find any enjoyment in my night I don’t want him to either. I feel like he deserves to be shouted at.
It sounds horrible as I write it and I know it’s wrong but that’s how I feel and I don’t understand why or how to get over it. Like there’s something wrong with me and how do I deal with it?
Calming down is so hard to, I don’t know if I have the humility for it. I feel whatever the female equivalent of being emasculated is if I have to walk away. I feel like if I do walk away it’s going to make him think he’s better than me or that he was right.
I know it shouldn’t be about winning or losing but that’s what it feels like. Because there isn’t a compromise between someone who wants to be left alone and someone who doesn’t.