#I SAW A POSTER AND I WAS LIKE............ THAT SURE LOOKS LIKE THE PENINSULA MY LADS | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blazingtheway · 3 years

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Through the Looking Glass – Storyline 8 – Together - Part Three

Continuing on from...

↬ Embry Call ↫ Letting #Seth do most of the talking was a good call. People responded to him… I had issues keeping the arsehole tone out of my voice when I was dealing with people that clearly knew they were in the wrong. It wasn’t a secret that tribal land all across this country was not to be trespassed on. I could tell from the accents they were from in-state and Washington had its fair share of native land. It made it difficult to be friendly. This was something #Seth never struggled with, and there was this aura about him that made it almost impossible to be intimidated by him or tell him no. We helped the trio pack up their camp. The guy even started chatting to #Seth as they took down the tent. One of the girls watched me put out the fire and remove the rocks they had ringed it with. “We honestly didn’t realise we were intruding. But at least now we know right.” I glanced up at her as I covered over the shallow fire pit with dirt and shook my head. “Right… the ten ‘no camping’ signs didn’t give you a clue?” I tried to make it sound like I was teasing. I mostly failed and she blushed. “What about the warnings about bears? Missed those too?” She cleared her throat and turned to start packing away the food they had brought, and I heard a soft sniffle. Fuck sake! Really? “We were just looking for a… I don’t know… a spiritual experience.” She tried very hard not to sound upset. I stood and had a look at what she was packing away. “With pre-packed meat and beer?” I chuckled; shaking my head I crouched at the other side of the cooler across from her and started to help. “Look… I get it. But your Spirits don’t live here. I know most people that believe in any kind of higher power think it’s everywhere. But for us it’s here, it’s in our land, it’s in our people. These woods are the home of our ancestors, the ones that guide us and lead us forward, without letting us forget our past. It may seem small when you look at it on a map, but it’s all we have. And to us, it’s everything.” She nodded and still seemed upset, but not in a self-pitying way anymore. She looked up at me with green eyes and whispered. “I’m sorry… We didn’t understand. But thank you…” She forced a smile. “For not letting us get eaten by bears.” She giggled a little. I laughed and closed the cooler. #Seth was already leaving the campsite with a load of stuff and the other girl. The guy stood there and glared at me with similar green eyes; she moved away to gather up her own belongings in a backpack that was clearly bought specifically for this trip. “Stay away from my sister.” He said quietly with a glare that was so weak it was funny. “I’ll consider myself warned.” The weepy thing never really did it for me. But I couldn’t help myself; I smiled at her and reached out to take the backpack for her. “That’s heavy… you won’t manage both.” She said pointing to the cooler in my hand. “I’m sure I will.” I turned to her brother. “I can take yours too if you like?” He just grunted... I took it as a firm No. Of course, I carried both easily while the green-eyed girl told me all about their plan to travel to historic sites all along the coast. I only kind of listened. She was unburdened by baggage, so she kept up with me as I walked back at a human-friendly pace. The brother struggled behind us. I spotted Seth at the car with the other girl and my curiosity got the better of me, I had to know… but her eyes were a pale grey. Not in an unattractive way, but she was blonde. Of course, that wasn’t a bad thing… if you liked blondes. And by the look on the brother's face; he really liked blondes. “All set?” #Seth asked and I nodded. It wasn’t, the campsite was a mess still, but one of the pups would finish the job when there wasn’t a chance of them being found there by humans, butt naked. The blonde climbed into the driver seat of the Leaf when #Seth told her to follow us in the Jeep to Second Beach. The green-eyed girl climbed in next to her and he sat in the back. Best friends on a whirlwind tour of the Olympic Peninsula and he was the

obligatory male companion… with a huge crush on the sister’s best friend. So predictable. I did so enjoy these subtle insights into the human psyche. Spirits… who was I kidding? I lived for them! ↬ Leah Clearwater ↫ ‘It won’t take much to turn the place around.’ #Mac looked towards the clock. ‘Seth said he would be back as soon as he was done with his morning. And as you can see, we’ve been slowly moving things around as we got an idea from Tony here of what the layout could look like.’ I stood with my arms crossed over my chest following #Mac and #Tony about the floor of the bar as they spoke of how and what we should change. I was fully aware of the things moving in and around the bar over the last week or so, but I didn’t question it. the guys were always up to one thing or another. But I should have guessed something was coming, because this was their trade mark move. It’s how the pool tables had shown up too. “How will we make sure that the stage doesn’t take away from the area we could do with for customers on busy nights? I wasn’t expecting a stage, that’s floor space.” Again, my glance was following them. ‘Well, I have a rolling stage that we could bring in. but that’s a little more expensive, also it would mean that you would need to keep moving the equipment around. In the long run maybe that’s something you may want to invest in. But for now, while you try it out and see if this works for you?’ #Tony walked over to the pool tables at the far end of the bar. ‘Why not move these closer together, off set them and then we can build the stage back here facing the bar at an angle?’ It was a good idea, using space that had remained dead for the most part once the pool tables were in full use. ‘Also, over to this side here, you may want to set up a poster wall. For the bands to use and we could always set up the merch tables here next to the stage?’ #Tony was in full flow now, moving around the bar. His hands flying left and right the ideas started to bubble and flow out of him. ‘Bands? Poster wall? Merch table?’ #Mac glanced from #Tony and then to me. “Yes, your friend Tony here has been coming up with ideas.” Nodding my chin towards him. “He thinks we could have live bands come and play sets.” I told #Mac, moving to sit on top of a table by the side where the two of them were running around in the middle of their ‘creativity’. ‘That’s a brilliant idea. Why didn’t Seth and I think of that?’ #Tony stopped; his chest doubled in size from the praise #Mac just gave. I could see now that he really was a kind hearted person. A little aloof, but harmless. I jumped down from the table when the guys started to move the last of the tables and chairs to clear out the area, we asked the cleaning crew to work on the open space to polish the floors because it was all empty right now as we started to bring in the equipment in from the truck. “Mac, you need to go and measure up the space in there.” I pointed back over my shoulder towards the bar when I stepped out of the main door half way out into the parking lot. ‘I will once we got all this down Lee’. He said, as I took a hold of his shoulder shaking my head. “If you go and do it now, we will be ready to go once this is all unloaded.” #Mac didn’t look happy about it, but finally he left to go inside. But it was the big smiling face of #Tony looking at me when I turned back towards the truck that made my eyebrows raise. ‘I saw what you did there.’ #Tony passed me down two parts of the stage, I could have carried more. But he was taking it ‘easy’ on me. “Don’t know what you are talking about.” I scoffed grabbing the sides and lifting them up. Acting as though it was heavy for me. ‘I know Mac’s back is giving him issues. And that’s you taking care of him. He said you and your brother are special people to him.’ I froze at the mention of ‘special’. #Mac knew nothing of the Spirit Warriors, he just knew that we have a tight knit friends’ group. ( Friends was used loosely ), because #Mac knew me well enough to know I didn’t do friends much. But

he never once questioned me or #Seth. We had been friends for long enough for him to know that I didn’t really ask questions, and I by the Spirits didn’t really answer them. “Get a move on Tony, we got a load to do in there.” I gave him a smirk and went back to work. ↬ Embry Call ↫ We drove past the bar on the way to Second Beach and #Seth was glued to the window. ‘Yes!!’ he bellowed. ‘Almost forgot that was coming today.’ His outburst made me look closer, seeing a truck at the #HWH wasn’t a new thing, it was a business… they got deliveries. But this wasn’t a booze truck. “What the hell is Tony doing here?” I put my gaze back on the road, checking the rear-view mirror to make sure the Leaf was still back there. ‘You’ll see.’ #Seth grinned. ‘Wait… Who’s Tony?’ “The guy from the music store in PA… That’s his truck.” Well, it was the stores, but his mother never drove it. ‘Oh! Why am I not shocked you know him?’ #Seth laughed that contagious laugh of his. “I’ve been going to that store all my life. Of course, I know him.” I goaded him right back. ‘I thought you only started playing the guitar when you were a teenager?’ #Seth looked at me curiously and I chewed my bottom lip. I really hadn’t thought that one through. “My mom always played the piano though.” I corrected, but not too quickly. “She always bought her music there.” ‘Oh!! Right… Yeah, I guess… Forks doesn’t really have a place does it?’ I just shook my head and kept driving. It wasn’t much further to the Second Beach parking lot. #Seth went to sweet talk the lady in the tourism office into waiving the permit fee for the bonfire and the tent… which added up to whooping ten dollars. But the girls seemed overtly grateful. When he came back, I spread out the map over the hood of the Leaf and stood very close to the Blonde, just to piss off the brother, and pointed out a few places they should visit while they were here. #Seth drew a big red circle around the bar, of course, and I let her know the only place locally she could charge her Barbie dream car. She gave me a flirty smile and I stepped away. “Sorry we can’t help you get your stuff to the beach, but the trail isn’t too long. Just try to stay on it this time. We really need to get going.” I winked at the girls and headed back to the Jeep. I pulled out as fast as I could, I wanted to get back to the pups, though I was sure #Billy would have called one of the OG crew to go and check on them, even from Sam’s pack. “Do you want to just jump out at the bar; I can have one of the pups drive your truck over?” I asked him knowing he should have been free and clear by now. ‘No bro’, I’ll go back with you and make sure the kids are behaving.’ He said dutifully. But I could see he was excited by whatever was happening there. “Seriously… Just go to work… The next shift will be coming on now anyway.” ‘If you’re sure.’ #Seth beamed that smile of his. ‘That would be great. But don’t let the pups drive my truck. You can drive it and let one of the pups drive this piece of crap.’ “Hey!” I rolled my eyes and punched him in the arm, light… for a wolf at least . But knew I didn’t really mind who drove this thing, nobody would dare damage my pride and joy. “Lay off the Jeep! She’s done right by me for a long time!” I dropped #Seth at the bar, but I couldn’t stop to say hello to Tony. I really needed to check on my run. “Tell Tony I said hey and if he is still around later on when I swing by with the truck, I’ll drop in.” I left #Seth with Mom’s beeper since I was going to be heading right back to him; I knew it was unlikely it would beep in the short time it would take to do the handover. But there was no way I could just leave it in my car. I headed to the closest forest trail; to a spot I knew would be a good place to pull in and disappear into the woods far enough to strip and re-join the pack.

↬ Leah Clearwater ↫ ‘This is the hardest part; the stage needs to be laid out the way you want it. And then we can click it all into place and add the safety catches to it.’ #Tony and #Mac was on a roll. With me working on one side, and them to the other, they had moved the stage about four times by now. “In the name of the Spirits. If you both don’t make your mind up soon, I will smack you up the side of your heads with a part of this bloody stage.” I growled at them. The first placing was too small for what they envisioned for the bar, the second was offset too far and #Tony said it would impact the sound and the way it would move and be heard across the room. The third was too big and #Mac didn’t think we would pass health and safety checks. And the fourth... I have no idea; I’d stopped listening to them both gushing by then. I stood with a stage square in my hands when the cleaning crew said their goodbyes. ‘It’s all looking good guys; I’ll be sure to tell all the girls. We’d so be up for a music night.’ The younger of the two called out. #Tony dropped his part of the stage and went running up with one of his fliers to hand to her. He whispered but I could hear every word. ‘Uhm, thanks, I mean, it would be great to see you.. Here, take my flier, you can find me on my socials.’ I cleared my throat. He was rambling and only the spirits knew why I had the urge to help him. “Get back to work Tony. Thanks ladies, see you tomorrow.” I nodded my head as a goodbye, and #Mac waved the ladies out. But instead of getting back to work, my head stayed on the door as his scent grew stronger. ‘Who missed me?’ #Seth came running in the door. Moving to the side he held the doors open for the ladies to leave, and then he bee lined it over to us. ‘Wow I can’t believe I nearly forgot today was the day.’ He was rubbing his hands together in total excitement. #Mac introduced #Seth to #Tony, and the two clicked right away, joking, and chatting animatedly. ‘Oh, before I forget. Call said Hi, and that he would see you if you were still around later?’ #Seth told him. I moved to the far side where I had been working before, my eyes still on the men. Of course, I should have guessed it. If #Tony and his mom were the only music store in Port, of course Call would know him. ‘Yeah, we still have a lot to get on with here so I guess I may see him. This place really is a who’s who. I did know that Mac and ↬ Embry Call ↫ were from the same place, but I didn’t guess you all knew one another.’ I had to hide my smirk, because I could see that look in #Tony’s eyes at first seeing my kid brother, he was tall, handsome with boyish looks. His smile was one that got the girls to stop in their tracks. And #Tony wanted to drink the water of our Rez. Yeah, like it was the water in this place that made us who we were. ↬ Embry Call ↫ I didn’t hear #Jared’s voice as soon as I phased, not until the others started calling to me and I saw his wolf in the usual clearing, through their eyes. The Pups had already replayed the scene for him and from what I could tell he had phased before we had the campsite cleared. He watched them as they took care of the fire pit and the campsite; the way we would have if we weren’t in such a hurry to just get them out of there. #Jared was going to be taking the next run, so it hadn’t been too much of a bother for him to come on duty a little earlier than planned. He had sent my pups on the final sweep while #Seth and I settled the townies in and put them where they belonged. The rest of the next patrol started to show up in the clearing just as I arrived there too. There was nothing I really needed to tell him now that the campsite was cleared. Everything was how it should be again. I had one of the younger ones agree to go wait for me at #Billy’s, since my clothes and Jeep were now nowhere near where they would normally be. I knew I was a creature of habit when it came to certain things. But something like this shouldn’t bother me like it was today. I took moderate comfort in the fact that I was

always the first up at home… That if I didn’t wake #Quil in the morning he’d be late for work. “Shit! Did Quil get to work this morning?” I thought to myself, but I was still connected to the pups that hadn’t reached which spot was the most convenient for them to phase away from prying eyes. The pups all chortled in my head. “You’ll be in the dog house if he didn’t.” “Uh oh! The Wife won’t be happy!” “Is that the D-word I smell?” “Who gets the house if they split? Can we still party there?” I just laughed and shook my head as I slowed to a walking pace near where I had left my clothes. “Don’t worry kids! In the event of a divorce, your mommy and I have a plan in place!” I laughed and they all shut up, shuddering at the reference to #Quil as their mommy. “Way to make it weird, ‘Bry!” “Hey! You had your fun and I had mine!” I smirked as I phased back onto two legs and pulled my clothes on; they smelled slightly of the forest; I hadn’t stopped to stuff them in a backpack this time. Not that it was a big deal; all I had to do was drop off the truck then I could head home to shower. The Pup waited for me at #Billy’s as I had said. He had already told the Chief the whole story, twice by the look of mild, yet patient irritation on the man’s face. I tossed the kid the keys to the jeep and his face dropped. “Why can’t I drive #Seth’s truck?” He griped. “Ask #Seth when we get there.” I laughed and greeted the Chief before we excused ourselves and drove the two vehicles back to the bar. I shot #Seth a text to let him know I was coming. ↬ Leah Clearwater ↫ #Seth had come to help on my side, I was glad he arrived when he did. Within ten minutes, he’d shown #Tony how he thought it would be best to angle the stage and use up all the back space. Without telling anybody, #Seth had in the past week checked in with Health and Safety to see what we could and couldn’t do. ‘I knew it would be the first call you would have made Sis, so. You know, before you start stressing.’ Which he laughed at as he said it because 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨wasn’t how I dealt with crap. I always got my head down and just got on with it. Once the other two were busy with their side of the stage, in a low voice #Seth filled me in on the morning run, and what he and ↬Embry Call ↫had to do. My eyebrows pulled together as I listened, but at the same time I was sure not to let on that anything was up. I found that #Tony kept looking up and towards me as I was working, but it wasn’t in an uncomfortable way. More of that ‘𝙄𝙨 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙠𝙖𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙡𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙧’ look I was used to getting from men. “Finally!” making a face as I got up from the ground, stretching my back out, not because it was hurting or sore. But because it was the human thing to do after you spent half an hour on your hands and knees clipping a bloody stage together. ‘Are you okay Leah? Maybe you should rest up and let us do the last parts?’ Okay I had to give the guy some credit, #Tony was looking up from the other side of the stage again. My first reaction would have been to kick his arse from here to Seattle. But it was that look in his eyes, it was of genuine concern and worry. “Chill out man, I got this and the rest. I just like making a show of it for these arses to feel bad for me.” I was pointing over my shoulder to #Seth who knew what I was doing, and then I nodded my chin over to #Mac who shot his head up from the clips he was examining in his hands. ‘She’s clearly in a good mood Tony; I’ve seen her punch dudes in the face for saying less to her.’ #Mac said readying himself rightfully so, for the smack I gave him up the side of his head as I walked past him towards the bar. ‘See, way to prove me right Lee.’ He laughed rubbing his head. “Yeah, yeah. Who else is starving? I need some food.” I walked around the bar, taking out a few sodas and setting them down on the top. ‘Food Yes!’ #Seth was up and clapping his hands, running after me to grab the drinks. ‘Yes, yes and yes.’ #Mac was now examining the wiring for the amp. ‘Oh,

uhm. I.’ We all stopped to look back at #Tony. #Seth grabbed the sodas and took them back to the other two. ‘Sis I would take that as a yes from Tony too.’ #Seth patted his shoulder. ‘The Burgers are really good from our diner here, trust me.’ Opening the can he took a mouthful pulling his phone out. I’d heard it buzz in his pocket. “Trust me Tony, you want lunch man.” taking out my own phone I hit speed dial and it was answered on the second ring. “Hey Gem…. Yeah.. That’s right, but can you add two more burgers and fries?” ‘Sis!’ #Seth called out and held up two fingers towards me. Letting me know to up the order again. “Sorry Gem, can you add four more thanks.” Ending the call I moved to grab my jacket. Without questioning the Kid. “I won’t be long, try not to burn the place down before I get back!” I joked, but really, was I? “Whispering to #Mac when I passed him. “Black to Black, Red to Red, Green to Green and don’t forget to earth it. That’s the brown one!” He grinned nodding his head. And I made a note to check that wiring when I was back just in case. Stepping out into the day I looked up at the sky, shrugging my jacket on, pulling my hair free out and letting it fall over my back. I could hear the guys inside, getting back to work and then I heard #Seth saying, ‘↬ Embry Call ↫ is on his way.’ Climbing onto the back of my baby, I pulled him off the kickstand. “Talk about a Clearwater overload for Call.” I mused to myself as I pulled out of the parking lot, making my way to the diner to pick up lunch for all of us. It always felt good to ride, even if it was a short trip and I had to stay within the speed limits.

↬ Embry Call ↫ I had to admit that driving the other guy’s trucks and cars did make me consider… just briefly… finding myself a new set of wheels, one that didn’t grind when I shifted the gears, or started every time after the first turn of the key. But after I caught a glimpse of my baby again it always went away. Leah’s bike was gone when I was pulling in at the bar. Tony’s truck was in the lot still. I could hear the Jeep coming up the street behind me as I locked Seth’s truck and headed inside. I could hear Tony quizzing #Seth and #Mac about Leah before I opened the door; trying to be subtle. He was failing, of course. I tried to act like I hadn’t heard. “Tony!!! You sexy beast!” I yelled from the door. “What the hell are you doing in my neck of the woods, man?” Before he even looked up, I was taking in the sight in the bar. What the hell were they doing? A stage… for what? I looked at #Seth and he was beaming. ‘Embry Call!’ Tony smiled and came over to give me the strongest handshake he could muster… as always. I gave him a break in front of the guys, any other day I’d not go easy on him. ‘Setting up for a bit of live music!’ ‘Open mic nights.’ #Seth said as I moved to the bar and set his keys down. He tossed my mom’s beeper to me and I caught it. Tony looked a little confused for a second and then seemed to register what it was, but he didn’t ask. The Pup came in and gave me my keys. He hardly had time to register the changes in the place before he was rushing out. “Don’t you want a ride kid?” I asked. ‘Nah. I’ll run, but I gotta bolt now. If I’m late picking my sister’s up from school again my Mom will have me neutered.’ He laughed and vanished out the doors. #Tony and #Mac laughed, but #Seth and I cringed… It had become a common phrase among the pack moms. Not mine but being in the guy’s heads so often meant I felt the jab just as sharply. “Sister’s right… So annoying!” #Seth mocked and quickly added. “Don’t tell her I said that.” Now I laughed. I helped the guys while they waited on Leah to get back. I knew I should be giving her space away from me; she must be on overload right now. But it was impossible to say no to those burgers. I went to help Tony with his end, and he started whispering to me. A fat lot of good that was going to do for him with #Seth here. “What’s the deal with this Leah chick?” he whispered. “The guy said she’s single… You into

her or….?” I choked a little and the first thing I thought was ‘𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝑒𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒!’ But I wouldn’t say that to him. “Me? I’ve known her since before I could walk. And yeah, single. Technically…” #Seth was trying very hard not to listen. “But by choice, you know? She’s just not in the whole relationship mind-set… and you are total boyfriend material, Tone!” I smirked and clamped a hand lightly (for me) on his shoulder. “I think this one is happiest when running wild. And don’t call her chick… because she will kick your arse!” I laughed.

↬Leah Clearwater ↫ The short ride to the diner was enough to make me smile. The air hitting my face, blowing my hair back off my shoulders, all in all that freeing sensation only riding on two wheels could give you was being felt. My mind was back at the bar, and how quickly #Seth and #Mac had taken an idea I gave them and turned it into a reality. This was why I liked working with them both so much. After all this time, we didn’t even have to fully work out the plans before the others would pick it up and run with it. As I stopped on the main street junction, the roads were a little busy, but nothing I couldn’t find my way around. Zig zagging my way in and out of the cars, trucks, and pickups I nodded my head as I pulled up next to the truck with Paul in it riding beside him. I’d picked up his scent as I was riding up behind him and when I saw his eyes flicker to his rear-view mirror I smirked. Because of the trajectory of the wind, his scent had moved back and over me, and he didn’t see me coming until I was right on top of him. ‘One of these days Lee, I’m going to get you.’ He laughed with a nod of his head. “Sure, maybe don’t hold your breath. You know even wolves need air in their lungs. Now get your arse back to work.” I teased riding my baby beside his truck. ‘I am working woman, just off to make a delivery!’ He exclaimed. “Touchy much? What are you hiding Lahote?” I didn’t wait for his reply before I kicked the gears up speeding off, cutting across the road to make my turn. ‘Smartarse!’ I just heard over the wind as he kept going on Main street. By the time I was parked up in front of the diner, I felt a lot more relaxed. The morning had been a little crazy in my eyes, and the night of little to no sleep hadn’t been something new to me. But still when I walked into the diner to find #GemmaReed’s smiling face holding out a cup of coffee for me, I took it without question. ‘It’ll only be another five.’ She told me before rushing off. “Thanks Gem, you’re a life saver.” Taking a seat at the diner bar, I sat at a spot where I had a view of all that was going on in the place. Out of habit I never sat in a place where I couldn’t see what was going on all around me. I knew the diner well, and all the faces in here were known to me. A familiar scent caught my nose and I started to scan the diner a little closer than before. In the far corner I saw two head sat trying to hide themselves. I bit the inside of my cheek when I knew who it was. My eyebrow rising, I set the cup of coffee down and walked over. “Aren’t you both meant to be in school?” I stood towering over the young boy and the girl. As they acted like they were trying to find something under the table. ‘Hi Leah.’ The about to break voice of #EricJones came from under the booth. ‘I was just—’ He moved to sit up and smiled at me. #Eric was the teenage son of #MarkJones a cattle farmer whose wife helped my Ma out with the community projects. In a small town like ours it was hard not to know all the kids and who they belonged too. I wasn’t one to pry in other people’s business, unless it was something impacting Pack Business, or I knew I could step up and help with. We had always set high standards for the pups, rules they had to follow. School and education were high priority on that list. But I didn’t see why those standards couldn’t be passed onto all the kids of the Rez. “And who is this hiding with you under the table?” My face was stern, I knew who it was, but I wanted her to come out of hiding herself. My reputation around the Rez was known by all grown up and kids alike. I was known to be somebody with little to no time for bullshit. And now the story of how I stood up to the Council had made the rounds too. And if not the boy, the girl for sure knew that I wasn’t somebody she wanted to lie to. ‘Hi Cus!’ She shifted out from under the booth, trying to give me a 𝙁𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙮 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚look. “Don’t Hi Cus me Emma, why aren’t you in school?” My voice was even and strong, not far off the one I used with the

pups when they pissed me off. ‘Well, I have a free period. So, you see. Eric and I.. we.. uhm.. we came for a shake.’ She finally got to the end of her lie. I could tell she was lying from the sound of her heart thudding in her chest. “Oh, right. Cool” I took out my phone and pointedly started to push numbers. “Well, let’s see if Uncle Lucas knows about this 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙙 of yours, shall we?” My eyebrow raised as I called her bluff. My Uncle #Lucas was a kind man, but he wasn’t easily taken for a fool. #Emma jumped up to stop me. ‘I’m sorry, I just—’ Her eyes scared. “You and Eric here, were about to pack your crap up and head straight back to school, right?” I turned my glance to the boy. “𝙍𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩?” ‘Yes, yes, back to school right now. I will go pay and we will head off.’ #Eric moved to get past me, but I didn’t move. “Don’t let me find out that this was your plan. That wouldn’t work out well for you kid.” His face was full of the right amount of fear before I let him go, turning my attention onto my own cousin. “Emma, you can’t do this crap. School is important. Boy’s come and go; you need to build a strong life for yourself. And that starts with a strong education. Not waiting on the next boy to tell you how pretty you are, or doing every stupid thing to keep their attention!” She sat with her eyes on the table, playing with the straw in the half empty glass of Chocolate milkshake. “𝘿𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙?” leaning down on the table into her. ‘Yes Leah, I understand.’ She said with her voice full of embarrassment. “This time we will leave this here between us, if there is a next time—” I didn’t need to finish that sentence, she knew the meaning. I stepped to the side and let her slide out of the booth. I stood up my arms back across my chest, watching them both leaving. ‘Leah!’ #Gemma called out holding the bags off food in the air for me. The ride back to #HWH didn’t take long, but this time it was #Emma who was on my mind. My teenage cousin who thought she knew it all, thought that her world started and ended with which boy found her cute that day, week or month. And it pissed me off. “Even now, in today’s day. Girls are still foolish.” I muttered, pulling into the parking lot. My eyes moving over the unmistakable red jeep. The sounds of the chatter coming from inside, climbing off my baby with the bags of food in my hands as I made my way into the bar. Stopping I groaned as the last comment I overheard. Walking in I made a racket, giving them all fair warning that I was coming. It was more for the two humans than for #Seth and Call, whom I was positive heard my baby pulling up. “Who’s hungry?” I called out holding the bags up, as I walked to a table and set the food down on it and then shrugged out of my jacket.

TBC...

#LeahClearwater #Leah #HotHeadSheWolf #SpiritsHotHead #EmbryCall #Embry #BADBOYEMBRYCALL #Twilight #TwilightRP #TwiRP

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recherche-raptor · 6 years

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Cyberverse Liveblog, S1E1: Fractured, part 1

I am super excited to watch this; I love the character designs, and while I'm not yet totally sold on the animation (everything seems strangely textureless, in contrast to Prime, so in certain lightings everything looks somewhat flat), I have seen more than enough solid clips and fan hype to look past that.

Time to actually watch! And thank you Cartoon Network for posting the first two episodes online! Please keep doing that! :D

I’m getting Jasper, Nevada flashbacks. The background looks pretty, but it is, again, very simple.

Oh my gosh, Bumblebee is such a happy goofball. I have no idea what he’s doing on this road, and based on the clips I have a feeling he doesn’t either, but at least he’s having a good time.

Are all comms communications going to be portrayed via floating head syndrome?

Okay so I do love the minimalist/action-poster art style they’re using for the opening. Sadly it moved a bit too quick for me to catch who all the background characters were aside from Grimlock, but I’ve seen people point out Chromia and Rung at least. Wonder what role they’ll play? And why the ‘bots and ‘cons given official art & bios weren’t featured as prominently? Unless I missed it that is.

This sounds kinda mean but Bumblebee’s little squeak of distress sounds adorable.

“Wait, I thought Ratchet fixed your voice-box?” I hope we get an explanation for the first and apparently second times his voice-box got messed with.

I really like this shot, for whatever reason. Also, I can tell that’s Perceptor, but I can’t quite figure out who the blue guy is. It’s not Blurr, since he doesn’t have Blurr’s helmet spike things borrowed from Drift, but I don’t remember another blue Autobot shown in the previews/bios. I’m guessing he (or she? please be a she?) is a plane like Windblade since they share the shoulder whirlies.

Not sure how I feel about the immediate giant infodump? It sorta makes sense, since Windblade hasn’t seen Bumblebee in a while and wants to get him up to speed, but it feels like a fairly slow opening. Nice to see other characters making cameos and being foreshadowed, though. Also, I’m curious as to how they’ll put a new twist on the old AllSpark-ejected-into-space-lands-on-Earth-becomes-One-True-MacGuffin plot. What does this space-magic-y d20 have in store for our heroes?

Shoutout to Shadow Striker for being portrayed as being on equal footing with Starscream. Is she a third-in-command? Intelligence officer? Will she have troops like Starscream does?

They decided they wanted a simple art style and dangit, they’re gonna stick to it! ...which part of Earth is that meant to be? The part on the far left looks sorta like the Iberian peninsula, but what’s the landmass beyond? What am I looking at? I know it’s not a major detail in the slightest but it’s confusing me here.

Say it with me now: Awwwwwwww! (Also couldn’t they have put red on Windblade’s eyelids)

Poor Bumblebee looking so confused at first when Windblade hugged him, then just smiling and being like “You! Are! Awesome!” was adorable. He has no idea who Windblade is and he already thinks she’s the greatest thing since sliced energon cubes. I also love how Windblade’s first reaction isn’t like “ha ha, very funny, stop joking around Bee” but to ask if he’s okay. Solid friendships and genuine emotions! Something I can latch onto and never let go!

When I first saw the clip of Bee doing donuts I was like “Bee, please, take something seriously, what is going on here,” so it’s nice to see the context and buildup to that bit- he’s not being totally careless, he’s trying to avoid uncomfortable questions with a bubbly happy front. At least partly.

Since this post has gotten long, and Cartoon Network has conveniently divided each episode into two parts, I’m going to put a pin in that and get to the next video.

#Recherche liveblogs #Cyberverse spoilers #Transformers spoilers #liveblog #Transformers #Cyberverse

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wolfpackimagines14 · 6 years

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Sadie Black (Chapter 8)

Jacob was up and walking around again within two days, but because Charlie had seen him right after he had gotten hurt, he had to walk around with crutches and a fake cast on one leg and a sling on one arm. It was really funny, actually.

It was a week after that when the invitation to Bella and Edward’s wedding came in the mail. It was addressed to the Black family. The fact that they thought that either my father or myself would willingly go to the Cullen’s house was hilarious.

But Jacob hadn’t taken the news well and he had phased out of grief and run off. Charlie was more worried than my father and I were and he had put up posters with his face on them in every major city along the Olympic Peninsula.

It had been a month and a half since Jake had left and I hadn’t heard anything from him. The pack knew he was okay, they would have felt it if he wasn’t so that was comforting. I had decided a week ago to go to Bella and Edward’s wedding. I knew my brother and I knew that he was going to show up at that wedding and I was going to be there when it happened, even if it meant I had to be around a bunch of vampires for a few hours.

Paul insisted on coming with me, he didn’t want me in a room with ‘those leeches’ by myself. I argued that Seth was going to be there and that if he did go he would only make things worse due to his anger problems, but he wouldn’t listen to me.

The day before the wedding, Bella called Seth, just like she always does, to see if there had been any word from Jake. She called me the first few times she wanted answers, but I would never answer the phone so she gave that up quickly.

Paul and I sat in the back of pews of the wedding, not really paying attention to the ceremony. I was too busy looking around for my brother.

“Come on, Sadie. If he shows up it’s not going to be in the middle of the ceremony,” Paul whispered into my ear. “And I would know if he was here… you know, werewolf senses and shit.”

“I just… I miss him,” I sighed.

“I know you do, babe,” he reassured me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and I leaned my head on his hard bicep. “I’m gonna kill him for making you worry like this.”

“No you won’t,” I laughed lightly, grasping his hand.

“You’re right.”

“I’m always right,” I responded.

Luckily the ceremony wasn’t too long and the reception started immediately afterwards. The food wasn’t bad considering the party was thrown by a bunch of vampires who only drank blood.

Paul didn’t leave my side the whole night as I chatted with Sue, Seth, and Charlie. It was going pretty smoothly, smoother than I thought it would considering there were some vampires here besides the Cullens.

An hour or so into the reception was when Bella disappeared for half an hour.

“He’s here, isn’t he?” I asked, glancing up at Paul, who was looking at me, but not really looking at me. It was like he was listening to something with his werewolf hearing. “Is he with Bella?”

“Yeah…” he muttered, only half paying attention to me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Stay here,” he ordered.

“What?” I protested. “No way I-”

“Sadie,” he begged. “Just five minutes and I’ll come back and get you and then we can go home. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Okay,” I responded, now concerned. “I promise.”

He kissed my forehead harshly before jogging around the house. I now saw that Seth was gone too. Jake probably was having a fit over something Bella said.

“Excuse me,” a voice behind me interrupted my thoughts.

I turned around and saw someone who I had never met before, but by her appearance I could tell that she was for sure a vampire. Her pale skin, perfect blonde hair, and golden eyes gave it away.

“Can I help you,” I asked softly. Even if her eyes proved she was a ‘vegetarian’ vampire, I was still going to be cautious.

“I just need to know how you can hang around those… mutts,” she spat out the last word.

“What did you just say to me?” I asked, outraged.

“I asked you how you could be with one of those deranged mutts,” she growled, getting into my face.

I stumbled back, but she kept approaching me.

“They killed my mate. They’re murderers.”

I didn’t respond to her statements and by now she had backed me into one of the walls of the Cullen’s house. I was too scared to give her one of my witty comebacks.

“I… I don’t… they’re not murderers. They-”

“Shut up,” she interrupted. “If there weren’t so many people-”

“Irina!” a new voice called out from behind the woman.

“Hey!” I heard Paul exclaim. “Get the fuck away from her.”

Paul pushed the woman, who I assumed was Irina, just as another blonde vampire pulled her away.

“Are you alright?” Paul asked me, stepping between myself and the vampires. I didn’t even realize I was crying until he wiped my tears away.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Irina?” the other blonde vampire asked as the first one shifted her glare from me to Paul.

“He killed Laurent,” she growled.

“Tanya why don’t you take Irina inside,” Carlisle Cullen instructed, placing a hand on both their shoulders.

Tanya pulled Irina inside the house, but the whole time she was looking back at us and glaring.

“Are you alright, Sadie?” Carlisle asked. I nodded, but other than that I couldn’t even respond, I was still speechless. Paul was trying so hard to stay calm and every once in awhile his hand would start to shake slightly.

“Can you just take me home?” I whimpered, grabbing one of Paul’s trembling hands.

“Of course, baby,” he reassured me, pulling me closer and stroking some more tears off my cheek.

I gave a small smile at Carlisle as Paul lead me away from the party and towards his truck. I was still frozen. I was mad at myself for not standing up for the pack to Irina. What the hell was her problem anyways? Who the fuck was Laurant?

“Sadie?” I snapped back to reality, not even realizing that Paul had helped me into the truck and he had gotten into the driver's seat.

“Yeah?” I responded, looking down at my lap.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“I don’t think you are,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Can we just go home… please.”

He didn’t say anything else, simply putting the car in gear and grabbing my hand firmly before driving back to La Push.

#twilight #twilight imagines #twilight imagine #paul lahote #paul lahote imagine #paul lahote story #wolfpack #wolfpack imagines #wolfpack imagine

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wasilly1 · 5 years

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My Trip To Doha

“Not all those who wander are lost.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring We left for India on the 8th of June. It was a very exciting journey overall. Through a few connecting flights and a 24-hour layover in Doha, we reached Nagpur. A small city in India. Our flight was from Boston to Doha to Nagpur. On our way to India, we stopped in Doha for a day. We landed in Doha around 5 pm Doha time. It took approximately an hour or so to get our bags. The first thing you realize when you step out of the airport is the heat and the dry climate. The heat is overwhelming, given that you are in a desert. Be prepared for the hot and dry weather of Doha if you are traveling through that part of the world. We had 24 hours in Doha so we made the most of it. To start off, the Hamad International Airport is an engineering marvel. It is truly one of the most beautiful airports you will ever see. It has many restaurants, shops, lounges, and many other activities which can you can do at the airport. I didn't have a chance to enjoy much of the airport's amenities because we were heading out into the city.

Hamad International Airport

The ride from the airport to the city was my first glimpse of the rich architecture that Doha had in store. On the way, I could see numerous posters for the upcoming FIFA world cup which will be held in Doha in 2022. In Doha, we stayed in a Hilton DoubleTree hotel. Our hotel was not too far from the airport, approximately a 15-minute drive, and it was a beautiful hotel. After we freshened up, we decided to explore the city. We visited the Museum of Islamic Arts, which was closed at the time. Just next to the entrance, there were golf carts taking people around the museum. We got into one of them and we were dropped right next to the beach where we could the iconic Doha skyline. It was amazing. We sat there gazing at the skyline for almost half an hour. Here are a few night photography tips I wish I knew before going to Doha Use a tripodUse a manual mode on your cameraTry to use low ISO (1600)Take a bunch of shots with different settings (Exposure)Shoot raw so you can edit later

The Iconic Skyline

Museum of Islamic Arts

Good Ol' inspiration After seeing the skyline we went to have dinner at a famous Indian restaurant. I had some papadi chaat which is a classic Indian dish which I recommend you taste. Even at night, Doha was very hot. We came back to the hotel after dinner to get some rest so we are ready for the next day. We would be getting up early the next morning to explore Doha some more. The next day we headed out to do some shopping. The first thing we did was get our currency exchanged from Dollar to Qatari Rial. It is always advisable to shop in local currency instead of using foreign currency. One of the best things to do, when in a new place, is to ask advice from hotel staff because they usually have a good understanding of local shops and the best places to visit. One of the things which Doha is best known for is their gold. They have a lot of it. It's in their airports, food, museums, streets, shops, basically everywhere.

Shopping is a must if you ever go to Doha. Be sure to bargain for the best price because some street vendors may have unreasonable prices. We saw a lot of gold shops, locally handcrafted souvenirs, and a lot of spice and sweet shops. One of the coolest things that I did in Doha was to visit the local market. Souq Waqif is one of the biggest local markets in Doha. It looks like something right out of a movie. It dates back at least a hundred years and it is enormous. You can buy anything, from spices to expensive garments. It is the number 1 place to go if you visit Doha. We brought a few souvenirs to take along with us.

They even had parrots...

Additionally, even throughout the market, you could see merchandise advertising the upcoming FIFA world cup in 2022. After Souq Waqif, we explored more of Doha. The heat was a little overwhelming but we got to experience stunning architecture. It is a must to wear a hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, and drink plenty of water when roaming around.

Islamic Center

Towards the end of the day, we visited the Museum of Islamic Arts. It is such an extraordinary museum. It is absolutely jaw-dropping. The entrance to the Museum of Islamic Arts.

Photo by Shahin Olakara The Museum of Islamic Arts is located on an artificial peninsula where you get a clear view of the Doha skyline. The Museum of Islamic Art represents Islamic art from three continents dating back to 1,400 years. It contains jewelry, literature, textiles, and ceramics. The interior of the museum has an elaborate design. The museum was designed by IM Pei, the architect of the Louvre pyramid in Paris. The entrance is grand and exotic, lined with palm trees and a fountain. The museum consists of 3 floors of varying artifacts. If you are visiting Doha, make sure you take time to visit the Museum of Islamic Arts. It is definitely an experience not worth missing out on.

After the Museum of Islamic Arts, we had to go to the airport to board our next flight to Nagpur. In the next post, I will tell you about how amazing an Indian wedding is.

A picture taken before leaving Doha. Read the full article

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melodramamademydreamscometrue · 7 years

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THE STORY OF HOW MELODRAMA MADE MY DREAMS COME TRUE: a timeline by Tyler Luke

lemme tell you a story real quick...

warning: i am not a new york times writer. These words were haphazardly self revised. please bear with me

prologue

new years day, 2017

I began 2017 chilling in the hot tub with one of my close friends; otherwise known as Bryce Hedman. Pretty sure we were faded off something. We both come from humble beginnings and live a rather modest lifestyle. Anyways we were scheming for what the year had to offer. "2017 is the year to be a fucking savage" was the quote to live by. We made a deal that we would meet someone famous. (please do keep in mind that we live in Ledyard, Connecticut with a population of 15,000 & it’s greatest achievement is that it is close to the casinos foxwoods and mohegan sun). my choice was my all time favorite artist: Lorde. Bryce’s choice has, to this day, been unnamed. He ended up laughing at me when I confidently said I’d meet Lorde by the end of 2017. I’ve been trying to talk with her for years now, and 2017 would be the year (I hoped).

january, 2017

It’s mid-January now and I randomly got a call from the UK. It was an artist that was associated with Skepta and the new age grime movement of the UK. he was inquiring about the purchase of some of the sweaters i designed (most notably seen on rejjie snow and ratking). this seemed like some sort of degree of separation to my goal. How though, I wasn’t sure. At this point another close friend, Joaquin Lopez-Watson, was informed on my 2017 aspirations (and was doubtful). Around this time, the governors ball list was released. I saw Lorde and Skepta were performing governors ball... interesting coincidence. However, i got too confident with myself. The Skepta plan fell through the cracks when i fell out of contact with the guy who called me because my cellular plan does not send or receive anything international. Looking back, I don’t even see how this plan would have been successful. I was just wilding out in my fantasies. Anyways, January progressed. i was watching a lot of twin peaks and painting in my room. Eventually, me and my long-time girlfriend, Carly, began to realize that our lives were growing apart and decided to go on a break. That led to a series of personal changes and a throbbing depression. I was in a slump. This led to long drives playing pure heroine (especially buzzcut season) as a meditative tactic. I ended up visiting Bryce at school with Joaquin for a night of debauchery. Keep in mind, Bryce is on the track team and they had practice the next morning. So, Joaquin and i ended up getting belligerently wasted to the point where we demanded to play twin peaks despite the fact that Bryce's team was studying a marathon. There are two New Zealanders on Bryce's team: Cam and Holly. I pressed them for information regarding if they know Lorde or anyone who has contact to Lorde. Cam took a pic with Eliza McCartney once and got rejected after giving her his number. Holly’s family owns an ice cream shop called “Lick This” in Napier. To all the New Zealander’s reading this… i recommend it solely off of fact that i find the name funny (I've never had the ice cream, I’m sure it’s good). Then I went home, and then went back to my university in Bristol, Rhode Island a few days later.

february, 2017

The break with Carly ended; however, there was still some disconnection. We were approaching a difficult time with the long distance relationship lifestyle. We both got accepted to study abroad at different times and Carly is working at Yellowstone National Park for the Summer. Most of our days are spent apart considering the fact that we were hundreds of miles apart. We spent our last valentine’s day together and then called it quits in the car outside of my dorm. That coined the first time we didn’t talk for nearly 4 years (we started dating when royals blew up for all the Lorde fans reading this). Carly was the one who actually showed me Royals when it first became popular. It was rough for a few weeks; however, it was definitely the right thing to do. I had a hard time through balancing mental health coupled with the overload of school work. I began to have mild mental breakdowns from here to there which was fueled by depression and anxiety. Lorde was ghost for quite sometime in between. Coincidentally, about two weeks after we broke up, she stealthily teased towards a new song. The hype was real. At this time, I kept my Lorde fandom limited to a few tweets here and there as well as a poster on my dorm room wall from the Pure Heroine vinyl insert. I found out that a fellow colleague, Mike Jarmon, was a fan of her. My roommate, Mackenzie, was also quite the fan of her. We would randomly comment on Lorde photos saying “ELLA I’M IN NYC LET’S CHILL” in reference to one time we saw rejjie snow comment that on a picture. Anyways, back to the release of the new single. We were all intrigued. I even got back into contact with Carly for strictly discussing the new song. At the time, the website was titled M********. Late nights in the design studio at school were greeted with incessant lorde reddit perusal for the sake of further deciphering the messages. There was a lot of speculation (such as the name of Frida Kahlo’s birth name: Magdalena) as to what the cryptic messages meant, but no definite answers.

march, 2017

It rolled around to Friday and I was in class with Mike and Mackenzie when the song was released. We played it mid class and danced; the professor wasn’t pleased. We still ended up playing it for the whole class which was followed by going back to the dorm for the mid afternoon nap, and falling asleep to it. Green light was that song to listen to; a story of heartbreak and waiting for things to be okay: quite relevant to my situation. The release of Green Light eventually led to the announcement of the album title, then another single, then an album drop date (I think I have that order correct). I went on spring break in mid-march. I went on a short vacation with Bryce and his track team down to Delaware where we chilled for a week. The two New Zealanders mentioned before were there. We all ended up acoustically singing Lorde songs after dinner once (after consuming a few drinks as well).

two month hiatus of stagnancy, depression, and loneliness

mid april, 2017

Kendrick’s album dropped and it was nearing the time of coachella where Kendrick and Lorde, my two favorite artists, will be headlining. Due to living all the way across the nation, I had to live stream it from my computer in my dorm room. The stream was incredible, Lorde was a superstar. She performed a few new songs which were riveting and detailed and powerful. She was doing her thing in front of over a hundred thousand people. I remember discussing with my friends that it must be an unreal feeling to be in the crowd when an artist brings out a new song. Being the first to hear something in the world, that’s uncanny to think about. There’s around 7 billion people in the world, and you are ahead of everyone else; you’re at the forefront; the highest percentile. Insane. No one can take that away from you… you’re the first. That night, I had a vivid dream that I was invited to hear some exclusive content from Lorde. It was one of those dreams that you wake up pissed off because it’s just a dream. Anyways, May came around and more buzz around the album was beginning to arise. But this was a different kind of buzz. I had to throw that pun in real quick before the transition.

real shit unfolds

june 13, 2017; 8:45 pm

I unexpectedly woke up at 8:45 am. I say unexpectedly because in summer break, there isn’t a day that I wake up before noon (unless I had work). A few minutes after waking up, I get a tweet notification from Lorde. The tweet read,

“NYC... 9pm tonight i wanna do something with u. super intimate capacity — 18+ — first 45 to email [email protected]” - @lorde

I IMMEDIATELY emailed. This was the chance. This was it. The day progressed and I drove around Watch Hill, Rhode Island to catch up on some music while gazing at all the mansions the peninsula has to offer. I was driving, listening to music, looking at mansions, and avidly checking my email for a response.

june 13, 2017; 4:00 pm

4:00 pm rolled around and I had to go to work. I work at a local pizza shop in Mystic, Connecticut called ‘184 Pizzeria.’ I was in contact with Mike Jarmon because, he too, entered the melodrama email contest. He checked his mail, and behold, he was within the first 45 people and secured a spot. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make it out to the city that night. So… he sent in my name and information. I FELT LIKE CHARLIE WHEN HE FOUND THE GOLDEN TICKET. I then had to finesse my way out of work. I told my boss that I had a dream to fulfill and ended up just leaving mid shift after completing the final order of the night. I raced home to tell my mom that I was going to New York City. She didn’t believe me when I told her that I was able to go to this event and was averse to allowing me to go. But shit, I’m 20 years old now, I decided to go anyways. It was 6:30 at this point and New York City is roughly 2 hours 30 minutes away. I got there in around 1 hour 45 minutes. I was whipping and weaving and praying I didn’t get pulled over. If you know me, you understand I almost always go the speed limit because once I got a ticket for $200 for going 10 mph over on the highway. But, no paranoia could bring me down. I crossed over the G.W. Bridge and saw the wondrous skyline. I knew I was near. I didn’t even have time to change or shower before I left. I was still smelling like pizza grease and mozzarella cheese. I then ended up having to city drive for the first time. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I ended up parking at a garage that had uncanny prices, but it was well worth it. I got out of the car and ran to the address from the email; a small karaoke bar called Sing Sing Ave. A. There was an eclectic crowd waiting outside. A melting pot of people ranging from various backgrounds and identities. But, we were all there for one common purpose: Lorde. The bouncer popped his head out of the door multiple times. I spoke with a few girls in line who were convinced it was a prank. Eventually the bouncer and a man with the list came out of the door and began to check off people’s names. I was shaking, for real. I didn’t know what to expect. What was this event for? Is she actually here? My heart was racing.

june 13, 2017; 8:30 pm

I approached the man with the list and said my name. He then checked me off the list and the bouncer escorted me inside where he checked my ID to see if I was 18 years old. Sure enough I am, so he further escorted me down a dark staircase where there were I met two guys who were locking up the cell phones. I had to send one last message to my mom before I locked up my phone. The message said, “IN AT THE SHOW THEY DONY LET US USE OUR PHONES I’M SO EXCITED” (8:49 pm) (yes the spelling/grammar errors were in there).

june 13, 2017; 9:00 pm

I then entered the room where there were people scattered on couches and lounge stools while eating pizza and burgers and fries and socializing and anxiously awaiting what was coming. Within a few instances, Lorde walks in and shimmies through us. She is dancing and smiling and greeting people with exuberance. She then grabbed the microphone at the front of the room and spoke to us. This was real. In this very moment, I realized that the superstar that rocks adidas superstars was just a normal person at heart (just with a lot of talent and beauty). This wasn’t Lorde, this was Ella. She spoke with us, not to us. She embraced conversation. She asked the people’s names before talking to them and then used their name in conversation. This was Ella. Ella told us that she has a surprise for us. She claims that we were going to be the first group of people in the world to hear her long awaited album: melodrama. We all began cheering. I remembered back to my dream after watching the Coachella live stream. This was actually unbelievable, but it felt so real. It was some weird twin peaks type shit where it’s hard to tell the difference between dreams and reality. It felt so vivid and clear and wonderful. Everyone was there, completely devoid of cell phones and social media, for a shared human experience. This NEVER happens anymore. I will go out to eat or go to the park and see two people on their individual phones instead of engaging in real human interaction. This was different. This was genuine. She played the album all the way through. From front to back. In between songs she broke down the purpose of each song and told funny or sweet stories about the creative process. She shared personal experiences with Jack Antonoff during the copious amount of time they spent in the creation of the album at his Brooklyn apartment. She told us the feeling of just laying back in the dark and listening to the album from front to back. She shared her affection for the word “juicy.” She told us that she didn’t record melodrama in a record booth; but rather, she did it in the open air to get a more genuine and integrated sound. As a self proclaimed DIY musician (making sub par rap music from my bedroom with my friends), I was relieved when she said she didn’t use a record booth. There were times where the aux cord would begin to shorten out and she’d just laugh it off. Other times she’d try to turn it up when the volume was already maximized. The album was serene, intense, heartfelt, warm, jumpy; everything I could possibly imagine. Due to my recent break up, I took all of the words Ella said to heart. She asked the question, “have you ever broken up in a car before?” and I immediately flashed back to the time that Carly and I decided to call it quits. That moment of stagnancy. The moment where you’re just sitting there, side by side, for what seems to be the last time ever. The final moment doesn’t feel like it will ever end; just permanently stuck in purgatory. She passed around handwritten lyrics and I riffled through them to find one that had personal significance to me. The lyrics read,

“Please could you be tender and I will sit close to you

Let's give it a minute before we admit that we're through”

These words perfectly captured the feeling of being in the car during the final moments. The moments of holding on so hard for the words to say or the hand to hold or the love to share. That was the final moment.

Ella progressed through the songs, and told stories about being in the same seat as Pharrell and Jay-Z in Jungle City or how Pharrell randomly said “Saturn” in conversation. She shared that her favorite album is ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ by Kanye and that her favorite song is Runaway. These were real conversations that she would have with her friends, which all of us were in this moment. She would be dancing along to the songs with us as she seemed to be feeling out all the drums in the air. Although most of us were dancing, she did open up the option to just sit back and embrace the moment. Another standout moment was the song Supercut. Through a definition of what a supercut was (a highlight reel), she then went into a beautiful and heart wrenching anecdote about perusing through the memories of all the good times between you and your partner after a breakup. She said this happened to her as she was laying in bed. I went through the exact same situation after I left the car. I just crawled into bed and laid facing the wall as if it was broadcasting all of the wonderful memories that I never want to forget. I saw the moments where I carved our names into a tree in the woods where we first kissed, or the first time we held hands at the movies, and the times we would be singing every song that came on the playlist during the midsummer days, or the times we would sneak out and sleep in my car to be able to hold each other at night. “In my head, I play a supercut of us” echoed throughout my mind when she first played it. I was taken back to that night. I was in the moment. I closed my eyes and put my head down and just listened and reflected. It was a beautiful moment. Then liability reprise followed and it was hypnotizing. All of the vocal snippets flowing throughout the mix. It perfectly captured not knowing your place in search of somewhere to go. This notion perfectly segued into the final song: Perfect Places. Perfect places is poppy and upbeat and glorious... but then you listen to the lyrics. It tells the story of living a chaotic life that is fueled by spur of the moment actions and searching for “perfect places.” Then the song ends where she claims, “what the fuck are perfect places anyway?” It all connects back to Green Light. Awaiting that green light, waiting for that change, waiting for a new adventure. It all doesn’t just happen in an instant. It takes a long time to rebuild yourself after being in someone else’s arms for so long. Finding your identity is strong theme of the album, and it’s something that I’ve been struggling with. I’ve been searching for too many “perfect places.” I’ve been rushing my life through trying to do everything I can instead of realizing that things take time to create change, much like how melodrama took time to be released. There’s a conglomerate of emotions that are poured throughout the album that I strongly identify with. Actually, I feel like many others, if not everyone, can do the same. Saying Melodrama is a ‘break up album’ would be a strong dis-justice. Melodrama is about change and searching for your place; whether it be changing jobs, finding your friend group, transferring to a new school, experiencing any form of loss. Ultimately, it exposes any void that needs to be filled. These are all very universal occurrences among everyone. I feel like that’s why this intimate evening was so powerful and necessary. It was a moment to show people that Ella was a real person who created an album with real emotions based on real circumstances. She is really staying true to the thesis of Pure Heroine on Melodrama. She isn’t singing about all of the money she acquired or how much fame she has. She is singing about issues that me, some random kid who works at a pizza shop in Connecticut, can identify with. Issues that everyone can identify with.

After we finished the album, she asked if anyone had any questions. A girl asked if she could sing something to hear her voice. Ella asked for any requests and I immediately yelled out “buzzcut season.” She then questioned what key the song was in and then NAILED IT. I began tearing up because I thought I’d never hear buzzcut season live due to the fear that the Melodrama release would lead to exclusively performing those songs. After this, she said that we can all unlock our phones and take pictures. We huddled at the door where the security guard would unlock our phone and escort us 1 by 1 into a room for a personal conversation with Ella / a photo shoot. I would see others smiling from ear to ear as they were taken into the room. Personally, I was trying to remain calm because, after all, she is just a normal person like everyone else. But then when it was my turn, my heart started racing. I went in and introduced myself and we hugged. I then told her a VERY abridged version of the story I just wrote about (btw you’re a real one if you’re reading this far). She then hugged me again and told me everything is going to be alright. We took pictures, and then I was escorted out of the venue to the sidewalk I started at. I just walked and stood by a brick facade for a second and looked at the lyric card she gave me. I then began crying for the first time in months, it was all too real. I just couldn’t believe that happened. I then met up with my friend and we went back to his apartment where I played a quick supercut of the night and drifted asleep.

More detailed information on the night was supplied by The Modern Girls, the writer did an amazing job at capturing the essence of the event. The report can be found here:

https://themoderngirls.co/2017/06/15/this-was-melodrama-an-evening-with-lorde/

fast forward because this story is getting mad long

june 16, 2017 - 12:00 am melodrama release date

It was released in that very instant. It was here. I drove to the convenience store down the street with my friend, Tyler Woods, and we each got red bulls and drove around for hours. This is a back road kind of album. The roads that have potholes and loose rubble and cars to dodge on the side of the road. A kind of album that soundtracks the world as you drive through suburbia during the night time while catching glimpses of lamps illuminating window frames. A kind of album that glistens in the moonlight. The bumps rocks pounded into the asphalt of the street worked in sequence with loveless’ booming 808s and the freshly paved asphalt glided to the buttery synths of homemade dynamite. A tank of gas and three listens later, we decided to go back to his house because we had to wake up early the next day for work. (btw, I listened to the album on a pair of Audio Technica ATH m50x’s and the details are revolutionary).

june 16, 2017 - 2:00 pm

Around time to get ready for work again at 4:00 when I checked twitter and saw a tweet that said,

“got a couple passes to give away to the show i'm putting on at bowery ballroom with @SIRIUSXM tonight– 18+ tell me why u wanna be there” - @lorde

I immediately responded again, requesting to give a pass to Mike Jarmon because he gave me the pass for Tuesday. Sure enough, got the tweet back that confirms we both were on the list. Ecstatically, I called out work again. It’s a miracle that I didn’t lose my job.. I ended up driving down to Mike’s house and then progressing towards the city. At this point, I have been driving around nearly all week which led to a series of dunkin’ donuts cups, jackets, hats, red bull cans, subway sandwich bags, pairs of various colors of cortezs, pillows, drum machines, and skateboards littered throughout my backseat. True vagabond. Anyways, we cross over the G.W. Bridge (again) and then cruise throughout the streets of the Bowery while blasting homemade dynamite with the windows down. Hyped. We parked the car at yet again another insanely expensive garage a few blocks away from the Bowery Ballroom (still worth it). We walked over to outside of the venue and received the guest passes and proceeded inside. The venue was way more intimate than I anticipated (I’ve never been to a concert in the city). We all just waited there looking at the massive mural of the album cover. Eventually, the band walked out and took their place. Then Lorde followed. The crowd roared as she began to sing the beginning bars of homemade dynamite. Then she did buzzcut season, shitttt it was amazing. Eventually, she progressed throughout the playlist. She playing hits after hits after hits. She was feeling all the beats during the drum breaks and hitting every single note with such precision that it led me to questioning whether or not she was actually singing. It was divine. The unique flairs that she added to the songs were charismatic and bold. Gorgeous is all I can say about the performance. The set ended with Green Light. Everyone in the crowd was belting out the lyrics and dancing and enjoying themselves. It was surreal. Then she thanked the crowd for everything and left the stage. We waited for the possibility of an encore. Sure enough, there was one; however, I was confused as to why the band took their instruments off the stage if there was going to be an encore. She just stood by the microphone and quieted the crowd until the space was completely silent. There was a powerful moment of complete silence before she started singing. Then as she began singing. She then stepped away from the microphone and continued singing. Ella was here. It was like she was singing in the living room of her house to her closest friends and family. The passion. The power. She was a superstar that wasn’t afraid to get personal and intimate with the audience. In that very instant, she broke down the barrier between being a real person and an international superstar. We weren’t hearing her voice through a speaker system; we were hearing her voice in the rawest form possible. There is something so metaphysically beautiful about that moment that I will never forget. We waited around the ballroom for a bit before being kicked to the sidewalk by security. After about a half hour of waiting, Ella began walking out of the venue. She immediately recognized a fan of hers after not seeing her for 3 years. It was like old friends rekindling their friendship as Ella hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. She progressed her way down the group making sure to speak with each person individually. She then got to us, we hugged and I introduced her to Mike. He ecstatically shook her hand. She kindly recorded a video of her shouting out Mike’s girlfriend who couldn’t make it to the show because of a family emergency. She then took a picture with him and then made her way to the next eager face. We walked back to the car in awe of how real and beautiful that moment was. Nothing can top it. The whole night was perfect.

Reflection

June 19, 2017 12:11 pm

Now it’s Monday of the next week. This was the story of how Melodrama made all of my dreams come true. If you came this far, I appreciate you for taking the time out of your day to read me wilding out through thousands of words. This story has made a really strong impact on my life and I will continue to hold it with me throughout any troubles life throws my way. A bit of information that I left out of at the beginning is that I was increasingly suicidal at the turn of the year due to the dwindling relationship I had with Carly, the stress of beginning a new semester, anxiety, and an overall dissatisfaction with my life as a whole. Growing up, I always had dreams of being something. I was always drawing on t-shirts and giving them to my friends or painting pictures for my family members on Christmas or making rap music out of my room with guitar hero microphones on free music software. When I was applying for college, I supplemented my parent’s vicarious dream of me being a pharmacist with persuing architecture. I loved looking at houses, I loved drawing houses: architecture was for me. However, when I reflected on 2016, I never actually achieved anything I wanted to do. I was hardly even drawing, I wasn’t making much music, and I was just overall unhappy with my life. I was always in need of hanging out with people and couldn’t stand being alone. I used social media as a gauge for self satisfaction (which was quite stupid). If I said something and it didn’t get retweets, then it must be meaningless. I eventually ended up deleting all my tweets and not using twitter at all after that. I hate how that’s how I’ve become hardwired as I’ve become dependent on social media. After Carly and I broke up in February, I had to have a long talk with Bryce about where my life was going. Where was my perfect place. It was eventually established by Bryce that the goal of meeting Lorde was impossible and that I should probably set a smaller and more achievable goal. But then it happened. Then it happened. I still question where was my place in this world. Shit, to this day, I don’t even know. BUT, I’m not scared of searching anymore. I’m not scared of a few bad days because of the sheer faith that anything can happen at any given moment; for better or for worse. I thrive off of the fact that life is always growing, there’s billions of people to talk to, there’s countless flowers to smell, and miles of roads to drive. There’s no amount of twitter followers or retweets or instagram likes that can separate me from the next person. This past week has taught me that nothing is impossible. NOTHING. I know it sounds like a cliche, but you have to believe me. Here I am in my 10′ x 10' room that is mainly occupied by speakers from a thrift shop and second hand music equipment, and I have never felt more alive. Thank you, Ella.

"2017 is the year to be a fucking savage”

#wilding out #lorde #melodrama #2017

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rachelisnotatwork · 5 years

Text

Conferencing North of the Wall

Deeply irritatingly, after a winter completely free of sniffles, coughs and fevers, whilst everyone wilted around me and I felt increasingly smug, the first day of spring saw my run of good luck come to an end and a stinking cold develop. So whilst we’d planned a few nice days of holiday before our conference in Belfast, I pretty much had to be peeled, hacking, wheezing and shivering, off the sofa to head over to there.

Naturally we’d booked to fly from Stanstead, which at the time seems like a good (financial) deal, and then the reality kicks in and we have to get two tubes and a train and leave hours of time. The plus side was the exhausting struggle of that plus the cough and cold remedies I was chugging down like there was no tomorrow pretty much meant I got onto the plane, passed out and woke up in Belfast. Unfortunately not the good Belfast airport, because there turn out to be two (who knew? The whole place is tiny. Why on earth do they need two airports?) but the rubbish one which is way outside of town and has posters on the wall about Belfast’s favourite coleslaw (I like to think they had a brutal and hard-fought referendum on that one).

We went to pick up our car, which was the first car we’ve ever got that has “lane assist”. This is probably a helpful function if you find yourself falling asleep on a US highway at 3am, as if you go anywhere near the lines in the centre of the road or at the sides, it starts an irritating beeping sound. This is not a helpful feature if you are in rural Northern Ireland, where the roads are so narrow you are constantly in it’s rage zone and the peeping pretty much never ends. No more nap time for me.

Because I’d been fast asleep on the flight, we hadn’t eaten the lunch we bought in the Stanstead Pret. I decided as we meandered slowly across the countryside towards our cottage outside Derry, to find a tourist attraction to stop at. The nearest appeared to be something called the Tirkane Sweat house. Clicking on it revealed something that looked like a cross between a grass igloo and an ice house. I was intrigued. I failed to mention to Marcel that the review also mentioned cave spiders. I wasn’t sure if they meant it as a joke.

It was beautifully sunny out, and the sweat lodge (built in the 18th century) was located by a tiny stream. The entrance however appears to have been designed for badgers. Beplagued with cold, I was not in the mood for crawling into an abandoned sweat lodge full of spiders, so I decided to let Marcel explore that one alone. Apparently they weren’t joking about the cave spiders. Sorry Marcel.

We drove on to our cottage, through blazing sunshine, verdantly green fields, herds of sheep and a weirdly high number of donkeys. I think I saw more donkeys in a week in Northern Ireland than I’ve seen in my entire life to date. If anyone knows why they love donkeys so much in these parts, please let me know. It looked lovely. It didn’t smell so great though, as apparently the trick to all those glowing green fields is spraying manure on them.

Our cottage was in the middle of nowhere, and the views looked amazing in the sun.

We’d vaguely discussed going into Derry for dinners, but since I was feeling like shit, I decided we’d self-cater (aka Marcel would make dinner) and so we went to Tesco’s, stocked up on all the supplies and bought a board game as the wifi was broken there. Then we wiled away a pleasant evening in front of the fire, bitterly competing to win the most games.

The next day was forecast to have the better weather, so we decided to do all the “big” local sites. This started with Dunlace Castle. Only you had to pay £5.50 each and up close it didn’t look that impressive and was having some restoration works done, so we decided to stick with the (free) views from the surrounds of Dunlace castle.

The next stop off was the Giant’s Causeway. This is so beloved of UK school textbooks, that I felt like I was on a geography field trip 20 years too late. This was probably helped by being surrounded by herds of windswept teenagers in pac-a-macs. It was National Trust so we got in for free and it is pretty interesting geologically, but I think the main pleasure of the site would have been the hikes you can do around it where you can see some of the similar rock formations without groups of surly teenagers huddled on them (and large numbers of American tourists, revisiting their very, very distant Irish roots). However, alas I was still wheezing like a dying accordion and it took forever and all my breath to get up and down to the Causeway (I refused to take the bus with all the lazy people) so no hikes for us.

After that we headed on to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which is also owned by the National Trust (another free entry! Win!). This was my suggestion and Marcel was surprised by it because I’m notoriously not great with heights (understatement) and this is a swinging rope bridge that sways 30m over the rocks below. I reassured him though that I was totally up for it. We walked the mile there, along a cliff top path, watching gulls swoop below us whilst bored-looking sheep watched us. We descended the steps down to it. I took one look at it and decided that was a hard nope from me, and refused to go any further. No idea what temporary delusion made me ever think I might. Marcel did head across there though. I bravely photographed him.

All that exercise (a mile is a long way to walk if you are wheezing away with a cough and asthma) and fear-by-proxy had left me hungry. We luckily found a lovely cafe nearby for rhubarb tart, which was located in a village (Ballintoy) that served as a harbour for a scene in Game of Thrones. It was quite windy and the sea rather pleasantly kept breaking over the rocks and the sea wall, which was nice to watch in a “thank god I’m on dry land” way.

On our way back, we decided to swing past The Dark Hedges, which is a photogenic avenue of beech trees that features in pretty much all of Northern Ireland’s tourism materials and a few movies and TV shows. Local and visiting idiots had carved their names into the fairly ancient beech trees, which meant I was seething with pure rage throughout. I like to think of myself as a fairly liberal person…apart from when it comes to people who write their names on historical sites and sites of natural beauty, where I feel the only reasonable punishment is removal of both hands with a fairly blunt axe.

The next morning we were slightly delayed as our airbnb owners had arranged for the BT wifi repair man to come and we had to let him in. I was slightly of the mind that I didn’t really care if we didn’t have internet for the <24 hours of the rest of our stay and I wasn’t really up for hanging around so the next guests could have wifi, but Marcel is a nicer person/a pushover so we did. Our repair man was extremely chatty and did give us some tourist tips, so I guess that was something

We started off having a wander around Derry. It has city walls and from there you can look over most of the town and see bits like Bogside (famous for the Bloody Sunday massacre), the cathedral and the guild hall. It was a relatively pleasant wander, but that was really all I felt I needed to see or do in Derry.

The weather however had just turned sunny as we left Derry to drive up for a fort called Grianan of Aileach. Luckily the whole Brexit debacle had been suspended, because it was just over the border in Donegal. It was my favourite sort of hill fort, in that you could drive right up to it and then get incredible views of the surrounding countryside with very minimal effort.

After a quick lunch (which we could thankfully pay for on card as we had no euros) we headed off to a beach Marcel had picked called Five Fingers Strand at the very north of the Inishowen peninsula. It was my favourite sort of beach- sandy, dramatic scenery behind it and windswept enough that it was pleasantly empty and you didn’t get too hot going for a walk along it, looking at the incredibly rough sea (definitely not a good swimming spot). It was a lovely end to the day out.

The next morning we had to say a sad goodbye to our cottage. We had to be in Belfast in the evening, but we decided to take a very scenic route there. First off, we stopped and wandered down the beach and around the very scenic village of Cushendun. It is apparently the closest point in Northern Ireland to the mainland UK as the Mull of Kintyre is just 16 miles across the water and due to the fact it was a beautifully clear day, very visible. Having been to Iona and it’s abbey on our round the UK road trip, it did make you realise why the Irish monks started out over there since they must have pretty much been able to see the heathens on the horizon.

Our next stop was to look around the walled gardens at Glenarm Castle. They are pretty nicely done and made a nice stop off and wander around, although our plan to visit their tea room for lunch was somewhat thwarted by apparently everyone else in a 50 mile radius having the same plan.

Starving, we ended up driving into Larne. Not a great looking town but they were having an arts festival that involved having lots of umbrellas hanging in the streets, which cheered things up a bit.

We had to drive the car back to the shitty airport and then get a bus into town to our airbnb so by the time we arrived we weren’t much for exploring the joys of Belfast in the rain but instead hunkered down with takeout for an early evening.

The next day I had designated our “explore Belfast” day. Unfortunately a bunch of attractions aren’t open on a Monday, which this was, so that was a bit of a planning fail on my part. The Titanic museum, which is probably Belfast’s biggest attraction was though so we walked on over there (via a big fish and some very random sculptures made of recycling).

The museum is huge and is slightly misnamed as a good proportion of it is just on life in Belfast at that time. Which was pretty interesting, as I know the story of the Titanic, but to be honest I don’t know much of Northern Ireland apart from the Troubles. Anyway, now I know all about it’s linen industry, rapid growth and rope factories. So you learn something new everyday. Also I do like giant engineering projects, so a museum that dedicated a lot of time to that whilst surrounded by cargo ships offloading and giant cranes made me happy. I wanted to see it’s dry dock, which is down the road because I read you could go down into it and really get a sense of the scale, so we wandered on down there….to find the only access was through a cafe, which had unexpectedly closed a fortnight previously. So that was a wee bit annoying, but hey, got some exercise.

By the evening, we were pretty tired from all our wanderings and since our whole point of being in Northern Ireland, the conference, started the next day, we decided to stay in and get an early night.

The next morning we walked the extremely agreeable 3 minutes from our Airbnb to the Europa hotel, which is apparently the most bombed hotel in the world. Dunno quite what made everyone hate it so much they bombed it 36 times, since it seemed pretty nice. The result of this is that there are pretty much no bins anywhere in the place. This normally wouldn’t be a problem but they fed us about every 10 minutes at the conference and you’d end up wandering around with a disposable cup or plate for ages, ruing the absence of bins. However the combination of 20 minute lectures for our short attention spans and being fed nice food at extremely regular intervals meant I had rather an enjoyable time.

That evening we had a booking at a restaurant Marcel had seen reviewed in the guardian a few months previously called Six by Nico, that serves a different six course tasting menu every 6 weeks. When we were there it was based on a fish and chips theme, which luckily they interpreted very liberally for vegetarians. We also got free snacks so by the end I pretty much had to be rolled home.

Perhaps as a result of the indigestion I couldn’t really sleep that night. I got up to go to the loo at about 2am and as I got back into bed I saw the orange lights from the street flickering on the ceiling and thought “man, street lights flicker more than I realised”. Then Marcel, woken by the shouting I was oblivious to thanks to my ear plugs got out of bed and pointed out the apartment block on the other side of the car park was on fire.

Now we have a Northern Irish friend who has quite the loud speaking voice. I always thought it was just one of his characteristics, but then on arriving in Northern Ireland I realised actually EVERYONE there has somewhat of a foghorn for a voice. And now all the foghorns in our block of flats were directed at bellowing the people in the flats opposite out of their flats. Whilst we could obviously see the flames much more clearly than they could, it was amazing how slow and reluctant people were to evacuate when there was very clearly a lot of smoke billowing out. It was pretty horrifying how quickly it spread from the original flat to the flat above- in under 2 minutes it had set fire to their balcony, set fire to the uPVC windows, exploded the glass and spread into the flat above. Even though the fire brigade came pretty rapidly and poured what seemed like thousands of litres of water onto it, it took ages to control. It was was a very sombre reminder to check our smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarm etc on our return.

It also meant we were somewhat shattered at the conference the next day. I’m terrible for falling asleep in lectures at the best of times, so expended all my energy on staying awake (luckily the seating was pretty uncomfortable). That meant by the evening neither of us were interested in doing much so we stayed home and I re-read A Country Doctor’s Notebook, which I first read as a medical student. Still love how whilst medicine has changed so much, the emotions of those providing it really haven’t. When I read it the first time around it was a huge comfort to remember at least I wouldn’t be left to amputate a leg single-handedly on my first day. It is still a comfort that I haven’t had to do that after practising for 7 years.

The next day was the last day of the conference, which meant dragging our suitcase to the hotel and persuading them to let us leave it in their left luggage room. Which they were surprisingly okay with, despite the history of bombs and the total absence of bins. I shan’t question the logic of that because it was hugely in our favour. The conference finished early on the last day, and so we had time to visit one of the attractions that first drew me to Northern Ireland. The Game of Thrones tapestry. Now I do like Game of Thrones, but what I really love is eccentric projects, the bigger the better, and a 66m tapestry commemorating the gore, orgies and weirdness of a TV show was right up my street. Reader, it was JUST AS GOOD as I thought it would be. I loved it. I also like to think of all the confused 90 year old grandma’s hand-stitching the details of orgies and brutal murders, wondering what the hell this was all about.

The museum it was in (The Ulster Museum) was pretty good too so I was very pleased with it for the grand entry price of free. It is right next to some gardens with a victorian glasshouse and fernery (apparently that was all the rage in Victorian Britain) so that was a nice end to our time in Belfast, before heading off back to the airport.

Whilst the weather had held until we were on the bus, by the time was reached the airport it was 4c with freezing horizontal rain and high winds. Normally not a problem but our plane naturally was on the other side of the tarmac and we had to walk about 5 minutes over to it and then queue, trying to angle our bodies like penguins in a huddle, to be out of the worst wind to board. By the time people got on the plane they were streaming water onto the floors and seats. Not the best goodbye to a fun week in Northern Ireland.

In other goodbyes, my suitcase, which has been fraying around the corners for a while and has a wonky wheel, finally developed a huge crack in the handle that meant it is finally time to say goodbye. This suitcase has been with me I think on every trip on this blog and held up amazingly well as that’s probably 18 months of being sat on every day whilst I try and wrench the zips closed over it’s overstuffed contents. I will miss it and suitcase, I’m sorry that whilst you got to see all of the lower 48 and Hawaii, you never saw Alaska. I hope Greenland compensated.

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shadesmaclean · 7 years

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Tradewinds 20 CH 19

At the sound of Max’s voice, Bandit practically tackled him when Roger opened the cargo door. “I missed you, too, old friend…” Tears of joy and relief streaming down Max’s face. As he struggled back to his feet, he turned to the pilot, still wiping his eyes. “Thank you, Roger. Thank you so much for watching over him.” “Um, sure thing,” Roger mumbled, “we were kinda in the same boat anyway. I was startin’ to think stayin’ with the plane was a mistake…” “The Woods were no picnic, either,” Justin remarked. “With your leg, you wouldn’t’ve survived half the shit we ran into out there!” “There are worse mistakes to be made in this twisted place,” Shades assured him. “We were half afraid you might’ve tried to go to Rannigan’s Wharf anyway.” “Speaking of which,” Max brought up, “any word on Roxy or Erix?” Roger shook his head. “I see,” Shades replied. “We don’t have a lot of time, so we’re here to pick you up.” Roger shook his head again, frowning. “You can’t be serious…” Justin muttered. “I’m very serious,” Roger told them. “That ship is big enough to tow my Albatross, so I ain’t leavin’ without her.” “Fine,” Shades said, nodding to the radio. “You get to argue with Shelby about it. Max, you stay with him, we have some unfinished business with Stilton Lodge.” For reasons he couldn’t quite put his finger on, he kept thinking about that haunted island where they originally found the Maximum. Of wanting to leave some kind of warning for any passing travelers. Couldn’t help thinking of this as a chance to do it right this time, perhaps save the lives of anyone else unfortunate enough to find this place. He and Justin wasted no time entering the lodge, trying to shrug off how surreal the place felt, now that they knew the truth, or as much of it as anyone was ever likely to find out. After traveling so far to get away from this place, after all they’d seen, nothing looked the same through their opened eyes. Once inside, they made for the bulletin board, finding it exactly as they left it. Shades reached into his jacket pocket and unfolded a new map Shelby found him to replace the one that got ruined when they fell into the river the other night. Even added all of the original warnings, plus one about the Woods themselves (Woods are death-trap – stick to coast), for the benefit of any future castaways. Skipping the upstairs office, he simply tacked it up on the board next to the missing child poster. He then picked up Kelly Edwards’ photo and tucked it in his pocket for Shelby and Lorna. According to Shelby, the photo was originally a birthday portrait from a small family party. There was supposed to be a bigger camp birthday party, that would have been held only a day after the disappearances started. In the blank space on the poster, he whipped out a permanent marker and quickly added: remains found – trees got her. All the while, he tried not to think about all that old logging equipment left to rust nearby. Kept telling himself that if it could have, it would have by now. Still, he remained tense, ears straining for the faintest sound of engines starting… Mission accomplished, they made a hasty exit, stopping only long enough to prop up the weathered warning sign on the floor next to the door, where it could readily be seen. Though it was hard for Shades not to imagine that some malevolent force would soon be hard at work to remove the new warnings… By the time they got back to the plane, Roger had apparently convinced Shelby to have a go at towing the Albatross, so they rowed back to the Shorewind to haul out some lines. Turned out the fact that the tide was coming in was the only reason Shelby agreed to the attempt at all. After retrieving the mooring lines, they attached the tow cables, Roger supervising while the three of them did the legwork. When all was in readiness, they also got out and pushed while the Shorewind pulled, though they had their doubts about how much help it would be. In spite of the Albatross having the better part of a week to settle in the sand, they just barely managed to pull the old bird free. One pontoon was slightly waterlogged, listing to port, but still stable enough to tow. Still cheering, Justin and Shades rowed back to the Shorewind, Max and Bandit staying on the plane with Roger, who refused to leave the cockpit now that his bird indeed proved seaworthy. After reattaching the lines to pull the Albatross forward for easier maneuvering, it was already past noon by the time they were ready to return to Pickford, and Shelby was sounding more and more anxious to be on their way, as he hadn’t counted on towing anything. Justin and Shades were making one final check of the tow lines as they got underway, Shades looking back at Camp Stilton. Wanting to sigh with relief that they were now out of range of any rampaging machinery, not wanting to speak too soon about dodging a bullet with a menace that never materialized. Much like at the bridge to Pickford, yet still felt as if he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. As he turned his attention back to the tow lines, Shades spotted something drifting up toward them. For a second, he almost started laughing, because on closer inspection, it just looked like a clump of seaweed that spooked him. Still, something about it just didn’t sit right with him, and even as he wondered why it was coming loose from that depth, he saw a pair of chalk-white hands reach out from that eerie swirl of fronds, still more parting to reveal a pale dead face staring up at them as it approached the surface, reaching in their general direction. Its mouth slowly opening to reveal rows of needle teeth. “The fuck is that!?” Justin screeched, already unslinging his crossbow. The creature, meanwhile, started groping one of the propeller screws, seaweed wrapping around the blades. Justin opened fire at it, shredding the marine monstrosity with a laser barrage. “Don’t look now, but we’ve got company!” Shades alerted them, sighting more of the foul things drifting up from the deep. “Don’t let those things damage the screws!” Shelby warned them. “If they do, we’re down to sails, and we’ll have no power to tow your friend’s ship back!” There was no mistaking the look of abject horror on Roger’s face as he looked on helplessly from aboard the Albatross, at the very idea of being left behind after coming so close… Justin and Shades both opened fire on the creatures as Shelby opened up the throttle. With another vessel in tow, the Shorewind was slow getting up to speed, so it was a constant struggle to push back the unsettling onslaught. Especially while taking care not to shoot out any of the tow lines while they were at it. Just when it looked like they were about to get tangled in a glom of seaweed and dead limbs, both Shades and Justin having to let up to reload, they finally started accelerating enough to pull out ahead as their twisted attackers began losing ground by the second. In the Albatross’s wake, a few of them tried to cling to the pontoons, but Max popped out a couple windows with his power pistol to clear them off. Having narrowly escaped that macabre mess, they angled back closer to the shoreline and resumed course, Shelby informing them that they would be lucky to make it back to Pickford by nightfall at this rate. Too soon to celebrate, they all understood, the whole way around the peninsula, as they braced for the worst and hoped for the best.

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ecotone99 · 5 years

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My Dad took a job as a lighthouse keeper, the caretaker left a list of rules.

The street lights had become few and far between, every passing burst of light illuminating the interior of our 1997 Toyota Camry driving us onward to our destination. My father liked to drive in silence, almost trancelike, his personal meditation only broken by the occasional cigarette. I occupied the passenger seat and my silence with the company of my cellphone. The relationship with my father was largely like this the past two months, after losing my mother to breast cancer. Neither of us able to share our grief with the other, it was left to fester. Maybe that was one of the reasons dad decided to quit his job at the machine factory and uproot me in the middle of my junior year of high school. Whatever his reasons for relocating us to Maine and taking on a roll as a lighthouse keeper, I was sure it wouldn't heal our broken family.

I got my first glimpse of the lighthouse on the horizon from behind the dusty glare of the windshield. I guessed it was close to 70 feet tall, and just as old, if not older. The outside was solid stone and mortar, no frills or decoration. The top came to an equally unimpressive and plain crown shape. The lighthouse was situated on a jutting peninsula maybe a half mile wide and two miles long, ending in 50 foot cliff face on the ocean. Our new home.

I think my dad saw the look of apprehension on my face.

"Jake, I know this is a big change from the city, and lord knows we have both been through enough recently. I know how hard this is moving and leaving all your friends behind. But I think this will be good for us, a chance to start new and make new opportunities" he said as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"No, I understand dad, whatever you think is best" I replied. I didn't want to upset him even though I felt as lonely as the lighthouse looked.

We returned to our normal silence over the next thirty minutes as we made our way though our new town, "Cape Heights". My mood continued to sink during our trip through town. "Cape Heights" offered little in the way of entertainment or shopping. The town seemed to have barely made it into the 21st century.

Dad lit another cigarette as we finally pulled into the small gravel patch at the light house that acted as a parking lot. We parked next to an old Chevy box truck that seemed to be more rust than truck. As we exited the car we were greeted by the caretaker,a tall graying man leaving the lighthouse.

"Good morning folks, you must be Paul. "

My dad shook his hand and flicked his cigarette out.

"Yes sir, I'd like to introduce my son Jake."

"Nice to meet you sir" I said as I shook his hand.

"Call me Sam" was all he said.

I guessed Sam had to be in early sixties. He was close to six feet tall with shaggy graying brown hair, a thick mustache and eyes like stormy seas. He was wearing a faded brown jacket and faded blue jeans. On first impression, he looked like a man raised on the seas.

Sam invited us into the lighthouse for a tour and to explain the responsibilities of dads new job. The inside of the lighthouse was surprisingly modern with an open floor plan and three big bay windows that faced the water from the ground floor. The kitchen was retrofitted with new appliances and granite countertops and a landline phone. There was a fully stocked pantry as well as food cellar full to bursting. The dining room had a solid oak table, china cabinet and even a mini chandelier. The living room had a 50 inch TV and a comfortable leather couch to watch it from. I would even be happy with the bedroom once I hung up some posters. I began to think maybe living here wouldn't be so bad after all.

After showing us the basic living quarters Sam took us to the top of the lighthouse.

"You get used to walking the steps after a while" he commented, "doesn't ever get easier but it gets familiar. I've walked these stairs plenty of times over the last twenty years as caretaker, know each of em by heart. "

As we continued upward Sam told us the history of the lighthouse.

"I suppose I'll start with the history of 'Cape Heights'. The land the town is on originally was settled by Native Americans known as the Red Paint People. Those original people claimed this land was sacred and the waters off the coast as well, claimed there was spirits in the water and other things as well, some old deep magic. They lost this land to the French sometime in the 1600's. The French claimed they fought like devils, all covered in red war paint, fighting with weapons made of bone from other conquered native tribes. They eventually lost though, bone don't hold up to steel weapons. The land then went back and forth between the English and French till the English kicked em out for good and made it a colony. The lighthouse was erected just after the Revolutionary War when more ships started coming from farther up north taking fish and lumber down south. After a number of trading ships disappeared of the surrounding coast here the new Americans decided to build this lighthouse. The light has weathered many a storm since then and never has her light extinguish, cept for once. Every caretaker and keeper has been charged with that duty, to always keep the light shining."

Once we reached the top Sam explained the light to dad. The light now is all electrical, the housing consisting of six huge bulbs that rotated on a giant plate enclosed by lenses on all sides. Sam e plained how it all worked, I grew bored quickly only listening long enough to gather there was a breaker box downstairs in the kitchen where the power switch was, a switch for a foghorn and that the most maintenance required by us would be changing out a bulb every once in a while or flipping a breaker.

I daydreamed while staring at the ocean until my dad's calls for me to join them interrupted my thoughts. We all headed back down stairs in the kitchen.

"Now that I've given ya a proper tour and explained the basics of how the light works you should be good to go. But I would be remiss to not leave you fellas with two more things" Sam said " I told ya the light has never gone out cept for once. Even if you see no ships you must keep that light going. That light is the difference between life and death, and you are the keeper of that light. The protector of life. That light must never run out, the town dependson it. If it does, darkness comes and hell with it. "

His last statement filled me with unease and I could tell it made dad uneasy as well.

"Secondly" Sam continued, "As I've explained the maintence is easy enough, you know where replacement bulbs and parts are, as well as the food stocks in the cellar. I've left my number on the fridge as well as a list of rules you must follow. This list is vital in keepin the lighthouse operatin as it should, and keepin y'all both safe. Do not deviate from this list and follow all instructions to the letter."

With that Sam left us and assured us he would be back in a week to check on us and our supplies.

" What was all that about darkness and hell coming with it and the town depending on the light?" I asked dad.

"I don't know" he said as he drew a cigarette from his pack, "but he seemed pretty serious about it, must have caused a ship wreck when the light went out before, small towns remember things like that, accidents here affect more people and aren't as easily forgotten like in the city."

"Yeah, I guess so." after Sam's cryptic warnings I was curious to see what rules he left.

Dad grabbed the paper from the magnet on the fridge and we read together.

YOU MUST KEEP THE LIGHT LIT FROM DUSK UNTIL DAWN AT ALL COSTS.

AT DUSK YOU MUST LOCK ALL DOORS AND WINDOWS. DO NOT LEAVE THE LIGHTHOUSE UNTIL DAWN.

YOU MAY HERE CRIES FOR HELP COMING FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE CLIFF. IGNORE THEM DO NOT RESPOND.

IF YOU SEE A SHIP WITH 3 RED SAILS ON THE HORIZON AT DUSK SOUND THE FOGHORN 3 TIMES.

ALWAYS MAKE YOUR BED WITHIN 5 MINUTES OF WAKING UP IN THE MORNING.

DO NOT MAKE A PHONE CALL OR ANSWER THE PHONE AFTER 8 PM FOR ANY REASON.

Dad and I stared at each other after we both finished reading the list. Neither of us sure what to say.

"This can't be serious" I said, "Most of these rules make no sense, what's gonna happen if I don't make my bed? What if there is an emergency at night and i can't call 911?"

"There has to be some reason Sam left us these rules, afterall he has been caretaker for 20 years. Let's just do our best to follow them. Ok son? I want us to start fresh out here. Maybe we can both find some peace here, lord knows we both need it. I love you Jake, can you try for me?"

I smiled gently at my dad and agreed to give it my best effort. I still had my doubts, and Sam's list of rules on top of his earlier warnings had made me curious. I had the feeling there was more to this lighthouse then the caretaker let on, and I was determined to get to the bottom of it.

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usviraltrends-blog · 6 years

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New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/a-babys-murder-opened-a-dark-chapter-in-ireland-that-still-hasnt-been-closed/

A baby's murder opened a dark chapter in Ireland that still hasn't been closed

Cahersiveen, Ireland — At the edge of an Irish village lies a cemetery nestled between lush hills and the craggy shores of the Atlantic. Under an umbrella of iridescent clouds, Catherine Cournane makes her way toward the back plots.

She meanders past the grave of her mother, two brothers and a cousin. She visits them often here in Cahersiveen’s Holy Cross Graveyard. But on this day, she is here for someone else.

Baby John.

It has been two days since Catherine last tended his grave and at the headstone, she sees fresh chrysanthemums. Their yellow and orange petals have weathered the pelting rain and wind. Catherine wonders who left them there.

Other babies are buried at Holy Cross and their loved ones look after them. But Baby John has no one.

So, Catherine took on the task of looking after the grave. She felt compelled to make sure Baby John rested in peace. He deserved that, Catherine thought, after the ugliness that had surrounded him.

Catherine Cournane at the Holy Cross Graveyard in Cahersiveen.

Baby John’s headstone reads: “I am the Kerry Baby.”

Catherine was 15 when the tragedy unfolded.

She was in high school when Baby John died 34 years ago and she had helped carry his tiny casket to the graveyard. She was there when hundreds of schoolchildren stopped off to pay their respects with prayer after school. She joined the children when they burst into spontaneous song at the infant’s grave.

In Ireland, it wasn’t unusual for a community to gather around a loss of their own. But Baby John’s funeral was different.

Catherine did not know who the baby’s parents were. No one did. Still, no one does.

His three-day-old body had been found on a rocky stretch of beach on the outskirts of town. He had been strangled and stabbed 28 times.

But what Catherine does know is this: A baby was laid to rest on a spring day more than three decades ago and nothing would ever be the same again.

The sordid saga that unfolded would shake Catherine, her community and her country. And it would force Ireland to confront the bitter truth on how it treated its women.

In spring of 1984, Catherine was 15 and living at home with her parents and six brothers and sisters in Cahersiveen. The town’s 1,300 people had the good fortune of residing on a stunning spit of coastal land in southwest Ireland’s County Kerry that felt like the edge of Europe. It very nearly is.

Back then, everyone knew one another and if they didn’t know someone, they’d at least know of them. Police stopped residents for missing lights on bicycles but rarely anything more.

That was until Baby John.

A runner had discovered the newborn’s body on the beach and the gardai, as the Irish police are known, called Catherine’s father to the scene of the crime. Tom was an undertaker and Catherine had been surrounded by death all her life. But she took notice that night.

Tom christened the baby with water from a nearby freshwater stream. He named him John and placed him in a tiny casket. Catherine stared at it on the back seat of her father’s car. It was the smallest she’d ever seen.

She knew the circumstances of the baby’s death. She knew the police were hunting the killer; that they suspected the baby’s mother.

A couple of weeks passed. Then, one afternoon, as daffodils were beginning to break through winter soil, Catherine cycled home, down familiar lanes, to find two men waiting for her in the sitting room.

They were the police and Catherine knew exactly why they were there.

Do you have a boyfriend? they asked Catherine.

No.

Do you know anyone who does have a boyfriend?

Yes.

They asked if any of those women had been pregnant and if Catherine had heard any gossip about anyone having an affair with a married man.

No, she replied.

Catherine nearly fainted from the gardai’s questioning. She thought of herself as a “good girl,” and her mother did too. The police had brought fear into their home.

But in 1984, fear was the norm in Catholic Ireland.

Although a referendum a decade before had drastically reduced the Church’s political sway, its patriarchal weight still came down on aspects of society.

The Church crafted the curriculum for nearly all state schools and sex education was practically non-existent for girls like Catherine.

Her only exposure to sex was a box of condoms a relative once brought home as a souvenir from England. She kept the contraband hidden away, and included one as a gag gift for a friend’s birthday. When her mother found out, she got a wallop.

Condoms required a prescription and birth control pills were available only to married women if they were able to find a doctor to prescribe them.

Women found themselves raising smaller families than their mothers’ generation; yet Ireland still held one of the highest fertility rates in Western Europe. In decades prior, unmarried women who became pregnant would disappear “on holiday” for months. More likely, they were sent to church-run homes to deliver babies that would be given up for adoption, a practice for which the Church has apologized in recent years. The last mother and baby home only shut its doors in 1996.

The women would return home to silence. No one dared to ask questions.

There were few ways out for women who felt stuck in oppressive marriages; divorce was illegal and would be so until 1996.

Irish women had little say over their bodies. The state was in control. It was in this environment that the Baby John investigation unfolded.

A road leading to White Strand, the beach where Baby John was found.

At Catherine’s home in Cahersiveen, the gardai pressed on with questions.

How could you be coming to talk to me about this? she thought. My God, I’m only 15 and I haven’t done anything.

After Catherine, the police moved on to the next young woman. And then the next. They were interrogating nearly every woman of childbearing age on the Iveragh peninsula.

Brigid, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, was one of them. She was 24, single and working in a neighboring county. One weekend, she returned home to Cahersiveen to visit her parents and found the police waiting.

She has never forgotten the way one of the police officers examined her body. She felt his eyes burning through her.

She had never taken any chances and would never have become pregnant. Her parents raised her in the Church and she knew pregnancy before marriage would have amounted to a death sentence. She’d seen the fate her aunt suffered after becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Her aunt was thrown out of the house and never seen again. She had, like so many other Irish women, been erased.

At the time, the line of questioning young women like Brigid and Catherine experienced was not so shocking. Irish authorities were pushing back against significant gains made by women’s rights groups including the abolition of a law that prevented married women in civil service from working as well as campaigns for equal pay, equal rights and access to contraceptives.

None of it sat well with conservatives who saw the advances as a threat to Ireland’s traditional way of life.

Road signs in Cahersiveen town.

Religious figurines and “Rally to Save the 8th“ posters seen through a window in town.

The Cahersiveen Garda station.

A backlash was evident when over a million people welcomed Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979. To some, including Mary McAuliffe, a lecturer at University College Dublin, the Catholic leader’s teachings that contraception was immoral, divorce was unconceivable and a woman’s role was at home played a part in reversing some of the gains women had made.

In 1982, a schoolteacher was fired after becoming pregnant out of wedlock with a married man; two years later, Ireland’s Supreme Court ruled children born out of wedlock had no succession rights.

In September 1983, a referendum was called to constitutionally ban abortion, already illegal in practice.

Church and state blurred into one, culminating in anti-choice rhetoric, including a comment from a County Galway bishop who reportedly said the most dangerous place for a baby is in the mother’s womb.

The abortion referendum passed with a two-thirds majority and the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution provided the unborn with an equal right to life as the mother.

Women lived under pervasive fear. Shortly after the Eighth Amendment was passed, a 15-year-old girl, Ann Lovett, became pregnant and died in a grotto. She had gone there to secretly give birth, under a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Lovett died around the same time police were interviewing Catherine, Brigid and scores of other women in the Baby John case.

Soon the police had a suspect. Her name was Joanne Hayes.

Joanne had given birth to a boy the day before Baby John’s body was found on the beach.

She delivered her child alone on her family’s farm in Abbeydorney, a tiny town less than two hours’ drive from Cahersiveen.

Joanne lived on that farm with her infant daughter, mother, aunt and siblings. She worked as a receptionist in a newly built gym in nearby Tralee, where she met the father of her children, Jeremiah Locke.

The relationship was far from typical. Jeremiah was married and had children from another marriage. And even though abortion was illegal in Ireland, adultery was not.

Still, Joanne concealed her pregnancy from her family and coworkers. It was, like the relationship, an open secret.

By the time Joanne went into labor, the couple had broken up and Jeremiah was no longer by her side when she gave birth. It’s not clear if the baby was stillborn or whether he died soon after. Only Joanne knows.

What is known is that she was a grieving mother who wanted to keep the ordeal to herself. Quietly, she buried her son in a field at her family farm.

But Joanne needed medical care and checked into a nearby hospital.

The Baby John investigation was going nowhere and after the police saw Joanne’s name on a registry of new mothers, they pursued a theory connecting her to the murder that, court documents would later show, was “inexcusable.”

She was brought in for questioning by detectives. For most of Joanne’s life, the gardai had earned an intimidating reputation. Just a few years before, Amnesty International had published a report alleging “systematic maltreatment” of suspects, including “oppressive methods of extracting statements.”

Joanne told them she could prove she was not Baby John’s mother and pleaded with them to take her back to the baby’s grave. But the gardai refused and threatened to throw her in jail and her daughter in an orphanage.

Intimidated and scared, Joanne relented and told the police what they wanted to hear: she had killed Baby John and disposed his body at sea. Her family went along with the falsehood.

The truth would take more than three decades to surface.

As the police pressed on, Joanne was moved from jail to a psychiatric hospital. There, she finally convinced police to recover her baby’s body at the farm. The police now had two dead babies to account for.

They bandied about the idea of “heteropaternal superfecundation,” a medical anomaly suggesting Joanne had been pregnant with twins by two different men.

But Joanne’s blood work proved she couldn’t have been Baby John’s mother. The police were forced to drop the charges.

After the charges were dropped, Joanne and her family reported allegations of police abuse, both physical and psychological — but the findings of an internal police investigation were inconclusive.

Public outcry prompted a probe into the gardai’s behavior but that quickly devolved into a trial of Joanne’s womanhood.

Joanne Hayes at the Tribunal of Inquiry in Tralee, County Kerry, in 1985. Michael MacSweeney/Provision

Women demonstrate in support of Joanne Hayes outside the Tribunal. Michael MacSweeney/Provision

For months, Joanne and her family’s private lives were put on public display at a tribunal, with scores of male officials taking turns to assassinate her character according to the court documents.

A legal team showed maps where Joanne and her lover had been intimate; a doctor detailed the size of Joanne’s birth canal; male psychiatrists aired their opinions on her personal character. One even said that Joanne didn’t appear to be guilt-stricken enough at the death of her own child.

The judge ordered sedation for a visibly upset Joanne and in this state, she took the stand to testify.

Joanne’s sole consolation was that from her tragedy grew support from women across the country. They rallied outside the court and sent Joanne yellow roses as a symbol of solidarity. They wrote letters and cards to her, detailing their own stories of suffering.

The support was solace for Joanne but justice eluded her.

In 1985, the tribunal absolved the police of wrongdoing. The officers central to the case were all eventually promoted.

But those officers never apologized.

She returned home to Abbeydorney and shrouded herself in a cloak of privacy. For 34 years, she has lived there, out of the limelight.

Baby John’s killer was never found.

For all these years, Catherine has carried the story of Baby John with her. At his grave, she dreams of the life he might have lived. Or not.

If contraception had been readily available, maybe he would have not been born at all. If society had allowed for a more open conversation about sex, he might still be alive. Maybe he would have grown to have a family of his own.

Catherine thinks about her own family.

She raised an 18-year-old daughter in a home without taboos, one that celebrated women. She raised her to become a woman no one would dare mess with.

Catherine wanted to make sure her daughter never experienced what she had.

She’d lost her innocence the day her father brought home Baby John’s body. She was shocked when she learned about Joanne and how she was treated, though, looking back, she realizes it was that moment that cemented her commitment to women’s rights.

Catherine never forgot that the blame in the Kerry babies case had fallen on a woman. No men were ever at fault.

Irish society has seen significant social changes since then. The Church has lost much of its moral authority, rocked by cases of scandal, sex abuse and the discovery of a mass grave of babies born out of wedlock in Tuam.

The small ripples of change that feminists won in the 1970s and ‘80s have since swollen into waves of protest on Ireland’s shores.

In 1992, the landmark X Case made it legal for Irish women to travel abroad for abortions, adding the threat of suicide as grounds for abortion.

In 2013, Savita Halappanavar died of sepsis after being denied a termination of a miscarrying fetus in a Galway hospital, prompting the government to pass a bill allowing abortions when a woman’s life is in danger.

And in January, 34 years after Joanne was wrongfully accused, the police finally issued her a formal apology. They admitted that DNA conclusively ruled that she could have not been Baby John’s mother. They also announced they would reopen the Baby John case.

But for Irish women like Catherine, none of it is enough.

No apology or monetary compensation, she believes, could ever make things right for Joanne.

Catherine realizes that Irish attitudes have changed. Still, she knows many people in Ireland remain reluctant to talk about the Kerry babies saga. And the tribunal transcripts remain restricted to the public.

“It’s about time for Ireland to wake up and shake itself and say this was wrong,” she says.

Catherine says she was too naive, too powerless then to realize she might have been able to put an end to what has been described as a “medieval witch-hunt.”

Brigid has come forward on her own volition and Walter Sullivan, the detective leading the new investigation, says it’s standard protocol to go back to everyone. That could include Catherine.

The police won’t comment on the case, except to refute the notion that only women are considered suspects. O’Sullivan says the renewed probe focuses on DNA samples that might help identify Baby John and his parents.

For many women here, a familiar pattern is again unfolding.

Ireland is again calling a referendum on abortion. And the pope is again scheduled for a visit. Only this time, his visit will come after the vote.

And this time, Catherine is certain Irish women are more aware of their rights than before.

They will have a chance to voice their opinions when they cast their votes in a May 25 abortion referendum, hailed by many, including the prime minister, as a critical step for women’s rights in Ireland.

While her nation stands poised to make history, Catherine spends her time in Cahersiveen, with her daughter and her ailing father. At 88, he has grown frail and is no longer able to look after Baby John’s grave.

The headstone has been destroyed several times and Catherine and her family are fearful that new interest in the Baby John case will once again bring trouble.

On this misty afternoon, Catherine plucks weeds poking out of the gravel, cleaning the grave as though it held one of her own.

Baby John would have been 34 this year.

As Catherine leaves the grave, she sees a plush bear sullied in the mud near the cemetery gate. Its knees are bent as in prayer, its eyes closed.

Ireland apologized to Joanne Hayes but Baby John never found his peace, Catherine believes. And without a fair investigation, he will never have that peace. She feels fairly sure the baby’s real mother still lives nearby. She hopes that woman can one day come forward without shame or fear.

“Our community is still dealing with a dark secret of the past,” she says.

The only way to move forward, Catherine believes, is to absolve the mother.

Then, perhaps, Baby John will be able to finally rest.

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meeshes-on-tour-blog · 6 years

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Envelopes 1-3

Standing in Heathrow Terminal 2 we found Andrew. We stopped to say hello and he asked us where we are going. We gave our standard reply to date. We don’t actually know. Then we explained the Blind Experience concept and asked Andrew if he’d be happy to film us whilst we opened our first envelope. He agreed. Full of unanticipated nerves we began to open the envelope and as I pulled the paper out I saw the image of Christ The Redeemer statue and started jumping around. Jules pulled the rest of the paper out and we saw a caption that read “Christmas in Rio”. I felt so happy and excited, as Rio has been my dream destination for a long time. Jules was thrilled too that we were going to such a fun-filled, hot, colourful place for Christmas, that neither of us had ever visited, that we could both explore together.

So, we set off on the first leg of our journey. First stop Lisbon. Where Jules thought he saw Mo Farah. He didn’t. Then a 10 hour overnight flight to Rio de Janeiro. Which literally translates as January River. I woke up as the plane was descending over the most beautiful hill tops covered in morning mist and little hats of white cloud. I had no idea the geography of the country was so undulating and mountainous. This birds eye view was truly breathtaking, exotic, but tranquil in the pink and golden sunrise. You could see settlements nestled between the valleys and orange dirt tracks snaking between them. This rural landscape then morphed into an urban one, as ramshackle flat-roofed, pastel coloured buildings and high rises, as well as dusty, soon-to-be traffic-laden roads, came into view. Even more impressive was the Atlantic Ocean and coastline that suddenly appeared. Broken up with jungle-covered headlands and bays, with sandy sweeps of beaches. A huge rocky peak of granite and quartz loomed out of the dark blue sea above the harbour, on a peninsula of Guanarabara Bay. It’s name is “Sugarloaf Mountain”, coined by the Portuguese in the 16th century, who named it so in reference to the important sugar cane trade of Brazil.

As we stepped off the plane I side-stepped a giant moth. Marco and us have a running joke about big moths, so that caused us much amusement. I wanted to move the moth to safety, but Jules said it would hurt her, so we left her sitting there. As we walked through the airport the first thing we noticed was the smell of humidity, wet and tropical, just like the Amazon rainforest we imagined. In our excitement to explore Brazil immediately, the long wait at customs was quite challenging, and I did lots of loud British sighing in my boredom. We entered the arrival terminal with our luggage, eyes peeled for a man with a sign.

The sign read “Julian Gallagher” so I jokingly waved goodbye to Jules and the man, and wished them a happy honeymoon whilst I looked for a sign with my own name on. But this didn’t exist. Jules therefore kindly let me come in his and Pedro’s taxi to the hotel. We drove past the oldest and most dangerous favella in Rio, and became immediately aware of the very real poverty that exists in Brazil today. No one from outside the more dangerous favelas are advised to enter or visit them. You may remember a recent news story of a tourist being shot in front of her family by members of a drug cartel whilst looking for water. I’m sure her lesson has been firmly learnt. There are tours of favelas operating, but these come with the obvious ethical dilemmas inherent in “poverty tourism”.

It was an exciting ride through the streets of Rio, and our knuckles turned white in moments as the taxi joined the highway crossing all four lanes following a casual, solo glance in the wing mirror. We began to climb through the beautiful cobbled streets towards Saint Therese, thankful for their speed-reducing function. Many of the taxi drivers won’t actually take people to this area due to the damage done to their tyres and suspension we learned in due course. We admired the graffiti and street art adorning so many of the city’s walls as we entered this affluent area of the city, sitting above Rio laid out below. Our hotel was a stunning oasis of calm in this crazy place. Palm and mango trees, vibrant flower beds, and a beautiful fountain with carp surrounded the old colonial style ex coffee plantation buildings, now converted into a hotel. The place smelled amazing as you walked in, and immediately we were reminded of Anran where we got married, due to the wooden, sculptural decor and white-washed walls. We were given a tour of the hotel which sits over several levels and had a lovely restaurant and bar on a terrace. Jules was particularly pleased with the timing of our arrival, as we arrived in the middle of a professional photo shoot by the pool involving lots of young Brazilian models in swimsuits and bikinis posing for the camera.

We were shown to our room which was very spacious with the biggest four poster bed we’ve ever seen, and a beautifully converted dark grey slate bathroom. The view over the hills from our white-shuttered bedroom windows and bathroom was gorgeous too, and the colonial Portuguese influence was clear to see in the other buildings around. We got the giggles soon after entering our bedroom when it became clear the couple in the room next to us may well be on their honeymoon too. We’ll let you guess as to why we thought this!

Soon after arriving and showering we decided to get out and see Rio. We therefore headed down to Copacabana Beach to see its famous sands. It was extremely hot and we soon stopped for a drink on the beach, only after seeing a man dressed as Santa with a full white beard cycling past on a bike. It was pretty touristy, so after more Santa spotting, which seemed very funny in 30 degree heat amongst tanned Brazilians playing volleyball and running along the promenade, we searched for a lunch spot. We used Trip Advisor to find a more traditional place selling seafood, and found a lovely place a 10 minute walk from the beach. It was small and cool with fans going full blast. The whole menu was in Portuguese so we used trusty Google translate to work out what we wanted to order. An old couple on the table next to us offered their assistance in helping us to order. The man spoke really good English and had lived in London in the 1960s. They had been married for over 50 years and stole a few cheeky kisses over the table. We explained we haven’t yet made a whole year of marriage, but are hoping for 49 more like them. We cheersed our cold beers, which are always served in ice buckets in Brazil…perfect. We chose a couple of delicious piles of fried fish on platters garnished with lime and red onion, and covered in hot sauce. Yum. And by the time we left the bar, we were hugging and kissing each other goodbye like old friends. The Brazilians we met were all so warm and friendly, with a chilled vibe, and fun sense of humour. They make you feel so welcome wherever you go.

Feeling refreshed from sitting in the cool, and energetic after our delicious meal, we ventured to “Sugar Loaf” mountain and went up by cable car. At the top there are the most stunning views of Rio and its beautiful bays. It was a real tourist trap, but was listed as the number one thing to do in Rio, so we couldn’t miss it. As the heat only seemed to increase, soaking the back of her clothes whenever we sat down, we decided the pool was beckoning. So back to the hotel we went, and dived, quite literally, into the pool. After a refreshing dip we lounged on the sun beds, me in the shade as usual, Jules in the sun, as always, and enjoyed some ice cold coconut water straight from a real coconut. After some sun, reading, and snoozing, we headed out for our evening meal in a treetop restaurant, where we opened our second envelope! We learned we would be going on a walking tour of Rio’s street art. This was right up Julio’s street, and he was really looking forward to it, as was I! Jules had done a similar activity in Buenos Aires and loved it.

So we were up early the next day for an amazing brekky at the hotel. Its contemporary dining room had stunning smooth concrete floors, and single-paned industrial steel windows over-looking the local area and its European style buildings. All of the food, including some very exotic fruits, was beautifully displayed, and coffee and tea was served from elegant silver pots and trays. I noticed that bowls and cups were particularly tiny, not sure why. I think we ate the world’s tiniest pancake there!

After our breakfast we set off on our 4 hour walking tour of Rio’s graffiti scene. We met Edmundo our guide for the day at a hotel by Copacabana Beach. He is from Rio and was very knowledgeable about all aspects of life from the favelas, where he runs tours, to politics. We saw a huge array of street art during our time with Edmundo. It was really encouraging to see that there are a significant number of female street artists creating work all over Rio. Graffiti and street art does not have the reputation it has in the UK, and is respected by people and commissioned by organisations and the government. A particularly incredible piece we saw in Downtown Rio was commissioned by the Olympic Committee of 2016, when Rio hosted the Olympics. It consists of faces of people from the five continents, but on a huge scale, in the most vibrant colours (see our Instagram). The talent of these artists is completely mind-blowing and it would be a challenge for anyone not to find beauty in it, and to be impressed by it. There were lots of political messages of peace and equality symbolised in the art, and told within their stories, such as empowerment of Black Africans, revealing these young Brazilian creatives’ social conscience and fight for justice.

Despite Edmundo’s best attempts to preserve our health by standing in the shade as much as possible whilst showing us the art, by the end of the 4 hour tour in the scorching heat, we were gasping for water and desperate for a cold shower, and I had a banging headache. We took a taxi and found refuge in a small restaurant in Saint Therese near our hotel run by a lovely couple. We ate the Brazilian version of fried chicken and salt cod fritter, both delicious, and walked back to the hotel. Jules opened a little extra Christmas envelope from me after we had cooled down with a shower, and learned he would be paragliding on Christmas morning! That evening we went for a delicious cocktail in the bar and then over to the restaurant for our Christmas meal, which Brazilians have on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. We agreed have never felt less Christmassy, but were so happy to already have had such an amazing 2 days.

We arrived at Pepino Beach the next morning after a mini Christmas present opening session and a particularly terrifying taxi journey. Whilst waiting for Flávio to take us to the take off point we received the most wonderful news. My friend Georgie’s daughter Tansy had arrived safely on Christmas morning weighing 7.5lb after a long slog. What Happy Christmas news indeed, welcome to the world little Tansy, I can’t wait to meet you!

We were driven up Pedra Bonita mountain at breakneck speed, and were strapped into our paragliding harnesses. We watched several paragliders and hang gliders launch themselves off the take off pad, one not very successfully, which was rather terrifying, and then it was Jules’s turn. I filmed his launch which was pretty smooth and watched as the winds pushed him and his pilot up and away into the skies. Then it was my turn. Me and my pilot were strapped together, and I was told just to keep walking, and to keep my ankles crossed in flight, and legs relaxed. I wasn’t quite prepared for the strong force that lifted us quicker than expected into the air, and the pilot later explained back on the ground, that he hadn’t been either. I’m glad I didn know that at the time. It all felt pretty safe though, and it was amazing looking down over the mountains and buildings below, and seeing the sparkling ocean in all its glory from above. It was still and quiet up there, and as close to flying like a bird as either of us have ever been. It was quite challenging to let go of the Go Pro and open my arms “like a bird” as instructed, and I quickly grabbed back onto the harness. I also experienced a nausea akin to the feeling of seasickness, as did Jules, and was very grateful to land smoothly on the beach after a series of vomit-inducing circles as we came down from the sky, but what an experience for Christmas Day 2017, and we were both very pleased to have done it. Our pilots kindly uploaded all the Go Pro videos and pictures onto Jules’s phone for us to remember our flights for years to come. Lunchtime, and off for some food and a Coca Cola to soothe our dizzy tummies, as well as some delicious ice cream. Then we went back to the hotel to lie on loungers in the shade drinking ice cold coconut water. What a perfect Christmas!

In the evening we cracked open a bottle of bubbly and spokes to our families who were very much missed. It was wonderful to see their smiling faces round the Christmas dinner table, and we decided to open our third envelope whilst on FaceTime speaking to my family. And it revealed that we would be off to Lima, Peru, in the wee hours of the next morning! We were totally thrilled, and I immediately thought of how much our friend Poppy would enjoy that we were going to Paddington Bear’s birthplace! Stay tuned for our next update from country number 2!!!…….

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artin5minutes · 7 years

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Breath of the Wild Adventure Log Day 11

Log 11

I know there is stuff I am forgetting to record and as much as I am forgetting of events that have happened I also neglect to mention what is not happening.

So far I’ve been avoiding main quest objectives partially because I know there are long-term commitments with regard to play sessions and also because it’s such a huge world that I just want to explore it and let the wind carry me where it will.

Part of my adventure prior to conquering Eventide Island yesterday included the discovery of a certain specific artifact in the heart of the Korok Woods.

I didn’t have any intention of discovering this relic although it seems apparent that of course I would find it here.

I was actually mostly searching for the Korok seed guy so I could upgrade my weapon slots and the last time I saw him he said he would be in the Korok Woods next.

So I ventured around the backside of Hyrule Castle and came upon the Lost Woods.

At first I tried simply cutting across to the peninsula over the water but the game would not let me do that. As soon as I touched the ground I was returned to the other side of the shore.

So I made my journey over land and discovered the Lost Woods...an unnavigable maze that was unforgiving if I strayed from some undetectable path. After several attempts at sussing out a way forward I was able to reach the heart of the forest...Korok Woods.

Of course, upon reaching for the relic I was introduced to some other notable characters from the past. More fetch-it quests/challenges were introduced.

I explored the Deku Tree inside and out before tackling the challenges. So far I have completed all but the riddle challenge. I have not figured out what I am supposed to show despite the obvious answer. And it is also not pertinent since I still lack the necessary strength to acquire the relic.

Ok, no point in hiding it. If you’ve read this much of my logs you have already had a lot spoiled for you and frankly, going forward, there are going to be a whole lot of spoilers at some point.

It’s the Master Sword and you need to have a lot of hearts to pull it out. I currently have 10. I need more which means I need to conquer more shrines. Unfortunately my list of discovered shrines has dwindled to a few.

I have not solved the puzzle of the two shrines atop Dueling Peaks and I have not completed the Goron climbing challenge in the north nor have I tackled the maze north of Akkala which surely hides a shrine just as the one in north central hides a shrine.

So I leave the forest with it’s mysterious challenges that I did not enjoy. The challenge to follow the young Korok without being detected took far too many attempts for no good reason.

The challenge to get through the gauntlet with shitty gear was also sucky mostly because I could not find navigable ways through in the last 3rd even after taking out all of the enemies. In the end, I’m not even sure how I made it through but I’m sure it wasn’t the exact right way through.

I continue to explore and discover more shrines in the southwest area near the Gerudo Desert. I come upon a giant hole in the ground that I cannot climb down. I have to wonder to what purpose this hole will serve in the narrative of the game.

I get to the Gerudo Village in the desert but as I am not a woman, I cannot enter. I conquer the shrine and warp away from this barren wasteland.

I have upgraded my stamina wheel to 2 1/5 segments and have 11 hearts.

I haven’t been riding my horses at all. Apart from the speed, I see no other advantage and I am not looking forward to visiting the Horse God anytime soon.

I also wish there was a way to avoid the nighttime skeleton attacks. They tend to come at the worst times and I generally run from them anyway but they are annoying. At least in previous games these jerkbergs only spawned in Hyrule Field and other generic areas but also the repetition of the SAME enemies spawning all of the time is annoying. With a bestiary as deep as there is, I have not seen that many different enemy types.

I have triggered a few memories though I am guessing it all comes together once I have unlocked ALL of them. That Pikango has been pretty helpful in locating the memories which is surprising since he is free to use.

I also really hope that giving Beedle all of my beetles will pay off at some point in the future.

I have an incredible amount of sidequests that I have unlocked but very few have been completed. Seems like everybody wants something from me.

It is very likely I will knock out some of these sidequests before tackling the main quest stuff although so far the rewards for these have been pretty paltry.

Apart from the legacy clothing I have not received any worthwhile gear from my daily amiibo drops and I have ALL of the Legend of Zelda Amiibos except for the Moblin figure.

I think it’s weird that I can carry a seemingly endless supply of ingredients but not meals. Like, I have 300+ meats so what’s the difference if I want to cook them? If anything, it should free up my inventory when I combine 2 or more foods.

I haven’t really experimented much with cooking even though I have all of the ingredients. Mostly I make strong cold/heat resistant foods since that is what I have needed the most in my travels.

I heard that many of the posters around town are recipes though I have seen very few although I still haven’t been to Zora, Ruto, Gerudo, or Goron town.

Tomorrow I find Prince Sidon.

#Nintendo #Legend of Zelda #Breath Of The Wild

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viralhottopics · 7 years

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50 Truly Terrifying Creepy Stories Thatll Scare You Into Perpetual Insomnia

1. Creepy passenger on cruise tries to break down my door

So I’m female, late thirties and I’m a travel counselor for a large tour company. We are pretty well known so I’m not going to be dropping any names for anonymity sake. That being said what occurred here is 100% for real, and yes I know everyone claims that on here but you’ll just have to take my word.

So as a travel counselor (fancy schmancy way of saying travel agent) I book many cruises, both my company and the many cruise lines offer us in the industry what’s known as a fam trip, to familiarize us with what the cruise line offers. So I was approached two weeks before the holidays with the chance to take such a trip on a four night cruise to the Baja peninsula, it left the day after Christmas. Since my husband had a big guys trip with his BFF lined up I thought perfect! My in laws have been begging us to watch our seven year old daughter so she went to grandmas and I went on a free cruise. What could go wrong? A little sand, surf, sun and while it’s winter 66 degree days are much warmer than the teens and below zeros we have up north.

The flight was perfect, the embarking went as smooth as butter. The lovely balcony room I was put on was wonderful, so far so good right? That night I’m at dinner and a Indian man sits next to me, now this struck me as odd as there were several empty seats available. He strikes up conversation, introduces himself and says he’s traveling with his elderly parents, sister and her family. He’s 26, works in communications and attended college in London. He seems nice, we have a lovely conversation and I throw in their that I’m happily married, have a child, etc.

Finally his family arrives to eat and we part ways, I figure I’ll never see him again. The next day I get off at our port, I signed up for a Segway tour and who do I see in line my new friend and his father and I assume his oldest nephew. He of course waves at me, and we make simple chit chat before starting our tour. After the tour there was the opportunity to walk around.

I chose to browse the shops and get some pizza however I felt I was being watched or followed. I turned around a few times but didn’t see anyone, I shrugged it off and went about my day.

I go back to the ship change into my bathing suit and go lay out on the deck, it’s a perfect seventy two degree day and my skin loved the vitamin D, I order a drink and put in my wireless headphones. I’m dozing when I feel hands roughly shake me, I jolt sitting straight up. It’s my “friend” although he’s frowning, staring at me disproving, he angrily tells me I’m not allowed to show off my body and that I’m disrespecting him and his religion by acting like a slut. By now I have two cruise employees I’m friends with (I have taken many cruises and get to know the employees) who hear the commotion and are telling him he needs to leave me alone. Never mind I’m embarrassed, I tell him I’m a married woman, and what I do isn’t any of his concern. As he stomps off, he informs me if I was his woman I’d be sorry.

I figure I won’t have to deal with him and the next day is perfect, no sign of him we are at sea and I hang out on my balcony sunning and dozing.

That night after a few martinis at the piano bar I settle in my room for the night after talking with my hubby through Facebook messenger. I’m about to doze when my door starts shaking, it sounds as if someone is violently running into my door. I throw a robe on and look out the peep hole. It’s the Indian guy, he looks crazed. It was formal night so he’s in formal wear, hair mused, red faced screaming profanities at me. Luckily the guy across the hall a pretty big guy opens his door and tells the creep to get the hell out of the hall before his kids were waken up. Indian guy gives one last profanity and then leaves.

The next morning the guy across the hall tells me something terrifying he swears the guy had a steak knife in his hand.

I inform the cruise director but I’m not sure what happened after that.

I only saw him one more time on the cruise as we were disembarking, he was carrying one of his nieces and luckily didn’t see me.

2. Craigslist roommatealmost slits my throat

When I was 21 I transferred to a college in San Francisco. I checked out a room for rent on Craigslist. It was in a really nice two bedroom apartment. It was cheap rent and close to campus, so it was the ideal spot.

The girl who lived there was 29 and her name was Beth. She was tall and wide, and she had jet black hair and wore pale makeup. She seemed nice, although a little quiet. But she seemed to like me, and agreed to let me move in. So far, so good.

My first night there we went out for pizza, and that’s when I could tell that something was a little bit off with her. Throughout dinner she kept telling me how much I look like Shia LaBeouf. I didn’t know what to say, so I just shrugged it off with a – Thanks? I mean, I look nothing like Shia LaBeouf, so it just didn’t make any sense to me.

When we got back home she asked if I had seen her room yet. I said no, and so she took me to see it. Her walls were covered in posters of Shia LaBeouf. She even had printed out photos of him all over her mirror. She owned all his movies. I didn’t know what to make of it. It was creepy. The whole night she had been saying I look like him, and now it’s obvious to me that she’s obsessed with the guy.

A few weeks passed, and I never really saw her that much. We didn’t spend any time together really. She would come home from work and practically run to her room. She would spend the whole night in there. She had this creepy high pitched giggle, and I would hear her giggling through the walls all night. I wondered what the hell she could possibly be doing.

Occasionally she would come out and talk for like 2 minutes, and she would always be slurring her words – so I suspected she was drinking a lot. Sometimes she wouldn’t say anything and she would just stand in the hallway and watch me in the living room. I would turn and see her and be surprised and say “hello beth” and then there would be this long awkward pause and she would give out her creepy high pitched giggle. It was uncomfortable being around her. She gave me the chills.

One night I woke up at around 2am because I heard what sounded like the front door being unlocked. I came out of my bedroom, and all the lights were off, but I could still see Beth standing at the front door. She had her face against it, and she was turning the lock back and forth over and over again. And every time she turned the bolt she mumbled my name!!! “Max Barker….Max Barker…Max Barker…”. Seeing her standing in the dark, and mumbling my name, really freaked me out. And it doesn’t help that she kinda looks like a bigger version of the girl from The Ring. I just quietly went back to my room and tried to sleep.

One night I was watching Gladiator and she stumbled out of her room and turned on the living room light, forcing me to pause the movie – which was annoying. She then asked me if I wanted to hear about her ex-boyfriend. It was an uneasy segue into the topic, but I just said sure and then awkwardly sat back to listen to her.

Ten minutes into her story and she was so riled up. She was screaming at the top of her lungs about their breakup. I was worried that the neighbors were going to call the cops – and she wasn’t listening to me when I was asking her to lower the volume. Amidst all of her screaming, one thing she said really freaked me out – she was in such a fit and yelled: I’ll slit his fucking throat.

That was a big game changer. Suddenly I had no idea what this girl was capable of. She was practically a stranger, and everything I had seen was becoming alarmingly disturbing. After a few more minutes she told me thanks for listening and she startled doing her giggle.

I got out of there pretty fast, and went to my room to go to sleep. I had a pretty unsettled feeling about being in the house with her, and what’s worse is that there was no lock on my bedroom door. I pushed the edge of my dresser in front of it, to act as a little barricade.

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of my dresser scraping against the floor. Beth was pushing the door open! I turned on my light – shouting at her to stop. I could see her through the opening of the door. She was so drunk, and had this insane look in her eyes.

I pushed the door closed, and yelled at her to go to bed. I could hear her walk back to her room, but I couldn’t fall back asleep.

The next morning when I went out into the hallway my heart dropped. I saw one of her steak knives was on the floor by my door. I got goosebumps all over my arms. All I could think about was her saying she would slit that guy’s throat. I confronted her about it, and she said she didn’t remember trying to push my door open. She said she didn’t even remember telling me about her ex.

I had enough. My lease was month-to-month, so I found a new spot and moved out. About a month after I moved out she contacted me. I was at the movies, and my phone was off. When I got out I turned my phone on – and to my shock I received in 40+ text messages that she had sent me over the past two hours. They were all just insane texts that ranged from everything between “Hi how are you?” to “I fucking hate you!”. It was insane. I didn’t respond, and I never heard from her again.

I always wonder if I hadn’t set my dresser in front of my door, would she have quietly come into my room and slit my throat? It freaks me out.

3. Creepy neighbor Keith

At the age of around 6/7, I lived next door to an old (60 or so) year old man named Keith. He would often go running around the streets as he was very fit for his age. At the time, I lived with my grandmother, she was friends with him and would often invite him round for a cup of tea and to gossip. Things were fine for a little while, until one day, I looked out of my window in my bedroom, from my window I could see clearly into his garden. He was laying on a deck chair masturbating, as I was a child, I didn’t understand, of course. I assumed he didn’t know I was there. The next day, I went to open the curtains in the morning and saw him, doing the same, again. He looked up at me and smiled, then carried on.

A few weeks later, with me not mentioning it to my Nan, incase she thought I was lying about it, I continued to see him almost daily, I started to realise it wasn’t right when I noticed he would make an effort to make me look, by doing things such as making loud noises outside and shouting my name.

Soon after it was my birthday, my nan invited him round to my party as most of our neighbours had been invited too. I was alone in the kitchen getting a glass of water when I heard the kitchen door open and saw him walk in, he was wearing gold cycling shorts which very clearly showed off everything. At the time, I thought it was just a fashion choice but now I see that he wanted people to look.

He said to me “If you were my daughter I would never let you leave the house looking so sexy. Thank you for keeping our secret.” I don’t remember my exact answer but it was something along the lines of “sexy is a bad word.” He started to pull down his shorts and I panicked and called my nan, she rushed in to see him standing over me, quickly pulling his shorts up and with an erection.

Thankfully I never saw him masturbating after this. My nan called the police and he got a warning. In my opinion this wasn’t enough for what he did. I lived next door to him for another 6 years.

4. Thank God our house has shitty wiring

A few weeks ago I was moving some stuff around in my room and accidentally broke the glass on my window. It was a small crack, and didn’t fully break, but it was enough that cold air and condensation were getting in and making my window ice up. So i threw a space heater in my room to try warming the place up. Now, we have an old house and if we have two heaters on at the same time the fuses blow and shuts off power to the back side of the house.

The other night got particularly cold so I plugged in the heater to the outlet closest to my bed. This outlet was controlled by the light switch so when I turn on the switch the heater goes on. (its one of those ones with dials not power buttons)

When it got time for bed my room was sufficiently warm so i turned out my heater. I told my parents my room was warm enough so they put their heater on for the night. Fast forward to about 2 AM and I hear some noise in my brothers room. I think nothing of it and just shake it off. I just laid there and the noise had stopped so I lay back down and try to fall asleep. Then I started hearing noises in the kitchen, which was odd as nobody would be rummaging through the kitchen drawers at this time of night.

I start to get a little worried and check my phone- I see a snap from my brother from about 1AM and he was out getting wasted with friends, so I calm down and think he just got an uber. I was wide awake at this point so I checked my texts and email, and got back on snapchat. This is when I really started freaking out.

On the stories, there was my brother, posted 13 minutes ago at a buddies house who lived more than 20 miles away. It wasn’t him in the house. Reading too many LNM stories I had put an old broken hockey stick in my room in case of emergencies. Not the best weapon but it’s what I got. So i quietly get out of bed to turn on the light to find it. I had forgotten my heater was plugged in so as soon as I flipped the switch the light went out. But so did the rest of the power. It also just so happens that on that end of the house is where our CO detector is, and when power is cut it beeps. LOUD. Whatever the case was this startled whoever was in my house and the kitchen door opened quickly. I woke up my parents and let them know what happened.

Once we got power on we noticed my brothers bedroom window was wide open. We saw footprints beneath my window, but thankfully the ice had frozen the window shut from the outside. Whoever was in my house climbed into my brothers room, and was rummaging around the house. The bags left over under the Christmas tree had been torn through and all the kitchen drawers were open.

We contacted the police who took down the information and said this kind of behavior is normal around holidays. People find empty houses and look for gifts/cash things of that sort. I don’t know what would have happened if I had come face to face with this guy.

5. “You know exactly who this is Darlin’…”

When I was 22, I moved 1,000 miles away from my Midwest home to the beautiful foothills of Tennessee. I had a new job, new car, and a nice apartment, but didn’t know a soul outside of work.

If my phone rang, I expected to hear a far-away family member or my long-distance boyfriend – still in college. This was a landline; no cellphones yet. Despite being very alone, I was managing well with the excitement of all the new things in my life. I had only lived there about 2 weeks when the unwanted calls started.

The first call: A man’s friendly voice asked what I was doing. I couldn’t place him, and thought maybe it was one of my cousins or uncles. (I have a huge extended family.) I ask his name; he laughs a little, and his tone gets dark, a bit angry. He says, “You know exactly who this is, Darlin’.”

I pause, deciding if this guy simply called the wrong number or is a creep. I choose the former, laugh, and politely tell him he has the wrong number. He then recites my brand-new unlisted/unpublished phone number AND my name. WTF?! An intense chill races through me. I’ve only given my new number to my parents, sister, boyfriend, apartment manager, and employer. I’m new to this city and this lovely southern state.

He does NOT like it when I tell him he called the wrong number, and starts yelling at me, then tells me in a much calmer voice the many vulgar things he’s going to do to me. I hang up and brush it off. He calls again around 1:00 AM; I tell him to f** himself and hang up. He keeps calling, so I unplug the phone and return to sleep.

However, as days go by the calls continue, and escalate. He starts mentioning personal things about me… said he liked the white quilt on my bed, knew what was in my fridge, that he’s allergic to cats (I had one) and then asked me if I was in love with Mari.

As I listened to his words, I was standing in my kitchen looking at the calendar taped to the fridge. It had “Mari” written in pink on the 17th with a heart around it, because Mari is my sister and the 17th is her birthday. I started shaking and crying, because suddenly I realized this creep has been in my apartment! I was alone, with no friends or family to run to for the night. It was me versus a creepy mystery man.

I didn’t sleep much that night. Early the next morning, I talk to the apartment complex manager before heading to work, telling her what happened and that I want the locks changed that day. She gets a weird look on her face, and after a long pause, says SHE KNOWS WHO HAS BEEN IN MY APARTMENT, and that “it won’t happen again.” WHAAAT???

Turns out she had a creepy, rapey maintenance guy who noticed a young woman moving into an apartment alone, and thought I was his new pet. She had the locks changed immediately, and promised that she would personally keep the other key.

Although the calls stopped, I was paranoid for a year as I came and went from my apartment, because I never even knew what this guy looked like. I moved out the moment my lease was up.

Only after thinking about it years later did I realize that her weird expression likely meant that it had happened before. Plus, she didn’t even fire him. I regret not calling the cops; I was young and naive.

6. Creepy man who drugged female friend stalkedus with a metal pipe

I am sometimes too nice to my friends. I tend to do favors for my friends even if they seem pretty ridiculous as long as it’s not terribly out of my way. Most of the time it’s “halp I’m drunk and need a ride home.”

Well one night at like 1:30AM I get the call, a very very drunk friend of mine, Claire, is begging me to come pick her up and give her a ride home soon, the bar is closing soon and she’s too drunk to drive home. The bar she is at isn’t too far from my house, about a 10-15 minute drive, but the issue is that she lives like 35-45 minutes on the other side of town. Claire has been extremely nice to me in the past and I did owe her a solid so at about 10 to 2, I grab my keys, and my concealed carry, and leave the house.

I get to the bar at around 5 past 2, and she’s sitting outside on a bench by the doorman. I pull into the parking lot, which was pretty empty since the bar is closed and I assumed that the cars remaining were the workers who had yet to leave.

I get out of the car and start walking to Claire who is kinda slumped over. I was hoping she wasn’t passed out drunk, and when I got to her, the doorman asked me if I was her ride, lmnthrowaway222. I told him yes, showed my ID for proof, and what he said next was of some concern. He kind of pulls me in and says (I’ll leave out where I interjected, and just write what he said),

“Hey, I was supposed to leave when we closed but I have a strong feeling your friend was roofied. She’s been on the porch drinking all night and some guy kept hovering around her. I assumed it was a boyfriend or whatever but she never turned to talk to the guy. She was either drinking or chatting with other girls around her. Well anyways, she chugged her last drink, came up to me and told me you would be coming to pick her up, and she asked me if she could sit by me, she told me she felt very dizzy and sick. I told her ‘sure’ hoping she just drank too much and she passed out right after she sat down. After that I couldn’t see that guy anymore but I didn’t want to take any chances.”

So visibly concerned, I thanked the guy profusely. And he even helps me carry Claire to my car. Mid way to carrying her, she’s kind of coming to, like someone just waking up after a surgery. That really groggy, not knowing where they are, talking of nonsense kind of talking. I don’t remember exactly what she was talking about, but I’m sure if I wasn’t on high alert about her possibly being drugged, it was some funny shit.

So we get her buckled in, I thank the guy again and he just says he hopes she gets home safe. So now, hoping my friend is only stupid drunk and not drugged, I start driving to her house. The whole time I’m trying to keep an eye on her, and an eye on the road. She’s now snoring asleep, which puts me at ease a bit. But, about half way to her house, my fuel light comes on. Cursing the fuel economy of a sports car, I pull into the next gas station.

It’s one of those small gas stations that doesn’t have 24 hour store. So I’m on extra high alert while I start to pump gas. The Gas Station is about a block from the freeway, and right at the corner of the intersection. The street itself is pretty dark, with lonely lamp posts shining very pitiful lights at large intervals. I get that really dead feeling, like this place is just abandoned.

To give an idea of positioning(because this is important); The gas Station is at the corner of the intersection, the Store front would be facing ‘South’ and we were right in front of it where the pumps were. The ‘East’ would be where there are the air pumps and tires and parking spaces and the ‘North’ would be a diesel fuel pump right behind the store accessible from the street behind the gas station.

I drive a corvette so the filler is on the rear end of the car, and I’m leaning against the rear looking around. To me left I hear this weird metallic scraping sound. So I turn and see this guy, about 15-20 feet from me, come around the corner dragging a long metal pipe on the ground.

I immediately sense that I’m in a possibly dangerous situation now, the guy looks almost possessed but he’s not looking at me, rather like he’s trying to look into my car.

I’m on the defensive, but hope I can get him to leave so I call out, “Hey, everything alright?”

Without looking at me he answers back, “You took my girlfriend from me, I’m here to take her back.”

Now he turns to look at me and he’s got blood in his eyes. Before he begins to take a step though, I start yelling, hoping it’ll get him to back off. I’m a little over 6 feet tall and not exactly skinny, but not exactly bulky either, but I have a really deep voice.

“Back the fuck off, turn around and leave and no one has to get hurt!”

He takes a step towards me, clearly unimpressed. So almost automatically, I pull my handgun from my inside-the-waistband holster and draw a bead on him.

“BACK THE FUCK OFF, YOU DON’T HAVE TO DIE!” I start yelling louder. Pretty sure my voice cracked because A. I’m scared shitless. No amount of self defense classes and time at the range prepares you emotionally for this kind of situation. B. Even though I carry, I’m really against violence and killing someone is not something I want to do. C. Did I mention I’m fucking scared?

Anyway, in a panic the fucker throws the pipe at me. It whizzes by (thankfully not towards my car but to my right) and I dive behind my car for cover (I have no idea if he has a gun himself or what, but I was going to put some kind of cover between me and him) and by the time I kneel up and aim over the rear of my car, he’s booked it. I hear a car door slam and tires screech, and he launches off the curb on the ‘East’ side of the lot and is tearing down the road, swaying all over the place.

In a my own panicked hurry, I pull the pump out of the car, screw the cap on, and tear out of there myself. Claire, however is still passed out in my car, and now I’m afraid because I’m convinced she’d been drugged and we were followed by that guy. Me being more concerned about her earlier and keeping on the road, I must not have noticed being followed.

The whole way back to her house I’m wary of any car that’s behind me. I’m also driving very aggressively (read: speeding like a jack ass) and when I get to Claire’s neighborhood, I circle a separate block that’s not hers 4 times to make sure no one followed me.

When I was satisfied thinking I wasn’t being followed anymore I pulled up to her house and tried to shake her awake. She’s doing that groggy waking up stuff from before, but now she’s able to get up. I’m able to walk her (thankfully, I was worried I was going to have to call an ambulance if she didn’t wake up) and I get her keys from her bag.

I managed to walk her inside, and this point she’s kind of coming around, asking me what’s going on, where she is, etc. I tell her she’s home and get her to lie down. She’s completely lost looking, and her eyes start welling up. She clings to me and starts sobbing, she’s still very out of it but I’m guessing she realizes something bad was going on or attempted on her.

I was able to get her to lie down, and she get her to sleep. I write a note for her which pretty much said “hey I’ll be in the next room, we’re going to the hospital in the morning to get you checked out.”

Fast forward to the morning, she’s sick as a dog, and after she expelled some demons from her stomach, I drove her to the hospital where she got tested and treated.

I still shudder to think what might have happened had I not had my CCW with me. I do know martial arts, but that’s not something I want to take against a crazy person with a pipe. Claire still doesn’t remember much from the night except calling me and wanting to sit next to the doorman.

My advice for your guys on this sub, either be with friends you trust when you go out or at least be vigilant if you’re by yourself. That night could have ended badly in a thousand different ways but thankfully even luckily, everyone made it out safe.

7. Customer tried to kidnap me after my shift

For reference, I am a 20 year old Hooters girl and encounter creepy guys all the time but never likes this. I occasionally get asked for my number and to go on dates by older men but always politely turn them down without really upsetting anyone. (Anyone who says anything perverted or uncomfortable gets kicked out by the way so thats a rare occurrence.)

I was working the night shift the other night and had a forty something year old man sit at my table by himself. I greeted him the same way I greet all customers; lots of smiling, laugh at their jokes, ask about his/her day etc. He was really irritated and didn’t seem to want to talk to me at all, so I assumed he was there to eat and go without all the chatting customers expect from the waitresses.

I offered a box and dessert at the end of his meal, but he just paid and got up to leave. When I brought back his change, he grabbed my arm and pulled me close and said “I want you so badly,” before letting go and walking out the door. I was so uncomfortable that I just stood there until he left. This was around 8 p.m., so I told the other girls then got over it.

We close at midnight on weekdays so by the time I was ready to go, it was about 1:30a.m. I carry a stun gun in my bag and normally have someone walk me to my car, but it was so late that nearly everyone had already left and those that were still there were busy trying to clean up so they could leave. I had parked right in front of the doors leaving my car only five feet away, so I decided to quickly get in my car without being walked.

I always lock my doors out of habit and went to check my phone which was dead. I have one of those crappy chargers in my car that only charge at a certain angle and was trying to get my phone to charge when a truck pulled up behind me blocking me in. I couldn’t pull forward because the restaurant was in front of me, and I couldn’t back up because of this truck. At first I thought it was my roommate who will sometimes come check on me if I get home too late to make sure I’m okay. It was a silver truck which is what my roommate drives, but when I turned to look at it, it was a different model which made my heart sink.

This person then proceeded to honk their horn at me over and over for a good five minutes trying to get me out of my car. When I refused because momma didn’t raise an idiot, he pulled up next to me, started knocking on my window and yelled at me to get out of my car. It was the same guy that was at my table five hours earlier. My phone wouldn’t turn on, so I switched into reverse and fast and furioused my way out of the parking lot. He started following me with his truck, so I ran a red light and started speeding. He stopped at the light, and I drove for a bit before going home in case he caught up and tried following me to my house.

I checked my car when I got home in case he hit my car and was trying to let me know, but I didn’t see any marks. I don’t know whether he was trying to rob me or kidnap me, but creepy man who waited five hours in the parking lot for me, I really hope we never meet again.

8.Once you read this, you’ll never want to make new friends…

Ok so a little info about me I’m 21 now this happened 5 years ago when I just started my job as a scaffolders labourer after recently leaving school I’m from a small city in the north of England on the border of Scotland bit of a nowhere place really

So anyways I started my job and as any young lad I was eager to make friends at my new work place and sure enough I did his name was jay he was a couple years older than me and we hit it off really well so after a few weeks he ended up coming round to my house where I lived with my Mam and younger sister (she was 13) in a bungalow (single story house)

Everyone liked jay he started to become a permanent fixture round the house he would normally pop round and I would go round his place a lot after a while my sister and Mam started to notice things going missing normally underwear but no one thought much of it as things often get misplaced.

In the next few weeks things got creepier my sister screamed out one night that there was someone outside watching her so I raced outside with my Mam to find no one there but we where all majorly creeped out we rang the police but they just advised to close all the curtains and lock al windows and doors after that we went and stayed at my grandmothers house for a few days until we all calmed down a bit

So we had been back at our home had cctv installed and the works jay helped us put it all up and he was a great help to be honest more than happy to help us feel safe in our home again

So a few weeks have passed the past incidents have been pushed to the back of our minds as best we could (it’s not healthy to torture yourself) I went outside one morning to find some footprints in the mud we went back and checked the cctv and the creepy fuck who ever it was managed to get in and out the only way cameras where not facing (I know we should have put all the facts together )

So once again we where creeped out and all a bit on edge that very same night my sister seen someone in the garden again and screened we rushed to her and I caught a glimpse of the guy we rang the police again they arrived 45 mins later ( absolutely terrible response time ) they did a check of the garden and found a phone

They brought it inside to see if it was one of ours..it wasn’t but we all recognised it to be jays the police later arrested him and upon a search of his home they found a box in his attic with my sisters and mothers underwear and lots of pictures mainly of my sister but some of my Mam he ended up being jailed for 2 years and he moved away after it

So I guess the moral of this story is don’t trust everyone.

9.Forced to kiss a man to escape his disgusting clasp

I was always a very introverted girl, And all of my close friends were over the internet. And I was dating (and still am) a lovely young man from Scotland. I lived in the South of a England at the time, and after 5 months of dating ldr I’d finally get to meet him in person. I knew he was a legitimate person, but being the anxious ball of nerves I am, I made sure to do it in a very public place. He was exactly who I knew him as, and was not the one who tried to kidnap me on that day.

He had to catch the train back to London where he was staying late that evening, and I, knowing the area like the back of my hand and having walked around it thousands of times before at much younger ages, walked HIM back to the train station, and said my very tearful goodbyes to the boy I loved. I left, crying, not knowing when I’d see him again, and made my way toward the bus stop that’d take me home. That was, until a very tall Indian man (About 6″, Roughly in his 40s) came up to me as I was crossing the street, and hugged me.

Now, I was beside myself with sorrow at my love’s departure, and the hug made me cry even more, despite all the red flags going off in my head. People in this area had been known to be quite friendly, even with strangers, and I just had to pray he was one of them. He took my hands and held my wrists so I could not walk away. I began to panic at this point, too weak to break the mans hold on me, too choked up to call for help. He asked me what was wrong and told me “A sweetheart like you shouldn’t be on the streets crying. Come with me, I can make it all better.” I immediately declined, saying that I had just had to say goodbye to my boyfriend (big mistake to tell the man I was definitely alone, I know now.) and that I just wanted to go home.

He wouldn’t let go of my wrists after that, and tightened his grip to a painful amount. He told me he would give me things that would make me feel better, and that I needed to come with him. I continuously declined, praying someone would walk down that street (usually very busy, but not at 8pm when the shops in that area are all closed.) and to my luck, nobody did. The man eventually started demanding that I give him a kiss and he’d let me go. Keep in mind, I had only just had my first kiss with the boy I loved earlier that day… and now I was being made to kiss this disgusting man, or else who knows what would’ve happened to me. I did, as much as I hated it with every bone in my body, and he did let me go, to my surprise.

I hurried away from him and ran as fast as I could to the bus stop, immediately calling my boyfriend and telling him what happened. He still beats himself up to this day about it, saying he should’ve made sure I got home safe first. I always tell him there was no way he could’ve known that would happen, and having walked that route so many times in the past I didn’t think that something like that would ever happen to me.

It still troubles me to this day, and I’m still very nervous going anywhere alone. Granted, I use the event as a comedic point towards the common statement “Never meet strangers off the internet.” But the whole ordeal definitely makes me very uncomfortable still.

10. High AF people driving up and down our rural street

So, about four years ago my husband and I decided to do some work on out house. The first thing we decided to do was fix our front steps. We had worked on them all day and as it go dark we sat up some shop lights and went inside to eat dinner. My sister, her husband, and my baby niece were all living with us at thee time.

We ate dinner and myself and my brother in law stepped out on the porch to smoke. The neighbors across from us ( we live in a very rural area on a mountain) were on vacation. We see this car pull up at their house and just sit there for a while. The car only had one head light which I noticed right away. After a few minutes and nobody getting out the pulled out and left.

So about five minutes pass and we are still on the porch this car comes back and pulls in my driveway. This scruffy, nasty, bearded man gets out and so does his wife who was twacked out on God knows what.

They come to the porch and ask if we have seen an explorer for sale. We say no and they proceed to tell us that they had directions but left them at the motel they were staying in.

I asked if he remembered their name or even some of the directions. He says they said to turn RIGHT off of the exit, which we live left of the exit. I told him this and he says..maybe it said left. Ok, maybe so. So I asked what the vehicle looks like, he says he don’t know.

Meanwhile his wife is telling me about her house which is in the same twon as the motel they are staying in. She is telling me all about it which makes me wonder why they are staying in a motel so I asked. She looks at me weird and says they aren’t staying anywhere but home.

As she is talking I see someone in the car light a lighter and see two more people in the car. At this point nothing they say makes any sense and she is high as hell. She keeps glancing into my sunroom when she thinks nobody is looking at her.

After a few minutes my husband walks outside with his pistol in his hand and asked if he could help them. When they see this the ones in the car open the door and yell at these two to come on. They say thanks and walk really fast back to the car.

For the next hour we watch them drive back and forth up and down the road. A few days after this our neighbors house was broken into and a few things were stolen. A pistol being one. I have to wonder if they were casing my house and maybe thought it was just me and my brother in law here. I haven’t seen the car since then and hope I don’t again. I told the police about them and they said they would check it out but nothing ever came of it.

Still want more scares? Proceed to page 2 here!

11. Eugene

I work for a major stationary brand managing a pop up store in my major city district. We are situated in the middle of a large shopping centre, and have an open plan layout (like most pop up stores) which means people and walk through freely. The brand I work for are all about giving the best customer service, and going above and beyond the usual retail requirements to help out our customers. Being new and eager to show my loyalty, I made sure to follow this code with all customer interactions (which can be difficult in retail but nonetheless I stuck to it)

Now, the first time I met Eugene he was wearing a very old black 3 piece suit, red tie and a top hat with a feather (not shitting you). I would put him at about the 75-85 age bracket, and on this day he had grey hair and a walking stick to help him walk (important). Being in work mode, I greeted him with a “You’re looking very snappy today! Are you going to a special event?” Or something to that idea. Now, something to keep in mind is that the centre is filled with noise and sometimes makes it hard to hear. I am sure everyone has done that thing of when you heard what another person has said, you just laugh or nod rather than ask them to repeat. So when he replied quite softly and I didn’t hear what he had said I just nodded and smiled.

This was the first mistake, because (determined from the conversations to follow, as well as other people’s interactions) Eugene had actually asked me If I had been abused as a child. When I nodded not hearing what he had said, he assumed that I was saying yes to his question which opened up the opportunity for him to tell me all about his abusive childhood in great detail. Honestly, at the time I was too shocked and dedicated to staying in a professional character that I just let him go on and eventually he left. Over the next couple of weeks he would continually come and discuss this issue with me, probing me for my own details as well as asking me when my lunch break is so he can have tea with me. Yes, looking at it now it was creepy but I just thought he was old and lonely, and wasnt too bothered to give him his 10 minutes of ranting.

However, things got weird… he came in one day with completely bleach blonde hair and wearing what I can only describe as ‘young modern clothing’. He still had his walking stick, which he still seemed to be heavily dependant on. When he came up to me on this particular day, instead of diving straight into memory lane, this conversation occured…

Eugene: Do you have a boyfriend?

Me: …Hi Eugene! You’re looking summer-y today, what can I help you with?

Eugene: I said do you have a boyfriend

Me: I am happily engaged in fact, which is exciting. What about yourself?

Eugene: oh no not me, I am not interested in girls who haven’t had the same life experience as me…

Me: Well I am sure you will find someone Eugene

(At this point he starts to get uncomfortably close to me)

Me:… was there anything I could help you with?

Eugene: I have found you. Be with me. Can you marry me.

Me: Oh well…thats a lovely gesture but I am as I said engaged. Thank you though!

(I start to move away and pretend to clean, however he follows me. At this stage the centre is quiet of customers, and I am desperately trying to find a way out of the conversation without being rude or upsetting him)

Eugene: If you weren’t with him would you be with me.

Me: I would like to travel actually Eugene so probably not…

Eugene: (shouts) I WANT TO TRAVEL! When do you finish work, we can head off after that.

At this point I am in fight or flight mode and mumble something about working late. Thankfully, a passing customer comes by to ask me about a product and I move away to serve them. Eugene leaves.

After I am alone again, I call security to tell them what happened and that I feel extremely uncomfortable – they say next time I see him to call them. I also inform the other staff working in the centre what happened. Security walks me to my car that evening and I get home safely.

2 weeks pass and no sign of Eugene which is a relief and I assume he had given up.

It was a pretty quiet day on this one particular day so I decide to do some serious cleaning of our shelves. I’m cleaning for about 15 minutes on my knees before I have to grab some more paper towel. I stand up and turn, and directly behind me is Eugene.

He was so close that I could feel his breath, and even as I write this I can feel the same cold shock sweep through my body that I felt on that day. I was fucking terrified – how long had he been behind me watching? Today he was wearing all black – joggers, tshirt and even his runner were black. He had absolutely no walking stick in sight and was just staring at me blankly. I had pretty much lost all professionalism at this point and said to him I will help him after I make a quick phone call.

Thankfully he didn’t follow me to my POS station, and as soon as I put the phone to my ear he strode YES HE FUCKING STRODE off! Security answered and were actually right by were he was and escorted him out of the centre. At this point I was just so terrified and shocked that I went and stood by in a neighboring shop. When security came back he asked me how long I had known him for – I told him I only knew him as a customer and nothing else.

The Security guard then said to me the whole time he kept saying

… Somehow knew what fucking bus I took??? At that point I just burst into tears and called my fiance to come get me and called a girl for another store to take over.

Since then, he has only come into the centre a couple of times – each time security will come and inform me and hang around my store until he leaves.

12. “I know you’re alone in there…”

This happened in May 2007, and for reference, I’m female, was 20 at the time and weighed about 115 pounds so overpowering me would have been extremely easy.

I live in a city in Northern Ireland, and at the time, I was best friends with my ex-boyfriend. My ex-boyfriends cousins band decided to play a small gig way out in the countryside, so we had to drive for about an hour or more to get to the location. We arrived, and it was literally a field amongst fields, smack back in the back arse of nowhere. Apparently, one of the members of the band knew the owner of this field and apparently we had permission to be there, I never checked so I don’t know but whatever.

There were several cars already there when we arrived (me, my ex, his sister and 2 friends traveled together) We had packed the car full of tents, sleeping bags and a ton of alcohol. The plan was to watch the band, then blast some tunes, have a bit of a party and spend the night in the field in our tents.

The way the field was laid out was kind of in an ‘L’ shape. All the tents were set up around the corner and the band had set up a generator across the field on the other side. Then beside where the tents were, there was a hole in a bush to the other field, we went through here to go to the toilet so we had some privacy from everyone.

There was roughly 30-40 people in the field, and the band started playing, we started drinking and generally having a great time. Any time I needed to pee, I went with my ex’s sister or a friend as it was a good few minutes walk to the next field and none of us wanted to go alone even though we were in the middle of nowhere.

I was sharing a tent with my ex for the night, and at about 3am I decided I’d had enough and wanted to go back to the tent to sleep, I told him I was going, and made my journey across the field to the tents.

As I got in to the tent and pulled the zipper down, I felt someone tugging at it and assumed it was my ex, until I heard an unfamiliar voice say “Let me in!” quite aggressively. I called out “Who are you?” and he said “I know you’re alone in there, you can’t hold the zipper down forever, let me in!”

Over the next minute or so, I was gripping on to the zipper of the tent and holding both sides of the fabric together to prevent this guy from getting in to my tent. A couple of times he managed to get the zipper up a bit but I always managed to get it back down. For the life of me, I have no idea how I managed to do this. The whole time we were struggling against each other over the zipper, he kept saying things like “I’m going to get in eventually, bitch” and “It’s going to be worse if you don’t fucking let me in.” – I was absolutely petrified.

Then I heard my ex boyfriends booming voice shout “What the fuck are you doing at that tent?” Then I heard a smack and a thud, and my ex called to ask me if I was OK. My ex had saw what was happening, punched the guy and he fell! He had watched me walk to the tents, and watched this dude follow behind, assuming he was going to the loo, but he kept watching him to make sure. When he saw him turn towards the tents, he came over to make sure I was OK. Thank God he did!

Anyway, a huge fight broke out and then one of the creepy guys friends ended up hitting him too haha. Turns out, he was known for this kind off creepy behaviour and had been in trouble with the law for sexually harassing women in the past. And my ex’s cousin had said that he was staying over at her house with her brother one night and she woke up to find him standing in her room watching her sleep.

I really don’t know what his intentions were had he managed to fight his way in to the tent that night, no one would have heard anything as the music was so loud, but thank goodness my ex still cared enough about me to keep an eye on me as I made my way back to the tent that night!

My ex actually bumped in to the guy a few weeks later and told me that his lip was still pretty busted up and looked like he was going to have a permanent scar from the 2 punches haha.

13.

ANYWAYS, here’s the story about one of the creepiest things that has ever happened to me and my boyfriend.

So this all started in May 2016 when my boyfriend, Sam, moved in. He lived in Oslo, and therefore we needed a car to move all his things. His best friend Jessica agreed to help us when she got off work, which meant it was going to be a long night. Around 11.30 pm we left Oslo and started the drive to my place. Because of roadwork, we had to stop for some time, and didn’t arrive until 1 am at my place.

Because Hnefoss is a small city, it was dead silent when we arrived. We started unloading the car, and I grabbed some plastic bags and went around the house. Right as I stepped onto the small porch outside the basement I heard a sound from the woods down the steep slope. It was the sound of leaves rustling in a particular rhythm, as if someone was walking in the woods and kicking the leaves when they lifted their feet. I thought this was kind of weird, because I knew there wasn’t any hiking trail down there or any other reason for someone to be walking there at 1 am – it was just woods and an empty field.

Sam came up behind me and he also stopped, wondering why I was just standing there listening. “Shh… do you hear that? The leaf-sounds?” I asked, but he didn’t answer. Jessica had also stopped to listen at this moment. “Hear what?” Jessica asked, but before I even had the chance to answer her, Sam told her about the rustling sound. “Yeah, I hear it. What is it?” she asked, but I literally had no idea. We all just brushed it off as some neighbors or kids, even though there wasn’t a lot of neighbors that far into the woods.

About a week later, at 1 am, me and Sam sat outside smoking when I again heard the sounds from the woods. We joked about what it could be – because as I said, we’re from Norway, and creepy things just doesn’t happen here. Stupid thinking, I know. We didn’t pay much attention to the sounds, and eventually we went inside.

A week later, same time, we heard the noises again. At this time, I actually pieced together that this happen at the same weekday, same time, which was kind of strange, and we got a little scared. We joked about it being a killer living in an old abandoned house next to us, or some other creep like the ones we had read about on LetsNotMeet. We laughed, and again, brushed it off as just some kids or an animal. But still, we were somewhat afraid of what it could be.

The next week passed by without any sounds from the woods, and we completely forgot about it, until the week after. I didn’t want to smoke, so Sam went out on the porch alone. After a few minutes, Sam busts through the door. His eyes were wide and he sounded scared as he whispered “Quick! I can hear those sounds again!”

I ran outside and listened from the porch. Sam was right. The sounds were there again – the same rhythm and pace as before, only this time it sounded as if they were closer. I was a little nervous, so I just looked at Sam, who were just as nervous as me.

Still, being so sure of nothing happening to us because of our safe country, we walked closer to the slope and I shouted “Hahaaa! Very funny, maybe I should call the police to let them know someone is creeping around my house!” We both just laughed, but then we heard the sounds stopping immediately. Thinking we scared off whoever it was creeping in the woods, we enjoyed the silence and I shouted “Lol!”.

Right as I had shouted we hear the sound again – just faster and louder – and this time it sounded as if someone was full on sprinting right towards us from down the steep slope. Just imagine if you have ever tried walking up a steep hill covered in leaves, and your feet almost slipping under you because its so steep. That was the sound we could hear.

At the same time both Sam and I just turn around and run as fast as we can inside – cigarette still in hand – locks the door and turn off all the lights and falls to the floor. I was so scared. “Did you hear that too!?” I asked. Sam looked terrified and nodded. “And someone was running towards us?” I asked. He just nodded again. Right as he nodded we heard a sound that still give us both goosebumps to this date. It was the sound of boots walking on the wooden porch. I was so shocked, my mouth was just open while holding my breath – scared that whoever on the other side of the door could hear us.

Sam looked at me, and pointed to the door in panic, signalizing that he also heard it. I lifted my shoulders – I guess it’s the international gesture for “I don’t know!” We both just sat there for some time – too scared to move to the living room, when we heard a loud bang on the window next to the door. We both just sat there trying not to make a sound. Now, the way the house was built, was so that the upstairs where the lady lived was at street level, but if you went around the back, it would look like a two story house, even though my apartment was the basement, so basically just half of my apartment was the basement, if that makes any sense.

The layout of my apartment, was that when you entered the apartment, there was a bedroom to your right, a kitchen straight ahead of you, next to it was a bathroom which was between the kitchen and the living room, which was to your left. The living room was fully underground, and just had a small window by the ceiling and you could just see a flower bed and a bush… But now, we also could see a pair of worn out boots in the dark.. I looked at Sam and pointed to the window and whispered “Hva faen!” – Norwegian for “what the fuck”. Sam didn’t say anything and just looked at me, still terrified.

I’m not sure if the person outside even knew where in the apartment we were, because then he probably would have sat down to look at us.. Maybe he thought that basement and upstairs were connected, and that we ran inside and upstairs, and now the person outside was trying to look inside if he could see us.. We crawled into the bathroom and locked the door and just sat there. We didn’t have our phones, so I’m not sure how long we sat there. We sat there listening, but we couldn’t hear anything.

After probably half an hour we crawled to living room and put the sofa pillows in front of the small window and called my mother to ask what we should do – and if we should bother to call the police. Stupid Norwegians, I know, we should just have called them as soon as we got to our phones. But it’s just not how we do it over here, and besides, the person was most likely gone now anyways..

My mother was kind of angry that we woke her up at 2 am, but after we told her what happened she said it was okay and that we should call the police if we felt it was necessary. At that time we were just tired, and we knew that there was nothing the police could do. I mean, we didn’t actually see the face of this person or anything other than his boots.

We were actually planning to move anyways because of some disagreements over rent with the lady upstairs, so I didn’t ask her if she noticed anything the next day. We moved out like a week after.

14. After this experience, never going on a dating app ever again

For some back round information, I live in a small apartment complex, right outside my campus, with some friends. I am also a 20 year old girl.

So, all my friends where always bashing on me for never meeting up with any boys, or going. I had gotten sick of it. I didn’t wanna be the little friend who stayed home and eat pizza while my friends where out on dates with boys. So, I signed up for Plenty of Fish.

Now, I’m not the type of person who would say yes to any random stranger. They had to be nice looking, they had to have plenty of photos of themselves, and we both had to have at least 2 common intrests.

So, with those rules in my head, I psyched myself up to join the world of online dating. Within a few days, I already had 2 boys I was talking to. One said he was a doctor (kind of hard to believe because he was 20) and one said he worked as a construction guy. (easier to believe) I didn’t like that the ‘doctor’ guy was lying to me.

But one day, (as I was getting crap from my roommates) the construction guy, who we can call Dan, messaged me on a messaging app we where using and asked if I wanted to go out for a bite to eat.

I told my roommates where I was going, and who I was with, you know, all the things someone should do so someone knows if you’ve been abducted. I even had a check in time so that when my roommate texted me if things where good, I had to say some silly code word that meant things where good. If I responded another code word, it meant ‘help me get out of this.’ and if I didn’t use code words than she would call the police for help.

So, I quickly ‘dolled’ myself up and got ready for my date. I put my hair up in a classy bun, leaving strips of it hanging down around my glasses. I put on a nice white blouse and some black pants, and I was ready to go.

I jumped in my car and headed out to the restaurant where Dan had chosen. It was just out of my town, but it was still only a 15 minute drive from my apartment.

I arrived at the restaurant and saw him almost immediately. He was wearing a nice cloths, and looked just like his photos. He was waiting just outside the restaurant doors for me.

His eyes lit up when they saw me. He walked over to me and smiled. We chatted a little bit outside (since it was summer and not cold) and then walked inside.

We ate dinner and talked about our life and things like how school was going. I got the text from my friend but since everything was all good, I sent that code word back. Dan talked about how much he liked his job and things, and altogether, it was pretty nice.

Except for one thing. Dan was boring. He didn’t do anything exciting, or really talk enthusiastic about anything, and it was boring. It was an average date, and I honestly didn’t care to go on anymore.

The next day I woke up to the feeling of my phone vibrating non stop. I looked at it and realized it was vibrating so much that it had fallen off my dresser. I almost laughed. Then I saw all the messages where from Dan. At first, they where all saying how much fun he had had, and that he would really like to go out again. But then the messages took a turn. They got violent, and angry that I wasn’t responding. It was seven in the fricking morning. I was SLEEPING. I noped out of that situation. I texted him back and said I had been sleeping, and that no, I was not going on anymore dates with him. I was just about to block his profile on both sites when I got a finale message. “Watch you back.”

At first I was really creeped out, but then I thought that since I had him blocked, and all my accounts where deleted he could do nothing. Wrong. Later that day I saw a text from a random number, telling me how pretty I looked in my blue pjs. I glanced outside just in time to see non other than Dan, running down my road.

“How the hell did he get my number.” I thought wearily. I blocked that number and continued what I was doing.

Later that night, I fell asleep pretty early, and woke up to my phone text alert going crazy. It was from the number I had just blocked, earlier that day. There where dozens of messages, saying how I was going to get “it”. I quickly showed all my roommates the messages. They all told me that I should go to the police, but since I was a stupid person, I didn’t.

I blocked the number AGAIN, and went back to sleep. But once again, I woke up to my phone buzzing. I didn’t wait. I jumped in my car and drove all the way down to thee police station. Once there, they told me that they couldn’t do much to help me, and just told me to block the number. I did. At least I had it on record.

Nothing happened for a few days. The number stayed blocked on my phone for a while. abut then the pictures started. They where pictures of my house, of me in my house, my car, my work. I went back to the police and finely, I was able to get a restraining order against Dan.

I never received any messages from Dan again after that. I now never ever use dating websites.

http://tcat.tc/2j5GwbX from 50 Truly Terrifying Creepy Stories Thatll Scare You Into Perpetual Insomnia

#50 Truly Terrifying Creepy Stories Thatll Scare You Into Perpetual Insomnia

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