In P16, Las Vegas FBI Agents Headley and Wilson were at Jones's house in Lancelot court. Agent Wilson was standing in front of a large window between the house's granite covered wall and streetside bushes.

Agent Wilson: "Well, it looks like nobody's home."
Agent Headley: "Oh? And how did you deduce that, Sherlock?"

Earlier in the episode, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Mr C tricked Richard Horne on a huge rock, closely observing as he walked up the hill. That was a probable sign we needed to notice something interesting to think about.
Once on the rock, some unspeakable force burnt Richard into oblivion. No body remained.
Perhaps losing his body made Richard a certain kind of nobody. If there was such play with words here, then the Jones's house may have been his home, nobody's home.
Paying closer attention to what Agent Wilson said, glancing at the house, he claimed that it looked like nobody's home. What would have made it look like one?
Nobody's home.
Going back to Richard climbing on the rock and Mr C keenly observing that, if we compare the shot of Richard's shadow cast against the large granite boulder to Agent Wilson standing behind the bush against the granite wall, wearing a black suit, the similarities suggested associating these two scenes through "nobody" was the intended conclusion, however unexpected that might first sound.
It is something to think about whether the "nobody" that remained of Richard was actually meant to be his shadow, like the scene hinted. There was a shot of the hillside with his shadow cast against the smoke, still showing all his limbs intact, yet after a cut, most of his body had already disappeared. This might have indicated that what went on there was splitting Richard from his shadow, the latter possibly used as an abstraction for everything wrong with him.
Shadow and its body.
We are probably in need of a third piece of the puzzle to make sense what this confusing trickery really was used for. In Silver Mustang Casino, one Bill Shaker told Cooper how he would find his home in P4 - or rather, Dougie's home.

Bill Shaker: "Your house has the red door. That's how I always find it."

Getting back to Richard, in P10 he went to rob his grandmother Sylvia. The Horne residence probably was Richard's childhood home, although he clearly didn't live there any more. When Sylvia rather foolishly opened the door to tell Richard that she didn't want him to come in, we got a good look at the house on the outside.
Like the Jones's house, also Horne's residence had a red door. That's how I always find it. It had granite on the walls and bushes in front of it. In the distance, there was a window resembling the Jones's two-part white window. The house was on a small hill, and Richard needed to climb up. There was a large rock sitting on the slope.
Spreading it around.
Overall, the scenes at the rock and in Lancelot Court appeared to be constructed from elements taken from the Horne's residence. What would all this mean?
When Richard burnt on the rock, his uncle Jerry Horne just happened to witness it on the neighboring hill. That was a nonsensical coincidence that was glossed over without any attempt to address it directly.
In P10, Jerry gave us a hint how to make sense of it, yelling to the wilderness around him.

Jerry: "You can't fool me! I've been here before!"

Jerry probably had indeed been there before. When we put all these scenes together, it seems they were all outside the Horne's residence in Twin Peaks. But in this version of the world, it all demonstrated itself quite differently.
So then, apparently Mr C took Richard back home. Once there, Richard was dealt with, this or that way.

The Importance of Giving Two Weeks Notice
When you resign from a job, it's important to give your employer two weeks notice. This is standard etiquette and gives your employer time to find a replacement for you. In some cases, your employer may even require you to give two weeks notice.
There are a few exceptions to giving two weeks notice. If you're in a management position, you may be expected to give four weeks notice. And if you're in a highly specialized field, your employer may ask you to stay on for a few weeks to train your replacement.
In most cases, though, giving two weeks notice is the right thing to do. It's a courtesy to your employer and it gives them time to adjust to your departure.
2. How to Write a Two Weeks Notice Letter
When you resign from a job, it is customary to provide your employer with two weeks' notice. This allows them time to find a replacement for you and to get your affairs in order. It is important to write a professional and polite two weeks' notice letter to your employer, even if you are leaving under less than ideal circumstances.
The body of your letter should be direct and to the point. You should state your intention to resign, the date of your last day of work, and offer to help with the transition. If you have any positive things to say about the company or your time there, you can include them as well. However, it is not necessary to go into detail about your reasons for leaving.
Once you have written your letter, proofread it carefully to ensure there are no errors. Then, deliver it to your boss in person and follow up with a copy via email or regular mail.
Writing a two weeks' notice letter can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. By following these simple tips, you can ensure that your letter is professional and respectful, setting you up for a positive next step in your career.
3. What to Include in a Two Weeks Notice Letter
When you resign from a job, it is customary to provide your employer with two weeks notice. This allows them time to find a replacement for you and to transition your duties. It is important to be professional when resigning, even if you are leaving due to negative circumstances. In your two weeks notice letter, you should include the following:

1. The date of your letter.
   
2. Your name and contact information.
   
3. The name of your current employer and your job title.
   
4. The date of your last day of work.
   
5. A brief explanation of your reasons for resigning.
   
6. A statement of appreciation for the opportunity to work at the company.
   
7. A request for a smooth transition, such as help training your replacement.
   
8. Your signature.
   

If you have any questions about what to include in your two weeks notice letter, or any other aspect of resigning, consult an experienced employment lawyer.
4. Sample Two Weeks Notice Letter
When you resign from a job, it is proper protocol to provide your employer with a formal letter of resignation. This letter is an official document that gives notice to your employer that you will be leaving your position. It is important to be professional and courteous in this letter, as you are giving notice of leaving and do not want to burn any bridges.
There are a few key elements that should be included in your letter of resignation. First, you should include the date of your letter. This will let your employer know when they can expect your last day to be. Second, you should state your position and company name. This is so your employer knows what position you are resigning from. Third, you should give a brief explanation of your reasons for resigning. This does not need to be a long explanation, but can be a simple statement such as "I am resigning to pursue other opportunities." Fourth, you should thank your employer for the opportunity to work with them. Even if you are leaving because you did not enjoy your time at the company, it is important to be polite and professional. Finally, you should include your signature at the end of the letter.
Your letter of resignation does not need to be long or overly detailed. However, it is important to be clear and concise in your language. This is a formal document, and therefore you should avoid using contractions such as "don't" or "can't." Be sure to proofread your letter before sending it, as you want to avoid any errors or typos.
If you have any questions about what to include in your letter of resignation, there are many templates and examples available online. You can also ask a friend or family member for help proofreading or editing your letter. However you choose to write your letter, be sure to remain professional and courteous throughout.
5. Tips for Giving Two Weeks Notice
Giving two weeks notice is a respectful way to end your employment with a company. It gives your employer time to find a replacement and allows you to transition out of your role smoothly. Here are five tips for giving two weeks notice:
1. Put it in writing
When you give your two weeks notice, it's important to do so in writing. This way, there is a formal record of your notice and your employer can't later claim that they weren't given proper notice.
2. Be respectful
Even if you're leaving a job because you're unhappy, it's important to be respectful when giving your notice. Avoid being negative about your experience or using the notice as an opportunity to vent.
3. Be clear about your start date
Make sure you are clear about your start date when you give your notice. This will avoid any confusion about when your employment will end.
4. Offer to help with the transition
If you're able to, offer to help with the transition to your replacement. This could involve training them or helping to tie up loose ends.
5. Follow up in writing
Once you've given your notice, follow up with a written confirmation. This can be an email or a letter. This will ensure that there is a record of your notice and will help to avoid any confusion.
View Poll

I have had several closed unfounded cases with CPS. A few were retaliation from my ex partner, and then two were from my children’s daycare. First was that his clothing was dirty, second was they accused him of having cigarettes burns on his back (doctor looked at it, it was a fungal infection). The clothing was looked at by a worker and he found nothing wrong with it. HI pulled my kids out of their daycares & now my older boy is in preschool for special needs.
Every single bump, bruise, or sniffle I live in constant fear of CPS showing up. I often just sit and stare out my window so I can catch a worker coming before they arrive. I vomited when I heard my door bell ring the other day.
My son was having a protein shake in the morning, and had it in a bottle (special needs and food aversions he won’t eat without it) and some chocolate got on his pants. I didn’t notice it honestly and he came home in all new clothes and they even took his shoes off. Note came home he came to school with a brown stain.
& apparently he needed pants and no one told me so they put someone else’s spare pants on him.
I have been hysterically crying almost all night. I have been hyperventilating, and all I can think about is they are going to call CPS and say I don’t send my child in clean clothes and they had fecal matter or send enough clothing. I even called the local CPS office to see if a report was made. There wasn’t, but how I think someone may do it later.
My life has gone to hell because of CPS. My last unfounded case was months ago and even before that I had the same fear of CPS. I dropped out of school so I could clean my home more and watch my younger child religiously. I quit my job so I could be home to watch for social workers and monitor the home. It basically has ruined my life.
I am on anti depressants and it seems to not help. I have a therapy appointment come May. I believe I am suffering from PTSD.

I have had several closed unfounded cases with CPS. A few were retaliation from my ex partner, and then two were from my children’s daycare. First was that his clothing was dirty, second was they accused him of having cigarettes burns on his back (doctor looked at it, it was a fungal infection). The clothing was looked at by a worker and he found nothing wrong with it. HI pulled my kids out of their daycares & now my older boy is in preschool for special needs.
Every single bump, bruise, or sniffle I live in constant fear of CPS showing up. I often just sit and stare out my window so I can catch a worker coming before they arrive. I vomited when I heard my door bell ring the other day.
My son was having a protein shake in the morning, and had it in a bottle (special needs and food aversions he won’t eat without it) and some chocolate got on his pants. I didn’t notice it honestly and he came home in all new clothes and they even took his shoes off. Note came home he came to school with a brown stain.
& apparently he needed pants and no one told me so they put someone else’s spare pants on him.
I have been hysterically crying almost all night. I have been hyperventilating, and all I can think about is they are going to call CPS and say I don’t send my child in clean clothes and they had fecal matter or send enough clothing. I even called the local CPS office to see if a report was made. There wasn’t, but how I think someone may do it later.
My life has gone to hell because of CPS. My last unfounded case was months ago and even before that I had the same fear of CPS. I dropped out of school so I could clean my home more and watch my younger child religiously. I quit my job so I could be home to watch for social workers and monitor the home. It basically has ruined my life.
I am on anti depressants and it seems to not help. I have a therapy appointment come May. I believe I am suffering from PTSD.

We're a development team of 10. Our collegaue (not my superior) is a burnt out lead developer who is constantly working 12-14 hours and expects the same from everyone. At first, I did try give all my best I could, I even worked long hours to finish my work on time. As I learned, this guy is a bully. He doesn't like if someone else works on the same component and knows WHAT crucial information to hold back so you fail your task. We don't know if he does this intentionally or not, but he constantly puts blame on you and openly criticizes how you approach a certain problem instead of being assertive and nurturing. The turnover rate is pretty high and we noticed this toxic atmosphere, but no one DARE to openly recognize the source of the problem. The source is this guy. If you try to bring attention to this or confront him, he plays the victim and he is very smart to appear as a victim! Last time, I talked to my boss that I no longer want to participate in this play: I want to leave the company, I cannot work like this, and it is highly damaging to my creative vision. My boss was understanding, but also explained that he cannot do anything, because this guy here is basically a half-god and has the knowledge so deep that he cannot replace him easily. He asked me to keep calm and understanding. His solution was to reduce the working hours of this guy so it helps him recover from this burn-out phase. The situation of course was not improved. This guy was still and still is a bully and I decided to leave. I don't have to mention that it was a long 3 years and I feel deeply hurt and incapable of anything. Now I have a different job where I get good feedbacks, but yet I cannot overcome this experience. What's wrong with me? I talked to an old collegaue what is the situation now. Of course the guy is still there and now he harasses someone else. I just want to understand what is happening in the mind of such bully and how can I approach this problem in the future?
Ui.: This guy has written the component from scratch. There is no documentation and usually documents are outdated. Even the PO and scrum master is IN THE DARK regarding how things proceed. He even bullies these 2 guys! He usually criticizes your pull requests, adding insulting (sometimes misleading and irrevelant!) remarks in comments, and usually opens a SEPARATE pull request to perform the SAME task as you. Of course this happens without you noticing and usually AFTER HOURS. You can imagine whose pull request is accepted in the end.... And then, complains that you're not doing your job.
The confusing thing is that I usually get good feedbacks from other collegaues and according to them I give quality work out of my hands. At least if I knew... I had much clearer picture if I've got bad insights.

So, I've had my retrotink mini for a while now. It's an official model from the website, not a 3rd party bootleg.
Recently I've noticed that its started having issues with screen burn/image retention/whatever you call it. I'll have it on for a few mins and it will leave pixels burned onto the screen. They disappear over time but I still find it incredibly distracting.
Funnily enough, swapping out the retrotink with a cheap AV to HDMI converter from amazon completely fixes the screen burn problems.
I honestly dont know what the problem is or how to fix it. I've read that the mini can cause screen burn because of its deinterlacing? Are there any suggestions or solutions you guys can offer?
Would I be better off looking into another method for upscaling/converting my retro consoles?
Just FYI, my current setup is an AV switcher that takes inputs from my snes, N64, ps2 and gamecube (all using s-video cables) and then that feeds into my retrotink, which then goes into my mClassic, which goes into my hdtv (its an ASUS TUF VG27AQ gaming monitor).

*The obvious example is Karl Urban (Caesar, Cupid), with major roles in LOTR, Star Trek, etc. I know I've seen other xena actors in LOTR too
*Kathryn Morris (Najara) was the lead in Cold Case for 8 seasons
*Bruce Campbell [Autolycus] was already known for Evil Dead & Brisco, but X:WP earned him a bunch of new fans (like me!) and he continues to be awesome. Burn Notice, Ash Vs Evil Dead, writing bestsellers
*Raimi and/or Tapert [producers] of course went on to do Spider-Man, Spartacus, Dr Strange
Who else did some big time projects after Xena?

The School of Life has posted an article with 10 ideas for people afraid to exit a bad relationship. The article suggests that the emotional loneliness one feels in a bad relationship is worse than the practical loneliness one may experience after leaving. It encourages people to trust and like themselves, and to consider what they would really like to happen next if practical hurdles were not an issue. The article asserts that conquering the fear of being alone will ultimately lead to satisfying love in the future.
This really helped me, coming out of an unsatisfactory relationship.
10 Ideas for People Afraid to Exit a Relationship 1. You are, to a far greater extent than you perhaps realise, already alone. The condition you fear will happen has already happened. To be formally alone would merely mean concretising something that has been your reality for a long time anyway and, paradoxically, would be the first step towards helping you to bring the isolation and agonising frustration to a deserved close.

1. The emotional loneliness you currently feel cannot end until you bring yourself to endure a period of practical loneliness; which is, as you of course know (but are terrified of knowing), the lesser of the two evils. The awkwardness of dinner by yourself is as nothing compared to the soul-crushing horror of feeling repeatedly and existentially misunderstood by the central person in your life. Someone who stubbornly doesn’t get it is a greater rebuke to who you are than an empty chair.
   
2. You are spending a lot of energy defending yourself against legitimate hope by leaning unfairly on some undoubted general truths: that all lovers are flawed and that all honeymoon periods end. To tease out this reassuring but ultimately self-serving exaggeration, change ‘lovers’ to ‘movies’ or ‘holiday destinations.’ It is as factually correct to insist that there are no perfect lovers as to point out that there are no perfect films or resorts. But this is no argument for refusing ever to change TV channels or for denying that there might be an appreciable difference between Birmingham and Lake Como. There is, simply and squarely, such a thing as, ‘better’ and ‘worse’, a truth no less correct for being – as yet – hugely difficult to contemplate.
   
3. It is worse to be ostensibly together while privately disconnected than to be properly, publicly, firmly by yourself, just as it is better to be allowed to cry than forced to smile while burning inside.
   
4. What is really holding us back is something a little unexpected in the background: that we don’t trust or like ourselves very much, that we feel underserving and ashamed of ourselves (it’s to do with childhood). Our inability to leave is a symptom of self hatred. If we were firmly on our own side, it would be immediately evident that we deserved and could lay claim to something a great deal more sustaining.
   
5. Complete the following sentence: ‘If all the practical hurdles could be taken care of as if by magic (the agony of telling them, the difficulty of finding a new place, the embarrassment of breaking the news to mutual friends etc), what I would really like to happen next is…’ Ignoring your reply means sacrificing yet more of your life on the altar of a tricky chat with certain acquaintances who don’t care anyway or of a boring afternoon or two with an estate agent. Your most precious commodity is time. And on death beds, no medals are handed out for endurance and a limitless capacity to consume bowls of misery.
   
6. The suffering caused by being alone is far easier to endure and assuage than the suffering of a bad relationship. Compared with the appalling impact of squabbles, misunderstandings, bitterness and coldness, being on your own is a condition unworthy of serious concern. The only thing that truly deserves our terror is the prospect of life without a connection to someone we can admire and adore.
   
7. You are implicitly assuming that being alone in the future will be an exact replica of how being alone felt before this relationship. And yet your experience in this couple will forever alter how you interpret the discomforts of the single state. The time before you were in this will not be the same as that which will follow once you are out of it: without noticing, silently, you have been acquiring an advanced diploma in compassion, gratitude and contented aloneness.
   
8. Conquering the fear of being alone will be the ultimate guarantee of satisfying love henceforth. People who feel they have no choice make bad choices
   
9. The relationship that is right for you isn’t the one without problems, isn’t the one where you won’t occasionally be desperate, lose your temper and behave atrociously, it’s one where you will never feel – as you do now – the constant doubt as to whether or not you should even really be here. You will be unhappy sometimes, but you’ll know in your marrow that getting out isn’t what you secretly long for; you will (fortunately for you) never want to read, or get anything out of, an essay like this again.
   

https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/10-ideas-for-people-afraid-to-exit-a-relationship/

My symptoms today are :
1.Dribbling post urination - worse after exercise . 2.Feeling of urine stuck , worse with anxiety. 3.Extremely tight hamstrings and hips . 4. During ejaculation urethra feels under pressure as fluid passes through ( worse after exercise) and stings . 5. Occasional rare random nerve sting for a second . 6. Mild burning at tip that correlates with exercise and stress . 7. Constipation makes all of above worse. 8. Severe anxiety and overthinking.( getting better).
What’s improved:

1. Burning tip reduced with yoga
2. Feeling of stuck urine has reduced with yoga
3. If I take my mind off of it I don’t notice symptoms.
4. Stopped frantically googling things
5. Having the attitude of its tight muscles and it’ll go away with holistic approach.
6. Returning to the gym for mobility .

I strongly feel that anxiety and catastrophic thinking plays a big part in our symptoms.
At night I have 0 symptoms. I wake up with 0.

The duo walk together further into the facility. More corridor, doors lining each side, some are even ripped off from their frame. Looking into the exposed rooms, just barely lit by the sad excuse of a lamp, cramped bunks with wire gates attached to their frames can be seen. Fans bolted on the walls pan the room, the tenant's weak attempts at getting some type of cooling in such close quarters.
​
“Cramped living quarters, who sleeps here anyway? And why the gates on the bunks?” She asks, eyeing the suspicious living arrangements.
​
“T-the Gestalts do…” Alice replies, her voice trailing.
​
Deeply inhaling and exhaling, she enters the room. Inspecting each bunk, she finds that they aren’t exactly the most comfortable sleeping spaces. Mattresses more akin to stone, cold steel, wire gate, barely passable pillows, no blankets in sight. Looking around the room, they don’t have room for any belongings. Maybe they weren’t allowed to in the first place. One desk in a room for what looks like twenty people, a note laid on top.
​
“There’s something going on in the facility, the Protektors have been on edge lately. Them and other Gestalts, even other Replikas have been going missing. What is happening-”
​
The rest of the note is unreadable.
​
Setting down the note, she inspects the rest of the bunks. Nothing but trash and other indiscernible clumps of organic matter.
​
She looks back at Alice.
​
“And the other rooms down here are the same as this?” She asks, anger in her voice.
​
“Yes…” Alice replies, shying away from her.
​
She kicks the desk over and it hits the wall, the poorly maintained desk breaks at the seams, the legs splintering and cracking at the impact. Alice jumps back in shock at the sudden violence, staring at the broken desk.
​
“Let’s go.” She commands, storming out the room.
​
Alice follows cautiously, nervously looking at her companion’s back.
​
Back in the corridor, the other rooms present the same view through their ripped off doors, poor living conditions and cramped bunks. Although she did not show it, Alice could most definitely sense it. Anger, with a slight hint of concern.
​
She wonders why, but ignores the thought, surely asking why could end up bad on her end. She stares at her companion’s back once more as they walk, asking herself why such a person is even here in the first place.
​
“Is she here for something?”
​
“Or perhaps a someone?”
​
She ponders over such thoughts before running into something.
​
“Oof, huh?” Alice sounds.
​
Realizing she ran into her companion, before she could apologize, she is shoved to the side. Falling onto the ground, she narrowly dodges the plunge of a stun-prod, electricity sparking at its tip.
​
“Just when STCRs couldn’t get any worse.” She comments, training her pistol on the tall and towering figure.
​
The STCR retracts its arm, readying their stun-prod for another swing. A gunshot rings out in the corridor, echoing loudly to Alice’s dismay. Covering her ears, she looks back at the STCR unit, their cold, dead eyes lock onto her’s. Paralyzed with fear, she could do nothing but stare.
​
A few more gunshots ring out, the rounds merely bouncing off of the unit’s white bullet-resistant shell, the fragments ricocheting and sparking off in random directions.
​
“Shit, built tough too.” She comments, dropping an empty magazine and loading in another.
​
Looking back at Alice, she grabs her arm and pulls her into the adjacent dorm.
​
“Not gonna be able to take her down without some heavier firepower, looks like we’re going to have to avoid it.” She says, looking into Alice’s eyes as she holds her by the shoulders.
​
“You got that?”
​
Alice gives a blank stare.
​
Noticing that she isn’t listening, she gives her a hefty shake.
​
“I said you got that?” She asks once more sternly.
​
Alice snaps out of it and nods her head, she then turns to look at the door. Heavy footsteps enter the dorm, the faint crackle of electricity following suit. Their steps accompanied by the hum of the fan and the stun-prod, it patrols the room scanning and searching for its prey.
​
Hidden behind a bunk, she grabs Alice’s hand and drags her along quietly, heading the opposite direction of the footsteps. None the wiser of their location, the STCR unit continues its search. The duo hastily makes their way out. Alice looks behind her as they pass the door, the towering figure of the unit and the terror it brought ingrained in her mind.
​
Going further down the corridor, they open the door at the end. Greeted with a much cleaner room, they settle down a little. Wiping the sweat off of her forehead, she inspects her body for any wounds. Holstering her handgun, she removes her backpack and digs through it.
​
Watching, Alice moves a bit closer and peers over her shoulder and into the bag. A water canteen, a personal first-aid kit and a decently sized knife in its sheath can be found.
​
Sighing, she grabs the knife and looks over at Alice. Eyeing her up and down, she holds out the knife.
​
“Here.” She says, offering it.
​
Alice stares at the knife, its black finish, textured grip and engraved sheath catch her eye. Faintly ingrained in the sheath,
​
“Requiescat In Pace”
​
Some type of language by the looks of it, nothing she’s familiar with anyway.
​
Hesitantly, she takes the knife. The grip of the knife felt comfortable in her hands in a strange way. Pulling away the sheath, the sheen of the blade mesmerized her. Holding it up, she can see her reflection, her blue eyes staring back at her.
​
“Best I can get you for now, do you know how to use it?” She asks, watching Alice as she fawns over the knife.
​
“For cooking.” Alice replies, her eyes fixated on the blade.
​
“I’m sure you know how to stab at least, just give them a good poke with it if they ever get too close.”
​
“I-I suppose that’s one way to put it, yes.” Alice replies, uncomfortable at the way she put it.
​
Replacing her pack, she looks around the room. Elevators lining one side of the wall, with only one other door adjacent to it. Questioning the layout of the facility, she shrugs and attempts at the elevator. Pressing on the call button, the light flickers in the button, and a screen whirs to life, displaying the floor the elevator is currently at as it rises to their floor.
​
“At least this works.” She comments.
​
Alice looks around the room before approaching the door next to the elevators. Opening the door, it leads into a smaller room, dimly lit with a lone desk in the center of it. Sitting on top is a terminal, its screen totally red. For whatever reason, she feels compelled to look away from it.
​
“Hey, I think you should look at this.” Alice exclaims, calling over her companion.
​
“What is it?” She asks, looking over Alice’s shoulder and into the room.
​
Her eyes lock onto the terminal, just like before, it calls out to her. Walking into the room, she stares at the red screen, ignoring Alice. A few moments pass before she gets a grip and returns to her senses. Shaking her head, she looks over at Alice who’s right next to her, concern written all over her face.
​
“Did I… just sit and stare at the screen?” She asks, slightly embarrassed.
​
“Yes, what was that?” Alice asks.
​
“Dunno, it's whatever I guess, let’s try the elevator.” She says, as the elevator chimes, letting them know it’s on their floor.
​
Alice shrugs and exits the room, following suit, they both stand in front of the elevator door. Reaching for the button to open the doors, they open before she could do so. Caught off guard, she reels back a step, watching as the doors separate. They stop just shy of a crack, enough to let an arm through.
​
The inside totally pitch black, she peeks into the crack, nothing but darkness. Attempting to force the doors open, she places her hands on each side and pushes. Straining herself in the process, she fails to see the occupant inside the elevator.
​
“Watch out!” Alice yells, her arm outstretched towards her companion.
​
Turning her head to face Alice, confused as to why she yelled, she then felt a burning sensation in her abdomen, followed by all the air leaving her lungs. Stepping back, she looks down, a knife hilt-deep into her gut. She looks back up into the elevator, an arm outstretched reaching out. Looking at the handle, she tugs at the knife.
​
Gradually, the knife finally shows its blade as she pulls harder, blood coating its reflective surface. Her vision blurs and her breathing grows labored, she watches as more and more of her blood oozes out from the wound, spilling onto the floor. She looks up at Alice, her face visibly shocked, covering her mouth with her hands.
​
With one final yank, she pulls the blade from her abdomen with blood flung from the motion, some splattering onto Alice’s feet. It clatters onto the floor as she falls to her knees, her hands desperately trying to stem the bleeding. Removing her backpack, she searches for her first-aid kit. Her vision blurs further as her eyelids grew heavier. She felt cold, fatigue settling in as she continued to lose blood. First-aid kit in hand, she reaches for the tabs to open it, dropping it in the process.
​
With too much blood lost, she slumps over onto her side, falling onto a small puddle of her own blood. Her eyes look over at Alice, struggling to fight off whoever was in the elevator. They prove to be much stronger, pushing her down and mounting her. Their hands wrapped around her neck, she watched as Alice flailed her legs and swung her hands at her assailant. Gradually her struggle slowed to a halt, before ultimately stopping.
​
Her vision darkened as her breathing slowed. No longer did she feel cold or the burning sensation in her abdomen.
​
She felt at ease.
​
Drawing one last breath, she laid still.

Hello! Looking to get some advice on this
I started getting hormonal acne on my cheeks so my doctor prescribed me clindamycin and 0.05% tretinoin. My doctor told me to use the clindamycin twice a day (morning and night) and use the tret at night only. I've always moisturized and used sunscreen every day but I've started to notice my face burning for the past week. I'll even wash my face just with water and my face starts to burn. My skin has started to peel even under my eyebrow and other parts of my face and it hurts really bad.
I kind of want to stop doing it and just focus on getting rid of the hyperpigmentation on my face but I'm not too sure if I should stuff. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Long time reader, first time writer.
Since my HG moisturizer Bioderma Sensibio Light was discontinued maybe a year ago, I started an endless search for a new moisturizer. Nothing worked as good as Bioderma, and I decided to try Cetaphil moisturizing lotion.
At the same time, I got a new shampoo bottle with updated formula.
First couple days it was fine. Then I noticed at the bottom of my cheek some sort of allergic reaction. I used cetaphil on it to reduce itchiness (I didn’t know what caused this reaction yet). But then it was getting worse… LRP Cicaplast Baume helped to reduce it, but then it flared up again.
I decided to do patch test on my hands to identify what caused it - shampoo or cetaphil. First couple days nothing appeared. But today some red dots appeared on “shampoo” hand. I decided to try switching sides, and applied cetaphil on “shampoo” hand, just to check. Well, it was a mistake - the flare up was soooo bad, still burning red and itching :( Now I know that cetaphil on my skin reacts badly with other products, and that this shampoo is not the best option either.
Now my other products sting my face and neck. Even LRP Cicaplast Baume :(( how can I stop it? I feel like cetaphil distorted balance on my skin. Although I’ve never had any similar reactions before to any products.

I have an Ender 3 3D printer that I used to use quite often. However, it turned out that it had a bad XT60 connector and started to burn, but didn't catch fire. I have had this for several years so it's out of warranty. Several people recommend rewiring it directly and skipping the connector.
I am interested in electronics but don't know much about it, so I am worried that I can somehow electrocute myself if I do this wrong. I noticed that 12-gauge wire is what is usually mentioned. I have 16 gauge, will this be an issue? How do I connect a spade terminal to a wire, and are there any major differences between the different types and sizes, as long as it connects securely?
Thanks!

Calories: 492 consumed - 523 active = -31 net
Macros: 16.1 g protein, 77.2 g net carbs, 5.1 g fat
Steps: 21,816

Notes

• I’m going to start slowly decreasing my carbs going forward—tomorrow I won’t eat more than 30 g. I generally notice I feel clear and more even on a lower carb diet. I’ll experiment with different carb limits to see what feels the best.
• Unlike previous days, where I broke up my exercise/calorie burning into more than one sessions throughout the day, today I mainly just exercised in once large chunk the evening after work, which wasn't ideal. I think I want to get in at least three sessions throughout the day. Honestly it might just be good practice to get in a session right before or after every meal.
• Intake today: electrolyte drink, konjac noodles, carrots, salad, supplements, vitamin water

I’ve been on vacation in Arizona, and have been going out to eat a lot. I have zero desire to drink alcohol, and have found remaining sober on vacation thankfully an easy feet. However, I swear like 90% of the food on the menus of the places I have gone to have some alcohol component in the dish. Here are some examples from tonight, the oyster vinaigrette contained vodka. The teriyaki salmon glaze bourbon. The cheese and mushroom dish, cognac. Salads = champagne vinaigrette. Braised short ribs, port wine. Carrots, grand mariner. The pork chop, brandy. Lobster butter poached with Chardonnay. Blue cheese topping = bourbon. Deserts I know tend to have alcohol in them, but the deserts had Kahlua in one and bourbon walnut carmel in an apple pie dish. The key lime pie didn’t list any alcohol thankfully. Gelato had several alcohol flavors.
This was a very fancy restaurant, so that is perhaps why, but I found this to be so unbelievable! I figure some of this burns off in cooking or is just meant to enhance flavor but can children eat these dishes? I don’t have kids but I genuinely wonder if a child’s parents ordered the lobster could the kid eat it?
I don’t get triggered by alcohol in food, thankfully, but I know others might. I honestly did not notice how much alcohol is in dishes at restaurants until I got sober. The other night they dosed a cheese dish in liquor before lighting it on fire.
What do you all do in these situations? I avoid it because I just don’t want alcohol in anything. I knew everyone is different and his different ideas of sobriety and triggers, but have you all noticed this as well?

July, 2020.
Ever since my colleagues and I became unwilling test subjects in my psychotic professor’s experiments into awakening the supernatural, we have had multiple people trying to hunt us down. Whether they were renowned scientists desperate for the serum for themselves or random people obsessed with cutting us open and seeing how we ticked, these assholes didn’t care that we were human beings, that we were ex researchers ourselves.
They wanted us dead or alive, in pieces, or splattered across concrete. As long as they got that precious serum dripping from our frontal lobe, they didn’t give a fuck. There were varieties of hunters. Some of them tried to play nice with their own nefarious agenda, while others were completely fucking insane. Like the ones who saw us as a mistake; a curse sent from god to end humanity as we know it.
Yeah. They thought we were the next coming of the Antichrist.
Have you ever been stripped completely naked and forced to bathe in salt water for three days without food and water?
That is when I lost my will to fight.
I still remember the sensation of flames licking at my feet, rope wrapped around my wrists pinning me to a tree. They wanted me to admit I was a monster. That I was a curse from the devil and belonged in hellfire. I’ll spend this post elaborating on what exactly our professor did to us, and the burden forced onto our backs—but I will say it saved us at points. For example, the freaks who tried to cleanse us in salt water (and then burn us under a full moon) got their comeuppance. 2020 is probably a year in your lives which didn’t feel real.
You were locked inside and you probably compared what was happening to a movie. We had a similar problem. But while you were struggling through lockdown, trying to fight a wave spreading globally, we found ourselves with bounty’s on our heads. Because we were no longer human to these bastards, and to them? Anything went. Which was bad news for our professor who had fought to keep his research as private as possible, choosing to show only a select group with shiny money bags for eyes. It turns out, no matter how much you think you’re hiding something, it will always be leaked. And people will find out.
Bad people.
The kinds of people in all of my favorite movies as a kid. You know, the evil trigger-happy British guy obsessed with finding buried treasure? Him. But tenfold. I might have felt special about the multi-billion price-tag on me, but knowing all they wanted me for was to dissect and slice me apart like meat to the slaughter—yeah. I can’t say I was thrilled to have so many people after our little group. 2020 was the year when people stopped being human. Stopped trying to be human. All morality down the drain.
Of these certain groups trying to capture us, there was a specific one which I will always remember. Seth’s gang. I’ll remember them because it was the first time I realised my colleagues and I weren’t human anymore, and maybe the freaks trying to label us as The Devil’s Children were right. There were a lot of people after us, as I said. But Seth and his gang, however, just wanted us for the sake of gloating. After hearing of our professor’s experiments, these guys decided they didn’t want the serum, or the research.
They just wanted us. For what, I still don’t know. They weren’t scientists, or in the medical field. They definitely weren’t at the auction, I would have seen them. I’m pretty sure these were just ordinary guys seeing us as nothing but trophies to parade around. I don’t think they knew the significance of the serum, or the danger of it. They saw something shiny and thought to hell with it. Which, I guess looking back, was why we were always two steps ahead despite having 9mm Glock’s shoved in our faces. The hotel room we were being held in was a step up from the cage I had been trapped inside in the lab for the last several months.
It actually had air-con.
Sitting blindfolded on the edge of a queen sized bed wearing the same clothes which were practically glued to my flesh, the graze of cool air brushing the back of my neck and relieving blistering skin was euphoric. I hadn’t had a proper shower in weeks. Maybe months.
It was the first time in a long while I actually felt human. Even when my wrists were pinned behind my back, a slab of ductape suffocating my mouth and nose. Now, I wasn’t completely sure, but I wondered if there was a duct tape shortage on the island. After being kidnapped and held in multiple places, I had never been gagged with duct tape. It was always filthy clothing fashioned into a makeshift gag, or ties and shoelaces. I will never forget some asshole stuffing a pair of panties in my mouth.
Seth’s gang were the first to actually have duct tape and proper blindfolds. I sensed the front-man’s footsteps as he paced in front of us. Despite being blindfolded, I knew he had a gun tucked into his belt, a dagger strapped to his ankle, and a grenade for emergencies. I wasn’t sure what emergencies would justify blowing up a fancy hotel room. Next to me, Riss was practically vibrating with fury. She knew not to act on her fear, because when we did, bad shit happened.
But Riss was a different breed. She didn’t listen to me when we were human, and definitely didn’t listen to me when we were freakish experiments contorted into something resembling a human. No matter how many times I nudged her with reassurance, she inched away from me like I had the plague. “Project Mildew, huh?” The front-man had one hell of an aussie accent. Without my sight, the rest of my senses were expanding, igniting.
Smell. I could smell the stink of myself, body odour and filth caked into my skin. Taste. There was copper in my throat and coating my teeth and tongue. Every step the man made, I felt it prickling in my bones. I sensed him crouching in front of Kaian, who thankfully didn’t move. I was waiting for him to. If I concentrated, I could feel the air crackling with electricity, the hairs on the back of my neck and arms standing up. Just being shoulder to shoulder with my colleague allowed me to feel exactly what he was feeling.
And like Riss, the guy was dangerously close to blowing a fuse. Kaian wasn’t stupid though. If we did something, he knew the consequences of that something. And none of us wanted that. So, staying quiet and submissive it was.
“Alex Quincy’s diamonds!” The front-man flicked me in the forehead, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut to avoid going into sensory overload. He continued in a sing-song voice, his steps becoming playful, like he was dancing. Every so often I sensed his fingers wrapping around his 9mm. Maybe he wasn’t as stupid as I initially thought. “Project Mildew.” He repeated. “You looked better on camera.”
Riss scoffed under her gag. I don’t think this asshole understood that on camera we were still human. It’s not like I was planning on going to a fashion show, but the shorts and t-shirt combo I had been wearing for weeks were comfortable.
Another step. Holding my breath, I gripped the ropes entangling my wrists and prayed they were physical enough to be an anchor.
“The testers who became the tested!” He continued. “Ohhh, man. I’ve heard about you. You’re famous here. Professor Quincy’s human lab rats! And successful ones too! You’ve got a lot of eyes on ya, ain’t cha? Too bad we gotcha first. Yeah, that’s right. We got here first.”
The guy laughed, and I felt both Riss and Kaian start to tremble. Fuck. Not now. I had to keep them at bay, even when my methods weren’t exactly stellar. I had to keep them from plunging. The rope around my wrists wasn’t too tight, and I knew I’d be able to get out of it easily. But that would require strength and energy which was for sure a trigger. There were a lot of triggers. Anger and pain. Sometimes even happiness.
It turned out basic human emotions was what this thing thrived off, so to avoid us going nuclear I had to stay stoic. No matter how much I wanted to tear off this asshole’s face, I had to keep myself together. It only took one slip up before things got really fucking brutal, really fucking fast. I wasn’t surprised my colleagues were losing control. Seth was quite the character, almost like a cartoon villain.
“Damn. I’ve been looking for guard dogs, but I think we’ve found something better, aye.” His palmy fingers wandered where they shouldn’t have, grazing over my left breast and delving under my shirt, causing my body to seize up, and then relaxing slightly when he pulled off my blindfold.
Blinking rapidly, I found myself eye-to-eye with the guy who had snatched us from the lab and thrown us into the back of his truck. I only got glimpses of him during our kidnapping, thanks to the ski-mask covering his face. Now I was looking at a man who was maybe in his early thirties with a balding head and a vicious cartoon smile twisted with mania. His eyes glinted when I found myself shuffling back, my gaze flashing to the Glock strapped to his side. Seth pulled off the other’s blindfolds.
“Now, I don’t want any funny business, alright? I watched that conference, and I know what you can do.” He stuck the barrel of his 9mm into my right temple, and next to me, Kaian ducked his head. “I’m watching you sweetheart.” Seth’s smile widened into a sickening grin. “If you start any weird shit, I’ll blow your brains out.”
I did my best to nod, and he ripped the tape off of our mouths too.
“Alright!” Seth straightened up, eyeing us like we were hunks of meat. “Nice to meet cha! I’ll be looking after you guys from now on.”
“Looking after us?” I spoke up, my voice gravelly. “You mean you’ll be cutting into us and selling our brains on the black market.”
Seth laughed like a fucking hyena. “What?” He scratched the back of his head with his gun. “Nah, that’s fucked up. We just want dogs.”
The man’s smile dampened, however, when his gaze settled on Kaian. Gesturing to my colleague with his gun, he scowled. “What’s wrong with him? Did Quincy rip out the guy’s tongue?” Before I could answer, Seth crouched in front of Kaian with narrowed eyes. “You all spoke at the conference,” he murmured. “Sure, your professor forced you, but you introduced yourselves. All of you did, even your fourth."
His smile curled. "All except him."
Fuck.
A shiver ripped its way down my spine when Seth shot out a finger and pointed at my colleague, and my mouth started to dry up.
Kaian was perfectly reading his lips, every word curled under his tongue, his eyes flicking back and forth to drink in each one, and each word brought more heat, brought more goosebumps pricking on my arms and legs. Kaian’s body pressed against mine was overheating.
I could feel the sensation coming over my body, like a wave of pressure. Riss made a squeaking noise, and I concentrated on Seth—who didn’t seem to notice it. I’ve come to realise, whether you are a human, an animal, or a badly fucked up experiment created in a lab, it doesn’t matter what you are capable of. If you initially appear weak and powerless, the stronger will single you out. Seth was enjoying himself so much he didn’t realise the skin in his cheeks start to crack from all the moisture being sucked from the air. Kaian didn’t move or speak, and that seemed to thrill him even more.
“Speak.” Seth snarled, leaning closer until he was inches from my colleagues face.
“Speak!”
“He’s deaf.” I gritted out.
Seth’s eyes darkened. “Deaf, huh? He better be worth it.” Kaian didn’t flinch when the man grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head back. He was completely stoic, like a puppet severed from his strings, allowing the asshole to stick his Glock between his eyes. I noticed the air move slightly around us, blurring and then coming together. It was a blink and you’ll miss it moment, and I had spent months being taught how to notice it. “Three and a half million dollars each, hmm?” Seth said in a breath, dragging the butt of his gun down my colleagues face, grazing it across the flesh of his neck. “I don’t remember paying for a fucking mute. You can learn to talk, kid."
Again, Kaian didn’t even acknowledge the man, and that infuriated him even more. “Hey!” Seth grabbed his jaw, forcing Kaian to look at him. “Are you fucking listening to me? Open your mouth. You either speak or you die. Like I said, I didn’t pay half a million each for a mute.”
Riss must have noticed the significant change in the air and temperature. Between the two of us, it was our job to stop Kaian from plunging.
“You didn’t spend shit on us.” She spoke up with a hiss. Riss was already panicked, and that wasn’t good. “You took us from the lab while everyone else was at the auction because you couldn’t afford us. Which makes me wonder how you afforded this fancy five star hotel."
I had to swallow a yell. I wanted her to stall, not give the guy a reason to start going trigger-happy.
Seth’s narrowed eyes found Riss’s. “Your professor and I had an agreement, sweetheart,” he said. "How 'bout I blow your brains out, huh? Since you like speaking out of turn. And I don’t like my doggies speaking out of turn.”
As Seth moved closer to her, I sensed Riss freaking out. It was too early for her to start the plunge, but she was the most unpredictable out of the four of us. Just like when she was human, her emotions were all over the place. Still though, she maintained a scowl and refused to move when Seth was practically eye to eye with her, hot breath grazing her cheeks. The man prodded her in her right temple. “I bet you’re filled to the brim with all that fancy ass Quincy serum." He dragged his filthy finger down her cheek, and she squeaked. “I’m pretty sure I can just crack you open and take it for myself.”
“Then…” Riss swallowed, choking on her words. I nudged her again, this time enough to shake the bed. But she wasn’t looking at me, her eyes starting to lose vacancy. Next to me, I knew the same thing was happening to Kaian.
But I wouldn’t look at him yet. If I did, I would lose it myself. “Then you’ll be losing valuable cargo.” I was surprised when her lips broke out into an equally psychotic grin. I had no doubt the plunge was taking hold of her. She leaned back almost casually, and the air seemed to move around her, seeping into her skin and taking an unyielding hold. "Considering the crazy lengths you took to capture all of us, I doubt you want that. You're all bark with no bite, asshole."
“Riss.” I said through my teeth, at the exact same time as the air-con behind us blew a fuse and crashed to the ground. “Shut up.”
The plunge started slow, but even when it was barely a prickle in the air it was already beginning its slow purging of every particle.
I watched a mosquito that had been in mid-flight towards the fancy looking lamp on the nightstand bleed into invisible folds of energy which were becoming progressively more visible to the naked eye the more my friends plunged. I could see it perfectly. Like the world around us was beginning to splinter apart. Ignoring Riss, who could stand up for herself, Seth’s attention went back to Kaian, who couldn’t. Or at least that was his façade. Kaian had been labelled the most dangerous out of all of Quincy’s experiments. But it wasn’t just because of the plunge.
“I’m talking to you!” Seth prodded my colleague’s chest, and a wave of heat slammed into me, stealing my breath away. I watched, knowing it was all going to be over in matter of seconds. The front-man grabbed my colleague by the collar of his shirt and yanked him violently to his feet. “You’ve got two seconds to speak,” He spat, before slamming the butt of his gun into Kaian’s head. “Speak, or I give you a frontal lobotomy.” Seth continued in seething breaths, and got closer and closer, failing to notice he was already losing. But so were we.
His lips split into a grin. “Speak, or I start asking questions. Like why I bought four of you— and there are three of you.” He poked the metal prongs sticking from Kaian’s head. I liked to call them horns to make them sound cooler. But in reality, they were agonising when I was human—two pieces of metal drilled directly into the top of my skull. They had been a part of me for a while, but I wasn’t going to forget how they had been forcefully inserted into my skull. While I screamed. “Three. Little. Freaks.” Seth’s lips were practically kissing my colleague's temple.
He prodded the metal horns, and Kaian’s lip twitched. “Without their fourth.”
That struck a chord in both of them—and I knew if I didn’t do something, like right then, a fate worse than death awaited all of us.
"Leave him alone.” I found my voice tangled in my throat. But I could barely bring myself to speak. I felt like I was being fucking suffocated by two separate energy’s around me slowly but surely ripping atoms apart. In the corner of my eye, things were starting to melt into the ground, disappearing completely. The carpet in the room was suddenly singed black, and the wave continued, slicing off the tips of my hair I had only just managed to grow back. “He can’t hear you, asshole.” I said through lingering breaths. “Professor Quincy said he was deaf.”
"Deaf?” Seth let out a belly laugh. “He's my new guard dog and he's expected to fucking bark.” His lip curled,” Now. Speak.”
A second went by.
Then another.
Absent-mindedly, I licked the taste of rusty coins from the corner of my lip.
“I said speak!” Seth slammed the butt of his gun into my colleagues face again, but this time his words broke apart in his throat. I sensed every individual letter shattering into pieces when his body was flung back by an invisible force. I knew that invisible force. I knew the phantom fingers wrapping around his throat and slamming the man into the wall until he was screaming, begging, his feet hovering several feet from the ground. Kaian didn’t even have to pull apart his restraints.
Riss was already screaming, turning to my colleague. Her hands were free, and she was signing desperately. Don’t. Her eyes were wide, lips twisted. Because she knew exactly what would follow. Seth, somehow, managed a spluttered laugh between broken teeth like tiny yellow chicklets sticking from his mouth. “Oh, you don’t like that do you?” More brilliant red spurted like a fountain, and yet the asshole kept laughing. “Look at you! Quincy didn’t hold back on you did he?”
I’m not saying my colleague enjoyed crushing Seth’s windpipe without even lifting a finger—but that is exactly what I am saying.
With a simple incline of Kaian’s head, the front-man was rupturing from the inside, choking on organs erupting into his throat.
And like it thrilled him, the idea of death, the idea of dying at the hands of a supernatural force, Seth continued to roar with laughter.
My colleague was pressing pressure points which shouldn’t be pressed. Especially pressure points in a genetically fucked up man whose trauma had turned him into the wildcard of our group. The amount of shit we had all gone through inside Quincy’s lab was enough to send us into insanity. Except my colleague, according to Quincy, hadn’t responded correctly at the beginning. And being a researcher myself with rabbits before I became a lab rat, I knew the only way to get results was to cause pain.
I never initiated that pain in the rabbits, but I was an enabler. I watched my professor torture these subjects to make sure they were prepped and ready for the serum. Maybe our karma was that the exact same happened to us. But to Kaian, it was on a much larger scale. I was never briefed on what exactly happened to him during the months from March to June. Though it was obvious he had had it the worst. I didn’t know why. I didn’t understand why his brain was different, or maybe he was more resilient. He had been better at fighting it.
Kaian hated two things. Being kidnapped and said kidnappers mentioning our fourth member. And it was those things which made him plunge. Which made him lose all sense of humanity and morality and emotion, essentially turning him into a mindless beast. That was one half of the plunge. “Do you want me to say his name?” Seth coughed up spattered scarlet, and I could already see what was happening to him. Kaian had done enough damage externally. Internally, however? That was another story.
Internally, I sensed every organ starting to peel apart and splinter, bursting into nothing. It started with pressure on his heart which was slow and dragged so he felt everything. Then the brain began to expand. When blood ran in sharp rivulets from every orifice, and Seth screamed, howling like an animal, I looked away, just in time for the rest of the man’s body to pop like a balloon, and a chunk of his skull to land right in front of me. Riss started screaming, and I was half aware of a slight taint of warm blood like paint splattering the side of my face.
When I twisted back to look at him, his body was still hovering without a head, a skeletal hand lifting and waving at us.
Riss dropped to her knees, her head in her hands, trembling, and I followed her, trying to get some semblance of control.
“It’s been a week.” Riss whispered, sobbing, swiping at her eyes with bloody hands, making them worse. “Oh god, what if… what if I was right? What if we’re too late? I knew this was… this was a bad idea. But nobody listens to Riss. I knew he wouldn’t come. Fuck. I knew it.”
“Calm down.” I said. “Concentrate on happy birthday, okay? Do you want me to sing it with you?”
Riss spluttered. “We’re going to dieeee,” she sang. “Can you feel it? I’m plunging, Wren. God, it feels so fucking good.”
She knocked her head into the wall with crazy eyes.
It took exactly half a second for our brains to decide whether we were going to fight it or give in to it.
“Hey. Riss.” I spoke in reassuring hisses, grasping her shoulders and forcing her to look at me. “Happy birthday.” I choked out. “Three times. It has to be three times.” When she didn’t respond, I shook her until her cloudy found mine. Riss was plunging. Like Kaian. The blood vessels in her eyes had popped, her lips cracking apart. If I concentrated, I could see her bare knees starting to melt into air, wisps of her hair starting to disintegrate. “Do it, now!”
I shrieked when Kaian finally let go of the man’s body, and it hit the ground in front of us like a bad joke. “Happy birthday.” I said the mantra over and over again, shaking my colleague until she was responding. “Three times, Riss. Right now.” When she shook her head, screeching, I grabbed her hands and entangled her fingers with mine. “I’ll start, okay? And you follow me.”
To my surprise, Riss nodded—and for the fraction of a second, my colleague, or what was left of her, stopped bleeding into visible particles which were now around us, like a glistening wave of ocean water enveloping us. “Happy birthday to you…” I whispered, squeezing her hands tighter, relieved when she repeated the verse. When I was sure Riss was anchoring herself, I turned to Kaian who was sitting cross legged in front of the mutilated body.
My gaze went to the door. It would only be matter of time before Seth’s goons figured out something was wrong, and the last thing I wanted was them to walk in mid-plunge. “Happy birthday to…” I continued, allowing Riss to fill in a name—before focusing on my other colleague. I’m not exaggerating when I say Kaian was covered head to toe in blood, like it was his canvas, like he belonged in it. It was too late for him. I could already see that in his vacant and foggy eyes and playful smile that he had accepted the plunge.
Willingly.
“Gross.” Kaian signed, pulling a face. He turned his nose up at mutilated flesh and bone, and I had a hard time looking him in the eye.
I exhaled out a breath.
“Kaian.” I spoke and signed calmly, but my skin was prickling and scalding. I could feel the flesh on the backs of my hands peeling off. “Happy birthday.” I made sure to emphasize every word clearly, even when I knew he could read every word from my mouth without even trying.
He started to shake his head, and I glimpsed that panic, the trauma of the last several months starting to bloom behind his eyes.
“No, you have to do it.” I hissed out. “Look around you.” I signed. “If you don’t do it, we’re going to plunge.”
I was practically slamming my hands together with frustration, but he shook his head, his gaze going elsewhere.
“What if I…” He paused signing, his lip curling, “Like it?”
Do you know when you know something is wrong but you keep shoving it to the back of your head until you can’t ignore it anymore?
Yeah, this was one of those moments.
I loved Kaian. I loved him like a brother. But there was something about his face, the way he delved his fingers into startling red pooling on the carpet, that made me want to get as far away from him as possible. Swallowing hard, I shook away the thought and grabbed hold of his hand.
Once I did, the air around us wavered, and flesh on his cheeks started to flake. “Happy birthday…” Riss, who was sitting with what was left of her knees pressed to her chest, choked out a sob, “This isn’t working… Wren. This isn’t fucking working. I can’t.. I can’t fucking do this.” When she beat the floor with crumbling fists, the whole room jolted. The ground beneath us shook, and Kaian shot me a panicked look. Even plunging, he was still scared.
And I didn’t blame him.
After telling Riss to continue, I managed a smile and signed, “Earthquake.”
My colleague’s lips split into an unusual grin, and he mouthed the words, “Yeah right.”
With steely eyes, Kaian’s smile faded and for once he actually looked serious. “Jem.” He signed. “I don’t think he’s coming for us.”
Ignoring a conversation I really didn’t want to have, I focused on the body. “Check his pockets,” I signed back. “We don’t have much time.”
I pulled out a passport, some Indonesian currency, and an old plane ticket.
Checking his phone didn’t help. I was just reminded the boarders were still shut, and this asshole had a whole group chat gloating about his so-called guard dogs.
“Wren!”
When I lifted my head, Riss’s wild eyes were flickering around the room, drinking in parts of reality being sucked away.
Her mouth became lopsided, lips drooping like my colleague was having a stroke from the pressure building around her.
See, I describe this in a lot of detail like this lasted around five to minutes long. But no, all of this happened in the space of around two minutes. When footsteps sounded outside, and Kaian’s head snapped to the door, his eyes darkening, a sour paste crept up my throat.
Professor Quincy didn’t just take away our humanity. He twisted us into something resembling an animal inside a human body.
We spoke and acted and felt like humans. But once a stranger was nearby, or footsteps on territory we had unknowingly snatched as our own, we turned feral. I already knew Kaian was a whole new level of unpredictable and unhinged after what the experiments had done to his brain—but seeing what he was capable of even before the plunge, I froze.
The world was coming apart around me and I was plunging, but I couldn’t move. I watched him get to his feet, his fingers curling into fists at his sides. The footsteps were closing in on us getting louder and louder, and Kaian could sense every vibration. I could tell with the way his lips twitched, a whole new darkness clouding his eyes and stripping away what was left of his humanity. I had seconds.
There was no use in happy birthday
I remember jumping to my feet and diving on my colleagues back, bringing him to the floor like a lion would a deer. When the two of us hit the ground, I watched Riss rupture in front of me, her face glitching, becoming moving static, before her body followed. “Seth?” The voice caused Kaian to attempt to wrench out of my grasp, but I had a firm hold of him. The first three weeks of being inhuman, I was taught how to kill people. Kill my fellow subjects.
Apologising profusely into hair which smelled of blood and dirt and Quincy’s lab, I struggled to keep myself from plunging, knowing the room was already half gone, and I was going to get caught in it anyway. “I’m sorry. Fuck. I’ll make it up to you, okay? You should have sang happy fucking birthday, but you are so goddamn stubborn,” I sobbed with what I hoped was reassurance. I knew he and Riss and Jem would do exactly the same to me.
“So fucking stubborn.” I couldn’t help myself, nestling my face into his hair and heaving in breaths while my skin started to peel away.
“Just take a deep breath and close your eyes, okay?” I whispered into his flushed skin. “We’ll find him, Kaian. I promise you.”
He stopped struggling, and for a moment I thought my colleague was actually listening to me before the ceiling began to crack apart.
The ground rumbled again, and I lost my grip on the guy before forcing him onto his back and straddling his legs. Just when his free arm was flying out with intention to send me crashing into the back wall and ending all reality in that room, encompassing us, I snapped Kaian’s neck.
And with the last of my energy, I fucking screamed while my own flesh melted from my face while the plunge enveloped us both.
…
…
…
March 2020.
It was on the 17th day of captivity inside a cell made of glass panes meant to keep in rabbits, when I met an unlikely visitor. There comes a time when giving up is better than screaming until you have lost all of the breath in your lungs, and your throat feels like sandpaper. I hadn’t eaten in days, and what was left of my meals, curry and mash potatoes, painted my cell walls—a real work of art if I concentrated and imagined carving shapes inside congealing potato and day-old curry.
So far, I had tests. I had tests which were an invasion of privacy which I will not expand upon. I had tests where my professor’s gloved fingers ran over my scalp and marked places where he was going to insert the same headset on the rabbits. He didn’t listen to my cries.
He didn’t tell me where my colleagues were. I was nothing to him. I was a subject stripped of my rights. So, I was doing the little I could to protest. Even if it was small, I was refusing to eat. I knew subjects had to eat to stay healthy—to get results. The piece of shit wasn’t going to get much further if I died of starvation after days of no eating. How sad. I was on my second day of refusing to eat, and my gut felt like it was folding in on itself. To combat this, I sat against clinical white walls with my knees pressed to my chest, and my head buried in my lap. I ignored the rumbling of my stomach and my aching joints, the weird squiggly lines in my vision when I bothered lifting my head.
It’s weird. In that cage, I was the coldest I’ve ever felt on an Indonesian island. I didn’t remember the temperature affecting the outcome of the rabbit subjects, but maybe it was different for humans. Still though, I had my solace. I imagined standing in glittering water, bioluminescent plankton washing over my bare toes. I imagined the full moon bathing the sky in warm light, and it was enough to make me feel safe— even so far from home. Far from normality. If I squeezed my eyes shut, and envisioned wading deeper into the shallows, until the water was lapping my thighs, I could calm myself and tell myself to breathe.
Then the water was at my waist, the panic subsiding. Neck deep, ice cold water filling my mouth and suffocating my nose. But if I thought past it, if I plunged myself into the deep, I could trick my brain into imagining that I was escaping, swimming across the wide expanse of ocean. All the way back home to my family.
I was brought out of my imagination when a scratching noise pulled me back to my senses, and I was back inside my cage.
Lifting my head, I searched for someone. But there was nobody there.
“Over here, genius.”
The voice startled me. It wasn’t quite a voice, more of an attempt. Though I could definitely make out the language bursting out. When my eyes swivelled, I found myself staring at a blur of white. I squinted.
No, not just a blur of white. It was Subject Fifteen. The rabbit which had stolen Jem’s heart, and possibly taken control of his mind.
For a moment I tried to blink myself awake, but no matter how many times I pinched myself, the rabbit was still there, pressing its tiny face against glass, and I can see blood staining its fur. Initially, I thought he was a hallucination until I blinked, and he was still very much there.
He was part of reality, lightly smushing its bloody mouth against glass panes. The sight of dark red tainting its fur twisted my gut, and I had a thought which suddenly wouldn’t leave me alone. If the serum did that to the rabbits, what exactly would it do to us? “Well.” Fifteen’s beady eyes found mine, and I swore its rabbit mouth twisted into a grin. It's voice mimicked both me and my colleagues, the perfect imitation of us. I could hear all of us, even the professor, in every curl of its words.
It wasn’t just intelligent, it was something else—something fucking monstrous. Which should have been put down.
No. It never should have been a subject at all.
I slowly crawled towards it and held my breath. I must have looked pretty fucking funny to Fifteen. I was the tester who had become the tested. The one who wore the lab-coat, to the rat forced into light blue scrub like clothes sticking to me. I can’t say I wasn’t curious, though. Baffled.
I was inches from a fucking talking rabbit, and the last time I checked rabbits weren't supposed to talk. Their mouths haven't evolved to form words. But somehow it was figuring out speech. Fifteen was learning fast. That terrified me. After several attempts at speech, it had almost fully mimicked a human’s expression. It cocked its head, and in Jem’s voice, asked,
“Well? How does it feel to be the one in the cage?"
“You’re not real.” I told the rabbit which sounded like Jem.
To my shock, it laughed, and its bloody mouth almost formed a snarl. “Are you sure about that?”
I crawled over to the screen, pressing my hands against glass. “How does…” I licked my lips. “How does what feel?”
The rabbit’s eyes followed me and I shuffled back, a sour paste creeping its way up my throat. “You were always my least favorite,” it murmured. Its nose twitched. “I think you humans call it karma—- and whether you believe in it or not, every action must have an equal reaction.” It moved closer, pressing its face against the glass. I noticed the fur around it’s mouth was stained red. “You drilled into my head, Wren. You hurt me day after day and hid behind a sense of morality that you were a good person because it was for the good of the human race.” Fifteen edged closer. “I wish I could feel sorry for you. I wish I could feel the sympathy you humans use as a pathetic fucking barrier. But aren’t you just… the cutest?”
The thing was mimicking my own words from the start of the experiments. I had pressed my face against the plastic cage, peering at Subject Fifteen, who was hiding in the corner. Quincy told me to turn off my humanity, but that didn’t stop me as seeing them as cute little fury bunnies. It never crossed my mind that Fifteen could hear exactly what we had been saying.
I thought back to a few months back when I had picked it up from its cage and nuzzled its fur. “Aww! Isn’t he just the cutest?”
Fifteen knew the exact moment I gave up, my hands slipping from the glass. It gestured to the band aid uncomfortably sticking to my scalp.
“Nice horns.”
“You have intelligence.” I whispered through a sob. I leaned closer. “Quincy. You need to tell me what he’s doing to the others.”
“You already know what he’s planning to do, Wren.” The rabbit chuckled, lifting a paw in a mocking wave. “Why are you asking me, hmm? What if I am in fact an illusion? You’re not eating. Your mind has been played with. Are you sure you are really speaking to a talking rabbit?”
It cocked its head. “How do you know I’m not Jem?”
“Or Riss.” It’s voice twisted into hers, and then the professor’s.
“I’m losing my mind.” I whispered, pinching the flesh on my bare thighs. “I’m losing my fucking mind.”
“Maybe.” It said, “or you’re witnessing the consequences of your actions. You did this to me if you remember. I told you to stop hurting me, but you didn’t hear me, Wren. You never heard me. Only him. And when I was strong enough, I made him force you to finally listen to me.”
Jem, I thought hysterically.
“You little—“ I slammed my hands into the glass, unable to resist a snarl when it turned to hop away. “Hey! Wait! What did you do to Jem?”
“I didn’t do anything,” the rabbit responded in a scoff. “Your professor, however… have you ever heard of teleportation?”
I stared at it blinking rapidly, until it laughed. “No, not that kind! I mean the new kind. I’m talking about what Quincy is trying to perfect.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it.” The rabbit’s nose twitched, “What you have been working on and researching—what if it was possible in humans?”
I shook my head. There was no way. If professor Quincy wanted to test on us, it would likely be psychokinesis which was possible in rabbits.
“That’s impossible.” I managed to grit out. “With rabbits it’s one thing, and it’s barely even stable! With humans… it’s...”
It’s barbaric.
The rabbits which went through that procedure and survived… their brains were drastically altered. They were never the same.
That’s what I wanted to say.
I trailed off at the thought of forcing a living and breathing human to shatter apart into atoms and forcefully moved from one place to another. I remembered Subject 12. The tiny little thing coming apart slowly, piece by piece, a mixture of fur, blood and bones filling its cage.
No way.
There was no way my psycho professor would attempt it in humans.
The rabbit hopped away. “Huh. Well, you’re dumber than I thought. I guess I’ll be going if you’re just going to look at me like that.”
When I thought it was going to leave me, the furry little shit twisted its head. “Do you want to know a secret?”
It hopped right over to the glass. “Come closer, and I’ll tell you. I want you to get really close so I can see how adorable you are.”
Too desperate to feel humiliated, I swallowed a shriek and pressed my ear to the glass.
“Jem was the first.” The rabbit started to say but was cut off by the speaker above me crackling, a familiar voice slicing into my ears.
“Good morning. I will be with you shortly. I would like you to raise your hands above your head. I will be administering a gas.”
At the corner of my eye, Fifteen was disappearing behind the corner, and I let out a frustrated hiss. “Professor Quincy.” I managed to force my voice into professional, despite the rabbits voice in my mind. Jem was the first to what? I hadn’t seen either of my colleagues in weeks— or heard from them. I swallowed hard. “Professor Quincy, Subject Fifteen is on the premises and is showing signs of heightened intelligence!”
The rabbit tskked. “And to think I was going to help you. Good luck with the experiments. I will have a front row seat.”
Before it left me in puddling static however, the rabbit didn’t hesitate to drop a bombshell which sent me crumpling to my knees.
“Oh, yeah! I forgot to say.” Subject Fifteen’s words slammed into me as I was choked once again with gas filling my mouth and nose.
“Jem was the first to die.” It said in a sing-song symphony of all of our voices, “And you don’t even know the best part!”

Previous part
Hello again, I know it's been a long time since my last post and I'm sorry for the lack of update. I thought my story wasn't that interesting enough so I decided not to continue updating you with this, but recently y found out about one of those videos on youtube that narrates these stories with a robotic voice, the comments had a lot of people wanting to know more about what's happening to me with the house.
I was fixing some grammar issues before hitting the "Post" button when the book fell from the shelf, and then I wrote that sentence before standing up and reading the book. The cover was made of very worn-out leather, lots of hands may have passed through it several times to feel the texture. I opened it and read the title on the first page: "Around the world in eighty days" by Jules Verne.
Nothing happened during the first five minutes, and then the floor started trembling for a few seconds. Just when I thought that was it, it started again louder and harder with a whistle that almost broke my eardrums.
The book closed on my hands and silence returned to the room. After that, I had to sit down for a minute because I felt my heart was stopping.
The house didn't let that night slide either, I heard steps coming from the hall all night. They were lightweight and pointy, like the ones a woman with high heels would make walking down a wooden floor. It stopped after 1 am.
Now you know how that day ended.
I would lie to you if I say that I have been living in the house all this time along, but also if I say otherwise. Truth is, I took rule 9 and reach its limit most of the time staying most of the days of the month outside and spending no more than 2 days here. The first couple of months were easy, I slept in my best friend's house creating excuses for not being here: fumigations, paintings, repairs... You named it.
The rest of the time I took advantage of my work, some new clients were those elderly businessmen who prefer seeing someone face-to-face rather than a screen. Sadly, that contract ended and I couldn't come up with more excuses to not be here.
I kept writing about everything that happened to me since. You will find below an edition of the most interesting things that happened.
December 2nd / 2022
You know that feeling when you are returning back home or school after a long vacation. That moment when you are just turning the key of the door, knowing that time is over and your life must return to its normal course... But still, you can feel some sort of joy.
This is not my case. This is supposed to be my home, the opportunity to start my life in the best way possible... And there was me, a couple of minutes ago, standing, thinking about my options and creating ideas while getting closer to the door.
When I entered the house everything was exactly how I left it, with a little bit of dust. This time I came with some groceries, I had to eat during the week and think about what I was going to do with the house. Also bought some food for Brook, he saved my laptop and I never rewarded him.
I put my fingers in my mouth and let out a big whistle. For the first 10 seconds nothing happened, the sound echoed through the walls of the first floor and I was standing again in silence. Then I saw the big ball of hair, waving its tail, running towards me from the living room.

• I'm sorry it took me so long to bring you something, Brook. -Said I while trying to stop him from licking my face.

I walked to the kitchen and poured the bag of food into the named bowl. I had a weird mix of feeling while watching him eat.
A normal dog would have died without food or water, the most probable thing is that he was feeding up from moss creatures or the guests. I felt the same looking at the silver bell for the butler. Getting caught by them must be worse than any other creature here... at least they are on my side.
I left Brook to eat and started cooking myself some food. It was 4:33pm, and cooking and cleaning would take me at least 35 minutes, but the kitchen has a window that leads to the backyard.
Let me tell you, that thing outside has some sort of pressure on your curiosity. It knows that once you see it and recognize it you are done, the effort I had to make to not look at it last time was huge and I was only passing through for some instants. So I took the tablecloth and cover the window, it was an opaque white so I couldn't see through.
That worked very well. I didn't feel any curiosity about what was on the other side of the cloth while cooking, looks like the rule never contemplated blocking the view to the backyard. My day ended without any issues, I went upstairs and slept after some hours.
I wish I could end this entry here, saying that my arrival at the house was good and didn't have any problem at all. I must be crazy to think that this place would have some sort of patience... or that the entities would give me a day of grace.
The next morning I went downstairs around 8 am to make myself some coffee, and that's when I saw it. The floor in the kitchen was a mess, a giant puddle of that black substance coming from the insides of the lady when the Butler mashed her head on the bookshelf. The puddle had a trace leading to the backdoor of the house, on the way I saw some irregular scratches on the floor and the doorframe had these... handmarks. Whatever it was, it didn't want to go to the backyard.
The cloth was still hanging, and when I read what was on it the message was clear.
"Bach won't come"
January 1st / 2023
I hope you had a good new year's eve.
Normally, people use this date as an excuse to throw a big party, either with friends or family, creating the best environment to close a lap and begin a new one.
Yesterday, I spent all day at my friend's house. Everyone cheered when the bells rang, and his family hugged me and wished me a good year. After that I had to get home on foot, there weren't any drivers in that zone.
Turning the key front door key led me to the worst scenario I have ever been in. It's impossible to quantify the number of people that were inside the house, but more than 50 would be a good guess. Everywhere you looked at would see people dressed as aristocrats, everyone cheered and clapped after seeing me. A tall man, dressed in a red suit full of sequins and another of those ridiculous wigs came to me.

• Arthur, mon ami! -Cheered before hugging me-. Where have you been? Let me guess, you were with that belle femme you talked to me about the other day... What was her name... Madelyn? Come on, tell me abut her charmes et capacités.
• I...
• ¡Monsieur Gérard! -Screemed a woman while running towards us-. What kind of questions are those? Excuse us, Arthur. We are very thankful to spend the beginning of the new year with you.

Then, the woman grabbed the man by the forearm and pulled him away.
I knew it was a matter of time before this turned into a disaster, but also didn't know what would happen if I left the house with so many guests inside.
During December I had lots of encounters with these guests, I was able to persuade them to leave the house 90% of the time, but the other 10% left... Well, I left it hands of the Buttler.
Nevertheless, I started hiding objects to use as weapons to defend myself in case I lost the bell or if Mr Bach decided not to help me anymore.
I slowly began to walk towards the large sofa in the living room, between the cushions was an axe I bought at a local hardware store, even asked the guy to sharpen the edge as much as he could.
The voices started to fade away and the eyes of the guest started to focus on me. I grab my backpack and pulled out the bell, the sound vibrated throughout the whole house, making the echoes the last noise I heard before complete silence.

• Good night, master Samuel. How is your night going? -Asked Mr Bach, who appeared to be behind me all this time.
• Hi Mr Bach, it was good until now. -Answered I while pulling the axe between the cushions.- It's time for the guests to leave.

The Buttler looked around the whole house, the guests were now standing still with their eyes fixed on me.

• Such a pity to end this beautiful celebration.

One of them ran towards me, screaming with that unhuman voice, but was intercepted by Mr Bach's glove, grabbing his face and throwing it against the chimney. All of the other creatures started screaming and contorting, the sound of bones breaking and appendages ripping away the skin almost drowned my whistle. Their mouths opened until the jaw was broken, showing now a set of endless sharp teeth.
Brook charged against one that was bout to get me on my back. After biting it, he shook his head breaking the tissues and spreading that black substance over the floor and walls.
I tried to maintain my position, Mr. Bach and Brook got my back so if I need to worry only to keep my front safe. But none of us expected one of those things to crawl through the ceiling, it grabbed me with those claws but I managed to hit it with the handle of the axe on the head. It threw me over the creatures, landing on the other side of the house near the kitchen.
A group of teeth and claws was keeping me away from my only chance to survive the night, and the only way to escape was through the stairs. I ran upstairs, the space was narrow so the creatures could only go one at a time.
I managed to get to the second floor after 50 steps, and without losing time I went through the hall as fast as I could. But one of the things managed to get me on my feet. I fell to the ground and dropped the axe, and then something happened. The door of the bathroom opened, hitting the creature and leaving it stunned for a few seconds. That allowed me to grab the axe and cut the arm that was grabbing me.
Now back on my feet I reached the window and jumped through the crystal. This time I fell on the couch immediately, where a white glove pulled me by the arm making me stand again.

• Pardon my daring, master Samuel. -Said Mr Bach calmly, he neither sweat nor dishevelled.- But the current situation requires your immediate attention, you shall rest afterwards.

I stood strong this time, taking care not only of my front but the things above me, grabbing my axe so hard that my hands started to burn.
I don't know how much we were there. An axe wasn't the best object to use as a weapon, but one good blow was enough to get rid of those things. However, two of them managed to wound me with their claws on the left shoulder and leg. But thanks to Brook and Mr Bach I had no serious wounds.
A beam of light went through the main frame, and the last howl was shut by a swing of the axe, beginning the first dawn of the year.
The first floor was filled with that black substance, the bodies were on top of each other making it almost impossible to walk through the living room. I collapsed on the couch, dropping the axe, which now can be used more as a hammer.

• I'm sorry that your celebration finished this way, master Samuel. -Said the Buttler while sweeping away some rests of his suit.

I wanted to cry, but my fatigue allowed me to only catch my breath while looking dead at the ceiling. Mr Bach approached with some bandages, helping me with my wounds.

• I believe that after this night you shall consider not being outside your room after hours. -Said him while staring with some abetment and an ironic smile.- I will clean the first floor, please go upstairs and have a rest, after that you shall give something to the canine.

Brook barked and waved its tail, he was also covered in that dirty stuff. I stood up and walked to the stairs, with hatred in my eyes as I was approaching a voice interrupted my thoughts.

• I almost forgot... Happy new year, master Samuel.

January 12th / 2023
After almost two weeks new year's incident, things went pretty normal. I only had two encounters with the guests and both of them were easy to persuade. Whatever lies in the backyard have been more active after the incident with the curtain, before that It only appeared to be a person standing at the back but now moves through the place taking different forms.
This creature is the one I fear the most, it's the only one I don't have any plan for if it decides to become hostile. Following the rule should keep me safe from it, but I'm not so sure knowing that it's capable of entering the house whenever it wants.
I always prepare my dinner before 5pm and leave it inside the fridge, so when the time comes I only have to spend the necessary in the kitchen. I was getting used to its behaviour... and It noticed.
A couple of minutes ago I went downstairs to grab my food. On my periphery saw how it was moving in the backyard, I don't know if I focused on him more than necessary or if it decided to remind me of something... But without any warning, it ran up towards the window, I turned away and covered my eyes to avoid any curiosity.

• S...aaaa...muuu...eeeeeel. -Babbled. I could hear it crawling on the window, it was like something wet was savouring behind the crystal. D...o youuuu... thiiiinnnnk... yoooou arreeee....a....maaaaan....noow? -Asked starting to sound like my father, it was like a radio tuning the correct frequency... slowly getting it right.

I had to crawl to the stair. The curses weren't that creative, but I lost my appetite when that thing started to tell private things and secrets about me with my father's voice.
February 1st - 2th / 2023
Edit: These were two entries I wrote when my best friend came to visit me. Since I bought it, Johnny wanted to come and take a look around the house. As I mentioned before, I made lots of excuses to avoid it, but by that time I ran out of "good reasons" to say no.
February 1st / 2023
After showing him the first floor Johnny approached the stairs.
I supposed this was going to happen, I read rule No. 9 the day before and pondered about it and concluded that was more like a suggestion... But I rang the bell just to be sure.

• Good morning, master Samuel. How can I help you today?
• Good morning, Mr Bach. Do you think is a good idea to bring some guests to the second floor?
• If I recall right, which I always do, you had a lady here in the studio. Sadly, the discussion did not end very well.
• ...an expected guess.
• Oh, pardon me... Well, master Samuel, in that case... if your guest does not have any handicaps you could bring them here without any inconvenience.

That confirmed my doubts regarding the knowledge of Mr Bach about the rules and its entities.

• Do you want me to prepare something for you and your guest? -Asked him.
• Coffee would be great.
• Very well. By the way, I was wondering where did you get the jacket you were wearing two days ago, that wine-coloured leather looks very good.

He left the room without saying any more words.
I was counting Johnny's steps. I trusted his speed, so I didn't have to worry about that. After 17 steps we reached the second floor, he just said that the house looked smaller from the outside.
We entered the studio and he was amazed by the great library. Both of us started working on our laptops, talking from time to time to rest from the work.
10 minutes after entering, Mr Bach came. Holding a tray with cups and a plate with butter cookies.

• Are you kidding me? -Asked Johnny-. A butler? How much are you earning?
• Well... Several things happened in the company and I had a raise, this house is big so I use it to hire Mr Bach to help me keep it clean. He only works halftime.

Although I indeed had a raise it was not enough to pay for a Buttler, thank god Johnny did not ask any more questions about it during the day. I thought that would be a peaceful day, but suddenly a book fell from the shelf.

• Ugh, I need to fix that shelf. -Said I while walking towards the book.
• What are you reading?
• Uhm... The Canterville Ghost. -Answered I while reading the first page.
• Alright.

I was worried while reading the book, if Johnny decided to engage in talking it would have been impossible for me to keep focusing on the book. Some murmuring started to fill the room, like a main whispering about its suffering.

• Did you hear that? -Asked him.
• What? -Asked me without looking away from the book.
• I don't know, I sounded like a man.
• Oh, sometimes the pipes make that sound, the house is old and I'm already used to it.

Johnny was looking around for some time and I prayed that he didn't want to ask any more about it, thankfully he didn't give it more importance and went back to his work. After some minutes the book closed and I returned it to its shelf.
The day ended without any incidents.
February 2nd / 2023
Throughout our life is normal to be disappointed by our friends. Everyone makes mistakes and sometimes we expect too much from the people around us, even more, when they are close to us. But... How can you blame them when they're victims of paranormal things?
Johnny came again to my house, he told me on the phone that they were going to paint his room today and he enjoyed working on my study. He always helped me when I need it, so I couldn't say no... Now I think I should have.
It is said that the most dangerous road a driver can face is the one he frequents the most. Confidence plays against them, he gets cocky and causes an accident. All of this was happening as I was pushing Johnny upstairs.

• What's going on? -He asked, but the rotten and twisted hall answered for me.

While we were running I warned him to not look into the rooms, but he did it anyway. I jumped first through the window, but Johnny doubted for a second.
Then, we both fell on the couches of the living room. Johnny was in shock, he couldn't stop screaming and asking questions, but when turned around I saw what happens when you doubt even for a second.
He couldn't feel it because of the adrenaline, but his back was all shredded. One second was enough for what lured in the stairs to lacerate through his clothes and flesh. It was a matter of time before he start feeling the pain... or bleeding out, so I rang the bell.
Mr Bach was ordered to treat Johnny's wounds, and so he complied. He told me Johnny was lucky, the cuts were almost irregular enough to be impossible to treat.
After some minutes Johnny was calmed, maybe because of the blood loss, so we could talk normally. I told him everything about the house, the strange rules that Alex gave me and the reason for all the excuses. For the first time I didn't feel alone, I was free of this burden and broke into tears.

• Damn... Why don't sell it?
• I tried after almost a hundred guests killed me in the new year. -Answered I while cleaning my tears-. They decide to "look for other options" after looking at the house's history.
• What if you sell the terrain to the bank?
• The house must have an owner, a person... The last time I tried to outsmart the rules didn't end quite well.

Night came and I told Johnny he needed to leave. The last thing I wanted was him overnight here. After gathering his thing we went to the door, suddenly he hugged me and told me that everything will be alright.
That made me feel better, knowing that I wasn't alone anymore. I went upstairs relieved, I have been struggling with this burden all alone and I had my friend right there the whole time. That wasn't going to solve my problems but at least it will drop some of the weights off my shoulders.
Rule No. 9 states that people will forget about the existence of the Buttler and the dog... But there is something I must add tomorrow. The true danger of the house doesn't lie in the uninvited guests, the thing in the backyard or what lurks on the staircase...
1 New Message
Johnny: Jesus dude, It's still awesome that you have your own house. I love the study on the sec0ond floor, I feel more productive on it. Do you mind if I go tomorrow again?
March 23th/2023
I never thought I would say this... but I got used to the house.
Running upstairs has become very common, even though it only happens every other day and I even started to enjoy some of the conversations with the guests before... taking them out.
My last entrances to this diary have been two or three sentences, so there is no point in writing them here... but today something happened:
I was working on the study when a book fell. As I said, all of these things have become very normal to me, and in this particular case, I see this as a pause to relieve my mind. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", I took it and sat down starting from the beginning.
I usually put my phone on "do not disturb" mode while I'm at the study, this prevents me from distracting either by work or the reading sessions... And I think I will start leaving it outside of the room.
I may have looked away for two seconds, but that was enough to piss off that thing. A deafening roar filled the room, the wall behind me was destroyed by a wind rush and I was thrown out.
I landed far away, rolled through some fields and finally stopped near a tree. The sky was pitch black, barely illuminated by some flashes of lightning each second. Behind me was a giant tornado, heading towards my direction.
The room was up on a hill, it was like a surrealistic painting of a study built in the middle of a field. I ran towards it as fast as I could.
I felt the tornado's force pulling me while running uphill, and as I was about to reach the room I tripped with something and fell to the ground.
Some branches grabbed my shoes and a rotten hay face was emerging from the ground and looked back at me.

• Comeeee with us Dorothy -Whispered.

The tornado was getting closer, so I just untied my shoe and ran away. I jumped over the desk, grabbed the phone and the laptop and headed towards the door, hearing the room getting ripped as I was passing through.
I sat down on the floor, taking a moment to get my breath.
It was there when I read the message that almost cost my life.
[Unknown number]: Hey Samuel, it's Alex... We need to talk.

I had tonkotsu ramen today for the first time in my life lol. It was at a local shop and I decided to go on my break during work. It was good. An interesting and wonderful experience. But I noticed while eating that my tongue started to feel weird. Like it was sorta numb at the tip? It was tingling as well. I was thinking maybe i burned it a bit but i was being careful with that. Is this common with ramen? I’ve never had authentic ramen before so i not sure. But im glad i tried it! I’ve always wondered what naruto tasted like.