Single cab diesel truck for sale

I see more and more companies building full fletched servers around consumer CPUs such as the Ryzen and Intel 9 models
 
Just read up on the ASROCK 1U4LW-B650/2L2T (https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=1U4LW-B650/2L2T#Specifications)
 
Which you 2x RJ45 10 gbps NIC wiht a single socket AM5 on B650 chipset which gives you 16 4,5 ghz ryzen 7000 cores and 36 pcie-lanes.
Downside is obviously just 128 GB ram, but compute tasks such as kubernetes or spin up and down VM's rarely use a ton of memory anyhow.
 
That's quite a lot of compute for a 1U chassi and given how virtualization / containerization rules the industry these days network and compute is basically all you need in a cattle-architectured node environment, this seems like not too terrible of a deal.
(Disclaimer: My company runs exclusively gigabyte and have no plans to buy more HW in a while, I have no horse in this race - this is not hidding marketing BS)
 
With that said, we do a lot of compute with automatic routing of logistic trucks, process a ton of event-based stuff and have a large micro-architecture environment.
We could've easily saved a ton of money using this instead of the EPYC 2nd gen CPUs in our gigabyte servers we recently acquired.
 
Colocation/onprem obviously never went away, but this seems like a decent bang for the buck if you're looking for a lot of CPU compute, that could certainly give more traction to the back-to-on-prem movement.
 
Definitely going to be interesting to follow wether it ends up as a homelab / very small business option or if it becomes relevant to medium businesses too that do not scale to 5+ racks of equipment where you buy large large bulks of pre-assembled.
Thoughts, feelings, projections?

PART 1:https://www.reddit.com/Ruleshorrocomments/11wgydu/the_pathogen/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
(Speakers turns on) Due to the rapid spread of the virus through bordering cities, a strict lockdown is now in effect. This lockdown meant non essential activities and jobs are all closed and prohibited. If you have to go out for something essential, please wear a mask and a face shield. Social distancing is now also in effect. As of 3:00 pm, there have been confirmed reports of the virus in the towns bordering california, nevada, oregon, and washington state. There will be new enforced rules to keep the rest of the USA safe.

1. Anyone who has close contact with a potential infected are to be quarantined inside camps. Anyone who resists are shot on sight.
   
2. There will be an increased military presence in the cities of idaho, utah and arizona. Oregon has been immediately destroyed by missiles to try and prevent the infected from coming to the washington state. Please comply their orders. Failure to do so is a felony.
   
3. Men with PPEs will bring you supplies and clothing.
   
4. Board up your walls, routinely disinfect and take baths after you have come home.
   
5. If you or your relatives show even a single symptom of the infection, please kill yourself or them. There is no saving you.
   
6. No one gets in or out of idaho, utah and arizona. Anyone venturing within 50 km will be shot on sight
   
7. A shoot to kill order has been authorized on those from california, nevada, oregon, and washington state. A shoot to kill order has also been enacted during curfew hours of 10pm to 7am. So please comply.
   

We may now return to normal programming.
(Military helicopters can be heard in the distance)
Civilian: I need to pick my kid up!
Officer: Do not worry about him, he will be safe.
(Military trucks can be seen)
(Soldiers are seen apprehending a conspiracy theorist ranting about the government is using this pandemic to distract the people)
Soldier: Sir you are going outside for what?
Civilian 2: I am just trying to go shopping
Soldier: Ok you may pass
(Continues patrolling)
Lieutenant Ross: How is everything?
Soldiers: Nothing bad right now
Lieutenant Ross: Good
Lieutenant Ross: Be on the lookout, remember?
Soldiers: Yes sir!
To be continued

This is a mega-thread for Death Cab For Cutie's show at o2 institute birmingham in birmingham, united kingdom, on Mar 21, 2023.
Use this thread to: * ​ facilitate meet-ups * ​ arrange last-minute ticket sales * ​ post photos and videos of the event * ​ ask general questions about the show and venue * ​ share your excitement with us!
This thread will be stickied for at least six hours after the show.
Have fun, stay safe, and enjoy!

TL;DR girlfriend don’t care about me almost killed on highway and that I don’t want to do something, called me selfish (despite me always going to her) for saying I wanted some space and not going to her, said she hated me.
1 I wanna say she is deeply emotionally dependent on me, she is Filipino and she moved to Denmark like 4 years ago, she has trouble learning the language and being stressed from that, she does not talk with her mother because her grandmother basically raised her when her mom was away. She has no friends, her school just warned her about her absence in school, and the only thing besides me that makes her want to come out of bed is her little brother. I know this and I feel terrible for her.
2 we have had some big fights, I go to her 4 days a week (Wednesday, Friday and the weekend) I feel like that’s enough but recently she got sick, headache and influenza. We got into a “big” fight because it was Monday and I wanted to stay home with my family, because I want my space and gaming time, I want my family and my pets. She got very mad at me for this, first ignoring me and then begging me to come. Normally I would, but it always happens, every single Monday and Tuesday we will fight about me going to her and it will always end the same with me having to put my foot down, I don’t feel any joy anymore, she told me next time when I find a gf then find one that lives closer to me and said she rather be dead in the hospital and told me she hated me and so on. All of this really hurt. I don’t feel any joy from the relationship anymore. She is deeply emotionally dependent on me some and it’s a big burden I can’t bear. I told her it was not good she only was dependent on me and she got upset at me again. Idk what to do man, if I break up with her it will destroy her
I also want to add that when she asked/begged me to come I told I really wanted to stay with my family and that I hated driving to my school in the morning because I had to wake up and hour earlier than Normal and the highway there almost killed me 3 times because of traffic (trucks), she did not care about any of it and just said “well you have a car so it’s easy” I then asked her to come here by train because it was faster and she got mad at me because it was not the same, she asked me what she should do in my house, I asked her what I was gonna do in her house, she said we could be together and I said the same but she got mad again, she then called me selfish for not going to her because I wanted apace

​
Griger Kel-Am watched from his cell in the old town jailhouse as workers busily erected a scaffolding in the courtyard below. It was shaping up nicely, he thought with an appreciative nod; the skeletal beams reminded him of the bones of dead animals in the Karel Desert and that comparison almost disturbed him.
Which was no easy feat. Griger had seen the worst the world had to offer. He fought beasts in the Staygin Mountains, fended off feral bandits in the Jarel Plains, and weathered more attacks, fights, battles, and death than most people even knew existed. Nothing on earth could rattle him. He couldn’t afford to let himself be shaken. Life, he had learned, was like a surging storm tide. You either stand strong against it, or you get knocked down and swept away. Griger refused to be swept away. He refused to wind up like the old bones he stumbled across on the North Road and in the snowy stepps at the top of the world. A man must be hard and stoic to survive, and he must be harder and colder to thrive.
Despite his grizzled face, many scars, dead eyes, and unseemly facial hair, Griger, a sword for hire since before the Great Plague, had always thrived.
Sighing, Griger left the window and walked over to the door; three brisk paces. He threaded his arms through the bars and tried his best to look up the corridor. In the cells across from him, other men, their faces dirty and white, cowered, waiting for their judgement.
Their open fear disgusted Griger.
Cowards.
Griger wasn’t afraid to die. Dying was easy; you closed your eyes and went to sleep. Living...living was hard, every day a knock down, drag out fight for dominance against something. Outlaws, nature, your own inner darkness. He did not seek death, but he welcomed it. The prospect of a noose tightening around his neck, of his body jerking and dancing before many jeering eyes and spitting mouths, however, almost bothered him.
But as a wise old man he once knew had said, This too shall pass.
A sardonic smile touched Griger’s chapped lips and he shook his head like a man who couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Of all the things he’d done in his life to deserve a hanging, self-defense is what did him in. Ha.
Two weeks ago, he was following the river from the North, on foot and alone save for his sword and his rucksack. He stopped at a tide pool to drink, and was beset by a man with a knife. In his frock coat and rubberized boots, he was too well dressed to be a highwayman; he never spoke a word until he lay in the grass, his throat laid open and gushing rich red blood. “Scoundrel,” he gurgled.
Griger relieved him of his boots and pocketbook and carried on. Before dusk, he came across the village and rented a room at the inn. Women in cheap, homespun dresses haunted the halls, knocking at doors to sell their company, and Griger, lying in bed by the flickering light of a lamp, was considering spending the rest of the money on one when three constables broke down the door.
The man he killed, they told him later, was the son of the mayor. At that moment, Griger knew he was in trouble.
They refused to believe that the son attacked first and pointed to the things Griger had taken from his as proof of overland piracy, theft, and murder. He was tried in a packed courtroom and found guilty, standing tall and proud but alone as no lawyer in the land would take his case.
Out in the courtyard, someone shouted, and a team of horses neighed, Griger, sitting on the edge of his cot, looked up at the window. The light was getting weaker as night approached. Shadows, long and black, fell through the slats and made unwholesome shapes across the earthen floor. Down the hall, a man cried out for water, and elsewhere, someone raked a metal cup back and forth across the bars. Would they hang him tonight, Griger wondered, or would they wait for dawn?
“You,” someone spat.
Griger looked up to find the mayor standing at the bars, his bloated face filled with hatred. Another man was with him, this one taller and thinner. They were both clad in the finest garments, but the stranger was undoubtedly better suited. Griger took him for a government official.
“What do you want?” Griger asked, an edge in his voice.
The mayor opened his mouth to speak, but the stranger silenced him. “My name is Urick Farbin. I’m the governor of Ezk Province and I have a proposition for you.”
“What’s that?”
Farbin flashed a tight smile.
It looked to Griger like he wouldn’t be hanged at all.
And that made him smile.
***
Griger watched the countryside pass slowly by, all green hills, trickling brooks, and dense thickets. The occasional straw hut loomed out of the wilderness like an antsy thief, and six miles out of the village, they passed a stately manor house that could only have belonged to the mayor.
It was mid-afternoon and the overcast day wrapped itself around Griger like a wet blanket. The previous night, Governor Farbin sprang Griger from his cell and brought him to the inn, where he was kept under armed guard. Griger spent most of the evening in a straight back chair and whittling. You don’t have to worry, he said to the sentry standing at the door, I’m not going anywhere.
And he wasn’t. He was not an honor bound man by any stretch, but Farbin saved his life, and Griger reckoned that earned him a little loyalty.
The guards didn’t stand down, but Griger didn’t blame them. He wouldn’t have either.
In the morning, they set off in a horse drawn carriage, heading northwest along the Western Road. Now, hours later, Griger sat next to the Governor, who wore a dark cloak and wide-brimmed hat befitting his office. Beside him, the driver held the reins and stared ahead with the practiced indifference of a man used to tuning out things he wasn’t supposed to hear.
“Will you explain to me what I’m doing?” Griger asked.
Farbin was quiet for a moment, then he looked up at the sky, the muted light bathing his craggy features. “Your file says that you’ve done work for the Government.”
“Some,” Griger replied.
“You’ve handled things of a singular nature,” the old man continued. “Things that most other men have never dreamed possible.”
Gringer nodded. He had. His only oath was to himself, and he worked for whoever paid him the highest sum. Men like him were called mercenaries but he preferred to think of himself as a businessman.
“There’s a matter in a nearby village that has been ongoing for quite some time,” Farbin said, picking his words carefully. “I have sent my best agents and they’ve done nothing for it. When the paperwork on you came to my office, I checked your name, as I do all condemned men, and knew at once that you were the man for this job.”
Griger was almost touched. “What’s the job?”
The Governor turned to face Griger, his expression bloodless and sober, as though he had something great yet terrible to impart upon him. “Do you believe in werewolves?”
“Yes,” he said, “I do.”
“Have you ever killed one?”
Griger hesitated. “No,” he said, “not personally, but I was with a party that did.”
Five years before, Griger wintered in a village among the steep foothills guarding the forbidding expanse of Mount Grez. In the deepest, darkest days of the freeze, local livestock began to die, ripped asunder and strewn across snowy fields like trash. Wolf tracks larger than any Griger had ever seen led to and from each scene, and at night, high, ghostly howls rose above the shrieking wind, curdling the blood of even the most sturdy men.
After a watchman on patrol was attacked and gutted in the main square, the men of the village banded together and tracked the beast, eventually cornering it in a cave near a frozen river. Even if he lived to be a thousand, Griger would never forget the monster they encountered. Seven feet tall, coated in matted gray fur, its face canine yet human, its eyes blazed with the fires of hell, and as the men approached, it snapped and snarled, the sounds it made so close to words that even now, Griger wondered if it were trying to speak. They beset it with swords and torches, and when the dust settled, five men were dead and three were wounded. The wolf lay crumpled on the ground, decapitated and aflame. Even with no head, even with its heart divorced from its body, it screeched as the fire consumed it, a high, hitching wail that haunted Griger’s dreams for many moons after.
Farbin nodded. “I figured as much. A man as well-travelled as you has to have seen such things.”
He went on to explain that a suspected werewolf was loose in the countryside around the village of Koreth, a tiny fishing port on the sloped and muddy banks of the Rey River. Three weeks before, sheep and horses began to turn up dead, their bodies laid open and their intestines pulled from their stomachs. Before long, travellers along the Western Road started to die in a similar manner. Every time a new victim appeared, officials found large wolf tracks and strands of fur nearby.
Several nights ago, it broke into the home of a land baron and killed him, his wife, and his daughter. His young son survived, but was blinded in one eye.
‘It was a massive beast,’ the boy told the Governor, a personal friend of the baron. ‘It stood seven feet tall, was as wide as it was long, and had the snarling face of a man mixed with a dog.’
“You want me to kill it,” Griger said. It was not a question.
“Yes.”
The carriage jostled as its big wheels splashed through ruts and puddles. “And in return…?”
“You’ll get a full and unconditional pardon.”
Hmm. Griger considered the offer carefully, even though he was in no position to bargain. “Alright,” he said at last, “I’ll do it.”
They arrived at the village three hours later. Perched on the banks of the lazy river, it seemed a single estate rather than a town. A stone wall, roughly a dozen feet high, enclosed it, pitched roofs visible beyond. Two guards in helmets and chainmail, swords on their hips and crossbows in their hands, stood at the gate, their expressions stony and as hardscrabble as the fields sloping away from the walls.
Inside, tiny buildings lined narrow dirt streets and people in plain, homespun clothes went about their business, pushing carts, hawking vegetables, and playing dice. Old men sat in canned chairs before the town pub and a group of boys chased each other back and forth through shadowed warrens, their faces smudged and weatherbeaten beyond their years. Chickens and pigs, both plump and hale, ran free, the former flapping their impotent wings and the latter snorting happily as they wallowed and shat. Griger spotted a blacksmith in his quarters, striking an anvil with a hammer, and wondered idly if he had any interesting items for sale.
“The people here are stubborn and refuse to flee,” Farbin said.
Griger faced forward. “These types usually are.”
“You are not to worry about their safety,” Farbin warned. “They can see to themselves. Your only concern is to be the wolf.”
“Understood.”
The driver parked near the town inn and tied the horse to a hitching post while Griger and Farbin got out. Griger rolled his neck and flexed his shoulders. After so many years of walking wherever he went, he was unaccustomed to sitting for long periods and inevitably ended any long, stationary trek sore.
Past the batwing doors, a shadowy lobby lit by candlelight greeted them. Farbin led Griger directly up the stairs and to a tidy room with a single, neatly made bed and a desk beneath the window. “These are your quarters,” Farbin said.
“Spacious,” Griger said unsarcastically. He sat on the edge of the bed. “What leads do you have on this wolf?”
“None beyond what I’ve told you,” Farbn said. “My men have scoured the countryside but they haven’t found a thing.”
Griger hummed. “No tracks? Droppings? Nothing at all?”
“Not beyond what I’ve told you.”
That was odd. Werewolves rarely strayed far from their den. Unless they were of the rare half-breed that turned upon the cycle of the moon, man at day and beast by night. But those were as common as an honest man in the High Council - not very damned common at all.
“What are you thinking?” Farbin asked.
Griger said what was on his mind.
“But those aren’t real,” the Governor said, a hint of confusion in his voice.
“I tell you they are.”
Farbin’s brow furrowed with incredulity. “A man cannot simply change his form, nor can a wolf, for that matter. It goes against all logic.”
All Griger could do was spread his hands. That a man - even a large one - could transform into a werewolf (and that a werewolf could shrink back to the size of a mere man) did defy logic. Griger could not account for it, but he knew it to be so, and he said as much. Farbin, shaken by the confidence in Griger’s tone, nervously scratched the back of his neck and looked constipated. “Put aside what you think you know and ask yourself. What if it is a wolf-man?”
“But what if it isn’t?” Farbin countered.
Griger ticked his head to the side in acquiescence. “Maybe it’s not. Maybe your men have failed to uncover a den large enough to house a seven foot tall monster. Maybe they’ve been looking up each other’s backsides instead of where they should be.”
A dark shadow flickered across Farbin’s face. “My men are highly trained and highly skilled.”
“That’s why you came to me.”
Farbin fumed. “I came to you because you have experience in such things.”
“Right,” Griger said. “I do. And I’m telling you - in my expert opinion - that if there is no den, the wolf is a changeling. I cannot explain the science behind how and why it is a changeling. I don’t know how it can happen...but it does. You have to consider the possibility that you are looking for a phantom, that your wolf may be out there right this second ploughing a field or herding sheep and not asleep in a cave waiting to be found and made.”
Farbin turned away and put his hands on his hips. No shoulder had ever been colder, and for a second, Griger thought the old man was going to send him back to the gallows. “Alright,” Farbin finally said, “suppose it is a half-breed. What then?”
“I want to see where the latest attack happened.”
A half an hour later, Griger and Farbin stood before a large stone house with a slate roof and wide windows. A dirt drive looped around an ornate fountain and tall trees rustled in the new breeze. Several Provincial Guardsmen accompanied them, all with swords and crossbows and one, the commander, with a rare flintlock on his hip. Farbin led Gringer to the west side of the structure. “The wolf came in through the servants’ entrance,” he explained. A set of paw prints led to the door and Gringer knelt to study them. Roughly half a foot apart, they were slightly larger than any other he had seen.
Inside, the house was dark and cold, shadows clustered in corners like demons waiting for the fall of night to advance their ghoulish aims. Dried blood stained the wooden floors and spackled the bare walls. “Has anyone seen this creature and lived but the boy?”
Farbin shook his head. “No.” His face was white and strained, the somber, funeral atmosphere affecting him.
“You’ve told me everything?”
“Yes.”
Griger nodded to himself. If the wolf were a changeling, someone, somewhere likely would have seen it coming or going. That was a strike against his theory. On the other hand, there were likely dozens of isolated farms and homesteads scattered through the surrounding countryside. The wolf could be anyone from anywhere.
“I want to talk to the locals,” Griger said as he and Farbin walked back to the carriage.
“Right.”
“I’ll also need a team of men at my disposal,” Griger said. “And a sword.”
They were sitting across from each other in the carriage’s enclosed cab. Without, the sky was beginning to cool to purple and evening gloom stealthy crept from the forest. “We’ll get you one.”
“It must be made with silver,” Griger said.
Farbin frowned. “Silver is a poor alloy for sword-making.”
“But it’s the only alloy for werewolf killing,” Griger said. “It shouldn’t be made entirely of silver, but there must be some in it, the more, the better.
Farbin nodded that he understood.
By the time they made it back to the village, full dark had fallen. The streets stood deserted, the animals locked up for the night and most of the people hunkered in their homes. A few guards walked the lanes and dooyards, bows and swords at the ready, and a stray cat with no tail slunk furtively between piles of refuse, its ears laid flat against its skull and its fur matted and crisscrossed with scars from battles past.
The only activity was at the pub attached to the inn, where lights burned in the segmented windows and the chatter of many voices drifted into the street, occasionally flaring in laughter or song. Apparently, those hearty souls refused to let a wolf stand between them and their end-of-day festivities.
Griger’s respect for them increased.
Before entering, Farbin and Griger called on the blacksmith, a burly man with a bald head and a mustache that reminded Griger of walruses he had killed and eaten at the top of the world. Griger explained his need and impressed upon the man a sense of urgency. “I need it as soon as you can possibly have it ready.”
The blacksmith nodded gamely. “I’ll have it by dawn.”
Farbin took out his purse and paid, then they made their way to the inn.
Inside, a roaring fire crackled in the stone hearth and lamps on the walls sent shadows flickering across the floor. A dozen men sat at the bar with stines of beer and a half dozen more occupied the many tables in the middle of the room. A barkeep kept the drinks flowing while a pretty waitress with her blonde hair done up in an elaborate braid like a golden tiara brought trays of beer and pretzels to the tables.
Griger and Farbin sat at an empty table near the fireplace and Farbin removed his gloves. “Men will make merry even while the world burns around them,” he mused.
“Why not,” Griger said, “they can’t do it in the grave.”
The women came over and they ordered a pitcher of beer and a sandwich each. While they waited, Griger went to every man one-by-one and asked them about the wolf. They responded, to a man, with an eye roll or a dismissive laugh. None were worried in the slightest. One man lifted his brow in a pitying sort of way and looked Griger up and down as though he were mad. “Werewolves? Why, those were banished from the Realm centuries ago, it’s all much ado about nothing.”
“It’s a big wolf,” the barkeep said, “and dangerous too, that much is fact. But it’s a lot of hysteria. People today are too goddamn soft. In my time, we had wolves and bears too. If they acted out of line, we hunted them down and cut their heads off.”
The last man Griger came to was a wispy, white-haired oldster with rheumy eyes and three days’ worth of stubble covering his angular chin. Baggy brown clothes, old and wrinkled and caked in the dirt of the field, hung slack from his scrawny frame, and his long, spindly fingers threaded through the handle of his mug like fleshless bone. If Griger had ever seen a man who bore the official title “Town Drunk” he wouldn’t look the part any more than the old man.
Before Griger could ask him a single question, he spoke in a rusty voice that conjured images of graveyard gates in the dark Province of Helem. “I seen it,” he said, “and it weren’t no regular wolf neither.”
The barkeep sniffed. “You see lots of things, Sel. Like them little pink elephants.”
A wave of mean-spirited laughter ran through the bar, and Sel’s jaw clenched. Griger sensed that Sel was often made sport of at the bar.
Ignoring the other, Griger asked, “You’ve seen it?”
Sel nodded and held up three fingers. “Thrice, in fact,” he said with a belch.
“Tell me.”
The old timer looked up at him with a twist of suspicion. “Down by the road leadin’ up,” he said.
“All three times?”
“All three times,” Sel confirmed.
Once a mason, Sel had moved to the village ten years before to try his hand at farming, he explained. His homestead, comprising five acres, a tumbledown barn, and a decomposing shack masquerading as a house, sat below the walls, in a hollow between the hill and the river. Many nights, he sat on the front porch and “communed with the King” (King Rum, Griger assumed). From that perch, he witnessed “The damned beast” loping toward town. “The first time, I seen’t it over in the road,” he said, pronouncing road as rud. “I have good eyesight and I knew right off it weren’t normal, so I jumped outta my chair and ducked down real low so ways he couldn’t see me.”
Sel couldn’t provide a description of the wolf beyond “near eight damn feet tall and built like a mountain” but Griger didn’t need one. The old man’s story supported his supposition that the wolf was coming from somewhere else and not a den in the hills. Why would it come down the middle of the road each time? The only thing to the south was the river and open fields dotted by stands of forest, all of which Farbin’s men had already searched.
Werewolves are nocturnal creatures who sequester themselves somewhere dark and dry during the day. Farbin’s men should have found it by now. That they hadn’t suggested that it was a changeling.
Thanking Sel for his help, Griger went back to the table and sat across from Farbin. “The baron’s house lies in the direction of the river,” he said, more to himself than to the Governor. “What of the other attacks?”
“Mainly in that area,” Farbin said, “why?”
“The changeling - and that’s what it is - comes from across the river. How many homesteads are there beyond the banks?”
“At least two dozen,” Farbin said.
Griger crossed his arms and thought for a moment. “I want your men, tomorrow, out there going door to door with garlic. Make everyone they come across smell it and anyone who sneezes is put under watch.”
The Governor looked stricken. “But...why?”
“Changelings are allergic to garlic,” Griger said.
Farbin pursed his lips in contemplation. “Alright,” he said, “I’ll have them start at first light.”
After dining, they adjourned to their rooms, Farbin on one side of the hall and Griger on the other. A team of six Guardsmen took up position in the empty saloon and kept watch, ready to roll out at a moment’s notice. Griger threw the window open and perched on the ledge, the night breeze washing over him and rustling his graying hair. He rolled a cigarette, lit it with the bedside candle, and looked up at the glowing face of the waxing moon. Tomorrow night it would be full and the changeling would be compelled to turn and hunt as the tide was compelled to crest. It could come tonight still, but unless it was killed, it would return tomorrow for certain, mad with bloodlust.
Well past midnight, Griger blew out the candle and retired. The mattress was far too soft and it took him nearly a half hour of tossing, turning, and muttering curses to himself to find a position he liked. Once he did, he fell into a light sleep from which he was aroused near dawn by a knock at the door. One of the guards informed him that the blacksmith was finished with his sword, and after dressing, he and Farbin went to collect it. Comprising a simple blade with a guard and a grip, it was far from the most opulent weapon Griger had ever wielded, but it was well-suited to his needs and fit comfortably in his hand.
Back at the inn, Farbin gathered every available man under his command, including the constable and his three deputies, and ordered them to sweep the countryside as Griger had suggested the night before. They showed no reaction despite their lord’s strange request, and departed in a single file line.
The saloon opened for breakfast at six and Griger and Farbin each had a plate of eggs, bacon, and beans. People began to drift in as they ate, Sel the Drunkard at the head of the pack. The maiden, who quartered somewhere upstairs, came down in a simple white dress beneath a waist apron, and Griger’s eyes tracked her as she carried out her functions. The dress - loose and high cut - revealed nothing of her bosom, but pulled tight across her bottom when she leaned over to set food and coffee in front of her guests. Their gazes met, and her eyes flicked quickly away like two timid minnows in a fish bowl.
She was beautiful.
She reminded him of someone.
His mind went back to the jagged mountains atop the world, to a little cabin where weary travellers waited out the snowstorms that raged sometimes for weeks in the winter. There, in one of the most isolated outposts of the Realm, lived a woman Griger had known. She was tall and gaunt whereas the barmaid was average and healthy, her hair was black to the maiden’s blonde, but their eyes were the same breathtaking hazel. Now, staring at his plate, his chest stirred in a way that it hadn’t in years.
He didn’t like it.
“...else,” Farbin was saying.
“Yeah,” Griger said, as though he knew what Farbin had said. Now, the woman he loved one winter was on his mind and his mood was verging on foul. He recalled the way her hair brushed the creamy slope of her throat when she turned her head, the sound of her laughter, how her heels dug into his behind, urging him deeper unto her.
He was young, then, and a fool. People, he learned later, come and people go. Loving someone...indeed even hating them...was pointless, for in a breath of summer wind, they’re gone.
After finishing with breakfast, Farbin requested a metal tub be filled with water so that he could bathe. While he did that, Griger threaded his sword through his belt and walked down to the river, keeping his eyes open for wolf tracks. He spotted a few in the dirt edging the road, all pointing in the direction from which he had just come, and squatted down to examine one more closely.
Just before reaching the water, Sel’s farm appeared on the right, the main house seeming to sag in the middle as though under the burden of years and the field out back overgrown and gone to seed. The place looked as though it had died, come back to life, then died again. The screen door, which naturally hung askew, banged open, and Sel himself backed out butt first, a ceramic pot in his hands. He turned, saw Griger, and hesitated, then ducked his head and scurried down the stairs, disappearing around the side of the house Griger lingered a moment, then followed, tangles of grass pulling at his boots. In the back, a clear patch boasted several pots like the one Sel had come out with, each blossoming with an assortment of multicolored flowers. Sel knelt before one and heaped rich soil in with his hands. A gust of wind flipped his lank, white hair back and forth, and a satisfied smile played at the corners of his thin mouth.
“You garden?” Griger asked.
Sel shot him a dirty look. “I do,” he said, a defensive edge in his voice. He stopped, favored the flowers with a sober look, and added, “These plants are the only friends I’ve got.” He chuckled self-consciously.
“Plants seem like they’d make poor friends,” Griger said. “When the first frost comes, they leave you.”
Sel ticked his head to one side in acquiescence. “Tis better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all.”
An image of the girl at the top of the world flashed across Griger’s mind, and for a moment he could feel, feel, her presence. “I don’t believe that,” Griger said. “Loss is hard for a man who’s known love.”
“Still better than never knowing it at all,” Sel said and got stiffly to his feet. He dusted his hands on his pants.
“You’ve never lost someone,” Griger said.
“You’ve never loved someone,” Sel countered.
Griger stiffened. Mouthy old bastard, yes I have.
“What do you want?” Sel asked.
“I wanted to ask you about the werewolf.”
Sel’s face crinkled. “I told you everything I know.” He started walking back to the front of the house, and Griger fell in beside him.
“Is there anywhere around here you think a werewolf might live?” Griger asked. “Caves? Dens? Anything.”
“There’s some caves about,” Sel said, “other than that, I can’t say.”
They were on the porch now, Sel holding the door open.
“Can you tell me your story one more time?” Griger asked. “Maybe it might jog something you forgot.”
Sel sighed. “I don’t have nothin’, okay?”
He started to go inside, but Griger stopped him. “Please?”
The old man looked at him, then sighed. “Fine. Come in.”
They sat in Sel’s tiny and cluttered parlor. The furniture was as old and threadbare as the man who owned it, and the simple walls were crowded with old photos, many of them featuring a smiling woman with dark hair. She looked nothing like the girl at the top of the world, but Griger was reminded of her anyway. “Your wife?” he asked.
Sel, seated in an armchair across from him, busied himself pouring Griger a cup of tea. “Yes,” he said shortly.
From his tone - and the woman’s absence - Griger inferred that she was dead. “I’m sorry.”
Sel’s hand shook as he pushed the cup across the table. “So am I,” he said.
“Children?” Griger asked.
“Three,” Sel said. “Two boys and a girl.” Tears crept into the old man’s faded eyes and he fixed his gaze on a point over Griger’s shoulder. Open displays of emotion made Griger uncomfortable, and he shifted in his seat, sorry that he had brought the topic up. “We were married thirty years,” Sel said. His lips trembled and Griger thought he was going to break down crying. Instead, he smiled. “Those were good years.”
Griger nodded to himself. “I bet.”
He must not have sounded convincing, because Sel creased his brow. “Are you married?”
“No.”
“Ever loved someone?”
“No.”
Sel looked at him with a frank directness that bordered on mind-reading, and though it wasn’t possible, Griger could almost imagine the old man was seeing into his mind...and his heart. “You’re a liar.”
Griger considered his reply for a long time. “When I was a boy,” he said. “I thought I was in love.”
“What happened?”
Perhaps the old man had cast some kind of pall over him...or maybe he was in a rare mood...but Griger heard himself answer honestly. “I left her.”
A heavy silence lay between them.
“You left her?”
Griger nodded. “I moved on. She had her ways and I had mine. I didn’t see us working.”
“You regret it.”
“Yes,” Griger responded instantly. “I wish I tried.”
Sel nodded understandingly. “All boys make mistakes. Some are just luckier than others, I reckon.” He laughed, his posture relaxing, and Griger realized he was starting to like the old bastard.
“True,” he said. “Now your story…”
Sighing, Sel lifted a hand. “I don’t have much ways else to say.” He ran through his story just as he had before, with no additions or subtractions.
Griger nodded that he was satisfied, and got to his feet. “That’ll be all.”
Sel walked him to the door and stuck out his hand. “That damned thing’s a monster,” he said as they shook, “you watch yourself.”
“I can handle a werewolf,” Griger assured him.
Later on, after returning to the inn, Griger and Farbin rode out to meet the men on the other side of the river, catching up to them at a fork in the road. “No one’s sneezed or broken out, sire,” Farbin’s second-in-command, a tall, rodent-faced man, reported.
“Expand the dragnet,” Griger said.
Rat-face looked at Farbin for confirmation, and the Governor nodded.
They would find the wolf...or the wolf would find them.
Griger wanted the former, but would settle for the latter.
If he had to.

With all the talk about people making fake president club trophy’s, figured I should take it to the next level. I currently have my local trophy shop making me a Pulitzer Prize. Figured it’s prestigious enough to get me that Enterprise AE role but not famous enough to where 9/10 sales managers couldn’t name a single Pulitzer recipient. What’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like I’m getting a new job in this market without leveling the playing field
Anyone else have any ideas for fake awards we could make?

I've been debating buying the SteamDeck since it came out. I tend to not have much time to play games lately between school and work, but I feel having something more mobile would make it much more convenient to play. I have been getting back into single player games such as Divinity Original Sin, and the Borderlands franchise. The sale on the device for the Spring sake has really been tempting me... Thank you for any advice

In the era of the internet, data science platforms have been a game-changer. Computing-based data science aids in the prediction of many models. Data constitutes the primary element of data science. The next phase of analytics is called data science. Enterprises are guided by it. Data scientists are able to mine useful information from accessible data thanks to data science. The data aids management's deliberation in making business-related choices.
If one wants to attempt something new and change careers, one should take a data science course in Hyderabad.
Many businesses fully utilize data science to understand the market. This enables them to offer their customers the proper goods or services. Data scientists must keep up with the most recent developments in data science due to the rapid progress of technology. The greatest data science learning platform should be known to the data scientist in order for them to assist their organization. The top systems of learning data science will be covered in this post.

What are Data Science platforms?

One should comprehend the Data Science platform before entering other Data Science platforms. The foundation for various machine learning systems is the data science platform.
Platforms for data science assist data scientists in analyzing huge amounts of data. Planning strategies and giving the company's management fully informed information are helpful. The data analysis provides data-driven knowledge that makes it simple to comprehend the marketplace.

Various Platforms in Data Science

Platforms for data science come in a variety of formats. It is crucial to comprehend them. The Data Scientists ought to pick them based on their requirements. Data science extracts precise insights from the available raw data. Hence, a solid data science platform is needed to analyze the data. Let's examine some of the top data science education resources.

1. Amazon SageMaker

To work on the machine learning outflow, Amazon SageMaker includes a variety of integrated tools. It offers all the resources necessary for the machine learning application to operate without a hitch. One of the best places to learn data science is on this platform. Amazon SageMaker comes in various varieties. Let's quickly review them.

• SageMaker Ground Truth: It quickly creates and manages training datasets with high accuracy.
• SageMaker Debugger: It aids in issuing alerts. When general issues arise, it offers solutions. During training, real-time data is captured.
• Autopilot: It recognises unprocessed data and applies the necessary processors. The best algorithms are used to analyze the data in this. The Autopilot adjusts the data using a variety of models. It monitors how they perform and ranks them.

1. Anaconda

Anaconda is a free data science toolkit compatible with Python and R. The platform is open-source. The hosting of more than 1500 Data Science packages on this site is well-known. Almost 15 million individuals use it worldwide. On the Anaconda cloud, the Anaconda Navigator aids with package search. Installation and updating are simple. The platform is accessible through Windows, Linux, and macOS.

1. Cnvrg.io

To create and run AI models of various scales, use the end-to-end data science platform offered by cnvrg.io. Data scientists can create, manage, and automate ML from research to production with the support of the convrg. All of the data is organized on the platform in one location. As a result, the team can work together more effectively. It has real-time visual tracking for several models. This aids in quickly creating machine pipelines that are ready for production.

1. Neptune

Neptune is an experimental management tool. It manages the metadata and keeps the ML experiments on track. It is highly adaptable, has a reliable user interface, and works with various frameworks. The platform has various developmental metadata and organizes and stores it. It can track and visualize experiments effectively. Neptune's user interface (UI) is exquisite and operates in many groupings. The customized dashboard is saved. Sharing the dashboard with the team is simple.

1. Platform H2o.ai

A popular open-source platform for data science, H2o.ai. It facilitates working on ML. Expert data scientists strongly advise against it. There are numerous H2o suite options.

• Deepwater is a combination of TensorFlow, Caffe, and MXNet.
• Applications and APIs are developed and deployed using Steam. This version is for sale.
• H2O: This aids in creating and producing various data models for analysis.
• Sparkling water is used in conjunction with Apache Spark integration.
• Popular among non-technical folks is driverless AI. It aids in data preparation, parameter adjustment, and problem-solving for business issues. It's simple to use.

You may quickly become certified in a data analytics course in Hyderabad and data science using Python, which will help you become familiar with both languages.

1. Rapidminer

Rapidminer is a tool used extensively in developing software applications, research, education, and quick prototyping. It is a well-known platform for data science that offers advanced and predictive analytics. This is a for-profit website. Nonetheless, users with a single logical processor and the AGPL license can get it for nothing. Rapidminer offers five different products.

• All machine learning apps run on the fundamental platform known as Rapidminer Studio.
• For enhanced performance, application-specific servers like the rapid miner server are employed.
• The user-friendly interface of Rapidminer Turbo prep places the facts front and center.
• Rapidminer Radoop is a tool used with Hadoop. This combination with Hadoop is ideal.

1. MLflow

MLflow is a well-known open-source platform. The machine learning lifecycle is something data scientists may work on. Experimenting, replicating, deploying, and maintaining a central model registry are all lifecycle parts. The MLflow performs four primary tasks. These are project, model, and model registry tracking. The ML flow is ideal for singletons and teams of any size. This platform is among the finest for learning data science because its tools work with several ML languages.

1. Spell

Spell is frequently used to quickly and easily train and deploy ML codes. Infrastructure built on the platform using Kubernetes is offered. By using this, ML experiments can be run, their data stored, and the full MLOps lifecycle can be automated. Among other things, the Spell platform offers a flexible environment for PyTorch, Tensorflow, and Fast.ai. It's simple to install many scripts using apt, conda, and pip. In order to manage the training pipelines, many runs can be integrated by utilizing various workflows. The spell automatically generates model metrics.

1. TensorFlow

TensorFlow is another well-liked data science platform used to produce ML pipelines. The platform offers a comprehensive framework and shared libraries to integrate the standard components. This is necessary to create, implement, and monitor the ML system. Python, C++ APIs, and other languages offer a reliable and potent ecosystem. There is a large add-on library for TensorFlow. Data scientists can experiment with models like TensorFlow Probability, Ragged Tensors, BERT, and Tensor Tensor. Beginners can use this platform with ease. This platform offers all the adaptability and tools required for learning and experimenting.

Conclusion

Today, data science is essential. It is crucial to process the enormous amount of available data to comprehend market demands. The business would profit by offering the appropriate answer by utilizing the various Data Science technologies. The customers' lives would be made easier by this. Many online courses in data science are accessible due to the growing demand for data scientists. Visit Learnbay if you're an interested applicant seeking a Data Science certification course in Hyderabad to receive training from professionals and gain practical industry exposure.

For those of you who don't know, there's a rail line running from Marin County to Eureka, California. Or at least, there was. Called the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, the largely single-track line was constructed back in 1914 (one of the last railroads to be built in the U.S.) and saw both passenger and freight service until the late 1990s, when it was abandoned due to insufficient revenue.
The rail line snaked through some of the most challenging terrain in the country, traversing unstable soils and mountainsides, and it regularly saw mudslides, floods, and other weather events that regularly damaged the tracks. It was initially a profitable line as it served timber industries and a deepwater port in Eureka. The timber industries eventually declined, however (as old-growth forests were completely logged), and the expansion of Highway 101 to four lanes basically killed passenger service. After being taken over by a state-owned agency, the NCRA, in the 1980s in order to prevent the line from being abandoned, the railroad trudged on for a few more years, failing to become profitable. After a storm damaged some southern sections of the line, leaving it isolated from the rest of the national rail network, the NWP was finally abandoned as the several months without revenue left it in the read. By this time, the tracks were in terrible condition, and passenger trains weren't even permitted on many sections on the line by the FRA over safety concerns. By some accounts, it was the most expensive railroad to maintain in the US.
Here's a good 1997 article from SFGate, written during the railroad's last days: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Workin-on-the-Railroad-The-Northwestern-2828637.php#taboola-1
The California government is now planning on using most of the rail ROW to construct a long hiking and biking trail. The tracks south of Cloverdale still see use (or will see use in the future), as SMART owns the tracks and handles both passenger and freight operations. Some see this as a good use of the land - after all, it's a very scenic path that snakes through the beautiful northern California mountains and could boost tourism.
However, many people believe the rail line should be fixed up and reactivated. Although the tracks are in poor condition, many of the tunnels and bridges still stand, and the ROW is entirely preserved. Eureka is a natural deepwater port, and regular passenger service could run between Willits and Marin County (with some long-distance passenger trains to Eureka). It would cost a lot of money, but so would the proposed trail, as it would require stabilizing the trackbed and paving over it (not to mention new construction or expensive rehabilitation where some tunnels or trestles exist). The line could serve intermodal freight throughout Northern California and connect to the port of Eureka, a natural deepwater port that can help alleviate congestion in ports down south (LA and Oakland) and provide a more convenient intermodal facility for Northern California. The line could serve agriculture, forestry, and bulk goods, and of course, intermodal freight (which could relieve truck traffic on 101) - necessary considering over a million people live along the rail ROW. Some of the ROW already exists and is used for passenger and freight traffic, and with the line to Eureka fixed up, Northwestern California would once again get a cheap, reliable, and efficient mode of transportation.
What are your thoughts? Should the trail be built, or should the ROW be preserved for reactivation of the old rail line?

I was 21 at the time. I flipped my favorite car in the world about 6 times and got some major road rash. I did this when I passed someone going the speed limit on a 2 lane highway and there was an upcoming hill. Long story short a game warden was coming my way over the hill and I swerved back, overcorrected, slid, and flipped. Hospital, girlfriends mom is a nurse who dressed my wound for the next 3 months. Very grateful to be alive and grateful I didn’t hit anyone else and changed my driving to one who goes 71 in a 70. Now I have two infractions and three points, one for the accident, all paid off, set to drop off in July of this year. I want to become and electrician, and I’m thinking I may start out as an internet installer or work digital controls for HVAC because no electricians are hiring, but any job that has company trucks need to insure me. If it helps, I have one for passing without proper clearance, one for possession of cannabis in the cab, and then one for the at-fault accident.
Should I take a defensive driving course? Would it be worth it at this point to clear one point out of 3 that will drop off in a few months?

Life is a funny thing. Sometimes it brings you joy, sometimes it brings you sadness, but meaning is found in the act of being. When you stop trying to solve everything, you come to realize that all of the answers are in front of you and have been all along. Babies are not ignorant; they're profoundly aware. I recently calmed my mind following a serious mental breakdown after making 23 theories on Mort from Madagascar. It was exhausting, but i've come out of this with a renewed sense of clarity that has granted me all of the answers. What does that mean, and how does this work? I don't know, but the result was a series of jokes I made coming true and then answering every single question I've ever had about Pixar. This metaphysical cipher has finally allowed me to figure out Monsters, What do you mean? You might ask what needs solving—haven't there been way too many Pixar theories? Don't think this is a theory, think of it as the key to every plot hole ever; it's not only logical, but poetic and sensible, and likely this video will serve to unify everything I've ever done. A few months ago I made a wild video that made a lot of bold claims about the Pixar company; I called it the twisted nest of Pixar," and that's becoming more true than ever. I hope you've seen it, and I hope you've heeded my warning, which suggested that you watch my three theories on Raw, three theories on Syndrome, and two theories on the Incredibles government because everything's about to connect perfectly, and this second Pixar dissertation is about to grind along the fringes of sanity and go straight off the rails!
Hello, I am the theorizer... Baby Smitty, the second I laid eyes on this character, I felt the overwhelming urge to hate him. He's just... i don't know how to put it, but for six months now I've been attacking him on social media. I made some bold claims intended to be slanderous about how he's an evolved form of the Spanish flu, how he's an anomalous Atlantic mime, and how he's the gastropod godfather, whatever that means. People have understandably accused me of losing my mind Baby Smitty is that little blue slug that wanders around with the preschool during the events of Monsters, Inc. and then bites Mike Wazowski's hand for no damn reason. Yes, this character with 30 seconds of screen time has earned my profound hatred; I can just feel that something's going on here. His name is yes, literally, "baby Smitty," and it's presumably because there's already another slug character named Smitty; he's the door shredder guy. This is the first clue that something's going on here; they could have named this child anything they wanted, but instead they named him "baby Smitty" so as to relate him back to the older Smitty. It signifies that blue slugs likely turn more green as they get older, and it means there's some fascinating continuity going on beneath the surface; in fact, all of the kids in this preschool seem to be related to the other older monsters we've seen. Let me elaborate: I have reason to believe that there is yet another smitty hiding somewhere out there, an adolescent smitty, dare I say. When Mike and Sully leave their apartment, we see some kids playing jump rope, and sitting right there on the steps is yet another blue slug with four arms; he's holding a soccer ball, and he says hi to them. With all of this in mind, I could easily believe that this is the house where the Smitty family lives, and in the window we see a giant eyeball; perhaps this is the head of the Smitty family, and it's kind of disturbing that they get so big. It's an interesting comparison to make though, because in Monsters University we see a giant slug octopus librarian who fits similar descriptions. This is the scary part. The Smitty family is well aware of Mike and Sully, the door shredder. Smitty is a super fan, and baby Smitty is freaking terrifying. They live right next door. Not only that, but Smitty shreds doors on Mike and Sully's own scare floor, which displays how they're always close behind them. When door shredder Smitty arrives on the scene, his job is to get rid of any unfit scare candidates, perhaps kids who are too jaded, too old, so on and so forth. I believe most of the Smitty family is indeed employed here, each with their own role to play, and then there's the baby of the bunch, i want to be clear, and this is about to get unlike anything you've ever seen before.
After uploading the matroshka video, I received numerous comments asking how the giraffe fits in. Yes, the giraffe, the bonus disc is filled to the brim with detail, more than any other bonus disc I've ever laid eyes upon, and it's all for a very specific reason. A while back, youtuber headache scanned this disc as well and was severely put off by the giraffe, rented an entire theater just to zoom in and screen and confirm its existence. What is it, and how could this even work? It would have to make a sneaky bee line for the door the moment where it needs to disappear, but it didn't take me long to realize it does at the exact moment in question boo leans up and points at her door. Sully assumes she's referring to the monsters scaring her but in fact she's talking about the stealth giraffe that just ran through and replaced itself. This still sounds insane and ridiculous at face value, but luckily it's just the missing piece i've been looking for, so is it some sort of monster? The answer is no. It's been a fixture of Boo's bedroom for quite some time, and this seems to be the two worlds colliding with full force. You'll see what I mean. Have you heard of the mans and the mons? It's a neat little story on the bonus disc detailing how monsters and humans lived in harmony until the humans bullied the monster's ugliness so bad that they had to flee to an enchanted island where they ate the food which made them scarier, and they began to spook humans out of revenge. They continued the tradition to this very day. This story upends a lot. I've constantly been saying that the doors go back in time, but that seems to be a falsehood. They refer to them as the human world and the monster world. I've been thinking about this little short for quite some time, and it seems to be a sort of bedtime story being told to younger generations. it's vague and seems to be somewhat metaphorical, what with enchanted islands, and so I've thought and thought and thought and felt like maybe it was a portal to a hidden world, perhaps underground, or something, so I scanned that bonus disk again and the answer hit me hard. the man's and the mons confirm it. It's a sort of propaganda, presumably by someone like Waternoose, and it also fully confirms hostility between monsters and humans. In the Himalayas, we see a village where we catch a glimpse of how scaring looks from the human side: lights constantly flashing, kids constantly screaming, villages in uproar — hold on, how would the human world not realize something fishy is going on? The human government must know that this is happening based on the history and the statistics. How can Mike and Sully traumatize adults at camp and just get away with it? How can they banish unruly monsters from the human world with such ease?
Oh...OH..OHHH...Mhmm, it's really simple. It's not that it's easy; it's that they've already been caught. It's happening, you feel it. It's likeIt's like a chill in the air. The puzzle, I did it. Oh, I did it. The humans, they know it's all a trap!Okay, so boo's bedroom is the nexus of multiversal overlap; it's the central focal point; I hinted at this in the twisted nest video; it's at the forefront of BNL's universal merge; it's the gateway between worlds, containing the layers below it in the form of toys; it's a crucial moment of overlap; but up until this point, I assumed it was all just a byproduct of the situation: reality bending in on itself. But don't you see, don't you understand it' It's all a setup and a lie. This isn't Boo's bedroom because there is no booze bedroom. This is a test. It's a facility. This is all BNL. The entire bedroom is an experiment by BNL monitored 24/7 to study the monsters so they can take over their world. They want Monstropolis because it's the mother lode, the nexus of the multiverse, with portals galore. All of their multiversal products are scattered amidst this fake room, all designed to catch the monsters. The giraffe is not a monster; it is BNL's modus operandi; it is robotic. The giraffe is the equivalent of a robotic animal, inconspicuously recording nature footage. Wait a second. Wait a second. No, I'm not crazy. I heard that this is familiar. Where did I learn this? [GASP]
Ms. Flint: Because...Mr. Bile: Um, it could... let in a draft (Girrafe)?
When I was younger, I always thought I heard giraffe never draft." I'm not alone in this; I've seen others online who heard this too. I bet this is purposeful. If you don't believe me, just take a look at the wall right behind him because, holy sh*t. There are literally giraffes right there, and get this: a toy giraffe angled perfectly as an inconspicuous camera. They're trying to tell us this was all a setup. It is complete and utter recon. The bedroom is a BNL venus fly trap. Do you have any idea how much this changes It means Bo was supposed to be captured. They put this child there for the sole purpose of getting snatched so they could send in the giraffe or any other spyware. Remember, we've established in the previous video that Boo has been screaming extracted many times. This is how she knew to open the secret door, and it's also why she's strangely comfortable around the water noose at first, and why Randall keeps going back for her and even mentions how she needs to take off a few pounds. This is how the giraffe was already in their world when the film began, and I mean, let's take a closer look at this supposed bedroom. For starters, the brightness of this moonlight is impossible; it'd have to be more like a street lamp, but it's angled in such a way that she'd have to be close to it. I don't hear any cars, only faint crickets and a subtle humming a humming you say like an industrial spotlight maybe. I'd also like to point out that this nursery mobile tilts slightly the moment we see it, even though this bedroom was completely empty.
How do you think BNL is accomplishing this? Yes, it would seem as though they've kidnapped a little girl and forced her to walk across the world. If this truly is the Incredibles universe, then could it really be true that she's a superhero? Or could it be how else she's full of energy that can power worlds? She's used as a lure. She can be screamingly extracted over and over again. And for sake, she literally teleports around. This is complete insanity, but something's still not adding up. I know BNL has the ability to kidnap superheroes; that's not an issue.
Oh, oh! I am so sorry! I don't know how to prepare you for this...[Robot test child acts as being scared and shuts down in Monster Inc. after being revealed and the simulation being terminated]They were telling us the whole time; can't you see what I've been saying? The whole film is bombarding us with it! They even do it again in the climax itself!
One question: why would it just be the giraffe? BNL is a company run and owned by robots; why would they stop? They wouldn't allof the toys here, these matroshka centrals themselves are spyware. The technology in the Incredibles world is so powerful that I've claimed Mirage as a robot. Do you see now that the giraffe isn't the only one being sent through, Boo is too? She teleports around, has no parents, is filled with energy, and everyone calls her Anita. She speaks like a machine learning algorithm, squealing "Kitty!' all over the place. She gives him tons of spyware as a last ditch recon op, and when she falls asleep she just shuts down! This child is not a child at all. Case in point, the cereal she eats repeatedly and doesn't die! Why would I be so insane to think that because i've read the ingredients, and I don't know about you, but I've never heard of an ordinary human being who can eat uranium, mercury, neurotoxins, and sulfuric acid, she physically can't be a human, but she mimics one perfectly like Mirage, ever the puppet with strings. BNL has been aware of the monster world for ages now, spying, prying, and planning a takeover of the world without energy as they use the same child targeting algorithm that the monsters themselves use. The end of the film is far, far darker this way; no wonder Smitty is shredding so many dead doors indeed. So this whole film was a plot staged by BNL to gain access to the master reality so they could collapse all of the layers. How deep does this go? First, thanks to my commenters, the ultimate proof can be found in cars.
[Truck Sulley and Mini Wazowski are scared and yell at Yeti Snowplow.]Yeti: "Welcome to the Himalayas!"Mack: "Oh, that abominable snowplow!"So this is unequivocal proof of films within films, but there's something else here to mention, and like A113 and the pizza planet truck, it's another symbolic representation of the states of these universes. The Chinese Food Boxes, this brand is located in every single universe except Monsters, Inc., where it's slightly off. This is because BNL owns fast food chains, but again, they've failed to assimilate Monstropolis. There is nexus upon nexus upon nexus as they try to break reality, and this restaurant is a nexus, upon nexus, hence Marlin literally being on the wall. BNL is trying to ram through these realities with a vengeance. It's obvious they're the humans who remember the monsters, the war, and the parallel worlds. That's how they've done all this, but here comes the true bombshell: here comes the mind to end all mine.
Mirage..the syndrome theories he's tied in to, he's creating increasingly human robots, it's all a part of the same thing, remember, he did all of this for the government! I told you they were shady, even back in the days when I had a text-to-speech and was narrating my videos. The incredible government syndicate, from their theories, has directed the syndrome from his theories, and they are building and funding massive quantities of artificial intelligence to consume the multiverse? You see, this government that suppresses supers and rules the world is BNL! I'm in a state of shock and I'm in a state of panic. It all makes sense. OH OH!!![Bud Luckey narrates: "The mons swam and swam."] The narrator of "The Mans and the Mons" ! it should sound familiar, because it's agent Rick Dicker himself! they remember the war! This isn't a story for monster children; it's for humans who were being inducted into their little cult, their little propaganda, and their little cartoons. Oh, now it makes sense why they targeted Winston and Evelynn Endeavor! It was their link to the telecommunications industry; they want to air their pre-emptive matroshka buzz lightyear shows, sure, but don't you see what's happening here? BNL is airing violence to children so they can desensitize them. This is what we see causes all of the dead doors. BNL is the true cause of the power crisis, robbing the energy that led to water news seeking out the greatest source, which was Boo's bedroom. The trap syndrome is a prime example of this violent fanboy youth.
I've solved it. This is why the Incredibles is so violent. I bet the government created superheroes to fight violence publicly and have children enjoy it. I mean, if it were poetic, they'd harvest the chains of monsters, which could be why they have owl creatures and stuff. It should be abundantly clear what I'm saying: BNL is the national superhero agency, the NSA has secret ocean bases to try and pinpoint the Bermuda Triangle, and Rick Dicker even vacations to one, just like the monsters! I'm shaking internally and externally, but wait, there's more! Because speaking of three-letter acronyms, the CDA is a crucial factor here too, a child-protecting team of monsters led by Roz after she quit being a scarer, at least according to my theories, but i do believe Waternoose and Roz aren't as clueless about all of this as one might think. Waternoose says 'she's seen too much', implying bad ramifications, and then babbles about how everyone's doomed as he's carried off, and it's because they know something -- their family created the portals after all, something's fishy, and i'm not just talking about this Bermuda crustacean, the CDA sees Mike and Sully's apartment light up, but they let it slide even though it's a sure sign of boo, I mean See their theories for more on that, and remember when Raz confronted Mike and Sully in the university and said she'd always be watching them? Why? They did nothing wrong except get on BNL's radar! I wonder how many kids are decoys adding to thecrisis Perhaps Roz has a counter giraffe she sent through, which is why she let Bo escape to begin with; all of her employees are yellow; she could have spotted it waddling out, even the news guy, who wink wink, is another A113 misprint uses telecommunication to say he's always watching them. They are targets after being seen by human adults, and I don't think it's any coincidence that Boo smiled as she smashed their telecommunications device. But before I wrap around to baby Smitty, I need to reach the holy grail of Pixar theorizing, which I found after months of analysis. You can probably feel it. We're building to one massive key that will answer everything related to BNL and Pixar itself. I hope you've seen everything i've ever said about BNL and Pixar.
Robots like Boo and Mirage don't seem like robots; they are so realistic it isn't even funny. It took mental gymnastics but also common sense for me to reach this conclusion, but there are certain things that robots notoriously cannot replicate, such as autonomy, emotion, and willpower. Recently, we got a movie named Soul, which focused on this most elusive factor: the difference between man and machine. boo isn't just a machine learning algorithm going around repeating "Kitty" She knows what kitties are, and she draws them on her wall as if she's learning about them with a purpose: is she artificial or a human? I also need to try and figure out how cars tie into this because evidently they do, but don't even get me started on what these things are supposed to be: are they artificial or human-like? I still need to bring Wall-E into this, but i can't for the life of me figure out how robots fall in lov--
[Theorizer moans Jumpscare]
I was right! I was right! I said it years ago, and I was right! The toys are possessed! BNL is using souls to power their machines. Oh..my..oh, that's the key! [SOUL] That's the truth they've been trying to tell us for decades. It's right there. They trick you into thinking this robot is actually a child, and then they make the movie about robots who are humans who fall in love with Wall-E and Eve. They even joke in Monsters, Inc. about children's souls possessing a garbage cube. This is BNL's end game: full corporate control. We even catch a glimpse of Mike's new car, which literally tries killing any monsters inside of it. Chomp! Don't you see how much sense this makes? Please understand! this is why 22 was so hesitant to head to earth; everyone is being brainwashed into obsession, which we see drains their souls and is ready to be harvested by BNL. She finally has a fun experience with Joe and a cat, then proceeds to birth into this! kitty..kitty..kitty!!Don't you see that 22 could very well be boo? Emotion is the link to the soul. When kids turn inside out and display mass amounts of emotion, their soul is vulnerable, and the monsters feed upon it. Randall's scream extractor rips the souls out of children. They are energetic; they wanted boo because 22 is inherently already loose. This is the same film that has Joe Gardner's score like some sort of Matroshka linked in Jazzy Fever Dream. Waternoose stops it with evil; Roz stops it with heroism. This brings me to the most critical of all points: the toys, many of which are BNL products such as Buzz Lightyear, act as soul funnels for children's imaginations, which i already determined also greatly helped power Monstropolis. Do you see what I'm saying? Do you see what I'm getting at?For years and years, I said Andy's ancestors helped watch over him in the form of toys. Now I have proof that this can be the case. The first film feels like two dads fighting over a son: the birth dad and the stepdad, Woody, who has no memory beyond a very specific point in his past and who watches over Andy like a father.[Excitement at the realization that Woody is Andy's dad] I did it! YES finally!
I need to down several chill pills with a gallon of chamomile; somebody stop me before I do so. UGH! We're too late; I've read too many ofYour comments and I have ascended one too many layers for my own good, but it does seem to be the case that, if varying levels of reality all coexist within a recursive stack, then why would our layer be exempt? Um, wait, what is BNL?The company that owns fictional Pixar and runs the world and has a monopoly on merchandise in the economy, um, this should sound strikingly familiar...
BNL is Disney. BNL is Disney! Oh my fuck!This is how our world ties into the theory. This is how the story drags in our lair. The fictional premise is that BNL is based off of Disney itself. This is most certainly what they were going for when they created the idea of BNL in the first place. The freakiest part in all of this is that Disney's late acquisition of Blue Sky Studios would canonize my Katie Theory by proxy because if all the layers are involved in a nest of insignificant easter eggs then the multiversal goddess would technically be involved too, but obviously that's not intentional; that's just a fun by-product of the insane fact that BNL is disney. My main concern now is that Disney is in the housing market and people are already comparing them to BNL online. Layers of reality are converging, and luckily we can finally solve Baby Smitty with all of this.
On the night of boo's escape, she ambushes a sushi restaurant named Harry Housens (laughs), and the cda bursts onto the scene with full force. In later interviews, a scarefloor monster named Lanky Schmidt claims that Boo used laser eyes, and another monster says she shook him like a dog with her mind powers, which is confirmed by yet another monster. This is all very suspicious because the Incredibles and Monsters, Inc. overlapped like mad to the point where they even shared similar logos, and this led to all of you commenting about the very viral theory, which identifies the possibility that Jack Jack is the real culprit. jack jack has all of those powers and the ability to overlap dimensionally. The strangest part, though, is that it occurs at such a coincidental moment, right amidst chaos, so here's the kicker: Here's my theory: here we go, Boo jumped up on the counter and screamed boo at all of the monsters in a sort of climactic moment of terror. Remember what I said about this restaurant being a nexus point, nay, a weak spot between universes? Well, I believe this entire night of horrors was a controlled event by BNL. From the other side, this restaurant is so literally fishy that I might be inclined to brand it as the center of the Bermuda Triangle, the center of the Bermuda Triangle. What is their logo, the Bermuda Triangle?[Inception sound at Triangle Illuminati at the sushi restaurant menu cover]
The restaurant is named after a famous real life animator, and it's because this whole situation is literally breaking down layers of reality and combining the easter eggs from our lair. Still don't believe me? Well guess what this restaurant is filled to the brim with, the Chinese food boxes. Are you kidding me? This is insane. So BNL is using children to minimize suspicions and keep them secure. Boo Jack Jack and someone else, another baby, a changeling, to swap universes with physical conservations. Now I didn't know who this was, and then every single layer of reality broke and I collapsed into a pit of my own broken existence.
The bonus disc ends with a series of bloopers that are literally showing how the film itself was filmed and have actors acting the act. matroshka! This is not what gets me, though; what gets me is that it finishes with a literal stage play retelling the events of the film, and who plays Boo? It's none other than baby Smitty; everything is collapsing. It's the way he stared down Lanky Schmidt himself that got me so much so that I tweeted about it without fully understanding what I was talking about, but it's him. This is what the giraffe teaches us about swapping universes. Baby smitty is a changeling with Jack Jack, and from that night forward, he's, "Oh, is it possible that baby smitty has no older sibling and that this was baby smitty until the night of living hell?" perhaps, perhaps, but that's not the point. Do you see what i'm really getting at, whichever method I use? Whatever happened, however it occurred, it did. BNL has been sending in decoy children to prep the universe for their takeover. Jack Jack's first big outpouring of power was during the short film "Jack Jack Attack." Near the end of this BNL inventor himself syndrome, Jack Jack arrives at the doorstep and makes a joke.Syndrome: "Then I would have been going around wearing a big BS, and you understand why I couldn't go with it."
[BS = Baby Smitty] What an absolute coincidence! I'm not sure what this thing is; it likely came through at some point somehow, but I don't believe this is a robot, at least not entirely. First of all, he has razor sharp teeth; slugs don't have teeth, not like this; look at older Smitty; those are teeth; they even make a point of how he can wear braces. These on the other hand are shards of bone. He slithers around like a leviathan and has a mouth like a lamprey off the top of my head. He shares a ton of characteristics with both leviathans and changelings from the show "Supernatural", which is a weird coincidence, but all this time my jokes were accurate. He supersedes gastropods. He is a virus spreading BNL in the atlantic hidden city. Baby Smitty is dumb and uneducated in parrots. He follows Mike Wazowski around like he's learning. His eyes are black and vacant, which is absolutely nothing with the older smitty or the other version of this child that we see earlier near the apartment. They chose him because of his proximity to Mike Sully and, most importantly, Boo.
I also believe Roz has ties back to this family. I believe this because we've established that the slugs turn green, grow massive, and may turn into old ladies who like administrative positions. She doesn't have the correct arm count, which leads me to believe she's only on one side of the family, but I do believe there's a slug conspiracy of some sort going on here in some form of 'Always Watching'
The film is quite upfront about it all, this is why Mike chose Baby Smitty to play Boo in the theatrical production, he sounds the same, he is a replacement, an imperfect one, and this brings me to my final conclusion and about what he's here to do. I believe BNL is already infiltrating Monstropolis, not in the form of robots -- that's just the equivalent of their reconnaissance drones -- no i think baby smitty is infectious I believe BNL is replacing the citizenry one member at a time. at first, I thought there's no way, but then i started getting advertisements for the new Monsters at work tv show, I haven't seen the whole thing, but here's the confusing part: I think i'm right, and I think the evidence is overwhelming.
In the show, we meet Gary Gibbs and Rose. Gary Gibbs is like Mike Wazowski, but blue and evil. Rose is similar to Roz, but she prefers Gary Gibbs and is less bubbly These are cloned villains who appeared out of nowhere shortly after the events of the film; Roz appears to be playing along; the bonus disc adds the CDA credits beneath Baby Smitty's preschool teacher, and all of them felt as though this meta-stage play was worth their time; cloning is occurring, but I don't know what the consistency was to be able to prove this, but then i realized the truth, it's all in the sounds! When Roz slams the door on mike's hands he screams yeaaaaahhhhhhh, later baby smitty parrot's mike wazowski, as if to repeat mimic clone it then as if informed by boo, he mysteriously stares at mike's previously damaged hands before chomping on them as hard as he can and what do we hear mike makes the exact same yeah scream once again, i have reason to believe that anyone who is bit by baby smitty is then cloned and prepped to be replaced it makes sense why this has already happened to mike and baby smitty's very own possible grandmother. It's in the bite, but as you should hear, it's also in the scream. It is a scream extraction. We've established that screams are funnels for the soul, and thus Baby Smitty is cloning people. Gary Gibbs is literally named after Mary Gibbs, which is Bo's real name and Bo's actress's name, and baby Smitty was the actor for Bo in the stage play. All of the levels of reality are collapsing, and Mike should have taken the hint when his hands were damaged at the end for more reasons than just fixing that damn door!
I hate baby Smitty! the scourge of Monstropolis, the doom of monsters BNLeviathan: This is what baby smitty is, because this is not baby smitty, let's be completely clear. The next step is to actually map this mitroshka and see what BNL's working with at the hypothetical maximum. The infinite mobius matrioshka, also known as the nested realities, are 20-dimensional. What i mean is that it would be easier if each film had every other film within it. It would be a diagram that would basically be a circle containing 20 other circles for each sub-universe, which contained 20 more circles infinitely. However, it's clear to me that this is not the case. I need to sift out every plot hole and every detail in every short film and shared universe. I need to interrelate every easter egg and display the omniversal container. How does Disney tie in? How do bloopers tie in? The result will be me having to visualize 20 dimensions in a single YouTube video, and then proceed to somehow illustrate approximately 20 to the power of 20 diagrams, which would require a hundred septillion pages. I'll have to find a workaround because that's physically impossible, so this will be graduate thesis material, and you better stay tuned. This has pushed me tremendously far over the edge, so subscribe and ring the bell where I'll find you until next time I'm the theorizer.

First Entry
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Third Entry
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Fifth Entry
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Journal of Camille Lambert - April 12th
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We could see the shadows of the Nightwalkers from our place by the bonfire. They peeked in through the broken windows of the church, watching us from afar but never actually entering the ruins. I’m not sure if the firelight was what kept them away, or the protective runes that Nina had drawn.
​
Nina sat on a fallen column, watching them in case they tried anything… and yet if I walked over to the right side of the circle of columns that we’d set up our bonfire in, she seemed… dimmer. Like she was there and yet not there at the same time.
​
Dom on the other hand was crystal clear. I could see him sitting by the door of the church. I couldn’t see him at all from the left side of the circle. The mist was too thick. But on the right side, he was right there, impossible to miss. The effect was surreal, to say the least. He was holding the device Nina had used to call in her backup. She’d called it a phone but it didn’t look like any phone I’d ever seen.
​
“ETA, an hour or so for the standby team in Tallinn, 15 hours for the rest,” Nina had said after she’d made her call. “Let’s get comfortable.”
I figured that it’d been about an hour and a half since she’d said that. Standing by the bonfire itself, the world past the columns seemed to be in flux. Sometimes I could see mist through the windows and the holes in the ceiling. Sometimes I could see stars.
​
Shadows of smaller Nightwalkers darted past the church door sometimes, lingering only long enough to look in on us before retreating back into the darkness. Nina watched each one like a hawk, gripping her shotgun tightly.
I walked out to sit with her for a bit, leaving the light of the fire for a little while. Even from her vantage point, I still couldn’t see Dom but at least I knew he was safe enough.
“How many do you think are out there?” I asked quietly.
“Too many,” Nina replied. “We’re not going back to Puriysk tonight, that’s for damn sure.”
​
As she spoke, I saw more shadows moving in the dark, skittering away into the mist.
“You sure you want to stay out here? Might be safer to stay with Dom,” I said.
“Probably, but it’s better if I stay here. If the door closes, I’m better off on the inside. Be easier to open it again, that way.”
“Fair enough,” I said, looking back out into the mist. I could see nothing past it.
​
No shadows. No movement. There wasn’t even any noise. Nina looked up at the darkness again.
“Is it just me or is it quieter out there?” She asked.
“No… it’s quieter out there,” I said. “Could be there’s a big one nearby. Dom said that the small ones usually avoid them.”
​
Nina kept staring out at the mist, but the silence remained. I wasn’t sure if she was genuinely worried or not. After a few minutes, I saw movement in the mist again. I heard the rustling of trees and saw something standing in the dark. I almost thought that it might have looked like a man… almost. But I couldn’t fully make out the shape of it.
​
I could see the eyes of the Nightwalker shining in the firelight, before it finally moved, darting out of sight. Nina watched it go, before returning her attention to me.
“Good news is, we won’t be alone for that much longer,” She said. “After the first group shows up, we can head into Puriysk with them and start setting up shop. By the time the rest of them arrive, we should be in a good place. After that, it’s just a matter of getting people out and dealing with Calhoun,”
“You make it sound easy,” I said.
“I mean, it probably won’t be a walk in the park,” Nina admitted. “But at least we won’t be running this job alone. These things go easier when you’ve got help.”
“Yeah… I imagine they would,” I said.
​
Beside us, I heard a dull thud as a piece of one of the church's more damaged walls fell away and crashed to the ground. Nina was up on her feet immediately, shotgun in hand. I rose to my feet beside her.
“The fuck was that?” She asked.
“Part of the wall, I think,” I said. I spotted the spot where it had fallen and looked up. It had probably come off one of the broken domed towers near the door. One of their ceilings had come down ages ago and I imagined it wouldn’t take much more than a strong gust of wind to knock over some of the loose bricks jutting out from where the roof remained. Nina approached the fallen piece of brick, pausing to inspect it.
​
“Hell of a big chunk of wall,” She said before looking up again. I did the same, although as I did, I could’ve sworn I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at it. The shadows cast by the bonfire left pools of darkness along the ceiling.
​
But in those pools, I could see flickering reflections of light.
​
Two of them.
​
Staring right at me.
​
Slowly I reached out, putting a hand on Nina’s shoulder. I didn’t want to yell or move too quickly. I couldn’t see what was in the darkness but I know that it looked poised to strike. Nina looked over at me, before tensing up. I knew that she saw it too. The eyes remained trained on us, and I heard a low, animal hiss coming from the shadows.
“Bonfire…” Nina said, gripping her shotgun tighter “Get Dom… now.”
​
I took a step back and saw the eyes following me. Nina backed away from the shadows, eyes never leaving the ceiling. I saw limbs splaying outward from the darkness. I could see them tensing up. It was going to lunge.
​
“MOVE!” I said, breaking into a sprint, but it was too late. The Nightwalker launched itself at Nina like a bullet. I heard her shotgun fire twice, before the creature crashed into the ground, flailing violently. I could see long, dark limbs, more than any human should have struggling to pick itself up. I could see a body that only vaguely resembled a man. It had a torso, a human head, and long black hair, but looked more like a spider than a person. And yet there was something off about it. Something I hadn’t seen on any of the other Nightwalkers. This one had some kind of sigil on its forehead. Something that looked almost like a crimson eye, that seemed to glow with surreal energy.
​
The Nightwalker looked at Nina, snarling at her. When it opened its mouth, I could see rows upon rows of teeth inside. She fired her shotgun again, but the creature barely even seemed to notice them. Even after she’d gone through the trouble of cursing them, her rounds weren’t doing anything.
“RUN!” I heard her yell, and I didn’t dare question that. I just ran.
​
I sprinted toward the bonfire, just in time to see Dom running toward me. He took aim at the Nightwalker, firing at it as it tried to go after Nina. But his bullets did next to nothing to it. The Nightwalker didn’t even look at him.
​
It just kept going for Nina, almost pinning her down. She unloaded two more shells into its face, which did little more than make it flinch and bought her some time to run.
​
This time, she took off at a sprint toward the bonfire. Dom saw her running and started to backpedal as well, running back toward the bonfire and the safety of the columns. The creature paused as we took shelter by the fire, watching us intently and letting out another serpentine hiss. Nina stared back at it, before looking back at the fire. She tossed her shotgun aside and hastily grabbed one of the spare branches we’d kept for the bonfire. She put it in the fire, before pulling it out and brandishing it like a weapon. The Nightwalker hissed and recoiled a bit, focused on the flame. As it paused, Dom grabbed Nina’s shotgun off the ground and took aim.
​
“Don’t…” She said, putting a hand up to stop him, her voice low and intense. She didn’t dare look away from the Nightwalker. “Save the cursed rounds… they won’t kill it. Just get outside.”
“What about you?” Dom asked.
“Outside,” Nina repeated. “Now.”
I put a hand on Dom’s shoulder.
“Let’s go!” I said, trying to tug him along behind me.
​
He hesitated for a moment longer before finally letting me take him. We backed through the right set of columns, and once we were through I saw Nina taking a step away from the bonfire, toward the right set of columns. The Nightwalker passed the left set of columns, trying to follow her.
“Come on…” She said under her breath, “Come and get me, shithead…”
​
I saw it inching closer to her, and tensing up again, getting ready to pounce. That was when Nina made her move. She thrust her burning branch into the Nightwalker's face, earning a cry of pain from it and making it jerk back. I saw it swatting at the branch, trying to get rid of the fire. Nina took the chance to run, sprinting at top speed toward the door of the church.
“GO!”
​
Neither of us needed to be told twice. We ran for the church door, as the Nightwalker let out a roar from behind us. I looked back to see it charging toward us again, gaining ground. As we ran back out into the field, we were greeted by countless blinding lights. I saw Nina pause, before feeling her grab me by the back of the shirt and pull me away. I could see Dom in her other hand. She dragged us both down to the ground in the instant before the Nightwalker emerged from the door of the church.
​
I saw it recoil, putting up its clawed hands to try and shield its eyes from the blinding light.
​
Then I heard the gunfire.
​
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I could see several men, each holding automatic rifles advancing on the Nightwalker. It shrank back toward the church, trying to shield itself from the gunfire, clearly overwhelmed. But just like with Nina’s shotgun before it, the bullets did little to harm it. Despite all the gunfire it took, it didn’t fall. I could hear it hissing, I could see its beady black eyes darting around wildly. It lunged forward again, tackling one of the nearby men and tearing into him, before going after another. I saw its jaws close around his skull and heard the sickening crunch of bone as it took his head. The other men scrambled back, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the Nightwalker as they could. It howled in rage, preparing to charge after them when a final, deafening gunshot echoed through the night.
​
This time, the Nightwalker's entire body seized up. It let out an agonized scream. I could see its clawed hands clutching at a wound that had appeared on its chest… and I could see smoke rising out of that wound. It kept screaming and thrashing violently. Its limbs gave out from underneath it. I could see the wound in its chest sizzling and burning. I saw the flesh and skin sloughing off of its body, and I could see the pale white bone underneath.
​
The eye sigil on its forehead flickered before fading away and the Nightwalker let out one final, howl before collapsing to the ground, its body still twitching and convulsing. I looked over to see a single woman standing calmly by the nearby trucks. She was tall and pale, with long, stringy black hair and an intense look in her eye.
​
She was dressed in a long beige coat and holding an ornate revolver in one gloved hand. As the Nightwalker died I saw her gingerly slip the pistol into the inner pocket of her coat before reaching into another pocket for a notebook. Without ever looking away from the dead Nightwalker, she scribbled something down, then pocketed the notebook again and calmly walked toward the church, not even pausing to acknowledge anyone else around her. As she left, I saw the other armed men tending to their dead. With the Nightwalker dead, I could get a better look at them now. They were dressed like soldiers, with bulletproof vests and no shortage of pockets. A few of them wore netted veils over their faces, making it hard to get a good look at them and giving them an eerie appearance, although watching them examine the bodies of their dead and respectfully carrying them away was almost humanizing.
​
Nina sat up, her blonde hair messy and a somewhat disoriented look on her face. She looked over toward the source of the lights that had blinded us. Four large SUVs were parked outside of the church, their headlights shining on the door. From those SUVs, I could see more armed men getting out and one of them was coming toward us.
​
“Nina Valentine?” I heard him ask. He had a heavy Slavic accent.
“Still alive,” She said, as she slowly climbed to her feet.
“Good. I’m Olev Kallas, I’m from the Tallinn Office, Director Durand sends his regards,” He offered Nina a hand to shake and she reluctantly took it. “The Director is currently en route, as are the rest of the team. In the meanwhile, we’re here to help.”
“Yeah and right on fucking time too,” She said, looking over at the dead Nightwalker.
​
“Ah… yes, you can thank Dr. Di Cesare for that,” Kallas said.
Nina raised an eyebrow. I had a feeling that she recognized the name, but she didn’t comment on it.
“But first, I imagine you and your friends must need a hot meal and a cold drink right about now and I can get you both.”
“Oh you’ve got no fucking idea…” Nina said, as Dom helped me to my feet. She waited until we were up, before gesturing for us to follow as Kallas led us toward one of the SUV’s.
​
***
​
I barely recognized the empty field around us as Puriysk. The buildings were all long gone and in their place was a paved highway that I’d never seen before.
“The town’s been gone for as long as I can remember,” Kallas said. “I couldn’t tell you if it was us, or the Soviets who got rid of the ruins. I read somewhere that there was some talk about refurbishing the old Church, but as you see, nothing ever came of it.”
“Thank God for small miracles,” Nina said, “Made my job a hell of a lot easier.”
​
We drove down the highway, past the wide open landscape and as we drove, I couldn’t help but admire it. In the distance, I could see the lights from another nearby town and watched as they drew closer and closer. God, I’d never seen a place so full of life before. As we drove along the quiet streets, past the sleeping buildings in the early hours of the morning, they still seemed so alive. Street lights cast a warm glow on the few passersby out doing their business. There were more cars on the road than I’d ever seen before, some driving past us to their own destinations and others parked and still.
​
“I can drop you three off at a hotel if you’d like,” Kallas offered. “You can get cleaned up and have a short rest before Director Durand arrives. I can pick up some fresh clothes for you, and then we can have a debrief over dinner.”
“Yeah, works for me,” Nina said before looking over at us.
“Dinner sounds good,” I said, although at the time I had no idea what exactly a hotel was. Thankfully, I got my answer pretty quickly.
​
The room I got was comfortable. The bed was softer than anything I’d ever laid on before and the hot water… oh God… I spent almost an hour in the shower alone, enjoying the steam and feeling the tension drain out of my muscles. When I was done, I put on a soft, fluffy bathrobe and laid down, letting myself relax for the first time in days. I almost dozed off… and maybe I would have if I hadn’t heard a knock on my door.
​
I considered ignoring it and just letting sleep take me, but I figured I might as well make sure it wasn’t important. Tying my bathrobe a little tighter around me, I got up to answer the door and was greeted by Dom, still wet from the shower.
​
“Hey,” He said. “Sorry, I hope I’m not bothering you!”
“It’s fine!” I replied, putting on a smile, “Come on in.”
I opened the door all the way to let him inside, but he hesitated.
“No, it’s alright. I just thought I’d check on you. It’s been… well, it’s been one hell of a past few days. And this feels like the first chance we’ve had to really breathe in a while.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” I sighed. I still held the door open for him. “Well, we’re not going to have this conversation in the hall, so come on in. I’ve got a coffee machine in here and I’m dying to try it out.”
​
I’m not sure if it was the promise of coffee that made him accept my invitation or the realization that I probably didn’t want to be in the hall with just a bathrobe on, but he came inside anyway.I went to the coffee machine and tried to figure it out. They had these little cups that I’d never seen before, but otherwise, it seemed fairly straightforward.
​
“Man… it’s really something else out here, isn’t it?” Dom asked, going to sit down on the bed. “It’s just so bright out here!”
“I’m still not entirely convinced I’m not dreaming,” I admitted. I managed to get one of the cups into the coffee machine and watched as it pissed out a somewhat pathetic amount of scalding hot coffee that admittedly did smell very nice. It had a lovely vanilla aroma.
I brought the first cup over to Dom.
​
“Glad I’m not the only one,” He said as I went back to make another cup, “Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if Nina’s backup was even going to come through and I sure as hell didn’t expect any of this.”
“You and me both,” I said with a sigh, “Is it wrong to say that I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop?”
“Well, when something seems too good to be true…” Dom murmured, “Although then again… looking at what we had in there compared to what Nina’s been telling me about life out here, I can’t help but wonder if we’ve had it bad for so long that even the smallest good thing would seem too good to be true.”
“That’s a disturbing thought,” I said.
“Maybe. But what if it’s true?”
​
I didn’t know how to answer that.
“Either way… this isn’t much more than a break, isn’t it?” Dom asked, “The calm before the storm. I know that after we talk to the Director, Nina’s going right back in… and I’m going with her.”
I nodded before taking my coffee and joining him on the bed.
“I know,” I said. “And I’m going with you.”
“You know that you don’t have to, right?” Dom asked. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I know that this kind of thing isn’t exactly in your wheelhouse. I’m not saying to just let it be or anything, but there’s other ways to help that don’t involve shooting things and burning down buildings.”
​
Again, I paused.
“Maybe,” I said. “Honestly, whatever I can do, I just want to do it. Whatever it may be. I’ve been just accepting things the way they were for too long, the same as you. I don’t want to just accept it anymore! I can’t.”
“And you aren’t,” Dom said, “I mean… shit, I watched you take pot shots at a Nightwalker the other night. Ever since we left, you’ve done whatever you can to help out. You’ve done a hell of a lot more to fix things than anyone else I know. That takes a hell of a lot of strength. More than I’d probably have in your shoes… honestly, you’re half the reason I’m still doing this, Cam.”
​
I looked at him and felt his hand pressing over mine.
“Only half?” I teased, trying to distract from the shade I could feel my cheeks flushing.
“Well, there’s everyone else too.” He said, “But right now, the one I care the most about is you.”
I actually broke down laughing at that and gently pushed him away.
“Too much?” He asked.
“No,” I said. “Just right.”
​
I let my head rest on his shoulder and for a little bit, we just sat together, hand in hand and beautifully content. I sensed him hesitating for a little while, before finally seizing the moment and placing his hand on my chin. I let him. He lifted my face and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips, one that I all too happily reciprocated.
​
After all… who knew when we’d get another chance?
​
***
​
The restaurant that Kallas brought us to was fairly quiet, although it wasn’t empty. As we walked in, I could see a large table set out with faces both familiar and unfamiliar at it.
​
Nina had washed almost an entire layer of dirt and soot off her face. Her hair looked cleaner and she was clearly wearing new, cleaner jeans. Although I didn’t think she’d actually changed her T-shirt. I recognized it by the neckline, but I’d never seen the whole thing before. It had a graphic of a warning label on it that said: ‘DO NOT USE FOR WET GRINDING’ although the ‘DO NOT’ part was crossed out in red.
​
Had she seriously been wearing that the whole fucking time…? At least it looked like she’d recently washed it.
​
Beside Nina, I saw Natalya, looking a little more cleaned up and wearing new clothes. Someone must have gotten her out of Puriysk earlier that day. The dark haired woman that Kallas had named as Dr. Di Cesare sat on the other side of Nina, although she was more focused on her own journal than any of us.
Lastly, I saw a man I didn’t recognize at all. He was tall and looked to be somewhere in his fifties, with wavy blond hair and a clean shaven face. He was dressed in a nice but slightly wrinkled suit.
​
The blond man was the first one to speak.
“Mr. Kallas, good to see you again,” He said as he got up to greet us.
“Director Durand, I have to say that the pleasure is all mine,” Kallas said, shaking Durand’s hand. His attention turned to us next.
​
“You two must be Camille Lambert and Dom Hoskins, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Milo Durand. I’m the Director of the Fae Relations Bureau’s Department of Public Safety.”
“Hell of a mouthful,” Dom said, shaking Durand’s hand.
“Just call us the FRB for short,” He said with a smile, “Take a seat. Dr. Di Cesare and I wanted to take some time to go through the situation with the Calhoun Pocket.”
​
Kallas pulled out some seats for us and we sat down. There were glasses of water waiting for us at the table. As soon as we sat down, Dr. Di Cesare glanced up at us, but didn’t close her notebook.
“So… now that we’re all here. Where should we begin?” Kallas asked.
“Well for starters, I’d like to get a solid picture of what exactly we’re going to be walking into when we send the rest of our people into the Calhoun Pocket,” Durand said, “Mr. Kallas, I’m aware you’re detachment has already properly secured Puriysk. But I’ve got some questions regarding the other towns so we know what else to expect once we’re inside.”
“What exactly is it that you want to know?” I asked.
​
“Well for starters, we need access to the other towns. We were told that navigating between them could be difficult, but I imagine there must be some way to circumvent that,”
“There is,” Dom said, “The roads don’t always go to the same places, but there are always landmarks and turns. You can use those to navigate.”
“One of the files I found in the archive at the Deputy’s Office has a list of landmarks and directions to reach the different towns,” Nina added, “I emailed you a copy earlier to go over,”
​
Durand nodded.
“Excellent. Which leads me to my next question. Infrastructure. I can’t imagine Calhoun’s been running a show like his without some means of providing food and power to the other towns. I’m aware that Rankin Mills had a power plant, so I figure that Calhoun is using that to keep the lights on. But what about food, gas, supplies?”
“Most of the food comes from Bakersfield,” I said. “There’s a lot of farmland there, most of it fairly safe from the mist. I used to work at a Roadhouse in Thompson Falls. We’d get deliveries every week or so.”
​
“I see… what about Puriysk and Thompson Falls? What’s there?”
“Puriysk was where they trained a lot of the Sheriff’s Boys,” Dom said. “They had the largest Deputy’s Office outside of Parsons. And Thompson Falls was more of a mining community. Lotta the construction work that was done in Parsons was done by people brought in from Thompson and Puriysk.”
​
Durand raised an eyebrow.
“Construction in Parsons?” He asked.
“Calhoun’s sorta been using it as his capital. Far as I can tell, he’s been trying to build up the towns, although Parson’s the one that’s gotten the most attention,” Dom said. “I guess it’s as close to a capital city as we’ve got in there. He also mentioned the ‘Sovereign Nation of Calhoun’ although I haven’t heard anyone outside of Parsons use that name.”
“Sovereign Nation of Calhoun…” Durand repeated, before glancing at Nina. She just gave a slightly defeated nod as if to say: ‘Yeah, he actually called it that.’
​
“Okay… let’s talk about Calhoun himself… what do you know?” Durand asked.
“Not a hell of a lot,” Dom said, “Closest I’ve ever come to actually meeting the guy is when he spoke to us outside of the church last night. Other than that, he rarely leaves his house in Parsons and rarely appears in public and most of what I’ve heard is just rumors.”
​
“Whatever you’ve heard… odds are that it’s true,” Natalya said quietly, drawing all eyes at the table over to her.
“I’ve heard the story enough times now… first from my mother, then from so many afterward. One day, the days just grew dimmer. The clouds above us just grew so thick that you could not see the sun and the mist drifted through the streets. The roads no longer led to the same places… and at night, the shadows moved, devouring any in their paths alive and screaming. First, it came for Parsons, then Rankin, Puriysk, Bakersfield, and Thompson. One by one. In time, it will come for others. He will come for others.”
​
Durand leaned in a little bit, listening intently. Dr. Di Cesare had also paused, listening as Natalya spoke.
“My mother told me that after the change, Calhoun’s people began to enter the town. Drunken louts, filling up the bars demanding free alcohol in exchange for ‘protection’ from the things outside. Although even with the alcohol, they still left bodies in their wake.”
She paused, slipping back into old, bitter memories.
​
“She told me of the ways Calhoun had changed Puriysk… most of the men either joined his little militia out of necessity or were given other jobs where they were worked to the bone. And the women…” She paused, “The homemakers he generally left alone but the young and the pretty ones found their way into the brothel. After all, his soldiers needed something to do to pass the time when they weren’t drinking and acting like children with guns. Governor Calhoun raped Puriysk, just the same as he raped every other town he took. All my life, I’ve watched as he’s milked them for his own gain and spread like a disease across new towns, looking for more. Before I even understood what home was, he had taken my home from me. Before I was old enough to speak, he had taken my life from me. Because of him, I grew up in a brothel in a town that does not exist.”
​
Durand was silent, before looking at Nina who drummed her fingers on the table.
“Valentine?” He asked.
“Like Dom said, the only interaction we had with that guy was when he talked to us last night,” She said. “I’m not a psychologist but I’d figure most of what he said is pretty on par with what a narcissistic megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur would probably say. It was probably a whole lot of horseshit… probably…”
“But?” Durand asked. Nina sighed.
​
“There was one thing he said that stood out, he said that if we killed him, we’d be killing everyone else in the pocket too. He made it sound like his life was tied to it, or something. I don’t know if he can actually fucking do that or not but I’m also not sure I’d want to chance it. Some of those documents I found in the Puriysk archive mentioned Calhoun and something called ‘The Eldest’.”
​
At the mention of the name, Dr. Di Cesare looked up.
“Gretchen,” Durand asked, “Do you recognize that name.”
Gretchen Di Cesare gave a curt nod before flipping through her notebook to a previous page. As she did, I noticed her sleeve lifting briefly, revealing a tattoo on her wrist. Two wavy, parallel lines. It looked like the zodiac sign for ‘Aquarius.’
“The Eldest… Old Fae. ‘The eldest’ according to myth, hence the name. Few documented encounters. None modern…” She paused to think for a moment, “Hard to kill… harder to control. Would need the heart either way. No small task but… possible… probable.”
​
“Old Fae?” I asked, “What exactly is that?”
“More or less exactly what it says on the tin,” Nina said. “Really old forest fae who got fucked up by the Midnight Grove… and a real fucking problem if that’s what we’re going to have to deal with. Do we even know how to kill an Old Fae?”
“As stated, the heart,” Dr. Di Cesare said, “Find that, kill the Fae. Would reckon that Calhoun has it. If not on his person, then somewhere safe. And should that fail…”
She removed the revolver from her coat pocket and set it down on the table without a word.
​
“A contingency. Custom revolver, specialized blessed rounds - Malvian ice.”
I saw Nina raise an eyebrow.
“You put Malvian ice in a gun?” She asked.
“What’s Malvian ice?” I asked. I figured that this conversation required a bit of context.
“Frozen mist, obtained from the domain of an Ancient God. In essence, a part of the God herself” Dr. Di Cesare said. “Weaponized - could kill anything beneath the Ancient Gods. Never tried it with bullets before, but the live fire trial yielded promising results.”
​
My mind flashed back to the Nightwalker we’d run into last night and the way its flesh had melted away after Dr. Di Cesare had shot it with that gun. The memory sent a chill through me.
​
“So you built a gun that can shoot an Old Fae dead?” Nina asked. I couldn’t tell if she was disturbed by the guns existence or excited to try it out.
“Old Fae, Grovewalkers, and most lesser Gods, amongst other things,” Dr. Di Cesare said. “So long as it has a physical form, it can be killed.”
“Dr. Di Cesare agreed to assist us with this job, in the interest of doing her own research on the Calhoun pocket,” Durand added. “The gun is her contribution to this project. It’s intended as more of an emergency measure than anything else. But if necessary, we could use it to kill whatever is allowing Calhoun to control the pocket reality.”
Nina just whistled and sat back in her chair. She seemed almost at a loss for words.
​
“So… all we need to do is shoot Calhoun or this ‘Eldest’ thing with that gun, after we get everyone out and we’re golden, right?” Dom asked.
“I would regard The Eldest as a higher priority than Calhoun right now,” Durand said. “Calhoun could have been lying about tying his own life to the existence of the pocket reality, but I’m not willing to take that gamble if I don’t have to. Right now, my gut is saying to try and take him alive.”
​
“He’s not gonna go quietly if we try,” Nina pointed out. “Hypothetical question, if we destroy the heart, would that take the risk of killing Calhoun out of the equation?”
“No. Whatever spell was used, would not die with the caster,” Dr. Di Cesare said.
Nina nodded thoughtfully.
“I see. Fuck.”
​
“To your point though: Killing Calhoun is likely inevitable. And while I lack any meaningful data on the spell used by the Eldest or how to circumvent it, I can predict the timeframe of such a collapse. The effect would not be immediate. Could take minutes, hours or days. There may be a window for escape.”
​
“We'll have time to cross that bridge when we get to it,” Durand said. “Last question I’ve got is about the local militia, but Mr. Kallas and I can discuss that with Valentine and Mr. Hoskins separately. In the meanwhile, I believe our first order of business should be eliminating collateral. We’ll start with Puriysk, then move on to Rankin Mills, Bakersfield, and Thompson Falls. Once we’ve cleared out those towns, we’ll focus on Parsons and Calhoun. Mr. Kallas, I’ll leave it to you to oversee the evacuation efforts. It’s probably redundant to say this, but we’ve got our work cut out for us, ladies and gentlemen so let’s keep our heads down, our minds sharp and get through this as cleanly as possible. Now… without any further ado, I promised you people dinner and I’m not going to put you all to work on an empty stomach. So, as the Estonians say: ‘Head isu.’”
​
***
​
Looking back, there was a sort of bittersweetness to that evening. On one hand, I don’t remember the last time I’ve eaten so well. After dinner, I went back to the hotel, enjoyed my hot shower, and sank into my warm sheets, waiting for Dom to come back from his meeting with Nina, Kallas, and Durand.
​
And yet… at the same time, all I could think about was what would happen in the morning. In the morning, we’d be leaving again, going back to Puriysk. Back to Calhoun. Part of me almost dreaded it, fearing that if I left this place then I’d never get to come back again.
​
But listening to Durand and the others talk during that briefing… so much of it went completely over my head and I couldn’t help but feel like that was a good thing. They’d been focused, precise, knowledgeable and most of all, prepared.
​
Calhoun’s threats lingered in the back of my mind, but they seemed so much smaller now. I struggled to imagine that Calhoun and the Sheriff’s Boys could do much the face of what had come for him, even with some kind of all powerful Fae at his disposal. Just Nina alone had been enough to rip Puriysk from his grasp… what could an army of her do?
​
I should have taken comfort in that idea. I did take comfort in that idea. But I still couldn’t help but worry all the same. Maybe what Dom had said earlier was true. Maybe we’d had it so bad for so long that even the smallest good thing now seemed too good to be true… maybe. When Dom came back, I was waiting for him. We lay in bed together, talking quietly to each other about what was going to happen in the morning, and holding hands, we drifted off into sleep.

It’s so odd because we all warned you this would happen but you didn’t listen you like to block people who tell you the truth because you like to hear bull shit sweet lies well now look where we are the ugly truth here’s the truth you and those people who donated enabled her weather you were aware of it or not but knowing you you were highly aware of it and played a part in her maci dying your the most vile bottom of the barrel human being I’ve ever seen in my life the lowest of the low honestly you thought you were gonna get sympathy on here WRONG it’s just gonna get worse from here on out because we know wtf type of person you we see through that mask you put on we see you for who you truly are a the coward narcissist pos let those people tell maci she wasn’t shit on the daily and then you wanted to act shocked when she didn’t want to be on TikTok anymore I wouldn’t either if I’m getting verbally abused every single time online then to have your funky ass on the side smiling with them ugly ass yellow teeth I would reach my breaking point to if I were maci being in that fuck up situation not only that you put hands on her you pos then you tried to gaslight her told your little friend Renee your just using her for the truck as if we didn’t fucking know everyone knew and you think that didn’t make maci feel a way all you did was just add on to her pain and misery and just made it worse honestly wish she never met you she probably still be alive maybe who knows at this point your the scum of the most scum I feel nothing for you your pathetic

First Entry
Second Entry
Third Entry
Fourth Entry ​
Fifth Entry
​
Journal of Camille Lambert - April 12th
​
We could see the shadows of the Nightwalkers from our place by the bonfire. They peeked in through the broken windows of the church, watching us from afar but never actually entering the ruins. I’m not sure if the firelight was what kept them away, or the protective runes that Nina had drawn.
​
Nina sat on a fallen column, watching them in case they tried anything… and yet if I walked over to the right side of the circle of columns that we’d set up our bonfire in, she seemed… dimmer. Like she was there and yet not there at the same time.
​
Dom on the other hand was crystal clear. I could see him sitting by the door of the church. I couldn’t see him at all from the left side of the circle. The mist was too thick. But on the right side, he was right there, impossible to miss. The effect was surreal, to say the least. He was holding the device Nina had used to call in her backup. She’d called it a phone but it didn’t look like any phone I’d ever seen.
​
“ETA, an hour or so for the standby team in Tallinn, 15 hours for the rest,” Nina had said after she’d made her call. “Let’s get comfortable.”
I figured that it’d been about an hour and a half since she’d said that. Standing by the bonfire itself, the world past the columns seemed to be in flux. Sometimes I could see mist through the windows and the holes in the ceiling. Sometimes I could see stars.
​
Shadows of smaller Nightwalkers darted past the church door sometimes, lingering only long enough to look in on us before retreating back into the darkness. Nina watched each one like a hawk, gripping her shotgun tightly.
I walked out to sit with her for a bit, leaving the light of the fire for a little while. Even from her vantage point, I still couldn’t see Dom but at least I knew he was safe enough.
“How many do you think are out there?” I asked quietly.
“Too many,” Nina replied. “We’re not going back to Puriysk tonight, that’s for damn sure.”
​
As she spoke, I saw more shadows moving in the dark, skittering away into the mist.
“You sure you want to stay out here? Might be safer to stay with Dom,” I said.
“Probably, but it’s better if I stay here. If the door closes, I’m better off on the inside. Be easier to open it again, that way.”
“Fair enough,” I said, looking back out into the mist. I could see nothing past it.
​
No shadows. No movement. There wasn’t even any noise. Nina looked up at the darkness again.
“Is it just me or is it quieter out there?” She asked.
“No… it’s quieter out there,” I said. “Could be there’s a big one nearby. Dom said that the small ones usually avoid them.”
​
Nina kept staring out at the mist, but the silence remained. I wasn’t sure if she was genuinely worried or not. After a few minutes, I saw movement in the mist again. I heard the rustling of trees and saw something standing in the dark. I almost thought that it might have looked like a man… almost. But I couldn’t fully make out the shape of it.
​
I could see the eyes of the Nightwalker shining in the firelight, before it finally moved, darting out of sight. Nina watched it go, before returning her attention to me.
“Good news is, we won’t be alone for that much longer,” She said. “After the first group shows up, we can head into Puriysk with them and start setting up shop. By the time the rest of them arrive, we should be in a good place. After that, it’s just a matter of getting people out and dealing with Calhoun,”
“You make it sound easy,” I said.
“I mean, it probably won’t be a walk in the park,” Nina admitted. “But at least we won’t be running this job alone. These things go easier when you’ve got help.”
“Yeah… I imagine they would,” I said.
​
Beside us, I heard a dull thud as a piece of one of the church's more damaged walls fell away and crashed to the ground. Nina was up on her feet immediately, shotgun in hand. I rose to my feet beside her.
“The fuck was that?” She asked.
“Part of the wall, I think,” I said. I spotted the spot where it had fallen and looked up. It had probably come off one of the broken domed towers near the door. One of their ceilings had come down ages ago and I imagined it wouldn’t take much more than a strong gust of wind to knock over some of the loose bricks jutting out from where the roof remained. Nina approached the fallen piece of brick, pausing to inspect it.
​
“Hell of a big chunk of wall,” She said before looking up again. I did the same, although as I did, I could’ve sworn I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at it. The shadows cast by the bonfire left pools of darkness along the ceiling.
​
But in those pools, I could see flickering reflections of light.
​
Two of them.
​
Staring right at me.
​
Slowly I reached out, putting a hand on Nina’s shoulder. I didn’t want to yell or move too quickly. I couldn’t see what was in the darkness but I know that it looked poised to strike. Nina looked over at me, before tensing up. I knew that she saw it too. The eyes remained trained on us, and I heard a low, animal hiss coming from the shadows.
“Bonfire…” Nina said, gripping her shotgun tighter “Get Dom… now.”
​
I took a step back and saw the eyes following me. Nina backed away from the shadows, eyes never leaving the ceiling. I saw limbs splaying outward from the darkness. I could see them tensing up. It was going to lunge.
​
“MOVE!” I said, breaking into a sprint, but it was too late. The Nightwalker launched itself at Nina like a bullet. I heard her shotgun fire twice, before the creature crashed into the ground, flailing violently. I could see long, dark limbs, more than any human should have struggling to pick itself up. I could see a body that only vaguely resembled a man. It had a torso, a human head, and long black hair, but looked more like a spider than a person. And yet there was something off about it. Something I hadn’t seen on any of the other Nightwalkers. This one had some kind of sigil on its forehead. Something that looked almost like a crimson eye, that seemed to glow with surreal energy.
​
The Nightwalker looked at Nina, snarling at her. When it opened its mouth, I could see rows upon rows of teeth inside. She fired her shotgun again, but the creature barely even seemed to notice them. Even after she’d gone through the trouble of cursing them, her rounds weren’t doing anything.
“RUN!” I heard her yell, and I didn’t dare question that. I just ran.
​
I sprinted toward the bonfire, just in time to see Dom running toward me. He took aim at the Nightwalker, firing at it as it tried to go after Nina. But his bullets did next to nothing to it. The Nightwalker didn’t even look at him.
​
It just kept going for Nina, almost pinning her down. She unloaded two more shells into its face, which did little more than make it flinch and bought her some time to run.
​
This time, she took off at a sprint toward the bonfire. Dom saw her running and started to backpedal as well, running back toward the bonfire and the safety of the columns. The creature paused as we took shelter by the fire, watching us intently and letting out another serpentine hiss. Nina stared back at it, before looking back at the fire. She tossed her shotgun aside and hastily grabbed one of the spare branches we’d kept for the bonfire. She put it in the fire, before pulling it out and brandishing it like a weapon. The Nightwalker hissed and recoiled a bit, focused on the flame. As it paused, Dom grabbed Nina’s shotgun off the ground and took aim.
​
“Don’t…” She said, putting a hand up to stop him, her voice low and intense. She didn’t dare look away from the Nightwalker. “Save the cursed rounds… they won’t kill it. Just get outside.”
“What about you?” Dom asked.
“Outside,” Nina repeated. “Now.”
I put a hand on Dom’s shoulder.
“Let’s go!” I said, trying to tug him along behind me.
​
He hesitated for a moment longer before finally letting me take him. We backed through the right set of columns, and once we were through I saw Nina taking a step away from the bonfire, toward the right set of columns. The Nightwalker passed the left set of columns, trying to follow her.
“Come on…” She said under her breath, “Come and get me, shithead…”
​
I saw it inching closer to her, and tensing up again, getting ready to pounce. That was when Nina made her move. She thrust her burning branch into the Nightwalker's face, earning a cry of pain from it and making it jerk back. I saw it swatting at the branch, trying to get rid of the fire. Nina took the chance to run, sprinting at top speed toward the door of the church.
“GO!”
​
Neither of us needed to be told twice. We ran for the church door, as the Nightwalker let out a roar from behind us. I looked back to see it charging toward us again, gaining ground. As we ran back out into the field, we were greeted by countless blinding lights. I saw Nina pause, before feeling her grab me by the back of the shirt and pull me away. I could see Dom in her other hand. She dragged us both down to the ground in the instant before the Nightwalker emerged from the door of the church.
​
I saw it recoil, putting up its clawed hands to try and shield its eyes from the blinding light.
​
Then I heard the gunfire.
​
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I could see several men, each holding automatic rifles advancing on the Nightwalker. It shrank back toward the church, trying to shield itself from the gunfire, clearly overwhelmed. But just like with Nina’s shotgun before it, the bullets did little to harm it. Despite all the gunfire it took, it didn’t fall. I could hear it hissing, I could see its beady black eyes darting around wildly. It lunged forward again, tackling one of the nearby men and tearing into him, before going after another. I saw its jaws close around his skull and heard the sickening crunch of bone as it took his head. The other men scrambled back, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the Nightwalker as they could. It howled in rage, preparing to charge after them when a final, deafening gunshot echoed through the night.
​
This time, the Nightwalker's entire body seized up. It let out an agonized scream. I could see its clawed hands clutching at a wound that had appeared on its chest… and I could see smoke rising out of that wound. It kept screaming and thrashing violently. Its limbs gave out from underneath it. I could see the wound in its chest sizzling and burning. I saw the flesh and skin sloughing off of its body, and I could see the pale white bone underneath.
​
The eye sigil on its forehead flickered before fading away and the Nightwalker let out one final, howl before collapsing to the ground, its body still twitching and convulsing. I looked over to see a single woman standing calmly by the nearby trucks. She was tall and pale, with long, stringy black hair and an intense look in her eye.
​
She was dressed in a long beige coat and holding an ornate revolver in one gloved hand. As the Nightwalker died I saw her gingerly slip the pistol into the inner pocket of her coat before reaching into another pocket for a notebook. Without ever looking away from the dead Nightwalker, she scribbled something down, then pocketed the notebook again and calmly walked toward the church, not even pausing to acknowledge anyone else around her. As she left, I saw the other armed men tending to their dead. With the Nightwalker dead, I could get a better look at them now. They were dressed like soldiers, with bulletproof vests and no shortage of pockets. A few of them wore netted veils over their faces, making it hard to get a good look at them and giving them an eerie appearance, although watching them examine the bodies of their dead and respectfully carrying them away was almost humanizing.
​
Nina sat up, her blonde hair messy and a somewhat disoriented look on her face. She looked over toward the source of the lights that had blinded us. Four large SUVs were parked outside of the church, their headlights shining on the door. From those SUVs, I could see more armed men getting out and one of them was coming toward us.
​
“Nina Valentine?” I heard him ask. He had a heavy Slavic accent.
“Still alive,” She said, as she slowly climbed to her feet.
“Good. I’m Olev Kallas, I’m from the Tallinn Office, Director Durand sends his regards,” He offered Nina a hand to shake and she reluctantly took it. “The Director is currently en route, as are the rest of the team. In the meanwhile, we’re here to help.”
“Yeah and right on fucking time too,” She said, looking over at the dead Nightwalker.
​
“Ah… yes, you can thank Dr. Di Cesare for that,” Kallas said.
Nina raised an eyebrow. I had a feeling that she recognized the name, but she didn’t comment on it.
“But first, I imagine you and your friends must need a hot meal and a cold drink right about now and I can get you both.”
“Oh you’ve got no fucking idea…” Nina said, as Dom helped me to my feet. She waited until we were up, before gesturing for us to follow as Kallas led us toward one of the SUV’s.
​
***
​
I barely recognized the empty field around us as Puriysk. The buildings were all long gone and in their place was a paved highway that I’d never seen before.
“The town’s been gone for as long as I can remember,” Kallas said. “I couldn’t tell you if it was us, or the Soviets who got rid of the ruins. I read somewhere that there was some talk about refurbishing the old Church, but as you see, nothing ever came of it.”
“Thank God for small miracles,” Nina said, “Made my job a hell of a lot easier.”
​
We drove down the highway, past the wide open landscape and as we drove, I couldn’t help but admire it. In the distance, I could see the lights from another nearby town and watched as they drew closer and closer. God, I’d never seen a place so full of life before. As we drove along the quiet streets, past the sleeping buildings in the early hours of the morning, they still seemed so alive. Street lights cast a warm glow on the few passersby out doing their business. There were more cars on the road than I’d ever seen before, some driving past us to their own destinations and others parked and still.
​
“I can drop you three off at a hotel if you’d like,” Kallas offered. “You can get cleaned up and have a short rest before Director Durand arrives. I can pick up some fresh clothes for you, and then we can have a debrief over dinner.”
“Yeah, works for me,” Nina said before looking over at us.
“Dinner sounds good,” I said, although at the time I had no idea what exactly a hotel was. Thankfully, I got my answer pretty quickly.
​
The room I got was comfortable. The bed was softer than anything I’d ever laid on before and the hot water… oh God… I spent almost an hour in the shower alone, enjoying the steam and feeling the tension drain out of my muscles. When I was done, I put on a soft, fluffy bathrobe and laid down, letting myself relax for the first time in days. I almost dozed off… and maybe I would have if I hadn’t heard a knock on my door.
​
I considered ignoring it and just letting sleep take me, but I figured I might as well make sure it wasn’t important. Tying my bathrobe a little tighter around me, I got up to answer the door and was greeted by Dom, still wet from the shower.
​
“Hey,” He said. “Sorry, I hope I’m not bothering you!”
“It’s fine!” I replied, putting on a smile, “Come on in.”
I opened the door all the way to let him inside, but he hesitated.
“No, it’s alright. I just thought I’d check on you. It’s been… well, it’s been one hell of a past few days. And this feels like the first chance we’ve had to really breathe in a while.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” I sighed. I still held the door open for him. “Well, we’re not going to have this conversation in the hall, so come on in. I’ve got a coffee machine in here and I’m dying to try it out.”
​
I’m not sure if it was the promise of coffee that made him accept my invitation or the realization that I probably didn’t want to be in the hall with just a bathrobe on, but he came inside anyway.I went to the coffee machine and tried to figure it out. They had these little cups that I’d never seen before, but otherwise, it seemed fairly straightforward.
​
“Man… it’s really something else out here, isn’t it?” Dom asked, going to sit down on the bed. “It’s just so bright out here!”
“I’m still not entirely convinced I’m not dreaming,” I admitted. I managed to get one of the cups into the coffee machine and watched as it pissed out a somewhat pathetic amount of scalding hot coffee that admittedly did smell very nice. It had a lovely vanilla aroma.
I brought the first cup over to Dom.
​
“Glad I’m not the only one,” He said as I went back to make another cup, “Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if Nina’s backup was even going to come through and I sure as hell didn’t expect any of this.”
“You and me both,” I said with a sigh, “Is it wrong to say that I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop?”
“Well, when something seems too good to be true…” Dom murmured, “Although then again… looking at what we had in there compared to what Nina’s been telling me about life out here, I can’t help but wonder if we’ve had it bad for so long that even the smallest good thing would seem too good to be true.”
“That’s a disturbing thought,” I said.
“Maybe. But what if it’s true?”
​
I didn’t know how to answer that.
“Either way… this isn’t much more than a break, isn’t it?” Dom asked, “The calm before the storm. I know that after we talk to the Director, Nina’s going right back in… and I’m going with her.”
I nodded before taking my coffee and joining him on the bed.
“I know,” I said. “And I’m going with you.”
“You know that you don’t have to, right?” Dom asked. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I know that this kind of thing isn’t exactly in your wheelhouse. I’m not saying to just let it be or anything, but there’s other ways to help that don’t involve shooting things and burning down buildings.”
​
Again, I paused.
“Maybe,” I said. “Honestly, whatever I can do, I just want to do it. Whatever it may be. I’ve been just accepting things the way they were for too long, the same as you. I don’t want to just accept it anymore! I can’t.”
“And you aren’t,” Dom said, “I mean… shit, I watched you take pot shots at a Nightwalker the other night. Ever since we left, you’ve done whatever you can to help out. You’ve done a hell of a lot more to fix things than anyone else I know. That takes a hell of a lot of strength. More than I’d probably have in your shoes… honestly, you’re half the reason I’m still doing this, Cam.”
​
I looked at him and felt his hand pressing over mine.
“Only half?” I teased, trying to distract from the shade I could feel my cheeks flushing.
“Well, there’s everyone else too.” He said, “But right now, the one I care the most about is you.”
I actually broke down laughing at that and gently pushed him away.
“Too much?” He asked.
“No,” I said. “Just right.”
​
I let my head rest on his shoulder and for a little bit, we just sat together, hand in hand and beautifully content. I sensed him hesitating for a little while, before finally seizing the moment and placing his hand on my chin. I let him. He lifted my face and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips, one that I all too happily reciprocated.
​
After all… who knew when we’d get another chance?
​
***
​
The restaurant that Kallas brought us to was fairly quiet, although it wasn’t empty. As we walked in, I could see a large table set out with faces both familiar and unfamiliar at it.
​
Nina had washed almost an entire layer of dirt and soot off her face. Her hair looked cleaner and she was clearly wearing new, cleaner jeans. Although I didn’t think she’d actually changed her T-shirt. I recognized it by the neckline, but I’d never seen the whole thing before. It had a graphic of a warning label on it that said: ‘DO NOT USE FOR WET GRINDING’ although the ‘DO NOT’ part was crossed out in red.
​
Had she seriously been wearing that the whole fucking time…? At least it looked like she’d recently washed it.
​
Beside Nina, I saw Natalya, looking a little more cleaned up and wearing new clothes. Someone must have gotten her out of Puriysk earlier that day. The dark haired woman that Kallas had named as Dr. Di Cesare sat on the other side of Nina, although she was more focused on her own journal than any of us.
Lastly, I saw a man I didn’t recognize at all. He was tall and looked to be somewhere in his fifties, with wavy blond hair and a clean shaven face. He was dressed in a nice but slightly wrinkled suit.
​
The blond man was the first one to speak.
“Mr. Kallas, good to see you again,” He said as he got up to greet us.
“Director Durand, I have to say that the pleasure is all mine,” Kallas said, shaking Durand’s hand. His attention turned to us next.
​
“You two must be Camille Lambert and Dom Hoskins, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Milo Durand. I’m the Director of the Fae Relations Bureau’s Department of Public Safety.”
“Hell of a mouthful,” Dom said, shaking Durand’s hand.
“Just call us the FRB for short,” He said with a smile, “Take a seat. Dr. Di Cesare and I wanted to take some time to go through the situation with the Calhoun Pocket.”
​
Kallas pulled out some seats for us and we sat down. There were glasses of water waiting for us at the table. As soon as we sat down, Dr. Di Cesare glanced up at us, but didn’t close her notebook.
“So… now that we’re all here. Where should we begin?” Kallas asked.
“Well for starters, I’d like to get a solid picture of what exactly we’re going to be walking into when we send the rest of our people into the Calhoun Pocket,” Durand said, “Mr. Kallas, I’m aware you’re detachment has already properly secured Puriysk. But I’ve got some questions regarding the other towns so we know what else to expect once we’re inside.”
“What exactly is it that you want to know?” I asked.
​
“Well for starters, we need access to the other towns. We were told that navigating between them could be difficult, but I imagine there must be some way to circumvent that,”
“There is,” Dom said, “The roads don’t always go to the same places, but there are always landmarks and turns. You can use those to navigate.”
“One of the files I found in the archive at the Deputy’s Office has a list of landmarks and directions to reach the different towns,” Nina added, “I emailed you a copy earlier to go over,”
​
Durand nodded.
“Excellent. Which leads me to my next question. Infrastructure. I can’t imagine Calhoun’s been running a show like his without some means of providing food and power to the other towns. I’m aware that Rankin Mills had a power plant, so I figure that Calhoun is using that to keep the lights on. But what about food, gas, supplies?”
“Most of the food comes from Bakersfield,” I said. “There’s a lot of farmland there, most of it fairly safe from the mist. I used to work at a Roadhouse in Thompson Falls. We’d get deliveries every week or so.”
​
“I see… what about Puriysk and Thompson Falls? What’s there?”
“Puriysk was where they trained a lot of the Sheriff’s Boys,” Dom said. “They had the largest Deputy’s Office outside of Parsons. And Thompson Falls was more of a mining community. Lotta the construction work that was done in Parsons was done by people brought in from Thompson and Puriysk.”
​
Durand raised an eyebrow.
“Construction in Parsons?” He asked.
“Calhoun’s sorta been using it as his capital. Far as I can tell, he’s been trying to build up the towns, although Parson’s the one that’s gotten the most attention,” Dom said. “I guess it’s as close to a capital city as we’ve got in there. He also mentioned the ‘Sovereign Nation of Calhoun’ although I haven’t heard anyone outside of Parsons use that name.”
“Sovereign Nation of Calhoun…” Durand repeated, before glancing at Nina. She just gave a slightly defeated nod as if to say: ‘Yeah, he actually called it that.’
​
“Okay… let’s talk about Calhoun himself… what do you know?” Durand asked.
“Not a hell of a lot,” Dom said, “Closest I’ve ever come to actually meeting the guy is when he spoke to us outside of the church last night. Other than that, he rarely leaves his house in Parsons and rarely appears in public and most of what I’ve heard is just rumors.”
​
“Whatever you’ve heard… odds are that it’s true,” Natalya said quietly, drawing all eyes at the table over to her.
“I’ve heard the story enough times now… first from my mother, then from so many afterward. One day, the days just grew dimmer. The clouds above us just grew so thick that you could not see the sun and the mist drifted through the streets. The roads no longer led to the same places… and at night, the shadows moved, devouring any in their paths alive and screaming. First, it came for Parsons, then Rankin, Puriysk, Bakersfield, and Thompson. One by one. In time, it will come for others. He will come for others.”
​
Durand leaned in a little bit, listening intently. Dr. Di Cesare had also paused, listening as Natalya spoke.
“My mother told me that after the change, Calhoun’s people began to enter the town. Drunken louts, filling up the bars demanding free alcohol in exchange for ‘protection’ from the things outside. Although even with the alcohol, they still left bodies in their wake.”
She paused, slipping back into old, bitter memories.
​
“She told me of the ways Calhoun had changed Puriysk… most of the men either joined his little militia out of necessity or were given other jobs where they were worked to the bone. And the women…” She paused, “The homemakers he generally left alone but the young and the pretty ones found their way into the brothel. After all, his soldiers needed something to do to pass the time when they weren’t drinking and acting like children with guns. Governor Calhoun raped Puriysk, just the same as he raped every other town he took. All my life, I’ve watched as he’s milked them for his own gain and spread like a disease across new towns, looking for more. Before I even understood what home was, he had taken my home from me. Before I was old enough to speak, he had taken my life from me. Because of him, I grew up in a brothel in a town that does not exist.”
​
Durand was silent, before looking at Nina who drummed her fingers on the table.
“Valentine?” He asked.
“Like Dom said, the only interaction we had with that guy was when he talked to us last night,” She said. “I’m not a psychologist but I’d figure most of what he said is pretty on par with what a narcissistic megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur would probably say. It was probably a whole lot of horseshit… probably…”
“But?” Durand asked. Nina sighed.
​
“There was one thing he said that stood out, he said that if we killed him, we’d be killing everyone else in the pocket too. He made it sound like his life was tied to it, or something. I don’t know if he can actually fucking do that or not but I’m also not sure I’d want to chance it. Some of those documents I found in the Puriysk archive mentioned Calhoun and something called ‘The Eldest’.”
​
At the mention of the name, Dr. Di Cesare looked up.
“Gretchen,” Durand asked, “Do you recognize that name.”
Gretchen Di Cesare gave a curt nod before flipping through her notebook to a previous page. As she did, I noticed her sleeve lifting briefly, revealing a tattoo on her wrist. Two wavy, parallel lines. It looked like the zodiac sign for ‘Aquarius.’
“The Eldest… Old Fae. ‘The eldest’ according to myth, hence the name. Few documented encounters. None modern…” She paused to think for a moment, “Hard to kill… harder to control. Would need the heart either way. No small task but… possible… probable.”
​
“Old Fae?” I asked, “What exactly is that?”
“More or less exactly what it says on the tin,” Nina said. “Really old forest fae who got fucked up by the Midnight Grove… and a real fucking problem if that’s what we’re going to have to deal with. Do we even know how to kill an Old Fae?”
“As stated, the heart,” Dr. Di Cesare said, “Find that, kill the Fae. Would reckon that Calhoun has it. If not on his person, then somewhere safe. And should that fail…”
She removed the revolver from her coat pocket and set it down on the table without a word.
​
“A contingency. Custom revolver, specialized blessed rounds - Malvian ice.”
I saw Nina raise an eyebrow.
“You put Malvian ice in a gun?” She asked.
“What’s Malvian ice?” I asked. I figured that this conversation required a bit of context.
“Frozen mist, obtained from the domain of an Ancient God. In essence, a part of the God herself” Dr. Di Cesare said. “Weaponized - could kill anything beneath the Ancient Gods. Never tried it with bullets before, but the live fire trial yielded promising results.”
​
My mind flashed back to the Nightwalker we’d run into last night and the way its flesh had melted away after Dr. Di Cesare had shot it with that gun. The memory sent a chill through me.
​
“So you built a gun that can shoot an Old Fae dead?” Nina asked. I couldn’t tell if she was disturbed by the guns existence or excited to try it out.
“Old Fae, Grovewalkers, and most lesser Gods, amongst other things,” Dr. Di Cesare said. “So long as it has a physical form, it can be killed.”
“Dr. Di Cesare agreed to assist us with this job, in the interest of doing her own research on the Calhoun pocket,” Durand added. “The gun is her contribution to this project. It’s intended as more of an emergency measure than anything else. But if necessary, we could use it to kill whatever is allowing Calhoun to control the pocket reality.”
Nina just whistled and sat back in her chair. She seemed almost at a loss for words.
​
“So… all we need to do is shoot Calhoun or this ‘Eldest’ thing with that gun, after we get everyone out and we’re golden, right?” Dom asked.
“I would regard The Eldest as a higher priority than Calhoun right now,” Durand said. “Calhoun could have been lying about tying his own life to the existence of the pocket reality, but I’m not willing to take that gamble if I don’t have to. Right now, my gut is saying to try and take him alive.”
​
“He’s not gonna go quietly if we try,” Nina pointed out. “Hypothetical question, if we destroy the heart, would that take the risk of killing Calhoun out of the equation?”
“No. Whatever spell was used, would not die with the caster,” Dr. Di Cesare said.
Nina nodded thoughtfully.
“I see. Fuck.”
​
“To your point though: Killing Calhoun is likely inevitable. And while I lack any meaningful data on the spell used by the Eldest or how to circumvent it, I can predict the timeframe of such a collapse. The effect would not be immediate. Could take minutes, hours or days. There may be a window for escape.”
​
“We'll have time to cross that bridge when we get to it,” Durand said. “Last question I’ve got is about the local militia, but Mr. Kallas and I can discuss that with Valentine and Mr. Hoskins separately. In the meanwhile, I believe our first order of business should be eliminating collateral. We’ll start with Puriysk, then move on to Rankin Mills, Bakersfield, and Thompson Falls. Once we’ve cleared out those towns, we’ll focus on Parsons and Calhoun. Mr. Kallas, I’ll leave it to you to oversee the evacuation efforts. It’s probably redundant to say this, but we’ve got our work cut out for us, ladies and gentlemen so let’s keep our heads down, our minds sharp and get through this as cleanly as possible. Now… without any further ado, I promised you people dinner and I’m not going to put you all to work on an empty stomach. So, as the Estonians say: ‘Head isu.’”
​
***
​
Looking back, there was a sort of bittersweetness to that evening. On one hand, I don’t remember the last time I’ve eaten so well. After dinner, I went back to the hotel, enjoyed my hot shower, and sank into my warm sheets, waiting for Dom to come back from his meeting with Nina, Kallas, and Durand.
​
And yet… at the same time, all I could think about was what would happen in the morning. In the morning, we’d be leaving again, going back to Puriysk. Back to Calhoun. Part of me almost dreaded it, fearing that if I left this place then I’d never get to come back again.
​
But listening to Durand and the others talk during that briefing… so much of it went completely over my head and I couldn’t help but feel like that was a good thing. They’d been focused, precise, knowledgeable and most of all, prepared.
​
Calhoun’s threats lingered in the back of my mind, but they seemed so much smaller now. I struggled to imagine that Calhoun and the Sheriff’s Boys could do much the face of what had come for him, even with some kind of all powerful Fae at his disposal. Just Nina alone had been enough to rip Puriysk from his grasp… what could an army of her do?
​
I should have taken comfort in that idea. I did take comfort in that idea. But I still couldn’t help but worry all the same. Maybe what Dom had said earlier was true. Maybe we’d had it so bad for so long that even the smallest good thing now seemed too good to be true… maybe. When Dom came back, I was waiting for him. We lay in bed together, talking quietly to each other about what was going to happen in the morning, and holding hands, we drifted off into sleep.

Got a 99 reg cab stepside. Has a single dome light lens with no switch. Interior light dimmer won't turn on the dome light when clicked up, and neither will the doors even though the Door Ajar lamp is lit. Checked every fuse for continuity. What could be the problem?

We are travelling and in a small town really far away from where we normally live. I decided to take the kids to the next town over to visit the local library, park etc just to get out. We were driving on a three lane highway, in the middle lane and my 13yo was in the front passenger seat (legal here). On my right there was a semi truck towing another semi (cab) with another semi travelling behind it and there was a car moving to pass me on my left. All of a sudden, a piece of metal flew out from between the towing semi’s, it was rectangular about 6”x10”x2”.
It hit the ground in front of us and flew up into the air. I couldn’t move left because there was a car there, and the semi trucks were to my right. I slammed on the brakes (no one was behind me thank goodness) and put my hand over my sons face trying to cover him. I was so scared it was going to come shattering through the windshield.
Braking gave just enough space for the piece of metal to hit the ground and bounce before hitting the front of the car and punching a hole in it before flying over the car.
Everyone was safe, but it was a close near miss. The hole in the front of the car was just in front of my son, if I hadn’t slammed on the breaks right then….

Looking for manga that has beautiful art, single volume or art books only please! I’m trying to find something to buy with the Barnes and noble sale :)