As per title. We organized a fun multi-family spring break with 4 families (kids and parents) in a large beach house. We're crossing State lines via car to visit FL. Family 'A' decided to invite 3 extra 17 year olds because there is space and their son wanted his friends there. These friends will drink, and will have access to car. I'm concerned that without a formal designated guardian (should be family 'A') I may somehow end up liable if something goes amiss (hospital requirement, arrest, etc...). Is it a legal requirement for 17 year olds travelling without parents to have a designated guardian, and are they legally required to have a travel consent form signed by their parents?

Read chapter 15 here: https://www.reddit.com/saw/comments/11rvp3u/legacy_from_the_book_of_saw_chapter_15_dr_steward/
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*** CHAPTER 16 **\*
William Schenk enters a shabby apartment complex carrying a red, portable cooler. He passes the commonly empty front desk and proceeds upstairs. When he reaches his floor, he sees a call girl exiting his neighbor's apartment. He flashes a charming smile and keeps moving. His neighbor, ashamed, says, "Hey Bill…," But Bill doesn't stop. He offers a wave and continues down the hall.
Aside from a small TV and newspaper articles, his flat is almost barren. He places the cooler on the kitchen counter and heads into his bedroom. Opening the closet door, he procures a small, aqua green, square-shaped box and a thin strand of rope, approximately four feet in length.
He sets the box on the living room table, then grabs the portable cooler. On the table in front of him, he switches on an old radio, quickly tuning the device to a new station.
The reporter begins to speak about the mass grave that's been discovered, while Bill stuffs the box full of newspaper. He then opens the cooler and places the contents into box. The final step is to wrap the box with the rope, making the perfect knot and bow.
In the kitchen, he takes a black marker from a ceramic cup and writes a note on a small white tag. He slips the rope through a pre-punctured hole on the label and ties it off. Satisfied, The Organ Donor admires his work, then places the gift inside the freezer.
*** CHAPTER 17 **\*
Paint dripped on the precinct floor as Lincoln made his way to the restroom. He locked the door, unbuttoned his shirt, set it on the counter, and unhooked the latch on his brace. The Detective slowly removed the homemade cilice, exposing a throng of metal spikes that had left dozens of painful indentations in his skin. Lincoln stared at his scarred torso, stoic to the pain he had caused himself as repentance. As he watched the blood spill from several small wounds, he remembered cradling Roy's head, and in his mind, Lincoln felt he deserved this.
He allowed his sores a moment to breathe while he struggled to remove the paint from his shirt and jacket. Five minutes passed, and he was granted only a moderate improvement. He reapplied the painful undergarment, breathed sharply, and buttoned his shirt.
On the way to his office, he is approached by an officer, "Detective Riley," she says, "Renee Walsh would like to speak with you."
"Where is she?"
"Agent Webb is interviewing her now. Right, this way."
Following his colleague to the Booking Room, Lincoln feels the cilice pressing against his skin. He reaches into his shirt, pulls the strap to tighten the brace, and readjusts his clothes.
Agent Webb has concluded her interview, and she passes him in the hallway, "She's all yours."
Entering the room, Lincoln puts on a neutral face, "I'm sorry for the delay. Are you alright?"
Renee stands up from her chair and approaches the Detective, "Lincoln, It's been a long time."
"Look, this is just a precaution. You'll be safe here."
"That woman…" she says, referring to Agent Webb, "She's treating me like I'm a part of this."
Lincoln looks over his shoulder, then back to Renee, "I can't reveal much, but there is a connection between the murders and Jigsaw's accomplices."
Renee moves to the table and sits down, "I thought this was over. It's been over two years…."
"Have you been in contact with any of the other survivors?"
She sighs, "Not really, just Jeff…."
"You were close?"
Renee thinks about her response before answering, "He didn't do those things he was accused of… I-I trust him."
"What about the rest of the group?"
"The others? They never really liked me, and you don't often find someone who appreciates what John did."
Lincoln glances at her eye patch, "Why do you?"
She stares at her shoes and explains, "I always felt invisible, but he noticed me. I know it's stupid, but I needed this."
Her words resonated with Lincoln. He slid his hands against his chest and down to his hips. He could feel the Nitrous canister inside his pocket, left over from his session with Dr. Steward. A sudden craving was triggered, "We're going to keep you here as long as we have to."
Renee's face was tinged with sadness, "Lincoln, I can't." She says, distressed.
"What's wrong?"
She bits her lip, "It's not me I'm worried about… It's my Dad and Brother."
"There's no indication that they're in any danger."
"It's not that," She says, "My dad is sick. He needs me."
Lincoln's eyes wander, contemplative, "I'll tell you what, I'll send someone over there to make sure everything is alright, okay?"
"Thank you, Lincoln."
He moves towards the door, and she says, "Hey, maybe when this is all over, you can come by the Survivors Group and say 'Hello'? I think everyone would be happy to see you again."
Stopping at the door, Lincoln pauses and considers the suggestion. He slowly turns his head back to her and then exits the room.
Lincoln's desire to use was growing, but as he was about to exit the building, he was stopped by Chief Savino.
"Where are you going?" Savino asked.
Thinking on his feet, Lincoln replied, "I need to make a personal call."
"Can it wait?" Savino asked, "Have you finished the MP report?"
Lincoln can see Borden and Marlow through the Briefing Room window. Frustrated, he responds, "Just about. I'll bring it to you shortly."
He proceeded to the Briefing Room, where he sat at his desk and sifted through the Missing Person cases from the last ten years. While he researched the disappearances, the others read through a culled list of Jigsaw survivors and their last known whereabouts.
"Listen to this," Borden says, browsing a newspaper article, "Years after surviving Jigsaw's "final" test, "S.U.R.V.I.V.E" Author, Bobby Dagen, was found dead in his suburban home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,'" He glances at Lincoln for a reaction, "Did you hear about this? … "While a suicide note was not present at the scene, it's speculated that he felt guilt for the death of his wife, Joyce… Dagen was outed as a fraud shortly after the death of John Kramer."
Borden sets the article down and comments, "Wrote a book called 'Survive' and then kills himself. No irony in that, huh?"
"How 'bout this," Marlow adds, "Mother and Son Killed in Car Accident Near Home Residence…." He traces the words with his finger, "It says Tara Abbot and her son Brent were killed in a collision after Tara lost control of the vehicle."
Listening to his colleagues recite the news articles, Lincoln couldn't help but imagine the victims' deaths. He keeps his emotions at bay and continues to glean information from the Missing Person files.
"Here's another one," Marlow says, "Jigsaw survivor, Mallick Scott, was pronounced dead today. After struggling with substance abuse, Scott was kidnapped and tortured by the infamous John Kramer... Neighbors reported a pungent odor next door, and the arriving officers discovered Mallick had overdosed on heroin and drowned in his pool…." Marlow looks at his colleagues solemnly, "He was found with a rubber band wrapped around his arm."
Borden squints his eyes and shakes his head, "This can't be a coincidence," he theorizes.
"What? You think they were murdered?" Marlow replies skeptically, "Who could do that?"
"Do you know Mark Hoffman? Do you know how many people he killed the night Jill Tuck died?" He took out three FBI Agents, including Peter Strahm, and a slew of cops."
"That was before I started," Marlow admits.
Lincoln turns to his associates and reveals, "Six of these Missing Person cases were also Jigsaw survivors; Joan Douglas and Morgan Tillman both disappeared four years ago, realtor Brit Stevenson from the Fatal Five trap, vanished three years ago. The list goes on."
A lite knock at the door indicates Logan's arrival. He enters the room with Agent Webb, holding pictures in his hand, "Detective," he says.
"Come in…"
He hands Lincoln an Autopsy Report, and Agent Webb stands beside him, "We've identified the tattooed woman. Her name was Pamela Jenkins. She was William Easton's sister."
"Another survivor." Unnerved, Lincoln asks, "What about the others?"
"Jeff Ridenhour never showed up," Borden said.
Marlow conjures a curious expression, "The Dentist?"
"Neurologist. He was lobotomizing patients…."
"Allegedly..." Lincoln adds.
Webb's face showed concern, "He hasn't called?"
"No, but Gavin Beck is under protection… Stupid, asshole," Borden said, "He wouldn't leave his house, so I got a patrol unit watching over him."
"I spoke with Neil Perri hours ago." Marlow notes, "He sounded drunk…."
"What did he say?" Lincoln asked.
"He wouldn't tell me where he was but said he'd be here… There's more. Simone Howard called out of work the last two days. Her manager received a text stating she was sick. I tried to reach her by phone, but no response."
Lincoln leans back, ruminating, "And Sarah Harper?"
"Nothing," Borden reveals, "but Chief Savino issued an All Points Bulletin on all of the survivors. We're putting her face on TV."
Stepping forward, Agent Webb asked, "Where's the tape from Gordon's apartment?"
"This way," Lincoln leads her to the VCR in the back of the room, "Did you find something?"
"Pamela Jenkins was investigating Jigsaw Copycats. We lost communication with her about a week ago."
Borden joins them at the TV, and Agent Webb rewinds the tape. Using the computer next to the VCR, she locates a folder from the cloud containing several videos. "Her last transmission was from this broadcast."
She presses play on the first recording, and they watch as a camera is positioned on the dashboard of a car.
Pamela captures the heavy clouds that filled the night sky. Raindrops exploded onto her windshield as she traveled up a gravel road towards a mysterious home. A black car was parked outside the house, but the license plate was out of view. She exited her vehicle and shielded her camera from the wind and rain.
"I've seen this before…." Lincoln said, "It was on the news the night Gordon died."
Agent Webb adjusts the footage, filtering it through different settings until everything is visible. The VCR has finished rewinding, and she links the tape with the content from the cellphone.
The front door is already open when Pamela tries knocking. She looks inside, "Hello? Is anybody here?"
The light switch doesn't seem to work, but Pamela proceeds cautiously into the residence and enters a nearby room. On the floor, she finds crayon drawings and children's toys.
"What are you hoping to find?" Lincoln asks.
"Hello?" Pamela repeats.
The body of a small puppet lays face down on the floor next to two small chairs. Upon turning it over, Pamela discovers the head has been smashed. Picking up one of the broken pieces, she realizes it's the Billy puppet Jigsaw would use in his traps. The doll starts to laugh, but it's labored and distorted. Next to the puppet, she finds a hammer and nails.
Pamela grabs the tool, "What the…?"
The front door slams shut, and Pamela yelps, frightened, but no one is there. Trembling, she holds the hammer in front of herself like a sword. The loud wind crashes against the frame of the building, and her nerves settle. She moves through the darkness and finds a door that leads into the next room. However, wooden boards have been nailed to the wall to prevent entry.
Setting her camera down but still recording herself, she uses the hammer to yank the nails out of the wood, one by one and then uses her strength to pry them from the wall. When the last board is removed, she grabs her camera and opens the door.
Two hands quickly pierce the darkness and rush towards her. A shirtless, emaciated man mumbles and grabs at Pamela, tearing her shirt. She drops her phone and attempts to fight him off, smacking him several times with the hammer. Blood spews from his head, and he collapses to the floor.
Pamela grabbed her phone and checked on the lifeless man; his mouth hung open, and she could see his tongue had been cut out. His body is filthy, and his fingers are covered in blood from scratching at the walls.
"Fuck! …Shit!" She says. The footage stops suddenly.
Agent Webb suggests, "We think she tried to call the police." She clicks on the following video.
The footage returns, and they can hear Pamela panting. She walks into the next room, where the man was held captive.
The light flickers as the battery dies on her phone, and they can hear her slapping the camera. Pamela is startled by the sudden appearance of a corpse with a rusty pipe impaled through its neck. The cadaver is a reddish-brown, having been deceased for some time.
"Oh my god," she says, positioning her camera closer to the body.
A bright light in the hallway turns on, and she tilts her camera towards the luminescence. She could now hear the alarming moans of someone in jeopardy through the walls.
Agent Webb inhales and grinds her teeth. Watching both monitors, they prepare for the next scene.
Pamela moves fearfully into the hallway. Her heart is racing, and a surveillance camera captures her every move. Several floorboards have detached from the foundation, and there are scratch marks on the walls as if someone was dragged. Her teeth chatter, and she proceeds nervously towards the muffled groans, the floorboards creaking with her every step.
A masked figure appears behind her, their presence announced by the audible floorboards, but before she can turn around, the hooded man smacks her in the head. The video ends, but the surveillance camera records her grisly fate.
Webb notices something on the wall and rewinds the tape for several seconds. She positions the computer next to the television, restarts the cellphone footage, and pauses the content when she sees the same marking.
"Do you see that?"
With both screens side-by-side, they can now see the symbol of Ankh.
Lincoln leans forward, "What does it mean?"
"The "Ankh" is the Egyptian symbol for Eternal Life," she says, "In the last message we received from Pamela, she said she was investigating the Gideon Meat Packing Plant. I think she followed that car to this location."
"It can't be too far from the plant," Borden theorizes.
"Did you notice the toys and chairs? I think this is a Children's DayCare… I'm going to pull up the city records…."
"Marlow can help you with that," Lincoln says, "Simone Howard doesn't live too far from here. Frank and I will go get her."
***
TO BE CONTINUED...

This story needs to be told. Those who have suffered must understand why. It’s not as simple as some have made it to be, which is why it needs to come from the person most responsible… me.
It began when I was least expecting it. But then don’t things always seem to happen that way?
***
“I’m tellin' ya, doc, people just don’t understand,” Frederick said while rocking back and forth in the chair.
“What exactly don’t they understand?” I said, trying to look more relaxed than I felt.
“There’s just something that takes over. You can’t stop it.”
“Impulse control?”
“What’s that mean?” Frederick said, struggling against his straight jacket, trying to get comfortable.
“It means that when you want to do something, you try your hardest not to. It means you try to control or suppress the urge to do things you know are bad.”
Frederick’s mouth lolled open. He narrowed his eyes in confusion.
“Why would I want to do that?”
I suppressed the urge to sigh.
“Because that’s what people do,” I said. “They think about doing bad things, but then they control themselves and don’t do them because those things are wrong and could hurt other people.”
“Hurting people is wrong?” he said.
“Yes, Frederick, hurting people is wrong.”
He shook his head as if he were trying to shake away a fly that was annoying him.
“Why?”
“Why is hurting people wrong?”
“No, why are you telling me this?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re saying I’m bad,” he said trying to rise from his chair. “You’re saying I didn’t need to hurt those people. That I’m a bad person.”
I got up from my chair and started backing toward the heavy metal door.
“I’m not bad!” he yelled at me. “You’re bad!”
I knocked on the door and the orderly opened it as Frederick got to his feet.
I slipped through the door as it slammed shut from the impact of his body slamming into it.
“Bad, bad, bad,” he screamed.
“Badbadbadbadbadbadbadbad!”
Spit flew from his mouth landing on the small observation window with metal grates embedded in it.
“You ok, doc,” the orderly said, startling me.
“Yes, I’m fine, thank you.”
I turned and walked down the white hallway, hoping the orderly wouldn’t notice the quickness in my step. I ignored the sound of Frederick beating on the door. I ignored all the sounds I heard. I just wanted to get away.
It was a long walk to my office, through many security gates. At each one, the nurse buzzed me through and gave me an acknowledging look that used to be a smile.
I suppose this place gets to everyone eventually.
I finally reached my office, closed and locked the door behind me, and collapsed into my chair. I breathed out a sigh of relief at reaching relative safety. I turned and looked out my window to the beautiful flowers blooming on the trees in the courtyard. I looked up at the tree stretching toward the sky.
I remember when they planted those.
I turned back to my center, my means of solace, the only thing that mattered in this cruel, unfair world. I picked up the picture of my lovely wife and smiled. She was the one who kept me sane all these years. She kept me seeing the best in people. Or at least trying. Sometimes there was no good to see—especially in my patients.
It takes a special kind of doctor to care for the mental needs of those who have done heinous things that are so bad they don’t even bother sending them to prison. They send them to me.
I’m like the dumpster for the dregs of society. Just drop them in the asylum and forget about them.
I kissed my wife and set her back on the bare desk, then turned on my computer and added notes from today’s session. There was never a recommendation for release. Once patients came here the only way they left was in a body bag. There was no curing them, only trying to make them docile until they left.
Oh, there were experiments. That was a large part of how we were funded. Companies would pay for certain tests to be done. Some might call it torture, but we called it research.
I finished typing my notes and leaned back in my seat. The diplomas and degrees stared down from their perches on the bare walls, mocking me. Demanding why I hadn’t gotten a better job.
As usual, I didn’t have an answer.
My office suddenly felt stuffy. I closed down my computer and left. Driving down the packed freeway, all I could think about was collapsing on the couch beside my lovely Elizabeth. Not telling her about my day until she dragged it out of me, then listening to her encourage me to help those who have been left in my care, because I’m the only hope they have.
Traffic was bumper to bumper and not helping my overall opinion of humanity much. Especially when a car that was swerving from lane to lane, nearly sideswiped me. It kept going on in front of me, nearly hitting several other cars.
The driver and passenger seemed to be having a disagreement about how to drive the car and it looked like it was about to come to blows.
Fortunately, they were soon out of sight, and someone else’s problem.
For the next few miles, I kept watching the side of the road waiting to see the offending car sitting in a ditch. However, they surprised me. They must’ve turned off to go terrorize some neighborhood streets with their reckless driving.
I hummed to myself, not wanting to have whatever dreck was on the radio forced on me.
When I was nearly to my exit, my phone rang. I immediately recognized the number as work. I contemplated answering it for a moment, then thought better of it. There had never been a time when work called with good news. And I was in no mood for bad news.
I hummed a little louder, trying to drown out the sound of the ring before it finally stopped.
The closer I got to home the less I thought about work and the more I thought about Elizabeth. Until I turned off at my exit, I had nearly forgotten work altogether. Maybe I would take tomorrow off and go do something with my wife. We hadn’t been out for a while. The weather had been lovely and I know she would adore a walk down by the lake.
My thoughts were interrupted when I turned down our driveway and saw a car in front of the house. It wasn’t quite in the driveway, it was sitting at an angle halfway in the front yard.
I parked my car and slowly got out. Something struck me about this car, but I hadn’t figured out what. I approached the driver’s side to have words with the person still sitting at the wheel.
“Excuse me,” I said staying a few steps back from the driver’s door.
He didn’t answer me.
“Excuse me,” I said a little louder.
Still no answer.
I tapped on the window and he ignored me.
I opened the door.
“Okay, look… “ I said.
But it was I who would do the looking. The man fell out of the car, thudding on the grass. The inside of the car was covered in blood. I looked down and the man’s throat had been cut.
“Oh my God!” I said jumping back.
I watched to see if the man was breathing, but the way his neck was bent at an unnatural angle against my yard told me everything I needed to know.
I glanced through the car but didn’t see the passenger.
It was then my eyes drifted to my front door.
It was open.
I stepped through the shrubs and up onto the porch, walking in a daze. The surrealness of the moment had yet to sink in. I was going inside to check on my wife and make sure everything was ok.
It didn’t strike me as anything more than that.
‘Oh, she just left the door open, that’s all.’
My mind kept trying to tell me that. I wanted desperately to believe it. Even though she had never been that careless during the entire time we’d been married. I had pushed aside all reason and common sense in favor of pure denial.
Everything was going to be ok. With Elizabeth, everything was always ok. She could literally light up a room with her positivity. She was the best person I ever knew. I have no idea how I got so lucky as to know her, let alone be her husband.
I floated in through my front door on my cloud of denial and looked for my wife.
It didn’t take me long to find her.
There was one wall of the living room she was constantly redecorating. She always said it looked bare and empty no matter what she did with it.
She was hanging from that wall, naked, her beautiful body desecrated by slices and rips. Her throat had been slit and blood still poured from it.
I ran to her.
Tried to take her down.
Screamed her name.
And then it was my turn to scream.
I looked down and saw a knife blade sticking out from my abdomen. It was part of the cutlery set I had gotten for Elizabeth three Christmases ago.
I screamed as I slowly turned to face my attacker.
“What’s up, doc?” Frederick said wearing a maniacal grin.
The shock had punched a hole in my reasoning. I saw him standing there, but I couldn’t accept it any more than I could accept my beautiful wife strung up like a macabre painting hanging on our living room wall.
My eyes tried to focus on his face. To make me recognize him as a threat.
“How’s that impulse control workin’ for ya, doc?”
He ripped the knife out of my back.
The pain, along with his arrogance woke me from my shock-induced stupor.
“Now do you understand?” he said, as he shoved the knife into my belly.
I did understand. I understood at that moment that I was already as dead as my wife. I knew that this piece of human garbage had taken something beautiful from this world. I knew I had to do something about it before there was nothing I could do. Before my body succumbed to injuries and I was unable.
I grabbed him by the throat. He tried to laugh, but my grip was fueled by desperation.
He tried to free himself but couldn’t. He began stabbing me over and over. I refused to release him. I carried him by his neck over to the kitchen counter and began bashing his head off the marble.
I was rewarded with spots of his blood. I knew at least I had made him bleed and that made me smile. His eyes grew wide as my grin grew maniacal. I smashed him repeatedly, crushing him against the sink, breaking the faucet, and causing water to spray into the air.
His eyelids fluttered as he lost his grip on the knife.
He was nearly gone. I would take him with me and that would be my parting gift to the world, removing something so evil.
Suddenly, my body wouldn’t obey commands. My grip loosened. I tried to tighten it, but I had lost all control. I looked down and I was standing in a pool of my own blood.
His eyes fluttered open and he coughed.
‘Nonononononono!’ I thought. ‘He can’t live. He can’t win. I had him.’
He stood as I sank to the floor.
“Looks like maybe you do understand, doc,” he said from what seemed like miles away. “Too bad you won’t be around to discuss it. We could have a session and evaluate how it makes you feel.”
His foot came down on my spine. I felt a crack. He started kicking me in the side repeatedly. Splashing water and blood on me as I felt my ribs crack.
I fought with everything I had.
My body didn’t even twitch.
‘Nooooo!,’ I screamed. ‘It can’t end like this.’
I heard a sizzling sound and then there was darkness.
***
I could feel movement.
Wasn’t I dead?
Was this what happened after?
It was still dark.
‘Hello?’ I tried to say.
Nothing. Just the sensation of movement.
Am I in a body bag? Am I on my way to the morgue or the grave? Please don’t let me be buried alive.
But I’m not alive, am I?
I don’t feel any pain. That’s a good thing, but not a good sign. The last thing I remember was lots of pain.
Suddenly there’s light and my movement stops.
I look up from the floor of a house I don’t recognize.
‘Where the hell am I?’
I’m on the floor next to a wall, looking up at an electrical outlet. Nothing around me seems familiar. I try to stand but it feels weird. It isn’t difficult, and there’s still no pain, it just carries an odd sensation with it. Like my body is just relearning things. Just like when I was a toddler. I teeter back and forth as I rise, but eventually, I’m upright.
My first few steps are tentative, but after that, I gain confidence with each stride.
Aside from the strange surroundings, there’s a sensation, like ants crawling all over me.
I pass a bathroom and glance inside. The reflection in the mirror draws me back. I slowly approach it, seeing something unique and terrifying.
It looks like someone drew an outline of a human form using a lightning bolt. The electricity shimmers and crackles as it races around the empty form of the being.
I wonder if it will hurt me.
Not sure if I want to test the limits of my newfound lack of pain, I hesitantly reach for this creature. It reaches for me at the same time. I’m mesmerized by this mutual curiosity.
My hand is about to touch the electric pulse shaped like its hand. I tremble with anticipation and fear as we touch.
Surprisingly, I don’t feel any pain. I don’t feel anything except a hard surface.
I move my hand back and forth. The creature does the same. I make quicker movements, and so does it.
Finally, out of frustration, I reach back and strike at the creature.
My hand strikes the hard surface and it splinters. There are now multiple creatures staring back at me.
I step back and come to the horrible realization.
I am the creature.
***
One month later…
“And police have been unable to find any credible leads in the string of brutal killings that began shortly after the patient escaped from the mental hospital last month,” the handsome anchorman stated from behind his desk. “They are asking people to call in if they know the whereabouts of Frederick Winston, now known as, ‘The Mangler’.”
“In other news, the Larsan Electric Company has issued a statement that the recent power surges are no cause for alarm. These surges seem to be random in people's homes and certain businesses. An LEC spokesman stated that there appears to be no pattern to the surges and that so far no one has reported them causing any harm. LEC is tracking down the problem and should have it under control soon.”
The anchorman shifted in his seat and turned to another camera.
“And on a lighter note, with Halloween months away, it seems that reports of ghosts are on the rise,” he said, wearing a half grin. “Several area residents have reported what they call a ghostlike figure, outlined in light, visiting them. Reports vary as to the duration and location of the visits, but they do seem to have a few things in common. The visits are usually short. In fact, most people say that if they blink the figure is gone. No one has reported the ghost doing any harm. And it seems like anyone within close proximity feels a tingling sensation and their hair standing on end.”
“Maybe I should be visited instead of my next hairdresser’s appointment,” the attractive woman anchor said with a laugh.
“Schedule me a visit too,” the male anchor said smiling. “And that’s our news for the evening, good night.”
Jimmy switched the channel.
“Gimme a break,” he said to the TV. “Ghosts? Who’s playing what? This’s some marketing scheme to sell Halloween crap. Like that stunt they pulled a few years back with the clowns hanging around the schools to promote that stupid movie.”
He switched off the TV and rolled over in his bed.
It wasn’t long before his breathing slowed. But before sleep could take him, he noticed a glow in the hallway. He didn’t remember leaving any lights on when he came to bed. Living alone had its advantages. If he heard someone in his apartment, he knew they weren’t supposed to be there. He slowly reached over to the bedstand and pulled out his Glock 9mm handgun, then held it close and listened.
He watched as the glow moved. It seemed like someone was looking around. But for what? He didn’t really have anything aside from his TV, phone, and video games. If anyone wanted those, they would be in a world of hurt. He had been lucky to get this apartment. If he was honest with himself, it cost more than he could afford, but when he had the chance he took it. It was too bad the opening came because the person who lived there before him was one of The Mangler’s victims. That’s probably why he was able to rent the place so quickly and get the price down to where he could almost afford it.
Maybe the glow was one of the street people who were stupid enough to see if there was an empty apartment to claim. That wasn’t gonna fly either. Jimmy had jumped on this apartment to get away from the dingy rat hole he used live in on the other side of town. And there was no way he’d let some bum come in here and take what was his.
The glow crept closer. He could feel the hairs on his arms raise. There was a sound too. It wasn’t loud, almost felt more than heard. A soft crackle, like electricity when it sparked.
The sensory input was almost too much for Jimmy to take. He pointed the gun in the direction of the glow and saw the barrel was shaking. His resolve, that he could deal with anyone as long as he had his gun, was beginning to fade.
The glow became so bright that it finally took form.
Jimmy’s eyes widened. It was the form of a person, just like the news had said.
It seemed to look around the room, then settle its gaze on the bed. Jimmy began to sweat as it approached and stared into his eyes.
It was the oddest thing, staring into what should be eyes, but nothing was there. The flashes of mini lightning bolts formed shapes that looked almost human, but it was just an outline, there was nothing inside what should be the body.
He shoved the shaking gun out from under the blanket and pointed it at the glowing figure.
The figure noted the presence of the gun, then continued to advance.
“S… stop,” Jimmy said. “I’m w… warning you.”
The figure ignored the warning.
Jimmy squeezed the trigger, setting off a deafening shot that went right through the face of the figure.
It acted as though nothing had happened, continuing to advance. The ringing in Jimmy’s ears made all sound seem muffled.
The figure stopped two inches from Jimmy’s face.
“Mangler… “ it said, sounding less like a voice and more like a transmission over an old staticky radio.
“I… I’m not the Mangler,” he said. “The person who used to live here was killed by him.”
It seemed to ponder this for a moment.
“Find Mangler… “ it said.
“I d… don’t know where to find him.”
It moved an inch closer. As the flashes of electricity arced, licked hungrily at Jimmy’s face.
“Find… him… “
“Ok, ok, I’ll find him,” Jimmy said, feeling the heat from the electricity.
The figure seemed to consider that for a moment then backed away. It moved toward the bedroom wall. Then, like someone had turned on a vacuum, it was sucked into an electrical outlet and disappeared.
Jimmy laid back in bed, breathing hard. His eyes darted left and right all around the room. But the only evidence of the figure that remained was the bullet hole in his bedroom wall.
***
The trips through the electrical conduits had become easier. There were still times when I came out someplace I didn’t intend to, but I was usually able to recover quickly and get to where I wanted to go.
But where did I want to go? At first, I wandered around, lost in this new form I found myself trapped inside. It was only after I had overheard a news report about the serial killer they called The Mangler that I gained my purpose.
Of course, Frederick was going to keep killing. Of course, they weren’t going to be able to catch him. He’d been inside away from his victims before and he didn’t like it. Not being able to torture and kill innocents was like a normal person not being able to breathe. Not that I know much about normal or breathing anymore.
I suppose on some level I should thank him. I thought about it for a long time and the only thing that makes any kind of sense is when we were fighting, somehow the water and blood I was laying in got splashed into the electrical socket. Instead of killing me, it bonded with me, making me able to become the electrical current. To ride it like a wave to wherever I wanted.
I became faster than any person ever was. And yet, I wasn’t a person anymore. I have no idea how I retained my consciousness, let alone my memory. But somehow…
I justify it by the old adage, ‘I think therefore I am.’
My life has become an endless hunt for the person who destroyed me, the person I must destroy. I don’t even know what I’ll do when I find him. But I will find him. I will stop him. This time, I won’t fail. I’ll end him like I should’ve before.
I owe it to the people he’s tortured and killed since my failure. Most of all, I owe it to my wife. I know she wouldn’t approve of my bloodlust. She would say there must be some other option. But if she would be able to see her dead body hanging naked from our living room wall, I think she just might change her mind.
My thoughts are interrupted as I arrive at my next destination, another victim’s house. I’m not sure what I’ll find that the police haven’t, but I have to try. Maybe I can pick up his scent somehow. A plan almost assuredly doomed to failure since I lost all sense of smell in the transformation.
I’m surprised though that I can still see and hear. I suppose waves of light and sound somehow intersect with my electrical body and it senses them. I don’t question it. I’ve learned to just go with it.
On the plus side, I don’t have to worry about eating, drinking, or using the bathroom. I guess there’s an upside to everything. Elizabeth would be so proud of me.
I arrive at the room where the victim was murdered. Looking around there’s still blood everywhere, along with evidence markers where they took pictures.
The sheer amount of blood tells me he took his time. He desecrated this girl in her own room. Her parents must’ve been out because there’s no way they didn’t hear the struggle. There were books on the floor, a chair overturned, and blood everywhere. The room was a disaster. It looked like she fought him. I wish she would’ve succeeded where I had failed.
But then, I wish I hadn’t failed, and this girl was still alive.
There’s nothing I can do now except find him and end him.
Finding him was proving more difficult than I thought. I had unlimited access to anywhere with electricity, but I couldn’t use a computer or a GPS. I was limited to transportation only through electricity. Granted that still made me the fastest being alive. I say being because I don’t think I qualify as human anymore. But I was limited to traveling to a place and then trying to find out where I was and if he was there.
If he knew I was searching for him all he would have to do is live the rest of his days in a cabin in the woods with no electricity. I’d never be able to reach him.
I believe two things worked in my favor with that theory.
First, I don’t think he’s that smart, and second, I don’t think he knows I’m looking for him. I believe that surviving our fight only further empowered him to kill. When someone feels invincible, they’re bound to make a mistake.
An officer walked into the room and I ducked back into an outlet. I was able to hang on where I was and watch from inside the outlet without being transported somewhere else.
The officer looked startled and stared at the empty air that I had just vacated. She looked like she was unsure if she trusted what her eyes had seen in the instant before I vanished.
She slowly stepped over to the corner and bent down to peer into the outlet. For a moment I wondered if she could see me, and what exactly she would see. But then her radio squawked calling her to another scene. When I heard the voice on the radio say the address and that they might have the killer cornered, I didn’t waste any time.
It was maybe fifteen seconds until I was across town at the address I’d heard. There was a lot of screaming and crying going on. I came out of the outlet and saw blood on the floor beside a body that wasn’t moving.
There was a girl being beaten by a man with his back to me. He turned to take another swing and I knew my search was over.
“My psychiatrist used to tell me I needed to work on my impulse control,” he said calmly as he slapped her. “I think I’m doing pretty good. I’ve been here ten whole minutes and you’re still alive.”
I shot across the room and knocked him to the floor. He jumped back up and looked around for what had hit him.
“What the hell?”
I saw the fear in his eyes when he saw me. I know Elizabeth would’ve been ashamed, of me, but I was enjoying his anxiety. After all he had done to me and so many others, I drank it in like an elixir.
He started edging toward the door. I was there in a heartbeat. His eyes darted back and forth between where I used to be and where I now stood. The panic in his eyes doubled.
I wanted to make him suffer, but I didn’t want to make the same mistake I’d made before and let him escape with his life.
I lashed out with a bolt that used to be my arm. The energy slashed through his shirt and fried a hole in his shoulder.
He screamed in pain and horror as he looked at the smoking hole in his skin. He tried to run but in an instant, I was there in front of him firing another bolt and searing the skin across his waist to his jeans.
His screams of pain and rage were only matched by the feral desperation in his eyes.
Not knowing what do to, he went with the familiar. Attack the innocent. He grabbed the girl who had been crawling away from the scene.
He grabbed her again and held her in front of him like a human shield.
What a waste of skin.
I fired a bolt into a ceiling light beside me which ricocheted and hit him full force in the leg, nearly severing it.
He went down like a ton of bricks, trying to hold on to his hostage, but she was fighting to get away from him. She broke free and he crumpled to the floor.
“What do you want?” he screamed at me.
With everything that is within me, I wanted to tell him who I was, what he had taken from me, and what I was about to take from him.
But I didn’t want to give the satisfaction. I wanted to give him only uncertainty and fear to cling to.
I could feel the seconds ticking away. I knew I had to make the most of this opportunity or he would get away again. And after this, I might never find him.
I unleashed every ounce of energy at him. I couldn’t even see him, he was only a smoking pillar of frying skin.
Just then, the police burst through the door.
“FREE… “ the first officer started then the shock of what he was seeing stole the rest of the word from his mouth.
He stood there, mouth agape when the female officer stepped in behind him. She looked at me and her wide eyes narrowed as she put two and two together and recognized me from the last crime scene.
I had no reason to fear. I didn’t know if I could even be harmed in my current state. But when you see that blue uniform burst through a door with a gun aimed at you, all rational thought takes a vacation.
I dove for the outlet and was gone. I didn’t even care where I was going. I knew I had done what I wanted to. The monster was destroyed.
Something felt different. Was it pride at finishing my crusade? Was it shame knowing Elizabeth wouldn’t have wanted me to do it?
I don’t know but there was something else. It was like there was added weight to my existence. I guess you can have a conscious in whatever you’d call this existence.
I appeared in the place that made the most sense, ironically. It was my old home. The one where everything I loved died, including me. It was where I took on this unintended new existence.
Is that why I felt this extra weight? Was it some cathartic aftereffect of my search for revenge that was finally over?
I looked around the charred debris of what used to be my home. In my mind's eye, I didn’t see the burned-out shell of what was left. I saw it as it was when we first moved in. When Elizabeth and I started decorating. When the interior was finally finished and I turned to her and said, “For now.” Knowing she would decide to change everything at some time in the future when she was bored, just like all women seem to do.
I remember getting a paintbrush across the mouth for that comment. I smiled remembering kissing her with my freshly painted mouth and ending up in the bedroom.
As I turned toward where I’d entered the house, my smile quickly faded. For some reason, I was still connected to the outlet. That had never happened before.
Another curiosity arose when I noticed the color of my electrical body was now tinged purple. It had always been blue before.
The tail of what had yet to come out of the outlet was red. As I pulled and it came the rest of the way out, it merged with me and turned purple.
“What the hell?” I heard someone say.
I whipped around but no one was there.
“Where am I?” the voice said.
“Who are you?” I said to the air.
There was a long silence.
“Doc?” the voice said.
As far as I knew it wasn’t possible for my spine to turn to ice, since I no longer had a spine, but the feeling seemed the same.
“Frederick?” I said.
“What happened?” he said. “This crazy electric thing attacked me and now… wait a minute. How am I talking to you? You died months ago.”
My shock gave way to utter despair. My enemy was now part of me.

This story needs to be told. Those who have suffered must understand why. It’s not as simple as some have made it to be, which is why it needs to come from the person most responsible… me.
It began when I was least expecting it. But then don’t things always seem to happen that way?
***
“I’m tellin' ya, doc, people just don’t understand,” Frederick said while rocking back and forth in the chair.
“What exactly don’t they understand?” I said, trying to look more relaxed than I felt.
“There’s just something that takes over. You can’t stop it.”
“Impulse control?”
“What’s that mean?” Frederick said, struggling against his straight jacket, trying to get comfortable.
“It means that when you want to do something, you try your hardest not to. It means you try to control or suppress the urge to do things you know are bad.”
Frederick’s mouth lolled open. He narrowed his eyes in confusion.
“Why would I want to do that?”
I suppressed the urge to sigh.
“Because that’s what people do,” I said. “They think about doing bad things, but then they control themselves and don’t do them because those things are wrong and could hurt other people.”
“Hurting people is wrong?” he said.
“Yes, Frederick, hurting people is wrong.”
He shook his head as if he were trying to shake away a fly that was annoying him.
“Why?”
“Why is hurting people wrong?”
“No, why are you telling me this?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re saying I’m bad,” he said trying to rise from his chair. “You’re saying I didn’t need to hurt those people. That I’m a bad person.”
I got up from my chair and started backing toward the heavy metal door.
“I’m not bad!” he yelled at me. “You’re bad!”
I knocked on the door and the orderly opened it as Frederick got to his feet.
I slipped through the door as it slammed shut from the impact of his body slamming into it.
“Bad, bad, bad,” he screamed.
“Badbadbadbadbadbadbadbad!”
Spit flew from his mouth landing on the small observation window with metal grates embedded in it.
“You ok, doc,” the orderly said, startling me.
“Yes, I’m fine, thank you.”
I turned and walked down the white hallway, hoping the orderly wouldn’t notice the quickness in my step. I ignored the sound of Frederick beating on the door. I ignored all the sounds I heard. I just wanted to get away.
It was a long walk to my office, through many security gates. At each one, the nurse buzzed me through and gave me an acknowledging look that used to be a smile.
I suppose this place gets to everyone eventually.
I finally reached my office, closed and locked the door behind me, and collapsed into my chair. I breathed out a sigh of relief at reaching relative safety. I turned and looked out my window to the beautiful flowers blooming on the trees in the courtyard. I looked up at the tree stretching toward the sky.
I remember when they planted those.
I turned back to my center, my means of solace, the only thing that mattered in this cruel, unfair world. I picked up the picture of my lovely wife and smiled. She was the one who kept me sane all these years. She kept me seeing the best in people. Or at least trying. Sometimes there was no good to see—especially in my patients.
It takes a special kind of doctor to care for the mental needs of those who have done heinous things that are so bad they don’t even bother sending them to prison. They send them to me.
I’m like the dumpster for the dregs of society. Just drop them in the asylum and forget about them.
I kissed my wife and set her back on the bare desk, then turned on my computer and added notes from today’s session. There was never a recommendation for release. Once patients came here the only way they left was in a body bag. There was no curing them, only trying to make them docile until they left.
Oh, there were experiments. That was a large part of how we were funded. Companies would pay for certain tests to be done. Some might call it torture, but we called it research.
I finished typing my notes and leaned back in my seat. The diplomas and degrees stared down from their perches on the bare walls, mocking me. Demanding why I hadn’t gotten a better job.
As usual, I didn’t have an answer.
My office suddenly felt stuffy. I closed down my computer and left. Driving down the packed freeway, all I could think about was collapsing on the couch beside my lovely Elizabeth. Not telling her about my day until she dragged it out of me, then listening to her encourage me to help those who have been left in my care, because I’m the only hope they have.
Traffic was bumper to bumper and not helping my overall opinion of humanity much. Especially when a car that was swerving from lane to lane, nearly sideswiped me. It kept going on in front of me, nearly hitting several other cars.
The driver and passenger seemed to be having a disagreement about how to drive the car and it looked like it was about to come to blows.
Fortunately, they were soon out of sight, and someone else’s problem.
For the next few miles, I kept watching the side of the road waiting to see the offending car sitting in a ditch. However, they surprised me. They must’ve turned off to go terrorize some neighborhood streets with their reckless driving.
I hummed to myself, not wanting to have whatever dreck was on the radio forced on me.
When I was nearly to my exit, my phone rang. I immediately recognized the number as work. I contemplated answering it for a moment, then thought better of it. There had never been a time when work called with good news. And I was in no mood for bad news.
I hummed a little louder, trying to drown out the sound of the ring before it finally stopped.
The closer I got to home the less I thought about work and the more I thought about Elizabeth. Until I turned off at my exit, I had nearly forgotten work altogether. Maybe I would take tomorrow off and go do something with my wife. We hadn’t been out for a while. The weather had been lovely and I know she would adore a walk down by the lake.
My thoughts were interrupted when I turned down our driveway and saw a car in front of the house. It wasn’t quite in the driveway, it was sitting at an angle halfway in the front yard.
I parked my car and slowly got out. Something struck me about this car, but I hadn’t figured out what. I approached the driver’s side to have words with the person still sitting at the wheel.
“Excuse me,” I said staying a few steps back from the driver’s door.
He didn’t answer me.
“Excuse me,” I said a little louder.
Still no answer.
I tapped on the window and he ignored me.
I opened the door.
“Okay, look… “ I said.
But it was I who would do the looking. The man fell out of the car, thudding on the grass. The inside of the car was covered in blood. I looked down and the man’s throat had been cut.
“Oh my God!” I said jumping back.
I watched to see if the man was breathing, but the way his neck was bent at an unnatural angle against my yard told me everything I needed to know.
I glanced through the car but didn’t see the passenger.
It was then my eyes drifted to my front door.
It was open.
I stepped through the shrubs and up onto the porch, walking in a daze. The surrealness of the moment had yet to sink in. I was going inside to check on my wife and make sure everything was ok.
It didn’t strike me as anything more than that.
‘Oh, she just left the door open, that’s all.’
My mind kept trying to tell me that. I wanted desperately to believe it. Even though she had never been that careless during the entire time we’d been married. I had pushed aside all reason and common sense in favor of pure denial.
Everything was going to be ok. With Elizabeth, everything was always ok. She could literally light up a room with her positivity. She was the best person I ever knew. I have no idea how I got so lucky as to know her, let alone be her husband.
I floated in through my front door on my cloud of denial and looked for my wife.
It didn’t take me long to find her.
There was one wall of the living room she was constantly redecorating. She always said it looked bare and empty no matter what she did with it.
She was hanging from that wall, naked, her beautiful body desecrated by slices and rips. Her throat had been slit and blood still poured from it.
I ran to her.
Tried to take her down.
Screamed her name.
And then it was my turn to scream.
I looked down and saw a knife blade sticking out from my abdomen. It was part of the cutlery set I had gotten for Elizabeth three Christmases ago.
I screamed as I slowly turned to face my attacker.
“What’s up, doc?” Frederick said wearing a maniacal grin.
The shock had punched a hole in my reasoning. I saw him standing there, but I couldn’t accept it any more than I could accept my beautiful wife strung up like a macabre painting hanging on our living room wall.
My eyes tried to focus on his face. To make me recognize him as a threat.
“How’s that impulse control workin’ for ya, doc?”
He ripped the knife out of my back.
The pain, along with his arrogance woke me from my shock-induced stupor.
“Now do you understand?” he said, as he shoved the knife into my belly.
I did understand. I understood at that moment that I was already as dead as my wife. I knew that this piece of human garbage had taken something beautiful from this world. I knew I had to do something about it before there was nothing I could do. Before my body succumbed to injuries and I was unable.
I grabbed him by the throat. He tried to laugh, but my grip was fueled by desperation.
He tried to free himself but couldn’t. He began stabbing me over and over. I refused to release him. I carried him by his neck over to the kitchen counter and began bashing his head off the marble.
I was rewarded with spots of his blood. I knew at least I had made him bleed and that made me smile. His eyes grew wide as my grin grew maniacal. I smashed him repeatedly, crushing him against the sink, breaking the faucet, and causing water to spray into the air.
His eyelids fluttered as he lost his grip on the knife.
He was nearly gone. I would take him with me and that would be my parting gift to the world, removing something so evil.
Suddenly, my body wouldn’t obey commands. My grip loosened. I tried to tighten it, but I had lost all control. I looked down and I was standing in a pool of my own blood.
His eyes fluttered open and he coughed.
‘Nonononononono!’ I thought. ‘He can’t live. He can’t win. I had him.’
He stood as I sank to the floor.
“Looks like maybe you do understand, doc,” he said from what seemed like miles away. “Too bad you won’t be around to discuss it. We could have a session and evaluate how it makes you feel.”
His foot came down on my spine. I felt a crack. He started kicking me in the side repeatedly. Splashing water and blood on me as I felt my ribs crack.
I fought with everything I had.
My body didn’t even twitch.
‘Nooooo!,’ I screamed. ‘It can’t end like this.’
I heard a sizzling sound and then there was darkness.
***
I could feel movement.
Wasn’t I dead?
Was this what happened after?
It was still dark.
‘Hello?’ I tried to say.
Nothing. Just the sensation of movement.
Am I in a body bag? Am I on my way to the morgue or the grave? Please don’t let me be buried alive.
But I’m not alive, am I?
I don’t feel any pain. That’s a good thing, but not a good sign. The last thing I remember was lots of pain.
Suddenly there’s light and my movement stops.
I look up from the floor of a house I don’t recognize.
‘Where the hell am I?’
I’m on the floor next to a wall, looking up at an electrical outlet. Nothing around me seems familiar. I try to stand but it feels weird. It isn’t difficult, and there’s still no pain, it just carries an odd sensation with it. Like my body is just relearning things. Just like when I was a toddler. I teeter back and forth as I rise, but eventually, I’m upright.
My first few steps are tentative, but after that, I gain confidence with each stride.
Aside from the strange surroundings, there’s a sensation, like ants crawling all over me.
I pass a bathroom and glance inside. The reflection in the mirror draws me back. I slowly approach it, seeing something unique and terrifying.
It looks like someone drew an outline of a human form using a lightning bolt. The electricity shimmers and crackles as it races around the empty form of the being.
I wonder if it will hurt me.
Not sure if I want to test the limits of my newfound lack of pain, I hesitantly reach for this creature. It reaches for me at the same time. I’m mesmerized by this mutual curiosity.
My hand is about to touch the electric pulse shaped like its hand. I tremble with anticipation and fear as we touch.
Surprisingly, I don’t feel any pain. I don’t feel anything except a hard surface.
I move my hand back and forth. The creature does the same. I make quicker movements, and so does it.
Finally, out of frustration, I reach back and strike at the creature.
My hand strikes the hard surface and it splinters. There are now multiple creatures staring back at me.
I step back and come to the horrible realization.
I am the creature.
***
One month later…
“And police have been unable to find any credible leads in the string of brutal killings that began shortly after the patient escaped from the mental hospital last month,” the handsome anchorman stated from behind his desk. “They are asking people to call in if they know the whereabouts of Frederick Winston, now known as, ‘The Mangler’.”
“In other news, the Larsan Electric Company has issued a statement that the recent power surges are no cause for alarm. These surges seem to be random in people's homes and certain businesses. An LEC spokesman stated that there appears to be no pattern to the surges and that so far no one has reported them causing any harm. LEC is tracking down the problem and should have it under control soon.”
The anchorman shifted in his seat and turned to another camera.
“And on a lighter note, with Halloween months away, it seems that reports of ghosts are on the rise,” he said, wearing a half grin. “Several area residents have reported what they call a ghostlike figure, outlined in light, visiting them. Reports vary as to the duration and location of the visits, but they do seem to have a few things in common. The visits are usually short. In fact, most people say that if they blink the figure is gone. No one has reported the ghost doing any harm. And it seems like anyone within close proximity feels a tingling sensation and their hair standing on end.”
“Maybe I should be visited instead of my next hairdresser’s appointment,” the attractive woman anchor said with a laugh.
“Schedule me a visit too,” the male anchor said smiling. “And that’s our news for the evening, good night.”
Jimmy switched the channel.
“Gimme a break,” he said to the TV. “Ghosts? Who’s playing what? This’s some marketing scheme to sell Halloween crap. Like that stunt they pulled a few years back with the clowns hanging around the schools to promote that stupid movie.”
He switched off the TV and rolled over in his bed.
It wasn’t long before his breathing slowed. But before sleep could take him, he noticed a glow in the hallway. He didn’t remember leaving any lights on when he came to bed. Living alone had its advantages. If he heard someone in his apartment, he knew they weren’t supposed to be there. He slowly reached over to the bedstand and pulled out his Glock 9mm handgun, then held it close and listened.
He watched as the glow moved. It seemed like someone was looking around. But for what? He didn’t really have anything aside from his TV, phone, and video games. If anyone wanted those, they would be in a world of hurt. He had been lucky to get this apartment. If he was honest with himself, it cost more than he could afford, but when he had the chance he took it. It was too bad the opening came because the person who lived there before him was one of The Mangler’s victims. That’s probably why he was able to rent the place so quickly and get the price down to where he could almost afford it.
Maybe the glow was one of the street people who were stupid enough to see if there was an empty apartment to claim. That wasn’t gonna fly either. Jimmy had jumped on this apartment to get away from the dingy rat hole he used live in on the other side of town. And there was no way he’d let some bum come in here and take what was his.
The glow crept closer. He could feel the hairs on his arms raise. There was a sound too. It wasn’t loud, almost felt more than heard. A soft crackle, like electricity when it sparked.
The sensory input was almost too much for Jimmy to take. He pointed the gun in the direction of the glow and saw the barrel was shaking. His resolve, that he could deal with anyone as long as he had his gun, was beginning to fade.
The glow became so bright that it finally took form.
Jimmy’s eyes widened. It was the form of a person, just like the news had said.
It seemed to look around the room, then settle its gaze on the bed. Jimmy began to sweat as it approached and stared into his eyes.
It was the oddest thing, staring into what should be eyes, but nothing was there. The flashes of mini lightning bolts formed shapes that looked almost human, but it was just an outline, there was nothing inside what should be the body.
He shoved the shaking gun out from under the blanket and pointed it at the glowing figure.
The figure noted the presence of the gun, then continued to advance.
“S… stop,” Jimmy said. “I’m w… warning you.”
The figure ignored the warning.
Jimmy squeezed the trigger, setting off a deafening shot that went right through the face of the figure.
It acted as though nothing had happened, continuing to advance. The ringing in Jimmy’s ears made all sound seem muffled.
The figure stopped two inches from Jimmy’s face.
“Mangler… “ it said, sounding less like a voice and more like a transmission over an old staticky radio.
“I… I’m not the Mangler,” he said. “The person who used to live here was killed by him.”
It seemed to ponder this for a moment.
“Find Mangler… “ it said.
“I d… don’t know where to find him.”
It moved an inch closer. As the flashes of electricity arced, licked hungrily at Jimmy’s face.
“Find… him… “
“Ok, ok, I’ll find him,” Jimmy said, feeling the heat from the electricity.
The figure seemed to consider that for a moment then backed away. It moved toward the bedroom wall. Then, like someone had turned on a vacuum, it was sucked into an electrical outlet and disappeared.
Jimmy laid back in bed, breathing hard. His eyes darted left and right all around the room. But the only evidence of the figure that remained was the bullet hole in his bedroom wall.
***
The trips through the electrical conduits had become easier. There were still times when I came out someplace I didn’t intend to, but I was usually able to recover quickly and get to where I wanted to go.
But where did I want to go? At first, I wandered around, lost in this new form I found myself trapped inside. It was only after I had overheard a news report about the serial killer they called The Mangler that I gained my purpose.
Of course, Frederick was going to keep killing. Of course, they weren’t going to be able to catch him. He’d been inside away from his victims before and he didn’t like it. Not being able to torture and kill innocents was like a normal person not being able to breathe. Not that I know much about normal or breathing anymore.
I suppose on some level I should thank him. I thought about it for a long time and the only thing that makes any kind of sense is when we were fighting, somehow the water and blood I was laying in got splashed into the electrical socket. Instead of killing me, it bonded with me, making me able to become the electrical current. To ride it like a wave to wherever I wanted.
I became faster than any person ever was. And yet, I wasn’t a person anymore. I have no idea how I retained my consciousness, let alone my memory. But somehow…
I justify it by the old adage, ‘I think therefore I am.’
My life has become an endless hunt for the person who destroyed me, the person I must destroy. I don’t even know what I’ll do when I find him. But I will find him. I will stop him. This time, I won’t fail. I’ll end him like I should’ve before.
I owe it to the people he’s tortured and killed since my failure. Most of all, I owe it to my wife. I know she wouldn’t approve of my bloodlust. She would say there must be some other option. But if she would be able to see her dead body hanging naked from our living room wall, I think she just might change her mind.
My thoughts are interrupted as I arrive at my next destination, another victim’s house. I’m not sure what I’ll find that the police haven’t, but I have to try. Maybe I can pick up his scent somehow. A plan almost assuredly doomed to failure since I lost all sense of smell in the transformation.
I’m surprised though that I can still see and hear. I suppose waves of light and sound somehow intersect with my electrical body and it senses them. I don’t question it. I’ve learned to just go with it.
On the plus side, I don’t have to worry about eating, drinking, or using the bathroom. I guess there’s an upside to everything. Elizabeth would be so proud of me.
I arrive at the room where the victim was murdered. Looking around there’s still blood everywhere, along with evidence markers where they took pictures.
The sheer amount of blood tells me he took his time. He desecrated this girl in her own room. Her parents must’ve been out because there’s no way they didn’t hear the struggle. There were books on the floor, a chair overturned, and blood everywhere. The room was a disaster. It looked like she fought him. I wish she would’ve succeeded where I had failed.
But then, I wish I hadn’t failed, and this girl was still alive.
There’s nothing I can do now except find him and end him.
Finding him was proving more difficult than I thought. I had unlimited access to anywhere with electricity, but I couldn’t use a computer or a GPS. I was limited to transportation only through electricity. Granted that still made me the fastest being alive. I say being because I don’t think I qualify as human anymore. But I was limited to traveling to a place and then trying to find out where I was and if he was there.
If he knew I was searching for him all he would have to do is live the rest of his days in a cabin in the woods with no electricity. I’d never be able to reach him.
I believe two things worked in my favor with that theory.
First, I don’t think he’s that smart, and second, I don’t think he knows I’m looking for him. I believe that surviving our fight only further empowered him to kill. When someone feels invincible, they’re bound to make a mistake.
An officer walked into the room and I ducked back into an outlet. I was able to hang on where I was and watch from inside the outlet without being transported somewhere else.
The officer looked startled and stared at the empty air that I had just vacated. She looked like she was unsure if she trusted what her eyes had seen in the instant before I vanished.
She slowly stepped over to the corner and bent down to peer into the outlet. For a moment I wondered if she could see me, and what exactly she would see. But then her radio squawked calling her to another scene. When I heard the voice on the radio say the address and that they might have the killer cornered, I didn’t waste any time.
It was maybe fifteen seconds until I was across town at the address I’d heard. There was a lot of screaming and crying going on. I came out of the outlet and saw blood on the floor beside a body that wasn’t moving.
There was a girl being beaten by a man with his back to me. He turned to take another swing and I knew my search was over.
“My psychiatrist used to tell me I needed to work on my impulse control,” he said calmly as he slapped her. “I think I’m doing pretty good. I’ve been here ten whole minutes and you’re still alive.”
I shot across the room and knocked him to the floor. He jumped back up and looked around for what had hit him.
“What the hell?”
I saw the fear in his eyes when he saw me. I know Elizabeth would’ve been ashamed, of me, but I was enjoying his anxiety. After all he had done to me and so many others, I drank it in like an elixir.
He started edging toward the door. I was there in a heartbeat. His eyes darted back and forth between where I used to be and where I now stood. The panic in his eyes doubled.
I wanted to make him suffer, but I didn’t want to make the same mistake I’d made before and let him escape with his life.
I lashed out with a bolt that used to be my arm. The energy slashed through his shirt and fried a hole in his shoulder.
He screamed in pain and horror as he looked at the smoking hole in his skin. He tried to run but in an instant, I was there in front of him firing another bolt and searing the skin across his waist to his jeans.
His screams of pain and rage were only matched by the feral desperation in his eyes.
Not knowing what do to, he went with the familiar. Attack the innocent. He grabbed the girl who had been crawling away from the scene.
He grabbed her again and held her in front of him like a human shield.
What a waste of skin.
I fired a bolt into a ceiling light beside me which ricocheted and hit him full force in the leg, nearly severing it.
He went down like a ton of bricks, trying to hold on to his hostage, but she was fighting to get away from him. She broke free and he crumpled to the floor.
“What do you want?” he screamed at me.
With everything that is within me, I wanted to tell him who I was, what he had taken from me, and what I was about to take from him.
But I didn’t want to give the satisfaction. I wanted to give him only uncertainty and fear to cling to.
I could feel the seconds ticking away. I knew I had to make the most of this opportunity or he would get away again. And after this, I might never find him.
I unleashed every ounce of energy at him. I couldn’t even see him, he was only a smoking pillar of frying skin.
Just then, the police burst through the door.
“FREE… “ the first officer started then the shock of what he was seeing stole the rest of the word from his mouth.
He stood there, mouth agape when the female officer stepped in behind him. She looked at me and her wide eyes narrowed as she put two and two together and recognized me from the last crime scene.
I had no reason to fear. I didn’t know if I could even be harmed in my current state. But when you see that blue uniform burst through a door with a gun aimed at you, all rational thought takes a vacation.
I dove for the outlet and was gone. I didn’t even care where I was going. I knew I had done what I wanted to. The monster was destroyed.
Something felt different. Was it pride at finishing my crusade? Was it shame knowing Elizabeth wouldn’t have wanted me to do it?
I don’t know but there was something else. It was like there was added weight to my existence. I guess you can have a conscious in whatever you’d call this existence.
I appeared in the place that made the most sense, ironically. It was my old home. The one where everything I loved died, including me. It was where I took on this unintended new existence.
Is that why I felt this extra weight? Was it some cathartic aftereffect of my search for revenge that was finally over?
I looked around the charred debris of what used to be my home. In my mind's eye, I didn’t see the burned-out shell of what was left. I saw it as it was when we first moved in. When Elizabeth and I started decorating. When the interior was finally finished and I turned to her and said, “For now.” Knowing she would decide to change everything at some time in the future when she was bored, just like all women seem to do.
I remember getting a paintbrush across the mouth for that comment. I smiled remembering kissing her with my freshly painted mouth and ending up in the bedroom.
As I turned toward where I’d entered the house, my smile quickly faded. For some reason, I was still connected to the outlet. That had never happened before.
Another curiosity arose when I noticed the color of my electrical body was now tinged purple. It had always been blue before.
The tail of what had yet to come out of the outlet was red. As I pulled and it came the rest of the way out, it merged with me and turned purple.
“What the hell?” I heard someone say.
I whipped around but no one was there.
“Where am I?” the voice said.
“Who are you?” I said to the air.
There was a long silence.
“Doc?” the voice said.
As far as I knew it wasn’t possible for my spine to turn to ice, since I no longer had a spine, but the feeling seemed the same.
“Frederick?” I said.
“What happened?” he said. “This crazy electric thing attacked me and now… wait a minute. How am I talking to you? You died months ago.”
My shock gave way to utter despair. My enemy was now part of me.

Nikol Apatini Mooning Around
KBK featuring Haya Save Me
York presents Taucher Infinity (Patrik Humann Remix)
Philippe El Sisi & Smaz Better Off As Lovers
HALIENE Reach Across The Sky (Ben Gold Remix)
Markus Schulz presents Dakota Manray (Sam Wolfe Remix)
Daxson Who We Are
Sean Tyas presents abSTrakt In the Dark
Eddie Bitar & Talpa Salvation
Mark van Rijswijk Edge + Fragmented
FREEWILL Obsessed
Red Anna Save Me
The Elite 5 Seconds To Terminate (ADM Remix)
Adam Stark & EMATA After The End
Lo Fi Jack Road to Delhi
Sunflare Golden Hour
Dirkie Coetzee presents Deeper Calling Into Orbit
Christina Novelli Heavy
Claas Inc. The World's Monster
Maratone & Lyd14 Heart By Heart
Prism Alchemy (+ Focus FL Remix)
Obie Fernandez Gliding
Solarstone Leap of Faith (Allan Morrow Remix)
David Elston & Elle Mariachi Higher State
Cory Goldsmith Niagara EP
Dan Miles Away
Adam Taylor & Tara Louise Life
Cat Mode X Qulinez featuring CeCe Mix Late Night Minute
Bapti Day Dreamer
Ice X Diaz Tek
East Dawn & Nathan Rux Bring It Back
HALIENE Heavenly [Divine Edition]

I spend all of my daylight hours scared and alone in this musty old cellar.
It’s woeful, and I bet it smelled this bad even before everything around here turned to crap. Great. My second sentence and I’ve already resorted to swearing. When I decided I’d start this diary (five minutes ago when I got a tiny sliver of signal) I thought it would be my poetic and deeply-moving goodbye to the world. Maybe I’d write about love and loss, or maybe the splendour of nature. Then, when all is done and dusted, I’d have left something to be remembered by. As well as my corpse, of course.
This was a bad idea.
*
Okay, I’m an idiot. There’s nothing else I can do down here. I’ve rooted through every cardboard box a hundred times, organised and reorganised my supplies, I’ve even built a fort. So, I’m back. Hello. Again. God, this diary is going badly.
But there’s just enough light coming through the boards I nailed over the cellar’s tiny window to type by. So I may as well type. Stops me staring up at the window just waiting for a shadow to pass by.
Maybe I'll just write and not hit Submit. Right, where to start? Well, my name is – actually, I think I’m going to refer to myself as ‘X’. That sounds mysterious. If you’re reading this and want to know my real name, I still carry my purse. My railcard is in there and, if you really want to know who I am, go find me and fish it out. I won’t bite...
So, my name is X. I live in a little English village in the middle of nowhere. Before all this happened, I had a mum, a dad, a sister and there was a boy I liked, his name was Jonah.
*
I couldn’t think of anything else to write so I waited until I came back from my rounds. That’s the stupid name I have for when I go outside at night scrounging for stuff. Drinks are the hardest. I only trust bottles or cans, or did, and I was running out of places to search for them. But I guess that doesn’t matter now.
My leg is doing alright actually; didn’t hold me up at all. I saw Jonah too. He’s looked better, I have to say. It’s strange because this is only the second time I’ve seen him since we came here. Maybe his ears were burning.
Anyway, I found some tinned pineapple in a creepy old caravan I hadn’t searched yet. Had to bust the door open with Old Trusty – which I thought might attract some unwanted attention – but it was fine. I’m actually eating the pineapple right now, tastes good. I also found a radio in there. I already have three down here, but none of them work. Not that the caravan radio works either, all you get is static. It’s just nice to collect something. You know, to have a hobby.
*
I can tell the sun is rising. I managed to sleep for a couple of hours, but I woke up after a bad dream. I know some people can remember their dreams, but I never do. I wake up and grasp at them, but I never manage a hold before they fade away. It’s like trying to pinch the corner of a wisp of smoke; the harder you try, the quicker it fades to nothing. I’m just left with a sensation, a kind of imprint which sums up the most intense part of the dream.
And a cold sweat. That’s new.
*
I’ve been through the box of photo albums I found at the back of the cellar again. I’ve looked through them a few times now, but I always notice something new.
There’s a photo of this little girl playing with a pretend guitar. I can tell it’s pretend because it doesn’t have strings, only brightly-coloured plastic dials. Kind of like My First Guitar Hero or something. The girl has dark hair and she looks a tiny bit like my sister did a million years ago. I don’t have a picture of my sister. I suppose I could go and get one from my old house, but it’s right in the middle of the village. I’m lucky I wasn’t torn to shreds the last time I went back. So, what I’ve done is put this girl’s photo in my back pocket as a substitute.
I guess I should probably write something about my real sister now. But I don’t think that’s a good idea just yet.
*
Daylight is starting to fade and I’m getting ready to go out on my rounds. I always take my satchel with me, packed with useful objects. I have Old Trusty (a crowbar) which sticks out of the top for easy access, a small toolbox, a pair of heavy-duty gloves (there’s a good story about how I got those, I might write that one down later) and a hammer. I carry a penknife I found down here in my pocket, my purse and phone, and a torch in my hand.
I don’t like to use the torch because its battery is running out and there’s always the chance it might attract them. I probably shouldn’t have used it last night when I got back. Maybe I’m starting to enjoy this writing malarkey? I need to be careful with luxuries.
*
Okay, that could have gone better.
Picture the scene: I’m using Old Trusty to try and lever a kitchen window open, when one of them just walks right through the garden hedge. Seriously, straight through it. It’s not the mightiest of hedges but, still, it just appeared like it was walking through one of those Japanese paper walls. My satchel was on the ground, but I legged it anyway. I’m not stupid. I know I can go back for it tomorrow. I felt strangely naked without it on the way back here though.
Like I said before, I need to be careful with the torch so I think I’ll try and get some sleep now.
*
I slept pretty well last night; no nightmares or cold sweats. Maybe a midnight chase was just what I needed to blow away the cobwebs.
I actually woke up wondering about you. If you’re reading this, who are you? If you’re like me, living through this village nightmare, how have you managed to go this long without being killed or whatever? Maybe you’re Army or some such. Maybe you’re just some kid who’s played so many videogames that surviving all of this was already second nature to you. Or maybe you’re like me; living on borrowed time and searching for a good place to die. Maybe Future Me was brave enough to tap Submit on my diary and you're currently reading this on your phone or computer.
Here’s an idea. Maybe you can carry on this diary from wherever I left it at. God, I really hope this isn’t my last entry, although I suppose any entry might be. If you do carry the diary forwards, and I'm a corpse, maybe it will become cursed. Spooky.
*
I’ve been preparing for my next excursion.
If I know I’m going somewhere I’ll likely run into an ugly, I like to take extra precautions. And I want my satchel back. It was a present from my dad, and I know it cost him a lot of money.
So, I’m taking a pair of shears from the shelf of old tools down here. That way, if I lose Old Trusty, I’ll have a backup weapon.
If you are local, I wonder how you like to kill them? Pretty morbid question I know, but everyone around here seems to have their preferred method. The last villager I saw alive carried a pair of mini cricket bats and seemed to have bludgeoning down to an art form. He never saw me though, I was watching from a grove of trees as he killed his way along the main road near the village.
That was before I decided to stay inside during the daylight hours. We can at least see a little bit at night; ambient light and everything. They can’t though. I’ve seen them, they bump into things. It’s pretty funny to be honest. If they hear a noise, they walk in the direction of the sound, never trying to avoid any object in their path. They either bash said object out of the way, or, like that hedge, blunder right through it. Obviously bigger things stop them dead (ha!) though. If that happens, they sort of shuffle backwards and then try again a few times. Eventually – and I’ve seen this too – they just give up and stand there, waiting for something else to attract their attention.
That’s not how it works in the daytime though.
*
I think it’s about an hour before the sun sets so it’s nearly time to head out. I’m going to change my bandage. One minute.
Okay, it didn’t look that bad really. The original scratch wasn’t too deep and now the wound seems to be doing that scabbing thing I remember from normal injuries. It just doesn’t smell very good. A bit like when you walk past a bin that needs emptying.
Anyway, I’ve applied more antiseptic and redressed it. Time to go.
*
That was fun. I’m glad I had those shears with me.
I got my satchel back you’ll be happy to know. And I got inside that house I’d been trying to break into as well. More through necessity than choice in the end, but I’m pleased I did. I found more batteries! That means I can justify writing at night a bit more. In fact, the people who used to live there (I think the husband owned the local garage) were pretty well kitted out. There were a lot of tins in their cupboards, and they’d even left a shotgun. It wasn’t loaded though.
Not that I need a shotgun. I didn’t tell you this before, but I have my grandpa’s old service revolver. He always told me and my sister that it was decommissioned, but my dad apparently knew otherwise. I keep it tucked into the back of my jeans at all times. It had three bullets, one of them is gone, so only two left.
I’ll only be needing the one of course.
*
Morning. I’m feeling pretty low today. I think concentrating on getting my satchel back took my mind off things, but now I feel pretty deflated.
Surely that’s understandable? The village I knew and loved has been replaced with this sodding hell. I miss my family, my friends, TV and hot dinners and Instagram. Before all of this I was a pretty positive person. Sure, I had a bit of trouble getting up in the morning, but, once I was up, that was it. I’d meet the day’s challenges head on, try to enjoy myself as much as I could. Not today though.
Maybe if I write about Jonah I’ll cheer up. Not Jonah as he is now of course, Jonah when he was all smooth-skinned, curly-haired and bright-eyed. Now he’s like the anti-Jonah or something. His face looks like it lost a fight with an angry lobster. No, wait, I’m supposed to be writing about Jonah version one here.
He’s one of those people that I can’t remember meeting. My family has always lived around here and so there are lots of people who have just always been, if you get me. I always thought we would drunkenly get it together at a party – that’s what I’d usually do if there was a boy I liked. Classy.
*
I’ve perked up a bit. Out of sheer frustration I went upstairs (naughty, I know) and looked out of a window. Sure, I saw an ugly, wandering aimlessly as they always do, but I saw that the trees are starting to turn too. That means it’s nearly autumn, and I love autumn!
My sister and I always used to go out and kick leaves at each other in the autumn. I don’t know if it was because of her low centre of gravity, but my sister was amazing at it. She could somehow whip up a blazing whirlwind of golden-yellow and fire-red, surrounding us both in a leaf storm that I couldn’t help but flail my arms madly at. Then we’d both fall backwards into the leaves laughing, me wondering how on earth what had happened was possible. She was that good.
God, I let her down in the end.
*
I think I’ll stay away from the house with the shotgun tonight. It usually takes a day or two for a group of uglies to disperse once they’re all riled up. I could use the rest of that tinned food I suppose, but I’ve got plenty to be getting on with for now.
Instead, I think I’ll swing by another farmhouse I was scoping out before I decided to turn nocturnal. I never met the people who used to live there, but I remember Mum telling me they liked their privacy. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me visiting now though.
Also, there’s a woodland between here and there and I might be able to find some leaves to kick about a bit. I think that would make me feel close to my sister again.
I’ll check back in later.
*
I’m still alive, but only just.
I made it through the woods just fine (only the odd leaf on the forest floor at the moment though, sadly), the trouble started at the farmhouse. I couldn’t get in – the doors and windows were barricaded – so I tried one of the outbuildings. Locked. It had a cat flap though.
My first instinct was to leave it, but then I wondered if there might be something useful inside. Lord knows what thinking about it now. I lifted the cat flap with one hand and shone the torch beam through with my other. That’s when an ugly dived at my pinkies. Luckily, it misjudged its leap and got a mouthful of plastic cat flap instead. As for me, I fell backwards onto my bum.
Next, the damn thing started bashing on the door from the inside. I don’t think it could ever have got out, but the noise attracted more uglies from out of nowhere. I only just managed to outmanoeuvre them and hightail it back into the woods.
That’s not the worst of it though. On the way back my leg started to hurt. A lot.
*
I woke up this morning and I’m walking with a limp. It’s funny, Dad had a limp when he and Mum died. He was nailing planks of wood across our windows and doors because there was no signal (as per bloody usual) and we thought that what was happening here was probably happening everywhere. It's only recently that I realised this was an isolated, local outbreak. Anyway, Dad dropped the hammer onto his toe, he always was useless at DIY. I think it was only a couple of hours after that when he and Mum were taken.
It was like a wave of death. No, not like, that’s exactly what it was. A hoard of uglies swept through the village, probably originating from the secret research facility in the woods we're not supposed to know about. My sister and I wouldn’t have had a prayer if Mum and Dad hadn’t charged down the first few that got into our house. They gave us just enough time to escape, to run away and leave them to die. My sister was screaming all the way and I had to drag her like she was four again.
She wouldn’t speak to me for a few days after that. I didn’t blame her, I hated myself too. But I would have hated myself even more if I hadn’t done what I did next. On my own, I snuck back into our house with the crowbar I found here. Then I dispatched my parents. I can’t bring myself to type it any other way. It wasn’t like in the movies, I didn’t pound their skulls into mush whilst sobbing, ‘Why?’ over and over again. I just found them, or what was left of them, forced the crowbar through each of their eye sockets, and came straight back here.
Then came the crying.
*
I haven’t told you about the heavy-duty gloves yet, have I?
After I got back from our old house, my sister started speaking to me again. A shared, day-long cry will do that for sisters. Once we felt up to it, we decided to explore the parts of the farmhouse we hadn’t searched yet. All the bedrooms were empty, only a few belongings flung about the place (I suspect the previous tenants left in a hurry). The problem came when we investigated the attic. Once we’d opened the ceiling panel in the upstairs hallway, once we’d pulled the compact staircase down, I went up. My sister stood at the top of the hatchway shining the torch beam over my shoulder. And that’s when it touched me. Terrified, I fell to my left, screaming as the thing came crashing down on top of me. I was yelling things like, ‘Shoot it!’ and, ‘Run!’ but my sister was just laughing her head off. I soon realised that my attacker was in fact a shop-window mannequin.
I think the people who previously lived here must have been arty (or into some seriously freaky stuff) because the mannequin was dressed in scarves, bandannas, ties, watches – loads of things. The rest of the attic was pretty empty but at least we got the mannequin’s gloves.
*
I’m not feeling good at the moment. I’ve got a sore throat and I’ve coughed up blood a couple of times. My leg pain is getting worse too.
I don’t think I’ll go out tonight. I have enough tins left and one of them is a Full English In A Can. Sounds pretty disgusting, but intriguing at the same time. I’ve been saving it for near the end. A sort of consolation prize.
*
There are two mattresses down here. Obviously one is mine, and the other one was my sister’s. After she died, I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it. I don’t have a photo of her, only Guitar Girl’s. Her bed is the only thing of hers I have left. And she didn’t even sleep in it that many times.
*
The tinned Full English was vile! You’ve got to laugh though, what else can you do?
*
I’m crying as I write this. Tears of sorrow, shame and regret.
It happened as we were searching a cottage just off of the main road. We’d used Old Trusty to get inside, and I’d rushed straight into the kitchen to find the food. We’d run out more than a day before and I was famished. My sister followed me into the kitchen, a wide grin on her pretty little face because I was sitting there with an open can of beans. Then one of them came at her from behind. I must have walked right past it on my stupid way to the cupboards. It bit into her neck and blood gushed over the tiles in a torrent. As she yelled out in agony, I leapt up and implanted the crowbar right into the thing’s skull. It crumpled to the floor, but the damage was done.
‘Don’t let me lose myself.’ That was the last thing my sister whispered to me before she passed out. Her wound was much more severe than mine is, and much closer to the brain. That seems to make it quicker. I took grandpa’s revolver from behind my back and blew her brains out.
I buried her in the back garden.
*
After my sister died I went kind of crazy. I took Old Trusty out across the fields and pulverised every ugly I could find. I don’t even remember it that well, it was just, find, kill, find, kill…
We’d only been going out in daylight before then but, in my anger, I carried on through the nights. That’s how I learned about their inability to evade in darkness. Eventually, though, one got me. I found three munching on a dead cow and ran straight at them. Took out the first two easily enough, but the third managed to scratch my leg with a bloody fingernail just before I clobbered it into oblivion. Once I realised its nail had broken the skin, it was like a switch had been flicked inside me. That’s it, I’m dead too. I lost my bloodlust and came back here.
*
If none of this had happened, I think my sister would have eventually gone into medicine. I was doing okay at College but she was top of her class at school. And she had a really kind nature too. She’d never squish any bugs that got trapped in our house; she’d get a glass, scoop the little critter up and seal it inside with a book. Then she’d take it outside and release it, even if it was a wasp.
*
I’ve decided that here’s not the place. I'll hit Submit and then I’m going to do it in those woods I wrote about; consider this diary as my Note. I’ll be able to find a nice spot to sit and look at the trees, some place that's calm and peaceful. I’m going to leave the picture of Guitar Girl in this cellar, she belongs in this house. The tree leaves will remind me of my sister more than any photo ever could anyway.
I guess all that’s left to say is thank you for listening.
I know it’s possible that no one will ever read this, but that’s not really the point is it?
Love,
X
*
Thanks for reading! If you want more from this universe check out The X and Wye Anthology Series
-- Jack
*

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• Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
• Mad Max
• Marooners
• Memoria
• METAL GEAR SOLID V: Ground Zeroes
• METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES
• Metal Slug 3
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
• Minecraft: Story Mode - A TellTale Games Series
• Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine
• MotoGP 15
• Mr.President!
• MXGP
• My Memory of Us
• NBA 2K17 (EU)
• NEOVERSE
• NeuroVoider
• Nongunz
• Nuclear Throne
• Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
• Of Orcs and Men
• Oh...Sir! The Insult Simulator
• OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood
• One Piece Burning Blood
• Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
• Out There: Ω Edition
• Outcast - Second Contact
• Outland – Special Edition
• Outlast
• Overcooked
• Overlord II
• Overture
• Owlboy
• Oxenfree
• Pandemic: The Board Game
• Pandemic: Virulent Strain
• Patchwork
• PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate + Shooter Bundle
• Potion Explosion
• Prison Architect
• Punch Club
• Punch Club Deluxe
• Regular Human Basketball
• Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster
• Resident Evil Revelations
• Retro Game Crunch
• Rise & Shine
• Road to Ballhalla
• Rusty Lake: Roots
• Saints Row: IV Game of the Century
• Saints Row: The Third
• Satellite Reign
• Screencheat
• Scribblenauts Unlimited
• Seasons After Fall
• Shadowrun Returns
• Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter
• Shiftlings
• Shock Troopers
• Shock Troopers 2nd Squad
• Slipstream
• Small Radios Big Televisions
• Small World
• Small World 2
• Sonic Adventure 2
• SONIC ADVENTURE 2: BATTLE
• Sonic Adventure DX
• Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing
• Sonic CD
• Sonic Generations Collection
• Sonic Mania
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode I
• Space Pilgrim Episode 2: Epsilon Indi
• Space Pilgrim Episode 3: Delta Pavonis
• Space Pilgrim Episode 4: Sol
• Space Pilgrim Episode I: Alpha Centauri
• SpeedRunners
• Stellaris
• STRIDER
• Stronghold Crusader 2
• Styx: Master of Shadows
• Supraball
• Supraland
• SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising
• Tangledeep
• The Adventure Pals
• The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters
• The Final Station
• The First Tree
• The Jackbox Party Pack 2
• The Journey Down 1 + 2 Bundle
• The LEGO Movie - Videogame
• The Red Solstice
• The Walking Dead: 400 Days
• The Walking Dead: Michonne
• The Walking Dead: Season One
• The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
• They Bleed Pixels
• Through The Darkest of Times
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
• Toybox Turbos
• Trailmakers
• Tricky Towers
• Unrailed!
• Vampyr
• Verdun
• VRally 4
• Wargroove
• Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
• We Were Here Together
• Where is my Heart?
• Whispering Willows
• WRC 7 FIA World Rally Championship
• Yooka-Laylee

​
UPLAY

• Assassin's Creed
• Rayman Origins
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

​
SWITCH

• NBA 2K19

When I first laid eyes (and ears) on one of Sons of the Forest’s radios, I had no idea that, a few hours later, I’d be booting them around the forest. And I certainly didn’t anticipate the weird gravity and physics-defying road these devices would lead me down. I was determined to bring its tunes to my base – after all, crafting is so much when it’s got its own soundtrack Link to article

I got laid off from an IT job during the Pandemic in MA. After some deep thoughts, I sold my house and moved to the corner of FL. I used the money I from my old house and picked up two 1br. duplexes and a single house on the two adjoining lots in the Ghetto. The city is being gentrify. I'm just a victim of a good deal and don't have much money, so I gamble with what I have . The buildings were complete junk, and need total renovation. I gutted and renovated the 2br. house and live there as my main residence. Then, I start to tear it up and rebuild one after another. I have to pause here and there when money running low. I cashed out my 401K and sold my beloved classic car to fund the construction projects. It was a rough road with sore hands and tired feet. I just finished my 3rd rental unit and just rented out. One more unit left to go, but no money left, so I'm looking to go back to work and raise some capital. My buildings worth 4x what I paid for a little more than two years ago, so my gamble wasn't too bad. I'm new and just found out about this forum. This forum give me some much helpful insights that I never knew. I'm tiring of doing things the hard way, and there must be better ways. I'm all ears.
Thank you for the tips in advance.

The news was out, and everyone gathered their forces to ask why, when, and who did it. Terror struck five Jewish teens on a night of vacant freedom. It was a force that everyone expected, a source that still came suddenly though. However, when articles and headlines showed up on many people's pages, it was clear then. Everyone suspected some form of sudden violence to occur on Saturday night, but as news passed on, the sheer horror was slowly coming within one of the students at the university, and no one knew who. All they knew is that many of them didn’t have anything important to say about it when many people posted about it on their accounts; not to make people aware of the matter but instead to be relieved that they were not violent as people who cause harm. Thus, as Nick made his way back to his dorm, holding his new parking permit in a yellow envelope, he remembered his friend Josh was back at this time. He took time to finish his homework at the library and when he was done thinking about it he was well pleased to enter his dorm room.
I opened the yellow envelope on my desk. My friend, Josh, was sitting on his bed reading off the messages that he’s been getting since this morning; his new friends have made him comfortable to stay in the dorm for today since they were speaking about the gathering last night. Of course, I was curious to see what they were planning since Josh and his friends don’t feel like going.
“What time do you plan to go to the gathering?”, Josh asks. His white skin, and blonde hair, match the glowing tangerine of this rising evening. And around 8, I plan to be at a little party happening down in the thick suburbs.
“I'm not sure”, I say, but cautiously ask, “Why? Do you need to be somewhere?”. Before Josh can answer I quickly say, “Because I could walk, it's no problem”. Josh then says strictly, “No way, I'm just making sure you get there in time”.
I glance at Josh and chuckle, “To be frank, I'm a little nervous to meet these guys”, I say.
“The guys will like you once you meet them, I promise”, Josh says.
I glanced around for a pen to mark my new parking permit that was in the envelope for this semester. “alright then”, I say and add, “You don’t think they’ll notice my nervousness?”.
“I'm sure they will like you. Trust me, I was feeling hesitant when I first joined but I got along before I knew them”.
I look back at my desk and start checking off the boxes on my permit. Feeling the thin sharpness of the paper grace against my fingertip, seeing it under my lamp.
“You just seem worried”, I say gently.
Josh looks at his phone when another message comes in. He reads it fast before saying, “It’s what happened to those boys that worries me”.
“The Jews?”, I say hesitantly.
“Yeah, It's just a bit unnerving right now. Like this is something I'm supposed to be feeling”, Josh says quietly, then adds, “I'm just worried we might end up exactly like them”.
“We're not Jews though”, I say.
“I know, but do you think they care?”, Josh says deeply.
“Sometimes”, he begins, “I get dreams where I'm them after hearing about it on my phone. And I can feel the bullet, or knife go in me, and I wake up sweating”.
Josh sits up a bit, reaching for his charger, and continues, “I get the feeling that one day we’ll be like them. In the nightmare, I was them: the same body, same teeth, same hair, and same fear of sensing danger breathing nearby in some dark street. All the students didn’t look when the darkness around me struck like a knife. Like a bullet breaking through my skull.
Dead, alone, and slowly dying in the dark streets without having no one take a peek at how much pain I was in. And I do wonder when that will be, if not now”.
I look out the window, seeing the sun go down over the horizon, and say without looking at Josh, “Sometimes that’s what dreams do. You probably have been reading too many articles about it”.
Josh then stands over his bed now and grabs his keys when he checks the time on his phone. As I add, “Have you?”.
Josh ignores my question and starts putting on his shoes.
“It's close to eight. We should get over before the police block up the roads in that area”.
“Sure thing”, I say, then check off my parking permit and leave it in my drawer until I return. Thus, I grab my sweatshirt, turn off the lights, and make sure to double-lock the dorm.
We walked out into the hall and I wondered if I should make anything on the stove since I haven’t used it when I moved in, and I highly doubt Josh knows how to cook.
By the time we made it to our truck, hesitantly glazing around the dark bounds of the light posts, surrounded by houses, and parks, we got in hearing the relief in our voices. He starts the truck and softly makes our way out of the dense parking lot towards the main street, seeing students walking back to their dorms as well. Some smiling, and some expressing no expression at all.
“Should we take a different path?”, he asks.
I look down the street and say softly, “If you want to”.
Josh looks at his watch. “Let's go right, I don’t feel comfortable going down that path where those boys were murdered”.
“Why not”, I ask.
Josh leans over to turn on the radio, but sums the volume to five, and says, “Sometimes it gives me the willies. But tonight is the only night, at least”.
While driving mid-way downtown, I get an odd thought and ask Josh, “Do you think they’re good people?”.
“Why do you say that?”, Josh asks.
I glance at a few other boys laughing on the sidewalk and see a baby boy being carried by their father in the corner of a store.
“I don’t know. Do you think evil will be gone one day? Like murdering someone will be a helpful thing rather than a deceiving one”, I say.
Josh takes a left turn and slows down to another stop light. “I don’t know. Maybe one day there will be peace. Maybe one day, we will all live good lives without evils coming in to hurt us”. Josh then pulls up to the house I'm going into. Seeing all kinds of boys and girls going in and out. Josh then says before I get out, “That's why we need more people like you. People who know the true enemy and not fantasy worlds like those other students”.
I giggle and hop out, and before I can even step on the porch, Josh says goodnight and leaves down the road. I march up to the front door, nodding my head to people walking out, and knock stubbornly on the door.
I enter the living room, everyone says good evening in their black bulletproof vests. “Hello, good evening”, I say.
I smile and feel the house fill with excitement, and in the first few minutes, I text Josh 'I'm safe, you have nothing to worry about’.
Josh then texts back saying, ‘I told you these guys are great. You're finally with your people.
By then, a man on the stairs raises a neo-nazi flag and we all gleefully cheer for his prideless, as the night then continues. I then put on my cap with my red symbol on top, and quickly say, “Good job, it's a good thing we got those boys. Soon we will have peace”, and the men cheer with their cups.
And before the clock strikes nine, I say in my head, over and over, ‘Peace’.
Then think, ‘Soon we’ll have peace’.
Smiling and giggling, I say again, ‘peace’. Then think, ‘Soon we’ll have peace and safety’. I raised my right hand, and when I felt everyone's pride, I was well pleased.

Does flowery delivery anywhere in FL? I’ve heard from other ppl they do but I’m all the way in naples. Would they deliver if i’m that far?

CAREER EMPLOYEES! Tired of seeing all these jobs go to the street? Your chance to join the gravy train ranks is here! Apply yourself, you can do it! MSS Coordinator varies by District. Find an APWU steward and ask for more information if the Exam Open Season blurb is not posted at your facility.
​
Good afternoon. Brief listing of CAREER JOBS pulled from usps.com/careers/ for your convenience.
Some jobs may be part-time regular however all listed jobs should qualify for federal benefits from day one. To save text I have only listed the location and date of posting for each. Use the posting number for your search term. LC and MM are entry-level Maintenance. Here is a testimonial from a recent convert, prima1981.
NOTE: USPS NEVER charges a fee for entrance exams. If payment is requested during the application process, walk the fuck away, go to usps.com/careers/ and APPLY THERE. We even has a video walkthrough prepared.
​
Laborer Custodial:
MELVILLE NY NC11291730 03/20/2023
CLAREMORE OK NC11291776 03/17/2023
SAN FRANCISCO CA NC11272282 03/16/2023
REDMOND WA NC11290022 03/15/2023
SAN JOSE CA NC11277594 03/13/2023
SAN RAFAEL CA NC11285765 03/13/2023
FAIRFIELD IA NC11296093 03/20/2023
SAN FRANCISCO CA NC11285816 03/20/2023
BROOKLYN NY NC11292944 03/20/2023
LEESBURG VA NC11294817 03/19/2023
TRAVERSE CITY MI NC11293101 03/18/2023
MAMMOTH LAKES CA NC11290446 03/18/2023
MONROE TOWNSHIP NJ NC11293078 03/17/2023
MUSCATINE IA NC11292212 03/17/2023
MOUNT VERNON NY NC11291637 03/17/2023
NEWTON CENTER MA NC11291721 03/17/2023
SANDSTON VA NC11291556 03/16/2023
ROANOKE VA NC11290490 03/16/2023
ARLINGTON VA NC11290479 03/16/2023
MC LEAN VA NC11290442 03/16/2023
HARRISBURG NC NC11290191 03/16/2023
MENLO PARK CA NC11271997 03/13/2023
PETALUMA CA NC11271924 03/11/2023
PALATINE IL NC11280862 03/08/2023
​
Maintenance Mechanic:
SEATTLE WA NC11286273 03/11/2023
SAN JOSE CA NC11289187 03/21/2023
RALEIGH NC NC11293249 03/18/2023
PHOENIX AZ NC11294808 03/20/2023
MERRIFIELD VA NC11294815 03/19/2023
LOUISVILLE KY NC11288732 03/20/2023
GREENSBORO NC NC11293304 03/18/2023
GARDEN CITY NY NC11293312 03/18/2023
CAPITOL HEIGHTS MD NC11284476 03/11/2023
BROCKTON MA NC11288736 03/15/2023
BOSTON MA NC11291646 03/17/2023
ALBUQUERQUE NM NC11291724 03/17/2023
MILAN IL NC11282668 03/09/2023
MEMPHIS TN NC11293083 03/18/2023
LOUISVILLE KY NC11288711 03/20/2023
CHICAGO IL NC11292143 03/17/2023
AUGUSTA GA NC11292936 03/17/2023
ATLANTA GA NC11281021 03/08/2023
ATLANTA GA NC11281019 03/08/2023
PETALUMA CA NC11289177 03/21/2023
LOUISVILLE KY NC11288728 03/20/2023
GREENSBORO NC NC11294638 03/19/2023
GREEN BAY WI NC11293192 03/18/2023
DULUTH GA NC11281020 03/08/2023
CAROL STREAM IL NC11292109 03/17/2023
CAPITOL HEIGHTS MD NC11287388 03/12/2023
SANDSTON VA NC11290579 03/16/2023
PETALUMA CA NC11271987 03/11/2023
OMAHA NE NC11293020 03/18/2023
MELVILLE NY NC11288811 03/20/2023
MACON GA NC11292871 03/17/2023
KEARNY NJ NC11288707 03/17/2023
JERSEY CITY NJ NC11288716 03/18/2023
JAMAICA NY NC11288928 03/20/2023
GREENSBORO NC NC11289212 03/15/2023
BELL GARDENS CA NC11287325 03/21/2023
FARMINGTON NM NC11294794 03/20/2023
​
Special! Interesting Maintenance Jobs: (may be skills required)
​
Maintenance Mechanic MPE:
MELVILLE NY NC11288836 03/20/2023
DULLES VA NC11294816 03/19/2023
REDMOND WA NC11288605 03/12/2023
PETALUMA CA NC11288705 03/13/2023
INDIANAPOLIS IN NC11284259 03/09/2023
INDIANAPOLIS IN NC11284258 03/09/2023
GRAND RAPIDS MI NC11290165 03/16/2023
PETALUMA CA NC11289175 03/21/2023
WASHINGTON DC NC11285943 03/11/2023
MEMPHIS TN NC11293003 03/18/2023
LOUISVILLE KY NC11288712 03/20/2023
INDIANAPOLIS IN NC11284231 03/09/2023
INDIANAPOLIS IN NC11284228 03/09/2023
HARRISBURG PA NC11288609 03/13/2023
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION VT NC11291734 03/17/2023
​
Building Equipment Mechanic:
HEIGHTS MD NC11290064 03/16/2023
PROVIDENCE RI NC11285939 03/11/2023
SPRINGFIELD MA NC11287631 03/12/2023
SEATTLE WA NC11294603 03/18/2023
​
Garage Assistant:
MCALLEN TX NC11291630 03/16/2023
​
Electronic Technician:
CHICAGO IL NC11292188 03/17/2023
MEMPHIS TN NC11293110 03/18/2023
MILAN IL NC11282633 03/09/2023
CAPITOL HEIGHTS MD NC11294867 03/19/2023
MANKATO MN NC11288581 03/13/2023
MANKATO MN NC11288608 03/13/2023
RALEIGH NC NC11293202 03/18/2023
RAPID CITY SD NC11293181 03/18/2023
ROCKY MOUNT NC NC11294669 03/19/2023
BROCKTON MA NC11288735 03/15/2023
LUBBOCK TX NC11294802 03/19/2023
​
NON-Maintenance jerbs:
​
SALES,SVCS/DISTRIBUTION ASSOC:
IDAHO SPRINGS CO NC11290443 03/16/2023
MOSS LANDING CA NC11289973 03/15/2023
GLASGOW MT NC11296091 03/21/2023
MACCLENNY FL NC11293116 03/18/2023
TIMBER LAKE SD NC11292942 03/17/2023
MOSS BEACH CA NC11295113 03/19/2023
MAPLE FALLS WA NC11296082 03/19/2023
LAKE CITY CO NC11290061 03/15/2023
EASTSOUND WA NC11295971 03/20/2023
CULLEOKA TN NC11294523 03/18/2023
WORDEN IL NC11292989 03/17/2023
PIEDMONT SD NC11287291 03/11/2023
GYPSUM CO NC11290318 03/16/2023
BASSETT NE NC11294668 03/18/2023
SPRINGDALE WA NC11296087 03/20/2023
SURING WI NC11280556 03/06/2023
CEDAR MI NC11284195 03/09/2023
BIG SUR CA NC11296150 03/21/2023
ASPEN CO NC11290054 03/15/2023
ANZA CA NC11291564 03/16/2023
VAN HORN TX NC11284178 03/09/2023
OAK GROVE MO NC11292947 03/17/2023
SLOUGHHOUSE CA NC11296098 03/20/2023
KINGS BEACH CA NC11296096 03/20/2023
EL GRANADA CA NC11295117 03/19/2023
SEAFORD VA NC11288801 03/15/2023
ROY WA NC11296081 03/20/2023
QUILCENE WA NC11296078 03/20/2023
OLIVET MI NC11291746 03/17/2023
DEXTER OR NC11296094 03/21/2023
CLARKSTON WA NC11295974 03/20/2023
CLANTON AL NC11294399 03/18/2023
BREMEN OH NC11293002 03/18/2023
BETHPAGE TN NC11294606 03/18/2023
CRESTED BUTTE CO NC11288703 03/13/2023
CAVE JUNCTION OR NC11296085 03/21/2023
JACKSON WY NC11285851 03/17/2023
BELTON SC NC11291709 03/17/2023
HICO TX NC11293402 03/18/2023
WAIMANALO HI NC11294630 03/18/2023
STURTEVANT WI NC11291641 03/17/2023
SOMERVILLE AL NC11294490 03/18/2023
ROSS CA NC11295061 03/19/2023
NORTH LIBERTY IN NC11294813 03/19/2023
MONTROSE CA NC11294635 03/18/2023
FELTON CA NC11289302 03/15/2023
CENTURY FL NC11294548 03/21/2023
GORDON NE NC11294636 03/18/2023
MAMMOTH LAKES CA NC11294924 03/21/2023
BIG BEAR CITY CA NC11291563 03/16/2023
BLOOMING PRAIRIE MN NC11296095 03/20/2023
​
City Carrier:
SAN MATEO CA NC11290796 03/16/2023
MOUNTAIN VIEW CA NC11291999 03/17/2023
MOORHEAD MN NC11292895 03/17/2023
BUFFALO GROVE IL NC11294447 03/20/2023
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND WA NC11290758 03/19/2023
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS IL NC11294487 03/18/2023
NORTH SHORE - BOSTON MA NC11290276 03/19/2023
VILLA PARK IL NC11291816 03/20/2023
SANTA CLARA CA NC11290773 03/17/2023
SAN MATEO CA NC11290763 03/16/2023
NORTHBROOK IL NC11293598 03/19/2023
MOUNT PROSPECT IL NC11293606 03/19/2023
MICHIGAN CITY IN NC11282385 03/11/2023
MANCHESTER NH NC11294861 03/19/2023
LOS ALTOS CA NC11291568 03/17/2023
LEWISTON ME NC11294546 03/18/2023
KANSAS CITY MO NC11290351 03/19/2023
HANOVER PARK IL NC11291648 03/20/2023
GRAND FORKS ND NC11292104 03/17/2023
FRANKLIN PARK IL NC11291801 03/20/2023
EAST PALO ALTO CA NC11291995 03/17/2023
DES MOINES WA NC11290715 03/19/2023
CORALVILLE IA NC11291547 03/18/2023
CONCORD MA NC11295012 03/20/2023
CAPITOLA CA NC11291518 03/17/2023
BARRINGTON IL NC11294394 03/18/2023
WHEELING IL NC11293699 03/20/2023
WAYNESBORO VA NC11291790 03/17/2023
WATSONVILLE CA NC11291560 03/17/2023
SANTA CRUZ CA NC11291516 03/17/2023
SANTA BARBARA CA NC11291570 03/18/2023
OAK PARK IL NC11291778 03/20/2023
NASHUA NH NC11294872 03/19/2023
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE WA NC11290708 03/19/2023
MORGAN HILL CA NC11292039 03/17/2023
MINOT ND NC11292939 03/17/2023
MILPITAS CA NC11291559 03/16/2023
MENLO PARK CA NC11290721 03/16/2023
MADAWASKA ME NC11294513 03/18/2023
GRAND ISLAND NE NC11294510 03/20/2023
ENGLEWOOD CO NC11292941 03/17/2023
DES PLAINES IL NC11294525 03/18/2023
CAMPBELL CA NC11290779 03/17/2023
BURLINGTON VT NC11294626 03/18/2023
BOZEMAN MT NC11291789 03/17/2023
GREATER BOSTON - BOSTON MA NC11290459 03/19/2023
SOUTH SAINT PAUL MN NC11292899 03/17/2023
GLENVIEW IL NC11294530 03/19/2023
WILMETTE IL NC11294374 03/19/2023
WAUKEGAN IL NC11293516 03/20/2023
SUNNYVALE CA NC11291849 03/17/2023
SEATTLE WA NC11290724 03/19/2023
SAN CARLOS CA NC11290716 03/16/2023
SACO ME NC11294503 03/18/2023
REDWOOD CITY CA NC11290799 03/16/2023
NORTHGLENN CO NC11290711 03/19/2023
NORTHBOROUGH MA NC11294971 03/20/2023
MUNDELEIN IL NC11293524 03/20/2023
MENLO PARK CA NC11290788 03/16/2023
MEDINA OH NC11291825 03/17/2023
LOS GATOS CA NC11290806 03/17/2023
LAKE FOREST IL NC11294393 03/18/2023
IOWA CITY IA NC11291510 03/18/2023
HOPKINS MN NC11292070 03/17/2023
GREAT FALLS MT NC11291827 03/17/2023
GRAFTON ND NC11292874 03/17/2023
FARGO ND NC11292873 03/17/2023
ELGIN IL NC11291739 03/20/2023
DULUTH MN NC11292872 03/17/2023
CUPERTINO CA NC11291517 03/17/2023
APTOS CA NC11291604 03/17/2023
​
Rural Carrier:
PARK RIVER ND NC11290591 03/16/2023
MIDDLETON WI NC11294805 03/19/2023
MENOMONIE WI NC11294698 03/19/2023
MANITOWOC WI NC11294770 03/19/2023
MADISON WI NC11294682 03/19/2023
MADISON WI NC11294641 03/19/2023
FORKS WA NC11284401 03/15/2023
EAU CLAIRE WI NC11294679 03/19/2023
EAU CLAIRE WI NC11294677 03/19/2023
AMERY WI NC11294788 03/19/2023
MENOMONIE WI NC11294782 03/19/2023
MADISON WI NC11294795 03/19/2023
MADISON WI NC11294647 03/19/2023
LEBANON NH NC11290073 03/16/2023
EAST DUBUQUE IL NC11294850 03/19/2023
CLINTONVILLE WI NC11294692 03/19/2023
BASALT CO NC11288701 03/13/2023
SALIDA CO NC11296151 03/20/2023
GLENWOOD SPRINGS CO NC11289738 03/15/2023
ENFIELD NH NC11289739 03/16/2023
CARBONDALE CO NC11289737 03/15/2023
MADISON WI NC11294777 03/19/2023
​
Motor Vehicle Operator:
PORTLAND OR NC11294928 03/18/2023
KCMO MO P&DC NC11294600 03/18/2023
MIAMI FL P&DC NC11294605 03/18/2023
NASHVILLE TN P&DC NC11296342 03/20/2023
BOSTON MA P&DC NC11294706 03/18/2023
MORGAN NY P&DC NC11294711 03/18/2023
ROCHESTER NY P&DC NC11294707 03/18/2023
SAN JOSE CA P&DC NC11294941 03/18/2023
SEATTLE WA P&DC NC11294945 03/18/2023
SOUTHERN ME P&DC NC11294709 03/18/2023
SAN FRANCISCO CA P&DC NC11294933 03/18/2023
​
Tractor Trailer Operator:
ALBANY NY P&DC NC11294618 03/18/2023
DULLES VA P&DC NC11296403 03/20/2023
MILWAUKEE WI P&DC NC11296348 03/20/2023
MIDDLESEX-ESSEX MA P&DC NC11294700 03/18/2023
SAN FRANCISCO CA P&DC NC11294723 03/18/2023
BALTIMORE MD P&DC NC11294712 03/18/2023
DVD BLDG NJ P&DC NC11294703 03/18/2023
NEW JERSEY NDC NC11294704 03/18/2023
OAKLAND CA P&DC NC11294713 03/18/2023
PORTLAND OR P&DC NC11294716 03/18/2023
ROCHESTER NY P&DC NC11294702 03/18/2023
SEATTLE NDC NC11294876 03/18/2023
SEATTLE WA P&DC NC11294879 03/18/2023
TACOMA WA NC11294898 03/18/2023
SACRAMENTO CA P&DC NC11294719 03/18/2023
ATLANTA GA P&DC NC11294705 03/18/2023
GRAND RAPIDS P&DF NC11294708 03/18/2023
MIAMI FL P&DC NC11294619 03/18/2023
ROYAL PALM FL P&DC NC11294623 03/18/2023
ST LOUIS MO P&DC NC11294710 03/18/2023
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No experience necessary for the laborer custodial or maintenance mechanic positions. It helps on the interview but you can surely think of maintenance related experience to relay for an interview. Based on fixing things around your house, the car etc. Always mention working safely.
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Pro tip: You can apply for any job that has an exam opening and the test is administered local to yourself. Make sure you're serious and score decently; you can turn down the job offer. Keep a physical copy of your exam score, I believe they are good for two years.
The reason is: These job postings can be posted externally at capacity for testing, meaning they will not allow you to take the exam if they have enough qualified applicants. However, if you have a test score on the books, you are a qualified applicant.
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Explanation of MVO/TTO to save time:
MVO= CDL B Can only drive box trucks on public roads, can drive anything for moves on postal property.
TTO= CDL A Can drive anything.
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USPS provides the training. (Maintenance jobs at least. TTO and management...GOOD LUCK)
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You don't have to be crazy to work here. We'll train you. Everything but proper email usage.

It’s 2 AM and I’m taking the Sangaree bypass between highway 17 and 78. There's shit playing on the radio and the air spouting through my window is damp and moist. It’s the first time I have come through this area sober this late at night. I don't do a lot of sober driving these days. I don't have many places to drive. Just after the Baptist school, I see the blue lights of patrol cars. I need to make a left but I’m denied by tiny wooden blockades. Instead, I pull over and engage my hazard lights. Amongst the early dew and fog, I'm come upon a young officer laying on the ground. I think that he is dead but then I hear him laughing so I step over him and look. There's a woman to my left jumping in place and a man in yellow jacket nodding at her as he snuffs out a cigarette on the pavement.
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There are 5 patrol cars blocking the road and I look back towards my car. I see two officers ahead of me and they look like they’re laughing so I approach them. What I thought was laughter was sobbing, what I thought to be sobs were screams. Their faces quickly folded, shoulders slumped over as they retreat.
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Once, when I was much younger, I shot a deer with a gun that my mother’s husband gave me. The deer had wailed and bayed until I was able to approach it. It wasn’t supposed to be that complicated. I was supposed to shoot the deer and it was supposed to die. Yet, it laid and it bleated.
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Bleating.
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She sat in the yard across from the barricade in a night gown. She bleated and bayed and in her hand was the small and severed arm of a child.
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Now, vomiting before me, were two officers. A third sat ahead of a squad car, chortling into a blacked out mobile. I thought to speak to him until I saw the long-drawn lines of blood streaking from his eyes.
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Still though there was a skirmish between three officers and a feral man of considerable size. I aimed to help the officers, not knowing what else I could provide. But, as I approached, the feral man dispatched the officers quite easily and turned his gaze upon me.
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Here though, I thought I might attempt something magical or otherwise heroic and so save myself a violent end. Instead the feral closed in on me and held my arms ajar. And, as I felt my urine soaking into the cleft of my ass, this beast leaned over me and plugged a finger into his fowl jaw. With his other hand he made to grab his eye and there before me he split his skull apart.
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By this time I was sobbing as his head fell in two. A large blackness evacuated the place laid between his shoulders. The two laughing cops stopped laughing, drew weapons and fired at each other.
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And I was left panting and puking among the dead.

Hi all
I have a project in my head that started out as a way to teach myself a programming language(python) and up front this turned into a land vehicle project rather than a plane/drone project because I do not wish to break any FAA regs or hurt anyone.
My goal is a RC truck connected to cell phone networks that I have a video feed to my control computer and I can drive it via xbox controller or even a traditional pistol grip radio. I am making headway on the software and control aspect of it all and have a lot of that equipment and some initial set ups ready to lightly test.
I need a chassis to start with -- one that is mildly offroad capable with plenty of desk space to work with so to say. I need a wide open chassis to work with. I don't need 4wd. Think grass, dirt, rocks, road trash, it will need to handle. I am thinking a 1/8 buggy or truggy but the ones I've checked out in stock form have limited room left to work with in the chassis. What are the models out there nowadays that I can get a aftermarket chassis and bolt the rest on? I was into RC years ago so I know my way around them but I am not up to date on anything regarding trucks or ground vehicles.
Also, if any one has thoughts on motor I am listening. Since I am going for distance I think I need a larger sized motor running at like a guess...75% power for efficiency?
The "riskiest" type trips will be following country roads etc. The only risk I would take is losing my rig in a ditch or such. If anyone else is interested in these things I can make another post with the resources I've found(not hard to find) There are a TON of resources out there and I am going to be adapting guys work from the air world to the ground world. I just don't know if this post will be a bust so not going to spend the time but message or reply and I'll share all I've learned so far
Thanks

Hi all
I have a project in my head that started out as a way to teach myself a programming language(python) and up front this turned into a land vehicle project rather than a plane/drone project because I do not wish to break any FAA regs or hurt anyone.
My goal is a RC truck connected to cell phone networks that I have a video feed to my control computer and I can drive it via xbox controller or even a traditional pistol grip radio. I am making headway on the software and control aspect of it all and have a lot of that equipment and some initial set ups ready to lightly test.
I need a chassis to start with -- one that is mildly offroad capable with plenty of desk space to work with so to say. I need a wide open chassis to work with. I don't need 4wd. Think grass, dirt, rocks, road trash, it will need to handle. I am thinking a 1/8 buggy or truggy but the ones I've checked out in stock form have limited room left to work with in the chassis. What are the models out there nowadays that I can get a aftermarket chassis and bolt the rest on? I was into RC years ago so I know my way around them but I am not up to date on anything regarding trucks or ground vehicles.
Also, if any one has thoughts on motor I am listening. Since I am going for distance I think I need a larger sized motor running at like a guess...75% power for efficiency?
The "riskiest" type trips will be following country roads etc. The only risk I would take is losing my rig in a ditch or such. If anyone else is interested in these things I can make another post with the resources I've found(not hard to find) There are a TON of resources out there and I am going to be adapting guys work from the air world to the ground world. I just don't know if this post will be a bust so not going to spend the time but message or reply and I'll share all I've learned such far
Thanks

Washington Wizards at Orlando Magic

Amway Center- Orlando, FL
ESPN
TV/Radio

Time Clock
Final

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
WAS	25	31	32	24	112
ORL	26	34	27	35	122

Player Stats

Washington Wizards

Player	MINS	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-
C. Kispert	35:30	9	4-9	1-5	0-0	0	4	4	3	0	0	2	4	-12
K. Porzingis	38:15	30	12-22	3-7	3-3	1	5	6	3	1	2	2	3	6
D. Gafford	24:16	12	6-7	0-0	0-0	0	3	3	0	1	2	1	4	-16
B. Beal	31:26	16	4-15	0-4	8-10	2	3	5	7	0	0	2	6	-10
M. Morris	31:32	14	5-10	2-5	2-2	0	2	2	8	0	0	1	0	-4
D. Avdija	33:57	15	5-6	3-4	2-3	0	10	10	3	2	0	4	2	-14
D. Wright	16:28	2	1-3	0-2	0-0	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	1	-6
J. Davis	4:01	2	1-2	0-1	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	-2
J. Goodwin	19:06	7	2-4	0-2	3-5	1	2	3	3	1	0	0	3	2
K. Nunn	4:55	3	1-4	1-2	0-0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	4
A. Gill	:34	2	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2

Orlando Magic

Player	MINS	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-
F. Wagner	39:26	20	7-12	2-3	4-4	0	4	4	6	1	0	3	3	8
P. Banchero	36:45	18	6-9	0-0	6-6	2	7	9	8	1	0	2	2	11
W. Carter Jr.	34:20	14	3-8	2-5	6-6	2	7	9	2	0	1	1	3	4
G. Harris	24:10	22	7-10	6-9	2-2	0	2	2	0	2	2	0	0	11
M. Fultz	31:27	17	8-16	0-3	1-2	0	5	5	5	2	1	4	4	5
K. Harris	15:50	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	1	2	0	0	1	0	2	-6
C. Anthony	30:16	16	7-14	1-4	1-1	1	6	7	5	1	0	4	3	6
C. Houstan	14:06	0	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	3	5
M. Wagner	13:40	15	5-10	1-2	4-4	1	2	3	0	0	0	1	1	6

Team Stats

Team	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	AST	PF	STL	TO	BLK	OREB	DREB	REB
WAS	42-83	10-32	18-23	30	23	7	14	4	4	29	38
ORL	43-80	12-27	24-25	27	21	7	15	5	7	35	46

Note: This data is only as accurate as NBA.com
Please message u/nba_gdt_bot if you have any suggestions or notice any bugs with the bot

Washington Wizards at Orlando Magic

Amway Center- Orlando, FL
ESPN
TV/Radio

Time Clock
Final

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
WAS	25	31	32	24	112
ORL	26	34	27	35	122

Player Stats

Washington Wizards

Player	MINS	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-
C. Kispert	35:30	9	4-9	1-5	0-0	0	4	4	3	0	0	2	4	-12
K. Porzingis	38:15	30	12-22	3-7	3-3	1	5	6	3	1	2	2	3	6
D. Gafford	24:16	12	6-7	0-0	0-0	0	3	3	0	1	2	1	4	-16
B. Beal	31:26	16	4-15	0-4	8-10	2	3	5	7	0	0	2	6	-10
M. Morris	31:32	14	5-10	2-5	2-2	0	2	2	8	0	0	1	0	-4
D. Avdija	33:57	15	5-6	3-4	2-3	0	10	10	3	2	0	4	2	-14
D. Wright	16:28	2	1-3	0-2	0-0	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	1	-6
J. Davis	4:01	2	1-2	0-1	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	-2
J. Goodwin	19:06	7	2-4	0-2	3-5	1	2	3	3	1	0	0	3	2
K. Nunn	4:55	3	1-4	1-2	0-0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	4
A. Gill	:34	2	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2

Orlando Magic

Player	MINS	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-
F. Wagner	39:26	20	7-12	2-3	4-4	0	4	4	6	1	0	3	3	8
P. Banchero	36:45	18	6-9	0-0	6-6	2	7	9	8	1	0	2	2	11
W. Carter Jr.	34:20	14	3-8	2-5	6-6	2	7	9	2	0	1	1	3	4
G. Harris	24:10	22	7-10	6-9	2-2	0	2	2	0	2	2	0	0	11
M. Fultz	31:27	17	8-16	0-3	1-2	0	5	5	5	2	1	4	4	5
K. Harris	15:50	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	1	2	0	0	1	0	2	-6
C. Anthony	30:16	16	7-14	1-4	1-1	1	6	7	5	1	0	4	3	6
C. Houstan	14:06	0	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	3	5
M. Wagner	13:40	15	5-10	1-2	4-4	1	2	3	0	0	0	1	1	6

Team Stats

Team	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	AST	PF	STL	TO	BLK	OREB	DREB	REB
WAS	42-83	10-32	18-23	30	23	7	14	4	4	29	38
ORL	43-80	12-27	24-25	27	21	7	15	5	7	35	46

Note: This data is only as accurate as NBA.com
Please message u/nba_gdt_bot if you have any suggestions or notice any bugs with the bot

A numerical downgrade only. After 1/4 century in the family it's time to retire the 1998 Mazda 626 2.0 automatic to a junkyard somewhere, rust is eating away at the rear frame near the suspension cradle and around the rear driver side door frame and the rear main seal has sprung a leak...not dropping the trans to fix that at 204,000 miles when the trans has been out once before for a reman unit and the seal was replaced then. Labor is free but it's just time to move onto a car from this century.
I'm eyeballing something around a 2016+ 2.0 Sport sedan with the 6spd auto for a daily driver. I just have a couple questions I hope someone here and help me sort out.
Most importantly, how much of a pain/impossible is it to change the radio and/or get clean line out from the stock radio in the 2016 model years? I've found info about the base system in older model years but I'm not sure if it's applicable going forward. My 626 has a small system (JL 300/2 running 2x 4ohm TangBand 6x9 subs free air in the rear deck wired down to a 2ohm mono and some amp running some Kappa 5x7 coax in the front doors around 120ish watt rms) and I'd like to do something similar in the new car since I'll have it for at least another decade I hope and I really do enjoy appreciating my own handiwork.
How are these holding up to rust? I live near Chicago and we salt like we're trying to turn Lake Michigan into the new Great Salt Lake, seeing that I'm looking to keep it for a decade it's pretty important that it handles this well. It's probably going to be staying parked outside, the garage is reserved for her car because I'm kind and for my summer car because it's only a 2 car garage.
How intrusive is the ABS and traction control? Like on a scale of 1 being ABS comes on after a wheel has locked and you can liberally apply brakes or throttle at the limit of grip and 10 being if you even so much as look at the gas or brake pedal when the road is moist the system is already killed throttle and began massaging your foot. My 626 doesn't have either, my 1st car and summer car have ABS that will let you lock a wheel a little before coming in to help.
FW6A-EL are mostly problem free with some rare instances of issues that may or may not have been owner created problems.
Really appreciate some helpful input and hope that it pans out to get another Mazda I can make my own again. Thanks everyone!