Pet groomers near me
Cat Training: Tricks and Treats
2013.01.22 06:44 llieaay Cat Training: Tricks and Treats
Cat behaviour, cat tricks, cat training. Cats!
2023.03.25 02:14 Anonyhrowaway4836 Tonsil stones/pain
Starting about a week ago my throat started to feel sore but only on the right side. I’ve had tonsil stones for a while, but they never really bothered me. Maybe once every week maybe two weeks I’ll give them a push and make sure they’re cleaned out, I was really busy with work and parenting every night I just passed out and I honestly didn’t think much of it because my son was really sick with a cold and thought I might’ve just got what he had
it wasn’t until I had the day off (Tuesday) but I took the time to look at the back of my throat and noticed that my right tonsil was extremely swollen, bright red, and had white on it. As always assumed that it was just the normal tonsil stones but I had just forgot them for a while, so I cleaned out the stones on Tuesday night, used my prescribed mouthwash, and gargled saltwater to help with the inflammation. I’ve been gargling salt water every single day and using my prescribed mouthwash every morning I wake up, my tonsils are full of white again and now on my left side my tonsil is completely white, but has no stone inside it just the outside of the tonsil is white, it’s hard for me to get to a clinic I’ve called six places near me all aren’t taking walk-ins. Usually once I clear out my tonsil stones if there bothering me it takes one clean out and gargling salt water for the day and I’m back to normal but it’s been four days and my tonsils are just getting whiter and whiter especially on the left side, which is weird because that tonsil was totally fine. The swelling has gone down on the right, but it still hurts to swallow only on the right side. Another thing to note was on Monday I participated in oral on my male friends with benefits. So maybe it’s an STI? I don’t think that it’s strep because I’ve had strep before I haven’t lost my voice. I don’t have a cough. It’s just my right side where it hurts to swallow but like I said, swelling has gone down, but my tonsils are still super white, even immediately after I clean them use salt, water, and mouthwash they’re still bright white. I should also add before I am this I do smoke cigarettes, nothing else, about five a day as I’m currently trying to quit. Any advice helps. I’m trying to find a walk in clinic for tomorrow, but this whole thing is really stressing me out. Thank you!
submitted by Anonyhrowaway4836 to AskDocs [link] [comments]
it wasn’t until I had the day off (Tuesday) but I took the time to look at the back of my throat and noticed that my right tonsil was extremely swollen, bright red, and had white on it. As always assumed that it was just the normal tonsil stones but I had just forgot them for a while, so I cleaned out the stones on Tuesday night, used my prescribed mouthwash, and gargled saltwater to help with the inflammation. I’ve been gargling salt water every single day and using my prescribed mouthwash every morning I wake up, my tonsils are full of white again and now on my left side my tonsil is completely white, but has no stone inside it just the outside of the tonsil is white, it’s hard for me to get to a clinic I’ve called six places near me all aren’t taking walk-ins. Usually once I clear out my tonsil stones if there bothering me it takes one clean out and gargling salt water for the day and I’m back to normal but it’s been four days and my tonsils are just getting whiter and whiter especially on the left side, which is weird because that tonsil was totally fine. The swelling has gone down on the right, but it still hurts to swallow only on the right side. Another thing to note was on Monday I participated in oral on my male friends with benefits. So maybe it’s an STI? I don’t think that it’s strep because I’ve had strep before I haven’t lost my voice. I don’t have a cough. It’s just my right side where it hurts to swallow but like I said, swelling has gone down, but my tonsils are still super white, even immediately after I clean them use salt, water, and mouthwash they’re still bright white. I should also add before I am this I do smoke cigarettes, nothing else, about five a day as I’m currently trying to quit. Any advice helps. I’m trying to find a walk in clinic for tomorrow, but this whole thing is really stressing me out. Thank you!
2023.03.25 02:14 sugahbean98 Am I (25f) getting ghosted after 3 months by him (33m) or am I being overly anxious?
We met on an app while I was visiting my hometown at Christmas. I'm in grad school a few hours away, so we initially agreed to meet up for a drink the next time I was in town. We ended up continuing to talk more and more. Around NYE, I had an accident and had surgery. I was in recovery for nearly 2 months (I didn't share any details with him). During that time, we texted often and eventually started talking on the phone. We both told each other we were starting to like each other and were surprised about how well we connected, even though it wasn't in person. We talked about family, past relationships, career, friends, therapy, even plans for marriage/kids (in general, not together). He told me how he has been working in therapy and now feels ready for a longterm relationship.
About a month and a half in, he started taking longer to respond. The longest we went without talking was a few days at first, but became 4-5 days with no reply. He's in finance and works long hours and is in a transition period with work and having a hard time. We'd never met, I believed him when he said he liked me, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. We'd also had a convo about ghosting, to which he told me he never ghosts and always will tell someone straight up he's not interested. He added that he didn't anticipate that happening with us.
After I fully recovered and I could travel, I took a weekend trip home. We met up the first night, and I ended up sleeping over. I've never experienced chemistry like that before - it was sweet and intimate and loving. We also both separately mentioned we had deleted dating apps. I've been back in school now for 2 weeks and we've barely talked. When he does text he's apologetic for taking so long, tells me he's been thinking of me, asks me questions about how I am/how school is, etc.
I can't tell if I'm just being naive. Should I trust his words or is he just slowly ghosting? What should I do? TIA
submitted by sugahbean98 to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
About a month and a half in, he started taking longer to respond. The longest we went without talking was a few days at first, but became 4-5 days with no reply. He's in finance and works long hours and is in a transition period with work and having a hard time. We'd never met, I believed him when he said he liked me, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. We'd also had a convo about ghosting, to which he told me he never ghosts and always will tell someone straight up he's not interested. He added that he didn't anticipate that happening with us.
After I fully recovered and I could travel, I took a weekend trip home. We met up the first night, and I ended up sleeping over. I've never experienced chemistry like that before - it was sweet and intimate and loving. We also both separately mentioned we had deleted dating apps. I've been back in school now for 2 weeks and we've barely talked. When he does text he's apologetic for taking so long, tells me he's been thinking of me, asks me questions about how I am/how school is, etc.
I can't tell if I'm just being naive. Should I trust his words or is he just slowly ghosting? What should I do? TIA
2023.03.25 02:14 visionofcreations How do you respond when administration asks if you're happy after being injured and having no workspace all school year?
I work as a speech-language pathologist in an all special ed district. This is my 3rd school year in my district (2nd year in my current program). I have had a crazier year than most of my coworkers because I have ended up changing caseloads several times this school year, including working with medically fragile students (which I had no prior experience doing, and was a nightmare). I'm currently providing makeup sessions to students for various therapists until a coworker goes on maternity leave. I have no private office except a corner of a classroom office, which is too noisy for me to provide therapy in for unfamiliaunknown students, so it is essentially like a locker where I put more bag, and leave it there until I go home. I end up having to borrow coworkers' offices (which is also tough during IEP meeting season now), or push-in to noisy/unfamiliar classrooms.
Today, I was attempting to provide services in a noisy classroom when a student I was seeing for a makeup session (with no prior rapport) kicked me near my ankle, due to being overstimulated by the noise and chaos, and then had to be escorted out of the classroom. I completed an incident report to cover myself (I have full mobility of my ankle, no swelling, just soreness), and went to see my AP for further discussion. My AP (who is retiring in June anyway) asked if I was "happy" with the program, to which I replied I wasn't very happy with the incident report I needed to file. My principal walked in (I assume she and the AP had scheduled time to speak), but when she saw we were talking, she said she would come back "in a few minutes". "A few minutes" essentially turned into 1 minute later, and my principal abruptly decided she would stay in the room until we finished our conversation, and did not say anything to me.
Space is a challenge in my program and district overall, and we are significantly short staffed, so we have had many staff out/quitting due to injuries throughout this school year. My administration is still changing classes for this current school year, and re-arranged a bunch of classrooms mid-year, so there are many people frustrated, in general. One teacher even said administration "apologized" for accepting a new student into the program last month that clearly isn't placed in the appropriate school setting.
My administration and union are aware of the space challenges I have had throughout this entire school year, but have done nothing to improve the situations. I have worked as an SLP for 5 years now, and understand that working with students with moderate-severe disabilities brings about these challenges, but am frustrated that the lack of space is now leading to increased injury/risk also. My administration is very hands off, and in the year and a half I have worked in this program, I have spoken to my principal maybe 2-3x. I'm up for tenure in a year and a half also, so I feel like I can't complain that much, despite essentially feeling like a nomad at work. I also find it very unusual also that my principal would stay in the room and remain silent, while I spoke with my AP about all of this.
We are 3 months away from the end of the school year, but it seems so far away, and I am so done with this school year.
Anyone else struggling to survive the rest of this school year too, and beyond frustrated with their administration...
submitted by visionofcreations to specialed [link] [comments]
Today, I was attempting to provide services in a noisy classroom when a student I was seeing for a makeup session (with no prior rapport) kicked me near my ankle, due to being overstimulated by the noise and chaos, and then had to be escorted out of the classroom. I completed an incident report to cover myself (I have full mobility of my ankle, no swelling, just soreness), and went to see my AP for further discussion. My AP (who is retiring in June anyway) asked if I was "happy" with the program, to which I replied I wasn't very happy with the incident report I needed to file. My principal walked in (I assume she and the AP had scheduled time to speak), but when she saw we were talking, she said she would come back "in a few minutes". "A few minutes" essentially turned into 1 minute later, and my principal abruptly decided she would stay in the room until we finished our conversation, and did not say anything to me.
Space is a challenge in my program and district overall, and we are significantly short staffed, so we have had many staff out/quitting due to injuries throughout this school year. My administration is still changing classes for this current school year, and re-arranged a bunch of classrooms mid-year, so there are many people frustrated, in general. One teacher even said administration "apologized" for accepting a new student into the program last month that clearly isn't placed in the appropriate school setting.
My administration and union are aware of the space challenges I have had throughout this entire school year, but have done nothing to improve the situations. I have worked as an SLP for 5 years now, and understand that working with students with moderate-severe disabilities brings about these challenges, but am frustrated that the lack of space is now leading to increased injury/risk also. My administration is very hands off, and in the year and a half I have worked in this program, I have spoken to my principal maybe 2-3x. I'm up for tenure in a year and a half also, so I feel like I can't complain that much, despite essentially feeling like a nomad at work. I also find it very unusual also that my principal would stay in the room and remain silent, while I spoke with my AP about all of this.
We are 3 months away from the end of the school year, but it seems so far away, and I am so done with this school year.
Anyone else struggling to survive the rest of this school year too, and beyond frustrated with their administration...
2023.03.25 02:13 visionofcreations How do you respond when administration asks if you're happy after being injured and having no workspace all school year?
I work as a speech-language pathologist in an all special ed district. This is my 3rd school year in my district (2nd year in my current program). I have had a crazier year than most of my coworkers because I have ended up changing caseloads several times this school year, including working with medically fragile students (which I had no prior experience doing, and was a nightmare). I'm currently providing makeup sessions to students for various therapists until a coworker goes on maternity leave. I have no private office except a corner of a classroom office, which is too noisy for me to provide therapy in for unfamiliaunknown students, so it is essentially like a locker where I put more bag, and leave it there until I go home. I end up having to borrow coworkers' offices (which is also tough during IEP meeting season now), or push-in to noisy/unfamiliar classrooms.
Today, I was attempting to provide services in a noisy classroom when a student I was seeing for a makeup session (with no prior rapport) kicked me near my ankle, due to being overstimulated by the noise and chaos, and then had to be escorted out of the classroom. I completed an incident report to cover myself (I have full mobility of my ankle, no swelling, just soreness), and went to see my AP for further discussion. My AP (who is retiring in June anyway) asked if I was "happy" with the program, to which I replied I wasn't very happy with the incident report I needed to file. My principal walked in (I assume she and the AP had scheduled time to speak), but when she saw we were talking, she said she would come back "in a few minutes". "A few minutes" essentially turned into 1 minute later, and my principal abruptly decided she would stay in the room until we finished our conversation, and did not say anything to me.
Space is a challenge in my program and district overall, and we are significantly short staffed, so we have had many staff out/quitting due to injuries throughout this school year. My administration is still changing classes for this current school year, and re-arranged a bunch of classrooms mid-year, so there are many people frustrated, in general. One teacher even said administration "apologized" for accepting a new student into the program last month that clearly isn't placed in the appropriate school setting.
My administration and union are aware of the space challenges I have had throughout this entire school year, but have done nothing to improve the situations. I have worked as an SLP for 5 years now, and understand that working with students with moderate-severe disabilities brings about these challenges, but am frustrated that the lack of space is now leading to increased injury/risk also. My administration is very hands off, and in the year and a half I have worked in this program, I have spoken to my principal maybe 2-3x. I'm up for tenure in a year and a half also, so I feel like I can't complain that much, despite essentially feeling like a nomad at work. I also find it very unusual also that my principal would stay in the room and remain silent, while I spoke with my AP about all of this.
We are 3 months away from the end of the school year, but it seems so far away, and I am so done with this school year.
Anyone else struggling to survive the rest of this school year too, and beyond frustrated with their administration...
submitted by visionofcreations to Teachers [link] [comments]
Today, I was attempting to provide services in a noisy classroom when a student I was seeing for a makeup session (with no prior rapport) kicked me near my ankle, due to being overstimulated by the noise and chaos, and then had to be escorted out of the classroom. I completed an incident report to cover myself (I have full mobility of my ankle, no swelling, just soreness), and went to see my AP for further discussion. My AP (who is retiring in June anyway) asked if I was "happy" with the program, to which I replied I wasn't very happy with the incident report I needed to file. My principal walked in (I assume she and the AP had scheduled time to speak), but when she saw we were talking, she said she would come back "in a few minutes". "A few minutes" essentially turned into 1 minute later, and my principal abruptly decided she would stay in the room until we finished our conversation, and did not say anything to me.
Space is a challenge in my program and district overall, and we are significantly short staffed, so we have had many staff out/quitting due to injuries throughout this school year. My administration is still changing classes for this current school year, and re-arranged a bunch of classrooms mid-year, so there are many people frustrated, in general. One teacher even said administration "apologized" for accepting a new student into the program last month that clearly isn't placed in the appropriate school setting.
My administration and union are aware of the space challenges I have had throughout this entire school year, but have done nothing to improve the situations. I have worked as an SLP for 5 years now, and understand that working with students with moderate-severe disabilities brings about these challenges, but am frustrated that the lack of space is now leading to increased injury/risk also. My administration is very hands off, and in the year and a half I have worked in this program, I have spoken to my principal maybe 2-3x. I'm up for tenure in a year and a half also, so I feel like I can't complain that much, despite essentially feeling like a nomad at work. I also find it very unusual also that my principal would stay in the room and remain silent, while I spoke with my AP about all of this.
We are 3 months away from the end of the school year, but it seems so far away, and I am so done with this school year.
Anyone else struggling to survive the rest of this school year too, and beyond frustrated with their administration...
2023.03.25 02:12 Status-Blueberry3690 Not saying I was in the right either but jc learn how to merge & speed up!!! Tried to pass the idiot when I saw an opening to avoid cutting off traffic. Did a little squeal when I saw the motorcyclist behind me nearly get squished between my car and the red Ford Edge in the lane we merged into.
 | submitted by Status-Blueberry3690 to IdiotsInCars [link] [comments] |
2023.03.25 02:12 StreetMinista Marvel Universe comics that help give an understanding of how humans combated threats from space from a *human* perspective (like Shield or I think SWORD)
I'm making a mod for stellaris, I'm trying to find comics that helps me understand how humans fought (or if they did) had to fight threats that came to invade earth. Did they way until the threats landed on earth? Or did humans (or agencies under shield) have some sort of task force that dealt with those types of things.
I've read comics here and there, but no where near up to date (I don't know who or what SWORD is for instance but I hear thats the series I need to look into)
Are there any instances where humans from earth are fighting in space with fleets? Are there any space battles that are super minor that are mentioned in some marvel comics between said humans? Or is it just humans have satelites in space, and basically just launch rockets to satellites and such.
I'm looking for comics that help me fill in these gaps, would appreciate it if anyone could point me in the right direction ^^.
submitted by StreetMinista to marvelcomics [link] [comments]
I've read comics here and there, but no where near up to date (I don't know who or what SWORD is for instance but I hear thats the series I need to look into)
Are there any instances where humans from earth are fighting in space with fleets? Are there any space battles that are super minor that are mentioned in some marvel comics between said humans? Or is it just humans have satelites in space, and basically just launch rockets to satellites and such.
I'm looking for comics that help me fill in these gaps, would appreciate it if anyone could point me in the right direction ^^.
2023.03.25 02:12 Academic_Wolf_4062 Hoka sizing?
Hello! I am a casual road runner looking to get into trail running and want some help with shoe sizing. I'll probably get Hoka speedrunners since they seem highly recommended and all of the Brooks I ordered didn't fit me quite right. My favorite road shoes are Brooks Ghost 14 in size 6 and I have no idea what to buy for Hokas, can you advise?
Before y'all tell me to go to a store and try some on, I have tiny feet and stores near me currently don't much in stock in my size. Thanks in advance!
submitted by Academic_Wolf_4062 to trailrunning [link] [comments]
Before y'all tell me to go to a store and try some on, I have tiny feet and stores near me currently don't much in stock in my size. Thanks in advance!
2023.03.25 02:12 Psychological_Tree60 My devastating loss
 | I posted here about 5 months ago showing off pictures of my newest family member, Monty. This has been the hardest week I have had to endure in recent memory. submitted by Psychological_Tree60 to TuxedoCats [link] [comments] Sunday night at 9pm, my wife and I are turning off the TV and getting ready for the week to come when the doorbell rings, which is extremely out of the ordinary given the hour, and the fact that we live in a small rural neighborhood in the county on the very back street of the neighborhood, so we get very little traffic. My wife answers the door while I'm turning off lights, she goes outside and comes back inside a minute later. "It's some guy, he just ran over Monty, I think he's dead." Is the next sentence I'm met with. I rush outside and see my boy laying in the street, lifeless and less than a foot from the end of our driveway. The driver is extremely apologetic and obviously shaken up, I am in a state of shock and disbelief as my eyes are stuck on my beloved pet. I thanked him for stopping to let us know what happened and acknowledge that my cat shouldn't have been outside of his yard. He apologizes profusely and gives me his name and address before he gets back in his truck and heads home. I didn't sleep much that night but went into work at 6am, only to leave halfway through my shift because I just couldn't take it, I went home and cried. The rest of the week was not much better, but I pushed myself through each workday, only to come home and break down. Even today, 5 days later, I just can't make sense of this. Like I mentioned, I live on the back street of an out of the way neighborhood out in the county, on a Sunday night I might get one car an hour drive past my house. My neighbor that ran over Monty lives 2 streets over, he took the long way home to drive past my house that night. I have owned many cats in my lifetime, Monty was a very special, uniquely intelligent boy. He loved climbing in my arms for cuddles, he loved to have me carry him around after I got home from work, he loved playing and rough housing with my Boston Terrier, he was by my side every morning when I got up for work and walked me to the door. I miss him terribly 😔 |
2023.03.25 02:11 SmashSix [WTS] Vortex Viper PST Gen II 3-15x44 FFP MRAD
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/0Knvy6V
Lightly used Vortex Viper PST Gen II 3-15x44 FFP MRAD. The only salt is on the battery cover and near the logo as shown in the photos. This has seen no use from me and minimal use from the previous owner. Comes with all original accessories but no defender caps (decided to keep those) - $575
Vortex SV-5 Switchview Throw Lever. Minimal to no salt. - $50
All prices are shipped USPS. Will take PayPal F&F or Venmo only. Hit me up with any questions 🤙
submitted by SmashSix to GunAccessoriesForSale [link] [comments]
Lightly used Vortex Viper PST Gen II 3-15x44 FFP MRAD. The only salt is on the battery cover and near the logo as shown in the photos. This has seen no use from me and minimal use from the previous owner. Comes with all original accessories but no defender caps (decided to keep those) - $575
Vortex SV-5 Switchview Throw Lever. Minimal to no salt. - $50
All prices are shipped USPS. Will take PayPal F&F or Venmo only. Hit me up with any questions 🤙
2023.03.25 02:11 thekipperexpress The definition of fatherless
 | submitted by thekipperexpress to u/thekipperexpress [link] [comments] |
2023.03.25 02:11 nomorelandfills Woofy Wishes (Iran), Happy Tails Pet Resort and Camp (Canada), and Niagra Dog Rescue (also Canada)
 | submitted by nomorelandfills to PetRescueExposed [link] [comments] Tara I came across this indictment of international rescue on Facebook. While I agree with much of what they say below, my enthusiasm is tempered by a) their adhering to the rescue code of omerta wrt naming names (the rescue names can be found in earlier postings) and b) the fact that despite detailing how the dog is simply not a pet, they still throw the adopters under the bus in the comments. And then, delving deeper, it became apparent how familiar they were with the dog's history, and the sheer insanity of expecting anyone to put up with this dog as a pet. https://preview.redd.it/ylar1ql55spa1.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=a0add809e400bdf8d8d481405ae776898f6e556c https://preview.redd.it/cd2q1k595spa1.png?width=607&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d924cac335635cbfd679d2b3edb6859e7c396d6 https://preview.redd.it/irnhti2b5spa1.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=309f58db90251dff17e2b6a77bdb6b8a9276d545 https://preview.redd.it/w7ejvpnc5spa1.png?width=605&format=png&auto=webp&s=36f7fd7407bd92f07dd3d81db8b47f7535b58964 https://preview.redd.it/9yd7c0ve5spa1.png?width=605&format=png&auto=webp&s=a62638f619fa932e161a416f5b00a5c39f47b588 https://preview.redd.it/b4pbtoig5spa1.png?width=601&format=png&auto=webp&s=463a02e8179e6a45ff654cd408ab4cb48615ee73 Adopters meeting bus (initial line is about the steak incident) If it was the right home, you would think they'd have realized that they set that up. Sadly and very unfortunately it was not the right home for dog, no fenced yard as this she needed, did not listen to the advice on proceeding slowly, and the wife and kids were absolutely terrified of her. Also cat-aggressive https://preview.redd.it/a9vr6zxg6spa1.png?width=280&format=png&auto=webp&s=d2dacbf78e1a32fdbf3e780b8983c8af58786d96 and dog-aggressive Some dogs she will accept, but as she aged she likes fewer and fewer dogs. She can be very reactive with them. Let's go back to the beginning, when the bloom was still on the rescue rose. July 2018 - rescue #1 - Woofy Wishes - appears to be a dog rescue group working out of the Middle East. https://preview.redd.it/ne1vp056bspa1.png?width=806&format=png&auto=webp&s=d8286e78479a4760934969a611108206cab06cea This is a very different narrative than the one offered later, where Tara is given up because Iran is a cruel place to own dogs. But it does jibe with the throwaway comment made by the camp rescuer that she's cat-aggressive. Fancy and Deuce November 2018 - the backstory of the dogs in Canada https://preview.redd.it/b5r5othbbspa1.png?width=831&format=png&auto=webp&s=0d87cbe68e086f5c8198d4eaddffc8555184a67b https://preview.redd.it/rqlnwe779spa1.png?width=841&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c047212782b99a295ba5e77afd75feaed073388 https://preview.redd.it/p9twc4y89spa1.png?width=826&format=png&auto=webp&s=4619771c42f7a300668db055f55d59bcfc06c7f9 February 2019 - rescue #1 chimes in https://preview.redd.it/333u2kuzaspa1.png?width=831&format=png&auto=webp&s=70a3d4fca641cf01a3abada87cfd70a49dc523b9 April 2019 - adopters drive 4 hours to meet Tara. https://preview.redd.it/o07f5v9k7spa1.png?width=828&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5d7f30665fa9d4bc2a3ea338ead6306d148c8c7 March 2020 This is Tara... She has a special story and so needs to have a special person (other than me)... She is not a kids dog... She is not an "instantly yours" dog... Tara came from Iran through two different rescues... She failed in their attempts with foster homes, failed with a behaviourist, failed in a conventional kennel... and came to us where she relaxed, learned how to run and be happy for the first time in her life. You may remember her video with me where she lovingly jumps on me when I fell backwards in the snow... When she knows you she is 100% trustworthy... She has never bitten anyone BUT she lets everyone know (other than her immediate) she could. She's a watch dog... She's incredibly intelligent and very loving (with me, and those who know her)... Her rescue placed her into the wrong home... It immediately failed and she was returned... and her boarding paid until May 31, 2019... and since then she's been in limbo... They did not chose to do a Rehome package with us, and do not communicate with us (phone or email)... A rescue out of Alberta once shared her post saying that they needed someone to fly her to them... but... no one paid us... no one instructed us or contacted us... I wrote them to ask what would happen to her there if she lost her security place? No reply and nothing happened.... She needed to be re-vaccinated and again... no reply... We took her to the vet and she was great until they tried to give her a needle... They tried a pole to give her tranquillization and she broke the needle... They put her leash through the hinges on the door frame and wedged her behind the door to tranquilize her... Then all was done... Cost around the $200 and included the nails... Expect that will be the outcome for all vaccinations in the years to come... How we would rehome her if it was up to us... Would be to accept written applications with lots of details on the home, who'd she'd live with, what kind of lifestyle would she have, past dog experience, what kind of references they had... and narrowed it down to our best candidate(s)... Taking a month to two months to make our decision... and then "gradually" introduce them to Tara for play dates here, then eventually visits and play dates there, and gradually sleep overs... with gaps between so she's excited to see the person(s) in a happy we're special friends... And eventually both Tara, the prospective home and we'd know... It was her decision... She's not been a house dog and would have to gradually be introduced to the home... She has possession issues with raw meat, bones, soft furry things as in toys, boots, etc....Not with me... So not with her eventual trusted person(s)... She has her own room and court yard at the resort and she's very good here... But when strangers going by ... she goes ballistic to protect her space... again no bites... No one pushes her... No one would... and she does not do that with me or her trusted people. The other home had taken her straight into their home with compete freedom... It needed to be more gradually earned. They put meat packaging with fresh blood into an open garbage bag and she took it and snarled like a demon and refused to give it up... The husband did get it from her. She knew the steaks (raw meat) was in their fridge and when the wife opened the door, she got between the wife and the fridge door, snarling... The wife jumped back and she removed the meat...and ate it. The teenagers in the house hid in their bedrooms due to Tara's dominance... No bites... but certainly not the right home. She likes the vehicle. She likes to go places on a leash... She is very affectionate with those she knows. And again, she has never bitten, but she sure puts the fear she would into anyone she wants to put the brakes on... She is not fearful, but one of the strongest dogs in spirit you will ever meet. Her past in Iran was a small cement area behind a house and her owner was an older woman. If you love your dogs in Iran, someone kills them because its "our culture" not theirs... You can't walk them on the streets... They get very little social interaction... and they know their lives are endangered so they are either like children who are abused are, or they are fearfully aggressive (like Fancy)... or they are extremely strong spirited like Tara is... You earn Tara's trust. I realize there are very few of you who would have the ability or desire to have a dog like Tara... but if you do... and you are her right person... She would be an exceptional dog... One of the best of your lifetime... I don't need another dog... I will love and care for her, but it really wasn't wasn't the agreement that we were to keep her for life. Had we been contracted to do a rehome, then we would have accepted that as a possibility... but we would have been able to do the process as outlined above... Since... Tara is in limbo... due to us not getting the paperwork for ownership and/or rehoming... I hope that this post will result in it being "quietly sent to me"... So in the meantime... I will start to accept requests, serious requests from responsible, well-versed with strong, intelligent dogs... She is much like a Belgium Malinois... a very STRONG temperamented Belgium Malinois... She does not have a ball drive, but she is treat motivated... and wants to please... if she accepts you as someone who is her trusted friend. There you go... Its out in the universe... I pray that the right person(s) will feel this challenge is for them... and that they are correctly situated in their lives and able to do the cross visiting and gradual process... to take Tara from where she is rooted and safe... into where she knows you are her everything... and she has found her humans for the rest of her life... And a comment on the March 2020 post https://preview.redd.it/jqdmgx8y9spa1.png?width=862&format=png&auto=webp&s=52d57f3f6f492d066139b148c936c178887df019 Notice the date - this was 3 years ago. The dog remains with them. No one has had that ability and that desire. November 2020 - Happy Tails discusses Fancy and Tara https://preview.redd.it/x6yncn4e8spa1.png?width=825&format=png&auto=webp&s=938edc95908e6acf07819729161fc552f8bf269f https://preview.redd.it/q7i6nwci8spa1.png?width=821&format=png&auto=webp&s=56a7dc44c2ae368f60df3797100e9c950f2c0167 Nov 2020 https://preview.redd.it/dy7j5i8q8spa1.png?width=767&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a122ba92d938d911fb7cce2eddba6fc2f6b38c1 https://preview.redd.it/r1fjwqkx8spa1.png?width=760&format=png&auto=webp&s=384ebb92d3588d8d6b32ac869add3185451d0370 |
2023.03.25 02:11 BadIdeasxoxo My groomer is getting charged with CP possession, can I give any testimony to bring further charges?
I'm in PA, my groomestalker is in Florida. I'm an adult now and our relationship was online when I was 14-15 years old. He was 19-20. He's 25 now and I'm 20. Thanks to a Cybertip, police got a warrant to search his phone. They found a video of a 3-5 year old male child being r-worded by a woman.
He's being charged with a class D felony which is up to 5 years prison and 5 years probation with a lifelong spot on the sex-offender registry. He has a public defender and decided to plead not-guilty. According to the court docs, it appears that they're opening up discovery again. My friend in law school says that means they're gathering more evidence against him.
When I was a minor, he was sexual towards me and both had me send sexual images of myself to him and sent images of his genitalia to me and also sexted me. He used this as leverage to keep me quiet, until now. We talked mostly on Kik so I've since lost access to those DMs, but I have about a year's worth of DMs from Skype, including him sending me pictures of his genitals and clearly stating his name as well as showing his face. Even screenshots saved in the chat showing both of our faces on a call, there's no possible way he can deny that it's him. My friend in law school says this counts as soliciting a minor which is up to 15 years in prison.
ETA: on my Kik accounts he also sent me nude images of his 14 year old ex. Not sure if I can give testimony on that.
I do not have any sexual images of me saved there since I did not want to have any CP on my account.
So, can I contribute to this case at all? Can I give testimony virtually since that seems to be more popularized after COVID? I cannot fly down there to give testimony in person at this point in time. I can give the prosecutors access to my entire Skype account and they can freely go through our DMs.
submitted by BadIdeasxoxo to legaladvice [link] [comments]
He's being charged with a class D felony which is up to 5 years prison and 5 years probation with a lifelong spot on the sex-offender registry. He has a public defender and decided to plead not-guilty. According to the court docs, it appears that they're opening up discovery again. My friend in law school says that means they're gathering more evidence against him.
When I was a minor, he was sexual towards me and both had me send sexual images of myself to him and sent images of his genitalia to me and also sexted me. He used this as leverage to keep me quiet, until now. We talked mostly on Kik so I've since lost access to those DMs, but I have about a year's worth of DMs from Skype, including him sending me pictures of his genitals and clearly stating his name as well as showing his face. Even screenshots saved in the chat showing both of our faces on a call, there's no possible way he can deny that it's him. My friend in law school says this counts as soliciting a minor which is up to 15 years in prison.
ETA: on my Kik accounts he also sent me nude images of his 14 year old ex. Not sure if I can give testimony on that.
I do not have any sexual images of me saved there since I did not want to have any CP on my account.
So, can I contribute to this case at all? Can I give testimony virtually since that seems to be more popularized after COVID? I cannot fly down there to give testimony in person at this point in time. I can give the prosecutors access to my entire Skype account and they can freely go through our DMs.
2023.03.25 02:11 Detective_NYC Had a brutal experience and was told it was good
My last of 3 ceremonies at a retreat in Peru had me moaning in pain for 3 hours. I don't remember much, just took the medicine and went straight to another realm where I felt like I was at death's door. I was sweating profusely but couldn't purge otherwise. I ripped off my clothes and kept trying to dry my skin with anything near me. My left arm and leg went numb I felt paralysis and it was really scary. I kept begging to let me live and I will be a wonderful human being, I promise. A few times I was asked if I was ok by the people running it and said yes even though I wasn't. I thought I was a half hour into the ceremony when they said the ceremony is ending soon I had been moaning in pain out loud for 3 hours.
The curandera said this was good for me I needed to purge pain. I vomited at the end when I came to. Only a few minutes when hearing a female ethereal voice sing did I feel anything like I was in heaven. I never want to go back to this dark place and felt it would be my last ceremony. Some say this is normal, some say no. I have had other ceremonies, none so dark and intense. Weeks later I do feel better but I don't know about life changing breakthroughs now having done 4 ceremonies. I definitely can't go back to that place and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
submitted by Detective_NYC to Ayahuasca [link] [comments]
The curandera said this was good for me I needed to purge pain. I vomited at the end when I came to. Only a few minutes when hearing a female ethereal voice sing did I feel anything like I was in heaven. I never want to go back to this dark place and felt it would be my last ceremony. Some say this is normal, some say no. I have had other ceremonies, none so dark and intense. Weeks later I do feel better but I don't know about life changing breakthroughs now having done 4 ceremonies. I definitely can't go back to that place and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
2023.03.25 02:10 Massive_Pressure_516 Funbringer 3000 uncraftable without linked cabinets?
I have the perk and all the required materials but I guess the recipe requires more items than a fabricator can hold because everything else just falls out of the fabricator. No one else is near me and i've tried using storage containers but nothing.
submitted by Massive_Pressure_516 to Barotrauma [link] [comments]
2023.03.25 02:10 inmyheadari Reverse ChanceMe for good safety/target schools!
I truly need just one or two safety and target schools to make a good, well rounded list.
Major: Marine Biology (a must!)
School Preferences: Medium/Large school, near a coast??, anywhere geographically but I’d prefer east or west coast, not southern states really
Stats: 4.0 unweighted GPA, not sure on 4.0 scale for weighted, but 104 on 100 point scale
Ranked 5/250 in a pretty competitive class
PSAT (just took SAT, don’t have that yet)- 1270, probably won’t submit SAT score
Okay ECS-
3 Normal School Clubs
100+ hrs community service
300+ hrs research projects relating to marine biology and environmental science
Leadership positions in Varsity sports
In FFA program
Ask me any more questions cuz I may be forgetting stuff if you want.
Thanks!
submitted by inmyheadari to ReverseChanceMe [link] [comments]
Major: Marine Biology (a must!)
School Preferences: Medium/Large school, near a coast??, anywhere geographically but I’d prefer east or west coast, not southern states really
Stats: 4.0 unweighted GPA, not sure on 4.0 scale for weighted, but 104 on 100 point scale
Ranked 5/250 in a pretty competitive class
PSAT (just took SAT, don’t have that yet)- 1270, probably won’t submit SAT score
Okay ECS-
3 Normal School Clubs
100+ hrs community service
300+ hrs research projects relating to marine biology and environmental science
Leadership positions in Varsity sports
In FFA program
- other stuff i’m too tired to type out now LMFAO
Ask me any more questions cuz I may be forgetting stuff if you want.
Thanks!
2023.03.25 02:09 scratchureyesout Pipers new foot haircut. She's not happy that her granny (me) is a dog groomer and gave her poodle feet she was not thrilled with the process but to be fair most poodles don't either but it's muddy outside and foot cleaning will be much easier and she only looks a little silly.
 | submitted by scratchureyesout to PetsareAmazing [link] [comments] |
2023.03.25 02:09 tim101285 WTS Protech TR3 Magnacut with Lynch clip
Pains me to do this but needs must!
WTS excellent condition protech tr3 in magnacut, lynch clip installed but original and all goodies will come in box. Edge has been used but stropped to near mirror, no visible marks or dings that I can see beyond where their original clip rubbed and it is barely noticeable. This thing kicks like an absolute mule!!! SV - 250
https://imgur.com/a/jn7o0bM[https://imgur.com/a/jn7o0bM](https://imgur.com/a/jn7o0bM)
submitted by tim101285 to Knife_Swap [link] [comments]
WTS excellent condition protech tr3 in magnacut, lynch clip installed but original and all goodies will come in box. Edge has been used but stropped to near mirror, no visible marks or dings that I can see beyond where their original clip rubbed and it is barely noticeable. This thing kicks like an absolute mule!!! SV - 250
https://imgur.com/a/jn7o0bM[https://imgur.com/a/jn7o0bM](https://imgur.com/a/jn7o0bM)
2023.03.25 02:08 MikeMcMyke Hopeless Post Recission Request
Yet another buyer's remorse thread but now trying to look at possible consequences of completely defaulting.
Seems like while I was traveling the world burning up my remaining points from a once succesful pricing arbitrage scheme (and some gifted timeshare points) I ended up being roped in toward the end of the trip and also while at peak travel mania. I was even considering paying cash for one the MGM Signature studios and I now know that was a ridiculous idea to show you the kind of mental state I was. Drugs may have been involved. I didn't realize I would soon be completely out of business and in trouble with the IRS.
I almost blacked it all out as I moved on to the next stop in my vacation, of course letting the recission period pass by.
After it sunk it what I had done (and being the ever bargain hunter I bought something virtually worthless) I have been futilely looking at ways out of it but also in the throes of a severe mental crash and have been barely functional the last few months. And know it's not possible at this point. Have had a few collection calls from the bank but I mostly miss them as they come in too early. The developer has never tried to contact me even though they are not getting paid either.
I never paid a dime on the loan. I blocked the developer from charging my card further.
I am pushing 50 and prior to a brief period of time making an adult income I mostly made just above minimum wage. And I am never going back down that route, and even if ... once my savings run out that will likely be what I am making. That all came to an end and I am pretty unemployed, and not looking. So not just buyer's remorse but where is this money going to come from?
To be honest I am not too concerned about a credit hit. Or maybe I should be.
Had kind of a girlfriend who didn't come along sensed something was wrong and kept pushing me on it so I resisted though I was going to talk about. She eventually dumped me. My first girlfriend since I was 17.
Total baggage for any new relationship should I try again. Also the close family member who gifted me some timeshare points was also hoping to sign it over to me so even that created a rift.
Major hit to my self esteem as I have always been able to resist any sales attempts in the past. Like when they told me if I end up homeless the $299 weekly specials are cheaper than a one bedroom. Damn.
Between that and a near inability to get out of bed while this plays on an endless loop in my head I have let this thing has almost completely ruin my life beyond the usual issues I have seen expressed online. This poor financial choice is somehwat intertwined with an IRS issue, where sloppy / improper accounting and some lost 1099s may have cost me $60-80,000 which has basically contributed to my idea of the total pointlessness of every trying to work again at some low wage McJob.
I did briefly talk to a lawyer in the relevant state - actually a close friend who said maybe not let me see the contract, then haven't heard much back and haven't followed up. All he really said is I may not have to honor the contract if I was intoxicated but left it at that. We didn't really go into the obvious untreated mental illness surrounding all this.
And another concern is this grevious mistake is going to push midnight a few years closer because I have pretty much decided to check out once the money is gone.
Also is there any way I can make a complaint somehwere even specifically against the reps who at least told me they were licensed real estate agents. Like if they misrepresented my income on the loan application in addition to taking advantage of a intoxicated and mentally ill person.
Of course the past few years were a totally mentally tumultous period with a few crashes and I guess this is just one of the consequences.
Trying to think of the positives like I can still vacation in decent places with a kitchen though I really only follow my favorite bands and dependent on public transportation so stuck in major cities and I can also leave my body in one of the units.
Any advice, encouragement, shaming is most appreciated.
submitted by MikeMcMyke to TimeshareOwners [link] [comments]
Seems like while I was traveling the world burning up my remaining points from a once succesful pricing arbitrage scheme (and some gifted timeshare points) I ended up being roped in toward the end of the trip and also while at peak travel mania. I was even considering paying cash for one the MGM Signature studios and I now know that was a ridiculous idea to show you the kind of mental state I was. Drugs may have been involved. I didn't realize I would soon be completely out of business and in trouble with the IRS.
I almost blacked it all out as I moved on to the next stop in my vacation, of course letting the recission period pass by.
After it sunk it what I had done (and being the ever bargain hunter I bought something virtually worthless) I have been futilely looking at ways out of it but also in the throes of a severe mental crash and have been barely functional the last few months. And know it's not possible at this point. Have had a few collection calls from the bank but I mostly miss them as they come in too early. The developer has never tried to contact me even though they are not getting paid either.
I never paid a dime on the loan. I blocked the developer from charging my card further.
I am pushing 50 and prior to a brief period of time making an adult income I mostly made just above minimum wage. And I am never going back down that route, and even if ... once my savings run out that will likely be what I am making. That all came to an end and I am pretty unemployed, and not looking. So not just buyer's remorse but where is this money going to come from?
To be honest I am not too concerned about a credit hit. Or maybe I should be.
Had kind of a girlfriend who didn't come along sensed something was wrong and kept pushing me on it so I resisted though I was going to talk about. She eventually dumped me. My first girlfriend since I was 17.
Total baggage for any new relationship should I try again. Also the close family member who gifted me some timeshare points was also hoping to sign it over to me so even that created a rift.
Major hit to my self esteem as I have always been able to resist any sales attempts in the past. Like when they told me if I end up homeless the $299 weekly specials are cheaper than a one bedroom. Damn.
Between that and a near inability to get out of bed while this plays on an endless loop in my head I have let this thing has almost completely ruin my life beyond the usual issues I have seen expressed online. This poor financial choice is somehwat intertwined with an IRS issue, where sloppy / improper accounting and some lost 1099s may have cost me $60-80,000 which has basically contributed to my idea of the total pointlessness of every trying to work again at some low wage McJob.
I did briefly talk to a lawyer in the relevant state - actually a close friend who said maybe not let me see the contract, then haven't heard much back and haven't followed up. All he really said is I may not have to honor the contract if I was intoxicated but left it at that. We didn't really go into the obvious untreated mental illness surrounding all this.
And another concern is this grevious mistake is going to push midnight a few years closer because I have pretty much decided to check out once the money is gone.
Also is there any way I can make a complaint somehwere even specifically against the reps who at least told me they were licensed real estate agents. Like if they misrepresented my income on the loan application in addition to taking advantage of a intoxicated and mentally ill person.
Of course the past few years were a totally mentally tumultous period with a few crashes and I guess this is just one of the consequences.
Trying to think of the positives like I can still vacation in decent places with a kitchen though I really only follow my favorite bands and dependent on public transportation so stuck in major cities and I can also leave my body in one of the units.
Any advice, encouragement, shaming is most appreciated.
2023.03.25 02:08 thelizardsoup [FOR HIRE] Illustrator and concept artist - fantasy, sci-fi, characters, environments Realistic Art Style
From character design and fantasy illustrations to pets portrait, I want to use my talent to help you as a professional artist, listening to your idea and delivering you the best result as possible!
Check my prices for a commission at the link below, the form will help you to find which commission you may want :
https://forms.gle/ev9o6wyYfwTjyHNr5
If you didn't find what you want in the form, or If you have any questions, any remarks, please, feel free to send me a DM or email me: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), don't be shy!
Also you can hit me on Discord:
thelizardsoup#0314
Portfolio:
https://www.artstation.com/thelizardsoup
My goal is to help you and give life to your ideas, thanks :)
submitted by thelizardsoup to artistforhire [link] [comments]
Check my prices for a commission at the link below, the form will help you to find which commission you may want :
https://forms.gle/ev9o6wyYfwTjyHNr5
If you didn't find what you want in the form, or If you have any questions, any remarks, please, feel free to send me a DM or email me: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), don't be shy!
Also you can hit me on Discord:
thelizardsoup#0314
Portfolio:
https://www.artstation.com/thelizardsoup
My goal is to help you and give life to your ideas, thanks :)
2023.03.25 02:08 JellyTerror Double standards?
Me: please don't hit my ass so hard that it hurts Him: well, don't you ever put your face near mine.
submitted by JellyTerror to offmychest [link] [comments]
2023.03.25 02:07 Saturdead The Drainpipe Siren
The summer I turned 10 was the best time of my life. For years I’d had trouble making friends with other girls, and out of nowhere I was accepted into a group of boys. We would ride our bikes everywhere, play games, and sit up all night just talking about superheroes. I loved it, and I started enjoying coming to school.
That summer was the first summer we went to Everett’s cabin. We biked up there with his dad and spent three days hiking, fishing, telling stories, building a treehouse, and chowing down on hot dogs. It was amazing, and probably the first time in my life where I truly felt like part of a group.
For the next few years, we went back up there every summer. Sometimes we’d get another member, sometimes we’d lose one. People came and went, but we biked up there every summer nonetheless.
They became my best friends. I was one of the “original members” alongside Everett and Sam, but one year we had Lewis, another year there was Owen, and so on. But me, Everett, and Sam? We were always there. The originals.
By the time we all turned 14, there was another girl joining the group; Sam’s girlfriend Josslyn. I’d had some trouble getting along with other girls, so I was a bit hesitant about having Josslyn come along. But I was hilariously wrong. Within a couple of weeks, Josslyn became my best friend. She was like the sister I never had.
The year we turned 16 was the last time we would go there as a group. By then, everyone was growing up. Some were going to college; others were getting a job. Hell, Sam and Josslyn had just broken up and could barely be in the same room. Spending the summer in Everett’s cabin became one of those things that you just stop doing. We promised we’d go back there someday and celebrate summer the right way, knowing full well that would probably never happen.
And then, nothing. And as with all names and faces, they started growing distant. We kept in touch every now and then, but Sam, Everett and Josslyn all went on with their lives. I did too.
That was until a few years ago, when we all turned 30.
By then, Sam was about to move out of state. His startup company had gained some traction, and they were moving their main office. He was hitting the big leagues.
Josslyn was planning a move to Scotland. She’d met this guy at the university that she fell head over heels in love with, and the two of them’d had a long-distance relationship for close to a decade.
Everett, well, he’d tried to play the family man. He had a four-year old son and a two-year old girl with a woman who was divorcing him. Oof.
And me? Well, I wasn’t dealing with my aging very well. I’ve had anxiety all my life and haven’t celebrated a birthday since I was 14. I can barely look myself in the mirror, horrified of the possibility of seeing a grey hair. I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, truth be told, and I imagine feeling all kinds of cramps and pains because of my age. And yes, I know 30 isn’t that old. Doesn’t matter.
But that summer, Everett sent us a message out of nowhere. His family was selling the cabin, and he figured one more trip down memory lane would do us all some good. The whole area was being sold off to a logging company at the end of summer. Personally, I just think the divorce was getting to him.
At first, I wasn’t going to accept. But after seeing both Sam and Josslyn agreeing to come, I couldn’t say no. Maybe it would distract me from turning 30.
So one sunny day in late June I drove down from Morgantown back home to Juniper (WV), not knowing what to expect. I figured I might get a nice weekend out of it.
And as I met up with Sam and Everett, it was as if nothing had changed. They hugged me. We laughed, we joked around, and we laughed some more. Everett had rented us mountain bikes. I got the blue one.
Sure, they looked a bit different. Sam had put on a few pounds and had a thick pair of glasses. He was already sweating. Everett, who used to have dreadlocks, had this short and neat office-type haircut, and his eyes looked darker. But that was all just appearance; they were the same guys. Same humor, same smiles, same favorite superheroes. Wonderful.
We stopped at the supermarket. I was comparing beef jerky prices when Sam walked up to me.
“Josslyn went on ahead,” he explained. “The roads are all dug up, so we’re taking the tunnel.”
“The Rosewater tunnel? By the railroad?” I asked.
“Yeah,” nodded Sam. “Shouldn’t take long. Josslyn is already up there.”
Made sense to me. Josslyn was the outdoorsy type. She was probably up there making a fire by rubbing sticks together or something. But just in case, I bought myself a Firestarter. You never know.
And then we were off. Riding bikes with the same people, down the same roads. Sure, it all looked different, but it really wasn’t. After all these years, I was still just me and the guys. For a moment, I felt this surge of optimism; like everything, somehow, might turn out all right.
Everett took point. We followed a trail deep into the pine forest, sweating under the summer sun. The canopy was a blessing, hiding us from the afternoon heat. It took us a bit over an hour to find the railroad tracks. We followed them north. Sam was sweating like he’d never even seen a bike before.
Then we got to the tunnel. The old Rosewater tunnel wasn’t long, but it was old. Everyone knew about it, but it was the kind of place that parents refused to let their kids go near. The place was probably covered in mold. Still, biking through it wouldn’t be a problem. You could feel the draft coming through.
The tunnel had a slight curve to it, so we couldn’t see the other side. Still, Everett took point and howled with joy as he entered. The echo bounced off the walls, reaching into the mountain. Sam followed suit, shrieking just as loud. We dove deep into the dark with the rhythmic thumping of the railroad tracks beneath us.
Our bike lights shone as bright as they could, but the tunnel swallowed them. It was getting colder and colder, almost to the point of my breath showing. Little dust particles danced in the weak light. The sound of spinning bike chains and thumping wheels echoed, and the air tasted like old moisture.
Suddenly, Everett stopped. Then Sam. And soon, I could see why.
We were in the middle of the tunnel, and there was something covering the ground.
Snow.
We were all standing there dumbfounded. Snow? In late June? That didn’t make a lick of sense.
“That’s just weird,” said Sam. “Let’s keep going.”
“Wait,” said Everett.
He stepped off his bike and walked around for a bit. I leaned against my handlebar, feeling the weight of my backpack. I hadn’t even noticed how out of breath I was. Everett leaned down, looking at the snow.
“What’s up?” Sam asked. “We going?”
“Yeah, yeah,” nodded Everett. “It’s just… I dunno.”
“Dunno what?”
“Like… where’re the tracks?”
“You’re sitting on ‘em” I added. “What’s the deal?”
“No, Josslyn’s tracks.”
Now I could definitely see my own breath. And Everett was right, the snow was undisturbed. Josslyn couldn’t have come through there, unless the snow had recently settled. But what, an inch and a half of powder snow in late June, in less than a day? Nah.
Everett got back on his bike.
“Let’s just keep going.”
We biked through the snow. About ten minutes later, we got to the edge of the tunnel.
It’d collapsed in on itself.
The ceiling had caved in and filled the entire tunnel with a steep slant of solid rock chunks. It didn’t look recent either.
We just turned around. There was no reason for us to keep pushing forward, so we decided to just go back out and follow the (if somewhat broken) main road instead. We had bikes, we could go pretty much anywhere. Still, I couldn’t help but notice how Everett seemed a bit distraught. We all were.
On our way back through the snow, I got the sense that something was off, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. But right then and there, I was just happy we were leaving.
Except we didn’t get far.
The path we came in through had also collapsed.
“Did we make a… a wrong turn?” Sam asked. “I thought this… this was just a straight line.”
“It is,” said Everett. “This, uh… this doesn’t make sense.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” I gasped. “I didn’t hear a goddamn thing.”
“This is old. There’s dust. It didn’t just collapse, this is… ,” insisted Everett.
“So we must’ve gotten turned around somewhere,” smiled Sam. “So we backtrack.”
It took us about 45 minutes to move from one end of the tunnel to the other; but both ends were definitely collapsed. How we entered in the first place was mind boggling. It didn’t make sense.
At some point, we just stopped. We stepped off our bikes and sat down. Sam used his phone as a flashlight, illuminating the dancing dust particles. The air tasted stale.
“No bars,” Sam said. “Tunnels suck.”
“It doesn’t make sense!” groaned Everett. “We got in, we can get out!”
“How?!” I asked, throwing my arms out. “I’m not seeing any exits! It… it fell!”
“That’s impossible!” spat Everett. “There would be a… a goddamn ear-bursting pressure! There’d be so much dust we… we wouldn’t be able to breathe! And there wouldn’t be goddamn snow all over the ground!”
We tried to get our phones to work. We tried moving the rocks, but the thick moisture in the air had frozen; making them all stick together like bricks and mortar. There was no way.
We wasted hours, and the temperature just kept dropping. I’d started shivering, and Sam’s breath had frozen into little icicles in his beard. Everett paced back and forth, trying to come up with a plan.
The snow was either expanding, or we kept coming back to it. Either way, it was everywhere. And the temperature kept dropping; fast.
At one point, that strange feeling in my stomach came back to me. I removed my bike light and used it as a torch. I noticed something in the snow.
I could see our tracks. Both from our bikes, and our shoes. But there was something else; a slight impression. Two thin parallel lines, running next to the wall. They twisted and turned at times, but I couldn’t make out what it was supposed to be. I called Sam and Everett over to help me, but we suddenly got distracted.
Somewhere deep in the tunnel, I heard something.
A voice.
“You should be helping me.”
It came from further in. Without a doubt in my mind, and after all these years, I could still recognize Josslyn’s voice. We tried to pinpoint where it came from, but the tunnel made it impossible.
“Joss?” Sam called out. “Joss, you there?”
Nothing. We looked at one another. It took Everett a few moments to even attempt to accept this.
“Joss!” Everett finally called out “Josslyn!”
Still, nothing.
We looked for her. I could feel myself growing more desperate as the air got colder. My teeth had started to chatter, and no amount of rubbing my arms changed a thing. My hairs were standing at attention, as if listening for warmth.
Sam and Everett kept calling out to her, but we got no response. And all over the snow I kept seeing these two parallel lines, just barely scraping the top of the snow. Either they’d been there for a while, or whatever was making them were something extraordinarily light. But there was no way of telling where it came from.
I have no idea how many hours we spent walking up and down that freezing tunnel. At some point, we all gathered in a circle and wrapped ourselves in sleeping bags. I tried to use my Firestarter, but we didn’t have much to burn. We piled up some of our extra clothes and spent the better part of an hour setting it on fire. It burned for less than ten minutes.
At some point, we just stopped trying. Our hands were raw, and I started having cold sweats. We’d turned off the lights to save on battery, but my restless eyes kept moving. I could feel myself going cross-eyed, my mind confused by the pressing dark.
There was too much ground to cover. There might be some side tunnel that we might’ve missed, but we were losing hope. I didn’t know what to make of it. Sam and Everett had gone through several cycles of arguing, making a desperate effort, being anxiously hopeful, and then back to arguing. Now they were just quiet.
I would’ve preferred an argument.
“You… should be helping me.”
We all looked up. It was distant, but not as distant as last time. I could hear Sam shuffling as he got up. He called out to Josslyn again and again, but there was no response. Sam was growing more and more desperate, and his screams got louder. At some point, he stopped calling out to her; he just screamed.
The arguing started again as Everett tried to shut him up. But I heard something. I looked up, concentrating on the sound. There was a slight reverb, like the sound bouncing off something metallic.
I put my bike light back on and looked up, letting the bright cone answer my question.
There were drainpipes running along the ceiling of the tunnel.
“Some… some kind of drainage, or a run-off,” said Sam, looking up. “That’s gotta… wait. This wasn’t at the entrance.”
“So it started further in,” I said. “Maybe there’s a maintenance area.”
At that, Everett got up.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Yeah, that makes, uh… that makes sense.”
We followed the pipes, and I couldn’t help but notice that the parallel lines in the snow that seemed to be going the same way. They were roughly following the way the pipes were running in the ceiling. Sam and Everett didn’t seem to notice.
“There might be another way out,” said Sam. “Like a… maintenance entrance.”
“Yeah,” agreed Everett. “They can’t have people running in and out of here when the trains are coming, right?”
My stomach turned. The stress was getting to me. I wasn’t usually the quiet one of the group, but crawling around in the dark just weighed my entire mind down. It wasn’t supposed to be cold. It wasn’t supposed to be dark. We were supposed to be making hot dogs by the cabin.
There was a faint tapping sound. Something banging against the pipes, somewhere up ahead. Sam and Everett pushed forward.
And there it was. A maintenance door.
We all got excited. We ran up to it, and the moment Sam put his hands on the handle, I shouted at them to stop.
They just looked at me, barely illuminated by our combined electronics. I could see the parallel lines running in the snow leading into the maintenance door. I pointed it out to Sam and Everett, who didn’t pay it no mind. Sam thought it was water drops from condensation. Everett didn’t care.
It couldn’t be water drops. It was too cold, and too consistent. Something in me screamed at me to just… not go further. This was bad.
But the door flung open, and we stepped inside.
There was an awful smell in the air. Chemicals; mostly ammonia. It took some time getting used to, but we pushed on. There was a small corridor leading us further in, branching into maintenance tunnels that were so small that we had to move sideways to fit.
We explored, as a group. We couldn’t find an obvious way out, but we could make an educated guess. We just had to find a way that pointed us either straight forward, or straight back; following the curvature of the Rosewater tunnel.
At one point, we hit a dead end. As we turned back, I was suddenly first in line. Then we heard it again.
“You should… be helping me.”
This time it was just down the hall. It was so close it chilled me more than my freezing breath. And for a split second, I could swear I saw something move just at the edge of the light. Something that retreated into the dark with a rhythmic sound. And it was leaving behind those strange parallel lines in the frost-covered floor.
We got back to one of the maintenance hubs. The drainpipes coalesced, leading us further in. We stopped for a while, as Sam was out of batteries.
“They will come looking for us,” said Sam. “We should just go back and wait.”
“We’ll freeze,” I said. “It’s absurd, but we’ll freeze.”
“She’s right,” agreed Everett. “We… we gotta push.”
“Then I go second. I don’t have a light.”
We agreed.
And as we turned around, there was Josslyn.
We could barely make out her shape at first. She looked taller, and her hair clung to her face like she’d crawled out of a cold bath. She just stood there, barely keeping herself upright. Sam and I stood there in shock, but Everett burst into action. He sprinted forward towards her.
In a whiplash-like motion, Josslyn was pulled back into the dark. She didn’t make a sound.
I noticed two things.
One, that her legs didn’t move.
And two, that her feet barely touched the ground; leaving parallel lines in the frosted floor.
Everett rushed after her, screaming her name over and over like a desperate parrot. I was right behind him, and Sam was trying his best to keep up. We ran, seeing whiffs of her hair disappear further and further into the darkness. She was moving, fast, and we could barely keep up. Just seconds later, as we came to a four-way junction, she was gone.
Everett fell to his knees, panting. I stopped short of tripping over him.
“She… she’s here,” Everett panted. “S-something’s wrong.”
I spat and tried to stay in motion to keep my sweat from freezing. The salt stung my eyes.
“Why… why is she doing this?” he asked. “What’s going on?”
“Wait,” I said.
I turned around.
“Where’s Sam?”
We backtracked. We tried to mentally map those labyrinthian halls, but we just came up with dead end after dead end. Sam was gone. Disappeared into the dark.
And somewhere, far ahead, we could hear something again.
“Yooooouu~ should be… helping me.”
But this time, in Sam’s voice.
Sam’s broken, drawling, drawn-out half-voice. It made the drainpipes reverberate, shaking with excitement.
This time, we turned the other way. We couldn’t keep getting pulled further and further in. We made a silent agreement that whatever was in there was something we didn’t want to see. We had to keep going, and once we got out, we could help.
“We… we have to follow the pipes,” said Everett. “They have to lead outside at some point!”
“Or they’ll just… just lead us further in!”
“We can’t keep running in circles! We pick a path, and we stick to it!”
He grabbed my shoulders. Even with barely functioning light, I could see the panicked size of his pupils. I nodded. Whatever it took for us to stick together.
We must’ve walked for hours. And finally, it opened up into another junction. This one with only two adjoining corridors. But by now, we’d moved around so much there was no way to tell what was north, south, or in-between. We could only guess.
“You pick,” said Everett.
And I did.
We followed one of the halls, and I could hear my footsteps growing louder. The echo was increasing. Moments later, the halls opened into a kind of hub area where all the drainpipes coalesced. It was much large than expected, with solid concrete walls and floors. Dozens of pipes lead us here.
Everett was about to rush forward when I put a hand on his shoulder. I looked around for a bit, but he brushed me off and kept going.
“Wait!” I called out, pointing.
There was something up ahead.
It was impossible not to recognize Sam. His body hanging limp, inches off the ground like a stringed-up puppet.
His skin white as snow, with icicles hanging from his beard and hair. He didn’t move.
“You shooooould… be helping me,” his body groaned, without ever moving his mouth.
The shadows behind him moved.
The very dark of the room; it moved.
And at that moment, I realized there was something oil-slick and dark slithering along the pipes; holding Sam up like a ventriloquist dummy.
“Sssssshould. Sssssshould be.”
I could see Josslyn’s bike, snapped in half and thrown into a corner. Strange flowers grew along the edge of the wall; like little sunflowers, frozen and blue.
I could see Josslyn’s backpack torn open and thrown across the floor. The hot dogs, trampled and abandoned. And there at the very edge of my light, I could see Josslyn’s frozen hair splayed across the concrete in a pool of frozen blood.
Unnatural hands crawled across the drainpipes, causing a rhythmic thumping. And just as the horror of this vision sunk into me, my mind exploded into panic. It was like watching through my eyes like a passenger, surrendering completely to whatever power would get me out of there. My mind lit up the world with fear, as a real and tangible threat started coming our way; and it was dragging Sam along.
I bolted back out the door. Something was right behind me, but I didn’t know if it was Everett or… that Sam-thing. I didn’t care. I didn’t care the slightest.
I turned a quick corner. Everett followed. The Sam-thing couldn’t keep up, and whatever held him just tossed him aside. I could hear his body shattering like a gypsum statue; his body frozen solid.
Another corner. A quick turn.
Too quick.
I tripped on my own feet. I fell, and Everett fell right after me. We ended up on our sides, lying face-to-face. Something in my elbow broke, and I couldn’t get up.
Then, Everett stopped. I did too. I held my breath, waiting for whatever pain there was to come. Everett looked at me, slack jawed.
His breathing stopped. A long mosquito-like appendage had extended down from the drainpipes, piercing the back of his skull, like popping a water balloon. It was sucking out his warmth, making his skin lose its color. Eyes sinking into his skull, freezing. Nails and tongue turning black. Skin cracking like porcelain. Membranes shriveling into nothing but dry meat.
“Yooooooou~ “ it started. “… yoooOoou… heEeeeeEelping me. Help. Helping meeeee.”
I couldn’t look away.
But as my light dwindled, all that was left was the cold of his touch, and his words; frozen in time.
“Shhhh… shhhhoooOo… should be. Be. Be.”
As my light went out, all that was left was one desperate plea. And for a moment, it sounded just like him.
“Helping me. Helping. Helping me. Helping… me.”
I must’ve stayed there for hours, growing colder by the minute. I just lay there, listening to him slowly learning how to talk with Everett’s body. My tears had frozen my eyelids shut, and my shivers had subsided to a deep throbbing pain.
At some point, Everett was lifted off the floor. And as a cold spike poked against my skin, I realized I could barely feel it. I was too cold.
The creature must’ve thought the same thing, as it left me there. I had no warmth left for it to feast on.
I was no longer interesting prey. I’d accidentally strained my elbow as I fell, and I could barely feel my legs. Further and further away, I could hear the rhythmic thumping as the creature moved along the drainpipes. The pleas of what remained of Everett grew more confident, and distant.
At some point, it wasn’t interested anymore. I fumbled down corridor after corridor, trying to keep my eyes open.
And out of nowhere, the tunnels just seemed to... open up.
On the other side of the Rosewater Tunnel, the light blinded me.
The sun of late June promised me that I was finally safe.
Now, this was all about… five years ago. Law enforcement insist that we were “urban explorers” who messed up. There had been reports of rockslides near the Rosewater Tunnels, and they figured that Sam, Everett and Josslyn got caught in it somewhere deep in the abandoned side tunnels. They didn’t take any other report or indication of wrongdoing seriously. That I had frost burns in late June didn’t seem to bother them.
I’ve been holding off on writing this story as it was technically open for investigation until last September. They finally closed it, officially classifying it as a kind of spelunking expedition gone wrong. They swear they’ve investigated the tunnel, but I have yet to see a single squad car anywhere near it.
I don’t think this is over.
I’ve since left it all behind. The town, the people, the past.
And whatever future I have left, I will cherish.
submitted by Saturdead to nosleep [link] [comments]
That summer was the first summer we went to Everett’s cabin. We biked up there with his dad and spent three days hiking, fishing, telling stories, building a treehouse, and chowing down on hot dogs. It was amazing, and probably the first time in my life where I truly felt like part of a group.
For the next few years, we went back up there every summer. Sometimes we’d get another member, sometimes we’d lose one. People came and went, but we biked up there every summer nonetheless.
They became my best friends. I was one of the “original members” alongside Everett and Sam, but one year we had Lewis, another year there was Owen, and so on. But me, Everett, and Sam? We were always there. The originals.
By the time we all turned 14, there was another girl joining the group; Sam’s girlfriend Josslyn. I’d had some trouble getting along with other girls, so I was a bit hesitant about having Josslyn come along. But I was hilariously wrong. Within a couple of weeks, Josslyn became my best friend. She was like the sister I never had.
The year we turned 16 was the last time we would go there as a group. By then, everyone was growing up. Some were going to college; others were getting a job. Hell, Sam and Josslyn had just broken up and could barely be in the same room. Spending the summer in Everett’s cabin became one of those things that you just stop doing. We promised we’d go back there someday and celebrate summer the right way, knowing full well that would probably never happen.
And then, nothing. And as with all names and faces, they started growing distant. We kept in touch every now and then, but Sam, Everett and Josslyn all went on with their lives. I did too.
That was until a few years ago, when we all turned 30.
By then, Sam was about to move out of state. His startup company had gained some traction, and they were moving their main office. He was hitting the big leagues.
Josslyn was planning a move to Scotland. She’d met this guy at the university that she fell head over heels in love with, and the two of them’d had a long-distance relationship for close to a decade.
Everett, well, he’d tried to play the family man. He had a four-year old son and a two-year old girl with a woman who was divorcing him. Oof.
And me? Well, I wasn’t dealing with my aging very well. I’ve had anxiety all my life and haven’t celebrated a birthday since I was 14. I can barely look myself in the mirror, horrified of the possibility of seeing a grey hair. I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, truth be told, and I imagine feeling all kinds of cramps and pains because of my age. And yes, I know 30 isn’t that old. Doesn’t matter.
But that summer, Everett sent us a message out of nowhere. His family was selling the cabin, and he figured one more trip down memory lane would do us all some good. The whole area was being sold off to a logging company at the end of summer. Personally, I just think the divorce was getting to him.
At first, I wasn’t going to accept. But after seeing both Sam and Josslyn agreeing to come, I couldn’t say no. Maybe it would distract me from turning 30.
So one sunny day in late June I drove down from Morgantown back home to Juniper (WV), not knowing what to expect. I figured I might get a nice weekend out of it.
And as I met up with Sam and Everett, it was as if nothing had changed. They hugged me. We laughed, we joked around, and we laughed some more. Everett had rented us mountain bikes. I got the blue one.
Sure, they looked a bit different. Sam had put on a few pounds and had a thick pair of glasses. He was already sweating. Everett, who used to have dreadlocks, had this short and neat office-type haircut, and his eyes looked darker. But that was all just appearance; they were the same guys. Same humor, same smiles, same favorite superheroes. Wonderful.
We stopped at the supermarket. I was comparing beef jerky prices when Sam walked up to me.
“Josslyn went on ahead,” he explained. “The roads are all dug up, so we’re taking the tunnel.”
“The Rosewater tunnel? By the railroad?” I asked.
“Yeah,” nodded Sam. “Shouldn’t take long. Josslyn is already up there.”
Made sense to me. Josslyn was the outdoorsy type. She was probably up there making a fire by rubbing sticks together or something. But just in case, I bought myself a Firestarter. You never know.
And then we were off. Riding bikes with the same people, down the same roads. Sure, it all looked different, but it really wasn’t. After all these years, I was still just me and the guys. For a moment, I felt this surge of optimism; like everything, somehow, might turn out all right.
Everett took point. We followed a trail deep into the pine forest, sweating under the summer sun. The canopy was a blessing, hiding us from the afternoon heat. It took us a bit over an hour to find the railroad tracks. We followed them north. Sam was sweating like he’d never even seen a bike before.
Then we got to the tunnel. The old Rosewater tunnel wasn’t long, but it was old. Everyone knew about it, but it was the kind of place that parents refused to let their kids go near. The place was probably covered in mold. Still, biking through it wouldn’t be a problem. You could feel the draft coming through.
The tunnel had a slight curve to it, so we couldn’t see the other side. Still, Everett took point and howled with joy as he entered. The echo bounced off the walls, reaching into the mountain. Sam followed suit, shrieking just as loud. We dove deep into the dark with the rhythmic thumping of the railroad tracks beneath us.
Our bike lights shone as bright as they could, but the tunnel swallowed them. It was getting colder and colder, almost to the point of my breath showing. Little dust particles danced in the weak light. The sound of spinning bike chains and thumping wheels echoed, and the air tasted like old moisture.
Suddenly, Everett stopped. Then Sam. And soon, I could see why.
We were in the middle of the tunnel, and there was something covering the ground.
Snow.
We were all standing there dumbfounded. Snow? In late June? That didn’t make a lick of sense.
“That’s just weird,” said Sam. “Let’s keep going.”
“Wait,” said Everett.
He stepped off his bike and walked around for a bit. I leaned against my handlebar, feeling the weight of my backpack. I hadn’t even noticed how out of breath I was. Everett leaned down, looking at the snow.
“What’s up?” Sam asked. “We going?”
“Yeah, yeah,” nodded Everett. “It’s just… I dunno.”
“Dunno what?”
“Like… where’re the tracks?”
“You’re sitting on ‘em” I added. “What’s the deal?”
“No, Josslyn’s tracks.”
Now I could definitely see my own breath. And Everett was right, the snow was undisturbed. Josslyn couldn’t have come through there, unless the snow had recently settled. But what, an inch and a half of powder snow in late June, in less than a day? Nah.
Everett got back on his bike.
“Let’s just keep going.”
We biked through the snow. About ten minutes later, we got to the edge of the tunnel.
It’d collapsed in on itself.
The ceiling had caved in and filled the entire tunnel with a steep slant of solid rock chunks. It didn’t look recent either.
We just turned around. There was no reason for us to keep pushing forward, so we decided to just go back out and follow the (if somewhat broken) main road instead. We had bikes, we could go pretty much anywhere. Still, I couldn’t help but notice how Everett seemed a bit distraught. We all were.
On our way back through the snow, I got the sense that something was off, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. But right then and there, I was just happy we were leaving.
Except we didn’t get far.
The path we came in through had also collapsed.
“Did we make a… a wrong turn?” Sam asked. “I thought this… this was just a straight line.”
“It is,” said Everett. “This, uh… this doesn’t make sense.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” I gasped. “I didn’t hear a goddamn thing.”
“This is old. There’s dust. It didn’t just collapse, this is… ,” insisted Everett.
“So we must’ve gotten turned around somewhere,” smiled Sam. “So we backtrack.”
It took us about 45 minutes to move from one end of the tunnel to the other; but both ends were definitely collapsed. How we entered in the first place was mind boggling. It didn’t make sense.
At some point, we just stopped. We stepped off our bikes and sat down. Sam used his phone as a flashlight, illuminating the dancing dust particles. The air tasted stale.
“No bars,” Sam said. “Tunnels suck.”
“It doesn’t make sense!” groaned Everett. “We got in, we can get out!”
“How?!” I asked, throwing my arms out. “I’m not seeing any exits! It… it fell!”
“That’s impossible!” spat Everett. “There would be a… a goddamn ear-bursting pressure! There’d be so much dust we… we wouldn’t be able to breathe! And there wouldn’t be goddamn snow all over the ground!”
We tried to get our phones to work. We tried moving the rocks, but the thick moisture in the air had frozen; making them all stick together like bricks and mortar. There was no way.
We wasted hours, and the temperature just kept dropping. I’d started shivering, and Sam’s breath had frozen into little icicles in his beard. Everett paced back and forth, trying to come up with a plan.
The snow was either expanding, or we kept coming back to it. Either way, it was everywhere. And the temperature kept dropping; fast.
At one point, that strange feeling in my stomach came back to me. I removed my bike light and used it as a torch. I noticed something in the snow.
I could see our tracks. Both from our bikes, and our shoes. But there was something else; a slight impression. Two thin parallel lines, running next to the wall. They twisted and turned at times, but I couldn’t make out what it was supposed to be. I called Sam and Everett over to help me, but we suddenly got distracted.
Somewhere deep in the tunnel, I heard something.
A voice.
“You should be helping me.”
It came from further in. Without a doubt in my mind, and after all these years, I could still recognize Josslyn’s voice. We tried to pinpoint where it came from, but the tunnel made it impossible.
“Joss?” Sam called out. “Joss, you there?”
Nothing. We looked at one another. It took Everett a few moments to even attempt to accept this.
“Joss!” Everett finally called out “Josslyn!”
Still, nothing.
We looked for her. I could feel myself growing more desperate as the air got colder. My teeth had started to chatter, and no amount of rubbing my arms changed a thing. My hairs were standing at attention, as if listening for warmth.
Sam and Everett kept calling out to her, but we got no response. And all over the snow I kept seeing these two parallel lines, just barely scraping the top of the snow. Either they’d been there for a while, or whatever was making them were something extraordinarily light. But there was no way of telling where it came from.
I have no idea how many hours we spent walking up and down that freezing tunnel. At some point, we all gathered in a circle and wrapped ourselves in sleeping bags. I tried to use my Firestarter, but we didn’t have much to burn. We piled up some of our extra clothes and spent the better part of an hour setting it on fire. It burned for less than ten minutes.
At some point, we just stopped trying. Our hands were raw, and I started having cold sweats. We’d turned off the lights to save on battery, but my restless eyes kept moving. I could feel myself going cross-eyed, my mind confused by the pressing dark.
There was too much ground to cover. There might be some side tunnel that we might’ve missed, but we were losing hope. I didn’t know what to make of it. Sam and Everett had gone through several cycles of arguing, making a desperate effort, being anxiously hopeful, and then back to arguing. Now they were just quiet.
I would’ve preferred an argument.
“You… should be helping me.”
We all looked up. It was distant, but not as distant as last time. I could hear Sam shuffling as he got up. He called out to Josslyn again and again, but there was no response. Sam was growing more and more desperate, and his screams got louder. At some point, he stopped calling out to her; he just screamed.
The arguing started again as Everett tried to shut him up. But I heard something. I looked up, concentrating on the sound. There was a slight reverb, like the sound bouncing off something metallic.
I put my bike light back on and looked up, letting the bright cone answer my question.
There were drainpipes running along the ceiling of the tunnel.
“Some… some kind of drainage, or a run-off,” said Sam, looking up. “That’s gotta… wait. This wasn’t at the entrance.”
“So it started further in,” I said. “Maybe there’s a maintenance area.”
At that, Everett got up.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Yeah, that makes, uh… that makes sense.”
We followed the pipes, and I couldn’t help but notice that the parallel lines in the snow that seemed to be going the same way. They were roughly following the way the pipes were running in the ceiling. Sam and Everett didn’t seem to notice.
“There might be another way out,” said Sam. “Like a… maintenance entrance.”
“Yeah,” agreed Everett. “They can’t have people running in and out of here when the trains are coming, right?”
My stomach turned. The stress was getting to me. I wasn’t usually the quiet one of the group, but crawling around in the dark just weighed my entire mind down. It wasn’t supposed to be cold. It wasn’t supposed to be dark. We were supposed to be making hot dogs by the cabin.
There was a faint tapping sound. Something banging against the pipes, somewhere up ahead. Sam and Everett pushed forward.
And there it was. A maintenance door.
We all got excited. We ran up to it, and the moment Sam put his hands on the handle, I shouted at them to stop.
They just looked at me, barely illuminated by our combined electronics. I could see the parallel lines running in the snow leading into the maintenance door. I pointed it out to Sam and Everett, who didn’t pay it no mind. Sam thought it was water drops from condensation. Everett didn’t care.
It couldn’t be water drops. It was too cold, and too consistent. Something in me screamed at me to just… not go further. This was bad.
But the door flung open, and we stepped inside.
There was an awful smell in the air. Chemicals; mostly ammonia. It took some time getting used to, but we pushed on. There was a small corridor leading us further in, branching into maintenance tunnels that were so small that we had to move sideways to fit.
We explored, as a group. We couldn’t find an obvious way out, but we could make an educated guess. We just had to find a way that pointed us either straight forward, or straight back; following the curvature of the Rosewater tunnel.
At one point, we hit a dead end. As we turned back, I was suddenly first in line. Then we heard it again.
“You should… be helping me.”
This time it was just down the hall. It was so close it chilled me more than my freezing breath. And for a split second, I could swear I saw something move just at the edge of the light. Something that retreated into the dark with a rhythmic sound. And it was leaving behind those strange parallel lines in the frost-covered floor.
We got back to one of the maintenance hubs. The drainpipes coalesced, leading us further in. We stopped for a while, as Sam was out of batteries.
“They will come looking for us,” said Sam. “We should just go back and wait.”
“We’ll freeze,” I said. “It’s absurd, but we’ll freeze.”
“She’s right,” agreed Everett. “We… we gotta push.”
“Then I go second. I don’t have a light.”
We agreed.
And as we turned around, there was Josslyn.
We could barely make out her shape at first. She looked taller, and her hair clung to her face like she’d crawled out of a cold bath. She just stood there, barely keeping herself upright. Sam and I stood there in shock, but Everett burst into action. He sprinted forward towards her.
In a whiplash-like motion, Josslyn was pulled back into the dark. She didn’t make a sound.
I noticed two things.
One, that her legs didn’t move.
And two, that her feet barely touched the ground; leaving parallel lines in the frosted floor.
Everett rushed after her, screaming her name over and over like a desperate parrot. I was right behind him, and Sam was trying his best to keep up. We ran, seeing whiffs of her hair disappear further and further into the darkness. She was moving, fast, and we could barely keep up. Just seconds later, as we came to a four-way junction, she was gone.
Everett fell to his knees, panting. I stopped short of tripping over him.
“She… she’s here,” Everett panted. “S-something’s wrong.”
I spat and tried to stay in motion to keep my sweat from freezing. The salt stung my eyes.
“Why… why is she doing this?” he asked. “What’s going on?”
“Wait,” I said.
I turned around.
“Where’s Sam?”
We backtracked. We tried to mentally map those labyrinthian halls, but we just came up with dead end after dead end. Sam was gone. Disappeared into the dark.
And somewhere, far ahead, we could hear something again.
“Yooooouu~ should be… helping me.”
But this time, in Sam’s voice.
Sam’s broken, drawling, drawn-out half-voice. It made the drainpipes reverberate, shaking with excitement.
This time, we turned the other way. We couldn’t keep getting pulled further and further in. We made a silent agreement that whatever was in there was something we didn’t want to see. We had to keep going, and once we got out, we could help.
“We… we have to follow the pipes,” said Everett. “They have to lead outside at some point!”
“Or they’ll just… just lead us further in!”
“We can’t keep running in circles! We pick a path, and we stick to it!”
He grabbed my shoulders. Even with barely functioning light, I could see the panicked size of his pupils. I nodded. Whatever it took for us to stick together.
We must’ve walked for hours. And finally, it opened up into another junction. This one with only two adjoining corridors. But by now, we’d moved around so much there was no way to tell what was north, south, or in-between. We could only guess.
“You pick,” said Everett.
And I did.
We followed one of the halls, and I could hear my footsteps growing louder. The echo was increasing. Moments later, the halls opened into a kind of hub area where all the drainpipes coalesced. It was much large than expected, with solid concrete walls and floors. Dozens of pipes lead us here.
Everett was about to rush forward when I put a hand on his shoulder. I looked around for a bit, but he brushed me off and kept going.
“Wait!” I called out, pointing.
There was something up ahead.
It was impossible not to recognize Sam. His body hanging limp, inches off the ground like a stringed-up puppet.
His skin white as snow, with icicles hanging from his beard and hair. He didn’t move.
“You shooooould… be helping me,” his body groaned, without ever moving his mouth.
The shadows behind him moved.
The very dark of the room; it moved.
And at that moment, I realized there was something oil-slick and dark slithering along the pipes; holding Sam up like a ventriloquist dummy.
“Sssssshould. Sssssshould be.”
I could see Josslyn’s bike, snapped in half and thrown into a corner. Strange flowers grew along the edge of the wall; like little sunflowers, frozen and blue.
I could see Josslyn’s backpack torn open and thrown across the floor. The hot dogs, trampled and abandoned. And there at the very edge of my light, I could see Josslyn’s frozen hair splayed across the concrete in a pool of frozen blood.
Unnatural hands crawled across the drainpipes, causing a rhythmic thumping. And just as the horror of this vision sunk into me, my mind exploded into panic. It was like watching through my eyes like a passenger, surrendering completely to whatever power would get me out of there. My mind lit up the world with fear, as a real and tangible threat started coming our way; and it was dragging Sam along.
I bolted back out the door. Something was right behind me, but I didn’t know if it was Everett or… that Sam-thing. I didn’t care. I didn’t care the slightest.
I turned a quick corner. Everett followed. The Sam-thing couldn’t keep up, and whatever held him just tossed him aside. I could hear his body shattering like a gypsum statue; his body frozen solid.
Another corner. A quick turn.
Too quick.
I tripped on my own feet. I fell, and Everett fell right after me. We ended up on our sides, lying face-to-face. Something in my elbow broke, and I couldn’t get up.
Then, Everett stopped. I did too. I held my breath, waiting for whatever pain there was to come. Everett looked at me, slack jawed.
His breathing stopped. A long mosquito-like appendage had extended down from the drainpipes, piercing the back of his skull, like popping a water balloon. It was sucking out his warmth, making his skin lose its color. Eyes sinking into his skull, freezing. Nails and tongue turning black. Skin cracking like porcelain. Membranes shriveling into nothing but dry meat.
“Yooooooou~ “ it started. “… yoooOoou… heEeeeeEelping me. Help. Helping meeeee.”
I couldn’t look away.
But as my light dwindled, all that was left was the cold of his touch, and his words; frozen in time.
“Shhhh… shhhhoooOo… should be. Be. Be.”
As my light went out, all that was left was one desperate plea. And for a moment, it sounded just like him.
“Helping me. Helping. Helping me. Helping… me.”
I must’ve stayed there for hours, growing colder by the minute. I just lay there, listening to him slowly learning how to talk with Everett’s body. My tears had frozen my eyelids shut, and my shivers had subsided to a deep throbbing pain.
At some point, Everett was lifted off the floor. And as a cold spike poked against my skin, I realized I could barely feel it. I was too cold.
The creature must’ve thought the same thing, as it left me there. I had no warmth left for it to feast on.
I was no longer interesting prey. I’d accidentally strained my elbow as I fell, and I could barely feel my legs. Further and further away, I could hear the rhythmic thumping as the creature moved along the drainpipes. The pleas of what remained of Everett grew more confident, and distant.
At some point, it wasn’t interested anymore. I fumbled down corridor after corridor, trying to keep my eyes open.
And out of nowhere, the tunnels just seemed to... open up.
On the other side of the Rosewater Tunnel, the light blinded me.
The sun of late June promised me that I was finally safe.
Now, this was all about… five years ago. Law enforcement insist that we were “urban explorers” who messed up. There had been reports of rockslides near the Rosewater Tunnels, and they figured that Sam, Everett and Josslyn got caught in it somewhere deep in the abandoned side tunnels. They didn’t take any other report or indication of wrongdoing seriously. That I had frost burns in late June didn’t seem to bother them.
I’ve been holding off on writing this story as it was technically open for investigation until last September. They finally closed it, officially classifying it as a kind of spelunking expedition gone wrong. They swear they’ve investigated the tunnel, but I have yet to see a single squad car anywhere near it.
I don’t think this is over.
I’ve since left it all behind. The town, the people, the past.
And whatever future I have left, I will cherish.
2023.03.25 02:07 QueenDiva_UwU I think we've all had that feeling.
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