Toddler short curly hairstyles boy

Long story short and as much as it sucks to say, I haven't really experienced much of anything. I'm going to intentionally beat around the bush as to what category that "experience" falls under but I think most people should be able to figure it out lol. In other words (and if you play games), I'm a complete noob when it comes to all things girls. As for why those things haven't happened and why I want that to change.. There's a few reasons, but the main reason why I'm putting such an emphasis on this is because I'm a huge homebody and I don't go out much at all which makes it difficult to meet people. That's where Reddit comes in! The message I'm essentially trying to send is becoming physically AND emotionally close with a girl is what I want the most. I want to experience it all; the laughs, excitement, curiosity, intimacy, hanging out, fun. Experiencing all that for the first time will be the closest I’ll ever get to flying (like a bird, not in a plane 🙃) Blame all the Disney movies I watched as a kid for that lol.
Finding someone would be a dream come true, but I also wouldn't mind striking up a friendship at the same time because that also counts as experience! You can never have too many friends. Local or international, just let me know if that's what you want instead :) And I definitely wouldn't be opposed to a relationship. I've obviously never been in one so I'm not exactly sure how to transition to that, haha. I totally wouldn't mind finding out, though :) Also finding someone to say good morning and night to, too! That would be the best even if it's incredibly cheesy 🧀
Anyway, it could be someone of any age with a lot of experience or someone with no experience like me, or introverted or not introverted like me, etc. I don't have a preference either way :) But if I were to be reaaally picky: they'd be sweet and down to earth because just cuddling on its own would be all kinds of cool. I might actually prefer that over doing you know what with a girl :) A bit about me: I'm shy, caring, kind, sweet and am normal in the weight and height categories. I want to say I'm okay in the looks department? 🙈 I'll let you decide that though lol. I think it's super fun learning about people through conversation so I'll leave the following hobbies section blank. Then again, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give a small hint to something I love.. My username should provide clues to that! I Siriusly need to re-watch the movies again. Maybe with someone I meet through r4r?
Alright, I can't hold it in anymore. I pretty much like a little bit of everything. For example, when it comes to music, I go through Backstreet Boys phases to Disney song phases (Moana is awesome and I haven't even seen the movie 🙊) to something like Simple Plan, Paramore or 50 Cent. What I'm trying to say is I like a little bit of everything! So there's a good chance I'll like whatever you like when it comes to hobbies and interests and that means connecting with each other should be relatively natural/seamless. Or maybe that's wishful thinking on my part, haha.
I'm not the best with openers and if you're also in the same boat, then how about this: If you could have any superpower what would it be and how would you use it? Being out of this world smart like Tony Stark is an acceptable super poweanswer, by the way.
Hopefully my first impression is a good one! If anyone is even remotely interested, then just let me know and I'll get back to you asap!

“He was a hero once, sweetheart, a man of glory and greatness, and I? Well, I… I could have been his queen.”
The little boy watched his father cutting wood out the window as his mother spoke. He never understood why his parents both seemed so stoic and distant.
They did not live in the village with everybody else and they always seemed so tired, like they were still recovering from a weight that had bore on them before he was even born.
Obviously he knew that there had to be a story behind their mysterious reclusiveness, but what that story was, he had never been told. Never until now.
•••
Hey there! Thank you for reading that short little piece. I know that it’s not super elaborate, but basically what I’m looking for is a story about two heroes, or a hero and his companion, who loved each other and who believed in hope before they took on the toll that the title of hero gives.
From the beginning to end, I want a story of growth and change and just as much character exploration as world building and lore.
I consider myself to be an advanced literate writer, and I’m also 18+, so I ask that my partner is, too.
I want someone who’s open to discussion and I would absolutely adore a partner who loves to get just as invested in the story and everything around it as I do.
I apologise in advance if it takes a little while for me to get back to any responses as reddit is kind of temperamental for some reason, but I will get back to you as soon as possible, so if you have any questions, queries or otherwise, please feel free to message me!

“He was a hero once, sweetheart, a man of glory and greatness, and I? Well, I… I could have been his queen.”
The little boy watched his father cutting wood out the window as his mother spoke. He never understood why his parents both seemed so stoic and distant.
They did not live in the village with everybody else and they always seemed so tired, like they were still recovering from a weight that had bore on them before he was even born.
Obviously he knew that there had to be a story behind their mysterious reclusiveness, but what that story was, he had never been told. Never until now.
•••
Hey there! Thank you for reading that short little piece. I know that it’s not super elaborate, but basically what I’m looking for is a story about two heroes, or a hero and his companion, who loved each other and who believed in hope before they took on the toll that the title of hero gives.
From the beginning to end, I want a story of growth and change and just as much character exploration as world building and lore.
I consider myself to be an advanced literate writer, and I’m also 18+, so I ask that my partner is, too.
I want someone who’s open to discussion and I would absolutely adore a partner who loves to get just as invested in the story and everything around it as I do.
I apologise in advance if it takes a little while for me to get back to any responses as reddit is kind of temperamental for some reason, but I will get back to you as soon as possible, so if you have any questions, queries or otherwise, please feel free to message me!

I just have to vent for a moment. I was born and raised in the church and left when I was 15. There were so many parts of the modesty/purity culture within Mormonism that really messed up my views on sexuality, made me feel ashamed of my body, etc. and took a long time to undo and feel more comfortable with myself physically and mentally.
As a side note I am currently browsing addiction treatment centers/rehab pages just out of curiosity more than anything because I'm currently getting my drinking under control and looking at resources to help. Well it really triggered my religious trauma because I saw several places, among their "what to bring/not to bring" lists, spoke about bringing "modest" clothing and they have dress codes including no tank tops, no exposed midriffs, no shorts shorter than fingertip length...... and a few places even had a note about how "revealing clothing sends the wrong attention and distracts other people". omfg.
Listen, I could agree if someone is purposely trying to draw attention or be provocative. But I just feel so tired of this idea that women/girls are responsible for what men/boys think or do or your body is causing them to sin. Especially in this context, I feel like it implies that you're jeopardizing someone else's recovery if they happen to see a thigh or a shoulder. Also saw no bikinis for women, you have to wear a one piece. I live in a hot climate though and basically 90% of what I own is tank tops and shorts. maybe I'm stubborn but I just think it's ridiculous to say a tank top or crop top isn't allowed in 90+ degree weather.
I just have memories of being "dress coded" at school and having to do the fingertip test, and once got called out and told to change at girls camp when I was 12 because I was wearing pajama shorts that were slightly too short ... to bed .... in a cabin with 4 other girls ... I felt especially bad for this other girl in my Young Womens group because she developed super early and basically everything other than a turtleneck was going to be "revealing" on her. But she would still be shamed and people acted like she was basically a slut! I also remember hearing about the boys being able to basically walk around in their underwear at their camp without being told to cover up.
Vent over, hope some others can relate to the frustration against modesty culture especially within Mormonism!

I read a short story or possibly an excerpt in the 2000s in elementary school of a boy that would wear the same jacket every day. I lived in Southern California at the time if that helps.
He lived with his mother but this changed when his mother died and he couldn’t take care of himself so he was forced to live in a group home. I’m having other memories but don’t want to accidentally add details from other books by mistake. I’ll reply with the other details if this isn’t enough.

I was always a short guy. Even as early as kindergarten, I was the runt of the class. Everyone knew it, and everyone just had to say something about it. All the guys thought I was lame, worthless, beneath them (quite literally). Nothing really changed from the time I was in grade school to the time I graduated high school, and even my first years of community college. People don't really grow up. I certainly didnt "grow up" in quite a literal sense. My final height is 5'5. Its all this tiny body would grow. The manly features never came. That baby face never changed. Everyone thought I was gay because I just couldnt be masculine like them. I tried. I would lower my voice to make it sound manly, and I would work out but my muscles would never grow. I was an outcast among the guys. Worse than an outcast. I was a punching bag. A pathetic little smurf. A worthless man-child. My only friends were girls. They were comfortable with me because I was no threat to them, not like how the men were. I was small, weak and empathetic and emotional, like them, and they liked my humor. I fit in well, but I was forever an outcast even to them, because I was not one of them. My father detested me. For being a little runt who would cry at everything. He respected my brother, he was a man, but not me. I was just a little boy, forever a little boy.
Fast forward to me trying to get my first job in high school. I was basically laughed out of the interview room. I looked like a 12 year old, they said. I was given the childs menu at restaraunts. I continued to be given a childs menu past 18 years old. Fast forward again to community college. People thought I was too young to even be there. I was forever a little boy. All these expectations of being a man, and I failed every single one. I was treated like a child. I cant tell you how many times I was given looks like "I wonder where this kids parents are". Police officers wondering if Im even old enough to drive.
I had a choice to make, perpetually stay a little boy or "man-child" forever until they day Im buried, or make a change. I tried desperately chasing manhood but failed at every turn. Am I going to get leg lengthening surgery, chin augmentation and probably take steroids, just to look like a man? Nah. I just slightly increased the pitch of my voice and start wearing girls clothes. Overnight all my problems went away. Overnight my life became worth living. Now people respect me and see me as an adult. An adult woman, no less. Now I have actual friend groups of women because they dont see me as different from them because of me being a boy. The guys dont look down on me and treat me like some kind of lesser being, some kind of runt or pitiable little boy, or some fruity gay guy. Now I truly fit in, and I look just like everyone else. My life is great. People even hold the door open for me now. Everyone is noticably friendlier with me. Its like being a woman affords you all these freedoms to look however you want (even masculine, people love tomboys!) without being treated like an alien for it. You dont have this massive burden of responsibility of being emotionless and strong. I can just be me, finally I can just be me without it being some huge issue. And! Im bisexual and no one ever gives me flak over it. Unlike if you're a guy, being bisexual is bad because guys liking guys is this awful disgusting thing apparently. Not so for women! You can love whoever you want and no one bats an eye. Also, I get hired way more often. Practically every job I apply for I at least get an interview, and if its a male interviewer, I usually get offered a job. Gee, wonder why. Its almost like being a moderately attractive woman puts life on a silver platter for you. I started taking hormones 2 years ago and Im now 22. Got a nice breast augmentation which barely cost me any money, and now guys blow up my dms constantly.
TLDR: I went from being the loneliest most pathetic loser man-child that was barely even treated as a human being to a popular and moderately attractive woman that everyone loves.
Edit: edited to make less opinionated, as to not break rules

My toddler just weaned themself off breastfeeding at 26 m old. She would o ky feed once first thing in the morning and I don’t think I had much milk left. Could this have thrown off this cycle? I’ve had periods back since about 16m and they’ve been fairly regular. This cycle she stopped feeding during my follicular phase and I ovulated a bit late, had no luteal symptoms and then had a 9 day LP which is short for me. Could this be due to breastfeeding stopping?

I've grown up around women for most of my life. My parents divorced and I spent the majority of my early life with my mom and her friends, my cousins who were both girls, their mother, and my 2 sisters. I naturally have curly hair, I've had it long, I've had it short, I've kept it straight, and right now I wear hats and/or hair ties or beanies most of the time. I have never left those nasty ass globs of hair on the shower walls or curtains. I've had their hair on my pillow cases, on my toothbrush, my towels, in my underwear, and even in socks😭😭
I've had a couple relationships and it's at their houses too. I just don't understand how it happens with everyone.

TLDR: support unit is short staffed so a 15yo with muscular dystrophy is no longer receiving an aide and I have to restrict his curriculum access
I teach practical music at a regional state school in Queensland that is notorious for having incredibly well behaved children. In this class I have 25 boys and three girls. Lucky me! As you can imagine, the class is incredibly easy to manage and very quiet and requires very little to no behaviour management from me. Ha.
In this class I have a student with muscular dystrophy, who I will refer to as Nigel. Nigel has a very large electric wheelchair that requires a lot of space to manoeuvre. Before Nigel's first lesson, the head of the support unit and I went through the music block and arranged furniture to accommodate Nigel so that he can access all the instruments and desks. Nigel's chosen instrument is the drum kit, which I have differentiated for so that he can still reach and play 70% of the kit without it sounding incomplete. Nigel has completed his first assessment on the drum kit and has achieved a passing mark. He is very happy with his progress and is happy that he can participate just like every other student.
Unfortunately this drum kit is in a separate practice room, as there is no space in the classroom for the kit and for Nigel's chair. Letting him use the room has proved problematic for the class due to supervision and instruction.
Nigel has had an aide in every classroom for the past two years to assist with day to day activities as well as curriculum engagement. Nigel is quite academically smart, and has done well in his classes. Due to the teacher shortage, the support unit has decided that Nigel no longer needs an an aide in class, which is understandable if he has no curriculum access requirements academically.
I reached out to request an aide for one lesson a week to assist Nigel on the drum kit, as in order for him to participate I have to split focus from the rest of the class. Due to the class's exemplary behaviour, this poses a lot of issues. I explained that this is a barrier to him engaging with curriculum, and assigning an aide will help not only him but also the other students. I have tried to split focus before and no combination of techniques work.
The support unit has come back to me and denied the request. Their response was that Nigel should choose a "more appropriate" instrument and want him to transition to keyboard instead of drums. I don't believe that this is fair on Nigel, as he chose my subject specifically to play the drums and does not enjoy the keyboard. My head of department has sided with the support unit on this one and said perhaps Nigel has to accept that he must play keyboard.
This is the hill I want to die on, because I think Nigel is being denied an important opportunity to choose his instrument like the rest of the grade for a reason I believe is not good enough. I want to keep fighting to get an aide assigned for at least half an hour a week so that Nigel can engage in his chosen instrument, but I guess don't know how to go about it or I wonder if I'm just overreacting. I don't think that this is an equitable solution at all.
So, teachers of Reddit - has any one got advice or been through something similar? Thanks!

I could really use a 3rd perspective, I am having a hard time understanding this situation. When it comes to friendships, my partner becomes easily upset when I talk about my plans with friends.
TLDR: I planned a girls' trip with my old college friends. Partner was upset and volatile during the whole planning process, he felt insecure, gave me lots of rules, and thought I was going to cheat – I did not. Gave deadlines on when to be back, and he was upset when every single plan did not go exactly to what I said would happen, and that I was lying and not being true to my word. I told him I would see a movie with him before the trip, but I was late and so he made me see the movie when I was supposed to be getting ready to leave for my trip. When I got back, more arguing ensued because I wanted to post a picture of me and my friends. He overall felt disrespected that I was inconsiderate of a movie we were going to see, I carpooled last minute instead of being on my own time, did not come home at the time estimate I discussed, went to my friend's apartment for a tour, and posted a mirror selfie of me and my friends.
In February, I reunited with my best friends from college and visited Charlotte, where one of my friends is currently living. We booked a hotel room for one night and did some bar crawling in the city. It was a night of catching up, drinking, and dancing, just the 5 of us girlies reliving a night out in our college town. One month in advance before beginning planning this weekend getaway, I tell my partner that I may be going on a trip to charlotte with my friends in several weeks. His attitude changed immediately, and he was filled with lots of questions. I told him the date and that although was not certain, was likely because it was the weekend that all of my friends were free. He was visibly upset. As the trip became closer, I decided to buy myself press-on nails and some gold hoop earrings. He was upset that I bought myself these things, because he said he wants to pay to have my nails done, and he wants to pay for my earrings. Later after trying to better understand why he was actually upset, he tells me he feels hurt because I don’t put effort in my daily appearance like I do with my friends. I do not think this is true, because my makeup is always done, and effort is put in my appearance when we go anywhere. Any time I would text my friends about logistics of the trip when we were together, he would get upset. We spend lots of time together, so it felt nearly unavoidable. There were multiple cases where he would tell me “rules” for the trip – no boys, no accepting drinks from guys, no talking to guys, etc. Also, no sharing beds with my friends (we are all straight women in a two double bed hotel), and I had to keep him updated on where we were and to call him at the end of the night. Of course, during the trip, I kept him updated, boys were ignored, I called him at the end of the night, and took a futon instead of sharing a bed with my girl friend .The constant asking of him to not be involved with other men was pretty insulting, I have no history of cheating on him, but he has cheated on me. He reminds me a couple weeks before the trip that we are going to see the movie Ant-Man the day it comes out, this movie came out 1 day before my trip, so I promised him I would see the film with him before my trip. I currently live 1.45 hrs away from him and did not manage my time well to pack for the trip and to visit him, and ended up arriving late the first day of the showing. He insisted that instead of seeing a late night showing, we have to see a mid-day showing which conflicted with the time I was going to leave for my trip. He said I had to do this because I was disrespectful of his time, and if I am willing to cut my time short with him then I can cut my time with my friends short too. I ended up seeing the movie with him, and slightly disrupted my schedule for leaving. I was not willing to stay and wait for a classic Marvel post credit scene, and he offered for us to not wait for the post credit scene to avoid me being more late. He is a big Marvel fan, so I know this movie he has been anticipating was important to him, and although I should’ve managed my time better, I think it made things worse for him to force me to see the film at such a conflicting time for me. I was very bitter during our time at the movies, and we argued more intensely in the car back. Once we were back at his place, my friend offered to pick me up from his place so that we could carpool. I was relieved, because I can hardly afford gas and I am terrified of city driving. It was just a better idea for us to save money and be together. I told him I was carpooling with my friends instead of driving myself, and he was very angry and told me I am not being true to my word, because I had said some weeks previously I would drive myself. He told me carpooling was a problem because I would be on someone else’s time, and I wouldn’t be home at a time he needed me by? He was pushing for me to give him an answer of a time I would be back by, so I threw in some numbers of 2-4 pm as an estimate of when I would realistically be done with my trip. The morning after the trip, we had brunch. I told my boyfriend we would have brunch. However, we ended up stopping at my friends place- who lived in the city, for a tour and final chit chat. My boyfriend was calling me and texting me upset, because I did not tell him I would be stopping by my friends house, and that I am again breaking my promises. I ended getting back to my boyfriend’s place around 5:30 pm. He apologized and we had a long talk and wanted to move forward from what happened, and he had me convinced in the moment that this issue was both of our faults, equally. The next day, I am getting ready to post a picture from the trip and he begs me not to post it, and if I do, I am not allowed to caption it a “girls trip” or put the city we visited, because it is disrespectful to him because he says that girls trips have a reputation of being for promiscuous women. He also tells me that the picture I posted looks low quality, he says that I don’t post him like I do my friends, and that I am not prioritizing him for posting this picture with my friends. This later breaks down into more of his tears, and then he begins to trauma dump a lot at me about everything he is feeling and everything he is resentful of. I just kind of took it all in, apologized, and comforted him, but I still posted my friends.
​
This is not the first time problems have arisen while I try to do things with my friends. Am I being inconsiderate in my own management of my friendships and my relationship, or is something else going on?

First Entry
Second Entry
Third Entry
Fourth Entry ​
Fifth Entry
Sixth Entry
Seventh Entry
Eighth Entry
Ninth Entry
Tenth Entry
Eleventh Entry
​
Journal of Camille Lambert - April 14th (Part 4)
​
The screams of monsters who unfortunately were no longer beyond my comprehension echoed through the eternal night. I looked up to see one of the nearby warped buildings buckling, as the familiar shape of the Crab Nightwalker hefted its weight on top of it.
​
It looked considerably different from when I’d last seen it in Puriysk. It's now ill-fitting shell was adorned by glowing flowers, with red vines clinging to it like a sickness and hanging off of it like tendrils. In those tendrils, I could see screaming men, being pulled toward its maw. Pulsating flesh oozed out of the Crab's armor, as if it had overstuffed itself to the point where that armor could no longer contain it.
​
I watched as the Crab began to pry into the building it stood on, and as its tendrils probed through the windows, dragging out screaming men who shot hopelessly at it as if they stood any chance of killing it.
​
In the distance, I could see the beginnings of an orange glow as somewhere in Parsons a fire spread… not started by Nina this time. Progress? Looking down toward the street, past the out of place hardware store that Calhoun had escaped into, I could see various Nightwalkers fleeing for their lives, as their former brethren, newly marked by the Rosen Prince pursued them.
​
It was like something out of a nightmare… impossible horror after impossible horror, melded together and left to tear at each other's throats. The hellish monsters I’d known all my life versus the oppressive militia who I’d long since learned to fear, while a floral parasite ran rampant through the streets, consuming them all. The fact that the backdrop to this madness was now the twisted result of intersecting one town on top of another seemed trivial compared to the insanity that dominated the streets.
​
I turned, about to descend the stairs of the clock tower to throw myself back into the chaos when from the corner of my eye, I noticed Dom scrambling up the makeshift stairwell that Calhoun had formed out of the collapsed roof of the church. He had Gretchen slung over his shoulder, and Nina was coming up behind him. She hastily swapped out the magazine in her shotgun for a new one, before looking down frantically.
​
I ran to the far side of the tower to help Dom and Gretchen up through the broken clock face. She went first, followed by him.
“What’s going on down there?” I asked.
“Good news, the Bat thing is dead. Bad news, the Rosen Prince got it.” Dom said, reaching back to pull Nina up behind him.
​
Almost on cue, I heard yet another demonic screech from the hole in the church roof behind us and I saw another familiar face clawing its way up Calhoun’s makeshift stairwell.
​
For the most part, it looked like the same Horned Nightwalker we saw in Calhoun’s courtyard although now I could see the glowing flowers of the Rosen Prince adorning its arms and shoulders. Its hands had changed too, with jutting blades now protruding from its wrist. Gretchen looked back at the Horned Nightwalker with a grimace, before giving a sweeping motion with her hand. As the Nightwalker reached the top of the makeshift stairwell, I saw it buckle, then collapse, sending the creature crashing back down to the ground floor along with a significant portion of the roof. I hoped that might keep it down for a while longer.
“Holy fucking shit, what the hell happened here?” Nina cried, looking out over Parsons.
​
“The mist was already moving the town, I had to make do,” I said. “Don’t ask me how I did it, I don’t know! I don’t think any of the locals came through, though.”
Nina looked back at me, before shaking her head in exasperation.
“Well I hope to fuck they didn’t,” She said. “Cuz I do not have any kind of rescue plan.”
“What about Calhoun?” Dom asked.
“Wounded and on the run,” I said.
​
“Well let’s track his ass down and get the fuck out of here,” Nina said. “How badly did you hurt him?”
“I shot him twice in the stomach and he fell out the window,” I said and pointed to the broken clock face. Nina looked at it again, before looking straight down.
“Christ… and he survived that?” She asked.
“Evidently… since this pocket reality is still holding together,” Gretchen said. She rubbed at the back of her neck, wincing in pain as she did.
​
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“I’ll survive,” She said, “But let us deal with Calhoun first. If he is wise, he will recognize the futility of this engagement and seek to return to the Eldest. We cannot permit that to happen. Then he may be lost to us.”
​
I stared out of the clock tower again, looking toward Calhoun’s House a short distance away.
“Can you get there alright?” I asked.
“I’ll manage,” She assured me, although before we could decide how to proceed, another inhuman scream echoed from the Church below.
​
Nina screamed back at it in a condescending tone, then added: “Shut it, you vegetable fuck! We’re having a conversation!” As if in response to that, several crimson vines latched onto the sides of the hole in the roof, slithering outward to grab purchase onto the sides, before beginning to pull something up.
Gretchen sighed, rubbing at her temples and shaking her head.
“Why are you the way that you are?” Was all she asked.
​
A massive claw appeared on the edge of the roof, as the Horned Nightwalker… or at least what it had become, attempted to climb its way out. Its hands had already changed into sickle like claws that reminded me of the Horselike Nightwalker I’d seen in Puriysk. Several spider like legs rose out of the hole in the roof, lifting the new creature out of the ruined church and onto the roof as it dragged itself toward us.
​
“Such a bounty laid out before me!” The voice of the Rosen Prince snarled, “And I have you to thank, Gretchen Di Cesare! Yet, my hunger is not yet sated… for you have not yet joined with me, child!”
​
Nina readied her shotgun, firing into the new creature's face. Batlike wings unfurled from its back, closing around its body and taking the brunt of the fire.
“I grow ever stronger, from the wonderful creatures I have dined on. They offer me little in knowledge, but much in strength!”
​
As The Rosen Prince advanced on us, I noticed something else from the corner of my eye. The Crab Nightwalker was drawing closer to us as well. I know that Gretchen saw it too. Nina stopped shooting while shimmering blossoms with pale yellow eyes inside opened on the Prince’s wings as the fires quickly died down.
​
“Ah… ironic, is it not? To find you now in the same position you were in when you invoked me here. Cornered… Helpless... Desperate…”
​
Gritting her teeth, Gretchen gently pushed Nina aside, staring down the coming Prince.
“You presume far too much, my old friend…” She panted, before looking at us. “Grab something, hold it tight, and pray to whatever God may be listening.”
​
With a wave of her hand, Gretchen brought down more of the roof beneath the Rosen Prince. It did little to slow it down, but it did enough. Gretchen turned, grabbing the metal frame of the turret clock and letting out a cry of exertion.
​
I felt the ground move beneath us again, although this time it wasn’t something in the tower she was moving.
​
It was the tower itself.
​
In one swift motion, the clock tower had detached from the rest of the church and launched itself toward an adjacent building. The lower part of it lodged itself into the roof of that other building completely, causing part of it to crumble. Somehow though, the clocktower remained intact… for the most part. I imagined that had to be thanks to Gretchen.
​
“What the fuck are you trying to do?!” Nina cried, looking over at Gretchen with a new fear of God in her eyes.
“You told me to learn…” Gretchen hissed, “I’m learning…”
​
She strained again, looking back as the Rosen Prince spread his wings to take flight. Nina, Dom, and I grabbed hold of the frame of the turret clock since it seemed like the sturdiest thing to grab as Gretchen moved the tower again, launching it into another building, this one closer to Calhoun’s house.
​
The impact was too much for me this time. I lost my grip and was thrown to the ground, rolling toward one of the broken clock faces.
“Cam?” Nina called, before letting go of the clock to dive after me. She wasn’t fast enough.
​
The wind rushed past me as I fell out of the window, landing hard on the roof of the building below. I saw Nina looking down at me from above, before leaping down after me. She landed with a little more grace, and unevenly stumbled to my side, hastily putting a hand on my shoulder.
“You alright?” She asked.
​
I gave a half nod since despite being in considerable pain I was pretty sure I hadn’t broken anything.
“CAM!” I heard Dom cry, and saw him going to the window next. For a moment, I was sure he was about to jump down too, although Nina waved an arm to stop him.
“Don’t!” She said, “Stay with Gretchen! Get to the house, and kill that one eyed motherfucker if you see him! We’ll catch up!”
​
Dom hesitated, before looking to see that the Rosen Prince had launched himself onto the last building we’d been on. The Crab Nightwalker was almost on top of him now, and I watched as the two pressed together, their features sliding together as they formed into something new. Pieces of the crab's armor slid onto that twisted amalgamation of bodies, partially reinforcing its spiderlike legs. The batlike wings on its back grew larger to accommodate the new size of this creature, then split to form new wings. It morphed and changed, adapting to the prey it now hunted, becoming something draconic, arachnid, equine, humanoid, and floral all in one unholy mixture. Such a thing should not have ever been… and yet it was and when the change was complete, what was left was an armored creature three times taller than a man with several chitinous horse legs, segmented like a crab or a spiders protruding from its bulbous lower body. It had a hunched-over torso like a human’s, with thick arms ending in chitinous claws and a head that split open like a flower, with gnashing teeth in its center and antlers adorning its shoulders like pauldrons.
​
Of all the horrors I had seen in this world… this was by far the worst.
​
The flesh and armor it did not take from the Crab Nightwalker slunk away, pulsating and trying to reform into something new, while the body the Rosen Prince had made for himself spread its six draconic wings to give chase to Gretchen.
​
The tower moved again, launching itself toward another building and Nina grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the hole in the roof of the building we were on that the tower had left. I had just enough time to see the Rosen Prince take flight in pursuit of the tower before we made it inside the building.
​
After all the noise out there, the silence inside was almost jarring… and if I wasn’t absolutely terrified by the fucking flower dragon made out of every horrible thing that had tried to kill me in the past few days chasing after my friend, I might have even found it calming.
​
The building we were in looked as if it’d once been somebody's apartment. Nina looked around for a bit, before finding a door leading out into a hall.
“Come on, we should hurry,” She said, gesturing for me to follow her. I was certain that she had no idea where she was going, but to be fair I didn’t either so I followed her.
“Do all of your jobs go this badly?” I asked, as we headed for a door at the end of the hall.
“Not this badly, no,” She said. “This right here is a brand new record.”
​
We went through the door, heading down a flight of stairs, and out into the lobby of the building. Nina paused by the front door, looking out onto the street to ensure the coast was at least somewhat clear before moving ‘Somewhat clear’ being the operative term here.
​
The streets of Parsons were reduced to little more than complete pandemonium. I could see the burning corpses of the Rosen around us, along with one lone member of the Sheriff’s Boys who seemed too dazed to even realize we were there.
​
As the flames of the dead burned around him, devouring ruined cars and blackening the bricks of the buildings around him, he wandered aimlessly.
​
We all paused as behind us, one of the buildings that Gretchen had hit when she’d decided to turn a building into an airplane began to collapse. I could hear people screaming and felt a knot in my stomach tighten. The lucky sounded as if they’d been crushed outright… the unlucky just kept screaming.
​
Both the man on the street and I stared at the ruins of the collapsed building, and looking back at him I was hit with the knowledge that everyone in this miserable city probably knew that this was the end. They were all going to die here… whether it was at the hands of the Rosen, the Nightwalkers, or the destruction, they were all going to die. Maybe they all hadn’t accepted it as my friend on the street had… but it was a chilling truth.
​
This that had once been their paradise was now their tomb… and once Calhoun was dead, even that would no longer remain. I wondered if we were just as doomed as they were… and I wondered if we were just in denial about it.
​
Well… no time to think too hard about it now.
I felt Nina pulling at my arm.
“Let’s go,” She said. “I think the road up ahead is clear!”
The other man was looking at me now.
​
From behind us, I could hear the cries of the Rosen and looked back to see them sifting through the ruins of the collapsed building, looking for survivors. The man on the road just laughed, before calmly taking out his gun and putting it under his chin.
​
I heard the gunshot but didn’t see him die. By then we’d already moved on. But it still made me flinch.
​
The gate to Calhoun’s House was just up ahead, although it was not unguarded. I could see several more trucks, like the one Kevin had driven parked out front, with a few of the Sheriff’s Boys stationed around them.
​
As far as I could tell, the courtyard was pretty secure… perhaps they were waiting for Calhoun’s return. The clock tower was lodged in a building half a block away, and I saw it make its final push toward the twisted house, crashing into it head-on and shattering its malformed architecture.
​
In defiance of all laws of physics though, the clocktower still held together, despite jutting out of the front of that twisted building. The Sheriff’s Boys at the gate watched it with slack-jawed awe, before a familiar voice on a megaphone brought them back to attention.
“GUNS UP BOYS! COMPANY’S COMING!”
​
Between the cars, I could see Kevin holding his megaphone and pointing toward the building the clock tower had just jumped from. Of course Kevin was still alive. This day just hadn’t gone badly enough…
​
The Sheriff’s Boys manning the guns on their trucks got to work immediately, spinning to take aim at the Rosen Prince as he loomed over the nearby building, regarding the assembled prey with every eye on his sickly, pulsating body. I saw his wings spread wide as he began his final descent toward the courtyard. The bullets tore away chunks of his writhing flesh, but they did not slow him down. Instead, he simply folded his wings over his torso, shielding his body from the hail of gunfire as he made his advance.
​
The Rosen Prince lunged forward with one jagged claw, crushing one of the nearby trucks like it was made of paper. I saw Kevin take a step back, grimacing in rage before tossing his megaphone aside. Some of his men fled, but he stood his ground… probably because he physically could not run.
“You sonofabitch…” he growled, before pulling a gun from his holster. My eyes widened as I recognized it.
​
Gretchen’s revolver.
​
Kevin must have found it after we’d left!
​
I wondered if he knew what it did, and I got my answer only moments later. He pulled the trigger, striking one of the wings of the Rosen Prince.
​
The creature shrank back, letting out a hiss of pain, although seeming more confused than hurt. Pink mist rose up from its wing, and I saw the flesh begin to bubble and sear. The Rosen Prince recoiled, its flesh twisting as every eye on its body widened. Kevin kept the gun trained on the Prince, but didn’t fire again. The Rosen Prince retreated back up on top of the building. Its burning wing detached itself, although that didn’t quite seem to be enough. Entire chunks of what I suspect used to be the Bat Nightwalker sloughed out of its body as it tried to shed whatever flesh that Gretchen’s blessed bullet had destroyed.
​
“Keep shooting!” Kevin called, starting to limp back behind the remaining trucks. “Governor Calhoun is on his way! And get me somebody to help deal with that fucking flying tower!”
I looked over at Nina and saw her eyes narrowed as she watched Kevin leave. I watched her grip her gun tightly and put a hand on her arm.
“Don’t!” I warned, “Those trucks will tear us to pieces!”
​
I could see in her eyes that she wanted to argue, but clearly she knew better. Her eyes then darted toward the wall and I could see her doing the math in her head.
“Left side of the street, move fast, keep low,” She said. “We’ll jump the fence.”
That sounded like a slightly smarter idea, and I let Nina take the lead.
​
The trucks didn’t even seem to see us, and kept shooting at the Rosen Prince. I could even see a few crimson flares shooting up from some of the Sheriff’s Boys, catching the Prince’s body and setting his flesh alight as he retreated back atop the building again. Nina reached the fence first and I boosted her up to the top. She straddled it for a moment, reaching down to help pull me up before we dropped down into the courtyard together. She grabbed her shotgun again, keeping at the ready for when the inevitable shooting began.
​
The courtyard was in an even worse state than we’d left it in. The fountain was almost completely destroyed and had soaked the ground beneath us, turning anything that wasn’t protected by the cobblestone into mud.
​
Countless bodies, belonging to men, Rosen and Nightwalkers along with a few blackened things that I think were Nightwalkers, littered the ground. The truck that Kevin had used to attack us was crashed into a nearby wall and looked more or less completely totaled. We could see Kevin limping over toward where the clock tower was, looking up at it as he barked orders.
​
“Where’s my fucking explosives? We need to get back inside the house without letting any more of those things out through the fucking door!”
Nina stifled a laugh.
“Oh man… I forgot about the portal to hell…” She said under her breath, as if it was the funniest joke she’d ever heard.
​
The clock tower shifted, as the section of the house it had embedded itself in began to crumble. The tower sank down to the ground, still remaining intact. I took that as a sign that Gretchen and Dom were still inside.
​
“MOVE!” Kevin cried, ushering his men back as a cloud of dust flooded the courtyard. Nina and I shielded our eyes for a moment, although I realized as soon as she did the kind of opportunity that had just appeared for us. She gestured for me to follow, leading me toward the house under the cover of the dust.
​
“Whoever’s in that thing, I want them fucking dead!” Kevin said, coughing through the dust. He turned away from the clock tower, waving a hand in front of his face to try and escape the dust. Nina and I were almost at the front door now, and I already knew what she planned to do.
​
Honestly, I thought it was a terrible idea. But at this point, I was still on board with it.
​
Kevin looked up, noticing us just as we reached the door. Through the dust, I could see his eyes widen as Nina reached the front door and pulled it open.
“NO!” He cried, reaching out as if he could somehow stop us.
He couldn’t.
​
On the other side of the door, I could see reddish sands. I could feel the acrid heat and burning wind on my face. And I could see dark figures amongst the sands, looking up as soon as the door opened.
​
Not Nightwalkers… not Rosen.
​
Something else.
​
Nina fired a few rounds from her shotgun, forcing Kevin to try and run. He dove to the ground, crawling behind the shattered remains of the water fountain, as the Sheriff’s Boys turned to see that on top of all their existing problems, they now also had to deal with a portal to actual literal Hell. Because why not? I’m sure it really sucked to be them at that moment.
​
I saw the first of the blackened Demons charge through the door, snarling like a wild dog. It was torn to pieces by some gunfire from one of the Sheriff’s Boys almost immediately, but more followed.
​
There weren’t a lot of demons that poured out of that door… but there were enough.
​
I saw one of them leaping onto one of the Sheriff’s Boys. Its entire torso split open vertically, revealing a velvety mouth, full of teeth that clamped down on the poor man before he could do more than scream. As the Sheriff’s Boys tried to deal with the demons, Nina unleashed burning death upon them all, mindlessly shooting anything that moved. She paused only to pull the door closed, since I guess it made sense not to just leave that hanging open and unattended. I suppose it’s not like she needed even more Demons.
​
Behind the fountain, I saw Kevin struggling to stand as he tried to escape the carnage… and I started toward him.
​
Kevin saw me coming and hastily reached for Gretchen’s revolver, but I was faster. I raised my gun and fired twice, hitting him once in the arm and once in the chest. Kevin let out a cry of pain. The revolver slipped out of his hand and clattered uselessly to the ground. He left it where it lay, trying desperately to pull himself back as I pulled the trigger again, shooting him in the stomach two more times.
​
Finally, I was on top of him and pressed my foot down on his injured leg, earning a final cry of pain from him.
“What was that you said to me the other day?” I hissed, “When I kill you, I’ll have my boys do it… I’ll let them have their way with you first…”
My eyes burned into Kevin’s, and though he tried to keep a defiant face, I could see the fear in them.
​
“Where are your boys now, Kev?” I asked.
“It’s… Kevin…” He rasped, although I could still hear the fear in his voice.
I’ve gotta be honest… it was kinda funny.
“I know,” I replied as I squeezed the trigger one last time.
​
I might have only been using a .22, but it did the job perfectly. Kevin’s head jerked backward and he sank down into the mud, his eyes still open and staring quietly into infinity. I’d remember those eyes… but they would not haunt me.
​
I looked over at Nina, who gave a wide berth to the Sheriff’s Boys and the Demons trying to maul them as she ran to my side. She looked down at Kevin’s body, and I saw a wry smirk cross her lips, though as she reached down to pick up Gretchen’s revolver.
“Guess he shouldn’t have run for office,” She said, before looking toward the clock tower.
​
Through some of the crumbling bricks, I could see two figures limping out of the ruins.
“Dom…” I said, running toward him.
Gretchen was slung over his shoulder, but it was hard to say who was supporting who at that point. He collapsed down into a sitting position, and let her flop down onto the ground. The only indicator I could hear that she was still alive was her slight groan of pain.
​
“Oh my God, you’re okay?” I asked.
Dom just gave me a meek thumbs up.
“Next time… let’s… let’s not do… whatever that was…” He said, pointing vaguely at the clock tower. I pulled him into a hug, that he weakly returned.
​
“Hey… you good?” Nina asked, looking down at Gretchen and giving her a slight kick.
“Test results… sub-optimal. Do not recommend second attempt,” She groaned.
“Yeah, you’re fine. Get up, you big fucking nerdy baby.”
​
She reached down to help pull Gretchen to her feet again.
“Hot tea…” She murmured, as she leaned against the crumbling clock tower for support. “Hot tea… and a bath…”
She looked over at Nina.
“What are you doing when this is all over?”
“Oh, I’m gonna get fucking drunk and buy a lottery ticket,” She said. “I do not know how we’re all still alive right now, but I’m feeling pretty damn lucky.”
“Alcohol… yes… in tea…” Gretchen agreed, “You’re buying.”
​
With a trembling hand, she took her journal out of her jacket, turned to a fresh page, and in letters large enough for me to read wrote: ‘TOWER. NO.’
​
A distant roar pulled out attention back toward the gate. Above it, I could see the Rosen Prince descending from the building again for round 2. He was smaller this time, and had shed his wings… yet his form was otherwise unchanged.
Gretchen just closed her eyes in exasperation before sighing.
“Right… him…”
​
Through the gate, I could see the Sheriff’s Boys in the trucks trying to fight the Demons and the Prince to no avail. One of the trucks hastily sped off into the night. The other one stood its ground, shooting vainly at the Rosen Prince as he came for them. He brought one claw down like a hammer, crushing the men in the truck like it was nothing, then drawing it back to hit them again out of rage.
​
Hissing in satisfaction, we watched as the Rosen Prince continued toward the gate, his many legs going over it as he advanced into the courtyard.
“This night draws to its close, my old friend.” He snarled. “It seems you can run no more… while my strength, is everlasting. It is time… come into my ocean, as you were always meant to.”
​
“Oh fuck off already,” Gretchen huffed, before noticing Nina out of the corner of her eye, offering her the revolver. They traded a look before Gretchen took it and aimed it at the beast that advanced on us. The moment it realized what was being aimed at it, I heard it snarl with rage. Its body tensed as it lunged for us, trying to close the distance before she could shoot.
​
But it was already too late.
​
The gunshot echoed through the courtyard as the bullet hit the Rosen Prince square in the chest, and I saw his body begin to seize up. He clawed at his chest, many eyes going wide. A pained scream escaped him. Pink mist rose from the wound, causing its flesh to bubble and squirm. The Rosen Prince’s eyes fixated on Gretchen again as his body began to die.
“WRETCHED WOMAN!” It hissed, throwing its weight toward us as its body convulsed and boiled. “THIS WORLD REMAINS MINE… YOU SHALL NOT RUN FROM ME AGAIN!”
“Yes, this world is yours,” Gretchen agreed. “Enjoy it while it lasts. I imagine it won’t be for much longer. Your services are no longer required here. But thank you for your assistance.”
​
“TREACHEROUS WITCH!” The Rosen Prince snarled, desperately trying to crawl toward us. I saw the lower half of its body break away. Its legs curled in on themselves, twitching weakly in death. Only the Prince’s rotting torso remained now and Gretchen stared into its countless eyes, cold and unblinking.
​
As it tried to pull itself closer to us, one of its claws broke off. It’s movements slowed, as the amalgamation of corpses the Rosen Prince had assembled melted away. I could see the luminous flowers on its body starting to die, as the eyes turned white and fell away. In a few moments, the body of the Rosen Prince lay still as the flesh melted off of its bones… and silence filled the air.
​
“Is it dead…” I asked quietly, “Really dead?”
“No,” Gretchen replied. “The other drones will still be active, and I suspect he’ll be coming back for us shortly, once he can build something even worse to throw at us. We should leave now, while we still have the chance.”
“What about Calhoun?” I asked.
​
“If he’s not dead already, I vote we leave him to the Rosen Prince,” Gretchen said. She checked the cylinder of her revolver, “Seems whoever had this wasted the last of my ammunition… luckily I had foresight. Camille, you still have the bullet?”
“Right here,” I said, reaching into my pocket to take it out.
​
“Good,” She handed the revolver off to me, before turning away and heading toward the door. Her gait was slow and she gave the Rosen Prince a wide berth.
“I’ll remove the rune on Calhoun’s door. If we can find the room with the Eldest again, we should have a way out. We can use the last bullet on him, and see if it works… no promises, but right now I we’re low on options so it will have to suffice fo-”
​
A sudden onslaught of gunshots interrupted her. I saw Gretchen hit the ground with a pained cry, clutching at her side. Nina ran to her immediately, dragging her behind the ruins of the fountain, while Dom and I ran back toward the clock tower.
​
A single figure stood under the gate, shuffling past the ruined trucks with a heavy pistol in his hand.
​
Governor Calhoun looked significantly worse than when I’d last seen him. His skin looked a shade paler and his good eye seemed sunken. He’d stripped off both his shirt and suit jacket and I could see the bullet wounds in his stomach from where I’d shot him… although that was not what stood out the most. His skin was adorned with fresh cuts, with streaks of blood flowing from them like rivers. In his other hand, he held his ritual dagger.
​
“Leaving me for dead?” He asked, his voice hoarse and cold, “After all you’ve done… to ruin my world… to burn my temple and salt the earth upon which it was built, and you can’t even finish the job? Disappointing.” Nina tried to pop out of cover, but Calhoun shot first, grazing the stone by her head and sending her back down.
​
“It’s a shame it had to come to this,” Calhoun said. “I would have saved your world. I would have saved each and every one of you. But now after you’ve gone and wasted everything I’ve done… decades of good… I see now that there is no salvation for you people. There never was. I built paradise! And you’ve burned it! Corrupted it! Unleashed plague upon it! Why? I did no harm to you! I left you people be! And yet in stubborn defiance of my efforts to resolve this peacefully, you’ve-”
“Kill yourself,” Nina called, and Calhoun trained off.
​
“Excuse me…” He hissed.
“We’ve got you four to one, and you’re already looking like death warmed over… so cut the speech, Calhoun. Cut the theatrics… and let’s just get this the fuck over with you self-righteous fuck!”
I saw Calhoun actually crack a smile there.
“Ill-mannered until the end,” He said, before finally lowering his gun and tossing it aside, “Well… at least you were consistent, in life.”
​
He took another trembling step forward before sinking down to his knees. I saw Nina rising out from behind cover, while Dom and I did the same, our guns remaining trained on him. Calhoun looked at us, before slowly taking his knife and turning it toward his stomach.
​
Was… was he actually going to do it? Just like that?
​
Nina seemed surprised, pausing as she locked eyes with him.
“If there’s no salvation,” Calhoun said, “Then all that remains is death…”
With that, he drove the dagger into his stomach, sucking in a breath as he did. Nina actually flinched at the sight of it, but I stayed still, watching as Calhoun buried the dagger deep into his body, and as the blood dribbled down his hands.
“Holy Lugal,” he rasped, “I have no home to defend… no souls to offer. And so, I offer my own. Grant me retribution and I shall become yours.”
​
My eyes widened, and I could see Nina's doing the same. We understood all too late why he’d mutilated himself…
​
We fired on Calhoun, but it was too late.
​
A blinding crimson glow had already spread through his body, traveling along the carvings he’d made in his flesh and I could feel the air around us rippling. Somewhere in the distance, I could hear Calhoun screaming, followed by a faint voice over all of the noise. A voice I only barely recognized as Gretchen’s screaming:
​
“RUN!”

Long story short and as much as it sucks to say, I haven't really experienced much of anything. I'm going to intentionally beat around the bush as to what category that "experience" falls under but I think most people should be able to figure it out lol. In other words (and if you play games), I'm a complete noob when it comes to all things girls. As for why those things haven't happened and why I want that to change.. There's a few reasons, but the main reason why I'm putting such an emphasis on this is because I'm a huge homebody and I don't go out much at all which makes it difficult to meet people. That's where Reddit comes in! The message I'm essentially trying to send is becoming physically AND emotionally close with a girl is what I want the most. I want to experience it all; the laughs, excitement, curiosity, intimacy, hanging out, fun. Experiencing all that for the first time will be the closest I’ll ever get to flying (like a bird, not in a plane 🙃) Blame all the Disney movies I watched as a kid for that lol.
Finding someone would be a dream come true, but I also wouldn't mind striking up a friendship at the same time because that also counts as experience! You can never have too many friends. Local or international, just let me know if that's what you want instead :) And I definitely wouldn't be opposed to a relationship. I've obviously never been in one so I'm not exactly sure how to transition to that, haha. I totally wouldn't mind finding out, though :) Also finding someone to say good morning and night to, too! That would be the best even if it's incredibly cheesy 🧀
Anyway, it could be someone of any age with a lot of experience or someone with no experience like me, or introverted or not introverted like me, etc. I don't have a preference either way :) But if I were to be reaaally picky: they'd be sweet and down to earth because just cuddling on its own would be all kinds of cool. I might actually prefer that over doing you know what with a girl :) A bit about me: I'm shy, caring, kind, sweet and am normal in the weight and height categories. I want to say I'm okay in the looks department? 🙈 I'll let you decide that though lol. I think it's super fun learning about people through conversation so I'll leave the following hobbies section blank. Then again, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give a small hint to something I love.. My username should provide clues to that! I Siriusly need to re-watch the movies again. Maybe with someone I meet through r4r?
Alright, I can't hold it in anymore. I pretty much like a little bit of everything. For example, when it comes to music, I go through Backstreet Boys phases to Disney song phases (Moana is awesome and I haven't even seen the movie 🙊) to something like Simple Plan, Paramore or 50 Cent. What I'm trying to say is I like a little bit of everything! So there's a good chance I'll like whatever you like when it comes to hobbies and interests and that means connecting with each other should be relatively natural/seamless. Or maybe that's wishful thinking on my part, haha.
I'm not the best with openers and if you're also in the same boat, then how about this: If you could have any superpower what would it be and how would you use it? Being out of this world smart like Tony Stark is an acceptable super poweanswer, by the way.
Hopefully my first impression is a good one! If anyone is even remotely interested, then just let me know and I'll get back to you asap!

Expecting #3 (our last) and just wanting to start putting together a list to ponder over the coming months. My first two are a girl (Aubree ) and a boy (Emerson), no idea what we're having this time yet so I need suggestions for both
I'm not committed to having another vowel letter first name, so throw out any other names you like as well, doesn't need to be limited to I , O , or U, but I kind of like the idea of another vowel. My husband likes the name Hanna Lily and I like it but I'm not 100% sold, but it is definitely in the running for a girl's name.
We both like names that have more than 1 syllable so we can shorten for potential nicknames.
My husband likes the name Hanna Lily and I like it but I'm not 100% sold, but I mention it because names that don't start with vowels are definitely still on the table.
As much as I love them please no names that start with A or E, I'm not personally a fan of repeat letter names for siblings (even though I really do love a lot of names starting with these letters haha)
Bonus points for an H name that ends with the letter A (like Hanna) because our names are Aubree- Emerson- Nicholas -Sarah- and a baby with a name starting in H ending in A would kind of complete that circle (first Initial starts with the last letter in another family member's name, AubreE EmersoN NicholaS SaraH H*A). BTW this was not done intentionally but just something we noticed after we had our second lol
Anyways, can't wait to see the suggestions :) Hope I get a few to put on a short list haha

Me and Aaron had been friends since…well, since birth. It all started in a small hospital near the bottom of Providence. The year was 1991, and Hurricane Elena was passing by. As it happened, two women were giving birth to us in the same delivery room due to lack of space. In a sense, it kinda did make us like twins. Our mothers became fast friends – both strong, divorced women who had better things to do with their time than waste it on men who would always ditch them. They really leaned on each other and wherever one went, the other followed. No matter where I was, Aaron would always be my neighbor, or even my roommate, and the vice versa would always be true.
Although we certainly had the connection that people always say twins have, we couldn’t be more different from each other. Appearance wise, sure, it was obvious that we weren’t related, but we also had some pretty big personality gaps between the two of us. I was a stereotypical extrovert, played sports, the whole damn nine-yards. I was always Named Most Popular since I can remember. Aaron, meanwhile, was more of an introvert. He liked reading and photography, and was named Most Likely to Succeed for as long as I can remember. I mean, I liked to read too, just not as much as Aaron, and Aaron also liked to talk and to be active, just not as much as me. It’s not that our traits differed in any way. The two of us just exercised them at a different capacity. But given all that, we never had any issues in talking with each other.
We…were inseparable to say the least.
I’ll spare you the monotonous details and just jump right to present day.
Well, by present day I mean the period where everything that happened…happened.
September of 2019.
Aaron had recently lost his amazing wife to a drunk driving accident (the other driver was drunk, not her).
I admit that we had grown apart ever since finishing college and going our separate ways, but we always kept in touch.
But during that time, I admit that I didn’t talk with Aaron nearly as much as I could or should have. I was embroiled in my own things and – uh – talking to a certain coworker of mine, so to speak.
Lizbeth was her name and playing hard to get was her game.
Her words, not mine.
Anyway, it wasn’t until a friend of mine and Aaron called that I realized just what a neglecting asshole I’d been. Hearing them describing just what a shell of his former self my best friend had become made me understand just how much I’d underestimated the emotional damage he’d suffered. So, when said friend mentioned that he would be going on a solo hiking trip the next day, you can bet that I showed up on his doorstep in full hiking gear. We’d both been avid hikers while in our college years, and I was sure that this was meant to be a therapeutic walk down memory lane.
I found it weird that he hadn’t called me to join, but then again, I hadn’t exactly been open myself.
I would be lying if I said that my mouth didn’t drop when I first laid my eyes on him. In the months since the funeral, he must’ve dropped something like thirty pounds and his body looked as though it had been pasted onto his skeleton.
Aaron must’ve noticed my expression and said “If only diets thinned my vocal cords as well.” referencing the fact that I hadn’t thought anything had been wrong the few times we had talked on the phone.
He gave a chuckle, but I sure as hell didn’t laugh.
Instead, I just stared at him, but as his eyes focused and noticed my camping gear, he frowned.
“No,” was all he said before closing the door abruptly and with a rather rude amount of force.
I wouldn’t let it go.
I knocked and rang incessantly, making sure that he knew I would be tagging along whether he liked it or not.
To avoid making an already long story longer, I’ll also spare you the details of how I managed to convince Aaron to let me go with him. I just left his house with a piece of paper he’d given me after he’d scribbled an address on it.
It was the address for a hiking trail out in one of the towns we’d lived in. Trouble was that said town was a good five hours away by car, and the time Aaron had written was so early in the morning I would have to start driving at least around midnight to make it on the time Aaron had specified.
A part of me wondered if I was being led on a wild goose chase, but at the same time I knew that this was my only chance, and I was willing to risk it if it meant I could be with my best friend in the whole wide world.
…
Insomnia had never been something I ever had to contend with, even in university where almost everyone else pulled all-nighters.
Why am I saying this?
Well, I feel it’s important to know how hard of a time I had having to drive all the way to the meetup spot without getting into a roadside accident. Even though my path was barren apart from a few scant cars or trucks, it still took everything I had not to crash.
When I finally did reach my destination, the sun was barely starting to peek out from behind the horizon, and the sky had turned a pale shade of lander mixed with wispy swirls of orange.
There were no other cars in the lot when I pulled up, and I remember feeling an incredible sensation of frustration when the idea that I had really been duped popped up.
But just as I was about to slam my fists on my steering wheel, I saw another car pull up, one I recognized as Aaron’s.
I stepped out of my own car and watched silently as he himself got out and pulled his equipment from the trunk of his car.
I don’t know why I didn’t just call out to him, as he could’ve easily slipped past the viridian green that surrounded us without ever having noticed me.
But he did.
He did notice me.
He froze just like a deer in headlights.
He had given me the right address all right, but he hadn’t actually expected me to show up.
I thought I saw the briefest of smiles on his skinny face, but then it disappeared.
“So,” he started as he walked up to me,” the King of Sleep pulled his first all-nighter.”
His voice sounded much huskier now, as if his vocal cords had degraded overnight, but I made no comment of it.
We just exchanged some small talk at first, but then things got real silent. Aaron looked at me quizzically, as if expecting an answer for a question he had never asked. I put on my own gear and was heading to the nearby trail, but then Aaron stopped me.
He pointed at a bush near us, and went over to it. He moved it out of the way, and exposed a dirt trail.
I stared as he held the bush up with his thin fingers, expecting me to go in.
Into the wild wilderness which hadn’t yet to be tamed by man.
But what choice did I really have?
“Ladies first,” Aaron teased, the air barely leaving his lungs
And that’s all it took.
…
The first red flag showed when Aaron started to pitch a tent. My legs felt like boiled spaghetti. We were in a small and secluded clearing; God knows how far from the parking lot or even any human-made pathway.
“Jesus,” I remember saying, the feeling of my legs searing from exhaustion still burning in my mind, “how long are we going to be out here man?”
I was mostly being sarcastic, but I can say that Aaron’s answer genuinely took me off guard.
“As long as it takes. Be it weeks or months.”
I stared at him.
I genuinely thought he was shitting me, but as we unpacked in the tent, I saw all the paraphernalia he had brought with him.
He had enough canned goods to last at least a month (two weeks if we shared), pots, pans, fishing hooks, and so on.
All things that one would need to “rough it outside”, as my former Boy Scouts coach taught me.
But what worried me most was the shotgun.
A plain, Mossberg double barreled shotgun.
Aaron, as he ate his dinner of canned tuna washed down with some instant tea, noticed me staring at it.
“See something you like?” he remarked, his voice devoid of any sort of humor or sarcasm.
Not like you could tell anyway.
“N-no,” I stammered,” It’s just that…”
My voice trailed off because I was hesitating to say what had been on my mind for the better part of that day.
“Why are we here, Aaron?”
I heard the hardest of gulps drift through the air.
The LED lantern that hung above us showed me the stern but equally sorrowful look on his face.
“Do you trust me?” was all he said, biting his sickly thin lips like a kid anxiously waiting for the results of a test.
“Yes,” I replied without thinking.
Aaron shuffled nervously in his spot for a bit before outstretching his arm to me, his skinny hand wide open.
“Then give me your cell phone,” he said, as if asking for a Dorito.
The tension that overtook the tent felt like someone had wrapped three garbage bags around my head.
Even though my brain was screaming at me not to, I said nothing as I handed him my old blackberry.
…
The days really did start to blend together.
Foraging for wood, walking till your legs damn near fell off, shitting in a hole, etc.
I became accustomed to it after a while.
Not like I had a choice anyway.
As me and Aaron walked under the auburn canopy above us – tinted with red, yellow, and some green – I would often find myself wondering what my friends and family back home were thinking. I wondered if they were worried, which they most certainly were. I wondered if they thought something bad had happened to me.
I wondered what was happening outside the forest.
Every day I did.
There was no denying that Aaron had become a wholly different person.
Despite his sickly frame, he would always find himself walking ahead of me.
Even if the ground was so muddy I’d have trouble walking, he would still be three steps in front, as though he had no trouble pulling his boots out of the thick diluted dirt which covered the ground.
A week had passed.
I think.
I really don’t know.
I just remember putting down the can I was eating from and looking Aaron right in his barely lucid eyes.
“What are we doing here?”
Aaron looked up at me for only a few moments before scarfing down a few more spoonfuls of his canned fish, not a word having left his mouth.
“You remember this forest?” he asked in-between his infrequent chews.
“Yeah,” I replied, somewhat caught off guard by this question,” our moms always told us to never play in it because we could get lost…and now I get why.”
For days we had walked, and no signs civilization had we found.
“What else do you remember?” Aaron pressed.
I had to squeeze my brain like a wet rag before another memory dripped and dropped in my consciousness.
“You…never listened,” I said,” Unlike me you were never scared to go in and stay for who knows how long while your mom was at work. I remember the oath to secrecy we had sworn to never tell any adult and…look, just tell me what the hell this has to do with this mess cause I sure as hell can’t connect the fucking dots here on my own.”
Aaron sighed, as if disappointed that I hadn’t said the most obvious thing.
“You know what I did all day in those woods?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, the annoyance in his tone clearly audible.
It was the first time any emotion had come out of him since we had first started this dreadful hike.
I left out a heavy sigh, more like a grunt than anything else.
Aaron continued.
“I talked to someone.”
I raised my head out of my palm and looked at him with the most dumbfounded expression I could muster.
“A friend,” he added before finishing the last of his Tuna.
Aaron paused before he chuckled.
A genuine chuckle.
“Right,” I said, my patience wearing thin, “you were talking to a kid from the neighborhood-”
“No,” Aaron interjected suddenly, “It wasn’t a kid.”
The weight of what he could be implying crept up on me like an iron hand.
“A…An…Adult?”
Aaron sighed as he leaned back on his sleeping bag.
“A bear,” he said,'' a bear cub as black as coal who would always listen to what I had to say. We’ve come aaaalllllll this way just so that I can meet her again after all this time.``
It was night, and the rain outside certainly wasn’t helping my mood.
“Aaron…You’ve been sick,” I continued in a tone with a harshness I’m too embarrassed to admit, “You’re sick Aaron. You’ve been sick since the last time I saw you and you’re getting sicker by the minute. Every single second you’re out here you’ve been getting worse and worse, and hearing this, I can’t be sure if you’re not sick in other ways too. I sure as hell don’t want you to die, but I ain’t sure if you want the same.”
The weight of my words tugged at my chest almost as soon as I let them all out.
It felt like I had thrown an anchor that was chained to my heart down into a bottomless ocean.
Aaron himself had grown silent.
I was about to apologize when he suddenly cut me off with words that still haunt me to this day.
“Yes,” he replied sheepishly,” that’s what I want…I do oh so wish…to die.”
A soft, innocent smile bloomed on his face, one that still sends shivers down my spine every time I recall it, before he closed the light and crawled into his sleeping bag.
I no longer recognized my friend.
That much I was sure of.
Even in pitch-black darkness I could tell as much.
…
I don’t know why the young girl was staring at me. Her skin looked ragged and tattered, and the only semblance of clothing she had was her long and disheveled onyx-black hair which poured out of her small scalp. The forest around us, eerie and quiet, held its breath for her to speak.
“Turn back,” the young girl told me,” you don’t know what you’re walking into.”
I stared at my hands, and the extra digits on it confirmed that I was indeed dreaming, and lucid no less.
“Where are your parents?” I asked.
I felt surprised.
The small girl cocked and craned her petite neck as she looked at me quizzically.
A small sigh was all that left her fang-lined mouth before both of our eyes locked.
I warned you her pupils said while her mouth stood still I thought it wasn’t yet too late for you, but apparently it is.
That’s when I remember waking up, not being able to recall the latter half of the dream.
…
Aaron’s binoculars seemed to fit perfectly in the sockets of his eyes.
We both stood at the edge of a cliff, Aaron deeply focused on whatever the binoculars showed him.
I too had to admit that I was degrading more than I would have liked. The bags under my eyes hung like curtains, and the only thing I ever thought about was my friend.
My friend who had changed so much and had become wholly unrecognizable.
I heard his tongue clicking before quickly putting the binoculars back in his backpack.
“Shit,” he said, “we have to go.”
“Why?” I muttered.
Aaron looked at me broodingly as he zipped his pack and slung it over his shoulder.
“There’s a hail storm coming. A bad one by the looks of it.”
As my friend made his way down the path we had followed to reach the cliff, I looked back at the expansive sky.
The previously gorgeous blue had seemingly rotted into a decrepit gray at the drop of a hat.
…
We found shelter under an overhead rock formation as the hail shredded everything in front of us. While the pellets were small, they seemed to fall with the velocity of fired bullets, and the sound they made gnawed at my skin.
Aaron sat beside me, oddly relaxed despite the unnerving situation we both found ourselves in.
The ever-falling curtain of ice hid us from the outside world, as though we had stepped through a waterfall.
“We’re getting close,” Aaron said absentmindedly, “so you’ll have to leave after this storm stops.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“You heard me,” he said coolly as his dried lips touched the rim of his canteen, “when this hail storm stops, we’ll both get up. You’ll return back to the lot by following the trail we have followed so far and drive back home and I’ll continue on to my destination. I’ll give you the necessary supplies to make it back, if that’s what worries you.”
I remember the muscles of my face locking up as though I was being electrocuted.
“That’s not what worries me!” I blurted out.
Aaron regarded me with a benign interest as he continued to siphon water out of his canteen.
“Aaron,” I think I said after regaining some semblance of composure, ”you’re…not well. We have to leave together, cause I ain’t going anywhere without you…”
My best friend sighed.
“Do you know why we’re here?” Aaron asked earnestly, waiting for an honest answer.
“I...don’t know.” I replied.
Aaron nodded in approval.
The hail didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon.
“I told you,” he said,” I came here to look for my childhood bear, but I never told you why.”
He got strangely silent for a bit before continuing, as if his eyes were struggling to follow each bit of frozen hail that fell down in front of us.
“I started to have dreams. Dreams where I was back in our old neighborhood from waaaaay long ago, back in this very forest. I told you. I would talk to a bear cub. I would remember this intermittently all my life. A silly and cute scenario where I had been lucky that the mother of that cub had never been nearby. But after she… Lydia…died…I started to dream about that damn bear every single night.
However, in these dreams, I would be shown a new detail, one I was sure was real every time I woke up.”
He looked me dead in the eyes before delivering the gut-wrenching punchline.
“I would talk to it, I remembered, but in my dreams, it talked back to me in the voice of a smaaalllllll child. Don’t you think that’s positively fantastic?”
“No Aaron,” I said earnestly,” I think you’ve got batshit crazy and you need help.”
I honestly still don’t know why I said something like that, but Aaron didn’t seem to mind. He was in a trance, and nothing could shake him out of it.
The storm had created an impromptu confession booth, and no one but me would ever hear the truth.
“You remember Lydia, don’t you Eddie?”
“Your wife,” I said, as though I had forgotten up until now.
“Ah, fine woman she was,” my friend lamented,” best thing to have ever happened to me.”
“And taken too soon…” I said softly.
“Amen to that!” Aaron shouted, taking another swig out of his canteen. It was at this point that I realized his canteen wasn’t filled with water.
The stench of alcohol that leaked out of his breath burned my nostrils.
“Best woman of them all. Fine lover. I would wake up just to see her besides me, eager to spend the whole damn day with her. We were unstoppable, me and her. She was about to prove herself as a fine mother too, were it not for that sonnva bitch.”
I frowned at that last bit
“Aaron,” I said before he could go off into another tangent, “was Lydia…pregnant?”
He looked at me, and those eyes that he had at that moment will be ones I will forever remember.
They looked like those of a child who’d lost a pet, but behind that childlike innocence of denial I also saw a burning rage that was kept at bay. His eyes were like the fangs of a snake, filled with more venom than they could ever hold by themselves, a window into something that had been brewing and fermenting for the better part of a year.
“As fertile as Iowa soil!” Aaron suddenly yelled, raising his canteen up in the air like a victory gesture.
I flinched.
Aaron noticed.
He seemed to recede back into his mental shell, and I knew I had to get whatever he’d kept from me out now or risk never finding out.
“And what did you do after she…was taken away?”
I chose my works carefully, making her death seem forceful because I knew it was the best bait.
And man…did he take it.
But now I wish he hadn’t.
“W-well…,” he said at first, metaphorically peeking out,” I-I cried Eddie. I cried till there were no more tissues left, and then I cried till I had no more tears left, and then I cried till I had no more will left in me. You know what hurt the most Eddie?”
I nodded and listened, unnerved by him having suddenly adopted his mother’s heavy accent, one which he had never displayed before.
“T-That motherfucker WALKED FREE! Some FUCKING crocodile tears and some fucking LEGISLATION was all it took for him to never have to see the inside of a cell and rot in there like the piece of FUCKING GARBAGE that he was.”
I was wrong.
Aaron hadn’t come out of his shell.
I’d cracked it open like a piggy bank.
“My wife a-and my unborn child would never live to breathe a lungful of air or see the sky above, but he could do that as much as he liked! I-It made my blood boil Eddie, but the steam only came out of my eyes, but then when I got the news, it just powered me like an unstoppable engine of revenge.”
His veins were bulging out of his frail hand, and I felt afraid.
I felt fear.
From being with my closest friend.
“W-what was the news?” I asked blankly, myself holding weakly onto some semblance of lucidity.
“Cancer,” my friend said flatly, before numbing himself with yet another swig, “malignant and terminal. My liver and stomach have already gone to hell, and I didn’t want to wait around for my brain to abandon me as well, so I decided to act! ONE LAST GOOD DEED BEFORE I MET MY FUCKING MAKER…and…the bastard who took away my wife and child too soon.”
The storm was somewhat letting up, and I could vaguely make out the forest in front of us.
I knew, from this, that his tale was about to end.
“And so, Eddie, while you drove here, I drove to his house and made sure to blow his fucking brains out with my shotgun. I always fantasized about turning it on myself, practically titillated by the thought of the cold barrel caressing the underside of my jaw, but I realized that would help no one. He would still run someone over again one day, if not very soon, and I didn’t want that to happen. I would be damned for pulling the trigger on myself, so at least I wanted to be damned for doing one last good thing in this rotten world!”
The curtain was almost gone, and the temptation to run away was growing. The aura that my friend exuded pushed me back, as though I was the wall of an ever-filling dam.
“I’m here to die, Eddie.” Aaron said, grabbing the collar of my jacket,” I will find that bear, and I will shoot at it, and I will let it maul me! I will let its claws purify me of my sin of murder, and should you try to stop me, I will not hesitate to SHOOT EDDIE, YOU HEAR ME?! We’ll both be together afterwards, so make your choice now. Leave…or die with me…”
The storm had stopped.
The curtain had been drawn.
The final act was nigh, and the silent world was about to hear my answer.
…
The cave sat silently like an unhinged maw, the darkness inside of it not daring to cross beyond its threshold.
The sun was slowly falling, and with each passing moment, the darkness seemed to creep out ever more beyond where it was guaranteed safety.
Aaron stood in front of it, his trusty shotgun at hand.
When shadow finally reached his boots, he fired his first shot.
I stepped back as Aaron cocked his firearm once more.
Another shot rang out, and I felt it, as I’m sure he did too.
Something was stirring.
Something was coming out.
We had stepped in its domain.
Closer and closer it got.
Each step it took made my muscles melt and smelt more and more.
By the time it peeked out from the curtain of darkness, I had become a statue, unsure even if I could breathe.
It’s maw, its grizzly, bloodied, and dirty maw was what peeked out first. It regarded us cooly, the rest of its humongous body shielded by the darkness that leaked out of that cave.
A charge?
Standing up on its hind legs?
Suffice it to say, neither of us had the slightest clue what was about to take place.
But then something neither of us expected happened.
A hand gripped one of the coarse stones that made up the rim of that cave.
A human hand.
The head of the animal extended beyond the safety of the darkness, and stepped out.
A woman.
A woman, with disheveled hair so long it reached her knees, stepped out.
Her head was that of a bear, but then I realized that…it was a mask that had been made out of the head of a bear.
I was frozen still, but although Aaron wasn’t, he didn’t so much as try to point his shotgun at her.
She craned her neck before slowly approaching my friend.
Her hands went around his neck like a lover’s embrace, their heights nearly equal, and not one word did she yet speak.
Only Aaron could start any conversation.
“I…knew it,” he mumbled, wrapping his arms around her as well, his shotgun falling to the ground.
The cold, dead, beady eyes of the animal head met his.
I was sure she said something, as I can swear on behalf of God that I saw her throat move.
Only Aaron heard whatever it was she had to say.
His response was all I heard.
“I wish to die…Only then can you uphold the promise you made for me.”
There was a pause, and before my eyes, her hair started to grow and extend, each strand wrapping themselves around her body like a cocoon.
It wasn’t long before she towered over my friend, covered in fur with paws as big as plates.
The head, unmoving up until now, seemed to twitch as she leaned back, before springing down like a trap, the gigantic jaws opening and swallowing Aaron’s head whole.
A sickening crunch was all that I heard.
The beast, surely as tall as a short-faced bear, and with fur blacker than coal, turned to face me.
Living, beady eyes examined me before the beast approached.
Frightened as I was, I couldn’t run, even though my life depended on it.
I closed my eyes, prepared for what I knew was to come, but something entirely different happened.
I felt something warm and slippery brush itself across my face.
It knocked me out of my trance and my eyelids flew open.
The bear was right in front of me.
Its gargantuan jaws opened.
It opened further than even that of a snake, revealing before me the head of the woman, situated right behind all those rows of razor sharp teeth.
“I thought I warned you…” she said, the hot breath of my friend’s blood making tears waft in my eyes as my skin felt as though it was rotting away.
With that, the jaw unhinged like a mouse trapped, starting me into falling down on the ground.
The massive beast lumbered away, back into the darkness of its decrepit cave.
Night had fallen, and so had I.
Fireflies are what led me back, and fear kept me alive, and the memories kept me awake as I drove back.
It’s getting dark now, as I write this.
I’m scared.
I don’t want to write anymore.
I don’t want to go where my best friend is.
I don’t care that I cheated.
I don’t care that I promised.
I don’t want to go.
I don’t want to.
I don’t want to.
I don’t want to.
I don’t want to go.
I don’t want to.
I don’t want to.
I don’t want to.
I tell him over and over again, but he refuses to listen.
So what can I do?