#its scary and its a cult escape WHILE YOU CAN---

[mobirights]

In The Limelight - wolfstar

A snippet from a wolfstar fic I'm working on based on my experience in the American high school thespian society (level: impossible. -1000 aura for long-lasting trauma). Theatre kids unite!!! There are so many terms in here that only a theatre kid would know, and I will define them when the fic is published, but right now... I'm lazy, just look them up lmao.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Remus hates One-Acts. 

Well—that’s not entirely true because he’s literally in Godric High's this year and it's always his favorite experience. He just hates watching them, especially at Districts. And he admits some of them are really good. He’ll never forget that production of Sorry, wrong number from Sophomore year. Literally on the edge of his seat that entire show. 

One-Acts in general, however…

He’s fallen asleep during at least 60% of the One-Acts he’s watched in his four years of high school. His final year is no different. That is why he has noise-cancelling earbuds, James’ shoulder, and his comfiest pair of vans. 

“One Act nap?” Lily asks from his other side just as he lays his head on James. 

Remus looks forward as the EmCee walks on stage in a bright green hat and announces the third One Act performance of the day (first for Remus and everyone at Godric because they arrived late).

“Good morning, District Six! Our next performance is a production of Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare.”

He rolls his eyes and turns to Lily, sighing. “One Act nap.”

The thing is, Remus loves Shakespeare as much as the next drama nerd. His first show at Godric was a production of As You Like It and it’s probably in his top five experiences at this God-forsaken school. But for a One Act? Come on. There have been some good ones, but more often than not, schools don’t know how to properly cut shows to forty minutes without losing a lot of integral plots and meaning that Shakespeare intended. He still shivers remembering that one production of Taming of the Shrew in Sophomore year. 

“Stage Managers, are you ready?” The EmCee calls back to the curtain, met with two voices shouting back “Yes!”

“Troupe 228, your time starts now.”

The house lights dim. Just before everyone goes quiet, Remus manages to whisper, “Which school is this?” to James on his left who smiles brightly and mouths Salazar as the troupe’s crew starts to set up their stage in the semi-dark. 

Remus huffs and turns his music high enough to drown out the noise, but low enough to go unheard in the silence of the PAC. 

Salazar Northern Preparatory Academy. SNPA for short. Godric’s rivals, naturally. Remus tries not to be concerned with school rivalries and petty feuds, but everything about SNPA just grinds his gears. Technically, their real rival is Rowena High School because it was built after Godric in the 80's and stole half their student body because of zoning changes. Salazar, though? Their rivalry and hatred for each other dates back to before the schools were even built.

But Remus would rather not think about that. He just wants to take his nap and ignore SNPA like he does every year, James’ alleged long-lost friend from there be damned. 

He’s about to close his eyes when the stage lights turn and a group of girls and boys walk on stage in the most ridiculously modern teenage outfits. He assumes one of them is the Princess of France, and the others her attending Ladies and Lords.

Huh. Interesting way to cut the show, starting with this scene. 

The boy playing Boyet starts the opening monologue, and Remus is surprisingly entranced, his head half-way to laying on James’ shoulder. As the scene goes on, he somehow gets engrossed in the story. He doesn’t remember when he turned off his air pods, but the voices on stage are now clear and not muffled. He finds himself genuinely enjoying the show. The girl who plays the Princess's comedic timing could rival James—and he will never know he said that because as much as he loves his friend, Remus will not be fueling James’ football-field-sized ego. 

James wraps his around him and Remus leans into the touch. He might just watch this all the way through.

Then—and this will be documented as the moment Remus lost all sense and reason—the King and his Lords walk on. If it wasn’t obvious before, this is a very modern rendition. From the way James and Lily literally cover their mouths, he’s sure the modern costumes for the King and Co. are hilarious, but Remus is only focused on one thing.

Person.

Front and center is the most beautiful man Remus has ever seen in his life. Maybe he’s exaggerating because a younger version of him would have said the same thing about James (don’t judge him, he was repressed and the boy was nice to him), but this is different. 

“Fair princess, welcome to the court of Navarre.”

Holy shit. Yeah. Way different. 

The beautiful man in question has shoulder-length jet-black hair that looks softer than silk. His skin is like a porcelain doll’s, almost eery in its pale complexion, but so enticing. The only thing Remus can imagine is how bright his face must flush in the sun. Not only that, but this man has the voice of an angel—No, not an angel. A devil. It’s raspy and soft all at the same time. Smooth vibrato that steals all the attention on stage. The voice of a true singer, no doubt. 

As beauty in human form continues to talk, Remus feels lost. He’s seen and read this play more times than he can count, but with a voice like that, he can’t even follow the story anymore. All he hears is the honey-sweet voice of sin incarnate.

Yeah, he’s fucked.

[fireflysummers]

Good Omens S2

Okay so.

Excellent Job, Gaiman

Ouch???

I don't like to publicly talk about my personal life. My academic life is my professional life is my artist life. But my personal life? Not so much, outside of vignettes.

But for the past several months, I've been deconstructing a lot of personal baggage and trauma surrounding both family and religion, after leaving the cult I was raised in (mormonism).

It's terrifying to realize that the framework you built your entire self on is false. It's exhausting and painful to deconstruct that framework, to disentangle your identity in the way that won't destroy you.

And it's slow.

Nobody ever tells you how slow it is to heal. You can't control the rate you heal either. You just have to be patient with yourself, and give yourself an environment where that healing can occur safely and naturally.

Anyways.

Good Omens, and its weird tendency to be exactly what I need when I need it.

I first read Good Omens in high school. And honestly, I didn't quite get it, at the time. I only knew it was different from every other book I've ever read, one that didn't treat religion as stupid or trivial, but also one that called out the blatant hypocrisy and control tactics involved. It helped me safely challenge a status quo I hadn't even realized existed.

I first watched Good Omens partway into my Master's Degree. It was everything that I could've hoped for. I understood the book a lot better, but the TV adaptation captured my struggles with mental dissonance, trying to understand and accept the parts of my identity that I was taught God didn't want.

I watch S2 a year into my doctoral program. I'm out of the cult, and it's exhilarating and painful and scary and fun, but I can still feel the scars its hooks left when they were torn out.

I feel like S2 Aziraphale is in about the same place. He's exploring his freedom, but also trying to reorient himself. He's trying to let himself be. He's healing, but his boundaries got overridden due to circumstances out of his control (naked Gabriel). He's been pulled back into the gravity of the abusive system he tried to escape, given a carrot on a stick, and isn't yet healed or strong enough to resist.

On top of that, Aziraphale is still holding onto the hope that the problem was bad individuals, not a corrupted system. He thinks if the leadership is different, things can change. He thinks if he had more authority in the system, he could make things change. And... that's not how it works.

And Crowley. Dear Crowley.

He wants Aziraphale to be farther along in his healing than he is. Honestly, Aziraphale wants it too. But again, you cannot force this kind of healing, even when it results in a loved one making some truly stupid decisions.

Crowley sees the system for what it is. He's already deconstructed that part. But he hasn't really started addressing his own trauma. He's hinged his entire existence on Aziraphale, on being what Aziraphale needs, that he hasn't allowed himself to heal either. And Aziraphale, who is vulnerable and healing, is not able to provide the support that Crowley would need to recover safely.

Which is why them separating is probably the best thing for both of them.

It won't be permanent.

But they don't communicate, and their relationship while delightful and beautiful risks unhealthy codependency that prevents either from really growing or healing.

Anyways, what I really hope to see next season is Aziraphale's realization that the system never had his back. That the system is what's wrong, and that he can't win by playing at respectability politics or gaining a higher status within it.

I want Aziraphale to get angry.

He deserves it. He's tried so hard. He thinks he's lost Crowley over it.

I want him to feel the gut-wrenching despair of realizing how conditional and fleeting the system's version of love is, and I want it to turn into a rage.

But not a destructive rage--the sort of anger that Pratchett ascribes to himself and many of his works. The sort of anger that fueled Discworld and Good Omens. The sort that can be finessed into a weapon and a shield, that can be used to protect the people who truly love you.

For millennia we see Crowley fighting for Aziraphale.

For Season 3, I want to see Aziraphale fighting for his demon.

For him to apologize, without the expectation that Crowley will come back, but because he was wrong and Crowley needs to know it. To not expect forgiveness, not even think he deserves it.

And then for Crowley--who is trying to hide his heart eyes at seeing his avenging angel coming to save him for once, who he can tell immediately has changed, and is finally going Crowley's speed)--for Crowley to give that forgiveness, without strings attached.

[esa1900]

I saw that you asked for requests. Well, your prayers have been answered. I have such an idea. Douma x Fem!Half-breed!Reader. She's half human, half demon. Her mother was a human, and her father was a demon. At some point, the girl's father lost control and killed her mother. And because there was a part of a human in Reader, her father wanted to eat her too. But she managed to escape. Since that day, she has been looking for her father to avenge her mother. Reader has deer-like features (horns, ears and tail), and because of human genes, she does not look scary at all, unlike her father. Also, she cannot burn in the sun. Instead, her skin glistens in the sunlight, as if it has been sprinkled with diamond chips. She can be easily scared off, like a fawn. She's not on anyone's side. Neither the demon slayers nor the demons. She's on her own. She will stop only at revenge on her father and that's it. How will Douma get to know her?

hvshddbwjehd thank you for requesting😔🙏

douma x fem!halfbreed reader

TWS: power unbalance, kidnapping, manhandling, lmkmif i forgot something.

.the first time douma ssw you was in the woods near his temple, he was going for a walk with one of his followers (victims) and spotted something moving not too far away.

.as you sensed him and the human approaching you tried to get away, only to realize theres no time to do so, so you decided to hide between trees.

.that didn't stop douma from noticing you though, you two even made eye contact, your eyes filled with fear while his were curious and dominant.

.but he decided to move on with his "walk" and maybe come back and look for you later

. relief filled you as he moved forward with that human, letting out a breath you didn't know you were holding.

you placed a hand over your chest as he walk away, leaning yout back against the tree and slightly falling to the ground.

.a few weeks later you were walking nearby his temple, in the morning this time.

.you stumbled upon two young men, the three of you stared at each other for a how kinute before one of them slowly takes a step forward, and thats when you start running.

."hey! where do you think you're going!?" one of the men yelled while they both chased you down although not succeeding.

. unbeknownst to you, those young men were worshippers at an uppermoons cult, who reported everything to him.

.the young man politley walked into the room where douma listens to his followers troubles, comforting them with lies and fake promises.

. he places his head to the ground in front of his lord douma and explains to him what he saw.

.a young woman with light brown hair, just like a dears, pointy ears and small horns, your eyes were big and dark, staring into them for too long can make you feel as if your getting lost in outer space, and a small tail hung from your bottom.

.doumas eyes widened as he remembers the demon he saw a few weeks back, right before he was about to devour his victim, his lips slightly part as he continues listening to the human explaining the situation, about some creature rosming near the temple

.what douma didn't expect though, is that you'd be out in the morning, he wanted to see it, how could a demon be out at noon? let alone have their skin sparkle like a diamon under the sunlight

.he had to find you.

. the follower was dismissed, once again with lies about his brother going to paradise, and how the gods promise that that creature is going to hell for their sins.

.all before douma dismisses all the meetings left for the night, deciding its time to go find you already!

.he knows you wander near his temple, this will be an easy find.

.and you better believe he finally does, hes an uppermoon after all.

.like the "dear" you are, you try an escape, too afraid of him.

.but your speed is nothing comoared to his, beforr you know it he's got you, his long fingers gripped onto your coat.

.and you look behind you only to see him standing there, not breaking a sweat trying to hold you in place, with a smile, while you struggle and sink your feet into the ground trying to escape.

"what do we have here?"he says, pulling you closer to him, hes now looking down at you with dark predatory eyes.

."what are you exactly?"

he asks, more himself than you.

,all you could do was struggle under him, fear is obvious in your eyes, that just cant stop looking at him, you cant, you're too scared

"you know you did scare some of my followers off this morning... but i think ill keep you, yourr interesting."

.with one swift move, douma throws you over his shoulder and starts walking back to his temple where hes planning on having more time with you.

.all you could do at this moment was scream, scream, running didn't help you this time, and fighting definitely won't here!

.he can even feel your body shivering on top of him.

"my dear, do you mind quieting down? i dont want to grab more attention now."

.but he enjoys it, he loves hearing others scream, especially those human women, but hes never seen anything quite like you before.

"hey, hey, but what are you exactly? you seem like a demon but i heard you can wander around at noon too, whats up with that?"

.his questions go unanswered by you.

"owh come on now.." he pouts.

. realizing thst he wont be hearing you speak anytime soon, he decides to take a little less time getting to his temple.

"okay now." he drops you on the floor in a spare room at the temple, you crawl backwards, away from him in fear.

."are you a demon? i can sense youre a demon, but how come you've managed to go under the sun?" he asks with his hands folded atop his chest, hes looking down at you wth a slight bob to his head.

.he waits a few secounds as you shuver against tge wall behund you.

."you know you're gonna have to answer me, tuus is very important information you're holding back."

."tsk, alright fine, i guess ill have to wait for you to calm down a bit." he turns around and makes his way to the door, getting out the room and almostm shutting the door, although he standes in between the door and bobs his head inside.

."ill make sure you cant escape and lock all the ways out' the room, okay?" he says before closinf the door behind him, you can hear him locking it as well beforr his boots tsp the floor as he gets further away from the room.

"i wonder if i should tell master muzan about this." he thinks to himself.

"ill just have to know what shes about first."

i wanted to write more but i was just tired and didnt wanna leave you hanging, so if youd like a part two just lmk!

[antiradqueerguy]

coming to your inbox because i like your vibe and have literally no other safe place to rant abt this. sorry if this bugs you delete this if you want but im debating leaving the radqueer community because of ciel/hbki. ive already been wanting to leave for a while, but the thought of leaving has been triggering my ocd and ive not been sure what to do. but after i saw that guy running around and seeing how obviously horrible he is, and how people still somehow like him, i think im going to go through and just delete my blog or ditch it ive seen him talk about abusing his girlfriend on so many different blogs of his and then i go to look at hers and she is so obviously trauma bonded to him, and its so triggering. it makes me sick how shes admitted to not enjoying how he treats her, but says his treatment is okay because its "consensual" but i really dont believe its consensual. and i know its not my business but i literally cant avoid them in this community. ive blocked them so many times but every time they both get termed, i see them again, and get triggered. ive thought about reaching out to opphie, but every time someone does, ciel is alerted and he starts harassing the person reaching out. maybe i just have a savior complex but seeing the way they are together makes me feel sick. i see myself in her and i feel guilty for not being able to help. one of my friends even watched her change her name on a dime in her discord server just because ciel suggested it. its scary that the community just lets ciel get away with everything. i mean didnt he even admit to *graping* her? and people are okay with it because the victim swears up and down that its consensual? it doesnt make it any better that antis treat him like hes just some edgy kid. yeah its true that he is one, but there are also very very VERY clear signs that he is actually a harmful person and that he is actually hurting someone. opphie even posted a list of a bunch of horrible things hes done, and it looked like a cry for help to me, but radqueers were reblogging saying things like "couple goals" and "this is so romantic" i dont know anymore what to do. i know i have to leave that community but i wish there was a way to make other radqueers realize that ciel is not a good person to have in the community. if they want to beat the pro-abuse allegations, they NEED to point out actual abusers like ciel.

TW: using images from ciels past and current accounts and mentions of r4pe

with ciel he avoids everything to do with him and taking accountability for his action, (EH HEM, his past use of ableist slurs towards people)

me personally i believe that ciel is a abuser. he has had a history of abuse and I've documented AS MUCH as i possibly can. i will not let him escape this and his HISTORY of abuse.

to the people who don't know what nonnie is talking about with ciel admitting to r4ping opphie heres a pic

Now ciel has a cult following, his boot licker fans love him, like hmm idk this

he is invincible, unless his connection to tumblr and discord is cut off his fans will continue to protect him and glorify his abusive behavior

#ciel is a abuser get his ass canned

edit: also HIII CIELLL i know you will eventually read this since you have commented on posts made by antis talking about you before, so howdy doo!!!

[hologrammana]

Just finished trade volume 3 of "Something is Killing The Children" by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell'Dera, & Miquel Muerto

Positives:

● Kickass Protagonist, she is short with people and really balances being done with her bosses and jobs shit while still acting in a way that shows she cares as it goes on she never loses that feeling she is on edge or tired but shows to be caring. It's a classic asshole with a heart of gold but hey it's a well worn trope for a reason. Also did I mention she is a sick as hand to hand fighter.

● Cool Plot, Reminds me of a bit of supernatural. It does quickly distinguish itself with less sublty, less interpereonal baggage, a less jokey main character and is quite bloody where as being a network tv show supernatural wasn't allowing it through that and tone just be darker.

Its almost a grimdark, a sense of repetition and slow loss of humanity in the MC, a raging against a inherently rigged system. It is set in modern America but monsters are real and very much have the advantage on humans but there isn't a hint of giving up by the humans the do know.

● Artstyle, I'm really liking artist Werther Dell'Edera and the grainy outline and merging of cloth skin and backgrounds it allows one color cloths to feel more realistic and helps with dynamic angles and fights. Which is good as this is a horror action comic.

Effective conveyance of themes, the comic is good as getting the feelings of it theme in just its artwork. It is not heavy handed about its message its just really well conveyed to the audience especiall. There is this idea of escaping your lot in life can be scary if needed that creeps in on you throughout.

Negatives:

● Panel layout, A problem for my small brain as it is smooth. But during dialog pages I had to retrace as it switches from being left to right top to bottom or being read entire left then entire right, and personally I found myself getting lost once or twice cause it wasn't communicating with its art or panel setup in which way it was meant.

● Gore, now I liked the brutality the main character threw down with the monsters, she and everyone else isn't invincible. Gore can be a major turn off for some people so I felt it reasonable to include here.

● Its not that deep (yet), So far the themes of far reaching trauma & grief are fine but shallow, though the story they are hinting at with inter house conflicts and ideas of what a cult like indoctrination does to someone even after they break free is looking interesting. But it's ideas of escaping all you've ever known for something else if not better not worse is quite compelling, I imagine doubly so if your in a stagnate position.

● Monster Design, I said I like the art and I do but the monsters so far (first arc) were pretty boring generic shadow monster with red eyes, I am looking forwards to see what else they come up with as

Being conjured from the fear of kids should absolutely have the author and artist plum the depths of crazy shit for monster designs.

[itissadbutitsmy-artblog]

This might sound a bit dumb, but I have an AU idea where Pepper Mint somehow manages to retain control of his Pepperminteppi form & escape with Cadebra. Cadebra: "So my friend is now an immortal Primordial being that can use massive amounts of black magic. Nice." The Cult has to deal with their God not wanting anything to them (& also being in Wizard Jail for, y'know, murdering children).

OK HIIIIIIIIIIIIII

absolute delight and excitement and beige comics under the cut let's go insane

first off this is such a fun idea but i kept getting stuck because how did they get out if he didnt get at least a little violent? they were in a Situation. thats why he started blasting in the first place in the movie! he kills everyone holding cadebra and then kills everyone else who is looking at the two of them funny, and he tells her to get out before he starts hurting her too. but anyways i digress. au! my polite little boy uou (transcipts in image descs to save on space. i realize i should be doing this in the first place to be more accessible but i dont do it. ay. someday ill get over that brain hurdle)

the profs are so. blank eyed about being Stopped. that’s their GOD. they want him to do the prophesied deeds! but he’s not. “aren’t you our god now” no I’m just that kid but I have this primordial god deity chilling giving me horrible advice now in my head. awful. thanks. i just learned real fast real hard how to love and trust myself

and then also i was like. well like. w. what is everyone gonna say. not nice things. thats a scary insect boy (WHY HE INSECT? IVE NEVER DRAWN PEPPERMINTEPPI PROPERLY BEFORE AND ITS KILLING ME WHY IS HE A BEETLLEEEEE).

and also also. also. ???? drinking the ichor SUCCESSFULLY, is quite literally what og peps just,, keeps saying will Recreate Him, OG Peps, so i guess he did that (?? HELLO) or something similar when he was little but as you can tell he did not uh. keep the scary beetle body. maybe he didnt have a bestie to protect

anyways. so. pep likes being big. :)

also have this

poor pep trying to mediate between the gay idiot he used to be in his head (not the gay idiot he still is) and the giant scary monster from the before-nothingtimes he just willingly added to the vr chat

and his poor fuckin teachers

(ron james is too old and anxious for this shit and life giving magus has a thing about not letting people feel sad :( hes an Emotions Wizard being sad makes him do Evil Magic did you watch the episode Little Dude? gotta keep his students feeling loved and safe or else. especially when they’re um. imbued with massive amounts of dark magic. sorry I like the them)

i also have this from discord

I don’t know how to end this post this au is fun. none of the kids and few of the adults know the significance of this guy. pep is like hnnnnn just wanna be a normal kid but also scarypowerfulbig. enough. to protect. blaines over here like we are not letting him in the school like that are we and weaponhead is like well. the important thing is we aren’t letting the murderers back in. Blaine.

Maybe larry (cousin got fucking murdered by the teachers) and pep (reached level 100,000 just by drinking juice and now kinda scares everyone) drop out together. just chill quiet together. what do wizards even DOOOOOO, get COFFEE??? make up entirely new schools of magic kinda like those jerky secret societies but less jerky (ron James s6e13 “thanks for the crabapples giussepe”)????? just sit around and wait for Blaine (RULES GUY) and Deb (needs structure in her life and thinks school is fun) to get out of class so they can go do things?

also also I was gonna be Sad tm that you said pep was immortal now, but I insist on believing that wizards have long lifespans. so it’s not like Deb and blaine and larry just fucking DIE ten seconds into pep’s infinite life. they’re there. for a while. (:

[artwithoutblood]

i'll start you off by saying the bec de corbin was picked up later in his demonhood. someone showed it to him and he thought it was cool as hell, and so a custom one was gifted to him that runs red in its veins with a hunger.

Nice. Maybe it was Aeron. Middle Eastern culture, blood, history, war. Artisan. Fits their vibe.

The blood thing actually gives me an idea which fits well with something I already had planned.

him being some sort of mercenary turned cult leader is actually really, really fun, and if i wasn't the person i am i would've stolen that. that's fucking brilliant.

It does work. Perhaps Dorian found himself short of cash or needing to escape an unsavory reputation, consequences, or just his miserable life. And he enlisted as soon as possible after his mother passed (I think the minimum was age 17). Perhaps as he grew in confidence he used his deployments as a way to spread the gospel and accumulate followers. Even just camp followers who began to encourage him until he believed his own hype.

There's actually some more interesting things when digging about Gilles de Rais, who comes to mind - being a knight and alleged to have been involved in cults. (Huge TW for child death and SA if googling him. Not a good dude.) 

There are mentions of alleged witch-cults weirdly similar to Dorian's that were being stamped out as heretics. Dianic with an element of fertility, and a sun god that was becoming popular among Roman soldiers. Not related to each other but the Church was not happy and went after a number of the smaller religions including a sub-sect of Christianity. (I already knew about that one.)

in the reality of 10:16, the tattoo on his arm is of the player's name.

Ahhhh... of course. Because the player shares his mother's name. Why didn't I see that coming.

Rebecca is Hebrew so not a great fit. But perhaps she likes to go by her middle name, Agnes, so that's what bird Dorian was always hearing her called. I chose it because in Greek it means pure/chaste/holy and the Roman 'Agnus' means lamb.

Which is an animal motif - she has a trusting naive nature, is unknowingly a prey animal to those who shelter her, and there's the religious overtones. A sheep being protected by a shepherd and a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter. It also lets Dorian call her Lamb.

It doesn't really fit with Germanic roots... I think the closest there would be Inessa or Nessa.

But Rome did have a Saint Agnes. (Massive TWs there too.)

Ironically while she did get martyred eventually (for refusing a man and her Christianity being judged a cult), attempts to defile her purity failed and the wood at her stake refused to burn.

in ways i like to keep dorian's human life vague because that no longer matters to him. at this point, he's nearly forgotten his own name. people can fantasize about what they think, about what they want. what matters is that dorian sits in his cathedral, sorting through books, wishing he could leave. wishing he could take the muzzle off.

and perhaps he will, one day, but he has not been killed, and i don't think anyone has told him that this was an option.

it's not to say i don't love all of this, because i do! but it is a detail that i will give to the players and the readers to ponder about. what was he before? scary, of course. led the lambs astray, of course. but anything else? does there even need to be anything else?

[mikerickson]

@gothpatissier​, a solid chunk of that 50% was pretty bad, but here’s what stuck out for me:

North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud - A short story collection with a pretty consistent theme exploring toxic masculinity throughout all the entries, while also managing to be pretty creepy. There were nine stories in here and I loved all of them.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver - A British guy right before WWII knows shit is about to go down and wants to get out of town. He gets hired for an expedition going into the Arctic Circle with four other guys, but a series of accidents leaves him isolated for the duration of the planned study, which is several months. But he’s not entirely convinced he’s actually alone out there, and he has to wait over winter until he can be picked up again. This was the only book on this list I remember giving me actual nightmares.

The Fisherman by John Langan - Two recent widowers bond over their newfound love for freshwater fishing and stumble upon something they were better off leaving alone. This one is highly divisive in the horrorlit community because there’s a big “story within a story” section in the middle that’s honestly like 2/3rds of the book. People either love it or hate, and I loved it.

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno - A guy’s wife is killed by an immigrant during a robbery in a high-profile case during an election season. Everyone is trying to politicize the incident, and he’s not allowed to even grieve. To escape it all, he moves out to rural Colorado until the media leaves him alone, but a threatening presence seems to have followed him out there.

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas - The Mexican War of Independence has just wrapped up and Beatriz’s family was on the wrong side. She’s forced to marry for status, and she’s shuttled away to a derelict plantation that everyone knows is 100% haunted. She sets out to tame it anyway and salvage what honor and poise she has left.

Last Days by Brian Evenson - An ex-detective is kidnapped by a cult of self-amputees to solve a murder of one of their own. He wants no part, but everything he does to resist just further convinces them that he’s their new messiah. This is an extremely violent book and doesn’t even have any supernatural elements, but it was still pretty scary in its own way.

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin - A young woman is in the hospital actively dying alone and a young boy is demanding that she focus on what happened to her that lead to the situation. The entire book is a single conversation with no chapters or page breaks and is just very trippy.

A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck - A Morman man dies and learns that his wasn’t the true religion (turns out it was Zoroastrianism). Before he can go to heaven, he has to find a book that has entire life’s story. Problem is, the library he’s dropped into has every possible combination of books that could be written and there’s no order to it. The story itself is pretty sterile, but I was thinking about this one for weeks afterwards.

Revenants by Daniel Mills - A colony of Puritans in 1689 Massachusetts has been dealing with several girls disappearing into the woods that hems in their small community. The hunters finally decide to venture out there to find out what’s happening. Beautiful, very atmospheric prose and perfect for autumn.

We Need to Do Something by Max Booth III - A family of four who are at each others’ throats on a good day are forced to cram into a windowless bathroom during a tornado warning. They survive, but the house is destroyed and they’re trapped inside for several days. Everything that can go wrong does. If you asked me if there are any supernatural elements in this one, I honestly don’t know.

[theresnohopelivinghere]

The Journal of Emme Walker, May 2019

If you walk the streets at night in Hope, there will be no hope for you.

My grandparents used to tell me that all the time when I was a little girl.  Even from a young age, I never took it seriously.  I was a prideful child.  I thought I was invincible and that nothing could take me down.  That’s probably why my mom, bless her heart, had such a hard time coming to terms with my rampant curiosity and my thirst for adventure.  But my grandparents would not be deterred from scaring some sense into me.

The thing about rural towns is that people love to make up stories about them to make them seem more interesting or just to pass the time.  Hope is no different.  It was once an out-of-the-way town out by the sea, in the middle of nowhere.  I’m talking about dusty roads, ample farming, spotty local transportation, stores that looked like they came straight out of a black-and-white film, and older residents living the last of their lives in the one place they’ve always called “home”.  

It used to be that I’d just spend my summers there with my grandparents, helping out with their garden while partaking of the harvest.  But after my dad died, my mom moved back there and I went to school there from grades 4 to 6.  We moved before the development push.  She was offered a cushy job in a city she'd always wanted to live in that would allow the two of us to live comfortably into the foreseeable future.  A get-out-of-rural-jail card, if you will.

Seriously. According to her, it was our one escape out of a town that had proven itself to be anything but idyllic. If she hadn't taken it...well, things would be very different.

She's not a fan of me going back there to interview people for my dissertation. Which is funny because growing up, she'd tell off my grandparents whenever they'd tell me all the stories about all the terrible monsters that lurked within the town of Hope. All the old folks in town had their own stories about what happened to children if they stayed out too late at night or didn't trust their intuition.  Mom didn't believe in using scary stories to ensure that kids behaved themselves.  She told me that if she wanted me to behave myself and be a good girl, she’d just say so.  But my grandparents wouldn’t listen.  They insisted on me telling me these tales so that I could protect myself. Because there were too many instances of children who disappeared because they weren't warned properly.

I'm glad they did. Mom won't admit it, but she's glad, too. And yet here I am, on my way back to that town, ready to hear the stories of the children who didn't escape from the elders that still remain. Hope may be different now - young families moved in to take their place and brought with them the promise for gentrification. Shopping, entertainment, the town holds its own.  The local elementary school is top notch and so is the high school. There’s train service that links up to the other parts of town as well as the bigger cities, and paved roads that get you to the highway system.  You can go everywhere now.

And yet...

I know studying modern folklore and urban legends in the town of her birth won't get me a cushy job in a corporate office but this is something I want to do. Have to do, even. The tale of a seaside town plagued with paranormal activity, rumored to be once started by and controlled by a mysterious cult who swore allegiance to malicious entity who has been around since time immemorial until one they just disappeared - it's all very juicy stuff.

I’m not sure what I'm doing with all this. Why I'm going back. Everyone says if you brush against the shadows of Hope and survive, you should never come back. But that's why I have to. Come back. If there’s one thing that living in Hope has taught me, it’s that old habits die hard and old legends never die. I can feel the shadows stirring again, unhappy that they've been forgotten. They want the people to remember...to fear their power. I can feel the chill in my bones, and the terror squeezes my heart like a vice. I don't know what I'm trying accomplish, but I know I have to do something. For my mother and my grandparents. And for the children who couldn't escape the shadows.

Including the boy I loved.

[sun-in-retrograde]

Outer Planets Horoscope 7 August Week

Eris

Eris’ retrograde movement will start to pick up, though all that really means is that it moves from 25 Aries 14 back all the way to 25 Aries 12. That’s about the distance the sun covers in an hour. 

This means that the trine with Lilith and Venus is still active and Lilith and Venus are conjunct. This is a complex set of aspects that will be active in part all week. Put simply - Leo Lilith wants you to get yours, Venus retrograde makes you aware of what’s missing and Eris adds the possibility of long term change. Meanwhile, the Uranus square makes the future seem scary. It’s a really fortunate set of things for a feminist movie about a beautiful doll that allows people escape the future and return to potentially more safe and definitely more certain childhood memories.

It’s also a good time for industrial action and fighting people more powerful than yourself - you have fear for survival in an uncertain world. The ruling class only have fear of lower profits. This means it’s a good time to fight for workers rights and against opportunistic politicians, but the square and Mercury Saturn opposition make it a difficult time to fight cults. But, you know, when ever do you get to pick your battles in this life?

Haumea

Haumea is moving steadily away from its opposition with the North Node and square with Pluto but that will be active all week. Through the week it will go from 29 Libra 03 to 29 Libra 06. To me, that has the energy of getting everything you want and being sad about it. That’s certainly been part of the experience I’ve seen in this sign. Which raises a question of why you’re sad. One option, on big things, is that once you get the thing you need you have to start mourning for the years when you couldn’t have it. That’s a horrible feeling.  

Gonggong

Sedna is at 0 Gemini 29 and will advance to 0 Gemini 31. This means that the Sedna - North Node sextile continues to weaken but it’s still present. This might be a good time to confront some feeling of loss attached to what you can’t have. Particularly consider this if the Lilith-Venus-Eris-Uranus mess of aspects have left you feeling like you’ve been unable to become your best self. It can be tough to know you could have thrived under other circumstances.

Gonggong

Is conjunct Saturn on Monday - at 5 Pisces 19. By the end of the week Gonggong will be at 5 Pisces 16, and Saturn will be at 4 Pisces 49. They’re both retrograde, but for worlds as far out as Gonggong it genuinely feels less noticeable. 

It could mean a lot of things - a very literal one here in the UK has been a week of soggy weather before a lot of people go on holiday. Gonggong is associated with floods, Saturn can slow things down, and Pisces is a water sign, so it adds up. Less literally, it may be a flood of emotion that prevents movement, or a realization. None of this is exactly positive, but it can be positive to stop, to take stock, to break down when you’ve been managing to stay in a position that hurts you. If you reach the point of going on strike, you want to inconvenience people until you start getting treated fairly. That’s the whole point. 

Orcus 

Orcus is moving pretty fast and will go from 14 Virgo 03 all the way to 14 Virgo 14.It’s maybe not as coincidence that I’ve been made super aware of Orcus this week after talking to @brielledoesastrology about it a bit, and it’s starting to have a bit of a busy period. In this time, I’ve been re-evaluating it a bit. It seems to me like it appears in a quite positive sense a lot more than I expected. 

Some Astronomers call Orcus “anti-Pluto” and that makes sense - its orbit mirrors Pluto but in reverse - pulling away when Pluto comes in, and vice versa. It even has a similarly large moon comparable to its size. My current reading, which is subject to change, is while Pluto tries to build security through repression, secrets, the hidden and the occult; Orcus is the security of a hyperfixation. It’s the infodump, the emotional security fandom. 

And, well, the opposite is also true. Pluto can be the volcanic eruption of hidden things, which is why it’s transformative. Especially in retrograde, things can make their way to the surface. In the same way - overfixating can be isolating. You can end up speaking a secret language only people with your specific interests can get. 

The Mars - Orcus conjunction period may have been a time for research and learning. Especially in Virgo, we could have been gathering knowledge. For instance, I have certainly been doing that about Orcus.  Now that’s ending, Orcus is coming into a conjunction with Mercury. This feels more communicative. If you’re prone to obsessive behaviours, now might be a good time to try and explain why and bring people on board. Particularly because there’s a trine to Jupiter, which gives a desire to expand options. This may or may not be reasonably practical, but you have to try, sometimes.

[anhed-nia]

And now that I've been positive about something that didn't demand it, I'm gonna be MEAN for no reason just to restore balance to the universe. I fucking hate this movie. Never has a tagline been so accurate. TRICK OR TREATS is one of these things that has remained in circulation long enough for me to wonder, like, do people LIKE this, and there's just something good about it that I don't get? Or is it just anomalous that it's still available enough to be on Shudder 40 years after its accursed birth? I'm not just irked that it's "bad", which it is, but because I have no idea what the fucking point of it is supposed to be. What form of pleasure am I supposed to receive from it? This is a movie that's loaded with sluts and blowjob jokes, but it's completely devoid of graphic nudity or violence or even proper swearing. You might point out that it's more of a comedy, as horror-comedies go, but it's also not at all funny. It features a (not scary) escaped homicidal lunatic, but most of that plays out as a long gag about how, if a big ugly dude puts on a frumpy dress and a stuffed bra, absolutely no one can tell the difference and randos will start trying to fuck him immediately. Ha Ha Ha. It's a movie that seems to be aimed at horror buffs, but the "special effects" basically amount to Halloween decorations and cheap prefab magic tricks for children, which gives you that suspicious feeling that the filmmakers actually kind of hate horror movies and think that you can put any stupid thing in front of a genre fan and get their unqualified, brain dead approval.

Also like, maybe this is a personal thing, but I'd say MOST pranks are pretty unfunny, and movies that prominently feature pranksters are almost unbearable. If you're going to anchor your movie to the idea of tricks and pranks, it really better be as outrageous as the setup of TERROR TRAIN (a movie that also isn't very good, but at least there was an idea in there somewhere); you really cannot ask me to pay rapt attention to, for instance, an endless scene of a snot-nosed brat duping his babysitter into thinking there's somebody at the door. Oh wow, the little boy uses a string to pull on the door knocker, oh boy, the babysitter answers the door, oh no, there's no one there. Lather, rinse, repeat. Ha Ha Ha. By the way, why is this frustrated woman running around in like a Joan Collins type of nightgown while she's both managing this unruly child and having to answer the door for trick-or-treaters every ten minutes? Who fucking knows. How much time can we kill by putting the babysitter on the phone with her inconsequential boyfriend so he can report in about his awful-sounding Shakespeare performance? You'll find out if you watch this piece of shit! (FYI the occasional appearance of cult favorite actors only makes you wish you were watching something better)

There's a lot more to be perplexed about behind the scenes, like the fact that the writer-director-etc also shot movies for Orson Welles, and great horror movies like THE TOOLBOX MURDERS (where's the horror in this movie?), and also a huge amount of porn (where's the damn sex appeal in this movie?). I vaguely worry that TRICK OR TREATS was just made as a simple excuse to create a starring role for the filmmaker's young son, which makes it seem innocent and like something I shouldn't spend so much energy bagging on, but it's just so un-fun, and vaguely insulting, that it's hard for me to just turn a blind eye. AND ANOTHER THING I really hate that the title is pluralized. You can DO trick-or-treating, you can BE a trick-or-treater, but there's no such thing as "trick or treats". It reminds me of when I watched NOTTING HILL a couple years ago (*John Waters voice* What was I thinking about?) and among other sticking points, I could not get over Hugh Grant repeatedly saying "whoopsies-daisies". I mean. What the fuck, guy? Why are you, an adult, saying that, but also it's NOT PLURAL. It's just "whoopsy-daisy"; sure, you'll find a few variations in an idiomatic dictionary, but not one that pluralizes both words. "Whoopsies-daisies" isn't even easy to say. How the fuck did you come up with that? I think I've finally drained my poison gland for this morning, so to leave on a bright note, here's my favorite part of NOTTING HILL. Just Hugh Grant's roommate's implausible shirt. I kinda want one.

PS I posted that NOTTING HILL review on Facebook a few years ago, because I thought it was fun and like one of the more publicly acceptable/accessible things I'd written, and indeed, a bunch of people found it pretty funny. But then within a day or so, I had to go to a friend-of-a-friend's birthday party where I was quietly informed that I was nearly dis-invited because it was the adult birthday girl's favorite movie and she just, like, didn't want to see my face after she found out what I had to say. So, never let it be said that my opinions are not powerful and of consequence for others!

[amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines]

Jughead//so much more

Request: So I'm kind of in a Jughead mood right now, so I was thinking Reader and Jughead have been friends forever and when becomes a Serpent he wants to protect her but she's stubborn; they argue about it and then someone yells "I love you" and it ends fluffy with kisses.

hey! i hope you like this! thank you for reading! 

“Guess who is officially a member of the Southside Serpents?” Jughead does a small spin as he walks through your front door and a soft smile appears on your face as you witness the very out of character action. However it doesn’t last very long when he starts rifling through the kitchen cupboards obnoxiously loudly. 

“Hmm, I dunno. Could it be the boy covered in cuts and bruises eating my food.”  

“Maybe.” He mumbles through a mouthful of cookies before dropping on the couch dramatically beside you. You huff at him teasingly while locking your phone and he grins back at you, a couple of crumbs falling from his mouth. “Do you want some?” He moves the packet towards you and you send him a look before snatching it from his hands. “Do you think I look good in my jacket.” He models for you lazily and you look him up and down before shrugging. 

“You look alright.” 

“Alright? Not handsome or badass or even a little sexy?” 

“Okay seriously, I never want to hear you say ‘a little sexy’ ever again.” 

“You didn’t deny it thoughhhh.” He sings and you shove the cookie you’re holding in to his mouth. He chokes slightly making you chuckle and him glare at you once he’s recovered. 

“You can’t be that badass if a cookie has just almost killed you.” 

“Whatever.” He shrugs. The two of you fall into a comfortable silence, the only sound being both of you chewing. However you can tell Jughead wants to say something. One quick glance at him confirms your thought. His lips are parted slightly and his eyebrows are knitted together while he tries to figure out what to say. 

Over the years of your friendship you’ve learnt to let him figure out what he wants to say, there’s no point in asking him straight because then he rambles and you get no sense out of him. After a couple more minutes it seems he’s finally found the right words. But they aren’t what you expected.

“Y/n? Are you proud of me?” He asks and you look at him confused. 

“Of course I am. I’m always proud of you Jug.” You tell him seriously. “Plus, I always knew you’d join some sort of organisation. I’m just glad its a gang and not a cult.” You nudge him at the end making his chuckle quietly. 

“There’s always time. Who knows what my summers going to be like?” 

“Very true.” You hum. “If you do join a cult, can it be a nice one that lets me visit you?” 

“What makes you think you wouldn’t also be joining with me?” 

“...fair enough.” You nod. “So what are you going to do now that you’re in a gang? Spray paint some apostrophes onto grammatically incorrect graffiti?” 

“No.” He mumbles making you giggle. “That was my plan for the weekend.” 

“Aww.” You pout playfully at him. 

“Do you know how there’s countless of great things that have come from me joining a gang?” 

“You were only officially in like an hour ag-.” 

“One of them.” He interrupts. “Is that now I’m going to be able to look after you.” 

“What do you mean ‘look after me’?” You sit up and cross your arms over your chest. 

“The world’s a scary place Y/n. Especially here. I never felt like I was able to protect you before, but now that I’m in a gang...everything has changed.” His wide smile soon fades once he notices the way your looking at him. One eyebrow raised and a slight scowl on your lips. He knows that look. He’s seen that look countless of times, only this time he’s on the receiving end of it. 

“So you think you put on a leather jacket and now suddenly you’re my bodyguard?” 

“No. I-” 

“Forsythe Pendleton Jones III.” You start and he groans at the use of his full name. Yep...he fucked up. “You have known me my entire life. When have I ever needed you to do anything for me? Let alone ‘protect me’?” 

“I’m not saying that you need it.” Now he’s sitting up properly too, his arms crossed over his chest and both of you mirroring each other’s actions. “I’m fully aware that you could kick my ass and everyone else’s. Its just sometimes, somebody needs to look after you and I’ve never felt like I’ve been able to. Not properly anyway.” 

“So you joined the serpents to protect me?” 

“No.” He huffs. “Just...why are you so stubborn?!”  

“Coming from you?” You raise an eyebrow at him. 

“Yeah.” He nods. “Coming from me. You are quite literally the most stubborn person in the world. You always have been. Even when we were younger you were stubborn. And sometimes your impossible to be friends with.” 

“You think I’m impossible to be friends with? Have you ever tried being friends with you?” 

“We both know I hate myself. It’s my whole thing.” Jughead huffs and your annoyed expression disappears. 

He looks at you confused as to why you haven’t argued with him, but instead of being greeted by an even angrier expression, you’re looking at him with a face he can’t quite read. It’s sad, he knows that. And maybe a little bit disappointed, but there’s something else he just can’t quite figure out. Lucky for him though, he doesn’t have to dwell on it for too long because you start speaking again.

“I think it’s stupid.” You mumble.

“What?” He quirks an eyebrow. 

“I think it’s stupid that you hate yourself.” You say louder. The previous anger in both your tones has now fully disappeared, instead your quiet, unsure of what to say next. Unsure of what you want to say next. 

“Why?” 

“Because when I look at you, there’s literally nothing I hate. I can’t think of a single thing that anybody could even dislike about you.” 

“...” 

“In fact. I think its really hard not to lo-” 

“Y/n?” 

“Yeah?” You ask, refusing to look at him. 

“I want to protect you.” He lifts your chin up gently. 

“Why?” 

“Because I love you!” 

The words he’s been wanting to say for years have finally managed to escape. He feels light and heavy all at the same time while he refuses to look at you. This wasn’t how he wanted to tell you, not in the middle of an argument. He always thought if he ever did manage to tell you, it would be sweet and romantic and very much out of character for him. But there’s just something about you that makes him act differently to how he usually is. He twirled when he walked through your front door for God’s sake.

“Ju-” You start, your tone is cautious and he can feel the anxiety crawling up his throat. The problem with words is when you’ve said them you can’t put them back. They’re out there forever, so he needs to pull this back. He wants to say he’s joking, or to just forget it. But as soon as he looks at you he can’t seem to stop himself. 

“I have loved your for as long as I remember. And I know so much about you. Like the way you smile when somebody remembers something about you, even if its just small. Or how you always make sure I get the last fry when we’re eating at Pop’s. When you laugh really hard at something you make that weird but cute little sound. Or how you always make sure nobody is ever left out of something. Or the particular way you eat your food. There’s literally so much I know and love about you. But something that is constantly on my mind is that is something ever happened to you, even if it was just a paper cut, I would blame myself for not moving the paper out of your way. You’re my best friend and so much more Y/n. You have been for years and I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t in my life. I love you.” 

“I love you too.” You reply, a nervous laugh leaving your lips as you smile at him. “If you hadn’t interrupted me earlier, you’d know that sooner and we could have been kissing right now.” You tease and he rolls his eyes. 

“See...stubborn.” He says playfully before kissing you gently. 

[serendipityjxmn]

Mr. President

Chapter 3

TW: Violence, mentions of blood

Words Count: 1.4k

Link to Masterlist

Link to Chapter 4

You thought you’ve mistakenly heard it but when you look at the both of them back and forth to find a hint of joke only to find none, your heart thuds rapidly in your chest.

Taehyung leans down to place a paper on the table in front of you in which you find a document titled marriage contract. They can’t be serious..

“A-are you kidding me?” The words are out of your mouth before you could stop it. You look at Mr. Park and he remains calmly staring at you and when you find no answer from him, you look at Taehyung. He shakes his head.

“Due to some reasons, Mr. Park will need to marry anyway in about two months and you came right at the perfect time.” You thought you saw both of their lips quirking up in a smirk as if there’s a different meaning behind it but it’s gone the second it appears. “That’s why we’re proposing this to you.”

Too shell shocked to reply, you’d gone into a complete mute. Taehyung continues to explain the contract, highlighting several matters written on the paper laid in front of you and you could barely process anything.

“-your debt is waived. The contract will last for a year, where the two of you will then separate and you’ll receive a lumpsum amount of 5 million KRW. Further specifications on your relationship can be discussed at later time with Mr. Park. Do you have any questions?” Taehyung finishes.

It takes you several minutes to finally find your voice. Your brain wrecks for a question but strangely, this question is on the top of your head. “What’s your name?” You ask, looking directly at Mr. Park’s intense gaze.

To his credit, he didn’t appear flustered or any of the sort though Taehyung looks as if he’s trying to stifle a laugh.

“My name’s Park Jimin.” He answers calmly.

Jimin…

You gulp as the next question appears in your head and at the tip of your tongue, just waiting to be uttered. “Are you… are you like a.. you know.. c-cult.. is that what they call these days? Like you know.. a.. gang.” You finish, the last word almost like a whisper. You fight a shudder running through your body as you remember the way he handled your brother so skilfully yet merciless like he’s trained years for it.

To your surprise, his lips curl into a smirk. He looks at you in amusement before answering. “Curiosity’s a good thing.. but have you heard that too much curiosity’s killed the cat?”

You swallow. Eyes looking everywhere but Park Jimin. You feel his intimidating scare is almost the same with the look of a predator staring at its prey. And you’re just like that, a prey to Park Jimin. That’s when you have enough.

You stand and Taehyung looks momentarily surprised though Jimin remains composed.

“I’m sorry- I- I don’t know what I meant when I asked you to- to take me. I’ll pay you the debt- as.. as soon as I can and I-“ You say frantically, heels almost threatening to just take off and run away from the scary people. And that’s what you do. Without even finishing your sentence or saying as much as a goodbye to the two of them, you run off, out of the study, out of the house, only faintly aware of passing Mrs. Lee by the lobby downstairs and her calling you but you’re already out in the streets then.

Breathless, you halt in your track and stares back at the huge bungalow in which you were in several minutes ago. You grunt as you felt your body aching. Your head spins, trying to think of what to do and you find yourself taking aimless steps towards nowhere. You shiver and briefly curse once you remember you’re only wearing a dress and the night is getting colder. The wind making goosebumps to raise on your skin.

You’re hungry. But you have no money to eat. So you only stand awkwardly outside a convenience store a good few blocks from Jimin’s house, staring at it helplessly. You only had few dollars in the pocket of your jeans that you wore last night but that’s all left at Jimin’s house. You sigh.

A marriage contract? Who are they kidding..? All you wanted is to escape the hellhole your brother has put you through for years and yet you have to encounter Jimin, giving yourself to him like you’re digging your own grave. Your mind spins as you think of how to pay the debt within this month. Surely, being indebted to him is better than borrowing another amount from loan sharks and end up being slaughtered for not paying them.. right?

Though a small thought in the back of your mind thinks Mr. Park may kill you any time if he wants to.. you shudder at his words in the study a while ago. Heaving loudly, you drag yourself to the corner of the convenience store, sitting at the footstep of the porch, hoping the worker won’t mind you perching there. He probably thinks you’re one of those drunk.

Your body trembles from the cold. It’s a night in autumn but due to your lack of proper attire, you’re shivering endlessly, nose starting to run. Still, you hug your knees and lay your head on top of it, eyes fluttering shut in an attempt to sleep. It’s probably almost midnight.

Just as you think you’re falling into dreamland, a strong force grip your head and you couldn’t even register to scream when you feel yourself being thrown to the rough pavement. Before you could open your eyes to see your attacker, a slap lands on your cheek and you think another side of your lips are split again, barely aware of the red liquid gushing down.

“You bitch! How dare you run away from me?!” You hear the familiar voice that you despise so much. You open your eyes and see your brother, looking more haggard, cheeks sunken. From the corner of your eyes, you see the guy working at the convenience store come out from the store to see the ruckus outside. You shake your head vigorously at him and frantically wave him inside, not wanting him to get involved to reduce the number of casualties. If anyone’s going to die, let it only be you, you thought stupidly.

A sharp pain sears through your head as your hair got yanked and you’re forced to stand at your feet.

“You ungrateful bitch. You’ve been nothing but a burden to me and now you want to run away? I should’ve killed you yesterday. Tell me, little sister, where’s that white knight of yours yesterday?” He run his fingers menacingly through your face and you’re preparing yourself to kick him in the guts when you feel a sharp pain stings at your thigh and you realise it’s a cut from the knife you don’t notice he’s holding and you doubled over the rough gravel of the road.

Helpless. That’s how you always feel. No matter how hard you try to hold it in, no matter how hard you try to fight back, your brother would always hit you stronger.

You don’t know how your thoughts reach there but the name pops in your mind right at that moment. Park Jimin.

And like a sudden spark, the name makes you kick yourself to your feet and before your brother could take hold of you again and finish the deed, you take off and run away as fast as you can, heavily clutching your ribs and fighting for your consciousness. Your brother runs after you as well, shouting at you but you don’t stop although your legs are screaming at you and your breathing too heavy to continue.

You run and continue to do so in a direction you hope would be right without looking back, not daring to turn and see whether your brother catches up to you though the footsteps had been fading. Alas, you come to a stop.

You take the last few steps and finally reach the front door of the vast house. Your knuckles rap on the door rapidly, only now turning to see behind your shoulder to check whether your brother manages to follow you. You don’t see him but you can’t sigh in relief as well because if the owner of this house you’re knocking on now doesn’t open his door right at that moment, you’re sure you’re going to die.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing at 2AM?”

There he is.

Park Jimin opens the door, eyes slightly scrunched from sleepiness and hair disheveled. He takes in your state and his eyes immediately widens.

“I’ll do it.” You say, still panting heavily. “I’ll do it. The marriage.”

Link to Chapter 4

Posted on 220329 9:00PM

[intearsaboutrobots]

heyyyy so you seem to be into horror movies atm. would you mind recommending a few you really like? i'm looking for new ones to watch :)

oh!! yes defs!! i am having a Films Phase atm and that is a Lot of horror for me. I'll aim to keep this to a reasonable length lol and not to succumb too much to recency bias

Saint Maud (2019)

Follows a pious nurse who becomes dangerously obsessed with saving the soul of her dying patient.

having said that... i just watched this and i can't get it out of my head. this is the kind of horror where the perspective you're tied to keeps doing things that make you go "oh no :cc".

maud's particular strain of religion is roman catholic ish so ymmv on whether you want to watch a movie w those themes - i loved it and canNOT stop thinking abt it!!

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A monstrous spirit seeks revenge by invading the dreams of teenagers.

literally wes craven should get a nobel prize for the idea of "slasher but the murders happen in your dreams" bc the weird dream imagery is SO good. follows kind of a standard slasher model in basic structure, except now when there's a Murder Chase Sequence you can have the weird dream feeling of running like you're moving thru molasses, communicated via rad practical effects. also nancy thompson is THE most competent person on earth, i love her so much.

it does have the blood and gore you'd expect (a LOT of blood) and since its the 80s the villain has some weird horny energy towards the teens he's murdering.

Blood and Black Lace (6 donne per l'assassino) (1964)

A masked, shadowy killer brutally murders the models of a scandalous fashion house in Rome.

do you want to see some murders done in the most saturated colourful gorgeous lighting? do you not need much in the way of a plot? boy is this the movie for you! truly beautiful, i gasped aloud in fear at some scenes.

the murders do hew violent, and my friend and i both had to look away from the screen at a point bc we did not want to see events unfold further, so if violence is an issue watch w caution.

Eyes Without A Face (Les yeux sans visage) (1960)

A surgeon causes an accident which leaves his daughter disfigured and goes to extreme lengths to give her a new face.

this is a movie that is shot so unsettlingly. the camerawork is *chef's kiss* very effective and creepy. it is also a movie in which face transplants are a major plot point. you might think, as i did, that since it is a black and white movie from 1960 probably they don't have the effects to fully realise the scary parts of that - go ahead and take my word that they make do JUST fine.

aside from the face-related stuff, which you can consider as much or as little as you like to decide if you'd like to see, this is also a movie that makes scares out of someone having scarring/disfigurement and having prosthetics to cover that. if you don't want to watch that, more than fair.

The Wicker Man (1973)

A puritan Police Sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed.

i love this movie so much. classic folk horror, the aesthetic of a 70s crime show which appeals to me deeply as a columbo enthusiast, FOLK SINGING. it is also, Imo, not That scary???? unlikely to give you nightmares, by my reckoning at least.

what this movie Does have, if not scares, is a fair bit of nudity/sex, so keep that in mind.

The Endless (2017)

As kids, they escaped a UFO death cult. Now, two adult brothers seek answers after an old videotape surfaces and brings them back to where they began.

this is a movie that does a lot more than what it says on the tin, and goes in some weird mindbendy directions. it's been a minute since i watched it but i was SUPER impressed by the visuals. while there is certainly some Scary Business depicted, in general the camera will move off of the horrible-thing-abt-to-happen and so you only witness the effects of it, not the thing itself.

Candyman (1992)

The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.

see now, that description gives the idea of a simpler movie than this is. it also (tries to?) talk abt race and class, and it captures the feeling of reality slipping around the protagonist as she gets pulled into this Spooky Business.

i will highlight this since the description doesn't imply it that if unreality/gaslighting Type Things are not fun for you, this might not end up being enjoyable

------

honourable mention: the conjuring (ghosts), insidious (ghosts), hellraiser (kink demons and body horror), friday the 13th (slasher), halloween (slasher), the exorcist tv show (weirdly good?? Very spooky possession stuff), gaslight (does what it says on the tin, does it REALLY WELL)

[halloweentv]

Netflix Halloween

v.2020

A list of Halloween themed shows and movies available on Netflix streaming that you can play for Halloween! Enjoy!

Stranger Things

S2e2 Trick or Treat, Freak

After Will sees something terrible on trick or treat night, Mike wonders whether Eleven is still out there. Nancy wrestles with the truth about Barb.

Hubie Halloween

Despite his devotion to his hometown of Salem (and its Halloween celebration), Hubie Dubois is a figure of mockery for kids and adults alike. But this year, something is going bump in the night, and it's up to Hubie to save Halloween.

Cobra Kai

S1e3 Esqueleto

Daniel volunteers to chaperone the Halloween dance so he can keep an eye on Sam. Johnny tries to recruit more students for his new business.

A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting

Recruited by a secret society of babysitters, high school student Kelly Ferguson battles the boogeyman and his monsters when they capture Jacob, the 5 year old boy she’s watching on Halloween.

The Babysitters Club

S1e2 Claudia do the Phantom phone calls

The spooky spirit of Halloween sweeps through Stoneybrook. Meanwhile Claudia explores budding romance and struggles to connect with her parents.

F is for Family

S1e4 F is for Halloween

Frank secretly torpedoes Sue’s shot at a real job and a bully leaves Bill afraid to don his costume.

Harvey Girls Forever

S1e3 Harveyween

Lotta faces her fears to save her friends on Halloween night.

The spooky tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-ween

When Melvin tries to cancel Halloween, clever best friends Harold and George create their own spooky holiday—and it’s a huge success.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Chapter one: October Country

While Greendale readies for a Halloween eclipse, Sabrina faces a crucial decision and Harvey makes an unexpected decision.

Legends of Tomorrow

S3e4 Phone Home

The Legends jump to 1988 to capture an anachronistic Dominator and save young Ray from being killed.

The Flash

S6e4 There will be Blood

Barry's efforts to prepare Cisco for Crisis are derailed when Cisco schemes to save Barry's life instead; Ramsey Rosso uses his deadly new abilities to save his own life, while sacrificing his humanity in the process.

Supernatural

S4e7 It’s the Great Pumpkin Sam Winchester

Investigating two mysterious deaths in a small town, Sam and Dean discover a witch is sacrificing people to summon a dangerous demon. 

Riverdale

S4e4 Halloween

Halloween comes to Riverdale bearing VHS tapes and creepy dolls of unknown origin.

Scream: The TV series

Anthology series that follows a group of teenagers being stalked and targeted by a masked serial killer. Halloween episodes: S1e9 tm”The Dance” and S3e3 “The man behind the mask”

American Horror Story

Murder House

S1e 4&5 Halloween Part 1 & 2

The ghosts can leave the house on halloween night. Tate runs into some ghosts from his past.

Coven

S3e4 Fearful Pranks Ensue

the witches raise the dead on Halloween

Freak Show

S4e3&4 Edward Mordrake Part 1 & 2

the freaks don’t want to perform on halloween in fear of a ghost coming to visit.

Hotel

S5e4 Devil’s Night

John receives an invitation to attend an exclusive Devil's Night Soiree, while Alex tries to diagnose Holden's strange condition.

Parks and Recreation

S2e7 Greg Pikitis

Leslie enlists the help of Dave and Andy in order to catch a local teen vandal. Meanwhile, Ann struggles to make her Halloween party fun and gets help from an unlikely source.

S4e5 Meet n Greet

Ben is mad when Andy and April decide to throw a Halloween party at their house without asking him. Tom emcees an event for Leslie’s campaign but manages to also promote his company. Meanwhile, Ron and Ann give Andy and April an unusual wedding present.

13 Reasons Why

Tape 2 Side B

Its Halloween in the present and Clay strikes back at someone who wronged Hannah. In the past Hannah thinks someone is stalking her. 

Fuller House

S2e4 Curse of Tanner Manor

DJ attempts to throw the scariest Halloween party for Max. Stephanie works as a zombie at a haunted house.

Carmen Sandiego

S3e2 The Day of the Dead Caper

Carmen tracks a you g art thief on Dis de Muertos.

S3e3 The Haunted Bayou Caper

V.I.L.E. crashes a costume party hosted by a celebrity chef at his spooky mansion.

House of 1000 Corpses

Two young couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of murder end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.

Star Trek TOS

S2e7 Catspaw

Kirk and the crew land on a planet with a spooky castle and witches.

Pac’s Scary Halloween

Sinister Dr. Pacenstein schemes to swap bodies with Pac during a Halloween party.

Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures

S1e21  A Berry Scary Night

Count Pacula attempts to drain the last yellow orb in Pac World on Halloween night. 

S2e12 The Shadow of the were-pac

Pac and his friends are confronted by spooky space ghost pirates. 

Cult of Chucky

Chucky has some scores to settle with some old enemies.

Charmed

S3e4 All Halliwell’s Eve

The sister’s go to the 1600’s to save a witch and her baby

S8e6 Kill Billie Vol. 1

While the Charmed ones are dealing with paparazzi and Halloween, armed and ready to vanquish, Billie inexplicably freezes and is flooded with childhood flashbacks when she sees her latest demon target, the Dogan.

Charmed (2018)

S1e3 Sweet Tooth

When Macy learns of a mysterious death in her lab, she informs her sisters, and together they devise a plan to flush out the demon; Maggie volunteers to throw a Halloween party at her house.

Lucifer

S2e6 Monster

Guilty and self-destructive, Lucifer clashes with Chloe during an investigation, leading her to team up with Dan instead. Meanwhile, Amenadiel bonds with Charlotte, and Maze takes Trixie trick-or-treating

Gossip Girl

S4e9 The Witches of Bushwick

Chuck throws a Saints and Sinners masquerade party.

Power Rangers

S1e25 Life’s a Masquerade

Isn’t set on Halloween but has a cool Frankenstein monster in it. and costumes.

S1e53 Trick or Treat

Kimberly goes on a Halloween game show…cuz those exist.

S2 e21 Zedd’s Monster Mash

Tommy faces some real Halloween monsters after he’s kidnapped by Goldar. 

Power Rangers Samurai “Party Monsters” and “Trickster Treat”

Power Rangers Megaforce “Raising Spirits” 

Power Rangers Dino Charge “The Ghostest with the Mostest” and in Dino Super Charge “Trick or Trial”

Big Bad Beetle Borgs

S1e24 Bye, Bye Frankie

Frankenbeans escapes into town on Halloween night, then the monster Grenade Guy is ordered to kidnap him.

Goosebumps

Good show for the season but the Halloween episodes in particular are

Specials “The Haunted Mask” Carly Beth’s scary mask begins to change her.

Specials “The Haunted Mask 2” A boy’s creepy Halloween mask won’t come off and begins to harm him.

S2e15 Attack of the Jack O'Lanterns

Jack O‘Lantern aliens terrorize some trick or treaters. 

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

Two young friends find a magic book that brings a ventriloquist's dummy to life.

Creeped out

A series of spellbinding, enchanting and intriguing tales that will bring chills to the back of the neck. Different characters must navigate their way through the unexplained.

Dreamworks Spooky Stories

“Scared Skrekless” Shrek and Co tell scary stories

“Monsters vs Aliens Mutant pumpkins” Ginormica and co battle mutant pumpkins!

Dreamworks Spooky Stories Vol. 2

“Monsters Vs Aliens: night of the Living Carrots” Picks up right after the previous special

Also included another MVA short, Megamind, and Shrek.

Glee

S2e5 The Rocky Horror Glee Show

the class attempts to out on a performance of Rocky Horror for Halloween. 

New Girl

S2e6 Halloween

Jess gets hired as a zombie at a haunted house.

S3e6 Keaton

Jess hosts a Halloween party and a Michael Keaton batman costume helps cheer up Schmidt.

My Babysitter’s a Vampire

S2e10  Halloweird

In a total “not rip off” of Buffy, a mask makes people turn into real-life versions of their costumes.

The Vampire Diaries

S1e7 Haunted

Matt takes Vicky to a haunted hous ebut the night takes a terrifying turn

The Office

S2e5 Halloween

Downsizing leads corporate headquarters to order Michael to fire somebody by the end of October. Michael procrastinates until Halloween, when he still has not decided whom to fire. When he decides to fire Creed, Creed manages to convince Michael to fire Devon.

S6e8 Koi Pond

While on the way to a business meeting, Michael falls into a koi pond. The staff tease him so he holds an anti-bullying seminar. Pam and Andy go cold-calling to stir up some new business; they reluctantly use clients’ mistaking them as a couple to their advantage.

S7e6 Costume Contest

Michael freaks out when Darryl goes over his head by taking an idea to corporate. The employees partake in a Halloween costume contest in the office. Meanwhile, Pam tries to get the truth from Danny about their dating history.

S8e5 Spooked

Erin works to make a spooky, non-childish Halloween party, with help from Gabe. Dwight becomes friends with Robert’s son, and Pam and Jim debate the existence of ghosts. Meanwhile, Robert tries to figure out everyone’s deepest fears in order to culminate a ghost story.

Super Monsters Save Halloween

The Super Monsters use their powers to get their neighbors in the Halloween spirit, then help a nervous friend see there's nothing to be afraid of.

Super Monsters: Vida’s first Halloween

The Super Monsters share their Halloween traditions with Vida, then get invited to a Día de los Muertos party in the Howlers' backyard.

Super Monsters: Dia de los Monsters

The Super Monsters celebrate Día de los Muertos in Vida's hometown with her magical family, some new monster friends and a spook-tacular parade!

StarBeam: Halloween Hero

Greedy Captain Fishbeard is stealing everybody's Halloween treats for himself, but StarBeam and Boost have some tricks up their sleeves to save the day!

Monster Family

Dracula's spell turns a woman and her loved ones into a vampire, a mummy, a werewolf and Frankenstein's monster.

Highway to Heaven

S2e5 The Devil & Jonathan Smith

Jonathan recruits a con artist's help after Jabez Stone tricks Mark into selling his soul in order to save a little boy's life, but The Devil has another agenda - acquiring the soul of an angel.

S4e5 I was a middle aged werewolf

During Halloween night, Jonathan helps a little boy get over his fears (and in the process get even with his older sister).

Curious Creations of Christine McConnell

Christine McConnell, an artist and baker lives in a mansion full of monsters and ghosts. She loves to create morbid looking desserts like gingerbread haunted houses, caramel spiders and bones made of pretzel sticks, peanut butter and white chocolate.

Hotel Transylvania

S1e13 The Legend of Pumpkin Guts

Mavis and her friends learn the true meaning of Halloween

Scooby Doo Mystery incorporated

S1e17 Escape from Mystery Manor

When the gang goes on a quest to find out what happened to the original Mystery Incorporated group, they find themselves trapped in the underground Darrow Mansion.

Community

S1e7 Introduction to Statistics

Jeff must choose between a date and honoring a promise to Annie.

S2e6 Epidemiology

Halloween at GCC is ripe for zombie-inspired nightmares.

S3e5 Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps

Britta discovers that an anonymous psych quiz proves that one of her friends is a psychopath.

Sleepy Hollow

Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of three people, with the culprit being the legendary apparition, The Headless Horseman.

Sister, Sister

S3e7 Halloween

Though grounded Tia and Tamera take Ray’s car in search of a Halloween rave.

Moesha

S3e9 Halloween part 1: Kim’s Revenge

A three-way phone call among friends leads to hurt feelings for Kim, who overhears more than she bargained for concerning a Halloween-costume contest.

S6e7 The Nutty Moesha

While trying to juggle studying, taking care of her family while Dee's away and planning for her Halloween party, Moesha, along with Niecy, starts using energy-raising vitamins that have some peculiar side effects

The Parkers

S2e7 Scary Kim

Kim pulled pranks on Halloween on her friends. Her friends gets her back by pulling a huge prank

S3e7 Mummy’s the word

When Kim,Stevie and T rent out a woman's house for a Halloween party Nikki has to save the professor when they find out she plans to turn him into a mummy

Liv & Maddie

S1e5 Kang-A-Rooney

Joey ends up crushing on Liv in a kangaroo costume while practicing how to talk to girls.

S2e3 Helgaween-A-Rooney

A magic amulet creates a frightening triplet for Liv and Maddie named Helga.

S3e4 Haunt-A-Rooney

Liv and Joey travel to New York for Halloween

S4e3 Scare-A-Rooney

Liv takes Ruby to a spooky dinner and runs into an old acquaintance.

All Hallows’ Eve

As Eve celebrates her birthday on Halloween night, she discovers she's a witch and accidentally summons an old relative, who has nasty plans for the town.

Girlfriends

S1e6 The Remains of the Date

Joan plans an elaborate scheme to get revenge on William for the latest in a series of Halloween pranks. Toni is put off when her date asks her to engage in a threesome--with a stuffed animal.

S2e7 Trick or Truth

Toni winds up suffering a huge breakdown after she discovers Greg took her back only to get revenge on her.

Sam & Cat

S1e16 #DollSitting

On Halloween, Sam and Cat are hired to babysit a doll, with unusual and creepy results. Cat also thinks she may have accidentally turned Dice into a monkey with a magic spell.

Gilmore Girls

S6e7 Twenty-one is the loneliest number

Since Rory was a tyke, the Gilmore girls have planned her 21st birthday: in Atlantic City, sipping martinis, playing 21. But with the estrangement, Emily plans the birthday party -and it's soooo not Atlantic City.

NCIS

S6e6 Murder 2.0

In the days before Halloween, a rampaging serial killer posts cryptic clues online, which the NCIS team must decipher before he strikes again.

S7e5 Code Of Conduct

The NCIS team is called to investigate when a practical-joke-loving Marine turns up dead on Halloween Eve in an apparent suicide. Plus, DiNozzo and McGee share some of their favorite Halloween memories.

Criminal Minds

S6e6 Devil’s Night

The BAU go to Detroit to catch a man who burns his victims alive during the pre-Halloween celebration Devil's Night.

S10e6 Boxed in

A child reappears one year after he went missing -- but the team must work quickly when a trick-or-treater disappears under similar circumstances.

[immodestmussorgskyy]

you have (1) new message

“I don’t believe in you!”

“I believe in you…”

You can’t help but snort, bursting into a fresh round of giggles. The dialogue in Nightmare on Elm Street is absolutely diabolical-- you struggle to figure out how anybody could consider this a horror movie. But hey… meteoric fame is hard to come by. It’s a cult classic for a reason. 

You’d usually be marathoning classic slasher flicks with your roommate, Chloe, but she’s on a month-long Hawaii dream vacation with her new boyfriend. What happened to bros before hoes? But hey, his wealth is apparently abundant enough to fund weeks of paradise beachside living, so good for her for getting that bread. And anyway, you’re content to sit alone in your little mousehole apartment and melt into the couch after work with a family-size bag of salt & vinegar chips under your arm. 

You watch the flickering screen with mild interest as you chomp down another handful of chips. Freddy Krueger is definitely failing to get you on the edge of your seat. Wiping your hand on your sweatpants, you pick up the remote and turn the movie off. 

“Nightmare, my ass.” you mutter under your breath. 

As much as you’d like to, eating nothing but salt and vinegar chips for dinner seems like a great way to end up with an upset stomach and a lot of regret later tonight. The pantry is well stocked with Chloe’s foods of choice-- organic steel-cut rolled oats, a billion different kinds of nuts and seeds all in cute little labeled mason jars, gluten free bread, a mockery of cheese puffs (chickpea puffs? Come on!). Your side is a library of boxed or canned foods in stark contrast: a couple opened boxes of Pop-Tarts, a few boxes of Kraft mac & cheese, a family sized box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and, the only thing not in a box: another bag of salt & vinegar chips. 

The fridge tells a similar story. Chloe’s avocados, farmer’s market tomatoes, and thick stalks of celery gleam in the vegetable drawer. She’s consumed half the shelf space with just kombucha and a few swanky craft beers. And bottles of oat milk, or soy milk, or some kind of thing pretending to be milk. You actually don’t have much in the fridge besides leftover Indian food from your favorite place downtown and a gallon of milk for your cereal, so you don’t mind her hogging more space. 

Muffy, Chloe’s ragdoll cat, stalks into the kitchen with you and gives you a tiny yowl. You lean down and give her an affectionate scratch behind the ears. 

“Scram, Muffy.” you murmur to her. “I’ve already fed you.” 

She looks up at you with a look that can only mean “and you’ll feed me more.” 

She stalks back into the living room, fluffy beige tail disappearing behind the wall in a flick and a wave. You tie your hair back and yawn. What’s on the menu for dinner tonight? 

Before you can think too much about eating, you remember that Chloe left you a voicemail before she took off. You fish your phone from your pocket and open your voicemail, tapping your toe against the linoleum floor as the dial tone plays. 

You have one new message, chirps the robot voice of your mailbox. 

“Hey girl. I’m boarding soon, so you probably won’t hear from me for a while. Make sure you feed Muffy, water the plants…” she clicks her tongue a few times, “take your meds, and don’t lay in bed for too long on the weekends. You know how that tanks your mood.” 

Chloe might be a total hipster health nut, but it doesn’t make it any less sweet that she frets over you so much. You break into a smile and make a mental note to call her back. 

“And. You can eat anything perishable of mine in the fridge or pantry while I’m gone. I doubt the bread or the veggies are gonna last long… you need to eat healthier anyway. No potato chips for dinner.” 

Your smile grows. She knows you so well. 

“I gotta go, but I’ll send you tons of pictures when I get there. Bye, babe.” 

You hang up and set your phone down on the counter. Eyeing the bland looking loaf of brown bread, you decide you’ll have breakfast a la Chloe for dinner. 

You toss the loaf onto the counter, then stalk to the fridge. The avocados seem pretty ripe. Tomatoes, too. You pick out one of each, then pluck a couple eggs from the carton you two share and set it all on the counter. Avocado toast with scrambled eggs sounds pretty Chloe. 

You gut the avocado, tossing its pit in the trash and scooping its innards out into a bowl. The fork makes quick work of it, turning it into a mound of mild green paste. Salt, pepper. Done. 

Hey, if Chloe let you eat her food, she’s bound to not mind that you’re using her nice kitchen knives too, right? You cut a few slices of tomato and grimace at its gelatinous, glistening center. You never liked tomatoes much, but she’s kinda right-- you do need to improve your diet. 

Before long, you’ve got a nice thick slice of toast slathered in avocado and garnished with ripe red tomato sitting next to a steaming pile of scrambled eggs. This may not be your beloved salt & vinegar chips, but it sure looks delicious. 

You snap a photo of your meal and text it to her. Am I healthy yet? you type, with a grin on your face. 

Muffy stalks up to you, looking up expectantly. You sigh and toss her a morsel of scrambled egg. “That’s all you’re getting, you little twerp.” you admonish through a mouthful of toast. It’s not… delicious, but it’s not bad for some mushed up vegetable on top of an excuse for bread. You curse yourself for not adding some cheese to your scrambled eggs. That would’ve really been delicious. 

You’d usually be scrolling through your social media right now, but something inspires you to look longingly out the window of the kitchen. The sky is a starless, inky black, obscuring everything except for whatever is illuminated by the weak orange streetlights. Usually there would be more traffic or drunk yelling-- you and Chloe didn’t exactly get lucky with the placement of your unit-- but tonight it’s eerily silent. That’s perfectly welcome to you, though. It’s much better than cranking up the volume of your music to drown out whatever street fight is occurring three floors below you. 

Suddenly, your musing and its silence is broken by the sound of your ringtone. It’s half past midnight… who in their right mind would be calling you right now? 

Unknown number. You frown and let it go to voicemail. Probably just some spam caller. 

You finish your dinner and sit there in the silence, then check your phone again. You can’t help but be curious as to what message they’ve left you. Gingerly, you open your voice mailbox again and listen dispassionately to the dial tone and the little robot voice. 

You have one new message and one old message. 

The voice that erupts through your speaker is unfamiliar, smooth, low. All you can discern is that it’s a male voice, its tone almost perversely cloying. 

“I was hoping you’d pick up.” A long inhale, a long exhale. “You seem a little lonely. Breakfast for dinner… cute.” 

Ice cold horror washes over you and you can barely move your fingers to hang up. This has to be some kind of joke. Some stupid kid getting really, really lucky with their prank call. 

But a question still sears into your thoughts:

Who would have known what you were doing? 

That you were alone in your apartment? 

Maybe, just maybe, by some insane stretch of the imagination, Chloe’s new boyfriend got ahold of her phone, saw your text, and decided to pull some prank. Yeah, that sounds about right. That’s the only situation that makes sense, unless… 

Somebody is watching you.  

You nearly jump out of your seat as the phone rings again. Unknown number. Your hands tremble over it as your panicked brain deliberates picking it up. Before you can think about it any more, you’ve snatched it into a sweaty palm and brought it up to your ear. 

“Chloe, this isn’t fucking funny. Cut it out.” you try to sound intimidating, but your voice trembles in just the wrong way with each word. 

“You picked up.” the voice breathes, and you swear you can hear a sinister smile creep onto whoever’s face it belongs to. “You must really be lonely.” 

“I said stop, Chlo--”

“My name’s not Chloe.” he snarls, and your empty threat dies in your throat immediately. Then, as if nothing had happened at all, his voice slips back into that relaxed, amused tone. “But I do wish I were spending a month in Hawaii right now. Lucky girl, isn’t she?” 

Another pang of fear hits you like a brick. You swallow hard, biting your lip. “Whoever you are, leave me alone. Or I’ll… I’ll call the cops.” 

“What exactly are you going to tell them, sweetheart? That some big mean boogeyman is leaving scary messages on your phone?” he lets out a mocking laugh. “They’ll send their best officers, I’m sure.”

“Leave me alone.” is all you manage to say, breathless and trembling, before you force yourself to hang up and practically slam your phone down onto the counter. Muffy jumps and cocks her head at you. You force yourself to break out of your panicked stupor and hurry over to the kitchen window, glancing hurriedly to the left and right of it. If somebody were on the fire escape, you surely would have heard it. 

At least, that’s what you tell yourself. 

You yank those curtains shut, then the curtains on the living room window, then finally the ones in your bedroom. You remember Chloe locking and shutting her windows, so there’s no need to check in there. Something tells you to anyway.

You creep to her doorway, palms sweaty. There’s probably nothing to see in there, you think to yourself, the curtains were already shut. 

Looking into her room, your stomach drops. 

The curtains are tucked neatly to the side, and her window is cranked all the way open, letting in the cool night air and the sounds of the streets. You nearly choke in horror and rush over to shut the window, making sure the lock is tightly down before throwing the curtains back over them. You must have just misremembered. She probably left the window open to let some fresh air in, or something.

But she never leaves her window open, or Muffy would get out, you realize. 

“Oh my God.” you gasp to yourself, before you sprint to the kitchen and grab the biggest, meanest looking knife in the drawer, as well as your phone. Muffy meows at you curiously, then yelps in indignance as you swiftly scoop her up by the stomach and fly to your room. 

“Sorry.” you mutter as you practically toss her onto your bed, then lock your door. It’s a pathetic, flimsy mechanism, and could probably be picked with a fork, but it’s better than nothing. You pause, surveying the room for any heavy objects, and settle on jamming your full laundry hamper under the doorknob. At least this way you’ll hear any intruder before they make it into your room. The knife you tuck under your pillow as you scramble under your covers and turn your lamp off. 

Your hands shake as you dial Chloe’s number. The phone rings once, twice, then goes straight to voicemail.

“Hey, Chlo,” you say shakily. “Uhm, I got some really weird calls from somebody tonight and I think our apartment might have been broken into. Or something. Uh,” you swallow hard, “Muffy and I are locked up in my room right now and I have a knife. I could be just imagining things, but if you don’t hear from me for a while, I probably got murdered or something.”

God, you sound so stupid right now, but it’s the best you can muster when your thoughts are racing at a million miles an hour. 

“I’ll call you when I wake up tomorrow. Bye.” 

You plug your phone in and set it on your nightstand, shrinking down underneath your duvet. Nothing is visible in your room, even as your eyes adjust to the darkness, except for the glow of the hall light you left on under your door. 

It’s going to be a long night. 

Check out this story and the rest of its chapters on AO3!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28688007/chapters/70331253