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Hi. My beautiful wife and I are in the hospital. She is 21 weeks. We’re in north side Chicago. We want to cremate our baby and she really wants to do something along the lines of planting the ashes with a tree or a plant. Does anyone have any ideas along these lines? We want to see the plant as often as possible so traveling far isn’t really an option. Thank you for your time.

My eyes were blinded by the tears, forcing me to stop the car on the side of the road. Heavy snow had developed, and I was still an emotional wreck. My heart was aching, and my sobs carried through the air with only the howl of the wind to answer back. I kept cursing under my breath, cursing my now-dead fiancé for the decision that he made. My God, why did he leave me like this?
I will elaborate more. It happened about five weeks ago. My boyfriend, a soon-to-be fiancé, told me that he was offered to go to some small town near the border of Missouri. It was a Southern Illinois town that had reports of livestock being mutilated by what was thought to be a wild animal at first but had later reported that it was something far more intelligent.
He was a state-wide investigator for the Springfield police department. Because of the nature of the killings, it fell upon him to uncover who was behind all of this. And after a week had passed, I was told that he was dead.
My heart still feels like it's collapsing into a void of cold, unfeeling darkness. I know that sounds dramatic, but at the end of the day, grief is different for most people…
We both had the joy of being PI’s, but I was late to the game and often got laughed at by the circle of other investigators due to my inexperience. But not him. He trained me and would encourage me at every turn.
In his own words, he said this to me, "You're one tough babe. I don't think any crook is going to expect someone as daring as you."
He had simple words, but they meant everything to me. And now I'll never get to hear them again.
When I heard what happened to him, I asked if I could see his body for confirmation. The police Chief told me that it wouldn't be necessary because the only way they were able to identify him was from dental records. Few of his teeth managed to survive the attack that happened.
The funeral was rather quick, I guess his mom and dad had always had a backup plan in case of an early death, given his line of work. There wasn't even a body in the casket. There was so little of his body that we had him cremated as quickly as we could.
Everything about this felt so unfair and after weeks of brewing in my agonizing loss, I decided I was going to find whoever did this and make them pay.
Once I had calmed down from the emotional breakdown, I resumed my drive into the town, armed to the teeth this time. I had access to police weapons, and I wasn't going to take chances. I had the intent of killing this man. At least, what I thought was a man.
When I got to the town, I saw that it looked no different than many others that existed in the rural counties. This one, known as Emeryton, Illinois, was not too far away from the obscure town of Auburndale. Honestly, I've heard some weird stuff happening over there, but it's been closed off as of late.
When I got there, I did what every other private investigator would do to get information. Go to the library. But first, a much-needed coffee break. It was still early in the morning, and I needed some coffee badly. I found a small diner and decided to start some small talk with the waitress there. Once I had gotten through the formalities, what I really was after came next.
I tried my laid-back, soft voice to lure her into a sense of security to lower her guard, "So now, I hear this town has been having some livestock killed. Why do you think that is?"
She was an innocent-looking girl who clearly seemed less guarded than how all the other older folks in this town appeared. She said, "It's really strange. I haven't had any issues with it, but I have heard some strange noises coming up from the hills. The next day, the farmer who lives next door to me said that three of his goats got gutted."
"Any reason for that? You think it was an animal or some psychopath?"
She looked around first to make sure that we weren't being spied on. "Frankly, I couldn't tell you if it was either. Whatever it was, it appeared to be smart enough to get by an electric fence. But the manner of its killing of animals is rather gruesome. It's eating them, but smart enough to disable electronics like that is frightening. What if it decides to start going after people in their houses?"
She was looking quite distressed by all of this. I could tell that whatever fear this thing was causing, it was starting to grip more and more on the locals.
Not much else happened past that, and I quickly thanked them for the coffee and continued on my way.
***
At the library for more information on the town itself, I used my position as a private investigator to get into the locked documents in the library vault. Searching through the numerous papers, I was constantly being watched by the librarian. He had this stern, gruff expression that wanted to let me know that I wasn't wanted here.
I look through everything. From the 90s, 80s, and so on and so forth down the decades. Nothing stood out and there was hardly any information about other farm animals that had been killed other than what was confirmed to be a coyote or fox killings.
Now I was entering the 1800s and things were getting a little more obscure and vague about news reports.
Finally, after hours of searching through everything, there was a similarity between the current attacks and ones that happened in the year 1881.
This was a much darker turn than what has been going on here in recent times.
The news report stated:
"Local farmer and his family were found dead. An official from Chicago had been ordered by the state to investigate a string of disturbing murders on a local farm with the entire family having been brutally killed late at night. All farm animals had also been killed similarly to the family, and a curfew had been enacted by the local City Council. Volunteers have been patrolling all known roads in and out of the town and reports of a monstrous, deep howling could be heard in the McCann Hills area. As of today, the curfews are still extended but no further attacks have been reported."
"So, this has happened before..." I whispered to myself.
"Finding everything you need?" the old man said.
"Almost. I just need to ask you a few questions, old-timer."
"And that would be?" his deep voice spoke back harshly.
"You know what's going on here? Or perhaps you have a good idea about what's going on around these parts?"
"You're a perceptive investigator. If you're as aware of other people's knowledge, you'll be a smart lady and go back to where you came from."
"I'm afraid that I can't. Whoever it is, they killed my fiancé, and I don't intend on letting them get away with that."
"Suicide mission. I hate to see such a pretty gal like yourself commit to such a vain effort, but I guess it can't be helped. I will give you some advice."
He waved his hand to me to come closer and I did. He leaned in and whispered, "It's an old legend. A grizzly beast with an appetite for anything that breathes. If you go up those hills, you may be able to find it. My granddad said that it lives in the caves and attacks anything that gets too close. It's just surprising that it's extending its reach this far towards the town again after all these years."
He gave me enough information that I needed. I had a heading, and I had a purpose. But what struck me odd is how he referred to it as a beast. Surely this couldn't be some animal. It was way too intelligent to be something like that.
I said thank you and before I departed, he asked me, "Should you die, I'd like to be able to make a report of you going missing. Could I have your name?"
I looked at him and smirked a little at the notion of me not returning, but life isn’t full of guarantees. I'd hate to go missing and never be found.
"It's Tabitha. Tabitha Gradsmith. Make sure to let the boys at the department know that it's Private Investigator Tabitha," I winked at him, keeping up the facade of a confident woman. I desperately could not show any weakness or alert anyone about how personal this was.
He looked at me confused but wrote it down on a piece of paper that he had on the table in front of him. He said indifferently, "Noted."
***
So there I was again, heading towards something that had not been identified, has lived in the region for more than a hundred years, and I was only armed with an AR-15, a 9mm Glock, and an off-road Jeep that was full of melancholy memories of when I and my boyfriend would go on hiking trips in the summer.
The trip over to the hills wasn't so bad, despite trying to drive through four to five inches of snow. Honestly, I've been through much worse conditions than this. But the snow kept coming down and I didn't have much gas left on me. I stopped for a moment and checked the area where the newspaper said that it was supposedly stalking around.
Stepping out of my Jeep, I walked around through the snow, thankful that I was dressed for the occasion.
After about twenty minutes, I was growing anxious about my remaining sunlight. Wintertime means that the sun goes down much earlier than before and it was starting to look a little too close for comfort. I didn't want to be caught out here at night.
Despite searching for caves, I saw nothing. So, I figured it was the best time to call it quits.
When I got back to the Jeep, right as I was opening the door, I heard the terrible howl of an animalistic screeching that sent a chill riding up my spine. My God, it sounded so sickly and made me feel a perpetual sense of paralyzing dread. Sounds shouldn't be able to do that, yet I felt every sense of bravery that I originally had that got me up on this hill, draining out of my body.
In a panic, I got into my Jeep and sped back down the trail that I took. I never stopped but I did look in my rearview mirror.
I peered a little closer, spotting something with atrociously long arms extended over its body. Its movements were erratic and aggressive. But it was too small for me to pick apart any thorough details. I never stopped until I made it back to the town where I would try to regain some nerves.
***
Now that it was nighttime, I chose to stay at a budget motel for the night. I sat on my bed, replaying those events up on the hillside and trying to discern what exactly went wrong? I had come there with the intent of hunting this killer and just when it was within reach, I got cold feet and ran off like a coward.
I was at a loss for words about my actions. Whatever sound it was able to utter, it made me fall apart in fear. I would have to try again tomorrow if I was going to enact my revenge.
Still, there was no reason to let the night go to waste. Perhaps a drink at the local bar was needed to calm my nerves.
***
I found myself being hovered over by a bunch of truckers who looked like they hadn't seen a woman who was capable of holding down her drinks. Of course, they'd hit on me, something I was disinterested in. Especially since my heart still is tied to my late fiancé. But overall, I was able to drink away some of my sorrow.
I vaguely remember asking a young farmer about the creature in the woods. I still had my investigative skills working for me, and the best way to get information is to ask as many people as you can.
He looked visibly shaken by my question but answered, "Why would you want to go looking for that livestock killer?"
"It killed my fiancé," I said back with a cold tone.
My response must have made him feel awkward. Though I was determined to get more answers.
"I see," he spoke cautiously, "you seem like you're on a quest for revenge. I guess I could tell you a little bit. I know that it comes out around midnight and the howling that it screeches throughout that time always seems to end around 4 a.m."
"It doesn't seem to stay out very long now does it?" I said.
"Afraid not, that thing only goes after a few animals before retreating back into the hills. I couldn't tell you where it was going to strike anyway. We keep all of our farm animals locked up in the barn, then I stand outside with my gun waiting for it at night. My father does most of the farming now during the day."
He took another drink of his liquor glass and let out a loud burp and said, "Take care of yourself."
I thanked him for his concern and went back to my own drink. I was always more of a vodka drinker, finding many other alcoholic beverages less appealing.
I briefly overheard two guys who were talking from behind me.
"That guy sure was a weirdo. Asking about the livestock killer."
The other voice sounded drunker and his words slurred, "Yeah, but— but he said he's a professional when it comes to fighting them freaks of nature."
"Maybe. Although don't you think it was weird that there was a young girl with him?"
"I thought they were father-child, but uh, heheh, I could use me a fine young lady,"
His friend said, "I think you had enough. Let me drive you home before your wife makes you sleep with the pigs."
Such an odd conversation. Was there really someone else out there that was looking for the livestock killer? Maybe a potential ally that I should try to seek out? They did say they were professionals, so I should take that into consideration as well.
But soon after, I was feeling the effects of the alcohol already starting to cloud my judgment and disorient my movements. I figured it was time to quit and quickly went back to my room where immediately I passed out on the bed. I couldn't stop spinning and everything felt heavier than usual. I broke down into tears and I don't think I quit crying until I finally passed out. The emotional burdens of my loss had caught up after maintaining focus on my mission for this long.
***
When I woke up, I had a pounding headache. I threw up violently in the bathroom and thought about just calling it off for today. Just standing up alone was nauseating enough. But I knew some things that could help with the hangover. Fruit drink and crackers. Thankfully there was a convenience store nearby for just those items that I needed.
After a little bit of shopping, I drank and ate, and proceeded towards the bathroom for the hardest cure of them all. A cold shower. I made this one quick and after getting undressed, I stepped into the frigid sting of the water spraying down on me. I am not getting drunk ever again. I whimpered so much in the ten seconds I spent under that shower head.
***
Once that was over, I put on some snow pants again, a warm, pink jacket, and gloves and proceeded back towards those hills for another day of searching.
When I got up there, I was taken in by the natural beauty of the land. Someplace like this didn't deserve to have such a devastating attack, and the townspeople were kind. They didn't deserve any of this. That is why I'm also here for them. Who knows, this monster might try to attack someone like the pretty young girl at the diner, the helpful old man at the library, or that handsome but kind-hearted farmer boy. I needed to do this if I was going to move past my loss.
I took my first step and heard the crunch of the snow beneath my boot. There was a change in the air. Everything felt so much more sinister than usual.
Making my trek up, I briefly heard the sound of an elk hollering at the top of its lungs. I wasn't aware that there were any elk around here. Then again, I'm not an expert on their migration patterns. The only animals I assumed lived here were deer and bobcats. At any rate, I would have to remain vigilant. Not for the deer or whatever elk has stumbled around, but potential bobcats that might want to take a swipe at me. Or worse, an extremely hungry wolf.
Moving around was difficult in my snow clothes, this was in part at how clumpy the snow was and that it was starting to reach temperatures of single digits. I also was growing more anxious as I kept moving up. With each step, there was a fear growing inside me. A human sense had activated within me that was telling me that I was being watched from not too far away. But by what?
I still hadn't found any cave to search in. Giving up and going back to the town was starting to look like the only option.
But there it was again, that inhuman, grotesquely insanity-inducing howl that overshadowed the strong breath of the wind. I held on tightly to my gun, my eyes darting back and forth in a panic. There was a tree branch that broke left and right, behind me and in front. I was certain that it was coming for me.
I held my gun up to my eye and kept looking back and forth, keeping my focus trained through the scope.
Something moved in the corner and almost by reflex, I fired my gun. But instead of hearing that atrocious roaring, I was met with the painful whimpering of a coyote that I had accidentally shot.
It scattered away best it could before dropping. It kept thrashing around and I was already in shock over what I had done. I never wanted to harm an animal on my way up here. I wasn't a hunter and I cared for animals. This was more heartbreaking for me and I saw that the poor creature was suffering. I knew what I had to do and I fired another bullet at it, this time aiming for the head.
No, I was feeling even more awful than before. My loss, my guilt of not being there for him, and now this. I needed to go back to the motel. I wasn’t cut out for this and I wasn’t in the right mindset.
When I was going to begin my descent back to the Jeep, I heard another flurry of branches breaking and held my gun up again, but I was much more on the cautious side. If it was just another coyote, I'd rather not be responsible for another irresponsible killing.
But I was caught off guard and something crept up behind me. I turned around as fast as I could, but its outstretched arm hit me so hard that it sent me flying back down the steep end of the hill without any walking needed.
With a hard crash into the snow, I was practically buried in a mound of it. I guess this proved to be a blessing in disguise because I was already losing consciousness but had just enough of the snow to cover me up and allow me to breathe. The last thing I saw was something blurry and dark approaching where I had landed, only to let out another one of its abhorrent growls and walk away. Another elk call erupted and I passed out.
***
When I came to, I felt so cold that I felt truly like a dead body. My arms and legs had stiffened and I was already fearful that frostbite was setting in. But I could still move them. Looks like the extra layers were a good idea after all. But I knew that I couldn't stay out here for too much longer.
Using what little strength I had left in me, I forced myself out of the mound and felt a jarring pain in my left leg. It didn't feel broken, but it wasn't something that you could move fast on.
I was still disoriented and everything kept spinning. My vision was turning red and I could briefly see that it was already nighttime. The winds were picking up more intensely, and the snow was coming down harder than before. The cold was even worse, clearly entering the negatives. It's probably a good thing I woke up now instead of later.
Moving around would help warm me up a bit, but I needed to get back ASAP.
I heard an owl nearby and thought that was odd. It's freezing outside, I wouldn't expect one of them to be around here, but then there's nothing normal about this place.
I saw the butt end of my AR sticking out of the snow nearby and quickly as I could, got a hold of it. This was by no means an easy task, my joints were aching with each swift movement.
Continuing my descent, I could still hear that rugged, deathly howl around me. The crunching of snow being kicked up and drawing closer towards me. Now I was truly in fight or flight mode and flight was not looking like an option. I just froze in my spot. Yes, I was shaking, but I wasn't able to move anywhere.
And like that, it was gone. Whatever it was, it seemed to have moved on.
I thought I was in the clear so I kept walking on until, after about five minutes, I came across a small opening in the trees. When I was getting around a few, I heard the sound of something cracking. Again, I froze but I peeked around the side of the tree to see what it was. There was a munching, slurping sound coming from around and when I looked over, I felt my heart quaking with fear.
Eating the carcass of what I could only guess was a cow, this seven-fingered, four-armed, emaciated creature was stripping out all of the cow’s internal organs and putting them into a mouth that stretched from the bottom of its head down to its abdomen. Its skin black and veiny, but its torso was covered in snow-white hair. It had an indistinguishable skull head and four ram horns that bent and split in different directions. Instead of legs, it had four, large tentacles that were outstretched. And as for the four arms, they actually were two but split into two at the elbows. And lastly, three eye sockets glowed with a red light.
I started taking my steps back, not wanting to get my revenge anymore. But it all made sense now. My fiancé must have come out here just like I did and met a horrible fate with this thing. Now I needed to get out.
But as I took my first step, the creature became rattled and started looking around. It's not like I was fully hidden, but it acted like it couldn't see me. I took a wild guess and figured that maybe it couldn't see anything that doesn't move. But not moving would be a horrible idea because it's freezing out here and I'll die if I don't keep moving.
The creature started gliding around on its tentacles, looking around each tree but giving off a disappointed growl.
Soon, it started moving away from me, making unintelligible sounds as it went. Was it talking?
When I thought the coast was clear, I went back to my cautious running. Despite the pain in my leg, adrenaline was kicking in and no longer was I too concerned with an injured leg getting worse. My life was at stake now.
I saw my Jeep and a rush of relief finally got the better of me, unfortunately as I went for the door, that thing hopped on top of it, smashing the entire roof in.
"GAH! No, not you again!" I shouted in frustration.
It kept making some strange noises that I couldn't distinguish. Whatever they were, it sounded like language but nothing I could understand.
It slowly crawled down and I wasn't sure if it had lost sight of me, or if it was just taunting me. But it was almost on top of me so I went with the ladder.
Aiming my AR-15, I started firing at it, and the creature jumped back, making painful moaning sounds as it fell back onto my Jeep.
"So bullets work," I smiled a little.
Remembering what I learned from my fiancé when he showed me what it was like in the military, I retreated back towards some of the trees and hid behind one. If the creature could only see me when I was moving, and it wasn't able to watch where I was hiding, I could easily keep shooting at it while it tried looking for movements.
Firing another shot at the creature, it was becoming more erratic and thrashing around with intense savagery. It took out its anger of not being able to see me, on my car and now I was left stranded. But I had no other choice but to get this thing. If I had to go down tonight, I'm taking it with me.
It kept skulking past all the trees, eagerly trying to find me. I had to keep darting from one tree trunk to another. I take a few shots, reload, take a few shots, and repeat.
But I had become so hyper-focused on the creature that I didn't know I was standing near a cliff. It was a small one, but I lost my footing and felt everything fall from under me. I tumbled onto a frozen pond. Now I had another issue. If that creature saw me here, no doubt it would have me cornered. I had to quickly but carefully slide my whole body over to dry land. In this negative-degree weather, falling into frozen water would be a death sentence.
Unfortunately, the creature saw me moving and jumped straight into the pond, causing it to shatter underneath me and I fell into the water anyway. The brief few seconds in that water were agonizing. My body was freezing and shock kept creeping up on me. But I pushed through with unimaginable strength until I got to land. I ended up losing my AR but now I was on solid ground.
Despite my body begging me not to, I ran as fast as I could. You’d think a creature that only had tentacles for legs would be a little sluggish, but this thing was by no means slow. It raised its body high and was constantly a shadow over me in the moonlight.
My body was right at the moment where it could no longer move. I was wet, cold, and tired. I didn’t bring my 9mm so now I was defenseless.
But I saw a fire nearby. A campfire. Who would want to be camping out here? Nevertheless, I thought maybe I'd be safer if I went toward them. Perhaps they were hunters.
There was a small incline that I had to get over, but right as I was about to reach the top, the creature came landing down on my legs. It had me pinned and it moved its grotesque skull head towards me. I felt drips of drool on my face and tears were starting to fall. At least I'd be with my love soon. I just hope this doesn't have to be too painful.
Its vertical mouth opened up in a row of teeth and multiple tongues stuck out in front of me. As it was about to take a bite, I heard the cocking of a shotgun and someone say, "Hey now, show some manners buddy."
The creature looked up but had its entire head shattered into a spray of blood. It fell back and tried to pick up its skull fragments to keep a misty red light from escaping from the neck wound.
I looked up and saw a man with a short but well-groomed, thick brown beard and sharp eyes that looked like they were always in a state of great focus. He was dressed in a white camouflage military-grade snowsuit.
"Are you okay?" he consoled me with his hand extended out. His smile was warm, calm, and genuine.
"I— I was almost—"
I couldn't take it. I threw myself to him and was desperately in need of some comfort. From my loss to this leg pain, the freezing water, and nearly getting my head bitten off, I was emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted.
I cried hard and tightly. But I was aware that whoever he was, he froze too. Likely by the awkwardness but he gave off such a protective vibe.
"It's okay. We'll kill this Primordial abomination. Kushim, I found your rival."
From behind him stood a tall, skull-headed monster in medieval armor and a leather padded coat.
I screamed that what's-his-name held me tightly to stop me from exerting myself too much.
"Whoa, whoa, chill," he chuckled, considering I was covered in icy water.
I stuttered, trying to warn him. "BUT— BUT THAT'S A M—MONSTER!"
"Yeah, but he and I are partners in crime," he laughed again.
The tall one, Kushim, approached the first monster and he said coldly, "You always were an annoying neighbor."
It made those unintelligible sounds again. But the other monster replied back similarly.
Suddenly Kushim grabbed the shoulders of the abomination and opened his snout, sending out blue lights that wrapped around the body of the prey and red light appeared to be dancing with the blue, but the blue was overpowering it into a whirlwind until there was nothing left of it.
He released his grip and the empty husk and let it drop sharply.
"What— how did he kill it?"
The guy answered, "He ate it."
I was going to ask him to elaborate, but another person came over from the camp. "Henry, why were there gunshots, did you find the—"
She stopped and took notice of my presence. "Oh, I thought we were alone out here?"
"Samantha, help me get her to your tent, quick!" he ordered.
She looked offended at first until she realized that I was dying from the cold. They both carried me to a tent in their camp and as I was laid inside, the girl named Samantha turned around and pushed Henry out, saying, "Stay out! I have to remove her wet clothes!"
"Alright, fine!" he replied, irritated by her outburst.
I quickly fell unconscious but strangely I felt a warmth overwhelm my body, it was such a relief that I felt like I never wanted to leave it.
***
I woke up, wrapped in a warm blanket, and desperately looked around for my clothes. When I found them and was surprised to find that they had been dried, but smelled like firewood, I opened the tent and spotted the guy Henry still sitting by the fire. The sun was rising up and it looked beautiful out here. Like a winter wonderland with the sunlight glistening off the snow-covered pines.
I said, "Um, hey?"
He looked over and greeted me with a smile, saying, "Hey you, you're finally awake. You walked right into our camp, same as that monster over there."
I looked around and saw that the other girl was currently setting up green-colored rocks around the dead body.
"Where's your monster?" I asked, still looking around fearfully.
"Kushim?" he got up and walked toward me and said, "I'd say he's checking for any offspring that that Primordial possibly had."
I raised my eyebrow at him and asked, "What are you talking about?"
"Eh, it's nothing. We actually have to be heading out. Got to go and kill other primordials before we moved."
Again, I had zero context on anything that he was talking about. But he saved me and what I saw last night had to have been real. So quickly I thank them for rescuing me. I was way in over my head. But I'm glad I was able to help them kill that creature. Well… I helped them find it.
The guy and girl gave me a ride back toward the town and helped me get myself a ride back to Springfield. I can only assume that this is some sort of father-daughter business they had going on, but I had to return to normal life and I was afraid to say that I’ll probably never see them again.
Going back to work had become so lackluster since those events. Granted, I didn't want to do anything that would put my life in danger, but at the same time, I don't think it's something I can ignore. What I saw in those woods that day, they'll haunt me for the rest of my life. So I decided to do some more digging.
I looked for other strange things that go on in my state. You'd be surprised how many missing persons, gruesome murders, and unexplainable phenomena have happened in the state of Illinois. And I'm noticing a dangerous trend. These events have been acting up way too much lately. And it's not just here either.
I think— I think I may need to start taking more strange cases. Something is going down in some sort of shady world outside our civilized world. And all these monster attacks are bringing up a repressed memory. But that’s a story, for another day.

Just a heads up for people Gagaoolala dumped alot titles on to leaving soon page. Most are older movies, a few shorts but some series like Red Ballon, Dark Blue and Midnight, and Because of You on the page. Most of them are only found on Gaga legally.
They usually have a few titles leaving but this massive list shocked me a little. There are a lot of titles I've put off watching and now need to hurry up and watch. All together including the lesbian titles there is 71 shows leaving which is a sizeable part of there catalog.
Edit:
MidwesternLibrarian suggested that if you are interested in keeping any of these titles to contact Gaga to let them know you don't want to see a particular title go away. Dangerous Drugs of Sex was a title that was suppose to leave Gaga but fan support lead to it remaining on the platform

contact-us

Here is all the titles leaving:
Going South(South Korea movie) Before returning to his army base, Gi-Tae seeks out Jun-Young, a former supervisor who has completed military service. With a great frown, however, the latter tells him never to visit him again. As he watches the other man, Gi-Tae's gaze is far from ordinary. Soon afterwards, he presents Jun-Young with a cup of coffee secretly laced with sleeping pills. After stopping the wavering car and occupying the driver's seat, Gi-Tae makes a U-turn and heads in the direction opposite his base, somewhere to the south. Awake in a fit of vomiting, Jun-Young showers his former subordinate with curses... The secret that the two are entangled in slowly unravels...
Jay(Taiwan Short) Jay, a 13-year-old boy, is fascinated by his toned and athletic older brother. In order to get close to him, Jay feigns an interest in basketball so that his brother will practice with him. Steadily, Jay's fascination develops into an attraction. * can be found on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-YOTxfMK00
Fragile Souls(Taiwan Short) It was almost the college entrance exam. Students were cramming til night at school. Zi-Fan, the president of student union, like every model student, he was working on tests while listening to a strange cassette. On the other hand, Zi-Fan's crush, Jie kept sneaking on Zi-Fan without letting him notice. When Zi-Fan saw Jie left the classroom, he followed his steps to the corridor and accidentally bumped into the candidate for the next president campaign. With the power of the magical cassette, Zi-Fan read the broken heart from a victim of domestic violence on this second-grader. The unbearable scream of agony reminded him of how he escape his bullied life by listening to others through the cassette. Zi-Fan ran away to the washroom where he recognized as a safe haven. With panic filled in his mind, he met Jie where he used to spent his darkest moments alone. Sensing his fear, Jie held Zi-Fan's hands and invited him to listen to his heart...
The Dance of Two Left Feet ( Philippines movie) Doing poorly in class, Marlon plans to impress his literature teacher, Karen, who moonlights as a dance teacher and choreographer. He hires his fellow classmate Dennis, who also happens to be Karen's dance assistant, to give him private lessons without her knowledge. Through their lessons the two young men grow closer, but Dennis begins to have feelings for Marlon that go beyond friendship that Marlon does not reciprocate. Soon their friendship is strained and Marlon cannot fathom why. When both young men are cast to play leads in Karen's dance adaptation of the Ilonggo epic Humadapnon, it is through dance that Marlon can finally express what he cannot say in words to Dennis.
That Room(Taiwan Movie) That year, Shih committed suicide in his room on Moon Festival. Wei, deeply in love with Shih, is still suffering from the loss of his beloved alone and living in their apartment in grief. Memories cut as a dagger, while the unbearable yearning hurts and makes Wei isolate himself. Moon Festival is around the corner. In regard to death, lover, relatives, and friends, how will Wei act when facing all of them?
All About My Father(South Korea movie) A father that has an affair with his son's new husband, a reporter investigates the sexual misconduct of military, and a grandfather that uses his grandson to source explicit magazines. An omnibus of tales of hierarchies, institution, and deviancy.
Front Cover(USA Movie) Front Cover is about a gay New York City fashion stylist, Ryan, who detests and rejects his Asian upbringing. He is given an assignment to style Ning, a foreign actor, for an important photo shoot. After a rocky start, an unlikely friendship develops between them leading Ryan to examine his identity and make a major decision about an enticing new path for his life and career. * can be found tubitv
Innocent(Hong Kong Movie) 17-year-old Eric follows his parents to immigrate to Canada and is thus forced to confront different emotional and cultural problems. He must not only adjust to the new environment, but also come to terms with his homosexuality. Standing at the brink of adulthood, he encounters a series of potential romantic interests - his handsome cousin, a schoolmate, a middle aged lawyer and finally a kitchen helper. They represent different stages in Eric's development, from infatuation, sex, love to a sense of responsibility.
Eating Out, Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds, Eating Out 3 : All You Can Eat, Eating Out 4 : Drama Camp, Eating Out 5 : The Open Weekend (USA movie) Switching sexual orientation to nab the opposite or same sex? Whether Caleb is pretending to be gay to get a girl or Kyle is convincing everyone he’s straight to get a guy, all the hunks have everyone eating out of their hands and hungry for more!
One Summer Night ( South Korean Movie) Winter 2013, Yong-Joon and Jae-Sung are North Korean soldiers. They are having sex at an outpost near the DMZ line. A senior soldier catches them in the act. Yong-Joon decides to flee to South Korea, leaving Jae-Sung behind. Two years later in South Korea, Yong-Joon dates Tae-Kyu, but he misses his country of North Korea. One day, Jae-Sung flees to South Korea. Yong-Joon is conflicted between his former boyfriend Jae-Sung and his current boyfriend Tae-Kyu.
Best. Partee. Ever. ( Philippines Movie) Mikey - a young, discreet gay man from the affluent class, spends five years in a city jail while hearing his case for drug pushing. Inside the prison, Mikey holds back to adapt to the culture and stratification among inmates. Eventually, Mikey becomes a "Mayor" (ring leader) to a group of gay inmates called Gang-da. Together they thrive to survive the dangers of several gang riots, the mundane, and the decay of human dignity.
Long Time No See(South Korean Movie) A private killer, a flying dagger and a wild dog. Destiny brings two men to fall in love, but gangsters are after them. A duel has to take place for them to protect each other. *can be found on vimeo $11.11 to buy
A Reunion(USA Movie) Two estranged friends take an emotional and eventful road trip from Los Angeles to Chicago to attend their 10-year college reunion, facing their complicated past along the way. The nostalgic journey across the country leads to confessions, contradictions, and conflicts as they struggle to reconcile their past and connect with each other. Their road trip becomes an exploration of male friendship, intimacy and a search for one's identity along the American landscape.
Real Boy (USA Movie) Real Boy is the coming-of-age story of Bennett Wallace, a transgender teenager on a journey to find his voice—as a musician, a friend, a son, and a man. As he navigates the ups and downs of young adulthood, he works to gain the love and support of his mother, who has deep misgivings about her child’s transition. Along the way, Bennett forges a powerful friendship with his idol, Joe Stevens, a celebrated transgender musician with his own demons to fight.
A Boy and Sungreen(South Korean Movie) Bo-hee is a fragile and sensitive boy. His best friend Sungreen is an unbreakable girl. After being told by his mother that his father died long ago, Bo-hee accidentally finds out that he might still be alive. He meets his cousin, her boyfriend and his father’s friends. In the process, he comes to realize what he really yearns for and what is meaningful in his life. This is a coming of age story of a boy, and of all of us.
Yes I Do (Taiwan Movie) Kim is a new lawyer who gets a difficult case of helping a lesbian couple to adopt a child without any support. He knows that this going to be a long and tough process, but he is still willing to take it. Kim meets Allen who is just like a brother of his clients Queen and Mang. He also gets acquainted with Shi-Li, who comes from a family that has two lesbian mothers. Kim realizes that there are many heart-breaking stories behind the smiles of gay and lesbian people and gets involved with many people's life unexpectedly.
Fathers (Thailand Movie) Phoon, a 36-year-old financial and investment manager and Yuke, a 33-year-old Illustrator, has been married for 13 years. They adopted an orphan since he was a baby. When their son realizes the need of a mother, two fathers start to feel weird for him. One day, the Director of the Child Protection Office visits them and decides to find out the birth record of the child. When the birth mother appears, Phoon and Yike have to decide what the best is for their son.
Two Weddings and a Funeral(South Korean Movie) Min-Soo, a South Korean young doctor, lives in fear of his parents discovering his homosexuality. His solution is to marry his pretty co-worker Hyo-Jin, who lives in the apartment across the hall with her lesbian lover. They live together in pretense as they pass themselves off as heterosexuals. All seems well until Min-Soo's parents start to grow suspicious, forcing Min-Soo to realize that living only to please others often does more harm than good. * can be found on asisncrush
White Night (South Korean Movie) One desolate winter night, Won-Gyu, a flight attendant, returns to South Korea after 2 years of self-exile. After a reunion with his ex which brings back some memories, he searches for a one-night stand and meets Tae-Jun. Despite a rough start with Won-Gyu who seems cold and distant, Tae-Jun finds himself drawn to him. As time progresses, their ominous hunch become increasingly strong…
Fleeing by Night(Taiwan Movie) Set in China in the 1930s, the film is about the unsettling relationship between three characters. Ing'er, the daughter of a theatre-owner, welcomes the return of Shao-dung, her fiancee and a fine cellist from America. Shao-dung soon finds himself captivated by the opera "Fleeing By Night" and its celebrated actor, Lin Chung, whose voice seems to articulate something within himself. While Shao-dung attempts to blend eastern and western music, Ing'er becomes torn between her affection for both men, and an awareness of the growing intimacy between them.
The Night(Argentina Movie) The story tells, from an accentuated hyper-realistic aesthetic, the life of Martin, a man in his forties who is desperately lonely and seeks, through sex, some company, to spend that time of which nothing seems to be expected. Under this constant desolation, he finds in cocaine, alcohol and in some other orgy a state of momentary pleasure every night.
You Are the Sea(Japan Movie) Kaito, a feminine boy and a literature-loving university student is wary of women due to a failed relationship. But after he meets Toko, his faith is restored as the gentle, loving girl encourages and cozies up to him. The two soon start a relationship, only for Toko to meet a woman named Hiroka, whom Toko finds herself drawn to. Kaito, who loves Toko dearly then goes to great lengths to try and bring her around, including dressing up as a woman.
The River(Taiwan Movie) In a Taipei apartment live Xiao-Kang and his parents.Each leads a separate life. The mother has a lover. Xiao-Kang has his own tryouts. The father pursues a solitary quest for illicit pleasures in the city's gay saunas. They live together, but are miles apart. As an extra in a TV commercial, Xiao-Kang plays a body adrift in a dirty river. Ever since, an insufferable pains in his neck troubles him. Soon, the pains grows and dominates his life, physically and mentally. Meanwhile, the ceiling of his father's room starts leaking. Accompanied by his father, Xiao-Kang travels for seeking to ease his growing pains. His mother is left alone in Taipei to tackle the leak.The sickness and the leaks, are they the beginning or the end of an erosion of this family?
Driver(Thailand Movie) Driver is the story of Kade, a woman searching for her husband, Tae, who disappears after a trip to Korea. Kade asks Mac, her husband's driver, to take her to his office and finds out about a house she never knew about. Tae realizes that she can no longer trust her beloved husband. But then, who can she trust?
The Story of the Stone (Taiwan Movie) After the death of Lin's boyfriend Bao, Lin heads to Taipei and meets Josh in the Red House. Slowly a new relationship sparks between them. However, the relationship turns complicated when two other men enter their lives...
The Surface (US Movie) Evan Jones, a child orphan who, for years, was shifted from one foster home to another. Now a disaffected college student, he lives with his wealthy boyfriend, Chris. Their social and financial disparities have made their relationship increasingly volatile despite their mutual love for one another. While sifting through old relics at an elderly man's yard sale, Evan finds an 8mm movie camera. The man offers to teach Evan how to use it if he comes back the following week. Upon returning, Evan meets the man's 43-year-old son, Peter. They strike up a conversation and Peter gives him reels of old 8mm movies that are collecting dust in the garage. Evan's friendship with Peter soon turns romantic, and he pushes for greater understanding of himself and the notions of family, love and fulfillment.
Mama Rainbow(China Documentary) For Chinese parents, finding out that their kid is gay usually presents a major tragedy, with the big majority utterly unable to accept the homosexuality of their son or daughter. However, during recent years a fresh rainbow wind has been blowing over the Chinese mainland: a pioneer generation of Chinese parents has been stepping up and speaking out on their love for their gay kids. This documentary features 6 mothers from all over China, who talk openly and freely about their experiences with their homosexual children. With their love, they are giving a whole new definition to Chinese-style family bonds.
Papa Rainbow(China Documentary) In China, most families have difficulties facing their lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) children. They have to contend with common social beliefs that homosexuality is shameful, abnormal, a perverted condition caused by deviant family relationships. Many parents see their kids as their property, and fathers often assert their authority to ensure that no harm comes to the family reputation.
Stateless Things (South Korean Movie) Jun, a North Korean young man who illegally emigrated to South Korea, gets in a fight and flees from the gas station he works at after sticking up for Soon-Hee, a Chinese girl who has been sexually harassed. Hyeon is a young gay who lives in his sugar-daddy's luxury apartment. Hyeon finds himself suffocated despite the good life. Two seemingly irrelevant stories meet in a most miraculous way.
Soundless Wind Chime(Hong Kong Movie) Ricky, a Chinese immigrant in Hong Kong, is searching for the lost soul and the past of his deceased Swiss lover -- Pascal, a 27-year-old rebel who escaped his traditional boundaries. The film shows a battle of love, lust, reality, memory, illusions and the grief that we all share.
Beautiful Something (USA Movie) One night under a full moon in Philadelphia, the lives of four men intersect through euphoric sex and desperate emptiness. Brian is an award-winning poet whose ink appears to have dried up. A beautiful aspiring actor, Jim finds drama in every crevice of his life; Bob is a talent agent trying to connect the past with the present; and Drew is a renowned artist who seems to be in love more with a sculpture than his lover and muse.
Black Summer(South Korean Movie) One night under a full moon in Philadelphia, the lives of four men intersect through euphoric sex and desperate emptiness. Brian is an award-winning poet whose ink appears to have dried up. A beautiful aspiring actor, Jim finds drama in every crevice of his life; Bob is a talent agent trying to connect the past with the present; and Drew is a renowned artist who seems to be in love more with a sculpture than his lover and muse.
The Dark Side of Love(USA Movie) Estranged brothers, Julian and Michael, are forced to confront their troubled pasts after the death of their mother. Julian is in an awkward situation having been set up at an auction with Steven, an eligible bachelor. Michael would rather hustle for drugs for his girlfriend Chanel, than face the reality that he is spiraling out of control.
End of Love(Hong Kong Movie) Following his mother's agonizing death, Ming rents a room owned by Cyrus, a rent boy that leads Ming into a life of decadence. Yan, Ming’s lover who can’t bear to see Ming live the way he does, takes action to put an end to his debauchery. With the support of a fellow inmate, Keung, Ming manages to survive the rehabilitation centre. Upon being released, Ming moves in with Keung, only to face yet another emotional challenge…
Method (South Korean Movie) Stage actor Jae-ha and K-pop idol Young-woo costar in a play known for its provocative homosexual setting. To Jae-ha’s annoyance, Young-woo is insolent and cares very little about the play.… Until one day, Jae-ha’s incredible performance moves him, and Young-woo slowly becomes absorbed in his character who is in love with Jae-ha’s. During rehearsals, Young-woo comes to realize that it may not be just the character he is in love with… *can be found on viki asiancrush tubitv
Vive L'Amour(Tawain Movie) Hsiao-kang is a salesperson for columbarium. He sells niches for cremated remain of the dead. May is a real estate agent. She lives alone in a small apartment.Ah-jung sells female clothing at the doorway of a department store in late evenings.In s winter night of Taipei, the three slip into a vacant apartment downtown. They are together. They are not.
Tropical Night (South Korean Movie) Jae Hee and his brother Tae Kyung live quietly in Pattaya. They are one day visited by Min Ki, whose brother Min Hoon, committed suicide while on military leave. Convinced that Jae Hee is responsible, Min Ki comes to realize that Jae Hee was deeply in love with his brother, and grows fond of him. The buds of love then gradually sprout in the dreamy tropical night.
Love Next Door, Love Next Door 2 (Thailand Movies) Kao runs away from home, so he goes with people knock on his door to pay for sex without knowing that he would end up falling in love with Pete, the guy next door who is actually the escort all the customers are knocking for.
Super Awesome!(Australian Movie) A comedy feature film about a two down and out buds given one last shot at achieving their dreams. Out of the blue, Mark and Gary find themselves with $250K to headline the opening night of a massive international festival. It's Rocky meets SuperBad set against the hilarious backdrop of two straight guys doing their best to write a musical about an issue they know nothing about - Gay Marriage. As the clock ticks down to opening night and the whole production inches towards collapsing, Mark and Gary ultimately are illuminated to the significance of gay marriage and the potential their musical has to make a change... but is it too little too late?
Chinese Closet(China Documentary) A large majority of LGBT people in mainland China remain in the closet. Most of these closet doors are kept tightly shut by pressure from friends, family, and society itself. This documentary hopes to explore the experience of coming out in China through a series of interviews with out homosexuals. The interviews touch upon the discrimination, suppression, and even violence they have endured as well as the touching moments where they experienced compassion and understanding. The documentary also covers gay rights activist and proud mother of a homosexual, Wu Youjian, who stands strongly by her son and other gay men in full support.
Inside the Chinese Closet(Netherlands Movie) Andy devotes his days and nights to looking for a lesbian wife of convenience who could possibly bear his child; from online search to underground marriage markets, he is meeting all sorts of girls. Cherry has already married a gay man, but the quest for a baby proves to be a far more complex challenge. Will Andy and Cherry deny their own happiness and sexual orientation to satisfy their parents’ wishes? Along the way, they clash with their parents’ hopes, their love partners and the partners of convenience. It is through these encounters that the film lays bare the challenges that confront gay people in China today.
Splendid Float(Taiwan Movie) In the daytime, A-Wei is a taoist who parys for revenants in s Funeral House, but is the nighttime he turns himself into Rose and is the most hottest transvestite queen in the Splendid Float. Rose promises his customers to raise the soul of their drown son, A-Yang. To his surprise, it is lover's soul he is going to raise. As a taoist,Rose weeps about his lover with sadness.The musician in the Funeral house cannot help wondering how comes the Taoist has become the family of the dead. Facing such a big lose of his lover, Rose wants to take the momorial tablet home as his wife.Therefore, his colleagues and he come to A-Yang's funeral and his opinion by throwing the wooden divining blocks over and over again. On the funeral ceremony, after the funeral procession and A-Yang family are gone, Rose's colleagues and she are going to hold a big welfare party for A-Yang to memorize their passing love. ""Splendid Float"" is the first film about the transvestite queen in Taiwan and also the first homosexual film of her rainbow plan.
The Chronicles of a Boy (Homo phobia)(South Korean Movie) Young-taek is one day visited by one of his schoolmates who claims to be his father’s lover. Young-taek, unable to bare this fact, decides to do something. In college, a senior boy comes relentlessly at him, to get the test questions, Young-taek lets him do what he wants to him, only to be later blackmailed. In military, while on leave, he goes out with his sergeant and the man’s girlfriend, but in the night, the sergeant takes advantage of him.
Because of You (Tawain Series) Growing up in a large, wealthy family, the three Yuan brothers never wanted for anything. Despite the three of them being only half brothers, the trio was incredibly close, their familial bonds undeniably strong. Whatever the brothers faced, they always faced together. But as they grew older, they began to realize that some things they just couldn't share, especially when it came to matters of the heart. Now older, Yuan Jun Cheng, Yuan Jun Dao, and Yuan Jun Ping have all felt the overwhelming tide of emotions that comes with love. But the journey has been anything but easy. Fighting against the sweeping tide of feelings that have continually beat against them, telling them things like "no", "impossible", and "cannot", the three brothers must find a way to overcome some of life's most difficult challenges, as they pursue that which the heart wants most of all: to be loved. *can be found at viki wetv with thai vpn
In Their Room (USA Series) In Their Room (2009-present) is an on-going multi-city documentary series about gay men, bedrooms and intimacy. The series veers into the bedrooms of men where you see them doing everything from the most banal to the sometimes more erotic. Complimenting the revealing nature of their everyday activities are confessional interviews about fantasies, turn-ons and vulnerabilities. The throughline of the series highlights the ways in which gay men in disparate cultures deal with connection, intimacy and loneliness in the modern world.
Red Balloon (Taiwan Series) Zi-chen is a well-mannered and talented student in the school where his father functions as the chairman of the board. He is the star at school. One day, he hides in his secret quiet corner to enjoy some alone time, until Hsiang-wan shows up. Hsiang-wan keeps bothering Zi-chen all the time and taking pictures of him. When Zi-chen finally gets rid of Hsiang-wan and goes back to the dorms, something unexpected is waiting for him there.
We Are Gamily (Taiwan Series) Wu Gang lives with his gay partner Sam in Chengdu where same-sex marriages are still illegal, and ‘Marriages of Convenience” are commonly used as white lies for elderly family members by LGBT community in China. But things just changed over-night when Gang’s mother, Yu-Hua, who is too desperate to have grandchildren, decided to move in together with her son and daughter-in-law Yang Duo. She even forced her daughter Wu Rou, Gang’s twin sister, to live with them.
Dark Blue And Moonlight (Taiwan Series) Hai Qing is an 18-year-old young adult who got into swimming in the summer which he failed the exam for university. Yan Fei who took the responsibility of the mistake made by his department in his company goes to a swimming lesson. Disturbed by his thoughts, Yan Fei who almost drowned is saved by Hai Qing. After taking a shower, Yan Fei sits in the changing room and is still in shock. Hai Qing wants check if he's okay but hesitates. The time freezes when they make eye contacts, then Yan Fei kisses Hai-ching out of impulse. *can be found on viki

Just a heads up for people Gagaoolala dumped alot titles on to leaving soon page. Most are older movies, a few shorts but some series like Red Ballon, Dark Blue and Midnight, and Because of You on the page. Most of them are only found on Gaga legally.
They usually have a few titles leaving but this massive list shocked me a little. There are a lot of titles I've put off watching and now need to hurry up and watch. All together including the lesbian titles there is 71 shows leaving which is a sizeable part of there catalog.
Edit:
MidwesternLibrarian suggested that if you are interested in keeping any of these titles to contact Gaga to let them know you don't want to see a particular title go away. Dangerous Drugs of Sex was a title that was suppose to leave Gaga but fan support lead to it remaining on the platform

You can make a request at https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/contact-us

Here is all the titles leaving:
Going South(South Korea movie) Before returning to his army base, Gi-Tae seeks out Jun-Young, a former supervisor who has completed military service. With a great frown, however, the latter tells him never to visit him again. As he watches the other man, Gi-Tae's gaze is far from ordinary. Soon afterwards, he presents Jun-Young with a cup of coffee secretly laced with sleeping pills. After stopping the wavering car and occupying the driver's seat, Gi-Tae makes a U-turn and heads in the direction opposite his base, somewhere to the south. Awake in a fit of vomiting, Jun-Young showers his former subordinate with curses... The secret that the two are entangled in slowly unravels...
Jay(Taiwan Short) Jay, a 13-year-old boy, is fascinated by his toned and athletic older brother. In order to get close to him, Jay feigns an interest in basketball so that his brother will practice with him. Steadily, Jay's fascination develops into an attraction. * can be found on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-YOTxfMK00
Fragile Souls(Taiwan Short) It was almost the college entrance exam. Students were cramming til night at school. Zi-Fan, the president of student union, like every model student, he was working on tests while listening to a strange cassette. On the other hand, Zi-Fan's crush, Jie kept sneaking on Zi-Fan without letting him notice. When Zi-Fan saw Jie left the classroom, he followed his steps to the corridor and accidentally bumped into the candidate for the next president campaign. With the power of the magical cassette, Zi-Fan read the broken heart from a victim of domestic violence on this second-grader. The unbearable scream of agony reminded him of how he escape his bullied life by listening to others through the cassette. Zi-Fan ran away to the washroom where he recognized as a safe haven. With panic filled in his mind, he met Jie where he used to spent his darkest moments alone. Sensing his fear, Jie held Zi-Fan's hands and invited him to listen to his heart...
The Dance of Two Left Feet ( Philippines movie) Doing poorly in class, Marlon plans to impress his literature teacher, Karen, who moonlights as a dance teacher and choreographer. He hires his fellow classmate Dennis, who also happens to be Karen's dance assistant, to give him private lessons without her knowledge. Through their lessons the two young men grow closer, but Dennis begins to have feelings for Marlon that go beyond friendship that Marlon does not reciprocate. Soon their friendship is strained and Marlon cannot fathom why. When both young men are cast to play leads in Karen's dance adaptation of the Ilonggo epic Humadapnon, it is through dance that Marlon can finally express what he cannot say in words to Dennis.
That Room(Taiwan Movie) That year, Shih committed suicide in his room on Moon Festival. Wei, deeply in love with Shih, is still suffering from the loss of his beloved alone and living in their apartment in grief. Memories cut as a dagger, while the unbearable yearning hurts and makes Wei isolate himself. Moon Festival is around the corner. In regard to death, lover, relatives, and friends, how will Wei act when facing all of them?
All About My Father(South Korea movie) A father that has an affair with his son's new husband, a reporter investigates the sexual misconduct of military, and a grandfather that uses his grandson to source explicit magazines. An omnibus of tales of hierarchies, institution, and deviancy.
Front Cover(USA Movie) Front Cover is about a gay New York City fashion stylist, Ryan, who detests and rejects his Asian upbringing. He is given an assignment to style Ning, a foreign actor, for an important photo shoot. After a rocky start, an unlikely friendship develops between them leading Ryan to examine his identity and make a major decision about an enticing new path for his life and career. * can be found tubitv
Innocent(Hong Kong Movie) 17-year-old Eric follows his parents to immigrate to Canada and is thus forced to confront different emotional and cultural problems. He must not only adjust to the new environment, but also come to terms with his homosexuality. Standing at the brink of adulthood, he encounters a series of potential romantic interests - his handsome cousin, a schoolmate, a middle aged lawyer and finally a kitchen helper. They represent different stages in Eric's development, from infatuation, sex, love to a sense of responsibility.
Eating Out, Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds, Eating Out 3 : All You Can Eat, Eating Out 4 : Drama Camp, Eating Out 5 : The Open Weekend (USA movie) Switching sexual orientation to nab the opposite or same sex? Whether Caleb is pretending to be gay to get a girl or Kyle is convincing everyone he’s straight to get a guy, all the hunks have everyone eating out of their hands and hungry for more!
One Summer Night ( South Korean Movie) Winter 2013, Yong-Joon and Jae-Sung are North Korean soldiers. They are having sex at an outpost near the DMZ line. A senior soldier catches them in the act. Yong-Joon decides to flee to South Korea, leaving Jae-Sung behind. Two years later in South Korea, Yong-Joon dates Tae-Kyu, but he misses his country of North Korea. One day, Jae-Sung flees to South Korea. Yong-Joon is conflicted between his former boyfriend Jae-Sung and his current boyfriend Tae-Kyu.
Best. Partee. Ever. ( Philippines Movie) Mikey - a young, discreet gay man from the affluent class, spends five years in a city jail while hearing his case for drug pushing. Inside the prison, Mikey holds back to adapt to the culture and stratification among inmates. Eventually, Mikey becomes a "Mayor" (ring leader) to a group of gay inmates called Gang-da. Together they thrive to survive the dangers of several gang riots, the mundane, and the decay of human dignity.
Long Time No See(South Korean Movie) A private killer, a flying dagger and a wild dog. Destiny brings two men to fall in love, but gangsters are after them. A duel has to take place for them to protect each other. *can be found on vimeo $11.11 to buy
A Reunion(USA Movie) Two estranged friends take an emotional and eventful road trip from Los Angeles to Chicago to attend their 10-year college reunion, facing their complicated past along the way. The nostalgic journey across the country leads to confessions, contradictions, and conflicts as they struggle to reconcile their past and connect with each other. Their road trip becomes an exploration of male friendship, intimacy and a search for one's identity along the American landscape.
Real Boy (USA Movie) Real Boy is the coming-of-age story of Bennett Wallace, a transgender teenager on a journey to find his voice—as a musician, a friend, a son, and a man. As he navigates the ups and downs of young adulthood, he works to gain the love and support of his mother, who has deep misgivings about her child’s transition. Along the way, Bennett forges a powerful friendship with his idol, Joe Stevens, a celebrated transgender musician with his own demons to fight.
A Boy and Sungreen(South Korean Movie) Bo-hee is a fragile and sensitive boy. His best friend Sungreen is an unbreakable girl. After being told by his mother that his father died long ago, Bo-hee accidentally finds out that he might still be alive. He meets his cousin, her boyfriend and his father’s friends. In the process, he comes to realize what he really yearns for and what is meaningful in his life. This is a coming of age story of a boy, and of all of us.
Yes I Do (Taiwan Movie) Kim is a new lawyer who gets a difficult case of helping a lesbian couple to adopt a child without any support. He knows that this going to be a long and tough process, but he is still willing to take it. Kim meets Allen who is just like a brother of his clients Queen and Mang. He also gets acquainted with Shi-Li, who comes from a family that has two lesbian mothers. Kim realizes that there are many heart-breaking stories behind the smiles of gay and lesbian people and gets involved with many people's life unexpectedly.
Fathers (Thailand Movie) Phoon, a 36-year-old financial and investment manager and Yuke, a 33-year-old Illustrator, has been married for 13 years. They adopted an orphan since he was a baby. When their son realizes the need of a mother, two fathers start to feel weird for him. One day, the Director of the Child Protection Office visits them and decides to find out the birth record of the child. When the birth mother appears, Phoon and Yike have to decide what the best is for their son.
Two Weddings and a Funeral(South Korean Movie) Min-Soo, a South Korean young doctor, lives in fear of his parents discovering his homosexuality. His solution is to marry his pretty co-worker Hyo-Jin, who lives in the apartment across the hall with her lesbian lover. They live together in pretense as they pass themselves off as heterosexuals. All seems well until Min-Soo's parents start to grow suspicious, forcing Min-Soo to realize that living only to please others often does more harm than good. * can be found on asisncrush
White Night (South Korean Movie) One desolate winter night, Won-Gyu, a flight attendant, returns to South Korea after 2 years of self-exile. After a reunion with his ex which brings back some memories, he searches for a one-night stand and meets Tae-Jun. Despite a rough start with Won-Gyu who seems cold and distant, Tae-Jun finds himself drawn to him. As time progresses, their ominous hunch become increasingly strong…
Fleeing by Night(Taiwan Movie) Set in China in the 1930s, the film is about the unsettling relationship between three characters. Ing'er, the daughter of a theatre-owner, welcomes the return of Shao-dung, her fiancee and a fine cellist from America. Shao-dung soon finds himself captivated by the opera "Fleeing By Night" and its celebrated actor, Lin Chung, whose voice seems to articulate something within himself. While Shao-dung attempts to blend eastern and western music, Ing'er becomes torn between her affection for both men, and an awareness of the growing intimacy between them.
The Night(Argentina Movie) The story tells, from an accentuated hyper-realistic aesthetic, the life of Martin, a man in his forties who is desperately lonely and seeks, through sex, some company, to spend that time of which nothing seems to be expected. Under this constant desolation, he finds in cocaine, alcohol and in some other orgy a state of momentary pleasure every night.
You Are the Sea(Japan Movie) Kaito, a feminine boy and a literature-loving university student is wary of women due to a failed relationship. But after he meets Toko, his faith is restored as the gentle, loving girl encourages and cozies up to him. The two soon start a relationship, only for Toko to meet a woman named Hiroka, whom Toko finds herself drawn to. Kaito, who loves Toko dearly then goes to great lengths to try and bring her around, including dressing up as a woman.
The River(Taiwan Movie) In a Taipei apartment live Xiao-Kang and his parents.Each leads a separate life. The mother has a lover. Xiao-Kang has his own tryouts. The father pursues a solitary quest for illicit pleasures in the city's gay saunas. They live together, but are miles apart. As an extra in a TV commercial, Xiao-Kang plays a body adrift in a dirty river. Ever since, an insufferable pains in his neck troubles him. Soon, the pains grows and dominates his life, physically and mentally. Meanwhile, the ceiling of his father's room starts leaking. Accompanied by his father, Xiao-Kang travels for seeking to ease his growing pains. His mother is left alone in Taipei to tackle the leak.The sickness and the leaks, are they the beginning or the end of an erosion of this family?
Driver(Thailand Movie) Driver is the story of Kade, a woman searching for her husband, Tae, who disappears after a trip to Korea. Kade asks Mac, her husband's driver, to take her to his office and finds out about a house she never knew about. Tae realizes that she can no longer trust her beloved husband. But then, who can she trust?
The Story of the Stone (Taiwan Movie) After the death of Lin's boyfriend Bao, Lin heads to Taipei and meets Josh in the Red House. Slowly a new relationship sparks between them. However, the relationship turns complicated when two other men enter their lives...
The Surface (US Movie) Evan Jones, a child orphan who, for years, was shifted from one foster home to another. Now a disaffected college student, he lives with his wealthy boyfriend, Chris. Their social and financial disparities have made their relationship increasingly volatile despite their mutual love for one another. While sifting through old relics at an elderly man's yard sale, Evan finds an 8mm movie camera. The man offers to teach Evan how to use it if he comes back the following week. Upon returning, Evan meets the man's 43-year-old son, Peter. They strike up a conversation and Peter gives him reels of old 8mm movies that are collecting dust in the garage. Evan's friendship with Peter soon turns romantic, and he pushes for greater understanding of himself and the notions of family, love and fulfillment.
Mama Rainbow(China Documentary) For Chinese parents, finding out that their kid is gay usually presents a major tragedy, with the big majority utterly unable to accept the homosexuality of their son or daughter. However, during recent years a fresh rainbow wind has been blowing over the Chinese mainland: a pioneer generation of Chinese parents has been stepping up and speaking out on their love for their gay kids. This documentary features 6 mothers from all over China, who talk openly and freely about their experiences with their homosexual children. With their love, they are giving a whole new definition to Chinese-style family bonds.
Papa Rainbow(China Documentary) In China, most families have difficulties facing their lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) children. They have to contend with common social beliefs that homosexuality is shameful, abnormal, a perverted condition caused by deviant family relationships. Many parents see their kids as their property, and fathers often assert their authority to ensure that no harm comes to the family reputation.
Stateless Things (South Korean Movie) Jun, a North Korean young man who illegally emigrated to South Korea, gets in a fight and flees from the gas station he works at after sticking up for Soon-Hee, a Chinese girl who has been sexually harassed. Hyeon is a young gay who lives in his sugar-daddy's luxury apartment. Hyeon finds himself suffocated despite the good life. Two seemingly irrelevant stories meet in a most miraculous way.
Soundless Wind Chime(Hong Kong Movie) Ricky, a Chinese immigrant in Hong Kong, is searching for the lost soul and the past of his deceased Swiss lover -- Pascal, a 27-year-old rebel who escaped his traditional boundaries. The film shows a battle of love, lust, reality, memory, illusions and the grief that we all share.
Beautiful Something (USA Movie) One night under a full moon in Philadelphia, the lives of four men intersect through euphoric sex and desperate emptiness. Brian is an award-winning poet whose ink appears to have dried up. A beautiful aspiring actor, Jim finds drama in every crevice of his life; Bob is a talent agent trying to connect the past with the present; and Drew is a renowned artist who seems to be in love more with a sculpture than his lover and muse.
Black Summer(South Korean Movie) One night under a full moon in Philadelphia, the lives of four men intersect through euphoric sex and desperate emptiness. Brian is an award-winning poet whose ink appears to have dried up. A beautiful aspiring actor, Jim finds drama in every crevice of his life; Bob is a talent agent trying to connect the past with the present; and Drew is a renowned artist who seems to be in love more with a sculpture than his lover and muse.
The Dark Side of Love(USA Movie) Estranged brothers, Julian and Michael, are forced to confront their troubled pasts after the death of their mother. Julian is in an awkward situation having been set up at an auction with Steven, an eligible bachelor. Michael would rather hustle for drugs for his girlfriend Chanel, than face the reality that he is spiraling out of control.
End of Love(Hong Kong Movie) Following his mother's agonizing death, Ming rents a room owned by Cyrus, a rent boy that leads Ming into a life of decadence. Yan, Ming’s lover who can’t bear to see Ming live the way he does, takes action to put an end to his debauchery. With the support of a fellow inmate, Keung, Ming manages to survive the rehabilitation centre. Upon being released, Ming moves in with Keung, only to face yet another emotional challenge…
Method (South Korean Movie) Stage actor Jae-ha and K-pop idol Young-woo costar in a play known for its provocative homosexual setting. To Jae-ha’s annoyance, Young-woo is insolent and cares very little about the play.… Until one day, Jae-ha’s incredible performance moves him, and Young-woo slowly becomes absorbed in his character who is in love with Jae-ha’s. During rehearsals, Young-woo comes to realize that it may not be just the character he is in love with… *can be found on viki asiancrush tubitv
Vive L'Amour(Tawain Movie) Hsiao-kang is a salesperson for columbarium. He sells niches for cremated remain of the dead. May is a real estate agent. She lives alone in a small apartment.Ah-jung sells female clothing at the doorway of a department store in late evenings.In s winter night of Taipei, the three slip into a vacant apartment downtown. They are together. They are not.
Tropical Night (South Korean Movie) Jae Hee and his brother Tae Kyung live quietly in Pattaya. They are one day visited by Min Ki, whose brother Min Hoon, committed suicide while on military leave. Convinced that Jae Hee is responsible, Min Ki comes to realize that Jae Hee was deeply in love with his brother, and grows fond of him. The buds of love then gradually sprout in the dreamy tropical night.
Love Next Door, Love Next Door 2 (Thailand Movies) Kao runs away from home, so he goes with people knock on his door to pay for sex without knowing that he would end up falling in love with Pete, the guy next door who is actually the escort all the customers are knocking for.
Super Awesome!(Australian Movie) A comedy feature film about a two down and out buds given one last shot at achieving their dreams. Out of the blue, Mark and Gary find themselves with $250K to headline the opening night of a massive international festival. It's Rocky meets SuperBad set against the hilarious backdrop of two straight guys doing their best to write a musical about an issue they know nothing about - Gay Marriage. As the clock ticks down to opening night and the whole production inches towards collapsing, Mark and Gary ultimately are illuminated to the significance of gay marriage and the potential their musical has to make a change... but is it too little too late?
Chinese Closet(China Documentary) A large majority of LGBT people in mainland China remain in the closet. Most of these closet doors are kept tightly shut by pressure from friends, family, and society itself. This documentary hopes to explore the experience of coming out in China through a series of interviews with out homosexuals. The interviews touch upon the discrimination, suppression, and even violence they have endured as well as the touching moments where they experienced compassion and understanding. The documentary also covers gay rights activist and proud mother of a homosexual, Wu Youjian, who stands strongly by her son and other gay men in full support.
Inside the Chinese Closet(Netherlands Movie) Andy devotes his days and nights to looking for a lesbian wife of convenience who could possibly bear his child; from online search to underground marriage markets, he is meeting all sorts of girls. Cherry has already married a gay man, but the quest for a baby proves to be a far more complex challenge. Will Andy and Cherry deny their own happiness and sexual orientation to satisfy their parents’ wishes? Along the way, they clash with their parents’ hopes, their love partners and the partners of convenience. It is through these encounters that the film lays bare the challenges that confront gay people in China today.
Splendid Float(Taiwan Movie) In the daytime, A-Wei is a taoist who parys for revenants in s Funeral House, but is the nighttime he turns himself into Rose and is the most hottest transvestite queen in the Splendid Float. Rose promises his customers to raise the soul of their drown son, A-Yang. To his surprise, it is lover's soul he is going to raise. As a taoist,Rose weeps about his lover with sadness.The musician in the Funeral house cannot help wondering how comes the Taoist has become the family of the dead. Facing such a big lose of his lover, Rose wants to take the momorial tablet home as his wife.Therefore, his colleagues and he come to A-Yang's funeral and his opinion by throwing the wooden divining blocks over and over again. On the funeral ceremony, after the funeral procession and A-Yang family are gone, Rose's colleagues and she are going to hold a big welfare party for A-Yang to memorize their passing love. ""Splendid Float"" is the first film about the transvestite queen in Taiwan and also the first homosexual film of her rainbow plan.
The Chronicles of a Boy (Homo phobia)(South Korean Movie) Young-taek is one day visited by one of his schoolmates who claims to be his father’s lover. Young-taek, unable to bare this fact, decides to do something. In college, a senior boy comes relentlessly at him, to get the test questions, Young-taek lets him do what he wants to him, only to be later blackmailed. In military, while on leave, he goes out with his sergeant and the man’s girlfriend, but in the night, the sergeant takes advantage of him.
Because of You (Tawain Series) Growing up in a large, wealthy family, the three Yuan brothers never wanted for anything. Despite the three of them being only half brothers, the trio was incredibly close, their familial bonds undeniably strong. Whatever the brothers faced, they always faced together. But as they grew older, they began to realize that some things they just couldn't share, especially when it came to matters of the heart. Now older, Yuan Jun Cheng, Yuan Jun Dao, and Yuan Jun Ping have all felt the overwhelming tide of emotions that comes with love. But the journey has been anything but easy. Fighting against the sweeping tide of feelings that have continually beat against them, telling them things like "no", "impossible", and "cannot", the three brothers must find a way to overcome some of life's most difficult challenges, as they pursue that which the heart wants most of all: to be loved. *can be found at viki wetv with thai vpn
In Their Room (USA Series) In Their Room (2009-present) is an on-going multi-city documentary series about gay men, bedrooms and intimacy. The series veers into the bedrooms of men where you see them doing everything from the most banal to the sometimes more erotic. Complimenting the revealing nature of their everyday activities are confessional interviews about fantasies, turn-ons and vulnerabilities. The throughline of the series highlights the ways in which gay men in disparate cultures deal with connection, intimacy and loneliness in the modern world.
Red Balloon (Taiwan Series) Zi-chen is a well-mannered and talented student in the school where his father functions as the chairman of the board. He is the star at school. One day, he hides in his secret quiet corner to enjoy some alone time, until Hsiang-wan shows up. Hsiang-wan keeps bothering Zi-chen all the time and taking pictures of him. When Zi-chen finally gets rid of Hsiang-wan and goes back to the dorms, something unexpected is waiting for him there.
We Are Gamily (Taiwan Series) Wu Gang lives with his gay partner Sam in Chengdu where same-sex marriages are still illegal, and ‘Marriages of Convenience” are commonly used as white lies for elderly family members by LGBT community in China. But things just changed over-night when Gang’s mother, Yu-Hua, who is too desperate to have grandchildren, decided to move in together with her son and daughter-in-law Yang Duo. She even forced her daughter Wu Rou, Gang’s twin sister, to live with them.
Dark Blue And Moonlight (Taiwan Series) Hai Qing is an 18-year-old young adult who got into swimming in the summer which he failed the exam for university. Yan Fei who took the responsibility of the mistake made by his department in his company goes to a swimming lesson. Disturbed by his thoughts, Yan Fei who almost drowned is saved by Hai Qing. After taking a shower, Yan Fei sits in the changing room and is still in shock. Hai Qing wants check if he's okay but hesitates. The time freezes when they make eye contacts, then Yan Fei kisses Hai-ching out of impulse. *can be found on viki

For those unfamiliar with the genre, the Weird War genre is basically taking a historical war (in this case, WWII) and adding in fantastical or science-fiction elements (If you've watched Indiana Jones, read The Rocketeer, or played either Bloodrayne or Wolfenstein, basically that.)
1) A Jewish deathcamp prisoner attempts to make a golem to kill the Nazis and free his fellow prisoners. However due to unknowingly using clay that was infused with human ashes from the camp's furnace, the negative emotions corrupted the rituals and created a corpse gatherer instead.
2) A batch of dragon eggs is found in Wales. The British military already has plans on using the dragons as weapons against the Axis forces. Potential plot twist is the a Nazi spy has infiltrated the military and is planning on stealing the eggs.
3) The detonation of Trinity results in opening up a portal to another world (Biblical Hell, The Far Realms, or even the Forgotten Realms are all good choices).
4) The US military start fielding weapons that were reversed engineered from wreckage from a UFO crash in Roswell (I know the crash happened two years after the war ended, but work with me here.)
5) Nazi zombies... 'nuff said.
6) A allied soldier is struck by a bullet that lodges in his body. Shortly afterwords he begins hearing a voice in his head. The voice claims to be the bullet and it seems to know things that the soldier cannot of possibly known himself. u/PureLoop
7) A World War I battle is replayed by the ghosts of the dead that participated it, in the middle of a World War II battlefield, causing chaos and confusion among the living. u/PureLoop
8) A single time traveling soldier from after the war returns to prevent the loss of the Allied nations by assassinating Allied leaders. u/PureLoop
9) A poltergeist of unknown origins causes the deliberate misfiring of guns within the confines of rubble that used to be their school. u/PureLoop
10) In order to combat the recently developed biological weapon that is Nazi Zombies, American soldiers become unwitting test subjects of Lycanthropy. u/PureLoop
11) A meteor strikes the heart of a battlefield, causing an enormous explosion. From the crater countless bug like creatures swarm out and attack all living beings near by. Allied and Axis soldiers are forced into a cease fire to defeat the alien foe. u/PureLoop
12) A batch of bad rations cause nightmarish hallucinations for those that ate it. It soon becomes clear the that hallucinations were actually warped premonitions of the eaters fate in the war. u/PureLoop
13) Nazi scientist develop a cannon that ruptures the bonds that hold a soul in place. Unleashing it in battle they destroy an entire allied platoon in one shot, only to be violently torn apart by the vengeful souls. u/PureLoop
14) A decapitated head that appears to be still talking is found in the battlefield. When wind is passed over it's vocal cords it shouts a string of obscenities about Nazi scum and that it will take more than a tank to stop him. Unless the head is destroyed, the soldier remains alive. u/PureLoop
15) Death being overburdened by the war recruits a recently deceased soldier to act as his aid and help him gather the souls from the bodies. The soldier learns that if he does not lift the soul from the body of the mortally injured, they remain alive and in terrible suffering, and thus must choose who among his battalion he has to kill out of mercy. u/PureLoop
16) A Chaplin is the soul survivor of a battle between forces in a small french village. He speaks of a rapture by God who came down and smote all who participated in the heinous war. It comes to light that several of the dead at the battlefield were struck with tremendous force, and have bite marks on their bodies. Eventually it's discovered that the Chaplin was a vampire, though were he is now, no one knows. u/PureLoop
17) Nazi aquatic tanks and APV's suddenly appear on the beaches of Delaware, ushering and new front on the American coast. u/PureLoop
18) Two islands with separate operations occurring on them in the Pacific front begin moving towards one another before colliding. Both islands turn out to be massive sea creatures that then attack one another, utter destroying the armies above them. u/PureLoop
19) In Paris, several off-duty Nazi officers, drunk off of cheap wine, end up getting lost in the catacombs. They inadvertently destroy a shrine or glyphs, resulting in releasing several hundred angry spirits.
20) During the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, several American GIs and German stormtroopers end up becoming the target of a Wild Hunt.
21) A time-traveler, attempting to assassinate Hitler, is captured, and his technology is reverse-engineered to aid the German war effort.
22) The golem of Prague, left dormant until it was needed, is reawakened. u/I_walked_east
23) The head of Bran is buried under the Tower of London and protects England from invasion. The power of the head scuttled the Spanish Armada. Now Nazis plan to steal it in preparation for their invasion. u/I_walked_east
24) The ghosts of victims of Unit 731 are hunted by a sadistic band of exorcists. u/I_walked_east
25) The Spanish fascists find Durandal, the sword of Roland, that has the power to cut mountains. u/I_walked_east
26) The Nazis have captured Baba Yaga, who has been helping the Russian all woman 588th night bombers (aka The Night Witches) repel the German Invasion. u/I_walked_east
27) In the woods surrounding Los Angeles Nazi sympathizers know as the Grey Shirts perform dark rituals at a secret compound. u/I_walked_east
28) At the American naval base on Midway, Private Second Class Leeroy Beck’s last sight as he bleeds out through his slit throat is a Japanese soldier morphing into an exact copy of him, trying to hide a large fox tail within a duffel bag. u/Pretzelbomber
29) Charles de Gaulle was actually a necromancer the entire time, and manages to stall the Germans using the wandering souls of the catacombs. u/OctoyeetTraveler
30) In the face of invasion, occupation, and possible annihilation at the hands of the invading German forces, the elders of a Russian village send their bravest into the forest to meet with the fae folk to make a deal. Will the village be willing or able to pay the price for protection against the Nazis?
31) A Soviet submarine accidentally opens an underwater portal to the Elemental Plane of Water during a nuclear test. The crew must find a way to seal the portal and deal with the creatures that initially made it through. u/JollyGreenStone
32) Elves are found in the Black Forest. The Nazis conspire with the Elves: if the Elves can push back the Russians on the Eastern Front, they'll receive Ukraine and Belarus as a new sanctuary. The Elves agree because they see all humans as inferior and they believe after defeating Stalin they can defeat Hitler. u/JollyGreenStone
33) A mad Nazi doctor in a concentration camp creates lycanthrope soldiers who transform, kill the staff, and take over the village. Invading Allied forces have to save the camp's prisoners from the feral lycanthropes. u/JollyGreenStone
34) On both the Allied and Axis sides, soldiers find themselves unable to die. Made immortal by some strange force which causes them to cling onto death (despite suffering grievous injuries which refuse to heal) all they can do is keep on fighting. Both sides must investigate the cause behind this lest the war never end and devolve into pure, mindless slaughter. u/Sobek6
35) Midway through the war and despite previous reports, the German forces have suddenly gained an advantage. Using new weaponry and possessing new successful approaches to warfare they look set to be unbeatable. It turns out that Germany has finally cracked communications across dimensions and Hitler is receiving advice from alternate versions of himself. (Perhaps there’s room for a version of Hitler that never became the monster history remembers him as to become a potential ally?) u/Sobek6
36) In the Pacific Theater, planes on both sides have been suffering malfunctions on a near regular basis, with both sides accusing each other of sabotage. The malfunctions began after a battle on an unnamed island which ended up destroying a small shrine. Are the malfunctions truly the work of sabotage? Is it gremlins doing what gremlins do best? Or have the island spirits been angered by the desecration of the shrine?
37) The Nazis' occult sciences division have been designing an engine that can run off the souls of the deceased. An Allied spy has been attempting to stall development, but has been reporting that the soul engine is almost ready for deployment in the Russian front. A team must be sent in to extract the spy and either retrieve or destroy the blueprints and the prototype engine. u/Th3R3493r
38) In response to the Polish resistance weaponizing golems with help from kabbalists, the Nazis have been attempting to mass-produce their own golems. So far efforts have been stymied by uncooperative Jewish prisoners, who often sabotage the golems by either making them fragile or programming them to attack their masters whenever they hear German, and the Third Reich's distrusts of "Juden Witchcraft". u/Th3R3493r
39) Due the Japanese's ill-treatment of the Chinese dead in Manchuria, Qui Shen (Chinese wraiths) have been rising in droves and attacking the invading Japanese soldiers. The attacks were originally random, lately they seem to be directed in such a way to be as damaging as possible. Either an exceptionally powerful Qui Shen is leading the attacks, or a powerful fangshi (type of Chinese wizard) has gain control of the undead. u/Th3R3493r
40) Oni are operating as mercenaries in the Pacific theater, selling their services to the highest bidder (typically whoever can offer the best alcohol and the prettiest girls). u/Th3R3493r
41) Having perfected a powerful and easily portable shielding spell, Axis paratroopers are now dropped without parachutes. Holy_Hand_Grenadier
42) Hitler's invasion of England is under way, and the Royal Family has been captured or assassinated. In the country's darkest hour, King Arthur returns, wielding Excalibur. Holy_Hand_Grenadier
43) The UK discovers that the Loch Ness monster is really a plesiosaur and that the bottom of the Loch contains a portal to an alternate Earth ... where dinosaurs still roam. Can the British expedition recover enough resources from this resource rich world to aid the war effort? PutridMeatPuppet
44) The nazi's have perfected an Aryan ritual, thinking it will allow them control over destiny. It instead unleashes an avatar of the demiurge who is rampaging across both frontlines. stamau123
45) Almost an entire batallion of captured Enemy Prisoners of War all spontaneously go catatonic, and then collectively, robotically, begin reciting biblical passages in Olmec, backwards for 3 hours, and 3 minutes every 27 hours and 27 minutes. Every prisoner repeats a different selection of passages and refuses to eat or drink, returning to a catatonic state between cycles. When sedated, additional prisoners fall catatonic and begin chanting where the others left off... those that die continue to move, unless cremated, at which point a new prisoner joins the chorus. MaxSizeIs
46) The metal inside every shell, shell casing, and bullet in Easy Company's ammunition train spontaneously liquified, pooling at the bottom of the containers. The explosives inside were undisturbed. The logistics crew tasked with guarding the train were all struck with dissociative hysterical blindness. MaxSizeIs
47) The local sex workers in the villages nearest the front speak of "La Dame sans merci" wearing a shimmering gown of purest black silk and with a touch capable of freezing a man to death instantly. There have been nine corpsman found dead from an unknown cause within the last 27 days, locally. The sex workers claim it to be her work. MaxSizeIs
48) Our soldiers report sightings of spectral cavalry riding ghost horses during the last battle. The knights wore feathered wings upon thier back. They wiped out all but one member of three platoons, who report as witness. The witness beleives the men were all slashed to death with swords and spears. Autopsy supports this statement. MaxSizeIs
49) An Allied Radio Operator for the 589th Field Artillery Battallion reports receiving requests for artillery strikes calling for a fire mission directly on the calling unit's position a full 24 hours before said unit had actually arrived in the combat zone. The radio-man and a second operator on duty reported details of the battle they heard accurately, before the events actually occured. MaxSizeIs
50) Bomber crews report sightings of unlit and unflagged "Black Bombers" joining thier formation shortly before bombs are dropped, sometimes doubling thier numbers in formation. Missions where such sightings have occured have a 56% higher loss rate than those without these sightings. MaxSizeIs
51) After several hours of listening for enemy radio activity during bouts of heightened ionospheric activty, a handful of Radio Operators develop obsessive compulsions to scrawl out the strangely shaped Hexagramatic runes contained within several Elder Signs. The operators continue to repeat the glyphs until thier fingertips wear off to bloody stumps. MaxSizeIs
52) Eighteen enemy soldiers fall ill and die after desecrating a shrine to an obscure saint in a tiny church a few miles behind the front-lines. A special forces unit of crack troops crossed the lines to help meet and retrieve what they found, only to report the incident. Three of those soldiers found dead were our boys under-cover or were double agents. Just what did they uncover? MaxSizeIs
53) The boffins coming out of SRI in Menlo Park (known in certain circles for powerful 'psychotronic research') have requested OSS (the precursor to the CIA) support for something they're calling Operation MOON WICKET. OSS explains, they need a platoon of soldiers near the front-lines to sit inside a dark water tank for days on end under specific conditions outlined in the mission parameters and to be strictly adhered to! (The common soldiers are to report on thier psychic experiences, despite up until now, never having heard the words: 'psychotronic research') It is critical that the unit's position not be discovered until after the operation has been completed, after which an elaborate counter-intelligence ruse will be perpetrated to obscure any hint of the research-site. The soldiers are told that this is to be their R&R, but the rules are stricter than normal, and punishments for breaking these rules are severe. (Not much of a R&R, if you ask the soldiers, and as the enemy draws closer, internal tension are high.) The OSS spooks, on the other hand, have been told that should the research not be completed before the enemy locates and overruns the village, that the enemy must not be allowed to take any prisoners, alive or dead; whatever the "or dead" part means, the spooks aren't sure. (The pressure is getting to them, which one will crack first?) MaxSizeIs
54) Under orders from the OSS Black branch, upon retaking of the city by US 5th Army Infantry forces, available units must clear out Nazi holdouts in the sewers beneath the Temple of the Magna Mater in Rome, and secure the contents of the temple at all costs; but instead find an infestation of Ghouls, some in SS uniform and armed with automatic weaponry, and seem to be able to dissapear in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately the temple was already looted by the Nazi Karotechia. The contents of the temple could no doubt give the Nazis tools to turn the tide, (should thier occult research be as advanced as the Allies) and possibly allow them to retake much of the ground lost since D-Day. It is imperative that the contents of the temple prior to the Nazi looting be verified in order to gain an understanding of Nazi capabilities. MaxSizeIs
55) According to your most recent orders, Allied Army Airforce planes carrying vital one of a kind equipment, and research personell to support General Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese Theater's War Effort, crashed somewhere over "The Hump" (The Eastern Himilayas) due to enemy air patrols that shouldn't have been there, according to intellegence. A brief radio message has gotten through, confirming the safety of the pilots; you have been tasked with establishing a hasty expedition to retrieve them and the "package". It is the depths of winter, prey that you and your men do not encounter the dreaded Yeti, or the armed occult forces protecting the secrets of Hidden Shangrala and Kublai Kahn's Pleasure Domes from outsiders; both secret and unknowable threats to a Westerner. MaxSizeIs
56) Dr Moreau's research has been wholeheartedly adopted by the Soviets, creating an entire Regiment of Hybrid Ape-men shock-troops, with Never-Before-Seen Heavy Mechanized-Infantry Weapon systems of a design more advanced than even Axis or Allied Scientists could devise. The truth is, these forces arrived from an alternate future; stop the inciting event from forming a closed-timeloop, and the never-ending fountain of Ape-troops and Super-Science Materiel might stop, and prevent a Future Soviet Union from winning the Cold War (even now a Distant Nightmare Vision in the minds of Allied Oneiromancers; worse even than an Axis victory!) MaxSizeIs
57) Something is destroying Japanese submarines in the pacific at a frightening pace. American warships, equipped with a new sonar technology, have detected an enormous signal that appears to be biological in nature. The size and speed have caused the scientists to speculate about the old stories of giant squids or kraken. PutridMeatPuppet
58) In 1930, Albert Einstein discovers that he is the second reincarnation of Isaac Newton, after a chance encounter with a Romani spiritualist and in the process discovered that Gauss was the first. Guided by his former life's work with Alchemy, he develops the theory on the General Equivalence of Energy Exchange and Matter Creation and launched the search for a rigorous understandings of the underpinnings of High Energy Magicks. In his research, in 1933 Weimar Germany, he is contacted by a war-weary version of his future self, who convinces him he must defect to the United States to avoid a horrific fate. The OSS Black Branch has tasked you, a local operative undercover in Europe to extract Einstein and see him safely to the States; except the current year is 1945; The Black Branch has cryptically warned you that Einstein has been killed sixteen times over numerous timelines, and that it is imperative that he remain unharmed in this one... will the reality of the multiverse tear your sanity apart? MaxSizeIs
59) At sundown on the autumn equinox, 1940; a plucky 20-something female Home Guard volunteer, who up-until-now had not revealed that she was a Witch, managed to hold off a scouting party of at least one Company of German forces in the early days of Unternehmen Seelöwe (Operation Sea Lion), outside the small coastal village of Pepperinge-Eye near Dorsetshire. Her defense bought the small village time to evacuate, (unsupported due to a massive, coordinated assault across the Southern Coast of England by the invading Germans, leading to a general evacuation known as Operation Dynamo II) and for three days and nights engaged the enemy long enough for scattered elements of VII Corps and the 70th Independent Infantry Brigade to arrive. Should the undermanned, undertrained, and under supported Guerilla forces of VII Corps, fail in their defense of the fighting retreat London could have been lost during the Siege. Instead, she (and as it later turned out, other members of the New Forest Coven) helped to bog down the Nazi advance all along their advancing front. Marylinn Myrddin Eglantine-Price was awarded Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for her actions in the battle called "Bedknob Hill". Witnesses report extensive wreckage consisting of household and kitchen items said to be "floating in the air on their own and holding Jerries prisoner, afraid for their lives", as well as dozens of flags and even one bullet-riddled suit of plate-armor! MaxSizeIs
60) An Australian Division has been capturing and training bunyips and releasing them in Asian Jungles for use against the Japanese. Allied forces are instructed to say 'lollipop lick liquor lover like Lillihammer' or anything with a lot of 'L's in it if you hear a bark that sounds like a dog mixed with a walrus as the Japanese forces who do not practice usually do not say 'L's correctly. They are stealthy as the grave and have been seen killing crocodiles with ease. Th3R3493r
61) The Nazi SS Occult research and development have made a "perfect" machine gunner. It is an abomination made of sewn flesh that can hold two hundred kilograms of bullets, two modified MG-42s, is armored to take a large quantity of small arms fire without losing momentum. It lacks a head but has three eyes in their aiming upper arms to aim each gun independently and two sets of arms to reload and fix the machine guns. Where they are getting the bodies are theorized to be one willing living subject and at least 3 undamaged dead bodies. They are questionable loyal to the units and are known to kill friend and foe alike who crosses their lines of fire. Th3R3493r
62) In the early days of the war, both the Germans and Allies made extreme advancements in Optics, driven perhaps by research into early radar prototypes. Progress was also fueled by the need to predict airstrikes before they occur, and the promises of early stage resarch into Applied Occult Prognostication, for both sides. By 1941, two independent programs, codenamed MÍMISBRUNNR and BARONSATURDAY, by the Germans and Allies respectively, were of sufficiently advanced stages as to be applied to the war effort directly. Independently, both sides had realized the importance of extensive pharmaceutical and surgical modification. Should the subject survive the chemical treatments, and surgery, of which denucleation was one important step, the resulting high rates of insanity and chemical dependency eventually led to a curtailment and confinement to asylum of members of both programs before the end of the war. A friend of yours has undergone this procedure, has foreseen the results, and begs you to help them escape their fate. MaxSizeIs
63) War is at a stalemate, both sides are looking for a way to open up new a new front. This brings them to the under dark where both sides try to sway the drow empress to join them. As the drow contemplate wheter to join one side or the other both british and german covert agents wage a shadow war even the drow can't see. AllSeeingCCTV
64) Early on in the war, Himmler and the Thule Society accidentally stumbled across a ritual which allowed them to open portals to other universes. Now the Nazis find their forces bolstered by fascist doppelgangers and malevolent/sympathetic alternative versions of members of the Allied Forces. Rumour has it Hitler himself often seeks audience with a council of versions of himself. Sobek6
65) The Allies begin formalization of a Magician Corps, from priests and rabbis who demonstrably and reliably performed miracles, to so-called "witch doctors", women accused of witchcraft, and American natives rumored to wield their own magic. Some of them don't really have anything truly mystical, while others find that their miracles and magics work so fundamentally different as to interfere with each others' workings. Meanwhile, the Thule Society under Nazi Germany has been regularly unearthing artifacts, which the leadership orders utilized in the war effort without attempting to properly understand each one, leading to mixed and unpredictable results. archDeaconstructor
66) A detachment of advanced Nazi submarines begins raiding the American coast, beaching under the surf and releasing nixes trained as amphibious soldiery. America has its own amphibious horrors as well, though- the Deep Ones, finding their hidden holdings threatened by this new battleground, begin their own off-the-books contributions to the war. archDeaconstructor
67) A shadowy wraith levitates the Shah of Iran and severs his head from his body in broad daylight, days before what would have been the invasion of Iran by Soviet and Allied forces. It is recognized as a kind of specter typically employed by British magicians, and so the full, if still outdated, military might of Iran mobilizes as quickly as it can. It is still crushed, but the Shah's supporters manage to lionize his legacy in the national eye as someone who would have created a more independent Iran up until his death at foreign hands. archDeaconstructor
68) Stregherian witches in both New England and Old Italy call upon their deities to nourish and poison, to send storms and fair weather, and to bring luck and fair fortune to the boys they send to the front lines. archDeaconstructor
69) In the chaos of battle, rifts in time release warriors from centuries past and future. In the Vienna Offensive, Mongols spill out onto the streets and further compound civilian casualties in the confusion. A lone jet fighter from the Pan-Pacific Union spontaneously appears over Japan with weapons white-hot, accidentally taking out two bombers from the Doolittle Raid with charged-particle weaponry before fatally crashing into a third, causing America to mistakenly believe Japan's air superiority and readiness even more powerful than they thought. Small numbers of Ottoman Janissaries are inexplicably found in Greecian cities, helping resist the Italian invasion and later dying to a man in Nazi occupation. archDeaconstructor
70) With British psi intelligence offices having cracked the Enigma code, Alan Turing is brought onto a long-term project few minds have the aptitude for- the development of automated soldiers that could end not only this war, but any war Britain would have to prosecute after. archDeaconstructor
71) Two black American infantry battalions are subjected to vampirism and lycanthropy, respectively, as an initial assessment of the effectiveness of each on logistical, tactical, and strategic levels. There's no way even a word of this can be leaked to anyone back home, though, so they're sent on only the most dangerous, far-reaching covert missions, becoming the bogeymen that every Axis soldier fears. archDeaconstructor
72) The dying Great Clans of Mars can wait no longer, and regrettably must colonize the Earth before the global life support railwork collapses and kills every last Martian. Long-distance radio signals are picked up from Mars, indicating in over thirty Earthling languages that the Martians will offer full military support to whichever faction of primitives can guarantee the most land to the Great Clans. archDeaconstructor
73) Rumor starts spreading about the "seven for one deal"; if you find a pistol magazine with bizarre symbols and untranslatable words on it, load seven rounds, and insert it in your pistol, each of those seven rounds will strike true if it is any way physically possible for them to do so. But after the 7th round is fired, fatal calamity instantly befalls the shooter. Vote_for_Knife_Party
74) Good news: the Army isn't putting saltpeter in the rations to dull your libido. Bad news: they're putting experimental mood adjusters in the rations to get you to associate violence with pleasure, and the squad machine gunner keeps giving you this look while he cleans his weapon... Vote_for_Knife_Party
75) There are no atheists in foxholes, but there sure are a lot of accidental devil worshippers. Demons are having a field day going from fighting hole to fighting hole, ready to cut a deal for survival. Sure, you'll survive the battle, but in the heat of the moment did you think to specify how long? Vote_for_Knife_Party
76) In the highlands of SE Asia, Japanese troops have forced Chinese and British troops to fall back. But something that lives in those mountain passes of the SE Himalayas is mauling the Japanese soldiers at night ... and locals are mentioning the term “Yeti”. PutridMeatPuppet
77) Theories of a Hollow Earth are partially true. Although the Earth is not truly hollow, its more like Swiss cheese with tunnels traveling deep underground and undersea ... and it opens up a new front in the war as both sides scramble to explore these tunnels and move troops thru the core of the Earth to strike at their enemies on the surface. Things take a turn for the weird when both sides encounter species native to these underground travel routes... PutridMeatPuppet
78) An increasingly paranoid Joseph Stalin seeks to recreate the rituals of Koschei the Deathless and become immortal. He has begun to harrase the tribal peoples of Siberea in an attempt to force the secret from them. Patchwork18
79) First contact has been made, and the aliens want... Entertainment? Turns out that they view war as a spectator sport, and start giving out advanced technology to the armies that amuse them the most. Do you try and win their favour? Or perhaps someone should stop them before the war becomes the apocalypse! deadgaiko
80) One day, without warning, every projectile weapon on the planet ceases to function. Guns jam, bombs explode before deployment, even bow strings instantly snap! Chaos ensues as battlefield tactics are forced to adapt. Weeks later, delayed intelligence reaches both sides: The neutral state of Vatican City have discovered a powerful artifact with reality-bending powers... deadgaiko
81) Fiji mermaids are real. They're a boogeyman while out in the Pacific, feeding off those sleeping. The Axis powers are really interested in capturing one alive: They're venom is known to have strange hallucinogenic properties. Thepipe90
82) There is rumors of a circus roaming the Europeon countryside; putting on shows for whoever will take them in for the night. Allied brass thinks they are a bunch of spies. The truth is much worse: The circus is made up of damned souls. The firebreather can do more with fire than just breathe it,The strongman can flip a tank like an end table, and the clowns are ACTUALLY fitting into those tiny cars. All that makeup? Not just to make them look cheery and silly.... Thepipe90
83) The SS’s pagan worship has awakened a lovecraftian eldritch horror TheMarvelMan
84) It turns out Hitler is an alien with immense mind control powers who has hypnotized the axis into starting the war so the world will descend into chaos so it cannot effectively resist the incoming alien invasion. AndreTheSalty
85) Allied scientists unlock humanity's psionic potential. Thanks to a injected serum specially chosen and selected members unlock the power to read minds, throw objects with the power of thought, control others like puppets, and cause enemy's heads to explode. This advantage allows the allies to make huge advances however the germans manage to reverse engineer the serum, giving it to their own men. This results in the war becoming even more brutal and bloody as these psi troops are produced in increasing numbers. AndreTheSalty
86) Rumors of monsters attacking the Japs in a occupied Philippines has reached the ears of the emperor. They kept saying words like 'aswang', 'duwende', 'magkukulang', and 'tikbalang' among other words that seemed to be more stranger than the next. CAvenir
87) The back of soldiers dog tags suddenly display the name of the person who will kill them. The trouble is, not all of the names belong to enemies. HarshMillennium
88) Allied Astronomers, while working on Project RUNCIBLESPOON, a poorly funded automated radio observation system for spotting incoming bombers, have intercepted coded messages that indicates there is a Nazi base on the moon. MaxSizeIs
89) Both Axis and Allied Magic Scholars crack the code of Linear B and link its syllabary into the current Pnakotic-Enochian Thaumo-Accoustic Complex, at about the same time; the advancement unlocks some new, mysterious, and horrifying magical properties that will take much study to properly grasp. It seems some of our Mages have been sharing secrets with the enemy, while it has helped us this time, it has also helped the enemy. MaxSizeIs
90) A small colony of large hominins in the Pacific Northwest of Canada and the US, announce their existence and seek to form thier own society by claiming a few dozen square miles of mountainous forest area in an uninhabited region. A Company of Soviet Heavy-Mechanized Ape-Hybrid Cavalry Soldiers has also reportedly defected, and wound up, somehow, joining the new Nation. MaxSizeIs
91) The growing ubiquity of radio among Allied Forces and Civilians back home has seen the emergence of a new Secret Axis Unit devoted to PsyOps using Clandestine Radio Broadcasts. Our spooks have proof that several Axis Radio Broadcasts are attempting to Mind Control the impressionable youth of London, New York, Detroit, Cleveland, and Los Angeles. We must find these broadcasting stations and shut them down. MaxSizeIs
92) One of our Destroyers has reported that an entire convoy of ours was sunk off the coast of Midway Island, and they only managed to limp back after sustaining heavy damage, intense electrical storms and a mysterious malady that rapidly spread amongst the crew. They're in quarantine, but the only problem is, that specific ship hasn't been built yet! You need to confirm the ship is really ours and question the crew for clues as to how they somehow managed to get back before their own ship was built! Don't catch whatever bug they have, either. MaxSizeIs
93) We lost our fleets at Midway and Pearl Harbor; one second we were in radio communication, the next.. nothing but static. More scientists are en-route now, but preliminary reports indicate high levels of radiation and complete destruction at both sites. MaxSizeIs
94) The Chicago Meat Packing District has been sealed off. Fifth Column Axis Sabotuers must have poisoned the food supply there. It seems they have weaponized a strain of Virulent Cannibalistic Virus, it spreads by either consuming human flesh or being bitten by someone who has consumed the virus. There's nothing we can do to help the victims trapped inside the city... MaxSizeIs
95) We have the difficult task of performing as diplomatic attaches to the New Chinese Empire; after they defeated Japan, they rapidly took over all the territory formerly occupied by their enemy and have now declared themselves as Neutral in the war against Germany and the Soviet Union. MaxSizeIs
96) Terrifying News out of Greece and Italy: We just found out that the Gods are Real, and Zeus is a Fascist and Amaterasu is fully in support of the Emperor. We have begun to search for Thor or Odin, to hopefully swing them away from potential Nazi-ism, but it isn't looking good. Still nothing from the Egyptians or Mesopotamians... MaxSizeIs
97) In the midst of Operation Sea Lion, the Duke of Windsor (and former crowned head of state of the United Kingdom, King Emperor Edward VIII) has succeeded in overthrowing the United Kingdom Government, and has recrowned himself King Emperor Edward IX after executing the entire remainder of the Royal Family and much of the Parliament in a quick, but bloody operation. Axis forces now control all but a much beleaguered Northern Ireland. Miraculously, one month after the loss, a much terrified, Young Princess Margaret, still a child, is revealed to have escaped in a shipping crate bound for Melbourne. The remains of the British Allied Government support her coronation as the legitimate rule, despite her extreme youth. MaxSizeIs
98) Mozambique has declared independence from Portugal. In exchange, Axis forces gain free reign to mine the rare-earth alloys recently discovered in the Rift Valley. Shortly thereafter, a small number of armored "Red" super-samurai appear on the European front, taking small arms fire without effect. MaxSizeIs
99) The Liberation of Finnmark fails, Allied forces facing the Nazi 20th Mountain Army; 5000 Soviet and Norwegian Troops and Civilians are found frozen in ice. Survivors tell of the appearance of horrific frozen men with glowing blue eyes among the enemy forces. MaxSizeIs
100) Chrysler Motors Corp announces their new Heavy Walking Tank the M45 Pershing-Defender, with prototypes delivered to the front line. It begins volume production in a month, but saboteurs have slowed the lines. The development of the tank is a priority! MaxSizeIs
101) Residents of the Pennsylvania Village of Frick's Lock are forcibly relocated after a Top-Secret Military Research Reactor melts down in the middle of the Winter of 1941. Stories of glowing auroras and supernatural ghost sightings for several nights around the time of the meltdown, spread quietly. Official records state that 2000 residents are forcibly imprisoned and quarantined "for their own safety", due to a "highly contagious and deadly small pox" outbreak. The villagers are sworn to secrecy, but approximately 800 die from acute radiation poisoning. MaxSizeIs

THE HISTORY OF WORLDS WAR ONE
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
“Believe it or not, decades ago schools taught about how it all began.
Slavery, I mean.
Slavery, you see, has been a part of human history since human history began. And it has never ceased, no matter how many “civil wars” had been fought to supposedly end it. In fact, slavery is so ingrained in every day human life that you don’t even realize how enslaved you are.
Don’t believe me?
Then do yourself a favor. Look up from your smart phone, or smart pad, or smart device and glace around you at all the other people who have their faces buried in their smart phone, or smart pad, or smart device. Then wallow in your realization that you are superior to all of those other people who are enslaved to the smart devices which are, in reality, doing their thinking for them...
...while they think the same thing about you...
You see, physical slavery is easier to overcome. The politicians who claim that, with your vote, they will free you from your enslavement to whatever crisis they created, discovered generations ago that physical chains were undesirable in enslaving the masses. If anything, it created bad PR that enraged people with guns, and a freedom loving peoples allowed to have guns never ended well for the enslavers.
No, they found out a long time ago that the most effective way to enslave the masses was to give them the illusion of freedom. Freedom of speech. Freedom of thought. Freedom to think as one people. Freedom to talk as one people. Freedom to be just like everybody else. Freedom to be exactly like one of the billion cookie cutter molds waiting to be told what to think, what to speak, who to hate, and who to love. Freedom to act upon your own free will to do exactly what the politicians want you to do.
Think about it, for a moment. Look at the screen in front of your face and ask it this: “How much of my thinking are you doing for me?” That’s what the politicians learned. Those elite who controlled the narrative controlled the story. Those elite who controlled the story controlled reality. Those elite who controlled reality controlled the masses. And those elite who controlled the masses became gods on Earth.
Isn’t that why God destroyed the Tower of Babel?”
THE TRAITOR
Part One
“Believe it or not, the Nazi Party was not the majority party in Germany when Hitler was elected Chancellor. In fact, only 12% of German’s were Nazis at the very height of their power. That means that the vast majority of the German population weren’t Nazis when they voted to put Hitler in power. They were just regular, everyday folks.
So what would possess them to fall under Hitler’s spell, to not bat an eyelash when their friends and neighbors of Jewish decent were being crammed into cattle trains? Simple. The Nazis controlled the narrative and all that came with it. The Nazis controlled the newspapers, the radios, the bill boards, the posters, the movie theaters, and those new flashing boxes called television. It was a quick and easy way for the Nazis to dictate who your friend was and who your enemy was. More importantly, it was the way to dictate what you should think, and act, and say, in order to be considered a friend. All others who did not fall into that category were to be considered your enemy. Patriot or traitor, hero or villain, activist or extremist, democracy or dictatorship, it’s all defined by who controls the narrative. And Nazi Party control over the narrative was so complete that even Jews voted for Hitler, if only to prove that they weren’t the fascists that the Nazis said they were.
Today, those high ranking German officers who tried and failed to assassinate Hitler are considered heroes for their bravery. But if the war had gone the other way and Nazi Germany had won, those same German officers would be villainized as cowardly traitors. Criminals. Dirty, filthy criminals who not only deserved execution, but their families did as well. One man’s hero is another man’s traitor, and the only thing which differentiates one from the other is the popular narrative. Interesting how that works.
Perhaps the only free people who live are those who do not allow themselves to be enslaved by narratives. People who don’t care about labels. I am neither hero nor villain, patriot or traitor. Good guy or bad guy. At this moment, I am nothing except someone who shoulders a great responsibility. Someone who refused to listen. Someone who disobeyed orders. When my compatriots came out of hiding, I chose to remain hidden.
If we succeed, no one will know what we did. The politicians will simply take the credit for freeing the masses from the enslavement which they allowed to happen. An enslavement of the mind which has brought the death and chaos which we are experiencing now. And if we fail? Well, again. No one will be left alive know.”
THE WEAPON OF THE ATOM IS A THREAT
Emperor Hirohito looked down with a glum, though steadfast expression on his face at the documents which his Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo had given him. The numbers were staggering. The Emperor of Imperial Japan took a deep breath then exhaled slowly before turning to the Prime Minister, slowly lowering the documents on his broad, cherry wood desk.
“And these numbers are correct?”
“Yes, my Emperor,” bowed Prime Minister Tojo. “By our best estimation of enemy strength and industrial capacity, this is what will be required to destroy them should they attempt a landing on our shores. It will be costly, but the spirit and will of the people will eventually win out over any American invasion. I am sure of it.”
Emperor Hirohito put his hand on his chin as he nodded, slowly releasing yet another long, almost defeated breath.
“When did this happen? It seems like a lifetime ago when the might of the Imperial Japanese military ruled over all that we surveyed. We smashed the American Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor and crushed all of the Anglo-European colonials in Asia, sending them fleeing south to Australia. China. Burma. Korea. The Philippines. They were all ours, their subjugated peoples looking up to us as both master and protector.”
But then something uncalculatable happened, and the Imperial Japanese navy, the most powerful navy in the world, met its match at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. Almost overnight, the Americans somehow recovered from their devastating defeat at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines and were able to mount desperate counterattacks which sent the pride of the Imperial Japanese navy, her mighty aircraft carriers, to rest at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Worse, the defeated American General Douglas MacArthur made a promise to return and liberate the Philippines. Through a masterful island hopping campaign that destroyed Japanese bastions across the south Pacific, that is exactly what General MacArthur did, avenging his earlier defeat and expelling the Imperial Japanese forces from the strategically vital Philippine islands.
“Now,” thought the Emperor, “having taken the island of Okinawa, the Americans were at the doorstep of the Japanese homelands. Our days of flawless victories and conquest seem many lifetimes ago. How could we have come to this in only a few years?
Prime Minister Tojo shifted uncomfortably as he observed his Emperor, the living deity and leader of the Japanese empire, seemingly lost in thought with only the faintest indication of apprehension, perhaps even anxiety, on his otherwise stoic continence. He had to admit, this side of his Emperor was a far, far cry from the confident image he presented just a few years ago, when it seemed that Emperor Hirohito need only wave his hands across the seas, and the waves would part before him. Seas across which he sent millions of Japan’s finest warriors to conquer and subjugate in his name. Seas which have now become the final resting place of many of those brave warriors.
Prime Minister Tojo discreetly cleared his throat. “My Emperor. Does the strategy meet with your approval?”
Hirohito picked up the document again and scanned the pages, each word that he read piercing his heart.
The plan to train and arm 1 to 2 million Japanese civilians into home guard forces between the ages of 15 and 65 will take a minimum of six to twelve months. Additionally, all able bodied Japanese males ages 16 to 45 would be conscripted into the military, adding between 8 to 10 million more soldiers to the Imperial Japanese defense forces. An American invasion of the Japanese homelands will likely result in between 5 to 10 million military and civilian casualties, but will also likely cause between 500,000 to one million casualties among the Americans. Those are losses which the war weary American public will not be able to stomach and, by 1950 at the earliest, the people of Japan, motivated by nationalistic spirit and an unyielding willingness to die for the Japanese homeland and her Emperor, will have driven the exhausted Americans back into the sea. It was called Operation Ketsugo, and in the summer of 1945 the Japanese propaganda slogan was, “The sooner the Americans come, the better… One hundred million die proudly.”
And history would have been written as such, if not for August 6, 1945, when the first of two giant silver bombers dropped the first of two atomic weapons on Japan which, though taking the lives of nearly 200,000 people, ended mankind’s most deadly and costliest world war and saved untold millions of lives. And in the decades following that tragic global conflagration, when the great empires of Earth were tempted to launch these weapons towards each other, their hands were always tempered by the memory of those huge mushroom clouds rising above Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the knowledge that employing such weapons would bring a corresponding fate to their own great cities. And this is how the great powers coexisted with each other for eighty years in a tense, but otherwise relatively peaceful state.
Then in the decade of the 2020’s, a discovery was made which would ultimately change the course of human history and once again bring the specter of a total nuclear holocaust to the forefront of humanity’s fears. Almost overnight, in the most unlikely of places, from the tops of snow covered peaks, to the middle of the densest jungles, in the heart of burning desert wastes, to the depths of the ocean floor, uncanny monoliths had been discovered. Glossy obsidian in color, they were obelisk in shape, six feet square at the base and tapering up thirty feet to a pyramid shaped top.
By the end of the first year, after the first monolith had accidently been stumbled upon by a group of mountain climbers in Yunnan Province in China, a total of six of the mysterious monoliths had been discovered, the second monolith discovered a few weeks later by Russian Arctic researchers in Vostok Station, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. This would eventually grow to a total of sixty-six being discovered, but scientists and researchers estimated that there would likely be hundreds, if not thousands, more. The monoliths were located near either Earth’s 23ᵒ and 66ᵒ north/south latitudes or 90ᵒ north/ south longitude near the poles. Seeming to have appeared virtually overnight, the black structures were highly polished and emitted an as yet unknown type of pulsating energy which made the objects vibrate almost imperceptibly. They resisted any attempt to move them and all attempts to cut or chip samples from them met with complete failure, the monoliths seemingly made of some indestructible metal which composition was not native to this planet and was proof against all of mankind’s best attempts at damaging them.
The pulsating energies emitted by the structures, however, could be studied. When a portion of the Earth faced in a certain direction, the monoliths in that hemisphere would pulse for several seconds, projecting a concentrated beam of power to a section of the sky facing the Constellation of Orion. These pulses were analyzed by Earth’s scientists and scholars and it was soon discovered that these pulses created a discernable pattern which was remarkably easy to decipher. It was a message, sent in the language of ancient Sumerian. It simply stated this:
“The weapon of the atom is a threat. Possible extinction event in 347 days.”
This, of course, came as a shock to those who had successfully deciphered the message, as it was exactly eighteen days ago that the first monolith had been discovered. These things were a countdown clock which were predicting some horrific extinction event that would occur one year from mankind’s discovery of the first obelisk.
At first, the governments of the great nations of the world attempted to keep this terrifying revelation a secret from the rest of the population, but such a thing by this point was nearly impossible. The cat had long been let out of the bag. The message was far too easy to decode, as if whoever or whatever had placed the monoliths there had wanted the entirety of planet earth to be aware of its dire warnings. The message was translated into every language known to man and spread around the globe in a matter of hours. Though the meaning could be taken in a variety of different ways, and indeed its different possible meanings were discussed on radio, television, and the internet, the most obvious and overwhelmingly accepted meaning was clear: mankind’s stockpile of nuclear weapons will cause an extinction event within a year. This was the worldwide accepted meaning to the ominous message, the one which followed the science, the one which made the most sense, and very soon any who dared to speak or even think otherwise in the face of such an impending calamity was immediately silenced.
In the midst of growing worldwide concern which bordered on panic, the elite government politicians of the world’s greatest nations attempted to reassure the increasingly riotous citizenry that their political masters had everything under control, even as they prepared lavish underground bunkers for themselves built into the heart of the most impregnable mountains. The first anti-nuclear weapon protests began two and a half months after the first monolith was discovered and only one day after the alien message was officially translated. The protests began quite predictably, on the western coast of the United States in the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, but very quickly spread to Chicago and Minneapolis. At first, they were mostly peaceful, however, when the United States failed to completely destroy its entire stock of nuclear weapons within the first five hours of the protests, the mostly peaceful protests quickly dissolved into uncontrollable, city-burning riots. With New York City and Washington DC now under siege by looting, vandalizing, burning, raping, murdering, anti-nuclear war peace activists, the great cities of the world soon followed suit. Anti-nuclear weapon and anti-government protests quickly sprang up around the world and none of her great cities were spared. Soon, London, Paris, Berlin, New Delhi, and Jerusalem were awash with a literal sea of protesters demanding the death of their nation’s nuclear arsenals or the death of their government politicians who still kept them. Even the capital cities of Moscow, Pyongyang, Tehran, and Beijing weren’t spared, though hundreds of protesters were gunned down by government enforcers in the Russian, North Korean, and Iranian capital cities, and thousands were killed in China.
In countries where American military forces had stationed nuclear weapons such as Turkey, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Japan, American service members and their families where harassed, hunted down, assaulted, and even murdered by citizens of the host nations, so great was the fear of even being associated with a nuclear power. Anti-military protests across the world had turned violent as both military recruiting stations and military recruiters were set ablaze by the peace protestors.
Still, almost every week, new monoliths were being discovered, the message which they projected into space always the same, except for the ticking clock which was counting down the days towards man’s extinction:
“The weapon of the atom is a threat. Possible extinction event in 245 days.”
By the fourth month, simple protests by the League for Galactic Benevolence, Tranquility, and Peace, the LGBTP community which boasted a world-wide peace movement of nearly a quarter-billion members, was openly attacking military bases, military service members, and military family members around the world. In the western democracies of North America and Europe, shrewd government politicians recognized this upheaval as a once in a lifetime boon, an opportunity to rid themselves of the existential threats to their power with a worldwide genocide of those who did not think the way they should think. Soon, the World Wide Web and all of the influence of the internet and big tech conglomerates began blaming the current pandemic of fear and uncertainty on the enemies of the growing powers of National Socialism.
For the most part, the now despised and villainized people who made up the military of the Western democracies were labelled as conservatives, conservatives who were now also labelled as nationalistic patriotic extremists. Soon, nationalistic patriotic extremists became legitimate targets for extermination by the growing, peace loving, League for Galactic Benevolence, Tranquility, and Peace, who were backed by the National Socialist politicians who supported and orchestrated their mostly peaceful acts of violence and murder.
No one wanted to be labeled an extremist, and the only way one could prove they weren’t an extremist was to exterminate those who were labeled as an extremist. In the national media of the United States and Canada, conservatives were now labeled as right-wing extremists who bitterly clung to their Bibles and their guns. As such, they were now burdened with a label which made them nuclear-weapon loving war mongers, and therefore rightfully targeted for extermination. And since right-wing extremism was also synonymous with Catholicism and Christianity, these nuclear-weapon loving, war mongering, bigoted, and intolerant people were also targeted for extermination in the name of humanity and galactic peace. This worldwide calamity had proven to be a renascence for elite politicians who were looking for a calamity that would entice the masses to surrender their freedom to the power of their government. The Covid-19 pandemic almost worked. The extraterrestrial warning of nuclear destruction most certainly would.
The extermination of these nuclear-weapon loving extremists took a considerable amount of time, time which the Western government politicians did not have. Fortunately, the Western democracies had observed how the Chinese government efficiently and permanently dealt with the undesirable people who threatened world peace and democracy, and six months after the first monolith was discovered, the politicians of the Western democracies followed the example of the democracy defending Chinese government as they rid the world of those irredeemable and deplorable people who prayed for nuclear annihilation while they bitterly clung to their guns and their God.
In the meantime, the destruction of the entire world’s stockpiles of nuclear weapons had begun. Out of necessity, this forced peace treaties to be signed and national animosities that had lasted for generations to be put aside. At the United Nations in New York, ancient foes and lifelong enemy nations came together as allies to the cause of galactic peace. White embraced black, Muslim embraced Jew, Communist embraced Capitalist, and all embraced the destruction of conservative right-wing Christian fascism and the coming of a new dawn of humanity free from the fear of nuclear annihilation and those extremists who had been the cause of all that fear ever since 1945.
Six months. That’s all it took. In six months, all of the world’s known stockpiles of nuclear tipped rockets, bombs, and missiles had been destroyed. It was a Herculean effort which, in one way or another, involved all of humanity working together to achieve this goal. True, about 200,000 people had to be neutralized in the end, but they were all right-wing fascist, extremist, hate mongering, war loving, bigot, racist, murdering, hillbilly, red-neck, gun-toting, uneducated, nuclear weapon lovers whose deaths were necessary to save the lives of billions.
And on the 365th day since the monoliths were first discovered, the final nuclear weapon in mankind’s arsenal was destroyed. On that day, the message from the monoliths that were being beamed into space changed. It now read:
“The weapon of the atom has been averted. Possible extinction event no longer a threat.”
And for a brief moment in human history, all the world was at peace.
“THE MONOLITHS WEREN’T A WARNING TO US!”
That is what all of the newspapers and social media outlets broadcast soon afterwards.
“It’s a warning to them! The monoliths were a beacon emplaced by their scouts as a warning to their species that our weapons of the atom, our atomic weaponry, were a threat to them!”
The bombardment from the first wave of alien spacecraft that descended into the earth’s atmosphere vaporized over ten million human souls. And because they were no longer threatened by the weapon of the atom, there were many, many waves yet to come.
THE TRAITOR
Part Two
“And so it’s begun. The ending to all that is.
And those who searched for us, those who hunted for our heads, are now begging for us to save them. And we will try, though even if we do act, they will say that we acted too late. They will call me coward. They will call me traitor. They will come for my head, because the narrative will say that I hesitated, and in my hesitation I caused the deaths of hundreds of millions, among them many of the world’s elite politicians, law makers, celebrities, and entertainers who were not expendable. But I must wait, though doing so is killing me. Every minute, every second that I delay, my husband, my son, my baby daughter who just celebrated her first birthday, may fall victim to those who planted the monoliths. My husband took our children and fled into the woods, hiding in a cabin deep in the wilderness when the peace protestors came looking to kill them. I haven’t seen them in months. Still, I must wait. That’s all I can do. Wait and write in this journal and grind my teeth, waiting as the Earth burns. Waiting until the time is right.”
HOW IT ALL ENDED
“Commander, we’ve got a location on the target!”
The metallic voice rang out in the captain’s stateroom, breaking her train of thought. She dropped her pencil, preferring as she did to write in her journal the old fashioned way instead of dictating her words into a computer.
“Finally!” she thought. “Finally, finally, finally! We got you, motherfuckers! We got you!”
Quickly, she dashed out into the crammed, claustrophobic corridor of the place she’d called home for the past six months and up a short set of stairs which led to the command center.
“What do we got, XO?” yelled the Captain, louder than she’d meant, as soon as she entered the command center.
“We have an object approaching Earth orbit, 800 miles above the planet and descending, ma’am,” replied the Executive Officer.
“Can we confirm that that’s the one we’re waiting for?” The Captain leaned over the Sailor manning the weapon’s station, watching the green glowing monitor as telemetry data was being fed to targeting computers tracking an ovular object roughly ten miles long and three miles wide descending from space. Out of it, hundreds of smaller objects emerged, the next attack wave to bombard the Earth.
“We got the telemetry data from Pearl Harbor, ma’am,” answered the XO. “Before Pearl Harbor went dark.”
The XO turned to face the Captain. “We’re all that’s left, commander. We are all that’s left standing between humanity and them.”
“I am a traitor,” thought the Captain. “We are all traitors, condemned by our inability to not think for ourselves and for the irredeemable trait to question the narrative passed down to the masses by our political masters. I hope it was all worth it.”
“Initiate launch sequence,” the traitor Captain ordered, though inwardly she knew that by doing this, she had doomed herself, her family, her crew, and their families.
Seconds later, the bay doors which housed the Trident III missiles, the last weapons of the atom on Earth, launched out of the ballistic missile submarine USS Wyoming. They burst forth from the waters somewhere in the North Pacific Ocean just south of the Bering Sea where the mighty submarine lay hiding. The nuclear tipped Trident missiles soared into the sky, far above the clouds and into low Earth orbit towards the alien mother ship. And, just like the last worldwide war which threatened to extinguish humanity, the global conflict was brought to an abrupt end with the explosions of nuclear weapons.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN AGAIN
Immediately upon returning to port, the captain and crew of the Ohio Class nuclear ballistic class submarine USS Wyoming were taken into custody by the political elites who had survived the alien invasion. Emerging from their lavish underground bunker facilities, they stood in front of what news cameras had survived to record the official history of how they, the political elite, saved humanity despite the horrors which had engulfed the planet. A suitable narrative would be invented later, but one thing was certain. No one could be allowed to live who had an opinion that went contrary to the narrative, the narrative which stated that it was the politicians who defeated the aliens while the military cowered in fear. There was no trial, nor was there any judicial appeal for the captain and crew of the USS Wyoming. All fifteen officers and one hundred-forty enlisted sailors were summarily executed in secret on orders by the heroic politicians, their bodies cremated on orders of those who controlled the narrative. Those family members of the crew who survived the war received the scorn and vitriol of the politicians who said that the USS Wyoming was the cause of the invasion, her villainous captain and her lust for power had driven her mad and caused her to keep the weapons of the atom for herself. Likewise, the government never found the location of the captain’s husband and her two young children, the news celebrating that they had likely perished in the invasion as well.
Only three people knew the truth. Only three people on Earth held the knowledge of what really happened. How a supposedly traitorous submarine commander made the cowardly decision to defy orders, a decision which ultimately saved humanity from its extinction event. The Captain’s husband and her two children remained in hiding for many years as humanity started rebuilding. For hundreds of millions, the means to enslavement to the glowing screens which told them what to think had been severed, and they lived in abject terror. It was as if humanity had a new awakening, one without the technology which made them all so susceptible to the will of those who considered themselves their masters, and for millions it was unpleasant. Having to rely on the ability to think for themselves as opposed to allowing others to do their thinking for them was a shock which caused many to wish for death.
Still, there were others who not only survived in this new world but also thrived. In this new age of mankind, there was a genuine thirst for knowledge and the desire to rebuild, and those who had the ability to think for themselves and who had knowledge of history free of the political narrative, found themselves in positions of leadership.
In northern Canada, where her father had taken her and her older brother to live, the youngest child of a formerly disgraced nuclear ballistic submarine captain stood in front of a class of fresh faced young students. They hadn’t been born during the time of the great Worlds War, and none of them were alive when people started to ask questions which the rulers of Babylon didn’t want asked. Questions like, how did our great kings, the powerful rulers of Babylon, destroy so great a threat while hiding in their throne rooms deep underground? They did not wield the weapon of the atom which destroyed the alien invaders, but someone did. Questions led to more questions, questions which the kings did not want asked, but were asked anyway, for most of humanity had learned not to fear being called vile labels by the kings who fled underground and hid while humanity’s traitors saved the planet.
For the second time in human history, the Tower of Babel built by the great Kings of Babylon had been destroyed by fire, and man was truly free to once again think for themselves.
The young teacher nervously looked at her student’s, feeling slightly self-conscious at the knowledge that her students considered her somewhat of a celebrity. She was, after all, the daughter of the person who saved the entire world over two decades ago.
“Believe it or not,” she said as she began her class. “Decades ago schools taught about how it all began.
Slavery, I mean...”

Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H.H. Holmes, was a notorious serial killer who terrorized the Chicago area in the late 1800s. Born in 1861 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, Holmes showed an early aptitude for chemistry and anatomy. He studied medicine at the University of Michigan and later moved to Chicago, where he worked as a pharmacist and began committing insurance fraud.
https://preview.redd.it/ghikfyb3ga9a1.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=db253b0b68e46fc4122cdff929687febb5ab0cb6
In 1886, Holmes opened a pharmacy and hotel known as the "Murder Castle" on the city's South Side. The hotel was a labyrinthine structure with secret passages, trap doors, and hidden rooms, and it was designed to allow Holmes to easily lure and kill his victims. He is believed to have killed at least nine people, but some estimates place the number of his victims at over 200.
Holmes was eventually caught and put on trial for murder in 1895. His trial was widely covered by the media, and he was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged in 1896, and his remains were later exhumed and cremated.
After his death, Holmes became the subject of numerous books and films, and he is considered one of the most infamous serial killers in history. His crimes and the mystery surrounding his true motivations continue to fascinate and horrify people to this day.

I am looking at in inventory Model Y in the Chicago area (can use 60659), and notice some cars give Autopilot upgrade options (Enhanced of FSD), while others don't give the option at all.
What is the difference between these cars? Could some come with the sensors that are removed?
An example is to look at Long Range models, the cheapest 2 are a white and a silver. The white gives the option of upgrading to FSD, the silver does not give any upgrade options.
UPDATE: I now get both options on all cars, it must have been a website bug this morning.

I have a problem with what is described as spontaneous or sporadic CJD. Downer cattle put into the British meat supply were the root cause of the British 1980s epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) commonly known then as 'Mad Cow' disease. Whether directly through butchering or indirectly by the diseased animal being ground up and mixed with sawdust used as feed in the cattle yards prior to butchering (a practice now banned).
I find it difficult to believe a naturally occurring element (that is so difficult to destroy as to require cremation-level temperatures or concentrates of chlorine) can in some unfathomable way morph itself into a deadly form. Once in that form, slowly and quietly progress over a period of years eventually presenting itself and causing that person to succumb to Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.
Rather than fund a myriad of research studies to attempt to find the cause of such prion spontaneity. Perhaps a closer look at the food distribution system may be a better, more practical, and immediate way to determine the cause of 85% of CJD cases (source). With the new tests becoming available, is there any reason why each cow can not be tested? At the price of beef today, further assurance that the meat is safe to eat seems to be a reasonable ask. In the early 1900s the scandal in Chicago's meat packing industry brought about the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (P.L. 59-242) and in 1967 the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 (P.L. 90-201). A 60 span of time has passed again, it's time for another look.

Introduction And Historical Review Of Meat Inspection
- Conclusions - The USDA has made many changes as it has strived to fulfill its mandate during 84 years of meat inspection. However, advancing technology, new methods of food processing and serving, and increasing public expectations dictate frequent reassessment of meat inspection programs and new approaches. The future will require new ways of preventing public exposure to contaminants, scientifically valid and believable methods of evaluating inspection technology, and implementation of appropriate portions of HACCP programs.

I have a question. After having to bury a few people and having a battle with cancer. I was wondering if I can pre pay for my cremation? I’ve seen somethings online and was curious if it’s a thing. I live in Chicago. I have life insurance but if I can save my family the time and grief I would.

Like the first Unsolved Mysteries Podcast MEGATHREAD, we're creating this for a centralized, easy-to-search location for episodes of the new Unsolved Mysteries Podcast. Mods: We will do our best to keep the list of episodes updated, so please be patient if it's not totally up to date.
At the official Unsolved Mysteries site, you can download a transcript and submit tips. Also, you can join the mailing list and subscribe for new episodes announcements, latest news, featured cases and more!
E37: Highway Homicide

A mystery that continues to haunt investigators and family alike is the unsolved murder of Willie “Flynt” Lee. Late Monday evening, August 3, 2009, a 9-1-1 call reports a truck on fire off Hwy 13 in Mendenhall, Mississippi. Authorities arrive at the scene and find the truck ablaze at the bottom of a ravine, just off the highway. They douse the fire, retrieve the truck, and discover bullet holes riddled along the driver’s side of the truck. However, when they peer inside, there’s no body in the truck. The next day Flynt’s body, with a gunshot wound to the torso, is found in the river, some distance from where the truck burned. Blood spatters on top of the bridge lead investigators to believe that someone threw Flynt’s body over the bridge. For weeks police question family, friends and acquaintances of Flynt hoping to find leads into why someone would want Flynt Lee dead. Twelve years after the crime, the family and friends of Flynt Lee will not give up hope that Flynt’s killers will be brought to justice. They know the killers are still out there.

E38: 911 Confession

On January 13, 2015, a man in Fennville, MI, makes an anonymous call to 911 and tells police where to find the body of the woman that he just strangled. When investigators arrive at the scene, they find 48-year-old Sara Knight, covered with a sheet, her cell phone, and the names of family and friends to contact beside her. Sara’s husband of 15 years, 66-year-old Harold “Butch” Knight, is nowhere to be found, and Sara’s vehicle is missing. A week later, Sara’s mother receives a package from Butch, postmarked in Maine, containing money to pay for Sara’s cremation, and a letter listing his grievances against her family and taunting police for being unable to catch him. Police are able to trace Knight from the time he left Fennville until he checked out of a motel in Rangeley, Maine, just six miles from the Canadian border, where he vanished into thin air. Is Butch Knight living quietly under the radar somewhere in rural Maine? Did he escape into Canada where he is living off the grid? Or did he die trying to cross the border on foot in the bitter cold? Sara’s family and friends are desperate for answers and justice.

E39: Missing in Mesquite

When 26-year-old single mother Prisma Reyes doesn’t pick up her 6-year-old son from the babysitter on April 17, 2019, friends and family immediately know something is very wrong and report her as missing to the Mesquite, TX Police Department. The next day investigators find Prisma’s Jeep abandoned behind an ex-boyfriend’s East Dallas apartment building, and security camera video shows Prisma entering the building’s parking garage on foot. She appears to be disoriented and is crying and talking on her cell phone. She gets into the building’s elevator and then disappears, never to be seen again. Police discover Prisma had met the ex-boyfriend for lunch at a nearby bar, where they appeared to be arguing. When he left, she stayed and continued drinking. Police also uncover a disturbing pattern of inconsistencies in Prisma’s life, including an unexplained job change, the purchase of a gun, and a secret life moonlighting as an exotic dancer. What happened to Prisma Reyes? Is her ex-boyfriend’s air-tight alibi really air-tight? Did her secret life hide even darker secrets? Or did she simply disappear to start a new life elsewhere?

E40: Ambush in Inglewood

In 2009, Kevin Harris is a promising young musician with a prodigious talent and bright future whose beats have already attracted the attention of top recording artists. But his life ends in a hail of bullets on the night of September 20, when Kevin arrives at an Inglewood, CA recording studio. At least two gunmen fire through the open window or his car, hitting Kevin at near point-blank range and killing him instantly. Although the shooting has all the earmarks of a gang hit, investigators soon discover that Kevin is no gangster. Who then, might want Kevin Harris dead? One theory is that Kevin was mistaken for a known gang member who drove a similar model car. But investigators discover a more ominous possibility when they uncover social media posts which suggest Kevin’s murder may have been the result of a professional rivalry.

E41: The Cold-blooded Murder of Chelsea Small

On November 12, 2013, when Taylor, Michigan, police respond to a silent alarm triggered from a check advance company, they find 30-year-old teller Chelsea Small dead behind her desk. She’s been shot twice at close range. Security camera video reveals that the single mother of two young children, who was working another employee’s shift that day, buzzed a man into the business around noon. He immediately pulled out a gun and shot her in the chest, then calmly walked behind the counter and shot her in the head. After quickly rifling around the office, the man left with a small amount of cash from the register, either not finding or ignoring larger sums of money which were kept in a backroom. Although the crime has all the ear marks of an attempted robbery gone wrong, investigators notice something unusual. The gunman is using a silencer on his weapon, a federally regulated device that is very hard to obtain and rarely used in the commission of a robbery. The use of the silencer and the calm, unhurried manner of the gunman lead police to believe that robbery may not have been his primary motive. Was he targeting Chelsea, a well-liked young woman with no known enemies or messy romantic entanglements? Or perhaps his intended victim was the other woman who was supposed to have been working that day? Or was the murder a random crime of opportunity? Eight years later, police are no closer to having the answers than they were the day Chelsea was killed.

E42: Tillie's Last Walk

On the evening of April 8, 1886, 18-year-old Matilda Smith, known to her friends as “Tillie,” is having a lively night out at the local dance hall with a close girlfriend. Tillie has just begun a new job as a potato peeler at Centenary Collegiate Institute (known as Centenary College today), where she is also a boarder. The girls who live in the Centenary are expected to be back by curfew, which is set strictly for 10:00 PM. But Tillie has found a way around that rule. Worried that she might miss curfew, Tillie has asked James Titus, the quiet, married, mild-mannered Centenary College janitor, to leave the back door of the building unlocked for her, in case she’s running late. Tillie is last seen at 10:10 PM, making her way to the back door of the building by the man who walked her home from the dance hall. The next morning, her lifeless body is found in a field bordering the Centenary College. She has been brutally murdered. Her story captures the attention of newspapers all over the US and the community demands that a killer be brought to justice. It’s not long before James Titus is arrested and found guilty of her murder. ... As the years go by, students of Centenary College begin to report strange events—doors opening and closing, lights flickering, and even sightings of a “woman in white” wandering the campus. In 2013, a paranormal investigation led by David Rountree and Tracy Ray uncover a presence on the campus, and clues that suggest Tillie Smith was not killed by James Titus…but someone else. Is Tillie still haunting the halls of her school still seeking justice for her death?

E43: UPDATE: The Girl with the “S” Tattoo

On October 8th, 1980, the body of a young girl is discovered on the side of a small dirt road in Henderson, Nevada. She has been stabbed, raped, and bludgeoned to death. Her body has been completely stripped, cleaned, and positioned eerily, face-down in the dirt. Aside from the “S” tattoo on her arm, investigators have no other clue to her identity, or the identity of her killer. First responding detective, John Williams, names the young girl “Jane Arroyo Grande Doe,” and ultimately devotes the next 40 years of his career to identifying “Janie.” But he retires with the case still unsolved. In 2021, cold case detective Joseph Ebert, now assigned to the case, and a team of genetic genealogists, use advanced DNA technology to finally identify this young girl. “Jane Arroyo Grande Doe” is Tammy Tarrell, a young runaway from Artesia, New Mexico, and her sister has been missing her for 40 years. Now, armed with Tammy’s true identity, Ebert is determined to solve the second half of this mystery—who killed Tammy Tarrell?

E44: A Mother's Nightmare

Ruth Gotliebson first met Charles Vosseler, a realtor and entrepreneur, in 1981, while scrolling through the personal ads of Mother Earth News. Like Ruth, he was seeking companionship and they began a friendly correspondence. After meeting in person and dating for a year, Ruth and Charles were excited to embark on married life, flipping houses, and starting a family. ... But once married with two young boys, Ruth begins to see red flags in her marriage: Charles is controlling, confrontational, and impulsive. When the boys, CJ & Billy, are just 2 and 4 years old, Charles abruptly abducts them, abandoning his real estate business and going on the run. He takes every photo and video of the boys, leaving Ruth penniless and heartbroken. Ruth, determined to find her boys, joins forces with the FBI and a private detective to try to track down Charles, and almost succeeds. Now, 30 years later, Ruth still has hope that she will one day be reunited with CJ and Billy. More than anything, she wants her boys to know that she loves them and has never stopped searching for them.

E45: Murder in Boystown

On March 24, 2004, 31-year-old Kevin Clewer is found dead in his Lakeview apartment, located in the historic gay district of Chicago known as Boystown. Kevin has been stabbed 42 times and left on the floor of his bedroom to die. Investigators are able to piece together Kevin’s activities from the night before—he was bar hopping with his good friend, John. John says the last time he saw Kevin alive, he was with a mysterious man named, “Fernando” who he met that night. Despite forensic evidence left behind by the killer and a solid description of the last person seen with Kevin, the case goes cold—but not for Kevin’s brother, Ron. For over a decade, Ron has devoted his time to keeping Kevin’s story in the public eye and his efforts have paid off. In 2020, Kevin received a mysterious Facebook message from a woman claiming to know the man who killed Kevin. It is believed “Fernando” is now living in Puerto Rico.

E46: Condo Killings

On the morning of May of 29th, 2011, Beth Stephenson is alarmed when her parents, Bill and Peggy, fail to attend the weekly service at Union Baptist Church. Her concerns grow when she learns that her father was also a “no show” to volunteer at the “Trucker Chapel Ministry,” a weekly church service held for traveling truck drivers from all over the country. Bill is known as outgoing, helpful, and very reliable and if Bill didn’t tell anyone he was going to miss both services on Sunday, something must be wrong. A few hours later, Bill and Peggy’s bodies are discovered in their first-floor condo. The crime scene is so brutal and bizarre that the FBI has classified it in their top 1% of complex crime scenes. Who would brutally murder the loving, generous, and kind Bill and Peggy?

E47: Mystery at Hobble Creek Canyon

When a young Mexican woman goes missing after attending her language classes in the Mormon town of Provo, Utah, the religious community bands together with her family and police to search for her. It isn’t for another three years that their deepest fears are confirmed when her remains are found on the side of a remote canyon road, in such an advanced state of decomposition that a cause of death cannot be determined. With no suspects and little evidence, investigators must turn to the public for help. Who murdered Elizabeth Salgado?

E48: The Winward Family's Ghost

In 2008, Faye Winward, a single mother, with four children, is ready for a change and decides to move to a condo in downtown Upland, California. The entire family is excited when moving day arrives, but on their very first day in the new condo, Summer, the youngest Winward child, is overcome by the feeling that she is being watched by someone? Something? Days later, Faye’s son Dillon hears a deep, evil disembodied laugh while taking a shower. And that laughter kicks off a series of terrifying paranormal encounters for the Winward kids, ranging from nightmares to sightings of spirits to incredible poltergeist activity. Faye isn’t convinced their home is haunted until she has her own frightening paranormal experience. And that’s when she starts to look for a new place to live.

E49: Slayings in Syosset

When 12-year-old Ankur Singh and his 13-year-old brother, Pulkit return home from school on January 23, 2007, their mother isn’t at the door to greet them as usual, so they let themselves in with a spare key. Inside the boys discover their father, Jaspal Singh, on the living room floor with fatal gunshot wounds to his head and chest, and their mother, Geeta Singh, lying dead in a pool of blood in an upstairs bedroom. It is common knowledge in their circle of friends that Jaspal sometimes keeps large amounts of money in their home, and indeed the intruders appear to have been looking for something inside the house, as the entire second floor has been ransacked. Because there is no sign of forced entry, police believe the couple was targeted, and possibly even knew their killers, but their murders remain a mystery.

E50: Killing Karen

When the body of Karen Bodine is found on the side of the road in a remote part of Thurston County, Washington, in the winter of 2007, Sheriff’s detectives are able to quickly retrace her steps. But when they try to account for her final hours, they discover that no one who was with Karen the night of her death is a reliable source. Now, fifteen years later, a new detective and Karen’s daughter are determined to solve the case.

E51: What Happened to the BBQ Man?

Daniel Moses, the beloved ‘Barbeque Man’ of Rich Square, North Carolina, disappears into thin air and his home is burned to the ground. The missing person’s investigation gets off to a slow start after his long-time girlfriend tells the family he has simply gone on vacation. When the State Bureau of Investigation takes on the case several months later, they uncover more questions than answers. Eleven years have passed with no sign of Daniel Moses, but his sister Shelia has kept the case alive, stopping at nothing to find out what happened to her big brother.

E52: Small Town Hit

Likable but shy Tennessee logger, Terry Sullivan, seems like the last person to get mixed up in intrigue, mystery and murder. When he doesn’t show up for a weekly Saturday breakfast with his parents and sister, local authorities come report that Terry has died in a fall, accidentally, after stubbing his toe. But later that morning, the local news was reports that Terry was actually murdered — shot, execution-style — in his kitchen, which has been cleaned so carefully that no useful evidence can be found. Terry had no enemies, no vices, and he was always quick to help folks in his small town of Sparta, Tennessee. But small towns often have more secrets than anyone realizes.

E53: Double Murder

Russell (88) and Shirley (87) Dermond are enjoying retirement in a beautiful secluded home on the peaceful Lake Oconee in Georgia. Russ loves reading and taking long walks along the water’s edge. Shirley enjoys her daily crossword puzzles at the breakfast table and playing bridge with her neighbors. So why was Shirley abducted, murdered, and thrown into Lake Oconee, weighted down with 60 pounds of cement blocks? And why was Russ found lying in his garage, decapitated, with his head missing? Who would want this quiet, unassuming couple dead? What is the motive for murder in the area’s most bizarre murder mystery

E54: Bigfoot: Face to Face

When Walter Padilla moves to Willis, Texas in 2017, he’s looking for a change of pace in his life. So, when a coworker at his new job suggests they two of them head out on a paranormal investigation in search of Bigfoot, Padilla is quick to agree —sounds fun. But this trip turns out to be anything but fun when the first-time paranormal investigator comes face to face with a 9-foot creature that he believes to be the infamous Bigfoot. Subsequent investigations at the same location uncover compelling evidence that there is something, possibly a group of these creatures, lurking in the forest of the Sam Houston National Park.

E55: The Professor's Execution

When Matthew Lange is shot to death execution style while picking up his young son from school on January 27, 2017, the entire community of Naperville, IL is rocked by his murder. Violent crime almost unheard of in the quiet, upper-middle-class Chicago suburb consistently rated one of the safest neighborhoods in the Midwest. And Matthew Lange is a most unlikely victim. The popular 37-year-old college professor and single father is well regarded in his professional life and surrounded by a close circle of family and friends who say he has no enemies. Fresh out of a contentious divorce and custody battle, he is busy rebuilding his life and has just closed on a home for himself and his little boy. Is Matthew the victim of a random act of violence? Does he have a secret life that put him at risk? And who has a reason to want Matthew Lange dead? Five years later, Naperville police are still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and say they need the public’s help.

E56: The Disappearance of Tabatha Tuders

On April 29, 2003, 13-year-old Tabitha Danielle Tuders leaves her home in East Nashville, TN, sometime between 7:30 and 8:00 AM to catch the bus to Bailey Middle School, two miles away. The straight A 7th grader routinely catches the school bus at one of two stops a few blocks from her house, but this morning, instead of boarding the bus, Tabitha Tuders vanishes into thin air, somewhere along her route. When Tabitha doesn’t return home from school by the late afternoon, her parents know something is wrong. And by that time, the young girl has been missing for nearly 10 hours and the trail has already gone cold. Nineteen years later, no trace of the young teen has ever been found, but neither police nor Tabitha’s family has given up hopes of finding her and bringing her home.

E57: A life Cut Short

On September 30, 2004, after Brittany Phillips’ friends and family are unable to reach her for several days, police are called to do a wellness check and discover that the 18-year-old Tulsa Community College student has been sexually assaulted and brutally murdered in her apartment. Investigators hope DNA collected from the scene of the crime will lead them to her killer, but nearly 18 years have passed without a usable match. Brittany’s mother has taken the case on road with her “Caravan to Catch a Killer,” diving through 48 states and more than 260,000 miles to date and vowing not to rest until the man who killed her daughter is brought to justice.

E58: Island Justice

In 2017, Desiree Gibbon, who was vacationing in Montego Bay, Jamaica, left her hotel room on Thanksgiving night with nothing but her iPhone and her room key. Two days later her body is discovered 4 miles away, badly beaten and her throat slashed. The investigation goes array almost immediately when evidence from the crime scene is left in the hotel room of the victim. With the arrival of Desiree’s parents comes an adversarial relationship with police. Now, almost five years later, not a single person has been identified as a potential suspect. The Gibbon family is desperate for answers. Who killed Desiree and why?

E59: Alien Abduction in Indiana

A life-long abduction experiencer, “Suzie,” recounts her multiple encounters, which began in the 1970’s at the age of 15. Originally from Porter County, IN, Suzie, who wishes to remain anonymous, recalls watching mysterious lights hover over Lake Michigan, and details the many times that she believes she made contact with something beyond our planet. From lost time, to strange personal encounters with beings that did not appear to be human, Suzie expresses what it was like to keep these experiences to herself for over 40 years, and what eventually led her to reach out to abduction researcher and counselor, John Budrys. Budrys also shares his thoughts on Suzie’s case, and what he has learned over the years talking to many “experiencers” like Suzie.

E60: Murder of an Undercover Cop

Detective Corporal James “Jimmy” Grimes is a funny, lovable cop who grew up wanting to “protect and serve” his hometown of Cumberland, Rhode Island. But on August 26th, 1996, Jimmy was found dead in an undercover police car in downtown Providence. At first, investigators assume this healthy 33-year-old died of natural causes, but when the medical examiner submits her report, it’s learned that Jimmy’s neck was broken “military-style” and the case is classified as a homicide. Jimmy’s family has not stopped searching for answers to many mysterious details that surround this case. Why was Jimmy in Providence that night, and who killed him?

E61: Secret Diary of a Missing Girl

When family members can’t reach Amber Wilde on September 23, 1998, they immediately become alarmed. The 19-year-old University of Wisconsin Green Bay junior is 4 ½ months pregnant and had been involved in a minor traffic accident the day before when she hit her head on the windshield. She has missed her morning classes and an afternoon doctor’s appointment, and is not answering her phone — very out of character for the highly-motivated, disciplined young woman who is planning to attend medical school and become a pediatrician. There is no sign of a struggle in her off-campus apartment, but Amber, her car, purse, and cellphone are missing. Under Amber’s mattress, police find Amber’s secret diary, revealing troubling details about her relationship with the father of her unborn child. They believe the diary is a key to solving her disappearance.

E62: Black Friday

When 44-year-old Sharon Miller is found shot to death the morning after Thanksgiving in 1999, at the dry cleaners where she works, the quiet town of Lansing, Illinois is in shock –a murder hasn’t happened here in almost a decade. The motive for doesn’t appear to be robbery—instead the crime scene has all the signs that this was an execution-style hit. But who would want Sharon dead?

E63: Death of a DJ

On January 20th, 2012, local celebrity DJ Juan Gatti, known to friends and family by his legal name, Stephon Edgerton, walks out of a Valdosta, GA radio station after finishing his 6pm to midnight shift, and is shot three times by an unknown assailant, who has been lying in wait. The mortally wounded 40-year-old husband and father of three manages to call 911 and give authorities a description of the gunman before he dies in a local hospital an hour later. In the ten years since Edgerton’s murder, nobody has been charged with the homicide, and investigators are asking for the public’s help to find the person who killed the beloved radio personality and devoted family man, who appeared to have no enemies.

E64: Body in the Brandywine

Susan Ledyard had what many saw as a charmed life, growing up in a wealthy enclave of elite families on the East Coast. Private schools, summers at a family beach house, a Masters degree from Georgetown followed by a brief teaching adventure in Czechoslovakia, before finding her perfect job as a beloved high school English teacher back in her hometown suburb near Wilmington, Delaware. Loved ones described her as brilliant, witty, and full of life. So all were shocked when early one morning in July 2019, Susan was found murdered — her battered body floating in Delaware’s Brandywine River. Who could possibly want Susan dead? How has her killer gotten away with such a high-profile crime in a tight-knit and watchful community where secrets are hard to keep? And what was Susan doing from 3am when her car left her house until 7am when her FitBit tracker indicated her heart stopped beating?

Welcome to E.J. Coutu Funeral Home📷
At E.J. Coutu, times have changed but our commitment to service and excellence has not. Founded by Philippe Coutu Senior in 1895, four generations of the Coutu family have dedicated themselves to the community we serve. Our exceptional staff has more than 100 years of combined experience and can adapt to any special requirements your family has. Our Winnipeg funeral home mandate is to ensure professional dedicated service to honour your loved one at a fair and reasonable price. We are a family owned funeral home with a 125 year history of serving the community that offers affordable funeral services. We do not employ commissioned sales people, and have no quotas to meet. We will help you plan a funeral that works for your family, NOT sell you one. We believe in the value of funerals and that they are important, but believe they should be affordable. Our prices are nearly half the price of corporate funeral homes, without compromising service. Interest free payment plans are available on pre-arranged funerals.
We believe excellent and personalized service, along with attention to detail, add value to a funeral, not merchandise. We serve all cemeteries in the Province of Manitoba. It is only natural to want a funeral home that can offer excellent service, and match it with an excellent price. We are proud to say that over the last 125 years we have been that funeral home, and will continue to be for decades to come.
Our History
Coutu Family Funeral Home 1895 to Present
The Coutu family history in funeral service dates back to 1895 when Philippe Coutu Senior opened up the original Coutu Funeral Home across from the Norwood Hotel on Marion St.
Our original Coutu Funeral Home was a combination of a furniture store, funeral home and ambulance service for the St. Boniface area. The ambulance service had a contract with the Whitier Park Raceway for any injuries that occurred during races and events held there. As the funeral home portion of the business grew so did the need for a new location and Philippe eventually moved to 156 Marion Street, our address until 2003.
Philippe was very active in the community, and an avid sports fan. He started an old timers hockey league, as well as a little league baseball team, and a pee-wee professional hockey team. Philippe was such an avid hockey fan that he once had a taxi drive him, Father Levique, and Gerald St. Onge to Chicago to watch the Blackhawks play the Montreal Canadiens.
Our Service Packages
Traditional Funeral Service
Cremation with Memorial Service
Immediate Cremation No Service
Contact Us
When it comes time to care for a deceased loved one, you may feel overwhelmed and confused about the next steps and options. Our funeral home staff members are here and ready to help.
Whether you'd like a funeral or a more creative celebration of life, we can assist you to select the funeral service options that hold the most meaning for you and your family. We can be your guide and your ally whenever and however much you need us. We are here to support you in making each arrangement decision.
Address: 680 Archibald Winnipeg, Manitoba R2J 0Y4
Phone: (204) 253-5086 Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Website: https://www.ejcoutu.ca/

“I recently found a lead that might help in the search for my brother, William “Wills” Forte. A journal he had written, along with a cassette that was filled with what can only be described as very unusual field recordings.
Kirk Hammett has agreed to quickly transpose the less complex portions of the cassette while keeping the integrity of the original field recordings intact. These you can play or loop alongside the reading of each part, to create the appropriate mood for these journal entries.
We still advise you take precautions before listening to the recordings.” – Abigail Forte
*(Music for PART FOUR)*
(PART ONE)
(PART TWO)
(PART THREE)
PART FOUR : Get Out Of Denver
I was in my bedroom, must have been seven or eight years old. I’d heard a noise from downstairs. It was late. The house was dark. I moved to the window, looked outside. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I remember I was hoping I wouldn’t see anything. I touched the cold glass of the window, and a shiver ran through my entire body. I knew mom was asleep, dad probably was as well. Possibly passed out on the couch downstairs.
That’s when I saw the shape move.
At first, I thought it was a shadow floating down from the trees outside my window, but then realized it was in the reflection; behind me. A black shape almost melting into the darkness behind my bedroom door. A human shape.
It moved, limb-like tendrils swimming down to its sides, the darkness where the head should be tilting slightly, and then a blink, and an unnerving stare from two ovals of starlight where the eyes should have been.
My breath tightened in my throat and the shiver of cold turned to dread. I didn’t want to turn around. I didn’t want to see it there instead of it being just my imagination in the translucent reflection. I didn’t want to close my eyes in case it moved closer.
Then I heard the door down the hall creak open, and seconds later mom walked by on her way to the bathroom. She paused for a second, seeing me through the dim light in front of the window.
“Wills, are you okay son?”
I turned and nodded, “Yeah, mom. Just thought I heard something.”
And the silver eyed shadow was gone.
I wasn’t sure if it was ever there, but it was still months before I could leave my room without running into the hallway.
*****
“Wakey-wakey, sunshine. We’re here.”
“Mom?” I ask, drifting out of a haze.
I’m answered by laughter, “Not even close, mister. You must’ve been having some dream.”
It’s about a seven-hour drive from Omaha to Denver. Evidently, I was asleep for five.
“I can’t tell if I’m dreaming things that never happened or reliving my past.” I mumble, shifting in the seat to look at Octavia.
“Memories.” She says as we pull into a space behind the motel.
I don’t know why these memories have been buried so deep, so long, but they’re coming back now, and I’m not sure if I like it. I don’t have many fond childhood memories, so I’m not looking forward to this.
“It’s the guitar. It’s bringing thoughts and feelings back to you.” Octavia said.
“Great.”
We get our room and find a nearby restaurant. I’m starving, and Octavia nurses a milkshake while I devour a burger.
“When’s the family reunion?” She asks over a casual twirl of her straw.
“Tomorrow.” I pause between mouthfuls, “But then there’s that Harry Velvét guy...”
Octavia’s eyes narrow, “Who?”
I realize I never really told her why we were going to Denver. “The other day I got a call, this guy wants to talk about the guitar, something about buying it for a collector. I figured it would be worth hearing him out. I’m barely managing at this point, so I know one way or another I’m going to need to get away from that thing” I look at the guitar, angled innocently on the chair by the coffee table.
“Okay,” She pauses, thinking something over. She gets the guitar and hands it to me, “I haven’t been completely honest with you...”
“Demons lie?” I snort.
“Not as much as you might think, actually. Humans lie. We just use different parts of the truth. It’s more effective and can also be more damaging. But listen. The guitar itself is not evil. It is a vessel. It holds the essence, the energy, of a powerful demon.”
I look at the guitar in my hands, “Like Mael?”
I’m feeling even more apprehensive about it than before.
“Worse. There is a lot of lore about this particular being. It’s supposedly an Asag, a hideous creature. It was captured and this instrument holds it. Bound by some force that I know nothing about, only that it’s powerful, and it needs the energy of mortal souls to keep the Asag in place.”
“Is that why Mael wants it?” I ask.
“Yes, I think so. But there are those who want the Asag released, and those that want to keep it in the guitar and use its power. I think Mael is determined to keep the disgusting demon in place. Your Harry Velvét on the other hand, I’m not sure about. I don’t know what his intentions are, therefore, you need to be careful. Because your soul, your life hangs in the balance, and my fate, unfortunately, is tied to yours.”
“So,” I’m still trying to figure out how I fit into all of this, “As long as I’m the carrier I’m protected by the guitar. Meanwhile, the guitar is collecting the souls of certain people and basically just feeding on others.”
Octavia nods.
“And so Mael wants to use the power within the guitar for something. Corso ... I have no idea. And Harry Velvét wants to buy the guitar, but we don’t know why or who for. Meanwhile, I’m screwed. I’m tied to a few dead bodies, and there’ll probably be more. And to make things worse, I can’t give the guitar away without losing my soul. What else? Am I missing anything? Any more secrets?”
Octavia sat silent for a couple of long seconds.
“There is!” I accuse, pointing.
“Okay, look.” She holds her hands up, “I’m trying to get my Lillian back, and you’re more important than you realize. I’m just not sure how. You didn’t find this guitar accidentally; the guitar picked you. You were meant to find it. Random people don’t just find something this powerful and then walk around with nothing but an impulse and a craving that won’t go away.”
I give her a wide-eyed stare, “Impulse? Craving? Are you kidding me? I try to give this thing away but then my eyesight goes blurry and I begin to shake, and I feel like I’m being turned inside out. I’ve quit some hard things in my time, but nothing like this.”
I hold the guitar out at arm’s length. “It feels like it knows what I’m thinking, what I’m doing, and then it kills people. This is more than an addiction, it’s a possession. It’s like a goddamn parasite.”
“I get it, but we have to work together on this.” Octavia says, trying to reassure. “I don’t know if it’s fate, destiny, or ancestry, but somehow you are tied to this guitar. It knows who you really are.”
I look at her, trying to process. “Okay, I’m trying hard to roll with the punches here. Maybe if we figure out how to release Lillian, and if I can get a decent amount of money for the guitar, I can say goodbye to all of this. I know from experience the only way I can get out is by going cold turkey, and withdrawals are easier when you can afford them.” I balance the guitar on my knee, “Come with me to meet Harry, and see what you think.”
“When?” She asks.
“Tomorrow.”
“Okay, that’ll work, but tonight I need you to play. It might be a bit of a double-edged sword, but the only way you can learn more about the guitar is to become more connected to it. Learn what it wants, what it needs, and where it wants to go. And I want to see how it works.” She says.
I narrow my eyes, unsure. “What you’re telling me is not making it easier to part with this cursed thing or preventing it from doing more evil.”
“I can’t promise you I’ll stop it from doing whatever it wants to do, but I will make sure no bodies are left behind. I don’t know how much time I have, but three more souls and Lillian’s gone. There’s a rotating count of souls on the body of that guitar, and each one it gets pushes her closer to some final oblivion. You need to stay strong, or you’re going to lose yourself completely.”
I give her a derisive snort, “You don’t care about me.”
Octavia laughs, “No. Not really.” And then her tone gets serious, “But if I lose you, I lose Lillian. Again. I need you, at least until I’ve gotten her out.” Octavia paces across the room. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the whole truth before, but I couldn’t take any chances. Now, I think more demons will be coming out after this thing and I want us to be on the same side. I’m not good, I admit that, but evil isn’t all that bad either.”
Now things were starting to make some crooked sense. If I continued to work with the guitar and keep it satisfied, it wouldn’t pull my soul into its void. And if I stayed alive, Lillian would be held in the limbo of the guitar. Not released, but not yet devoured.
Octavia gives me a cold glare, “Of this round of six, she was the first ... and you are the last.”
*****
I start playing, single chords, but then almost immediately I’m losing the structure and falling into melody. It’s completely different this time, and I have a distant feeling that I’m not supposed to play this way.
Octavia’s not stopping me, she’s just watching. Her eyes wide, her head tilted, listening. I’m listening too. I’ve never played anything like it. I don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s a dark, heavy melody. Thick tones come out of the strings and push down into the depths of my belly, making me feel both excited and upset. My leg moves against the rhythm, a counterpoint beat twisting the slightly uncomfortable melody. I’m not sure how, but I find a vocal to go with it.
I don’t recognize my own voice. Mournful and hoarse, pushing out sounds without words, feeling as if it’s coming out of a deep part of my soul I’d never managed to tap into before.
*****
“Wills! Wake up!” I hear a voice, familiar.
“C’mon,” I’m being shaken. “Now!”
And then I’m back, whisked like a fast fog through a wind tunnel, and shot into my body, then a feeling of content. I fall backwards, hitting a wall behind me. Completely disoriented and feeling heavier than I’ve ever felt before. As if gravity is angry and taking it out on me. My throat is dry, my fingers are bleeding, but it doesn’t matter. Octavia is standing in front of me.
“That was ... amazing.” I whisper. I don’t care about the blood on my hands or the scratching of my throat. I don’t care that my head feels like it’s going to explode, and my vision is blurred. I want that.
Again.
“Things got pretty intense there, Wills. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to bring you back.” Octavia says, almost approvingly.
I look around, confused by my surroundings. It was a room, long and narrow. It was dark, and uncomfortably warm. We’re at the back near a small stage and a solid black door with a circular window and a red ‘private’ sign underneath. There’s a row of wooden tables and a bar with a few spilt drinks and a broken mirror.
It smelled like old cigarettes and stale beer.
“Where are we?”
“Some dive bar,” Octavia answered, “In the bad part of town, as far as I can tell.
“What happened?
She eyed me curiously, “You can’t remember anything?”
I shook my head, staring at my hands, “Is it...”
“Your blood?” Octavia glanced at the black door. “No.”
I look at her, and then move, pushing the door open and stepping through into a small hallway. An office to the left, door ajar, and a steel security door leading into the alleyway.
I head towards the office door. Octavia follows.
“You don’t have to go in there.”
I turn and look at her, “Yes I do.”
I move into the dark room. I search for the light switch, and finding it, I wish I hadn’t.
Four bodies. The closest ones were the worst. A young man, maybe early twenties. His outfit was a uniform of some sort, though it was hard to tell through the blood covering the black jacket. His arms were pointing in directions they shouldn’t be pointing, almost wrapped backwards around his neck, while his legs were twisted underneath him, as if they’d been snapped back at the hip.
The other was older, but just as bloody and contorted. He wore a suit, the kind a cool jazz musician would wear, black slacks, black shiny shoes, black suit jacket and black skinny tie over a crisp white shirt. Only the white shirt was covered in blood and his face was stuck in some horrible transformation.
His eyes were solid black, and his mouth was twisted into a grotesque grin.
I knew Octavia was behind me; her breathing was getting faster. She was hungry, but I knew that was something I didn’t need to see. I could barely even look at what was in front of me. I took a step forward, forcing myself closer, and focused on the other two bodies. They were nowhere near as disfigured as the first corpse and looked almost peaceful. If it wasn’t for the ghastly color of their skin, I would’ve thought they were sleeping. Then I noticed something else.
“Please Octavia, give me a second. There’s something off about this. Something’s not right.”
“Hurry.” Her voice is strained. I guess I should be glad that she’s been exercising her will power on this journey.
I move towards the two pale figures sprawled on the ground, trying to not breathe in the stench. I concentrated on the fact that they no longer looked like real people, like living people. There was nothing about them that said they had ever been alive, so I imagined them as some strange lifelike mannequins.
The color of their flesh was unnerving, but if I pretended it was a bad paint job it helped a bit. No pink, so they went with a horrible sick-stained ivory touched with patches of purple and blue. Like bruised silicone. The eyes were open but glazed over. A thin film of milky white settling over the pupils.
The man was lain out straight on his back, arms by his side, as if someone had gently lowered him down to rest. His companion, possibly a wife or lover, was in almost the same position. Arms straight, but her head was tilted to the side, facing the man, her lips slightly apart. As if she had died while telling him a secret.
That’s what it was. Something about her mouth. Not a natural position. I kneel, trying to ignore Octavia’s attempts to hurry me, and exhale slowly. Moving without allowing myself to think about what I was doing. A month ago, I would have been either running away as fast as I could or cowering in a corner and trying to not throw up. Amazing how one can get used to the horrific.
There’s something between her lips, and as I try to pull it gently out my fingers touch the dead woman’s teeth and evidently, I’m still not used to everything.
I recoil as if the skeleton was going to reanimate and attack; biting jaws encased in dead flesh. Octavia laughs, distracted from her hunger by my fear, and I almost retch, breathing in the foul stench emanating from the bodies. It was like someone had set rotting eggs on fire.
I give it a couple of seconds and try again, noticing how there’s no blood. Not around the bodies or even within the bodies. Empty skin. Holding my breath, I reach between her cold lips and pull out a gold-colored piece of plastic. It catches between her teeth, snagging on dead gums, and I retch.
“What is it?” Octavia whispers, startling me with her unexpected nearness.
It takes me a second to focus, fighting back the urge to just run through the back door and lose myself in the night. It’s a guitar pick, and I recognize it.
My heart’s pounding. I feel dizzy. I move back against the wall, slide down to the floor. I’m holding the pick so tightly my fingers are turning white. “It’s a vintage D’Andrea tortoise shell guitar pick from the 60’s. I only know one person who had a pick like this.”
Octavia kneels in front of me, curious. “Who?”
“Cristopher.”
“It was a lucky charm. He never used it, but he always had it with him.” I hold it up to the light, between thumb and index finger, letting the familiar glow move through the mottled design. “Look, there’s no fuckin’ way this is happening, and it ain’t no coincidence. How did this get here? Did I do all of this?” I give Octavia a worried look.
“No.” She pointed back at the doorway we came through. “You performed for someone else, but he’s gone now.” She looked at the guitar.
I knew what she meant.
“When we arrived, the place was empty except for an older man on the stage, playing some jazzy guitar.” She continued. “I followed you in, and he didn’t give either of us a second glance, but as soon as he saw your guitar, he was paying attention. I think he was about to plead his case or something, I don’t know, but you just started playing. I can’t find the words to describe what it sounded like, but it was dark and seductive. I could feel it doing things deep inside the core of my being. It was beautiful and horrible at the same time. I saw one of the strings unwind itself and then a thick twisted shadow grew out of the guitar and moved along the string, pulling it towards the man on the stage.”
“Then what?” I asked.
Octavia looked at me, “The pain ... I can’t even tell you. The sound was searingly loud in my head, so strong I doubled over. My eyes were closed tight, my hands over my ears. I’ve never felt that sort of pain before. I felt ... human. When the sound stopped, you were lying on the stage, the man was gone, the guitar was whole. These others were already dead. I didn’t find them until after. And then, the smell.”
I felt sick. “It must have been Mael or Corso. Did they kill these people, and why did they plant the pick?”
Octavia moves past me, towards the bodies. “I don’t think it was them. This is someone, something, worse. This is darker, more violent. Corso is a trickster, and Mael, well, I hate to say it, but he has more class. This is a message, a warning.”
“But from who?” I ask, but Octavia shoots me a look, and I know the time for questions is over.
I leave the room and head for the door, not listening to the visceral sounds of feeding. I sit on the stage for a second, and then fall back, staring up at the ceiling, trying not to think or feel anything for a second. The guitar loose across my chest. Then I noticed something odd. The guitar feels a little heavier, and the body feels cleaner, smoother than before.
I looked down, and in shock, realized there was another silhouette burned into the wood below the bridge.
A couple of minutes later Octavia comes springing out, “Should we go out for dessert?”
“What? How can you act so cavalier?” I ask
“Wills. I am demon. I’m not like you, and I don’t want to be like you. Deal with it however you want, but things are most likely going to get worse...” Octavia stops mid-sentence, her head swivels towards the back door.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Another. Get behind the bar. Don’t speak.” She doesn’t look at me, just points behind her. I do as I’m told.
I smell it before I see it.
It smells like rotting meat on warm metal. Thick and acidic and chokingly stagnant. I crouch down, clutching my belly with one hand while covering my mouth and holding my nose with the other. Peering over the edge of the bar I can see Octavia standing ready.
Then I see the darkness.
It pours through the closed door like molasses through a sieve, and the stench gets worse.
A thick viscous fluid starts to pool on the ground, bubbling like boiling tar, and then it starts to take shape. It grows, a thin stalagmite of oozing murk. It wavers a little, but then stops, motionless and about seven feet high.
“Ekimmu, I see you.” I hear Octavia whisper.
The shape shudders, and a wave of silence pushes out and moves through the bar like an inside out thunderclap. I’m almost knocked over by the blast of pure silence. It’s like all of the sounds in the world have been blotted out, and then slowly I hear a note in my head. A high E, pure and strong, grounding me, and then the silence is gone, and I can hear my breathing, my heartbeat, a truck driving past the bar outside.
The dark fluid takes on a slightly humanoid shape, and slowly a face takes shape. A mouth thin and almost as wide as its head. No teeth, just an empty hole dripping its own thick ooze. And eyes that open white, blank, unblinking.
I gasp, I can’t help it, and that gasp almost ends me.
The thing is suddenly upon me; a thick mess that’s as fast as mercury and as black and cold as the emptiness of outer space.
From human shape to snake, it wraps and coils around me. Tendrils spreading across my flesh, burning like ice. It curls around my neck, squeezing. Pulling at my arms, my hands, and I realize I’m not the primary focus. It pushes, sticky and burning against my skin. It doesn’t want me. I know what it’s after, and I’m just in the way.
I start to see spots around the edges of my vision, it’s getting harder to breathe, it’s all fading to black. And then I feel it loosen its grip, and I’m choking, falling backwards. I become aware of the thing being pulled off me from behind, slowly stretching and ripping soundlessly. As my vision clears, I see Octavia digging her heels into the ground, a tortured expression on her face, her hands in the thick of the creature, pulling it from inside itself.
She’s muttering words I don’t recognize, possibly an incantation in some strange language. Her eyes are closed, but there’s an intense reddish glow around them, as if her eyelids were holding back flames.
The thing shifts, completely releasing me, and twists around and seems to be turning inside out while focusing its attack on Octavia. The liquid tendrils thin and sharp like a million razors. while they only wrap around my arms, they slice into hers, and while I don’t see any blood, I hear her let out a hellish wail.
It's horrible.
She turns to me, “Get out, now” Octavia yells in between breaths of incessant chanting.
I run out the front door on to the sidewalk. I turn around and as the door to the club closes, I can see Octavia start to open her eyes. The reddish glow is now a pulsating white hot burn, too bright to look at, and I know I’m probably not far enough away to be safe yet.
I turn and run across the street. Thankfully there are no pedestrians and no traffic, as I only make it halfway before I feel at my back a brilliant white burst of energy and heat. I’m lifted and thrown like a rag doll being kicked in the back by a fiery boot. Hitting the asphalt I roll, scraping my skin, arms to back, until I stop against a streetlight.
The bar across the street is completely destroyed. Windows shattered with smoke billowing out over licking fingers of flame. The businesses on either side getting scorched and blackened. The front door hangs off its hinges, but everything inside is obscured by the thick plumes climbing up into the night.
I see the guitar in the gutter, seemingly untouched, and notice Octavia’s red coupe parked a few feet away. Managing to get up, every bone and muscle in my body hurting, I grab the guitar. As I move towards the car, I see the smoke in the doorway shift. Octavia walks out slowly. She seems to be in a daze, unsteady and looking around. Wisps of smoke rise from her shoulders.
I attempt a painful wave, and she sees me. She takes a few steps towards me, and then collapses. I rush over to help but she pushes me away.
“I’m fine. Give me a second.” She attempts a smile, “You should see the other demon.”
I help her up, ignoring her protests, and lead her to the car. “We should go, I hear sirens.” And before she could protest, I added “And I’m driving.”
We drove mostly in silence. Not surprisingly, Octavia’s wounds had healed as if they’d never been there, yet I could tell she was still hurting. I definitely was.
When we got back to the motel room, I asked her what that thing was.
“Ekimmu. A species of demon. They’re not usually that violent, or that solid, but it revealed itself for a reason. It came to try and collect something you had.”
“The guitar?”
“Maybe, but I think it was the pick. There’s an energy connected to it, and if that was connected to Cristopher, it might have drawn the Ekimmu out. Maybe the guitar intensifies the energy.” She explained, “Ekimmu was created from one of the demon tribes of Mesopotamia, it takes its form from spirits created from improper burials. Was there a problem with your friend’s burial?”
A chill and a tightness came over me from unwanted memories. “Yeah, kind of. It was closed casket, as they couldn’t really make him look as good as his family wanted him to look. He wasn’t in good shape when they found him. It was bad. So that, and I know he would’ve preferred cremation.”
I clenched my fist tight, hit by a vision of Cristopher’s coffin being lowered into the cold dirt, knowing he didn’t want to be buried, feeling like I was suffocating for him.
Octavia lay back on the bed, “Sorry to hear that. As if we don’t have enough to worry about, we’re going to need to figure out how to deal with that pick. Between the pick and the guitar, you’re becoming a regular demon beacon.”
“Yeah, tomorrow. I’m exhausted.” I say, sitting on the couch.
There’s silence. I look up at Octavia.
I had never wondered if demons slept or not, but now I knew the answer. She was out.
“Thanks for saving my life.” I whispered, and then followed her into slumber.
*****
We both woke early, but still aching after the previous night. Octavia went to see if she could figure out why there had been a Mesopotamian demon at a dive bar, and I went to meet my sister at the Market in Larimer Square.
“Wills!” I recognized her voice immediately
“Abbie!” It had been too long, and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed her.
Coffee, small talk, and silent stares of quiet reconnection.
“How’s the family?” I ask.
Abbie nods, “Good. Danny’s home, looking after mom and the kid. But I have to tell you, I needed to come to see you. This is big.”
I look at her, surprised, “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I hoped that it would have never come to this, and that we’d never have to have this talk." She reaches into her purse and pulls out a small bag. It fits in the palm of her hand, made from old leather, and tied with a thin black cord. She hands it to me.
“What’s this?”
“Mom made it, probably right after you left. I was maybe one or two years old at the time. It’s a gris-gris bag. You need to keep this with you now. In your left pocket if possible.”
“Did you come out just to give me this?” I ask, feeling the weight of the bag in my hand.
“No. It’s because of the four things, remember? What did you find, Wills? Was it the guitar?”
I feel like I’ve been punched. I fall back in the chair and stare across the table at my sister. After the shock fades, I ask, “How do you know about the guitar?”
Abbie sits silent for a moment, cradling her coffee in both hands, staring into the steam. Then she looks up. "He came back, after you left. I was maybe twelve years old. He had a guitar, a small one.”
I almost interrupt her, but instead let her finish her story. I hadn’t thought about my father in a long time.
“Mom wouldn’t let him in. He didn’t care at first, said he was just protecting us. Every day, from sunup to sundown, with maybe a break somewhere in between for food, he’d sit on the porch and play songs on the guitar. Mostly sounded like old blues songs.” She paused, looked up at me.
“So how long did he stay?” I asked.
“A couple of weeks. It was fine at first, he wasn’t doing anything other than playing. I sat on the steps a few times, talking to him. He was mostly nice, asked a lot about you though.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, how you were doing, where you were. I knew you were in New York, I think, other than that I couldn’t tell him, anything. And mom didn’t tell him anything. She kept track of you, though. I know you don’t know this, but she was proud of you. She still is...” She trailed off as someone came by collecting empty cups. I thought I saw a bit of blue hair peeking out underneath a black beret as he walked by, but he was gone in the crowd before I could be sure. Was that Corso again?
Probably not I thought.
“Tell me more.” I said quietly.
“After the first week it started getting bad.” Abbie said. “I don’t think he was drinking, but he acted like he was. During the day it was okay, but at night he started playing just noise. Weird notes that didn’t sound like anything, and then yelling and chanting words over it. Like nothing I’d ever heard. Not sure how to describe it. Weird sounds that shouldn’t be coming from a guitar, y’know?”
I nodded, “Actually, yeah. I do know.”
Abbie gave me a curious look, then continued. “So mom asked him nicely to leave, and when he refused, she called the police on him, but he walked away before they arrived. Haven’t seen him since. After you called though, I knew something bad was happening with the four things, and if it was the crossroads, it had to be the guitar. Dad said it was the only thing left that connected him to his destiny, his future, and his past. He went on and on about it that last night. I mean, I hope I’m wrong?”
I stared at my sister, not quite believing the story, but how else could she know. There’s no way it was anything else. I realized I had my dad’s guitar.
“The guitar is in my room at the motel.” I said quietly. “I don’t know its whole story, but it’s not a good one. If it’s connected to dad, you should probably leave now. I don’t want you to get involved in this.”
“Wills, I’m here. I brought you some protection, and I’m goddamn family. I’m a part of this.”
I pause, knowing I can’t really stop her, but she needs to know the whole truth. At least as much as I’ve got. I also know I need to meet up with Harry Velvét, and I’m not sure where Octavia is. “I really don’t know if you being involved is a good idea, but we can talk about it later tonight.”
*****
After promising I’d keep the gris-gris bag with me and dropping Abigail off at her hotel, I continued in the taxi to the address Harry had given me.
“Your sister seems nice.” The driver said, peering in the rearview mirror. And there it was again. This time for sure. Blue hair.
“Corso!”
“At your service. Thought you’d make me at the café, but I guess you were a little distracted.” He cranes his neck up and makes sure I can see his grin in the mirror.
“What do you want? I don’t have the guitar.”
“I should hope not.” He winks. “That would be an amateur move. I just want to make sure you get to your destination okay. No troubles, y’know?”
“Are you working for Harry Velvét?” I ask, suspicious.
“Me work for Harry? Are you kidding? No pun intended, but hell no. He should be working for me. I mean, he has in the past, but right now, no. I’m in business for myself, an independent demon, just making sure things go how I want them to go.
“And how, exactly, do you want them to go?”
“Look, it’s like this  if Mael doesn’t get the guitar, and I get another chance to impress your friendly neighborhood Succubus, then I’ll be good.” Corso twists the wheel, directing the cab around a tight corner, and blares the horn at an elderly couple crossing in front of him, “Man, I hate the living.” He mutters.
I jump on a hunch, “Did you know my dad?”
Corso doesn’t answer. He hits the gas, swerves around another corner, then slams the brakes hard, sliding perfectly into a space between two parked cars. He turns to face me, leaning back slightly, “Yeah. I mean, I knew of him. You want to hear the real guitar story? Pretty sure Octavia doesn’t know any of this.”
“Definitely.”
“Okay, so listen. One thing your guitar loves, more than eating up souls, is eating up an entire lineage of souls. I mean like kids to parents to grandparents and beyond. That thing in there feeds off the destruction of bloodlines. So your father inherited that instrument from your grandfather, and when you left, that thing got a little angry. Thought it had lost you. That’s what pushed your pops to crazy. He had to get the guitar to you, or he was going to suffer some bad juju. The guitar, or the thing inside it, loves to make deals, bargains. It was a trade, your soul for his, but of course, none of the souls that thing gives back are whole. They are all damaged and corrupted, which just helps spread that particular little demon seed.”
I stare at Corso, mind being blown. “How do you know this?”
He laughs, “Well, partly because it takes a demon to know a demon, right?” Another wink, “But I’ve been following this guitar for a while. Your friend Mael, he’s been a problem for me for eons, and your father was going to help me get him gone.”
“You were working with my dad?” I asked, incredulous.
“No, not exactly. I was kind of dropping hints here and there, but I couldn’t make myself known. He was working on a song, a melody that would manage to push Mael back into the hell hole he crawled out of. There’s a certain pattern of notes and chords, and it needs to be combined with a certain way of playing, and your dad almost had it, when he snapped. It’s something I like to call the Maelstrum.” Corso stopped, looked at me to see if I got it, then laughed again, “I thought it was funny. Anyhow, don’t know what happened after that. Demons can hide from demons easily, and that guitar pulled your old man away from me. I lost the trail, everything, until you picked it up. Some things are meant to be, and while the powers that be aren’t really letting me mess with you, I can still make sure that Mael doesn’t get his hands on the guitar. And one way is the Velvét way.”
Corso gets out of the cab and walks to the back of the car, opening the door for me. I step out and look around and start to get the sense that something’s not right. We’re in a fairly desolate, industrial looking part of town, standing in front of a large nondescript brown and white brick walled building. Corso bows, taking his cap off with a flourish, and slips back into the driver’s seat.
“What’s going on?” I ask, noticing the car doors locking.
“Well, my friend, two things you should know about me. One, I really don’t like humans, and two, I am a trickster.” Corso grins, and before I can respond, I watch the Taxi drive away.
As I stand watching the taxi move up the street a car honks behind me. I turn and it’s Octavia.
“So, what’s the story?” She asks, parking and walking towards me.
“What are you doing here? How did you know where I was?”
“You asked me to meet you here.” She said, studying the building with a quizzical look.
“Oh shit.” I pointed up the street, “I bet it was Corso. He just dropped me off. Did he set us up?”
There’s a clank and click behind us and we turn to see the steel door opening into a dark hallway. I instinctively step in front of Octavia to protect her.
“That’s sweet, human,” she whispers. “But maybe I should go first?”
Thankfully, neither of us had to.
“Mr. Forte?” A short but slightly large man with thick round glasses and peppered white hair poked his head around the door. He wore a crisp looking suit with a tightly knotted thin black thin tie around his neck. “Follow me, please.”
“And who are you?” Octavia demanded.
“Ah, of course. I am Detective Donovan Hawkes, and I believe Mr. Forte here might have some knowledge of a recent incident in Chicago, as well as something fairly strange that occurred last night here in Denver.” He stepped into the darkness of the hallway, motioning for us to follow. “I realize this is a little unusual, but these circumstances call for a different approach.”
Octavia and I follow him down the long hallway and turn into an empty office with a desk, a filing cabinet, and a few chairs.
One of the chairs was occupied by a woman, who stood as soon as we entered. She was tall and thin, very pale with long dark hair and a dark shade of lipstick, almost black. A silver chain covered in small charms hangs around her neck. She stretches an arm out awkwardly to shake my hand. “I am Sara Barrow, and I have been looking forward to meeting you.”
Not quite knowing what to say, I introduce myself, “Ah, hello, I’m William, and this is Octavia.” I try to be cool and collected, even though I’m feeling extreme anxiety start building up inside. They know about the fire and the dead bodies, and I’m going to jail.
Sara grasps Octavia’s hand in greeting but drops it almost immediately and takes a few steps backwards.
“You’re one of them.” She whispers, her face turning a little paler than before.
Octavia lets a little wisp of a smile slip, and sits down, “I’d be offended if it wasn’t true.”
The detective motions for me to sit next to Octavia, and he sits across from us. "Sara has been helping me track you down. She is a spiritual cleanser, and is very attuned to the, ah, paranormal?”
Sara mumbles an affirmation as she nervously steps a little closer.
Detective Hawkes continues, “This is something needing a different approach, a little more discretion, so that’s why you’re here and not at a police station. You have a certain artifact, and I was hired to reclaim it. I’m not sure if I believe the stories I’ve heard, but regardless, Sara here has been charged with the task of, well, exorcising it. I also need your help in finding the whereabouts of the other man involved.”
“Corso? Blue hair?” I asked.
“Ah, Corso, no.” The detective slides his satchel around to the front of his body, rummages around. “Although I would like to talk to Corso a little more as well. He’s the one who set up this little meeting. No, the man I’m looking for is someone you’re a little more familiar with.”
“Okay, well, I hope it’s not the antichrist,” I quip.
Detective Hawkes doesn’t laugh. Sara Barrow stands behind him, arms folded in front of her chest, and doesn’t once take her eyes off Octavia. The detective and I might as well have been in a different room. Different city, even.
Hawkes looks up at Sara, then at me, then slides an envelope from the satchel across the table. I pick it up and pull out an 8 by 10 black and white photo.
It’s grainy, as if copied off a security monitor, but I can make out the back door of the jazz club Octavia and I had been at. I can also make out the features of the man caught leaving.
It’s my father.
******
“I appreciate all of the word of comfort and encouragement during these dark times. I am still working through the journals. It’s extremely draining, but we are making progress, I think. More next week.” – Abigail Forte

PART FIVE
PART SIX

My fiance was 62, he would have been 63 in a few weeks. In June he passed suddenly and unexpectedly in his sleep. I can't tell you what it did to me to wake up and find him, and to know that all the plans we had, all the things we were about to do won't get to happen now.
I lived in his house with him for 12 years, in Indiana. It's an average size house out in the country. The house is entirely in his name. He was going to add my name to the property so that if anything happened to him, I wouldn't have anything to worry about. We had actually started talking about wills and inheritances and things like that since we were getting older, but he left before we got to do anything, we weren't expecting him to go anytime soon at all. He wanted the property to go to his daughter after I passed.
He has 4 kids, his oldest son lives in Chicago, and his other 2 sons and 1 daughter live relatively close by. I want to be able to stay here, and 3 out of 4 of his kids said they want me to stay here, but one of his sons wants to sell the property so he can get a cut. I just want to live here until I pass or until I can't. I'm almost 70 years old, I'm disabled, I live off of social security and have debt I'm still paying off, I can't afford to go rent a place or anything, and I don't really have anyone I can move in with. Not only that, this has been my home, this is where everything we've done and taken care of is. I've also invested so much time and resources into this place. I don't want to have to live somewhere else.
The oldest son is trying to get a lawyer to handle this but is trying to get things done as low cost as possible, he doesn't have a lot of money to pay, none of us really do, we barely got the cremation expenses paid and that was with the help of everyone we knew. I heard that there may have to be an agreement made where they are the owners, but I'm allowed to stay, but may have to pay rent, or if I miss property taxes or haven't been in the house for a certain period of time I have to leave. I heard that if all 4 don't agree the property gets put up for auction and the money gets divided between them. I heard that since I've lived her so long that I may qualify for the Retain Life of State. This has been my legal address for 12 years and I've helped pay property taxes the whole time I was here. I have a loan right now I'm still paying from the last time.
We can't start taking any action until November. I want to go talk to a lawyer too but I can't pay much and I want to do as much research as I can and learn as much as I can to be prepared because I can't afford to pay for much time and I want to make it count as much as possible. I've tried a bunch of free legal advice lines and I've tried talking to the county and the city and different places to find out what I can do and what I need to do. I know this will all have to involve a lawyer but I want to be prepared. I'm also starting to get the feeling the lawyer the oldest son it talking to is just trying to get it settled without caring much about what happens to anyone, but we can't afford to pay a bunch of different lawyers. I don't even want to own the property, I just want to be able to stay here.
I'm going to really, really appreciate any advice or any input you all have to give. Anything at all will be a great help. I'm new to reddit but I heard it can be a great place. Thank you all so much.

Chicago 60659 cremation

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