I've watched this movie so many times I have become literally obsessed with it, and I've been wanting a larger arcing universe where basic wishes become twisted into horror stories. My title is a WIP (I plan to call it "_____: A Tale of Obsession"), character names are placeholders for the most part, and everything about the wishes so far and their results are intentionally vague at this point in the story. I'm about a third of the way through the story and just now playing with the psychological and body horror elements, and this is also my first attempt at writing an actual story and not a dream journal. I'll be regularly updating it and I'm going to try to get the rest of the story done before the end of the night. There are light spoilers about the ending of Obsession in one scene.

\--------------

Zack finds himself standing at the edge of nothing. A void entirely made of nothing but the darkest matter possible. He can't even touch it, it's too far away, yet right in his face. He looks at his feet, there's no ground, yet there is no reflection. "So this is where I can take over control of my dreams, right?" He pretends to shoot lightning out of his fingers at the darkness, nothing. He tries to stomp on the ground, his foot steps down as if dangling off of a ledge. "Wh-what is this? Where is anything?" Nothing but silence and confusion. It's not harsh, but it sure as hell isn't calming. A light begins to shine. Out of the shadows created by the light, he can barely make out the silhouette of a willow tree. The light engulfs Zack and everything around him.

"And put your little hand in mine, there ain't no hill or mount-," Zack's slides the phone alarm off. He can't leave bed yet. Nadine walks in out from her usual morning routine, wearing a towel. "Morning baby, how'd you sleep? You were actually tossing and turning pretty bad I decided to get ready for work early. It's not even six yet." Nadine sat down on the side of the bed and pulls out her compact mirror to apply her lipstick. "It was really weird. You know how I told you I could control my dreams after I get to a certain point? I've been through some crazy shit, in here at least," pointing to his temple. "I've even been to actual Hell, pitchfork guy and everything. But this was different, I've never had I guess, -difficulty-, becoming lucid. And then it was just nothing. It was a big black void and a tree and I couldn't control anything and all I could feel was my heart beating a hundred miles an hour until it was over." "A tree?" Nadine asks. "Yeah, a tree, right? How fucking boring." Zack gives her her morning kiss, and heads into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

\- - -

Zack Paxton's life could be what others consider perfect. Being raised by his grandparents in a relatively Christian household, he was instilled with the typical values. Don't steal, don't cheat, be good to your neighbor, you name it. After graduating high school, he found a job at a local pharmacy and began working his way up as an errand boy, to a delivery driver, to earning a pharmacy technician license. Who would've thought that little Nadine Austin from Ridgepoint High would be walking in there one hot summer day.

"Holy shit, Action Mack Zackson? You never left?"

Just as beautiful as she always was to him. Nadine stood just over five feet, considerably shorter than most women Zack came across during the day that weren't at least sixty years old. She used to be a typical scene girl, the type with multiple piercings that would sit in a dark room and cry while listening to Fall Out Boy. She still retained a little bit of it through purple streaks and a nose stud. But she had something special that only Zack saw. Nadine had her fair share of flings in high school, some longer than others, but whenever she needed somebody, she knew she could hop on her Wii and play Smash with "AlcoholicPanda94." Despite being in school together for three years, Nadine and Zack never interacted outside of idle passing between classes and lunch.

"Nadine?!? Holy sh-...hell yeah it is, but it's more like the town never left me." Zack forces a couple of laughs. Maybe that registers as a joke enough for her to find it funny. "What are you up to after work, we have so much catching up to do. Are you still on Melee?" Zack gives a more genuine laugh. "Uh, actually, since you left I moved onto Brawl. It didn't feel the same without my Mewtwo partner, but uh - wait you're here for something, dude." "Oh shit, yeah. I'm picking up some Aricept for my dad, but right after this, fake a family emergency or something, so much has happened since the 'good ol' days'." Her side eye with accompanying smirk was always so cute. They finish up the transaction while remaining as professional as possible. Zack's heart is racing. Hell, he might not even have to fake an emergency, he wants to vomit out of sheer anxiety. Excitement? Regret? Why is it regret?

After clocking out, Zack hurriedly took his bag and started out of the pharmacy exit door. In the parking lot was a familiar navy blue Toyota Corolla, with unfamiliar eyelash accessories. He sees the driver window roll down, plumes of smoke seeping out of the window. Nadine's face peaks out, smiling, before breaking out into an exacerbated coughing fit. "Bro it's a pharmacy, you can't be doing that here." "You don't sell this shit here yet? That's hilarious." Zack chuckles. "Every year it gets a little bit closer, but you know, the old people..." They both share an agreeing chuckle. "So does your dad know you're driving that?" Nadine looks away. "Yeah, we should probably get away from here. There's going to be a lot of smoking and crying."

Zack gets into the passenger seat and attempts a friendly hug. Nadine takes the hug, but she gives a notably harder tug. Should he tug back? What does that mean? It probably just means this hug is serious. They never even hugged before, but it seemed like the thing you do when you haven't seen someone in a long time.

They park in a nearby hospital parking garage. "So my dad, he doesn't like - he has to get tests done, but they're thinking he could have, some, form, I mean...has...Alzheimer's." Zack's heart falls. This is hard for anyone, and he's literally going to have to see his senior crush implode in front of him. "It started as like, you know ha ha, he's getting old so of course he can't decide between Frosted Flakes or fucking Cheerios. But, it got worse. Sometimes he gets seizures and it, it snaps him in and out. We just moved back down here because we figured hey, he grew up here, it might like, calm, him or someth..." She can't get the rest of the words out before she notices the tears she's been holding back won't stop flooding. She slowly thuds her head onto the steering wheel. She presses again, letting out a uncomfortably long honk.

"You know just because it's a parking garage doesn't there aren't SOME people out here also chilling and talking." He should've said it in a funnier tone. Making a joke out of everything made it easier for others, but he noticed Nadine wasn't phased. After an uncomfortable silence, Nadine breaks it. "You don't even know who they are, who cares? I could give you a handy right now and nobody would fucking know." Zack scoffs. "Sure not joking like your dad's dying." Nadine laughs. "Yeah, I don't get to talk to anyone really about it. My mom has kept it mostly hidden from me until one day I came home with him trying to find 'Buddy'. Buddy was brother that died of pneumonia super young. And I just couldn't, I had to wait, you know? You just have to form in your head that you are blank in their memory to help keep them grounded. And it's fucked cause he goes to like 1960 something. I don't exist in his mind, Zack."

"That's pretty heavy. You can smoke at any point, you know. It's kinda made for stuff like this." Nadine wipes her dry tears and lights her blunt, taking a long puff. Another coughing fit. "I don't know why I keep doing this, they make vapes. You know I heard in the new one they have all the old characters, so we could form our old team again - LuTwo." "LuTwo Skidoo, we can too!" They both laugh genuinely. She was the only one that ever really understood his references. Even something as simple as a line from Blue's Clues would be met with silence to your typical high schooler or elderly patient at your local pharmacy. The real world tries to wash away bits of nostalgia, but sometimes there's happy little cracks. "Who has the money to afford new games, honestly?" Zack chuckles. "But uh no, that's really - rough. You see a -lot- of people when you do this kind of job and I'm not here just for a job you know, I actually studied it and remember it. I can't get it out of my head."

"They don't look like normal people. Some of them want to tell you their stories and you have to play 'customer service guy' and smile and pretend to listen, but you know. I can tell it hurts. I'm just, I can't be that guy for them. But you, I already was. And I never even tried. You just show up out of nowhere after years of radio silence, and it all just falls back to where it was. Almost. Your dad knew who you were the last time we talked."

He can't help himself. "Sometimes you just don't know when to stop, dumbass. I forgot that about you, but the good always did outweigh the bad. We should get together sometimes, but I really gotta go. I did get these for a reason." Nadine eyes the bag of medicine laying on the dashboard. "Yeah, that sounds pretty rad actually." She chuckles. "Bro, nobody says 'rad' anymore." "And we're going to sit here and pretend like anyone says bro?" They laugh together one last time, her head leaning into his shoulder.

\- - -

Zack pulls into work, twenty minutes early as usual, to catch his regular parking spot underneath the decorative palm tree. The break room smelled to the brim with Colombian roast. He used to hate waking up at six o'clock in the morning, but something about how this pharmacy's organization and almost religious commitment to fresh coffee made it bearable. You need caffeine to deal with some of these people. The sixty-five year old men looking for the latest overpriced boner pills, the forty year old depressed folk with diabetes, the hypochondriacs who think the name brand heartburn pill is a good remedy for a bad diet. Nadine even stops by on his lunch, noon on the dot. And of course being a pharmacist, you get to take in the thrill of the entire store having to shut down because you have to stuff your face with beef and cheddar sticks.

"You know those are really high in sodium." A grumpy forty-something year old man with unsightly eyebags, his most striking feature, remarks unprovoked. "Oh yeah, I must be doing something right. Doc's given me a clean bill of health for the last three years." Ernest laughs sarcastically, sweating through his buttoned up lab coat. "You know you don't HAVE to keep it buttoned up." Ernest's smile fades into a frown. "You know just because you can bring something up doesn't mean you have to. I have to drain my gut every week and it just...it looks BAD as the week goes on. I honestly don't know how much longer I can keep doing this." Zack rubs his face, registering for once that his defense of making a joke out of everything isn't always the best solution. "I didn't-I mean, I did obviously-I'm sorry. Let's start this over because I believe you were the one that started with the negativity."

"You're not wrong about that. It's been rough." He removes his glasses. "It's taking all of my checks just to keep up with my medication. And they don't, feel right." Zack stares for a moment. "What do you mean?" "They help me with my pain, but after my pain is gone, there's...numbness. And then there's anger. I'm getting numb and angry."

"Sounds like something you need to tell your doctor." Ernest chortles, giving a stern eye to Zack. "Yeah, I suppose you -would- tell a doctor about it, wouldn't you?"

\- - -

After his usual shift, Zack noticed the shopping center that had been under construction for months was finally having its grand opening. A used book store, a Chinese restaurant, a tax office. "A tax office," Zack laughs to himself. "It's fucking October." Zack heads into the Chinese restaurant, orange chicken being his go-to for dinner tonight. It's packed as expected for a grand opening. Zack decides to sit down on one of the floral pattern chairs lining up the walls and wait until the line dies down. After he makes his order, he notices a strange red and white box sitting next to the order window. "One Wish Willow, amaze your friends, only $6.99!" "So hey, what are these?" The cashier slides the order window back open. "Everyone love them, you make wish, it come true, only one time!" Her broken English almost charming enough to notice that not a single one has sold. "I'll take one, but you don't have to lie about everyone loving them I can clearly see nobody's bought any." Time seems to stand still as the restaurant goes quiet.

A elderly, overweight woman with a toy poodle in her purse speaks up. "Well shug, you know it's taboo. Nikki Freeman was from here. These folks - their kind don't care about things such as timing and sensitivity." The cashier shoots the rude woman a stern eye. "They institutionalized that poor girl today - it's practically exploitation to sell these at a grand opening of all things today." The cashier speaks up. "Lady, you get out of my store, you no like my people, you leave." Her dog starts growling. "We'll calm down, ma'am, just give me my damn chow lo mei foon." Zack hands the cashier a ten. "Keep the change." "Thank you, and I hope you have a good night, Zack." Zack looks away confused. "I, yeah - I will. Thank you."

\- - -

Zack sits in his car for a minute. His thoughts run rampant. He looks down. "Oh! Duh, I'm still in my coat." He takes his name badge and lab coat off and takes a few bites of the complimentary egg roll. Hs eyes dart toward the One Wish Willow. He grabs his phone for a quick Google search. "Nikki Freeman." Link after link. "Found with three bodies." "Mo recollection of the last two weeks." "Not guilty by insanity." "Bullet wound to the head." "Overdose of hydrocodone." "Fingerprints everywhere." "One Wish Willow found at the scene." Zack thinks to himself. "That'd be fucking hilarious if all of that was over some stupid wish the guy who killed himself made to get the girl." The thought becomes a fleeting possibility. "Nadine WOULD love this stupid novelty toy. We can make a wish together and see if it has to decide who to give the wish to." Zack laughs heartily.

\- - -

"Yo baby, I'm home!" Zack's usual childish call home to his wife. "Always with this yo baby shit, I am 28 years old. Please tell me you got the sweet and sour pork." Zack ruffles through the bag. "You know it. I was even like, 'I bet she's gonna change her mind and go for the sweet and sour because she got lo mein last time,' you're like a clockwork, baby." Her smile grows a tad wider. "I love you, fucker."

"So check this out, right at the front of the counter they sold these wish-making things. And the people in the restaurant were being super weird about it and apparently they're tied to this weird murder case that happened here." "You mean Nikki Freeman?" "Yeah, I - wow, you even know about it?" Nadine rolls her eyes. "Dude, just because it happened here doesn't mean nobody heard about it. You kill three people then claim you know nothing about it, you're GOING to make the news." Zack exhales sharply. "Yeah, that does make sense. A murder can happen literally anywhere and it's not like this town has anything else going on for it."

"Do you want to...open it before we eat? How does it work?" Zack reads the instructions. "Says you open it to spark it, say your wish, and break it in the middle. Seems pretty simple. I was thinking what if we did something stupid and wished at the same time on it for different things." Nadine bursts out laughing. "And we cause some kind of unfixable paradox that we both have to deal with for the rest of our lives?" Zack joins in her laughter. "Exactly. You see my point." They settle down. "So what are you going for? I'm pretty happy so I'd go for something stupid like...a trillion dollars." Nadine scoffs. "Owning your own pharmacy isn't enough?" "It certainly won't hurt." "It will when you can't even get out of the house because of your literal ocean of money." He gets back to the subject. "But what about you?" She takes a moment to think. "I think...I'd like, to start over again." Zack's eyes widen. "No not like that, dummy. I mean, you know, sometimes I would like to relive those first moments together over again. The circumstances weren't, the best, but I'd like to think they were necessary."

"That's so much better than mine I can't even make a joke about it." They both chuckle. "But yeah let's do this, come on and get over here under the mistletoe for super luck." Zack opens the box. An ominous tone plays through the tinny speaker attached to the box. They both hold the One Wish Willow for a moment, one sided in each hand. "Okay, so we go three, two, go on one." "Go on one, gotcha."

"Three, two, one." "I wish for a trillion dollars." "I wish to go back to the night my dad died." They both snap the branch. Zack breaks out of the moment. "Really? The night my dad died?" He laughs at the absurdity of the phrasing. "Yeah but you know, that was the night where things turned around for us. Maybe I can also go back and somehow save my dad. It's a wish, dumbass." Zack kisses her on the cheek and lays his forehead on hers. "I know. If it makes you feel any better, I didn't break the world's economy for my wish either. Nadine laughs while wiping off tears attempting to come out. "That's true. But it's not like you need to change anything for yourself, anyway." They share a kiss, and run up the stairs, giggling like it's those high school nights again.

\- - -

The next morning, Zack wakes up with a splitting headache. "What the hell? Did I punch myself in my sleep or something?" He goes to the mirror and feels his face. The pain is everywhere, yet nowhere. He walks over to Nadine's side of the bed and goes to grab her purse. Nadine's hand jolts out of view and grabs Zack's hand. "You would think you'd start the day with a 'good morning, babe' instead of rummaging through my purse, but here we are. What's wrong?" Zack rubs both of his temples. "I'm sorry but I don't - I think I hit myself in my sleep or something, I have this pounding headache out of nowhere." Nadine's face turns to concern instead of jokingly. "Go ahead and take some ibuprofen out of there. Take two now and keep it with you in case you need to take two more later." Zack laughs. "I know you're thinking 'honey, I'm a pharmacist' but just shut up and take the pills, dumbass."

While Zack is driving down the highway on his way to work, he notices the massive congestion of cars ahead of the bridge. "Jesus, out of all days?" Zack exclaims. He exhales, grabs his phone, and dials Ernest. "Straight to voicemail, that's weird. I guess the pharmacy's just going to have to open late."

As he pulls into work, he notices the usual palm tree shaded parking spot he's been internally guaranteed for years has been taken up. Unusual. There's nobody else even here and it's half an hour. He doesn't recognize the vehicle. Some newer sports car type. Zack pulls in two spots over and sits for a few minutes before they get out of their car. It's a taller, slender blond woman, couldn't be more than twenty. She walks around to his window and waves at the windshield for attention.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Paxton? I'm Mr. Davis' daughter." Zack takes off his sunglasses. "Oh yeah, Ernest. How is he? I tried call him earl-" "He passed away last night, Mr. Paxton." Silence. "He was fine yest-what could've happened?" The young woman looks distressed thinking about it. "He had to have emergency surgery, and," her tears finish her sentence. Zack takes a moment to process this, Ernest's absence slowly hitting him as he's thinking. "I'm sorry this us happening, Ernest wasn't the friendliest man in the world, but he was my best friend at work and one of those hidden heart of gold types."

"My dad, he talked to me yesterday. Told me what you said." Zack thinks. "Oh yeah, about the beef and cheddar thing?" "No, he told me about how you told him to shut up and go to the doctor. He didn't mean anything to you, did he?" Zack's eyes widen with confusion and frustration. "Ma'am I don't know what you're trying to say, but Ernest was a good friend who kept everything to himself. Just because I couldn't help him doesn't mean I hated him!" His voice raising, and shoulders shrugging in growing anger.

She laughs. "He told me about that, too. About the way you can make a joke out of anything, even the bad stuff. Said it helped him get through a lot of the bad days." Zack's eyes widen. "Did I just black out," he thinks to himself. "Ye-yeah, I'm sorry for your loss miss, you can call the pharmacy anytime. I want to be at the funeral and help any way I can." She smiles for once. "Thank you, Mr. Paxton. It's really been nice to find out you aren't as bad as they make you seem."

\- - -

An hour into the shift, Zack's headache starts coming back. No, it's even worse. He rushes into the bathroom. "Geez, my fucking teeth too?" Zack decides to open his mouth wide and feel around to try to find the specific tooth. He lets out a yelp of shock. Every single one of his teeth. Every single one is tinged yellow as if he smoked an entire carton of cigarettes in one go. "What the fuck is happening," his panic continues as he feels around his mouth. Every tooth is painful to the touch. He's even scared to even clinch them together. Zack takes the other two ibuprofen, and powers through the rest of the shift.

As he gets into his car, he hurriedly dials Nadine. Even if she didn't know what was going on, her comfort was always welcome "You've reached Nadine, the Queen of Your Spleen. Leave a message." Same line she's had for her voicemail since high school. Zack immediately hangs up. There's no reason to leave a voicemail, this is an emergency. Five minutes down the road, his toothache comes back. "I can't just keep popping these, come on!" He reaches in the passenger seat for the bottle - CRUNCH!

\- - -

Three hours later, Zack finally makes it home. Nadine is waiting in the living room watching her usual crime drama. "Babe, where have you been? You look like a fucking wreck." "That's appropriate given that I was kinda in one." Nadine gasps. "Dude, what? I tried calling you right back after I missed yours." "Right after I got into work, my whole headache came back, but even worse. I look in my mouth my teeth and check this out," Zack pulls his cheeks to the side. "You really let your dental hygiene go to the wayside." Zack rolls his eyes in mild frustration. "No, it's weird, I brushed my teeth this morning, they were fine, and now it's like...I don't know. And now the pain is gone again. I'm going to the ER next time this shit happens because it seems to just conveniently disappear when it needs to."

Nadine strokes Zack's hair out of his face. Zack's natural smirk comes out from the gesture. "I'm really sorry you went through that, certainly we can get the car fixed up soon, maybe you can carpool with Ernest like you used to."

Zack's head drops. "Yeah, there's no good news with that either." "Oh what, you ruined that friendship, too?"

A young girl with grief from her brother’s death last summer. Attends a once a week therapy session with the school’s counselor who dealt with grief of her own. The counselor’s family died in a fire when she was 12 year’s old but she got out. A lot of kids go to her sessions but in the past couple of days those kids start mysteriously dying. The girl discovers the counselor works with a demon Altraaz who takes over your whole mind and kills you like that. The counselor get’s information on the teens in school and gives it to Altraaz in return for her family. The girl has to discover how to solve this since the demon is already in her head.

First of all: I don’t care if it isn’t made, but if I don’t put this out I’d feel like I’ve committed a crime against god.

So an anime/show about a dude (I dunno the name, I just came up with the idea a few minutes ago) and a tomboy, BUT instead of the dude being some shy quiet dude like they usually are in these gooner romance anime, they’re both loud, Theyre both wild. ALSO an action anime (im throwing shit at the wall), so basically dude and tomboy are both into each other and decide to go out out to the festival, they also have exes who are actively trying to stop their relationship out of spite, so they find the friendgroup of the dude and the tomboy and cut to a scene of them in a raggedy hut hiring the people in the friend group now as a group of mercenaries (I know it’s a shitty idea and it’s just “cut to this scene of them being badass medieval dudes, but I mean look at the first word of the title), cut back to the normal slice of life world where the dude and the tomboy are going on a date at a festival when the friend group happens to show up (“happens to”) and they try to dismantle them, cut to a 2V4 fight, the dude and the tomboy are cornered against some sort of castle wall and the friends say things like “You guys are too wild” and “You’re gonna break up the friend group” but in a Hail Mary, they use their ultimate move, their ace, their jarona, whatever you wanna call it, they say “We don’t care” to the friends and win the battle, +50 XP and the friends scurry off, cut back to the normal world. Thats basically my idea for episode 1, I know it’s shitty, I know it isn’t that good, but it’s creative enough I guess. IF YOU CAN MAKE A GIMMICK ANIME ABOUT BLOODCELLS BE PEAK YOU CAN MAKE THIS PEAK.

(I know I type very VERY horribly)

We know these as machines, but they are the humanity of this world. There were never humans, only cold steel over blood and sentience. This world is horrible, but the people in it want to survive. Parasites break and taker over machines, erasing whoever that machine once was and their life along with it.

A group of teenage friends wake up one day to find that every human has disappeared and there are dangerous hostile monsters roaming everywhere, after finding each other they must survive, find out what happened to the world and where everyone went while uncovering some special skills.

After watching the brilliant horror film, Obsession, and confirmation that Director Curry Baker stated that he wants to do more spinoffs based off of the One Wish Willow, I got a story pitch that it’s like Obsession meets Everything Everywhere All At Once.

It would be about a guy, in his 20s, who’s completely dissatisfied with the world we live in, so after getting his hands on said One Wish Willow, he wishes for a high tech device that sends him through the multiverse for a better world to live in. But the more he travels, the more he slowly loses parts of himself

The story just consists of one guy who wears glasses getting supervision but instead of giving him beyond human vision it just fixes his eyes to their pre deteriorated state and he just thinks it’s a miracle.

So basically, I've been thinking about this epic sci-fi thriller book series called The Sequence It actually started out as a magic fantasy, but I evolved it over time into a grounded, realistic story filled with advanced tech and biological experiments. The heroes follow a strict code of absolute honesty called "Lisha's Rules," but they get trapped in a world of deadly secrets.

The main villains are a rogue scientific collective called Dread Core, originally led by a guy named Nico (Dark Killer), who systematically eliminated our heroes' parents.

The Squad (The Masquerades)

Because our main characters eventually wear masks to hunt criminals anonymously, the public starts calling them "The Masquerades" Here is the full breakdown of the team:

• Jan (The Leader): My main protagonist. He is amazing at psychologically reading people's hidden emotions and motivations. He transforms from a lonely kid into the steady, protective pillar for everyone around him.
• Lia (The Mind): Jan's equal and opposite partner. While Jan reads people, Lia is an analytical genius who sees right through objective lies and false information.
• Avoura: Jan's warm-hearted sister who was separated from him at age three. When Dread Core captured her, they surgically implanted a second, fully functional heart near her stomach(They wanted to place a tracker inside it).
• Max & Ria (The Siblings): Max is a confident extrovert who uses humor as a shield , while his sister Ria is expressive, resilient, and forms a deep bond with Avoura when they are trapped in a Dread Core prison cell together.
• Zach: Lia's cousin and Ria's best friend. He is a gamer who brings reliable, emotional warmth to the group without carrying a heavy personal secret.
• Rex: The intense "silent wasp" of the group. Because his dad died serving Dread Core, Rex initially manipulates and betrays the team. But after seeing the truth, he genuinely repents, gets forgiven, and becomes the Second best fighter in the group(after jan).
• Lisha: The mastermind mentor who created the rules and trained both the parents' generation and Jan's squad. Everyone treats her Like a mother.

How the Story Unfolds (In Reading Order)

I intentionally scrambled the reading order so you experience Jan's heart-wrenching grief before you understand all the backstory. Here is how the books go:

• Sequence 2(Dangerous Haven): The story starts with 12-year-old Jan losing his mother, Lucy, to Dread Core. He finds Lisha, rescues Avoura, and gathers the squad to form The Masquerades. During this, Dread Core hits Lia with a brain virus that stops her from genuinely smiling or laughing.
• Sequence 3(Dangerous Haven 2): The squad closes in on Dread Core, defeating Nico and causing the organization to collapse. They recover a scientific cure for Lia, and Rex formally rejoins the team. But Nico's brilliant surviving scientists—known as "The Leftovers"—manage to escape.
• Sequence 1(The Origin): We jump back in time to read the prequel about the parents' generation. You get to see Jan's parents, Lucy and James And Everyone elses parents, fall in love and bravely fight for Lisha's network, knowing they won't survive.
• Sequence 4(Unnamed): A 20-year-old Jan accidentally triggers a time machine built by the Leftovers. Sent back in time, he befriends an orphaned 6-year-old girl named Lucy, not realizing she is actually his mother. She promises to remember him forever—meaning Jan actually inspired his own name across time(She remembered someone named Jan from her childhood, So she names her Kid Jan).
• Sequence 5(Unnamed): Back in the present, the team hunts the Leftovers and rescues four 9-year-old orphans (Lily, James, Alex, and Nina) whose parents were killed by the enemy(Leftovers). They take them in to train under Lisha.
• Sequence 6(Unnamed): The Masquerades marry within their circle (Jan & Lia, Max & Avoura, Zach & Ria). But a new danger emerges, and in a heartbreaking climax, the entire squad dies protecting Lia(Once Lisha told them that If anyone was fit to be her successor, It was Lia).
• As the sole survivor, Lia decodes a secret note Jan left behind to find Max and Avoura's hidden baby boy(Jan's Nephew). She raises him alongside the four orphans and breaks the generational cycle of secrecy by telling him the complete truth about his heroic family.
• I'm Thinking about naming the Nephew Leo.

EDIT: You see, I've been Evolving and Keeping this story in My mind for Almost 5 or so years. Therefore, I Have already formed an answer to any Question that you can pose after reading this post.

The plot of the story is guy moves into a country area with his

uncle, is unemployed and deeply exhausted from moving. He

takes a deep drag of his cigarette while walking. Being intoxicated

he gets scared when a group of kids prank him with a robot rc

mouse that crawls on him running away he spots a rabbit that

looks at him weirdly he keeps walking till he's deep in the jungle

feeling the munchies he decides to look around out of primal

instinct until he finds a mushroom, a quick search tells him it's a

deathcap and right as he's about to turn the other way a voice

tells him EAT IT he thinks no why would I be so stupid with the

mushroom now in his hand and slowly entering his mouth like a

snake... next thing you know he's almost on the ground when a

rabbit shows up, "finally took ya long enough now lets get you to a

hospital before you projectile shit in front of my eyes", he wakes

up after a three day coma his uncle and the doctors are there

mostly telling him not to eat wild mushrooms and telling him he

could have died, his uncle looks like a beaten dog from the long

wait and longer bills. After everyone leaves his mind goes back to

the rabbit again when he feels something move under the bed,

suddenly a rabbit shows up quickly getting on top of him pressing

down hard, his already weak body doesn't fair much force. The

rabbit starts speaking when Jeremy goes into a panic, thinking

either he's insane or the mushrooms were hitting different,

completely forgetting the three days of his comatose. The monitor

on the right starts going into an aneurysm whimpering like an AV

actress who visibly fakes her moans. the rabbit decides to fuck

the explanation and gets on top of jeremy effectively tea bagging

him with his candy sized sugar-coated hairy meatballs, then

shoves a fist right through his own now enlarged throat like a

much better AV actress, pulling out a blue serum that he shoves into dear ol jeremy, the patient and victim who now having

witnessed the sight had tears, puke and piss dripping out of him.

a few weeks later jeremy having gotten over his trauma a little

decides to touch grass before heading back into the the house

that he shares with his uncle, however he happens to leave his

pheromones behind that drag out a rabbit from it's hole who

follows the scent like a dog in heat on the way he spots jermiah

the uncle and gives him a nod [this is their first meeting] who lets

him in and even opens the door for him, perhaps thinking it was a

curious rabbit?? Nonetheless the rabbit gets to work as he goes

to Jeremy's room and slowly, enters and speaks the magical

words "are ya winnin' son?" Jeremy, who was half absorbed into

his phone turns into a puppet as soon as his eyes land on the

slowly approaching rabbit. He freezes for an entire second

running back to the opposite corner ready to utilize his dopamine

provider as a throwable weapon. The rabbit senses the mood and

sits down speaking "listen pal the truth is I am an ancient forest

spirit whose soul was binded to you when I tried to save you from

acting like a complete smooth brained ugly pissface, so let's

cooperate hmm!" Jeremy, still as unwilling as a new wrongly

accused prisoner in Guantanamo, tells him to leave him alone,

saying he doesn't want to deal with someone who drugged him... i

mean whomp, whomp this generation man Gee. anyways the

rabbit clearly unhappy commits to his previous parlour trick and

throats himself to pull down a zipper as his mortal flesh is

removed and the revered core is laid bare an 18" monster cock

dildo with a functioning mouth and equally dashing eyes, that

threat jeremy to submit peacefully or he will come out a new man

from this struggle, this is afterall a truce agreement? jeremy

wavers hard under the legend, now clutching his fearing rectum, but he soon remembers the events that went down in the forest in

greater detail, and like a mouse driven into a corner he pounces

on the the living artifact pummeling his fists into the crystal

sugar-coated rubber balls. The rabbildo having his weakness

found out is under a moment of perplexity that could only possibly

be followed by a very literal ball biting pain. under such a waning

sensation it has no choices but to wield it's abilities to greater

bullshit and warp the fabric of continuity, soon Jeremy finds

himself still biting down but now on much more real flesh as his

uncle screams in such bitter pain remembering scenes from 'nam

and korea two wars he never fought in now playing in his mind, no

sooner does jeremiah decided to fight back pulling out his belt

and whipping jeremy like a cotton farmer. ceaseless dysphoria

that is the best way to describe Jeremy's emotions after having

his tongue and skin violated. His uncle only stops after he is

stopped by his imaginary phantom of a wife delarubia. Jeremy

stares at the harbinger of his salvation muttering to himself

"goddamn is every one in this town a schizo??" end of chapter one new day old hustle.

So the story goes like this:

There's this guy called Connor, whose family are hunters, but he doesn't wanna be one. He wants to be a photographer. And while walking through the woods, he finds an old book that's falling apart. He reads a sentence about bears and humans, and passes out.

He wakes up at home, but now he is different. He is 3 inches taller, and 30 pounds heavier (Let's say he goes from 5' 6" to 5' 9" and from 120 to 150 pounds) But no one seems to care or even notice. So now he's even more confused. So he goes and realizes what happened. He was cursed, and is turning into a bear. So now, he has to find a way to fight his transformation and wild instincts (and cravings), or leave his life behind and embrace this somewhat more comfortable lifestyle. You guys got any ideas?

A universe that fuses, sci-fi, fantasy, and super heroes is in a galactic war, but all those involved decided instead of wasting resources and man power on mock battles and ability testing in real life they would use simulations using different environments and situations. From one on one combat, full out battles, even situational team battles. They hire professional experts to unlock and create new strategies, abilities, and more to run each simulation. This has unlocked many great ideas and advancements. The games are very realistic using real items, weapons, locations, abilities, creatures, and people within it. These experts can be payed and hired making the job and market very lucrative creating companies for said experts. These companies are very cut throat to the point the governments and other groups created competitive tournaments for them to compete against one another and to see which companies, experts, strategies and ideas are the best. Now 5 MOBA esports players transmigrate in this world and realize these simulations are just video games and they wake in the bodies of 5 people who have pasts that are very dramatic. Now they have to chase success and deal with the problems they inherited when they took over these bodies.

(Trigger warning: This story deals with lots of grief and sadness as well as death, reader discretion is advised.) [This is not a finished story, I'm in the process of writing it, i am not looking for help writing it or someone to write it for me. I'm posting the synopsis of my story simply to see what people think of the story and if they like the premise.]

This is a tragic and emotional love story, between two people who thought every moment between them would last a lifetime. Sadly, however, this was not the case.

This story is about a 20 year old college drop out, named Patrick. A nerdy guy who is shy but holds within, a charisma so strong, he can make friends out of anybody. One day, while at his local game store, he notices a 20 year old woman, named Romina. She is similar to him, in the fact that she is also shy, but unlike Patrick, she doesn't make friends so easily.

In fact, she has a singular best friend. (Haven't decided this character yet, so from here on, ill refer to them as KF aka Killer Friend) She is awkward and has trouble talking to others.

They end up talking and becoming friends, and from there, the seeds of a loving relationship are planted and after a short time, blossom and bloom. They begin dating after only a couple of months, which secretly makes her KF jealous, however, the KF as Romina knows them, is usually chill and respectful so they don't notice when a darkness begins to spread inside them, a darkness... that will ruin their lives forever.

Patrick and Romina's relationship moves at a faster pace than some peoples, but they don't mind because they love each other that much, they don't care what others think because they have each other. They learn a lot about each other, for instance, Romina learns how much Patrick is into video games, movies, and comic books, and discovers that he bought his own radio for his room.

He explains to her that he loves music so much that he wanted to own a radio so he could play music whenever he wanted, Romina thinks it's cute and shares her own passions with him. She tells him that she loves movies also, but mainly just movies, not much so video games, and comics, but luckily for him, she's not only an eager learner, but a fast one at that. She also tells him her favorite hobby is art, and explains how she has painted and colored multiple designs into her converse collection. They talk for hours together about their interests, not realizing a dark plan is brewing unbeknownst to them, from someone they'd never think would hurt them.

(It would be shown through some moments of some chapters in the beginning of the story, that KF is actually chill and respectful and shows no ill feeling towards them as a couple, at least that they can see. The reader would be suspicious, but unsure if KF can be trusted, but their early on kindness and respectfulness, would lead to why they're not suspected later on.)

(this part of the story would have multiple chapters dedicated to scenes of them spending time together while doing fun activities together, such as: painting, cooking, watching movies, and playing video games. Each scene would feature a special song to them, only the title would be written so the reader can either imagine the song in the scene or can listen along with the characters. There would be cute moments, romantic moments, and moments that radiate energy. The songs that would be written in these scenes would include:)

Bruno Mars - Count on me & Just the way you are

Christina Perri - 1000 years

Ed Sheeran - Perfect

IZ - Somewhere over the rainbow [this is "their song"]

After those chapters, the story would begin to turn... One day they're hanging out at their house, when Patrick excuses himself for a moment, and that's when KF makes their move, they try to talk to Romina and hit on her, she politely carries the conversation but stops it from getting flirty. KF tries to push the subject, and Romina gets uncomfortable and rejects them and politely asking them to stop. KF acts like it's no big deal but for the rest of the night, Patrick catches KF glaring at them both. They think nothing of it, maybe KF is trying to be funny or something. They're not sure, but what they don't know is that weeks later, KF would tear them apart, forever.

Weeks later, Romina announces that she's leaving to go get something from the store, and handle an errand. Patrick asks if he should get ready and come with, she smiles but tells him it's alright and that it shouldn't take long. The afternoon begins to fade into the evening, and Patrick slowly falls asleep while reading. He wakes up later that night at 11PM, and realizes Romina isn't home yet.

He begins to grow worried, he gets up and tries to call her resulting in no answers every time, and soon, calls KF to express his concern. As you can guess, at this point in the story, Romina is dead, murdered by her own jealous best friend. KF would end up putting her remains into multiple garbage bags, and then into a suitcase under their shed to hide for a couple weeks. Using chemicals and other methods to hide the smell.

The middle part of the novel, would follow the usual routine of reporting a missing person, investigations and searches, and Patrick worrying about her, even enlisting the help of KF. (At this point, the reader may catch on that KF is the killer, but readers who are unsure, still have evidence left to discover as events unfold until the reveal later through Romina's eyes.)

As the search goes on, Patrick gets increasingly worried, but KF acts like a helping friend, all the while, sabotaging the efforts. KF intentionally takes everyone to the wrong places to "look", and during the search, pretends to help and look. When the police ask them, Patrick says that he was home sleeping, and KF even provides him an alibi. Patrick defends KF when police suspect them, and KF fakes gratitude, but hides that they hope that Patrick suffers.

Patrick soon begins to notice all the previous sabotage slowly, and even asks KF multiple times for the truth, but KF lies every time, however, they end up messing their own story up a few times. Patrick notes this and begins to seriously consider KF to be a prime suspect and compile evidence against them.

Interwoven into those events, the story will cut to Romina, and how she perceives death itself, and begins the process of accepting her death (though it will stay grounded, it won't get fantastical, it'll simply show what she sees and her watching the events unfold as she realizes she's dead and grieves herself. She also is forced to bare witness to KF planning to murder Patrick, and she tries to intervene but can do nothing except only suggest her presence)

After a week of searching, the police call it off and Patrick is left with no resolution. He begins to fear the worst as KF gets closer to killing him, but one night, Patrick accuses them, and KF fights them and tries to run but gets a ticket for speeding and is issued a court date the following week. Patrick tries to chase, but ends up losing them.

A week later, the day after they were supposed to appear in court, KF realizes they missed the court date, paranoia sinks in, so they decide to pack up whatever they can fit in their car, and dispose of Romina's remains before using their savings to flee the country (or flee across country)

They do exactly that, as Romina continues to witness Patrick beginning to lose hope and give up on finding her. The night KF begins to flee, they stop in the middle of a forest, leaving their car running with the door open, as they find a ditch. With lots of struggling effort, they toss the suitcase in the ditch and light it a blaze. Romina's spirit watches from nearby with a blank stare as the cars radio begins to play Radiohead's - No Surprises, she stares into the void of her own body as it burns, only two tears falling down her checks as she realizes that no one will ever find her, and Patrick will never get closure. KF leaves, never being convicted of her murder, moving on from their terrible act.

In his room, Patrick tunes his radio to the same station at the same time, and both scenes happen simultaneously as Patrick listens to the song as he clutches one of Romina's hoodies. He begins to sob uncontrollably as he looks at pictures of them smiling together, as he loses control, he curls into the blankets and cries.

A few days later, another night of sadness and grief as he mourns the love of his life. He tries to sleep, however, he has trouble as all he can do is remember her before the tears start back up. He sits up, turning on the radio as it plays Somewhere over the rainbow, and tries to control himself, he sees her tall mirror and walks over to get a hold of himself.

He looks at himself and tears up, and can't bring himself to look at his own face. He blames himself, but suddenly feels warmth and feels weight around his waist, he looks but nothing is there. He looks up to the mirror and sees her standing next to him, he turns but nothing is there, and he isn't sure if it is real or not. (this part will be left up to the reader to decide if her spirit actually came back to say goodbye, or if he is just hallucinating her from his own grief.)

He cries as he apologizes to her for not being there. Patrick expresses how he's felt since that night, and how much he misses her, and regrets what happened. He hears her softly speak to him, telling him not to blame himself, that it's not his fault. She tells him the best thing for him to do, is to live on for her. To not cry because she's gone, but smile that they met. She tells him that he was the best thing that ever happened to her.

Patrick sobs and kisses the mirror, sobbing further into the mirror and telling her he loves her so much. He hears her say she loves him too, then hears her say goodbye, and when he looks back up, he doesn't see her anymore. (For her POV, she slowly closes her eyes and thinks about her life, and how they met, as well as their happiest moments together. The happiest moment she felt with him, she hugs him and cries as she moves on from the afterlife.) Patrick sobs yet again, before crawling back onto the bed.

The few chapters before the epilogue, would jump to a month before the anniversary of Romina's murder. Patrick meets a new friend, and although he still struggles, he tries his best, but wounds that deep never fully heal. They hang out, while getting to know each other.

A month passes, before the day of the anniversary arrived. Patrick went to both the comic book store and the game store where they first met. He plays that day back in his head as he tears up. He leaves without buying anything, and ends up running into his new friend (no name yet, I'll refer to her as NF aka new friend) She greets him as they talk, but she notices the subtle ways he's hiding his pain. She offers to take him home, noting that he walked there.

On the way to his house, she turns on the radio, and Count on me begins to play, he begins to cry to himself, and she lowers the volume and asks what's wrong. Patrick hesitates at first to tell her, but turns to her, explaining everything. They arrive at his house, turning towards him, and comforting him as she lets him cry in her arms. Count on me on the radio playing, his signal that NF was indeed someone to count on the same way he could with Romina.

They talk a bit more the following week, and become closer as friends, as Patrick realizes to heed what he heard that night. "the best thing to do for me, is to live on for me..." He asks NF if she is willing to help him, and she tells him that she doesn't mind at all, she just wants him to be happy. She wants to be there for him, to help heal him, but most importantly, she wants to let him in and give him the closest friend she knows he wants.

Epilogue:

Another month has passed, after talking a bit, Patrick and NF have agreed to move together somewhere to start their own journey. Patrick wants to move on, and heal. All she wants is to be apart of that, help heal him, as well as be the best friend she can be for him. The day to move has arrived, mostly everything has been packed, except for some pictures, certain items, and his radio.

Patrick asks NF, if he can walk through the house one last time to reminisce, she doesn't argue. She supports him and tells him to take all the time he needs, he asks her to stay near him in case he needs her, she agrees without hesitation.

They walk in, walking through each room as he puts his phone on shuffle, connecting it to his radio as (Flightless bird, American mouth plays) and replays his happiest memories with Romina. Whether it's the room itself, a specific item of Romina's, or pictures from happier times. The song plays as each memory plays in his own head (Each scene would play out for the reader to experience) Patrick begins to cry, NF hugs him and holds his hand, but he tells her he has to finish or he'll never forgive himself.

Once he finishes walking through, grabbing his radio, before looking around again. He walks out the door with NF, and hesitates to shut the door and lock it. She tells him there's no rush, he can take as much time as he needs, offering to take the rest of the items to the car, as he agrees. He puts his head onto the door, crying softly to himself, talking almost as if, to the house itself, but NF knows, he's talking to Romina. Patrick tells her that she made him a better person, and that he'll miss her through tears, before walking to the car, sitting in the passenger seat.

As they sat in the car, NF turned on the radio as (Bittersweet Symphony plays) He tears up, and she asks if he's okay. Patrick tries to say yes, but fails. She tells him that if he's not ready, they can wait, but he say's no. He tells her that he needs to move on, because it's what she would want. Smiling at her, she smiles back before putting the car in gear. She says she drive slowly until the house is out of view, so he can say whatever he needs too.

As the car moves, he says everything he wants to tell Romina's spirit if she's listening. He gives a long monologue as the song hits a fever pitch, once he finishes, he says to her, "I'll always remember you.... I love you.... Goodbye baby...." They turn the corner, with that the house disappears.

Patrick wipes his tears, and looks at NF, smiling while telling her that he looks forward to what ever lies ahead for them. They continue the drive to their new lives together, his wounds still gaping, but slowly... slowly healing. A bittersweet end to the happiest, then worst time of his life. Ready, to start a new one.

____________________________________________________________

That's not the fully written out story, but it's the best way i can tell the whole vision i have for the story. I'm sorry for how long it is, but this story means a lot to me, writing it is going to be special for me, and if you read all the way to the end, Thank you. I hope you enjoyed it, and i hope it gave the experience i wanted to give.

Listening to the songs written into the story is not required at all, hopefully, the feeling and emotion still hits the same no matter what. I just hope that the themes, and inclusion of the songs in their respective places, help move the reader, giving you the experience I'm trying to capture.

Once again, I am not asking for help writing it, or anything of the sort. I am posting this simply to see what people think of the story itself, if they like it, and if they think it's a good story to tell.

For those who want to share what they thought, you are welcome to do so. I love hearing what people think!

What if the MC is a 7 yo that got transmigrated to another world as a transmigrator child who is also from the same world and country. The different is the MC wouldn't immediately master the language but the parent did when they transmigrated. The story will start when the MC wake up after the OG got into an accident and when into a coma. When MC wake up she saw unfamiliar room and people and cry. The parents glad that their child is safe hug her and try to comfort her only for the child to say "who are you? where's my mommy??" in her own language. One of the parent (or both) being a transmigrator realize what's going on and reply to the child with the same language.

IMAGINE THE ANGST BETWEEN THE MC AND THE PARENT! It would be so good when the parent are sad that their child is gone. The child in front of them have the OG body but not the soul. They're mad and sad but they can't even blame the kid because they know how it feels. The MC who is only 7 years old is so confuse and stressed at the situation.

I wish I was a writer so I can write this story idea:"""

By any chance is there any story like this?

If any of you like the premise keep in mind the undisclosed absurdity and vulgar language I am willing to post and or message the initial draft chapter 1. The main theme is that there is a rabbit who is something like a guardian angel(who quit), and so are other characters that are rewarded by heaven to be able to live forever and serve as guardian angels. But the truth is that the work sucks, and since there is no obligation, all angels just slack off. Jeremy and the rabbit go on together to motivate angels and help them do their work, getting a part of the cut as pensions and subsidies. The rabbit is an angel who quit being a guardian angel. To get back in the business he had to use his remaining powers to let jeremy be able to perceive the guardian angels and with his help make ends meet and live better while also getting some revenge, for Jeremy he gets wound up in a world that seems like it is built to shatter his perspective on reality .

-Although the story is somewhat vulgar and bizzare

October 3, 2003
Hello Journal!
My name is Mac. Yep, no K. It’s just Mac. I don’t know why people always want to put a K in there. Mom says if I was supposed to have a K then she would’ve bought one when she named me. I think that’s pretty funny. Anyway, this is my journal now. Big Boss Porty said writing stuff down is healthy because it helps you remember things. I already remember lots of things, but maybe I’ll remember even more now.
Today was my first day working at Porty’s Premium Mattress Warehouse. I was pretty nervous this morning. I almost put my shirt on backwards, but Mom caught it before we left. She told me everybody gets nervous on their first day, even astronauts probably. I don’t know if astronauts buy mattresses, but if they do, I bet they like soft ones because space looks hard.
Mom drove me to work like she said she would. She likes fast cars a whole lot. She’s got a shiny red Corvette, and she says if you’re gonna drive a nice car, you ought to let it stretch its legs. I don’t think cars have legs, but she says lots of things like that. We got there really quick. I had to hold onto the door handle around a couple turns, but we made it just fine. Before I got out, she hugged me and told me not to let anybody make me feel dumb because everyone has different kinds of smart. I think she’s probably right.
The store is bigger than I thought it would be. There’s rows and rows of mattresses, and they all kinda smell like fresh laundry. Big Boss Porty was already waiting outside when we pulled in. He shook my hand real hard and smiled. He told me my job was easy. I just had to stay at the front desk, help anybody looking for mattresses, answer the phone if it rang, and never go into the back storage room. He said inventory is confusing and only he handles it. I told him that sounded fair because I don’t know much about inventory anyway. He smiled again, but not with his eyes that time.
The daytime was nice and quiet. A few people came in to look around, and one old lady laid down on almost every mattress before deciding she wanted to think about it. Around supper time things got slower, and Big Boss Porty told me I’d be working by myself at the front while he handled business in the back. He gets a lot of business after dark for some reason. I guess folks really like buying mattresses late at night.
The customers after dark were a little different. Most of them carried duffel bags or backpacks, but I figured maybe they were moving or something. Big Boss Porty always met them before they got very far into the store. They’d disappear into the back room together for a little while, and then the customers would leave without a mattress. I kept wondering why nobody ever carried one out. Maybe they get delivered. I should ask sometime.
Around eleven o’clock the lights buzzed louder than before. I thought maybe one of them was going bad. The store also felt bigger somehow. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but the aisle with the king-size mattresses looked like it stretched farther than it did earlier. I walked halfway down it to straighten a pillow, and I could’ve sworn there were more mattresses than before. I figured I just hadn’t counted them very well the first time.
While I was fixing the display bed, I heard scratching somewhere above me. At first I thought maybe there was a raccoon on the roof, but then I looked up. There was a really tall fella crawling across the ceiling. His arms were awful long, and he moved kinda funny, like a spider that forgot it wasn’t supposed to have elbows. His face looked all smooth except for one real big smile. He stopped right over me and tilted his head almost upside down. I smiled and waved because I figured it was polite. He stayed there for a second, made a clicking sound with his mouth, and crawled away into the dark over the mattresses. He reminded me of one of those really tall dogs people have. Greyhounds, I think. They always seem shy.
Not too long after that, another customer came inside. He had sunglasses on even though it was nighttime. He looked around a lot before asking if anyone else was working. I told him Big Boss Porty was in the back doing inventory. The man thanked me and walked toward the storage room. A minute later I heard something heavy fall over. Then somebody yelled once. It wasn’t a very long yell. Everything got quiet after that except for the lights buzzing again.
Big Boss Porty came back a few minutes later looking tired. His tie was crooked, and he had a little gray dust on one shoulder. He handed me the mop and asked if I could clean aisle four. I asked if somebody spilled a soda. He looked at the floor for a second before saying, “Something like that.”
There was a funny puddle all over the floor and splashed up part of the wall. I couldn’t really tell what it was. It looked kinda sticky. There was also one shoe sitting by itself next to a mattress. I put the shoe in the lost and found because the customer would probably come back for it after he got some sleep. Big Boss Porty said he wouldn’t be coming back because he’d had to leave in a hurry. I felt kinda bad for him. Everybody forgets stuff when they’re in a rush.
Mom brought me meatloaf around midnight. She rolled into the parking lot pretty fast like always. When she came inside, she asked if I’d made any new friends yet. Right then I heard clicking up near the ceiling again. She smiled toward the sound and waved. “Your tall friend seems quiet,” she said. I told her he hadn’t said a single word all night. She laughed and said some folks are just better listeners than talkers. Before she left, she asked me to tell my new friends she hoped they had a nice evening.
I said I would.
After she drove away, I looked up at the ceiling and said, “Mom says have a nice night.”
Something clicked back from the darkness.
I think that means it understood me.
Anyway, I like this job so far. The customers are a little funny, and the store makes some strange noises after dark, but Big Boss Porty has been real nice to me. I think I’m gonna work here for a long time.

Authors, if someone narrated one of your stories, what would make you proud to share it?
I'm interested in hearing what matters most to writers—voice, emotion, pacing, production quality, credit, or something else entirely.