Hi…this is tough for me, but as the name suggests, this is going to be my last update. In my previous one I promised a pretty quick turnaround, but anyone who’s been with me since the beginning should’ve known that wasn’t coming. In all honesty I wasn’t going to post again, but I felt like I owed it to anyone reading to at least give some closure to my stories. Before I get into it I’m going to answer the biggest question that I’ve gotten asked through comments and DMs and that being why it took me so long to post a Part 3 as it was almost 2 years after Part 2. I’ve been intentionally vague with who I am and specifics of my life, besides literally being married, for a reason, but let’s just say there were more out there like LW who became…interested in me after reading my story. They were unfortunately not in jail and a little more aggressive with getting to know me better. I’m going to leave it at that for now, maybe I’ll tell the story someday who knows, but I’m not ready for that, but those people caused me and my family a lot of issues for the past couple years. I didn’t think they were really relevant but now I see they were. Other than that, yes I did spend a lot of the time talking to people and traveling when I could to gather these stories and many more like them and one day I’d love to share those as well if only to give a voice to the others who’ve suffered. But until the time comes that I write them all down I think I just need to live my life and distance myself as much as I can from them, for my own sanity.
That all being said, let’s get into it. I mentioned that I had a phone call about “something I’ll want to hear”. Well, the call was actually to just set up a flight for me to meet someone. I was confused and a little annoyed as to why this couldn’t be done over the phone, but whatever, it was a free flight and they allowed me to take my husband so it seemed like maybe a mini vacation, even though the flight was only about an hour. Again I don’t want to give too many details for my safety and for the privacy of the man we were going to meet, but it was a private flight which was fucking awesome, and we had a car waiting for us at the airfield that took us to this insane house. I won’t go any further than that, just that I was feeling better and better about this and having my husband with me meant the world. I squeezed his hand tight as well made our way up the giant driveway through the gates and couldn’t take the stupid big grin off my face when I saw a man standing at the door waiting for us.
We got out as 2 more men ran out of the house to grab our luggage. I went to shake the man’s hand but he simply bowed, “Please follow me Sir and Miss and I will take you to your meeting before showing you to your rooms. Master is very excited to meet you.” I was a little taken aback, thinking this was the man I was meant to meet as he was definitely the one I spoke with on the phone and he never mentioned being a butler or servant or whatever. I was beginning to grow a bit tense at the situation, but my husband’s hand on my back reassured me as we followed the man through the insane halls. Oh and just as a note he wasn’t as rude as I’m writing, he knew mine and my husband’s name and said them including his and his boss’, but I was asked not to use their names and won’t give out mine.
We made our way up a set of stairs and after another long hall came to the most expensive looking door I’ve ever seen. The butler opened it to reveal a bed with a man laying stiffly. I thought for a moment that he was dead as he looked frail and weak, but as I looked at the machines he was hooked up to, a computerized voice welcomed us to his home. A little shocked I turned to the man who almost had a smile on his face, but not quite.
“Please don’t be alarmed by my appearance. I wasn’t quite so lucky as you to be revived so quickly following my ordeal leaving me unable to speak and the accident itself took care of the rest of my movements.” I moved closer to the bed nodding and giving my apologies.
And yes I realize this intro is taking a bit longer than usual so let me power through here.
Basically he explained his accident, not to get into specifics, but he obviously had major damage to his spine and was dead for about 11 minutes before being resuscitated. As he put it “Not the longest someone’s come back from, but plenty of time to permanently damage my brain and lose my ability to speak.” He uses some experimental device that, like, tracks his brainwaves and translates them or something. I’m not sure it sounded technical and like rich people shit, but he was having a conversation without actually speaking so, sure. Anyway, my husband went to leave the room to give us some privacy, but the man wanted him to stay there for me, which was odd and not just a little bit off putting.
So now tense and a little scared we sat next to the bed and he began.
————-
I read the first few of the posts that you made before reaching out. Thinking, you either didn’t need my story or maybe you were lying or something, I don’t know. But there ended up being too many similarities to what I saw and experienced for it to be a lie. I was notified of your latest post after you already agreed to come and after reading it I knew I made the right decision.
After the accident, as you know I was placed in some ethereal place, but unlike you and the others, there was no mist around my feet or rocky surface or podium waiting to greet me. My gate was golden and intact. I say there was no mist, but there was some calming haze in the air. Like it was just getting to be morning in a beautiful, untouched scene of nature. I’m not afraid to admit that I broke down crying tears of joy. I fell to my knees into the softest grass you could ever imagine and looked on through the already open gate to see the grassy plain stretch on infinitely. I sat there for maybe an hour honestly, just feeling the grass under my hands and the gentle breeze almost whispering to me, but I never felt the force you had to go through the gate.
I decided to lay on my back and closed my eyes, letting my mind wander with happiness. As relaxation and joy took hold of me the whispers became more clear and the word “Elysium” was so clear like it was the word I had been waiting to hear my entire life, even though I didn’t know what it was. I finally pushed myself to my feet and with a couple satisfied breaths to fill my lungs with the pristine air I walked through the gate.
Almost immediately something was wrong. That joy and warmth and everything I felt was gone. I didn’t feel dread or fear or pain, I didn’t feel anything. The whispering wind was gone and the haze felt less like a comforting blanket and more ominous, like I was waiting for something to jump out even though it was clear enough for me to see to the horizon or I was waiting for it to suffocate me. That thought started to stick with me as I looked around, longing for anything and getting nothing.
I spent a good hour walking around in silence before I saw anything, and at first all I saw were what I can only describe as mirages. Shimmering shadow like images. At first it was ghost-like people who were just wandering around, probably looking exactly like I did, but when I would try to call out or run towards them to interact they would just fade away back into the haze. I started to attribute it to the oppressive loneliness of the area but then other figures started to emerge from the haze in the same way. I saw these shimmering transparent creatures that I could barely make out who at first wandered like the people. Eventually they looked like they were attacking something that I couldn’t see but again they didn’t seem to realize I was there. I can’t even go about describing what exactly they were, but I think I saw at least 2 of the things you saw, the minotaur-esque fellow and the leading bat creature. I didn’t see the children or the long, clawed creature that our friend Polly saw and of course didn’t get a glimpse of WIlliam’s fish creature, but I did also get a clear view of the panther-like thing the older gentleman described. The name of which I don’t remember, but I don’t even think this device could pronounce it if I did.
More than anything at this moment all I felt was confusion and loneliness. I wasn’t necessarily afraid I was just getting anxious. These visions were scratching an itch in the back of my head, but almost as quickly as they came they left. This went on for about an hour total and all I could do was keep walking. Actually at that moment it didn’t even occur to me to stop moving forward. Anyway, after that hour or so was up the people were back along with the creatures this time and to my horror I could see the creatures tearing through the terrified people who tried in vain to flee for their lives. There was still no sound from the scenes and they just seemed like memories that were replaying in front of me. But that almost made it worse because as I mentioned they were scratching an itch but unfortunately itches tend to pop up elsewhere when you scratch one.
I realized I was almost straining myself to make out anything from these scenes that were playing out around me, but still there was nothing, I just calmly walked through the middle, unaffected as people were brutally torn apart around me. And then I heard this roar. It cut through the haze and the silence like a nuke and made me stop in my tracks. I spun around desperately trying to find the source and before long I realized all the movement around me had stopped. The people were gone, except for what was left of their bodies on the ground, maybe that was all that was left I really don’t know. But the creatures all had stopped and turned their attention toward me. A shiver ran through me as I resumed at a quicker pace this time, none of them moved except to follow me with their heads and after a few seconds I took off at a run.
The creatures still didn’t move, but another roar ripped through the silence, almost knocking me off my feet and causing me to stumble for a moment. I turned as I ran to see one of the creatures chasing behind me and gaining fast. It galloped on all 4s and as it closed the ground between us I could barely start making it out because of its hazy figure, but it looked like…well for lack of a better description, have you ever seen Lord of the Rings? It looked like the Balrog. Honestly I don’t want to sit here and make that comparison, but it’s true. 40 feet tall with the curved horns and flames emanating from it. I couldn’t quite make out the color but I could faintly see red exploding through the cracks in its skin and I don’t need to tell you, but it had tiny black wings that couldn’t hold up a flower.
I tried desperately to go faster, but I knew it was no use. I looked back ahead to concentrate on where I was going, but I knew there was nowhere to hide in the endless open fields. The creature was silent behind me until it let out one last roar directly behind my head and I was thrust forward and landed hard face down, just not on the soft grass. I could feel my face bleeding and cut, my hands and arms were skinned and blood trickled from them as well. I shakily lifted my head to see the haze had turned into a thicker, green smog. The bright green grass was replaced by a black stone ground that had red cracks littered around where the smog was billowing from. I tried my best to keep my head below the thicker collection of smog that hovered a few feet from the ground but the air around me was still full of a thinner layer that choked me and burned my eyes. The air or smog was hot and I could see boils starting to form on my exposed arms.
I tried to crawl with my eyes closed tight, coughing as I went and the smell of death and burning meat exploded into my nose. I gagged and threw up, finally opening my eyes to try to get my bearings. I squinted to avoid getting as much of the smog in my eyes as I could but I was still barely able to make out the shadows of more of those creatures walking through the smog unaffected, dragging screaming people behind them. I saw body parts littering the ground around me and had to keep myself from vomiting again or screaming and alerting whatever the heck was out there.
But it was no use, I should’ve known. I felt myself forcibly turned onto my back by a creature whose figure extended up above the smog so I couldn’t quite make anything out above a few feet, but they had these large black webbed talons that ended at a collection of blood covered black feathers and I could see little snake or leech-like creatures coiling their way through the feathers. A rusty hook swung down out of the smog and lodged itself in my leg, shattering my shin bone in the process. I let out a scream of pain and heard a deep laugh from the creature, but I was more focused on more of the leech-like things that were making their way down the chain of the hook and then the hook itself.
I held my breath as they reached my skin and without hesitation burrowed their way into my leg, using the newly opened wound as entrance. I was too shocked to scream, but pain shot through my body as they, I assume, began to eat my leg. The scream got caught in my throat as the creature began to finally move, dragging me along the jagged ground. The back of my head bounced repeatedly on the stone and my vision began to blur and then recover and then repeat. All the while I could feel the leeches wriggling through my leg, feasted on my calf. I struggled to keep my eyes open through the smog but could faintly make out hands reaching out of the cracked ground almost trying to grab any dragging bodies they could.
It took me a second, but I realized we had just about fallen in line with a dozen or so more creatures who all had poor souls snared on the ends of their hooks. Most of the victims were screaming or crying their heads off and just about all of them looked to be in worse shape than myself. I glanced at the person next to me and had to immediately look away. He was one of the few silent ones and I could tell why as giant versions of the slithering creatures covered his face and left bloody trails as they went in and out of any hole they could find on his head. I was only dragged for a few minutes until I was hoisted up through the smog into clear night air above. I let out a scream as the hook dug deeper into my bone. Now that I was above the smog I could see the damage that the leech things had done as they started poking out of my skin and blood poured down to my torso. I caught a brief glimpse of the thing that had dragged me as it hung me upside down against a stone wall of some sort that I’m not sure how I missed. It had the lower half of a bird and the nude upper half of a woman with more black feathers adorning its back and a grotesque mix between and beak and mouth.
She just walked away though and it was almost as if we hadn’t just spent that extremely painful time together. I looked around slowly, trying my best to shove the pain down to see a dozen or so other bodies hanging by their hooks as their respective bird thing was walking away as if they never existed. We only hung for long enough for me to get those glimpses around me however before a body a few down from me was suddenly jerked up and over the top of the wall and was gone. It happened so fast I would’ve missed it if not for the small yelp the person let out.
Over the groans and cries of the souls around me I could barely make out a scream, an impact, and then a loud squelching and a thump as something heavy and wet hit the ground. This was followed by a low growl and another scream and impact. The next body in the line was the one covered in the leeches. He never even made a sound, but still there was the impact, heavy sound and low grumble, but no scream or last impact. Then it was the next body, and the next and one more. Then it was my turn.
I closed my eyes in anticipation before feeling myself flying up and slamming my head hard on the stone as I was pulled over the top of the wall and onto a flat ground. It was like we were hanging over the side of a building and were now on top. After a moment of nothing, I opened my eyes to see the Balrog creature sitting on a giant throne-like chair in front of me. Heat radiated off of the massive creature as it looked at me with almost a bored expression. It rested its elbow on the side of the black stone chair and rested its massive head on its fist. It didn’t make a sound, just looked at me as if I was interrupting its day.
A squishing sound attracted my attention to my left and I shot my gaze over to see 2 of the bird creatures leaning over the fully taken over leech guy, or at least what was left of his body as they brought bloody cleavers down over his limbs, chopping them off before all that was left was his head which they just kicked over the side of the landing. I was shaking uncontrollably as they loaded his body parts into a giant bloody basket that they then placed at the foot of the Balrog’s chair, but he didn’t acknowledge it.
2 more of the creatures then came over and one carried another cleaver with them. I tried to jump up and run but as soon as I moved, pain shot through my leg from where the hook had secured itself in me. The birds knelt down near my legs and I begged and cried as they brought the cleaver down repeatedly onto the thigh of my leech riddled leg until it fell free and I was left sobbing on my back as I felt the blood pour out of me. I managed to open my eyes and wipe away my tears for long enough to see the cleaverless bird slowly walk my leg to the Balrog and present it to him. I could see the leeches wriggling from my bloody limb and could almost hear them screaming. The Balrog let out that low growl I had been hearing and without moving his head from his hand reached down with his other hand to pinch the leg between 2 fingers and then in one motion popped it into its mouth.
It took a second to chew and then turned its head and spit out the limb, shaking its head with a disappointed gaze. I whimpered as the bird that remained behind nodded swiftly and began rolling me towards the edge of the landing, opposite that of the now just head of the man. He kicked me off and after a second or so of falling I hit the ground hard.
I was able to barely push myself off of my stomach and onto my back. I had fallen directly on my face and my nose was for certain broken and maybe a few ribs to go with my now lack of a leg. I looked around me and the air was oddly clear as it had been above the smog. I was curious but that curiosity was immediately turned into dread as I realized we were surrounded by 4 pitch black walls that extended up about 30 feet all around us. As I took in my new prison I heard the low growl again and looked up to see another one leg body coming tumbling over the edge, I was just barely able to roll out of the way in time as the woman hit the ground with a disgusting splat.
I forced myself to my butt to sit against the stone wall shaking and crying. I heard what sounded like a tiger somewhere off in one of the dark corners, followed by a few screams of pain and tearing sounds. I cried harder and heard the low growl and seconds later another splat, but I didn’t look. Every now and then one of the bird creatures would swoop down and peck at the bodies of those who weren’t moving. I’d say they were dead, but at the time I didn’t know if you could die again. If a bird wanted a meal to go they’d swoop down and fly a screaming soul out of the pit to god knows where. Not entirely sure how they were flying though because though they had feathers they still had human arms and didn’t even have those little black wings.
Growl. Squish.
As I sat, the ground in front of me rumbled and opened slightly. A wisp of smog escaped and then dissipated.
Growl. No squish. They must have gotten rolled to the other side. Who knows what was over there.
Out of the hole slithered a giant version of the leech things. At this size I could see the round hole in its head, I won’t even call it a mouth, that was filled with rows of razor sharp, jagged teeth. It squished its way slowly towards me and I’m afraid to say I froze in fear and couldn’t do anything as it reached my remaining leg and began to suck my entire limb into its slimy body.
I let out a cry of pain as the razor-like teeth tore through my flesh and the fluids inside
the creature burned what was left as the teeth were finished tearing. At that point I was completely paralyzed and just had to watch as this thing made its way up my body. I realized to my horror as it reached my waist that the entire body of the thing wasn’t even out of the pit that it had created. As it began tearing its way through the lower half of my torso I could feel blood starting to trickle from my mouth and the world around me began to fade away.
That’s when I woke up back on Earth. Not sure if the creature had finished me up and I spent the next few hours being disgusted or something or if I had been revived before it finished the job but that’s all I saw up there.
———–
Me and my husband just sat in a stunned silence staring at our storyteller. I wanted to say something but there was nothing that could be said. He had his hand on mine for most of the story, but removed it now and just looked at the floor. I had looked to see his face a few times throughout and I think hearing another firsthand account had really gotten to him, which I understood.
“I’m sorry.” Was all the man said after a few minutes of silence.
We sat in our room of the man’s house that night without speaking a word to each other. My husband’s expression hadn’t changed since the story was finished and I didn’t know what to say to him so I just sat next to him on the edge of the bed, silently crying. After an hour of sitting in the darkness he gave me a hug and I broke down.
Everything I had been hoping for, everything I had been searching for in these fucking stories was a lie. I spent so much of my time left trying to find answers to questions I don’t know if I should’ve asked. I should’ve stuck with training or given myself false hope that Elysium was out there. That there was some Heaven left. I wanted that for us, for all of us. To have some sliver of fucking hope left, and I took that from everyone.
I’m sorry for writing this. I’m sorry for starting any of this. It makes me wonder if blissful ignorance would’ve been better for all. I’ll say it again, this is my last post. I’m going to travel and enjoy my time with my family. If there’s one thing I learned from this it’s that it is better if faced with those you care about and spending time with them and loving them is the most important thing we can do. I don’t mean for this to get sappy, there’s just nothing else left.
I hope to collect and share the rest of the stories I’ve gathered and the rest of my personal story somewhere someday, but I can’t right now. For those of you with me from the beginning I genuinely appreciate the advice and the love and I hope to see some of you on the other side. But for everyone regardless…Good luck.