Shadow Offramps, The Town of Lacrima

Quite a fun little weekend.  I came home to see my family and pick up a few things.  I spent most of that time quite ill.  There was also an ill-fated episode in which the 'rents tried to give me a haircut but the clippers weren't cooperating.  It all works out.  I had hoped to be back at school by 4 PM at the latest, but I didn't even get on the road before 6.  That was all well and good except that it meant I would still be on the highway after nightfall on the way back to school.  I hate driving at night...

The shadow highways are still there, crossing and looping and whatnot alongside the normal interstate highway, but I don't worry about it much during the day.  I try to stay off of it at night.  Especially after what happened last time.  But alas, as I was getting off at my exit, the lights in the distance went out and the name on the offramp changed to "Lacrima,  Population: Unknown".

Not again.

Like it or not, I had wandered onto the shadow highways.  Or rather, wandered off.  I switched on my high beams and followed the road as it went on for a ways into empty plains (which if you know anything about Arkansas is totally uncharacteristic).  Finally, I came across Lacrima proper.  "Population: Unknown" my foot, the town was completely empty.  What's more the buildings were mostly Hollywood facades.  Sure they were shades of grays and blacks and the door frames looked like the maw of some horrific beast (which in spite of my flippant tone is sure to give me nightmares for a while), but their not-really-a-building-ness just seemed to rob them of the scary.  I would have turned around right then, but the road was only wide enough to travel one way.

There was one building that was more substantial, however.  A large manor house which might have served as a town welcome center or something similar where I come from.  A bit creepy, but not the least bit scary, I got out of my car and walked up to the door.  It too was sculpted to look like a hungry nightmare.  Being an actual building, the manor was gaining fear-reaction points by the moment.  I knocked.  Nothing.  I waited for a moment, suppressing rising discomfort.  I knocked again.  Still nothing.

I turned to go back to my car.  There was a swish behind me.  I turned around.  A letter had been pushed under the door.  There was no light inside and the door was windowless.  I picked it up.  The letter had my name on the outside.  I opened it.

It read;
"I dreamed a dream of a land not far away,
Where no birds sang,
No steeples rang,
And teardrops fell like rain."

I was suddenly acutely aware that there was no sound in Lacrima.  Unsettlingly so.  And then I could feel something like bending, creaking, cracking wood where the door was behind me, but I couldn't hear it.  Panic rose. I ran back to my car without looking back.  As soon as the engine was started, I found in the rear view mirror that the road was suddenly two-laned.  I didn't need a second hint.  I was out of there and headed back toward the highway.  As soon as I entered the onramp, I was suddenly back on the offramp  to my little college town.  It's probably better for my sanity that I never saw what it was that came from the door.

A few things once I got back to my dorm.  First, I did a search on the lines from the letter (which seems to have disappeared when I left Lacrima).  It's from a choral piece called "The Awakening".  No idea what that was about.  The other thing was that the hitchhiker type was still outside my dorm.  He hadn't moved at all from last week.  That probably isn't good.  Anywhat...

No more interstate night driving.  Never again.

Things Happen in Threes

Some time ago, I mentioned a bracelet I had made which carried a curse or somesuch.  Blah blah blah it concentrates negativity in people blah blah blah.  I have now come to find myself in possession of two other objects which are likewise bedeviled.

The first, or rather second of the three, is my high school class ring.  It seems to be given to roam.  Two years ago, at the end of my freshman year of college, I put it in my jewelry box with my scouting medals and hadn't seen it since.  Until two weeks ago.  I bought my new (relatively speaking) backpack shortly before I returned to school last year.  Two weeks ago, I found my class ring in one of its pockets.  A bag which I had only had for one year and which had never been anywhere near my jewelry box (rather it was always at school or in my car's trunk for the Summer) suddenly contained a ring I hadn't seen much less touched in a little over two years.

Then it gets weirder.

I put it in my dorm room with the other unusual trinkets on my bookshelf.  But then four days ago, it was there in the same pocket.  Back to the bookshelf.  Today, after my swimming class, the lifeguard approached me and asked if a certain class ring they had found the previous day by the pool was mine.  And bloody hell if it wasn't.  I wouldn't call it a true curse per se, but my class ring seems to have a very "One Ring" personality about it.

And then there's my "Brittney Glasses".  They're a pair of rose-tinted frameless sunglasses which started at camp as a sort of in-joke (which I might share if I get around to it) with other staffers.  I still wear them at school if I need a distinctive look or to get my creative juices flowing with an unusual view of the world.  Today they started showing me things.  In mirrored surfaces, I would get a reflection of creatures which were not there.  Tonight, I've seen silhouettes of small animals move across campus only to take off my glasses and see nothing.  I have excellent night vision and should have seen whatever they were without trouble with the glasses off.  Just before I returned to my room, I saw a strange gentleman who reminded me of the Hitchiker I saw back in the early Spring standing outside my dorm.  But only with the Brittney Glasses on.  And THAT can't be a good omen.  The problem is, I don't know if my glasses are showing me things that are there or are cursed to show things that aren't.  I've had "the eyes to see" for a while and I don't really get why I wouldn't notice these things before, but there you have it.

Good Strange things happen in threes.

I'm Back and Something's Broken

Good morning, boys and girls and culturally-specific third genders.  It's been a while indeed, but I'm back.  There's a lot to tell, but that, as Scheherezade would have said, is another story.  I have been to four states, worked two jobs (one of which was almost literally the job from Hell), and seen things even I once though were impossible.  I've taught turtles to fly, walked on water, and witnessed forgotten Native American battles.  And I will tell those stories.  Tonight, however, I have something different to say.

Of late, I feel like the world is changing around me.  And not in that cosmic sense that the elderly and increasingly the middle-aged are portrayed to feel in movies and TV shows.  More of a literal "something happened which did not actually happen at the moment it should have happened" thing.

It started small.  People saying they had said things to me which I had not witnessed only moments before.  It's easy enough to dismiss something like that.  Maybe I wasn't paying attention.  Maybe they thought they had said it.  Maybe a third thing which fits in this line of reasoning.

Then bigger things started changing.  The colors of friends' cars.  Which key opened what door.  And then tonight.

Tonight I was playing in a poker tournament my RA organized.  It was a whole lot of fun and I was winning until the cards changed.  I had a nine and a seven in my hand, on suit.  The flop was laid out as such that there were two nines and a seven.  I went all in.  A full house; there was no way I could lose!  But then the cards went fuzzy.  I blinked a few times.  Then we showed our hands.  I should have had a full house, but where the nines once stood, there lay a king and a jack!  (off suit)  I lost the hand and the game.  It was just a dorm activity so nothing was lost, but still.  The scale and frequency of these reality changes are increasing.  And I'm sort of worried.

Either that or I'm going crazy.

Phantom Cars and Drivers...

I regret not being able to post more, but this is the leprechaun's last tale. The fairy will be back soon, so here is my last tale... 

Today's subject is phantom cars. I was driving down a main highway the other day when I saw one. Now I'd heard of these before, but I'd never actually seen one with my own eyes. That's why, when I saw someone drive through this car like it wasn't there I was sure of what it was.

A phantom car is really two spirits in one. A long time ago the horse use to be the main method of transportation if you wanted to get somewhere fast. When machines came along and automobiles were there to replace horses as the main transportation, some of them were angered by their lack of use. Nowadays horses exist for show or leisure and some of them don't appreciate this. When a horse dies without getting proper use they feel like their life was wasted. These feelings are sometimes so powerful that they hang on in this world. So when the spirit manifests outside of the body aftering dieing, the spirit takes on the form of what it hates most, the automobile.

Now for the second spirit, the spirit of a human that has a massive case of what other humans call "road rage." If someone gets easily angered while driving, this anger grows and grows until they become hateful drivers. This puts off a negative aura that the phantom horse cars love to feed off of. The phantom horse cars will usually try to get these road rage drivers into a car accident to kill them. The moment that human that suffered from road rage dies, the phantom horse car sucks their soul into the car and buckles it in with a seatbelt the driver can't escape from. At that point, the driver is doomed to drive the streets angrily inside this phantom horse car until that spirit is sucked dry of its energy, at which point it fades into nothing. 

Phantom cars and their drivers usually don't come out into direct sunlight as it offers the least chance for a car accident, but on a dark night, or if its storming bad, you may see one. They usually ignore people who are peaceful while driving and prefer to seek out angry drivers to kill. 

I experienced this the other day as I said I saw one, but I didn't pay any attention to the danger it presented. I'm not angry all the time, just at times when I'm driving. This almost cost me my life and very soul. You see, an angry soul from a mythical being such as myself provides even more energy and is more tasty than a normal human soul. That is why this phantom car and driver sought me out. I was frustrated with a semi driver in front of me that was driving side by side with another slow car and getting more angry by the second. I was already yelling angrily and flashing my brights motioning for one of them to pass the other, but they ignored me. This created a deeper and deeper anger until I felt my car being rammed from the left. The phantom car was trying to force me off the road!

Knowing exactly how much trouble I was in, I knew that I only had one chance to get rid of this rider. I reached into my CD rack and searched for the one CD that could change the outcome of this situation. I found my smooth jazz CD and popped it in just as the phantom car rammed me and put me into a tail spin. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply and exhaled as the jazz music worked its magic. I went off into a ditch, but when the phantom driver found me, I was in a state of calm and it couldn't sense any more anger to feed off of. Judging me as a worthless target, he sped off in a hurry. I got out of the ditch and headed for my destination as the jazz music continued to play. I had just narrowly avoided having my soul sucked into a driver's seat and spending the rest of my afterlife as an angry driver...

Let that be a lesson to you, don't fall into the temptation of road rage, the phantom horse car and driver will kill you for your anger. 

Well that's all for the leprechaun, I'll see you around and be an inspiration to the fairy boy occasionally... 

Movie Dust Bunnies~ The first Narrative from the Leprechaun Substitute

So, I'm the replacement for the usual blogger here. He asked me to fill in, because I'm one of his few supernatural friends in this universe. Allow me to introduce myself. I am "C" and I am a leprechaun. I know that might seem hard to believe, but knowing what all gets posted in this blog, I'm sure it isn't too big of a stretch for y'all to understand. Now due to some blood contamination I don't carry all the characteristics of a regular leprechaun that the legends have told over the years.

My ears are only pointy during the full moon. I'm actually rather tall at all times, and I'm not really a trickster by any means. Finally, I bear the appearance of a normal southerner and even use words like "y'all," truly a curse indeed....

I have some pretty big shoes to fill with the fairy gone to a summer camp (I mean really, he's risking his life by going out in the middle of nature... he knows what happens when a supernatural being leaves human population). Nonetheless, I'll try my best to tell you of my supernatural tales.

Now I'm sure you've all heard of the fabled "dust bunny". These creatures are in fact real. They live in the illusion of "dust" which humans just perceive as something that needs to be cleaned. Normal folklore has dust bunnies being tiny creatures, but this is false. The average dust bunny is actually the size of the couch. They just do a good job at dispersing themselves all over the building they inhabit to stay hidden.

Dust bunnies are actually the cause of much of the sickness in the world believe it or not. Think about all the bacteria they carry around with them in their dust piles, and if any of this dust gets inside of us, we're likely to become sick. Well unfortunately for mythical creatures, the dust from a dust bunny can be as lethal as a ring of salt, and last night, I almost bit the dust... literally.

Now with all the technology that humans have invented over the years, us mythological creatures have had to adapt. Dust bunnies are no different. With the invention of the moving pictures we like to call movies, they have found a new way to hide. The dust particles mix with the light particles as they are projected onto the movie screen. Then, they wait to jump out at unsuspecting mythological beings like myself.

Last night I was at the movies watching "The Prince of Persia" and already weakened from the extra salt the Burger King employee unwittingly put on my french fries, I was an easy target for these dust bunnies. It was dark, and I was too focused on the movie to put up any sort of defense against the dust bunnies that made their way inside my body.

I was sick the remainder of the night and nearly bit the dust until I found my bottle of purified spring water from the pools of Ireland. I slowly sipped this the rest of the night until I slowly cleansed the dust bunnies from my system. I was lucky, and that was all that saved my life... luck. Luck enough to have had the right cure for the right disease.

So let this be a lesson to you mythical beings and regular humans when you go to the movie theater. Watch out for dust bunnies.

Heck, you don't even have to be at the movies, next time you see dust hovering in the light from a nearby window, surround yourself with a ring of salt until the dust disperses and leaves to find a new victim. Until next time my readers, stay safe. The universe has plenty of beauties, each more deadly than the last.

As for myself, it's time to hit the old dusty trail until I can find a new story to share with y'all.

Medical Stealth

I know I said I wasn't posting any more until after I got back, but I don't leave 'til tomorrow and this was worth note.

I got my camp physical today.  It's always fun going to the doctor.  They always ask if you have any allergies when you check in and I always think: "Hmm...  Iron burns, salt repels me, I'm compelled to count fallen rice grains, sunlight sensitive is an understatement, and ringing bells cause me a lot of pain.."

And then I respond: "Nickel gives me a rash on contact."

These aren't normal human allergies.  I mean, they're certainly signs of synesthesia, contact allergies, obsessive-compulsion, and light sensitivity, but this particular combination?  I'd sound like a hypochondriac!

On a related note, something occurred to me when I listed those banes in my head.  Only certain things display such weaknesses.

This narrows the field considerably.

It's Been a While. And It Will Be Yet.

Things have been pretty quiet in my little college town for the past little while.  The Seelie Court took over in full at Beltaine (about May 1).  They don't like to deal with outsiders as much as the Unseelie so I imagine it will be a while yet before I get invited to meet with them. (And the next transitional period doesn't start until Lughnasadh (sometime thereabout August 1)).  A pity, really.  I had been hoping to get to know them more than my one weeklong dancing spree.


The end of the school year sort of snuck up on me.  Thankfully, nothing decided to rear its ugly head in that time.  Still, I had four monologues to learn, countless sculptures to make, and three legitimate written finals to study for.  It wasn't difficult, but things were complicated somewhat when I got sick and missed one, the merciful rescheduling of which extended my tests another day and a half.  And in this time, I got subpoena'd to testify against my old kiddie-perving demon roommate.  No sooner did I get served, than the prosecutor's office called to tell me it's been rescheduled to July.  So at least that didn't mess with my tests, like it originally would have (take place on the last day of them).  On the bright side, I got 5 A's and 1 B.  My cumulative GPA is now exceptionally high (over 3.7).


Moving out wasn't too easy.  I got everything out all right, but my RA took forever to check me out and he always found more dirt where there wasn't any (which he attested to himself) before.  I'm not gonna call that supernatural, but it was certainly annoying.  Then I had to wait almost an hour outside the building where the Theatrical Art classroom is located to collect my supplies.  It didn't take long to get them, but the waiting and having to inconvenience my professor didn't help my mood.  Plus I had to transport the cursed bracelet which probably didn't help my day.  Incidentally, I found a way to uncurse it and will do so by running it under moving springwater this summer, but I'll get to that in a minute.  Then I had to go and sell my books back.  For wholesale.  But seeing how they're the only game in town, I was railroaded.  I went back to my car to get a form to turn into the registrar and a seat full of stuff fell out.  A lot of things broke and/or spilled.  By this point, I was very, very annoyed and started throwing things in.  Then something awesome happened.  Objects started flinging themselves back into the car!  Apparently I have telekinetic tendencies (but I haven't tried again since I calmed down, so maybe it's an emotional thing).  It didn't improve my mood then (especially with all the other bad things that crossed my path shortly after), but it was pretty darn cool.  


On a completely unrelated note to anything, one of my bestest friends in the Universe saw the first Faceless Lady.  She was walking away from my friend and she heard glossolalic whispers coming from behind her.  So now others have seen her and maybe we can get to know more about her.


I'm home now and like I said before, I'm not too involved in local fortean happenings.  So things have been pretty quiet thus far.  Next week on Friday, I'm going to BSA National Camping School and then on to work at Camp Orr until July 3.  There's a lot of weird stuff out there and I hope to tell all about it on this blog when I get back.  Until then, I've got a friend who's going to hijack this thing and tell a bit of his own goings on.  You'll love it.  I swear.


See you in July!