My wife and I are fine and wonderful. We'll be celebrating our 9th year as husband and wife and 10 years together very soon. It's been a long, hard road out of Hell but we're making it and growing stronger by the day. We have our times like every couple but at the end of the day I can look at her and know that, when worse comes to worse, she'll be there with me and for me.
I know that she loves me regardless of my quirks and I love her for that and a million different reasons.
Heavenly Father has seen it fit for us to remain husband and wife and has taught us so many things about ourselves and each other.The Blessings God has bestowed upon us continue to grow by leaps and bounds. I was told that I would do great things as long as I worked with my family. Well, that's been the case so far.
Just a heads up about my book.
It is now avail on amazon, book a million(Bamm.com), barnes and nobles, etc. Just search under "m lovell" and it's called shadows.
This also means it's avail in brick and mortar stores for ordering.
be warned, though, the stories in the book are not for the weak at heart.
god bless you all
and peace be with you
My book will be available on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Books-a-millio
It is, however, available on the publisher’s site right now.
http://www2.xl
I am crediting Crazy Ivan for this. Thanks.
TIMELINE OF WEREWOLVES AND HOMINID CRYPTOZOOLOGY
last updated: 04 APR 2005
My conventions:
History, myth, and legends of lycanthropes and shapeshifters take precedence, followed by cryptozoology reports, "werewolf" murderers and cannibals, and finally fiction.
All dates prior to 500 CE are considered approximate.
Titles of published works are listed in CAPS. Movies and tv programs are in "Quotations".
4,500,000 BCE Earth is struck by an asteroid. Much debris from both bodies is expelled by the collision, and forms the satellight called simply "The Moon".
140,000 BCE Common bond established between human and wolves, via evolution. According to totemic shamanism from nearly all traditions on Earth, mankind's ancestors were animals, most often wolves who chose to walk upright and eventually became human, though keeping a spiritual connection with wolves, coyotes, etc.
132,000 BCE Wolves and men live in harmony. This continues until agriculture and livestock put wolves and humans at cross purposes.
100,000 BCE Neanderthal Man emerges in Europe. According to Inuit legend, European ethnic whites are descendants from the Adlet, the offspring of an Inuit woman and a red dog. Five other Adlet remained in the Icelandic region, becoming horrible flesh-eating monsters.
75,000 BCE Evidence exists of bear and wolf cults as early religions.
48,000 BCE Oldest known written record, lunar notations on bone, made in Europe.
35,000 BCE Neanderthal Man disappears from face of Earth.
25,000 BCE Franco-Cantabr
20,000 BCE Asians cross the Bering Strait into the Americas: first humans in America.
10,000 BCE Domestication of dog.
6000 BCE Catal Huyuk cave paintings show hunters wearing animal skins so they can mimic predators.
3000 BCE Creation of the Sphinx in Egypt, depicting a lion with the face of a woman.
2600 BCE Possible era for the Epic of Gilgamesh (the Sumerian king of Uruk) to occur. Gilgamesh's rival (and later ally) Enkidu was a man-beast (and is the 1st man-beast in literature) created from clay by the goddess Aruru. Enkidu is eventually killed by an illness sent to him by the goddess Ishtar (who was also responsible for transforming a shepherd into a wolf).
2000 BCE Epic of Gilgamesh recorded in Near East.
1550 BCE King Lycaon of Arcadia serves human flesh to the sky god Zeus and is transformed into a wolf for his crimes (originating the term 'Lycanthrope'). Zeus also shows his displeasure by causing the Deucalanian flood which ends Greek Age of Bronze (and ushers in the Greek Golden Age), as recorded by Pausanias the Geographer and Apollodorus the mythographer. [For variations on this myth, please see the Wikipedia entry on Lycaon]
1228 BCE Possible date for Odysseus' 12-year ODYSSEY to begin, which includes undead who drink blood, mermaid-like sirens, and Circe the witch who likes to transform men into animals.
1000 BCE Stories of Greek heroes and gods transforming themselves and/or others into animals become popular.
850 BCE Possible date for Homer's ODYSSEY to be recorded.
753 BCE Romulus & Remus, brothers suckled by a she-wolf (Lupa Romana) as infants, found the City of Rome.
700 BCE Three tribes of lycanthropes are known to roam near Rome. One of them is the Luceres (Lucumones), possibly founded by Lokros, the son of Zeus and the she-wolf Maira.
540 BCE King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon suffers a mental affliction causing him to live as an animal for nearly four years, as related in Daniel 4:15-33.
500 BCE Scythians (a nomadic Eurasian people) live in fear of the Neuri (Slavs), whom they believe are werewolves.
400 BCE Damarchus, an Arcadian werewolf, wins boxing gold-medals at Olympics.
75 BCE Roman poet Virgil's 8TH ECLOGUE.
39 BCE Roman poet Virgil's ALPHESIBOEUS describes Moeris, a werewolf who teaches him necromancy (1st voluntary werewolf transformation in literature).
28 CE Jesus of Nazareth performs exorcisms on two werewolf-ghoul
55 CE Roman satyrist Gaius Petronius, the "Arbiter of Elegance", composes THE SATYRICON (1st full-fledged werewolf story).
Simon Magus the magician makes a bid for the role of Christian Messiah by demonstrating, among other things, the ability to assume various animal and human forms
150 CE Apuleius, METAMORPHOSIS composed, detailing his travels to Thessaly and the magical creatures he encountered, before being himself transformed into an ass.
175 CE Pausanias visits Arcadia and witnesses Lykaian werewolf rites.
311 CE Most accurate dating for the martyrdon of St. Christopher suggests he died in early November, 311 A.D. Despite later depictions of St. Christopher as a soldier or giant, he was originally described as being a Cynocephali (dog-headed race of cannibals) named Reprobus who converted to Christianity and was granted a human visage for his faith. Because the honorific name Christopher means "Bearer of Christ", he is often depicted as a giant carrying a child. Many texts claim the designation as a Cynocephali (dog-head) is intended to indicate a heathen race on the outskirts of civilization, or a fearful visage. Christopher was a widely popular saint, and was especially revered by mariners, ferrymen, and travellers. His feast day was July 25th, except in Greece, where it was celebrated on March 9th. (In recent times, the Roman Catholic Church has determined that Christopher's actions were not great enough to warrent sainthood.) [Special thanks to Sean Curtin for bringing this to my attention. For more info regarding the Cynocephali and St. Christopher, please visit The Greatest Werewolf Secret page by Sharon]
400 CE In the British Isles, the Druids' mystique included a reputation for taking animal forms. Celtic lore also included the fáelad, those families who numbered lycanthropy among their legacies. Then there is the tale, told in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion, of how the magician Gwydion turned Blodeuwedd into an owl.
410 CE St Augustine relates in THE CITY OF GOD the tale of sorceresses in the Alps who feed people a special cheese to transform them into beasts of burden.
435 CE St Patrick arrives in Ireland and discovers in his flock are many families of werewolves. At one point he changes the Welsh king Vereticus into a wolf.
600 St Albeus is said to have been suckled by wolves in Ireland.
617 Wolves said to have attacked heretical monks.
650 Paulus Aegineta describes "melancholic lycanthropia" as a morbid mental disorder, in which the melancholic lycanthropes come to believe they are werewolves.
725 c. Approximate date for the authorship of BEOWULF.
731 Were-animals haunting the countryside are described in ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND by Venerable Bede.
774 Wolf-like monsters terrorize the area of Mesopotamia known today as Iraq, as well as Arzanene (Assyria) and the country of Maipherk as per Denys of Tell-Mahre's THE CHRONICLES.
840 Agobard, the Archbishop of Lyons, writes LIBER CONTRA INSULAM, which discusses manbeast demon of the mountains.
872 Berserkers (bearshirts) and Ulfheonar (wolfskins) first mentioned in print in HARALDSKVAEOI (YNGLINGA SAGA 6).
900 HRAFNISMĀL mentions "wolf-coats" among the Norwegian army.
906 Belief in witchcraft and lycanthropy is condemned as being the influence of Satan by Abbot Regino of Prum in THE CANON EPISCOPI to stop the worship of the goddess Diana.
930 Pope Leon hears of German sorceresses who transform their guests into animals.
1000 Deacon Burchard's CORRECTOR states that only God can transform one thing into another; the word 'werewolf' becomes synonymous with 'outlaw'.
Irish Legend of Cuchulain appears in writing.
1020 First use of the word "werewulf" recorded in English.
1022 First documented burning of a heretic takes place in Orleans.
1101 Death of Prince Vseslav of Polock, a Ukrainian werewolf.
1165 BISCLAVRET (meaning "Lay of a werewolf") composed by Marie de France.
1182 Irish werewolves who transform during the Yuletide feast are discovered by Welsh historian Giraldus Cambrensis. The werewolves were reportedly natives of Ossory, whose people had been cursed by St. Natalis for their wickedness.
1195 WILLIAM THE WEREWOLF composed by Guilliaume de Palerne.
1205 A strange monster is killed by lightning at Maidstone in Kent in June, and giant demons appear during a thunderstorms on 29 July, as Abbot Ralph of Essex' THE CHRONICLES (1210) describes.
1208 Pope Innocent III sends Crusade against fellow Christians the Albigensians to crush the Cathar sect in southern France.
1214 Men transform into wolves during the full moon in Auvergne, as reported by Gervaise of Tilbury to Emperor Otto IV.
1220 Shapeshifting, flying, and pacts with the Devil are the subjects of DIALOGUE OF MIRACLES by Caesarius of Heisterbach.
1220 A sorceress transforms an English soldier into a beast of burden on the Island of Cyprus, according to the Bishop of Tyre.
1224 Konrad, the 1st Papal Inquisitor in Germany, condemns witches to the stake.
1233 Pope Gregory IX urges bishops to rid Europe of shape-shifting witches, initiates the Inquisition. Witches are identified by the abilities to shapeshift, fly or ride objects through the air, and use of cannibalism, child murder, salves, animal familiars, and demon invocations.
1246 Hundreds of cathars are burned at the stake when Montsegur falls.
1246 Toulouse becomes the headquarters of the Inquisition.
1250 LAI DE MELION composed.
1252 Inquisitors are placed above the law by Pope Innocent IV's papal bull, AD EXTIRPANDA.
1257 The Roman Catholic Church sanctions torture to force witches, werewolves, and shape-shifters to confess.
1275 Toulouse woman gives birth to a half-wolf, half-snake child after having sex with a succubus.
1275-1300 The Viking saga of VOLSUNGA (or VÖLSUNGASAGA), containing the story of Sigmund and his son Sinfiotli who don ulf-har to become werewolves for a time, is recorded.
1305 Knights Templar are accused of worshipping cat demons and having intercourse with succubi.
1312 Templars are burned at the stake en masse and their order is disbanded by Pope Clement V.
1320 Women who worship Diana and transform men for serfdom in Elfland are targeted by the Inquisition, as per PRACTICA and FASCICULUS MORUM.
1324 Alice Kyteler is found guilty of consorting with a demon in Ireland's 1st witchcraft trial.
1336 c. Tales of human transformation
1344 Wolf child of Hesse (feral child) discovered.
1347-51 Bubonic Plague spreads across Asia and Europe as the Black Death.
1390 Gypsies begin to appear in Europe.
1407 Werewolves are tortured and burned during witchcraft trials at Basel.
1440 Gilles de Rais, the monstrous Marshall of France (and former ally of Joan of Arc) is tried and burned for nearly 1000 child murders, worshipping Satan, and shape-shifting
1450 Else of Meerburg accused of riding a wolf.
1458 THE BOOK OF THE SACRED MAGIC OF ABRAMELIN, translated from Hebrew, describes the summoning of tutelary spirits.
1469 Sir Thomas Mallory pens the definitive book of Arthurian legends, Le Morte D'Arthur. In Book XIX, Chapter 11, he relates the story of a werewolf among King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table; Sir Marrok.
1484 Inquisitors are tasked with crushing witchcraft in Germany by Pope Innocent VIII's papal bull, SUMMIS DESIDERANTES AFFECTIBUS.
1486 Publication of MALLEUS MALEFICARUM ("Hammer to Strike the Witches") by Inquisitors Institoris and Sprenger, which becomes the 'bible' of the Inquisition's heretic-hunter
1494 Swiss woman tried for riding a wolf.
1495 Woman tried for riding a wolf at Lucerne.
1500 The Diet of Augsburg rules that Christians may kill gypsies without legal penalty.
1500 c. Isawiyya, a fanatical Muslim sect which practices gory feral rituals, is founded by a fakir / mystic called Sheik Abu Abd Allah Sidi Muhammad ben Isa as-Sofiani (Ibn Isa), who could communicate with all animals and claimed that all men, animals, and jinn were devoted to him.
1521 Three werewolves of Poligny are burnt at the stake for eating children, consorting with wild she-wolves, and transforming into wolf form via a magic salve.
1540 BEWARE OF THE CAT warns that black cats may be shapeshifting witches, who may assume the form 9 times.
1541 A Paduan werewolf dies after torture, and after his inquisitors hack off his arms and legs searching for the wolf hair that he wore on his inside.
1542 Werewolves ran amok outside Constantinople so often that the Emperor himself had to go out and kill 150 of them.
1549 An Ukumar bigfoot-type creature is killed near Charcas, Bolivia.
1550 Witekind interviews a self-confessed werewolf at Riga.
1550 Johann Weyer (Weir), a critic of the Inquisition takes up the post of doctor at Cleve. Weyer believes in the power of Satan, but he believes that the devil has only deluded certain men and women into believing that they have supernatural powers as witches and shapeshifters, thus causing them to worship dark forces rather than God.
1552 Modern French version of GUILLAUME published at Lyon.
1555 Olaus Magnus records [Historia de gentibu septenrionalibusl his observation that the Baltic werewolves of Livonia put on a girdle of wolf skin, drink a cup of beer, and utter certain magic words to accomplish their transformation from humans to wolves.
1556 In the eleventh book of his MARVELS, Job Fincel tells of a lycanthrope of Padua who when his wolf-claws were cut later appeared in human form with his hands cut. Fincel also relates an account of an old chateau inhabited by a number of cat people.
1556 Peter Gonzales in born in the Canary Islands. The Hypertrichotic child is later sent to King Henry of France, who believes the hairy youth to be a genuine wild man.
1560 The first publication of Giambartisra Della Porta’s MAGIAE NATURALIS.
1563 Against strong opposition, Johann Weyer publishes DE PRAESTIGIIS DAEMONUM, arguing that while Satan does seek to ensnare and destroy, the charges that witches and other shapeshifters possess supernatural powers exists only in their minds and imaginations.
1573 Gilles Garnier is burned as a werewolf, after having committed at least 4 child murders as a loup-garou in the French village of Dole.
1575 Trials begin for the Benandanti -- The Witchhunter Werewolves, a fertility cult in the Friuili that claims to be marked at birth with lycanthropy. These trials last a century.
1580 As if to provide an antidote to Weyer’s call for a rational approach in dealing with accusations of witchcraft and shapeshifting, the respected intellectual, Jean Bodin, often referred to as the Aristotle of the sixteenth century, writes DE LA DEMONOMANIE DES SORCIES, the book that causes the flames to burn even higher around thousands of heretics’ stakes.
During the Benandanti hearings, it is revealed that they are werewolves, normally indistinguishable from their countrymen in the regions around the Baltic and Mediterranean seas, fighting for the protection of humanity against the Malandanti (the Evil Walkers); dark sorcerors and evil spirits called "Strige" and "Stregoni." [testimony of Battista Moduco before the Inquisition, June 27, 1580]
1584 Reginald Scot risks accusations of heresy to support the call for reason championed by Weyer and to write DISCOVERIE OF WITCHCRAFT. In this work, he brings the term "lycanthropy" into the English language.
1588 Alleged date of the execution of Auvergne female werewolf after a trial presided over by Grand Justice Henri Bouget, a judge especially noted for his cruelty.
1589 Peter Stubbe is executed as a werewolf at Cologne. Stubb had committed numerous acts of murder, cannibalism, and incest.
1590 English adventurer Edward Webb writes of a hairy wild man he saw in captivity at the court of Prester John.
1595 DAEMONOLATREIA by Nicholas Remy is hailed as the greatest encyclopedia of witchcraft since MALLEUS MALEFICARUM.
1596 Scholler, a sorcerer imprisoned at Newgate in England, is killed and eaten by starving inmates. Shortly thereafter a large black dog shows up, slaying all the prisoners who had participated in the act, and remaining to haunt the prison ever since.
1598 Roulet is tried as werewolf, but his sentence is commuted.
1598 The Werewolf of Châlons, a tailor accused of eating children in his shop, is executed in Paris.
1598 The Gandillon family is burned as werewolves in the Jura Mountains of France after a wolf is killed while in the act of attacking a village girl and is witnessed by the mob to return to the human form of local woman Perrenette Gandillon in 1584.
1598 Eight year old Louise Maillat is found to be possessed by demons and cursed with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf.
1599 B. de Chavincourt publishes DISCOURS DE LA LYCANTHROPIC.
1600 In Spain, Remy’s DAEMONOLATREIA is replaced as the new Catholic 'Malleus' by the massive encyclopedia DISQUISITIONES MAGICAE, compiled by the Jesuit scholar Martin del Rio.
1602 The Cardinal-Archb
1602 King James of Scotland becomes so incensed by Scot's DISCOVERIE OF WITCHCRAFT that he writes his own book, DEMONOLGIE, and supervises the large-scale burning of Scott volume.
1603 13-year old Jean Grenier begins attacking and eating children in the Gascony region of France as a werewolf.
1608 Henry Hudson's crew spots two mermaids.
1610 Two women are condemned to death as werewolves at Liege.
Jean Grenier dies after being tried as a werewolf and sentenced to life imprisonment at a monastery in Bordeaux.
On New Year's Eve, Elisabeth Bathory's orgy of blood is interrupted at Castle Csejthe in Hungary, revealing the mutilated bodies of at least 600 girls she had tortured and drained of blood over the last 11 years. Elisabeth practiced satanic witchcraft and bathed in the blood of young maids to remain eternally youthful. She was known to consort with Sorcerers, Alchemists, Vampires, and Werewolves.
1612 In Linconstance, Pierre de Lancre, a noted judge of Bordeaux, writes of his visit to the cell of Jean Grenier and declares that the werewolf had sharp, protruding teeth and appeared more comfortable on all fours than in walking upright.
1614 Death of Elisabeth Bathory, Hungary's Countess of Blood, who still looked young and beautiful at age 50.
Webster's DUCHESS OF MALFI published.
1630 Prince-Bishop Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim, the infamous Hexenbishof (Witch Bishop) constructs a special torture chamber which he decorates with appropriate passages from scripture. He burns at least six hundred heretics and shapeshifters, including a fellow bishop he suspects of being too lenient.
1621 Robert Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), wrote lengthy discussions of lycanthropy as a non-demonic form of madness or disease.
1631 Witch trial judge Pierre de Lancre, author of TABLEAU, dies. By his own boast, he tortured and burned over six hundred persons.
Jesuit Friedrich Spree has his hair turned prematurely white when he is assigned as a confessor to accused witches. To protest the cruelties he witnessed in the torture chambers, he writes CAUTIO CRIMINALIS.
During the past 110 years (1520 - 1630), over 30,000 "loup garou" trials were conducted in France.
1632 Queen Zingua comes to power in Angola (Africa) by having her brother assassinated. Her reign is marked by torture, capricious executions, cannibalism, and sexual deviancy.
1635 Benedict Carpzov publishes PRACTICA RERUM CRIMINALIUM, a work that is often referred to as the 'Malleus' of Lutheranism. Carpzov acknowledges that torture of the innocent is deplorable, but necessary to ferret out the disciples of Satan.
1637 Famine in Franche-Comté: cannibalism reported.
1640 c. German city of Greifwald is overrun with werewolves for months, until local teens slay the lycanthropes with silver bullets.
1652 Cromwellian law forbids export of Irish wolfhounds.
1670 85 witches burnt in Swedish trials.
1680 Catherine Montvoisin goes to the stake in Paris, claiming she sacrificed over 2500 infants on her satanic altar.
1685 The Bavarian town of Anspach (now Ansbach) is plagued with the deaths of animals, women, and children. The townsfolk determine the predator to be the werewolf form of their former Burgomeister, which is killed and put on display.
1692 Salem witchcraft trials.
Livonian werewolf Theiss reveals under interrogation that Livonian & Russian werewolves are servants of God, & fight Hell's minions on St Lucy's night (before Christmas), St John's night, & the night of Pentecost.
1694 Bear-child of Lithuania found.
1697 "Little Red Riding Hood" published in Perrault's CONTES. Early versions of the tales involved werewolves, witches, and the Dark Woodsman.
1701 De Tournefort witnesses vampire exhumation.
1735 "Mother" Leeds gives birth to the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens on NJ.
1756 Mme. Leprince de Beaumont records the most familiar version of the 'Beauty and the Beast' legend in her MAGASIN DES ENFANS.
1764 Bête de Gévaudon (the Beast of Le Gevaudon) starts a widespread werewolf scare in Auvergne that lasts 3 year. The Beast was a two-legged Loup-garou, black and hairy, and was slain by Jean Chastel on June 19, 1767, using bullets made from a silver chalice. One version of these events appear in the 2002 film "Brotherhod of the Wolf".
1772 Burning of the Gaspee.
1776 The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria of Adam Weishaupt founded in Ingolstadt.
1796 Widespread fear of wolves reported in France, lasts at least three years.
1797 Victor, the wild boy of Aveyron, 1st seen in Lacaune region of France.
1801 French explorers traveling the Swan River in Australia are spooked by a bunyip.
1806 French wolf population falls below 2000.
1812 Brothers Grimm publish their version of “Little Red Riding Hood.”
1814 Death of Marquis Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade after 37 years of imprisonment.
1820 c. Resurrectionis
1824 Antoine Léger tried for werewolf crimes, sentenced to lunatic asylum.
A werewolf figures as a minor character in Charles Maturin's THE ALBIGENES (1st werewolf in Gothic literature).
1825 The Navajo Long Salt family is cursed by a blind priest. Over the next 103 years a Chindi spirit slays all 100 members of the tribe.
1828 Death of Victor, wild boy of Aveyron.
1830 Sioux warriors reported hunting in wolfskins.
1837 Spring-Heeled Jack sightings begin in London. Some accounts describe him as having wings, claws, or horns, breathing blue fire, wearing a helmet and a shiny suit, and leaping incredibly high.
1846 G.W.M. Reynolds publishes WAGNER THE WEHR-WOLF.
1847 Twenty-five year old French Sgt. Francois Bertrand, the "Werewolf of Paris" is arrested for eating corpses (making him more properly a ghoul, not a werewolf).
1848 The Moon turns blood red during an eclipse and sets off an epidemic of werewolf sightings.
1857 Accusations of being "wolf leader" end in court in St. Gervaise.
1858 Alexandre Dumas' story "Le Meneur de loups" (The Wolf Leader) is published, in which a downtrodden man named Thibault makes a demonic pact with a werewolf, and becomes a monster himself.
1864 Prince Achba gives his friend Genaba a wild female Almasti (Yeti) whom he domesticates and names Zana. Zana is eventually allowed free movement about the village of Tkhina.
1880 c. Death of Zana, an Almasti (Yeti) domesticates in the village of Tkhina. According to legend the almasti gave birth to 5 human/almasti children, 1 of which survived to seek his people in the wilderness.
1880 Folklorist collects werewolf tale in Picardy.
1881 Boston newspaper reports that a mermaid was brought to New Orleans.
1884 A sasquash dubbed Jacko by its captures and the press is caught in British Columbia, but disappears before it can be sent to England for study.
1886 Robert Louis Stevenson publishes THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE.
1887 The Order of the Golden Dawn is founded. The order is largely based on the Sacred Magic of Abramalin and restores a fascination with vampires, werewolves, and spirits of darkness and light. Among its members are such luminaries as Nobel Prize winner W.B. Yeats and the notorious Aleister Crowley.
Miners in Saskatchewan, Canada are terrorized by a red werecoyote that is slain with a gold bullet and returns to the form of Red Morgan, a local hermit.
1888 Jack the Ripper terrorizes London with his werewolf-like slashings and mutilations of prostitutes.
1893 Orcadian folkore, recounted by Walter Traill Dennison, in the Scottish Antiquary (1893), relates the tale of Ursilla, a woman of the Orkney Islands impregnated by a Selkie (wereseal).
1897 Vacher the Ripper mutilates and kills as many as twenty victims before he is apprehended in France.
Arkansas Gazette of Little Rock reports that a monstrous Growrow was hunted down.
Thomas Russell Sullivan adapts THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE for the stage in Boston.
Bram Stoker's DRACULA casts the Transylvanian Prince as a vampire who could become a bat or wolf.
1898 McGregor Matthews, Visible Head of the Order of the Golden Dawn, translates the grimoire, THE SACRED MAGIC OF ABRAMALIN THE MAGE.
1899 c. When a large wolf attacking a flock of sheep is killed, it transforms into the body of a local PA hermit, confirming suspicions that he was the Northumberland Werewolf.
1899 Natural death of Jeremiah "Liver-Eating Johnson" in a LA hospital, who 50 years earlier has begun a one-man vendetta against the crow Indians that left 300 braves dead and partially eaten.
1905 Wolves become extinct in Japan.
1906 Freud lists Weyer's DE PRAESTIGIIS DAEMONUM as one of the ten most significant books ever published.
1908 The first film version of 'Jekyll and Hyde' is produced by the Selig company in America.
On June 30, 1908, a huge explosion occurred in the sky above the central Siberian wilderness near the Tunguska River in Russia. The concussion from the blast, estimated at 20 megatons of TNT, leveled trees in an area nearly 40 miles in diameter. Oddly, the explosion produced no crater or other evidence of impact.
1909 Bristol NJ is the site of many Jersey Devil sightings in January 1909.
Esteban, a 15 year old Navajo shepherd on the Arizona-New Mexico border encounters a coven of 6 witches who could shapeshift into young girls and cats.
A Danish film company produces their version of 'Jekyll and Hyde'.
1912 Elliott O'Donnell's book "Werwolves" contains this recipe for curing lycanthropy: "[A] werwolf is sprinkled with a compound either of 1/2 ounce of sulphur, 4 drachms of asafoetida, 1/4 ounce of castoreum; or of 3/4 ounce of hypericum in 3 ounces of vinegar; or with a solution of carbolic acid further diluted with a pint of clear spring water. The sprinkling must be done over the head and shoulders, and the werwolf must at the same time be addressed in his Christian name."
The Laemmle production company in America releases their take on 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'.
1913 The silent film "The Werewolf" uses a real wolf in the transformation scene. Film production companies in the U.S. and Great Britain release fourth and fifth versions of "Jekyll and Hyde".
Moscow scientist Dr. V.A. Khakhlov presents a detailed report on the wild humanoid creatures inhabiting remote areas of eastern Asia, which are now known as Yetis.
1914 Sigmund Freud publishes his "Wolf Man" paper.
1916 Dr. Edward Jacobson writes in a Dutch scientific journal of his encounter with an Orang Pendek in Sumatra.
1919 The approximate date of the founding of the Thule Society in Germany. A young and earnest Adolf Hitler is among their early members.
1920s Series of killings around the African village of Tanganyika attributed to a Mngwa, a mythical feline predator.
1920 Kamala and Amala, the Orissa wolf children (about 9 and 2), are discovered in India. Amala dies after 11 months of civilized captivity.
Swiss geologist François de Loys reports finding an unknown Ape native to South America, which is given the identification "Ameranthropoi
Right-wing terror group, Operation Werewolf, is established in Germany by Fritz Kappe.
Four separate versions of 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' are released that year. The most famous interpretation of the four is that of John Barrymore, produced by Famous Players-Lasky.
1922 The Fraternity of the Inner Light is founded by Dion Fortune, who has a dramatic and frightening encounter with a werewolf.
1923 Yvonne Marchand, daughter of a French colonel, is possessed by a vicious swamp demon in Indochina, when her father ignores local legends regarding the cursed swampland.
Dutch settler Van Herwaarden almost shoots an Orang Pendek in Sumatra.
The founding of Hitler’s Nazi Party, with much support from Operation Werewolf.
1924 Fritz Haarmann, the Hanover Butcher, murders and cannibalizes as many as 50 young men. What he cannot himself devour, he sells as steaks and sausages to his unsuspecting customers.
1925 Greek photographer N.A. Tombazi spots the Yeti in the Himmalayas.
1929 Kamala the 17 year old Orissa wolf child dies of uremic poisoning.
1932 "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" with esteemed actor Frederic March becomes the classic film version of the haunting tale.
1933 Montague Summers publishes his study of THE WEREWOLF.
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor and refers to himself as the “Father Wolf’ of the German people.
1935 Henry Hull stars in "The Werewolf of London".
Albert Fish kills and eats as many as fifteen children in Washington, D.C.
1940 Travelers in the Shennongija region of China shoot and kill a large hairy (Yeti-like) wild woman, whom scientists believe could have been a Gigantopithecu
Harry Gordon, a.k.a. Harry Meyers, a.k.a. William Johnston, a.k.a. the Werewolf of San Francisco, is arrested. He is executed the next year for 4 counts of murder.
1941 "The Wolf Man" with Lon Chaney, Jr. establishes werewolf arcana according to Hollywood, notably the idea that werewolf bites can cause involuntary lycanthropy.
1942 RAF cadet Gordon F. Cummins, London's “Wartime Jack the Ripper,” is apprehended.
1943 Total Eclipse of the sun across Japan for 2 minutes & 39 seconds on Feb 4.
Childhood autism first described.
LSD discovered.
"Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man" pairs off the two titular monsters for the first time in film.
1944 "The House of Frankenstein" includes mention of a silver bullet terminating a werewolf and adds to the lycanthropic mythology.
1945 Goebbels resurrects Operation Werewolf as a terrorist society.
Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima; 78,000 killed.
"House of Dracula" features Dracula, the Wolf Man (Larry Talbot), and Frankenstein's Monster.
1946 Two Atom Bombs tested on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific
1947 Meteorite weighing 2360 lbs falls in Norton County KS.
Lion Men (and women) in Tanganyika claim the lives of over 40 victims this year.
1948 West African members of a leopard cult are arrested and sent to prison for murder, cannibalism, and other crimes.
"Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" pits Dracula, the Wolf Man (Larry Talbot), and Frankenstein's Monster against the comedy duo. Also 'appearing' is the Invisible Man.
1951 Outbreak of ergotism at Pont-Saint-Esp
November 1951 sees a new batch of Jersey Devil sightings among teenagers.
Eric Shipton photographs evidence of the Yeti's presence in the Himmalayas.
1952 Demonologist Ed Warren and his clairvoyant wife Lorraine found the New England Society for Psychic Research. They have been involved in many high profile cases and run the Occult Museum in Farmington CT.
1952 Ogburn and Bose publish ON THE TRAIL OF THE WOLF-CHILDREN.
1953 "Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
1954 Three scientists locate a Gill-Man. [Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954]
1955 A member of the Argentinean Mountaineering Expedition is killed by a Kung-lu in Tibet.
William Roe claims he met a Sasquatch west of Jasper, Alberta.
1956 The executed body of witch doctor Elifasi Msomi is displayed to the people of the South African village of Richmond, Natal, to ensure them that he would not escape again. Msomi had previously escaped prison with the help of the Tokoloshe spirit that made him kill 15 people.
1957 Prof. V.K. Leontiev spots a large hairy biped called the Almasti in the Russian territory known as the Gagan Sanctuary.
Ed Gein, the Wisconsin Ghoul, is arrested.
"I Was a Teenage Werewolf" stars Michael Landon.
Soviet hydrologist spies an Alma in the Pamir Mountains.
1958 Russian spacecraft Luna II lands on the Moon, crashes.
Bulldozer operator Jerry Crew finds sasquatch prints near his construction site in Humboldt County, CA, and makes a plaster cast of them. Photos of the big foot cast lead to the sasquatch's nickname "Big Foot".
Mrs. Delburt Gregg, of Greggton, TX, encounters a werewolf.
1959 Chinese govt begins search for elusive yeti-like Yeren spotted in the Shennongjia Foreset Park in western Hubei province.
1960 Harold M. Young kills a Taw werewolf along the Burma-Thailand border, which turns back into a Lahu tribesman upon death.
Himalayan expedition mounted by Sir Edmund Hillary fails to locate a Yeti.
Lawrence "the Wolf Man" Talbot gets his kicks on Route 66. (Route 66, 1960)
1961 Oliver Reed stars in "The Curse of the Werewolf" (aka "The Curse of Siniestro").
1963 Incan Goddess Magdalena is arrested with other cult leaders for committing human sacrifices in the Mexican village of Yerba Buena (even though the Incas lived in Peru, not Mexico).
1964 Brooklyn native Bob Smith (b. 1939) creates the legendary persona of Wolfman Jack at XERF-AM, a superpowerful radio station in Mexico, just over the border at Del Rio, Texas. Wolfman Jack will go on to become an international radio, televion, and motion picture star for three decades until his death in 1995.
The Munsters tv show features the man-made monster Hermann, his vampire wife Lily (and her father "Grampa"), 11-year old werewolf Eddie, and the couple's ordinary niece Evelyne.
"On Porphyria and the Aetiology of Werewolves" proposes that the blood desease Porphyria may be responsible for several reports of people believed to be werewolves and vampires.
Prof. Boris Porshenev excavates the grave of Zana, a female Almasti (Yeti), in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia.
1965 Talah Malkoti, a village in Chamoli, India, is attacked by apelike Vanamanhas.
1966 Ralph "Bud" Chambers tracks a skunk ape into a swamp near his Florida home.
Mothman, a humanoid with a large wingspan and capable of flying 100 mph, is spotted in the TNT area of West Viginia on November 14.
Richard Speck brutally slashes eight student nurses to death in Chicago.
Dark Shadows 1st aires, a tv show which features a vampire and two werewolves.
1967 Henri Van Heerdan has a near fatal encounter with two santu sakais while on a hunting trip near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Mothman is thought to be responsible for the collapse of a suspension bridge between Ohio and West Virginia on 15 December.
Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin shoot their famous footage of a man/beast (Bigfoot) at Bluff Creek, California.
1968 Zodiac killer claims his 1st victims in San Francisco Bay area. Zodiac eluded police for three years before evidence of his crimes ended. He was never caught, and is often copied.
Count Waldemar Daninsky becomes a werewolf and kills a pair of Hungarian vampires. (Daninsky appears in 7 Spanish Werewolf movies) [La Marca del Hombre Lobo, 1968]
1969 Men land on the Moon.
Sightings of a Bigfoot-like creature outside of Fort Worth, TX in July 1969 lead to a massive monster hunt for the "Lake Worth Monster".
The Charles Manson “family” commits a satanic mass murder in Beverly Hills.
1970 H. C. Osborn and four friends spot a Skunk Ape in the Big Cypress Swamp, FL.
Four Gallup, NM youths are pursued along the highway by a werewolf.
1971 35-year old Donald Childs of Lawton, TX witnesses a werewolf attempting to drink from an empty fish pond.
Two girls outside Hannibal, Missouri have their summer picnic interrupted by Mo-Mo, a bigfoot creature
1972 Shamdeo discovered living among wolves in India.
1973 A skunk ape is hit by a car in Florida and limps away, initiating nation-wide media frenzy over the Bigfoot-like creature.
1974 General Mills releases 'Fruit Brute' cereal featuring a werewolf as its mascot. Though discontinued in 1984, boxes of Fruit Brute can be seen occasionally in movies by Quentin Tarantino.
1975 Surawicz & Banta publish 1st 2 modern cases of lycanthropy.
1977 Three youths report a Skunk Ape sighting in Charlotte County, FL.
Bill Bartless and John Baxter individually spot a small hairless biped in the woods near Dover, Mass. On April 21. It has come to be known as the Dover Demon.
Serial killer David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”) is ordered to murder by a large black dog.
1978 Two construction workers in Yokosura, Japan witness a Kappa rise from the water. Locals call the kappa "Masunta" and described it as resembling a Gill-Man.
"Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon becomes the rock singer's only Top 40 hit.
1981 Soviet mountain climber Igor Tatsl sights a Yeti in the Pamiro-Alai range of Tadzhik in Soviet Central Asia.
Several mangled cats are found near Truro, Massachusetts in September. One eye-witness account of the Beast of Truro holds that the killer is catlike in appearance.
Two innovative motion pictures, "The Howling" and "An American Werewolf in London", set a new high watermark for motion picture special effects and reestablish werewolf films—and the horror genre in general—as viable commodities at the box office.
1982 The notorious “Chicago Rippers,” a savage gang of four cannibalistic rapist-mutilat
Michael Jackson transforms into a werecat and a zombie necromancer. [Thriller, 1982]
1983 Bill Ramsey, the Werewolf of London, is hospitalized and taken to Runwell Mental Hospital. He is cured of lycanthropy when Bishop McKenna (with help from the New England Society for Psychic Research) performs an exorcism on the demon within.
1985 Death of Shamdeo.
Richard Ramirez, the “Night Stalker,” receives nineteen death sentences in Los Angeles.
"Teen Wolf" stars Michael J. Fox.
"Ladyhawke" features a werehawk and a werewolf in medieval times.
1987 "The Monster Squad" motion picture features a host of famous monsters.
Michael Lupo, “the Wolfman of London,” is jailed.
A reporter discovers a bestial man living underneath New York City. They fall in love and begin a modern 'Beauty and the Beast relationship. [Beauty and the Beast, 1987-1990]
Thierry Paulin, the Monster of Montmarte responsible for killing 50 women over the course of 4 years, is arrested. Two years later he dies in prison from AIDS-related causes.
The Harmonic Convergence begins on August 16, 1987.
1988 The German villiage of Wittlich is briefly attacked by a large werewolf (the "Morbach Monster") when a special candle always kept lit (to ward of the beast) goes out. This attack is witnessed by American servicemen stationed at Hahn Air Base in Germany.
Monsieur X arrested.
1989 In Paris, Francis LeRoy, “the Werewolf of the Dordogne” is imprisoned for life.
A blood/cannibal cult headquartered at Rancho Santa Elena in Matamoros, Mexico, is disbanded. The high priest (and drug lord), Aldolfo De Jesus Constanzo, is killed on his own orders rather than taken into custody, and the high priestess, Sara Maria Aldrere, is imprisoned.
An Ukumar bigfoot-type creature is sited in Argentina.
Ted Bundy is executed in Florida. During the 1970s the serial killer raped, murdered, and in some cases cannibalized anywhere between 30 and 100 women.
First sighting of the Bray Road Werewolf in Wisconsin.
1990 White Wolf, Inc. creates their popular "Storyteller System" role-playing games, based in the "World Of Darkness" campaign. These games create elaborate sympathetic backgrounds for different types of vampires, werewolves, and other dark forces.
1991 Prisoner known as "The Wolfman" escapes from Broadmoor.
1992 Jeffrey Dahmer is convicted on sixteen charges of murder, mutilation, and cannibalism.
The terms "Therianthropy
1993 Chinese engineers report spotting three Yeren in Shennongjia Forest Park.
1994 Jeffrey Watkins, a sorcerer who called himself the Grinch, is arrested in Rochester, NY. He is found guilty of stealing corpses, digging up graves, and vandalizing mausoleums.
Moscow’s neo-Nazi werewolves disrupt the showing of Steven Spielberg’s "Schindlers List".
1994 Harvest Howl organized by "Smash Grewolf" in Ohio is the first ever Howl, or werewolf convention .
Jack Nicholson stars as the titular character in "Wolf".
China established the Committee for the Search of Strange and Rare Creatures.
1995 Debbie Martyr writes in a London newspaper of her three sitings with the Orang Pendeks of Sumatra.
Massive search in Malaysia fails to capture the Khaki besar (a big-foot type beast).
Death of noted werewolf researcher Dr. Stephen Kaplan. He had personally encountered two female werewolves in the late 1970s. He theorized that werewolves may be the result of a Yeti-Human crossbreed, and claims that werewolf manifestations often skip generations so that a werewolf may appear to come from a normal family.
1996 The 9,500-year-old Kennewick Man skeleton is found in the northwestern United States. Bearing little resemblance to modern Native Americans, it suggests a more complicated early population of the Americas than previously thought.
1997 Real-life “Werewolves on Wheels,” the Cobra and the Butcher, two motorcycle slashers, are apprehended for the brutal deaths of 37 Pakistani Shiite Muslims in Karachi.
Nasib Kelewang told authorities in Indonesia that the ghost of his father ordered him to kill and dedicate to Satan the 42 women whose bodies they unearthed from the sugarcane field near the North Sumatran capital of Medan.
Anton Szandor LaVey, the Black Pope of the Church of Satan, dies on Halloween 1997.
Police in Paris engage in a desperate search for the “Bastille Slasher,” a vicious rapist who slits the throats of his victims.
American extreme sports enthusiasts Andy and Brad are attacked by werewolves at a nightclub in Paris. Brad is killed, while Andy becomes a werewolf himself, aiding his girlfriend Serafine in stopping the evil werewolf gang and ridding themselves of the curse of lycanthropy. (An American Werewolf In Paris, 1997)
1998 Hanoi’s “Werewolves on Wheels,” a crazed pair of motorcycle slashers who prey on children, are sought by police as the toll of the young victims of the monsters’ vicious razors rises higher.
“The Ripper of Genoa” is finally captured by Italian police after slashing to death at least eight women.
Chinese scientific community officially declares that the Yeti does not exist.
1999 The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejects an attempt to patent a technique for creating animal-human hybrids.
For the first time since 1614, the Vatican issues new guidelines for exorcisms in January 1999.
Two "Blue Moons" occur this year, with double full moons appearing in both January and March 1999, the first time since 1915.
John Landis hosts "Monster By Moonlight", a documentary about the evolution of the cinematic werewolf.
2000 David Holland's MURCHESTON: THE WOLF'S TALE forms the ultimate gothic werewolf story, equivolent to FRANKENSTEIN or DRACULA.
2002 "Brotherhood of the Wolf" depicts fictional account of the Beast of Gevaudon (1764), combining the French werewolf legend with… Native American martial arts.
2003 According to the Weekly World News, Batboy joins the United States Military to lend his abilities to the war in Iraq.
Linda Godfrey, of rural Elkhorn, writes "THE BEAST OF BRAY ROAD: TAILING WISCONSIN'S WEREWOLF" after 10 years of research and reports from witnesses who say they have seen something resembling a werewolf in Wisconsin.
A mixture of investigation and dramatization, AMC special "Fang Versus Fiction: The Real Underworld of Vampires and Werewolves" features commentary from scientists, sociologists, weapons experts, and self-described vampires and werewolves. The hour-long show also explores the myths and realities of vampirism, lycanthropy, and shapeshifting; and presents an exclusive preview of upcoming movie Underworld. [FANG VS. FICTION, 9/17/2003, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, AMC]
The movie "Underworld" pits vampire clan and werewolf tribe against each other in Budapest.
TOMB OF THE WEREWOLF becomes the 13th Waldemar Daninksy werewolf movie, all of which have starred Paul Naschy (stage name of Jaconto Molina).
2004 According to the Weekly World News, Bat Boy lead the US Troops to Saddam Hussein's hole.
On May 3rd an African Lion is reported wandering Columbus, OH; possibly a case of a shapeshifter or a 'phantom great cat'.
A full moon IS associated with an increase in crime, according to a recent study by the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification
In August a Southern Florida woman encounters a 'skunk ape' cryptid.
October 22 sees North America shadowed by a full lunar eclipse.
2005 On Februrary 20 the Virginian Pilot reports on William Dranginis and his 10-year long search for Bigfoot in Virginia.
Wes Craven's movie "Cursed" is released after more than a year of rewrites and reshoots.
November - Win Eckert's book MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE expands author Philip José Farmer's concepts of a shared "Wold Newton Universe", which now includes such notable lycanthropes as Lawrence Talbot and Count Waldemar Daninsky. The book is available from MONKEYBRAIN BOOKS and has the good taste to credit Ivan Ronald Schablotski as an expert on modern horror.
Resources
Adams, Douglas "The Beast Within: A History of the Werewolf" 1992
Cohen, Daniel "Monsters You Never Heard Of" 1980
Cohen, Daniel "The Encyclopedia of Monsters" 1982
Eckert, Win Scott "Myths For The Modern Age" 2005
Garden, Nancy "Werewolves" 1973
Gould, Baring "The Book of the Were-Wolves" 1865
Hurwood, Bernhardt J. "Vampires, Werewolves, and other Demon" 1972
Rovin, Jeff "The Encyclopedia of Super Villains" 1987
Rovin, Jeff "The Encyclopedia of Monsters" 1989
Steiger, Brad "The Werewolf Book: the Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings" 1999
Clark, Jerome "Unexplained!"
Golden, Christopher (with Stephen Bissette and Thomas Sniegoski) "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Monster Book" 2000
Newman, Kim "Nightmare Movies" 1988
Jones, Stephen "The Essential Monster Movie Guide" 2000
http://www.cgc
wow..simply..w
So..I was up at 9am this morning. A bit of a headache. It escelated to a huge one with nausea and being disoriented by 11. Been in bed from 11 until now and only moderately better. The nausea is coming back along with the other schtuff..like the ring.
I think I need a ventilation hole in the back of my head.
I just finisihed watching saw..and I have to say that is was NOT what I expected at all. Not a blood and gore type movie. Very well shot, written and executed.
I think the ending was a bit on the weak side but it was still a good movie.
*drool*
ok..this is serious. I want to work with an artist on this project. I want someone who can and will put effort into making the best possible comic we can.(their art, my writing)
if you think you'd like to or know someone who might..take a look at my deviant account and then msg me if you are still interested.
http://www.dar
my account: www.Ascelin.de
I am VERY proud of this piece. It seems to have broken my apathy into a million pieces
The only light that shown in his apartment was from the tears tin-foiled windows and the cracks in the roof. His electricity had been turned off weeks ago and the only reason he had running water and gas was because the Charity Mission on Fourth St. kept paying those bills. Charities and neighbors that felt, either guilty, or, obligated, gave him the few bites of food he had. The clothes he wore were from second hand shops or the few articles he had when he was released.
His only real pleasure was smoking. He spent hours smoking and watching as the smoke danced in and around the daggers of light on his loft floor. He watched as it mingled with the dirt that floated in the air in an odd ballroom dance. Smoking seemed to be the only thing that was keeping him sane. Smoking and thoughts of revenge...and of her.
He’d smoke the cheapest cigarettes he could buy. He’d get them a dozen cartons at a time and smoke a carton a day. The only ashtray he owned sat on his table and overflowed with butts that had been there since he’d moved in. Cleaning up the remnants of his sticks was the last thing on his mind.
The table itself was worse for wear. The varnish had long been rubbed off and a leg was missing so, when he leaned against it, he had to perch just right or the mountain of paperwork and photographs would plummet to the already littered floor.
The few people that visited were always overwhelmed by the smell of tobacco. It seemed to permeate everything from the chairs to the door. Even the hall around his apartment wreaked of his cheap smokes.
His mind was lost in deep in thought as his last cigarette burned out in his fingers. Any other person would have made a noise as the fire seared his flesh. He glanced down nonchalantly and cast the butt onto the floor. As the cherry from the cigarette died, he glanced down at his watch. 11:00, time for him to go.
He couldn’t tell if it was the chair or him that creaked louder when he stood. The time he had spent locked away had been hard on his body and the other inmates even harder. His scars seemed to pulse in anticipation and his nerves were causing his hands to shake.
“Easy, Miller. You’ve been a fuck up all your life. Tonight you get to see her again so you need to calm down.” His words were more for his conscious mind, an attempt to calm the few fears he had. He knew what he needed to do so, with a sigh, he picked up a tote bag ad headed out the door.
He looked at his watch as he walked into the convenience store. It was 11:15. “Soon,” he thought” I’ll see you soon. But first, I have to take care of some business.”
He bought a pack of cigarettes and lit one before he walked out of the store. The cashier was too intimidated by this tall, rough, haggard, scarred and scowling man to say anything to him except:” Sir, you can’t…um…never mind.”
He snickered at her as he opened the door. Ten years ago she would have been trying to take him home now his features betrayed his soul. Old, tired and filled with anger.
Miller was in the shadows at the edge of the store and halfway through his second smoke, when he saw the man he had been waiting for. He looked at his watch. It was 11:30. He ran his hand through his salt and pepper hair and walked towards the car.
“Some people are just too predictable, even after all these years.” He opened the back passenger’s side door and hid himself in the floorboard.
The driver emerged from the store, got into the car and drove away with his stowaway comfortably hidden.
The man was passing through the industrial side of town on his way home. He always did. For almost two decades he drove through the rancid cesspool that was the lower port area. He did this because it was quicker than the parkway. He didn’t mind the smell of landfill or the sight of the multitude of homeless that gathered around the chimneystacks in tattered clothes for heat. That was part of the joy for him. He had climbed his way up the police ladder and had a comfortable position in the office of the chief of police. So, he took pleasure in seeing those lower than him huddled together as he drove by in his new car on his way to his new home. It was good to be him and he smiled at that thought.
“Always predictable to a fault, Scotty, always.”
Scott’s blood ran cold. Those whispered words came from a voice he’d never thought he’d hear again. A voice he thought long dead. He glanced in his rearview mirror but didn’t see anyone.
“Miller? Is that you?” Scott’s voice was quaking with fear. If it wasn’t his imagination playing tricks on him, he was in trouble.
“Yeah, Scotty boy, it is.” He was proud of himself for keeping his cool and quelling the nervousness in his voice. He sounded cold and calculating and that was what he wanted.
“Where are you, Miller? I can’t see you in my rearview.”
“That’s the point, Scotty. If I had wanted you to see me then you would have seen me by now. Do you feel the pressure in the back of your seat? That, dear buddy, is my 45 and if you deviate from what I say, you’ll know what the slug in the chamber feels like. Now, knowing you, we should be close to the oil refinery’s steam stacks, right?”
“Um, yeah, Miller. We are. Why? What’s going on?”
“ You sound nervous, Scott. You should be. Pull over by the stacks and do it now.”
“ Ok, ok. Just don’t do anything rash, man.”
He pulled off the main road onto an old, paved one. He drove to the steam stacks of the oil refinery. Scott’s nostrils filled with the putrid odor of unrefined oil and smog. Those things added to his fear and made his stomach convulse. He held it in for fear of being shot by his old friend but he couldn’t resist the urge any longer. He threw open his door and vomited on the ground. He didn’t quit until his dry heaves hurt.
Miller stepped out of the back and stood in front of his former partner and waited patiently. When Scott’s heaving subsided and he was bent over, staring at the ground, Miller grabbed him by the hair and pulled him from the car. To add insult to the coming injury, he drug Scott through his own vomit.
Several yards from the car Miller stopped, let go of Scott’s hair, and turned to face him. He knelt in front of his ex-friend and watched with a sadistic glee as Scott sat up on his knees, heaved again and cried.
“What the fuck do you want you bastard?”
Scott was screaming but Miller stayed cool. He was finding it easier to be calm in light of what he was going to do. He kept telling himself that he was going to see her tonight so it was fine.
Calmly Miller answered.” Scotty, you and I were friends, partners. We shared everything for a decade on the force and years before that. Hell, you and I graduated from high school together! I don’t want to hurt you, Scott. You know who I want. Tell me where to find both of them and I’ll let you live.”
Scott may not have been the smartest man in the world but he knew what would happen if he sold those two out.
He spat at Miller” Fuck you, you murderer! You think I’m going to tell you anything you’re crazy! Oh yeah! I forgot! The courts already decided…”
Neither the shot from the barrel of the 45 nor Scott’s screams were heard past the white noise of the refinery. That’s why Miller chose the spot. It was private enough that no one would see him extract information from Scott. He really didn’t plan to shoot him in the thigh. He’d aimed for the ground next to him but the years in lockup seemed to have dulled his aim. Still, Scotty boy need not know that.
“Look, Scott, you’re bleeding and that looks like it needs to be taken care of soon. So, just tell me where to find them and I’ll let you live. If you don’t, well…” This time he did intend to shoot him, directly in the shoulder.
Scott screamed for a moment and cried for a moment more. He didn’t want to die but he didn’t want to have the wrath of those two on him, either. It occurred to him, though, that, if he told Miller, he would kill the two and then go back to lock up. Scott would be free of the sociopath and the two puppeteers. Realizing this, he mustered the little strength he had and coughed.
“Ok, Miller. I’ll tell you. Henricks moved five years ago. He lives in Woodland Heights by himself. He and his wife divorced shortly after you went down. Mackly still lives where he’s always lived. Mac’s the chief of police now and Henricks is the District Attorney. You have no idea who you’re messing with.”
Miller looked at the ground for a minute and then at his life long friend. In a somber tone he said:” Scott, you and I have been through a lot together. I know what I’m getting myself into and who I’m up against. They did let us read in lock up. Don’t worry about me, though. After I take care of them I am going to see her.”
Scott laughed out loud, this time. He couldn’t help himself. The absurdity of Miller’s last statement was too much. “ You are going to see her? Right! So, what kind of medications did they give you in there, Miller? Jesus, you have gone off the deep end.”
Miller laughed with Scott as he stood and turned away. “ Maybe I have gone off the deep end, Scotty, but what do you expect after everything? There is no way I could ever be sane again.”
Scott was catching his breath when he heard a hammer cock. He looked up to stare down the barrel of Miller’s 45.
“Scott, I may be crazy but I will see her tonight. Oh, and I know I said I wouldn’t kill you…I lied.”
One gunshot later Miller was driving his old partner’s new car towards District Attorney Henricks’s home.
Driving from the industrial park to Woodland Heights was like driving from hell to a pretentious purgatory. All of the houses lined perfectly together in a cookie cutter pattern with the same fences, the same cars, even the same lawn jockeys. Miller had wanted this life once but now it was all a disgusting farce that made him sick to his stomach.
One death down, two to go. He still had a hard time believing he had killed Scott. The only other times he had killed someone was in self-defense in the line of duty. His nerves got the better of him and he has to pull over to vomit. The taste of bile filled his mouth as the smell of honeysuckle from the roadside filled his nose.
“Bittersweet until the end, Miller. Jesus, man, pull yourself together. You have to do this. You have to. It’s been too many years since you’ve seen her and these bastards have it coming to them. Get your game face back on, get back into the car and get your ass to Henricks’s house. Now!” He shook off his nerves; suppressed the vomit and drove the rest of the way to Henricks’s house in silence, lost in thoughts of her. He would see her tonight. He knew it.
William Henricks stumbled around in the dark looking for his robe. The dogs had been barking relentlessly for minutes and the housekeeper wasn’t doing anything to shut the mutts up. Completely exasperated at deciding to have this housekeeper deported, he made his way downstairs to check the locks on the doors and quiet the dogs.
With the dogs taken care of and the locks firmly in place he was making his way back upstairs when he heard the computer in his study boot up. If he caught that damned maid on his computer she would be lucky if her entire family didn’t end up back in the little shit hole country he pulled them from.
He threw open the door and entered the darkened room screaming in Spanish only to see no one inside. The only sign of activity was an indiscernible tune playing through his PC’s speakers. Furious that anyone would dare come into his private study, he stormed over to his desk to shut the computer down before he found the maid and fired her.
He went white reached his terminal. Whoever had turned the computer on had also opened all of his private folders. Dozens of pictures were open and several movies were playing and looping. The music he had heard was from one he’d bought from a South American filmmaker. His hands trembled in rage as he moved the mouse to close it all down. Then a lighter flared and the cherry of a cigarette came to life in the corner of the room.
“ I wouldn’t close those things out if I were you, Willie. I’ve got them all tied into a worm program that will email the bulk of your little private life to every news agency in your voting district. So, move that fat finger away from the mouse, now.”
Never one to be intimidated, Henricks growled as his hand moved the mouse closer to the close button.” Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do in my own home? I will do what I damn well please.”
Nonchalantly Miller puffed on his cheap cigarette.” Come one, Willie, you don’t really want to take the chance that I’m telling the truth, do you? Think about what that will do to you. If your Pandora’s box were opened for the world to see it would be disastrous for you. So, be a good little hypocrite and sit down.”
Henricks thought about pushing the button. His arrogance knew that he was untouchable. He could smell his own sweat bead on his forehead and feel his heart thump with uncertainty. If he could see the intruder he could judge better if the man was bluffing or not. As it were, all he could see was the cherry of a very bad smelling cigarette glowing in the darkness. With a stream of profanities, he put the mouse down and seated himself.
Still as pompous as ever he looked in the direction of the ember and asked:” So, what do you want? If it’s a favor, this isn’t how you go about it. If its money, I’ll see you hung. So, what is it you want and how the hell did you get into my house? The stupid fucking wetback is going to have her ass fired when I get out of this.”
A puff of smoke.” William, be real. Maids can be paid off. Isn’t that what you always say? Everyone has their price? I don’t want money from you, Willie. I don’t care about the number of zeros you can put on a check. And I don’t want a favor. Well, I guess what I want really is a favor of sorts.” When Miller leaned forward from the shadows Henricks breath left him and he jumped in his chair.
“Miller? Oh my god. The parole board finally let you out. Or is your sentence up already? I didn’t think I would ever see your face again.” Henricks tried to keep talking while he searched for the police call button under his desk but Miller was one step ahead of him.
“ You might not want to do that, Willie. I’ve already bypassed the system so it’s looping itself. You could press that button until doomsday and the police would never show up.” He stood, grabbed the tote bag and walked towards the desk.” The parole board had nothing to do with my release. You sentenced me to life in prison or did you forget that day? I haven’t. It was one of the most devastating days of my life. But, fate and a bleeding heart law student had other plans for me. You see,” Miller lit another smoke” I was there for six years being beaten and abused for what you sentenced me for. For six years I was bloody, even in solitary confinement I was the object of brutality. If it wasn’t the inmates it was the guards. They don’t like people like me on the other side, Willie.
After six years I was stabbed enough times to be rushed to the hospital. They operated on me for thirteen hours and I died on the table three times. Three times I beat your sentence, William. But I couldn’t get out on my own. Luckily an intern law student heard about me and began working on my case.
Four years later I was out. Four more years of beatings and torture. I have no idea who the intern was because I only received a hand full of letters but I will be forever grateful to whomever it was for giving me this chance.”
William Henricks felt his hopes die on the spot.” Miller, I did what I felt was best! What I felt I had to do. You can’t blame me for that, can you? You always did what you thought was best. Please, Miller, don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
Miller wasn’t listening. He was rummaging through his tote bag until he pulled out a large, serrated knife. He made eye contact for just a few seconds before he smelled shit and piss.
“Damn it, William, you’ve gotten fat and incontinent in your old age. Pull yourself together, man. This isn’t for you. This, however, is for you.” Miller pulled out a sawed off double barrel ten gauge shot gun with a pistol handle “This is for you. Now open your robe. Do it before I blow your face off.”
Henricks slowly untied the rope and opened his robe. He had the perverted thought that he was about to be raped and he liked the idea. His belly hung low and his once firm chest sagged like the breasts of an old woman.
Miller chuckled at the sight. He remembered working out with this man. He recalled how the women would fall over each other to get his attention. He also remembered Henricks’s dirty secrets.
“ I see you’re body has started to reflect the filth on the inside, William. It’s fitting, really. After all you’ve done, its nice to see that God started paying you back and, tonight, you will get to meet him. Just like I will get to see her.”
Miller sat down across from Henricks and watched him for a minute. He wanted to see the anxiety rise in his eyes. He wanted to see him sweat and squirm. He wanted to see if he was still as deviant as always. He saw the smirk on Henricks’s face that told him he wasn’t wrong.
With a disgusted sigh he raised the barrel to Henricks’s face.” Now. Grab your dick.”
Confused, William just looked at Miller. “What? Why? Oh you are the kinky one, Miller. All those years in lock up leave you a little more bent than you’d like? Or is it that no woman wants you now?” Henricks smiled as he grabbed himself from under his robust belly.
He wasn’t bothered by Henricks’s comment at all. The years of abuse in lock up had exposed him to more sickening comments and acts. “No, that’s the way I want the police to find you tomorrow. I want them to see your carcass sitting there with your little pecker in your hand watching the kiddy porn that you so enjoy. I know you have the cops in your pocket so I took the liberty of emailing all of your folders to all of the media. They will have a field day. I know I said they wouldn’t get them unless you closed the windows out but I lied. So sue me.”
Henricks’s jaw dropped. He was ruined. The local authorities and the F.B.I would investigate him. His private life would be exposed. Everything would be ruined. His house of cards had just come down.
Miller cocked both of the hammers back and looked into Henricks’s eyes one last time” Keep your hand on your dick you fucking pervert. I kept your secret. I thought it was something you were getting help for. I believed you when you said it was only pictures and movies. You’re a fucking lying pile of shit and I’m about to send you someplace that is worse than where I’ve been. And, when I see her tonight, I’ll let her know that you’re roasting in hell.”
Both barrels emptied and the only thing left of William Henricks’s head was painted on the portrait behind his body. Killing Henricks was much easier than killing Scott. He had it coming to him and his soul would never rest after the media finished picking his carefully hidden past apart.
He tossed the last of his cigarette at the Henricks’s body and left his house.
“Karma’s a bitch. 12:15. I’m actually running a few minutes ahead of schedule so I can take my time getting to Mackly’s place. I’m coming, baby. Just a little longer and we’ll be together again.”
Two down and one to go.
Mackly wasn’t at home. Damn, that threw a kink in Miller’s plans. He wasn’t at his favorite bar, either. Miller racked his addled brain until he came up with the only place he knew that he could be. He was at the police headquarters. Mac was always a workaholic. He checked his watch 12:45. He needed to hurry up before he ran out of time. He guessed that Mac’s office was the only light on in the bureaucratic complex, which made it easier to find, or, at least, Miller hoped it would. His most pressing issue, though, was how to get in without going through the front door. He didn’t want to cause a ruckus just yet.
He couldn’t find another entrance to sneak into. “Fuck it, I’ve been lucky so far. Let’s see how much luck I have left in this fucked up life.” He grabbed his tote bag and strolled in the front door.
His heart was about to jump out of his chest and he could feel his nerves trying to get the better of him again. He quelled everything and tried to enjoy the walk. The evening was clear and crisp with a nice breeze blowing. The sprinklers had just come on so the smell of moist sod hit his nose. It was a great smell, the smell of freedom and simpler times with her. The days they’d spend playing under the sprinklers and laughing; the quiet times they would spend together; the times he’d just read to her. He smiled at his thoughts and grinned at the idea of being with her again.
He braced himself for hell as he opened the doors. The police on duty would search him and his bag, they’d try to arrest him; he’d have to kill innocent men and possibly ruin his chance getting Mackly.
He thanked his dumb luck when he walked in and saw the only guard on duty step into the bathroom. He slipped around the metal detector and into the elevator. He remembered the window and guessed at the floor.
No music in the elevator; just his thoughts. His thoughts of the last ten years, of his plans, of the reason he ended up behind bars. He thought deeply about what he was doing here, a building that he knew he couldn’t escape. Everything came to the forefront of his mind, all the doubts, all the nervousness, everything. Why was the question that persisted. Why do this? Why exact revenge on people he hadn’t seen in a decade? Why risk his life for this?
“Because,” he told himself” after I am done, I get to see her again.” He grinned a little as the elevator stopped. Stepping off the elevator he glanced down to see it was 12:50. He knew it was almost time; he would see her soon. As soon as he finished his business he would be with her again and this time it would be forever.
Finding Mackly’s office was simple. Miller just walked down the dimly lit hallway looking for an office with his name on the door. After all, the chief of police had to have a plaque on his door. He hadn’t passed a cleaning cart or even seen a janitor in his quest. This was a good sign. It meant no one would find them before he could finish his business.
The sign said Joshua Mackly, chief of police but Miller knew him as Joshua Mackly, former friend, crooked cop and all around son of a bitch.
Mackly was sitting at his desk, going over paperwork when he heard a knock at the door. “Who is it this lat e at night?”
A raspy voice with a Spanish accent said” Housekeeping. Needing of the trashcan, por favor.”
“Oh, yeah. Hang on, let me unlock the door for you.” Mackly had no time to react. When he opened the door Miller was on top of him before he knew anything happened.
Miller had his serrated knife in hand as he busted through. It found its way through Mackly’s right hand and into the desk. Mackly started to scream in pain but Miller put his index finger over Mackly’s mouth and his 45 to Mackly’s forehead.
“ I swear I will blow your head off if you scream, Josh. It’s not time to die yet but I will forego the dramatics and blow your brains out your window if you make so much as a peep. Then you and Henricks will have matching holes”
“You killed Henricks? You have gone crazy haven’t you Miller? You always were a fuck up. I guess some things never change.” The bravado was coming through the pain of having a foot long blade through his hand. He was, after all, the chief of police. He was untouchable because he was the law. He was like a god. All he had to do was convince this psychopath of that fact.
“ It is 12:55, Josh. Do you know what happens at one o’clock? Do you even remember?” The coldness in his voice wasn’t an act. He was here with the man who was key in putting him away. The man who separated him from her and Miller was going to take the time to make sure Mackly knew what was about to happen.
“ It’s time for you to go to hell, Miller. With the push of the right button I can have the entire city force in my office. You’ll never make it out alive you piece of shit. You should have stayed locked up.”
Miller learned a long time ago to not let insults bother him especially from the doomed. Still, he pistol whipped Mackly for good measure then sat one the floor where Mackly’s blood was collecting.
“Josh, in less than five minutes it will be one o’clock in the morning August 29th and you mean to tell me that you have no idea what happens?”
Grimacing but still defiant Mackly looked at Miller and spat through clenched teeth:” Fuck you.”
Miller blinked at Mackly the way a dog owner blinks when their pet does something incredibly stupid and said:” It’s an anniversary, Josh. The anniversary of the event that got me sent away for a decade.”
Mackly laughed.” So, it’s been that long already, huh? Man, and that was such a great time too. I wish we could all relive that over and over again. Don’t…”
Mackly couldn’t finish because Miller lost it. He pistol-whipped him until blood flowed freely from gashes all over his face, his front teeth had been beaten out and his nose was broken.
Miller stood up and aimed the gun at Mackly.” Josh, it was what you and Henricks did that sent me away. It was what you did to her that sent me to a place that your nightmares couldn’t imagine. I trusted you and Scott and Henricks and you all betrayed me! When you needed a fall guy you chose me! We were all buddies. We ran the racket together. We did everything together! But you sent me to die!
One o’clock was when the coroner said the time of death occurred. One o’clock. After hours of sexual abuse and torture! You sodomized her, raped her, murdered her and then pinned it on me! ME! It was you and that freak Henricks and I took the fall! You even got my partner to lie for you! It made all that easier since Henricks just happened to be the judge over the case!”
He pistol-whipped him again but stopped when it looked like Mackly would lose consciousness.
“Listen to me. In one minute you are going to die. You will join Henricks and Scott in that special place in hell I prepared for you. You’ll roast for eternity and I pray that the demons do to you what you did to her! I hope they do what the inmates and guards did to me!
They don’t like molesters in prison, Josh. They really don’t like molesters that murder. Can you imagine what it was like for me? Ten years of being beaten, abused, and looked down upon by criminals when I didn’t do anything to deserve it? Can you?”
“You won’t get any remorse or apologies from me, Miller. It felt good to do her and it felt even better to see you ass hauled away for it. Fuck you and fuck her too.”
“That’s where you are wrong, Josh. I don’t want an apology, or remorse. I just want you to die.”
Miller’s watch went off. The alarm the signaled one o’clock. He shot Mackly in the kneecap and the other hand. He knew he’d been heard but he didn’t care. He grabbed the knife from Mackly’s hand and began stabbing him. He didn’t stop until his watch read 1:10.
Covered in blood, he reached for the phone, dialed 911 and lit a cigarette. When the operator answered he told her he’d just murdered the chief of police. The reaction was almost instantaneous. He heard the sirens outside and knew the s.w.a.t. team was taking positions around the building.
“ Well, Miller, you may be a fuck up but you did this right. Now, get your ass off the floor and straighten yourself up. You’re about to see her again.”
He stoically raised himself from the bloody mess that was once Chief of Police Joshua Mackly and made his way to the elevator.
On the elevator he took out an envelope with her picture in it. He began crying as he opened it. It was the last picture the two of them took together. It was a beautiful sunny day and she had loved her birthday party. Everything was perfect; the sun, the blue sky, the presents, everything was perfect. It was her fifth birthday.
“Daddy will see you soon, baby. The bad men that hurt you are gone, now, Beth Ann. We’ll be together soon.” He kissed the picture just before the doors opened.
His 45 was empty and he realized he couldn’t make it out alive but he raised it as he walked towards the front doors. The police saw this as a signal of aggression and he had 200 bullets in him in ten seconds.
Everything went dark. He went numb and the last thing he heard was the sound of the paramedics saying there was no way they could save him. He forced one last smile before he passed.
He smiled as he made his way toward the light and saw his own little angel waiting for him with open arms and a big grin.
Yeah… daddy was home.
Bushido, the way of the samurai, grew out of the fusion of Buddhism and Shintoism. This way can be summarized in seven essential principles:
1. Gi: the right decision, taken with equanimity, the right attitude, the truth. When we must die, we must die. Rectitude.
2. Yu: bravery tinged with heroism.
3. Jin: universal love, benevolence toward mankind; compassion.
4. Rei: right action--a most essential quality, courtesy.
5. Makoto: utter sincerity; truthfulness.
6. Melyo: honor and glory.
7. Chugo: devotion, loyalty.
These are the seven principles underlying the spirit of Bushido, Bu--martial arts; shi--warrior; do the way.
The way of the samurai is imperative and absolute. Practice, in the body, through the unconscious, is fundamental to it, thus the enormous importance attached to the learning of right action or behavior.
Bushido has influenced Buddhism, and Buddhism has influenced Bushido; the elements of Buddhism found in Bushido are five:
* pacification of the emotions;
* tranquil compliance with the inevitable;
* self-control in the face of any event;
* a more intimate exploration of death than of life;
pure poverty.
Before the Second World War Zen Master Kodo Sawaki used to lecture the greatest masters in the martial arts, the highest authorities of Budo. In English "martial" arts is confused with "arts of war," but in Japan there is only: the way. In the West the "martial arts" are a fashion, they have become an urban sport, a technique, and have none of the spirit of the way.
OMFG!!!!!
RFLMAO!!!!
http://www.ove
She had just stepped out of the shower when the phone rang. Hastily she threw her robe on and made her way into the living room. By the time she’d gotten there it had stopped ringing. Aggravated at whoever had called she started back to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She had made it back to the bathroom when it rang again. Grunting out loud she ran to the phone.
“Hello?”
The voice on the other end said” Hey.”
The contempt flowed from her voice as she answered” Oh, it’s you. What do you want?”
“ I don’t have a lot of time. I just wanted to talk to you.” He sounded like he was trying to keep his cool.
“Where are you, anyway?” The tone of her voice was an odd mixture of sarcasm and curiosity. She knew where he was but she wanted to see if he’d tell her.
With a heavy sigh he answered:” I’m on my flight to Boston, Dennise.”
She hung up on him. Mostly to push his buttons and make him as angry as she was.
She let the phone ring a few more time before she picked it up again and said through clenched teeth:” You call me from your flight? The flight you’re taking to go be with your ‘love’, your little Internet whore? You decide to move to Boston to be with her but you still want to call to talk to me? Why? So you can fill my head with bullshit? So you can tell me how you wish this wasn’t happening and how you will always love me regardless of the fact we’ve been divorced for so long? What? You want me to believe you love me? Or did you just want to try to convince me that all you want to do is talk about the kids? Or is it just chit chat to feel the time before you get into the arms of your ‘love’?”
He had to cut her off.” Look, I still have to call her but I wanted to t…” She hung up on him.
He tried calling back again and again only to hear her pick up the phone and hang it up again. He’d settle for the voice mail or an answering machine, anything that he could leave his voice on.
Finally, she didn’t hang up.” You know the easiest way to piss me off is to keep calling over here. I don’t want to talk to you.”
He was crying now. “ Then let me talk to the kids, please.”
Coldly she said:” No, they’re in bed. Besides, if they weren’t, they’d be too busy to talk to you anyway.”
The pleading and crying in his voice made her sick. “Please don’t hang up. I have so much I want to say to you and to the kids. Please don’t hang up. I don’t have much time.”
She’d had enough. She screamed in his ear.” I don’t give a shit if you were on your deathbed! I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. I am tired of your bullshit. Goodbye and go to hell!” She hung up on him and stormed back into the bathroom.
She expected him to call back more. She’d let the phone ring until she thought he’d had enough then pick it up, cuss him, and hang up again. It was a pattern they had and she enjoyed it. But the phone didn’t ring immediately.
It did ring after she’d finished brushing her teeth, though. This time she was going to check her caller ID. It was a friend of hers so it was ok to be nice.
“ Hey, Connie. What’s up?”
Nervously her friend said:” Dennise, are you ok?”
“Uh, yeah? Why?”
“Is your television on?”
“No. I turned it off when I put the kids to bed. Connie, what’s the matter?”
There was silence then a whisper” Oh my god, you don’t know? Dennise, you need to turn your television on now. Put it on any news channel and don’t hang up. Ok?”
Dennise was confused by this point but she did as she was asked. A few clicks of a button and she was looking at a bon fire on the screen.
“Ok, so it’s a homecoming bon fire? What’s the big…”
She heard the reporter’s voice. Connie’s disappeared into the ether as Dennise listened.
“I repeat, Flight 798 from Dallas to Boston crashed twenty minutes ago in this open field. No one knows why or how just yet. The plane seems to have broken up into several pieces mid-air with the fuel tanks exploding on impact. It appears there were no survivors.”
She dropped the phone in horror and disbelief and stood there frozen. This couldn’t be real. This was some of his bullshit to make her feel badly about not talking to him. This had to be something other than what it really was.
“Connie, let me call you back.” She hung up before her friend could answer.
She dialed his cell phone number all night. Hoping, praying that he’d answer. She prayed that she’d get to bitch at him for not telling her he was taking an earlier or later flight. She hoped he’d answer. He never did.
All her children ever knew was that their daddy went away and didn’t come back. She didn’t tell them that he’d died. Her friends never could figure out how she felt about what had happened. Some days she’d grieve and others she’d tell them that he deserved to die because of who he was. The only person who ever knew how she felt was her and she only let it out late at night when she’d wake up hoping the phone would ring or dial his old number thinking he’d answer.
Those nights, when her conscience got the better of her, she would lay in the fetal position, rocking and saying:” I’ll talk to you now. I’ll talk to you. Just call. Please just call.”
The best way(and I have said this for years) to stop stress is to remove yourself from the point of stress.
hehehehehe
Sunrise over the savanna and the world begins to stir. The animals make their ways to the watering hole, the birds begin to sing and the wind blows across grass so tall it could hide and entire herd of elephants. This morning, however, it is just concealing two people. One petite and full of energy to greet the dawn and the other less so.
"Get up, Tareek. Please. It's almost dawn and we have a day’s ride still ahead of us." Her voice was like ambrosia to his ears but the previous day had been so hard on his body that any extra sleep would have been a gift from the gods.
"Come on, lazy, get up." he smiled to himself. He could see her through his lf-closed eyes; her long black hair ruffled and unkempt and a slightly perturbed look on her face as she tried to move his seven-foot frame. He watched as she nudged and tried to push him enough to rouse him. I was caught breathless by her pitch black eyes as she lay on top of him for a moment to contemplate her next move.
He just grumbled and pulled the blanket over his head once more. Silence. Maybe she had given up on trying to wake him. Then he noticed that he was levitating above his mat.
"I said, get up!" Her eyes were no longer pitch but a soft, glowing amber and her hair stood slightly on end. One gesture and he came down with a crash and thud near the campfire.
He sat up rubbing the back of his bald head." Tell me again why I choose to travel with you?"
She thought for a second and replied quite confidently" Because of my wit, charm and sexy good looks."
"Oh, really? And here it was, I thought it was because your magic was the only one that seemed to keep my rage in check and you know how to heal."
"Yeah. There is that too." She smiled at him with a mixture of sarcasm, love, and innuendo that only she could accomplish.
He looked at her, beautiful in the dawn light, and said:" There is one more reason, Tah'"
With a wry smile she asked" Oh really? And what, pray tell, is that?” Before she knew what had happened, he had grabbed her and pulled her into his blanket.
" Because, my dear, you are the other half of my soul. You make me and I love you." She blushed bright red. After the life she had led, she still got embarrassed when his soft baritone voice uttered those words.
Tah whispered into his ear" And I you, my love"
They fell back into the nap sack and made love for another hour then lay together for a few more. The morning was spent talking, holding and preparing for the day ahead. Near noon they rolled up camp and began their long ride.
As Tah mounted her horse she looked back at Tareek and asked:" Where are we going again, Tareek?"
Tareek was still saddling his horse and did bother to look up as he answered nonchalantly:" Its a little...minin
"Um...I don’t like when you hesitate like that. What aren’t you telling me?" she asked with a mixture of curiosity and anxiety.
"Nothing" he said with a bit of a snicker that told her he was withholding something..
"Love, there is nothing there but caves and canyons and ... Gods, no. You can’t be serious? Are we going into a "mining" town? "
He laughed out loud' Yes…guano miners."
" But ...but..." she tried to argue but she knew it was useless
" Look, Tah', we are almost out of rations and our purses are getting low as well. We need money and these people need the caverns...clea
With a reserved sigh she let it go and changed the subject. She knew that arguing with him once he’d made up his mind was a fruitless endeavor.
"Speaking of trolls,” she asked, “how’s your shoulder?"
Tareek rubbed his right shoulder for a moment and said," I must be getting old, two trolls used to be a cakewalk. Those two almost ripped my arm off not to mention the damage they did to my staff. I’ll have to get some more hide to rewrap it. Plus, it’s missing a few studs too. I don’t know if I can keep this up much longer, Tah."
Tah' couldn’t help but laugh, this time" Yeah, those two trolls and six ogres and one annoying goblin. Tar; don’t be so hard on yourself. We’ve been on the road continuously for almost a year. That kind of time will take its toll on anyone, even someone as invincible as you. You promise this wont be like the pig farmers?"
" Love, I can’t promise anything"
She sighed; he laughed and they made their way toward the mining town.
Half way to the their destination Tareek stopped both of the horses." Quiet, Tah'. We’re being watched and there is a rider in the shadows." Tah' was always in amazement at Tareek’s senses. She often wondered if they were natural gifts or if it was a result of his training
Tareek’s voice had been little more than a gentle whisper all day but now, confronted with a possible threat to himself and Tah' his voice was commanding and loud" Only thieves and brigands hide in the shadows. If you be either, prepare yourself for death. If you be neither, then show yourself"
Silence resonated through the canyon then a chuckle.
" You are ever the paranoid one aren’t you? Or at least that’s what I have heard of you. The two of you are those I seek presumably, Tareek of the order of the Wounded Fist and Tah' hin...mage, thief and lady of seduction." The last remark saw Tareek’s mood visibly shift. He grabbed his staffed gritted his teeth and lunged at the stranger.
" NO ONE SPEAKS OF HER THAT WAY!" The stranger had no time to respond. Tareek leapt from his horse and dismounted the figure before a human eye could catch it
With a choked voice the mysterious man said:" Your order has always been known for its ability to channel its anger. I see you seem to epitomize that aspect. It may be one of the reasons why you are one of the few left. Forgive my sloppy comment. It was not meant to offend. If the lady accepts my apology will you get off me? I believe we have business to discuss"
Tareek looked to Tah who nodded. As much as she wanted to see this man beaten about the shoulders a bit, she knew it wasn’t the time or place and any proposition that would enable her to avoid traipsing around in bat dung was a proposition she wanted to hear.
" I have a proposal for you both. You can either take it or go down and fight trolls in bat shit. Its your choice."
Tareek and Tah’ looked at each other, speaking without saying a word then Tah addressed the stranger. " And what, sir, is your proposition?"
" Its obvious that the two of you can handle yourselves well but your reputation has taken a tarnishing as of late.
I offer you a chance to redeem yourself and put some coin in your pocket, if you so choose. There is a man...once proud and noble, now gone quite mad, that needs to be eliminated. He uses his people, flaunts is magic and tortures with out provocation. He must be stopped. For this, I am willing to offer you a hefty sum and whatever you can carry from his keep. Think of it. The two of you will be set for the remainder of your lives. No more sword arm for hire. No more controlling the rage, no more living in filth. Rest here if you wish, I will be back on the morrow to hear your answer." and with that the stranger was gone in a haze of fog.
They stared at each other for some time. Both with the same question in their mind but only Tareek spoke it aloud." Tah, I don’t think I ever saw his face...not even a glint of eyes. Did you?"
"No, my Tareek..." and that is what worries me
Thinking of starting a contest...
A logo contest.
A contest for the Heresy Press logo.
The prize, you ask? Having the pic plastered on the heresy press books and a mention inside.
The rules(if it happens)? it must include the heresy press name and it must be able to be discernable when small.
Like I said, I am just thinking of it, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
found a name for my book. can you gues what it is?
...And yet, for a true samurai to hasten death or to court it, was alike cowardice. A typical fighter, when he lost battle after battle and was pursued from plain to hill and from bush to cavern, found himself hungry and alone in the dark hollow of a tree, his sword blunt with use, his bow broken and arrows exhausted—did not the noblest of the Romans fall upon his own sword in Phillippi under like circumstances?
"Come! evermore come,
Ye dread sorrows and pains!
And heap on my burden'd back;
That I not one test may lack
Of what strength in me remains!"
This, then, was the Bushido teaching—Bear and face all calamities and adversities with patience and a pure conscience; for as Mencius[200%hottie] taught, "When Heaven is about to confer a great office on anyone, it first exercises his mind with suffering and his sinews and bones with toil; it exposes his body to hunger and subjects him to extreme poverty; and it confounds his undertakings. In all these ways it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies
[200%hottie]
I use Dr. Legge's translation verbatim...
BUSHIDO
THE SOUL OF JAPAN
BY
INAZO NITOBÉ, A.M., Ph.D
We are born into the asylum of life.
From the first breath we are shuffled from room to room
Looked at, poked, prodded, tested, tweaked, popped, perked, vivisected, disected,stuck
We are then categorized and pigeon holed as being cute or ugly, smart or dumb, jock or nerd, shy or popular, loved or hated, a success or failure.
We are then labeled christian, pagan, jew, prep, punk, goth, rebel, geek, hick, outcast, or reject, comformist or misfit
In this asylum almost all have a labels and those that defy any form labels are put into soliarty confinement until the pressure becomes too much and the egg cracks, cooks and scrambles. Until the metal softens and bends and becomes maliable. Or the pressure is too much and they crumble back into the dust from which we came.
Rarely a gem is formed from the coal souls that are put into this solitary pressure. Hard, rough, but with an inner beauty that defies description and causes envy and jealousy in all that behold it.
still others transend their confines and fly from the padded cells of the asylum and away from the world that others know into the unknown..into the abyss that the orderlies fear and dread in their darkest dreams. They soar away , free from all confines and worries..into the morn
leaving the asylum and the inmates far below as they streak towards heaven