Spine tingles

Allie-There Blog post May 18

I am posting this because I think this is my only path to getting out of this. I am not looking for attention nor am truly informed on any of the information I am about to share. So far, this mess has cost me a girlfriend an apartment building and my credit score, a car, and my piece of mind. Which is a lot for a YouTube video that only grossed six hundred dollars.

For those of you who don’t know, which is most of you, my I am Allie-There. I run a YouTube channel that documents me wandering all over North America I have a traveling job in medical sales. That isn’t all that important. What is important is the number of places I go.

Most of my videos are filmed with me having a go pro embedded in a hat, and a mic in my lapel. It is for the most part vapid nonsense with a lot of cool scenery porn. My most popular video are visiting the statue of Liberty, Standing Rock, Needles Highway, and a series about San Francisco. It was fun, but editing is a bitch and uploading videos is a time sink.

That said I was able to build a robust community of viewers. Most of them were others working in traveling jobs, and a big chunk were folks looking to do more budget style vacations. That said a bunch of people also watched for just for the LOLs. I get a lot of neat little slice of life stuff and talk to a few other travels from time to time. The other thing that happens is I tend to show up and record some strange meetings. While recording a satellite launch, a really excited teen girl was explaining what was happening during the launch and talking about the math behind it. After it was all done though I recorded a nice little chat between a guy and the girl. The guy was Robert M. Lightfoot Jr. for those of you who don’t know he was in charge of NASA for a bit. I have similar things with art museum visits and a car show. Basically, meeting a bunch of relatively important people in the field and not noticing. Only for the internet to randomly catch sight of it.

That is basically what happened with Michael Trace. Even now, as all the dust settles, I have no idea who he is supposed to be. Let me get to the point.

One of things my audience loves is me looking into coffee shops. America loves its caffeine. It is a bit of my own fault but whenever I get home, I hit up the same place because I have a massive crush on the coffee girl that runs the place. I mentioned it in one of my videos and of course the comments section became full of people telling me to ask her out and others insisting that it would be harassment to do it at work. I figured I had solved the issue rather handily when I said I wouldn’t ask her on a date unless the audience of less than thirty thousand subscribers raised thirty thousand for the Trevor project.

Now the simple fact is the internet runs on a calculus based on engagement. in most cases asking for everyone to cough up a dollar to meet a goal is a guaranteed recipe for failure. Trouble was I did the math wrong. I didn’t factor in the drama of shipping, and the internet’s love of lesbians. So, in the end the busybodies raised thirty-one thousand two hundred eighty-three dollars.

So that is how I found myself explaining to Heather that a bunch of strangers on the internet where highly invested in in this whole thing.

I was so sure the smile she was giving me was a forced service industry smile. Then she said, “You should probably turn the camera on for when you ask me.”

My heart hammered as my face flushed. I could tell I was turning beat red as the camera turned on.

“Is it on?” she asked. When I nodded, she continued, “Allie told me a bunch of you were very generous to charities. Thank you for being kind.” She adjusted her gaze to my eyes, “is there something you would like to ask me?”

“Ah… um,” I swallowed, “Would you like to maybe get dinner some time with me?” I suddenly felt like the dumbest of asses.

“Are you asking me on a date?” Heather asked leaning closer over the bar.

“Yeah,” I managed.

“Well, I have a standing rule to say no to people that ask me out while at work.” My heart sank. “I am going to need you to come back at three when my shift ends. Ask me again without the camera. We can tell them how it went tomorrow morning.”

The heat in my face drifted down to my stomach. “Okay.” I started backing away, “I’ll see you at three.” I wasn’t paying attention. I managed to back right into someone. I spun around to find a tall man with a black beard and hair wearing sunglasses. Oh no I shoved a blind guy!

“Sorry,” he said swiftly stepping out of my way. Oh good, not blind.

“She bumped into you Mike,” a thin woman wearing an oversized t-shirt, baggy shorts and flip-flops said.

The tall guy, Mike, shrugged, “I am just here to get coffee from my favorite place. No need to make a something of nothing.”

I kept retreating. Now the date went… really good. I uploaded the video and, well viral is an overstatement. Most of my videos get about ten thousand views within 6 months. Some of the popular ones will spike to sixty in that time frame. This one climbed to eighty thousand views in about three weeks.

The comments section was full of dumb stuff. Someone was claiming to have gone through all of my videos and determine I was a changeling. Someone else was ranting about vampires, werewolves and zombies. Then there were a bunch of people saying this was staged and Mike wasn’t real. I tried to look into this but the main thread seemed to be mostly porn and sort of gave up on it. Besides I was heading to Pennsylvania for work and was trying to figure out if visiting Hersey was viable on the trip. Turned out no. that said I did get to go see the liberty bell. It’s alright.

I got home at two a.m. I was dead tired I have been traveling for nineteen hours and just wanted to sleep. The plan was to meet Heather’s parents for breakfast. She kept assuring me they would love me and this wasn’t a big deal. That said I was nervous. Relationships are hard, and everyone one before this one failed. Usually around the parents meeting stage. So, despite being dead on my feet I was probably not going to sleep a wink.

I face planted in my bed. I nearly lost consciousness, then someone siting in my reading chair turned on the lamp.

“Don’t scream,” she said. “I am not here to hurt you.”

“Who the fuck are you?” I shrieked. Seriously, the whole telling me not to scream thing made me way more prone to screaming. Also, her saying she wasn’t here to hurt me, made me way more afraid she was going to hurt me. Was that the point?

The woman sighed. “I am called Scarlet. I used to belong to a group that worked to keep people like you safe from more nebulous threats. I am here to talk to you briefly about a meeting you had with a Michael Trace. This would have been roughly thirty-five days ago in a coffee shop.”

I stared at her for a moment. She was a short woman wearing a gray suit, with a matching long coat and hat. Her hands with steepled fingers were clad in black leather gloves. She peered at me with her brown eyes. it was odd. There was a slight flicker of sorts to it. For factions of a second something other than the shrewd appraisal crept into her stare. Whatever it was it felt older and quite a bit meaner than her gaze.

“Get out of my house,” I growled. I had to clench my teeth. I was so fucking scared my jaw was trembling. I did my best to hide how terrified I was. I was also slowly sliding away from her to the other side of the bed. The one with the softball bat.

“You are going to want to talk to me, and then make certain you broadcast that far and wide. Because you find yourself in the unenviable position where the risk you pose is your ability to talk to people like me,” Scarlet explained. Her tone was neutral, but that was a threat.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“So, you ambushed me in my house?” I demanded still clenching my jaw. My hand slowly slid behind me, and I felt the handle.

“Yeah, I thought the idea was pretty fucked, but then I spotted the hit squad setting up down the block and realized they were going to black bag you. They would probably end up cracking your mind like and egg and toss you into the shock trooper’s barracks.” Scarlet said with a nod. “I am curious are you going to take a swing with the bat or does holding it just make you feel better?”

I took the swing. She didn’t dodge. Hell, she didn’t even flinch. Trouble is despite having the bat come flying at her temple, there was no thud. I spun with the momentum and almost face-planted on floor. The bat seemed to have passed right through her head.

“I respect that you tried knocking me out, but it is not going to work. Also, people are coming so I am going to just have to do this the hard way. This is going to cause a slight tingle and then existential dread.” Scarlet step towards me.

A shiver of nightmarish proportions ran up spine. A wave of glacial icy cold shot through my veins. Oh god she poisoned me! I didn’t even feel the needle.

I sprang to my feet. Run! I had to run! I dove into the hall. I not sure how but I managed to roll and pop back to my feet. I took the stairs down three at a time. I got to the front door right as someone kicked it open. A massive hulking brute of a man stepped into the hall the leveled a shotgun at me.

Rather than scream in terror and get shot to death. I charged the guy. Moving lighting quick, I kicked the gun barrel to the side a split second before it fired. Faster than I could think I slammed the bat into his head. The impact shocked up my arms. I had hit him so hard I even cracked the bat. The guy fell backward like a massive tree. I duck passed him and sprinted down the drive. I first realized something was wrong when ran right passed my car.

I vaulted the fence and sprinted down the sidewalk. I am not a couch potato but this was well beyond my normal levels of coordination. Also, I kept wanting go back to my car, but my body just kept running. I liked to jog at the track in the gym. This sprinting was beyond me. even as my muscles burn something was forcing my lungs to breath deep and even.

I rounded a corner as someone else started shooting behind me. bullets pinged on the sidewalk and cars. I crouched and sort of crawl-ran another block.

Why can’t I move my body. Who is making me move.

“Yeah, that’s me,” a voice said in my mind. “You know Scarlet. The cool heroine saving your life.”

My body dove between a gap in two cars and then climbed through some bushes. Thorns tore at my arms and legs I wanted to scream, but couldn’t move my lung and throat to make the noise.

“Yeah sorry, hurt is better than dead. This next part is probably going to be a bit terrifying for you. Try and relax. The important thing is do not fight me. if you fight, I might give you a stroke on accident.” Scarlet said.

My body hopped another fence and jogged to a motorcycle. I slapped the helmet on my head and straddled the bike. I kicked it to life and then sped off. I had never even ridden a motorcycle. I had trouble with balance and would crash my bicycle a lot. My parents took it away after I knocked my teeth out. luckily those were baby teeth.

As I was screaming inside my body wove through traffic going well over the speed limit. I ran a red light then ducked into a turn lane to pull ahead of traffic. A jeep tried to ram me a minute later.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Scarlet screamed using my mouth. She managed to weave out of the way. A van provided a moment’s cover and then we hopped to the ramp onto a side road. The jeep jumped the median and just climbed the hill after us.

We sped down a two-lane road. We nearly splattered ourselves on the rear end of a hatchback. And about got clipped by a truck. Suddenly Scarlet just sort of panicked. She pulled the bakes, and left the bike in the street I could tell the jeep was behind us.

“What are you doing?” I cried internally at the headlights bore down on us.

“Hiding!” Scarlet whispered using my mouth.

“From what?” I demanded.

Then I felt it. An impossible chill. Not cold, whatever this was put out a wave of absence of life. A shadow fell over everything. Even the headlights faded. The jeep slammed the brakes Scarlet tossed us into another bush.

“Stay calm!” she moaned in a way that told me she was talking to herself more than me. which did little to sooth my fucking horror.

A figure with a hooded black cloak and a scythe stood in the road in front of the jeep. It pointed at the jeep with a thin hand. Then it struck like a bullet. The thing went from being forty feet from the jeep to standing on the hood. The scythe cleaved the vehicle like a knife through a sheet of paper.

I could see the head of one of the occupants rolling down the road. I felt my body try to vomit, but Scarlet swallowed it back down. Ew!

“The hell is that?” I managed.

“A reaper,” Scarlet said in my mind. “Just stay still. It isn’t here for us.”

The shadows moved and flowed. It almost felt like we were in some dark part of the sea. Some deep note rippled through everything. I wasn’t actually hearing the noise. Instead, the thrum rattled my bones. The ever-present darkness coalesced. A massive profile formed on the ground. I recognized it immediately it was the profile of a shark appearing to swim toward the reaper standing in the light of a street lamp. What rose out of the darkness was no shark though. It was some ever-shifting mix of shark, squid, crab, and every other upsetting creature from the ocean. I saw hagfish in the mix.

For a very long moment the reaper and the creature just stood there. Again, when they moved it happened impossibly fast. Trees snapped, cars flattened, streetlights toppled and the road cracked. It sounded like someone was getting a near lightspeed ass whooping or a bomb going off.

Rancid chunks of ocean like darkness rained down and began to disintegrate. When I looked up., the reaper was standing over us. Two cosmically cold eyes stared down at me. whatever this thing was it didn’t care about me. It didn’t hate me either. I was nothing to it. Killing me would be nothing to it. It would be like me closing a cupboard door. Something with no morality to either option. One was just more practical.

“Please don’t kill me,” I asked.

I blinked and it was gone.

With another spine rattling chill Scarlet appeared in front of me, “Okay cool. Didn’t die,” she seized me and yanked me out of the bush, “Let’s get to the simple point here. No one actually cares that much about you, but they take a sledgehammer approach. They want to know about Heather and Mike and the coffee shop.”

I was stunned, what is so important about this Mike asshole? “Check the stupid message board. The one with all the weird porn he posted on. It sounds like all you have to do is post an address and he will come. “

“Yeah, the goon squad types that the reaper killed. Their faction tried that. Mike butchered them like cattle. Google Singapore slaughter the first article is the event but it will say it is a gang war. Don’t look at the pictures,” Scarlet straightened her coat and hat. “I think a more peaceful approach is the better way forward.”

“Then what the hell are you bugging me for?” I almost sobbed.

“I need Heather to get to Mike, I need you to get to Heather. “Scarlet explained. “The big thing to remember here is if I had not stepped in, the goons would have taken you, and they would have brutalized you to get what they want, probably getting Heather in the crossfire.” She gestured for me to follow, “Come on, the bike still looks usable, I’ll drive you to the safe house. We can sit tight and get cleaned up and, in the morning, we can go talk to Heather. After that I will be out of your life. I will even spread the word to the goons that you are of no use. Like I said you are going to want to broad cast we spoke.” She hefted the bike, “Hop on.”

“What if I run?” I asked.

“I chase you,” Scarlet answered.

I got on the bike. The safe house was a cheap apartment above a club. Scarlet patched me up with a lot of bandages. I couldn’t sleep and Scarlet apparently didn’t sleep. In the morning we drove to Heather’s. I don’t know what I expected but things went pretty bad.

When we walked in Heather's smile fell flat, “Allie, why the hell is a gray soldier with you?” she kept one hand below the bar.

“Relax Heather, Can I call you, Heather?” Scarlet asked. She stepped closer to Heather very slowly with her hands up.

Heather spat at Scarlet when she was close enough, “Get out of my store!”

“Calm down,” Scarlet said in a neutral tone, “I am just here to ask you a favor. I brought Allie here to serve as a character witness. I save her from a pack of goons. Isn’t that right Allie?”

“Allie is this woman with you?” Heather demanded never taking her eyes off of Scarlet. That stone cold hardness in her voice hurt. She had never talked to me like that before.

“Yeah, she helped me. I think you should help her get in touch with some guy called Mike” I managed. Relationships are complicated. But I knew plain and simple saying that ended whatever Heather and I had.

“I …see,” Heather said. “Allie, get out of here. I don’t want you around for what comes next.” Fuck we were done. Part of me wanted to know what was going on but, if Heather didn’t want me around what was the point. Scarlet was either telling the truth and this was over, or she wasn’t.

I just sort of drifted out of the store and kept walking on autopilot. I was so tired. Everything hurt. Then I finally got back to my apartment. Both it and my car had been burnt to blackened husk. I just sort sat on the curb and cried. I don’t know how long, but eventually my brother showed up and loaded me into his car.

I posted this today because I saw two more people in the gray suits and coats. Please just leave me alone. I don’t know what is going on. I do not want to know. I cannot help you. This post is all I know.

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Michael Trace

Allie,

I am so sorry this happened. I didn’t know.

Michael Trace

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Update August 05

Unnamed user

Hey everyone. This is Heather, Allie and I have talked. We are going to step away from the internet. Good Luck to you all and be kind.