KAIJU TEXTBOOK

If you were to have seen blue and red lights flashing in the distance and have thought that they were police lights, you'd have not been amiss. The actual cause of the lights were two titans, specifically two apex titans, fighting for dominance. The titans in question were Psychopine, and The Mountaineer. The Mountaineer is actually one of the few seemingly intelligent titans and he is a human like mountain man, while Psychopine is a beastial titan that is porcupine like and has hallucinogenic quills. The battle took place in three major cities, New York, London, and Tokyo. These places have been under construction since. One portion of the fight even happened in the air and another happened underwater. They destroyed Mount Everest. Neither one won as they both destroyed each other. The Mountaineer still has consciousness but he is stuck in a pile of ruins. Psychopine on the other hand, is in a deep coma.

Page 57

NOTE: I am working or rewriting a book that I wrote in highschool

It was a dark cold wet december evening, my shift at the gas station was almost up. ten more minutes I kept thinking to myself then I could go home. I could finally see my baby girl after a long day at work. that was my favorite part of the day. She would always chill out with my roommate and I when I got home. we sadly started to like all the childrens shows that we swore we would never have our kids watch because they were so cringy. but here we are watching bluey at 8 oclock at night eating one of those natsty microwaveable meals.

7:30 hits “Finally, Im free” I said as I put on my black zip up hoodie and grabbed my back pack. I walked out of the store from the locker rooms in the back and noticed that it was pouring outside. as I steped out of the covered area I sinched my hoddie until it was hugging my face and started the walk back. It was only a short walk no longer than fifteen minutes from my home but toninight it seemed longer. I could hear sirens in the distance rapidly getting closer until they passed. it was an ambulace. then I saw it turned down my street. Then it was the cops.

Anxiety rushed through my body and I started running towards the house. But I couldn’t seem to run fast enough. I finally turned down my street and I saw the ambulance at my house blocking the veiw of the drive way. I never stopped running I just wanted to know if my girl was safe, then I worried about Alex. Was he alright? a million questions and possiblites ran through my head. even when I was on the ground. I had been so worried about evreything that I didn’t notice the police officer that was trying to block my veiw.

“son you can’t go in there right now” He said with worry in his voice. “My daughter is in there” I mangaged to say as I got back up on my feet. “a paramedic will bring her out” He said “Is she alright” I asked as he was walking away “Son just wait here” He said as he turned to radio someone from in the house.

My head was pounding as it raced.I looked at the clock 7:45 it read. My heart pouding out of my chest I put my hand on my knees as an attempt to catch my breath. 7:46- the clock read still no sign of Paris. the minutes seemed slow 7:47, 7:48, 7:49 never looking up from my phones lock screen. Still nothing. I ran my fingers through my hair trying to wipe the sweat off of my face and onto my pants. 7:50 the clock read.

“Officer whats going on” I shouted trying to be heard over the cummotion then Finally movement but it wasnt someone bringing me my daughter. it was a strecher with someone on it. “Alex” I cried then it was two guys leading walking next to it one with the vitals and the other leading. Then Jayden with Paris. she was holding her face to her chest covering her ears as best as she could. She seemed to be walking slow evreything felt slow. She finally got to me as they were loading up Alex in the back of the ambulance.

“whats going on” I muttered as she face me with her tear filled eyes “He ODed” she sobbed “the police are going to have us follow them to the hospital” “was it accidentel” I probed “it didnt seem that way… he locked himself in the bathroom” she said wipping the tears off her face.

All I remeber next was getting into my car after the ambulace rushed off and waiting. Hospitals freak me out. you know how in movies they show the caracter sitting in normal time as the surrouding is timelapsed. thats bescause that is how it actually feels sitting in the waiting room waiting on any news from the nurses. The rest of the night went like that a blur of anxious waiting. for anything.

Hillary Hill (she despised that name, by the way), leapt out the window, clutching it in between her teeth.

Jacob Jacobsen (who didn’t actually mind his name), shrieked like a banshee, mimicking the sound his heart made.

Five stories from the ground. Four, Three, Two, One…

He frantically felt for his earpiece and shouted, “Houston, we have a problem!”

Her blonde hair fell over her shoulders as the body hit the ground. The crunch was heard over the hills and across the river, far beyond a place the young man could even imagine.

Jacob didn’t say a word.

But tears fell from his eyes anyway.

Grey Grey (okay, seriously, who picked that name?!), waltzed in like the villian he was, his mouth stretched to each corner of his mouth. His eyes, one red, one blue, quite literally glowed as he arrived at the scene.

Jacob ran down the stairs as fast as he could, flooding with sadness and fear.

“Don’t touch her!” He shrieked

Five stories from the ground, Four,

Grey snapped his fingers, and the two men beside him seized the woman from the ground.

Three,

They pried it from her jaws, ripping the brown paper packaging. They teared it open and shred it to pieces.

Two, One,

“What!!??” Grey cried.

It was a note that read only, not today.

Once was just a breeze, but twice was a pattern, and the town over the hill was beginning to wonder what was happening in the city.

Suddenly, Jacob tossed a small silver object at Grey.

“Here, take it!” He screamed, “Take anything. Take my life for all I care! Just don’t you dare move her with your slimy, vile hands!”

He spat at Grey’s feet, turning the small patch of soil into mud.

Grey smirked and said, “Very well.”

He and his cronies turned, and together they disappeared into the night.

Jacob’s dropped to the ground and sobbed. Carefully, he picked up Hillary and turned her over. Her dress was slipping, and her tights were ripped, and her hair fell over her face, but her eyes were closed, as if she had peacefully passed in her sleep.

His lips were wet and soggy, and still, he pressed them onto hers.

Later that night:

Hillary stood in the doorway, prim and proper in her pajamas.

She smiled to herself and looked at the young man. She hadn’t realized it until now, but Jacob really was rather attractive.

She chuckled and sat lie down on the bed, pulling the covers over herself.

Then she pecked Jacob lightly on the mouth and said, “Just you wait.”

**Have you ever had a moment where you felt like you were in a movie or a musical? When something so absurd happens that you find yourself wondering, Why me? Well, I have, and let me tell you—it’s not a fun experience at all.

My movie ended yesterday, and uhm… yeah, I could live without a sequel or whatever it’s called.**

A DAY BEFORE

“As I got out of the cab, determination instantly filled me. I was finally going to walk the streets of Kejetia alone. It was kind of strange, considering I was born and raised in Kumasi, and with Kejetia being one of the biggest markets, I had been there plenty of times—just never by myself.

The familiar smell of raw fish and meat, mixed with all kinds of food and sweets, eased my nerves a little. I quickly started walking, making sure my bag was securely within my line of sight and that my grip on it was firm.

After minutes of pushing and maneuvering through the crowd and stalls, I finally reached my destination—a cute shop that sold glass figurines and some of the most beautiful jewelry I had ever seen, ones I could actually afford. After chatting with one of the workers, I collected my order, and get this—they added roses as a gift! I couldn’t wait to see his reaction when I gave him his present.

I tried calling to find out about his plans for today, but all I got back was a text saying he was busy and might not make it tonight. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off, especially since we were both on break, but I brushed it aside, continued shopping a bit, and then finally went home to binge-watch anime and call it a day.

A loud growl from my stomach reminded me that I hadn’t eaten all day. Feeling too lazy to cook for just myself, I grabbed my purse, threw on a beanie to cover my messy hair, slipped on my shoes, and left my apartment to go food hunting.”

MOMENTS LATER

“The pounding of my heart and the sting in my palms from my nails digging into them were the only things anchoring me to reality amidst the chaos unfolding around me.

Just a few minutes ago, this was supposed to be a simple, lovely evening. But I guess we don’t always get what we want. And to make matters worse, I kept seeing the shadows of moving bodies reflected on the walls, illuminated by the red and blue flashing lights.

To think that today was supposed to be the day I moved in with him.

I should have just stayed home and cooked instead of coming all this way, only to be jolted awake by the splash of ice-cold water—figuratively speaking.

Somehow, I found myself getting closer to the flashing lights, even though I swore I hadn’t moved an inch.

And then, it all became unbearable—the pain of seeing your person making out with a taller, prettier version of you in a sea of bodies.

The realization hit like a gut punch.

I had spent all this time getting him the perfect gift, only to find him standing there, shamelessly kissing somebody else—on the eve of our engagement.

And to make things even worse, he had the audacity to do it in our favorite place. The place where he had proposed. The same spot under the red and blue lights he always said looked ‘hippie’—and not in a good way.

As I turned and dashed out of there, only one thought played over and over in my mind:

All good things really must come to an end.”

Red and blue light flash in the distance but its not the police

Red and blue lights flash in the distance but its not who you think

Red lights a sign of my wrongdoingss a glowing beam

Blue light a reminder of lifes greatest pleasures a glimmer of hope

Red lights a devil on my shoulder a curse

Blue lights and angel on the other hugging me tight

Red lights an addiction A hellhole

Blue lights Freedom and peace

Red lights Fear of the future Regret of the past

Blue lights Serenity and closure over all

Red lights A mistake and a slipup

Blue lights Forgiveness and reconcile

Red lights The pessimistic view the fire the pain and sorrow

Blue lights The optimistic view the sun the healing and joy

Red lights The sin and the greed

Blue lights The halo The truth

Red lights The bad side of life The worst of the world

Blue lights The good side of life The best of the world

What do I see Lights against the sky Can you see me What’s the reason why

Those lights are low Very low not high Darkness against glow Look and we’ll try

A lonely country road, rural Massachusetts. A normal day, a normal sky, a normal life. Jack was walking home from work at the local AMC it was 5:03PM. Jack hadn't eaten since 11:00 o'clock that morning his stomach was growing. He felt the pangs move through his body and thought of his mother's homemade mac and cheese that was waiting for him just a fifteen-minute walk away.

There was a cool summer breeze that blew over the wheat fields, milling the heads of grain through invisible hands. This was the third week that Jack was back home from college. He was getting a degree in history at The University of Rhode Island. But when he hadn't told his parents was that he had dropped out almost three months before. It was a combination of anxiety, stress, and depression that drove Jack to this decision. Jack had told himself he hadn't been happy for the entire three years he had been in school. It was nothing but cursory friendships, brief acquaintances, and random hookups. Jack thought that moving back home for the summer would clear his mind and he'd finally be able to find that place that his heart yearned for, but mind didn't know where to find it. Somewhere he could be at peace and find relationships that meant something and weren't just the casual human connections that dotted his life, like tiny little holes in a drop ceiling.

Jack's hunger began to ruminate with his existential dread that had he been carrying around for the past month and change. He thought, "Why the hell am I doing this? I could have just continued on for another year or two and got the fucking degree and moved on with my life and had a career." A career in what? Jack had no idea. He had seen shows on the Discovery Channel or CNN who had interviews with "experts", who had the title "History Expert" under their name. Jack thought, fuck it, that's a good enough reason to get a degree. Or at least that's what he had thought 4 years ago when he was in high school and was considering what to do after he graduated. At this point, three weeks into his job at the local AMC, he was reconsidering his decision he made when he was a naive teenager.

More than anything Jack longed for something in his life, a connection, a relationship, meaning. He wanted to wake up on some fine morning and the solution to be there, sitting at the end of his bed looking into his eyes telling him, "Everything is going to be okay".

He knew that's not how things really work out. But god, oh god... he wished it worked like that.

Jack was deep into his own thoughts. He glanced up at the lone country road in front of him, he was getting close to his house at this point. Just one more hill and he would be there. But as his eyes focused and took in the reality around him, he saw something out of the ordinary. Flashing blue and red lights just over the next hill. There was an old stone hedge following the road and the wind whistling through the Maples above him, all leading to the cusp of a hilltop in front of him. His mind started racing. Thinking, "I don't hear sirens", his mind naturally going towards the police, first responders, or firefighters. He was reminded of something he saw on Tik Tok, that first responders don't turn on their sirens when dealing with heart attack victims. He felt his stomach drop. His parents had been the only thing constant in his life at this point. They were kind of a pain in the ass most of the time, but his mom had always was there for him, and his father was to a far more distant manner. He then started thinking of a life without his parents, without support, and he felt a heavy burden fall over his heart. He hadn't realized how much he had been leaning on his parents in the past three months. Calling them to talk about random life events, calling just to talk, calling because he felt they understood him. He then imagined a world without that, and his heart dropped. He knew we couldn't stay with his parents forever, but they had been such a support column recently when everything had felt like a building collapsing around him. His pace started to quicken, and his heart started to beat heavier. He was already making excuses in his head of what it could be. But in the back of his head there is little voice that always said, "It's always this shit that happens to you. Suck it up, kid."

His thoughts starting back to college of the previous fall. He had asked out a new girl in his class, her name was Simone. She was cute, funny, and thoughtful. Jack had asked her out in the least committal possible way. After Simone had left a notebook and the library previous night, Jack had handed back to her after class, and in four words asked her out for coffee.

Jack remembered back to the spring of his freshman year. He was new, like everyone else, and terrified of seeming like a kid. He had started growing out a mustache that really didn't suit him at all. Later he would describe it as a weasel had crawled up onto his face and died. He said that joke to his friend Jacques, a month after they had met in his intro freshman course.

He remembered back to Simone and him sitting in Simone's apartment. He knew it wouldn't have lasted forever; they hadn't been talking to each other for the past few weeks. But as Simone sat him down and passed him a cup of coffee that warmed his hands, like warm gloves in the cool winter chill, he knew what was coming. That was just three months ago. Before he dropped out.

Jack blinked. Returned to the moment. He was running up the hill. Running to the lights that had scared the shit out of him. Already in the back of his mind, somewhere he was not conscious of, his heart was repairing itself. He had made those connections in school that weren't just cursory bullshit. Simone breaking up with him had been the final straw in a camel that made up the mental health crises of the past three years. It had pushed him over the edge, and he broke. The broken things and life don't stay broken usually, Jack knew that. Jack had been through worse. Not much worse. Maybe like a sliver worse. But the love and compassion and friendships and connections and beauty that he had seen throughout his life had prepared him well for this dark moment. His live was crashing down around him, but underneath him he had columns that were supporting him. All he had to do was ask. Asking is always the hardest part.

As Jack crested that hill, he saw something that confused him deeply. There were no police sirens, no first responders. It was a convenience store, right smack dap next to his house. Literal feet from the eastern side of his parent's house. The house he had grown up in. That his parents lived in and still did. Somehow, over the course of eight hours, his parents house had acquired a neighbor. A convenient store with a red and blue flashing light out in the front proclaiming its name, "Hart's Own".

The dread and terror and anxiety that had welded up in Jack died away. In its place came a flood of questions, confusion, and deep existential problems. That Jack would have to deal with. But right now, at this moment, on top of that hill, somewhere in Jack's brain, healing had begun.

Rhodes stops his car, peering out his open window. The night is cool and the breeze makes me draw my coat around my body like a warm hug. Something I haven’t had in a while.

“Cops up ahead,” he says, sighing. “Hide our stash.”

I grab the bundle from next to me and put it in the glove compartment. “Their lights are so bright.”

“They’re just making themselves known. Maybe a DUI stop. We’ll see.”

He starts driving again, going closer to their flashing red and blue lights. He approaches at a slow pace even though there’s no one else on the road.

“They’re blocking the road,” he says, cursing. “I can’t get by! Hey!” He shouts out of his window. The car rocks back and forth as he opens the door and steps closer to the cop car.

When I hear the gunshot, I know it’s not a cop car at all. My senses take over and I go into a panic, crawling into the driver’s seat and backing away as I watch Rhodes’ body fall and a shadow of a figure step forward with one flare in each hand. One blue, one red. What we thought was a cop car was just a car.

The towering figure turns towards me, hauling one of the flares at the car. It narrowly misses.

I had survived the Charlottesville Pyromaniac. Book deals would come, a movie offer, hundreds of interviews. And with them all, while I sat there, done up, throughout the years, Rhodes was always standing behind me - decaying more and more each year until he was nothing but a festering mass of flesh on some journalist’s carpet.

No one else seemed to see him.

It’s not the kind of thing you notice. It follows six car lengths behind. You’re driving to pick up prescriptions and secret candy because you are always getting prescriptions these days and you find yourself wondering why does everyone have on their high beams. People are jerks. You find yourself wondering when did it start getting so dark so quickly. Not realizing that it is you who are dimming. You find yourself lost, again and again. Losing familiar streets and landmarks like drugstore reading glasses as the night becomes a light smeary Thomas Kinkade Christmas Village. My periphals draw in. Trees lose twigs. Signs become hieroglyphs as I weave around headlight sparklers. I’m no comic book hero; no additional senses are heightened, no heartwarming gain of gratitude for new-founded wisdom. Went to the eye doctor and was told my eye health is within normal range for a person of my age. Night blindness as inevitable as gray hairs, as indignant as the small type menus. So I hurry to beat the night. Maybe it’s fitting after a life of recognizing subleties that a generous chunk of my world goes black and white, dark and light, bleary brightness to inky surprises. I read somewhere that nearly a quarter of the brain is devoted to vision. That could be false info tucked in my brain betwen the origins of po-boys and a group of turkeys is called a rafter of turkeys. If true what if a quarter of me is not me, no longer me, Who is this older person speeding through the alien landscape? When will I be my mother, my fathers, abandoning night drving all together. Not yet, not soon, but one day just around a corner I can no longer see.

PLEASE LISTEN TO SAFEWORD BY TV GIRL DURING THIS.

The party was loud, bustling through the whole house. Your voice had to go up octaves to be heard as if you were whispering, and they loved it. They all did. It was all they wanted, for now. No matter what obstacle was at home, whatever trouble. They were safe in one of the most unsafe ways.

But it wasn’t them.

It had been going on for hours at this point, the air humid and filled with many (illegal) smells. A few people speed-walk out to the back and throw up, laughing and leaning their head on the wall for support. Each and every one of them go back to what they were doing to get themselves to that point, without a care.

But its not them.

Someone dropped a pill in that drink, spit in the other. Poured one on someones head, but the party didn’t stop because of it, like in the movies. Nobody noticed. No one notices when you’re a nobody. Because you always are. Who are you to 8 billion and growing?

But no.

It won't be them.

The song changes and everyone screams someone says ‘safeword’ and someone else ‘tv girl’. A girl pukes on him. A boy hits another. What is this?

What is this world?

the viewer, the judger and the judged gets up. When the door bursts open, its not them. When the music stops and all you can hear is the clink of handcuffs, its still, not them. When someone yells, its them, but just this once. And when the gun goes off. It was never them.

blue and red lights flash, but its not the police. Its just the consequences of someone else’s actions.

And their own.

But it was never them.