My evening in Piter.

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:52 pm

I am in St. Petersburg finishing up some work and clearing off some big ticket items off from my plate. I decided to go for a walk over at Petergof, Peter I's Versailles that butts up against the Gulf of Finland. It is tourist season but they are gone back to their tour buses and hotels early in the evening since the park officially buttons up around 18:00 or so, even though sunset is not until shortly after 22:00 these days. The tourists do not know the "unofficial" entrances into the park, even if they were around. I went through the park and out the other side past the Ministry of Defense's storage area towards the Petergof train station. I went beyond the station into The English Forest - I do not understand why it has been so named. Maybe Natasha knows. She grew up out that way.

I passed by two teenagers that seemed to have some kind of interest in me. They never broke eye contact with me. They were whispering to each other, and of course I could hear them, however, they were not speaking Russian, English, or German. After several paces I noticed that I could no longer hear their footsteps. I turned around and they had stopped and were staring at me. I could not see their faces in the darkness of the forest, but I could see their eyes clearly. I started to walk towards them when from behind me I heard a familiar cry for help, "Kolya, help me!" And I spun around--I would have heard someone coming up behind me but I heard nothing but the voice--I saw the ghostly apparition of the boy flying towards me. All I really could see was his head coming straight at me.

As his body passed through mine a flash of toothy maw latched on to my forearm which I had brought to keep my vital organs safe. I rolled with the force of the impact and as I came up I spun to put this creature between me and the teens further down the path. And then I felt three sharp pains 2cm apart jab about about 2.5cm into my abdomen. It was not a dangerous attack but the pain was extremely sharp and it shot through my entire body. I had drawn my pistol and unloaded a few rounds into the creature's midsection, and it flew off of me to the ground where even then I could not get a clear look at the creature. It looked like a bulldog--oversized head with undersized hind quarters, except it did not have dog legs on the back, but something like chicken legs with three nasty looking talons on each foot.

I looked up and the teens were gone. The dogcreature bolted off down the path and started crashing through the forest off the path. I started to run, the pain paralysed me for a moment, but then I managed to fight through. By the time I caught up to the dogcreature it was moving down another path--the paths criss-cross the forest--and I could see it was running towards the teens standing at a bend in the path. I stopped and despite the pain, heavy breathing, darkness, and blurry vision I managed to get a few clean hits on the dogcreature. It was pulling itself with its front paws towards the teens who were not reacting to anything at all. As I closed the distance between me and the dogcreature I reloaded and a few more rounds turned it into goo.

The teens looked up from the goo and at me. They looked so apathetic, horrifyingly apathetic, as if they had no life to them whatsoever. My vision was getting more blurred and my breathing was not slowing down. Then they started to shift like a bad TV signal. We stood there staring at each other in silence, my pistol ready to shoot, when they completely phased out. I stepped forward and waved my hand. They were gone.

And then I noticed the pain in my stomach and my arm. I winced, and started to double over. I tried to blink away the blur and I tried to slow my breathing. I sat down with my back against a birch tree. I pulled out my mobile phone to make a call but the screen was black. The battery had died although I just recharged it the previous day. As I was slipping the mobile back into my pocket I heard a train approaching the train station, which allowed me to get some sort of bearings back.

By this time it was getting darker, especially in the dense forest, as the sun sank over the horizon. The forest had come to life. The paths were light grey and blending into the forest which was now full of gaping maws, towering shadows, men in derby hats and cloaks, and all manner of odd sights. As I walked through this gauntlet I switched on my little flashlight but instead of dispelling the demons it only summoned more crazy demons that danced as I walked. Some shooting out on the path at me, some deeper in the forest, watching me, waiting for me to stop.

My light flashed across the eyes of a creature on the path, which glowed a yellow-green colour. It was a cat and it was walking towards me. "No, it's no cat. It's the demon's familiar, the witch's spy. Shoot it!" I raised my pistol. "No. It's just a cat." I am not an indecisive man and the indecision was exascerbated by the fogging up of my mind's eye and my other senses was paralysing me. I began hearing loud noises in my head; a cacophony of drums, cymbals, voices, gunfire, screaming, crying, laughing, vehicles, bombs, grenades, and then a familiar voice behind me which cut through it all like a scalpel, "Kolya, calm down." I spun around just in time to see the little boy standing in the path and suddenly he disappeared in a wisp of soft blue light. The cat was climbing up my jeans. Its weight was odd and it pulled me to the ground.

I remember thinking, "that's one clean cat." If you ever met a stray out here, you would notice it, too. It's fur was soft, well groomed, and the cat did not smell in the least. As if my hands were controlled by someone else I gingerly lifted my shift which had stuck to my wounds in dried blood by now, and then the cat started licking them. As it licked the wounds faded away. And then it went to work on my forearm. When it had finished it jumped off me and disappeared into the forest.

The fog is clearing up rapidly now.

Eilonwy Solstice · Post by **Eilonwy Solstice** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:51 pm

. . .? I’m not sure what to say, yet. I’ll have to sift through this information and meditate on it carefully . . . .

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:17 pm

Let me know what you come up with.

I will be in the States soon. A few things I need to talk to you about as well.

Eilonwy Solstice · Post by **Eilonwy Solstice** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:23 pm

Kolya wrote:I will be in the States soon. A few things I need to talk to you about as well.

Oh? Does it need to be a private conversation?

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:26 pm

Eilonwy Solstice wrote:
Kolya wrote:I will be in the States soon. A few things I need to talk to you about as well.

Oh? Does it need to be a private conversation?

That is up to you, actually. One of my colleagues just contacted you... a sort of head's up pre-conversation thing going on.

Eilonwy Solstice · Post by **Eilonwy Solstice** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:52 pm

I got it, thanks. I need to . . . think about it, before answering.

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:56 am

The details of the hypnosis cannot be divulged.

This much, however, I can share: the chances are very slim that it was the doing of Nightmare Ron.

If it was not him, then who? Some folks around here have put their money on dym.

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:29 pm

I'm still not sure Not Me is gone . . . even if it wasn't a part of what happened to you.

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:39 pm

There is something in the back of my head saying, "it's Nightmare Ron".

Willie Long · Post by **Willie Long** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:37 pm

Ron Caliburn wrote:I'm still not sure Not Me is gone . . .

What makes you think Nightmare Ron was destroyed?

Shadowstalker · Post by **Shadowstalker** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:59 pm

Not to many things to indicate he is gone. Just wondering if he is the one behind this or not?

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:56 am

He's been silent since Eilonwy and I tag teamed him . . . is it too much to ask that it was the end of him?

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:48 am

I would not normally think so.

He has caused me so much suffering that I guess I'm being a little irrational.

Shadowstalker · Post by **Shadowstalker** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 12:46 pm

Don't know Kolya, but maybe you aren't being irrational.

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 1:57 pm

Nobody has a monopoly of suffering where Not Me is concerned - so if he still is around, none of y'all try to do me any favours by "saving" him for me.

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:58 pm

That's actually a thought never entered my mind.
Never will either.

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:06 pm

Good.

Just making sure it was common knowledge.

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:31 pm

I don't think it can be repeated too much.

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:32 pm

Fair enough.

Willie Long · Post by **Willie Long** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:13 pm

Ron Caliburn wrote:He's been silent since Eilonwy and I tag teamed him . . . is it too much to ask that it was the end of him?

Hmm. Must have been something else.

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:15 pm

One can hope.

Shadowstalker · Post by **Shadowstalker** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:18 pm

Yeah but with the Boon not showing up, I wouldn't be surprised that the joker is still around.

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:21 pm

Perhaps - though maybe he lost it or traded it away.

Shadowstalker · Post by **Shadowstalker** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:25 pm

Not a good thought, but I can't see him giving something like that away.

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:26 pm

Maybe he found something he might consider more valuable.

Shadowstalker · Post by **Shadowstalker** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:29 pm

Uh that is perhaps a more frightening thought.

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:31 pm

Whatever it could be of course.

Natasha · Post by **Natasha** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:48 pm

No I do not know why they named it English Forest. Of course, I was preoccupied with worrying about more important things.

By the way, did you find your shell casings or were you warped somewhere else?

GhostSpider · Post by **GhostSpider** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:12 am

Um, i'm lost. What Boon?

Ron Caliburn · Post by **Ron Caliburn** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:16 am

Boon was a trinet Shadow lost when Not Me came to be. SOmethign that allows for the crossing of certain veils of reality.