Hello Lazlo Society. My name is Magdalena. I was born into a cult. They committed mass suicide in anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ. I was unable to save anyone but myself, not even my own children. After I escaped I then met a guy in a homeless shelter, a preacher man, and he opened up my eyes to the true message of Jesus Christ and magic. I never understood magic, but he did, and he used it frequently to help those in need.

One night he was performing a midnight ritual to heal the chronic and debilitating pain of two others when something went wrong. I was always nervous at the rituals so I never participated. I would sit in the car and wait. I was sitting in the car that night reading a book while waiting when there was a bright red flash in the sky; the light sprawled like a chaotic spider web through the clouds, pulsating between red, pink, and white colors. After only a second it was over and then I felt the car shake violently. And in a second that too was over.

I was shaking with fear in the car but in a couple of minutes I worked up the courage to venture out. I grabbed my flashlight and ran towards the ritual site. There was no sign of my friend or the others he had brought with him. I called their names and nothing returned my call. I looked around but I did not see anything whatsoever. All that I found was his notebook on the ground.

I sat down on the ground holding the notebook in my hands, rocking back and forth in tears. When I noticed the sun was rising it was then that I started having visions of something terrible that happened in that place to my friend and the two others he wanted to help.

The police exonerated me but unfortunately my little community could not find a way to forgive me. So I left there and settled in another small community where I was able to make clothes and provide other assistance for people in need.

That was a year ago.

I always had this feeling in the back of my head that he would find me and make contact with me. It never happened. Over the last few months the emptiness and sadness has worsened and I'm starting to lose control of myself in a downward spiral of despair and depression.

Instead of waiting for him to come to me. I decided to look for him. My hope is that finding him will fill the emptiness and be a source of happiness for me. I always felt good when he was around, and ever since he's been gone I just feel miserable no matter what I try to do to stop it.

Which brings me to the Lazlo Society. I need help finding my friend, which I think starts with confirming that those visions I had were accurate or not.

Please help me.

GhostSpider wrote:What did you see in your vision?

It was dark, except that there was some light from the lightning streaking through the clouds. But it was not a lot of light; it was just enough to see shapes and shadows, not a lot of details. I did see something come from the light in the sky, however. There was a sort of thick syrupy mess that shot from the sky like a lightning bolt of reddish syrup streaking out of the sky. It hit one of the participants in the head and as she stumbled the syrup started to spread over her head. Within a few seconds she stopped stumbling and fell straight to the ground, motionless. The light in the sky disappeared rather quickly and the night was very dark. It was only at this point that I could hear things that was going on. I heard my friend and the other participant run into the wooded area and then I heard several shrieks, screams, and horrified yells that quickly went silent.

Ron Caliburn wrote:From one who escaped and then went back for my daughter, yo have friends here.

When I escaped I was depending on someone I thought I could trust to come witih me, and my daughters. My daughters were taken from me shortly after they were born. I never got to raise them or spend very much time with them. I don't know what happened, but I waited several minutes for them before I heard the dogs coming. I had to run. I managed to get to the highway and hitch a ride before they were able to catch up to me. I don't know if I was betrayed or what. I do know that my daughters were killed in the mass suicide perpetrated by the cult leaders; the death of the cult leaders has yet been confirmed or denied. But first thing's first, I need to find my friend to get a few answers before I can work on anything else.

Hannah wrote:Hi Magdalena,

Can I call you Maggie?

There's lots of good cult busters here, 'specially my Pa. They helped ta rescue me from the cult I grew up in last March.

I'm glad for you that you got away. I know how scared I was when I knew they was gonna rescue me. I was so sad that my mom decided ta stay behind.

I still miss her.

Hannah.

PS: If the leaders weren't with the others, maybe they have started a new cult ta continue on their work?

It is ok to call me Maggie. I will get used to it just fine, I think.

I do not know anything about who or where the leaders are at this time. I know that Rigel and Arcturus are not their real names, and I have nothing to use to assist scrying their whereabouts.

My hope is that my friend might know something. I have spent time looking in newspaper archives and online, but I cannot find anything reported about our cult, even the news of the mass suicide - perhaps it was not big enough to make news. I don't know.

Your mom made what she thought was the best decision for you. She misses you, too, I'm sure of it. Maybe she is ready to be rescued. Whatever the case, I hope you get to reunite with her. I look forward to reuniting with my daughters somewhere, sometime. Like I said, they were taken from me and I only saw them occasionally. I'm terrified that I won't recognize them, if I ever get to see them again in this life, the next life, or whatever life.

I used to be sure in so many things, but now I'm not sure in anything. But what I do know is that no mother should live without her children.

Anyway, I have an appointment with someone who will help me, I hope.

Clarity says sometimes the visions can be reenacted.

To be perfectly frank, I have no idea about that. But I might be able to help if you have any details on the ritual or are willing to share your freind's name.

Ethan Skinner wrote:Clarity says sometimes the visions can be reenacted.

To be perfectly frank, I have no idea about that. But I might be able to help if you have any details on the ritual or are willing to share your freind's name.

I never learned the ritual, but I remember some details about it. He talked a lot about magic, it was his passion, so I heard things over and over again. Anyway, I know that he used a hemp rope to create a circle for him and the two others and he carried with him that night a bottle of homemade bitters. Their pain was intestinal and several specialist doctors could not diagnose their problem, but this ritual would provide them with weeks of health.

If my vision could be re-enacted that would really go far in understanding what exactly happened that night. I am sure the ritual did not go wrong as he was well experienced. He did say that Random Chance can sometimes be cruel and vicious.

I will be in touch with you soon. This woman I visited turned out to be a charlatan. Or maybe I just didn't like what she had to say. I need to calm down, a storm is welling up in my mind.

Thanks Ethan. I will contact you soon.

I have been focusing on my vision and looking at the little details. The rope had not been placed on the ground when the female participant was killed, and looking closer, I determined that it was not Random Chance, but something that my friend did intentionally, and then scrambled into the woods apparently in a magical duel with the other participant. Unfortunately, I don't know who won that battle. Neither do I know why he killed that woman - there was no audio, just him suddenly conjuring an invocation against her. Why would he do that? I believe he felt that he was in danger, but I admit that I cannot believe that he was into evil and that those midnight rituals were nothing more than what he told me they were: "all for the good of people that are not otherwise getting the help and comfort they need".

Some sources have repeatedly told me that my friend is dead but have failed to contact him through seance or any other psychic methods, which makes me wonder - is he actually dead? How would they know one way or another if they cannot connect to his spirit? It's a big confusing mess.

Part of the problem is that I have nothing of his to Object Read or otherwise use to try to determine the truth about his condition. It may be that he is hiding somewhere and in trouble or God forbid doing evil somewhere.

That night I did as he told me to do if there was ever a problem: run. I went straight to the police and within a few days they exonerated me having absolutely no leads other than my claims, and being known as somewhat crazy, the police did not seem to take my tale seriously or they wanted the community to handle it since it was well-known my friend and I were good friends. Indeed, the community was leaving signs that I was not welcome or safe anymore; so early one morning I again left everything behind to start again on rebuilding my life.

I have spent the last year trying to rebuild my life and waiting for something to happen. But I can't wait any longer. The need to contact him, though, has grown stronger and there is a noticeable sense of urgency to the sensations I am experiencing. I believe that he is directing these sensations towards me, and that he has something to to tell me, perhaps something about my children. But I'm probably just being too optimistic.

Sasha, I will contact you in private. Some of the things you have said are disturbing and I think might be the case, at least to some degree or another.

Ethan, can you tell me how to contact Clarity or have Clarity contact me?

Thank you everyone for your help. I will let you know what happens with me but for now I'm getting shaky again and nervous and it's hard to focus. I better go walk around the building and try to calm down.

Ron Caliburn wrote:Any of our ritual specialists know anything about the signifigance fo the rope?

This is a time we need KT on the ball.

My friend preferred the hemp rope because it was all-natural and better for ritual use. Lately I start to wonder how much he told me was actually true or not. I had seen him use the rope to create a circle in which he performed minor rituals and invocations. Maybe it was just part of his 'style'.

I apologize for not following, but who is KT and what is happening? I am trying to catch up on the goings on here, but real life has other things that require my time and attention.

Thanks Sasha. I'm trying to read things here. I know a few more things now. And I have a better understanding of myself, my situation, and of my experiences. In all our talks about magic, my friend never really spoke that much about ghosts. I guess perhaps he did not have as much knowledge about them. Fascinating conversation. When we have time, let's do it again, ok?

In the meantime, I am going to take your advice about this weekiend. Wish me luck.

Natasha wrote:Is there anyone who can help you?

That's what we're trying to figure out.

And that's why she's here.

Natasha wrote:I guess that was a stupid question. I didn't mean it like that though.

There is no such thing as a stupid question, Natasha.

Natasha wrote:I guess that was a stupid question. I didn't mean it like that though.

Yes, I understand what you meant. This guy at work, closest thing to a friend I have here, has decided to take charge of my wellbeing but honestly I don't know what he'd do if something actually leaps out of the shadows. He does amazing things at the clinic but he's not the fighter type.

Sasha and I spoke on the phone for a bit and Ethan is going out of his way to be helpful as well. Feels good.

And don't worry, I'm sleeping with one eye open, garlic and bowls of vinegar all round me.

Back to work. More busy than usual today.

It looks like nothing got loose, too.

I intend to find out whether or not anything got loose, as well as answers to the many other questions which I have floating around in my head.

I met with Clarity yesterday and she was extremely helpful getting things sorted out; it was a sort of peer review of my vision and thoughts. You know how it works.

I will be heading out to finish my journey at some point today. I just need to calm down a bit. I really was unable to sleep last night and I'm feeling restless and energetic. I must get centered. I must calm down.

I pushed through the door of the little diner where Clarity and I decided to meet. She told me that she would be sitting at the table in the middle of the room. As I made my way towards the table I passed a blonde-haired man tapping on the keyboard of his laptop and sipping from his mug of coffee. As I approached the table in the middle of the diner I saw Clarity sitting at the table. In front of her was an empty plate and it looked as if she were staring into it. Her head, face down as if studying every detail of the plate befor her, was propped up by her fists. As I neared her, she stood up to greet me.

Clarity is tiny, but looks like a dancer or a gymnast - small and lithe, let's say: hardly over five feet tall and just under 100 pounds. Her sunglasses, although not needed in the diner, did not look strange or out of place; on her, they worked. But the first thing you notice about her is her platinum hair. Once I took it all in, I realized that it was impossible to tell her age; but if I had to guess, a teenager, sixteen maybe seventeen.

I had a later start than I hoped, so I ordered some food before we got down to business. I needed the food to help calm my nerves anyway. We spoke about a few different things, the past, the future, expectations, wandering from topic to topic as if we chatted often over pancakes and tea. I ate fast. We went somewhere out of sight and out of mind of the diner so that we could get down to the reason why we agreed to meet: she wanted to see my vision and wondered if there was anything she could have offer to help me.

I calmed down as much as possible and then she put her hands at my temples and within a few seconds she had been able to download, so to speak, my vision and see it for herself. That was the first talking point. We decided to focus on the last bits of the vision where my friend was already in the wooded area and out of sight. There were a few things that Clarity noticed and pointed out to me, which she suggested I meditate and focus upon once I arrive at the place where this happened; she said that this would help me to verify whether or not we heard what we actually thought we heard. I will wait until I know for sure to speak more about this.

So we moved on. I gave her the notebook and she was able to pull some details about my friend's last moments via retrocognition methods. We had spoke about the notebook previously and Clarity said that she was sure that what the others were saying was true. I still have not grown accustomed to hearing this as I always felt he was still alive. She seemed to pick up on this and added a few words of hope, which was a perspective from which I had not seen things. And unlike the others she did not claim that she could give me the opportunity to speak to my friend's spirit through seance or some sort of magic. That is something which I have to figure out for myself how to do, I guess.

It is very overwhelming the information. I needed to calm down. I was apologizing and telling that I should go, but Clarity helped me to calm down and said that she would stick around as long as I needed her help. After pacing around a bit I repeated some of the questions I had just asked; patiently, she answered them, again, her answers spoke to my emotions. In short order, my pacing turned into a stroll and I was feeling ready to head out. The worst part is not knowing, but Clarity helped me calm down and maybe helped me to learn a thing or two, but still so much left for me to figure out. So that's where I am going now, looking for the rest of the answers.

I thanked her one last time and got back on the road, with my final destination only a few hours up the road. I have arrived at my hotel room. I have typed up this message. And now I am going to bed. I have a long couple of days ahead of me.

The above was typed yesterday. I did not get to start my journey due to a flat tire. That's taken care of. I'm on my way.... at last.

Overwhelming is a very good word for it.

Pace yourself. It's ok to take a break and hold on to something solid for a bit.