Jensen ackles wife supernatural episode

Supernatural

2008.08.17 16:22 Supernatural

Subreddit dedicated to the TV show Supernatural on the CW Network, starring Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins.
[link]


2012.03.11 04:30 SoftAsMoss Jensen Ackles

Jensen Ackles is an actor, director, producer, and musician.
[link]


2020.04.04 17:11 wackywillbob Radio Company

A subreddit dedicated to the band Radio Company featuring Steve Carlson and Supernatural's Jensen Ackles
[link]


2023.06.03 20:27 AutoModerator Here's Where To Watch >>Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<< Online For Free Streaming On REDDiT

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The storyline follows DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as he tries to find his way home after being stranded on an alien planet. DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is definitely a DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania movie you don't want to miss with stunning visuals and an action-packed plot! Plus, DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania online streaming is available on our website. DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania online is free, which includes streaming options such as 123movies, Reddit, or TV shows from HBO Max or Netflix! DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Release in the US DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters on December 23, 2023. Tickets to see the film at your local movie theater are available online here. The film is being released in a wide release so you can watch it in person. How to Watch DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania for Free? release on a platform that offers a free trial. Our readers to always pay for the content they wish to consume online and refrain from using illegal means. Where to Watch DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? There are currently no platforms that have the rights to Watch DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Movie Online.MAPPA has decided to air the movie only in theaters because it has been a huge success. The studio, on the other hand, does not wish to divert revenue Streaming the movie would only slash the profits, not increase them. As a result, no streaming services are authorized to offer DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Movie for free. The film would, however, very definitely be acquired by services like Funimation, Netflix, and Crunchyroll. As a last consideration, which of these outlets will likely distribute the film worldwide? Is DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on Netflix? The streaming giant has a massive catalog of television shows and movies, but it does not include 'DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.' We recommend our readers watch other dark fantasy films like 'The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.' Is DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on Crunchyroll? Crunchyroll, along with Funimation, has acquired the rights to the film and will be responsible for its distribution in North America. Therefore, we recommend our readers to look for the movie on the streamer in the coming months. subscribers can also watch dark fantasy shows like 'Jujutsu Kaisen.' Is DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on Hulu? No, 'DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' is unavailable on Hulu. People who have a subscription to the platform can enjoy 'Afro Samurai Resurrection' or 'Ninja Scroll.' Is DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on Amazon Prime? Amazon Prime's current catalog does not include 'DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.' However, the film may eventually release on the platform as video-on-demand in the coming months. fantasy movies on Amazon Prime's official website. Viewers who are looking for something similar can watch the original show 'Dororo.' When Will DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Be on Disney+? DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the latest installment in the DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania franchise, is coming to Disney+ on July 8th! This new movie promises to be just as exciting as the previous ones, with plenty of action and adventure to keep viewers entertained. you're looking forward to watching it, you may be wondering when it will be available for your Disney+ subscription. Here's an answer to that question! Is DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on Funimation? Crunchyroll, its official website may include the movie in its catalog in the near future. Meanwhile, people who wish to watch something similar can stream 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.' DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Online In The US? Most Viewed, Most Favorite, Top Rating, Top IMDb movies online. Here we can download and watch 123movies movies offline. 123Movies website is the best alternative to DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's (2021) free online. We will recommend 123Movies as the best Solarmovie alternative There are a few ways to watch DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania online in the US You can use a streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video. You can also rent or buy the movie on iTunes or Google Play. watch it on-demand or on a streaming app available on your TV or streaming device if you have cable. What is DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania About? It features an ensemble cast that includes Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, and Chris Pine. In the film, a young wife living in a 2250s company town begins to believe there is a sinister secret being kept from her by the man who runs it. What is the story of Don't worry darling? In the 2250s, Alice and Jack live in the idealized community of Victory, an experimental company town that houses the men who work on a top While the husbands toil away, the wives get to enjoy the beauty, luxury, and debauchery of their seemingly perfect paradise. However, when cracks in her idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something sinister lurking below the surface, Alice can't help but question exactly what she's doing in Victory. In ancient Kahndaq, Teth Adam bestowed the almighty powers of the gods. After using these powers for vengeance, he was imprisoned, becoming DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Nearly 5,000 years have passed, and DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has gone from man to myth to legend. Now free, his unique form of justice, born out of rage, is challenged by modern-day heroes who form the Justice Society: Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone. Production companies: Warner Bros. Pictures. At San Diego Comic-Con in July, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had other people raising eyebrows when he said that his long-awaited superhero debut in DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would be the beginning of “a new era” for the DC Extended Universe naturally followed: What did he mean? And what would that kind of reset mean for the remainder of DCEU's roster, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the rest of the Justice League, Suicide Squad, Shazam, and so on. As DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania neared theaters, though, Johnson clarified that statement in a recent sit-down with Yahoo Entertainment (watch above). “I feel like this is our opportunity now to expand the DC Universe and what we have in DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which I think is really cool just as a fan, is we introduce five new superheroes to the world,” Johnson tells us. Aldis Hodge's Hawkman, Noah Centineo's Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell's Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate, who together comprise the Justice Society.) “One anti-hero.” (That would be DJ's DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.) “And what an opportunity. The Justice Society pre-dated the Justice League. So opportunity, expand out the universe, in my mind… all these characters interact. That's why you see in DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we acknowledge everyone: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Flash, we acknowledge everybody.There are also some Easter eggs in there, too. So that's what I meant by the resetting. Maybe resetting' wasn't a good term. only one can claim to be the most powerful superhero. And Johnson, when gently pressed, says it's his indestructible, 5,000-year-old Kahndaqi warrior also known as Teth-Adam, that is the most powerful superhero in any universe, DC, Marvel, or otherwise "By the way, it's not hyperbole because we made the movie."And we made him this powerful. There's nothing so wrong with “DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” that it should be avoided, but nothing—besides the appealing presence of Dwayne Johnson—that makes it worth rushing out to see. spectacles that have more or less taken over studio filmmaking, but it accumulates the genre's—and the business's—bad habits into a single two-hour-plus package, and only hints at the format's occasional pleasures. “DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” feels like a place-filler for a movie that's remaining to be made, but, in its bare and shrugged-off sufficiency, it does one positive thing that, if nothing else, at least accounts for its success: for all the churning action and elaborately jerry-rigged plot, there's little to distract from the movie's pedestal-like display of Johnson, its real-life superhero. It's no less numbing to find material meant for children retconned for adults—and, in the process, for most of the naïve delight to be leached out, and for any serious concerns to be shoehorned in and then waved away with dazzle and noise. DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” offers a moral realm that draws no lines, a personal one of simplistic stakes, a political one that suggests any interpretation, an audiovisual one that rehashes long-familiar tropes and repackages overused devices for a commercial experiment that might as well wear its import as its title. When I was in Paris in 1983, Jerry Lewis—yes, they really did love him there—had a new movie in theaters. You're Crazy, Jerry."DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania " could be retitled 'You're a Superhero, Dwayne'—it's the marketing team's PowerPoint presentation extended to feature length. In addition to being Johnson's DC Universe debut, “DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is also notable for marking the return of Henry Cavill's Superman. The cameo is likely to set up future showdowns between the two characters, but Hodge was completely unaware of it until he saw the film. “They kept that all the way under wraps, and I didn't know until maybe a day or two before the premiere,” he recently said DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) FULL MOVIE ONLINE Is DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Available On Hulu? Viewers are saying that they want to view the new TV show DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on Hulu. Unfortunately, this is not possible since Hulu currently does not offer any of the free episodes of this series streaming at this time. the MTV channel, which you get by subscribing to cable or satellite TV services. You will not be able to watch it on Hulu or any other free streaming service. Is DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Streaming on Disney Plus? Unfortunately, DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is not currently available to stream on Disney Plus and it's not expected that the film will release on Disney Plus until late December at the absolute earliest. While Disney eventually releases its various studios' films on Disney Plus for subscribers to watch via its streaming platform, most major releases don't arrive on Disney Plus until at least 45-60 days after the film's theatrical release. DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has finally ended the box office blues. It will be a DC: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania call, but based on the estimates, the year's biggest opener remains Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with its $187 million start. Nonetheless, Wakanda Forever's $180 million opening is a huge one, being the biggest ever for the month of November (beating the $158 million of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), the second biggest of the year, and the 13th biggest of all time (though it could go up or down a few slots once the actuals come out). It led an overall weekend box office of $208 million, which is the fourth biggest of the year and the biggest by a long shot of the past four months, with no other weekend since July 8 -10 even going above $133 million.
submitted by AutoModerator to AntManhdnow [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 20:03 badabingbadaboom3 A defense of Haley

Haley gets a lot of hate but honestly every time I watch the show, I’m just deeply saddened for her. So I’d like to present: a defense of Haley.
A common argument I see against her is she knew what she was getting into. I genuinely have no idea why because in season 1, we find out they were high school sweethearts. We also know Hotch was a lawyer first so if they did talk about the future and their goals, it’s very likely he only talked about being a lawyer and nothing to do with the FBI. He misses events with Jack, he forgets things about his life, and he even forgot Jack had an appointment to determine what his medical health issues were.
Taking a look at everyone else on the team:
Gideon: unmarried, damaged relationship with his son
Morgan: largely single, eventually gets into a serious relationship with someone else with a high needs job, and leaves the FBI when a child comes along
Reid: largely single, only serious girlfriend dies
Prentiss: largely single, eventually has a serious relationship with someone from a similar field
Garcia: largely single, only serious relationship is with someone from work
Rossi: largely single, finally marries a fully established older woman with fully grown children.
JJ: JJ is actually the only one that manages to keep a stable and serious relationship and have children but Will also worked in the field so knew exactly what to expect and what he would need to do (become the family man) to make it work.
This is a unit where it’s very clear it’s difficult and near impossible to have stable relationships outside of the job. Despite seeing the consequences of this in Gideon, Hotch kept choosing the unit over his family.
Which takes us to the worst thing Hotch ever did imo. In the episode where the terrorist are trying to bomb the mall where Haley and Jack are taking photos, Morgan asks why he’s not calling Haley to warn her. Hotch replies duty and Morgan has to lowkey shame Hotch into realizing fuck duty, your wife and child are more important. The fact Hotch was willing to risk the life of his wife and child for the job was absolutely horrendous to me and I fully believe that if Haley knew about it, the separation would’ve happened far sooner.
In the episode where she leaves with Jack, he has a way out to a different unit where he would be home every day with no or minimal travel. He could’ve resolved the relationship by taking that path and working it out with her. Instead, he again chooses the job and even takes on the leadership position, completely shutting down any potential of reuniting with Haley and being more present for Jack.
I don’t hate Hotch. I think he was a good boss and a good friend to those he worked with. But he was a shit husband and father and Haley was a saint for putting up with it as long as she did.
submitted by badabingbadaboom3 to criminalminds [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 20:03 daimaou_sama Jethalal's family

I've been binging on tmkoc episodes again from the past month and one thing I've noticed is that jethalal's family is intolerable, it's the definition of toxic family lol
It may be harsh but I'd rather not have a family than have a family like his, a father who always acts holier than thou and somehow manages to blame his son for literally everything. A wife who chooses to prioritise her brother and his antics over her family's wellbeing and a spoilt son who always causes trouble
Compare this to maybe bhide's family who has such a loving wife and a daughter who while does mischief and has fun knows the limit
I know it's just a sitcom and fiction and shouldn't be taken seriously, but it can get annoying at times, to the point i skip gada family's interaction a lot.
submitted by daimaou_sama to TMKOC [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 19:58 AutoModerator How to Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3<< Online For Free ReddiT?

01 sec ago ~ Still Now Here Option to Downloading or watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie streaming the full movie online for free. Do you like movies? If so, then you’ll love the New Romance Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie. This movie is one of the best in its genre. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie will be available to watch online on Netflix very soon!
Update 03 June 2023
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Now Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie available to stream? Is watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Disney Plus, HBO Max, Netflix, or Amazon Prime? Yes, we have found an authentic streaming option/service. A 1950s housewife Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets.
Showcase Cinema Warwick you'll want to make sure you're one of the first people to see it! So mark your calendars and get ready for a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie movie experience like never before. of our other Marvel movies available to watch online. We're sure you'll find something to your liking. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you soon! Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie is available on our website for free streaming. Details on how you can watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie for free throughout the year are described
If you're a fan of the comics, you won't want to miss this one! The storyline follows Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie as he tries to find his way home after being stranded on an alien Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Moviet. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie is definitely a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie movie you don't want to miss with stunning visuals and an action-packed plot! Plus, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie online streaming is available on our website. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie online is free, which includes streaming options such as 123movies, Reddit, or TV shows from HBO Max or Netflix!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Release in the US
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie hits theaters on January 21, 2022. Tickets to see the film at your local movie theater are available online here. The film is being released in a wide release so you can watch it in person.
How to Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie for Free
? release on a platform that offers a free trial. Our readers to always pay for the content they wish to consume online and refrain from using illegal means.
Where to Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie?
There are currently no platforms that have the rights to Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Movie Online.MAPPA has decided to air the movie only in theaters because it has been a huge success.The studio , on the other hand, does not wish to divert revenue Streaming the movie would only slash the profits, not increase them.
As a result, no streaming services are authorized to offer Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Movie for free. The film would, however, very definitely be acquired by services like Funimation , Netflix, and Crunchyroll. As a last consideration, which of these outlets will likely distribute the film worldwide?
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Netflix?
The streaming giant has a massive catalog of television shows and movies, but it does not include 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie.' We recommend our readers watch other dark fantasy films like 'The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.'
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Crunchyroll?
Crunchyroll, along with Funimation, has acquired the rights to the film and will be responsible for its distribution in North America.Therefore, we recommend our readers to look for the movie on the streamer in the coming months. subscribers can also watch dark fantasy shows like 'Jujutsu Kaisen.'
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Hulu?
No, 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie' is unavailable on Hulu. People who have a subscription to the platform can enjoy 'Afro Samurai Resurrection' or 'Ninja Scroll.'
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Amazon Prime?
Amazon Prime's current catalog does not include 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie.' However, the film may eventually release on the platform as video-on-demand in the coming months.fantasy movies on Amazon Prime's official website. Viewers who are looking for something similar can watch the original show 'Dororo.'
When Will Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Be on Disney+?
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie, the latest installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie franchise, is coming to Disney+ on July 8th! This new movie promises to be just as exciting as the previous ones, with plenty of action and adventure to keep viewers entertained. you're looking forward to watching it, you may be wondering when it will be available for your Disney+ subscription. Here's an answer to that question!
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Funimation
? Crunchyroll, its official website may include the movie in its catalog in the near future. Meanwhile, people who wish to watch something similar can stream 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.'
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Online In The US?
Most Viewed, Most Favorite, Top Rating, Top IMDb movies online. Here we can download and watch 123movies movies offline. 123Movies website is the best alternative to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie's (2021) free online. We will recommend 123Movies as the best Solarmovie alternative There are a
few ways to watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie online in the US You can use a streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video. You can also rent or buy the movie on iTunes or Google Play. watch it on-demand or on a streaming app available on your TV or streaming device if you have cable.
What is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie About?
It features an ensemble cast that includes Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, and Chris Pine. In the film, a young wife Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie in a 2250s company town begins to believe there is a sinister secret being kept from her by the man who runs it.
What is the story of Don't worry darling?
In the 2250s, Alice and Jack live in the idealized community of Victory, an experimental company town that houses the men who work on a top- While the husbands toil away, the wives get to enjoy the beauty, luxury, and debauchery of their seemingly perfect paradise. However, when cracks in her idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something sinister lurking below the surface, Alice can't help but question exactly what she's doing in Victory.
In ancient Kahndaq, Teth Adam bestowed the almighty powers of the gods. After using these powers for vengeance, he was imprisoned, becoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie. Nearly 5,000 years have passed, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie has gone from man to myth to legend. Now free, his unique form of justice, born out of rage, is challenged by modern-day heroes who form the Justice Society: Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone.
Also known as Черния Адам
Production companies : Warner Bros. Pictures.
At San Diego Comic-Con in July, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had other people raising eyebrows when he said that his long-awaited superhero debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie would be the beginning of “a new era” for the DC Extended Universe naturally followed: What did he mean? And what would that kind of reset mean for the remainder of DCEU's roster, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the rest of the Justice League, Suicide Squad, Shazam and so on.As
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie neared theaters, though, Johnson clarified that statement in a recent sit-down with Yahoo Entertainment (watch above).
“I feel like this is our opportunity now to expand the DC Universe and what we have in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie, which I think is really cool just as a fan, is we introduce five new superheroes to the world,” Johnson tells us. Aldis Hodge's Hawkman, Noah Centineo's Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell's Cyclone and Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate, who together comprise the Justice Society.) “One anti-hero.” (That would be DJ's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie.)
“And what an opportunity. The Justice Society pre-dated the Justice League. So opportunity, expand out the universe, in my mind… all these characters interact. That's why you see in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie, we acknowledge everyone: Batman , Superman , Wonder Woman, Flash, we acknowledge everybody.There's also some Easter eggs in there, too.So that's what I meant by the resetting.Maybe 'resetting' wasn't a good term.only
one can claim to be the most powerful superhero .And Johnson, when gently pressed, says it's his indestructible, 5,000-year-old Kahndaqi warrior also known as Teth-Adam, that is the most powerful superhero in any universe, DC, Marvel or otherwise
. "By the way, it's not hyperbole because we made the movie."And we made him this powerful.
There's nothing so wrong with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie” that it should be avoided, but nothing—besides the appealing presence of Dwayne Johnson—that makes it worth rushing out to see. spectacles that have more or less taken over studio filmmaking, but it accumulates the genre's—and the business's—bad habits into a single two- hour-plus package, and only hints at the format's occasional pleasures. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie” feels like a place-filler for a movie that's remaining to be made, but, in its bare and shrugged-off sufficiency, it does one positive thing that, if nothing else, at least accounts for its success: for all the churning action and elaborately jerry-rigged plot, there's little to distract from the movie's pedestal-like display of Johnson, its real-life superhero.
It's no less numbing to find material meant for children retconned for adults—and, in the process, for most of the naïve delight to be leached out, and for any serious concerns to be shoehorned in and then waved away with dazzle and noise. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie” offers a moral realm that draws no lines, a personal one of simplistic stakes, a political one that suggests any interpretation, an audiovisual one that rehashes long-familiar tropes and repackages overused devices for a commercial experiment that might as well wear its import as its title. When I was in Paris in 1983, Jerry Lewis—yes, they really did love him there—had a new movie in theaters. You're Crazy, Jerry."Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie " could be retitled 'You're a Superhero, Dwayne'—it's the marketing team's PowerPoint presentation extended to feature length.
In addition to being Johnson's DC Universe debut, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie” is also notable for marking the return of Henry Cavill's Superman. The cameo is likely to set up future showdowns between the two characters, but Hodge was completely unaware of it until he saw the film.
“They kept that all the way under wraps, and I didn't know until maybe a day or two before the premiere,” he recently said Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Wakanda Forever (2022) FULLMOVIE ONLINE
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Available On Hulu?
Viewers are saying that they want to view the new TV show Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Hulu. Unfortunately, this is not possible since Hulu currently does not offer any of the free episodes of this series streaming at this time. the MTV channel, which you get by subscribing to cable or satellite TV services. You will not be able to watch it on Hulu or any other free streaming service.
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Streaming on Disney Plus?
Unfortunately, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie is not currently available to stream on Disney Plus and it's not expected that the film will release on Disney Plus until late December at the absolute earliest.
While Disney eventually releases its various studios' films on Disney Plus for subscribers to watch via its streaming platform, most major releases don't arrive on Disney Plus until at least 45-60 days after the film's theatrical release When Will Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Be on Disney+?
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie, the latest installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie franchise, is coming to Disney+ on July 8th! This new movie promises to be just as exciting as the previous ones, with plenty of action and adventure to keep viewers entertained. you're looking forward to watching it, you may be wondering when it will be available for your Disney+ subscription. Here's an answer to that question!
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Funimation?
Crunchyroll, its official website may include the movie in its catalog in the near future. Meanwhile, people who wish to watch something similar can stream 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.
submitted by AutoModerator to GalaxyVol3hdqfre [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 19:57 AutoModerator Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Online For Free

01 sec ago ~ Still Now Here Option to Downloading or watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie streaming the full movie online for free. Do you like movies? If so, then you’ll love the New Romance Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie. This movie is one of the best in its genre. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie will be available to watch online on Netflix very soon!
Update 03 June 2023
➤►🌍📺📱👉Watch 🔴✅👉 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie HD
➤►🌍📺📱👉Download 🔴✅👉 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie FREE
Now Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie available to stream? Is watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Disney Plus, HBO Max, Netflix, or Amazon Prime? Yes, we have found an authentic streaming option/service. A 1950s housewife Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets.
Showcase Cinema Warwick you'll want to make sure you're one of the first people to see it! So mark your calendars and get ready for a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie movie experience like never before. of our other Marvel movies available to watch online. We're sure you'll find something to your liking. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you soon! Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie is available on our website for free streaming. Details on how you can watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie for free throughout the year are described
If you're a fan of the comics, you won't want to miss this one! The storyline follows Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie as he tries to find his way home after being stranded on an alien Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Moviet. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie is definitely a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie movie you don't want to miss with stunning visuals and an action-packed plot! Plus, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie online streaming is available on our website. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie online is free, which includes streaming options such as 123movies, Reddit, or TV shows from HBO Max or Netflix!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Release in the US
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie hits theaters on January 21, 2022. Tickets to see the film at your local movie theater are available online here. The film is being released in a wide release so you can watch it in person.
How to Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie for Free
? release on a platform that offers a free trial. Our readers to always pay for the content they wish to consume online and refrain from using illegal means.
Where to Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie?
There are currently no platforms that have the rights to Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Movie Online.MAPPA has decided to air the movie only in theaters because it has been a huge success.The studio , on the other hand, does not wish to divert revenue Streaming the movie would only slash the profits, not increase them.
As a result, no streaming services are authorized to offer Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Movie for free. The film would, however, very definitely be acquired by services like Funimation , Netflix, and Crunchyroll. As a last consideration, which of these outlets will likely distribute the film worldwide?
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Netflix?
The streaming giant has a massive catalog of television shows and movies, but it does not include 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie.' We recommend our readers watch other dark fantasy films like 'The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.'
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Crunchyroll?
Crunchyroll, along with Funimation, has acquired the rights to the film and will be responsible for its distribution in North America.Therefore, we recommend our readers to look for the movie on the streamer in the coming months. subscribers can also watch dark fantasy shows like 'Jujutsu Kaisen.'
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Hulu?
No, 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie' is unavailable on Hulu. People who have a subscription to the platform can enjoy 'Afro Samurai Resurrection' or 'Ninja Scroll.'
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Amazon Prime?
Amazon Prime's current catalog does not include 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie.' However, the film may eventually release on the platform as video-on-demand in the coming months.fantasy movies on Amazon Prime's official website. Viewers who are looking for something similar can watch the original show 'Dororo.'
When Will Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Be on Disney+?
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie, the latest installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie franchise, is coming to Disney+ on July 8th! This new movie promises to be just as exciting as the previous ones, with plenty of action and adventure to keep viewers entertained. you're looking forward to watching it, you may be wondering when it will be available for your Disney+ subscription. Here's an answer to that question!
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Funimation
? Crunchyroll, its official website may include the movie in its catalog in the near future. Meanwhile, people who wish to watch something similar can stream 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.'
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few ways to watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie online in the US You can use a streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video. You can also rent or buy the movie on iTunes or Google Play. watch it on-demand or on a streaming app available on your TV or streaming device if you have cable.
What is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie About?
It features an ensemble cast that includes Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, and Chris Pine. In the film, a young wife Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie in a 2250s company town begins to believe there is a sinister secret being kept from her by the man who runs it.
What is the story of Don't worry darling?
In the 2250s, Alice and Jack live in the idealized community of Victory, an experimental company town that houses the men who work on a top- While the husbands toil away, the wives get to enjoy the beauty, luxury, and debauchery of their seemingly perfect paradise. However, when cracks in her idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something sinister lurking below the surface, Alice can't help but question exactly what she's doing in Victory.
In ancient Kahndaq, Teth Adam bestowed the almighty powers of the gods. After using these powers for vengeance, he was imprisoned, becoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie. Nearly 5,000 years have passed, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie has gone from man to myth to legend. Now free, his unique form of justice, born out of rage, is challenged by modern-day heroes who form the Justice Society: Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone.
Also known as Черния Адам
Production companies : Warner Bros. Pictures.
At San Diego Comic-Con in July, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had other people raising eyebrows when he said that his long-awaited superhero debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie would be the beginning of “a new era” for the DC Extended Universe naturally followed: What did he mean? And what would that kind of reset mean for the remainder of DCEU's roster, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the rest of the Justice League, Suicide Squad, Shazam and so on.As
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie neared theaters, though, Johnson clarified that statement in a recent sit-down with Yahoo Entertainment (watch above).
“I feel like this is our opportunity now to expand the DC Universe and what we have in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie, which I think is really cool just as a fan, is we introduce five new superheroes to the world,” Johnson tells us. Aldis Hodge's Hawkman, Noah Centineo's Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell's Cyclone and Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate, who together comprise the Justice Society.) “One anti-hero.” (That would be DJ's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie.)
“And what an opportunity. The Justice Society pre-dated the Justice League. So opportunity, expand out the universe, in my mind… all these characters interact. That's why you see in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie, we acknowledge everyone: Batman , Superman , Wonder Woman, Flash, we acknowledge everybody.There's also some Easter eggs in there, too.So that's what I meant by the resetting.Maybe 'resetting' wasn't a good term.only
one can claim to be the most powerful superhero .And Johnson, when gently pressed, says it's his indestructible, 5,000-year-old Kahndaqi warrior also known as Teth-Adam, that is the most powerful superhero in any universe, DC, Marvel or otherwise
. "By the way, it's not hyperbole because we made the movie."And we made him this powerful.
There's nothing so wrong with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie” that it should be avoided, but nothing—besides the appealing presence of Dwayne Johnson—that makes it worth rushing out to see. spectacles that have more or less taken over studio filmmaking, but it accumulates the genre's—and the business's—bad habits into a single two- hour-plus package, and only hints at the format's occasional pleasures. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie” feels like a place-filler for a movie that's remaining to be made, but, in its bare and shrugged-off sufficiency, it does one positive thing that, if nothing else, at least accounts for its success: for all the churning action and elaborately jerry-rigged plot, there's little to distract from the movie's pedestal-like display of Johnson, its real-life superhero.
It's no less numbing to find material meant for children retconned for adults—and, in the process, for most of the naïve delight to be leached out, and for any serious concerns to be shoehorned in and then waved away with dazzle and noise. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie” offers a moral realm that draws no lines, a personal one of simplistic stakes, a political one that suggests any interpretation, an audiovisual one that rehashes long-familiar tropes and repackages overused devices for a commercial experiment that might as well wear its import as its title. When I was in Paris in 1983, Jerry Lewis—yes, they really did love him there—had a new movie in theaters. You're Crazy, Jerry."Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie " could be retitled 'You're a Superhero, Dwayne'—it's the marketing team's PowerPoint presentation extended to feature length.
In addition to being Johnson's DC Universe debut, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie” is also notable for marking the return of Henry Cavill's Superman. The cameo is likely to set up future showdowns between the two characters, but Hodge was completely unaware of it until he saw the film.
“They kept that all the way under wraps, and I didn't know until maybe a day or two before the premiere,” he recently said Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Wakanda Forever (2022) FULLMOVIE ONLINE
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Available On Hulu?
Viewers are saying that they want to view the new TV show Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Hulu. Unfortunately, this is not possible since Hulu currently does not offer any of the free episodes of this series streaming at this time. the MTV channel, which you get by subscribing to cable or satellite TV services. You will not be able to watch it on Hulu or any other free streaming service.
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Streaming on Disney Plus?
Unfortunately, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie is not currently available to stream on Disney Plus and it's not expected that the film will release on Disney Plus until late December at the absolute earliest.
While Disney eventually releases its various studios' films on Disney Plus for subscribers to watch via its streaming platform, most major releases don't arrive on Disney Plus until at least 45-60 days after the film's theatrical release When Will Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie Be on Disney+?
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie, the latest installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie franchise, is coming to Disney+ on July 8th! This new movie promises to be just as exciting as the previous ones, with plenty of action and adventure to keep viewers entertained. you're looking forward to watching it, you may be wondering when it will be available for your Disney+ subscription. Here's an answer to that question!
Is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Movie on Funimation?
Crunchyroll, its official website may include the movie in its catalog in the near future. Meanwhile, people who wish to watch something similar can stream 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.'
**Aj Amer Mon Valo Na**
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2023.06.03 19:37 CT_Phipps Agents of MORTAL by MK Gibson - Fun police procedural in a fairy-kingdom in Alaska 4.5/5

https://beforewegoblog.com/review-agents-of-mortal-deicide-by-mk-gibson/
DEICIDE (Agents of MORTAL) by M.K. Gibson is the latest offering from an author that has done a lot of books that I’ve enjoyed. I’ve read his TECHNOMANCER, VILLAINS RULE, THE CAPE IS A LIE, and SHE DREAMS OF FIRE novels. Gibson’s book are heavy on the humor, irony, and cynicism with his protagonists tending to be somewhat sardonic heroes in the Harry Dresden mold. This may be my favorite of them, though, which is saying something since the Technomancer books are “What if the Dresden Files were cyberpunk?”
The premise is that the “myths” have come out: gods, goblins, vampires, and more. Unfortunately, this does not result in a renewal of their worship but all of them being rejected by society. The town of Avalantis, Alaska is reserved for them and becomes a city with millions of people in it. Arguably, it’s a nation as opposed to a city and the only reason the city isn’t larger is that space/time gets wonky around it. The size of the Avalantis police force doesn’t really reflect this but my impression is that they’re not actually expected to be able to police the gods, goddesses, and fairies they do. It’s sort of like Twin Peaks having only a handful of cops despite having fifty thousand residents, except more so.
The story follows the recruitment of a up and coming police officer named Jesse into an elite branch of the Avalantis police department called MORTAL. Jesse is a wee bit bitter because despite devoting herself to the APD, she was almost murdered by her partner. It turns out being an overachiever and scrupulously honest cop in a corrupt supernatural reservation doesn’t win you any friends.
However, Jesse’s devotion to the law is just what needed when a politically sensitive case drops itself on MORTAL’s desk: the death of the Greek god Hermes. Apparently, he overdosed on a drug that briefly restores divine power and exploded on a bunch of cops. Who gave him the drug, why, and how much more do they have of it? It’s a fascinating combination of a very street-level story with an epic mystical one.
I was a big fan of supporting character Cassandra Cross, who is a woman that ticks off Jesse in every single way. Whereas Jesse has devoted herself to being meticulous, efficient, conservative, and uptight, Cross is well-liked and laid back. There’s also the fact that Cross doesn’t mind being openly sexual and this plays into a lot of Jesse’s internalized misogyny. Jesse has sacrificed everything to be the top cop she thinks herself to be and is annoyed that Cassandra is seemingly able to be one without having sacrificed a life.
MK Gibson is surprisingly good at mixing dark concepts with gut-busting humor and this is another interesting example of doing so. The gods have been stripped form their fairy holds and kingdoms by the US military before being stuck in the middle of nowhere. They’re angry, annoyed, and have every right to be. However, they’re coping with it and our protagonists have the job of keeping the peace despite not having the power or any real authority to do so. They also don’t even seem to realize, or are willfully blind to, how much of a powder keg the city actually is.
This is not a particularly serious work but is very humorous with barista gods, party girl goddesses, and even a high priest of Cthulhu from Kentucky. One that I’m pretty sure is a reference to me but that only partly influenced my review (zing). I was a bit uncomfortable with the fact people from real religious groups (Buddha, Kali) had their figures under “myths” but M.K. Gibson books have about as reverence for anything as South Park. He’s also an equal opportunity offender to other traditional Western religions so there’s that (you’ll see). It’s basically Brooklyn 99 with gods, magic, and fairies.
The audiobook version of the book is narrated by the dual team of Jeffrey Kafer and Heather Costa (now Heather Kafer), which is an excellent combination of voices. Both are professional and manage to convey the blindingly weird combination of characters present. Jeffrey Kafer also has the excellent deadpan comic timing needed to make the story work. He plays off his then future wife extremely well.
In conclusion, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this book. I think everyone who enjoyed his other books will enjoy this work as well. This is the perfect afternoon comfort food and if you like your stories crass, fun, and with a surprising amount of heart then you will enjoy this. This is a funny, zany, first book in a series that people who don’t take their urban fantasy too seriously will greatly enjoy.
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2023.06.03 19:34 redditnamesucks A fortuitous slip: Did Vietnam's Vice Minister of Education slip and fall to his death? Or did something else happen?

The morning of October 17th 2019 was a cool and bright autumn day, two words rarely used to describe the treacherous Hanoi’s weather, when Lê Hải An arrived at his workplace, the Ministry of Education on 35 Đại Cồ Việt street, Hai Bà Trưng district, Hà Nội. Normally, he would have had a big breakfast at the office canteen then head off to his office at the second floor where he would spend the rest of his day trying to solve the numerous problems plaguing Vietnam’s education.
At 7:10 AM, someone spotted a figure falling from the 8th floor. There was a blood-curling smash; the figure was declared dead on impact. It wasn’t hard for people to identify the man.
In just a few hours, public media across Vietnam would declare that Vice Minister Lê Hải An had died. The reason?
He slipped and fell off the balcony.
The story I am about to tell you is not just a simple fall.
The story I am about to tell you sounds like something out of a conspiracy theory, the one spewed by tinfoil hat wearers on the street, the one peddled by shock websites and fringe extremist forums, the kind that would make you think it was a rejected Hollywood script and not real life. And I must admit, I have to work with secondary foreign sources with many being biased and some outright spewing baseless conspiracy theories. Many original sources had been removed or edited, forever lost into a memory hole resembling that of 1984. In trying to be faithful, I've removed a lot more "fantastical" elements that have no proof to be cross-checked; I will do my best to paint a complete picture of not only who Lê Hải An was, but the treacherous world around him, a nightmarish jungle of political infighting.
To those who don’t believe, I ask you to just give me the benefit of the doubt and remember this one thing:
“This is Vietnam.”
PART 1: The model teacher
In Vietnam, we have this saying: “Tôn sư trọng đạo” meaning “To worship your teachers and to respect your study.” A teacher was not simply a teacher; he/she was the paragon of society, the enlightener, the one who upheld all the virtues of society, who embodied such virtues, and who passed on such virtue to younger generations.
Lê Hải An was one such man.
Born in April 1st 1971 in Hà Nội, An was the son of Lê Hải Châu, a famous educator whose mathematics book was once the golden standard of Vietnamese mathematics education. In fact, if you were in Vietnamese highschool in the 90s to early 2000s, you would have used one of his books. For his contribution, Châu was awarded the title “The People’s Teacher,” a once highly prestigious prize reserved for the most devoted teacher. Given his family’s background, An was said to be set for life.
But An did not take the easy way. He challenged himself continuously, was handpicked as a government-sponsored student to study Mining and Geology at Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography. Even late in his career, he still pursued his passion for the mining industry, successfully defending a thesis on the application of neural networks in the oil industry at the Heriot-Watt University.
Given his background and training, Lê Hải An was made a professor at the Hanoi University of Mining and Geology. At first he was a teacher at the Petroleum department, but rose steadily through the rank. To his students, he was a knowledgeable yet compassionate teacher who never sought to exert his authority; to his colleagues, he was a man of honor, of dignity, representing the paragon of teachers thought to have been lost. Nobody complained when he was made the University’s principal; nobody complained when Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc appointed An to be the Vice Minister of the much troubled Ministry of Education.
Well, maybe not nobody.
PART 2: You have to go to Hà Giang and take the national exam
For every Vietnamese students, nothing struck the fear of God in them worse than the word "National Exam." Not as competitive as the Chinese Gaokao or the Korean Suneung, it is the stuff of nightmare that have made and broken life. Students competed for the sweet sweet spot at the Police Academy and Military Academy (It is in fact more difficult to become a cop or an army officer in Vietnam than to become a doctoteacheengineeIT technician); parents wait anxiously for their children's performance to show off to friends and families; educators wait for the top scores to make their annual achievement look good so they can attract better students to their high school.
Exam season rolled around, and the results were released by July 11th 2018. As soon as the scores came out, all of Vietnam was shocked.
Of all the 64 cities and provinces, Hà Giang scored the highest in the national exam, with the highest number of “Thủ Khoa” or “The top scorer.” This, to many, was a surprise: not only Hà Giang was the poorest province in all of Vietnam, it traditionally had high illiteracy rate, high dropout rate, low graduation rate, low university admission rate, and so on and so forth. The fact that during the same year Hà Giang had the highest rate of failure to graduate from high school also raised eyebrows.
And Hà Giang was not the only province. Sơn La and Hòa Bình, two other terrible performers, also scored suspiciously well, outmatching province such as Thanh Hóa-Nghệ An-Hà Tĩnh who have been known as "Đất Học" or "The land of the studious."
Immediately, people began to cry foul. There was a lot of anger: a lot of students who had worked their whole lives were in danger of losing their spots to some “irregularities.” A common saying began to emerge: “Em phải đến Hà Giang thi đại học” or “You have to go to Hà Giang and take the national exam.” Investigations were launched into the Ministry of Education just one day after the score was released.
Quick investigation revealed that this was not just some "irregularities" but a systematic scheme, raising scores for test-takers: some exam takers received a nine points out of a total of ten points boost for individual exam, and some had their total points raised by thirty points out of a total of forty. Not only that, the exam-takers who benefitted from this were some of the most powerful people in Vietnam. Take the case of Hà Giang: one of the person whose scores were raised was Triệu Ngọc Mai, daughter's of Triệu Tài Vinh, General Secretary of Hà Giang. The Triệu clan ruled Hà Giang as a fiefdom of their own, holding most important positions; they had strong ties with the Minister of Education Phùng Xuân Nhạ, a widely-hated and despised figures for his bare-faced corruption and mismanagement, and the President of Vietnam Trần Đại Quang. People were expecting the investigation would go to nowhere - afterall, who dared to incur the wrath of the President of Vietnam?
Then, out of nowhere, Trần Đại Quang died.
On September 21st 2018, the fit and healthy Trần Đại Quang suddenly passed away from “a rare and unknown virus which he contracted during his trips.”
No more explanation was given. One month later, on November 3rd 2018, Lê Hải An received Decision 1475/QĐ-TTg from Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc himself, making him the Vice Minister of Education and in charge of the National Examination scandal
PART 3: His final moment
For the next year, An worked with diligence, doing his best to hold the perpetrators accountable. By the numerous newspaper articles, it was clear he was the one leading the charge while his superior, Nhạ, kept a low profile and only appeared on the media every now and then to make some empty speech. He worked hard, showing up at his office early and having breakfast in the office’s canteen to save time, then immediately dived into work in his office on the second floor. His work yielded results: 16 bureaucrats were arrested, 222 exam takers were exposed, large sums of bribes were confiscated. To many, perhaps An included, it wasn’t enough. Everyone knew the big fish Nhạ was still out there, and everyone was itching to see him fall.
It was on the morning of October 17th 2019 when Lê Hải An arrived at his workplace, the Ministry of Education on 35 Đại Cồ Việt street, Hai Bà Trưng district, Hà Nội. We had little idea of what had happened on that day, but what we knew painted a very strange picture.
Normally, An would go straight to his office on the second floor, rarely having any reasons to go anywhere else. And, given the early hour, most other offices would be empty.
Yet, on that day, An seemed to have gone to the eighth floor. There was no record of what he was doing there or who he was meeting; the floor also had no camera. Photographs of the crime scene showed a table which supposedly An had sat - this table had an almost empty glass of cold tea, a cigarette pack, and an ashtray with ash in it. Another table was photographed with an old red gym bag and a nylon bag containing non-descript items; next to this table was a chair with another plastic bag containing non-descript items on it. All the tables were seated next to a balcony which was about 80 centimeters tall. An was described to be 180 centimeters tall, and when his body was discovered it was lying parallel to the building from which he fell from next to a tree but seemingly did not hit it.
Given all the evidence, by 8:30 AM it was concluded that An slipped and fell. No more investigation was made
PART 4: The truth won’t set you free
Of course, the conclusion did not satisfy anybody.
On one hand, there is very low trust for the Vietnamese police who have shown their ineptitude and willingness to fake evidence time and time again. With miscarriage of justice cases such as Hồ Duy Hải and Huỳnh Văn Nén fresh in every one’s mind, the police’s conclusion lost even more credits. The fact that the police quickly concluded An slipped and fell only at most two hours after they were notified of the accident and refused to investigate any further reek of a cover-up.
But, even with the benefit of doubt for the police, the idea of An slipping and falling was deemed unthinkable to many. For one thing, people did not understand why An went to the eighth floor when his office was on the second floor. If he was there on business, what business could it be at such an early hour (government offices in Vietnam often begin work at 8:00 AM if not 9:00 AM.) If he was there to meet someone, who was that someone and why was he not investigated? No investigation was made into his phone or email either.
Then there was the balcony.
The balcony was described by some to be eighty centimeter tall, which would make slipping a feasible case for someone 1.8 meter tall like An. However, images from the crime scene show a police man standing next to the balcony and the balcony reaching his chest. Given that the minimum height to be accepted to the police academy is 1.64 meters, we are looking at a 1.2 meter tall balcony at the very least. It will be very hard to slip and fall over, unless someone was leaning over it. But why would anybody do such a thing? Some suggested he was drunk and tired and this could have been the case, but with no toxicology report done on him there was no way to make sure.
Some commentators also pointed out that even if An leaned out and fell, his body would have landed in a perpendicular angle with the building block he was falling out from. Yet, in the crime scene image, he was shown lying parallel to the building, as if he had rolled over on his side. There were no obstacles on the way down so his falling body could not have hit anything. The only thing in his way was a tree, but the branches were very frail and images did not show any conclusive evidence that he hit the tree on his way down.
So, if he did not slip and fall, what else could have happened?
Suicide was also suggested and has remained a strong contender. It must be remembered that An was an important man being surrounded by enemies. He had a very heavy burden to shoulder and had to endure political shenanigans from all sides. Perhaps, the pressure had broken the hitherto earnest teacher who had not had a taste for the wild political arena. So, he decided to go to the eighth floor, climbed over it (which could have required him to drape over the balcony, explaining why his body was found parallel to the building) then let himself fall.
Of course, some don’t agree with the idea. They pointed out he was a very happy, very respected man with a long and promising career, a loving family, and a dedication towards a higher calling. Men like him, they said, rarely killed themselves. While this could be true, this “proof” is very weak as many successful men have committed suicide. Perhaps, he was only showing himself to be happy; perhaps there was something else going on with his life that we would never know.
Finally, and perhaps the most pervasive, is the idea An was killed. Of course, given that this theory was born out of circumstantial evidence not any real evidence, this belongs more to the conspiracy theory bin. The temptation was there: An was leading the crusade against some very powerful individual, many of whom had both the power and desire to get rid of someone like An. If the former President himself could die so mysteriously while in office, who was to say An was safe? The police’s quick conclusion and refusal to investigate any further as well as the image of a supposedly official letter from his wife begging for police protection (now scrubbed off the internet) only added more flame to the fire.
So, assuming An was killed, who had killed him?
The obvious answer to many would be Nhạ: he was An’s boss, he was investigated by An, he could’ve lost his power and friends and influence. He wanted An dead, had the means to do so, and was therefore the prime suspect. The many clans whose children’s road to power An had dashed such as the Triệu clan also had axes to grind with An.
However, there was another suspect.
Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, the man who had appointed An to the position himself.
Before this all happened, Phúc was rumored to be in a power struggle with President Trần Đại Quang and the Ministry of Public Security. After Quang’s death in 2018, Phúc was trying to court Quang’s Department of Public Security to his side. The new head of this Department was Tô Lâm (The man who was videoed eating at Salt Bae’s place in London while Vietnam was under lockdown and starving.) Perhaps, as a gesture of peace, Phúc sold out his subordinate as an “apology.”
Ultimately, given that these theories are born out of the lack of evidence and the coincidence, we cannot accept them as “reasonable.”
PART 5: Farewell
On the 21st of October 2019, Lê Hải An’s funeral was held. It was a simple affair and yet it attracted thousands of mourners, ranging from the Vietnamese elites to his students. To many, the loss of An was a great loss to this world. Even without his work to clean up the Ministry of Education, he was an honest, hard-working, humble man who had always tried his best to live up to the image of the model teacher that had become so rare in modern Vietnam. The fact that such a good man had to die so early only rubbed more salt into the open wound.
But time will fly. Life will move on, heals will wound, stories will be forgotten, people will forget. Lê Hải An will one day fade into obscurity, and with him the question:
“What happened to Lê Hải An on October 17th 2019?”
Source
[1] https://canhco.net/lo-hinh-anh-hien-truong-tang-8-va-loi-khai-nhan-chung-khi-ong-le-hai-an-nga-xuong-tu-vong-p329165.html
[2] https://tuoitre.vn/thu-truong-bo-giao-duc-dao-tao-le-hai-an-qua-doi-vi-nga-tu-tang-cao-20191017084152884.htm
[3] https://kienthuc.net.vn/xa-hoi/su-that-ve-thu-truong-bo-gddt-le-hai-an-nga-lau-qua-doi-o-tru-so-bo-1291388.html
[4] https://nld.com.vn/thoi-su/dieu-tra-nguyen-nhan-tu-vong-cua-thu-truong-bo-gd-dt-le-hai-an-20191017102746586.htm
Shameless self-promotion
In the next episode of "The Mysteries of Vietnam," we will return to a re-write and updated version of the first case I wrote about years ago: did Hồ Duy Hải murder two innocent postal workers at Cầu Voi post office, or was it the work of a serial killer on the loose? And why is the Vietnamese government intervening in the case?
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2023.06.03 19:15 DubiousMove Hasegawa the camera man...spoiler

Hasegawa the camera man was Lt. Tsarumi
first...thank you guys for the spoiler tip...im new to reddit...my bad!...and thank you for the comments!..Plz leave more.......OK...so i was just watching GK for like the 4th time and was noticing that the VA for the camera man Hasegawa...the guy that taught Wilk, Sophia and Kiroranke how to speak japanese was the same Voice actor for Lt. Tsarumi...then at the end of the episode he tells his dying wife that his real name is Tsarumi Tokushiro!!!.....thats Lt. Tsarumi!!!!!......MIND BLOWN!!!....i just had to tell someone as soon as i realized it. im seeing the whole show with new eyes...and yes im a dummy for not seeing it sooner. lol.
submitted by DubiousMove to GoldenKamuy [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 19:11 Mr_Driver_1992 Loving this show. Anyone else notice that 80% of Father Khatri's lines are monologues LOL

My wife and I discovered this show well over a year ago on Amazon, watched the first 4 episodes, and were unable to watch the rest due to needing some subscription.
Anyway, we finally tuned in this week, seeing as the first season is available. Still love the show. Has a very cosmic horror-y sort of vibe to it.
We just finished the episode where father Khatri is killed. Most of the characters are great, save for Fatima, who we both find a bit insufferable.
What stuck out the most to us, and sort of became a bit of a comic relief, was how it felt like almost every scene Father Khatri was in with more than 10 seconds of screen time resulted in some monologue.
Fantastic show so far.. disappointed we will probably have to wait another year to watch season 2 until it's free for Amazon Prime members.
submitted by Mr_Driver_1992 to FromSeries [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 18:22 abzimmerman1325 After many tries, I finally got my wife to watch New Girl. We just finished the last episode, and we did this together.

After many tries, I finally got my wife to watch New Girl. We just finished the last episode, and we did this together. submitted by abzimmerman1325 to cakebeans [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 18:20 Hey_look_new rewatch #7. sg1 s1 e7 Brief Candle

always fun seeing corner gas Gabrielle Miller, but holy cow, what a smoke show Jack's 2nd wife Kynthia is.
I actually really liked this episode, introducing nano machines, and goa'uld looking to improve hosts
I REALLY wish we got more unas and chaka episodes
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2023.06.03 18:07 Ancient-Spare4572 After many tries, I finally got my wife to watch New Girl. We just finished the last episode, and we did this together.

After many tries, I finally got my wife to watch New Girl. We just finished the last episode, and we did this together. submitted by Ancient-Spare4572 to u/Ancient-Spare4572 [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 18:00 SkepticDad17 Time zones?

Spoiler alert for all the books.
I've read all the books, my wife had not, my wife knows this going into watching the show, so I give no answers to any questions, "maybe", "we'll see", "it does seem like it doesn't it?"
My wife and I was watching episode 6, at the very end of the episode..........
SPOILERS
We are watching what is clearly silo 1 personal monitoring Julia, and the scene concludes, my wife turns to me and says "There are multiple silos aren't there?"
I keep the look of panic off my face and just say "why do you think that?, she says "It's night time, and yet in some of the videos they are looking at, their are lots of people moving around."
She is convinced there are multiple silos for the wrong reasons, why would they need to have different time zones in the silos?
submitted by SkepticDad17 to Wool [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 17:49 Sonniechops1329 NEW FLASH FINAL

My version of what should of happened
Camera zooms down to the city and we see Barry’s blur jump across a taxi and save someone (reference to season 1 intro) and runs back 2 star labs Barry senses a timeline fracture and the camera pans to his suit and transitions to the red lightning in the negative speed force reverse flash is the first person to be teleported there zoom follows after and sees thawne thinking he’s harry and lunges at him thawne puts him in his place Godspeed follows after and makes a speech about being the god of speed and demanding who sent him here savitar comes in and says “I am the god of speed your nothing thank a bootleg copy weaker small and dumber” savitar exits the suit and zoom makes a speech about Barry finally becoming the villain Eddie shouts and says “to take down flash you will need a speed boost and we need to take down his team so let’s kill 2 birds with 1 stone” instantly he sends Nora jay impulse and kid flash to the negative speed force and drains their speed sending it into them Iris goes into labour and barry and team flash go to the hospital while she’s giving birth Eddie comes and takes Barry the rest of the team follow after barry kione mark cecile and Allegra all line up Eddie opens up a singularity breach and the speedsters come through thawne says “congratulations Barry I’ll be sure to send a gift to iris” zoom says “so you finally got the girl’ savitar says “I can finish what I started and kill your wife and your baby at the same time” Barry eyes light up with lightning telling his team to do plan xlr8 Barry chases after cobalt and the rest of the team follow after the rest zoom gets trapped by the ccpd and turns to kione and mark saying just like how you can’t lock up the darkness you can’t escape it either his eyes turn dark he puts on his mask and throws a lightning bolt at mark kione jumps in the way just like he plans and stabs her in the leg and knocks marks head against the wall and slaughter the ccpd and puts them in the star lab pipeline the camera shift to Godspeed who says cecile is nothing against him and he knocks her out and puts a micro chip of meta powers blockers (the one we see in the filler episode of season 9) and puts her in the star lab pipeline savitar sweeps past fasttrack and drags her across every country every state and hitting her with thousands of blows to the back chest and stomach damaging arteries bones and sockets (will take 45 hours to heal) he says “I will do to you what I could not do to team flash” and stabs her in the chest locking her in the prison thawne was intrapped in on the island thawne goes in the time vault and tells Gideon “overide sequence delta 708 code man in yellow” the building has a locked down sequence activating in 5 minutes no comms no way in quickly he goes to the main room and sees Chester he says “I liked Cisco better” and crushes his heart Allegra comes in and tries to hit thawne he dodges and leaves her to suffer in the pipeline and leaves the building Barry is in the middle of fighting cobalt and says “why are you doing this” and Eddie says “you stole my life and my wife I should have been married that should be my kid right now not yours” Barry hears a lightning swoosh behind him he looks back and sees all the villains undefeated Savitars music begins to play as they begin to battle godspeed splits himself into many clones and zoom puts his mask on saying the words run Barry run thawne hacks into Barry’s comms through the remote Gideon Barry send a lesion of time remnants to battle Godspeed clones And runs thinking of a plan right as he starts running thawne goes in his comms and says his feel the lightning speech (nod to season 1) Barry gets distracted and that’s when zoom grabs him and starts beating him up with the help of savitar he then gets stabbed in the hip and zoom hits him with blows to the face his face is swollen and he feels weak he turns invisible and starts to attack savitar and zoom he knew there was only one thing to help him win he calls fastrack labs and tells them to unleash project savitar the suit runs to him and he enters it he says now time to even the odds with the tachyon device in the suit he has enough speed to burly outrun them they chase him down the flash clones beat Godspeed and his clones and they return to barry getting absorbed back into him with one down he has 3 left unknown with the whereabouts of cobalt blue he battle’s savitar and he attacks his suit savitar pins him down and opens his suit he then sees it empty and Barry vibrates into his suit and and pushes him out he says really I used the same trick twice and you still fell for it And knocks him out 2 left with zoom he uses his tornado arm ability and zoom goes into a building and he a chase happens with hand to hand combat (no abilities used) zoom loses and begins talking about iris and how he’s going to slaughter her last one left is thawne and he is at the hospital holding a toy saying how he can’t wait to meet the baby they begin to run across the city so fast they hit a time breach and and Barry attempts to hit thawne with lightning he dodged and it goes in the time breach (hits his season 1 self) he chases him down and finally they have a vicious fight trading blows it being an equal fight thawne tells Barry about what he done to Chester out of know where he gets hit by a breach he turns around and sees mecha vibe and cisco says what did you do to my boy he then Barry and cisco team up and beat thawne cisco and Barry hug while Cisco watches the villains Barry goes into the negative speed force and fights Eddie they fight and it ends with Barry dragging the crystal out of eddies chest and crushes it which destroys the negative speed force and uncorrupts Eddie Barry grabs him Wally Nora jay and Bart and takes them out the negative speed force Barry uses Gideon to break the delta code to get back into star labs he takes his friends out the pipeline and he takes the villains speed boost puts them in the pipeline and gives the speedsters their powers back they all mourn Chester’s death and go to the hospital they are all there and watch iris birth nora it ends with kione turning into a pure force of nature giving Caitlin her body back and frost is back In her head Allegra moves away because of the death of Chester and Cecile moves back in with joe at the country side mark leaves and tries to find a home and the original trio our back together
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2023.06.03 17:32 HeadOfSpectre The Soldier

"Think of this as a chance at revenge," Sweeney said.

Revenge.

What a moronically quaint idea.

This jumped up little shit had come into my home, interrupted my retirement and here he was talking to me about revenge, as if he knew the first thing about what I’d seen, what I’d been through, why I’d quit.

Looking into his eyes, I knew he didn’t understand. I knew he couldn’t.

I've been hunting vampires for most of my life. I've killed more of them than I can count. But Clementine Di Cesare was no ordinary vampire. Hell, none of the Di Cesares were ordinary vampires, but even among them Clementine was… unique. She was the one all the others quietly feared. The one who was even spoken of with reverence by the Di Cesares masters, those twin Immortals who could not be killed by any weapon of this world. Seeking revenge against her was like seeking revenge against death itself.

“Revenge?” I repeated, with a dismissive scoff.
“You’re really going to tell me that after what she put you through, you don’t want revenge?” Sweeney asked.
“If you knew what she did to me, you’d know why I don’t want revenge,” I replied.
“Really? Sorry Franklin, but I don’t buy that. Look, I get it if you’re reluctant to jump back into the fight. I do. You of all people know just how dangerous the Di Cesare’s are. Especially ‘La Morte’.”

I looked over at him as he said that name. It rolled off his tongue so irreverently. To him, it was just a name. An alias assigned to some vampire he’s only heard of stories. He didn’t utter it with the respect it deserved, and I almost couldn’t be bothered to correct him. Any words spent on this small minded glory hound were probably wasted.

“Yes, I do know.”
“Which is why I need you,” Sweeney said. He almost sounded as if he were pleading with me. “Think of this as an opportunity to set things right… to put that vampire bitch in the ground where she belongs, and save God only knows how many lives in the process!”
I sighed.
He just didn’t get it.

“Mark my words, Mr. Sweeney, if you chase after Clementine Di Cesare, you’ll end far more lives than you save. She didn’t get a name like ‘La Morte’ for nothing. She earned it. Purchased it with the blood of the tens of thousands she’s sent screaming into the maw of Hell. She is not something you chase, Sweeney.”
“She’s a vampire,” Sweeney said dismissively. “She’s another enemy to destroy.”
“That’s what George Bundy said,” I replied. “Then not too long after, he died.”
“I’m not George Bundy,” Sweeney said.
“No. You sure as hell ain’t,” I agreed, before looking the kid in the eye.

He thought he was an up and comer, climbing the ranks of the Brethren. He probably thought of himself as some sort of badass vampire hunter too, when in reality he could never have so much as dreamed of holding a candle to the likes of Bundy… or hell, any of the men who’d died in Brazil.
“You should watch your tone with me,” Sweeney warned.
“Or you’ll do what?” I asked, “You ain’t going to frighten me with vague threats, boy. I’ve walked through Hell, trying to kill the Devil. What have you done?”

Sweeney bit his lip but didn’t respond.
“There’s nothing you can say or do that will intimidate me,” I said, before lighting myself a cigarette. I stared at the road outside of my porch, old memories flooding back to me before looking over at Sweeney again. He sat in his chair beside me like a sulky child. This was the man who wanted to destroy the Di Cesare family? Pathetic.

“Exactly how much do you know about the Brazil Job?” I asked.
“I know it was a failure. Clementine Di Cesare killed most of the men the Brethren sent out… all except for you. You were the only one good enough to beat her.”
“Good enough…” I repeated with a huff, “Hardly… whatever picture you’ve got in your head of some glorified battle, throw it away. Trust me, the Brazil Job was anything but glorious. It was a two hour long trek through Hell. And I didn’t beat Di Cesare at the end of it. I survived her. They’re two different things entirely.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Sweeney said.
“You wouldn’t, would you?” I sighed and took another drag on my cigarette.

This kid wasn’t going to leave until I made him understand… so I told him my story. I told him everything even though I knew he’d learn nothing from it.

***

I’d joined up with the Brethren Knights of St. Fontaine back in the 1980s to hunt monsters. Back then, it seemed like the best use of my skills. I’d done my tours with the army, but even after I got out, I was still looking for an enemy to fight. So naturally, once I found out that vampires were real, I set my sights on them. It seemed like the most sensible thing to do at the time.

The Brethren Knights fancied themselves the descendants of the Knights Templar, and they insisted that their God given mission was to protect mankind from the things that lurked in the shadows. I didn’t really have much love for God at the time, but if the Bretheren were the ones fighting the monsters, then I was happy to tolerate the Jesus freaks in their ranks.

It was 1988 when we first heard whispers of the Imperium. A supposed cabal of vampires, trying to get them organized. At the time, it’d seemed too crazy to be true. Vampires generally went their own way, in my experience. At most, they might have a partner but other than they they didn’t really socialize with their own kind. But supposedly someone out there had the big fucking balls to keep them in line, and whoever they were, they scared the shit out of the Brethren.

They’d started targeting high profile vampires, trying to find someone who was involved in this ‘Imperium’, hoping that maybe they might get someone to talk. And it wasn’t long until they found someone who did.

From my understanding, the vampire they captured didn’t seem to know much about who was actually running the show. But they knew who their second in command was… and that was when I first head about the Di Cesare family.

The name was familiar to some of the higher ups in the Brethren, and I’d heard some stories. Not sure which were true, but the long and short of it was that the Di Cesare’s and the Brethren shared a bloody history, and didn’t particularly like each other too much.

George Bundy explained it to me like this at one point: ‘The Di Cesare’s are an old family. Most of them used to be witches, up until their Matriarch turned them into vampires. Now they’re a whole new kind of nasty. Far as I know, the only time anyone’s actually managed to kill one was about 200 years ago. Anyone who’s tried since has ended up dead, so most folks don’t even bother anymore.’

I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising they’d be involved in the Imperium, but the mere mention of their name ruffled some feathers higher up on the chain of command, and eventually they put out a kill order on them. Most of the Di Cesare’s were generally pretty hard to track down, but the top brass had a pretty good line on their matriarch, Bianca Di Cesare. Supposedly, she’d been spotted near the family’s private estate in Brazil and rumor had it that most of her daughters were there too.

Normally, the brass wouldn’t have sanctioned any kind of attack on them. The Di Cesare’s were already considered off limits, and attacking them at their private estate was considered damn near impossible. The estate was located in a small mining town outside of Manaus called Refugio de Julia, or just Julia for short. The town was fairly remote, being only accessible from a few backroads and most folks tended to avoid it, claiming they’d had various strange encounters in the area. Their accounts described unsettling pale figures with dark hair and large green eyes working in the mines, although some of the more disturbing stories we heard involved sightings of other creatures in the jungle surrounding the town. Massive spiders with humanoid faces, tending rotting corpses filled with stinging bees, giant howling beasts who tore through the forest, hunting prey, and beautiful women who would appear in the nearby towns, betwitching men into coming away with them only to reveal themselves as monsters who fed on the blood of their victims. Some had even claimed the Di Cesares themselves were such beasts… although those claims weren’t taken quite as seriously.

A skeptic might say the stories that surrounded Julia seemed like little more than just local superstition… but the Brethren had been dealing with the supernatural for long enough to recognize when something was probably real, and when it was probably fake and they knew damn well that most of the stories about Julia were probably true. None of them had ever dared set foot in Julia to find out for sure, since doing so would probably be suicide, but the theory was that the Di Cesares had created Julia as something of a refuge for other creatures. Other vampires, werewolves, arachne, karah and all sorts of other hellspawn. They offered them a home and safety in exchange for their labor in the mines. Hell, the name of the town more or less spelled it out.

Refugio de Julia

Julia’s Haven.

Julia had been the name of the only member of the Di Cesare family that the Brethren had ever killed, so I guess it was only fitting they named the town after her.

I honestly think using other creatures like them as a workforce was a bit inspired… since it made Julia damn near impenetrable. Reaching their estate at the far side of the town would have been impossible without being noticed by every creature of hell living in that town, and odds are they’d tear anyone apart long before they even reached the gates of the Di Cesare estate. And if one had the bright idea to approach the estate from another angle, they’d be trudging through miles and miles of rainforest to do so, only end up face to face with a massive stone wall that kept the rainforest out.

In effect - the Di Cesare estate was a fortress. Getting in would be no easy feat, to say nothing of confronting the vampires within. But with the fear of the Imperium gnawing at the back of their minds, the Brethren had finally set their minds to trying.

George Bundy had been the one in charge of planning the operation out.

I’d known Bundy before I’d joined up with the Brethren. Hell, Bundy was the whole reason I’d joined the Brethren. He’d been my CO a number of years back, and he’d earned his reputation as a hardass just about ten or twenty times over. Bundy was a gruff looking man with a bushy moustache and intense eyes. During the years I knew him, I don’t believe I ever once saw him so much as crack a smile. He only ever seemed to speak when he felt there was something he needed to say. Otherwise, he was usually dead silent.

He was somewhere in his late fifties back in 88. By all rights, he ought to have retired years ago. But he refused.
“I’m a soldier,” He said, when I asked him about it once. “That’s all I am. I don’t know what else to be.”

Bundy’s initial plan had been to hit the Di Cesare estate from the air. Come in fast and loud with a couple of helicopters and see how those vampires stood up to some good old American flak. The idea got shot down pretty quickly, so to speak. Apperantly, most if not all of the Di Cesares had cursed their own bodies, causing whatever wound one inflicted on them to appear on whoever it was who had wounded them. Going in guns blazing would have ended in a bloodbath… and not for them. There were also some concerns about drawing attention from Julia. With no conclusive data on just what they had living in that town, there was no guarantee we’d be safe in the air. A few eyewitnesses had described seeing giant nests in some of the trees in the jungle, supposedly consistent with the nests made by harpies.

Flying in guns blazing was out. So Bundy went back to the drawing board and what he came back with… well, it was ballsy, but it almost seemed like it just might work. During his reconnisance of the Di Cesare’s estate, he’d noticed a large but shallow tributary flowing into the amazon river that led right through the Di Cesare’s estate. Along the tributary was an abandoned water mill, that connected to the Di Cesare estate.

He’d suggested using the water mill to gain entry to the grounds, and from there, move on the Di Cesare’s. That plan had been approved, and Bundy had been allowed to handpick his team for the operation. He’d chosen fifteen men, all of them ex military, most of them having served under him before.

He’d told us we would be dividing into three teams of five men each. We would leave Manaus by boat, and land at three different areas near the tributary before making our way to the mill on foot, where we would regroup, before moving on the Di Cesares. The reason for the division was to ensure that if any of our teams ran into trouble upon making ground, the entire operation wouldn’t be compromised.

Team 1, led by Bundy himself would depart first and land to the west of the tributary. Team 2, led by a man named Ferdinand Hernandez would make land about fifteen minutes later near the mouth of the tributary and Team 3, to be led by me would land fifteen minutes later to the east.

On the day of the operation, I sat in my boat, watching as the other two left. It was twilight when we set out, and I remember that as my team and I carried out our final checks on our equipment, the only thing I felt was a familiar anticipation.

I’d hesitate to call it fear. Fear is what came later. Anticipation is the better word. I knew we could be walking into a tough situation… but I trusted Bundy. I trusted he’d run a smooth op. God knew, he’d done it a thousand times before.

The team assigned to me wasn’t anything particularly special. They were competent enough, but none of them would’ve been my first choices. Jack McMullen, for instance, who was about the same age as I was at the time. We’d both served under Bundy before, although while I respected Bundy, Jack was wholly devoted to him. I swear, if the man had told him to stuff a live grenade up his ass, Jack would’ve done it without a moments hesitation. I dunno if Jack simply saw him as the father he’d never had or what, but he damn near worshipped Bundy.

I can’t quite say the same for the other guys we had with us, though. One of them, some greenhorn by the name of Pearce Wilson struck me as an airheaded pretty boy who’d never actually had his boots on the ground before, while the other one, Scott Barber had left a bad taste in my mouth last time we’d worked together. Barber was capable… but he was violent. This was a kid with a hell of a chip on his shoulder, and it looked a hell of a lot like that Confederate flag patch he wore on his jacket. He wanted an excuse to shoot something, and I don’t think he cared what. Under most circumstances I’m not sure I would’ve fully trusted him with a gun.

The last one though, Joseph Feng… him I trusted. Feng was the one I knew the least about, and he didn’t seem much for conversation. But he handled himself competently enough and seemed to know when to sit down and shut up.

When Team 2’s boat was far enough away, we got the radio signal to follow. Barber was the one steering the boat, so I gave him the order to cast off and we ventured out into the twilight, unaware of just what was waiting for us out there.

***

We landed in our designated area fifteen minutes after Team 2 confirmed they’d touched down at theirs. Our landing was fairly uneventful. Feng, Barber, and I secured the boat before we radio’d Bundy to let him know we were in position. After that, it was just a matter of making it to the tributary.

As we ventured into the jungle, the world around us was quiet. There was wind, the whisper of the river behind us, and the sounds of animals. But little else. The river fell away behind us as we moved in single file toward the tributary, maintaining radio silence as we did.

It was about a half hour before we heard the gunshot.

Just one, echoing through the twilight. But it was enough to give us pause.

“The fuck was that?” I heard Barber ask. Immediately, the kid was on high alert, with his gun raised as if he were expecting every monster in Julia to come charging at us from all angles.
I just listened, waiting to hear if there was anything else. I half expected my radio to come to life, but it didn’t.
“Team 1, status?” I asked.
The radio crackled with static, but there was no response.

I tried it again, but still with no success. The radio was working, that much I was sure of. Something had to be blocking the signal.
“What’s going on?” Feng asked.
“Dunno,” I replied. “Comms are down.”
“Down?” Wilson asked, “So we’re flying blind out here, then?”
“More or less,” I replied.
“What do we do? Do we go back… if the comms are down…”
“Just because something’s jamming our signal doesn’t mean we’re made,” I said. “Relax. We keep moving for now. You keep your eyes wide open, and your head on a swivel. We’ll make it to the tributary and see if we can’t meet up with the other teams.”
I could tell Wilson wasn’t a fan of my answer, but I didn’t much care. We had a job to do, and I aimed to do it.

I pressed on without a further word and the others followed. Up ahead, I could hear the sound of running water and picked up the pace. I figured the tributary had to be close… and I was right.

I emerged from the brush into the stream, only to pause when I saw what was waiting for us in the water.

In the dying sunlight, it was impossible to mistake the bodies sprawled out on the rocks as anything else… and all I needed to do was look at their uniforms to know they were our people.
“Jesus…” I heard Wilson say under his breath. He froze up, lingering by the bank as I cautiously approached one of the bodies.

It belonged to a somewhat heavyset man with a thin mustache who I recognized as Hernandez. His eyes were still open, although lifeless and staring in different directions, and there was a clean hole in his forehead where a bullet had ended his life. The gunshot we’d heard earlier had likely been the sound of his death.

Looking at the bodies around him, I knew they had to be the rest of Team 2… although it was a little harder pinning down their cause of death. Some sort of bladed weapon, perhaps, judging by the state of them. I realized the odds were that they walked into some sort of ambush.
“What about Bundy and Team 1?” Jack asked, “Any sign of them?”
“No,” I said. “These bodies are all from Team 2… Bundy could still be ahead of us.”
“Then we need to keep going!”

Jack turned, heading up the stream and Barber was right behind him. Feng paused for a moment, thinking this over before following. Only Wilson remained.
“How do we know we’re not walking into a trap?” He asked.
“We’ll deal with that when we get to it,” I said before moving to follow the others.
“With all due respect, Sarge… that doesn’t sound like the best course of action!” Wilson argued, finally following me. “It sounds just like a good way to get killed!”
“Yeah?” I asked, “I’m gonna tell you an ugly truth, kid. That’s the job. Make your peace with it, and it’ll go a lot easier.”

Wilson didn’t like that answer either and trailed off behind me, watching as I continued upstream. For a moment, I half expected him to go back to the boat… but no. I dunno if he found his balls or just didn’t want to get left behind, but he started to follow us again.

I kept trying to raise Team 1 on the radio while we walked, although I still had no luck. The light above us slowly faded into darkness as we trudged through the water in silence, guns sitting comfortably in our hands and mosquitos biting at our necks.

It wasn’t until we lost Feng that I heard anybody so much as make a sound, and when we lost Feng… it happened almost instantaneously. One minute, he was at the head of the group, walking just ahead of Jack and I. The next, he was gone, only barely having the time to let out a scream as he fell into the river ahead of us.

The rest of us paused. Jack seemed to freeze and I pushed past him, calling out for Feng as I did. As punishment for my compassion, I almost went down after him. I only barely stopped myself from stepping on the slippery rocks that had helped send him to his demise.

I could see Feng’s body in the water, and I could see the blood pouring out of him. He twitched a few times, but I knew he was dead. The sharpened wooden spikes jutting out of him confirmed as much.
“What the hell…” Jack said under his breath, staring at Feng’s corpse in disbelief. “That’s a fucking spike trap!”

Yeah.

It was indeed a fucking spike trap.

I could see other spikes jutting out of the water ahead of us, just past a small dam of rocks that were just slippery enough to make it difficult to stop yourself from falling. Some of those spikes had other bodies on them… likely members of Team 1. I only counted two, although that still didn’t exactly bode well.

“They put a fucking spike trap in the goddamn stream…” Jack said, “Who the hell does that?”
“Somebody who’s expecting us to use the stream,” I replied.
“So they know we’re coming?” Barber asked.
“Clearly…” I replied. “And they’ve got a good idea on what our route is too.”

“Yeah, no shit!” Barber snapped. “Christ… let’s get the fuck out of here. There’s probably more fucking traps upstream!”
“Bundy’s orders were clear!” Jack argued.
“Bundy’s probably dead by now!” Barber replied, before looking at me. “Sarge, come on. You have to know this is suicide!”
“Suicide was part of the job description, was it not?” I asked.
“The job is to kill those fucking vampires, not to die in the goddamn process! We need to get out of the stream and into the woods!”

“Judging by the fate Team 2 met, I’m not sure the forest is someplace we want to be right now,” I replied.
“Excuse me?” Barber asked, “What the hell are you talking about, Sarge?”
“Five men dead, but only one gunshot. How did the rest die?”

Barber didn’t seem to be able to answer that.
“By now… yes. It’s clear we’ve walked into a trap. And yes, I understand that it makes sense to try and leave that trap… but I don’t know if we’ll be safer in the jungle. Something jumped Team 2. Cut them apart, and then shot Hernandez as a warning. They didn’t have to shoot him. They did it so we’d hear.”
“Your point being?” Barber asked.
“I don’t think this is just a trap, Barber. It’s a game. Stop playing, and you might just end up like our friends downstream.”
“A game?” Wilson asked, “Sarge, you can’t be serious!”

“From where I’m standing, we have a better chance of surviving in the stream,” I said. “Look, we’re at least halfway to the rendezvous point, and there have to be at least two members of Team 1 left. The safest thing to do right now is to follow them.”
“You’re off your fucking rocker, Sarge,” Barber spat, locking his eyes with mine. For a moment, I thought the boy was going to try and fight me. But no. He was wise enough to stand down.
“If you wanna get yourself killed, go right the fuck ahead. Just leave me out of it! Wilson, come on,” Barber said before trudging over to the edge of the stream. Wilson didn’t even hesitate, just looking back at Jack and I quietly before he disappeared into the forest with Barber.

“You’re not gonna stop them?” Jack asked.
“No,” I replied. “God willing, there’s a chance that pigheaded asshole is right… dunno how much of a chance, but a chance.”
“Then how come we’re not following him?” Jack asked.
“There’s also a chance he’s wrong.”
I turned, before making my way around the spike trap.
“Keep a slower pace,” I said. “Watch for traps.”

Jack hesitated for a moment, but he followed me without any further questions and we walked in silence for a little longer.

We heard nothing from the trees. Nothing that told us about the fate of Barber and Wilson. I wasn’t sure if that was good news or not.

In fact, I don’t think we heard a thing until about a half hour later, when we heard the explosion.

It came out of almost nowhere, but ahead of us I could see a flash of light and hear the screams of men. On instinct, I found myself picking up the pace and could hear Jack behind me. In the low light, I saw a shape float past me in the stream. It took me a moment to realize that it was a severed human arm.

In the water ahead of us, I could see a figure clinging to one of the rocks and trying to pick himself up. I recognized him as George Bundy.

Jack was at his side almost immediately, trying to help the old man to his feet.
“Sir! Are you alright?”
Bundy just wheezed, before his legs gave out from under him. I helped Jack drag him to the shore so he could sit and rest for a moment.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, looking back at the stream.
“Grenade trap… I think…” Bundy panted, “Fucking tripwire… Popkov tripped it, I think…”

Popkov… odds are he was one of the two mangled corpses lying in the river a few feet away from us. It seemed they’d taken the brunt of the explosion, although Bundy still had some shrapnel in his arm that Jack was tending to.
“Christ… whole fucking ops gone to shit…” Bundy spat. “Team 2 got taken out just about as soon as they landed. Someone killed them and dumped them in the goddamn river. Lost half my boys to the fucking spike trap and half to this…”

He looked up at us, before spitting onto the ground.
“Guess you two haven’t done much better.”
“Hard to say,” I replied. “Two of ours took off into the woods, trying to avoid the traps.”
“Then they’re dead,” Bundy replied. “I’ve seen her watching us… always just up ahead, always from a distance… she’s seeing how far we’ll go. How much we’ll take…”
“She?” I asked.
La Morte. Should’ve figured she’d be the one to greet us.”
“La Morte?” I asked.

“It’s Italian. Supposedly, she earned that name around the time the Di Cesares fled Venice. It’s funny, the Brethren like to act like the Di Cesares leaving Venice was some big victory of theirs, since before they did, they finally killed one of them… hard to call it a victory though, considering how many corpses they made before they fled. And most of them came from La Morte…”
Bundy winced in pain as Jack bandaged his arm before he continued talking.

“See… when the Di Cesare’s left Venice, one of them stayed behind. Clementine, the Scorpio sister. Guess she was unwilling to leave the fight unfinished… and according to the stories, the death toll she personally amassed in the years after the Di Cesare’s left Venice make the bodies they claimed during the Venetian Massacre a hundred and fifty years prior look like a pittance. The Brethren still occupying the city started to call her La Morte. Death. Cuz wherever she went, death followed in her wake… and it seems we’ve walked right into her open arms, haven’t we, boys?”

“You’re sure it’s her?” I asked.
“She’s a Di Cesare… and the shit we’ve seen out here… I don’t see any other Di Cesare setting those traps. It’s her. I’m sure of it. She’s watching us. Seeing how far we’ll go. Seeing if we’ll turn tail…”
“Should we?” Jack asked, and Bundy finally seemed to acknowledge him.
“Excuse me?” He asked.
“Should we? Look, sir… I’d follow you into the mouth of Hell, but right now, we’re down from fifteen men to three. Can’t say I’m optimistic about our chances right now. If this woman is half as bad as you’re saying she is, maybe it’s time we took a step back!”

Jack looked at me, hoping I might back him up, but I remained silent.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Bundy asked.
“What I’m hearing here, is that as of right now, the vampire out there could kill us at any time. She hasn’t. Far as I’m concerned, that’s mercy. Maybe we should be taking it while it’s offered.”
Bundy stared at him, before chuckling. I think it was the first time I’d ever seen him laugh.

“Just walk away, then?” He asked.
“Walk away, and come back better prepared!” Jack corrected.
“Walk away,” Bundy said again. “We walk away now, and there won’t be a chance to come back better prepared. We get one shot at this. One. Failure is not an option. We go in there and we kill them or we die. End of discussion.”
“And how exactly are we even supposed to kill them?” Jack asked, “That curse they have… bullets aren’t gonna do shit, sir!”
“Yours won’t, mine will…”
Bundy pulled his pistol from his holster. I noticed some sort of pattern crudely engraved on it.

“I’ve been doing some research… studied the curse they put on themselves… and I think I’ve found a way to break it. Not sure if it’ll work yet… but we get one chance to test it.”
Jack stared at the gun, then back at Bundy.
“Sir… do you hear yourself?” He asked quietly, “You can’t be serious… right now, even with that gun we don’t stand a chance in he-”

The gunshot echoed through the forest and made me jump. Jack’s voice died in his throat as he hit the ground.

Bundy stared at him for a moment, before huffing and holstering his pistol again. He draped his coat over his shoulders, before looking over at me.
“No room for failure, Frank,” He said calmly.
I didn’t know what to say to that. I stared down at Jack’s body, my mouth hanging open slightly. When I looked back at Bundy, he was already back in the stream.

There was a tense silence between Bundy and I as I followed him along the final stretch of the tributary. He trudged on ahead, covered in sweat and straining with every step, but I could sense the quiet determination he had to see this through. Looking at him, you could’ve told me that George Bundy could wipe out the Di Cesare’s all by himself and I would have believed it in a second.

The night around us was full of sound, and each one drew my attention. I watched the forest, expecting to see some sign of La Morte watching us. But I saw nothing, except for what she wanted me to see.
“Mill’s just up ahead,” I heard Bundy say as we pressed on, although I noticed his steps faltering as he seemed to notice something in the trees above us. I stopped behind him, looking up before seeing what he saw, and when I saw it I felt my stomach turn.

I’d seen death before.
But what Di Cesare had left out for us… that was something else.
Pearce Wilson and Scott Barber weren’t dead.
But if they could have spoke, I’ve got no doubt they would have begged us to kill them. Wilsons pretty face was covered in blood and his pouty lips were parted as more trickled out of him. His curly blond hair was matted and I could see crimson there. Tree branches portruded from his ribs, while the loops of his entrails dangled out of his opened stomach. And Barber was in just about the same state, only he seemed to at least have the ability to turn his head to look at us.

I think he might have tried to speak, but the only sound he seemed to be able to make was a pained whimper.
“Jesus Christ…” I said softly.
“He had nothing to do with this,” Bundy replied. He took one last look at the two dying men hanging from the trees, before moving on.
“We should put them out of their misery, sir,” I said.

Bundy paused, before looking back at me.
“Don’t waste the ammo, Frank,” He replied. “They’re already dead.”
“Not yet they’re not!”
“Give them time. They chose to go into the woods. They can live with the consequences… for however long that lasts.”

With that, he left them. If I were a more compassionate man, I would have put them out of their misery. But no. Bundy moved on and so did I.

He approached the water mill, before examining it. It was an old building, made of stone that had long since been overgrown by moss, and sat right on the wall that separated the Di Cesares estate from the amazon. It hardly looked secure, even if the only entrance hadn’t just been an old wooden door secured with a padlock, finding a way in wouldn’t have been difficult. And it didn’t take much for Bundy to break through that door. All he needed was a couple of well placed kicks and it swung right open.

Drawing his gun, Bundy strode inside and I followed him.
“The Di Cesare’s will be in the main house,” He said. “We should find a way in through the back, try and catch them off guard. Main target should be the matriarch, Bianca. Her we should prioritize keeping alive… the rest are expendable.”

“Much as you are, I’m sure.” A voice called from deeper in the mill, and both Bundy and I froze.
I noticed movement on the floor above us, and through the shadows, I saw a tall woman watching us. She was dressed all in black, with blond hair tied back in a ponytail and the intense eyes of a soldier.

This had to be Clementine Di Cesare.

Bundy aimed his pistol at her, although she only barely seemed to notice.
“Only two of you left… I’m not sure the odds are in your favor,” The woman said. Her voice was low, calm and quiet.
“Only one way to find out,” Bundy growled.
“And only one way to walk out of this place alive,” Di Cesare countered. “You can put the gun down, turn and walk away. I won’t stop you. There’s no shame in living.”

“All the bodies you’ve left in your wake… that’s rich,” Bundy said.
“I don’t relish what I’ve done. I simply don’t know how to do anything else,” She replied. “Think about this, Bundy. Over my lifetime, there have been countless thousands who have come to kill me. All of them are dead, but I am not. Even if you could kill me… you could not kill my sisters. Not all of them. Not before they came for you.”
“Just you, would be enough…” Bundy said, before pulling the trigger.

I knew he’d hit her. I knew the bullet pierced her shoulder. But that woman… she didn’t even flinch. She simply dove out of the way before he could shoot again, taking cover and avoiding his next shot.
“Frank, upstairs!” Bundy snapped, “Flush her out!”
I went, trudging up the old wooden steps with my rifle drawn. Only to see Di Cesare vaulting over the railing and back down to the ground floor as soon as I made it up there.

Bundy shot at her again, only to miss for a second time. I saw Di Cesare’s arm move, and heard him cry out in pain. In the low light, I could see a dagger protruding from his shoulder. He stumbled back a step, leaving himself open for only a split second.

That second was all it took for Di Cesare to raise her own gun and fire just one shot.

George Bundy hit the ground without so much as a final scream. There was just a simple hole in his skull where she had shot him.

I felt my heart start to race faster. My eyes settled on Bundy’s gun, and I ran for the railing, vaulting it and dropping to the ground below with a thud. Di Cesare shot at me, and I felt the bullet tear through my leg. I reached out for the fallen gun and grabbed it before turning it on Di Cesare, only to find myself staring down the barrel of her own pistol. My finger rested on the trigger, but I didn’t have the guts to pull it.

"Kill me, and you will not see the sun tomorrow." She said, her voice still cold and calm.
“Killing you is part of the job…” I replied, but my finger still couldn’t squeeze the trigger.
“And is it worth your life?” Di Cesare asked. “You fail your mission either way.”
“And die with some goddamn honor…”
“There’s no such thing as honor. There is alive and there is dead. Choose.”

I knew what I was supposed to choose.

But my hands were shaking, as I stared into the face of death. My finger couldn’t squeeze the trigger.

The gun collapsed to the floor and Di Cesare kicked it away from me, before huffing and lowering her gun.
“Do not return,” She said softly. “Or next time, I will unleash a hell upon you that will make you beg for simple traps.”

She picked Bundy’s gun up off the ground, and then she was gone. After I finally picked myself up off the ground, I was gone too.

As I walked back along the stream… I passed the corpses of the men we’d left behind. Barber and Wilson, Jack, Feng, Hernandez, and his team. The flies were already feasting on them. Animals had already torn at them. And as I looked down at their cold corpses, I knew I had made the right choice.

I filed my report with the Brethren. Told them that Di Cesare had wiped us out, and a few months later I quietly retired. I never looked back.

***

“You walked away from her?” Sweeney asked in disbelief, “You had her dead to rights and you walked away from her?”
“I chose to live,” I replied. “Can’t say I regret the decision either. Because of the choice I made, I met my wife and had my kids. I’ve lived the life I had because I chose not to throw it away on some vampire.”

Sweeney just shook his head.
“You could have gotten the first confirmed kill on a Di Cesare in two centuries, and you threw it away you fucking coward! I could execute you for that!” I noticed his hand hovering over the gun on his hip.
“You could.” I replied, before quietly unholstering the pistol I kept at my side. I aimed it at Sweeney’s head.

He stared at me like a slack jawed idiot.
“Would you like to give it a try?”
“W-what…?”
“Would you like to give it a try, Mr. Sweeney? Or would you like to see the sun tomorrow?”
He stared down the barrel of my gun, and I already knew what his choice would be.

Sweeney took a step back. I saw his hand move away from his holster, and I lowered the gun with a huff.
“Thought so,” I said.
Mr. Sweeney left me without another word.
I knew he would not return.
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2023.06.03 17:30 I-Am-XIII Hell's Paradise Episode 9 - Discussion Thread

Here we are at Episode 9!
Here we are back again with another discussion for Episode 9! Once again, we ask that you keep episode discussions to this thread as to not flood the sub with a bunch of different discussion posts.
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Episode Info:
Episode 9: God and Man
Seeing his wife, that hope alone brings Gabimaru to the center of the island. Leaving Sagiri and the others behind in the village, he arrives at a massive gate. In front of this gate, Gabimaru encounters one of the Tensen.

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Episode 1: The Death Criminal and The Executioner
Episode 2: Sorting and Selection
Episode 3: Weakness and Strength
Episode 4: Hell and Paradise
Episode 5: Samurai and Woman
Episode 6: Emotion and Reason
Episode 7: Flowers and Offerings
Episode 8: Student and Master
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2023.06.03 17:30 Avizie Hell's Paradise - Episode 9 Discussion Thread

Jigokuraku - Episode 9

Episode 9

Gabimaru the Hollow, a ninja of Iwagakure Village known for being cold and emotionless, was set up by his fellow ninja and is now on death row. Tired of killing and betrayal, he wants to die. However, no method of execution works on him because as much as the seemingly apathetic Gabimaru refuses to admit it, he does have a reason to live. He wants to return to his wife, who was the reason why he softened up and failed to be an effective assassin. Thus, he refuses to die.
Asaemon the Decapitator, a famous executioner, sees this and has a proposal for the ninja. She wants Gabimaru to join an expedition to an island south of Japan in search of the elixir of life in exchange for a full pardon by the Shogunate. However, this island isn't a normal island: it's believed to be Paradise.
However the island is full of mysteries, and the exploring team—consisting of those marked for death—might not be fully prepared to handle them.
Streams
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2023.06.03 17:26 HeadOfSpectre The Soldier

"Think of this as a chance at revenge," Sweeney said.

Revenge.

What a moronically quaint idea.

This jumped up little shit had come into my home, interrupted my retirement and here he was talking to me about revenge, as if he knew the first thing about what I’d seen, what I’d been through, why I’d quit.

Looking into his eyes, I knew he didn’t understand. I knew he couldn’t.

I've been hunting vampires for most of my life. I've killed more of them than I can count. But Clementine Di Cesare was no ordinary vampire. Hell, none of the Di Cesares were ordinary vampires, but even among them Clementine was… unique. She was the one all the others quietly feared. The one who was even spoken of with reverence by the Di Cesares masters, those twin Immortals who could not be killed by any weapon of this world. Seeking revenge against her was like seeking revenge against death itself.

“Revenge?” I repeated, with a dismissive scoff.
“You’re really going to tell me that after what she put you through, you don’t want revenge?” Sweeney asked.
“If you knew what she did to me, you’d know why I don’t want revenge,” I replied.
“Really? Sorry Franklin, but I don’t buy that. Look, I get it if you’re reluctant to jump back into the fight. I do. You of all people know just how dangerous the Di Cesare’s are. Especially ‘La Morte’.”

I looked over at him as he said that name. It rolled off his tongue so irreverently. To him, it was just a name. An alias assigned to some vampire he’s only heard of stories. He didn’t utter it with the respect it deserved, and I almost couldn’t be bothered to correct him. Any words spent on this small minded glory hound were probably wasted.

“Yes, I do know.”
“Which is why I need you,” Sweeney said. He almost sounded as if he were pleading with me. “Think of this as an opportunity to set things right… to put that vampire bitch in the ground where she belongs, and save God only knows how many lives in the process!”
I sighed.
He just didn’t get it.

“Mark my words, Mr. Sweeney, if you chase after Clementine Di Cesare, you’ll end far more lives than you save. She didn’t get a name like ‘La Morte’ for nothing. She earned it. Purchased it with the blood of the tens of thousands she’s sent screaming into the maw of Hell. She is not something you chase, Sweeney.”
“She’s a vampire,” Sweeney said dismissively. “She’s another enemy to destroy.”
“That’s what George Bundy said,” I replied. “Then not too long after, he died.”
“I’m not George Bundy,” Sweeney said.
“No. You sure as hell ain’t,” I agreed, before looking the kid in the eye.

He thought he was an up and comer, climbing the ranks of the Brethren. He probably thought of himself as some sort of badass vampire hunter too, when in reality he could never have so much as dreamed of holding a candle to the likes of Bundy… or hell, any of the men who’d died in Brazil.
“You should watch your tone with me,” Sweeney warned.
“Or you’ll do what?” I asked, “You ain’t going to frighten me with vague threats, boy. I’ve walked through Hell, trying to kill the Devil. What have you done?”

Sweeney bit his lip but didn’t respond.
“There’s nothing you can say or do that will intimidate me,” I said, before lighting myself a cigarette. I stared at the road outside of my porch, old memories flooding back to me before looking over at Sweeney again. He sat in his chair beside me like a sulky child. This was the man who wanted to destroy the Di Cesare family? Pathetic.

“Exactly how much do you know about the Brazil Job?” I asked.
“I know it was a failure. Clementine Di Cesare killed most of the men the Brethren sent out… all except for you. You were the only one good enough to beat her.”
“Good enough…” I repeated with a huff, “Hardly… whatever picture you’ve got in your head of some glorified battle, throw it away. Trust me, the Brazil Job was anything but glorious. It was a two hour long trek through Hell. And I didn’t beat Di Cesare at the end of it. I survived her. They’re two different things entirely.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Sweeney said.
“You wouldn’t, would you?” I sighed and took another drag on my cigarette.

This kid wasn’t going to leave until I made him understand… so I told him my story. I told him everything even though I knew he’d learn nothing from it.

***

I’d joined up with the Brethren Knights of St. Fontaine back in the 1980s to hunt monsters. Back then, it seemed like the best use of my skills. I’d done my tours with the army, but even after I got out, I was still looking for an enemy to fight. So naturally, once I found out that vampires were real, I set my sights on them. It seemed like the most sensible thing to do at the time.

The Brethren Knights fancied themselves the descendants of the Knights Templar, and they insisted that their God given mission was to protect mankind from the things that lurked in the shadows. I didn’t really have much love for God at the time, but if the Bretheren were the ones fighting the monsters, then I was happy to tolerate the Jesus freaks in their ranks.

It was 1988 when we first heard whispers of the Imperium. A supposed cabal of vampires, trying to get them organized. At the time, it’d seemed too crazy to be true. Vampires generally went their own way, in my experience. At most, they might have a partner but other than they they didn’t really socialize with their own kind. But supposedly someone out there had the big fucking balls to keep them in line, and whoever they were, they scared the shit out of the Brethren.

They’d started targeting high profile vampires, trying to find someone who was involved in this ‘Imperium’, hoping that maybe they might get someone to talk. And it wasn’t long until they found someone who did.

From my understanding, the vampire they captured didn’t seem to know much about who was actually running the show. But they knew who their second in command was… and that was when I first head about the Di Cesare family.

The name was familiar to some of the higher ups in the Brethren, and I’d heard some stories. Not sure which were true, but the long and short of it was that the Di Cesare’s and the Brethren shared a bloody history, and didn’t particularly like each other too much.

George Bundy explained it to me like this at one point: ‘The Di Cesare’s are an old family. Most of them used to be witches, up until their Matriarch turned them into vampires. Now they’re a whole new kind of nasty. Far as I know, the only time anyone’s actually managed to kill one was about 200 years ago. Anyone who’s tried since has ended up dead, so most folks don’t even bother anymore.’

I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising they’d be involved in the Imperium, but the mere mention of their name ruffled some feathers higher up on the chain of command, and eventually they put out a kill order on them. Most of the Di Cesare’s were generally pretty hard to track down, but the top brass had a pretty good line on their matriarch, Bianca Di Cesare. Supposedly, she’d been spotted near the family’s private estate in Brazil and rumor had it that most of her daughters were there too.

Normally, the brass wouldn’t have sanctioned any kind of attack on them. The Di Cesare’s were already considered off limits, and attacking them at their private estate was considered damn near impossible. The estate was located in a small mining town outside of Manaus called Refugio de Julia, or just Julia for short. The town was fairly remote, being only accessible from a few backroads and most folks tended to avoid it, claiming they’d had various strange encounters in the area. Their accounts described unsettling pale figures with dark hair and large green eyes working in the mines, although some of the more disturbing stories we heard involved sightings of other creatures in the jungle surrounding the town. Massive spiders with humanoid faces, tending rotting corpses filled with stinging bees, giant howling beasts who tore through the forest, hunting prey, and beautiful women who would appear in the nearby towns, betwitching men into coming away with them only to reveal themselves as monsters who fed on the blood of their victims. Some had even claimed the Di Cesares themselves were such beasts… although those claims weren’t taken quite as seriously.

A skeptic might say the stories that surrounded Julia seemed like little more than just local superstition… but the Brethren had been dealing with the supernatural for long enough to recognize when something was probably real, and when it was probably fake and they knew damn well that most of the stories about Julia were probably true. None of them had ever dared set foot in Julia to find out for sure, since doing so would probably be suicide, but the theory was that the Di Cesares had created Julia as something of a refuge for other creatures. Other vampires, werewolves, arachne, karah and all sorts of other hellspawn. They offered them a home and safety in exchange for their labor in the mines. Hell, the name of the town more or less spelled it out.

Refugio de Julia

Julia’s Haven.

Julia had been the name of the only member of the Di Cesare family that the Brethren had ever killed, so I guess it was only fitting they named the town after her.

I honestly think using other creatures like them as a workforce was a bit inspired… since it made Julia damn near impenetrable. Reaching their estate at the far side of the town would have been impossible without being noticed by every creature of hell living in that town, and odds are they’d tear anyone apart long before they even reached the gates of the Di Cesare estate. And if one had the bright idea to approach the estate from another angle, they’d be trudging through miles and miles of rainforest to do so, only end up face to face with a massive stone wall that kept the rainforest out.

In effect - the Di Cesare estate was a fortress. Getting in would be no easy feat, to say nothing of confronting the vampires within. But with the fear of the Imperium gnawing at the back of their minds, the Brethren had finally set their minds to trying.

George Bundy had been the one in charge of planning the operation out.

I’d known Bundy before I’d joined up with the Brethren. Hell, Bundy was the whole reason I’d joined the Brethren. He’d been my CO a number of years back, and he’d earned his reputation as a hardass just about ten or twenty times over. Bundy was a gruff looking man with a bushy moustache and intense eyes. During the years I knew him, I don’t believe I ever once saw him so much as crack a smile. He only ever seemed to speak when he felt there was something he needed to say. Otherwise, he was usually dead silent.

He was somewhere in his late fifties back in 88. By all rights, he ought to have retired years ago. But he refused.
“I’m a soldier,” He said, when I asked him about it once. “That’s all I am. I don’t know what else to be.”

Bundy’s initial plan had been to hit the Di Cesare estate from the air. Come in fast and loud with a couple of helicopters and see how those vampires stood up to some good old American flak. The idea got shot down pretty quickly, so to speak. Apperantly, most if not all of the Di Cesares had cursed their own bodies, causing whatever wound one inflicted on them to appear on whoever it was who had wounded them. Going in guns blazing would have ended in a bloodbath… and not for them. There were also some concerns about drawing attention from Julia. With no conclusive data on just what they had living in that town, there was no guarantee we’d be safe in the air. A few eyewitnesses had described seeing giant nests in some of the trees in the jungle, supposedly consistent with the nests made by harpies.

Flying in guns blazing was out. So Bundy went back to the drawing board and what he came back with… well, it was ballsy, but it almost seemed like it just might work. During his reconnisance of the Di Cesare’s estate, he’d noticed a large but shallow tributary flowing into the amazon river that led right through the Di Cesare’s estate. Along the tributary was an abandoned water mill, that connected to the Di Cesare estate.

He’d suggested using the water mill to gain entry to the grounds, and from there, move on the Di Cesare’s. That plan had been approved, and Bundy had been allowed to handpick his team for the operation. He’d chosen fifteen men, all of them ex military, most of them having served under him before.

He’d told us we would be dividing into three teams of five men each. We would leave Manaus by boat, and land at three different areas near the tributary before making our way to the mill on foot, where we would regroup, before moving on the Di Cesares. The reason for the division was to ensure that if any of our teams ran into trouble upon making ground, the entire operation wouldn’t be compromised.

Team 1, led by Bundy himself would depart first and land to the west of the tributary. Team 2, led by a man named Ferdinand Hernandez would make land about fifteen minutes later near the mouth of the tributary and Team 3, to be led by me would land fifteen minutes later to the east.

On the day of the operation, I sat in my boat, watching as the other two left. It was twilight when we set out, and I remember that as my team and I carried out our final checks on our equipment, the only thing I felt was a familiar anticipation.

I’d hesitate to call it fear. Fear is what came later. Anticipation is the better word. I knew we could be walking into a tough situation… but I trusted Bundy. I trusted he’d run a smooth op. God knew, he’d done it a thousand times before.

The team assigned to me wasn’t anything particularly special. They were competent enough, but none of them would’ve been my first choices. Jack McMullen, for instance, who was about the same age as I was at the time. We’d both served under Bundy before, although while I respected Bundy, Jack was wholly devoted to him. I swear, if the man had told him to stuff a live grenade up his ass, Jack would’ve done it without a moments hesitation. I dunno if Jack simply saw him as the father he’d never had or what, but he damn near worshipped Bundy.

I can’t quite say the same for the other guys we had with us, though. One of them, some greenhorn by the name of Pearce Wilson struck me as an airheaded pretty boy who’d never actually had his boots on the ground before, while the other one, Scott Barber had left a bad taste in my mouth last time we’d worked together. Barber was capable… but he was violent. This was a kid with a hell of a chip on his shoulder, and it looked a hell of a lot like that Confederate flag patch he wore on his jacket. He wanted an excuse to shoot something, and I don’t think he cared what. Under most circumstances I’m not sure I would’ve fully trusted him with a gun.

The last one though, Joseph Feng… him I trusted. Feng was the one I knew the least about, and he didn’t seem much for conversation. But he handled himself competently enough and seemed to know when to sit down and shut up.

When Team 2’s boat was far enough away, we got the radio signal to follow. Barber was the one steering the boat, so I gave him the order to cast off and we ventured out into the twilight, unaware of just what was waiting for us out there.

***

We landed in our designated area fifteen minutes after Team 2 confirmed they’d touched down at theirs. Our landing was fairly uneventful. Feng, Barber, and I secured the boat before we radio’d Bundy to let him know we were in position. After that, it was just a matter of making it to the tributary.

As we ventured into the jungle, the world around us was quiet. There was wind, the whisper of the river behind us, and the sounds of animals. But little else. The river fell away behind us as we moved in single file toward the tributary, maintaining radio silence as we did.

It was about a half hour before we heard the gunshot.

Just one, echoing through the twilight. But it was enough to give us pause.

“The fuck was that?” I heard Barber ask. Immediately, the kid was on high alert, with his gun raised as if he were expecting every monster in Julia to come charging at us from all angles.
I just listened, waiting to hear if there was anything else. I half expected my radio to come to life, but it didn’t.
“Team 1, status?” I asked.
The radio crackled with static, but there was no response.

I tried it again, but still with no success. The radio was working, that much I was sure of. Something had to be blocking the signal.
“What’s going on?” Feng asked.
“Dunno,” I replied. “Comms are down.”
“Down?” Wilson asked, “So we’re flying blind out here, then?”
“More or less,” I replied.
“What do we do? Do we go back… if the comms are down…”
“Just because something’s jamming our signal doesn’t mean we’re made,” I said. “Relax. We keep moving for now. You keep your eyes wide open, and your head on a swivel. We’ll make it to the tributary and see if we can’t meet up with the other teams.”
I could tell Wilson wasn’t a fan of my answer, but I didn’t much care. We had a job to do, and I aimed to do it.

I pressed on without a further word and the others followed. Up ahead, I could hear the sound of running water and picked up the pace. I figured the tributary had to be close… and I was right.

I emerged from the brush into the stream, only to pause when I saw what was waiting for us in the water.

In the dying sunlight, it was impossible to mistake the bodies sprawled out on the rocks as anything else… and all I needed to do was look at their uniforms to know they were our people.
“Jesus…” I heard Wilson say under his breath. He froze up, lingering by the bank as I cautiously approached one of the bodies.

It belonged to a somewhat heavyset man with a thin mustache who I recognized as Hernandez. His eyes were still open, although lifeless and staring in different directions, and there was a clean hole in his forehead where a bullet had ended his life. The gunshot we’d heard earlier had likely been the sound of his death.

Looking at the bodies around him, I knew they had to be the rest of Team 2… although it was a little harder pinning down their cause of death. Some sort of bladed weapon, perhaps, judging by the state of them. I realized the odds were that they walked into some sort of ambush.
“What about Bundy and Team 1?” Jack asked, “Any sign of them?”
“No,” I said. “These bodies are all from Team 2… Bundy could still be ahead of us.”
“Then we need to keep going!”

Jack turned, heading up the stream and Barber was right behind him. Feng paused for a moment, thinking this over before following. Only Wilson remained.
“How do we know we’re not walking into a trap?” He asked.
“We’ll deal with that when we get to it,” I said before moving to follow the others.
“With all due respect, Sarge… that doesn’t sound like the best course of action!” Wilson argued, finally following me. “It sounds just like a good way to get killed!”
“Yeah?” I asked, “I’m gonna tell you an ugly truth, kid. That’s the job. Make your peace with it, and it’ll go a lot easier.”

Wilson didn’t like that answer either and trailed off behind me, watching as I continued upstream. For a moment, I half expected him to go back to the boat… but no. I dunno if he found his balls or just didn’t want to get left behind, but he started to follow us again.

I kept trying to raise Team 1 on the radio while we walked, although I still had no luck. The light above us slowly faded into darkness as we trudged through the water in silence, guns sitting comfortably in our hands and mosquitos biting at our necks.

It wasn’t until we lost Feng that I heard anybody so much as make a sound, and when we lost Feng… it happened almost instantaneously. One minute, he was at the head of the group, walking just ahead of Jack and I. The next, he was gone, only barely having the time to let out a scream as he fell into the river ahead of us.

The rest of us paused. Jack seemed to freeze and I pushed past him, calling out for Feng as I did. As punishment for my compassion, I almost went down after him. I only barely stopped myself from stepping on the slippery rocks that had helped send him to his demise.

I could see Feng’s body in the water, and I could see the blood pouring out of him. He twitched a few times, but I knew he was dead. The sharpened wooden spikes jutting out of him confirmed as much.
“What the hell…” Jack said under his breath, staring at Feng’s corpse in disbelief. “That’s a fucking spike trap!”

Yeah.

It was indeed a fucking spike trap.

I could see other spikes jutting out of the water ahead of us, just past a small dam of rocks that were just slippery enough to make it difficult to stop yourself from falling. Some of those spikes had other bodies on them… likely members of Team 1. I only counted two, although that still didn’t exactly bode well.

“They put a fucking spike trap in the goddamn stream…” Jack said, “Who the hell does that?”
“Somebody who’s expecting us to use the stream,” I replied.
“So they know we’re coming?” Barber asked.
“Clearly…” I replied. “And they’ve got a good idea on what our route is too.”

“Yeah, no shit!” Barber snapped. “Christ… let’s get the fuck out of here. There’s probably more fucking traps upstream!”
“Bundy’s orders were clear!” Jack argued.
“Bundy’s probably dead by now!” Barber replied, before looking at me. “Sarge, come on. You have to know this is suicide!”
“Suicide was part of the job description, was it not?” I asked.
“The job is to kill those fucking vampires, not to die in the goddamn process! We need to get out of the stream and into the woods!”

“Judging by the fate Team 2 met, I’m not sure the forest is someplace we want to be right now,” I replied.
“Excuse me?” Barber asked, “What the hell are you talking about, Sarge?”
“Five men dead, but only one gunshot. How did the rest die?”

Barber didn’t seem to be able to answer that.
“By now… yes. It’s clear we’ve walked into a trap. And yes, I understand that it makes sense to try and leave that trap… but I don’t know if we’ll be safer in the jungle. Something jumped Team 2. Cut them apart, and then shot Hernandez as a warning. They didn’t have to shoot him. They did it so we’d hear.”
“Your point being?” Barber asked.
“I don’t think this is just a trap, Barber. It’s a game. Stop playing, and you might just end up like our friends downstream.”
“A game?” Wilson asked, “Sarge, you can’t be serious!”

“From where I’m standing, we have a better chance of surviving in the stream,” I said. “Look, we’re at least halfway to the rendezvous point, and there have to be at least two members of Team 1 left. The safest thing to do right now is to follow them.”
“You’re off your fucking rocker, Sarge,” Barber spat, locking his eyes with mine. For a moment, I thought the boy was going to try and fight me. But no. He was wise enough to stand down.
“If you wanna get yourself killed, go right the fuck ahead. Just leave me out of it! Wilson, come on,” Barber said before trudging over to the edge of the stream. Wilson didn’t even hesitate, just looking back at Jack and I quietly before he disappeared into the forest with Barber.

“You’re not gonna stop them?” Jack asked.
“No,” I replied. “God willing, there’s a chance that pigheaded asshole is right… dunno how much of a chance, but a chance.”
“Then how come we’re not following him?” Jack asked.
“There’s also a chance he’s wrong.”
I turned, before making my way around the spike trap.
“Keep a slower pace,” I said. “Watch for traps.”

Jack hesitated for a moment, but he followed me without any further questions and we walked in silence for a little longer.

We heard nothing from the trees. Nothing that told us about the fate of Barber and Wilson. I wasn’t sure if that was good news or not.

In fact, I don’t think we heard a thing until about a half hour later, when we heard the explosion.

It came out of almost nowhere, but ahead of us I could see a flash of light and hear the screams of men. On instinct, I found myself picking up the pace and could hear Jack behind me. In the low light, I saw a shape float past me in the stream. It took me a moment to realize that it was a severed human arm.

In the water ahead of us, I could see a figure clinging to one of the rocks and trying to pick himself up. I recognized him as George Bundy.

Jack was at his side almost immediately, trying to help the old man to his feet.
“Sir! Are you alright?”
Bundy just wheezed, before his legs gave out from under him. I helped Jack drag him to the shore so he could sit and rest for a moment.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, looking back at the stream.
“Grenade trap… I think…” Bundy panted, “Fucking tripwire… Popkov tripped it, I think…”

Popkov… odds are he was one of the two mangled corpses lying in the river a few feet away from us. It seemed they’d taken the brunt of the explosion, although Bundy still had some shrapnel in his arm that Jack was tending to.
“Christ… whole fucking ops gone to shit…” Bundy spat. “Team 2 got taken out just about as soon as they landed. Someone killed them and dumped them in the goddamn river. Lost half my boys to the fucking spike trap and half to this…”

He looked up at us, before spitting onto the ground.
“Guess you two haven’t done much better.”
“Hard to say,” I replied. “Two of ours took off into the woods, trying to avoid the traps.”
“Then they’re dead,” Bundy replied. “I’ve seen her watching us… always just up ahead, always from a distance… she’s seeing how far we’ll go. How much we’ll take…”
“She?” I asked.
La Morte. Should’ve figured she’d be the one to greet us.”
“La Morte?” I asked.

“It’s Italian. Supposedly, she earned that name around the time the Di Cesares fled Venice. It’s funny, the Brethren like to act like the Di Cesares leaving Venice was some big victory of theirs, since before they did, they finally killed one of them… hard to call it a victory though, considering how many corpses they made before they fled. And most of them came from La Morte…”
Bundy winced in pain as Jack bandaged his arm before he continued talking.

“See… when the Di Cesare’s left Venice, one of them stayed behind. Clementine, the Scorpio sister. Guess she was unwilling to leave the fight unfinished… and according to the stories, the death toll she personally amassed in the years after the Di Cesare’s left Venice make the bodies they claimed during the Venetian Massacre a hundred and fifty years prior look like a pittance. The Brethren still occupying the city started to call her La Morte. Death. Cuz wherever she went, death followed in her wake… and it seems we’ve walked right into her open arms, haven’t we, boys?”

“You’re sure it’s her?” I asked.
“She’s a Di Cesare… and the shit we’ve seen out here… I don’t see any other Di Cesare setting those traps. It’s her. I’m sure of it. She’s watching us. Seeing how far we’ll go. Seeing if we’ll turn tail…”
“Should we?” Jack asked, and Bundy finally seemed to acknowledge him.
“Excuse me?” He asked.
“Should we? Look, sir… I’d follow you into the mouth of Hell, but right now, we’re down from fifteen men to three. Can’t say I’m optimistic about our chances right now. If this woman is half as bad as you’re saying she is, maybe it’s time we took a step back!”

Jack looked at me, hoping I might back him up, but I remained silent.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Bundy asked.
“What I’m hearing here, is that as of right now, the vampire out there could kill us at any time. She hasn’t. Far as I’m concerned, that’s mercy. Maybe we should be taking it while it’s offered.”
Bundy stared at him, before chuckling. I think it was the first time I’d ever seen him laugh.

“Just walk away, then?” He asked.
“Walk away, and come back better prepared!” Jack corrected.
“Walk away,” Bundy said again. “We walk away now, and there won’t be a chance to come back better prepared. We get one shot at this. One. Failure is not an option. We go in there and we kill them or we die. End of discussion.”
“And how exactly are we even supposed to kill them?” Jack asked, “That curse they have… bullets aren’t gonna do shit, sir!”
“Yours won’t, mine will…”
Bundy pulled his pistol from his holster. I noticed some sort of pattern crudely engraved on it.

“I’ve been doing some research… studied the curse they put on themselves… and I think I’ve found a way to break it. Not sure if it’ll work yet… but we get one chance to test it.”
Jack stared at the gun, then back at Bundy.
“Sir… do you hear yourself?” He asked quietly, “You can’t be serious… right now, even with that gun we don’t stand a chance in he-”

The gunshot echoed through the forest and made me jump. Jack’s voice died in his throat as he hit the ground.

Bundy stared at him for a moment, before huffing and holstering his pistol again. He draped his coat over his shoulders, before looking over at me.
“No room for failure, Frank,” He said calmly.
I didn’t know what to say to that. I stared down at Jack’s body, my mouth hanging open slightly. When I looked back at Bundy, he was already back in the stream.

There was a tense silence between Bundy and I as I followed him along the final stretch of the tributary. He trudged on ahead, covered in sweat and straining with every step, but I could sense the quiet determination he had to see this through. Looking at him, you could’ve told me that George Bundy could wipe out the Di Cesare’s all by himself and I would have believed it in a second.

The night around us was full of sound, and each one drew my attention. I watched the forest, expecting to see some sign of La Morte watching us. But I saw nothing, except for what she wanted me to see.
“Mill’s just up ahead,” I heard Bundy say as we pressed on, although I noticed his steps faltering as he seemed to notice something in the trees above us. I stopped behind him, looking up before seeing what he saw, and when I saw it I felt my stomach turn.

I’d seen death before.
But what Di Cesare had left out for us… that was something else.
Pearce Wilson and Scott Barber weren’t dead.
But if they could have spoke, I’ve got no doubt they would have begged us to kill them. Wilsons pretty face was covered in blood and his pouty lips were parted as more trickled out of him. His curly blond hair was matted and I could see crimson there. Tree branches portruded from his ribs, while the loops of his entrails dangled out of his opened stomach. And Barber was in just about the same state, only he seemed to at least have the ability to turn his head to look at us.

I think he might have tried to speak, but the only sound he seemed to be able to make was a pained whimper.
“Jesus Christ…” I said softly.
“He had nothing to do with this,” Bundy replied. He took one last look at the two dying men hanging from the trees, before moving on.
“We should put them out of their misery, sir,” I said.

Bundy paused, before looking back at me.
“Don’t waste the ammo, Frank,” He replied. “They’re already dead.”
“Not yet they’re not!”
“Give them time. They chose to go into the woods. They can live with the consequences… for however long that lasts.”

With that, he left them. If I were a more compassionate man, I would have put them out of their misery. But no. Bundy moved on and so did I.

He approached the water mill, before examining it. It was an old building, made of stone that had long since been overgrown by moss, and sat right on the wall that separated the Di Cesares estate from the amazon. It hardly looked secure, even if the only entrance hadn’t just been an old wooden door secured with a padlock, finding a way in wouldn’t have been difficult. And it didn’t take much for Bundy to break through that door. All he needed was a couple of well placed kicks and it swung right open.

Drawing his gun, Bundy strode inside and I followed him.
“The Di Cesare’s will be in the main house,” He said. “We should find a way in through the back, try and catch them off guard. Main target should be the matriarch, Bianca. Her we should prioritize keeping alive… the rest are expendable.”

“Much as you are, I’m sure.” A voice called from deeper in the mill, and both Bundy and I froze.
I noticed movement on the floor above us, and through the shadows, I saw a tall woman watching us. She was dressed all in black, with blond hair tied back in a ponytail and the intense eyes of a soldier.

This had to be Clementine Di Cesare.

Bundy aimed his pistol at her, although she only barely seemed to notice.
“Only two of you left… I’m not sure the odds are in your favor,” The woman said. Her voice was low, calm and quiet.
“Only one way to find out,” Bundy growled.
“And only one way to walk out of this place alive,” Di Cesare countered. “You can put the gun down, turn and walk away. I won’t stop you. There’s no shame in living.”

“All the bodies you’ve left in your wake… that’s rich,” Bundy said.
“I don’t relish what I’ve done. I simply don’t know how to do anything else,” She replied. “Think about this, Bundy. Over my lifetime, there have been countless thousands who have come to kill me. All of them are dead, but I am not. Even if you could kill me… you could not kill my sisters. Not all of them. Not before they came for you.”
“Just you, would be enough…” Bundy said, before pulling the trigger.

I knew he’d hit her. I knew the bullet pierced her shoulder. But that woman… she didn’t even flinch. She simply dove out of the way before he could shoot again, taking cover and avoiding his next shot.
“Frank, upstairs!” Bundy snapped, “Flush her out!”
I went, trudging up the old wooden steps with my rifle drawn. Only to see Di Cesare vaulting over the railing and back down to the ground floor as soon as I made it up there.

Bundy shot at her again, only to miss for a second time. I saw Di Cesare’s arm move, and heard him cry out in pain. In the low light, I could see a dagger protruding from his shoulder. He stumbled back a step, leaving himself open for only a split second.

That second was all it took for Di Cesare to raise her own gun and fire just one shot.

George Bundy hit the ground without so much as a final scream. There was just a simple hole in his skull where she had shot him.

I felt my heart start to race faster. My eyes settled on Bundy’s gun, and I ran for the railing, vaulting it and dropping to the ground below with a thud. Di Cesare shot at me, and I felt the bullet tear through my leg. I reached out for the fallen gun and grabbed it before turning it on Di Cesare, only to find myself staring down the barrel of her own pistol. My finger rested on the trigger, but I didn’t have the guts to pull it.

"Kill me, and you will not see the sun tomorrow." She said, her voice still cold and calm.
“Killing you is part of the job…” I replied, but my finger still couldn’t squeeze the trigger.
“And is it worth your life?” Di Cesare asked. “You fail your mission either way.”
“And die with some goddamn honor…”
“There’s no such thing as honor. There is alive and there is dead. Choose.”

I knew what I was supposed to choose.

But my hands were shaking, as I stared into the face of death. My finger couldn’t squeeze the trigger.

The gun collapsed to the floor and Di Cesare kicked it away from me, before huffing and lowering her gun.
“Do not return,” She said softly. “Or next time, I will unleash a hell upon you that will make you beg for simple traps.”

She picked Bundy’s gun up off the ground, and then she was gone. After I finally picked myself up off the ground, I was gone too.

As I walked back along the stream… I passed the corpses of the men we’d left behind. Barber and Wilson, Jack, Feng, Hernandez, and his team. The flies were already feasting on them. Animals had already torn at them. And as I looked down at their cold corpses, I knew I had made the right choice.

I filed my report with the Brethren. Told them that Di Cesare had wiped us out, and a few months later I quietly retired. I never looked back.

***

“You walked away from her?” Sweeney asked in disbelief, “You had her dead to rights and you walked away from her?”
“I chose to live,” I replied. “Can’t say I regret the decision either. Because of the choice I made, I met my wife and had my kids. I’ve lived the life I had because I chose not to throw it away on some vampire.”

Sweeney just shook his head.
“You could have gotten the first confirmed kill on a Di Cesare in two centuries, and you threw it away you fucking coward! I could execute you for that!” I noticed his hand hovering over the gun on his hip.
“You could.” I replied, before quietly unholstering the pistol I kept at my side. I aimed it at Sweeney’s head.

He stared at me like a slack jawed idiot.
“Would you like to give it a try?”
“W-what…?”
“Would you like to give it a try, Mr. Sweeney? Or would you like to see the sun tomorrow?”
He stared down the barrel of my gun, and I already knew what his choice would be.

Sweeney took a step back. I saw his hand move away from his holster, and I lowered the gun with a huff.
“Thought so,” I said.
Mr. Sweeney left me without another word.
I knew he would not return.
submitted by HeadOfSpectre to HeadOfSpectre [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 16:56 gerardthedinosaur I Think There's Merit In Criticizing The Things You Love

I want to preface this post by saying I LOVE LOVE LOVE Yellowjackets. Even Season 2 (I'll get to that shortly). That Misty Musical scene when she's in the water pod made the whole season for me!
But I feel like this sub has recently gotten a little aggressive towards people who point out flaws which are very clearly there: (Why did all the adult women start hunting Shauna when they said a day earlier Lottie was being crazy, specifically Nat and Misty; How did Walter get all the bank and phone information of, according to the timeline, deaths that only happened about a week earlier; How did Lisa and Callie show up at the hunt at the exact same time and right as Shauna was about to die; Why did a police officer submit to Walter's blackmail when he could have just arrested him right there and told his whole story, as a police officer, which is much more credible;).
One of the biggest flaws that people have been ready to point out is Nat's death. I believe it is , too. I understand that it's supposed to be juxtaposing Javi's death, it's just not done well. There was like still a foot between Nat and Misty when Nat jumped in front of Lisa AND Nat's jacket was like an inch thick AND did Misty have that the whole time?
But I don't even care about the flaws. Let people enjoy things they enjoy, right? And I'm certainly still enjoying it. Still one of my favorite shows, Buzz Buzz Buzz!
For me, the problem is, as someone who grew up during the LOST era, this show is exhibiting signs of Mystery Box syndrome. It's introducing more characters and mysteries at a rate than it can solve the old ones.
We already started with a plethora of mysteries (Dark Tai; Cabin Man**; man with no eyes; Who is the Antler Queen; What are the “real” dark things they’ve done; what does the symbol mean; is it supernatural or not; how will they get found; and many more).
**Yes I’m aware cabin man will be in the bonus episode, but a main plot point shouldn’t be in a bonus episode months away from the actual season.
Season 2 not only doesn’t answer any of those questions, but adds a lot more (why is Lottie seeing visions again now; Who is Walter, really; will Tai’s wife get out of the coma; Will Lisa tell on them; Will there be a battle against Coach Ben; and a lot more;)
I know the common response to qualms like this is that 'they have a 5 season plan and we just need to be patient' but LOST had 6 seasons and left a ton of stuff unsolved. When the rate of introducing new mysteries is greater than the rate of solving mysteries, they're gonna end up just not resolving some plot points. And I think that'll be disappointing for such a great show.
I say this because, as a lover of Yellowjackets, I think there's merit in criticizing the thing you love, so that they can learn from it and make these last 3 seasons even better.
Idk, that's my 2 cents. Hope you all have a great day!
submitted by gerardthedinosaur to Yellowjackets [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 16:51 otomelover Just finished the show

and even though I read the book and knew it was coming that ending just destroyed me. I was bawling through the last episode and even after the credits rolled.
Goddamn was I hoping for a different ending. I think it would‘ve made way more sense for show Billy to leave Camilla and end up with Daisy. It never felt like he loved her like he did in the book. It felt like he only stayed with her because he wanted to be there for Julia and because it was the only thing that kept him sober.
Good for Daisy though for letting him go. She deserved so much better. When he told her he‘ll never leave his wife but he wants to keep working with her because their feelings inspire such great songs that was such a fucking selfish move. I was a little sad that they removed the line from the books when Camilla told her they are torturing each other and she needs to leave because it will never end because it was so true.
God I‘m so not ready to let this show go. I‘m such a sucker for will they/won‘t they relationships and this one just destroyed me.
submitted by otomelover to daisyjonesandthesixtv [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 16:13 NewExpensive_Trouble Conversation about bi representation and other experiences

I thought this would be the safest sub to bring this up. Recently in popular internet videos (helluva boss/chikin nugget) the conversation of bi representation came up and I was curious of others experiences. My husband and I (both bi) have experienced a kind of toxicity from both members of the LGBTQ+ and non community's. Often there's a questioning of our sexuality or a disbelief of it because we are in a hetro relationship. I've been questioned if I'm just strait and pretending to like girls and he's gotten the same when he was in previous homosexual relationships. I've spoken to a few others irl and this seems to be a reoccurring theme that our perceived sexualitys are based on our relationships. It was brought up in one of the newer episodes of helluva boss where a characters father refuses to believe his son likes women (because he previously dated a guy) and calls his wife a beard
submitted by NewExpensive_Trouble to WitchesVsPatriarchy [link] [comments]


2023.06.03 16:11 Any_Base5746 S2E1Browns out of hiding

Rewatching the series from the beginning. I had forgotten how much Robyn irritated me with my first watch! I’m reminded of reasons watching this episode. This woman NEVER lived polygamy before and she fricken can’t keep her mouth shut and comes off like that kid in elementary school that thinks she knows everything. Their getting ready to go to New York on a press junket and the OG3 are talking about how weird it is to be going public after 17 years of hiding. Robyn, not liking being left out, jumps in and says how scared she is after never saying a word in school about being a polygamous family, hiding it her whole life, now she’s going public… bitch please! Her stepdad and his first wife lived in a different state, you were in a monogamous marriage for 10 years, the only thing you been hiding all these years is your spending habits! 😳🤯🤯 I don’t know how the OG3 didn’t push her down the stairs in New York or lose her in Central Park! A normal 4th wife coming in you would think would keep her mouth shut, blend into the family routine before being so opinionated and aggressive, not superstar Barbie Robyn! 🫤 Side note… Gabriel is so adorable in this episode!
submitted by Any_Base5746 to SisterWives [link] [comments]