This is my pitiful attempt at a blog. Don't expect much

Starting at midnight on January 1, tens of thousands of books (as well as movies, songs, and cartoons) entered the public domain, meaning that people can download, share, or repurpose these works for free and without retribution under US copyright law.

Per the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, “corporate” creations (like Mickey Mouse) can be restricted under copyright law for 120 years.  But per an amendment to the act, works published between 1923 and 1977 can enter the public domain 95 years after their creation.  This means that this is the first year since 1998 that a large number of works have entered the public domain.

Basically, 2019 marks the first time a huge quantity of books published in 1923 — including works by Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, and Robert Frost — have become legally downloadable since digital books became a thing.  It’s a big deal — the Internet Archive had a party in San Francisco to celebrate.  Next year, works from 1924 will enter the public domain, and so-on.

So, how do you actually download these books?

It largely depends on what site you go to, and if you can’t find a book on one site, you can probably find it on another.  For instance, ReadPrint.com, as well as The Literature Network (mostly major authors), and Librivox (audio books), Authorama (all in the public domain), and over a dozen other sites all have vast selections of free ebooks.

There’s also a handful of archiving projects that are doing extensive work to digitize books, journals, music, and other forms of media.  A blog post from Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain listed some of the most recognizable works published in 1923, as well as links to download these books on digital archiving projects Internet Archive, HathiTrust, and the Gutenberg Project.  The books include:

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan and the Golden Lion

Agatha Christie, The Murder on the Links

Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis

Robert Frost, New Hampshire

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Aldous Huxley, Antic Hay

D.H. Lawrence, Kangaroo

Bertrand and Dora Russell, The Prospects of Industrial Civilization

Carl Sandburg, Rootabaga Pigeons

Edith Wharton, A Son at the Front

P.G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves and Leave it to Psmith

Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room

E.E. Cummings, Tulips and Chimneys

In total HathiTrust, a massive digital archiving project, has also uploaded more than 53,000 works published in 1923 that just entered the public domain.  Over 17,650 of them are books written in English.  Similarly, Internet Archive has already uploaded over 15,000 works written in English that year.

Project Gutenberg, which has over 58,000 free downloadable books, has digitized five works that entered the public domain in the new year: The Meredith Mystery by Natalie Sumner Lincoln, The Golden Boys Rescued by Radio L. P. Wyman, White Lightning Edwin by Herbert Lewis, The Garden of God by H. De Vere Stacpoole, and The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.  I’m going to be perfectly honest: I recognize exactly zero of those books.  But like most if not all digital archives, Project Gutenberg had some books from 1923 available for download before January 1, 2019 (like Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf.)

If you’re interested in academic papers, Reddit user nemobis also uploaded over 1.5 million PDF files of works published in academic journals before 1923.  Your best bet for actually finding something you want to read in there is to know which academic paper you’re looking for beforehand and check the paper’s DOI number.  Then, search for the DOI in one of nemobis’s lists of works — one list includes works published until 1909, the other includes works published until 1923.

It’s worth noting that projects like Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg rely on volunteer efforts, so there’s going to be disparities in the number of books available for download depending on where you go.  But over the next several days and weeks, it’s safe to expect many more books will become available legally and for free across the web.

After I pass through that phase they take and x-ray of my entire body. There’s apparently been some cases where people had a Mark embedded inside of them.

I can see that my case is special, as I begin going through multiple examinations.

They catalogue every pimple on my body, every follicle and scar. They pull out special needles to look through my eyes.

It’s for no use, I’m 19 now, and no one has been able to find my Mark. Mark’s take the form of a tattoo, and your powers are derived from said Mark. A flame usually means you can manipulate fire, seers always have a third eye Mark on their head, as evidenced from the person currently examining me. Seers are rare, usually with there being one in about a million born. This is how I can tell I have an unusual case. They are extremely expensive, and getting ahold of one is very hard to do. I’ve had to wait for several years at the Vague Club to be seen. But to the Vague Club, the expense is worth it, as people with Vague Marks tend to be some of the most powerful.

But so far, there’s been no one with that had had no Mark, and the seer in front of me seemed to realize it. They kept on going on about I had a great power in me, but that was all useless without knowing where my Mark was. You couldn’t activate your powers without first knowing of your Mark, and then drawing from it.

The Vague Club helped people find their Marks, and then taught them how to use it, because most people develop with their Marks as children, and learning it as an adult is much harder.

Right now, there are about 15 other people in this particular Vague Club. My best friend among them is Riley, who has a Mark of a vortex hidden in her ear. My other friends include Tyler, who has a star Mark under his eyelid; Barnaby, with the Mark of a book just faintly visible under his fingernail, which had had to be removed to find it, and Julia, who has the Mark of light, which was a lighter shade then the rest of her skin, and was located on her foot.

I’ve had fun hanging out with them, but it’s difficult when they know, and are developing their Marks, as they become clearer with more usage. But they keep on supporting me, and make me feel welcome.

The seer in front of me finally gives up.

“It’s useless!” He concedes, standing up abruptly from the chair and moving out. “I’ve looked into her future and power, but there’s no hint of her Mark!” The helper standing in the room nods, noting it down.

“She has the most incredible power source I’ve ever seen! She could do untold things, probably reshape the cosmos. Her power level exceeds all else by at least a hundred! But she has no Mark”. The Seer exclaimed.

The helper nodded again. “We’ve never encountered so difficult a case, the longest lasting case until her took less than a year.”

I spoke up, “So, I don’t have a Mark?”

“It appears you don’t, and as such, we’ll going to be releasing you in two weeks. We’ve tried everything we can do, but if we can’t find your mark in that time, we’re going to want to make space for someone that we can help. I’m sorry, but it may just be that you have nothing.” The helper replied.

“What do you mean?” My head was fuzzy, until this point, they had always encouraged me, that I was worth something.

“The Vague Club has spent an enormous sum of expenses on you, and now we know that it was all for nothing. I’m sorry that we couldn’t find your Mark, but we can’t afford to maintain you any longer. We’ll continue to support you for the next two weeks while you find a means to support yourself. Again, I apologize.”

The helper led the seer out of the room, trying to look reassuring to me, that I could still contribute to society. But that was a lie; he was just saying bullcrap nothing to me. The Club had probably already come to the decision to get rid of me unless the seer found something. Because everyone else had Marks, it’s extremely hard to find a place to work unless you had a power associated with it. Every food and grocery store had people who could grow the food in front of you. Telekinetics could store and process products with ease, and they had the Intellects to monitor and compute anything you needed. The helper knew I wouldn’t be able to find a means for myself. No Mark meant I couldn’t get a job, as there were people with Marks that could do it better, so I would just have to live off of others.

And that was the worst part. In a world where everyone contributed, I would become the one who couldn’t. I was good for nothing for anyone else. A nobody.

I slowly got up, and wandered to my room. Inside there was a terminal to the Intellects, a bed, and a myriad of posters hanging up on the wall. There were also some weights in the corner next to my desk. If I could do nothing, maybe it would just be better if I was nothing. Oh they would regenerate me, people with the Mark of the heart could do that, but they wouldn’t if you left a note detailing you wanted death. The number of suicides today were almost nonexistent, like I was about to be, because there were Marks that could help those. They kept one in every Vague Club as well, because so many people feel helpless about finding a Mark. But now I knew that I didn’t have one, while everyone else did.

After I finished the note, I grabbed a blanket and began winding it up. I was almost through tying it to the fan when Riley rushed in.

“What are you doing?!” She shouted, as she extended her hand. The blanket immediately pulled through a vortex and appeared behind here.

“I’m nothing.” I replied, seeing no better answer. “I have no Mark.”

“That doesn’t matter, you can still live, still live a life!”

I shrugged, than began reaching for another blanket, which disappeared as well. “Would you please stop that!” I shouted, and then reached for another.

Soon all of the blankets were piled outside the door.

Riley took a second, then raised her palm down the hallway, I quickly reached out and jerked her hand down. “Do not call the Psychic.” I growled, “If I don’t have a Mark then what’s my purpose?”

She struggled to lift her hand up. I twisted, grabbing her other hand, which had begun reaching out, and grappled her to the ground.

There was momentary churning sensation, then I appeared back a couple feet from her. I quickly scrambled over just in time to pull her down again. This time, I balled her hands into fists, and tied them with a blanket. Then I went back to work, after ensuring no one else had heard what went down. Screams and rough noises were commonplace as people practiced using their Marks, but just to make sure, I put a blanket over the door to block out the sound.

“I didn’t run away from home, friendless, just to find someone like you, only to have them kill themselves the second they lost hope!” Riley cried. “Please don’t take away my friend.”

“You’d do better to find a new friend, I’m entirely worthless,” I answered without turning back from my work.

“I thought I was worthless too, my father constantly told me so when he couldn’t find my Mark. He didn’t want to be disgraced for having the only child who had no Mark, so he tattooed one on me himself. He violated me to put a false Mark so that he could claim that it was just hidden. And now that I’ve found a friend who made me feel like I’m not worthless. You aren’t worthless, you mean something to me.” Riley sobbed.

“At least you aren’t nothing, at least you had a father who cared at least somewhat about you.” I retorted.

“Please don’t do this… don’t make me see you do this.” She had turned around, and seemed defeated.

I finally finished. I stood up on my bed, and got ready.

But the world ended first.

I couldn’t see anything but fire; I began coughing out, expelling black smoke. It was rare for someone to Snap. Snapping only happened when someone’s Mark was removed, but doing so was extremely hard. But some people had Marks of chaos, Marks that continually changed and shifted, covering the whole of one’s body.

And they were the reason the Vague Club sought so frantically to help people with hard-to-find Marks. Only the most powerful Marks could contend with them.

I turned up, and looked around more. In what was the commons, I saw my friends. I stumbled up; my death was no longer on my mind. I walked around fire and pools of chaos, which were slowly spreading. When I finally reached them, I fell down.

They were dead, Tyler and Julia. I couldn’t see Barnaby. I quickly turned from the corpses as fires of chaos had begun burning them through.

Remembering Riley, I turned around quickly. She couldn’t be dead too, as the chaos looked like it was emerging from the center of the building.

I couldn’t see her.

Where was she?

I gazed out towards the city.

The city was gone.

I looked up, and saw evil incarnate.

A humanoid of a shifting Mark held up a cage of some of the other members that had Vague Marks. I saw Riley with them.

It was moving away. And my pain grew, coming out in a haunting scream. Maybe if I hadn’t been so distracted with myself, I could’ve saved her.

I wanted that Chaotic Marked person to be gone. To become nothing.

As my Mark is nothing.

The cage began falling from the sky, so I willed the gravity there to become nothing. And so it was.

Before the cage hit the ground, it was pulled through a chaos portal, as another one of the Chaotic Marked came in.

They were gone.

She was gone.

So too the other Chaotic Marked become nothing.

I was nothing.

I am Null, Zero, In-between. My Mark is nothing, as I can make others.

Prologue (RD 1)

               The acrid air burned with the stench of chaos, causing whirling clouds of fine white powder to crest over the littered dark street. The rubble strewn along the sides were all scorched, slowly dissipating into nothingness. The vortex slowly ambled down the street, further spreading the coarse white dust, causing myriads of new piles to be deconstructed. But it didn’t only affect nonliving materials.

               The thronging crowd surged ahead of it, those who lacked the abilities to make a quick getaway. Inevitably one would stumble and eventually trip in the midst of the coursing bodies, unable to get up until they had been passed by everyone. By the time they would get back up through, it would be too late. As soon as the motes of powder touched them, even just a bit of their clothes, their cause would become hopeless.

               I became one of those unfortunate witnesses to what has become called Unraveling. As I had turned my head to see how close behind me danger was, I saw a young kid trip and fall. His black shoelaces had been undone, probably because he had just slipped them on before running out.

               The effect had been almost immediate, his eyes had suddenly went white, as he began to realize what was about to happen. His knuckles turned white as he attempted to shove off from the ground to get back up and run. The white shoes he was wearing briefly scrabbled with the ground as he launched himself forward. For a second it looked like he might’ve made it.

               Then his foot began Unraveling. The bits of it morphing around, making his foot temporarily look like a bowl of vanilla ice cream after you had poured black shoelace syrup into it and had begun stirring it; then squirted ketchup into it while still stirring. Then it seemed to flatten, no matter from which angle you viewed it from reportedly, it looked like a piece of melting chocolate. As it continued to spread up his legs, first jumbling his blue jeans and then his striped red and white T-shirt, his feet thinned into nothing, occasionally leaving a blob which would then splat to the ground. As he underwent this process he still appeared to be running, up to the point his head began Unraveling. Behind him a trail of goopy red, white, and black blobs were all that testified that he had once existed.

               Unraveling happened to buildings too. The vast monolithic structures around me typically fell down before they were completely deconstructed though.

               The storm of feet continued on, barely staying ahead of the flurry of particles behind us. I had only been in the city for less than a day, and when I had first come to it, the spectacle of New Tryan had amazed me. The sparkling silver city had been the cornerstone of the modern Configuration, with many important groups tracing their origins back to here. The most famous of these buildings, the Capitulate had been made over 200 years ago.

               But now it was slowly crumbling down, 200 feet above me. The side of the building had begun warping, the glass shifting around the metal, eventually causing seven stories on one side to collapse, triggering the shining tower, some one thousand feet tall, to begin falling over.

               I searched around frantically, the streets had been laid out in rectangular blocks, but the nearest street to duck out was a good 70 feet away. I would be crushed before I made it. So I booked it towards the Capitulate, the titanium glass doors banged against the inner walls as I rushed pass them. The mahogany carpet muffled my footsteps as I ran towards the stairwell. The white vortex had begun shifting in through the doors, spreading unnaturally quick.

               I slammed the door to the stairs behind me, than began heading down, my feet quickly thumping down them. I had almost gone down a flight when the world suddenly shook, throwing me down the last few stairs. As I fell down I silently prayed I could make it out safely, I had never been much of a believer in Creation, for how could a god with that name create so much destruction, but it couldn’t hurt to try. My head did hurt however, after I banged against the wall, and began falling down the next flight.

               I dreamed of pure white snow. I had always been enthralled by snow, winter was my favorite season, and I always loved it even when it snowed outside of the normal winter times. I woke up, sitting up straight in my bed, looking over to the window to see that beautiful sight falling from the sky. I quickly wrestled my way out of bed and ran to the front door, then ran outside laughing. But the world was screaming, and very soon I was too. As the snow touched my outstretched hands, they began burning, with what I thought was the normal coldness attributed with snow. Then my hands began melting, my skin dripping away from my bones in blobs. My forehead running down in front of my eyes, I desperately tried to stop it. But I could do nothing to stop it.

The address led to a building just a couple blocks away, I made sure to hide the knife in my pants while walking there. It was a good thing it was night, as I certainly would’ve attracted a bunch of attention with the mask, but I didn’t know if they were spying on me. The building was actually an apartment building, so I pretty much just waltzed up to the correct apartment and buzzed the doorknob.

There was a bunch of rustling inside, and shushing. Then the door opened up to reveal a young man with dark hair. His jaw dropped at the sight of me, but before he could close the door I stuck my foot in the doorframe. The man quickly turned back towards the inside and shouted: “Okay, who wrote our address on the paper instead of the actual hit?”

Someone else replied, “I didn’t, you were in charge of that.”

I shoved the door open, causing the man who was trying to hold it close to fall down, to see a bunch of people sitting around monitors with someone tied and gagged to a chair in the center of the room.

“Who’s that?” I asked

“Well that’s your loved one,” the man on the ground said, “right?”

“I have no idea who that is”

Let’s start with a simple test. Click this link here: https://whatismyipaddress.com/ It will tell your IP adres, your ISP (internet service provider), and your location. The location might not be very accurate, but then again, it’s just a simple website. Imagine what the government can do!

So basically, everyone can find out where you live. But there is more danger. Your ISP. Your ISP logs your every move online and they are required to keep it in case the government wants access to it (or if a 3rd party wants to buy your data (yikes). They have everything. What websites you visit. How long you stay on a website. What you download. Your search terms. European laws are more subtle on this but if you are from the US you are #@*#&, especially because Trump doesn’t support the open internet. It’s scary but maybe in the future you can’t get a job because the recruiter knows your searched on ‘how to deal with depression’ or anythings else that’s supposed to be private because it’s your f*cking right. Or you get a $100k fine because you pirated a movie 15 years ago. You need a VPN. You’re dumb for not using one. but what does a VPN do?

A VPN encrypts all your data so if it were be intercepted no one can ‘crack the code’ and damage your privacy. 

Usually being online goes like this (simplified): Your computer —-> ISP (—–> keeps data —–> sells it)

But with a VPN it goes like: Your computer —–> VPN (encrypts data)—–> ISP (ISP can’t see shit)

Furthermore, a VPN hides your IP address and location by giving you another IP address located in Spain for example (you can often choose from a list and change as many times as you want).  

Now that you know why you should get a VPN and what is does it is important to educate yourself because people often choose the wrong VPN. VPN providers are also businesses and have to obey the law. If you choose a VPN provider located in the US then you are throwing your money away because the laws in the US shits on your privacy. If the US gov wants the provider to give all their logs they have to obey.  The ISP  still can’t see what you are doing online and sell your data but the US gov can interfere with your VPN provider so NEVER CHOOSE A PROVIDER LOCATED IN THE US. 

I just wanted to make that very clear so my followers don’t buy false security.

There is still more danger!  Who says your VPN provider isn’t selling your data? You need to check their logging policy. Do they keep logs? If yes, what for? For how long do they keep them? Tip: Choose a provider who doesn’t keep logs

More about law  The US is part of the Five Eyes program (the worst):  

The Five Eyes, often abbreviated as FVEY, is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are bound by the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence (source)

There is also a Nine Eyes (bit better) and Fourteen Eyes Program (better).  You don’t want a VPN provider who is located in one the Five Eyes countries.  If you had to choose go for a provider located in a country that’s part of the Fourteen Eyes Program or even better, go for a country that isn’t part of any program! 

I know this is a shitty explanation and please pardon my english but now it’s time to do your own research. Take your privacy seriously. Maybe WWIII breaks out and you get killed for liking the ‘wrong’ FB-page.  

Go to this website: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/simple-vpn-comparison-chart/

Make sure that your future VPN provider both has green boxes for Privacy Jurisdiction and Privacy Logging. 

I recommend ovpn.se and trust.zone. ovpn is located in Sweden so they are part of the 14 Eyes Program and they keep minimal logs. Their business ethics, however, are alright. 

Trustzone is located in the Seychelles. No country can interfere and their privacy jurisdiction is the best you can get. The US want your data but needs to get it from Trustzone? The Seychelles will simply give them the finger and wave them goodbye. However, this makes this provider very appealing for people who torrent and criminals because they keep no logs (and that is how it shoud be) Also,  there are almost no marketing efforts so this provider is one the cheapest)

Also, often providers such as ExpressVPN are being called ‘The Best’ on websites about VPNs but know that this is just marketing which also makes those provider more expensive (and they too shit on your privacy)

This must be the worst article you have ever read but please, please take your privacy very seriously.

Trust.Zone has a free trial. Use it. 

btw this post only has 11k notes? That’s quite disappointing for something this important. 

Sources

Anger as US internet privacy law scrapped 

Congress just voted to let internet providers sell your browsing history 

Don’t tell me you just wanted to scroll past this. Stop looking at pictures of cats for a moment, okay? Don’t you realize how important this is? This is dangerous! ‘America, the best FREE country in the world’ my ass.

With this new law your ISP can sell your Internet history which could include passwords, usernames, religion, credit card numbers, race and much more to the highest bidder. So here is what I want you to do. You are going to read the whole thing and before you think ’this is so important. Let me reblog this real quick and go back to admiring cats again-’ NO! Don’t reblog this. Take action first. Then reblog. Sign up for a free trial! Trust.Zone offers one (here). Yes. It might be difficult to set up a VPN for some people. But is that going to stop you from protecting yourself and your family? 30 minutes. 30 minutes is all that it takes. 5 if you know how to install software. The problem with some of you is that you see ‘difficult’ as something negative. I want you to see difficult differently. I need you to push through this stuff. You are going to protect yourself. There is nothing negative about that. VPNs are fun and costsaving too! A VPN bypasses geographical restrictions so you can access websites you normally can’t or you could start Netflix’s one month free trial over and over again- forever. And it’s legal! (unless you use it to buy weapons etc.,) Don’t tell yourself that you are too tired and that you will do this tomorrow. Because that isn’t going to happen and you know it. You have to do this right now. You only have to click on it. Don’t let this/shit/life just happen to you. Take yourself seriously. Get a VPN.

After I pass through that phase they take and x-ray of my entire body. There’s apparently been some cases where people had a Mark embedded inside of them.

I can see that my case is special, as I begin going through multiple examinations.

They catalogue every pimple on my body, every follicle and scar. They pull out special needles to look through my eyes.

It’s for no use, I’m 19 now, and no one has been able to find my Mark. Mark’s take the form of a tattoo, and your powers are derived from said Mark. A flame usually means you can manipulate fire, seers always have a third eye Mark on their head, as evidenced from the person currently examining me. Seers are rare, usually with there being one in about a million born. This is how I can tell I have an unusual case. They are extremely expensive, and getting ahold of one is very hard to do. I’ve had to wait for several years at the Vague Club to be seen. But to the Vague Club, the expense is worth it, as people with Vague Marks tend to be some of the most powerful.

But so far, there’s been no one with that had had no Mark, and the seer in front of me seemed to realize it. They kept on going on about I had a great power in me, but that was all useless without knowing where my Mark was. You couldn’t activate your powers without first knowing of your Mark, and then drawing from it.

The Vague Club helped people find their Marks, and then taught them how to use it, because most people develop with their Marks as children, and learning it as an adult is much harder.

Right now, there are about 15 other people in this particular Vague Club. My best friend among them is Riley, who has a Mark of a vortex hidden in her ear. My other friends include Tyler, who has a star Mark under his eyelid; Barnaby, with the Mark of a book just faintly visible under his fingernail, which had had to be removed to find it, and Julia, who has the Mark of light, which was a lighter shade then the rest of her skin, and was located on her foot.

I’ve had fun hanging out with them, but it’s difficult when they know, and are developing their Marks, as they become clearer with more usage. But they keep on supporting me, and make me feel welcome.

The seer in front of me finally gives up.

“It’s useless!” He concedes, standing up abruptly from the chair and moving out. “I’ve looked into her future and power, but there’s no hint of her Mark!” The helper standing in the room nods, noting it down.

“She has the most incredible power source I’ve ever seen! She could do untold things, probably reshape the cosmos. Her power level exceeds all else by at least a hundred! But she has no Mark”. The Seer exclaimed.

The helper nodded again. “We’ve never encountered so difficult a case, the longest lasting case until her took less than a year.”

I spoke up, “So, I don’t have a Mark?”

“It appears you don’t, and as such, we’ll going to be releasing you in two weeks. We’ve tried everything we can do, but if we can’t find your mark in that time, we’re going to want to make space for someone that we can help. I’m sorry, but it may just be that you have nothing.” The helper replied.

“What do you mean?” My head was fuzzy, until this point, they had always encouraged me, that I was worth something.

“The Vague Club has spent an enormous sum of expenses on you, and now we know that it was all for nothing. I’m sorry that we couldn’t find your Mark, but we can’t afford to maintain you any longer. We’ll continue to support you for the next two weeks while you find a means to support yourself. Again, I apologize.”

The helper led the seer out of the room, trying to look reassuring to me, that I could still contribute to society. But that was a lie; he was just saying bullcrap nothing to me. The Club had probably already come to the decision to get rid of me unless the seer found something. Because everyone else had Marks, it’s extremely hard to find a place to work unless you had a power associated with it. Every food and grocery store had people who could grow the food in front of you. Telekinetics could store and process products with ease, and they had the Intellects to monitor and compute anything you needed. The helper knew I wouldn’t be able to find a means for myself. No Mark meant I couldn’t get a job, as there were people with Marks that could do it better, so I would just have to live off of others.

And that was the worst part. In a world where everyone contributed, I would become the one who couldn’t. I was good for nothing for anyone else. A nobody.

I slowly got up, and wandered to my room. Inside there was a terminal to the Intellects, a bed, and a myriad of posters hanging up on the wall. There were also some weights in the corner next to my desk. If I could do nothing, maybe it would just be better if I was nothing. Oh they would regenerate me, people with the Mark of the heart could do that, but they wouldn’t if you left a note detailing you wanted death. The number of suicides today were almost nonexistent, like I was about to be, because there were Marks that could help those. They kept one in every Vague Club as well, because so many people feel helpless about finding a Mark. But now I knew that I didn’t have one, while everyone else did.

After I finished the note, I grabbed a blanket and began winding it up. I was almost through tying it to the fan when Riley rushed in.

“What are you doing?!” She shouted, as she extended her hand. The blanket immediately pulled through a vortex and appeared behind here.

“I’m nothing.” I replied, seeing no better answer. “I have no Mark.”

“That doesn’t matter, you can still live, still live a life!”

I shrugged, than began reaching for another blanket, which disappeared as well. “Would you please stop that!” I shouted, and then reached for another.

Soon all of the blankets were piled outside the door.

Riley took a second, then raised her palm down the hallway, I quickly reached out and jerked her hand down. “Do not call the Psychic.” I growled, “If I don’t have a Mark then what’s my purpose?”

She struggled to lift her hand up. I twisted, grabbing her other hand, which had begun reaching out, and grappled her to the ground.

There was momentary churning sensation, then I appeared back a couple feet from her. I quickly scrambled over just in time to pull her down again. This time, I balled her hands into fists, and tied them with a blanket. Then I went back to work, after ensuring no one else had heard what went down. Screams and rough noises were commonplace as people practiced using their Marks, but just to make sure, I put a blanket over the door to block out the sound.

“I didn’t run away from home, friendless, just to find someone like you, only to have them kill themselves the second they lost hope!” Riley cried. “Please don’t take away my friend.”

“You’d do better to find a new friend, I’m entirely worthless,” I answered without turning back from my work.

“I thought I was worthless too, my father constantly told me so when he couldn’t find my Mark. He didn’t want to be disgraced for having the only child who had no Mark, so he tattooed one on me himself. He violated me to put a false Mark so that he could claim that it was just hidden. And now that I’ve found a friend who made me feel like I’m not worthless. You aren’t worthless, you mean something to me.” Riley sobbed.

“At least you aren’t nothing, at least you had a father who cared at least somewhat about you.” I retorted.

“Please don’t do this… don’t make me see you do this.” She had turned around, and seemed defeated.

I finally finished. I stood up on my bed, and got ready.

But the world ended first.

I couldn’t see anything but fire; I began coughing out, expelling black smoke. It was rare for someone to Snap. Snapping only happened when someone’s Mark was removed, but doing so was extremely hard. But some people had Marks of chaos, Marks that continually changed and shifted, covering the whole of one’s body.

And they were the reason the Vague Club sought so frantically to help people with hard-to-find Marks. Only the most powerful Marks could contend with them.

I turned up, and looked around more. In what was the commons, I saw my friends. I stumbled up; my death was no longer on my mind. I walked around fire and pools of chaos, which were slowly spreading. When I finally reached them, I fell down.

They were dead, Tyler and Julia. I couldn’t see Barnaby. I quickly turned from the corpses as fires of chaos had begun burning them through.

Remembering Riley, I turned around quickly. She couldn’t be dead too, as the chaos looked like it was emerging from the center of the building.

I couldn’t see her.

Where was she?

I gazed out towards the city.

The city was gone.

I looked up, and saw evil incarnate.

A humanoid of a shifting Mark held up a cage of some of the other members that had Vague Marks. I saw Riley with them.

It was moving away. And my pain grew, coming out in a haunting scream. Maybe if I hadn’t been so distracted with myself, I could’ve saved her.

I wanted that Chaotic Marked person to be gone. To become nothing.

As my Mark is nothing.

The cage began falling from the sky, so I willed the gravity there to become nothing. And so it was.

Before the cage hit the ground, it was pulled through a chaos portal, as another one of the Chaotic Marked came in.

They were gone.

She was gone.

So too the other Chaotic Marked become nothing.

I was nothing.

I am Null, Zero, In-between. My Mark is nothing, as I can make others.

I almost turned around and sat down right at that moment, for if my life had taught me anything, it was that nothing extraordinary happened. But as I was turning away I heard the voice again, it seemed quitter than before.

“Your father is not actually your father, there is no time to explain anything, go into the pantry and pull on the box of macaroni in the back of the third shelf up. A small space will open up, close it behind you, and no matter what happens or what you hear, don’t open it up, I repeat, don’t leave. It will try to manipulate you.”

The TV flicked off. My reflection stared back at me, all of a sudden, looking into the black reflection of the living room and the partial bit of kitchen behind where I was; everything seemed empty. Not the empty space kind of empty, it was the emptiness of looking into the eyes of someone who had died.

Silently, I looked around. I couldn’t explain what had happened, but what had once been my home now looked different, like tasting a food you normally liked to only find that its taste had gone sour. I heard the faint sound of the toilet flushing. But it didn’t sound normal either, it almost sounded like sludge being forced down a hole.

Standing up quickly, I dashed into the kitchen. Just as I grabbed the knob to enter the small closet that was our pantry, I realized I had forgotten my phone. I glanced back to where it was laying by where I sat. I almost went to get it, my dad had gotten it for me in emergencies, so didn’t this constitute bringing it? But as I went to take a step, I saw the bathroom door opening, and any previous thoughts of getting the phone vanished. I soundlessly closed the pantry door behind me.

It was black. Not the darkness where you couldn’t see your hand in front of you, but a soul-sucking void of black. I couldn’t bear it any longer, I started crying in fear as my hands grasped out in front of my, trying to find the box of macaroni. I could feel my hands shaking as all of a sudden the shelf gave way in front of me.

I screamed as I fell forward, where a wall had been was now an opening, I scrambled in and kicked the door shut behind me. Curling up seemed like a good idea. If I couldn’t see anything I wouldn’t be harmed right? Nothing bad could happen.

“Cassie? Where did you go?”

I began sobbing, my tears presumably making my pants wet. His voice, only minutes ago laughing in comforting enjoyment, now seemed to echo all around her, slowly dissipating into the darkness. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, what’s happening to me? Am I going insane? Involuntary gasps of began coming out from me, my hands running uncontrollably through my hair.

“Where have you gone Cassie? You’re not just playing hide-and-seek are you?”

His voice sounded worried.

“I really can’t find you, please come out Cassie… “

I don’t care if anything is wrong anymore; I just want to be with my dad. I crawled forward and reached to push open the hidden door.

My hand fell forward on nothing.

I gasped in surprise, I must’ve stumbled further in then I thought. I crept forward again, my shaking hands reaching out.

To find nothing.

I began running forward, then all around, I couldn’t feel anything, and I began crying out for anyone to help me.

“Why is the TV all static?”

I collapsed to the ground again; my father’s voice seemed more distant, more beyond.

“Cassie? Did you hear a voice from the TV? Please come out from where you are”.

It had said to ignore it, but who should I trust?

“Oh god Cassie, did you listen to it? Why would you do that? Oh please…”

I felt something behind me. Its presence seemed to echo in the endless void.

Non-Alcoholic cool potion recipe:

1 bottle of ur fav Gatorade or Juice of your choice

A splash of ur fav energy drink (optional)

Luster dust (cake decorating kind) to preferred shimmer

A cool bottle

Combine to become a wizard instantly