Write It Out

"I just don't understand. I make a joke and people grimace, but you smile and tell someone that they're an idiot, and they all laugh with you!"

⟢ "Something is wrong with me. Has been for a long time. I've gotten very good at hiding it in plain sight."

⟢ "You want to know what fear really is? Fear is realizing the monster was someone you ate dinner with every night."

⟢ "I know what darkness looks like from the inside. It doesn't look like anything. That's the point."

⟢ "There are rooms in me I don't go into. I sealed them up for good reason. Don't go looking for the doors."

⟢ "I've been smiling so long the muscles remember how even when nothing is funny."

⟢ "Something happened in that house. Nobody talks about what happened in that house. I talk about it now. I talk about it because silence is how it survives."

⟢ "The thing about real evil is it looks so normal. It sits across from you at breakfast and asks how you slept."

⟢ "I'm not afraid of the dark. I'm afraid of what I think about in it."

⟢ "You want the truth? The truth is ugly and small and doesn't make sense and that's exactly why it's true."

⟢ "I kept the secret so long it became part of me. Now I don't know where I end and it begins."

⟢ "Something broke in me a long time ago. I've just gotten very skilled at arranging the pieces so it doesn't show."

⟢ "The worst things don't happen in the dark. They happen at noon in kitchens and living rooms while everyone pretends."

⟢ "I'm not scared of dying. I'm scared of all the years before it."

⟢ "There are things I remember that I've never said out loud. They live in me like something feral."

⟢ "I know what I'm capable of. That's the part I don't share at parties."

⟢ "You think you know what happened. You have the outline. Nobody has the inside."

⟢ "I've been haunted for so long the haunting feels like company."

⟢ "The thing nobody says about surviving is that sometimes survival looks a lot like damage."

⟢ "I don't sleep well. Haven't for years. The nights got too loud for too long and my brain never forgot."

Plastic Man #5 (1946)

Today we venture into the realm of myths and legends from East Frisia.

Once upon a time, when the River Ems still flowed beneath the city walls of Emden, the town was a bustling place full of ships and merchants of all kinds, offering their wares from all over the world. But one night, this idyll was disrupted by a violent storm from the north-west. And yet families were out in the glow of numerous lanterns to welcome their loved ones, the merchant sailors, and escort them into the warm embrace of home. But the Windsbraut knew no mercy. She raged, causing the waves to rise and fall, and tore at the sails and the ship itself. She drowned out the voices of the crew, all 40 of Emden’s sons.

Ships on a Stormy Sea, Raden Saleh, 1840 (x)

Faced with this great distress, everyone on shore shouted, asking where the boat was that was supposed to come to their aid. But the harbour master, who controlled the harbour entrance and held the keys to the boathouse, refused. He believed that Captain Elfert Giesberts had deserved his fate and that he would not sacrifice the precious boat for such a man, even though his own son was on board. He hated the captain deeply.

By the time he was finally forced to hand over the key, it was already far too late. The ship, with all hands on board, had sunk into the maelstrom of the towering waves, and the Windsbraut laughed mockingly over the city walls.

And even now, whenever a storm approaches from the north-west, the waves crash against the dyke, the air groans and moans, and the winds howl and wail, one can see, in the pitch-black midnight, a ghost ship rushing towards one in a bluish glimmer of light. You can hear the clatter of the ropes, the clanking of the chains, the captain’s shouts and the blood-curdling, bone-shaking cries of fear and death from the dying. One should say a prayer for those poor souls, so that they may find a little peace and not take you with them.

“This was all a lie, wasn’t it? You were just pretending to love me.”

“At the start, yes, but I do love you. I wouldn’t still be here if this was just the mission.”

“When? When did you fall in love with me? How long were you still reporting back about me?”

"I told them that you were popping pills and getting high."

"What kind of pills?"

Bark Europa