High School Reunion Horror

The other day a good friend asked me if I was going to our 20 year high school reunion. I graduated from Terry Fox Senior Secondary in Port Coquitlam, the very same school that Terry Fox himself attended. 

My initial answer was I had no idea there was high school reunion, no one had attempted to get a hold of me. Even if they had, why the fuck would I want to go back?

My friend said he didn't want to go either but his wife was making him. His wife was making him go because he was once a big ass geek but now ranked among the cool and he was also married to a very hot adult entertainer. Of course it was his duty to go flaunt himself in front of the crowd that had been less than polite to him over the years.

That brought me to my own decision. For me, going back to see people from high school would be like a Jew returning to Auschwitz for a reunion with the camp guards. A harsh comparison but I think it gets my point across.

Junior High and High School were nothing short of a prison sentence, ironically I now work in a prison so I can confirm this analogy.

I was labelled as a fag on my first day in Junior High and it was pretty much downhill from there. The level of harassment and bullying I could not even begin to quantify. I doubt the people responsible would even have a clue today of the negative impact they had on my life. I was an easy target. I think what pissed me off the most, aside from the thoughts of suicide, lack of self worth, no confidence and the isolation was after I graduated I realised I really was gay. That was what fucked me up the most! 5 years of hearing over and over that you were a useless faggot and you should kill yourself really can wear on a person. Realizing that it was not just a label, that they were right about my sexual orientation even before I knew, were they right about everything else too?

 I don't want to dwell on the past, I've done enough of that over the last 20 years. I only bring this up now because I am finally moving forward in life and I've been letting go of the pains of my youth. Is going back to see the people that pushed me in a bad direction going to better my position? I think at best it will be closure. I don't anticipate any apologies and I won't demand any either. In my own mind I will say a good bye on that world and turn my back on it. There will be no more angry thoughts and regrets. I am responsible for my own situation today and the blame must end.

 Aside from the emotional impact, I know I could kick the crap out of my bullies now. I guess I owe them a thanks for that. If not for them I might not have started lifting weights or gone into law enforcement. I've gone toe to toe with serial killers and hard core gang members, I'm not afraid of the bullies anymore. I'm better than that now.

 I also give my tormentors credit for my dark and twisted style of horror. Although my stories are fiction, a lot of truth exists on those pages. Writing helped me to work through some of my demons and maybe my bullies deserve some credit there too.

 Yes, I will go to my reunion. I'm not thrilled about it, but maybe if I go with an open mind I may be surprised at what I find.

Stay tuned.

I WAS A GHOST HUNTER ONCE UPON A TIME…

I can understand why many people don’t believe in the supernatural. I think for some people it’s a matter of comfort that nothing unseen can hurt us. I always wanted to believe in ghosts but I had never seen any proof. Back in the fall of 2004 I had just moved to the community of Hope in British Columbia. I had just started a new job and had no friends to speak of which meant I spent a lot of time at home watching TV. At the time there were several paranormal shows on TV that had ghost hunters running around in the dark taking pictures of things that went bump in the night. The show I remember most was Most Haunted, a show from the UK. I enjoyed the show, but could see how easy it would be to fake the findings. This spurred me into my own revelation, why not go do my own research?

With that thought I grabbed my camera and headed to the one place I was sure I would find spirits, should they exist, the cemetery. I would head to the graveyard after  dark and walk around the headstones snapping pictures at random. Right away I caught the classic orb shots, as illustrated below. What I will say about orbs is I concluded in is not dust or bugs. I got orbs in every weather condition from rainy nights to snowy nights, hot nights to freezing nights.

I identified bugs before and they tend to be more solid and quite bright, whereas the orb is transparent. Also rain drops are not circular and look very different form the classic orb. Dust should not be present dure a damp rainy night, and yet they are, so I eliminated dust as a cause.The other interesting point about orbs was they appeared in abundance in the cemetery but i could find virtually none in a city park.

Anyway, I continued doing this for roughly eight months, going alone and wandering the headstones. I did find some nights more active than others but I rarely left with nothing.

On May 3, 2005 I planned to go to the cemetery for my usual hunt but on this night I felt an unease that was never there before. I shook it off and went anyway. The feeling unfortunately continued to grow and by the time I arrived at the gates of the graveyard I couldn’t bring myself to enter, a first for me. On this night I snapped photo’s from the fence line which is a chain link fence three feet high with cedar trees every four feet or so.

About 10 photo’s in an intense sudden coldness enveloped me. I can only describe it as being vacuum sealed inside a frozen bed sheet that is sucked to your skin instantly. As this strange and eerie cold zapped me I snapped a picture. On the digital display screen there was a large white mass that was directly in front of me that covered half the screen. I didn’t see in it person, only on the display screen, but I knew well enough I should leave. I said outloud “I can take a hint, I’m leaving.”

I walked quickly across the street to my car and got in frightened beyond anything I had ever experienced before in life. What terrified me more was I could feel the energy with me, in the car. Imagine a pair of beady insane eyes staring at your temple from an inch away, that’s the feeling it gave me. Not wanting to bring this entity home and having no real idea how to get rid of it, I did what any sensible person would do, I went to the liquor store. I actually bought booze and went for some fast food, it was nearly an hour before I went home.

I was still unnerved when I got home but I was curious what I had got on camera. The picture shocked me and still does to this day.

The picture is best full screen in the dark, but even in daylight most everyone can pick out the faces, some human, some not. I accepted the possibility it was my breath but to this day I have never been able to re-create anything as intense as that cloud – and remember this was in May. The night wasn’t cold with the exception of the cold that enveloped me. I am convinced the photo is an apparition of souls held captive by an evil presence. I see human faces in the cloud, but I am certain I see a rams head which may explain the demonic feel that I was left with. After 10 years this photo remains my own proof that ghosts exist. I found what I was looking for and I know evil exists. Once you have touched it, you can’t un-touch it.

I gave up ghost hunting for the longest time. It was foolish to play with something I didn’t understand. I’m older and wiser now and I have a better grasp of the rules. A friend of mine wants to start up a paranormal group. We recently held a ouija/ghost box session in his home which he has always contended was haunted. The box named a member of the group (not a common name either) and then when asked if it was a good or bad spirit we all heard the box reply…demonic.

I closed the session and said good bye without anyone else’s approval. Maybe it’s a sign I’m playing with fire…again.

M

Horror Author Mark Fuson's Wolf Asylum - available now!

After a whirlwind release of Wolf Asylum I had hoped to finish the conclusion to the Darwin Foster series but of course life got in the way. After running myself down to exhaustion, a cancer scare, liver damage and a minor heart attack (we can call it a cardiac episode) I’m finally beginning to feel better. It has been said men are the worst patients and it’s true. I’m the kind of patient that ignores the problem hoping it will go away. I have a high pain tolerance so I can motor through the worst agony that cripples most others. I ignored my cardiac episode and continued working even though I knew what was happening. I know a part of me just didn’t give a shit what happened.

So here I am a few months later, on blood pressure meds and anti-depressants. The good news is my liver was fine even though I had some troubling symptoms (coughing up blood). Yeah, Yeah…I should look after myself. I tell you what…you look after yourself first and then I’ll worry about me. Agreed?

I’d say the bug to start writing again has hit me, though I’m not sure if it’s to finish the Darwin Foster series or start something new. Maybe I should just work on both?

My first promise is to blog more often…I swear I will!

In my absence I did go to New York and made a trip out to Amityville Long Island to visit the infamous horror house. I found the village of Amityville quaint, and the house charming…nothing scary there. Still awesome to see in person!

M