Pack Rat Emotions
There’s an auntie who lives in Apartment Lanzo, apartment 106, and lives in a condo shared by eight people. The auntie who lives in the street has been raising three generations. She’s going to live the last years of her life taking care of children and she’s happy.
She starts her day by waking up early and putting the clothes into the washing machine. After she’s finished with the washing machine, she takes her yellow rubber gloves given to him by her nephew and puts it on this tiny cache hidden in the house. She cooks for them and treats her like they’ve forgotten she’s not their maid.
She accepts it. I don’t know if she’s too kind or too naïve. She’s like a battered woman, who can’t get into her head how she’s not being treated kindly.
Yesterday, in a quiet detail, she told me her nephew accidentally poured boiling water. It was an accident, she said. No one believed her. One of the members of their house told us it was something else. The nephew told the other nephew with a child got angry, and accidentally poured.
She got angry. She’s a pushover, no doubt. But she can lash out her tongue, but she raised this boy. The nephew gaslighted her, saying it was her who was wrong. Usually, this kind of talk wouldn't fly but she was an old woman now. An old maiden who missed out on life out of responsibility and self-imposed duty to a family who treats her she’s a maid. You know what’s even more depressing? They pay her twenty dollars and in this city, that ain’t enough. Never enough.
She takes the service train and walks the distance she can’t pay. She does it with a half-trained smile because the auntie’s been living like this ever since she gave up on her dreams and let her asshole brother finish college. Her brother left, didn’t even say a damn thing, and just left after he got away. He went to Shanghai and sired two children who he didn’t give a damn. His daughter who graduated years ago had one wish and her father would come. Nope. She didn’t get her wish. Thing about him is he got a wife he married and together they left Shanghai and went to the middle-east for a new job together.
The auntie still thinks it’s the best choice she had in her life. And they didn't even give her chocolates, but at least they invited her to their wedding.
Anyway, once she reaches the second generation nephew she raised. She’ll start by washing their clothes and after washing she would cook their food and take some of the food from their freezer and bring it back to the condominium where she’ll have to cook it for the third generation of nephews she has to raise until they get up, yell at her, and then do what they say. After she takes them to school, despite their age, she waits patiently on the side of the school where the parents are waiting. See, the third generation nephews' parents can’t be bothered.
One’s a politician who’s actually very good at his job at being a representative and has done projects. The other one is a businesswoman, the kind of woman whose entire life revolves around work and is either an accountant or a regional manager. She has the dough and yet you know what?
They pay her twenty dollars. They have one politician who has a high salary, whose parents own a fish stall, and a manager of a shop selling cheap cars and yet they can’t be bothered to pay her more than twenty dollars.
She’s not someone who’s too good for money either. She spends it on gadgets and buys herself a new pair of eyes and beauty products because deep down inside of the auntie’s heart was an island in the middle of the ocean waiting for a sailor to come and rescue her - a dream she knows won't happen, but doesn't let go of it.
Her place was a garden. The entrance alone was full of plants she stacked like stairs and waters everyday. You can smell the plants from a mile away and she’d chew your ear off if you try to even take a plant.
After she’s done with her tasks for the morning. Most of her attention was on her plants and the socials. She’s busy all day looking at the feed of her old friends and acquaintances and classmates. She always shares quotes from hopeless romantic pages and the pictures of her nephews. She talks all day about remembering the past, and sometimes commenting on pages where she shares her poorly thought out opinion. She had learned how to filter out of her head while listening to old songs that went to the public domain after the artists died of something or were swallowed by a monster.
After the brats come back home. She uses the gas, electricity of the people paying for the bills to cook for the food and spend the next afternoon mouthing off to the brats how they should be grateful. She does this almost everyday. Ever since the politician and the regional manager’s brat got born. She has become the nanny of four children who rely on her, but treats her like she’s a damn maid they can treat like shit and then demand her.
She’s the battered maid. The poor lonely maiden who got screwed by her brother, and the sisters who knew she’s dumb enough to take on the task. But despite all of that. She barely realizes how awful her life was. How she’d throw tantrums and defend her brats to the top of her lungs and do what she can to make sure they remain her pretty angels and she can clasp her hands in front of god and tell him she's a virtuous, kind, and merciful woman who suffered under the duress of forces beyond her comprehension.
Listening to the story almost made me wonder why they wanted to get her investigated.
The one who contacted us was the nephew living with them. He told the story and provided the evidence for it. He started with the sob story of abuse and now he was telling us the auntie had turned into something else.
We thought it was a skinwalker or a kind of spirit possession, but that was it. Spirits act so different you’d be a fool not notice them and skinwalkers are too weird to adapt. We ruled out illusions because no way any mage would try to screw an aunt's life. But after reading through her social media, watching how she started posting less made us realize something happened.
She’s not a sad woman. Battered maid, yes, but she’s not saintly. She raised the brats and they became as awful as her. She’s the kind of aunt who’d twist the words and act virtuous. She’s a white lotus who’s trying her best to keep people from knowing she’s one.
She’s quite a professional when it comes to this. And you know what? Despite the fact she might have been afflicted with an anomaly changing her from inside and out. Her Ego’s so stubborn she’s still doing whatever she’s doing and they don’t notice. No one other than this nephew noticed.
“They can’t notice because they are under her thumb and care.”
“And how are you not affected?”
He showed us his eyes and I understood through his digital-inflicted eyes he’s just seeing it as it was. Kei had a one-on-one talk with the other four.
They hate her guts. Hate how they are using their gas and how much of a self-righteous victim the auntie was. She’s always the victim and the target and she does nothing wrong. She’s deluded, condescending, and you know what?
It’s not her fault. She’s a lonely maiden who somewhere along the way went mad. Trapped under this guise of duty and responsibility she has become so absorbed and battered by her reality.
Kei has a theory about what happened. It’s guesswork based on what she saw and what she heard from the neighborhood. We aren’t going to trust the rest of the four based on their word alone so we got another opinion from the other tenants of the building.
The whole family’s cheap. Always in debt and always commenting how others have changed while they themselves do nothing to get out of their situation. The whole family’s a bitter pot and when their neighbor struck gold. They were the first to comment on how money changed them when in truth the family itself was a group of scums. The nephew was the decent one among them; he has a job and practically pays for it all and spends it all on carpets and bread and other stuff they barely need.
The only selfishness the nephew has was his dog and the setup he got for his studies and hobbies which costs. It’s because of this hobby he learned about this change and since he didn’t want to gamble; choose to contact the only place he knew who might take care of the anomaly.
We waited for the auntie to return. She was carrying the laundry she needed to wash for the day alongside the food she’ll cook and serve. There was a high probability we’ll be able to capture her so we set up a trap.
She was clueless. She got into our trap and the first thing we heard was the brats she raised wondering what the hell we were doing.
At first it was simply just her screaming at the top of her lungs. But then her whole head turned into a mouse with fur resembling the surface of a blade of grass. All that was left of her face was the mole on her left eye and she didn’t even know her head was turned into a mice.
Her brat screamed at her. The nephew uttered incoherent words while Marvin and Eta made sure she didn't escape the trap for her. Then, as if realizing her words have turned into squeaking, she started to bite into the trap, trying to rat her way out of the trap.
The youngest brat pulled a knife out and cut one of the wires. She threw the laundry and then jumped down trying to escape. Marv and Eta were on her rat tail while Kei and I knocked the rest of her brats. The nephew had enough balls to keep the gun trained on his family members.
It was a chase and it was a chase she wouldn’t win. We manage to corner by a dead-end of an alley. She tried to tackle her way out, but Eta easily slapped her mouse-head and left her bleeding on the pavement of the trash-littered alley. The auntie knew she couldn't get out through force so she learned how to speak words again and cried crocodile tears, attracting the masses who for a second really believed she was being bullied. Kei couldn’t take it anymore and borrowed a hand mirror from one of the apartment rooms and showed her face to her.
The aunt's initial reaction was to screech. She clawed her augmented eyes out and then tried to scratch her head away. Realizing it wasn’t going to go away, she kneeled and cried until the OB got to our location to contain the anomalous creature.
She was a pack rat who didn’t want to throw away her past, Kei said. She collects things she doesn’t want to throw away and hates to get rid of them and instead keep it inside her always. It’s her sole purpose in life that even with an anomaly afflicting her.
It didn’t change her at all.
Maybe her head changed.
But if we had left her alone and let her do whatever she wanted and continue the life she led. She wouldn’t have turned into a person with a mouse-head.
She’s going to be studied and opened up until they get all the information out of her body. They will understand what caused the change and if this will become a commonplace for the people of Changye.
“What have I done?”
The nephew who called us out of concern muttered as they dragged his auntie to her doom.
Pack Rat Emotions
There’s an auntie who lives in Apartment Lanzo, apartment 106, and lives in a condo shared by eight people. The auntie who lives in the street has been raising three generations. She’s going to live the last years of her life taking care of children and she’s happy.
She starts her day by waking up early and putting the clothes into the washing machine. After she’s finished with the washing machine, she takes her yellow rubber gloves given to him by her nephew and puts it on this tiny cache hidden in the house. She cooks for them and treats her like they’ve forgotten she’s not their maid.
She accepts it. I don’t know if she’s too kind or too naïve. She’s like a battered woman, who can’t get into her head how she’s not being treated kindly.
Yesterday, in a quiet detail, she told me her nephew accidentally poured boiling water. It was an accident, she said. No one believed her. One of the members of their house told us it was something else. The nephew told the other nephew with a child got angry, and accidentally poured.
She got angry. She’s a pushover, no doubt. But she can lash out her tongue, but she raised this boy. The nephew gaslighted her, saying it was her who was wrong. Usually, this kind of talk wouldn't fly but she was an old woman now. An old maiden who missed out on life out of responsibility and self-imposed duty to a family who treats her she’s a maid. You know what’s even more depressing? They pay her twenty dollars and in this city, that ain’t enough. Never enough.
She takes the service train and walks the distance she can’t pay. She does it with a half-trained smile because the auntie’s been living like this ever since she gave up on her dreams and let her asshole brother finish college. Her brother left, didn’t even say a damn thing, and just left after he got away. He went to Shanghai and sired two children who he didn’t give a damn. His daughter who graduated years ago had one wish and her father would come. Nope. She didn’t get her wish. Thing about him is he got a wife he married and together they left Shanghai and went to the middle-east for a new job together.
The auntie still thinks it’s the best choice she had in her life. And they didn't even give her chocolates, but at least they invited her to their wedding.
Anyway, once she reaches the second generation nephew she raised. She’ll start by washing their clothes and after washing she would cook their food and take some of the food from their freezer and bring it back to the condominium where she’ll have to cook it for the third generation of nephews she has to raise until they get up, yell at her, and then do what they say. After she takes them to school, despite their age, she waits patiently on the side of the school where the parents are waiting. See, the third generation nephews' parents can’t be bothered.
One’s a politician who’s actually very good at his job at being a representative and has done projects. The other one is a businesswoman, the kind of woman whose entire life revolves around work and is either an accountant or a regional manager. She has the dough and yet you know what?
They pay her twenty dollars. They have one politician who has a high salary, whose parents own a fish stall, and a manager of a shop selling cheap cars and yet they can’t be bothered to pay her more than twenty dollars.
She’s not someone who’s too good for money either. She spends it on gadgets and buys herself a new pair of eyes and beauty products because deep down inside of the auntie’s heart was an island in the middle of the ocean waiting for a sailor to come and rescue her - a dream she knows won't happen, but doesn't let go of it.
Her place was a garden. The entrance alone was full of plants she stacked like stairs and waters everyday. You can smell the plants from a mile away and she’d chew your ear off if you try to even take a plant.
After she’s done with her tasks for the morning. Most of her attention was on her plants and the socials. She’s busy all day looking at the feed of her old friends and acquaintances and classmates. She always shares quotes from hopeless romantic pages and the pictures of her nephews. She talks all day about remembering the past, and sometimes commenting on pages where she shares her poorly thought out opinion. She had learned how to filter out of her head while listening to old songs that went to the public domain after the artists died of something or were swallowed by a monster.
After the brats come back home. She uses the gas, electricity of the people paying for the bills to cook for the food and spend the next afternoon mouthing off to the brats how they should be grateful. She does this almost everyday. Ever since the politician and the regional manager’s brat got born. She has become the nanny of four children who rely on her, but treats her like she’s a damn maid they can treat like shit and then demand her.
She’s the battered maid. The poor lonely maiden who got screwed by her brother, and the sisters who knew she’s dumb enough to take on the task. But despite all of that. She barely realizes how awful her life was. How she’d throw tantrums and defend her brats to the top of her lungs and do what she can to make sure they remain her pretty angels and she can clasp her hands in front of god and tell him she's a virtuous, kind, and merciful woman who suffered under the duress of forces beyond her comprehension.
Listening to the story almost made me wonder why they wanted to get her investigated.
The one who contacted us was the nephew living with them. He told the story and provided the evidence for it. He started with the sob story of abuse and now he was telling us the auntie had turned into something else.
We thought it was a skinwalker or a kind of spirit possession, but that was it. Spirits act so different you’d be a fool not notice them and skinwalkers are too weird to adapt. We ruled out illusions because no way any mage would try to screw an aunt's life. But after reading through her social media, watching how she started posting less made us realize something happened.
She’s not a sad woman. Battered maid, yes, but she’s not saintly. She raised the brats and they became as awful as her. She’s the kind of aunt who’d twist the words and act virtuous. She’s a white lotus who’s trying her best to keep people from knowing she’s one.
She’s quite a professional when it comes to this. And you know what? Despite the fact she might have been afflicted with an anomaly changing her from inside and out. Her Ego’s so stubborn she’s still doing whatever she’s doing and they don’t notice. No one other than this nephew noticed.
“They can’t notice because they are under her thumb and care.”
“And how are you not affected?”
He showed us his eyes and I understood through his digital-inflicted eyes he’s just seeing it as it was. Kei had a one-on-one talk with the other four.
They hate her guts. Hate how they are using their gas and how much of a self-righteous victim the auntie was. She’s always the victim and the target and she does nothing wrong. She’s deluded, condescending, and you know what?
It’s not her fault. She’s a lonely maiden who somewhere along the way went mad. Trapped under this guise of duty and responsibility she has become so absorbed and battered by her reality.
Kei has a theory about what happened. It’s guesswork based on what she saw and what she heard from the neighborhood. We aren’t going to trust the rest of the four based on their word alone so we got another opinion from the other tenants of the building.
The whole family’s cheap. Always in debt and always commenting how others have changed while they themselves do nothing to get out of their situation. The whole family’s a bitter pot and when their neighbor struck gold. They were the first to comment on how money changed them when in truth the family itself was a group of scums. The nephew was the decent one among them; he has a job and practically pays for it all and spends it all on carpets and bread and other stuff they barely need.
The only selfishness the nephew has was his dog and the setup he got for his studies and hobbies which costs. It’s because of this hobby he learned about this change and since he didn’t want to gamble; choose to contact the only place he knew who might take care of the anomaly.
We waited for the auntie to return. She was carrying the laundry she needed to wash for the day alongside the food she’ll cook and serve. There was a high probability we’ll be able to capture her so we set up a trap.
She was clueless. She got into our trap and the first thing we heard was the brats she raised wondering what the hell we were doing.
At first it was simply just her screaming at the top of her lungs. But then her whole head turned into a mouse with fur resembling the surface of a blade of grass. All that was left of her face was the mole on her left eye and she didn’t even know her head was turned into a mice.
Her brat screamed at her. The nephew uttered incoherent words while Marvin and Eta made sure she didn't escape the trap for her. Then, as if realizing her words have turned into squeaking, she started to bite into the trap, trying to rat her way out of the trap.
The youngest brat pulled a knife out and cut one of the wires. She threw the laundry and then jumped down trying to escape. Marv and Eta were on her rat tail while Kei and I knocked the rest of her brats. The nephew had enough balls to keep the gun trained on his family members.
It was a chase and it was a chase she wouldn’t win. We manage to corner by a dead-end of an alley. She tried to tackle her way out, but Eta easily slapped her mouse-head and left her bleeding on the pavement of the trash-littered alley. The auntie knew she couldn't get out through force so she learned how to speak words again and cried crocodile tears, attracting the masses who for a second really believed she was being bullied. Kei couldn’t take it anymore and borrowed a hand mirror from one of the apartment rooms and showed her face to her.
The aunt's initial reaction was to screech. She clawed her augmented eyes out and then tried to scratch her head away. Realizing it wasn’t going to go away, she kneeled and cried until the OB got to our location to contain the anomalous creature.
She was a pack rat who didn’t want to throw away her past, Kei said. She collects things she doesn’t want to throw away and hates to get rid of them and instead keep it inside her always. It’s her sole purpose in life that even with an anomaly afflicting her.
It didn’t change her at all.
Maybe her head changed.
But if we had left her alone and let her do whatever she wanted and continue the life she led. She wouldn’t have turned into a person with a mouse-head.
She’s going to be studied and opened up until they get all the information out of her body. They will understand what caused the change and if this will become a commonplace for the people of Changye.
“What have I done?”
The nephew who called us out of concern muttered as they dragged his auntie to her doom.
