[Duke]

It just started off bad and never got any better until the end finally came and I'm sure I woke up screaming my daughters name because it was definitely on my tongue, plenty.

For whatever reason, my daughter and I were traveling in the South Eastern US and going from Hotel to Hotel in the process. The weather was extremely clear and although it was warm, I don't think it was particularity humid. Kinda sounds nice huh?

The very first thing I noticed about my daughter was that she was running ahead of me and we'd lose sight of each other. Now I know this is only happening within the confines of a Hotel but as a parent, no environment is ever truly safe for you child as far as I'm concerned.

We end up at this one Hotel at check in time and it seems nice enough. We stand at the main desk and wait while my Credit Card accepts the transaction for the room deposit which was something like $3,999.00 for one night I think it was. I'm guessing this was a discount as well since we couldn't just walk down some plush hallway to our room; we had to navigate a scaffold as they were under some type of repair or rebuilding. The scaffold was very easy to navigate and appeared safe enough so in no time, we were in the main hallway heading toward our room.

My daughter kept running ahead and even though it was apparently lifeless in this wing of the Hotel, it still made me very uneasy. I kinda yelled to her and when I got to where she was I strenuously reminded her that she needs to be in eyesight to me at all times.

Our room was at the end of this really cool and brightly lit hallway with a sunken and angular floor separating both sides of the hallway with our apartment/room at the end of the hallway. As nice as it was, I looked down at the rug ahead of me and noticed it was a bit tattered looking, spotty and stained. Dwoing actually ran to the doorway and took a seat on some old beer cases that were just outside our door. There were also bottles littered about next to the cases which I didn't like the look of but figured the cleaning lady hadn't finished up quite yet. I looked over my left shoulder to spy the kitchen that was also apparently part of our unit in some kind of an open concept but hidden to the hallway type of layout, just weird.

I unlocked the huge door to our room and noticed it was delaminating in some areas. Also, the lock was very difficult to turn and likewise, the door just didn't swing inward very well. I finally managed to get it to swing open to a gloriously lit room that was so bright that all surfaces seemed to glow. Dwoingy ran to the end of the room (which was quite lengthy in fact) and up to the door that apparently opened up on some sort of private back yard. I remember very vividly another door (such as the tattered door I'd already opened to let us in) and two windows letting in glorious sunlight through sheer curtains. The gaps in the curtains gave a limited view of what appeared to be majestic trees fencing in this backyard so I saw no harm in prying the door open.

Much to my horror, there were bees everywhere and all were on the spotty grass that lined the yard nearest the doorway. I never did see what the rest of the yard looked like because of all the bees close to us.

For some backstory, as I a child I reacted quite violently to bee stings and I believe there was one episode I could have died from had I not received an injection to help me breath. Luba can prolly shed more light on this because I was a little boy when this happened and I was definitely hallucinating as well as in and out of consciousness.

I wasn't thinking of myself with the bee’s issue, I was thinking of my daughter as I believed them to be killer bees this south in the US. The bees started taking flight in a slow lazy pattern really but one ended up in my hair and I panicked. I yelled to Dwoing to just run back and I followed, convinced we were about to be swarmed upon. Of course, retracing our steps as we ran back toward the hallway, I noticed bees in small groups, sitting on the floor, counters, furniture, etc., which only added to the panic.

We ran for our lives and after a time, we found ourselves on some shaky rooftop that was apparently a shed attached to the Hotel we were staying in. It looked easy enough to navigate but I was more interested in getting a ladder to help us down as this whole shed just looked too damn fragile. Oddly enough, the old man who owned the Hotel was raking the lawn nearby. Why he was raking and what he was raking is beyond me because the grass was completely spotless. Anyway, he said he didn't have a ladder so we were basically stuck there with no way to backtrack.

Dwoing had no trouble climbing around so I just thought we'd press on because the ground was only two stories down. Dwoingy goes first and easily makes it to what looks like a small lookout platform or some sort of raised platform you'd expect a soldier to use for easy enemy identification. To get to the ground, all she has to do is climb down the trellis that lines the outer edges of this platform but as she steps onto it, I realize it’s not secured and her full weight is on a 3 wide lattice row that extends all the way to the ground.

Just as she's about to descend, the lattice starts to sway under her weight and she’s screaming in terror at me. I'm still on the roof and too far away to do anything for her so I yell at her to grab the rail on the platform. The problem is my child is frozen in terror which only makes her grab the trelliswork tighter as its swaying increases. Each time it sways I'm yelling her name hoping she'll grab on but to no avail. The lattice creaks under her pressure and sways once, twice and the third sway is when it starts to buckle and also the exact point I woke up screaming.

As if all this isn't bad enough, I'm really bent out of shape because of it and I can't fricking go hold my child, tell her I love her, or do sh1t, because she lives with her mother.

This is pure torture and mental anguish and I hate everything in the world at this very moment because of it.



I don't think I'll be sleeping anymore this day.



Thanks for listening.