C-BAD-015
Barista: Max King
Date: Jan-8-2020
Receipt: C-BAD-015
Subject: Omens
Still stuck. The river was wrong, the path was wrong—everything was wrong. Like a labyrinth without walls—no turns, no corridors, just the same stretch of ground folding in on itself, bending in ways that shouldn't be possible. We kept moving forward. Or—we should have been. But we weren't.
Then it stepped forward—out of the dark like it had always been there.
█ █████ █████, ███████, ███ █████ ██████████ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ███. ██ ████'█ ████. ████'█ █████. ████ ███████. ██ ██████ █ ███, ████ ███ ████ ██████, ███ ███ ████████ █████ ████ ██—████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████, ████████ ██████ ████ █████████ █████.
Then it shook.
███ ███ █████████ ████████ ███.
Beneath it—God. ████ ███. █████, ████████, ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ████. ████ ████ █████ █ ████ ███. ███ ███ ██ ███ ████—███ ████, ███ ████. ████ █████ █████ ████████ ███████ ████. ██ ████'█ ██████ ████. ██ ████'█ ██████ ████████.
Then it raised its head.
And then—██ █████ ██.
███ █ █████. ███ █ █████. Something more.
█ ████. ██—█ █████. ██ ███ ███ █████, ███ █████, ███ █████ ███████ ████████. ██ ███ ██████████. ███ ██ ███ ████, ███ ███████ ██ ██, ███ ██████. ██ ████—████ ██ █████. ████ ██████, █████████, ███████ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ████—█████ ██ ███ ██████████. ███ ████ █████ ████.
And then—it stopped.
No fade. No retreat. Just—gone. And the second it left, the world snapped back to normal. The river—straight. The trees—right where they should be. The Abbey—solid. The path—finally leading forward.
We were free.
The hound was gone. Like it had never been there at all. Like we imagined it.
███ █████, alright. No doubts now. But then—where the hell does that leave us?
I guess back to The Gross Wyrm.
Decaffeinate Receipt
“A candle running out.”
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