Oct 7.

10/7/2025 8:42. Correspondence 52

He takes a long drag off a cigarette and holds it a painfully long time before exhaling, "Welcome, friend," he says with a cheaky smile, chosen diligently to hide exhaustion. 

"Monster hunter, aye, well do I have the info you are looking for."

"The mid-semester slime ball. It's not just a myth, my friend. It's out there. I've seen it. I've felt it. Days seem to start earlier, and you find yourself in bed later. Projects and classes, and interests that enamored your mind when it all first began, grow weary and strenuous. You find yourself lying on the couch more and more. I've felt it, I tell you. I feel it now.  I feel the sludge my body and mind are encased in. It makes it hard to walk to class, to walk to my pencil and paper. It's the monster of motivation flooding your soul and spirit, lulling you into its grim ways of sloth."

"Of course, there are more too. The autumn witch of emotions is just as deadly. Seasons change, and with the wind comes wonderful memories of seasons past. With the wind comes cozy visions and sweet dreams. With the wind comes unattainable expectations. The witch projects the most beautiful pictures that can seldom be fully fulfilled. It's supernatural, almost, that the witch always knows when you are most busy. Always knows how to make you long for so much more when you see the pretty leaves fall from your fluorescent window."

"Nothing is more dangerous, though, than the parasitic creatures turning us all into things most harmful. They are from space all around us. We are constantly exposed. And once it sinks into our minds, it starts to feed. Its favorite meals are fear and sadness. Confusion and hurt. It grows and grows until it starts to think for us. It starts to control us. It makes us do things we would never do. It weaponizes our fears and insecurities. The parasite just wants to reproduce, of course, and it spreads by hurting others. Implanting anxieties deep within to fester. and fester. and fester."

"These three monsters I describe are not for the faint of heart. They are often seen working together, using the other to exert more control over their prey. I hope you are a strong fighter friend, because they come for us all." 

Another long pull from his cigarette ends the conversation with the defeated man. The silence is deafening. 

Calvin Landreth