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The Scariest Moment Of Your Life (Fortean Or Not)

I fancy writing a horror short. I'm thinking about making it around that mummified cat I was given so something a bit gothic but with a modern twist for fun?. I'll have to borrow it back from the woman I sold it to, I can't afford to make a fake one. I'd call the film 'KISEE' .. the name of the cat the building I'd film it in was called.
 
I fancy writing a horror short. I'm thinking about making it around that mummified cat I was given so something a bit gothic but with a modern twist for fun?. I'll have to borrow it back from the woman I sold it to, I can't afford to make a fake one. I'd call the film 'KISEE' .. the name of the cat the building I'd film it in was called.
What does the cat look like?
 
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When I was in my early 20s I worked in a shop and two raiders came in, I clocked the older guy pulling down the balaclava and the young fellah hopped the counter waving a syringe. I didnt want to give them the money but he held the syringe to the neck of the girl working with me and the older guy outside the counter was saying stick her with it so I walked over to the younger guy and told him to put the cap on the syringe and I would give him the maybe 200 punts hidden in the cabinets near the till. He did what I asked him, I gave him the money and they left. I had noticed he was shaking and the real scumbag was outside the counter. Freaked me out at the time. Another time in a different shop a lad pulled a shooter at about 2am so I emptied the till, about 2 minutes after he legged it a few local cops came into the place as they did every night. I was sort of glad they hadn't arrived a few minutes earlier as it looked like a real gun. I gave up retail after that for a desk job.
When I was at uni , it was a couple of months before my finals and for nearly two years I had been working in a corner shop below my flat to pay off my rent . Funnily enough the night before my flatmates and I were in there , as we shared shifts , and the subject of What do you do if a robber comes in armed came up and I pointed to the pickaxe handle behind the counter , dubbed the Attitude Adjuster , and declared I'd clobber the bugger.... My mate said No just give them what they want , the place is insured etc and I half heartedly stuck to my guns , but it must have sunk in. Literally the next evening, I had locked the door as per usual at 10pm ready to cash up and go. Somebody rapped on the door saying I just need cigarettes and as 99 %of trade was a local on first name basis , I went round and unlocked the door and as I turned round to head behind the counter , something was pressed into my back and I was told Do as I say or ill kill you... He followed me round the counter and he had a big machete ,and ordered me to empty the till , raid the cigarettes (I'll NEVER forget he said Could I have a bag please !!)and he took chocolate from the front display and then instead of legging it ,he hung around acting very twitchy and I was thinking JUST FUCK OFF !! but he didn't. He then told me to lie face down on the floor and all I could think of was Gary Gilmore The Executioners Song and this is it , this is how I die ....I don't know how long I lay there , not too long I remember but eventually he said you stay there , I'm coming back in a minute and if you move I'll kill you and I heard him go through the door. I got up quickly and went to bolt the door and set off the alarm and phone the owner. I hadn't even thought about phoning the police until he reminded me!! We had cameras and the robber didn't seem to notice or care , he wasn't wearing a mask we had film of every angle of him but they never caught him as far as I'm aware. That was scary as fuck.
 
When I was at uni , it was a couple of months before my finals and for nearly two years I had been working in a corner shop below my flat to pay off my rent . Funnily enough the night before my flatmates and I were in there , as we shared shifts , and the subject of What do you do if a robber comes in armed came up and I pointed to the pickaxe handle behind the counter , dubbed the Attitude Adjuster , and declared I'd clobber the bugger.... My mate said No just give them what they want , the place is insured etc and I half heartedly stuck to my guns , but it must have sunk in. Literally the next evening, I had locked the door as per usual at 10pm ready to cash up and go. Somebody rapped on the door saying I just need cigarettes and as 99 %of trade was a local on first name basis , I went round and unlocked the door and as I turned round to head behind the counter , something was pressed into my back and I was told Do as I say or ill kill you... He followed me round the counter and he had a big machete ,and ordered me to empty the till , raid the cigarettes (I'll NEVER forget he said Could I have a bag please !!)and he took chocolate from the front display and then instead of legging it ,he hung around acting very twitchy and I was thinking JUST FUCK OFF !! but he didn't. He then told me to lie face down on the floor and all I could think of was Gary Gilmore The Executioners Song and this is it , this is how I die ....I don't know how long I lay there , not too long I remember but eventually he said you stay there , I'm coming back in a minute and if you move I'll kill you and I heard him go through the door. I got up quickly and went to bolt the door and set off the alarm and phone the owner. I hadn't even thought about phoning the police until he reminded me!! We had cameras and the robber didn't seem to notice or care , he wasn't wearing a mask we had film of every angle of him but they never caught him as far as I'm aware. That was scary as fuck.
Also to put the shoe on my parents feet , at about 2 , and I remember this still , my parents were at work and I was playing in the front garden as one of my big sisters was cooking tea... I went in and asked what was for tea and she said bacon and mash and I said I don't like bacon and ran out of the house , up the street and we were surrounded by fields and I went through one field , through a fence and onto another field that had a big stream and a bridge. Cut a long story short ,I ended up going into the stream and got stuck in the water and mud . I just stood there , not yelling or anything and I must have been there for ages because in the end it was beyond my waist. Still silent!! The next thing I knew there was a dog sniffing me , a German shepherd and a posse of police and neighbours led by my uncle David (RIP) so this police dog who I later found out was called Karl and had enormous ears , even for a GSD and he probably saved my life . I made the front page of two local papers , the Shropshire Star and the Express and Star and they mentioned that on the way to the hospital, all I kept repeating was "how bright the moon was " that sister died over 20 years ago and I never got over the guilt of how she must have felt about it , it wasn't her fault.... And strangely the date of that uncles death was the same date my son was born....
 
You little monkey @gojiramonkey!
Maybe the terrifying robbery experience was the universe giving you your comeuppance for the scare you gave your family?
(I don't really think that of course, you were only little after all.)
 
Hmmm. It took a long time for me to come up with the scariest moment... there have been plenty of times with real danger, and the scariest was worse than street thugs in Tegucigalpa, it was the one time when I was absolutely sure I was about to die (spoiler: I didn't. Sorry to disappoint those who suddenly thought I was posting from the great beyond).

I was on a transatlantic flight from Guatemala City to Madrid. The flight attendants were in the middle of serving a meal when they suddenly all disappeared, which I thought was unusual. Then came the announcement to fasten seatbelts, we will be hitting severe turbulence. Well, turbulence is not unexpected mid-Atlantic, but what happened next was something else. We hit violent, violent turbulence, the plane went into freefall for about five seconds, then recovered. I was sitting next to an elderly French-Canadian lady and she grabbed my hand and gripped hard. The plane carried on, shuddering and jolting, and then went into freefall again, and recovered, and again, and again. Then it went into freefall forever, the French-Canadian lady's long fingernails practically flayed my hand. Somewhere, a woman started screaming. It was probably only 30 seconds or so, but it was the longest 30 seconds of my life, then suddenly the plane recovered from it's plummeting descent and continued through the severe turbulence... some of the luggage compartments above the seats crashed open, and stuff went everywhere. As far as I know, there were no injuries. During that eternal freefall, I really thought that was the end, ocean here I come...
 
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Mine was probably stopping the trajectory of a way over-extended bungee rope that had let go, using my left eye to do so. It didn't really hurt, at first, although it did send me head over heels. When I opened it again, though, I could only see a wall of red. Depending on which direction I looked, the red got lighter or darker, but it stubbornly refused to resolve into anything more than a flat wall of red. I'm not a medical doctor - I wasn't a doctor of any description back then - but I nonetheless had a sneaking suspicion that something wasn't quite right.

Wait, did I mention this happened in Russia? My girlfriend at the time was a medical student, and had done some practice shifts on the ambulances: mainly watching the drivers giving their mates lifts, or moonlighting as delivery drivers. Consequently, she decreed that we should go to A&E by tram - it would be quicker than waiting for an ambulance to amble its way to us. I still smoked at the time, and asked a random person at the tram stop for a light. He took one look at me, gave me the lighter, and legged it. There's a part of me that regrets I never did get a photo of what I looked like (this was 1998, so mobiles weren't ubiquitous, then). At the hospital, the eye specialist also took one look at me. He didn't know I could speak pretty good Russian, and he just flatly told my girlfriend that nothing could be done, I was going to lose the sight in that eye. That was perhaps the scariest moment.

Fortunately, my girlfriend's dad was an influential urologist in the city (so not an expert in eyeballs, exactly...) He made a few calls, and found a specialist in a different hospital who was willing to try and save it: apparently the trick was to prevent the blood that had gathered in the eyeball from coagulating. This, it turned out, entailed having my eyeball injected once a day with anticoagulant. Whenever I say "I'd rather stick pins in my eyes", I speak from a position of some authority. These injections were also somewhat scary moments, it has to be said. Especially as the treatment proved to be quite effective, and my vision began to clear. You'd think this would be a good thing, but of course it means you begin to be able to see the needle approaching and, crucially, you can't look away. There's a little ripple when the needle comes in, just like a pebble thrown into a lake.

The good news is I now have something like 98% vision in that eye, along with the beginnings of a cataract. Way better than being monocular, all told, but on balance I'd rather not have experienced any of it.

ETA: once I'd hit send on the above, I had a sneaking suspicion that I'd told this tale on here before. Turns out I did so nearly a decade ago. I genuinely can't believe that in the interim I had completely forgotten about the staggering coincidence that was involved.
 
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Good grief @SimonBurchell and @Krepostnoi what awful experiences you both have had!!!

One of my scarey moments is very tame in comparison (not sure if I'd told this on here before) happened on the motorway. We had a Reliant Robin van (ie little more than a cardboard box on three wheels lol) and my husband at the time drove it like it was a sports car (slight exageratiion) The thing is he tended not to be fully aware of his surroundings and he did drive way faster than necessary.

Anyway he decided to try and overtake a convoy of lorries in the middle lane so moved over to the outside lane .... in spite of my strongly advising him not to do so ie 'for f****s sake what the hell are you bloody well playing at!' Trouble is the more I was against it the more he was determined to carry on!

Of course we were caught in the very strong slip stream. I was looking at the the hub cap on these massive wheels wondering if the lorry drivers could even see us and was convinced we were about to go under and consigned myself to imminent death and could only hope it wouldn't hurt too much and that other vehicles and people wouldn't get caught up in any sort of carnage.

The idiot husband of mine had a real hard battle with the steering wheel but we did get out of it (obviousy or I'd not be here writing this) I've no idea how, but the silly old sod acted as though it was a complete surprise that the manoever had been so ... ahem ... problematic. He was totally unable to understand how scared I'd been of course no apology was forthcomeing, just blame for over reacting!
 
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You little monkey @gojiramonkey!
Maybe the terrifying robbery experience was the universe giving you your comeuppance for the scare you gave your family?
(I don't really think that of course, you were only little after all.)
Hahaha , possibly... Not to mention that when I was 9 , I took a table lamp that was in my bedroom to bits , it looked a bit like that one that used to hop about at the start of Pixar movies , it had a base with the on /off button and a long "neck" I guess that was bendy ( bendy...Thank you very much !! Sorry !! Love Tony F !!) with a hood over the bulb. I took the top off and took out the bulb and stuck my fingers in where the bulb used to be !! Yup. An arc of light and buzzing I recall and then the smell of burnt flesh Turned out 1. It was still plugged in and 2. I had burnt through the tendons in my right hand , it was like someone had scooped out the centre of my hand. It was horrendous. I stumbled into my parents bedroom brandishing my new body art and after the initial obvious horror and disbelief at my utter stupidity I was rushed to hospital where I had a successful operation to reattach the tendons and "unscoop" my hand. Though I had to write left handed for about 6 months. From then to this day most of the fingers are numb and I can't make ANY obscene hand gestures still. But it's ok and I can write etc. Aren't you glad I'm not YOUR son ??!! So being the father of a beautiful little boy now I PRAY he skipped MY moron genetic code as a boy !! I think I now know how my mom felt Absolutely no exaggeration I'm afraid . I know I'm blond and have SW blood but still.... Frakk me !! So yes I guess i was due SOME comeuppance later on
 
Hahaha , possibly... Not to mention that when I was 9 , I took a table lamp that was in my bedroom to bits , it looked a bit like that one that used to hop about at the start of Pixar movies , it had a base with the on /off button and a long "neck" I guess that was bendy ( bendy...Thank you very much !! Sorry !! Love Tony F !!) with a hood over the bulb. I took the top off and took out the bulb and stuck my fingers in where the bulb used to be !! Yup. An arc of light and buzzing I recall and then the smell of burnt flesh Turned out 1. It was still plugged in and 2. I had burnt through the tendons in my right hand , it was like someone had scooped out the centre of my hand. It was horrendous. I stumbled into my parents bedroom brandishing my new body art and after the initial obvious horror and disbelief at my utter stupidity I was rushed to hospital where I had a successful operation to reattach the tendons and "unscoop" my hand. Though I had to write left handed for about 6 months. From then to this day most of the fingers are numb and I can't make ANY obscene hand gestures still. But it's ok and I can write etc. Aren't you glad I'm not YOUR son ??!! So being the father of a beautiful little boy now I PRAY he skipped MY moron genetic code as a boy !! I think I now know how my mom felt Absolutely no exaggeration I'm afraid . I know I'm blond and have SW blood but still.... Frakk me !! So yes I guess i was due SOME comeuppance later on
Though on the bright side I was a SENSATION when I finally got back to school , and every time the dressing was changed it had the weirdest pyramid shaped scab in the middle of my hand and you can still pinpoint where it was . And a very impressive scar . VERY METAL!!
 
Hmmm. It took a long time for me to come up with the scariest moment... there have been plenty of times with real danger, and the scariest was worse than street thugs in Tegucigalpa, it was the one time when I was absolutely sure I was about to die (spoiler: I didn't. Sorry to disappoint those who suddenly thought I was posting from the great beyond).

I was on a transatlantic flight from Guatemala City to Madrid. The flight attendants were in the middle of serving a meal when they suddenly all disappeared, which I thought was unusual. Then came the announcement to fasten seatbelts, we will be hitting severe turbulence. Well, turbulence is not unexpected mid-Atlantic, but what happened next was something else. We hit violent, violent turbulence, the plane went into freefall for about five seconds, then recovered. I was sitting next to an elderly French-Canadian lady and she grabbed my hand and gripped hard. The plane carried on, shuddering and jolting, and then went into freefall again, and recovered, and again, and again. Then it went into freefall forever, the French-Canadian lady's long fingernails practically flayed my hand. Somewhere, a woman started screaming. It was probably only 30 seconds or so, but it was the longest 30 seconds of my life, then suddenly the plane recovered from it's plummeting descent and continued through the severe turbulence... some of the luggage compartments above the seats crashed open, and stuff went everywhere. As far as I know, there were no injuries. During that eternal freefall, I really thought that was the end, ocean here I come...
Ok , apart from 8 legged feaks type giant spiders emerging *shudder* that has to be my biggest fear.... My dear of flying prevented me from getting on a plane well into adulthood and even then I have only been on probably less than 10 flights. That is absolutely horrendous
 
Hahaha , possibly... Not to mention that when I was 9 , I took a table lamp that was in my bedroom to bits , it looked a bit like that one that used to hop about at the start of Pixar movies , it had a base with the on /off button and a long "neck" I guess that was bendy ( bendy...Thank you very much !! Sorry !! Love Tony F !!) with a hood over the bulb. I took the top off and took out the bulb and stuck my fingers in where the bulb used to be !! Yup. An arc of light and buzzing I recall and then the smell of burnt flesh Turned out 1. It was still plugged in and 2. I had burnt through the tendons in my right hand , it was like someone had scooped out the centre of my hand. It was horrendous. I stumbled into my parents bedroom brandishing my new body art and after the initial obvious horror and disbelief at my utter stupidity I was rushed to hospital where I had a successful operation to reattach the tendons and "unscoop" my hand. Though I had to write left handed for about 6 months. From then to this day most of the fingers are numb and I can't make ANY obscene hand gestures still. But it's ok and I can write etc. Aren't you glad I'm not YOUR son ??!! So being the father of a beautiful little boy now I PRAY he skipped MY moron genetic code as a boy !! I think I now know how my mom felt Absolutely no exaggeration I'm afraid . I know I'm blond and have SW blood but still.... Frakk me !! So yes I guess i was due SOME comeuppance later on
I once tried to remove a small electric lamp bulb with my teeth. Couldn't grip hard enough with my hand so so it seemed logical.
Luckily my 8 year-old brain intervened just before my slightly younger teeth clamped onto the glass.

We have mentions elsewhere of kids' accidents with electricity, including my own toddler brother's impromptu flying lesson after grabbing bare wires.
 
I once tried to remove a small electric lamp bulb with my teeth. Couldn't grip hard enough with my hand so so it seemed logical.
Luckily my 8 year-old brain intervened just before my slightly younger teeth clamped onto the glass.

We have mentions elsewhere of kids' accidents with electricity, including my own toddler brother's impromptu flying lesson after grabbing bare wires.
My only experience with electric plugs when I was a kid was iirc I liked to plug and unplug them repeatedly. This might have been only the lights to our Christmas tree and probably because I enjoyed seeing the lights go off and on as I do remember this was the last time I played with plugs. I got a slight shock. You never had to tell me twice.

And living on a farm, we had electric fencing which would give you a small uncomfortable (for me) shock. Grabbing it with your hand, it felt like your wrist turning inside out.

I had no unlimited amount of enjoyment in tricking my city born, older cousins (both boys who were pains in the ass) into grabbing the fence. I would surreptitiously stand on a stone and grab the fence and then ask them to grab the fence.:evillaugh:
 
Aren't you glad I'm not YOUR son ??!!
Bloody hell that startled me I thought you must be reading my mind. Before I'd scrolled down far enough to see what you had written I'd decided that my reply was going to be just that! ha! ha!

I had enough scares with my two lads and but not quite on that level. We were frequent visitors so the casualty department after all. At one point my eldest was in a really bad mood after one visit not because we'd gone on his account but because it 'just wasn't fair' as the youngest 'always gets stitches and I never get stitches!'

All the accidents were worrysome but the most scarey incident didn't involve injury but had fortean elements for me and was really spooky until I found out what was really going on.

I was in the kitchen and suddenly realised that all was suspiciusly quiet in the living room, Went through to see what was going on and son had disappeared. Frantically searched behind the cutains under the sofa and the rest of the house but he was nowhere to be found. Mega panic overdrive, had he been abducted or had he managed to quietly open the door and escape ...surely I would have heard. Then I heard faint laughter so looked everywhere again and started calling. The gleeful laughter continued and it sounded as if he was in the room but but but he was just inivisible. What the hell was going on?

After a bit he could contain himself no longer and called out 'I'm underneath you ha ha ha hee hee hee silly mummy'

What had happened was the previous day having visited a building site I'd remarked that before you could build a house up you had to dig a hole in the ground. This had fascinated him and so as soon as he had the opportunity, ie mummy's back was turned, decided to go and look at the hole our house was built over. As it happened as the house was built on a slight hill the front of the house did have a sizeable undercroft ... not deep enough for a celler or anything but deep enough for electricians and plumbers to crawl under to make their job of chasing pipes and wires easier. He'd noticed loose floor boards in the cupboard under the stairs and so had begun his adventure.

Well I was relieved his voice was not coming from another realm but still had the worry that it might happen yet due to the exposed wires. So began the lengthy process of enticing him back up. Good boy come back up mummy has got some sweeties for you', I lied but needs must. So all was well but it was soo weird while it was ongoing.

So no @gojiramonkey I couldn't have coped with a son like you! Congratulations for surviving your childhood as it sounded as if it was a bit touch and go!!!
 
Bloody hell that startled me I thought you must be reading my mind. Before I'd scrolled down far enough to see what you had written I'd decided that my reply was going to be just that! ha! ha!

I had enough scares with my two lads and but not quite on that level. We were frequent visitors so the casualty department after all. At one point my eldest was in a really bad mood after one visit not because we'd gone on his account but because it 'just wasn't fair' as the youngest 'always gets stitches and I never get stitches!'

All the accidents were worrysome but the most scarey incident didn't involve injury but had fortean elements for me and was really spooky until I found out what was really going on.

I was in the kitchen and suddenly realised that all was suspiciusly quiet in the living room, Went through to see what was going on and son had disappeared. Frantically searched behind the cutains under the sofa and the rest of the house but he was nowhere to be found. Mega panic overdrive, had he been abducted or had he managed to quietly open the door and escape ...surely I would have heard. Then I heard faint laughter so looked everywhere again and started calling. The gleeful laughter continued and it sounded as if he was in the room but but but he was just inivisible. What the hell was going on?

After a bit he could contain himself no longer and called out 'I'm underneath you ha ha ha hee hee hee silly mummy'

What had happened was the previous day having visited a building site I'd remarked that before you could build a house up you had to dig a hole in the ground. This had fascinated him and so as soon as he had the opportunity, ie mummy's back was turned, decided to go and look at the hole our house was built over. As it happened as the house was built on a slight hill the front of the house did have a sizeable undercroft ... not deep enough for a celler or anything but deep enough for electricians and plumbers to crawl under to make their job of chasing pipes and wires easier. He'd noticed loose floor boards in the cupboard under the stairs and so had begun his adventure.

Well I was relieved his voice was not coming from another realm but still had the worry that it might happen yet due to the exposed wires. So began the lengthy process of enticing him back up. Good boy come back up mummy has got some sweeties for you', I lied but needs must. So all was well but it was soo weird while it was ongoing.

So no @gojiramonkey I couldn't have coped with a son like you! Congratulations for surviving your childhood as it sounded as if it was a bit touch and go!!!
Hahaha yea , and they moan nowadays about kids sat in front of consoles and screens with furrowed brows !! At least the past generations had a bit of "derring doo" as they used to say !! More than my fair share of stitches , scars (and I'm STILL lonely and forlorn on valentine's day!!) Touch and go would be putting it mildly , it often occurs to me that maybe I DIDN'T survive one of these wonderfully character building incidents and like with those glitch stories you read about people in cars with lorries appearing suddenly and out of control totalling them and then they are 100 yards up the road unscathed and the universe has granted them a second chance..... Sometimes I do wonder if I DID die and was granted reprieve in a parallel universe!! When my little boy's Mom tells me "He's so clumsy.... JUST like his Dad !! ", I just smile like Ford Prefect BUT at least he has his own personal German shepherd to look after him !!
 
Hahaha yea , and they moan nowadays about kids sat in front of consoles and screens with furrowed brows !! At least the past generations had a bit of "derring doo" as they used to say !! More than my fair share of stitches , scars (and I'm STILL lonely and forlorn on valentine's day!!) Touch and go would be putting it mildly , it often occurs to me that maybe I DIDN'T survive one of these wonderfully character building incidents and like with those glitch stories you read about people in cars with lorries appearing suddenly and out of control totalling them and then they are 100 yards up the road unscathed and the universe has granted them a second chance..... Sometimes I do wonder if I DID die and was granted reprieve in a parallel universe!! When my little boy's Mom tells me "He's so clumsy.... JUST like his Dad !! ", I just smile like Ford Prefect BUT at least he has his own personal German shepherd to look after him !!
My son that is..... Not sure if Ford Prefect is a dog person.... Did our four legged friends make it all the way to a small galaxy in the vicinity of Betelgeuse?
 
I've written this before but my scariest moment was probably not being at Portcullis House during the Westminster Bridge attack. We were due there for a meeting at quarter past the hour and were getting ready to go when one of my colleagues recognised gun shots, which was the murderer being shot. We didn't know what had happened but we knew not to go out of the building and we were locked down for a couple of hours. We were watching the BBC news and as it became clear what had happened I remember my colleague crying and I started trembling as we realised how close we had been to being in the middle of this awful thing.
 
My scariest moment was as a teen, at boarding school, I had the 'hobby' of climbing all the buildings and roofs at night.
One time I slipped on damp slate tiles and had to jam my foot in the gutter, twisting my knees painfully, to stop falling three stories. The fear only kicked in when I managed to crawl back up to the ridge.
 
A couple hours after arguing loudly with a mobster in Korea over several thousand dollars, I was <cough> randomly <cough> mugged by a guy who came to my house. In the instant, thinking it was an arm around my neck, I grabbed the "arm". It was a knife. I wound up tied up while the guy reclaimed the money. Well half the money, when he demanded to know where it was I only told him the location of half of it, as I'd split it up earlier, suspecting something would happen. I had to get myself out of being tied up and get myself to a hospital for all the blood (thank you taxi driver for taking a blood covered foreigner).
 
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