It used to be thought that I was somewhat psychically touched or somehow daft, until I came across some papers in my family's personal documents that changed everything we had known heretofore.

Mother had disappeared one day without explanation, without further contact. Father said she had walked out. Left us for Good. But he never cleared out her craft room. He passed away in January, leaving me the house. I pulled myself together to return there the first week of the following month. Going through the lower drawers of Mother's special sewing armoire, all the way in the back, behind random scraps of velvet, calico, satin and velour, and under a pair of rusted vintage scissors, I found one of those yellow colored interoffice document sized envelopes. The kind with a red thread that wraps around a comparably crimson paper button. The envelope itself was slotted, and I could see and feel there was something substantial in it, and tinged yellow with age. Automatically, I unwound the cotten string and pulled out the contents, (some stapled, some not). Glossed photos fell on the floor. Images I didn't recognize, hazy. They looked a lot like me, but maybe it was Mother; honestly it was confusing to everyone later as well. I looked at the document. It was red ink- marked CONFIDENTIAL! By all appearances it was a case file. It was labeled MK-ULTRA-7 and dated February the 7th... My heart began to race as I could see it was signed by Mother, and Father, and then subsequently only by Father... but it was definitely about me. I flipped frantically, seeing the incidents collected. Things I half recalled. Places I'd supposedly been to, things I had reportedly done and said. There was a peculiar postcard in the bottom of the envelope, sullied and worn, but extra thick and laminated. It read: "MKV-Agent is programmed to respond to power of Suggestion, regardless whether written, spoken, or thought. Triggers will yield Automatic reactionary behaviors as programmed by MK-U."

Then I saw the Final Order:

"For disposal of MKV-Agent use code:

#*0-0*!?!..... . . . . . . "

I was alerted by a notification of a message I received this morning @ 8:36am by @Mac1, I was delighted to check it out. Until I read it...

Dear ChrisSadhill,

I am saddened that you “thought it may be fun to create your own conspiracy.”

I am saddened that you felt the urge to present a Prose challenge that trivializes the deaths, injuries, shootings, the Capitol insurrection, division, and mob mentality borne of conspiracy theories.

Many years ago, as a journalist, I encountered a woman who preached that fluoridation was poison, a communist plot to dull our senses and allow Russia to infiltrate and take over U.S. communities. She was considered on the fringe. Yet her letter-writing campaign apparently planted doubt, because the issue was defeated multiple times at the polls. And to this day her community does not have fluoridated water.

I wonder if that woman would have a greater following today due to social media and “fun” challenges like yours.

So, forgive me if I do not participate in your “conspiracy workshop.”

It bothered me, though I know it shouldn't have. I thought about this all day, and decided to respond here as my entry, in the public, instead of behind the message walls. So, @Mac1...My response.

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your interest, and concern regarding my first-ever challenge on Prose titled “Conspiracy Workshop.” Prose has been a community that I have rapidly come to love and support due to its diversity in many different writing styles, the quality of inspiring writers, the various perspectives and nuances in storytelling, and the encouragement to celebrate all kinds of people in sharing their unique and special gifts. That includes me, so thank you @Prose. So, in support of that, and being a lover of “free America”, (the old one), I also welcome your input and opinion regardless if I find it skewed and/or misguided.

Secondly, I appreciate you bringing something to me that you obviously are passionate about and seem to want to explore further in conversation. So, let’s do that. I understand what you are saying, and respect where you are coming from, however, I feel that you are analyzing this prompt with an incorrect-emotional bias instead of looking at it rationally. Perhaps it is merely the title that heats your oven. Maybe it’s the just the overall theme that ignites your fire. I am unsure exactly what it is, but I feel you may be triggered by something that is out of my control. Maybe your inflammation had been brought on by events from your past, and if so, I am sorry for that.

The intent of this prompt was two-fold. One, I wanted to start contributing to the community in other ways besides just writing my stories, and having other writers liking it. This year, I am working on giving more to others than I take, and seem to have been getting a positive response from it. Therefore, I plan to continue my efforts. Two, I wanted to do something different and frankly relevant to what is going on now, especially in the news. On every screen we can see new train derailments involving toxic poisons or causing environmental disasters, and are being connected to a “movie" tempting the same type of events, which was created just months before. On every social media page we see governments shooting down UFO’s or Chinese Spies, or whatever they were... We are still waiting for the updates. There are plenty of events daily that incite a question of authority, or bizarre coincidences that need more exploring. So, I thought this prompt would be something unique, creative, and different, as there are many great writers on here already submitting many amazing prompts, and I wanted mine to stand out and sound interesting.

I guess it did, to you.

Look, I gravitate toward being a Post-Apocalyptic-Dystopian-Thriller writer, though I love all genres. Very recently, as early as yesterday even, I partook in some off-thriller prompts. But, to be clear, Conspiracy Fiction is literally a Sub-genre within “Thriller,” or “Crime." You may not enjoy it as much as I, and that is OK, your American too, sorry to assume if you are not, but one could literally name drop a few authors in this space, and become a millionaire just by the mention. Agatha Christie, Tom Clancy, James Patterson, Hell even Stephen King are authors that have made a living in this type of space and have written many stories involving some sort of “Conspiracy” within them. I really don’t see the overall issue here considering “Thrillers” are a common and obviously popular form of storytelling which is defined, and built upon stories that trivializes the deaths, injuries, shootings, even the capitol insurrection, division, and mob mentalities of people.

Like I said earlier, I understand. I have easily observed how vulnerable “Humans” especially “American Humans” are to these things, but I don’t think avoiding the next great story, or a meaningful discussion about government corruption, exploring what would happen with our countries future if things going horribly bad, or anything that suggests or practices suppression of one’s voice, or his/her written words for that matter is ever going to be the answer. I feel that people have the right to choose, have the right to create new stories, and have the right to make their own minds up about those stories, but the temperature that your message emits is getting close to 451 degrees, and that's not in Celsius. And that is even before a story has even been written.

Lastly, I just want to explain to you my perception of this event that you have created for me today. Just because it wasn’t said in your message, I feel that you insinuated or inferred the idea that I should take this down, and it is in my opinion that you exhibited a form of “Cyber Bullying.” There was a message behind those words that I feel you were saying, which I could not get out of my head all day, while at work. It tore at me, bothered me, made me feel insecure, made me feel like I did something wrong. Made me question myself. It made me feel like I was going to lose something, like my new writing family. It made me feel like I should take the post down.

That’s bullying and that’s wrong. You went out of your way to explain in detail, why you are NOT participating in my challenge, instead of just leaving it alone. I will not speculate why I think you did, but I do feel the mere fact you did do it means that you intended too secretly push me to hit the delete button. You wanted to do it in secrecy and behind the curtain, which is why it is here, out for all to see. I hope I am the only one you have bullied online, but if not, I would rather speak about this publicly so others are aware, and maybe past victims, can speak out too.

So, @Mac1, I respectfully, honorably, and wholeheartedly accept your choice to not participate in my “Conspiracy Workshop.” Hell, I even support it. Thanks for you time and thanks for your input. All opinions are welcome to me.

On a side note, I follow you, and find your pieces great, insightful, well-manicured, and polished. You are a great writer, and I hope to continue to read more from you soon.

-C. Sadhill

I've noticed I'm seeing no birds, or not as many as I should see. That 's what got me thinking. That piece of scrap land has always been a problem, but this with the birds is something new.

Nothing in the papers of course, and that makes perfect sense. Most of the time they're making a scene about the environment, so why no fuss about the poor little birdies. If something's up with that land again, they're stopping us from finding out.

It's not like there's no history with it. Five years ago, some woman from here went missing inside it they say. She'd been seen sneaking with some man and then one night she's just gone, never heard from again. She's got to be in there buried. I mean, where else.

Front page news, of course, and the local paper promptly fingered her husband. Why are they allowed to do that? What happened to proof of guilt? Said he was drunk and abusive, but that's what you'd expect then to say. Left wing rag. Inventing a bunch of feminist claptrap but hey, the courts found him innocent, didn't they? So it couldn't have been him, could it? Must be some other explanation.

But they never kept looking, did they? Should have, you know. I guess their world view's not up to accepting he didn't do in his wife. The cops should have left the case open, kept on looking, found out what really happened. We pay their wages. They owe us that so why did they stop? Somebody tells them to stop, you think? You have to wonder, don't you?

And it isn't about the cost of investigation. It's not that big an area, maybe five hundred acres, and easy enough access. I get that it's really closed in, kind of creepy in fact, but there's something not right about the place. My dogs won't go anywhere near it, and you got to treat that with respect. Animals know when there's something off. They trust their instincts, not like us. And the place is full of coyotes, you know. You can hear them howling all night long. Gives me the creeps.

And plenty of other people feel the same. It even got into the National Enquirer. Front page. Yeah. They put the wrong name on the photograph but I could still recognize the place. They claimed it was haunted. Old Indian burial ground, they said, been a massacre sometime back. Bunch of garbage. No such thing as ghosts. Just because a place looks spooky, people start making stuff up. You got to stick with the fact.

It's about that refinery down on the coast. They've getting their feed stock from somewhere, aren't they, so there's pipelines all over the place. You can bet it's some old line been rusted out, been leaking for years. That's why the place is so overgrown. Trees and shrubs spring up like crazy, as if there's something supercharging the soil. Growth like that's not natural here. Explain that to me.

But here's the problem. If they'd started digging, really looking for that woman, they'd have soon found the line, and the guys who run the refinery wouldn't want that. They won't pay for fixing it. They won't pay for anything. Remember how they cheated me when I hurt my back, making me sue them for compensation.

And don't get me started on lawyers. Cost me a fortune to try the case and still get denied. And why am I surprised? I know all the local judges are in their pockets. Same with the council, and the police. It's cheaper for them to give out bribes than bother to fix any lines.. Who cares if it's killing some birds.