{"id":3422,"date":"2025-08-26T14:23:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T21:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scottneelan.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/26\/ordeal\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T14:23:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T21:23:30","slug":"ordeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottneelan.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/26\/ordeal\/","title":{"rendered":"Ordeal"},"content":{"rendered":"<body>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Was any of that real<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">or was I just lost in my own head?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I thought we were close enough<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">that I could be myself<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">but the more I opened up<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the more you inched away<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was too caught up to notice<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the space you put between us<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">until I tried to reach across the gap<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and you pulled me in and walked away<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Climbing out was a challenge<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">but here I am standing tall again<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">just trying to sort out everything<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">so that I might learn the lessons<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">this ordeal was meant to teach<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But all I\u2019m gettong here<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">is not to trust a friend<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and that can\u2019t be the right takeaway<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">from this whole ordeal<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026cam it? <\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Was any of that real or was I just lost in my own head? I thought we were close enough that I could be myself but the more I opened up the more you inched away I was too caught &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottneelan.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/26\/ordeal\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ordeal - The World at Midnight<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scottneelan.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/26\/ordeal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ordeal - The World at Midnight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Was any of that real or was I just lost in my own head? 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