Patient Name: Doe, Jane (Unknown)
Age: Unknown
Sex: Female
Diagnosis: Potamophobia-Fear of rivers or running water
The narrative below is a compilation of information regarding the above subject. It includes narrative summaries of the events recorded on the body cameras of Avalon field agents AF371-D and AF208-B. This footage was recovered from their corpses and contained numerous unexplained digital artifacts and corruptions throughout. Please bear in mind this patient’s location is currently UNKNOWN and this report is intended for debriefing of relevant teams and future field contact only. Consequently, it should not be read by anyone below CODE BLACK clearance level without prior permission.
The report first came into a local state health agency. Based on our follow-up interview with the caller, the young man who called it in was doing a five-day backcountry hike when he crossed a creek into a strangely well-maintained plot of approximately fifteen acres. He recalled that it struck him as odd that it wasn’t more grown up with grass and weeds, as by his estimation he was at least forty miles from the closest road. It was also notable that the trees and bushes on that plot of land were markedly different than those he had encountered in his exploration of the larger area; they primarily consisted of thick and twisted trees coiled together like ancient snakes of gray and speckled black, their limbs intertwining above small, thorny bushes that seemed of little purpose than to prevent entry or cause pain.
He almost turned around right then, both from the fear of trespassing and of running afoul of those briars. But then he saw the small ramshackle house nestled in the middle of it all. It looked very old and half-rotten, with part of the roof having collapsed at some point long before. He felt momentary relief at the idea that no one was going to try to shoot him or call the police for being on their land, as the house was obviously abandoned.
Except that it wasn’t. The next moment he saw an old woman shuffle to the doorway and look out bleakly. She only stared out for a few seconds before shuffling unevenly back inside. But even in that brief glimpse, he saw enough to say she looked unwell and seemed to have something wrong with her mouth.
This was the reason for his call once he had cell coverage again. While he didn’t know enough to try to intervene on his own, and he certainly didn’t want to frighten the old woman by coming upon her out of nowhere, he felt sure that she must either be homeless or in need of some kind of elder care to stay so far away from the world in such terrible conditions.
A series of phone calls led to the discovery that the land in question had actually come into the possession of the state as of January 1, 1944. It was part of 200 acres that had once been owned by a man known as Peter Jacobsen, and he had died without any heirs. After some discussion, and using the rationale that it was state-owned woods, it was decided that a local wildlife officer would go to the property to perform a welfare check and initial assessment of what, if anything, needed to be done.
When he did not return after 24 hours, plans began to formulate to send deputies into the location. In the interim, our organization received a backchannel communication from one of our assets in the area. The initial reports were of limited significance, but they did match rough location records we had in Archival of some kind of Event that occurred in the area approximately 170 years ago. Knowing that time was limited before local law enforcement arrived, we immediately dispatched two field agents to the location with the goal of completing Tier II scouting prior to the locals’ arrival.
The operation went very poorly.
The field agents entered the property from another angle than described by the hiker, but they also had to cross a stream before noting the land’s transition. The bodycam footage is clearer during this initial phase, but becomes notably more choppy as they approach the house. They announce themselves loudly but receive no response. The front door is not only wide open, but partially off its hinges, and in accordance with Tier II scouting of a private domicile, the agents announce themselves again as they enter the building.
Agent 1 (AF371-D) remarks to Agent 2 (AF208-B) that the interior smells terrible, and both men can be heard faintly gagging as they walk down a short hallway into one of two rooms within the house. The floor is littered with dirt and dried leaves, but among these are numerous dried husks that were later confirmed to be the desiccated corpses of various animals. As the camera adjusts to the meager light inside the room, a dark figure can be seen squatting in the corner.
The agents are clearly startled when they notice the old woman, her eyes wide and glittering as she stares at them. Agent 2 tells Agent 1 to be “at low-ready”—field agent parlance for low-level tactical weapon readiness—as Agent 2 approaches the woman carefully. The woman rushes forward and Agent 2 catches her. She appears to be sobbing and moaning as she hugs him.
Agent 1 approaches and between the two bodycams it becomes clear that the woman is in a wretched state. She looks emaciated and dirty, but worst of all, her mouth has been stitched shut with some kind of thin, metal wire. Later metallurgical analysis showed that it was primarily an amalgam of silver and copper. Regardless, while Agent 2 is clearing the second room, Agent 1 utilizes a small multitool to clip the wires and free her mouth.
Agent 1 begins to call to Agent 2, saying that the poor woman’s tongue has been cut out. Agent 2 returns and reprimands Agent 1 for cutting the wires on site and before they knew what was going on. He says he found the state wildlife officer dead in the other room with his tongue ripped out as well.
The next few seconds are very chaotic, as there is a great deal of movement and noise, as well as numerous digital artifacts rendering moments wholly unwatchable. Agent 2’s camera shows the woman smiling at the two men as she pulls something from a fold in her clothing and stuffs it into her mouth. Video forensics has identified the unknown object as being consistent with the size, shape, and coloration of the tongue missing from the wildlife officer’s body.
She has completed the act before Agent 1 notices anything is wrong. Agent 2, however, appears to have seen her motion in his peripheral and begins asking what she just put in her mouth. He clearly doesn’t expect a verbal response, but he gets one just the same.
The audio cuts out and does not ever return approximately one and half seconds into when the woman begins speaking, but the brief sample we do have cannot be identified by our linguistics team. Regardless, sound is not required to see the effects of her words. The cameras’ views twirl and twist as the agents are lifted and flung around the room, Agent 1’s camera going black first. Agent 2’s camera lasts until they are outside, and the final image it shows is of Agent 1’s broken body floating through the air towards one of the small creeks that run around the property’s edge. Behind his corpse, you can see the wildlife agent’s body floating as well.
Local law enforcement arrived before our extraction team could be deployed, so it took some amount of effort to retrieve the agents’ bodies and effects, but between what was ultimately recovered and what was encountered by law enforcement at the scene, we have some idea of what occurred.
The Agents’ bodies, as well as that of the wildlife officer based on a copy of that autopsy, sustained numerous compound fractures and organ ruptures in the span of a few seconds. Their bodies were then levitated outside to where they were ultimately found—acting as a kind of crude dam in one of the creek beds surrounding this strange property. And despite the massive damage to their bodies and their gear, each of the three men had one unharmed object stuffed into a pocket.
A small, mottled brown egg. While we were unable to obtain any of these three eggs, reports were that when broken open, they all contained dead baby chicks with monstrous deformities.
Supplemental report regarding documents finally supplied by Archival after two requests. Apparently the property in question was once called “Four Rivers Crossing”. It does not show up on any map after 1843, but older maps made in the area show fifteen acres bordered on all sides by running water. It appears that the “four rivers” are actually the double intersection of two rivers, not the crossing of four. Either way, it is a geographical anomaly that the people of the time felt warranted a name on the map.
It seems likely that they also felt it could be useful to keep something imprisoned.
There used to be a small village near Four Rivers Crossing. The locally-made maps of the early 1800s called it Tullison, and the only account of a reason for the town’s demise was a reference to a “plague” that came to the town in 1846, though the descriptions weren’t of disease, but of murder and “blasphemous depravity”. Whatever the reasons, nothing more is known about what might have happened in Tullison. It simply lived, then died, lost somewhere in that deep wood near where the creature lay trapped and waiting.
Because whatever that woman is, she appears to be afraid of crossing—or unable to cross—a river. A search of the borders of the property confirmed what the old maps show—every side is completely bordered by running water. It is merely a pair of crisscrossing creeks at this point, but the water still flows. Perhaps that would have been enough to keep her in for decades or centuries more.
But then someone freed her and made her whole. Gave her a means to break the water long enough to cross.
It should be stressed that we know next to nothing about how this creature operates. How she was trapped—if she was truly trapped at all—is a mystery to us beyond the basic mechanisms. Do not assume that this limited knowledge is a form of understanding or some kind of advantage we possess. As it stands, we have no understanding or advantage.
If you receive information regarding this patient, report it immediately and only through CODE BLACK channels. If you encounter this creature, DO NOT ENGAGE and immediately retreat to a safe location before calling for assistance. Also, be advised that one of the blue notebooks was not recovered, and it must be assumed she may have it and any information it contains. If you notice any abnormal behavior from any member of the metallurgical, video forensics or linguistics teams, or any other member that has had contact with materials from this case, you must notify your supervisor or a member of the containment unit. This includes strange dreams and suicidal ideation. No exceptions and err on the side of reporting, as there have been several episodes already.
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