Clarissa Simons was part of a small group of explorers, typically organized via the Internet. The group of seven snuck into the Sudan Tunnels and intended to spend the night. Only six came out the next morning.

People sneaking into these tunnels have often come out reporting strange sounds off in the distance, including heavy breathing and dripping despite the tunnel’s arid nature. Rarely, explorers will report distant sightings of large, dark creatures, just barely within field of vision.

Currently, there is no evidence of any life larger than rodent life living within the Sudan Tunnels. Regardless, entering the forbidden tunnels is NOT allowed.

The exact details of the process itself are unknown, as EA-21 was not kept under surveillance until after the accident. His condition (whilst still under speculation) is professionally intriguing, despite the unnerving effect on other subjects and staff. Mr. Longrain was found with his facial features entirely missing: the front of his head and snout were covered entirely in smooth skin and fur with no eyes, nose or mouth. He was rushed to medical professionals under close secrecy where X-ray scans showed that the canine’s skull had completely fused in the front. No evidence of a jaw, nasal cavity or eye sockets remains.

Curiously, Mr. Longrain was still alive and his vital signs were stable. His lungs were intact but not moving, and it appeared as if Mr. Longrain no longer needed to breath for oxygen. Regardless of the complete lack of facial features, Mr. Longrain’s circulatory system appears to function by, as yet, untested means and continues to do so regardless of oxygen levels in the room or even when the skull is submerged completely in water (the subject seemed unaffected by these stimuli). Nutrition also seems to no longer be a requirement as the subject had suffered no ill effects in the later weeks of testing without being able to ingest food. When hospitalized he was kept on an IV drip for several days until it was established that he no longer required food or nutrients.

Now safely held at the Ray Institute for Mental Health, Mr. Longrain has improved in responsiveness in the last week, though his behavior appears dramatically altered from evidence in his prior behavioral profile. Despite investigations to determine sensory responses being inconclusive, Mr. Longrain seems to prefer darkened rooms and lower temperatures, when left to his own devices he migrates away from bright lights and heat, often standing ‘facing’ the darkest and coolest wall of the room. When prompted Mr. Longrain has minor reactions to simple physical puzzles, though intelligence is difficult to gauge as he frequently attempts to wander back to the wall-facing behavior. If given garments to interact with, Mr. Longrain has been noted to slowly slip the articles over his head, which appears to induce a sleep-like state of total unresponsiveness. This has, however, triggered multiple false instances of high alert in the last week when staff observed Mr. Longrain pulling bags or pillow cases over his head: though initial thoughts were that Mr. Longrain was attempting suicide, it seems to be the case that he simply prefers that his ‘face’ is covered and suffers no ill effect from such. Staff members lacking seniority at the facility have been reminded that “disturbing” and “creepy” are words of little scientific meaning when evaluating subjects like Mr. Longrain, though psychologists suggest shame as a reason for this ‘covering’ action, it is made more unusual on one occasion in the artistic expression test when he used paints provided to draw a face of the pillow case he was using as a cover. Masks have been suggested as a possible test to make the subject more comfortable.

Communication has been established via computer keyboard, but it has proved difficult to engage the subject in meaningful conversation and he does not respond to music or audio media. Attached are the results of his typing, though the garbled messages are still being disseminated by specialists and seem irrespective of the questions asked by interviewers.

Scientists at the Pilgrim Center have established a possible link between EA-21’s periods of activity and certain astrological events. Though this unfortunate incident is a personal tragedy, Mr. Longrain could provide the key to theories surrounding EA-21 and his name, despite his lack of face, may still go down in scientific history.

(See Attachment)

According to de Fleuve, he invited the victims to his apartment to celebrate his birthday with a bottle of rare, imported Octopus Wine. De Fleuve claims that his guests began exhibiting odd behavior roughly 30 minutes after drinking the wine, including hyperactivity and implied visual hallucinations. After an accidental injury, his guests became violent with each other. In a later interview at the Suez Police Station de Fleuve said, “I thought they were just drunk or something at the start. It’s like they were really happy, like… like it really felt good to be hurt. [redacted] cut himself really deep and started moaning…”

The otter claims the victims then continued to cut and attack each other, despite his protests; the violence escalating to a point where the young man feared for his own safety. Bodies were found with missing fingers, broken arms and gouged eyes. Although de Fleuve was initially charged with murder, there was no forensic evidence that the otter ever made physical contact with the victims and none of the decedents bore defensive markers of any kind.

Toxicology reports indicate that a chemical compound closely resembling Phencyclidine was found in the blood of the victims, which matched samples of the octopus found in the wine bottle. Later experiments with this compound have revealed its capacity to modify brain chemistry in such a way to interpret all pain as pleasure.

In an internal company note, one scientist remarked, “When these kids were having their arms broken and tongues cut off, they were probably the happiest they had ever been in their lives.”
Law enforcement is treating the incident as tragic manslaughter due to drug overdose, though no charges have been laid against the survivor, Mr. de Fleuve, due to the accidental nature of his acquiring the wine from a liquor store. His decision not to drink himself, to drive his friends home safely, is being considered a slim silver lining to the tragedy and was remarked by investigators as a “tragic conclusion to considerate responsibility” on behalf of the surviving witness.

Koobi de Fleuve is currently kept at the Ray Institute for Mental Health. Recovery from his trauma has been described as slow.

Octopus Wine is illegal in all countries in the African Union, but it can reportedly be found on the black market and occasionally at rare spirit traders.

After following up on a missing persons report, local police uncovered a mysterious death north of Boston in the winter of 1999.

When Reese Silverstone failed to arrive at work at 7:00 PM on a cold Saturday night, no one was surprised. The high school dropout was frequently late to work and rarely had an excuse. However, when he failed to show up to work once more on Monday and did not answer his phone, people became concerned.

Mr Silverstone’s body was found that evening face down in a snowy field of Thorn Hill Park. His death was a grisly one: his head had been snapped backwards, and his spine had been dislocated and twisted 180 degrees above the hips. Autopsy reports showed signs of struggle and abrasions around the head and arms, but no foreign particulates or claw marks could be found.

Forensic experts at the scene found no footprints or tracks 100 ft from the body, excluding those of the investigating officers’, leaving the question as to how the sheep got there. It had not snowed for several days, so it was impossible that snow could have fallen over footprints – especially as there was no new snow on Reese himself.

Based on the soft impact of the body in the snow, all that could be determined by experts was that Reese had been twisted around and killed before being laid very slowly onto the ground – apparently in mid-air by a being of extreme power. Silverstone’s footprints were found at to the edge of the clearing with signs of stress, but to have been thrown into the clearing would have caused considerable impact trauma.

Official reports list the incident as a hoax body dump, though no explanation of how a body could have been placed without tracks in the small clearing has ever been offered.

(Victor Morgan, The Unexplained World, 1st edition, p.75)

In 1923, Mr Varik Jäger, Egyptian national, had lured his 14th victim to his apartment in the heart of busy Old Cairo. The nature of the murder and the media attention it garnered would make the young fox, Nick Pines, the most famous of Jäger’s victims.

Nick Pines, like all of Jäger’s victims, was a European immigrant; he had come to Egypt from England at the age of 4 with his parents. At the age of 16 he began to independently tour the country, performing at clubs, bars, and small music houses.

Several witnesses identified Jäger on several nights in the underground Ren Faire Nightclub, where Pines worked as a dancer and musician. After talking to the fox on numerous occasions, Jäger was seen inviting Pines to his apartment, which later lead to his questioning and eventual arrest. Jäger was known to frequent the clubs in the area and would frequently be seen returning with younger men to his apartment.

The body of Nick Pines was found four days later. Foregoing his usual burial at sea in small sacs as he had disposed of victims back to 1919, Jäger had opted instead to string the body up between two lamp posts a few blocks from his apartment. The skin had been flayed from the body, leaving muscle and bone exposed, and the intestines had been opened onto the street. This was to be the first of three public mutilations that eventually lead to Jäger’s arrest; in his later confession to police, kept classified until 1979, Jäger referred to the murders as “works of art” he had created to beautify his hunting ground of the Cairo district known to be populated by illegal bars and frequent male prostitution.

Jäger said of Pines: “I had become obsessed with him. I was absolutely enamored by his beauty. I wanted the entire world to see him as I did.”

The gruesome display of Nick Pines was heavily documented by several newspaper and amateur photographers before the body could be removed. As Jäger’s next two victims were more hastily hidden by police, it is Pines’ death that has entered popular culture, especially in the Cairo Region, inspiring several works of art including numerous songs from the 1930’s onwards, some rumored ^{[citation needed]} to be composed by Pines himself. The 1997 film The Vampire of Cairo heavily features Jäger’s taboo relationship with Pines and his subsequent torture and death, which is known to have taken over two days. The film’s title references the nickname given to Jäger by the press after his admission to over 20 murders, all of which included biting or slashing the throat to cause death and flaying and dismemberment of body parts prior to death.

Jäger’s arrest and assessment by psychiatrists prior to his execution lead to many questions due to the rapid decline of Jäger’s sanity and his confessed compulsions, which suggested a loss of control compared to his relatively secretive and well-planned murders prior to Pines. Though many blame drugs that were circulating in the Old Cairo bars, supernatural rumors still surround Pines’ murder and the other displays of Jäger’s gruesome ‘art’.

Anise Pettigrew (1868-1921) was famed throughout Europe for her abilities as a medium and her highly sensationalized séances drew the attention of many famous names. Close scrutiny would eventually reveal most of her claims to be hoaxes, but one set of photographs continue to confound investigators to this very day.

Italian reporter Askir Losco, accompanied by two colleagues, attended one of Pettigrew’s séances on December 2nd, 1911.

According to the accounts of his fellow reporters printed in the Genoa Tribune: “Losco swiftly became pale and shaken, as if overcome by some unseen horror. Ms. Pettigrew, too, looked shocked and terrified. When we asked if something had gone wrong, she did not reply.”

Despite being described as a thin man of delicate constitution, it is reported that Losco stood abruptly and broke the table before him with his bare fists. He then attacked Pettigrew, causing serious lacerations before the other men held him down, at which point Losco fell unconscious. Medical professionals later diagnosed the outburst as a seizure, despite Losco having no prior history of such a condition.

Losco remained in a coma for two days before a sudden awakening at night. He wounded a nurse before breaking open a secure window in the ward and plummeting six stories to his death. Hospital staff reported the sound of “unnatural growling” and words in a language none could recognize.

When photographs of the séance were finally developed, reporters were stunned by what appeared to be a terrible transformation shown before Losco’s supposed seizure. Losco’s body had been “covered in deep shadows that took on an otherworldly form, grossly mutating the alligator’s form.” Numerous attempts at explaining the cause of the camera’s distortion have failed.

Many reporters questioned Ms. Pettigrew in the following decade before her death and, despite her defaming during hoax investigations in 1915, she refused to comment on the séance with Losco or her attack. When shown the pictures again by her daughter Mae, before her death, she would only comment, “three… but there were three.”

(Victor Morgan, The Unexplained World, 1st edition, p.81)

I must apologize for the lateness in my reply. My notes were only recently complete after a handful of attempts to correlate information with investigators from Redding active in 1969. Here is what I was able to discover about the theft of (to use your phrasing) the “Hoogech Artifact”.

In an article dated March 20th, 1969, we see that Mr. Kyte Dempsey was among 22 individuals arrested in a protest-turned-riot regarding the legal status of Native American persons in the western territories, though Dempsey’s nationality itself is listed as White American of European decent. Mr. Dempsey’s name appears in several other police reports of disturbances and civil unrest in the greater Shasta County area, so it is my personal opinion that he was the one to turn the protest into an act of violence.

Internal police notes, retrieved at the request of the Bernard Asylum after the internment of Mr. Dempsey, state his bail was posted by a Ms. Shaughnessy, although I suspect this was a pseudonym and no further evidence exists of Ms. Shaughnessy.

Dempsey’s name appears again four days later, in a separate police report. Local authorities in the Weaverville township found the man half naked on a side street, jibbering incomprehensibly and almost entirely unresponsive. He was taken back to jail and was brought to the Bernard Asylum the next day where results of testing were of an extreme psychological break with no notable chemical or physical stressor.

As you have suggested, this time frame indeed allows for Dempsey’s involvement with the theft of the artifact, which occurred on the 22nd of March. I have to advise however that though Dempsey has a history of assault charges against the police he had no known connections to other criminal activities. Police investigating the loss of the artifact have stressed that the skill needed to perform the crime would make it an impossible task for an amateur, if the theft was even possible at all. Even with assistance, no alarms were tripped within the building and neither the guards or cameras installed for the exhibits security were able to detect any intrusion. As part an internal investigation a guard on the day shift earlier in the week mentioned a Native American grouse woman and a male coyote matching Mr. Dempsey’s appearance who approached the museum angry about the historical accuracy of exhibits, the guard alleges that the woman made threats against the museum claiming her ancestors would help return artifacts to the native cultures that they were stolen from – this allegation was not factored into official investigations at the scene were method of entry is still undetermined.

The artifact originally belonged to the ancient Yurok tribe and it seems relevant to mention odd legends of the tribe’s unique psychedelic drugs used in ritual celebration. I have included reference to books recording specific legends and reports dating from 1855 in regards to the mysterious properties these drugs allegedly held – though the drugs pre-date modern testing facilities and Yurok culture exclusively forbids sharing the drugs with those outside their tribe on spiritual grounds.

I hope this is of use for your book.

Regards,

Jane Mejia, The Annapolis Sun

Tomas Cambridge (presenter): In local news: long regarded as an example of folk art, is the famed ‘Deer Tree’ of Norwell really the product of a druidic cult? Marilyn Entworth reports.

Marilyn Entworth: It’s a popular tourist attraction and a favorite of gothic photographers, but there are rumors that the Deer Tree in rural Norwell may have a dark, and recent, origin. According to experts, the Deer Tree may be created by nature-worshiping cults in the mid 70s for a ritual sacrifice. The price? A young girl’s life. Here with me at the infamous site is Professor O’Hare, historian and occult enthusiast from [the] Wakefield University .

Professor O’Hare: You see, while there’s been historical documentation of strange trees in other parts of the country dating back a long way, the Deer Tree here in Norwell is wrongly confused with the eighth century Widows Tree, know as the Old Derby Tree. Due to a historic fire in Norwell, the Callum Tor to the east of the village was cleared of trees only six years before the first mention of the Deer Tree in September 1977. There was no record of the tree, not even a whisper locally, no illustrations or cartography references from surveys of the tor.

One thing, one thing they did have that summer, was a disappearance late August. A woman disappears, there’s a big investigation by rescue teams and police, and they never find her. Then, out of the blue, people are talking about this tree.

Marilyn Entworth: The young woman was Melissa Gervais Schmitt, an American college student who went missing near Norwell in 1977, last seen wearing hiking gear and asking for directions during a pub lunch in the nearby Danes Key Inn. She was described as visiting alone, but having a friendly demeanor with pub staff. Police investigations failed to find her, despite her missing her returning flight. Suspicions that Schmitt, who was due to start an exchange program at Kings College in September, had fled with grant money for her travel and studies, though these financial records were never proven and the case still remains unsolved.

Professor O’Hare: If Melissa was taken by a ritualistic cult it would be the first record of such for hundreds of years. There are many ancient legends regarding rituals that transform victims into rocks, animals or, indeed, trees. In references from the Inquisitions of Richard the Confessor, a 13th century priest who interrogated and cataloged cult behavior in England, these rituals are long. They’re effectively torture, limbs [are] removed and replaced with branches from aggressively growing saplings, skin is stripped for bark to be stitched to the body. The wood, the plant life, it starts to spread until muscle turns into tree, eating the nutrients in bone and muscle to feed the plants. In such legends these sacrifices, the victims, they’re kept alive until their brains turn to wood. If Melissa was indeed taken by this cult it spells an unprecedented survival of these old methods of nature worship.

Marilyn Entworth: Norwell police officials could not be reached for comment on Professor O’Hare’s findings, though it may be that this local legendary tree has more to it than originally thought. This has been Marilyn Entworth for BBC East Midlands News from Norwell.

Today, we examine an old internet mystery: the infamous Skyscraper Ritual and the mysterious case of Cat Zirka. Cat was a normal Egyptian college student, one year away from getting her master’s degree back in 2025. Considered a normal girl, she had friends, played RPGs, posted to online message boards about ghosts and spooky rituals… Hm.

See, on spring break, Cat stumbled upon the Skyscraper Ritual, often described as a “game” that can apparently transport you to another world parallel to ours. The rules are simple.

Actually, the rules are quite complex and vary depending on which website you read them on and when. There are often ten steps in which you travel between different floors using the elevator of an especially tall building. First you go to the third floor, then the eleventh, then the fifth, back to the eleventh… et cetera. Apparently, near the final step, a single spider is supposed to crawl into the elevator to ride with you to this “other world”.

So, keep that in mind when you see this collection of security footage.

[Shown: footage from various angles in hallways showing Cat riding the elevator, making multiple stops but never getting out.]

This was the last that was ever seen of Cat. This frame here, just as the elevator doors are closing. We can see in this next clip that the elevator stops on the 4th floor and opens, but Cat isn’t there. She’s gone. An extensive search was conducted over the next several weeks. Every room, every air duct, the roof, the basement… to this day, no one has found neither hair nor hide of Cat Zirka.

In the version of the ritual that we know Cat read, it says that if you get out on the last floor, you may have trouble coming back. You may become disoriented and confused from being within this… “other world”. It’s also said that you must be careful, because if you make any sounds, any noises at all, beyond just your footsteps, someone or something will find you.

So… did Cat Zirka really step off an elevator into a shadowy otherworld? Did she fake her disappearance to start a new life somewhere? From testimonials, we know college debt was building, and there were rumors of a bad home life. While cameras were extensive in the hotel, there are blind spots that could make this a convenient, if convoluted, cover-up by a student known to be fascinated with these modern urban legends.

Was she kidnapped or otherwise taken? Cat was new to that city and could have easily gotten lost and run into a bad part of town. For now, we can only wonder and wait as the trail of Cat Zirka… has gone unusually cold.