Unexpected Love

(unexpected love)



   Its kind of funny thinking about it, thinking about when I started this job; what it was like; what must be going through the new guys' heads every time they get a lecture or are in the field. Finding out what all is real, what all is just like the myths and legends, what folklore is pure bullshit, and what is partially true or kind of true. Learning about things only some obscure legend in one tribe mentioned one time, or arn't even known in any legends or myths we know of because reality is everyone likes to interpret things based on their own personal and cultural bias; put a spin on them, and sometimes you only get part of the picture, see one thing acting in different ways so think that one thing is a dozen others; or get glimpses at a dozen different things and interpret them all as one thing. Heh, just finding out ghosts are real, and those kids starting out who find out vampires are real, some like the folklore, and their shock and horror learning about the two dozen more things we have under that category not in any myth because before we got high tech no one ever survived an encounter; or just covered it up like we do. Not to mention finding out just how much is really out there, how much we ignore, hide, cover up, or simply have to leave alone. Would be nice if all we had to know about was the things we have to deal with, but some kid goes out there into some godforsaken sewer, misses the signs, and instead of a dark dweller or a fish man he's got some pissed off cephalopodic psychomorph on his ass and he has no idea what it is, or what to do, so fucks up and gets himself killed. Same scenario could be repeated for fields, forests, and down town in the big city if I were so inclined to kill time repeating every horrible possible outcome for some green kid tracking a little beasty and getting on a big one's nerves instead.

  There are two kinds of things we are really careful around, more so than anything else, to the point we are taught to report signs of them, and possibly send in a specialist team which almost always consists of put up barriers to keep the public away or bury what we found. These are classified as Fae and Eldritch. Honestly not much difference besides aesthetics and tricks. In both cases the truth is what we're dealing with are things our ancestors based their gods on. Like everything else the stories arn't exact...or rather mostly wrong, mixing up royals and ancestors with these powerful monsters someone made a deal with in exchange for something, or worshipped and would show up ever so often. Thing is, these things demand offerings, sacrifices, and all manner of special conditions; and they expect people to remember it all; or else. It depends on what specifically it is, and we've got researchers who spend their whole lives trying to figure just what gods in theology and mythology were based on what individuals or species or whatever the case may be of these; confounded by historical changes thanks to cultural drift and politics. Ultimatly you arn't going to meet Zeus or Thor or Kali or Ishtar or Satan, or whatever. You're going to meet something in some old ruin, cave, pool, sea side, or more often a pocket dimension linked to some random ass place, that sort of fits maybe this or that description that it won't deny, but its usually some "you're free to believe whatever you want" deal so long as the proper respect and offerings are given. These things are the mob bosses of the entire supernatural world. And we are trained not to fight the mob bosses, we're trained to fight the homeless meth addicts of this whole other world under our noses.

   I wander though, just how many people interviewed about this job start off like that. How many times has someone just repeated, shit be real, shit be scary, total mindfuck; and tried to be all poetic or mysterious or don't believe everything you saw in story books and movies; here's the real shit. Fuck, how many times does that alone get repeated in movies.

   So I guess I should get to the point huh, I should have known better, known the signs, and turned back. The assignment was pretty simple, we generally keep an eye out for properties that were abandoned and especially those that have sat for a long time; lots of things like to creep into the area and use abandoned structures for shelters. This particular one had a bad history, an old farm house that originally was built away from the nearby city, but over time the city crept up on it as they do. The records of the original owners however ended up reports of their livestock being killed either by predators or raiders apparently. Over the years though the house had a bad habit of being the site of dissapperances, either a member of the home, or the home owner suspected of kidnapping local children, elderly, or even pets as reports were they were spotted around the property when last seen. Aside from one guy formally charged though the rest were dropped charges, in total though it amounted to ten missing person cases over the course of 80 years; the property dating back to the 1940's, so not really as old as some. We can imagine a number of unreported animal deaths as well; and local superstition as the property had sat empty for about fifteen years that it was haunted with locals claiming to occassionally see movement inside. The property was cleaned up by the bank that owned, new roof, cleaned and repainted the interior, new plumbing, to get it sold. Naturally this was brought through us because of its sordid history.

   To be fair the property its self doesn't look like much, three story (counting a full attic) white house, front door leads into a kitchen parallel a living room and a bathroom off the living room with one more room downstairs and a mudroom out the back door you could practically trip down the basement stairs. Full basemen, concrete walls, added hook ups for washer and dryer in basement, large closet down there with fold out doors. I made a note to set up cameras down there as it looked ripe for activity. The kitchen had a full kitchen, no signs of anything odd through the first floor really. I made notes of small potential crawl spaces, possible brownies or other small predatory creatures, the age of the property and what rooms corresponded to what parts under them in the basement; including the fold out ironing board in the one awkward downstairs bedroom off the living room, tucked away in a corner. That room felt suspicious with its folding doors closet and window facing the field in the back; especially with the other rooms upstairs. So yeah, positioned right above the stairs going into the basement, they had the stairs going up; the upstairs was oddly designed, just a hallway with three doors. Three large rooms one could easily assume are bedrooms, no upstairs bathroom. So this large house with a total of four potential bedrooms had one tiny bathroom downstairs. The hall also had a pull rope for a ladder going into the attic. It was a large attic, carpeted oddly enough, looked like someone could have a room up there too if they wanted. This house seemed designed to pack in alot of people, but I guess when built an out door toilet in that area was more common. I made a note to put a camera in that attic too given how big it was.

   It was when it started to get dark and I was double checking the second floor, closets, going around with the spook equipment the office gives us that I found something really unusual, there was a light coming out of the closet in one of the rooms. This closet was not even a foot deep and would have been over the stairs had it been any deeper, so I at first figured it a whole to the stairway and I was seeing the light I left on down stairs but peeking through the hole I was looking into a different room, one with large criss-crossing wooden beams over a stone wall and the light was coming from a hanging light fixture from the ceiling.

  The wall panel was wobbly and I found it easily opened up, like it was designed to open up; something there is no way whomever painted the inside of this closet could have missed. I am well aware of the mistake I made, I'd have torn into any rookie I caught making this mistake; I have no excuses. My supperiors wrote it off with no real evidence that something hypnotized me or put me in a dream like state, not unheard of, but I didn't feel it, I wasn't numb or following a specific path; I just wasn't thinking. I should have put the wall back, immediatly called in a "Code Wonderland". If we are ever sent in to explore inside these tunnels, there is always a team guarding the entrance, for the last twenty years we've sent a robot in first, with as good as those have gotten recently its a no brainer now. But no like a rookie I walked inside right away and went exploring. Inside it was like a mine shaft, except the floor was made of wooden planks, like what you find in old wild west themed places; the walls were as I said rough stone with big wooden planks over them. The cieling was like the floor only made of longer and thicker pieces of wood with shaded lamps hanging down from chains. Going in directly ahead of the door was nothing but the wall and my left was a dead end. It continued on as just a long tunnel to the right.

   I followed this straight away tunnel, occassionally I'd see some insect or spider, but not any I recognized, not monstrous, but different. These doors I should mention are never found on a second floor. I'd have been in mid-air at this point. I know, they never line up geographically with the area, they're pocket dimensions. But its usually a small door in the basement, crawl space that continues on under the house, an odd turn in a tunnel, or a hole under the stairs that might have been a hole under a tree before the house was built. Occassionally we'd find an object that was a portal and those could be in the house or attic like a mirror, painting, or something weirder like a doorframe or fairy door you could put up against any surface to open a portal. This was a large, just opening, in the back of a shallow closet on the second floor. When I reported it in the experts guessed it might be a remnant from a fairy archway from when the forest was there; those portals formed under arching branches you could walk through and not realize it...like part of the house got made from part of those trees or something. But still...I walked out onto a floor in what felt like it was underground from a door in a second floor bedroom closet. But whatever, back on topic. Aside from the bugs and decor I would occassionally come across a wooden box, usually open, but a few sealed shut, like the crates you'd expect to see in a video game, way too uniform in apperance.

   It wasn't till I came to some door like frames where I was hearing voices that it started to dawn on me that I had fucked up. I could hear what sounded like a woman talking and a tv in the background coming from one of the door frames, I peeked through a crack in the really old looking key hole and I was looking into someone's living room. I could see a couch in front of me and to my left several people around a dining room table, alot of the view was blocked though. It took me a moment to realized I was looking through an entertainment center, just above their VCR or DVD player maybe, something black, wide, and smooth, and above the wood board. I was looking into someone's house, watching them, hearing them, through a keyhole in an extra dimensional tunnel, and they had no idea I was there. I have no idea what was on their side of this. But yeah I suddenly realized I had walked into something's world, that had portals to our world, alone, with no one watching my back or the exit, and I knew there were bugs and other things down here. I made a quick but silent as possible retreat and put the wood panel back up.

   I called in the "Code Wonderland" immediatly and they made the excuse for me over the phone. Given I had "cleared my head suddenly" in the tunnel and retreated. They told me to put something heavy in front of the doorway, set a camera on it, I only had five cameras, but while I intended to put them in the basement and attic, the obvious portal to wherever was required. I was to stick around and observe the place over night. Due to the nature of this kind of operation and the location, being we were scoping the place out secretly, we didn't really want people in that neighborhood to get suspicious or police show up because someone is squatting in the empty house. To avoid such risks they couldn't send out reinforcements. Although a "Code Wonderland" is rarely a risk to a grown man, generally the sorts of predatory creatures that reside in those lure children in acting like an imaginary friend and taking them to a land of make believe before they snare the trap. Although there are rare cases of whatever is there going after pets and adults as well. In any case, blocked the entrance, put an alarm infrared beam across door frame, camera on it, and cameras in the other rooms. I made a quick inspection of the grounds again, the large tool shed, under the tool shed, barn.

   I am no fool and was not about to actually sleep in the house, having pulled the surveillance van around the back of the house out of sight of the street or the nearest neighboring house a good two hundred feet past some trees. I had monitors set up in the van for the cameras inside the house and to alert if the alarm was tripped, just something trying to push the old tire I found in the barn out of the way would trup that infra red alarm. I also placed a decoy dummy, just some pillows in a human shape in a mat in the bedroom on the bottom floor with the last camera trained on it. Camera in basement, camera in attic, camera watching that closet, camera in room, and last camera outside watching the van from high point. I didn't see anything and come sunerise at about 5:30am I decided to get some sleep. When I got up at 1:30pm I found a very alarming sight, all the cameras were down, I found them piled up on the front porch of the house, along with the dummy.  I checked the cameras of course, something managed to move around completly unseen in broad daylight knocking each and every camera out, twice though getting something on camera. The bedroom with the dummy saw a tiny bit of shadow poking out near the doorway, and the outside camera got a shadow of what looked to be a person crouching on the awning over the porch above the camera against the dirt with the sun to their back. Going by the shadow, looked to be thin, but not as thin as we'd expect from these sorts of things, and possibly with long hair, a very feminine shadow if I do say so myself. I called it all in right away, the higher ups stated they believe whatever is there has become territorial thanks to the house sitting too long and would likely lash out at anyone who moved in.

   I went home as a specialist team was to be called in about the doorway. However I did get a secure call when I got home seven hours later thanks to the long drive that the portal pulled an accordian on the men checking it out and looks to be all closed up now. They put brick up with a sealing sigil as they said on the side of the brick. They told me before that happened they did check out the same keyhole I found and determined thanks to a snake camera peeking out and spotting a window across the room that it wasn't the same neighborhood. However at that time the whole space started to fold up and push them out; I can't say what that would be like, but "Code Wonderland" cases are always weird and dangerous. Here is where my official report to my supperiors ended. I went home, waiting for the next assignment. Thing is most of us arn't soldiers, we arn't demon hunters, or explorers of other dimensions, mages, or whatever else. Most people on the payroll hold down normal jobs, but keep an eye out for certain things, report them, and then might be sent to investigate. Alot of us are just truck drivers who occassionally haul special packages to containment facilities, or act as a sort of ringer in high risk areas like national parks, tourist spots like amusement parks, or any number of jobs that we are set into. Me, my so called normal job was just retail, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious coming through or going out. Be surprised what signs you can pick up on, especially from people trying to handle something supernatural on their own who found a shopping list online or the same but trying to summon something. So my real job was more data mining using key combinations of items purchased by customers. However I end up from time to time on field assignments because of my tech skills and generally staying in good shape incase something goes down.

   But again, to stop procrastinating, the reality is, whatever was at that house, had clearly gotten out of its pocket dimension without setting off the alarm, I reckon it got out while I was in there or had already been out when I arrived, hence the portal still open, and why the painters had missed it before; because it wasn't opened before and only opened when it was coming and going. I say this not only because of what happened there, but because it followed me home. It likely hitched a ride on my van; to think it was somehow in or on the van somewhere the whole seven hour drive home is staggering to think about.

    I knew whatever it was had followed me home, that very first night I heard noises in my house, something moving around. I knew what signs to look for, my security nest cameras picked up a blur outside, my doorbell camera too picked up movement sticking close to the ground or the edges of the wall. I was going to call it in, report the creature had followed me home, but then, I saw it. She looked like anime character, pale, large head big eyes, small nose and lips, shoulder length white hair, and wearing this frilly white and grey gown. Her eyes were silver, as were her lips. To be honest she looked like a robot or doll, not human at all. She did that head tilt and smile, and indicated my kitchen, there was food there I didn't own. This time I did feel like I was in a trance, or more accuratly like in a dream. I followed her to the kitchen and sat with her at the dining table, she watched as I ate and asked me questions. I...I acted like a guy just talking to his wide about his day at work; but I told her about my real job all the above stuff I mentioned, all of it. She only giggled and smiled, and said she's not a monster, declaring herself a maid who had been waiting for or trying to find someone else to serve. Her attire was not maid attire. But after eating I went to work, the retail job, and when I came home the house had no dust to be seen, the walls and carpte cleaner than I'd ever seen them. Dishes clean, clothes clean, it was insane. She asked about my day and I told her it wasn't over yet, I still had to run the surveillance data through my computer for the store; which to be honest I never found anything and the slight blips I ever got were just internet luck spells potentially, spring always screwed this up with all the garden plants being bought potentially adding up to some recipe without homeowner knowing it. But anywho, I lived with this...ghostly entity. Yes, she wasn't solid. She'd vanish from sight, just appear in rooms. I never saw her actually clean anything, things were just clean; she refused to clean though while I was in the room; I suspect she did it using her real form whatever that is.

    I know what I could see wasn't real, her eyes, they were they eyes of a doll, painted on eyes. They looked liquidity but like oil suspended in that shape, seated in what looked like a doll's mask that some partially flexible. Her face never wrinkled, just changed shape, the smile, her little red lips moving, were like frames of animation. Watching her too closely, for too long as I ate at the dinner table night after night. Or she sat beside me on the couch watching a movie. heh, she liked to snuggle up next to me after a week of this. But if this had been some random encounter, or if I had been some unlucky fool she was hunting from behind walls and mirrors or whatever, her illusion wouldn't have been as startling, just a human sized doll, or cartoon character. But up close so often, the lines of that illusion blurred and broke. I could see she wasn't really, that her arms didn't bend like she had bones, they didn't even always bend in the same spots, when she was next to me on the couch I could feel there was only softness inside her, no ribs, no elbow, not even knucles as she wrapped her arm around mine gripped my wrist while watching a scary movie. Like a pillow holding its shape, like some fancy foam material. Her hair had a strong flowery smell, but looked like a halloween wig. Even how she moved gave away she was something only in human shape, her foot falls barely echoed, and her legs didn't seem to bend under her dress, just change position, more like a walk cycle, it was if gravity was only being humored.