"Incident Interview"

"Alright, we would like to get through this as quickly as possible. Why don't you tell us what happened that night?"

"We all sat shivering in the room. I don't know how we even made it inside alive. The monstrosity outside attacked the door with a ferocity that I haven’t seen in all my years of life. I glanced to my left, and saw Joseph clutching his arm, ripped nearly to shreds. His tears blending with the blood oozing from the wounds, pooling around his knees. He wanted to think that we were all crazy. He wanted to live in his naïve, peaceful world, ignorant of the monster that was going to break through the door any second now.

"I wondered at how he ended up being the one hurt the worst. The cynic, the one who refused to believe us. It was almost like the thing focused on him, forcing him to accept that such monsters do exist. And when he hesitated to run, struck dumb in horror, it struck with more rage than it ever showed against Will or me. I pitied him for an instant, wondering that he should have to go through so much pain before his death.

"I remember the words it spoke now, so long ago. The promises of a sweet, painless death. I remember ignoring it. I remember turning the offer down. I remember pretending to sleep as he stood there whispering.

"The hinges began to creak against the onslaught. The slips of paper on the door glowed faintly, but were slowly waning. I remember Will claiming that this matrix of spells would keep any evil entity out. I knew I shouldn’t have bought in to his Occultic crap.

"I looked over again, past Joseph kneeling in despair over his ruined arm, at Will. He was beyond mere shivering, he was shaking like a leaf in a gale. I saw him clutching at a scratch of paper, and I saw his mouth moving slightly.

"I stood up shakily and asked him what he was doing.

"He looked at me, but didn’t stop chanting. I couldn't hear the words, but I could feel the pressure in the small room changing. He choked, and a few audible words slipped through. 'With order without chaos...' He swallowed, but the words continued on without him, as if the walls themselves were speaking. He looked at me solemnly, tears welling up in his eyes. And he spoke for the last time that night.

"'I'm so sorry, there is no other way.'

"He blinked, and his eyes were no longer there. They weren’t empty sockets, they were filled with nothingness. The exact same nothingness that filled the eyes of the monster struggling to get into the room. A hinge cracked, as a tar-like substance began pouring out of Will's mouth. I backed up away from him...from it. Joseph looked up from his arm just long enough to get a glimpse of what Will had become before it attacked.

"Joseph.... He didn't stand a chance. It... it took him. It seeped into his arm wound, and moments later, he was just like Will. Same black, empty eyes, same ghastly expression.

"The monster broke the door then.... I don't really remember exactly what happened next. There was running. The walls were turning black and the ceiling was dripping the black gunk. I don't even remember how I got here..."

"How you got here isn't important. What happened after you left the room?"

"I... I don't remember. Running, more running, and then...nothing.”

"Alright. I'm going to leave now. Some words are going to appear on the screen there, and we want you simply to repeat the words. This should let us know if there's a disconnect in your short term memory somewhere."



"What do you think"

"Red elephant."

"I don't know. The kid seems pretty shook up."

"You think it's just trauma?"

"Grand Canyon."

"Man, trauma can do some weird shit."

"Yeah, yeah. And I’m smelling something fishy."

"She is holding the ball."

"Think something’s really wrong with the kid?"

"H̵̛E̸͟ ̷҉͝C̸͝O̴͘͠M̴EŞ͘͠!̸͢͝"

"Mm-hm.... I want him euthanized by sundown."

"...Yes, sir."