The Imagination of a Child – Season 4 Episode 15

A child sits on a bed, facing away. A dark fog appears on the right. A VHS-like distortion is impacting the picture. The title is displayed: The Imagination of a Child.

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The Storage Papers is a fiction horror podcast.

Discretion is advised.

See Content Warnings
References to death, profanity, discussion of a tumor
Need to skip this episode? Click here to see the plot.
Jeremy reviews documents from Doctor Patel about Malcolm Foye’s childhood inside Project Hydra, after his sister disappeared. He finds information on a deity Malcolm was obsessed with that could allegedly bring people back from the dead. Jeremy discovers that the entity known as the Grinner was brought to life by Malcolm – as opposed to the actual entity he was trying to summon – but nonetheless it grew so powerful that it was no longer under his control. The actual entity may still be out there somewhere.
Jeremy learns his health is worsening, but isn’t concerned about it, because he is confident from his vision at the Pyramidion that’s not how he’ll die.

Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

Despite witnessing someone entering Joseph Foye’s hotel room moments after Brianne left, I still felt a sense of trust in his motives, and it didn’t even concern me enough to mention it.  I considered it intuition, though I also admitted to myself that my contact with the Pyramidion may have helped me with a sense of discernment about these kinds of things.  

For example, I couldn’t necessarily read her mind, but I just know that Brianne has pure intentions in her efforts to help me with the papers.  Although, I suppose she never gave me a reason not to trust her.  I was sure about it.  This is just one of the many things I have been getting used to ever since then.  I have to wonder if these effects are going to be permanent, or if they’ll dissipate over time.  But then again, time seemed irrelevant while I was touching it.  I’m leaning towards thinking it’s not going to be a factor.  

My entire outlook on the papers has changed now.  Ever since the Pyramidion, I’ve felt a reluctance to dive back into the papers.  There’s danger there, yet they beckon me.  It’s like I already know that continuing to pursue the podcast, looking into Hydra, all the families and lives they’ve managed to damage… It’s a more polarized direction for my life than where I’d like it to go. So while I’m sharing my own story as it happens now on the regular podcast episodes, I’m keeping the one-off stories about reports of local paranormal events to Patreon as kind of a side project.

My wife has been talking about having more children, which I’m not opposed to, and this whole experience has made me appreciate the family I have, even if I never find out what happened to my parents.  At the same time though, I feel pulled toward the papers, unable to simply walk away and let Hydra continue to do… whatever it is they’re doing that once involved me.  I need to make sure they can’t do anything to my family.

I heeded Joseph’s advice about looking into Dr. Patel’s case logs for Malcolm.  There were actually several documents included, most of them containing the label of the pentagram. What’s interesting is most of the other Maker and Shepherd files aren’t nearly as thick as Malcolm’s.  This leads me to believe that he was either extremely gifted or somewhat of a troublemaker… or perhaps both.  Thankfully, she filed these in what seems to be chronological order, though there are no dates on these documents and they don’t specify his age at the time.  

Dr. Patel had some notes scattered throughout these documents, with an incredibly long note on the very top.  She expressed in this note that she only had access to a portion of Malcolm’s medical and psychological information.  The rest was above her clearance level.  She references conversations between Malcolm and one of the Hydra psychologists at the time.

He had a fascination with the occult in early childhood.  They went so far as to provide him literature to read.  Books about witchcraft, spells, and demonology.  They even gave him a King James version of the Bible.  Patel expressed frustration in her notes at the lack of diligence in their methods, that they never sought the source of his fascination with the supernatural.  She maintained a theory that it all led back to his sister, Tabitha.  Her own interactions with Malcolm concluded that until the accident with his dog around the same time he made Tabitha go away, he had actually been a very normal child.  Of course, normal in the psychological sense, not taking into account his abilities as a Maker. 

His behaviors changed dramatically after those events, and if the Hydra doctors gave two shits, they would have noticed and documented a change in his demeanor whenever Tabitha’s name had been mentioned.  And they did mention it several times.  Only they seemed to document Malcolm’s increasing abilities at the time, only having an interest in that, instead of how Malcolm was actually handling the situation.  In some ways, her notes made her sound appalled at Malcolm’s treatment, like she had a heart that wasn’t made of cast iron.

Patel’s notes also indicated Malcolm produced a name during those early sessions.  Malcolm had begun asking questions about a deity figure that he read about in some of his books named (BLEEP).  I’m editing the name out in case it happens to be similar to demonic entities, and going on the theory that stating its name may give it power.  Call me superstitious, I suppose.  

Malcolm’s journaling took a turn after he began speaking of this being.  According to him, it began appearing to him in the night while he was alone, or at least he thought so initially as he couldn’t be certain if he had been fully awake or if he’d been dreaming.  The way he described it was very similar to the way I had begun experiencing shadow figures in my home, peering at me around my bedroom door all that time ago when the Grinner stepped into my life.

I paused my research of Patel’s notes for a moment and took some time to look up this thing’s name online.  A lot of similarities existed between this so-called god that Malcolm refers to in his journals and in Patel’s documents, but there’s also some distinguishable differences.  

I recall previously reading about this being commanding 30 legions of demons in hell and being considered a higher-ranking priest among those given authority to roam the earth.  But as I looked further into it this time, I was focusing on differences between its description and what I personally knew of the Grinner.  This thing is said to have certain powers or abilities that aren’t traditional in demonic lore.  For instance, there are historical references to various cultures worshiping it.  There have been statues found across the world in Greece, South America, and Asia that bear its resemblance.  There are even hieroglyphs in Egypt that are similar.  Most show the appearance of a bipedal, extremely tall humanoid shape but with the head of a bird.  Some depictions have feathers all over and there are some differences between human hands and talon-like claws.  

I still haven’t run across anything saying this thing has anything resembling a large grin, but almost everything I could find about it on the internet says it’s rumored to have the ability to bring people back from the dead.  To anyone who claims to have witnessed it in person, it could be summoned in the hopes that good fortune and protection would be offered, but it also only seems to appear to people who have experienced extreme loss or trauma.  Some of the writings claim it has brought the dead back to life.  Is this what Malcolm was trying to accomplish?  Is he still trying to find a way to get Tabitha back?   

I looked through more of the documents that Dr. Patel had sent me, and I was able to find quite a bit more related to this deity.  One of the documents explained that Malcolm had fallen asleep while reading about this being when video footage captured it on the CCTV monitor after hours.  There was a disk included in the file that I imagined might have some evidence.  Unfortunately, when I tried to insert it into my DVD player, I wasn’t able to view it, so I ordered an external USB DVD player before I could get into the files to check it out.

It was exactly as I imagined at the beginning.  It was old footage, and Malcolm looked to be about 13 or 14 years old.  The quality was poor, and it was quite blurry, but I suppose they didn’t have high-resolution security cameras back then.  

The camera looked like it was fixed to a corner in the room and you could see Malcolm sitting up reading.  A few minutes go by and you can see his head start nodding before he eventually gives up and lies down, the book still open.  A couple of minutes later, you could see Malcolm’s mouth moving.  I don’t know what he’s saying because there’s no audio, but it appears to be repetitive.  And then he stops, and appears to be in a pretty deep sleep.  

A couple more minutes go by and you start to see what looks like smoke forming underneath the space under his doorway.  Then the door opens.  It’s moving slowly, but there’s nobody on the other side of the door pushing it.  It’s moving on its own.  The smoke begins to form a pillar just inside the doorway, stretching from floor to ceiling in a dark, thick cloud you can’t see through while Malcolm continues to sleep.  

You can see the lights in the hallway outside the door begin to flicker as tentacles of smoke stretch out from the main column. One goes toward Malcolm’s desk on the opposite side of the room as his bed.  Another goes toward a chest at the foot of his bed.  Yet another goes toward the book lying next to Malcolm, and several more begin to sprout and examine the things in the room.  Then they all rotate to the side of the smoke column nearest Malcolm and merge to form one large tentacle that makes its way toward him.  

The end of it reaches Malcolm’s face and spreads out, covering it entirely from the view of the camera.  And just as smoothly as it’s been moving the entire time, Malcolm’s head becomes elevated off his pillow, followed by his shoulders, and then his back.  This smoke column is somehow lifting Malcolm up into the air while he’s sleeping.

He’s like this for a really long time.  If I wasn’t so astounded at what I was watching, I would have thought to myself sooner, ‘If this is all on video surveillance, was anyone even watching?  And why hasn’t anyone gone in there to help him?

After what seemed like 5 whole minutes of watching this, the smoke column disappears and Malcolm falls back on his bed, but doesn’t wake up.  It’s the weirdest looking thing I’ve seen in a while… including that video of the Grinner from the hotel parking lot footage.  I decided to slow the video down and look frame by frame.  The smoke disappears first, and then Malcolm falls.  But even more importantly, it only took three frames for it to entirely disappear, and it didn’t just dissipate either. 

The first frame shows it moving away from the floor and ceiling just a bit, shrinking in height.  You can also see more of Malcolm’s face in this frame, but it’s partially obscured by some of the smoke.  Advancing to the second frame shows the smoke column reduced to an odd-shaped mass about the size of a basketball, but not symmetrical.  The single tentacle leading from it to Malcolm’s face is split into two tapered down smaller ones going into Malcolm’s nostrils while he’s still suspended in the air.  By the third frame, the mass is gone and just a billow of black smoke is seen, rather blurry, still going into his nose.  The next frame shows Malcolm’s body starting to drop down toward his bed.

This thing went inside Malcolm.  I don’t know if what I just witnessed is this supposed deity, the demon we’ve come to know as the Grinner, or something else entirely.  That was the first of over 40 video clips contained on that CD!  And yes, I took the time to meticulously watch them all.  After I did, I continued to read through a lot of Patel’s additional documentation from over the following couple of years.

All of the Hydra names are redacted from this paperwork, but it seems like they actually made efforts to learn more about this entity, which continued to manifest itself in Malcolm’s room at night.  Efforts were made to apprehend this being, or to at least get eyes on it in the first-person by some of the Hydra Occult Studies team.  Of course, the figure was not able to be apprehended, but the longer this surveillance went on, the more it started showing itself, and the more it began to take on different appearances.

After going through years of documentation included in that box, and after a several year gap in documentation, only a few were included of Malcolm’s from his mid-twenties.  Those few had Dr. Patel’s name on them, and I suspect they’re from her early interactions with him.  They recalled Malcolm’s continued interaction with the being, which Malcolm hadn’t initially been sure he had successfully summoned versus something he manifested entirely on his own.  Patel suspected the latter since there was no specific proof, at least of a scientific basis or even historical resemblance of the deity Malcolm had been reading about in his childhood and had attempted to bring forth.  Patel ultimately concluded that this being was a result of Malcolm’s Maker abilities, completely brought into existence by Malcolm’s imagination.

Over the years, Malcolm had developed a kind of relationship with it.  He taught it things, had an inner-dialogue with it, and nurtured it, until it began thinking its own thoughts and making its own decisions.  Malcolm had been somewhat of an authority figure over it for years until finally, one day, it decided it didn’t want to do what Malcolm wanted it to do.  It was a powerful being, and one that had superhuman abilities itself. It could read minds to an extent, it knew things that most people didn’t, and it wasn’t a demon or a deity of any kind.  It was the product of Malcolm’s imagination that had developed its own motives and intentions.  

It soon flourished outside Malcolm’s authority and began venturing further into the world, using Malcolm for its own purposes, influencing his thoughts and actions to further influence other people like the Order of the Divine Acolytes.  A cult. It told Malcolm what to do, almost like a possession, and its influence was strong.

Patel theorized it would leave Malcolm entirely to cause chaos, and she had been developing a plan with Hydra to contain it.  She included a report in her documents from the Department of Occult Studies within Hydra.  She read it, but wasn’t sure whether its conclusions were correct.  And then right around the time she began seeing evidence that it was growing more and more powerful… that its physical independence from Malcolm was likely going to happen soon, she received a phone call from Malcolm saying it had already occurred, and that he needed help.  

According to Patel’s notes, she met him in a park in the middle of the night, and found him lying down on a park bench, barely able to move, and bleeding from the chest.  He told her about this group of people who had lured him into a church to confront him.  Malcolm claimed to have blacked out shortly after arriving, and awoke when a man named Jeremy had been using an ornate dagger to carve the Star of Cepheus into his chest.

He reported to Patel that this being, who we’d referred to as The Grinner, was no longer with him.  Patel noted this event as further proof of her theory that Malcolm had brought The Grinner into existence with his Maker abilities, which meant he had initially failed in summoning the being he thought would be the answer to his problems.  

There was one last page in the folder containing Malcolm’s documents, and it just had a few scribbles on it.  It was hardly legible, but it had my name on it.  Below my name, it had the word, “Podcast,” and then next to that, it had in capital letters and underlined, “THE STORAGE PAPERS.”

The very last marking on that page was a gigantic question mark.  I had a feeling that Dr. Patel may have had the same question that’s been shuffling inside my mind this whole time reading this.  The question that had me wondering for so long: If the Grinner we met in that church was something that Malcolm just brought into existence based off of what he read about the real entity and a lot of his own imagination, then the real one is still out there, and Malcolm is likely still trying to summon it.  He’s still trying to find Tabitha, and the only way he knows how is to pin his hopes to this deity.  

I wonder if that’s why he’s kidnapping Makers and Shepherds.  Either way, I know Patel was likely in on something with Malcolm, and I only wish she would have left me some kind of clue as to what was going on in her notes.  I still have more of them to sift through, but at a glance, these are the main documents containing Malcolm’s name.  

(pause and music)

Before I end this episode, I need to follow through on a promise I made you all.  I told you that I’d be following up with you regarding my neurology consultation, and after receiving the results of my MRI.  It’s kind of complicated, but I’ll do the best I can.

My neurologist basically said I have a tumor that’s growing rapidly inside my brain.  The MRI confirmed there’s vasculature within the tumor, meaning it’s growing with its own blood supply, which makes it very risky, if not impossible to remove.  Basically, if they go in to surgically remove it, there could be an unrecoverable brain bleed.  But there’s the irregular shape of it as well, which makes it seem like it has fingers extending into other regions of the brain.

Right now, there’s no reason to believe it has metastasized to other areas of my body, however, that risk is also high since it can easily travel via the bloodstream.  I’m supposed to have a repeat brain scan in about a month or so. 

I don’t know exactly why I’m sharing all of this on the podcast except that I started this season with the intention of being more transparent with you all about some personal things.  But I also don’t feel too worried about this thing.  You see, I’ve seen my death.  Witnessed it first-hand.  The Pyramidion showed it to me.  And I know for a fact that I don’t die because of a brain tumor.  The only thing that really concerns me now is why Malcolm claimed to know I was going to die soon. 

Knowing – Season 4 Episode 14

An elderly man floats above a bed in near pitch darkness. The title is displayed: The Knowing.

Listen

The Storage Papers is a fiction horror podcast.

Discretion is advised.

See Content Warnings
References to death, profanity
Need to skip this episode? Click here to see the plot.
Jeremy, Brianne, and Joseph track down the next appearance of the Pyramidion. The Pyramidion appears, rendering Jeremy’s attempt at recording it useless, and finds that the roughly 10-12 hours spent with in its proximity somehow translated to nearly a week. While in its presence, Jeremy telepathically learns that the injection Doctor Patel gave her to help them stop the Dream Killer took away Brianne’s abilities…and that she wants them back. Jeremy sees two futures for himself: his own death, and growing old with his wife. On the way back, Joseph tells Jeremy and Brianne that they will begin to experience new abilities, and their growing power could make them a target for Malcolm.

Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

It took me about thirty minutes to get to the hotel.  It had been three days since I spoke with Joseph Foye, and the entire drive had me contemplating this whole thing.  The podcast, when I started it, I thought was going to be something of a “monster of the week” type of thing.  Entertainment for people who enjoy tales of the unexplained.  I never could have imagined the shift it would take.  My drive to the hotel was reflective.

Look at me now.  I’m a character in what was supposed to be a story about other people and their strange experiences.  It never occurred to me before my drive that the peoples’ stories I was sharing and the often life-changing outcomes that happened as a result; Perhaps they weren’t my stories to tell.  It’s kind of fitting that I’m in their position now in a sense.  I mean, I have a choice regarding whether or not to tell my own developing story and keep the podcast going, but at this point, I think I’d be a hypocrite to stop, right?  I guess I’m trying to find the right balance between my own privacy and following through on something I’ve started.

Part of me really thinks these stories need to be told.  You don’t hear about them on the news, but they happen.  Law enforcement, and a majority of people in general tend to ridicule these types of things, and they need to be normalized.  Perhaps I should make more effort to randomize some personal information when I share them on the podcast.  I can’t help but feel like getting this out there is still doing some good though.  

Look at me… I’m rambling into a microphone like a crazy person. At least for now, I think it’s important to continue sharing everything I’m learning, at least for the people of San Diego and the bordering Southern California regions.  This stuff is going on without most peoples’ knowledge, and there needs to be accountability.

That said, as I neared my destination, I felt uneasy.  I couldn’t explain it until I turned into the parking lot.  I stopped after my car cleared the driveway before looking for a parking space.  The lot was fuller than I’d seen it before, but from my perspective inside the car, I couldn’t help but imagine my view in the spectrum of infrared, as I had seen it so many times before.  This was the hotel where Joseph Foye’s alternate self had been decapitated by a gunshot wound. It’s where I observed the Grinner on video for the very first time, and it’s where Ron’s presence was confirmed by a version of that video given to me by Doctor Patel.   

I couldn’t help but wonder why this location was selected.  Was there something about it that remained pivotal?  I parked my car, and without hesitation, began walking toward the room that I was familiar with from the video.  There were a lot more cars in the parking lot than I expected.  I wondered how many people realized there was a grizzly crime scene here.  That thought had me contemplating how this hotel was different than any other, and how many deaths actually occur at hotels that we don’t even know about when we stay at them.  I can’t explain my morbid train of thought, but figured I’d share.

As I approached the door to the room, I pulled out my recorder and hit the record button.  As I raised up my closed fist to give a wrap on the door, it swung open before my knuckles could make contact.  Brianne stood and beckoned for me to come in.  The lights were off and the curtains were drawn. 

My eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness of the room, and before I could ask her any questions, she leaned in and whispered, “That won’t work in here”, placing her index finger on my voice recorder.

She was right.  I had left the recorder on during my entire visit to the hotel room, but static interference was all it picked up; A phenomenon that I haven’t ever observed with that digital recorder before.

She used the same index finger to raise it to her pursed lips, indicating she wanted me to be quiet.  My eyes weren’t quite adjusted just yet, but I made a shrugging motion, wondering why I needed to be quiet.

She placed both hands on my shoulders and turned me toward my right, then pointed towards one of the beds.  I couldn’t believe my eyes as the room revealed another person within the room.  Joseph Foye was above the bed, seemingly hovering in mid-air like some kind of magic levitation trick you’d expect to see at a county fair.  Only, he appeared to be asleep.  

Brianne leaned in and whispered, “He’s been like that for a couple of hours.  Apparently, he goes into some kind of trance state to locate the Pyramidion right before it’s about to appear.  Sometimes he turns in the air like a rotisserie chicken.  Fucking crazy, right?”

“Fucking crazy” was definitely accurate.  I stared for quite a while until I realized my mouth was agape.  Something about watching him hover in the air like that was mesmerizing.  I turned to look at Brianne, and was about to ask her why we had to whisper when she became startled while still looking in Joseph’s direction.

Being somewhat surprised by her expression, I turned to look at Joseph again, and I don’t know how the hell he did it, but he was standing upright about a foot away from me, fully awake, as if he’d been there with us the whole time.  I don’t know how he was able to go from hovering above the bed to handshake distance within what seemed like a nanosecond, but it made my hair stand on end.

“I’m glad you came,” he told me.  “I know where it’s going to be.”

He walked over to a little circular table in the room where he had a laptop and pulled up some information.  I couldn’t see exactly what it was, but after a couple of minutes, he picked up the hotel phone and made an outgoing call.  Brianne and I could hear through the receiver that someone picked up and said, “Hello?” before he immediately hung up the phone and told us, “We’re going to need to wait until sundown to head out.”

We all spent several hours in that hotel room.  We each let our guards down a little and got to know one another.  Joseph was… well, grandfatherly.  He had old war stories and loved a good joke.  He had a kindness and consideration for Brianne and me, and was generally pleasant to be around.  Still, there was sadness about him.  I sensed some element of regret.  He held back his emotions, even when I asked him about Malcolm, but you could tell they were lingering, hidden behind bottomless blue eyes that contrasted with his light gray hair.

Brianne, on the other hand, had seemed to relax.  She was smiling and laughing.  I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen her smile, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit of relief knowing that she was enjoying the company.  She’s a strong woman who’s been through a lot, and she’s handled herself quite well among the circumstances she’s been put in.  

We ordered pizza from this mom and pop place nearby and had it delivered.  It was probably the best pizza I’d had in California, and that’s saying something considering how long I’ve lived here.  I never knew this pizza place existed, and when I practically cried after taking my first bite, Joseph gave me one of those winks that grandfathers do and said, “Good, isn’t it?”

Once our bellies were full and the conversation began to die down, we all began checking the clock on the nightstand.  Sundown was around 6:00 p.m. that night, and we all got into Brianne’s car as soon as the light left the sky.  Joseph directed her to drive to Coronado Island.

After crossing the bridge, Joseph directed Brianne to a residential street uncomfortably close to the Naval Air Base on the island.  She stopped, turned off the engine, and asked Joseph, “Okay, what’s next?”

Joseph said, “Wait here for a minute,” and exited the vehicle.  We watched him walk across the road, past the house on the corner, and perhaps one or two houses down the street beyond that before stopping and pulling out a cell phone.  Brianne and I glanced at each other wondering what he was doing.  

He paced back and forth for a couple of minutes while he was on the phone, looking at a couple of the houses as if reporting information about them, and eventually hung up and started walking back to the car.  Once back, he said, “Now we just need to wait a few minutes.”  

Less than five minutes later, a fire truck came around the corner with sirens blaring.  Six firemen exited the truck and began to go door to door knocking and evacuating people from their homes.  While people gathered in confusion across the street from the fire truck, where the firemen were now inspecting the gas main, Joseph had a mischievous smirk on his face.

He said, “Gas leaks can take a little while to find.  Are you two ready?”  

Brianne and I both chuckled and nodded, then Joseph led us toward the corner house, on the adjacent side where the fire truck and all of the home occupants couldn’t see us.  I watched him scale a shoulder-high brick wall like I probably could have 15 or 20 years ago myself, amazed at his physical abilities.  The man just kept surprising me.  Brianne followed, and then I did, admittedly a bit more awkwardly.  

The backyard was mostly level, but toward the adjacent wall, there was a steep downhill portion that Joseph motioned to.  We were able to see one of the firemen in the window of the home, likely the kitchen, and remained out of sight until we saw him exit that room. Once it was clear, Joseph led the way and stopped in front of a large open wastewater drain pipe big enough to walk in hunched over.  Once inside, he pulled out a flashlight.  The smell was pretty bad, but thank goodness there was only an inch or so of water in the bottom of it.  I’m not sure I’d be able to handle it at a waist-deep level.

He led the way straight back for a while, and then made a right turn.  After 10 feet or so, the tunnel opened up to a larger room where several other drainways entered.  Joseph turned around and assisted us out of the pipe to the level ground within the room.  Then he picked up a piece of rebar he found on the floor of the chamber and drew a big “X” next to the tunnel we just came out of saying, “In case we get turned around in here.”  

I looked around the room and asked, “Where to next?”

Joseph said, “It will be here shortly.  Not sure if you’ll be able to get much use out of your recorder, but you might as well turn it on and try.”

And try, I did.  I pulled out my field recorder, turned it on and pressed “record.”  We stood there and waited for about 20 minutes, but then… I can’t even begin to explain what happened using words.  I want to play back what the audio recorder picked up at first before I give you some additional information.


SOUND: Distorted, unintelligible talking is heard, then it distorts completely to a warbled, almost science fiction-like noise.


In case you couldn’t understand that, I asked if it was possible that he might be misinformed about the location this thing is going to show up at.

It was dark and I couldn’t see him, but I could feel him glaring at me as if I asked a stupid question. He told me I was very perceptive.

We felt a great rumbling, like an earthquake. That’s when Joseph said, “No, it’s coming.”

I was concerned about our safety. Then my head began to hurt. Brianne was asking if I was okay and the audio just kind of warbled out until it was no longer recognizable. That sound proceeded to last approximately twenty seconds on my recorder, but there’s a couple of things I am struggling to explain about it.  

First off, I have a 32 GB micro SD card in that recorder that was formatted prior to pushing the record button.  It should be good for at least 12 hours at my current settings.  Including the 20 minutes of standing around prior to hearing those strange noises, there’s just a little over 22 minutes of audio recorded on my SD card… yet the SD card’s memory is completely full.  What I just played for you took up a majority of the memory storage, which seems impossible to me.

The other thing that’s troubling is what actually happened after my head started hurting.  We were 5 feet or less from the Pyramidion for what seemed to be at least 10-12 hours.  So not only was the digital recorder memory maxed out after 22 minutes, but after we left, and once I got home, I was greeted by my wife who was not happy with me.  According to her, I had been missing for nearly a week.  She had even called Detective Anderson, who knew what we were headed out to do, and he was able to reassure her a bit, but he wasn’t able to estimate how long I would be gone.  I’ve gotta say, my employer wasn’t happy with me at all either.  

I’m happy to describe what happened during my perceived 10-12 hours near the Pyramidion, but like these details I’ve just shared with you, I can’t say I understand it completely, or even try to explain it, so I’ll just summarize it from my own experience.

It all started with the rumbling sound that was similar to an earthquake, and then we heard this kind of pulsating, almost mechanical sound as the Pyramidion phased into the room.  It was like it wasn’t there, and then all of a sudden, it was.

Brianne didn’t hesitate at all.  She walked right up to it and placed her hand on it.  She seemed to be reacting with it, almost like she was having a conversation, but not using words.  She would nod her head, well up with tears, and make hand gestures.  After a few moments passed, I could hear – not with my ears, but internally within my head – her conversation with her brother, Ben.  It was like a doorway to the dead, but that’s not all that resided within it.

Joseph motioned for me to get closer to it.  I was hesitant at first, but after taking some slow steps toward it, my emotions became uncontrollable.  Tears flowed down my cheeks as I felt an overwhelming sense of joy.  I’d never felt this happy before, and I could hear Brianne, Ben, and Joseph’s voices inside my head in unison say, “It’s beautiful, isn’t it Jeremy?”

At that point, I closed my eyes.  I instantly saw into my past.  It was like my brain was reduced to downloaded information that I had long forgotten, and I just received some kind of upgrade that allowed me to instantaneously remember a lot of my memories.  I remembered my children being born, my wedding day, and things I was doing with my life before my wedding.  I remember bits and pieces of the Hydra experiments.  I remembered for the first time the process I had undergone to previously erase my memories.  The process that has been disguised as my accident.  I didn’t recognize the people strapping me into that chair just before losing consciousness, but I knew they were Hydra.  Deep down, I had hoped I could remember my parents, but that didn’t happen that night.

It’s a dangerous thing, mettling with ideas you’ve cut yourself off from for so long.  I had made peace with the fact that I might never remember my parents, but I guess some part of me still had hope – at least after Joseph suggested there was the possibility that my brain might be healed here.

The entire time all this was occurring, I could see different things.  They weren’t complete, but I could see some of Brianne’s memories.  She hadn’t said anything to me, but the injection that Dr. Patel had caused her harm in some way.  I concentrated to see if I could learn more.  It was removing her abilities over time.  Brianne was with us in hopes to gain them back, and to potentially even grow her abilities beyond what she previously had.  She had been keeping a majority of them secret from me.     

The Brianne who’s head I got into at the Pyramidion was not the Brianne I had come to know.  It’s hard to explain.  She had an insane amount of initiative and was out for purpose.  I think I’ve spent so much time observing her grieve, it was unexpected.  She was ready to take on challenges, to fight the uphill battle, to destroy Hydra. It’s hard to explain this shift in perception, but let’s just say I’m glad we’re on the same team.

I was also able to see some of Joseph’s memories.  He had regrets, mainly over Malcolm.  He hadn’t lost hope for him, but he was damn close.  At one point, I got the sensation that Joseph was aware that I was voyuerizing his memories.  For a brief moment, it almost felt as if Malcolm was there with us.  I could sense his presence, but at the same time, I figured it was likely just a memory or sensation of Joseph’s that I was tapping into.  Still, I easily recognized it after being near him a couple times now, and it reminded me of our conversation in the prison.

It’s hard to describe in its entirety what I was feeling at that moment, but I knew three things: One – that I felt a bit ashamed, like I had been witnessing something unintended, yet I continued to watch.  Two – Joseph became immediately aware of it and had the ability to shut it down, though he didn’t seem upset.  It was like the acceptance a parent experiences when they catch their child telling their first lie – it’s just a part of being a child.  And three – If he hadn’t done that, I would have seen more.  I don’t know how I knew it, but he had a lot of answers that I was seeking, but I just couldn’t tap into them.  I only knew it was there once it was gone… a void space, like a tooth that had been pulled that your tongue can’t help probing.  I also got the faintest notion of something else though.  It was almost as if Joseph had some kind of hidden motive for bringing me here, but that moment was fleeting.

At one point, it was almost as if he suggested I not focus on the petty information of the past, and guided me toward greater possibilities, focusing forward.  He seemed to already be aware of some events that he wanted me to see, and telepathically encouraged me to focus, so I did.  Once I knew how to look there, I knew what was going to happen in the coming weeks, and when I leaned toward the Pyramidion and concentrated, I could see further into the future.  I stepped closer to the Pyramidion and my ability to see these things exponentially increased. I can’t and won’t tell you about some of the things I witnessed in the pristine reflection, in and around me, for fear of those things coming to fruition.  But I will share one of those things I was initially afraid of.  I saw my own death.

I can only share this with you because I could feel my emotions at the moment of my death.  It wasn’t necessarily sad.  I am comforted.  I have closure.  I was also able to see beyond my death, but it was confusing.  I could see myself growing old with my wife, living by a lake in a log cabin, enjoying a quiet life with nature and stargazing next to a fire at night.  But it’s all happening after I die.  I’m so confused. I’m not sure which version is real.

I turn to look at Joseph, who has his eyes closed and his right hand is outstretched toward me.  What’s he doing?  I try to perceive his thoughts but can’t any longer, but I still feel somehow reassured that I can trust him.

When I touched the Pyramidion, my inner self awakened, and I could see into the abyss.  I now have knowledge of things that are there, of the beginning and of the end.  Alpha and Omega exist outside of our perception of time.  They just are.

The feeling of elation was basked in for hours after I made contact with it.  There was no fear, no stress, no being worried about anyone or anything.  In that time, we just were… and it felt amazing.

And then all of a sudden, the feelings subsided and silence befell us.  I opened my eyes to darkness, knowing I had permanently changed.  My body ached and I was exhausted. And eventually Joseph said we needed to return to the hotel.

The car ride back to the hotel was silent.  It was like we already knew what we’d say to one another, and speaking in that moment would just ruin it.  We savored it while it lasted.  I do recall that feeling subsiding as we re-entered the hotel room.  It was almost disappointing being away from the Pyramidion, like returning home after a long, relaxing vacation, with the knowledge that you inevitably need to return to the mundane routine on Monday morning.  Brianne and I were a bit disoriented when Joseph started speaking again.  

He told us that we’d each experience new abilities over the coming weeks, and that came with a few warnings.  He said that would attract the attention of entities that hadn’t known us yet, and that using those abilities was like turning on a lighthouse in the dark.  It would draw them near us as we grew brighter.  He encouraged us to use those abilities sparingly.  He said there were things that would flourish in our light, and there were also things that would seek to destroy it once they were aware of its presence.

He also warned us about Malcolm.  He said he may be able to somehow sense us now, or perhaps inherently know that our abilities are growing without having been with us.  He told us Malcolm had been exposed to the Pyramidion as well long ago, and that he desired to be near it again, and we should not underestimate the lengths he might go to in order to make that happen.

One final thing he suggested was to more thoroughly review the documents that Dr. Patel had sent me before her untimely death.  He believed I could gain more insight into Malcolm’s current motives by reviewing any information contained within those files.  He seemed sad again at this suggestion, and if I hadn’t perceived it previously, it would be apparent that he held some level of regret whenever he brought up his grandson.

As we began to leave the room, I felt exhausted and somewhat sore.  My legs were tired, which made me think of my physical condition as reported to me by my physicians.  As far as the “healing powers of the Pyramidion,” I can’t be sure.  I certainly don’t feel any different right now.  The headache I had when it first arrived went away as soon as I had touched it.  But I suppose I’ll need to wait until my next doctor’s appointment or brain MRI before I’ll know if any physical benefits occurred as a result of my exposure.

As Brianne and I got into the car, I sat for a moment and contemplated asking her about having her abilities removed by that injection Dr. Patel had given her.  I wanted to know more about her motives for getting them back.  I couldn’t muster the courage to ask though, and I didn’t want to seem too nosy for peering into her thoughts without her consent back there. As she pulled out of the hotel parking lot and began to drive away, I got a glance of the hotel from the street just for a moment.  The door to Joseph’s hotel room had been reopened, and I saw someone else walk in before it left my line of sight from the car.

Choose Your Fate – Season 4 Episode 13

A tombstone with Jeremy's name is reflected in a Pyramidion. The episode title is displayed "Choose Your Fate."

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The Storage Papers is a fiction horror podcast.

Discretion is advised.

See Content Warnings
Profanity, references to suicide and suicidal ideation
Need to skip this episode? Click here to see the plot.
Jeremy learns he has a brain tumor and is ordered on bedrest while he’s scheduled for follow-up tests. While recovering, he describes his meeting with Joseph Foye at El Campo Cemetery. Joseph reveals he was blackmailed into working with Hydra in a similar way that Ron was. His daughter (Malcolm’s mother) is killed by Hydra and Joseph finds a way to get out. Malcolm is coerced into bringing an alternate Joseph Foye into our string of reality, who ultimately ends up helping Joseph create a resistance group to Hydra. We learn that alt. Joseph is the body from the hotel and that Gerald Hubert (helping Joseph) uses that to fake his own death.

Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

Hi everyone.  Thanks for joining me again this week on The Storage Papers.  First things first, I suppose.  I’m still waiting to find out when I can see neurology.  COVID is a persistent bitch.  Every time I have a doctor’s appointment, or try to schedule one, they tend to be a few months out supposedly due to staffing levels and/or delays in available resources for the medical teams.  

I can’t begin to describe how frustrating it is… knowing there’s an uncontrolled growth inside my skull that could potentially threaten my life.  A lot of my time, as well as my wife’s, have been spent since the last episode trying to get literally any neurologist in our own county and any neighboring county to see me soon.  But so far I haven’t had any luck.  Perhaps that’s just not in the cards for me… might as well keep the podcast going in the meantime.

Interestingly enough, the news about my tumor on the last episode also got the attention of Brianne.  She baked some cookies and brought them over.  This seemed like an incredibly kind gesture, and given the fact that I’d seen all of the instant-meal options inside her pantry and refrigerator, and had also never seen her cook, let alone bake anything, it meant a great deal to me.  I can see how her career choice of becoming a nurse really suits her.  She’s kind, and right now, the world needs more of that.  Needless to say I think I got one of the cookies she made while my kids devoured the rest of them.  Kids will be kids I suppose.

Brianne wasn’t the only person who’s attention was grabbed by that last episode though.  I received a text from an unlisted number with an address, a date and a time.  The text was followed by the initials, “JF.”  Joseph Foye wanted to meet with me.  Thankfully, he was willing to let me record our discussion when we met:


Joseph: Thank you for being willing to meet with me on such short notice.

Jeremy: Honestly, I was surprised to see your text.  But also, you tend to shed a lot of light on things involving the papers… and it’s great material for the podcast.  Do I have your permission to record our conversation?

Joseph: Of course.

Jeremy: Great, thank you!  So what’s new?  Since El Campo, I mean.

Joseph: Well, first I just wanted to say I was sorry to hear the news about your brain tumor.

Jeremy: Well, I don’t know much yet, so I’m trying to stay in good spirits.  I just hate all the medical delays we’re experiencing right now.  It’s probably harder on my wife than it is on me at this point.

Joseph: I understand.  But there’s something you should know.  About your tumor, that is.

Jeremy: What’s that?

Joseph: Well, we’ve seen this before in the Hydra kids.  There was enough of them in the Pyramidion experiments to be considered… “statistically significant” to presume that your tumor may have been caused by one of two things:  Prolonged exposure to the Pyramidion or…

Jeremy: Or?

Joseph: Or what they did to you after you were discarded from the program.

Jeremy: So it’s true?

Joseph: Jeremy, I think you’ve known for a while that you were once a test subject of Hydra.

Jeremy: Suspected, yes.  Known?  I mean, I don’t have any memory of it.  I know I have medical files with the other Makers and Shepherds, but are you saying that you’ve known this whole time?

Joseph: Yes.

Jeremy: Why haven’t you said anything then?

Joseph: It’s not my story to tell.

Jeremy: You say that a lot.

Joseph: Only once before if we’re counting.

Jeremy: So why tell me now if it’s not your story to tell?

Joseph: I was asked to tell you, in light of your news.

Jeremy: Before it’s too late, you mean.  My prognosis is really that bad?

Joseph: No, I don’t mean to assume that what’s happening with you is the same thing that happened with the other Hydra kids.  And I’m not here to relay any sort of “doom and gloom” messages.  I’m here to offer you some information, and a little hope.

Jeremy: Lucky me.

Joseph: Look, I’m risking a lot every time I communicate with you.  If you’re not interested, I’ve got other things I can be doing.

Jeremy: No, sorry.  It’s just that I’m taking in a lot of information right now; some very personal, and I’m just not sure where my priorities should lie.  I’m kind of thinking, if I don’t have much time left, I really shouldn’t be wasting what little bit of it I may have on this podcast.  I should be with my family.

Joseph: Or, I have another potential solution for you.

Jeremy: One that can remove a tumor?

Joseph: Well, yes… and no.

Jeremy: Oh this is great.  I can’t wait to hear this!

Joseph: You’re upset.  I understand that.  But let me share some information with you first, and why it’s so important to consider what I have to offer.

Jeremy: I’m all ears.


Joseph Foye sat there with me for a couple of hours telling me some of the history of what Hydra was doing with children.  Aside from the experimentation on those kids with documented abilities, the manner in which they became part of those test groups was inhumane.

They had learned early-on how to identify some of these people with varying levels of abilities. They knew there was a higher concentration of people with abilities, or with the aptitude to develop them based on blood type.  They had access to physical medical records in the early days under privileges created and funded by federal medical research grants.

Eventually, with advancing technology in genetics, Hydra formed their own genetics research department and solicited help from several government-contracted companies including SCIC here in San Diego.  This was before Hydra’s main place of operation was here, but it’s also what helped bring it here. SCIC and Hydra are often synonymous with their growth rate in the region, but rest assured they are not the same. 

San Diego is unique for several reasons.  There’s the high cost of living compared to other regions in the country.  It’s a military town, which would offer quick aid to Hydra or its subsidiaries if and when needed.  It’s also a port town, filled with people widely varying in economic status, and it contains a relatively small number of people who are native to the area.  Ask any of the former San Diego Chargers’ fans – they can vouch for that.  

But the area also seems to have some other elements to it with reasons that have yet to be discovered.  There’s a high population of citizens with abilities here.  It’s been suspected that the high concentration of local appearances of the Pyramidion may have something to do with that, but it’s also never around long enough for Hydra to study it very much.  It just vanishes at seemingly random times after appearing.  And there’s really no way to know if it’s related or not, but it would follow suit that the high concentration of paranormal events reported in the area could be a result of the Pyramidion’s presence as well.  

Hydra has been studying these phenomena for years now.  Partially to try to determine if these paranormal experiences can be linked to Maker/Shepherd abilities, and if so, what percentage of them are.  Needless to say, they have been able to link a portion of them to paranormal occurrences, but certainly not all of them.  Still, the region has a higher rate of phenomena prior to the Pyramidion’s first-ever recorded appearance here.  That’s very significant to Hydra.  

Another such location in the country, with high concentrations of unexplainable events, is what people refer to as “Skinwalker Ranch,” a farm and homestead on the Uintah Basin in Utah.  The ranch itself is but a fraction of the size of the area Hydra has been studying in Southern California, but I think you get the idea.  One might be tempted to say these locations, without any current scientific explanation, perhaps contain a thinner veil than others.  They are somehow geographically aligned to be paranormal port towns in a sense.  Travelers to and from our plane of existence have high traffic through here.


Jeremy: So why tell me this now, when I’m most tempted to dump this podcast project and walk away?

Joseph: It’s an important piece of background information necessary for you to understand what I’m proposing next.

Jeremy: What is it you’re proposing?

Joseph: My grandson, Malcolm, has been looking for me.  He knows I have an understanding of when and where the Pyramidion is going to turn up next, and he believes that by finding it, he’ll be able to amplify his abilities enough to bring his sister, Tabitha back from… wherever it is that he sent her so many years ago.

Jeremy: Is that possible?  Why not help him?  He’s your grandon.  And why do you need me?

Joseph: True, he’s my grandson, but we’ve had somewhat of a falling out and quite frankly, he poses danger to me.  But you, however; I really wish you knew what you were capable of before your accident.  

Jeremy: Wait… did you know me before my accident?

Joseph: Of course.  I had hoped that, after meeting with me; After meeting with Gerald, that you would remember.  

Jeremy: I hate to disappoint, but I don’t remember you… or Gerald.  Who is he?

Joseph: The point is, you were extremely gifted in your abilities at one time.  Hydra found a way to remove abilities and I know you received treatment to have yours removed long ago, but the things you’re saying in your podcast, about experimenting with your abilities… you’re regaining them years later.  It was my hope that you would also regain your memories as well.

Jeremy: Do you really think that’s possible?

Joseph: I don’t know, but I think it’s worth trying.

Jeremy: How do I try?

Joseph: It’s just a theory of course, and I don’t want to prematurely get your hopes up, but I want to get you near the Pyramidion.  

Jeremy: Is it nearby now?

Joseph: No, but it will be soon.

Jeremy: How can you tell?

Joseph: It’s hard to explain.  I get these visions.  I’ll just be going about my day and all of a sudden I’m feeling like I’m in a daydreaming kind of state.  My peripheral vision goes dark, but I see it in front of me as if I’m standing right next to it.  I can always see a little bit of its surroundings.  Each time it appears, it’s like a countdown.

Jeremy: What do you mean?

Joseph: Well, the first vision I receive is usually 3-4 weeks out.  Then the second vision is usually a week or so later.  Then the visions happen more frequently as it gets closer to the time it appears.  Within a day of its appearance, I’m usually in full vision-mode and not really aware of my surroundings very much.  I’m like a walking zombie, leading the way to the Pyramidion.

Jeremy: How do you function like that?

Joseph: With help.  Gerald Hubert is one of my closest personal friends, and has been since my earlier days with Hydra.  Ever since he first witnessed me in this state, he’s been there to help me out, and he’s never divulged any of it to Hydra.  He’s a man of integrity, and one of the few I can count on a single hand that I completely trust.

Jeremy: So, when do you think it will appear?

Joseph: I believe it will be within the next week.  Perhaps before your podcast airs with the recording you’re making right now, but definitely before the episode after that.

Jeremy: And… what is it you think will happen by getting me near it?

Joseph: I hope that you’ll benefit from one, if not multiple, positive effects by being near it.  In a small percentage of the Maker and Shepherd test subjects, there were children with known illnesses that, after close-proximity exposure to the Pyramidion, were completely cured.  

Jeremy: Forgive me if I seem skeptical, but that’s something I’ll need to see to believe.  What else?

Joseph: Well, we’ve never put any test subjects who have had their memories wiped by Hydra near the Pyramidion again.  It’s possible that, with its restorative properties, you may regain your memory since your “accident”.

Jeremy: Do you remember my accident?

Joseph: I wasn’t there, but I was aware that they were staging it.  Jeremy, it’s important for you to understand, you posed a threat to their research.  It’s actually kind of funny that you still do with this podcast of yours.

Jeremy: Funny isn’t the word I’d use.

Joseph: Right.  Sorry.  But Jeremy, I’m also hopeful that your abilities might be restored.  

Jeremy: I’m actually not so sure I want that for myself.  The more involved I get in this, the more risk of danger I place myself and my family in.  What makes you think I want that to happen?  What makes you think that’s even possible?

Joseph: I can’t speak to what you want for yourself or your family, but think about it.  You’ve seen Brianne experience an increase in abilities as a result of being close to the Pyramidion.  She actually touched it in your podcast episode, “A House on the Corner”.  

Jeremy: You mean Brianne didn’t have abilities before that?

Joseph: She did, but Hydra had taken them away from her.  But since then, she has begun to develop abilities that I would suspect are greater than she had prior to Hydra’s intervention. 

Jeremy: So let me get this straight.  You’re saying that I was once experimented on by Hydra because of some abilities I had.

Joseph (interrupts): Maker abilities, yes.  You were classified as a Maker, as you’ve seen in the medical files that Brianne opened.

Jeremy: Okay, so I had Maker abilities that somehow threatened Hydra’s research, so they took those abilities away, wiped my memory, and let me live my life.

Joseph: Yes, after they were convinced your memory wipe had been successful.

Jeremy: And why didn’t they just kill me?  They don’t seem too bothered by ethics.

Joseph: They had incentive to keep you alive.  Again, not my story to tell.

Jeremy: Okay… and now you want to take me to the Pyramidion because you believe there will be a chance it can cure my brain tumor, restore my memory, and return my Maker abilities while possibly even enhancing them to a greater degree than ever before, which (at the time) was a threat to Hydra’s research?

Joseph: Erm, yeah.

Jeremy: And what’s in it for you?

Joseph: Believe it or not, I actually care about what happens to you.  And I have mutually-aligned interests in the potential outcome of all of this.

Jeremy: Mutually-aligned interests?  Forgive me for being a little bit apprehensive.  My kids would say, “This is totally sus”.  

Joseph: I only want what’s best for you.

Jeremy: I have to be honest with you.  I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s best for me lately.  And not just me… what’s best for my family.  Maybe it’s the news of the growing lump inside my skull, or perhaps it’s just the shitty train of events that continue to occur as a result of this podcast, but I’ve seriously considered just giving all of this up.  Ron can have his fucking papers back.  Why he collected all that and would just let his rental payment lapse is beyond me considering how “important” it all is, but that’s not the point.  The papers have brought me nothing but trouble.

Joseph: And that’s your choice, but consider the potential benefits you could experience.

Jeremy: I’ve learned to live without a memory of my childhood, and from the sound of it, my mental health is probably best served without revisiting that.  I also don’t give a shit about gaining any kind of psychic abilities.  The only reason I would consider going with you is if there’s a chance I could get rid of this growth on my brain, and I’m still not convinced it’s worth the trip given all that other stuff, which all sounds more like a curse than a blessing.

Joseph: I understand.  It’s your choice.  But consider this: How long will it take you to get your neurologist appointment?  How many tests will they need to run before determining whether it’s operable or not?  And how long before your surgery can be scheduled, if it’s even possible?  They might try chemotherapy, perhaps with a combination of radiation therapy, and you might have a chance at success.  But at the rate your tumor is growing, I’m concerned you’re about to begin a losing race.

Jeremy: Wow, you should write greeting cards.

Joseph: I’m just trying to be realistic.  As I said, it’s your choice.  You have a chance at a cure within the next week, which you’ll likely know whether or not it worked well before you can schedule your first neurologist appointment.  Or you can wait.  Put all your chips on the table, betting on a medical system that has been stressed to the breaking point with a pandemic, in hopes that it will respond before your clock runs out.  It costs you nothing to consider my proposal.

Jeremy: Well, when you put it that way.

Joseph: So, you’ll come?

Jeremy: I was kind of being sarcastic.  I’m just not sure.  I need some time to think about it.

Joseph: Okay.  Take some time.  Again, I’m not here to pressure you one way or another, but I hope you’ll consider it.  Talk to your wife.  Go sit at the beach by yourself and meditate.  Do whatever you need to do to make a choice, but don’t take too long.  I don’t have any way of knowing when the Pyramidion will appear next.  Sometimes it’s months, and sometimes it’s years between these visions I have.  There is one other potential benefit for you going, but there’s no use discussing it if you decide not to.  But please, make a decision.


Joseph handed me an envelope before leaving our meeting containing a plastic room key to a hotel nearby where he was staying, along with a brochure for the hotel with its address and the room number written in sharpie on the bottom of it.  He told me that I should be there no later than 3 days from now as a conservative estimate, just in case the Pyramidion appeared a bit earlier than he anticipated.  

I went home and took some time that evening to go over the options with my wife.  I admit that during the conversation with Joseph, I was kind of emotional.  Deep down, I agreed with everything he said about the lack of faith I can have in the medical system to work efficiently and effectively right now.  My wife and I also agreed that the benefits of going to the Pyramidion outweighed the little risk involved… that is, if Joseph was being honest and including all of the information needed to make an informed decision.

I think I would have come to the same conclusion if I hadn’t discussed it with my wife.  I mean, people generally want to live.  I decided to go.  Three days after our meeting, I drove to the hotel on the brochure and met Joseph Foye.

The Pentagram – Season 4 Episode 12

A slightly crinkled paper with a crudely drawn pentagram next to a stamped 7-fingered hand with an eye in the center. Handwritten text: THE PENTAGRAM.

Listen

The Storage Papers is a fiction horror podcast.

Discretion is advised.

See Content Warnings
Profanity, possession, supernatural horror, references to cancer
Need to skip this episode? Click here to see the plot.
Jeremy’s perception of time is off. He reads documents from early on in SCIC’s research for Hydra into religion and the paranormal indicating that there may be a difference between entities created by Makers or brought in by Shepherds, or actual malevolent entities of unknown origin. At the end, Jeremy finds out he has a tumor.

Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

SOUND: A clock is ticking.

My meeting at El Campo had me wondering how much of the information Joseph Foye passed onto me could be verified through the papers, or perhaps through the stuff that Patel had sent over.  Of course, I’m supposed to be on bed rest or “taking it easy” still, even though I feel just fine at the moment.  Still, I asked Brianne to bring me some files that I recalled reading that may now bear pertinent information.  She was taking her sweet time though, and I’ve been here for days just waiting for her, staring at the wall and thinking things over.

Reading about all of these people, and meeting several now, who claim to have these “abilities” makes me wonder, since our names are in the medical files, whether or not Brianne and I have some level of abilities as well.  I can tell you for certain, I’m becoming more and more accepting of this possibility, and have even been doing my own little experiments while I lie here in bed.  It’s strange though; I don’t seem to be able to fully experience anything during waking hours.  But during times where I’m nearly asleep, or if I find myself daydreaming, that I… start to experience things differently.

For instance, there’s a small crack in the paint on my wall opposite my pillow in my bedroom.  I was nodding off a few days ago, just staring at that crack as I’ve done so many times before.  Do you know how you can stare at something long enough and your brain tricks you into thinking it’s moving?  This wasn’t like that at all.  

SOUND: Eerie music plays.

The crack, which was only a couple of inches long, started to travel further down the wall toward the floor.  It split open as the entire house shook, and a huge hole appeared in the wall, large enough to drive a small car through.  Within the crack that widened by the second, darkness.  

I reached over to my nightstand and picked up my cell phone.  No matter what button I pushed, it was inoperable.  It didn’t seem broken though.  It was obviously on, but as I went to toss it on the bed, it remained suspended in the air.  I grabbed it in the air and held it in front of my face, then let go.  It just hovered there, magically suspended in the air, seemingly frozen in time. When I looked over at my clock on the wall, the time was frozen at none oh three. The second hand wasn’t moving. My skin got prickly and I noticed I could see my breath.  The temperature was dropping.

Movement in the direction of the crack in the wall caught my attention, so I turned to look at it, but my phone, still suspended in the air, was partially obstructing my view, so I placed it down on the bed.  

SOUND: Whisper voices are heard.

The darkness behind the crack in the wall grew even darker, and though I saw motion, I convinced myself that my eyes were deceiving me.  Truthfully, I couldn’t tell you what I was looking at, but it felt like there were hundreds; even, thousands of eyes upon me.  

I started hearing voices.  Mostly soft voices and rarely comprehensible until I heard one specific phrase:

SOUND: Louder whisper says, “I think he can see us,” followed by a few seconds of silence, then eerie music continues.

“I think he can see us.”  Those six little words inspired so much fear in that moment.  And as soon as I heard them, the whispers silenced, and the movement in the darkness stopped.  The room was so quiet now that my ears were ringing.  I reached for my phone again, and hadn’t really decided if I was going to call my wife, who would really worry about me if I told her what I witnessed, or if I should call Brianne, who would likely understand and believe me, but who I was frustrated with for taking so goddamn long with bringing those papers over.

As I checked for functionality of my phone again, it seemed to be working, but when I looked up at the crack, it had completely closed up, save for the couple of inches it started out being.  Only now, there was this smoky, tarnished appearance around the crack that wasn’t there before.  Perhaps a remnant trace of a doorway closed that otherwise would never have been noticed.

I heard my front door open and called out my wife’s name, thinking she was home from work already.  I thought this would be an ordinary conversation, so I apologize for not having recorded this part. Instead I heard Brianne say, “Nope, it’s just me. Do you want anything from your fridge?”

I said, “No thanks,” even though I was incredibly hungry.  I wanted to get my hands on those documents and actually have something to occupy my mind.  I said, “What took you so long?”

Brianne looked at me kind of annoyed and said, “Jesus. Pushy much?” as she brought in a coffee that I hadn’t asked for, but actually really appreciated.

I said, “Sorry, it’s just been a few days and I know you’re busy. I do appreciate you taking the time though.  What have you been up to?”

Brianne’s expression turned from annoyed to perplexed as she felt my forehead with the back of her hand.  She said, “How are you feeling today?”

I replied, “Just bored really,” and I apologized for my appearance considering I hadn’t gotten out of bed for a long time.

Brianne asked, “When did we speak to one another last?”

I told her it must have been four or five days ago, when I asked her to bring me the documents.  Right after my follow-up MRI.

She stood up straight and looked at me.  She said, “Your MRI was yesterday.  You called me two hours ago, and I dropped what I was doing and went to get your files, then stopped on the way here for the coffee.  It’s been two hours.”

Impossible.  I looked at my phone and the calendar date matched up with what she was saying.  I looked at my right arm and I could still see a fresh needle mark from the contrast injection from the MRI.  I thought for a moment, and I hadn’t seen my wife in what felt like several days either.  I also admittedly smelled pretty bad.  I said, “My MRI was on a Friday.  If that was yesterday, then today should be Saturday, so where are my wife and my kids?”  

Brianne said, “They went to the farmer’s market off Leucadia. You told me they went there.”

I was disoriented and said, “But that was days ago.”

Brianne took a few minutes asking me some questions, going into full nurse-mode.  I explained to her what had just happened with the crack in the wall and the voices.  We considered the possibility that some kind of temporal distortion had occurred, giving the appearance that several days had gone by, but I could tell she was more concerned than amazed by my story.  In that moment, I realized I had a problem: even though we’re working with some unexplained and downright scary things, people are always going to be questioning whatever I say because of that brain lesion they found on the CT scan.  I shouldn’t have said anything.

She hung around for a couple of hours until my family got back home, and I asked her not to say anything to my wife for the time being.  I would tell her, just not immediately.  No need to worry her about anything since everything seemed normal now.  Brianne made me promise to tell her before my next doctor’s visit, and before this episode aired, which I did, then she left.

Once I ate some breakfast, I started rifling through some of the documents Brianne brought over.  She had included some of Patel’s documents as well, including some general notes she seemed to write out in an outline style relating to SCIC.  To be honest, some of this stuff seems like I shouldn’t be sharing it on the podcast, but at the same time, it was given to me and I’ve never signed a non-disclosure agreement with SCIC myself, so I guess I’ll find out if anyone there actually listens to The Storage Papers.

First I’ll go through some of Patel’s notes, but I warn you: they appear a bit jumbled and hasty.  I’m not sure when she wrote these or if she’s writing in chronological order.  It almost seems as if she was making an outline of her own research, or perhaps a much larger conversation she was planning to have.  I’ll read a few now.

At some point, the shepherds and the makers got the attention of real entities – not things simply made up or manifested by them, but what, by ruling out all other options, appears to be actual demons, monsters, and there was even rumors of Extraterrestrial Biological Entities, though I’ve never seen evidence of that myself, so I’ll be focusing on spiritual beings.  Method of contact remains unknown, but assuming it involves either psychic communication or extra dimensional travel of some kind.   

Hydra was primarily military-driven until the late 1970’s. At that time, SCIC, a San Diego-based civilian contractor was hired as a 3rd party consultant to assist in quantification and verification of results through peer review. Even after the military mostly exited the higher ranks in the organization, it attracted retired military, who infiltrated the company and grew the organization to what it is today.  

Outside of the work hired to do by Hydra, we were primarily dealing in weapons research and aerospace, but the lesser-known branches of the organization deal with weaponization of just about anything. SCIC personnel were the first to classify the Makers and the Shepherds, and to come up with the symbol system for labeling files. 

These were on separate small notepad pages all torn out and freely floating within the documents.  This next item though, was more formalized and looked like some kind of report, except it lacks the element of a cited author and it’s not addressed to anyone (I should note that there is a crudely-sketched pentagram symbol here, in addition to the 7-fingered hand symbol.  It’s the only time I’ve seen it drawn on any documents instead of either stamped or part of letterhead).  It reads:


Potential Overlapping Studies of the Psychical Research and Occult Research Departments: 

Early research into psychic abilities, before the standardization of testing methods used today, produced some anomalies.  It is unclear whether these anomalies are random in nature, or if they could be linked to post-World War II research.  

I was able to find some historical documentation indicating the U.S. Army once had more of an interest in occult studies, spanning back to the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, however, these are only referenced in some of the documents I have access to, and thus far, my requests for a higher clearance level have been denied.  

Where they seem to correlate most is in some of the earlier Psychical Research projects, prior to SCIC contract negotiations where often crude and considerably less ethical testing methods were used.  Early documents I have access to are primarily indicative of test results we see now within the Maker and Shepherd classifications, but the research was sloppy to say the least, and evidence suggests there may have been variations in results compared to present-day research.  Testing was conducted in a more random way and repeatability wasn’t always considered before results were documented.  I can see why SCIC didn’t include much of this documentation in its own archives, but there may be some valid information worthy of further, more thorough research.

I’ve gathered 7 or 8 documents where the overlap of departments is significant, however, I do not have access to the names of the test subjects.  It appears that psychic testing had been underway systematically when the first anomaly was noted.  

A test subject described as “promising in their abilities” from the psychic research studies was temporarily utilized in an occult study. Prior to the occult research being performed, the individual had noted characteristics of being able to imagine something and manifest it.  At the time, they were instructing them to imagine abnormal objects and even living things that do not exist so they could conclude that the subject was creating something new, rather than bringing something here from another place.  It’s evident by the research comments that string theory wasn’t on their minds back then.

Occult studies occurred for five weeks, and then the subject was returned to the psychical research department to resume testing.  Only after returning, results varied widely compared to results prior to the occult studies.  The subject began manifesting darker things.  It was recorded that several beings of unknown origin began to manifest.  These beings were intelligent, communicated well, though independently, and had what they described as “intimate personal knowledge of the people conducting the research”.  

These differed from other manifested living things in that the Army was attempting to control the previous beings, and they were trainable, compliant, and performed as expected so well, that the Army noted field testing having occurred in combat scenarios.  But these new beings didn’t seem to be like that at all.  They decided to take a more conservative approach with them and try to learn more about them prior to making any decision to commence any other forms of testing.

I am going to attach one of the scientific observation reports to this document as an example, but behaviors varied widely and were considered unpredictable, thus insufficient for military usage.  Despite that being the case, these entities seemed to allow the Occult Research Department, identified by the pentagram symbol on the front of this report, to gain further funding and additional attention by Hydra.  

On a personal note, I have seen some collaborative work between my department and the Occult Studies Department, and it only seems like it happens when they have something significant to gain, and they rarely offer up any of their own resources or information after the work is complete.  This is the main cause for my research into their projects.  I need assurance that there is an element of safety being taken into account for myself and my staff during these collaborative efforts.


I’d like to share with you an audio recording that was with this collection of documents.  It sounds like it starts out as a transcript of a hypnosis session on one of the subjects, but turns into something much more.  It reads:


SOUND: Vinyl surface dust and distortion – magnetic tape noise playing.

DOCTOR (Redacted): I want you to close your eyes and focus on your breathing.  Take in slow, deep breaths and exhale slowly.  In through your nose and out through your mouth.  As you continue your breathing, you feel more relaxed.  Imagine your body is floating on top of the water in a still pond.  You release the tension in your muscles, starting with your neck, moving to your shoulders, extending down your arms to your fingertips.  Your back and your hips are relaxed.  Your knees, your ankles, and your feet feel weightless as you continue to float.  You’re enjoying the silence and you drift further and further into relaxation until you are nearly asleep.  
Now, the body of water you’re floating in begins to slowly develop a current.  The current is soft and barely noticeable.  As your body moves with the current, it relaxes you more, and you can hear the sounds of nature as you drift further and further into sleep and downstream.  
The current carries you peacefully into a cave where there is no light, and all of the world’s sounds fade away the deeper you travel into the cave.  The cave is a magical place.  Its boundaries seclude you from the world and you have unlimited power and freedom in this place.  It allows you to know things you’ve never known; that no one knows.  It lets you see things no human being has ever seen before.  It fills you up with a sense of wonder and you decide that you can do anything you want here.
You have all of the abilities of a god with no limitations.  You are your own deity and it is now time for you to put on a display of your power.  Now… What do you do next?

PATIENT: I’m alone, floating weightless in an infinite dark space.  I desire companionship, so I create someone to share this space with me.  A friend.  Yes, a friend is what I need.  He appears in front of me, and even looks like me just a little bit.  He’s smiling.  Everything is peaceful, and we don’t have to speak to communicate.  He knows what I’m thinking and I know what he is thinking.

DOCTOR: Remember, you can do anything, be anything, and create anything.  What do you do next?

PATIENT: I make more friends to share this space with.  I feel safe and secure at first, but then I begin feeling even lonelier.  

DOCTOR: Why?

PATIENT: Because everyone I’ve created has no experiences.  They don’t think for themselves.  They just react to everything I’m thinking.  I long not only to share myself, but for my friends to share themselves with me.  It’s a one-way friendship, but it’s not what I hoped it would be.

DOCTOR:  So what do you do next?  Remember, you can do anything in this space.  

PATIENT:  All of the friends I’ve created aren’t interested in me anymore.  Their attention is focused on something behind me.  

DOCTOR: Something you’ve created?

PATIENT: (worried) No.  I’m not sure what it is.  They are experiencing fear for the first time.

DOCTOR: What are they afraid of?  Don’t forget, you can do anything you want there.

PATIENT: (fearful) Oh god!  There are thousands of them!

DOCTOR: Thousands of what?

PATIENT: They don’t think I should be here.  They don’t want me to be able to create.  They hate me.  There’s too many of them.  Too many thoughts to separate, but it’s clear they don’t think I belong here.

DOCTOR: Just remember, you’re in control there.

PATIENT: No, they were here long before me.  They are ancient, and they feel violated because I’m in their space.  I shouldn’t be here.  They don’t know how I’m able to be here, but now their attention is fully on me.  I want out.

DOCTOR:  Who are they?  Why shouldn’t you be there?

PATIENT: They want to communicate to you through me.  If I don’t let them, they say I’ll be trapped here forever.

DOCTOR: Don’t let them take contr-

PATIENT: (interrupts Doctor in an eldritch voice) You have no authority here, son of the flesh.  You dare to defile us with your presence!  

DOCTOR: Who addresses me?

PATIENT: (eldritch voice) I am the Ever-Present.  I am The Infinite.  And you are but a speck of dust in my presence.  As a punishment for your insolence, he will suffer.

DOCTOR: (speaking hurriedly) When I snap my fingers, you’ll regain consciousness and feel relaxed. (snaps fingers)

PATIENT: (still in eldritch voice) It leaves when I permit it to leave.

(patient screams and convulses)

DOCTOR:  Wake up!  Wake up!


The audio file stops there. It’s unclear who… or what was speaking through the patient in this audio, but I think it’s safe to say given the pentagram symbols that keep popping up, they have some religious significance, whether demons, Djinn, or something else.  

I’d like to share one last document with you, or at least a portion of it.  Most of the document is redacted save for a few paragraphs of text, but the title of the document states, “Proposal for New Department of Research.”  There is no date on it, but the paper is quite aged, and if I had to guess, this proposal marked the beginnings of their Occult Research department.  It reads:

With new evidence that these beings possess their own intelligence and have the ability to interact and influence people outside of their will, further efforts must be taken to study them to distinguish them from the manifestations brought into existence by our test subjects.  They have unknown motives and have successfully concealed their presence among us.  They have presented knowledge beyond our understanding, can seemingly know peoples’ thoughts without a person conveying them verbally, and have demonstrated extreme hostility with no apparent inciting events.

As reported recently in a recent session with Subject M-22, the manifestation of such a being took place, and our scientists could not determine if the Subject simply manifested a being similar to one of them, or if the Subject somehow brought the being to our plane from somewhere else.  In either case, knowledge of this being had to have occurred prior to this session, which means the Maker Project is now vulnerable to results that can no longer be verified.  In addition, extreme caution is recommended in future Maker testing due to evidence that testing is drawing the attention of these beings and interaction both inside and outside of testing environments have taken place, both for the test subjects and the staff conducting the tests.

Now that we have data suggesting (though not necessarily proving scientifically) the existence of extra-dimensional beings, I suggest a new research department be developed to form criteria for classification of these beings, and to further expand our classification system of those brought here by the Shepherd experiments and those manifested by the Maker experiments.  Furthermore, it is my recommendation that Shepherd and Maker experiments cease immediately until such criteria can be established.  Without a classification system in place, we have no method for identifying which of these entities existed in our reality before Shepherd or Maker efforts.  

Um… I’m not sure about you all listening to this, but I had to re-read, stop, and think about these three paragraphs I just read to you when I read it the first time for myself.  It implies that extra-corporeal entities exist and Hydra, along with SCIC had the data a long time ago to back that up.  I’m not sure if I’m more shocked by that, or if the fact that people exist that can bring others here from parallel dimensions or just think things into existence.

I was just starting to believe that perhaps all things paranormal that interested me so much of my life may have been explainable as physical products of someone’s imagination.  But this is saying that, whether you call them ghosts, spirits, demons, angels, Djinn, or some other kind of non-human presence; it’s saying they exist.

Shit. I know the Dream Killer that Brianne and I faced with Ron was a real person, a gifted person.  But now I’m wondering if the Grinner we faced in the church was an actual demon, or if it was one of Malcolm’s creations.  The latter would explain the Grinner’s ability to be on Holy ground. I mean, a real demon isn’t supposed to be able to walk inside a church according to Father Lucas Stone, which is why he believes the beast within him can also be there.  It would explain a lot. Our initial plan there failed because he could go wherever he wanted to.  

On the other hand, we researched the demon the Grinner claimed to be, and there were so many similarities.  I even avoided using its name for fear of calling attention to myself or giving it more power. But if it wasn’t the actual demon we thought it was, then perhaps it was created by Malcolm to resemble one.  I have some digging to do.

SOUND: The doorbell rings.

Be right back.

SOUND: footsteps receding, door opens, then closes, then footsteps returning.  Jeremy opens some mail.

This is interesting, I rarely have to sign for mail.

Um… 

Well, I might as well tell you this since I’ll have had a chance to talk to my family before this episode airs.  I suppose I could always cut it out later if needed.  

Fucking doctors… Sorry everyone, the letter I just opened has some news that I’d prefer to hear in-person, or at least over the phone.  I won’t read the entire letter, but essentially, my MRI results came back.  Apparently I have a tumor the size of a quarter in my brain. The doctor mentions in his letter that it was strange to see because when I was sick back in 2019, an MRI of the brain was done because of severe headaches I had been having.  Since then, there has been significant enlargement of the prefrontal cortex and the development of a tumor that typically would take years to grow to that size. I’ve been referred to neurology for a consultation to see if it’s operable, but he’s definitely concerned about the rate of growth, so they want to do it soon.

Sorry to end this one on a downer note, but I’ll keep you posted once I get everything set up with neurology.

El Campo – Season 4 Episode 11

A man's back is towards us in the foreground. Before him is a grass-less cemetery with crudely made wooden crosses marking each tomb.

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The Storage Papers is a fiction horror podcast.

Discretion is advised.

See Content Warnings
Profanity, references to suicide and suicidal ideation
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Jeremy learns he has a brain tumor and is ordered on bedrest while he’s scheduled for follow-up tests. While recovering, he describes his meeting with Joseph Foye at El Campo Cemetery. Joseph reveals he was blackmailed into working with Hydra in a similar way that Ron was. His daughter (Malcolm’s mother) is killed by Hydra and Joseph finds a way to get out. Malcolm is coerced into bringing an alternate Joseph Foye into our string of reality, who ultimately ends up helping Joseph create a resistance group to Hydra. We learn that alt. Joseph is the body from the hotel and that Gerald Hubert (helping Joseph) uses that to fake his own death.

Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

Welcome back everyone.  I suppose I owe you an update given the way the last episode ended.  If you don’t recall, I ended up passing out and woke up in the emergency room.  They decided to admit me for a couple of days to run some tests after the ER Doctor ordered a CT scan of my brain, which came back with some abnormal results.  The radiologist’s report indicated there was some kind of small mass, or “lesion” as he called it, in my prefrontal cortex.  They said there’s no way of knowing if it was anything serious or not, but after all of my labs checked out okay and after 48 hours of observation with no further complications, they decided to let me go home, with an order for an MRI on Friday to further evaluate the mass.

For now, I’m off work and have been told to “take it easy.”  I find that phrase ambiguous.  “Take it easy.”  Does that mean mentally, physically, or both?  To me, it implies they have no idea what really caused my episode, or how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.  It’s what they tell you to make themselves feel better about sending you home; like there’s a box they have to check on the discharge checklist to give each patient advice on next steps.  It’s weak advice, but they can consider their job done because they’ve rendered it.  Fucking doctors.  They don’t exactly instill confidence, do they?

Anyways, because I’m “taking it easy” right now, and I’ve promised my wife I won’t be working or doing any research into the papers, I figured I’d update you all on my El Campo Cemetery meeting. If you recall, back in Episode 7 of this season, I reviewed some documents from Patel’s package about the Pyramidion (I’m not sure if that’s a singular object or plural at this point).  I had received a phone call from Brianne where she informed me that my name, as well as hers, her brother, Ben’s, and Malcolm’s were all in the medical documents.  Some of us were Shepherds and others, including myself and Malcolm, were labeled as Makers.  And then I got a text from a private number telling me to meet them at El Campo at 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday a few weeks back.  

If you’ve never been to Old Town San Diego, I would highly recommend a visit the next time you’re in town.  Old Town has some of the oldest buildings still standing in the county, and it’s been kept up and turned into this quaint little spot for locals and tourists to conglomerate.  There’s some great places to eat there, especially if you like Mexican Food, along with various shops, restored old buildings, and hotels.  It can get a lot of foot traffic on the weekends and especially during the summer.

Right in the middle of it all is the infamous Whaley House.  If you’ve ever watched a paranormal TV show, the house has probably been investigated on it.  I’ve even investigated there a few times myself with a couple of local groups.  And right around the corner from the Whaley House, just a few steps away, is El Campo Cemetery.  It’s a legitimate place where bodies are buried and headstones still stand, though very small compared to most cemeteries you might think of.  It seems entirely out of place, surrounded by so much life and entertainment.  It’s a wonder the dead can even rest in a location like that, with hundreds (if not, thousands) of passers-by every day, and few people stopping by to pay their respects.  

I actually showed up 15 minutes early that Saturday, but sat in my car, waiting to see if I could spot anyone else observing the cemetery.  I was hoping to get a glimpse of what kind of car they drove or a plate number, but as the time ticked away and approached 9pm, I didn’t see anyone arrive or leave, so I got out of my car and walked in the gate.

I stood in the center of the cemetery and looked around in every direction.  I was in plain sight to pedestrians on either side of the small grounds, and it felt like everyone was staring at me.  I suppose from their point of view, it’s not everyday you see someone standing in the middle of a cemetery looking around like they’re lost.  Maybe they thought I was a ghost.

I figured I’d look a little less conspicuous and start reading some of the headstones like any tourist might do.  Most of the cemetery was lit by street lamps, including both entrances on either side of it.  There was one spot at the far end of the plot that had some canopy cover from some old trees, so I decided to walk in that direction.  As I did, I noticed the faint orange glow of a cigar being dragged on.  I figured that was my contact, so I headed that way.  

As I approached, I became engulfed in shadow from the trees overhead and it was surprisingly dark.  I could see why this was chosen as a private place to meet, even though it had public access.  I could faintly make out a man in his late 60’s smoking a cigar.  I stopped about 10 feet from him, and when he didn’t say anything right away, I thought perhaps I had the wrong person.  

When I took half a step back, he said in a gravelly voice, “Turn off the recorder.”  

Well, shit.  I obliged, knowing he was the right person, but completely disappointed that I couldn’t record the conversation.  Without a greeting or telling me who he was, he asked me to step closer and roll up my sleeves.  I looked around to make sure I knew which direction I could make an exit if I needed to, and then took a few slow steps forward while rolling up the sleeves to my hooded sweatshirt.  

“Palms up,” he said.

I displayed my empty hands and the insides of my forearms as he leaned forward and took a closer look.  He motioned at me with his right hand that he was satisfied, his cigar within his curled index finger, and then took a couple more steps back into the darkness.

He identified himself as Joseph Foye, Grandfather to Malcolm Foye.  The same Joseph Foye who’s fingerprint analysis ID’d him as the cadaver in the hotel room.  You remember, the headless one with C.O.M. written on his forearm?  I withheld this piece of information for the time being.

He also said a mutual acquaintance of ours made our introduction possible.  I’m assuming it was 4thTrumpet, but can’t be certain.  I told him that wasn’t the first time someone had asked to look at my forearms, and asked what that was about, and he said he’d get to that eventually “if things panned out.”  I’m not sure what that meant, but I went along with it.

Joseph had many questions for me.  He wanted to know how much of my childhood I remembered and if I had information about specific people whose names I promised not to reveal on the podcast.  The questions just kept coming and coming, and I was beginning to get frustrated with him, having offered little information useful to me.  Eventually, I said, “Are you going to fill me in on any details here, or are you just going to throw questions my way?”

He paused for a moment to consider my question, then said, “Well, are you going to ask me something, then?”  I couldn’t tell if he was offended, being rude, or if he was just answering in a matter-of-fact kind of way.  

I said, “Well, I already asked you one question, but I can ask different questions I suppose.”

He let out a sigh and said, “Why don’t I just fill you in on some things and feel free to ask some questions along the way because I don’t know what you know.”

That worked for me.  He went on to tell me that he used to work for Hydra, and is now part of a group that actively works against them.  He explained that there were several inside people working for their cause; moles that serve to feed information to their group and to provide misinformation and disinformation to the higher-ups at Hydra.  He said Ron was one of those people.  

So far, that seemed to make sense, but then he started getting into some pretty outlandish things that you kind of have to question.  Joseph Foye said he knew I was a maker, just like his grandson, Malcolm.  He said he had abilities as well, but wouldn’t identify himself as a Maker or a Shepherd.  He claimed he was “something else.”  He said that he and his group were going around killing “multiples.”

I asked him to clarify what he meant by “multiples.”  

At this question, he asked what I knew about theoretical physics, string theory, multiverses, and the like.  I admitted I didn’t know much.  Apparently, he and his group believed that there are infinite dimensions, delineated by free will.  He explained that every time someone makes a choice, whether it was a simple choice between two options or multiple ones, a new dimension of existence develops, and this has been going on as long as human beings have been around.  

He explained that some of the Shepherds, specifically those with advanced gifts, had been utilized by Hydra to bring other Shepherds and even other Makers into our own dimension of existence from some close parallel version of it.  The purpose: To create new research subjects for Hydra to study for scientific purposes.  He said his group is trying to prevent that from happening.

That’s when I asked why they were killing these “multiples.”  That’s when he explained the supposed dangers of bringing someone from another dimension into our own.  There were multiple reasons, but all of them were theoretical.  Ultimately he said there was a risk of paradoxical collapse of the universe.  He said Hydra had strict protocols surrounding this in order to prevent a person originating from our own dimension to encounter themselves from another.  But there was also evidence to say that perhaps these protocols weren’t necessarily Hydra’s, but someone’s who acted independently within their organization.

Joseph went on to say that Ron had been helping them hunt down and kill multiples, and that he couldn’t risk telling me in case some random piece of information I shared on the podcast might point to his involvement.  But now that Patel is dead, Ron hasn’t received any additional targets or further instruction from anyone in Hydra.  This led Ron and Joseph to assume one of two things is true:  Either Hydra is so compartmentalized that nobody is aware of her death… or perhaps Dr. Patel was conducting her own research into the subject outside of their supervision.  If the latter is true, they had to assume that her research, notes and information were being kept somewhere that Hydra did not have access to.  That’s what prompted this meeting.  Apparently Joseph was aware that Patel sent me some documents and items from her own so-called “private” collection.

I tried to get him to clarify more about the reason he and his group were killing multiples.  He admitted that until recently, he had no reason to doubt the paradox theory.  Other theories indicated that perhaps when a person encounters their own alternate version, that one (or even both) would simply cease to exist so the universe would go on without them as a sort of protective measure.  

But then he said he had evidence leading to other plausible possibilities that needed to be considered.  Joseph was aware of a few situations where the alternate versions of people found out that they had been moved into a different dimension, usually after going about their daily lives and noticing some differences.  There were recent cases where someone would run into their alternate – something nobody dared test in a laboratory.  When this happened, it was originally assumed our own dimension or the person themselves could implode, and therefore, would cease to exist.  In the 1980’s they started calling it the “Back to the Future” theory.  It was a stupid name, but it got the point across.

But he said he had first-hand knowledge that wouldn’t happen.  He said he was going along with Hydra’s research until he started noticing some ethical issues and he wanted out without specifying a reason.  When he did this, they threatened him.  He didn’t believe the threats were valid or sincere… until they killed his daughter.  Of course, he didn’t have the proof he needed, but healthy young women don’t just simply “drown in the bathtub”, and the manipulation that followed implied they were behind it.

He had taken Malcolm and Tabitha into his custody and learned that Malcolm had gifts, himself.  He tried to keep it a secret from Hydra, but they blackmailed him into putting him into a program for research. Joseph raised concerns about encouraging the development of those gifts in a child who had experienced recent and unresolved trauma.  Malcolm wasn’t awarded the time to grieve, or even really to be with family.  He was thrown to the wolves for experimentation.

Joseph’s story was similar to Ron’s, and I’m assuming that’s how they met and why they agreed to join forces.  He said it took him a few years to get a plan to do anything about it.  He said he had the ability to do a kind of reverse blackmail situation to get Malcolm and Tabitha back, but there were a couple of things he hadn’t counted on.  Malcolm’s abilities had strengthened enough to do something extremely disturbing to their family dog and to Tabitha.  But Hydra has also convinced Malcolm at a young age that his grandfather had abandoned him.  Their plan to socially and emotionally control Malcolm worked as far as creating division between him and his grandfather, but what Hydra hadn’t counted on was the psychological impact that had on him.  What they did created a monster.

Joseph also told me why he and Ron had checked my forearms prior to speaking with me.  He said that Hydra, upon bringing an alternate version of someone into our dimension, would have them bar-coded.  The only place they were aware of this happening was on the forearms of the dominant side of the person who was brought here.  Of course, these people were brought here in a controlled environment and would manifest inside the walls of SCIC, or potentially a Hydra facility.  If someone were here outside of that controlled environment, they obviously wouldn’t have the barcode. 

This had my mind racing.  There was a barcode on the forearm of the body of Joseph Foye from the hotel.  That means that the body of Joseph Foye found at the hotel was an alternate.  

When I brought this up, Joseph confirmed that Hydra used one of the Shepherd kids years ago to bring an alternate Joseph Foye into this dimension.  This was right after the Joseph Foye standing in front of me got out, and at great risk to Malcolm.  Apparently, Hydra was able to manipulate the alternate Joseph Foye into continuing to work for them… at least for a while.  They had used a relationship with Malcolm as a bargaining chip to get him to continue his work.  

Joseph told me that after Malcolm was expunged from the Hydra projects, mostly due to being highly unpredictable and socially and emotionally damaged, and the danger he posed, he began looking for his grandfather.  Hydra had attempted several techniques unbeknownst to Joseph in an effort to remove his abilities, and was only let go after they found some element of success.  He apparently lost all contact with the Joseph Foye alternate that he’d developed some kind of relationship with in Hydra.  He was bitter and feeling abandoned, and has been searching for him since.  

I asked Joseph why they didn’t just kill Malcolm since they had shown such disregard for others in his family.  To that question, Joseph didn’t have a direct answer; Only theories.  They could have feared Joseph may retaliate, but he was already planning that despite what they did with Malcolm.  He also thought perhaps they had some kind of way to restore abilities in their subjects, and that they would just keep tabs on Malcolm.  And then he considered that the alternate Joseph Foye, who was still working with Hydra may have negotiated something on Malcolm’s behalf.  He couldn’t be sure due to the complexity of the multiverse strings.

I asked him what he meant by that.

He explained there’s an incredible amount of unknown and largely unstudied risk anytime someone from an alternate timeline or parallel dimension is brought to ours.  We truly don’t have any idea what decisions that person has made in their own life.  With each decision… with each choice, the line splits into how ever many options there are.  If you have to choose between going right and going left, the universe will split the lines, and alternate versions of use carry out each option.  

That said, there was no way to know at what point the alternate Joseph Foye’s decisions started deviating from the one standing in front of me.  Just because someone looks the same, speaks the same, moves the same, and is basically a DNA duplicate, it doesn’t mean you can understand their motives or trust that they’ll be telling you the truth.  Something about them is different, and how far removed their experiences are compared to yours is anyone’s guess.  It’s not yet known if Shepherds can choose which version of someone they select to bring into our line of reality.  It’s something that the Hydra Physicists are currently studying.  

Joseph explained that through a series of interactions he had in private, not too dissimilar to the covert way he had been communicating with me, the alternate Joseph had earned his trust, and they began working together.  He proved to be an invaluable asset in gathering information and throwing Hydra off his trail, which allowed him to do the work necessary to start building a team of people to oppose Hydra.  

I just stood there for a moment, blown away at the implications of what Joseph was telling me, and then a sinking feeling hit me.  I asked him, “So how did he end up dead in that hotel room?”

Joseph appeared to get a bit emotional, but he continued explaining, saying that Hydra had become suspicious and had not only put a tail onto alternate Joseph, but he’d been assigned a monitor in his dreams.  He saw the monitor fairly early-on and did his best to make sure that he didn’t give away his awareness of the monitor’s presence.  Ultimately, the decision was made, by both Joseph Foyes to eliminate the alternate version.  

I don’t know why I could swallow all of the other stuff he was telling me, and why this was the point I became extremely skeptical, but I asked him why.

Ultimately, he said there were some things that went down with the team he was working with at Hydra and someone had decided to start killing off that team.  He suspected there was a mole hunt (and they didn’t know he was the mole), and that someone on the team likely panicked.  It was then that the alternate Joseph expressed feelings of hopelessness.  He said he had already lost everyone in his own timeline, and that he initially was happy to go along with everything just for a chance to see Malcolm again.  He would never reveal what happened to Malcolm in his own line, but it was obvious that it induced some element of trauma.  

I continued to push him a bit, asking, “So how did he end up dead at the hotel again?”

Joseph then claimed that the two of them agreed to end the alternate Joseph’s life.  Their goal was to make it look like a suicide.  

I said, “Hold on a second! He just agreed to die? I find that hard to believe.”

Joseph explained that even though circumstances were different upon his arrival into our timeline, he said some of the same events began occurring.  Perhaps not in an identical way, but the outcome had been the same. He considered it a sign of fate – that he couldn’t change anything, no matter what we said to him, and he became despondent.  Ultimately, he wasn’t sure if he could handle watching Malcolm go down this path yet again, and that he was making some of the same moral choices he watched him make in his own timeline leading to his own demise.  Plus, they had considered the whole “Back to the Future” theory in regards to working together and wanted to avoid even the slightest risk of running into Joseph in-person.  Apparently, alternate Joseph was a bit more conservative in his approach than this one.

To pull this off, they needed some help.  Joseph had another person he could count on; someone who knew everything and that he trusted with his life.  Gerald Hubert, a long-time collaborator of Joseph’s in the efforts against Hydra, served as an intermediary between the two of them.  The plan was devised for Gerald to meet up with alternate Joseph at the hotel room, where he would be sedated.  Once unconscious, they would place him at the foot of the bed, fake a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and set up the scene to make it look like the body was Gerald Hubert’s, a necessary step in the moment to not only fake Gerald’s death, but to also make Hydra believe the alternate Joseph had gone missing.

Gerald Hubert’s ID was placed with the body.  He was near the same age and even physical description as Joseph, so that was perhaps some luck finally landing on their side.  It was Gerald’s idea to write the letters, “C.O.M.” on the forearm.  It was a genius idea that served a dual purpose.  Joseph said it made the barcode on alternate Joseph’s forearm much more difficult to see, and it served as a very specific reference to something that would catch my attention.  My attention!

This didn’t make sense to me.  I told him that the video from the hotel was dated March, twenty-fifteen.  That’s four years before I started The Storage Papers.  I asked why they would want to get my attention before I started the podcast.

He gave me an incredibly cryptic answer at first, saying, “That’s not my story to tell you.”

I suspended my criticism over that point for a moment to express another.  I said, “I still don’t understand why this ‘alternate Joseph’ was just willing to lay his life down.  I mean, I get depression and suicidal ideation, but I’m just not buying this whole thing.”

Joseph mentioned another reason for his willingness to do this.  He explained that whatever abilities a person possesses, whether classified as a Maker, a Shepherd, or something else; When an alternate version of you enters your own string of reality, something happens to those abilities.  They are portioned out to each version of you.  Abilities that both Joseph Foye and the alternate version of him here in our string of existence were split.  Neither one of them were capable of doing what they could before alternate Joseph’s arrival here.  

He said they both realized their long-term goals couldn’t be accomplished with both of them here, and neither one of them working with their full range of abilities.  Alternate Joseph also theorized that there may be catastrophic results in our string if something happened to the one who originated here, while the other brought in from an alternate one took his place, and he didn’t want to risk being here for very long.  If Malcolm had any chance at a different outcome, he believed it would be the best chance with the actual grandfather he knew.  He emphasized that an equilibrium must be established and the universe would pull in unexpected ways to accomplish that eventually if choices weren’t made to make it happen by those individuals.

There were some additional elements to this meeting that I’m not quite ready to share just yet.  I want to take some time to vet some of the information shared with me before I bring it to you, but I’m not quite sure what to think about these claims.  The only thing I am confident about is that Joseph seemed to believe what he was telling me, and it was very emotional for him.

Character Recap – Season 4 Episode 10.5

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Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

Before we continue pushing forward with Season 4, a few people I’ve connected with in the community have suggested a recap of events and characters may be in order, and I can understand why.  When I started this podcast in July of 2019, I seriously loved the idea of making a narrated documentary-style show highlighting a separate document within The Storage Papers each week.  It had all the paranormal vibes I enjoy talking about with a sort of anthology type of feel.  But things have changed… oh, how they’ve changed.  Have you ever had one of those moments where you didn’t realize you were involved in something important… something central to what was going to happen in your life going forward.  A “turning point” so to speak.  This podcast has been that for me assuredly.

I wasn’t sure how to approach this recap given that everything has become so intertwined, so I’ll do the best I can, but feel free to send me any questions you might have.

Let’s start way back in Episode 2, An Unusual Suspect.  That’s where I first laid eyes on the Grinner, and where I first heard Detective Mark Anderson’s name, as the letter I read was penned by him.  It was also addressed to Ron, who I later learned was Ron Hammond, a former colleague and mentor to Anderson, who had been consulting with on cases involving seemingly unexplained phenomena.  There was also an accompanying creepy video, which happened to be contained on a thumb drive previously owned by one Benjamin Scanlon (rest in peace).  In this video, the Grinner seemingly appeared out of thin air in a hotel parking lot, where the video portrays him lurking around a specific room, looking in the window, and moving in that oh-so-unnatural way that he did… or does… I honestly don’t know what tense to use because I don’t know if he’s still alive in this plane of existence.  

Anyways, this night at the hotel seems to be a central event where a lot is going on that is still not 100% known.  The hotel in the video was the very same hotel where an open homicide investigation had been ongoing involving a seemingly self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.  At some point between Season 1 and Season 4 of the podcast, a person identifying as @4thTrumpet on Twitter began feeding me anonymous tips and information… more on this individual later, but there was a Tweet from them mentioning Gerald Hubert.  I had no idea who that was until Season 4, episode 4 called Subject 14-3, where the police report from this hotel homicide identified the victim as Joseph Foye, but I previously learned that the media released the identity of the victim as Gerald Hubert.  This is something I’ve had to put on the backburner for a while now, but it’s high on my priority list to research

Of course, we learned from an extended version of the video from the hotel, given to me by Dr. Patel – I’ll also speak more about her later – that Ron Hammond was at the scene of this homicide and he never volunteered this information to Detective Anderson.  If I had to guess, this was perceived as a huge betrayal of trust by Anderson.  Frankly, I’m finding it difficult to trust anything Ron says or does, but that’s just been my experience with him.  Anderson’s known him far longer since his early days in law enforcement.

I hope I’m not too scattered and that you’re following so far… believe me, I’m sure there’s information I’ve already reviewed on the podcast that is connected and I just don’t know it yet.  It seems like I learn that almost every time I produce a new episode.  Maybe it would be clearer if I go by listing people involved.

There’s Ron Hammond, who we’ve identified as the previous owner of the so-called “Storage Papers”.  I know, super-clever name for a podcast, right?  I still don’t know how or why he would just stop paying his storage bills containing these documents… but at the same time, it allowed me to come into possession of them.  Something tells me that fate was involved… or perhaps even something more intentional.  Anyways, he’s a friend and former colleague who serves as a consultant on occasion to Detective Anderson.  He’s also had some tragedy in his life with the loss of his wife, and he was blackmailed by someone working in Project Hydra, which I’m still not entirely sure what that is except for the fact that they seem to have black projects, theoretical research branches, and potentially government funding.  I’ve only recently learned that he is the biological father to Benjamin and Brianne Scanlon.  He seems to be motivated heavily by personal reasons only known to him and he’s been willing and able to conceal the truth from those closest to him.  Something a double-agent would be great at doing, whether out of free will or necessity.

Ben Scanlon, unfortunately, we lost in a showdown with the Grinner at the end of Season 2.  That whole situation was kind of a blur, but someone close to me recently suggested I take a hard look at the events that unfolded on my podcast and ask a bunch of questions.  My greatest enemies are time and opportunity for this goal.  Either way, we know Ben was highly protective of his sister, Brianne, and gave his life to protect her.  He had met the Grinner prior to our showdown in the church and he seemed like a stand-up kind of guy from what I know, although somewhat tormented.

Brianne Scanlon is a nurse and quite frankly has been my greatest ally in this whole thing.  She has had trauma in her life… to what extent I’m not quite sure, but she manages to impress me with her kindness and ability to see the best in everyone.  She was dating a guy named Malcolm Foye at one point, who we later learned was either possessed or heavily influenced by The Grinner.  Brianne’s experience in the medical field has helped with some of our investigations into the medical documents both contained in The Storage Papers and given to me from Dr. Patel and some anonymous resources.  She has since been abducted by Malcolm, now acting on his own, and she’s befriended my wife and brings us cookies on occasion.  She’s definitely a chain-smoker and doesn’t sleep well, and I imagine she’s still having vivid nightmares similar to the ones that kept her up at night early in the podcast.  She’s also labeled as a Shepherd in the medical files, meaning she (supposedly) has the ability to translocate physical objects and living beings from parallel dimensions to our own.

I might as well talk about Malcolm Foye at this point.  Malcolm is somewhat of an enigma to me.  He, at least at some point in his life, has displayed superior abilities to those of makers and shepherds, and we know he was a Hydra kid used in experimentation from a very young age. We also know he was primarily raised by his grandfather, Joseph Foye and that he appears to be responsible for the disappearance and murder of his sister, Tabitha, for which he feels tremendous guilt and we know at least partially motivates him to do thing things he does.  His body was inhabited by the Grinner for at least as long as Brianne has known him and he makes frequently-poor decisions with malicious intent.  He most recently has escaped from prison and has threatened Jeremy with death, while feeling the need to remind Brianne of a debt she owes.  We’re assuming this refers to the blood-letting ritual explored in the episode that introduced us to the Order of the Divine Acolytes.

Since Malcolm is so closely tied to the Grinner, I feel the need to talk about the Grinner a little bit since it’s distinguishable as separate from Malcolm.  I don’t know much except that it has qualities of a demonic entity, yet doesn’t seem to have the expected boundaries of one, which scares me immensely.  I believe the Grinner is what was giving me nightmares early in the series and I know it was stalking me at one point.  It appears human most of the time and can transform its shape and appearance as it sees fit.  We’ve all assumed it’s dead after the Season 2 finale, but I can’t be 100% certain.  I can only hope.

Then there’s Detective Mark Anderson.  He’s been kind of a godsend lately as he’s been helping me out with some things related to the podcast.  He’s a no-nonsense kind of guy and calls bullshit when he sees it.  He’s methodical, yet empathetic, and he’s really good at his job.  I think this podcast is rubbing off on him as he’s found a new creative outlet by creating his own series of work called Unwanted Places that I’m helping him test out on our Patreon feed.  So far, he seems to be the moral foundation of the group and he’s loyal to his friends.

I need to mention Dr. Adhira Patel.  I don’t know many facts and some of what I’m sharing about her is conjecture, but she seemed like she was an up-and-coming authority within Projekt Hydra, or at the very least, SCIC.  I’ve always felt like she was playing all sides to get what she wants… what that is (or was), I just don’t know, but the feeling I walked away with after meeting her when she sabotaged my therapy session, was that she believes that whatever she’s doing is for the betterment of mankind… to make advancements in science.  I’m not sure she has a cohesive sense of morality thought as she seemingly bent a lot of rules and ethical principles.  She did, however, help me out by providing me some documents I’m sure I’m not supposed to have in my possession… right before she lost her life.  Her death was ruled a suicide but something tells me she didn’t choose to jump off of a high-rise building downtown right after she began confiding in me.  Still, I continue to find her signature and references to her seemingly every time I dig into new documents.

There are a couple of individuals I’m going to refrain from speaking of at the moment like Joseph Foye and Gerald Hubert.  You’ll hear more about them as Season 4 unfolds, and I’ll be introducing some new people I haven’t mentioned yet like Dr. Maldonado going forward.

I feel the need to mention Project Hydra as well.  I can’t prove it right now, but it seems like nearly every document contained within the papers pertains to this mysterious initiative.  While the papers themselves seem to document paranormal phenomena, there’s also evidence of other important information like medical files, extrasensory perception, fringe science, and the analysis of how to use all of it for gain.  Some of the information I’ve received from anonymous sources claiming to have inside knowledge of Hydra claim there are several departments within it, including but not limited to areas like Occult Studies, Psychical Research, Medical, Genetics, Physics, and Advanced Technology.  Please keep in mind this is highly speculative.  We MUST assume that powers within Hydra are aware of the information in my possession.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I stopped asking for listener feedback and information after season 1 of the show, largely because I got the feeling that I was receiving misinformation and potentially disinformation.  Project Hydra, I know, is alive and well, but due to the high level of compartmentalization involved, it’s very possible that it’s no longer under anyone’s direction.  My guess is the project is so classified that the government is no longer in control of it and likely hasn’t been for some time.  I assume this because of the shady ethics I’ve seen demonstrated within the papers, which means if someone has enough clout within the organization, it’s likely a power-grab scenario as different departments compete for control.  Again, purely speculation, but Ron likely knows way more than I do and is just choosing not to share.

This is where SCIC comes in.  SCIC, or “Southern California Independent Contractors” is a scientific research company that hires doctors and scientists like Adhira Patel, and sub-contracts their skills and expertise to government organizations.  It appears that Patel was the only remaining SCIC representative with in-depth knowledge of what they were contract by Hydra to do.  It’s possible that information is documented somewhere, but it’s also likely that it died with her.  I suspect this union is responsible in its entirety for the high occurrences of paranormal phenomena in the San Diego area.  Definitely more to learn on this front.

I guess that just leaves me.  What’s to say?  I’ve traditionally led a fairly private life and what little I’ve shared on the show is somewhat out of necessity for the listeners.  I’m married to my wife of 18 years and have two boys ages 16 and 12.  I don’t remember much of my childhood, but as I’ve recently uncovered within the papers and the documents Dr. Patel sent me, I was labeled as a Maker.  Makers, of course, have the ability to manifest physical objects and beings – literally anything you could imagine out of nothing.  It’s like in the original Ghostbusters movie when Gozer told them to “choose the form of the destructor” and they thought of a 100-foot Staypuft Marshmallow Man.  It just manifested based on someone’s thought.   

The medical files also contain information about my parents and my so-called accident that wiped my memory at a young age.  I don’t know if you believe in fate or not… and I’m not sure if I do to be perfectly honest.  The fact that Ben, Brianne, and Malcolm were all Hydra kids, and evidence seems to be leaning toward being one myself just doesn’t seem like chance. This is something that doesn’t feel right.  Something just doesn’t seem to fit in my mind… not only with these medical files, but with me and my surroundings.  I feel out of place, so to speak.  If you believe fate has anything to do with what’s going on, then maybe fate is trying to put me where I belong.

I spoke at the beginning of this recap of turning points: Moments in time where, whether you realize it or not at the time, will alter everything based on your choices going forward.  It’s like Jim Carrey in the movie Truman Show when he learns nearly goes insane before he learns he’s in a simulated reality.  It’s like Keanau Reeves in the Matrix when he has the epiphany that the bullets he was just shot with by Agent Smith weren’t real.  There’s that pause, then a sudden rush of mixed emotions including logical reason, confusion, and validation of your suspicions all spinning in your head like a class 5 tornado with the new realization that you know your very existence has been wrong somehow, or at the very least misinformed, and then you have an awakening with a new purpose in life.

I believe there’s an awakening on the horizon.  I can’t say for sure whether that awakening will involve me or someone close to me, but the feeling is palpable like static electricity in the air before a lightning strike.  I haven’t been able to shake that feeling since I read about the Pyramidion.  It just feels like it’s all going to come together soon.  At the same time, my physical health has also been met with some challenges and this awakening is starting to feel like a race against time.

Unfortunately, there are still some things I just can’t share with you right now… things that are pertinent to the podcast and everything I’ve been researching that are occurring as a direct result of me looking into the papers… I need to maintain some secrets, for now, out of necessity.  These secrets, I can assure you, are kept in everyone’s best interest and I can only hope that someday I can share those with you at a time where the consequences of doing so won’t be so detrimental.

If you’ve stuck with the show up until now, I just want to say thank you for continuing to listen.  The show started out as one thing, but took on the life of something entirely different.  Being in the hospital has allowed me somewhat of a needed break for reflection and to gain clarity on the bigger picture at play.  I’ll have more information to share going forward, and on December 13, I’ll fill you in on my meeting at El Campo Cemetery.

Who Do You Trust? – Season 4 Episode 10

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See Content Warnings
Profanity, references to blood, loud sound effects (breaking glass)
Need to skip this episode? Click here to see the plot.
Jeremy and Anderson set up a meeting with Ron to confront him about his appearance in the hotel video. Brianne connects some of the names in the medical records to local disappearances and deaths, and one of them has been mentioned on the podcast before (The Ice Cream Man). She works to confirm missing/dead people are Shepherds and Makers.
Jeremy falls asleep in the car and has a vivid dream where he wakes up and unknowingly causes damage to Anderson’s car with some element of telekinetic ability. Ron meets with Anderson and Jeremy and explains he was sent to find Joseph Foye by Dr. Patel, and happened upon the crime scene. Jeremy passes out and ends up in the emergency room.

Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

Hi everyone, I know this episode is coming out later than scheduled, but hopefully you’ll understand the reason for it when you hear what’s been going on with me toward the end of today’s episode.  Thanks for hanging in there!

Anderson drove us to the diner, and on the ride over, I could tell that his mood had soured.  He was obviously feeling an element of betrayal by his old friend and partner, but he was also angry.  I hadn’t yet seen him lose his cool, and I didn’t want to be around if that ever happened.  Since it was now approaching three p.m. and we were sitting in some traffic, I figured we had some time for me to call Brianne.  I didn’t record our conversation, but I can summarize it for you.

Brianne had begun telling me about someone who was reported missing in the area, and on yesterday’s news, the person had officially been presumed dead.  She caught the person’s name, along with a few other details.  Eli Jannsen was a forty-two year-old man and English Teacher at a local Junior High School.

Brianne said she thought his name sounded familiar to her.  She immediately started looking through the medical files we now had access to and found his name there.  She said Eli Jannsen had a file there labeled with an “S” for Shepherd.  Eli Jannsen was a Shepherd.  A quick glance through his file, and she learned that among his abilities were being able to physically relocate objects from an adjacent dimension to our own.  

A thought occurred to me, which I shared with Brianne.  I wondered how one might distinguish the difference between an object brought here from another dimension and an object that someone simply manifested from nothing.  The thought was fleeting and Brianne didn’t seem to be as enamored by it as I was since she just moved right on.

She said that prompted her to begin searching for more cases of missing and/or deceased people in San Diego County over the last year and compiled a list of names, each with hyperlinks to news articles that mentioned them for later reference. She didn’t have to look long before finding another name from the news that matched a name in the medical records. 

Her name was Chelsea Ward, age forty-four.  This woman reportedly died last year in a hospital.  She had been admitted against her will by her family, under the guidance of her therapist, after experiencing prolonged bouts of insomnia and hallucinations.

Brianne found the article fascinating because it went on to describe some of the experiences she was having that landed her under medical observation.  According to the article she read for me over the phone, “Ms. Ward claimed a creature would visit her every night, and would stand outside her window, and she was positive its intentions were to kill her.  The longer she stayed awake, the harder it would be for that creature to track her down and follow her.”

She said the article also mentioned that during her first night spent at that hospital, her physician ordered her to be sedated so she could finally get some rest.  She was found dead during early morning rounds.  The story caught the media’s attention because there was suspected foul play.  Accusations of a drug administration error were thrown at the hospital by the family until the autopsy with the toxicology report were released.

Brianne said Chelsea Ward’s medical file had an “M,” indicating she was a Maker.  She also asked me if I recognized her name.  It did sound vaguely familiar, but I told her I couldn’t remember where I heard it.  She said, “The Ice Cream Man.”  I looked on your website for the podcast and read the transcripts.  The police report was filed on October fourteenth, nineteen eighty-four by Marriane Ward.  Her daughter, Chelsea was the one recovered after disappearing in the middle of the night.  She was seven years old at the time.  I considered the last name Ward might be a popular name, but the age matches.  She would have been forty-four last year at the time of this news story.

This information was surprising to say the least.  So surprising that I nearly forgot why I was in the car with Anderson.  When I asked Brianne if she found any additional connections, she told me that she had really only started looking into them.  She thought perhaps the first occurrence might have been a coincidence, but now that there were two of them, she felt compelled to let me know.  She also said she needed a smoke and a pot of coffee, but she was going to go right back to digging in more.  

Knowing I was with Detective Anderson, she asked me to keep him updated.  Of course, I agreed, but it was a reminder to me that I had a few updates to give to Brianne as well.  I thought it would be best to wait until my meeting with Ron was done to fill her in.  One: now that I know he’s her father, I don’t really want to do anything to smear his name unless it’s well-deserved.  And two: I don’t want to take away her focus from what she’s working on.

I hung up the phone and sat quietly in thought for a moment.  Anderson didn’t even seem to be aware, probably still marinating on the fact that Ron hadn’t been completely forthcoming.  A new possibility occurred to me, and it actually required me to consider that Ron was intentionally hiding information.  I had to force myself to imagine that I couldn’t take his word for anything, and that he may even be spreading misinformation.  I hate that I have to do this, but the thought process seemed more productive.

What if all of these documents that we’re calling The Storage Papers share one thing in common?  Could all of them be connected to Hydra in some way?  Has it been that way all along?  

I think it’s too soon to tell, and I don’t have much evidence to support this theory, but it’s an idea worth pursuing given that there are references to seemingly unrelated stories in the medical documents.  The same medical documents that were password-protected by Doctor Patel, someone who had at least some kind of authority at Hydra, and possibly more at SCIC.  That would mean that these one-off kinds of stories that I’ve been sharing on Patreon with our Curators – the ones that seem to be unrelated to the big picture – might have some sort of relevance after all.  It’s just one more detail in a sea of details to keep in mind moving forward.

Since Anderson wasn’t speaking much, the rest of the ride to the diner was spent with me daydreaming.  The hum of the air conditioner in Anderson’s car along with the people-watching I was able to do looking out the passenger window put me at ease somehow.  It must have been the mindless, repetitious noise that calmed me.

Since I started this podcast, I’ve been trying some sleep techniques that mostly include deep breathing and relaxation exercises, but what usually does for me is the drone of a fan I have in my bedroom.  It’s white noise that drowns out the majority of noises you hear with apartment living.  It gives the mind the ability to focus on that one single, recurring noise, while you block out everything else.

The longer the A/C blasted my face, the more I was entranced by its hypnotic rhythm.  In my mind, I began to forget who I was in the car with, what my surroundings were, and where we were going.  My eyes focused on the vent pointed at me.  Darkness began at the periphery of my vision and time seemed to stand still as my head laid to rest on the seat behind me. I started to remember details of the preceding night’s dreams as I drifted off to sleep in Anderson’s unmarked cruiser.

In my experience, we all have varying abilities to remember our dreams.  I don’t recall many dreams at all throughout most of my life, but I know I dream a lot.  Every once in a while, I’ll wake up with full retention of a dream.  Often they’re accompanied by feelings of nostalgia, but within an hour, I will have forgotten everything about the dream, with only a hint of the feelings they provided with source removed.  It’s the reason I’m writing down details about this dream now, while they’re still fresh in my memory.

I found myself in the very back of a classroom, observing.  The adult version of myself knew the child version of me was sitting at one of the desks in the front of the class, listening to the teacher talk to the class about string theory.  I don’t actually see my younger self’s face, but I know it’s me up front.  From the looks of it, the children must have been seven or eight years old there, obviously too young for that kind of a topic.  

I begin taking slow steps down the center aisle, toward the front of the class to be able to get to my younger self. I need to warn him about something.  What I’m trying to warn him about, I’m not exactly sure, but I feel a sense of urgency.  No matter how much I want to get to the front of the room, my steps feel like I’m walking through wet cement.

The teacher doesn’t notice me at all.  I wave my arms trying to get her attention, and even though she’s the only person in the room facing me, it’s like I’m invisible.  I try to call out, but I can barely muster what resembles an asthmatic wheeze.  The children don’t really notice me either.  At least, at first.

As I begin slowly passing by the first row of students, I can tell they are turning to look at me in my periphery.  I’m so focused on the front of the classroom that I don’t see their faces, but I’m instantly filled with a sense of dread.  I pass more rows of children and I can tell I have multiple sets of eyes on me, drilling holes into the back of my head, which now feels hot as if there was a magnifying glass focusing sunlight on it.

I hear a noise that stops me dead in my tracks, and though I don’t know what it is, I’m frozen in fear.  My breath begins to condensate as I feel a chill wash over me starting from behind me and traveling to the front.  There’s a smell that makes me want to vomit. I can only describe it as sulfuric, with hints of gangrenous flesh and wet garbage.  

I decide to slowly turn my head to look behind me and evaluate the danger.  When I do, there are no longer children in the seats I walked past.  I can’t describe exactly what I see, but they look like creatures of all shapes and sizes, demonic entities perhaps, or something else.  All I know is there were legions of them, countless in waves with glowing yellow eyes as far as I could see into dark, vast spaces not bound by the physical structure of the classroom I was in.  They all remain still for a moment, and as I contemplate my next move, they begin lunging toward me in some kind of unspoken coordinated attack..

I turn around to face the front of the classroom and try to run, but the teacher is right in front of me, nose to nose.  Only it’s not the teacher anymore.  It’s one of the creatures.  I feel agonizing pain as a pair of claws slices into my skin under my jaw.  In what felt like slow motion, they pierce the skin in my neck, then travel upwards through my lower jaw and the floor of my mouth, and come out on either side of my tongue, while the tips of the claws separate my teeth and point outward toward the creature putting its hooks in me.  I’m lifted into the air, suspended by the jaw like a fish being held up for display.  Then the lights go out and it slams me down on my back.

All I see are thousands and thousands of yellow, glowing eyes quickly approaching me, and then they disappear.  Still lying on my back, a blinding light comes on above me, shining into my eyes.  I hear the giggling of the school children, and as my eyes adjust to the light, I can see their faces, which appear normal save their glowing yellow eyes.  They’re all wearing lab coats and have gathered around me, and are staring.  When I try to move, I can tell I’m in restraints.  Then I recognize my child-self walking up to the table just above my head.  The other children look at him and say in unison, “He doesn’t belong here, Jeremy.  Will you send him away until he’s ready?” 

Child-me pauses for a moment, and with no evidence of emotion, nods his head “yes.” 

They all turn back to face me to watch, and they all begin laughing.  All except child-Jeremy.  They cover their mouths with one hand and point at my face with the other.  Their laughs seem joyous and care-free, which contrasted with my rising level of fear at that moment.  I focus on my child-self’s face, which still remains emotionless.  He telepathically communicates to me as the childrens’ laughter begins to fade away.  He says, “One of us needs to go.  One of us needs to make the sacrifice.”  

I begin convulsing and shaking my head back and forth in an effort to free myself from captivity.  That’s when I notice all of the children staring at me again with blank expressions.  I think of what I might be able to say to convince them to let me go, but I can’t think of anything and begin to resign myself to the belief that I’m going to die.  That’s when I noticed my child-self clutching a large syringe in his hand.  He let out a maniacal scream as he jabbed it into my throat, and that’s when I was jolted awake.

SOUND: Glass breaking and car brakes screeching.

I awoke as Anderson’s cruiser screeched to a stop on the side of the road.  He was just staring at me, and he looked frightened.  After I noticed the awkwardness of the situation, I said, “What?”

Anderson said, “You tell me.  What the fuck was that?”

Still a bit disoriented, I explained that I dozed off and was having this really weird dream.  It was one of those dreams where you wake up kind of startled because you feel like you’re falling in real life.  He continued to stare at me.  I began to take in my surroundings and noticed about 5 or 6 people on the sidewalk near our vehicle, just staring at us.

“What happened?” I asked.

Anderson said, “You tell me what the fuck happened!  I’ve gotta figure out a way to explain all this to my boss.”

I looked around the interior of the vehicle.  Broken glass littered the dashboard and was all over my shoulder closest to the window and my lap.  Anderson also had glass all over him.  The dashboard was cracked in front of me and I hadn’t noticed it before, but Anderson had a bloody nose that was dripping onto his light blue button-up shirt.  

Anderson said, “Seriously, since when could you do that kind of thing?”

I honestly wasn’t convinced it was me that caused all of this.

He continued, “That’s bulletproof glass.  How the hell did you do that?”

I told him I didn’t know, and that I couldn’t remember ever doing that before.  I was in a state of disbelief myself.  I started asking him what else might be in the area that could cause that kind of thing to happen.

Anderson lifted his eyebrows when he looked at me and said, “Absolutely nothing.”

I wasn’t sure I recalled much in the papers about abilities like this, and the closest thing I could think of was maybe Preston Nicholson’s abilities with telekinesis.  But I was labeled in the medical files as a Maker, and from what I currently know about the Makers’ abilities, I hadn’t proven that I’d manifested anything into existence just yet.  At least that I’m aware of.  None of this made sense.  

Anderson said, “We’re almost there. Let’s just meet up with Ron and I’ll sort all of this out later,” as he threw on his turn signal and re-entered traffic.  

We arrived at the diner a few moments later and we walked in the front door.  We spotted Ron already sitting at a booth toward the back and Anderson told me to tell Ron he’d be right with us.  At that point, the napkin he had been using for his bloody nose was needing to be replaced, and he excused himself to the restroom.

I walked over to Ron’s table and sat down across from him.  I’m not sure why I was so nervous, but his intense glare didn’t help at all.  It was a pissed-off look as if to say, “Why the hell are you dragging me out of my cave this time?”

“Well?” he said.  

I just told him, “I think I want to wait until Anderson is here before I bring anything up… you know, so I don’t have to say it again.”  

He acted like I was testing his patience and that really pissed me off.  In my head, I was thinking, “Are we on the same team, or not?”

Anderson arrived and sat down next to me in the booth, his nose looking red and inflamed, but no longer bleeding.  He looked at me as if to say, “Go ahead, tell him.”

I pulled out my recorder, turned it on, and hit record.  Then I placed it on the table in the middle of us all.


Jeremy: So, Ron, we’re here because I’ve recently learned that you made an appearance at the scene of a homicide that we’ve been looking into since my podcast first went live.

Ron: Sure, you can record me.  Now which homicide is this specifically?

Jeremy: It’s the one where there’s CCTV footage of the parking lot outside the hotel room where Joseph Foye’s body was found.  You know, the one with that creepy footage of the Grinner?

Ron: How did you get that footage?  Have you been talking to Patel?  

Jeremy: That doesn’t even matter.  I think what matters is why you never said anything to us about it.  

Anderson: What were you doing there, Ron?

Ron: First, you tell me how you obtained that footage.  I ain’t telling you shit until you let me know that.

Jeremy: (sighs) Yes, I got it from Patel, but it was delivered to me after she died.

Anderson: You wouldn’t know anything about that either, would you?

Ron: Alright, look.  Turn that fucking recorder off and I’ll tell you what I know.

Jeremy: I’m not sure I want to turn it off. I’m not even sure I can trust you. If I turn this off, do I have your permission to tell my podcast audience what you say?

Ron: Fine. I guess I see how it might look.  Now turn it off before I smash it to pieces.


I know Ron comes off like a total asshole… well, I guess he just might be a total asshole, but he was true to his word and confirmed he had been there, and explained why.  

He claimed that Doctor Patel had asked him, among many other tasks, to locate Joseph Foye and apprehend him.  She believed he knew the location of something she had been looking for over the course of several years.  Ron said the trail had gone cold for months until Foye slipped up and charged something to a debit card Ron knew about.  

At the time, Ron had been on one of his many excursions to Mexico, so when he learned about the charge on the card that afternoon, it took several hours to get back into town due to some traffic at the border crossing.  Ron said he approached with caution, assuming Foye was alive, but still trying to avoid him.  He didn’t anticipate the bloodbath that he saw when he peered into the window.  

Ron claimed that he called in a favor to have the original video edited, but suspected that Patel found out about it and somehow acquired an unedited version.  When asked why he wanted that part of the video gone, he said he was already having a tough time maintaining Doctor Patel’s trust.  He believed she was aware of some ulterior motives of his, which of course, he refused to specify, but likened it to… how did he say it?  “You can just never tell how much trust you can put in a double-agent.”  

I hated to admit it, but every time I get a feeling like the guy is doing something shady, he comes up with a half-decent explanation.  Personally, I still don’t trust him any farther than I can throw him, but he appeased my need for reassurance at the moment.  It was Anderson he had to worry about now.  Anderson started going on about how Ron knew he was working that case and kept information from him.  He really felt completely betrayed, and I couldn’t blame him.  I found myself wondering if there was now an irreparable rift in their friendship.

As their conversation began to get a little heated and Anderson made it clear how pissed off he was, I began to feel a little dizzy.  I figured I might need to eat something, so I reached across Anderson to grab a menu from the edge of the table near the window and put it down in front of me.  As I went to open it, I felt a ringing in my ears that drowned out their conversation and all of the noise in the diner.  

I placed my hands up to my ears to try to plug them with my index fingers, but felt a sticky sensation as I did.  I lowered my hands to examine them and blood trickled down my index fingers.  My ears had been bleeding and I was getting dizzier by the second.  Then everything went black.

I woke up to find myself in a hospital stretcher, wearing a gown and covered with a thin blanket.  Oxygen was being fed through a nasal cannula into my nose and my room was empty.  I had a splitting headache, which began throbbing even worse as I looked around for a call button.  Once I pressed it, a nurse slid back the curtain in front of me and slid it closed behind her. She asked me a few questions to make sure I was alert and oriented before she answered my only question, “What happened?”

She said an ambulance brought me in after I passed out at a diner down the street.  She also let me know that two men were waiting in the emergency room lobby for news, but she couldn’t let them into the room due to COVID protocols.

I told her to ask them to try to reach my wife to let her know I was in the emergency room but doing okay for now, and to let them know they could leave.  After looking at the time, it was well into the evening and I knew she’d be worried. 


Thank you for listening to The Storage Papers.  This season, I’m taking a little break between this episode and the next for the main story in order to get some of my personal health effects in order, which I’ll update you on soon.  In the meantime, I’ve asked Detective Anderson to bring me my laptop while I’m in the hospital so I can complete the final editing on some other content to be able to share with you during the hiatus.

The Man at the Hotel – Season 4 Episode 9

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The Storage Papers is a fiction horror podcast.

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Profanity, references to drugs and prostitution
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Jeremy reviews the full footage of the tape from Season 1 Episode 2 with Detective Anderson, which was sent to him by Doctor Patel. It reveals that after the Grinner left the hotel, Ron Hammond appeared, but never told anyone. Anderson tells Jeremy to record a meeting with Ron and they’ll confront him together.

Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

After our last episode, I’ve been contemplating a lot of claims found in those medical documents. I don’t mean to push everything else aside that we learned, but the possibility of knowing who my parents are, the idea that Hydra had some kind of file on me, and the fact that they labeled me as a Maker… it’s all just a little too unbelievable if I’m being completely honest.

You’re all going to laugh at me for telling you this, but do you recall in my journal entries last season how I’d been experiencing things in my dreams, and then seeing them manifest in real life the next day?  Well, last weekend, I thought to myself, “If I’m really a Maker, I should be able to manifest things from nothing.”

So I tried.  I did everything from concentrating really hard in a quiet room to meditating, and I even tried convincing myself that “the Force” was a real thing.  I got nothing!  Well, I take it back; I got an extreme eye roll from my wife, who I’m confident is not listening to this podcast and wouldn’t believe in any of this stuff even if I told her.  I’m not sure if she took my little experiment as just being ridiculous in general or if it actually caused more concern.

So for the time being, I’m still looking through the documents Doctor Patel passed onto me.  I became intrigued when I came across a small plastic bag with some notepad scribblings and a flash drive within it. A good friend of mine who listens to the podcast basically called me crazy for opening a flash drive of unknown origin with unknown contents on my personal computer, citing many good reasons I should probably be avoiding that, so I decided I needed a plan in case I found the need to review anything risky.

I had Detective Anderson introduce me to a computer forensics expert he met through work and had a discussion about what precautionary steps could be taken if I ever needed to download some files or look at a flash drive again.  My goals were to prevent any malware or spyware from being downloaded onto my computer, and to eliminate the possibility of someone tracking my location.  So I bought a used laptop with a dead battery off Craigslist.  It’s four or five years old and only works when the power cable is connected.

Now, I don’t power that laptop on when I’m at home at all.  That’s a hard and fast rule.  When I do power it on, I make sure to go somewhere with free WiFi, and I am going to try not to visit the same place twice, so I asked for help making a list of all of the locations in the L.A., Orange, San Diego, and Riverside Counties where I could easily drop in and connect.  You know, it’s amazing how many places actually do have free WiFi available.

Anyways, I went to one of these locations, powered on the laptop, and plugged in the flash drive.  There were two folders on it.  One of the folders had a readme.txt file and the other had a video file.  

The readme file contained a typed message to me from Doctor Patel, who apparently may have been aware of her impending death.  It reads:


Jeremy,

I have come to fear the worst and I’m afraid I will be unable to deliver this to you in person.  While I realize you have very little reason to trust me, you should know that everything I’ve done on behalf of SCIC for Hydra was to advance the field.  Sometimes we must be willing to accept some necessary evils in the pursuit of our goals to further our scientific understanding of the universe for the betterment of our species.  

It has been a pure pleasure to listen to your podcast while you attempt to solve your little puzzles along the way.  It seems you have gained a following, along with some inside help from people who are risking quite a lot, including myself now.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Ron Hammond, it’s that you should be cautious with how much trust you place in the man.  He can be a great asset, so long as your goals are aligned.  

I believe you’ve seen a portion of the video I placed on this flash drive.  The fact that you covered this video so early in your podcast is what initially put you on my radar, but it’s clear that you have only scratched the surface of the significance of that event.  If I’m able to later, I will try to send you more information, but for now, this is all the sharing I have time for.

You have everything you need.  All the best!

Adhira Patel


Hmmm… A lot to unpack in this note.  She’s right, you know.  I don’t trust her.  But she’s also managed to perfectly describe my feelings about my level of trust in Ron as well.  And is it possible that she really believes everything she’s doing is because she’s trying to help?  Some of what she’s saying is a bit cryptic.  It’s as if she knew she was nearing the end, but at the same time, she had hope that she would still be around to share more information with me.  I guess her luck ran out.  I better take a peek at that video.

I recognized the same starting point of the video with the stamp dated March 11, 2015 and the video starts around 8:02 p.m. and 40 seconds, as it did when I previously viewed it.  I checked my notes, and the previous video I viewed way back when I started the podcast was 4 minutes  and 2 seconds long.  As previously noted, the video was shot in IR mode and the first couple of minutes didn’t show anything.  

At 2 minutes and 56 seconds, a person who I now know to be the Grinner manifests near the right side of the pole and can be seen walking left to right toward one of the hotel windows and peeked in.  

Chills traveled up my spine and down toward my extremities as the hairs on my arms stood at attention in a state of heightened awareness.  I had forgotten how strangely he moved, and it reminded me of being chased in that church, only at a much faster pace then.  That unnatural movement of his, almost gliding with his arms dangling by his sides, and that peculiar appearance.    

I watched as he looked in the hotel room window, then he did the strange motions with his head.  Looking at it this time, it reminds me of how an owl moves.  The neck elevating and receding, going up and down in diagonal directions, different angles with each glance and changing every time. It was definitely not humanly possible.  Perhaps an owl was the closest thing I could relate to what he does next, something I knew was coming, yet intensified the chills I was still experiencing.  The head turns completely around to face the camera as if he knows he’s being watched.  The walking backwards, the staring at the camera, and that weird head-tilt he does… it’s just as creepy as the first time I watched it.  But even moreso, I think the reason it creeps me out so much is because it doesn’t seem like a recording.  It’s almost like he knows you’re watching this.

He stood there for a seriously long time, and I think the original video I saw ended in static with him still standing there, but according to the play head, this video was only about two thirds complete. The Grinner remained motionless for nearly an additional minute.  He was so still, I thought perhaps I paused the video by mistake, but the counter on the video player and the timestamp were both still rolling.  Then, while keeping his head still, his body turned around to face the same direction his head was.  And while still locking eyes with the camera, he casually walks below the frame.

The video was still playing though, and I scanned every corner of the field of view looking for something new.  I half-expected this to be one of those jump-scare videos with the grinner’s face appearing up close to the camera, accompanied by a speaker-distorting scream at maximum volume.  That would imply that Doctor Patel had a sense of humor though, and that’s definitely not something I’ve seen (or expected) from her.

What I saw next was even more confusing.  There were headlights on the ground in the parking lot screen-left, just a little further away from the camera from where the Grinner made his creepy appearance.  They were dim at first, and got brighter, then remained still as if a car, just outside of frame, had come to a quick stop.  The headlights remained on as a man appeared in the frame and began walking in the direction of the hotel room, too far away from the IR light source to see any real details except that he was wearing long pants and a long-sleeved jacket.

As the man approaches the hotel room that the Grinner just left, he gives the door a couple of knocks and waits for a few seconds before I see his right hand reach inside the left side of his jacket, where it remained as he knocked again with his left hand.  I’m assuming the man was armed.  The man starts to look around, as if to check to see if anyone is watching.  Next to the door, the light still isn’t good enough to identify him.  He then goes and looks inside the window for a moment, cautiously peeking around the edge of the glass.  Unfortunately, he’s now facing away from the camera.  Next, he takes his hand out of his pocket and cups both hands around his face and leans against the window to get a better view.

Another second or two goes by, and then the man drops both hands down by his side and takes a step backwards.  I’m guessing he’s seen some details from the crime scene because he raises both hands to his head and brushes his fingers through his hair.  He stands for a moment with his hands still on the top of his head, and then he pulls something out of his pocket and begins wiping down the window, as if he’s trying to get rid of his fingerprints.

The man steps away from the window again and pauses as if he’s taking all of the details in again.  Then he turns away quickly and begins walking quickly back toward his car, just far enough from the light in the window for me to really get a good look at his face.  But as he approaches his car, he is looking in both directions, seemingly checking to make sure there aren’t any witnesses.  When he gets to the edge of the video frame, he glances left over his shoulder, right in the direction of the camera, and the headlights he left on help to provide enough detail to see his face.  A face I know all too well.  The face of Ron Hammond.   

Fuck this guy!  You know, I really wish Ron would level with me.  From Day One his whole involvement in this thing has been a rollercoaster of emotions for me.  One day, he’s on your side and the next, he’s doing something shady.  And the withholding of information is driving me insane!  I feel like I’ve been chasing my tail while this guy just watches!  Fuck him!  I need to make a phone call.


SOUND: The phone is ringing.

ANDERSON: This is Anderson

JEREMY: Hey, it’s Jeremy. I just saw something that you need to see for yourself.


In my heightened emotional state, I hadn’t considered that perhaps Anderson was just as shady as Ron, only better at hiding it.  I paused for a moment to consider the thought, and dismissed it after realizing that Anderson typically shared the same feelings I did when we learned of new details like this.


ANDERSON: Hello?

JEREMY: Yeah, sorry. This needs to be something you see in person.  Can I drop by your office?

ANDERSON: Sure, but it will have to wait until after one P.M.  

JEREMY: No problem.  I’ll be there at 1.


Something inside me still questioned whether or not running right over to Anderson with this was wise.  Considering what I learned at El Campo Cemetery, I suppose it doesn’t really make much difference whether he learns about Ron being there or not.  Still, I’m starting to develop a lack of trust in people, but maybe I’m just being paranoid.  Oh and to the listeners, I’m sorry I haven’t filled you in on El Campo yet.  There’s just one more thing I need to check on before I do.  Thanks for being patient!

I arrived at Detective Anderson’s office at 12:45 p.m. and was informed he was still in a meeting, but also told I could wait in his office.  I was also asked if I wanted a cup of coffee or a water, which I declined.  They were being more friendly than usual to me.  Perhaps I was here often enough that they’ve gotten to know me.

I wouldn’t exactly call Anderson’s desk an “office.”  It’s basically a desk on one side of the room, in a row of 10 desks, mirrored by another 10 on the other side of the room.  There are no walls or doors, or even cubicle dividers.  In fact, the whole room didn’t offer much privacy at all.  I sat in a chair between adjacent desks, and I could see a name plaque on the desk behind me that said, “Collins.” Anderson’s partner.

More than half of the desks were empty, and I counted two other civilians in the room, both in handcuffs.  The man in handcuffs was about three desks down on the same side of the room.  He sat across from a detective with his head down and appeared to be crying.  

I surveyed the room a few times, wondering which direction Anderson was going to come from.  The woman in handcuffs was directly across the room from me.  She was handcuffed to a ring on the chair handle.  She was early 20’s, blonde, and thin.  My first thought was she was a prostitute, though I really don’t have a reason why that came to mind.  Perhaps because that’s what you always see on procedural cop shows on TV and that was about the extent of my experience with seeing people in handcuffs.  

I must have been staring as I sorted all of this out in my head because I hadn’t realized she was staring back at me with sunken eyes and mascara that had run down her cheeks.  I forced a weak smile, and before I could look away, she smiled back, revealing brown-stained teeth that contrasted with everything else about her appearance.  

Methamphetamine.  San Diego was long considered the “meth capital of the United States” and up until the late 1990’s, more than half of the meth in the country that was seized was captured coming up from Mexico. I’m not sure where the new “capital” is, but meth still has a presence here.  

I decided to turn my gaze toward Anderson’s chair across the desk from mine to avoid any more unintentional staring.  I found spinning the flash drive between my fingers as I recalled details about the video I was about to share.  I was started when I felt a firm pat on my shoulder from Anderson as he rounded the desk toward his chair.  


ANDERSON: So what brings you to my neck of the woods?


I looked over at the woman with the meth-mouth, who had perked up in her chair and had been watching and listening to our introduction.  


JEREMY: Is there somewhere we could go with access to a computer and a  little privacy?

ANDERSON: Follow me.


Anderson picked up a laptop from his desk and as I got up to follow him, the room began spinning.  I reached out and clumsily grabbed the back of the chair I had been sitting in to steady myself.  My vision had almost gone dark, but was coming back into view when I felt Anderson’s hand grab my upper arm.


ANDERSON: You okay there?

JEREMY:  Yeah, I just got dizzy for a second.

ANDERSON:  You probably got up too fast or skipped a meal.  You want some coffee?


Why does everyone keep offering me coffee here?


JEREMY:  No, I’m good now.  I think I’m just burning the candle at both ends lately, ya know?

ANDERSON: You’re sure?

JEREMY: Yep… after you!


I followed him to a room used for questioning.  We sat down across from one another as he opened up the laptop.  I pulled out the flash drive and told him to watch the video.  He fumbled around for a moment before double-clicking on the video file.  As it began to play, he asked if I wanted to go to his side of the table to watch the video with him.  I declined.  A few seconds in, he looked over his laptop screen at me.


ANDERSON: Okay, I’ve seen this before.

JEREMY: True, but you haven’t seen this much of the video.  Just keep watching.


Anderson’s eyes returned to the monitor.


ANDERSON: Damn, that guy gives me the creeps.


He continued watching until he saw the Grinner walk off screen.


ANDERSON: Okay, so it shows him leaving the camera view. I don’t recall seeing that the last time I watched this.

JEREMY: Keep watching.

SOUND: Fingernails tap on the table.

ANDERSON: Okay, these look like headlights on a car, and it’s possible they were in a hurry given how much the lights bounce. (pause) Tell me we’re going to see who this guy is who’s knocking on the door.

JEREMY: Keep watching.

ANDERSON: Okay, so he’s obviously armed and sees the crime scene here.  I just can’t make out his face.  And… he’s cleaned up his fingerprints from the window.

JEREMY: Almost there.

ANDERSON: Is that?  Is that Ron?!


I wanted to sit directly across from Anderson to get a better view of his face to gauge his response.  His reaction of surprise seemed genuine.  Anderson was a no-nonsense kind of guy, and I’m confident I would be able to tell if he was only acting surprised.


JEREMY: It looks like him to me.

ANDERSON: I don’t know what to say.  Where did you get this video?

JEREMY: I got it in the mail… from Dr. Patel, along with a bunch of other stuff I’m reviewing right now.

ANDERSON: …and now she’s dead.

JEREMY: And now she’s dead.

ANDERSON: We need to speak with Ron.


I could tell Anderson was uneasy about this new-found involvement in the homicide case from the hotel.  Ron had been aware of the case and all of its developments, and said nothing to Anderson about being at the crime scene, or even being aware of it.  

Anderson must have been pretty put off because he dialed Ron’s phone right away.  Apparently Ron didn’t pick up because Anderson’s voice message was straight and to-the-point.  


ANDERSON: Ron, it’s Mark.  Call me as soon as you get this.


Almost immediately after Anderson hung up his phone, my own rang.  


SOUND: A phone is ringing.


I got confused and Anderson looked at me as if we were sharing the same feeling, as if perhaps Ron was calling me instead of calling him back.  I glanced at my phone.


JEREMY: It’s Brianne.  I’m going to take this.


Anderson nodded as he looked back down at his laptop and began to replay the video.


JEREMY: Hey, Brianne.

BRIANNE: Hey, I just dropped by your house.  Where are you right now?

JEREMY: I’m actually sitting here with Detective Anderson.  Why?


Anderson peered over his laptop at me and shook his head, “no,” implying I should avoid giving Brianne any details about seeing Ron on the video.  I gave him a quick nod to say I understood, and his eyes returned to his laptop.


BRIANNE: Oh, did you find something new?

JEREMY: Well, just getting his opinion about a hunch I have.  Nothing new to share just yet.  What’s up?

BRIANNE: Well, I’ve been digging into the medical documents more and cross-referencing some of the names and information in there with the papers.  Guess what I found!

JEREMY: What is it?  Do you really want me to guess?

BRIANNE: No, but did you watch the news yesterday?  

JEREMY: Uh, no.  Why?

BRIANNE: Well, there was a local story about a 42 year-old man who was an English teacher at–

SOUND: Anderson’s phone rings.


Anderson looks at the caller ID, which must have been a number he didn’t recognize and answered while looking at me.  I admit I stopped paying attention to Brianne as I waited to find out if it was Ron on the other end of the line.  When Anderson said I was with him and he wanted to meet ASAP, I had to let Brianne go.


JEREMY: Um, Brianne?  Can I get back to you?  Something has come up and I kind of need to go right now.

BRIANNE: Seriously?  It must be important.

JEREMY: It is.  Sorry, I really want to learn what you found out.  You can wait at my place if you want.  You know where the key is.

BRIANNE: No, that’s okay.  Just call me when you can talk.

JEREMY: Will do!  Thanks!

ANDERSON: Everything okay?

JEREMY: Yeah, she was about to tell me something about yesterday’s news.  Literally, not metaphorically.  Are we on?

ANDERSON:  Sure are!  Ron’s going to meet us in 30 minutes at a diner in City Heights.  You don’t happen to have your recorder with you, do you?

JEREMY: Well, um.  I’ve been recording this whole time.  Sorry.

ANDERSON: I should have known.  You really do need to get better about asking for peoples’ permission before recording them.  But in the interest of our discussion with Ron, maybe don’t let him know.

JEREMY:  No problem. (pause) So, uh… Do I have your permission to–

ANDERSON: Yes, yes, of course! Let’s go.

Maker 22 – Season 4 Episode 8

Maker 22 Episode Art

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The Storage Papers is a fiction horror podcast.

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See Content Warnings
Murder, gore, blood, graphic description of death, child experimentation, general horror.
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Through experiments conducted on Malcolm when he was younger that involved prolonged exposure to the Pyramidon, we learn that a Maker possesses the ability to conjure objects from nothing, regardless of their conscious state – which is a key difference between a Maker and a Shepherd.

Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

SOUND: Brianne is typing again.

BRIANNE:  Jeremy, you’re listed here as a Maker, too.

SOUND: A mouse is double-clicked.

BRIANNE: Your whole life is here, Jeremy.  Your childhood, your birth certificate…your parents’ names!


I can’t seem to take my mind off of this new information.  It’s kept me up at night lately.  I swear, making this podcast has done some serious damage to my sleep patterns… and my relationships.  Or at least it’s putting a strain on them.

When I told my wife that I may have actually learned who my parents are through the research I’m putting into the show, she didn’t seem very impressed.  I don’t remember the exact words she used, but it was one of those single word answers.  The ones like “fine” or “okay” without so much as a glance in my direction.  If you aren’t married or if you’ve never had a life partner for any amount of time, let me clue you in on a little secret.  When you hear these responses, things are definitely not “fine” and you should choose your next words with caution.

We had a long discussion that night after the kids were asleep.  I was so excited to share the news about my parents, the possibilities of actually finding them and getting to know them, imagining that our children might actually have grandparents they could  get to know.  She isn’t close to her parents, so the kids haven’t really known what it’s like to have grandparents, just like me.  Most extended family has always been kind of a disappointment, and I guess I hadn’t realized how alone the world felt until I learned my parents’ names.

What ultimately came out of the discussion was the realization that the whole time I’ve been making this podcast, I’ve really been kind of neglecting my family.  Sure, I’m working my day job and meeting my obligations to provide for them, but after dinner each night, my nose is right back in the papers.  She let me know that the kids had been having problems at school and they were likely seeking attention.  And though I’ve been in my home this whole time, I haven’t really been “present.” In addition, she had concerns about my overall health, saying I looked pale and was losing weight.  Normally that would be welcome, but she said it wasn’t “in a good way.”

Another helpful tip from many years of marriage and a few counseling sessions under my belt: when your partner opens up to you and shares their feelings, even if it makes you angry, take some time to reflect on what they’re saying instead of reacting in the moment.  That’s a problem I have been working on.  The anger came from the assumption that she really didn’t care about what I had learned, and the possibility that my parents are out there. That assumption is the key.  Instead, I took some time to consider my reported lack of presence, and I almost always come to the conclusion that she’s right; that I’m the asshole.  Or at least, I’m contributing to the problem and I can understand why she feels that way.  But more importantly, she’s telling me these things because she values our relationship and wants restoration.  Essentially, I’ve been severing my connection with her and the kids, and the knife is these papers.

Anyways, I’m sorry to take you down this road on the podcast, but someone recently told me I wasn’t injecting enough of my personality into the show.  So there it is… for better or for worse.  I will say, I do have a new therapist I’ve been seeing since the last one I had refused to see me.  Apparently they were all bent out of shape about the nonsense Patel pulled to surprise me at my scheduled session.  It’s just another love/hate aspect of the papers that keeps me conflicted in the pursuit of truth by digging into them.  I promised I would spend more time with the family, even if that meant less time with the papers, and we agreed to a certain level of moderation as long as I could still show up to be husband and father every day.

By the way, I did follow through with that meeting at El Campo Cemetery last Saturday, but I can’t say anything about that just yet.  I promise, I’ll fill you in as soon as I can.

Now, back to the papers:

After learning that both Malcolm and I were labeled as “Makers”, I wanted to learn everything I could about what that means.  My first instincts were to go to the documents that Dr. Patel left me, and a particular folder stood out to me labeled, “M-22.” I’m assuming that folders labeled “S” relate to Shepherds and now folders labeled “M” refer to Makers.

I opened the folder and learned I was right.  The very first document had a cover page with a very brief title saying, “Subject M-22, formerly known as (redacted), Malcolm Foye.”  Malcolm!  Wait, why is the name, Malcolm Foye listed but some other random identifier redacted?  Damn, now that I’m thinking about it, I’ve seen references to “M-22” in other documents in the papers… at least, the papers that I inherited from the auction, which used to be Ron’s.  Those have been Malcolm this whole time, and I’ve just been breezing by them because I didn’t think they were relevant.

As I flipped to the first document behind the cover page, I immediately noted it had the now-familiar seven fingered hand stamp on it, but with a superimposed capital “M.”  I hadn’t seen this before.  The document seemed to establish the reason for the switch in labels from “Shepherd” to “Maker,” and it reads:


Proposal for classification change of (redacted) to M-22

5 February, 1998

With the M-class being relatively new, the subject began exhibiting new abilities over the previous several weeks following a series of Pyramidion Proximity Experiments. Unfortunately, the experiments were limited due to the random nature of the Pyramidion’s appearance and disappearance, and the amount of travel time required to move the subjects to its location this time.

While other subjects experienced marked enhancement of Shepherd abilities as a result of the limited Proximity Experiments, (redacted) went into the experiments with superior Shepherd characteristics, even when compared to other subjects after the experiments.  

Preceding the exposures, he was essentially able to manifest fictitious entities from his dreams into reality (see Appendices A-F).  He was also very skilled in his remote viewing capabilities when subjected to field study analysis (see Appendices G-K).  

As a result of additional exposure, previously unseen abilities began to develop in the subject that are similar in nature to known Makers.  

Examples:

Within twenty-four hours post-exposure, the subject had been in his living quarters reading his literature homework assignment, a chapter in the book, “Lord of the Flies.”  He self-reported to his professor the following morning that he was simply able to “produce” a conch shell by thinking about it while he was awake.  After the professor reported his claim, unscheduled testing ensued.

Within seventy-two hours post-exposure, he was manifesting inanimate objects at-will, during waking hours.  Under testing observation with multiple witnesses and video recording, objects were suggested to him for manifestation.  During a single sixty minute session, the subject was able to produce replicas of objects that were in the room with him that included a pencil, a chair, and a desk.  

Testing was concluded when the subject, himself, suggested he attempt something more challenging.  He then produced a pencil sharpener.  Upon its manifestation, the subject freely tested the pencil sharpener’s functionality by picking up the original pencil that was already in the room (not the one he manifested) and inserted it into the sharpener.  It was completely functional.  

Notes:

Several relevant observations were made following several hours of video review of this session:

  1. Each object manifested was somewhat flawed upon manifestation:  It is unclear if the subject was aware of these flaws, but among the noted features were:
    • The conch shell seemed to be made of a porcelain-like material, rather than the calciferous structure of a real shell.
    • The pencil he made, after analysis, had small divots in the wood of an unexplained nature not present in the original pencil.
    • The chair had one leg slightly shorter than the others, which wasn’t initially noted, but was when someone sat in it.
    • The pencil sharpener did not have a power cord or known source of electricity.  This was highly irregular because we witnessed the subject operating it successfully, which was not able to be replicated by our team once the subject was dismissed.  It would appear that the subject may have intentionally or unintentionally aided in the operation when he attempted it.
  2. The subject’s mood and demeanor changed dramatically between sessions.  Upon presentation of the conch shell and undergoing a series of questions by our team, the subject appeared to be excited and eager to share results with the team.  After the seventy-two hour session, the subject seemed more hesitant to respond to questions honestly.  His mood shifted to defensive and somewhat cocky.  He began to question the necessity of continuously being kept within the grounds of our facility, and started asking questions about why he wasn’t being allowed to explore beyond. He was provided a sedative when he became agitated. 
  3. The video recording malfunctioned during moments of manifestation.  A visual artifact, most likely some kind of static, appeared on the VHS tape during playback making it difficult to visualize.  We can only hypothesize that the manifestation of these objects created some kind of temporary electromagnetic field or distortion as the recordings post-manifestation did not contain the artifact.  

Conclusion:

Further research is going to be required to determine the extent of the subject’s capabilities and the direction our research may take us.  It’s too early to make any evidence-based conclusions outside the observation that additional abilities are present within the subject compared to the previously noted limitation of Shepherd abilities.  Comparison to other Maker test records should be made to determine similarities and to identify any differences.

Recommendations:

Regular testing at forty-eight hour intervals:  At this time, abilities seem to be increasing over time since the Pyramidion exposure tests.  It is unclear if this increase is due to latent effects of proximity or potentially due to the subject’s progressive learning capability to use these new abilities over time.  

Two teams: while these new abilities exist and should be further tested and monitored from the standpoint of Maker classification, we have not yet tested Shepherd abilities to determine any potential change post-exposure.  Each set of abilities would be more efficiently and effectively documented and analyzed by each team focusing on their own specialty areas.  In the interest of time, and due to the rising mood and demeanor challenges of the subject, I recommend testing parameters be discussed prior to each session and testing coincide, instead of doubling the duration of testing sessions for each team.  To accomplish this goal, more collaboration is needed, which will require a significant degree of transparency between departments within Hydra and less compartmentalization.

Additional testing parameters:  This is just a hypothesis, but the likely presence of magnetic distortion that could be the cause for the artifacts on the VHS tape recordings indicates the need to measure it.  I propose a similar setup to the electromagnetic measurements taken during Pyramidion exposure sessions, and if the subject is willing, brainwave pattern analysis.  Both should occur in real-time and be compared to levels present when the Pyramidion is present.  

Precautionary measures:  As we know, several negative short-term and some long-term effects of Pyramidion exposure have been noted in some people.  I would advise increased safety precautions during Maker-testing be implemented to be modeled after Pyramidion testing precautions.  If the subject is producing high levels of electromagnetic radiation during the manifestation process (as the video artifacts might suggest), and (assumed to be) inconsistent with other previously-classified Makers, prolonged exposure must be limited.

In addition, I recommend post-testing therapy sessions for the subject in light of the changes in demeanor following the manifestation of objects.  More information is needed on which drugs and chemicals may suppress these abilities, if any, and in the meantime we would be wise to avoid situations that would result in conflict with the subject, or create any tendencies toward aggression.  We need to consider the fact that some differences exist between this subject and known makers, and extreme caution should be placed to avoid making any assumptions about similarities and differences before further testing can take place. 

Personnel with training and experience in conflict resolution should be present during all testing sessions, and we should remain conservative and take the subject’s willingness to endure testing sessions into consideration for the time being to prevent unnecessary negative outcomes and/or uncontrolled manifestation events.


Well, that was interesting.  To me, this appears like at this time, they had already identified a few people with Maker abilities and they aren’t quite sure yet if Malcolm was actually developing these abilities or if he was turning into something different following exposure to this Pyramidion.

The next document appears to have the same symbol… you guessed it!  The seven fingered hand, still with the capital “M” superimposed.  But it also has a symbol shared by many of the other papers, and one that I’ve shared content from previously.  There’s a pentagram symbol right next to the seven fingered hand.  The pentagram has some smaller symbols within it.  It contains what are likely other pagan symbols, and if I had to guess, it likely represents various occult symbols.  It’s interesting because I think I saw a similar symbol when I was looking into the Order of the Divine Acolytes quite a while ago.

This document looks like it was someone’s notes, strictly observation, from one of these testing sessions.  It reads:


Clinical Observation Notes for Malcolm Foye and Assessment

22 February 1998

I was brought in today as an inter-departmental consultant to observe and analyze testing for M-22.  I have only been briefed on the initial proposal for Maker status and intentionally excluded from two sets of testing results between the initial assessment and today’s session.  I’m not yet certain why they would be seeking consultation from an occult specialist, but I’m forced to assume my lack of access is typical as “need-to-know.”

I have been asked to observe and document from behind a two-way mirror approximately twenty-five meters from the subject as a safety precaution, but I am also monitoring three video feeds which are displaying various points of view including a close-up of the subjects face, a pulled-back view showing the subject’s entire body while sitting at a table with the clinical psychologist in full view, and a video feed from within the room I am in at the twenty-five meter distance.  I also have a fourth monitor displaying the subject’s brainwave patterns.

The first several minutes were seemingly uneventful, and I should note that I do not have an audio feed, so I am not certain what kind of conversation is being conducted.  The subject seems to be at ease, often smiling and seems to be willingly participating in the conversation.  One other thing of note is that he occasionally seems to be glancing toward his left.  On that side of the room, there is another mirror, and I can only assume he is aware he is being observed by another individual or team, which seems like a fair assumption if I were in his shoes.  

Approximately seven minutes into the session, it appears as if the subject is being guided through a meditation exercise.  His eyes are closed and he is sitting with upright, yet relaxed posture.  The psychologist is speaking and the subject is taking deeper breaths in succession.  My eyes were drawn to monitor four as the brainwave patterns began to reduce in amplitude and frequency.  Sharp peaks became short rolling waves as the subject proceeded with the exercise.  

A period of two or three minutes passed without change until I saw a very large spike in the brainwave pattern.  Sharp peaks grew higher in amplitude and frequency.  It was similar to what an earthquake looked like on a Richter scale.  When I turned my glance from the brainwave pattern to the up-close facial video feed, there was a slight static artifact which made me think perhaps the camera was farther away than in the initial proposal document, only zoomed in to minimize the artifact effect.  But that wasn’t what caught my attention.

The subject’s eyes were open, but rolled backwards into his head, revealing only their whites.  It could have been an effect caused by the distortion, but I also observed what appeared to be swirling colors and the emission of a faint glow emanating from his eye sockets and nostrils.  The effect grew slightly when his mouth parted.  

I could read the psychologist’s lips when he asked the subject, “Are you okay, Malcolm?”

At that point, the subject placed his palms flat on the table to steady himself as his body began to exhibit tremors.  This indicated to me that he was fully aware of his body’s disposition and this was not seizure-like behavior, but controlled.  Once glance back at the brainwave patterns, and I could see the peaks disappearing beyond the scale of the equipment.  

The table in front of the subject began to shake, as did the two-way mirror I was observing through.  A low rumble echoed in the room as a smile developed on the subject’s face.  The lights flickered for a moment before completely turning off and the monitors went dark.  Within a second or two, emergency flood lights came on, along with the video feeds.  The monitor with the brainwave pattern remained blank, but the video feeds were back up with diminished visibility due to the lower ambient light in the room, but a greater noticeable light emanating from the subject.  

As the light gradually faded from the subject as he slid down in his chair, he seemed to be experiencing an element of fatigue.  I could more clearly make out what was going on by observing directly instead of through the video monitors.  

At that time, some movement in the corner of the room behind the psychologist caught my eye.  In the dim light, it appeared as if a shadow was growing.  First, it started out just a few feet above the ground and was spherical in shape.  As it grew, it began to morph into something tall with a humanoid shape.  The psychologist somehow became aware of this presence and turned around to face it.  He appeared intrigued and amazed at first, and I wondered if he was able to see something different from his vantage point.

The shadow being walked toward the psychologist, who remained staring at its face.  It towered over the man.  I’d estimate it to be eight to nine feet tall given the ceilings were ten feet.  Then with the speed similar to a scorpion’s sting, the psychologist was thrust from a sitting position in front of the shadow to being slammed head-first into the ceiling above where he sat.  There he remained, pinned to the ceiling for what seemed like an eternity, though it was likely less than ten seconds, as if gravity didn’t exist.  His neck was severely displaced from the impact as his head was flattened.  One of his eyes was dangling by the optic nerve, freed from its socket as blood streamed out of his mouth and nostrils and began pooling on the chair he had just been in, and eventually flowed onto the floor.

In an instant, the lights came back on and gravity got to work as the psychologist’s body fell from the ceiling, landing on the upright chair, and clearly causing more lower spine damage as a result of the fall.  Blood splashed in every direction.  Some landed on the face of the subject, who sat still like a statue throughout most of the encounter.  Then I watched as a gap in the blood on his face grew and revealed an unnatural, exceedingly wide grin.  In that moment, my eyes locked with his, and I can’t explain how, but I knew he was aware of my presence some twenty-five meters away behind a mirror.

I blinked and his grin had all but disappeared as a door into his room flew open and three orderlies ran over to him to place him in restraints while he sat in his chair.  A large syringe was injected into his neck before he went unconscious and was carried out of the room by the orderlies; One for each arm and one at his feet.

This concludes my observations of the event.  As I previously noted, I have been asked here as a consultant from the Occult Studies Department to observe and provide an assessment, or at least offer my opinion, based on my professional expertise.  I am assuming, without much direction given, that I am to comment on the shadow being I witnessed as I have had little exposure to the psychological testing of the Maker group.  I find this ironic because in my rare interactions with the Department of Psychical Research, my line of work had been mocked quite publicly as it was never given any consideration as a serious area of scientific research.  I could say the same about their department.

Either way, at first glance the manifestation of this entity appears to be demonic in nature, but to prove that, I would need to know the identity of the demon and confront it when it shows itself again.  I can think of a couple of demons with this known appearance, and one of them would be considered an eminent threat of positively ID’d.  However, its behavior is not necessarily consistent with any known demonic entities.  

If I were to conjure a guess, it appeared to be doing the will of the subject rather than manipulating the subject to do its own will.  The only known service that demonic entities perform is to the greater evil or to higher-level demons.  I suppose it’s possible, and that’s if this was a real demon, that the goals of the subject could have aligned with the demon’s, but I know of no example of such a partnership.  No, based on my observations, this entity was brought forth by the subject.

How could the subject have manifested this shadow being?  If the subject was strictly a Shepherd, this manifestation would have occurred in a dream state.  I would need to consult the brainwave patterns to make sure this wasn’t the case, but I’m nearly certain it wasn’t based on my physical observations of the subject.  This means the being was manifested while the subject was awake, which would imply the subject meets the Maker criteria despite having documented Shepherd abilities.

To possess both Shepherd and Maker abilities is anomalous.  It’s possible there are individuals who have been documented by the Psychical Research Department who have previously, but I, personally, have never seen it.

Because I fear this may be new territory to the likes of what Hydra has seen before, we must consider several possible scenarios, some outside of our current knowledge.  First, the subject could possess both Shepherd and Maker abilities. Second, there could be new abilities presented as a result of the close proximity of this mysterious Pyramidion and its unknown origin.  Perhaps this object somehow amplifies or distorts abilities already present.  

I fear others in the Occult Studies Department might incorrectly conclude this entity as demonic if shown the footage.  But I could not suggest what exactly this entity might be, if not demonic.  Was it brought here from some parallel dimension?  Is it possible that demons don’t behave the same way in other dimensions?  I would recommend an expert in string theory be questioned about this.  

Of course, it’s always possible that the subject simply imagined this being and manifested it from absolutely nothing.  If this is the case, the objects he would be capable of manifesting would only be limited to his imagination, which could place us all in extreme danger.  We must consider that the murder of the clinical psychologist I witnessed could have been performed by either the subject himself, using the shadow entity to disguise his own actions.  Or, and I’m not sure if this is better or worse, the shadow entity itself murdered the psychologist.  If that possibility is to be considered, what other abilities might this entity possess?  And does it exist and act now with its own free will?  If that is the case, what are its motives?  As you can see, the circle of questions leads down a very dangerous path.  Unfortunately, in order to answer these questions, one must form hypotheses that are deadly, not to mention, incredibly unethical to put to the test.  I fear we may no longer be able to control the outcomes of these experiments, and it is without reservation that I must recommend they cease immediately and the subject be terminated.

I do not make this recommendation lightly, but we must also find out if it was the subject’s imagination that inspired the creation of this being, or if his thoughts were influenced prior to this event.  I wonder, due to the similarity in characteristics of this being with demonic entities (especially known ones), was he provided with some literature or education in occult studies or demonology that preceded this event?  This must be learned, but not at the expense of allowing the subject to regain consciousness again.  

Holy shit!  In a lot of ways, I can’t believe this is the same Malcolm that I’ve met and spoken to… and carved a symbol into with a dull knife.  I was already cautious of him, but what the hell am I supposed to think after all this?

It occurred to me that this kind of makes sense to an extent.  At least the part that talks about this shadow being not necessarily being a demonic entity.  We faced the Grinner in a church, thinking that would somehow weaken him or prevent him from having any authority there.  He dismembered a werewolf-slash-priest and morphed into a creature I could have never imagined in my worst nightmares.  What if he wasn’t a demon at all?  That would mean that Malcolm created him and knows exactly what he’s capable of doing.  He knows what limitations and weaknesses the Grinner had.  And what’s to say he couldn’t just create him again?  Or maybe something worse?

Even still more perplexing to me is why my name is in the medical documents labeled as a Maker.  Am I capable of similar things?  What kinds of things happened in my childhood that I can’t remember?  I need to go through more of Patel’s documents.

The Pyramidion – Season 4 Episode 7

An old photo depicts a mirrored, pyramid-shaped object in a desert with mountains in the background. In the foreground, a sign labeled "UNITED STATES ARMY" is obscured by a red stamp that says "CLASSIFIED."

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The Storage Papers is a fiction horror podcast.

Discretion is advised.

See Content Warnings
Possible suicide under suspicious circumstances, references to experiments conducted on children, general horror.
Need to skip this episode? Click here to see the plot.
Jeremy receives documents from Doctor Patel. They reference interactions from the nineteen twenties with an object called a “Pyramidion.” This object is the same item Brianne saw in the episode, A House on the Corner, that is shaped like a pyramid and appears to be completely mirrored. Those spending time in proximity to a Pyramidion tend to experience changes and interact with people from the past, even coming away with long-lost objects.
Brianne calls Jeremy and tries using something from Doctor Patel’s letter on the medical files. It unlocks the rest of the files. She discovers that she and her brother are in the files labeled as Shepherds, while Jeremy and Malcolm are in them listed as Makers.
Jeremy receives a text message that says “El Campo – Saturday, nine PM.”

Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

SOUND: A phone is ringing.

JEREMY: Hello?

DETECTIVE ANDERSON: Oh thank God you’re okay!  I was about to come looking for you. Ron has been calling you, too.  Turn on Channel Eight News!

JEREMY: Okay, I’m watching. It’s about a woman jumping from a highrise. 

DETECTIVE ANDERSON: Jeremy, I’m at the scene now.  The woman…it’s Dr. Patel.

JEREMY: What?!

DETECTIVE ANDERSON: Just wanted to let you know since Ron is looking for her and I can’t seem to get in touch with him.  Would you make sure he knows the next time you speak with him? 

JEREMY: Sure, yeah, I can do that.

DETECTIVE ANDERSON: Everything okay?

JEREMY (VOICE OVER): No. Everything was not okay. 

JEREMY: Yeah…I’m just surprised, is all.


I was surprised alright–surprised that I may be the very last person she communicated with before she died.  Although I highly doubt she committed suicide.  Something’s not right.  I should tell Anderson about the email.  The package.  I’m not sure why I didn’t.  I’m hoping the email address she used wasn’t traceable.  I guess I’m going to need to say something sooner or later.  Just not today.  If I say I waited a couple of days to claim the package, that will give me a chance to review its contents before they connect the email to me.  Then I can say it wasn’t worth mentioning until I confirmed there was an actual package.  I just hope I can look at everything and tell them about it before they realize she emailed me.

God, listen to me!  I’m withholding information from Anderson, but I just don’t know who to trust right now.  My thoughts are always racing.  I just need to calm down and start looking through the box to see what she sent me.

The box looked like it was about the size that reams of copy paper come in, but instead of a lid on the top, it had flaps.  It was extremely heavy.  I pulled out my keys and cut into the tape holding the box flaps open.  It was full of documents filed vertically, taking up the entire width of the box, and there was a small, hand-written note on the top of the stack lying flat.  It reads:


Jeremy,

I realize by now you have little to no reason to trust me, but I have been following your podcast and can’t help but to feel an element of remorse for some of the activities I’ve taken part in on behalf of Hydra, as well as my employer, SCIC.  Things have been so compartmentalized, and I’ve always had my suspicions about what we were doing, but I haven’t really had any confirmation until you started coming forward with some of the contents you’re reviewing that belonged to Ronald Hammond.  

I wish I had more time to explain here, but I fear I have drawn some unwanted attention to myself recently.  While I would be happy to find a way to have a long conversation with you, the risk is far too extreme at the moment, and I figure the contents of this box will supplement your collection and help you to trust me just a little.

Please know that I have been in contact with Malcolm Foye.  We have been working together to find his grandfather, Joseph, who knows where the object is…or at least where it will show up next, and when.

The handwriting gets sloppier here and it seems like she may have been rushed.

I wish I could write more…running out of time now.  The files are in order, so start at the beginning.  You and the others have been through so much!  Will talk soon!

A.P.

LERNAIA (followed by a six-digit number)


“Me and the others?”  “Lernaia?” What the hell does that mean?  I’m using my better judgment and choosing not to read the six-digit number in case my suspicion might be correct about its usage.  She also said, “Will talk soon!”  Even if she was in a hurry, it doesn’t sound like she realized her life was in jeopardy.

I know she’s dead now, but the fact that she admitted she was working with Malcolm–and was likely aware of Brianne being abducted and held against her will by him… that doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of trust.  I sent a text to Brianne to see if Lernaia and those six digits mean anything to her, without providing any context yet. And in the meantime, I’ve got some new documents to dig through.

I think I might know what “object” they’re looking for…and I’m pretty sure Brianne has seen it.  I chose to follow Patel’s instructions and start at the beginning.  I pulled the first file out, which seemed really old and had a few documents contained within.  You’ll be pleased to hear there aren’t any redactions in any of the documents I’ve seen thus far.  The first document is from nineteen twenty-two and the paper is aged.  It appears to be a letter from local law enforcement regarding an object found in the L.A. Basin, though it doesn’t specify exactly where.  It reads:


War Department

Care of the United States Army

Sir,

On November twenty-second, nineteen twenty-two, I was assigned to investigate an object of unknown origin or composition, which was found near a newly discovered oil field in the Los Angeles Basin.  A representative from the drilling team named Walter Doyle claims that the object mysteriously appeared, which was not present the previous day.  Mister Doyle stated he left the field at approximately eighteen-thirty hours on Tuesday, the twenty-first and upon his return around oh five-thirty hours on the twenty-second, the object was around fifty meters from his work site.  Mister Doyle stated the object’s appearance resembled some kind of bomb or projectile and he feared for his safety and for that of his work crew.  I provided specific instructions to maintain at least a one hundred meter distance from the object until it could be thoroughly investigated.

I arrived some time after thirteen hundred hours on the twenty-second to inspect the object and was unable to identify it or determine whether it poses a risk to the vicinity.  I took the liberty of taking some measurements and have maintained a secure perimeter around the object, posting a twenty-four hour watch with our officers rotating duty every eight hours.  

The object is metallic in nature and stands around three meters in height.  It is silver and clearly reflective, with a triangular shape.  I would estimate its base to be around one-half meter and it comes to a very sharp point at the apex, giving it an elongated pyramid-shape. There are no visible signs of construction such as seams or rivets, and it appears to be a single, solid piece of metal.  I could not gather precise measurements for reasons I will explain momentarily and I was not able to complete a close-up inspection of the object as I could only get about ten feet away from it.  

I did not believe it to be an explosive device, so my plan was to dig around its base in order to determine how deep it may have descended into the dirt, if indeed it fell from the sky.  I noticed after about thirty minutes within its presence, I began to feel disoriented and nauseated.  I removed myself from the immediate area and the effects seemed to go away, but when I returned, they only intensified and I began vomiting and experiencing a general weakness in my body.  Another officer on the scene claimed to have the same sensations, though he maintained much further distance from the object, but had been present significantly longer.

One other detail of note that could be subjective, but worthy of mentioning is the perception of things going on around the object seemed to be different for myself and other officers.  It is difficult to explain, but one of my officers noted as I approached the object, it appeared from his vantage point that my movements would slow down and continued to slow down the closer I went to it.  What felt like minutes to me, he claimed, elapsed several hours while he maintained his post at his one hundred meter distance.  He claimed to have been calling out to me, but I did not hear him, nor did I respond.  He had only mentioned it when he asked who would be relieving him for his shift and I was under the impression he had several hours remaining.  When I took my pocket watch out to check the time, he noted my watch was nearly three hours slow compared to his own.  The watch was still functioning and did not need to be wound, and I am certain it was on time at the beginning of my day.  It’s something I can’t quite explain, and am excluding from my initial report.

Because I believe this object to be potentially harmful and of foreign origin, and nothing I have ever seen the likes of, I am formally requesting a military evaluation of the object with all of the resources at the Army’s disposal to determine next steps.  Additional concerns include the proximity to one of the oil fields.  If there is any chance that the object is ordinance of some kind, we wish to avoid any fire damage that may be caused by the ignition of oil in the area. 

With that, we will maintain a patrol around the object at a safe distance around the clock and will await further instructions from you.

Sincerely,

Earnest Thompson

Los Angeles Police Department


This thing sounds exactly like what Brianne had an encounter with in that basement last season.  Very interesting!  Wait a second… hold on just a moment.  

SOUND: Jeremy is typing on a keyboard.

Holy crap! Okay, so if you might recall, I asked for some help with our website seemingly glitching out at the end of last season.  Well, that led down a rabbit hole of puzzles to solve that a small group of our listeners worked on in The Storage Papers’ Discord server.  I’ll spare you the details, but with a little help from 4thTrumpet on Twitter, once all of the puzzles were solved, there were three files that we were given access to.  At least two of them, and likely the third, were Hydra documents.

The first was a field report signed by Doctor Patel, talking about RH (I’m assuming that’s Ron Hammond) finding some kind of locator after someone’s death, which somehow confirmed his loyalty.  There’s mention of the locator being the only instrument capable of finding the object, but the name of the object was redacted in that document.

The second document that was discovered, also a single page, looks like an abstract for a research paper where testing of an object was being conducted titled, “Physical Effects of Temporal Distortion by Proximity.”  It mentioned placing an object, with the name of the object redacted, different distances away from unsuspecting children and taking measurements of magnetism and visible light, as well as brain wave patterns of the kids. Fucking sickos! 

The first two documents had the seven-fingered hand logo on it, but the last document was a map with Coronado Island right in the middle of it.  Two red “X’s” were on the map.  One of them was at the Naval Station on the island.  The other, when plotted in Google Earth, was a residential address.  I’m betting that’s the house that Brianne was in back in Season Three, in the episode, A House on the Corner.  The object she saw–that pyramid–sounds exactly like what’s being described here.  Her experiences with it were vivid, and I recall her saying it just appeared out of nowhere in that basement.  If you’re interested, I’ll post copies of those documents in the show notes on our website.

There’s more from Doctor Patel.  The very next document looks like a field report relating to the pyramid structure from December ninth, nineteen twenty-two.  It reads:


Initial Field Report from Los Angeles County

Army Corps of Engineers

Doctor Henry Barnham Reporting:

Due to the nature of conditions reported prior to the Army Corps of Engineers’ arrival, extreme caution was exercised in assessments taken.  I arrived with my team just two days ago on December 7th and first began physical observation, including photography to confirm the approximate size and shape of this Pyramidion reported by the LAPD was accurate. 

Several observational testing methods were employed to gather data.  We had initially noted several unique characteristics immediately when our instruments were powered on:

There were fluctuations in electromagnetic energy near the object that appeared erratic, and no pattern could be established during our brief observation.  Bursts of radio frequency, electromagnetic radiation, and x-radiation in low amounts were observed.  When our sensors were stationary, the signal was not consistent  in all of the observed electromagnetic spectrums, however, when our sensors were moved closer to the Pyramidion, some changes were seen.

In regards to magnetism, the closer we moved to the object, the higher the magnetic field being detected.  Several readings were taken at varying distances from the Pyramidion, which seemed to correlate with the Inverse Square Law of physics.  In essence, every time we halved our sensor distance to the Pyramidion, the magnetic field grew four times as strong.  Our sensors began to malfunction once we reached a ten meter distance, and could therefore no longer record data.  With the data we had gathered at further distances, we could estimate that the magnetic field seeming to originate from the Pyramidion would be at least one hundred times that of the earth’s gravitational pull, if not more.  Inconsistent with known laws of physics, however, was that the magnetism being detected by our sensors was not observed with ferrous metals being placed within the strongest regions of the field less than ten meters from the source. 

An experimental version of the Geiger Counter was used to detect x-radiation at various distances from the Pyramidion.  Most data collected indicated adherence to the Inverse Square Law as well, considering the Pyramidion as the potential source of radiation.  In contrast, there were noted spikes of energy ranging from sub-second intervals to five or six second intervals, which did not appear to be in a recognizable pattern.  Each spike was accompanied by a decrease in radiation intensity that was not found to be proportional with the preceding spikes.  

We also measured radio waves near the object, which maintained a consistent frequency throughout all of testing.  We were able to measure signal strength at ten meters from the Pyramidion, at one hundred meters, and at one thousand meters in a northerly direction.  As radio waves should also obey the Inverse Square Law of physics and be reduced at further distances, we saw no change in frequency strength at the distances measured.  A decision was made to gather readings of the same distance to the South, the East and the West with identical results.  The only proposed hypothesis, which we were unable to test further, was that the source of the radio waves was larger than the object itself.  Unfortunately, with the data collected and no distinguishable differences in signal strength, we were not able to determine whether the radio waves were originating from the Pyramidion, or if it may have been some kind of geological phenomenon specific to the region.  Data collected later indicated the presence of the Pyramidion may have influenced the radio waves, however it could not be confirmed as the origin, though no data was collected suggesting an alternate origin.

The team decided to make camp overnight with plans to conduct further testing in the morning.  We discussed the potential safety concerns and what precautions we would take the following morning before retiring for the night at approximately twenty-three hundred hours.  Upon waking the next morning at oh five hundred hours, I was notified by one of my team members that the Pyramidion was no longer there.  

I conducted an investigation by interrogating each member of the team individually and in isolation, and all accounts are similar in that the Pyramidion was present before going to sleep, and no one saw it prior to oh five hundred this morning.  We estimated the potential weight to be at least a half-ton based on its dimensions seen above ground, and depending on the metallic composition.  This would require heavy machinery to move and no horse or automobile tracks, or evidence of cranes or lifts were visible in the dirt surrounding the area.  None of the team experienced any noise or sleep disturbances throughout the night, and we cannot explain how it may have left the area.

We spent the morning taking additional readings to compare to data collected the previous day.  

There was no evidence of radiation, which would indicate the Pyramidion is not radioactive and suggest it was the source of the x-radiation.

The aforementioned radio waves were no longer present as well.  This does not lend any evidence that the Pyramidion was the source of the radio waves, however it doesn’t exclude it.  There is a possibility that it somehow amplified a radio signal from an external source, but without further testing in its presence, no further data collection is possible.

In regards to the high levels of magnetism observed yesterday, there remains substantial traces of magnetism in the Pyramidion’s absence.  I have instructed our team to collect core samples of the earth at varying depths for testing, but regardless of those results, I cannot explain how the ground would be able to retain this level of electromagnetism after removal of the source, if indeed that’s what caused it to begin with.  

We have no hypothesis regarding how the radiation was being generated as the Pyramidion does not appear to have moving parts or a power source of any kind.  It makes no noise, however, the physical effects described in the LAPD report were observed in some of my team who were close to it, even with protective gear.  We cannot make any conclusions based on the collected data except that it did not possess the qualities of anything occurring in nature, and the symmetry and observed properties imply it was intentionally constructed with a greater knowledge of physics than our top scientists in the United States.  Of course, those scientists will be contacted for peer review of data and consultation for next steps and if we encounter the Pyramidion again, to develop a protocol based on a potential limited timeframe for observation.


There was another note from Doctor Henry Barnham attached to this one dated three days later.  Unlike the previous one, this one is in handwriting–not typed–and it has some very peculiar implications.


To whom it may concern,

In the last three days since my interaction with the Pyramidion, I have experienced remarkable things.  Along with only one other member of my twelve-man team, we seem to have developed some symptoms not shared by the whole team.  At first, I considered them to be hallucinations, but I later found out that I was observing real events.

The same night the Pyramidion disappeared, I had dreamt of it.  I was standing in front of it, watching my reflection, which was as clear, if not clearer, than any mirror I’ve ever seen.  My hands were making motions and my mouth was moving in the reflection, but I was standing still.  The image then changed from my reflection to seeing lost loved ones, and they interacted with me.  My sister, who passed away when I was in the War, appeared.  Her hand reached toward me in the reflection, and then through the reflection to grasp my wrist.  Her other hand extended through the mirror and when she opened it, a ring was in her palm.  It was our mother’s wedding ring.  I hadn’t seen the ring since my mother passed, and I remember arguing with my sister about who would get the ring since I was courting at the time and she was not.  My sister kept it until she died, and when I returned from the War, I couldn’t find it.  I took the ring from her hand and she retreated back into the Pyramidion. The next morning, I was making my bed when I heard something drop onto the floor.  It was the ring!

The next night, I dreamt I was suspended from the ceiling in my office at the Army Corps of Engineers.  I watched in silence as my superior entered my office, knelt down on one knee, and searched through the file cabinet behind my desk that was low to the floor.  He retrieved a set of data collected from the site where the Pyramidion was located, and then hurried to close the drawer and stand up to leave the room.  When he stood and swung round toward the door, he lost his balance and his ribs caught the corner of my desk, putting a small tear in the linen of his shirt and knocking over a picture of my wife.

The following day, which was yesterday, I returned from lunch to pass him in the hallway outside of my office.  His face was beet-red and he had a file folder under his arm.  As he passed, I stopped him to greet him, and as he turned, I could see the tear in his shirt.  I chose not to pursue any questioning at that time, deciding to look for further confirmation of what I suspected: that my dream was a premonition of this day.  I quickly returned to my office and noticed the picture of my wife face-down on my desk.  It was not like that when I went to lunch.  When I searched my file cabinet, the file with the data was gone.  Thankfully, I had the wherewithal to ask my secretary to make copies of it all early that morning on a silly hunch.  I had no idea it would play out this way.

My experiences continue throughout today, but seem to be dissipating as time goes on.  The dreams are not as vivid and I am having a difficult time remembering details, so I can’t be as certain as the previous two nights that unexplained events are occurring.  For the purpose of research, I would suggest following up with my fellow team members to compare experiences.  For the purpose of security and in the interest of the Army Corps of Engineers, I suggest looking into my direct superior, Doctor James Lowell.

Doctor Henry Barnham

Twelfth December, nineteen twenty-two.


I did some quick searching online for references of a pyramid shape that appears and disappears throughout history.  While I couldn’t specifically find any pyramids, there were a lot of mentions in folklore referring to pyramids and obelisks appearing over centuries.  Sometimes they were noted to have appeared preceding significant historical events, often catastrophic in nature.  Occasionally, they would disappear right before those events unfolded.

I don’t know if they’re related or not, and they’re not pyramids, but do you recall those strange monoliths that were appearing over the last few years?  They were triangle in shape, but they weren’t pointed at the top; just flat.  Some of them had similar features such as no evidence of construction, but some had rivets and were passed off as art pieces.  The first time I heard about these was regarding one discovered in the desert in a canyon in Utah, but I also recall one appearing in Southern California as well, and even as far as Romania in recent years.  I might need to dig into this more, but I have to wonder if they’re related somehow.


SOUND: A phone is ringing.

JEREMY: Hello?

BRIANNE: Hey, it’s me.

JEREMY: I’m going to go ahead and hit the record button… is that enough fair warning?

BRIANNE: Sure, I guess… it’s still annoying though.

JEREMY: Sorry.

BRIANNE: What made you text me “L-Lernaia [bleep]”?

JEREMY: I got it from Patel.  She’s dead by the way… long story and I’ll explain later.

BRIANNE: What?!  I feel like I just saw her… or heard her at least.  I swear that woman was there, where Malcolm was holding me.  I don’t mean to speak ill about the dead, but don’t trust her!  She’s evil.

JEREMY: So, any thoughts on Lernaia?

SOUND: Brianne is typing.

BRIANNE: Um… You got this from Dr. Patel?

JEREMY: Yeah, why?

BRIANNE: I literally just played a hunch right now.  Jeremy, Lernaia [bleep] is the password to the medical files!  I have full access!

JEREMY: Holy shit!  What do you see?

SOUND: Brianne is clicking her mouse.

BRIANNE: There’s so many files!  And there’s a database too.  Hold on.

SOUND: Brianne clicks her mouse again.

BRIANNE: Jeremy, I found files on me and Ben.  We’re labeled as Shepherds.

JEREMY: What?!

SOUND: Brianne is typing.

BRIANNE: Malcolm is in here too…he’s been labeled as a Maker.  What’s a “Maker”?

[pause]

JEREMY: Okay, I’m dumbfounded. Do you recognize any other names?

SOUND: Brianne is typing again.

BRIANNE:  Jeremy, you’re listed here as a Maker, too.

SOUND: A mouse is double-clicked.

BRIANNE: Your whole life is here, Jeremy.  Your childhood, your birth certificate…your parents’ names!

[another pause]

BRIANNE: Jeremy, are you there?

JEREMY: Yeah, I’m just… I guess I’m in a state of disbelief and I don’t really know what to say.

SOUND: A text message alert goes off.

JEREMY: Hang on a sec.

[pause]

JEREMY: I just got a text from a private number.  It says, “El Campo – Saturday, nine PM.”