Archive

Department 18
 

CASE D18 – XOX417 1986, LOCATION UNDISCLOSED.

Facts are inconclusive.

This appears to be an attempt to open one of the 7 Gateways and release one or more of the mid level Demons.

Quotes are taken from a fictionalised version of the incident (see postscript)

The facts are that a Surrey man drove to visit his uncle in Cornwall.

The uncle appears unwell – “ … jumped out of the car and shook his hand warmly.  My first impression that he hadn't changed was wrong.  He had aged ten years in the last three.”

The uncle immediately reveals the purpose of the visit - "Do you know what the Seven Gateways of Hell are, Gary?  Legend has it they are the doorways through which the inhabitants of the underworld come through to seek entrance into our world."

"… one of those Gateways is here, on this farm and I need your help in dealing with it.  You must appreciate the danger we're dealing with."

The nephew is sceptical and asks to be shown some proof. He is actually merely humouring his uncle whom he believes become senile living alone on this remote far.

He is taken out onto the land and shown an isolated meadow where – “…a few steps closer and realised it wasn't grass, but a gaping hole about fifty feet in diameter.  Paul reached down and picked up a stone about the size of a child's fist and dropped it down into the hole.  "Listen," he said, his voice low, barely more than a whisper. I listened, I heard nothing, and told him so. "Bottomless." "And that's the Gateway?"  I said.

The uncle then reveals that he has seen things coming out of the hole. We must assume these are the lesser demons preparing for the incursion.

This assumption is supported by what the nephew sees – “I ran outside to find my uncle standing below my window, a shotgun in his hands.  At his feet was the torch, it's white light falling on something that made me want to retch. The thing on the ground was about the size of a five-year-old child.  Its head and part of its shoulder had been completely blown away by the blast from Paul's shotgun.  The rest of it was like something from the foulest nightmare.  The skin was dark brown, wrinkled and covered in open sores, seeping milky yellow fluid.  Its spine was raised and twisted.  The arms were long, long enough for the hands to reach the ground should the thing stand upright, and they ended in claw like hands.  The feet too were claw like, but possessed of prehensile toes.  I looked up the side of the house.  There was nothing that thing could have used as hand holds on the smooth boards, yet somehow it had reached my window, the crimson patch on the boards told me that much.”

NOTE – this description is new at this stage and is being researched at section 4.

The  reason for the uncle to ask the nephew to the farm at this specific time is then revealed. - "There are certain times of the year when the Gateway can be breached.  All Hallows Eve, that's one.  Then there are the occult sabbats, Lammas, Candlemass and so on.  And then there are the two solstice days, December 22nd and..." "June 21st," I said.  "Tomorrow. 

"Yes, tomorrow.  They'll come for me then.  I was doing some blasting in the west meadow, trying to start a new well.  It seemed cheaper and quicker than digging irrigation ditches.  Well that initial blast opened that hole I showed you.  Thankfully it happened on one of the days when the forces of Good were at their strongest.  The Gateway opened just a crack, just enough to let out those creatures.  They are half-demons, who live on the very edge of Hades.  Understand, Gary, those creatures are nothing compared to the true inhabitants of the Underworld.  They are there to serve their masters, the real demons.  Demons whose names have been carved into the folklore of so many cultures.  We're talking about Set of the Egyptians, the Red Indian's Coyote, and our very own Satan.  Can you imagine what will happen if the Gateway opens fully and these demons, these forces of unmitigated evil, are let loose on an unsuspecting world?"

NOTE – there is some truth in these, part of the conversation is merely rumour and false accounts spread by D18, and others, through the years, to minimalise  public anxiety.

The uncle recruits his nephew’s assistance to explode dynamite into the hole to seal it.

NOTE – this has been successfully achieves in ----- in 1921 and at ----- in 1954 but it believed this attempt on the Cornish farm is not connected.

“The hole was a seething mass of dust and smoke.  A bright red glow was showing through the cloud and in the middle of the cloud something was moving, something unspeakable, something, which swayed in the air and stretched out black fleshy tentacles to sweep the ground around the pit.  Tentacles that picked at the remainder of the creatures and carried them up to a cavernous mouth.”

“The dynamite had exploded too early.  Instead of closing the Gateway, I had opened it further.”

The uncle dies but the nephew believed he was successful in closing the Gateway.

NOTE – we now know the entrance was passed along the ----- Ley and probably settled in Scotland, offshore at an island locally known as Kulsay.

NOTE – this incident was published as a short story GATEWAY by British fiction writers L H Maynard & M P N Sims who are being investigated.

See www.maynard-sims.com