Archive

Department 18
 

CASE STUDY D18 / 42763

Care – see linked cases D18:1, D18:2 and D18:3

Fancy –

Taken from and edited from the case notes of R Carter (using data collected also by S Davies).

The house - There was nothing very special about the house – a medium sized English suburban semi-detached, built some time in the nineteen thirties, complete with bay windows and a stained glass panel depicting sun-rays, set in the solid green-painted front door, so that it looked like sunlight captured on grass; nothing much to set it apart from its neighbors.

The tree lined avenue was the picture of normality; cars parked either side against the neat verges, hedges precisely clipped, a child’s bicycle on a front drive, the sound of an electric mower buzzing like a sun lazed bee. The house they were visiting looked welcoming, and would have been a pleasant place to spend the afternoon.

The house had been decorated some time in the nineteen-seventies, but the browns, yellows and pinks had faded with age and looked more muted now than when they were first applied. The Fleming’s, the owners of the house, were a couple in their seventies, both retired. It was Mrs. Fleming who had taken the steps to bring in the Department. Her younger brother was high up in the Whitehall pecking order, and a frantic phone call to him had set the wheels in motion. Another phone call was made to Department 18’s head, Simon Crozier, with the request that the Department investigate the house. In deference to the request Carter had been sent; the Department’s top field man.

The owners - Six months ago the couple started hearing things that disturbed their prosaic little life. At first it was nothing more than a few scratches on the ceiling, the odd footfall on the bedroom floor when they were both downstairs, but nothing that couldn’t be explained away rationally; a loose board settling into place, birds or mice setting up home in the eaves of the house, nothing to be alarmed about. They were both getting old and the mind could play tricks.

The smells were more alarming. According to the Fleming’s the kitchen was often filled with the reek of ozone that smelled something like an electrical short circuit. In the lounge it was the odor of sour cream, and in the bedrooms the musty mud and straw smell of an animal pen. But it was the entrance hall that had the most distinctive and most repellent aroma. Mrs. Fleming described it as ‘the smell of something washed up on a beach; dead and rotten.’

There had been a number of physical manifestations, and an alarming amount of damage to both the property and the residents, culminating with old Mr. Fleming being pushed down the stairs. The fall had broken his hip, and a prolonged stay in hospital had precipitated their moving out. He flatly refused to set foot in the house again until it was ‘sorted out!’

The kitchen - It was probably nothing more than a broom cupboard.  Opening the door something jumped out. A cat skidded across the kitchen floor to the back door. Without even checking its stride, it shot out through the cat flap.

The house has been empty for weeks, but there’s no sign that it’s been shut in there for any more than a few hours. No mess, and it certainly couldn’t have survived that long without food and water. It wasn’t real, it didn’t actually exist. The Fleming’s had a cat matching the description of that one, but they found it with its throat cut six months ago.

Plates were lifting from the dresser as if grasped by invisible hands. One after another the plates were being destroyed, smashing down on the floor with such force that pieces of china were embedding themselves in the vinyl.

Whatever was causing the damage was instantly aware of them as soon as they entered the room. There was a momentary pause, and one of the willow pattern plates floated from the dresser, hung in the air for a second then, with frightening force, flew across the room towards them. The plate sailed through the gap between them and smashed on the wall behind, showering them with sharp shards of broken china. Starting as a low rumble a sound started to fill the room. It developed quickly into a chorus of whoops and squeals, underpinned by a deep guttural growling.

The dining room - They were in the dining room. There was a bulge underneath the wallpaper, about the size of a large walnut, and it was moving slowly across the wall at eye level. As it moved it formed a hump in the paper, but behind it the wallpaper was smooth, flattened down as if the hump had never been there.

Whatever was beneath the wallpaper was picking up speed. The paper made a soft hissing sound as it lifted away from the wall. There were three humps, moving parallel to each other diagonally across the wall, and more of the things were creeping up from the skirting board.

Then the wallpaper split and a large beetle emerged, black and glistening, with a hard iridescent carapace. The creature scuttled across the wall, then the carapace opened and it took flight, launching itself at Sian and attaching itself to the soft skin of her neck.

Underneath the wallpaper the rest of the creatures were moving in frenzy, sensing the attack. As the paper lifted and fell in their path it whispered and hissed, filling the room with a soft susurration.

The grip of the creature was fierce and the effort of making it loosen its hold made the sweat bead on Carter’s brow; then suddenly, with a sound like of sigh of resignation the creature released its hold on Sian’s flesh. It writhed in Carter’s grip, the scurrying movement of tiny legs making him shudder. The thing was squirming in his grasp and twisting its head in an effort to bite him.         

As if acting on a signal from the first creature, the other bulges in the wall burst open, like paper eggs hatching, and the air was filled with the sound of twenty or more of the beetles testing their wings.    

Facts -

·         Mr. & Mrs. Fleming reported disturbances in their suburban house that highlighted a potential Department investigation.

·         Reasons included a possible link to recent previous occurrences of a similar nature.

·         R Carter (see personnel file attached Confidential) was sent with his assistant S Davies (possibly now deceased)

·         Report is typically fanciful but tends to support view that previous incidents are linked. (see Appendix 1b for earlier reports – less detailed)

·         House displayed signs of poltergeist presence but none registered.

·         House is considered to be possible line of Ley being investigated.

·         Smells, cat, plates, ‘beetles’, are considered phenomena used as distractions.

·         House location – apart from possible Ley connection – is not unusual in any other regard.

Conclusion –

The recent occurrences should be gathered into a single file.

Carter is suspended from duty.

Davies is ‘missing’.

Crozier should be instructed to send a team to the site locations in order of occurrence and report back within six weeks.