Investigation Log: Anomaly O-1883
Date: 03/05/1999 @ 15:08
Location: Gamla Stan[i], Sweden
Foreword: Local complaints of anomalous flooding garnered interest, prompting the mobilization of an investigation team. Mobile Investigation Team ████████ were dispatched – Agents Carlyle and Sundqvist assigned.
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[Agents approach an apartment building located on the street of Brunnsgränd. The architecture reflects 15th century style and a brick red façade, top two floors are tapered (three windows on floors 1-3, two windows on floor 4, and one window on floor five). Water is pouring from the fourth story windows, the glass visibly broken allowing the water to cascade down the building.]
Agent Sundqvist: Command, we’ve found the source of the reports. Looks like the fourth story of an apartment building is flooded.
Command: None of the other floors?
Agent Carlyle: Not obviously, no.
Command: Proceed into the building, try to confirm the anomalous nature of the phenomenon.
[The two agents enter the ground floor, finding a small crowd of residents in the entryway, staring up the stairwell. A small trickle of water is pouring down the stairs.]
Agent Sundqvist: Excuse me, ma’am. Can you tell us what’s happening?[ii]
Civilian woman: Are you with the police?
[The agent nods and pulls out a badge from the Swedish Police Authority.]
Civilian woman: Oh good. Yeah, there were some loud screams from the top floors, then water started pouring out from under their door.
Agent Sundqvist: We’ll investigate. For now, if we could get everyone to leave the building?
[The two agents make sure the civilians evacuate and then start climbing the stairs. As they ascend, the water increases until when they are on the fourth floor the water level rises to ankle level. The fourth floor is dedicated to one unit, the door to 4A directly off the stairwell. Water is steadily pouring underneath the door. Each of the agents gets on either side of the door, drawing their sidearms. Sundqvist pounds on the door.]
Agent Sundqvist: Police Authority! Can anyone hear me?
[A visceral cry comes from beyond the door. Carlyle meets her partner’s eyes, who nods to her. Carlyle pulls a prybar from her pack and forces it between the door and the jamb. A little water escapes as she pushes the bar in deeper.]
Agent Carlyle: Stand clear.
[Sundqvist moves back a few meters, bracing against the support beam in the stairwell. Carlyle begins putting pressure on the door, leaning her whole weight into the makeshift lever. The agent grunts with effort, straining against the door. Finally, the door rips off its hinges and flies down the stairwell on a rolling wave of rushing water. Sundqvist fights to stay upright as the water hits his knees and the door slides past him down the stairs. After thirty seconds, the flow decreases and Sundqvist ascends towards the door. Carlyle enters first, pry bar in one hand and side arm in the other.]
Agent Sundqvist: We’re coming in!
[A humanoid form rushes Agent Carlyle, crawling on all fours and then leaping at the Agent. Carlyle pivots to the side and strikes the humanoid on the back of the neck as it launches past her. The form falls prone, unmoving. The figure is an unconscious man of middle age, viscous black fluid is dripping from the eyes, ears and mouth. The affected civilian’s skin is pale and bloated, appearing to have drowned hours before.]
Agent Carlyle: Dead?
Agent Sundqvist: Yeah. But I don’t think it was you.
[The entryway is filled with furniture and debris from within the apartment pushed by the flow of water. Jazz music is heard from the other room.]
Agent Carlyle: What is that?
[The agents walk down a short hallway and enter a waterlogged living room. A couch is pushed against a wall and tipped on its side, a glass coffee table mostly shattered, bookshelves empty with ruined books pushed up against the wall. And yet, a 24cm combination television/VCR on its stand is undamaged and playing a recording. The jazz music is coming from the television. Water is pouring out of the speakers and from the tape slot on the VCR.]
Agent Carlyle: What the…?
[On the screen a men’s jazz band plays a song while marching down cobbled streets. The band is accompanied by four figures in white robes, hoods up, covering their faces. The figures walking alongside the jazz band sing a classic gospel song entitled Wade in the Water. The sound of the singing is distorted slightly, sounding like it is echoing in a large space.]
[Sundqvist walks around the back of the television, looking for any source of the water. He notices the plug for the television isn’t even connected. He holds up the cord for Carlyle to see.]
[Another humanoid entity lurches out from behind the TV, having been covered by debris. The entity was apparently a woman, but like the first, it is bloated with all orifices leaking black viscous fluid. The entity tackles Sundqvist, with them both falling to the floor. Sundqvist pushes the entity up and away from his body, while the entity reaches for the agent’s face. The agent is barely able to keep the entity far enough away so as to not let the fingers reach his face. The black fluid dripping from the entity’s eyes and mouth drips over Sundqvist’s face and chest.]
Agent Sundqvist: Do something!
[Carlyle pushes open the cover to the tape slot and sees a VHS, she pushes the eject button and the tape physical pushes out of the slot. The TV stops playing the video, the sound ceases, and the water no longer flows out of the television. The entity crumples on top of Agent Sundqvist, who struggles to push the body off of him. He is covered in the black fluid and sopping wet from the floor.]
[Carlyle holds up the tape and smiles.]
End of Log
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Anomaly O-1883
Description: Anomaly is a seemingly non-anomalous video tape recording of the Gamla Stan Men’s Jazz Club during a 1988 parade, with four apparently humanoid entities singing Wade in the Water.
The anomalous effect begins when the tape is played on a television. It is unknown how the anomaly functions but while it is inserted into a VCR, the anomaly provides its own power. As the tape plays (always in a five minute loop of indefinite length), water pours from the speakers, VCR and any other openings in the TV. The water will behave in non-anomalous ways, following the path of gravity and least resistance. If a person drowns in the water created by the anomaly, the resulting cadaver will reanimate and seek to protect the playing of the anomaly – up to and including physical violence.
Personnel should check the anomaly’s containment hourly, as it has been shown to be capable of manifesting outside of containment chambers and self-inserting into nearby equipment. The manner of this anomalous behavior is poorly understood at the time of writing.
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[i] Old Town Stockholm – also known as Staden Mellan Broarna (The Town between the Bridges).
[ii] Translated from Swedish.
Sources:
Grigori Karpin
Mr. Illustrated
