The Agency

After joining The Agency, I came to know a great many wondrous horrors that existed within our world. Things we would never understand, or things we would desperately attempt to stop, just to be met with the halting hands of gods, both wicked and divine. We were nothing in this world. All those strange creatures and beings and objects that lived beside us in our world wanted us dead. Their only purpose was the eradication of all things human. They came from places of pure nightmare long before I or my associates had ever walked the earth. It was now our job to collect and document them. And what a time we had doing so. These are just a few of the things we had collected in the summer of 1976 starting with an object called ‘The Refusal of Fate’.

‘Refusal of Fate’ is an 18-inch-by-24-inch acrylic painting, depicting varied shades of corrosive formations on a rough black painted surface. The painting is kept within a wooden gold-painted frame with the words ‘Durum enim michi’ etched into the bottom right, a Latin translation of the words ‘Refusal of Fate’. Individuals who touch the painting begin deteriorating away into a black mass that continues to dissipate until the victim has completely vanished into a mass of black dust that eventually fades away. This leaves no trace of the individual. This process of deterioration does not seem to hurt those who touch the painting, but past victims have noted a feeling of supreme numbness directly after coming into physical contact with it, all the way up until they are completely disintegrated.

The deterioration process last for ten seconds, starting from where the individual touched the painting and spreading until the entire victim is gone. The corrosive material carried on the painting cannot be removed with tools and it is unable to be studied as any attempt to take samples ends with experiments concluding that only black acrylic paint resides on it’s surface, and no evidence of any other materials or substances can be found. After an individual has been completely deteriorated by the painting, they will then appear on the surface of the canvas, as if painted themselves. This occurs roughly five seconds after complete disintegration. The individual remains on the surface of the canvas for ten seconds after appearing and then slowly fades away. Two people cannot be absorbed at the same time.

If two individuals touch the painting at the same time, the canvas will randomly select one and begin the corroding process. In the ten seconds in which the deteriorated person appears on the canvas’ surface, the canvas will not absorb others who touch it. This is the only time in which the surface of the canvas can have samples taken off of it. Samples of the paint used to depict the individual’s who were transferred into the painting reveal varied other acrylic paints, with microcosmic elements of human flesh mixed into them. DNA tests before and after an individual has been absorbed by the painting prove that the individuals killed by the canvas’ corrosive surface are indeed transferred to the painting’s surface five seconds after deterioration. It is believed that the painting contains an unknown microorganism that absorbs and eats biological organisms, as only living beings such as people or animals are effected by the canvas’s corrosive.

It is also believed that the unknown microorganism transfers the deteriorated victim onto the canvas as a sort of ‘final feeding process’, yet it is unknown how or why the victim’s exact frontal likeness is adapted to the painting. There are those who also believe the painting to be a living being of supernatural origins; and that this ‘feeding process’ is a way to absorb victims, sending them into another dimension, actually teleporting them during the deterioration process. No studies can be conducted or exist to support this theory. Next on our list was ‘Osiris’ Ring’.

Osiris’ Ring is a large glowing ring of pure neon yellow light. It was discovered one night, on an expedition through the Arctic and spotted floating through the starry sky. The ring does not hold it’s original shape, as echoes and direct sound shakes it like a circular mass of gelatin. The ring is not sentient, but reacts to wind, physical contact and sounds. The center within the ring becomes solid and fades into focus when loud noises occur close to it. When the area around the ring becomes silent again, the center becomes transparent once more. The surface of the ring is said to feel like nothing ever felt before and it is believed to be made up of a type of pure solid energy. The ring emits great masses of energy and warmth, all while giving off a deep humming sounds. As far as anyone knows Osiris’ Ring is harmless and really just focuses as a possible energy source, as it seems to hold no direct destructive capabilities. Then, we came across ‘Adam’s Box’.

This small wooden box, bearing no identifiable marks, was discovered beneath the Vatican Archive in 1996. It is theorized that Adam’s Box has been responsible for the Plague of Athens in Greece, 429 to 426 BC, the Plague of Cyprian in Europe, 250 to 266, the Black Death Incident in Europe, 1346 to 1350, the Italian Plague of 1629 to 1631, the Newcastle Incident in England, 1636, the Great Plague of London, 1665 to 1666 and lastly, the Great Plague of 1738, in Balkans. In all instances the box, simple in design, was opened following the orders of religious leaders at the times of the outbreak’s inceptions. These multiple religious leaders, after discovering the box, incorporated the object into their rituals and practices, eventually resulting in them opening the box, unknowingly having plagues visited unto multiple major populous’.

It is believed that the box, though appearing empty on the inside, carries an invisible virus, obtainable and infections by any means. This illness is reported to be ever-changing and always evolving. This illness, dubbed “Virus-A”, is estimated to be the oldest sickness known to man and can be dated back as existing since long before the Fall of Rome or the supposed Birth of Christ. The virus can only be spread when the box is open. When Adam’s Box is closed the only remaining effects of the virus are found in those already effected. If the box is closed no harm will come to those handling it. The virus exists purely within the interior. No amount of research or study can determine what the virus within the box is, where it originated or how it is unidentifiable. Professional opinion has made it clear that the best course of action is to keep the box closed and never have it opened again. A short time later I had personally met, by chance, ‘The Doll Maker’.

I met him on the streets of Boston a few years ago. He occupied Salem and said he’d made his way all along the east coast. He wasn’t initially violent or mean tempered, but the old stories I had heard about the man I had assumed to be true. In Philadelphia, two hundred or so years back, legends circulated of a man who would craft homemade puppets and dolls, taking to festive streets to sell his creations. A few decades later and the legends began to change. people began to say how the Doll maker was a merchant of death, and how the figurines he sold were once humans who’d committed atrocities, and whom he’d turned into dolls and puppets; Toys to be sold to children. In my line of work I knew the legends to be true, and when i finally seemed this man out he didn’t waste any time in hiding who he was.

I think it was the fact that he wants the world to know who he is. Even after questioning him I still don’t understand all that much about him. I know he’s a couple hundred years old, I know he’s a practitioner of magic and I know he has this seriously warped sense of retribution and righteous judgment. Nevertheless, he wasn’t after my head, and that I am extremely thankful for.

Along with these encounters I also keep logs of experiences, recordings, interviews, reports and accounts some of my associates had with some of their first missions, obtaining creatures, beings and items of interest. Mere snippets of their experiences still send chills down my spine.

“The scariest thing besides having some bloody axe-wielding southerner come at you, growling, with a knife between their teeth, is putting four bullets in their chest and watching them just keep on coming. Glowing eyes and all.” - James Duncan

“When we went down there… to the sewers… there were people strung up in these bubbly cocoon things. Like sacks of pulsing webbing hung up with slime. All this people. We knew they were still alive, slowly dissolving inside those things. Like… their flesh was melting together. Ten people all becoming a sack full of fleshy goop, mixing into one mass of… oh god. The sacks were hanging from the ceiling and as we walked throughout… we could hear the people still screaming inside those things. I’ll never forget that.” - Harry Cooper

“A while ago, in the city, five of our men became phantoms. Those floating things, without faces or forms. Just masses of blue and white energy, like concentrated mist. We detained there situation well enough, but… we also had to capture our men. There’s no way to run them back. Once your a phantom your body kinda… evaporates on the spot. Never seen anything like that.” - Gary Jacobs

We still continue our work today. Now, The Agency holds more than a thousand objects and beings that defy both science and religion. The world has become a darker place, and the pure existence of these evil things makes me truly believe that humans are no more vital to this vast universe than a handful of dirt is after falling into the ocean. Life has no purpose, and we just keep these things locked up so that others may have a chance to live just a little while longer. The clock is ticking and this world of man hasn’t got much time left. But I guess we’ll kept fighting. At the end of the day… we’ll probably just lose anyway. Believe me. We’ve captured god and questioned him to high heaven. He told all of us how it ends. With darkness. And you know what?… I believe him. If you could only see this approaching sunset, then you’d believe… that soon, very soon… it will all be over.