I Am a Therapist for Paranormal Survivors Pt. III: Ursalues

Dorthea describes a patient from before her time. Lost in the bayous of Lousiana, a diseased patient was made to worship a being of pestilence.

Pt. III: Ursalues

There are two kinds of cults. You have your standard egomaniac who seeks out people they ca control to benefit themselves. Now, don’t get me wrong, they’re dangerous. Crazy-pants cult leaders like Manson and Jim Jones have been taking people’s lives, money, and freedom for thousands of years.

Then, there are cults that worship and follow actual entities. These aren’t religions. When I say “entities,” I don’t mean God or Buddha or ancestors or even some weird nature diety. I don’t mean anything divine - I mean dark entities. Entities that do not want your love and care not for your requests or your lives. They want to be worshiped, they want to be gods. They see the veneration people give to their own gods, and they burn with jealousy. 

Some might argue that these entities are old, ancient gods, but that’s all a bit Lovecraftian for me. Call me optimistic, but I like to think that whatever launched this universe into being is benevolent - or at least indifferent to us.

Ursalues is a name that Philip screamed in his sleep.  My father treated him and has given me a lot of details of the man.  He was not dangerous or unsettling, he was to be pitied.  My father did all he could to help the man control his fears, but in the end, Philip could no longer live with the constant panic at the slightest sight of the outdoors and the constant pain of his own rotting arm. One day, he disappeared from his room, and security searched the grounds high and low, They checked his usual hiding spots; in the bathrooms and closets, anywhere that didn’t have any windows. 

They didn’t think to check the freezer.

All covered in ice and laying sprawled out as to minimize his ability to keep himself warm.  Cameras showed that he had made his way to the kitchens around 8pm and was there until one of the cooks found him a little before 7am.

My father said it made perfect sense.

I’m going to transcribe some of my father’s notes about the entity known as Ursalues.  Philip had quite the talent of drawing and using a picture drawn by him as well as how he described the creature in various therapy sessions, my father discusses the entity.

Philip

Dr. James Dix personal notes.

Subject: Ursalues

“Ursalues is an entity that Philip (redacted) encountered while wandering the wilderness somewhere in the bayous of Lousiana.  Philip decided to do a self-tour of the area, ignoring the warnings of locals, and quickly found himself lost.  He climbed a tree in hopes of being safe from the local wildlife, and he said that he dozed off and on throughout the night.  Phillip woke up to the sound of a large creature sniffing around the tree. He said that he thought it was a moose because of how high up the sound was coming from, but remembered that he was not in his homeland of Maine.  When he opened his eyes, he saw a bear.  He assures that this was no regular bear, but the biggest bear he had ever seen.  In a near panic, he insisted that it was as big as a moose - antlers and all - and that it spoke to him.

Philip said that Ursalues told him that he felt his fear, and had come to aid him and protect him.  Philip says he was wary, as the creature reeked. He said it smelled like a wound that had gone septic, and he could hear flies flocking to the beast.  When he hesitated, he said the creature lay beneath the tree and told him that he would wait until he changed his mind.”

At this point, I could hear some paper rustling as he consults Philip’s drawings.

“When day arrived, the creature was still there.  At first, Philip’s descriptions were frantic and muddled, so I stopped him and suggested we go over the creature concentrating on the five senses.  He complied. 

According to his testimonies and drawings, Ursalues was massively large, larger than any known bear.  When it spoke, its voice seemed layered between bass and alto tones, each tone taking point depending on Ursalues’ mood.  What appeared to be spikes of bone stuck randomly from its body, and moss hung from his matted coat.  Yellow liquid dripped from this moss, and when forced to touch the creature, Phillip said he felt like the skin covered a layer of thick liquid.  When Ursalues once ordered him to pull a leach off of his flank, fur and skin came off with it, and the wound leaked yellow-green puss.  He said the smell made him gag and vomit, to which Ursalues did not take kindly to.  He swiped him to the ground and pinned him with a single paw, and let out a roar into his face.  Philip said it stank of blood, and he vomited.  Ursalues continued to hold him down as he choked on his own vomit, only letting him go when Phillip’s body began to seize.  He said the bear rolled him over and hit him on the back with the same paw, forcing more bile up and clearing his throat of the chunky mess.

Ursalues would not allow him to leave the bayou.  He demanded tributes and prayers.  Every night Phillip was forced on his hands and knees for Ursalues to feed him some of its own diseased flesh, and then was made to thank the creature for its kindness.  If he gagged of vomited, Ursealues would pull him by his hair and shove his head into the water, pulling him out and pushing him back in whenever his kicks became too intense.  The creature itself would not enter the water, and would shout at Phillips when he ‘forced’ it to punish him with the cold, cloudy water.

Soon, Philip’s skin began to redden and crack, leaking the familiar puss he had seen on Ursalues.   Phillip admitted to weeping at the pain of the wounds, and that was when Ursalues suddenly changed.  He lay beside him and said to him in a deep, soothing bass. ‘I will heal your wounds, but in return, you must pay me tribute.  I want a shrine and effigy, and I will take your wounds into my own.  You will do what I ask, and you will be healed.’

Philip said that he was in so much agony that he would have done anything to end it.  He forced himself to get up and pulled loose limbs and branched from the ground, dug rocks and mud out of the bayou, and stacked and built until he had made a small shrine.  He created the effigy out of twigs, mud, and small rocks for stability.  When he had shown the shrine to the creature, it had snuffed with mild disappointment but said it was acceptable.

From that day on, Philip claims he could drink from any water source and eat any meat he could find, fresh or rotten.  Plants made him ill, but he found that even the most putrid of dead animals could be consumed with little consequence.  If he felt sick, he would go to his homemade shrine and pray.  Ursalues would rise from the shadows of the bayou and lay beside him, and the illness would disappear. 

Records show…”

A few flipping papers.

“That Phillip was missing for nearly seven months before he was spotted in New Orleans, offering swamp tours at staggeringly low prices.  He insisted that he had to do it, that Ursalues forced him. It wanted more worshippers, and it said that if Phillip did not recruit more that it would no longer treat his wounds or illnesses.  Ursalues said that if Phillip did not return, that it would hunt him down and punish him with all the disease that it had taken from him.

I don’t think that Ursalues can leave that bayou.  If he could, he would have come for Phillip long ago.

Phillip must have been so afraid and brainwashed that he believed what he was told.  Ursalues drew him close and pulled all the dirt, grime, and small injuries into itself. It provided a patchwork of its own dried flesh and fur for him to wear over his chest, but stated that his jeans would be acceptable to wear.  It lead Phillip out of the bayou and directed him to the nearest road and told him where to brink the new disciples he would gather.  Ursalues promised that all would be taken care of.

His first bayou tours only brought a few people at a time.  Phillip said when he returned to the designated area, a crude boat of a hollowed-out tree trunk was waiting.  As he paddled and prattled about the different wildlife and plants in the bayou, he was always keeping an eye out for a mass of mossy fur and the smell of disease. He would lead the group to a piece of solid earth to eat a lunch he provided, and that was when Ursalues would strike.  It would appear, massive and lumbering.  Phillip admitted to always panicking when this would happen, and he’d throw himself at Ursales’ paws and whisper his self-made prayer.

Phillip said that many of the people who brought in were killed.  Ursalues would give them the choice, worship him and never all ill again, or be diseased and consumed.  Throughout his time recruiting for Ursalues, very few agreed to worship at the first offer.  But as they became ill and diseased, many acquiesced and fell to worship Ursalues.  Their wounds and sicknesses were healed, and they too were able to consume any manner of meat and water. 

Those who did not give in were consumed by the rest.

Phillip said they drank from the bayou, drank the blood from fresh kills, and the liquids that leaked from the long-dead. They would eat all of what they hunted, bones and fur and all, and they would scavage for the dead when the hunt was not good.  The shrine grew as each new member was required to add their own, and nightly they would pray and bow to Ursalues as it stood above them all.  They lit fires and torches, made more effigies, and bound together to find more worshippers. However, as more and more people began to disappear, it drew the attention of the authorities. 

Witnesses and family testimonies pointed towards Phillip’s dirt-cheap bayou tours, and next time he was seen in the vicinity, he was taken into custody.  He said it was like a switch had been flipped, and he realized what he had done.  He confessed everything, giving all the details of his two years in the forest and the victims he had lead there. We’re lucky how many people we have to keep an eye out for such cases, or he might have been sent to any number of facilities that would not have helped him.”

After this, my father goes into all the bureaucratic red tape and nonsense we have to abide by, but he does mention something towards the end.  He mentions the high-cost of treatment.

Phillip came into our facility with a wound on his ring finger.  The injury would not heal, instead consuming and rotting the skin around it.  They tried to stay on top of the systematic infections, but by the time he ended his life, his hand, his forearm, and finally, his upper arm had been amputated.

According to my father, a place that Ursalues would never go. 

In his pocket, there was a note.  Painted words from art therapy that simply stated.

“Here, I am safe. Here, I will die.”

Author's Note

All critiques are welcome. Please let me know if I missed any places where I refer to Ursalues as a he. Ursalues is meant to always be referred to as "it".

Reviews

[Author Gus]

This is awesome. Well written, grammatically sound. Parts were creepy. When he first started talking about eating Ursalues I cringed (The good way). My one real critique is the last two lines. 'According to my father, a place he would never go' I assume that you are referring to the freezer. But that isn't really justified in the exposition dump we just got on Ursalues. Especially since we already know the guy is diluted into thinking it can leave the swamp when it can't. But mainly just throwing in '... never go; the freezer' or 'in the cold' just something to make the place it would never go a bit clearer

... Wait a second... A place he would never go. A place HE... A place it would never go.