The following document is classified by vote of the Council of 108. Global Occult Coalition PTOLEMY and PHYSICS personnel eyes only.
The year of our lord 1975, on the 31st of October. Roughly 30 years after the end of the Seventh Occult War, somewhere deep in Canada, United Nations; Global Occult Coalition, ARCANE outpost.
The forests surrounding the small outpost were dark and silent apart from the screeching call of several unidentified creatures. Each with their own unique scream, it sounded and felt as if they got louder, closer.
James Knox looked out of the frosted windows, shivering. The electrical systems hadn't been working for the past 3 and a half hours, including heating and communications; the phone was lying flat on the desk, unused. The outpost wasn’t a large outpost; it was around the same size as an average living room. It consisted of a radio, a landline phone, a desk, two hammocks, a table, and a fridge.
“Looking out the godamn window won't fix anything.” muttered John, “Its Halloween anyway. I say we ought to, you know. Do some festivities? I mean there's not much to do here, especially without electricity. I think there's one or two pumpkins out back.”
James turned around and stared at John; he opened his mouth to begin to speak but quickly closed it. Something wasn’t right. Did he always have 12 fingers? No surely not. He was unsure of what to make of it. John spoke again, but James didn’t listen, he was watching John speak. John’s jaw seemed to disconnect from his head and hang straight down when he spoke. As if unhinging it as he spoke.
James could see the insides of John as his jaw hung straight down. His eyes are turning white now. Or were they always white? James spun around and looked out of the clear forestless snowy desert of Canada out of the window, were there not trees there? There were, James remembered them; he knew they were meant to be trees there. There was a forest. But now there just wasn't. Just plain white snow. He turned back to John. John’s neck had extended by around 8ft. Curving around, outstretched. John spoke again, not in English, not in any human language. His Jaw unhinged, and then it fell off.
John's blood escaped his wound, forming a small puddle, but it was black, not red. What was going on? James’ head turned and spun, time slowed and then sped up, then it was slow and then fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, slow. The sky was red, then green and purple. They were in the Sahara, Antarctica, the Moon, The Atlantic Ocean, London, Canada. It was night-time, then day, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Summer, October, Daytime. The clock spun round at breakneck speeds, clockwise, and anticlockwise simultaneously. John screeched and flung himself at James.
James fell back and jumped back up as fast as he could; he remembered the gun on the desk and decided he needed to reach it. He had to. The distance between the desk and him was for miles but only millimetres. The desk was green, blue, black, and now red. It didn't matter. James remembered his family, his two children, his wife, and the eldritch being, no wait. He didn’t have a family. Or did he? His three children – four children? Did he have children? Yes, maybe, possibly, No. James flung himself to the desk, grabbed the gun on the table, spun around, aimed it at John. James pulled the trigger and shot himself. His body slumped down, a bullet hole in his head, bleeding pure black blood, yet the gun pointed forwards. John was gone, but everywhere.
The Global Occult Coalition’s Strike Team ‘3313’, known as the “Three Blind Mice” arrived in two helicopters from GOC Airbase UNITED to outpost ARCANE, two hours later after receiving a distress call from outpost ARCANE.
AT/ST Patrol Report (Debrief) Involved Assessment/Strike Team: Strike Team 3313 "Three Blind Mice"
Filing Operative: Operative, Thomas V. Steven
Mission (Location/Objective): Investigate distress call originating from Outpost ARCANE and loss of communication two hours prior.
Encounter Report/Enemy Description: No encounters with the anomalous. Inside of the Outpost temperature measured at -54°C, exterior temperature measured at -21°C. Both of the only active operatives at Outpost ARCANE (John Smith and James Knox) found dead. Autopsy reveals hypothermia. Outpost electrical systems destroyed, most likely by wild non-anomalous animals.
Results: ARCANE Outpost declared temporarily compromised. All held data to be transferred back to Airbase UNITED.
Personnel Condition: Operative MASK reported minor headache, no other change to Strike team personnel conditions.
Conclusions/Recommendations: Full audit and fixing of ARCANE electrical systems by Engineering is recommended. Recommended to refill ARCANE observer positions. Also recommended to add a back-up or emergency heating system which does not rely on electricity (eg; a wood-burner) in case all things go wrong and to battle hypothermia if said incident re-occurs. Strengthening and protecting exterior cables and generators is also recommended.