Kirk Lonwood High School in Ephyra, Indiana, USA. Pictured dated February 3rd, 1976.
| Assigned Site | Site Director | Research Head | Assigned Task Force |
| Site-81 | J. Karlyle Aktus | Dr. S. D. Locke | E-13 "Manifest Destiny" |
Map of Ephyra, Indiana, and surrounding areas.
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-8833 is contained within a secure anomalous item locker at Site-81. Access to SCP-8833 is restricted to members of the SCP-8833 research team and any approved testing personnel.
Research into SCP-8833 is ongoing; the anomaly's relationship with other extant anomalous phenomena is not currently understood. Foundation webcrawlers are to monitor web traffic for information pertaining to paranormal events occuring in the spring of 1976, as well as any information pertaining to Kirk Lonwood High School or the town of Ephyra, Indiana.
Description: SCP-8833 is a copy of the 1976 edition Kirk Lonwood High School yearbook, previously belonging to student Carolyn Kirk. The yearbook shows mild wear and use indicative of its age. The front cover of the SCP-8833 shows a three arrow design, with the words "Reflections of '76" near the center of the page, and "KLHS / 1976" in the bottom right corner. The back of SCP-8833 is blank, save for a small amount of charring along the spine. An inscription inside the back cover reads:
We've had a great year, haven't we? Don't worry about waiting for the reunion, I'm sure we'll see each other soon enough. Lots of love, from all of your best friends.
The previous owner's first name, written in her own handwriting, is penned in the bottom right corner of the back cover.
Individuals who read SCP-8833 invariably begin to sympathize and, eventually, identify with the persons and events that it describes. This effect appears to be universal, and does not apply more or less strongly to individuals who were not alive in 1976. Persons who view SCP-8833 for an extended period of time will inevitably be able to produce specific details about persons or events described within SCP-8833 that themselves are not present within the yearbook, but are consistent with details given by other individuals exposed to SCP-8833.
SCP-8833.
Over a long enough period of time, persons exposed to SCP-8833 will begin to dissociate from their own experiences, and insist that they were a student at Kirk Lonwood High School in 1976. Multiple persons who have been exposed to SCP-8833, if exposed to each other, will display at least a casual familiarity with each other, though they will be unable to recall specifics about the other individual. In almost all cases, persons in this situation will feel confident that they have met, but when pushed on the subject will grow increasingly frustrated and explain that their lapse in memory is the result of so much time having passed since the spring of 1976.
While persons exposed to SCP-8833 will at first display a nostalgic appreciation for the yearbook and a desire to read it further, eventually these persons will undergo a stark transition in their behaviour towards the artifact. These persons will begin to express a general sense of dread in reference to SCP-8833, and will resist any attempts by staff personnel to expose them to the yearbook further. More information about this behaviour is available in Addendum 8833.3 below.
Addendum 8833.1: Background and Discovery
SCP-8833 is one of a small group of items recovered from the burned ruins of Kirk Lonwood High School in Ephyra, Indiana, USA. At the time of its destruction, the school had a total student body of 322 students and 36 faculty. After the fire that destroyed Kirk Lonwood HS, the remaining students were incorporated into the larger Brazil High School in Brazil, Indiana, which was itself later incorporated into Northview High School in the same city.
The fire that destroyed Kirk Lonwood High School coincided with the disappearance of nearly all of the school's sixty-two person senior class, many of whom were on a class field trip elsewhere in the state at the time. Both events were the subject of an investigation by the Indiana State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Special Crimes Division1 when multiple students were reported as missing in the wake of the fire. The events leading to the fire at the school and the disappearance of the students were partially obfuscated as part of a cover-up involving the Ephyra Chief of Police, whose son was eventually found responsible for the fire.
The full report is available by request from the Foundation Recordkeeping and Information Security Administration (RAISA). A summary of those events, published in the original report by Agent Daniel Akery of the FBI, is available below:
Case #110449
On the evening of May 27th, 1976, Cotter Parsons (age 18) (youngest son of Ephyra Chief of Police Cal Parsons), Dale Briggs (age 17) and Sam "Wally" Wallerman (age 17) drove into Ephyra and stopped at the Quik-Stop gas station on CR 100 E to fill up a can of gasoline and purchase a pack of Marlboro Red 100s and three dozen eggs. Afterwards, the group continued on to Kirk Lonwood High School, where the graduation proceedings had been set up in the field behind the school in preparation for the following day's event.
The presumed intention of the group was to burn a crude phrase into the grass of the field to interrupt the 1976 class graduation ceremony, of which Cotter Parsons would not have attended due to failing grades. The group likely intended for the school to be unoccupied, and was surprised to find a single car in the parking lot.
Carolyn Kirk (pictured right) and Dean Smith, one of the senior students who disappeared following the Kirk Lonwood fire.
According to Mr. Wallerman, this car belonged to Carolyn Kirk, a senior student at Kirk Lonwood. Eager to get back to drinking alcohol at the nearby hunting shed near the Parsons home that the group frequented, Mr. Parsons disregarded the concerns of the others and began spreading the gasoline, and then lighting it upon completion. At this time, Mr. Briggs reports seeing Ms. Kirk leaving the high school building and heading towards her car, carrying a small stack of books. Afraid of being seen and reported, the group began to chase Ms. Kirk, who fled back into the school.
While considering their next plan of action, the group did not notice that the fire set by Mr. Parsons had grown out of control, fueled by the remaining gasoline in the fuel canister, the wind, and the unusually dry weather over the previous month. The fire burned close to the Fine Arts wing of the school and the gymnasium before eventually catching the wooden siding of the latter structure. Mr. Wallerman reports running into the school briefly to look for Ms. Kirk, but fleeing from the gathering smoke inside the structure and following Mr. Briggs and Mr. Parsons into the nearby woods.
The Ephyra Fire Brigade was alerted to the fire at 10:19PM local time, roughly twelve minutes after Mr. Briggs reports leaving the scene. Upon arriving, trucks #4 and #3 discovered the entire structure fully engulfed by the fire, which continued to burn until 6:23AM the following morning.
Ephyra Chief of Police Cal Parsons. Image taken from UIU archive. Source of image degregation is unknown.
Chief of Police Cal Parsons initially speculated that the fire was caused by an electrical fault in an outdoor storage shed, but further investigation noted that the clearest ignition point was in the field on the east side of the school building, and not the storage shed to the south. Additionally, it was later discovered that Chief Parsons and Lieutenant Greg Chambers had suppressed evidence that connected Cotter Parsons to the fire - specifically, testimony from Quik-Stop attendant Arnie Mack that placed the three men at a location between the Parsons home and the school and that also included their purchases, and additional testimony from three local middle school students who saw Parsons' vehicle leaving down an adjacent road at a high rate of speed, minutes before the fire brigade came onto the scene.
The investigation into the fire was further impeded by the search for the now missing Carolyn Kirk, whose family confirmed she had been at the school finishing her application to Purdue University using the Kirk Lonwood school's library typewriter. Her car was discovered in the school parking lot, leading investigators to assume she had been at the school at the time of the fire, but no evidence of her remains were ever found within the ruins of the building.
A crew of forensic investigators later discovered the charred remains of her bookbag2 within the home of Cal Parsons, along with several other items pulled from the ruins of Kirk Lonwood. It was the discovery of these items, as well as an unusual interview with the Chief of Police, that prompted intervention by the local office of the Special Crimes Division.
Video Transcript
Akery: Mr. Parsons, my name is Detective Akery, this is Detective Jones, we're with the FBI. We were hoping you could answer some questions we had about the fire at Kirk Lonwood and your investigation of it.
Parsons: The fire. Oh yes. Yes, I know.
Jones: Can you tell us more about what you think caused the fire?
Parsons: There is a storage shed there, near the building. Probably faulty wiring, an electrical issue, a can of gas they were keeping in the shed. Really just a matter of time.
Jones: And you feel confident about this?
Parsons: Of course. I mean, come on now boys. You think this is my first investigation? Between you and me, I don't know why they sent you out here. This one is pretty open and shut.
Akery: Let's take a step back. On the night of the fire, after it had burnt out, who all had access to the site?
Parsons: My department and I, obviously. Chief Baker with the fire department, I would presume. But the only folks who spent much time there were my investigators.
Akery: And you, correct?
Parsons: Well, sure. I was overseeing the investigators.
Jones: One of our contacts mentioned that you've handled all the gathered evidence personally, is that correct?
Parsons: You mean as part of my investigation? Yes, of course. Am I being accused of something?
Akery: We're not accusing you, or anyone else, of anything, Mr. Parsons. We're just here to get to the bottom of this mess. So you've had your hands on that evidence, and it's all being kept at the police station now?
Parsons: I imagine it is.
Akery: In an evidence locker?
Parsons: That's typically where we keep evidence, yes.
Akery: Sure, sure. I just, you have to understand my confusion. When Agent Jones went by the station earlier today to inquire about that evidence, the story we got was a little different. We were told that your evidence locker was full, and that the recovered items had all been shipped over to Brazil and were being kept in their locker.
Parsons: Clearly they're misrepresenting the situation, we-
Jones: He was very clear, Mr. Parsons, which made it all the more confusing when I asked the Brazil station the same question. They were also very clear that the evidence was still here in Ephyra, and that they hadn't seen it. So when I come back, suddenly that evidence hadn't been shipped to Brazil like I was originally told - now it's being processed by some third party investigator? Someone I'd never heard of?
Parsons: Look, if we can just-
Akery: Enough with the bullshit, Cal. A major fire has just occurred and a student is missing. You clearly have sequestered the evidence away somewhere, and we need to know where it is.
Parsons: I assure you, no students are missing. Everyone is just fine, we're all just fine.
Jones: (Pauses) What?
Parsons: Excuse me?
Akery: You said no students are missing. Carolyn Kirk, the student whose parents said was at the school the night of the fire, she is missing. You posted her missing persons report.
Parsons: No, you're mistaken. She's not missing. She's still here, we're all here. (Pauses) We're all… huh.
Jones: Mr. Parsons?
Parsons: It's just strange. (Pauses) But she's fine, she's fine, we're all fine. We're all together. Listen, you boys have clearly put a lot of thought into this, and I really appreciate the thought, but we're all going to be just fine. We're all fine. Graduation is tomorrow, after all, and we need to just put this behind us and get ready for the summer.
Akery: I… uh…
Jones: Mr. Parsons, the date of Kirk Lonwood's graduation was two weeks ago. What are you talking about?
Parsons looks up and behind the two agents, and nods. After a moment, he looks back at them both and smiles.
Parsons: We're fine, boys. We'll be whole again. Don't you worry.
Shortly after the date of the Kirk Lonwood fire, Special Crimes also began investigating the mysterious disappearance of the █████-████ persons (█████-████ members of Kirk Lonwood's Class of '76 and ███ other individuals) who did not return from a class trip to Lake ███████████ in ████████ County. The last known sighting of any member of this group was ████ █████ who was seen with ███ ████████ and ██████ ███████ near a roadside convenience store in ████████ Indiana, roughly a fifteen minute drive from Lake ███████████. Investigation into this matter was inconclusive; while ███ ████████ ████████ ██ simply vanish, it is now believed that ███ ██████████ ████ ████ testing grounds ████████ ██ floating bodies ██ █████-████████████ ritual ██████ ██ taken to ███ ██ ████ ██████ drawn in by ██████████. Regardless, no ███████ ███████████ is forthcoming.
How this incident, especially regarding the ██ missing members of the ████████ ████ is connected to the ███████ ████████ Corporation is currently unknown, though the ███ █████████ ███ is believed to be involved.3
Despite this, █████ █████ individuals remain ███████████ ███: ████ ███████, ███ ███████████, and ██████ Lee.
From left to right: Wallerman, Briggs and Parsons, April 1976.
The investigation into the Kirk Lonwood fire came to a halt for three weeks afterwards. It would not be resolved until June 21st, when the body of Cotter Parsons would be discovered in his father's hunting shed, both having been set on fire and burned. Parsons' vehicle was found outside the shed, with a suicide note left on the floor of the front passenger side seat. Evidence at the scene suggests that Cotter Parsons drove his vehicle to the shed, smoked six cigarettes while sitting in his vehicle, then exited the vehicle and entered the shed, locking the door behind him as he did. The source of the fire is still unknown.
Of note were a second set of tire marks leading to the shed. The source of these tire tracks are likewise unknown.
Shortly after the presumed suicide of Cotter Parsons, both Mr. Wallerman and Mr. Briggs confessed to their part in the events of May 27th, 1976, and offered the details presented within this report. Neither individual reported having spoken with Mr. Parsons in the time since the night of the event, when Parsons demanded they both stay quiet to avoid arousing any suspicion.
The full text of Mr. Parsons' suicide note is included below.
just wanted to say sorry for the fire. i did not mean it. got scared and dad didnt know so it was my fault. i am sorry.
keep having a nightmare where i'm at school and everybody is there. only a few of us left. i think i should be there and not here.
mom i am sorry i didn't do any of it right. you tried hard and you did your best but i think i was just bad. pa i am sorry for the trouble. i didnt mean none of it but i love you.
time to go. will be nice to see everybody again.
love you
cotter
FBI records indicate the body of Carolyn Kirk was never found. An extensive regimen of memory-altering substances was administered to the civilian population of Ephyra in late 1976 after a number of unexplained phenomena were reported in the immediate area (see Addendum 8833.5 for more details). In early 1981, after a string of violent and public suicides in Ephyra, the remaining population was moved to other communities within Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. The stretch of CR 100 E that previously led to Kirk Lonwood High School was torn up, as was the school's foundation.
Addendum 8833.2: SCP-8833 and Items Recovered from the 1976 Kirk Lonwood Fire
Foundation assets embedded within the UIU became aware of SCP-8833 shortly after its discovery when the first report filed by the Special Crimes Division was circulated. The following is the list of items acquired from UIU custody by Foundation personnel, including SCP-8833. All objects were believed to have been at one time held by Cal Parsons.
Item #001: Pack of Playing Cards
Location: Locker 54
Analysis: Non-Anomalous
Notes: Cards 9 through Ace of each suit are noticeably more worn than the rest of the deck.
Item #002: Happy Days Thermos
Location: Southwest corner of school cafeteria
Analysis: Non-Anomalous
Notes: Mostly spared from damage due to collapsed ceiling support.
Item #003: 1976 Kirk Lonwood Prom banner
Location: Locker 12
Analysis: Non-Anomalous
Notes: Reads: "We'll Always Have Today"
Item #004: Bb Trumpet
Location: Band Room
Analysis: Uncertain
Notes: Instrument is nondescript, but the name "Syncope Symphony" is engraved on the case in gold.
Item #005: Class of '76 Graduation Photograph
Location: Unknown - discovered in pile of loose bricks
Analysis: Uncertain
Notes: Picture is wholly undamaged by fire with the exception of the faces of the individuals present in the image. Each has been severely distorted by the heat and are unrecognizable. Notably, a man in a black suit stands among the faculty. The identity of this individual is unknown, and his features are likewise indistinguishable.
Item #006: 1976 Kirk Lonwood High School Yearbook
Location: Within burned bookbag in school library
Analysis: Safe-Class Anomalous Artifact
Notes: Inconsistencies appear with the yearbook. See Addendum 8833.4 for more details.
Item #007: Heart-Shaped Locket
Location: Beneath floorboards in men's locker room.
Analysis: Uncertain
Notes: Engraving on front reads "Together Forever". The letters "R+J" are likewise engraved on the back. The locket has been fused shut from the heat of the fire.
Item #008: Attic Photograph
Location: Inside boiler room.
Analysis: Unknown
Notes: Photograph of an attic interior. Individuals observing photograph express mild distress.
Item #009: Engraved Zippo Brand Lighter
Location: In field adjacent to school.
Analysis: Non-Anomalous
Notes: The letters "C.L.P." are engraved on the front face, and the words "From, Dad" are engraved on the back. Item is heavily damaged by fire.
Addendum 8833.3: SCP-8833 Exposure Testing
The following are transcripts of exposure tests performed with a human test subject and SCP-8833. The tests were conducted over the course of six weeks, with the subject (D-18831) allowed free access to SCP-8833 during this time. D-18831 met with a staff psychologist twice weekly to discuss their experience.
The test subject, D-18831, was a Cuban-American female, age 42, with no history of excessive violence or hostility. D-18831 was alive in 1976, but was only a child, having been born in 1967. Additionally, D-18831 did not attend a high school.
Addendum 8833.4: Images Depicted Within SCP-8833
Page 3: Several candid photographs of students socializing. The individual reading SCP-8833 (hereafter referred to as "the subject") is seen in these photographs. Students are smiling, engaging in school activities, and recreating.
Page 10: Photograph of students attending a lecture. Upon initial viewing a single student is looking directly at the camera. Subjects report the number of students looking directly at the camera growing upon further viewings.
Page 16: A group of students sitting on and around a bench, smoking cigarettes and laughing. Students include Cotter Parsons, Dale Briggs, Sam Wallerman. Subjects report occasionally seeing student Carolyn Kirk in the background of this photograph.
Page 20: The subject and three other students wearing swimwear stand on a dock by a lake. One of them is looking at something in the water off camera. None of them are smiling. The image caption reads "Come and see!"
Captionless photograph found on Page 24.
Page 29: In between pictures of the track team, subjects report seeing a single picture of a student holding a can of gas standing in the middle of an open field.
Page 36: A picture of the subject inside of a music classroom, studying a piece of sheet music. A towering black box sits in the corner of the room. Several other students stand around the box, facing it and leaning slightly forward.
Page 39: Photograph of the subject standing at their locker. Behind them are a multitude of other students, their faces grossly mutilated or otherwise disfigured and their bodies swollen or burned. They all look directly at the camera.
Back Cover: The aforementioned inscription. Upon additional viewings subjects report seeing the words "we won't forget you" followed by a heart written inside the cover.
Addendum 8833.5: Affected Persons Interviews
The following are collected segments of interviews conducted by FBI agents prior to the evacuation of the civilian population from Ephyra, Indiana, following the Kirk Lonwood fire.
Agent Davies: Tell me what you saw.
Mr. Pendleton:5 It was Will6, I know it was. He came into the house about two hours ago, and sat down right over there at the table. I jumped up when he came in but I couldnt go into the room, it was like I was stuck here in the hall. I just kept saying "Will, Will, where have you been? Where'd you all go?
Agent Davies: Did your son say anything to you?
Mr. Pendleton: He said "do you still recognize me dad", but he wouldn't look up at me, and I couldn't get a good look at him. I told him yes of course I did, and he asked it again, just like that. "Do you still recognize me."
Agent Davies: What happened then?
Mr. Pendleton: He got up, and just sort of… glided across the floor, to the door, and then went through it. Didn't open it up, just went through it. I stood there like a damn fool until he was gone, but by the time I got to the other door there wasn't no sign of him left.
Agent White: When were you at Moore's Grocery?
Mrs. Tillman:7 We were there yesterday, about two in the afternoon.
Mrs. Patrick:8 We had just gone to get eggs, for the first responders' potluck.
Agent White: And what did you witness?
Mrs. Patrick: Well, you know the big sign in front of Moore's, up on the pole out front the building?
Mrs. Tillman: Some children had climbed up there, we could see them from the street when we pulled up, and they were looking at something down on the ground. I couldn't make out their faces, but some of them were wearing jackets those children at the school wear.
Agent White: Did you see what they were looking at?
Mrs. Patrick: We did, I- I did, we…
Mrs. Tillman: No, it's alright. I saw it too.
Mrs. Patrick: It was a man, or at least, I think it was. He was about your height, maybe a little taller. Wore a black suit, black hair. Might have been wearing glasses. He was looking back at them, and… he had this… I don't even know how you'd describe it…
Mrs. Tillman: It was like a television camera, mounted on some kind of stand on the ground, and he was adjusting it, and pointing it at them. He'd twist this knob, and look up at them, and they'd be on fire, and screaming, but it wasn't a sound… wasn't a sound people make. It was wrong, the whole thing was wrong.
Agent White: Did you approach the man?
Mrs. Patrick: No, he… something about him was wrong too. Looking at him was like looking at something far away, made my head swim. I think it was his camera, there was something inside it that…
Mrs. Tillman: When they had the funeral for that girl, the one who died in the fire, it was like that. They didn't open the casket, but there was something about it where you knew that… that whatever was in it, it wasn't right. I didn't say anything at the time, it would've been rude. Her poor parents…
Mrs. Patrick: But she's right, it was just like that. I've always believed in a higher power, officer, and I've prayed to God my whole life. Whatever was in that coffin, and whatever that man was doing with his camera, it wasn't right. When I looked at it, I could feel… Lord help me it was like I had hands on me. All over me.
Agent White: Hands?
Mrs. Patrick: I know it sounds silly, but that's what it was. We ran into the store to tell someone, and when we came back he wasn't there anymore, and his car was gone.
Agent White: And the children on top of the sign?
(Silence.)
Agent White: What about the children on top of the sign?
Mrs. Tillman: What children?
Agent Akery: Mr.9 and Mrs. Kirk, I want to thank you for taking some time to sit down with me. I won't pretend to understand what you're going through, I just want to try to make sense of all of this.
Mr. Kirk: It's alright. I'm sorry we took so long to get back to you, we just…
Agent Akery: It's alright, of course. This is going to sound strange, but I need to ask you about your daughter's yearbook.
Mr. Kirk: Carolyn's… yearbook?
Agent Akery: Yes. As you know, it was one of the items that managed to survive the fire, and… well, we've just noted some inconsistencies with it. Do you know if she had said anything about it, mentioned anything unusual?
Mr. Kirk: Unusual? No, I mean… no, nothing unusual. It's just a yearbook, she… I guess she had it with her most times, kept it in her bag. The kids, you know, they'd all get them signed and… and she was trying to get hers signed by her friends.
Agent Akery: Have you seen it yourself? Recently, I mean, had you looked at it yourself?
Mr. Kirk: No, it's not… it's her yearbook, it's not… it's not something I'd have wanted to… (to Mrs. Kirk) do you…?
(Mrs. Kirk shakes her head. She is unable to speak.)
Agent Akery: What about her friends? Was there anyone strange she had started seeing recently?
Mr. Kirk: No, she… she had plenty of friends, and they all mostly kept to themselves. I hadn't seen anyone… strange. What's all this about?
Agent Akery: I just want to know if there was anyone else who could have gotten their hands on that yearbook between the time she got it and the night of the incident.
Mr. Kirk: Absolutely not, she kept it in her bag all the time, and she never-
Mrs. Kirk: I could… I could use some water.
Mr. Kirk: Yes, I can - one moment, Mr. Akery.
Agent Akery: It's no problem.
(Mr. Kirk leaves the room.)
Mrs. Kirk: There… there was a man.
Agent Akery: Pardon?
Mrs. Kirk: The yearbook. Carolyn's yearbook didn't come in with the others, so they… they sent off for another. A man delivered it, a man in a black suit. He came to the house, and it was just me here alone, and he… he gave me the yearbook, told me to give it to her.
Agent Akery: Did he give you his name?
Mrs. Kirk: No, he just… he said he was from… I don't know, some organization, and said he had been asked to give it to her directly. He was upset she wasn't here.
Agent Akery: What else did he say to you?
Mrs. Kirk: He made me… made me swear to give it to her, and not tell anyone he had been here, or he'd… he'd do something to me. When he spoke, he… his voice sounded funny, and his mouth moved… strangely. I… I felt like I had to do it, so I gave it to her. She was so excited to have it.
Agent Akery: Did you ever see him again?
Mrs. Kirk: I didn't, no… do you think he… was that… did she die because of me?
Agent Akery: I don't think-
(Mr. Kirk reenters the room with a glass of water)
Agent Akery: Let's talk about something else.
RAISA Note: Thorough investigation of census records and personnel testimony gathered by Foundation assets have been unable to prove that Mrs. Kirk was alive in 1976, in spite of the information provided in this transcript. Death certificate records indicate that Carolyn Kirk's mother, Anna Kirk, died of natural causes in 1959, shortly after Carolyn's birth.
Addendum 8833.6: Lead Investigator's Note
This record was kept alongside others within the same file at the FBI, written by Special Agent Daniel Akery.
I refuse to believe it was an accident - the fire, the lake, all of it. There were too many open leads that were never resolved for it to just be a coincidence. I think when Cotter Parsons lit that can of gas he was unknowingly tripping the catalyst to something that had been set up for a long, long time. Too many faces we didn't recognize showed up in town afterwards, too many eyes on a town that God and man had forgotten a long time ago.
What we experienced in the weeks following the Kirk Lonwood fire was unlike any other case I've ever worked before. Between the fire, and the loss of those kids on their class trip, a sucking hole formed in the heart of that community that could not be fixed. It was as if someone had put a bolt rifle to their psyche and pulled the trigger, and the absence that was left over was more than just toxic - it was malicious. An agony that demanded more and more until it broke them, and us.
I worked a case once, where something terrible had happened in a house and the house had started to hate its inhabitants. It was a hard case to work, and the question of "how much hate can build up in a place before it starts hating you back" is a question that I still wonder to this day. But as to the question of how much a place can know despair before it becomes despair, this I don't need to wonder. I have seen it. I was nearly swallowed by it.
We lost people in the weeks after the Kirk Lonwood fire. Not just residents, but our own agents too. I've never really spoken about it - and not that there would be anyone to hear it anymore - but I saw Patterson and Bales leave our motel one night and just disappear. Brass chalked it up to them losing their nerve, but I could have sworn to you that I saw two man-shaped black things blowing in the trees for a week afterwards. Whenever I looked at them I felt a gripping in my chest, like there was another person standing right behind me that I couldn't move to see. A few days later those were gone too. There was a lot of that happening back then, and men in suits watching us the whole time.
All this to say, what happened that summer is not something that this file is going to be able to accurately convey. In the months after the evacuation they got in there and tore up the roads, turned over the foundations and torched it from every map they could get their hands on, and even after all those attempts to wipe this place clean there's still a real, festering dread that we could not make to go away. Maybe they didn't want it to go away.
As a final note, since it's understood by now that this will be the last case I work on before I retire, I want to admit to breaking departmental protocol. Six weeks ago I woke up one night and just started driving; I had been at the field office in Cincinnati but I just felt compelled to drive, and I drove for three hours. The time passed slowly, like I was moving through water, and the radio just played the same song on a loop the entire time. I think I was conscious that I was being affected by something, but it didn't matter to me while I was there - there was something at the end of the road I needed to see.
I stopped at the barricade they put up, where the road ends, and just started walking. A lot of it is overgrown now, mostly just woods and fields, but I got past the last group of trees and saw it, clearly under the light of the moon. Kirk Lonwood High School, untouched by fire or time or anything else, like nothing had never happened. The front door was open and a queer light was shining through, and in a way that I can't really describe it made me feel a terrible longing. There was a figure silhouetted in the doorway, a girl. I waved at her, and she waved back. I stood there for hours, and as the first light of the sun crept up over the treeline I blinked and it was gone, and I was standing alone in that field.
They threw us a little party afterwards, when we turned in our reports. Champagne and everything, gold watches, every little material pittance to juice us up. Told us we did a great job, that it was a hard case and that what we had accomplished was nothing short of a miracle. Said we had saved lives. Said they were happy that we could put this all behind us. It was all bullshit, obviously - whatever we did to bury this thing, whatever the spooks at the head office claimed would be enough to cover it all up, it wasn't enough.
Their bodies aren't buried. They're somewhere else.