text: It started as a simple Friday, I had just woken up, and after getting ready for work began heading to the Police Station, when I received a call on my cell phone, it was from a Hidden Number, which is typical seeing as though I work for the Defence Department, we, investigators, like to stay untrackable. I answered. “Hello, I’ve got an evidence sheet for Mr. Wattel”, the voice was shaky, petrified almost, and real, which was weird, callers with hidden numbers always had some sort of a voice filter applied. “Yes, that is me.” I answered. “You are likely on your way to work, I’m going to need you to divert your path to HQ, your case is... One of a kind, to say the least.” He said, still with a weird undertone to his voice. “Alright, I’ll be there in-” *BEEP*, the caller had hung up. HQ was about 2 hours away, so I took the first exit off the highway and sped off. About 20 minutes into the trip, I receive another call, still a hidden number. “Mr. Wattel, when you arrive at HQ, head to Executive parking and go straight through wing 8-E to the Evidence desk.” Said a new man, it still didn’t seem like he had a voice changer. “Alr-” *BEEP*, he had hung up on me. 1 Hour and 15 Minutes into the trip I receive a final call, from the client who ordered this precise case. “Hello, this is Mr. Wattel speaking, how may I help you?” I asked after several seconds of complete silence on his end. Suddenly, they erupt in tears, I can hear them muttering something in between their sobs, but nothing I can quite piece together. “I am going to need you to calm down if you want to speak to me.” The crying continued for about 2 Minutes, when the voice suddenly became extremely clear, sharp, it was metallic, and not at all like my client’s. “Mr. Wattel, tell me your security response code.” I felt chills running down my spine, Security response codes are extremely confidential and the public should know nothing about them, witness protection program members included. I hung up instantly, probably not the wisest of choices, but the remainder of the drive was peaceful thankfully. Upon arrival, I parked at the spot closest to 8-E I could find, turned the engine off, got out and walked to my trunk to get my backpack. I spent a few minutes looking for my staff ID, it had been buried at the bottom of my bag after not being used for several months. I lifted my head and noticed 10 Armed men had surrounded me, likely an escort. This got me extremely interested in what had happened that I would need a VIP-Class escort to get from my vehicle to a wing entrance, also slightly worried. I greeted them and began to go towards the building, I scanned my ID, and proceeded inside to find that only one was still following me. I looked behind, the other men began barricading the entrance, I knew I had been locked in, 8-E is an isolation wing with a single door to the outside world, and another door leading to solitary confinement. 3 people were standing by the evidence desk, seemingly waiting for me. One of them, I actually recognized, it was Mrs. Andrews, she had been my partner in the academy several months prior. I walked up to them, they did not utter a single word, Mrs. Andrews handed me the file, you could hear a pin drop as I was reading the sheet, nobody dared speak. *Type: Confidential Case Investigator: Mr. Wattel, Mrs. Andrews, Mr. Black Initial Situation: Triple alleged kidnapping New Information: 718 People gone, all in similar situations, where it should have been noticeable by all authorities, we are still searching for more victims.* My heart skipped a beat as I read the amount of disappearances, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, so I reread it, it was correct. One of the other men broke the silence, “Welcome to the Team, my name is Jon Black.” “Welcome, I think you might already know me. We will all be stuck here, in isolation, until we get this case figured out, your family has already been informed” said Mrs. Andrews, with a clearly fake smile The third man stood still, he didn’t introduce himself, he was just shaking, paralyzed. There were a few other people sitting in the waiting area that I was able to catch a glimpse of. Well, people would be an overstatement, creatures. They looked like those creepy stock photos, one of them had their mouth sealed, or rather had no mouth whatsoever. Another man had an IV beside him and had 4 arms, the last one had a suspiciously large amount of eyelids covering his face. Just looking in that room made me shiver. We walked to the interrogation sector, which was filled to the brim with family members of the victims. I took the first room on the left, Mrs. Andrews occupied the 4th room on the right of this narrow corridor, she claimed it was her lucky number. As per protocol, each person was interrogated, the cold and gray walls of these small rooms weren’t helping or reassuring anybody. Out of all the stories we received, we identified only about a quarter as plausible explanations, the rest as fiction. Most of the stories we said were most likely were people turning their back only to see their loved ones vanish, the rest were tales of black tentacles spreading, some people claimed it was But this was a government super secret case so all of the stories were kept as plausible for us to sift through with more attention later. Mrs. Andrews had been on several of these cases prior to this one, Mr. Black had just graduated from the academy so the 2 were working together mostly. I had already been on one isolation case, about a chemical weapon reserve built by the Texas state government. We all took a break to go to an office and discuss our findings, which was close to absolutely nothing "Well, what have you found?" Asked Mr. Black "Lies." Answered Mrs. Andrews with a sigh, she was stubborn and very picky. "Absolutely nothing we can go off of" I replied "I investigated one of those men" He said, pointing at the waiting area, "the only thing I got out of him was the word Black, he was either calling my name or saying something about his experience, after that I let him go back." 6 hours into this intense questioning session, I got one of the “Creatures” into the room I had occupied for interrogation, this was the one with the superficial amount of eyelids. He came in with one of the security guards, who stood within the room, I could spot a taser in his holster, seriously creeping me out. I asked the creature the regular questions; “Who are you?” A gut wrenching screech came out of its mouth, this was going to be no easy task. “How did ‘this’ happen to you?” He lifted his shirt and pointed at a small device, stapled into his stomach, releasing another out of this world shriek. “May I investigate this object?” Immediately, I saw every single eye open, they were looking at me extremely menacingly, he began flailing his arms, at which point, the guard was preparing to tase him. I used all the calming techniques I was taught in the academy on this extraterrestrial being and told the guard to put away the weapon. The guard obliged, though doubtful and unsure, seeing the expression on his face. I took the creature’s response to my question as a clear “no”. “What did it feel like?” I asked, in a rush to get done with this one, all the contents of my previous meal were already halfway up my oesophagus from terror. He either didn't hear the question or didn't want to answer, I still needed information so I repeated the question. "What did it feel like when you were abducted or captured? Who did it?" I asked, more sternly this time. He definitely understood the question, and was not happy, his eyes suddenly went pitch black. He repeated, in the creepily clear voice I had heard on the phone many hours ago, “Mr. Wattel, tell me your security response code.” Roots of black were growing onto the rest of his face. The guard seemed perplexed as to what was happening but did not seem surprised in the slightest, he quickly pulled out the taser and shot at this humanoid, whose skin had turned almost metallic and completely deflected the probes. The black had continued spreading down to his neck, then to his arms, but it didn't stop at his body, it spread out onto the desk on which his hands were laying. Onto the walls from there, and like roots from his feet. The guard had completely lost his marbles and was desperately trying to open and bang on the door, Mrs. Andrews rushed from her interrogation desk to mine and was equally terrified and trying, as was the guard, to liberate us. I felt my own body starting to be consumed in this dark substance, which I could now tell was not solid, it was more like a thousand little tentacles. And the world suddenly froze, the last thing I saw was the guard in a panic with the worst facial expression I've ever seen on anybody, and the door's middle window fading into black. There was no sensation, it was just **void.** I had woken up, this same black matter still present everywhere around me, but it seemed like I’d been spared, it hadn’t consumed my body like it had everything else in the room. The guard lay a few feet away from me, motionless, also completely unscathed. I could feel the tiny serpents that comprised this material, slithering under me. Looking around more attentively, the walls which had previously enclosed the 3 of us had vanished, as had the creature. The roof and floor extended infinitely from what I could tell. What was even weirder was that it wasn't pitch black like it should've been seeing as there were no light sources within this 'realm' from what I could tell, you could see fairly well. I was hoping I would wake up in the warmth of my bed, but it didn’t happen. My only option seemed to be to stand up. I did, the minuscule organisms seemed to pay no mind to me, squashing their bodies with all my weight. My curiosity to find out what this goo was overwhelmed by a feeling of loneliness and hopelessness, so, in a fit of rage, I threw my fist at the floor. That hurt, it turned out to be completely solid, I began to doubt my mental state heavily. Not knowing what to do next, I started walking in as straight a line as I could. Just a minute into the walk, I heard a yell from behind me, I froze, I had definitely not expected to hear any sounds during my venture, it was coming from behind me, I swiftly turned around, prepared to run for my life. It was the guard, he had awoken and was jogging towards me, not wanting to be left behind in this space, I let him join me, fairly happy to have company. There was no way for us to keep track of our direction and location as there were no objects to keep track of, just roof and floor. We continued walking as linearly as we could, though I was sure we were just doing large spirals around this 'room'. After around 3 Hours, I finally came up with the idea of checking my cell phone, which should’ve come to me much sooner. Well, I took it out of my pocket and unlocked it, now, on a normal day, I’d usually see my home screen and a few SMS or Missed calls, I determined that it currently wasn’t a normal day, I had nearly 800 missed calls, all of which were hidden numbers, and not a single SMS, which was bizarre, the usual ratio was 5 SMS to 2 Calls. Voicemail had been left so I went ahead and checked it, I felt the blood drain from my face as I listened to the first one. That same exact voice I had heard before, repeating a multitude of times, “Mr. Wattel, tell me your security response code.” After freezing for a few seconds, I got myself back to a state where I could at least process my thoughts and continued listening to these messages. The four or five more recent ones were all the exact same. I had completely given up at this point, but I did notice something peculiar, I had outstanding network coverage, although it was interesting to know, it served absolutely no purpose. I was just about to put away my phone when I get an alert; "Mr. Wattel, we have just woken up after being sucked in by a similar black substance as you were. You may not even be alive, but there are three of us, a guard, myself, and Mr. Black, try to respond somehow." My limited technological skills would not be of use, so I thought of the only other logical thing to do, yell at the very top of my lungs, to give them an orientation to follow, if indeed they were with us. Mere seconds after I had screamed, the serpents began to slither up into a statue or shape in front of us, they formed a dark and obscure face with an extremely agitated expression, adding to the fact that about a thousand tentacles, snakes, or whatever they are, are building a human face above us, the room was suddenly entirely lit up, I could tell because I was squinting from it and also the fact that the guard, still with me, was illuminated., Though, still, not a single light source was visible. I was expecting the worst with this creature, and I think that is basically what I got. It gaped it's mouth, only to reveal the beast that had sat with us in the room just hours prior, well I say hours, I have no idea how long I was asleep, the clock on my phone is acting weird. He jumped and immediately began running at us, me and the guard separated and began running in different directions, which was probably the best thing we could have done, as the creature was trying to keep track of both of us and, even with all of its eyes, couldn't quite do it, causing it to kneel and rub its eyes for a few seconds before picking up the chase again, going after me, there was no escape, I knew that, but I kept running and running. I closed my eyes to concentrate every bit of strength my body had on increasing the distance between me and the creature. Then, I knocked into something, I wanted to be ended, right then and there, quickly, without any pain. Opening my eyes for what I thought would be the last time, I spot human skin, Mrs. Andrews! The moment of happiness and relief was short lived, as I looked behind, I couldn't see the multiple-eyed man, but a black mass was coming straight at us, I was pretty sure I could see the guard that had been with me, being absorbed by it. Fearing for our lives we darted off perpendicularly to the movement of this glob. We weren't fast enough, it caught up, and one by one, I could see people being picked off from beside me, one by one. "What will happen to my family?" was the only thing I was able to think of as I slowly reached my death. I knew my legs were definitely aching at this point and were about to give out but the adrenaline pushed me a little bit farther, when I looked behind again, I felt joy running through my body, I had outpaced the mass, or rather it had lost all of its horizontal velocity. This is where I'm at, I still signal reception on my phone for whatever reason, I'm using it to release this, I have 4% left, and I likely won't find a plug anywhere. I don't know if I can survive much longer, my stomach is struggling and I probably strained my ankle from all the running, I'm a detective, not an athlete. Whatever the hell this black material is, I still don't have the slightest clue as to the physics behind it. I think I'll just keep walking, nothing else to do... EDIT: This is a repost of one of my stories on NoSleep.