text: I can confidently say that I know something that you don’t. The world, our planet, our civilization, is coming to an end later this week. Well I guess you probably do know if you are reading this now. I understand that this may seem candid, but I’ve already come to grips with my end, and I would hope you never have to deal with your own. My name is Dr. Elias Reed Malick and I want to tell you about the things that I have discovered this past week. This information may not be news to you, but I can tell you, it was news to me. I work and conduct research in the field of anomalous volcanic and seismic activity on our planet, which we call Earth. There are many of these events that happen across the globe, none of which have ever exhibited the curiosities of the site I and my wife are currently working on. We had discovered the first signs of this development in the last year here in the Midwest. Small seismic activities were taking place in various seemingly random parts of the central parts of the North American Continent. As more of these occurrences began to appear and the data from them collected and reviewed, some seemingly sinister discoveries were made. Each of these events were small in terms of an affected area, but large in terms of their actual magnitude of vibrations. Each one was tracked and seeming to get more and more violent. What was also strange was their locations. Each of these anomalies were causing severe damage to our cities’ and government’s infrastructure. It started with trains derailing, then on to power and information transfer infrastructure. Every time these irregularities happened, the damage done to our human and social ecosystem increased. These events have gotten worse, but we wanted to investigate further. Hindsight being what it is, I wish we would have let someone else take this one. All of these events seemed to occur within a particular radius, the center of which culminated to a location just northeast of a place that we call Kansas City (I’m pretty confident that there wont be much left of it after this week). We began and set up our research headquarters there and began an excavation near the intersection of the two major rivers nearby. We wanted more information on the sedimentary layers of the earth here to assess the signs of seismic activity in the area. What we found there after a few weeks of digging was something we cannot explain. We found... well a stone. A massive smooth stone, nearly spherical in nature. It had to be nearly 50 meters in diameter according to our surveying technology. Bright sea foam in color and translucent like a brilliant gem, but it was like no stone or element we had ever seen before. Unfortunately, we have not had enough time to have samples of the stone inspected and researched, and we sure don’t have that time now. That night after our initial discovery, the things that have led to my revelation began to occur. The gem showed signs of luminescence as the day began to shift to night, leaving an eerie glow from within our excavation site. After our discovery we had decided it best to keep our HQ trailers on the site itself, and thus began our first night overseeing the stone. As the first few days went by, some things went unnoticed. My wife and I’s sleep began to become erratic and restless, with anxiety as the only descriptor I could find for our troubles. Soon after, the dreams began. Both of us began to discuss each morning what we had experienced in our sleep the night before. We’ve both described in vivid memorable detail scenes of life and decay. Animal corpses slowly decomposing, flowers and trees wilting and rotting over time, buildings and monuments experiencing erosion and crumbling beneath the heel of time’s boot. These dreams continued as the days went on, and each scene remained as vivid in our minds as if we had just seen it. Approximately 8 days after discovery, there was a slight change to the dreams. They began to become more graphic, and a voice began to speak during them. The voice vaguely feminine, deep and stern in tone, seemed to being to narrate or preach during these moments of gore and deterioration; all in a language that we had never heard or recognized, though it seemed familiar. Every dream the same but different, as each night the voice would become louder and more aggressive, and the imagery would follow suit. After day 13 we came upon our first “revelation”, if you want to call it that. We began to understand. We began to understand the disembodied voice and its message. I know now its too late to convey the message to the rest of our world, but seeing how you’ve already found this, I feel it justified to share it with you. *“You will crumble. You will fall. You will break. You will submit to the pressure of time. You will perish to my endevors. You will decay upon this rock as I dictate. Your existence has been deemed unnecessary. You will be consumed. You will be preyed upon. And your being will cease. I am Pthegrymat. I was before. I was after. But I am now, and soon you will not.”* I’m sorry, but it is coming, and we have no time left.