Artifact 0037LH
Description
Artifact 0037LH, a white and blue wicker lighthouse that has
been present at the sight of three suicides and confirmed on photo at two
others. The investigator who first noticed it, Detective Skye Fraser, recorded
a statement with the archives, Testimony 1994-11-21. The artifact appears as a
normal woven wicker model of a lighthouse painted in white and blue. Nothing
appears out of the ordinary regarding the artifact. When alone in the presence
of the artifact, individuals have reported the smell of ocean water and the
sound of gulls crying. Prolonged exposure to the artifact causes a sense of
vertigo when staring at lights or out windows. Some members of support team
Zeta have claimed to feel a breeze, usually accompanied by a hallucination of
an enticing balcony overlooking the ocean. Notably, those who report the
hallucination when pressed for details speak of a person from their past on the
balcony, beckoning them to join them.
One member
of support team Zeta, Emerson Foster, grew very agitated when disturbed from
the hallucination and had to be escorted from the Museum. As he was led away,
he yelled out that his disturber, a young curator named Brice Thomson, had
ruined his chance to talk to his brother. Foster did have a brother named
Brandon, however, records show that he died of suicide five years ago while
Foster was still serving his sentence in the Ashfield Correction Center. It
came to the Agency’s attention that Thomson and Foster were engaged in a
relationship when Thomson called the Agency in tears after discovering Foster
dead several days later of suicide the Agency dispatched a collection team who
brought Thomson in along with Foster’s body and Artifact 0037LH. Thomson was
taken to the archives where he gave his statement, Testimony 1998-10-03, which
presumably explained how the artifact came to be in Foster’s apartment and
details Foster may have shared regarding the artifact or the hallucinations
caused by it.
Due to Foster’s death, new rules have been put into place regarding allowing support team Zeta near the artifacts. Namely, there must be at least two support team Zeta members present near the artifact or a support team Zeta member must be accompanied by a curator while in the presence of Artifact 0037LH. Additionally, curators are not permitted to stay near the artifact without either another curator or a member of support team Zeta.
Testimony 1994-11-21
Arch. Burgess:
Statement of Detective Skye Fraser regarding Artifact 0037LH, recorded direct
from subject by Archivist Raylee Burgess. Whenever you’re ready, Detective.
Det. Fraser: Skye is
fine, thank you. Um, where do you want me to begin?
Arch. Burgess: At the
beginning, please, or as close as you can.
Det. Fraser: Right. The first time I noticed the lighthouse—uh,
Artifact 0037LH—was at Sam Evans’ house, January twenty-fifth. We’d been called
out because his cause of death wasn’t initially apparent. The neighbors also
reported hearing shouting the night before so we, my partner Robin Wheeler and
I, were called to investigate the scene. When we entered the house, I noticed
the artifact. It was just sitting there on the table across from the chair
where Sam Evans’ body was sitting, gunshot to the head. Beside it was a picture
frame, empty. No idea why, but there were other photos around. He was married
so I made a note to ask his wife Katherine about what photo was supposed to be
in the frame. When I asked her, she said that it was a photo of his sister, one
he kept despite the burns around the edges. His sister Lylah died of suicide
ten years prior to that. It had been a shock to his family and he’d taken the
loss especially hard. She didn’t know where the photo was and didn’t want it
back if we found it. She was of the opinion that that photo should have been
burned a long time ago. I questioned her about the artifact. After all, it was
beside the photo Evans cherished and one of the last things he saw, it must
have been important. She got a funny look on her face and didn’t seem to know
what I was talking about until Robin pointed it out to her. Then she shrugged
and said it must have meant something to Sam because the two of them fought
about it the previous night. She hated the thing and considered it junk, wanted
to toss it, but Sam said it was a connection to his sister and refused. That
was the last thing they’d spoken about before Katherine left to stay with her
parents for the night. That would be the shouting the neighbors heard. We were
able to confirm that Katherine remained with her parents all night and did not
leave as they live in a gated community with rather nice security. There were
no other suspects and the case was considered a suicide and closed.
It was awhile before I saw the artifact again,
April fourteenth. The next time was at the apartment of Elliot Bates. The
landlord called us when he entered Bates’ apartment to perform maintenance—he
said that was why anyway, though I don’t think Robin believed him any more than
I did—and found his body. He had a bag over his head and was naked. I don’t
think you need more detail than that. The lighthouse was sitting across from
him, next to another empty picture frame. As Bates lived alone and the landlord
didn’t spend much time in the apartment looking at Bates’ photos of which there
were very few, there was no one who could share any information about what used
to be in the frame. We found out, though, on the next of kin notification. It
was a picture of his father John, crumpled and wrinkled, according to his
mother Grace Foley. Apparently, John committed suicide when Bates was ten and
Bates crumpled up the picture because he was upset that John had died and left
him because, in Grace’s words, “the little bastard didn’t want me to be happy
with Robert (referring to Robert Foley, Bates’ stepfather) just because Robert
actually disciplined him a little.” Discipline meant beating him black and
blue, according to hospital records we managed to get. I asked about the
lighthouse and she didn’t know anything about it, said her son must have picked
it up at some thrift shop since he was “always collecting trash,” to quote her.
July fifth, we went to Haiden Wood’s house in the
suburbs. Her neighbor, Jamie Burke, found her body. She was lying in bed, a
bottle of sleeping pills lying empty on the floor beside her. She was facing
the nightstand which held the artifact and an empty picture frame. By now, we
were both unnerved seeing the lighthouse. Robin asked about the picture frame
and according to Burke it held a photo, a bit water-stained, of Wood’s best friend,
Roselyn Stone. When I asked about the lighthouse, he shrugged and said that he
assumed that Stone and Wood had loved the beach or something.
I couldn’t honestly tell you why we began looking
into other closed cases labeled as suicides. Robin was the one who started it,
obsessing about it. I had to admit that it couldn’t be a coincidence, the same
lighthouse being at all three suicides, though it was the empty frames that
bothered me more. I found the first victim of it, at least as far as we had records.
Benedetta “Bennie” Church, July fifth, nineteen-ninety. I’m sure if we’d had
more time, more resources, we would have found that there were others that year
in January twenty-fifth and April fourteenth, but then, the suicides we
investigated then didn’t have many pictures of miscellaneous decorations.
Church died by sleeping pills, like Wood did, but that’s not actually an
unusual suicide tactic. She was in bed, staring at her dresser where there were
several picture frames, but one stood empty beside a lighthouse that was
becoming all too familiar. Robin tried to contact Church’s next of kin for a
follow-up, but the number was disconnected and we found that they’d moved after
her death. Robin found the second one—Gabe Mullins, October sixteenth, nineteen-ninety.
Mullins was found with his wrists slit in the bathroom by his roommate Zoe
Ellis who mentioned that it was strange that the empty picture frame was in the
bathroom when she was interviewed. The lighthouse was there, sitting on the
sink, directly within his line of sight, right beside the empty frame.
By
that point, I was unnerved by this and decided that whatever was going on, I
wanted no part of it. It was too weird for me. I was seeing patterns where
there weren’t any and it was too much. I was having trouble sleeping. My
relationship suffered. It was...I needed a break. I told Robin I was done
investigating “the lighthouse suicides” as we had begun to call them. She
accepted this, but said she’d keep investigating, that she was onto something.
If I had known what was going to happen, I would have demanded she stop. Gotten
the chief (that would be Chief of Police Leon Richards) to force her to.
Something. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, after all. I was the one who found her.
She hadn’t shown up for work and the chief told me to swing by her place to
check on her since she hadn’t called in and wasn’t answering his calls. I
arrived and immediately felt like something was wrong. I didn’t know what it
was then, but looking back, I swear that it was the smell. Everything smelt
salty, like the ocean. I went in and found her, in the bathroom, wrists slit,
staring at an empty picture frame and that lighthouse. It was October
sixteenth. I called it in and one of your field agents showed up. He collected
the lighthouse, then asked about the picture frame, what had been in it. It was
a picture of Trent Bullock, Robin’s ex-boyfriend. He died shortly after Robin
broke off the relationship. That’s all there is to it. Your agency took the
lighthouse and all the files pertaining to cases that had the lighthouse
present.
Arch. Burgess: Thank
you for your statement. This will go a long way toward helping us understand
Artifact 0037LH.
Det. Fraser: You’re
welcome. Hopefully it does you more good than it did Robin.
Arch. Burgess: Statement ends. Detective Fraser has been given a leave from the force to recover from the loss of her partner, though she intends to return to police work. It is unclear as of yet how Artifact 0037LH uses these photos or why they vanish as well as how Artifact 0037LH manages to appear in these locations. More information is needed regarding this artifact. Support team Zeta will be invaluable in assisting the curators in studying Artifact 0037LH.
Testimony 1998-10-03
Arch. Burgess: Statement
of Curator Brice Thomson regarding Artifact 0037LH and its effect on support
team Zeta member Emerson Foster, recorded direct from subject by Archivist
Raylee Burgess. Whenever you’re ready, Brice.
Cur. Thomson: I...I don’t know where to start. I loved him,
you know. I loved Emerson. We kept the relationship secret. We didn’t want to
get into trouble for it. He told me about his record. I mean, he didn’t have
to. I read his file. I knew about his brother, Brandon. I knew about what
Emerson did, why he was in Ashfield. When he mentioned his brother and talking
to him, I...I knew it couldn’t be good. After the incident with the artifact,
he wasn’t allowed near it and became listless. Whenever we would meet
up...well, he wasn’t interested like he had been. We fought about it. Well,
really, I fought about it. He just sort of sat there, looking at nothing,
talking to someone that wasn’t there. I told him I was through and I was
leaving. I left and decided to give it a few days so I could cool down. I knew
that it was just the artifact, but I was still furious. I mean, here he was
moping around and ignoring me, ignoring someone who loved him. He was acting
like all that mattered was that damn artifact.
When I found him, he...he wasn’t dead, not quite.
I called the ambulance, tried to anyway, but the phone wasn’t working. No
service. I swear it was that damn artifact. It wouldn’t let me call anyone
until he was dead. I don’t know how it got there, I didn’t even realize it was
there until Emerson was dead. After he stopped...stopped...sorry, this is hard
to talk about. After Emerson was dead, I saw the artifact. It was just sitting
there on a table beside a picture frame. It was empty, the frame. It didn’t
even have the stock photo in it. It was just an empty frame. It used to have a
picture of Emerson and Brandon when they were kids that had been ripped down
the middle. He taped it back together and kept it in that frame, usually in his
bedroom. He said that he liked seeing how good their relationship used to be before
he goes to bed every night. The picture was gone and the frame was there,
beside the artifact. And that damn thing was just...sitting there.
I
know this is stupid, but I felt like it was staring at me, taunting me. Then
I...I smelled the ocean. I couldn’t...I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to.
Emerson was there and even though he was dead, I didn’t want to leave him with
that-that thing. The gulls began crying and I felt the tears on my cheeks. I
grabbed the phone, but it still wasn’t working. I...I didn’t want to leave
Emerson, but I knew I needed to call this in, call a collection team. I ran. I
forced myself to my feet and I ran for the door. Could barely open it, I was so
disoriented. Just before the door closed behind me, I swear I heard Emerson’s
voice. You know what happened after. I called the Agency, explained. Collection
agents were sent and retrieved Emerson’s body and the artifact. I don’t know
what they’re doing with his body. It was sent to the medics since they’ve got
medical investigators. His family didn’t want anything to do him so all funeral
arrangements would fall to me, but I don’t know if I’m ever going to get to see
him again or if I’ll even get his ashes if they cremate him. I...I’m putting in
my request for a transfer from the Museum. Library, Archives...I don’t know
which one yet, but I don’t want to be in the Museum anymore. I know the rules
about the artifacts have changed and now no one will be alone near that one,
but I don’t want to be there. I don’t like thinking that Emerson is still
there, trapped in that artifact and waiting for me. I don’t like thinking that
the artifact is waiting for me to let my guard down and be near it alone so it
can lure me in.
Arch. Burgess: Statement ends. Brice Thomson transferred from the Museum to the Archives, taking a position as an archival assistant. He has proven to be as diligent a researcher as he was a curator and has not engaged in anymore workplace romance. Due to Foster’s interest with the artifact leading to the artifact leaving the Museum, new rules have been implemented to guarantee that no one is left alone with it. We don’t want another containment breach.
Feel free to leave a comment below to tell me your thoughts, ask questions, speculate on what's going on, and choose from the list below which one you want to read next time.
Options:
- "Inmate 003" - The mysterious entity that caused the legendary Tunguska Event
- "Location 024C" - The truth behind Centralia
- "Tome 015S" - A constantly screaming book that is perhaps the most benign and normal thing the Agency deals with, aside from its wanderings
- "Specimen 024SB" - Mushrooms that burrow into skin should probably not be kept near fleshy creatures
- "Location 062EP" - A small town, quarantined for their faith
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