The Reality Investigators

by V Bertolaccini

  The location was near our headquarters, next to the Thames, and when I entered I expected little. It was my first case!

  After talking with her more I established that she had recently become a widow, and was left there on her own, and I suddenly realized that she believed she had encountered something she believed was of a paranormal nature, of a strange nature, and that she must want me to identify what it was and perhaps find a way of getting rid of it.

  Though what had she seen, and how was I going to get rid of it, and what if it was some form of paranormal?

  After the ghost occurrences I had witnessed before I gasped at what it could be! But they were entirely different and surely could not exist there. And if she had fantasized something, half asleep, in the middle of the night, she could have hallucinated, or she could have believed it had occurred afterwards, but there was more to it, and I had to try to deduce what she meant by what she said, and I had her give me accurate descriptions of the visitation, or whatever she thought it was, but she gave me little and it left me confused, and I wondered if she was playing with me, as she might have heard of the case of the ghost sightings.

  Though she insisted something had appeared there, in her living room, and that it had never appeared there before, and she claimed the Santa Claus floated inches over her floor, as though it thought it was on the floor, and its movement suggested it was doing something, with an intension, which she never identified.

  The case seized my attention and I became engrossed in discovering what would happen, and in the unusual case, and I had to solve it. But it was not a matter of remaining there this time and watching for its reappearance, as it had only shown itself once, and I even wondered if it could have been from my appearance there, and the powers that I had gained from the last occurrence, but they had been different and had vanished, and I decided to check nearby and locals there, and if they had seen anything, or had heard of anything that had supposedly haunted the region.

  Chapter 3

  The Visitations

  After thinking it over for too long I started wondering if it was me that was attracting such strange occurrences to materialize, as since the last one I still had not heard any other proper occurrences anywhere, and from everyone and everywhere I checked, and could not grasp how the paranormal scientists could even work, as there was nothing and they admitted it!

  I sensed that it existed in this case, and started to realize it more and more as I questioned locals, but I could not identify what, as they only explained so far, and little, and none had actually seen any occurrences, and I could not grasp if they were tricking me, or hiding something, but eventually I got more information from them, and I realized there had been other sightings of the Santa Claus, and that they were passing on information from the victims.

  I began to believe it could be a serial killer, who had hidden away the remains of his victims, and the people I had met only had heard rumors, and I decided to search further and discovered there had been other sightings of the Santa Claus on the same street as the elderly widow who had witnessed him.

  My first investigation of another elderly widow on the same street seemed as strange as the first, and left me more confused, and gave little information on what she had witnessed, and nothing indicating it was a serial killer, and she claimed she had seen Santa Claus actually emerge in her house in the middle of the night, and she claimed it had somehow had the appearance of something ghostly, and I started to wonder if she was just copying the other woman, and wondered what they were up to.

  By the way she later described it I wondered if it had been a burglar using the festive season and a Santa Claus costume to disguise him breaking in, while hiding his identity, and after talking it over she admitted others in the street had encountered it too, to my surprise, and I decided to investigate it further.

  Back at Reality Investigations I met Marple and he handed me letters involved with the case, which I opened, and I sat surprised and shocked at the fireplace reading them, and even though I thought the sudden appearance of the letters had to be someone reacting to my investigations, and perhaps covering up what they were doing, I realized how authentic the letters were and how dangerous the case could be, and I was left staggered when I read one from a school boy who claimed Santa’s reindeer had eaten his brother, and left his bones under their Christmas tree, and I was left baffled, and wondered why the police had not been called, and I decided that I had better investigate it before doing anything, and had to check the bones existed, and identify a killing occurring!

  I was left unsure by the way it was written, and it was strange that the young boy claimed that his brother should not have gone downstairs to see Santa, and that he had not known any better, and I wondered if he had been kidnapped or something, and had left the bones to cover it up.

  He claimed his parents were away and I realized that his parents had not returned yet and that the occurrence had occurred on a previous night, and the letter finished with him asking for our help, and I realized people I had met had told him and the other letter writers of my investigations.

  What the hell was there? Was it a case for paranormal investigators? I considered calling them up, but realized I would have to prove something of that nature existed, or there was something unexplained occurring.

  Suddenly I discovered one letter was from a neighbor of the first elderly lady client, who started the investigation, and I began reading other letters, and it became more and more curious, and I read letters from women at the surrounding houses, and that it was not burglaries as nothing was being taken from the houses.

  One claimed the Santa had used large vicious reindeers! Or had used a dangerous animal disguised as a reindeer! Which could have attacked and killed the boy, and I had to investigate it.

  While going through the dates of the occurrences in the letters I discovered that he was working his way down the street ever night, and had probably done all the houses there, one every night, and that the boy’s house had been recent, and I worked out what house he would surely visit that night.

  Chapter 4

  The Christmas Visitation

  I thought of telling Marple but I left it as I wanted to solve the case myself, and could not believe such a thing could happen, and on my first case, and it never occurred to the other investigators of it being anything, and how could anything happen with such a case!

  It was absurd! I realized then that they could be missing major cases, and serial killers!

  I wanted to know what the clients were actually talking about!

  The woman in the house the Santa Claus was to arrive at welcomed me in, and told me about the things her neighbors had witnessed, and had told her, and late that night she gave me a room on the ground floor, and I placed a seat at the door of the bedroom and left the door partly opened, just enough to see into the living room and entire area where he would enter, and I sat reading a book I brought with me, and I started to see sense and wonder if they were all up something else, which I never grasped.

  What surprised me was she arrived near the time the occurrences had taken place at the other houses and apologized to me for something, and before she left gave me a book to read, to which I believed she had given me as she felt sorry for me, leaving me there doing nothing, in the dark, with whatever it was, and I considered if she intended to use the story of it for somewhere for some reason.

  Though when I started to read the book I sat back staggered, as the book was full of paranormal and ghost stories, which were claimed to be real accounts, which were written like they actually occurred, and I realized it could be part of their plan to persuade me something was there.

  Though after reading through it, trying to see what was there, I was left staggered as there were accounts of occurrences actually taking place in the same region.

  There were ancient inhabitants of the region claiming to have seen alarming evil spirits and the devil itself, dwelling there.

  I realiz
ed that the place had not always been a city region as it was, many centuries ago, and it sent a chill through me as I thought what could be buried there.

  There were ancient newspaper accounts of reported unexplained ancient occurrences, and one of the worst told of travelers that had come upon the remains of people left in pieces in the region by some hideous occurrence, with their remains being found scattered throughout the area, and others of people being attacked and chased by things.

  I was mesmerized and my eyes for no reason fell upon something in the woman’s living room, and I recalled seeing it a few seconds earlier but had not noticed it, as I was engrossed with the accounts, and I stared at it for almost a minute trying to figure it out but was unable to form a mental image of what was there, and what I was looking at, as it had no real form, from what I saw, and in the darkness my tired unfocused eyes never allowed me to grasp what.

  It was the appearance of the house that brought me to, and I stood behind the door, and I could say little, and I wondered what could happen if I revealed myself, or even turned on the light.

  After going through all the things that had happened I realized that there had to be something actually there, and I realized with all the stuff I had learned I did not positively know what to do, as even with all the knowledge I had heard I did not know what it was, and I did not believe it all, and I realized my mission was to discover what was there, and proceed from there.

  Going by everything that I had heard I knew it would do what it did and vanish, and I quickly glanced out, and stood staggered as it was the Santa Claus, and how I imagined him as a child, and it was startling, and also gasped in horror, as it seemed real.

  I spotted a faint glowing energy around its shape, and twinkles of light, like miniature starlight, and realized it looked magical, with fantasy powers.

  I was sure that I could solve the case by examining it up close!

  I was sure it might be affected by things, and I could find a way of getting rid of it, and stopping it haunting the region.

  I became even more fascinated, wondering what it was, as it was so realistic, and unlike any normal human I had ever seen, and as I moved closer to it I realized it detected me, and at that point I collapsed over the floor.

  Chapter 5

  The Deadly Encounter

  Things seemed somehow different when I awakened, on the floor, and I studied everything about me everywhere trying to grasp what, and I watched the woman studying me sprawled across her living room floor, surprised, and she apologized, and took the blame for what had happened, and I had a bad time recalling what had happened, and strange meaningless dreams I had.

  Later I recalled the moments before I collapsed repeatedly, wondering what the hell happened.

  I was badly depressed all evening after it, still trying to grasp it, and not believing I had blown the end, and had not found out what it had been doing there! If only I had stayed where I had been I could have found out and have remained undiscovered, and the woman had not been able to tell me anything either.

  Back at the detective agency I read through the letters again and gasped at the occurrences that had been mentioned, and still could not understand how the Santa could be mentioned as being deadly, but realized that I could have been killed if it had been.

  I thought of telling Marple but I left it as I wanted to solve the case myself, and could not believe such a thing could happen on a case, as I was trapped trying to solve it and stuck with one of the strangest menaces I had heard of, and it had not occurred to any of the other investigators of it being anything, and that anything could happen with such a case! It was absurd!

  I had only one thing left I could do and that was to contact the next house, next to the house, and arrange to do it over again, and this time use cameras to record it and watch it as well, and find out what the hell it did, and if it did exist to use it to contact the paranormal scientists!

  I needed to give them evidence of something, as they would have to travel all the way there from Scotland.

  The man in the house the Santa Claus was to arrive at welcomed me in, and told me his neighbors had told him everything, and he would allow me to set up a camera and other equipment to check it out.

  Once again when it turned night I got a room on the ground floor, next to the living room, and I quickly placed a seat at the door of the bedroom and left the door partly opened, just enough to see into the living room, and entire area where I knew it would arrive, and I sat reading a book I brought with me, and I started to see sense and I wondered what it really was.

  Again I realized the place had not always been a proper city region, many centuries ago, and it sent a chill through me as I thought of what could be buried away, and my eyes for no reason fell upon something in the living room, and realized it was there and I suddenly jumped back startled, and my heart leapt, and I saw its red figure shifting into the room, shifting out from nothing and the darkness of the corridor, and I activated the camera and equipment I had set up.

  Even though it was dark it was identical to a Santa and I watched its strange figure move in making Santa sounds, and I realized how similar it was to a department store Santa, and I tried to grasp what it was doing!

  There was something strange that I just could not grasp, and it moved and did things far differently than anyone I had seen, and I was shocked as it suddenly had a lethal appearance.

  I suddenly spotted the man who owned the house on the stairs in the darkness, watching it in horror, unable to decide what to do, and I realized he could actually do something stupid and confront it, and I did not know what to do and sat stunned.

  I studied its strange Santa features and tried to see if it had detected the man, and what it might do.

  I watched the man realize the danger of it and become aware of its deadliness and I saw the Santa react to something, and march up to the man’s Christmas tree and remove something from its sack and place what looked like a Christmas present down.

  I sensed the man would do something stupid, and he did, and he walked right up to it, and nervously stood in front of it, and gasped at what he saw there, and stood staggered with his mouth wide open, and in the darkness of the corridor what looked like two of Santa’s reindeers rushed out and attacked the man, like lions, and devoured the man and in seconds, and all that remained of him were his bones on the carpet, and the creatures rushed away, back into the darkness of the corridor and vanished, and the Santa followed, not reacting to anything, as if it was somewhere else!

  Chapter 6

  Paranormal Investigators

  Outside the London hotel room, the paranormal investigators were staying in, I watched the high street below stretch out in bright sunlight into the distance, like it was in the Victorian era, and I rested against the window frame dreamily watching soldiers below looking like they were still celebrating the end of the war, and away in the distance I saw a mysterious mist shift over buildings, and saw the sun was going down.

  The bedroom seemed alright. Their psychic research equipment was all over it, everywhere, and they speedily had porters bring the rest up, while they unpacked it, and examined it for breakages and other damage.

  Their equipment was new and I had never seen anything like it, and new technology, and I gasped again at what their profession was, and what they could uncover if it was all authentic!

  It was the occurrence at Craigmillar Road, with the metal detector, which persuaded me to have them investigate the case further, and the police had not found anything, and in all their investigations of the Santa and the killings he had committed, and nobody had been able to explain what had happened, and they were searching for a serial killer dressed as a department store Santa, which attacked people in their homes at night.

  What surprised me was the Santa had not appeared after the killing and the police investigation.

  It appeared all over the news, and I had to persuade Marple to keep to me on the case, but I was sure that he would c
hange that once he had more evidence of what was happening, as the case was full of missing information, and lack of evidence, and nobody had seen the Santa enter the buildings, or had seen him outside, and there was virtually nothing on him, other than my film footage of the Santa, which had been far too dark to see properly, and had left them even more confused, and they could not work out what had happened and what had devoured the man so quickly and left only his bones.

  The paranormal investigators only seemed confused about why it was a Santa, and believed it was of paranormal origins, by my description of the creatures appearance, which even Marple was left stumped, especially after he had examined the bones, as nothing on the Earth could have devoured him so fast and completely, leaving nothing but bones.

  I had no idea what it was or what we were getting ourselves involved in, and what it was leading to, and in the end I started to leave the case to the paranormal scientists and the police to solve.

  I had continuously read through the documents on the case, and what the police had found, and found little, and I could barely make anything out.

  The documents were virtual missing everything that said anything about anything!

  It suggested to the paranormal scientists that it could be something new, and they agreed that it could be, or some lost ancient thing, and I was left confused by why the paranormal investigators were so interested in it in the end, as they said little, and I still consistently tried to fully grasp what they normally did.

  Again I wondered if we were actually there to search for it or something else and again I never believed it was what they claimed, and supernatural.