My Grandfather was a Limnologist. Now this is an interesting profession but not wild or full of supernatural stories, but my grandfather knew, that at an early, I had a fascination for horror stories. I never knew between his stories about being in the war or watching my father grow up, that this unbelievable story about any average day in his profession would ever leave his lips.
It was the late summer of 1973 and my father was asked to represent the small company he worked for on a research project. Nine other scientists including himself, were contracted and sent to a seemingly normal pond (he refused to share any information about its name or even relative location).
Apparently this small body of water has always had a low aquatic life count. This has lead local fishermen to avoid the spot and so it gets glossed over and only a handful of locals knows it even exists. The only ones that really know about it are people who remember a disappearance that took place back in 1914, when a child went missing.
According to my grandfather, a family happened upon this pond during a hiking trip and after one or two visits, they decide to make it a regular occurrence. It’s remote and peaceful, the pond seems safe for their two children and they get some peace and quiet. During their last excursion, near the end of the trip, their oldest starts screaming. They realize he’s in the middle of the pond and the father races out to help him. When the father makes it to him, he realizes his sister is nowhere to be found. The boy starts screaming about how the water pulled her under and the dad goes down in pursuit. After hours of searching, he never finds her and the police rule it a drowning. At this point, the kid is a full grown man and still insistent that she did not simply drown, but she was pulled under.
After arriving, he and his fellow researches are gathered together by a man in a yellow jumpsuit sporting a logo he’s never seen before or since. Him and the others are told that they are to take samples and test for any abnormalities. He is told specifically NOT to share results with the rest of the research team or anyone else for that matter. If he does, he will be removed from the site and not receive payment for any research collected.
The group is separated from each other and told to begin. My grandfather notices as he is taking samples of the algae, that one of the other researchers is arguing in another language with one of the men in yellow. The man pulls out a handgun and begins escorting the gentleman into the woods. My grandfather doesn’t say anything and keeps his head down. After a few hours, he begins noticing a strange pattern of reoccurring and diminishing iron level in the soil and pond water itself. According to him, this is incredibly high levels even if it was a large body of water with a larger ecosystem.
Every so often, my grandfather notices a small pattern of bubbles coming from the middle of the pond but he keeps it to himself.
Around noon, they set up a small buffet right outside the research area. A man in a yellow jumpsuit arrives to escort my grandfather to the buffet and while walking, he reiterates to my grandfather not to discuss any findings with any of the other researchers. My grandfather gets his meal and sits at the table with the other scientists. Most of the meal is eerily quiet and made more uncomfortable by one of the men in yellow, standing only a few feet from the table. A man sitting across from my grandfather eventually speaks up, inquiring about everyone’s profession. Before anyone could utter a word, the man in yellow turns towards the table and begins shouting about how they will share no name, professions or details of their lives. “After our investigation into the incident is concluded, you will all return home and forget you ever met one other” the man announces. Everyone at the table is puzzled. They knew they were doing research but they didn’t understand what incident he was referring to.
Another man dressed in yellow, quickly pulls his colleague aside and a hushed argument ensues. One of the scientists takes this moment to share with the table that he overheard they were investigating the possibility of a new organism. They all begin to share theories and rumors. At this moment, my grandfather realizes that one of the researchers were missing. The man he saw earlier being escorted into the forest. My grandfather is too afraid to say anything.
As they finish eating and my grandfather returns to his post, he begins noticing the bubble pattern again and starts timing how often they appear and for how long.
Sometime later my grandfather is interrupted by one of the researchers shouting. The man finds a fleshy tendril wrapped up in some debris below the surface. He begins pulling on it and shouting for help in excitement as some men in yellow race over. After a bit of tugging, he manages to untangle it. As he lifts it out, the slimy looking tendril is connected to a massive fleshy sack the size of a large dog. As the men in yellow gather around, the scientist that fished it out, gets it snagged on a sharp rock and the sack tears and begins to leak a thick, gory, red mess. One of the men in yellow removed a handgun from within his suit and points it at the researcher. He tells him to drop the mass and return to his station. The researcher quickly follows the orders given as the other men in yellow remove the sack from the area.
As my grandfather said, after that, it was like the entire site fell still and quiet. He didn’t know what they were looking for, but the risks were only going to get higher as the day continued.
A short time later, noises could be heard from trees. A sort of ‘weary howling’ as my grandfather described it. It was unsettling and only made worse when he realized it was the missing researcher from before. He was completely naked and covered in a thick residue. My grandfather described it as ‘mucus-like’ with ‘yellow-ish green’ color. He was babbling incoherently and out of the thickness of the forest, was the man originally escorting him. His gun now trained on the missing researcher as the scientist reached the edge of the pond and stopped. He waited for a moment and then began stepping inside and slowly making his way to the center. All the while, the man was mumbling and sobbing softly to himself. He eventually made it to the center, when his sobbing turned to uncontrollable wailing and what seemed like pleading. His cries unsettled the site as everyone, including my grandfather, waited in horror for what would happen next.