I am a sergeant in the London Metropolitan police (Met for short). What i tell people i’ve seen shocks them, the things i chose to not tell them are scarier still. I won’t tell you my name as I want to stay anonymous.
I have 12 years of experience working in the Met, for the most part, these have been some of the best years of my life. I have worked with some great colleagues over the years, and they had my back. Once or twice, I even saw my colleagues outside of work and had a few drinks and a curry or two.
There was one incident a few years ago that I will never forget. Myself and my colleague, lets call him PC Khan, were out on patrol. We had been working nights for the last 6 shifts, and this was the last shift before the rotation back to day. naturally, Kahn and I were looking forward to seeing our wives and children in the light of the sun once more. The days of stealing a good night kiss from our little ones was coming to an end. We were in the new Volvo as well, making it a comfortable shift. These beasts could overcome the potholes that litter London’s streets easily, a bit like that martian rover on the telly.
'’turn that shite over, its only good on a sunday evening’’ I said grumpily to Khan.
'’what, so you can listen to some geriatric old dodder with a flying V?’’ Khan replied, somewhat sarcastically.
’'’Metallica are classic, compared to this nonsense on 1’’. I retorted.
It was the usual crap that we argued on shift. Khan had been my partner for the last year, good lad really. He didnt really like Metallica much, but we could both agree on our hatred of Jazz. Those twatty men in their blazers and turtlenecks, spouting gibberish on their sax or pianos.
'’that’s the only time i don’t listen to Radio 1, cause that rubbish is always on then!’’ he stated. I knew this already as there was little much else to talk about on shift, besides the latest cricket test match.
We drove for a bit in silence. The light pollution robbed the night of the dark.
We were near Canning Town station when the radio dispatch went.
'’Any patrols near Canning Town please respond.’’
'’Aye, I and Khan have got this one’’
“Head over to the East India Doc, reports of a mammal in distress”.
“We’ll head there now, out”.
“Christ, that must be one very lost seal”.
I was thinking how on earth it winded up in one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Anything can happen in London it turns out.
We got close to the basin. The East India Doc has been disused for centuries, it has been re-wilded, a great place for nature in the heart of Europe’s biggest city. I peered into the black abyss of the basin. The water at night looked like black tar.
I fumbled my torch and pointed it into the darkness. I was aware that anything down there would see me before I could see it. Whilst moving torch over the basin, I saw two sets of eyes glare back at me. From their size, I could see they were foxes, those things get everywhere.
I carried on looking, until I hear Khan shout my name. there was a tonne of urgency in his voice.
I run over to where I think he was, but I couldn’t see him.
'’Where are you, Khan?’’ I shout, with anxiety in my voice.
silence.
Suddenly, the silence broke and I heard Khan 10 feet below where I was standing. He was on silt in the basin.
I got onto all fours, crawled underneath the barrier and then dropped clumsily down onto the silt beach next to the Thames.
I saw he was kneeling next to what we originally thought was the seal. It turns out it was a young man.
The man was conscious, but wasn’t making any sense. He spoke English, but the words were coming out in a random order, almost like a stroke victim. He didn’t seem hurt, and managed to move his legs and arms to prop himself up to talk to us.
I rummaged through his pockets, and found his wallet. Inside was his drivers license. I then help Khan get this poor bugger to his feet, we get him up the steps on the otherside of the basin, and back to the Volvo.
I ran his ID through the database which sent alarm bells ringing.
The man was noted as a misssing person, who was presumed dead. This John Doe went off to work one day, and never made it home to his wife and children. The wife reported it 48 hours later as required. Normally, this would be an closed case. Most missing people run away from their lives or kill themselves. often, people are found a week later absolutely fine, but just needed a break from the routine. others have worse intentions. The case was not looked into as he was presumed dead. He went missing 2 years ago.
What struck me as odd was that this man was wearing the same clothes he was reported to have left home in. They were not that dirty, despite being found in the Thames silt. What struck me as down-right concerning was that the man couldn’t speak coherently. The lights were on, but was anyone home?
The man started talking incoherently, but looked a little more relieved when he was put on the back-seat of the Volvo. I re-assured him that he was fine now and safe. We were going to take him to the hospital.
'’Can you come over here Sergeant?’’ khan said quitely, about 30 feet from the car.
'’We need to get him to the hospital quickly. Where has he been for the last 2 years, that’s worrying me. ‘’
'’I have no idea, he probably walked out on his family and has a new life now’’ i said, walking over, although my gut was telling me something else. i was sure this poor guy had been somewhere for 2 years, but not of his own free will. I wasn’t not going to admit this to my PC.
'’Dispatch, we have found a missing person, please bring support staff to St Thomas hosptial.’’ i said turning, ending the conversation as I was deeply worried about the state of our John Doe.
i turned to face the car and feel that something is not right.
I ran to the Volvo and Khan followed instinctively.
Our missing person was gone!
The door was open and there were drag marks in the dirt, leading away from the vehicle. it looked like there was a struggle.
There was no sign of our John Doe.
We searched high a low for him, called in support and went over the area several times. We didn’t see our missing person again.
My God were we chewed out by our superiors for leaving the John Doe in the car, but we thought we were alone.
I still think to this day what could have happened to our missing person. There were no footprints, just drag marks from the car. I’m glad it wasn’t me that was taken that day, but also scared of what’s out there.
Second chapter can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/s/h6zS8RzNNi