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“Statement of Markus no last name given regarding an encounter he had with a creature from a film. Original statement given December 14th 2009. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.
Statement begins.
I have always taken an interest in biology and how tiny bits, invisible to the naked human eye, work together in the most complicated processes. They don’t even have to think about it, they simply do what they are supposed to. I wish this was possible for us, letting go of feelings, drowning out your thoughts, switching your brain off. We don’t notice, don’t even think about how these processes are exactly what makes our body work, they make it possible for us to go through our everyday life.
The most interesting part of biology to me are genes and genetics. It fascinates me how easy breaking existence down into smaller parts is. It makes us think about how similar we all are, about how we were all built using the same components and what the result of making even the smallest of changes to our DNA would be. We’re so similar yet so different and these differences are only determined by tiny parts we inherited. We’re merely a creature made of traits that people before us had, put together differently. Wouldn’t changing our genes, the thing that makes us exactly what we are, be the freedom we seek? Being who we want to be in a new, interesting, almost experimental way.
Unfortunately, I don’t have access to gene manipulation, so I settled for an alternative. Freedom in terms of traveling, meeting new people and gaining new experiences. I wanted to stay in Europe, not feeling the need to go that far from home so I chose Germany. I’ve never been there before and after doing some research I knew it was the right choice. Since it wasn’t a holiday I had to find a school to go to for the time I had planned on staying. The whole organizing and planning bit went well and the people at the school were welcoming.
What no amount of research could have prepared me for is what happened in biology class. Our teacher used these short films that showed an animated version of the genetic process we were learning about. They were actually really helpful and made understanding what’s going on in our body easier. Not that I needed it of course, I have mentioned at the begging of this statement that I already had an interest in the subject, so I was quite familiar with the topic. To me it was more about appreciating the way the animations portrayed everything and how the narrator commented the series of smaller steps. It was almost relaxing, sitting there and enjoying something new but something I was familiar with at the same time. Well, it would have been relaxing if it wasn’t for that thing.
There were these small scenes between the animations. The room was colourful instead of the usually colder tones of a laboratory and then he or it or whatever entered. Tall, green and not at all human. The Narrator called him Geni, he acted like a person, the narrator talked about him like a person but he certainly wasn’t even close to looking like or being one. He looked like an anteater combined with an alien and a smooth pickle.
If I hadn’t known everything the films taught already, I wouldn’t have been able to work on the exercises we got. Was this a regular thing for German students? Seeing this thing, this creature, walk around a lab like it was the most normal. Maybe they were just used to it, they’ve probably seen him before. They certainly didn’t seem as disturbed or confused as I was when he appeared.
I could barely concentrate, my thoughts kept drifting back to Geni. I almost ran out of the room when the bell announced the end of the lesson, that’s how glad I was that it was finally over.
I usually took the bus to get home, but I needed the kind of silence and distance that you can only seem to achieve by yourself on a walk after a situation that fills your mind with questions that appear so surreal yet so present it leaves your mind foggy and your thoughts scrambled. The walk didn’t help.
It’s been a while since I last remembered a dream so vividly. I had just woken up, still tired and not fully awake yet, lost in a state between sleep and consciousness. I just laid there for a while and I would have for much longer if there hadn’t been any footsteps in the hallway. I thought I was alone, no one could be in here. I would have noticed someone getting in. They would have needed to break the door open. It was locked, I wouldn’t have forgotten to do that, I never do. My thoughts vanished when I heard the creaking of my bedroom door slowly opening, only to start racing not even a moment later.
That was when I saw him. Tall, green and creeping towards me, reaching for me. I couldn’t bring myself to look away, so I just stared at him and he stared back at me while he got closer. I wanted to go, run, hide. Anything to get away. I wasn’t able to do any of it. Physically there was nothing holding me down, yet moving was impossible. Was it my mind doing this? Blocking my brain telling my body to get the fuck out of there. It was too late to escape unnoticed now. I panicked and passed out before he could get close enough to touch me.
I woke up, regretting that I went to class yesterday. I tried my best to avoid thinking about it. I kept telling myself it was just a dream. Lots of people have strange dreams. It’s normal. It’s fine. I don’t know if I actually believed it or just wanted to.
And even if it occurred again, at least I knew what to expect now. When it happened again it took me longer to wake up. As soon as I gained consciousness I tried to calm down. Not even trying to move, I knew it wasn’t going to work, why waste my energy? The door opened, I heard him approaching. He didn’t hurt me last time, he had no reason to start now, right? “Hallo Freund,” Geni exclaimed through his mouth tube with so much joy it was unsettling. He looked at me, like he was waiting for me to respond, with eyes so big it looked like someone was pulling them open and not letting him blink. Did he even need to blink?
His fingertips were cold and sticky when they made contact with my shoulder. My eyes followed the movement of his hands to a syringe of a size that definitely wasn’t meant for humans. It was jammed into my arm. How had I not felt this when I awoke? He held my arm down with one hand and removed it with the other. The moment the needle wasn’t in my shoulder anymore, blood started oozing out of the puncture wound. It didn’t look like it was going to stop any time soon. Even if I had been able to take control of my body, I’m not sure I would have had the energy to do it, I was so weak I could barely manage to keep my eyes open. I stopped trying to stay awake when my head started feeling fuzzy.
The next morning my skin was tinted a light shade of green where his hands had been. At that point I believed these marks to be the weird lighting in my room. I got dressed for school, which was when I saw a band aid on my shoulder and when I took it off there was a tiny dot of dried blood in the exact position I didn’t want it to be because that made it real.
Of course, it had to escalate for the third and final time I encountered him.
It was different. When I awoke he was already there, just pulling the syringe out and putting the band aid over where it had been. “Good morning,” hearing him speak English with a noticeable German accent made him sound worse. I knew it was going to be worse now. If loosing blood wasn’t what was going to make me pass out at the end of this, then what would be? I had no choice but to find out.
He touched my arm, but when the suction parts on his fingertips stuck to my arm he didn’t loosen them instead he pulled at my skin until it almost started ripping. The most vulnerable and thin area was where he used a scalpel. The cuts were smooth and quick. I opened my mouth to scream and wasn’t surprised to find out it didn’t work. The skin scrap was stuck to his fingertips until he decided to throw it. With an audible slap it hit the wall. “Don’t worry I practiced this on my cow,” he reassured, placing his hand on my leg. He stretched my skin until it started tearing and only then used the scalpel. This went on for hours, stretching, tearing, throwing and only cutting when I couldn’t take the pain of tearing. He hummed quietly to himself while he worked and when he felt like I was enough of a mess made of blood and only bits and parts of skin he put his scalpel down and left with a cheery “Goodbye!”
I didn’t fall asleep like the last few times I met him in what I at the time did not yet perceive as reality. When he was outside the room I was able to move again. I gathered the bits of skin sticking to the walls and carried them to the bathroom in agony, leaving a trail of fresh, dripping blood on my floor. I tried to get the right parts back into the right places but I didn’t have the patience or energy for a 3D puzzle with floppy pieces. I just put them where they could have come from and taped each piece on with two small strips of tape. I wasn’t sure if it was going to hold so I tried using liquid glue to make sure it stayed where it was supposed to. The glue getting into the partially open wound burned and I eventually passed out from the pain.
I think you don’t need me to explain why I decided to leave the country and get back to London earlier than I had originally planned. And you know what? I don’t regret it, yes, I put a lot of effort into organizing this and I was excited but I couldn’t even have guessed something like this was going to happen. Looking back at the events now, I feel sorry for the cow. It probably went through multiple test runs. And I don’t even want to know what else it has to go through on a daily basis.
Statement ends.
We couldn’t find any evidence or record of a mutilated cow in the area but Sasha contacted landlord of his temporary residence. He sent us the report he made after Markus left the country. There were traces of blood and the walls showed clear signs of being unprofessionally cleaned with bleach.
I told Martin to search hospital records for a man with similar injuries but apparently, he couldn’t find anything.
Tim did some research and was able to confirm the existence of the films they watched in class. He even managed to get one of the teachers to send a copy to the Institute. He felt the need to make Sasha, Martin and me watch them as research. He was ready with a bowl of popcorn, when we gathered in the break room to watch them on Sasha’s laptop.
While I doubt any of the events Markus described are likely or even possible to happen to someone I do understand his unsettled and confused reaction to this Geni creature. Even if he probably just imagined it.
End recording.”