Statement of Eva Palladino regarding a strange occurrence at a work event. Original statement given June 7th, 20[REDACTED]. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.
“Y’know, after working at this place for as long as I have, you’d think I’d be used to freaky stuff happening. Maybe I’d be more used to it if people actually told me sh*t, but hey, I’m just security.”
…It happened a while back. I was working security at one of those fundraiser galas the boss used to do, and… it was almost weirdly bright, y’know? More lights than I remember that room having. I guess I get it, though, all things considered. And you know how he is, especially when the expenses are being covered by his sailor’s chequebook. Anyway, I’m getting off topic, sorry.”
“I was going about my usual routine, checking IDs and handling sh*t-faced guests acting like arses, the typical stuff. But everything felt kind of hazy, like a dream or something. I looked around, kind of slow, to see what was going on. Then I saw this… thing, it looked like a silverfish or something, but wrong. My break had just hit, and the event was winding down, so I followed it and ended up in Artefacts Storage. When I got in, though…”
[She shudders with a disgusted sound]
“God, there were so many… All of them crowding around something in storage. The shelf was starting to creak. I tried to grab something to get rid of them, ended up fumbling my boot off to squish the little sh*ts. Weird part is, the guts seemed… liquidier. Like tiny silver water balloons with legs.”
“…Seems like my report about possibly tightening pest control in storage helped, even if just a little. God only knows what would happen if the little buggers ate one of the things in there. One of them bit me, I think. A lot of the night was blurry after that; must’ve had a few too many drinks during clean-up, ‘cause I ended up with this weird tattoo the next morning, ‘Door’s Nomad’. Maybe if I were in one of the other departments like Research or you guys in Archival, I'd be able to figure out what the hell that means.”
“...Well, I oughtta go, my shift starts soon.”
Now, Miss Palladino was in fact on the security team at the Magnus Institute at the time of giving this statement, and in fact still is employed here. Archived security footage does, in fact, corroborate her words about the "water balloon silverfish". However, the brightness doesn't appear out of the ordinary in any of the footage. Even stranger, her statement implies that she stayed through the entire cleanup and doesn't remember parts of the night (such as the tattooed words) due to intoxication. Reviewing footage from the night and interviewing others who were present that night proves she left about halfway through cleanup due to feeling unwell, possibly a bit feverish, and that she drank no alcohol that night.
It seems the memory issues regarding the incident may well be due to illness, or perhaps an adverse reaction to the bite. That, or one of those factors exacerbated some lingering damage from her history of substance abuse in university. Either way, a follow-up interview will be scheduled once we can pin down her availability.
*Silver hits a button on the recorder, dislodging the tape and putting it with the others he had listened to.*
*He sits up, his brows furrowed slightly. He had met Eva or at the very least talked to her, maybe he could get that second interview jon wanted.*
*He wipes his face, had he been crying? Anyways he cleans his throat*
It's weird listening back to these, especially the earlier ones, it's kinda funny to see how much skepticism and just straight denial he was hiding behind
