“The target has been neutralized, sir. We are awaiting your order to interrogate.” said the special agent, touching the earpiece of his headset as he looked at his captive through the one-way window. Another special agent was already in the interrogation room, verifying the captive's identity and completing the necessary paperwork.
The man on the other end said to the special agent, “Go ahead and make sure you record the interrogation.”
“Yes, Sir.” said the special agent. “Have good one, sir.”
He entered the interrogation chamber and watched the other special agent discuss the man's identity. The other agent looked up and said, “Approved?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, I'm done here.” said the sitting special agent. He put his paperwork away in a manilla folder, got up and then left the interrogation room.
The special agent sat in the chair and made sure the tape machine was recording. He said, “My name is Agent Matthews and I am going to ask you questions. As I understand it your name is Nathanial Pendleton, is that correct?”
The man said, “Yes.”
Agent Matthews said, “Tell me Nathanial, where you are from and what the nature of your business was at the time we encountered you.”
Nathanial said, “I am from here, Houston. And like I said before, I woke up lost and confused, inside your facilities, without memory of how I got here, and my business was to leave because I don't know what happened to me and I don't belong here.”
Nathanial was visibly stressed and on the edge of a mental breakdown. He looked like he was about to cry.
Agent Matthews said, “And when you were found, what happened?”
Nathanial said, “I was trying to get out of the building! I couldn't find my way out. I was wandering the empty halls and then found this woman wearing a lab coat and asked her where the entrance was. She called security and I went into her lab and there were these crazy alien corpses lying on trays and I took the scalpels and fought security. Now here I am.” His eyes were teared up. He said, “I just want to leave. I don't know how I got here. I don't belong here.”
Agent Matthews said, “What was the last thing you remember?”
Nathanial looked away for a while in thought, trying not to cry. Eventually he looked at Agent Matthews and said, “I was catching frogs.” He choked on a sob.
Agent Matthews said, “Here in Houston?”
Nathanial said, “Yes. And I was catching these frogs. It was late at night, like one in the morning. It was at this special property where this bank was closed and abandoned. Okay, first, how this started.”
Nathanial took a drink of his coffee and cleared his throat. He said, “So this all started when I was playing with these frogs at that abandoned property. One of the frogs disappeared and I searched hard, couldn't find it. So I kept at it, discovering that these frogs could disappear, testing my suspicions. Although I could be sure that they were disappearing without a trace I couldn't actually see them in the act of disappearing. It were as though they were smart frogs that knew if I saw them disappear, uh, something bad would happen to them? I don't know. I was determined to catch one in the act so that I was sure that I wasn't imagining this.”
“There was this fountain on the edge of the abandoned property that the business next door owned. The sides of the fountain were high enough that if I put a frog in the water it couldn't escape, except at a specific point where there was a bubbler that could be used to climb out. So I got the idea to get a bunch of these frogs and put them in there, counting them first, watch them carefully and count them as they would escape. And let me tell you, they couldn't escape easy, it took like 30 seconds per frog to escape that fountain. There was no chance to miss a frog.”
“I collected twenty frogs at a time, keeping them in a plastic shopping sack and then took them to the fountain. I repeated this over ten times. And this was over the course of about two weeks. Not once, not one single time, were there were an equal number of frogs taken out of the shopping sack as there were put inside of it. Not once. There was always at least one frog missing. And man, I took great care to make damn sure that I counted them correctly.”
“So I would count them into the fountain out of the sack. Watch them carefully, make sure they didn't get tricky and somehow escape without me seeing them. I would count them escaping the fountain and always, every single time, there would be frogs missing. So I got determined to search and re-search that fountain to make damn sure there wasn't another escape route or hole in it or a tunnel. There was no other way, they must climb out at one specific point. I swear, there were always missing frogs.”
“And then one night when I was observing them and handling them and not specifically testing the disappearing thing out, I brought two frogs to the fountain and let them into the water and I saw it happen. One frog swam away while the other frog disappeared before my very eyes.”
“When it hit water it didn't swim, it sank. It rolled on its side like it was giving up, not kicking it's legs. And it was eerie because it stared at me with one eye, like it was intelligent or something, and see look at my arms, this still makes my hair raise.”
Nathanial held out his arm, showing that his arm hair was standing on end. He continued, “So he disappeared as he sank. He shrunk as he sank, but like, you know, the depth of that fountain wasn't far enough for him to shrink that small to my eyes because he was right there in front of me, my face a foot above the water and the fountain was only two feet deep, yet when this frog shrank away, he shrank away like he was ten feet away and all the while it was like he was staring into my mind. And it kicked it's leg only once, as it kicked, it's leg went through this invisible slit, like he was stepping through a slit that made him invisible and he simply vanished. This happened in like two seconds but the memory is like slow motion. I will never forget this small frog that fit in my hand staring at me with one eye like it was God himself, staring through me like I was nothing and then slipping through this invisible, like, invisible thing to where? Another dimension? Where did that frog go? I saw it happen, I swear.”
Agent Matthews said, “And then what?”
Nathanial said, “I was nervous and my whole body was in this paranoid shock. I found the second frog and let it go and couldn't get over what I saw. I knew that if I tried to tell someone what I saw they would say I was nuts. I didn't know what to do. I was kicking myself because I didn't have my camera phone ready and thought that I would try repeating this and film it.”
Agent Matthews said, “How did that work out?”
Nathanial said, “It didn't. That's the last thing that I remember.”
Agent Matthews said, “And what day was that?”
Nathanial said, “Friday, like one in the morning.”
Agent Matthews said, “Really? A week ago? It's thursday evening now.”
Nathanial said, “Friday, August 21st.”
Agent Matthews laughed and said, “Really? Are you sure about that?”
Nathanial said, “Yes. It was August 21st. I know this for sure.”
Agent Matthews said, “Well that's a mind screw and a half. Hard to believe you because it's August 13th.”
Nathanial looked confused, “No way. That's impossible” he said.
Agent Matthews said, “You better believe it. What year?”
Nathanial said, “2020.”
Agent Matthews said, “Yes. 2020. So, apparently, according to your memory, you time traveled after seeing a disappearing frog and you were also relocated to the inside of this facility.”
Nathanial said, “I don't know what to say. You know what though, I saw those alien bodies, you can't sit there and tell me I'm crazy. This ain't fair. I want to leave.” His eyes were tearing up again.
Agent Matthews said, “Yes. I know. I tell you what, we are going to be fair with you but we need you to be honest with us and tell us anything that we want to know. Got it?”
Nathanial said, “Yes. Got it.”
Agent Matthews said, “Alright. So, security recordings show that you did not enter this building through any doorway, window or garage entryway. There is no recording of you on the property at all outside of this building. The consensus was that you snuck in through a supply delivery or other means. We cannot as of yet verify this theory one way or the other and so as of now your testimony given to me right here will suffice. As you have said, you saw something. And yes, you saw something. Yes, this building is a government building. We cannot allow you to wander freely in this facility and you will be kept safe and secure and your personal needs attended to till a decision is made as to what needs done. Understand?”
Nathanial said, “Yes.”
Agent Matthews said, “Alright, so, tell me Matthew, was this your first time in seeing something disappear?”
Nathanial said, “No. Well, yes, right in front of my eyes. Other times, there's always something in the way, but the thing is the same, complete disappearance from reality.”
Agent Matthews said, “Tell me what other things that you've seen disappear. Tell me what happened.”
Nathanial's eyes became bright, “That's right, I totally forgot. Same property. There's these bushes alongside of the abandoned bank, sitting on top of a rotting wooden wall that is waist high. So, it's two levels, the lower level and then the wall, then on top of the rotted log wall there’s these bushes that are lined up with the old bank drive-through.”
“It was like ten o'clock in the morning and I was walking through the drive-through when this young bird chick started crying in the bushes. These bushes are the same height as me and not very thick, you can see right through them in places. So I think hey I am going to give this bird chick a look and see what it was crying about, thinking that was a bad place to build a nest that low. And this bird chick really starts crying when it sees me coming. I try finding a nest but can't see this bird till it flies out of the bush, but it can’t fly because it is too young, it can flap its wings and descend but it can't fly upwards. It’s like, not a baby but not an adult.”
“And I immediately went after this bird, trying to catch it. It lands on the ground a few feet outside of the bush on the bank driveway, the upper level and runs toward the closed teller window on the ground, I almost reach him when he tries flying but can't really get more than a few inches off the ground. He uses his wings anyways, and that helps him outrun me. He gets down on the lower level and there’s a long empty open space between the closed bank and the road so really, it can't go that way. So it runs along the wall below this line of bushes. This wall is made of four by fours and it's rotted so bad that its missing a couple logs. But this wall is long enough that there's no way I cannot catch this bird when I circle around the end of the bush. This bird sees me coming and it can't get off the dirt to leap the waist high wall, but there's this missing log and where the log is missing there's a sort of a small hole that's like half a foot deep. You can get on your knees and see right into it and reach in there and feel that there's no way out. I get like five feet behind this terrified baby bird and it leaps into this small hole. All this time my eyes are on this thing, there is no way at all that this bird could get far without me seeing it. And so I'm like great I got this bird now. And not a second later after this bird went into this half foot deep hole I reach it and you know what, the bird is completely vanished. Not a damn thing. I reach my hand in there and it's gone.”
Agent Matthews said, “Same property? About when did this happen.”
Nathanial said, “About a month ago.”
Agent Matthews said, “Any other anomalies about this property that you can think of?”
Nathanial said, “No, that's it. A lot of disappearing frogs and that one disappearing baby bird.”
Agent Matthews said, “What about other disappearing things, like inanimate objects.”
Nathanial said, “Yes. A year ago, when I was at a friend's house, I was helping him build a porch. He needed another bag of nails and sent me to his cellar to get one. So I get to the cellar but can't find the light. I kept my lighter in my 5th pocket of my jeans, that little pocket inside of a pocket. I get the lighter out and then accidentally drop it. I don't hear it hit the cement floor. I thought well that's some nutty luck, must've landed on top of my shoe or my pant leg was rolled up somehow and landing in there. Well it didn't land on my shoe and my pant leg wasn't such that it could have caught the lighter. This was right inside the doorway, mind you, with dim light. I searched around with my hands and couldn't find it. Eventually I found the light and turned it on, it was on the other side of the door. With the light on I was able to search for my lighter a lot more carefully. There was nothing on the floor right there, except a pallet about two feet away from the door. You could see that there was nothing there. It was obvious! So I looked inside the spaces in the pallet, same thing. It wasn't in there. I checked and looked and searched over and over for like fifteen minutes getting frustrated because I know that I wasn't imagining this and I needed my lighter to smoke. I went and gave my friend the nails and told him I lost my lighter and needed to look once more because there was no way it could disappear. I looked twice. Gone. No explanation.”
Agent Matthew said, “You said that was a year ago, here in Houston?”
Nathanial said, “Yes.”
Agent Matthew said, “Got other disappearance stories?”
Nathanial said, “Yes. When I was in California I saw disappearing cars, right in the middle of traffic. Especially at a particular intersection, saw this happen a bunch of times. I lost count how many times. You'd see two cars then when they get through the intersection there'd be only one car and the other car didn't turn and definitely didn't have enough time to drive away so far you couldn't see it. Visibility was high, and when you see it once you say to yourself no, I'm not paying attention and it was an optical illusion, that car didn't vanish into thin air. Then you know, you see it a bunch of times then you get interested in seeing it closer or catching it while you’re watching it directly, because you know, its always like with disappearing cars, you always look away at the second they disappear, so you want to make sure you don't look away. And you know, I tried training myself to catch them. I did catch them, not on camera, but yes, I saw them disappear.”
Agent Matthew said, “And more stories like this? You saw other objects vanish? What about people?”
Nathanial said, “Yes, I saw people disappear mysteriously and airplanes vanish while watching them fly over my head. I know that I saw other things vanish but can't remember them right now.”
Agent Matthew said, “You know what, I think that is enough for today, you've told us plenty. I am going to give you a pad of paper and a recorder like this here so you can go through your memory when you're alone and what I want is you to recount these strange happenings with as much detail as you can, give the dates if you remember them and so on and so forth. We will consider your stories carefully and catalogue them in our database. For now though, that was enough.”
Nathanial said, “When are you going to let me go? I can't stay here forever. Am I going to need a lawyer? Can I call my girlfriend?”
Agent Matthew said, “I am sorry but we cannot allow you to contact anyone outside of this facility till the order is given and your story and identity is verified. Should you need legal representation I am not sure how that would be worked out within our guidelines but you being present here is a matter of national security. Till this ordeal is sorted out all we can do is secure you in a living space and provide you your basic living needs. Okay?”
Nathanial said, “Alright.”
Agent Matthew smirked and said, “Besides, you're a week early. Don't worry about it. We'll get this straightened out.”
Nathanial said, “Alright.”
Agent Matthew said, “One last question I forgot to ask about your witnessing of disappearances. When did this trend start? What year was the first time you can remember seeing something or someone mysteriously vanish?”
Nathanial thought a moment then said, “I think it was 2011. Those cars I told you about. Those were the first things I ever saw disappear. Since then I'd seen this happen a bunch of times, I want to say like twenty times.”
Agent Matthew said, “Thank you. Give me some time and I will return to get you. Go ahead and drink your coffee and relax. No worries.” he got out of the chair and went to the door.
Nathanial said, “No worries.” while the door closed behind the special agent.