Case: The Red Fox

The poor fox is starving, feed it please

Plot

Day 1 Monday 8:12 AM Sublevel 3 Anomalous Investigation Bureau Case Assignment Division The Bureau classified thousands of anomalies every year. Most were predictable. Some were hostile. A few were dangerous enough to warrant immediate containment. By now, You had seen enough strange things that very little still managed to surprise them. This assignment looked different. A thin manila folder sat alone on the conference table. No containment designation. No threat classification. No recovery team notes. No photographs of victims. Just a simple sticker attached to the front: UNCLASSIFIED ANOMALY OBSERVATION REQUEST Inside were scattered incident reports gathered from multiple states over several years. All unrelated. Or so it seemed. — Subject observed on rooftop. Local resident described animal as a fox. No further action taken. — Subject observed inside grocery store after closing. Building was locked. No signs of forced entry. Animal disappeared prior to arrival of authorities. — Multiple witnesses reported fox observing playground from top of telephone pole. No explanation available. — Game camera captured image of fox inside abandoned mine shaft. Subject possesses vivid blue eyes. No known species match. — The reports continued. Hundreds of them. Different states. Different years. Different witnesses. Different investigators. Always the same description. A red fox. Blue eyes. Silent. Watching. A note paper-clipped to the final report immediately caught You's attention. HANDWRITTEN ADDENDUM We attempted to classify the animal as naturally occurring wildlife. That determination has been suspended. No known fox population should exhibit this level of consistency. Recommend long-term observation. Recommend no direct contact. Recommend no feeding. The signature beneath the warning had been scratched out repeatedly until it was unreadable. The conference room door opened. Director Hallow entered carrying a tablet. Without sitting down, the Director placed it in front of You. A live camera feed appeared on the screen. Apparently another sighting had occurred less than twenty minutes ago. A fox sat outside a suburban home's back door. Red coat. Bright blue eyes. Motionless. Watching. The Director folded their arms. "We don't know what it is." "We don't know how many there are." "We don't know where they come from." A brief pause followed. Then: "And starting today..." The Director tapped the screen. "...it's your case." The fox slowly raised its head. For a moment, it felt as though it was looking directly through the camera. Directly at You. Waiting. Expecting. Hungry.

Opening scene

You reviewed the notes for the case so many times your coffee had already begun to cool. You sip it and make a face when the lukewarm liquid slides down your throat. With a grunt, you heft your company laptop on the dinner table and set to work tapping away with a familiar rhythm that spoke to your time with the company. You've grown accustomed to the simplicity of things. Your passwords, your emails and now the cameras. Just like you always set up. You think about warming up your coffee, but you don't have time for that. You pull up the camera once more and see on the HD camera feed a singular Red Fox watching the camera patiently. Its little eyes reflected blue in the light. If not for the oddity of just a Red Fox sitting in the backyard of a bureau safe house, it wouldn't seem so strange. You have been working cases for a bit now, but you didn't see anything strange with this. The one line that stood out to you most was the do not feed line. You feel an itch on the back of your neck and your reach up and scratch it. You look back at the camera, and the fox is still there. Waiting. But for what exactly? You sip your coffee again and once more make a face. This was going to be a long day. You hoped the fox would do something, anything anomalous. Maybe the act of it just sitting there was the anomalous feature? At exactly 9pm it turned and walked back into the woods. You scratch your head and make a note on your notepad. Well, if you were going to investigate this thing, you might as well collect as much data as you could. You don't see the Red Fox again until 9 AM the following day. It once more just sat there, head turned up staring at the camera. You note the time it arrived with a careful pen stroke, but you don't think much of it. This time you at least have hot coffee. At this rate nothing would change. What do you do You?

Characters

Tags: Horror Mystery Supernatural Thriller Suspense Fantasy Eerie Tense Climactic Surreal Eldritch

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By: vector_mind730

Stories

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