Special Report for the Amazon River Sun: Are the Monks involved in biological experiments involving tentacle assaults?

An unfortunate victim of the penetrating tentacles.
Photo courtesy of Patricia Greiner-Yalin

By Cerise Rouge

 AMAZON -- Tense days in the Amazon River regions. News follow news and rumors pile up, mysteries remain unresolved. That is the atmosphere I find after a relatively short trip to the Dark Island across the Eastern Sea. I had just returned and was cleaning my cabin from a few spiders and giant butterflies who had settled on the walls and the ceiling when I heard the voice of Patricia calling me from the other side of the river. She swam across and sat visibly shaken on one of the chairs at my porch. What she then told me changed my priorities for the day and left me deeply concerned.

Her story was unusual: As you know, policewoman Patricia Greiner-Yalin, or Pat, as we all know her, is a quiet and serious lady, methodical in her conversation. As it happens, in one of her duty rounds near the swamp, she experienced a shocking event which may throw light on so many things that are happening these days. Without pause, calmly but transmitting a sense of fear, Pat explained that, as she walked over one of the strange outcrops that hang over the northern edge of the Swamp, she saw what initially looked like a tree stump or a plant with thick roots.

The object was strange to her experienced eyes, sitting somewhat separate from the rest of the vegetation, and showing a strangely shiny and smooth surface. She approached and put her photo camera on a stand quite close to the object. On closer inspection, she realized the thing was alive, vibrating with a disgusting pulsation across its tense skin. At that moment, without thinking, Pat set the automatic shutter to try and take a photo of herself pointing to the blob so as to document her finding, but things took a horrible turn. As she turned to look at the camera and moved closer to the strange object, the slimy blob grabbed her and, in her words,  "slung its branches or tentacles around me and trapped me with no chance to escape."

 

The alien creature.
Photos by Cerise Rouge.

 
While feeling the disgusting tentacles tightening around her waist and her legs, Pat struggled and screamed, she fell to the ground beside the hideous thing who then pulled her closer and closer. There was nothing she could do, nobody heard her screams, and the horror of the situation increased when one of the thing's arms or appendices slid between her legs and penetrated her "with a pumping or pulsating movement." Beside the sense of impotence and the violence of the situation, she described how the tentacle grew inside of her intimate parts and became burning hot as it did so. Pat says there was a strange noise and she clearly felt the object released some substance inside of her invading her body. After that, Pat became unconscious, her body and mind floating away as "a strong smell of vanilla and passion fruit" seemed to completely surround her. Pat says she does not know how she became free of the disgusting embrace, how she dragged herself away from the monster and crossed the hill top running towards the river.

Back at my home, Pat was slumped on the chair. I did my best to comfort her with a strong drink. I tried to distract her from the shocking incident, but I also asked questions trying to understand what had happened, when and where. Perhaps my senseless jokes and chatter calmed her a little, and somehow, after telling me all, she gained some strength, grabbed her leather back and showed me a photo.

"That. There, so you see what has happened?" she said, pointing at the photo. 

To my horror I could see a clear color image of the moment Pat was completely taken and penetrated by the hideous alien entity. In fact, the camera had done its task and was the only witness of the attack. 

We discussed the consequences. Evidently, the object was not of common origin, perhaps not even a natural being but some form of alien life. While speaking, I remembered the strange slimy things that explorers can see in the depths of the alien crash site near the Big Drop. The association is fairly clear. Surely the Monks had something to do with the strange beast? Pat was still confused or else she did not want to comment. I asked her if she would report the incident to her command at the Policia Amazonica, but she was also strangely evasive, as if unsure or ashamed by the incident. In my mind I thought that probably the Amazonian Police would not be interested in this attack, given the recent events near the Xoco camp and the bold rise of a new faction. 

Pat's last comment before leaving my house was, "I hope that you can do something about this... that thing is a danger for others." At that point she was smiling, but that did not dispel my own feelings about the incident.

I did in fact promised to "do something," and following the directions Pat gave me, the next morning I crossed the river and climbed over the rocks near the abandoned temple, an area I know relatively well. I was also familiar with the mushroom-like rock formations which hang towards the swamp expanse. And there it was, near the edge of one of the tops, the strange pulsating object, almost alone separated from nearby bushes. Knowing the danger, I approached cautiously, my camera ready. I did not come close enough to be in danger, assuming the object was unable to move on the ground. Walking around the alien object I observed its color and form: the body and tentacles seemed rugged, even muscular, with a peculiar scaly pattern all over it. Scales like those of a serpent, but apparently more flexible, almost watery and shiny under the rising sun. 

It definitely was not a plant, and its tentacles could be interpreted as legs or a combination of prehensile and locomotive appendages. As Pat said, it seemed rooted in the ground. It may be important to say that the thing is is not spherical or radial like an octopus, but has instead a bilateral symmetry. A total of eight legs of tentacles extend outwards and there is a strange protuberance towards the "front" that looks like a leg but could also be a tentacle. I confess I was not bold enough even to touch the strange animal with a stick. I took some photos which are presented here.

Aside of that, the most disturbing fact, though, is that the coarse brownish-red surface of oscillating skin clearly releases a strong brassy, metallic smell that Pat described as vanilla-like but I would more associate with the musky smell of some large savage animals.

With the Sun already up in the sky, I started walking back to my cabin, looking over my shoulder again and again in fear, thinking about all the possibilities and potentially my duties as a resident of the Amazon. I don't know why sometimes my personal fears mix with my work as a journalist. But I justified myself as the case happened very close to my house and to to my good friend Patricia. So more than journalism I had a personal commitment here. Then, suddenly, to complicate my feelings and thoughts even more, as I reached the bottom of the hilly area just to the west of the river, I heard somebody crying in the dark.

I stopped immediately and looked towards the South from where the sound seemed to come... Trembling I raised my voice and called out. A woman's voice responded. 

"Here! Here!" she called.  

 

 

I walked swiftly back again towards the Temple and found my neighbor Anna Horf-Rost, crouched against one of the stone walls.

She was wailing very softly, like in resignation but apparently not harmed. I asked if she needed help. 

She cleared her voice and replied, "No, no. It is over now. I will recover." She had tried to stand and then fell back again but holding my extended hand. "No problem, no problem," she repeated and sat on the ground.

I asked what had happened, to which, after looking around, she recalled her experience. 

"As you know, I have my place up there to the West. past the stairs that lead to the Temple," she explained. "I was so happy when I finished my hut and enjoyed the sunsets from that high area; everything was fine, except for the fact that my place is somewhat isolated. That peace was broken last night when a strange thing appeared close to the edge of the top of the hill. I looked at it from afar: the object seemed to have roots like a tree, but the skin-like surface and the ridges along its parts looked more like the muscles of a hot-blooded animal. But.... oh... the smell of it, it was overpowering and strange but at the same time familiar, a smell like a mix of mango and strawberry ice-cream."

Anna fell silent. She said she was unable to describe what the thing smelled like, but it was clear to me so I said, "was it not like a brassy metallic animal smell?" Her eyes widened. She had an anxious look on her face, while she nodded in some form of disbelief. "How.... how do you know?" she asked.

Anna completed her story. "Somehow I lost control of myself and either it was the toxic smell or the oddity of the situation that I came closer and closer to the strange animal," she said. "So close that I could see not only the tense patterned surface but also how it heaved in the humid atmosphere. Involuntarily I extended a hand .... I should not have done that... because the thing swung what now clearly looked like a tentacle and grabbed me by the wrist. I don't remember how I got loose, how I crawled away. Luckily the thing did not move! That happened very early this morning."

Anna's peaceful home.

Unable to hold back any more, I told Anna how I just had seen the beast. So we concluded that the thing attacked her much earlier, before I arrived and when she had already left the area. We sat together for many minutes, me trying to calm her down and she sometimes crying and sometimes laughing more relaxed. I saw her again some days after that eventful encounter and she seems to be relaxed and composed, her normal self.

Anna is not known for being boastful or noisy. In fact, my neighbor lives a relatively quiet life not far from the river, and there is no reason to disbelieve her story. But there is even less reason if we connect it with Pat's experience and my own observations, it is evident that an alien form of life has landed or perhaps has been introduced into the Amazon. Judging from the incidents reported here, there is danger for people, and not only for women. Although it is difficult to predict further events of this nature. We don't know for example if the toxic smell of the creature has the same debilitating effects on everybody.

Aside of that, we should consider the connections with the Monk "crash site", the biological experiments that seem to have taken place there, and the rumors of  "scientists" roaming the jungle searching for human genetic material. Last but not least, the recent and continuing events of dead animals dispersed across the jungle could be interpreted as part of a disturbing pattern!

How does this affect the general population? So far I know only of two incidents of this nature, and a later inspection about a week ago showed the thing is still in the same emplacement, unchanged. I do not reveal the exact location so explorers don't get to close to the alien.

It would be easy to trace connections and to jump to conclusions, but I will let that to other better informed people and limit myself to report what I witnessed and what I got from people I know well. The jungle is a complicated environment, and one connection leads to another, and back again -- like the circles that trace the waves on a pond bouncing against the shores.

Now back in my cabin, pressed for time as the seaplane is coming to take me back to the Dark Island, I finish these notes with a message of caution but also of elation: there are dangers in the jungle, as many as we may imagine, but these same dangers are only the reflection of life, an inseparable part of it, and behind every uncanny encounter, there is also human passion.