Ebrugh Report 13: The Terrible Cooing

Photo of the forest and the supposed impact site of the meteorite.

This Ebrugh Report is about a family tradgedy. When he has to start caring for his nephew, a man realizes that something is not right with the boy.

## Summary

The story begins with a man who, after a peculiar excursion into the depths of a dense forest, becomes plagued by persistent hallucinations of pigeons cooing. These hallucinations slowly but profoundly affect his life, setting in motion a series of unnerving events.

As the man's condition deteriorates, he leaves behind a young son, Viktor, and his wife, Sofia. Viktor, seemingly gifted with unnatural intelligence from an early age, becomes the source of both fascination and concern for his mother, who struggles to comprehend the changes in her son.

With her husband gone, Sofia receives support from her extended family, particularly her uncle and aunt, who help her navigate the challenges of raising young Viktor. However, as time progresses, Sofia's sense of paranoia intensifies, leading her to believe that her son is no longer the child she once knew.

In a chilling twist, his uncle, Dr. Juri T. decides to conduct a video recording of Viktor's room, hoping to find answers to Sofia's growing unease. What he captures during this recording is a disturbing revelation - a strange and otherworldly creature is seen feeding on Viktor, casting a shadow of terror over the household.

The harrowing incident ultimately proves to be catastrophic, resulting in Sofia killing Viktor. Dr. T. is changed after the events as well and assaults the policemen that were interrogating him about the events, leading to his death.

## Report 13

### Rumoured Origin

*I was finally able to get the following report from my contact in the former Soviet Union who once worked at Station 13 in the Siberian wastes. It is a testimony which was probably smuggled away from a small town not far from Kazan. It is about happenings which apparently have to do with the strange people who allegedly appeared in Solovsk, the city of the Deep. Following are the words sent to me. Judge for yourself!*

### Main Report

Dear Mr. Kebba, I have once again considered your insistent request for the release of those documents which point to further shadows in my homelands. Finally, I decided to comply with it, since I am getting old and do not want to leave this world in ignorance. Therefore, I am now enclosing the testimony that awakens disturbing ideas in one’s mind and that is framed by a tragedy which occurred at that time.

Testimony of Dr. Juri T., 4.1.1980

Sofia? Independent, strong, intelligent, her heart in the right place, and a bit arrogant. That's how I would have described my sister. Before it all began. You know, the two of us were always very close from childhood on, we did a lot together, we couldn't be separated.

I mean, you probably know yourself that times weren't exactly rosy back then. My father died at a young age in Stalingrad, shortly after we were born. Our mother never got over it, the Lord rest her soul. She started drinking and hanging around in shabby neighborhoods. She was really pretty then, my mother. I always suspected what she did for a living, but I never asked. Sofia didn't either.

Thinking back now, I realize why Sofia was so strong, so independent: She had to get us both through life when our mother slowly crumbled because of her professional environment. I don't blame Ma at all. And yet, despite all that - we didn't necessarily have the worst childhood. We lived far enough away from the war zones so that we could go to school more or less normally. Yes, we always studied hard too, Sofia and me. And read a lot. *Son-in-Law, Story of a Life*, but also some Western works, more for children, that we got as a gift from a nice gentleman in a small bookstore in a side street. *Robinson Crusoe, Alice in Wonderland, Tom Sawyer....*

Yes, of course one should not read such things, but curiosity won out. Please remember, we were children at that time, and we had nothing else.

Excuse me, could I have something to drink, please? Thank you.

We had to educate ourselves, we wanted to get out of our neighborhood, out of the dirt, out of the... filth. You can understand that, can't you? Sofia was sometimes almost a second mother to me, even though we were the same age. Well, she is a few minutes older...

We barely managed to make ends meet. I mean, of course we had to work extra, Ma was getting older after all, that's where the wrinkles pop up...

Well, anyway, Sofia really had something in her head, just like me, if I may say so. And then she also met Mikhail, who was already such a capable businessman back then, at the beginning of the 60s, over in Norilsk. A dream couple, the two of them. Unfortunately, I didn't see them much during my medical studies, but we stayed in touch.

They traveled a lot. Only inside the great Motherland, of course.

Mikhail was away a lot on business trips and always liked to take her with him, the old romantic. A good man, always took care of her. He came from a rich family. I have no idea how the two of them met, but I guess fate finally meant well for my sister.

I was so happy for both of them when they finally got married in 1975. There had probably always been problems with Mikhail's parents, as they are very conservative. Noble roots, I believe. Of course, I was present at the wedding ceremony as the best man, that's when I met his parents.

A bit frosty at first, but when they learned that I was a surgeon and earned well, they thawed a bit. Slightly dubious, but still…

And then came the honeymoon. They traveled further up north, somewhere to a cabin that belonged to Mikhail. When they returned, they told of the wonderful time they had had. Of campfires, shooting stars, and clear lakes.

I had never seen Sofia as cheerful and happy as she was when they returned. A new energy seemed to have taken hold of her.

It must have been during those days that Viktor was conceived. Of course, the two of them had waited until after the marriage, until... well, my mother had been a bad example for both of us in that regard, and we didn't want to anger the Lord either. It had been the same with me and Arina, if I may add.

But... unfortunately Sofia was not granted her happiness for long. Mikhail became ill in the following weeks. Feverish. He no longer recognized Sofia or anyone else. Talked in a confused way. To our horror, he soon hanged himself. You may or may not have read it in the papers at the time. It didn't get a lot of attention.

My sister called me that evening, frantically. She, too, seemed confused and a bit feverish.

"Yuri, he's dead. He's dead and there's nothing I can do. What am I going to do? What about the child? Is he supposed to grow up without a father, like you and me? What am I going to do?"

I tried to calm her down.

"No, Yuri, don't you understand? He killed himself! He killed himself... Why? Why?" Of course, I didn't know the answer to her question. How could I? I had always appreciated Mikhail, he was calm, reasonable, level-headed. Had he perhaps been terminally ill? That had to be it! "Did he perhaps find something after all? He was so strange when he came back..."

Sofia was beside herself. I couldn't follow her thoughts, confused.

"Sofi, what are you talking about?" I asked her.

After a moment of silence, she finally answered:

"When we were in the north, there was... A meteor shower, very close to us. Mikhail wanted to find a stone from space, for his study. He went away into the forest and came back the next morning. He was a bit strange, but he quickly regained his composure. He said that his search had been unsuccessful. And all was well again, we had fun. But when we got home..."

She broke off and swallowed. I had never seen her this desperate, not even in our early childhood, when everything was in shambles. But I've already told you about that...

Finally, she continued:

"Then, in the city, it started. We had gone for a walk, in the city park, like every Sunday afternoon. Everything was as usual... or so I thought. Suddenly he stopped. Listened to the wind. At first, I thought he had heard someone calling him, some acquaintance or..."

I still didn't know what was going on, of course, and asked her to keep talking.

"It... it was just a flock of pigeons, just pigeons sitting on the sidewalk, a bit away from us. But Mikhail suddenly got so strange. Turned around, dragged me along. He was scared. I didn't know him like that..."

I didn't know him like that either, by the way. He usually presented himself as a strong-willed man. It's probably better that way in his business. But you got used to it.

Anyway, she continued:

"I confronted him as soon as we got back home. He looked embarrassed. Said that he was just overworked. That he had felt sick. That he was tired. I can't remember how many excuses he had at the ready. But I didn't let that stop me. Finally, he admitted the real reason, hesitantly, almost meekly: The cooing of the pigeons had frightened him."

I thought at the time that I had misheard. She seemed to have felt the same way: "Pigeons? The cooing of pigeons? That was crazy! I kept asking. Then, he finally came clean."

She told me about what he had supposedly experienced in that forest. Admittedly, the story did worry me a bit. Probably it is better if I tell it to you, then you will have the whole picture and you might be able to make sense of it yourself.

Mikhail had left to look for the meteorites. He wanted one of them for his office. Had gone into the night. It must have taken him a while to get closer to the area where he suspected the impact crater. Mikhail reported an unnaturally sour smell. And of an uneasiness that grew within him as he slowly wandered among the trees. Not long before he had reached a large clearing where he could make out the steaming remains of a meteorite. The piece from space had dug deep into the ground, leaving a jagged trail in the dirt that must have been at least thirty meters long.

Cautiously he approached, hoping to find some small debris that he could take with him. But when he had almost reached the crater, which was still emitting white dusty steam, a terrible feeling reportedly came over him, the feeling of foreboding, the feeling of something vile that was eyeing him with its probing gaze.

He told my sister that there, near that furrow, he discovered a fear within himself that he had never known before, not in his childhood, not when thinking about the future, which had often caused him sleepless nights due to the threat of the Americans. There, in the silence of nature, he had stopped, finally crouched down and listened into the night.

He went on to report that he had finally focused all of his attention on the steaming crater, which still produced foul odors of vinegar and sulfur. His heart had dropped when he noticed something stirring there in the wind. An outline in the steam, which he could not see clearly through the darkness, because a cloud was just floating in front of the moon. But hearing...

I'm sure you can guess what he had supposedly heard?

My sister swears that he spoke of a cooing sound, similar to that of a pigeon, but different, stranger, mixed with indescribable other sounds. Mikhail had run back to the hut as quickly as possible, but still quietly enough that it could not have noticed him.

My sister continued:

"He confessed to having woken up during the nights unnoticed by me. Because he thought he heard that cooing sound outside our hut. However, he did not want to worry me. So, he kept silent. I heard nothing."

At the time, I believed that Sofia was going crazy just like her husband. That the stress and grief were driving her mad. But why had Mikhail taken his own life so suddenly? Whilest his son was growing in my sister's belly? Surely he knew? I could not make any sense of it. Maybe he didn't want to expose his child to such a madness. I don't even know if he knew about the pregnancy, my sister only found out shortly before Mikhail's suicide. Maybe he had committed suicide without the knowledge of...?

Anyway, I saw Sofia more often in the following time. She needed me and I helped her to overcome her grief. My wife and I were with her many times and when Viktor finally came, everything got better. Sofia finally found joy in her life again. The boy was really her everything.

You don't believe me? Yes, it was so!

After Mikhail's death, she had inherited everything and was doing well financially. Her in-laws also helped her out, though I'm not sure if they did it because of her or their grandson.

Little Viktor was a sunshine. A true sunshine. And I have never seen such a smart little guy. At the age of four he could already read, write, and calculate! He was always healthy, inquisitive, and polite. He took after his father in strength and endurance, there was no doubt about that. It was sometimes almost uncanny how educated the boy spoke, what words he used and with what strange looks he often stared at the most normal objects. But he was still a little boy, our little boy, whom we loved more than anything. I still remember how one day he came to visit me in the clinic with his mother, completely fascinated by all the equipment and pictures.

Don't worry, I never let him see anything that might have disturebd him, I know how quickly children get scared. I also was his godfather, did I tell you that? No, I don't think so...

Viktor often visited me when his mother needed to relax. My daughter, who had just been born at that time, was also always lovingly cared for by him. Just like his mother had taken care of me a long time ago....

Oh, that good boy. Children have such big hearts...

It was a few weeks ago when Sofia brought the little man to me, all upset.

"He's so strange today, I don't know what to do anymore!" she said almost tearfully.

Of course, I was puzzled. Viktor had never really caused any problems before. Had never been naughty... She almost had to drag him into my parlor, which made me feel quite uncomfortable. I hadn't seen him like that before.

"Go away, go away, you're not my mother!" he screamed in panic.

"What are you talking about, of course I am! Vikki, behave yourself. Look, there's Uncle Yuri! You know him!" my sister tried to calm him down.

I squatted down and looked the boy in the eye.

"Viktor, what's wrong? Calm down, did you have a bad dream? Come with me to the study, then we'll sit in the armchair and you'll tell me everything, all right? Aunt Arina will make you a hot chocolate!"

That was always his favorite place - my armchair, you know. And he had never turned down hot chocolate. Not this time either. He quieted down and ran into the next room, not even glancing at his mother.

"Sofi, don't worry about him, we'll get him fixed," I told my sister and soon she left us alone.

Viktor had already crawled into the armchair and a steaming cup was beside him on the little table, where he always put it.

"Well, boy, tell me what's going on. You can't scare your Ma like that," I tried to engage in conversation.

"That's not my mother," the boy said again.

"Why would you say something like that? You're making her all sad with that," I replied.

"Well, that's not Ma. She looks like that, sounds like that, smells like that... But it's not her. Uncle Yuri, haven't you noticed?"

Tears began to run down Viktor's cheeks.

I put my hand on his shoulder.

"I didn't notice anything. Were you reading a scary book? Or watched a bad movie?"

Do you have children, too? Yes? Then you probably know how careful you must be about such things. Well, but at least the boy seemed to trust me.

"No, no, I wasn't watching anything, I swear! Only, tonight, there was a noise outside my bedroom door. Almost inaudible, but there it was. Definitely, Uncle Yuri!"

Well, you can imagine that I was not surprised. In our house, the pipes were also sometimes pounding and banging, you know? But I wondered why that had gotten the little guy so rattled.

"No, Uncle Yuri, it was almost like there was a... pigeon outside my room. Yes, that's what it sounded like. A soft cooing, I know it for sure. Maybe I just dreamed it, yes, there was a monster outside my room! It was flowing through the house! In the dream! It sounded like a pigeon, so similar, not quite... Different too, terrible... And this morning... This morning, Ma was different... She's not my mother, it took her and replaced her, Uncle Yuri. You have to believe me."

I know, I know, it sounds crazy. But the boy was so confused! I felt so sorry for him! But what was I supposed to do?

"There are no monsters. You know that, they're just imaginary."

"I’m like Pa," Viktor suddenly said.

I'm sure you can imagine how startled I was. How did he know about this?

"Like Pa? What do you mean, boy?"

"He heard the cooing, too. That awful cooing. And then went crazy. And I'm getting like that now, aren't I? I don't want to, Uncle Yuri!" the little boy cried.

It took a long time for me and my wife to calm him down. Only when he was allowed to hold the little one, he felt better and found his way back to reality. When Sofia came to pick up Viktor that evening, I confronted her.

"How did he know about Mikhail's... hallucinations?" I asked her.

I must have been very angry, because she took a step back from me. Thinking. Then she started to cry.

"I... I do see this therapist for... you know. But yesterday we couldn't go to his office because there was a burst pipe... I thought he was sleeping, Yuri, I didn't know he might be awake... we had the meeting at our house... he must... he must have heard it..."

I hugged her and tried to comfort her, despite my anger at her stupid behavior. After all, she was my sister, wasn’t she? She had always helped me when she could.... When she left with Yuri that night, I actually thought that everything would be okay again. I knew Sofia would calm him down. In... can I have another drink, please? Thank you very much. So... I thought this talk of Viktor's was, of course, children's fantasies running wild. Attempts to come to terms with his father's death.

But then... In that night... I heard it. You probably don't believe me, I wouldn't believe myself, either. Maybe it was just a pigeon outside the window, outside in the night, seeking shelter from the cold. But... but I could swear it was in our room. The cooing. My wife was asleep, my daughter too. No one heard it. No one heard those sounds that I have trouble reproducing. You can't imagine how different such a cooing can sound. How strange and alien. And I felt that there was no pigeon outside my window. Or was I dreaming? Was it perhaps in the room, and not outside at all...?

I asked my wife the next morning, after waking up dazed and strangely lethargic, but I had probably imagined it all.... But then it got worse when my sister came to visit again with Viktor. This time, he could not be calmed down.

"You are different! You are all different! It took all of you! It changed you! All of you! Who are you? Help, help, I want to get out of here!"

Desperate, we took him to the study. Viktor was confused again and we closed the door to calm him down. Again and again we listened to his cries:

"Where's my Ma, where's Yuri? What did you do to them?"

It was disturbing. What on earth was wrong with him? We were having a hard time getting him to be quiet. In the end, it was my wife who accomplished it. We decided it was best to have my sister and her son stay with us until things improved. We also called Sofia's therapist, who had a long talk with Viktor and finally got him to sleep after installing an old camera next to Viktor's bed. It was the only way he had been able to convince the boy to lie down.

"If it helps him," my sister sighed. "But it can't be that things are getting out of hand this badly!"

I objected. As you can imagine, I was extremely irritated and completely exasperated.

"We'll have to be patient about that. It's partly my fault. If we hadn't met at your place for the session... But he'll be fine. Tomorrow morning, everything will look different! Believe me!" the therapist said slowly but looked reasonably optimistic.

Only, it didn't get better that morning. On the contrary, I found the boy pale as a sheet and sitting in a corner with almost no emotion.

"It was there, I know it, it was with me. Look at the video! Look at it, whoever you pretend to be! You... you are one... one of them!"

You wouldn't believe the goosebumps I had. Outrageous! I took the camera.

"We can look at it, together, but there won't be anything!" I suggested.

"No, no, it doesn't matter, it's too late! I think, I think I got it all wrong... Uncle... Yuri. I think I got it all wrong. It's like in your book. Like in your book, you know?"

He pointed to an old, small booklet that lay open next to where he was sleeping. It was Alice in Wonderland. One of my old children's books. I picked it up and looked at the open page. Read. Saw the paragraph he must mean.

*Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I?*

I looked up and at Viktor. Little Viktor. Good Viktor. I felt uneasy. Something was wrong, I knew it...

"It's me. It has also changed me. Who am I? What am I?" Viktor asked without any emotion, but I imagined that there was a cooing in his voice, low, threatening.

I stood up, grabbed the camera, and strode out of the room. Viktor remained sitting motionless on his bed; his head strangely tilted, resting on his left shoulder. My mind was turning on me. Only my mind turning on me, surely.

You don't have to worry about me, though!

I sat down at the kitchen table and watched the video that had been recorded during the night. Trembling, I looked into the small lit window of the camera. The sleeping boy, the dreaming little Viktor, innocent. Why do such terrible things happen to such wonderful children? Can you tell me? No, the world is just unfair! And do you know what I saw there? Nothing. Only sleeping Viktor, who began to toss and turn restlessly.

And then... Cooing!

That horrible cooing.

This disgusting cooing... And the voice in it, the childish voice, singing unnatural, inhuman sounds. It sounded so otherworldly, so otherworldly! I stopped the video.

Slowed it down as much as I could. Today’s technology, unbelievable! And then... Just for a moment... The being.

I only saw a part, just the slimy suckers and anemone-like outgrowths sucking on the little boy's head, looking like they grew out of the billowing air above the bed. Except that at that moment it wasn't the boy lying there, but another figure, distantly recognizable as human, yet completely....

I'm sorry, I'm just exhausted right now because of all this, sorry.

Maybe it's just my imagination? I don't know, can I get some more water?

Thank you. I'm so thirsty...

I'm so thirsty...

I am a coward, yes, I am. Didn't say anything, nothing, not to my sister, not to anyone. And I should have, I should have told her, then maybe now it wouldn't have been...

Oh, God.... Then, well, they left and... you know the rest!

The poor boy, how could she do that? How?

Such a thirst... Such a thirst... How...? How could she do that? How could she do that? Such a thirst...?

Why am I so thirsty? Am I also... have I also been changed, that night? Oh heavens, my family, what if it takes them too? If I take them too? No... Please... It was his voice singing there in the cooing! It was my... his voice... Viktor was singing. Was it always him? Was it always him in the cooing? In the cooing? Was it always me...? Has it always been my voice? Our... voice... Was I changed tonight? The poor boy. She got him...

She got us...

It is tragic that Dr. Yuri T. suffered a seizure and suddenly went after the officers, drooling, as if he wanted to take something unspeakable from them. At least that is what they told me later. They shot him, and it is probably for the best. His sister was sent to prison for infanticide. She hanged herself not three days later. At that time, I already suspected that it had something to do with all those incidents in Solovsk, or the appearance of the Witness, however I could not piece together the details. We performed an autopsy on Dr. T. and found some dusty, almost invisible, white, fungus- or spore-like traces, the same in the sister's corpse. The matter was covered up by me and they burned the bodies, however, the... disease did not seem to be contagious. The boy... well, nothing could be found on him. Because... I'd rather spare you the exact circumstances of his demise. I covered up the matter, naturally. The therapist was taken into... protective custody. You may have heard of such methods. I am not proud of it, but it was necessary. The video was destroyed under unfortunate circumstances, but I was able to save the audio track at the time. I finally managed to digitize it and attached it to this mail. You can listen to it for yourself at your own risk. But be warned, it is... unnerving.

## Characters

* Yuri
* Mikhail
* Sofia
* Viktor
* Arina

## Possible Connections to the Ebrugh

* The Changelings seem to share their immense thirst with the Changed People.