"So, tell me from the beginning, Miss Palmer, what did you see?" The officer asked.
"Well, it's a bit confusing…" Palmer, Alicia Palmer, was a woman like any other. Married to a businessman, three children and a sister. It was because of her that I had fallen into this mess. "My sister, Emilia… it was her birthday yesterday, and I had forgotten."
"Okay, so what happened?"
"I went out late, when the sun had already set, and headed to the antique store down the street, near the apartment building where I live." Palmer took a moment to breathe. "I bought an old watch, a pocket watch, with engraved details on the back."
"I guess that wasn't cheap for you." The officer said with a nervous laugh
"It cost an arm and a leg, but my sister deserved it, she had gotten me out of more trouble than I could count."
The officer raised an eyebrow, "What kind of trouble?"
"Oh! No, no, it's nothing illegal… it's just that in the line of work I used to be in, some men would get… 'violent'."
"May I ask what kind of job it was?"
Alicia blushed. "I… I was a dancer in a café, my sister too, but that's not the point!"
"Alright, no need to get desperate. Go on with your story" The officer said.
"I was walking home when I heard a cry of pain, the kind that only a dying man would make."
"Alright, what did you do?"
"I headed, despite my common sense, towards the alley from which it came… and there I saw him." Alicia paused for a moment, holding back a sob. "A dying man, split in two, his blood all over the place and his intestines scattered in the street."
"Oh god." The officer said in surprise. "If you need a moment…"
"No… That wasn't the strangest thing." Palmer looked out the window. "I heard another sound… it was like a muffled whistle, like screaming into a pillow, and, almost as if I was in a trance, I moved further down the alley, and there was him."
"Who?" The puzzled officer asked.
"The Man."
"The Man?" The police officer asked.
"Yeah. And at his feet was a gigantic creature, with large claws and scales, full of open wounds." Palmer inhaled and exhaled. "He was covered by darkness so I didn't see his face, but I could see his black trench coat and hat. Several people were on the ground, while others, kneeling, were putting masks on them, connected to some kind of container."
"Excuse me, miss, but this sounds more like a dream." The officer said, leaning back in his chair across the desk.
"I thought the same thing, but it looked very real, terrifyingly real. The man in the trench coat looked at me, I could see a glow on his face when my eyes landed on him. I fled instantly, ran like hell, and got to my house. And there my husband greeted me."
"Tell me about your husband, does he know about all this?"
"Adam… Oh Adam. Of course he knows, but he doesn't believe me, not even when a letter came in the mail and said only one thing: NOT A SINGLE WORD."
The officer took a sip from his coffee cup. "Have you ever been told that you could write a great novel?"
"IF YOU WON'T TAKE ME SERIOUSLY, THEN I DON'T KNOW WHY I EVEN BOTHER TO COME HERE!" Palmer stood up.
"Fine, you can go… but you won't get any more help out there than you will in here." Palmer felt a little dizzy, and fear took over her mind. It was true, she had to persuade the agent, because no one else would be able to help her. She sat down again.
"Okay, what happened next?"
"Through my day to day life, I saw them. The Man. Many Men. Men in black trench coats. They were watching me. From the street, building windows, waiting on the subway… it was horrifying."
"So, why didn't you ever talk to this 'man'?"
"Because every time I got close, something happened, I would get distracted, and he would be gone. Two weeks went by like that, and I thought it was all just a coincidence. Maybe I got involved in the middle of some company's secret work or something, and now they were watching me so I wouldn't leak it to another rival company or something…"
"What made you change your mind and come here?"
"See… one night when all the lights were off… I heard something in the kitchen, I woke Adam up and he went downstairs to check it out. A long time passed, so I got worried. When I went down to look for him, he was on the floor and one of the men I had seen had put a mask over his mouth… and the Man in the trench coat was there… he was staring at me. He stretched out his hands towards me, as if to strangle me, so I ran and ran… and came here to ask for your help."
The officer stood up, and said while scratching his chin, "Well, that still sounds like a lot of nonsense."
"Please! You have to believe me!"
"I think you just had a little too much alcohol at your sister's party and then imagined all that."
"What?"
"I believe that, when you wake up, everything will seem like a dream, and you will go back to your normal life."
Alicia opened her mouth to say something, but two hands appeared from behind her, one held her down and the other covered her mouth with a mask. Slowly everything went black.
Alicia woke up. She looked around; she was in her room, with her husband sitting next to her.
Adam looked at her and said, "Oh honey! You had me worried!"
"What happened?"
"After Emilia's party you were left unconscious due to too many drinks… I don't know why I let you drink so much…"
Alicia blinked in confusion, "But… I still remember…"
"Remember what?"
"Nothing… it was just a nightmare."
"What was it about?"
Alicia closed her eyes, "It was about the Man."