(#5) “Subject was asked to visualize inside of House X. One hour fifty-three minutes allowed for session; results varyingly successful.”
(#6) “Subject was asked to visualize interior of Facility H, no specific target. Agreed to deepen trance through application of Batch 33. Three hours ten minutes allowed for session; results varyingly successful.”
(#7) “Subject was asked to visualize office area within Facility H, with specific reference to files stored on Public Servant G’s computer. Five hours seventeen minutes allowed for session; results inconclusive overall.”
(#8) “Subject was asked to visualize home office area inside House Z, with specific reference to correspondence stored in file-cabinet with plaster gargoyle on top of it.20 Given sample of handwriting to meditate on, with double dose of Batch 33. Session interrupted at eight hours two minutes, after subject began to spasm; results inconclusive.”
(#9) “Subject entered trance on own time, without instruction, after having self-injected a triple dose of Batch 33; session interrupted after approximately one hour, when subject was accidentally discovered by navigator. Limited amnesia observed after recuperation. Having no idea what image is meant to represent, impossible to say if session was successful or not.”
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20. “That sounds like my office. Investigate? I have vague recollection of anonymous notes sent to me last year, shortly before Emma’s death…” (Dr Abbott, ibid.)
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Commentary (Forwards) [as above]:
(#5) Unintelligible scrawls.
(#6) Same.
(#7) Same, interrupted only by a shaky but repetitive attempt to form the letters E, Y, S.
(#8) In very different handwriting, far more like that usually used for backwards commentary: “See here, see there, trying so hard, how could I help but answer? Because he likes girls who see things, yes he does; little pig, little pig, let me come in. This world’s a big wide open place, up and down and all in between. Not so fun to see around corners when you know what’s waiting, is it?”
(#9) Back to unintelligible scrawls.
Commentary (Backwards) [as above]:
(#5) “can”
(#6) “you”
(#7) “hear”
(#8) “me”
(#9) “now”
Photo #10:
At first misidentified as one of the actual MTPD crime-scene photos taken at the Marozzi apartment on Christmas Day, 2005, this image also demonstrates “spirit photography” alterations of a subtly different (yet far more disturbing) sort. Analysis has revealed that the apparent main image, that of Eden Marozzi’s bedroom and corpse, is actually incongruent with other elements in the photo—specifically, the time visible on Marozzi’s bedside clock, which places this as having been taken a good three hours prior to what forensic experts established as her physical T.O.D.
Further examinations, including x-rays administered at the Institute’s expense, have since concluded that this first image has been recorded not on the photograph’s own emulsion but on a thin, rock-hard layer of biological substance21 overlaid carefully on the original photo. Beneath this substance is a simple holiday-style snap, probably taken with the camera on a timer, that shows Marozzi and Madach embracing at Marozzi’s kitchen table, both wearing party hats and smiling. The remains of a Christmas dinner surrounds them; if one looks closely at the bottom centre of the photo, an opened jewel-box explains the ring visible on Marozzi’s finger.
In the mirror behind them, however, a third figure—familiar from the previous array of “guided” photos—can be glimpsed sitting next to them, its hand half-raised, as though just about to touch Marozzi on the shoulder.
Notes: “Merry Christmas, Eve, from your Adam. A new Paradise begins.”
Commentary (Forwards): “Fruit of knowledge, fruit of sin, snake’s gift. This is what you want? This is what you get: the bitter pill. Fly the lights, lights out; out, out, brief candle! Goodbye, my lover. Goodbye, my friend. Goodbye, little girl who didn’t know enough not to get in between. You can tell her I picked the wallpaper out myself. Ask her: How you like me now? Pretty good oh God God God God God.”
Commentary (Backwards): “And on that note—did it really never occur to you that allowing someone used to working outside her body to be disembodied might not be the world’s best idea, after all?”22
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21. Possibly ectoplasm, a substance occasionally exuded during séances, made up of various dead material from the medium’s body.
22. To this last bit of commentary, Dr. Abbott asks that a partial transcript of his most recent interview with Freihoeven psychic control group member Carraclough Devize—held March 4/06, during which he showed her what are now tentatively called the Slaughter/Madach/Marozzi photos—be appended to this report: Devize: (After 120-second pause) Oh, no. Christ, that’s sad.