This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/spnsuperfan1 on 2024-10-30 11:47:27+00:00.
Funnily enough, I never believed in the supernatural up until a couple months ago. Hell, part of me still doesn’t believe in it, even with the things I’ve seen.
For example: just this past week the division detained its first mermaid. Correction, sorry, siren. The two entities absolutely loathe being mistaken for the other.
I’m still new to the job and am in the process of learning to disregard everything the media has told me. So if any Elders are reading this, I truly meant no disrespect.
For those of you that aren’t aware of who Elders are, well, they’re elder. Beings that inhabited the Earth way before we came along. Some places around the world have different names for them: Fae, Sidhe, Neighbors, Diwata, Yōsei, Dokkaebi. Around these parts of Winchester, Michigan though, we call ‘em Elders.
The very first thing I was taught is that long ago, us humans pushed them out of the lands they once ruled, so the least we can do is be respectful towards them.
Thankfully, I’ve yet to encounter a real nasty Elder. I hear things can get pretty ugly if you upset one well enough. These beings can be quite powerful, seeing as Elders can harness and tap into an ethereal energy that is invisible and mostly inaccessible to us- magic (no I’m not shitting you, magic is real).
Elders are also very clever and can look like anyone or anything whenever they want. You never know when you might unsuspectingly engage in a conversation with someone that is eons older than they look. So, as a reminder, respect everyone. Especially your Elders!
Getting back to our latest catch (pun intended), she was a real pain in the ass to track down. It’s not often you come across a fresh water siren. They’re more difficult to deal with seeing as they can go from one body of water to another. Sure the oceans are big, but in the event a siren comes ashore to feed, they tend not to stray far from the salty sea. It’s a completely different beast when your suspect can travel pretty much anywhere on land as long as there’s a fresh water source nearby.
Our Lieutenant personally requested that Detective Dustin Davidson, my partner, and I bring our fish friend in after a news segment about local missing men aired. The only thing left of them were their empty wallets- which had been found either by a creek, river, or in one instance, a pool.
In the segment the reporter also interviewed an old man who claimed to be a victim that survived his brush with the party responsible. There was a large bandage on his cheek and he had a pretty bad black eye. He definitely survived something alright.
The next two minutes of the broadcast consisted of a detailed rant about him encountering a luscious looking she-devil with claws, razor-sharp teeth, and a glimmering green fish tail in a pond while on his evening hike at a local trail. Poor guy had accidentally stumbled upon a feeding session. Siren’s are known to be territorial and very protective of their feeding grounds, kinda like resource guarding with dogs. Seeing him as a threat, the “she-devil” lunged out of the water and attacked him, screeching out a horrible song as she did.
He only got away because her prey in the water was still alive and started trying to run. The siren wanted her meal more, so she hissed at him then slithered back into the water to finish what she started. When he went back the next day, the only evidence he found that proved something had happened was a man’s empty wallet sitting by the edge of the pond.
Our survivor reported the incident to the authorities, but our counterparts didn’t believe him and called the guy a crackhead. Those lazy fuckers didn’t even bother to file a report. If they had, the case would’ve been flagged and sent directly to our division where we could start an investigation immediately. But, because this didn’t happen, and we found out from the news, Lieutenant Dawn was pretty pissed.
A guy ranting about lunatic mermaids on tv wasn’t exactly a good look for us. You see, civilians and the other half of Winchester PD don’t know that our division exists. The division’s purpose is to bring in supernatural perpetrators that make a lot of noise. We want to keep the general public from getting suspicious about the things that go bump in the night being real. The expression “ignorance is bliss” is an expression for a reason.
Anyway, the news crew probably included that interview as an attention getter to the case, dismissing his testimony all together and deeming him insane. But to us in the know, he gave us valuable information and a great tip. Now we knew what creature to look for. The fish tail and horrid singing were telltale signs of a siren.
“Davidson, Rookie,” Lieutenant Dawn addressed Dustin and I after the segment ended, “track down our witness and get a proper statement. Then get a profile on our siren. We need to bring her in before she causes us even more trouble. The last thing we need are some siren hunters snooping around.”
“Yes, sir.” Dustin and I nodded in unison, graciously accepting the assignment. It had been a slow day and we were eager to catch some action. Not even twenty minutes later we were leaving to speak with our witness, Paulie Rutledge.
Dustin grabbed his coat off his office chair then shot me a devious grin as he put it on. “Ready to go, Rookie?”
With a huff and roll of my eyes, I grabbed the rest of my things and walked off. I hate being called rookie. It’s so stupid because that’s what I am and he was just trying to be playful, but at my old department it was used derogatorily and wasn’t a good thing to be called. Plus being called a rookie brings up bad memories…
My therapist says I should try to reclaim the word, and I’m trying my best to, but as of now you can call me Lucky. She also said it might help me process my trauma a little better if I kept a diary. So think of this as a two for one special. I get to vent to the internet and make my job a little easier by giving life-saving advice on any supernatural’s that might cross your path.
“Officer Hale,” Dawn stopped me on my way out of the precinct, whispering in my ear, “prove them wrong. Show me you’re a good cop. Show me why I recruited you.”
My body went rigid. “Y-yes sir,” I barely managed to stumble out. He pat my shoulder firmly and shot me a reassuring smile. Dawn left as soon as Dustin caught up with me. The two of us then left the precinct without saying much about the encounter. I could see he wanted to pry but left it alone instead. I appreciated that.
When we interviewed Mr. Rutledge, he said the same thing as before.
Paulie was on his evening stroll on a local trail when he heard a woman’s hums and intense splashing coming from the pond. Concerned, he went off-trail to see if he could help. That’s when he spotted the siren and she attacked him.
The good news is he was able to give us a better description other than the one on the news. Right before she jumped out of the water and revealed her true terrifying siren features, Paulie said the woman had pale skin, long curly black hair, hypnotic blue eyes, and a tattoo of an anchor right above her right collarbone.
Armed with that new description, Dustin and I got ready to leave. But before we could, Paulie asked if we believed him since we were there following up on his account. He looked at us with a glimmer in his eye, happy that somebody was finally listening to him.
Dustin straight up told him no. Said we were doing a mandatory routine follow up, and if he was being honest with himself, the visit had been a complete waste of everyone’s time. All the while, I stood behind Dustin with my lips pressed shut. Our parting words with the man were to stay off the drugs or the next time we came back it wouldn’t be pretty. The last thing I saw as the front door closed were Paulie’s soul crushed eyes on the brink of tears.
Needed to take a breather after that. I had almost bitten my tongue off back there.
“It’s all part of the job,” Dustin reminded me, gripping the steering wheel of his brown ‘78 Corolla liftback, staring blankly into the distance. “It sucks, but it’s a necessary evil.” Clearly it had affected him too, judging by how white his knuckles were.
Pulling out into the street, he turned the dial on his radio and an old rock song came on. Dustin happily hummed along as we drove, energetically tapping on the steering wheel along to the beat.
It was almost uncanny the way he could switch from his usual happy-go-lucky self to bitterly ice cold in an instant. It freaked me out, but being dually personable and serious are good qualities to have in a detective.
Back at the precinct, we started putting a case file together. Here’s what we knew about our siren: she was young and beautiful looking (all siren’s are), she had long curly black hair, and a distinctive tattoo of an anchor on her collarbone. And, for some reason this one really liked snacking on unfaithful men. That’s what our profiler, Jane, said anyway. She gathered all that after sifting through the files we pulled on the missing men.
Friend and loved one testimonies weren’t worth shit, unfortunately. Jane only figured out the siren’s type after hacking into one of our bachelor’s phone records. And before anyone says anything, since we’re an unknown legal entity, the supernatural’s division is like the Wild West out here. Pretty much anything goes. Including magically aided hacking....
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1gfkkpn/im_a_rookie_with_the_winchester_police_department/