DEPARTMENT OF ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA
ARCHIVAL AUDIO LOGS — IMG-03 (“INVISIBLE MAN”)
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CASE PERIOD: 1992–1999
MEDIA: Standard C60 cassettes (reel digitized 2003)
FILE STATUS: CLASSIFIED — LEVEL 4
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TAPE A1 — INTERVIEW WITH [███ HALL], 1992
(Location: Village inn, taped on portable recorder, heavy hiss present)

AGENT: Can you describe him?
HALL: Not… not him, really. Just the space he took. A draft where no draft should be. Dishes broken, chairs pushed in after I left the room. I heard coins moving in the drawer, but when I looked, there was nothing.

AGENT: Did you ever see him directly?
HALL: No. Just the shadow that wasn’t there. (pause) He paid in cash. Always exact change. I told myself he was polite. Polite men don’t breathe behind your ear when you’re alone in the kitchen.

TAPE B2 — INTERVIEW WITH NEIGHBOR (MARVEL CASE), 1993
(Location: canal-side police van, ambient rain on mic)

AGENT: You knew Mr. Marvel?
NEIGHBOR: He was jumpy that week. Said he had a lodger, or a master, couldn’t tell. Kept muttering, “He’s right behind me.” Then he stopped coming ‘round.

AGENT: What did you think was happening?
NEIGHBOR: Look—Marvel was a drinker. We all thought he’d made up a bogeyman. But when they found him by the canal? His head caved in like something swung hard. And no one saw a soul. That’s worse than a bogeyman.

TAPE C3 — INTERVIEW WITH DR. KEMP, 1994
(Location: hospital room, heart monitor beeping faintly)

KEMP: I knew him before. Griffin. Brilliant, arrogant, obsessed. He thought invisibility would make him more human, if you can believe it. Not less. He said, “Imagine walking free of reputation, free of stares.”

AGENT: And what changed?
KEMP: Everything. The serum didn’t just strip him from sight. It stripped his… boundaries. He was cruel before, yes, but not like this. Invisibility gave him permission. He thought the world owed him fear.

AGENT: Do you believe he can be cured?
KEMP: (long silence) Cure him? Or cage him? Because he doesn’t want the first. He’ll only ever accept the second.

TAPE D4 — INTERVIEW WITH CONSTABLE J. █████, 1994
(Location: precinct office, occasional coughs, paper shuffling)

CONSTABLE: I grabbed him, or something of him. Felt ribs, a shoulder. He twisted like a snake. Dust went everywhere. He laughed—it was his laugh I can’t forget. No echo, no chest, just in the air.

AGENT: Did you believe he was still human?
CONSTABLE: Human enough to break my arm. But nothing about it felt like a fight with a man. More like wrestling with air that hated me.

TAPE E5 — INTERVIEW WITH [REDACTED FAMILY SURVIVOR], 1995
(Location: child welfare office, low mic volume)

AGENT: Can you tell me what happened?
SURVIVOR (child): He sounded like Dad. He said, “It’s alright, come here.” But it wasn’t him. I stayed in the crawlspace. I didn’t come out till the light came back. (sniff) Dad doesn’t sound kind anymore. Not in my head.

TAPE F6 — PORTSIDE CREW SURVIVOR, 1996
(Location: debrief room, muffled ship horns audible outside)

CREW: The sea was loud, but he was louder. Boots on the deck. You could feel him in the boards. Hands shoved past me on the stairwell—no body, just the push. He didn’t need to kill us all. He wanted to see who would scream first.

TAPE G7 — MARKET TOWN WITNESS, 1998
(Location: town hall, cassette tape warbles)

WITNESS: We thought we could flush him out with flour and nets. We sang to keep courage. But the air was everywhere. People fell. Torches went out. It wasn’t a hunt. It was him watching us hunt shadows.

ARCHIVAL NOTE

These civilian tapes circulated internally under “Appendix IMG-03/A-Vox.” Some copies leaked to off-books agents in the late 1990s and resurface occasionally as urban legend cassettes—rumored to have been uploaded years later to private servers. Public cover story remains: “poltergeist hysteria, mass delusion.”