By Chester Seaton, News

13/10/282-Authorities in Ilya have a new lead in the case of a string of horrific killings, as eye witnesses to some of the murders have come forward. The accounts provide a description of the culprit, and the description is chilling.

“I was on the way home after my shift when I heard sounds coming from around the side of a shop,” said Madelain Rossey, a clerk at a nearby dock house along the river. “Sounds like wet meat and knives, like at the butcher shop. This was before the news of the killing broke, so I went to take a peek, and I saw it. A dark figure, crouched over a body, tearing at it and throwing bits of it around. I briefly made out the silhouette of its hand. Whatever or whoever it was had three blades, dripping with…oh I can’t, I just finally started to get the image out of my head. I gasped, tried to hold it in, but it heard me. It stood up, long and tall, taller than any man I’ve ever met. It started to turn and I pulled back behind the wall before it could see me. I caught the briefest glance of yellow eyes as it turned. I stood with my back to the wall, my hands clamped over my mouth, not breathing for what felt like forever. Then I heard a sound like a rusty hinge, moving away. I peeked back and it was gone.”

The inspectors that Miss Rossey originally told her story to very nearly wrote off her account as either a flight of fancy or grab for attention, until a man who only called himself Norman walked in a day later and told his account.

“I was sitting on the board walk, down by the river,” Norman said. “I was just getting ready to open my evening bottle of whiskey when I heard something underneath the walk, something like a squeaky wheel. I leaned forward, looking down through the cracks, saw two glowing yellow eyes staring up at me. If I didn’t soil myself then, I did when the thing reached up and punched a hole through the boards right next to my head. Damn thing had claws long as my forearm, I swear to it! I screamed and rolled to my feet. I never ran so fast in my life. I could hear it behind me, that awful metal on metal sound getting closer. I squeezed into a gap between two steel doors on a nearby dry dock. The thing reached in and grabbed me by the coat, pulled me back. Cut me up something fierce. And I felt heat on the back of my neck, sharp and wet. Ever get a burn from steam? It was like that. Anyway, when the thing decided it couldn’t get in it went away. I looked out the door just in time to see it leap onto a roof. Had to be three meters, easy.”

Inspectors say that Norman did indeed have a burn consistent with those found on the victims, and that they found a hastily patched hole in the board walk where Norman says he was attacked. Still, the otherworldly nature of the attacker in both stories has police skeptical.

“There must be some reasonable explanation,” said Chief Inspector Tristan Robeau. “I’m not putting out a bulletin for a two and a half meter tall tin-man with glowing eyes. A leg brace might account for the squeaky sound described, and the ‘yellow eyes’ must be some sort of lantern. As for its purported ability to jump over buildings, we chalk that up to a drunken, fear addled mind. In any case, we have a starting point. We will release an official wanted bulletin in the days to come.”