The Broodkeeper

Diary of Professor Bernard Redremidth
August 9th, 1962

It must be due to my lifelong fascination with the unknown, those subjects that concern the hidden, the unseen, and the things from beyond our understanding. I do not know why, but I have been experiencing visions of an extraordinary creature, something that defies every zoological or entomological category I have ever studied. And I am a professor in those sciences; my career has been devoted to the strict logic of biology.

Yet these visions… they are anything but ordinary. To some, they might resemble something out of a Lovecraftian tale, if that helps make sense of it. But to me, what I see is neither fiction nor imagination. It feels like something wholly unique, something that lies beyond the grasp of literature or reason.

Last Known Diary Entry of Professor Bernard Redremidth
September 17th, 1962

Whoever may one day read these words may find them absurd. What I am about to record felt so vivid, so horribly real, that I must assure you, I have not lost my sanity.

Last night, while looking through some old books on my bureau, I must have drifted into sleep. In that dream—if it was a dream—I found myself in the woods behind my home. I had been drawn there by a strange sound… a hissing, chattering, guttural voice that seized my attention and pulled me toward it like a summons.

I followed the sound into the darkness, guided only by the pale glow of moonlight. But as I neared the source, the moonlight itself seemed swallowed by the blackness of the trees. It was only then that I realized I had brought no flashlight. With trembling hands, I lit the few matches I had in my pocket and pressed on.

In the faint flare of a single match, I finally saw it.

No man has ever seen such a thing.

A creature—if that is the proper word—stood before me. Its limbs mimicked the shape of a human’s, yet grotesquely elongated. From its body protruded thick, root-like tentacles that writhed and blended seamlessly with the roots of the surrounding trees, as if the forest itself had grown this abomination. Its trunk was swollen and bark-like, resembling a massive, alien tree.

Suspended around it were great organic cocoons—eggs—each pulsing with something alive within. The creature tended to them, brooding over them, and in the echoes of its guttural voice, I understood its terrible intention:

It wanted me.

It wanted me to serve as guardian, protector of its brood.

In paralyzing terror, I turned and fled into the night, its voice shifting from coaxing to threatening. I could hear its call growing sharper, angrier. Then I felt something seize my leg. A tentacle, cold, sinewy, wrapped around my ankle.

I screamed.

And then ,suddenly I awoke in my bed, gasping, drenched in sweat.

But the horror did not end there.

Around my right ankle was a broken tangle of something— a twisted root, fresh and damp, as though torn from the very earth. I stared at it in disbelief.

Was I truly in the woods last night?

If it was merely a dream, how do I explain the root wound tight around my ankle?

Am I losing my mind…

It is said that no trace of Professor Bernard Redremidth was ever found.

He vanished quietly, inexplicably—as though he had never existed at all.

This is my depiction of what he may have encountered.

Whether it is truth or fiction… that is for you to decide.

* Stored away for some time, finally got it finished yesterday