Brimstone

For many months my team and I have been experimenting with a new form of light, a half-photon. This strange new form of light seems to only exibit half a wave in our 3d universe while the other half remains hidden elsewhere. This property grants the light the ability to traverse through ordinary matter without so much as a hint of deflection. However, the more we bombard matter with beams of this half-light, the less there is of said matter left over. The mass doesn't change but the material seems to disappear. We've termed this phenomenon deletion but that wouldn't do it justice considering the mass of the material can still be measured but cannot be interacted with. Almost as though it has been swept under the rug of our space-time fabric. Following this discovery, we've deleted a probe and to our amazement the device remained fully functional. The sensors read nothing out of the ordinary except for a few electromagnetic disturbances that appeared to move from one end of the room and through the wall and into the next room. At first we suspected it was a radio signal so we shut everything off save for the vital equipment but instead of going away, the signal, in fact, grew stronger. Eventually, the sensors indicated that the disturbance had stopped directly where we were standing in the lab and this is when things started to go wrong. One of the interns, Lisa, began complaining of a headache and needed to rest so I had one of my assistants escort her to the break room where she could lay down on one of the many benches. After my assistant had returned, there was a spike of activity and the sensors indicated 3 other anomalies had been detected, each with their own signature frequencies. To our astonishment, the anomalies seemed to be interacting with each other but not overlapping as would be expected. Instead, it was almost as if the signals originated from solid objects, possibly existing the same plane where all of the deleted objects were sent. Even stranger still, the signals seemed to be attracted to the probe and at one point completely surrounded it. Steadily the volume of the output increased until the room was filled with four distinct noises all circling the device at a constant rate. Then all of a sudden the signal went quiet. Nothing but a faint hiss from the speaker was heard and for 30 minutes or so and we waited for any indication that the probe was still functional. A few more minutes passed and the signal died entirely. After a few minutes more, a bright flash of light engulfed the room and the probe was back where it had been before deletion, completely inverted inside out and white hot. We noted what looked to be scratches and soot on the outside and noticed blue flames rising out of large chunks of sulfur wedged between the fused panels. After we allowed the machine to cool, we noticed a strong odor of decay emanating from the inside of the destroyed probe. Eventually we managed to break open the machine once it cooled and inside was what appeared to be a human fetus with hoofed feet and a large hole where the face should have been. Its skin was tough as leather and its tongue hung twice the length of its body from circular, toothless maw that hung open with part of the skull exposed where the nose and top teeth should be. Even stranger, the being appeared to be alive. We watched in horrified curiosity as its heart beat wildly on the outside surface of its chest and how thick, viscous fluid oozed in and out through veins and arteries woven around exposed, barbed ribs that expanded and contracted with every foul-smelling breath. Deep within the bony sockets we could see a pair of black eyes lacking sclerae staring straight at us from fleshy stalks that closed from all directions forming a ring of flesh that held the orbs in place. A few of my colleagues stumbled back attempting to remain conscious while one vomited from the odor. I turned away and shielded my nose and mouth but when I opened my eyes and looked up, I saw Lisa standing at the doorway with blood covering the front of her white lab coat. She was pale and her lips were colorless as she stumbled into the room and I became aware of the gaping, bloody hole on her lower torso. Inside was bloody and hollow and I could see her bones moving with every step she forced herself to take.

I woke up several hours ago. I'm the only one left in the laboratory under a pile rubble consisting of inverted, corrupted versions of all the objects we had deleted over the span of a year. From a small hole I can see that the thing inside the machine is gone, there is a glowing hole full of flames in the ground where the half-light generator was and I haven't a clue where anyone went but behind me I can hear something digging through the pile of rubble that surrounds me. We never should have messed with the natural order.