Date Logged: 14 October 2008
Subject: Jamie Willoughby, Age 9
Location: Cold Ash Copse, near the Surrey/Kent border
Summary:
Jamie Willoughby vanished for three nights after reportedly sleepwalking into the woods behind his grandmother’s cottage. Upon his return, he was found curled inside a hollow of Glimmerthorn, unharmed but wrapped in thorn-vines like a cocoon. He claimed he’d been “at school with the briar-kids” and showed signs of having learned complex knotwork in his sleep. Most disturbing: his feet were clean, despite heavy rain, and he no longer responds to his birth name.
Institute Findings:
- Bloodbloom readings detected at the site—suggests strong residual regret
- Echo-Bark trees nearby repeated Jamie’s voice long before he returned
- Psychic residue consistent with time-stretch distortion
Status:
Jamie currently resides under Institute monitoring. He sleep-talks in a nonhuman dialect. He often hums a lullaby not known to his family, matching recordings from earlier Reaches cases.
Note:
His sister, 11, now refuses to enter woods. Claims Jamie “isn’t done blooming yet.”
Faylinn Defence Group 