“Field Note: Non-Corroborated Image”

                                                          Walked past this twice.

                                                      Didn’t see it the first time.

Sometime after midnight, someone claimed to have seen a figure near the edge of an empty lot behind a row of shuttered storefronts. Not doing anything, just standing there—slightly turned, like he had been interrupted mid-thought.

There was no real light except for a flickering streetlamp, but they said the face looked… flattened. Not blurred exactly, just lacking the kind of detail you expect when you’re that close to someone. As if it had been simplified.

What stood out most was the posture. The legs didn’t quite line up with the rest of the body—like they had been adjusted afterward, or remembered incorrectly.

The person who saw him didn’t approach. They watched for maybe ten seconds, maybe less. When a car passed and the light shifted, the figure was gone. No footsteps, no sound.

The next day, someone noticed a faint image on a nearby wall—nothing clear, just a suggestion of a figure. It could have been there for years.

Or not.

No one reported it. There wasn’t really anything to report.

Just something seen, briefly, that didn’t quite hold together.

>>This image was submitted anonymously. The original photo has not been altered. The figure on the wall has been there, by some estimates, for several years — though no one seems to remember it being painted, and no one has claimed it.

Ralph Rumpelton has not confirmed or denied involvement.

He rarely does.<<