Professor Garaiburu’s Diary (Part 2)
December 1999
We had planned a New Year’s Eve on the beach. We were going to be 6 people, Elena and I plus two other couples. The six of us worked at the university, and Elena and Julia, who worked together in the department of botany, wanted to go on a short excursion. In the morning, while the rest of us were preparing the house and the dinner, the two of them went to Isla Grosa to collect samples for an experiment they had been conducting for a couple of years. The island was military property at the time, but they had permission to collect samples as long as they asked in advance. They had planned to eat there and come back before it got dark.
At around nine PM we started to get really worried. It was too late and both of them were very responsible, so we went to look for them. Their boat was moored at the small pier of the island. It was already quite dark and there were no lights there, so we had to look for them with flashlights, shouting their names. After almost two hours, Luis, one of my friends, returned to land to ask for help. The police arrived pretty soon, and we spent the whole night looking for them. The following morning, Julia’s body appeared on the rocks of the southern part of the island. It was in front of a sea cave that continued below the island. Professional divers came and searched all the caverns, but they could not find Elena. After a while, they declared her missing.
The official report said they fell from the southern clift of the island into the sea, and Elena’s body was swept out to sea.
We never knew what had really happened. We couldn’t find their things on the island, nor a sign of them on the cliff from which they supposedly fell into the sea. The strangest thing was the mark on the palm of Julia’s corpse. Felipe, her husband, was sure that she did not have it before going to the island. But I had seen it before. I’m sure it was one of the symbols written on the altar that I saw under the mine. No one believed me, again. They said that the mark had been caused by the fall against the rocks, that I was in shock due to the disappearance of my wife, and that it was normal trying to find an explanation for such a tragedy. But I am sure of what I saw in the tunnels, and that mark confirmed it.
I haven’t been the same since that day. I’ve spent years and years gathering information. Newspaper clippings, rumors, stories whispered in the dark…
April 16th, 2016
I finally have you. I have found a letter confirming my suspicions. The tongueless corpses, the fire’s culprit. It is the confirmation that “they” are behind the disaster of the theater. I need more information, but I feel I’m on the right track. I’ll be able to connect all the cases son.
The letter is dated on December 1899. I got it from a collector named Vicente Martín Escobar. He had heard a story about a fire that had nothing to do with the well-known curse of the Romea Theater. His story mentioned a murder and a strange ritual. The letter confirms that story and provides new information that I didn’t have.
For now, I am going to try to find the corpse from the fire.
June 25th, 2016
I haven’t found the body. The information was apparently “misplaced”. But I didn’t stop there and I have found something even better. An unpublished police report that confirms everything described in the letter. I have to keep searching.
