You probably clicked on this vague title expecting to be entertained by someone’s paranormal encounters. Let me tell you right off the bat, you will not find that here, if that’s what you’re looking for. Instead, I came here to ask you all for help, I need you to help me stop them. I don’t know if they’re looking for me, or if they even know who I am, but just in case I’ll be using a throwaway, and I advise you to do so as well if you intend on interacting with this post. Please excuse me for my rather blunt tone, but you must understand the urgency of my situation. Let me explain:

It all began just two days ago, when the weekend came. It’s been a crazy weekend for me, some folks would assume that by that I mean a pleasant trip, all the way out to a place full of sand and salty water, but clearly that’s not the case, it’s been a crazy weekend, but for all the wrong reasons. My best friend and I have many things in common, so many in fact, that we only needed to meet once before instantly relating to each other. We both hate parties, we both hate the beach and casual tourism, and we both hate family reunions. So like we did every time our school gave us a few days’ break, we each refused to take a trip with our respective families, to instead spend that time together.

Anna and I were enjoying ourselves at her place, watching popular music videos on YouTube and playing online platformers on various websites. She had recently been given a brand new laptop for her 16th birthday, a MacBook Air to be exact, so we decided to use it to its full extent on our little three-day bender, that was the plan at least. A fateful chain reaction was set in motion when her grandmother, who was supposed to be watching us whilst Anna’s parents were gone, decided that we were making too much noise.

“Kids! You’re going to drive me nuts with all that balderdash you two are listening to. Quiet down or I’m going to call Susan.” She spat with a rash tone.

Anna then replied.

“Grandma, I don’t think that my mom would be too thrilled to hear from you at this time. Please don’t bother her.”

“Well, I’m going to have to bother her if you two don’t behave yourselves!”

“Fine. We won’t make any more noise. Sorry to disturb you, grandma.” Anna assured.

That meant no more movies and no more videos. Next best thing? Creepy forum posts, we thought. We ransacked the web for hours, finding nothing but generic rubbish about how someone saw someone else summoning the devil, or yet another idiotic ritual that you can do at 3:00 a.m.

“Woah. Check this one out” Anna whispered.

She was referring to a post titled: “please help me stop them”. Its author went by the username “william-meyer”, and his profile had no picture or bio attached.

“That looks… mildly interesting” I shrugged.

Anna clicked on it, and we were immediately redirected to a website that displayed nothing but a text box, a text box that read: “type in your e-mail address to continue.” Anna and I stared at each other for a moment, before her soft voice broke the silence.

“Um… do you think it’s a virus?”

“Probably, to be honest. But are you gonna be a pussy about it?” I teased.

I wish I hadn’t done that… oh god, how very stupid I was.

“Fuck you! I’m not a pussy. Screw it.”

She typed in her e-mail, and like clockwork, received a notification on her phone.

“I just got an e-mail.” She gulped.

She logged into her account, and the inbox displayed a new message, the subject simply read: “When Humans Play God”. The body of the e-mail had a link attached, and nothing else. Anna clicked on it without hesitation, without taking the time to analyze the link or even to check who sent her the e-mail itself. Her computer took unusually long to load the page, in fact, it never did. About a minute or so after Anna clicked on the link, her brand new Macbook Air crashed, leaving us with nothing our reflections staring at us through a black screen.

“Oh no. Oh god, no. No, no, no, NO!” She thundered.

Anna was no doubt fearing what would happen if her parents found out that we ruined her new and expensive birthday gift… little did we know, something much worse than that was awaiting.

“Just to make it clear, Anna, that shit…” I pointed at her now shut-off laptop.

“That shit was not my fault!”

“No, I know… I know. But it won’t turn on! Look!”

It, in fact, did not turn on. We plugged in the charger, nothing. We tried everything and a little more, but nothing seemed to work. We even rushed across Anna’s room and flicked the light switch on and off, to make sure the power was working… it was. My friend was close to exploding into tears when suddenly, the laptop turned on again. To our relief, it ran exactly like it did before, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Anna turned to face me.

“It’s not laggy, and everything is here. Looks like it wasn’t a virus after all. But then, what the hell was that?” She observed.

Everything was there, but there was something else, something she hadn’t noticed yet. An application, titled: “When Humans Play God”.

“No idea. But… you should check this out”

I gently took her hand and used it to move the cursor toward the strange new icon on her desktop. She frowned, confused.

“I’ve never seen that before..” Anna said.

We discussed the possibilities, and concluded that if it were some kind of virus, it would already be too late, so in that case, indulging our curiosity by opening the application seemed like the best course of action. Anna was about to do so when suddenly, her grandmother’s voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Sweetheart!”

We looked at each other.

“You and that boy better not be doing anything genital in there!”

I mention this with great care, because that moment was the last laugh we ever shared before everything went to shit. We laughed hysterically and uncontrollably, even though part of me wishes that what her grandmother suggested wasn’t something to joke about. Yeah, that’s right, I like Anna, I like her a lot actually, but I’m too shy to tell her, and she’s too naive to notice. Right now I wish I did, because I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance.

“We’re not, grandma, don’t worry. We’re just reading some stories.”

“I certainly hope so, Annabelle!” Scolded the old lady.

We finally had the opportunity and the guts to open the strange program, and so without a second thought, we did. What was then displayed on the screen was… well, it was very unexpected, to say the least. It appeared to be some sort of children’s workshop, but we couldn’t see what it read or what it really looked like, a giant pop-up was blocking the front page’s contents. It read as follows:

“Hello, reader. I would first like to apologize for deceiving you. You’ve probably noticed by now that this isn’t at all what you were expecting, but I hope you’ll sympathize with my reasoning once I explain my situation. Privately owned forums and elementary school networks are the only two things that they have no control over, so that’s why I chose to disguise my message as a workshop for your children, or as a generic creepypasta, depending on how you’ve received it. Secondly, I should let you know that I’ve installed a piece of malware on your device, that basically restricts you from sharing this program, or copying its contents. This may seem intrusive, and it is actually, in all fairness, but I assure you, every precaution I took is for your own safety. With that being said, feel free to explore my blog and learn all about the atrocities that are happening right under our noses.”

From that point onward, Anna and I began fighting a losing battle against our overpowering curiosity. Once we closed the pop-up, the contents of the front page were finally revealed, and I’ll now do my best to describe to you what we saw .

There was a title card, in big, colorful letters, which read: “When Humans Play God”. Below said title card, the front page displayed three clickable buttons, that each lead to a different section. “Photo Gallery”, “Dr. Meyer” and “Diary” were their titles. At first glance, it seemed like nothing other than a simple children’s workshop, but given the context, we knew that something much darker awaited behind those buttons.

“What the fuck?”

Anna looked too confused to even speak.

“I mean, seriously. What on earth are we looking at right now?” I muttered, still shell-shocked.

“I don’t know. But are you gonna be a pussy about it?” Anna echoed my words, which made us both smile faintly.

“Never. How does “photo gallery” sound to you?”

“It sounds like something mildly interesting that we could waste our time on. So basically, it sounds perfect!” Anna replied.

She clicked on it, but nothing was waiting for us. Instead, we saw a pop-up like the one from the front page, which this time read: “There are currently no photos uploaded to the photo gallery, please check again later.”

“Well, that was a waste of ten seconds.” I mocked.

We returned to the menu, and we selected a different link this time, “Dr. Meyer”. Once we pressed the mouse on this name, the following text appeared:

“Hello, reader. My name is William Meyer. Throughout my career, I’ve worked as a biologist and geneticist for a variety of different research projects all around the world. I am currently one of the many scientists who operate within a classified department seconded by the United States Government, called Paranormal Science. I believe it’s my moral obligation to expose the many atrocities, barbarities, and inhumanities that I witness here on a daily basis. That’s why I have chosen to share my experiences with you all. I will try to update the blog as often as possible, so please, be on the lookout for any new entries and photographs. Dear reader, the time has come for you to open your eyes. Please, help me stop them.”

Those words sent chills down our spines, but nevertheless, we were too invested in the story. Anna stood up from her bed and went to the kitchen to bring us some snacks. While she was gone, I used my phone to browse the internet, in search of anything regarding Dr. Meyer and his supposed experiments, but I found nothing. There was no mention of him, anywhere. However, “When Humans Play God”, or a different arrangement of the exact words, is fairly relevant in pop culture, I found various references to it in music, art, books, and even video games. But once again, I found nothing relating to that mysterious scientist.

Anna returned a few minutes later, carrying with her an array of different snacks and drinks for us to enjoy while we read this series of strange tales. We selected the title, “Diary”, and we clicked on it to see its contents. The page took a while to load, but once it did, we saw a different menu. It had the same color selection and the same playful vibe, but this time it displayed three clickable buttons, each one leading to a different entry in Dr. Meyer’s journal. The first one was titled “A Normal Day”, I’ll now show you the text that appeared when we clicked on it. We had to transcribe it manually, because the program didn’t let us use the classic CTRL C + CTRL V method. It read as follows:

“What can be achieved when the world’s greatest minds combine is nothing short of incredible, but when the world’s most evil minds are the ones to gather them, the results are even more unimaginable. Those evil minds are the ones who control my research department, we call refer to them as the “Grey Men”. We don’t know anything about them, we don’t know who they are, where they came from, or even what they want, all we know at the moment is that they’re the ones who pay our salaries, and they’re the ones who pull the strings around here.

I realized a while ago that I couldn’t stay quiet any longer, even if it meant risking my life. During my first few weeks, I worked only at the lab: analyzing blood samples, splicing DNA, and composing research reports to send back to central, nothing a man of my profession wouldn’t be used to. During that period, I befriended another scientist who was also new and working only at the lab, her name was Nancy. To make a long story short, she and I began e-mailing, only because we don’t have access to cellphone service around here. Our conversations became increasingly less work-related and more friendly, until they turned romantic.

That’s when I received a notification from the Grey Men, informing me that personal relationships within the complex were considered serious misconduct. They have cameras and security personnel everywhere, so I should’ve known that they also read our e-mails and listen to our conversations. It was my first infraction, so the punishment, or rather the “disciplinary action” as they call it, was just a fine that I was easily able to pay thanks to my massive salary. But Nancy on the other hand, well, I never saw or heard from her again. The official explanation was that she quit, but knowing what I know now, I can tell that’s not the case. She’s dead, most likely murdered by order of the Grey Men.

They are willing to go to any extent to make sure we stay focused on the mission, whatever it may be. So if they don’t like your attitude, they’ll kill you, just like that. That’s a normal day at the office for them. As I’m writing this, I’m realizing that I’ll be expected at the farm soon, so I have to stop. This is the worst part of my day.”

That’s when the first entry finished.

Anna and I looked at each other for a few moments, trying to soak everything in.

“I mean, logically, there’s no way this is real.” She spoke. “There’s no proof of anything he’s claiming.”

“In case you haven’t been paying attention, Anna, that’s the point. There can’t be proof because these ‘grey men’ don’t leave any.” I teased.

“What are they even doing over there? So far it doesn’t sound like anything crazy. It actually sounds pretty normal in my opinion.” Anna asked.

“I guess we’ll have to hope that we find out. Let’s keep going, this is fun.”

Anna and I were more intrigued than ever, even if we still hadn’t seen anything perverse. We wanted more, much more, so we clicked on the next entry, titled: “Stroll Down The Farm”. Again, another text box appeared, it read as follows:

“If I showed you a picture of the facilities here, and told you it was actually a futuristic city in the middle of Asia, I guarantee most of you would believe me. Everything here is top-of-the-line, from the labs and their equipment to the many fields, aquariums, and stables in which we keep our bizarre animals.

At around 2:00 p.m. every day, I get called down to the farm in order to make sure everything is functional. But this week has been different, because this week we’ve been testing a new serum I designed, and helped yield alongside a very skilled chemist who also works here. The idea behind it is to rapidly separate DNA chains, in order to make the splicing process very simple, even when the subject has already been born. If everything goes according to plan, in a few years' time, we could potentially be looking at an injection that can change anything about the anatomy of any living being, at any given time. It would be a universal cure for all diseases, and it would make genetic disorders a thing of the past. But obviously, that’ll never be their intention.

I arrived at the barn that I’m assigned to, or rather, that my boss has control over. By “my boss” I don’t mean the Grey Men, I’ve never spoken to or even seen one of them in person. They’re my employers, my boss is one Dr. Rose Quinn: 55 years old and a biologist, chemist, and geneticist. She’s one of the world’s very best, that’s for sure. But sometimes I refuse to believe that Dr. Quinn is a woman, I’m convinced she’s just a robot, going through the motions and pretending to be human. She’s cold, expressionless, and absolutely heartless. You should watch how she drinks water, or how she sneezes… it’s unbelievable.

We would be doing the first phase of testing on a group of 10 piglets, trying to change the color of their hair.

Dr. Quinn was already there when I arrived, she was standing alongside the fence, watching one of the interns weigh the subjects and prepare the injections. A few moments passed before she turned to acknowledge my presence.

“You’re late.” She said.

“Apologies, Dr. Quinn. It won’t happen again.”

She didn’t respond. Instead, she turned to face the intern and ordered him to proceed.

I will never forget the sheer panic on that boy’s face. He carefully approached one of the piglets, and injected its shoulder with the exact dosage that I specified… but nothing happened. One minute passed, which quickly turned into two and then three, still nothing. Dr. Quinn shot me a fearsome glare, but before saying anything, she walked up to the scene and inspected every aspect of it. Once she looked at the serum that was being used, Dr. Quinn closed her eyes and grunted in frustration.

“Oh, you idiot.” She hissed. “You’re using the wrong fucking serum, you fool.”

I watched the boy’s face turn pale.

“Oh no. Oh, I’m sorry Dr. Quinn, I’m really sorry.”

“This subject is fucking useless now, thanks to you.” She pointed at the piglet. “Discard it, and make it quick. We’ve wasted too much time already.”

She then left, without looking back. However, she ordered me to come with her, he still had many more things left to do on that day.

“I’ll be right there, Rose. Let me help the intern with…”

“Sure.” She cut me off. “You’ll be needed at the stables shortly, so don’t take too long.”

The intern began to cry, and I watched him raise the piglet, and snap its neck, killing it instantly.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” The boy whispered, over and over.

Tears ran down his cheeks, as all the other piglets surrounded the corpse in front of them, caressing it with their little snouts.

I wish I still had that sensitivity of his, but over the months I’ve been here, I think I’ve become numb to all of it. Cruelty, barbarism, inhumanity… it’s all common practices around here. I simply walked up to him, and patted him on the back.

“Go get the right serum, and try again.” I told him. “Hey, I don’t like this either, but we’re here already, aren’t we? So there’s nothing we can do.”

“S… sure. Thanks, Dr. Meyer.” He said, still in shock about what he just did.

I followed Rose’s instructions and met her at the stables, the stables in which we keep our horses.

Those creatures are so massive and shapeless that they don’t even look like animals anymore, they look like prehistoric beasts that you would read about in children’s books. They’ve been injected at birth with a special serum that enhances their growth hormones, it makes them infinitely faster, stronger, and more durable than regular horses, however, I still don’t know what their purpose is, and I don’t know why the Grey Men would want to create them. But I guess that will never be something I can comment on.

Rose caressed them with satisfaction, before she signed some paperwork that was handed to her by the personnel in charge of the stables. I was able to learn that two of the horses have been selected to participate in a classified operation, seconded by the U.S government and the Arab Emirates. It’s a construction site, for underground oil exploration somewhere out in the Persian Gulf. Basically, the sheiks need a way to transport massive amounts of illegal commodities, without dealing with the conspicuity of industrial vehicles. The solution? Paying a hilariously large fee to the Grey Men, in exchange for the rental service of a few of their special animals.

“This one is decent, take it.” Rose declared, as she took one of the horses by the bridle.

“And this one here, this is our best product so far. I trust our clients will be pleased with its efficiency.”

A representative sent by the sheikhs was also there. He took both horses and began walking them out of the stable, before nodding his head in appreciation. Rose stopped him right before he left, and spoke again.

“Hold on. You’ll need this.” She handed him two syringes, full of a translucent liquid. “Tranquilizer for the plane, just to make sure that they stay in your control.”

I can’t imagine how potent that must be. The horses must be at least seven feet tall, and maybe 2,000 pounds. Their muscles are shapeless and unnatural, so big they nearly burst the skin that covers them. Our animals are monsters, but I guess we are too, for creating them and robbing them of a normal life.

Our final task for the day was to review the progress of our cross-species specimens. We took a few sperm samples from various rodents, and then we artificially impregnated chickens with them. The specimens were hatched a few days prior, and according to the scientists that were deployed in that area, they are fully conscious and their motor skills are functioning.

I’ve seen many disturbing things before, so being faced with those specimens wasn’t so traumatizing anymore, but what really sends chills down my spine, is Rose Quinn. I think she enjoys this and nothing else, she only smiles when most people would cover their eyes in disgust. The chickens were exactly that… just disgusting. Their bodies were deformed, their beaks were lined with small and sharp teeth, they uttered ear-piercing screeches and they had claws instead of wings. Out of the most horrible sights I’ve ever been witness to, this definitely cracks the top 10.

Rose stared at them, with a massive grin on her face, and watched as one of the interns fed them a bowl of ground meat. She then made a phone call… I was only able to piece together a few sentences.

“Yes, sir. As I’ve told many times, my team and I believe that the procedure is very reliable. Maybe the time has come for us to be more ambitious.”

…

“I believe so. Progressing to phase two might well be in our immediate plans. Would you like me to inform our buyers about the progress that we’ve made?”

…

“No, not yet. We’re still searching for potential subjects, it’s been quite the challenge to find suitable candidates.”

…

“Because we just don’t have the budget availability to do that. And I won’t ask you for more money, it would be unwise to waste our assets at this time.”

…

“That’s right, sir. We will continue to search in low-income areas. With some luck, we should be able to find a few test subjects eventually.”

I wish I could’ve heard the other side of the phone conversation, but at the same time, I feel sick just thinking about what they’re planning to do next.

Once Dr. Quinn finished her phone call, she and I were ready for our final task of the day. We had to review the evolution of a study that was being carried out, involving a few lab rabbits and one of the more complex experimental procedures that we’ve developed in recent memory.

It was a very important study, so the zone had a lot more security. Rose pushed the guards aside one by one with arrogance, as I awkwardly followed behind her. We walked through a dimly lit corridor for a few feet, until we ultimately made it to the lab.

These rabbits had been spliced, pre-birth of course, with an unusual species of freshwater eel. It was the first time that we’d ever attempted cross-species hybridization with a land animal, and an aquatic animal. Hybridization can only be achieved with two specimens of the same class, like a horse and a zebra for example, but yet again this company proved that not even the laws of biology can restrain them.

When I walked into the lab, I almost threw up my lunch as soon as I saw the specimens. There isn’t a combination of words in the English lexicon that I can use to accurately describe them… they were like small snakes, with red fur and only two paw-like extremities. I could sense the despair in their little black eyes, they’ll never understand what they are or why they were even born, and they’ll die without ever seeing the sunlight…

Rose looked at me with a grimace, telling me to rush over there and do my job without the need to say a word. I did the usual procedure, weighed them, took blood samples, and snapped a few pictures with my portable camera. I still think about that span of a few seconds, lifting them to feel their slimy and gooey skin… pinching them with my needle to extract their blood felt like pinching a piece of gelatin with a fork, and I don’t even want to mention their smell or the kind of sounds they made. Everything about those creatures was simply horrifying, hellish, disgusting, repulsive… you can’t say they were alive, because that is not life. That is a piece of wet skin with a heartbeat, not life.

Rose smiled when she saw her little creations were kicking about and healthy. She signed a few documents that were handed to her by one of the security guards, and ordered the scientists to move on to “the next phase of the project”. Whatever that is.

I suppose that’s it, that’s my typical day. Just a stroll down the farm.”

Dr. Meyer’s second entry ended there.

Anna was about to click on the third, and for now final entry, “Paranormal Science”, when she was stopped in her tracks by a notification on the top left corner of the screen.

“The Photo Gallery has just been updated!”

“Holy shit.” She gasped.

“Let’s check it out!” I replied.

“No! What if it’s something gross? Everything he talked about sounded pretty gross…”

‘P… P… Pussyyyyy!” I teased.

We both smiled at each other, but our banter was quickly cut short when we noticed something horrifying, and the reason why I’m posting this in the first place. The camera on Anna’s laptop was on… it was on. As if someone was watching us.

We panicked. Anna slammed her laptop shut and I ran across her room to close the blinds on her windows.

“Okay. WHAT. THE. HELL?” She trembled.

“This is really bad, Anna.”

“I know. I know. God, I know. Do you think it’s those grey men he was talking about?”

“It could be! But it could also be a prank. I think it’s time we call it a night anyways, it’s been fun but this is getting too scary for me.”

“So you’re just gonna leave me here? Jesus! Who’s the pussy now?”

“Sorry, Anna. As I said, it’s been fun, but I’m tired and I wanna go home. Don’t worry about it too much, it’s probably just a prank, part of the story, you know?”

“Yeah, I guess. But please call me when you get home. I’m scared too.”

“I will.”

The truth is, I don’t think it was a prank at all, especially after what happened next. I ran back to my house as fast as I could, probably the most stressful 20-minute run of my life. My night was made even worse by a phone call I received when I got home, it was Anna.

“Hey.” She was whispering, and I could tell that she was trembling in pure panic.

“I… I think there’s someone outside my house.”

“WAIT, WHAT?!” I yelled, in shock.

“Yeah. There’s a guy standing outside my front door, he’s wearing a suit and he’s taking pictures of my front porch.”

“Jesus Christ, Anna! Call the police!”

“I… I can’t! 911 doesn’t work! It won’t ring!”

“Oh, fuck. This is really bad. This is really, really, really bad.”

“Wh… what do I d… do?”

I fell silent for a few moments, trying desperately to come up with a plan on the spot. But Anna hung up… or the phone call was cut off, I don’t know. The point is, I lost connection with her and when I tried to call back, I was sent straight to voice mail.

I’m currently at my house, unable to sleep, and scared out of my boots typing this. I don’t know what to do. I’m thinking about running back to Anna’s house, but that could be a horrible idea.

I need help. I now don’t doubt that everything that the mysterious Dr. Meyer wrote about on his blog is real. I need you to help him, I need you to help me stop them.