Read More: A brief Q&A with Corinne Silver
Facility Logs: An Examination of Item #2418
The newest item at the facility appears to be a child’s toy: bright purple plastic, with yellow extending arm and trigger, and two red suction cups at the end of its arm. Label on the side reads “Grab-it Claw.”
A Goodwill store associate sold the item to an unsuspecting youth of fourteen in Phoenix, Arizona for 99 cents. The now-disturbed youth reported bringing it home and pulling the trigger approximately ten times. An anonymous bystander reported the situation when they heard loud crashes, violent banging, and horrible screams coming from their neighbor’s balcony. Upon inspection, the youth’s bedroom had been filled with a bag of coconuts, a collection of ancient keys, several fossilized remains, a ship’s anchor, a 1925 Singer Sewing Machine, and a West African rhinoceros that has been declared extinct for a decade.
Our team questions whether the Grab-it Claw reaches across time, space, or dimensions.
The youth and his parents remain sheltered in the facility receiving intensive therapy until deemed mentally stable to return to their daily lives under new identities.
After determining the Grab-it Claw is not self-animated, the team disassembled the item and found nothing of consequence. Team members have reassembled the object and plan to test it themselves.
Testing Day 1: 13:05 hours
Agent Gall volunteered to pull the trigger first. He did, and it retrieved a single green apple. It appears to be of the Granny Smith variety.
Testing Day 2: 15:32 hours
Chemical analysis shows the “apple” is composed of unknown elements.
Testing Day 3: 9:00 hours
After three days in solitary confinement, the youth who witnessed the power of the item has escaped his cell. His whereabouts are unknown. The facility is on lockdown until he is found.
Testing Day 3, 23:06 hours
The youth has broken into the testing room. Camera evidence shows he broke the glass window to let himself in, seized the grab-it claw and turned it on himself. Upon grabbing his pinky finger with the claw and releasing the trigger, the youth vanished.
Testing Day 4, 10:00 hours
After considerable debate between team members, the Grab-it Claw has been placed in the Never-Safe. The apple, for now, seems stable, despite its unknown composition.
The director, in an impulsive act, took a singular bite of the apple. A few seconds later he shrugged and reported, “One damn good apple.”
Testing Day 4, 10:11 hours
The director is dead.
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Corinne Silver is an author of YA and adult sci-fi, fantasy, and poetry. She received her bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Houston. At UH, she worked as a consultant at the Writing Center and earned a minor in Creative Work from the Honors College. Her work has been featured in the online journals Fterota Logia and 100 Word Story. To find more of her writing and musings on literature, follow her on Instagram @scripturientsilver or go to scripturientsilver.com.
Read More: A brief Q&A with Corinne Silver