A shrine to the folk saint, Teresa of Tomachic or “Teresita”, appeared in the early 1900’s atop one of Degoya’s dry hills. In 1983 a group of four grim faced European men arrived in the county seeking the shrine. One stumbled back into town, three days later, eyewitnesses claimed he was wild-eyed, disheveled and refused all offers of help and is believed to have fled the state before he was apprehended. The bodies of two more, later identified as Father Achille Vallone of the Jesuit order and Gunter Lange, a defrocked Benedictine, were found mutilated with machete cuts, pierced with chipped stone points, and crucified at the site of the destroyed shrine three days later, surrounded by Catholic ritual paraphernalia. The fourth man’s whereabouts are unknown.
Codex - Void 2 Miscellany
April 17th, 1994: The spring winds came, unusually vicious, the flying debris driving the residents of La Fresca into their homes. The town was more macabre when they emerged, small bones found hanging in their ristras. The rufous hummingbirds developed a taste for blood after, too, their jousts turning deadly.
Every county in New Mexico has a plethora of roadside vendors selling fruits, pottery, blankets, and other trinkets, except Degoya. When asked why no one takes such a profitable route for themselves, most give some excuse about distance and gas prices, but the less discrete vendors say that it is out of respect for the orphans of the Flame Keepers.
A deliverance session was livestreamed on April 23rd 2020 while a church in the small town of Dustpan was closed due to the ongoing pandemic. On an empty church, the minister brought the microphone to two afflicted people, who swore and blasphemed before having their demons cast away. The final person, instead, started to intone a series of numbers and letters, using the NATO phonetic alphabet. The minister seemed confused but didn’t move the microphone. After sixteen characters were spoken, a voice was heard shouting from off-camera, the camera fell to the floor, and the livestream was cut off. Citizens of Dustpan do not recall the minister or the church.
July 17th, 2006: A wildfire started in Arizona, filling the sky of Degoya with smoke and erasing the horizon. For weeks, residents lived under an orange sky, waiting anxiously for the call to evacuate. When the smoke cleared before any such call came, everyone was so relieved that no one objected to the hole on the horizon where Pua Butte once stood.
Over the 1930s, hobos frequently passed through Degoya County, mostly via freight trains. Before too long, symbols started to appear scratched on posts, trees, and the sides of buildings. Most of the symbols were typical “hobo signs” (e.g. a circle with an arrow meant, “this way”; three diagonal lines meant, “Danger - don’t stay here”; a cross meant, “food served after a sermon”). In the summer of 1936, a new sign appeared that defied explanation:a triskelion symbol of three sickle-like or question mark-shaped curves. Occasionally, this symbol would be embellished by yellow paint.
September 17th, 2004: Magdelena Salazar came out of the woods. She disappeared over a month prior while hiking a trail she frequented, which was marked by bright white blazes painted on rocks and trees. She told the first person she saw a story about an early dusk, luminous blazes, and a campfire with a strange woman with too many teeth and long tales. She lapsed into silence when taken to the hospital and hasn’t spoken since.
June 17, 1987: The “Lost Russian” incident. Air traffic controllers at the Degoya County Municipal Airport were surprised to see a plane suddenly appear on their radar, immediately followed by a frantic voice speaking in Russian over the radio. When asked for more information, the confused pilot switched to English and asked how far he was from “Tsentralny Airport” because he was getting low on fuel. The controller directed the pilot to the runway, where he landed a single-engine Soviet Yak-52 civilian airplane without incident. The pilot identified himself as Yuri Ivanovich Makarov of Saratov, Russia, USSR. When told his was in New Mexico, USA, Makarov expressed utter dismay: He claimed to have been returning to Saratov from Moscow when he entered heavy clouds and his instruments went haywire. Makarov had Soviet identification cards, including a civilian pilot’s license, but no passport. Local authorities contacted the US State Department and the Soviet embassy; Makarov was flown back to the Soviet Union at his request, but the pane was confiscated by the US Air Force. Authorities have never provided an explanation of how an airplane with a 350-mile range could suddenly find itself nearly 10,000 miles from its point of origin. The airplane’s current whereabouts are classified.
Thank you all! I’m helping put this miscellany together. Would you all mind replying with how you would like your name credited?
Credit me as Alexi Sargeant, please.
Mags Maenad, please!
Please credit me as Joe Amon.
“Mike Ferdinando”, thanks!