Hello there. Thanks for taking my call. I've lived in Loveland my whole life, and I was a police officer here for most of my career. It's a good town, quiet, if you follow me. This happened back on the night of March third, nineteen seventy-two. It was around one in the morning. No, wait, it must have been closer to one-fifteen because I remember 'American Pie' had just finished playing on the radio. I'd just taken a sip of some lukewarm gas station coffee, terrible stuff, and I was just focused on finishing my shift. I was driving on Riverside Drive, out by the Totes boot factory. That road runs right along the Little Miami River, with just a guardrail between the pavement and a steep drop to the water. I'd driven that stretch a thousand times. I knew every curve and every pothole. There was still some ice on the road in patches, so I was taking it slow. I wasn't looking for anything strange. I was just looking for the end of my shift so I could go home and get some sleep.
My headlights caught something on the side of the road up ahead. At first, I figured it was a dog. We got plenty of strays around those parts. I slowed down, getting ready to honk my horn to scare it off. But as I got closer, I don't know, maybe thirty feet or maybe fifty, the thing moved. And that's when I realized it wasn't a dog at all. It stood up on two legs. Like a person would. But it was only about three or four feet tall. foot bipedal creature is unusual - Dylan' The creature was fully lit up by my headlights. I can't tell you exactly how tall it was to the inch, but the skin, I'll never forget that. It was leathery. Grayish, and it caught the light like it was wet, like it had just crawled out of the river. It was crouched low, staring right at me through the windshield. It had this face like a frog, or maybe a lizard. Wide mouth, no lips, and these big, bulging eyes that reflected the light back at me, glowing in the dark like an animal's would.
It didn't make a sound. It just watched me. I remember my hands tightening on the steering wheel so hard my knuckles went white. Then it moved. It was fast, faster than anything that size should be. It turned away from the car and leaped over the guardrail. It didn't climb it. It just jumped clear over the top, if you follow me, like the rail wasn't even there. I heard it hit the water with a heavy splash, and then it was just silence. I sat there for a long time. Just me and the sound of the engine idling. I eventually put the car in gear and drove straight to the station. I needed to tell somebody. My partner, Mitchell, was on duty. He was a steady guy, not the type to get rattled. I walked in and I told him everything. The leathery skin, the frog face, the way it moved. He looked at me like I'd lost my mind, but he could tell I was shaken. He agreed to go back out there with me to look around.
[ Story continues in the full game... ]