HIGGINS FAMILY ARCHIVE
Last Recorded Activity: 1973
Overview
The Higgins family maintained property holdings in and around Delaware, Ohio for multiple generations. Records prior to 1973 indicate no unusual activity.
Post-1973 records are incomplete. Several entries appear to have been removed or altered.
Final Recorded Resident
Carol Higgins
Last confirmed occupant of the Higgins property.
- No record of marriage
- No record of children
- No documented relocation
She is the final known member of the Higgins family line.
1973 Incident
Local accounts reference a train derailment occurring near Blue Limestone. Official reports describe the incident as minor, with no hazardous materials declared.
Unofficial accounts contradict this.
- Livestock found altered or partially intact
- Unusual tracks inconsistent with known wildlife
- Movement reported in wooded areas without visible source
Final Days
Witness statements regarding Carol Higgins are inconsistent.
Some claim she remained on the property following the incident. Others suggest she attempted to leave but never made it far.
"She wasn't alone anymore."
No remains were ever fully recovered.
Cause of death: Undetermined.
Recovered Notes
"It didn't stay one."
"It learned."
"It followed structure."
"It wasn't contained."
"It moved where the ground broke."
Classification
Based on recovered materials, the subject cannot be defined as singular.
It is not man.
It is not animal.
It is both.
Behavioral Record
Before the creature became what Delaware feared, it was young. Confined. Chained to the Higgins property on South Sandusky Street for years at a time.
The family records describe occasional escapes — always brief, always ended with retrieval and restraint. What the records do not describe is what happened during those escapes.
We found evidence of that ourselves.
Return to Blue Limestone Park. From the parking lot, take the blacktop path closest to William Street. Follow it until it nearly stops — where the overgrowth closes in and the path runs out of room.
Look down.
What you find there was not left by a monster. It was left by something young and in pain, trying to say something it didn't have the words for.
Transmit exactly what it says — spelled exactly as it appears.
Additional Intelligence
There is something else at Blue Limestone. Older. Different in tone entirely.
By the time this second mark was made, the creature was no longer young. No longer grieving. It had learned that humans respond to one thing above all else.
Fear.
It left a word on the limestone itself — not on the path, but on the stone. A warning. A declaration. Visible when conditions allow.
This one is not required. But those who find it will not leave empty handed.
Final Entry
It does not remain where it began.
It moved where the ground broke.
You've seen where it changed.
Now return to where it felt something.
When you solve this, email your answer to investigations@escapecrookedcottage.com. Put only the answer in the subject line with no body. If you're correct, you'll immediately receive a reply for progression.