Editing Some Strange Magic:Orpheus (section)

== Orpheus ==

This is what Dr Geoffrey Brent, Forensic Medical Examiner, remembers. He was called to a crime scene on a London street, where a dead woman had been reported. He immediately realised the victim was still alive, called an ambulance and worked with the police to stabilise her until it arrived. While they were waiting, a man dressed in black arrived, shoved the police aside, and helped the victim up. She walked off with the man in black, still obviously injured but oblivious.

This is what the evidence shows. CCTV footage shows the victim being struck by a car with enough force to make survival unlikely. Brent is seen shaking his head when examining her, filling in a form, and not giving her further medical attention. The form is a legal confirmation of death, in Brent's handwriting and with his signature. The man in black gestures at the police and they collapse. He lays a hand on the woman and she begins breathing, her injuries healing in seconds before he helps her up and they leave.

Brent was fired from the Metropolitan Police for incompetence, and would have had his medical license revoked if the evidence hadn't mysteriously disappeared shortly afterwards. Brent was deeply disturbed by the contradiction between his memories and the evidence, and became obsessed with finding an explanation. Neither neurologists or psychologists could find any condition affecting his memory. Forensic experts couldn't explain the evidence, or its disappearance. His search for the man in black or the woman was equally fruitless.

He had slightly more success investigating similar events, all with people remembering the mundane version and evidence pointing to the fantastic. He eventually concluded that supernatural forces were at work, and something made it impossible for people to remember them. This was hardly satisfying, and in desperation he started investigating the occult community. He found hundreds of grifters and lunatics, and one solid lead in Galway, Ireland.

----