The Anomaly Manual

Redacted Witness · Ongoing

Ellis Vey is a Field Recorder, the lowest rank in the Federal Anomaly Management Bureau. He enters impossible places after armed agents, documents what kills them, and is expected to remain objective when the Bureau labels casualties acceptable. Ellis notices details the official manuals smooth away: a hallway that lengthens only between observations, an apartment repeating on a forty-seven-minute rhythm, and separate anomalies whose rules change when their zones overlap. Precision is the only authority he possesses. Then one of his containment clauses is acknowledged by reality. If Ellis understands an anomaly's demonstrated logic completely and writes the truth in exact language, he can force the phenomenon to obey the new clause. A false rule, however, will turn against the person who wrote it. Every rule he carries makes him more valuable to the Bureau and less stable in ordinary reality. As Ellis learns to define monsters, classified records begin suggesting that the Bureau may already be preparing to define him as one.