Factory 1 “Stitches”
After eight surgeries the man’s appearance is close to where he was before the incident. There is obviously still some scarring, but generally speaking most of the damage has been repaired. I have tried to speak to him on numerous occasions, but he has consistently refused, leaving me only the gathering of testimonies from other people to get closer to what happened. It should surprise no one that he is having a great amount of trouble recovering from his experience, yet the process seems especially slow, almost to the point where if one weren't looking at him, you would assume that the stitches were never removed at all.
About a year ago, the man was found in a bathroom at one of the old abandoned factories that run along Wellington Street. In the past, Wellington Street enjoyed the prosperity of a bustling industrial district. But as time went by, the factories became more and more behind the times, lacking the sort of support that would allow them to invest in the innovations in production that developed in the followed decades. Jobs were sent overseas, and demand for these buildings faded. Eventually all the factories shut down, leaving behind rusting constructs of steel as the surrounding area became more commercially based.
This particular factory was originally used for the production of shoes. It has been a long time since the factory produced anything, and the heavy brick construction is void of any defining features that might give one a hint about its previous function. However, a little over a year ago some of these factories began to be investigated, though the reasons for these investigations have not been made public.
The man in question had been sent in with instructions to check the stability of the property, including the condition of the various pipes and facilities. He was joined by two other people, and together over the course of a couple of days managed to cover a quarter of the systems they had been hired for. On the third night they were wrapping up another day of investigations, this time focusing on the electrical, which included the bathrooms.
As they went to leave, they went to all the bathrooms and checked all the lights. On the bottom floor, there was only a single bathroom. The light above the sink was flickering, struggling to hold a consistent illumination. The man assumed that it was just a loose connection. As it was a late at night he said that the other two could leave and that he would be out of there probably within ten minutes. The man was a well experienced electrician, and it should have been a simple fix, so his partners believed his diagnosis and headed home.
They returned back at the factory early the next day. Normally they would meet outside to schedule out the day. However, the man was not waiting for them. He was known to arrive early, and so they headed inside without much question, assuming he was already working. After calling out to him and hearing nothing, one of them called his cell. To their surprise the phone went off nearby, in the bathroom from the night before. No one picked up the phone, though there was the sound of something small falling against the tile floor. The light was still flickering, and they could clearly see movement under the door. They headed to the bathroom and knocked, and after no response they opened the door. Or at least they tried.
As they went to open it, their progress was suddenly stopped, as if something was blocking it. With effort they managed to get it open. Inside, they found the man curled up on the floor, his phone laying nearby. He had been stripped of his clothes, which were found neatly placed in the corner. It was no more than a matter of seconds for a call to be made to emergency services. Within five minutes an ambulance arrived on the scene, and soon after entering the building they were directed to the bathroom. The man’s wounds were extensive, and he was immediately taken to the local hospital.
The man’s skin had been sewn together. A chemical solution mostly consisting of borax had been applied to parts of his skin in a highly concentrated form. Borax, or sodium borate, has a wide variety of uses. One of its lesser known uses is in the tanning of hides. It is used to loosen the fats, skin, and other tissues. This allowed the flesh to be stretched, allowing the perpetrator to create strange patterns of stitching. The flesh around his eyes and bridge of the nose were sewn together vertically, the skin on his arms and legs having also been sewn together. The backs of his arms were further stitched to his chest, causing them to be curled up towards his chin. His mouth was also stitched vertically, and his various other orifices were sewn shut. The only remaining opening was his nostrils, which were left open.
The man had been given a strong pain killer, as well as a paralytic. It was determined that despite the violence of the crime, the man was awake for the entire preceding. The stitches showed no preference of hand, suggesting the perpetrator of ambidextrous. The thread was nondescript, and investigation into purchases yielded nothing.
His recovery, as mentioned before, has been slow, though all the stitches have been removed and several surgeries have been performed to tighten the loose flesh. Even after a year, there are still days where family will walk into his room and find him much in the same position of which he was found that day, requiring a set regiment of psychologically sanctioned safe words to help him recover from the ensuing paralysis.
Despite a great amount of effort, the person responsible has not been found. No clear motive could be found, and to this date this had been the only crime of this type. This is strange as the crime suggested a great amount of practice. Also strange is the fact that the sink was shown to have been used during the process of the night. Since no trace of soap was found on the man’s hands, and the mild discoveries of soap along the stitches, it is assumed that the assailant washed their hands before they got started. Since the brutal assault, interest in the property has waned, and since the man’s discovery there has been no further investigations into the restoration of the old factories.
