Anesthesia (Patreon)

Anastasia Harvest was a renowned chemist who laid the foundations for scientific research on the soul. Her countless studies were published in top journals and her radical theories overturned age-old ideas on human consciousness. Leveraging her success, she secured millions in grant money, allowing her to fund Harvest Laboratories, her own private facility at the University of ███████. Here, she carried out hundreds of studies on the soul, making breakthrough after breakthrough—until one day, everything stopped. Over three years went by with no significant findings.  As interest in her work waned, Harvest would likely lose all funding in a matter of months and Harvest Laboratories would close its doors forever.

In the Winter of 19██, Harvest traveled to █████ (a small, isolated village in Northern ██████ that is known for its history in the occult) hoping to find some sort of breakthrough for her research. Here, she became acquainted with a Dr. ████, who took great interest in her work. While little is known about ████, Harvest wrote that he was a fellow researcher who had been carrying out studies on the soul for decades before her, making him the true founder of the field. This is a dubious claim however, as no studies by a "Dr. ████" can be found published in any journals. (The only document in which the name “████” appears in is a near-incomprehensive incantation dating back to sometime between the years of 11██-1313.) Even so, Harvest wrote that she was fascinated with Dr. ████’s knowledge of the soul. Although she was critical of his “complete lack of scientific methodology”, she felt strongly that “a more modern approach to what ████ [had] revealed to [her] would finally unlock the soul.” Based on her writings, it seems plausible that the two frequently exchanged letters, but unfortunately, none have been found.

Over the following year, Harvest began to isolate herself from her peers, spending days or even weeks locked away in her private lab. She had reportedly become obsessed with the prospect of extracting a living soul. This period of her life is marred with unethical experimentation and controversy, which greatly harmed her credibility and lasting legacy. Despite the influx of new findings that her research brought about, her now-infamous reputation was widespread and she quickly lost all her funding. Nonetheless, she continued on with her research, becoming more intent on extracting a soul than ever before. (Many believe that she started receiving funding from Dr. ████, but there is no official documentation to reinforce this theory or even prove Dr. ████’s existence.) Besides her obsessive behavior, those that knew Harvest personally did not notice a decline in her mental state, often describing her papers at this time to be “the most brilliant findings of her entire career.” This was also to be the end of her career.

On November 1st, 19██, Harvest’s remains were found in her private lab. Coroners described the cause of death to be a "self-administered dissection". Additionally, all her papers were found to have gone missing, leaving little to no knowledge of her research. With her death, Harvest Laboratories was shut down. The University of ███████ followed soon after due to a series of unexplained incidents that made national news. ██ years later, none of the 14 students who went missing in during these incidents have been found.

Over the years, the abandoned university campus has attracted many thrill-seeking trespassers. There are rumors of unusual sounds and unearthly lights coming from deep within the decaying halls of Harvest Laboratories late at night, but all serious attempts to assess the validity of these claims have been inconclusive. Recently however, the prominent urban explorer “█████████”, on the video sharing website ██████, recovered a letter from inside Harvest’s private lab. The handwriting is nearly illegible, but it reads as follows:

“I have just made a breakthrough! Your theory was right! We will have results by tomorrow morning. I will see you very soon. We have much to discuss. -Yours eternally, Anesthesia”

While many were quick to dismiss this as a prank, forensic analysis confirm that this is indeed Harvest’s letter. The letter is completely drenched in her own blood.