Repose

[It's obviously a fake, they say. A good hoax, though no one can seem to figure how it was managed: Tonight, just around midnight, there were multiple viewings of something winged flying over the lake houses and the lake itself. The wings, say those who saw it, were inky black, and no one could make out what they were attached to. Some theorists claim aliens or UFOs, and some claim the creature was some sort of winged cryptid. As for damage done, the only report made involved some unspecified destruction to a local home. Though witnesses do say the winged creature seemed to terrify their pets, and residents on the lake also report the ground was glowing red and hot during the apparition, Yet no one managed to record footage of either the creature or the molten ground and burbling water, and in an age of social media that pretty much means it was all a hoax that resulted in some mass hysteria.]

[Hours after the unsubstantiated chaos, the waves that wash up along the north shore of the lake leave behind a thick, salty-smelling residue. The sticky remains of... something—chemical runoff, maybe?—are a mess, smeared on the muddy strand like so much jelly. Cold and gelatinous, it gives to the touch, sucking up anything that comes into contact with it. Those brave enough to actually reach down and see what it feels like are greeted by a caustic burn that raises blisters in seconds and that will heal slowly and painfully. Too, something strange happens. It doesn't linger, the strangeness—and, as a rule, it's forgotten—, but most, when and if they do try to prod the substance, suffer an immediate forgetfulness of their intent. The forgetfulness doesn't extend further than this moment, nor is the person who has forgotten aware of having forgotten. They just fail to move further with their exact intent to probe deeper. This oddity likely saves several from worse injuries. In some of the bigger clumps of... whatever it is, small bouquets of bones bloom—fish bones, mostly, if you look close enough—, but most of the jelly is too thinly broken down to carry much. Most who encounter it agree on two simple, but stalwart points: it's weird and it stinks.

Residents are advised to stay out of the lake and avoid the beach until the substance is identified and/or cleared.]

[After word spreads to the junkyard.]

so weve got a chupacabra now?