My father was a cold man for most of his life. I rarely saw him smile. He was pragmatic and intelligent and had seemingly no need for emotions. That all seemed to change around the late 70s. He had been engrossed in stone project at work and, one day, he came home covered in blood with a demented smile on his face. I'll never forget that smile... Something in him had snapped, but he showed no change to us aside from the physucal one. He walked into the room, sat down on his recliner and began watching the TV.

My mother and I had quickly vacated, phoning the police. Dad was taken to a psychiatric hospital where they said he'd had a psychotic break at work and... tore apart his colleagues. Literally. He'd ripped them limb from limb like some animal. He died in that hospital, leaving us with more questions than answers.

But that changed today. I was sorting through the attic and found a box of my parents' old things. At the bottom was a locked journak. It was pretty easy to crack open, but, now, I wish I'd just left it alone.

I hope these were just the ramblings of a madmam, but something in my churning gut tells me they're true.

~

Dr. Williams — Journal Entry: 0930 Hours on June 15, 1978.

Most Judeo-Christians hold to the belief that Adam was the first created being, or human. Borne from dust and clay, perfect in the image of God. The unread person would take this to mean the physical likeness of God, but that's simply not correct. The image of God is something much deeper and spiritual. Imago dei, as it were, is the metaphysical side of human nature. 

Most Judeo-Christian religions would say that the body and soul, or spirit, are one whole unit. The mind, body, and soul create a gestalt, that is, the self. They are interlinked and intertwined. This is why you see older Christians, the more… fundamentalist ones, preach on and on about tattoos and alcohol. What taints the body taints the spirit. 

I say most, because there is another belief. One that has died out for the most part, though traces of it can be seen even in the Evangelical church today, as diluted and hidden as it can be. Rooted in early Jewish mysticism and spouted as heresy by church fathers as early as Paul, the idea seemed to die with the insinuations it spouted. 

The idea that the soul and the body are separate, only connected by a thin tether. That the body—the physical—is evil. So if the body is wicked and evil, that would mean that the soul is pure and good. Imago dei, after all?

Project Kadamon was one of many projects created to study the soul. It was created with this understanding of the separation of soul and body. It was just as much scientific as it was theological. At least, that's what we told ourselves. We were playing with things that only God should touch. 

Among the many questions Project Kadamon seemed to understand, its "then" or, end goal was to see what would happen if the link was severed. 

If there is a soul

If the soul and body are not whole

If the soul resides somewhere else

If the soul can be severed from the body

Then what? 

The prevailing theory amongst my colleagues and I was that the soul resided on a separate plane close to our own. Not the first or second dimension as those were visible to a point, but also not anywhere in or past the fourth dimension. Our bodies were bound by time, but the soul theoretically wasn't. 

Sparing you the science jargon, we discovered what could be considered Dimension 4.5. It was a sort of… half step away from fourth. Riding on the back of the electromagnetic waves of the universe is this quasi-plane that seems to flick in and out every so often as if something is going in or out. A lot of fine tuning of equipment and some really expensive tools later and we discovered what could only be described as long tendrils made of mist. They pop up in random places, extended and retracting from various points in space and they travel faster than light itself.

Perhaps extend and retract is a misnomer. We couldn't capture how fast the appeared or disappeared. It was like a light switch flipping on or off. The trails always led back to Earth and we found that each trail of mist was attached to a person. When that person died, the most retracted or vanished. While not conclusive evidence for a soul, we decided to follow that thread — no pun intended — to see where it led. 

So, if this was indeed the soul, then it seemed to reside somewhere off-planet and extraplanar. That was fine by us; we didn't really need to know where they came from, only that they existed… despite my curiosity. 

The first experiment involved a young man, sick with terminal lung cancer. He agreed to work with us as he knew his options were limited. We promised him a painless stay. Messing with the spiritual shouldn't have hurt the body. 

Severing the link was the next big thing to do. They rode and hid on electromagnetic waves, sure, but they were made of something else entirely. After all, they would have to be pretty difficult to break, right? Well, surprisingly not. Under the right conditions, with the right equipment, we were able to do it. 

Upon severing the link between "the soul" and "the body", Subject A became unresponsive and dispondant. Our first instinct was to declare brain death, but that didn't work. He was fine. Aside from the cancer, his mental and physical processes had not changed. We confined him to his room and began to observe. 

A day later, Subject A had begun to pace his room. All attempts to talk with him were futile as he did not respond; his eyes would never break from the floor. 

Three days from severance, his appearance became gaunt and pale. He would not touch the food and water we gave him. He still paced. 

Five days from severance, he became erratic. His movements were twitchy and jumpy. Still unresponsive, but he jerked his limbs about as if he were a marionette being puppeted by an amateur. 

Seven days from severance and he had sat in the middle of his room, the erratic movements having increased. 

Eight days from severance and he began to mumble to himself in some incoherent, almost beastial language. It was indecipherable and we first chalked it up to being some sort of deluded ramblings. 

Alongside Subject A was Subject B, a young female, and Subject C, an elderly female. Subject B was on track with Subject A, following the same pattern. 

Subject C, on the other hand…

Have you ever wound up one of those toy cars and let it go? All of that built-up and stored kinetic energy allows the car to fly off for a short while before it stops. 

Subject C was like that. Upon severance, she sprang out of bed with immense energy and slammed her head into one of the attendants'. A painted smile was on her face, spread wide and tight at the cheeks, until both of their heads were caved in and crumbled. 

I don't blame anyone for simply standing there in shock. No one expected that reaction. When Subject C turned around, her face covered in gore, and pounced on another attendant, her hands clawing at their chest, the others ran from the from in a panic. We were eventually able to put Subject C down, but it took quite a bit of manpower and weaponry. Her strength, durability, and speed we superhuman. 

But three people is hardly a viable sample size. We had gathered several 'volunteers;' enough that we had to move on from lettering the subjects. 

The wide array of subjects provided us with a lot of insight. Older subjects, when severed, fell into a state of complete insanity and destruction, while younger subjects seemed to exhibit more classical signs of psychosis such as schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder. 

They would still not speak, like Subject A and B. We tried giving them pets, but… the things they did to those animals… it was worse when we put them in a room together. Subject A and B had some of the most gruesome and vial intercourse that has most likely ever been recorded, ending with Subject A dead, dismembered, yet with that same smile on his face that Subject C wore. 

Putting them in groups did not go any better. It was as if Geiger himself had crafted the horrendous orgy of violence and gore. 

We didn't know why the severance of the soul had such an impact. Some of my colleagues thought that the souls functioned as a kind of leash to reign in the body— the evil. Perhaps they were right. Perhaps this is what the passage in Romans refers to when Paul said: "God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong." 

Maybe it's what brought on the supposed flood from Genesis: people severed from their souls, committing heinous acts. Maybe it's the real reason Sodom and Gomorrah was razed to the ground. 

Some of my colleagues are saying we should stop and that we've gone too far, but I don't believe that. We haven't even seen the effects this has on teenagers.

Or children. 

Or younger.

There's still so much we can learn and I won't let anything hinder our progress, much less my coworkers. Besides, we still need to rest the effects on different kinds of individuals with different, well, intellects. After all, I severed my own connection a week ago and I feel just fine.