A Note From the Transcriber: The events described here were removed from the records of the building known as Evenwood Hospital. This document is meant to perhaps shine some light on the supposedly paranormal goings-on found within the establishment that lead to its sudden closing. If you find this document in your possession and decide to read it, be warned. Those behind the tragedy have not yet been brought to justice, nor has a scientific explanation been found for the more supernatural elements thereof. Nobody has stepped forwards claiming to be “Sketch”, the person or creature stated to be responsible. As such, this contains the facts and only the facts.
Evenwood Hospital was built in the town of Evenwood, Massachusetts during the Colonial era by Joseph Price, a wealthy businessman at the time. It was operated by Price’s family for many generations, until bought out by Emmerich Veylandt, a wealthy German doctor looking to find a solo business opportunity.
Emmerich ran the hospital for five years without incident. The people of the town considered him an upstanding citizen; the kind of person that absolutely nothing could even go wrong for. Surely people like Emmerich would always find a way to survive. It was on the anniversary of his sixth year living in the town of Evenwood that all that changed.
Veylandt was holding an annual gala at his house to celebrate six successful years of business. He, his wife Ana, and his daughter Katja, lived in a large home near the hospital. The years had been good to them; it was one of Evenwood’s most expensive houses. The guests for the gala began to arrive at around 7:00, and the family was there to greet them.
Ana was considered a great beauty, with light golden hair and blue eyes. Katja took more after her father; a waiflike brunette with shrewd green eyes and glasses. Both were considered the perfect family for the doctor.
The gala was a large and public affair, and the house was filled with guests. Dr. Veylandt’s colleagues had all been invited, and they stood in a corner talking with him until well past 7:45. Ana was sitting in the parlor, entertaining the female guests from 7:15 to 8:05, when it was time for the food to be served.
Katja, meanwhile, had wandered off. Nobody saw her from 7:30 to 8:00, although one guest fainted, claiming she’d heard the little girl screaming in pain from the upstairs conservatory, which had been boarded up for years. Emmerich opened up the conservatory, but Katja was not inside. However, the window was opened and wind was blowing in, although the room had not been touched for years. It was presumed that she had gone into the hospital to explore. When she returned, she carried with her a surprisingly accurate drawing of herself and looked distant. Her parents had been occupied during this time, and none of the guests had given this to her. When asked, she said that they were presents from “The Sketch Man”.
Ana and Emmerich simply laughed at her. Lately Katja had been constantly talking about an imaginary friend who she called “The Sketch Man”. She said he lived in an old room in the hospital, drew things for her, and didn’t like to be ignored. When her parents had insisted that there was no such person in the hospital, Katja had thrown a tantrum, saying that he didn’t like to be ignored. She said he had a dark red leather-bound sketchbook where he drew people who ignored him, and the people who ended up in that sketchbook always disappeared. Ana and Emmerich believed that she had read one of those awful penny dreadfuls and sent her to bed without dinner that night. Katja had settled down, and admitted tearfully that she’d made up the story to scare her parents. Listening to her bring it up again, they believed it was a desperate bid for attention and let her be.
The gala ran until 10:00. Around that time, Katja disappeared yet again. Her parents waved goodbye to their guests, then set about searching for their daughter. She had an uncanny habit of wandering off and disappearing for hours on end. They checked the house from top to bottom, even the attic and the basement, which had been locked. She was nowhere to be found.
Thinking she must have gone outside, Dr. Veylandt lit a lantern and set out to look for Katja on the property. By now, it was about 10:45. She wasn’t anywhere near the house, so Emmerich turned to the woods. He was searching throught the trees, calling his daughter’s name when his servant found him at 11:00. This servant was Vincent Clare, the butler. A vague account from Emmerich stated that something about Vincent had seemed odd that night. He appeared to be taller, and his uniform was stained with a substance believed to be artist’s ink. Also, Vincent’s normally well-groomed black hair was wildly messed. Dr. Veylandt assumed this to mean the man had been drinking, and duly resolved to dock his pay for it. The butler relayed the message that Katja had been found in her room, fast asleep, at 10:55. Emmerich was mildly confused, as he was almost sure he and Ana had looked in that room first. Katja had not been there when they checked, just the drawing of her. Shaking his head, he muttered about the late hour and retired to bed at 11:06.
The next morning, Emmerich Veylandt awoke and left promptly for work at 6:00. Ana awoke shortly after this, at 6:15, and ordered the servants to prepare breakfast for her and Katja. Breakfast was served at 6:20, which was around when Katja awoke. As they ate, a letter was delivered to the house. It was addressed to Emmerich, and contained a letter from Beatrice Clare, the wife of Vincent. Vincent had been found dead at 10:20 that evening, after a game of cards had taken a nasty turn. His opponents caught him cheating and decided to exact revenge by lynching. Ana was confused by this message, as Emmerich had returned to the house with Vincent at 11:03. She clearly remembered seeing him, although something had seemed different. Ana decided to visit her husband at the hospital, as the letter made her feel uneasy. She told the servants to look after Katja, who was nowhere to be seen and had presumably disappeared again. When she left, it was 7:00.
Ana arrived at the hospital at 7:02. She went in immediately to look for Emmerich, uneasiness growing into fear. Inside, she tried in vain to compose herself, thinking that there had to be a logical explanation for the mystery unfolding in front of her. The servant she’d seen must have been somebody else, not Vincent after all. She walked the halls, calling for Emmerich. The hospital was surprisingly empty, she thought. Although Ana could heard the sounds of patients moaning and doctors bustling about, she never saw a single one. Every last sheet was ink-stained and free of any inhabitants. As she was leaving one hallway, she heard her husband call back, although his voice sounded muffled and far away, like he was speaking through a gag. At that time it was 7:09. Ana entered the ward he had been in, which was numbered 522. The door slammed behind her and a patient claimed to hear her screaming, then saw blood seeping out from under the door, intermingling with black ink. However, that was not possible as the hospital did not have a Ward 522, and floor five was a storage area for old equipment. The door off the stairs leading to this floor, according to the janitor, had been locked up tight.
At home, Katja had vanished yet again. The servants could not locate her, until finding her lying unconscious in the Conservatory at 8:00. Emmerich had re-locked the Conservatory after searching it the previous night, yet the servants had found the door standing open when they went there to look for Katja. At first they believed that she was asleep, exhausted from the previous night. They carried her up to her bed at 8:04. Katja was left to lie until 9:00, when the servants checked back in on her. She still had not woken, and seemed to be running a fever. Katja didn’t respond to anything- not touch, sound, or smelling salts. The servants decided to send someone to the hospital to alert Dr. Veylandt of his daughter’s illness. A strange, wild-haired footman who none of the staff knew, but all swore was employed at the house, volunteered. He set off at 9:05 and arrived at the hospital around 9:07. He found Emmerich at 9:09, and relayed the news. Emmerich immediately returned to the house, and arrived there at 9:11. The footman left Emmerich at this point, and was never seen again by any other member of the staff. Dr. Veylandt then rushed to Katja’s room. To his surprise and fearful consternation, he found the door locked. From inside, he could hear Katja moaning and crying out in pain. The cries were occasionally broken up by muttering the words “The Sketch Man has many faces; he’s here with you right now” repeatedly. Jerking at the knob in paranoia, he called out for the servants to bring a key.
A key was found at 9:20. By that time, Katja’s father was at his wit’s end. He grabbed the key like a madman and forced open the door. Katja was sitting up in bed, apparently fine. The only odd feature was that her brunette hair had turned a stark white and the room was filled with hasty drawings of a wild-haired figure. The servants were confused by her quick recovery and the sudden appearance of the artwork, and questioned her on the subject. Katja told them that “The Sketch Man” had made her better with magic. Emmerich assumed that Katja was remembering a dream she’d had while unconscious, although the mention of “The Sketch Man” again after what she had been muttering was unsettling. The chanting was still fresh in his mind, although he quietly assumed that it had probably been nerves and nothing more. Dr. Veylandt sent her back to bed at 9:25.
It was then that Emmerich was finally given the letter that told of Vincent Clare’s death at 10:20 the previous night. He was confused, as he thought he’d seen Vincent Clare alive and well at 11:00. The servants also notified him of his wife’s going to the hospital to tell him of this. Dr. Veylandt was even more confused because he hadn’t seen his wife, nor had she relayed her message. None of the other doctors had seen her either, although some nurses thought they heard one wild-haired patient mention having seen her going up the stairs to the fifth floor.
By then, it was 9:35. Emmerich sent servants to search the hospital for Ana. They returned at 9:57. Ana had not been found, even on the fifth floor. Distraught, the doctor sent out a party to search the surrounding area. Telling an unfamiliar wild-haired servant to look after Katja, he dashed out the door. Emmerich searched until well past 12:30, then started to make his way back home. At around 1:00, he stopped for food at a tavern. He did not arrive home until 3:00.
At home, Katja was playing a game with The Sketch Man. The Sketch Man would hide, and she would try to find him. But if he found her first, he said he’d take her away from Evenwood to someplace magical. She still hadn’t found him. Walking up towards the attic, Katja began to feel a little scared. The Sketch Man was being very, very quiet. Normally, he gave her a hint by rattling a doorknob or treading on a loose board. Now, it was dead silent, but she had a sense that she was being watched. And that sense was growing by the minute. The creaking attic door was open already and inky footprints- the surefire mark of The Sketch Man’s presence- were spattered across the stairs. She walked in, calling his name and telling him she didn’t want to play anymore. Suddenly, she felt his arms around her. Katja looked behind her in fear, and saw her friend standing over her, looking incredibly happy. His silvery eyes were swirling like smoke blown by the wind. Seeing her fear, The Sketch Man held her tighter. Katja began to struggle, but he held fast. The squeezing began to hurt and it became difficult to breathe. She grabbed an old rusted knife her father had thrown up there and tried desperately to attack, but only managed to graze his arm. Downstairs, the grandfather clock struck four.
The arm which Katja had grazed was dripping a thick black liquid. She screamed in horror when she realized it wasn’t blood. It was black ink. The Sketch Man gave an animal howl in rage and pain, and grabbed the knife from her hand. Dipping a finger into the ink dripping from his arm, he wrote on the wall in spidery handwriting.
YOU TOLD YOUR PARENTS THAT I DIDN’T EXIST.
He opened up a red leather-bound sketchbook and produced a drawing of Katja, lying still and cold on an unidentified flagstone floor. The little girl’s mouth opened wide in fear as she realized that the Katja in the drawing was dead. He raised the weapon and prepared to strike her with it, but instead, he slit open her dress in the back and began to slash at her exposed skin. Katja screamed, pain hitting her in waves and clouding her vision. Blood was everywhere, seeping from her body across the floor. Eventually the pain became too much, blackness ate up all she could see, and Katja dropped into unconsciousness. When the servants found her some time later, the noticed that the scars were a picture of a wild-haired figure, but a little girl and a beautiful blonde woman were standing beside him, holding his hands. Below was written two chilling words: TOGETHER FOREVER.
Emmerich was in sight of the house. He was crossing the lawn when he thought he heard Ana calling to him from the woods, although her voice sounded muffled and odd. Blinded by love and relief, he moved towards the sound. It grew in volume, making him think he was getting closer, then died away. He found himself in a clearing he’d never seen before. The trees were thick over his head, making the clearing dark and shadowy. He saw a figure standing in the middle of it. A figure with wild hair, hands covered by a mixture of ink and blood. The figure turned to Emmerich, gave a charismatic smile and pulled out a knife. A simple message was written with ink on the tree behind him.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO KATJA.
Emmerich tried to run, but fell, scrabbling wildly at the ground. The wild-haired person walked towards him, knife flashing silver as it struck downwards...
Emmerich Veylandt and Ana Veylandt were never found. Their mysterious disappearances were only the first. Other workers there began vanishing, until Evenwood Hospital was forced to close. If their bodies did turn up, then they were covered in the strange scar drawings. These drawings depicted more and more people as the body count mounted , but the wild-haired figure was always the most prominent. Some believed that Ana, Katja, and Manfred’s portraits in the gruesome drawing could still be seen. The town of Evenwood also was greatly depopulated. Eventually, the settlement was abandoned by the last few inhabitants, then burned in an attempt to kill the past. The hospital was the only building not set on fire. Nobody dared go near it because of the horrible things that had transpired around it and the drawings on the walls. After the Veylandts met their end, the building became filled with the strange pen-and-ink artwork of the wild-haired figure. Eventually, drawings of the victims began to appear as well. Katja’s body was supposed to be burned, but the last inhabitants of the town left in a hurry after they thought they saw a wild-haired man in the forest holding a knife. Instead of proper funeral rites, her body was dumped in a hospital bed and left to rot.
Sightings of the person known as The Sketch Man have been varying and sporadic all across the country. People who have seen him have disappeared after reportedly hearing a loved one calling to them. If bodies were found, then they again were covered in the mysterious scars. Although all the cases were different, there was one common factor. People would report seeing an odd, wild-haired man posing as somebody they knew, then go off alone, claiming they heard a loved one calling to them. None of these people who fell prey to The Sketch Man were ever seen alive again. We can only assume he is still at large.