Mold Madness

The Midnight Article, "'MOLD MADNESS' REPORTED IN LAURA AFTERMATH," was written by u/captaintristis and posted to r/MidnightPaper.

The text for the article was as follows:

"MOLD MADNESS" REPORTED IN LAURA AFTERMATH OAKDALE, La.-- After the devastating winds of Hurricane Laura ravaged Southwest Louisiana and neighboring towns in Southeast Texas, many homes have been damaged or destroyed. At press time, there is still no drinkable water, no electricity, and no emergency services in much of this region, leaving those who could not evacuate to sit alone in the sweltering darkness. Wind damage, loss of power, fallen trees, and floods are to expected when these storms hit. When damaged homes sit in the dark and damp, mold begins to grow and spread in many cases. For most residents, the mold a mere inconvenience when compared to the shattered windows and ravaged walls of their homes. However, some residents of the small Louisiana town of Oakdale have reportedly been dealing with another species entirely. The following is self-reported information from the subject herself, so the reader is cautioned to consider bias.

On August 29th, 2020, bachelorette Deanna Wilkerson awoke in the middle of the night with respiratory complaints. While roaming her house with a flashlight, she took note of some spots of mold that were just beginning to grow on her walls in the corner of her sitting room. Thinking nothing of it, she laid back down on the sofa and struggled again to get to sleep. Wilkerson reported that by the morning of August 30th, that the area of mold had roughly tripled in size overnight. Disgusted, she took a dry cloth to the spots of mold and wiped them away, releasing clouds of white fuzz into the air.

By the time the mold returned the next morning, on August 31st, Wilkerson was beginning to fear it. She was also reportedly experiencing nausea, headaches, and indescribable dreams. Of her dreams, Wilkerson explained, '[I dreamed that] I was in this place that was, like... crazy. Where you go in a door into a room and you go back out the same door into a whole 'nother place altogether. Hell, you turned your back long enough and the whole damn room changed itself around. Or maybe suddenly you were in a ballroom or a classroom. And then after a time, there started to be people there. They wouldn't talk or anything like that, just sorta stood there. And I just had the greatest urge to... kill 'em. So, I did. In the dream. And even when the rooms changed and more people appeared, the bodies and the blood always stayed. Always, til' the whole place was just blood and gore. Smelled like wet metal. Could taste it, even.'

At approximately 9:30 A.M. on the morning of September 4th, 2020, after nine days in her mold-infested home, Deanna Wilkerson emerged for first time in a week. She took a felling axe from the shed by her late grandfather's home, strolled down the gravel road to her neighbor's house, and allegedly slaughtered the entire family of three. Wilkerson, in her clothes covered with white mold spores, then laid on the floor in a pool of blood until she was discovered by relatives of the slain neighbors the following morning. Wilkerson was apprehended without incident by the Allen Parish Sheriff's Office, to whom she spoke extensively about the days following the storm and leading up to the killings. Wilkerson stated, 'First it was the mold that took hold of my mind. I was totally obsessed with it, fearing it, dreaming about it. Then, it just kind of changed, and all of a sudden I just really wanted blood. Just to see it, touch it. I blame the mold-sickness. Absolutely.'

On September 6th, 2020, Deanna Wilkerson was found dead in her holding cell. Sources say that Wilkerson's contorted face was mottled with fuzzy tufts of white mold that had already crept onto the concrete floor, spreading from the thick clusters bursting from her gaping mouth and bulging eyesockets. At the time of reporting, news out of the area is slow and mostly centers around the aftermath of the storm in terms of power outages and calls for assistance. The Allen Parish Sheriff's Office claims that the 'mold madness' case was a standalone incident, likely driven mainly by heat exhaustion and preexisting mental illness. Others, however, claim otherwise. Sources in the surrounding area have connected no fewer than five other violent crimes carried out in the storm's aftermath to the so-called mold madness.

Worryingly, the mold appears to spread from home to home with a quiet ferocity, often left unchecked until it is at its most dangerous. This humble, loyal reporter of the Paper wonders how much more blood we will see and touch as power is restored and people across the swamplands return to assess the damage to their dwellings. Reader, do you live in the wake of the storm? Have you checked your home yet? Are you planning on doing so? Perhaps you should reconsider. Or, at least, have an alibi ready if you do. And remember, this warning is coming to you first, in timely and grisly fashion, with love from the Midnight Paper.

Description:

The "Mold Madness" is a Biological-Type Oddity spotted in Oakdale, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. It has the potential of being a Location-Type Oddity as well, as the Mold Madness seems to have affected the town of Oakdale and the surrounding area greatly, though it is unknown if it sprouted up only there or if "the surrounding area" encompasses other towns nearby.

The Mold is a mind-altering, parasitic fungus whose origin is unknown, but was somehow awakened or spread by Hurricane Laura. It is particularly dangerous at that time because of the extensive water damage and flooding after the hurricane's aftermath.

The Mold has extensive mind-altering properties. This may be a result of its spores making their way to a person's brain after entering their respiratory system or through their eyes. If what happened to Deanna Wilkerson is any indication of what might happen to every person affected by the Mold, the mold will grow out of their eyes and mouth upon their death and spread out onto their surroundings from there. This means that some form of the Mold already exists in the brain and death might be the final phase of its spread throughout the brain itself.

The stages of mold infection are as follows: Ingestion (most likely through the respiratory system) after disturbing a fungal growth and causing it to release a cloud of white fuzz into the air.

The first physical symptoms emerge. These include nausea and headaches.

The first mental symptoms emerge. These take the form of "indescribable" dreams. This probably means that, at this stage, the mold has just entered the areas of the brain that create dreams. The dreams here are ever-changing, jumping from one location to the next. This

The mental symptoms worsen. Now the dreams are not only more elaborate, now having other people in them, but are also somehow urging the dreamer to commit acts of violence against these people.

The infected individual commits an act of violence. After nine days of mold-induced dreams, Wilkerson emerged from her home and went on a killing spree.

This is, apparently, the Mold's modus operandi, to infiltrate the brain of its host, shape their dreams to illicit violence, and then program their host to commit acts of violence. This is clearly a pattern, as the area surrounding Oakdale exhibited acts of violence that were similar to Wilkerson's. We can only assume that the perpetrators of these violent acts also had the same dreams that Wilkerson described, and thus went through the same "programming" process.

The mind-altering properties that the Mold exhibits through those it infects are particularly interesting. It is somehow able to shape human dreams, which allows it to influence behavior in a specific way. It's not just agression, but acts of meditated violence, that the Mold produces. Wilkerson had enough forethought to grab an axe before her killing spree, she also was able to talk and think clearly enough to blame the Mold for the massacre she committed.