Entity 13HRP – 0037 – the smothered maw manifests as a humanoid figure entirely enveloped by a pallid, ecru-coloured mask resembling a crude sleep covering. Unlike ordinary textiles, the mask demonstrates autonomous contractility: its folds tighten and release with a cadence closely approximating respiration. Field observers unanimously describe the fabric as animate, a surface that flexes and strains in synchrony with internal structures beneath. The mask’s surface frequently bulges with protrusions resembling teeth grinding, gums flexing, and musculature shifting in waves of insatiable hunger. The cumulative impression is of innumerable mouths imprisoned just beneath a tenuous membrane.

Threat Classification: Apex Predatory Horror
Height: 7’2”–8’5” (variable, contingent upon spinal distortion)
Weight: Indeterminate; anomalously light in locomotion yet leaving impressions consistent with significant mass
Blood Typology: None detected; secretions manifest as fibrous threads resistant to enzymatic breakdown and chemical analysis
Habitat: Consistently associated with abandoned infirmaries, collapsed dormitories, derelict bedrooms, psychiatric wards, and sites marked by mildew, stagnant air, and structural decay.

When the mask retracts, the entity’s defining aberration becomes visible: a concentric corona of fused human mandibles forming a grotesque oral ring. Each jaw derives from a distinct donor, encompassing diversity in age, gender, and pathological state. Certain jaws remain pristine with intact enamel and active musculature, while others appear necrotic and exude viscous saliva. In quiescence, the ring chatters faintly, producing sounds analogous to febrile bruxism. During feeding, however, the jaws expand in unison to emit a scream resembling terminal suffocation. This auditory phenomenon generates vibratory resonance that disrupts local architecture, dislodging spores and particulates, as though the environment itself recoils.

The entity’s body approximates human morphology but fails to achieve verisimilitude. Gait remains erratic, hips over-flex, shoulders hyper-rotate, and posture collapses unpredictably. The arms extend disproportionately, terminating in cracked, keratinised nails that rasp abrasively against surfaces. Witnesses consistently liken the sound to chalk dragged across slate. Thus, the entity emerges as a distorted imitation of humanity, a parody that underscores its divergence. Many observers interpret its posture as an uncanny caricature of domestic repose: a grotesque parody of slumber rendered simultaneously intimate and predatory.

The entity approaches prey in absolute silence, producing audible signals only when its breath is felt against the nape of a victim’s neck.
Predation extends beyond flesh. It extracts the final breath from the lungs with overwhelming suction, ingesting this exhalation before consuming the corporeal body.
Victims frequently exhibit anomalous pre-mortem features: facial musculature slackens as though expressions are erased prior to death.
Following predation, the entity often curls beside its victim in a posture simulating sleep. The mask rises and falls in rhythm, suggesting counterfeit slumber.
Long-term observation documents that post-feeding, the entity emits lullabies in overlapping tonal registers. This behaviour appears ritualistic and self-soothing, indicative of patterned cognition.
On several occasions, when interrupted, it has transported corpses to secluded locations and arranged them in repose before withdrawing, suggesting symbolic reenactment of smothering rather than pragmatic concealment.
Repeated observations indicate that it returns to the same feeding grounds, as if tethered to spaces imbued with trauma, reinforcing the hypothesis of environmental memory.

Head tilts deform mask creases into configurations resembling eyes, producing acute unease and perceived surveillance.
Lullabies vocalised by the entity are never monophonic; dozens of voices overlap, generating polyphonic resonance capable of destabilising trained operatives.
Efforts to remove the mask invariably fail. The fabric constricts violently, pulverising bone or mangling the hands of handlers.
Mirrors within its proximity fog spontaneously, as though the entity exhales into reflective space.
On rare occasions, muffled coughing emanates beneath the mask. The sound escalates until it resembles simultaneous choking by multiple individuals, coinciding with the entity’s disappearance and subsequent unpredictable re-emergence.
Oxygen sensors confirm marked depletion during these vanishings, implying suffocation not only of individuals but of the surrounding environment.
Extended encounters also record somatic resonance in nearby personnel, inducing chest constriction and forced shallow breathing as though the anomaly momentarily synchronises respiratory cycles across bodies.

Folklore within the Hollow Realm recounts obsessive caregivers who, under the guise of devotion, smothered their charges in bed to preserve them. The Smothered Maw is interpreted by scholars as a mnemonic condensation of this pathology: suffocating care reconfigured into predatory form. Each jaw in its oral corona symbolises a life extinguished by such “protection,” fused into a singular body compelled to perpetually reenact suffocation.

Mask Function and Symbolism

The mask functions dually as prison and funerary shroud. It conceals the amalgamated identities of victims, binding them within a vessel condemned to recursive suffocation. In this framework, the entity must be regarded not as an individual organism but as a composite mnemonic archive—an agglomeration of death and restraint that has acquired autonomy.

Ethnographic interpretations situate the Smothered Maw within the taxonomy of “cultural revenants.” Unlike singular hauntings born of isolated trauma, cultural revenants emerge from collective memory of systemic violence. In this instance, the anomaly appears as an archive of domestic violence, institutional neglect, and medicalised silencing. Its rituals transform forgotten deaths into a perpetuated mythos. Scholars argue that this ontology resists eradication; destruction of one manifestation precipitates recurrence wherever suffocation masquerades as care.

Additional theoretical frameworks propose that the Smothered Maw constitutes an environmental contagion rather than a discrete entity. Each encounter embeds residual traces into cultural and physical spaces, seeding the conditions for future manifestations. If valid, containment may mitigate but cannot eliminate its presence, as memory itself becomes the medium of propagation.

Containment of 13HRP – 0037 – the smothered maw requires combined environmental, psychological, and cultural strategies. Personnel assigned must undergo desensitisation training with polyphonic lullaby simulations to reduce vulnerability to auditory dissonance. The entity remains confined within a negative-pressure chamber lined with reflective alloy panels. Despite this, mirrors within the chamber consistently fog, necessitating continuous recalibration of optical and thermal sensors. Entry protocols mandate hermetically sealed suits with autonomous oxygen systems to withstand atmospheric depletion.

Direct confrontation remains strongly contraindicated. Breach protocols specify deployment of aerosolised soporifics alongside acoustic fragmentation systems designed to destabilise its vocal resonance. Post-breach remediation includes extensive mould eradication, as spores released during its manifestations amplify hallucinations, respiratory trauma, and psychological destabilisation.

The Council remains divided on whether current containment reflects actual control or merely delays inevitable resurgence. Some contend that the entity’s locus is mnemonic rather than material. If so, each documentation and observation reifies its presence, weaving it deeper into collective consciousness. In this interpretation, containment is paradoxical: every act of suppression simultaneously ensures perpetuation. For this reason, some factions within the Council argue that suppression strategies must be complemented by cultural interventions—ritualised remembrance, narrative redirection, or deliberate re-inscription of the suffocation motif into controlled symbolic frameworks. These speculative measures remain controversial but are under increasing consideration as conventional containment falters.

13HRP – 0037 – the smothered maw exemplifies the intersection of individual trauma, collective memory, and anomalous embodiment. It is both predator and archive, both physical aberration and cultural revenant. Its ontology destabilises the distinction between body and memory, containment and propagation. Until its mnemonic ecology is more fully understood, containment will remain provisional. Vigilance, interdisciplinary analysis, and recognition of its paradoxical nature are imperative if the anomaly is to be managed rather than merely endured.

Last modified: 2025/08/28 at 07:28 am

Published: 2025/08/14 at 4:23 pm

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13HRP – Hollow Reality Project

The Smothered Maw

By Silvia Moan

13HRP – 0037 – the smothered maw

13HRP – 0037 – the smothered maw

Description

Oral Corona and Vocal Phenomena

Corporeal Presentation

Behaviour

Uncanny Triggers

Hypothesised Origin

Folkloric Accounts

Mask Function and Symbolism

Cultural Revenant Theory

Environmental Contagion Hypothesis

Containment Notes

Concluding Remarks