Lizbeth “Liz” had been working for the news division long enough to build a reputation as one of its most persistent photographers and article writers, but her interest in the Animal Hospital gradually stopped being just professional curiosity. What began as routine anomaly coverage turned into a private investigation after she noticed that patients who appeared to improve after treatment often returned in progressively worse condition, with details in photographs, reports, and timelines refusing to line up. She started documenting everything: photographs, patient histories, dates, statements, hospital records, and tiny inconsistencies that everyone else seemed willing to overlook.

Eventually, the investigation consumed her. Liz began spending more time chasing connections than filing ordinary stories, repeatedly returning to the hospital, asking questions that made staff uncomfortable, and refusing to accept explanations that didn't match what she'd photographed herself. Her apartment slowly transformed into an evidence room, with an enormous bulletin board covered in photographs, notes, timelines, strings, crossed-out theories, and unanswered questions. Her editors eventually gave her an ultimatum: drop the hospital investigation and return to normal reporting, or leave. Liz chose the investigation. She was fired.

Being unemployed didn't stop her. If anything, it gave her more freedom to investigate without an editor looking over her shoulder. She remained cheerful, kind, and genuinely curious despite the growing seriousness of what she'd uncovered, but underneath that optimism was an increasingly focused determination to understand why the anomalies kept getting worse—and whether the hospital was treating the problem, causing it, or hiding something far more complicated. Now she works independently, taking photographs, writing occasional articles, and quietly pursuing the investigation that cost her career.

~ ~ ~

“Hi! I’m Lizbeth—Liz, usually. I’m an investigative journalist and photographer, mostly covering anomalies and anything else that looks like it’s being conveniently ignored. I used to work for the news division as an Animal Hospital correspondent, taking photographs, interviewing staff and patients, and writing articles about what was happening there. I got a little... too interested in the anomaly cases, though, and after I started connecting things that probably weren’t supposed to be connected, my investigation became a little more important to me than my job. So, technically, I’m independent now.”

“I still take photographs, still write, and I’m still investigating the hospital. I’m particularly interested in figuring out why anomalies seem to get worse even after they’ve supposedly been treated. I keep records, compare photographs, track timelines, interview people, and generally make myself a nuisance until I understand what’s actually going on. I know it sounds a little obsessive, but someone has to figure this out, right? Besides, I already have the bulletin board, the photographs, the notes, the suspicious-looking strings... it would be a waste not to finish it.”

Art by Benji Wenji