Amber Buttons
During a routine cleaning in 2021, the mill owner stumbled across a US Army medic coat from WW2 and 3 amber-colored glass buttons. The coat was determined to belong to his relative, who he knew served as a medic in WW2, and returned the coat to the direct descendants of the medic. The buttons were determined to be Kriegsmarine -German navy. It is unknown how or why these buttons were in the mill. Interestingly, one of the buttons had a strange symbol inked on it.
The symbol was shown to a German friend. It looked like something he remembered from an old storybook.
The story recounts the tale of a naughty boy who crosses through a magical door made of tree roots with the mark. The door takes him to a magical filled with riches and wonders. As he wandered, he came upon baskets of wheat and bread laid out in picnic style near a waterfall. Hungry the boy ate a handful of wheat, assuming no one would miss a small handful. The boy returned home without incident. As the boy slept that night, a loud bell rang Opening his eyes, he was face to face with a huge, black oozing monster kneeling on his chest. He tried to scream, but could not. Fighting to breathe from the weight of the monster pressing down on him, the boy tried to close his eyes again in hopes he would awake from his nightmare. His eyes would not shut. He spent the remainder of the night staring at the monster, who didn’t move, but just sinisterly stared back.
When the sun rose, the monster faded away like a shadow in the sun, leaving his mark burned in the boy’s cloudy white eyes. The night spent without blinking left him blind. Everyone who saw his eyes knew he was cursed. The boy spent the remainder of his days an outcast; blindly searching for the door with the symbol, clutching a handful of wheat hoping his repayment would break the curse. Legend says he is still searching unable to die until he repays the monster, because even in death he cannot close his eyes.