Skyzone 2

On March 14th, 2004, an anonymous user made a post on 4chan containing a link with no additional context. When clicked, the link took you to a website containing only its name “Skyzone 2”, the homepage button and a single image.

The image portrayed a rather inconspicuous scene of a woman leaning back against a Deli on a dimly lit street corner at a junction and looked like it had been taken from at least 30 feet above ground. However, upon closer inspection, an unexplained detail was revealed that did not seem like it belonged with the rest of the image.

Under a small wooden bench in the shadows sat two people with their arms wrapped around each other. Their gazes were directed upwards as if they were looking at something above the skyscrapers. However, their expressions, or what could be seen of them, appeared utterly terrified. 

When a user discovered the image, they reposted it to the Unexplained Mysteries discussion forum. Others began chiming in on what they believed the horrified faces were directed at. As the rest of the image appeared to be fairly normal, most assumed that the photograph had been altered. Some users, however, attempted to determine the picture’s origins and the identity of the original poster.

They discovered no clues on the website and found no further information about the anonymous poster. After that, the thread had died out as users, frustrated by a lack of further revelations, quickly lost interest in the mysterious photograph.

A month later, user “geronimo95” posted this message:

“Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but I think I know the woman in the photo. I was going through my mom’s collection of NYLON magazines and found an issue from 2001. I’m not 100% sure, but it looks like the woman in the photograph.”

User “wildflower_sun5” replied:

“This is Anna Friedrich, a model who used to shoot for this magazine.”

After a heated back and forth, the thread had arrived at the conclusion that it was indeed Anna Friedrich, a New York model who was known for frequently posing in leather outfits for medium-sized fashion publications.

Another user named “yeehaw8946” downloaded the original image and inspected its EXIF data. After some digging, he made a post confirming that the image was, in fact, dated to March 14th, 2004. 

The problem was that Anna Friedrich had passed away from an overdose two years before the photo had allegedly been taken. Naturally, many users assumed that the photo’s metadata must have been tampered with or corrupted.

Another user theorized that Anna could have been digitally inserted into the scene or that the featured woman might not even be Anna at all.

A week later, the user “don0864” made this comment:

“I live in NJ and decided to take a trip to New York to see if I can find the location in the photo. I spent a few days walking the streets, comparing them to the photograph until I came across what I immediately recognized as this exact street by the angle of the crosswalk and the cracks in the pavement. Although the shop has a different sign.”

The user attached an image of the location. It was almost identical, except the shop’s sign was not “New York Deli” but “Johnson’s Shoes.”

The user continued, “I spoke to the owner and he said that this location had been open since 1995 and that there was never a Deli here.”

Many users began speculating on what this could mean. Many kept returning to the original question of why these people were cowering under the bench. 

On June 1st, 2004, a user who went by the name “strangejoe” used Photoshop to increase the contrast to see if someone had missed something. This also made it possible to see the two figures more clearly. They appeared to be around fifteen and ten years old. The experiment also revealed a terrifying detail.

A massive shadow of a humanoid head now stretched from the bottom of the photograph all the way up to its topmost border. As soon as this discovery was made, strangejoe posted the enhanced image in the thread.

Other users downloaded and enhanced the image to confirm strangejoe’s finding. The head appeared in every version. The theories exploded.

Some thought it was an optical illusion. Others considered whether the shadow had come from the construction of a nearby skyscraper. Some more speculative users began suggesting alien invasions. 

Multiple users who lived in the surrounding area traveled to the location but found no clue as to what could have cast such a giant humanoid shadow. 

Two months later, user “tom_fryer09” posted:

“My uncle died recently from a seizure and I’ve been going through some of his stuff. He worked as a researcher on some kind of science project, although I don’t really know what it was. I found a folder yesterday with a document called “post-mortem consciousness displacement.” There was a photograph attached to it that looked a lot like the picture in this thread.”

The image tom_fryer09 posted below was that of an expansive field in the middle of which a young man was lying on the ground, curled up into a ball.

A massive humanoid shadow spread across the field. Not only did the head match the one in the Deli photo, but the shadow was attached to a visible outline of a neck and shoulders.

This post was made at 16:21. At exactly 16:23, this user’s account was deleted. The original website on which the image was posted had also disappeared. Not a single person posted in that thread again.