There are creatures lurking in our world. Obscure creatures long relegated to myth and legend.

They have been sighted by a lucky-or unlucky-few, some have even been photographed, but their existence remains unproven and unrecognized by the scientific community. These creatures, long thought gone, have somehow survived; creatures from our nightmares haunting the dark places.

They swim in our lakes and bays, they soar the night skies, they hunt in the woods. Some are from our past, and some from other worlds, and others have always been with us-watching us, fearing us, hunting us.

These are the cryptids, and Systema Paradoxa tells their tales. ***Ben Keep and Annetta Maikels have lived a quiet life since their first encounter with the unexplained, but when a copy of Natura Occulta falls into their hands-detailing strange phenomena that purportedly happened in their own backyard-they can't resist investigating further.

But perhaps they should have. .

. Not only does the secret they pursue come with a body count, but some involved want to add Ben and Annetta to that number.

Caught between two inexplicable forces, their only hope to reclaim their lives is to solve the mystery. .