The Manhattan Cannibal Case

My name is Gordon Wright, and this is what I experienced in the summer of nineteen forty two. For about three months people in Manhattan began going missing in the dead of night and without a trace. I was called onto the case and with the help of Detective Windsor eventually drew the conclusion that these missing individuals were victims of a large cult or organization that had been secretly stationed within Manhattan for some time now. Windsor had been working on the case much longer than I. This was due to one of the missing individuals being his wife, thus forcing him into a relentless obsession with this flimsy case. We put our heads together and eventually caught wind of something truly sickening. An anonymous source revealed to us the location of a “Cannibal Cafe’” somewhere beneath the streets of Manhattan. 

We couldn’t believe the news and without hesitation we began a search. To think, all of these disappearances could be chalked up to a vast majority of people knowingly eating people of their own free will. We theorized an organization which stole people in the dead of night only to fry and serve them up to fellow cannibals the net day. No doubt there was a profit to be made in the workings of a living hell. The concept chilled me to the bone as the search for this mysterious Cannibal Cafe’ drew up dead end after dead end. One night while on a routine sweep of the Eastside streets I received a phone call from Windsor. He told me that he’d finally narrowed down suspicious locations and pinpointed the cafe’s location. He added that that tomorrow I should ready a barrage of heavily armed officers within the four corners of a narrow passageway of alleys if we wish to catch these murderous, cannibalistic monsters. 

It all happened so quickly. As if we were being lured. As if someone knew we had been looking for this place. Windsor nor myself had gone missing, so I at least assumed that we’d be dead already if any unwelcome party had been trailing us. Windsor had his little girl to work about and in the spare time I got to know the man a little better. The only thing about this whole damn unfolding mess that I truly remember fully, was how the whole thing ended.

The next morning I timidly followed Windsor’s instructions and indeed came to a rather large cafe’ were human body parts were being sold on a large menu above the counter. The location to the underground cafe’ was hidden behind some bricks in a four-path intersecting section of alleys which spread off in a bizarre labyrinth-like layout. I began to get weary as the sight of people eating people on small rusted diner tables and stools began to fill up my vision with a sickness that sank into my guts. Windsor alerted me and the both of us drew our guns on the establishment and everyone inside. Everyone in the cafe’ glared at us with wide eyes as they released a bizarre hissing noise. They all stood and slowly moved toward us as their skin began to peel, revealing greenish leathery scales and wide mouths filled with long sharp teeth, almost completely soaked in flesh. These cannibals weren’t human at all! Windsor fired his gun first and managed to take down two of the creatures. 

I managed to injure one before the both of us ran up the stairs and into the narrow alleys. The run for our lives had begun. A horde of these reptilian beasts trailed behind us, breaking out of their human sheets, screaming and hissing with howls so Earthly defiant they shook my soul and made my ears pound. I heard a thud as a sea of the creatures filled the alley behind us. I turned to see that Windsor had tripped. And I… I just kept running, too horrified to look back. I glanced after a short while to see him completely engulfed in a wave of those creatures, utterly gone as his screams of horror and gargled cries of a blood-drowned throat were cut to silence. I fired a few shots behind my head and without looking, which likely missed the mob that had almost caught up to me as well. I was nearly out of breath by the time I spotted one of the many blockades the police department had set up at the entrance of the alley ways. I screamed out for them to fire as I threw myself to the ground, hard. 

I could hear cries as a chorus of reptilian monsters began dropping like flies behind me. The gunfire flew over my head as I yelled out in a fit of frustration. I laid on the ground, curled up and crying out with my hands over my head and my eyes shut tight. The bullets flew from the police brigade until not a single creature stood. My next sight was of an alley decorated in the corpses of reptilian-like beasts. I swore secrecy to the state, senator, police chief and the event was completely covered up. 

God knows how they managed to shut up all of the officers involved. The missing individuals were labelled as just that, missing, never to be found. It was the first time I had ever been introduced to something so other worldly and the first time I had made a decision I still wrestle with today. Detective Windsor’s body was never found and I doubt it ever will be. I know “they” took it away for testing and evidence and documentation. After what was left of him I’m sure everyone could agree that little Anna didn’t need to see the chewed up skeleton of her father. Not as long as the higher powers of Manhattan have anything to say about it, that is. I hear Windsor’s daughter plans to follow in the footsteps of her father and become a detective. She hopes to find him one day, along with her mother. She believes they’re still out there. She confided in me, and asked me to never stop the search for her mother and father. I think it best for me to leave Manhattan for a little while.