Man or Animal... (Part -I)A Story by Christopher PaulNovember 5th
The
sky grew dark, the sunlight dim and the sound of thunder and lightning grew loud.
Some people hurried home while some ran out; pulling the clothes they left to
dry and anything else as they knew a storm was coming. The trees in and around
the town swayed hard against the wind that was picking up speed. People got
into their homes and shut their doors, locked their windows and settled their
curtains. A storm, in the town of Saint Hill was rare.
At the
edge of the town, on a little hill stood the old Wilson Observatory. Run down
and abandoned for over 6 years after a tragic accident. No one had any use for
it now. It just stood there and over the years had become haunted, in
children’s ghost stories. On its roof stood a figure. A man in a white lab coat
with a pair of binocular in his hands held at his eyes, looking at the dark
clouds approaching through them. He removed them from his eyes, adjusted his
glasses and steadied his foot. A man of average height and slim. Dark rings
under his eyes, an un-kept beard along with messy short brown hair. His hands
were covered with bandages. His coat’s pocket had a note pad with a few pens of
different colours. His coat was fluttering in the strong wind and made him
unbalanced.
“C’mon,
c’mon” he muttered impatiently.
He
turned around. At the center of the roof was a long steel pole, around 25 feet
long, pointing towards the sky, bolted to the roof with big metal clamps and
held steadily with 10 thick and strong metal cables. The man tapped the cables,
all were tight. He looked up at the rod. It was quite steady but with a little
movement. Looking at the clouds again he pulled out a small pocket watch and
looked at the time. It was 9:38.
“Good”
he said.
He
opened a hatch on the roof that reveled a ladder leading down to the floor below.
He held the hatch door with one hand as he placed his foot on the ladder. He
found it hard holding up the hatch door as it was facing the strong wind. After
using quite some strength he got on the ladder and closed the hatch door from
inside.
November 18th
“Looks
like another animal attack Martha”, called out Mr. Shawn from the living room
reading the morning newspaper.
“Did
they say what it was this time?” asked his wife from the kitchen. “Nope, still clueless”
he replied.
“It
was Mr. Dawson, Charles Dawson, lived near the post office”, he read out.
“Don’t think I ever heard of him. It says, they found his car parked in the
driveway, window broken, windshield cracked, huge claw marks on the seat and door.
Blood inside and outside, lots of it, but no body” he continued.
“These
animal attacks have become more serious haven’t they?” his wife said standing
near the door. “What do you think it could have been?” she questioned.
“I don’t
know dear” he replied.
“Maybe a mountain Lion, Cougar or Tiger” she
said.
“Oh!
Now don’t be silly, this isn't Africa where Lions roam freely and as for Cougars
and Tigers, yes, maybe but they have never been spotted or even heard around
this town for years. If it could, then I think it could have been wolves. They
have been seen in the wood, heard howling at night”. He said.
“Well
whatever it is, you better be careful coming home from the office at night.” His
wife said as she returned to the kitchen.
“Think
I should take a trip to Jim’s, buy a few more bullets. But now where did I keep
my revolver” Mr. Shawn muttered to himself.
In the
middle of the town, at the police station a copy of the same newspaper was
slammed on a desk.
“Can
someone tell me why I hired you baboons?” Capt. David yelled at the staff
“Stella!”
he called out. “What’s the progress on the missing people?”
“We’re
still working on it” said the newly appointed deputy.
“What
do we know about it right now?” asked the angry Capt.
“Nothing,
Sir” said the deputy lowering her head.
“That’s
right you've got NOTHING!!. Not a damn thing. Two weeks, seven people missing
and you've got NOTHING!!” he yelled louder.
Silence
fell around as everyone stopped what they were doing.
Calming
down he asked in his normal voice “So what did that animal expert say?”
“He’s
still studying it. He can’t tell anything right now, Sir!” said the deputy
nervously.
“WHAT!?”
said the Captain getting irritated again. “Why is he a damn “ANIMAL EXPERT” if
he can’t tell what animal did this? It’s been four bloody days. For god’s sake
there are huge claw marks”, he said.
“Well
Capt. The expert can’t make sense of the claw marks. He says he hasn't seen
anything like them, ever”, replied the deputy.
“So
you’re telling me there’re 7 people missing and judging from the scene of the
crime, probably dead and we don’t even know what did it?” asked the Captain. “For
all we know it could be a goddamn serial killer. Leaving claw marks to confuse
us”.
“Look
captain” Stella said making her way to the map of the town.
“The
first attack was here”, she placed a board pin on the map where it happened.
“Mrs. Todd, the gas station attendant. Then here, Taylor Wikson walking his
dog. Then by the old railway track the two unknown druggies. Then James
bringing supplies into town. Then Mr. Todd who went looking for his wife and
now Mr. Dawson. Notice anything Capt.?” she asked as she placed the last pin at
the post office.
“Yeah,
all at the edge of town, remote and silent”
“Especially
at night. That’s when all the attacks happened” added the deputy.
“So
somebody call Van Helsing. We got a Werewolf on the loose. Haha…” said officer
Thomson in a vain attempt to ease the tension in the room.
No one
laughed. The Capt. looked at Thomson with stern eyes. Then made his way to his
desk. He leaned in and said
“There
are 6,000 people in this town. 6,000 lives in our hands. Men, women, children,
elderly. 7 of them have vanished. Possibly dead. So, I don’t care if it is a
vampire, werewolf or goddamn bigfoot. All I care about is finding it and
stopping it. Do you understand? Thomson!”
Thomson
nodded his head.
The Capt.
Turned around but before going he turned back and said
“Come
to think about it, if it is a vampire, werewolf or a bigfoot, we have a hideous
beast of our own that when put in front of them three, they’d die of fright”
“Hideous
beast?” asked Thomson.
“Yes,
your wife” replied the Capt. followed by a wave of soft giggles.
“Stella,
I need you to organize ten teams, each team with four officers in two cars. Form
a grid and have them petrol the out skirts of the town. From the time the sun
goes down to the time after it rises. From 6 to 6. Divide the time and the
teams so that they cover as much ground as possible”, said the Capt.
“Yes,
Sir!” replied the deputy.
Just
as the Capt. was about to leave another officer rushed in
“Capt.
I got these two guys. They have something important you gotta hear it.”
The
officer brought two men into the captain’s office.
“Morning,
Captain, Sir. My name’s Bill and this is my buddy Al. I work at the cemetery
and he at the morgue. You see this happened two months ago. One day during my
early morning shift I found a grave dug up. I thought it was one of them grave
robbers. Must have come at the dead of night. I checked the grave, belonged to
a Mr. Jeremy….um…something. The grave was dug up in a hurry. Coffin lid was
smashed with a sledge hammer and only the skull, a few bones and the rib cage
were taken. The man had no family living here so I didn’t report it and covered
it up.”
“Okay
and the point being?” asked the captain.
“Well
Sir, I work at the morgue down by the hospital and two months ago right around
the time Bill found the grave…, we had a few bodies missing”, said Al
“Bodies
missing?” asked the Capt.
“Yeah!
Two old ones and one fresh one that had just come in. Never even got the chance
for a post mortem”
“And
you nor the hospital or morgue thought of reporting this?” asked the Capt.
“Well
the old one’s families went away and the new didn’t have any”.
“So,
does that make it okay?” said the Capt. in a stern voice
“Look
boss, I know it’s wrong but two months ago with that flu that swept the damn
town, the hospitals were crowded. You know what I mean? There were more people
coming in than they were going out. And with a small staff, who can you watch?
Hell even I was called off my morgue duty to tend to patients. Bring medicines,
cotton and other stuff to the doctors. During that time this sicko must have
taken the bodies. The point is, working at the cemetery has been Bill’s family
business and I've worked at the morgue for 20 years now and never has anything
like this ever happened. ”
“Hmmm….
Can you get the details of the missing bodies?” asked the Capt.
“Well
we found the bodies. We were fishing yesterday and” Al pulled up a tool box and
opened it. “We found the leg from one of the bodies”
Inside
the tool box concealed in a zip lock bag was a foot with a morgue tag on the
toe.
“We
did a little search after that and in a few hours found more body parts. We
have the rest of the bodies in the back of Al’s pick up. It’s been eaten up a
lot but you really should take a look. It’s got these stitches.”
“Stitches?”
asked the Capt.
“Yeah,
the flesh and bone was cleanly cut. Like done by a professional but the
shoulder and other joints have stitch marks in a circle. Like someone was
trying to stitch the arm and legs to something. The head sir, has the lower jaw
stitched to it from the other body.”
“My
god!” exclaimed the captain with his hand over his mouth.
“Like
someone cut the bodies into pieces and tried to stitch them up together. Maybe
for some satanic ritual or something.”
The
captain took a few deep breaths then walked up to the office door and called
out.
“Dug,
Jerry, Thomson. Get in here.”
The
three officers came to the Capt.
“I
want y’all to go with these men, their pickup truck has a box. Take it down to
evidence.”
The
captain then turned around to Bill and Al “Then I want y’all to tell these
officers what you told me. Exactly what you told me.”
“Sure
sir”, the two said as they were out.
Just
as the Capt. was about to go back into his cabin he heard a female voice
“David!”
He
turned around. It was a tall middle aged lady.
“Mary?
What happened? What brings you here?” asked the captain
“You
know my brother, right? William?”
“Yeah!
Teaches biology at the High school. My daughter is in his class. Why? what
happened?”
“I haven’t seen him for almost three weeks now. None of his colleagues or friends have either.” © 2014 Christopher PaulAuthor's Note
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