Cord could see Doug’s mind trying to work that one out, but he’d been over every angle himself.
“Christ, you got me, Cord. That’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen. What about your great-grandmother? You know anything about her?”
Cord tossed back another shot of vodka. “Yeah. She immigrated here from Germany with her husband not too long before she was, uh, executed. Her husband had been hung several months earlier for rape and murder. After that, a couple of kids had disappeared, and they suspected her and staked her out. Couldn’t find out that much about her husband, just know his name was Freidrich.”
“No wonder you’re into the occult stuff. I guess it runs in the family.”
“Yeah, and no wonder my grandfather went crazy. Why didn’t he just move away from there?”
Doug looked at him over the rim of his glass. “You think your grandfather was involved in anything?”
“The thought crossed my mind. The murders started in 1951, the same time he left the mental hospital. The last one right before he got sick. But if he was, then someone else has taken over now.”
“How’s Adam taking all this?”
“He seems to be okay, not too happy about living there, though. I didn’t tell you the best part. The victim was the girlfriend of Adam’s friend. They were the last ones to see her alive.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. Fuck.” He hesitated, then continued, “Doug, I don’t know what’s up with him. He’s been leaving the house every night, at the same time, around two, and returning at the same time around four-thirty. Stinking like he’s been rolling around with a dead dog.”
Cord paused as a thought crossed his mind. Could Adam have left the house again the night Karen was murdered? He’d heard him coming in around one, but had immediately went back to sleep.
“Walking?”
“Huh? No, he takes the car.”
“Did you ask him about it?”
“No. Been too wrapped up in this shit. I mean, it’s not that unusual for him to stay out late, but to just get up in the middle of the night like that. And that smell. I saw him coming in one night, and he was filthy, and stinking. What the fuck is he doing?”
“Why don’t you follow him?”
“Yeah, I thought about it. Not a lot of traffic around there, it’d be hard to stay undercover. Plus if he saw the patrol car, he’d know it was me.”
“You need some help? Want me to come out? We could stake him out a couple of days in my car, see what he’s up to.”
Cord thought about it for a minute. He didn’t like the idea of spying on his kid, but with possibly a maniacal killer on the loose, he wanted to know what he was doing, and where he was going.
“Yeah, maybe, Doug. I don’t know.”
“Just say the word.” Doug’s cell rang and he flipped it open. “Yo, Bert, what’s up? Cool, thanks.”
“The DVDs are ready. So let’s pick them up, pop some popcorn and watch this baby. I’ve always wanted to see a witch burning.” He let out a loud belch and laughed.
Bert had made two versions of each tape, one was untouched, and the other cleaned up. At Doug’s apartment they put in the cleaned up version. The film was surprisingly clear; Bert had done fantastic work cleaning it up.
The footage began with the cameraman following two men through the woods, presumably the detectives. The sun was dipping below the horizon. The silence was eerie as the camera followed the men through the trees. At one point the camera moved away. In the distance, barely visible, was a small wooden house. Cord pointed out to Doug that that was the Barclay house.
The film cuts to a different spot in the woods and it’s nearly dark. The camera is still and shows a clearing in the woods about thirty feet away. One of the men is saying something and pointing towards the clearing through the trees.
The film cuts again, now to full darkness. The moon is out, providing some light. About thirty seconds later, a huge bonfire erupts in the clearing, illuminating the area. A hooded and robed figure is standing still in front of the bonfire. The arms raise up slowly and the head lifts up, as if reaching towards something from above. The hood falls back and the robe slides from her body. Elizabeth Barclay, standing naked and very pregnant. She slides her hands across her huge belly, then drops to the ground, crawling, her face covered by her long, waist length hair. She starts digging at the ground, slowly at first, then frantically, clawing at it.
They couldn’t see her face, but Cord could imagine what it looked like. Her beautiful, angelic face, contorted and distorted as she dug into the dirt, her full belly nearly touching the ground.
After ten minutes or so, she’d dug a shallow hole and was pulling something out of it.
“What is that?” Doug was leaning forward, as if that would help him see better.
“Can’t tell.” Then he remembered the crime scene photos. “Shit, it’s a body, a baby.”
As they watched, she pulled the small body out of the ground. Picking it up with her teeth, she crouch-crawled back towards the bonfire. Cord remembered then about the thing he’d hit on the way into town, the dog-woman with the long hair. It had moved exactly the same way.
She sat up on her haunches, and seemed to be talking, or screaming into the night, She swayed back and forth, her head rolling wildly, hair flying out around her. She lifted the small, stiff body upward—obviously it had been dead awhile —then dropped it down in front of her and crouched over it, digging her face into it. She chomped on the body, tearing flesh from the bones, smooshing her face into it, tearing at it with her hands, rubbing and smearing the rotting flesh over her face, breast, and belly, between her legs and her ass, licking and sucking at her fingers all the while.
“Jesus H. Christ,” Doug said in a low voice. “This is fucking insane!”
“Look, what’s that?”
At the edge of the clearing, something had appeared. Something big. Elizabeth saw it, or heard it, too, and stopped her chomping for a moment, looking back over her shoulder.
The big thing moved jerkily over the ground towards Elizabeth. As it got closer to the light, Doug and Cord yelled out at the same time, “What the fuck is that?”
The thing was huge, about eight feet tall, its naked body covered in short fur. The face was hard to see, it was so far above the light, but they could make out horns curling back from the sides of its head, like a ram. Its eyes glowed yellow, and long, muscular arms ended in long, deadly looking talons. It had long, twisted hair that hung down its back. Between legs that were bent like a dog’s hind legs, a huge, erect penis protruded up against its furry belly, and testicles the size of a bull’s hung down far between the muscular thighs.
“Cord, man. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. That’s no fucking costume. That thing looks fucking real.”
Cord, transfixed to the scene before him, was speechless.
Elizabeth had rolled over onto her back, like a submissive dog. She spread her legs wide as the monster stood over her, and she continued smearing the dead flesh between her legs, rubbing it into herself. The monster thing crouched down between her legs, and ran its talons over her gigantic belly. It leaned over and lapped the dead, rotted flesh from her from her breast, belly, and between her legs, with a tongue that had to be two feet long. It lifted its head for a moment and jerked its hips forward. They couldn’t see it but could tell its penis had inserted itself into Elizabeth. Her pelvis rose up, was lifted up, by the thing, her feet actually came off the ground, though the man monster wasn’t touching her with its hands.
The monster then wrapped its talons around her hips and thrust himself into her, slamming into her pregnant belly. Elizabeth’s head fell back in a silent scream, her head rolling wildy back and forth, her hands grabbing and pulling at the penis between her legs, shoving it into herself even further. After several minutes, the monster suddenly withdrew and stood up between her, its penis spraying thick fluid all over her.
Elizabeth continued in her silen
t scream, her legs drawing back even further. She reached down between her legs, clawing at something, pulling at it. Then, as they watched in horror, her stomach suddenly deflated, and she lifted up the newborn above her, towards the monster, who was still spraying fluid all over her and the baby. The monster ran its talons over the baby.
Cord and Doug held their breaths, as if expecting it to snatch up the baby and gobble it down. But Cord knew he wouldn’t. He had just witnessed the birth of his grandfather.
The monster backed away finally, and disappeared into the woods from where it had come. Elizabeth lay still with the screaming baby on her stomach, until the fire died out, the moon slid away, and the film went dark.
“I need a drink, bud.” Doug got up and brought back a bottle of Johnny Walker Black and two glasses.
Cord downed the whiskey and poured another. They both lit cigarettes and stared at the blank screen.
“You think it’s real, Cord? Or some kind of staged stunt?”
“I don’t have the slightest fucking idea. Doesn’t look like a stunt. Those were cops for godsakes. I saw the crime scene photos and read the report. That was a real baby she was eating. Where the baby came from, I don’t know. Maybe she dug it up from the cemetery.”
“What about that, that, bigfoot thing? Some guy dressed up in a costume?”
“I found some hair samples in the evidence box, looks like it may have come from that thing. Couldn’t find any analysis on it though.”
“You should have it tested.”
He thought about the fur he’d sent to the lab. He had a feeling he’d get the same results. Negative.
“God, I hope your grandfather hasn’t seen this.”
“Me, too. It would explain him being so fucked up, though. Jeez, I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t have time for this, you know? I gotta try and find out who killed the girl. But I feel like it’s all connected somehow. I just don’t know how. The people in that town don’t like talking about it, either. There was barely a mention of that girl’s death.”
“Well, look at it this way. You only have about two thousand suspects.”
Cord laughed. “So, lets watch the other one.”
“Put it in, man. Let’s see the bitch burn.”
The second DVD began with the camera fixed on Elizabeth sitting inside a jail cell. Her head had been shaved and she was wearing only a cloth tunic. A man in uniform stood next to her, gesturing with his hands, as if speaking to her, but she stared silently ahead.
The film cuts to Elizabeth in the back of a horse drawn wagon being pulled slowly down a dirt road. She is sitting quietly, her staring eyes glazed, with her hands tied behind her back. The film cuts again. Now Elizabeth was being led toward an x-shaped wooden structure surrounded by a large pile of wood. The camera pans around the area, showing a large clearing in the woods. There are about fifteen people standing around and watching. The cops tie her to the stake, her arms and legs spread and bound with rope to the X. Elizabeth doesn’t struggle, doesn’t say a word. One of the cops reaches up and tears her tunic away, leaving her naked. Her body is bruised and cut all over. Another comes forward with what looks like a gas can and soaks the wood around her, then splashes it on her body and on her face. She winces as the gas is poured onto her cut covered body.
As the cop pulls out a sheet of paper and starts reading, another lights a match, and with little flourish tosses it onto the wood, and steps back as the flames erupt. Elizabeth seems to come alive then. She begins screaming, and her face is twisted with anger and malice. She stares directly at the camera, her lips pulled back, her unknown words spitting venom. The cameraman is obviously shaken, as the camera wavers wildly for a moment, then steadies again. The flames reach closer to her, higher and higher, finally reaching her legs. Elizabeth starts really screaming something then, but her eyes remain on the camera.
It was really unnerving to watch, and both Cord and Doug fidgeted on the couch, as if she were focusing her wrath directly at them, but they were riveted to the screen. Her skin blackens as the flames crawl up her body, finally to her face, her skin literally melting off, then she was finally silent. All that was left was an unidentifiable, crispy fried mess.
The camera, which had moved away from Elizabeth, suddenly jerks and swerves back up again to the charred body. The head is moving, turning slowly, the burnt flesh dripping off, the eyes melted and unseeing. Its mouth opens, and gushes forth a vile looking whitish liquid. The camera starts waving wildly over the liquid on the ground, then steadies. The camera moves in closer. The liquid is moving, writhing and boiling with what looks like thousands of maggots. The camera goes dead.
Cord and Doug stared at each other for a moment, speechless. They were both drunk and not feeling too articulate.
“Cord, man, I was thinking. You could make some money off this shit, you know? A real life witch burning? A witch eating a baby and getting fucked by Satan himself?”
“Who would believe it though?”
“What was that crap she was spewing out? How did that happen? She was a crispy critter by then.”
“Christ, how would I know? Maybe the insides of her melted, then just boiled up and exploded.”
“Uh huh. Fucking backwoods rednecks.”
The following morning, Cord drove directly to the Barclay house on the way home from Doug’s apartment in New York. He walked through the woods in the direction he thought the clearing would be where Elizabeth had been filmed. After about 20 minutes, he found it. Actually he smelled it before he found it. The area around the clearing had a putrid, rotted stench that grew stronger as he got closer. Exactly what he’d smelled on those nights when Adam had come home from his nightly wanderings.
In the center of the clearing were the remains of a recent bonfire. He looked closely at the ground, but saw no footprints or other debris. He poked at the ash and wood with a stick, but there was nothing in it otherwise. Is this where Adam was coming at night? Why? And where was that godawful smell coming from? He searched the woods around the clearing, but found nothing.
Back at the station, Tyler handed him a list of previous unsolved or otherwise violent crimes, murders and disappearances.
He stared at the long list. Between 1932 and 1999, there were 6 raped and mutilated girls, 22 missing children, and 18 murders, all unsolved except for the rape and murder Elizabeth’s husband had been hung for, which was the earliest one. Except for a few missing cases when Elizabeth was still alive, most had occurred starting in 1951. Christ.
He hated himself for spying on Adam, but he didn’t know what else to do. There was a killer on the loose after all, and Cord figured if he asked Adam where he was going at night, he wouldn’t tell him.
It was 1:30 a.m. and freezing cold. He had parked the patrol car off the road as far into the trees as he could, and on the far side of the path that led up to the Barclay house so no one could see it on the way in. Using his flashlight, he walked through the woods until he reached the clearing, then hid beyond it in the trees, armed with a Glock. The Glock was for his own and his son’s protection, he told himself.
He sat in the cold dark for the next 40 minutes, the whole time thinking this was a bad idea, and he should get up and leave. But just as he stood up, he heard rustling footprints on the other side of the clearing. Someone was coming. He squatted back down and waited.
A figure stepped through trees and into the clearing. It was too dark to see much, but a moment later the fire was lit in the center and illuminated the figure stooping there. It was Adam.
Cord watched, afraid, a sick feeling rising in his stomach. Adam looked dazed and half asleep as he removed his clothes and laid them in a pile at the edge. Then he knelt in front of the fire and closed his eyes. His lips were moving silently, and his head nodding slightly. So much like the film he had just watched, and that scared the shit out of him. Adam’s silent words gradually grew louder, his head swayed back and forth and his face appeared ecstatic. He leaned forward on all
fours now, trancelike. A movement at the edge brought Adam’s words and motion to an abrupt halt. He tilted his head as if listening.
Cord’s heart thudded in his chest, expecting to see that huge, monster like creature step out of the dark. He stood up and raised the glock, then stopped. The thing that appeared out of the woods into the light of the fire wasn’t the monster, but a woman. Sort of. She was tall and thin and dark skinned. As she got closer to the light, Cord could see it wasn’t dark skin at all but short brown fur, covering her from head to toe. Her legs didn’t move, she floated across the clearing. The hair on her head hung to her buttocks and was matted and filthy. It looked like the thing he’d hit on the way into town.
She carried something in her hand which hung down limply beside her thigh. It was hard to tell but it looked like a very small child, long dead and bloated black. Adam had turned toward her, still on hands and knees, but his eyes remained on the ground. She moved in front of him and dropped the dead baby, and immediately Adam’s mouth opened and tore into the rotted flesh of the stomach with his teeth like a ravaged dog. Adam grew increasingly frantic, and he suddenly sat back on his haunches and lifted the corpse onto his lap. Cord could see Adam’s erection disappear into the stinking mushy flesh. His head flung back, and his mouth opened in loud gasping howls as he shoved the corpse onto himself, its flesh tearing off in chunks between Adams fingers.
The furry woman stood before Adam, looking down at him, watching him. After a few minutes, the woman reached down and pulled the corpse from Adam’s lap. Adam looked up at her, gasping with a pleading look, as if he weren’t finished.
The woman floated away the way she’d come, still carrying the remains of the corpse and disappeared into the trees.
Adam picked himself up and dressed, as if nothing unusual had happened, spread dirt on the fire to quell it, and walked away into the woods.
Cord stayed still and waited, his mind racing. After several minutes, convinced that Adam wasn’t coming back, he stood and turned on his flashlight and walked to the clearing. There were bits of flesh still on the ground. He hadn’t brought any evidence vials with him, but didn’t think it mattered. The child had been dead for a while, thank god for that. Adam hadn’t killed anybody, right? He was filled with disgust and apprehension. What the hell was that and what did it want with Adam?
Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror Page 21