Succulent Prey (11 page)

Joe's throat and Joe released him,

gagging and coughing. The man smiled

at him with a look on his face of utter satisfaction.

"That was incredible, man! Do you want me to do you now?"

Joe ran out of the club, horrified by both what he had done and what he'd been

about to do. Now he had done far worse. Joe awoke from his reverie standing in

the campus courtyard, not knowing how

he had gotten there. There were three

minutes before his class started. He

sprinted across campus, arriving at the lecture hal just as the professor was

preparing to begin his lesson.

"We were just talking about you, Joseph. Thanks for joining us. Take a seat

please. As I was saying ... cannibalism is at the end of the continuum of a sadistic murderer's evolution, the ultimate

expression of dominance and control,

predation at its base essence, the

devouring of human blood and flesh to

satisfy sexual fantasies. This actual y ties in with your theory of a progressive

disease, Joseph. If we assume that

serial murderers are like drug addicts in that they develop a tolerance for normal

`lesser' forms of pleasure then they

would eventual y develop a tolerance for the run-of-the-mil rape-and-murder

scenarios requiring more extreme

stimulation, multiple victims, an increase in the frequency of their attacks, and an increase in the level of violence.

"Trophy taking begins to go beyond jewelry and photographs into the

harvesting of body parts for later use in necrophiliac activities, to relive the

murders. In some cases these trophies

become the very reason for the murders

as in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, part of his compulsion to own his victims. Some murderers find secluded places where

they can not only murder their victims but also store their bodies, to maintain

control over their victims even after

death. This degenerative cycle leads to the most extreme psychosexual

behaviors. Cannibalism is at the

pinnacle of this arc. To consume their

victims is the ultimate expression of

control. Once they devour them they own them forever. They wil always be a part of them."

The professor seemed to be staring

directly into Joe's eyes as he spoke, as if each statement was for his sole

benefit. As if he knew. Joe shifted

nervously in his chair and wrung his

sweaty hands. The professor's words

bore down on him like accusations and

Joe had the sudden feeling of being on

trial. This is what it would feel like when they caught him. He stared intensely at Professor Locke as the polished old

gentleman described the inner workings

of his mind as clearly as if he had read his thoughts, saw each lurid fantasy and felt each shivering sensation, giving

voice to the demons in his soul in front of a crowd of strangers.

Joe wanted to scream and run out of the room. Instead he forced a smile onto his face and endured the onslaught of words until he couldn't take it any longer.

"But what if it isn't just about control?" Joe suddenly blurted out.

The entire room turned to look at him

and he felt suddenly vulnerable and

exposed.

"What else would it be about, Joseph? A man murders, rapes, and devours a

stranger. What else would it be about

other than to prove his dominance and

power? To sublimate another human

being to his wil ? These men are

sadists!"

"No!" Again everyone turned to stare at him. Joe nervously stood and took a

deep breath to steady his voice. "I mean

... maybe not al of them. Not al of them torture their victims. Some kil them

quickly before they do anything to them. Maybe not al of them mean to cause

pain."

"Then why do they do it, Joseph?"

"Maybe it's love." A roar of laughter rose up and Joe looked from face to face

while the blood rushed to his cheeks.

"Love?"

"Yes. What is love but the desire to unite with the love object? That's why people get married, to make two souls into one. But of course that's merely symbolic,

imperfect. Marriage is an il usion of a true union. Cannibalism is the real deal. It could be the ultimate expression of

love."

Professor Locke stared at Joe with

concern clearly visible on his face. The entire hal was staring at him,

speechless. Some of them had smirks

on their faces and others wore scowls of disgust. Al of them clearly thought Joe was crazy. Joe stood there with his

hands held out before him as if

beseeching the professor to understand

him.

"I-I'm sorry, Professor." Joe plopped down into his chair.

"Nothing at al to be ashamed of. I respect your passion and your ... uh ... interesting perspective. You may be

closer to understanding these monsters

than you think. You are absolutely right. That's exactly how some of these

monsters would justify their actions.

Jeffrey Dahmer, for instance, said he just wanted a friend who would never leave

him. But when it comes down to it, those are al just rationalizations. These

monsters do it because it gets them off. Because they enjoy hurting and

humiliating people. They enjoy the

power. They enjoy the control."

He was staring directly into Joe's eyes again as he spoke. Joe's mouth creaked

open as if to say something but he had

no words left within him. His mind was

reeling as if he'd been struck.

I'm a monster, he thought and then

looked around to make sure he hadn't

spoken aloud. He snapped his mouth

shut and leaned back in his chair.

Professor Locke smiled and turned his

back to the class to erase the

blackboard, shaking his head as if

laughing at some private joke.

Joe gathered up his books and sprinted

from the room, nearly knocking over

several classmates as he dashed out

into the sunlight struggling to catch his breath. The world seemed to be closing

in on him. It was as if they al knew. They could sense the monster in their ranks. The sun shone down upon him like a

spotlight in an interrogation chamber,

revealing al his secrets. He knew now

why vampires shunned the light.

It took a long time before Joe pul ed

himself together enough to go to his next class, a sociology class based on the

writings of Joseph Campbel cal ed

"Man and Myth." He'd taken the class hoping they'd get more into vampires

and werewolves and other cross-cultural demons. The professor kept promising

to get to those topics but so far al he seemed to talk about were dragons and

fairies and the Christlike resurrected

savior myths that seemed to pop up in

culture after culture al over the globe. He squeezed into a desk chair and tried to make himself as inconspicuous as

possible. Stil , he felt as if every eye was upon him. A few of the students from this class were the same students from his

psychology class and he could hear

them whispering about him behind his

back. His own roommate was among

them.

Joe spent so little time at the dorm that he barely knew the kid. Al he knew was that his dad was some kind of computer

whiz who made twice what Joe's parents

made and spoiled the hel out of their

effete, social y inept little son. He was an absolute cliche of nerddom. The kid was always on the damned computer. His

entire life revolved around it.

Joe could count on his fingers how many actual conversations he'd had with the

guy. But then, Joe was never home

anyway. Most of his time these days was spent at his apartment in the abandoned tenement building south of Market Street or at the library. Now, with Alicia tied up in that old building, he'd be spending

even more time there.

"He gives me the creeps, man. And I have to live with the guy!"

Joe caught a few random snippets of

conversation and bristled with a silent rage. His rich, computerrole-playinggame-geek roommate was adding more flame to the rumors and innuendos.

"I hardly ever see him. He leaves right after classes and sometimes he doesn't

come back to the dorm at al ,

sometimes not for days. I saw him in the library one night reading about serial

kil ers. I came back the next day and he was stil there, in the same clothes,

reading the same book, as if he'd never left. The guy is weird."

"Yeah, he's weird, and fucking huge! He could probably snap your neck with one

hand," a slender black kid from the track team interjected just as the professor

began to scribble on the blackboard.

Joe looked at what Professor Douglas

was scribbling and got excited. At last the man had gotten off dragons and

saints and onto something Joe was

interested in.

"Shape-shifters. Werebeasts. The loupgarou, the Wendigo, the poor cursed soul that turns into a wolfman by the light of the ful moon. We've al heard of

werewolves but there are other

werecreatures in myths and legends

from almost every corner of the globe.

They appear in the folklore and

mythology of almost every culture. The

Inuit tribespeople have a legend about

the Adlet, a race of dog people that were the result of a mating between an Inuit tribeswoman and a great red dog. These

weredogs are said to stil haunt northern Iceland in search of human flesh. You'l see this theme of human animal

couplings resulting in monsters repeated over and over across cultures.

"These could have evolved as a way to warn against what would have been

seen as aberrant sex acts involving

animals. The Slavic people have a

legend that beautiful women who misuse

their physical gifts to seduce men and

cause mischief may return from the

grave as sultry shape-shifters cal ed

rusalki who, like the legends of

mermaids and sirens, lure men out to

sea to watery graves. It's easy to see the warning here. Most legends are based

on fear and the fear of the power of a

woman's sexuality is very powerful even to this day.

"Then there are people who are said to have become monsters by making pacts

with Satan. The Portuguese have the

legend of the Bruxsa, a woman who

turns into a gigantic birdlike harpy and sucks the blood of her own children.

Germans have the boxenwolf, which is

more like our traditional werewolf and is likewise believed to be a person who

has made a pact with Satan for the

power of the wolf. The warning there is again quite obvious: Stay in the church. Don't stray from the religion of your

culture.

"The term ghoul comes from a mythical shapeshifting creature from the Arabian desert that transforms endlessly from an ox to a camel to a horse and has a

voracious appetite for human flesh. In

Ghana there's a demon cal ed the dodo

that often appears as a snake and is

rumored to be another ravenous

devourer of humans. In Japan there's a

fox demon cal ed the kitsune that is said to possess humans and deplete the

energy of its victims, draining them dry. Some of them are humans that have

turned into werecreatures and others are demons that can simply appear as

humans."

"How do they turn themselves back?" Joseph didn't care what the other

students thought of him now. He had

questions to which he desperately

needed answers.

Professor Douglas turned toward Joe

with obvious annoyance at having his

lecture interrupted.

"Yes, Joseph? You had a question?"

"The werewolves that are just humans who have turned into monsters. How do

they turn themselves back into humans?

How do they get rid of the curse?" The professor scratched his ratty

overgrown goatee and pondered

Joseph a moment, perhaps trying to

decide if the boy was genuinely curious or just trying to make some kind of joke. He'd had Joseph in the previous

semester and knew that the serious

young man was not genuinely the

comedic type.

"Wel , let's see. There are many different theories on how to rid yourself of the

curse, according to various legends,

though none of them seem to have a

very high success rate. General y, once you invite these demonic animal spirits inside they are nearly impossible to get rid of."

"But-"

Joe wiped the sweat from his brow and

tried to steady his voice. He could feel himself growing more and more

agitated, his desperation evident in the way he fidgeted in his chair and rang out his hands constantly.

"But you said there were many theories about different cures. What are the

theories? What's the cure?"

"Wel , we'l get to that, Joseph. I don't want to get off track. First I want to

discuss the different myths themselves

and their similarities," the professor said, trying to keep from losing control of the discussion.

But you know, right?" Joe rose from his chair. He was sweating again and he

had a look of desperation in his eyes.

"Uh-oh. Here we go again," one of the other students mumbled. Joe was pretty

sure it was his roommate. He ignored

him.

"I mean, you know what the cure is?

Right?"

"Joseph. These are just myths. Now take your seat, please."

Joe looked around and, realizing that he was once again making a fool of

himself, slipped back into his chair.