Based on a true story

I should have stayed in Tallahassee.

My name is Henry Coulson. I'm a private investigator. Been one for the past few years. I was once a detective till six years ago when I took a bullet in my prime arm. Should have been a simple week off for medical leave, time to work through some papers at home, but the wound got infected and had to lose the whole damned thing at the shoulder. Forced into early retirement at the age of 52 as a cripple. Became a P.I. to help pay the bills, particularly my new Peugeot that I had to order so I could drive again. Not easy to drive a stick with your right arm missing, but I find that driving in the passenger seat one handed a lot easier than trying to sign my checks now. 

It was October 25, 1976 when I was at the theater watching a murder take place on the big screen with the new King Kong remake destroying my memories of the original when an usher rescued me from the horror. Unexpectedly got a call from Sheriff Douglas Cobbs, who had been calling around for me for the past three hours. Doug and I had shared a dorm in Jacksonville during college, and while I had gone to lose my arm being a detective in Tallahassee, he went on to be sheriff of Echols county Georgia, which was along the state border with Florida. Told him to wait by the phone so I could get to my office and call him back.

Back at my apartment, Sheriff Cobbs went on to inform me about the missing child case that was happening in his town of Statenville that been in the news. Five kids have gone missing and he was just informing me about the sixth one that had not been in the press yet. Since it was a small community and low staffed, there was only so much his men and the state police could do. So he was wanting me to come up for the weekend to help interview and investigate.

Its now Saturday afternoon. I had been here since Thursday going over papers and talking with the locals. The full truth of the case has been hidden from the media for the time being. This may be worse than run aways or a serial kidnapping, but the work of a serial killer. No real evidence has been found, but whenever a child has gone missing, their clothes have been found neatly folded along the west side of the river with a used birthday candle laying on top of the pile. All foot prints are malformed, smudged, and nothing to imprint. The hounds always get lost as soon as the trail hits the road. Nothing other than the occasional baseball card or trinket was found in the clothes. No fresh tears, blood, or any other bodily fluids were to be found in the fabrics. Was as if the child undressed, laid their clothes out, and went into the river. This has been happening almost weekly now.

I had spent the day interviewing parents, which is never an easy thing to do when they have no answers and grieving. There was only one suspect so far, a man named Winston Preed who was the only man in the area who had been in jail for attempted murder. He had tried to kill his younger brother with a kitchen knife when he was sixteen in an argument over a comic book. He currently has a son of thirteen, and a wife who had left four years prior. Some say she really had gone missing. That he had killed her in an argument and disposed of the body. No one has been able to contact her at the present.

Winston really was a prick, I will admit. The man seemed to always be in some form of inebriation, the stink of cheap beer on his breath as I talked to him. He didn't seem to care at all that kids were going missing, and pissed off that he was constantly the focus of interest in the matter. 

His son, Nathan, was always ease dropping on us. When I asked him about the kids going missing, he only shrugged and commented “Da beast eat'em”.

This was not the first time I heard this today. A number of the kids I interviewed talked about a beast that lived in the river. The parents mentioned that it was just local folklore, no different from the skunk ape or that Scottish serpent. The beast was said to be a giant lizard man, who played a violin to draw those who heard it to the water where they would be taken to his underwater lair. 

Discussing this matter over with Douglas during dinner, he said that he knew what the kids were saying and that the clothes on the river edge did fit the tale. He was convinced that it was likely a local of the region who was familiar with the lore and was using it to try to hide his crimes. More reason why Mister Preed was a suspect since he had lived in Stantonville his whole life. 

There was to be a watch over the river's west side that evening, a lot suspecting that another child would go missing either this night or the next due to Halloween. Sheriff Coulson requested that I stay in town to watch the streets while the rest were out by the river. He mainly wanted me to watch the street that Winston Preed lived on. Most of the town was on the main highway, so me and the occasional officer going back and forth from the river was enough to watch over things.

After confirming that Winston was in the house, seeing him at the kitchen table eating dinner, I parked the car under a tree and kept watch. The lights were turned off at 9:35 pm. I drove around the street every ten to twenty minutes so to keep an eye all around in case he tried to sneak out, as well as to just keep an eye on the rest of the area. It was around 11:40 pm that I saw a shadow run across the road about a block away from where I was parked in the opposite direction of the Preed home.

I got out of the car and ran to the spot and noticed a trail on the other side of the ditch through the tall grass. I followed it for about two minutes when I heard a twig snap a little ways behind me. I quickly hid among the grass. I watched as three forms came into view in the moonlight, and I was surprised at what I saw.

It was kids. Three kids of various ages, looking to be two brothers and a sister dressed in costume. The oldest brother was dressed in colorful pajamas and looked to have used his mom's makeup to paint his face as a clown. The younger brother had an eye patch and a mustache painted on his lip. The sister, who looked to be the youngest, wore all white and feathery wings on her back.

I was about to stop them and demand what they were doing out past curfew, but decided it was better to follow. After all, what good would a one-armed man do with three kids if they decided to run. I watched as they moved along the trail as if it was a normal to walk in the dark  near midnight. I slowly came out of the grass and tailed the three.

Was not long till we entered the woods. The growth of large old trees was dense, and I was having a hard time keeping on the trail. Spanish moss hung low and was blocking my view as the branches of the living oak reached out like twisted giant skeletal arms grasping for life. My eye went wide in disbelief when I heard a violin. At least what I thought was a violin at first. It wasn't violin string I heard, but people humming in the distance. I could see a faint light ahead. Getting closer, I was able to determine the sound was of children humming what sounded like a church hymn.

I came upon a clearing where there was about twenty kids standing in a circle. All wore their Halloween garb as they held hands with a cupcake on a plate in the center of them. The light was coming from a few Jack-o-lanterns that sat in a row upon a large branch that had dug its way into the ground. I hid myself behind another such branch before I was seen. We had to be near the river, but we was on the eastern side while everyone was searching on the opposite side.

Then the children stopped humming and a boy in a hooded costume made of burlap stepped out. It looked like something a member of the Ku Klux Klan might have worn, but it was covered in strange symbols made of red. I never seen such images before. Was hard to tell if they were meant to be images or words. Maybe it was both? I couldn't figure out what he was supposed to be as he pulled out a black book from under the burlap gown and opened it. 

“We came 'ere ta give da Beast a final gift as so it will go asleep once mo'e.”

I recognized the voice and dialect instantly. It was the Preed boy, Nathan. I never did bother to confirm if he was also in the house or not for I was only focused on his father. What was Nathan doing?

“Tiss be da final nite we all give a present to da Beast. Member dat it tis cause of us dat da Beast doesn't come outta da water an kill us all.”

I knew I should stop this and grab Nathan, but I had to watch. I had to make certain that he was the reason for all the missing children, or that was the excuse my brain was telling me at least.

“Da final an most impor'ant present shall be...”

Nathan paused as he raised a finger to the circle of kids. It aimed towards the young angle that past me just earlier.

“... Claire.”

The girl was visibly shaken at hearing her name, and I could clearly see tears run down her face. But she still stepped forward as those around her, including her brothers, started to sing Happy Birthday. She slowly undressed while she wept, with the others merrily singing. Nathan had picked up the cupcake and placed a small birthday candle in it. I was stunned at what I saw before me as the boy struck a match and lit the candle. I was not witnessing a kidnapping or attempted murder. If the boy had only drawn a knife, or even a gun, I would have been motivated by instinct to step out and stop it all. What I was witnessing was a ritual sacrifice of some kind, and this realization kept me from moving. It might have been the shock of it, but it was possibly also my morbid curiosity I am sad to admit.

Clair stood there completely nude as the children folded her clothes. While the children sang, Nathan was chanting something else. It was hard to hear over the birthday song, but it was something weird. Maybe Spanish?

“Cath luh. Reh lyeh. Wah gah'nagil. Fhu tagon”

Nathan handed Claire the cupcake, which she accepted. Still crying, she blew out the candle and started to eat it as Nathan took the candle to place on the clothes. It was this image that got my brain to snap back to reality. I have seen more than enough.

“STOP!” I yelled out, stepping from behind the large branch. There was a chaos of screaming costumed children as they ran all about to get away and not be caught. But the one I wanted was Nathan, and the brat had grabbed Claire and ran towards the river. I ran after them, even knocking over another child who stumbled in front of me.

It did not take long to get to the river's edge where Nathan was forcing the girl into the water. I shoved the boy to the side to grab the girl out of the water and back on land.

“Ya can't do dis!” Nathan yelled as I made sure the girl was safe. “Da Beast, Dagon, 'ill rise an kill us all if he do-”

Nathan had been standing in the shallow water on edge of the river facing me when a giant reptilian creature snapped out of the dark depths from behind the child. Me and Claire could only watch as Nathan was grabbed by a giant pointy maw of teeth. He was gone into the water, which churned furiously. And then it was quiet.

I held onto the girl, trying to keep her warm as the river went calm again. Nathan was literally snatched from out of existence within a few fast seconds. I walked the nude girl back to the clearing where we found her angel costumed knocked over and trampled on the ground next to the half eaten cupcake. I got her dressed and walked her home. 

They found the book Nathan had along the river bank not long after sun rise. It was an old collection of stories by H.P. Lovecraft, a name I vaguely remember from my youth. After some more thorough interviews with the children, including help from a child's psychologist, Douglas was able to put together what had been happening.

Nathan, inspired by the stories of the fantastic along with the local folk tale about a river beast, had formed a cult among his class mates believing the beast was connected to the ones mentioned in the stories. Tales of old people, fishmen, and giant octopuses or something. As it turned out, a group of alligators had been in the area. On their first meeting, the group only consisted of a few boys and was going to throw a stray dog into the river. A gator snatched the dog while it was still on a leash that was being held by one of the boys. The others that were there said that they were all looking away and listening to Nathan when it happened. Only Nathan saw what had actually grabbed the dog and dragged the boy in with it. The others only saw the water churn as the gators took a hold of their catch and spun around. Having never seen how alligators eat large prey, it must have looked like one giant reptile going crazy to their young minds. They ran away before they could see what it really was.

Nathan used this to his advantage and the group of kids in the cult grew. Doing it at night hid what their Beast Dagon was, as well hid them from the eyes of adults. Nathan would take the clothes to the other side of the river, saying it was part of the ritual. But we are sure it was to lead police away from the actual locations of the murders. It was pretty dumb in hindsight, but it worked.

It's sad to know that a kid was the cause of such a thing, the records likely to be altered to be all seen as accidents to the alligators. A damn shame in deed. It's times like this I am glad that I was forced into retirement.

It was while I was standing in front of the theater, debating if I really wanted to stomach through the man in the ape suit again to see how it ended or watch a film about the son of the devil when it hit me. As I bought a ticket for King Kong once again, not wanting to watch a film about killer children at the moment, I reflected on the papers about how the dogs would lose the trail as soon as they tracked the scent back to the road. Anyone who has used hounds knows that their nose can easily follow a scent on the move, even if it was on a bike. Which would mean they needed a car.

I heard from Sheriff Douglass Cobbs a few days later that Winston Preed had moved away during the night shortly after I left with no word of where he was moving to.