9 Tales Told in the Dark 12 Read online

  As soon as she started screaming, sharp brass talons slashed her throat, and all was quiet once more.

  Professor Taylor wasn’t terribly surprised or offended when Brett didn’t show up for his morning anthropology class that week, and the week after. After all, his eagle eye caught her yawning constantly during his lectures, caught her texting and checking her phone repeatedly, and caught her chit-chatting with fellow classmates as he was speaking. Maybe anthropology just wasn’t her cup of tea. To each his or her own.

  After class one morning, as he was collecting his things and putting them in his briefcase, Jan, his always bubbly, cheery teaching assistant, raced up to him, her face pale as a sheet of paper. She was a young woman with shoulder length red hair and a slender build.

  “Are you sick?” he asked with concern.

  “No,” she replied, catching her breath. “Hey, did you hear about what happened to Brett Sampson?”

  He closed his briefcase, shaking his head.

  “The cops found her body, dismembered, in Tilden Park.”

  “When?”

  “Yesterday.” She frowned. “Sounds like some monster ripped her to shreds and ate her.”

  He looked at her. “No signs of foul play?”

  “Not in the normal sense of the word, Professor. What happened seems paranormal.”

  “Maybe it was a mountain lion. They’ve been known to venture down this far into civilization from time to time.”

  “Not this time, it appears. Definitely couldn’t have been a bear. Not in these parts. A wolf or wild dog perhaps? Here, see for yourself.” She handed him a sheaf of papers.

  Taylor flipped through the crime scene photos, raising his eyebrows. “Good work, Jan! Where’d you get these?”

  She smiled smugly. “I have my sources. So what do you think?”

  He studied a picture of Brett’s corpse. “Possible werewolf or wild dog, judging from the trajectory of the slash patterns of the claws and from the bite marks. Or deranged human being, for that matter.”

  “Aw, c’mon, you know it couldn’t have been a person! Whoever committed the crime did it with such animal savagery. They were definitely hunting for food in the true predatory sense of the word.”

  Taylor started walking towards the classroom door. “Well, you still have to rule out all the other possibilities first, my dear. First rule of thumb of any good monster hunter.”

  “True, true.” Her eyes lit up eagerly. “So are we gonna do some investigating?”

  They left the classroom. “Yes, let’s roll up our sleeves and get down in the dirt.”

  Taylor and Jan went up to the crime scene at Tilden Park, a small, picturesque park in the Berkeley hills, near the university. After ducking beneath the yellow police tape, they searched the wooded area carefully for things the police might’ve missed.

  Taylor squatted down on the ground, examining some large footprints in the dirt, although they definitely weren’t feet, but rather a set of two big claws with three-prong toes in the front and one in the rear. Jan approached him from behind, looking at the pattern.

  “So much for the werewolf and wild dog theory,” he muttered, standing up. “No, what we have here looks like a harpy.”

  “Like from Greek mythology?”

  “Yep. I’ve encountered a couple in my travels.”

  They followed the trail of tracks through the forest.

  “And?”

  “And they’re definitely a nasty bunch, lemme tell ya. Beautiful on the outside with their half human female physique, often seducing men so they can prey on them.”

  “To eat them?”

  Taylor nodded, as they approached a three-way fork on the trail, where the tracks ended. “Don’t let their beauty fool you. They are carnivores. Part of their lore is that if you hear a harpy’s siren song, you know she is near and will hunt you.”

  “How do we stop her?”

  “By decapitation.”

  Jan looked at the three-way fork, frowning. “Which way now, Professor?”

  “If my memory serves me right, I believe there’s a cave up in this direction,” he said, taking the path to the far left.

  The two hiked up a steep incline, surrounded on all sides by lush green leaves, blowing out plumes of white breath into the crisp winter air. Jan’s cheeks were rosy from the brief exercise.

  She panted when they reached the top of the hill. “Boy, I need to work out more!”

  “I thought you were using the campus gym.”

  She chuckled. “Not with all my school work and stuff for the magazine.”

  “Blaming my magazine now, are ya?”

  Jan smiled. “Oh, by the way, can we extend the deadline for the next issue? I’m up to my eyeballs in reading, papers, and grading essays.”

  “You knew what you were getting into when you signed up for this gig, my dear. Berkeley is no piece of cake.”

  “C’mon, give me some slack!”

  He shot her a devilish grin and cut left, leading the way onto a narrow side trail, overgrown with thick brush. Pushing some leaves out of his way, they finally arrived at the base of a small cave entrance moments later.

  Before proceeding any further, he took out his flashlight and checked to make sure his handgun was loaded. Then they climbed up to the opening, being careful not to trip on any of the big, sharp rocks scattered about.

  They cautiously stepped into the cave, with Taylor’s flashlight beam acting as a beacon of safety in a way. As they probed deeper, the scent of urine hit them immediately, and Jan wrinkled her nose. He pointed his light to their left, revealing some bright, colorful graffiti on the cavern’s wall. Shining the light in the other direction they saw more spray paint art, along with the remnants of a blackened campfire, replete with empty alcohol bottles, flasks, and cigarette butts. His other hand gripped the gun firmly.

  As the two rounded a bend, Taylor saw something on the floor, obscured by some trash.

  She clutched his arm. “What’s that?” she whispered.

  “Not sure.”

  They approached the object slowly.

  When he was within reach of it, Jan said: “You have the honors, of course.”

  He stooped down, carefully removing the garbage covering the item, exposing a human femur bone with bits and pieces of bloody flesh still attached to it. Aside from that, it appeared to have been sucked and chewed dry.

  Jan gasped, jumping back.

  “So this explains the missing leg from Brett’s body,” Taylor said grimly.

  They scanned the rest of the cave but found nothing else.

  Harvey got to Aquatic Park late as usual, which royally pissed off Matthew, as usual. Matthew, a tall, athletic grad student at Berkeley, with a blonde bob helmet of hair, stood on the dock, next to a two-seater kayak, looking at his watch as Harvey ran up to him.

  Matthew shot him an irritated look.

  “Sorry I’m late! Traffic.”

  Matthew was going to give him the silent treatment but decided to put in his two-cents. “You’re burning daylight, man.”

  They put the kayak into the water and then put their lifejackets on.

  “Aw, dude I apologize again,” Harvey pleaded. “It won’t ever happen again, I swear!”

  “Sounds like a familiar tune, Harv.” Matthew sighed, handing him an oar. “I mean, you’re a great roommate. You’re clean, trustworthy, quiet, but your tardiness is a drag. I’ve been up front with you before about this.”

  Harvey nodded. “I know, I know. Believe me, Matt, it’s not gonna happen again. I know you’re sick of hearing that but you can trust me this time.”

  Matthew didn’t respond, getting into the front seat of the kayak. Once Harvey was in, they paddled out into the mile long lagoon, located just east of noisy Interstate 80. They turned and looked at the mad pileup of cars and trucks on the freeway.

  They got a good amount of rowing accomplished, and as the sun was slowly setting on the horizon, they cruised back to the dock.


  Harvey caught his breath. “You still wanna study at the library?”

  “Nah, let’s do it tomorrow. I’m beat.”

  “Me too.”

  After putting the kayak away in a storage locker, Matthew put his helmet on his blonde bob and got on his bicycle, noticing that Harvey was still sitting on a bench outside the sandwich shop near the dock.

  “Why don’t you go on ahead, dude,” Harvey said. “I’m just gonna rest here for a while.”

  “Suit yourself. Later.” Matthew pedaled off.

  Harvey eventually nodded off, losing track of how long he sat there. He was awake one moment and then fell asleep again. When he opened his eyes once more he saw the CLOSED sign on the sandwich shop door. The skies were dark and he heard crickets chirping in the distance.

  “Aw, man!” he said to himself, getting up and mounting his bike.

  Soon, he was pedaling fast up the street that led out of the park. The area was quiet and industrial, closed warehouses and businesses. Not a soul in sight. As he was cruising along, he heard a woman singing. He looked around but didn’t see a woman. Weird.

  He kept going but the singing continued. Harvey scanned everywhere but didn’t see anyone.

  “Where the heck is that coming from?” he asked, frowning.

  Abruptly, without any warning, something large and dark swooped down from the sky, grabbed him fast, and flew away with him. When Harvey looked down, he saw his bicycle roll away, crashing into a warehouse.

  He started screaming. Before he could turn his head to see what had snatched him, brass talons ripped open his throat, silencing his screams.

  Taylor stood in the back of the class, leaning against the wall, watching the video on the TV screen with the rest of his students. When the video progressed to a part where two men kissed, someone said: “Yuck!”

  Similarly, minutes later, there was a scene showing a transgender person, and the same student uttered another negative remark.

  When the video finished, Taylor turned on the lights. “So again, your assignment is to write a blue book essay on this documentary and the first two chapters from Edelman’s textbook on transgender culture. Any questions?”

  He was expecting some smart aleck comment from the student who voiced his opinions earlier but no one raised their hand. “Good, see you guys next week.” As his students started filing out of the classroom, Taylor noticed Matthew Foote, still sitting in the back row with a glum expression on his face.

  Taylor approached him. “You okay, Matthew?”

  He looked up, nodding. “Yes, just thinking about something, sir.”

  “You sure? You seemed preoccupied when the documentary was playing.”

  Matthew was about to say something but then waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, it’s nothing, sir.”

  “Doesn’t seem like it was just nothing.” Taylor sat down at a desk next to him. “What’s on your mind, son?”

  Matthew didn’t look at him. “Well, it’s my roommate, sir. . .he’s missing. . .I think I was a bit harsh on him the other day when we went kayaking, and I feel his absence was impacted by my words.” He backtracked and related to him about Harvey’s constant tardiness.

  “I see. How many days has he been missing?”

  “Four days, sir.”

  “Could you please stop calling me ‘sir’.”

  “Yes, sir.” Matthew shook his head. “Oooops, I’m sorry!”

  “Have you checked in with Harvey’s family and friends? They might know what’s going on.”

  “I did but no one’s heard from him, which is really odd because he’s very good at staying in touch with people, and almost always answers his cell phone. Like I said, his only weakness is being late to things.”

  “Did you inform the police about this?”

  “No.”

  Jan stepped into the classroom, smiling at them, but also backed away a little like she knew she was intruding on space.

  “Hi, Jan,” Matthew said quietly.

  “Hey, Matthew. Hi, Professor. Look, I can come back if you guys are talking.”

  “No, it’s okay,” Taylor replied. “We were just wrapping up here anyway.” He looked at him. “Call the police and file a missing persons report.”

  “I will. Thanks for your help.”

  Jan looked at Matthew. “So have you decided if you’re going to sign up for the anthro expedition in Ethiopia this summer?”

  “I’m going. Are you?”

  “Yep. I’m stoked! It’ll be my first time in Africa. And the cool thing is, according to the Professor, is that we’re gonna be the first group with the privilege to view bones that may be ancestors of the famous ‘Lucy’ fossil. Isn’t that right, Professor?”

  “That’s correct. Everything’s still sort of hush-hush right now. Professor Avner and I will be leading the expedition. That is, if they don’t cut the funding for it first.”

  Jan knocked on a desk top with her knuckles. “Let’s hope not.”

  Taylor glanced at his watch. “Say, are you guys up for grabbing a beer at the Bear’s Lair?”

  They both agreed.

  A couple of days later, after Taylor finished the lecture for his afternoon anthropology course, he was wiping the chalkboard down when he overheard two of his students talking in their chairs in the middle of the room. He heard the names ‘Brett’ and ‘Harvey’ and the words ‘mutilated’ and ‘devoured.’

  After they left, he went over to where they were sitting, noticing a folded newspaper on one of the chairs. Picking it up, he saw the big headline on the front page in bold print: ‘Second UC Berkeley student found dead in Tilden Park’

  When he was done reading the article, Jan rushed into the classroom, carrying her backpack, with the same pale complexion as before. “Did you hear about that other student they discovered in the park?”

  He showed her the article.

  “Was he an anthro student?”

  Taylor shook his head. “But he was Matthew’s roommate.”

  She frowned. “Oh, no!”

  He grabbed his briefcase. “Let’s go while the trail’s still fresh.”

  When they arrived at the second crime scene, the same cave where they discovered the femur bone, the skies were getting dark. Taylor led the way up there, a bitter cold wind biting at his ears, his hands clutching a shotgun. Packed snugly in his backpack was a heavy axe.

  Yellow crime scene tape cordoned off the cave entrance. They ducked beneath it and carefully maneuvered their way through the dark cave, the stench of urine hitting them once more, like a slap in the face. Taylor saw that the charred remains of the campfire, the bottles of alcohol, and cigarette butts were gone.

  Resting near a wall that was defaced by graffiti was a batch of leaves, covering up something.

  Jan’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, no, not another surprise.”

  “What? You don’t like cool, little prizes?” He cautiously brushed away the leaves with the tip of his shotgun, exposing a pair of long black feathers.

  “Check this out!” she whispered, pointing to a series of large four-toe track marks in the dirt floor. Same pattern as the earlier ones: three toes in the front, one in the back.

  The wind howled through the cave opening, and moments later, they heard footsteps.

  “Who’s that?” Jan whispered, looking around.

  Matthew scrambled up to the cave entrance, shining a flashlight in their direction.

  “Matthew, what are you doing here?” Taylor asked.

  “Just wanted to explore the area, sir.”

  “It’s dangerous. Get over here.”

  The tall grad student ambled over to where they were.

  “We’re dealing with a very deadly creature here,” Taylor said.

  “How so?”

  The professor gave him a whirlwind, crash-course brief on the harpy, all delivered succinctly in less than a minute.

  “Wow!” Matthew replied. “Sounds like the perfect killing machine under
all that beauty.”

  “Don’t be fooled, son. Now listen carefully, don’t do anything heroic or foolish, stay behind me, and let us deal with it. Okay?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And do me a favor.”

  “Sure. What?”

  “Please stop calling me sir.”

  “Okay.” Matthew looked at Jan, raising his eyebrows. “Wow, I didn’t know you’re a hunter.”

  “Now you know.”

  Matthew smiled. “Gee, that makes you really sexy.”

  “I wouldn’t recommend flirting under the present circumstances,” she whispered.

  They huddled together in the darkness of the cave, waiting, staying alert, for what seemed like hours. The wind kept howling outside, adding to the overall tension and creepiness of the environment. With just their flashlights on, shadows danced all around the cavern walls, creating hallucinatory images, making Jan jump twice.

  A light rain outside created a rhythmic tapping soundtrack that was soothing and calming, allaying her fears. Moments later, they heard the fluttering of wings approach the entrance, a sound that was hypnotic and tranquil in itself. Then a shadow of a pair of large wings appeared on the cave walls, obscuring the graffiti.

  Matthew gasped. “Good lord!” he whispered.

  Taylor handed Jan the shotgun and she pointed it at whatever was approaching. And what was coming around the bend, they witnessed, was a statuesque form of beauty like no other Taylor had ever seen. His previous encounters with harpies suddenly vanished from his mind as his eyes focused on this hybrid of a human woman and a giant bird stalking gracefully across the floor like some ballerina. It was almost beautiful watching her move, a thought which made him shudder. Her mannerisms and gestures were sensual, erotic, emphasized by her herky-jerky movements, thrusting her body forward robustly like a dog in heat. Her nipples were swollen and erect. He quickly shook himself awake to not be mesmerized by her.

  He looked at Matthew, seeing how the young man was staring at her with his mouth open. “Don’t let her seduce you! Fight it!”

  Matthew turned away from the creature, but found himself tempted by fate as he gazed at the harpy again.