GARGOYLES chapter 5

Chapter V
                   

                   Both men are quiet as the car pulls away from the curb.  After a few minutes Scott breaks the silence.
                   “What was that remark about ‘Chasing Vampires’?”
                   “Well that goes back a while.  A few of years ago there were some murders up in the South Bronx.  The coroner found that the victims were all missing a lot of blood.  But he could not really explain why.”
                   “Isn’t that normal when people are killed?”
                   “To a point, but they never bleed out completely.  I did some nosing around up there and found a lot of what you might call “folktales” or what they now refer to as “Urban Legends” dealing with a vampire-like creature the locals called ‘El Diablo’.”  It was described to me by a few old homeless people as being a large, birdlike creature with a head like the devil.  At first glance it sounds ridiculous, but there were too many people telling me the same story.”
                   “That’s how legends start, it doesn’t make them true.  Besides most of those people are alcoholics or drug addicts.  That’s one of the worst areas in New York.”
                   “It doesn’t make them wrong.  Every legend is based on something, some fact or a perceived fact.  All of these people couldn’t be having the same hallucinations.  There’s more to the story though, some of the internal organs were missing on the victims.  The bodies looked like they had been ripped into, not cut open.”
                   “What do you mean?”
                   “It doesn’t matter the police arrested some gang members up there and said it was some weird initiation rite, and closed the case.  The killings did stop, at least up in that neighborhood.”
                   “But you didn’t believe that they were the cause, did you?”
                   “It doesn’t matter, I have no proof to the contrary.”
                   “Tell me more about this, ‘preoccupation’ of yours with the occult.”
                   “Listen Scott, you ask a lot of questions considering we only know each other for about 12 hours….........….Uh OK, I guess since we are going to be working together we might as well know a little bit about each other.  Let’s see where to start………………I guess I have always been intrigued with the occult.  As a kid I read ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Dracula’ as well as other books with ghosts and goblins.  I loved horror movies, especially the old classics.  Back in the 70s, in high school I took an elective course called ‘Parapsychology’.  During the semester we took a look at ghosts, witchcraft, vampires, and werewolves as well as something the teacher termed ‘Cryptozoology’, which was the study of legendary animals such as Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster.  That course got me hooked.  I never lost my interest in these things even as I got older.  Now, as a writer it is one of my main themes.  One day I will find the truth and the story I write will make me rich and famous.  But enough about me, what about you?  Let’s hear your story!”
                   “Do you really believe in all that stuff?”
                   “I don’t know, I’m sort of skeptical, sometimes, but I think that there are possibilities.  I think I want to believe some of it and some things like UFO’s seem to make sense.”
                   “UFO’s, what are you kidding?”
                   “No.  That’s an easy one.  I cannot believe that with the millions of planets and solar systems that exist, that we are the only planet to develop any life forms.  Aren’t you just a little conceited to think that?  It’s not logical.  There have to be other forms of life on other planets.  Some more advanced then us and some less advanced.  They may not look like us but I bet there out there.  Haven’t we gone to the moon?  Why couldn’t some other civilization be more advanced and travel here?”
                   “I guess……I didn’t think of it in those terms.  But.......”
                   “Most people don’t.”
                   Just then Tom pulls in front of Scott’s house.  As Scott exits the car, he hears Tom say “I’ll call you later, get some sleep.”
                   Scott heads up the steps and turns in time to see Tom pull away.  In his apartment he notices the clock on the wall.
                   “Damn, 6:00 a.m., I got to get some sleep, but I have to call in sick.  I better stay up for a little while call in and then go to sleep.”  He sits down on the couch in his living room, turns on the TV and promptly falls asleep.