I had to talk to Miranda again. But I didn’t have her phone number; I didn’t even have her last name. The morning after whatever happened with us had passed in surreal silence, like we both hoped I’d leave before she noticed me. I skipped my stop on my first bus home from work and let it carry me as …
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The British Medical Journal (BMJ) is synonymous with the latest medical breakthroughs being discussed by top experts in the field of medicine, including cancer research. So it’s a surprise to discover they published a guide to zombies in their Christmas addition. Entitled ‘Zombie infections; epidemiology, treatment and prevention’ the guide was apparently (as they put it) part of their annual …
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Did you know that mistletoe is, by definition, a parasitic plant that survives by draining the life from the host tree? In other words, the plant equated with love during the holiday season is a vampire. Perhaps the most interesting aspect about mistletoe is that its vampiric qualities are thought to be the main reason the plant’s connected with matters …
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For the first time in three years, I couldn’t face going back to the Grappling Club. I hoped if I could avoid Nick, I could pretend the night with Miranda had just been a one-night stand, nothing bizarre or sinister. I could let what I’d remembered fade back into forgotten hallucinations. It didn’t work. Usually when my life wasn’t making …
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Although there’ve been many men dubbed by the media “vampire rapist”, John Crutchley comes by his moniker quite literally. Crutchley was convicted of the 1985 abduction of a hitchhiker, of whom he held captive and siphoned her blood with a hypodermic needle and a rubber tube. He used the device like a straw; sucking the blood from women in vampiric …
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Miranda’s apartment was just a mile walk away. Maybe I should have tried to talk her out of bringing me home, but neither of us was in any shape to walk home alone. Miranda didn’t seem to notice that I wasn’t talking. She was just going along with what Nick had told her. I thought I knew why, but I …
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Brisbane, Australia, 1989 After a long night of drinking, Edward Baldock decided to walk home. As he staggered back to his residence, the 47-year-old man was accosted by four women, who lured him into their vehicle with promises of sexual favors. They drove him to a nearby riverside park, where Tracy Wigginton stabbed him 27 times in a ritualistic blood …
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After practice one night, Nick followed me to the bus stop. “I’ve figured out how to pay you back,” he said. “You really don’t have to,” I told him, but he wouldn’t hear it. “You don’t have a girlfriend, right?” he asked. The answer was “No.” I’d left my love life alone since the Grappling Club gave me something more …
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Back in February 2000, a man and avid “coon hunter” came forward and told a story about encountering a creature in Texarkana that sounds an awful lot like Bigfoot. The Coon Hunter was an experienced, award-winning hunter, who was licensed to hunt across three states. At the time of the encounter, he was in the Miller County area of Arkansas, …
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Pete and Chris agreed to let Nick back into the Club at my urging, and with Jenna’s permission. Nick kept to his best behavior—he and Jenna might as well have been training on different planets. That was a relief to me. In a way, I was responsible for Nick now. One milestone I was watching for was the first newbie …
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Monstrum Athenaeum Tearing open the cryptid world of werewolves, vampires & zombies.