Vampires

The call I wasn’t expecting came while I was at work. My phone showed “Miranda Lee,” so I took my second break of the day to answer it out on the smokers’ balcony. “Chelsea’s missing,” she said, instead of “Hello.” “What happened?” I asked. Chelsea was Nick’s sickly friend-with-benefits, who had roped Miranda into that night at the bar. “I’ve …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

In 2002, a 30-year-old Thai woman acquired the services of a gentleman for the evening, with desires of a sexual encounter. They went to the Hotel Saville, located in Victoria, NSW, Australia, where the encounter turned strange. The gigolo, whose name was Shane Chartres-Abbott, proceeded to have sex with the woman but became violent during the encounter. Later, Chartres-Abbott told …

Imagine you’re a child, running around outside and playing with your friends, only to sit down on a mound of dirty on a hillside and accidentally discover a human skull? As was the scene in Griswold, Connecticut in 1990, when several children led police to a gruesome site. As investigators probed the area for clues, they initially placed blame on …