Joe's throat and Joe released him,
gagging and coughing. The man smiled
at him with a look on his face of utter satisfaction.
"That was incredible, man! Do you want me to do you now?"
Joe ran out of the club, horrified by both what he had done and what he'd been
about to do. Now he had done far worse. Joe awoke from his reverie standing in
the campus courtyard, not knowing how
he had gotten there. There were three
minutes before his class started. He
sprinted across campus, arriving at the lecture hal just as the professor was
preparing to begin his lesson.
"We were just talking about you, Joseph. Thanks for joining us. Take a seat
please. As I was saying ... cannibalism is at the end of the continuum of a sadistic murderer's evolution, the ultimate
expression of dominance and control,
predation at its base essence, the
devouring of human blood and flesh to
satisfy sexual fantasies. This actual y ties in with your theory of a progressive
disease, Joseph. If we assume that
serial murderers are like drug addicts in that they develop a tolerance for normal
`lesser' forms of pleasure then they
would eventual y develop a tolerance for the run-of-the-mil rape-and-murder
scenarios requiring more extreme
stimulation, multiple victims, an increase in the frequency of their attacks, and an increase in the level of violence.
"Trophy taking begins to go beyond jewelry and photographs into the
harvesting of body parts for later use in necrophiliac activities, to relive the
murders. In some cases these trophies
become the very reason for the murders
as in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, part of his compulsion to own his victims. Some murderers find secluded places where
they can not only murder their victims but also store their bodies, to maintain
control over their victims even after
death. This degenerative cycle leads to the most extreme psychosexual
behaviors. Cannibalism is at the
pinnacle of this arc. To consume their
victims is the ultimate expression of
control. Once they devour them they own them forever. They wil always be a part of them."
The professor seemed to be staring
directly into Joe's eyes as he spoke, as if each statement was for his sole
benefit. As if he knew. Joe shifted
nervously in his chair and wrung his
sweaty hands. The professor's words
bore down on him like accusations and
Joe had the sudden feeling of being on
trial. This is what it would feel like when they caught him. He stared intensely at Professor Locke as the polished old
gentleman described the inner workings
of his mind as clearly as if he had read his thoughts, saw each lurid fantasy and felt each shivering sensation, giving
voice to the demons in his soul in front of a crowd of strangers.
Joe wanted to scream and run out of the room. Instead he forced a smile onto his face and endured the onslaught of words until he couldn't take it any longer.
"But what if it isn't just about control?" Joe suddenly blurted out.
The entire room turned to look at him
and he felt suddenly vulnerable and
exposed.
"What else would it be about, Joseph? A man murders, rapes, and devours a
stranger. What else would it be about
other than to prove his dominance and
power? To sublimate another human
being to his wil ? These men are
sadists!"
"No!" Again everyone turned to stare at him. Joe nervously stood and took a
deep breath to steady his voice. "I mean
... maybe not al of them. Not al of them torture their victims. Some kil them
quickly before they do anything to them. Maybe not al of them mean to cause
pain."
"Then why do they do it, Joseph?"
"Maybe it's love." A roar of laughter rose up and Joe looked from face to face
while the blood rushed to his cheeks.
"Love?"
"Yes. What is love but the desire to unite with the love object? That's why people get married, to make two souls into one. But of course that's merely symbolic,
imperfect. Marriage is an il usion of a true union. Cannibalism is the real deal. It could be the ultimate expression of
love."
Professor Locke stared at Joe with
concern clearly visible on his face. The entire hal was staring at him,
speechless. Some of them had smirks
on their faces and others wore scowls of disgust. Al of them clearly thought Joe was crazy. Joe stood there with his
hands held out before him as if
beseeching the professor to understand
him.
"I-I'm sorry, Professor." Joe plopped down into his chair.
"Nothing at al to be ashamed of. I respect your passion and your ... uh ... interesting perspective. You may be
closer to understanding these monsters
than you think. You are absolutely right. That's exactly how some of these
monsters would justify their actions.
Jeffrey Dahmer, for instance, said he just wanted a friend who would never leave
him. But when it comes down to it, those are al just rationalizations. These
monsters do it because it gets them off. Because they enjoy hurting and
humiliating people. They enjoy the
power. They enjoy the control."
He was staring directly into Joe's eyes again as he spoke. Joe's mouth creaked
open as if to say something but he had
no words left within him. His mind was
reeling as if he'd been struck.
I'm a monster, he thought and then
looked around to make sure he hadn't
spoken aloud. He snapped his mouth
shut and leaned back in his chair.
Professor Locke smiled and turned his
back to the class to erase the
blackboard, shaking his head as if
laughing at some private joke.
Joe gathered up his books and sprinted
from the room, nearly knocking over
several classmates as he dashed out
into the sunlight struggling to catch his breath. The world seemed to be closing
in on him. It was as if they al knew. They could sense the monster in their ranks. The sun shone down upon him like a
spotlight in an interrogation chamber,
revealing al his secrets. He knew now
why vampires shunned the light.
It took a long time before Joe pul ed
himself together enough to go to his next class, a sociology class based on the
writings of Joseph Campbel cal ed
"Man and Myth." He'd taken the class hoping they'd get more into vampires
and werewolves and other cross-cultural demons. The professor kept promising
to get to those topics but so far al he seemed to talk about were dragons and
fairies and the Christlike resurrected
savior myths that seemed to pop up in
culture after culture al over the globe. He squeezed into a desk chair and tried to make himself as inconspicuous as
possible. Stil , he felt as if every eye was upon him. A few of the students from this class were the same students from his
psychology class and he could hear
them whispering about him behind his
back. His own roommate was among
them.
Joe spent so little time at the dorm that he barely knew the kid. Al he knew was that his dad was some kind of computer
whiz who made twice what Joe's parents
made and spoiled the hel out of their
effete, social y inept little son. He was an absolute cliche of nerddom. The kid was always on the damned computer. His
entire life revolved around it.
Joe could count on his fingers how many actual conversations he'd had with the
guy. But then, Joe was never home
anyway. Most of his time these days was spent at his apartment in the abandoned tenement building south of Market Street or at the library. Now, with Alicia tied up in that old building, he'd be spending
even more time there.
"He gives me the creeps, man. And I have to live with the guy!"
Joe caught a few random snippets of
conversation and bristled with a silent rage. His rich, computerrole-playinggame-geek roommate was adding more flame to the rumors and innuendos.
"I hardly ever see him. He leaves right after classes and sometimes he doesn't
come back to the dorm at al ,
sometimes not for days. I saw him in the library one night reading about serial
kil ers. I came back the next day and he was stil there, in the same clothes,
reading the same book, as if he'd never left. The guy is weird."
"Yeah, he's weird, and fucking huge! He could probably snap your neck with one
hand," a slender black kid from the track team interjected just as the professor
began to scribble on the blackboard.
Joe looked at what Professor Douglas
was scribbling and got excited. At last the man had gotten off dragons and
saints and onto something Joe was
interested in.
"Shape-shifters. Werebeasts. The loupgarou, the Wendigo, the poor cursed soul that turns into a wolfman by the light of the ful moon. We've al heard of
werewolves but there are other
werecreatures in myths and legends
from almost every corner of the globe.
They appear in the folklore and
mythology of almost every culture. The
Inuit tribespeople have a legend about
the Adlet, a race of dog people that were the result of a mating between an Inuit tribeswoman and a great red dog. These
weredogs are said to stil haunt northern Iceland in search of human flesh. You'l see this theme of human animal
couplings resulting in monsters repeated over and over across cultures.
"These could have evolved as a way to warn against what would have been
seen as aberrant sex acts involving
animals. The Slavic people have a
legend that beautiful women who misuse
their physical gifts to seduce men and
cause mischief may return from the
grave as sultry shape-shifters cal ed
rusalki who, like the legends of
mermaids and sirens, lure men out to
sea to watery graves. It's easy to see the warning here. Most legends are based
on fear and the fear of the power of a
woman's sexuality is very powerful even to this day.
"Then there are people who are said to have become monsters by making pacts
with Satan. The Portuguese have the
legend of the Bruxsa, a woman who
turns into a gigantic birdlike harpy and sucks the blood of her own children.
Germans have the boxenwolf, which is
more like our traditional werewolf and is likewise believed to be a person who
has made a pact with Satan for the
power of the wolf. The warning there is again quite obvious: Stay in the church. Don't stray from the religion of your
culture.
"The term ghoul comes from a mythical shapeshifting creature from the Arabian desert that transforms endlessly from an ox to a camel to a horse and has a
voracious appetite for human flesh. In
Ghana there's a demon cal ed the dodo
that often appears as a snake and is
rumored to be another ravenous
devourer of humans. In Japan there's a
fox demon cal ed the kitsune that is said to possess humans and deplete the
energy of its victims, draining them dry. Some of them are humans that have
turned into werecreatures and others are demons that can simply appear as
humans."
"How do they turn themselves back?" Joseph didn't care what the other
students thought of him now. He had
questions to which he desperately
needed answers.
Professor Douglas turned toward Joe
with obvious annoyance at having his
lecture interrupted.
"Yes, Joseph? You had a question?"
"The werewolves that are just humans who have turned into monsters. How do
they turn themselves back into humans?
How do they get rid of the curse?" The professor scratched his ratty
overgrown goatee and pondered
Joseph a moment, perhaps trying to
decide if the boy was genuinely curious or just trying to make some kind of joke. He'd had Joseph in the previous
semester and knew that the serious
young man was not genuinely the
comedic type.
"Wel , let's see. There are many different theories on how to rid yourself of the
curse, according to various legends,
though none of them seem to have a
very high success rate. General y, once you invite these demonic animal spirits inside they are nearly impossible to get rid of."
"But-"
Joe wiped the sweat from his brow and
tried to steady his voice. He could feel himself growing more and more
agitated, his desperation evident in the way he fidgeted in his chair and rang out his hands constantly.
"But you said there were many theories about different cures. What are the
theories? What's the cure?"
"Wel , we'l get to that, Joseph. I don't want to get off track. First I want to
discuss the different myths themselves
and their similarities," the professor said, trying to keep from losing control of the discussion.
But you know, right?" Joe rose from his chair. He was sweating again and he
had a look of desperation in his eyes.
"Uh-oh. Here we go again," one of the other students mumbled. Joe was pretty
sure it was his roommate. He ignored
him.
"I mean, you know what the cure is?
Right?"
"Joseph. These are just myths. Now take your seat, please."
Joe looked around and, realizing that he was once again making a fool of
himself, slipped back into his chair.