When the Man Comes Around

Officer Thomas Campbell got the call from dispatch. “Female screaming in the graveyard on the South side of the university”. Great, probably another college freshman was forced into the graveyard on a bet again, Campbell thought to himself. “Unit 67 clear” Campbell grumbled into the radio mic. Campbell hated Halloween time in the city. Campbell had only been on the South Holden Police force for nine months but he was very clear on how the college kids behaved. He had grown up in South Holden and spent his entire life there except for the time he was in the Marines. Campbell had left home a twenty-one to join the Marines, spent time overseas in the war with Iraq. He had kicked ass and taken names. At least that’s what he had thought. As Campbell approached the graveyard he saw the group of kids milling about on the sidewalk. They appeared scared and unable to move. This did not bode well, Campbell thought. “All right, what’s going on here” Campbell called out as he pulled himself from his squad car. Those gathered just looked at him in silence. That’s when Campbell heard the moans from the graveyard which made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Campbell shined his flashlight into the graveyard and saw a girl partly hidden behind a headstone twenty or so yards in. She appeared to be dry heaving between the moans. A tall athletic kid in a leather coat that probably cost more than Campbell’s entire wardrobe walked up and said, “I saw him. The guys all fucked up.” What the hell was this preppy kid talking about? Campbell thought to himself. Campbell rushed through the gate of the graveyard with his gun and flashlight drawn. He found the girl on all fours leaning against a headstone crying. She had thrown up several times by the look of it, she continued to dry heave. Her face was bleeding and her skirt was ripped up the side exposing her backside. “Are you all right?” It was a stupid question but he had to ask. The girl looked up and just pointed her finger further into the graveyard. Campbell followed the girl’s finger to an image that would haunt him for the rest of his life. He saw a red mound of looping intestines on the ground in the scope of his flashlight, then the leg then the torso. What Campbell saw at the torso made his blood run cold. Campbell moved closer and saw the torso had been splayed open like a freshly cleaned deer. The chest cavity was empty as far as he could tell. Campbell had seen dead bodies before, some pretty messed up but nothing like this. Campbell’s hearing suddenly came back to him, he had not realized it had left him. He heard the girl crying behind him. Campbell turned around scooped up the girl in his arms and ran out of the graveyard. He put her in the back seat of his squad car wrapped in his patrol jacket and called over the radio the one radio call he had hoped to never have to make. “Dispatch, Unit 67, Send me backup, send everyone!”