Jessie Ludwig

Vulture Man

 

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“I— I can tell you what happened. It was devastating, a nightmare, a disaster, a forced collision and an ill fate against my will. Where am I now? It's better than hell, where I came from. The nightmare of it, I'll relive it every day of my life. Stay! Stay reader, please stay here with me. The damned terror is still out there on the other side of this warm abode. If you leave, it'll come in through the door and finally have me— please. Patience, new friend, you can't expect an old lady like me to run away from the damned terror? I lost my cane twenty blocks away and this pressure on me— Mother Maria, save me—! I don't know if I'll be able to walk again.

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“Coffee, lamb, and a weapon, and I'll be able to settle down enough to tell you what happened. Quickly now, I have to tell you what happened to me because wherever that beast is, it always finds me! Reader, have you ever been trapped between the pages of a terrifying novel? I tell you, I know more than anyone. Why would the beast haunt you? Your name is not Holly Aggie Tarleton nor are you dead. The Vulture would not haunt you while you're still alive, thank God, or I brought the Devil to you. What— don't interrupt me when I'm dying! You shutting up is my dying wish.

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“Where should I begin? Or when do I begin? I'll start with who. Yes, and then I'll tell you how I met that rabid vulture. That's what I call it, you see, Vulture Man— but enough about that...it. My name is Tarleton and that's all you need to know about me. This is about my sister and I'll never consider her a Tarleton, not since her coming-out party outside of the city. Oh, the beauty of the bayou and the air I wish I could breathe one more time before I die. Who knows, maybe that will save me from wherever I am going in the afterlife?

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“Gracie was a brat. She stayed in New Orleans with the love of my life but what's a beau if he puts a curse on you? I ended up here— of all places, I tell you! It's just too cold and no one knows how to grill food or even deep-fry! Life is sad here. It's been 67 years since I've seen my beautiful bayou but enough of that, I've cried enough over the traumas of my life; I've run out of tears.

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“Don't you go thinking I'm raving mad now, or at least wait another hour. The monster will be here by then. I live here but I was always on the run all my life, and I tried to return home whenever it was safe. You may be wondering why I didn't return to New Orleans. Well, those mad scientists live there. Their lab experiments are now on my parents' balcony and right on the edge of the swamp. I bet they rarely get visitors but I know for a fact that each visitor never leaves my mother's father's parents' house but are experiments kept on the balcony.

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“In fact, I'm wondering if my parents' bodies are in the house or in the belly of a monster? What I would do to see them again but Crick had cursed them too. At least they didn't have to live long enough to see who their daughter had become, nothing but an immoral fool! You can't tell by looking at me but I am a fool, too.

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“Anyway, my dear, what time is it? Don't interrupt me; I'm almost out of time.

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“As I was saying, I'm not crazy. I'm more rational than my sister who was a scientist but I was actually an artist. Now if I were to paint, it would just be sick green eyes, like poison. The eyes cannot see, but they are filled with a poison that is dying to kill you. I've got poison on this hand, see? My middle finger is gone. It burned off all of the skin, bones, and nerves like a flesh-eating bacteria, decaying right before my eyes. It was worth it, I tell you— to flip off the monster & gauge out its eye at the same time. Damn, that vulture! I fear this madness! But please let me assure you that this is not per se my madness but the madness of living in hell for most of your life and then you realize, "Wow, this is how my life was meant to end, torn apart by the monster that is my sister. I thought I would die in my sleep." I shrug my shoulders more than anyone you know, I'm sure of it. Life is terrifying, so I'm sure you have your share of struggles but have you ever met anyone out of a fantasy novel? How about out of the Lake Of Fire, here in this world and possessing your sister's body? She was an annoying sister but I wish I could have her back.

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“Lord, bless me with hope if you forgive me for not belonging in Heave! Child - because you are a child to me, because you don't know that the Vulture-Man exists and as an alibi, it takes on the form of my sister. It's such a pain in my heart to see her like this, I mean, I hope she isn't in the vulture's shadow and suffering in pain. Not even Gracie deserves that kind of suffering.

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“Wha— yes, she will be the face you see before her form tears off and what you see are part Crick and part vulture. Where did they find that filthy bird in the first place, all the way in Louisiana, I'll never know, just like I'll never know why they experimented on it.

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“Jesus, well, I don’t know if you care about Christ, but he made all animals that were once too disgusting to eat and suddenly made them clean, just with a word. But I am unclean and why should a vulture be cleaner than me, to out-better me before our God? No, not you, the vulture's god.

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“Listen closely, reader, you may not have a religion but I don't mind and don't you mind my life's decisions because we tolerate each other. I'm also dying soon. So shut up; you've been a good listener so far.

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“Mere's wedding dress from her fourth marriage— yes, my mama's wedding dress, where are you from? Was destroyed, so I heard, during my sister's reception. Her cursed and forever damned husband was already poisoned and it seeped into their slice of wedding cake, according to my crazy cousin who ended up in a Massachusetts asylum because of what happened at that wedding. Riley says she watched the cake turn from white to green and a putrid color at that. Why Riley didn't stop her, I couldn't tell you, but Gracie bit into the green and sad Riley watched our beloved convulse on the grass, her body rolling under the table. Crick tried to help her before he fell into convulsions and more violently at that. Yeah, poor Riley...do you believe me? Do you believe Riley is the last survivor of that party? Do you believe the husband and the wife and their mad science vulture experiment morphed into one hideous beast? The vileness of it all, and I was the first foe on their list to cross off because I didn't make it to their wedding.

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“Anyway, the dress was undeniably gorgeous. I would know, I made it myself. I never did get married. I will not spend my last few minutes of life telling a stranger the dark tales of my life. But it's Gracie's fault! Although she wouldn't have lost her free-will if it wasn't for me, going to a witch for $20 to put a curse on my ex-boyfriend for not accepting I didn't want to date him! I never knew Crick was a lunatic until it was too late! I don't know which one is crazier, Gracie or Crick, but Gracie is eviler if she's still in her thinking mind when the monster forces itself to change its form inside out from the vulture-man-damnation to the form of my sister so it's disguised as an old lady on these concrete streets, hunting to and fro for human corpses. 

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“That thing, you don't know nasty until you see this thing eat. It's like a barbarian that's wolfing down an infant's right leg...Riley says that's what happened to our neighbor's infant. Or maybe it happened to my other sister's babe. I can't remember; it's been decades. There's been plenty of eaten babes since then.

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“I tell you this so listen closely: thank you for not asking questions and thank you for not leaving me. I'm not a good person and you're too naive to believe me but don't leave me. I deserve what's coming to me but it won't harm you. No, this thing must've been starving for years in Hell before arriving at the would soon to be murder scene because it killed every person at that party and that is the first time and hopefully the last time it ever killed its meat before it ate it. Or else you are in trouble. 

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“Ha! It's too late for you to leave too! I'm not going to die alone! Would you die alone if you could trick someone into dying with you? No, I tell you, why you've stayed this long, I don't know. I'll never know and I don't care. Now, shut up; you should know about your murderer before you meet it.

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Oftentimes, the thing is lurking in the shadows of morgues and hiding from the blessing that is sunlight. If only I could die seeing the sunrise one last time, even if it can't be over the swamp of the window view from my mother's cultured salon.

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“So yes, it swallows and digests every dead soul and soulless in the morgue and then it can go for several weeks without eating. And then the next town or wherever it's madness is drawn to get to the next corpse victim from a morgue or hospital or a chance incidence that happens to pass along the way. The wretched thing belongs in Hell! And now it's going to eat my corpse after it kills me, I tell you bitterly! My life is nothing but resentment and turmoil. You'll also be eaten but you don't know what it's like to be tortured. No, this isn't a competition. You don't know what real suffering feels like, d— you!

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“Now, reader, you can try to run but my scent is on you. Why would you let a wretched witch like me into your house? Why did you let me touch your coffee mug? My curse is on you. You'll never escape here alive and you deserve to know that.”

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Jessie Ludwig has appeared in 3 Moon Magazine under the pen name, Jessie Gionet. She writes from Colorado. Bienvenue au Danse.

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