Vampire in the National Park

==Interview Transcript of: Jacob Wingate==
At the request of the family members of the deceased, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.
==October 25th, 2011==
Reporting Officers: Detective Richard Curwen, Detective Adrian Wozniak
Wozniak: Richards just laying out a digital recorder on the table, we would like to make an audio recording of the interview if that's okay with you. Just to clarify, you’re not under arrest. You’re free to go anytime you wish, just listen to us. You don’t have to answer any questions and stuff like that. We just want you to relax and open up to us, we’re not going to jump on you and give you a hard time or anything like that. We’re here to let you talk to us, or to talk to you a little about how you've been doing and how you’re feeling. I have a feeling there are things on your mind you need to let out and I’m going to give you that opportunity. It’s pretty clear that something real heavy is bothering you.
Curwen: I imagine things have been real tough for you as of late.
Jacob: Yeah.
Curwen: We understand that.
Wozniak: Your family is worried about you. Your parents, your brother and sister. You self-committed into a mental health institute. We’re told you became catatonic. After you recovered, you were released and you kind of just dropped off the face of the planet. But you’re better now and ready to talk. That's good Jacob. We want to help.
Curwen: We’re not here to point fingers, if you got a chance to meet the relatives of the deceased family you discovered, you would know they were decent people like you and your family and that they deserve closure. The report says that you found the Chang family in that cave, and that they had been mauled by an animal. But the coroner says that the bite marks on the bodies belong to that of a human being. Can you —
Jacob: I want to tell you. I want to tell you everything that I saw, experienced, that I learned. I want to fully cooperate with you. But I know you’re not going to believe me. I don’t expect you to, I don’t see how you possibly can. Even I have a hard time believing my memory.
Wozniak: Just start from the beginning.
Jacob: Okay. I was a volunteer with SARVAC.
Wozniak: That's the Search and Rescue Volunteer Association Canada?
Jacob: Right. We had received the call in May, it was fire season. I’m sure you remember that. Huge amounts of land were burned, communities swallowed up by flames. Plumes of smoke drifting across the country, even down into the United States. I remember the fire bans that were set in place. Fire permits were canceled, no open flames of any kind, hefty fines were handed out to violators.
Curwen: Tell us about the call that was made that day.
Jacob: It was early morning when a park ranger came across the campsite that was in shambles. He happened to be driving by in his jeep when he noticed a group of tattered tents. The windows of the SUV were shattered. The ranger thought it looked like a possible Grizzly attack. The parents, two daughters and son, were nowhere to be seen.
Wozniak: There was no blood, no animal hairs or prints. If a predatory animal attacked them, there should have been something.
Jacob: I know. In (Redacted) National Park it could have been any number of things. Bears, mountain lions, wolves.
Curwen: Tell us about when you arrived.
Jacob: It was still morning when we arrived at (Redacted) National Park. Even though the Sun was rising we couldn't see it because of all that smoke that the wind carried with it. The sky was still dark and grey. In the past people have gone missing – hikers, seasoned outdoors people, old, young. Sometimes, it was case of someone straying off a path or making a wrong turn, but for the most they would be found alive and shaken. But something seemed different about that day. There were multiple teams of people dispatched throughout the park – on foot with scent hounds, horseback, jeep, helicopter. Hiking trails were searched, main roads, back roads, we had people going through the brush.
Curwen: The report says you discovered a cave about 10 kilometers south from the campsite.
Jacob: Yes. It was an undocumented cave. Nobody had known about its existence until recently. My team had been in charge of going through the brush on foot, the dog handlers were arguing among each other. It was because the dogs were acting strange, like something had spooked them. They were whimpering and whining with their tails stuck between their legs, some of them were even hiding behind their handlers. It was very bizarre. The dogs seemed sure about the scent trail, but as soon as we got to a certain area they recoiled in fear.
Wozniak: What can you say about the cave?
Jacob: The cave—
Wozniak: How did you find it?
Jacob: At the time, I had entirely failed to notice where I was going exactly. It’s hard to describe what I felt. Like I was in some kind of trance. I almost felt like I was being called by someone. I don’t mean I actually heard a voice, but I felt compelled to head in that direction. And on the ground directly in front of me I found a pink Nike shoe, a little girls shoe. At that moment, it was as if I returned to consciousness. About twenty yards from where I found the shoe was the cave entrance obscured by large spruce trees.
Curwen: After you discovered the shoe, you found the cave you decided to check it out.
Jacob: The cave entrance was a hole in the ground, big enough for a person to crawl into. I stood at the entrance of the cave staring down into it, the floor sloped at an angle. I took out my flashlight and made my way into the very mouth of the cave, shining the light into the darkness trying to spot anything. I had to crab walk my way down the sloping floor. Listen Detectives, there are things that are, how would be the best way to put it, things that are out there. Strange things you know. I’m not sure you’re going to believe me. You’ll call me crazy. I assure you I’m not crazy or making any of this up.
Curwen: We do not think that. We want to help you. And you’ll help us. Just tell us what you saw.
Jacob: Okay. The first thing I saw in the cave were petroglyphs carved into the very rock by ancient indigenous people. There are many of these located throughout the foothills, the Rocky Mountains, many of them thousands of years old. These particular ones depicted hunters chasing the mighty Buffalo off of cliffs. I remember reaching out and tracing them with a finger all the while thinking to myself, I might be the first person in ages to lay eyes on them.
Curwen: What did you find next?
Jacob: Several feet away, I found something on the cavern floor, it was what appeared to be a very old leather satchel. I felt my heart jump a little as I approached it. It was cracked and coated in countless layers of dust. I carefully opened the bag and found a broken compass, a rusty water canteen, a leather bound book titled ‘Le Demon’ and a flintlock pistol with the year 1715 engraved into the side. I remember staring down at the contents of the bag, with the flashlight becoming warm in my hands. I sat there trying to make sense of things. That's when I was startled by a noise.
Wozniak: What was it that you heard?
Jacob: It sounded like something being broken, a snapping sound.
Wozniak: What did you do next?
Jacob: I shined the light further down the cave tunnel, from where the sound came from. I decided to move towards it, but it required me to go further down the sloping cave floor and when I got to the bottom I saw a pair of feet – one foot a pink Nike shoe on it, the other was bare. I hurried down as fast I could and found a girl of no more than seven. She was dead. Her neck had been broken –
Wozniak: But there were other injuries listed.
Jacob: Yes. On both sides of her neck were deep puncture marks. Her arms and legs as well. All the color in her skin was gone, it was as if all of her blood had been drained. And the look on her face, that expression of complete horror. I could hear the sound of my beating heart in the silent cave; I began to feel faint. I began to cry right there in those depths. The cold indifference of the universe had hit me like a train. This child suffered an agonizing death in that inky darkness. With my trembling hands I began reaching for my radio, but I was distracted by another sudden snapping sound.
Curwen: The rest of the Chang family was down there.
Jacob: They were piled on top of each other, like a heap. They suffered the same fate as the little girl – broken necks and punctures on the legs and arms, blood removed from their veins.
Wozniak: The report says this was an animal attack, possibly a mountain lion—
Jacob: I didn't say that. I said that it was something.
Wozniak: Tell us about it.
Jacob: You wouldn't believe me.
Wozniak: Try us.
Jacob: It was a thing that should not be walking. Something that once was dead but given life once more. There are cultures across the world who have a different name for it. The thing that I encountered was a vampire.
Curwen: A vampire?
Jacob: I’m not talking about a man in a cape or some pale heartthrob. I am talking about a creature. A parasite. A leech. While it shares similarities to things in nature, it is a thing that should not exist. What I saw was crouched on top of the family members, directly above the father. It had its face buried in the man's neck; I distinctly remember hearing a sucking sound. The man was still alive; I could hear weak choking sounds coming from his throat. I can still hear it now.
Wozniak: What did it look like?
Jacob: At first glance, it looked like a small human being, much like a child. I don’t even know the best way to describe it. Do you watch the National Geographic Channel, Discovery, NOVA? If you have, you’re probably familiar with Otzi the Iceman. That 5000 year old ice mummy that was discovered frozen in the Alps. That is the only thing I can compare it to. It was draining the life from that poor man, it’s eyes were closed and it was moving its head from side to side. It withdrew its bloody maw from the mans neck and cruelly broke it. It turned its head towards me and opened its eyes. They were like black marbles– the pupils a bright red. I froze in place, my mind simply could not accept what was right in front of me. My body began to feel numb, I was having difficulties breathing, and my thoughts were racing through my brain. Primal fear had taken over.
It was that very fear all of us inherited from our ancestors. The very ancestors that would have been scratching the dirt very mindful of the day hours left. Because the night was dangerous, that was when beasts would come out. Stealthy like phantoms, you would never know they were there until it was too late. Now and then someone would sleep just a bit too far away from the fire and be pulled away into the long grass, their agonizing screams would fade into the night.
I think that maybe human society is like a little bubble that we like to surround ourselves in. We surround ourselves with light, noise, and other people to keep out the cold, dark, and the unknown that exists on the fringes that forms the wider universe. We shun the notion of an otherness being out there beyond the human world waiting to come in. Maybe the reality we live in is a dark and capricious universe that allows these things to exist. Perhaps, one day you're just going on about your everyday life and the universe just points at you and says, oh there you are, a curious human being. I've been looking for you.
Wozniak: What happened next?
Jacob: The next thing that the creature did was to stand up bare its sharp teeth like a feral animal, it cocked its head and smiled at me. It started to speak.
Curwen: It talked to you?
Jacob: At first, it was an incomprehensible whispering gibberish. But soon it became clear.
Curwen: What did it say?
Jacob: I am the past. You are the future.
Wozniak: What does that mean?
Jacob: I don’t know. The thing took one step towards me, in a desperate panic I drew my emergency flare gun and fired directly at the thing. The whole chamber was lit up with a blazing red light from that sizzling flare. A moment later I realized that the creature had actually caught the flare in one of its hands and was holding the burning flare. I bolted out of there. I scrambled back up the cavern and tripped out onto the surface, a beam of sunlight broke through a clearing in the smoky sky. Next, I made contact with the rest of my team and told them about the family down in that cave. Armed officers made their way into the cavern, they found the deceased family but there was no sign of the creature. That thing is still out there. I don’t think you can hunt it down and kill it.
Curwen: Is there anything else you can say?
Jacob: Yes. I spent some time looking into the history of the park, back in 1985 a team of geologists discovered a hidden burial chamber at the base of one of the mountains. Inside that vault was what appeared to be some kind of box, a stone and wood coffin. Radio carbon dating places it in the 29th century BC. Nobody knows who the coffin was meant for, or what happened to the remains.
Ever since that encounter I can’t help but glance over my shoulder, always expecting that thing to appear behind me. There are nights where I wake up screaming from a recurring nightmare.
Wozniak: Tell us about this nightmare.
Jacob: I find myself walking on a long stretch of shore next to a lake, sand edged by surrounding forest. I know this lake; I used to frequent this place with my family when I was younger. There were campgrounds and hiking trails surrounding the lake. But this time I was by myself on the great expanse of sand, it was autumn and the sun was low on the horizon just peeking over the edge of the lake. Everything was basked in the orange glow of the setting sun. There was a bitter wind that was whipping sand around and I had to place my hands over my eyes to keep sand and other debris from getting in my eyes. 
At first, I thought that I was all alone on this lakeside beach, but I glanced behind me and found that I was in fact not alone. In the distance, there was a person who was from what I could see making a great effort to catch up to me. I stopped to let the person catch up, but something was not right. Despite the person apparently running towards me, he or she made no progress, the distance between us was not closing. I guess apprehension took over me because I decided to start moving, and that's when I heard something, it was a like an electronic mewling sound, like a bass note from a synthesizer. 
It was coming from behind me, from that person. I looked behind me and I really wish I hadn't. There was something different about the person now, it was the motion. It was like the person was having a violent full body spasm, the limbs flailed about wildly, the person bent at the spine in ways impossible, without breaking it. The head twitched around in much of the same manner. And in an instant the person was directly in front of me and I fell backwards. I remember ash color skin, black eyes with scintillating red dots for pupils.
Wozniak: Thank you for your time, Jacob, we’ll talk to your family members for a little after this. And if you ever feel like you need to talk to someone, or anything like that, there's nothing wrong with that. Just let your family know and call us.
Jacob: Alright.
Curwen: Okay we're ending the interview at 1644 hours.
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