The Tale of the Beast of Mulberry Street

The newest member of our “Doe” family here at Hillbrook, who I've dubbed June, patient #854's past is equal amounts tragic and horrific.  So you know, par for the course around here.  As no one knows where June's story really begins, we instead start where the “Beast of Mulberry Street”'s story starts.

Back during the oppressive heat of the July of 2010, it happened that a young boy disappeared with little trace from his home on, of course, Mulberry Street.  The only sign at all was some disturbed vegetation and some smears of blood coming from the direction of the nearby woods.  The story the police gave was that the poor boy had decided to jump the fence that separated his back yard from the woods, in an effort to adventure and explore, and there he had run afoul of some animal lurking in the forest.  In hindsight, this explanation of events was not wrong.

Despite many searches throughout the surrounding area, the boy's body was never found.  While this devastated the boys parents and family, and caused quite a stir in the neighborhood, it was always viewed as an isolated incident.  That was until two weeks later, when the officials found the bloody remains of a camp site in the woods, in what would later be called the second attack by the Beast of Mulberry Street.  A single father had taken his two sons out to enjoy a camping trip in the local woods.  When the authorities found their tent, they found the father lying dead with his throat ripped out and covered in his own blood, they found a fully loaded shotgun unfired next to his body, and they did not find his children at all.

The officials were stumped.  What kind of animal could have done something like this?  This did not have the signs of an attack by a bear, or a pack of wolves, or a mountain lion.  The bite marks on the dead man's neck also did not match anything they could identify.  People began to whisper that some terrifying monster lived in the surrounding woods.  In hindsight, they were not wrong.

This discovery shook Mulberry Street to its very core.  A new curfew was established, young children were not left out of sight for even a minute, and the forest was avoided at all cost.  This response halted the Beasts attacks...for about a month.

In early August, a 14 year old girl who was left at home alone for the night, had for some reason wondered outside, and was taken by the Beast.  This time every able bodied man in the area was gathered and armed, separated into teams, and marched out into the forbidden woods with deadly determination.  Unlike the searches before, this was not an attempt to find a lost child or a dangerous wild animal, this was a monster hunt, pure and simple.  The men of Mulberry Street and nearby were no different than the pitchfork and torch wielding mobs of the films of old.

Toting guns and flash lights into the nights, the men searched for hide or hair of anything that could be referred to as a “Beast”.  Several poor foxes and raccoons met their fate that night, as roving hunters were trigger happy for anything with fur and teeth.  Despite being separated in groups and being given flashlights, they were walking through the woods at night, so of course a few of the men end up being split off and lost in the night.  One such man ends up fumbling lost in the dark, finds a hidden den in a cluster of trees.

Slowly making his way through the low and narrow path, shining his light forward, and holding his pistol behind him.  When he finally reaches the end he finds what he was looking for.  Lying on the dirt is the girl who was taken, here eyes staring up frozen in fright, her abdomen ripped open, and the Beast of Mulberry Street ripping chunks out of her to gorge upon.

The beast is a human woman seemingly with all humanity absent.  Covered in dirt and blood, with long unkempt hair, with sharpened teeth, long claw like finger nails, and completely naked as she fed upon the dead girl.  As soon as the flashlight shined on her face she stared into the light with her dead shark like eyes, her mouth still chewing on human meat.

Still frozen in shock, the hunter was taken by surprise when the feral woman jumped over her victim and charged him, knocking the poor man back on his ass.  This hunter was different from her previous victims though, he was a full grown and very awake man.  The hunter rolls her under him and fervently  beats her in the head with his flashlight.  Eventually the cannibal woman falls unconscious and stops struggling with him.  The hunter then pulls out his gun, ready to put the miserable creature out of its misery, when he shines the light on it again.  Despite all that it she had done, despite the murdered girl's blood covering her face, lying there unconscious she was just a sleeping woman, and in the end he couldn't do it.  Eventually the cannibal woman, our June Doe, is arrested and naturally sent through the system, until she reached our door.

It is my theory that no other psychiatric help has been effective for our June because it has treated her as a human patient.  Given her feral nature, I find it much more effective to try and train her, like an animal.  I believe that once condition her to behave more civilly, then maybe we can try and teach her niceties, like language.