©1990 Steve Hatherley
[This needs some explanation. The original edition of TUO1 did not have
this piece in it; Steve sent it in after he read the first edition. In the
first mass-market (i.e. more than 100 copies) edition I added this piece
to the magazine. Steve had published a booklet collecting dozens of Tales
of Terror in this same format, a booklet we sold by mail for a while until
they were all gone. “Tales of Terror” continue in TUO to this
day.]
Little Death Prayers are said, vigilance kept, but still it is not enough.
Still they die. Somebody is murdering children. Naked, nails through both
feet and one hand, heavily mutilated and wildly contorted, at least one
tiny corpse is discovered per week. It is a terrible way to die, and the
police are doing their utmost to catch the perpetrator. So far they have
had no luck.
Possibilities:
1. The children are murdered by a gaunt, white haired man. They are found
in cheap hotels and derelict buildings, and enough eye-witnesses have appeared
to give the police an accurate picture of the killer. However, they have
yet to apprehend him: he seems to be able to stay one step ahead of his
pursuers.
The man is a fortune-teller, selling his services to the highest bidder
— often the underworld. He kidnaps the children, drugs and nails them to
the floor. The child then dances a self-mutilating dance, and in it the
man can see the future. His clients pay well for the service, which is unerringly
accurate, and are able to line up further clients. Within the dance, the
man can see his adversaries (including the police), and where they are due
to strike next. Thus forewarned, he is able to flee.
2. The children were Dreamers, sacrificed in their sleep by a cult in Dylath-Leen.
They are found dead in their bedrooms with no sign of a break-in, having
mutilated themselves. The police have no leads at all, and there is nothing
obvious to link the children.
The investigating authorities will soon discover that the killings are worldwide.
The cult is making sacrifices at a rate estimated at one a night. The sacrifices
continue until the cult is somehow disbanded.
3. The police know the killings are ritual, but have yet to identify it.
All the children have been dark haired and brown skinned, and the police
have narrowed their search to the cults of Polynesia.
The killings are the work of one man, the sole survivor of an expedition
to an uncharted polynesian island home to a blasphemous temple, an ancient
cult, and unimaginable horror. He stayed far too long, the experience emptying
his mind of any lasting reason and sanity. In their place insatiable red
demons took up residence.
He returned to civilization some months ago, barely able to function in
society. He kills regularly in a vain effort to satisfy the bottomless hunger
within his skull.