The Viennese Ghost

It was night time. It’s really hard being a twenty first century cop in Edinburgh, and the most dangerous part of our job is good ol’ boredom. As there is virtually nothing interesting to do around here, especially during nighttime, I guess us Scots lost our warrior spirit along the way somewhere and became quiet folk like the rest of them. As during all nights most workers had gone home earlier and a very few of us were left, that night the majority of these few left for the streets, someone called in to report a bloody corpse they found. That left me and four other guys in the station, such were are lives; hardest work around here is finding a thief or a hit and run offender and so that night, like always, the boredom had started taking its toll on me. I’ve decided it’d be a good idea to look around in the stations archives, hoping something interesting enough to occupy my mind with, perhaps some unsolved case or something. I’ve started looking around at older cases the majority of which were closed cases or dropped ones just laying there for God knows what reason. Eventually I came across a very old dusty file, it was an open case, something unsolved that originated from the past few decades, I thought. I pull out the dusty file from the shelf and once I see, the title of the file I find myself dumb folded. The title says, “The Case of the Viennese Ghost”, what kind of name is that? I think to myself, what’s wrong with people lately, I keep thinking. I opened the file and there were a bunch of yellowed dusty letters written in red ink, below the letters there are reports surrounding the case, I gave them a quick glance and noticed something strange about these reports, the dates on them are from over a century ago. Something was clearly here, but no matter how wrong or fake this appeared, it appealed to my curious side and I set down to read the whole thing.

The first report contained the following; “We’ve entered a big house and right away it was clear that something horrible had transpired here, there is a copious amount of blood smeared on everything – inside and out. Unfortunately it was all human blood as during the inspection of the house we’ve found a corpse in the kitchen with a cracked skull (most likely the cause of death), the corpse lacked it’s arms, we later found them on a couch in the living room. Another corpse was found in a bed room, it’s head decapitated but reattached via some kind of metallic rod.

The worst has yet to come for us however, we later found a girl, alive, in the closet; she looked like she’s been forced to watch the whole ordeal. If I must give detail on the state we’ve found her here I’m going to say she was unnaturally pale and her eyes were widened beyond what I’ve know is possible. The girl kept mumbling about a ghost… a ghost with freakishly terrifying smile; I personally find it sad that there are such humans in our world, who would force a child to watch their parents death. Chief Inspector, J. McIntyre 06/02/1887”

At that moment I’ve come to realize that whoever this murderer was, they were worryingly smart, the ability to escape such a scene unnoticed is extremely hard. However what does make this person so, I dare say, talented, is the ability to leave the only witness unable to speak and probably recall in any way the whole ordeal. Anyway, I was way too interested in this story so I just kept on reading the second report.

“We were called into another murder scene, this time there were three victims found, all men aged between thirty and forty. It was somewhat surprising to see such a scene since from what we could gather the weapon(s) involved was not a firearm of any sort.

The chest of one of these poor souls had been ripped open literally and we suppose the culprit was trying to make a wing shape out of the person’s ribs. Another corpse was in a far worse condition, its entrails were all outside; the guts hung between the light posts as if ropes and the corpse itself were suspended in the air via this bloody chain. I suppose it’s the worst thing we’ve ever seen and the sight made some of my men to throw up, but I can’t really blame them, most people would throw up their meal just due to the smell in the area. It was clear to all of us that we are not dealing with a normal nor most likely even a sane person.

The third victim was somehow still alive at the time we arrived, even though his arms were nailed to a post and his lower body was thrown a few feet away from him. When we came, he was unable to speak already, however we could make out something about a ghastly figure with a diabolical smile and sleepy eyes, and a letter.

Indeed we found a letter left on the floor the contents of this letter state that the culprit is appreciative of our work and hopes we can continue what they have called ‘this game of cat and mouse’. The letter was signed with ‘with love from Vienna’ and so we’ve decided to nickname the murderer The Viennese Ghost.

Chief Inspector, J. McIntyre 08/02/1887”

I kept on reading the third report page and it did not include too many horrendous details of the third murder. The report stated; “We’ve left off again to find a couple of mutilated corpses, seems this time it was a couple whose heads were nailed together with what seems like an extremely rusted spear like weapon. From an initial examination of the documents, we’ve found among the belongings of that duo, they were a newlywed couple.

The Ghost had left us another letter, and its contents were interesting to say the least, the letter stated that the culprit is excited by this game of cat and mouse, and that the this person was to meet me in person as according to their words, I am an interesting creature. The culprit has invited me to meet them if I am brave enough at 1 am at the Flemings’ mansion on the 6th of September. Signed once again by the phrase ‘With love from Vienna’

I must admit, these words, instead of tarrying me into giving up the case fueled me with a sense of duty and increased my will to end the endeavors of this sick bastard, I am going to most definitely end this at the 6th of September.

Chief Inspector, J. McIntyre 08/06/1887”

By that point I was already overcome with intrigue and something of an excitement, the suspense became to unbearable to even let myself think about what I’ve just read a moment ago and so I’ve read the fourth and final report, much to my surprise it recounts the whole encounter between the Viennese Ghost and Chief Inspector McIntyre. It said; “6th of September, I set at the gates of the Flemings mansion and waited for that bastard to arrive so we could end this little fairytale of theirs and finally close off this case. I guess they arrived some time just before 1 am, I suppose I was drifting asleep as a loud scream from inside the estate caught me by surprised and jolted me up. I ran into the building itself but by the time I managed to break in through the door all the screaming had subsided. Once I’ve entered the house I was shocked to see a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, sitting atop of Philip Fleming’s back. She was playing with the patriarch’s colt between her fingers. I was unsure what to make of the scene until the girl smiled at me, her smile stretching from ear to ear, her eyes remained sleepy and her overall appearance gave off an eerie sensation. At that moment I’ve realized I’m standing face to face with the Devil that had killed until now at least ten people (around that time I noticed Mrs. Fleming crawling on the floor forming a blood trail on the floor behind her and the corpses of their children just laying there).

I pulled out my gun and aimed at her, but she remained unfazed, her expression unchanged and somehow we struck of a conversation. She explained to me that she’s playing by her own admission a twisted Robin Hood in our neighborhood. She said that she is taking out powerful people who are not afraid to use their power and resources in order to increase their already large fortunes even if it means stealing from the poor. This statement was not untrue really, as all of the people whom she killed by now were people who fit her description. In spite of our seemingly friendly conversation and her apparent trust towards me, I hadn’t trusted her, not one bit. The calm atmosphere around her and her own peaceful demeanor had given me the confidence to call out my backup without her noticing so that we could apprehend her. Thus I did, during the somewhat casual chitchat we had I noted my backups who were waiting outside to bust inside and end this whole, sad ordeal. My men ran into the house and in a blink of an eye, she rose up from the corpse she was sitting on and kicked one of the boys right into a wooden support pillar breaking his back in the progress. Probably the scariest part of this whole thing was when she somehow dodged bullets while pulling out two daggers from the sleeves of her garment. She proceeded to slaughter all of my men, sparing me, and when it came to just her and me, I suppose one of the bullets hit the fire place and caused an explosion because the last thing I remember is the smoke and fire everywhere, but no girl. I fully awoke about a week later, in the hospital, with bandages on my torso. My physical injuries amount to a few not too serious burns but the mental scars, the ones that will stay with me forever, they are forcing me to withdraw from my duty as a policeman and an officer in her Majesty’s Law Enforcement system. Here by I, James Rupert McIntyre declare my retirement into civilian life.

I also recommend her Majesty’s police forces to withdraw from this case, as we are not entitled to dealing with matters suit for the church, such as the supernatural or mystic, this is clearly a case regarding one or both the aforementioned. J. McIntyre 9/16/1887”

Just as I finished reading the final report, my personal cell phone rang, I answered the call and It was one of the guys in the field, he told me something that almost broke me.

He said, “Hey Alex, there’s some weird writing here next to the body, it says ‘With love from Vienna’ written in blood…” I have stopped paying attention to what he was saying as I was being overcome by thoughts and emotions. I had hoped its some copycat who’s read about the case on the internet or something but then I heard the guy on the phone say, “It’s written in blood…” you can say that, on an instinct I dropped the case from my hand, realizing I’m holding papers containing text written in blood.

I knelt to pick up the case and the ending of the last report in the case was right in front of my eyes “such as the supernatural or mystic, this is clearly a case regarding…” I tried not to start believing in the supernatural, but how couldn’t I? It says there, in black on white that she dodged bullets and broke a almost broke a guy in half by kicking him once… What else could it be if not supernatural not to mention the sudden reappearance of the same modus operanti after over a century; there was something unnatural about this whole thing.

I got up to my feet and what I saw in the window made my blood freeze in its tracks, it felt like time was stopped, in that darned window, stood a silhouette of a woman of average height, dressed in a long dark garment complete with a hood over her head. Her gaze, it was seemingly tired and sleepy and her smile… Her horrible smile… It looked like it had been stretched into an inhuman size. I mumbled to my phone something along the lines of “there’s some issue with the electricity, I’ll call you back later” and turned my phone off. The silhouette remained unmoved, just staring at me, through me. I closed my eyes shut tightly for a moment hoping that this would make the image disappear from my sight. I wish I hadn’t done that – once I opened my eyes, she was inside the room, with me, the other guys, they were sleeping I guess, she started walking towards me. I pulled out my gun but by that point she simply passed by me and when I turned around she was gone.

Gone, forever you might think. Alex it was just an imagination or maybe a stress induced hallucination, you might think. No, she was gone only for that specific night. Ever since that God damned evening I kept seeing her everywhere I look, just looking, mocking, laughing at me silently with her demonic smile. It made me quit my job, and only then, I went to the doctors who funnily enough said that everything is fine with me… Nothing is fine with me, God! A man who’s everything OK with wouldn’t complain about seeing a woman who is not there all the time, A man who’s fine wouldn’t attempt three suicides, but never mind, right now, as its only me and her, as I’m writing this, it's the final entry in my diary, as she is mocking me with her smile, I’m going to come… Out… A way out... Found a way out! No one is going to show up here for the next few days, they took a vacation, but I cannot, there is no escape from the Viennese Ghost, she is relentless, I hope that I won’t meet her in hell… I hope that these pills will be enough to do the job.

Goodbye, Cruel world!

The following was read the diary of Alexander Black… sadly he did not quite make it, as the pills he chose to consume had finally worked for him that time, but on a more positive note, I truly hope you have enjoyed my retelling of the encounters I have had with the fine Scotsmen, James McIntyre and Alexander Black.

With love from Vienna,

Elizabethin Hood.