The neighborhood went into a panic after Maggie disappeared. Parents started pulling their kids out of school, families moved to other neighborhoods, kids quit playing in the streets.
I'm still not sure what it was about my area of town that attracted all the bloodshed. See, it wasn't just children that were disappearing.
My babysitter Cecilia was found in an abandoned building. She'd been raped and killed there. When they searched Cecilia's apartment, they found a young man named Kevin whom she'd brought home the night before. He was found in the kitchen. Raped with his throat slashed open. Her dog, Ringu, was found next to the Kevin's body.
The dog had the same injuries.
Then there was my mom's friend, Ms. Travers. Nicolas Troy was the name of her boyfriend, the father of her child. He killed their baby girl, Janey, and disappeared after calling Ms. Travers to tell her what he'd done.
What the autopsy revealed was much worse.
Janey's vagina contained copious amounts of Nicolas' semen. When the coroner had Janey x-rayed, they found multiple fractures in various stages of repair. It looked as if Janey's whole life had been one of pain and suffering.
Nicolas wasn't finished terrorizing our city though.
At the beginning of my third grade year, I learned a new word.
Cannibal.
Nicolas had been busy in the time since he killed Janey. When he disappeared, everyone thought that he'd fled.
He hadn't. He moved into an older apartment building on the outskirts of downtown Austin and proceeded to kidnap several University of Texas co-eds. He worked for the apartment building as a super. When someone went over Nicolas' head and complained to management about a horrible smell, he abandoned ship.
What was left of the co-eds was found in multiple Tupperware containers in his fridge. Apparently, Nicolas bought a deli slicer and sliced the co-eds up for sandwiches. It's believed that when the thinly sliced flesh started to go bad, as all meat does, he kept eating and grew ill.
When all this came out, I vaguely remember there being rumors that the building Nicolas' supervised was haunted. People talked about hearing whispers through the wall.
I also learned another new word in third grade.
Faggot.
Like so much of what happened, it all started at lunch.
"So when is your dad bringing you over?"
Ivan asked me this as we filed into the school cafeteria.
He was talking about a birthday sleepover at his house. It was supposed to be my first sleepover.
"What are you guys talking about?" Jonah asked.
"Nothing," Ivan said. "It's a secret."
I frowned. I didn't understand why it needed to be a secret. Ivan was my best friend though, so I thought maybe he had a reason.
"A secret?" Austin asked. "Secrets are for girls. Are y'all girlfriend-girlfriend or something?"
I giggled at that. The idea of Ivan and I being girlfriend-girlfriend was hilarious to my third grade mind.
Ivan and Jonah didn't laugh.
"Are you two faggots now?" Jonah asked.
Ivan, Austin, and I all stared at Jonah.
Ivan looked around to find the teacher and then asked Jonah in a hushed voice, "What the hell is a faggot?"
Jonah shook his head at us. "It's when two boys or two girls make a baby together."
