#mercy brown vampire incident

[lobotomized-housewife]

visited the grave of supposed vampire, mercy brown today. i don’t even believe in the supernatural yet this was still an absolutely chilling experience

today the larger grave is just a headstone, but mercy was initially buried there after her death in 1892 at 19 years old due to tuberculosis. her whole family had fallen ill and it was suspected to be due to supernatural causes.

mercy’s body was subsequently exhumed and upon exhumation it was found her body lacked decomposition, so much to the point where her heart still contained blood. at the time this was taken as a sign that she was undead, and therefore the cause of her family’s illness.

thus, her heart and liver were burned and the ashes mixed with water were given to her brother, who was still alive but sick with tuberculosis in order to cure him of his ailment.

after her exhumation mercy was reburied under the smaller headstone simply marked “M B”

[marzipanandminutiae]

What’s the New England vampire panic?

:D

:D :D :D

IT. IS. FUN.

(to research- it was probably horrifying to live through. just so we're clear)

basiclly, it was a series of incidents in response to tuberculosis outbreaks throughout New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont) during the late 18th and 19th centuries. it wasn't actually a single event, but rather isolated cases of TB being blamed on revenants rather than disease. where this belief prevailed, people frequently exhumed the alleged vampire, burned their heart or another organ on a blacksmith's anvil, and mixed the ashes into water for living consumptive people to drink

unsurprisingly, this never worked

though the earliest documented incident was in 1793, most people's awareness of this phenomenon coalesces around the 1892 death and exhumation of Mercy Lena Brown, of Exeter, Rhode Island. after dying of TB at age 19, Mercy was posthumously accused of afflicting her brother with the disease. despite drinking the ashes of her heart and liver in water, he- shocker! -died. the Brown case reached the popular press, who reacted to it with a sort of morbid fascination. "look what these crazy backwards Country People did" energy. Brown's grave has become a popular site for legend-tripping among Exeter teens since then- the game is to stand there and say, "Mercy Lena Brown, are you a vampire?" and see what happens

aforementioned classism and/or regional prejudice is a fascinating aspect of the Vampire Panic(s). like I said, a lot of the commentary- even going back to the 18th century -takes a tone of bemused horror that such superstitions could still exist, and of judgment on the intelligence of those involved

but honestly, before widespread understanding of TB bacteria...it COULD have been vampires, for all people knew. most of them were aware that it wasn't, but when your choices are "it's a disease; do nothing and watch your loved one die" vs. "it's vampires; do this thing and your loved one might not die, even though there's no proof it works," one might want to feel like one was at least trying

and unlike other mass hysteria cases a la Salem, nobody actually got killed because of a Vampire Panic. just saying

(there's a theory that Bram Stoker may have been partially inspired by the Brown case in writing Dracula, but I've seen no compelling evidence that it inspired him any more or less than any other vampire story)

[misskriemhilds]

the jewishness of eternity from reverse: 1999, and why this is important to me

first and foremost: i doubt that any of the jewishness of eternity from reverse: 1999 was intentional on bluepoch's part. this is personal interpretation, and i am not trying to insinuate that it was intentional of the game developers. but nevertheless, i find eternity's character to be deeply comforting and resonant with me, specifically with regards to my own viewpoint as a young woman who is american jewish.

let us begin with her backstory:

at the end of the 19th century, torches constantly lit up the night sky of exeter, a frontier town in the usa.  the door of her store was closed. in a dimly lit room, on the shelves stood many candy jars. the last young buyer of these candies had been sent to that crowded, shabby cemetery (if you prefer to call it that) three months ago.  too many farms had been destroyed in the civil war, and plague was not the only terrible thing to develop from the ashes: fear of an unknown future also gradually turned into madness. the candies were taken down. instead, the store owners now stock their shelves with garlic necklaces and bottles of holy water.  more and more vampires were brought to trial, and the seed of suspicion grew in everyone's mind. the once-friendly residents became ruthless intruders and broke into the woman's house, despite the help she had provided them.  but they found nothing in her house. it seemed to have been long abandoned. the floor was covered with dead shellfish, under which there were marks of dried blue blood.  peace didn't come back to the town of exeter until the day when everyone heard about a disease called tuberculosis.

now, i retroactively found out that this aspect of her backstory was likely inspired by the mercy brown vampire incident, which i haven't researched all that thoroughly. what i want to emphasize in this context is that these trials in eternity's backstory were specifically a result of post-civil war paranoia causing exeter's townspeople to suspect others of being vampires causing misfortune.

it is important to stress that while not every portrayal of vampire characters in fiction are antisemitic portrayals, vampires being used as antisemitic caricatures is not uncommon. similarly, while jewish people have not necessarily been subject to the same legal discrimination or systemic oppression in the u.s. as much as other minorities (that said, it wasn't non-existent, and jewish people were definitely subject to systemic oppression and worse legal discrimination in other countries outside of the u.s.) it is not uncommon for us to be used as scapegoats when disaster strikes. that's why so many conspiracy theories have antisemitic routes; it's harder to acknowledge and analyze the complicated reasons as to why things in the world suck than it is to pin it on a more tangible scapegoat - more often than not, the jews.

i think with eternity from reverse: 1999, that definitely holds the same weight here. whether or not she is officially a vampire is a bit murky (to be honest, i'd say if she is then she's doing the vampire equivalent of keeping kosher by consuming the flesh of sea creatures, even if i'm pretty sure stuff like whales or jellyfish are officially considered treyf), but she was persecuted for being different.

in this jewish reading: it did not matter that she was one of "the good jews", it did not matter the kindness she had shown to exeter's people in the past, when their circumstances took a turn for the worse their memories of antisemitic imagery and myth they had subconsciously absorbed from all the fairytales they read flared to life and they realized how nice and easy it would be to get rid of all their problems if they directed it at the jewish woman residing in their little town.

surely, if the vampire - the witch, the jew, died - then their troubles would be gone, right?

on a broader, less concrete extent regarding eternity i'd also like to bring up her tagline when we first meet her - the one that all r:1999 characters have regarding their age and their ethnic background.

the exhibit was later displayed all over america.

i think this could definitely be a general reference to eternity's immortality. after all, if you've suddenly got all the time in the world you might as well tour your home country and hit the highlights, right?

from a jewish perspective, i think this feels very resonant with the experience of american-jewish diaspora. there are oftentimes when people like us are desperately searching for a place to call home and when we think we've found it, social antisemitism starts spiking up. we want a place to call home - not necessarily as a people, but definitely in the context of being jewish - and even in america where we've been here since its conception as a country, we're not even sure if we can find a place to call home.

and in a jewish context, eternity spends over a century in search of somewhere to call home. her traveling all across the usa takes on a more deliberate context - moving out of areas as soon as you realize maybe the spikes in antisemitism in your place of residence aren't going to pass as quickly as you'd like, and moving out as soon as you can because you have the luxury to. she looks for somewhere she can call home, but this there anywhere that can act as a true home for someone like her?

"there are no chill jews," is something we jewish people like to half-joke about from time to time; that is something that i certainly read into with eternity's voice lines. in particular: "my immortality allows me to be well-informed. no matter the dead or alive, you can have your answer from me as long as the pay is adequate. but just like anyone with a clear mind won’t touch a hot potato, i suggest you keep your little nose clean."

the reason there are no chill jews is because a lot of said "chill jews" died. as soon as our ancestors realized, "alright, people hate us and are using us as scapegoats, let's get the hell out of here" they left. that's how they survived. eternity's immortality allows her to be "well-informed", in a jewish reading, about how she is perceived as a jewish woman throughout time and across the usa. thanks to her old age, she has learned to be vigilant about this, and to keep watch so she can resume her life - maybe she'd have no reason to worry about death, being immortal, but at the same time it would be nice to just live and breathe in peace as a jewish woman. as she says in her voice line when you touch her head, "...what really matters is a good mind and a clear view of the time."

(as an aside, my dear friend @kingoffiends commented in our dms that eternity's voicelines remind him of his very frum grandmother from her phrasing and tone alone. this is only somewhat relevant but i thought i should put it here regardless.)

but not all is doom and gloom with eternity, even with the pains of immortality.

to quote rabbi lord jonathan sacks from his book studies in spirituality: "in judaism joy is the supreme religious emotion. here we are, in a world filled with beauty. every breath we breathe is the spirit of god within us. around us is the love that moves the sun and all the stars. we are here because someone wanted us to be. the soul that celebrates, sings."

where is the joy in eternity?

well, for all of the worst parts of immortality she has still been handed the opportunity to live forever. and eternity will live as happily as she will damn well please. though not all is sunshine and rainbows in her life, she delights in 29-inch crt tvs where she can wind down with a nice glass of warm milk before bed, and takes delight in the progression of technology as time has gone on. "...let's just call it a toast and watch a vampire movie in bed." if she has forever to live, then she might as well take delight in all the small joys she can find.

(while wealthy jewish people do have stereotypical or antisemitic connotations, as a jewish person i'd like to say that i'm definitely self-aware of that when approaching her character. while she is wealthy she is not malicious, and her "read the fine print" approach to the products of the sea for yourself shop seem to be more a result of playful mischief rather than any outright malice. she's got a sort of hershele of ostropol energy to her, if you will.)

all in all, it's so very jewish of her - and it's why her character, in a jewish context, is so resonant with me. there's something very comforting that this is a woman who has lived forever, longer than i have. she may not be real, but for all of the persecution and loss she has suffered throughout life, she is determined to find happiness in even the smallest things. that sort of fortitude and determination to forge her own joy is very meaningful to me as someone jewish, and it's why i approach her as being like me.

eternity may not be real - hell, she's likely not even officially intended to be jewish. but there's such a firm theme of sorrow and joy to her character in a jewish context, and to have even a fictional character who embodies those experiences of mine is why i hold her so close to my heart.

[captainsparklefingers]

And you know, I had another thought. It's a probably completely unrelated and wrong but as a nerd who knows a ton of random shit for no reason, I figured it might be fun to bring up.

So Quincy Morris knows what a vampire (or rather, a really hungry and murderous vampire bat) is and what they're capable of, thanks to the loss of his poor horse. But I can't help but wonder if there's another place where he could have heard the term 'vampire' in the context of humans dying.

The New England Vampire Panic, perhaps?

For those who don't know, the New England Vampire Panic (referred to here forth as the NEVP) was a mass hysteria reaction to a tuberculosis outbreak in New England in the 19th century. Before people knew what caused TB, one of the thoughts was that, because it could affect whole families, where people would gradually lose their health (in a manner not dissimilar to Lucy), that a deceased member of the family who'd died of TB was draining the life out of the rest of the family. Like a vampire.

We know now that TB is a bacterial disease and the reason it could infect a whole family was that it was highly communicable. One person gets it, the people taking care of them could easily get it, and so on. But the cause of TB wasn't discovered until much later in the 19th century, and during a time when the germ theory of disease was only just starting to take hold, and superstition and odd folk remedies still reigned (at least in parts), a dead family member draining the life out of others, while superstitious, didn't seem like the wild out there idea it does now.

Well, perhaps it did, because contemporary reaction to the NEVP was less 'oh shit vampires are loose in New England' and more 'hahaha look at these backwater superstitious fools, they think vampires are killing them.' This was probably do to the... creative methods used to deal with a 'vampire'. Turn the body over, remove and burn organs, make infected family members breathe smoke from the burning organs, eat the ashes of the burning organs...yeah. Needless to say, none of that worked, and was viewed at the time as being based in old superstitions and folk remedies.

Either way, the NEVP was in the papers, the term vampire was used, and perhaps our friend Mr. Morris read about it in the papers, this strange wasting illness believed to be caused by a supernatural force. And combine that with his one anecdote about the bat and the horse...perhaps he had a better idea of what was happening to Lucy as a result.

Or it could just be that he saw his horse drained of life. But I like to think it's a combination of the two, if only because it gives him the term 'vampire' as applied to people, and Lucy's symptoms do mirror those discribed in articles about the panic.

Either way, y'all should read about the NEVP, and its most famous incident, the Mercy Brown case, which occured in 1892. Dracula was published in 1897…so it'd be interesting if Stoker knew about these incidents and drew inspiration from them as well.

[raijae]

Authors Note: Hello there! RJ here I am currently working on this project about hidden objects and creature reports in the vaults of the Volturi. This is my first time doing something like this so here goes nothing. I would appreciate if anyone wanted to use my idea for the blade of Icarus to give me credit it is my creation that I came up with. Also if you like this please do leave a comment and a heart thank you! <3

SUBJECT: VOLTERRA VAULT FILE REQUEST #1

The Blade of Icarus (aka The Blade of Hubris):

It is said to be made of one of the scattered feathers from Icarus's fallen wings that hadn't caught fire during his flight towards the sun. It is one of the few only known weapons to peirce through a vampires skin and cause critical damage. It is said that the wounds it causes never heal. Alhough, there have been rare cases that the skin heals with assistance from the substance of a [REDACTED]. Cutting off a vampire's limb with the blade causes the limb to never reattach or grow back. In severe cases it causes a vaampire to die. It has been kept in the Volterra Vaults since the late 1700's. Incidents of the weapon being used have been documented and "filled" away. There have been a scarce amount of "incidents" since the capture of this weapon. Please contact us at [REDACTED] if you have any further information about this items sister counterpart. Here is the report you asked for I hope you may find it helpful.

Description:

The blade is an ultramarine blue-green gradiant that fades into a washed burgandy red-brown. The material used to make it is thin. It is unknown what material the blade is truly made from. the handle is golden with Icarus's symbol engraved on the handle. The blade stands at 56 inches in length and 0.5 cms in width. The handle is 28 inches long and 3 inches wide.

Incident Report #5793:

Victim:

Jonathan Murray

Wounds:

Neck Lasseration, Right Calf Amputation, Left and Right Arm Amputations

Treatment:

Upon inspection Mr. [REDACTED] tried to use the substance known as [REDACTED] to reattach the severed limbs. During the first weak Mr. Murray claimed to feel as if his arms were attached. Upon examination it was suspected that the limbs may be reattaching themselves. A week later Mr. Murray was found screamming that his arms were on fire. After ingesting [REDACTED] Mr. Murray seemed to calm down. The third week the limbs seemed to change in color. The following days the color became more prominate. It was now a clear grey. The limbs were decaying. After about a week they were pure venom. At this Mr. Murray asked to be terminated. In accordance to by-law #[REDACTED] he was taken to the courts to request release. Upon much comtemplation the courts kings, [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and [REDACTED], decided it was best to terminate the victim upon his request and examination files provided. At 15:25 the victim was set ablaze.

Report:

Before his death Mr. Murray was interviewed. He claimed that while out feeding in an alley of downtown Paris he was stabbed from behind. He moved his left arm to throw his attacker off him when his attacker sliced his arm off. Upon seeing the weapon and hearing many tales Mr. Murray tried to run but his assailent threw the weapon at him severing his right calf from his knee. Mr. Murray then fell to the floor, his attacker catching up to him faster than he expected. Mr. Murray claims it was faster than any other vampire he's been in contact with*. Before he could react the attacker then severed his right arm. the victim ecpected death but before he could beg for mercy his attacker disapeared. Mr. Murray claims that it was as if he evaporated. Later that evening a guard he was on duty with found him on the ground and took him to the medical wing.

*: It is unknown what or who attacked Mr. Murray. It will be noted for future reference. Further investigation will be decided by the courts.

[its-spooky-bitch]

The Mercy Brown Vampire Incident was an incident where fears of a vampire spread though the town. In 1892 Rhode Island, Mercy Brown had died of tuberculosis. Her brother Edwin was also sick from the disease. Neighbors told the family that a family member turned into an undead creature could be spreading the illness. George Brown exhumed his wife and daughters. All except Mercy had decomposed to a degree. Mercy was less decomposed and her heart still had blood in it. The family took this as a sign that Mercy was a vampire. Her heart and liver were burned and and mixed with tonic water. Edwin was instructed to drink the ashes. Edwin died two months later and Mercy was reburied. Although the family believed Mercy to be undead, her lack of decomposition is most likely due to being burried in winter, which made the burial site act like a freezer. This explanation did not stop the impact her story has had on culture. It is suggested by historians that the incident may have inspired parts of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula which was written five years after the incident.

[blueiskewl]

The New England Vampire Panic

The New England vampire panic was a period of terror and mass hysteria during the 19th century, caused by an outbreak of consumption blamed on vampires in the states of New England, United States.

Consumption, known today as tuberculosis (TB), is an infectious disease caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. The disease generally affects the lungs, causing a chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats and weight loss.

Across the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, outbreaks of TB spread amongst family members and households. So severe was the epidemic, that it claimed around 2 percent of the region’s population from 1786 to 1800.

When a TB sufferer died, it was assumed that they consumed the life of their surviving relatives who also became ill from TB. To protect the survivors and ward off the symptoms of consumption, the bodies of those who died were exhumed to examine for traits of vampirism.

The concept of a blood-sucking spirit or demon consuming human flesh has been told in the mythology and folktales of almost every civilisation through the centuries. One of the earliest vampiric depictions stems from cuneiform texts by the Akkadians, Samarians, Assyrians and Babylonians, where they referred to demonic figures such as the Lilu and Lilitu.

It wasn’t until the late 17th and 18th century that the folklore for vampires as we imagine, began to be told in the verbal traditions and lore of many European ethnic groups. They were described as the revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, witches, corpses possessed by a malevolent spirit or the victim of a vampiric attack that has resulted in their own viral ascension to vampirism.

During the 18th century, vampire sightings across Eastern Europe had reached its peak, with frequent exhumations and the practice of staking to kill potential revenants. This period was commonly referred to as the “18th-Century Vampire Controversy”.

In New England, vampiric traits were determined by how fresh the corpse appeared, especially if the heart or other organs still contained evidence of liquid blood. After a vampiric corpse was identified, the remains were either turned over in the grave, or in some cases the organs were burnt, and the affected family members would inhale the smoke to cure the consumption. In rare cases the deceased would be decapitated and their remains reburied.

One of the most famous cases is the Mercy Brown vampire incident in Rhode Island in 1892. Several members of George and Mary Brown’s family suffered a sequence of TB infections, with the mother, Mary Eliza being the first to die of the disease.

A newspaper report at the time documents that George Brown was persuaded to give permission to exhume several bodies of his family members by villagers and the local doctor. Their examination revealed that the bodies of both Mary and Mary Olive exhibited the expected level of decomposition, however, the corpse of the daughter, Mercy, exhibited almost no decomposition, and still had blood in the heart (likely due to her body being stored in freezer-like conditions in an above-ground crypt).

Mercy’s heart and liver were burned, and the ashes were mixed with water to create a tonic that was given to her surviving brother. What remained of Mercy’s body was buried in the cemetery of the Baptist Church in Exeter after being desecrated.

In another account by Henry David Thoreau in 1859, he wrote: “The savage in man is never quite eradicated. I have just read of a family in Vermont—who, several of its members having died of consumption, just burned the lungs & heart & liver of the last deceased, in order to prevent any more from having it” – referring to the case of Frederick Ransom from Vermont, who was exhumed and his heart was burnt on a blacksmith’s forge.

The term “vampire” wasn’t a common term used in the 19th century communities across New England, instead it was likely applied by newspapers and outsiders at the time due to the similarity with contemporary vampire beliefs in eastern Europe.

In an anthropological study by Michael Bell of the New England phenomenon, he stated that: “No credible account describes a corpse actually leaving the grave to suck blood, and there is little evidence to suggest that those involved in the practice referred to it as ‘vampirism’ or to the suspected corpse as a ‘vampire’, although newspaper accounts used this term to refer to the practice.”

[stodgysine145]

So fun fact now that Dracula is trending. Despite every thing we think Dracula was not mostly based on European Folklore at the time of its writing. It was written after the New England Vampire Panic, and more specifically Rhode Island. It was written after the story of suspected "vampire" Mercy Brown had been exhumed from her grave and had her heart removed and burned. This was one of if not the last instance of the New England Vampire Panic after it made international headlines framed as "New England Hicks Descarte Poor Mercy".

Here are some rough receipts.

Mercy Brown Incident 18892

Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1897.

[kettlecliff]

I can't sleep so I drew my oc that I've had art block with. She's a vampire named mercy brown after the 1892 vampire incident of Exeter Rhode island, look it up it's a really cool story

[alphakittenoverload]

NEW CRYPTID!! 🚨 In 1892 Rhode Island, there was the Mercy Brown vampire incident. A state wide panic of the undead. It was the best documented case on banishing the undead back to their grave. Could this have been a vampire? Do they still haunt Rhode Island? Will we ever know? 🦇 (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3ffm-Ij_pQ/?igshid=i2dxrppqgwec

[loretranscripts]

Lore Episode 30: Deep and Twisted Roots (Transcript) - 21st March 2016

tw: blood

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

In the early 1990s, two boys were playing on a gravel hill near an old, abandoned mine outside of Griswold, Connecticut. Kids do the oddest things to stave off boredom, so playing on a hill covered in small rocks doesn’t really surprise me, and my guess is they were having a blast – that is, until one of them dislodged two larger rocks. But when the rocks tumbled free and rolled down the hill, both boys noticed something odd about them. They were nearly identical in shape, and that shape was eerily familiar. They headed down the hill one last time to take a closer look, and that’s when they realised what they’d found: skulls. At first, the local police were brought in to investigate the possibility of an unknown serial killer. That many bodies all in one place was never a good sign, but it became obvious very quickly that the real experts they needed were, in fact, archaeologists – and they were right. In the end, 29 graves were discovered in what turned out to be the remnants of a forgotten cemetery. Time and the elements had slowly eroded away the graveyard, and the contents had been swallowed by the gravel. Many skeletons were still in their caskets, though, and it was inside one of them, marked with brass tacks to form the initials of the occupant, that something unusual was discovered. Long ago, it seems, someone had opened this casket shortly after burial and had then made changes to the body. Specifically, they’d removed both femurs, the bones of the thigh, and placed them across the chest. Then, moving some of the ribs and the breast bone out of the way, they placed the skull above them. It was a real-life skull and crossbones, and its presence hinted at something darker. The skeleton, you see, wasn’t just the remains of an ordinary early settler of the area. This man was different, and the people who buried him knew it. According to them, he had been a vampire. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

While it might be a surprise to some people, graves like the one in Griswold are actually quite common. Today, we live in the Bram Stoker era of vampires, so our expectations and imagery are highly influenced by his novel and the world it evokes – Victorian gentlemen in dark cloaks, mysterious castles, sharp fangs protruding over blood red lips. But the white face and red lips started life as nothing more than stage make-up, an artefact from a 1924 theatrical production of the novel called Count Dracula. Another feature we associate with Dracula, his high-collar, also started there. With wires attached to the points of the collar, the actor playing Dracula could turn his back on the audience and drop through a trap door, leaving an empty cape behind to fall on the floor moments later. The true myth of the vampire, though, is far older than Stoker. It’s an ancient tree with deep and twisted roots. As hard as it is for popular culture to fathom, the legend of the vampire and the people who hunt it actually predate Dracula by centuries. Just a little further into the past than Bram Stoker, in the cradle of what would one day become the United States, the people of New England were identifying vampire activity in their own towns and villages and then assembling teams of people to deal with what they perceived as a threat. It turns out that Griswold was one of those communities. According to the archaeologists who studied the 29 graves, a vast majority of them were contemporary to the vampire’s burial, and most of those showed signs of an illness. Tuberculosis is the most likely guess, which goes a long way toward explaining why the people did what they did. The folklore was clear – the first to die from an illness was usually the cause of the outbreak that followed. Patient 0 might be in the grave, sure, but they were still at work, slowly draining the lives of the others.

Because of this belief, bodies all across the north-east were routinely exhumed and destroyed in one way or another. In many ways, it was as if the old superstitions were clawing their way out of the depths of the past to haunt the living. The details of another case from Stafford, Connecticut in the late 1870s illustrate the ritual perfectly. After a family there lost five of their six daughters to illness, the first to have passed away was dug up and examined. This is what was recorded about the event: “Exhumation has revealed a heart and lungs,” they wrote, “still fresh and living, encased in rotten and slimy integuments, and in which, after burning these portions of the defunct, a living relative, else doomed and hastening to the grave, has suddenly and miraculously recovered”. This sort of macabre community event happened frequently in places like Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire and even Ontario, Canada, and long-time listeners of Lore will of course remember the subject of the very first episode, and how the family of Mercy Brown in Rhode Island exhumed her body after others died, doing a very similar thing. Mercy Brown wasn’t the first American vampire, though. As far as we can tell, that honour goes to the wife of Isaac Burton of Manchester, Vermont, all the way back in 1793, and for as chilling and dark the exhumation of Mercy Brown might have been, the Burton incident puts that story to shame.

Captain Isaac Burton married Rachel Harris in 1789, but their marriage was brief. Within months of the wedding, Rachel took sick with Tuberculosis, what was then called “consumption” because of the way the disease seemed to waste the person away, as if they were being consumed by something unseen. Rachel soon died, leaving her husband a young widower, but that didn’t last long. Burton married again in April of 1791, this time to a woman named Hulda Powell. But again, within just two years of their marriage, Burton’s bride became ill. Friends and neighbours started to whisper and as people are prone to do, they began to try and draw conclusions. Unanswered questions bother us, so we tend to look for reasons, and the people of Manchester thought they knew why Hulda was sick. Although Isaac’s wife, Rachel, had been dead for nearly three years, the people of Manchester suggested that she was the cause. Clearly, from her new home in the graveyard, she was draining the life from her husband’s new bride. With Burton’s permission, the town prepared to exhume her and end the curse. The town blacksmith brought a portable forge to the gravesite and nearly 1000 people gathered there to watch the grim ceremony unfold. Rachel’s liver, heart and lungs were all removed from her corpse and then reduced to ashes. Sadly, though, Hulda Burton never recovered, and she died a few months later. This ancient ritual, as far as the people of Manchester, Vermont were concerned, had somehow failed them. They did what they had been taught to do, as unpleasant as it must have been, and yet it hadn’t worked – which was odd, because that hadn’t always been the case.

A lot of what we think we know about the roots of the vampire legend is thanks to Dracula, the novel by Bram Stoker. Most of us know the basics – Stoker built a mythology around a historical figure from the fifth century named Vlad III. Vlad was from the kingdom of Wallachia, now part of modern-day Romania. Vlad had two titles: Vlad Tepes, which meant “The Impaler”, referred to his brutal military tactics in defence of his country; the other, Vlad Dracul, or “The Dragon”, referred to his membership in the Order of the Dragon, a military order founded to protect Christian Europe from the armies of the invading Ottoman Empire. But Bram Stoker never travelled to Romania. The castle that he describes as the home of Dracula, a real-life fortress known as Bran Castle, was just an image he found in a book that he felt captured the mood he was aiming for. Bran Castle, as far as historians can tell, has no connection to Vlad III whatsoever. The notion of a vampire, or at least of an undead creature that feeds on the living, does have roots in the area, though. Stoker was close, but he missed the mark by a little more than 300 miles. The real roots of the legend, according to most historians, can be found in modern-day Serbia. Serbia of today sits at the south-western corner of Romania, just south of Hungary. Between 1718 and 1739, the country passed briefly from the hands of the Ottoman Empire to the control of the Austrians. Because of its place between these two empires, the land was devastated by war and destruction and people were frequently moved around in service to the military, and as is often the case, when people cross borders, so do ideas.

Petar Blagojevich was a Serbian peasant in the village of Kisiljevo in the early 1700s. Not much is known about his life, but we do know that he was married and had at least one son, and in 1725, through causes unknown, Petar died at the age of 62. In most stories, that’s the end, but not here. You probably knew that, though, didn’t you? In the eight days that followed Petar’s death, other people in the village began to pass away. Nine of them, in fact, and all of them made startling claims on their death beds, details that seemed impossible to prove but were somehow the same in each case. Each person was adamant that Petar Blagojevich, their recently deceased neighbour, had come to them in the night and attacked them. Petar’s widow even made the startling claim that her dead husband had actually walked into her home and asked for, of all things, his shoes. She believed so strongly in this visit that she moved to another village to avoid future visits. The rest of the people of Kisiljevo took notice. Something had to be done, and that would begin with digging up Petar’s corpse. Inside the coffin, they found Petar’s body to be remarkably preserved. Some noticed how the man’s nails and hair had grown. Others remarked on the condition of his skin, which was flush and bright, not pale. It wasn’t natural, they said, and something had to be done. They turned to a man named Frombald, a local representative of the Austrian government, and together with the help of a priest he examined the body for himself. In his written report, he confirmed the earlier findings and added his observation that fresh blood could be seen inside Petar’s mouth. Frombald describes how the people of the village were overcome with fear and outrage, and how they proceeded to drive a wooden stake through the corpse’s heart. Then, still afraid of what the creature might be able to do to them in the future, the people burnt the body. Frombald’s report details all of it, but he also makes the disclaimer that he wasn’t responsible for the villager’s actions. He said that it was fear that drove them to it, nothing more. Petar’s story was powerful, and it created a panic that quickly spread throughout the region. It was the first event of its kind in history to be recorded in official government documents, but that report was still missing an official cause. Without it, the stories might have died where they started. But then, just a year later, something happened, and the legend had never been the same.

Arnold Paole was a former soldier, one of the many men transplanted by the Austrian government in an effort to defend and police their newly acquired territory. No one is sure where he was born, but his final years were spent in a Serbian village along the great Morava river, near Paraćin. In his post-war life, Arnold became a farmer, and he frequently told stories from days gone by. In one such story, Arnold claimed that he had been attacked by a vampire years before while living in Kosovo. He survived, but the injury continued to plague him until he finally took action. He said that he cured himself by eating soil from the grave of the suspected vampire, and then, after digging up the vampire’s body, he collected some of its blood and smeared it on himself. And that was it – according to Arnold and the folklore that drove him to it, he was cured. When he died in a farming accident in 1726, though, people began to wonder, because within a month of his death at least four other people in town complained that Arnold had visited them in the night and attacked them. When those people died, the villagers began to whisper in fear. They remembered Arnold’s stories – stories of being attacked by a vampire, of taking on the disease himself, stories of his own attempt to cure himself. But what if it hadn’t worked? Out of suspicion and doubt, they decided to exhume his body and examine it. Here, for what was most likely the first time in recorded history, the story of the vampire was taking on the form of a communicable disease, transmitted from person to person through biting. This might seem obvious to us now, but we’ve all grown up with the legend fully formed. To the people of this small, Serbian village, though, this was something new and horrific. What they found seemed like conclusive evidence, too: fresh skin, new nails, longer hair and beard. Arnold even had blood in his mouth. Putting ourselves in their context, it’s easy to see how they might have been chilled with fear – so they drove a stake through his heart. One witness claimed that, as the stake pierced the corpse’s chest, the body groaned and bled. Unsure of what else to do, they burned the body, and then they did the same to the four who had died after claiming Arnold attacked them. They covered all their bases, so to speak, and then walked away.

Five years later, though, another outbreak spread through the village. We know this because so many people died that the Austrian government sent a team of military physicians from Belgrade to investigate the situation. These men, led by two officials named Glaser and Flückinger, were special, though, because they were trained in communicable diseases, which was a good thing. By January 7th of 1731, just eight weeks after the beginning of the outbreak, 17 people had died. At first, Glaser had looked for signs of a contagious disease, but came up empty-handed. He noted signs of mild malnutrition, but there was nothing deadly that could be found. The clock was ticking, though. The villagers were living in such fear that they had been gathering together into large groups each night, taking turns keeping watch for the creatures they believed were responsible. They even threatened to pack up and move elsewhere. Something needed to be done, and quickly. Thankfully, there were suspects. The first was a young woman named Stana, a recent newcomer to the village who had died during childbirth early on in the outbreak. It seemed to have been a sickness that took her life, but there were other clues. Stana had confessed to smearing vampire blood on herself years before as protection, but that, the villagers claimed, had backfired, and most likely turned her into one instead. The other suspect was an older woman named Milica. She was also from another part of Serbia, and had arrived shortly after Arnold’s death. Like so many others, she had a history. Neighbours claimed that she was a good woman who never did anything intentionally wicked, but she had told them once of how she’d eaten meat from a sheep killed by a vampire, and that seemed like evidence enough to push the investigation to go deeper… literally.

With permission from Belgrade, Glaser and the villagers exhumed all of the recently deceased, opening their coffins for a full examination, and while logic and science should have prevailed in a situation like that, what they found only deepened their belief in the supernatural. Of the 17 bodies, only five appeared normal, in that they had begun to decay in a manner that should be expected. These were reburied and considered safe, but it was the other 12 that alarmed the villagers and the government men alike, because these bodies were still fresh. In the report filed in Belgrade in January of 1732, signed by all five of the government physicians who witnessed the exhumations, these 12 bodies were completely untouched by decay, organs still held fresh blood, their skin was healthy and firm, and new nails and hair had grown since burial. These are all normal occurrences as we understand decomposition today, but three centuries ago it was less about science and more about superstition. This didn’t seem normal to them, and so when the physician wrote their report, they used a term that, until that very moment, had never appeared in any historical account of such a case. They described the bodies as “vampiric”. In the face of unanswered questions, the only conclusion they could commit to was that each of the 12 bodies had been found in a “vampiric” condition. With that, the villagers did what their tradition demanded: they removed the heads from each corpse, gathered all the remains into a pile, and then burned the whole thing. The threat to the village was finally dead and gone, but it was too late. Something new had been born, something more powerful than a monster, something that lives centuries and spreads like fire: a legend.

[21:20]

Many aspects of folklore haven’t faired too well under the critical eye of science. Today, we have a much deeper understanding of how illness and disease really works, and while experts are still careful to explain that every corpse decomposes in a slightly unique way, we have a better grasp of the full picture now than any previous time in history. Answers, when we can find them, come as a relief. It’s safe to say that we don’t have to fear a vampiric infection when the people around us get sick today, but there were still people at the centre of these ancient stories, normal folk like you and me, who simply wanted to do what was right. We might do it differently today, but it’s hard to fault them for trying. Answers don’t kill every myth, though. Vampire stories, like their immortal subjects, have simply refused to die. In fact, they can still be found, if you know where to look for them. In the small, Romanian village of Marotinu de Sus, near the south-western corner that borders Bulgaria and Serbia, authorities were called in to investigate an illegal exhumation, but this wasn’t 1704 or even 1804. This happened just a decade ago. Petre Toma had been the clan leader there in the village, but after a lifetime of illness and hard drinking, his accidental death in the field almost came as a relief to his family and friends. That’s how they put it, at least. So, when he was buried in December of 2003, the community moved on. But individuals from Petre’s family began to get sick. First it was his niece, Mirela Marinescu. She complained that her uncle had attacked her in her dreams. Her husband made the same claim, and both offered their illness as proof. Even their infant child was not well. Thankfully, the elders of the village immediately knew why. In response to her story, six men gathered together one evening in early 2004. They entered the local graveyard close to midnight, and then travelled to the burial site of Petra Toma. Using hammers and chisels, they broke through the stone slab that covered the grave and then moved the pieces aside. They drank as they worked. Can you really blame them? They were opening the grave of a recently deceased member of their community, but I think it was more than that. In their minds, they were putting their lives in danger, because there, inside the grave and just uncovered, lay the stuff of nightmares – a vampire. What these men did next will sound strangely familiar, but to them it was simply the continuation of centuries of tradition. They cut open the body using a knife and a saw, they pried the ribs apart with a pitchfork, and then cut out the heart. According to one of the men who was there, when the heart was removed, they found it full of fresh blood. Proof, to them at least, that Petre had been feeding on the village. When they pulled it free, the witness said that the body audibly sighed, and then went limp. It’s hard to prove something that six incredibly superstitious men – men who had been drinking all night, mind you – claimed they witnessed in a dark cemetery, but to them it was pure, unaltered truth. They then used the pitchfork to carry the heart out of the cemetery and across the road to a field, where they set it on fire. Once it was burnt completely, they collected the ashes and funnelled them into a bottle of water. They offered this tonic to the sick family, who willingly drank it. It was, after all, what they had been taught to do, and amazingly, everyone recovered. No one died of whatever illness they were suffering from, and no one reported visits from Petre Toma after that. In their mind, the nightmare was over. These men had saved their lives. Maybe something evil and contagious has survived for centuries after all, spreading across borders and oceans. It’s certainly left a trail of horrific events in its wake, and its influenced countless tales and superstitions, all of which seem to point to a real-life cause. But far from being unique to Serbia or Romania, this thing is global. And as if that weren’t enough, this horrible, ageless monster is, and always had been, right inside each of us. Like a vampiric curse, we carry it in our blood, but its probably not what you’d expect. It’s fear.

[Closing statements]

[jeremyhush]

Another stop on our trip this past weekend in Exeter RI. The grave of Mercy Brown. The last of New England’s vampire incident occurred in 1892. It is one of the best documented cases of the exhumation of a corpse in order to perform rituals to banish an undead manifestation. #mercybrown #exeter #vampire #newengland #projectnecropolis #grave (at Chestnut Hill Baptist Church) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1twOePHoa4/?igshid=hos71ee6vmid

[a-corndog-named-schibbs]

Fangs, Fur, and Phantoms - Chapter 5

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

Next Chapter

Back at it again with more spooky fun.  Coran finds weird uses for a communion wafer.  Lance accepts an offer he’d rather refuse.  Answers are finally found.

Note: Contains religion (Note within a note: author was raised Protestant. If you’re familiar with Catholic liturgy and notice she got something wrong, please let her know so she can fix it)

Enjoy!

“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself  and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church, may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

“Amen,” Lance murmured.

“May the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints, whatever good you do and suffering you endure heal your sins, help you to grow in holiness, and reward you with eternal life. Go in peace.” Coran said from the other side of the screen.

“Already got the eternal life bit, thanks,” said Lance, under his breath.

“Do we need to do this again so you can confess to sassing a prophet?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Lance stepped out of the confession booth.

“How about Mass?  When was the last time you had that?” Coran asked, also exiting the booth.

“I think I can go without tonight.”

“Well, let’s test that, shall we?” said Coran, reaching over to the altar and picking up a communion wafer from the dish.  He approached Lance and pressed the wafer to his forehead.

Lance winced.  When Coran pulled the wafer away, a slight pink mark appeared where it had been.

“Better to be safe than sorry.  I’ll get the blood bag.”

“It didn’t hurt that much…”

“It’s not supposed to hurt at all,” Coran pointed out, “If you want to take care of your immortal soul then you’ve got to take the treatments.”

Lance sighed, “Oh, all right.”  He certainly understood why he took Mass.  He was the one who had asked Coran to help him find a way to do so, his family’s faith one of the few ties to his past he had left.  That didn’t mean it wasn’t frustrating, having to take Mass nearly every night just so he could walk past a crucifix without fear of getting a headache.

Lance watched as Coran retrieved the cup used specifically for vampire-friendly Mass (no need for the other congregants to drink wine from a cup that had had blood in it the night before) and poured blood from a blood bag into it.  He then recited the invocation and presented Lance with the cup.  Lance drank it down.

“There,” said Coran, “Let’s try this again.”  He picked up the communion wafer and touched it to Lance’s forehead once more.

“Nothing,” said Lance, “Now you’re just a guy holding a cracker up to another guy’s forehead.”

“Good.  That means it worked,” Coran set the wafer down and patted Lance on the shoulder, “I’m glad you stopped by tonight, Lance, it’s always nice to see you.  Tell Keith I said hi and try not to get into too much trouble.”

Lance smirked, “But you’d be out of a job if I didn’t.”

“I’m serious, son.  If you come in here next week and tell me that you’ve…I don’t know…eaten a five-year-old or something—“

“Coran!  I would never!  Five-year-olds aren’t nearly ripe enough to eat.”

Coran raised an eyebrow.

“Kidding, just kidding,” said Lance, “You take care of yourself, Coran.  I’ll see you tomorrow.”

As Lance exited St. Groggery’s, he noticed a man across the street, standing by a rather expensive-looking car and illuminating the pavement with his phone’s flashlight.

The man looked up and noticed him, “Excuse me, do you think you can help me with something?”

Lance crossed the street, “What do you need, man?”

“I seem to have dropped my keys, could you help me find them?”

Lance almost didn’t catch the man’s words.  Up close, he was strikingly attractive.  Tall as hell and slender, but not without muscle.  His facial features were an elegant, refined sort of handsome and his long platinum-blond hair showed signs of being well cared-for.

“Sure,” said Lance, “Sure, let me just…” He knelt down and peeked under the car while the stranger held the flashlight, not that he needed it to see in the dark.  After a moment, he spotted the keys and fished them out.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you so much.  I was worried they’d gone down a storm drain.  I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along.”  The man put his hand on Lance’s arm.  Lance had mixed feelings about the gesture, though he couldn’t seem to bring himself to shake the other man off.

“Oh, it was nothing really.”

“Still, I’d like to show my gratitude in some way.  How about I get you a drink?”

“I, uh, I don’t drink…alcohol.”

“I know,” said the man, pulling the collar of his shirt down slightly to reveal his collarbone.

Bad idea, said Lance’s brain, even as his arms reached for the man and his legs carried him forward.

The man pulled him into a nearby alleyway and pressed him against the wall.  Lance’s head spun.  He could already smell the man’s blood, could practically taste it on his tongue.  It would taste so good to have blood straight from the source for once.  The last time he had had a fresh meal was…

That snapped Lance out of his trance.  The only person he did this with anymore was Keith.  You just got out of confession and already you’re trying to eat from a stranger, what’s wrong with you?  Lance took a step back, “I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t.  I need to get home—“

His words were cut off as the man shoved him backwards against the wall, a hand wrapped around his throat.  Lance tried to shake him off, but the stranger only pushed him harder into the bricks, lifting him off his feet with astonishing strength.  Lance squirmed against the man’s grip.  It would take more than choking to kill him, but the lack of oxygen was making his head spin.

Something hard and pointed pressed against his chest, right above his heart.  Lance looked down.  The man was holding a wooden stake, poised to stab him with it.

“I assume you know what that is.  If you so much as scream, it’ll be the last noise you ever make.”

The man set Lance back on his feet.

“What do you want?” Lance hissed, rubbing his throat.

“You’ve encountered two individuals by the names of Agents Shirogane and Prince, yes?”

“Yeah…” said Lance, remembering the agents that had come to Keith’s house the other day.

“They work for an organization known as the Paranormal Bureau of Investigation.  An organization that hunts down creatures like you and me.”

“What’s your point?”

“I want you to kill them for me.”

Lance’s lip curled in disgust, “Let’s assume I have any intention of humoring you.  Give me one good reason why I should do this.”

“Besides the fact that they would hunt you down and throw you in a cage if they knew what you are?”

Lance shrugged, “Plenty of people have tried to hunt me down before.  No one’s caught me yet.”

“I figured you’d need a bit of extra motivation,” the man pulled out his phone and pulled up an image, “How about this, then?”

Lance’s stomach dropped.  A picture of Keith filled the screen.

“He’s your lover, isn’t he?  Such a handsome boy…It would certainly be a shame if anything unfortunate happened to that lovely face.”

“Listen,” Lance growled, “If you think you can scare me…”

“Not good enough?  How about this, then,”  The man swiped across the screen and an image of two children playing in a backyard slid into view.  The picture was slightly blurry, as though it was taken covertly.

“These are your…oh, what was it?…great-great-grandchildren?  I don’t know how you keep track.  Their names are Nadia and Sylvio, aren’t they?”

“You wouldn’t dare…” whispered Lance.

“You don’t want to know what I would dare to do.”  The man let Lance go.  “You have until Saturday.  If Agents Shirogane and Prince are not dead by then, I will personally track down and kill everyone you love.  Oh, and one more thing,” the man turned and faced Lance once more, “When you do kill those agents, be sure to tell them Lotor sent you.”

***

In addition to its quality coffee and friendly customer service, Mochas & Magic also sold second-hand books.  Allura figured that was as good a place as any to do research on local folklore.

She had decided to perform this particular task solo.  Shiro was busy interviewing Mr. and Mrs. Griffin about the incident and Allura figured she might get better results if she went alone anyway.  If this Colleen woman’s daughter really had information on New Altea’s supernatural population, she might benefit more from a girl-to-girl chat.

As Allura pushed open the door to the coffee shop, she heard Colleen’s voice ring out, “Welcome to Mochas & Magic!  Come on in!”

Colleen was stationed behind the register today.  Beside her was a rather large young man in an apron, sliding trays of blueberry scones into the display case.

“Oh, I remember you,” said Colleen, as Allura approached the counter, “You and that young man were in here yesterday, talking about vampires.”

“Yes, that, uh, that was me,” said Allura, trying to keep her voice down.  The young man in the apron was giving her a strange look.  “You mentioned your daughter knowing a lot about folklore.  I was wondering if I could talk with her for a bit.”

“Well, I’m sure she’d be happy to discuss it with you.  Hunk, do you know where Katie is?”

“I think she’s shelving books right now,” said Hunk, still not taking his eyes off of Allura.

“Thank you,” said Allura, “That’s very helpful of you.”

“Are you writing a YA novel?” said Colleen.

“Hm?”

“Is your research for a YA novel?  We get a lot of authors in here doing research for novels they’re writing.”

“It’s just for a personal project,” said Allura, before making her way to the bookstore section of the shop.

A young woman in her early twenties was stocking the shelves, climbing a stepladder to reach the highest ones.  She had short, brown hair and large, round glasses.

“I’m almost done,” the woman said, “One moment.”

“Are you Katie?” asked Allura.

“Yeah, but you can call me Pidge,” the woman said, stepping down from the ladder, “What can I do for you?”

“I was hoping you could help me find some books on a certain subject,” said Allura, casually scanning the bookshelf nearest to her.

“Depends on the subject, I guess,” said Pidge, “What were you looking for?”

Allura picked up one of the books off the shelf.  The cover was emblazoned with the word Beowulf.  She flipped through the pages idly.  “I’m just looking for information on some of the creatures in this area.”

“Like what?  Foxes and raccoons?”

“More like werewolves and vampires.”

There was the barest flicker of worry on Pidge’s face, but it soon disappeared.  “I hate to disappoint you, ma’am, but creatures like that don’t actually exist.”

“But your mother said people came here to research the subject all the time.”

“Well, yeah, but not like actual researchers.  Cryptid hunters and teen romance novelists, those kinds of people.”

“So you’re saying supernatural beings aren’t actually real?”

“That’s absolutely what I’m saying, yes.”

Without warning, Allura tossed the book she was holding directly at Pidge’s head.  Pidge yelped and held up her hand and the book stopped just short of her face, hovering in midair.

“Are you sure?” said Allura.

Pidge lowered her hand and the book dropped to the ground, falling open, “Well, shit.  You weren’t supposed to see that.”

“Well, now that we’re done with the playacting, we can get straight to business.  What can you tell me about the werewolves in this area?”

But Pidge didn’t seem to be in a cooperative mood at the moment.  “You’re one of the agents who interviewed Keith, aren’t you?” she said.

“So you know Mr. Kogane, do you?  Can you tell me anything about his whereabouts on the night of James Griffin’s death?”

“I knew it!” said Pidge, ignoring her question, “I knew there was some sort of men-in-black thing for supernatural beings.  Are you part of the government?”

“Now who’s being a conspiracy theorist?”

“It’s not a conspiracy theory if you’re right.”

“Look,” said Allura, “I don’t want to accuse your friend any more than you do.  If there’s anything, anything at all you can share with me that might help clear his name, it would go a long way toward helping him.”

Pidge sighed, “Listen, I can’t give you any hard evidence, but whatever you’re looking for, whatever killed Griffin, it’s not a werewolf.”

“I’m not saying I don’t believe you,” said Allura, “but how do you know this?”

“Because I did some scrying.  We went to the place where the body was found and I contacted Griffin’s spirit and saw what he saw when he died.  And let me tell you, it wasn’t a werewolf that killed him.”

“Well, what was it, then?” said Allura, “Can you describe it?”

“It was dark, so Griffin didn’t get a good look at it.  But it was big.  Bigger than a werewolf, that’s for sure.”

“So, a bear?”

Pidge shook her head, “Bigger than that, even.  And it had these horns…”  She held up her hands near her head to illustrate, “And these eyes that glowed and it looked like…like a…”  She glanced down to think and froze.

“Like what?” said Allura.

“Like that.”

Pidge pointed down at the book on the floor by her feet.  It was open to an illustration depicting a huge, horned creature with a human grasped in its enormous hand.  The caption on the page read, “Grendel carrying his prey to his lair”.

For a moment, Pidge and Allura could barely move.  Then, Pidge scooped up the book.  “I have to show this to Hunk.”

“I have to make a phone call,” said Allura as Pidge left the room.

Allura pulled out her cell phone and called Shiro.  “Come on, please pick up, please pick up, it’s important.”

After the second ring, Shiro answered, “Allura?  Something wrong?”

“Shiro, you owe that Kogane kid an apology.”

“Hmm?  Why’s that?”

“Because I think I just figured out what actually killed James Griffin.”

[irregularincidents]

As is pretty well known by this point, many believe that most myths surrounding vampires can be linked to disease and the body’s natural decomposition after death.

Someone getting sick? It’s because vampires.

The victim’s family start getting sick after the original infectee dies? The victim became a vampire and they’ve come back to get their relatives.

Victim’s corpse doesn’t look as decomposed as it should? Vampires!

Unsurprisingly, when European settlers moved to America, they took their beliefs in the undead with them to their new home... but perhaps surprisingly, the belief that those who died of disease (more often than not TB) were the victims of vampires actually persisted until the late 1800s.

One prominent example of this being the 1892 Mercy Brown Incident, where some inhabitants of rural Rhode Island decided that the reason why the siblings Mercy and Edwin Brown were dying wasn’t due to “consumption“ (TB) but due to their being attacked by a vampire.

Following the death of Mercy, the Browns’ father George was badgered by the townspeople until he agreed to let them exhume the bodies of Mercy and their female relatives to determine if any of them were creatures of the night. The retrieved the bodies from the Brown family crypt and found that, spookily, Mercy’s was the only body not displaying any signs of decomposition...

...Or at least, it would have been spooky if it wasn’t for the fact that Mercy had died in the midst of winter, and that the crypt had acted as a kind of freezer, preserving her body.

With the preserved body of Mercy serving as proof of her vampirism, they decided to cut out her heart, burn it, and make her brother Edwin drink the mixture to cure his own illness. He promptly died two months later.

What became known as the New England Vampire Panic was restricted mostly to the countryside of the developing United States, lasting for a near two centuries. Naturally the antics of rural Americans were mocked by the more sophisticated city dwelling folk fairly consistantly, with only the dawn of the 20th Century seemingly putting an end to the belief in American vampires.

[themonsterblogofmonsters]

“Mercies” / Mercy Vampire

The sad result of many native vampires being pushed to the edges in North America, Mercies, named for the notable incident of Mercy Brown which revealed the situation to MACUSA, are a particular sub-bloodline of the Coatlican bloodline. As native vampires were pushed to the edges as their regular prey animals - from bear to buffalo - were culled out, they turned to the only prey who’s numbers were growing: humans. However, a human body does not have as much blood as a bear or a buffalo, and so the feedings would drain people, wasting them away as though by disease. Not wishing to cause deaths, many vampires forced to feeding thus would turn the individual at the last minute, their very regret and general wish for another option - be it by an end to colonialism or just more prey - shaping the bloodline now known as Mercies.

Mercies undergo a surprising physical transition when turned - while still recognisable as who they once were they become decidedly more gracile, the excess calcium going into reinforcing their teeth. Physically speaking they are not as strong as most Vampire bloodlines, however regardless of magical ability in their human life, a Mercy Vampire is always capable of surprising feats of magic when given training and time to prepare. However, Mercy dentition is not as well suited to biting, drinking and draining as other vampires, and so many feed either on small animals - rabbits are apparently a favourite - or from willing donors who make small incisions or use small needles to drain off sufficient blood for a meal. Thus, Mercies rarely feed directly from the vein unless it is from an animal, and as a bloodline they are prone to going rogue, necessitating Dhampir hunters being called in. In order to prevent this Department of Magical Beings of MACUSA has set up blood depots, where registered Mercies (and a few other bloodlines: Ereshkigaleen, Astarteen and their sub-bloodlines with the exclusion of Pishacha) may go to receive sufficient blood, however this service is not available to many other varieties of American vampires - Coatlicans, Soucouyants, Civatateo - many of which have high proportions of Vampires of colour, unlike Mercies which are predominantly white, albeit with a growing population of Vampires of colour.

The blatant prejudice on display in this decision has long gone unchallenged, though recent shifts in the politics of MACUSA (most notably, refusing to reveal themselves to the incumbent President) has led to a few wixes and vampires to bring up this point, to argue their duty to be better than their muggle counterparts.

(Image One, Image Two)

(Read about the Mercy Brown incident over Here and Here. I hate that I have to include this but PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THE IMAGE SOURCE OR MY CAPTION.)

[tallstales]

Day 9 Haunted Places in RI (13 Days of Halloween)

Every place has its tales of terror, especially at Halloween when ghosts are all the rage. Below is a list of 13 favorite local haunts for my state - Rhode Island! Being one of the oldest colonies in the United States, little Rhode Island has its fair share of old buildings and they are full of stories.

1. Byron Read Building - Coventry, Rhode Island

In the town of Coventry, Rhode Island sits an abandoned building on Washington Street. The local historical building located at 706 Washington RI 02816 as been falling to ruin over time. Formally owned by local business owner Byron Read, it has been home to Gorton’s funeral home services, a furniture maker, a Glasswares shop, child carriages builders, and those who sold furs, feathers, carpets and linoleum.This building, has been empty for decades but it does see the occasional short lived tennant. One renter in the 1990’s was using the space as a makeshift recording studio. Afterward, they regretted their decision.

The band knew the building’s history but they didn't give this a second thought. They didn’t expect to encounter anything unusual but what they experienced shocked them. They reported hearing loud banging sounds that would interrupt their recordings.Soon after band members witnessed several apparitions. One of these ghosts was a tall man wearing traditional baggy clothing. They saw this ghost walk right through walls. Another ghost they saw on several occasions was a small man that wore glasses. They allegedly identified this man as an undertaker from a portrait that was left in the building. The undertaker would frequently close the double doors in a room they used for rehearsals.

It is rumored that the creepiest activity they encountered was a woman’s mournful cries. During one of the band’s last visits to their new studio, they heard the doors slam shut behind them and as they began to record they heard other bangs within the building. They also reported hearing a female voice screaming. They seemed to be coming from the top floor but were so loud the band members could hear them throughout the building. When they built up their courage to investigate, the band went up to the 3rd floor and switched on the lights to the large room. Once the lights were on the noises immediately stopped.

Other witnesses state that they have seen lights flicker on and off and several have seen dark entities moving around the building. I myself would love to go in and explore. The building looks like i would make a lovely book shop and cafe. Maybe even one where the books would organize themselves! How fun would that be to own?

2. Nathanael Greene Homestead - Coventry, RI

Going down the road a bit in Coventry, you can find the Nathanael Greene Homestead. This home, now a museum, is located on Taft Street. Dating back to 1770, the historic home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and is recognized as a National Historic Landmark. This was once the home to American Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene from 1770 to 1776, and then to his brother Jacob Greene and his wife Margaret. Today, the home is owned and operated by the General Nathanael Greene Homestead Association, a local non-profit organization.

A number of strange things are rumored to happen here.The baby carriage in Elizabeth Margaret's room has been known to move on its own. Other reports include apparitions, voices, screams, disembodied footsteps, door latches that open and close by themselves, and the sound of a phantom carriage driving up to the house. And in the unused kitchen, witnesses have reported the smell of bread baking. This range of spooky activity has given the house a reputation of being one of the most haunted buildings in Rhode Island.

The Nathanael Greene Homestead is one of the few on our list that is still open to small tours so be sure to check it out!

3. The White Horse Tavern - Newport, RI

America's Oldest Tavern is serving more than the expected spirits! The oldest, and supposedly most haunted tavern in America, White Horse Tavern opened in 1673 at which point it served as a courthouse, a meeting place for Colonists, British soldiers, pirates, sailors and founding fathers, and lastly, a private residence. According to legend, and some eye-witness tavern employees, several ghosts still occupy the tavern.

The ghost stories here go back decades and the list of sightings is longer than the Tavern’s bar menu! Many staff members claim to hear and see strange things frequently. There have been accounts of being tapped on the shoulder and disembodied footsteps overheard from nearby empty rooms. Ghostly sightings are said to include an elderly man in Colonial garb, a seamen who previously died on the premises, and a female reported floating above one of the dining tables. Would you like to arrange a visit?

4. Belcourt Castle - Newport, RI

Built in 1895, The Belcourt Castle is located at 657 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI. It was constructed as a summer cottage for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and was designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt. The home features a Chateau style and is 50,000 square feet, which leaves plenty of room for hauntings. It was purchased by the Tinney Family in 1956, who used the estate to showcase their expansive art and antiques collection. On July 28, 1957, Belcourt opened its doors to the public for guided tours of the museum.

The Belcourt is rumored to be one of Rhode Island's most haunted spots, it isn’t haunted by an actual ghost, instead it is home to haunted objects and antiques on display. Some antiques on this list are haunted chairs that move and send tingles up the spines to those who sit in them and a monk's statue that allegedly claimed the man's spirit that it was modeled on. There is also a suit of armor rumored to echo with the death cry of its original owner. A guest to the mansion, Harle Tinney discusses his interaction with this suit of armor in Haunted Newport:

"No one was home so I thought it was strange that the lights were on in the ballroom. Being naturally conservative and not wanting to burn the electricity unnecessarily, I went through the ballroom to turn out the lights. After I had turned off the switch, there was a very little light left. As I passed the front of the armor, something screamed at me. It was a horrible and loud, roaring sound. Then the lights went back on and I turned them off again and the armor screamed. When it screamed a third time, I ran as fast as I could from the room. The scream was terrifying. It sounded like someone was being killed."

The amount of paranormal activity at this century-old estate makes it one of Rhode Island's spookiest destinations. If you're feeling brave enough, the house offers tours of the haunted rooms and worldly antiques. And the sixty-room mansion has a lot of them!

5. Fort Wetherill - Jamestown, RI

Fort Wetherill is another one of the most haunted places in Rhode Island, but it may have the oldest haunt on this list. It is told that when the British took control of the Fort in 1776 they were terrorized by a black dog who prowled there. In British folklore, a black dog is said to be an omen of death so they were understandably kept on edge by his appearance.

He is still spotted on occasion at Fort Wetherill usually glaring at people before disappearing through a wall. To this day, people still report growling, barking, and howling there.

Rebuilt as a park in 1899, Fort Wetherill is located on Conanicut Island and sits on the East Passage of Narragansett Bay opposite Fort Adams State Park. Almost a century later the Fort would see death again when four women were found murdered and dumped in the water near the docks in 1985, all of them just in their 20s. Ever since the tragic incident, there have been over 200 police reports regarding paranormal activity.

Despite the violent history, the former artillery fort can has long been an interesting place for locals and tourists alike to hike through during the spring and summer. There is a museum’s worth of graffiti on the walls adding to the atmosphere. You only have to worry about staying after sundown if you don’t want things to get weird.

6. Chestnut Hill Cemetery - Exeter, RI

This is perhaps the best known haunted place in Rhode Island. Nestled in the Chestnut Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, flowers and trinkets adorning her well-worn tombstone, lays Mercy Brown . In 1892, when Mercy Brown died from tuberculosis it was nothing abnormal. In fact, she wasn’t even the first in her immediate family to suffer through the same sickness. Mercy, her mother, and two of her siblings all died of consumption and her brother was at the time sick as well. This was during a period when there was a great deal of hysteria surrounding vampires in New England and rumors persisted that one of the Browns must be undead.

This hysteria led to the families’ bodies being exhumed.But as more and more people began to die from the dreaded disease, suspicion arose that supernatural powers were to blame. Mercy’s mother and sister were dug up for inspection and after seeing sufficient decomposition to the bodies, were deemed safely dead. But Mercy, whose body was being stored in an above ground vault due to the frozen ground, seemed merely sleeping. When they cut out her heart to examine it, the frozen liquid was still bright red and that seemed to prove it. To the town, Mercy was a vampire and the only way to heal the evil she had spread and stop her victims from dying was to burn her heart and liver and mix the ashes in a tonic to feed to those victims. Even to some locals, this was too much. The story soon spread nationwide and even crossed the pond, allegedly inspiring Bram Stoker’s famou tale, Dracula.

Today, Mercy's grave is protected by a metal band connected to a post imbedded into the ground to prevent it from being stolen. Some visitors still claim Mercy’s ghost has been seen around the tomb wearing a dirty, ripped gown.

In one instance, a visitor to the cemetery managed to record a young woman’s voice in EVP form saying, “Please let me rest in peace”. Whether this was Mercy’s ghost or not, I think we can all agree that the poor young woman has been through enough in life and death and should be left to rest in peace.

7. The Ladd School - Exeter, RI

The Ladd School, formerly known as the Rhode Island School for the Feeble Minded, was founded in 1908 . Over the years it came to be home to criminals and other people society felt would be best removed from the general population. This included everyone from the mentally ill to promiscuous women. The school became known for horrible and often immoral acts against those who were being cared for.

Those acts included but are not limited to forced sterilizations, lobotomys, and other barbaric treatments including murder of disabled children. In addition to staff harming the patients, many of them committed crimes against each other as well.

This abandoned building is now known to be one of the most haunted abandoned places in the united States. It is common for electronic items to be drained of power and many locals report hearing moaning, footsteps or shuffling feet and crying throughout the main building and other surrounding buildings. Witnesses have also claimed to hear disembodied voices murmuring, whispering or crying out. Doors have been seen opening or closing without explanation. These same doors also seem to lock at times even if there is no lock on the door itself.  Eerie growling sounds have been heard in patients' former rooms, when no animals are present. Some visitors here have also claimed they were touched, shoved, or they've had items knocked out of their hands by some unseen force. 

Outside, visitors have claimed to see human shaped shadows moving across the field and into the woods. Voices have been heard out there as well and many have photographed glowing orbs. Car radios are said to go haywire or stop working all together and a few people have claimed that their car alarms or horns have gone off for no reason. Best to leave the roaming of these grounds to the spirits and stay away.

8. Providence Athenaeum - Providence, RI

Dating back to 1836, The Providence Athenaeum first opened as a member run library out of the Providence Arcade in downtown. Eventually, the library moved to its current location at 251 Benefit Street in Providence, RI. It is this location that has been the site of reported paranormal activity. The library was loved by both H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. Poe in particular has left a significant impression.

The well documented romance between Edgar Allan Poe and poet Sarah Helen Whitman highlights many a visit to this famous library. It's said the ghost of Poe himself haunts the top floor. Poe died not long after he and Whitman ended their engagement in the Athenaeum and Whitman is said to have summoned his spirit in the library. If you believe this then it may not surprise you that years later a man was found sleeping on the Athenaeum steps. When asked to move, he proceeded to yell out Poe’s poem The Conqueror Worm before vanishing into thin air.

There is also a cursed fountain on the premises. Legend has it if you drink from the fountain outside the Providence Athenaeum you may leave Rhode Island but are guaranteed to always return. Since the fountain is from 1873, it is not in the best condition and is recommend by the staff that you don't test this legend out or you may never return to life itself.

9. Cumberland Public Library - Cumberland, RI

Another haunted library on our list is the Cumberland Public Library. The most infamous haunting in the town of Cumberland, settled in 1635 is on the grounds of a former monastery and current library. Common reports of paranormal activity include disembodied screams, a phantom monk on the grounds as well as moving from one place to another on their own. Many of the people who live locally actually believe that it is not just the building itself that is haunted, but the entire surrounding area.

Locals believe that it is haunted by the spirits of nine militiamen who are said to have been flayed there. Too little is known about the event to be certain but flaying does seem violent enough to warrant a few screams now and then. I have been on the grounds before and though I haven’t seen monks or moving books or heard screams, I can say that there is a lovely wooded path to walk along. And though beautiful, my husband and I did keep turning around because we felt like we were being followed. Weird!

10. THE BILTMORE HOTEL - PROVIDENCE, RI

Since opening in 1922, this haunted hotel has been the inspiration for not one but two horror hits! It Both the Bates Motel in Robert Bloch’s horror novel “Psycho” and the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s book “The Shining.” were inspired by stays at The Biltmore.

In October 2017, the iconic hotel in downtown Providence became the Graduate Providence, but the ghosts have stayed checked in. The Biltmore Hotel was named as America’s most haunted hotel in 2000. When you look into the hotel’s history it is easy to see why

When it was built, The Biltmore was financially backed by rumored Satanist Johan Leisse Weisskopf. It has been said that he oversaw rituals in the building and there were even rumors of human sacrifices having taken place. The hotel also became a hot spot during Prohibition and a number of high profile murders took place amidst the rowdy parties involving police officers and even the mayor. All of this has led to a range of paranormal activity. Guests often report the sounds of rowdy parties coming from empty rooms long after the hotel bars have closed. There have also been instances of guests vanishing from the halls as recently as 2008. I don’t know about you but I think this seems like a great place to attend a party or take a tour but maybe not where I want to spend the night.

11. Slater Mill - Pawtucket, RI

Dating back to 1793, this historic Mill is located on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. This historic textile mill complex was modeled after cotton spinning mills first established in England.Now operating as a history museum, the site is recognized as the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. It's also said to be pretty haunted by those who died at the factory while working on dangerous machines.

During the time period that the factory was in operation, children were allowed to be employed as workers and because of their size, they would sometimes be forced to clean out the machines when they were jammed. Haunting reports here include dark figures as well as the sounds of children running around and child’s screams.

12. Governor Sprague Mansion - Cranston, RI.

Located at 1351 Cranston Street, the historic Governor Sprague Mansion is a stunning former mansion and current museum. Birthplace of two Rhode Island governors, this mansion has seen a lot of history but also its share of violence. The mansion is said to be haunted by a former resident after his mysterious murder in the 1800s.

Amasa Sprague, successful textile merchant and brother of governor and US senator William Sprague, was found beaten to death outside the mansion in December 1843. John Gordon was accused and found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death by hanging. Gordon would be the last person executed in Rhode Island. In 2011, the case was researched and Gordon was pardoned postmortem based on the lack of evidence supporting his conviction. It seems that when reviewing historical documents, there is much more evidence for a clear anti-Catholic and anti-Irish bias than there was Gordon having anything to do with the murder. But Gordon’s ghost might be holding a grudge stronger than a pardon given too late. Sprague Mansion is said to be under the power of a poltergeist ever since the hanging.

Witness reports run the gamut from the mysterious unmaking of beds, flickering lights and shuffling footsteps to actual ghost sightings, disembodied whispers and objects moving on their own.

13. The Perron House (The Conjuring House) - Burrillville, RI

Last on our list is the internationally famous Perron House. In the 1970s, a family called the Perrons moved to a beautiful house on the border of Harrisville and Burrillville to raise their family. They might have not picked the best place to bring their children however. According to the legend, the property belonged to a deceased Satanist named Bathsheba who killed her own daughter to appease the Devil.

The Perron House has become a worldwide sensation thanks to the movie based on true events that occurred in the home of Roger and Carolyn Perron. It’s a pretty solid choice if you’re looking for something spooky to watch this Halloween.

As the story goes, it wasn’t long after the couple and their daughters moved into the home that they started seeing terrifying things. Mrs. Perron once woke to find an old woman in a gray dress with her head hanging at an awkward angle standing over her bed. Famed paranormal experts Ed and Lorraine Warren were brought in to help and quickly concluded that this was the spirit of Bathsheba Sherman who hanged herself after murdering her daughter in a ritual to bind her soul to the property. The Perrons went through some insane happenings in this house but it is believed that the Warrens did manage to separate the ghosts of the past from the property. So, though this used to be a major haunting hotspot, it seems to be a peaceful place to live today.

Readers be warned. This is not a tourist spot to go and explore. This is a private residence and ever since the release of the 2013 film the family residing there have been besieged, not by spirits but by trespassers. Do not disturb this family. It isn’t fair to them, they did not profit from the film at all and you would not want strangers in your yard looking through your windows at all hours.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE SPOOKY SPOTS IN RI? DON’T FORGET TO SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE AND PICTURES IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

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