2020-09-30 - A Meal from a Man

The serial killer who has been terrorizing the woods around Gray Harbor has been identified as Connor Demsey and captured by police with citizen help. As the police interviewed him and checked into his background, more about his life unfolded. His father was an FBI agent who tracked serial killers and himself became the victim of one when he got too close. Connor tried to join law enforcement, but washed out. He became a carpenter instead.

Something happened to him in the years between his father’s death and his first kill. Doctor Christopher Yu was treating him for undisclosed psychological conditions when Demsey attacked him in a fit of rage. He became drawn to Gray Harbor, where his delusions worsened- fed by hours in the video game Battle for Babylon and his own research. He began to put together a mythology that justified his violent impulses.

From there, They began to feed on him in earnest, urging him to kill others. With each kill, his personal mythology to explain and justify it grew deeper.

Connor tried to recruit others to his delusion that ancient gods would end the world if they were not fed the blood of people who Glimmer. He justified his choice to go after those who were new to town and yet Glimmered by labelling them innocents. But it was pragmatic, really. Those new to Gray Harbor would be far less likely to have fine control of their Glimmer and thus able to defend themselves.

Eventually, he crafted a timeline and a ritual - the heads of his victims on pikes at the foot of an ancient tree, and a final sacrifice under a waxing crescent moon. He was going to kill Haruto Nakamura, but a combination of fear and newness to Gray Harbor made the young man more susceptible to his wild ideas. It was his only successful recruitment. It’s going to take years for Haruto to even come close to getting on with his life.

Now Demsey is locked in a cell at Gray Harbor PD. The Veil’s protection is the only reason he hasn’t been swarmed by FBI and hauled out of there. He sits, lotus pose on the floor of his cell. He’s been under suicide watch since he was arrested. He murmurs words in Babylonian - prayers to nonexistent gods - prayers of forgiveness and appeasement.

What happens next might be a matter of the Veil’s protection, or Connor’s extraordinary physical Glimmer abilities. One moment, he’s sitting there, broken but oddly serene. A police officer blinks, and then he’s just...gone. Those who don’t Glimmer just assume the FBI took him away. Those who do, well, they know the likely truth.

Gray Harbor’s citizens can only hope he’s gone where the Dark Men can finish their meal - and not to unleash him again. But who knows how those dark creatures think, if they do at all?

If They do feast on him, that’s something like justice at least.