"So, there are absolutely no new leads on the murder investigations?" Hale Senex said with a scowl. It hadn't been a good week for him; he'd just been assigned a rather gruesome case, and already there were three murders related to it. The town of Minden, Louisiana had never seen such a case in recent history, and it worried him.
"Well, unless you count determining the ways the killer offed his victims, nope," Professor Brown said. "However, if you do, I'm pleased to announce that the first two were torn in half, while the third was eviscerated with surgical tools."
"Torn? By what, exactly?"
"That's just the thing," Brown responded. "By all accounts, there's no evidence on the bodies of being attacked by anything but a human. In fact, the patterns of tissue tear on the limbs suggest that only a large thing with opposable thumbs could have done it."
"So we're looking for a large man, one with enough strength to tear two children to pieces. Is that about it?"
"No, and that's the odd thing. No human could have that much strength normally, so unless it's a person with a medical condition of some sort, it can't have been human. In addition, I've already checked the medical records of every person in Minden, and nobody has any form of illness that could do this. It could be another form of primate, but then we would have found some of its hairs at the crime scene. It just doesn't make sense!"
"It could be a naked gorilla, Brown," Hale said, turning to leave. "Besides, what else could it be? Some sort of ogre?"
Travelling through the streets of Minden, Hale tried to make sense of what Brown had said. If Brown's right and it was done by human hands, then what sort of bodybuilder am I up against? Why did the murderer use a weapon in the second attack? It just doesn't make sense. Hale continued walking, eventually reaching the hospital, where the lone survivor, Arnold Smith, was in isolation. However, when Hale entered, police had filled the area.
"What's going on here, Officer?" Hale asked the nearest policeman.
"Someone was murdered here. We caught the culprit, but we're still looking for any fellow conspirators," the man replied.
"Who was the victim?" Hale continued, a sense of dread beginning to enter his mind.
"Some poor kid. I think his name was-"
"Arnold? Arnold Smith?"
"Yeah, that's the one. Pretty brutal, too, I'd say. And to think it was a nurse of all people to do that to the kid! We got the entire thing on video, so if you don't have a bad stomach, you can watch it."
Hale gulped once, then said, "Lead me to it."
The video began with a mechanical whirr. Arnold was sitting in his room, reading a book and occasionally sipping a cup of water, when a nurse walked in.
"How are you feeling today, Arnold?" the nurse asked as she wheeled in his meal.
"I've felt better. Why did this have to happen to Rob?"
"Well, I don't know, but my lord and savior does," the nurse said, placing the meal by Arnold. "He's the most omnipotent being in the universe, after all. Care to know more?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm a Jehovah's Witness, so I can't."
"I see," the nurse said, then grabbed the fork and jammed it into Arnold's leg. "That's a shame, laddie. The Great And Powerful One might have forgiven your intrusion into His swamp if you had converted."
"What are you- the shadow," Arnold said, tears in his eyes, "Your shadow's the same as his! HELP!"
"Help won't come, laddie. I soundproofed the room beforehand." The nurse pulled the fork out, then grabbed the spoon. "I'll make a soup out of your freshly-peeled skin. I'll shave your liver, squeeze the jelly from your eyes!" She jabbed the spoon into Arnold's eye socket, then scooped his eye into her outstretched hand. Placing it in a bowl, she quickly did the same to the other, Arnold screaming all the way.
"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE!" he cried, blood dripping into his mouth from the sockets his eyes were once in.
"Oh, there'll be help for you soon, laddie. The donkeys in the sky'll welcome you soon enough," the nurse said with a grin. She released the spoon and grabbed the knife, then slowly began cutting an incision into Arnold's side. After a minute, she reached in and pulled out his liver. Placing it into a second bowl, she began carving a symbol into his stomach, a symbol so full of malice it made Hale shudder. It seemed like a crude drawing of an ogre, but the blood from the wounds quickly obscured it.
"PLEASE! ANYONE! HELP ME!" Arnold gave out one last cry before his throat was slit. With his last breath, he grabbed the knife and threw it at his assailant, leaving a small cut on her arm. She calmly took the weapon from it's place on the floor, and calmly, carefully, began peeling his skin off.
It took an hour before the skin was removed and placed in a large tureen. The nurse threw salt, pepper and water into the same container, then began boiling it. Once it had reached the boiling point, she began chanting.
"Shrek is love, Shrek is life. Shrek is love, Shrek is life. Shrek is love, Shrek is life." She continued this chant as police entered the room and handcuffed her.
Hale closed his eyes as the video ended, trying to make sense of what he'd just seen. What is this? Some sort of cult? "It seems to me," he said aloud, "that there's a group performing these killings. Have you gotten anything out of the killer yet?"
"Not yet," the cop replied. "All we've gotten out of her is the same thing. 'Shrek is love, Shrek is life.' It's a bit disturbing, to tell the truth."
"I see. I'll go and see if I can get anything out of her." Hale turned to leave when another officer appeared in the doorway.
"Are you Inspector Senex?"
"Yes. What's going on? I was about to interrogate a criminal."
"Bad news, sir. We've found two more bodies. Looks like you'll have to wait on the interrogation."