Transcribed from tape labeled “Cassie”.
CASSIE: Back in college, I used to work at one of those small, mom-and-pops video stores. Ya know the sort - all these large shelves behind the counter, full of old VHS cassettes and a porn section behind a curtain. It wasn’t a bad gig, really. The guy paid in cash, and I could work whatever hours.
One night, I worked the closing shift. Everything went fine, but it was one of those nights where I didn’t get home until sometime after eleven. I rented this cramped, two-bedroom apartment with a couple of classmates, all of us film majors. I think at least one of us graduated. I’m not sure, actually.
Anyway. They didn’t let us - well, let me smoke inside. So, I stepped outside. This was back when phones weren’t so smart, ya know? All I could do was send text messages and really low quality photos. Nothing like we’ve got now, ya know. But I’m standing in the alley behind our apartment, near all these garages, smoking and texting my boyfriend at the time. And while I’m waiting for him to reply, I hear this baby crying. By this time, it’s almost midnight. Maybe even later. But I hear this crying, and it’s close. But I don’t see anyone outside - no mother, no father. Nobody. Just this baby crying somewhere. And then I get the idea to look up, like I’m expecting to see this crying baby flying over me, or something.
That’s when I saw it.
It wasn’t much bigger than a bird, whatever it was. But its wings were huge, and it had these two little feet. It wasn’t a bird, or a bat. Nothing like that. But it had these big ol’ wings, and it was holding a baby in these little feet, or claws, or whatever they’re called. But it’s circling up there, maybe forty, fifty feet up there with this crying baby in its claws. And it’s just going round and round for a minute, and the baby is crying and crying. And then, it let the baby go. I didn’t see where it fell, but I heard it. It sounded wet and hard, like someone dropped a watermelon that could cry. The crying stopped after that. But the thing just kept flying up there for another minute before it dove down and, I don’t know. Do you think it ate it, maybe? I’ve seen a documentary where birds would do that with shellfish, dropping a crab or whatever from up high to crack it open and eat the insides. Do you think that’s what that thing was doing? Trying to crack that baby open and eat what’s inside?
Whatever happened, I took a picture of the thing when it was still in the air. But it was so dark, and the camera on that phone wasn’t very good. But if you can do anything with it, I still have it in a box somewhere. I didn’t want to go take a picture of whatever happened to that baby. But I did hear the police coming sometime later in the night, after I went back inside. I didn’t tell them nothing. What was I going to say, ya know? Sorry, but this bat-thing scooped up that baby and dropped it out of the sky? I feel crazy enough thinking I saw what I saw, even though I still got that picture. That poor woman… I can still hear her crying and crying. It’s like she lost her mind. I guess I would too, if something flew off with my baby in the dead of night, dropped it like a rock, and ate it.