Most urban legends serve the purpose of driving home a commonly accepted, but often overlooked bit of “common sense” or, more appropriately “street smarts”. The following Urban Legend was probably created to strike fear in the hearts of those who are too trusting of strangers in this modern age of Facebook, email and electronic dating– Can you really trust the person on the other side of the computer? … or is this just another dimension of– the URBAN LEGEND ZONE?! (Okay, so I’m no Rod Serling…)
Stolen body-part legends often begin with pre-teens, teenagers or college kids– typically because they’re the ones adults want to “put the fear into”. I know when I was twelve and email was relatively new, I randomly emailed someone who had chosen the email address I wanted to select for myself, so it’s understandable how trusting kids are of strangers now, decades later, when internet stalking is much, much easier to accomplish through the invention of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites, forums and (heh) blogs!
The “kids” in these stories are connected somehow. Most often they’re described as being life-long friends or college roommates. One of them is usually prudent and the other is usually very outgoing. It’s usually the outgoing, free-spirited “kid” who is in a bit of trouble towards the end of the story. The moral of the story is “had they been more cautious, they could have avoided mishap”…. and, in the case of missing body part stories, they could have avoided death.
The following is a more modern story that I’ve copy/pasted from the Urban Legend archive over at Castle of Spirits. I hope you enjoy the new spin on an old, Urban Legend.
Jennifer and Amanda were very good friends. Now in college, they had been friends since grade school. Jennifer was the smart, intelligent one. Amanda was the fun-loving, kind of slutty one.
One night, Amanda was chatting on the Internet while Jennifer did her calculus homework. Amanda was singing along with her head phones, and annoying Jen quite a bit.
“Shut up, Amanda. You’re being annoying,” Jen snapped.
“What’s your problem?” Amanda asked, defensively.
“Nothing. Just… keep it down. Okay?”
“Ok, no prob,” Amanda replied.Jennifer went on doing her homework, as Amanda chatted. Suddenly, Amanda squealed with delight.
“Guess what, Jen!”
Jennifer sighed. “What?”
“David wants to meet me tomorrow night!”
“Um, who?”
“You know. My internet boyfriend?” Amanda said impatiently.
“Um. Great,” replied Jennifer. Amanda, a little put out by her friend’s lack of enthusiasm, signed off the Internet and decided to go to bed.“Night, Jen.”
“Mmm,” replied Jennifer.
The next night, as planned, Amanda went out to meet David at a local bar called “McGrundy’s.” They had an excellent night together, and it was getting pretty late.“One more drink?” David asked.
“Sure. Why not?” Amanda replied, even though she was getting a little tipsy. David ordered Amanda another screwdriver, and handed it to her. She drank it down, and David paid. They left.The next morning, Jennifer woke to hear whimpering in the bathroom. She really wasn’t ready to wake up, as Amanda and her new boyfriend had come in late and woken her up. They’d been making a lot of noise in the bathroom, too. Jennifer moaned, got up, and walked into the bathroom.
“Amanda? What the hell?” Amanda was asleep in a bathtub full of ice cubes. Jennifer was extremely confused. She looked around the bathroom and saw a note on the counter top. It read: Call 911 if you want to live.
Jen, thinking it a joke, shook Amanda to try and wake her. She wouldn’t wake up. Jennifer called 911.
Paramedics arrived at their apartment and took Amanda out of the tub, naked. They rolled her over and, as they suspected — Amanda’s kidneys had been stolen.
Source of story:
http://www.castleofspirits.com/call911.html
The Witching Hour 