Fantasy fiction, English; Horror tales, English; Supernatural -- Fiction
So for some time the work of the office continued normally and very
prosperously. John Enderby Jones received a good salary, and in the
outward appearance of the two chief characters in this history there
was little change noticeable, except that the Manager grew fatter and
redder, and the secretary observed that his own hair was beginning to
show rather greyish at the temples.
There were, however, two changes in progress, and they both had to do
with Jones, and are important to mention.
One was that he began to dream evilly. In the region of deep sleep,
where the possibility of significant dreaming first develops itself, he
was tormented more and more with vivid scenes and pictures in which a
tall thin man, dark and sinister of countenance, and with bad eyes, was
closely associated with himself. Only the setting was that of a past
age, with costumes of centuries gone by, and the scenes had to do with
dreadful cruelties that could not belong to modern life as he knew it.
The other change was also significant, but is not so easy to describe,
for he had in fact become aware that some new portion of himself,
hitherto unawakened, had stirred slowly into life out of the very depths
of his consciousness. This new part of himself amounted almost to
another personality, and he never observed its least manifestation
without a strange thrill at his heart.
For he understood that it had begun to _watch_ the Manager!
II
It was the habit of Jones, since he was compelled to work among
conditions that were utterly distasteful, to withdraw his mind wholly
from business once the day was over. During office hours he kept the
strictest possible watch upon himself, and turned the key on all inner
dreams, lest any sudden uprush from the deeps should interfere with his
duty. But, once the working day was over, the gates flew open, and he
began to enjoy himself.
He read no modern books on the subjects that interested him, and, as
already said, he followed no course of training, nor belonged to any
society that dabbled with half-told mysteries; but, once released from
the office desk in the Manager's room, he simply and naturally entered
the other region, because he was an old inhabitant, a rightful denizen,
and because he belonged there. It was, in fact, really a case of
dual personality; and a carefully drawn agreement existed between
Jones-of-the-fire-insurance-office and Jones-of-the-mysteries, by the
terms of which, under heavy penalties, neither region claimed him out of
hours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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