Fantasy fiction; Ghost stories; Horror tales; Paranormal fiction; Short stories; Storytelling -- Fiction
Being warned by the doctor never to address her or touch her whilst in
this state, lest the shock should be too great for her, I, at first,
used to follow her with my eyes about the room, and if she left the
chamber, I generally used to rise and follow softly after, at some
distance, lest an accident should befall her. But finding soon that she
was just as certain of her footing in her sleep as in her waking
moments, I began to abandon my fears, and thought no more of this
peculiarity.
Indeed, as she was in the habit of rising every other night, I soon felt
far too sleepy to trouble myself about her. But soon this strange power
in her began to develop itself, and to take a stranger and more
interesting form.
She would now get up at night, sit herself down at a table, take pen,
ink, and paper, and fill sheet after sheet with close writing and
elegant composition. This was particularly the case if she had left a
task uncompleted during the day. In the morning it was sure to be found
finished, and generally better done than if it had been accomplished
during her hours of waking; nor was she herself conscious of it until
she examined her exercise the next morning.
If I perchance should have an uncompleted task on hand, she would
invariably finish mine before her own. But this phenomenon in my young
friend, however strange and unaccountable it may seem, sinks into utter
insignificance before a far more terrible one which I am now about to
describe.
You may think I exaggerate, gentlemen, or that it was the effect of my
own over-wrought fancy, produced by sleepless nights of watching over my
young friend, but there are witnesses living yet who saw what I saw, and
who are ready to give their testimony. The doctor of this village,
together with his assistant, the rector, and two women living close by,
are among these I speak of, besides others. Let them speak for
themselves if you will not believe my word.
The phenomenon to which I have above alluded was the power, if I may so
call it, of dividing herself in two, or becoming two separate beings;
that is to say, of making a duplicate of herself. This extraordinary and
fearful gift had evidently been noticed by others before it fell under
my own observation, since for a long time previous to seeing it myself
it was reported throughout the village that Claribel Falkland had
appeared in two places at the same time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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