The thing on the door-stepLovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips)
Science
The thing on the door-step
Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips)
Horror tales; Paranormal fiction
When he had slumped down into a stupor I propped him with pillows and
let normal sleep overtake him. I did not call a doctor, for I knew what
would be said of his sanity, and wished to give nature a chance if I
possibly could. He waked at midnight, and I put him to bed upstairs,
but he was gone by morning. He had let himself quietly out of the
house--and his butler, when called on the wire, said he was at home
pacing restlessly about the library.
6
Edward went to pieces rapidly after that. He did not call again, but
I went daily to see him. He would always be sitting in his library,
staring at nothing and having an air of abnormal _listening_. Sometimes
he talked rationally, but always on trivial topics. Any mention of his
trouble, of future plans, or of Asenath would send him into a frenzy.
His butler said he had frightful seizures at night, during which he
might eventually do himself harm.
I had a long talk with his doctor, banker, and lawyer, and finally took
the physician with two specialist colleagues to visit him. The spasms
that resulted from the first questions were violent and pitiable--and
that evening a closed car took his poor struggling body to the
Arkham Sanitarium. I was made his guardian and called on him twice
weekly--almost weeping to hear his wild shrieks, awesome whispers, and
dreadful, droning repetitions of such phrases as "I had to do it--I had
to do it--it'll get me--it'll get me--down there--down there in the
dark--Mother! Mother! Dan! Save me--save me----"
How much hope of recovery there was, no one could say, but I tried
my best to be optimistic. Edward must have a home if he emerged, so
I transferred his servants to the Derby mansion, which would surely
be his sane choice. What to do about the Crowninshield place with its
complex arrangements and collections of utterly inexplicable objects I
could not decide, so left it momentarily untouched--telling the Derby
household to go over and dust the chief rooms once a week, and ordering
the furnace man to have a fire on those days.
The final nightmare came before Candlemas--heralded, in cruel irony,
by a false gleam of hope. One morning late in January the sanitarium
telephoned to report that Edward's reason had suddenly come back. His
continuous memory, they said, was badly impaired; but sanity itself was
certain. Of course he must remain some time for observation, but there
could be little doubt of the outcome. All going well, he would surely
be free in a week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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