Fantasy fiction; Science fiction; Subconsciousness -- Fiction
"It's the new method," the spirit said languidly. "The old-fashioned
moaning and chain rattling is out nowadays. The new haunting manual
tells us just to use our own imagination and initiative. You know, make
the thing more personal through self-expression." He leaned forward and
looked at Marc more closely. "Say, you don't look so good." He held out
the bottle. "You better have some of this."
Marc accepted the bottle with hesitation, regarded it suspiciously for
a moment, then, with a shrug, took a long drink. After savoring the
taste and the feel of the warm liquid, he thoughtfully took another ...
and another.
"Let's not get greedy about this thing!" the spirit said with some show
of alarm. "Let's not go overboard. That grog was hard come by. I had to
hi-jack a delivery truck and nearly got a free ride to the next city."
"That would have been awful," Marc countered wryly. He returned the
bottle and turned to Toffee. "You are naked," he mused. "Awful naked.
And things are complicated enough without it. Why don't you trot off
and put on some clothes?"
"And where do I get these clothes?"
Marc waved an expansive hand toward a door at the far end of the room.
"I think the boys were doing some models in there yesterday. There are
probably some clothes left over."
"Good night!" Toffee said, scandalized. "What were those boys doing to
the poor things. What, with clothes left over, it must have been awful."
"They were photographing them for ads."
"Oh," Toffee said disappointedly, and pivoting, went to the door.
Opening it, she paused a moment to look back. "This won't take long.
Don't go away." She stepped into the dimness of the next room, and
softly closed the door.
Marc directed his attention back to the spirit. "Now there must be some
way out of this, Mr. ... uh...."
"Just call me George," the spirit said. "It's your second name, you
know. You're already using the Marcus part of it yourself."
Marc nodded gravely. "Well, anyway, George, you must understand that
this thing can't go any further." George yawned expansively, and Marc
increased the volume of his voice. "You've simply got to go, George.
I'm sure that...."
His voice trailed off into the distant reaches of the room and faded
into nothing. George had suddenly disappeared, and a hollow snoring
sound rattled ominously from the depths of the now empty-looking chair.
"In here, Miss McGuire?" The voice was Julie's and it came from just
beyond the outer door.
Marc leaped to his feet in alarm, started frantically toward the chair,
the door to the photographer's room, then, hopelessly, he whirled
about, threw himself down on the lounge and closed his eyes tight.
Maybe if Julie thought he was sleeping, she would leave. There was the
sound of a hand on the door knob.
The door whined open, and muted footsteps sounded on the carpet. From
the sound of it, there seemed to be several people, among them a man.
Marc wondered desperately who it was, but kept his eyes determinedly
shut.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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