Wandering ghostsCrawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
Science
Wandering ghosts
Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
American fiction; Ghost stories; Horror tales; Short stories
It was the eyes that grew dim. Little by little he came to know that
some day the dream would not end when he turned away to go home, but
would lead him down the gorge out of which the vision rose. She was
nearer now when she beckoned to him. Her cheeks were not livid like
those of the dead, but pale with starvation, with the furious and
unappeased physical hunger of her eyes that devoured him. They feasted
on his soul and cast a spell over him, and at last they were close to
his own and held him. He could not tell whether her breath was as hot as
fire or as cold as ice; he could not tell whether her red lips burned
his or froze them, or whether her five fingers on his wrists seared
scorching scars or bit his flesh like frost; he could not tell whether
he was awake or asleep, whether she was alive or dead, but he knew that
she loved him, she alone of all creatures, earthly or unearthly, and her
spell had power over him.
When the moon rose high that night the shadow of that Thing was not
alone down there upon the mound.
Angelo awoke in the cool dawn, drenched with dew and chilled through
flesh, and blood, and bone. He opened his eyes to the faint grey light,
and saw the stars still shining overhead. He was very weak, and his
heart was beating so slowly that he was almost like a man fainting.
Slowly he turned his head on the mound, as on a pillow, but the other
face was not there. Fear seized him suddenly, a fear unspeakable and
unknown; he sprang to his feet and fled up the gorge, and he never
looked behind him until he reached the door of the house on the
outskirts of the village. Drearily he went to his work that day, and
wearily the hours dragged themselves after the sun, till at last he
touched the sea and sank, and the great sharp hills above Maratea turned
purple against the dove-coloured eastern sky.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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