Part 28 (1/2)
In order to scare the Thing off, you had to run, leap up, grab the chain and yank the light on!
So, blind and battering walls, you jumped. But could never find the chain never find the chain!
Don't look up! you thought. If you see It It, and it sees You! No. No!
But then your head jerked. You looked. You screamed!
For the dark Thing was lurching out on the air to slam flat down like a tomb lid on your scream!
”Anyone home home...?” he called, softly.
A damp wind blew from above. A smell of cellar earths and attic dusts touched his cheeks.
”Ready or not,” he whispered. ”Here I come.”
Behind him, slowly, softly, the front door drifted, hushed, and slid itself shut shut.
He froze. Then he forced himself to take another step and another.
And, Christ! it seemed he felt himself... shrinking. Melting an inch at a time, sinking into smallness, even as the flesh on his face diminished, and his suit and shoes became too large What am I doing doing here? he thought. What do I here? he thought. What do I need need?
Answers. Yes. That was it. Answers Answers.
His right shoe touched....
The bottom of the stairs.
He gasped. His foot jerked back. Then, slowly, he forced it to touch the step again.
Easy. Just don't look up, he thought.
Fool! he thought, that's why you're here. The stairs. And the top of the stairs. That's it it!
Now...
Very quietly, he lifted his head. To stare at the dark light bulb sunk in its dead white socket, six feet above his head.
It was as far off as the moon.
His fingers twitched.
Somewhere in the walls of the house, his mother turned in her sleep, his brother lay strewn in pale winding sheets, his father stopped up his snores to-listen.
Quick! Before he wakes wakes. Jump!
With a terrible grunt he flung himself up. His foot struck the third step. His hand seized out to yank the light-chain there there. Yank Yank! And there again again.
Dead! Oh, Christ. No light. Dead! Like all the lost years.
The chain snaked from his fingers. His hand fell.
Night. Dark.
Outside, cold rain fell behind a shut mine-door.
He blinked his eyes open, shut, open, shut, as if the blink might yank the chain, pull the light on on! His heart banged not only in his chest, but hammered under his arms and in his aching groin.
He swayed. He toppled.
No, he cried silently. Free yourself. Look! See See!
And at last he turned his head to look up and up at darkness shelved on darkness.
”Thing...?” he whispered. ”Are you there?”
The house s.h.i.+fted like an immense scale, under his weight High in the midnight air a black flag, a dark banner furled, unfurled its funeral skirts, its whispering crepe. Outside, he thought, remember remember! it is a spring spring day. Rain tapped the door behind him, quietly. day. Rain tapped the door behind him, quietly.
”Now,” he whispered.
And balanced between the cold, sweating stairwell walls, he began to climb.
”I'm at the fourth step,” he whispered.
”Now I'm at the fifth...”
”Sixth! You hear hear, up there?”
Silence. Darkness.
Christ! he thought, run, jump, fell out in the rain, the light-!
No!
”Seventh! Eighth.”
The hearts throbbed under his arms, between his legs.
”Tenth-”
His voice trembled. He took a deep breath and- Laughed! G.o.d, yes! Laughed Laughed!
It was like smas.h.i.+ng gla.s.s. His fear shattered, fell away.
”Eleven!” he cried. ”Twelve!” he shouted. ”Thirteen!!” he hooted. ”d.a.m.n you! h.e.l.l, oh G.o.d, h.e.l.l, yes, h.e.l.l! And fourteen!”
Why hadn't he thought of this before, age six? Just leap up, shouting laughs, to kill that Thing forever!?