Friday Night in Beast House by Richard Laymon

Author:Richard Laymon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Thrillers, Haunted houses, Horror, Occult & Supernatural, Fiction
ISBN: 9780843961423
Publisher: Leisure Books
Published: 2010-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Mark planted the candle upright at one end of the slight depression the glasses had left behind. When he let go, the candle remained standing. It was wobbly, though. He packed some dirt around its base and that helped.

Then he picked up the unearthed glasses. Braced up on both elbows, he held them with one hand and brushed them off with the other.

The upsweep of the tortoise-shell frame made him suppose the glasses had belonged to a woman. The lens on the left was gone, but the other lens seemed to be intact. It was clear glass, untinted.

Except for the missing lens, the spectacles seemed to be intact. Mark unfolded the earpieces. Their hinges worked fine. He looked more closely. Dirty, but not rusty.

How long had the glasses been down here? A few days? A month or two? A year?

How the hell did they get here?

All sorts of possibilities, he thought. Maybe a gal was hiding down here the same as me.

But why did she leave her glasses behind?

Easy. Because they got broken.

No. If you lose a lens, you don"t throw away the whole pair of glasses. You keep them and get the lens replaced.

She might"ve lost them.

What, they fell off her face?

Fell off her face, all right. While she was being dragged through the tunnel …

Mark"s stomach let out a long, grumbling growl.

He set the glasses down, reached into his pack and removed a ham-and-cheese sandwich. He opened one side of the cellophane wrapper. As he ate the sandwich, he peeled away more of the cellophane, keeping it between his filthy hands and the bread.

He decided not to bother with his Pepsi. It would"ve been too much trouble. Besides, his sandwich was good and moist.

As he ate, he wondered what to do with the glasses. Leave them where he"d found them? He couldn"t see any purpose in that. He might as well keep them.

And do what? Take them to the police?

You found them where, young man?

In the beast tunnel.

In the WHAT?

Yeah sure, he thought. Thanks, but no thanks.

But they might be evidence of a crime.

Might not be.

What if I show them to Officer Chaney?

Show them to her in private, like "off the record", and we can work on the case together?

He imagined himself coming down into the cellar late at night with Officer Chaney to show her where he"d found the glasses.

They both have flashlights. At the edge of the hole, she hands him a jumpsuit. She has another for herself. Don’t want to get our clothes dirty, she explains. Then she starts to remove her police uniform.

Like that’ll happen, Mark thought.

What"ll really happen, I"ll end up getting reamed for being down here in the first place.

I can at least show the glasses to Alison, he decided. She"ll probably think they"re pretty interesting and mysterious.

Done eating, Mark used the cellophane to wrap the glasses.

He put them into his pack.

Then he reached out, pulled the candle from its loose bed in the dirt, and puffed out its flame. A tiny orange dot remained in the darkness.

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