Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Tony Allan

Author:Tony Allan [Allan, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
Published: 2014-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

And it wasn’t just his appearance that was strange. Something about his manner was also far from normal. One moment he would be full of life, but the next he would become silent and gloomy. His manner of speaking was strange and disturbing too. At the start of a sentence he would sound so unsure of himself that he could hardly speak without his voice trembling, but by the end of it he would seem oddly self-assured and even over-confident.

Despite all this, he greeted me very warmly.

“I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you again,” he said. “I’m sure that if anyone can help me get better, it’s you.”

“What exactly is the matter?” I asked, hoping to learn more details of his illness. As it happened, he was more than willing to talk about it and we were soon discussing it at length.

“The disease is hereditary in my family,” he told me gloomily. “In fact, we’ve almost given up hope of finding a remedy.” Then, seeing my anxious face, he quickly added, “But it’s only a problem with my nerves. I’m sure the worst of it will soon pass.”

“What are the symptoms?” I asked, feeling rather confused.

“I’m afraid there are lots of them,” he replied, “but they mostly come down to one main problem. My senses are just too sharp. Because of this, I can only eat bland and tasteless foods, and my skin is allergic to dozens of different materials. The scent of flowers is enough to suffocate me, and any sort of bright light is more than my eyes can bear. As for my hearing – well, there are only a very few sounds I can listen to without a feeling of horror. Guitar music is one of them,” he added, noticing my eyes straying to look at the several stringed instruments that lay scattered around the room.

Yet it seemed that over-sensitivity wasn’t his only complaint. As we talked more, he told me that he suffered from a peculiar kind of terror. What frightened him was fear itself. He was afraid of what the future might bring, dreading that some trivial incident might set off his nervous condition, driving him insane or even killing him.

He was also convinced that the family house, which he had not left for many years, had a strange and unhealthy influence on his moods and thoughts. He believed that, over the years, the very walls and turrets of the place, along with the damp mists rising from the lake below, had affected his state of mind.

He then confessed that there was also a more down-to-earth reason for the gloom that hung over him. A dearly-loved sister – his last surviving relative, who for many years had been his only companion – was seriously ill and now seemed close to death. He told me, in a bitter voice that I can still remember well, that her death would make him the last of the Usher family.

While he was telling me all of this, Lady Madeline (for that was her name) appeared suddenly at the far end of the room.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.