The Return of the Djinn and Other Black Melodramas by Brian Stableford

Author:Brian Stableford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, science fiction, horror, short stories, humor
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2017-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

RECONSTRUCTION

He ran up the stairs as soon as he heard the scream, taking them two at a time. He grabbed the door-handle but it was locked. She must have seen it turn because he heard her let out another yell for help. He stood back and hit the door with his heel, just above the lock. The wood splintered around the lock and it only needed a second kick to hurl the door open.

The girl was up against the wall. She was in a bad way—absolutely hysterical. Who wouldn’t be, he thought, with that thing waving a knife at her? It was just a thing, not a person; he knew full well that whatever was human had been blotted out by the accident and by whatever the doctors had done to bring it back to life.

“Get back!” he said—but it didn’t take a blind bit of notice. He had to draw the gun. He had no choice.

He knew that he had hit it with the first shot, but it didn’t fall. It didn’t seem to have felt the impact. The knife was still in its hand, and it was still coming at him. He had to shoot twice more.

The third shot finally knocked it back, and it crumpled up, writhing like some great ugly insect. When he was sure it was down for good he went to the girl and tried to calm her down.

“Looks like I was just in time,” he said.

* * * *

She backed up against the wall, but he just followed her. His eyes were funny—she could see the whites all around the irises. He was biting his lip, and he seemed to be in pain. She felt as if she were stuck to the wall, as if she were being sucked into the surface by the force of her fear. She knew that she ought to lash out with her feet but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t even scream.

This isn’t happening, she told herself. No matter what they did, he can’t be alive. He can’t be.

She heard a bang as something hit the door, and the living dead man abruptly turned away, startled and anguished. She couldn’t tell whether there was any intelligence at all in his movements, or whether it was all just stimulus and response, like an animal. Now that his uncanny eyes were no longer staring into hers she was able to turn her own head.

The door gave way at the second attempt and the man with the gun came in. He seemed to be terrified even before he caught sight of the man with the knife, and he was already raising the gun to fire. The man who had been dead put up his arms as if he thought he could ward off bullets with his bare arms, and the light flashed on the blade of the kitchen-knife he’d picked up downstairs. He backed away, but the man with the gun followed him, firing three times.

As soon as she saw the scarred man fall the paralysis seemed to drain out of her.

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