Issue 03 # Jun 1951 by Fantasy; Science Fiction

Author:Fantasy; Science Fiction
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-05-16T05:42:51+00:00

WIN $100.00 by submitting the best title for this story!

JUST FILL IN your title suggestion on the coupon on page 82 or on a reasonable facsimile… . Entries must be in by July 2, 1951, and the $100 prize will be awarded by July 12, 1951… . Titles will be judged on the basis of aptness and effectiveness… . The winning title will be selected by the editorial staff of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and their decision will be accepted as final; in case of a tie duplicate prizes will be awarded… . No entries can be returned… . This contest is open to everyone except employees of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction or Mercury Publications, Inc., and their families.

in spite of my preoccupation with the undiminished torment of my flesh, I shuddered. For any one of them was the horrid equal of Satan, and there were at least a dozen.

No two of them were alike. Each was the cunning caricature of an unspeakably vile human soul; a few made the guise of Satan look almost ingenuous. But there was one striking difference: none of them was smiling. Instead, despair and suffering were written indelibly on each visage, though without altering its essential evil. This eloquent expression, as much as their combined repulsiveness, made the sight of them unbearable, and I closed my aching eyes.

As if it were a signal, they all rushed me at once; I was caught completely off guard. The next instant I was down, crushed by the onslaught of a group of which each member was, for the time being, stronger than myself. And — I quickly discovered — much more vicious. They clutched and gouged at every part of my already excoriated body, yet with uncanny precision seemed to seek out the most sensitive spots. And the small part of my mind that was not exploding with pain was paralyzed with horror, not so much at the likelihood of being torn apart, but at not being able to die when it happened.

Suddenly, incredibly, the attack ceased, and within seconds I was left lying there alone. But the agony lingered, and in fact had hardly lessened when Satan’s inexorable foot rolled me over again. This time, he was obliged to plague me at length before I could so much as raise my head.

“I had to send them away,” he observed casually. “They were beginning to enjoy themselves. Such pleasures as tearing people to bits I reserve for myself— unless some of the boys take a notion to gang up on you behind my back, as sometimes happens to rookies. In that case, your punishment would be double, both for providing them with amusement and for giving me the trouble of putting you back together. Your only insurance is never to close your eyes,

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