Necroscope I by Brian Lumley

Author:Brian Lumley [Brian Lumley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Fiction, Horror fiction, Horror tales; English, General, England, Vampires, Keogh; Harry (Fictitious character), Mystery & Detective
ISBN: 9780812521375
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 1992-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

'You'll recall I had lain my jacket across his exposed guts? Now the jack et was gripped by some invisible force from beneath, torn apart and tossed vi olently, in two pieces, to the ceiling. Following it, lashing wildly, a singl e tapering tentacle of leprous flesh burst upward from his stomach, twisting and writhing in a grim paroxysm. Like a devilish whip it thrashed the air of the room, snaking through the smoke and the flames as if searching!

'As the tentacle fell to the floor and began a systematic if spastic exam ination of the blazing room, only recoiling from the flames themselves, I ste pped up on to a chair and crouched there transfixed with terror. And from tha t slightly elevated vantage point I saw what was left of the corpse falling i n upon itself and becoming first putrefaction, then bones with the flesh slou ghed off, finally dust before my eyes. As this happened the tentacle grew lea den, retracted, drew itself back to where the host body had lain, to the dust and the last crumbling relics of centuried bones . . .

'And all of this, you understand, taking place in mere moments, swifter far than I can possibly tell it. So that to this day I could not swear my soul on what I saw. Only that I believe I saw it.

'Anyway, that was when the ceiling caved in and hurled me from my chair

, and the entire area of the room where the horror had been burst into flam es and hid whatever remained of it. But as I staggered from the place - and don't ask me how I got out again into the reeking night air, for that's go ne now from my memory - there rose up from the inferno such a protracted cr y of intense agony, so piteous and terrible and savagely angry a wailing, a s ever I had heard and hope never to hear again.

'Then -

'The skies rained bombs once more and I knew nothing else until I regaine d consciousness in a field hospital. I had lost a leg, and, or so they later told me, something of my mind. Shell shock, of course; and when I saw how fut ile it was to try to tell them otherwise, then I decided simply to let it sta nd at that. Mind and body, both were merely victims of the bombing . . .

'Ah! But amongst my belongings when they released me was that which told the true story, and I have it still.'

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