Voices Out of Time by Charles L. Grant

Author:Charles L. Grant [Grant, Charles L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2013-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

And there were voices.

A faint clutch of whispering like shadows creeping across a bare floor in front of a hearth, twisting, losing substance, becoming full again and fading. She tried to speak, but only a low groan escaped her lips that felt dried and cracked. The whispers ceased abruptly, and she drifted softly on clouds of ebony smoke, feeling nothing, seeing nothing, aware only that someone, or something, brushed past her and seemed to vanish through the wall behind the bed. Returned, a faint touch of cloth on her cheek, and the whispering began again. She kept her eyes closed in spite of the nearly overpowering temptation to open them, not at all positive how awake she was, and with the grip of the fever still upon her, not really caring.

But when she heard her name she made the effort.

"It has to be tonight. Don't you understand? It has to be tonight or we'll lose the last chance we have."

"Shhh! You want to wake the girl?"

"Bother the girl!"

"Hush, I said. We canna do a thing, don't you understand that?"

"We must."

Alice groped for the quilt's edge and pulled it up to her chin, hoping the movement would drive away the voice demons that plagued her as she slept. And it did, for a while, but soon enough they returned and once more she heard her name.

" 'Twas your idea she come here."

"Look, you bloody fool, are we going to stand here all night and argue? Look at her."

Look at her.

Look at you, her father had said; dressed like a man, no wonder none of the boys come around here like they should.

Leave her alone, her mother had answered; she'll find the right man when the right man comes along.

Not dressed like that she won't.

Leave her alone, I said.

She be an old maid just like her aunt.

Will you please leave her alone!

Leave her alone.

"We'll leave her alone, then. She'll be ready on time?"

"I promise you. Now please go."

The sudden fall of silence was too oppressive to tempt her, and Alice wriggled until she was completely beneath the bedclothes, the air stifling, the darkness complete. And then, as though someone had doused her with a bath of ice, she snapped awake, the grainy feeling of the fever gone; this time, she knew, it would not return. It had broken, and all she felt was an incredible vast weariness.

Slowly she inched herself back up onto her pillows and scanned the room. It was, as she suspected it would be, empty save for herself and the fire. Curious, she thought, and wondered if the voices she had heard had actually been in the bedroom with her or were part of dream fragments that had been coming to her over the past few hours, reliving moments painful and joyous with her parents. But the joy she felt was subdued, and the pain, to her surprise, brought no onrush of bitter tears and self-accusations. Cautiously, she examined her feelings, prepared for the remorse, finding little. And when

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