One Night of Terror E-Book

Arthur Leo Zagat

• Herausgeber: Al-Mashreq eBookstore
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Serie: Dime Mystery Magazine
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 53

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

One Night of Terror by Arthur Leo Zagat is a spine-chilling tale that explores the darkest corners of human fear. When a group of strangers is trapped in an eerie, isolated mansion during a violent storm, what starts as a simple refuge turns into a nightmarish ordeal. As the night unfolds, terrifying events begin to unravel the sanity of each guest, revealing hidden fears and unimaginable horrors. With no escape and trust eroding, the night becomes a desperate struggle for survival against an unknown evil. Can they survive until dawn, or will the terror consume them all? Prepare for a night you'll never forget in this gripping horror classic.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

One Night of Terror

I. — THE WATCHING DREAD

II. — THE WALKING DEAD

III. — TWO WHO WERE DOOMED

IV. — THE TORTURE CHAMBER

Landmarks

Table of Contents

Cover

One Night of Terror

Dime Mystery Magazine

By: Arthur Leo Zagat

Edited by: Rafat Allam

Copyright © 2024 by Al-Mashreq Bookstore

First published in Dime Mystery Magazine, June 1934

No part of this publication may be reproduced whole or in part in any form without the prior written permission of the author

I. — THE WATCHING DREAD

IN the darkness Norma Lloyd could not see the little bridge over Wayne Creek, but she knew from the hollow rumble of boards under the roadster that they were on it. From beneath, the brawling of the thaw-swollen stream was greedy, ominous, and the hills circumscribing Hidden Valley, black against a black sky, seemed near, too near. They were like the inexorably moving walls of some monstrous Inquisition pressing inward, imperceptibly inward, till their victim must be crushed between. The girl shuddered and shrugged closer to her companion. The rasp of his rough tweed sleeve against her cheek, the sharp redolence of tobacco, gave her a grateful feeling of security. She felt the swell of his biceps as he tooled the car around an unseen, familiar curve, and an aura of masculine protection enveloped her. The car slowed.

"I'm afraid the storm will catch us if we walk, honey," Ted Stone's warm, deep voice sounded. "Maybe we'd better drive right up to the house." His face was only a paler oval in the gloom, but Norma visioned every broad-sculptured line of it. The corners of his mouth would be quirking in the tender half smile that was for her alone. "I'll switch on the headlights and take the upper road."

"No." Her tone was sharp. "No, Ted. They'll know then that I was out with you and—"

"What of it? The Sabins haven't any right to dictate to you. They're nothing but servants..."

"Ted!" she cried indignantly. "I won't have you call them servants. They are real friends. You know very well that Prudence is the only mother I've ever known, and that Silas is devoted to me."

"And why not? You mean a swell home and good wages to him. He—"

"Theodore Stone!" She pulled away from him. "Stop it. Stop it at once! Just because you don't like Silas you needn't keep on hinting—"

The jerk of the car as violent brakes went on, and jarred Norma to a halt. Lightning flickered behind the distant head of the valley and against its illumination Oak Mountain was a towering, jagged pyramid of ebony. Even in the stress of the lovers' quarrel the sense of dread, of impending evil, closed in again on Norma. But she would not admit it to Ted, or to herself. Her tumbling speech was only momentarily interrupted; yet despite herself its tone was subdued when she continued, "I've never felt they were servants, nor have they. I wouldn't hurt them for worlds. Anyhow, we must think of Jeefers."

"That's right!" Ted ejaculated. "I forgot that you were supposed to have driven down to the village with him."

"Yes. And he's waiting on the road now so that we can come back together. If Silas found out I was really with you, Jeefers would be the sufferer. He is irritatingly slow and clumsy about his work, with that short arm and twisted foot, and the old man would be only too glad of an excuse to fire him."

"That settles it, kid. Guess we'll have to take the short cut. But I'm hanged if I like it." There was a slight edge of worry to the young lawyer's robust tone.

"You're usually rather fond of that walk along the creek." A hint of Norma's usual merry teasing sounded in the lilt of her voice, "Why the sudden aversion?"

"Come on! We'll have to hurry." Stone was out of the car, was lifting the girl out. Their lips met, and she clung to him for a moment. Then they were off the road, were following a path so accustomed that the aid of the torch Ted carried was unneeded. "It isn't that," he responded to Norma's remark. "I meant this hole and corner business, this skulking. Fine business for the assistant prosecutor of Calkin County to have to meet his sweetheart behind trees."

Bushes rustled as the couple pushed through them, angry waters boiled to their right and far-off thunder rolled. But Ted heard only the part mocking, part affectionate sound of the other's rebuke: "Oh Teddy boy, when will you learn patience? It's only for a month more. Then I'll be twenty, dad's will will let us get married, and—Ohhh!" Norma's sudden scream was accompanied by a splash.

"What the..." Stone's flash beam sprayed out. It showed the girl sprawled on the muddy creek bank, within inches of the tumbling, angry stream. Ted bent, lifted her to her feet. "Are you hurt, dear?"

"I—I don't think so. Part of the bank has given way. See..." She pointed. A trough was visible where earth had slid into the foaming waters. Then she gasped, "Look Ted. What's that? What is it?"

The man followed the line of her shaking finger; saw that which his light revealed. "Good Lord!"

At the edge of the disk of luminance something was gray against the black-brown of the mud, like gray rootlets curling. It was a hand, a skeleton hand, the flesh-stripped phalanges clawed as if it were scrabbling at the ground. Just that grisly hand showed; the rest, horribly, was covered by blackness.

The threat of the Stygian night was imminent, personal. A rumbling thunder growl filled the valley and the sky was vivid with a fluttering, eerie light. Norma clutched Ted's arm, her fingers dug into his muscles. For a long minute the two stared at that which lay across their path. Then the torch moved in Stone's cold fingers and the light patch slid along the mire, slid along a bony arm, illumined a skull from which vertebrae sprouted like some noisome trailer vine. Ribs branched, arching down into the ooze, and mud ran fluidly away from the long leg bones at which watery fingers plucked.

"Good Lord," Stone said again, slowly.