Suddenly the room was very quiet.
"You don"t believe me, do you?"
Prentice opened his mouth.
"No, of course you don"t. It"s a madman"s ravings. Well, I"m going to prove it to you, Prentice."
He started for the door. "Come on. Follow me; but don"t make any noise."
Dystal walked out the back door, closed it, moved soundlessly across the soft, black gra.s.s.
"They"re on a mystic kick right now," he whispered to Prentice. "Ames is trying to summon the devil. Last week we slaughtered a dog and read the Commandments backward; the week before, we did some chants out of an old book that Ben found in the library; before that it was orgies--" He shook his head. "It isn"t working out, though. G.o.d knows why. You"d think the devil would be so delighted with Ames that he"d sign him up for the team."
Prentice followed his neighbor across the yards, walking carefully, and wondering why. He thought of his neat little office on Harmon Street, old Mrs. Gleason, the clean, well-lighted restaurant where he had his lunch and read newspaper headlines; and they seemed terribly far away.
Why, he asked himself, am I creeping around backyards with a lunatic at midnight?
Why?
"The moon is full tonight, Prentice. That means they"ll be trying again."
Silently, without the slightest sound, Matthew Dystal moved across the lawns, keeping always to the shadows. A minute later he raised his hand and stopped.
They were at the rear of the Ameses" house.
It was dark inside.
"Come on," Dystal whispered.
"Wait a minute." Somehow, the sight of his own living room, still blazing with light, rea.s.sured Prentice, "I think I"ve had enough for this evening."
"Enough?" Dystal"s face twisted grotesquely. He bunched the sleeve of Prentice"s jacket in his fist. "Listen," he hissed, "listen, you idiot. I"m risking my life to help you. Don"t you understand yet? If they find out I"ve talked . . ." He released the sleeve. "Prentice, _please_. You have a chance now, a chance to clear out of this whole stinking mess; but you won"t have it long--Believe me!"
Prentice sighed. "What do you want me to do?" he said.
"Nothing. Just come with me, quietly. They"re in the bas.e.m.e.nt,"
Breathing hard now, Dystal tiptoed around to the side of the house. He stopped at a small, earth-level window.
It was closed.
"Prentice. _Softly_. Bend down and keep out of view."
In invisible, slow movements, Dystal reached out and pushed the window. It opened a half inch.He pushed it again. It opened another half inch.
Prentice saw yellow light stream out of the crack. Instantly his throat felt very dry, very painful.
There was a noise. A low, murmurous sound, a susurrus, like distant humming.
"What"s that?"
Dystal put a finger to his lips and motioned: "Here."
Prentice knelt down at the window and looked into the light.
At first he could not believe what his eyes saw.
It was a bas.e.m.e.nt, like other bas.e.m.e.nts in old houses, with a large iron furnace and a cement floor and heavy beams. This much he could recognize and understand. The rest, he could not.
In the center of the floor was a design; obviously drawn in colored chalks. It looked a bit, to Prentice, like a Star of David, although there were other designs around and within it. They were not particularly artistic, but they were intricate. In the middle was a large cup, similar to a salad bowl, vaguely familiar, empty.
"There," whispered Dystal, withdrawing.
Slightly to the left were drawn a circle and a pentagram, its five points touching the circ.u.mference equally.
Prentice blinked and turned his attention to the people.
Standing on a block of wood, surrounded by men and women, was a figure in a black robe and a serpent-shaped crown.
It was Ames.
His wife, Charlotte, dressed in a white gown, stood next to him. She held a bra.s.s lamp.
Also in robes and gowns were Ben and Rhoda Roth, Bud Reiker and his wife, the c.u.mmingses, the Chamberses, the Johnsons--.
Prentice shook away his sudden dizziness and shaded his eyes.
To the right, near the furnace, was a table with a white sheet draped across it. And two feet away, an odd, six-sided structure with black candles burning from a dozen apertures.
"Listen," Dystal said.
Ames" eyes were closed, Softly, he was chanting: All degradation, all sheer infamy, Thou shalt endure. Thy head beneath the mire, And drug of worthless women shall desire As in some hateful dream, at last to lie; Woman must trample thee thou respire That deadliest fume; The vilest worms must crawl, the loathliest vampires gloom . . .
"The Great Beast," chuckled Dystal.
"I," said Ames, "am Ipsissimus," and the others chanted, "He is Ipsissimus."
"I have read the books, dark Lord. _The Book of Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage_ I have read, and I reject it!"
"We reject it!" murmured the Roths.
"The power of Good shall be served by the power of Darkness, always."
He raised his hands. "In Thy altar is the stele of Ankf-f-n-Khonsu; there, also, _The Book of the Dead_ and _The Book of the Law_, six candles to each side, my Lord, Bell, Burin, Lamen, Sword, Cup, and the Cakes of Life . . ."
Prentice looked at the people he had seen only a few hours ago in his living room, and shuddered. He felt very weak.
"We, your servants," said Ames, signing the words, "beseech your presence, Lord of Night and of Life Eternal, Ruler of the Souls of men in all Thy vast dominion.Prentice started to rise, but Dystal grasped his jacket. "No," he said. "Wait. Wait another minute.
This is something you ought to see."
". . . we live to serve you, grant us . . ."
"He"s begging the devil to appear," whispered Dystal.
". . . tonight, and offer the greatest and most treasured gift. Accept our offering!" "Accept it!"
cried the others.
"What the h.e.l.l is this, anyway?" Prentice demanded, feverishly.
Then Ames stopped talking, and the rest were silent. Ames raised his left hand and lowered it.
Chris c.u.mmings and Bud Reiker bowed and walked backwards into the shadows where Prentice could not see them.
Charlotte Ames walked to the six-sided structure with the candles and picked up a long, thin object.
She returned and handed this to her husband. It was a knife.
"_Killnotshaltthou!_" screamed Ed Chambers, and he stepped across the pentagram to the sheet-shrouded table.
Prentice rubbed his eyes.
"Shhh."
Bud Reiker and Chris c.u.mmings returned to the center of light then. They were carrying a bundle. It was wrapped in blankets.
The bundle thrashed and made peculiar m.u.f.fled noises. The men lifted it onto the table and held it.
Ames nodded and stepped down from the block of wood. He walked to the table and halted, the long-bladed butcher knife glittering in the glow of the candles.
"To Thee, O Lord of the Underground, we made this offering! To Thee, the rarest gift of all!"
"What is it?" Prentice asked. "What is this gift?"
Dystal"s voice was ready and eager. "A virgin," he said.
Then they removed the blanket.
Prentice felt his eyes bursting from their sockets, felt his heart charging the walls of his chest.
"Ann," he said, in a choked whisper. "Ann!" The knife went up.
Prentice scrambled to his feet and fought the dizziness. "Dystal," he cried.
"Dystal, for G.o.d"s sake, what are they doing? Stop them. You hear me? Stop them!"
"I can"t," said Matthew Dystal, sadly. "It"s too late. I"m afraid your wife said a few things she shouldn"t have, Prentice. You see--we"ve been looking for a real one for such a long time . . ."
Prentice tried to lunge, but the effort lost him his balance. He fell to the ground. His arms and legs were growing numb, and he remembered, suddenly, the bitter taste of the drink he"d had.
"It really couldn"t have been avoided, though," Dystal said. "I mean, the boy knew, and he"d have told you eventually. And you"d have begun investigating, and--oh, you understand. I told Lucian we should have bought the place, but he"s so obstinate; thinks he knows everything! Now, of course, we"ll have to burn it, and that does seem a terrible waste." He shook his head from side to side. "But don"t you worry," he said. "You"ll be asleep by then and, I promise, you won"t feel a thing. Really."
Prentice turned his eyes from the window and screamed silently for a long time.
PERCHANCE TO DREAM.
by Charles Beaumont
"Please sit down," the psychiatrist said, indicating a somewhat worn leather couch.
Automatically, Hall sat down. Instinctively, he leaned back. Dizziness flooded through him, his eyelids fell like sashweights, the blackness came. He jumped up quickly and slapped his right cheek, then he slapped his left cheek, hard.
"I"m sorry, Doctor," he said.
The psychiatrist, who was tall and young and not in the least Viennese nodded. "You prefer to stand?" he asked, gently.
"Prefer?" Hall threw his head back and laughed. "That"s good," he said. "_Prefer!_"
"I"m afraid I don"t quite understand."
"Neither do I, Doctor." He pinched the flesh of his left hand until it hurt. "No, no: that isn"t true. I do understand. That"s the whole trouble. I do."
"You--want to tell me about it?"
"Yes. No." It"s silly, he thought. You can"t help me. No one can. I"m alone! "Forget it," he said and started for the door.
The psychiatrist said, "Wait a minute." His voice was friendly, concerned; but not patronizing.
"Running away won"t do you much good, will it?"
Hall hesitated.
"Forgive the cliche. Actually, running away is often the best answer. But I don"t know yet that yours is that sort of problem."
"Did Dr. Jackson tell you about me?"
"No. Jim said he was sending you over, but he thought you"d do a better job on the details. I only know that your name is Philip Hall, you"re thirty-one, and you haven"t been able to sleep for a long time."
"Yes. A long time ..." To be exact, seventy-two hours, Hall thought, glancing at the clock.