Nightfall by Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg Read Free Book Online Page B

sane. You were sane when you went into this thing and you’ll be sane when you come out.
    Tick. Tick. Tick. Every second gets you closer to the exit. Or does it? This ride may never end. I could be in here forever. Tick. Tick. Tick. Am I moving? Do I have five minutes left, or five seconds, or is this still the first minute?
    Tick. Tick.
    Why don’t they let me out? Can’t they tell how I’m suffering in here?
    They don’t want to let you out. They’ll never let you out. They’re going to—
    Suddenly, a stabbing pain between his eyes. An explosion of agony in his skull.
    What’s that?
    Light!
    Could it be? Yes. Yes.
    Thank God. Light, yes! Thank any god that might ever have existed!
    He was at the end of the Tunnel! He was coming back to the station! It must be. Yes. Yes. His heartbeat, which had become a panicky thunder, was starting to return to normal. His eyes, adjusting now to the return of normal conditions, began to focus on familiar things, blessed things, the stanchions, the platform, the little window in the control booth—
    Cubello, Kelaritan, watching him.
    He felt ashamed now of his cowardice.
Pull yourself together, Sheerin. It wasn’t so bad, really. You’re all right. You aren’t lying in the bottom of the car sucking your thumb and whimpering. It was scary, it was terrifying, but it didn’t destroy you—it wasn’t actually anything you couldn’t handle
—
    “Here we go. Give us your hand, Doctor. Up—up—”
    They hauled him to a standing position and steadied him as he clambered out of the car. Sheerin sucked breath deep down into his lungs. He ran his hand across his forehead, wiping away the streaming perspiration.
    “The little abort switch,” he murmured. “I seem to have lost it somewhere—”
    “How are you, Doctor?” Kelaritan asked. “How was it?”
    Sheerin teetered. The hospital director caught him by the arm, steadying him, but Sheerin indignantly brushed him away. He wasn’t going to let them think that those few minutes in the Tunnel had gotten to him.
    But he couldn’t deny that he had been affected. Try as he might, there was no way to hide that. Not even from himself.
    No force in the world could ever get him to take a second trip through that Tunnel, he realized.
    “Doctor? Doctor?”
    “I’m—all—right—” he said thickly.
    “He says he’s all right,” came the lawyer’s voice. “Stand back. Let him alone.”
    “His legs are wobbling,” Kelaritan said. “He’s going to fall.”
    “No,” Sheerin said. “Not a chance. I’m fine, I tell you!”
    He lurched and staggered, regained his balance, lurched again. Sweat poured from every pore he had. He glanced over his shoulder, saw the mouth of the Tunnel, and shuddered. Turning away from that dark cave, he pulled his shoulders up high, as if he would have liked to hide his face between them.
    “Doctor?” Kelaritan said doubtfully.
    No use pretending. This was foolishness, this vain and stubborn attempt at heroism. Let them think he was a coward. Let them think anything. Those fifteen minutes had been the worst nightmare of his life. The impact of it was still sinking in, and sinking in, and sinking in.
    “It was—powerful stuff,” he said. “Very powerful. Very disturbing.”
    “But you’re basically all right, isn’t that so?” the lawyer said eagerly. “A little shaken, yes. Who wouldn’t be, going into Darkness? But basically okay. As we knew you’d be. It’s only a few, a very few, who undergo any sort of harmful—”
    “No,” Sheerin said. The lawyer’s face was like that of a grinning gargoyle in front of him. Like the face of a demon. He couldn’t bear the sight of it. But a good dose of the truth would exorcise the demon. No need to be diplomatic, Sheerin thought. Not when talking with demons. —“It’s impossible for anyone to go through that thing without being at grave risk. I’m certain of it now. Even the strongest psyche will take a terrible battering, and the